Travel As A Political Act: From Rick Steves to Three Sheets

In seeking out the Cerveceria Moderna vibe I hope this blog to one day encompass, I have in addition to reading, watched many travel-related programs over the last few months.  I consider the two divergent programs below  ultimately similar and absolute required reading/watching.  These two guys both succeeded in marketing their great ideas and make a living do what they love to do.

Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Backdoor -  Best known as the PBS travel guy, Rick Steves is basically a sober, nerdier Zane Lamprey. He also produced years of successful travel guides and a host of well-marketed merchandise.  His basic message: get off your couch, experience other cultures, and have fun. He provides more educational overtone when he says this himself, of course, and his show also emphasizes experiencing local customs and learning.

I also read Rick Steve’s 2009 book Travel as a Political Act.  The philosophy here differs from the rather sterile image Steves presents on his show.  This concise book struck me as one of the best non-fiction items to come my way for a long time.   Having spent a third of his life as professional traveler, writer and guide, he lacks a cultural superiority complex.   He comments extensively on the pros and cons in various cultures throughout Europe.  For example, he speaks openly in praise of the “socialist” European system as a creative and successful approach to many societal problems.  He openly emphasizes the European legal system’s treatment of drugs and drug users as preferable to the authoritarian alternative.  And he also writes of a timely trip to Iran and his opportunity to interact with its people.

And with that, we move on to Three Sheets.  The simple premise: guy travels worldwide to sample local drinks and learn about local drinking customs. And it has the prerequisite guerrilla film making edge to it, along with snappy animations, kitschy music, and graphics. The show is a lot of fun to drink to and they even throw in some very basic history when you are not looking. While the original network producing the show has gone the way of free drinks on airplanes, they have apparently been acquired by another network.  If anything, the show encourages people to travel as much it does to drink, making it one of the few television voices out there that does not seem to want to scare Americans into staying home and watching more tv.

~ by flacmanst on November 24, 2009.