the traveler's notebook » journal pages

Journal Pages: Self Control

Andrew Vernor — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:56:42 +0000

Selections from the journals of Andrew Vernor.

Editors Note: I’ve known Andy Vernor aka ‘Vern’ since the early days of going to school in Athens, Georgia. Like all good Athens kids we were into music–I was exploring primitive recording / sampling techniques for making beats; he was playing ‘nitro-rock’ in a kickass band called Land Speeder. Seeing them open up for Suicidal Tendencies is still one of my all time show highlights.

Over the years I’ve always been a bit jealous of Vern’s journals. On one page he’ll have random thoughts or song lyrics. The next will be some crazy sketch for a superhero or a tattoo idea or a diagram of some new structure he wants to build.

I’ve been messing around with new blogging technologies lately, checking out posterous, tumblr, and others, and while it’s all really cool and enables you to share links and media really fast, there’s just something about real journals like these that seems so creative and free.

–David Miller

1.‘Alt easter island head and gladiator… fun with lines and geometric shapes’

2.‘Protuberance Man- a quasi-hero who exudes energized protuberances when drawn into conflict; he contributes positively despite his conflicted existence which straddles his pizza flinging reality and the realm of the imagined. Also some song lyrics (later used)’

3.”Autumn leaves in Wisconsin and tatt #3 early design.’

4.Brick= ‘cover songs that would be cool; lyrics ripped from R. Kipling poem used in Land Speeder song + random line sketch.’

5.‘Outdoor ed brainstorm and sketch of wife with care package label… early love.’

6.‘Dog Soldier Society was a proposed name for a prog metal band that never really got off the ground. if you like it you can have it, but please rock righteously. Also fun with collage.’

7.”Song lyrics, plans for upright bass stand, idea for yard statue using discarded televisions + quotes from…Fight Club and other(?)’

8.Self control: mantra and tattoo design–inner right bicep (but red did not make final design).

9.‘Building the eye;’ mantra and self portrait as graphic.

Community Connection

Have journal pages you’d like to share? Please email scans or photos to david [at] matadornetwork.com.

Journal Pages: The Milky Way Above Kenya

Kathleen Steeden — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:17:09 +0000

These journal pages come from Kathleen Steeden on a trip to East Africa.

About the journal, Kathleen notes:

“This trip to East Africa was actually the first time I’ve taken a journal away on a trip. I found the book at the bottom of a drawer as I was finishing off some last minute packing. It was a gift from my mum years ago and it makes me smile that its pages are finally being used for something other than shopping lists.

I’ve always been into documenting my travels through photography or collecting ephemera but I haven’t picked up a pen to drawer anything since I left school! Once I started I just couldn’t stop, I think it gives you a different way of looking at things. Where I was in Africa in particular people often wanted money if they noticed you’d taken their photo. On the other hand, nobody minded if I sketched them as part of a scene.”

1.“The landscape of Samburu National Reserve is beautiful and boring. The parched ground is only broken with thorny acacia trees, termite mounds and spiky shrubs. When the sun rises it is larger than I have ever seen it and the whole sky reflects the dusty red earth.”

2.“Bird Walk: 10am 22 July 2009 Samburu Game Lodge: An ornithologist named Jacob led us on a guided walk around the entrance and grounds of Samburu Game Lodge. We saw so many beautiful birds including mourning doves, hornbills, ibis, mousebirds, weaver birds, a vulture, and my favourite – the ‘go away’ bird. He lets out an alarm call that alerts animals when a predator is snooping around. We also saw a heart lops [sic], a rare black bird with brilliantly red-tipped wings. Mainly though I just enjoyed the opportunity to walk around and gaze at the trees.

(opposite page, selection) “The April rains haven’t fallen in this part of Kenya for 2 years. People working at the lodge and our driver Martin say that they have seen the effect this is having on the animals of the reserve. The river that once flowed by the lodge is now an expanse of parched earth.”

3.“26 July 2009 Keekorok, Masai Mara

The landscape has changed again. I expected the Mara to look a lot like Samburu but instead of thorny bushes and dusty ground the vast plains are covered with long golden grasses. There’s more evidence of rainfall here in the south too – small pools and occasional palms. The lodge, Keekorok, is fantastic. There’s a bar overlooking a pool where hippos wallow and no fence!

Roachy is our new adopted pet. He gave Alan quite a fright this morning when he was hiding in his shorts. (NB drawing to scale.) (Not to scale. Roachy was BIGGER – Alan.) ”

4.“Sunday 26 July 2009

It’s the last night at Keekorok. I’m not quite ready to leave Kenya. It feels like we’ve only just started to understand this country. This evening was beautiful, after dinner we stood and looked at the stars over the Masai Mara. There were so many and with no light pollution they seemed impossibly bright. For the first time in my life I saw the centre of the Milky Way – beautiful.”

Community Connection

Do you have a travel journal you’d like to share? Please send scans or photos of it to david[at]matadornetwork[dot]com.

Running Across Bhutan

Tony Robinson-Smith — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:23:21 +0000

These journal pages come from Tony Robinson-Smith, who recently returned from a trip where he, his wife, and ten students ran across the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.

1.“Averaging a half-marathon a day, the trans-Bhutan ‘Tara-thonners’ reach kilometre 377.’”

2.“People said the Lhops were amongst the most backward of Bhutanese minorities; I found them to be gracious and hard-working.”

Community Connection

Do you have a travel journal you’d like to share? Please send scans or photos of it to david[at]matadornetwork[dot]com.

Journal Pages: Paris, London, Innsbruck, Morocco

Gabe Cabagbag — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:29:47 +0000

These 5 pages come straight from the travel journal of Gabe Gabagbag.

1.“It’s Saturday and we just got to Paris via high speed TGV train. We pull up to our hotel, the Royal Voltaire, and my first impression is ‘man, this place is pretty ghetto.’”

2.“Innsbruck: What I remember most was the police officer in the street, the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in my life.”

3. “When in France do like the French do: pop open some wine and take it all in. . .”

4.“Morocoo: This place is definitely a humbling experience. Makes me feel so lucky about how we live in Hawaii.”

5.“Honolulu > Los Angeles > Washington > Amsterdam. That’s 8 + 4 + 7 for a total of 19 hours and I’m running on a small bag of pretzels and a strawberry banana yogurt complements of United Airlines. As I watch the in-flight movie, Jumper, I realize the whole process would be so much easier if I just teleported.”

Interested in submitting your journal pages? Send scans or photos to david [at] matadornetwork [dot] com.

Journal Pages: Arrival in Lima

Aya Padron — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:27:47 +0000

“technically the ninth of january when we arrived in lima, though it felt like a long night of the eighth; after one in the morning when we got through customs at last. nelson was there at the airport with a driver, and we were whisked off into the streets of lima. through the quiet and dark streets of callao toward the neon casinos and thoroughfares of lima. past the golf course and hotel with dolphins to the doors of the parroquia santa maria reina on the óvalo gutierrez in san isidro/miraflores. up the elevator with uncle nelson and then straight to bed, so happy to be there at last.”

Editor’s note: if you’re interested in submitting your Journal Page, please check our submission guidelines.

Want to learn the craft of travel writing?

Journal Pages: The View in the Andes

David Holcroft — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:20:29 +0000

Editor’s note: if you’re interested in submitting your Journal Page, please check the submission guidelines here.

Submissions Call: Journal Pages

David Miller — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:10:31 +0000

Notebook of Jenny Williams. Feature photo by: Elleinad

A new call for sketches, short bits of text, or journal entries in their original, travel-inspired forms.

Recently we’ve been publishing more narrative pieces, especially in our series Notes From the Road. The original idea with that series was to publish short, raw pieces, writing pulled directly from one’s travel journal. A good example was the piece “I had fully crossed the line,” originally sent as an email, the kind you have to just sit down and write before the feelings go away.

We’ve decided to extend this series to the next logical place: literally pulling out excerpt from people’s journals and sketchbooks. We’re now accepting submissions of photo scans of:

journal entries (text only)
sketches
mixed sketches and notes
anything else directly from your journal that seems relevant to travel + place

Submission process

Please send your work directly to david[at]matadornetwork[dot]com with the photo sent as a .jpg attachment. Please make sure your photo is at least 1000 pixels wide. Bios and cover letters are not necessary. Please put “journal pages” in the subject line, plus the title.

Response times are generally within a week. If you do not hear back from us within a week it means that your piece did not fit our specific editorial vision. Please do not take this as a judgment of your skills or talent, but simply a question of the type of pieces we’re trying to publish.

Payment is the same as a regular matador network article. $25 via paypal.

Final note: works previously published on the internet or print are not accepted, however if you’d like to rework something you’ve already published at your matador blog, that’s fine.

We look forward to reading your submissions. Suerte,