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Art and Music

  • In Search of a Chinese Hermit

    Visiting a Hermit and Not Finding Him: A Journey up Cold Mountain Path The Cold Mountain Road is strange no tracks of cart or horse hard to recall which merging stream or tell which piled-up ridge a myriad plants weep with dew the pines all sigh the same here where the trail disappears form asks [...]

  • Petroglyphs in Arizona

    Petroglyphs in Arizona, Archaeology field work in Tonto Forest — “I have a Petro over here!” exclaimed an archaeologist in the Tonto Forest of Arizona. We were walking out our transects through the Pinyon Juniper shrub trees on top of a highly elevated mesa in the forest. Prehistoric sites were reveling themselves out of the [...]

  • Buy Vagabond Journey T-shirt

    Branded VBJ travel shirts are now available!

  • USA Creative Culture – Stagnant, Traditional, or Niched?

    American Creative Culture — I am sitting in a theater in Flagstaff, Arizona. I am watching a Grateful Dead cover band playing Grateful Dead cover songs. (Entrance was free — and, well, free is free.) But what is interesting is not the band, nor the music, but the fact that the crowd spans three generations: [...]

  • Vagabond Journey Art by Justin Catania

    Vagabond Journey Art by Justin Catania: I am pleased to announce that the Brooklyn based woodblock print artist, Justin Catania, will be doing illustrations for Vagabond Journey.com.

  • Bedouin Tattoos in Jordan

    Tattooing has long been a custom for both Bedouin men and women. Today, the old style can still be seen over the hands and faces of older men and women, and it is very common for young men to still get tattooed with modern designs on their upper and lower arms. The tradition of hand [...]

  • Carving into the Ancient: Woodcarvers in India

    JAIPUR, India- I was picked up in the morning at the front gate of the Rajasthan Hotel by the master wood carver, Umesh Singh, and we rode off on his motorcycle through the busy streets of Jaipur. As we criss-crossed lanes of exhaust spewing traffic, dodged holy cows, honked at broken down beggars, and plowed [...]

  • Eskisehir Meerschaum Pipe Story

    Eskisehir Meerschaum Pipe Story I came to Eskisehir with one intent: to write a story about Meerschaum pipe production. I am pleased to report that through a course of fortunate happenstance, I have completed the research phase of this objective. Meerschaum, called luletasi, aktas, or patal in Turkish, is a white sedimentary stone that has [...]

  • Graffiti In Portugal: The Other Side Of The Wall

    “I write graffiti because my head and my heart demands me to write. Because I wake up and I go to bed with graffiti in my mind. Because it’s the only thing that makes me forget my problems and my sadness completely. Because it makes me happy.” -Mister Dheo, Portuguese Graffiti Writer. LISBON, Portugal- Portugal: [...]

  • Nazis, Communism, and Wine in Moravia

    HODONIN, Czech Republic- “Wine is made by god. The wine maker can only damage it,” spoke the old wine maker Vlasomir Gloss,  as he sipped reverentially from his glass of wine. He then paused for a second as his words took effect upon his audience, and then added with a coy smile, “Most wine makers damage [...]