Thursday, August 21, 2008

Pink Floyd as a "trekker's heirloom"

Hey trekkers with the Floyd book! Read this post and tell us your story in the comments section below...we'd love to hear from you!

It pretty much started by pure accident, and with a little luck.

But how does that old saying by the Canadian wise man go?

"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."


So it is. I've always brought music with me whenever I'm traveling abroad, as it helps me to pass the time, and I have something familiar at my side in my travels...so when I left for Peru last month, I decided to go a step further and pack along some extra musical companions.


In perusing through a Barnes & Noble in Seattle's U-District to pick up some new music by The New Pornographers and Mudcrutch's debut album (a Tom Petty project), I bumped into a new kind of rough guide.

For those who are world trekkers, rough guides are mostly known for their travel books and city guides...and hands down, they make the best street maps of anyone out there.


However, this is a different kind of Rough Guide...they've crossed over into music now (who's the genius at that company who thought of that?) and they're starting to do rock bands...so I picked up two; one for an artist I want to learn more about (Bob Dylan), and another for one of my favorite bands (Pink Floyd).


The Dylan book got left, in my typical Swiss cheese brain fashion, on a 6-hour bus ride to Puno...but I didn't do it! It was the high altitude, I swear.

However after reading the Floyd book, I decided to pass it along to my buddy I was meeting up with during my travels down there...which brought up a thought: why not try to turn the book into a "trekker's heirloom," if you like?


I figured some lonely traveler might appreciate challenging their Floyd trivia while battling the cha-chas on a long bus ride in Ecuador or something. Music seems like the true international language, and I can't think of a more intriguing topic for passing the time while on the road...and in South America, there can be LOTS of time to pass with travel delays, broken down busses, etc.

So it seems like a cool idea, assuming it works...at least we think so...I'll keeping my fingers crossed. That being said, my buddy has written in the book directing trekkers to this site. He should be passing the book along to someone he meets in either Bolivia or Chile, depending on where he's at.


We'll see what happens, I really hope it works.
S

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