(Guy Walks Across America on vimeo)
Crazy! There’s this guy who does a Forrest Gump and crosses the USA by foot! Well, not really. But it’s still a nicely done stop-motion shortfilm from… ehrm, it seems like it comes from a major jeans brand. Never mind. It makes us get itchy feet, and that’s still a true feeling. So, in case you wanna follow in the guy’s footsteps, wearing jeans or not, click here for a Goole Map of his journey.
At age 18, Mike Brodie took his Polaroid camera and began exploring the US by train. On his three year voyage he saw a part of America that can hardly be further away from what normally inflates our collective memory of US pop culture or tourist hearsay. It’s the world of vagabonds, hobos and freighthoppers. Brodie calls it “travel culture” and he came home with hundreds of amazing Polaroid pictures of an alternative American way of life between track beds and freight depots. He became known as the Polaroid Kidd, and his photographs can be seen at exhibitions all over the world.
Needles & Pens has an online collection of his pictures here and here, there are more at Arteven, and DryInk Mag did an interview with The Polaroid Kidd.
When traveling on a shoestring budget – like we did during research last fall – you generally aim for the cheapest accommodations you can get. In our case, we are talking about those cheap and seemingly endless motel chains that cover all of the United States. In fact, our budget for the whole trip was so small, we even had to go with the cheapest of the cheap. No exceptions.
Our first stay was in Newark, NJ, close to the airport. Our plane came in late at night, and we couldn’t get our rental car before the next morning. The hotel we had booked offered a free shuttle service from and to the airport. And so we were waiting with many others at the shuttle area to get picked up. Shuttle busses were constantly coming and going: Imagine brand new vans from Mariott and Hilton, from Best Western and Holiday Inn, painted in the respective colors of their hotels, dropping of travelers and picking up new ones. Drivers helped carrying luggage, loading and unloading. We kept waiting. And slowly began doubting if there was ever going to arrive a shuttle service for us, too.
Well, no reason for a doubt. Just a little more waiting, and an old Dodge van turned into the shuttle area. The Dodge’s color would have been grey, if it wasn’t for all the rust. This van was so dented you could only guess that it took part in Monster Truck Shows in its free time. Not as Monster, apparently. In the windshield was a piece of paper that read Howard Johnson Hotel. That’s our ride! I don’t have to mention that the driver was just a driver, no porter. And as if we needed another confirmation we kept looking for other travelers that needed a shuttle to Howard Johnson Hotel. But we were the only ones. After all, the hotel itself was absolutely sufficient. Our room was right in the middle of the airport approach path and next to the Interstate that went into Manhattan, but we were far too tired to even think about it.
The television documentary series “Mister & Missis.Sippi” that was broadcast on German television during the Easter holidays, is now available online via the library of its broadcaster 3sat. There are three parts of 45 minutes each that take its viewers on an entertaining journey by raft on the Mississippi, peeking into some true American backrooms. Please note: The show is available in German with only Interviewees speaking in English. And due to possible geo blocking it might be unavailable in non-German-speaking territories.
Part 1 – From St. Louis to Cairo
Part 2 – From Memphis to Vicksburg
Part 3 – From Saint Francisville to New Orleans
We’ve just added new pictures from rainy Michigan and Ohio to the AMERICAN BACKROOM Flickr photostream. All pictures were shot during our research trip last fall. Go check ‘em out. And don’t forget to leave a comment 
Volker Strübing, writer, musician, poet, and Patricia Schäfer, German TV host, are travelling on the mississippi by raft. From St. Louis to New Orleans. And they made a documentary series about it. Great idea! The Trailer (in German only) looks absolutely fantastic and I’m definitely going to tune in. Three part series starting tonight at 8:15 PM on German broadcaster 3sat. Parts 2 and 3 will air tomorrow and on Monday.
The Berlin Film Festival “Berlinale” draws to a close and the hustle and bustle of the European Film Market is already gone… and we found time again to upload a bit of new content from our research trip last fall: Head on over to the American Backroom Flickr-Stream to catch a couple new pictures from South Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan. There are more to come soon – we are far from finished exploiting all the photos we took during our trip.
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