Hello Crush,
A warm, autumnal happy Saturday morning to you. I'm writing from the Dolomites in Italy, where I am hiking with friends. I've had some real moments on this rigorous hiking trip - emotional and physical – and I'm struck all over again by what we all know about journeys. Sometimes it takes going away to relocate lost pieces of yourself. Or to intensely connect with others.
Which is why we're focusing on travel for a couple of weeks.
In my case, this trip to the Dolomites offered both a sacred journey in (and up!) and the embrace of a group of intrepid travelers who are extraordinary people. I needed what I got, from precisely the people who shared the journey with me. And I needed it right now. I feel like the Universe answered a call I hadn't known I was dialing. Thank you, Universe!
This week we're sharing snapshots on travel from some of our favorite columnists and Crush Readers. Next week we have more introspective pieces on journeys, both real and philosophical.
We have a lot for you today, so let's get started.
If you're new here welcome!, I'm Dish, the Master of Ceremonies. We bring stories and intelligence on friendship, love, romance & sex in midlife to your inbox Saturdays to make your week end – and life – better. To read the pieces our CRUSH community has loved the most go here. To subscribe (we'd love to have you and everyone you love) go here.
Special Travel Snapshot Issue.
In This Letter. +Three Timeless Travel Books. WONDERLUST Founder Bob Guccione Jr. lists three of his all-time favorites. +Four Indie Bookstores That Stayed In My Life Long After I Left Town. Bookstores Dish Stanley has known and loved. +Five Best Jazz Clubs Around the Country. Jazz vocalist Lisa Ellex tells us where to go when we're on the road. +Five Great Boutique Hotels Around NYC. Travel industry veteran Jeanne Bosse’ knows where we should stay in her hometown. +HookUps. This week we're hooking you up with Founder Carrie Pasquarello and her WanderSafe Beacon. +Our Song of the Week. If you can't be with the one you love ... there's a girl right next to you and she's waiting for something to do ...
Three Timeless Travel Books. By Bob Guccione Jr.
WONDERLUST Founder Bob Guccione Jr. lists three of his all-time favorites.
Once upon a time, we did not get our sense of the world from Instagram. We got it from adventurers and explorers and the exiled, voluntary and not so, and the great writers. Back when the world was rough and often unknown and certainly not photoshopped, we relied on these missionaries of the word to tell us what was out there. I’m talking up until about five years ago, by the way. The great writers always describe the exotic simply and the simple exotically. They immerse us in magical worlds so strikingly real and relatable and at the same time floating just beyond our reach, in timeless, perfectly preserved bubbles.
There are countless examples of magnificent, moment and place capturing travel books, some written by so-called travel writers, the majority not (at WONDERLUST, we chose a hundred of the best) but here are three. Just three --- read them if you haven’t already, and then just keep going…
A MOVEABLE FEAST by Ernest Hemingway
All Hemingway books are travel books. What better sense of Cuba can you get than from Old Man and the Sea? Where is there a more accurate, lasting depiction of Madrid and Spain than in The Sun Also Rises and Death in the Afternoon? Or, for that matter of Spain in its tormented war with itself in For Whom The Bell Tolls. Hemingway laid a sense of place in his writings like a classic painter layering thick paint on a canvass with a spatula. A Moveable Feast was actually a memoir, begun in the late 1940s when he was already a literary giant, and covers the period in his twenties, living in Paris when he wasn’t. Each chapter is a sketch, breathtaking in its tightness and beauty, a short but true story, of poverty and optimism and love and disaster, always against the celestial backdrop of a gorgeous and wounded city just years after the end of the first world war. It’s probably his lightest touch book but he labored over it longer and harder than any other and never really considered it finished. He died three years before it was published.
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
It sounds silly to say this, but it really is the ultimate roadbook. Hunter Thompson in particular, among hundreds if not thousands of other writers, tried to emulate it, but nobody could. Partly because it’s not really about being on the road, or a road, although it’s very much about a journey. This is arguably the Great American Novel. It’s nominally a story woven from road trips taken between 1947 and 1950 by Kerouak, characterized here as the gloriously named Sal Paradise, and another beat generation writer Neil Cassidy, disguised here as Dean Moriarty. Moriarty is a wild and free spirit, and might as well be a stand-in for America itself --- victorious and vindicated and relieved after the second world war. Moriarty gives Sal license to be adventurous and experiment with drugs and sex and to drift, literally sometimes and metaphorically always, on the wailing winds of the modern jazz age, somewhere between Charlie Parker’s height and Miles Davis starting out. Sal escaped normalcy with Dean and that really was, at the time, the real American Dream. Written and revised in the early fifties, the groundbreaking book was published in 1957. In 1961 Kerouak wrote to a student who had corresponded with him: "Dean and I were embarked on a journey through post- [Walt] Whitman America to FIND that America and to FIND the inherent goodness in American man. It was really a story about 2 Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And we found him." That is pretty much the ultimate road trip.
BARBARIAN DAYS: A SURFING LIFE by William Finnegan
This is an extraordinary book, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, about the life of a man who never tried to be extraordinary, so, of course, was. An obsessed surfer who traveled the world in pursuit of the oceans’ best waves, he surfed off Africa, Australia, all over the South Pacific, and in his native California and Hawaii. A child and teenager of the fifties and sixties, the biggest wave he caught was the social revolution of the Baby Boomers and he perfectly captures that tumultuous and unfettered, often a clueless time when, suddenly, to some great and meaningful degree, youth took over the world. Like all the great writer travelers, he decodes the behaviors and foibles of the cultures he visits, the everyday, the simplest things that make mankind so infinitely and trivially complex and exciting.
Four Indie Bookstores That Stayed In My Life Long After I Left Town. By Dish Stanley
My Mother loves books and so I love bookstores. Especially these.
My mother, a former librarian, grew up in a small upstate New York town on the Erie Canal where she escaped the unending cold winters (and no doubt, small town life) by reading. By the late 60’s she was living in California with a husband and three small kids. When school got out, my Mother would pile my brother, sister and I in a station wagon for a road trip across the country to spend summers on the East Coast while my father stayed back to work. We did the trek back and forth multiple times, following different routes laid out by the AAA TripTiks. For my mother “that looks like an interesting bookstore” was reason enough to pull over for an impromptu stop in a small town. I think that is how I came to think of indie bookstores as the place to get a concentrated feel for the heart and soul of a place. Here are the ones that have stayed in my life long after I left town.
(How cool and daring is my Mother, by the way, to have taken on these long cross-country journeys with three small kids?)
Powell’s, Portland, Oregon. “Bringing readers together for 50 years.” This is a third generation family-owned business that expresses all of the chaotic, abundant, serious and quirky energy of Portland. I first got lost in its shelves in the early 90’s while visiting Portland to see a guy I had a short, deeply philosophical fling with. He picked up The Precipice Garden, a book of poetry by the American conductor James DePriest for me there. I’ve kept in touch with Powell’s (if not Eric) ever since. Powell’s hosts an impressive offering of virtual author events. Two weeks ago I joined for one with the great musician Rickie Lee Jones reading from her memoir Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour. Jones, a very spiritual person, ran away from home at 14, beginning a life on the road where the danger she encountered only seemed to spark her belief in the magical. You can listen to a recording of Rikki’s Powell’s enchanting talk here.
Faulkner House Books, New Orleans. “A sanctuary for fine literature.” It is owing to another former love that I first met the Faulkner House. He had had his own independent publishing firm before we met, specializing in mystery, history and erotica (or “Fresh Fiction,” as he liked to call it). On our first trip to New Orleans together we stopped in this tiny, atmospheric bookstore housed in the 1837 townhouse where William Faulkner lived, where I met Joanne Sealy. She is the Faulkner’s magical sorceress whose powers include making the perfect book recommendation based on a brief conversation with you. I was looking for a mystery. Joanne asked what I’d read recently that I liked (answer: Interview with A Vampire by Anne Rice, in anticipation of the trip). She then left through the back door and reappeared minutes later with Tana French’s In the Woods. I have since visited and ordered from Faulkner House many times. I recently learned that her magical powers have extended to the online, where she started a “Personalized Book Subscription.” Joanne builds a personalized dossier of what you like - she asks you some questions to get started, and encourages you to call for further discussion (how sweet is that?) - then she sends you a customized selection each month. I just signed up. Which means that Joanne is the finest gift that that naughty old flame gave me.
Strand Book Store, NYC. I lived two blocks from the famous Strand Bookstore at 12th Street and Broadway for years in the late 1990s. I loved wandering through its rows and rows of disheveled books and passionate but often detached (and sometimes also disheveled) staff. For one thing, it was a cheap thrill, and for another, you might run into somebody famous. Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke were living together down the block, for instance, and I think I saw them browsing the erotic lit section but really who knows because I was playing it too cool to look over long enough to be sure. Another late afternoon I thought I saw the musician Patti Smith, the “punk poet laureate,” who worked at the Strand in 1970’s for a brief period but reportedly said she didn’t like it because “it was unfriendly.” At any rate, it was the Strand that I made a trip to in 2010 after Smith’s Just Kids was published. I picked up a signed version of her memoir about living in 1970s New York and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, and that is reason enough for a lifelong love affair with the Strand.
Jackson Hole Book Trader, Jackson Hole, WY. I wandered into Jackson Hole Book Trader on my first trip to Wyoming in 2010 and picked up Jackson Hole: On a Grand Scale by David Gonzales. Gonzales writes passionately about the history of Jackson Hole’s epic terrain (featuring the greatest vertical drop of any U.S. ski resort) and the book certainly hastened my growing love affair with the area. Jackson Hole Book Trader has been a community gathering spot and local institution since 1998 and in 2017 it was bought by Susie Temple, who had worked at the store. It sells new, used and rare books, including everything from the latest best sellers to regional favorites, as well as a growing collection of splendid vinyl records. It captures Jackson Hole’s true feel, and I don’t miss a trip there when I’m in town. Especially if a storm is coming in.
Five Best Jazz Clubs Around the Country. By Lisa Ellex
If you find yourself on the road looking for some of the best jazz, our resident writer and jazz vocalist Lisa Ellex shares some of her intimate favorites spots from around the U.S. Welcome for traveling solo (or accompanied).
Throughout my lifelong love affair with music, I’ve visited various venues, unaccompanied. By virtue of attending, there exists a common bond between myself and the other patrons: We are all there to share in the communion of live music. So, with a song in my heart, I am sharing with you some of my favorite music spots, from east to west, particularly welcoming when traveling solo.
Smalls, NYC.
The magic of Smalls begins when you make your descent, speakeasy-style, to this very intimate room. If music is your religion, Smalls is your church. There are even benches arranged “revival style” in the first several rows from the stage, and it’s impossible to sit any closer without being in the band! Bands play two sets per night at 7:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., with another band playing at 10:30 p.m. and midnight. But stick around. This is the joint where musicians come to jam when they finish their gigs at other clubs. I guarantee: You will lose yourself. I first attended Smalls soon after they opened in 1996, and when I emerged, the birds were chirping in the early morning light.
Deer Head Inn. Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania.
Cross the New Jersey border on Route 80 West and you’re on the holy ground of “the oldest continuous jazz club in the country.” The building itself has been an inn since the 1800s and is still in operation. Singles get a spot at the bar instead of a table, but this is the best seat in the house! The staff and regulars are always welcoming, the varied menu is good, and the talent is top shelf. Jazz greats such as Bill Charlap, Stephanie Nacassian, Dave Leibman, and Houston Person are here often. When the weather is nice, you can dine, drink, and listen from the tremendous front porch. Bonus: the Appalachian Trail literally steps away from the Inn. Spend your weekend hiking on the trail or kayaking on Delaware River and at the end of the day listening to some great music before retiring to your room just up the stairs. Open Thursday through Sunday, Thursday being jam night with an open mic at 9 pm.
Bluebird Cafe. Nashville, Tennessee.
Though not a jazz club, Bluebird Cafe showcases the “other” American music. If country is your thing, then The Bluebird Cafe is your spot. Truly a singer/songwriter's showcase, the performers share the stage in a “round-robin” where they take turns presenting one original song (and the story behind the song) at a time in the rotation. It’s a well-put-together mix of newcomers learning the ropes, and veterans who have had their songs made into hits by established recording artists. Every so often the audience is surprised by a country star who drops in to play a tune right where it all began for them.
Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. Chicago, Illinois.
Opened in 1907, the art deco-style Green Mill is said to be Chicago’s oldest operating club. Its green neon “Cocktail Lounge” sign welcomes all who enter, seven nights a week, for live music from well-known artists, late-night jams, straight-ahead jazz, blues, gypsy jazz, soul, and big band orchestras and swing bands (yes, there’s dancing on Tuesdays and Thursdays). If you’re there on a Friday, be sure to catch the “Cocktail Hour Show” when there’s no cover charge from 5-8 pm. Bands play from 8 pm to midnight. Best time to make friends: Sundays from 7-10 pm when you can be a part of the Slam Poetry contest and vote for your favorites. The icing on the cake: the jukebox is filled with pre-1960 jazz tunes.
Piedmont Piano Company. Oakland, California.
Yes, it’s a piano company, family-owned and operated for over 40 years. By day, Piedmont sells fine new and used pianos, provides music lessons, practice studio rentals, piano rentals, and piano moving and storage. By evening, they host a live concert series right in their showroom, with blues, jazz, swing, classical, soul, funk, roots, and more. Shows start early -- usually between 5 and 7 pm -- so you can always get dinner after the show with some of the new friends you just made. (Hey, it’s California.)
5 Great Boutique Hotels Around NYC. By Jeanne Bosse’
With over 30 years in the travel industry, Jeanne Bosse knows a thing or two about off-the-beaten-path destinations. Here she helps us find the best boutique hotels NYC has to offer.
Planning to visit NYC and looking to find a hotel that doesn’t overwhelm in size? Not a problem. Here’s just a small cross-section of the numerous NYC boutique hotels, listed from north to south of Manhattan island (including a bonus in Brooklyn). Be sure to check each hotel website for current Covid-19 procedures in place, complying with NYC regulations.
UPPER EAST SIDE - The Lowell Hotel
28 E 63rd St, New York, NY
Tucked away on a quaint Upper East Side street, the Lowell is a genuine retreat. With a quiet atmosphere of discretion and privacy, it’s understandable why low-key celebs and notables who don’t need to be seen stay here. And, unique to the 1927 building, the majority of the rooms are suites; 47 to 27 deluxe rooms. While no two are exactly alike, all are elegant but comfortable, and 14 include terraces. Adding to the residential feel, kitchens can be found in many of the rooms and suites, and 33 feature wood-burning fireplaces, for which you can pick your own
scent. A creative French-Moroccan seasonal menu is found at the beautiful Majorelle Restaurant. Perfect for those wanting a quiet getaway near some of NYC’s finest museums and designer shopping is sure to be happy here. Your pet is welcome and you can order for them from a special menu and book Lowell’s dog walking service. Or walk them yourself in nearby Central Park. Look elsewhere if the Lowell is too far uptown or if you need to “be seen.”
MIDTOWN - Andaz Fifth Avenue
485 5th Avenue At, E 41st Street, New York, New York
Across from the historic New York Public Library building, the Andaz Fifth Avenue is a contemporary retreat in the center of Manhattan. Inside, a personal greeter handles check-in from a laptop, and the lobby features a guest lending library, a complimentary coffee and tea set-up in the morning, and a complimentary wine hour in the evening. Despite the minimalist furnishings, the 184 rooms and suites are full of details; rich woods, slate, large marble bathrooms, (the only one that includes a bathtub), contemporary art, and huge windows. Even the standard guest rooms are larger than most NYC hotel rooms and the suites offer balconies or large terraces. However, beware if you need lots of closet space as the tiny glass closets won’t even hold a suitcase. Just behind the Public Library is Bryant Park, with outdoor movies, concerts with ice skating, and a holiday shopping bazaar in the winter. Perfect for theatre-goers and luxury shopping who don’t require a quiet location. Also, the corporate traveler, who can work comfortably in this sophisticated, contemporary, yet intimate atmosphere.
CHELSEA - The Highline Hotel
80 10th Avenue (at 20th Street, New York, New York
Unless you’ve walked south on the Highline or explored the art galleries in West Chelsea, you might not be aware of The Highline Hotel. This 1895 Gothic building was originally part of the Episcopal seminary on the other side of the backyard courtyard and garden. Combined with family and dog-friendly policies (including complimentary treats), a residential atmosphere prevails. Each of the 60 rooms and suites has period details such as antique furnishing and rugs, original wood molding, and beautifully restored floors. The front of the hotel features Daisy’s Cocktail Garden with a central water feature, open through the end of October. While there is no gym or year-round restaurant, Equinox passes are offered and several restaurants are steps away. Shinola bicycles with baskets and helmets are available for free rental. Perfect for families and/or dog lovers who enjoy the historic architecture and the charm of the neighborhood. Look elsewhere if you need an onsite gym or restaurant.
SOHO - The Crosby Street Hotel
79 Crosby Street, New York, New York
Although part of the British hotel company Firmdale, this trendy yet vibrant hotel seems right at home in Soho. Noted designer Kit Kemp presents a contemporary take on traditional interiors, with plenty of colors and unique modern and folk art pieces. (Art enthusiasts can book a private, guided tour of the collection.) Each of the 86 rooms and suites provides a residential feeling with no two alike. While the Crosby Bar and Terrace are open to all, the beautiful interior Sculpture Garden is only used by guests and friends. Fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, and herbs come from the Rooftop Kitchen Garden and chicken coop. Film buffs will appreciate the comfortable, state-of-the-art Screening Room featuring regular film nights. Perfect for those who enjoy being surrounded by art and creativity and some of NYC’s best downtown restaurants, since it is in the center of Soho. Look elsewhere if you prefer a corporate location and monochromatic, minimalist interiors.
WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN - The William Vale Hotel
111 North 12th St, Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn has become a destination unto itself—especially trendy, creative Williamsburg, home of the William Vale, built by a Brooklyn architect. While the imposing contemporary building opened in 2016 doesn’t suggest boutique, the 183 rooms and suites of the William Vale are on 10 floors with retail space below. The 11th-floor rooftop offers green space for picnicking called Vale Park, film screenings, and a 60-foot pool that becomes an ice rink in the winter. Guests enjoy floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies in each of the rooms and suites. The decor is minimalist but comfortable with warm wood tones and bright, bold contemporary art by local artists. And unparalleled views of Manhattan and the New York Harbor. Perfect for those looking to explore the creative energy of Williamsburg. Pet-owners can also bring two pets up to 50 pounds and exercise them on the dog run in McCarren Park, one block away. Look elsewhere if you are a corporate traveler or anyone expecting a traditional hotel experience.
Follow Jeanne’s adventures, from her native NYC to around the globe, via her Instagram @jeanne.bosse.
Hook Ups: The WanderSafe Beacon. Meet Carrie Pasquarello, CEO & Co-Founder of Global Secure Resources
“Hook Ups” is an ongoing feature introducing our readers to some of our favorite entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Please tell us what you do.
I empower travelers to see the world in a safer and more secure way, with Wandersafe.
For how many years?
I launched Global Secure Resources Inc. in 2014 but have been strategizing safety for more than 20 years. The WanderSafe Beacon has been in production since 2018.
How does the WanderSafe make traveling better and safer?
I focus on risk mitigation and have incorporated the WanderSafe Beacon as one of my go-to safety tools. The primary purpose of the handheld device is to de-escalate a situation, alert, and distract a possible attacker with light, sound, and a special SOS function that notifies preselected emergency contacts. When we are proactive with safety and security we can travel better.
Is it easy to use?
Yes, grab and go. Keep your cell phone hands-free in your Stashbandz (my other favorite safety tool) and keep your beacon handy. The WanderSafe ecosystem gives its user the tools required to diffuse a potential threat and get help faster. The user can illuminate a situation with a brilliant lumen torch, distract with the strobe feature, attract attention with a 130db blaring siren, and discreetly and silently send SOS notifications to a preset safety tribe using Bluetooth via the free WanderSafe companion app. As a woman who travels extensively on my own, I value smart stress-free travel.
How important is it for women to have a hand in developing products specifically for women’s safety and wellness?
It is imperative for women to be on the design and development side of safety and security products. After all, we know what we need to feel safe. After spending 12 years living and working in Europe and Asia, along with time spent as a crisis counselor, my experiences shaped the way I travel and how I teach others to navigate the world. I encourage more women to enter the safety and security field and find leadership positions. Traditionally the security field has been male-dominated.
Best way to purchase (or reach you)?
Promo Code: 10% off for PrimeCrush Readers!
https://www.wandersafe.com/
WanderSafe promo code: BeSafe10
Contact:
Email: info@globalsecureresources.com
Instagram: @global_s_r
Song of the Week.
It's 1974, a packed Wembly Stadium and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are feeling it. This is a perfect song for considering the possibilities when you're on the road. Love the One You're With. There's no reason to be alone, friends :-).
I'll be on the road myself for a couple more weeks – after Italy, I'll be heading to Tangier – but The Crush Letter will be back next week with more on journeys (actual and philosophical). Until then, I hope that your week is full of love.
XO,
Dish
The Crush Letter
The Crush Letter is Dish's weekly newsletter on everything love & connection in midlife - friendship, romance, self-love, sex. Want the Dish?
If you love me as much as I love you (and I really do love you!), then please, please, please help me grow by forwarding this {love} Letter to a friend! And I'd love to have you join us on instagram, facebook & twitter.
