On sustainable mobility: Uber Bike by Jump is affordable, reliable transportation that looks smart, too

Imagine a future where everyone, regardless of their income or where they live, has access to affordable, reliable transportation. The future is now.

During a recent visit to Seattle, it struck me that on nearly every downtown street corner – and especially near the trendy W Hotel (1112 4th Avenue, corner Seneca Street) where I stayed – there was an abundance of smart and safe red Uber Bike by Jump bicycles, a dockless, bike share option that is built of the smartest technology platform in micro-mobility.

The latest generation of these flashy, pedal-assist electric Jump bikes includes a lot of likable and useful features: phone mount, front dashboard, swappable battery and cable lock. Now, riders can use their smart phones for navigation hands free. The swappable battery ensures that bikes are readily available and charged and the cable lock is a good, flexible safety measure that enables bikes to be secured to a rack or permanent structure.

With a smarter and safer fleet of bikes offering its users an optimum performance experience, it will be interesting to see if these sleek Jump bikes, like the ones I saw in Seattle, become commonplace in other urban cities. Upon returning home to Washington, D.C., I started noticing more of them in and around the Capitol Hill and Eastern Market areas of the city as well as near Union Station. Like Seattle, in Washington, D.C., the target demo seems to be under-30-year-old Millennials.

Uber Bike by Jump are available in the following U.S. cities: Atlanta, Austin, Texas; Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Phoenix, Providence, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Calif.; Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

Recently, Nick Foley, Jump’s head of product, was quoted by bikebiz.com as saying “With 4G connectivity, the booking experience – whether reserving remotely or walking up to a bike – is much faster. The ride experience is more reliable, since the bike can now self-diagnose its most common failures.

“And with full connectivity for all on-board vehicle systems, our fleets will be smarter and safer over time, as we use the live diagnostic data from each vehicle to uniquely optimize its performance with algorithms running in our cloud.”

Certainly, with Uber’s ability to mobilize its Jump bikes and place them in locations where they’ll enjoy a high profile, users should never have to trek too far to rent one.

Last fall, Uber announced it was committing $10 million over three years to support sustainable mobility in New York and other cities in which it operates. On Monday, the Sacramento Bee reported that an October study “found more Sacramentans were renting Jump bikes than using Uber’s car service by a 53 to 47 percent margin. That makes Sacramento, Calif., the first of 16 Uber cities that have both bike and car service where the bikes are more popular, company officials said.”

In cities with good weather, a flat terrain and a pro-bike mindset, it certainly looks like Jump bikes are here to stay.

Photo: Uber Bike by Jump by Michael Dickens, © Seattle, 2019.

Here are 25 cities you may wish to call home

Some random thoughts while drinking coffee and enjoying a “snow day” at home ...

Our cities are designed for living, working, cultural entertainment and late nights. Even fresh starts, like I experienced when I moved to Washington, D.C. in 2017, after spending 21-plus years living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some cities have it figured out, some don’t.

From transportation to green space, retail possibilities and residential settlements, it’s always interesting to find out what makes a good city a great place to live.

Every summer, Monocle, the London-based global magazine that’s always been a must-read for me, for its coverage of international affairs, business, culture and design, presents a special quality of life rankings with a top of the world list of the 25 best global cities.

Although I’ve written about Monocle’s Quality of Life rankings before, it’s been a few years – and, somehow, I haven’t visited the subject since 2016. So, as snow begins to blanket the Beltway, I’ve decided to take a look back at what Monocle had to say about last year’s quality of life rankings.

Here’s Monocle’s Top 25 cities in the world:

 1. Munich
 2. Tokyo
 3. Vienna
 4. Zurich
 5. Copenhagen
 6. Berlin
 7. Madrid
 8. Hamburg
 9. Melbourne
10. Helsinki
11. Stockholm
12. Lisbon
13. Sydney
14. Hong Kong
15. Vancouver
16. Amsterdam
17. Kyoto
18. Düsseldorf
19. Barcelona
20. Paris
21. Singapore
22. Fukuoka
23. Auckland
24. Brisbane
25. Oslo

“Cities are the future,” writes Monocle in discussing its 12th annual Quality of Life survey about the Top 25 global cities. You’ll notice the list is heavy on European and Pacific Asian cities, but it doesn’t include London, Paris or Rome. Only one North American city – Vancouver – made this year’s list. “You want a city that’s well run, delivers on life’s essentials and is fun, too.”

According to Monocle, “By 2030 urban areas are projected to house 60 percent of the global population. But while city halls need to prepare for that future – think grand infrastructure projects and investments in housing – they need to offer their residents a decent quality of life in the present. The best cities manage to find a healthy balance between planning for tomorrow and managing today.”

It makes us ask: What’s my city doing to change? Is it reviving former industrial neighborhoods for more housing stock and new cultures space? Is it expanding its airport or adding new routes to its train network? How well does my city do in putting on a welcoming face to outside businesses, newcomers and tourists?

Monocle suggests that getting it all right is “a challenge but some cities are getting it right.

“Take for instance, our winning city this year, which returned to the top spot: Munich. Safe and efficient with plenty of green space and good restaurants, the German city is thriving and more cosmopolitan than ever. Not only is Munich drawing an increasing number of students (it’s home to 18 universities) and entrepreneurs (its mobility, tech and IT sectors are booming), it’s been managing an influx of refugees and their integration.”

Looking ahead, as cities continue to expand, it seems that maintaining a great quality of life that gets recognized will be a challenge – even for the most forward thinking of cities. Monocle concludes, “Those that will prosper will be open and secure, ambitious and practical, with an eye on the future and a respect for the past.”

Photos and illustrations courtesy of Monocle/Monocle.com.

On Learning: What’s new at the Library of Congress

A 1939 Frank Warner Banjo /
Acquired by the Library of Congress.

One of my favorite days each year at the Library of Congress is the annual “New Acquisitions” display, when the public is invited to view 100 of the most interesting items in all formats that the Library has obtained during the past fiscal year.

During this year’s open house last week, there were holograph manuscript sketches for Beethoven’s monumental “Hammerklavier” Piano Sonata, Op. 106, presented by the Music Division; the 1941 Japanese Pearl Harbor damage assessment map used to brief Emperor Hirohito, presented by the Asian Division; and one of the most famous issues of the New York Daily News, which contains a front page with one of the most iconic baseball cartoons of all time, “Who’s a Bum!” by cartoonist Leo O’Mealia, presented by the Serial & Government Publictions Division.

Multi-faceted French Toy Theatre

There were many fascinating items from a variety of curatorial divisions in the Library, and curators were on hand to answer visitor questions and provide commentary. For instance, I shared a wonderful discussion with Sybille Jagusch, chief of the Children’s Literature Center (which is part of the Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections) about her recent purchase of a superb, multi-faceted French Toy Theatre, with small hand cranks which move color images across the back of a hollow box. I learned that the chromolithgraphed scenes included in this French toy theatre are lovely and handsome images of the Paris Exposition of 1900.

Also, I engaged with Raymond White, a senior music specialist with the Library’s Music Division, to learn about what the Library has added to its wealth of original Felix Mendelssohn (1808-1847) holdings. I did not realize that the Library is a well-known repository for its sources of Mendelssohn research, which includes approximately 20 music manuscripts, nearly 400 autograph letters and a large collection of first and early printed editions, in addition to portraits, contemporaneous clippings, and other documents. It all combines to make the Library of Congress the leading American source for all things Mendelssohn.

Among other new items of interest:

• A World’s Fair New York “Straight to the Gate” print by German-born artist Sasha Maurer that depicts a couple admiring the vista of a train streaming through Manhattan’s Penn State to the brightly glowing World’s Fair Station, presented by the Prints & Photographs Division.

• A beautifully illustrated Book of Hours for an English Market, made in Flanders for exportation to England during the middle years of the 15th century in an era of religious reform, presented by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

• A Frank Warner banjo, signed by more than 200 performers, made in 1939. The banjo is made of walnut, with walnut tuning pegs, steel strings and animal skin. The signatories include Alan Lomax, Odetta, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, presented by the American Folklife Center.

• Copies of Besuboru magajin (“Baseball magazine”), which belong to a set of 66 issues recently acquired by the Asian Division. These issues span from 1946 to 1951, a period that coincides with the U.S. occupation of Japan (1945-1952) and “marks a time of profound political, social and cultural change.” Besuboru magajin, I learned, appeared shortly after Japanese professional baseball officially returned in November 1945, after a year of inactivity due to World War II.

Photos: By Michael Dickens © 2019.

Thoughts on travel: Leaving your baggage behind

Rick Steves /
PBS travel host,
writer and activist

During my recent visit to Seattle while attending the American Library Assocation’s mid-winter conference, I sat in on an engaging and informative lecture by Rick Steves. He’s the longtime PBS travel host, writer and activist, who spoke about the need to understand our fellow human beings in other countries.

During his lively one-hour conversation, Steves emphasized the importance of traveling outside our comfort zone in order to learn about other people and cultures. One of his goals, I learned, has been to inspire and equip Americans to venture beyond Orlando’s Disney World. The Washington native was clearly a man on a mission on this Sunday morning. He was preaching to the choir – and it gave him its undivided attention.

Certainly, Steves is one who is not afraid to travel. In fact, for decades, he’s been crafting European tour experiences for Americans. By his estimation, he’s spent about a third of his adult life traveling throughout Europe. However, it was following the 9/11 tragedy in 2001 that Steves began to view politics as inextricable from travel.

“A life of travel can be a catalyst of peace,” Steves told his Seattle audience. He’s got a book out to back up his talk, ‘Travel As a Political Act,’ which is in its third edition (Hackett Book Group, 2018).

“When someone tells me to have a safe trip, I’m inclined to say, ‘Well, have a safe trip at home,’” said Steves. Despite Europe being statistically safer than the U.S., he noted that “Our country has never been more fearful.

“Fear is for people who don’t get out very much. The flip side of fear is understanding, and we gain understanding when we travel.”

Rick Steves signing
copies of his book,
‘Travel as a Political Act.’

Steves spoke of the importance that travelers need to get out of their comfort zone and show empathy for the rest of the world. “I’m into reality and humanity,” he said. “There’s a lot of baggage we are clueless to. We need to know about other country’s baggage. It’s important to understand baggage.”

If you think about it, and certainly Steves emphasized it, when you meet people along your travels – and take the time to discover their interests – it fosters an understanding of others and of the world at large.

“You go to France and step into a cheese shop, and it’s a festival of mold. The cheesemonger is evangelical,” said Steves. It’s one of many times that he drew laughter. “In Ireland, I enjoy the sensation that I’m understanding a foreign language. Forget your schedule, this is why you’re there. Get into a conversation.

“Europe knows how to work hard, but it knows how to play, too.”

He added, “You travel and realize the American dream is great, but it’s not unpatriotic to recognize there are other dreams.”

Thoughts on the media: Democracy Dies in Darkness

There were many enjoyable – and, yes, forgettable – commercials that aired during Sunday night’s Super Bowl LIII broadcast on CBS. Some were even thought provoking for their content or message.

One advert that drew my attention – and hopefully yours – came near the two-minute warning late in the fourth quarter of the New England Patriot’s 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. It lasted just 60 seconds, but it was a powerful and poignant minute. It was for The Washington Post newspaper, and its narrator was actor Tom Hanks.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper

If you think about it, though, this commercial was really about more than just a newspaper. Think democracy, think freedom of the press, and think about the importance that good and responsible journalism plays in our country.

As you watch, listen to the words that Hanks flawlessly recites while images of the World War II D-Day invasion and first moon landing are shown as well as clips of Fox News’ Bret Baier and CNN’s Anderson Cooper reporting from war zones and natural disasters. One of the final images gives special tribute to slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered last fall after entering the Saudi consulate in Instanbul.

“When we go off to war. When we exercise our rights. When we soar to our greatest heights. When we mourn and pray. When our neighbors are at risk. When our nation is threatened. There’s someone to gather the facts. To bring you the story. No matter the cost. Because knowing empowers us. Knowing helps us decide. Knowing keeps us free. Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

While this $10 million commercial (paid for by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, who also owns Amazon.com) was seen by millions of football fans and casual sports viewers from coast to coast – and, maybe, it will change a few minds, which good advertising does – imagine if the intended audience for this advertisement was just one person, who just happens to be the President of the United States.

Something to think about as the memory of this year’s Super Bowl game fades to black.

Country Music: New Burns documentary coming this fall

I’ve been a big fan of American filmmaker Ken Burns going all the way back to his 1990 award-winning PBS documentary “The Civil War,” which made him a household name, and his multi-part series on “Baseball” (1994) and “Jazz” (2001) were must-see TV in my home. Thus, I was excited to learn recently that the documentarian’s latest project, “Country Music,” is coming this fall to PBS. It will chronicle the history of a uniquely American art form, “rising from the experiences of remarkable people in distinctive regions of our nation,” by asking “What is country music?” and “Where did it come from?”

In following the evolution of country music from its 20th century origins to its present – from hillbilly and bluegrass to westerrn swing and rockabilly – viewers will learn how country music has emerged as America’s music.

The multi-episode, 16-hour journey “Country Music” series, which has been six years in the making, includes biographies covering a who’s who of country: Jimmie Rogers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Merle Haggard and Emmylou Harris. From southern Appalachia’s songs of struggle, heartbreak and faith to the rollicking swing of Texas to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, “Country Music” tells “unforgettable stories of the hardships and joys shared by everyday people,” according to the documentary’s website. More than 100 interviews were conducted for this documentary project with prominent country songwriters and musicians, including Vince Gill, Roseanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Reba McEntire.

Singer/songwriter and music historian Marty Stuart plays a prominent role as one of the principal commentators in “Country Music.” In one segment about the Grand Ole Opry, Stuart reflects on its role and importance as the mother church of country music. “All of his children had come to the mother church of country music. It was almost like a badge of honor that you had to bring your culture with you to the table. That’s why Bob Wills and his guys brought us western music. That’s why Hank Williams brought the south with him from Honky Tonks. Johnny Cash brought the black land dirt of Arkansas. Bill Monroe brought music out of Kentucky, bluegrass music. Willie Nelson brought his poetry from Texas. Patsy Cline brought her heartache from Virginia. I mean it was the most wonderful parade of sons and daughters of America that brought their hearts and their souls and their experiences, and it gave us a great era in country music.”

Directed and produced by Burns, “Country Music” is written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Emmy Award winner Julie Duffey, who has created some of Burns’ most-acclaimed and most-watched PBS documentaries, including “The Civil War,” “Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery,” and “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”

According to Burns, “All the while, we will note constant tug of war between the desire to make country music as mainstream as possible and the periodic reflexes to bring it back to its roots.”

Nominated: Cuarón’s Roma is a very personal project

Editor’s note: Award-winning director Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma received two Academy Award nominations on Tuesday. Roma was nominated for Best Picture and Best Foreign Film. Last month, I wrote about Roma after seeing a sneak preview in Washington, D.C. As I wrote at the time, “It’s a film you can definitely watch with your ears, but you’ll want to see it with your eyes. It’s in theaters and available on Netflix.

In Roma, Academy Award-winning director and writer Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men, and Y Tu Mama Tambien) has delivered an artful love letter to the women who raised him. Presented in Spanish with English subtitles, this immaculately photographed 135-minute film presented in black and white is a beautiful ode to his Mexican childhood. It draws upon Cuarón’s early life experiences growing up in a middle-class family in Mexico City’s Colonia Roma district to create both “a vivid and emotional portrait of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst political turmoil of the 1970s.” It’s a film about resilience and survival.

As Roma begins, one critic describes its opening as “a mesmerizing four-minute credit sequence – the mopping of a courtyard – the flow of foamy water establishes a rhythm as well as a cleansing metaphor about life and memory.”

The film follows its protagonist Cleo (portrayed by first-time actress Yalitza Aparicio), a young live-in domestic helper, and captures both her devotion to Cuarón’s family as well as detailing her personal problems. She becomes the focal point of the film in what becomes a collection of childhood memories about Cuarón’s family, the house he grew up in, and his neighborhood.

As the film’s writer, Cuarón wrote the script as a stream of consciousness. So, we see a combination of personal and social issues unfold in front of us. It seemed that because Cuarón allowed his emotions to play out, some of the scenes run long without tight editing. However, as the film unfolds it becomes its strength and not a liability.

Roma is meant to make us think. It’s an art film not an entertainment movie. Because Cuarón chose to film it in black and white, we gain more intimate details – and it lends itself toward recalling memory. After all, memory can be subjective – but it can also be objective, too. There is a lot of subtlety, a touch of humor, and plenty of honesty. Several things that are foreshadowed play out later in the movie such as an earthquake, a massive fire and the Corpus Christi massacre of 1971 that is shockingly detailed and restaged by Cuarón.

Roma opens in theaters just in time for the holidays and it’s sure to gain momentum as the awards season comes into full view. It will also be released simultaneously on Netflix, which will allow the film to reach a wider audience. However, Roma is best seen on a large screen and preferably in a classic, single-screen cinema like I saw it on a recent Sunday morning in northwest Washington, D.C. Its directionality of sound is truly amazing. Recently, one critic described Roma’s sound as a “bewilderingly intricate tapestry of distant street sounds, ambient noise and close-up conversations.” It’s a film that you can definitely watch with your ears, but you’ll want to see it with your eyes, too.

Andy Murray: “I tried my best.”

By all indications, tennis player Andy Murray put up a better fight against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut than anyone – the thousands of fans who crowded inside Melbourne Arena or the global TV audience that watched during all hours of the day and night – would have thought he could on this warm Australian summer Monday evening. It was opening night at the 2019 Australian Open.

Win or lose, it would be an emotional exit for the Scotsman. That’s because last Friday, Murray came into the interview room at Melbourne Park, teary-eyed and choked up with emotion, and revealed that he could no longer play with the pain in his hip he’s been experiencing while trying to play tennis. The former No. 1 had fallen to No. 230 in the world rankings because of his inactivity due to injury.

“Not feeling good. Been struggling for a long time,” said Murray, his shoulders slumped and the brim of his cap pulled down low. “I’m not sure I can play through the pain for another four or five months.”

Even still, as New York Times tennis correspondent Ben Rothenberg tweeted moments after Murray went down to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-2 first-round defeat, “his clock struck midnight before we thought it should be over.”

The No. 22 seed Bautista Agut won and will advance on in the Australian Open. But, as Rothenberg noted, Murray will be remembered for his “incredible effort; Andy has everything to be proud of.”

Following the fourth set tie-break, which Murray won 7-4, BBC5 Live’s David Law tweeted, “Whatever happens from here, over the last 10 minutes Andy Murray has turned this into an Andy Murray match.

“Fighting tooth and nail, making people care, making them live their lives through him, the ups and downs, the agony and ecstasy. Forget the titles, that’s Murray’s legacy.”

While Murray’s effort, which produced what “The Tennis Podcast” called “a rousing comeback in a match of unrivaled poignancy and significance” wasn’t quite enough for him to win, it provided everyone with hours of compelling drama. Although it was after 11 p.m. when the match ended, because of the 16-hour time difference between Melbourne and the U.S. east coast, for me I saw the exciting conclusion while digesting my morning breakfast.

Interviewed on the Melbourne Arena court shortly after his glorious defeat by his former coach-turned-broadcaster Mark Petchey, Murray searched long and deep for the right words to say that expressed his emotions. Although he was exhausted from his effort, he wasn’t sad or bitter. Instead, he composed his thoughts very carefully. Finally, he spoke, saying, “It was incredible. Thank you so, so much to everyone who’s come out tonight. ... I’ve loved playing here over the years. If this was my last match, amazing way to end. I gave literally everything I had.”

For now, Murray appears to be keeping his options open and hopes to play the final tournament of his career this summer at Wimbledon. However, that could all change in a matter of days if not hours.

During Murray’s post-match press conference that followed his four-hour nine-minute loss, he was asked by French tennis journalist Carole Bouchard what his tennis legacy should be. Murray’s answer, so brief but eloquent, was summed up in just four simple words: “I tried my best.”

Global trek: A writer senses a changing planet

Paul Salopek and his traveling companion
(Photo: By John Stanmeyer,
courtesy of nationalgeographic.org.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek is one migrant among many. He’s retracing our ancestors’ ancient migration on foot out of Africa and across the globe and writing about his adventures. His story has been shared by PBS NewsHour, the New York Times, NPR and Christiane Amanpour, among many.

As he begins the seventh year of his global trek, billed as the “Out of Eden Walk,” Salopek senses a changing planet.

As he wrote earlier this week on the National Geographic website (nationalgeographic.org) from Varanasi, India, it was exactly six years ago that he ducked out of a tent in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia, “clipped a pedometer to my belt, clapped on a cowboy hat, and began hiking to the Middle East on the Out of Eden Walk: a global ramble along the pathways of the first ‘Homo sapiens’ who dispersed out of Africa in the Stone Age.”

As Salopek recalled, by the desert dawn of January 10, 2013, some 60,000 people already had died in the distant war in Syria (a toll that now exceeds 400,000). “Barack Obama was soon going to be sworn in for a second term as U.S. president. And in Ethiopia, cell phone usage was exploding at the rate of 400 percent a year, though coverage hadn’t yet reached my desolate camp. I was using a satellite phone. It’s sudden ringing that silent morning startled me. It was an American radio host.”

The radio interviewer asked Salopek if he was still carrying his New Mexico house keys. The answer was no. The writer had sent them back years ago while he was walking in Cyprus. He no longer owns a house. He has a map. Home is on it everywhere.

“Ancient migrations have guided my walk’s route and storytelling across the world from Africa to my finish line, the tip of South America,” writes Salopek. “So it’s natural that some readers – the calling journalist included – tend to see my project as an antique and maybe ethereal endeavor, a monkish pilgrimage, a ‘journey out of time.’ But it’s been just the opposite.”

By Salopek’s estimate, over the past six years, he’s walked nearly 16 million footsteps from his starting point at a human fossil site in the wilderness in the Horn of Africa and his current location on the cultivated plains of northern India. His days, he says, “have been extraordinarily busy: crammed with incident and talkative people, immersed in modern problems and current events. In this way, the Out of Eden Walk has been more like a trek into a common future: After all, we’re walking together into the shared bottlenecks of the 21st century.”

According to Salopek, after walking for six years on his trek, “two broad impressions have emerged, at boot level of this vast world.”

First, he says, “we’re living in a golden age of human migration” as desert villagers by the millions try clawing their way into urbanized global economies.

“Even at the utterest ends of the Earth, I’ve found myself walking among striving people on the move. In the remote Afar Desert of Ethiopia, I stumbled across the bodies of African migrants who had died of thirst on the unforgiving desert trails to find jobs on the Arabian peninsula. I slept in sandy Jordanian fields among Syrian war refugees.”

As Salopek points out, “the UN (United Nations) estimates that more than a billion people – one in seven humans today – are voting like this with their feet, migrating both internally and across borders. Such numbers may alarm the more settled, richer corners of the globe. But history teaches that the forces behind human exodus are rarely contained by walls.”

Are you listening, President Trump?

“I sit dusty and sweating under a ficus tree, one walker among many,” writes Salopek, “watching busloads of India’s hardworking poor come and go ceaselessly. Sooner than later, the world must learn to harness the extraordinary energy behind mass aspiration.”

As for the second change, Salopek likens it to a tectonic shift, “a new geological weight over the horizon that tilts the surface of the planet east.”

For the past three years, Salopek has walked the old Silk Road from Turkey to India. In Central Asia, he writes, he’s seen societies transformed by Chinese economic power: “new highways, pipelines, communications grids, railroads. Part of this is the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, the most costly infrastructure project in the world today.”

Salopek writes that he’s unsure whether this will be the century of the Chinese. “But it is clear from hundreds of trailside conversations in shops and farms, in schools and offices that we collectively walked across a new Asian threshold some time ago. All roads may yet lead to Rome. But there are new Romes now. And the old ones have lost something of their glow.”

The writer looks forward to exploring these new questions, on foot of course, as he walks east, toward Myanmar, toward Yunnan.

“Whatever the case,” writes Salopek, “there is no need for fear. The key is stop and talk, and then to keep moving. To cross the next river. To look around the next mountain. Humankind’s ancestors did this, and they gave us the world.”

Salopek has a map. Home is on it everywhere. “And it will do.”

(The Out of Eden Walk is Paul Salopek’s multiyear, 21,000-mile storytelling odyssey across the globe in the footsteps of our ancestors. Join the #EdenWalk journey through social media on Facebook and Twitter.)

A Tuesday Night Memo: Thoughts on turning nine

My blog, “A Tuesday Night Memo,” turns nine later this month.

People who know me well know that I've been interested in writing, reporting and storytelling for a long time. So, it's only natural that I turned to blog writing because it gave me an opportunity to hone my writing skills and provided a forum for writing about things that truly interested me that I wanted to share with others.

Here’s a little history about my blog:

I started writing “A Tuesday Night Memo” on January 26, 2010, as a means for sharing musings about my life filled with music, sport, and urban travel, and to foster community with my friends, family and Facebook acquaintances. More recently, I added a Twitter profile, which has allowed me to reach a wider audience across the country and the world.

People who read my blog know that I'm passionate about music, sport, and urban travel. Additionally, I have used “A Tuesday Night Memo” as a vehicle for writing about art, food, fashion, religion and gardening – and, in the age of Trump, about politics. Before we moved to the east coast, sharing news and photos about our former Oakland, Calif., flower gardens at home always seem to generate great interest and enthusiasm. Maybe, it was the pretty shapes and colors of our flowers that others found appealing, especially since we could maintain a garden all year long.

Up to now, I have "blogged" 439 entries for “A Tuesday Night Memo,” which collectively have received more than 161,700 page views. Among many subjects I have written about, some of my favorites have been: my appreciation of tennis champion Roger Federer; how the city of Seattle fosters community through international cinema; a history of the world as seen through 100 objects; classical music conductor Gustavo Dudamel; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr; my music love affairs with Pink Martini and Elvis Costello; validating our travel through our photographs; and Jerry Seinfeld's Internet comedy Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Among my recent posts, I have written about the Golden Globe-winning film “Roma”; the humanitarian work of Washington, D.C. chef José Andrés; and recent books written by American historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham. Also, I have shared my interest in digital photography since beginning my blog, which has enabled me to illustrate many if not all of my posts with colorful visuals to match the words I've written.

The feedback I have received not only is very much appreciated, but I also find it very useful. Much of it has been positive, but sometimes it's also been critical. Whether good or bad, I've found the feedback readers provide to be a valuable learning tool. Occasionally, I like to sneak a look at my blog's statistics, which are the key indicators that show how many total "hits" my blog has received, which stories have been read the most, and what countries comprise the blog's readership. The numbers are modest but nevertheless interesting.

Here are a few fun facts about “A Tuesday Night Memo” I thought you might enjoy:

• Since my blog's debut, it has been read in dozens of countries, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, France, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Hong Kong – even Brazil, India, Vietnam, and Australia. The top five countries reading my blog include the U.S, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany and France. I hope Russia's interest in my blog has nothing to do with their wanting to hack me because of my occasional blog posts about President Donald Trump.

Looking ahead, two years since he was inaugurated, the Trump presidency continues to garner my interest and attention from time to time. How could it not? However, there's so much more to write about. Among things that I look forward to learning about include my continuing interest in exploring museums – and what we can learn from them. Also, I would like to explore the effect digital music and media have in connecting our world.

In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoy sharing my writing week in and week out, and I look forward to contributing more of my words and thoughts in what is shaping up to be another exciting year awaiting all of us.

Stay tuned!