The Everywhere blog

It began innocently enough. And it began in our offices. And once it got started, the Great Sandwich War of 2008 left a delicious taste in our mouths.

Actually, it's not a war at all. Rather, it's more of a quest to find the Best Sandwich in the Entire World.

Not long ago, I decided that the xiu mai Vietnamese banh mi sandwich (shown above) from the Saigon Sandwich Shop in San Francisco (shown above) was the best sandwich I'd ever tasted in my life. I've traveled a lot, and I've eaten a lot of sandwiches, so I'm pretty comfortable asserting that the xiu mai from SF's the Saigon Sandwich Shop is the best in the world (if not the entire universe).

But there are those who disagree. For example, my esteemed colleague Paul is very partial to the fried chicken sandwiches from Bakesale Betty's, in Oakland. He even says they're the best sandwiches in the entire world. (I say: Feh!)

In any event, this is the kind of war where everyone wins, so let's bring it on: If you've got a nomination for the Best! Sandwich! in the Entire! World! (if Not the Entire Galaxy) please post a photo of it, and create a Place for the store where it's sold, on the website. (Please tag your photos with the word "sandwich")

May the best sammie win!

The National Park Service is considering a plan to open hotels on Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay. What will it be like for guests? Let the bad jokes begin!

Check-out time will be 15 years to life. Each room will have a private bath, but drop the soap at your own risk. Activities will include yoga, nature hikes, and stamping out license plates.

Ha! Now that we've gotten that out of our system... The current Alcatraz tour is one of those attractions that seems touristy at first glance, but in fact it's excellent. The site is fascinating, and the guided narration is very well produced. And given the views from the island, it's certainly a superb location for some lodgings. The plan is just in the concept phase, but according to today's San Francisco Examiner:

"The huge and dilapidated barracks building between the prison and the pier would become a new island centerpiece. Plans show that parts of the former barracks building would serve as a hotel or hostel for overnight visitors, while other sections might house shops, a post office, meeting and function rooms, classrooms and restaurants.

"Outlying buildings would be rebuilt or gutted and refurbished for use as special-events venues, restrooms, kitchens and exhibition spaces, plans show.

"While the first proposal is focused on improving visitor amenities, a second focuses on boosting ecotourism to the island and a third would have visitors “immersed in ... the federal penitentiary’s history” by recreating an atmosphere of confinement and observation, according to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area proposal.

(Alcatraz photo by Everywhere member Christina Hagle)

Hellloooooooooooo Race Fans!

if you're a fan of motorsports, you probably know that the 92nd running of the Indy 500 will take place this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana, USA. If you're not a fan of motorsports, you may be wondering, What's the big deal?

The Indy 500 is one of those spectacles that really must be seen, as words hardly do it justice. By all means, I encourage you to add it to you "Things to See Before You Die" list. I've already checked it off mine, because way back in 1995, Wired Magazine sent me to Indy to cover the race. Here's how I described it:

Each year, some 400,000 race fans and revelers descend upon the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the last Sunday in May like swarms of Middle American pilgrims completing the hajj to the mecca of motorsports. The fans come from all over the country - selling out hotels and motels all over town, parking their RVs bumper-to-bumper in the American Legion field just down the street from George Seymour's house, and creating long lines that zigzag out the front doors of liquor stores for hours on end. Ask a group of them why they've come to Indy and you're likely to hear the same answer shouted back at you time after time: "It's the need for speed!" - as if the answer to the question is so self-evident that you might as well have asked why bears sh*t in the woods.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a veritable temple of speed - an unimaginably huge, two-and-a-half-mile rectangular oval comprised of four quarter-mile turns, two long straightaways five-eighths of a mile each, and two one-eighth mile "short chutes" that bridge the turns. On a hot day, the far ends of the track dissolve into shimmering ponds of heat that disappear somewhere just over the horizon. And yet, despite those incredible speeds, the straights are only 50 feet wide and the turns are banked at a paltry 9 degrees. Put it all together, line both sides of the track with canyons of grandstands, and you end up with a facility that resembles a cross between a Roman amphitheater and an asphalt-paved particle accelerator.

Alas, I won't be attending this year. But if you go, please take a few photos, and submit them to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the Everywheremag website. We'll see you at the finish line!

(Thank you, Lizzie Morrison, for contributing the most excellent photo shown above!)

Look what the delivery guy brought us today: a few boxes packed with hot-off-the-presses copies of Everywhere 03!

I know you probably expect me to say that this is our best issue yet, but... really, honestly, this is our best issue yet! And the truth is, we have the Everywhere community to thank for that.

That magnificent cover image? It was taken by Henk Goossens, and we love how well it represents the idea of Slow Travel. Inside, the featured themes for Issue 03 were MIami, Copenhagen, Slow Travel, and Art Tourism. The submissions we received were just fantastic.

Here's the opening spread to the Miami feature, with the stunning photograph by Heather Jacobsen:

This layout from the Copenhagen feature talks about how bike-friendly the city is, and how it got to be that way:

Here's a layout from Slow Travel, all about getting from here to there by river, with pieces by Hilary Heuler, Julien Simery, and Chris Bamber:

Art Tourism turned out great as well, as you can see from this layout, which features pieces by Jeff Marlow, Jon Brack, and Will Hindmarch:

Elsewhere in the magazine, Audrey Kanekoa-Madrid submitted this gorgeous story about Arizona's Antelope Slot Canyon:

Liz Bogus took us on a Trip to New Zealand to explore where some of the most famous scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed:

For our "My Obsession" page, Aron Danburg shared his meticulous documentation of the airline meals he's been served while jetting over Asia... for better and for worse:

And just in time for roadtrip season, Sloan Schang comes through with his Essentials tips on how to pack a vintage Volkswagen Westfalia camper for trans-America travel:

That's just a sampling, of course... there's so much more in Issue 03, and we hope that you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed producing it. If you're a subscriber (hint! hint!), keep an eye on your mail slot in the weeks ahead for the issue to arrive. Otherwise, look for Issue 03 at Barnes and Noble or Borders bookstores and a major newsstand near you.

Most of all, thanks to everyone in the Everywhere community for all your submissions. Next up: Issue 04, with our featured themes of Barcelona, the Jersey Shore, Festivals, and National Parks. Bring it on!

What makes a city perfect for a visiting traveler? What gives a place that special magic that makes it so memorable? I'd never thought of that before, but Everywhere contributor Becky Timbers most certainly has. Becky just posted a clever article about the elements of a city that combine to make it perfect. Her Top 10 list of Perfect City attributes includes:

1) No cars

2) Farmers markets galore

3) A hip and trendy central area with no motorized vehicles

4) Trees, flower, shrubs, and more

5) Policemen on horseback

6) No trash

7) Theater or a cultural center

8) Good eats

9) Close proximity to a natural playground

10) Chill, but mellow nightlife

Becky explains all this in more detail in her article, and she's also opened the subject for debate. What do you think makes a city perfect? And what Perfect Cities have you visited? Tell us about your favorites in the comments for The Perfect City.

PS: I couldn't help but notice that Peter Barnes just submitted an article about a little-known town outside Barcelona that has many of Becky's Perfect City qualities (although no word about the cops on horseback). Check out Peter's story about Girona, Spain
.

(Image above: The town center in Girona Spain, photo by Peter Barnes)

Now that the complete pdf of Issue 02 is available online, it's easy for members of the Everywhere community to see how the magazine — and your contributions — came together. And while the pdf pales in comparison to the print version, we're glad to know that it's already making a splash. Check out this comment we received today, from a reader who (for obvious reasons) must remain anonymous:

"I'm so in love with this magazine -- in the valley-girl-cum-90s-boy-band type way. Just tucked in with Issue 2 and it is absolutely fabulous."

This, like, TOTALLY made our day.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Steve Black, the host of an Internet program called Periodical Radio that's produced by The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. Steve wanted to talk about Everywhere — why we created it, how we designed it, how we work with our community (in other words, you!) to produce it, and where we want the magazine to go as it evolves.

The conversation was recorded, and it's now online, available as both as a podcast (er, Toddcast?) and as a text transcript. Although it feels odd to quote myself, here's how I summarized our progress thus far:

"It’s an ongoing experiment. [The Everywhere] community is relatively new, and the kind of submissions we’re getting are completely encouraging. We shipped the second issue largely with user submitted content, and that was fantastic, also very encouraging. We’re just very excited to see where it’s going to go. The job here is to be more of an orchestrator than to really lead the community. We’re excited to see where people are going to take us, what kind of places they want to go, what kind of places they’re going to discover. The opportunity to put those stories into print is pretty exciting."

Alas, I fear I may have set a new record for the number of times one person can use variations of the word "excited" in one paragraph. Hopefully you get the idea. But if you want to learn more about how we create Everywhere, and the philosophy behind it, by all means check out the Toddcast podcast and transcript at Periodical Radio.

We're getting a lot of great submissions for Everywhere Issue 03, but if you've got anything that you'd like to contribute about our featured places -- Miami and Copenhagen -- it's time to get going: The deadline for Issue 03 submissions is Thursday, March 13, 2008.

That's right... there are just two weeks remaining until we close these themes, and we need your help. Been to stylish Copenhagen? Had fun in the sun in MIami? Submit your articles and photos (with detailed captions), and they could end up in print as Issue 03 goes into production.

HINTS:
We'd love to receive an article about fun places to visit along Calle Ocho in Miami, as well as some recommendations for good hotels both in Miami proper and South Beach.

In Copenhagen, a guide to some of the city's best design shops would be fabulous, as would articles and photos about the Christiania free town.

And don't forget to look at our tips on how to take travel photos for publication and how to write for Everywhere.

Remember, the deadline is March 13. That's soon! As in, "Ladies and gentlemen, Issue 03 of Everywhere is now boarding; passengers should proceed immediately to the contribution departure gates."

(IMAGE: South Beach, Miami, by Flavio Matangrano.)

Last week Paul offered some tips on how to get your travel photos published in Everywhere, so this week I thought I'd follow up with some thoughts on what works best on the prose side of the equation — in other words, what you can do to make it more likely that your stories will get published.

TIP 1: Observe Magazine Architecture 101
When it comes to selecting which pieces to publish in a magazine -- any magazine -- all stories are not created equal. If you look closely at the structure of most magazines (including Everywhere), you'll notice that they actually consist of several different sections, each of which tells different kinds of stories in different kinds of ways. The front section, for example, is often about shorter pieces that are easy to skim. The middle of the magazine is usually reserved for longer, feature-length pieces. And so on.

Readers know this intuitively: It's how you know what you're looking at as you casually flip through the pages of a magazine. Nevertheless, it's astonishing how often writers (both amateurs and the pros) forget this most basic fact of magazine design. Yes yes, everyone wants to write feature stories. But there are relatively few feature pieces in any given magazine, so competition for these coveted slots tends to be more intense. On the other hand, there are literally dozens of publication opportunities scattered throughout the other sections of a magazine, and those slots often go begging because writers don't give them enough attention. To get published, it helps to notice how a magazine is structured, and to tailor your piece to fit within a specific section.

TIP 2: Write for Specific Sections of Everywhere
There's no other travel magazine in the world like Everywhere, because Everywhere is made from community contributions submitted on this website. It's pretty radical, actually. Yet the architecture of the magazine itself is relatively conventional. (If you haven't seen the print version, be sure check out the pdf of Issue 01.) Here's a quick overview of the sections in each issue, and what they're all about:

Points of Interest: Short pieces about specific places, accompanied by lots of photos. Almost any short article about a specific place will work here, and if you've ever written a blog post, you probably have what it takes to crank out a a Points of Interest story. Notice that there are also some recurring themes within Points of Interest, including Hotel Window (window views from the world's most interesting hotels), Local Flavor (sampling local cuisine), Jet Set Weekend (exotic weekend getaways), and Grand Openings (Brand-new destinations, hotels, restaurants, or attractions).

Postcards: These are "travel photos with a story to tell." Basically, this is a section of fun travel snapshots, each of which must include an extended caption telling the story of what's going on in the photo. To write for this section, be sure to include a detailed caption with your photo, describing your experience at the place shown.

Trips: These are loose itineraries of five or six specific destinations within a place or region, all of which are united by a common theme, and each of which includes a photo. So, for example, "Ghost Towns in Arizona" could be a Trip, if you'd visited five or six ghost towns there, and taken a photo of each. Or, "Flea Markets of Paris" could be a Trip. So could "Cliffdiving Spots in Acapulco." The basic structure of a Trip is: One paragraph introduction, plus five or six destinations within the region, with a paragraph on each telling us what it's all about and why we should visit. Once again, it's essential to include a photograph of each of your five or six destinations.

Features: Every issue of Everywhere includes four features: Two featured places, and two featured themes. (For issue 03, for example, the featured places are Copenhagen and Miami, while the featured themes are Art Tourism and Slow Travel.) Almost anything can work in an Everywhere feature -- a great photo with a detailed caption, long-form essays, shorter comments (in the form of Postcards submitted to specific Places on the everywheremag.com website), photo essays, and so on. Basically, when we do a feature, we look at all the material that's been submitted, pick the best, and then figure out a way to make it all work together -- sort of like a mosaic. From that mosaic, we seek to create a representation of a place or a theme.

My Obsession: This page is devoted to the particular things one notices while traveling, and the ways in which we document those things. On page 82 of Issue 01, for example, Esther Dyson wrote about her obsession with swimming, and how that leads her into hotel pools all over the world. Do you like taking photos of taxis all around the world? Are you fascinated by the graphics found on magnetic hotel key cards? Do you like to sample convenience store snack foods in distant foreign lands? This is the place to let your personal travel enthusiasms run wild.

Essentials: This is an open-ended category devoted to how-to travel articles (loosely defined). Truth is, everyone is an expert about something, and this is the place to share you unique expertise. HINT: Essentials pieces often work well as bulleted lists, step-by-step directions, or annotated graphics. (See below for more tips on how to think graphically when writing a how-to article.)

Tried and True: Do you have favorite tools, services, tunes, books, or pieces of technology that make traveling more enjoyable? This is the place to tell us about them. These aren't reviews, really -- we only want endorsements of things things that you already own and already love. Your personal enthusiasm is the most important part of a Tried and True piece.

TIP 3: Focus on the Particular
As a general rule, we prefer pieces that focus in on a particular aspect of a place, rather than survey-type pieces that provide a broad overview of a destination. The particulars are always more interesting, and they provide a more useful (and colorful) perspective for understanding a place. After all, that's how most of us describe our travels when we talk about them with friends or family; instead of speaking in broad generalizations, we often focus in on one particular place, or story, or experience as a way of conveying what the place a whole was like. Travel writing works much the same way. Start from the particular -- the unique way the citizens of Tokyo give directions, or the simple pleasures of driving in Los Angeles, or the oh-so-French way the man at the coffee shop in Paris held his cigarette -- and then use those particulars to convey the overall character of a place.

TIP 4: Think Graphically
As if to prove the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, readers love big, graphic stories with small text annotations explaining what's going on in the picture. For example, I've gotten lots of comments about the "What's Inside Dan Gilmore's Gadget Bag" piece that appeared on page 88 of Everywhere 01. Likewise, Yusuf Özkızıl submitted a fabulous article for Issue 02 about how to make sense of the various ingredients that go into a typical Turkish breakfast. (As you'll see, it looks super on the printed page.) We love stories like that, so if your piece is about a topic that's better seen than described, go for it: Let your photo do the talking, and then use small bits of text to provide additional detail about what's going on in the photo.

TIP 5: Tell Us More, Not Less
If you've always wanted to be a travel writer, you've come to the right place. Don't be intimidated. Don't feel like you need to emulate Rudyard Kipling, Ian Buruma, John McPhee, or Pico Iyer; instead, just relax and let your natural voice come out. Everywhere is about passion and authenticity, and we're confident you have lots of that. The most important thing is to provide plenty of detail in your articles, essays, and photo captions, so that we can get a sense of *all* the insight and experience you have -- rather than trying to fill in the blanks on our own. That's another way of saying, we'd rather have you write pieces that are too long rather than too short. It's easy for us to shorten a story if it's too long, but if you don't provide sufficient detail, we may never know why your story deserves to be published in the first place.

Okay, hope that helps. If you have any other questions about writing for Everywhere, just ask. (If you're logged in to Everywhere, feel free to send me a message here.) I'm happy to help, and I like nothing more than giving you the opportunity to see your name in print.

Over at Flickr, John Mueller has created a nice montage celebrating the publication of his fabulous photo of Shibuya Crossing as a two-page spread in the debut issue of Everywhere. John writes:

A little while ago, I was contacted by someone at this start-up magazine they were going to call Everywhere Magazine,which, like JPG Magazine, is composed of ordinary people going to slightly extraordinary places and photo documenting them. They found me and wanted to use my photo of Shibuya crossing in the magazine. They even said they would pay me for using it in advance which is great, not because of how much, but because they are a legitimate publication that pays for the photos of it's contributors.

Thanks John! I love seeing things like this, because giving talented writers and photographers the opportunity to see their stuff in print is one of those perks that makes it fun to come to work each day. You can be next of course... all you have to do is contribute.