You've Reached Bastable!
Welcome to the Digital Me.
The madmen have seen
the moon in the
window;
they are running
to the roof
with ladders
--Rumi
· Ever wish you
could leave it all behind, board a plane, and go on a trip around the world?
Well, in April of 1998, that's exactly what I did. Armed with only a backpack and a vague idea of things I'd like to see, I quit my job and left. Eighteen months, 39 countries, and a life's savings...
While I travelled, I updated this site with my whereabouts and some photos. If you wanna, click on these colorful words and read all about it.
Hey, everyone!
I am Bastable--but my friends and family insist I'm Jason Cochran. In magazine writing, I have a number of other pen names. On AOL Messenger, I'm bastablejc. I subscribe to way too many magazines and I'm always buying books that I don't have time to read. It's very confusing. I like it.
So, am I just some dropout who couldn't cut it in the real world and decided to wander the earth? Nope! Call me inquisitive.
Before I conquered my first Lifelong Dream, this was the score: I was a reporter at Entertainment Weekly magazine in New York City. I was also a member of the Evil Empire as the theater and cabaret critic at Microsoft's New York Sidewalk site. That link is now dead. Writing in the modern world is so impermanent. I'm also a lyricist.
I spent time after that writing and researching the questions for the inexplicable
nationwide quiz sensation Who Wants
to Be a Millionaire. I had a daily column about late night television
on Inside.com (what's that sound? it's
the Web boom). My Real Job is as a senior editor for Arthur Frommer's Budget
Travel magazine, which is online at http://budgettravel.MSNBC.com (I write
lots of stuff for that site, too). Maybe you saw me on CNN with an earpiece
in?
It stands to reason that I'm a rabid traveler (these photos will prove it, as will these other photos from my World Tour). The picture a little above, with me at a picnic table, was taken after a long day's hike in the Himalaya, and the one with me in the grass is in Hyde Park, Sydney. This one was at Angkor Wat in northern Cambodia.
|
GO HERE FIRST, AND WORRY ABOUT ME LATER: |
Ralph Nader oughtta be president! Fuck those two silver spoon daddies' boys! Hit Nader's site! And make the corporations stop dodging their income tax while you and me are scrimping just for health care! I'm voting for the man. He's responsible for hundreds of thousands of saved lives a year. That's reason enough.
McDonald's sucks! They'd sue your grandpa if his name was Ronald. Stop rewarding lawyer terrorism by corporations!
Mags I read and love: In These Times, a fantastic independent watchdog. FAIR is an excellent group that corrects the many factual transgressions of TV "journalists" like 20/20's John Stossel. And my personal fave, the lithe and scathing This Modern World.
Things that'll keep you off the streets:
- First, on my site:
It started on 15 April 1998, and went until Halloween, 1999! Here
are some details from my first World Tour,
which comes complete with real photographs
transmitted from the front!- Hooray! I've put up some of my favorite pre-tour photographs that I've taken! What a great web site this is. (Just give it a sec to load.)
- Henry Ford a Nazi? Edison a mobster? Uncover heaps of true stories about hidden history in my Land of Disturbing Things. Just because it's on the web doesn't mean it's not true. A guaranteed eye-opener!
- These days, even Robert Goulet is wired. Spend a rainy afternoon weeping tears of joy with my terrifying collection of Cheesy B-Level Celebrities' Vanity Pages!
- And on other people's sites:
- Here are a few sites that should please you. New Internationalist talks about how countries can't seem to get along. Adbusters Culture Jammers is lighter stuff, spoofing ad campaigns. Meanwhile, the London-based Campaign Against Arms Trade, employer of my dear friend Robin, keeps an eye on destruction. It's based in Britain, where apparently such things are still considered important. And finally, Corporate Watch should be self-explanatory.
- This is a personal favorite: The Museum of Bad Art. Art so awful that it's inspiring. Curated (out of alley dumpsters and yard sales, mostly) by some devoted patrons of fine arts in Boston. I even have their wall calendar.
- Yes, there was a Colossus of Rhodes before Bill Clinton went to college. Inhale The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Don't you want to be able to name them?
- Like its equally tart namesake, The Onion will reduce you to happy tears.
- I guess I'm not the only person who grew up in adoration of the '80s TV show You Can't Do That On Television
- Carol Lay's "Story Minute" is astonishing. In nine quick panels, Lay tosses out brilliant, enigmatic morality novellas. Check out this week's mesmerizing tale.
- I attended Northwestern University for my undergrad degree, and loved every minute of it. Of course it has a site. I'm also a proud graduate of New York University's elite, tuition-sucking Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, which posted this spiffy information page.
- My erstwhile collaborator Brendan Milburn, and his squeeze Valerie Vigoda's have a funkerific band, groovelily.
- Your hunger for entertainment gossip (and may that hunger be slight) can be sated by one of these dishy sights: Mr. Showbiz, E! Entertainment Channel Online (with RAM-hogging Java on startup, so be careful), and for the hard-core, Variety.
- Be the first to know! Breaking news! Bad pizza! Lonely Planet!! Cool Site of the Day!!! Crazy doomsday cult!!!! 777 Film!!!!!
· 
I'm slowly getting this. Totally self-taught, thanks very much.
This site was given lavish attention as recently as 23 May 2003.
This site was mostly made with SimpleText. Proud of me?
E-mail:
I used to have it up here before spamming became a sport. Let's just say
that you can figure it out from the URL.
Remember: The 10,000th visitor gets a free box of fudge!
