I\u2019m a journalist\/author taking a year to live and work in American traveling carnivals coast to coast.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be posting about this subculture of carnies, big rigs and the dramas of the road life all year.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m counting on the unforeseen. The blog will cover it as I live the ups and downs of this wild ride.<\/p>\n
The end result will be a book along the lines of Ted Conover\u2019s early work and what Paul Salopek is doing now with his \u201cOut of Eden Walk.\u201d There\u2019ll be more here than just carnival ramblings.<\/p>\n
It will be immersion journalism but seeking the bigger themes running through Americana, dipping into history, academic studies and related subjects. I aim to include pictures and films.<\/p>\n
This blog is preparation for the book but it will be a series of vignettes, what kind I am not sure either. But as Ray Bradbury might have said, something this way comes.<\/p>\n
Best,
\nMichael Sean Comerford==========================================
\nABOUT AUTHOR
\nI know a bit about the road. I\u2019ve hitchhiked much of American, eastern Canada, Eastern\/Western Europe, Middle East and North Africa.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been on three cross-country bicycle trips from Chicago to Washington D.C., New Orleans (in winter) and Seattle. In Seattle, I threw my bicycle and packs onto a freight train and rode back with hobos and farm workers.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been to more than 90 countries. I swam the headwaters of the Nile, survived a hippo attack, studied Buddhism in the Himalayas and danced an Irish jig in the Amazon. Perhaps most importantly, I\u2019m the former heavyweight champion of University College Cork, circa. 1980.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve worked with the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Moscow Times, Budapest Sun, Budapest Business Journal and several Internet publications.<\/p>\n