You’ve Been Everywhere, I’ve Been Brokedown There

This is the first time I’ve tried the daily prompt. No promises that this will be worth reading or that I’ll ever do it again.

I commented on a friend’s post (linked below) that she skipped a few cities that I had heard her mention in the past. I realzied that was likely a deliberate choice, as those cities are not exactly welcoming to women or queers. For that reason, I’ve sorta split my list into two categories:

Plausible:

• Edinburgh (I hope to go in 2024 for the World Science Fiction Convention)
• Other European cities in general, particularly Stockholm
• Bangkok, because I love Thai food and would like to experience some of the other, uh,attractions
• Mumbai, because I love Indian food and Bollywood
• Casablanca and African cities across the continent, with no particular list yet
• Island nations – any of ’em!

Harder to do:

• Tehran, Cairo, Riyadh, Jerusalem, Moscow, Hong Kong, Dalian: Cultures I would love to experience, but regimes that I cannot endorse or risk myself in

Honestly, I think the prompt was too open ended. I need more constraints or parameters to give a useful answer. As a lifestyle in general, I will spend 55 minutes defining the problem before spending five minutes solving it, and in writing that is even more necessary.

Another perspective

My friend over at Stories That Are All True wrote about a few cities that struck me as obvious and left off a few that I expected to see. She included: Paris, New York City, Ho Chi Minh City, Seoul, Ensenada, Vancouver, Washington, and Helsinki.

I’m not criticizing her choices – just pondering the evolution of desires and the constraints of the format for sharing such thoughts.

Paris: an obvious choice, no notes. It is also on my list.

New York: another obvious one, but I’ve spent enough time there that visiting isn’t a huge draw. I’d rather go somewhere new… but it would be fun to live there for a period of time.

Ho Chi Minh City: I could dig it! I like americanized viet food.

Seoul: I’ve been there, and I’m kinda over it. I mean, I love Korea and would never turn down another visit, to the capitol or elsewhere, but I wanna go somewhere new. I will say that I prefer Korea over Japan, mostly because of the cost of living and attitude towards Americans (we’re more popular on the peninsula than the island). I love Japan too, don’t get me wrong.

Ensenada: I grew up in the Southwest and have spent time in Juarez, Tijuana, and Puerto Penasco. I’ve lost so much of my spanish but I was nearly bilingual for a while. Never been to Ensenada but would love to visit. Mexico is one of the places where I could see myself retiring…

Vancouver: I’ve never been to Canada. I wanna go, especially to Saskatchewan, which Corb Lund makes sound so beautiful. One of The Dead South guys is from there, too.

Washington: this is a trick answer from my friend, because she lives just barely outside the District in Maryland. I am also just barely outside the District, in Virginia. I’ve done plenty of the tourism, and I go frequently enough to be content. I will replace her Washington with my own Baltimore, which I am still learning to like.

I did comment on her post that she skipped Riyadh, Cairo, and Tehran, which I thought were all places she wanted to see. I recognize the constraints of time and blog reader attention, and there are very good reasons those three are not viable options for her, as I mentioned above.

Musical interlude

Much like my mother, I have a hard time not breaking into song when it seems relevant. In this case, a list of cities makes certain folks thing of ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’ by Johnny Cash. I rather like this response to that, ‘Brokedown Everywhere’ by Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sMAPMbX6LtQ%3Fsi%3DZsTfaK5Wo8KWhdu3