During a seven hour cruise from the northern reaches of Liberia to the capital over horrific roads, our Liberia research manager suggests a new project theme song: Brandy’s This Long Distance is Killing Me. Cheesiness notwithstanding, team support was unanimous.
When you are stuck in the mud of a new logging road, good fortune is suddenly having a bulldozer round the corner ahead of you.
To my eternal disappointment, I can’t read in a car or bus without inducing nausea. You would think iPods would be no problem, but here is the puzzle: listening to music, I feel fine; listening to This American Life makes me queasy. This is no reflection on Ira Glass—all spoken podcasts did the same. Is there some weird theory of the inner ear and brain that I have just inadvertently discovered?
Speaking of road trips, I’m currently en route to northern Uganda. More Ugandan field notes to follow…
3 Responses
it's all psycho-somatic….road queasiness, IIRC, is caused by your body moving north-south while your eyes move east-west [or vice-versa]
this gem was passed on to me during a bus trip with a Vice Principal who sat sideways on the bus so as to align his eye movement with his body movement
–your cousin Brian
I hate road trips but I had to do one once and my tire blew out so for anyone who is going on a road trip soon here is a video that could help in case you have to change your tire http://www.howcast.com/videos/114840-How-To-Change-a-Flat-Tire
At least there ARE roads. Stop complaining. :)
I can only listen to podcasts on subways and buses. Spoken word in trains and cars make me queasy as well. No idea why.