https://dictater2.journoportfolio.comRSS Feed for J. McMahon freelance writerenSat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://gowanusbooks.com/issues/32/Burmese_Days_McMahon.html‘Kyauktada was a fairly typical Upper Burma town, that had not changed greatly between the days of Marco Polo and 1910, and might have slept in the middle ages for a century more if it had not proved a convenient spot for a railway terminus…The population was about four thousand, including a couple of hundred Indians, a few score Chinese...Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://gowanusbooks.com/issues/32/Burmese_Days_McMahon.htmlhttps://www.worldnomads.com/explore/southeast-asia/thailand/exploring-chaloem-rattanakosin-national-parkThe trail to Tarn Lod Yai (big Tarn Lod Cave) is only a couple of kilometers long but the end is steep – around 2,625ft (800m) of elevation gain in the second 0.6mi (1km). At the top of a seemingly endless set of wooden steps winding their way up the jungly mountain, there’s a perfect spot to take in the view of the valley below and settle the heart rate before pushing on to the cavernous arch. Tarn Lod Yai is the highlight of Chaloem Rattanakosin National Park (aka Tarn Lod National Park) in K...Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://www.worldnomads.com/explore/southeast-asia/thailand/exploring-chaloem-rattanakosin-national-parkhttps://www.goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2020/10/12/waiting-for-a-year-of-change-how-thai-brewers-are-fighting-against-a-government-backed-beer-duopolyIt’s a warm, sticky night under a drizzling rain in Bangkok’s Pak Kret district, but that hasn’t kept a couple hundred beer enthusiasts from coming out to a dead-end alley running through a few swampish grass lots. The setting sounds unlikely, but they’re here for the long-awaited grand opening of a brewing center known as MITR. Food trucks ring the crowd, selling oversized burgers as well as more traditional Thai fare like grilled pork and spicy papaya salad. A live band inside churns out an ec...Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2020/10/12/waiting-for-a-year-of-change-how-thai-brewers-are-fighting-against-a-government-backed-beer-duopolyhttps://www.whetstonemagazine.com/journal/chasing-massamanAs the dish spread throughout Thailand, people adapted the recipe to their local tastes with their traditional ingredients. When traveling the country, I seek out a good massalamen spot not only as comfort food, but to find out what regional tweaks have been made. I’ve had the curry served thick as curd and thin as broth. I’ve had a dark, goat massaman almost the density of molasses filled with raisins, nuts and ginger in the far northwest province of Mae Hong Son, just on the border with Myanma...Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://www.whetstonemagazine.com/journal/chasing-massamanhttps://www.remotelands.com/travelogues/surfing-uae/The world’s largest man-made wave pool, designed by champion surfer Kelly Slater on Hudayriat Island in Abu Dhabi, is supplying some of the globe’s most consistent breaks. One of the world’s most legendary surfers, Kelly Slater has ridden some gnarly breaks over the years. The multiple World Surf League champion was in his element as he took to the waters in Abu Dhabi last year to ride some of the most consistent waves in the world. The American had not found an anomalous surf mecca i...Thu, 22 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.remotelands.com/travelogues/surfing-uae/https://www.adirondacklife.com/2023/11/09/the-wigwam/Illustration by Mark Wilson In the late 1970s my parents bought a summer cabin on Fourth Lake. Calling it a summer cabin is high praise because it was little more than a shack. But it was only a five-minute run from the front door to the lakefront for five-year-old me and that made me look forward to our time there. I still loathed the drive. Once we were in the car—the station wagon or Suburban or whatever land-ship my father happened to own at the time, always second-hand, always a wrench turn...Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://www.adirondacklife.com/2023/11/09/the-wigwam/https://observer.com/2023/10/vincent-prices-least-famous-role-art-curator-for-sears/In 1966, Sears and Roebuck, then America’s most popular retailer, hired the original Master of Menace, Vincent Price, to sell fine art to the public. Price, best known to audiences of the time as the star of numerous B-level horror movies, was not only the frontman of the retailer’s fine art line but also the curator of an art collection that, perhaps surprisingly, included works by Old Masters like Rubens, celebrity artists like Picasso and rising American artists like Georgia O’keefe alongside...Sat, 28 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0100https://observer.com/2023/10/vincent-prices-least-famous-role-art-curator-for-sears/https://www.remotelands.com/travelogues/trunk-route/Tiny Kui Buri National Park is one of the best places in Thailand to spot elephants and other native wildlife in their natural element. Down a ridge and across a small river, a big elephant stood in a clearing along the bank. Our guide told us this majestic female was the matriarch of a large family and was calling them out of the hills around us. A hundred meters away, the first wild gaur I ever saw stood at the tree line grazing like a water buffalo on steroids. There was a dozen ot...Thu, 03 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0100https://www.remotelands.com/travelogues/trunk-route/https://www.raft.is/p/open-canon-albert-pinkham-ryderAs a young man, I knew exactly where all three of A. P. Ryder's paintings hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. These pieces, diminutive even for easel paintings, were like three odd jewels almost hidden in a corner of the American wing. I would go there to study these tortured-looking paintings. They were like nothing else in the museum, their skins cracked and oozing oil from thick brushstrokes, with paint globs in some parts and scraped down to the gesso in others.  I didn’t kno...Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0100https://www.raft.is/p/open-canon-albert-pinkham-ryderhttps://statesider.us/a-borrowed-ride-and-a-slice-of-pie/Thousands of miles from home, caring for his father during his final days, John McMahon got a surprising offer from a neighbor he barely knew: a ride on a beautiful high-end motorcycle and slice of pie that just might change his life. A long motorcycle ride can be a cure-all. It’s a great release for pent-up worry or fear or stress. To get away from traffic onto a twisting road with no lights or stop signs. Roads where the bike can wind out in the upper gears and you can take corners from the...Mon, 30 May 2022 00:00:00 +0100https://statesider.us/a-borrowed-ride-and-a-slice-of-pie/https://mugglehead.com/in-the-land-of-the-thunder-dragon-only-the-pigs-get-high/It was my Bhutanese tender who pointed down from where we had our lunch one day, at 3,800 meters surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks, to the green expanse spread throughout the valley. “You see all that? That’s marijuana, ganja,” he said, acting out the international pantomime for hitting a joint. Weed grows wild in vast amounts throughout Bhutan. But unlike every other Himalayan culture, the people don’t smoke it, eat it or use it to heal. Instead, they feed it to the pigs. As the tiny kin...Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://mugglehead.com/in-the-land-of-the-thunder-dragon-only-the-pigs-get-high/https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20190627-the-850m-long-bridge-uniting-a-townThis website is produced by BBC Global News Ltd, a commercial company that is part of BBC Studios, owned by the BBC (and just the BBC). No money from the licence fee was used to create this website. The money we make from it is re-invested to help fund the BBC’s international journalism. This website is produced by BBC Global News Ltd, a commercial company that is part of BBC Studios, owned by the BBC (and just the BBC). No money from the licence fee was used to create this website. The money w...Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0100https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20190627-the-850m-long-bridge-uniting-a-town