BH.net: constantly changing directions

Of course we love the web. We exist on it. It also makes a journey from
Tennessee
to Ghana
to Israel
to Manhattan
to Long Island (well that one was simple)
to South Korea
to New Delhi
that much easier. No compass necessary.

1. Welcome Mike Marino, conisseur of the Memphis scene.

Jukebox blues and BBQ's explode with a rockabilly backbeat on the nighttime neon of Beale Street. Riverboats glide majestically along the Memphis skyline, marking Twain as they cut a path up and down the Mississippi River past the ghosts and history of civil rights and rock n' roll. Memphis, Tennessee, named after the Egyptian City of The Dead, is a myriad of ghosts, music, southern-fried history, entertainment and cuisine. Riverboat and carriage rides, riverfront parks, festivals, Graceland and the famed Sun Studios.

Read "Memphis Blues and BBQ" >>


2. Across the Atlantic Ocean and we arrive in Africa, where Leah McKellop informs us that...

The north of Ghana is spectacularly beautiful with its whitewashed mosques and arid streets. Walking around in midday is comparable to sticking your face into the path of a giant hairdryer, but somehow wearing scarves and long robes still sounds appealing. It must be the dry weather.

Read "Dry Weather" >>


3. Parting the Red Sea, crossing over to Israel, joining Jess Gill as...

The sound of sand shuffling while the sun beat down on us was all that could be heard. Some murmurs overlapped, of people talking, but mostly, it was quiet.

We walked, foot over foot, up a crag, down into small valleys. We tripped over roots, hard rocks that had yet to disintegrate into sand. The sand was a thousand different colors, every shade between yellow and brown and gray one could imagine. The sky blazed blue, almost gray when juxtaposed against mountains of yellow.

Read "Sand" >>


4. Back across the Atlantic! Tel Aviv, direct to JFK, still with Jess Gill:

Maybe it was the balding black guy with yellow teeth screaming in my ear as I walked past, that Jesus would be coming back and what are you doing to repent?

Maybe it was the rush of fashion and comfort, with hello nipples everywhere.

Read "Hello New York" >>


5. Maybe a weekend excursion, then, to Long Island. For old-time's sake. (For Dad.) Via Corinne Conover:

He used to take us out in the hatchback in the mornings on Sundays down to the marina. He didn't have a boat back then, so he would crank up the music, pack up some salami and provolone sandwiches on a kaiser bun with a few MGD's.

Read "Ode to D.C." >>


6. Back to the East, the Far East, where school children can teach us more than we might wish, thanks to Lori C. Brown:

A nagging feeling lives in my stomach, as if a beginner tap student’s floor is my nerves and she clanks away making intolerable noises, but I feel far too bad to tell her to stop and that she is awful, because it gives her way too much joy. So she continues without feeling any empathy and you’re left with the headache.

Thinking about the craziness that will unfold once I get out of the elevator and enter the hagwon (Korean for private school), I am less than thrilled.

Read "The Foreign Teacher and Her Students" >>


7. And a little to the west, to New Delhi, where new contributor Vineetha Mokkil witnesses something all these lands have in common (some more or less often) - rainy weather:

The sky darkened
Without prologue
The rain outside
Our hotel room
Like a requiem

Read "Rain" >>