photo credit: joseph m oland

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Sling that pack around your shoulders, folks, because it’s time to hit the road with BrinkGuide!

To all of you travel enthusiasts – be it for business, leisure, on a budget, or otherwise – we’re happy to announce the launch of our San Francisco and Sicily editions of the BrinkGuide, an entirely new animal in the world of mobile travel guides.

Our dedicated team of writers have focused on what’s beneath the surface, rather than waste their time on the superficial, the kitsch, the familiar, and the phony. There are places that we know from movies and books, and we’re not in the business of beating dead horses – we all know what the Golden Gate Bridge looks like, and it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge to locate it (it’s in the guide for your convenience, of course, but you get the idea). No, our people are interested in the marginal, the scintillating, and the extraordinary. We take pride in finding – and reporting on – the stellar small businesses that give cities their real character. We’ve paid special attention to the hidden alley cafes, the excellent taco stands, the unique vintage shops, and all of the other wonderful and oft-overlooked locales that make these towns so wonderful. We now know where the cool kids go for great live music, which restaurants have the best pasta, and where the underground clubs are that try so hard to hide themselves from the traveling hipster hordes. We bet you’d like to know, too.

Now you can live like the locals live with this perfect inside-track.

The past few months have been grueling, to say the least. But all of the hard work, the round-table discussions, the sweat, and the tear-stained keyboards have all begun to pay off. Beta-testing for the BrinkGuide iPhone App has been completed, as has the review process through the folks at Apple, Inc..  The product is now live and ready for download, and damn does it look sweet. If you’re new to town, don’t feel very plugged in, or plan on visiting in the near future, it’s the perfect time to test-drive the most inclusive, unique, and stylish travel app on the market.

San Francisco and Sicily now, and so many more wonderful cities in the [very] near future.

Because BrinkGuide is largely written by connected & uncompromisingly opinionated locals, chances are pretty high that you won’t find these kinds of places in the typical travel literature that’s out there. Because we weren’t hired by the Tourism Board of San Francisco, or some similar agency abroad, you won’t have to feel like you’re being jerked around by local institutions and their specific agendas.  If you’re travel budget is non-existent and you’re using your hitchhiker’s thumb to get from place to place, or if you’re a trustafarian flying first class using Daddy’s credit card, BrinkGuide can point you in the right direction. We’re the best game in town at finding the cool spots to spend your time – and that’s a fact.

Visit BrinkGuide online, or check out the iTunes Store and take a look – we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

photo credit: joseph m oland

Cliché time, ladies and gentlemen – nothing that’s worth doing is ever easy.

Our people are out there. They sit patiently – at cafes and restaurants, hotel lobbies and theaters – gears grinding and pens in hand, itching to deliver the goods. In more than a dozen cities, and growing, our army of intrepid editors is gathering the information so that you don’t have to. If there’s a renegade art collective in downtown Austin with ground-breaking wares or an virtually unknown café down that obscure alley in Bernal Heights with free wi-fi, a friendly staff, and epic pastries, you’d better believe that we’ll find it.

Not only will we find it, but we’ll polish off a fresh appraisal, clean and honest.

Our people aren’t afraid to lay things out as they are. Certainly, the tendency is to always say nice things – hell, we’ve been trained since childhood to keep our yaps shut otherwise. This is why most city guides are unutterably useless to serious adventure-seekers, weathered travelers, and the otherwise ‘plugged-in’ denizens of these fine towns. The fact of the matter is that sometimes a bad review is in order – take for example a submission by one of our most trusted San Francisco contributors:

Bus Stop Pizza – Haight Ashbury

“You know, it’s pretty damn hard to ruin a slice of pizza – dough, sauce, cheese, and there you have it. Pretty simple, right? That being said, you may want to take some extra caution here at ‘Bus Stop Pizza,’ because this stuff isn’t nearly as appetizing as a pile of salty garbage. The name isn’t so clever, either. In fact, do yourself a favor and visit your local bus station. Take in a healthy eye-full of the wretched humanity of it all – endless lines, indecipherable voices growling out of loud speakers, and walking stomachs, milling about like haggard ghosts. Gaze at the detritus, the filth and agony, and then you might have an idea of how god-awful this pizza really is. If you don’t believe me, head on over, where ruining pizza and murdering your good mood is the name of the game.”

That poor pitiful man – having to endure all of that, just so you don’t have to.

All of the glowing venues rise to the top, of course, and then the world doesn’t seem so grim. With their well-developed senses of humor and buoyant attitudes, we’re elated to work with such interesting and creative individuals. And we’re always on the look-out for more.

We spend a goodly amount of time in front of these cursed computer screens. It’s beginning to get hotter out here in our Tucson desert headquarters, so perhaps there’s no real reason to complain. It benumbs us at times, however, this monumental task we’ve taken on. The screening process is rigorous, the hours long, but it never ceases to amaze us, the kind of brilliance that slides down the funnel and into our laps. We’re always moving forward with the BrinkGuide; currently, we’re fleshing-out all of our reviews from San Francisco, getting ready for product testing. In short order, we’ll have our product cleaned up, shiny and new, and on its way to you.

photo credit: joseph m oland

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The BrinkGuide adventure continues to unfurl, a fluttering cloth on the horizon. A way-station in the desert, promising water and shelter from the sun.

Some projects unroll at a slow, deliberate pace. Others jump out at you unpredictably. The BrinkGuide continues to be something of an unusual animal, to describe it mildly, with so many loose threads crossing such tremendous distances. Constructing the BrinkGuide has linked together bizarre, creative, and in almost every case audacious individuals from all over the place. The complete hilarity of some of these reviews, the brazen and unabashed criticism of others, has convinced me that the experience of reading the BrinkGuide might very well be as entertaining as the experience of visiting some of the places reviewed – this is not [and I repeat, not] a usual occurrence.

The temptation is quite tremendous. I’ll tap my pen against the desk nervously and gnash my teeth at the ceiling tiles. When the temptation becomes too great, I eventually give in; I launch my web browser and begin to sift through all of the failed monuments to travel writing – to writing in general, in some cases – that are hiding out there in the ether. And believe me when I say, there are more than just a few.

The problem, really, is this cult-ish worship of most restaurants, movie houses, music venues, and nightclubs. Expressions like ‘very great’ or ‘very cool’ or ‘very’ anything leap out from the screen, or off the page. Sure, there are plenty of words carelessly thrown at scintillating neighborhood pubs and restaurants in these ads, but so very little is actually communicated. ‘Things this shiny,’ on may begin to think, ‘can’t possibly be for real.’ And when confronted with such sycophantic, almost scripted adoration, it’s hard not to feel robbed, though all you’ve lost are a few minutes of your precious time.

Let the restaurateur do the advertising without soliciting fake or glowing reviews from friends and family, local newspapers and public relations firms. Let the critics do their job unencumbered. Everybody already knows it: if the food is inedible, there’s no amount of ad-copy or other cheep tricks that will help. In fact, with the BrinkGuide, we’re here to make sure that it doesn’t.

Of course, the other end of the spectrum rears its ugly head, too, and with increasing ferocity; blog threads and websites abound, dedicated to lambasting anything and everything that crosses its path. These neo-sophists are nothing more, really, than self-satisfied pedants whose one-dimensional diatribes do little to elevate anyone’s knowledge or experience. ‘Everybody’s a critic,’ as the man says, and so much more these days than ever before. There’s certainly entertainment value, and don’t we all enjoy spitting on the places that have burned us in one way or another. But then there’s the negative feedback loop, and it can be difficult to outrun. In the final analysis, the middle ground is the safest place to wander, but not in any political sense. No, it’s the balanced scale that we prefer, and it’s the low middle valley that’s the least explored, and promises the greatest reward.

Our reviews are as honest as we can make them, and we’re getting close to announcing a launch window for the product. It’s got us all pretty excited here at our Tucson Headquarters. Product testing is slated for next month, and then to the stars…

photo credit: joseph m oland

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The call of the road – it’s a wonderful thing. A low grown, a quiet voice tempting us to part with our hard-earned money in exchange for a few days of much-needed rest. The call of the road is a beautiful thing, even in these strange times, and the thirst for adventure is as alive now as it ever was. The sick sad fact, of course, is that our time always runs short, and the task of mapping-out uncharted terrain can be a difficult one. Newsstands and travel guides abound, filled to the brim with the worst kind of mediocrity; all the reviews read the same, and you always have this sneaking suspicion that all of these polished, positive reviews were flat-out bought – like ads in the PennySaver or the classifieds – and you realize that the treacherous beast of corporate banality is rearing its ugly head.

When a restaurant sets out to write its own review,  something awful is in the works; the lie promises to wreck your voyage before you’ve even purchased your ticket. When you’re treated like a wallet with legs – a dumb, lumbering beast with money to burn and little else – there’s a good chance you’ll feel a dull sting in your gut while making your way back across the interstate, back towards home.

We’re working on this problem for you: a travel guide for the people, by the people.

Our soldiers are out there, in every major city, making sure that all of the secret little places – the hidden diners and back-alley art galleries, the rooftop gardens and relaxed local pubs – leap out from obscurity and into your pocket. You don’t need to live there to have the benefit of knowing exactly where to go – at least not anymore.

Our project is moving forward at breakneck speed and we’re proud to announce that, in the months to come, we’ll begin to unroll our restaurant reviews, entertainment venues, and hidden treasures, and all of that with the kind of character, honesty, and humor that you’ve been missing. We’ve been receiving submissions from contributors all across the globe, separating the wheat from the chaff, and we look forward to sharing our hard work with you soon.

Keep your eyes peeled.

The BrinkGuide, our illustrious and soon to be launched travel guide for mobile platforms, is today making it’s first introduction here on the blogophere.  Stay tuned for more information soon…