Dustin Stevenson is an international travel writer with experience across various adventures. His stories illustrate how travel can provide opportunities to discover something new about themselves; furthermore he explores the concept of travel “flow,” an approach wherein one immerses oneself fully into a destination rather than following predetermined plans.
Guillermo Del Toro’s Lost Notebook
At the core of many contemporary cinema’s most beloved fantasy, gothic, and horror films lies an avid collector. His passion for objects and art has become one of his filmography’s signature aesthetics: stacks of specimen jars, rows of books, piles of children’s shoes and other objects d’art line the sets of Pan’s Labyrinth and Crimson Peak as more than mere props; often they become manifestations of characters’ world views.
This fascinating coffee table book provides behind the scenes stories and insights from Del Toro himself (taken from various sources throughout his career) as well as explanations of recurring themes and obsessions in his work, such as The Pale Man. Furthermore, there are drawings depicting characters such as these as well as examples of pre-production storyboards used for his movies.
The book offers unexpected treats like an essay about del Toro’s cinematic friends Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, his unrealized projects (Mephisto’s Bridge, The Left Hand of Darkness and HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness among them), his unrealized projects list (including Mephisto’s Bridge, The Left Hand of Darkness and HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness), his unrealized projects list as well as his complete filmography center fold-out. Ian Nathan provides just enough background and callbacks so del Toro can reveal his worldview fully.
The Lost Artwork of London’s Underground
Londoners depend on the Tube for just about everything – work, friend meetings and running errands are all done using it – but London’s massive underground system is much more than simply transportation: its history dates back over 150 years! It boasts beautiful artwork on every carriage.
World War II and its austere aftermath put a hold on such grand artistic gestures, but they reemerged as mosaics on much of the new high-speed Victoria Line opened between 1968 and 1971. Each station commissioned an artist to design works that captured its identity; from Ervin Bossanyi’s heraldic stained glass windows at Euston to Keith Copland’s geometric swans at Stockwell.
As part of the construction of the modernized Central Line in 2017, five works were accidentally destroyed when their mosaics were rearranged during construction, yet Gary Drostle managed to reconstruct them within one year.
Many of the lost artworks have found new homes within stations; others have made an appearance in The Lost Collection exhibition held by Transport for London’s lost property office. This showcase features hundreds of paintings, photos and other objects left behind on London Tube routes over time that remain unclaimed.
The Power of Losing One’s Way
Rebecca Solnit’s essay collection A Field Guide to Getting Lost highlights the transformational experience of getting lost as one form of “travel flow,” or being so immersed in the present that their surroundings seem to dissolve away.
Paulo Coelho’s book The Alchemist tells Santiago’s journey to uncover his personal legend, leading him around the globe and beyond before ultimately discovering that it lies within himself; to reach this realization he needed to go off in search of it and get lost before finding himself and uncovering who he truly was.
People experiencing transformational experiences often struggle to explain them to others. They might be diagnosed as “sick” or feel as though they’re at “the edge of a cliff”, yet those who have endured pain and have come out the other side can look back on past struggles with newfound clarity – past hurtful experiences become inconsequential, while any feelings of emptiness associated with past challenges become replaced with purpose. That’s how they “find their way”.
Getting Lost in the Andes
Samantha Brown has seen plenty of incredible landscapes on her travel hosting gig, but what really stands out for her are the people. “My most unforgettable experiences have always been those where I have connected deeply with someone,” she states. Sometimes it can even be as simple as meeting locals that makes an experience truly enriching.
Nearly 50 years have passed since Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 plunged into the Andes Mountains during a rugby match in Chile with 45 passengers aboard, including family and friends.
Search-and-rescue planes were initially ineffective in finding survivors; eventually a group banded together and managed to survive for 72 days within what remained of the fuselage in deep Andean mountains, as retold in Society of the Snow by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). This story can now be seen on Netflix’s Society of the Snow.
Fernando Parrado was one of the only survivors and still lives in the region today. He recalls what transpired with calm clarity: “About an hour into their flight, the co-pilot misjudged his position by turning too early north instead of flying a straight path toward land – landing instead in an Andean glacier where temperatures were freezing cold with no human footprints to follow.”