If you read my recent post, Confessions Of A Time-Travel Thriller Author: I Hate Writing Blogs, you’ll know I was desperate to shake up my whole blog writing strategy. Well, it’s done, and I couldn’t be happier.
TL;DR – I’m repurposing some of my newsletter content for this blog.
Before I had the epiphany to work smarter, I’d been considering giving up my author blog altogether. It was eating up too much of my time—time I could be using to write my books. However, I was loath to ditch the blog for several reasons, all of which you can read in the aforementioned post.
Anyway, the following is my first crack at this new strategy. You’ll notice it has nothing to do with books or my writing journey. That’s because in my newsletter, I always try to hit on topics that will be of value to my readers rather than all MJ Mumford all the time. If you enjoy today’s content, consider signing up for my monthly newsletter, MJ’s Cabin Crew, where you’ll see articles like this before anyone else. Plus, you’ll find surveys, contests, book deals, updates on my books, and a whole lot of other bookish fun.
This month, I bring you a recommendation for an Apple TV series.
Long Way Up is a travel documentary that follows actor Ewan McGregor and his long-time buddy Charley Boorman on a 100-day motorcycle expedition through thirteen countries beginning at the tip of Argentina all the way up to Los Angeles. Crazy, right?
That’s not even the extraordinary part.
In a bid to reduce their carbon footprint (and to prove it could be done), they teamed up with the folk at Harley-Davidson who built two zero-emission prototype bikes for the express purpose of the trip.
It was no light and breezy Sunday ride, either. The footage of the extreme weather and treacherous road conditions frequently had me burying my head in a pillow out of sheer terror.
Added to the physical danger was the issue of keeping the bikes sufficiently charged.
Before their trip, electric-vehicle infrastructure simply didn’t exist in some of the more remote areas they would be traveling through, meaning that 120 charging stations had to be installed all along the route (spoiler: there were never enough).
And it wasn’t just the bikes that needed charging.
In preparation for their eco-friendly trip, McGregor and his team turned to electric-car company Rivian for two more purpose-built vehicles—specifically, pickup trucks with the cojones to transport the camera equipment, crew, and their personal supplies over some of the most challenging terrain on the planet. I’ll never complain about the potholes in my city again.
Now, if you’re like me and normally wouldn’t give a rip about 13,000-mile motorcycle adventure, it’s Ewan McGregor, people, the most adorable—and apparently most rugged—Scotsman alive. Granted, I’d probably watch a series about him eating a sandwich, so take this for what it’s worth.
That said, there were a few issues with Long Way Up:
1) Eco friendly? You’ll have to ignore the contradiction of them flying all the vehicles and equipment down to Argentina to begin their “environmentally sustainable” journey.
2) Editing. Even though the cinematography was stunning, I would’ve preferred to see more of the places they visited rather than the extensive drone footage of the terrain along the way. I realize they wanted to showcase the ever-changing landscape, but the editing could’ve been much tighter. Still, they did a fantastic job with the Machu Picchu segment, and now I’m compelled to visit Peru someday; it’s where Syd’s talisman in my TimeBlink series originated.
3) The “cliff-hangers” in several episodes. Don’t be fooled! These pseudo cliff-hangers amounted to nothing more than a casual mention in the next episode–if they were mentioned at all. Not that I wanted to see these guys suffer, but if you’re going to tease a possible disaster, you’d better deliver that disaster.
4) Communication. One of the first episodes showed the team learning some basic Spanish, but on the trip, they largely relied on their translation apps and local producers who joined them for various legs of the journey. Call me old fashioned, but if I knew was about to spend three months in Latin America, I’d be motivated to learn how to ask someone their name and how they were doing. (Says the high and mighty Canadian with a handful of beginner Spanish courses under her belt and an on-and-off relationship with Duolingo…still not confident, but trying at least!).
Okay, rant over.
So, if you can overlook a few minor flaws, you’ll probably really enjoy this series, which, incidentally, is the third adventure-doc for these guys. I plan to watch their previous two, Long Way Round (a trip around the world) and Long Way Down (mostly Africa), which were shot in 2004 and 2007 respectively.
Feel free to share your thoughts if you do end up watching this series. I always reply to reader comments.