I’m moving to New York. This is no surprise to many of you. I joke that I have been half-living there for about five years from the sheer quantity of time I have been spending there for both work and pleasure. In 2008, I spent over 200 days camped out there! Every time I left, it would get harder and harder. I’ve decided to stop fighting that feeling. It’s obviously where I want to be. So I am relocating myself at the beginning of 2012 to Brooklyn.

Now that I am home from my world travels, I am beginning my job search actively. I look forward to finding a small creatively-focused agency with a great mix of clients, or a great brand, preferably including the entertainment vertical, which I miss working with very much.

New York is my favorite city and I look forward to living there full-time, with its incredible energy, diversity, creativity and business. I can’t wait to be closer to friends I don’t see often enough. I will have to make it a mission to find proper Mexican food in the city! I have yet to unearth any. I’m anxious to get started on a new project and am excited at the prospects I have already come across.

I adore Atlanta and the South, but I know I can always come back. Drive A Faster Car will remain focused on Atlanta, Decatur and Athens. New York doesn’t need it. DaFC turned ten years old this December 2. It’s a little hard to believe. I feel like I have a child. I have blogged for ten years. This mark feels like as a good time as any to proceed with the changes in store.

I believe that covers most of the questions that have come my way. If you have others, feel free to reach out to me. I’m saying my “see you soon’s” on January 7 in Atlanta, if you’d like to come out. I’m planning to be in New York as of January 9.

Yesterday was CupcakeCamp Atlanta! I love baking. I adore Earl Grey tea and it’s subtle bergamot flavor. I’ve been obsessed with the combination of Earl Grey and lavender together since falling in love with Mariage Frères‘s Earl Grey Impérial. I have seen plenty of Earl Grey cupcake recipes before but typically with a lemon buttercream which didn’t excite me as much as the prospect of lavender. As always, use good quality ingredients for the best results. Thanks to everyone for voting me as Most Unique Flavor! I am thoroughly entertained by my Kinky Cupcakes prize.

Earl Grey Lavender Cupcakes
(Yields about 16 cupcakes)

1 cup milk, at room temperature
3 tablespoons (3 teabags) ground Earl Grey tea leaves*
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried lavender, finely chopped
2 large eggs
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons self-rising flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

* I ground my loose tea leaves in a mortar and pestle.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it just begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and stir in the ground Earl Grey tea leaves and dried lavender. Cover and let it sit and infuse for about 30 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until it is pale and smooth, which should take 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.

Sift the two flours together into a separate bowl. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one-third of the infused milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour, milk and tea leaves have been added.

Spoon the mixture into the cups, filling them about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until slightly raised and browned. Insert a toothpick into the center of a cupcake to make sure they are done.

Remove from the oven and leave the cupcakes in the pan for about 10 minutes before carefully placing on a wire rack to cool. Once they are completely cool, you can frost them with the lavender buttercream below. 

Lavender Buttercream

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg white

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon lavender extract
Violet coloring, to your preference

Whisk the egg white and sugar together in a large metal bowl over a pot of simmering water until the sugar is smooth in the mixture.

Remove the mixture from the heat and whip until it turns white and doubles in size. Add the lavender extract and coloring, whipping throughly into the mixture. Add the butter and continue to whip until completely smooth. It will take some time! Once the cupcakes have cooled to room temperature, spoon the frosting into a pastry bag and decorate or just grab a knife and apply. If you attempt to frost before they have cooled, your buttercream will melt! I also sprinkled clear sugar sprinkles on top since these aren’t super sweet cupcakes. Decorate to your preference!

You tend to get told that the world is the way it is, but life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact; and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

- Steve Jobs in PBS’ “One Last Thing”

There’s a new agency model in town: Catvertising. It’s a solid two and a half minutes of smile.

You have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Steve Jobs

When I draft my blog posts from the road, I save them by date so I can attempt to post them chronologically when I have internet available. It felt very strange to date this September 26 when I arrived at the Atlanta airport for my departure on September 24.

Recap of where I’ve traveled already this year, from the beginning:
29 Dec – 02 Jan – New York, New York
06 Jan – 07 Jan – Tampa, Florida
04 Feb – 13 Feb – New York, New York
18 Feb – 21 Feb – San Francisco, California
10 Mar – 15 Mar – Austin, Texas
20 Mar – 22 Mar – Cancún, Mexico
31 Mar – 02 Apr – Seattle, Washington
20 Apr – 26 Apr – New York, New York
10 May – 15 May – Amelia Island, Florida
17 May – 18 May – Fort Lauderdale, Florida
24 May – 25 May – Greenville, South Carolina
31 May – 01 Jun – Orlando, Florida
01 Jun – New York, New York
02 Jun – 04 Jun – Barcelona, Spain
04 Jun – 08 Jun – New York, New York
09 Jun – 22 Jun – Barcelona, Spain
22 Jun – 03 Jul – London, England
03 Jul – 06 Jul – Paris, France
06 Jul – Belgrade, Serbia
06 Jul – 11 Jul – Novi Sad, Serbia
11 Jul – 13 Jul – Belgrade, Serbia
13 Jul – 02 Aug – Paris, France
02 Aug – 04 Aug – Oslo, Norway
04 Aug – 09 Aug – Bergen, Norway
09 Aug – 12 Aug – Copenhagen, Denmark
12 Aug – 13 Aug – Rīga, Latvia
13 Aug – 15 Aug – Tallinn, Estonia
15 Aug – 17 Aug – Helsinki, Finland
17 Aug – Turku, Finland
18 Aug – 28 Aug – Stockholm, Sweden
28 Aug – 03 Sep – London, England
03 Sep – 11 Sep – Amsterdam, Netherlands
21 Sep – 23 Sep – Houston, Texas

I’m honestly exhausted. I also cannot fathom how much people have to fly to get Platinum medallion status with SkyTeam when I’m only hitting Gold this year! I’m currently on the longest flight I’ve experienced yet. Almost 15 hours from Atlanta to Seoul on Korean Air. My flight map tells me we headed straight north from Atlanta cutting up through Michigan, above Canada before crossing east above North America across the International Date Line. (Is that suppose to be capitalized?) We are now flying over either China or Russia between the Sea of Okhotsk and Yakutsk and I’m wishing it wasn’t 1:30AM here so I could see a bit of what we’re flying over. It’s brunch time back home and I just tried a Korean green tea porridge for breakfast in-flight.

Last night (technically speaking) was my second major departure from the United States for an extended period. I was just as miserably prepared and last minute as I was in May, despite meticulous list making and marathon errand running. I’m beginning to think it’s impossible to take care of everything before a trip with so many unknowns. The three things I forgot and remembered on the way to the airport: the unlocked Android Nexus One that Erik has been letting me borrow, my inhaler and my eye mask. The eye mask is easy. The rest will have to be planned around. I’m anxious — can you tell?

This is my first time in Asia. Most of what I’m expecting is from film, television, travel guides and friends. I’ve got a 13 hour layover in Seoul today which should help me get a little grip with being on the opposite side of the planet and everything that comes along with that. This evening, I fly into Denpasar in Bali where I will be meeting my great friend and travel companion for the next five weeks, Linnea, and my friend Robert Scales, who is now local to Bali.

My Asia itinerary:
26 Sep – Seoul, South Korea (layover)
26 Sep – 30 Sep – Bali, Indonesia
30 Sep – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (layover)
30 Sep – 04 Oct – Seoul, South Korea
04 Oct – 05 Oct – Manila, Philippines (layover)
05 Oct – 09 Oct – Singapore, Singapore
09 Oct – 13 Oct – Tokyo, Japan
13 Oct – 14 Oct – Singapore, Singapore (layover)
14 Oct – 16 Oct – Bangkok, Thailand
16 Oct – 20 Oct – Chiang Mai, Thailand
20 Oct – 22 Oct – Bangkok, Thailand
22 Oct – 27 Oct – New Delhi, India
27 Oct – 1 Nov – Mumbai, India
1 Nov – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (layover)
2 Nov – 21 Nov – Bali, Indonesia

Are you exhausted yet from reading about all of these flights? The first five weeks will be traveling with Linnea. My final three weeks in Bali will be spent alone and hanging out with Robert in the small fishing town of Tumbalen on the northeast coast of Bali where the resort he works at is located. I hope to learn how to dive and possibly even get certified so I can make deeper dives. This will be a huge personal challenge for me as I have a very respectful and humbled but nearly paralyzing fear of natural bodies of water. This earth is covered by significantly more water than land. I’ve done my best to see as much of the land as I can, I can only imagine what our waters hold. I don’t anticipate it being too difficult as I have been making small steps to combat this fear in the past few years by getting knee-deep in oceans and seas, boating, visiting aquariums. I’ll have others with me, teaching and encouraging me. The waters are also much clearer than the murky Atlantic waters I’m familiar with.

As much as Europe drained me both physically and financially, I am glad I did Europe before heading to Asia. It will be very foreign in every sense of the term. I expect to learn and be exposed to many new and strange things, cannot wait for the food, and eagerly look forward to my quiet weeks in Bali at the conclusion of my insane travel year. It’s now two and a half hours until we land at Incheon. I have high hopes for wifi and possibly bumping into Linnea before her flight to Bali, many hours earlier than mine. (Or possibly jumping on the earlier flight?) I’m going to catch up on movies and work on my geography with my seat back map!

Of course I was so anxious to get home that I forgot that my so diligently written and stamped postcards are still in my carry-on and not mailed in Amsterdam as they should have been. Well, damn. I guess it had to happen at some point.

I’m on my flight home. My last flight from Europe this year and it feels a little weird. This is only partially because it also happens to be the tenth anniversary of 9/11. What a day for air travel. The security leaving Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport definitely felt heightened a bit. At AMS, they have small security stations at each gate instead of the massive security setup you find at many airports. It makes it so much easier and less of a hassle and stress. Today, I arrived at the airport three hours before my flight, part out of anxiousness to get home and part because I had no idea what to expect flying today. Busy at baggage drop but the airport felt a normal kind of busy. At the gate, they usually have the normal scanner and TSA patrol but today an extra step. From our line at the gate, a TSA agent would allow you through the belted divider then ask you to stand at a podium. They scanned your passport at a computer located at a different podium before joining you and giving the usual Q&A about your baggage. From here, you were then allowed to the usual scanner but today, everyone was required to go through the full body scanner, followed for many, by a pat down. I’ll sacrifice the time for safety even though I have mixed feelings about the scanners. (I have after the fact been informed that this type of security is normal for AMS.)

Finally on flight, I listen to an older white American couple complain to the flight attendant about being seated next to a gentleman in a head wrap and his wife, obviously of Eastern background. He pleads to her to be moved to other seats if any are available after the flight is boarded. The attendant responded that the flight was full and asked if he wanted to be put on the next flight. He declined and sat back uncomfortably in his seat. Eventually, the couple was able to move seats. For the life of me, I hope their children, if they have any, are not of the same naive mentality. The Eastern appearing couple were both carrying American passports and even if they weren’t, why the prejudice? This drives me absolutely insane and saddens me greatly. It’s these people that I apologize for when I travel. The Americans (and I’m aware they exist elsewhere in the world too) who prejudice by stereotypes and bulk labels. It makes me want to apply for an Iranian passport. By birth, I inherited from my father dual-citizenship with Iran. I have no intentions of traveling to Iran any time in the next 10 years but it would serve as a recognition of my family and my background. Which has nothing to do with terrorists. These instances are simply infuriating to me. It took every ounce of me to not ask the older man what the problem was.

It’s almost 2PM in Europe and approaching 8AM on the East Coast. The man sitting next to me on my flight somehow managed to step on and break my glasses? My belly has been fed, my heart a bit heavy and the ignorant out of sight. My first order of business upon returning to Atlanta is to acquire a Willy’s burrito and lay down in Piedmont Park. It’s suppose to be a lovely 84F today and Europe does not have good Mexican food, i.e. my one of my lifelines. I will spend the next two weeks seeing family and friends, finding as much random short-term work as possible, driving to Houston, Texas to acquire my visa for India and a thousand errands, before heading out to Asia. It will be very nice to be home.

It’s my own fault for traveling to almost exclusively capital cities but my entire time in Europe has been a sport in avoiding tourists. Here inside the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, I don’t know why I find myself surprised that so many visitors spend longer reading the descriptions, listening to their audio guides and playing on their cellphones than actually seeing the art. I keep getting run over.

You can view these pieces online, in books, and likely, even on television if you catch the right program. Why go to a museum? Is it just something to do? The acquisition of ticked boxes that make individuals feel like they are feeding themselves culture. Providing postcard and dinner fodder? They jump from one famous piece to another, quickly brushing by the rest. Do these individuals view these heralded artists because they have been told they are of importance?

Do these individuals not have interest in the artist’s journey? The general public seems to have an affinity for mankind’s (and other kind’s) journey and development when you apply this idea to film or literature. Is it our own fault for not teaching art like we teach literature? What about the artist has earned them such notoriety for their work? Do these individuals realize that they are even cheating their experiences? Does it even matter? Their dollars (euros, in this example) still help the museum survive. Is this why museums don’t seem to care?

I posted a quick tweet about my plans for the day on my way to the Van Gogh Museum and another notable Amsterdam museum, Rijksmuseum, responded to my comment about their current construction:

I responded that I could just save my visit for the next time I was in Amsterdam, when I could pay the same admission, and see much more of their collection, after their construction was completed in 2012. No response. It’s a bit frustrating when those who dedicate so much time, energy and passion to preserving and sharing some of the world’s richest media don’t even stand up for the experience and appreciation of it.

Perhaps this is a question, more largely, of differences in experiencing media. If you still purchase and read print books, are you more likely to spend twice as long or at least have a focus on the art, while in museums? How about in comparison to individuals who are strictly bound to their Kindle and mp3s? These experiences are very personal for some and less for others. Is there any correlation with media delivery or consumption?

The two men sitting on either side of me are both reading their Facebook News Feeds on their iPhones. Maybe this is why Van Gogh escaped to the countryside. An appreciation for the simple and a lack of distraction from relatively meaningless interactions.