Alexandra Cousteau’s Expedition Blue Planet is in the midst of a 14,500-mile journey across North America to raise awareness of water issues, and this short film on the Colorado River is the first big segment of video story telling to come out of the project. It’s filled with gorgeous imagery and a smooth narrative style, and for those who are unfamiliar with the Colorado’s 1,400-plus miles across the West it will serve as a nice introduction.

However, the film will leave those who care about river issues and this particularly mighty watercourse will be left longing for something substantive to chew on. Cousteau chronicles “a river in collapse”, but offers little evidence of it. There’s no question, the Colorado faces gargantuan challenges, but they are only fleetingly addressed, if at all. I’d like to learn more about how much water cities like Las Vegas use to irrigate their desert golf courses, or the impact of fluctuating levels of Lake Powell (and whether the dam will ever come down), or how much or how little of the Colorado actually makes it to Mexico and what shape the water’s in when it gets there. And, too, I’d like to hear solutions, or at least ideas, no matter how impractical. The Blue Legacy Expedition is working on watershed restoration projects along its journey; if this film had that same practical bent, it would be much more powerful.

Hola, peoples of the adventure planet! I’m super stoked to announce that the inaugural Adventure Life newsletter has just been launched into the ethersphere. This week’s version is a calendar of top 10 adventures for August. The subject will rotate each week between travel, gear, environment, and calendar. The travel newsletter is written by former National Geographic Adventure travel editor Catharine Livingston, while gear and environment are penned by Berne Broudy, a well-known outdoor writer and photographer who’s contributed regularly to Backpacker, Outside, and Adventure.

The newsletter is free, but you have to subscribe to receive it. You can unsubscribe at any time, and we will never sell, trade, or barter our list. To sign up, click here. To see the August calendar newsletter in its entirety, click here. And if you’re have suggestions or an event or product you’d like considered for upcoming issues, drop an email to us at releases [at] theadventurelife.org.

“Sometimes a climb is just a climb. Sometimes it’s more than that.” This eight-minute short film is a flawlessly told story of a new climbing route in Yosemite called Border Country, but like all good stories it’s not so much about the climbing but about people, their passions, and the connections you make along the adventures of life. Jeremy Collins and Mikey Schaefer were working on a stretch of granite blankness on Middle Cathedral, 1,800 feet of vertical, when they got rained off for the season. When their friends Jonny Copp and Micah Dash were killed climbing in China, the duo found renewed purpose and returned to Yosemite in the fall to tackle Middle Cathedral. This narrative of their journey is beautifully illustrated and patiently told, and no matter what your sport, you will find something in here that touches you.

When you hail from a place called Ulladulla and form a band, it might be inevitable that your music has a bright, lilting, and rolling summer breeze to it. Hot Spa is very much under the radar–the five-member group from New South Wales, Australia doesn’t have a contract or a record and hasn’t played a show–but they’ve killed it with “Kiola Beach”. It’s been stuck in my head for a few weeks, but the reason it’s here in this space is the freckled Coppertone video. It’s a wonderful bit of 1970s Australia surf culture, with a skoch of Florida-style water skiing thrown in, all the more delightful because the footage was shot by and stars the band’s parents and relatives.

Yours truly is, technically speaking, on vacation. Four of us are Griswolding in the ultimate adventure vehicle some 1,300 miles from home, and despite the 24/7 demands of the modern media monkey, it’s pretty sweet. Turns out there is science behind the benefits we draw from vacations, and research shows that interrupting your break like this actually enhances it.

The Boston Globe recently reported on the science of getting away from it all. Here, according to the Globe, are seven nuggets of wisdom to keep in mind as the countdown to the weekend ticks down. Now, get outta here.

1. How long we take off probably counts for less than we think, and in the aggregate, taking more short trips leaves us happier than taking a few long ones.

2. We’re often happier planning a trip than actually taking it.

3. Interrupting a vacation — far from being a nuisance — can make us enjoy it more.

4. How a trip ends matters more than how it begins.

5. Who you’re with matters as much as where you go.

6. If you want to remember a vacation vividly, do something during it that you’ve never done before.

7. Force yourself to actually take the time off in the first place. People, it turns out, are as prone to procrastinate when it comes to pleasurable things as unpleasant ones.