Down South Perspective
Stories and Articles
The Last Page of My New Book
Posted on September 5th, 2006
Young and Wild and Beautiful Once
Posted on August 24th, 2006
Originally posted March 12, 2005
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Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? Part 7, Chapter 1
Posted on August 24th, 2006
We pick up Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? A Writer’s Memoir at the opening to Part Five. I write from forced exile on a certain (unnamed) island in the lower Caribbean, having bolted from my home at the end of the road at the bottom of Central America, at the province called Pavones, Spanish for Big Turkeys. (more…)
Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? Part 6, Chapter 1
Posted on August 22nd, 2006
AKA The James Frey Rant
The following is the opening chapter to Part Six of my new book, Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? A Writer’s Memoir. By now I’ve bolted from my home in paradise at the end of the road at the bottom of Central America and write from a certain lower Caribbean island. I’m essentially in hiding. (more…)
The Final Voyage of Thor Heyerdahl
Posted on August 21st, 2006
Originally posted July 15, 2004
Preface
Thor was a Norweigan adventurer whose theories about ancient peoples’ migrations a few decades ago were controversial, to say the least. In fact, everyone thought he was nuts.
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Dan Fowlie Returns, Part 1
Posted on August 20th, 2006
Originally posted June 20, 2005
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The Calling
Posted on August 1st, 2006
A short story, originally posted Sunday, April 1st, 2001 (more…)
WHERE IS BOB WOODWARD WHEN WE NEED HIM?
Posted on February 18th, 2005
I promised a while back not to get into political stuff, but based on some books I read lately I have to sort of break that promise. I say “sort of” because the political stuff is backdoor – politics is not what this is really about. It’s about simple logic, simple truth. And someone who cares about truth. And someone else who should but doesn’t. (more…)
Why Physicists Are the Coolest People on the Planet
Posted on September 8th, 2004
A note from AW: The following is a “love letter” to physicists, based on my research visit to the Stanford University Linear Accelerator (SLAC), a mammoth, wild ass device used to goose subatomic particles to near the speed of light then smash them into each other, the purpose being to duplicate conditions just after the big bang – the birth of our universe. The piece is to be published in Symmetry, a new physics magazine published out of Stanford University.
Point being: Since the piece is a love letter to physicists, to get the most out of it, best while reading that you pretend you’re a physicist. Okay? Also: It’s best if you scroll and read the footnotes as you go. (more…)
Into the Wilds
Posted on June 4th, 2004
Many anecdotes and experiences from my time Down South did not make the final draft of travel memoir, In Search of Captain Zero. Here is one of them; call it a “lost chapter”:
The Surf Guru
Posted on May 4th, 2004
A Short Story by Doug Dorst
Elements
The Surf Guru spends most of his time sitting expectantly on the redwood deck of his dull-green, two-story house atop the cliff at Padre Point, a favorite spot for surfers in the know. He watches the surfers and looks out at the ocean. He often sips Chianti as he watches and looks.Sometimes he nods off in the afternoon and only awakens late at night, when the ocean breeze tickles his nose with smoke from bonfires on the sand below.
No one but the dog sleeps in his master bedroom. (more…)
The Surf Guru
Posted on May 4th, 2004
The Surf Guru
A short story by Doug Dorst (more…)
In Search of Captain Zero, the Screenplay
Posted on April 8th, 2004
A PDF file of the screenplay I wrote for In Search of Captain Zero. Click here to download the PDF.
Flaco’s Passing
Posted on April 6th, 2004
A letter from my girlfriend
Tuesday night 8
Guapisimo mio,
Today was not easy – as I called you with the bad news about Flaco at six in the morning, I had guests – Alfredo and his family. Alfredo wanted me to accompany him on a short walk to his finca to look at the trees. Turned out his finca is a half hour in 1st gear up the mountains of La Hierba, then a hike of another hour+. A jungle hike first thing in the morning, with my grippe, and after being up with Flaco last night, wasn’t what I needed. (more…)
My Little World Gets Shaken
Posted on December 3rd, 2003
For a natural born skeptic like me, living here at Pavones — at the end of the road at the bottom of Central America — has been a revelation in many ways.
Like the moon thing.
Here’s a DSP I wrote in the fall of 2002, slightly edited:
Los Balseros - A Day In The Life Of The Guard
Posted on July 16th, 2003
Words & Pictures
By Allan WeisbeckerBetween the months of May and August, 1994, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Nantucket saved 1,208 lives off the coast of Cuba. This account records one day in the life of the Nantucket and her crew.
The Forward to my New Book
Posted on May 20th, 2003
Appended 8/23/2006:
Don’t read this! I’ve done a lot of work on the book since I wrote this. This stuff sucks! Writing is rewriting! Why not just delete this link, you may be asking yourself? Right? Hang in, subscribe to my site, and I’ll explain later. You’ll understand.
–end of append–
New York Boy at the BU
Posted on March 19th, 2003
By Allan Weisbecker
I’ve traveled a bit, lived here and there; I’m currently living far Down South, at the end of the road at the bottom of Central America, within sight of a very long left point. But I’m East Coast. Someone asks me my home break I don’t mind telling them Ditch Plains, Montauk, NY.
The Caribbean On $25 A Day
Posted on May 13th, 2001
The Caribbean on $25 A Day (make that $22.87, depending on how you figure the mayo)
In the Shadow of Punta Lobo
Posted on April 9th, 2001
Another anecdote from In Search of Captain Zero that didn’t make the final draft of the book.
Screenwriting 101 According to Weisbecker
Posted on March 1st, 2001
I’ve gotten so much interest in and support for my movie deals that I’ve decided to talk about them here, starting with In Search of Captain Zero since I’m doing the screenplay. (more…)