Ridgeliners — Hello! It’s been a while. I’m still Craig Mod and this is still Ridgeline. I finished the big jazz kissa tour and then immediately set off on a 13 day / 14 night 300km+ walk across northern England. A kind of “vacation” — ha ha! It was great. More on that later. But … | Continue reading
Rodenians — I am swaddled in The Great Busyness. The great swirl and swoop of book production and editing and launching new projects and fielding late night phones calls with folks in New York and folks in Amsterdam and folks in London. I am feeling both very full and very used u … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — I’m launching a new pop-up newsletter called BASIE!BOP!JAMAICA! It begins this Friday, June 16. For sixteen days I’ll be exploring a few of the greatest (and maybe not so greatest?!) jazz kissas1 of Tōhoku and Hokkaido. Like my previous pop-ups, each day I’ll send o … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — I walked the dusty hills of Edgewood Park, up to Vista Point, looking back out over the flats of the south bay, looking out towards Atherton and Palo Alto and the bent-knee San Matea-Hayward Bridge and Bair Island, thinking back to a life I once lived in these parts … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — The Kiso-ji is pretty easy to get to from Tokyo. You just need to hop a Shiojiri-bound Azusa express from Shinjuku, and from there you’re at the start. But! If you’re going to walk the Kiso-ji, I recommend sitting on that train another stop, and heading to Matsumoto … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — About six months ago I began drumming again. I had taken a fourteen year hiatus. I wrote up my return in Roden, and posted the essay as a standalone thing here: ”Drumming”. Six months later, and I’ve sat behind the kit almost every single day I’ve been home. Usually … | Continue reading
Rodenianites — I watched 2001 for the first time. Yes, it turns out I had never sat through the whole thing. It was one of those movies like The Godfather, where I had hallucinated seeing it via a million media references (“Simpsons” gags, parodies), but had never actually put my … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — Many have died since the last time I walked the Kiso-ji. I mean, this is obvious and folks are dying everywhere all the time, but I’m talking about people running places along the road and sometimes the places themselves. Until last month, I hadn’t been to the Kiso … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — Note: Hello all! It’s been a very busy (lots of movement, too much movement) month this past month. More regular Ridgelines incoming. The Kiso-ji road runs from the edge of Shiojiri in Nagano, in a northeast-southwest direction through a thin valley shunted between … | Continue reading
Rodenianites — Hello from the other side of nine-and-a-half hours of deep, strange sleep. The sleep of total discombobulation. For that’s me: The discombobulated Craig Mod, writer of this, Roden. I was in NYC last week to run a gauntlet of meetings and to attend a little reunion … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — I made a little trip to Hokkaido the other week. It had two purposes: To hang out with a good friend (which is what 90% of all my non-walk-related travel is centered around; increasingly this is all I’m interested in doing — intentionally maximizing time with people … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — M E M B E R S H I P I N T E R L U D E Hello subscribers — thanks to the support of SPCIAL PROJECTS members, I’ve been able to write Ridgeline (and many other things!) for over four years now. As usual, I’ve written up a huge “look back” at last year, Year Four, of t … | Continue reading
Gentle, patient, attractive, vibrant, gifted, peerless Roden Subscribers — Year five! We’re in it. Meaning I’ve now run my membership program — SPECIAL PROJECTS — for four years. As is “tradition,” I’ve just published my extensive look-back at Year Four (2022): Everything I’ve Le … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — I spent the last half of 2021 and the first half of 2022 walking Hyrule. The new Hyrule, of course, the one in Breath of the Wild, in 3D, full of snowy mountain passes and velvet sunsets and stunning coastal views. Walking this place was in part somnambulistic — I w … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — I have a new New York Times piece out. I also just published a big behind the scenes writeup over in Roden. Head over there for the breakdown on the events of the last month. Here, on Ridgeline, I want to feature some of the wonderful people I met walking around Mor … | Continue reading
Morioka. Holy smokes. This last month has been unexpected, exciting, sometimes exhausting, but mostly — uplifting and inspiring. I have a new New York Times piece out about what’s been going on, but let me give you all — you Roden readers, me Craig Mod — a more detailed backgroun … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — Note: This was originally published by Why Is This Interesting; this is a slightly modified / updated version of that text. Once again I walked Tokyo. It was cold! It was good! I mean, I’ve been walking Tokyo for twenty-two-and-a-half years, but I “performed” anothe … | Continue reading
Hello World-Wide Roden Subscribers — Craig Mod here, back — boom! — with a quick interlude of announcements. Randomly: Just had a small piece land in The New York Times today, showcasing Morioka as one “Fifty-two places to visit in 2023.” They picked it as #2 (!!); getting lots o … | Continue reading
New Year, same ‘ole newsletter. This is still Roden and I am still Craig Mod. This is all still funded by memberships and book and print sales. The skies are blue, the air crisp, Mt. Fuji looming in all its many loomy ways, and electric bike rides along the coast are never better … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — I get a lot of inbound requests: Can I walk with you? Can I join you on an upcoming walk? My default answer is no. Let me explain why. First, it’s because I’m working. This is wild to type but: I have come to accept and recognize that this — *waves hands around* — i … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — Hello. It is currently raining in Kyoto. I am currently walking in the rain in Kyoto. This is not a drill, friends. This is happening. I had to double-check with my body to make sure it was okay with this. It was — very okay with this. The rain was light, the temper … | Continue reading
Hello Ridgeliners — It is I, Craig Mod. Welcome, new Friends of Sloan. This is a bit of a meta post. The fourth edition of Kissa by Kissa just came off the printing blocks about two weeks ago, and it’s now shipping all around the world. That this book has made it to four editions … | Continue reading
Man, my body and mind missed drumming. I feel like such a fool. I can’t believe I stopped for so long. For the first time in roughly fourteen years I picked up a pair of drumsticks. Not to twiddle or tap out paradiddles on a practice pad, but to engage, fully, against a metronome … | Continue reading
Roden-subbers world wide — It is I, Craig Mod, and this is Roden, and I’m partially here to sell you something and partially here to offer up a little essay on drumming. First the selling: The fourth edition of Kissa by Kissa went on pre-sale a few days ago, and is now shipping, … | Continue reading
Hello Ridgeliners — TOKIO TŌKYŌ TOKYO — the pop-up newsletter I ran back in August — was a blast. I’ve been meaning to write a bit more about it but haven’t had a full second to sit and reflect. I mean, TTT wore me down something good — the brutal August Tokyo heat (even at four … | Continue reading
Roden-subbers world wide — It’s the 10th of November, 2022, and here I am biking around in a fresh white t-shirt, the humidity levels solicitous, the temperature perfect (too perfect; I am struck by why are you not walking a thousand kilometers you fool?! guilt), a powder-blue sk … | Continue reading
Hello Ridgeliners — Few things feel better than a body twenty days into a good long walk. When structured well, the activation of all the muscles feels like booting up lost life — sights and sounds and textures and touch. Like you had previously been operating at some minor perce … | Continue reading
Hello Ridgeliners — It’s me, Craig. Since it’s been — *checks watch* — uhm, four weeks since my last pop-up newsletter, I’m here, naturally, with another pop-up newsletter. 1 My next book2 takes place (in part) on the Kii Peninsula, and I need to go back to do a bit of photograph … | Continue reading
Hello Ridgeliners — It’s me, Craig, your delinquent author of this Ridgeline newsletter. Let’s cut to the chase: Japan is reopening. October 11, 2022. The floodgates bashed aside. The day has come. This strange day. What should you do? Japan is cheap right now. I mean, compared t … | Continue reading
Rodenians world wide — Hello. Is it I, Craig Mod, your camera-in-hand bike-under-butt humidity-specialist-in-residence, here to report how gloriously low the humidity is on the east cost of America. I mean, just spectacularly crisp. I’ve been getting up and walking the coast at s … | Continue reading
My electric bike sings, emits a nearly imperceptible hum from its tiny motor. I love its song. A song of peace and magic. Has money ever bought as much delight as the delight of an electric bike? The first time I rode one was nearly a decade ago, in Kyoto. The electric bike I ren … | Continue reading
Ebooks for All - Building digital libraries in Ghana with Worldreader | Continue reading
Hello gentle subscriber to Roden. Please allow for this quick interlude to announce two things: One: New Pop-up Newsletter I’m running a new pop-up newsletter called TOKIO TŌKYŌ TOKYO. It starts in two days (Monday the 15th). I’m walking Tokyo for seven days photographing and doc … | Continue reading
A pop-up newsletter running from August 15-21, 2022 | Continue reading
Hello. It is hot. So hot. Is it hot where you are? I’ve found two things to beat the heat. Ventilation Electric bikes I can’t imagine walking around on a day like today. Just — instant sweatbuckets. On a bike? Doable. An electric bike? A breeze. I’m Craig Mod, an extremely white … | Continue reading
The other day I walked through American photographer Alec Soth’s oeuvre. Somewhat randomly (Instagram?), it came to my attention that he had a new solo exhibition a) in Japan (!), and b) down the road from me (!!), and c) that he was going to give a talk (?!). So, I set a timer, … | Continue reading
Notes on a week of walking Venice, an incredibly beautiful city that feels totally cursed | Continue reading
Hello Ridgeliners! I recommend viewing / reading this issue on the web. It’s pretty photo heavy and everything will look / work better on my website vs in an email client. Click the images, zoom in, poke around. Lots of details to delight in. | Continue reading
Timeboxed, seasonal, pop-up — a newsletter with a limit is a fantastic tool for not losing your mind | Continue reading
Ridgeline subscribers — Hello, hello, hello. Many of you have joined in recent weeks after reading my New York Times piece on Kii. Welcome and thanks. I’m Craig Mod, and this is Ridgeline, a newsletter “about walking,” powered by memberships that’s been published since January 20 … | Continue reading
Roden readers — This is one of those issues where I mainly just shut up and point you elsewhere. So — it’s with great excitement that I get to share with you a new text + photo essay of mine in The New York Times: “A Long Walk in a Fading Corner of Japan” 1,000 words or so, 20 ph … | Continue reading
Ridgeliners — It’s with great excitement that I get to share with you a new piece of mine in The New York Times: “A Long Walk in a Fading Corner of Japan” I’m especially excited to talk about the Kii Peninsula without only talking about the Kumano Kodō, and then, without only tal … | Continue reading
Ridgeline subscribers! Perhaps you have forgotten what this even is, given my publishing delinquency. Or forgotten who I am — Craig Mod, author of this now 3+ year long running “walk-related” newsletter. I’ve been channeling all February / March / April newsletter energy into my … | Continue reading
Oh, hello, Roden Newsletters Subscribers — It is I, Craig Mod, typer of this thing on a rainy Sunday afternoon, still in my pajamas like the laziest of men, sipping my second big cup of fancy coffee, marveling at the speed at which this year seems to be progressing. I’m mainly in … | Continue reading
Back in January I was interviewed by Oscar Boyd for the The Japan Times’ “Deep Dive” podcast. Transcript and audio are up here. On being bored: Oh, it’s critical. Boredom is everything, man. I think our loss of boredom in contemporary society is one of the greatest, weirdest, amb … | Continue reading
Hello Rodenians — The short, brutish, lonely month of February (for us N. Hemi folk) is done and the Spring winds are whipping all the fine sand along the coast into our ears, and so it is I — Craig Mod — Q-Tips in hand, Mt. Fuji on the horizon, once again writing to you, kind su … | Continue reading