Oh my god it’s DeVito, baby. Don’t you know that I love you: erissiva

No matter where you are in the world, a brush with fame is something you’re likely to remember, whether it’s something to be proud of or not. And MatadorNights is actively seeking your stories.

You don’t have to be a writer, either. You only have to be able to put together a few cohesive sentences about your brush with fame to get our attention and I’ll do the rest.

We want atmosphere. We want you to set the scene. We want to know how you felt. Did anything happen? Were words exchanged? No gushing. I mean it.

And need I say that you shouldn’t write if nothing happened? A little reflection – something that shakes up your perceptions or preconceived notions, that’s what we’re looking for. And you have to use your real name.

Want to tell your story?

1) If you can write, write it and we’ll pay you $25. But if I have to rewrite it, see #2. All work for Matador is on spec.

2) You must send me your phone number (or Skype ID) at kate[at]matadornetwork.com with the cohesive sentences I mentioned above and the subject line Brush With Fame. I repeat. No gushing.

3) If interested, I’ll let you know and arrange a time to get in touch with you.

4) If we run it, we’ll still PayPal you $15 for sharing your story.

Know someone with a Brush With Fame story to tell? Pass this along, and I look forward to hearing from you.

-Kate

Photo of a bhang shop in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan: Tom Maisey, Feature Photo of a guest house in Manali: ElPablo!

You don’t need to be a hesher for the job, but it probably helps to have a handle on the language. MatadorNights wants to bring our readers solid information about marijuana around the world. What are the laws? Is it safe to smoke out? How do you find some? You get the picture.

As a general guide, please see this post. It may be a little lackluster, but it was written by someone who rarely indulges (that would be me), so if you can tackle this topic with enthusiasm and aplomb, please send a sample by selecting a country and writing a blurb about the marijuana experience there. Paste it into the body of an email and send it on over to kate [at] matadornetwork.com with the subject line: Ganganator

The articles will be broken up by regions, so we’ll do Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central America, South America, Northern Africa, West Africa, and so on. We can throw in country specific posts also. Want to tackle state laws in the U.S.? Great. The most important thing is factual information about the laws and the marijuana culture in each article.

There may be more than one worthy candidates, and in that case we’ll take this on a pitch to pich basis.

If you can battle the anti-motivational syndrome and bust out two of these a month, that would be ideal. Each article will pay $25 via PayPal.

In case you’re curious, MatadorNetwork doesn’t publish under pseudonyms. If that crushes it for you, sorry.

The Baccalau Beast. Photo by Hedonist Cat

A few weeks ago I uncorked a bottle of cheap wine and opened iPhoto. Staring down some gnarly looking pizza photos I’d taken, I decided to rank the five worst I’d encountered this year. The piece was picked up in a few places including The New York Times’ Travel Blog. As I told a friend, I could write a 1,500 word masterpiece that will make nine people weep but if I throw up five goopy pizza pics and suggest that one is masturbating, well, the clicks keep coming.

The article was also translated into Spanish, causing me to become the epicenter of some kind of
food fight that’s been brewing in Buenos Aires. I generalized where I shouldn’t have and have promised that come January, when back in Argentina, I will point my mouth towards whatever pizza is suggested as good. I’ll be happy to eat my words – always have been.

One comment about the piece caught my eye. Pele Omori (of the foodie blog Hedonist Cat) recalled a pizza that she had had in Portugal, which I have since named The Baccalau Beast. One email later, I had a picture of this man-made abomination. I had to admit, it looked worse than anything I’d seen this year.

Taken at Papa Pizza in Evora, Portugal, The Baccalau Beast looks horrifying. For the uninitiated, baccalau is salted cod, a staple in the Portuguese diet. I’ve had two run-ins with this version of the fish and neither of them ended well. It is oily and yellow and almost seems uncooked even when it’s cooked. The texture must be close to that of human flesh. So, when I saw it on pizza I went fetal and started rocking in a corner.

We’ve had some great food pieces on Nights in the past few months, including Rev Dave Ciancio’s drool-able spread on big, beefy burgers. I’d like to throw this out there: If you have pictures and a hunger for food, we’d love to hear about it.

Best, worst, biggest, longest…we’re interested. Pop me an email with any and all ideas for food stories and I’d be more than happy to check it out. As long as it doesn’t involve baccalau and pizza. That’s just gross.

tom@matadornetwork.com

Your perspective is wanted here. Photo and Feature Photo: Joshua Rappeneker

While we like to know why good things are good, we also revel in the sour, the acerbic, the witty, and the cutting.

If you’re getting tired of people jokingly saying to you, “Yeah! But tell us what you really think,” then you should probably consider submitting something to us.

-Do I have stories about shows, concerts, festivals, restaurants, clubs, meals, or drunken escapades wherein the story is heavily reliant on place?

-Are these my go-to stories that I tell new people to get to know them and in order that they can get to know me?

-Do people laugh at these stories?

If you answered yes to the preceding questions, we are looking for your stories.

Tell the truth.

Let it all hang out.

Laugh at yourself and others.

You may contact me directly with pitches at kate [at] matadornetwork [dot] com. I will be reading for thoughtful presentation. Do your best. Put “I submit!” in the subject line so I know you read this.

Thank you for your attention,

Kate Sedgwick

Kate and I have been co-editing nights from outside of the USA. Kate’s in Buenos Aires and I’ve been taking a pretty long traipse around Earth. Neither one of us thought that we’d be editing a travel blog and we are both amazed that we get to do it every day.

The fact that we’re in charge is probably good evidence that you could be doing anything, anywhere. Neither one of us has a slew of experience and we’re happily winging it. It’s making me wonder how many people out there are strapped into the cubicle, daydreaming about doing the same thing.

The past few weeks I’ve been traveling with an old friend, a teacher from DC. She’s been doing week-long vacations for years and I coaxed her to come to Spain for a month. That thing happened – the thing that changes lives forever. At one point she looked at me and said, “Whoa. I can do this whenever I want. I can…do this.”

She’s now back home enduring the postpartum that must always come with travel – it’s made even worse by the new realization that she no longer has a tether.

The author has been looking for an excuse to use this photo.

Fear evaporates when you realize that you can do your thing almost anywhere in the world. It’s empowerment on a whole other level, usually one that nobody in your family can understand. But look around and you’ll find like-minded people, especially here at Matador. Folks who get the glaze in your eyes when you talk about obscure trails in Malaysia, or drool a bit when the subject of Mexican street food comes up.

It’s in this state that we edit MatadorNights. We’re most excited when we meet writers who are clamoring for a chance or have a whackjob idea for an article. It doesn’t matter to us if you’re in Peoria or Russia. We want to hear your ideas about your experiences, or even things that you’d like to research and explore.

Possibly – possibly – this is what makes the whole thing at Nights work. Kate and I function incredibly well in our underwear and are happy to code articles in bed. We’ll read just about anything submitted to the section, even if the author has disregarded basic principles of the English language, yet has a voice and a story to tell. We like the odd, the eccentric and the loose-lipped.

We’re seeking writers who are in the same boat as we are, captains who aren’t even sure what the hell a knot or a league is. We’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that you’re all welcome on board.

Tom (Edinburgh, 8/2/09)

Travel offers new perspectives, but in traveling, you’ll certainly notice that there is a common thread among humanity – heart-breaking, moving, inspiring and abhorrent. We scramble through our days – and what’s life for if not to experience everything we can, everywhere we can?

Better still if we can tell people a little about what it’s like.

Best of all if we can encourage someone else to do the same.

I am proud to be included in Matador Nights along with the incredible wit of Matador Life Editor Tom Gates and the profound observations that can be found in the entertaining writings of Matador Senior Editor David Miller.

Matador Nights has gotten a facelift along with the rest of the site. We may look better than ever, but we are still getting jostled by the bumps in the road and we’re still here to tell you all about it. The change in format extends to a new breed of work whereby we inject a little more fun into the pages with some shorter, punchier pieces.

We want to know what you think, too. We’ll take it into consideration. Let us know here. Stick your toe in the water and join our community. If you want to do more than just tell us what you think, show us by contributing.

Stay tuned in by subscribing, and get Matador in your inbox.

Photos Kate Sedgwick