<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@Cdespinosa" class="u-url mention">@<span>Cdespinosa</span></a></span> Was just talking to a relative (who works AV for major events) about this wondering &quot;how in the world does a mic not work for 20 minutes?&quot; </p><p>&quot;Oh yeah, we&#39;ve sent a guy running back to the van to get a capacitor belt. Should be fixed pretty soon.&quot;</p>

<p>I still wonder whether his AV team, makeup artists, and photo-op crew secretly hate him and sabotage everything to embarrass him and make him angry</p>

<p>6/ Ultimately, I wouldn&#39;t say I *learned* a whole lot from the book. One arrives with certain biases; one leaves with them confirmed. The medium, in some sense, is much of the message. Still, it&#39;s a book worth someone writing, and best done by a sympathetic author like him. •</p>

<p>5/ The premise is hard to keep up, and about 2/3 of the way through the book runs out of steam. A few bits are either a slog, or really not tied to the premise, or both. But that&#39;s forgivable given the overall effort. ↵</p>

<p>4/ Perur writes in a largely unjudgmental way. This is vital because it&#39;s very easy for the book to lapse into one long laugh at innocents, nouveaux riches, and the like. And the unstated truth is the kind of person who READS a travel book is ALSO the sort who disdains a pack. ↵</p>

<p>3/ The trips, naturally, become not so much about the places as about the methods. What do people seek out? How do they behave? What are their peccadillos? What does the herd do, and why? And how do different herds, on differently-themed and -located tours, behave? ↵</p>

<p>2/ Perur&#39;s book does just that. Instead of shunning them, he embraces packaged/conducted tours; this is the entire premise of his book. Each chapter is a trip to a different place (not only of India, despite the sub-title) in the bundled company of others. ↵</p>

<p>1/ The typical travel writer is an independent, free spirit. They are the very opposite of a herd. They look down with some contempt on the packaged tour; their goal is to be the opposite. So what happens when a writer turns the formula around 180°? ↵<br /><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BookReview</span></a></p>

<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@dabeaz" class="u-url mention">@<span>dabeaz</span></a></span> I&#39;m sorry. I totally get that feeling. </p><p>Not that you are looking for ideas or need ideas, but I always liked your music posts and about joining your city band (apologies if I&#39;m getting the terms wrong.) </p><p>Pre-pandemic, I took three or four sessions of Ukulele lessons through our local parks and rec center. It was fun and it was a very enthusiastic crowd (over my fun level) but it reminded me of playing in school and college (non-string instruments)</p>