Jesse Aizenstat's Blog, page 5

Baja Surf

PIX of the DAY
Surfing a place called "The Clam Factory" in North Baja. It's me in this one, going left, with the famous island and big wave surf spot Todos Santos in the background. Happy Friday everyone. Photo by Derren Ohanian / http://www.dnaimagery.com/

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Baja Sunset

PIX of the DAY
Central Baja is known as a lawless desert that produces much of the marijuana that gets smuggled into the United States by panga. It's also known for its beauty. Here we're camped out, getting ready for the next day... where we'd go into the fish camps to talk to people about drug smuggling. Photo by Luis Velazquez.

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Coronado Islands, looking at San Diego from Mexico

PIX of the DAY  Standing out at the Coronado Islands, just miles below the US-Mexican border. I'm looking North here, out to San Diego in the distance, noticing just how easy and open it is for Baja smugglers to make their journey into the United States. I guess I thought from watching the news that there would be all these crazy Navy ships or something . . . but there it is: San Diego. With open ocean in between. Photo by Derren Ohanian / http://www.dnaimagery.com/

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North Baja

 PIX of the DAY: 
On the cliffs of North Baja, about ten miles south of the US-Mexican border. On any given night, panga smugglers cross the ocean off this coast, making their way into the United States with migrant workers or marijuana. Photo by Derren Ohanian / http://www.dnaimagery.com/

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From my new Travel/News doc, Baja Smugglers

For the next two weeks I will post a daily picture from our time in Mexico filming Baja Smugglers. I'll also be posting cool pictures on my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook page. Follow me. We have a lot of gritty travel/news stuff to show. All of which can be seen in our soon-to-be-released YouTube documentary. See you back 2mar0.
PIX of the DAY: 
Mr Luis (producer/translator for Baja Smugglers) and myself walking to the US/Mexican border to go have a "chat" with Border Patrol near San Diego. Now there are radar sensors, military helicopters, and drones on the border that do a good job catching people in urban areas. But back in the day, Mr Luis was telling me that his dad crossed the border by simply jumping the fence and running through the bush.

Surfing the Middle East takes "best in travel" at Natinoal Indie Excellence Awards

It's award season and Surfing the Middle East has won another one. This time it's from the 2013 National Indie Excellence Awards. Best in the travel section. I've noticed they haven't updated their website with this years winners yet . . . so I'll do the old email screen shot. See below.

Special thanks again to to you--the reader. Without you, surfing from Israel to Lebanon would be something never shared. T'was a privilege to share it. 

"Surfing the Middle East" finalist at Indie Book Awards

Yep. We're winning awards again. Surfing the Middle East has been recognized as a finalist in the travel category at the Indie Book Awards. Many thanks to all who have followed this project from beginning to end. Even more thanks to those who have read and written me saying how much you enjoyed the adventure. Remember, writers write for the readers (you.). Couldn't have done it without you.

My next project--Baja Smugglers (travel/news documentary)--will soon takeover as the regular subject here in the Casbah. More soon!

"Surfing the Middle East" wins at Beverly Hills Book Awards!

It is with a proud heart that I can rely this information to you: Surfing the Middle East: Deviant Journalism from the Lost Generation has won 3 categories in the Beverley Hills Book Awards! Adventure, Travel, Non-fiction Cover Design.

 
I'd like to thank everyone who has followed this blog or has been personally supportive of me and my quest to tell the story of the Middle East through surfing. Making a product out of such an experience has been one of the most grueling yet fulfilling endeavors of my life.
Many thanks to you, the reader, who has supported me since day one. From a grateful author.

North Korea Propaganda

A friend sent me this halarious video about North Korea today. I'll say no more. Just watch it!


  Video: North Korea exposes life in the USA

Dennis Rodman in North Korea Is An Emerging Genre in the News

The Associated Press has long since carried the story and we've read the New York Times two-day analysis: Dennis Rodman has indeed been to North Korea, and strange as it may seem, he's the only American to have publicly met with its 28-year-old leader, Kim Jong Un.

VICE, who produced the trip for their new HBO series, knew that if they were going to get to one of the world's most mysterious news stories they'd have to think outside the box. They knew they'd have to create a context in which Kim Jong Un would voluntarily come to them. It worked.
(Backstory: While attending private school in Switzerland, Kim Jong Un's sports idol was Dennis Rodman, so when VICE staged an exhibition game in North Korea with a few Harlem Globetrotters, the young leader just couldn't resist.)

So be like Brian Stelter of the New York Times and dismiss this whole debacle as "daredevil journalism." Or loosen up a bit and enjoy that former NBA star Dennis Rodman -- nicknamed "The Worm" for his colorful antics and aggressive rebounding -- has better intelligence on the North Korean leader than the CIA.

In the world of brute serious journalism there is just no way to process that a drag queen like Rodman actually met with the youngest and most dangerous man alive. It's just not what they teach you at Harvard. But that's exactly why it worked. If what they taught in journalism school actually led to multiple day "hang out sessions" with the leader of the hermit kingdom then of course this story would have been done already. Nobody had figured out how to get through to the new leader of North Korea.

VICE found what I'm going to call a "linchpin" in the news. Rodman and the basketball game were the pin, that when pulled, caused Kim Jong Un to do something he's never done: socialize with Americans, requesting they ask the U.S. president to call him. This caused the media to go completely nuts, giving VICE and HBO massive press for their new series and a wild education to their viewers.

Yes, this event is more than just "stunt journalism". It is one example in an emerging genre of news. VICE's formula was to find a story with a hard news slant, figure out how to get the most interesting part of the story to come to them, and lace the actual substance of the event with jackass humor. The series hasn't even aired yet and the story has already gone viral.

So what kind of linchpin will somebody pull next? What other seemingly impossible issues are still out there? It'll have to be big; it'll have to be unconventional. And it'll have to top getting wasted with a nuclear-armed hermit named Kim Jong Un.


Originally published at the HuffPost