Author: Jim Santos
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Comparing Two “Immersive” Art Shows
In April of 2022, to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to go to and see the show “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience”, playing in the Graceland Exhibition Center. We had been meaning to catch the show for a while, and since we had never been to Memphis and it…
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New Podcast Episode: Travel and Retirement Overseas as a Gay, Interracial Couple
As readers know, I have been hosting the podcast, “Bigger, Better World” for International Living for several months now. In general, the show deals with topics of interest to those who are currently living abroad, or are contemplating such a move. Some listeners have told me they just like to hear about new places they…
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Time Marches On (Us)
As of the first of this month, March of 2023, I became part of a demographic that is difficult for me to comprehend. I am now officially on Medicare. That’s right, a little later this month I will reach my 65th birthday. It all seems a little surreal to me. I can’t possibly by 65…
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New Podcast Launch!
Phone the neighbors, wake the kids, time for a major announcement! This week marks the release of a new podcast from International Living, “Bigger, Better World”, with yours truly as the host. I know, just what a troubled country needs right now, yet another podcast. But this one is different! Because … well, because I’m…
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Retirement Podcast – Knoxville, TN
I’m proud to announce that you can now listen to a podcast interview I did for the good folks at Retire There with Gil and Gene. Although I have written over 200 articles and a couple of books about living and retiring overseas, Gil and Gene and I discussed something a little different – Knoxville, Tennessee as…
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Time to Grow Up
This is our second holiday season celebrated under the shadow of COVID-19, and I’ve been seeing some common themes pop up on social media revolving around family get-togethers between vaccinated and unvaccinated kinfolk. If you have browsed through Facebook or Twitter the last few weeks, you know what I mean. It seems there is always…
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Strip-Mining Classics for Profit
I just finished watching the most recent episode of the long-anticipated Wheel of Time on Amazon, and felt compelled to write about it. I also will get into another long-awaited series, Foundation on AppleTV. I suppose I should say “spoiler alert!” because I will mention some plot points without giving too much away, but in truth, the main issue…
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Finding My Voice
There are some old TV commercials for Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups that are variations on a basic theme. One person is eating peanut butter, another is eating chocolate. Through a lucky mishap, they stumble into each other and one exclaims, “Hey, you got chocolate on my peanut butter!” The other retorts with “You got peanut…
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Rising Up To Leaven
Inspired by our trip to San Francisco and the wonderful sourdough bread they have there, I decided to take advantage of our being home for the next few weeks to do something I’ve always meant to try – create my own sourdough starter. If you are not familiar with this, the starter is used instead…
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Lesson Re-Learned
If you have read any of my books or short stories on travel, you know that Rita and I normally eschew the guided tours, preferring instead to discover and explore on our own and at our own pace. In fact, one of my recent posts was about the joy of finding someplace unexpected. It is not…