GRAND CANYON HOLIDAY TRIP -- REAL or REEL? Once upon a time, when I was a little girl back in Cleveland, getting ready for a vacation meant that you made sure you had film in the camera and that you had enough Polaroid film with you to take pictures of the highlights that you could treasure on the way home. Our family didn't have a movie camera or a video camera so my life and vacations are chronicled in still photos and fading Polaroids of various consistency depending on what year the Polaroids were taken and what Polaroid camera was used. Decades later, a trip to the Grand Canyon over the holidays made me realize that life is now more reel than real. 
Hollywood2020 Blogger Joyce Schwarz at the Grand Canyon over the holidays-- are vacations today more "reel' than 'real' that's the subject of her blog on January 15, 2006 at www.hollywood2020.blogs.com
WHY MORE REEL THAN REAL?
Ahead of time, I sent for a DVD from the Arizona tourism association but it didn't prepare me for the vastness of the Grand Canyon nor the experience on the great Grand Canyon Railroad. Digital cameras capture the essence of what's happening and are ready for viewing and reviewing instantaneously -- faster than a Polaroid-- yet there remains the biggest challenges -- printing out the photos along the way. Sure you can carry a small printer with you or you can go to the local Photo service or Drugstore photo service and download to a DVD or get prints in as little as an hour -- as long as you're in a big city or there are not 100 vacationers in front of you trying to do the same thing. Kodak and Sony kiosks are sprouting up everywhere-- but once again you have to be in a city where they are available. No such service at the Grand Canyon National Park.
But here are my reasons I think that vacations and experiences are increasingly becoming more "reel" than "real".
Inside view of the Grand Canyon Train -- what an experience in stepping back in time. A real experience caught on reel of course!
Banjo player on the Grand Canyon railway -- taking you really back in time!
WHY VACATIONS ARE MORE REEL THAN REAL TODAY......
1) Television -- especially PBS and the Travel Channel and National Geographic Channel make us feel like we've been everywhere. Yet, when I looked at the Grand Canyon I had no idea that the walls of it were pastel shades ranging from pinks to blues to outrageous mixtures beyond any photo I had seen before.
2) Screens are everywhere -- in museums, in visitor centers, in tour operator offices and of course in our cars and vans. On the way to Grand Canyon -- our tour van operator plays a DVD of the Grand Canyon so we can see what a Mule trip is like-- alas, we're not taking the mule trip. BUT we are signed up for the Grand Canyon Train -- no reel experiences of that before some of us get dropped off for the real experience.
3) Cameras are ubiquitous -- cell phones are used more for photos than for calls it seems on the road. I'm still not a cell phone camera freak. I prefer my HP Digital Camera. And if I had better way to display my video camera streams I would carry that with me. Everyone else seems more interested in recording the experiences via their cell or their multiple cameras -- I saw one husband and wife at the Grand Canyon with 4-5 cameras each wrapped around their heads and arms -- I don't think they ever looked at the Grand Canyon with their own eyes-- only through the lens of one of the many cameras. Real is still best in my book. And reel is for remembering.
4) Phones ring everywhere-- phones ring, buzz, vibrate and zap out tunes from 50 Cents to old Rolling Stones tunes everywhere....people around you think nothing of breaking into your reality with their instructions for how to use a computer to an office pal back in New York or sweet nothings to their lover in Paris --even at the Grand Canyon. No one seems to be present. The reel is just more real than the real.
5) DVD and Laptops and iPods take you away from the present-- Have you noticed that the kids using DVDs and the execs using laptops and the teens using iPods never seem to leave home or the office -- they are connected by the reel to their real beyond the real of NOW -- the little girl from Montreal on our tour was quiet as a mouse but she was watching a portable DVD most of the time --several glances and I couldn't figure it out -- Jim Carrey doing something reel --not looking out at the real trip through the mountains. And when she was 'filming the real' with her reel camera she seemed more concerned about the settings than the scenery.
5) DO-OVER -- on the way back from the Grand Canyon our tour van was treated to the movie with Billy Crystal CITY SLICKERS and I thought about his comment in the film that you don't get a chance to "do-over" your life. So why is so much of our time spent in the reel world versus the real world? Which brings me to number 6
6) Simulated experiences -- Had I remembered about the mule trip in advance I might have signed up for that -- I had seen it once when Bill O'Reilly described his vacation earlier this year in USA TODAY -- but had forgotten about it until we got to Arizona. Now I want to simulate my whole vacation again....experience the banjo on the train, drink that spicey Bloody Mary, chat with the Brits across the aisle. Pick up the brochure on the Polar Express version of the Grand Canyon Railway experience for next holiday season and more. So how do I do that-- today it's still a disparate set of real options to capture the reel world. Flickr -- sure I could post my cell phone pix, Kodak.com -- sure I'll put up my digital pix in an album. Video-- I didn't take a camera but I'm sure digital video is around of the experiences I had somewhere on the web-- but how do I find them. Audio -- like to hear that Scottish lad giving our tour once more. Wish I had gotten in more of my photos. I want that "DO-OVER" Billy Crystal says is impossible to find-- I want to play it again Sam .....and in the next couple of months I'm sure it will be possible as I explore how to simulate real expereinces with reel tools. Happy New Year and I promise not to be gone so long again!!. Joyce Schwarz, January 15, 2006
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