Become a Pioneer Patron of our emerging new technology :: Broadcasting Live Video from On the Road.

Our Story

In 1957 Jack Kerouac approached Marlon Brando to do a movie from his book On The Road. He envisioned the film to be shot, with the camera on the front seat of the car showing the road (day and night) unwinding into the windshield, as Sal and Dean yak.

Currently a movie is in process On The Road; directed by Walter Salles and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. To be released sometime in the summer of 2012. Walter Salles also produced a documentary Searching for On the Road, in which he takes the same road trip as the lead character in the novel, Sal Paradise, and talks to Beat poets who knew Kerouac. The documentary has also not been released yet.

When I saw that a movie was finally being made with Jack Kerouacs On the Road my creative juices began flowing again. I had read the books On the Road and Dharma Bums, while in college. In retrospect; I clearly see their influence on my life and Im sure many others. You see, I live and travel in a mini-motorhome today! Ive been a real nomad most of my life. Although the last 10 years have leaned more towards the virtual than the real.

Kerouacs letter to Brando also states, Dont worry about the structure, I know to compress and re-arrange the plot a bit to give a perfectly acceptable movie-type structure: making it into one all-inclusive trip instead of the several voyages coast-to-coast in the book, one vast round trip from New York to Denver to Frisco to Mexico to New Orleans to New York again..

So my creative mind got to work; movies are great and I cant wait to see the ones I just described. But. Movies are only edited glimpses of past events. So. What a great juxtaposition! To produce Kerouacs America against our American reality today, some 60 years later in Real-Time Video!

Its time for me cleanse once again and re-seek my own individualistic creative process. Catch a new ride, grab the golden ring and watch the fireworks.

The Journey

Our journey starts back tracking Jack Kerouacs route in Dharma Bums; beginning, from his end point, at the High Ross Dam in Skagit County, Washington (sorry we cant drive to the firewatch lookout at Desolation Peak) down to his starting point, North Beach in San Fransisco. From there we travel to his starting point in On The Road, Patterson, New Jersey. Then we back trace his journey once again and return to North Beach in San Fransisco. All along we stop at all the points in between that he did.

Our journey is documented, as much as possible, with a live video stream from the windshield of our solar power equipped classic mini-motorhome. Live video streams tied to gps coordinates of our real time locations are mapped and made available on this blog.  We stop at points Jack mentions in his book and shoot live video of landmarks that hes pointed out (if they still exist or whats there now if they dont). We conduct interviews with locals regarding their knowledge of Kerouacs visit and also general discussion on the state of America today.

Our crew consists of: me (Roady) and various localized co-pilots that jump onboard along the route.

We have multiple cameras and computers in the motorhome for use as live Skype video chat cams with you while we are under way.  Our main cam will be mounted on the dash, pointed forever at the road ahead, just as Jack envisioned. We have a portable remote cam for interviews and forays away from the motorhome.  You can text chat with us on various IMs.

You can read about our daily trials and tribulations in the Daily Journal.  Subscribers will have download access to Live Video that has been archived or watch our Youtube Channel, OnTheRoadLive.  You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The Impact

Ok, so youre stuck at homecant take a road trip; what with gas costing what it does.  Been reminiscing about the good timeslistening to some cool jazz or whatever.  You turn-on, tune-in to On The Road Live  the Internets first Reality TV 247 Live Road Trip.

Lets subscribe at a nice level to get the live video stream and pinpoint their location on the GPS map.  Its almost like being there and a whole lot cheaper.

I remember Jack Kerouac; the father of The Beat Generation and pioneer of the road trip as a search for self expression.  Lets see how his America is doing today!

Wow! I can video chat - - with Roady and Co-Pilot, live, while theyre driving the route.  Its interesting to listen to Jacks narrative while viewing Live Video of the locations he visited.  The local live interviews sure give give you a great perspective on where America is today.  Not to mention all the cool video, books and historical links they have.

What We Need & What You Get

We've got the motorhome and all the websites ready to go.  Our live feed servers are up and running.  We need this $20K round of funding to outfit the motorhome with the proper production equipment (cameras, audio, encoding computers and bonding proxy appliances). 10K will be used for this equipment.  The balance will be used to service the motorhome (which is in excellent condition, for it's age; less than 100K miles), Internet connectivity, gas and crew expenses.  This amount will easily get us on the first leg (the Dharma Bums route) and help us prepare for the second leg (San Fransisco to Patterson, NJ).

We have a membership option on the web site to continually raise funds while underway.  We are also in the process of presenting our project to the 2 movies that are currently in production and soon to be released. Should the total funding goal not be reached we will continue outfitting the motorhome with the production equipment for use on other projects we're developing for our LiveTelevents Broadcasting Network.  If that should occur any current patrons would receive equivalent benefits in any of our future LiveTelevent projects.

On The Road Live is solely supported by membership subscriptions.  Here are subscription levels and the benefits of each.  Subscribe today and begin your vicarious personal exploration.

$10 Subscription Hitchhiker
Access to write comments on OnTheRoadLive posts!

$25 Subscription Explorer
Access to all archived OnTheRoadLive footage on Youtube + $10 subscription benefits!

$50 Subscription Educator
Access to our personal travel journals and Live Video Feed + $25 subscription benefits!

$100 Subscription Entourage
Access to our private group video chats + $50 subscription benefits!

$250 Subscription Roady
Access to private one -on-one video chats + $100 subscription benefits!

$500 Subscription Road Hog
2 tickets to a private Were Home beatnik social in North Beach, San Fransisco + $250 subscription benefits!

Other Ways You Can Help

Get the word out on this great vicarious adventure by using our share tools and inviting your friends.