Lonely Planet Sean & David's Drive Thru America

A follow-up to Sean and David's Long Drive (through Australia), this ""road trip"" through America is related by two Aussies with little charm and even less to say. Their journey begins in Montreal, then moves to New York City before heading through the South (Nashville, Jackson, New Orleans) and Southwest (Santa Fe, Flagstaff) to reach their final destination: California, where--surprise, surprise--they hustle Sean's in-progress screenplay. Sean and David are children of the 1970s, repeating familiar laments about cultural confusion and making predictable, ironic pop culture references that will ensure that their book is completely incomprehensible almost immediately after publication. In conversational asides, we hear them discuss life as music video on such topics as marriage: ""Exactly who do you invite to the great event?"" ""Yeah, it's like the ultimate band set list."" ""And your relatives are the hits from twenty years ago."" We are treated to a daily review of motel television offerings, their drug and alcoholic consumption, discourses on the weather in various regions of the country and criticism of the poor quality of roadside food. They also irritate strangers, refusing to recount any but the most meaningless conversations had along the way, and generally prove that if you set out to look for all that is cheap, trendy and superficial about American culture, you will find it. This is a long commercial that advertises the short attention spans and shallow pleasures of traveling with two guys whom you're glad you didn't join on the road. (Mar.)