Destination: Africa
Brook Silva-Braga on ‘One Day in Africa’
by Eva Holland | 03.19.09 | 1:19 PM ET
Over at Brave New Traveler, Ian MacKenzie interviews the creator of the backpacker documentary A Map for Saturday about his latest project and the challenges of telling a story about Africa. Brook Silva-Braga had the idea for his new documentary, One Day in Africa when he was offered the chance to cross the continent from north to south. “The trip offered a great chance to visit a large part of the continent but the disadvantage of moving through each place pretty quickly,” he said. “So the solution I came up with was to profile people throughout Africa but only for a single day.” In choosing his six subjects, Silva-Braga said he “wanted to avoid the easy traps of filling stereotypical boxes like ‘the guy with AIDS’ and ‘the woman in a refugee camp.’ Instead I was looking for people who could articulate what was important to them and give a sense of what life in their community is like.”
“One Day in Africa” will be making the rounds on the spring festival circuit; it premieres at the Cleveland Film Festival next week. Check out the wanderlust-inducing trailer:
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Yahoo! BuzzYaounde, Cameroon
by World Hum | 03.19.09 | 11:25 AM ET
REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly Children stand in the rain hoping to catch a glimpse of Pope Benedict XVI in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde.
Slumming It: Can Slum Tourism Be Done Right?
by Eric Weiner | 03.16.09 | 11:57 AM ET
REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe Global Positioning: On the intersection of place, politics and culture
Morning Links: Japan’s ‘Ambassadors of Cute,’ Obama’s Position on Travel and More
by Michael Yessis | 03.13.09 | 8:06 AM ET
- Australia floats a plan to offer tourists free flights to the country, provided they spend a certain amount of money while visiting. (via Jaunted)
- IgoUgo lists 10 places to go to drink iconic drinks.
- Out: Sears Tower. In: Willis Tower.
- Airport living: A Finnish woman apparently spent more than two months calling Berlin’s Tegel airport home. (via Gridskipper)
- Japan unveils its “Ambassadors of Cute.” Metro has a photo.
- Kenya slashes visa fees to encourage more travelers to visit.
- The latest Washington Post Time Zones piece: Eating in Tehran with Thomas Erdbrink.
- The White House clarified President Obama’s position on travel: Travel on federal bailout money bad. A strong travel industry good.
- Finally, in the Onion TV listings: Crash Cab. Description: “In this hit game show, unsuspecting taxi passengers must answer general knowledge trivia questions correctly to prevent their cab from careening into the nearest storefront or bridge abutment.” (via @Marilyn_Res)
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Guns, Mom and Guinea
by April Thompson | 03.11.09 | 9:27 AM ET
Photo by Aaron Sharghi April Thompson wanted to show off her new West African home to her mother. Nothing could go wrong, right?
Morning Links: Paris Celebrates Voids, Favellywood, the Travel Bug and More
by Jim Benning | 03.06.09 | 11:03 AM ET
- Gotta love diplomatic pressure: Iranian officials say they’re going to free American freelance journalist and NPR contributor Roxana Saberi.
- Slate’s Jack Shaffer visits Africa a few times a week—thanks to the New York Times’ man in East Africa.
- Paris celebrates the art of the void at the Pompidou Centre.
- The Telegraph has put together a fine list of the 20 best travel books, including some fiction. Your assignment: Compare and contrast with our list of the best 30.
- Busted: Catalonia’s tourism officials, who used a photo of an Australian beach to represent Spain’s Costa Brava.
- Rio’s favelas + Hollywood film crews = Favellywood? One neighborhood where crews can “shoot without getting shot.” Ugh.
- Is San Diego the new super-yacht capital? I’m hanging with the wrong crowd.
- And finally, from the Travel Channel home offices in Chevy Chase, Maryland: Do you have the travel bug? Pay a visit to the Travel Bug Treatment Center. I was diagnosed a “Trailblazer.” What form does your bug take?
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Travel Nostalgia: The World in Vintage Posters
by Eva Holland | 03.02.09 | 5:23 PM ET
I’ve confessed to my abiding love of postcards before, and now I have another confession: I am a total sucker for the vintage travel poster and all its varied (fridge magnet, notebook, calendar, tote bag) incarnations. There’s something so refreshing about those old Cunard posters, or the early advertisements for transcontinental passenger rail. They have a guileless wonder to them, and a total lack of cynicism or irony—because they come from an era when nobody thought they had already seen it all. So I was thrilled to read on the Shoretrips blog about a major vintage poster auction being held in New York.
The auction’s already come and gone, but the entire collection is still viewable online. There are more than 400 posters in the sale, though, and only some of them are travel-related—so for all my fellow vintage-travel-poster-lovers (and I know you’re out there) I’ve put together a list of my favorites, and a cheat sheet for the rest.
A Very International Oscars
by Eva Holland | 02.23.09 | 2:38 PM ET
Last night’s Oscars ceremony is likely to be up for debate for some time—among the most contentious issues, for me, is the fact that the cast of “High School Musical” got more screen time than most nominees—but one thing is certain: it was the most international Oscars since 2004, when Charlize Theron thanked everyone in South Africa, and the winners from “Lord of the Rings” managed to name-drop just about everyone in New Zealand, too.
In the 2009 edition, there were acceptance speeches smattered with Spanish (Penelope Cruz, for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) and Tamil (A.R. Rahman, the composer for “Slumdog Millionaire”), there were shout-outs to Mumbai (from the assortment of “Slumdog” winners, who took home 8 awards between them), and there were two separate winners from Japan.
My favorite globally-flavored Oscar moments, after the jump:
Morning Links: Mexico Travel Alert, Mardi Gras Tips and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.23.09 | 9:46 AM ET
- A bomb exploded in Cairo’s Hussein Square, killing at least one tourist.
- China has closed Tibet to international travelers in preparation for the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile.
- The Washington Post says the latest State Department travel alert for Mexico “reads like the plot of a crime thriller.”
- USA Today/Gallup poll: 58 percent of Americans “will shrink their vacation spending this year—or just not go.”
- Here’s what not to do at Mardi Gras.
- Tom Haines follows the wind in North Dakota.
- World Hum contributor David Farley will be speaking tonight at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.
- The Christian Science Monitor has more on Lucca’s ban of ethnic restaurants.
- Is a lost empire concealed in the Amazon?
- Has Atlantis been found by Google Ocean? Google says no.
- Two travel books made the pages of The New York Times Sunday Book Review: Magic Bus and The Way of Herodotus.
- Another day, another mix-up: A pass for Philly Beer Week features the skyline of New York City. Really, how could you mix ‘em up?
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Abu Simbel, Egypt
by World Hum | 02.20.09 | 9:38 AM ET
REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic A man walks with his hunting falcon in a desert near Abu Simbel, some 1,300 km south of Cairo. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic
Morning Links: JetBlue Fare Refunds, America’s Emptiest Cities and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.18.09 | 8:31 AM ET
- It happened again: Another cruise ship ran aground in Antarctica.
- Las Vegas and Detroit finished 1-2 in a Forbes list of America’s emptiest cities.
- Inside the hardened, restless lives of business-travel nomads.
- Here’s a scathing takedown of the idea of Dubai. (via Kottke)
- Here’s another dancing guy. He doesn’t go around the world, though. Just to hallways and stairwells and such.
- Teresa Watanabe looks at African Americans who are being “called back to Africa by DNA.”
- JetBlue promises fare refunds if you lose your job—with some fine print.
- “Afghan Model” is coming to Emrooz TV.
- The Yankees are building a new vacation stadium in the Hamptons, complete with on-deck gazebos and yacht parking for the players. The Onion has exclusive video.
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Robert Plant: From Wales to Timbuktu
by Eva Holland | 02.17.09 | 2:39 PM ET
In the wake of Plant’s five Grammy wins last week, the bloggers at Rock’s Backpages have dug up this 2003 story about a one-day tour of Snowdonia, in Wales—with the former Led Zeppelin frontman playing tour guide. In it, Plant reminisces about the ways a visit to Timbuktu influenced his subsequent solo efforts, and takes the writer to Bron-Yr-Aur, the rural Welsh cottage where he and Jimmy Page wrote much of “Led Zeppelin III.” “Bron-Yr-Aur gave Jimmy and me so much energy,” Plant says. “Because we were really close to something. We believed. It was absolutely wonderful, and my heart was so light and happy.”
Morning Links: Holidays in Banda Aceh, ‘Slavery Theme Park’ and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.17.09 | 9:15 AM ET
- Passengers can no longer kiss at England’s Warrington Bank Quay Station.
- Is Marlon Jackson supporting a “slavery theme park” in Nigeria?
- The Mumbai attacks have apparently “put the brakes” on tourism in India.
- State and local governments to travel booking sites: Pay up!
- Daisann McLane: “Until I learn a place with my feet, I never really feel like I know it.”
- John Aglionby says Banda Aceh “has arguably become one of south-east Asia’s hidden holiday destinations.”
- Spud Hilton sifts through language-study options for travelers.
- In typo news: There’s one on the Manhattan Supreme Courthouse. It only took 82 years to discover it. Hooray!
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Morning Links: Paul Theroux Spits From Trains, Swimsuit Issue Locales and More
by Jim Benning | 02.11.09 | 10:42 AM ET
- Paul Theroux likes to spit out the window of a moving train—and other interesting tidbits from one of our favorite writers.
- With the economy in the tank, are travelers looking for “recession chic”?
- Any chance the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act we noted yesterday will actually pass? “Conditions are good for it,” one expert says.
- Cross-border bi-national marriages are great—until they fall apart. The Economist explains. (Via NYT Ideas blog)
- Kate Chambers on paying the porters, Zimbabwe-style.
- The Louvre is planning The Funeral of Mona Lisa. Paris-bound? Wear black.
- Sports Illustrated photographers went to the Grenadines to shoot part of the new Swimsuit Issue. “[A] ho-hum choice since the Caribbean is a Swimsuit Issue go-to location,” says Jaunted. Yeah, Swimsuit Issue readers around the world will be soooo disappointed.
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The Year’s Six Best Global Pop Albums
by Ben Keene | 02.06.09 | 10:49 AM ET
REUTERS/Ints Kalnins Ben Keene wants a new category added at the Grammys: Global Pop for the Traveling Mind. Herewith, his nominees.