Destination: Los Angeles
Touring Literary Los Angeles: City of Chandler, Bukowski and Fante
by Jim Benning | 06.21.07 | 12:53 PM ET
In some cities, like Dublin, visitors have little trouble finding a good literary tour. Los Angeles is not one of those cities, yet it has a compelling literary history. So I was happy to read Sunday’s Los Angeles Times story about a new tour of Los Angeles through the prism of novelist John Fante, focusing particularly on Fante’s old downtown haunts, including Bunker Hill. Fante isn’t as well known as L.A. novelists Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski (even though Fante’s classic novel Ask the Dust was recently made into a movie), so it would stand to reason, I thought, that the people behind the Fante tour were not your typical tour operators. I dialed up Richard Schave, co-founder of the recently formed tour company Esotouric (“bus adventures into the secret heart of L.A.”) to ask him about their adventures into L.A.‘s bookish heart. It turns out the Fante tour is just the beginning.
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Yahoo! BuzzRestaurants ‘Nudge Diners’ in Campaign for Zagat Votes
by Michael Yessis | 05.04.07 | 8:26 AM ET
The Zagat guides took another punch this week. The New York Post’s Steve Cuozzo revealed that restaurant owners in New York are mounting e-mail campaigns to have diners vote for their restaurants, a practice allegedly forbidden by the Zagats. Yet, according to the Post, the Zagats don’t seem to be enforcing their rules.
Talking Books, Writing and Travel in New York and Los Angeles
by Jim Benning | 04.23.07 | 4:55 PM ET
It’s a good week for literature lovers on the East and West coasts. In New York, the PEN World Voices Festival kicks off tomorrow and runs through Sunday. It’s packed with compelling events featuring authors from around the globe. Among the highlights: Tomorrow, Pico Iyer and Billy Collins, both the subject of World Hum interviews, will discuss the environment. On Wednesday, novelist Don Delillo makes a rare appearance on a panel entitled Writing Home. (It was in DeLillo’s novel “The Names” that we first came across the phrase “world hum.”) Thursday’s schedule features Multiple Passports: Writers on Homeland and Identity, which includes Ian Buruma, author of the excellent Asia travel book “God’s Dust.” And Sunday brings two panels for travel literature fans: Voyage and Voyeur: Travel and Travel Writing, featuring Alain de Botton, among others, and A Tribute to Ryszard Kapuscinski.
And the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Travel Writing Goes to?
by Jim Benning | 04.16.07 | 4:31 PM ET
Nobody. The 2007 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded today, but of course, there’s no category for travel writing. Still, we’re delighted that LA Weekly food writer Jonathan Gold won the Pulitzer for criticism. That’s close enough, because Gold approaches Los Angeles restaurants with a traveler’s sensibility, venturing into hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants where few food critics dare to go, from Thai Town to Little Ethiopia. His 2000 book, Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles, is probably a little dated by now, but it’s still a great guide for anyone seeking out the city’s most interesting food—and neighborhoods.
Oscars Tourism Tips, or How to Stalk Celebrities Like the Paparazzi
by Jim Benning | 02.07.07 | 1:40 PM ET
Yes, apparently there is such a thing as “Oscars tourism.” Here’s but one bit of creepy advice—um, I mean a savvy insider tip—from an Associated Press story about how to plan a trip to Hollywood for the Academy Awards and spot celebrities: “Wander around. Don’t look like a tourist, but bring a camera. Stars could be lurking around any corner. Even hanging out in the valet line has its perks. Waiting for my sister-in-law and her husband to join us for drinks, we saw rapper Tyrese stroll by and actress Finola Hughes gave us a wave and a smile. Hardly an A-list spotting, but it was a start.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Explorers
by Michael Yessis | 02.02.07 | 9:38 AM ET
Travelers appear top of mind this week, not destinations. The journeys of Daisann McLane, Bill Bryson, Paulina Porizkova, Martin Sargent, celebrity watchers and Dora the Explorer lead off the Zeitgeist.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Daisann McLane: ‘Learning Cantonese’ in Hong Kong
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
Travel Song Medley by Dora the Explorer
Most Read Story
World Hum (this week)
Paulina Porizkova: A Model Traveler
Most Read Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Oscars Tourism: Celebrity Sightings and a Hotel Within Gawking Distance of the Red Carpet
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* We like this book.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
Area-Daily.com Launches
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Farecast
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
A Walk in the Woods
Most Dugg Travel Podcast
Digg (current)
Martin Sargent: Web Drifter
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: California Dreaming
by Michael Yessis | 01.12.07 | 8:40 AM ET
From Los Angeles to Big Sur, travelers have California on their minds this week. Supermodels, Walt Disney World, St. John and Sealand, too. Here’s the Zeitgeist:
Top-Ranked ‘Zeitgeist’ City
Hub Culture (2007)
Los Angeles
* The Walt Disney Concert Hall (pictured) and other attractions have helped turn L.A. into a city of the moment.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Big Sur Without the Crowds
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
Ghostly Squid Boats of San Pedro
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
For Sale: World’s Smallest Island Nation
* The price for Sealand? $100 million, by one estimate.
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2007 by Bob Sehlinger with Len Testa
Most Viewed Story
World Hum (this week)
Paulina Porizkova: A Model Traveler
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Dance of the Flight Attendant
* A clever comic by Jen Wang.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Cuba, Cabo and Chinese Restaurants
by Michael Yessis | 12.08.06 | 9:06 AM ET
And some travel icons shall take over the Zeitgeist. This week travelers are looking to Rick Steves, Pico Iyer and, once again, to Bill Bryson for their travel fix. Let’s go, but let’s not take Comair Flight 5463.
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
Travel With Rick Steves
* And don’t forget: It’s time again for Rick Steves’ European Christmas.
Most Viewed Story
World Hum (this week)
Pico Iyer: On Travel and Travel Writing
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
The East Is West: The Best Chinese Restaurants in Southern California
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
New Hope for Legal Travel to Cuba?
Most Read Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Airline Luggage Complaints Remain High
* This year could be the worst for lost, delayed, damaged or stolen baggage since 1991.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
How to Remove Tourists from Your Photos
John Flinn Does the Tonight Show
by Jim Benning | 12.04.06 | 7:51 AM ET
In the audience, that is. The San Francisco Chronicle travel editor writes that it’s easier getting tickets to TV show tapings than ever. He even appeared on TV briefly after Jay Leno’s monologue. As he explains in Sunday’s paper, he was the guy next to the three firefighters.
Lonely Planet’s ‘The Perfect Day’
by Jim Benning | 10.17.06 | 3:14 PM ET
Most of us, when pressed, could describe our ideal day in a city we know well. It might begin with breakfast out and strolling along a favorite street. It might culminate with dinner and a trip to a favorite club to take in some live music. In between, we’d see something of the town, check out a particular neighborhood or two. That’s the concept behind Lonely Planet’s new book, The Perfect Day. It features short, perfect-day scenarios in 100 cities around the globe, from Kuala Lumpur to Philadelphia. Each city gets one page with several paragraphs and a photo. It’s a fun read. Of course, the perfect days described are perfect only for the people who wrote them, so part of the pleasure in flipping through the book is arguing with the selections for a given city.
Out: Palm Trees. In: Oak Trees.
by Jim Benning | 09.14.06 | 1:36 PM ET
Few features define the Los Angeles landscape more than towering palms. They’re the stuff of postcard images. They earn appreciative nods in just about every L.A. travel story—a quick Google search turned up this gem: “From sun, sand and palm trees, to hiking and biking in the mountains, the Los Angeles area has something for everyone.” But according to city officials, they couldn’t be less environmentally correct or more expensive. As a result, few of the dying trees planted before the 1932 Olympics are being replaced by young palms. A USA Today story about this—and how oaks just might become L.A.‘s new palms—offers a fascinating glimpse into the way economics and changing environmental attitudes can re-shape a landscape.
Generation X: Dragging RVs into the 21st Century
by Michael Yessis | 08.15.06 | 9:49 AM ET
Who said my generation was full of slackers who weren’t going to accomplish anything? According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, we are in the process of reinvigorating the recreational vehicle industry. We are outfitting RVs with disco ball lights, Tiki fabrics and flat-screen TVs! We are sleeping off hangovers in bar parking lots! And we are even protecting ourselves from terrorism! Hooray for us! “Generation Xers, who grew up on Star Wars, Ataris and Cabbage Patch Kids, have become the fastest-growing group of RV buyers, a trend that is forcing the $14-billion industry to rethink how it designs and markets the ultimate toys for grown-ups,” writes the Times’ Kimi Yoshino.
A Los Angeles-San Francisco Bullet Train?
by Jim Benning | 07.07.06 | 10:35 AM ET
Michael Dukakis (the guy who taught us all that one bad photo-op can ruin your whole presidential campaign) makes the case in today’s L.A. Times for a high-speed train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. We know, it’s a pipe dream. But we can dream, can’t we?
R.I.P. California Map & Travel, Cody’s Books
by Jim Benning | 06.29.06 | 1:13 PM ET
Today, we pay our respects to two great California bookstores we’re losing or already have lost. California Map & Travel Center, the fine Santa Monica travel bookstore whose L.A. roots stretched back to 1949—an eternity in L.A.—recently closed shop. The small Pico Boulevard store was crammed with guidebooks, narratives and globes, and it sometimes hosted readings. I once saw travel editor and writer Thomas Swick read there on a book tour, to an enthusiastic audience. The store was profiled here in better days. The other big loss, of course, is Cody’s Books, an institution on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. The store, which stocked all kinds of books, will close July 11. Two other Bay area Cody’s locations will continue to operate, but it is the Telegraph Avenue store, a stone’s throw from the UC Berkeley campus, that is so beloved among book-lovers.
Welcome to “Tehrangeles”
by Michael Yessis | 06.08.06 | 12:28 PM ET
The biggest community of Iranians outside of Iran lives in Los Angeles, or “Tehrangeles” as some residents call it. As tensions between the governments of U.S. and Iran continue to rise over, among other things, the development of nuclear technology, Tehrangeles has become more and more important in the eyes of both countries. The Council on Foreign Relations, for instance, says the CIA relies on Tehrangeles to “pick up valuable intelligence” from residents who travel often between the two countries. Today on NPR’s Morning Edition, Renée Montagne takes a less wonky look at the community, which is centered along Westwood Boulevard, just south of the UCLA campus. “Pop into any shop and you’ll hear Farsi,” she says. “The business signs are all in Persian.”