Destination: New York
Movie Tourism: ‘An Obsessively Ridiculous, Embarrassing, Empty, and Needy Exercise’?
by Eva Holland | 12.17.08 | 3:52 PM ET
I’ve been thinking lately about the motivations behind movie tourism—not the “Wow, New Zealand sure looked beautiful in that elf movie” variety, but the literal, “X was filmed here” brand of movie-related travel. What is it that prompts people to run up the steps, Rocky-style, in Philadelphia, or to slide into a booth at New York’s Katz’s Deli and gigglingly declare, “I’ll have what she’s having”?
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Yahoo! BuzzDirt Candy, Anyone?
by David Farley | 12.17.08 | 12:44 PM ET
Hi there. I’m David Farley, World Hum’s resident food blogger. World Hum asked me to cover dining and food after recently watching me consume food and drink with eyebrow-raising fury at a New York restaurant. When I was young—we’re talking five and six years old—I received constant accolades from my mom for my eating prowess. And while I’m not necessarily in the same league with, say, Andrew Zimmern, I’ll still try just about anything at least once. Which means I’ve eaten everything from insects to the innards of large mammals. But when it comes to food, I can be quite the fancy boy (I love foie gras) and completely unfussy (I also love burgers and fried chicken).
With that behind me, Dirt Candy, anyone?
You can’t judge a book by its cover, so should you judge a restaurant by its name? Probably not. But would you want to eat at a vegetarian restaurant called Dirt Candy? Metromix recently named the worst-named new restaurants in New York.
Morning Links: ‘Ugly American’ Ad, World’s Best Hotels and More
by Michael Yessis | 12.17.08 | 8:57 AM ET
- A Burger King ad featuring “Whopper Virgins,” aka “remote Chang Mai villagers,” is being called “‘corporate colonialism,’ ‘cultural bullying’ and the worst kind of Ugly Americanism.” Stacy Peralta, a legend of my childhood, directed the ad.
- A tower collapsed at Whistler-Blackcomb yesterday, injuring more than a dozen and “and trapping other skiers for hours in dangling cars during a cold snap.”
- Travel + Leisure released its annual list of the 500 best hotels in the world.
- The casinos are behind the new weekend express trains between New York City and Atlantic City.
- Why do physicians write so well? Among those cited: Sometime travel writer, the late Michael Crichton.
- Health Magazine lists America’s Healthiest Airports.
- TSA in 2008: Gadling chronicles a year of being dumb.
- It’s sad that this story—37% of Americans Unable to Locate America on Map of America—had to include a disclaimer: “This post is a satire.” Though after skimming through the dumb things the TSA did this year, perhaps I’m being a little too optimistic in my belief in the competence of my fellow Americans.
Emergency Rations: Lessons From a 16-Hour Amtrak Ride
by Eva Holland | 12.15.08 | 1:17 PM ET
I have this theory about successful budget transit: that the key to surviving a cross-country Greyhound ride, or a bargain-basement flight with three changes (all in small regional airports without so much as a Starbucks, naturally) is to never, ever be caught without a snack. After all, the only thing worse than being forced to buy, and eat, that simultaneously-stale-and-soggy packaged tuna sandwich at the truck stop is not having the option of eating anything at all. Right?
I first started packing what I think of as my “emergency rations” on a trip to India several years ago. The granola bars I’d stuffed into every corner of my backpack were handy on long train rides—and after I (inevitably) got sick, they became invaluable, my sole source of nutrition until I could stand to contemplate curry again. That success led to more advanced efforts: I can still remember the looks I got from other passengers when I boarded a Halifax-Montreal overnight train with an enormous Tupperware full of cold stir fry under my arm. But my habit of packing lunch didn’t evolve into a full-blown theory until one fateful Amtrak ride, from New York to Montreal, around this time last year.
World Hum’s Restless Legs Reading
by World Hum | 12.11.08 | 4:21 PM ET
World Hum teamed up with Restless Legs Reading Series host and World Hum contributor David Farley in New York City for a night of readings for the wanderlust stricken.
Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs on 1940s New York
by Eva Holland | 11.06.08 | 12:05 PM ET
After years of legal wrangling, a collaborative novel by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs—written years before either of them found fame—has finally been published. And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a crime story, had remained in limbo for decades because it was based on the real-life murder of one of Kerouac’s and Burroughs’s acquaintances.
‘Great’ Wall Street Crashes: The Three Hour Tour
by Valerie Conners | 11.05.08 | 11:46 AM ET
Tourists Descend on Wall Street: ‘Everyone Wants to See What’s Going On’
by Michael Yessis | 10.14.08 | 12:09 PM ET
The AFP paints a surreal picture of the scene on Wall Street last week, as tourists “brought a bizarrely carnival-like atmosphere” to lower Manhattan. A “white-bearded busker [played] Amazing Grace on the flute,” and one Swedish visitor said what many of the scared and “numb” money guys might be thinking: “The Americans aren’t world leaders any more. It’s time for a shift and this is the symptom of that. Power is shifting away—perhaps to China.”
Related on World Hum:
* The ‘Terminal Illness’ of Airports
Photo by Helico, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Video: Award-Winning Film Shot in New York and Sydney—on a Cellphone
by Michael Yessis | 10.02.08 | 4:52 PM ET
Jason van Genderen’s “Mankind is no Island” won the top prize at the Tropfest NY short film festival last week with a street-level look at both cities. The film (see below) reminded me of sections of Helvetica—and opened my eyes again to the artistic possibilities of the cellphone, just like this film.
The Best (Almost) Fictional British Pubs
by Michael Yessis | 09.30.08 | 2:41 PM ET
Among David Barnett’s picks for great fictional pubs: George Orwell’s The Moon Under Water and Anthony Burgess’ Korova Milk Bar, from A Clockwork Orange. Though they’re products of the authors’ imaginations, it looks like they’re so good they’ve both spawned real-world pubs. In his Guardian piece, Barnett mentions a series of British pubs named The Moon Under Water. I found another in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Restless Legs Meets Litquake
by Michael Yessis | 09.24.08 | 4:06 PM ET
The latest installment of Restless Legs—David Farley’s “reading series for the wanderlust stricken”—takes place 6 p.m. Saturday at New York City’s Lolita Bar. Mary Morris and Ayun Halliday are the featured speakers for the event, which is also part of the first-ever New York City Litquake. Details of an upcoming World Hum-themed Restless Legs event coming soon.
Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with David Farley: The Restless Legs Reading Series
JFK JetBlue Terminal Reopens After Morning Evacuation
by Jim Benning | 09.22.08 | 12:51 PM ET
Attention, travelers passing through JFK this week: Please leave your World War II replica grenade paperweights at home. The U.N. Generally Assembly is meeting in New York, and security officials are, um, a little on edge.
‘Graffiti Tourist’ Indicted in New York City
by Michael Yessis | 09.18.08 | 5:17 PM ET
Newsday reports that Robbert Boxem of the Netherlands, aka KRAE, was in town for the “international graffiti event known as Meeting of Styles,” and he was charged with “spray painting a subway car and leading police on a dangerous chase.” The biggest surprise to me? The existence of such a thing as “graffiti tourism.”
The ‘Common Bonds of Strangers’: 30 Years Riding the La Cubana Bus
by Valerie Conners | 09.16.08 | 11:49 AM ET
For three decades the La Cubana bus has been shuttling its passengers between New York City and Miami, carrying them down I-95 toward relatives, jobs and dreams. “We carry all sorts of people: good people, bad people, all types,” said one of the bus’s drivers. “It’s life.” The New York Times offers a touching glimpse—through words and photos—inside what has become a microcosm of Latino culture.
Photo of I-95 by CoredesatChikai via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Vacationing in Bryant Park
by Eva Holland | 09.11.08 | 10:15 AM ET
As I’ve mentioned before, I can’t get enough of Bryant Park. Every time I visit New York I lose at least a day (and sometimes more) there, eating, reading, or just sitting in the sun watching people pass by. Every now and then I feel guilty for sitting in the park instead of doing all the things a visitor to New York “should” be doing—this is the part where I admit I’ve never been to the Met—but mostly I just relax and soak it in. I’m thrilled to see that my particular brand of NYC tourism has been endorsed by no less an authority than the New York Times, in this guide to kicking back in the park and its surrounding area.
Photo by factoryseashell via Flickr (Creative Commons).