Destination: Tennessee
The Hutton Hotel: A Green Hotel Frenzy, Southern-Style!
by Alexander Basek | 02.26.09 | 10:17 AM ET
Currently in a soft-opening phase—the property just opened its doors last week—downtown Nashville’s Hutton Hotel is one of the most eco-friendly properties in the Southeast. Unlike a lot of other ostensibly green hotels with a program where they don’t change your sheets very often and that’s all they do for the environment, the Hutton bristles with technology that makes it greener and more efficient for the hotel. (In other words, it saves them money so, presumably, there’s oopmh behind it).
Inside, the Hutton is awash in bamboo—a highly renewable wood—on the floors and on the walls. The hotel even has a program in place to reduce waste from tiny plastic bottles for bathroom amenities, as well as dual-flush toilets. There’s also sexier amenities like media hubs for your electronics, digital controls for the shower so you can set a specific temperature and television displays in the lobby that turn into mirrors when they’re switched off. The hotel’s worth checking out because it cleverly slots into the Nashville hotel market; less upmarket than the deluxe Hermitage, but without the swarms of conventioneers that overrun Opryland every weekend. I, for one, wouldn’t mind digital shower controls of my very own, though I’d settle for real water pressure in my apartment as a close second.
A Presbyterian at the Peabody: Cocktails Across America
by Jenna Schnuer | 02.20.09 | 3:14 PM ET
Cocktails are nice. So nice. David Farley’s marathon drinking session in India got me thinking: what U.S. cocktail-drinking experience would I like to relive? Some may laugh but, after a crapola week, I’m craving the simplicity and sweet ease of drinking a Presbyterian while watching the Peabody Hotel ducks march their way into the lobby fountain. Sounds pleasant right about now, eh?
Yours?
When Planning a Trip, Do Local Politics Matter?
by Jenna Schnuer | 01.30.09 | 11:57 AM ET
No, you didn’t imagine that loud (and long-lasting) yay coming from Nashville on Jan. 22. It was the sound of the city’s English-only? seriously? contingent celebrating after the ridiculous measure was defeated in a (costly) special election.
While nothing could come between me and my Nashville (cause it’s a pretty damned fantastic city), it did get me wondering how much local politics play a role in other people’s travel choices. Have you ever put the kibosh on a trip because you didn’t like the politics of the place?
Morning Links: Buffalo-Wing Boycott, Nashville’s English-Only Measure and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.23.09 | 8:18 AM ET
- Nashville votes no and nyet and nein to English-only ballot measure.
- Video: Spending Time With Poster Boy, a street artist who prowls the New York City subway system.
- Even the U.S. Marines are avoiding Tijuana these days.
- A different take on Mexico: How U.S. media perpetuates cliches about the country.
- An exhibition of Robert Frank’s The Americans recently opened at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Slate has a slideshow.
- Aboard the slow train through Senegal.
- Aboard the other bullet trains of Asia.
- Are high-end adventure outfitters rising “above the global financial crisis and recession”?
- Buffalo-wing lovers in Buffalo, New York, call for a Buffalo-wing boycott on Monday. It could get worse: Supplies are so low and prices so high for wings that there may be a shortage on Super Bowl Sunday. What will we ever do, particularly with all the accompanying blue-cheese dip?
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
State-by-State Home Improvement
by Jenna Schnuer | 01.22.09 | 11:56 AM ET
Yeah, there are a few things here and there from places far, far away but, looking around my apartment, I realized that most of my art/knickknacks/stuff was hauled home in my carry-on, checked baggage or the trunk of a rental car from a trip to one of the 50. OK, I shipped the bear lamp home. This is some of it ...
Welcome to Flyover America
by Sophia Dembling, Jenna Schnuer | 01.08.09 | 4:41 PM ET
Hi. We are Sophia Dembling and Jenna Schnuer. Sophia lives in Dallas, Texas (but was Manhattan born and reared), and Jenna in Queens, NY (aka “not Manhattan”), and we are both writers who are in love with America. Every diner and prairie and highway of it. The places that many people consider flyover territory—Lincoln, Nebraska; Lubbock Texas; Bayonne, New Jersey, and the like—grab hold of us. Flyover America is as much a state of mind as a place. We like to think of it as anywhere in America that isn’t Manhattan or L.A. Flyover America is packed with stories, discoveries and soul. And it’s got some great malls, too.
Nation Branding for your iPod? Canada Votes for a National Playlist.
by Eva Holland | 01.07.09 | 11:52 AM ET
Call it change you can listen to: CBC Radio is hoping to get some made-in-Canada music onto incoming President Obama’s iPod.
The Canadian broadcaster is accepting nominations for a “definitive Canadian playlist”—dubbed “49 Songs from North of the 49th Parallel”—to be unveiled on Obama’s inauguration day. “One of the best ways to know Canada is through the depth and breadth of our artistic expression,” said a CBC representative. “We’re excited about the new president, and we want him to be excited about us.”
So how do you go about compiling a definitive national playlist? CBC producers will whittle the suggestions from the public down to a manageable 100 most-nominated songs, and then online voting will cut the shortlist down to the final 49.
Sure, the project seems a tad goofy—realistically, Obama will have bigger things to worry about on Jan. 20 than whether he prefers Stompin’ Tom Connors or Gordon Lightfoot—but it got me thinking about music and national identity.
- « Prev Page
- Next Page »