Destination: United States
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.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe 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.
Happy 100th, Union Station
by Valerie Conners | 09.30.08 | 10:21 AM ET
The station—Amtrak’s headquarters and one of Washington, D.C.‘s most visited sites—will be celebrating its centennial this weekend, with exhibits that pay homage to the landmark transportation hub and the history of the rails. I have a soft spot for Union Station. I commute through it most weeks, enjoying the sight of the looming main concourse, the hum of the crowds, the smells of the food court, the anticipation of arriving in the nation’s capital. A very happy birthday, indeed.
Videos: Venice Gondoliers, Mariachis and Bollywood for Barack Obama
by World Hum | 09.26.08 | 2:03 PM ET
In that order. We looked for similar videos supporting John McCain and couldn’t find any; if you have any, we invite you to post links in the comments section. We’d love to see them.
Hemingway House: Snowball’s Six-Toed Descendants Can Stay
by Jim Benning | 09.26.08 | 12:45 PM ET
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had talked of fining the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West thousands of dollars a day, claiming the museum couldn’t qualify for a license for the 50 or so cats residing there—descendants of Hemingway’s cat, “Snowball.”
Theroux, Horwitz and the Frommers Featured at National Book Festival
by Michael Yessis | 09.26.08 | 10:03 AM ET
They’ll be on the Mall in Washington, D.C., tomorrow, talking travel and signing books. So will U.S. poet laureate Kay Ryan. I wonder if the organizers flew her out from California, or if this is how she decided to spend part of her $5,000 travel allowance?
Portland: America’s Greenest City?
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.25.08 | 11:38 AM ET
Oregon’s moody, wet and funky riverfront city started planning its growth more than three decades ago, creating strict land-use policies and taking other tough measures to preserve the city’s natural beauty. So it’s no surprise that it’s now considered the most sustainable city in the United States, according to a study by the grassroots organization SustainLane. It seems the American West has got the green sheen: San Francisco ranked second, while Seattle was third.
Photo by stuseeger via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Kid From Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Cover: ‘I Wanna Travel’
by Michael Yessis | 09.24.08 | 5:13 PM ET
Spencer Elden, who is now 17, is “so over” high school he’s ready to hit the road. You go, Spencer. Oh, and happy birthday, Nevermind.
The album was released 17 years ago today. To celebrate, a Nirvana performance in France of “Drain You”:
FAA Suspended Go!‘s ‘Sleeping Pilots’
by Michael Yessis | 09.24.08 | 4:22 PM ET
And with this news, we put to rest our coverage of the incident that led Anderson Cooper to admit his fear of exclamation points.
Update, 10:24 a.m. ET: They’re back.
Related on World Hum:
* ‘Sleeping Pilots’ Air Traffic Control Tapes Aired
* Go! Airlines Fires ‘Sleeping Pilots’
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.
Jeffrey Tayler’s Latest in The Atlantic
by Jim Benning | 09.19.08 | 9:15 AM ET
As the Moscow correspondent for The Atlantic, World Hum contributor Jeffrey Tayler has been filing some terrific stories lately about Russia, Georgia and U.S. foreign policy. In his latest, Russia: Back to the Future, he questions whether the U.S. should continue to back Georgia’s bid to join NATO.
What Will Become of the Mark Twain House & Museum?
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.18.08 | 5:49 PM ET
It’s buckling under financial pressure just five years after a $19.5 million, 35,000-square-foot modernist museum devoted to the famous author opened its doors in Hartford, Connecticut, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Related on World Hum:
* A New Look at Twain’s ‘Life on the Mississippi’
* I Still Don’t Know For Whom the Bell Tolls
Photo by cliff 1066 via Flickr (Creative Commons).
‘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.”
What Did Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns Do on His Summer Vacation?
by Jim Benning | 09.18.08 | 11:43 AM ET
“A six-part, 12-hour series, of course,” writes Christopher Reynolds in the Los Angeles Times. Actually, I don’t think Burns finished the project. But when Reynolds caught up with him at Glacier National Park, he was at work on one of his trademark PBS series—this one, scheduled to air in fall 2009, about America’s national parks. “For the first time in human history,” Burns remarked, “land was set aside not for the pleasure of kings and noblemen and the very, very rich, but for everybody, for all time.”