Tag: Media Addict
NYT Freelancer Gets the Axe
by Eva Holland | 10.27.09 | 10:17 AM ET
Last week’s “swag orgy” controversy has ground to a conclusion: Freelancer Mike Albo has had his shopping column cut by the New York Times after violating the paper’s ethics agreement. Weirdly, Gawker—the blog that helped force the Times’ hand—now apparently thinks the firing is too harsh.
I’ll give Mike Albo the last word once again. He told New York Magazine: “I look forward to trying on cashmere sweaters I can’t afford for other publications.”
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Yahoo! BuzzEndless Travel Writing Ethics Debate Gets Gawkerized*
by Eva Holland | 10.22.09 | 12:12 PM ET
And here I thought only our little corner of the writing community cared about the ongoing press trip debate. Apparently not. Yesterday, Daily Finance outed New York Times contributor Mike Albo as a taker of press trips, describing Albo’s recent Jamaica junket as a “swag orgy.” Now Gawker’s gotten involved, too, pointing out to the Times’ higher-ups that one of their freelancers was in violation of their no-freebies policy. The Times has acknowledged that the paper has “concerns” about the trip.
As for Mike Albo? Here’s his latest tweet: “do you ever feel like you are a guppy who is being eaten by his mother?”
*Update 12:59 p.m. ET: We’re debating the issue on Twitter at #twethics.
U.S. Ambassador Turns Travel Blogger
by Eva Holland | 10.12.09 | 10:39 AM ET
The new U.S. ambassador to Canada has been blogging his life up north, reflecting on everything from his first taste of poutine to a childhood road trip to Niagara Falls. Look out, blogosphere—that’s some well-connected competition. (Via The Globe and Mail)
Does Chicago Lack a ‘Recognizable Narrative’?
by Eva Holland | 10.09.09 | 3:26 PM ET
Over at The Smart Set, Jessa Crispin speculates about what her one-time hometown means to the outside world. She writes:
Because Chicago has no new compelling storyline, the old ones will have to do for the rest of the world. Even the renowned literary magazine Granta—after spending who knows how long creating its recent issue devoted entirely to Chicago—used Al Capone as its first example of what defines Chicago in the issue’s introduction.
Jan Wong: Looking Back at China’s Darker Days
by Eva Holland | 10.02.09 | 5:26 PM ET
In a powerful column, Jan Wong, the author of Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now looks back on her complicated love affair with China—from studying abroad in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution to covering the Tiananmen Square massacre from a hotel room uncomfortably nearby. As the country celebrates its 60th anniversary this week, it’s good to see some thoughtful reflection on the dark times in China’s past, too. (Via @DougSaunders)
Dan Brown Tourism Hits D.C.
by Eva Holland | 09.30.09 | 12:06 PM ET
That was quick. Two weeks after the release of his latest, “The Lost Symbol,” and the Dan Brown-themed travel stories about the city where it’s set—Washington, D.C.—are already piling up.
London Bridge vs. Tower Bridge: The Twitter Smackdown!
by Michael Yessis | 09.25.09 | 11:20 AM ET
It’s @ImLondonBridge vs. @towerbridge in the Tussle on the Thames! And @ImLondonBridge is kicking ass, spurred on by what the Telegraph calls the “tedium and pomposity” of its more photogenic rival’s tweets—@towerbridge only seems to tweet whenever it raises to let ships pass.
The Telegraph tells the whole amusing story, and shares some of its favorite taunts from @ImLondonBridge:
If you took a film of @towerbridge and speeded it up, it would look like the world’s least exciting pinball machine. Without any balls.
Hey @towerbridge. When are you going to do something again? You’re even more boring when you’re just sitting there. Yawn.
Coo-ee @towerbridge. When are you going to do your impersonation of the fourth guy from the Village People again? I simply can’t wait.
But @ImLondonBridge isn’t all taunt. It showed its softer side with its tribute to Patrick Swayze.
‘Could iPhone Apps Change the Way We Travel?’
by Michael Yessis | 09.17.09 | 11:22 AM ET
Over at Slate, Tom Vanderbilt takes “a broad and by no means exhaustive look at the most promising—or at least most intriguing—apps to date.”
Congolese Man Plans New Lawsuit Against Tintin
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.09 | 12:40 PM ET
Cover art from The Adventures of Tintin Vols. 6-10 Two years ago Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo filed suit in Belgium, demanding Tintin in the Congo be removed from the market because of its “racism and xenophobia.” He got no response from the Belgian legal system, so he’s planning to “launch parallel proceedings in France and go ‘all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary,’” according to the Telegraph.
“Tintin in the Congo” has been stirring up controversy in the U.S. recently, too. Last month the book was removed from the shelves of a Brooklyn, New York, library—news that made the mash-up map of book bannings in America that Eva wrote about yesterday.
Tintin, of course, has been celebrated by many people—including Julia Ross here on World Hum—for its “power to unite travelers and melt national divides.” (Via The Slatest)
Lord of the Flies: ‘Absurd and Uninteresting’?
by Eva Holland | 09.01.09 | 11:25 AM ET
Apparently, William Golding’s castaway classic really made the rounds before finally being published, and one unimpressed reader’s note on the manuscript has just surfaced. After calling the book an “absurd and uninteresting fantasy,” she wrote: “A group of children who land in jungle country near New Guinea. Rubbish & dull. Pointless.”
Dull? I’d love to know what her idea of an eventful island getaway is. (Via The Book Bench)
The Warm Bacon-y Wind of New York City
by Michael Yessis | 08.31.09 | 12:05 PM ET
Jason Logan walked New York City from tip to tip, chronicling the smells of his journey in a fantastic New York Times Op-Art piece. It looked great in print yesterday. Online, it’s better—and interactive. Click on TriBeCa and you’ll find out that while he was there Logan smelled, among other things, deep-fried something, faux-leather fanny pack and a warm bacon-y wind.
There’s great detail throughout. For instance, roll over the map and your cursor turns into a nose.
In Venice, Will Tourists Put up With the Advertising ‘Bombardment’?
by Michael Yessis | 08.28.09 | 2:06 PM ET
As Judith Martin writes, “Venice has always been frankly and happily commercial.” But it’s also taken pride in its beauty. Now that Venice is in a bad place financially, it’s turning more and more to commercial advertising that resides on and around the iconic places we all want to see when we visit. Martin’s piece in the Financial Times looks at the possible repercussions.
Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Don’t Let the Goose Poop Fool You: Toronto’s Beaches are Squeaky Clean’
by Eva Holland | 08.18.09 | 5:04 PM ET
Forget Hawaii or Florida—after that ringing endorsement, I’m ready for a Toronto beach vacation. Who’s with me?
Thomas Friedman on the ‘Overconnected Tourist’
by Michael Yessis | 08.17.09 | 9:40 AM ET
He went to remote Botswana—the “Land of No Service”—and sent forth a column that touches on the “blessings and curses” of being connected:
For the normally overconnected tourist, the first thing you notice in the Land of No Service is how quickly your hearing, smell and eyesight improve in an act of instant Darwinian evolution. It is amazing how well you can hear when you don’t have an iPod in your ears or how far you can see when you’re not squinting at a computer screen. In the wild, the difference between hearing and seeing with acuity is the difference between survival and extinction for the animals and the difference between a rewarding experience and a missed opportunity for photographers and guides.
He sounds downright Pottsian.
Interview With Charles Runnette: ‘Confessions of a Travel Writer’
by Michael Yessis | 08.10.09 | 3:07 PM ET
Alejandro Cerda, ProChile Michael Yessis asks the host of a new Travel Channel show about travel writing, strip searches and whether he really has a dream job
$20 Per Gallon? Say it Ain’t So.
by Eva Holland | 08.04.09 | 9:28 AM ET
A recent New York Times interview with Chris Steiner, author of the new book $20 Per Gallon, has caused a bit of a stir in the blogosphere. Andrew Sullivan buys into Steiner’s argument that higher gas prices could jump start innovation and be, on balance, a good thing, while Outside the Beltway’s James Joyner thinks that $20 per gallon “would really, really suck”:
Now, it’s quite conceivable that the forced innovation would indeed make our lives better in ways that I can’t imagine ... But the transitional impact would be absolutely devastating for most people. Even Steiner admits that whole industries—from airlines to amusement parks to sushi restaurants—would go under. Almost all homes outside urban centers would be simultaneously unlivable and unsellable. Only the independently wealthy would be able to travel abroad. Essentially, we’d set our lifestyles back a hundred years.
Finding Leonard Cohen in Montreal and California
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 10:03 AM ET
In the latest issue of Geist, Ann Diamond tells the story of her series of near-encounters with Leonard Cohen—with 1970 Montreal, in the midst of the October Crisis, as the grimly compelling backdrop. And if that’s not enough Cohen-related, travel-esque writing for you, check out Pico Iyer’s 1998 essay about visiting the poet/rocker at a Zen Center in the San Gabriel Mountains, outside L.A.
Rory Stewart on our ‘Dystopian Vision’ of Afghanistan
by Eva Holland | 07.20.09 | 11:25 AM ET
In a long piece on the future of Afghanistan, Rory Stewart makes a point about the country’s usual image in the media:
“We are accustomed to seeing Afghans through bars, or smeared windows, or the sight of a rifle: turbaned men carrying rockets, praying in unison, or lying in pools of blood; boys squabbling in an empty swimming-pool; women in burn wards, or begging in burqas,” he writes. “Kabul is a South Asian city of millions. Bollywood music blares out in its crowded spice markets and flower gardens, but it seems that images conveying colour and humour are reserved for Rajasthan.”
It’s not the first time the author of “The Places in Between” has spoken out on the subject. (Via Andrew Sullivan)
The Top 10 Comic Book Cities
by Michael Yessis | 07.17.09 | 10:59 AM ET
I’m not a comic book reader, but I found this list at the Architects’ Journal compelling—and the artwork amazing. Among the cityscapes included: Tintin’s Inca city and Chris Ware’s Chicago.
Site to Watch: Open Sound New Orleans
by Michael Yessis | 07.13.09 | 3:31 PM ET
It’s a soundmap of New Orleans. The directors of the project, Heather Booth and Jacob Brancasi, aim “to make more accessible the authentic, unedited sounds and voices of New Orleans. Sharing the sounds of our city as we hear them, move through them, and create them, is an act of celebration.”
Booth and Brancasi spoke about their project and shared a few sounds yesterday on NPR’s Weekend Edition.
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