Tag: Museums
Morning Links: Best Job in the World Finalists, ‘Narco-Tours’ and More
by Michael Yessis | 03.04.09 | 8:18 AM ET
- The 50-person short list for Tourism Queensland’s “best job in the world” includes a man who staged a musical on an Ontario street and Geek Brief’s Cali Lewis.
- The Tsunami Museum commemorating the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami is open in Indonesia.
- China plans to open its earthquake ruins to tourists.
- Interesting essay by Alexei Tsvetkov on leaving Prague: “In the end some people here will probably miss me, but not many, not too much, and not for long.” (via The Rumpus)
- Ryan Adams: Travel writer? BlackBook has his take on Hollywood. Here are his musical takes on New York and Jacksonville.
- “Narco-tours” are on the rise in Mexico.
- Independent Traveler lists 10 reasons you should travel now.
- Esquire lists the 59 best breakfast places in America.
- Are you an, uh, anal traveler? (via BootsnAll Today)
- How great is this: John Wray will be giving a reading from his new book Lowboy while traveling on a Brooklyn-bound L train next week. Details in this video.
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Yahoo! BuzzMorning Links: Venice Cokes Up, an Epic (Paper) Plane Video and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.25.09 | 9:44 AM ET
D.C.‘s Magic Carpet Ride
by Julia Ross | 02.12.09 | 11:37 AM ET
Photo by Julia Ross My affection for Oriental rugs is as much aesthetic preference as childhood nostalgia. I grew up in a household padded with Bukharas and Isfahans, and I remember when my mom first showed me how to tell a hand-knotted rug from a machine-made doppelganger by flipping the carpet over to examine how the fringe is attached. As an adult, my taste has tended toward flat-weave rugs—Kilims and Soumaks—in dark browns, burnt oranges and blues, woven in tribal patterns that speak of dusty villages in Turkey and Iran. In fact, when I moved into a new apartment last spring, I treated myself to two Soumaks purchased from a weathered Afghan at a flea market outside Washington, D.C. I love them; they make the place home.
Rug lovers like me will find nirvana at an exhibit currently on show at Washington’s under-appreciated Textile Museum, in the city’s Dupont Circle neighborhood. Timbuktu to Tibet: Rugs and Textiles of the Hajji Babas, includes 90 rugs and other textiles—salt bags and bridal veils—collected by the 77-year-old Hajji Baba Club, a New York-based society of rug collectors. It’s a feast for the eyes and expansive in scope: deep pink diamond patterns from Uzbekistan, blazing tiger pelt motifs from Tibet, black and white checkerboard rugs from Mali. I spent a long time just letting the colors soak in, marveling at the hours spent in pursuit of beauty and wondering at the rituals—births, prayers, long journeys—that inspired such attention to detail.
Morning Links: John Lloyd Stephens, the Bob Marley Suitcase and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.12.09 | 10:04 AM ET
- Is slave history being “whitewashed” at some Southern plantations and museums?
- The Virginia Quarterly Review has opened its archives from 1975 through 2003. Among the stories unearthed: Richard O’Mara’s profile of “American Traveller” John Lloyd Stephens. (via Kottke)
- Here’s the story behind the shrinking of the Norman Foster-designed Harmon hotel in Las Vegas.
- Compared: Commuting in London, Delhi, Tokyo and Homer, Alaska.
- World Hum contributor Tom Bissell talks video games with Heather Chaplin.
- Several airlines are trying to take control of an upcoming emissions pact.
- Jossip is planning a cross-country tour of Bernie Madoff victims using the Madoff Map. Worst road trip ever?
- Can you imagine trying to clear customs with the Bob Marley suitcase?
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Morning Links: Paul Theroux Spits From Trains, Swimsuit Issue Locales and More
by Jim Benning | 02.11.09 | 10:42 AM ET
- Paul Theroux likes to spit out the window of a moving train—and other interesting tidbits from one of our favorite writers.
- With the economy in the tank, are travelers looking for “recession chic”?
- Any chance the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act we noted yesterday will actually pass? “Conditions are good for it,” one expert says.
- Cross-border bi-national marriages are great—until they fall apart. The Economist explains. (Via NYT Ideas blog)
- Kate Chambers on paying the porters, Zimbabwe-style.
- The Louvre is planning The Funeral of Mona Lisa. Paris-bound? Wear black.
- Sports Illustrated photographers went to the Grenadines to shoot part of the new Swimsuit Issue. “[A] ho-hum choice since the Caribbean is a Swimsuit Issue go-to location,” says Jaunted. Yeah, Swimsuit Issue readers around the world will be soooo disappointed.
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Stuttgart, Germany
by World Hum | 01.28.09 | 10:22 AM ET
REUTERS/Michaela Rehle Workers unveil the first Porsche model type 64 from 1939 in the newly built Porsche Museum during the official opening ceremony in Stuttgart.
Morning Links: Museum of Broken Relationships, GlobalPost and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.12.09 | 8:27 AM ET
- GlobalPost begins its “bold journey to redefine international news for the digital age.”
- Two Japanese restaurants split the $100,000 bill on a bluefin tuna. Yumiko Ono says it tasted “smooth, succulent and a little on the light side.”
- Turns out cities impair our brains.
- More than 200 people are feared dead after a ferry sank off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
- During the last two years an estimated 1.5 billion passengers flew on U.S. airlines. Not one of them died as a result of a crash.
- The Los Angeles Times tried out Row44, “a soon-to-debut satellite Wi-Fi system” for airlines.
- Daisann McLaine tells why she always visits supermarkets when she travels.
- Kristen Wiig and Neil Patrick Harris played long-nailed air traffic controllers on Saturday Night Live.
- Alexandr Vondra, the Czech Deputy Prime Minister, says “art is to arouse emotions.” A map of European cliches and stereotypes commissioned by the Czech Republic is succeeding on that count.
- The Las Vegas Mob museum is stirring up controversy in Washington, D.C.
- The Museum of Broken Relationships—“an exhibition of the relics of failed love”—opened in Singapore last week. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to see “an axe used by a woman to break up her ex-girlfriend’s furniture, along with the broken furniture.”
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Nine Travel Movies to Watch For in 2009
by Eva Holland | 12.26.08 | 12:41 PM ET
If there’s one December fixture that I enjoy almost as much as the ubiquitous “Best of the Past Year” list, it’s the “Trends to Watch Next Year” list. What’s new and hot? What’s old but hot again? And what never goes out of style? (Trends to Watch lists, that’s what.)
So, with that in mind, here are nine travel-esque movies hitting theaters in 2009.
The Descent 2: Looks like one of our favorite travel horror movies has spawned a sequel. In the second round, the lone survivor of a caving trip gone horrifically wrong heads back below the surface—local sheriff in tow—to confirm the fate of her companions. Predictably, things don’t quite go as planned.
Point Break: Indo: Twenty years later, there’s a new band of surfing bandits on the loose—this time in Bali—and a new surfing cop on their trail, too. The producers are being coy about possible cameos from Patrick Swayze or Keanu Reeves, but hey, Swayze turned up in a Dirty Dancing re-hashing a few years back, so why not Point Break, too?
Museums: 850 Million. Sports: 140 Million.
by Michael Yessis | 11.25.08 | 10:37 AM ET
That’s how many people visit museums in the U.S. annually vs. the number who attend major league sporting events. The stats come from NPR’s eye-opening new series on museums in the 21st century. Bob Mondello reports: “Despite any bad rap for being boring or undervalued, there are still 850 million people coming through the nation’s museums each year, Why? As Philippe de Montebello, former Metropolitan Museum of Art director, says simply, ‘A museum is the memory of mankind.’”
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art Endangered
by Jim Benning | 11.24.08 | 1:06 PM ET
The museum has fallen on hard times, but L.A. philanthropist Eli Broad just offered up $30 million to help.
Abu Ghraib to Become a Museum
by Eva Holland | 09.08.08 | 10:13 AM ET
The infamous Iraqi prison, which was used as a torture site under Saddam Hussein’s rule before achieving notoriety in more recent years, is now destined to become a museum detailing the crimes committed during Hussein’s rule, the Iraqi government has announced. Interestingly, notes the CBC: “There’s no mention in the announcement whether the abuses by U.S. soldiers will be covered in the museum’s exhibitions.”
Youngtown: Neil Young’s Hometown Gets Its Own Rock Museum
by Eva Holland | 07.09.08 | 10:29 AM ET
It’s been a busy season for rock ‘n’ roll museum openings. First we noted the debut of the Woodstock Museum, and now the National Post brings us this article about the new Youngtown Rock & Roll Museum in Omemee, Ontario—Neil Young’s childhood home. Omemee is about 80 miles northeast of Toronto, and it helped to inspire the “town in north Ontario / with dream comfort memory to spare” that Young sings about in “Helpless.” Here’s video, also featuring The Band and Joni Mitchell:
Travel with Kids: How to Face the Museum in Summer
by Eva Holland | 06.26.08 | 10:43 AM ET
Emily Bazelon admits that she’s not one for exposing her kids to heavy cultural programming on vacation—most of the time. But, she writes in Slate’s summer vacation special issue, “on this particular Sunday, I was also feeling the prick of inadvertent peer pressure: a friend’s offhand comment that her kids had been to the FDR Memorial more times than she could count. Whereas mine had been there never.” The resulting field trip has mixed results—and Bazelon shares some lessons learned in her essay.
Back to the Garden: Woodstock Museum Opens Today
by Eva Holland | 06.02.08 | 4:14 PM ET
From time to time in high school, I used to throw my dad’s old vinyl copy of the Woodstock album (complete with crowd chants and warnings about the brown acid) on the record player, crank the volume, sit back and try to pretend that I, too, was at Max Yasgur’s farm (pictured) on a wet August weekend in 1969. Seems I’m not the only one keen to re-create the event. The Museum at Bethel Woods opens today on the site of the original concert in upstate New York, and it sounds groovy.
‘Do Right Woman’: ‘Worth the 160-Mile Detour From Nashville’
by Eva Holland | 03.18.08 | 2:03 PM ET
Photo by micampe via Flickr (Creative Commons)
I’ve often felt frustrated that most of my favorite music was recorded years before I was born, and that instead of going to live shows, I have to visit museums. Not much of a substitute, right? But this week, one music history museum came close to filling that void.
Smithsonian Takes on ‘America By Air’
by Julia Ross | 11.27.07 | 9:27 AM ET
As we’ve noted, modern air travel leaves a lot to be desired, tarmac delays and all. But we’ve come a long way since the 1940s, when nurses were brought on board to calm jittery passengers anticipating a bumpy ride in unpressurized planes. I was reminded of the marvels of jet-age flight while visiting a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, America by Air, which traces the history of passenger air travel since 1914.
‘Desert Louvre’ Plans Cause Uproar in France
by Michael Yessis | 03.12.07 | 7:41 AM ET
What can $1.3 billion buy? For Abu Dhabi, it’s the rights “to borrow the Louvre’s name and hundreds of its artworks, as well as treasures from the Picasso Museum, Pompidou Center, Chateau de Versailles and other French museums,” according to the Washington Post. It’s also a way for Abu Dhabi to compete with neighboring Dubai for tourists. For France, however, the transaction has brought on a heated national discussion about how to handle its renowned cultural assets.
Bad News in Graz
by Jim Benning | 09.01.05 | 1:58 PM ET
It’s a sad time in Graz, Austria. According to USA Today, officials have announced that a museum there devoted to Arnold Schwarzenegger is closing because of financial troubles. We’re shocked—not that the museum is having money problems, but that anyone would think of opening a museum dedicated to the star of “Kindergarten Cop.”
“People Always Talk About Trying to Get Near It—Trying to Touch It”
by Jim Benning | 03.15.02 | 9:44 PM ET
They come from all over the world to visit the famed Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles. For some, seeing it from afar is not enough. Some want to touch it, to press their fingers to the “H,” to feel its power, but to do so is to risk a $283 trespassing fine. David Ferrell of the Los Angeles Times reports on the frustrating phenomenon: “Thousands of fans feel a certain torment when they drive up Beachwood Drive into the cluster of looping residential roads a quarter-mile below the sign. They park and ask themselves: Do they risk a penalty to go higher? How far dare they climb?”
Touring the Elian Museum
by Michael Yessis | 03.14.02 | 9:42 PM ET
More than a year and a half after Elian Gonzalez returned home to Cuba, the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson visited the island to find out how the most famous 8-year-old boy in the world is getting on. Local communist authorities kept Robinson away from Elian and his family, but he did make a stop at the Elian museum. “There are relief busts of Cuba’s great historical heroes, the founding fathers of independence and the revolution,” Robinson writes. “And there is a book of photos from the museum’s opening, with a personal note from Castro: ‘The battle of ideas cannot be lost and will not be lost.’”