Tag: Music
The Pre-Flight Flight Attendant Rap
by Rob Verger | 03.18.09 | 4:06 PM ET
Have you heard the fantastic pre-flight rap that one Southwest Airlines flight attendant has been doing?
The flight attendant, David Holmes, was recently the subject of a short interview at the Middle Seat Terminal. It’s worth a read.
Here’s my favorite part of the rap, which is performed to the beat of the passengers stomping and clapping:
Before we leave
Our advice is
Put away your electronic devices
Fasten your seat belt
Then put your trays up
Press the button
to make the seat back raise up
The expressions on the passengers’ faces are just as entertaining as the rap is itself. Video below.
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Yahoo! BuzzHello? Is it Greece You’re Looking For?
by Eva Holland | 03.16.09 | 11:05 AM ET
With a new album on the way, Lionel Richie is making the media rounds—and he’s landed in the pages of the Telegraph travel section, dishing on his best and worst travel memories.
Turns out, the R&B/easy listening legend is itching to get to Greece, he dreads being spotted mid-meal at a restaurant (“all I need is if the pianist starts playing ‘Three Times a Lady’”) and his favorite hotel is Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace. (“Now I know why I couldn’t get the marble for my house—they have it all. I couldn’t find the bougainvillea I wanted—they have it. Everything I needed for my house in California, they have it.”) The average traveler may not be able to relate to his experiences or advice—remember: “don’t let your entourage pack for you”—but they still make for an entertaining read.
Headed to Austin for SXSW?
by Eva Holland | 03.12.09 | 11:26 AM ET
Well, consider me envious. The sprawling festival somehow stays right on top of the music, film and new media/tech scenes, and it’s hosted by one of the country’s favorite smaller cities to boot. Just in case you haven’t already got your every minute mapped out, I’ve rounded up some last-minute recommendations and ideas.
The SXSW Insider’s Guide has a hot thread debating the year’s must-see bands (and hey, some of the posters even give helpful rationales/context for their picks), while the Screengrab bloggers offer their picks for must-see documentaries (parts one and two) and narrative feature films.
Sidon, Lebanon
by World Hum | 03.10.09 | 11:54 AM ET
REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho Lebanese Sufists play traditional instruments and chant prayers during a ritual marking the birthday anniversary of Prophet Mohammed.
Morning Links: Bowie’s Clown Suit, Cute Penguin Overload and More
by Valerie Conners | 03.10.09 | 8:54 AM ET
- Take a gander at Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” clown suit, or Jarvis Cocker’s glasses at London’s new British Music Experience, documenting 60 years of Brit pop and rock.
- West Virginia’s governor makes it his mission to save the state’s image, and let you know W.V.‘s got more to offer tourists than the Road Kill Cook-Off.
- Intelligent Travel offers a Q&A with Chris Way, cofounder of Reality Tours and Travel, a company specializing in slum tourism in India.
- One woman is dead and six others are missing after a tourist boat capsizes off Thailand’s Similan Islands.
- Take a listen to Nine Road Trip Songs You Never Heard Before—a catchy mix of Asian travel songs. (via nerdseyeview)
- World Hum blogger Alexander Basek visits Nashville and returns full of excellent tips on where to hear live music and ... Goo-Goo Clusters.
- I’m getting a serious case of cute overload as Andrew Evans reveals the best places to see penguins.
What We Loved This Week: Kutiman, the Scorpions, Meat (Glorious Meat)
by World Hum | 03.06.09 | 4:14 PM ET
Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Rob Verger
I loved this hilarious pro-flying bit by comedian Louis CK on the Conan O’Brien show. My favorite part? When he says, “Everybody on every plane should just constantly be going, ‘Oh my god, wow!’”
Valerie Conners
Meat, glorious meat! Went to one of Philly’s more interesting restaurants, Ansill, to try the special “European Barbecue.” It involved a plethora of mysterious meats (think quartered hearts and kidneys from an unidentified beast) and very tasty grilled meats served with a variety of dipping sauces. The experience brought me right back to my days living in Leuven, Belgium, and one of my fave restaurants there.
Happy 75th to the Great Smokies
by Jenna Schnuer | 03.06.09 | 1:30 PM ET
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service. Great Smoky Mountains National Park turns 75 this year. So go there and take a hike (or listen to some mountain music or check out the wildflowers or…) Then, come back and tell us all about it. Or, of course, if you already have a tale of the Smokies, share away.
My favorite memory of the Smokies: seeing evidence of the lives lived there before the land was designated a park. While on a horseback ride in the park, my guide pointed out a nearly perfect square of bright pink flowers. Though the cabin they had been planted around was long gone, the flowers have returned year after year to give a pretty tip of the hat to the woman who used to live on the land.
Hope for Clean-Energy Road Trips (Neil Young soundtrack included)
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.06.09 | 12:44 PM ET
I had to cheer when I read about the members of the Indian Youth Climate Network driving across 3,500 kilometers of the subcontinent in three electric Revas, a plant-oil-fueled truck, a van run on vegetable oil and another van with solar panels. They passed 15 major Indian cities to promote climate change awareness, while also advertising the effectiveness of clean-energy road-tripping. Hurray!
Momentum is definitely with them, and so is Neil Young, a master of great road songs who is transforming his 1959 Lincoln from a gas-guzzler into an electric vehicle. He’s even written a soundtrack for his electric-car project, which could inspire some clean-energy road-tripping on this continent. (Via Inhabitat)
Where are the Elegies to the World’s Troubled Landscapes?
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.04.09 | 4:02 PM ET
The Eagles were on to something in 1976, when they lamented the pillaging of the western American landscape in “The Last Resort.” As eco-awareness of global warming makes major headlines, and movie stars and scientists link hands to march against coal-fired power plants, I wonder: Where are the music videos? The equivalent of “We Are The World,” climate-change edition? Or at least a few elegies to the troubled landscapes of our world?
Then I came across “Uyan (Wake Up),” a song about the ravages of environmental irresponsibility released late last year by hunky Turkish pop star Tarkan and baglama viruoso Orhan Gencebay. It’s a fabulous tune, brimming with eastern Mediterranean soul and accompanied by a video (see below) featuring the sexier-than-thou Tarkan and the comfortably weathered Gencebay jamming in a cracked and desiccated land—likely a reference to the fact that great swathes of Turkey are in danger of desertification.
So, inspired by Tarkan and Orhan Gencebay, I compiled a short list of place-evoking environmental songs. I’d love to hear your picks—and if you think eco-songs can save fragile lands, or at least get people thinking that they should stop abusing them.
New York Dubs West 53rd St. ‘U2 Way’
by Eva Holland | 03.04.09 | 9:27 AM ET
In honor of the Irish band’s unprecedented five-night appearance on Letterman this week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has temporarily renamed a section of West 53rd Street “U2 Way,” the AP reports. The section being renamed is close to the intersection of 53rd and Broadway, where the Late Show is taped. It’s a fine idea, I suppose (and a nice bonus promotion for the brand-new album, too), but if any street in North America is going to be named after U2, shouldn’t it be the one where this video was filmed? (Via NewYorkology)
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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Oklahoma Officially Rocks
by Sophia Dembling | 03.03.09 | 10:55 AM ET
Like I’ve been telling you, Oklahoma rocks. “Do You Realize??” by the Flaming Lips has been voted the state’s official rock song, beating out other Oklahoman-written rockers “Heartbreak Hotel,” “After Midnight,” “Never Been to Spain” (but, if you will recall, “I’ve been to Oklahoma”) and others. Read about the finalists, then listen to the winner on the Flaming Lips’ website or in concert video after the jump.
A Traveler’s 10 Best Musical Discoveries
by Tom Swick | 03.02.09 | 10:35 AM ET
Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
Morning Links: Walking on Broadway, Fees for Airline Toilets and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.27.09 | 9:43 AM ET
- New York City plans to turn parts of Broadway into pedestrian malls.
- The inevitable Coldplay reference comes only four seconds into this video about that ice music festival in northern Italy.
- Are the “taste police” out to get German bakers?
- The literature of men in boats vs. women in houses. (via Arts & Letters Daily)
- Here’s the latest Carnival of Cities.
- Happy belated 90th birthday, Grand Canyon National Park. (thanks for the reminder @evaholland and @AlisonSWellner)
- The economic downturn has boosted Peace Corps applications and the number of financial types snowboarding the Alps.
- Mule drivers in period costumes need TSA security clearance, too! So Boing Boing started a contest to create mule-driver TSA IDs.
- Will passengers soon need to pay to use the toilet on Ryanair? Just how ridiculous can the carrier get?
- Finally, this is fun to say: Sassy the Sustainable Sasquatch.
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Val Senales, Italy
by World Hum | 02.26.09 | 10:53 AM ET
REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi Norwegian musician Terje Isungset plays an ice instrument during a concert at the Ice Music Festival, in the valley of Val Senales in northern Italy.
Taking Black History Month to ... India?
by Julia Ross | 02.19.09 | 2:24 PM ET
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is apparently making good use of cultural diplomacy early in her term. Before she departed on her current Asia tour, Clinton sent a delegation of U.S. congressional representatives, civil rights leaders and musicians, including Herbie Hancock and Chaka Khan, to India to commemorate U.S. Black History Month. The group includes Martin Luther King III, who is retracing a trip his parents, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, took 50 years ago to study Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence.
Meanwhile, Hancock, Khan and jazz students from New Orleans will perform at concerts in Mumbai and New Delhi, then jam with students at the Ravi Shankar Institute of the Performing Arts. I’m pleased to see the group continue a long tradition of U.S. jazz ambassadorship abroad.
Leave Home Without It
by Tom Swick | 02.19.09 | 10:07 AM ET
Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
Going to SXSW? Put the Harry Ransom Center On Your Schedule.
by Sophia Dembling | 02.17.09 | 6:00 PM ET
Photo by Eric Beggs The South by Southwest (or SXSW) film, music and interactive festival is less than a month away. Got your plans and reservations yet? (And did you know that many Austinites flee the city as you arrive? Too much traffic and other mishigos.)
I realize that SXSW is all about the future of this, that and the other, but while you’re in town, I urge you to carve out some time to pay your respects to what many consider a dying art form, the written word, with a stop at the free galleries at the Harry Ransom Center.
Robert Plant: From Wales to Timbuktu
by Eva Holland | 02.17.09 | 2:39 PM ET
In the wake of Plant’s five Grammy wins last week, the bloggers at Rock’s Backpages have dug up this 2003 story about a one-day tour of Snowdonia, in Wales—with the former Led Zeppelin frontman playing tour guide. In it, Plant reminisces about the ways a visit to Timbuktu influenced his subsequent solo efforts, and takes the writer to Bron-Yr-Aur, the rural Welsh cottage where he and Jimmy Page wrote much of “Led Zeppelin III.” “Bron-Yr-Aur gave Jimmy and me so much energy,” Plant says. “Because we were really close to something. We believed. It was absolutely wonderful, and my heart was so light and happy.”
Britney Spears: Back in Wax
by Eva Holland | 02.17.09 | 1:35 PM ET
Well, now the troubled pop star’s well-publicized comeback is truly complete. The London outpost of Madame Tussaud’s has unveiled a new statue that shows Spears clutching one of the MTV awards she grabbed (along with some restored dignity) last fall. “We are delighted to be featuring Britney at Madame Tussauds London for the second time,” a spokeswoman told the Telegraph. “Her original figure ... was extremely popular. However, she’s undergone a huge transformation since then and we wanted to reflect her as she is now.”