Tag: Music
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.
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Yahoo! BuzzKraftwerk Cofounder: Auto-Gone
by Eva Holland | 01.08.09 | 10:34 AM ET
The Telegraph is reporting that band co-founder (and Krautrock pioneer) Florian Schneider has left Kraftwerk after four decades. It’s just the excuse we need to cue up the band’s 1974 hit song “Autobahn,” which is meant to re-create the experience of highway driving:
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.
The Grateful Dead: On the Road Again
by Eva Holland | 01.06.09 | 11:39 AM ET
The surviving members of the Grateful Dead—whose classic track, “Truckin’,” recently landed at No. 28 on our list of the Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time—will reunite this spring for a new American tour, the CBC reports. Cue the inevitable headline: The Dead Keep On Truckin’.
Rock Bands Go CouchSurfing: ‘It Beats Sleeping in a Van’
by Eva Holland | 12.30.08 | 12:15 PM ET
It also beats “staying with crazy fans”—and, of course, paying for a motel room every night. So says Spin Magazine in a brief story on the latest CouchSurfing phenomenon: touring bands using the popular nonprofit travel site to line up post-gig digs.
According to Spin, more than 900 bands have joined the site. “We’ve never had any bad couchsurfing.com stays,” said the lead singer of The Shackeltons. “Everyone was so welcoming, and their places were nice and clean.”
Goodbye ‘White Christmas’?
by Joanna Kakissis | 12.22.08 | 3:56 PM ET
Do you want to spend the winter holidays in an idyllic, snow-fringed place just like the one Irving Berlin used to know? Berlin wrote “White Christmas” 68 years ago, when the concept still made sense in the German city of Berlin as well as the rest of the northern hemisphere. In what has become an annual reality check during the increasingly warm winter holidays, climate scientists and meteorologists are again warning that global warming is the Grinch that’s stealing snowy landscapes around the world. Reuters reports that the odds of Berlin seeing snow in 2100 will decrease to 5 percent from 20 percent a century ago. Even frigid Oslo, Norway, will see a precipitous decline in snow days, scientists told Reuters.
What We Loved This Week: Christmas in Germany, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and More
by World Hum | 12.19.08 | 4:33 PM ET
Photo by Terry Ward Morning Links: GlobalPost, 3 a.m. Dining and More
by Michael Yessis | 12.19.08 | 9:54 AM ET
- Behind the scenes at GlobalPost, a new venture that, in the face of the crumbling newspaper industry, will attempt “to create a new model for overseas reporting.”
- A great interactive graphic shows the rise of megacities.
- Christopher Elliott asks: “Is the U.S. travel industry on the verge of a ‘collapse’?”
- Patrick Smith asks: Will the airlines follow Detroit to the government trough?
- Sarah Hepola interviews Brian Raftery, author of Don’t Stop Believin’: How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life.
- Restaurants across the U.S. are catering to 3 a.m. diners.
- TravelBlogs rounds up some travel bloggers to reveal the books and movies that inspired them to travel.
- IgoUgo picks 10 intriguing New Year’s celebrations.
- National Geographic serves up an interactive graphic of hangover cures from around the world. Tripe soup, anyone?
Music That Migrates
by Eva Holland | 12.18.08 | 5:55 PM ET
We’ve been on a road music kick this week at World Hum—and we’re not the only ones. Over at Matador Nights, David Miller offers up a compelling list of musicians who have influenced travelers in the last decade.
When you travel, you come face to face (or ear to speaker) with the music that belongs to the places you go, Miller writes, but “there is also the music that seems to travel itself, migrating from one area to the next—making its way into hostels and DJ stacks, becoming part of local culture abroad, and also returning home with you.” Among his picks? Manu Chao (who’s also one of our Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet), Bajofondo Tango Club, Daft Punk, and the entire Marley clan.
Morning Links: Idlewild Books, Disaster Tourism and More
by Michael Yessis | 12.18.08 | 9:44 AM ET
- The latest clerk in New York Magazine’s “Ask a Shop Clerk” series: David Del Vecchio, owner of New York City’s Idlewild Books. He says mystery novels are underrated as travel books.
- Mexico City looks to go green.
- Here’s The Year in Google Maps.
- The New York Public Library adds some great old New York photos to its Flickr stream.
- Ian Stevenson creates a video showing the waves of immigration to the United States from 1820 until last year.
- Tim Leffel stresses the importance of being spontaneous while traveling.
- In the wake of Hurricane Ike, Galveston, Texas is the latest place to confront disaster tourism.
- Awesome Tapes from Africa show off awesome cassette tapes from Africa. This recommended track from “The Best of Sagbohan Danialou” is brightening my morning.
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Subcontinental Homesick Blues
by Anthony Bourdain | 12.15.08 | 12:36 AM ET
From a balcony in Sri Lanka, surrounded by AK-47-toting soldiers, Anthony Bourdain reveals why music can make a travel moment
World Hum’s Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time
by World Hum | 12.15.08 | 12:35 AM ET
Photo by John Tino We traveled. We listened. We voted. These are the tunes that best capture the spirit of the road.
Interactive Map: World Hum’s Top Travel Songs
by Valerie Conners | 12.15.08 | 12:34 AM ET
We've mapped the list. Click a place, discover a song.
Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Chinese Democracy’
by Jim Benning | 11.24.08 | 12:20 PM ET
Joining the ranks of Western rock albums whose titles evoke Asia—Holiday in Cambodia and Cheap Trick at Budokan come to mind —is the long-awaited Chinese Democracy, from reclusive rock star and esteemed China-watcher Axl Rose. It’s not clear to me, from a cursory look at the title song’s lyrics, whether Rose has anything particularly deep to say about Chinese democracy, or lack thereof, except that change is coming to China. Nevertheless, rumor has it the album has been banned in the Middle Kingdom.
Update: Great trivia. Guns N’ Roses is known as Qiang Hua in China.
Ry Cooder’s El Mirage and Los Angeles
by Jim Benning | 11.24.08 | 11:46 AM ET
This is one of the coolest travel stories I’ve read in a while. The New York Times joined Ry Cooder in exploring El Mirage Dry Lake in California’s Mojave Desert, as well as parts of Los Angeles, both areas Cooder has evoked in concept albums. Writes Lawrence Downes:
When Ry Cooder and I got to El Mirage Dry Lake, it was 110 degrees and heading to 117, hot enough to cook your head inside your hat. The Mojave Desert in daylight will cut the gizzard right out of you, Tom Joad once said, which is why the Okies crossed it at night.
The accompanying slideshow, featuring one of Cooder’s songs, shows just how powerful a good audio slideshow can be.
What We Loved This Week: CupcakeCampEast, ‘How She Move’ and ‘In Transit’
by World Hum | 11.21.08 | 4:13 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Michael Yessis
The one-two punch of Albert Hammond and Albert Hammond, Jr. My iPod played the father’s It Never Rains in Southern California and the son’s “In Transit” almost in succession on a chilly night this week. Two songs with a restlessness that left me itching to go somewhere warm. Plus, I love the uke here:
Los Angeles Native Jonny Olsen: Huge in Laos
by Jim Benning | 11.20.08 | 12:18 PM ET
The L.A. Weekly profiles a 28-year-old former semipro skateboarder who, after taking a trip to Thailand in 2002 and buying a folk instrument as a souvenir, went on to master it. Jonny Olsen plays a mouth organ called a khaen. He’s now the only white pop star in Laos, shocking Laotians with his khaen chops. It’s a fascinating story.
Bienvenido a Cuba, 2 Millionth Tourist!
by Valerie Conners | 11.17.08 | 2:25 PM ET
“Strong mojitos” and a salsa band greeted Cuba’s two millionth tourist (albeit symbolically—they actually greeted the incoming plane holding number two mil), as the island celebrated what it hopes will be a record year for tourism. Despite the three crippling hurricanes that ripped through here earlier this year, Cuba expects to have had more than 2.3 million visitors in 2008.
Bob Dylan, Rock ‘n’ Roll Pilgrim
by Eva Holland | 11.14.08 | 9:57 AM ET
The couple that lives in Neil Young’s childhood home in Winnipeg is used to die-hard music fans stopping by—but they never expected to see Bob Dylan turn up on the front porch. Homeowner John Kiernan told the Globe and Mail about the stranger who arrived a couple weeks back: “I was thinking I gotta do laundry, I gotta rake leaves: it’s Sunday afternoon. I’m thinking this guy has great boots on ... I look at him and go, ‘Oh my God. We’re talking to Bob Dylan.’ At which point, I said, ‘Do you want to come in and see the house?’”
Plans for U2 Tower in Dublin ‘Shelved’
by Michael Yessis | 11.04.08 | 12:33 PM ET
All four members of U2 are invested in the Norman Foster-designed building, a planned 36-story tower on the banks of the River Liffey. If it ever gets built, it will be the tallest building in Ireland. Developers wanted to break ground this year, but now they’re waiting 12 months to see if the economic climate in Ireland improves. Bono and the Edge, however, still seem to be moving forward with their plans for the Clarence Hotel.