What We Loved This Week: Sigur Rós’ Iceland, Mick Jagger’s Knee Pads and the Frugal Traveler

World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.

Jim Benning
I loved the Sigur Rós documentary, Heima, which aired on Sundance Channel (and will air next week, too). Not only because I like the band’s distinctive, ethereal music, but because the film was shot in more than a dozen places around Iceland and really captures a sense of place. Check out this great trailer in a big-screen format, with its images of ice fields and empty roads, wide-open skies and deserted beaches, and even an airplane fuselage sitting in what appears to be the middle of nowhere. When’s the next flight to Reykjavik?

Michael Yessis
Stopped in Cleveland while driving to Chicago, and spent a couple hours at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The overall experience left me underwhelmed, but I loved many of the artifacts: Mick Jagger’s knee pads; an Elvis jumpsuit; the first-ever U2 T-shirt, silk screened in 1976 by Larry Mullen Jr. The highlights, though, were the hand-written lyrics to two of my favorite ‘80s songs, U2’s Bad and Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, or, as Ian Curtis simply jotted for the chorus of the latter, LWTUA.

David Farley
The Frugal Traveler, who is on his annual summer jaunt for the New York Times, hasn’t been getting as much attention in the blogosphere as he has in previous years, but I’m really enjoying his tour around Europe, billed as a re-interpreted Grand Tour. Labeling it a new Grand Tour and then going to places like Moldova and Lithuania (while skipping places like Prague and Dubrovnik) is a tad head scratching, but Matt “the Froog” Gross’s written and video reports from the road make me look forward to Wednesdays.

Eva Holland
I loved meeting my mom at the Ottawa airport, on her way back from a high school reunion in Nova Scotia. I realized as I drove there—and tried to figure out where the short-term parking was—that it was the first time I’d picked someone up, instead of being picked up myself. It was nice to be on the opposite side of the arrivals hall for a change.

Joanna Kakissis
My favorite singer in the entire world is Savina Yannatou, though “singer” is really a puny word to use for her. She’s an astonishing vocal artist, and I’ve never heard anyone interpret the soul of traditional songs as well. I saw her and the outstanding Primavera En Salonico (who often make music with her) at the Ancient Epidaurus Little Theatre for my birthday (thanks, sis!). She was absolutely riveting, as always, and I was extra pleased with the guest vocalists: Tunisia’s Lamia Bedioui and Greece’s Martha Mavroidi. I love Savina’s interpretations of Greek songs the best, mainly because they make me feel grounded in a country that feels like it’s slipping away from me. Here’s a clip (in Italian):

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