Travel Blog
Man Loses Job, Survives on Hotel Points and Frequent Flier Miles
by Michael Yessis | 03.11.10 | 4:42 PM ET
This week Jim Kennedy is at the Holiday Inn Express in San Clemente using United miles. The Orange County Register has a great package about his plight, including this audio slideshow:
(via Slatest)
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Yahoo! BuzzJapan Airlines Flight Attendant Uniforms: Big on the Black Market
by Michael Yessis | 03.11.10 | 3:23 PM ET
You can probably guess for whom the uniforms hold a “mysterious power.” From the Times:
For decades, the crisp, no-nonsense outfits have appealed to male Japanese tastes. New Japan Airlines (JAL) uniforms have long been in demand in the local sex industry for customers keen on role-playing fantasies, while rare specimens that have actually been worn are hugely sought after by fetishists and are worth their weight in gold.
Countless shops will sell a very credible imitation for a few thousand yen, but the real thing can fetch a fortune. Historically, says Yu Teramoto, the owner of a specialist costumier in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, real JAL outfits have been virtually impossible for buyers to lay their hands on. However, the post-bankruptcy prospect of huge layoffs at JAL—especially among uniform-wearing air-crew—raises the prospect that former staff will attempt to sell their outfits for a profit.
One stolen uniform previously sold for about 11,000 pounds.
Mapped: The Hokey Pokey, an Omelet and Rumsfeld’s Iraq
by Michael Yessis | 03.11.10 | 2:09 PM ET
Last year Christoph Niemann rendered New York landmarks and experiences in LEGOs. Now he’s mapped “the most accurate routes for all occasions,” including the Hokey Pokey, an omelet and Rumsfeld’s Iraq.
Clever stuff.
Why Aren’t Students Reading Travel Books?
by Jim Benning | 03.11.10 | 1:23 PM ET
Students at all grade levels read a lot more fiction than nonfiction—think Mark Twain and J.K. Rowling. As Tom Kuntz points out in the New York Times, a recent survey found that of the top 20 books being read these days by high school students, only two are nonfiction.
Many observers are rightfully questioning why students aren’t reading more nonfiction.
Writes Jay Mathews in the Washington Post:
Educators say non-fiction is more difficult than fiction for students to comprehend. It requires more factual knowledge, beyond fiction’s simple truths of love, hate, passion and remorse. So we have a pathetic cycle. Students don’t know enough about the real world because they don’t read non-fiction and they can’t read non-fiction because they don’t know enough about the real world.
It’s a conundrum. But it seems to me great nonfiction travel narratives would be a perfect solution—or at least a start.
Travel writers often approach their subjects with what’s known in Zen as beginner’s mind. They write about places from the perspective of an outsider. They’re students of the world. Ideally, they take readers on a journey—a real adventure—that is fun and entertaining and, yes, educational.
I’m thinking of writers like Paul Theroux (“Dark Star Safari” or “The Old Patagonian Express”), Tim Cahill (“Road Fever”) and Bill Bryson (“A Walk in the Woods”), just to name a few.
Any other suggestions? What about a bestselling book like “Eat, Pray, Love”?
University of Texas Acquires David Foster Wallace Archive
by Eva Holland | 03.09.10 | 4:14 PM ET
The collection includes DFW’s childhood and college writings, handwritten drafts of “Infinite Jest,” and his heavily marked-up copies of books by Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike and others. The university press release includes links to high-res images of a few items from the archive. (Via Kottke)
David Foster Wallace was, of course, the author of one of our favorite travel stories: Shipping Out.
Boing Boing Does the Road Trip
by Eva Holland | 03.09.10 | 1:58 PM ET
Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder is cruising Southern California in a Buick, making an eclectic series of roadside stops. His latest? The very quirky Museum of Jurassic Technology.
The Frugal Traveler: A Househusband in Italy
by Eva Holland | 03.09.10 | 12:52 PM ET
Matt Gross is in Italy, where his role in the family household apparently makes for a great punchline.
Jamaica to Travelers: Come See Our Jewish History
by Michael Yessis | 03.09.10 | 11:47 AM ET
The country is pushing to get travelers to experience the island beyond its beaches. From the Wall Street Journal:
From the tourism minister on down, Jamaican officialdom has embraced a plan to market the nation’s Jewish history as a way of wooing a new segment of travelers.
Tourism officials admit that Jamaica’s Jewish history has been a “well-kept secret,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not rich. For instance: Jewish pirates!
Video: Steve Almond’s Toto Takedown
by Eva Holland | 03.08.10 | 5:54 PM ET
Writer Steve Almond dissects the classic travel tune, Toto’s “Africa.” I’ll never hear the song the same way again. (Via @KelseyTimmerman)
This Gamer has Some Issues With Japan
by Michael Yessis | 03.08.10 | 1:27 PM ET
Tim Rogers’ rant at Kotaku about expat life in Japan is racking up the page views—and has stimulated quite a conversation. So far, more than 2,300 people have commented. Rogers’ dislikes about Japanese culture include:
- Anime
- Smoking
- That everything in Japan has meat in it
- Mandatory parties
- Screaming
- Japanese comedy
- Passive aggression
- The prices
- Apologies
- Pachinko
But he does like Japanese trains! (Via The Morning News)
Joyce Carol Oates Goes Home
by Michael Yessis | 03.08.10 | 11:23 AM ET
The prolific author explores the meaning of place and home in a piece for Smithsonian magazine.
Writers, particularly novelists, are linked to place. It’s impossible to think of Charles Dickens and not to think of Dickens’ London; impossible to think of James Joyce and not to think of Joyce’s Dublin; and so with Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor—each is inextricably linked to a region, as to a language-dialect of particular sharpness, vividness, idiosyncrasy. We are all regionalists in our origins, however “universal” our themes and characters, and without our cherished hometowns and childhood landscapes to nourish us, we would be like plants set in shallow soil. Our souls must take root—almost literally.
She divulges more in a companion Q&A.
What We Loved This Week: Pacific Northwest Road Tripping, Manno Charlemagne and Hollywood Homes
by World Hum | 03.05.10 | 6:01 PM ET
Eva Holland
I loved driving from Vancouver to Seattle on Monday, and from Seattle around the northern portion of the Olympic Peninsula on Wednesday. It’s my first visit to Washington, and it’s a tribute to the state’s scenery that I’ve found myself dropping uncharacteristically below the speed limit at times to try to take it all in. Here’s a shot I took not far southwest of Port Angeles:
Video: ‘The Jersey Shore’ Goes ‘Up in the Air’
by Michael Yessis | 03.05.10 | 5:06 PM ET
“Up in the Air” director Jason Reitman gives this J-Woww and Ronnie performance a thumbs up:
Another Casualty of the Down Economy: Rest Stops
by Michael Yessis | 03.05.10 | 4:47 PM ET
And the people of Arizona are pissed off. From the New York Times:
Arizona has the largest budget gap in the country when measured as a percentage of its overall budget, and the state Department of Transportation was $100 million in the red last fall when it decided to close 13 of the state’s 18 highway rest stops.
But the move has unleashed a torrent of telephone calls and e-mail messages to state lawmakers, newspapers and the Department of Transportation deploring the lost toilets—one of the scores of small indignities among larger hardships that residents of embattled states face as governments scramble to shore up their finances.
Other states have closed rest stops, too, including Colorado, Georgia, Vermont and Virginia.
Video: Lars Von Trier to Direct Denmark’s New Tourism Ads
by Eva Holland | 03.04.10 | 2:38 PM ET
The Onion has an exclusive first look:
(Via Kottke)
