Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Bollywood Mega-Star Questioned at Newark
by Eva Holland | 08.17.09 | 1:52 PM ET
"My Name is Khan" poster via Bollywood Hungama Shah Rukh Khan is one of Bollywood’s best-known stars, and his apparent detention for questioning at Newark Liberty International Airport this weekend has touched off a minor diplomatic incident between the U.S. and India. The silver lining for the actor? Plenty of free publicity for “My Name is Khan,” his upcoming movie about—wait for it—an Indian traveler’s struggles with racial profiling in America.
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Yahoo! BuzzBen Gibbard, Jay Farrar Team Up for ‘Kerouac’s Big Sur’
by Michael Yessis | 08.17.09 | 12:09 PM ET
Death Cab for Cutie singer/songwriter Gibbard and all-around alt-country standard-bearer Farrar had never met before collaborating on the soundtrack to a new documentary about Jack Kerouac, “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur.” Paste spoke with the pair about their work on the album, which will be released October 20.
Gibbard had previously written for Paste about his experience writing the most recent Death Cab album at the same cabin where Kerouac wrote “Big Sur.”
20 Reasons for Tourist Gratitude
by Eva Holland | 08.17.09 | 11:14 AM ET
Fed up with flight delays? Hotel wi-fi cutting out? Take a deep breath and check out the Telegraph’s list of 20 reasons why Victorian travelers had it worse. Among the highlights: rickety stagecoaches, damp sheets, and the “Inodorous Standard Pail” offered in lieu of a toilet. There. Feel better now?
Travel Movie Watch: ‘When in Rome’
by Eva Holland | 08.17.09 | 10:25 AM ET
Girl goes to Rome. Girl meets boy in Rome. Magic Roman fountain causes boy and girl to fall in love. Yes, the latest flick in the grand tradition of movies about young Americans finding romance in Europe is en route. The latest incarnation stars Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel and the aforementioned magic fountain. Here’s the trailer:
What We Loved This Week: Sora Lella, Book Passage, ‘Travels in Siberia’ and More
by World Hum | 08.14.09 | 4:35 PM ET
Photo by Ben Wadewitz Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
David Farley
This week I dined at Sora Lella, a famous Roman restaurant on Isola Tiberina, an island between Rome’s Ghetto and Trastevere neighborhoods. But I didn’t go to Rome. I ate at Sora Lella in New York. The NYC outpost, I found, was just as good as the original and took me back to the last time I was living in Italy.
The Great Israeli Road Sign Debate
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.09 | 3:21 PM ET
Israel’s transportation minister has proposed switching the country from a trilingual system—road signs are currently in Hebrew, Arabic and English—to one where the signs are presented exclusively “with transliterations of the Hebrew names.”
The World reports that street signs in Israel have long long been ideological battlegrounds. Reporter Daniel Estrin follows around one couple who travels the country trying to restore defaced street signs. Here are a few photos.
Jack Kerouac: Canadian Icon?
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.09 | 2:37 PM ET
World Leaders on Vacation
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.09 | 1:54 PM ET
President Obama isn’t the only one taking a break this month. This Newsweek story looks at where other world leaders are going or have gone, including Russian macho man/Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Check out the spectacular photo accompanying the piece.
New ‘Secure Flight’ Inspections Set to Begin
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.09 | 11:47 AM ET
Beginning tomorrow, airlines may ask passengers for their birth date and gender. The questions are based on recommendations from the 9/11 Commission.
Museums and the Hunt for ‘Real Culture’ on the Road
by Eva Holland | 08.14.09 | 11:01 AM ET
In a recent post over at BootsnAll, Roger Wade explains why he believes museums are overrated. “If you think about it, with only a few exceptions, museums are all history museums one way or another,” he writes.
The most famous ones display stationary art that only the elite classes could ever hope to own or even see. Sure, some of them tell the stories of what life was really like at the time, but many of them are idealized versions or nothing like reality at all ... History certainly has its place, but when you visit Madrid today might it not be more interesting to see some intricacies of modern big city Spanish life than what a lone artist a few hundred years ago was thinking?
Later, after offering some museum alternatives—grocery stores and the like—he adds: “You’ll learn far more about their real culture of today in a place like this than you would at the famous museum…”
Now, I’m a big fan of foreign supermarkets. But I’m also a bona fide history geek, and as such I’m worried about what seems to be an increasingly popular theme in travel advice these days: the idea that museums, and history more generally, are somehow distinct or cut off from a destination’s true culture. Does anyone really think that a visit to the Terror House won’t improve their understanding of post-Soviet Budapest? Or that the Transit Museum doesn’t shed some light on the way New Yorkers live? And I know, I know, we’ve all had Madonna-and-Child art gallery overload at some point—but trying to understand the Catholic world without taking a look at its most powerful iconography seems crazy to me.
Go ahead, call me a geek, but I’ll balance out a good people-watching session with some museum time any day. And I just don’t see how the one is more “real” than the other.
Is JetBlue’s Flight Pass a Bargain?
by Eva Holland | 08.14.09 | 10:23 AM ET
There’s been a lot of buzz about JetBlue’s new, month-long All-You-Can-Jet flight pass. Arthur Frommer offers a few words of caution.
In Search of America’s Most Bizarre Restaurants
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.09 | 10:09 AM ET
World Hum contributor Nicholas Gill lists his picks over at Forbes Traveler.
Debunking Travel’s Most Persistent Myths
by Eva Holland | 08.13.09 | 4:45 PM ET
True or false: Dressing well and asking politely can get you a first-class upgrade, street food isn’t safe, and jeans are a no-no in Europe. World Hum contributor Eric Lucas tackles these and nine other oldie-but-goodie travel myths for MSNBC.
What do Presidential Vacations Say About a President?
by Michael Yessis | 08.13.09 | 4:07 PM ET
Tom Swick has weighed in. Today, so does the Washington Post. One scholar says of presidents on vacation: “You have to show the country that you are getting respite from the job, but also that you are still ever at the ready. It’s a delicate balance.”
Movie Tourism Hot Spots Worldwide
by Eva Holland | 08.13.09 | 2:25 PM ET
Over at BootsnAll, Victoria Brewood rounds up some of the most famous movie locations outside America. They’re all solid choices (though “South America” is maybe a little too broad to be very useful for the keen movie tourist) and mostly linked to high-impact flicks, like “Star Wars” or “Lord of the Rings.” From my own experience I’d add a few spots in England, for the “Harry Potter” franchise and Udaipur’s Lake Palace, in India, where “Octopussy” was filmed.
Oh, and don’t forget about that friendly neighbor to the north—after all, a lot of those “American” movies you’ve seen were actually filmed in Canada.
