Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Travel Movies: Road Tripping in Search of ... Something
by Eva Holland | 07.22.09 | 4:54 PM ET
We’ve paid tribute in the past to our favorite travel race movies—road trip flicks where it’s all about getting there. But there’s another breed of road trip movie, too, where the driver is looking for something bigger, more meaningful, than an interstate thrill. “Easy Rider” is a good example: Its tagline reads, “A man went looking for America. And couldn’t find it anywhere…”
With the famous motorcycle movie celebrating its 40th anniversary this month, I thought it was about time to call out a few of my favorites from the sub-genre.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzGadgets on the Cheap
by Eva Holland | 07.22.09 | 3:36 PM ET
Frugal Traveler Matt Gross has just posted his latest in the New York Times: the top ten travel gadgets that cost less than $50. It’s a good list—I’ve never been much of a gadget lover myself, but I especially liked his suggestions of a money clip instead of a wallet, a power strip with multiple outlets, and a good old notebook and pen.
Have We Reached a ‘Plateau’ in Air Safety?
by Eva Holland | 07.22.09 | 2:44 PM ET
After a couple of high-profile plane crashes so far this year, the Independent argues that we have.
Taco Trucks and the ‘Mobility Patterns’ of Young Urbanites
by Jim Benning | 07.22.09 | 1:37 PM ET
By now most people have heard of the L.A. Twitter taco truck phenomenon that is Kogi. Well it seems that Kogi’s success has spawned a slew of other food trucks in Southern California, from the Coolhaus ice cream sandwich truck to the Franken Stand hawking vegan sausages.
And the trend is going national, so if you’re in the U.S., look out for a gourmet food truck coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
Today’s Los Angeles Times story on the phenomenon includes an interesting bit of sociology.
Travel Movie Watch: ‘A Perfect Getaway’
by Eva Holland | 07.22.09 | 11:38 AM ET
Beautiful people murdering each other on an isolated Hawaiian hiking trail: What’s not to like?
“A Perfect Getaway” opens August 7.
Happy 40th Birthday, ‘Easy Rider’
by Eva Holland | 07.21.09 | 5:21 PM ET
The road trip classic celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, and even though I’ve had my differences with the movie I didn’t want to miss the chance for a birthday shout-out.
“Easy Rider” has a couple of the key ingredients for a great road trip movie (and, for that matter, a great road trip) in spades: delectable scenery for the vicarious traveler, and plenty of contemplative fireside chats between driving sequences—the sorts of conversations that you’d find around a hostel common room, or share with your Couchsurfing host. It’s not a perfect movie, but it helped to define and then spread the idea of finding freedom on the open road. For that, I’m grateful.
Here are a couple of favorite scenes:
Travel Movie Watch: ‘Julie and Julia’
by Eva Holland | 07.21.09 | 2:19 PM ET
Here’s a promising one. “Julie and Julia” tells the story of Julia Child’s years as a Parisian expat, when she first tackled French cuisine, alongside the story of New York City blogger Julie Powell, who spent a year attempting every recipe in Child’s classic, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Meryl Streep plays Child—who was recently included in our list of ten inspirational women travelers—while Amy Adams takes on Powell. On top of the promising cast, Nora Ephron wrote and directed—cue the jokes about a recipe for success.
How America Learned to Fear the Roundabout
by Eva Holland | 07.21.09 | 12:02 PM ET
Interesting tidbit from this Slate article calling for American city planners to embrace the roundabout. Turns out, our collective roundabout anxiety can probably be blamed on our European vacations:
Mentioning roundabouts seems to invoke some form of the famous “availability bias,” which leads people make judgments based on the memories that can be brought most easily to mind. And so, the American who may have driven as a tourist in France or Greece a number of years back will shudder with recognition, associating the roundabout with terror and near misses. But motorists with such memories often fail to consider that they were driving as tourists in unfamiliar climes, perhaps only for a few days. Roundabouts, like the language, the signage, the food, and just about everything else, were strange and novel, and so the tourist driver, already probably feeling a bit wigged out—for a roundabout in Italy is filled with Italian drivers—felt a heightened level of stress and thereafter consigned the roundabout to the dustbin of terrible ideas—or things that might be good for Europe (like socialized medicine) but don’t translate.
Arthur Frommer Rediscovers Small-Town America
by Eva Holland | 07.21.09 | 11:15 AM ET
The guidebook publisher who made his name in Europe has just returned to his boyhood home of Jefferson City for the first time in decades—and the result is an infectiously enthusiastic blog post on the joys of small-town America. Frommer writes: “Now I won’t claim that a visit to Jeff City is a big touristic opportunity. But to me at the time it was Athens, London, and Paris all rolled into one—and would you believe?—it lived up to every memory I had of it.”
Missouri road trip, anyone?
The Colony of LAX Parking Lot B
by Michael Yessis | 07.20.09 | 4:21 PM ET
Great story in the Los Angeles Times about a community of pilots and other airline workers that lives in trailers and motor homes in a parking lot at Los Angeles International Airport. Dan Weikel writes:
For several years, clusters of RVs were scattered around the airport’s parking lots until LAX officials decided to consolidate them in Lot B. Now operating as an organized camp overseen by the airport, it has an unofficial mayor, a code of conduct and residency requirements, including background checks, regular vehicle inspections and proof of employment at an air carrier.
The constant noise of the airplanes flying overhead would drive me nuts, but the residents of the colony don’t seem to mind. Or maybe they just have good white noise machines, like one of the three residents profiled in the terrific accompanying audio slideshow.
Vintage Postcards Get Invaded
by Eva Holland | 07.20.09 | 3:42 PM ET
Daily Dish blogger Chris Bodenner points the way to a fun Flickr gallery of vintage postcards—complete with photoshopped alien invasions.
This Summer’s Must-See Musical Has-Beens
by Eva Holland | 07.20.09 | 2:58 PM ET
Can’t make it to any of our favorite European summer music festivals? Never fear: Matador Nights rounds up the best of the has-been rock bands (plus one has-been boy band) that are on tour this season—and somehow, I don’t think they’ll all be selling out.
Farewell, Crocs?
by Eva Holland | 07.20.09 | 2:02 PM ET
Ah, cruel fashion. The Washington Post reports that the company behind the, er, distinctive foam shoes is in major financial trouble—and Crocs, so recently a hot item, could be on their way out. Fine by me. Now, any chance that a few other staples of the ugly tourist uniform—fanny packs, anyone?—could be vanishing, too? (Via Andrew Sullivan)
Famous Underwear Displayed as Fine Art in Belgium
by Alicia Imbody | 07.20.09 | 12:23 PM ET
Belgian artist Jan Bucquoy has just opened the “Musee du Slip,” or underpants museum, a destination sure to appeal to those visitors already flocking to the nearby Brussels landmark Manneken-Pis. Bucquoy told Reuters that the framed underwear, donated mostly by Belgian artists, singers and politicians, represents a utopian longing for an equal society: “If you are scared of someone, just imagine them in their underpants. The hierarchy will fall and you will see that this is a guy like any other. We are all equal, all brothers.”
If you can’t make it to Belgium to see the aforementioned unmentionables, Bucquoy is planning a fall exhibition in Paris where he hopes to showcase underwear from Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni, and perhaps long shots like the Pope or Iranian President Ahmadinejad, articles he’s sure tourists would line up to see.
Rory Stewart on our ‘Dystopian Vision’ of Afghanistan
by Eva Holland | 07.20.09 | 11:25 AM ET
In a long piece on the future of Afghanistan, Rory Stewart makes a point about the country’s usual image in the media:
“We are accustomed to seeing Afghans through bars, or smeared windows, or the sight of a rifle: turbaned men carrying rockets, praying in unison, or lying in pools of blood; boys squabbling in an empty swimming-pool; women in burn wards, or begging in burqas,” he writes. “Kabul is a South Asian city of millions. Bollywood music blares out in its crowded spice markets and flower gardens, but it seems that images conveying colour and humour are reserved for Rajasthan.”
It’s not the first time the author of “The Places in Between” has spoken out on the subject. (Via Andrew Sullivan)
