Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Innuendo and the City
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.05 | 4:42 AM ET
Sunday’s New York Times arrived with another travel edition of T Style Magazine inside, and it’s mostly what you’d expect from a style/travel magazine: it’s full of stories by and about celebrities and celebrated writers. I haven’t had a chance to read much of it yet, but I did notice a secondary theme: sex. Or maybe it’s just travel writing that would really entertain a teenage boy.
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Mongolia Loves Puff Daddy’
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.05 | 4:30 AM ET
Michael Wolgelenter has a terrific, laugh-out-loud essay about music as a travel touchstone in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle.
Palms Hosts “The Amazing Race” Premiere Party Tuesday in Las Vegas
by Michael Yessis | 09.26.05 | 10:36 PM ET
The latest edition of The Amazing Race reality television travel show begins tomorrow night at 9 p.m., and if you’re in Las Vegas you can watch it at the Palms Resort side-by-side with contestants from seasons 1 to 7. The party begins at 6 p.m. with autograph signings.
A Drive Through Kentucky Inspires Cameron Crowe, ‘Elizabethtown’
by Michael Yessis | 09.26.05 | 12:28 AM ET
The promotional onslaught for Cameron Crowe’s new movie, Elizabethtown, is underway. I hadn’t been paying much attention to any of it—I’m a fan of all his movies and I already plan to see “Elizabethtown” no matter what—so I didn’t realize it was a road movie of sorts until I saw this morning’s Los Angeles Times, which features a self-promotional but still terrific piece by Crowe himself about how he selects the music for his films.
Airplane Lands. Nation Rejoices.
by Michael Yessis | 09.22.05 | 4:30 AM ET
Yesterday’s emergency landing of a New York-bound JetBlue airliner in Los Angeles was a post-post-modern experience, passenger and New York Observer editor Alexandra Jacobs told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Translation: Passengers watched the live national television coverage of their crippled jet circling the skies over Southern California on their personal TV screens within the plane. The good news of the landing caused Cooper, who has been covering Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, to smile for possibly the first time in weeks. If you haven’t seen the video of the amazing landing, Crooks and Liars has it.
NYC Gets the Stews. LA and DC Welcome Travel Movies.
by Michael Yessis | 09.22.05 | 4:20 AM ET
Plane Crazy, a play about “stew life” in the ‘60s, is in the middle of a nine show run in the New York Musical Theater Festival. New York Times writer Miriam Horn gave it a mixed review, but the show appears to have sold out every performance. I wonder: Is it a good play that does justice to the life of stewardesses in the early jet age, or do people just like the songs and the outfits?
“Funky Food Courts” With Rachael Ray
by Michael Yessis | 09.22.05 | 4:10 AM ET
Is it another new show from one of our favorite television travel personalities, the ubiquitous and oft-ridiculed Rachael Ray? Not quite. Arnold Roth and Mike Albo have a funny cartoon spoof of Ray on page 66 of the Sept. 19 issue of The New Yorker, billing her as the host of a new television show, “Funky Food Courts,” wherein she explores the food options “at the rest stop off I-95 near Wilmington.”
“Lost” Wins Emmy, Inspires Travel
by Michael Yessis | 09.21.05 | 4:10 AM ET
The second season of the ABC television show Lost begins tonight, and with it comes a new round of travel stories about folks “set-jetting” to where the show is filmed: Hawaii. It’s the latest in a string of filming locations/destinations to see an influx of travelers and travel writers, and perhaps the strangest considering the show revolves around a group of plane crash survivors. Jaunted has more on the phenomenon, and links to some “Lost”-themed travel stories that explore the ramifications of travel driven by successful movies and TV shows.
‘Amazing Adventures of a Nobody’: Seeing America On $5 a Day
by Michael Yessis | 09.20.05 | 4:21 AM ET
Two days ago, Leon Logothetis set out from New York City to travel across the United States on a mere $5 a day. He’s being followed by a film crew, which is tormenting Logothetis by staying in luxury hotels and eating gourmet food. Logothetis calls himself a “nobody,” and is counting on the goodness of strangers to help him find food and places to sleep. I don’t think he’s going to have much of a problem. As Ramon Stoppelenburg proved a couple years back, people will bend over backwards to help out a traveler on an extremely limited budget, particularly one with a gimmick and a well-crafted Web site.
The Critics: AARP Recommends Armchair Travel Books
by Michael Yessis | 09.19.05 | 11:47 PM ET
Dennis Boyles selected seven books for the September/October issue of AARP magazine, including “The Station” by Robert Byron and “A Traveller’s Alphabet” by Sir Steven Runciman.
World Hum Does Fort Worth
by Jim Benning | 09.17.05 | 6:20 PM ET
Germany Bans Smiling in Passport Photos
by Michael Yessis | 09.16.05 | 12:22 AM ET
It’s a security thing, according to the Associated Press story about German Interior Minister Otto Schily’s announcement: “Facial recognition systems match key features on the holder’s face and work best when the face has a neutral expression with the mouth closed.” Boing Boing reports that Canada and Britain have already made the same ban.
Travel Auctions to Benefit Hurricane Katrina Victims
by Michael Yessis | 09.14.05 | 11:56 PM ET
Right now eBay is hosting dozens of travel auctions to benefit the American Red Cross and relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims. Among the items up for bid: every room in the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire for the night of November 9. Luxury Link is also auctioning trips to benefit hurricane victims. If you’re planning a trip and want to support the cause, have a look.
He’s Got Reservations About Anthony Bourdain’s Ad
by Michael Yessis | 09.14.05 | 11:17 PM ET
Rolf Potts has a problem with the magazine ad for Anthony Bourdain’s new show on the Travel Channel, Without Reservations. The ad features the tagline, “Be a Traveler, Not a Tourist.” Potts writes in his weblog: “[T]o imply that one can shed the ‘tourist’ mantle by watching a television show is positively idiotic.” See here for the offending ad and the rest of his analysis.
Following Bob Dylan, and Maybe Even Bono
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.05 | 4:20 AM ET
In his 2004 memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan recalls spending an evening with Bono and telling U2’s singer that he should take a trip through Minnesota to the birthplace of America, following a road along “the river up through Winona, Lake City, Frontenac.” What Dylan didn’t reveal is what Steve Dougherty figured out when he opened a road map.
