Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Che’: ‘Almost Unreleasable in its Current Form’
by Jim Benning | 05.28.08 | 2:07 PM ET
That seems to be the consensus of those who saw the biopic at the Cannes Film Festival. While Benicio Del Toro (pictured) won the best actor award for his performance of the rebel who launched a million T-shirts, critics say Soderbergh’s highly anticipated biopic, which runs no less than four and a half hours, isn’t likely to find its way into theaters soon. The film was made in two parts, the first covering the revolution in Cuba, the second focusing on Guevara’s ill-fated adventures in Bolivia. It’s “almost unreleasable in its current form in any country in the world,” critic John Powers said yesterday on NPR’s Fresh Air.
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Yahoo! BuzzOysters, Cheesecake and a Russian Girl’s Magic Pot of Faraway Food
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.28.08 | 12:09 PM ET
When Lara Vapnyar was a child living in Russia, she wrote an essay for school about the thing she most wanted a Magi to give her: a magic pot that would create any food in the world. She had grown up reading European and American novels that featured exotic delights such as cheesecake, asparagus and oysters, and she longed to know if they tasted as good as they did in her imagination. The descriptions of these foods were not only words; they took on a power that transported her to other worlds.
New Travel Novel: ‘Dear American Airlines’
by Michael Yessis | 05.28.08 | 10:46 AM ET
Author: Jonathan Miles
Released: April 29, 2008
Travel genre: Fiction—the literature of “Airworld”
Territory covered: Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, the life of protagonist Bennie Ford
Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Vancouver: The Jolly, Green Giant’
by Eva Holland | 05.28.08 | 9:39 AM ET
Photo by D’Arcy Norman via Flickr (Creative Commons)
I’m sure The Independent meant well with this effusive profile of “the world’s most liveable city.” On the other hand, I’m not so sure that Vancouver’s tourism authorities will be thrilled at the association of their fair city with canned corn niblets.
Congratulations, DK Guides
by Eva Holland | 05.28.08 | 8:53 AM ET
British guidebook publisher Dorling Kindersley has hit 50 million books sold, and the company is celebrating by putting out a pair of best-of lists: the Top 20 Buildings in the World, and the Top 20 Buildings in Britain (and Ireland). Perhaps you enjoy overanalyzing these types of lists as much as I do.
R.I.P. Sydney Pollack
by Jim Benning | 05.27.08 | 5:24 PM ET
Among other career highlights, of course, he brought Isak Dinesen’s “Out of Africa” to the big screen.
Travel and Scents: Your Limbic System is a Target Market
by Michael Yessis | 05.27.08 | 2:47 PM ET
Photo by josef.stuefer, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
We knew this last year. We just didn’t know how far hotels would go to brand themselves through scent. “Everyone is scenting. Ritz-Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-La, Marriott,” writes Chandler Burr in the June Travel+Leisure. “When it comes to making an impression, a comfortable lobby and high-quality service are essential, of course, but among the more subtle cues, none is getting more attention these days than fragrance.”
Why We Travel: ‘I Go Looking For God’
by Michael Yessis | 05.27.08 | 1:51 PM ET
Kelly Westhoff reveals why she hits the road in a piece on The Huffington Post. “I’m not daft. I know evil exists,” she writes. “But travel, more than any worship service I have ever attended, reveals the awesome wonder and good that exists in this world.”
Ten Things to Eat Before They Disappear
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.27.08 | 11:39 AM ET
Because it might not be around much longer, Imraguen mullet bottarga—a kind of Mauretanian caviar—was one of the “endangered foods” from around the world that was featured at a unique feast in Newcastle, England, The World reports. The “Ten Things to Eat Before They Die” menu also included Saxon village berry preserves from Translyvania, Herat raisins from Afghanistan, golden lentils from France and Huehuetenango highland coffee from Guatemala. Globalization and mass marketing have increasingly homogenized the world’s menus, often suffocating the strange, delightful ingredients in traditional foods cultivated or made by a handful of producers.
Houston, Was That a Model Rocket Shooting Past my Plane?
by Jim Benning | 05.27.08 | 10:54 AM ET
We hope that was the object with the flaming tail that a Continental Airlines pilot reported seeing fly past a Boeing 737 just after takeoff. The FBI is investigating.
World Hum’s Most Read: May 17-23
by World Hum | 05.23.08 | 1:35 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts this week:
1) Hard Rock Park Opens to ‘Awesome’ Reviews
2) How To: Use a Squat Toilet
3) Ask Rolf: How Do You Stay Fit When You’re Traveling?
4) Overanalyzing America’s Top 25 Tourist Sites (pictured)
5) How Bad is the Violence in Mexico?
Photo by The Jacobin via Flick (Creative Commons)
Do They Serve Polygamy Porter at the Merry Wives Cafe?
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.23.08 | 11:11 AM ET
The Merry Wives Cafe in Hilldale, Utah is the only sit-down restaurant on the 55-mile stretch of highway between Fredonia, Arizona, and Hurricane, Utah. And, yes, it’s run by polygamists. The Work of Jesus Christ of Centennial Park opened the cafe last year in part to sweeten polygamy’s really, really bad image. The Centennial Park group broke off decades ago from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—whose chapter in Texas has been the focus of damning media reports about child sexual abuse—and says it condemns underage marriage and child labor.
Gridskipper Goes to the Hamptons
by Jim Benning | 05.23.08 | 10:54 AM ET
Big changes at the travel blog. “Formerly focused on the urban travel experiences,” it declares, “the new Gridskipper knows travel as an exercise in escape and leisure.” We’re a long way from April Fool’s Day, so we’ll take them at their word.
RVs: Recession Victims?
by Eva Holland | 05.23.08 | 10:47 AM ET
With the dollar playing scrappy underdog to the euro, the airline industry in disarray and some Americans staying close to home for their vacations this year, you might think that your local recreational vehicle dealer would be in better shape than many of his colleagues in the travel business. After all, as Slate’s Daniel Gross writes, “RVs are cheaper than a vacation home, help travelers save on hotels, and appeal to those who prefer leisure and economy over speed and glitz.”
A ‘Redneck Taco’ in the Deep-Fried United States
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.23.08 | 10:33 AM ET
Martin’s Barbecue Joint in Nolensville, Tennessee, makes a good one, at least according to Southern food guru John T. Edge. Martin’s “redneck taco” is pork-shoulder barbecue on hoecakes, which Edge calls “a cross between a cornpone and a blini.” Visitors might cackle over the name, especially if they’re dainty eaters, but ignore this beautiful open-faced sandwich at your own peril. Barbecue should be anointed the eighth wonder of the world, and hoecakes should be worshiped at least as much as hush puppies. Edge sampled hoecakes across Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky for a recent Gourmet story.
Related on World Hum:
* Barbecue Goes Global
