Travel Blog: Pop Culture Travel
After Michael Jackson: Will Tourists Flock to Neverland Ranch?
by Eva Holland | 06.30.09 | 2:52 PM ET
Photo by Eva Holland Over at This Just In, the inevitable question has been asked: Where will Michael Jackson’s Graceland be? After all, the King of Pop’s fans will need a pilgrimage spot just as badly as the King’s do. JD Rinne offers a few possibilities: the Jackson family hometown of Gary, Indiana; Detroit’s Motown Museum; the Apollo Theater in Harlem; and, of course, Neverland Ranch.
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Yahoo! BuzzAustralia’s Prime Minister: ‘Hotter Than Obama’
by Eva Holland | 06.29.09 | 7:05 PM ET
Publicity still via IGN That was the verdict from Bruno, comedian Sasha Baron Cohen’s gay Austrian alter ego, during a visit to Sydney for his movie‘s Australian premiere. Said the ostensible fashion TV reporter after meeting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: “That guy is like, uber-cute. I thought Obama was like the hottest guy in the world until I met Kevin.”
Ooh. Them’s fighting words, Bruno. President Obama, care to respond?
Mapped: How Hollywood Sees the United States
by Michael Yessis | 06.26.09 | 10:33 AM ET
What, you’ve never been to Alabanjorape?
See This Now: ‘Give Peace a Chance’
by Eva Holland | 06.23.09 | 10:14 AM ET
Photo by Eva Holland As we’ve noted, this spring marked the 40th anniversary of John and Yoko’s iconic “bed-ins” for peace, first at the Amsterdam Hilton and later (and more famously) at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel. The commemorations in those two cities have passed, but a powerful exhibit about the Montreal bed-in has just opened at the Museum at Bethel Woods (aka the Woodstock museum), and it will remain open through the summer.
Paying for Passport Stamps
by Eva Holland | 06.19.09 | 1:50 PM ET
Over at Jaunted, blogger JetSetCD has opened up a conversation on those oh-so-tempting, oh-so-corny souvenir passport stamps.
You know, the ones from places like Checkpoint Charlie, Machu Picchu and so on. And then, beyond the stamps from major tourist sites, there are the just-so-I-can-say-I-was-here countries—Liechtenstein, San Marino and the like—that charge for their entry stamps, too. So, Jaunted asks, are novelty passport stamps worth their price? Or are they just as bad as “buying those horrific gift spoons”?
I have to admit, I’ve never actually been faced with the question before. But I love my passport stamps, and I can’t see putting a set of fake East/West Berlin markers into the mix. On the other hand, though it would irk me to pay, I’d probably want proof that I crossed Liechtenstein’s borders. What about you?
Travel Movie Endings, Good and Bad
by Eva Holland | 06.19.09 | 11:46 AM ET
What do you do, as a pack of popular movie bloggers, when your popular movie blog gets the axe? If you’re Nerve.com’s Screengrab team you go out in style, with a list of the best and worst movie endings of all time.
A couple of beloved travel movies made the list—Screengrabber Andrew Osborne takes aim at the “slap-dash” conclusion to “Easy Rider,” while he praises one of my all-time favorites, “Before Sunset,” for its sublime final moments: “Delpy does a shuffling little dance. Hawke sinks into the couch with a silly grin on his face. And we all learn that the most romantic words of all are not ‘I love you’—they’re ‘Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.’” Amen. And so long, Screengrab.
Canadian Road Trip Candy: ‘One Week’ on DVD
by Eva Holland | 06.18.09 | 4:53 PM ET
Remember One Week, aka Canada’s “Into the Wild”? Well, the movie may never have made it to U.S. theaters, but it landed on DVD this week—and while I wouldn’t count on it being stocked at your local Blockbuster, I can confirm that Netflix is on the ball.
But is it worth a rental? I caught it on an Air Canada flight a few weeks back and had mixed feelings.
‘Away We Go’ in Search of Literary Street Cred?
by Eva Holland | 06.18.09 | 1:23 PM ET
Publicity still via IGN The Book Bench takes a saucy look at “Away We Go,” the Sam Mendes-directed, Eggers/Vida-penned flick that recently got the World Hum Travel Movie Club treatment.
Writes blogger Jenna Krajeski: “Mendes ruined his reputation around the library when he suffocated Richard Yates’s masterpiece [“Revolutionary Road”] on the silver screen. Is he trying to win back his literary cred?” Or, she wonders, did the two novelists throw the game deliberately in the name of the printed page? “Perhaps there’s no better way to prove that novelists should stick to writing novels than to have two skilled fiction writers fail at writing for the movies.” Ouch.
Athletes Who Say Idiotic Things About Travel: Brandon Jennings
by Michael Yessis | 06.17.09 | 3:00 PM ET
The quote for this inaugural Athletes Who Say Idiotic Things About Travel post comes from Brandon Jennings, who played basketball in Italy last year and hopes to play in the NBA in the upcoming season. The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg asked him what he learned during his season in Italy.
Another Morning After: ‘Hangover’ Sequel en Route
by Eva Holland | 06.17.09 | 12:49 PM ET
Lovers of film and travel, fear not: If “The Hangover”—you know, the one about the messy/hilarious aftermath of a Vegas boys’ getaway?—left you wanting more, you don’t have long to wait. A sequel, with star Bradley Cooper signed on, is already in the works. It’s a likely bet for box office success—Cooper’s only concern, apparently, is how they’ll top the first installment. “We’ve gotta go to space or something,” a skeptical Popwrap blogger quotes him as saying.
Sure, Bradley. Logistical issues aside, space certainly tops Vegas. Or you could just go to Macau.
Garrison Keillor on the Joys of the State Fair
by Michael Yessis | 06.17.09 | 11:49 AM ET
Just in time for summer, Mr. Lake Woebegon—have you seen all the words he’s trademarked?—writes about the ten chief joys of the state fair in National Geographic. I like No. 3:
To mingle, merge, mill, jostle gently, and flock together with throngs, swarms, mobs, and multitudes of persons slight or hefty, punky or preppy, young or ancient, wandering through the hubbub and amplified razzmatazz and raw neon and clouds of wiener steam in search of some elusive thing, nobody is sure exactly what.
If you’re a Harper’s subscriber and you haven’t already read it, the archive has more great state fair writing from David Foster Wallace. (via @Marilyn_Res)
Can a Taxi Man Make a Subway Movie?
by Eva Holland | 06.17.09 | 11:04 AM ET
There’s a surprising tidbit in the Slate review of “The Taking of Pelham 123,” the Denzel/Travolta-starring remake of a ’70s subway-thriller classic. Turns out, director Tony Scott never actually rides the New York subway. Or, almost never: “Well, when I say never, I mean maybe once or twice quite drunk at night, when I couldn’t find a taxi.” Right.
Political Iran on Film
by Eva Holland | 06.16.09 | 10:32 AM ET
Foreign Policy has a timely list of movies “that have stirred the country’s politics over the years.” The selections span four decades, from the Shah’s day to the present, and could be great fodder for some armchair traveling—for this week, probably the only sort of travel that’s advisable to Iran.
Travel Movie Watch: ‘Creation’
by Eva Holland | 06.16.09 | 9:24 AM ET
From "HMS Beagle at Tierra del Fuego" by Conrad Martens (via Wikipedia) Details are still a little scarce, but I’d be very surprised if the Charles Darwin biopic didn’t include some serious travel sequences. Paul Bettany plays the lead, and the movie is due out in September.
‘Eat, Pray, Love’ Movie Update: Bardem Signs On
by Eva Holland | 06.10.09 | 4:38 PM ET
It’s been a couple of years since word came down that Julia Roberts would play the lead in the film adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s juggernaut of a travel memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love.” Now, Variety reports that Javier Bardem will join the project as Felipe, the Brazilian suitor who pops up in Bali. Richard Jenkins has also signed on to play Richard, the ashram Texan.
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