What We Loved This Week: ‘One Day in Africa,’ ‘Juanes: A Musical Journey,’ and More

Travel Blog  •  World Hum  •  04.24.09 | 7:00 PM ET

Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days:

Eva Holland
The Longest Way, a short video that’s been picking up viral steam in the past couple of weeks. It documents one traveler’s year-long walk across China, through the growth of his beard:

Doug Mack
The sights and restaurants of South Seattle. This part of town is not exactly on the standard tourist itinerary—I probably wouldn’t have come here if I weren’t visiting family—but I’m discovering that there’s plenty to see, and lots of great, cheap places to eat. Highlight so far: the Thai Palms on Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

Terry Ward
Brunch with an oceanic view in Berlin. I noshed pickled herring and watched schools of tropical fish oscillate inside the world’s largest cylindrical aquarium (238,000 gallons), housed in the lobby of the Radisson Blu Hotel.

Photo by Benjamin Wadewitz

Joanna Kakissis
I loved My Twice-Cooked Pork Epiphany by World Hum’s very own Julia Ross, who beautifully evoked an expat’s trepidation, discovery and (ultimately) embrace of a culture through the wild and wonderful cuisine of China and Taiwan.

Valerie Conners
I’m still coming off my Buenos Aires high, and I can’t stop listening to tango music and watching tango performances online. My absolute fave clip is from the movie “Moulin Rouge,” during “El Tango de Roxanne.” Amazing.

Rolf Potts
I was impressed by Brook Braga-Silva’s new documentary, One Day in Africa. Brook’s intention was to look beyond the “disasters-and-safaris” clichés that skew our perception of Africa and take an understated, unsentimental look into the lives of select individuals living in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, and Morocco. The result is a subtle, human-centered evocation of the continent that is at times more reminiscent of good travel writing than standard documentary TV.

Jim Benning
Juanes: A Musical Journey, which aired on my cable TV. The music documentary about Colombian pop star Juanes was shot largely in his hometown of Medellin—in fact, it was part love letter to Medellin, as he spoke of the city’s post-drug-war rebirth. Good vicarious travel fun, and with great pop tunes like “La Camisa Negra” (this video wasn’t part of the documentary):

Michael Yessis
I loved the Ulysses of road signs, part of a McSweeney’s piece by Kenny Byerly. Here it is: ““NO PARKING 10 AM TO 12 NOON MONDAY STREET CLEANING, NO PARKING 6 PM TO 8 AM MON THRU SAT, 2 HR PARKING 8 AM TO 6 PM MON THRU SAT, NO PARKING 12 AM TO 3 AM TAXI ZONE, VEHICLES WITH DISTRICT NO. 47 PERMITS EXEMPTED.”

Tags: Shameless Self-Promotion, News and Briefs


No comments for What We Loved This Week: ‘One Day in Africa,’ ‘Juanes: A Musical Journey,’ and More.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.