Hollywood: Movies in the Graveyard

by Adrienne Wilson on

Long ago Erik mentioned a cool little place to stalk some of Hollywood’s A-list celebs while touring the streets of Los Angeles. Back then I remember being pretty surprised when he directed our attention away from the Star maps to point us to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, but it makes good sense now though. Known as the Resting Place of Hollywood’s Immortals the cemetery also plays hosts to some 1,200 plus guests on Saturday summer nights looking to check out a DJ spinning tunes, drink wine, be merry and watch a film after dark while lounging around the tombstones. Got goose pimples yet? So hanging with the deceased under the stars might not be the dinner date of choice for all prancing around Hollywood on their vaca, but if it sounds like the thing for you checkout Cinespia.org for details on the Saturday night screenings.

Tomorrow night I’ll be heading over with a few friends to watch Dressed to Kill starring Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson at 7:30 PM. Can’t make it this weekend? Other upcoming screenings include Manhattan on July 29th and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure on August 5th. Should you still fail to be convinced by my blurb or the one from DailyCandy featured a few weeks back, then check out Neil’s piece on Los Angeles’ plethora of free entertainment. Just keep in mind summer is almost over. What cool things will you have done with yours?

Utterly Unique Louvre Tours

by Neil Woodburn on

The Louvre, in all its gloriousness, is simply inundating. The sheer volume of art is overwhelming and, after too many hours, can become mind-numbing as well. Our brains can take only so much visual stimulation before shutting down.

The trick is to break it down into manageable pieces, or in the case of popular tour guide Bruno de Baecque, manageable themes.

The French guide specializes in tours that focus on unique themes that would wipe that smile off Mona Lisa’s face. Wednesday and Friday evenings he leads tourists through the museum in search of “The Most Beautiful Buttocks of the Louvre,” “Violence in Art,” “Feet, Hands and Wings of Angels,” or other similarly unique topics not normally found in Art History 101.

His website is found here, but only in French.

Tajikistan Blogs & Photos

by Adrienne Wilson on

Looks as if I’ve hit the jackpot and if you’re Central Asia bound searching for travel info then my friends you have struck blogosphere gold. (Or perhaps reaching blogosphere heaven would be better – I dunno.) Anyhow, it seems there are more Central Asian and Tajikistan blogs out there than my blind eyes could realize. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do too much of the searching. Neweurasia online is an amazing source of 411 for all the countries nay-sayers believe people never venture, but they’re wrong. In this Tajik neweurasia piece they do a phenomenal job pointing out Tajikistan blogs across the globe. One of which even came from a myspace member and most from a diverse round-up of people. My brain is almost to the point of explosion!

I’d love to sit and tell you more about this site, but it’s best to just go for yourself. Someone by the name of teokaye was also kind enough to leave the link to his Flickr pool of some very awe-inspiring Tajik photos. With that I’m off to check them out in detail. Hope you’ll do the same.

Graffiti Worldwide

by Adrienne Wilson on

Earlier this morning I went for a short bike ride with a friend of mine down Venice Beach while it was still pretty quiet and undisturbed by camera touting tourists. Strangely it was my first time journeying the strip of sand, surf, and shops on two wheels though I’d lived in surrounding areas for years not long ago. Normally my trips to the beach where spent kicking up sand, dancing to the beat of a drum and waiting to cheer when the sun kissed the edge of the water and the sky goodnight at the Sunday drum circle. The world beyond the circle was filled with nothing more than wandering lost souls looking to get a snapshot of the woman and her two aliens. If the people dancing in the circle seemed bizarre, then the folks strolling along the pavement were even weirder in my eyes.

As I cruised along the sidewalk listening to mechanics of the bike working with my feet, I glanced around soaking in my surroundings. Garbage flowing out of trash cans to my right and graffiti covered buildings to my left. I kept my attention to the left, not because the garbage to my right made the graffiti more desirable to look at, but had the garbage not been there at all, I would have marveled at the work. I never noticed it before, but it’s almost as if your can feel the pumping of a racing heart with each spray from the can. It’s as if there is this strange range of emotion embedded in tags left by restless artistic night crawlers, vandals, designers or whatever you wish to call them. My eyes searched for hidden meanings or stories, but finally opted to just enjoy the colorful legal and illegal works against the wall.

The thing is I’ve always sort of liked graffiti. I started thinking of various other places where I had seen it on walls, trains, or other miscellaneous places. So, basically what I’m really trying to provide you with not my overly dramatic romance blurb of a girl, a bike, and graffiti, but some awesome places online where you can check out art from taggers around the world. Wooster Collective is a popular one showcasing street art worldwide. Another one worth viewing is graffiti.org where you can see pieces from Gaza, Japan, Iran, and South Africa to name a few. Nice way to pass away the time and see the world from a different view.

The Happiest Country on Earth is…

by Adrienne Wilson on

For those of you unfamiliar with the reality TV series Survivor or have better things to do with your time than watch average folk battle it our for prizes and such by competing in gladiator type competitions, you may not be familiar Vanuatu. Perhaps, you’re fortunate enough to know about the group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean without the help of television and if you are you may also like to know that Vanuatu has ranked tops as the world’s happiest country. According to this Yahoo News piece, a study measuring people’s wellbeing and their impact on the environment has ranked Vanuatu at the top with Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, and Panama trailing close behind to complete the world’s top 5 happiest places to reside. Not really surprising if you ask me. Islands always come off as cheerful places to me and having been to Costa Rica myself, I could certainly see myself living there. As far as Vanuatu is concerned – I’d love to go there as much as I’d love to go to Somalia. Happiness is what you make it.

The Happy Planet Index is complied by the British New Economics Foundation (NEF) and also combines life satisfaction, life expectancy and environmental footprint to rank countries. Hopefully the results won’t drive herds of shutter-bug tourists to happy little Vanuatu or away from Zimbabwe, an African country my friend finds as one of the best, but ranks 178 on the list. The U.S. comes in at 150, Canada (111), France (129), Germany (81), Japan (95) and Russia (172).

What do you think? Agree or disagree? What do you consider the happiest place on Earth?