Roots Travel – African Ancestry

by Adrienne Wilson on

I can’t imagine anything that could possibly be cooler than traveling to discover ones roots and ancestry. Allow me to get real geeked up on this topic if you will. I’ve been a big fan of genealogy for ages and on a continuous search to learn more and more about my own family’s past. However, as an African-American piecing together information can be extremely difficult. The first step in researching your ancestry is starting with small talk or long conversations with the elders, but if your family is anything like mine and from the South they’d rather leave some stories untold. Sigh…

The next approach is by far one of the best and provides those of us with a serious interest in connecting with our ancestry the opportunity to not only go to Africa, but to go with a purpose and personal connection to the continent. African Ancestry online provides the technology to help trace family history and roots with DNA testing. Once the DNA has been tested they compare yours to that found in a database of lineages from 30 countries and 160 ethnic groups. Details and specifics are a plenty on their site. There is far too much science involved to blog here, but if you have a deep-rooted desire to connect to the Motherland I suggest you look into this. Seriously!!! Pricey, but so worth it.

I plan on having both tests completed by year end.

Literary Ireland: The Literary Pub Crawl

by Neil Woodburn on

Walking tours, as the term implies are cultural tours which involve walking.  Pub Crawls, on the other hand, usually involve a more horizontal form of walking–whether the participants intend this or not.

And then there is the Literary Pub Crawl.  This would be a combination of the above where scholarly and inebriated meet head on, in a collision of grey matter and sudsy matter.

As far as I know, there is only one city on this planet that offers such high-brow/low-brow activity.  This would of course, be Dublin. 

Dublin’s Literary Pub Crawl retraces the steps of Ireland’s most famous writers–Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett among others–as they sallied forth from one pub to another.  The tour is lead by a group of actors who portray the illustrious scribes and takes 2 hours to cover eight pubs and Trinity College.  The price is €8 per person and no, it does not include beer.

Africa Remixed: Contemporary Art of a Continent

by Adrienne Wilson on


Looks as if the city of Tokyo will be getting a fine treat for the next three months as the Mori Art Museum will be showcasing 140 works by 84 different artists from 25 different countries of Africa in an exhibit titled: Africa Remixed: Contemporary Art of a Continent. Mediums include paintings, drawing, sculpture, assemblage, multi-part installation, photography, video, furniture design and music. Works by Wangechi Mutu, Jane Alexander, Samuel Fosso, and Ingrid Mwangi’s Static Drift seen above can all be found in this diverse African collection of goodies.  Click here for additional details if staying in Tokyo during the next three months.

Mori Art Museum is located at Roppongi Hills Mori Tower 53F.  Exhibition runs 05.27.06-08.31.06.

via Planet-Mag.com

Pology – June Issue

by Adrienne Wilson on

Should you be having an easy going kind of Saturday evening with nothing on your agenda except doing the laundry and viewing a few World Cup games you may also wish to swing by Pology online. We’ve mentioned it before here at Gadling, but the June issue is so darn good I felt the need to give it a plug once more. I usually head over to get the latest in culture topics around the planet, but today I was only there for the eye candy. Start with Thailand in pictures where you’ll find women in hill tribes playing on laptops and a smiling toothless Thai woman. It may sound odd here, but you’ll need to see it for yourself. I haven’t seen such a beautiful well-rounded batch of photos from the area in a long while. That alone makes it worth the visit.

Nude Resorts Big in Western Florida

by Adrienne Wilson on

Many of you may not know where Pasco Country, FL is, but I know its location quite well. It’s about 20 miles away from my homes digs in Tampa, FL and to my surprise a booming spot for nude tourism. According to this USA Today piece popular nudie resorts like Paradise Lakes, Lake Como and Caliente Resort and Spa are doing all they can to bring in more tourists. Whether it’s family-style with activities like nude camping and karaoke or flashy medical spa facilities they want your business. And despite the older looking couple photographed on the side they are encouraging college-age kids to take it off. For the upscale Caliente resort they are looking to grab the attention of the Ybor City party crowd, while Paradise has teamed up with a USF public relations student to promote free admission, cheap brew and reverse strip poker. Hmm…

I’m not going to lie. I’ve done the whole nude thing a time or two in Ibiza, but my bare-skin activity went no further than basking on the warm beach in search of the perfect tan. Something about singing my karaoke favorites in a room full of naked people freaks me out. As if displaying the rather large birthmark on my bottom isn’t bad enough, now I have the opportunity to demonstrate my lack of singing skills in the nude. (Shudders.)

Whatever floats your boat.