Moleskines Expand

by Erik Olsen on

For many many years I’ve kept a journal. I must have literally 10,000 pages of stuff written about places I’ve been, people I’ve met, the changing colors of lint in my navel. In the early, Pre-Cambrian days, I wrote in a paper journal, a Letts of London or another, more famous kind. What kind you ask? A Moleskine.

But in those days the Molskine was just a regular old blank-paged journal. No more. Moleskine is entering the guidebook market, or something near to it. They are about to publish DIY guidebooks with a city guide that will contain a maps, metro guides, and 36 pages of neighborhood maps. Of course, in the other pages of the book there are blank pages for making notes, and jotting down your thoughtful scribbles.  The guides are only European cities to start, including Paris, Prague , Berlin and Rome. American cities are coming, though, including L.A. and Boston next year.

King Tut Does Chi-Town

by Erik Olsen on

For those who never got to see King Tut the first time around, well you are lucky little devils. Why? Because Tut is back. And he’s mad as hell. In fact, he’s especially angry because they are sending him to Chicago instead of New York, here he really wanted to go. He’s been dying (ha ha!) to see Spamalot, and just can’t get his bony hands on tickets. But in Chi-town he will be, as part of a traveling exhibit  called “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” which opens Friday at The Field Museum. 

The expectations are high, with exhibit organizers saying the show could draw 1 million visitors before it closes on Jan. 1, 2007. And, of course, businesses, restaurants and L’il Tut trinket makers are working overtime to be able to sell you as much Tut-related crap as you can pay for.  The show features more than 130 treasures from the resting place of the “the boy king” and other royal tombs, all between 3,000 and 3,500 years old. Will New York get its own Tut? Well, hard to say. All I know is that he will go on display next February at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. After that, bets are off.

Dangers of the Cheese Chase

by Erik Olsen on

Just when you thought it was safe to start eating cheese again. OK, it’s never funny when someone gets hurt. Well, maybe it is sometimes, especially when injuries are caused by great wheels of cheese. Yes, the English Cheese Chase is a major event among, well, cheese-makers, blessed-are-they-and-all-manufacturers-of dairy products, and this year saw several rather harsh injuries among twenty-five participants. The cheesefest takes place every year at Cooper’s Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, often before a throng of some 3,000 people. And cheer they did as monstrous cheese wheels rolled over people, slammed into them, crushed them, all to the delight of onlookers. Of the 25 people hurt, 12 were spectators, so even WATCHING cheese races can be dangerous.

European Rock Festivals

by Neil Woodburn on

Every time I travel in Europe, it seems that I hear about a really cool rock festival that I just missed, or will be missing soon.  I can never seem to find out about them far enough in advance to include them in my travel plans.

Well, this summer might be different thanks to The New York Times who has just printed a guide to the major festivals in Europe and some of the headlining bands.  For example, The Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain kicks off this Thursday (oops, too late for me again!) with over 100 bands that include Killing Joke, the Violent Femmes, Lou Reed, Motorhead, Stereolab, and many others. 

Other festivals mentioned include Rock am Ring in Nuremberg, Germany; Roskilde in Denmark; La Route du Rock in St.-Malo, France; and the Leeds and Reading festivals in England.

Free New York

by Erik Olsen on

Having spent the last six-plus years in the Big Apple, I have my own sizeable set of places to go that I love, places I will always take visiting friends to see when they come. The fact is, the city is addled with sites and locations that are free, where you can spend hours just hanging out and snapping away with your camera.

Well, Fodors has decided to list some of these places in a fine piece in their tips section. Many of the sites here are ones I would have put on my own list. For example, the Reading Room at the Public Library. This is one of the coolest places around, especially during the summer when it is hot and miserable, to hang out and read a book. The gaping space is nicely lighted and you can find yourself a comfy space to sit and devour a book or just people watch. Of course, there is also Central Park and Apple store in SOHO, two other spots that would make my own list.