World Cup Cuisine

by Erik Olsen on

Oh, hey, and while I’m posting about the World Cup, let me draw your attention to a nice entry over at Slashfood about food and eating at the World Cup.

The post calls out a piece in The Guardian wherein you will find a food guide to the 12 cities that will play host to the tournament. German cuisine is pretty good. Why, just this weekend I was in Brooklyn and had myself a very tasty schnitzel.

But we’re talking here about more diverse foods than that. For example, treat yourself while there to a little brezen, buttered pretzels filled with salami or cheese. Or the more gustatorily ambitious can sample a tasty saumagen, or pig’s stomach filled with potatoes. Yummy.

China’s Big Ferris Wheel

by Erik Olsen on

The Chinese are all about doing things bigger these days. Bigger highways, bigger buildings, bigger egos. Well, now for the amusement-minded, the Chinese are building what they say is the world’s tallest Ferris wheel in the country’s south. Personally, I hate Ferris Wheels. I think they are silly and so, oh, 19th century. But whatever. I post this for those who deign to concern themselves with such things. So, yes, here is the 525-foot-high Star of Nanchang, which opened in early May in a riverside park in Jiangxi province. 

The Ferris wheel (named for Ferris Buehler, who apparently designed the first one on one of his notorious “days off”) is a full 82 feet taller than the London Eye on the banks of the Thames in London which, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the current record-holder.

Venice (Beach) Art Walk

by Neil Woodburn on

Los Angeles is often belittled as a cultural wasteland whose definition of art does not extend beyond the Hollywood blockbuster.

But, it’s days like the one I had yesterday where I realized what a bum rap my hometown so often receives. 

Sunday was the Venice Art Walk.  This annual event occurs every May in the city of Venice Beach–a suburb of Los Angeles.  Venice has always marched to its own beat and has traditionally been home to numerous artists, actors and writers.  Yesterday, 59 of these artists opened up their live-in studios for the Venice Art Walk.  Although shuttle busses continually run between the studios, they are close enough together that one can easily visit all of them on a self-guided walk that is approximately four miles long  (wine, cheese, and other snacks at many of the studios provide ample sustenance if you plan on doing so).

I’ve been on other studio walking tours before but what impressed me most about yesterday’s was that these were not struggling artists living in poverty.  Real estate is not cheap in Venice anymore.  Most of the featured artists live in rather amazing homes/studios.  In fact, some times I found myself checking out and enjoying the hip architecture even more than the artwork featured within.  This isn’t to say the artwork was bad–most of it was brilliant.  In fact, I’m still considering purchasing a piece from a Johannesburg artist, Fortune Mduduzi Sithole, that has really sank its claws into my back and won’t let go. 

What About the Virgins?

by Erik Olsen on

Karen’s recent post on the eruptions of Mount Merapi in Indonesia, which has been rumbling for weeks and throwing off lava streams and gas clouds, the locals there are trying a unique tact to placate the gods in the mountain. They are going naked.

Now, I remember the good old days when all you needed to satisfy the gods was a virgin or two. Not today. It seems the gods swing both ways.

Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival

by Neil Woodburn on

Next weekend is Memorial Day Weekend here in the states and that means it’s time to head off to Telluride for the annual Mountainfilm Festival. 

Mountainfilm celebrates, “the uniqueness of wild spaces” and, despite its name, “accepts and screens films on a broad range of subjects that include but are not limited to mountains and mountain sports.”

This year, the impressive schedule will include 80 films, 50 speakers, and a variety of galleries, symposiums, and social events that celebrate the great outdoors–which includes, but is not limited to mountain and mountain sports. 

Events kick off Friday, May 26th with an all day symposium celebrating the 800th anniversary of the founding of Mongolia.  For all you Mongoliaphiles out there, this is the day you’ve been waiting for your whole life!