2008’s best travel writing

by Jeremy Kressmann on

While browsing my local Barnes & Noble earlier this week, I stumbled upon a display of The Best American Series – a collection of books recapping the year’s best writing. Among the collection is a travel-themed edition, curated this year by travel “badboy” Anthony Bourdain.

Gadling has given great reviews to these anthologies in years past, so I decided to pick up a copy. As a fledgling travel writer myself, I’ve found the pieces in this year’s edition to be highly compelling. The featured content covers a surprisingly broad array of topics. Foodies will savor writer Bill Buford’s account of Extreme Chocolate, which finds the author deep in the rainforests of Brazil in search of the perfect cacao beans. Adventurers will want to dive into James Campbell’s look at the Kapa Kapa Trail, a grueling overland route of American soldiers fighting in Papua New Guinea during World War II, in Chasing Ghosts.

For anyone who’s interested in the travel genre, this is a great recap of this year’s best-written and most interesting stories. Travel writing is a well-worn style – pithy descriptions of swank hotels and delicious meals can only take you so far. It’s the stories that are able to rise above the cliches and well worn metaphors to truly give a sense of place and its people that truly does these locations justice.

Let’s continue to encourage this sort of high-quality travel writing. Stop by Barnes & Noble or hit up Amazon and pick yourself up a copy.

Light the Menorah

by Jamie Rhein on

I came across this wonderful video while looking for videos on menorah light up festivities. The blend of the music, the clever lyrics, and the images of Christmas and Hanukkah that interplay as backdrop to the young men who perform gave me a feel good feeling. I’m not usually fond of rap music, but this is an interesting mix between rap and a classical approach. You’ll see.

I’m not sure where this is taking place. One commenters asked if this was filmed in Portland, Oregon, but the lyrics mentioned New York City. Regardless of the location, it’s delightful. Listen for the popular culture references. These guys are smart.

Because this is the season for Hanukkah, as well as Christmas, this video seemed fitting and a companion to the post on public menorahs around the world.

Christmas shopping in London – Impossible?

by Grant Martin on

I had the dreaded pleasure of finishing my Christmas shopping in London this year. Recently, with the pound sterling so strong against the dollar, I’ve abhorred the thought of spending money in the United Kingdom, but with work in the city and little time to spare, this year I had little choice.

To my surprise, however, the experience was invigorating. With the global financial crisis in full swing, the past few months have seen significant gain in the dollar against the pound. At departure from the states, each British pound cost 1.56 American dollars, and while that’s still a hefty exchange, it’s a relief from the nearly 2x exchange rate earlier this year.

On top of the exchange, retailers are squabbling for the few pence that people are willing to spend on this year’s holiday, so are hosting a wide range of sales. In boutiques like Ben Sherman, where I never thought I would find a reasonably priced article of clothing, I was able to purchase several holiday gifts for damn near bargains. Other stores, like Puma, had almost the entire store marked down.

So if you’ve been holding back on heading down to 5th or Michigan Avenue because you’re cutting corners this holiday season, it may be time to take a second look. The money that you were planning to save may have already been saved for you.

National Hanukkah Menorah and where to find other public displays

by Jamie Rhein on

Yesterday the National Hanukkah Menorah in Washington, D.C. was lit to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah the Jewish holiday that commemorates the victory of the Jewish Maccabees over the Syrians who had oppressed them. In a miracle, the oil that was only enough to burn for light for one day lasted for eight.

Although the main lighting of the National Hanukkah Menorah festivities happened yesterday, the menorah, located at the Ellipse near the White House grounds, will be lit each night during Hanukkah.

There are many other public menorahs on display around the world. Here’s a link to the page on Chabad.org that features many of them. Last year, when I came across this link, I was impressed by the scope of where these menorahs are located.

For the largest menorah in the world, head to New York City. It’s on 59th St. and 5th Ave. I don’t think you can miss it. It’s a 32 feet-tall candelabra.

New Burger King ad criticized as “culturally tone-deaf”

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Advertising is all about generating buzz, and those ad whizzes at Burger King sure do have a knack for that. (See, for example, Burger King’s big-headed, stalker-ish “King” character for a prime example.)

Now their newest ad campaign, called “Whopper Virgins,” is drawing fire from a number of organizations as being exploitative and culturally insensitive. The new ads show people from some of the most remote parts of the globe– the Hmong tribe in Thailand, farmers from Transylvania in Romania, and the Inuit in Greenland– sampling Burger King’s Whopper and a Big Mac from McDonald’s for the first time, while a voiceover hails the experiment as “the world’s purest taste test.” The Whopper was apparently chosen “more often than not” over the Big Mac, according to the company. (In other words, “slightly more than half the time.”)

Burger King’s goal with the ad was to “see how the Whopper would perform in a world that didn’t have ad or marketing awareness or any sentimental attachments,” says Russ Klein, a Burger King exec.

But many others see the ad in a more sinister light. The blog Stereohyped criticized the ad in a post under the headline “Burger King Storms Innocent Villages to Plunder ‘Virgins,'” while Adweek’s Barbara Lippert called it “culturally tone-deaf.”

“What might irk people is the concept that Burger King is taking its fat-laden fast food to people who aren’t used to this stuff in their diets, who aren’t usually subject to our crass commercials, and who probably don’t really care too much,” a blogger a WalletPop wrote.

Personally, I have a hard time getting worked up over the ad. Seeing a Hmong tribesman munch on a Whopper is a pretty stomach-turning juxtaposition, I’ll admit, but it isn’t like this ad campaign is going to cause American fast food chains to suddenly flock to remote Thai villages. And Burger King, realizing the ad might be portrayed as controversial, seemingly took great pains to be gracious guests, as they donated school supplies, toys, and money to each of the places they visited.

So let’s everyone calm down about the ad. It’s a commercial, people.