Where I’m sitting winter has arrived. Snow flurries and windchill. Brrrr. Now that winter looks like it’s settling in, let’s see if anyone has come up with places to that are warmer.
Brenda’s post on the drop in tourism in Hawaii. and what there is to do in this tropical paradise this time of year, ought to be reason enough for a person to rethink the budget and see if Hawaii is doable after all.
Jeffery pointed out that Cuba knows how to treat its 2 millionth tourist--with an ice-cold mojito and a salsa band
Along with the warning that snacks in India could cost more than you counted on, Josh sounded a warning to be careful of the party scene in Mumbai–you could find yourself drug tested.
And, although New Mexico is not THAT warm, the great thing about traveling here to ski is that it feels warm during the day when the sun is out–kind of. The best part is that the sun almost always shines in New Mexico. Every day. All day.
Here at Gadling we’ll be highlighting some of our favorite sounds from the road and giving you a sample of each — maybe you’ll find the same inspiration that we did, but at the very least, hopefully you’ll think that they’re good songs. Got a favorite of your own? Leave it in the comments below and we’ll post it at the end of the series. Manu Chao is a vagabond by nature. He was born in Paris to a Spanish mother and father, but he’s really from all over. Chao’s music wanders and meanders like his personal life, drifting languages from Spanish to English to French, and picking up influences and passport stamps from South America to Spain and to France and then back again. His improvised concert tours are equally freewheeling, featuring actors, circus performers and tour stops only accessible by boat (?!).
I stumbled across Chao’s free-form music while I was in college. There was something that sounded very culturally rich about it – it felt authentic and regional, yet somehow equally global and devoid of place. As I began to travel and see more of the world, I found Chao to be a poignant soundtrack for my travels, particularly in the Spanish speaking world where I happened to be visiting.
Whether wafting over the balconies of ancient windows in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, jingling from makeshift speakers in an apartment in Buenos Aires, or bouncing out of a car radio in Mexico City, Manu Chao’s music somehow made a particular sonic sense to me. Perhaps my favorite example is his song, Me Gustas Tu:
Me Gustas Tu is a bastard child of a song. It doesn’t have a lyrical “narrative” like you would expect from a pop tune. Instead it’s composed of a single continued refrain. As a guitarist plucks away a catchy, whimsical melody, Chao regales us with his love for life and for the Spanish speaking world, peeling off a list of countries, neighborhoods and “favorite things,” including the wind, traveling, planes, the morning, dreaming and the sea. Each of these favorites is preceded by the phrase “me gustas,” which basically translates as “I like” or “I love” in Spanish. In this case, Chao seems to be recalling the memory of a lost love, romanticizing what he remembers best.
If there’s one place Me Gustas Tu always evokes for me, it’s Barcelona. Each time I come back to this city on the Mediterranean, I’m drawn to the ancient walls and narrow alleys of the Gothic Quarter, a neighborhood that virtually explodes with life. As I walk the area, I always feel more alive, envigorated by rich, sensory experience. Down each street, the laughter of old men stumbles out of simmering tapas bars, water burbles quietly from forgotten fountains and my eyes gaze up at tiny metal balconies, shrouded in green curtains of plant life.
It’s hard to explain why, but I always feel happy when I’m there. I suspect it’s the sensory assault of the place and feeling of joy and wonder I find in the simplest experiences. Perhaps Chao is on to something then – Me Gustas Tu is a song that’s less about telling you where a vagabond like Chao has been, and more about where he is. That place is in his mind, filled with happy memories and vivid sensory experiences. For me the place is Barcelona, a memory I can conjure from time to time and forget my troubles. Suddenly I’m there, listening to Manu Chao on my balcony. And suddenly, life seems pretty awesome, doesn’t it?
Two days ago, Winona Ryder’s British Airways flight to Heathrow airport was granted priority landing status after Ryder became sick on the plane. Jaunted’s blurb doesn’t say how she got ill. One wonders was it the food? Is this normal for her? What about me or you? Could we get special treatment? Could we get a plane to land before all the others?
I was on a flight once when the plane turned around before it took off because a woman was complaining of being sick. She did keep hitting herself in the face as she was being led to the ambulance that whisked her away. As much as going back to the gate wasn’t a fun picnic, it was a good thing that she was let off the plane. Better that she was hitting herself in the face as she was getting off the plane than miles up in the air.
A quick Google search found these two articles about other diverted flights.
In October, on a United Airlines flight to LA, a flight was diverted to O’Hare International Airport after a dozen or so passengers complained of being sick.
What isn’t clear is how sick is sick. “I feel sick,” one might say. Does this mean, “I have gas,” “I have a slight headache,” “I feel as if I could hurl all over myself,” or “I think I’m having a heart attack and won’t live to see another day?” Any parent with a child has played twenty questions at times to find out just what ‘sick” means.
The woman I saw hitting herself in the face did say she wasn’t feeling right as rain when she got on the plane. The flight attendant did try to soothe her nerves, but with no luck, thus the diversion.
It seems that diverting a plane because of an engine failure or when the toilet pump is burning would be a much easier call to make. Sick? Kind of vague. And I still wonder, if you’re Winona, could you get that plane to land faster?
Winona did go to the hospital after she got off the plane, but only for a couple of hours.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal might just be over-exaggerating the tourist slump that is taking place here on the Hawaiian islands. As the article puts it, “dozens of pool chairs and canopied cabanas sat empty… restaurants had plenty of free tables… In town, “50% Off!” signs hung in the windows of many souvenir shops.” I’m pretty sure this can be the case if you’re walking around anywhere on the Big Island on a Saturday afternoon because people aren’t interested in relaxing by a pool, eating at a restaurant, or shopping. I would hope they are doing more productive things like visiting the Volcano National Park, enjoying one of the island’s many gorgeous black sand beaches, or hiking around waterfalls near Hilo.
Although I don’t want to believe the article’s proclamation, “There’s trouble in Polynesian paradise,” I’m sure the tourist industry is feeling some effects from a poor economy and the closure of ATA and Aloha Airlines – two of Hawaii’s biggest airline carriers – earlier this year. My own observations of the state of Hawaii’s tourism is far more optimistic and maybe even idealistic. I like to believe that vacationers are taking advantage of some of the great money-saving deals and discounts on accommodations and travel packages. If there’s a silver lining to a cloud, it’s that this state, my home, has always been a paradise and will remain so to many visitors in the coming year.
The WSJ article does point out that the neighbor islands – namely Maui and the Big Island – are being hit the hardest right now. If it’s any indication on my island of residence, Oahu, a decrease in tourists remains to be seen. If tourists are willing to make it out to Honolulu and stay in Waikiki, a good portion of them would make the journey to at least one outer island during even a week-long visit to the islands.
One of the best ways to travel without leaving your home is through photography. Pictures have the ability to draw us into new cities, cultures, and traditions, allowing us to discover worlds that were once unbeknown to our eyes. And now thanks to Google we have a new way of traveling not only around the world, but through time as well.
On Tuesday the Google blog announced that the internet company is making a LIFE photo archive available on Google image search. LIFE made a name for itself in the history of photojournalism, capturing many of the world’s most important moments on film, but the really cool thing about this archive is that many of these images have never been published, meaning that we’re getting to discover ones that have, until now, been sitting in old archives in the form of slides, negatives, etchings and prints.Twenty percent of the collection is currently online, and when they’re done, there will be over 10 million images to search through.
What are some of the highlights of the collection? The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880s; and the entire works left to the collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen. There are so many amazing pieces by some of the most influential photographers, it will be easy to spend hours searching the archive. And when you find one that really strikes your eye, you can even order a high-quality framed print of it.