Washboard Festival: Impressions of a New Jersey jug band

by Jamie Rhein on

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be in a New Jersey jug band, tootling the roads to Ohio for the annual Washboard Festival in Logan, Fender’s Excellent Adventure video will do the trick. I loved this. It starts out in Jack and Joe’s RV and goes from there. These two are members of the Dirdy Birdies Jug Band. Evidently, if you play a jug, it’s no match for a washboard. The captions of audience members are a hoot.

In the midst of the funny stuff is excellent footage of the music at the festival, the dance the Charleston, and a tour of the Columbus Washboard Factory. Stick around for the credits. Since the festival is happening this weekend, I’m passing this onto you. Seriously, this is mini-documentary quality. Very, very good.

Gadling TAKE FIVE: Week of June 6–June 13

by Jamie Rhein on

Sorry to have missed last week’s Take FIVE post, but I was off in Hocking Hills, Ohio without WiFi, something I didn’t expect. In a few hours I’ll be heading to Tennessee. Who knows what will happen when I leave the house? Therefore, here’s this week’s Take Five before I go.

With summer travel comes footwear choices. Abha, Iva and Heather all had something to say about shoes. Flip-flops, Crocs or stew shoes? Which ones are safer? What about fashion?

Along with thinking about footwear options, summer is a time you can learn new things. Matthew has some suggestions for singing karaoke with the best of them. And, Aaron passes along tips about a Turkish bath.

Since I missed last week, here are a few more summer tidbits. Erik offers up sunburn advice, Kent knows just how to savor a meal in Paris and Jeremy provides details about GPS and location services to help you get where you’re going.

Happy Friday the 13th, Happy Father’s Day, and enjoy the weekend. As for me, I have to pack.

Trimming down the Japanese waistline

by Grant Martin on

By now we all know that obesity is a problem in the United States and around the world. We frequently post articles in an ongoing discussion of weight per passenger and charges that the airline can/should levy against them. Australia made headlines last year by upgrading part of their ambulance fleet to accomodate overweight passengers — too many patients couldn’t fit into their operating fleet. And yet we continue to indulge in unhealthy lifestyles, expanding our waistlines and surging the diabetes and heart disease epidemic throughout the country.

Across the Pacific, Japan sees our plight and wants to take steps to prevent the same epidemic. Granted, obese isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when many think of the Asian body type, but facing an aging population and rising healthcare costs, Japan wants to keep it that way. So they’ve passed legislation to force companies and local governments to measure the waistline of their residents, requiring all overweight or in their words “metabo” people to either diet or take blood pressure medication. The cutoff for the metabo label? 33.5″ waist lines for men and 35.4″ for women.

Anything beyond that and they’ll be given dieting guidance in increasing tiers of severity until they shape up. For companies employing metabo workers, financial penalties will be levied until everyone is within tolerance. No speculation in this New York Times article was spent on how these levies will be passed down to employees.

Would something like this work in the United States? I wish it were possible, but I imagine it would be way too difficult to implement and enforce. Would you be willing to participate in a government backed weight loss program?

[thanks to Uncle Barish for the tip]

The New York City Waterfalls

by Jeremy Kressmann on

On June 26th, New York will be surrounded by massive towers of water. Sound like the fulfillment of some horrific biblical prophecy? It’s actually the product of a unique collaboration between the city of New York and artist Olafur Eliasson, called The New York City Waterfalls.

Following in the footsteps of other massive outdoor art projects like The Gates, artist Eliasson is installing four enormous man-made waterfalls along the shores of the New York waterfront. The giant scaffolding structures supporting the falls are well underway at locations scattered around Lower Manhattan including Brooklyn Heights, Governor’s Island and best of all – underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

Between June 26 and October 13, these soaring torrents of water will run seven days a week, redefining the landscape of downtown New York. Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, who is responsible for the project, has a history of large scale public works of art, including a recreation of the sun inside London’s Tate Modern gallery.

If you’ll be visiting New York this summer, make sure to take a stroll down to the water in downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn to check them out. They’ll be illuminated each evening for further dramatic effect. For an even closer view, the city will even be offering free 30 minute boat tours sponsored by Circle Line.

SkyMall: shopping for about anything is a fingertip away

by Jamie Rhein on

I admit, I took the SkyMall catalog with me when I left the Southwest Airlines plane after my last flight. I had grand plans to find something useful or something unusual to write about by pouring through its pages. I got busy.

Then, today, Grant tossed out this link to “The 5 Most Ridiculous SkyMall Products Money Can Buy” at Cracked.com, and after I finished laughing, I unpacked the catalog from my daypack. I looked through it before, but I became curious once again. Cracked.com found some winners. I could use the Hula Chair myself–maybe.

What has caught my attention with this page turning session is the Motion Sickness Relief Wrist Band found in the left-hand column on page 41. On Tuesday I went to Kings Island with my daughter, eight of her friends, my husband, son and another family. I took one too many roller coaster rides and felt woozy all day yesterday. Could this wrist band have helped?

There is a dizzying array of organizers and storage options as well. From the Closet Organizer Trouser Rack on page 45 to the Wicker and Wood Rack on page 55, I’m not sure what my family’s excuse would be for having a house where objects are out of place. The thing about the Sky Mall catalog is that almost any item can sound like a must have.

Here’s one that TSA might add to their gadget repertoire that already includes the body scan device. The Orbitor Electronic Listening Device on page 67 is “powerful enough to capture distant sounds from 300 feet away.” As the rest of the description states, “This secret surveillance device is perfect for when you really need to know what’s going on.” Of course, parents of teenagers might also find the device handy. It only costs $59.95.