Earth Day Celebrations Around the World

by Jamie Rhein on

From Karachi, Pakistan to Koh Samui, Thailand to Chelewah, Washington people are celebrating the earth this weekend. Yep, Earth Day is April 22. You can plant trees, clean up a beach, go to a lecture, canoe, pet animals, hike, dance, sing, participate in a 5-K run and eat Earth Day fare at an Earth Day fair somewhere on the planet. The calendar page of the website Envirolink: The Online Environment Community lists scads of possibilities.

Each link goes to a link that links to each event’s website for more information. This is a place you can spend a lot of time just to see what people who are environmentally conscience are up to. Here’s one event that caught my attention. John Muir’s Birthday Hike is taking place near Madison, Wisconsin. Muir was the founder of the Sierra Club and his boyhood home is part of the John Muir Memorial County Park. This event includes talks about Muir and his writing. Plus, there is a hike and a tour of the house he grew up in.

To find an Earth Day event near you, check out the Earth Day website. It looks like you can type in where you live and events near you will pop up. If you’re wondering what started Earth Day, here is an overview.

Also, stay tuned for Gadling’s April 22 posts when Gadling writers’ pay homage to Earth Day with their special brand of posts and whatnot.

Weekend In Miami: Calle Ocho & The Hunt For The Perfect Cafe Con Leche

by Willy Volk on

After cruising through Star Island, we headed to Calle Ocho, which translates as “8th Street.” This 23-block-long section of Miami is also known as “Little Havana,” as it houses the largest population of Cubans outside Cuba.

I wanted some cafe con leche, and what better place to try it, outside Castro’s homeland?

Calle Ocho is a beautiful, vibrant community. Each February/March, the area stages a huge block party — the Calle Ocho festival — a colorful, frenzied celebration of Cuban heritage that includes a beauty contest, a cooking contest, and a domino tourney.

That said, although you see bursts of Cuban energy and art throughout the area, don’t expect to head to 8th Street and feel like you’ve been transported to another dimension. Though there are plenty of Cubans in the area engaging in Cuban activities…

…it’s still *just* a residential neighborhood.

That said, I think they’ve done a great job making the area their own.

They even have their own Walk of Fame.

Many of the local shops feature hand-rolled cigars, guayberas, plastic roosters (?), and Cuban music: but I was there for Cuban Coffee. We had heard that the Versailles was *the* place to eat in Little Havana, so we headed there. However, on the way, we saw the El Cristo and agreed that we had to stop.

At the walk-up window, we ordered two cafe con leches, one empanada, and a bag of plantain chips. This woman made our drinks in front of us. I can only assume that the two-by-four in the window was there to beat unruly customers.

The coffees and plantain chips arrived first…

… followed closely by the empanada.

Hot, sweet, and strong, the cafe con leche provided just the right pick-me-up to power us through the rest of the day. Maybe it was because of the feel of Calle Ocho, but this was probably the best cafe con leche I’d ever had. Moreover, both the plantain chips and the empanada were fresh and steaming, and I loved their bold flavors. If you’ve never had plantain chips dunked in mojo sauce, you’ve not truly lived. In short, El Cristo turned out to be an excellent spot to stop. Muy bien!

After eating, we swung by a small gift shop down the street, and saw the Latin American Motorcycle Association roll in. Though they looked threatening (especially the guy in the middle!), they were a bunch of kittens. Hi, guys!
Okay, enough shopping. Let’s go have some fun!

Previously: Weekend In Miami: Star Island, Palm Island, & Hibiscus Island

Petra Video

by Erik Olsen on

A friend of mine is in Egypt right now living and learning about Egyptian life, and he seems to be getting out a lot with his camera to do some shooting around the Middle East. I got this link from him the other day and immediately moved the ruins of Petra in Jordan higher up my list of must-do things in life. Let’s say it went from 234 to 94 in the 1000 Things to do Before I Die. Petra means “stone” which will make sense once you see the video. Anyway, I’ll let the vid speak for itself. It is unnarrated, but inspiring. Petra, you may recall, is the place they filmed part of the last Indiana Jones film. Once you see the video, you’ll see why…and you’ll understand why Petra is such a big tourist draw, even if it is hard to get to, as I understand is the case. If you’re interested, here’s a Wikipedia primer on Petra. And here’s one on Cheerios, which has nothing to do with Petra, but is a nutritious breakfast cereal.

Weekend In Miami: The Nightlife

by Willy Volk on

After finishing our excellent dinner at Afterglo, we decided we needed to explore South Beach’s nightlife. First, we headed two blocks south and two blocks east to The Clevelander. Beautifully-lit, jam-packed, and featuring a live reggae band, The Clevelander was… a dud.

We’d heard The Clevelander was an awesome place to party, so we were necessarily eager to see for ourselves.

However, the expansive club was filled with middle-aged guys trying to pick up drunk college girls. Okay, so there was this one really drunk guy twirling on the dance floor and acting like a fool, but other than that, it wasn’t a lot of fun. And the band was only so-so. After all, there was no need for them to kill: no one was even paying attention. We stayed for two beers ($11/round), and then left.


We wandered up Ocean Drive, past Casa Casuarina and the hotels, and slipped into the Hotel Victor. It was beautiful inside and featured a large tank containing swimming jellyfish. Some people were dining in the Lounge, and there was a private party going on up on the second floor (I swear we saw a slideshow featuring Star Jones!), but overall — this wasn’t for us, either. So we moved on…

Personally, I wanted to go into this store, but for some reason, my wife didn’t think it was a good idea. Why not? I thought. The models certainly appear natural.

We passed the tattoo parlor where they film Miami Ink.
Our waiter at Afterglo had told us about a couple places he liked. They included Jazid, a live music venue. We stopped by, but nothing was happening. He also suggested Felt, a pool hall with techno music — but nothing was happening there, either. It was 11:30. Was it too early?!?!

At this point, you’re probably saying, Willy, what about all the clubs? Isn’t South Beach renowned for its club scene? Yes, it is, dear readers. There are lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of clubs in South Beach. There are gay clubs and Latin clubs. However, my wife and I aren’t really into dancing to thumping techno and battling throngs of folks to get drinks. (If that’s your thing, then Miami is where you need to be.) So — despite all my emphasis pre-departure planning — I figured we’d kinda wing this one aspect of the trip and just stumble onto an awesome party. I’m here to tell you that, for a first-time night-time visitor, it isn’t that easy. Maybe I’m wrong, and if I am, I’d be happy to hear otherwise.

Ultimately, we headed back to Lincoln Road to see what was going on there, and we ended up at Finnegan’s 2, which was jammed with college kids Spring Break’in’ it. We enjoyed some more beers and then headed back to the hotel — but not before stopping off at Ghiradelli’s for a late night brownie. Mmmm… brownies.

Ultimately, I learned three things during this evening’s walking tour.

  1. You can easily get around all of South Beach on foot.
  2. Having an idea of where you want to go will serve you well.
  3. South Beach at night is beautiful. As proof, I submit to you Rocco Caramello’s great 2½ minute montage of the area all lit up. Very cool.

Previously: Weekend In Miami: Afterglo

A Song a Day

by Erik Olsen on

I caught this over at Worldhum and loved it. What a great idea. A guy named David Andrew Strackany, who for some perhaps rock-based reason calls himself Paleo, has been on the road writing songs. But he is no Willie Nelson wannabee. In fact, he’s far more prolific than that…more prolific than any song writer in recent memory, in fact.

Over at hs Website, you can see and hear that Paleo has spent the last year gallivanting across the country writing one song every day since April 16, 2006. As Worldhum points out, Whitney Matheson from Pop Candy assures us that “the tunes are actually good.” We’ll decide for ourselves, but you can catch a podcast with Paleo here. And if you want to sit and listen to some of the tunes, well, go right ahead. My favorite so far is Kissing the Telephone.