Let There Be Darkness

by Iva Skoch on

This evening between 7:55-8pm CET in Europe, some European cities–Paris and Athens among them–went dark for five minutes. Not by accident, either.

Tomorrow, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will unveil a long-awaited report on global warming. And, apparently, nobody (aside from global warming deniers and skeptical environmentalists) expects it to be pretty.

Pressure is building on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call an emergency summit of world leaders to break the deadlock over cutting greenhouse gases.

I wonder how much money would be saved by keeping the Eiffel Tower dark indefinitely. The 20,000 flashing lights sure make it look more visible to air traffic though. Oh, but wait, air travel is bad for the environment, too. This is where I might stop being an environmentalist. I guess you have to pick your battles.

What Does the Inside of the Louvre Look Like?

by Willy Volk on

I’ve had the honor of spending, oh, about 10 hours in Paris. During a lengthy layover, I rode the train into town, stood outside Notre Dame, ate lunch at an outdoor cafe, hopped a bus to the Eiffel Tower, trudged to the Louvre, returned to the train station, and then headed back to the airport. It was an exhausting day — man, I sure coulda used one of those free bikes! — but it was fun.

Unfortunately, although I got to see a lot of stuff from the outside, I didn’t get to see much from the inside. I never entered Notre Dame. I didn’t ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I only marveled at the architecture of the Louvre’s front door. Frankly, I was afraid to invest too heavily in any single activity for fear I’d miss out on something more fun — or miss my flight. On one hand, I’m glad I got to see so much of Paris, whirlwind though it was. On the other hand, if I could do it over, I might’ve chosen one activity, spent the whole day doing it right, and forsaken the others. Dunno. Nevertheless, I stumbled on this 9-minute clip shot (no doubt clandestinely) inside the Louvre. Now I see what I missed.

Did I make a mistake tackling Paris this way? Or was I wise to do what I did, given my time constraints?

Literary L.A.

by Neil Woodburn on

Most people think of Los Angeles as a cultural wasteland dominated by starlets and sun worshipers.

This is simply not the case. Los Angelenos, for example, actually purchase more books than any city in America. Yes, even more than high-brow New York.

In fact, Los Angeles–unbeknownst to the mass of tourists who flock to Disneyland and Venice Beach–has a very rich literary heritage well worth exploring. If you think I am a biased Los Angelino spouting off, spare a moment to check out Get Literary in Los Angeles–an article which recently appeared in New York Magazine.

Sari Lahrer takes us on a journey through the city’s literary haunts conveniently sorted out by category; hotels (Sunset Tower Hotel — home to Truman Capote and mentioned in Raymond Chandler books), restaurants (Musso & Frank Grill – hang out for Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Faulkner), and bookstores (Book Soup — Norman Mailer and David Mamet will be doing readings there this month).

As an added bonus, Lahrer also takes us on a journey which focuses specifically on the favorite dives of Charles Bukowski. Make sure to put on your drinking hat for this one.

Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney isn’t the only option

by Jamie Rhein on

Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania has competition. Stiff competition. Phil may have been a star in the movie Groundhog Day but there are other woodchucks who have a following.

There’s Jimmy the Groundhog in Sun Prairie, WI; General Beauregard Lee in Lilburn, GA; Smith Lake Jake in Birmingham, AL; and Sir Walter Wally in Raleigh, N.C. And that’s just for starters. What I discovered when I went poking around is that Groundhog Day is indeed a tourist draw. You have to love the fun of loving a groundhog. Punxsutawney has the festivities down pat. They’ve been going on all week. In Canada, though, Wiarton Willie is the famous one. In 2002, The Wiarton Willie Festival won the distinction as the Greatest Festival on Earth by Festivals.com. One year, when one of the Willies died before the event, a stuffed replica was used as a funeral stand-in. You have to read the story.

All of the groundhogs mentioned are making appearances on February 2 to let us know how long winter will last. For more groundhog fun, check out 123.Holiday.net. There are even some songs to learn. And here are some more groundhog events in other parts of the U.S. to give you more travel options.

Stonehenge: A Neolithic Woodstock

by Erik Olsen on

It is pretty much impossible for me to think about Stonehenge, that magnificent, 4,500 year old rock garden 100 outside of London, without thinking also of a scene from Spinal Tap. If you are not familiar with that scene, well, you either have been living under a stone slab of your own, or perhaps you are tuning in from one of those far-off and distant countries that just got connected to the Internet. If that is the case, then, welcome. Now I urge you to go watch the film Spinal Tap.

And so it is was I listened this story from NPR about all sorts of new revelations about that famous rock clock. While you might have thought that a monument of this size and fame would have been largely studied to death by this point in time, the fact is that enterprising British scientist are still uncovering clues about Stonehenge, and in this report, we learn that the builders of the structure actually lived in a large village around it and, here’s the interesting part, were actually hard-core partiers.

Yes, the grounds around the area are strewn with gnawed animal bones and fire pits and lots of those little drinking hats (made out of granite) with the two tubes (made out of sheep’s intestine) that go right from the beer can to the mouth. OK, I made that last part up, but never underestimate human ingenuity.

Anyhow, I thought the story here was damn fascinating. I listened to it on the subway and despite my mind’s inclination to picture midgets dancing around on a stage, I did manage to learn a lot about a place where I figured all new learning had been exhausted.