Photo of the Day (10/3/2006)

by Erik Olsen on

Never mind the obvious salacious appeal of cleavage caught in mid-shimmy, this shot has lots of redeeming cultural and aesthetic values as well. I mean, look at the lovely way the woman’s hair drifts across her face, and the ocean wave-like movement of the golden dress. I mean, this is just a plain old pretty photo. Granted I’d like to see her face better, but what do you want for free?

Entitled Drum Circle Dancer, the shot is by JasonBechtel, whose photostream features several shots of this atractive drum dancer.

Hong Kong Travel Essay

by Erik Olsen on

There are lots of places in the world I’d like to go, but there are significantly fewer where I’d like to live. I wish I could say I’ve lived more places. The experience of living abroad is one that every single American should experience at some point in his or her lifetime. And while I’ve had the opportunity to go a couple of great places and rent an apartment, shop at the local store, get to know some locals, one place I have not even visited is Hong Kong. But it is so high on my list of places I’d like to go that I always keep an eye out for articles on Hong Kong.

And so imagine my surprise as I was reading last night the 2006 Best American Essays (I get several books in this series every year and highly recommend them) and I came across this essay called City Out of Breath by Ken Chen. Beautifully-written, the essay is both a travel story and a voyage of discovery for Chen and his father, who find in Hong Kong a vibrant city of “energy and flashy contradictions”, an electric admixture of Asian and Western” where “walking becomes an act of silent storytelling, figuring people out.” I was surprised to see the essay in this particular collection because the Best American series already has a whole volume dedicated to travel, but I’m also glad I found it, because as I was sitting alone in my bad last night reading Chen’s essay, I was reminded once again how much Hong Kong appeals to me, how much I can’t wait to go there someday…or perhaps even to live there.

Red Corner: Berlin Art Forum

by Neil Woodburn on

Artists loved West Berlin during the Cold War. This was because the government, in an effort to attract residents to the walled-in city, offered special subsidies to artists who moved there.

Now that the Wall is down, the city continues to be a art Mecca, attracting talent from all over the world as well as that which is homegrown.

If you happened to be in Berlin today and tomorrow, be sure to check out the 11th annual Berlin Art Forum.

This “international trade fair for contemporary art” runs through October 4 at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds and features 120 galleries showcasing the work of artists from 25 countries. According to the Art Forum website, visitors can expect to see “all forms of 21st century art ranging from video and photography, to paintings, sculptures, installations, graphics, and multimedia.”

The Art Forum will also feature a number of, you guessed it, forums. Tonight at 5:30, for example, Bratislava artist Laco Teren will be discussing the Slovak Contemporary Art Scene. Even if you don’t speak Slovak you should check it out because as we all know, art transcends language.

Space Tourist Anousheh Ansari Blogs

by Erik Olsen on

What does space smell like? That is a question that Einstein himself may have pondered. His equation is one of the lesser known, but certainly important ones of all time: S=fb2, where Smell (S) equals a universal funk constant (f) minus one’s body odor (b) squared. It is a brilliant piece of Einsteininan mathematics that has been used in the development of high energy particle physics and odor eaters.

OK, I took some scientific/poetic license there. It wasn’t Einstein who came up with the Universal Funk Quotient, it was Enrico Fermi. He was Italian. So what’s this got to do with anything? Well, here I was perusing the Web today, wondering what in the world…or out of it…would interest gadling readers, and then I came across the blog of the first woman space tourist.

Anousheh Ansari just got back from her most amazing trip to outer space aboard the Soyuz TMA-9, and boy is she happy. And why wouldn’t she be? For a mere $20 million, she was able to float around planet earth with little or no work to do (she was a tourist, remember) and then returned on Friday after 11-days aboard the international space station. She said, finishing up my thought from above, that space smelled like burnt-almonds. Of course, that may have just been the burnt-almond flavored air freshener that hangs in the windshield.

No matter. There are videos and photos and written words on her site ,and, of course if you Google her, there are a gazillion stories about the trip she made. But most of all, I suggest you take a look at the video and make note that she issues a personal thank you to YouTube. If that isn’t the most 21st century thing you’ve heard this year, I don’t know what is.

Shrink is Located in Terminal A

by Iva Skoch on

Fear of flying on an airplane is one of those things: you understand it is completely irrational–and all those helpful statistics tell you that it is bazillion times safer than driving–but you just can’t help it. According to Harris Poll, 35% of all adults Americans are somewhat afraid of flying, while 14% are very afraid. The number has been going up, especially rapidly since 9/11.

According to Friday’s USA Today, Buenos Aires responded to the trend by opening a psychiatric clinic called “Poder Volar” (Able to Fly) right at the airport. It is almost too brilliant, a textbook example of demand and supply. Psychiatrist Claudio Pla has 11 years of experience treating aviophobia and charges $70/hour or $200 for an eight-hour therapy.

Is this the end of Xanax?