Fall Issue of Planet Magazine Out Now

by Adrienne Wilson on

Every time Planet mag hits the shelves I feel as if I have this reader loyalty type thing to spread the word and paint the town with the news. If you’re not a subscriber I suggest you sign-up today. With just four issues a year it’s easy to let one slip by and well, you don’t want that do you? So how about I stop sounding preachy and things on the glossy and just tell you what’s inside this issue?

There’s the usual Satellite, Diary, Divinity, and Greenspace pages, but also inside, especially for fall and the 5th anniversary issue are pieces on Élodie Bouchez, Roberto Rossellini, Baptiste Ibar, Kirby Dick, and Katharine Hamnett among many others. As far as I’m concerned Planet magazine nails it when it comes to global culture!

And that’s my two cents for now.

World TV

by Erik Olsen on

Video is exploding on the Web, but unless you’re really interested in Chinese lip-synche rappers, fake teen diaries or monkeys touching themselves, it’s hard to find anything of much depth. Well, here’s a possible solution. If you haven’t seen it before Jump TV, is a rather interesting online subscription service will allows media fanatics to have channels from around the globe beamed directly to your computer.

From Thai TV Global to some British programming to Nepal 1 in India and TRT Int’l in Turkey, you can watch a snapshot of global programming as it unfolds. Apparently there is a cost for each channel, especially groupings of channnels like the “Romanian Package”, but perhaps that’s a small price to pay for global enlightenment.

London Airports Still Slow

by Iva Skoch on

Beware that London airport security is still very tight.

I was flying back from a weekend trip in London today and waited in line–or should I say “queue”–for almost 2 hours. (In a situation like this, one really appreciates the ability of the British to form lines and wait patiently). Flying into London was fine, but any flights from London are closely monitored.

In terms of the current security measures in the UK, people are now allowed to bring on one carry-on, but a very small one (e.g. one woman’s purse, computer bag or small backpack), definitely not the typical wheeled carry-on suitcase. I learned the hard way – they sent me back from security back to check-in, which meant…another line.

I saw a women cry because she really wanted to bring all her cosmetics on board, but the security personnel were less than understanding. They confiscated her perfume, her lipstick, her lip gloss and her hair gel. Which made me realize that this regulation could mean a lot more uglier, smellier, bad-hairdo women roaming around airports.

Thank goodness for those Duty Free shops! Now that travelers can’t really bring on board anything they buy there, at least they can use their make up samples for free. Too bad they don’t do the same with liquor.

Motoring Through Indochina

by Iva Skoch on

A friend recommended an adventure that I’m dying to do: a week motorcycling throughout Vietnam. He’s done it two years in a row, and recommends an outfit called Explore Indochina. The outfit is apparently run an Aussie and a Brit that act as tour guides and speak fluent Vietnamese.

They host a couple of rides each month, and cover different areas of the country (as well as Laos and Cambodia). They put together only small groups (5 or less).

Picture this: 6+ days straddling a 125cc two-stroke Belorussian motorbike, rolling through the beautiful scenery of Vietnam. It’s muddy, it’s wet, it’s real. That’s my idea of cruising!

Makes me want to dust off that copy of Jupiter’s Travels.

Five Best Places for Beer

by Erik Olsen on

I’m not sure who comes up with this stuff, and/or which interns are assigned to go through travel guides to put the list together, but I suppose since it’s about beer, it’s worth a post none the less. Fodor’s has put together the Top Five Places to Drink Beer in the US. rather silly, as I say, since one man’s great beer joint is another man’s rancid smelling dive. Personally, I tend to favor the darker, mustier, smokier pub-style drinking establishment over the brightly-lit yuppie-filled Gordon Biersch-style place, but that’s just me. Anyway, the top five are, in order of ranking 1 to 5, the following:

  1. Ironworks Barbecue, Austin, Texas
  2. Blue and Gold Tavern, New York, NY
  3. Straub Brewery, St. Mary’s, PA
  4. St. Nick’s Pub, Los Angeles, CA
  5. Axel’s Inn, Milwaukee, WI

Now let me say for the record that I’ve been to the Blue and Gold, and while it is a fine place to drink beer, I’m not sure I’d say it’s one of the best in the US let alone New York. Further, where St. Nick’s is concerned, you need to read the fine print to determine if the place is for you. To wit: here are a few of the review’s “selling points”: If you are a post-college 20-something hipster with a taste that runs more towards mozzarella stocks and Budweiser than caviar and Cristal, then this is your place. Plus, the men are hot.

Nuf said.