Buying Maps

by Erik Olsen on

Are you a map fiend? I know I am. I have world maps, US maps, maps of cities and foreign countries. I love to pore over them when I have time. But where can you buy great maps? That’s a fine question.

You can pay top dollar at a map store, or you can go to a place like the US Geological Survey, which makes thousands of maps available for sale from their offices in Virginia, but also via the Web.

The Survey is a government agency, and you know how much the government doesn’t like to make money. They like to spend it. Anyway, you can actually spend hours on the USGS site just looking at and reading stuff. It’s a huge site with massive amounts of information. And if you want to explore further, check out some of the geology education areas on their site.

World’s Ugliest Dogs

by Erik Olsen on

Poor pups. What a horrible blow to the self-esteem of all these poor doggies that they are being judged in the “World’s Ugliest Dog” contest. That’s the kind of treatment that would cause one to bite the hand that feeds it. This series of photos of scrawny, mangy, bug-eyed canines from this year’s Sonoma-Marin Fair is enough to make you want to give poor Miss Ellie a Scooby Snack laced with strychnine. Just to put her out of our misery. But then again, the dog bears an amazing resemblance to Phyllis Diller, and she turned out to be pretty successful, right?

Orbison at the Rock and Roll HOF

by Erik Olsen on

While we’re on the topic of music and, specifically, rock and roll, I thought a post about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame might be in order. The museum, located in lovely in Cleveland, Ohio houses a groupie’s dreamload of objects, clothing, and memorabilia that once belonged to rock gods like John Lennon and Buddy Holly. Given that I recently sold off my own Fender American Standard Stratocaster (it was taking up too much room and, sadly, gathering dust…sigh, the downside of New York apartment living) I figured it was worthwhile to check out the 1979 Fender Precision electric bass guitar broken at the neck by the Clash’s Paul Simonon. Then, of course, there is Jimi Hendrix’ famous 1968 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst electric guitar.

The current starring exhibit takes a look at the life, times and music of Roy Orbison, whose song Pretty Woman is, IMHO, one of many excellent songs by the deceased, ever Ray-Banned crooner.

Roskilde Festival

by Erik Olsen on

Many of you, upon hearing the name Roskilde, will undoubtedly think of the horrible Pearl Jam tragedy that took place there during the Roskilde Festival about six years ago, when nine people died during a concert. The band almost packed it up and quit, which would have been also tragic, as they are one of my favorite bands of all time. Well, the Roskilde Festival goes on. As always it takes place in the ancient city of Roskilde in Denmark. The festival, as music fans know, is among the top music events in Europe and this year, the celebrating happens between June 29 to July 2, and includes artists like the Streets, Arctic Monkeys and Goldfrapp. Then there will be some golden oldies like Bob Dylan and Guns N’ Roses (please, oh please, let them sing Knocking on Heaven’s Door together).

Tickets for the festival run a grisly $230 and include access to the campgrounds starting on June 25. FYI: Roskilde is just over 20 miles from Copenhagen, and easily accessed by Danish Railways. Let me just say that if I was not a sad, pathetic working stiff that I would be there in a heartbeat.

Blogging New Orleans!

by Adrienne Wilson on

How sooo out of the loop I feel these days trying to get more Americans to walk and exercise! Perhaps I missed a memo that went out, but where and when did our sister site, Blogging New Orleans come around? Seriously? I was scrolling down just to see what has been happening on sister sites across the board when I discovered one I never knew existed!

Anyhow, Blogging New Orleans looks quite up-and-coming and focuses on everything you’d want to know about the city and more. After reading two pages of posts I’ve caught up on some of the latest Katrina updates, the current road conditions, places to dine, places to hang and other Nawlin’s ramblings from Heidi, Kelly, Steve, Henry, Jay and all the rest of the bloggers on deck. If you’re working up a summer time vaca to New Orleans you’ll want to check them out. I’ve already found one place I’d like to visit on my next march through the town – the Audubon Aquarium.

Thanks a mil and welcome!