Mongolian Song

by Erik Olsen on

For those who are fans of world music, cowboy songs and just plain well-told stories, this really cool little piece coming from the NPR
archives is a real listening pleasure. The story examines a group of Mongolian herdsmen who traveled all the way to
Elko, NV, to hang out with some bona-fide American cowboys (albeit singing cowboys) and the two form a kind of bonding
experience about music and life on the range. And then as you’ll hear in this story, the cowboys meander to Ulan Bator in Mongolia for some cultural exchange and an immersion into
Mongolian song.

The piece is Narrated by Hal Cannon, and transports you for a brief moment from behind your
desk into another space where the binding qualities of music and the carefree life of a cowboy are rendered wonderfully
in a Mongolian version of John Denver’s Country Road.

Photo of the Day (4/25/2006)

by Erik Olsen on

There is something about photographs of doors that I find intriguing. If I go through the thousands and thousands
of photos I’ve taken over the years, I always find a whole bunch of
pictures of doors. I think it has to do with the fact that doors can really have tremendous character ,and can say a
lot about the person who lives behind them. Take this photo from Colette Denali which she
took in Kharkiv, Ukraine earlier this year. What does it say? Well, I’m not sure. Maybe something about East European
poverty. About decay. Either way, there is an elegance in the photo that I found intruiging.

Travel and Map Center to Close

by Neil Woodburn on

It always saddens me when independent bookstores get chewed up and spit out by the likes of Barnes & Noble and Borders.  It’s even worse when it is a travel bookstore.

Yesterday at lunch I headed over to my favorite such establishment only to find a “Going Out of Business” banner hanging from the front of it.  California Map & Travel Center in Santa Monica has been my source for obscure travel books for many years now.  I visited yesterday to pick up an Albanian travel book that no other bookstore in Los Angeles seemed to carry.  

But its not just books that made this store so great.  It also carried a large selection of globes and a truly outstanding selection of maps.  I don’t know of anywhere else I could pick up a topo map of the Sierra Nevadas, a street map of Gdansk, and an upside-down map of the Australian continent all under one roof.

This store will sorely be missed and we travelers will be all the poorer as a result.  In the meantime, EVERTHING is 20% off until May 31 when they officially close.  Swing by if you’re in the LA area and help pick clean the carcass. 

Be on TV

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s your big chance to get that travel show you’ve always wanted. The folks at the Travel Channel
are looking for a couple to be part of a new show based on the book 1000 Things to Do Before You Die, the Lifelist
book that is all the rage these days. They are looking for folks who will get to do things like visit the pyramids in
Egypt or Raft the Grand Canyon or swim with dolphins. I know, you’re eyes are bugging out right now. You’ve got a pen
in your hand and are breathing heavily, wondering when I will get to the point.

OK, OK, here’s the rub.
There are a few small rules. First, you need to be able to travel for up to four months without returning home. So quit
that crappy job. Hey boss, I’m going on safari in Africa, for free…and I’m going to be on TV, so take that Xerox toner
and, well, you know what you can do with it. OK, next. You have to download and fill out a questionnaire and an
application/release that says you will not hold the Travel Channel responsible for getting eaten by a lion on
safari…even if they covered you with hamburger and left you on the savannah overnight.

Then, and here
comes the tough part, you have to make and send to the Travel Channel folks a short videotape of you and your partner
(lasting no more than three minutes) showing how well you get together, what you look like on camera, how you sound,
and why you are inspired to travel. Pls. no Paris Hilton films! Then, finally, send in some pics of yourself. Couldn’t
be easier ,right? So what are you waiting for, get going!

World's Largest Pillow Fight

by Erik Olsen on

Now you’ve got to admit
this is downright silly. In a good way. Some 3659 folks gathered in New Zealand a few days ago, all of them
administered fluffy pillows, with which they engaged in what the Guinness Book of World Records acknowledged was the world’s largest pillow fight , beating the previous
record by 11 um, pillow-fighters.

Now, were all the participants
negligee-clad sorority girls? Alas, no. That really would have made the show worth watching. But despite that drawback,
you have to hand it to the Kiwis, they sure know how to have fun .

The
goal was to do better than the previous pillow-fighting record of 3648 people, set at the University of Albany, New
York, on April 17, 2005.