Video of the Day: Brett Erlich’s Unconventional Travel Tips

by Mike Barish on

Movies are full of wild ideas about travel. From Airplane! to Castaway, there’s no shortage of bizarre travel tales in cinema. Thankfully, Current packed many of those moments into this video from The Rotten Tomatoes Show starring Brett Ehrlich.

So, whether you want to ride a dragon, pilot a plane or just get from Point A to Point B as dramatically as possible, look to the movies for your travel tips. It’s where you’ll find the most realistic suggestions.

If you have a great travel video that you think we might enjoy, share the link in a comment below. We could feature it as our next Video of the Day!

Photo of the Day: Laughing Buddha statue in Dalian, China

by Catherine Bodry on

Today’s Photo of the Day is of this lovely happy Buddha. Although, I’ve done some research and discovered that this figure is not actually Buddha, but a 10th century Chinese monk named Hotei. Apparently he carried around a sack of candy (it shows) to share with young children.

Just looking at the photo of this statue lightens my mood. I also really like that the photographer, Flickr user Bernard-SD, captioned it “A Work in Progress.” The statue may not be finished, but I like the idea that our lives are also a constant work in progress – which seems kind of Buddhist, or at least a little spiritual, right?

Have any photos of your travels that might solicit spiritual musing, or at least just make us smile Upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool and we just might choose one for our Photo of the Day feature.

Photo of the day – Wyoming country road

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Flickr user JasonBechtel recently uploaded a number of beautiful images of Wyoming to the Gadling group on Flickr. They’re all worth a gander; this one, which depicts a Wyoming country road outside of Sheridan, is among the most appealing. The huge sky, apparent desolation, and sloping green fields inspire a yearning to travel.

Images of the open road are the most reliably useful travel symbols. Literally descriptive of both the form and function of travel, they inspire the traveler’s mind like few other sources of inspiration.

For me at least. And since I never get tired of good open road shots, feel free to upload your best to Flickr’s Gadling Group Pool. There’s a decent chance that I’ll turn your image of the road into a future Photo of the Day.

Video of the Day – Aurora Borealis over Tromsø, Norway

by Stephen Greenwood on

If witnessing the northern lights is one of the top items on your travel wish list, the ideal time of year for seeing them (March & April) is quickly approaching. But if Alaska, Norway, or Finland is just too far to travel this year, you can watch this video instead!

Shot by photographer Tor Even Mathisen at the Aurora Borealis over Tromsø, Norway, this timelapse video was created by taking a rapid series of photographs on a Canon 5D Mark II later stitched together in Adobe After Effects. By taking individual snapshots, Mathisen was able to capture a remarkably crisp image with stunning color.

If you’ve captured your own timelapse photography series, we want to see it! Share with us by posting in the comments section below and it could be our next Video of the Day.

Video of the Day: Portlandia demonstrates the stresses of housesitting

by Mike Barish on

The new IFC show Portlandia takes the quirkiness of the Pacific Northwest city and magnifies it. However, the inspiration for this sketch is as real as the trees are big in Oregon. Anyone who has ever had a housesitting gig knows that people can be insanely neurotic about their homes when they’re going to be away for a while. They’ll show you how to turn on the lights, how to properly sit on the couch and which plates should never be used for food. It’s enough to make you never want to travel yourself lest you become one of those crazy people who worries senselessly about your own home.

If you have a great travel video that you think we might enjoy, share the link in a comment below. We could feature it as our next Video of the Day!

[Via Gawker]