ABBA Museum to Debut in 2008

by Adrienne Wilson on

Dancing queens and kings get ready to pack your bags and jet off to Stockholm! In 2008 an interactive museum dedicated to legendary Swedish pop group, ABBA will open, allowing fanatics to see the clothing, learn the history and record their own ABBA songs in a studio. Are you dancing yet? Are your feet moving wild with excitement? CNN reports that even though the band hasn’t recorded an album since 1982, ABBA still remains one of the most successful bands in history. They’ve sold 370 million albums worldwide. It took two years to convince the band members that it was a good idea to open an ABBA museum and though they will donate materials for exhibits, they will have no further involvement in the project.

A location is still sought out by museum organizers, but they are sure that when the doors open both the museum and Stockholm’s already ABBA popular city streets should see an impressive number of visitors. I wouldn’t doubt it either.

Red Hot & Riot in Brooklyn

by Adrienne Wilson on

When I read the news on the Red Hot & Riot Live concert going down at the Brooklyn Academy of Music next weekend, December 1 & 2, I nearly flipped my wig. With a friend of mine leaving for Africa today to play in a series of concerts (one of which includes a World AIDS Day show) and this too-good-to-be-true-to-believe concert line-up right in Brooklyn I could barely contain myself. Not only will my friend and I be connected in spirit by an echoing drum beat moving waves across oceans, we’ll be celebrating and contributing what little we can to help the AIDS situation in Africa and locally. I can’t speak on the details of the show my pal will be performing at only because I do not know, but I can share with you all that I know about the one going down at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Performers for the two-night event include Tony Allen, Amadou & Mariam Cheikh Lo, Dead Prez, Keziah Jones, Les Nubians, Meshell Ndegeocello and Yerba Buena. Created as a tribute to the late Fela Kuti and Afrobeat music, the two nights of music will bring acclaimed African artists together with a younger generation of international artists in addition to raising HIV/AIDS awareness in the community. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the African Services Committee. The organization is NY based and promotes the health and self-sufficiency of local African and Caribbean immigrant communities through the provision of HIV/AIDS care and support services. In other words you’ll want to be there if your calendar happens to be bare on December 1 and/or 2, 2006. I’ll be in the building both nights.

See bam.org for ticket information.

CBS Pilot Alert – Drama at the CDC

by Adrienne Wilson on

Mmm… Where do I begin with this one – the facts or my own personal opinion? I’ll start with the facts as I stumbled upon over at EURweb. The celeb powerhouse couple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, have had a few things up their sleeve since last July when Jada hinted at a new project she had been pitching to networks with her hubby Will Smith at the Television Critics Association Press Conference in Pasadena. In order to keep the project from being jinxed she declined to elaborate, but now the word is out and spreading like Mad Cow, Avian Flu and a bad batch of spinach. According to EUR: “It’s been confirmed that CBS has given a put pilot commitment to the project, which hails from CBS Paramount Network TV and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment.” The untitled drama (Jada’s creation) will follow doctors at the Center for Disease Control, who fight viruses that threaten people globally.

Time for my two cents! Personally, I think it sounds fascinating and I can’t wait to see who they’ll cast for our virus fighting Docs, but it frightens me at the same time. I can just imagine episode #18 where a young couple comes back from a backpacking vacation in China and one falls ill with the world’s deadliest case of Avian Flu. Or episode #43 where a group of missionaries at an orphanage in Namibia contract Malaria after being given the wrong prescription back in the states… The scenarios are endless and while the CDC isn’t just about travel and disease, I tend only to scope it out when I’m heading somewhere far, foreign, and possibly flooded by disease. I’d hope none of the episodes sway anyone from traveling abroad, but let’s face it – people suck that stuff in. Someone out there isn’t going to want to go travel and explore ‘X’ destination because of ‘X’ disease related drama seen on primetime television. It happens. Television warps the mind, but I am very interested in seeing this when it debuts.

So with all that being said has something you ever seen on the tube (news or movies) ever kept you or changed your mind about traveling someplace? If so, give me the full details and just so it’s fair I’ll share a secret of my own. When I saw Boys Don’t Cry with Hilary Swank it made me never wish to go to Nebraska. Not that I’m a woman posing as a man, but it sort of gave me this negative idea that people aren’t nice there.

That’s my story what’s yours?

Word for the Travel Wise (09/23/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Everyone has a favorite musician they’d take a loan out at the bank to go see in concert if it were the last concert ever being held in some rare exotic place like Easter Island. I have a couple I would go out on a limb and do such for; the first being Björk, second Sade and the third I’ll give to Les Nubians. After seeing the two Cameroonian sisters perform live in Los Angeles I was sold. Listening to a few of their songs now hoping they’ll do a show somehwere nearby soon. I really don’t want to do the loan at the bank thing. Smile.

Today’s word is a French word used in Cameroon:

croire – believe

English and French are both official languages of Cameroon.

French is the third largest Romance language in the world in terms of native speakers according to the Wikipedia and is the official language of 29 countries. There are a number of places to learn French abroad which include Canada and Switzerland in addition to France. Amerispan offers immersion programs in all three of the countries and more info can be found by clicking here. Search other study abroad programs at some of these sites here: Coeur de France, Accord French Language School, and Transitions Abroad to name only a few. Swing over to My Language Exchange where you are sure to find someone willing to exchange their lingo skills for some of your own. Free online sources for learning French include France-Pub, French Assistant, and the BBC Languages.

Past French words: confiture, difficile, frottis, ma reum (mère), pensées, vélo

Travel Shows to Watch on the Tube

by Adrienne Wilson on

I have a 1981 Magnavox in my room which tells you how much I watch or don’t watch TV. It took me forever to get the adapter box thing to hook my modern-day DVD player up to the ancient television set, but when I did, I started watching my foreign film DVD’s and still left a lot of regular cable programming to a view here and there. Every now and then I’ll submit myself to a good mind-wasting time of MTV (which is how I managed to catch Trippin’), So You Think You Can Dance and the Travel Channel, but that’s really it.

Anywhoodle, this isn’t about me. This piece is dedicated to the traveler that likes to sit kaput in their deluxe armchair in front of the TV exploring the streets of France and the jungles of Central America one show and one channel at a time. MSN News gives the skinny on a couple of travel shows you may or may not know of. Some of the more popular ones include the Amazing Race and Passport to Europe, but there are others I’ve never even heard about like Global Tribe on PBS. Find out what each show is about and whether you should be setting your TiVo to record them all.