Creepy and beautiful cemeteries around the world

by Sean McLachlan on


Cemeteries aren’t the first places most people go to while on vacation, but they can tell a lot about a culture and its history. We all have to die sometime and the way we deal with the dead says a lot about ourselves.

Some cemeteries are overgrown and covered in moss. Others are orderly and well-kept. Some are beautiful, and can inspire wonderful photographs like the one taken here by user Perrimoon over at Flickr. Sometimes graveyards can be downright dangerous, like the cemetery in Haworth, England, famous as the hometown of the Brontë sisters. The dead were literally stacked ten deep in this graveyard and the stream that provided the town’s water flowed right through them!

Some of the best free sights in Paris are cemeteries. The same goes for New York. My pick for the best place to see cemeteries is Rome, the city of the dead, which has splendid Renaissance tombs, ancient Roman gravestones, and mummified monks.

Do you have some good cemetery shots? Join us over at Gadling’s flickr pool and show us your art. You might just get picked for Photo of the Day!

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Video: SNAP featuring Brooklyn

by Elizabeth Seward on

SNAP from andrea gise on Vimeo.

Agise & dancers is a Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based dance company headed up by a talented lady, Andrea Gise. Gise is a dancer/choreographer who has been releasing videos of her work lately. Agise & Dancers recently released an amazing video, titled SNAP. The video work for SNAP was done by Philip Knowlton.

Why am I telling you about this video? Because it features Brooklyn in a beautiful way. Shot in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, these guys did well with their location-scouting because the Brooklyn backdrop for this video is so very Brooklyn. And I mean that in the best way possible.

Check out the video for some excellent dance and beautiful Brooklyn moments captured on film.

Manhattan hot doggery Gray’s Papaya set to raise prices (again)

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s murder, I say! Murder!

Well, I don’t say it … Gray’s Papaya does. The Manhattan hot dog institution is about to raise its prices once again. This will be the third price increase since I moved to the Upper West Side in 2004.

There’s a rather dramatic sign hanging in the window at Gray’s Papaya screaming, “MURDER!” It continues:

WE ARE GETTING KILLED BY THE GALLOPING INFLATION IN FOOD COSTS
UNLIKE POLITICIANS WE CANNOT RAISE OUR DEBT CEILING AND ARE FORCED TO RAISE OUR VERY REASONABLE PRICES
PLEASE DON’T HATE US

Okay, it’s hard to hate the folks who sell two hot dogs and a drink for a modest $4.50, though I was much happier when it was a dollar cheaper, back in 2008. Seven years ago, one hot dog cost only 85 cents. Then it skyrocketed, on a relative basis, to $1.25 in 2005, inching up to $1.50 three years ago.

%Gallery-126040%The deal, which still returns change for a $5 bill, is called the “Recession Special,” which took real meaning in 2008, as New York City suffered the shock of the financial crisis. Since then, as we have struggled toward a recovery that never really seems to come, the Gray’s Papaya Recession Special has been a fantastic alternative to … well, just about everything.

But, where will the prices go next?

It’s hard to say. The notice has been up for a few weeks, but I have yet to see any indication of price change. The guy working behind the counter said he didn’t know where prices were headed and that they would probably take effect in early June. I walked by a few days ago and didn’t see anything different.

There is a lesson in all this: buy hot dogs.

If you bought hot dogs from Grays’ Papaya in 2004 at 85 cents each, they would have nearly doubled in value by 2008. With all the gripes were hearing about food inflation, it’s pretty safe to say that we’ll see another big spike in 2011.

Hot dogs are the new gold.

I guess the only problem would be storing them. I do suspect, though, that hot dogs are like Twinkies – they last forever.

If you find yourself in New York, definitely hit Gray’s Papaya. If the prices are higher than you expect, try not to complain. It still really is the best deal in town!

Note: The space in the window at Gray’s Papaya seems to be reserved for political messages, as it once endorsed Barack Obama for president. Now, the company is sending a message about government spending and deficit management. Who ever knew that a dog from Gray’s Papaya came with a free civics lesson?

Another note: when prices were raised in 2008, I stopped at Gray’s Papaya on my way to work for a hot dog for breakfast (it’s sick, I know). There were television cameras set up out front. I didn’t know why. Well, it turns out that MSNBC was doing a story on the price increase. And, a good friend of mine, now my roommate, wound up being interviewed about it. He’s in this clip.

Hotel roof gardens: sustainable beauty

by McLean Robbins on


Summer is officially here, and what better place to enjoy a cocktail or night out than at a chic hotel bar, preferably one with a roof and a view? More and more hotels are transforming their outside spaces into full-scale gardens that offer more than just pretty-smelling plants. Many have embraced the farm-to-table concept and are growing their own herbs, vegetables and fruits – some even have bee hives.

Here are our favorites, chosen for factors ranging from beauty to innovation and sustainability. Note that not all of these roofs are accessible to hotel guests – some are used for green purposes and others for gardens and hives:

Kyoto Grand Hotel, Los Angeles
The half-acre garden on the roof of this downtown Los Angeles hotel takes the cake for both beauty and innovation. Enjoy meandering paths, water features, and of course, beautiful plants at the Asian-inspired boutique hotel.

Gramercy Park Hotel, New York City
The former private roof club and garden at Gramercy Park Hotel opened to the public last fall and has been a coveted reservation ever since. Enjoy year-round dining and drinking in the chic garden, which has a retractable glass roof for cool or rainy days. Above the garden itself sits a hotel-planted herb, vegetable and fruit plot stocked with organic plants used in cocktails and seasonally-inspired dishes.

The Surrey, New York City
Located on the Penthouse level, and available exclusively to hotel guests, this serene escape is reminiscent of a garden found atop an Upper East Side family townhouse, with a traditional English Garden feel. This hotel garden features a heavy emphasis on trees, ivy and seasonal florals ranging from brilliant purple Salvia East Frieslands to the pink, yellow and orange Lantana. Box trees are framed by rows of English dwarf lavender. Try the “Muddled Lemonade,” which mixes the freshest herbs, fruits and spices with homemade lemonade, available with or without alcohol.

The Fairmont Royal York, Toronto
Ontario’s chic Fairmont hotel boasts not only a garden but a bee hive, whose honey is used in the dishes at EPIC, the Fairmont’s signature restaurant. First planted in 1998, all the herbs are organic, grown without pesticides and herbicides. Last year, Mason Hogue Gardens, from Uxbridge, Ontario, planted Japanese shiso, oba, four types of basil and five pepper varieties in the high-rise herb garden. Besides herbs, the garden also grows Italian red kidney beans, cherry tomatoes and dwarf cherry, pear and plum trees. Want to see more photos? Wanderlust and Lipstick has a great first person view.

Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, NY
More than just a garden, this upstate New York escape boasts a “green roof ” garden terrace that’s unusual because it spends much of the day in the shade. The hotel planted predominantly shade-tolerant plants that attract birds and butterflies. Want to visit? Guests can enjoy seasonal exercise classes on the rooftop.

See a gallery of all of the hotel gardens here:
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Canary Hotel, Santa Barbara
Sip a cocktail made with the fruit trees growing on The Perch, this Santa Barbara hotel’s chic rooftop terrace. The terrace includes kumquat, lemon and orange trees, which come together in the delicious concoction known as the hotel’s signature Vodka Kumquat Lemonade cocktail.

Omni Chicago
If you’re dining at Omni Chicago’s Cafe 676, chances are you’re enjoying the work of Chef Daven Wardynski, who uses herbs from his rooftop garden in many of his seasonal preparations.

The InterContinental Harbor Court, Baltimore
Employees of the InterContinental Harbor Court completed planting our herb and vegetable garden earlier this month for the rooftop garden’s second year. Herbs from the garden are used in everything from seasonal salads to seasonal mojito cocktails. In addition to the garden, InterContinental Harbor Court will be hosting a bee hive in conjunction with Baltimore Honey.

InterContinental Miami
The InterContinental Miami celebrated Earth Day 2011 by planting an herb garden, part of the hotel’s larger garden which contains full grown trees, plants and a jogging trail all on the 5th floor plaza level of the hotel, nestled in the skyscrapers.

Hyatt at Olive 8, Seattle
The hotel boasts an 8,355 square foot green rooftop, one of the largest in downtown Seattle. Urbane, the farm to table restaurant located in Olive 8, uses herbs harvested from the green rooftop in its dishes and cocktails.

Fairmont Singapore
Five floors above the Singapore skyline rest herb plots utilized in many of the hotel’s dishes and cocktails. To keep these herbs healthy and fresh, Fairmont Singapore adopted an innovative compost system that provides natural fertilizers for the plants, utilizing the waste products from thousands of worms, also nestled within the Herb Garden.

Brown Palace, Denver
While not a garden, per se, the hotel uses its rooftop space to help another living species grow – bees! The hotel boasts a massive bee hive (and has plenty of plants to keep the pollen-hungry bugs happy) and has an on-site beekeeper to harvest the honey.

US Grant, San Diego
One of San Diego’s most iconic hotels boasts a seasonal roof and herb garden that contains many of the ingredients used in the hotel’s dishes and cocktails.

Wannabe JFK airport bomber found guilty

by Sean McLachlan on


The final participant in the plot to blow up New York City’s JFK airport has been found guilty of five counts of conspiracy.

Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad was one of four conspirators who in 2007 hoped to blow up fuel tanks and fuel lines at JFK airport, causing major loss of life. The lines also run under a nearby neighborhood and the terrorists hoped to blow that up too. Two other conspirators, Russell Defreitas and Abdul Kadir, are already serving life sentences, and Abdel Nur received fifteen years for his role in the plot.

In his defense, Ibrahim claimed he didn’t really want to blow up the airport, saying, “I just went along and hoped it would fizzle out.”

What kind of lame-ass excuse is that? Who starts something that big and doesn’t plan to finish? That would be like if I enrolled in university with the intention of dropping out my sophomore year, or had a kid with the plan to ditch him when he’s ten.

Luckily the judge didn’t buy that line either, Ibrahim will be sentenced on October 21.

[Photo courtesy USGS]