Water Street, (DUMBO) Brooklyn (February, 2010)
(See more photos from the “Literature Versus Traffic” project @ luzinterruptus)
Archive for the ‘U.S. Travel’ Category
Travel Photo of the Day: Brooklyn (DUMBO), New York – Literature Versus Traffic
Posted in Books, Brooklyn, DUMBO, New York City, Photography, U.S. Travel on February 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Sweet Home Hazelhurst, Mississippi: Robert Johnson’s Birthplace Verified
Posted in Blues & Jazz, Museums & Exhibitions, Popular Culture, Popular Music, Rock 'n' Roll, U.S. Travel on November 14, 2009| 1 Comment »
“The mystery surrounding bluesman Robert Johnson‘s life and death feeds the lingering fascination with his work.
“There’s the myth he sold his soul to the devil to create his haunting guitar intonations. There’s the dispute over where he died after his alleged poisoning by a jealous man in 1938. Three different markers claim to be the site of his demise.
“His birthplace, however, has been verified. The seminal bluesman came into the world in 1911 in a well-crafted home built by his stepfather in the Mississippi town of Hazlehurst.
“Now, 71 years after his death, local officials want to restore the home in hopes of drawing Johnson fans and their tourism dollars to Copiah County, about 100 miles from the Delta region that most bluesmen called home.” (cont’d @ Variety)
Lonelier Planet?: BBC Plans to Sell Off “Lonely Planet” Guide Series
Posted in Books, Business, Foreign Travel, U.S. Travel on October 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“It was bought amid a flurry of raised eyebrows and has sat uneasily in a global broadcasting and media stable ever since — and yesterday Lonely Planet was once again the subject of speculation, uncertainty and possibly even a little controversy.
“The backpackers’ essential guides to, well, pretty much everywhere may, it seems, be heading back into the uncharted territory of the marketplace, barely two years after BBC Worldwide paid £90 million for the company.
“As part of Lonely Planet takeover in October 2007, its founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler, who published their first guide — South East Asia on a Shoestring — 34 years ago, were left with a 25 per cent stake, valued at A$67.3 million before the credit crunch, which they could have sold to the BBC at any time before Saturday.
“However, BBC insiders said yesterday that the Wheelers’ put option had been extended, triggering speculation that the broadcaster is preparing to offload the travel publisher, whose original purchase has so damaged its reputation.” (cont’d @ Times Online)
Burning Passion: Matchcover Collectors & The Return of a New Old Restaurant Freebie
Posted in Business, Collectors & Collecting, Design, Ephemera, Food & Wine, Media & Advertising, Popular Culture, U.S. Travel on October 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“If smoking was their sole raison d’être, restaurant matches should by all rights have disappeared by now. After being overtaken by the disposable lighter, they have run into smoking bans of varying severity. (Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia now have laws prohibiting smoking in restaurants, according to the American Lung Association, and local jurisdictions impose their own smoke-free rules.)
“Yet matches appear to be struggling back from the brink to reassert their pre-eminence among the rabble of coasters, business cards, cocktail napkins and swizzle sticks charged with hawking a restaurant’s good name. In an era of instant information access and viral publicity, logo-bearing matches may have the edge as ambassadors that convey distinction in their very physicality.” (more @ NY Times)
Mixed Bits: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Food & Wine, U.S. Travel on October 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“Is there anything more American than Chinese food? Remember that scene in ‘Manhattan’ where Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway cozy up in bed in his cramped apartment with cardboard boxes of something in black-bean sauce while W. C. Fields plays on the television? Or the scene in ‘A Christmas Story’ when the holiday meal is rescued by crispy duck? Both examples highlight one of the key features of American Chinese food: it’s always there when you’re in a tight spot. And it really is always there. One of the fascinating facts in Andrew Coe’s new history ‘Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States’ is that there are today over forty thousand Chinese restaurants in the country, ‘as exciting,’ Coe writes, ‘as the corner gas station or the Super 8 Motel down by the highway entrance.'” (cont’d @ The New Yorker)
The Perils of Pastrami: David Sax’s “Save the Deli”
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Food & Wine, Jewish Life, U.S. Travel on October 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“He may have written a book about Jewish food, but David Sax is quite a ham. He refers to a deli’s finances as ‘pastraminomics,’ describes a knish as being ‘baked to a George Hamiltonesque hue,’ and titles a chapter on Las Vegas’s deli scene ‘Luck Be a Brisket Tonight.’
“But in addition to Catskills shtick, journalist Sax brings passion and substance to Save the Deli, his paean to the Jewish delicatessen experience. The heart of the book is his cross-country road trip, during which he sizes up the state of the deli in cities obvious (New York, Los Angeles, Miami) and unlikely (Boulder, Salt Lake City, Houston).” (cont’d @ Barnes & Noble Review)
You Can Go Home Again: Philip Roth Attends H.S. Reunion Tour of Hometown Newark
Posted in Books, Jewish Life, Literature, U.S. Travel, Writers & Writing on October 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“Philip Roth came home again Saturday, which is not so unusual because he’s been a frequent visitor in recent years. ‘As you get older, you get closer to home.’ Roth said this as he entered the Newark Museum yesterday as the surprise guest on a bus tour of Newark. Now 76, the man once called one of America’s greatest authors is now called America’s greatest living author as contemporaries like Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer and John Updike have passed on in recent years.
“Saturday, he was among another group of contemporaries, though a decade younger: graduates of Weequahic High, 1960, who, as part of their 50th reunion, signed up for ‘Philip Roth’s Newark.’ Still, the ‘kids’ knew him. As Roth stepped on to the bus, the murmurs turned into buzz, the cell phones and digital cameras flashed. America’s greatest living author is also Weequahic High’s most famous graduate. . . .
“The author, who today lives in Connecticut, had never done the whole route. But on the first tour, he was honored at his childhood home at 81 Summit Street, where the block was ceremoniously named Philip Roth Plaza and a marker unveiled on the house.” (more @ NJ.com)
Related: (10/21/09) Philip Roth Unbound (Video interview with Tina Brown @ The Daily Beast)
Spoiling Eaters, Not the Food: Why New York Food is So Good
Posted in Business, Food & Wine, New York City, U.S. Travel, Urban Affairs on April 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Joseph Epstein on why New York food is so good:
“Manhattan must have 300, perhaps 400, splendid restaurants. I estimate that Chicago has, at the outside, 30, and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., respectively probably not more than that. Why is this? How to account for this plentitude of good restaurant food in Manhattan?
“Demand has a lot to do with it. By this I don’t mean demand as in the old economists’ formula of supply and demand. What I mean is that New Yorkers are, and always have been, more demanding than any other Americans when it comes to what they eat. . . .
“New Yorkers tend to order food as if they are spoiled children dining in their mothers’ kitchens. They demand excellent service, which includes accommodation for their idiosyncrasies (that pickle on the separate plate). If they do not get what they want, they howl, return food, do not return to the restaurant, and verbally torch the place. If you open a restaurant in New York, you had better be good, or you will soon be gone.” (more @ Wall Street Journal)
[Thanks, John.]
Baseball Burgers on Steroids: West Michigan’s 4-lb Stadium Burger Sells Big
Posted in Baseball, Food & Wine, Sports, U.S. Travel on April 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“Last week, the West Michigan Whitecaps minor league baseball team sold more than 100 mega-sized burgers on opening night.
“It’s made with five patties plus chili, American cheese, nacho cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, lettuce, tomato and sour cream — all piled on an 8-inch bun.
“The mammoth meal weighs more than 4 pounds. And, even in this era of scaling back, plenty of people took on the burger by themselves.
“This monster of a burger is called the Fifth Third burger. It has five 1/3-pound patties of beef.” (cont’d @ NPR)
A video of the burger being prepared can be viewed here.
[Click on image to “supersize.”]
1st Annual “Walking Tour of New York’s Independent Bookstores” Scheduled for May 2nd
Posted in Books, Brooklyn, Business, DUMBO, Literature, New York City, U.S. Travel, Urban Affairs on April 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »
On Saturday, May 2nd, “The Millions.com” will lead their first annual “Walking Tour of New York’s Independent Bookstores.” The 11-stop itinerary begins in the East Village, continues through NoLita and SOHO, crosses the Brooklyn Bridge into DUMBO, and ends after 4 or so hours of walking and book-browsing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The complete, 11-stop itinerary includes:
- St. Mark’s Bookshop (31 3rd Avenue at 9th Street).
- The Strand (828 Broadway at East 12th.)
- Partners & Crime Mystery Booksellers (44 Greenwich Avenue at Charles Street)
- Three Lives & Co. (154 West 10th Street at Waverly Place)
- Housing Works Used Book Cafe (126 Crosby St. between Prince and Houston)
- McNally Jackson (formerly McNally Robinson) (52 Prince St. between Mulberry and Lafayette)
- Bluestockings (172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington)
- Melville House Bookstore (145 Plymouth Street at Pearl Street, Brooklyn)
- BookCourt (163 Court St. between Pacific and Dean)
- Freebird Books & Goods (123 Columbia St. between Kane & Degraw)
- WORD (126 Franklin Street at Milton Street, Brooklyn)
Additional information on the event can be found here.
A full-size Google map of the tour, with walking directions, can be found here.
Related: Literary DUMBO: An Afternoon Walk Under the Bridges in Search of Books
Amherst, Massachusetts “250th Anniversary” Literary Festival Set to Open April 1st
Posted in American History, Books, Literature, Museums & Exhibitions, New England, Plays & Playwrights, Poets & Poetry, U.S. Travel, Writers & Writing on March 31, 2009| Leave a Comment »
As part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Amherst, Massachusetts, home to the Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst College, Hampshire College and the University of Masachusetts, a number of literary events are scheduled for the month of April. Events include a “Children’s Literary Scavenger Hunt,” an “Emerging Young Writers Event,” and “A Reading by Poet, Essayist, Editor and Translator: Martin Espada,” to name a few.
A complete schedule of events in the “Amherst Lit Series” can be found here.
Additional information “About Amherst 250” can be found here.
49th Annual “New York Antiquarian Book Fair” Set to Open Friday (4/3)
Posted in Books, Business, Collectors & Collecting, Ephemera, Literature, Museums & Exhibitions, New York City, Plays & Playwrights, Poets & Poetry, U.S. Travel, Writers & Writing on March 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Arguably the most important annual book fair in the United States will be held this coming weekend, April 3-5, at the Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Avenue, at 67th Street) in New York City. General information (hours, entrance fees, etc) about the 49th annual event, organized by Sanford L. Smith and Associates and sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America can be found here.
The list of international exhibitors can be found here.
The annual New York fair is well worth the admission price even for those uninterested in writing large checks – as an exhibition of incunabula, rare and unusual books, periodicals and literary ephemera, the New York event is unrivaled in the United States, and probably the rest of the world as well.
Related
Powell’s Books & The Future of Portland, Oregon
Posted in American West, Books, Business, Current Events, Economy, U.S. Travel, Urban Affairs on March 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“Over the last four decades, Powell’s Books has swelled into the largest bookstore in North America — a capacious monument to reading that occupies a full square block of this often-drizzly city [Portland, Oregon]. But this year, growth has given way to anxiety.
“Michael Powell, the store’s owner, recently dropped plans for a $5 million expansion. An architect had already prepared the drawings. His bankers had signaled that financing was available. But the project no longer looked prudent, Mr. Powell concluded — not with sales down nearly 5 percent, stock markets extinguishing savings, home prices plunging and jobs disappearing.
“‘It’s going to take a period of time to recover,’ Mr. Powell said. ‘Whether it’s 2 years or 10 years I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s going to be quick. People are nervous.'” (more @ NY Times)
Artful Mailers: Transforming “Found” Postcards into Objets D’Art
Posted in Art & Artists, Collectors & Collecting, Ephemera, Foreign Travel, New York City, U.S. Travel on March 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“This month, a 33-year-old Belgian artist has started a project called I Got a Postcard, where people leave self-addressed stamped postcards that encourage the people who find them to personalize and mail them.
“Two weeks ago, he left his first 100 cards in 10 locations in New York City — including a library, airport, theater and bus — and waited for them to return. The cards read: ‘Dear finder, personalize this postcard and then return it to me. Be as original and artistic as possible and your creation will be submitted to igotapostcard.blogspot.com.’
“The artist, Renaud Dehareng (the artist name of Jason Burns), says he was inspired by PostSecret. And Postsecret itself was inspired by Found magazine.” (more @ NY Times)
Big City Blues (& Yellows): NYC Hikes Subway, Bus Fares (Taxis OK)
Posted in Brooklyn, Business, Economy, New York City, U.S. Travel, Urban Affairs on March 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »
On the same day the New York Times reported that the city’s yellow cab industry is being spared from the worst effects of the recession by allowing riders to pay by credit card, the MTA announced major fare hikes for public transportation commuters:
“After a fiery hearing Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted 12 to 1 to approve subway, bus and commuter train fare hikes from 25% to 30% and impose severe service cuts, including elimination of two subway lines and 21 local bus routes. . . .
“Starting May 31, the monthly MetroCard, now $81, will cost $103 and a weekly MetroCard, now $25, will cost $31. The one-way bus and subway fare will rise from $2 to $2.50, a whopping 25% increase.
“Commuter train fares rise June 1, while MTA bridge and tunnel tolls jump July 11. Service cuts also include longer gaps between trains and the closure of a few stations overnight.” (more @ The Daily News)
“The Treasures of Pompeii” at The National Gallery of Art
Posted in Ancient History, Anthropology, Archaeology, Architecture, Europe, Foreign Travel, Museums & Exhibitions, U.S. Travel on March 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »
I’ll not be posting to the NSRG this weekend when I’ll be visiting Washington, D.C. in order to view, in advance of my May trip to Naples, the exhibition, “Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples,” at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition, which includes recent discoveries on view in the United States for the first time, as well as finds from excavations dating to the mid-18th century, closes this Sunday.
The New York Times review of the exhibition can be found here.
A slideshow, “The Treasures of Pompeii,” can be found here.
The Houses HOK Built: The “New” Yankee Stadium & the Mets’ Citi Field
Posted in Architecture, Baseball, Business, New York City, Popular Culture, Sports, U.S. Travel, Urban Affairs on March 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker magazine, on New York’s two new baseball stadiums, “the first time that two major-league stadiums have opened in the same city at the same time”:
“A stadium is a stage set as sure as anything on Broadway, and it determines the tone of the dramas within. Citi Field suggests a team that wants to be liked, even to the point of claiming some history that isn’t its own. Yankee Stadium, however, reflects an organization that is in the business of being admired, and is built to serve as a backdrop for the image of the Yankees, at once connected to the city and rising grandly above it.” (more @ The New Yorker)
Fading from View: View-Master 3-D Travel Reels Discontinued
Posted in Business, Collectors & Collecting, Foreign Travel, Photography, Popular Culture, U.S. Travel on March 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »
First introduced at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, “the iconic [View-Master] reels of tourist attractions, often packaged with a clunky plastic viewer and first sold to promote 3-D photography, are ending their 70-year run after years of diminishing sales. . . .
“Scenic discs are no longer a good fit for the Fisher-Price division of toy maker Mattel Inc., a spokeswoman said, and the company stopped making them in December. Fisher-Price, based in East Aurora, N.Y., will keep making better-selling reels of Shrek, Dora the Explorer and other animated characters, spokeswoman Juliette Reashor said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.” (more @ MSN)
Related
Travel Photo of the Day: New York City (Manhattan)
Posted in New York City, Photography, U.S. Travel on March 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Lonelier Planet: Job Cuts, Pay Freezes at Travel Guide Publisher
Posted in Books, Business, Foreign Travel, U.S. Travel on February 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“Lonely Planet has imposed a pay freeze with immediate effect after announcing that 50 jobs have been cut. . . .
“The travel publisher, which employs 500 people worldwide has axed 10% of its staff. . . . [Acting CEO Stephen] Palmer said they had made some, ‘difficult decisions in response to the prolonged and deep economic downturn.’ He said, ‘no-one knows what the future holds or can make any guarantees, but this step is our best effort at protecting ourselves from further cuts.'” (via The Bookseller.com)
The 'Not-So-Rough' Guide 