Top Ten Landscapes of the Silver Screen | Away.com

Author Laura Kiniry offers her choices for “must-see locations forever linked with their movie roles.” It’s good list with a few obvious choices (Salsburg and The Sound of Music), as well as less obvious ones (Bodega Bay and The Birds). If I were to create my own list I think I’d have a hard time leaving Lawrence of Arabia off of it, being quite possibly the most distinctive visual epic, and I would add the old Vienna of The Third Man.

That obviously begs the question of what I’d remove. I think I’d drop Star Wars and Tunisia from my list because Lawrence of Arabia offers a similar landscape and the Tatooine sequences in Star Wars were clearly inspired by David Lean’s masterwork. I’d probably also remove Petra (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) because it is very much a “set” in the film. It’s not Petra in the movie, so feels more like a movie location than one where the actual place is central to the story (as it Vienna very much is in The Third Man).

Tropical Island Paradise | Yacht Island Design I know this has made the rounds a bit, but I finally got around to checking out Yacht Island Design and their insane luxury yacht concepts. In reviewing their offering, I have a couple of observations: I enjoy that their ridiculous, never-to-be made island yacht designs are based on a “Philosophy.” I also like that they offer “Bespoke Yacht Island Design” — as if anyone who might fork over a few hundred million dollars to buy one of these would just purchase an “off the shelf” yacht island. This is obviously absurd, but it’s also real. Which begs the question: Does the target market for this consist solely of the Saudi royal family and the Sultan of Brunei?
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Tropical Island Paradise | Yacht Island Design

I know this has made the rounds a bit, but I finally got around to checking out Yacht Island Design and their insane luxury yacht concepts. In reviewing their offering, I have a couple of observations:

  1. I enjoy that their ridiculous, never-to-be made island yacht designs are based on a “Philosophy.”
  2. I also like that they offer “Bespoke Yacht Island Design” — as if anyone who might fork over a few hundred million dollars to buy one of these would just purchase an “off the shelf” yacht island.

This is obviously absurd, but it’s also real. Which begs the question: Does the target market for this consist solely of the Saudi royal family and the Sultan of Brunei?

Move | Film by Rick Mereki

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films…..

9 Best Foodie Walking Tours | AOL Travel

Here’s a little something for the gluttons. AOL highlights its favorite places in the United States to wander around and gorge yourself on fine food.

The Most Overrated Places in Southeast Asia | Adventurous Kate

This is one of the reasons why I enjoy Adventurous Kate. If she makes a list, it’s actually a useful one. Not only does she steer you from overrun destinations like Koh Phi Phi, but steers you towards other places you might have not otherwise considered like Koh Lanta.

On the NBA Lockout

In his latest column, “If I Ruled The (NBA) World,” The Sports Guy Bill Simmons returns to one of his favorite topics: how the NBA would be perfect if only he were in charge. His whole “Common Sense GM” thing is mostly tongue-in-cheek, but he goes to this well so often that you have to assume he believes there’s at least some truth in it. And admittedly it’s usually entertaining — parts rational solutions, cockamamie ideas, and willful ignorance of reality. And this latest column on the lockout indulges all of them.

Yet Simmons main problem is not that he has bad ideas, it’s that nearly all of them exist within a current system that is fundamentally flawed. He wants David Stern, the players and the NBA generally to embrace radical ideas but you can’t effectively do that if you’re stuck in the box to begin with. The best you can hope for is incremental improvement. It’s like the tax or healthcare systems in this U.S. Unless you throw the whole thing out and start from scratch, all you’ll get is change at the edges that does nothing to solve structural problems.

Here are a couple of things I know about the NBA (which incidentally are true of the NHL and MLB as well).

  1. The NBA is nothing like the NFL.
  2. There are not even close to 25 cities that can reasonably support a professional basketball team.
  3. The NBA can do nothing to ensure competitive balance or that all of its teams are profitable.
  4. The NBA Players Union has outlived its usefulness.

Let’s take a look at them one by one (after the break).

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World’s Best Hotels 2011 | Travel + Leisure The magazine has released its annual list of hotels that most of us are never likely to stay in — including top rated U.S. hotel Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Montana, where cabin rates start at a measly $750 per night. Photo: Triple Creek Ranch | Darby, Montana
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World’s Best Hotels 2011 | Travel + Leisure

The magazine has released its annual list of hotels that most of us are never likely to stay in — including top rated U.S. hotel Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Montana, where cabin rates start at a measly $750 per night.

Photo: Triple Creek Ranch | Darby, Montana

World’s Prettiest Lighthouses | AOL Travel I find lighthouses sort of irresistible. I think it’s maybe because they seem quaint and anachronistic and yet still serve a vital purpose even in our technologically-advanced age. No one seems to have come up with a simpler or more reliable way to signal vessels that land is approaching than a light on the shore. And there’s something comforting about that. Photo: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina | By Razvan Orendovici
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World’s Prettiest Lighthouses | AOL Travel

I find lighthouses sort of irresistible. I think it’s maybe because they seem quaint and anachronistic and yet still serve a vital purpose even in our technologically-advanced age. No one seems to have come up with a simpler or more reliable way to signal vessels that land is approaching than a light on the shore. And there’s something comforting about that.

Photo: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina | By Razvan Orendovici

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latimes: How a city reached its limit with the Dodgers: Los Angeles’ love for the Dodgers was unconditional for four decades. But their grip on L.A. began to slip in 1998, and now their popularity is in free-fall. How did this happen, and can they get it back? Illustration: Once known as a Dodgers town, the Lakers have become the team of preference in L.A. Credit: Paul Rogers / For The Times Eight year-old me will always bleed Dodger Blue. I was a very lucky kid. I grew up regularly going to Chavez Ravine for games with my father, mother and brothers. Sitting in the loge section just up from first base, I shared a transistor radio with my dad so we could hear Vin Scully. Even live, it wasn’t a Dodger game if you couldn’t hear Vin call the play-by-play. My whole life seemed like Dodger Dogs and Carnation Malts. Since pre-school I had been good childhood friends with Ron Cey’s son. We played little-league together. I even went on a camping trip with him and his dad and got carsick on the way for good measure. I once ate spaghetti with Tommy Lasorda. I remember well The Big Blue Wrecking Crew, reveled in Fernando Mania, and cringed every time Steve Sax threw to first. Oh, and I was in the stands when Kirk Gibson hit his fabled shot. No matter what happens none of that can be taken away.
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latimes:

How a city reached its limit with the Dodgers: Los Angeles’ love for the Dodgers was unconditional for four decades. But their grip on L.A. began to slip in 1998, and now their popularity is in free-fall. How did this happen, and can they get it back?

Illustration: Once known as a Dodgers town, the Lakers have become the team of preference in L.A. Credit: Paul Rogers / For The Times

Eight year-old me will always bleed Dodger Blue.

I was a very lucky kid. I grew up regularly going to Chavez Ravine for games with my father, mother and brothers. Sitting in the loge section just up from first base, I shared a transistor radio with my dad so we could hear Vin Scully. Even live, it wasn’t a Dodger game if you couldn’t hear Vin call the play-by-play. My whole life seemed like Dodger Dogs and Carnation Malts.

Since pre-school I had been good childhood friends with Ron Cey’s son. We played little-league together. I even went on a camping trip with him and his dad and got carsick on the way for good measure. I once ate spaghetti with Tommy Lasorda. I remember well The Big Blue Wrecking Crew, reveled in Fernando Mania, and cringed every time Steve Sax threw to first. Oh, and I was in the stands when Kirk Gibson hit his fabled shot.

No matter what happens none of that can be taken away.

Source: Los Angeles Times