August 2011
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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...
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July 2011
5 posts
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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.
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The Most Overrated Places in Southeast Asia |... →
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.
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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...
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June 2011
24 posts
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“You have been told to follow your dreams. But what if it’s a stupid dream?”
– Stephen Colbert | 2011 Northwestern University Commencement Speech
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7 Frequent-Flyer Tricks Worth Learning | Frommer's →
Usually these sorts of articles are useless to all but the least experienced travelers, but this one actually has some worthwhile stuff buried in it. I found the section on finding “secret ways to book award seats on partner airlines” particularly helpful.
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Why Hasn't Commercial Air Travel Gotten Any...
Or, more accurately, why is commercial airline travel still so slow? It’s a question I’ve often wondered about and fortunately Slate’s resident Explainer (in this case, Brian Palmer) has the answer. Or answers. Or at least some plausible explanations.
There are apparently a number of factors. First among them: fuel efficiency.
Commercial airlines have slowed down over the...
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Tobolowsky on Groundhog Day
I’m one of those who feel Groundhog Day is a near perfect comedy. I watch the film anytime I come across it and inevitably find something new to enjoy. It quite literally gets better with each subsequent viewing.
Of course, for any fan, it took but one viewing to fall in love with the character Ned Ryerson and the actor who portrayed him, the great Stephen Tobolowsky. He steals every...
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Traveling with the iPhone | Songkick
There was a time when I was totally on top of the live music scene. I knew when my favorite bands were coming to town, where they were playing, and when tickets went on sale. Somewhere along the way, I fell out of the loop. I just don’t have the time to keep on top of that stuff. And more often than not, I don’t find out about shows until it’s too late.
Well, the new Songkick...
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Super 8 | Directed by J.J. Abrams
J.J. Abrams new film Super 8 is a throwback to the blockbuster summer fare Steven Spielberg used to make, and it’s not just because the movie is set in the late Seventies, features a bunch of kids, and Spielberg serves as producer. No, it evokes favorable Spielberg comparisons because it tells a compelling story with a generous mix of humor, thrills and heart. There are plenty of special...
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“Games described as forgotten typically earn that classification because they...”
– Chuck Klosterman | Three-Man Weave
The Bill Simmons grantland.com project launched today, and Chuck Klosterman proved with his first column he’s the (not-so) secret weapon.
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Summer Reading: Travel Books | The New York Times →
Failed relationships, broken marriages and dead-end careers are among the catalysts that lead this season’s travel writers to hit the road. The escapees range from a middle-aged journalist seeking high-altitude transcendence in the Himalayas to a frustrated poetry scholar in search of beauty among the holy spots of Iran. And then there’s the global nomad torn between a longing for domestic...
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Nearly half of all adults younger than 40 have at... →
nprfreshair:
Quick survey of staff here: no one appears to have a tattoo. Do you?
I’ve never gotten a tattoo. It’s not because I have anything against them; I think the artistry of them can be quite something. It’s just that I’ve never felt the urge to communicate something so strongly that I would have it imprinted on my body.
The idea of just randomly picking a...
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“I believe in and advocate monogamy. Adultery is hitting below the belt. If I...”
– H.L. Mencken | In a letter to Charles Green Shaw
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May 2011
56 posts
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Great Scenic Train Rides in Europe | Fodor's →
Whether it’s a loop ride on a steam train or a practical means for getting from Amsterdam to Brussels, Europe is full of train routes with amazing scenery. Thanks to the amazing Fodor’s community, we’ve compiled some great train trips by country.
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Is it logical?
In an interesting article on Slate, author Ben Yagoda advocates for the use of “logical punctuation” — an English writing style in which punctuation is placed outside of quotations and one generally used everywhere but America. American English writing is driven by aesthetics, he argues, while logical style is driven by technical correctness. Yagoda increasingly favors the...
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Memorial Day Challenge
I dare you to make sense of this article, in which Techcrunch author Steve Gillmour places Twitter and Citizen Kane in close proximity and hopes the words in between will connect them somehow.
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Esquire: The 75 Books Every Man Should Read →
libraryland:
An unranked, incomplete, utterly biased list of the greatest works of literature ever published. How many have you read?
Not as many as I would like to say, but I did break into the teens.
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Hassleblad has released a 200 megapixel camera that’ll run its owner $45,000. I’m fascinated by this — not because of the amazing technology or the equally amazing price tag, but because I have no idea who exactly needs this. Obviously it’s intended for professional photographers but even after going through the Hassleblad User Showcase I can’t come up with many...
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I Must Not Make Lists
I gave up trying to earn a living as writer a long time ago. I’m not sure if it was because I lacked the discipline for it, the lack of money involved or that I didn’t have much to say. Probably a bit of all three and a few hundred other things.
Oddly enough, and all evidence to the contrary, even during my time of aspiration, I never fancied a career as a travel journalist. I...
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America's Best Beach Hotels | Travel + Leisure →
Speaking of T+L readers, they have spoken up about their favorite beach hotels in America as well, and Little Palm Island Resort & Spa (Little Torch Key, Florida), the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai (Big Island, Hawaii) and Halekulani (Oahu, Hawaii) top the list. My local favorite — the Montage in Laguna Beach — barely misses the top three, falling in at number four.
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America's Best Cities for Summer Travel | Travel +... →
The magazine’s readers rank their favorite cities for a summer getaway. Portland, Oregon tops the list, with Seattle and Portland, Maine rounding out the top three.
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“You can always come back, but you can’t come back all the way.”
– Bob Dylan | from “Mississippi”
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Your Best Bob Dylan Album Calculator →
americanroutes:
This is important: The Morning News’ Non-Expert provides a handy test to determine your favorite Bob Dylan album.
It spit out Highway 61 Revisited for me which is one of my favorite Bob Dylan albums but not my favorite, which is either Blonde on Blonde or Blood on the Tracks depending on the day (that day of course not being the one when my favorite is Nashville Skyline.)
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Happy 70th Birthday, Bob!
The great Bob Dylan turns 70 today, and in honor of the occasion Rolling Stone magazine has a special section called Bob Dylan at 70 — which includes lists of Dylan’s greatest songs, his most overlooked classics, a quiz, photo galleries and other musicians’ picks of their favorite Dylan songs.