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No summer vacation plans yet ? Why not be the first on your block to visit the exciting, and virtually unknown, city-state of Hipcescu. Situated on the sunny shores of the Caspian sea, Hipcescu boasts wide, eco-friendly beaches, hip nightlife, tax-free shopping and absolute security for visitors.

What are you waiting for ? Check-out the official website to explore your dream vacation plans. The “City of a Thousand Suns” awaits you, so “Discover the Magic”. Don’t forget to ask about the special citizenship deal with each holiday booking.

The marketing campaign for the city-state of Hipcescu (and the entire 21st century metropolis, as well) is the brainchild of Amsterdam-based freelance advertizing consultant and branding maestro Olaf Zwetsloot.

When it opened in May 1937, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge ever constructed. Today, it only ranks 9th, but the gorgeous span remains the most photographed bridge in the world.

The Golden Gate’s 75th anniversary is being celebrated this month with numerous special events, including the California Historical Society’s exhibition A Wild Flight of Imagination: The Story of the Golden gate Bridge. The show, which runs until October at the Society’s San Francisco museum, comes with a very neat app and ebook which is available on iTunes for free. 

To mark the anniversary, the Strand is hosting an open party this evening starting at 5pm. They expect a crowd and quite a few literary luminaries, too.

Aptly called Street Charge , the concept is to attach a light weight structure to existing street signs or poles and to power it with photovoltaics and batteries. Users simply plug-in their electronic gadgets and wait for enough charge to make calls, text or surf the interwebs.

The brief black and white video is from Terry Zwigoff‘s 1994 documentary Crumb.

A new exhibition about the inspiration, history and creativity behind London transport maps opened on Friday May 18, 2012. Mind the Map: inspiring art, design and cartography draws on the London Transport Museum’s outstanding map collection to explore the themes of journeys, identity and publicity. The exhibition is the largest of its kind and includes previously unseen historic material and exciting new artworks by leading artists including Simon Patterson, Stephen Walter, Susan Stockwell, Jeremy Wood, Claire Brewster, and Agnes Poitevin-Navarre. The displays explore geographical, diagrammatic and decorative transport maps, as well as the influence of the iconic London Tube map on cartography, art and the public imagination. The Underground, London Transport, and its successor Transport for London, have produced outstanding maps for over 100 years. These have not only shaped the city, they have inspired the world. Looking in particular at the relationship between identity and place, Mind the Map explores the impact maps have had on our understanding of London and how they influence the way we navigate and engage with our surroundings. Mind the Map is accompanied by an extensive public events program and a book to be published by Lund Humphries – London Underground Maps: Inspiring Art, Design and Cartography.

The glorious London Tube map of Harry Beck is the first thing one thinks of when the words ‘map’ and ‘transport’ are wielded. The evolution of Beck’s map gets some coverage at the exhibition, but the show is stolen by a number of lesser known stars.  Susan Stockwell’s map of the world made from transport tickets is not only a work of beauty, but also commemorates a passing era. It couldn’t be done in the era of Oyster cards.

MacDonald ‘Max’ Gill gets the most space, and justifiably so. The artist is often overshadowed by his more famous brother, typographer and sculptor Eric Gill, but his cartoonish maps of London were hugely popular back in the 1920s.

Other highlights include maps from Harry Beck (of course), Simon Patterson (of the Great Bear), Jeremy Wood’s fascinating GPS inspired routes and Stephen Walter’s amazing London Subterranea maps.

Hat-tip to Evan Smythe for the post today.

Related articles

• Tracey Emin’s tube map draws a natural connection (guardian.co.uk)
• Paul McCartney’s Ewe Tube Map (london-underground.blogspot.com)
• Metrography – London Re-shaped & Visualised as The Tube Map (london-underground.blogspot.com)

These events will highlight the best of current Russian literature and non-fiction works as well as launch an Institute of Translation and a new 100-volume Russian Library of classics in English. Presentations will focus on fiction, politics, and culture with events featuring readings, workshops, and film screenings.

Some highlights include: Natalia Solzhenitsyn who will present, for the first time in the US, the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Archive; the bestselling Edward Radzinsky and Solomon Volkov, announcing new historical novels and cultural histories of Russia; readings by award winning authors Mikhail Shishkin, Andrei Gelasimov, Vladimir Makanin, Dmitry Bykov, and Zakhar Prilepin, whose new works are being published in English. All participants are available for interviews.

In addition, there is a new public exhibition of art from Russian children’s books, 1881-1939, at Gallery 172 (172 Duane St), and a series of late-night parties, music, and performances devoted to Russian literature called Read Russia Roof at the Dream Hotel (full schedule available at readrussia2012.com).

Some events are in conjunction with the BookExpo America (BEA), where Russia is the 2012 guest of honor, and sponsored by Russia’s Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication. Read Russia is by far the largest and most complete organized program on Russian literature and culture ever organized in the United States. Most of the events are free and offer the opportunity to meet and engage with a new generation of Russian literary leaders and newsmakers.

For a complete listing of events or additional information about Read Russia, please visit: readrussia2012.com

Thanks to Perri Dorset for this post.

When Adams died of a heart attack 11 years ago, fans launched the annual Towel Day celebration to celebrate his memory. This year booklovers in more than a dozen countries will be observing the day with read-ins, TV show and film showings, radio plays and many other HGG related events. Visit the official Towel Day website to find events in your region.

“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.”