I know that I’ve shared this before, but this year is the 25th anniversary for Chicago’s CTA Holiday Train. Every year since 1992 the Chicago Transit Authority has wrapped trains with thousands of lights and holiday decorations. They even have an open sleigh car for Santa and his reindeer. The carriage interiors are festively outfitted with multi-colored lights, garlands, and bows. The trains are running on all lines until Christmas Eve.
On his death in 1837, English architect and avid collector Sir John Soane bequeathed his stately London mansion and personal museum and library to the nation, with the stipulation that it would be preserved intact. He also required that the collection be accessible to the public for free. The amazing museum is still open and has recently completed a seven year restoration project. The extraordinary house and collection are often overlooked by visitors to London, but it’s well worth a visit to the Georgian townhouse at Lincoln’s Inn Fields just a short walk from the Holborn Tube Station.
If you can’t get to London to see the remarkable collections of Egyptian, Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance artifacts and artworks, the museum has begun sharing 3D scanned tours of the institution. They’ve just posted digitized virtual tours of Soane’s Model Room and the Egyptian Collection.
The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10AM to 5PM, and the first Tuesday each month from 6 to 9PM for candlelight tours.
Artist Rafael Esquer first visited New York City 20 years ago as a student, but he never forgot the exhilarating feeling of Manhattan at night. Now as the director of a design studio, he has created a fabulous poster rendered in metallic foils and inks to celebrate the city’s appeal. The Klimt-inspired “Iconic New York Illuminated” poster is available for purchase on his Alfalfa Studio website.
Last year, I shared a story about Tokyo’s brilliant Book and Bed Hostel. Now the traveling bibliophile’s Eden has expanded with a new location in the heart of Kyoto. The 20 bed hostel, which officially opens tomorrow, features cozy sleeping nooks tucked away among shelves packed with more than 5,000 books. The sleeping pods are all equipped with reading lights, power points, and wifi. The hostel also provides storage lockers, communal spaces for socializing and reading, and a bar. At just 5,300 Yen per night, it’s a bargain. You can learn more and reserve at the website.
If you’ve ever been to Prague and wondered what it looked like from above without climbing the 299 steps up the Petrin Hill Tower, this wonderful short film will answer all of your questions. But if you’ve never visited the Czech capital, the one minute of drone footage will have you searching for cheap airfare.
Most visitors to Manhattan this time of the year head for the gigantic Rockefeller Center Christmas tree or traipse around gawking at the elaborate holiday window displays, but for me one of the highlights in New York City every holiday season for the past 15 years has been the NYC Transit Museum’s Annual Holiday Train Show in the beautiful Grand Central Terminal. The awesome display centers on a model of the historic Grand Central Terminal, with vintage train sets running along a 100 meter-long, bi-level layout. It incorporates antique Lionel trains, such as the Pennsylvania Flyer, the Polar Express, and the Grand Central Express.
The exhibition is free and is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday, 10 am-6 pm running through February 26, 2017. The Transit Museum’s Grand Central Gallery Annex is located off the Main Concourse in the Shuttle Passage.
Images courtesy of the MTA
Going West is the first book in a popular trilogy by New Zealand’s beloved author Maurice Gee. The New Zealand Book Council commissioned this wonderful stop-frame animation of the book. Created by Andersen M Studio, the animators used actual copies of Gee’s novel to make the film.
I’m not much of a linguist, but when I travel I love to learn odd expressions from local languages and cultures. British illustrator Paul Blow has been creating wonderful images based on idioms that has discovered during his own travels. While many of these sayings are not readily translatable into English, Blow captures the universal humor in them all.
all images ©Paul Blow
Last month marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party. In October 1966, the founders of the BPP galvanized a generation of American radicals and revolutionaries with their commitment to the principle of the right to self-defense, demands to determine the destiny of the Black Community nationwide, and wide-ranging community programs. Fifty years later, we are still fighting the same racist culture that led to the formation of the BPP.
The new book, Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers (Abrams), by Bobby Seale and Stephen Shames chronicles the founding of the BPP in photographs and historical essays. It’s a helpful reminder of just how the more things change, the more they stay the same.
all images ©Stephen Shames
Travel Between The Pages 