Award-winning American photographer Jesse Rieser has captured the quintessential tacky wonderland of Christmas in the U.S. heartland. Nothing says Happy Birthday Jesus like a nativity scene complete with Santa Claus or a holiday parade float decorated with armed troops.
all images © jesse rieser
If you are a New York Times reader, you have likely seen the brilliant work from artist and author Christoph Niemann. He recently documented a typically uncomfortable transatlantic flight from NYC to Berlin (with a layover at Heathrow) with a set of illustrations from his sketchbook. Anyone who flies economy class will resonate with Niemann’s take on the frustrations inherent in international air travel—from armrest combat to the baggage claim bingo.
The 1 Hotel group has created a wonderful opportunity for its guests to donate gently used clothing to local charities. Every hotel room now has a simple cardboard box that discreetly suggests that travelers often bring extra clothing and donating an item would result in 1 less thing to pack. Seems like a terrific idea for all hotels to adopt.
The beloved British author Douglas Adams suggested that a towel was a massively useful thing. Now a Brazilian collective has created a towel that can bring strangers together and help them build a real life social network. The Toalha Social is a brilliantly simple way for people to meet and make friends. Users simply grab a towel from a rack in a park or public square, place it on the ground print face up, and allow others to join in conversation. A great idea that I hope will spread.
A team of intrepid data visualizers at the Stuttgart-based urban design lab Moovel Lab decided to test the ancient maxim : All roads lead to Rome. Using open-source digital maps, they layered a grid of cells on a map of Europe. Then they added a homebrew algorithm to calculate routes from 400,000+ locations around the continent to Rome. Lo and behold, every road does lead to the Eternal City ( with the aid of a tunnel here and there).
Just for shits and giggles, the team—Benedikt Groß, Philipp Schmitt and Raphael Reimann—also applied a similar process to U.S. cities named Rome. This time they showed each location connecting to the nearest “U.S. Rome” by the quickest travel route. Having briefly resided near Rome, Georgia, I can unequivocally state that no roads lead to that Rome.
It’s not easy to make the New York Subway system seem inviting, but director Roddy Hyduk and the Snowday team managed to pull it off in the charming short called “Stations”. Somehow they managed to visit 120 of the 469 subway stops in the MTA system.
Back in early October, I posted a story about German freelance photographer Sebastian Erras’ project Parisian Floors which documented his peregrinations around the French capital. Now he’s at it again, but in Venice. Based on these beautiful images, it appears that he wandered widely and captured some amazing floors. I think that I have a few of the same photos in my own archives from my early trips to the city, including the one above in Café Florian on Piazza San Marco.
As if we didn’t have enough reasons to visit Japan, now they have this stuff. The Japanese brand Bourbon has brilliantly taken the cheese slice concept and applied it to chocolate. The malleable slices present endless eating possibilities for chocoholics. On crepes, fruit, toast, the options are almost endless. All that I want to know, is when they will be marketing this product in North America.
Dogfish Head is one of our best regional craft brewing companies. Now the microbrewery’s founder Sam Calagione has branched out in an entirely unexpected direction. The former college English major turned brewer has launched a print magazine called Pallet. The quarterly, which will not be available in any digital formats, will have plenty of stories about adult beverages, but will be wide-ranging with lots of features on travel, literature, music, architecture, and culture, as well as short fiction pieces.
Pallet can be found in the U.S. at indie bookstores, Whole Foods, beer outlets and on line at the website All Things Pallet. Individual issues are priced at $14.95 and annual subscriptions are $55.
The University of Southern California’s Rossier Graduate School of education created this “Best Books of the 21st Century” infographic. I’ve got some personal quibbles with the selections. What do you think ?
Travel Between The Pages 