Forget the NY subway, take a hike

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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Healthcare company Treated.com calculated how many calories that you could burn by avoiding the subway in New York City. The handy map and chart show how to get some exercise in while saving the time that you’d waste waiting for the train.

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Posted in Maps, Public Transport, Tourism, USA | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Banned In Amsterdam

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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Amsterdam’s celebrated Rijksmuseum has recently banned cameras and phone photography. Instead, the world famous art museum is encouraging visitors to draw or sketch the artworks. The institution has even created a project called StartDrawing that offers free sketchbooks, pencils, easels, and drawing classes to the visiting public.

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Posted in Art, Europe, Museums, Photography, Tourism | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Aspirational Upgrades

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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Here’s some travel terminology every flyer needs to master compiled by Mashable.com in a very funny, tongue-in-cheek air travel lexicon.

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Posted in Air Travel, Public Transport, Tourism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Real Thanksgiving Story

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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This recently released film by French artist JR could not be more timely. The short film simply titled Ellis stars Robert De Niro and was written by Eric Roth. Ellis follows a young immigrant’s experience in search of a new life and home in America.

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At the heart of the film is the former Ellis Island immigration center in New York Harbor. Now a moving museum complex, the center welcomed more than 12 million migrants to the United States between 1892 and 1954.

Posted in Film, History, Museums, USA | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Through Half-Deserted Streets

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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Montreal-based comic book artist and illustrator Julian Peters has created a terrific graphic version of T.S. Eliot’s classic poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Here’s a sample, but you can see the rest in its entirety on Peters’ blog.

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Posted in Animation, Art, Books, Canada, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Is Globalization Now Complete ?

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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On December 18th, the new Bollywood film Dilwale starring the always popular Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol will be released. Nothing unusual about that. What’s noteworthy is that the movie was filmed in South Iceland. The trailer below offers sweeping cinematic glimpses of black beaches, lofty mountains, majestic waterfalls like Skógarfoss, Seljalandsfoss, and Svartafoss, and the glorious glacier lagoon at Jökulsárlón.

Posted in Asia, Europe, Film, movies, Tourism | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Don’t Volunteer (I mean it)

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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Posted in Air Travel, Tourism, USA | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Virtual Visits

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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One of my favorite museums in the world is the awesome British Museum in London. Every time that I visit the UK capital, I try and spend at least a few hours there. Now we can all pop into this extraordinary institution without dropping a bundle on a plane ticket to London because the British Museum has partnered with Google so that we can see more than 4,500 objects from the collection from the comfort of our digital devices.

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Using Google Maps technology, the Google Cultural Institute offers the opportunity to virtually wander the British Museum at our leisure. Check it out right here.

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Posted in Art, Europe, History, Museums, Tech, Tourism | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Perpendicular Gothic

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

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If you have ever visited the awe-inspiring King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, or if you have seen the wonderful holiday choir concerts from the 16th century English Perpendicular Gothic church, you will enjoy the short film below from a trippy light show presented there a few weeks ago.

The magical and poetic projections were created by Mexican artist Miguel Chevalier to accompany speeches by local luminaries such as Stephen Hawking.

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Posted in Architecture, Art, Europe, Film, Tech, Tourism | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Coast to Coast

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

Brooklyn-based designer Tom Harman took a three day train journey from New York City to San Francisco this September. Along the way, he took short videos using his iPhone. He edited the footage into a compelling under five minute video. Take a look:

Posted in apps, Film, Photography, Public Transport, Tech, Tourism, USA | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment