La Fantastique Voyage

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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Who can resist the photogenic charms of France and its amazing cultural heritage—photographer Maia Flore certainly can’t. That’s a good thing for all of us vicarious travelers, because she just opened a wonderful exhibition called ImagineFrance : A Fantastical Voyage at New York City’s Emmanuel Freemin Gallery.

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The show incorporates the results of a 66-day photographic Tour de France that Flore and her partner Jeremy Joseph complete last summer bouncing around the country visiting castles, museums, parks, chateau, monuments and churches. Flore’s whimsical pictures are a blend of captured inages and post-production digital hanky-panky. Even if you can’t get to the show, you can see the photos here and on her website.

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Friet, Frite or Fries It’s Friday

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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With its breathtaking Gothic city center, stunning Begijnhof, awe-inspiring medieval churches, wonderful museums and magnificent Belgian beer, Bruges has more than enough tourist magnetism to draw massive crowds. But to top it all off there’s the Friet Museum (Musée de la Frite or French Fry Museum).

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Located in a stunning 14th century building, the attraction is the “first and only museum dedicated to potato fries.” Founded in 2006 by Eddy Van Belle, who also created the Choco-Story Chocolate Museum around the corner, the Friet Museum offers an 8,000 year tour of the history of the humble potato over three floors of the gorgeous medieval mansion. And of course, there are all the fries you can eat at the end of the tour.

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Books Predict The Future

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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Air New York

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

Filmmaker Randy Scott Slavin recently shot this awesome two-minute video tour of New York City using a DJI Phantom quadcopter drone and a GoPro Hero 3 camera. The fantastic little film offers unique perspectives on the world’s greatest city that even locals never get. I particularly love the shot through the Washington Square Arch.

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Pack Up Your Troubles

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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I’m a sucker for early 20th century travel promotional art, so I was bowled over by these vibrant, colorful, nostalgic posters. London-based advertising design agency Hatched went full on retro with their poster campaign promoting the natural attractions of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in western Wales, UK.

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Chew On This

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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In the course of my travels, I’ve seen all kinds of hotel and hostel promotional giveaways and handouts. The typical items are postcards, imprinted pens, local maps and even branded bottles of water, but the Kokopelli Backpacker Hostel has topped them all. To encourage guests to visit their new location in Cuzco, Peru, the Lima-based hostel has begun distributing business cards with coca leaf-shaped cut-outs. Travelers are encouraged to pop-out the coca-infused leaves and to chew on them to alleviate altitude sickness when they arrive in Cuzco, which sits at 11,152 feet above sea level.

 

 

 

 

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For the Library Geeks

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

Here in the U.S. there are two main types of library classification systems: Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress. This helpful infographic created by Michael Newhouse  is a handy guide for the biblio perplexed.

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Time Travel London

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

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The terrific video (see below) titled “Wonderful London 1924 & 2014” offers a unique opportunity to time travel between 1924 and 2014. The video was produced and directed by Simon Smith after he stumbled upon a series of short documentary films by Harry Parkinson and Frank Miller from the early 20s.

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Reading In The Mobile Era

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

This week UNESCO released a fascinating report on Reading In The Mobile Era in the developing world. Based on over 4,000 surveys, completed in seven nations—Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Nigeria , Pakistan, Uganda and Zimbabwe—the report provides a detailed snapshot of how reading is being done on mobile devices and why. You can read the entire report here .

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Paris in Motion

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

It’s been months since I last visited Paris, but this set of wonderful stopmotion hyperlapse videos brought me right back there. The videos—each made from over 30,000 photographs— were created by Benin-born, Paris-based photographer Mayeul Akpovi .

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