Ambient Paris

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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It has been my eminent good fortune that my travels have taken me to Paris three times during the past two years. Like most visitors to Paris, I am smitten by the architecture, museums and great tourist sites, and of course I am besotted with the food, wine and glorious pastries. But most of all I am beguiled by the magical ambience of the city.

A brilliant young advertising intern has managed to capture a soupçon of the city’s enchanting allure in fragments of sound serendipitously discovered around Paris. These seductive bits can be found on the website L’Air de Paris.  Have a listen.

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Sounds of the City (2)

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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There are scads of travel apps out there that help us navigate unfamiliar territory, find suitable accommodations, discover trendy eating and drinking spots, or plan a tourist agenda. But the new Stockholm Sounds app (free on iTunes) allows the user to uncover the secrets of the city though sound related games tied to dozens of locations around town.

Travelers also get Stockholm music playlists and private access to secret sound installations around Stockholm created by artist Håkan Libdo. Local clubs, bars, restaurants and hotels will be periodically posting discounts and freebies only accessible via the app. Bets of all, the app doesn’t require wifi or data roaming to work.

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Free Museums

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Thanks to the generous folks at the wonderful Smithsonian Magazine hundreds of the best museums across the United States will offer free admission this Saturday (9/28). The 9th Annual Museum Day Live ! event covers more than 1,400 museums and cultural institutions in every state. To get your free admission tickets just go online here to find an institution and fill out the form. I’ll be heading to the awesome Rosenbach Museum and Library in the historic heart of Philadelphia.

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Flyers Choose Lisbon

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Airport advertising is usually predictable and boring. But Aeroportos de Portugal, the nation’s airport authority, has been coming up with beautiful graphics for the past five years.

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This year’s campaign features a series birds that illustrate each of the direct flight routes from Lisbon with the tagline “Flyers Choose Lisbon”.

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There’s An App For That

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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If you’ve ever had a problem exchanging currency or just getting cash while visiting a foreign country, you will probably empathize with the hapless traveler in the video below. Created by the French financial services company Société Générale to promote international services, this humorous little film underscores that language barriers can still remain problematic even in the digital age.

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Have a piece of Brooklyn

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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As all of my family were Brooklyn born and raised, I always carry a piece of Brooklyn with me where ever I roam. Now all of you hipsters around the world can have your piece of Brooklyn too.

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The Piece of Brooklyn Project, which benefits the Brooklyn Arts Council, is offering handpicked chunks of Brooklyn pavement packaged in a plastic presentation box for $4 . You can get yours right here. By the way, if you like the rocks I’ve got a bridge you might want to buy too.

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Banned Books Week 2013

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Banned Books Week is the American book community’s annual celebration of our freedom to read. Around the nation librarians, booksellers, publishers, teachers, students and readers focus attention on the ongoing threats of censorship. This year, Banned Books Week events will be held from September 22 through 28 around the nation at bookshops, libraries, schools and universities. You can get involved at the Banned Books website.

The 10 most challenged titles of 2012 in the U.S.were:

Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey

Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group

Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.

Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.

Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.

Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

Looking for Alaska, by John Green.

Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz

Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence

The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls

Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

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Hidden Barcelona

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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What better way to discover the hidden secrets of a city neighborhood than through the eyes of someone who has lived on the streets. Hidden City Tours has launched a project to allow visitors to Barcelona to view the city’s Barri Gotic historic district through the perspective of a homeless guide.

Company founder Lisa Grace decided to tap into the local expertise of the city’s homeless population to guide tourists and to simultaneously address Barcelona’s growing unemployment problem by creating jobs.

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The tours of the atmospheric Barri Gotic will run in both English and Spanish starting on October 11th, and will cost €10 per person.

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I Love Coffee

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

I love coffee and spend way too much time discovering new places to consume coffee when I travel. But I’m a caffeinated lightweight when compared to coffee fanatic and coffee blogger Ryoko Iwata. She’s a U.S.-based Japanese self-proclaimed coffee lover—hence her fun blog I Love Coffee. Ryoko created this terrific infographic to inform and entertain all of the other coffee fanatics out there.

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Book Dominos

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Volunteers from this year’s Cape Town Open Book Festival along with staff of Cape Town’s Central Library have triumphantly established an impressive new Guinness World Record for Book Dominos. On August 27th, they managed to down 2586 books in one go. Take a look:

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