Rough Guides Are Back

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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The future of traditional travel guidebooks is still very much in doubt, but Britain’s Rough Guides is battling back to rebuild its brand and to hang onto market share. Facing a serious shake-up following its take-over by Penguin last Fall, Rough Guides dropped most of its non-travel titles and has refocused its efforts on its strong list of travel destination guides.

With a revamped website and an amusing new ad campaign, Rough Guides hopes that travelers will again opt for old-school, well researched guidebooks, along with digital media. As a former guidebook writer, I wish them well.

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Sleeping Around

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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These days, we see all kinds of pop-ups appearing in cities and towns around the world. There have been pop-up restaurants, bars, stores, museums and kiosks. But Antwerp, Belgium‘s Sleeping Around may be the first moveable, pop-up hotel.

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Using six recycled, 20-foot shipping containers, Sleeping Around has created a cozy four-room hotel, café-lounge and sauna complex. Over the last few months, the hotel has popped-up in three locations in Antwerp. It’s currently picturesquely situated on the riverside Scheldekaai.

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Plans for the pop-up hotel include moves to other European cities and possible a Greek island. Nightly rates range from €149 to 199 for a double room.

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On The Road

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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If you are a fan of street art, you may enjoy this story of Chinese street art collective IDT ‘s 1,200 mile journey through Southern China and Tibet leaving samples of their work along the way. The project, called “On the Road—Graffiti in Vagrancy”, was 50 day oddessy underwritten by Converse. This 30-minute film documents the trip by NAN, SINIC and WHYYY:

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So It Goes

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

As a longtime Vonnegut fan, I was very impressed by this cleverly designed poster created by New Jersey graphic designer Maya Eilam. The ingenious visual represents Kurt Vonnegut’s early theories regarding archetypal story lines in Western literature.

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It’s What You See That Counts

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

For more than thirty years, mild-mannered, innocuous Mark Landis has managed to dupe unsuspecting museum curators in more than twenty U.S. states into accepting his forged artworks. Most of the institutions are blissfully unaware that they’ve been taken in by this milquetoast, miscreant from Mississippi. Maybe it has something to do with the disguises that he adopts when presenting his conterfeit masterpieces, or maybe the offers seem too good to scrutinize too closely? Either way, Landis has never financially profited from his enterprise, so no harm no foul.

This intriguing documentary on Landis and his career in art forgery is from the online interview magazine called The Avant/Garde Diaries.

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Not The Tourist Office Version

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Travis Jensen is a street photographer who brings an unvarnished perspective to images of San Francisco and its inhabitants. His earnest and emotional photos of the street scene in the city may not match our orthodox, tourist bureau view of one of America’s most loved cities, but he opens a window on a world that visitors rarely see or acknowledge.

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This documentary on Jensen’s work is called Brainstorm: Travis Jensen and was produced by kayo corp.

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Man Ray Keeps London Going

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Earlier this month we marked the 150th anniversary of London’s iconic Underground network. As we noted, the London Transport Museum will be hosting a show highlighting the rich visual language of Tube related poster art. Featuring an amazing group selected from the London Transport Museum’s archive of more than 5,000 posters, Poster Art 150—London Underground’s Greatest Designs runs from Feb. 15 through Oct. 27,2013.

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By Underground to fresh air

The six components of the show will be: Love Your City, Capital Culture, Finding Your Way, Bright London, Away From It All and Keeps London Going.

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Or take the Tube

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Keep your personal stereo personal!

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A Terminal, Not A Station

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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On February 1, 1913, more than 150,000 curious New Yorkers crowded into the new Grand Central Terminal to gape at the city’s revolutionary transportation hub. Situated in the heart of Manhattan at Park Avenue and 42nd Street, the marvel of Beaux Arts architecture was an awe-inspiring secular cathedral and a marvel of modern engineering.

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The opening of Grand Central inaugurated a golden era in American rail travel that has long ago faded. Today 275,000 passengers a day pass through the terminal, but sadly the only trains that stop at Grand central are run by the suburban Metro-North Railroad.

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A year-long centennial celebration begins today at the spectacular terminal with a multi-media installation, exhibitions, concerts and special tours. There’s even a book dedicated to the 100th anniversary: Grand Central Terminal: 100 Years of A New York Landmark by Anthony W. Robbins.

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By the way, although hundreds of trains visit daily, Grand Central is not actually a station, but is a terminal because trains start and stop their routes there rather than passing through.

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Disturb the Universe

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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This wonderful series of posters by Evan Robertson illustrates lines from iconic texts. The New York City-based graphic designer has selected deft lines from writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Virginia Woolf and turned them into literature-inspired works of art. You can see more of his work and learn about purchasing copies of the poster art for yourself at Robertson’s website Obvious State.

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Journey Through the Seasons

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

Norwegian NRK broadcaster and filmmaker Eirik Solheim created a series of entrancing videos based on trips on Norway’s Nordlandsbanen, the nation’s northernmost railway. This 800km-long railway, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, links the fabulous city of Trondheim with Bodø in the far north.

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The goal of the project was to create one video that seamlessly overlapped and synched to incorporate all four seasons. The short version of the final video, titled Nordlandsbanen: Minute by Minute, Season by Season, is hypnotizing.

If you’ve got the time to spare, there’s a 55 minute version on the NRK TV website. And here’s another slice of the project:

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