Biellmann or Flutz in Paris This Season

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Built in 1900 for the Paris Universal exhibition, Le Grand Palais is one of the most extravagant buildings in a city of extraordinary architecture. Today, it houses the marvelous Galerie Nationale and the de la Decouverte science museum under its enormous glass-roofed halls.

But for the first time in its history it will become the Grand Palais des Glaces when it is transformed into the largest skating rink in Europe for the winter holiday season. The magestic venue will be open daily for skaters of all ages and skill levels during December and January. And while you’re there be sure th catch the amazing Edward Hopper exhibition (til January 28th).

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Go The Extra Mile

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

The Extra Mile is a brilliant start-up charitable organization with a very straightforward mission: they collect frequent flyer miles from all those folks who never use them and then provide access to the miles to people who need to travel to visit terminally ill loved ones.

Recently founded by Matt Dimmer following his own experience dealing with his father’s illness, The Extra Mile has partnered with the Hirshberg Foundation and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. You can find out more about the cause and about donating those unused frequent flyer miles right here.

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Every Book Is A Surprise

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

The Monkey’s Paw is Toronto’s self-described “most idiosyncratic secondhand bookshop”. So it’s not surprising that owner Stephen Fowler commissioned the creation of the Biblio-mat random book dispenser. The automat for books arbitrarily metes out improbably diverse titles that would normally be found on a seconhand bookshop’s discount rack, and all for the low price of $2. Here’s how the project works:

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No Trees, No Fjords

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

This summer, Irish painter Conor Harrington visited the doleful Norwegian port town of Vardø on the chilly Barents Sea and created some marvelous murals around the desolate town for the Komafest street art festival. Lucky for us, filmmaker Andrew Telling documented it all in this poignant video titled “Old Norse”.

The compelling soundtrack music was composed and performed by Lucinda Chua.

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Serendipity Now

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Launched last month, Wanderous is a diverting free travel navigation app that creates serendipitous urban routes that are optimized for adventurous journeys. Users just enter a destination into Wanderous and it will offer a convoluted route suggesting local sites, landmarks, entertaining detours, historic places, recreation opportunities and attractions.

The psychogeography-focused app selects visit-worthy locations in a city using a super-secret algorithm developed by Adam Wolf and the clever folks at Flairify. While the free app is only for U.S. destinations for now, they have big plans for international coverage.

You can download the app here.

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Asterisms

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

While checking out the Kandinsky 1911-1913 show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, I ran across a new exhibition by NYC-based Mexican artist Gabriel Orozoco titled “Asterisms”. The binary show features thousands of diverse objects Orozoco collected from the Isla Arena nature reserve in Baja Mexico and an equally heterogeneous mix of items found on the Pier 40 playing fields in Manahattan. The sizable swathe of human detrious is accompanied by a series of large photographs of discrete objects organized by color, size and substance.

According to the show curators the installation evokes “several of the artist’s recurring notions, including the traces of erosion and ever-present tension between nature and culture”.

By the way, if you were wondering, asterism is a typographical term for the infrequently used symbol consisting of three asterisks placed in a triangle. It can be used to indicate breaks in text or to separate book chapters.

images © Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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Book This Hotel

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Open for just over six months, the very cool B2 Boutique Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland is rapidly becoming an aspirational lodging destination for traveling bibliophiles. Situated in the former 19th century Hürlimann Brewery, this “Hotel with a bookmark” has managed to maintain its connection to the building’s industrial roots, but still offers the best of modern design and high tech amenities. It may be fun to stay in the old mashing room, however, the real draw for book lovers is the library-like lounge area. The amazing collection of more than 33,000 volumes was rescued from a secondhand bookshop that was going out of business. Guests are welcome to borrow and trade books from the multilingual collection.

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Venice Underwater

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

This week, extensive areas of Venice have been underwater (even more than usual). Severe weather and unusually high tides submerged three quarters of La Serenissima under an extra meter of lagoon water. Here’s what Europe’s most romantic tourist destination has looked like lately.

 

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Caught Mapping

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

In this era of Google Maps, Street View, GPS and satnav systems, most of us take the humble road map for granted. We don’t appreciate the complex and tedious work that was involved in the production of accurate road maps in the days before satellites, computers and high tech printers. But if you’re an inveterate cartophile, just put on your sun goggles and take a trip with these 1940s mapmakers.

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Pity the Holiday Travelers

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

In less than two weeks the United States will be celebrating our annual Thanksgiving holiday. With more than 42.5 million Americans hitting the road, Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest travel periods in the U.S. each year. This revealing infographic breaks it all down to a more digestible meal and offers some timely travel tips for the unwary.

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