Trainiacs Alert

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

The 5th annual National Train Day on May 12th marks the 143rd anniversary of the completion of America’s first transcontinental railroad. On May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah, the famed “golden spike” was driven into the final railroad tie that joined  1,776 miles of Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways.

National Train Day celebrates the experience that only train travel can offer and the ways that trains impact on the lives of people across the U.S.. Along with events at train stations around the country, Amtrak is hosting major events in Los Angeles, NYC, Chicago and Philadelphia, with live entertainment, tours of private luxury railcars, model train displays and exhibits on high speed rail travel.

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Free Comic Book Day

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Tomorrow marks the tenth anniversary of Free Comic Book Day, an annual event that delivers precisely what it promises. Retailers across the U.S. will be offering specially printed copies of comic books, along with discounts on back-issues and other items; and while each shop determines its own policies as to whether people can collect multiple books, anybody who comes in is entitled to at least one freebie.

Celebrated on the first Saturday of May each year, Free Comic Book Day has usually been tied to the release of a big studio film release of a superhero movie, and this year The Avengers is the timely blockbuster. The freebie comics being given away this year feature an Avengers title, along with installments from other series ranging from Spiderman to Peanuts.  The give-away comics are listed here, and if they suit your comic tastes, you can find a retailer participating in Free Comic Book Day using their store locator.

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Hemingway Hotels ?

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

It seems that the entrepreneurial minions who manage Ernest Hemingway’s estate have entered into an agreement with developers to build a chain of Hemingway -themed hotels across the world.The notion is that the “Hemingway’s lifestyle” is a lifestyle worth emulating, or at least visiting, while on vacation.

According to the Hemingway Hotels & Resorts Web site:

“Ernest Hemingway’s greatest pleasure in life was the crafting of the “one perfect sentence.” He would then “refill the well” by spending the rest of the day as a “man of action.” Hemingway was the ultimate sportsman. He loved deep-sea fishing, hunting, nature and the active physical life. But he was also just as at home at day’s end with friends, enjoying the perfect martini in Paris, daiquiri in Havana or a Bellini in Venice, along with fine cuisine. Hemingway was always seeking the essence and fullness of each of life’s experiences, about which he would then write so beautifully. It is these experiences and lifestyle that Hemingway Hotels will deliver to our guests”.

While the Hemingway family has every legal right to commercially exploit the Hemingway legacy, this reeks of the Disneyfication of our culture. I wonder if the rooms will all be equipped with hunting rifles and taxidermy animals.

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World Press Freedom Day

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Each year, May 3rd is the date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

 May 3rd was proclaimed World Press Freedom Day the UN General Assembly in 1993.It serves as an opportunity to inform the world of violations of press freedom – a reminder that in dozens of countries around the globe, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered.

It is a date to encourage and develop initiatives in favor of press freedom, and to assess the state of press freedom worldwide.

It serves as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

 To learn more visit the websites for these organizations fighting to protect press freedoms every day:

Reporters Without Borders

Article 19

Committee to Protect Journalists

International Federation of Journalists

Posted in Freedom of Speech, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Free WiFi

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Free wifi service in public spaces has become common in the United States and in Europe, but the concept is not widespread in Mexico. Now South American internet provider Terra has come up with an amusingly creative way to bring free wifi to parks and public spaces in Mexico.

Dubbed the Poo-Wifi campaign,Terra’splan will bring free wifi with an original catch. To activate the wifi service park users will have to deposit dog poop into the specially designed device. The period of wifi service will be contingent on the weight of the deposits. The more dog poop added, the more free wifi time.

This initiative may seem comic, but it’s a genuine incentive designed to make parks and public spaces more user friendly. And an added bonus is Terra’s plan to convert the poop into methane to power park lighting.

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Strike

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

On Strike: Today we are joining in solidarity with the workers, students and unemployed around the world in a global general strike. No work, no banking, no business, no commerce for me. If you can’t join the strike, you can contact your elected representatives and let them know that you will only vote for them if they are willing to support social and economic justice for all people.

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Koninginnedag (finally)

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Every April 30th, the citizens of the Netherlands celebrate Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day, a national holiday that commemorates the reigning Queen’s birthday. Like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, New Year’s Eve in Times Square, St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin and Carnival in Rio (well maybe not Carnival) all squeezed into one day, Koninginnedag is an excuse for the entire nation to have a huge spring party.

The festivities actually begin on the night of the 29th with Koninginnenacht celebrations and runs late into the night on the 30th. Local associations called Ornajecomite organize community events throughout the Netherlands, but most of the large-scale activities are now sponsored by municipalities and businesses. The biggest events are free outdoor concerts, the largest are sponsored by radio stations in Amsterdam’s Rembrandtsplein and the Museumplein.

A more sedate feature of Koninginnedag is the nationwide vrijmarkt or freemarket. All over the country there are giant street sales, flea market and neighborhood rummage sales. Queen’s Day is the one day each year that the government allows unlicensed street sales and suspends the VAT for individual transactions. According to some estimates, these sales amount to over $400 million each year.

Although I’ve visited the Netherlands many times over the years, I always seem to miss the Queen’s Day celebrations. Somehow I manage to be in the country the month before or the month after. Oh well, maybe next year .

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Herman Melville Meets Zeppelin

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

I am embarassed to admit that I just found out the other day that Herman Melville‘s iconic novel Moby Dick was out of print for decades. In fact, if a copy had not discovered in a secondhand bookshop, the seminal work may have been lost forever. Yeah for used bookstores ! Anyway, here’s a brilliant, though somewhat bizarre, mash-up of Moby Dick; or, THE Whale, a poetry-slamesque voice over by Orson Wells and Led Zeppelin’s amazing cut Moby Dick from their album Led Zeppelin II. Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Alex Itin created the video and did the drawings (using two copies of the novel).

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Rare Books, Rare Bookstores

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) has launched an ILAB Mobile App which is now available in the Apple Store and the Android Market. Search for “ILAB rare books” or “International League of Antiquarian Booksellers” to find the free App ready to install on your phone. A Blackberry version will follow soon.

“ILAB represents 1,850 of the World’s best booksellers dealing in fine, rare, old and collectable books in all fields. Search for them and their books. If you are away on business or pleasure with an hour or two to spare: use the locator to find the nearest dealer to wherever you are and get directions by foot, car or public transport. Use the ILAB App to access the ILAB website and find a veritable goldmine of information for the collector, librarian, dealer or anyone who just loves or is interested in fine and rare books, maps and manuscripts. Find out the dates and locations of upcoming antiquarian book fairs, lectures and exhibitions around the World. “

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Rotterdam Tries Harder

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Let’s be honest, Rotterdam is not the Netherland’s most attractive city or prime tourist attraction. It’s a vibrant and exciting cultural center, but it lost most of its historic buildings due to World War II bombings. These days, however, Rotterdam has become a hotbed of modern architecture and design, making it a fascinating city to visit.

The currently under construction Rotterdam Market Hall is the latest in a series of cutting-edge building projects that we’ve come to expect from bustling Rotterdam. Designed by MVRDV architects, the enormous, towering 100,000 square meter tunnel-shaped building will combine a green market, restaurants, shopping and residences under one giant roof. The apartments will have spectacular views from windows overlooking the marketplace.

The Market Hall is being built at one of the largest open urban squares in the Netherlands near the massive new library and the historic 15th century Sint-Laurens Church, Rotterdam’s only remaining medieval church.

Posted in Architecture, Europe, Tourism | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments