9°24’S, 46°22’E Giovanni, the young man in the Stanford cap, has spent two years on Aldabra Atoll. He and eighteen other young researchers are working here, two days by sea from their Seychellois homes on or near Victoria, Seychelles. There is no air strip, heliopad or quicker transportation. Identifying fast flying seabirds comes as easily to these twenty-somethings as California …
Antarctica: Ode to Nothingness
View PostPolar plunging
67°09’S 67°52’W Dispatch: Antarctica. Observed water temperature -0.5°C. Giant petrels screeched overhead, looking for carrion. Dark water waited below. Could I do it? Could I jump? The ship’s aft platform was eight feet or so above the water. Gentle waves slapped the dangling ladder that would bring me back up to the platform. The coordinator of this polar plunge adventure …
Art in Antarctica?
View PostFive Best List – Art in 2015
Lists aren’t my thing. I read the NY Times’s lists of 2015 art happenings and realized I’ve had a great art year. I skipped around the Venice Biennale like a madwoman, changed airplane reservations to catch Velazquez at the Grand Palais, and wandered a Cartagena ghetto to visit Ruby Rumie’s studio. Could I choose only five art events to highlight? …
Matisse Dazzles Drab NYC
New York City sags after the holidays. Lights dimmed, the bells silenced and the joyous bustle gone. Relief for winter drabness can be found at 53rd and 5th Avenue at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs” through February 10, 2015. The exhibition assembles 100 works, the largest number ever on display. Colors and shapes lift spirits …
Sydney Biennale
View PostMatisse Dazzles Drab NYC
New York City sags after the holidays. Lights dimmed, the bells silenced and the joyous bustle gone. Relief for winter drabness can be found at 53rd and 5th Avenue at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs” through February 10, 2015. The exhibition assembles 100 works, the largest number ever on display. Colors and shapes lift spirits …
Big City-Big Art: The Restaurant Approach
Traveling over the holidays? Want to visit a museum or two? Big cities with large museums can be daunting and large crowds add to the frustration. Here are some tips on how to get your arms around it. I call it the “restaurant approach.” Why? If you want to enjoy a fine restaurant in an unfamiliar city, certain steps are …
Sydney Biennale
View PostFive Best List – Art in 2015
Lists aren’t my thing. I read the NY Times’s lists of 2015 art happenings and realized I’ve had a great art year. I skipped around the Venice Biennale like a madwoman, changed airplane reservations to catch Velazquez at the Grand Palais, and wandered a Cartagena ghetto to visit Ruby Rumie’s studio. Could I choose only five art events to highlight? …
Bringing up Bebe in Bordeaux
View PostBig City-Big Art: The Restaurant Approach
Traveling over the holidays? Want to visit a museum or two? Big cities with large museums can be daunting and large crowds add to the frustration. Here are some tips on how to get your arms around it. I call it the “restaurant approach.” Why? If you want to enjoy a fine restaurant in an unfamiliar city, certain steps are …
Lakshadweep Islands – Paradise’s Palette
10.93°N, 72.28°E Lakshadweep Archipelago, India Don’t come here…. What tourist bureau would have this slogan? The beauty of this place is stunning and ye, the Indian government fails to provide the usual tourist information about flights (one per day from Agatti an island 2.6 square kilometers which barely allows for a runaway), boats or helicopter transport to set down on …
Mumbai- A Gateway Welcome
Dispatch: Mumbai 18.97°N, 72.82°E A journey that begins in India, slaps one about the face. Almost exactly halfway around the globe , Philadelphia sits at 75° W latitude and Mumbai is found at 72°E. The cultural divide exceeds the geographic distance. Everything useful to navigate the Western world, no longer is. Mumbai has long been the gateway to India and …
Trulli Extreme Tax Dodging
View PostHerculaneum: Beginning at the End
View PostAmalfi: Reality Check
View PostMaddening Madagascar
12°3’S, 49°28’E Dispatch: Antsiranana, Madagascar Why visit Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world? This remnant of the French colonial empire has a population of 22 million, 90% of whom live on less than $2 per day. Madagascar’s riches lie in the biodiversity of endemic species. That means 11,000 plants including seven species of baobab trees live no …
Uligan, Maldives – Welcome Home
View PostMaldives- Your Own Private Island
View PostMatisse Dazzles Drab NYC
New York City sags after the holidays. Lights dimmed, the bells silenced and the joyous bustle gone. Relief for winter drabness can be found at 53rd and 5th Avenue at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs” through February 10, 2015. The exhibition assembles 100 works, the largest number ever on display. Colors and shapes lift spirits …
Matisse Dazzles Drab NYC
New York City sags after the holidays. Lights dimmed, the bells silenced and the joyous bustle gone. Relief for winter drabness can be found at 53rd and 5th Avenue at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs” through February 10, 2015. The exhibition assembles 100 works, the largest number ever on display. Colors and shapes lift spirits …
Big City-Big Art: The Restaurant Approach
Traveling over the holidays? Want to visit a museum or two? Big cities with large museums can be daunting and large crowds add to the frustration. Here are some tips on how to get your arms around it. I call it the “restaurant approach.” Why? If you want to enjoy a fine restaurant in an unfamiliar city, certain steps are …
The Borneo Test
View PostThe Severed Hands of Antwerp
View PostBringing up Bebe in Bordeaux
View PostFalklands: A Mouse that Roars
View PostAntarctica: Ode to Nothingness
View PostChristmas Book Frenzy in Iceland
View PostFlipper pie for dinner?
View PostBuying a Home? Try Qassiarsuk
View PostElusive Musk Oxen
View PostOB-la-di, OB-la-dah, Life goes on in OB-an
View PostAbracadabra – Magical Aldabra
9°24’S, 46°22’E Giovanni, the young man in the Stanford cap, has spent two years on Aldabra Atoll. He and eighteen other young researchers are working here, two days by sea from their Seychellois homes on or near Victoria, Seychelles. There is no air strip, heliopad or quicker transportation. Identifying fast flying seabirds comes as easily to these twenty-somethings as California …
Getting there Seychelles-style
4.61°S 55.45°E Dispatch: Seychelles Weeks have passed without spotting a paved road or any vehicle larger than a motorbike. Boats in harbors and two legs on sandy paths are the primary method of transport for this island world. Finding a large port like Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles, capital comes as a bit of shock. Cargo containers are stacked, unloaded and moved …
Sofonisba Anguissola
Forgotten and Discovered- Women Super Stars: Sofonisba AnguissolaSofonisba Anguissola (Cremona, Italy 1532-1625) Let’s call her Sofi and get to know her. In the sixteenth century, her talent caught the attention of Michelangelo and King Phillip II of Spain. Sofi’s father, a noble without great wealth, paid for Sofi to be tutored in painting, unusual for a young girl in these …
