Travel for Pennies

Visitors to Anniston will no doubt be lured by the charms that can only be found in Missouri. And in rural Missouri, too, make no mistake about it, because this is the country, the real heartland, and the locals know it. It’s also fantastically positioned, because time here can be as far away from the metropolises as you wish to be, and very close to a pretty spectacular city. Kansas City, of course, has a big reputation for music, having seen and nurtured some of the most important moments in musical evolution in the US.

It’s still a pretty brilliant place, and there’s plenty to hear. If a night on the town is on order, there are plenty of options any time of the year. It’s a good idea to leave your hotel with a plan, but it’s also a good idea to be flexible enough that the plan can change. Some of the most amazing nights in the history of live music, which is as old as human civilization, happen spontaneously.

But there are places that are typically very good, and the Recordbar is one of these. They offer a steady supply of exceptional and exciting acts, and usually there are multiple listings on the bill for each night. You can hear blues, rock, hiphop, and pretty much anything else here.

Recordbar opened in 2005, and is a popular favorite among locals as well as guests. The atmosphere here is very funky, and very individual. There’s very little about it that resembles anything like the corporate clubs that were coming into the great music cities for awhile, and this a good thing. It means that the local traditions have a place to breathe, and touring acts can be free to try out new things.

The space is small, holding about 200 people, and offering an excellent intimate experience. There are also drinks and a full menu, just to put it all over the top.

Tags: your hotel

Art walks are a great way to revitalize a neighborhood, as some of the new and upcoming cities are finding out. They’re learning from the cities that have a long tradition of community support and action. That builds a strong downtown, and it’s especially strong when it’s not just a place for arts and business, but where people live. One of the great cities with a great downtown is surely Pittsburgh. The neighborhoods are well-established, and there’s always a mix of cultures, languages, and walks of life, which are also magnificent signs that there’s something happening here.

The art walk here, Unblurred is one that is still in the process of growing, but it’s also part of a long tradition in town, and it’s already pretty extraordinary. Art walks are those events where galleries will agree to all open for certain hours on one particular night every month. It’s a chance to display the work in one evening, in a festival-like atmosphere. These usually help to bring people into the downtown areas on other nights, and generally help the city build an identity for itself. They certainly help the locals to meet each other, and also to introduce guests and visitors to the art scene of a city.

Pittsburgh’s takes place on the First Friday of every month, and if possible, it’s a good idea to plan a trip to include this event. It’s a great excuse to enjoy the local hospitality for a little longer than you may have planned. Unblurred just might convince anyone that it’s worth it to stay longer in Pittsburgh.

Local businesses stay open and have specials, there’s food, beer, coffee, and any number of other treats, live music, and activities for kids. It starts at 7pm and can last until 2 or even 3 in the morning, and it’s still pretty crowded, even in the wee hours. At the end of the night, when you get to see all the people mixing and enjoying each other’s company, and talking about art, then what the city is all about starts to become visible.

Tags: unblurred

Heading out onto a thin lined sandy beach layered with rolling green grass, sand traps and bordered by ocean water sounds like a golfing adventure to me. One wrong whack and that ball is going to be a dolphin toy. Check out Hammock Bay Golf and Country Club for some intense golf played on a course built by Peter Jacobsen and Jim Hardy. 18 holes of championship greens, marshes, lakes, beach bunkers and mangroves to challenge golfers of all levels. Even if there is only time for a little short game on the putting greens and some lunch, it is well worth the visit.  

For more adventures get out and swim with the dolphins, boat with the dolphins and watch them play with their young is quite a special experience. There are tours available from hotels like this on Marco Island that can get you a front row seat to all the dolphins, Manatees, sea turtles, sea rays, and other colorful fish off the shore line and through the water ways of the thousand islands.  

How about a more mellow yet athletic form of exploration. Rent a Kayak or canoe and paddle your way through the golden marshes of the everglades. See more wildlife as you sneak up on them doing what ever it is they do. There are lots of tranquil waters, sawgrass marshes, cypress swamps and mangrove tree tunnels to explore while getting a bit of exercise and fresh air. This is one way to feel like you are apart of the scenery and close to the creatures that live there. There are hundreds of birds wading in the shallow waters and the transition from day to night is spectacular with the brilliant sunset lowering and the moon rising. A breath taking view around every corner and above every tree. Check out the Marco Island Concierge for more information on all sorts of adventures available.

Tags: marco island concierge

It’s a sharp contrast between the song and the place, or between then and now. Atlantic City has gone through many dizzying transformations, however, and the place now is much more reminiscent of its heydays, which might mean that we’re living through another one right here and now. Traveling in New Jersey, where Atlantic City Hotels might be some of the best in the state, is an eye-opening experience, and one that is continually refreshing. There is a certain sense of going back in time to an era that many believed gone, but the most romantic New Jersey residents know that it’s still living right here.

It’s always taken Bruce Springsteen to open up our minds to the places in New Jersey that hold a special meaning, and his way of turning an everyday place into a metaphor is always stunning. But his vision of Atlantic City from the Nebraska album is as dark as it can get in his world. Interestingly, when he does write about the place he loves so much, it’s always been with a rather peculiar angst, and sometimes even disdain, like some of the lyrics in Born to Run, the album that brought him to the attention of the world.

The differences between those albums is light years, and the infectious optimism, and even defiance, turned in the short ten years into an exhausted melancholy, with a fair share of defiance. There is always a brilliant sense of refusal in his work, refusing to stay still in the midst of chaos, and a refusal to give in to the powers that be. In Atlantic City, there is a sense that magical things might happen, but it’s also certain that magical things are happening, somewhere on the boardwalk, as young lovers negotiate the distance between an ideal life and living in the moment.

Tags: atlantic city

The most elemental proposition that I would have offered, given half the chance, would surely have involved bacalau at some point, because an evening isn’t right without it. Or so I’ve heard it said. But this evening was one for resisting the resisters and the temperatures were not quite into warm yet, but spring was close. It was as close as the invisible elevators waiting around every corner.

Following a surreal impulse to capture the sense of sleep in the waking dream this life just might be, we take a smashing vacation , visiting the city where surrealism is second nature.

They do seem to understand it here, or maybe it’s just that we feel more understood here because we are wrapped in bacon. That’s lunch times only, naturally, and our hair continues to make statements for us. Styles come and go, but we’ve tapped these because we know why we like to move like cats. It’s not enough to just be the cat.

Sometimes we waIt for the new location , because some restaurants in New York just speak their own truth perfectly. French and Portuguese are the languages of choice in this part of the century, and we are all headed home. Home is this bliss, this perfect bliss where the gorgeous delights are gorgeously delighting and no one has to wonder about our own place except for us.

We can move into the night, because samba , like feathers, just suits us, and suddenly we’re joined. We’re being joined by all of our old friends, because it always seems to happen that way when we are here, in this city where all the residents know of so many times that were so much better than this one. In New York, however, like in Brazil, this one right here, this time here, will have to do, it will simply have to do.

Tags: samba

The list of famous New Yorkers is extensive, to say the least.  Not only is the city famous for giving birth to a whole bunch of famous people in all fields, but there are recent philosophical ideas that suggest that our definitions of famous should be adjusted.  This isn’t that simple idea that Warhol had, where everyone would be included until it became irrelevant and ridiculous, but more nuanced, making us rethink what is valuable and important in our multiple cultures.  We are certainly seeming to become more local, that’s for sure, with more focus on what’s essential in our own back yards.

The big picture is also very much a part of how we do things, now, and this might all be a complex way of talking about the local and global idea.  New York is one place that really seems to have this notion ingrained in the consciousness, and perhaps because it was practically invented here.  There might not be another place in the world right now that has the mix of cultures and ideas that New York has.  It’s possible that Los Angeles comes close, but that’s probably as close as one might find.  There is a sense of being in Rome, or any of the cities that have been the place where all the cultures converge.  It might not be a renaissance right now, but there have been significant moments when a rebirth was happening here.  Visiting here is a good way to get in touch with what’s really happening, to get the view on the ground, and this site has some great hotels.

While there are many global sensitivities that are part of the landscape here, there are also great concentrations of the local population who are working to make the city a better place.  There are many different neighborhood initiatives to help the underprivileged, create jobs, recycling, community gardens, green awareness and many other important and worthy concerns.  This is a great demonstration of how thinking locally and acting globally can work, where we can truly focus on our own gardens, with the understanding that these, too, are all connected.

Tags: green awareness, local, this site

Georgia is a great place to see concerts.  Its rich musical history acts as a not-so-silent witness to the spectacular musical present, and it’s possible to see multiple forms working at once.  There are influences here that run very deep, and it’s no wonder that so many interesting and talented artists come out of Georgia.  The blues has been a long presence here, as well as jazz, Georgia being part of that essential cultural framework that gave birth to these forms.  It’s also a great place for alternative rock, hiphop, r&b, and a number of other exciting musical forms.

All of this is a great prelude for the upcoming event, where all the hotels should be brimming over with Norah Jones fans.  She’s coming to Atlanta this summer, and the show promises to be a very exciting evening of musical virtuosity.  It’s been a couple of years since she’s had a big world tour, and it’s also been awhile since she’s had a new album, and with the Fall just released, it’s high time to get the songs in your blood, so you can hum along during the show, or politely mouth the words.

Her career has been a fast rise to where it is right now, which is pretty much right up there on top of the world.  Born in Brooklyn in 1979, with Ravi Shankar as her father, she had a musical upbringing that few people in the world can lay claim to.  She has worked with a stunning number of very influential people, such as Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Atlanta’s own OutKast, and Will Sheff, on a number of side projects.  It seems as though she’s always working, creating new sounds and songs, and also giving time to help with charity causes.  Her voice is a haunting thing on disc, and it’s an impossible thing to behold in a live setting.  This is a hot ticket.

Tags: all the hotels, Norah Jones, the Fall

Okay, can you believe that we went to Orland, Florida and did not go to Disney Land? And if you believe that, then can you believe that we’re also fun loving adventure seekers who get the most out of life? Hmmm, are those mutually exclusive statements or can they actually be applied to the same people? Okay, this isn’t a guessing game and the truth is that both of those statements are true. We were in Orlando and do love thrilling life adventures and while we had a great time there, we did not make it to Disney Land. There, the truth is out, but not the full truth and nothing but the truth.

In actuality, we were only there for a few days and actually only intended to pass through on our way to Miami to visit relatives. It was a road trip my husband and I took together while we rarely orient our travel agendas according to road trip structures, this was really one of the most relaxed and fun vacations we had taken in a while. We pulled into town and were just going to spend the night in a hotel like the Florida Orlando hotels described in various travel brochures. We had some early dinner at Cala Bella and the fabulous sent of garlic seduced our senses as we walked in the door.

Later we stopped at a couple of clubs and had such a nice time that we decided to stay the whole next day and leave the following. We woke up and decided it was a prefect day for some golf. We found the Eagle Creek golf course and were pleased to find out that not only was the course beautiful, but they also had equipment available to rent. We really had a nice time that day and enjoyed a great lunch in the clubhouse. We thought about going back to Cala Bella for dinner, but wanted to explore more of the city so that’s what we did. We pretty much drove around, wandered through some shops and just kind of got an overall feeling for the city on our third day. We finally left but decided that Orlando is definitely a place we would like to visit again. And of course we’ll go to Disney Land when we do.

Tags: Cala Bella, Eagle Creek, Florida Orlando hotels

Cultures migrating and cultures in migration voluntarily is sometimes understood as a very contemporary phenomenon.  There is a history of peoples being forcibly removed through acts of violence and terrible injustice, or the idea of cultures moving because of oppressions from social conditions, the state, or economic conditions.  There are also the countless wars that have left populations nomadic.  In this light, it’s rather easy to see how the idea of migration would come to signify negative connotations, and also be linked with a history of fear.  At the same time, there is a growing body of evidence that some shifts in population have come about voluntarily, and more often than not, seem related to the ways we might think about travel today.

It is easy, for example, to have a room reserved at a Lafayette hotel and set out to learn about the history of the cultures here.  The stories will be enormously rich, and no doubt fascinating, demonstrating that local populations are never as steady or sturdy as they seem, and we’re always witnessing acts of people in flux.  This is as true here as it is anywhere, with the history of how the French became enmeshed in the political structures that make contemporary Louisiana what it is.  One would need to start investigating the French Creole to get an idea of how this all came about.  This would perhaps lead to an idea of where things might be going in the future.

Interestingly, determining the future here is not only as unlikely as it is in any other venture, dealing with human populations makes it much more difficult.  We might move because of violence, curiosity, love, or sometimes it’s just a matter of whim.  This is not only true for Louisiana, of course, but applies to every place.  And it’s becoming more certain that some populations that have always been believed to be sedentary are not that in the least.  For many of the so-called ancient or primitive cultures, there are long histories of travel and transcultural contact.  People are curious, and if there are other people nearby, or thousands of miles away, we tend to like to meet them.  What happens next complicates the world, and makes life worth living.

Tags: French, French Creole, Lafayette hotel

If you’ve come to Atlanta, Georgia, and you’re an American, it almost seems a rite of passage that you should go to the World of Coca-Cola Museum.  The soft drink has been around since 1886 when an Atlanta pharmacist named John Pemberton mixed together a dark liquid the color of caramel and took a couple of doors down to Jacobs’ Pharmacy; there, he mixed the solution with carbonated water and everyone at the drug store that day agreed they liked the taste.  Frank Robinson, the bookkeeper for Pemberton named the drink Coca-Cola, and wrote it out by hand with flourishing penmanship.  The famous logo of Coca-Cola was born and for the first year Pemberton sold at five cents a glass a total of nine glasses a day.  In 1888, Pemberton died, and the company was sold to a man whose name few Americans will know, Asa Griggs Candler, for less than three thousand dollars.  Today, the company makes ten billion gallons of syrup a year to mix with carbonated water, an astonishing rise in fortune.

Whether you’re staying in a hostel or in luxury in the Atlanta hotels, the World of Coca-Cola Museum seems worth a tour.  I recall the Coca-Cola Museum in Las Vegas (long since closed) and how much fun it was to wander around the various Coca-Cola items in the gift shop and to do taste-testing of Coke products most of us have never heard of before.  You may find the exhibit a bit of an advertising for a corporation, yes, but it’s also a part of American history.  If you have a bad back, I’d be sure to avoid the 4-D experience or sit in the non-motion chairs (even at the risk of the tour guide asking in front of everyone whether or not you wish to sit in the non-motion chairs; you’ll thank yourself later for not going through any pain).

You’d think for a drink that’s so ubiquitous, most people would know where the product originates.  But even a visitor from South Carolina (fairly close to Atlanta, Georgia, as states go) didn’t realize where Coke had its humble beginnings.  He won’t make that mistake after his visit to this commercial-oriented museum.

Tags: luxury in the Atlanta hotels, World of Coca-Cola Museum