Art Basel is Coming! June 13th – 17th

The art world Olympics known as Art Basel will be storming Basel Switzerland again next week. Art 38 Basel takes place from June 13 – 17, 2007 and features about 300 leading art galleries from 30 countries on all continents. Art Basel is the world’s premier modern and contemporary art fair. 20th- and 21st-century art works by over 2’000 artists will be on display. 55’000 art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and art lovers attend the annual meeting place of the art community.

I will be there only in my dreams but if you are going, let me know, I would love to hear about it!

Photo: Courtesy MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel/Zurich) AG

I Am So Excited To Tell You About…. This Book!!!

Our very own Trip Legend Award winners have just released a limited edition book from their trip entitled “Moped to South America”. The book documents three moped trips through beautiful photographs by Graham French.Through 208 pages of both color and black/white photographs you will travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Seattle and, most notably, the southern tip of South America.

Documenting over 13,000 miles and 12 countries, the book is comprised of diverse portraits and beautiful landscapes that anyone would love. This is a limited, numbered 1st edition of 500.

Already featured on Juxtapox.com.

Find out more and get your own copy at MopedtoSouthAmerica.com.

Around the office….

We have this joke about the razor industry and their relentless attempts to add more and more blades in creating the ultimate razor. If by ultimate they mean highest priced, they just may be succeeding but I believe anything beyond three blades is pretty uncalled for and a waste of money. So, this cartoon from The New Yorker entitled Crap From The Future really made my day.

Long Time….

It has been a long time since I posted last due to a few technical errors. [I fried my laptop and it has been a long road to recovery but I am pretty sure everything is going to be A-ok.]I am proud to say that lots of cool and interesting stuff is going on with Destination right now…. we are mid re-vamp of our website and the new site will offer you the opportunity to submit your own personal travel stories that could possibly land you on the label. We will also be reviewing your submitted stories in search of the 2007 Trip Legend Award winner. So, now is the time to gather your thoughts about your last trip and pull together some photos and video. We are not looking for your average travel story, we are looking for the most awesome one. Be on the lookout, and I will let you know when we’re live.

My goal is to get back to telling you about all of the latest, interesting or obscure things that you should know about on a regular basis but due to my own travel schedule, I won’t be able to start until after the Memorial Day holiday. I will be traveling to Chicago for a few days and then off to the quaint little place with the funny name, Kalamazoo, Michigan. I am sure I will have lots to talk about upon my return. Chicago is one of my favorite cities (at least during the summer) and I am super excited to go back. If anyone has any “must see/must do” ideas for Chicago, let me know.

Talk to you next week.

Computer Shaving

USB charging certainly can come in handy but I am on the fence about this one. There is a Rechargeable USB shaver available now through http://usb.brando.com.hk/. Its $22.00 price tag and size makes me really skeptical of it shaving ability. I would be interested to hear if any of you out there have tried it.

Let me know!

Save on Airfare with Farecast

We’ve all been there… that crucial moment when your are about to hit the “buy my tickets now” button and you think to yourself “will the price go down if I wait?”. Its a horrible feeling to think that you could potentially be overpaying for a flight. Every flight I take, I look around wondering who paid the most for the flight and …gasp… who paid less than I did. We’re on the same flight… why do the airlines do this to us?

Well, a handy site called Farecast is here to help with their free fare prediction service. You enter where you are going and when and their site will predict where ares are going and where they have been for more that 75 home airports.

The Fare Prediction shows if the lowest fare is rising or dropping over the next seven days for the specific dates and cities searched. Each predictions shows whether the fare will rise, fall or stay the same. It will show you their confidence level in the prediction and will also recommend if you should buy your ticket at that time.

Geek vs. Gadget

I am a big fan of little multipurpose tools. I have no idea why. Their function is never as great as the full size individual tool. I have a great Kershaw carabiner knife (see previous post) that I cannot live without but I won’t get very far trying to get it through airport security.

So I came across this interesting fusion of multipurpose tool, computer gadget and dog tag from Cyber Snipa. This combination of handy tools and a USB flash drive with up to 4GB of storage.

The Ides of Mario – Richmond

The Ides of March race in Richmond, Va. is the oldest annually consecutive alleycat on the east coast. This year’s race promises to be unlike any race previous. It’s being thrown by a tight-knit group of bros who go by the moniker Get Fun Squad (GFS).This year GFS would like to present to you Ides of March Alleycat 2007 – (insert ominous music) The Ides of Mario. Yes, that’s right, this year’s Ides is going to be MarioKart themed. It sounds ludicrous. It sounds like it has a lot of potential for mayhem. It may be embarrassing for some of you to associate with. They promise it will be fun.

March 17th
Richmond, Va.
$5 and your bag
1pm Holly St. Park
Maps provided
(GRCD bike polo tournament on Sunday the 18th)

SXSW – 5 Shows Not To Miss

With the music portion of SXSW just about to kick into full gear, I thought I would highlight some of the artists I would see if I had actually made it there… [There are so many amazing bands this was way harder to compile than I thought it would be…]

1 – Matt & Kim – Thursday, March 15 – 11:30pm at Beauty Bar, 617 E 7th Street
Ok, its clearly no secret that I am a huge Matt & Kim fan. You just have to love them and their high energy performances. They are the epitome of what house shows and making music because it makes you happy is all about. Check out their website www.mattandkimmusic.com.

2 – Flosstradamus – Friday, March 16 – 9:45pm at Beauty Bar, 617 E 7th Street
I won’t even try to pretend here…. Curt from Flosstradamus is a friend and Markus’ roommate but regardless, I wouldn’t miss this show even if he was a complete stranger. This will be another high-energy, 100% fun show. Check out their myspace page.

3 – Cruiserweight – Thursday, March 15th – 11pm at Latitude 30, 512 San Jacinto Street
A modern day Partridge family where sibling rivalry doesn’t seem to exist. Stella’s voice proves the powerful, upbeat ringer. Check out their website.

4 – Architecture in Helsinki – Thursday, March 15th – 11pm at LaZona Rosa, 612 W 4th Street

Drawing upon a variety of sounds, straddling indie, pop and electronic to create a distinctive, exciting, energetic show. Check out their website.

5 – The Gaskets – Saturday, March 17th – 8pm at Blender Bar at the Ritz, 320 E 6th Street
A Richmond favorite that promises to “rock you like a hurricane.” – Visit their website at www.thegaskets.com.

Tell me your top 5… the line up can be seen on the SXSW website.

Atomic Testing Museum

Once you’ve had your overdose of lights, gambling and all things sinful in sin city, here’s something worth checking out that won’t leave your head hurting and your pockets dry.

The Atomic Testing Museum, located just minutes away from the Las Vegas strip, portrays world history through varied representations of the story of the Nevada Test site and its programs. The museum features many not seen before, first-person narratives, large iconic artifacts, environmental re-creations, theatrical devices, and interactice elements for personal exploration along with multiple viewpoints expressed in multi-media presentations and stunning graphics.Check them out online here.