Adams appearance is part of the Atlantis Live series, which has brought performers such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne to the Bahamian resort.
Concert tickets start at $110 US. For details, contact 1-800-Atlantis or visit Atlantis.com.
Chicago, fortunately, has quite a few -- if you know where to look. Summer is the best time with dozens of free films and concerts on offer, but fall also offers a lot to choose from, including:
Tours
The Chicago Greeter offers five different free neighbourhood tours with knowledgeable local guides.
I did the excellent "Downtown" tour, which departs year-round from the Chicago Cultural Center at 77 Randolph St. Others include the multicultural Pilsen neighbourhood, where the National Museum of Mexican Art is located; Old Town, with its popular restaurants and boutiques; Millennium Park -- an award winning centre for art, music, architecture and landscape design; and Hyde Park, U.S. President Barack Obama's former neighbourhood and home to Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House.
Tours are on a first come, first served basis. Some are seasonal. Check ChicagoGreeter.com.
Lincoln Park Zoo
One of the most popular free attractions is the Lincoln Park Zoo, home to more than 1,200 animals including bears, polar bears, zebras, sea lions, rhinos, and elephants. Some new arrivals include a Hoffman's two-toed sloth and a white-cheeked Gibbon, both born this year. Kids will love the Farm-in-the-Zoo, where they can get close to cows and other farm animals. Don't miss the Kovler Lion House and the Regenstein Center for African Apes.
Views
Insiders recommend the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Center. You'll pay for a drink or a bite to eat but the great view is free.
Otherwise it'll cost you $15 (all prices in U.S. dollars) to visit the Hancock Observatory on the 94th floor (though that includes a good self-guided narrated audio history tour); or $17 to get a bird's eye view of the city from the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), and its new Skydeck Ledge on the 103rd floor.
Museums
Perhaps the best freebie is the National Museum of Mexican Art. The largest Latino museum in the U.S., it houses one of the best collections of Mexican art in the country, including contemporary, traditional and meso-American art from both sides of the border. The museum also functions as a cultural centre with educational programs, performing arts and other events including the largest annual Day of the Dead exhibition in the U.S.
Worth noting: Local residents may tell you of various museums and galleries with free admission days (such as at the Art Institute of Chicago) but many of these apply to city residents only.
Art
You don't have to pay admission to an art gallery to see works by Picasso and other renowned masters. In Chicago, great art can be found on city streets! For starters, there's Picasso's Untitled sculpture at 50 W. Washington St; Joan Miro's work Chicago at 69 W Washington St.; and Marc Chagall's Four Seasons at the plaza at Dearborn and Monroe Streets.
Another venue for free art exhibits, as well as concerts and lectures is the Chicago Cultural Center, in an historic building that dates to 1887 (make sure to see the two Tiffany domes).
Festivals & Events
The Chicago Jazz Festival in late summer and the St. Patrick's Day Parade in March, when the Chicago River is dyed green, are just two of many big free events taking place throughout the year. Coming up is Openhousechicago Oct. 14-16 with access to more than 100 places normally off limits to the public, and the North Halsted St. Halloween Parade Oct 31.
Millennium Park
The city's 10-hectare centerpiece park is an absolute must. Offbeat entertainment ranges from walking around and through the 100 (metric) ton silver Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor, to gazing at Jaume Plensa's 15-metre high Crown Fountain with its ever changing array of locals' faces spewing water every five minutes (in the summer). The park is also home to Canadian architect Frank Gehry's spectacular Jay Pritzker Pavilion, where many free concerts are held.
Check e-mail
Surf the internet for free at the Harold Washington Library Center. Visitors can get a temporary guest card to use one of 78 workstations for one hour or 18 express (15 minutes) terminals. While there, check out the $1 million worth of public art throughout the building and the gorgeous light-filled Winter Garden on the 9th floor. Located at 400 S. State St., the library has a free "self guided tour" brochure if you want to explore in more detail.
Treat yourself
You can save at least $70 by taking advantage of a some of the freebies mentioned (neighbourhood walking tours typically run between $25-$50; a trip to the zoo would set you back $23 in Toronto; checking e-mail -- $8 an hour at some hotels; visit to an observation deck, at least $15).
Use the savings to splurge on a nice meal at a swanky eatery such as the Shanghai Terrace at the highly rated Peninsula Chicago Hotel. The cuisine and service are superb and the views from the fashionable terrace look out onto several architectural landmarks ,including the Historic Water Tower and the John Hancock Center. Check peninsula.com
If you go to Chicago
A trip to the Chicago Cultural Center Visitor Information Center at 77 E. Randolph St. will yield more freebie possibilities, such as family scavenger hunts and guided photo walks (which depart from the Apple Store). I discovered several deals in the free This Week in Chicago brochure that advertised free Wednesday night comedy at Comedysportz; two for one tickets for a variety of sightseeing cruises and other attractions; complimentary admission for two at Excalibur -- Chicago's largest dance floor, half price sushi at Simply Thalia on Saturday and more.
For general tourism information, check explorechicago.org.
The U.S. aircraft giant has had to cede ground to its European foe nearly everywhere else, including at home. Airbus has outpaced it globally in deliveries for the past nine years and in orders since 2008. Airbus has even had some success selling its A380 super jumbo to new carriers in Japan.
Japan remains, however, a fortress for Boeing, which it dominates with a 90% market share. Flag-carrier Japan Airlines has never bought a European jet, while the Dreamliner's new owner, ANA, has already phased out some of its aging single aisle Airbus A320s.
IN 5 MINUTES: Why this plane flies like a dream
Some 500 spectators flocked to Tokyo's Haneda Airport to catch a glimpse of the first twin-engine, lightweight jetliner, which cruised in under a clear autumn sky before smoothly landing at around 9:04 a.m.
Onlookers, many having arrived hours earlier to secure a good view, applauded and thronged to photograph the aircraft, whose blue and white fuselage had a big 787 emblazoned across its 58-metre body.
"I arrived at the airport around midnight and spent the night at the international terminal. I just couldn't sleep at all because I was too excited," said Shuichi Urakawa, a 19-year-old university student who skipped his classes to see the 787.
Boeing has a backlog of 821 orders for the plane -- nearly a 10th of them from Japan -- built up over three years of setbacks as its engineers dealt with glitches and parts hold-ups. It promises the plane will deliver a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency.
The twin-engine aircraft boasts the latest features aimed at giving passengers a more comfortable flight and winning over airlines trying to garner business in a fiercely competitive air travel market.
They include improved cabin air, larger windows that can be electronically dimmed and, in a nod to Japanese sensibilities, toilets with bidets.
"I am fascinated by the 787's design. It really makes me feel that I am living in the 21st century," said office worker Kenji Watanabe, 41, who took the day off work to see it.
Boeing needs to follow Wednesday's arrival with a steady stream of other flights from assembly plants in Seattle to guarantee the loyalty it counts on to keep Japan a satisfied customer, one of the few places it has fended off Airbus.
ANA, Japan's biggest airline by passenger traffic, inked the first order in 2004 and now expects to have 20 Dreamliners by March 2013 and receive all 55 jets it has ordered by March 2018 as it looks to lower fuel and other costs to better compete.
ANA's president, Shinichiro Ito, told Reuters this month that the company was in big trouble as it had to push back its business plans because of a repeated delay in 787 deliveries.
Rival Japan Airlines has ordered 35 Dreamliners and plans to launch a 787 service from Tokyo to Boston from next April.
Firmly planted in the American sphere after its defeat in World War Two, Japan could always be relied on by U.S. aircraft makers to buy American, particularly during trade friction in the 1980s and 1990s as Japan sought to calm American emotions by buying billions of dollars worth of made-in-America jets.
That incentive has waned as China became the target of American protectionism. Boeing, whose corporate headquarters are in Chicago, has industrial ties in Japan dating back almost six decades that now equate buying Boeing with buying Japanese.
More than a third of the Dreamliner is built by Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Fuji Heavy Industries.
The wings on the 787 parked on the tarmac at Haneda were made in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy, the first time that a foreign contractor has built the most complex mechanical component of an aircraft for Boeing.
The ANA pilot who flew the 787 to Haneda said he found the jetliner "really easy to operate".
"This aircraft is the fruit of many years' and close cooperation between ANA and Boeing, and I am already seeing a big potential that this jet could change airline travel," pilot Hideaki Hayakawa, 52, told reporters.
Pride in Japanese aviation technology is helping fuel enthusiasm for the American aircraft. Tickets for the 787's first scheduled commercial flights to Hiroshima and Okayama in western Japan on November 1 sold out minutes after going on sale, an ANA spokesman said.
A special chartered promotional flight to Hong Kong on October 26 attracted applications from 25,505 people for the 100 seats made available to the public. A pair of tickets ANA put out on the Yahoo Auction site for charity sold for 890,000 yen.
Visitors can learn about the annual Monarch migration between Canada and Mexico, plus conservation efforts and the Monarch's life cycle. The event is great for young children, who can make free Monarchthemed crafts to take home.
The Butterfly Conservatory is at 2405 Niagara Parkway on the grounds of the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens and School of Horticulture. Admission is $12.25 for adults, $7.95 for children ages 6-12 and free for children 5 and under.
See niagaraparks.com.
Here are a few tips to help you prepare for your time away. Hopefully, they will help you ensure that your holiday is relaxing -without the worries you left behind.
1. First, make sure you have the correct and/or updated documentation for your trip. To enter the U.S. by land, Canadians require a passport. If you are flying, you need a passport. And, if you are a flying into the U.S. on a non-Canadian passport, you now need to fill out a special online visa waiver form before you go.
2. Nothing is worse than being sick on vacation. However, to be sure you can get the help you need, check your health insurance coverage and make sure you're covered for the duration of your stay.
3. Make a list of all your medications and health conditions to take with you. And while you're at it, make sure you have more than enough medication, in case you want to extend your stay.
4. Don't forget to leave a copy of your itinerary information behind with friends or family, so they know how to get in touch with you.
5. Most of all, remember that you're not just leaving the snow and ice, you're leaving your home as well. Make sure you have made the necessary arrangements to keep your house and belongings safe and sound.
6. Check with your home insurer to see if there are any special things you need to do before you leave. The last thing you need is to have something go wrong and not be covered by insurance because you failed to meet the requirements of your policy.
7. And just before you leave, take a walk around your property and make sure all windows and doors are locked and secured, and that your chimney flue is closed. Inside, you'll want to reset your thermostat, empty out the fridge, and unplug any electrical devices and appliances that won't be used while you're gone.
Now, that you're ready to go -- grab your beach towel and sunglasses and have a margarita for me!
Julia Bryan handles communications and public relations for DeNure Tours in Lindsay, Ont.
"You have to help me," a friend wailed during a recent walk in Toronto. "I'm taking my kids (both tweens) to Europe for the first time this summer. All my older one wants to see are ruins. Ruins, ruins, RUINS! But my younger guy says 'There's no way I'm going there to see BORING ruins!' This trip is costing a fortune, Lori. I don't want it to be a failure. What do I do?"
Too bad I hadn't yet discovered kidsGo!, a series of pocket travel guide books that take aim at young travellers. The series so far includes six helpful guides: New York, London, Sydney, Bali, Hong Kong and Phuket, Thailand.
Launched in spring 2011, the guides are focused specifically on seven-to-14-year-olds, a demanding, savvy, sometimes-hard- to-please set that is prone to eye-rolling and shockingly strong vocals when it comes to the wrong way to pass a family vacation.
Designed and written by a group of moms with tweens who have actually been to these places, these books speak in direct, concise, intelligent language that encourages young travellers to take an active interest in their own itineraries.
For example, in a section called Speak the Lingo, the kidsGo Sydney guidebook says: "English is the main language spoken in Sydney, so you shouldn't have any problems communicating if you are reading this, however, here are a couple of typical Aussie phrases:
G'day, mate: Hello!
How ya goin'?: How are you?
Ta: Thanks.
The Do's and Don'ts in the Phuket guide warns kids to drink lots of bottled water, wear a ton of bug spray and to be careful not to step on the small offerings (for the gods) seen on the street. Other advice: "Smile and put your hands together (as if you are praying) to say hello and thank you," and do not "touch people with your feet, or point your feet at anyone's head."
I don't know about your kids, but mine would have lots of interesting questions about why you can't point your feet at the locals' heads! (Answer: It's thought that your soul lives in your head, so it is sacred.)
For parents, the guidebooks really do take some of the exhaustion out of finding tween-friendly activities in unfamiliar destinations. The books are chock-full of age-appropriate suggestions, from the most spectacular safari trips in Bali to the wildest water parks in Phuket, the fastest speedboat tours on the Thames, and the kind of museums in New York and London that won't send kids into whine mode within the first 30 minutes.
Helping parents stay well away from climbing the hotel-room walls on a rainy day, the books also list things to do when it's pouring. For example, who knew there are two movie theatres in Bali catering to foreigners, with English-language movies and maybe even some popcorn?
Published by Haven Books, the printed guides and their simple, colourful maps go hand-in-hand with a new, interactive website ( kidsgotravelguides.com).It's gimmick-free and as easy to navigate from your home computer as it is in desperation in an internet cafe in midtown Manhattan.
The best part of the site is the instant access to the Family Feedback and Kids Go & Show sections, quick links to the restaurants, beaches, museums and attractions other kids-in-the-know found fascinating.
A fast click through the London online pages, for example, reveals one family found the Museum of London at Docklands to be one of the city's most "special." Another family recommends when visiting London art galleries, children should request a Kids Art Trolley, which apparently makes a gallery visit "lots of fun."
And finally -- and ironically most boringly for tweens -- both the website and the books have pages of tips for parents, mostly written by the series author Mio Debnam. In Bali, for instance, Debnam warns parents that "at many religious and historic sites you'll need to wrap a sarong around your waist and legs. You can often rent them, but to save money and time, we suggest you carry one in your bag."
With the help of a kidsGo!, hopefully those poor bored tweens who are forced to travel the world with their parents won't be biting much either nor will they be doing more than their fair share of eye rolling.
The kidsGo! guides are sold at Canadian bookstores for $11 each and are also available online at Amazon Canada for $9.23.
But the scope and diversity of public celebrations may come as a surprise to first time visitors. Every month sees at least one major event marking everything from traditional Chinese festivals to Western holidays.
Many celebrations are organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and provide free or low cost activities to engage locals and the almost 40 million visitors who visit Hong Kong each year. Here are some signature events to watch for:
TOAST THE TOWN
Food has always been an integral part of the Hong Kong experience. With 11,000 restaurants, there is no shortage of places to eat -- and every type of cuisine from traditional dim sum to classic French.
When thinking about wine, however, Hong Kong doesn't immediately come to mind. But with a four-day Wine and Dine Festival kicking off an annual Wine and Dine Month (Oct. 27 to Nov. 30), that may soon change. Wine is increasingly popular across Asia, and business-savvy Hong Kong is positioning itself to be the region's chief importer of fine vintages from around the world.
The third-annual Wine and Dine Festival (Oct. 27 to Nov. 1) takes place along the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade, where there will be live entertainment and an art exhibition to enjoy while sipping and strolling. Admission is free, a complimentary shuttle will provide transportation to and from the Promenade, and visitors can purchase tokens for tasting samples. Highlights include:
-- More than 250 food and wine tasting booths serving vintages from the world's top wine regions, including Canada, and cuisine from award winning local restaurants.
-- A Grand Tasting Pavilion showcasing premium wines.
-- Wine appreciation classes led by experts.
Wine & Dine Month events will take place at various venues throughout Hong Kong. Highlights include:
-- Food and wine themed tours, and visits to private cellars.
-- Celebrity food-and-wine appreciation classes.
-- Cooking classes led by award-winning chefs.
-- A restaurant festival with food and wine pairing menus, and street carnivals in dining hotspots such as Lan Kwai Fong.
-- Wine, dine and spa weekends at hotels.
-- Burgundy Week, Oct. 25-29, where visitors can test their olfactory powers at a Wine Aroma Exhibition plus a wine-pairing dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel prepared by a 3-star Michelin chef from Burgundy.
-- The Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair, a trade event for buyers that opens to the public Nov. 5.
-- A global conference on wine trends, Winefuture Hong Kong 2011 (Nov. 5-8), led by the Wine Academy of Spain.
HALLOWEEN
From now until the end of October, visitors can indulge in frightful fun at entertainment districts, malls and major attractions.
-- From Oct. 21-31, dress up and head for Kowloon's Avenue of Stars to mingle and take in free Halloween-themed street performances. Spooky guests will be on hand to pose for pictures with revellers.
-- Toward the end of October, several major malls will have macabre decorations, free children's activities, and a cast of creepy costumed characters handing out treats and discount coupons.
-- Through Oct. 31, Ocean Park -- a popular aquarium/theme-park -- has the seriously scary Dance With The Damned Halloween Bash, which features hi-tech horrors at a 3-D Haunted House, the Fear Factory and Torture Chamber of the Dragon Empress. One-night tickets go from $9 for children to $42 for adults.
-- Explore the dark side of Disneyland on selected dates through Oct. 31. There is frightful fun at the Cursed Jungle, a spirited party at Tomorrowland, and the Space Mountain Ghost Gallery. Included with admission, one-day tickets are $13 for seniors, $37 for kids 3-11, and $52 for ages 12-64.
-- Navigate the dark corridors of Frankenstein's Lab at Madame Toussad's, where unsuspecting visitors will encounter a mix of undead (live) performers and eerily real wax monsters guaranteed to scare them silly. Tickets range from $12 for children to $21 for adults.
GREAT OUTDOORS
Many people define Hong Kong by its urban buzz, its urbane restaurant scene and its ultra-modern skyscrapers. But the seaside nation, which consists of the Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong Island and more than 260 outlying islands, is also a place of great natural beauty, home to ocean vistas, beaches, mountains and wetlands.
Some of the islands are popular recreational places and easily accessible by public transit and ferries, but many are uninhabited little jewels, reachable only by smaller boats.
The cooler, less humid days of November are ideal for cycling or hiking the trails that criss-cross Hong Kong. Good places to hike include the Peak, the National Geopark and Lamma Island. (Very fit visitors might want to tackle all or part of the 100-km MacLehose Trail through the New Territories.)
The weeks from Nov. 13 to Dec. 11 have been declared Great Outdoors Hong Kong and a wide range of outdoor events, hikes and guided tours are planned.
WINTERFEST
Christmas in Hong Kong? According to CNN, it's one of the best places in the world to enjoy the festive season.
From Nov. 25 through Jan. 1, the city is aglow with sparkling lights, beautiful decorations and many giant decorated Christmas trees with the "wow" factor.
The season culminates with an annual New Year's Eve bash with free live entertainment and a thrilling display of choreographed musical pyrotechnics over Victoria Harbour.
CHINESE NEW YEAR
After Jan. 1, Hong Kong gears up for its most important celebration -- Chinese New Year (Jan. 23-25, 2012). Festivities will take place across the city to welcome the Year of the Dragon.
This is an incredibly colourful time to be in Hong Kong. Shopping streets become ribbons of red and gold, food stores are laden with sweets and seasonal delicacies, special New Year's markets overflow with fresh blooms and gifts, locals throng their favourite temples, and business establishments buzz with dragon dances to foster good luck and success in the coming year.
Must-see events include:
-- The Cathay Pacific Chinese New Year Night Parade, a dazzling extravaganza with dozens of illuminated floats plus hundreds of dragon and lion dancers, acrobats, clowns, marching bands and performance troupes from around the world. Watching the parade along the route through Tsim Sha Tsui is free but reserved seating is also available for a reasonable price.
-- The Lunar New Year fireworks show is the most dazzling pyrotechnics display of the year. Up to 400,000 people will come out to watch as hundreds of thousands of fireworks choreographed to music light up Victoria Harbour.
-- Horse-racing enthusiasts will head to the track for the first races of the new year. Sha Tin Racecourse will be decked out with red lanterns and wheels of fortune. And the God of Wealth will likely put in an appearance before the Chinese New Year Cup gets underway.
If you go to Hong Kong
For travel and event information, contact the Hong Kong Tourism Board at 416-366-2389 or 1-800-563-4582 or see DiscoverHongKong.com/canada.
The allure of living in a Paris pied-�-terre for a week or month, and paying much less than for a hotel room, has created strong demand for short-term lodging, but its growing popularity has raised the ire of hotels and residential property owners.
�Residents complain about the noise, about the comings and goings, about the entrance of their building being turned into a hotel lobby,� said Christian Nicol, head of the city�s housing department.
A rush of buying by foreigners looking to profit from the short-term rental market is one of several factors that have driven up Paris property prices at breakneck speed in recent years to stand as some of the costliest real estate anywhere.
The metropolis is now home to an estimated 20,000 fully furnished apartments rented out to tourists, students and business travellers in breach, according to city hall, of a decades-old and long-overlooked law.
Nicol�s office has begun sending out letters warning owners that renting out residential apartments for less than a year at a time � or nine months if the occupant is a student � violates the law and could lead to prosecution.
Some 200 rental owners have already been tracked down with the help of neighbours upset at finding their bourgeois buildings housing more tourists than ordinary Parisians, said Nicol. An information campaign is to be launched in the weeks ahead.
The temptation to rent is strong, given the flood of visitors to Paris and the prices they are willing to pay.
A studio in the trendy Marais district can go for 700 euros ($958) a week, while a one-bedroom in picturesque Montmartre can fetch 200 euros a night, rates double or triple those of similar rentals on a traditional one-year-lease.
But the rates look like a bargain compared with hotel prices � a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the industry�s lobby.
�It�s an absolutely unfair competition,� said Bertrand Lecourt, president of Paris� hotel syndicate, who noted the myriad of taxes and regulations to which hotels are subject.
With visitors choosing rentals over hotels, the city is losing out on new tax revenue and new jobs, he added.
RED TAPE
Legally, owners wanting to offer short-term Paris rentals must ask the city to reclassify their property as a commercial site, a tricky request that obliges them to buy, in return, a commercial property nearby and devote it to residential housing.
Although the law can be interpreted in varying ways, and estate agents argue that most landlords are not running commercial businesses, violators can be fined up to 25,000 euros. Continued violation can mean further fines of up to 1,000 euros per square metre per day.
�It�s an archaic law that the Town Hall has dug up due to pressure from the hotel sector,� said a real estate agent in the Maris, asking not to be named. �I�d say 99.9% of short-term rentals are in breach of this law. We�ve had several people come in worried because they�ve received letters about it.�
The warnings usually suffice to convince landlords to take their rentals off the market, according to the town hall. One court case in favour of the city was even confirmed in appeal.
Yet fighting the trend will be a challenge given many foreign owners rent out apartments as a full-time business.
While the French government has vowed to tackle tax shelters to slim down the public deficit, the fiscal advantages of furnished rentals remain untouched: owners can deduct from their revenue all maintenance expenses and even depreciate their property, thus avoiding taxes for several years.
�Short-term rentals are so attractive financially, fiscally and legally that if we don�t act, we�ll end up in a city where nobody will want to rent out apartments the usual way, and we�ll only have tourists or people visiting for the week,� Nicol said.
Lodgis, one of Paris� top short-term housing agencies, says the government is overlooking the benefits of a practice that suits students and professionals in town for only a few months.
Others say getting properties off the short-term rental market will make them available to full-time apartment-seekers who struggle to find affordable living space in a city where rental prices have shot up 20% in the past year.
�What we�re defending is the possibility for small landlords to continue to use their property however they wish, and to rent it for the duration they wish,� said Jean-Marc Agnes, chairman of APLM, a group of professionals operating furnished rentals. ($1 - 0.730 Euros)
Walt Disney Co, teaming with the Oscar-winning director and News Corp unit Fox Filmed Entertainment, will begin building from 2013 a section at its Orlando theme park that will mimic the thriving green landscape depicted in the highest-grossing movie of all time.
Under their agreement, Disney - which typically sticks to its own franchises and properties in designing rides - won exclusive global theme park rights to the Avatar franchise. It will eventually take Avatar 'lands' beyond Orlando's Disney World.
"Our goal is to go beyond current boundaries of technical innovation and experiential storytelling, and give park-goers the chance to see, hear, and touch the world of 'Avatar' with an unprecedented sense of reality," Cameron said in a statement.
'Avatar,' which chronicled the struggle of the alien Na'vi against marauding resource-ravenous humans, grossed almost $3 billion worldwide and triggered the current renaissance in 3D-film making. Cameron is planning sequels to the blockbuster hit, which surpassed his own 'Titanic' as the highest-grossing movie in history
A studio strewn with musty books, pages rustling in an artificial breeze; a multicolored play-dough cube squeezed into a cage; and a sphere made out of hundreds of plastic bags were among the 40 art works contesting the prestigious Kadinsky prize.
Named after abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1904), the award hands out cash-prizes of up to $55,100 to modern artists featured at Moscow's Central House of Artists.
"This exhibit cuts across Russia's contemporary art and art forms of today," said Shalva Breus, who founded the award in 2007.
Breus hailed an increase in the number of younger participants and avant-guard ideas alongside a steady decline in Soviet symbolism in Russian art.
"If three years ago, artists widely addressed imperial symbolism, be it of the Russian empire or the Soviet empire, there is no more of that today," he told Reuters at the opening. "There are many more abstract installations."
The fading references to Soviet symbolism in contemporary art highlights that award nominees are getting younger each year, with today's art students born at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The trend may also be market-driven, as younger collectors emerge in Russia, demanding art that speaks to post-Communist era, participants said.
"The buyers of Russian modern art are mostly Russians, and the new emerging trend is that there are a lot more younger collectors nowadays: The so-called 'Progressive Youth.'" said Mikhail Molochnikov, a Russian artist working in Moscow, Berlin and Zurich galleries.
Globalisation is also erasing the focus on local politics and history, experts said. Nevertheless, a few artists waxed nostalgic for Soviet times and one work - 'First Grade' - depicted the legs of schoolchildren in traditional Soviet gear.
While themes are changing, Russian contemporary artists lagged behind their Western peers in the use of innovative materials, Breus said.
"We are trying to catch up with the West and we are copying European artists but we are definitely still falling behind," he said.
A jury will vote on the winners by the end of the exhibit, which is on until October 7. There are three categories in which to win: 'Project of the Year,' 'Best Young Artist,' and 'Media-art Project of the Year."
The fourth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art opens on Thursday, lighting up galleries across the city until November.
It appears the weather "gods" have come through again, said Kimberly Hundertmark, the festival's executive director. "Although the spring was long and wet, the summer provided the vineyards with the sunlight and temperatures to produce another great vintage."
From now through Sept. 25, check out activities at St. Catharine's Montebello Park and explore Niagara's Wine Route for wine and food tastings at more than 35 wineries.
MONTEBELLO PAR K
There are more than 100 events including live entertainment, the Grande Parade (Sept. 24) with an "outstanding procession of marching bands, drum corps, community groups, majorettes, floats and amazing performances," and the Grapeland Kids Zone.
VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance) wines can be savoured by the sample, glass or bottle while local chefs cook up regional bites costing one or two tokens ($3.25 each). Free entertainment features Canadian talent and local favourites.
The Grapeland Kids Zone has paddle boats, Disney cars, "mountain" climbing, mini-golf, jousting, a toddler area and a new "tween" area. A pay once price pass is available.
WINE ROUTE
Weekend winery experiences run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. A $30 Niagara Wine Festival Discovery Pass is good for six events to toast the fall harvest.
Activities include: Sauvignon Blanc Sensation at Chateau des Charmes, Trius Burger Bar at Hillebrand Winery, and Parsons' Chardonnay Roasted Chicken at Peller Estates, all in Niagara-on-the-Lake; Smoked Duck and Pinot at Coyote's Run in St. David's; and Big Brawny Reds and Barrel Cellar Food at Creekside Estate in Jordan.
Score with Estate Series Portfolio Tastings at the Wayne Gretzky Estate Winery and Sparkling Wines at Vineland Estates, both in Vineland, and Do You Fondue at Magnotta Winery in Beamsville. There's Poutine on the Patio at Pillitteri Estates Winery; Claw, Cob, Chard at Jackson Triggs Niagara Estate Winery; and Fine Wine Meets Street Food at Inniskillin Wines, all in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Contact niagarawinefestival.com and 905-688-0212.
NOTABLE NOSHES
-- Good sipping and tasting are on the menu at the Savour Stratford Perth County Culinary Festival this weekend.
Montreal chef Chuck Hughes, of the Food Network, starts the soiree with at a cocktail party Sept. 23 at the Stone Maiden Inn.
There will be a Southern-style "Ribs in the (Market) Square" barbecue with London's Boss Hogs and a BBQ, Blue and Brews party, both on Sept. 24.
Connie DeSousa, a Top Chef Canada TV finalist, hosts breakfast at the Stratford Country Club while the Savour Stratford Tasting "ultimate garden party" with food, wine and beer tastings are both on Sept. 25. Contact savourstratford.com or 1-800-561-7926.
Jim Fox can be reached at onetanktrips@hotmail.com
Reuters correspondents with local knowledge help visitors get the most out of a visit to the French capital. While 48 hours is not nearly enough for this beloved metropolis, it will whet your appetite for your next visit.
FRIDAY
5 p.m. Why not kick off the weekend with a "verre," or glass of wine, as the French do, or perhaps a licorice-flavored pastis aperitif. Paris cafes are the pride of the city, and the most famous are located on the Left Bank. After popping in to the Eglise de Saint-Germain-des-Pres, an ancient abbey with sixth-century roots, enjoy a "pause" at Les Deux Magots or Cafe de Flore. Between the two world wars and immediately after, both cafes welcomed writers, poets and artists from Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway to Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir.
8 p.m. Keeping with the literary theme, make your way south to Montparnasse, the neighborhood where intellectuals and artists flocked at the beginning of the 20th century. Splurge at Le Dome, an Art Deco institution featuring platters piled high with oysters and other fresh seafood. And remember the champagne -- after all, it's your first night in Paris.
10 p.m. You're close enough to stroll to the Montparnasse Tower for a spectacular view across the City of Light. The 689-foot office tower, completed in 1973, wins no prizes for beauty -- until you get to viewing area at the top from where, as Parisians like to note, you can no longer see it.
SATURDAY
9 a.m. Hop onto one of Paris' 20,000 Velib city bikes, rentable for a modest fee from docking stations all over the city, and head to Ile de la Cite for a first look at Notre Dame before the crowds descend. Count the saints carved out along the cathedral's facade and notice the gargoyles peering menacingly from the towers of the French Gothic masterpiece.
Nearby are Sainte Chapelle with its unforgettable stained glass windows and La Conciergerie, the former prison where Marie Antoinette spent her last months before meeting her grisly end at the guillotine in 1793.
11:30 a.m. Cross to the right bank via Ile Saint-Louis -- a picturesque island in the Seine where Paris' best ice cream, Berthillon, is sold -- and you find yourself in the Marais. Once swampland, the Marais became the fashionable place to live in the 17th century before falling into disrepair. In the 19th century it was the Jewish quarter and a tasty falafel with grilled eggplant can still be had along the Rue de Rosiers. The Marais is known today for its gay and lesbian nightlife and is home also to trendy boutiques, small art galleries, cafes and museums, including the Picasso Museum and the Musee Carnavalet, which documents the history of Paris.
Enjoy lunch at one of the many cafes in the neighborhood, but don't forget to enjoy a stroll through the Place des Vosges, Paris' oldest plaza, with its stunning brick and stone arched pavilions and luxury residences. Victor Hugo was a resident in the 19th century -- and Dominique Strauss-Kahn is one today.
3 p.m. A quick metro ride from St. Paul station will take you to the Palais Royal across from the Louvre, whose rectangular garden will revive the senses before you tackle France's largest museum and the world's most visited. When it comes to the Louvre, the best strategy is to pick a wing or two -- don't try to do it all. "Courage!," as the French say.
7 a.m. It's time to sit down and enjoy a show. Indeed it's a bit touristy these days, but still -- Le Moulin Rouge cabaret and its showgirls have been entertaining Paris since 1889. A revue and meal doesn't come cheap, but how often these days can you watch a can-can during dinner? Make your way to the base of Montmartre for the show and afterwards enjoy a stroll around the (quite safe) red-light district. Prefer men in wigs instead? Try Cabaret Michou for a drag show.
SUNDAY
9 a.m. It's time to see Paris' best-known landmark at first light. Whether you brave the queues and climb the tower -- by stairs or lift -- or just admire it from the ground, the Eiffel Tower cannot be missed. Across the Seine at Trocadero, an assortment of cafes provide first-rate views.
11 a.m. On the banks of the Seine, hop on a Bateau Mouche for a one-hour cruise along the river, passing such sights as Les Invalides, where Napoleon is buried, the Grand and Petit Palais -- both constructed for the Universal Expo in 1900 -- and the Pont Neuf, Paris' oldest bridge.
1 p.m. Head north from Trocadero to reach the Arc de Triomphe, under whose famous arch have marched scores of victorious armies, including in 1944 when French and American troops were greeted by cheering Parisians. Pay your respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, then walk east down the Champs Elysees, a celebrated tree-lined boulevard dominated today by clothing chain stores and tourists. The approach to Place de la Concorde is worth the crowds however. Admire the Luxor Obelisk honoring Pharaoh Ramses II at the center of the plaza, and ignore the traffic as you try to imagine what the square was like at the height of the French Revolution, when the guillotine erected here chopped off hundreds of heads.
3 p.m. All that contemplation of mortality calls for a visit to Pere Lachaise, Paris' biggest and most famous cemetery on the eastern side of the city. Visit the graves of scores of poets, artists, politicians and more, from Moliere and Edith Piaf to Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein and the Doors' Jim Morrison.
Bid adieu to your Paris weekend with a final verre at one of the many cafes around Place Gambetta and plan your next trip.
But along with the mandatory Marshall amplifier and out-sized drum kit, his group, Angband, also boasts a couple of goatskin percussion instruments that have been a familiar part of Persian music for centuries.
In a country where western music is banned, Dean is part of Iran's booming underground scene -- making rock, Iranian style.
"We are trying not to get far from our roots, by using Persian percussion," Dean said, pointing out the daf -- a traditional hand-held drum which looks like a super-sized tambourine with metal chains on one side of the skin that add a scratchy, shimmering sound.
But as Iranian as Angband wants to be, it has had to look further afield to get its music released, signing with a German label, Pure Steel Records.
To be produced within Iran, music must be approved by the Ministry of Culture and Guidance, which checks lyrics and music to ensure they conform to the moral standards deemed acceptable in the Islamic Republic.
Classical Persian music and some forms of pop have prospered under the system, but genres like rock and hip-hop have remained almost exclusively underground.
Many Iranian bands do not bother asking for the mandatory government permits to release their music and seek contracts with foreign companies or put their music on websites blocked by the state but still accessible to anyone with a modicum of technical nous.
The 37-year-old founder of Angband plays down the disadvantages of being a rocker in Iran.
"In addition to becoming internationally known, better CD quality is another reason why we want to have our albums on foreign labels," he said, playing with his long wavy hair.
HARD ROCK, SOFT WAR
Many Iranian clerics regard western music as haram, forbidden by Islam.
"Haram music has never been halal (religiously permissible) and it will never be," influential cleric Ahmad Khatami said in July, according to the ISNA news agency.
For the conservatives, western music, movies and television are seen as part of a deliberate "soft war" waged by the West to corrupt Iran's youth.
But access to the Internet and illegal satellite television mean western culture is popular among young Iranians, in a country where 70 percent of the population is under 30 and has no real memory of the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled the U.S.-backed Shah and ushered in an Islamic government.
"Underground music is a mirror of our society's situation... We express in our music the parts of reality that we are not allowed to say," said Ali, a 28-year-old Tehrani who composes rap music.
"This honesty and sense of freedom are why young people are becoming more hungry for banned underground music."
In a home studio in central Tehran, its walls and ceiling covered with insulators to avoid the music being heard outside the apartment, a four-piece rock band "Wednesday Call" is rehearsing.
"Initially we thought that we would be able to obtain permits to release our albums but after (political) conditions changed, it is not even something that crosses our mind anymore," said the band's guitarist, 32-year-old Arin.
In the 1990s, particularly under the two terms of the reformist President Mohammad Khatami, authorities began relaxing restrictions imposed after the revolution. That trend was reversed by hard line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who came to power in 2005.
Musicians' struggle against censorship was the subject of a 2009 movie "No One Knows About Persian Cats," which won the Special Jury prize at Cannes but, like the music it depicted, was banned by the Iranian government.
In the film, a young woman singer Negar (Negar Shaghaghi) and her musician boyfriend, Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad), buy false passports and visas and emigrate to London to pursue their ambitions.
In real life, too, many Iranian musicians have left the country in order to continue practicing their art.
Singer-songwriter Mohsen Namjoo, dubbed "Iran's Bob Dylan" by the New York Times due to his protest songs, was sentenced to five years' jail in absentia for insulting religious sanctities. Namjoo lives in California but his music is still heard in Iran.
"I love Namjoo's work and I dream that one day he can have a concert in Iran," said Nahal, a 24-year-old private sector employee who downloads all his works.
With 24-hour MTV-style Persian music channels beamed into Iranian homes by satellite, mostly from Los Angeles, home to a huge Iranian émigré community, the state has hit back, not only by cracking down on illegal satellite dishes, but also, according to some media reports, by offering an alternative.
Reformist daily Sharq, quoting a local website, reported that a new music channel, to be called "Iranian" would be launched in the next few month, broadcasting exclusively Iranian music.
"I have heard that the channel will be run by private sector and it will broadcast authorised music of musicians inside the country," said rapper Ali.
"So it will not help Iran's underground music to show itself."
The system, which featured in an exhibition on the future of transport at London's Science Museum in 2009, has become a reality, reducing the time it takes business passengers to move from terminal to car park by 60%.
Traveling at speeds up to 40 km/hour, after an average wait of just 34 seconds, the system looks like something straight from a science fiction film.
The pods, which run along tracks and allow passengers to select their destinations, use laser sensors to ferry business passengers and their luggage along a 3.8 km route.
According to ULTra, the company behind the technology, the 30 million pound ($47 million) development could transport up to 500,000 passengers each year and replace 50,000 shuttle bus journeys.
The British invention, which has been on trial at Heathrow since April, is the culmination of over 60 years of development. First dreamed up in the 1950s, it has now become a working reality under ULTra PRT president and former NASA engineer, Martin Lowson who championed the idea while lecturing at Bristol University in the 1990s.
The company, now part owned by Ferrovial's British airports division BAA, is confident that the technology will prove popular. India recently announced it will pilot the system around Delhi and Amritsar and feasibility studies are currently in progress in Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States.
Travel website TripAdvisor, which polled 1,400 Americans, said for 64% the blues descend even before the holiday is over.
Day five of a one-week trip is the most anxiety-inducing and for 4% of travellers worrying begins from the first day of the trip.
"Being greeted by hundreds, if not thousands, of work e-mails upon their return from vacation looms large for many Americans and they avoid that by checking in, fake-cation style, while they're away," said Josey Miller, a travel expert with the website.
Thirty-four per cent of people said most of the reluctance to return home stems from the idea of returning to work. Nineteen per cent said they feel an immediate strain from the first day back and 43% feel it within the first week.
Eighty-four per cent said their stress levels returned to pre-vacation highs soon after returning.
"How can you feel refreshed post-vacation if you never really allowed yourself to fully enter a carefree, blissful state of mind?" Miller added.
Twelve per cent of people admitted calling in sick within the first month of returning from a vacation. Eight per cent considered finding a new job and 4% were regularly late for work.
The No. 1 method to stop the post-vacation blues is to start planning another holiday, according to the poll.
"While many Americans struggle to maintain the feel-good factor upon returning to work and a daily routine after a terrific summer vacation, the process of planning another getaway helps 73% of travellers remain upbeat," said Karen Drake, TripAdvisor's senior director of communications.
Viewing pictures or a video of the trip helped 52% of people and 41% said creating a photo album helped them beat the blues.
1. Go shark-baiting
Only one thing better than experimenting with high-tech vehicles is turning one into a giant fishing lure -- with you inside as bait. Stanley Submarines' custom-built, submersible Idabel ferries you down 1,500 feet below the sea off the coast of Roatan, an island off Honduras. Attached to the sub is live bait designed to lure the seldom seen six-gilled shark. From the depths of the ocean's blackness, don't be alarmed when you see this prehistoric specimen -- longer than your 13-foot sub -- approach one of the sub's nine 30-inch viewports. You'll feel Idabel rock back and forth as the gentle ocean giant works to dislodge her baited treats.
2. Dive in an exosuit
Should you ever be called on to repair external surfaces of an orbital space station, you'll have acquired some of the requisite skills by the end of this Incredible Adventures package. The Russian Space Agency's Hydrolab is a place real-life astronauts go to simulate weightlessness in a 12 metre-deep neutral buoyancy tank. If you're a certified diver of the right height and weight, you're eligible for similar training using the coolest swimwear imaginable: an Orlan space suit fitted with biometric sensors to check health readings as you complete a series of underwater tasks.
3. Go drag racing
Of the many driving experiences you can book while on holiday, we naturally recommend the fastest and most daring: dragster racing. Doug Foley's Drag Racing School, of Mooresville, North Carolina, arranges this at various tracks around the U.S., for a range of dates. Packages start at $349, not including lunch and trackside photography -- a small price to pay for the thrill of crossing 300 feet of track in 10 seconds at over 100 miles per hour.
4. Take a helicopter safari
Because we have never been a fan of ordinary bus tours, we're throwing in Cox & Kings' new six-day "mountain safari" via a French-manufactured, oxygen-equipped Ecureuil to see eight of Earth's tallest peaks. Mt. Everest summiteers narrate their experiences as you whiz past the 29,035-foot mountain then later take in the Langtang, Manaslu, Lamjung, and Annapurna ranges and other Nepalese sights. Since the Ecureuil seats only two guests, this is a downright romantic trip, allowing you to score major points with your girlfriend while conveniently involving superslick machinery.
5. Wield the Jaws of Life
Does the end-of-workday beer taste sweeter after you've rappelled down three stories of a burning building, inched through smoke-filled darkness, and doused the flames? We bet it does. If you don't have the good fortune or guts to call this a day's wage, you can still sample the vocation of fire fighting at one of North America's finest training schools: Central Florida Fire Academy in Orlando. You'll use the Jaws of Life to rescue a faux victim from a burning car, test-drive that big, red, shiny truck, and finish the day with a real firehouse dinner (uh, yum?).
6. Bulldoze something
You played with big yellow trucks as a kid; now you can get down and dirty learning to drive actual megaton equipment around a 21-acre construction site in Bradenton, a town between Sarasota and Tampa. This daylong Construction Adventure has you eventually tossing around old tires and bowling balls on the site using a CAT 315 Excavator, CAT 257B Skid Steer Loader or CAT D3 Bulldozer. Hard hat, lunch, souvenir photo, and written evaluation are included (because we all should aspire to be better excavator operators). And not that you'd intentionally linger, but there's also timely use of a "tricked-out port-o-potty" with a flat-screen TV fitted inside.
7. Go street-luging
If you don't have five free days or five buddies to take a group stuntcation, you could try the getaway version: a customizable "weekend warrior" deal that gives you a menu of extreme sports and events to choose from in and around Las Vegas. Options range from relatively tame activities like hovercraft, motocross, ATV or Sea-Doo rides, to gimmicky fire-walking, to adventures involving machines that hardly sound street legal (bonus!). One of our favourites is "street luge": a homemade sled you grab hold of to hurtle down mountain roads at up to 60 miles per hour.
8. Drive a tank
Drive A Tank knows every guy's secret desire is to crush vehicles with even bigger vehicles. Which is why the Kasota, Minnesota-headquartered extreme adventure operator organizes awesome afternoons, teaching you to navigate two British army tanks -- the FV433 Abbot and the FV432 Armoured Personnel Carrier -- through an obstacle course. Choose the "crush package," and -- hell yeah! -- you get to obliterate anything lying in the path of "Larry," an affectionately named 60-ton Chieftain Main Battle Tank. We hope the victim was a Pinto.
9. Take a stuntcation
You know your Vegas trip is in capable hands when the tour guide is a Hollywood stunt guy who performed the world's first bungee jump on fire, has coordinated stunts for Sir Richard Branson and Criss Angel, and lists expertise in "high falls, air rams, explosives, heavy weapons, and bullet hits." Rich Hopkins, founder of Thrillseekers Unlimited, lends you a veritable arsenal of badass gear for adventures in and around the city. During a new five-day, small-group "Stunt Experience Vacation," safely supervised by Thrillseekers' SAG-member team, you and up to nine buddies will harness in to try high-falling, stunt-fighting and stunt-driving, and may even be (briefly) set aflame.
10. Fly a MiG over Russia
Sarasota-based extreme tour operator Incredible Adventures has you pulling Gs in a multimillion-dollar MiG-29 -- the kind Tom Cruise battled in Top Gun -- during a five-day trip to Moscow and nearby Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft building plant Sokol. After alighting in Moscow for sightseeing and a stay at Metropol, the classic hotel looking onto Red Square where Dr. Zhivago was filmed, you travel by train to the military airstrip where the inimitable Russian fighter was born. Then it's your choice between soaring 70,000 feet to the edge of space or performing 45 gut-punching minutes of aerobatics. Sokol's MiG pilots, who will accompany you, say to eat breakfast! before flying at Mach speeds, since acids churning on an empty stomach will make you more likely to heave. We think it's friendly advice.
"Boston has always been a rum town," says Corey Bunnewith, bartender at Boston's Citizen Public House (Citizenpub.com). "Since the mid 1700s the amount of rum imported and consumed was quite something." According to some estimates, by 1717 the state of Massachusetts was producing 200,000 gallons of rum each year and Boston was home to more than 25 distilleries.
Building on this history, Boston now is seeing a resurgence of local distillers such as Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Bully Boy and Privateer, all of which produce rum.
Where to drink rum (or other spirits) in Boston? Bunnewith's recommendations include the steeped-in-history Stoddard's (Stoddardsfoodandale.com). The building dates back to 1868, the bar to 1900, and inspiration from the drinks is taken from Jerry Thomas, who wrote the first cocktail book ever published. In addition to classic cocktails to pair with "classic American" food, look for the menu of American-style ales and lagers.
Other popular watering holes include The Woodward (Woodwardboston.com) at the Ames Hotel, a sleek "modern-day tavern" that serves traditional New England seafood and modern drinks like the "One Court" (Ron Zacapa 23-year-old rum, honey syrup and fresh lime); the speakeasy-style Storyville (90 Exeter Street) in the Back Bay area for dining, drinking, music and dancing; and No 9 Park (No9park.com). The latter, located in an elegant townhouse in Boston's historic Beacon Hill, is part of Chef Barbara Lynch's growing Boston restaurant empire, which also includes the celebrated craft cocktail bar Drink (Drinkfortpoint.com).
Although rum punches abound throughout New England's cocktail history, here's a modern version to try. This fruity version is sourced from RumBa (Intercontinentalboston.com). The name is a play on "rum bar", said with a classic Bostonian accent - the last "r" is silent.
RECIPE: Rum Punch (Courtesy of RumBa, InterContinental Hotel)
½ oz. Plantation Grand Reserve Barbados Rum
½ oz. Flavoured Rum
½ oz. Orange juice
½ oz. Pineapple juice Splash of Grenadine
Stir together all ingredients with ice.
(Kara Newman is the author of "Spice & Ice: 60 tongue-tingling cocktails", available at Karanewman.wordpress.com. The opinions expressed are her own.)
Historypin, on iOS and Android platforms, strives to create a collection of memories about locations by counting on people to dig up and digitize old photographs and other media of the places, along with personal recollections of the past.
Combined with modern pictures and memories, the app creates a story of a place for people to enjoy -- a sort of "time machine in your pocket," its backers say.
"It's about people coming together to create a web of human history", said Nick Stanhope, chief executive of We Are What We Do, a United Kingdom-based non-profit organization responsible for the Historypin project.
The app uses GPS to find content that has been added within a certain vicinity. Users can also browse content that has been uploaded at any location on the map. The results can be filtered by date, ranging from the 1840s (the time of the earliest photographs) leading up to the present day.
The app also includes an augmented-reality camera that overlays historic images in the database on top of the current landscape. Over 55,000 photos and stories have been pinned to the map since the website and app were introduced.
One photo from 1938 shows a car being tugged across Newfoundland, Canada's Placentia Gut by two small wooden boats, a method that was retired as soon as a bridge was built to provide a more efficient route.
Another from the late 1920s shows a mother and daughter in Minnesota enjoying a laugh in front of a local school and its now defunct bell and tower.
Users can create or upload content using the app. Comments can be added to existing media, helping build what the organization hopes will become a tapestry of historic data.
"We don't make any judgments on what is and isn't history", said Stanhope. "But there are judgments made on things like marketing spam or unrecognizable content."
With the ubiquity of digital content today, some users are concerned that Historypin could become a dumping ground for social photos that might be a better fit for a Facebook album.
"Obviously a guy falling out of a bar in Manhattan in September 2011 is not interesting in itself", said Stanhope.
"But when you look at what people have done at that location over the past 200 years, it becomes interesting -- and over time it becomes more interesting. If you look at people socializing or having a party 100 years ago, suddenly it's fascinating."
The app, which has received over 250,000 downloads, has faced some speed and stability complaints since launching. Stanhope said the organization is providing upgrades every few weeks to address the issues.
New tools being rolled out in January are expected to significantly increase the amount of content in the database, as are partnerships in the works with U.S. museums.
Stanhope said that future updates will include features to increase the accuracy and amount of detail attributed to content and the introduction of a rating system.
The app is available worldwide on the App store (here) and Android Marketplace (here). Content can also be explored through the project's website.
5 hidden fees to watch for on vacation
How "Last" is Last Minute?
If today's events have caused you to make travel arrangements for today, you will probably be at the mercy of the airlines. If you're even a little flexible with your travel plans, you may be able to find a deal that doesn't break the bank.
Twitter
You can never plan for an emergency, but if you are in a career where last minute travel happens often, a little bit of preparedness is well advised. One place to start is your Twitter feed. Accounts like @Airfarewatchdogs and @farecomparedeals are just two of the many that should be in one of your feeds if you're watching for last-minute deals. In addition, popular travel sites and even some airlines have e-mail lists that send daily, weekly or monthly specials.
The Obvious May Pay Off
Search the last minute travel sites. Lastminutetravel.com as well as Expedia, Orbit and Travelzoo are places to check. As the sites have become larger some are no longer the goldmine of travel deals that they used to be, but even if they aren't the cheapest, you can get an idea of what would be a normal price so you have a basis of comparison.
The one less obvious place to look are travel sites that cater to local areas. For example, Airtech.com offers last minute deals to Europe and Hawaii. Sites like this may be harder to find, but the best way to find these sites is sometimes through local connections.
Flexibility
According to the Washington Post, the cheapest travel day is Wednesday. Your best bet is to avoid weekend travel. Try to leave on a weekday and return on a weekday if possible. Also be flexible with your airport choice. For some travellers, there are multiple airports within a few hours from home. If you can travel to a larger airport where discount carriers have service, you may be able to save a substantial amount of money. Finally, leave late at night or early in the morning. Those less desirable travel times have more flexibility in their pricing.
Travel Alone
If you have to travel as a group or family, you are at the mercy of the airlines. Because airlines have reduced their total number of flights in order to keep all planes full, finding a good price for a group is difficult. Flying alone allows you to take advantage of a single last-minute seat that may have come available due to a cancellation or an unsold ticket.
5 hidden fees to watch for on vacation
Forget Courier Travel
Want to fly to Europe for $100? How about Mexico for free? In the past you could do this by becoming a courier. A courier used their cargo allowance to ship important documents or small parcel to a certain destination on a commercial airline. The courier was often hired on a temporary basis and once they delivered the items, they were free to explore the destination. It was perfectly legal and a great way to go on a short-term, last-minute adventure for very little or no money out of pocket.
Those days are over. Enhanced security regulations as well as new airline regulations no longer make this a good value for courier companies. In addition, although some airlines still advertise courier rates, they are no longer the deals they once were. In fact, courier rates are often the same or even slightly higher than normal airfare.
Don't Forget Travel Agents
It's true that travel agents will charge a premium to book your travel for you, but they often have access to discount travel deals that aren't published online. This doesn't just include airline tickets; hotels and rental cars are worth discussing with an agent.
Hotels and Cars
Sites where you can name a price you're willing to pay for a hotel, airline ticket or rental car sometimes net consumers fantastic rates at the last minute. Make sure you shop around before bidding so you don't end up bidding higher than another site's regular price.
The Bottom Line
It won't work every time - sometimes you have to take a financial hit. Depending on your reason for travelling at the last minute, price may be secondary to getting to your destination quickly. If you can travel in coach at all hours of the morning with multiple stops, on a weekend with only a carry-on and probably no pretzels or peanuts, great deals are out there for you.
Doors Open Ontario provides an insight into power that’s blowing in the wind at the East Elgin event on Sept. 24 and the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station on Oct. 1.
Environmentalists can check out a house renovated for "sustainable living" in Kitchener and see the operation of a hazardous waste, recyclable materials and reusable goods centre in Mississauga.
Doors Open is the Ontario Heritage Trust program giving people to take a peek behind often-closed doors to "discover the province's hidden heritage treasures," said publicist Liane Nowosielski.
Blowing in the wind
Visitors can learn about the 66 "magnificent, energy-producing wind turbines" located east and west of Port Burwell, along Lake Erie.
It happens at the Wind Interpretive Centre Information Kiosk (5361 Brown Rd.) in Bayham on Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as part of Doors Open East Elgin.
The Erie Shores Wind Farm, which includes information and a windmill display at the kiosk, was established in 2007 as a joint project between Bayham, Malahide Township and Elgin County.
The turbines are spread over 25 kilometres of shoreline and produce about 278,000 megawatt-hours of renewable "clean energy" a year.
Powering up Ontario
Here’s a chance to get an inside look at Ontario Power Generation’s Pickering Nuclear Generating Station.
Doors Open Pickering on Oct. 1 includes the station’s information centre (1675 Montgomery Park Rd.) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Located on the Lake Ontario shoreline, the station opened in 1971 and is one of the world’s largest nuclear generating facilities generating 12 per cent of the province’s electricity.
Tours will highlight the nuclear power station’s "history and current operations."
Reaping energy savings
The REEP House for Sustainable Living (20 Mill St.) in Kitchener is among the Doors Open Waterloo Region sites on Sept. 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The house, built in 1905, was renovated by the non-profit REEP (Residential Energy Efficiency Project) Green Solutions initiative.
This is a "super-insulated, water-wise, brick environmental education centre" with an open-concept design, in-floor heating, energy-efficient stained-glass windows, water recycling system and shingles made of old tires.
What’s old is new again
Find out what happens to waste items sent for recycling during Doors Open Mississauga on Oct. 1.
Among the sites to tour is the Fewster Community Recycling Centre (1126 Fewster Drive) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This is the newest centre of its kind in Peel that offers "an opportunity to dispose of hazardous waste, recyclable materials and reusable goods."
The tours every 30 minutes will "showcase various types of household waste materials and how they are managed" by the recycling centres.
Play ball in St. Marys
Check out Canada’s "Cooperstown" at Doors Open St. Marys on Sept. 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Located in an 1860’s limestone house packed with artifacts and memorabilia, it "pays tribute to baseball’s impressive Canadian roots and the accomplishments of its inductees."
The site overlooking the "famous" quarry swimming hole includes a major-league-style baseball diamond, two children’s fields and picturesque walking trails.
Keeping ‘em down on the farm
It’s appropriate that Doors Open Oxford on Sept. 24 recognizes the area’s distinction as the "Dairy Capital of Canada."
Danensview Farm (677140 16th Line) in Tavistock is open for tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to learn about this second-generation, family-operated dairy farm.
See modern technologies such as automatic feed mixing and activity monitors and learn how farming has changed over the years and what the future holds.
Middlesex swings open
Joining the Doors Open roster is Middlesex on Sept. 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and includes Ska-Nah-Doht Village and Museum (8348 Longwoods Rd.) in Mount Brydges.
This Haudenosaunee village, created on the basis of archeological data and traditions passed on by First Nations people, depicts a longhouse village of 1,000 years ago.
There are 18 outdoor exhibits, a palisade maze and artifacts excavated on the property that has groomed hiking and nature trails and a marsh boardwalk.
If you go:
To find out more about these and other Doors Open events, including London on Sept. 17 and 18 and St. Thomas on Oct. 1 and 2, go to www.doorsopenontario.on.ca
Jim Fox can be reached at onetanktrips@hotmail.com
Maybe they shouldn’t feel too bad. The twin histories of celebrity and air travel have seen their share of famous folks experiencing flight-related troubles.
Read on for a list of high-profile problem flyers.
"Inspector Bellamy" star Gerard Depardieu proved to be quite the mile-high whiz kid last month after he unzipped and relieved his bladder during an Air France flight to Dublin. A pal of the actor’s told the press that a prostate problem was to blame, and not booze. Either way, Depardieu got a pretty amusing parody video out of the situation. And Anderson Cooper got a few hearty chuckles. What a pisser.
Green Day’s nasal-voiced growler Billie Joe Armstrong found one more reason to whine on Thursday, when he was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank. Armstrong’s offense? Excessively droopy drawers. Maybe his next flight should be to Hot Topic, to buy himself a belt?
"Transformers" star Josh Duhamel was tossed from a New York-to-Kentucky flight last year when he refused to turn off his BlackBerry, despite numerous requests. Maybe he was texting his wife Fergie to ask why he’s such a rude jackass?
"Clerks" director Kevin Smith was famously escorted from a flight last year for violating Southwest Airline’s charmingly named "customers of size" policy. (Translation: he was deemed too fat to fly.) Well, you can be pretty sure he didn’t get that way from the measly bags of peanuts they dole out on Southwest.
"The Tudors" star Jonathan Rhys Meyers was denied a flight from New York to Los Angeles last May, due to "belligerent" and "disorderly" behavior that was "getting out of control." (Meyers was reportedly "pounding drinks" in the first-class lounge prior to the early-morning flight.) The incident reportedly earned him a banishment from United Airlines flights. Sometimes it’s not so good to be the king.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell has made a fortune due to her good looks, but sometimes her behavior can be downright ugly. Case in point? A 2008 incident during which Campbell was handcuffed and removed from a flight at Heathrow Airport after allegedly abusing the plane staff and spitting on a police officer.
Christian Slater was arrested at New York’s JFK Airport in 1994 after trying to board a flight while packing a piece. The "Heathers" actor reached a plea deal the following year that required him to spend three days with homeless children, presumably teaching them the finer points of gun safety.
British Airways decided to hassle the Hoff in 2009, denying flight to "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff because he was "unfit for travel." His spokesperson denied that Hasselhoff was drunk, blaming the incident on "strong antibiotics."
"Precious" star Mo’Nique was tossed off of a United Airlines flight after getting into an argument with an attendant — over a hair dryer. The actress subsequently blamed the incident on racism. Well, that really blows.
R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck caused a ruckus during a Seattle-to-Heathrow flight in 2001 when he reportedly knocked over a meal-serving tray and attempted to stash one of the knives from the upset trolley up his sleeve, then sprayed a yogurt container all over the place while struggling with an attendant. According to testimony, when the flight’s captain went to investigate the commotion, Buck told him, "you’re just a f—-cking captain and I’m R.E.M." Does that stand for Really Enormous Meathead?
The rich and colorful silk and velvet dresses created a century ago by Poiret, a revolutionary designer who is credited with freeing women from the confinements of the corset, opened the autumn season at the central museum in Moscow on Wednesday.
Poiret took his clients out of restrictive 19th century clothes by designing practical sheath dresses and tunics, many of which the explorer of world cultures and lover of Russian ballet created for Russian actresses and ballerinas.
A white tunic-like evening dress embroidered with gold and bright silk flowers, one of many Poiret created for Russian actress Vera Karakhan, stands by his Russian-inspired hats in a gallery filled with dresses, shoes and perfume bottles.
The modern-looking costumes, mimicked around the world since, could easily make any of today's haute-couture fashion shows. They take up two of the Kremlin bell towers usually given over to historic artifacts and icons from the Middle Ages.
"Most traditional museums in the world are trying to incorporate exhibitions of modern conceptual art, and our museum is not an exception," Elena Gagarina, director of the Kremlin Museums, told Reuters ahead of the exhibit's opening.
As if taking up the torch from Moscow's Pushkin Museum, which has just taken down a lavish fashion exhibit of Christian Dior gowns in July, the Kremlin has stepped up the expansion of its modern art and popular culture activities.
"I hope in the future we will hold even more radical modern art projects than we have so far. No museum can develop without incorporating modern art and art forms, and without touching on the pressing issues that emerge with the changing lifestyle, and fashion is part of that lifestyle," Gagarina said.
The next contemporary art exhibit planned for the museum in the heart of Moscow will show abstract works by British 20th-century sculptor Henry Moore in the Spring of 2012.
Over the summer, the Kremlin Museums displayed gem works by Russian jeweler Carl Faberge, a contemporary of Poiret. Gagarina said that exhibit beat all previous attendance records and credited a growing interest in modern art as the reason for its popularity.
Around 2 million people visit the Kremlin museums yearly.
The Poiret exhibit commemorates the 100th anniversary of the couturier's first and only visit to Russia, which inspired many of his creations including linen dresses, boots for women and evening hats with the traditional local tablecloth ornament.
Some pieces, sold by the Poiret family at an auction in 2005 to France's Musee Galliera, which donated 20 costumes, are on show for an international audience for the first time at the Kremlin, said Musee Galliera's Sophie Grossior.
The exhibit, on display in Moscow from Wednesday to January 15, 2012, also has pieces from France's Grasse perfume museum, Britain's Victoria and Albert Museum, St Petersburg's Hermitage and several Moscow libraries.
Although the exhibit offers many magazine and newspaper excerpts, book and booklet pages to see aside from the dresses on display, organizers expect plenty of interest from a public which is developing a taste for museums.
"Now, that women have been freed from hard household labor and people stopped working at their dachas as much as they used to, visiting museums has become a proper thing to do. Lifestyles have changed," said Elena Mikhailova, exhibits assistant at the Kremlin Museums for the past 25 years.
Supporting the "world's-coolest" claim, the writer noted each guest room comes with a custom-made guitar. Why, she didn't explain, but if that sort of amenity plucks your strings, you'll be delighted to know lessons are available.
A big spread a few weeks earlier carried the headline "Eat like royalty in London's elegant hotels."
At one of the four famous hostelries profiled, the author described a nine-course meal that took four hours. In another, he observed that guests are treated to a "never-ending parade of dapper tuxedo-sporting gentlemen and beautiful women in couture gowns."
No prices were mentioned, but, as we all know, if you have to ask you can't afford it.
All this was just too, too precious for someone who took decades to upgrade from B&Bs with a bathroom down the hall, and who still winces at paying more than $125 for a place to sleep.
Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't say no to a swank suite. Or a nibble of a famous chef's wild rabbit terrine.
But articles like those reflect a trend I've noticed in travel writing -- too much geared to a tiny minority at the top of the economic heap, too little to the vast majority of leisure travellers.
So I've vowed to try to make more mention of places to eat and sleep that offer good value -- and whose tab doesn't require taking out a second mortgage.
They'll be ones I've checked out myself or have come recommended by other travellers or by insiders in the tourism and hospitality industry.
You're welcome to chip in. Just e-mail me -- my address is at the bottom of the column -- with the name of the lodgings or eating place, its location and why you liked it.
In the meantime, here's the latest batch:
LODGING
* Rideau Rendezvous, a B&B on the Rideau Canal, 20 minutes' drive north of downtown Kingston; phone (613) 387-3927; bbcanada.com/9607.html."The best B&B we ever had," says a honeymooner from Toronto who loved the waterfront setting and being able to use their canoes and kayaks.
* Manoir Victoria ( manoir-victoria.com/index/php/en)and Auberge de la Place d'Armes ( aubergeplacedarmes.com),in the old part of Quebec City, recommended by two Quebec City tour operators. If the rooms seem pricey, remember you're paying for a prime location in one of Canada's most popular destinations.
RESTAURANTS
* My wife and I had a devil of a time several years back finding a decent restaurant in Sault Ste. Marie. So when I was up there in June I asked people involved in local tourism for their picks. All are Italian, reflecting one of the Soo's main ethnic groups: Arturo Ristorante, 515 Queen St.; Cesira's, 133 Spring St.; Giovanni's, 516 Great Northern Rd.; and Muio's, 685 Queen, for breakfast.
* ChezPiggy, 68PrincessSt., indowntown Kingston. Cited by two couples who mentioned how much they'd enjoyed the courtyard.
* TheBuccaneer, 128WilliamSt., Port Stanley, satisfied my craving for Lake Erie yellow perch.
Doug English can be reached at denglishtravel@gmail.com.
This summer, the Toronto Port Authority sponsored a five-day floating film festival to fete the authority's 100th anniversary. The screen was set up on a barge in the Inner Harbour just east of the Redpath Sugar building and viewers watched films from their boats or from land at Corus Quay. That event -- and the start of the Toronto International Film Festival tomorrow (Sept. 8-18) -- got me thinking about unique film experiences I've encountered or heard about on my travels.
Here are a few worth checking out:
-- Oscar films with bubbles in London: Movie buffs may want to check into The Arch hotel on their next visit to England. Guests at this chic 82-room hotel on a quiet street near Marble Arch, have complimentary access to every Oscar-winning film (Best Picture) since the 1930s. That's more than 60 films from which to choose including On the Waterfront, Lawrence of Arabia, Gandhi, Slumdog Millionaire and The Hurt Locker. Take DVDs to your room to watch on the flat screen TV from your comfy bed or, if staying in one of the 17 rooms with a bathtub, unwind with a bubble bath and watch the movie from a screen above the tub! (Grab a complimentary beverage from the mini bar first though). Rooms also feature complimentary Wi-Fi, flat-screen HD TVs, Nespresso coffee machines, and Internet radio with over 10,000 channels. The Arch, a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, is located near Hyde Park. See slh.com/thearchlondon.
-- Star in your own film: If you've ever pondered making a film, a Florida hotel wants to turn your dream into reality. The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate has a Picture This package that allows guests to capture special holiday moments. If travelling as a family, each member could play a different role: Either as director, cast, crew or editor. You'll get a new, handheld video camera along with a luxury suite equipped with editing equipment, tickets to Disney Hollywood Studios, VIP seating at the resort's dive-in screenings, a full-day cabana rental, complimentary in-room popcorn and movie, a Take-Home DVD and more.
The luxury 6-hectare resort makes an ideal movie set where your camera can capture kids sliding down the 38-metre corkscrew waterslide or floating on the 258-metre Lazy River. Available through Sept. 30 from $485 US/night. Contact 1-800-The-Omni or omniorlandoresort.com.
-- Beyond Popcorn in Arizona: Seeing movies is an upscale experience at Scottsdale's new iPic theatres. Even before you enter the screening room, several visual clues hint this isn't a typical movie house. There are chandeliers in the lobby, a swanky lounge, a restaurant with a wine tower, and contemporary mixed-media paintings depicting various movie icons in the hallways.
Moviegoers can opt for Premium seating (large leather chairs with small tables for in-cinema dining) or Premium Plus (reclining chairs, pillows and blankets, popcorn and food and beverage service for the first 20 minutes). All seats have unobstructed views of the screen. Complimentary valet parking is also available.
Watch the movie while enjoying a beer or cocktail from the Salt Lounge, or glass of wine from iPic's wine towers. Hungry? The Tanzy Express stand has a selection of freshly prepared items such as beef filet sliders, and lemon grilled chicken skewers. (Sure beats hot dogs!)
As the theatre's name, iPic, suggests, moviegoers can select the type of experience they want -- just come for the film or combine it with a drink or meal before, during or after the show.
As you might expect from an upscale cinema, it's equipped with the latest technology: Online reserved seating, all digital projection, state-of-the-art sound, automated ticket pick up at site or print at home, studio-preferred 3D technology and the latest technology for both the hearing and visually impaired.
Admission (to the movie) starts at $15 US. You can also sign up for a free membership and get discounts and invites to special events. Check ipictheaters.com.
-- Movies on the Beach: From Beach Blanket Bingo to beach blanket movies, the Gimli International Film Festival has free nightly screenings on the beach every summer. What makes this event unique is the films are projected over Lake Winnipeg onto a 10-by-10-metre screen erected on a sandbar surrounded by water.
The family friendly screenings attract hundreds of moviegoers every night, who bring their own blankets, cushions, and folding chairs. Also worth noting at "Manitoba's largest film festival" is a chance to see the aurora borealis -- the northern lights -- which sometimes appear in the night sky over the lake, competing for spectators' attention with the entertainment onscreen.
Gimli has the largest Icelandic community outside Iceland, which is reflected in the offerings at the festival. The films emphasize new and recent work by Canadian and Icelandic filmmakers plus works from other Nordic circumpolar nations. About 80 films (full-length features, documentaries, short documentaries and narrative films) are shown during the festival, which also includes indoor screenings (ticketed) at three Gimli theatres. The annual event, which takes place in July, attracts more than 5,000 visitors. The complete festival lineup for next year will be announced in late June. Check gimlifilm.com.
writer@interlog.com
1. "Toronto to Fort Mac in July, passenger in front of me reclined his seat all the way back for the entire flight. Had to be told twice at meal time to move ahead so that I could access my meal tray. But what ruined my trip was having the video monitor not six inches from my face for the whole trip, and being unable to even cross my legs. Flight attendant felt bad, but said he was within his 'rights'."
- Beverley Bell
2. "On an old Canadian Pacific DC-10 out of Calgary back in the 80's. Completely empty aircraft except for myself, six RCMP officers, and Clifford Olson. He was in the back of the aircraft and they stuck me five rows in front of him. CP in those days was offering free booze to all on board regardless of what class you were in. If ever I needed a drink it was then but I was refused because it was before 11 in the morning. They would not even let me change seats. I was a lot younger then and CP is out of business."
- Anderson Davies
3. "On my first WestJet flight from Ottawa to Calgary, years ago, the pilot announced that one of the male flight attendants had danced with Riverdance, and if we behaved ourselves and played the games the other attendants proposed as entertainment, he would dance for us. Wouldn't you know it, 45 minutes before landing in Calgary, the captain came back on the intercom, congratulated us on our sporting behaviour and introduced the dancing flight attendant. Wow, he did a complete Riverdance up and down the aisle of the plane. I didn't know the floor could shake that much. Although none of my other WestJet flights featured dancers, they're still the only company that greets me (correct pronunciation) by my first name. It's a riot."
- MyOpion
4. "Flying into Dominican we are told one wing flap won't close so we will be having a "hot" landing, trust me when I say the refreshments were aplenty when we landed, same Captain took us home a week later...right through an electrical storm, needed another vacation after."
- c1ndy
5. "A woman with long hair in front of me kept throwing it up in the air and scratching her scalp...she would then make a pony tail, sit for a minute, take it apart and repeat the whole thing in a cloud of dandruff....later I was eating pasta when she threw all of her hair over the back of her seat and I was picking hair out of my food...the lady across was horrified... what did I do? I pick up the pasta which I now couldn't eat...gently took her hair in my hand and soaked it in the tomato sauce...then I threw it back over the seat splatting all over her...I thought the woman across was going to die trying to suppress laughing out loud. Funny how people don't realize there are others in back and in front.... "
- Tim Devlin
6. "Got on the plane in Hong Kong. Someone's in my seat. Canadian Airlines had double-assigned it. No other seats available. So they sat me in a spare jump seat (where the crew sit for takeoff and landing). Not very comfy. The crew thought I was a mechanic or something. When they found out, they brought me the best food and booze and kept chatting with me. Heard a lot of good insider stories. When I transferred planes in Japan they bumped me up into 1st class."
- Al_Dente
7. "Had one women on flight back from Bahamas who decided to do her nails....yep you guessed it nail polish remover and all... that was before they banned such stuff but imagine the stink in a closed-in space... no class."
- Randolph Demone
8. "Just as we were leaving the gate in Toronto, the passenger directly in front of me freaked out. He started yelling "Help, I'm going to die", then got on his cell phone (which was supposed to be turned off) to call his mother and tell her he loved her. Naturally our flight was delayed while they offloaded the young man."
- alpage48
9. "All hell broke lose on a flight I was on from Brussels to Dakar, Senegal. Soldiers entered the plan and forcibly removed some very angry passengers. Seems a fellow passenger was crying as he was being extradited back to his home country of Gambia."
- Teach1984
10. "Was on a flight and I think it must have been a [toupee] convention, all the men had on hair pieces of some sort. One guy went into the can and did not lock the door. Was he surprised when a lady opened the door and there he was changing his wig. I laughed so hard when he came came out he asked what I was laughing about and told him you."
- torontoron