Herbert Can Be Ever Ready

Upon arrival at the mile high city, walking through the Denver International Airport , you might pause to take a look at one of the first sights Colorado offers its visitors — an art installation titled “America: Why I Love Her,” which is the work of a customer service agent for Continental Airlines.

Early in the 1990s, Gary Sweeny spent one year traveling courtesy of his airline to visit some of the United States most unusual attractions. He snapped photos of these places and brought them back to Denver, sharing them with whomever walked through the airport in the form of two big maps of the U.S. on opposite walls at the airport. You’ll find them along your way to the east baggage claim, a placement that made certain thousand of people a day would see the art and these unusual places in America.

But Mr. Sweeny’s art work is not alone in the Denver airport. You’ll find exhibitions year round, as well as special displays for a limited time. Currently, in the Bridge to A Gates, you’ll find “33 Ideas! Inquiry at the Intersection of Art, Science, and Land/Human Issues” from March until June of 2010.

This work was created by literary and visual artists who are linked to the Colorado Art Ranch , work from people who have been artists in residence, presenters, or involved in symposias with the ranch, which began based on the belief that the arts can create change in a society.

Imagine, for instance, the world without the scientist and artist, Leonardo da Vinci, both devoid of his paintings, sculpture, and scientific thinking. Four hundred years before the proper science and tools existed to construct a helicopter, he designed one; it’s the Colorado Art Ranch that promotes this idea between the connection of arts and science.

Artists and scientists come from around the globe to spend a month in Colorado to explore their work and talk about their ideas to artists who already live in Colorado. Look for events of this group not only in Denver, but all around the state. You may even follow them, staying in luxury hotels Colorado offers to its visitors in various cities, including Denver. This fusion of art and science and Colorado all begins at the airport.

Filed by Herbert Jones at 4:10 pm under Travel
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I found that my stay in Boca Raton, Florida to be everything I expected and so much more. Boca has white sandy beaches and the climate was perfect. I really enjoyed deep-sea fishing, the museums and all the golf courses I could fit into my itinerary, plus an unexpected pleasure.

My first day, I booked a boat to take me deep-sea fishing. I’ve never done that kind of fishing before, so I was very excited the moment I stepped foot on this 33′ Contender sport fishing yacht! The interior had leather couches, air-conditioning and a state-of-the-art stereo equipment and satellite TV! I picked this charter because they specialized in amateurs and professionals alike. They also offered some of the best Sailfishing on the East Coast and go very close to the Bahamas for Marlin and Tuna fishing.

That day, I was the only fishing client on-board, so I got special treatment. The crew was extremely knowledgeable and very helpful with explaining how to deep-sea fish. The reason I was the only client was that it’s still early in the year for Marlin and Tuna, but they were going out to sea anyways and thought it would be a good time for a beginner to get their deep-sea fishing legs. I had a total blast. I didn’t catch anything like a Marlin or a Tuna, but I did catch a Mahi Mahi !

Later that night, after taking a nice hot shower at my hotel , I met up with one of the crew members for drinks and dinner! He was very nice and funny. We hit it off on the yacht earlier in the day, and when he asked me out, at first I thought he must be kidding, but he was serious and told me he’d show me a good time out on the town. He was right, the restaurant he picked for dinner was expensive and fantastic. Then he took me out dancing to this great club and we danced the night away.

When I got off the yacht, I didn’t realize that I had caught more than a deep-sea fish, I caught a real live man!

Filed by Herbert Jones at 4:10 pm under Travel
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Wedding Planning can be time consuming and confusing. Let the experts take care of what they do best and sit back and enjoy your newfound love! It should be a time to experience the magic of starting a new life with someone. Making new plans for the future should not revolve around the long stem or mini vase roses for the reception dinner. It may seem like a fun thing to do with your girlfriends while you and your future hubby try not to spend every waking moment together, but you will soon notice how your tastes really do differ! Plan a wedding in the lush backdrop of Hawaii and feel the stress melt away before you even land! If a destination wedding is not an option, there is always the honeymoon!

Honolulu is an excellent choice for a honeymoon location. No matter if you decide to get married on the mainland or make it a private getaway for two, got to Honolulu. An abundance of luxury honolulu hotels to choose from. Hawaii specializes in creating and exuding aloha. The atmosphere of tranquility and harmony is one that will translate into your souls forever. The waterfalls around the island open up into private lagoons so that romance and intimacy is not lost in a big crowd or overrun casinos.

If adventure is your middle name, Honolulu can accommodate you too! Jump off the cliff into a warm lagoon of water. Hiking trails across the island also provide a fabulous workout and as much adventure as you can handle. Climb up to the rim of a volcano and feel the power that is nature.

Some couples would like a more laid back experience with massages and private snorkeling . This too is a specialty of the island. Soak up the sun on a private beach getaway and feel closer to nature and your loved one than ever before. Share the experiences of awe and wonder as you see colorful fish through the clear waters.

Filed by Herbert Jones at 4:10 pm under Travel
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There are only a few great moments in the world which are consistently celebrated and grieved: the birth of a new human being, the marriage of a human being, and the death of a human being. Every other event seems to pale beside these. People mark the personal achievements of others, such as acquiring a new job or home, but none are met with the same intensity as getting the opportunity to marry the person you love or to welcome a newborn onto the planet or to say goodbye to those we’ve loved and who are no longer sharing this journey with us. If you come to Philadelphia, you’ll want to explore all the city has to offer. Check into a room here , then see that famous cracked Liberty Bell, take a look at the Franklin Institute, wander around Independence Hall. But, in all of that, take some time to see one of the more unusual museums you’ll ever come across: The Museum of Mourning Art over in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

The exhibits in this museum focus on how we experience the last stage of life, displaying objects that related to death, such as skulls and skeletons, crossed bone, even more ethereal and symbolic objects, such as the Lamb and angels. These art forms may be detailed on clocks, books, gates, jewelry, ceramics — indeed, any number of art forms. Most of the exhibits here originate from the 17th and 19th Centuries, illustrating what people thought about death and heaven and hell. There’s a horse-drawn hearse at the Museum of Mourning Art, surrounded by an Willow and Lamb Iron Gate, meant to suggest God and the Resurrection. There’s seventy pieces of Mourning Jewelry. These items were given to friends and families as keepsakes from the deceased; the arrangements for the gifts were provided in wills. George Washington, for example, gave five rings to friends; when the Reverend George Whitefield was executed, he gave three of these rings to the men who killed him.

In the museum, you’ll also see an example of a Cemetery Gun. This odd device was meant to discourage grave robbing. At the time, physicians and artists, who needed to study anatomy, sometimes stole from the graves. The guns were rigged to fire, if a robber tripped a wire; however, this device didn’t discriminate between robbers and mourners, and so its use was outlawed.

In order to experience one of the more unusual museums in Pennsylvania, you’ll need to make a reservation, whether you’re by yourself or in a group. If you’re making an individual reservation, though, it’s possible to make the arrangements just a day or two in advance .

Filed by Herbert Jones at 4:10 pm under Travel
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Sought-out sights in the world have always included the architecture inspired by spirituality, such as great cathedrals of Europe and ancient temples in China.  In the case of the island city-state of Singapore, you’ll find the oldest and most prominent is the Thian Hock Keng or the Temple of Heavenly Bliss.   Built in 1839, around twenty years after Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore as a simple trading post on the Singapore River and about one hundred and seventy-one years from today, this Hokkien Temple was constructed to honor the Chinese Sea Goddess Mazu or Mat-Su.

The story behind Mazu is a fascinating one, in which a girl is transformed into a goddess.  There is history about this girl contained in immensely old edicts from the government, from court documents, and even shipping logs, as well as Taoist scriptures, that describes Mazu as a young girl and the goddess she became.  Even to this day, she has fifteen hundred operating temples and about a hundred million followers.  Folk tradition for Mazu describes how in times of trouble if you call upon her by name, Mazu, she will come to your aid; however, if you address her in a more formal manner, such as the Empress of Heaven, then your rescue will be postponed as this means she must delay in order to put on more formal attire.  The goddess is based on a woman named Lin Mo Niang to which people attribute miracles during her brief lifetime.  She knew Chinese medicine and came to be known as a healer; some of the miracles, though, were about stopping seastorms, and this established her as a protector of sailors and travelers.

The temple’s history is contained in granite tablets which reside on the wall of the Entrance Hall; there’s an inscribed plaque also inside which Emperor Guang Xu of the Qing Dynasty from 1907 gave to the temple, a sign of how important people considered this site.  The plaque reads, Bo Jing Nan Ming, which means Gentle Waves over the South Seas.  The building is composed in from the traditional form of Southern Chinese architecture.   There were no nails used in its construction, and is considered a masterwork of architecture which uses tiles and wood, stones, statues of dragons and phoenixes, and intricate carvings and sculptures amidst the columns.

This temple is only one of many sights available to a traveler in Singapore.  All one need do is to arrange for a flight and to stay in one the hotels in Singapore, and begin exploring.  If you go to Singapore, be sure not to miss this building, which has been declared a national monument of Singapore for the last  thirty-seven years.

Filed by Herbert Jones at 1:36 pm under Art,Culture,Entertainment,People,Travel
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All though it is fabulous, your hotel room in San Francisco won’t be able to keep you from mysteries that lie out on the Island of the Pelicans. The intense prison, Alcatraz, is to much of a lure to keep you in the perfectly divine spa all day. Your going to have to get out into the ocean sea breeze and cross that bay with all the other curious people to see if you really can hear the walls talking in what was once the toughest prison in the United States. The Island of the Pelicans was a harmless piece of land in the middle of the bay when it was first explored and over a few hundred years it became many things. Not much in the beginning, then turned into a military site and then turned into a crazy prison with the most intense inmates. Now it stands as one of the most visited places in San Francisco. People come from all over the world to see Alcatraz and they get there tickets and reservations months in advance.

The island was once owned by Julian Workman who was given the land in 1846 by the then Mexican governor Pio Pico. He was to build a lighthouse on it for navigating around the bay. Some how a Francis Temple had the island and ended up selling it to the United States government through John C Fremont for 5000.00 in 1846. United States President Millard Fillmore had the island set aside to be used for military purposes in 1850 when the U.S. gained California from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. Fremont was to be reimbursed for the purchase of the island but the government never paid him and a battle went on until the 1890s. The military did end up using the island first as a way to protect the coast from any unwanted intruders

Filed by Herbert Jones at 11:20 am under Culture,People,Travel
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It would be a blessing to anyone to have the chance to get your band together for another tour in the same year that you’re having your 63rd birthday.  This is happening this year to Iggy Pop, and it really couldn’t happen to a more swell guy.  They haven’t released all the places and dates yet, but New York had better be a stop.  This is the place to see all of punk rock’s great godfathers and godfathers, along with all the godmothers, even if he is technically from Detroit.  We could probably even go so far as say that after all this time, he’s really a European star, and that’s closer to the New York sensibility.  But maybe Detroit needs a boost, and they can keep claiming him.

It’s an interesting year for music ahead, but this one is reason enough to book a hotel at this site and get ready for a major show.  His new album, Preliminaires is a pretty fantastic work, and like all the work that diverges from the typical Pop, which is to say, everything that he’s recorded, it’s a new direction.  There aren’t the usual grinding melodies that speak of an adolescent angst, this one is much more adult.  It’s very broody and moody, and at times gives a sense of Nick Cave doing show tunes at a dance hall for the dead.

This is a very French work for Pop, if such a thing can even be said.  There is a lot of style here, and because it’s him, there’s also plenty of substance.  He can still hold his own in any mosh pit, and still has the famous six-pack that makes Hollywood hunks hang their heads in shame, but something’s happened here.  He’s found a pathway to express a very deep and profound sadness and loneliness that could never be reached through the pounding anger.  There is no trace of false aggression here, nor is there much self-pity, but a mature artist using all the tools at his disposal to paint the inner life that resonates with all of us.

Filed by Herbert Jones at 12:16 pm under Travel
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The legacies of famous artists who have done important works in New York City are strong enough to cause a large metaphysical weight to fall upon those who come to make new work.  The projects that have the most connections to the world are the ones who often suffer from the weight the most, and they are also up for the most scrutiny from the international critical art community.  It’s a deeply moving thing, then, when an artist can make something that causes others to take notice, because it takes extreme amounts of compassion as well as a large amount of arrogance.  It’s a rather tough combination, and not everyone is up for the task.

Young artists looking for an idea, or looking for ways they might make their idea manifest, often come to New York with the intention of exploring possibilities.  There is no real authority on the best way to do it, except to find a nice hotel and follow up on all of your connections.  It’s still a business based on networking, and it always has been.  It’s fascinating, then, to try to discover what kinds of networks the most bold artists of the 20th century had at their disposal.  Joseph Beuys was by no means an exemplary salesman of ideas, although his work was in many regards concrete examples of his complex philosophical arguments.

New generations of conceptual artists can do worse than trying to muster up the same weight of intention and example that Bueys did with his work, I Like America and America Likes Me.  In this performance, he was flown to New York, put it an ambulance wrapped in felt, and carried into a gallery where he would live with a coyote for four days.  In the process of the performance, there were many iconic actions that left gorgeous impressions on the visual archive of the century.  His work was in many ways a reflection of his views on the war, this was 1974 after all, and also his ideas of a humane world, where Native wisdom gets its sacred and elevated place back.  The only question in all of this is: how did the coyote feel about having to be locked up with a large man for four days?  That’s a statement that only the coyotes would understand.

Filed by Herbert Jones at 10:35 am under Travel
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The truth is that there are few cities like Atlanta, Georgia in the world.  It’s a place of unique sights and engaging people; here, you’ll find Atlanta filled with luxury and comfort and hotels that anyone would be happy to make their home (however temporary), while viewing the sights, including the Georgia Aquarium.

The Georgia Aquarium is the world’s largest with over eight million gallons of water.  Right now, this marine life museum is presenting an exhibit called, Planet Shark: Predator or Prey.  Scarily enough, this is billed as an interactive experience.  The Aquarium already exhibits fourteen species of sharks in its present collection, but this special exhibit goes way beyond what you might find in any other place.

Planet Shark will allow you to see models at full-scale of sharks.  You’ll see one such model of a Great White Shark; this creature was eighteen feet long, giving the shark in Jaws a run for its money.   Speaking of which, you’ll be able to see items and shark cages from the movie, Jaws, as well as numerous artifacts of shark jaws and teeth.  You’ll see fossils that can be dated as far back as three hundred and fifty million years ago.

The idea of this exhibit is to give the aquarium’s guests facts which can foster a more complete understanding of the shark.  There’s a number of myths that build up around these amazing animals, and the aquarium is ready to dispel these myths.  You’ll hear stories, too, about actual encounters people have had with sharks, told not only by the experts, but by the survivors of these incidents.  You’ll learn, too, about how sharks behave and about what relationships they form.  There’s also a display that features an actual Bluefin tuna (700 pounds of it!) and an actual Mako shark, its predator.  Both creatures are frozen, giving an opportunity to see what an encounter between this predator and prey might be like.  The Georgia Aquarium is an absolute must on any trip to Atlanta.

Filed by Herbert Jones at 11:51 am under Entertainment,Travel
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New York is well known for many different reasons. It’s an internationally famous metropolis and is commonly referred to as the theatre capital of the nation. Broadway and city wide experimental productions are not the only thing New York is known for though it is certainly one of the most attractive features for many of its tourists. This brings up one of the interesting aspects of New York. It is so famous and full of great cultural and historic landmarks and attractions that almost every street has a major landmark or icon on it. If this isn’t exactly accurate than it is certainly true that every neighborhood in the five boroughs is distinct and known for a particular establishment or cultural orientation.

There is a reason this overcrowded, noisy, traffic congested city is the number one vacation destination for people across the world. In fact there is more than one. And going back to the subject to neighborhoods and their cultural aspects and relevance, Little Italy in Manhattan is certainly one to explore and enjoy.

Of course its true that some of the best Italian food in New York can be found in Little Italy but there is also a great number of additional cultural features and attractions that entice and entertain tourists and New York residents all year. As with most neighborhoods in Manhattan, shopping is possible and great deals as well as unique gifts and souvenirs can be found in Little Italy. Places like Il Coccio are incredibly enticing to shoppers looking to decorate their homes in some great Italian ceramic art pieces. Sandy’s and the Little Italy Gift shop are great stops for the more general trendy and immediate needs items. Whatever you’re looking for don’t forget to leave time and enough appetite to enjoy a delicious pastry or other dessert at La Bella Ferrara Pasticceria. And most importantly, have fun, relax and enjoy your trip.

Filed by Herbert Jones at 1:44 pm under Travel
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