Commze

Today, Dallas is a wonderful place to be. The locals as well as the visitors can find something to love here, any time of day or night. It’s one of the largest cities in the country, and boasts a multicultural population, making for ongoing cultural dialogues that are always heady and always in process. There are plenty of attractions for visitors of all ages, and there is also a splendid alternative scene, making for daylight enjoyments and a multitude of pleasures after dark. Visiting is very easy, as hotels can be quite lovely, and enormously accommodating.

One of the more interesting intersections here is certainly culture, and one of them is history. Most people remember the Kennedy assassination, or at least are aware that it happened in Dallas. It’s one of those black holes in history, where an event that happens in a place is so stunning, and affects so many lives, that it starts to behave as if it were its own place in time. We always go back to the event when we hear about it, and this creates a strange sense of vertigo, but it always means that we are participants in history. We are able to continue to feel the force long after the event has passed, and this gives our own present an uncanny power.

It becomes even more complex and fascinating when the iconic moment reveals itself as mutable. We remember the Zapruder film, although it’s common knowledge that there are many films of the terrible moment. When new video is released, we may not exactly re-remember the event, but a perspective is added to the weight that we carry in our minds. This suggests that the past has a kind of elasticity, and that the present is something we can participate in, and Dallas today, in its best moments, demonstrates community participation in a way the Kennedy would have liked to imagine.

I learned everything about love from watching Fellini films.  It’s probably true that learning about love from the man himself would be a difficult schooling, and probably not entirely practical for most people, but I was willing to give it a go with the films.  I would have to make sure that I had plenty of suits, or at least two.  At first I thought I would have 8, one for every day of the week, and one to wear while the others were at the cleaners.  But then I considered having 8 1/2 suits, and tried to get my mind around that, which never happened.  And somewhere in there I realized that suits are very, very expensive, if you’re looking for something that you can wear well.

So I opted for 2 exquisitely tailored suits.  And when we added up the potential costs, I bought two at the second-hand store, and did a little bit of stitching myself on them.  Almost perfect.  I also decided that to begin, I would have to me a mysterious man, and to do that I should go to a mysterious place.  Singapore was always something I’d thought about, more for the sling than anything, but it would work.  There were plenty of restaurants serving Italian food, so I would be in my element.  Or at least, an element, and the one where they have Italian food in a very large city that I did not know.

It turned out you don’t need to know everything about Singapore before you go there.  If you are trying to evoke Fellini in Singapore, you will be successful in attracting attention.  Especially if you decide to hook up with a local and try to reenact the fountain scene from La Dolce Vita.  It will be wonderfully exotic and exciting for both of you, except that both of you will be you more than her.  She might decide that she will just take your shoes and leave you in the fountain by yourself.  And you might decide that the suit is still looking sharp, and the world is still your oyster, or rather, oyster sauce.

Our first day in the US of A, in New York City was to do some shopping! We found the Century 21 department store, and we found so many great things, we didn’t buy everything we wanted, because we didn’t have the room in our luggage. It was a nice offer by the sales clerks to ship the items back to New Zealand for us, but we declined. I found shopping in New York to have a ‘frantic’ quality about it, it seems like the female population of New York swarm shops, especially if there is a sale; the men just find an out-of-the-way spot where they can either watch something on there Blackberry’s or Ipods. I felt like balling up in a fetal position until the swarm headed somewhere else, but that never happened.

We both had to get back out on the street as soon as we could. We took a deep breath and a long exhale to release all that frenzied energy. Wow! New York is really a very highly charged place! We decided if we were going to survive our trip, we’d better get on the bandwagon; slow and leisure do not belong in New York.

I confess, I’ve never been to Atlanta, Georgia, properly.  I’ve only been to its Airport, the William B. Hartsfield International, better known as ATL.  For many travelers, this is a pretty big place, with several terminals, mandating a rail train to connect them all.  I approve of flying — it’s fast, efficient, and still one of the safest ways to travel — but why hasn’t anyone yet found a solution to the problem of what to do during layover time?  Of course, what you do during this time depends on how much delay or layover there is between flights.  If it’s an hour, you may only have time to seek out the things you can do in an airport.  If it’s a few hours, you might actually be able to find your way into Atlanta itself and see some real sights that the city has to offer.  If you’re flight’s delayed indefinitely, you may find yourself looking for hotels in Atlanta, preferably luxury ones, providing you with a great deal of time to explore this great city of the South.

Unless you have more than three hours, don’t leave ATL.  The stress that worrying about your next flight will bring isn’t worth it.  Fortunately, the airport itself has attractions and things to do.  You’ll find all the shops and restaurants available to you from six in the morning to about nine at night.  However after nine, the airport shops begin to shut down, and after eleven there’s nothing really open on the concourses (especially C and D).  However, if you want to go outside security, you’ll find three places open twenty-four hours!  Dominos Pizza (with their new improved taste), Wendy’s and the Atlanta Bread Company.

If you have over three hours, consider taking a trip into town, either by renting a car or by taking the subway system.   Give yourself plenty of time to get back, though.  You can store in any bags you have at Wrap-a-Bag in the North and South Terminals.  As you leave, also plan to go through security on the way back.  Make sure you’ve accounted for all of that before heading off into the city.  You’ll need at least an hour and a half once you return to get through security and return to your gate.

Of course, if you find yourself staying overnight, then there’s plenty of options that open up before you.  The World of Coca-Cola Museum, the Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta Underground, Margaret Mitchell’s house (the author of Gone with the Wind), even a tour of CNN headquarters.  If you’re staying overnight unexpectedly, you’ll want to see at least one of the places, just to relax!

Well it is time to book your room at one of the luxurious hotels in Augusta Georgia for that famous Golf tournament known as The Masters. It won’t be long when the people and the player will be able to roll out onto the lush green grass and watch the Superbowl of Golf. This is one of the events that has made Augusta so famous in modern times. It looks like there is absolutely nothing else going on in the city during the first part of the month of April. All events go on lock down mode so maybe it is because all of the singing stars and comedians are going to be at The Masters.

So what do you do in Augusta for the month of April if you don’t care for golf? The museums might be empty. Check out the Augusta Museum of History were you can get a great view of the history of both the city and the region. There are permanent exhibits as well as visiting exhibits. In April you will be able to catch the history theater film, Bobby Jones, Stroke of Genius which is of course about golf. However, it is a good movie. Then there are the permanent exhibitions such as the WBBQ radio history, Augusta’s Story, Georgia Railroad and Banking Company and the Transportation Corridor.

If you have brought your kids you may want to head over to The National Science Center which is built to get kids excited about were learning science and math can take them. If you are a collector of sophisticated you may want to see the collection at the Morris Museum of Art. This would be a nice unwind from any business trip you might be on in Augusta.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Neal Street Productions and The Old Vic Theatre continue their collaboration of efforts known as the Bridge Project and Sam Mendes will continue to direct the company. The latest and greatest efforts by the Bridge Project will be productions of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and The Tempest, which will run in repertory at the BAM Harvey Theater in Brooklyn through March. After the Brooklyn run an international tour of the productions will began and this will take the plays, and their actors, to Asia and Europe before settling into The Old Vic Theatre in London for a summer run from June to August. The company uses top English and American actors to create the ensemble and each of the plays’ casts are filled with the best actors available.

As You Like It is generally considered to be one of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedies and is accepted as having been written sometime between 1599 and 1600. As with most of Shakespeare’s comedies oppressed love plays a significant role and the heroes and heroines find a way to escape their oppressor. In As You Like It Rosalind escapes persecution from her uncle and Flees into the Forest of Arden with her fool Touchtone. This play has the time honored famous line all the world’s a stage, which is spoken by Jacques.

The Tempest has variously been considered a comedy and a romance depending on the time period and academic philosophy attached to it. It was originally labeled a comedy and Shakespeare’s plays have historically been placed into three categories, comedies, histories and tragedies though contemporary criticism has added possible categories of problem plays and romances. However it is classified, The Tempest is both funny and romantic and has all the elements of great intrigue and mystery. It is also one of his most esoteric plays and some critics have argues that the character of Prospero is a literary self-portrait and his putting away of his magical books represents Shakespeare’s own retirement from writing. As with all theories of Shakespeare’s inspirations and intentions, this is difficult to prove. Regardless of what he was thinking tourists staying here will enjoy the prouctions.

It’s always a wonderful feeling when you’re on vacation in a beautiful place, and realize that they’re about to have a flea market or yard sale.  It’s especially welcome when you find yourself enjoying the local culture and the community, because when these events are happening, you suddenly have an unusual opportunity.   This can be even more exciting than tasting something new in a new place, and loving it.  Because in this scenario, you can buy a piece of their souls and take it home with you.  Ocean City is a particularly attractive place, and they have plenty of hotels to demonstrate for you how beautiful the city really is.

If you love the beach, and who doesn’t, then this is the place.  It’s had a long and very successful run as a major tourist attraction, and it’s also built up a very lively local community over the generations.  The community is strong enough to have their own aesthetics, philosophies, and moral outlook on the world.  It’s difficult to say exactly what their cosmologies add up to, because there are multiple notions of the here and beyond, but it’s always possible to make some guesses with their artifacts.  This is where the city wide yard sale comes into play.

You don’t have to have any formal anthropological or ethnographic training to know when there’s a bargain in front of you, nor does it take a degree to decide that a particular object has some cultural value.  When you are sorting through clown paintings and ashtrays shaped like owls, it’s very possible to make some connections between the object and the community.  The clown is the great trickster, and the owl is a messenger from the world of the dead, so we’ve stumbled upon something larger than ourselves here.  There are other city wide garage sales, but they speak of other worlds, too far away from here.

No trip along the nation’s East Coast would be complete without a stop at one of the oldest colonies in America, Williamsburg.  The first successful British Colony in North America was Jamestown, founded in May of 1607, four hundred and three years ago.  There were several failed attempts before it, with the Roanoke Lost Colony creating a number of mysterious legends in its wake (a play titled The Lost Colony was produced by the Roanoke Island Historical Association that explores this fascinating moment in American history).  In 1693, the nearby town of Middle Plantation began one of the oldest colleges in the nation, the College of William and Mary.  A few years later, Virginia’s Colony’s capital moved to Middle Plantation, where it became known as Williamsburg.

All of this history makes Williamsburg a fascinating place to visit.  You can attend Colonial Williamsburg, where buildings are virtually unchanged from the early days of the United States, and people re-enact what it was like to live in that time.  You can travel the Colonial Parkway, part of the National Park Service, taking in its scenic eleven miles, which connects Williamsburg to Yorktown.  There, you’ll find the Colonial National Historical Park, where you can see the Yorktown Battlefield, the actual place in which the Battle of Yorktown was waged.   You might check out the Yorktown Victory Center, as well, where you’ll find more living history run by the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation.

If the study of the Civil War isn’t to your liking, then you might try a ghost tour or spend a day or two at Busch Gardens Europe amusement park.  No matter what your interest, you’ll find stopping at Williamsburg will be worth it.  All you need to do is find a place to stay there, and that’s easy to do.  Just go to http://www.hotelswilliamsburg.com and you’ll find a hotel right for you.