Tag Archives: Reviews

Travel Destinations: Isla Palenque Is An Island Eco-Paradise Off Panama

From an Architectural Digest online review:

Isla Palenque Resort Panama PoolAs a natural paradise rooted in sustainable luxury, only 5 percent of the island is developed, with the rest kept as a nature reserve. “It’s 400 acres of unspoiled jungle, lagoons, mangroves, and beaches that create intimate connections between the land and the traveler,” notes Benjamin Loomis, the architect and developer behind Isla Palenque Resort. From the people to the food to the design materials, everything is sourced locally (most even coming directly from the property).

Let’s strip it back to the basics. Imagine your own private island: 400-acres of lush rain forest with a rich archaeological history and secluded beaches accessible by foot from a beachfront casita. At Isla Palenque, a small private island on the western Pacific shore of Panama, this is exactly what guests are treated to: a sustainable and intimate escape that is the ultimate expression of barefoot luxury. A plane, an automobile, and a boat ride are the minimum requirements to get there, but once you arrive, allow the tide to kiss your feet while you sip a fresh fruit juice at sunset on a beach you have completely to yourself.

To read more: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/this-private-island-oasis-in-panama-raises-the-bar-on-sustainable-design-retreats

Nostalgia: New Book On “Holiday Magazine” Portrays It’s “Romance Of Travel” From 1946-1977

From the RizzoliUsA.com website:

Holiday The Best Travel Magazine That Ever Was By Pamela FioriThe first book on magazine sensation Holiday, which between 1946 and 1977 was one of the most exciting publications in the world. Renowned for its bold layouts, literary credibility, and ambitious choice of photographers and artists, Holiday portrayed the romance of travel like no other periodical.

At Holiday magazine’s peak, urbane editor, Ted Patrick, and visionary art director, Frank Zachary, invited postwar America to see and read about the world. On the journey, readers joined the magazine’s renowned roster of talent. Some of the most celebrated writing by Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Joan Didion, Truman Capote, Colette, and E. B. White (his piece “Here Is New York” was commissioned for Holiday in 1949) first appeared in its pages. Henri Cartier-Bresson documented a breathtaking Paris and other cities; Slim Aarons captured the glamour of travel around the world; and Al Hirschfeld and Ludwig Bemelmans contributed showstopping illustrations of places and personages.

Pamela Fiori writes about the magazine’s history, giving it context during the era of the jet age, world turbulence, and the rise of Madison Avenue advertising. Holiday was a vibrant original, inspiring travel magazines that followed and leaving glorious photography and art as well as thought-provoking journalism in its wake.

To read more: https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847866250/

Boomers Fitness: 63-Year Old Unicycler Pedaled 30,000 Miles To Peak Health

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

Mr. Peterson pulls a trick on his unicycle in Redondo Beach, Calif. PHOTO DAVID WALTER BANKS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALNow 63, Mr. Peterson has progressed from bike paths to rugged mountain trails and is known for his caped helmet emblazoned with his nickname, UniGeezer. Based on his GPS and bike computer, he estimates he’s logged nearly 30,000 miles, or 24 million pedal revolutions, since he started.

He thinks there’s a fear factor that prevents more people from trying unicycling. “If you fall, 99% of the time you land on your feet,” Mr. Peterson says. His worst injury was a torn piriformis, a tiny muscle behind the glutes, from overuse.

Unicycling isn’t as trendy as spin class, but Terry Peterson says he sweats just as much and smiles way more.

In 2006, at age 50, Mr. Peterson was 30 pounds overweight and got winded climbing a flight of stairs. His job as a piano tuner in Lomita, Calif., was mostly sedentary.

Popular workouts like running, cycling and boot camp sounded boring. “I needed something that would constantly demand my attention and keep me entertained,” he says. He thought back to his childhood unicycle, googled his old toy and was wowed by online videos of Canadian off-road unicycling pioneer Kris Holm. “This wasn’t the cheap ride I had when I was 11,” he says. “He was on a real, purpose-built unicycle doing unreal tricks.”

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/hes-gone-a-long-way-on-his-unicycle-11571572801

Top Podcasts: US Constitutional Law Expert Brian Kalt On 25th Amendment (Quillette)

Unable The Law, Politics, and Limits of Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth AmendmentBrian Kalt, an expert on US constitutional law and the presidency, talks to Jonathan Kay about the 25th Amendment and whether it can be used to remove a president. Professor Kalt recently published a book called Unable: The Law, Politics, and Limits of Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.

 

Top New Exhibitions: “The Last Knight” At The Metropolitan Museum, NYC Through Jan 5, 2020

From the MetMuseum.org online:

The Last Knight Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition BookThe Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I examines the profound significance of European armor at the dawn of the Renaissance, through the lens of Emperor Maximilian I’s (1459–1519) remarkable life. On view only at The Met, The Last Knight coincides with the five-hundredth anniversary of Maximilian’s death, and is the most ambitious North American loan exhibition of European arms and armor in decades. Including 180 objects selected from some thirty public and private collections in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, The Last Knight will explore how Maximilian’s unparalleled passion for the trappings and ideals of knighthood served his boundless worldly ambitions, imaginative stratagems, and resolute efforts to forge a lasting personal and family legacy.

This exhibition features many works of art on view outside Europe for the first time, including Maximilian’s own sumptuous armors that highlight his patronage of the greatest European armorers of his age, as well as related manuscripts, paintings, sculpture, glass, tapestry, and toys, all of which emphasize the emperor’s dynastic ambitions and the centrality of chivalry at the imperial court and beyond.

To read more: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2019/last-knight-art-armor-ambition-maximilian?utm_source=Exhibitions&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2019_1019_Met_Exhibitions

Top Scenic Bike Rides: The Hilly Scenery Of Bologna’s Back Country

From an Italy Magazine online article:

Bologna Italy BikingThe awesome sight of the expansive Reno river greets you as you enter Casalecchio di Reno. A fairly non-descript satellite town, Casalecchio’s best asset is Parco Della Chiusa (also known as Parco Talon), a vast forest and nature reserve full of crumbling old mansions, hiking trails and great views of the river and undulating hills. The park is a popular spot for picnics and makes a worthwhile destination on its own.

Italy MagazineIn this half-day cycle starting from central Bologna and ending at the small town of Sasso Marconi, you can take in hilly scenery of Bologna’s back country, see where history was made at the villa of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi and sample some local delicacies in one of the province’s best osterias. The route is entirely flat, mostly along cycle paths and can be done by even the most beginner cyclist. With no tourists around, it offers a chance to see Italian life in all of its ordinariness, away from the sometimes twee environs of the centro storico.

In total, the ride from Bologna to Sasso Marconi should take you one hour at a leisurely pace, not counting stops along the way. Rent a bicycle from Dynamo, a bike co-op on Via dell’Indipendenza near the bus station – a half day rental will cost you 13 euros.

To read more: https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/get-out-town-half-day-cycle-trip-bologna

New Art Books: “Morning Glory On The Vine” By Joni Mitchell Is “Vivid, Intimate”

From a New Yorker online article:

Joni Mitchell Morning Glory on the Vine drawingI became engrossed in Mitchell’s drawings while browsing the book—they’re vivid, intimate—but her handwritten lyrics and poems are just as revelatory. It’s hard not to think about art-making of any kind as an alchemical process, in which feelings and experiences go in and something else comes out. Whatever happens in between is mysterious, if not sublime: suddenly, an ordinary sensation is made beautiful. Our most profound writers do this work with ease, or at least appear to. Mitchell’s lyrics are never overworked or self-conscious, and she manages to be precise in her descriptions while remaining ambiguous about what’s right and what’s wrong; in her songs, the cures and the diseases are sometimes indistinguishable. 

Joni Mitchell Morning Glory on the Vine BookJoni Mitchell, in the foreword to “Morning Glory on the Vine,” her new book of lyrics and illustrations, explains that, in the early nineteen-seventies, just as her fervent and cavernous folk songs were finding a wide audience, she was growing less interested in making music than in drawing. “Once when I was sketching my audience in Central Park, they had to drag me onto the stage,” she writes. Though Mitchell is deeply beloved for her music—her album “Blue” is widely considered one of the greatest LPs of the album era and is still discussed, nearly fifty years later, in reverent, almost disbelieving whispers—she has consistently defined herself as a visual artist. “I have always thought of myself as a painter derailed by circumstance,” she told the Globe and Mail, in 2000. At the very least, painting was where she directed feelings of wonderment and relish. “I sing my sorrow and I paint my joy,” is how she put it.

To read more: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/joni-mitchell-discusses-her-new-book-of-early-songs-and-drawings

New Books: “Edison” By Pulitzer Prize-Winner Edmund Morris (2019)

From a Wall Street Journal online review:

Edison by Edmuns Morris 2019Not until July 16 did Edison feel that he had a device worth patenting. The application he signed that day specified multiple timpani that “reproduced” vocal inflections and a sibilant-sensitive diaphragm. But a laboratory visitor (spying for Bell) found the instrument more powerful than clear, with the word schism sounding more like kim.

“We have had terrible hard work on the Speaking telegraph,” Batchelor complained to his fellow inventor Ezra Gilliland. For the past five to six weeks, he added, Edison’s team had been “frequently working 2 nights together until we all had to knock off from want of sleep.”

Thomas Alva Edison’s self-proclaimed greatest invention, the phonograph, won him overnight fame. Journalists would marvel that such an acoustic revolution, adding a whole new dimension to human memory, could have been accomplished by a man half deaf in one ear and wholly deaf in the other.

In February 1877, the same month that saw Edison turn 30 and show his first streaks of silver hair, he and his fellow inventor Charles Batchelor began a new series of experiments on what they called, variously, the “telephonic telegraph,” the “speaking telegraph” and the “talking telephone.”

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-making-of-thomas-edisons-miraculous-machine-11571324989

Technology: ANA And OmniLabs Unveil “NewMe” Avatar Robot Allowing Humans To Teleport Their Presence Instantaneously

From a Robotics Business Review online article:

NewMe Robot ANAAs part of the ANA Holdings exhibit, ANA is planning to unveil an all-new AVATAR robot “newme” to mark the next phase of the project. Engineered and manufactured by OhnniLabs with its advanced additive manufacturing process and modular architecture, the new robot is specifically designed for the Japanese market based on years of ANA’s research and experience on connecting people across the globe. The AVATAR project, also known as Avatar In,  aims to integrate multiple exponential technologies, including robotics, haptics, AR/VR, and AT, to “enable humanity to instantaneously teleport their presence, consciousness, knowledge and skills to a remote location.”

NewMe Robot ANA Telepresence

NewMe Robot ANA Telepresence

TOKYO – OhmniLabs today announced it was participating at the 2019 Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (aka CEATEC), to be held this week in Chiba, Japan. In addition, the company said it would be participating in ANA Holdings’ exhibit as a partner for the company’s ANA AVATAR project, which highlights telerobotics innovations.

To read more: https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/events/ohmnilabs-ana-holdings-partner-on-newme-telerobotics-platform/

Travel Destinations: The Nikko Kanaya Hotel Is A “Glorious Relic From A Lost World” In Japan

From a Wall Street Journal online review:

Nikko Kanaya Hotel Japan HistoryFINICKY WESTERN EATERS would still be relieved to find filet mignon on the French menu of the hotel, now known as the Nikko Kanaya, a 90-minute drive from Tokyo. The dining room itself looks much as it did when it first opened, in 1893 and eagle-eyed diners might notice that the wooden pillars are decorated with flower carvings that echo those of the nearby Toshogu shrine. The views from the guest rooms are likewise unchanged—forest-covered mountains in the background, the same fastidiously manicured gardens in the foreground that the Einsteins strolled in 1922. Other parts of the hotel feel mildly haunted, like a Japanese version of “The Shining.” The wood-paneled lobby is well worn, stairwells creak noticeably and a shadowy cocktail bar features fading black-and-white photos of forgotten ’20s parties, with men in tuxedos and women in frocks smiling at the camera. 

THE 19TH-CENTURY FOREIGNERS who first ventured to the Japanese mountain town of Nikko came away enchanted by the scenery: ornate Shinto shrines set among rivers, forests and waterfalls. But those same visitors were less impressed with the lodging options. Many griped about the local inns, furnished with futon-beds set on the floor and paper walls that offered no privacy. And the food? Overly exotic at best. British traveler Isabella Bird offered a typical review: “The fishy and vegetable abominations known as ‘Japanese food’ can only be swallowed and digested by a few, and that after long practice.” In 1873, in an attempt to cater to Western sensibilities, Zenichiro Kanaya, a 21-year-old temple musician, opened rooms in his family house, serving guests simply-prepared poultry, rainbow trout and eggs.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-japanese-hotel-is-a-glorious-relic-from-a-lost-world-11571314355