John M. Edwards finds out that Costa Rican Artist Saul Bolaños’s Medium Is Hot Costa Rica, a coffee democracy in a sea of banana republics, is known more for its number-one export than its art. So perhaps it is only natural that Costa Rican photo-artist Saul Bolaños decided to fuse the two and extract art from the ubiquitous bean. His CAFEGRAFIA®, sepia-color photo images made real by coffee, explore the offbeat flight paths of Central … [Read more...]
Independence Days: The Firths of Fourth and Fourteenth
John M. Edwards switches two similar independence holidays around, “when” left intentionally vague, while storming the Bastille crowd on the 4th of July and watching the Hudson fireworks on the 14th of Juillet. In Paris, I finally managed to go by “bateau mouche” (boat fly) to one of my favorite sights on the Seine: the original little lady, a smaller prototype of “The Statue of Liberty”—a colossal gift from France which was shipped over to … [Read more...]
Let Les Bons Temps Roules in Red New Orleans
John M. Edwards discovers New Orleans unique cuisine to be out of this world, not just Creole and Cajun clichés (“Gumbo” and “Jambalaya”), but also, well, nothing beats an Oyster Poboy! At the legendary Napoleon House in New Orleans, Lousiana, I found myself expectantly dreaming of a dressed “Oyster Poboy,” especially since they had not even one of them on their menus. (Hurricane Katrina had literally wiped out many of the oyster beds way back … [Read more...]
Indonesia: Hello Mister!
The motion sensor detects my presence and two glass doors slide open to grant me entry into the Woolworth's Supermarket. I grab a trolly (shopping cart) and peruse the isles pausing to examine labels at my will. Although I have been shopping for decades, this time feels a little different. To my right a woman in pink track shorts excuses herself to reach across and grab the peanut butter. A mother wheels by with a small girl strapped in the … [Read more...]
Pencils In The Land Of Flowers
After hopping off our motorbikes we made our way down the dirt road leading up to the ocean. With the mid-afternoon sun blazing, the smell of yesterday's drying fish was stout. As we passed by the makeshift shops and shacks, we captured the local women's attentiond. They were all seated upon dusty edges raised above the junky, polluted streets (every other one with a newborn plugged into one of her breasts) and quietly began whispering. Stopping … [Read more...]
Conned By An Entire Community?
We'd been in Nepal's bustling capital city less than 24 hours. In what has become routine upon arriving in a new city, I was up around sunrise eager to wander out and explore the streets of a place that's been a dream of mine for over a decade. Like every other SE Asian country's capital, Kathmandu's streets are chaotic. Chaotic, I said. The roads are awful. Resembling heavily bombed strips of concrete, the streets are extremely fractured and … [Read more...]
Touring Napa Valley: Tasting wine where it’s made
There’s something to be said for having an affordable bottle of rosé on a Friday night – particularly one that is low in calories but still tasty – Blossom Hill is a good example. But to learn more about appreciating wine, the best thing to do is visit the country where it was made – because like olives in Greece, biltong in South Africa or surf and turf in California – it just tastes better! Blossom Hill is made in California (and a bunch of … [Read more...]
A Journey of the Senses
Ears There is a moment of silence just before an announcement. It is that quick pause when the airline ground staff takes a breath—the gap between the crackling of the PA system and the sweet voice with calculated intonation, calling on a passenger: “Paging (insert name). You are needed at gate (insert number).” I am standing inside a store, surrounded by aisles and aisles of eco-friendly school products when I heard a page. I look up … [Read more...]
Sacred Guides
The eighty degree weather we’d had at breakfast in a California border town transitioned sharply into the fifties by lunchtime at the Grand Canyon. I exchanged my flip flops for socks and hiking shoes, threw a jean jacket over my summer dress, and donned a beanie, the only warmer things I had easy access to. My dress whipped around my legs in the chilly wind. The weather was unexpectedly far from ideal for sightseeing, but we couldn’t drive past … [Read more...]
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em
My husband Gaz and I donned our raingear and headed to Nanjing Lu, the main pedestrian thoroughfare and shopping district of Shanghai. Big, bright, neon and modern, much of Shanghai’s architecture resembled a caricature of what someone in the 50s thought “The Future” would look like. Shimmering glass buildings covered in a rainbow of glowing signs flanked the wide walkway. The streets heaved with people, and in the sea of short, black haired … [Read more...]
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