Jun 8th, 2006
Pod Guides
There are a number of different guides available for downloading and storing on your iPod to make your travels better. Some of them use the Notes section of your iPod, and some use the Photos section. Here are a few that I have come across:
Rough Guides Podscrolls—I just found this one today and downloaded the guides for Amsterdam, Paris and New York. It uses the Photos section of the iPod, so you have to create albums in iPhoto and sync them through iTunes. Only a few cities are offered at this time.
Pod CityGuides—This one has a ton of cities on offer and stores them in the Notes section, so they take up relatively little space. Pod CityGuides updates frequently too, so it’s a good idea to check the site to make sure you have the most current version before you travel.
iSubwayMaps.com—The guy that runs this site has chopped up subway maps from various cities and formatted them to fit on the iPod screen. There are versions for both the iPod Photo and iPod with video. I’m not sure how useful they are in the field as it’s hard to get a sense of overall position, but if you know where you need to go you may be all right. Great idea anyway.
There are more of course. I know that the Seattle Weekly offers a dining guide for the iPod and I’ve heard tell of one that lists pizza places in New York. Or you could always make your own, of course.
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May 25th, 2006
Under The Roofs Of Paris
There’s a character in Under The Roofs Of Paris
This charming little movie from the 1930’s is one of the early “talkies” and it’s interesting to see how it still retains much of the conventions of silent film, whilst seeming to be a little uncertain what to do with this new fangled sound thing. Consequently music is featured prominently. Not a musical, per se, but many of the scenes focus around groups of people singing a song as this must have seemed like the most obvious thing to do with the new technology.
The story revolves around a song selling Frenchman and his pursuit of a beautiful young woman who is being pursued by the evil John Cleese look alike. Complications ensue. It’s most worth watching for the glimpses of Parisian life and cityscapes from the early part of the 20th century. Fun movie.
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May 24th, 2006
Paris Wine Muesum
I had no idea there was a wine museum in Paris, but I probably should have assumed…
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May 23rd, 2006
Trip: Postponed
The sad decision has been made to postpone the trip until the Spring. Most likely early to mid may.
While it is painful to have to delay the trip, it does offer a couple of advantages, the primary being we can go for longer. I’m very excited about the possibility of going for maybe 14-18 days instead of only 10. I will leave it up to Irene as to where else we might include on our trip.
In the meantime, we will take a different, shorter, cheaper vacation in September.
Never fear, I will continue to plan and post about those plans in the meantime.
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May 5th, 2006
Blue
There’s a scene in Blue
Binoche plays Julie Vignon, the wife of France’s most celebrated composer. The movie opens with a car accident that claims the life of her husband and child and leaves Vignon in the hospital. When she recovers she decides to start her life over, selling her house and all her possessions and moving into a small Paris apartment.
The plot revolves around her attempts to get her life together and various outsiders attempts to her husbands final composition which was almost complete at the time of his death. By the end of the movie we’re not entirely sure that it wasn’t in fact Vignon herself who was responsible for her husbands music.
It’s a beautiful film, and I highly recommend it. It is the first in the Three Colors Trilogy
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