Weekly Travel Quote

Posted on March 16, 2011 by matthew

Why had I been so haunted by that book, by this place, even as a child?  Because it was so strange.  And because it was so far away.  But it’s not far away at all, I now thought.  Is there really such a thing as far away anymore?

—Jennifer Finney Boylan, Conde Nast Traveler, 01/2007
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Beer, Travel, and Memory

Posted on March 14, 2011 by matthew

How can just one beer can have the power to transport you back in time to your most cherished travel memories?

Read my latest article, published by the BootsnAll Travel Network “Place In a Pint Glass: Traveling Around The World Through Beer”

Photo credit:  Nan Palmero (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nanpalmero/5006522468/in/photostream/)
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Texas Tourism under fire

Posted on March 10, 2011 by matthew

A proposed elimination of Texas Historical Commission and Texas Commission on the Arts discounts the positive effect of tourism as part of our cultural heritage.

As a proponent of Texas travel and tourism, I understand the effect that travel can have on educating our citizenry, as well as increasing tax revenue.  Texas, like other states, is facing a budget crisis.  Texas governor Rick Perry, in a short-sighted weilding of the budget axe proposed to cut all funding to the Texas Historical Commission and the Commission on the Arts.

The Texas Historical Commission was already facing a 50% funding cut in the legislature’s budget, and Perry proposed a 2-year elimination of the agency, saving taxpayers an astonishingly insignificant 38 cents per person per year. Continue reading →

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Weekly Travel Quote

Posted on March 9, 2011 by matthew

Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

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In flight emergency: no more pretzels

Posted on March 8, 2011 by matthew

Photo credit: kawanet

I am quoted in today’s Houston Chronicle article “Leaner times aloft:  Continental cuts out snacks”  Now, I need to bring my own pretzels?  But what if they crumble in my bag?  I hope the lack of food on domestic airlines does not foreshadow the fall of civizilation. 

The commoditization of the domestic airline industry is nearly complete.  Read Jenalia Moreno’s Houston Chronicle article here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7461501.html

Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/u–suke/4762925574/sizes/m/in/photostream/
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Love those Dutch burritos

Posted on March 3, 2011 by matthew
Anyone want a burrito in Holland?

Traveling gives us the chance to taste foreign foods as they were meant to be, before they were P.F. Changed to fit our American tastebuds.  I have been lucky enough to eat pad thai in Koh Samui, fried catfish in Mississippi, and weisswurst in Munich. I have lived a dozen years in Texas, where Mexican food has its own column on the food pyramid, right between “beef” and “deep-fat fried” (yes, Texas needs its own food pyramid).  So you can imagine how excited I was to find an authentic Mexican burrito recipe … in a grocery store in the Netherlands!  Continue reading →

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Weekly Travel Quote

Posted on March 2, 2011 by matthew

“We find the joy of the journey is equally divided between anticipating and remembering.”

—Tommy Bahama Ad

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Contrast of White on White

Posted on February 24, 2011 by matthew

Dear Curator, You got hosed on this purchase. I can only hope it was a 2-for-1 sale.

Can you paint a canvas white and call it art?  Pondering why art museums hang white canvases and why they won’t buy one of mine.

The last time I felt this way was at the fantastic Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga.  Before that was at the Menil Collection in Houston.  I have even felt this way at the MOMA in New York.

This is how it feels: Continue reading →

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Weekly Travel Quote

Posted on February 23, 2011 by matthew

Jamaica in the mist

“Preoccupied with paradise, I thought about the questions and answers that had devised this destination.  This was, in fact, not Eden, but a paradise built from knowledge.  In Eden there was no art, no wine, no lovemeking.  We are better off here, where we can combine childish pleasures with adult passions.  And although we cannot always stay in paradise, we can always return.”
–Patricia Storace “The Sum of All Desires” Conde Nast Traveler 1/95

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More Free Art Museum Days: NC, SC, TN

Posted on February 22, 2011 by matthew

Hunter Museum of Art Chattanooga

Always on the lookout for free art museums, I have a list of free art museums in North Carolina, South Carolina, & Tennessee.  Some art museums offer free admission only on certain days of the week.  Here is the third list in a series for art lovers to travel with:

Free art museums in North Carolina: Continue reading →

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