You might remember this post from a few weeks ago, titled “D4RT: Kickstarting art in Peru”, announcing a fundraising campaign for a mobile art workshop aimed at bringing classes and public art projects to impoverished communities worldwide. Thanks to a staggering outpour of support, this dream materialized and D4RT took its first flight three weeks ago.
The concept of international volunteer work can conjure a number of different impressions. For doctor Luis Vasquez, founder of the Yantaló Peru Foundation, the idea hits close to home, literally. He was born in this small Peruvian jungle town before studying in Lima and, later, practicing in the US. It was seven years ago that he returned and found the place nearly unchanged from the Yantaló of his childhood. He decided to take action and the Foundation was born.
Calling geek parents! Traveling to the Big Apple? Want to know how to spend your time in the city before leaving them back at the hotel with a sitter so that you can go out and enjoy New York’s fine, geek drinking establishments? Wondering if there are places you can take your kids during the day that both you and they can enjoy? I know what you’re thinking. The only time any place is “fun for the whole family” is if the “whole family” is under ten years old. Well, I promise that these are places where you might find yourself having just as much fun as your kid! Here are Geek Girl Traveler’s Top Destinations for Geek Kids (and their parents) in New York City!
Chinashop’s own Zoetica Ebb has developed a really cool concept – D4RT, a mobile art class that brings art workshops, supplies and public art projects to impoverished communities all over the world.
The first installment is going to take place this September in Yantaló, Peru and Zoetica needs support to make it happen. Check out the Kickstarter Video below, contribute what you can, and help spread the word!
Visiting New York and getting your geek on? Wondering where to go for a post-outing nightcap? Brooklyn is the NYC borough to beat when it comes to geektastic drinking establishments, boasting two locales that appeal to lovers of genre fiction, gaming, and good beer.
Mexico City – Drake partakes in mezcal tasting, joins a mariachi band Plaza Garibaldi, forces down pulque at a pulquería, rides moto with Homero Diaz – Mexico’s top rider, explores witchcraft and gets a shamanic cleansing at Sonora Mercado and gets tossed around like a ragdoll in a lucha libre lesson. And this is just episode #1.
Drake’s Passage, a six-episode original travel series, premieres on Monday, August 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT during FUEL TV’s “Raging Mondays” programming block. Produced by Red Bull Media House North America, Drake’s Passage takes viewers to iconic cities around the world and showcases them through the eyes of Drake McElroy, who is one of the most stylish, cultured and respected riders in the freestyle motocross world.
If you find yourself in Bangkok and looking to start your night out on the town at 2 a.m., you ask the locals where to go. After a 15-hour plane ride from LAX to Bangkok paired with a 15-hour time change, the jet lag makes you lose your mind. I took a “nap” upon my arrival that felt more like a coma. Attempting to sleep for an hour at 6 p.m. turned into me waking up at 2 a.m!
Panicking that I was missing out on the nightlife, I asked around if anything was still happening and received a unanimous response that I should head over to Khaosan Road. Like a careful little tourist, I got specific directions from my hotel concierge and jumped into my cab, prepared to give the driver a play-by-play of how to get from point A to point B. He looked at me with a grin and said “Khaosan Road! Everyone goes there. I don’t need the map” and we were off.
I get really brave when I’m on vacation, especially in other countries. As soon as I step off the plane, I get hit with this euphoric sense of unadulterated adventure. I have to try everything – experience everything. I mean I might never be back in that country again in my lifetime so I enter this mental realm of: ‘it’s now or never’ and get hit with this dose of ‘you must attempt this.’
I’ve gone in cages with great white sharks off the coast of South Africa. I’ve rappelled down 200-foot cliffs over waterfalls in Argentina and I’ve swum in piranha and anaconda infested waters in the Amazon River. I pretty much lose my sense of danger when I travel and my vacations consist of stories that make my parents cringe upon my return. So when my Thailand tour guide asked me if I wanted to stop at this place called Tiger Kingdom on the way to Chiang Mai, my answer was of course yes.
The Handsome Furs is the Montreal-based indie rock project of husband and wife duo Alexei Perry and Dan Boeckner (of Wolf Parade & Atlas Strategic). The band, who describes their sound as “a juxtaposition of cold, metronomic, electronic beats” paired with “ jagged dissonant and frail, broken or breaking guitars,” are gearing up for the release of their latest album, “Sound Kapital.” The disc drops in Canada on June 27th and in the US, UK, and rest of the world on the following day.
ChinaShop sat down with Alexei Perry who discussed the concept behind the new album. Perry also talks about how music serves as her sense of euphoria and tells us how she and her husband became the unexpected stars of a CNN.com web travel series titled “Indie Asia.”
If you’re in Paris and need a morning break from the Right Bank’s pomp and glamour, you needn’t go all that far. Just cross the river Seine to the tamer, quainter, bohemian Left Bank and treat yourself to a walking expedition.
