I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop off the Bigfoot story, and apparently it’s even more scandalous than I thought it was gonna be. Not only is the much hyped Bigfoot claim a big whopper (it was a rubber monkey suit embedded in ice), it now seems the two Atlanta perps who cooked up the story are now on the lam and can’t be located.   

According to the storyline on the website for Searching for Bigfoot Inc., the company paid an undisclosed sum to Whitton and Dyer as an advance. When the freezer with Bigfoot’s body arrived, it was found to be a rubber suit, and Tom Biscardi informed the company that both Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer admitted it was a costume. And then they go on to ‘inform’ the press that the two perps had already checked out of the hotel where they were staying.

Ok. Now first of all, everyone knew it was a hoax. This was a blatant promotional stunt. Secondly, even now, they’re lying through their teeth. Note that all three characters - Biscardi and the other two, are now hiding from the world. This story about the two skipping town smells fishy. It looks all planned out, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Biscardi was in on this. What all these fraudsters need now is to be taught a lesson - That its not ok to abuse the public trust like this.

But all said and done, it was entertaining, to say the least. Has all the right elements - Mysterious Bigfoot body, hazy pictures, smooth talking cons with an ‘expert’ of dubious reputation, Palo Alto hotels, press conference, international media frenzy, and now - A rubber suit, perps skipping town after collecting the cash and the underlings left behind trying to explain the whole scam. What what would make it the ultimate story would be a manhunt for the Bigfoot hoaxters. Maybe they could hideout with their imaginary Bigfoot friends in Georgia.

Posted on August 20th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: California | No Comments »

Move over PostModernism, and RIP Art Deco. Because we’re now in the age of Art Greeno. As in Green Art. As in Eco-friendly Art. And Sunday was the first time ‘A Midsummer Green Day’ was held at the 42nd annual Laguna Beach Sawdust Art Festival (June 27 to August 31 2008).

In addition to gawking at the post-PostModernist green art on display by artists like James Koch who has been using junk to make art for years, visitors to the expo also got a chance to try out their own environmental art skills. Photo copyrights - Sawdust Art Festival

The OC Register reports that at the Endangered Planet Foundation’s booth, visitors painted their own 11-inch squares – on recycled paper towels – to be added to the Art Miles Mural Project at Laguna Beach’s Festival of the Arts in October.

The article also notes that the Endangered Planet Foundation (www.endangeredplanet.net/) has an art gallery showcasing themes related to the environment. The gallery is at 384 Forest Avenue, Gallery 13, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.

The EP Foundation also presents the ‘Autumnal Green Festival’ & ‘Life on the Edge’ Symposium - to be held this year from Oct 2-5 - featuring featuring innovative exhibits, art, environmental awareness, healthy living, films, music and notable speakers. Here’s the full schedule.

Since we’re on the subject, Los Angeles isn’t all about celebrity scandals in Hollywood hotels. There are also some fine people like Artist McKenzie who are using their skills and artistic talents to promote green lifestyles. Artist McKenzie now creates her original paintings with proprietary solvent free paints on 100% natural canvas. The paintings are converted into fine art prints on Bamboo Fine Art Paper using Eco-Friendly Inks and framed with Sustainable Wooden Frames.

Course, its Hollywood, so it comes with a liberal dose of self-promotion fueled by delusions of grandeur, not to mention a ghastly and garish website. But, to be fair, end of the day, it does help increase awareness of how you can help keep the planet green and clean. Even more important, she’s donating part of the proceeds from the sale of her art to green causes.

So if you’re mulling over how to make your Los Angeles vacations green, then schedule a visit to the EP Foundation’s art gallery in Laguna Beach, and check out the Green LA section of the LA Inc. (Los Angeles CVB) website to discover the green things to do in Los Angeles and all the eco-friendly ways to enjoy the city.

Posted on August 19th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: Art & Museums, Festivals | No Comments »

Sunday, Sept 7 2008, from 5-8 pm, Monrovia, CA hosts the 7th annual Food, Wine & Jazz Festival at Myrtle Avenue (between Lime Ave and Colorado Blvd) in the heart of Old town Monrovia.  Photo copyrights - City of Monrovia

Its a casual end-of-summer bash with specialty dishes and items from area restaurants with a neat list of California wines and live jazz performances to make the whole deal even more attractive. $50 tickets if you book in advance, $60 at the door and $30 for group tickets for 10 or more attendees.

All I have to say is that it would have been a riot if it had been ‘Food, Beer & Jazz’, and if they had kept an open house policy. Anyways, even if they do charge, the proceeds all go to local non-profits in Monrovia, so if you enjoy wine and food tasting vacations, then this one is right up your alley. Attendance of 1000+ people is expected. More details and info here.

And if you liked this one, then you’re sure to enjoy the 11th annual Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival, Aug 22-24 2008, at Esther Short Park, in Downtown Vancouver, Washington. No free food or drinks, but the festival itself is a big thing in the NorthWest, and the Jazz is top class and the food and wine ain’t bad either.

This year’s line-up includes Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter & New Orleans native Nicholas Payton, the Brubeck Brothers, singer Melissa Manchester, and the Rippingtons, among others. More details here.

Posted on August 18th, 2008 by Thomas
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Come November, New York City gets its own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Mayor Bloomberg kicked off press conference with Billy Joel, Clive Davis and the museum’s President Terry Stewart. NYTimes report says that the 25,000-square-foot annex, at 76 Mercer Street, will be the museum’s first expansion outside Cleveland and will include exhibitions on Hall of Fame inductees and on the history of rock in New York. It will also house temporary and traveling exhibitions from the Cleveland headquarters, museum officials said.

More details from BizBash. Also onsite: a theater that will use “immersive” audiovisual technology to showcase historical performances from the likes of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, and The Who. NYC & Company has partnered with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to develop an exhibit dubbed “New York Rocks.” This is to be an interactive map of locations in the city with some musical significance. Branded items and promotional merchandise such as maps and itineraries will be sold at the store.

Take that, Ohio - One less reason to go all the way to Cleveland. Although the NYT article also quotes Terry Stewart, the museum’s President, as saying that opening a branch in NYC is part of a grand scheme to ‘drive tourist traffic’ all the way back to Cleveland. If that is their intention behind opening an NYC outpost, then its a bone-headed venture. I think I’ll wager a bet that the main museum in Cleveland gets even less visitors than before.

Whatever the reasoning, end result is that NYC gets one more museum, and this one literally rocks. And the count of things to do on vacation in the Big Apple keeps going up, and so do the tourist dollars. Last year 46 million people came to New York City. This year and the next, with the NYC Waterfalls and other new stuff like this Rock n’Roll Museum and the Waterboard Thrill Ride in Coney Island, gonna be a lot more visitors. 

Visit www.rockhall.com for details and more info about the museum.

Posted on August 17th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: Art & Museums, NYC | No Comments »

If you haven’t been living in a cave, you’ll have heard about Tom Biscardi, CEO of Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., and his Palo Alto press conference announcing the discovery of a dead Bigfoot in the mountains of northern Georgia. Backgrounder from the Discovery Channel.

According to Biscardi, it was roughly three weeks ago when Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, two men who reportedly operate a Bigfoot tracking business, announced the find on Sasquatch Detective Radio. The following day, the radio host contacted Biscardi and told him about the find, as well as Whitton and Dyer’s request that he verify it. Biscardi agreed and flew to Georgia two weeks later to investigate the situation.  - David Lohr, Investigation Discovery, Discovery Channel, August 15 2008

And now we nove to the Palo Alto press-fest at the Crowne Plaza hotel. Details from the San Jose Mercury News. Though the conference promised photo and DNA evidence, the former was blurry and the latter was less than convincing. As for the DNA evidence, the men presented a copy of an email from the University of Minnesota reporting of the three distinct DNA sequences that showed up, one was inconclusive, one was human, and the third was from a possum. Whitton and Dyer said they found the 7-foot-7, 500 lbs. Bigfoot while hiking. Three other Bigfoots watched from the trees. Are there a lot of psychos in the Bigfoot community?” a reporter asked. Yes, said Whitton. “It seems like there are lot of people in the Bigfoot world who are a little delusional.”

You think? I’d say delusional and oppurtunistic. This is a shining example of how to market your Bigfoot website on the internet. Whitton and Dyer are co-owners of bigfoottracker.com and Bigfoot Global LLC., a company that offers Bigfoot vacations. Can you think of a better way to publicize the tours than to announce a find and then let it sizzle in the media. All I can say is this - They’re good at the marketing stuff. I’m surprised they didn’t bring a walkin-talking Bigfoot to the press conference.

Posted on August 16th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: California | 1 Comment »

No time like now for Honolulu vacations, when one of the best beaches in the nation comes alive with a beach festival to honor one of Hawaii’s greatest athletes - Duke Paoa Kahanamoku.

The Duke is considered as the ‘Father of International Surfing’ and Hawaii’s greatest athlete, winning six Olympic medals – including three swimming gold medals – from 1912 to 1932.

And August 17-24, 2008 marks the 7th Annual Duke’s OceanFest at Waikiki Beach, presented by the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation (ODKF). Photo copyrights - ODKF

Each year, the festival honors Duke Kahanamoku’s legacy with water sports competitions and events, and wrapping up the week of fun and games with the Waikiki Lei Parade. Sunday Aug 24th 2008 is the 114th birthday anniversary of Duke Kahanamoku, so there’s also a scheduled draping of the Duke’s statue.

Scheduled events include the Duke’s Waikiki Ocean Mile Swim on Aug. 23 with hundreds of swimmers dreaming of making it big, a la Michael Phelps or the Duke, with a 1 mile open ocean sprint fronting Duke’s Waikiki at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach. Then there’s the Surftech Media All-Stars on Aug 19th where local media surfers are teamed up with a Roxy pro in a fun competition fronting Duke’s Statue. But the one which probably generates the most excitement is the Roxy Jam Honolulu Pro Women’s Surf from Aug 20-23, in which Waikiki’s only women’s longboard surf meet brings together competitors worldwide to crown the queen of Queen’s Surf.

A full listing of all scheduled events, along with other details about Duke’s OceanFest available here - www.dukefoundation.org/

Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Thomas
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If you’re a film fan, start searching for New York vacations and deals around Sept-Oct. The 46th New York Film Festival runs from September 26 through October 12, 2008.

And the complete 28 film line-up has been announced, with Clint Eastwood’s Changeling making its North American debut as the centerpiece of the festival. The film stars John Malcovich and Angelina Jolie as the single mother of a missing boy.  Photo credit - Indiewire Blogs/The Lost Boy.

The festival’s closing might selection is Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke as a has-been pro wrestler.  The opening night selection is Laurent Cantet’s docu-drama The Class, which is all about how rough French schools can get. All 3 films, and a newly restored print of Max Ophuls’s 1955 classic Lola Montès, which is based on the scandalous lifestory of 19th-century dancer Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert, will be featured as the festival’s spotlight retrospective. The films will be screened at the Ziegfeld Theatre (141 West 54th St. )

The line-up also includes Steven Soderbergh’s Che, the 268 minute two-part Spanish-language epic which brings to life Che Guevara’s military campaigns in Cuba and Bolivia. Here’s the full line-up, with descriptions of the films.

Tickets - On sale Sunday, Sept. 7, at 12:00 noon at Avery Fisher Hall, corner of Columbus Avenue and 65th St.; Monday, Sept. 8, online at filmlinc.com; and on Saturday, September 27 at the Ziegfeld Theater, 141 West 54th St.

More details and info at the NY Film Festival website - www.filmlinc.com/nyff/nyff.html

Posted on August 14th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: Festivals, New York | No Comments »

Its a well known fact that San Francisco is greener than the Goblin, with all the environment friendly organizations and the off-the-charts eco-friendly behavior of SF residents and the numerous County and District based green programs for businesses and organizations.

For example, the California Academy of Sciences, nestled in the Golden Gate Park, has been ‘refurbished’ into a stunning example of  how green a Museum can be, at a whopping cost of $484 million. CAS opens its doors on Sept 27th 2008, located at 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park, San francisco, CA 94118. For more info call (415) 379-8000 or visit their website. Photo credit & copyrights - Wired Magazine, Issue 15.08

And now the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau is getting in on the action, trying to take advantage of the Bay Area’s ‘Greenified’ status. The SF CVB is hawking something called Ecothusiasm, targeted at the travel industry.

Excerpt from the Green SF website - This section of our Web site has been created to provide information on how to enjoy a trip, plan a successful meeting or operate an effective business with minimal impact on the planet and its resources…. Encourage development of sustainable tourism and green meeting practices among members, customers, community partners and staff.

I poked around the site a bit, and while they no doubt have noble intentions, the content is a bit sparse at the moment. I tried to find a trip planner which could help identify the green things to do on vacation in San francisco, but the best the site has is a couple of links to other sites which offer free walking tours.

The blog - Eco411 - has a single post about green hotels, with a quote from Stefan Muhle, general manager, Orchard Garden Hotel (which is probably the best and most famous green hotel in the nation). Anyway, its early days yet, and remains to be seen if the SF CVB can maintain its blogthusiasm.

Posted on August 13th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: San Francisco | No Comments »

Title notwithstanding, this is a family friendly blog, and this post has nothing to do with trashy women flinging dog turd. Two different issues, actually, and very artsy stuff.

Is it a bird, is it a plane? Its… A piece of flying shit! A giant inflatable art exhibit, shaped like a piece of dog turd, escaped its moorings at an art exhibit at the Paul Klee Centre in Berne, Switzerland. On its brief escapade, the flying piece of shit broke windows and pulled down power lines.  Talk about the shit hitting the sky! The exhibit has now been pulled from display.

The dog turd, as big as a house, and named Complex Shit, was created by Paul McCarthy, a Los Angeles based artist. FYI, last year, McCarthy created another 24 meter high inflatable piece, called Santa Claus with a Buttplug, for a public park in Antwerp, Belgium. Photo from Wikipedia (creative commons)

And here’s a brief description of his antics from Wikipedia - His work evolved from painting to transgressive performance art, psychosexual events intended to fly in the face of social convention, testing the emotional limits of both artist and viewer. An example of this is his 1976 piece Class Fool, where McCarthy threw himself around a ketchup spattered classroom at the University of California, San Diego until dazed and injured. He then vomited several times and inserted a Barbie doll into his rectum. The piece ended when the audience could no longer stand to watch his performance.

What? He’s from LA. Its purrfectly normal. Tell you what - If you haven’t experienced Los Angeles vacations with some nocturnal visits to clubs and lounges in posh Los Angeles hotels (stick close to West Hollywood), then you won’t know, but drunken frenzies and the heat of the moment do strange things to people here.

Let’s move on to something a bit more sane - trashy women. No joke. Eight women in Baltimore, MD, belonging to a group called the Trashy Women, collect trash to make art exhibits. And they’re holding an expo of their works at the Liriodendron Mansion in Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland on August 24 2008. BTW, Liriodendron is the historic 1898 summer home of Johns Hopkins Hospital founder Dr. Howard Kelly, which is now a place for events like art exhibits, weddings, conferences and stuff.

Posted on August 12th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: Art & Museums | No Comments »

Sacramento is scheduled to turn the clock back during the Labor Day weekend. August 29 to September 1 2008 marks the 9th annual ‘Gold Rush Days’ festival, which brings alive the Gold Rush era roots of the Golden State. Kinda gives a new meaning to ‘Golden Sacramento vacations‘.

200 tons of dirt will be dumped on the streets of Old Sacramento, with the entire zone being transformed into a period set with reenactments - horse drawn carriages, pony rides, wild west gun fights, street dramas, musicians playing period instruments, period artifacts, storytelling, Embarcadero tent city, an ethic village, and food fests. And of course, the gold panning. Photo copyrights - Sacramento CVB

Free admission. For more details, visit the festival website or call (916) 808-7777. Since we’re on the subject, you might also want to learn a bit more about the Gold Rush. Head straight for the Gold Rush History Center at the Discovery Museum. And here’s a list of things to do in Sacramento compiled by the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Here’s a list of top-notch Sacramento hotels. And here’s a tip for you -Every hotel worth its salt in Sacramento is within walking distance of the State Capitol, and offers free parking, complimentary breakfast and spacious rooms. If you’re not getting these, then you shouldn’t be booking in.

Posted on August 11th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: California | No Comments »