Cuba Libre and the Rolling Stones
Four significant firsts occurred in Cuba between March and April of 2016: President Obama became the first sitting US President to visit the island since Calvin Coolidge eighty eight years before (Who?? –-just kidding); in a free concert to half a million people, The Rolling Stones became the first band of its magnitude to perform there; The Fate of the Furious became the first major Hollywood studio film to shoot there since Fidel Castro took power in 1960; and rounding out all of those awesome firsts, I descended on the island with my friends Julie and Gary. lol. 2016 also marked the passing of Fidel, ending a major chapter in the nation’s history. I got to thinking about what a seminal time we unwittingly chose to visit after stumbling across the documentary The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé, about the band’s 2016 tour of Latin America and the logistical issues…
Hollywood Forever… ingenious
I recently spent an afternoon wandering through Hollywood Forever Cemetery–yes, voluntarily–and I loved it! I don’t generally think of myself as morbid. Yes, I love The Adams Family, The Walking Dead and every zombie movie ever made, but I also love sweet puppy kisses and soft furry kittens. Then again, I do watch a lot of ID Channel. Regardless, Hollywood Forever is the very opposite of morbid. Green, sun drenched and peaceful, it’s also oddly inspiring and thoroughly entertaining. I guess nothing less should be expected from the final resting place of so many of the wacky, wonderful, wildly creative folks that helped shaped Hollywood, or lived in the shadow of it. For a setting that features such showy personalities, Hollywood Forever is in a pretty inconspicuous location. Granted, Paramount Studios lies directly to the south, but it’s amazing what a simple wall can do. If you happen to be…
Northern Ireland: Castles, Conflicts, Causeways, Clans… and a Little Game of Thrones
I just finished watching the new season of Game Of Thrones. I know. I know. It ended like a month ago…don’t judge! But it got me thinking about Northern Ireland, the series’ main shooting location. I was there about five years ago with my friend Sheri. We were actually based south, out of Dublin, (The Republic of) Ireland, but decided to spend a day in and around Belfast. At the time, GOT was maybe in its fourth season and I’d never seen a single episode, so it was easy to ignore the many tours being offered that were devoted entirely to the show. For me, the visit to Northern Ireland was more inspired by its history, albeit, the more notorious side. In the eighties, ABC World News Tonight was a staple in our house, and not a broadcast seemed to go by without a story of the continuing “Troubles” that…
Five days in Nebraska. What to do…what to do…
So, what does a city slicker do when she finds herself in a farming community in Nebraska? Act like she’s never seen cows before… Get about as excited at the sight of the non-alcoholic wild turkey as she does at the sight of the alcoholic one… Cheese it up in a cornfield…. They were just starting to plant, so the corn is only about knee high to a grasshopper (always wanted to use that phrase), which completely thwarted my plans of doing a [Black] Children of the Corn sendup. Wait out the rain in the wheel of a combine… Remember Whoopi Goldberg’s line in Jumping Jack Flash when she called for help from the phone booth she was trapped in. “I’m a little black woman in a big silver box.” Well, I’m “a little black woman in a big silver wheel.” Seriously, those things are huge! If you tell people…
A LOVE LETTER TO OUR LADY OF PARIS
It was crazy seeing flames ravage Notre Dame. I was a lot more affected by it than I would have ever expected. It felt as if I was watching an old friend getting the beatdown of her life, and there was nothing I could do about it. My first visit to Paris over twenty years ago was unplanned. I have family in London. I’m Jamaican. All Jamaicans have family in London. A few days into my three week visit, it dawned on me how close I was to France. I had missed an opportunity to go with my high school class and had opted not to do a year studying abroad my sophomore year at Syracuse, so this was my chance. I hopped a train at Charing Cross, and was off. I was also filled with as much nerves as I was with excitement. I had tried to convince various…
Machu Picchu and the Case of the Killer Shrimp
Someone once told me never to order seafood in places nowhere near a major body of water. Sure as hell wish I’d remembered that the night before I took off for Machu Picchu. A car would be taking us to the Poroy train station half hour north west of Cusco’s historical center at 5:45am, so a nice leisurely evening with an early meal and lights out by 11 seemed the perfect plan. And it would have been, had it not been for one critical misstep. Our hosts left us a pretty substantial list of recommended places to eat. We, however, decided to leave our selection to chance. Why? Maybe the lighter air had gotten to our brains. Maybe the fact that all of our spur of the moment decisions up until this point had gone swimmingly, had led us to grow overconfident. Whatever the reason, chance, on this night, would…
…Cusco. What’s a little altitude gonna do to me?!…
How do your lungs feel the first time they’re 11,152 feet above sea level? Same way they do at sea level–so long as you’re not walking or running or pulling or pushing or jumping or lifting or dancing or singing, or exerting yourself in any way. Basically, if you stand still and only move your eyeballs, you’re good. It took approximately half a minute for me to realize this. It was mid afternoon when we arrived in Cusco from Lima, which is a mere 1312 feet above sea level. Underachiever! I walked to the top of the steps leading down from the plane, hoisted my suitcase, slowly descended onto the tarmac, then stood there for a few seconds looking off at the hills surrounding us, then up at the brightest bluest sky ever. And then I took a slow, deep breath. Air didn’t feel any different than it did in…
…Peru. Airbnb-ing in Cusco? One teeny tiny frosty little thing…
It gets frickin’ cold at night, so good luck finding a home with some heat. Personally, I love staying at airbnbs when I travel. I love the homeyness, the ease, the extra room to spread out. And it’s usually a lot less of a hit on your wallet. So I was over the moon with the idea of airbnbing in Cusco. Afterall, it’s a world heritage site with so much of its architecture dating back to the Incans and to the Spanish conquest. To me, age–when it comes to architecture–equals beauty. Plus, four friends traveling together…airbnbing was a no-brainer. We felt lucky when we stumbled on a three bed, two bath, two-story home on Avenida Pardo–a small side street (call it alley) in the historical center of town. Cusco is more than eleven thousand feet above sea level, and one member of our party was asthmatic, so the fact that…