August 2008 Archives

National Geographic Traveler magazine has teamed with the Mexican Tourism Board to bring music and Mexican culture to six cities across North America. Southern California residents will have the pleasure of this event on September 21, 2008 at The Hollywood Bowl.

Danny Kapilian will produce the concert, which features popular artists with Hispanic sounds and roots, including Lila Downs, Ozomatli, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Nortec Collective, and Mariachi.

The Mexico Unexpected event includes cultural activities such as a Mexican Village with food booths, wine and tequila tasting, and Mexican arts and craft demos.

Best of all, this event is free. Yes, readers, free. You can order tickets to the concert here.

Our final day in Hollywood began with a quick breakfast at the Hilton, the a ride on the Metro down to Hollywood and Highland. We picked up some Hollywood CityPass booklets that gave us priority entry and money savings into a bunch of Hollywood attractions.

We began at the Hollywood Wax Museum, where the wax figures of popular Hollywood icons are so lifelike you expect them to jump out and say, "Boo!"

Next in the CityPass ticket booklet is the Red Line Behind-the-Scenes walking tour of Hollywood Blvd. This guided tour explores Hollywood's secrets and goes inside places normally closed to the public.

The Hollywood Museum in the Max Factor Building is the ultimate Hollywood memorabilia and movie artifact repository, with Rocky's boxing gloves, Marilyn Monroe's dresses, Elvis' favorite bathrobe, Indiana Jones' whip, Boris Karloff's mummy, Paris Hilton's party dresses, the sexy costumes Nicole Kidman wore in "Moulin Rouge!," as well as dozens of others Hollywood treasures. An option to the Hollywood Museum is a guided tour behind the red curtain at the Kodak Theater.

The final ticket is the Red Line Celebrity Homes tour, a two-hour drive in a minibus through the glitzy neighborhoods where the stars live and play. Even if you're not a celebrity crazed mortal, just driving through the elegant streets for the sheer appreciation of the landscaping and architecture is worth the ticket.

We walked up and down Hollywood Blvd, pausing at the stars embedded on the sidewalk and took pictures of the performance artists and celebrity look-alikes.

Hollywood is more than just movies. It's theater, theme parks, shopping, and nightlife. Day two of our Hollywood adventure found my son J and I riding the new Simpson's motion simulator ride at Universal Studios. This is the kind of wild roller-coaster gone bonkers that you'd expect associated with anything attached to the Simpsons. The motion simulator gives you the thrills of a coaster, without the risk.

The Universal Studios tour is still out there on the backlot and as popular as ever. The fire last spring took out a few old sets, but most of the legendary sets such as the Psycho House and Bates Motel, the Jaws shark attack, and the earthquake simulation. Desperate Housewives was filming on the Wisteria Lane set while we tootled by in the tour tram and Ghost Whisperer's Jennifer Love Hewitt stuck her head out from her set and waved at us.

Later that day we headed out to the Pantages Theatre to see Wicked. We were more than a bit surprised and delighted to see Carol Kane had assumed the role of Madame Morrible. The music, sets, costumes and cast of this Hollywood production is as fine as anything on Broadway.

If you're going to the Pantages or anywhere on Hollywood Blvd, rather than pay the $20 parking at local lots, try parking at one of the nearby Metro stops and taking the $1.50 ride to the stop at Hollywood and Vine.

My son and I are taking a Hollywood getaway before his new college term begins. We're staying at the Hilton Universal in Universal City, right there near the Universal City Walk.

After a quick lunch at Puccino Pizzaria, we headed over to the live taping of America's Got Talent to see my friend Dan Meyer, aka Captain Cutlass, who was one of the wild card picks. We watched all of the finalists, including our favorite, Jessica Price, but alas, Dan didn't make the pick into the finals.

We went out with Dan and some friends from the show to the Saddleback Chophouse at Universal Citywalk, where the burgers are huge, the fries hot and salty, and you can ride a mechanical bull until it throws you off. And it will. Eventually.

Tomorrow we're going to Universal Studios and then out to see the Broadway production of Wicked at the Pantages Theatre.

Now that the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Bejing are over, eyes are turning to London, host of the 2012 Summer Olympiad. Over the next four years London is going through a polish and shine that even the most finicky of butlers would approve. The Olympic Village construction is ahead of schedule, the transportation infrastructure is in development, and it's all being done with sustainability for future generations to enjoy.

You can read more about London's plans for the 2012 Games here. Go, London!

If you attended the games in Beijing, we'd love to hear about it. Just leave us a comment below.

Have you got late summer vacation plans to the Big Island of Hawaii? If so, check out these two adventure excursions.

Hawaii Pack and Paddle has a new-guided tour that offers kayaking and snorkeling. The tour includes free Kona Coffee at a historic mill, paddling, and snorkeling, and dolphin sightings in Kealakekua Bay waters. During lunch guests will hear stories about the area and a view of the Captain Cook Monument.

Island Hoppers and Kapohokine Adventures have a new expedition called, "Ultimate Volcano Explorer." Guests will board an aircraft to Kona and fly over the active volcano, Kilauea. The aircraft will land in Hilo where guests are met by KaphoKine Adventures and served dinner. Guests are then guided to Puna to observe the lava flow at night.

Now THAT sounds hot.

New York is a city of wonders. As many times as I've visited, I never seem to see enough. I've just attended the annual Backspace Writer's Conference, where I spoke in a non-fiction writing panel called, "Real Places, Real Faces, Real Stories."

I stayed at the Radisson Martinique Hotel on 32nd and Broadway, in an area called Korea Town and not far from Times Square. My daughter, E, came along to check out grad programs at Columbia and NYU while I was conferencing.

When you're in town for a conference, you don't ususally get out and about the city. Wednesday night we stopped in for pre-conference cocktails at the Algonquin Hotel, the legendary watering hole of NY luminaries of theater and literature.

Friday night we did the town with some author friends, beginning at a book launch party for FALLING UNDER author Danielle Younge-Ullman at the V-bar in the West Village. We walked over to the Peculiar Pub with a few other friends, where we ate french fries and drank Stellas. The walls of the of Peculiar Pub were lined with lined with brewing paraphenalia, bottle tops and all kinds of kitchy stuff.

We crunched seven into a taxi for a ride over to Hudson Bar & Books, a classy cigar and wine bar lined with bookshelves and full of literature and encyclopedias. James Bond films played soundlessly on video screens, while the waitresses served up cocktails and wine in red-satin dresses. Our friend Ron Hogan enjoyed a cigar and the rest of us sipped a lovely Pinot Noir.

Saturday morning found us West Coasters finally adjusting to the three-hour time difference. E and I slept in, then rushed off for a NY deli breakfast with Jackie Kessler and Heather Brewer. Jackie, a native NYer, called my bagel of scrambled egg, bacon and cheddar cheese a "heart attack bagel." Glad I don't eat like that all the time.

E and I took the subway to Central Park for an afternoon walk before hitting the train for our ride down to Harrisburg, Penn., the next stop in our summer vacation. I could spend days and days exploring Central Park and some day I hope to. There is a lovely bridge that holds a special memory for me there. Not romantic, just motherly. The first time D and I took our kids to NYC, our son J, was about seven. The only thing he wanted to see in the park was the bridge where "A Troll in Central Park" was set. I revisited the bridge and remembered the seven-year-old boy, but not the film.