LOUISIANA
Two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area, New Orleans is getting a shot in the arm from Smithsonian Magazine. The publication is teaming up with the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to host CultureFest on October 26-28th in “The Big Easy.”
CultureFest is one of the magazine’s signature events, which showcases a particular state’s history, cuisine, arts and more. It typically draws several thousand visitors. In years past it has been held in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Portland, Oregon.
If you are planning to make the trip to New Orleans next month for CultureFest, you may want to check out another popular event taking place that weekend. Voodoo Music Festival is expected to draw massive crowds. This year’s lineup of performers include fan favorites Rage Against the Machine, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sinead O’Connor, The Black Crowes, Toots and The Maytals, Dr. John, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Coheed and Cambria, and others.
HOTIE TOTIE HOTELS AND OTHERS
Fashionistas rejoice! You won’t have to compromise your extensive beauty regime the next time you are in Japan. Simply book a room at the Peninsula Tokyo. Every room in the new luxury hotel (which just opened last week) has a special dryer for freshly polished fingers and toes. Gadget loving guys who aren’t into lacquering their nails will go ga-ga over the high-tech bedside controls, which manipulate everything from lights to air conditioning to blinds to the “do not disturb” sign. But, hold onto your wallets. Rates start at about $520 a day.
Meanwhile, Tom Bodett, the “We’ll leave the light on” pitchman for Motel 6, is also going high-tech to plug his properties. He has made a new podcast that puts down hotel amenities such mints and chocolates on pillows and valet parking.
“If I can drive the old crate 300 miles to the hotel … I can certainly handle the last nine feet to the parking space,” he jokes online. “And rosemary sage body wash… I don’t put stuff on my skin that belongs on a pizza,” he snorts.
Bodett claims what travelers really need is a good night’s sleep and a free cup of coffee in the morning, and he wants to know why anyone would pay big bucks for a luxury hotel.
Hmmm…
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