LAID BACK AND LIVELY PUERTO VALLARTA

Whether you are dying of love or just dying to get out of town, consider Puerto Vallarta. Here are pale sand beaches, a shark-free surf and reliable sunshine at decent prices. The city has good drinking water, safe streets and everywhere the aura of welcoming friendliness.

Although founded in 1851 one could say it was discovered by John Huston, who came to film “Night of the Iguana” in 1964. The population then was 300, but this Hollywood Christopher Columbus really put the town on the map. With some help from the scandal of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, then both married to others and trysting here, the buzz brought people. Today, the population of Puerto Vallarta is 300,000. That includes the 5000 Americans who own property here.

The town is comprised of an old section and a new, divided by a bridge over the Cuale river which runs between them. Near the Centro, is El Malecón, a boulevard along the shore of Banderos Bay, the largest in Mexico, on which Puerto Vallarta is situated. Local artists have created the large pieces that are displayed along this stretch against the backdrop of sky and glistening sea. This lovers’ dream of a walkway is popular at sunset and photographers are everywhere snapping the large stone seahorse, symbol of the city, or the children who are free to clamber other user-friendly statuary. Local artists’ contributions may also be seen at their studios and galleries.

Of particular interest is the Galeria EM, where world-class works in glass are manufactured and displayed, and Galeria Dante, with its large selection of sculpture from Mexico and around the world. Sergio Bustamente, considered one of the leading artists of Mexico, has his own gallery and the studio of Richard Baker, a professional watercolorist and American transplant is worth a visit. Check a local events calendar for the Art Walk, a festive occasion in which galleries are open and cocktails are served. It takes place every few weeks in the old town near the main square.

This is an easy city to get around in. Buses run frequently, the fare is four pesos–about 50 cents–and there’s much to see. Conchas Chinas is where the rich have their eye-popping estates, all coconut-white stucco with moorish arches, domes, wrought iron touches, surrounded by paper and mango trees, bougainvillea and “copa de oro,” flowers that do really glow like gold.

On the Federal Road 200, look out at the water and see Los Arcos, a huge rock formation in the sea, through which boats and adventurous swimmers can maneuver. Stop at Le Kliff too, a restaurant that caters to tourists, and for a good reason. It is built like a multilevel fantasy of wood, bamboo and terracotta, has travel-brochure views and is so lush with vegetation there’s hardly room for chairs and tables.

Dining in Puerto Vallarta can be an iffy experience, but there are a few sure bets. The Café Des Artistes is French, a five-star, with a plant-kingdom ambience, top food, top prices: Entrees range from $20 to $35 and there is a tasting menu at $76. For a more modest tab and local seafood, head for Puerto Nuevo, for a typical Mexican meal try Las Palomas or La Chata, which offers 85 kinds of chili. Try the molé here with or without Tequila. That ubiquitous drink is only produced in the town of Tequila, but at Aqui es Jalixco, in nearby Pitillal, learn everything you ever wanted to know about it through demonstrations and tastings, which are free.

Between meals, there’s much to do. Predictably, there are water sports: off-boat parasailing, deep sea/sport fishing, water-skiing, and no end of beaches. Water taxis are available for island-hops; a very popular way to spend a few hours is whale watching. There are the usual land sports like tennis and golf and the more exotic: botanical trail rides, hot-air ballooning and for about $50 a shot, bungee-jumping.

At the end of the day, a bit of spa activity can soothe those aching muscles. The Piedra Viva Spa at the Hacienda Hotel has something called “The Ritual,” an elemental treatment involving a sweat lodge, mud bath, massage and primal music. After treatment one is likely to feel like floating out of the place, which looks a bit like a Tarzan movie set complete with palapa covered huts and a poetic little brook. Spa fans came away wildly enthusiastic about the unique three hour event, calling it “a spiritual experience”. For more conservative spa activity, the Premiere Hotel offers a variety of hydrotherapies, scrubs, and body treatments. While there are hotels in all price ranges in Puerto Vallarta, the Premiere, a gem of a new hotel well-situated on the beach and near town, is also a good bet for anyone demanding not only a spa but dramatic architecture, indoor and outdoor private jacuzzis and seaside glamour.
Pack lightly; the only jackets to be seen here are on the members of the Mariachi bands, which seem to be everywhere. The best of them can be heard at the Tequila Restaurant, which features music seven nights a week. Listening to “La Bamba” and “Guantanamera” may be a good way to feel the soul of Puerto Vallarta, and to wrap up a perfect day in this pocket of romance on the west coast of Mexico.

COOLING OFF IN NORWAY’S HOT SPOTS –
Boston Herald, –August 10, 2000

The views of Norway one remembers will probably include ships and harbors, church spires, snow capped mountains, rows of peak-roofed houses in Martha Stewart colors and lots of water and sky. But nowadays Oslo, named for the mouth of a river–os, and its green banks, lo, is actually a bustling metropolis of half a million people. Set at the head of the Oslo Fjörd, it is divided into two basic parts: the west, which includes large residences for the well-to-do as well as City Hall and the Royal Palace, and the more industrial east. With its highly decorated mosque, a prison, and winding Gronlandesleiret Street where fruits and vegetables are sold in open air markets, the less tony eastern half is the place where most foreigners initially settle.

This year Oslo, dubbed “the Tiger City,” for its power image (not its non-existent tigers) celebrates its 1000th anniversary, which means a bonanza for tourists in the form of parades and parties, jazz concerts, the dramatization of historical events and diverse theme weeks. The purchase of an “Oslo Card” at about $22 per day (8 dollars=1 Kroner) guarantees discounts or free access to local attractions and transit, including The Viking Museum and Folk Art Museums. Both deal with different aspects of Norwegian history: The Viking Museum has on display genuine Viking boats exhumed in 1903 and painstakingly restored, offering a view of dragonhead carvings and authentic details like the holes for oars used by mariners eight centuries ago. The Norsk Folkemuseum is devoted to dry land, and is one of the largest open air museums in Europe. With 150 buildings taken from valley, fjörd and coastal sites in Norway, it simulates the experience of walking through every part of the country.

Oslo is proud of its Nobel peace prize, and a visit to the city might include a look at City Hall, where it is presented, always on December 10th, the date of Alfred Nobel’s death. Rows of chairs stand facing large windows in a marble-floored salon overlooking the harbor, its walls decorated with painted murals of the Second World War and Norwegian history. In Oslo, history is in fact everywhere–even in its restaurants; Ibsen’s favorite, the Grand Café, has his table still there, set for him. A life-size statue of the playwright stands near that of the poet Björnstjerne Björnson’s in front of The National Theatre, and indeed, the city seems enamored of statuary. The verdant Vigeland Sculpture Park features two hundred granite pieces depicting stages of human life and attracts one million visitors every year.

The most popular site, however, is the Holmenkollen Ski Jump, Norway’s oldest. Built in 1892, it overlooks Oslo, and is the largest tourist attraction in the country. The Frognerseteren Restaurant at its summit serves lunch and dinner, is called “dragon style” because of a dragon head carving at its peaked roof, but looks to American eyes very much like a rustic ski lodge. With indoor or outdoor seating, views of the city below, a meal of fresh fish and a glass of Ringnes, the favorite local beer, it is perhaps the defining Oslo experience.

If leaving the pleasures of the city is a wrench, the train ride out of town is surely compensation. The N.S.B. (Norwegian States Railways) trip to Myrdal is scenically dazzling, the ride considered one of the most beautiful in the world. Winding through tunnels, gliding past pine trees and dairy farms, rivers and waterfalls, an occasional village tucked into the mountainside, here and there one sees a road on its way along the green of a snowcapped mountain. Lunch on board may be a casual affair–a sandwich bought from a vendor–or a more serious dining car experience. In any case, dessert should be “Leefsa,” a soft fold of dough filled with cinnamon sugar, a Norwegian specialty.

Arrival at Myrdal gives one a choice: there is the possibility of a four and a half hour hike to Flam, or another, shorter train ride to that destination. It is at Flam that one takes a boat through scenic fjords to Voss, the small town that lies between Oslo and Bergen, and is worthy of a stopover. Voss is a sports lover’s dream, with its body-boggling choices of adventure in the air or on land. Available here are white-water rafting, paragliding, camping, rappelling, parasailing, waterskiing, hang-gliding, kayaking, parachuting. For the less adventurous there is a more profound local attraction: the Voss Folkemuseum. A cluster of farm buildings, ranging in age from one to four hundred years old, stand preserved, transporting the visitor into the working and living farm conditions in past centuries.

On to the glamour of Bergen, the largest cruise liner port in Norway, an hour and fifteen minute train ride away. Two hundred thousand Americans visited here last year, attracted to this ancient harbor city, surrounded by seven mountains and famous for its “Bryggen.” This trading Wharf defines the city and is its core. Although the harbor area was destroyed by fire many times through the ages, each time it was rebuilt, and has kept its original character. Lining the streets are Monopoly-style peak-roofed houses housing shops, apartments, even Scruffy Murphy’s, an Irish pub with its “Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer” motto. Bergen is known for its narrow side streets, cobblestoned and steep, with its old wooden houses looking as if they are leaning towards or against each other. Still standing as it was built in 1702 is the Hanseatic Museum, both residence and storage for an 18th Century merchant and his staff. Go early; long lines form to see the inside of this three-story house. Here one can have the hands-on experience examining cupboard beds, rope tow and hidden staircase, and looking down through original windows at tall ships at anchor below. A “Guest of Honor” Bergen card, similar to the one available in Oslo, offers free museum admission as well as transit and sightseeing attractions for about $20 per day.

It’s not only the harbor with its stiff sea-breezes and open-air fish markets that draw tourists to Bergen. It is also rhododendrons, of which there are 1000 species, and a quarter of a million friendly residents, most of whom, like most Norwegians, speak fluent English. Very popular are cable cars and a funicular that takes visitors to the surrounding mountain tops for dinner and spring and summer evening concerts. And, music lovers will enjoy a visit to Troldhaugen, the hilltop Victorian home of Edvard Grieg, which contains his piano, original furnishings, and handwritten pieces of his music.

As for the “midnight sun”: Norway celebrates its longest day on June 23rd. Daylight lasts for approximately 22, not 24, hours in the south, and nationwide festivities mark the occasion as a holiday–even if it rains.

How to go: SAS or Icelandair. Icelandair offers the shortest travel time between Boston and Oslo. (1-410-715-5153)

Where to Stay: In Bergen and Oslo, the First or Radisson Hotel chains will charge in the neighborhood of $160 per double per night, including full breakfasts. Less expensive accommodations are available at the Best Western or Comfort Hotels. In Oslo, the Oslo Package at approximately $65 per person includes bed and breakfast in a choice of 44 hotels in all categories.

Restaurants: Good to great food is available in every price range. Most expensive in Oslo: Bagatelle or the Bristol Grill. Dinner entrees in the $40 dollar range. The Grand Café has a large lunch buffet. Norwegian specialties at Maud’s. Voss: Fleischers Restaurant has a baronial dining room: fillet of deer, about $30. Bergen: Fiskekrogen is a famous small fish restaurant, entrees about $40. Book ahead here. The Emily Restaurant in the Admiral Hotel is a good bet for lunch – approximately $10.

Contact: Norwegian Tourist Board. (212) 885-9755
www. Norway.org or www.tourist.no

If you’re unemployed or visiting, there are no mornings in New Orleans. This place of open doors and upstairs verandas teems with t-shirts, beads and street performers when the sun is sinking. That’s when the city turns voluptuous and the streets fill with music.

On the other hand, daylight becomes the fabulous new sculpture museum at the Modern Museum of Art, which gives off its own radiance. Imagine pieces by Noguchi, Botero and Moore in bronze or aluminum. Picture five acres of grass without a “keep off” sign in sight, with reflecting pools, stone bridges and waddling ducks and geese that mingle with the likes of Lynn Chadwick’s bronze “Two Sitting Figures” or Scott Burton’s granite “Right Angle Chairs”. Some of these pieces are whimsical, as is Othoniel’s “Tree of Necklaces”, some meaningful, as Alison Saar’s upside down hanging man, “Travelin’ Light”. One in particular is a stainless steel dazzler. Put on sunglasses to check out Rona Pondick’s “Monkeys,” and note that all the pieces are placed in a placid setting of shade trees: magnolias, cypress, oak. Above your head, hanging moss and native birds. And best of all, admission’s free.

Across the street, lunch. Ralph’s on the Park is also new, and Ralph is part of the Brennan family, which seems to have the corner on New Orleans restaurants. In the downstairs dining room, a Victorian mural depicting a confrontation between ladies of the night and the wives of their customers. Upstairs, a veranda. Wherever you sit, the view is of the park and the cuisine is Louisiana-French. A typical lunch entrée costs $9.50. Try the striped bass salad, or the Louisiana “Blue Crab” cake. A popular drink here is the Bienvenue Bloody Mary.

Now, maybe a nap. You’ll need the energy to walk down Royal Street and pick out something that once belonged to someone else. If you’ve got a spare $750,000 and are into gilt, you might go for King Farouk’s bedroom set. It’s at M.S. Rau Antiques, which is part store, part museum and has about as many square feet as a convention center. If you don’t find your heart’s desire there, you’ll find it next door or the door after that. The selection on this street runs from the sublime to that cut glass nappy dish you’ve always wanted. Keil’s is the place for chandeliers and Hoover’s has vintage wristwatches. Need a gentleman’s walking stick with a silver handle or a tiny “objet de vertu” Limoge outhouse? It’s at the Brass Monkey. Or you can buy a silk screen of the Blue Dog. That’s brand new and it’s at the Rodrigue Studio.

All that is fabulous continues at Fleur de Paris Millinery. Here hats better described as bonnets or chapeaus are buried in ostrich feathers, velvet flowers, ribbons and net. Think Princess Di, think drag, or think spending between $250 and $1000 to cover a head. The hats are made directly across the street and each is unique. Or buy a ball gown fit for weddings or Palm Beach garden parties. “We have all sorts of clientele,” explained the sales clerk. The gowns here all look as if they came from a movie studio wardrobe department and the most expensive is $5000.

You’re not likely to see any of them at the Good Friends bar on Dauphine Street. The motto of the place is “always snappy casual” with more casual than snappy in evidence. This is wall-to-wall gay men with a pool table in the back, video poker and neon palm trees; Tuesdays are for Karaoke. Bring ear plugs if you plan to stay a while. Or take them to Oz, the gay disco club for the younger set, or head for the oldest gay bar in America, “the Daddy of ‘em all,” Cafe Lafitte. It features two floors of music and video and the pool table here is upstairs. Before video there was Tennessee Williams, said to have frequented the place when it was on Bourbon Street. It’s so popular it burst its seams at the original location and you’ll find it now on St. Anne and Burgundy.

Another Williams favorite is the Monteleone Hotel, smack in the middle of the French Quarter. He stayed here and was said to have written “The Rose Tattoo” on the premises, if not exactly at the revolving bar. He must have spread himself thin in town as he also was said to have eaten regularly at the Quarter Scene Restaurant where the Po’ Boy sandwiches are named “The Stanley,” “The Stella,” “The Blanche,” in his honor. Sit at Table One, the one at the window. It was his.

Another gay-friendly cafe is the Clover Grill, at which a counter- man was spotted with a Chanel logo tattooed on his upper arm. Its overhead fluorescents remind one of a Hopper painting but don’t expect foie gras here. This is a burger-fries sort of place. A more New Orleansy place for lunch is the Gumbo Shop on St. Peter’s Street. For the authentic thing, try the Seafood Okra or the Chicken Andouille. And apropos authentic, you can watch them make pralines at the Southern Candymakers Best Pralines shop on Decatur Street and pick up some “original creamy” or “cheesecake fudge” to take home.

Upgrading for dinner? The Galatoire is where locals insist the food is the best in town. With its tile floors and Victorian light fixtures, overhead fans and coat racks, it looks like an old-time steak house but its claim to fame is fish, especially crabmeat, which is recommended in any of its incarnations. For dessert the must-have is the banana bread pudding. That is unforgettable. Dinner might run in the forty dollar range without drink or tip.

Now, go for the funk. Bill Clinton’s ex-squeeze, Gennifer Flowers, hits the high notes nightly in her own small place on Bourbon Street, looking younger, blonder, renovated and too elegant for this place, with its stuffed deer heads, smoke machine and tip jar on the piano. Her voice is strong and wonderful and she lights up what some might call a dive. For a price of a Grey Goose Citron Sea Breeze or a martini, (ten dollars) spend half an hour listening to her sing “Fever” or “St. Louis Woman,” and trying not to listen to “He’s Got the Cutest Dinghy in the Navy” and wondering what a nice girl like her is doing in a place like this.

She probably fell in love again here, this time with this funky, fabulous and unforgettable town. As you might.

Can a Mozart fan find happiness in Nashville’s new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum?

Imagine a 37 million dollar monument to what some have called musical mutiny, a building that jumps and twangs, rocks and throbs through four stories, and incorporates into its soul almost as many generations of box office headliners.

Its massive structure is a centerpiece of the city’s re-created downtown, a mammoth and luminous superstar risen as a replacement for the famous but creaky Ryman Theatre, which still holds its own nearby. Designed by the Tuck Hinton Architectural firm, it is built of Tennessee’s crab orchard stone, brick, aggregate concrete, and rust-colored steel. The composite is symbolic of the earthy textures of the south, which gave birth to the fiddlers and banjo players who first tapped their feet in rhythm to this music.

“Country. Admit it. You Love It,” was the defensive slogan that helped raise the money, and while some were insulted by its implicit apology for heartland music, one million items were collected and installed under the Center’s light-filled dome. The most overwhelming impression is that of its size and its wall of gold and platinum records, those that have sold 500,000 or more copies. It seems to stretch from here to the sky, and is interactive; open a given frame and you can actually hear Johnny Cash or Brenda Lee burst forth on the spot.

That’s just the tip of this musical iceberg. A move in one direction will allow a visitor to step into a private, circular booth and listen to anything from Roy Acuff to Faith Hill, a few steps in another, to watch video clips of performances seen last year or beloved by grandma and grandpa in their day. Turn this way and catch a glimpse of Conway Twitty’s high school graduation photo behind inch-thick glass, or the super-cool worldly goods of the country luminaries: here is Jimmy Rogers’s accordion, Roy Rogers’s jacket, Marty Stuart’s beaded gauntlets and Patsy Cline’s train case. Check out guitars in every color of the rainbow, Minnie Pearl’s hat, Elvis’s “solid gold” Cadillac with its gold-plated TV, and Webb Pierce’s “silver dollar” convertible. This car has had one thousand silver dollars inlaid in the upholstery, and handguns mounted on the hood. Looking at it, one can practically hear him sing, “The good lord giveth…”

An innovative experience here is the possibility of cutting one’s own personal CD. One steps up to one of many small stations, decides through which decade to browse, and with a push of the magic button, gets to hear a sample – Gene Autry? The Dixie Chicks? – before making a final decision. Presto again at the Museum Store, where the CD is ready and waiting for the owner’s credit card. The Store also is the site of a daily live satellite radio program, free to the public.Other live performances and demonstrations, the “Hall of Fame Rotunda,” the new Ford Theater and a cafe, are all part of the glamour. Located at the corner of Demonbreun Street and Fifth Avenue South, the Center is, along with the new Frist Art Museum, putting Nashville, already hot, into a new, cultural perspective.

If it’s not exactly heaven on earth for the Mozart fan, one must admit to country’s genuine heart and strong visceral pull, and raise a cowboy hat in salute to the Center’s paean to the history of American music.

www.countrymusichalloffame.com or www.nashvillecvb.com
Phone: 615-255-2245

FUN, SUN AND FUNK AT MYRTLE BEACH

A first-time visitor arriving here might ask, “But, where’s the beach?” Because the Myrtle Beach shoreline is hidden behind a stretch of high-rise hotels and condos, at first glance this is somewhat off-putting. There’s a bit of wannabe Miami, Palm Beach, Vegas here, (gambling is available offshore on boats that take you into international waters) but the good news is that every inch of the seashore is accessible to the public. Myrtle Beach is part of the sixty mile “Grand Strand” that runs from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Georgetown, South Carolina, and this local stretch has its own inviting character: imagine beach grass, a wide, white and clean strip of sand, the surf, a fishing pier and everywhere the dazzle of umbrellas in crayon colors. There’s no need to leave the beach for lunch either; many of the hotels that line it have snack bars or grills and bathing suits are welcome.

Incorporated in 1938 and named for the Wax Myrtle, you’ll find those flowered trees here in the city, and also sea shells embedded in sidewalks, casual indoor-outdoor spots like Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar and Grill, souvenir shops featuring not only the usual key chains and t-shirts, but real alligator heads. If the city sounds funky, that’s exactly what it is, and it’s also family friendly, with more happening here than surf and rays.

Myrtle Waves is a popular water park that includes a 700-gallon “volcano” that soaks guests every six to eight minutes, and Alligator Adventure is where the kids can watch a two thousand pound crocodile eat his lunch, or wander through the reptile house to see the rattlers and vipers. Nearby, the NASCAR SpeedPark is a car-racing-themed amusement park that has a 1200 track including tunnel and bridge, and a “tot rod” kiddie area, among other wheels activities. In a more serious vein, a large complex, Broadway at the Beach, includes a small exhibit that pays homage to the H.L.Hunley, America’s first submarine, built (and destroyed) during the Civil War. While all these attractions mean paying admission fees, some hotels offer package deals or coupons. (High season here is spring and fall.)

The most impressive exhibition is currently at the 87,000 square foot Ripley’s Aquarium, with its 5000 different species of fish. Here children can pet crabs or stingrays (stingers removed) caress a turtle, or watch a Scuba diver feed schools of fish. The sharks are big too, in more ways than one, but most remarkable is the chilling Titanic display. The film clips, photos of passengers, replicas of items found in its wreckage, like the crow’s nest bell that rang to signal the sight of the iceberg bring it very much to unnerving life. Most hair-raising is the recreation of the pump room with water gushing into it, and a water tank into which one dips one’s hand to test the icy temperature of the Atlantic the night the ship’s 1523 doomed passengers were plunged into it.

In the same complex are cheerier options, like shopping in its 100 specialty shops, or eating. There’s a Planet Hollywood, the NASCAR Café and Jimmy Buffet’s three-level Margaritaville, where the margaritas come in flavors like “Last Mango in Paris,” the atmosphere is tiki and the music is loud. For more elegant dining, head to Vidalia’s at the Radisson Hotel or to Papa’s on Ocean Boulevard.

Or take a picnic lunch to the La Belle Amie Winery, where the gift shop is as well-stocked as the bar and the friendly proprietors have tastings of their own–and some imported–reds and whites. Later, take in a show at the Imax, or better still, at the Palace, a 2,700 seat theatre that runs Broadway-caliber musical entertainments.

One must not describe Myrtle Beach, which is known as “The Golf Capitol of the World,” without mentioning its claim to fame. There are 123 18-hole courses within fifty miles, many in the immediate area. There’s also a 27-hole driving range and several themed miniature golf courses.

With or without golf clubs, visitors come from every corner of the United States and Canada. Since more than twelve million arrive in Myrtle Beach every year, obviously they’re doing something right in this corner of South Carolina.

For more info: www.mbchamber.com
Or call: 800-356-3016

JUST FOR LAUGHS IN MONTREAL

Canadian humor? They’ve got to be kidding!

And they do, once a year, at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.
It’s packed day and night with up-and-coming comics and comedians, street fairs and galas, and in the past, big-time stars like Joan Rivers, Howie Mandel, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Bill Maher. Called the “Cannes of Comedy,” the festival is truly as funny as anything you’re likely to see at the Friars’ Club.

“My parents having sex? Oh, God! When they came to visit me I wouldn’t let them share a bedroom.”

“When my wife says, ‘You know what I’m thinking?’ my standard answer to this and all questions is, ‘You don’t look fat in that.”

“I bought a bed at Ikea–when I put it together it turned into a bookcase.”

Maybe not hilarious on paper, but often in context, these seasoned or freshly-minted comics amuse not only us civilians but the armies of industry executives, producers and talent scouts looking for a new star, new trends. The payoff for the visitor is a weekend packed with hahas in various venues at special events like “The Simpsons in the Flesh” show, a celebration of literary humor, solos by such big names as Eddie Izzard and –last year–an unforgettable quick-change artist’s performance. Arturo Brachetti is a name you’ll hear at this festival or elsewhere again.

There are theatres and clubs throughout the city that feature shows all through the ten-day event, and there’s something for everyone’s taste, including Gay and Lesbian, Jewish, experimental, musical, women, improv, you-name-it. Films, too, in English and French, and pilot episodes of upcoming television shows. South Park debuted here, and comedy legends have had their work celebrated in special showcase presentations.

The streets buzz with fun as well. Here are throngs, many in wacky costume, mimes, television crews, and a daffy parade of twins and triplets old and young–1500 hundred strong!–weaving their way along Montreal’s throughfares. And those avenues are in themselves geared for the partying, the joie de vivre. Lively St. Denis Street, the epicenter of the festival, is lined with artsy shops that sell everything from argyle socks to Zinfandel, Le Plateau’s an area that’s full of outdoor cafés, shopping areas and the brilliant purple, red and green shutters behind which live Montreal’s funky mix of blue collars, artists and poets.

Don’t overlook the Just For Laughs Museum, which memorializes in film clips 170 immortal comics of the 20th Century–everyone from Jacques Tati to Roseanne–and features the best moments of their performances. This place is really fun, geared to kids or the kid in you, with a hall of mirrors, another of optical illusions and exhibits that pay special homage to the history of magic.

If you need a break, getting away from the hullabaloo is easy. The city is full of parks, like La Fontaine, where one can picnic, sunbathe, even rent pedal boats on its artificial pond. Or stop for some peace and quiet at the Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral with its 5000 gold leaf stars in the ceiling, or the awesome Notre Dame Basilica(where Celine Dion tied her knot).

Montreal is clean, friendly, accessible, and, “No terrorists will attack here. It’s where they send their relatives for safety,” in the words of one comic at the festival. And best of all, the city’s pleasures come at a discount, because the American dollar is currently strong in cool and friendly Canada.

WHAT’S HOT IN MEMPHIS

You might want to stay longer, but you can see a lot in a long weekend. Start with a trip to the modest Sun Studio where the “Memphis Flash” made his first recording. He stood right on this tile floor in July of 1953, the very spot now marked with a black X, and sang “My Happiness,” into the microphone, which some ardent fans have been known to fondle and lick. Tastier light refreshment is available at the fifties soda fountain next door, once also Elvis’s hangout.

From Sun Studio, head for Graceland, which is the second most visited residence in the United States after the White House. Visitors get popeyed not only at the sprawl and contents of the King’s homestead, but also strolling through the length of his jet, gazing at his turquoise convertible, razzmatazz outfits, fake-fur-covered furniture, his “jungle room,” gun collection, reading material (“Gods From Outer Space”) and gravesite at which some visitors weep. His tombstone is engraved, “He was a precious gift from God” and he’s buried next to his mother, father and other family members, whose bodies were moved to this site. Everywhere one listens to his recordings and watches his performances on TV monitors while meandering through the macro complex or shopping in the Graceland gift shops for Elvis potholders, shot glasses, dupes of his Social Security card or driver’s license.

The beat continues on famous Beale Street, a two-block stretch of cool sounds and cold beer. There are goats in the back yard at Silky Sullivan’s, inside are “duelin’ pianos”–two or three hot players in concert–or topnotch singing talent at the mike. Beverages come in bottles or plastic cups in keeping with the tattoo-and-denim ambiance of the street, which generally comes to life after ten at night. The Rum Boogie Café down the street, with its dark brick and hanging-guitars decor, is famous for its blues, and a glass of Bud or Coke is the only price of admission to hear first-rate performers here as in most of the street’s venues. An exception is B.B.King’s, where there’s a cover of about $7 or $10, depending on who’s at the door.

Memphis is of course, all about music, and in May of this year, the first Museum of American Soul will open on East McLenore Avenue on the site of the original STAX recording company. Eddie Floyd, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and many other American legends recorded on this hallowed ground during the 60’s and 70’s, and STAX will now be reborn not only as a museum but also as the Academy of Music in an adjacent building. In an area where the average annual income is below $13000 per year, the school will be a magnet for neighborhood school children, “nurturing those with a deficit” in the words of the director, Deanie Parker. With funding from foundations, the government and private contributions, it will offer after-school music programs, a summer camp, recording studio and its own radio station. The museum, located in the two square mile area dubbed Soulsville, USA, in honor of its genesis of the Blues and of Rock and Roll, will pay homage to Soul in live performances, a recreation of the famous STAX Studio A, and assorted Soul-related artifacts and memorabilia. The complex is a 20 million dollar project, a long-time paean to the music that is not gospel, not blues, not rhythm and blues, but influenced by all three.

If the Memphis of yesterday and today is everywhere about the pleasure of music, its minor key is in the National Civil Rights Museum, on the site of the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Here experience the you-are-there of standing in the Main Street Boarding House from which James Earl Ray shot Dr. King dead at the Lorraine Motel across the street. The small bathroom in which it is presumed Ray stood to take aim is preserved exactly as it was, as is the motel room in which Dr. King slept. A recent expansion of the museum includes Exploring the Legacy, which examines the history of the Civil Rights Movement following his death. The Freedom Rides, Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Washington Protest Marches, lynchings, are recorded in chilling detail.

And, there’s much more to see in the city: The Chinese Art Collection at the Peabody Museum, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Fire Museum, Gibson Guitar Factory, the Memphis Zoo.

A downtown trolley system that connects many of the city’s principal attractions makes Memphis convenient for sightseeing visitors.

The weekend packages are tempting, so isn’t it time to take another look at London? This time you might want to check out the less-traveled as well as the guidebook standards of Great Britain’s most vibrant city.

For an eye-popping start and presuming you have no acrophobia, try the London Eye. Picture large glass eggs lying horizontally, each holding 25 passengers, including you. These rise gently and slowly four hundred feet into the air, and if the skies are clear, offer a panoramic view of the Gothic houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the Tower Bridge and just about everything else within 25 miles. At night, the view from the top of the world in this latter-day Ferris-wheel is all radiance and dazzle. The ride takes thirty minutes, but the wait in line to get aboard is much longer, so you might want to book ahead through www.ba-londoneye.com or your travel agent.

Getting to the Eye is fun if you travel by boat. These “Riverliners” glide along the twists and turns of the Thames, making stops every twenty or thirty minutes. One does not need to sign up for the entire two and a half hour sight-seeing trip, but may disembark as one would a bus. The London Eye stop is at Waterloo Pier, the boats leave every thirty minutes or so and are partially enclosed, mindful of English weather. The Tate Boat, which travels between the Tate Britain and Tate Modern museums also stops at the London Eye. It’s so convenient to the museums, you might want to make a stop at each. At the Tate Britain you’ll see the best of British art (Gainsborough, Turner, Hockney, Moore and so on) and at the Tate Modern, pay homage to our own Edward Hopper. The comprehensive exhibit –around seventy works–opens there May 27th and stays through September.

While there, grab some fish and chips at the airy café built as part of a recent two-story glass addition. On a sunny day the light streams through not only the restaurant but also the museum top to bottom. Here and there are lounges with sofas and balconies with views of the river and the city beyond it. It’s an inviting atmosphere for visitors who might want to take a bit of relaxation with their culture.

More art, of the sort that people call “Cool” or “They must be kidding!” depending on the point of view, is at the aptly named White Cube gallery. This is in Hoxton, an area of London that is young and cutting edge, and has inspired the “Hoxton fin”, a hairdo characterized by close-shaves at the side of the head and a standing brush pointing towards heaven at its center. Some might characterize Hoxton as still somewhat industrial, but new restaurants and boutiques are springing up. Hoxton Square, a small park, is at its center.

Very nearby is Brick Lane, a historic street characterized by brick-façade buildings, graffiti and a lively street life. It was originally populated by French Huguenots, later, at the turn of the 20th century, Jewish immigrants. As they prospered and moved to the suburbs, they were replaced by Bangladeshi and other Asian newcomers. Restaurants have opened here one after another and it’s a good place to eat an inexpensive ethnic meal or shop at the many boutiques. They have names like “Junky” or “Vision” or no names at all. Ad hoc designer outlets come and go and real bargains may be found here. Keep your eyes open for Princelet Street around the corner from Brick Lane, and check out the dilapidated building at number 19. Erected in the18th Century, it housed three centuries of immigrants. Now it’s a small museum, open to the public on occasional Sunday afternoons.

A wide alleyway that also cuts into Brick Lane, Dray Walk, is lined with outdoor picnic tables. On weekends, here are the strollers and bikes, the throngs of young people dining al fresco. Straight ahead is Spitalfield Market, a huge covered tent under which crafts, homemade bakery items, silver, posters, you-name-it, are sold. The market is open Sundays only, but surrounded by proper shops open all week. Although there are exceptions, these will appeal to customers whose idea of antiques do not reach further back than the 20th Century.

A quieter afternoon stroll might be along Charing Cross Road, famous not for visual arts but for its small bookshops, every one properly dusty and atmospheric. Shipley’s emphasis is art and design, Alhoda is for Middle Eastern Muslim books, the Charing X Cross Bookshop is famous for bargains. For any book in its basement, you pay only £ 1 and the stock is periodically overhauled. Next door is the Francis Edwards Antiquarian Book Shop; at Henry Porder Books, books are “bought and sold.” In keeping with its old-fashioned image, Charing Cross Road is also home to C.Smith and Sons. This little “noted snuff shop” has a sign on the door: “Thank you for smoking,” and inside are lighters, cigars , pipes and ashtrays. It’s all a walk down memory lane.

Time for tea? Find the historic Mountbatten Hotel nearby, built in 1904 and refurbished in 1985, when it was renamed for Earl Mountbatten of Burma. It’s a mix of today and tradition and a good choice for a typical cuppa complete with scones and tea sandwiches. From here you’ll want to proceed to Covent Garden, with its markets, theatre, arts and history. It’s just three blocks away.

Where to stay in London? If you’re interested in theatre, best choice is the Hampshire on Leicester Square. Want access to the financial district? Try the May Fair on Stratton Street. The five-star Heathrow is near the airport. For proximity to shopping, stay at the Radisson Edwardian Berkshire on Oxford Street. All these hotels are rated four or five star, and are included in the “Let Loose in London” weekend package.