Story: Move over NYC, New Orleans gets top city rankings

I'm proud to pass on a positive story on New Orleans...


(Reuters Life!) - Looking for romance? Head to Honolulu. But if you are single, like live music, boutique hotels and want a wild weekend, New Orleans is the city to visit.

In its latest survey of America's favorite cities Travel and Leisure magazine asked readers to pick the best places for everything from the most attractive, intelligent, stylish and the friendliest people to where to find the best museums, restaurants, bars, museums and affordable hotels.

"The big news this year is that New Orleans received the most number one rankings over New York," said Travel and Leisure Assistant Editor Stirling Kelso.

"It is a popular weekend destination. You can go to New Orleans and feel like you have left the country," she added.

The city known as the "Big Easy" also came out tops for people watching, singles scene and the metropolis with the best bars and concerts and bands.

"In the nightlife category, New Orleans beat Las Vegas. Last year New Orleans swept all of the night-life categories and New Orleans did this year," Kelso added.

Miami topped the charts for the most attractive people, followed by San Diego and Charleston but southern charm seemed to come into play with Nashville, New Orleans and Charleston having the friendliest folks.

New York was the U.S. city with the most stylish residents with Miami and San Francisco and Los Angeles also coming up with high marks.

But when it comes to most intelligent Minneapolis/St. Paul took the crown, followed by Austin and Boston. The twin cities also scored top marks as the cleanest city.

The results were based on an online survey of more than 60,000 people who rated 30 U.S. cities in various categories. Five new cities, Providence, Kansas City, Cleveland, Houston and St Louis, were added to the survey this year.

Washington D.C. was the top choice for best museums, galleries and historical sites, with New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston also in the top five.

"In regards to culture, Washington D.C. and New York really tied in that category. New York got the No. 1 ranking for classical music and theatres, and Washington D.C. did for historical sites and monuments and museums and galleries. It was a nice East Coast tie," Kelso said.

For more sedate family fun, Orlando, Florida was the top choice with Washington D.C. coming in second, and San Diego third. If money is a consideration, Cleveland scaled the chart for best affordable getaway.

New York may have bowed to New Orleans in the nightlife ranking but it was still scored top marks in a category considered important by many -- shopping.

Full results are found at www.travelandleisure.com.

The It Gets Better Project II

In September, I posted a link to a video from Dan Savage and his It Gets Better Project.

Following up on that and on all the recent gay teen suicides, I have been working on a really long blog post that I will share soon once I get my thoughts together.

Meanwhile, I wanted to post this very powerful video that I saw via Jason's blog.

Yes, it's 12 minutes long. Stay for the entire show.



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The Trevor Project

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Kevin Smith, one of my favorite actor/directors, takes The Trevor Project center stage.

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BPM

Whenever I make mixed CD's, I am cognizant of the BPM (beats per minute) of each song - and how each fits together. For years, I have been using my own tapping combined with a metronome.

Gotta love the internet: Today, I found a site dedicated to what I have been sweating over for years.

Now, when I want to make a 160+ BPM CD, I will easily know that this song...



and this song...



can be linked.

Tourist In Your Own Town - 2010 (Preview)

This past weekend, Carlos and I had our Fourth Annual Tourist In Your Own Town weekend. I am working on a detailed post of our adventures. Coming very soon.

Meanwhile, I wanted to post this one short piece of information. He and I saw a movie at the new, improved Canal Place Cinema, uh, The Theatres at Canal Place. Carlos recognized an actor eating at the lounge area while we were getting a drink at the bar. Neither of us could remember his name. I did manage to get a (blurry, bad angle) picture of him.

Does anyone recognize this actor?



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Details on 2007 trip

Details on 2008 trip

Details on 2009 trip

New Gap Logo

A story from here:

Gap changed its logo today without fanfare or even so much as a press release. It just kind of showed up on their website, no method of warning considered.

The new logo, a cold and unfeeling blue square crushed underneath the cruel weight of bold, black Helvetica, makes the company look more like it’s about to release a new word processor than a footwear collaboration with Pierre Hardy. Our questions about this abound, but we’ll start with this one: What the hell are they thinking?

BrandChannel points out that while Gap Inc. as a company might have posted over $14 billion in revenue last year, Gap as a brand isn’t doing nearly as well as it has in the past. And now it’s scrambling for a jolt of energy that will send it back to the top again.

“… Ditching the classic logo, recognized by everyone, in favor of whatever that new monstrosity is, demonstrates a prototypical brand panic move. With things not going in its favor, the brand decides to change the one valuable element it has going for it.

Ironically maybe, the new logo is perfect for the brand. It communicates exactly the values currently embodied by Gap: A sense of being lost and a lack of clear vision and creativity.”

Ouch. Well. We hate Helvetica as much as the next person who has a thing for fonts (we had the audacity to tell our 300-level graphic design professor that we thought it was the most banal font we’d ever seen). But we’ve noticed that the company hasn’t changed the logo on its Facebook or Twitter pages, so maybe (hopefully) they’re just testing it out and gauging how consumers would react to it. But if the company can make a design flub this big, should we expect the clothes to follow?

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An update to the above story is here.

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See the trailer for the 2007 documentary on Helvetica.