Two chicks with major wanderlust who live to see the world: themselves, through others, or just living vicariously with the latest & greatest gadgets, travel accoutrements - from luggage to skincare
Orchestrated & hosted by actress and author Suzanna Leigh, The King's co-star in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), more than two dozen celebs who knew him will gather this August to remember the 30th anniversary of the death of the King of Rock & Roll. Tens of thousands of fans from around the world will be in attendance at the glittering gala, where several notable actors and personalities will be on hand to talk to fans about their experiences with Elvis, sign books, photos & memorabilia - & meet with fans.
Participants include:
Pat Priest Easy Come, Easy Go
Sue Ane Langdon Roustabout, Frankie and Johnny
John Rich - director of Roustabout, Easy Come, Easy Go
Irene Tsu, Edy Williams & Donna Butterworth - Paradise, Hawaiian Style
L.Q. Jones - Love Me Tender, Flaming Star, Stay Away, Joe
Celeste Yarnall - Live a Little, Love a Little
Victoria Paige Meyerink - Speedway
Gail Gilmore - Girl Happy, Harum Scarum
& fellow entertainers and Elvis pals Tommy Sands & Ty Hardin
There will also be a special video appearance by Dolores Hart, Elvis's co-star in King Creole and Loving You. She is now a Benedictine nun and spokesman for The Neuropathy Association. A portion of the proceeds from Night of a Thousand Stars will go to the charity that raises awareness of the neurological disorder that Mother Dolores has been battling since 1997.
WHEN: August
16-18, 2007 WHERE: Inn of Hunt Phelan, Memphis, Tennessee (a mere 20 minutes from Graceland) CHARITY: The Neuropathy Association DEADLINE FOR RESERVATIONS:July 20, 2007 MORE INFO:Night-of-a-Thousand-Stars.com
A statue of hotel namesake Nathaniel Hawthorne, who spent his childhood in Salem, and returned in 1846 for a three year stint as Surveyor of the Port at the Custom House. In 1849, he penned The Scarlett Letter at his Salem home.
"Preservation month is an exciting time for Salem Massachusetts and the Hawthorne Hotel," explains Susan Babine, Director of Sales and Marketing, of the Hawthorne Hotel, founded in 1925. "Perfect for history buffs, ocean lovers, and general enthusiasts of New England culture and society, the city of Salem has a number of museums and historic homes open for visitors. Right upstairs at the Hawthorne Hotel is the headquarters to the Salem Marine Society, a 241 year old maritime organization. This rich historic site has rarely been available for viewing to the general public since the hotels founding in 1925, and right now we are open and offer private tours with our hotel packages."
To celebrate Preservation Month, the Hawthorne is serving up an Offer of Historic Proportionsthroughout May - a two night stay for two featuring:
a narrated tour of the Hawthorne Hotel
a rare opportunity to visit the Salem Marine Society - headquarters of Salem's oldest organization founded in 1766 by 18 Salem area sea captains - located on the hotel's rooftop
full breakfast each morning
two tickets to the famed House of the Seven Gables
two tickets to the Peabody Essex Museum, America's oldest continually operating museum including its collection of historic homes spanning three centuries
Rates start
at $372 (plus tax). For more info, visit HawthorneHotel.com.
West African cocoa farmers supply 75% of America’s cocoa, but have never tasted one of its sweetest byproducts, chocolate, in their lives. They can’t afford it. Most West African cocoa farmers live in primitive conditions and abject poverty - mud huts with grass roofing, dirt floors, no plumbing or electricity, no access to anti-malarial drugs or modern healthcare facilities. Even the $10 rubber boots that would protect them from stinging ants or dangerous snakes in the cocoa fields is beyond most workers' reach. Many of the village children work in the cocoa fields and their parents cannot afford to send them to school, and in some cocoa-producing areas, children work as slaves, beaten and kept locked up at night.
"The gross disparity between the suffering of the West African cocoa farmers, their children, and the current chocolate trading practices should give consumers pause for reflection,” says Tom Neuhaus, founder of Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, Inc., one of a handful of certified Organic and Fair Trade chocolate companies in the US. The company's motto is Do No Harm to the earth or the farmers that supply their product & they offer a 100% guarantee that no unfair treatment of labor or harmful chemicals was used in the production of
the cacao used in Sweet Earth chocolate. A portion of Sweet Earth Chocolate Bar sales is donated to Project Hope and Fairness, which Neuhaus founded to assist West African cocoa farmers and advocate for Fair Trade practices in cocoa producing nations. “We need to fight indifference and ignorance and get people on board with conscientious purchasing. Project Hope and Fairness raises awareness of the disparities and advocates for Fair Trade practices.”
To help further raise awareness, Neuhaus - a food science professor at
Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, California - is organzing a trip from August 8-25, 2007 for 10 unique, adventurous travelers. The group will visit five cocoa farming villages in both
Ghana and Ivory Coast, learning about cocoa farming & the history of chocolate, Fair Trade, and helping to better the lives of the impoverished farmers. In past years, proceeds donated from the sale of Sweet Earth chocolate bars and Project Hope and Fairness have helped replace rusted or broken tools, provided farmers with rubber boots to protect their feet from the elements & snakes, and the purchase of new scales that put the villagers in a position of power over middlemen who supply scales that often cheat on weight of product and thus payment to the farmers. This year, each trip member is being asked to contribute $1000 to support the building of water closets (toilets); many villagers currently use the side of the road at night or the forest during the day, always wary of encounters with snakes or ants. Neuhaus has already kick-started the process by donating $1700 for the sister villages of Depa and Zereguhe where the water closets are now under construction. Plans are underway for water closets in the villages of Pezoan, Broguhe and Batteguedea.
From June 2 to November 4, Germany's oldest city is hosting a special exhibition on Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Founded by the Romans in 16 BC, Trier was the Christian emperor's first imperial residence and capital of his empire from 307 to 324 AD - and the city is still a treasure trove of Roman monuments such as the well-preserved 2nd-century Porta Nigra (Black Gate), his throne room, the Amphitheater and Imperial Baths. The exhibition - which will be held at the Rhine State Museum, the Bishopric Cathedral & Diocese Museum, and the Simeonstift City Museum - will focus on the traditions and myths of his legacy, including original frescoes depicting his family, the head of a colossal statue of the emperor, and scale models of Christian churches he built.
In more recent times, Trier has boasted an array of colorful historical figures and places: the medieval
Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, where the young Martin Luther lived before the German Reformation; Karl Marx House in Trier, where the founder of Communism was born in 1818 and lived until 1835; the 18th-century gabled Buddenbrooks House, the family home and setting for Thomas Mann's great novel, Buddenbrooks about the decline of a wealthy Lübeck merchant family; and the Günter Grass House, honoring Germany's greatest living writer (Mann & Grass both won Nobel prizes in 1929 & 1999 respectively)
In addition to history, Trier is also a good base for exploring the winding Mosel Valley with its wine villages and vineyards, many planted by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago.
According to the World Trade Organization, the number of Americans traveling to Egypt in 2006 soared to 228,165, up from 195,800 the year before. "We were very pleased with 16% growth of American travelers in 2006," notes Ayden Nour, Consul-Director of USA & Latin America for the
Egyptian Tourist Authority. "In 2007, we anticipate beating the 2000
record of 235,000 visitors [from the US]."
Yanks ranked 6th in total visitors, after intrepid Western Europeans from England (1,033,000), Russia (998,000), Germany (966,000), Italy (786,000), and France (372,000) - adding up to a total of 9,082,000 in 2006. In a year when the global growth rate for wordwide tourism measured 4.5%, Egypt racked up an impressive 5.5% increase over 8.7 million visitors the previous year. "Egypt has always been a powerful draw for visitors, with numbers increasing year after year," says Ahmed El Khadem, Chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Authority, which has an ambitious strategic program to double the number of annual visitors to 16 million by 2014. "I am therefore pleased to see that world travellers continue to recognize the many diverse and beautiful treasures that can be found in Egypt. People are coming not only for first-time visits, to see our world-renowned sights, but also for repeat stays to enjoy another helping of our year-round sunshine and our wonderful beaches and resorts."
Featuring 360 days of sunshine per year, famous
historical sights, spectacular beaches and coral reefs, as well as golf, ecotourism,
shopping and wellness breaks, it's not surprising Egypt continues to rank at the top of many travelers' lists.
Where can you find the most comprehensive collection of artifacts chronicling slavery? A museum dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen? A memorial honoring Eddie Kendricks and the Temptations? A Black Panther Legacy Walking Tour?
SoulOfAmerica.com, one of the the premiere travel websites for African-American travelers, recently announced the top twelve cities boasting a wide array of cultural and historical sites that make Black History come alive. "There is no better way to experience Black History than to see it up close and personal," explains SoulOfAmerica.com's Founder and Publisher Thomas Dorsey. "SoulOfAmerica.com is the roadmap to an exhaustive list of cultural and historic sites that make Black History come alive. We easily could have included 12 more of city guides in this list."
Listed alphabetically - SoulOfAmerica.com's Top 12 U.S. Destinations for Black History Month:
Atlanta Visit the birthplace, church and tombs of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, as well as the Auburn Avenue Research Library and APEX Museum.
Baltimore The first wax museum of African-American history, The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, the remarkable Reginald Lewis Museum and the new Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Museum.
Birmingham A major backdrop to the civil rights struggle, this city boasts the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and is also home to the Eddie Kendricks & Temptations Memorial.
Chicago First settled by Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a black man, Chicago is home to a museum named in his honor, the Du Sable Museum of African-American History. In addition, the A. Philip Randolph / Pullman Porter Museum, which pays tribute to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, is here.
Cincinnati Located on the north bank of the Ohio River, Cincinnati boasts the country's most comprehensive museum chronicling U.S. slavery, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Detroit The motor city has several notable museums, including the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the National Museum of the Tuskegee Airmen and the Motown Historical Museum.
Memphis Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed at Memphis' Lorraine Hotel, now the site of a memorial in his honor. The memorial is connected to the National Civil Rights Museum. Soulsville Museum is a must visit for music devotees.
New Orleans The birthplace of jazz, and home to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and the New Orleans African-American Museum of Art, Culture & History.
New York City The world-renowned Apollo Theater, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Malcolm X Museum are each a must-see. The Dance Theater of Harlem is where some of the world's A-list got their start.
Philadelphia In the first American city to ban slavery, explore the African-American Museum of Philadelphia and see where Philadelphia International Records shaped so much of the music we love today.
San Francisco & Oakland The western terminus of the Underground Railroad, it's also home to the Museum of the African Diaspora and the Black Panthers Legacy Walking Tour.
Washington, DC The Benjamin Banneker Memorial & Fountain honors the black man who completed the landscape design for the District of Columbia. Howard University and the headquarters of Black Entertainment Television are also in D.C.
Like Santa Claus, the history of the first Christmas tree is
combination of many different facts, legends and customs all originating in the Baltic countries and what is now Northern Germany. However, a wide variety of sources agree that the first tree appeared in Riga, Latvia early in the 16th century.
There has been some confusion involving Martin Luther, but according to Countess Maria Hubert von Staufer from Christmas Archives
International (we believe it's good policy to defer to a Countess in such matters), Luther's famed walk in the forest and tree lighting actually occurred in Northern Germany several decades later. Detailed records in the Latvian State Archives indicate that an influential fraternity of young, unmarried merchants and ship captains in the Hansa
cities, known as the House of Blackheads, was actually responsible for the tree. (Their name derives from their patron saint, an imaginary African moor known at St. Maurice.) The Blackheads were an integral party of society, and many VIPs of the period, including Russian tsars, participated in Blackhead-organized events - including the first documented use of a tree in a Christmas celebration in 1510.
To celebrate the recent designation by the European Union as the supa'official (and trademarked) "Home of the First Christmas Tree", fun activities and tours are being planned to re-create the feel of medieval Riga so many years ago - a mashup of folklore, pagan and Christian traditions, as well as a visit from St. Nick himself.
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