Books We Love

‘The Lunatic Express’ by Carl Hoffman, An Encouraging Read for Local Travelites

This article was published by our friends at thetravelword, who have agreed to its republication here. View the original article on their blog. By Cynthia Ord If local travel means putting oneself in the shoes of a local, then travel writer Carl Hoffman has earned status as an expert local travelite with a compelling story to tell. In his latest book, The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World via Its ...

Books on Greenland

Greenland inspires some truly beautiful writing - to prepare for your trip, I suggest three must reads. This Cold Heaven - 7 Season's in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich is about an Amercian's woman's seven year relationship with Greenland.  While at time she romances the hunter's lifestyle, her descriptions of the high North are stunning and captivating.  She is writing a new book called the Empire of Ice, the photos on her website worth browsing. Smila's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg is probably the best known book about Greenland; it was also made into a movie, which while enjoyable ...

Music We Love

Greenland Music

The traditional instrument here is a drum (called a qilaat, which is a wooden frame covered with a polar bear bladder), which is curious because contemporary Greenlanders are known to be excellent guitar players. A guitar store is not something you would expect to find in a city of 15,000 but there is one in Nuuk (Atlantic ...

New Music: Feathership

The music that comes out of Montreal rarely disappoints, including: Arcade Fire, the Dears, Sam Roberts, the Stills or Wolf Parade.  With the debut of the EP, new band Feathership joins this impressive group.  Whilst this quintet is decisively closer to alternative-folk than the aforementioned indie-rock bands, Feathership’s music blends in enough colour to its fundamentally folksy sound to soon move from off the radar to the charts. The band which started as a casual project between members of already well established Montreal-based groups has since taken a sharp turn as the release ...

Stuff We Love

Revisiting Tales of Community Conservation – Milking The Rhino

Back in 2007, Off the Radar covered a documentary still in the early stages of screening. Three years later, Milking the Rhino has won countless awards, including Best Nature Film at the Yosemite Film Festival and Best Documentary at both the Pan African and San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. The film documents the Massai people in Kenya and their struggle with conservation laws who have now become spokespeople for community-based conservation and the benefits they are able to reap in effect.  According to a recent update in April 2009, the establishment of Il ...

Sheet Dreams

This was originally posted by our friends at Gracefuledge.com, and is re-posted here with their permission. How does one get upgraded to first class for free? Will I get lucky by kissing the Blarney Stone? Who else has slept here? Just some of a globetrotter’s mysteries. And while sometimes it pays to seek out the truth, other times…oblivion is blissful. Like when you rest your travel-weary body in your personal set of travel sheets. Made from soothing fabrics like silk, Egyptian cotton, or SeaCell, a super ...