Heading to the SXSW music festival? There’s no need to wait until you’re right in town to start enjoying the music. The Austin Bergstrom International Airport, which has live music year-round, is hosting the first sanctioned performances of the music conference.

The kick-off performance takes place today, Tuesday March 16^th, 2010 at 1 pm with the Marshall Ford Swing Band and special guest Ray Benson (the front man for Asleep at the Wheel ).

They’ll all be at Ray Benson’s Roadhouse, right in the airport, post-security, between Gates 10 -11.  Warren Hood will perform from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.

The airport will also host the final showcase of the music conference on Monday March 22^nd with indie alt rockers Sounds Under Radio from 1-3 p.m and Grammy U band Automatic Cycle from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.

But wait, there’s more!  During SXSW, the airport will expand it’s regular live music line-up from 11 shows to a total 22 performances. In addition to the stage at Ray Benson’s Roadhouse, you can see those extra shows at Lefty’s, Earl Campbell’s Sports Bar, and Austin City Limits/Waterloo Records & Video.

Check the website for more information about the music at Austin Bergstrom International Airport.

Categories: Entertainment, Events, Music

Now here’s an event to start planning your weekend around right now.

Saturday, March 20th, 2010 is Obscura Day: a day of expeditions, back-room tours and hidden treasures in your hometown.

Like what? Well, how about Leila’s Cohoon’s Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri? A family emergency kept me from visiting in person a few years back, but I’ve spent a few hours on the phone with Leila talking about her collection of hair wreaths and snippets of hair from famous people.

On Obscura Day there will be a group tour of the museum, so please send a report of what you see.

Not planning to be in Independence, Missouri on Saturday?  There are dozens of other unusual places and collections you can visit on Obscura Day.  See the list of participating places here.

Can’t wait!!!

Categories: Museums, Unusual places, Weird

Traveling is expensive. Especially if you want to eat and sleep when you get somewhere.

So we’ll start the week off with two contests you many want to enter to help subsidize an adventure.

AirTran Airways has a Facebook-linked sweepstakes encouraging students to become a “Facebook creeper,” which they describe as someone who “crawls Facebook, obsessively checking the content of other people’s profiles.” (That does sound sort of creepy)

The airline has set up the AirTran U Creeper page and is giving away one round trip flight per week  through the end of November 2010.  Here are the details about the AirTran Airways “creeper” contest.

Not a creeper? If you or someone you know is under 23 years old – in college or not – keep in mind that AirTran has a program that offers cheap standby tickets year-round.

[For more details about this and other student airfare deals see the article I wrote last September for MSNBC.com: Travel Discounts for the College-Bound ]

And, here’s one for fans of Hawaii and Olympic medal-winning speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno.

Alaska Airlines is running a contest for a 4-night/5 day Hawaiian vacation (for two) on Maui. And yes, Ohno will join you at the luau. .  The contest runs through April 15^th and you can get lots of extra entries by connecting through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Enter the Follow Apolo to Hawaii contest here.

Good luck! And if you win, please send us some souvenirs.

Categories: Air Fare Deals, Contests

Earlier this week, while waiting for Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger’s presentation at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, I spent some time in the Amelia Earhart exhibit.  And while I don’t think I’ll take up flying my own plane anytime soon, I keep thinking about getting some new luggage.

Amelia Earhart endorsed a long list of products ranging from cars, cigarettes and clothing to what one press release described as nothing less than “the first truly practical and genuine airplane luggage.”

Earhart may have disappeared in 1937, but it appears a line of luggage bearing her name was produced well into the 1990’s.   And while I haven’t come upon anything from that line in the thrift stores near me, I did poke around the Museum of Flight gift shop to see if I could find something under $10 and “Amelia” for today’s Souvenir Sunday feature.

The only items that fit the bill were a few young adults books, including this one from the National Geographic Children’s Books series that includes photos, quotes from Earhart’s writings, theories about how she vanished, and maps of the route she followed on her last flight.

Categories: Air Travel, Aviation history, Baggage, Celebrities, Exhibits, History, Museums, Souvenirs, aviation

I love hanging around airports, of course, but I also find bliss when let loose in small museums filled with odd and unusual artifacts or if there’s a wacky roadside distraction somewhere and I’ve got the keys to the car.

So I’m fortunate to be able to produce radio features and write books about my discoveries. More than two hundred of my favorite offbeat attractions in Oregon are in the newly updated Oregon Curiosities book you see pictured in the craftily-titled Buy My Books section here on this site. There are an equal number of unusual people, places and things in the Washington Curiosities book I’m starting to update right now.

One of the aviation-related places in the Oregon Curiosities book is The Bomber Restaurant complex in Milwaukie, about six miles south of Portland.

From 1947 until 1991 this vintage World War II B-17G four-engine bomber served as shelter for a forty-pump independent gas station that was one of the top performers in the country. When the gas station closed, the bomber fell on hard times and for years the plane was just a sad-looking roadside attraction suffering from bird poop, vandalism, and Oregon’s rainy climate.

Now restoration of the bomber is under way. Her nose is all shiny and new and on display inside the on-site WWII-themed Wings of Freedom Showcase. And while the gas station is long gone, you can fill up your stomach at the memorabilia-packed Bomber Restaurant, where the menu includes Bomblettes (omelettes) and Bombarded Hash Browns for breakfast, and Tokyo Rose BLTs and Bomberburgers for lunch and dinner.

If you want to see The Bomber for yourself, be sure to enter the Oregon Mt. Hood Territory’s Secret Sweet Spots contest. Each week you’ll be asked to answer a (very easy) question about a “hidden gem” in the region. You’ll find the answers in the short videos on the Mt. Hood Territory website.

Of course, one of those Secret Sweet Spots is The Bomber.

Categories: Architecture, Aviation history, Contests, Exhibits, Museums, Restaurants, aviation