Posts in the category "Movies":

If you’re waiting for friends or family to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), or have a long layover and have already popped over to the Theme Building and taken the elevator up to the Encounter Restaurant, then make your way to the arrivals area at the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) and catch a film.

Seventeen artists have created “custom moving image work” (video art) for the two giant installations in the TBIT arrivals area. One screen is a 25-foot monitor grid; the other screen links 58 monitors together in a 90-foot long serpentine filmstrip.

Filmstrip video screen at LAX

What will you see?  The topics and themes are pretty far-ranging, but here are just two of the descriptions that seem especially appropriate for the airport:

Current by Patty Chang and Noah Klersfeld:

“Filmed in the baggage handling area of LAX. two kaleidoscopic videos play back to back.  First, 25 screens show the repeated image of a houseplant traveling on conveyor belts from the check-in counter to the baggage sorter. Then, the 25 screens simultaneously show 25 different versions of that journey.  Order sits beside chaos.”

To and From LAX, by Chip Lord, includes:

“footage from airports around the world to represent the global network and reflect the travel patterns to and from LAX. From amongst the universal spaces of travel emerge the emotions of greeting, boredom, and excitement as 25 destinations are represented.”

Altogether the new video installations at LAX offers three hours of artist-made material. Enough to entertain you and your kids through a long delay. Enough to make you want to volunteer to pick up a friend at the airport. And maybe enough to make you schedule a long layover, so you can say you went to LA for dinner and a movie – at the airport.

(Photos courtesy:Jay Berkowitz/LAWA)

Categories: Air Travel, Airports, Art, Exhibits, Layover, Movies
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Movie fans: If you’re traveling to or through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) between April 23^rd and May 23^rd, make your way to the airport’s Atrium Gallery, where a collection of original, hand-painted, vintage movie posters featuring Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich and other stars will be on display.

“Atlanta’s famed Loew’s Grand Theater on Peachtree Street employed full-time artists to design and paint posters for the films shown there. Artists based their work — which they created in media such as oil, watercolors and chalk — on photo stills and publicity images from the movies.”

The posters come from the collection of Herb Bridges, a movie memorabilia collector who specializes in “Gone with the Wind” items and who worked as an usher at the Loew’s theater when he was a teenager.

Categories: Art, Exhibits, Movies
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A little bit of this ‘n that today.

(No one is walking off with this bag!)

The story out of Phoenix about a couple who managed to steal more than 1,000 pieces of luggage from the baggage claim carousels at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is alarming, for sure.

But we shouldn’t be surprised.  While many airports have some sort of security in the bag claim area, the job of making sure passengers walk off with only their bags is the responsility of each airline. And in most airports, airlines haven’t been actively monitoring bag match-ups for years.

I’m working on a story about this for my column next week on MSNBC.com, and would love to hear from you if you have any first hand experience to share.

In the meantime, here are some other travel tidbits you might find useful:

Through November, the folks at 3M are once again hosting “privacy havens” at several busy airports around the country.

This year, you’ll find these quiet spots at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and in Terminal 8 at New York’s JFK International Airport. (Exact locations here).

On the busy days right before and after Thanksgiving, these “privacy havens” will also be offering free massages and free Wi-Fi.

And two sweepstakes you may want to enter:

To coincide with the new movie “Up in the Air,” with George Clooney, American Airlines is having an auction and a sweepstakes.  You’ll need to use AAdvantage miles to bid on travel, movie and “experience-” related items in the auction, but entering the contest, which has prizes that include a trip to Los Angeles and 260,000 AAdvantage miles, is free. You’ll just need to watch the trailer and then enter your details.  (Auction bids and sweepstakes entries must be in by Jan 5, 2010.)

And Hilton (which seems to have a part in the Up in the Air movie) is also having an Up in the Air sweepstakes.  You can enter by booking a Hilton stay, but if you’re not heading out on the road before January 18, 2010 you can enter for free by “sending your hand-printed name, address and phone number on 3” x 5” paper to Hilton “Up In The Air” Sweepstakes Alternate Entry, P.O. Box 8600, Westport, CT 06888”

Good luck!

Categories: Air Travel, Airlines, Baggage, Contests, Lounges, Massages, Movies
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During May, the Air France in-flight entertainment system (my favorite channel: language lessons) is showing films chosen as past winners of the Cannes Film Festival.

Through August 15^th, 2009, the airline is also having a photography competition and is asking people to send in photographs on the theme “Air France livery: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow“.

I know the contest is open to everyone, but I can’t tell you much more than that because so far I’ve only found instructions written in French. I can tell you, though, that the top prize is a Breitling watch worth €3,800 (about US $5,100) and that other prizes include Air France flights and Airbus A380 simulator experiences.

Categories: Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Movies
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It would be great if we could watch movies – cartoons, short subjects, mini-docs, etc. – at the airport.  For free (of course).  Given how long we all spend at airports these days, there’s often time to watch full-length features as well.

Instead, we often watch films in-flight.  And as I wrote here a while back, Delta Air Lines is joining with the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and showing five short films that have been chose as finalists in the airline’s Fly-In Movies competition. The videos weren’t up yet when I first wrote about, but now they are.  You can watch the films on-board or on-line and vote on your favorite by April 12.

Categories: Festivals, Movies
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