If you traveled through JFK on American Airlines anytime after 1960 and anytime before the airline demolished it’s old terminal in order to build it’s swanky new one, then you may recognize the mural in this photo:

Brazilian artist Carybé painted two murals, each more than 50 feet long, directly onto the terminal walls back in 1960 and those murals were to be razed along with the building.  Luckily, though, the murals were saved.  Now, after being cut from the walls, restored, and trucked to Miami, the artwork has been installed in the new South Terminal at Miami International Airport.

There will be a party to unveil the murals on June 25^th and after that anyone will be able to see this impressive works of art anytime: the murals are located before the security checkpoint.

In the meantime, here’s a sneak preview:

To see close-up details of the mural and learn more about the history of the project, see the Carybé at MIA Web site.

Tags: Airport art, Miami International Airport, Uncategorized
No Comments »

Many shops  and restaurant chains don’t extend their special sales and offers to their airport branches.

But the T.G.I. Friday’s chain does.  And through June 22, the chain is offering a buy-one-entrée-get-one-free coupon offer that’s good at all 18 of its airport branches.

You’ll need to print out the coupon and bring it with you, but you can keep printing out coupons each time you go.

Here are the T.G.I Friday’s airport locations: Ontario, CA, Detroit, DFW – 6 locations, San Francisco, San Antonio, MSP, ATL, Tampa, Newark, Indianapolis, Islip, Tulsa, Pittsburgh

Tags: Airport restaurants, Uncategorized
No Comments »

The summer series of art exhibits at Nashville International Airport (BNA) includes works by a photographer who documents musicians and music festivals, a family of artists, and the Lost Boys of Sudan.

(Ryan Mastro, Centeroo Fountain, 2007)

In Concourse C, look for photographs by Ryan Mastro, who’s been documenting musicians and music festivals since 2005 and is one of the official photographers for several large music festivals including Bonnaroo, Coachella and Outside Lands.

(Eric Oglander, Untitled)

In various places throughout the airport, you’ll also see work made by Gary and Eva Oglander and their sons, Daniel and Eric, who live and work together in a studio/home in the woods outside Nashville.

(Old Wise Man III , Chol Garang)

And, staying on in Concourse A, you’ll find masks, sculptures, paintings, and photography by 11 Lost Boys of Sudan, young men dislocated by civil war.

The summer Flying Solo Series will be on display at Nashville International Airport (BNA) from  June 7 through Aug. 30, 2009.

Tags: Airport amenities, Airport art, Nashville International Airport, Uncategorized
No Comments »

This is the third installment today of airports using Twitter to stay in touch with travelers.   I’ll try to put these all together in a single directory/list and post it separately on the Stuck at the Airport site.   Any airports we’re missing?

A few more airports you can follow on Twitter:

Tucson Airport – @TucsconAirport

Roanoke Regional Airport -  @flyROA

Rickenbacker International Airport (Columbus, Ohio)- @RickIntlAirport.

Ottowa International Airport (Canada) @FlyYOW (brand new account!)

Tags: Airport using Twitter, Uncategorized
No Comments »

According to a short article in the Business Traveller blog, London City Airport in the city’s Royal Docks area, has joined the ranks of airports offering complimentary wireless Internet service. Hooray!

A good time to use that free amenity might be during the airport’s 13^th annual Fun Day, coming up on July 4^th. There will be a British Airways “village” offering visitors a chance to tour airplane cockpits, dress up in BA uniforms and ride in a mobile simulator, and a sports area where would-be gold-medal winners can try out some of the sports that will be played during the 2010 Olympic Games, which will be held nearby. Not gold-medal minded? Consider entering the non-Olympics sports (so far..) of egg and spoon, sack and three-legged racing.

(Photo courtesy Alethe, Creative Commons)

Colin Salmon (who plays Charles Robinson in James Bond films) will be a celebrity guest and, oh yeah, there’s also be an air show, with all manner of breathtaking airplane stunts. For more information see the London City Airport Fun Day and Air Show Web site.

Not familiar with London City Airport? You can learn more about it from this handy airport guide

.

Tags: Uncategorized
1 Comment »

Cashless:

On Monday, June 1^st, American Airlines becomes the latest airline to go cashless. If you’re flying on an American Airlines flight in the continental U.S. or on a flight to or from Hawaii, Alaska and Canada and want to buy headsets, meals, snacks or alcoholic beverages, you’ll need a credit card to do so.

The new policy does not apply to American Eagle or AmericanConnection flights; there, it’s still cash only.

Clothes-free

Air New Zealand is getting a lot of attention for this fun commercial in which the airline’s CEO and several employees are pretty much naked.  They’ve got clothes painted on, so at first glance they don’t look naked. But they are. The  “making of” video is also fun to watch.

Goopy garages

According to an article in the News & Observer, some cars left in the parking garage at Raleigh-Durham International Airport have been getting slimed. The airport can’t quite figure out where the goop has been coming from, or what’s in it, but since 2004 the airport has spent more than $20,000 reimbursing parking garage customers who have had to repaint gunk-splattered cars.

Tags: Air New Zealand, Airport parking, American Airlines, Uncategorized
No Comments »

A new exhibition at John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, California includes 56 paintings that became cover art for Westways, the magazine of the Automobile Club of Southern California.  The work includes California watercolor, Pop Art and most of the major movements of California art in the 20th century.

(Maynard Dixon’s Clipper Ship)

The club began publishing its member magazine in 1909, as Touring Topics, and changed it names to Westways in 1934.  Original cover art was being commissioned as early as 1928.

(Phil Dike’s Balboa)

Ticketed passengers who have passed through security will find the collection across from Gates 1 – 4 and 11 – 14.  The show will stay up through October 19th, 2009.

Tags: Airport art, John Wayne Airport, Uncategorized
No Comments »

As part of the transformation of concessions at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), travelers can once again pick up souvenirs and gifts from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum Store.

There’s used to be a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum Store at the airport, but this is a new, larger and hopefully  improved shop out on Concourse B.

What will you find? Clothing, Hall of Fame memorabilia, pins, magnets, patches, and other items, including a Rock n’ Roll trivia card game.  The store also has seven plasma screens that will be showing rock videos and clips of  “famous rock moments.”

Hopefully they’ll be selling these  cute wallets, which I found on the museum Web site.

Tags: Cleveland Hopkins Int'l Airport, Uncategorized, airport shopping
No Comments »

You meet all sorts of kindred souls here on the Internet -and on Twitter!  That’s where I crossed paths with Daniel Incandela who, like me, spends a lot of time in airports, on airplanes, and at museums.

Incandela works at the Indianapolis Museum of Art as the Director of New Media and he pointed me to this wonderful essay on the museum’s blog by Patrick Smith of AskthePilot.com.

Smith’s Jetliner as Art essay includes this great passage:

In the second grade, my two favorite toys both were Boeing 747s. The first was an inflatable replica – similar to one of those novelty balloons you buy at parades – with rubbery wings that drooped in such violation of the real thing that I taped them into position. To a nine year-old the toy seemed enormous, almost like my own personal Macy’s float. Second was a plastic plane about twelve inches long, with rubber wheels. Like the balloon, it was decked out in the livery of Pan Am, and even carried the name and registration of the airline’s flagship jumbo, Clipper America. One side of the fuselage was transparent, made of clear polystyrene through which an entire interior, row-by-row, could be viewed. The blue and red pastels of the tiny chairs is something I can still picture exactly.

(You can read the entire Jetliner as Art essay here.)

Incandela takes a lot photographs of airports and of what he sees outside airplane windows. He’s posted a lot of those images on Flickr and has given me permission to use some of his images here on the Stuck at the Airport blog.  Which I will! THANKS!

(Photos courtesy Daniel Incandela)

Not sure if it’s a fair trade, but I was pleased to be able to point Daniel – and you – to the MOOM, the Museum of On-line Museums, which has some links to some great travel-related museum sites,  including the Stewardess Uniform Collection, Big Things of Canada and the Motel Sign Museum.

Tags: Air France, Air travel, Airport music, Airport photos, Uncategorized, stuck at the airport
No Comments »

(JUPITER  -  Photo: Travis Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage), Chad Trujillo and the Gemini Altair Team, NOAO / AURA / NSF.)

This is the International Year of Astronomy, recognizing the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope to study the heavens.

So it’s appropriate that Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and the Alder Planetarium have teamed up to host an exhibit that’s out of this world.

From Earth to the Universe is a collection of more than 50 astronomical images, including planets, comets, starts, nebulae and galaxies.  It’s on view in the pedestrian walkway tunnel near the O’Hare CTA Blue Line station.

The exhibit, which is put together by NASA, also makes use of  Microsoft’s new mobile phone technology, Tag, which allows viewers with an Internet enabled mobile camera phone to photograph the bar code on each image and get information about that image from a special mobile website.

THE FIREWORKS GALAXY
18 million light-years
Photo –  R. Boomsma, T. Oosterloo,  F. Fraternali,  R. Sancisi, M.J.
van der Hulst

Tags: Airport art, Chicago O'Hare Airport, Uncategorized
No Comments »