Yesterday I discovered this Stuck at the Airport song:
Today, we continue the musical theme with the lovely covers for these songs about airplanes discovered in the Lilly Library collection at Indiana University in Bloomington:
Air King by Harry Appel copyright: 1911
The Aeroplane: rag and two-step. By Jack Glogau. Copyright: 1913.
Rocking chairs at Boston Logan International Airport
Whenever anyone asks me which airport I think is the worst, I always tell them the truth:
Even the best airport in the world can be the worst if you’re stuck there when you really need or want to be someplace else.
Be that as it may, you may find this Bing Travel slide show – World’s Worst Airports -to be of interest.
With so many airports to choose from, how did they settle on the worst?
To find the worst offenders, we compared the top airports worldwide, ranked by passenger numbers, and consulted an ad hoc panel of frequent world travelers — the sort who spend as much time in airports as at home — and statistical compilations that range from weather data to traveler surveys.
I disagree with many of these choices, but here are the airports listed on Bing travel’s list of world’s worst airports.
Chicago O’Hare and Frankfurt Airport are on the list based on weather; London Heathrow and Newark Liberty International Airport are included based on delays; Phoenix Sky Harbor and Madrid-Barajas got dinged for being hard to navigate; and Washington Dulles and Beijing Capital International Airport were labeled hard to reach.
Airports in Moscow and Jakarta were called the dirtiest and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was dubbed the most crowded.
McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport are here under ugly (despite the fact that Haneda recently opened a truly lovely new international terminal) and, rounding out the list as “worst” are the Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
(The shopping street in Haneda Airport’s new international terminal)
Which airports do you think are the world’s worst?
Hmmm… should I make this Stuck at the Airport song by SCIENCE one of the official songs of StuckatTheAirport.com?
John Wayne has his name on one in California; there’s one named for John Lennon in Liverpool; and one named for John F. Kennedy near New York City.
Now, like Louis Armstrong in New Orleans, Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. and George H. Bush in Houston, the author of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the creator of James Bond spy series has an airport with his name on it.
This week, after a $3 million makeover and a rebranding, Jamaica’s former Bosocobel Aerodrome was officially reopened as the Ian Fleming International Airport. The airport is about five miles from the resort town of Ocho Rios and near Goldeneye, the estate where Fleming lived in the 1950s and 1960s and worked on his series of books and short stories about the spy known as 007.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding (left), unveils a plaque at the official opening of the Ian Fleming International Airport, with Ian Fleming’s niece, Lucy Fleming, and a variety of government officials.
Tourism officials hope the airport will attract jet-setters and wealthy visitors like singer/songwriter and businessman Jimmy Buffet, who flew in on a single engine private jet back in May to become the first international passenger to arrive at the new airport.
Jimmy Buffet arriving on the first international flight into the Boscobel Aerodrome, now the Ian Fleming International Airport. To the left of Jimmy Buffet is Jamaica’s Youth, Sports and Culture Minister, Olivia Grange; to his right is Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and the owner of Fleming’s Goldeneye property, which is now a hotel and resort.
Airport photos courtesy: Jamaican Information Service.
I can’t say it registered with me last time I made a connection through O’Hare International Airport, but it seems that there’s a Chicago Blues soundtrack piped into the terminals there. If you hear something you like and want to find out what that tune was – or just want to sample some great music – try the O’Hare Music Tracker.
Here’s an interesting and promising idea for travelers with thirsty gadgets:
Arconas – a company whose chairs and “seating configurations” are already in more than 130 airports around the world – is teaming up with Powermat – the folks who make wireless charging mats – to offer wireless charging stations at airports.
I’m going to assume charging via Powermat will be complimentary – as it is to use to the USB and standard power outlets already attached to much of this type of airport seating.
And if that’s the case – hooray!! Another reason to be happy when you find yourself stuck at the airport.
It’s Souvenir Sunday, but this souvenirs would be difficult to put in your pocket.
On Friday, a mysterious 8 ft. by 4 ft. box filled with a 4,500 lb. block of snow was deposited outside Canada’s Edmonton International Airport.
What's in that box?
Who sent it? What was it for? And who would come and claim it?
Saturday, the mystery was solved.
During a raging snowstorm, four Chinese sculptors armed only with hand tools ( no chain saws…) showed up and spent their day transforming the block of snow into a work of art featuring images from the Beijing Opera.
Turns out the sculptors are from Harbin, China, which is Edmonton’s sister city, and the snow sculpture was created to kick off Edmonton’s Ice on Whyte ice-carving festival, which runs through January 23rd.
This year’s festival has a Chinese theme and nine ice and snow carvers from Harbin, China (famous for hosting the largest ice-carving festivals in the world) will work with Canadian artists to fill a local park with ice and snow creations that include a Giant Ice Dragon Slide, Ice Pagodas, a Great Wall, a Children’s Play area and more.
Bundle up and go!
(All photos courtesy of Edmonton International Airport)
Here’s a great reason to hope – or plan – for a long layover at San Francisco International Airport: there’s an exhibition featuring more than sixty miniatures of columns, obelisks, arches, cathedrals and historic European structures on loan from the incredible collection of Ace Architects.
Eiffel Tower, Paris (clock) c. 1887
France/Collection of Ace Architects
“Some of the objects document buildings as they existed only at a particular time in history, while others depict structures that no longer exist. Some are not true souvenirs, but were made singularly as project proposals or elaborate gifts. All the miniatures, however, convey the architectural essence of the buildings they represent. The objects also suggest the range of structures considered important to those nineteenth-century travelers to Europe wishing to return with a symbol of their cultural inheritance.”
Arc de Triomphe, Paris (box) c.1870
France, Collection of Ace Architects
Grand Miniatures –19 th Century Souvenir Buildings from the Collection of Ace Architects is on view in the International Terminal Main Hall through May 22, 2011. The exhibition is pre-security on view 24-hours a day.
If you can’t make it to the airport before then or just want to learn more about this incredible collection, here’s a link to the exquisite catalog for the show.
Pantheon, Rome (double inkwell) c. 1870
Italy, Collection of Ace Architects
Carousel/Father & Daughter, 1950 by David Johnson
My buddy Michael Johnson sent me a note last week:
“My dad’s photography work is up at SFO’s international terminal.”
Boy is it!
Not sure why I didn’t know this before, but Michael’s dad is David Johnson. And David Johnson “was the first African American student of Ansel Adams. In Adams’ school, Johnson was advised to photograph his own neighborhood and document the faces and places with which he was most familiar. He subsequently became an important chronicler of black life in San Francisco in the middle part of the 20th century.”
Couple Dancing, SF c.1952; David Johnson
An exhibition of Johnson’s work “San Francisco’s Fillmore District 1940s -1960s” is at San Francisco International Airport, in Terminal 1, B3-Gate 36 through the end of January.
Go see it.
If you’re heading to or through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Friday (January 7, 2011) make your way to the stage across from Gate 10 by 3 pm.
Texas music icon Ray Benson (of Asleep at the Wheel) will be there playing a few tunes with Redd Volkaert, one of Merle Haggard’s guitarists.
Benson will also be introducing Ray Benson’s Asleep at the Bar-B-Q Sauce (two versions: Roadhouse and Spicy) and handing out samples of the sauces on beef brisket sandwiches.
(Photo by Sandy L. Stevens, City of Austin Aviation Dept.)
As a nice added touch: throughout the month of January, whenever a bottle of the sauce is sold at the airport, $1 will be donated to the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM).
Want to buy a few bottles to take home? Once you’re past the security checkpoint at Austin Bergstrom airport, you’ll find the sauce for sale at Ray Benson’s Roadhouse. Outside the airport, the sauce is for sale throughout Texas at H-E-B grocery stores and online at www.asleepatthewheel.com.