Entertainment

Miss Electricity: free theater performance at San Diego Int’l Airport

Entertainment, ,

Travelers passing through San Diego International Airport on Tuesday, March 3, between 11 am and 2 pm, can enjoy a free theater performance.

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The La Jolla Playhouse’s Performance Outreach Program Tour will be performing Miss Electricity in the Terminal 2 West Baggage claim area (pre-security).  It’s billed as “a delightful story of a young girl who believes she has magic powers.”

The first show will be around 11 a.m., the second show should start around 12:30.

And just for fun: here’s a picture of Miss Electricity 1891.

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This is Lulu Miller.  Her job was to convince an Oregon community that electricity was safe.  So the local electric light company draped Miss Electricity in a string of light bulbs, with bulbs on the tips of her crown and on her scepter.  She had copper on the bottom of her shoes and when she stood on a copper plate on the stage the electric current flashed through wires concealed in the folds of her clothes  – and lit up her outfit.

Magical powers indeed!

Stuck at the airport? Play a game or watch baggage go round

Baggage, Entertainment, Fun Stuff, , ,

Need ideas for what to do when you’re stuck at the airport?

The folks at CreativeApplications.net are inspired and impressed by Jetset – a game about airports that you can play on your iPhone or iPod touch.

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According to the game’s creators,

“Security is there to make you feel safe and get you to your plane in one piece. However, today’s regulations change frequently and are often different from airport to airport. Now, you too can stand in the shoes of a security agent trying to avert terrorism while getting everyone through a checkpoint quickly. This is a game that’s just as fun as waiting in line – and one you can play in line as well.”

Prizes? Digital airport souvenirs.  Cheap and easy to carry.

If you buy it and play it, let me know what you think.

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(Norman Andersen’s Rainmaker’s Baggage installation at Sea-Tac Airport)

If, like me, you don’t have an iPhone or iTouch, you might be looking for free airport entertainment. How about watching luggage move along on the luggage carousels?

The folks at FlightsfromHell.com are inspired this week by a web report about airport luggage carousels from the Dull Men’s Club, which is keeping track of how many airports have carousels that go clockwise, how many go counter-wise and how many have no carousels at all!

I kid you not. Here’s a link to their listings of airport carousels and their directions.

Giant chess sets at Lubbock International Airport

Entertainment, Recreation, , ,

The World Chess Championship is taking place in Bonn, Germany right now. Defending champion Viswanathan “Vishy” Anand (India) is playing former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) in a 12-game match for the title – and for 1.5 million Euros ($2.35 million U.S.) in prize funds.

Of course, chess fans are pretty excited about this. And so are the folks in Lubbock, Texas, which is the 2008 Co-Chess City of the Year (with Tulsa).

So it’s an appropriate move that the Lubbock-Preston Smith International Airport has installed giant chess sets and displays about chess in the east and west terminals.

This photo, from the Susan Polgar Chess and Information blog, gives you an idea of what these big chess sets look like.

I’ve seen giant chess sets set up in at least one mall and in a few recreation centers and parks. The oversized pieces create a great attraction or meeting spot and it’s always fun to see folks gathered around watching the ‘action.’  Given how long folks end up hanging around airports these days, it’s not unreasonable to think that they could squeeze in a game of chess.

But why stop there?  Wouldn’t it be great if airports had game corners or well-stocked emergency game closets so travelers could wait out delays playing Monopoly or, better yet, Twister?

(Courtesy: Hasbro)

Smallest traveling circus at San Diego International Airport

Entertainment

Step right up!

Today, between 11 am and 1 pm (West Coast time) kids of all ages will be treated to a free performance of Circus Minumus, San Diego’s smallest traveling circus, in the baggage claim area of Terminal 2 at San Diego International Airport. Scheduled to appear: Dori Smith’s Pig’s Eye Puppet Theater, featuring a strongman, a unicycle rider, gymnasts and a flying trapeze artist.

The live puppet show complements the San Diego Guild of Puppetry exhibit currently in Terminal 2 East (post-security). On display: traditional Sicilian marionettes, Wayang shadow puppets from Indonesia, dolls made by local artists, and giant puppets made by children. The exhibit runs through early January 2009.

Learn to dance at the Paris airports

Entertainment, Recreation,

I’ve always thought that a great service for air travelers would be gate-side mini-courses in everything from the ancient history to CPR or packing. Now comes word from Paris that the airports there are offering free dance classes.

Since the end of June, the Ecole des Vacances holiday school has been offering free dance classes at both Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports. According to this news report, lessons in salsa, cha cha, and disco are offered in boarding lounges and last 10 to 15 minutes.

Each specially-designed airport dance studio has the requisite mirrors and overhead disco ball and

“[i]n order not to disturb the other travellers, the music and trainer advice are broadcast through a cordless headsets. Passengers can dance and sing on a …silent floor!”

The free, “L’Ecole des Vacances” dance courses take place weekends, through August 17th, from 10 am to 6 pm at both Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports.

Now if they’d just throw in a free packing class, I might be able to find room for my dancing shoes…

Tattoos – and more – at DFW AIRPORT

Entertainment,

I’ve got a long list of services and amenities I’d like to see offered at airports. Speed-dating and remedial classes in packing are on the list.

And so is tattooing.

Which is why I was tickled to see that, along with a jazz trio and an Uncle Sam on stilts, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) hired an air brush artist to paint tattoos on some of the 1.1 million passengers expected to pass through the airport this holiday weekend.

Photo taken by Sarah McDaniel-Langhorst of DFW International Airport staff.

Gamble with your OnePass miles

Entertainment, Events, ,

To mark the 21st birthday of its OnePass(R) frequent flyer program,Continental Airlines is holding a four-day Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament in Las Vegas.

The event begins August 6, 2008 and will take place the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino.

The entry fee is 50,000 OnePass miles and the grand prize is 21 million OnePass miles. Here’s more information about registration.

Not a Texas Hold’em fan? Don’t forget that McCarran International Airport has 1,300 slot machines.

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The Russians are coming

Entertainment, Events

Traveling to or through Houston’s George Bush International Airport (IAH) today (March 20th)? Don’t be alarmed if you see Russian Cossacks and Lion Dancers wandering about the terminals.

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From 9:30 in the morning until 11 pm at night the airport is celebrating Singapore Airlines’ new service to Moscow and Singapore with music and dance performances by the Linh Son Temple Lion Dancers, the Uzori Russian Dance Ensemble, and others.