May 2009 Archive

The following posts were made in May 2009. You may subscribe to the RSS feed for this archive if you would like to take your time reading through our posts.

Chicago

By Samantha Brown on May 28, 2009 12:05 PM | Permalink | 17 Comments

Chicago is one of those cities that has it all: great food, a famous music scene, shopping and just to rub it in -- a beach. As a New Yorker I find it hard to contain my jealousy as I jog along the lakefront watching Chicagoans lay out in the sun, play beach volleyball and swim. But then I remind myself that they have only three months of nice weather ;-)

I stopped at a great neighborhood bar called the Map Room that serves over 200 types of beer that represent thirty different brewing styles. I feel at home because it's called "a travelers tavern" you could taste a world of beers without ever leaving your stool.

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Big Island Hawaii

By Samantha Brown on May 21, 2009 3:05 PM | Permalink | 13 Comments

I remember from my days of traveling here that The Hawaii National airport has outside gardens. This is perfect as I always crave breathing Real god made air, I don't care if it's muggy air, rainy, frigidly cold just as long as it hasn't been pumped thru a system, recycled for our breathing enjoyment.

The Hawaii National airport is special as most of it is exposed to the outdoors. The planes are right there and you could touch them as nothing is blocking you from doing so save maybe the length of your arms. Palm trees frame the open breezeways and it's highly common to see large palms and other tropical flora frame the large plans like Air Canada (I bet that plane is really happy) although it is scheduled to leave for frosty Vancouver in an hour. Anyway the greenery surrounding the plane acts like a large lei around the fuselage and you can't help thinking that this is what airports are like in paradise.

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Atlanta

By Samantha Brown on May 14, 2009 3:43 PM | Permalink | 13 Comments

This weekend is all about doing it up in high style in Atlanta. Atlanta is a city I have been to more than any in the world and yet not really. I have connected thru it easily a hundred times but have never stepped foot in it. At the airport it was very strange leaving thru the gleaming glass doors instead of running to the B terminal.

Starting our shoot at the Georgia Aquarium. I had no idea that Atlanta has the largest aquarium in the world and holds 3,000 fish and by fish I mean sharks, manta rays and whale sharks -- four of them to be exact. This is reason alone to go to Atlanta for the weekend.

I actually get to scuba in the largest tank in the world (they don't like to call it that) we enter the room that puts you above the aquarium. Picture an entire football field of water -- the size just overwhelms! You can look down and see the massive picture windows and the people pointing and staring.

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Charleston

By Samantha Brown on May 13, 2009 3:47 PM | Permalink | 5 Comments

The theme of my Charleston weekend is to face my fears. One biggie is getting on a horse. I'm only scared to get on a horse when I am on camera. Unfortunately that seems to be the only time I get on a horse. Horses don't understand "takes," they can become very jumpy when a camera is angled towards them and they definitely don't like any fast and sudden movements which is exactly how a shooting crew has to move in order to capture the horses. So there's a lot of conflict of interest.

We are at Middleton Place Hounds to shoot a Drag Hunt which is exactly like a fox hunt but no killing of a fox. I would absolutely refuse to do something like that. Drag refers to the fact that a scent is dragged thru the countryside and the hounds simply chase the scent. Much better.

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Savannah

By Samantha Brown on May 12, 2009 3:44 PM | Permalink | 7 Comments

The Jinx bar here in Savannah puts on a Rock and Roll Bingo night. The crowd is tattooed and pierced and I love it. I think it's great that we are showing a side of Savannah that's not on the horse drawn carriage tour. Anyone ever been there?

Met a very talented tattoo artist, Chris Parry, who practices his art at a shop called Pain and Wonder tattoo. I ask his opinion on what should be my first tattoo and where he would put it. He told me it would be a small globe and he would put it on my ankle. Nice.

Gil is the MC of the evening. He's a local legend, foul-mouthed sweetheart who insists we do a shot together, I try to refuse but he will have none of it. The second time he insists the barman, (AKA my angel) can tell I am obviously no hard drinker and asks if he wants me to pour a doctored one -- a fake. So my second shot is a coke. The third time I am not so fortunate as I am standing on stage reading the Bingo numbers as an Irish Whisky shot is placed in my hands. Its 11pm, our day began at 7am. We didn't have time for dinner and so I know after I have this shot I am done for. Tomorrow my day begins with the Girl Scouts. What a strange job I have.

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