Have a favorite travel “something” from the past month? It could be a travel-related book, gadget, destination, article, blog, post, event, anything. I do, and once a month — on the fourth Friday of the month — I’ll post my favorite and explain my pick.
So what’s your travel fave for January? Comment here, on Traveler Writes’ Facebook page and/or post on Twitter with the hashtag #4FTF.
Sundance at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor
Fourth Friday Travel Fave: Sundance USA in Ann Arbor
The Sundance Film Festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah. One night during the event, the Festival also screens Sundance films in nine other cities around the United States. One of those is Ann Arbor.
Not only does the festival send a film to each city; the filmmakers tag along. And sometimes the screenwriter and an actor. This year — last night, in fact — Ann Arbor got to see “For a Good Time Call…” I’ll leave the reviewing to the professionals but I found it hilarious and raunchy (in a good way) and touching. The Michigan Theater was packed with an enthusiastic audience — 1,700 people — that got to ask questions during a post-film Q&A with director Jamie Travis, screenwriters Lauren Miller and Katie Anne Naylon, and Michigan native and U-M alum James Wolk, who played Charlie.
This was my third year attending Sundance USA at the Michigan Theater. Last year, “Win-Win” and “Cedar Rapids” came to Ann Arbor; in 2010 it was “Cyrus.” Jonah Hill flew in from Park City, along with the Duplass brothers, who wrote and directed.
In my opinion, Sundance USA is an amazing program, a great way to involve a wider swath of film lovers in the Sundance Film Festival. I doubt I’m alone in saying that I’d love to attend the full festival in Park City, but…that’s probably not in the cards (budget) anytime soon. So, Sundance USA, please keep coming to Ann Arbor.
I’ve long liked to shop at World Market, but now the store has earned a place in my heart. Before the holidays, Mr. TW stopped there to pick up some gifts for friends and came home with a present for me: Mozartkugeln, or truffle-sized spheres of deliciousness, with a nougat center surrounded by marzipan and crushed pistachios, then coated in dark chocolate. The original formulation seems to have come from a chocolatier in Austria. Several companies now make their own versions.
I tried Mozartkugeln while visiting Germany a couple of years ago–they were my lunch on the days we spent touring castles in the Neckar river valley and hiking through Bavaria, the Black Forest and along rocky ridges in the Alps. I didn’t expect to find them back home in the States, so I didn’t bother to look.
Having polished off yet another bag now, I have to admit that while they’re still delicious and one of my most favorite edible souvenirs, they don’t taste quite as fantastic as they did in Germany. But I suspect that probably has to do more with circumstance than with quality. So…that I may eat my Mozartkugeln in the style to which I’ve become accustomed, maybe World Market will need to start carrying castles.
This recipe from delicious:days looks beyond my abilities as a confectioner, but I thought I’d link to it in case you’re game.
What’s your favorite edible souvenir? Does it taste the same back home?
Late on New Year’s Eve, Mr. TW fired up the laptop so we could watch Dinner for One, a (roughly) 10-minute British comedy sketch also known as Der 90 Geburtstag, German for The 90th Birthday. Watching the predictable and repetitive, but nevertheless funny, skit from the 60s has become a popular tradition in Germany as well as other parts of Europe and Scandinavia. Mr. TW recalls watching it as a kid with his family and, later, with friends at parties. Pretty much, no matter what people are up to in Germany on New Year’s Eve, they work in Dinner for One. Now he and I watch it here each year, too, and we show it to friends and family. They probably think we’re a little odd, but still, they inevitably laugh when they see it.
Since there are worse ways to spend 10 minutes, take a look if you haven’t seen it yet. Watch it again next December 31st and, in the meantime, have a happy, healthy new year!
