Today, in our ongoing quest to learn more about the world, our new friend Jean-Michel participates in “Take Your Middle-Aged Friend With A Camera To Work” Day.
ARCHITECTURAL PILGRIMAGE: BILBAO
Back in 1997, before we had kids, we bought a slightly neglected three-story house in the Hollywood Hills that was designed by an architect on the brink of becoming a superstar. Our house, the one where Franny was born (or at least the one she arrived at when we returned from Cedar-Sinai) was one of […]
OUR CUB REPORTER: SEVILLE GARBAGE STRIKE
In an otherwise ridiuclously beautiful city, we arrived in Seville to find the Andalusian capital in the grips of a mounting garbage workers strike. We sent the youngest of our tribe to investigate the situation and, in doing so, we can all learn a thing or two about global economics through the prism of a […]
THIS IS WHAT IT IS
This is the Samrat Yantra, which means the Supreme Instrument. It stands 27 meters tall with its shadow moving visibly at 1mm per second making it the world’s largest sundial. Checking it against the clock on our phones, the time on this sundial is remarkably exact — and it’s so large that you can literally […]
TWENTY QUESTIONS: A HINDU PRIMER
On a few occasions during our travels we have encountered a truly learned and inspiring person. This was true in Delhi, where we spent an afternoon driving around with a man named Munish Anand — teacher, father, philosopher, guide, and all around wise dude. In a single afternoon, our family learned about religion, the history […]
HARD LESSONS: THE KHMER ROUGE
Nowhere has history come alive for us more than Cambodia. Just forty years ago, the Khmer Rouge swept in, ostensibly as the “Peace Party,” after the wars of Southeast Asia, and proceeded to exterminate two million of their own people. A generation was literally wiped out. The Khmer Rouge regime executed almost the entire professional […]
THE STORY OF RUBBER
Back in the 70’s, we grew up loving “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” especially the regularly featured short films showing, say, the process of how peanut butter gets manufactured or how blankets are woven and stitched. So drawing significant inspiration from the late great Fred Rogers (who left this mortal coil in 2003), we decided to make […]
THE SMALL GUIDES
As soon as we arrived at Odong, an ornate temple dedicated to the past kings and queens of Cambodia built high atop a mountain about forty kilometers from Phnom Penh, a handful of local schoolboys approached us. We didn’t realize it at that time but we were about to have one of the most unexpected and significant […]
ROAD MATH: TEST YOUR TRAVEL I.Q.
Behold the price of gas in Thailand. Here’s today’s assignment: Tell us the cost for a gallon of gas in Thailand in US dollars. Keep in mind, the prices you are looking at are for a liter. Use your currency convertor to find out how many Thai Baht you get for a US dollar. Then […]
FRANNY AND FINN PRESENT THE FORBIDDEN CITY
Your two young guides take you on a private tour of one of the world’s most legendary landmarks.