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raise your glass – the what, where, how guide to drinking

let us start with WHERE – the 10 best places to get drunk in public around the world followed by WHAT – the 7 must know bar drinks from around the world plus Frommer’s top 10 summer cocktails. as for HOW…i think you probably know how to drink but you may not know how to make a delicious rum punch so find the recipe under HOW!

WHERE:

By CHRIS PLATIS via Off track Planet

best places get drunk 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

When pounding shots of Jack alone in your room isn’t cutting it anymore (we really hope it hasn’t come to that), OTP found you some great places to get drunk in public. There’s nothing like travel for the chance to let your hair down and get your drink on. While the globe is generously sprinkled with a variety of festivals encouraging copious public alcohol intake, know that our international counterparts prefer to focus on the journey (drinking), not the destination (drunk mess). Instead of hurling shots into the gutter, experience public drinking without being a mass nuisance. OTP’s Top 10 options for public inebriation show you where to soak up your surroundings as you sip.

10. Qingdao International Beer Festival Qingdao, China

Qingdao International Beer Festival 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

The sleeper celebration on our list, the Qingdao Festival seems like the typical travel conspiracy: Get the tourists drunk so they buy our crap. This means you can expect overwhelming hospitality – in the form of free beer – from Chinese locals during Asia’s largest beer festival, held over two weeks in mid-August. Everpresent entertainment is just what you’d want to try with Qingdao’s famed Tiger beer blurring the edges. Beautiful women dance on tabletops, drinking competitions offer cash prizes – and need we mention karaoke?

9. The Great American Beer Festival Denver, Colorado

american beer festival 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

If your palate is more provincial (read: American), Denver presents The Great American Beer Festival, established in 1982. Initially featuring 22 breweries competing for the title of ‘America’s Greatest Beer’, 2010’s contest had nearly 500 breweries showcasing 2100 brews of amber liquid sunshine. Your taste buds differ from the next dude; so screw the judges and head on your own sampling spree until you find nirvana. For just $55 per day, the taps promise to keep flowing and ensure your throat is never dry.

8. Tequila Trail Jalisco, Mexico

tequila drunk mexico 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

Dadadadadadada…Tequila! Respect, please, for the beverage that requires no introduction – and certainly no chaser. Made from the blue agave plant, this sparkly spirit is native to the town Tequila, in Jalisco, Mexico. Take a trip down the Tequila trail, home to factories producing the land’s signature beverage. The budget-friendly Tequila Express, bringing you to the doorsteps of Jalisco’s five main tequila-producing communities, includes a guided tour of local cultural and archeological sites, plus plenty of free tastings.  As the day goes on, watch your train ride increase in entertainment value relative to tequila consumption!

7. Mardi Gras New Orleans, Louisiana

MARDI GRAS drunk sexy 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

If you can’t make it to Brazil for Carnaval, grab your glitter and head to New Orleans for Mardi Gras that same week. In case New Orleans doesn’t already heave with musical energy and sexual excess, Mardi Gras literally blows up “Fat Tuesday”. Purple, green and gold floats parade down the narrow streets throwing trinkets while surrounded by masqueraded beauties. Coveted Mardi Gras beads are thrown out as prizes – often as a result of boob-flasher-age. Be warned; be excited.

6. Times Square New York, New York

timesquare new years 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

No matter how often we drink in NYC, the thrill of Times Square has yet to escape our liquored blood. Weekday or holiday, the lights please the sober and completely amaze the drunk.  New York’s best feature is easy transportation, taking you from the famed New Year’s Eve ball-drop to your next destination via subway in a few stumble-y shoves. This melting pot shines with sheer variety, presenting endless entertainment opportunities to the imbibing traveler.

5. Queen’s Day Amsterdam, Holland

Queens day amersterdam 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

Queen’s Day is for drinking in the madness that engulfs the city yearly on April 30. Nearly one million people participate, starting when Amsterdam’s nightlife kicks off Queen’s Night on the 29th and continuing for 24 hours thereafter. While the Night is filled with young adventurous thrill-seekers, the busier Queen’s Day is chaotic, with live music on every corner, in every alley – even on boats. The atmosphere pulses in unison with your hangover, permeating the Heineken haze.

4. Wembley Stadium London, England

drunk fans 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

Few events have a livelier atmosphere than a soccer (er, football) game at Wembley Stadium, near London. Dive into the mass of 90,000 screaming fans, and (with the help of a few beers) inhale the elixir of English life. The original stadium was considered the premier sports venue for decades before its demolition, but 2007’s Version 2.0 is doing a great job filling its soccer spikes. Down your pints, whip off your shirts and chant rhymes hoarsely like a true footie fanatic.

3. St. Patrick’s Day Dublin, Ireland

DUBLIN DRUNK 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

Photo by: Anthony Cronin

The Irish take pride in their highly developed drinking skills and St Paddy’s (March 17th) is their time to shine. Dublin’s world-renowned parade is a display of pride that fuels the unintelligible drinking songs of loud green Irishmen worldwide. Leprechauns crawl the streets to live music and the Guinness stream never ends as the partying stretches for days. OTP Tip:Wear green. Unless you really like physical abuse from inebriated Dubliners.

2. Carnaval Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

carnival rio sexy 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

Rio is the queen of Carnaval celebrations, though this Catholic prelude to Easter is celebrated in many regions of Brazil. The four-day celebration has thousands of Brazilians swarming the streets in elaborate costumes, indulging in all pleasures cachaca and cooch before the arrival of Lent (period of abstinence). With caipirinha in one hand and a sexy Brazilian groping the other, let the banging booze fest begin!

1. Oktoberfest Munich, Germany

oktoberfest funny drunk 10 Best Places to Get Drunk in Public

The infamous Oktoberfest turns 200 this year and as the world’s largest public fair, tops our list. What better place to knock back a few than this Bavarian festival, accommodating nearly 5 million people over two weeks bridging September and October. The streets of Munich flood with tourists stumbling from the fairground’s enormous drinking tents, dressed in sexy lederhosen and dirnds, grasping gallon-sized mugs of foaming German beer. Das very good.

Drinking en masse is thrilling and joyous – and great for bonding with a stranger or two. Just slow your chug a bit, we promise you will want to remember some of this in the morning.

WHAT:

7 Must Know Bar Drinks from Around the World

By ASTAR via Off track Planet

my booze 7 Must Know Bar Drinks from Around the WorldBooze is our escape from the reason and logic bestowed on us by the powers that be. From Pabst to top shelf black labels of this and that, we all have our stories of drinking, getting drunk and doing stupid shit.  We have all done the keg house parties, jungle juice gatherings and endless shot for shot competitions.  At this point, we bet your liver is begging you to stop drinking that purple drank.  Before you give in to its pleas, let us show you how to booze it up just a little more;  this time with style and worldly culture.  OTP presents our lucky list of 7 traditional drinks around the world (and 3 complimenting hangover cures).

Caipirinha

(lime wedges, granulated sugar and Sagatiba Pura)

Acclaimed as the national drink of Brazil (what is ours? Budweiser maybe?), this sugary cocktail contains cachaca, a rum-like liquor with a sad, but true, history.  Brought over by Portuguese settlers, cachaca was given to slaves to increase productivity (seems counter-productive but sure why not?). After slavery was outlawed in 1888, all Brazilians began whipping these suckers up for themselves to enjoy.  The Caipirinha pairs well with a white linen shirt, coconutty sunscreen and a lay on a warm Brazilian beach.

 7 Must Know Bar Drinks from Around the WorldSangria

(bottle of wine, sliced fruit, honey, triple sec and a big pitcher)

The jungle juice of Spain, this beverage is traditionally enjoyed in groups (hence the pitcher).  Since wine in Spain is insanely cheap (we’re talking less than a dollar per bottle, even cheaper for a box if you’re really scrounging), this drink is quite popular among the backpacking elite.  The type of wine used and the fruit thrown inside vary regionally, with the red (“sangre” or blood in Spanish) version being the most popular.

Single Malt Scotch 7 Must Know Bar Drinks from Around the WorldSingle Malt Scotch

(single-malt, nothing else needed)

The “single” part means only one grain (barley) is used.  To “malt” means to allow barley to germinate (thank you Keith).  The “scotch” part, well that’s the most important.  Single malt scotch is ONLY considered such if it is made in Scotland and aged for no less than three years.  If you’re man (woman) enough, we dare you to gather up some hostelmates and go on one of these distillery tours.  Pricing is specific to your group’s size and preferences.  The tour includes a designated driver.  One thing for sure, all of you will leave smelling like drunken Scotsmen (and women).

080807 cocktails bcol1p.vmedium 7 Must Know Bar Drinks from Around the WorldElephant’s Ear

(Marula Tree Juice, Mangos for garnish)

The presentation of this one is the key.  A South African classic, this drink is traditionally served with two ear-shaped dried mango pieces attached to your glass.  Why elephants? The symbolism lies in that various animals, including elephants, eat the fruit of the Marula tree regularly.  The tree bears fruit with a high alcoholic content which often makes the animals drunk as hell.  We don’t know how you feel, but we think this guy needs to go to AAA (animal alcoholics anonymous) pronto.

The Pisco Sour

(Pisco, lime juice, egg whites, simple syrup and bitters)

You put “sour” after any word and it sounds like you have drink ordering authority; it’s very James Bondish. This Peruvian drink wields so much power that it has a national holiday (National Pisco Sour Day happens the first Saturday of February).  Mostly a great excuse to get the entire nation drunk, this holiday celebrates the concoction and its rebellious origins.  In the 1700s, Spanish colonialists brought the grape to Peru.  During that time, making wine was prohibited.  People came up with prohibition era uses for grapes that weren’t quite wine but still had a high enough alcoholic content to keep people happily intoxicated.  Pisco (a brandy-like grape liquor) was born and became Peru’s local drink of choice.

pisco sour 7 Must Know Bar Drinks from Around the World

Samagonka Vodka

(ingredients: the devil and his friends)

Russians drink vodka, not a big surprise and this type of vodka is the most authentic of all.  Forget Absolute and Stolichnaya, Samagonka is the general name for vodka that has been distilled in a basement . . . at home . . . from potatoes.  Most retailers in Russia will not carry it, so to get a taste you have to put your social skills to work.  Old Russian men will always have at least a liter of this stuff sitting around.  Befriend one and you will be taking shots with the pros (and chasing those shots with pickles and cold cuts) in no time.  If you get really friendly, please refer to the conveniently provided hangover cures at the end of this article.

Mojito

(Mint, Rum, Sugar, Lime and Soda)

Cubans are brilliant!  Their national cocktail is both a breath-freshener (all that mint) and a panty-dropper (inhibitions cannot withstand this sweet liquid rum candy).  We hail it the perfect hook-up drink.  The name has been rumored to mean two different things.  One interpretation comes from the Spanish word for “a little wet” (well that’s suggestive) and the other is from an African word for “a little spell”.  Either way, we’re pretty sure the mojito is how Ricky got Lucy.

3 Hangover Cures

Bloody Mary

(shot of vodka, tomato juice, celery stick, squeeze of lemon, few shakes of cayenne pepper)

A drink to cure a hangover? Can’t be true.  The infamous breakfast Bloody Mary contains tomato juice which is rumored to dilute the ouchy effects of a bad hangover (the spicy cayenne is there to kick you in the balls so you reconsider overdrinking next time).  Invented by a French guy in New York, this drink combines the tomato and “hair of the dog” hangover cures and is sure to have you on your way to recovery (or perpetual drunken “I don’t give a shit” world).

Sleep

Need to get from Brazil (where you had one too many Caipirinhas) to Peru (to celebrate National Pisco Sour Day)?  Book the longest red-eye bus ride available.  This way, not only are you saving money by taking the turtle route, you sleep the entire time and the hangover becomes yesterday’s news.  Employ these safety techniques while you snooze the booze away and you’ll be golden.

Water

Hard to do when alcohol is safer than water in third world countries but a must to cure your dehydrated partied-out self.  Most bottled water is fine so buy in bulk and drink at least 16 oz before going to bed post-party.  This is also a great time to whip out those water-purifying tablets we told you about.  Stay moist friends.

Between the cheap beers and boxed wine, that random jungle juice and straight shots, give these traditional drinks a try in their countries of origin.  Chances are their American versions pale in comparison and you get no bragging rights for drinking mojitos at your local boozery (like you would if you had one on a beach in Copacabana).

also see: A Global Guide to Cocktails & Summer Drinks

Frommer’s take on the who’s who of drinks from around the globe and where you should have them shaken or stirred!

By Melinda Quintero via Frommer’s

HOW:

vanilla mojito

Vanilla Mojito

1 ¾ oz. Stolichnaya Vanilla Vodka
Drop of simple syrup
12 mint leaves
Soda water
Lime slice, for garnish

Muddle mint leaves and simple syrup in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add vodka and ice, shake vigorously, and pour (with ice) into a chilled tall or Collins glass. Fill glass with additional ice, top with soda water, and garnish with a slice of lime.

Rum Punch
1 ¼ oz. Rhum St. Barths (Cool style)
½ oz. Triple Sec
1 oz. cranberry juice
1 oz. pineapple juice
1 oz. fresh orange juice
Drop of grenadine
Rhum St. Barths (Chic style)
Pineapple and cherry flag, for garnish

Add first five ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously, and strain into a Hurricane glass filled with ice. Add drop of grenadine, top with Rhum St. Barths (Chic) and garnish with a pineapple and cherry flag.

vodka fizz

Vodka Fizz

1 ¾ oz. Stolichnaya Vodka
1 ¾ oz. lemon juice
Drop of simple syrup
Drop of Blue Curacao
Soda water
Cherry, for garnish

Add vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup and Blue Curacao to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously, and strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with soda water, and garnish with a cherry.

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top 10 coolest music venues around the world

i gotta confess – i am totally digging a new find for travel info: Off track Planet. they are resourceful, hilarious & clearly having tons of fun. if you haven’t discovered them yet i recommend subscribing to them or following them on twitter OR do both like me and never miss a funny quip.

*disclaimer: their language is R rated. another reason to love them if you ask me!

by CHRIS PLATIS via Off track Planet [twitter-follow screen_name= ‘offtrackplanet’]

musicfeat Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: Bp1 @ blogspot

Hostel-shower acoustics can only go so far and those boxed-in music venues aren’t any better. If you like your tunes live and loud, these spots turn the decibels way up. Pack a lighter, hop on the OTP tour bus and raise a bottle to toast the Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the World.

slane Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: 2c..

As intoxicating as the hardcore Irish Whisky they make on-site, Slane Castle has served as Ireland’s biggest outdoor venue since the big hair days of 1981. Situated along the River Boyne (about an hour outside of Dublin), the castle grounds form a natural amphitheater with room for 80,000 loyal subjects. The potential for massive crowds attracts big-name bands, and Slane keeps it loud with studio-quality sound. Don’t try to sneak in by swimming across the Boyne, though—plenty of tune junkies have failed trying to get that hit of free music.

ber Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: rmayda

Formerly techno-king Tresor, this 250,000 square foot ex-power plant is Berlin’s new hotspot for underground music. Modem once pumped electricity to all of East Berlin, but a lineup of world-class dj’s now light up crowds to dance like they’re stomping down that wall all over again. Avoid dead air between sets by exploring the random control rooms and Cold War contraptions lining the walls.

red Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: libbipeters

Mother Nature apparently knows a thing or two about cool music venues.  Not only is Red Rocks an incredible park, it’s a naturally occurring amphitheater that hosts sick performers spanning all genres, from the Flaming Lips to Kenny Chesney. This Colorado stage is sandwiched between two 300-foot sandstone rocks, making these vibrating acoustics the best sound-stress your eardrums will ever have to endure. The scenery and the sound make Red Rocks a prime candidate for live CD and DVD releases, so get your 15 minutes of fame by maintaining that painful scream, even during silences.

fest Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: Elli-pixx

Festhalles (festival halls) are all over the country, but Frankfurt outfests the best fest in Germany. When this shit was built over a century ago, it had the largest dome in Europe and these days, the Willy Wonka glass ceiling is all the rave. This festhalle isn’t hip to security, so feel free to sneak in your own food and booze.

Untitled 1 Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: Mezzoforte1977

Ahoy party people! Docked in Budapest’s cold Danube waters, head-bobbers, booty-shakers and fist-pumpers get in the groove seven nights a week on the lower deck of the A38, an old boat that used to haul coal. Once you’ve got your sea-legs and your stomach starts to growl, hit up the top deck restaurant. Their signature rooster stew is mixed with little tiny bird balls—just in case the party on a mother-fucking boat wasn’t crazy enough.

syd Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: jimmyharris

This award-winning arts building is to Australia what the Eiffel Tower is to France. Don’t let the fancy-pants name fool you—the Pussycat Dolls are as likely to play this venue as Mozart wannabes. The Opera House pleases a variety of music-munchers by hosting a wide range of performances and events in tons of different rooms, halls and theaters. The many bars, cafes and restaurants on the complex grounds are great places to sloppily stuff your face while gracefully patronizing “The Opera.”

paradis Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: Wouter Kiel

This 19th century church in Amsterdam traded God for sex, drug and rock n’ roll hell in 1967. We have a group of squatting hippies to thank for this sinfully superior transformation. Today, the Paradiso packs three solid floors of counterculture and is the promised land for artists like Arcade Fire and TV on the Radio.

02 Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: ukroni

Located on the grounds of the 2012 Olympics, the O2 Arena is Madison Square Garden’s British cousin, bringing home the gold for massive crowds of 20,000. Once the dilapidated Millennium Dome, the O2 is now the most popular music venue in the world, with queens like Britney, Rihanna and Katy Perry reigning on high.

dal Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: owt

Summertime in Sweden can be sound-tracked at the Dalhalla amphitheater.  Dalhalla was the Norse equivalent of Greek Olympus, and the namesake for this limestone venue that sits atop Lake Siljan. A rockin’ place made entirely of rocks, the crowd at Dalhalla is separated from the stage by a thin moat, so bring a board if you intend to crowd surf.

blue Top 10 Coolest Music Venues Around the WorldPhoto by: Scott Norsworthy

Once dominated by a cheesy Hard Rock Café franchise, Mumbai’s live music scene leapt to new heights with the Blue Frog. Catch some authentic Indian performances, or hit up a show featuring top-name international dj’s such as Armin van Buuren or Infected Mushroom. When you’re all hopped-out on the dance floor, take a breather on their lilypad-like lounge seating.

A great venue (amongst other things) highly enhances the live music experience. Indoors, out on land or water, these places make even the shittiest performances sound decent—regardless of what song you get stuck in your head for the walk home.

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airline safety demo goes top 40!

for more music fun in airline travel here’s the top viral airline video of all time

By Sean O’Neill, Budget Travel

The most watched airline viral video on YouTube is by Cebu Pacific Airlines, with 10 million views, according a study by research firm PhoCusWright.

The low-cost Philippine airline asked its flight attendants to dance to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry songs while explaining in-flight safety instructions on one of its flights. The vid’s gotten 10 million views since it debuted on YouTube last September.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/Lqh8e2KYIrU]

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higher learning – the foreign language barrier

20 awesomely untranslatable words from around the world

Photo: laogooli
There are at least 250,000 words in the English language. However, to think that English – or any language – could hold enough expression to convey the entirety of the human experience is as arrogant of an assumption as it is naive.

Read this article en Español

Here are a few examples of instances where other languages have found the right word and English simply falls speechless.

1. Toska

Russian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”

2. Mamihlapinatapei

Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – “the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start” (Altalang.com)

3. Jayus

Indonesian – “A joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh” (Altalang.com)

4. Iktsuarpok

Inuit – “To go outside to check if anyone is coming.” (Altalang.com)

5. Litost

Czech – Milan Kundera, author ofThe Unbearable Lightness of Being, remarked that “As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.” The closest definition is a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.

6. Kyoikumama

Japanese – “A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement” (Altalang.com)

7. Tartle

Scottish – The act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name. (Altalang.com)

8. Ilunga

Tshiluba (Southwest Congo) – A word famous for its untranslatability, most professional translators pinpoint it as the stature of a person “who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense.” (Altalang.com)

9. Prozvonit

Czech – This word means to call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money. In Spanish, the phrase for this is “Dar un toque,” or, “To give a touch.” (Altalang.com)

10. Cafuné

Brazilian Portuguese – “The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.” (Altalang.com)

11. Schadenfreude

German – Quite famous for its meaning that somehow other languages neglected to recognize, this refers to the feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune. I guess “America’s Funniest Moments of Schadenfreude” just didn’t have the same ring to it.

12. Torschlusspanik

German – Translated literally, this word means “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.” (Altalang.com)

13. Wabi-Sabi

Japanese – Much has been written on this Japanese concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.” (Altalang.com)

14. Dépaysement

French – The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.

15. Tingo

Pascuense (Easter Island) – Hopefully this isn’t a word you’d need often: “the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.” (Altalang.com)

16. Hyggelig

Danish – Its “literal” translation into English gives connotations of a warm, friendly, cozy demeanor, but it’s unlikely that these words truly capture the essence of a hyggelig; it’s likely something that must be experienced to be known. I think of good friends, cold beer, and a warm fire. (Altalang.com)

17. L’appel du vide

French – “The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.

18. Ya’aburnee

Arabic – Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

19. Duende

Spanish – While originally used to describe a mythical, spritelike entity that possesses humans and creates the feeling of awe of one’s surroundings in nature, its meaning has transitioned into referring to “the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person.” There’s actually a nightclub in the town of La Linea de la Concepcion, where I teach, named after this word. (Altalang.com)

20. Saudade

Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade. (Altalang.com)

For myself, the hardest part about learning a new language isn’t so much getting acquainted with the translations of vocabulary and different grammatical forms and bases, but developing an inner reflex that responds to words’ texture, not their translated “ingredients”. When you hear the word “criminal” you don’t think of “one who commits acts outside the law,” but rather the feeling and mental imagery that comes with that word.

Thus these words, while standing out due to our inability to find an equivalent word in out own language, should not be appreciated for our own words that we try to use to describe them, but for their own taste and texture. Understanding these words should be like eating the best slab of smoked barbequeued ribs: the enjoyment doesn’t come from knowing what the cook put in the sauce or the seasoning, but from the full experience that can only be created by time and emotion.

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TSA thursday: jimmy buffet-esque + security rules mashup = funny stuff

Airport security video has some folks laughing

By Harriet Baskas, msnbc.com contributor

 

Cindi Martin was tired of seeing long lines at the security checkpoint at Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell, Mont. And even though she’s the airport director, Martin felt her hands were tied. “I cannot tell TSA officers to work faster or change protocol to help streamline the process,” she said.

What she could do was change things outside the checkpoint. So she asked a popular local band that often performs parodies to put together a peppier version of the rather dry Transportation Security Administration video now shown to passengers at the checkpoint.

“We took the TSA video home. And, oh my gosh, it is the most boring sort of government video we’re all used to seeing,” said Steve Riddle, who performs with Nick Terhaar and Greg Devlin as the Singing Sons of Beaches.

The band began working on a song that included all the information in the TSA video. “Things like knives, liquids, scissors, belts and shoes off, etc.,” said Riddle. “We used it all. And we made it rhyme.”

[youtube=http://youtu.be/lJCTenpBTtg]

The Singing Sons of Beaches perform in a custom airport security video for Glacier Park International Airport. Bet your airport’s security video isn’t this fun.

And they made it funny, with a catchy, calypso beat.

Dressed in shorts and flowered shirts, band members sing instructions (“No guns or knives or pepper spray, no sharp pointy scissors on the flight today”) and are shown trying to take a shotgun, a six-shooter, a meat cleaver, a giant pair of clippers, a cartoon-style bomb and other forbidden items through the checkpoint. A TSA officer – a real one who was standing by when the airport terminal closed for filming – has a cameo as a finger-wagging screener.

“We are aware of this local video created by the airport and approve of the travel tips provided to prepare passengers for screening,” said TSA spokesperson Greg Soule.

The video now plays on a continuous loop at the airport, along with the original TSA video.

“I’m getting calls from people who are driving out to the airport, paying to park and going in just to watch the video,” said Riddle.

Glacier Park International Airport may have the most danceable checkpoint video, but it’s not the first to offer travelers something a bit different to look at.

In 2004 and 2005, McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas worked with local partners to create a 13-part TSA-approved, pre-checkpoint video series that features Las Vegas performers offering checkpoint tips. Included in the series are Wayne Newton, Rita Rudner, Carrot Top, the Blue Man Group, an Elvis impersonator, clowns from Cirque du Soleil, and Wolfgang Puck. You can watch those videos here.

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