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“The Artist” is a modern French interpretation of an old black-and-white silent movie, which is to say that you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a film idea which would have to travel a more difficult road in order to find a wide American audience.1

However unlikely the concept, though, “The Artist” is poised to do just that. Michel Hazanavicius, previously best known for his O.S.S. series of Spy Parodies, leads Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo into new territory with a movie which manages to be both a tribute to a film-making era gone by and also one of the most emotionally potent movies that I have seen in some time.

Many critics have been happy to pull out the “Silence is Golden” trope in their reviews, anticipating the almost certain Oscar nominations for the film and its cast (not to mention for the wonderful score by Ludovic Bource). They’re right to do so. “The Artist” has some incredibly nuanced performances and, believe it or not, one of the most compelling ones is by a dog. Uggie is a Jack Russell Terrier who steals every scene he appears in, prompting an ad-hoc Twitter campaign to get him an Oscar nomination as well.2

Watching Dujardin and Bejo tap dance together was also a revelation to me: The wordless joy that these scenes express is the real thing, not an ironic, tongue-in-cheek gesture or some sort of “Hey — Look at me dance in the 1920’s!” exercise that some of Hollywood’s recent forays into the era have produced. The film’s American production design team also really nailed the look and feel of the time, adding so many fun little grace notes for the audience to pick out.3

And yet with all the tap dancing, period artifacts, and performing dogs, “The Artist” manages to remain a serious film about love and pride. It is, without a doubt, my favorite film of 2011.

  1. Please — Don’t consider this an invitation to submit your own “Springtime For Hitler”-esque suggestions. [↩]
  2. This would be well-deserved and a return to Oscar’s origins, if you believe the story about Rin-Tin-Tin receiving the most votes for Best Actor in the Award’s first year. [↩]
  3. A favorite: Watching Dujardin’s character, slinking away from an auction where all of his personal movie star memorabilia was sold, almost get hit by a car in front of a marquee which reads “Lonely Star” [↩]

A Review of One Year of AFAR Magazine

AFAR Magazine

Today’s mail included a copy of AFAR Magazine with one of those “THIS IS YOUR LAST ISSUE!” flyers attached to the cover. These days, with more of my reading material arriving digitally, I almost always let the print subscription lapse — but I’m renewing this one.

If you like to read more about the people and the culture of the places you go, then AFAR is probably the magazine you’ve been looking for all these years.

One Year of AFAR Magazine

In a happy moment of travel-related serendipity, I found out about AFAR while on a trip last summer. We were staying at a place in Dubai’s Bastakiya neighborhood and, while walking around, a nearby Hotel / Gallery caught our eye.1

The manager, an American named Harrison, was kind enough to show us around and invited us to enjoy some cool beverages in the shade afterwards. We all talked about our travels and, at some point, Harrison asked us “Have you ever heard of AFAR Magazine?”. One of its founders had just been a guest and he described it as a magazine geared toward people interested in a more engaged style of exploring the world.

It piqued my interest, and so I subscribed when we returned to New York a couple of months later.

Traveling With Your Brain Turned On

AFAR is about international, intentional travel and, with every issue that’s arrived since I subscribed, I’ve been impressed by its quality. The features, the photography, the layout, and the writing are consistently enjoyable2.

This isn’t more of the same “Aspirational Lifestyle Porn” that is often passed off as travel journalism these days (you won’t likely see “The AFAR Top 100 List of Über-Luxe Resorts / Objets Inaccessible” anytime soon). Instead, it focuses on having experiences which can help you understand a place better — irrespective of price.

You’ll find articles about people and the work they do, useful tips about how local people live, about the art and the food cultures which often give a region its unique textures and flavors, stories about volunteering and ways to get more deeply involved in the places you visit…. and, of course, plenty of photos to get you day-dreaming!

Best of Both Worlds

Even though it’s a difficult time for traditional publishing, there are still a few magazines that deliver a quality product which actually takes advantage of the strengths of the printed page. Monocle, The Economist, National Geographic, and the New York Review Of Books will always have an audience because each gives a tactile, visceral reading experience that isn’t the same as a website or an eBook. In the same way, AFAR Magazine is a pleasure to read and I’m already looking forward to thumbing through another year’s worth of issues!

But AFAR also has a digital presence… and it’s not a web-based rehash of the magazine. AFAR Connect is an online community that lets members reach out to one another, ask questions of locals, post photos, and trade travel tips and must-see places (As part of my upcoming “Tech for Travelers” Series, I’ll give you a closer look at AFAR Connect).

Both in print and digital forms, AFAR puts people and their stories at the center of their content. I think it’s a smart, engaging approach and well-worth checking out!

  1. Traveling to Dubai? Be sure to check out Bastakiya! It’s hard to grasp how much things have changed for this city without walking around this traditional neighborhood and along the nearby Dubai Creek. [↩]
  2. I was very pleased to discover that writers like Matt Gross and Rachel Shukert were contributors [↩]

A VPN service can help you avoid having your data stolen or your internet traffic blocked. Here’s how I use VyprVPN while traveling to reduce the risk of both!
A VPN service can help you avoid having your data stolen or your internet traffic blocked. Here’s how I use VyprVPN while traveling to reduce the risk of both!

No Internet For You!

The recent proliferation of internet snooping tools like Firesheep — which allows a semi-knowledgable hacker to hijack any number of your personal accounts — highlights an under-examined need for many travelers: A secure connection to the internet.

After all, most people are just worried about how they are going to connect to the internet as they travel — not even considering how safe that connection is. A person on the same network as you can actually see the information you’re sending and receiving — or sometimes even read the files on your hard drive.

Sound alarmist? Take a moment to look your computer’s network file browser the next time you hop online in a hotel, on a plane, or at a free WiFi hotspot and you’ll probably see a number of other computers visible. Some of them even probably have their file sharing turned on, exposing all sorts of personal data, photos, etc. to theft or vandalism.

Not good.

[Read more…]