DJ Trava

Archive for May, 2010

Planning a trip to New York City in June? If so, check out the CitySolve Urban Race NYC , happening June 19th, and consider participating, because the grand Championship prize is $5,000. The race is an ultimate urban adventure game, where teams solve clever clues and face fun challenges as they get to discover New York City in a fun new way. If you and a partner sign up, you’ll receive a CitySolve Urban Race t-shirt and race number, get listed on the National Championship Qualifier for the top 25 teams only, get a chance to win $5,000 in the National Championship in New Orleans.

Once you’ve registered for this nutty experience, you and your partner will be on a lively, 1-day, New York City’s version of Amazing Race. You’ll get clues for a scavenger hunt that will take you to unmarked checkpoints, which are called ‘SOLVEpoints’ and get a chance to explore the City that you would otherwise not have gotten a chance to see. This race is a high octane adventure that will take you and your partner through neighborhoods like Midtown, Chelsea, Greenwich Village and some nifty New York City hotels , some you’ve never heard about, but are just as interesting as the more popular hotels.

Hopefully, you’re good at solving clues that run the gambit from pop-culture to 8th grade math problems to anagrams, American history and sudoku. If you’re good at Trivial Pursuit, you’ll really like this race. There will also be some different challenges, like having to bowl a strike, identify a flavor of ice cream, build a house of cards or put together a puzzle. The only thing that could ruin this fantastic CitySolve Urban Race NYC, is the weather, like a freak snow storm, or an out of the blue tornado.

Check in is at 11am and the race begins at Noon. 1st place wins $300 and a free Championship entry at New Orleans; 2nd place wins 2 Timbuk2 Bags (worth $100 each) and free entry to the Championships; 3rd place wins free Championship entry; and a $50 gift certificate for the best uniform, best Tweet, best family under 18 and best Senior 55 and older.

If you don’t plan to participate, hopefully as your sightseeing at the usual sights in New York City, you jsut might get a glimpse of CitySolve teams struggling with clues or challenges and see just how much fun they’re having.

Zurich is a perfect city to visit, grabbing a seat at the nearest cyber-cafe, engaging in some lively conversation with new Swiss friends, and watch the future come rolling in. Its present is a lovely one, where there are plenty of things to do, all day and all night, in an urban landscape that is designed to make a good life possible every waking moment. There are an extraordinary number of interesting people living here, called by its reputation as a world-class city for its present as well as its past. Zurich hotels are noted for their remarkable hospitality, promising a lovely stay in a lovely town.

Its history in contemporary art is a very lively one, home to some of the great art movements, and the birthplace of Dada. That art of the future has stood a test of time, one that lived far beyond the energy of the movements proponents, but may become eclipsed by the new digital art age. This is evidenced by Tweakfest , held every year in April, and it is one of the most forward-thinking art festivals in the world. Even if the travel plans are too early or too late for that festival, there is still a kind of hyper-active art energy that haunts the town, and guests can catch new art in motion any time of year.

Some of the biggest activists in this art form are taking to calling themselves tweakers as of late, and the name is rather proper to the form. In digital technologies, one might decide to modify an existing program, tweaking it until it works that way the visionary wants it to. It’s an apt description for what happens here, and what seems to be happening all over Europe, where the next generation is seeing the virtual world as a space to compliment life, rather than retreat from it into technology. New ideas, new paradigms, and new games are being invented all the time, looking at the present and decoding its mysteries to make something better.

The most important literary moments come and go without being able to fully live in them, to live to the fullest, and this is certainly one of the greatest tragedies. To be allowed to inhabit one’s time, fully inhabit them, is a kind of paradise on earth, although few notice at the time even when they are living. Fully living, that is, is a gift that’s reserved only for a spare few, and when it comes and goes so quickly, it is because the moment of waking up is as short as any dream. Or any drama.

And Schiller’s “Die Rauber” is still capable of providing the resistance to a quiet life, even after the centuries passing before our eyes. These are the moments when we can wake up to the moment, the place that is Mannheim, and understand that we are seeing Germany for the first time perhaps, and seeing it fully. This is the city that celebrated its 400th anniversary not very long ago, and has seen its share of tragedies, but in the German consciousness, some of the most elemental tragedies are lived internally, and fully, marking a present filled with doubt and dread.

However, like the most significant moment in a drama by Schiller , it comes like a storm and passes just in time to enjoy a nice lunch. There is always something enticing on the menu, and to eat when one is hungry is one step on the way toward the Good, and the Beautiful. A nap in a glorious hotel might complete the afternoon, but somehow, there is always the next day to contend with. Walking the city with the larger questions at the front of the mind and on the tip of the tongue, there are traces of the best in German philosophy, and there are traces of a vacation, enjoyed in the moment, and fully.

For most people who visit New York, they originally arrive in the city by airplane. Well, that should be clarified by saying most people who visit the city because they plan to vacation in New York or are there for a business trip, arrive by plane. Kennedy and LaGuardia are the city’s main airports and are two of the busiest airports in the world. However a large number of people arrive in the city by automobile and even bus. And once you’re in New York, if you plan to do any inter borough traveling you will most likely do via bridge. And New York has some of the most famous bridges in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge, originally known as the New York Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge of its kind when it was originally built.

And of course the most common form of mass transportation while you are in the city is, not what your first thought was probably going to be. It is actually one’s own feet, or walking that is the primary transportation mode for people in New York City. Even tourists get around to a large extent via their own feet and spend a lot of their time in the city walking. Even when combined with some of the other common forms of transportation, a large portion of the distances covered in the city are by foot.

And for those people who need to get off of there feet, there is an extensive subway system that is probably used by more people on a daily basis than any other in the country. It is most popular high speed transportation in the city. And for these purposes high speed means faster than what you can walk. Buses are another transportation in New York as are taxis. Residents frequently get around the city by bicycling or rollerblading. However you get yourself to New York or travel around while you’re there, you will most likely have an incredible time doing it.