Montreal Jazz Festival hosts 500 concerts in 12 days
MONTREAL -- New Orleans and Newport, R.I., aren't the only North American cities to host major jazz festivals. The Montreal International Jazz Festival features 500 concerts -- including more than 350 free shows -- and this year it's expected to draw almost 2 million people.
From June 30 to July 11, dozens of concerts a day will be held on 18 stages, from noon to midnight, over four blocks of downtown Montreal.
Guests will include Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, George Benson, k.d. lang, Ibrahim Ferrer, Oliver Jones, and Oscar Peterson.
Face-painting, street performers, a playground, diaper-changing areas, and twice-daily performances for children called "The Little School of Jazz" make the event family-friendly.
For further details, visit www.montrealjazzfest.com or call 888-515-0515.
San Francisco shows its heart
SAN FRANCISCO -- Tony Bennett's not the only one who left his heart in San Francisco.The city's streets are being decorated with 5-foot-tall fiberglass hearts painted by local artists.The hearts will make San Francisco the latest city to display themed fiberglass sculptures outdoors. Chicago had cows, Seattle had pigs, and San Jose had sharks. But San Francisco isn't associated with any particular animal, so organizers decided on hearts.
Union Square and the Civic Center were chosen as locations for the first batch of hearts, with more due to be put up around town throughout the summer.
Artists receive $1,000 apiece for their efforts. The hearts will be auctioned in the fall to benefit San Francisco General Hospital.
Enduring guide to S. America
BATH, England -- In the 1920s, the typical traveler from England to South America was a businessman, and of course the voyage was made by boat. To give passengers something to read during the long trip, the Royal Mail Shipping Co. produced the "South American Handbook" and filled it with information about important ports of call.
The first handbook was published in 1924, and it has been updated and reprinted every year. Today, the book, published by Footprint Handbooks, based in Bath, claims to be the longest-running travel guide in the English language, with sales above 1.5 million copies. And its 80th edition, just out, is designed more for those interested in off-the-beaten track destinations than business travelers seeking new markets.
The thick $34.95 paperback has sections on every South American country, with advice on planning trips, information on local customs, and tips on where to stay, what to eat, shopping, outdoor activities, and health.
The guide also lists the continent's top seven sights: the
Bowled over by Boulder
BOULDER, Colo. -- What US city gets 83 inches of snow per year and more sunshine than Miami or San Diego? The answer is Boulder, where there are more than 300 sunny days in an average year.
An hour from Denver and a 45-minute drive from Rocky Mountain National Park, Boulder has plenty of things to do in spring and summer.
Outdoor attractions include mountain biking, swimming, and boating in the Boulder Reservoir, tubing down the Boulder Creek, flower-filled meadows and hiking trails, including two local favorites, the Bobolink Trail and the Marshall Mesa Trail.
There's a tour of the Celestial Seasonings tea factory, with a stop at the sinus-clearing "Mint Room." And on the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, the Zip Code Man will guess your hometown from your ZIP code.
Boulder's Chautauqua Summer Festival, which was founded more than a century ago by teachers from Texas who wanted to bring arts and education to the West, is one of just three remaining Chautauquas in the nation. Concerts, lectures, and performances run throughout the summer; further details are available at www.chautauqua.com or at 303-440-7666.
Other cultural attractions in Boulder include the Leanin' Tree Museum of Western Art; the Colorado Music Festival, which holds concerts four nights a week for seven weeks; and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, with outdoor performances of "Romeo and Juliet," "Comedy of Errors," and "Antony and Cleopatra." 