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Television Travel / Television Premiere Travel / Mad Men / Bars / → All Tags

Make It an Old-Fashioned, Neat: Boston Bar Hosting 'Mad Men' Premiere Party

AMC’s Emmy-winning drama Mad Men is returning for a third season on August 16, after the show’s first two seasons drew lots of acclaim but not nearly as many viewers. But it looks like plenty of viewers have been catching up on the DVDs during the show’s hiatus, because Mad Men is starting to cross that threshold from just another cable show everyone says you should be watching to a genuine cultural zeitgest.

Case-in-point: hip Boston watering hole Noir Bar will be greeting the new season with a Mad Men series premier party.

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Architecture / Architecture Travel / Eero Saarinen / Eero-Saarinen-Travel-Map / → All Tags

Eero Saarinen Travel: Back to School Edition

If you've been following this week's coverage of Eero Saarinen, then today's focus should be instantly recognizable. Constructed between 1953 and 1955, the Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology displays many of the themes that we've seen in his works so far. The building was named in honor of S. S. Kresge, founder of the company that would later become K-Mart. Although not a graduate of MIT, he apparently had some pretty strong cash reserves.

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Dangerous Travel / Odd Travel / Kent Couch / Cluster Ballooning / → All Tags

Lawn Chair Ballooner Lands Safely in Idaho

Maybe the secret to helium balloon-powered flight is staying over land. An Oregon gas station owner named Kent Couch made a 9-hour flight from his hometown of Bend, Oregon east to Cambridge, Idaho this weekend. His tricked out flying lawn chair was loaded up with a BB gun for popping balloons, a parachute, three GPS devices, a satellite phone and, obviously, beef jerky.

Couch's journey sounds much easier than the one that tragically ended earlier this year, when a Brazilian priest disappeared while coasting over the Atlantic in his own helium balloon rig.

The fortunate flyer financed his $6,000 trip with the help of Google Maps, and Couch plans to have a detailed route map up on his website soon, pulled from the GPS data he collected along the way. Also sponsoring his flight? The folks behind the Spot satellite tracking device.

Related Stories:
· Oregon Man Completes Flight of Fancy [AP, via Google]
· Super Dangerous Travel: Balloon Ride Goes Awry in Brazil [Jaunted]
· Dangerous Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Kent Couch]

Coffee / Coffee Shops / → All Tags

Testing Starbucks' $11,000 Coffee Machine

We love our Starbucks Alternatives, but sometimes we do enjoy the Green Monster. Our very own Hunter Walker just checked out a unique bit of coffee gadgetry for us.

This weekend I had the opportunity to check out the infamous $11,000 coffee maker at a Starbucks on Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The coffee machine, known as the Clover, is seen as such a revolutionary piece of Java technology that Starbucks purchased the company that makes it back in March to prevent it from popping up in too many independent cafes.

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Celeb Travel / Harry Potter / JK Rowling / Commencement Travel / → All Tags

Commencement Travel: Hogwarts Grad Gets Harvard Honor

Harry Potter creator JK Rowling donned the proud crimson robes as she picked up an honorary degree after her recent speech at Harvard.

Rowling joked before reflecting on her own graduation and journey from single mum to publishing-industry savior:

All I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world's best-educated Harry Potter convention.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also spoke during the commencement activities in Cambridge, which: No fair! Save some celebs for other schools!

Related Stories
· Commencement Travel: That's Doctor Silver Hammer to You [Jaunted]
· Harry Potter Checks In To Jumeirah Beach Over Summer [HC]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Just Jared]

Technology Travel / Cars / Driving / Green Travel / Rental Cars / → All Tags

Futuristic Travel: Road Trips Made Easy With Folding Car

Ever notice how the waiting areas at car rental offices almost never have seats? See, they'd prefer you fall asleep on your feet so you'll be more apt to sign your life away in case someone accidentally breathes on your car in the parking lot. Well, fear us, rental-car agencies of the world!

Or rather, fear scientists at MIT who have been working on a car you can check out as easily as an airport luggage cart.

The electric City Car, a two-seater just slightly smaller than a Smart Car, folds in half for parking and is easily rechargable. The team's even contemplating installing a joystick that would allow users to steer the car. A joystick! All that and it "promotes a socially responsible and more effective means of urban mobility."

Related Stories:
· City Car [Official Site]
· Rental Cars coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Smart Cities project]

Fall-Culture-Travel-Map / Movie Travel / Theater / → All Tags

Fall Culture Travel :: See Giant Rabbits Live In Boston

Check out our Fall Culture Map to stage your fall travel.

Forget Halloween Horror Nights and "Saw IV." The scariest thing you can see this fall is a giant rabbit prophesying the end of the world. Boston's American Repertory Theatre is bringing the cult film "Donnie Darko," in which a troubled teenager in the '80s experiences peculiar hallucinations, to the stage now through November 18.

Donnie Darko's just a regular guy discussing the '88 presidential election over dinner with his parents and wooing his first girlfriend when a giant rabbit begins appearing to him at night and telling him the world will end within a month. After the bunny saves him from being smashed by a jet engine which falls into his house, Donnie decides to listen. Here's what adapter-director Marcus Stern told Bostonist.com about his adaptation to the cult film:

What we're doing is a very faithful rendition of the film; it's a really great film and we're trying to bring that to the stage. We're not trying ot do some interpretation or take on the film, we're trying to honor this killer story, killer event.

Related Stories:
· American Repertory Theatre [Official Site]
· Preview: Donnie Darko [Bostonist]
· Fall Culture Travel Map [Jaunted]

[Photo: amrep.org]

Boston / Cambridge / Shopping / Malls / → All Tags

Mini-Mall Madness

Might as well make it mini-mall week. The Garage, in Cambridge, MA, is a curious little place we've been attached to for a while. Its stranglehold on us might have something to do with the fact that the inside feels exactly like a Habitrail.

The Garage is, in fact, a converted garage near Harvard Square. It's perfect for wasting an hour while you're waiting for friends, or, in our case, for getting in touch with your inner hamster. Most importantly it houses a holy trinity of retail outlets: Ben & Jerry's, tattoo place, and a Newbury Comics. There's a sweet stack of free papers outside Newbury here, making it an easy-to-find go-to when you're stuck for something to do at night.

And yeah, there's a Starbucks too. Feel free to shoot us now for loving it.

[Photo: bunge/callmissy]

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· Guide to Cool Tokyo Record Stores [Jaunted]