Just as other airlines are ditching in-flight magazines because they weigh too much (and secretly, we think, because they know they're full of rubbish), the colorful Russian low-cost carrier Sky Express is just starting one up.
We don't know too much about Sky Express, which flies from a Moscow hub to 11 other Russian cities. Given our own experience with non-low-cost Russian airlines, we're not sure we want to know much.
But in case you want to fly on the cheap around Russia, you'll now be able to read Express Magazine as you do it. The big plan is to revolutionize the Russian in-flight magazine market. If they're talking revolutions, perhaps they're in the right place.
We've never been huge fans of in-flight magazines but they do tend to while away a good half an hour or so, or even more on long flights when we're fighting boredom. But flavor-of-the-month Emirates, in their eternal wisdom, has now decided to ditch its in-flight magazine completely.
Apparently this will save them one ton of weight per flight--we get it, lower fuel consumption and less emissions--so they're crowing about both cost and environment savings. Environment? This from the airline which thinks an in-flight shower is a necessity for some passengers?
Problem number two: What will passengers do instead of reading the in-flight mag? Stare at the screen in front of them even after watching all the movies? Hopefully not chat on their cell phones for an extra half hour.
The magazine that showed us the ins and outs of New York, London and even Beirut has launched in Kuala Lumpur. TimeOut has been one of the few stand-out travel publications over the years, so we're excited to hear about their new magazine and website featuring this bustling Southeast Asian hub. Now you can fly there on the cheapand know where to go.
TimeOut's KL web site covers happenings and happening spots around the city -- from bookstores to bars, from comedy clubs to clearance sales. It's a great tool for expats and even locals, but what we wish it had is maps; addresses don't mean much to the unfamiliar traveler.
Either way, it's a cool addition. And we'll be looking out for seven more launches from TO in 2008, including titles from Hong Kong, Bangkok and Jakarta.
There are so many interesting things to see in Romania that we're sure the next Jaunted field trip will just have to go to Dracula's land. To add to the country's natural scenic attractions, Transylvania, the Black Sea coast and an interesting history, there are also the sexy nurses and the marijuana-eating cows. But wait, as they say...there's more.
There are also great-looking Page 5 girls. In fact, the Page 5 girls in Romanian tabloid Libertatea are some of the prettiest around. But they're not happy. The reason is probably obvious already: they want to be Page 3 girls. And they're protesting and threatening to withdraw their services if their section isn't relocated two pages closer to the front. One clever model stated: "It's a lot easier to open the paper to Page 3 then to Page 5." Romania: history, sex, mountains, drugs, and intelligent models. Let's go!
The sophisticated spirit of Montréal is on full display in Plaisirs de Vivre/Living With Style, a bilingual style and interiors publication. The June-July issue features, among other pieces, an article on Baronet furniture, splashy photos of an Alexander Gorlin loft in NYC, a smart round-up of culture and design news in Montréal and beyond, a Montréal calendar, and even some recipes.
While the magazine's text is completely bilingual, advertisements are almost entirely in French. It's a kind of testimony to Montréal's default-francophone-yet-actually-completely-bilingual culture.
We liked the thinking-out-loud piece on contemporary style and design by journalist Sylvie Berkowicz. Ms. Berkowicz, who edits Créativité Montréal, despairs over the chintz, feathers, and gilt that she recently saw at Paris decorating show, asking, apropos of the current flight from minimalism and embrace of kitschy nostalgia: "Have we failed at modernity?"
