Traveler's Advisory
By
LEORA MOLDOFSKY
North
America
New
York
It's hard
for tourists to take it easy in New York when there's so much
to see and do, but visitors staying at the Library Hotel may
want to abandon their itineraries and curl up with a good
book. The restored mansion contains 6,000 tomes, distributed
among its 60 guest rooms according to the Dewey Decimal System-a
library classification scheme that divides knowledge into
ten groups (and 1,000 subcategories). Guests interested in
philosophy, the 11th-floor theme, can choose from subjects
including logic and ethics, while literature devotees who
book early can stay in the hotel's most requested room: 800.001
(Erotic Literature). Also featured are a "Poetry Garden" and
an "Executive Inspiration Room." See www.libraryhotel.com.
Australia
Sydney
Art gallery visitors often feel obliged to keep quiet while
viewing exhibitions. That won't be necessary at "Art/Music:
Rock, Pop, Techno," a Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition
that explores the interaction between contemporary music and
avant-garde art. Visitors can listen to the crunch of CDs
beneath their feet in Echo and Narcissus, watch video installations
like Party, which depicts a lovelorn lass dancing to Olivia
Newton-John's A Little More Love, be filmed playing a double-necked
electric guitar or listen to recordings produced by visual
artists. Through June 24.
Europe
Antwerp
It's renowned for calorie-rich treats like pralines, waffles
and mayonnaise- covered fries. Yet slender style-seekers flock
to Antwerp not for the food but for the sleek clothes of Belgian
designers like Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester. The
city's fashionable face will be showcased in Mode 2001, a
five-month festival starting May 26. Curated by designer Walter
Van Beirendonck, it features four exhibitions, including "Emotions"-in
which designers and artists reveal through video clips their
"most intense emotion in the field of fashion." The festival
culminates in October with the opening of ModeNatie, a new
home for fashion schools and the ModeMuseum. See www.mode2001.be.
Gardens
Prince Charles has suggested that talking to vegetables helps
them grow. Few of his countrymen may be as devoted to their
plants, but the British are a "nation of gardeners," according
to the National Trust. The organization, which owns more than
200 gardens and parks in England, Wales and Northern Ireland,
has declared 2001 "Gardens Year." Most of its properties are
open to the public through October, but check the Trust's
website (www.nationaltrust.org.uk)
before planning an outing, as the foot-and-mouth outbreak
may make it necessary to close sites at short notice.
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May 7, 2001 | No. 18
COVER
STORIES
Haunted
by Vietnam
Former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey confesses under pressure to killing more
than a dozen innocents in 1969. In his sadness, shame and decades-long
silence, fellow vets see themselves-and the rest of America confronts
war's wrenching ambiguity
TRAVELER'S
ADVISORY
SOUTH
PACIFIC
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Murder in the Dark...
The still potent fear of sorcery is leading to vigilante killings
THE
ARTS
ART: Andrew Sayers reframes Australia's
view of itself...
THEATRE:
The RSC takes on Shakespeare's histories..
BOOKS: Inside the domestic interior of
Vermeer
MUSIC: Irish boy band Westlife goes transatlantic
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