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Neighborhood Watch: Berlin's Funky Friedrichshain

Thursday July 2, 2009

Berlin is a sprawling city, but it's sparsely populated, which is great if it's a quiet spot with a lot of elbow room you're after. Searching for a little more action? Head over to Friedrichshain. A 10-minute taxi ride from The Westin Grand, Berlin, it's a funky neighborhood with a bit of a rock and roll edge. Day or night, you'll always find a mix of both locals and out-of-towners sitting with a tall glass of beer under the wide awning of one of the many sidewalk cafes.

The neighborhood's pastel buildings are awash with street art and graffiti, but don't let irreverent appearances deter you from exploring the myriad shops near Simon-Dach-Strasse and Boxhagenerplatz. One of my favorite stores is called Schwester Herz, which means "Sister Heart" - so cute. It's a beautifully stocked space, brimming with cool design products like Brandenburg Gate cookie cutters and tote bags made from a synthetic fabric developed in the GDR. Around the corner, Olivia offers all sorts of chocolates. Try a few of their miniature cakes and fill your pockets with South American candy bars. One of the area's prettiest streets is Niederbarnimstrasse where you can gawk at Blattwerk's gorgeous floral displays and pick up a silk-screened T-shirt at Heimat. Stick around for dinner and indulge on fabulous Italian food at Miseria e Nobilta, try the "Incredible" pizza at Il Ritrovo, or yummy Vietnamese food at Chily at 17 Niederbarnimstrasse.

If it's a Sunday, most of Friedrichshain's stores will be closed, but a fantastic flea market brimming with antique treasures sets up on Boxhagenerplatz at 10 in the morning, year round!

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Savor

Prix Fixe: Lunching in London

Thursday July 2, 2009

Sometimes it's necessary to do a little bargaining with yourself. In order to justify that expensive dinner you're going to have, maybe you should go easy on your wallet at lunchtime. That said, you don't necessarily want to find yourself at some fast food joint.

So, what do you do? You search for a deal. Let's say you're in London with reservations for Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Can't afford to blow the budget twice in one day! Fortunately, Sophie's Steakhouse in Chelsea, just a few minutes from the Sheraton Park Tower, offers a great express lunch — an entree and either soup or salad or a dessert for just £12.50. Opt for the rib-eye steak and whatever else you choose, you'll be happy.

If you're up for Indian, Chutney Mary (pictured) offers a prix fixe three-course lunch for £22; its Michelin-starred sister restaurant Amaya offers three courses for £25. Or, if you're in the mood for Moroccan, Pasha is a beautiful setting for lunch, with a two-course deal for £12.50.

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Inside

Starwood Insider - Mira Boykin - Green Drinks in Chesapeake

Thursday July 2, 2009

Mira Boykin is Queen of the Vibe at the Aloft Chesapeake.

At the Aloft Chesapeake, I'm a nerd for a party with a purpose. I mean it, give me a cause and I will find a cure. I'm all about fun for a serious sake. That being said, one of my current missions is to support the local artists, talent and small businesses and, importantly, its natural resources. So, when I discovered that Chesapeake hadn't yet begun celebrating "Green Drinks"- a sort of happy hour for the eco-sophisticate- I was like, "Duh. We're so gonna make this happen." Interestingly and conveniently, every green activist in the area has found a way to be between 1 and 3 degrees of separation from me, and they are all TOTALLY acting as my posse- extraordinaire. Everyone wants to help. So many superstars want to be involved. My lunches for, seriously, the next month, are completely booked. The drums are thumping...the beat goes on.

Last month, we succeeded in launching our first "Meet the Artist" event, and many of our new contingent were found from that fray. It's fabulous because, having attended that event, they already realize we're purpose-driven. The people we care about are beginning to really care about us. I feel like someone weeded the garden in front of the fence in my front yard and they're interested to step through and see what's going on inside. Green Drinks Chesapeake launched officially for real, on Thursday, June 4th at 5:30 p.m.

Now, every Thursday, we have organic wine to drink, the backyard patio open for awaiting sunbathers and, of course, a lot of environmentally-invested peeps who love all the colors of the rainbow, but especially love green. We're Virginia Green certified and I've got our e-newsletter ready to roll and our invite list is growing! The word is circulating! We've got people ready to speak and teach and play and drink and laugh and connect and do all the things we love, and do it for the sake of caring about our shared, physical space. It actually, really is easy being green. So join us every Thursday, if you can make it at the Aloft Chesapeake. See what it looks like to, once again, turn a pretty thought into a very real meeting of great minds. In this case, green, great minds...

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Offbeat

Reach for the Sky at Tucson's Pima Air & Space Museum

Thursday July 2, 2009

Just outside Tucson in the picturesque Sonoran Desert lies the largest non-government funded aerospace museum in the world. Opened in 1976 with just 75 airplanes, the Pima Air & Space Museum has grown to include over 275 vintage aircraft and spacecraft, with everything from nimble fighter jets and attack helicopters to twin-engine jet airliners like the Douglas C-9B Skytrain II. In addition to the aircraft, which are divided between five hangars and on display outside as well, visitors can drop by an authentic World War II barracks, a space gallery with a training version of an Apollo space capsule, and the 390th Memorial Museum, which features a fully restored B17 G "Flying Fortress," an impressive airplane if there ever was one. If you still haven't gotten your fill of flying machines after an hour or two at the museum, board a bus for a tour of the Boneyard, an Air Force storage and maintenance facility that takes care of more than 4,400 aircraft. The sheer scale of it all boggles the mind. Guests at the Sheraton Tucson Hotel & Suites or any of Starwood's Tucson properties might enjoy a visit to this sprawling tribute to the miracle of flight.

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Celebrate

Eavesdropping on "Spy Numbers" at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Thursday July 2, 2009

Spy Numbers.jpg The Palais de Tokyo is the home of some of the most exciting art in Paris, and an unusual new exhibit is sure to have people scratching their heads while they try to figure it all out. Spy Numbers is a collection of artists' interpretations of "numbers stations," - shortwave radio stations of unknown origin that broadcast electronic voices reading off sequences of numbers, presumably to communicate with spies and other underworld characters. If that's a bit hard to process, wait until you see the art. Works range from digital encoding projects to the production of aurora borealis (northern lights) to seismic sensors that are perfect for picking up the rumblings of the city's underground Metro. Heap (pictured) is one of the most bizarrely beautiful works in the show, representing artist Jim Shaw's interpretation of these mysterious signals as a monster made of plastic toys from McDonald's. It's pretty bizarre, but the longer you look at it, the more it makes sense. Starwood has hotels throughout Paris, including the nearby Le Méridien Etoile.