Our perilous trek through the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in search of gadgets and apps of interest to the traveler.

From The Connected Traveler

Blessing of the Olives: Mission Sonoma. CA (c) 2011 Russell Johnson

In the Mediterranean, olive oil was a wonder substance, used as a medicine, a skin oil, a soap, even as fuel. Fill’er up with Extra Virgin please! Olive oil tastes good and doesn’t clog your plumbing. Hercules planted olive trees by pounding them into the ground with his hunky arms. Father Serra (he of the pointy finger statue next to a local freeway) and his priests had to work harder at it, but managed to establish the olive at monasteries throughout California, including Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma.

Father Serra was no longer available to bless the crop so Saturday, in his stead, was the Reverend Michael Kelly, an Irish priest out of central casting, (possibly a voice on The Simpsons or South Park).  He added that the olive was also important as a garnish for a Martini.

Tom Mueller author of the upcoming book “Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil” said he witnessed a baptism in Crete (one of the first places to cultivate olives) in which a baby was greased head to toe, to which Father Kelly commented: “so Satan couldn’t get a hold o’ the lad.”

Walt Disney Concert Hall - Home of the LA Philharmonic

Spent an evening at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA last week, my first visit to the warmest sounding (and looking) concert hall I have ever experienced. It did justice to a deeply satisfying performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 by pianist Emanuel Ax, and managed to take the rough edges off of the LA Philharmonic’s world premiere of Sirens by Swedish composer Anders Hillborg.

Sirens is a modern take on the mermaids of Greek mythology trying to seduce Ulysses with song. Some intriguing sounds coming from the orchestra and a chanting, finger-snapping chorus in the beginning, but the sirens droned on, not very seductively, ending their arias with ear-piercing shrieks when they realized that their charms had failed them (Ulysses had his crew tie him to the mast of his ship so he wouldn’t go overboard and make whoopie with a manatee). An interesting passage came at the very end. As the orchestra slowly faded (Ulysses ostensibly sailing off into the sunset) we heard an intriguing solo melody that we were all convinced was part of the composition. Alas some one forgot to turn off his mobile phone. But it seemed to fit.

After spending most of my life as either a city dweller or a mountain hermit, I have now opted for the in-between, the idyl of small town life in a tourist destination. I have moved to the middle of a city block. There are houses to the right of me, houses to the left: a retired car dealer, a widow, a forty-something executive couple, a retired diplomat, a few clowns and jokers, notably a gang of 20-somethings that parties every weekend night until someone throws up and guests roar off on their motorcycles. There is a local radio station that mixes small town news with “hey dude” commentary about the 70s drug and rock scene. Recently the local newspaper featured a story about an encounter between a vehicle and a very large sow.

Over the past 20 years or so, Sonoma, California has gained the status of “tourist town.”

On The Connected Traveler

Who would have thought that practically overnight Aung San Suu Kyi would be allowed back into politics and a US Secretary of State would plan a visit to Burma for the first time in fifty years.

When I spent some time there in the 90s, Burma was a country of spies and whispers. Its currency donned the portraits of dictators with either small heads or large hats…or both.  But I did find it one of the most fascinating and seemingly-innocent (if you engaged with the people, not the government) places I had ever visited, possibly because it was so isolated, locked in a time warp world remindful of  George Orwell’s 1934 descriptions in “Burmese Days.”

I changed my attitude about Burma several years ago from that of  a place that should be boycotted by tourists to one of encouraging travel there, as outsiders could be a good influence on this isolated country.  Now, Burma may have to brace itself for a real tourist boom, which could help jump-start the economy of one of the poorest countries on earth.  But tourism comes with big-time dangers.  A couple of years ago I worked on an Asian Development Bank plan to develop tourism as a poverty alleviator in the Mekong River region, of which Burma is a part. It looked beautiful on paper, but too often politics and greed get in the way of good, noble plans. Many once-charming, once- pristine places are now overwhelmed by a tourist culture at the expense of environments and local people.

I would dream of seeing a Burma with a more transparent government setting an example for the rest of the region and the world. I can dream, can’t I?

I can’t wait to go back.