The Warm Reality Of Paolo Cristiani’s Traveling World At Agora Gallery

Paolo Cristianis wonderfully observed scenes of airports, hotel rooms and city streets all places of movement and transition present a tangible yet unpopulated world. Cristianis rich colors and detail are realistic with just enough heightening to create an inviting warmth, becoming attractive and relatable in a way that real hotel rooms seldom are. The viewer can easily imagine entering the space of a Cristiani painting, yet there are no protagonists in the work; there are rarely any figures in the frame, and the few who do appear are turned away, for all intents and purposes faceless. The human presence in these works lives in a half-empty water glass, or the ruffle of a bedspread that has been tossed aside just so.
Cristiani is equally adept with oil, acrylic and ink, in addition to practicing mixed media sculpture with wood, terracotta and cloth. Born in Milan, the artist remains based in northern Italy but travels frequently. His series Airport and Hotels aims to capture and fix the silence and the human movement within a virtual reality.

Exhibition Dates: December 20, 2012 January 12, 2013
Reception: Thursday, December 20, 2012, 6-8 pm
Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, New York City
Gallery Hours: Tues Sat, 11a.m. – 6 p.m.
Event URL: http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Paolo_Cristiani.aspx

About the Exhibition
In The Odyssey Within viewers are introduced to art that takes the power of tradition and melds it with the thrilling novelty of the present. Charming, thought-provoking and intelligent, this is art with the ability to inspire. Pathway to Abstraction explores the force and creativity that consummate skill offers when combined with a feeling of daring and innovation. Lively, lovely and full of energy, the art contains both breadth and depth in terms of both content and technique. The artists of Sensorial Realms sensitively investigate the complex layers of human thought and imagination, yet remain carefully rooted in the physical world. The result is an appealing meeting of everything that is most fascinating about human nature and experience.

Featured Artists:
The Odyssey Within
Mariana Acua | Laura Almerico | Stefania Buccio Gonzato | Paolo Cristiani | Lucia Ferrara | Luka Hajdini | Sofia Dorotea Kukkonen | Massimo Margagnoni | Vito Matera | Silvio Natali | Fabio Pasotti | Fabrizio Pinzi | Alma Sheik | Elio Talon | Monia Tartarini | Franco Testa | Guido Villa
Pathway to Abstraction
Kathleen Barefield | Helen S. Cohen | Michael Freedman | LeeAnn Gorman | Emily Grieco | Shu-Tsin Liu | Tyice Natasha | Minami Ogura | Maurice van Tilburg | Yana Yami | Chiho Yoshikawa | Susanne Zimmer
Sensorial Realms
Eva Fritz | Cathy McClelland | Therese Obergottsberger | David Renn | Samuel Rosell | Eduardo D. Rubin | Pati Trippel | Uriu Veselik | NJ Woods

Make New Friends while Traveling

Cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages are great motivators to encourage people to take vacations. However for people traveling alone or couples unfamiliar with their destinations, making new friends while on vacation can make a meaningful difference in the quality of that vacation. Now there are companies trying to help people interact with like minded strangers: Globetrooper connects complete strangers deemed to be compatible on trips. Over 1,400 people, mostly from Australia, have -liked- this year old service on Facebook.

Vacation Relation caters to people taking vacations and helps them to find out if any of their distant friends will be at their destinations at the same time as well as connect them to strangers with similar interests who will be there.

Travel with Spirit is a faith based Christian travel social network. Users are able to post ads in forums on this site which also suggests destination ideas.

Rent a Friend is a service whereby people in cities around the world offer their time on an hourly basis to accompany visitors to attractions or wherever they might want to go. Users can hire a Friend to share a new skill or hobby, or just provide companionship. The typical hourly rate is $20.

A Little Story About Lombok

The most famous place in Indonesia which is always crowded by foreign tourists is Bali. Almost everyone in the world know Bali and (believe it or not), many people think that Bali is the only tourist destination in Indonesia.

This is certainly not true. From year to year, Indonesia has developed more and more tourist attractions. One of the destination that has also been known since so many years ago is the Borobudur temple and Yogyakarta, the nearby city. And, another destination that have started popularized by the government of Indonesia is the island of Lombok. The last few years the island has also begun to frequently visited by foreign tourists.

Lombok Island is an island that is located right next to Bali Island (on the east side). So do not be surprised if Lombok has a culture and natural beauty that is similar to the island of Bali. The difference maybe only one, Lombok has not been touched by so many people. Many of the land and natural environment in Lombok is pristine. This is the advantage of Lombok.

One of the beaches which became the favorite of tourists who visited the island of Lombok is Tanjung Aan Bay Beach. This place has a very spectacular beaches. The color of the sand on the beaches are very white. This is very contrast with the gradient blue sea water. The beach here is surrounded by mountains and its location is very remote. The atmosphere here is very calm.

From a high place in Tanjung Aan Bay Beach you can take a look at the white sand, crashing waves, rows of palm trees and beautiful hills down there. What is also unique, there is a hill that resembled a turtle when viewed from a height.

Tanjung Aan Beach Bay visited by many people who want to do water sports, like swimming and snorkeling. There are also many tourists who come to fish and quite a lot of family coming too, just to sit relax by the sea.

Another fascinating place in Lombok is the 3 Gili Islands. Why is it called so? Because these group of island of Lombok has a 3 pieces of island that contain the word “Gili”. They are Gili Air, Gili Trawangan and Gili Meno.

The three islands are situated adjacent to each other in the northwest island of Lombok. The closest one to Lombok is Gili Air. After that Gili Meno, which is famous for having a large collection of rare birds from Indonesia and foreign countries.

Gili Trawangan Island is the most popular island among the three island. Facilities for tourists, such as small inns and restaurants is the most widely built here. The view in this small island is very beautiful, spectacular beaches with sparkling white sands. Most of the visitors are foreign tourists.

In addition to marine tourism, other tourist attractions on the island of Lombok is a mountain. If you or your family love mountain tours, you can have a visit to Mount Rinjani Tourism Park. The mountain is about 3,740 meters height and has a national park covering approximately 40,000 hectares.

Mount Rinjani is also famous for its giant volcanic crater measuring about 10 km wide. In the middle of the crater there is the lake that is named Segara Anak. The water that flows from this lake forms a very beautiful waterfall, flowing through a very steep cliff. In this lake there are a lot of carp and tilapia. No wonder if theres quite a lot of people who come here for fishing.

In addition to these objects, of course, Lombok still has many more advantages in tourism. Crafts, unique traditional houses, not to mention Cidomo, the traditional vehicles. For those of you who want to visit Lombok, theres no need to worry about accommodation. Many major international hotel chains are now opened in Lombok.

Camotes Island Resort

You can take a ferry both or a fast craft from Pier 1 in Cebu City to port poro Camotes but it is much further and will still take four hours to reach to Mangodlong and Santiago Camotes. My friend and I stayed at The Mangodlong Rock resort. We were told it was one of the nicest beach resorts on Camotes Island. The service was good and it is reasonably priced.

We began our tour at Lake Danao which was one the biggest lakes that I ever seen. It was nice but we decided not to change into our swim suits and take a swim. After Lake Danao we proceeded to the place they called Sunog cave. It was huge and we were told the water was very deep. It was very dark and kind of eerie inside that cave so we again decided against going for a swim. Perhaps we will the next time we visit that cave.

The third part of your tour is in Boho Buro. We climbed to the top of the cliff looking down into the deep blue water of the beach below. The beach looked like a wonderful place to relax and enjoy a lazy day playing in the waves. Even though we were getting tired, there was still time to stop by the other cave near by called Bukilat cave. I really dont know why they use that kind of funny name for a cave. No one gave me a reason for the name when I asked about it. The Bukilat cave is smaller than the Sunog cave and has plenty of light because of several holes in the ceiling that gives direct light from the sun.

Cashless Atms – Reducing Your Worries While Travelling Around Us

Carrying cash is among one of the major worries of people while travelling. They need cash at each and every place during their journey. In order to purchase journey tickets, other travelling expenses like buying food stuff, magazines and book people need cash. This is really a great worry for frequent travelers.

However, you dont have to worry about carrying cash anymore, if you are travelling to any part of United States. Most of the merchants and stores have adopted a new tradition of receiving payments from customers. The new concept of Cashless ATMs has changed the way people used to make payments. Now you dont need to pay in cash when you purchase your favorite Pizza from any of the popular food chains in United States.

Use of cashless scrip ATMs by merchants on most of the departmental stores, gas stations, and food chains has simplified the process of making payments. This new phenomenon of Cashless ATMs is not only popular in major cities and metropolitans. You can find all stores and gas stations on highway equipped with modern cashless ATMs. That means you dont have to worry about cash anymore while you are travelling through state or national highways.

The popularity of Cashless ATMs has also attracted nightclub and bar owners to install them at their place. That means you can enjoy the excellent nightlife with music, dance and total fun without being worried about the payments. You can do it through your ATM card.

You must be wondering what is there in a Cashless ATM machine that changed the whole scenario of shopping and making payments. The reason is the dual benefit provided by these Cashless scrip ATMs to merchants as well as customers.

Installing a Cashless ATM requires less investment and makes you eligible for receiving payments from a wide array of Banks. After installation of Cashless ATM at their place merchants dont have to pay heavy processing fee (as charged in case of receiving payments by Credit Card). They have to pay a fixed amount every month for unlimited number of transactions. Even, customers love the convenience of using Cashless ATMs. They have to pay less convenience fee if compared to the heavy processing fee by Credit Card companies.

Cashless ATMs are very common in United States. Most of the stores have adopted them and rests are also adopting the trend. That means when you will be travelling to different part of United States for touring or business purposes, you dont have to worry about carrying Cash anymore.