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October 09, 2003

Airtime travel

If you share my love for all things retro-travel, check out Airchive, an online museum of commercial aviation, including collections of route maps, print ads, and other assorted airline paraphernalia. Note: the site is graphics intensive, which was fine when I visited it earlier at work, but it’s noticeably slow in loading on my dial-up connection here at home. (Link via kottke.org.)

Yeah, I’m a real wingnut. More of an airline—rather than pure aviation—junkie, I suppose. Like, I won’t even pretend to know how these planes work, but I could describe, for example, the seating configurations of most commercial airliners. I have a little plastic model of a Boeing 747 in KLM livery, which I bought at a shop in the main Dulles terminal a couple of years ago. I keep it on the windowsill in my office, and sometimes in lazy moments I pick it up and play with it, sotto voce announcements and all. “Flight attendants, please be seated for arrival…”

On the media

Recent purchases: Rimbaud by Graham Robb, and An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma (the latter I bought on the recommendation of David Sedaris earlier this year), both discounted hardbacks at Olssons; and Down with Love on DVD, directed by Peyton Reed, which Thom and I watched last night—my third (or fourth?) viewing. Still fabulous.

Some interesting things coming to PBS: tonight’s Frontline (“Truth, War, and Consequences”) covers the power struggle leading to the Iraq war. The Elegant Universe, a NOVA presentation based on the book by Brian Greene, airs Tues., Oct. 28 and Nov. 4. On Great Performances, two specials of note: a broadcast of the inaugural concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. (Wed., Oct. 29), and the Royal National Theatre’s production of Oklahoma!, with Hugh Jackman as Curly (Sat., Nov. 22). Speaking of Mr. Jackman, the cast recording of The Boy from Oz, in which he currently stars on Broadway, is due Nov. 18.

Finally, as part of the Masterpiece Theatre season, a new version of Doctor Zhivago airs Sun., Nov. 2 and 9, starring Keira Knightley and Hans Matheson. They’re no Julie Christie and Omar Sharif, but I’ll be watching anyway.