#The Neon Lights Tour Argentina

[pamelalovenyc]

The Ultimate Bucket List: 100 Travel Experiences to Have Before You Die

Travel enriches our lives in ways we can often only dream about. Every destination offers a unique blend of experiences, cultures, flavors, and adventures. From awe-inspiring natural wonders to the marvels of human creation, the world is teeming with unforgettable journeys. Here's a bucket list of 100 travel experiences to inspire your next grand adventure!

1. Natural Phenomena & Scenic Wonders

Witness the Northern Lights in Iceland or Norway.

Explore the Grand Canyon's vastness, USA.

Sail through the ethereal Halong Bay, Vietnam.

Dive the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Stand amidst the cherry blossoms in Kyoto, Japan.

Walk the narrow path of Cinque Terre, Italy.

Stand in awe of Iguazu Falls, Argentina/Brazil.

Witness sunrise over Machu Picchu, Peru.

Gaze at the Milky Way in the Atacama Desert, Chile.

Traverse the glaciers of Patagonia, Argentina/Chile.

2. Cultural & Historical Journeys

Roam the ancient ruins of Petra, Jordan.

Unravel the mysteries of the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.

Walk along the Great Wall of China.

Marvel at the Taj Mahal, India.

Traverse the historic Silk Road.

Relive history at Auschwitz, Poland.

Discover Angkor Wat's ancient beauty, Cambodia.

Attend the opera at Sydney Opera House, Australia.

Admire the Acropolis, Greece.

Roam the ancient streets of Rome and its Colosseum, Italy.

3. Festivals & Celebrations

Revel in Rio's Carnival, Brazil.

Witness the vibrant Diwali celebrations, India.

Experience the wonder of the Hot Air Balloon Festival, Cappadocia.

Immerse yourself in Spain's La Tomatina.

Join the Oktoberfest festivities in Munich, Germany.

Witness the Maasai dances in Kenya.

Attend the Venice Carnival, Italy.

Be part of New Year's celebrations in Times Square, New York.

Experience the White Nights Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Dance the night away at Tomorrowland, Belgium.

4. Wildlife & Adventure

Encounter wildlife on the African safari, Tanzania/Kenya.

Swim with whale sharks in Oslob, Philippines.

Trek to see mountain gorillas in Uganda.

Hike the scenic Milford Track, New Zealand.

Experience weightlessness in zero-gravity flights.

Join a dog-sledding expedition in Greenland.

Dive into the mysterious Blue Hole, Belize.

Go bear-watching in Alaska.

Paraglide over the Blue Lagoon, Turkey.

Cage dive with great white sharks in South Africa.

5. Culinary Delights & Gastronomic Journeys

Feast on a traditional Italian meal in Tuscany.

Savor sushi at Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market.

Dive into street food in Bangkok, Thailand.

Enjoy a croissant in Paris, looking at the Eiffel Tower.

Sip wine in Bordeaux vineyards, France.

Taste the spices of Marrakech, Morocco.

Indulge in a Swiss chocolate tour.

Relish the street-side tacos of Mexico City.

Savor Belgian waffles in Bruges.

Attend a traditional tea ceremony in Seoul, South Korea.

6. Spirituality & Wellbeing

Meditate in Bali's tranquil landscapes.

Seek blessings at the Vatican, Rome.

Experience serenity at Bhutan's Tiger's Nest Monastery.

Participate in a yoga retreat in Rishikesh, India.

Recharge in Iceland's Blue Lagoon.

Experience silence in the Sahara Desert.

Engage in a wellness retreat in Costa Rica's rainforests.

Wander the peaceful Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar.

Seek spiritual solace in Jerusalem's ancient sites.

Immerse in the chants of Tibetan monks in Ladakh, India.

7. Human Marvels & Urban Adventures

Visit the modern marvel of Burj Khalifa, Dubai.

Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia.

Shop at the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul.

Gaze at the cityscape from the London Eye.

Cruise through the canals of Amsterdam.

Admire the artistic genius at the Louvre, Paris.

Stroll on the historic bridges of Prague.

Navigate New York's Central Park.

Roam the neon streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Get lost in the alleys of Venice, Italy.

8. Seasonal & Unique Experiences

Stay in an overwater bungalow in the Maldives.

Experience weightlessness in the Dead Sea, Jordan/Israel.

Witness the serene Snow Festival in Sapporo, Japan.

Gaze at bioluminescent waters in Puerto Rico.

Explore the ancient cave cities of Cappadocia, Turkey.

Walk the lavender fields of Provence, France.

Relive literature at England's Lake District.

Stay in an ice hotel in Sweden.

Sail the Amazon River.

Dance under the midnight sun in Norway.

Conclusion

This planet is teeming with wonders waiting to be experienced, with every corner offering unique joys. Remember, it's not just the destination but the journey, the people you meet, and the stories you create that make travel truly unforgettable. Let this bucket list be a spark of inspiration, a nudge to explore the vast, vibrant, and varied tapestry of our world. Happy adventuring, and may your passport pages be forever filled with tales of wonder!

[the-blind-assassin-12]

Bare Branches

June Drabbles 2022  Day 29 - Birch Trees 

A/N:  I have been wanting to challenge myself to write a drabble a day for a whole month for quite some time now, and I finally decided to just go for it. The goal is to fill every prompt on this list by @creativepromptsforwriting with a short one shot (500 - 2k words) by the end of June. Can I do it? I do not know. But let’s find out! - Listen, I am well aware that it is the end of August and I am still here posting these, but after this one there are only two more and despite failing dismally to complete them all within the month of June, as well as keeping them all under 2k, I will not fall short of completing them if it’s the last thing I do. Anywho - this one falls into the A Clumsy Romance universe, and yes, I do intend to write about what happened in that hotel room on their trip back to Buenos Aires. ;) 

Word Count: 2,166

Warnings: brief mention of sex, some mild angst

Summary: Ten years is a long time. 

It was early October when you bought the house that brought you and Nico back together.

How could I not?

Fate typically didn’t knock twice, but for the two of you it seemed to be pounding at the door, and at this point it felt rude not to answer. Since you were legitimately in the market for a new place when you’d pulled up to find him standing out in front after having just finished touring it himself, it was practically a done deal before you’d even set foot inside.

Once he admitted that he had returned to Buenos Aires like you had both planned to do, once you glanced down at his left hand and saw that there was no band on his ring finger, once you threw caution to the wind and your arms around his neck to kiss him like you’d wanted to for a decade, you knew that you couldn’t - wouldn’t - let someone else call the place home. Just the thought of other lives being lived out within those rooms was enough to twist your heart. The concept of other bodies casting shadows on the walls felt wrong, the idea that the bird who belonged to no one would be fed slices of fruit from anyone else but you or Nico just as off putting. The house had hosted other occupants before you, and it would certainly do the same after you were gone. But there it stood, ready to become your home at the precise moment that the man you’d started to think had been a mirage stepped back into your life. The decision to buy the house didn’t even feel like a decision.

How could you not? Especially after he had confessed to thinking of you as he made his way through the halls and up the stairs, as he turned the faucets and lay on the floor and imagined the shelves in the library full of books belonging to both of you.

I couldn’t.

The sale was finalized shortly after your return from Argentina, a fact that only made the last minute trip feel more like an extended dream than it already did. For the first time not only were the two of you going to be living in the same city, but since your reunion in the driveway you’d spent only a handful of nights not sleeping in the same bed - the two immediately after running into him again, and a scattered eight or nine others that you hadn’t spent in his arms.

There had been a second bed in the hotel room on the trip, Nico sheepishly smiling with a small shrug and telling you that he didn’t want to make assumptions. But after ten years of nothing but wanting and wondering, for the five days that you were there neither of you had even acknowledged it as more than a suitcase rack. Instead, you tumbled onto the same mattress and tangled yourselves under the covers. You’d shared skin along with sheets, finally learning his body with your touch, letting him navigate yours as well, and when the sky outside your window was sprinkled full of stars you couldn’t see beyond the rose colored tint of neon lights, you learned what it was to share sleep with each other. To let your breathing find rhythm with his, to feel his arm grow heavier around your waist, to let your cheek sink into the pillow with his chest at your back and his lips so close to your ear. And even as it happened, even as you were aware of how easy it would be to become used to it, accustomed to it - dependent on it - you gave in and let it happen, falling asleep with a smile on your face.

How the hell could I not?

It was mid-November when you realized that falling - plunging - for Nico was never really a decision, either. And it terrified you.

One night, 3,562 nights ago. That’s what all of it was built on, and it scared you, how precarious it was. How novel and shiny and fragile it was. It scared the shit out of you to think about what ten years really meant and if any of what you knew about him was still true, or if you still lived up to the memory of you that he held for all that time. The trees outside your living room window had just a few golden leaves still clinging to their branches. Soon they wouldn’t look anything like their Spring selves, all green and full of life. Soon they’d be stripped of all their finery and laid bare for what they were. It scared you to think that soon Nico would have that same perspective of you.

And it scared you to know how hopeful you were that it wouldn’t matter.

You’d spent the weeks since he’d been back in your life catching each other up on things. The highs and lows. One Saturday afternoon you’d told him you’d spent a year engaged to another man, but that you’d broken things off, breaking his heart when you’d returned the ring he’d given you. You knew your admission would open the door for him to tell you about any relationships he’d been in, and though you didn’t want to think about him with anyone else, you were unprepared for how hard it hit you when he said that outside of a few short lived flings and quick burning flames, there had never been anyone he’d considered creating a life with.

That had been the first thing you noticed that was different from the Nico that you strolled Calle Corrientes with all those years ago. You had been the one to say that you weren’t sure where you stood on marriage or long term commitment of any kind. He had been the one focused on the potential merits of spending your life with someone that you knew, someone that you enjoyed, that you wanted around even when you were angry at them. It was something that he had seemed to want then, and you wondered what had caused the change. It almost saddened you, even though it would have meant that he wouldn’t be there with you now, standing in front of the plate glass that looked out into the yard, his bare feet just a few inches from your socked ones, his left arm curling around your body as he rested his chin over your shoulder.

“I never proposed to anyone,” he mused. “How did your ex fiancé do it?” His tone was casual and calm, warm and soft and you had no idea how he expected you to talk about the way another man had asked you to marry him when he’d just told you that there’d been no one in his life that he’d wanted to ask the same question of.

“Why not, Nico?” Tears were sliding silently down your cheeks but you didn’t lift your fingers to your face to wipe them away. Instead you watched them fall in the reflection of the window you stood in front of. The trees on the other side of the glass - a cluster of paper birches, their bark peeling away in curling sheets  - faded as your focus shifted to where his image appeared in the window next to yours, and the first thoughts that came were of how else he had changed. 

His cheeks are fuller now. His beard is…

You blinked to free another droplet from your lashes, licking the salt from your lips as it rolled onto them. The patches of skin that you remembered kissing flaky empanada crumbs from were still there, never grown over. But the soft hair that edged the places where his flesh peeked through had started to go gray, and you realized then that your tears weren’t really coming out of fear or anything so predictable. They were falling for the moments that you missed with him. For the silver streaks of time across his beard and scattered over the crown of his head. For the way his frame had filled out in places, grown softer in others. For the divots and creases cut into his expression from worry and laughter and stress and things you weren’t there to see change the man that you met in Buenos Aires ten years ago into the man standing just behind you now. You mourned those lost moments as much as you celebrated the possibility of being there for future ones. 

I’ll be there for as many as I can. As many as he wants to share with me. 

But you still needed to know, needed to hear the answer to your question from him. So as he turned a few degrees, his eyes leaving the reflection of yours in the window to land instead on your salt stained cheeks, you asked again. “Why didn’t you ever try to-” You sniffed, finally thumbing away the wetness from your face and looking up at him. “To find someone?” 

“I did.” Your heart clenched as his thumb came slowly up to swipe away a spot you’d missed, his fingertips brushing the curve of your jaw. What? You shook your head as his free hand came up to cradle the other side of your face. If he did, then- “I did try. For a while.” He sighed, his entire chest rising and sinking with the emptying of his lungs. “But no matter how long I was with any of them… a month… half a dozen months… a year?” His eyebrows came together as he spoke your name, his hands dropping down, one to your shoulder and the other to your wrist. “I never felt anything with any of them that even came close to what I felt from the one night we had together. Never.” 

It was why you’d ended things with Martin. He was sweet and funny and he treated you like you were the only person he saw when he looked at you. He got along with your friends and he fit well in your life. He even knew about Nico and never seemed jealous of the connection you’d made with him. He would have been a good husband

But in the entire time you were together he never stirred your thoughts and shocked your soul the way that Nico had in just those brief hours when your paths intersected and cut straight through one another’s hearts. “I never have either.” Your voice was thin, but you’d stopped crying and it took you a moment to realize that was because he was holding you. 

“I know.” You felt the tip of his nose drag against your temple as he pressed you closer. “For a long time I told myself it wasn’t real. Couldn’t be real. What we had that night.” His hands swept slowly up and down your back as he shifted so that you both could still look out at the trees as he continued. “Because if I never found anything that came close, then it must not have been real. It must have been fantasy.

You’d lost count of how many times you’d told yourself - unconvincingly - the same thing.

“But I decided it didn’t matter.” He squeezed you tighter as he inhaled, and you felt his breath fan out against your scalp as he let it out slowly. “I remember everything about the way I felt that night.” Your name left his lips and you peeled yourself away from his broad chest to peer up at him. “Everything. And unless I could have exactly that feeling with someone else, it wasn’t worth settling for anything less.” 

“Nico…” 

The bird squawked from the dining room then, and though you felt close to tears again the two of you just laughed. “No name’s hungry,” he said, leaning in to kiss the corner of your eye. “Is there fruit in the refrigerator?” 

When late December rolled around and the birches had long since lost their golden halos, the snow covering the piles of paper bark and their thin limbs stretched naked towards the white sky, you realized that the reason that neither of you had ever fallen in love was because both of you had already dove in head first ten years ago. You knew he would eventually do something to make you upset. That you’d inevitably say the wrong thing and get under his skin. You knew you’d learn things about him that you didn’t want to hear, that you’d have to tell him things he wouldn’t want to know. But it wouldn’t matter, because it was still you, and it was still him. He had chosen you and you had done the same with him. 

How… 

He came in through the patio doors with snow in his hair and a few logs in his arms, carrying them upstairs to build a fire in the new fireplace he’d talked you into adding to the library. 

How could I not?

.

.

.

Thank you for reading! If you would like to be added to or removed from the tags for this or any of my stories, please feel free to let me know by sending a message or filling out the form on my masterlist!

tags:  @something-tofightfor​ @littlemisspascal​ @alraedesigns​ @lowlights​ @writeforfandoms​  @nuttyenthusiastdetective​ @its-mochi-boba-tea-blr @harriedandharassed​ @swtaura​ @practicalghost​ @trickstersp8​ @princessxkenobi​ @imtryingmybeskar​ @mswarriorbabe80​ @theredwritingwitch​

[sgnolivia]

weird flex— are you okay??

two days into maybe-olivia’s eat-pray-love-crush-enemy-skulls pillage of cleveland, she’s struck by a migraine so searing that she has enough presence of mind to google psnn hesd dyig strook e ? before she’s left twitching in a trash heap behind starbucks.

two days into maybe-olivia’s eat-pray-love-crush-enemy-skulls pillage of cleveland, she’s struck by a migraine so searing that she has enough presence of mind to google psnn hesd dyig strook e ? before she’s left twitching in a trash heap behind starbucks.

it’s still light out when her brain stops trying to design, manufacture, and detonate it’s own atomic bomb. maybe-olivia isn’t sure if it’s been three hours or three days. the double chocolate chip frappe she bought t-minus five to blackout (ha!) has solidified on her pants. she can taste seafoam under her tongue.

she stares up at the sky in muted exhaustion. 

god, it’s me, she thinks. i would like to invoke my right to choose. 

perhaps if the zygote tube had been pro-choice, none of this would be fucking happening. 

the lizard takes over all executive functioning at that point, forcibly ejecting her from the drivers seat. when she blinks down at her shirt it’s neon green and has a fun i love chicago! written across a black skyline. 

maybe-olivia wonders if she saw the blue bedroom and doesn’t remember it. hopefully the lizard wrote it in the unicorn book.

not that it matters. what’s another forgotten thing in the grand scheme of it all? it’s a fifty-fifty shot she’ll remember anything she’s written in the notebook, anyway. her memory is half a step above melted swiss cheese. 

from that point on, every decision is like russian roulette with a gun that’s fully loaded. maybe-olivia has no fucking idea what’s going to set her spinning into a migraine or send her flying off the realm of human existence or remind her, hey, she fucking loves macaroons. it’s a lot of calculated risks and maybe-olivia discovers that she’s very bad at math. 

it goes on like this for an indeterminable amount of time. 

she tries to balance her world-wide assassination tour with her brain’s need to self-destruct every seventy-three seconds. it is difficult. 

after the act of dying her hair a soft brown sends her tripping into a panic attack, shivering violently and puking all over the nice bathroom of the vacation home she’s squatting in, maybe-olivia decides this isn’t working. 

the unicorn notebook is full, so maybe-olivia unpacks the glittery purple one she bought to replace it. the pen that lights up was lost somewhere in bolivia so she has to settle for a fatter pen that holds four different wells of ink. she feels traitorous for liking it more than its predecessor. 

option 1:

die. 

honestly, this is the easiest and most cost-effective route. at this point she’s ninety-five percent sentient machine gun. there wouldn’t be much lost. blackout was set to be decommissioned after operation foxtrot anyway. maybe-olivia would just be finishing what was set into motion a long time ago. 

she switches the pen into the blue inkwell and sets up a t-chart.

pros:

no more migraines.

won’t wake up in romanian hostel.

stop randomly puking.

permanently get rid of lizard.

cons:

maybe-oliva sits back in the chair. this list is marginally harder. 

agency is exhausting and confusing. some days she’s completely post-verbal and other days she can only speak argentinian spanish, despite having no memories related to argentina. some days she physically can’t wake her body up for more than six minutes at a time. most days she throws up everything she tries to eat. 

maybe-olivia wishes she was strapped back into her holding cell in the unnamed facility, twelve floors below the earth. 

this transforms her body into a wet chihuahua. it takes four hours to pull her bones back inside her skin and another two just to get off the floor. 

jesus, she thinks, and adds keep bones in skin to the pros list. 

she ruminates on her death for a bit, losing time to daydreaming about the endless sleep that might await her. none of her training covered the afterlife so this is as much a guess as everything else in her life. maybe it’s an endless blank void. maybe it’s burning in a pit. maybe it’s a another shot. maybe-olivia hopes not. she doesn’t know if her spirit can handle another go-round of this. 

but, her brain lizard pipes up, then they would win!

maybe-olivia growls out loud and pointedly tells it to shut the fuck up even if she begrudgingly admits that it has a point. 

if she dies, then director howard lives. 

this alights something hot deep in her gut. it feels like she has to puke and run fourteen miles at the same time. there’s no way in hell marcus fucking howard gets to live over her. fuck that. fuck that. 

and really, doesn’t she deserve that? doesn’t she deserve the right to drag howard out of his villa safehouse, shove a piece of rubber in his mouth, break all his fingers, and ask what her real goddamn name is?

project sisyphyus has been trying to kill her— the real her— for eleven fucking years and they still haven’t gotten it done. she wins, they lose. they’ll have to try harder. 

she writes fuck that in the scrawling, bunched together lettering she’s beginning to associate with her own personal handwriting. it’s nice. it feels like she owns something.

fuck that.

if they want me dead, they better fucking find me.

option 2:

get it the fuck together

there are no cons to this. she doesn’t need a t-chart. 

getting it together proves to be a con all on it’s own. her brain is a glorified vegetable but it’s all she’s got. it’s not like she can swap it out for a new one. it needs serious repairs though, and short of hooking her scalp up to a car battery, maybe-olivia isn’t sure how to go about this. 

google is, though.

and google doesn’t care if she has to look something up four times an hour. it points her towards helpful websites. searching how do i get my memories back and following it with who the fuck am i six times in half as many hours points her to a self-help thread which leads her to a diagnosis forum. she has acute brain trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative episodes, panic attacks, and sometimes seizures. also, maybe arthritis. she has to ask google what dissociation means. 

maybe-olivia is struck with the overwhelming knowledge that other people know what she’s going through. there are other people who fell head first out of a plane with no parachute and have been hurtling towards the ground for as long as they can remember. sure, they haven’t been tortured and brainwashed and denied the basic human rights that are allocated pretty much across the board but she doesn’t care. she feels connected to these people who live half outside of their skin, wondering the earth like zombies chewed up in the garbage disposal. 

they teach coping strategies. ways to fake normal existence so that it seems like they’re living in the same reality as everyone else. how to breathe when her lungs collapse. how to avoid physical contact in day-to-day situations. 

a lot of them gently suggest finding creative outlets for her feelings. she tries writing but after penning an expansive four page letter in cantonese only to suddenly forget how to read cantonese, she gives that up. 

she decides she isn’t really ready to sift through her emotions. her bodies fucked up instincts are enough without trying to decide if she’s depressed, furious, or anxious on top of it. 

google assures her that recovery happens in stages and at her own pace. if you aren’t ready today, try a little bit more tomorrow. 

her brain still jerks her around like it’s the worlds most aggressive dog owner and she’s the runt of a teacup poodle’s litter, but it works to her advantage. no one can track her if even she has no idea where she’s going next. the targets come in migraines, in hallucinations, in dissociative fits, but they come and maybe-olivia dutifully follows, even if she can’t remember doing it. it’s admittedly a reckless strategy but if there’s a part of her that isn’t a screaming disaster then she hasn’t recovered that part yet. 

she reviews her notebooks every few days, now. they look like they’ve been written by at least four people, one of them being a small child. there’s a variety of languages, handwriting styles, codes, and small illustrations. one page just says fuck licorice in increasingly bold font, fiercely underlined and surrounded by aggressive exclamation points. 

it doesn’t do much except reaffirm that she has the minimal amount of control required to be a human being, but that’s okay. 

a lot of her problems sort themselves out once a helpful blog post points out that she’s eating about a third of what’s required of adult women. this is mostly because she constantly throws up anything that tastes more flavorful than wheat bread but also because she’s never really had to feed herself before. hunger is just another loud, shrieking signal her body sends at her to inform her that something’s wrong, but it sends fifty of those a minute. how’s she supposed to know where the problem is?

a steady combination of pedialyte, muscle milk, and a bottle of gummy vitamins becomes the solution. she has to set alarms to remind herself to drink them and it isn’t ideal, but it keeps her caloric intake up, and solves the arthritis issue. 

it also makes it easier to actually keep the memories she recovers which is a huge win. 

that doesn’t mean things are smooth by anyone’s standards, including her own. random things still absolutely kneecap her— a dad yelling at his son, a lawn mower starting up outside the motel, her own abilities blinding her first thing in the morning. but every incapaciting moment gives a clue. 

a car backfires on the road and maybe-olivia darts behind a minivan, seeing both the tan metal under her hand and white sand beaches. 

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maybe-olivia has never infiltrated a fully-staffed enemy facility on her own before. that’s alright. it can be a learning experience for everyone. 

[creativinn]

Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition Brings Fresh Global Perspectives to the Renwick Gallery

Ans Bakker, Zeeuws Licht no. 1 / The Light from Zeeland, 2017, glass blown in sand molds, 26 x 27 x 27 cm, The Corning Museum of Glass, Courtesy of the artist, 2019.3.10. Photo courtesy of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, © Johan Kole. 

challenges the very notion of what the material of glass is and what it can do. Organized by The Corning Museum of Glass, this touring exhibition documents the innovation and dexterity of artists, designers, and architects from around the world working in the dazzling and exceptionally challenging material of glass. The exhibition highlights the breadth and depth of contemporary glassmaking—from technically masterful vessels to experiments in the chemistry of glass—by featuring objects, installations, videos, and performances made by fifty artists working in more than twenty-three countries.

Monica Bonvicini; Berengo Studio, Bonded Photo courtesy The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, © Francesco Allegretto and Berengo Studio

New Glass Now introduces  makers from historically underrepresented communities within the glass world. Featuring women, artists of color, and members of LGBTQ+ communities, the artwork featured in this exhibition challenges the status quo and represents a modern era in glassmaking full of new voices, visions, and representation. These makers respond to the complexities of the contemporary world through timely political commentary and explorations of the intersection between technology and creative culture.  

The exhibition features both American artists and artists from around the world. It is an exciting new opportunity for the Renwick Gallery to not just showcase American makers but to open our doors and reach across borders to present a global survey of glass as a craft medium today. 

Some of the artists included in the exhibition are:  

James Akers (United States), whose unruly assemblages of neon lights and hacked circuit-bent toys elicit a sensory overload that is in tune with the current technology-driven times. 

James Akers, The Wild One (B) Photo courtesy The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, © James Akers

Tamás Ábel (Hungary), whose simple and direct performance piece Color Therapy, is a powerful statement of LGBTQ+ presence. Ábel uses a fabricated glass mirror to reflect the rainbow flag onto the Millennium Monument in his hometown of Budapest and the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. 

Tamás Ábel, Colour Therapy: Washington, D.C. + Budapest and 33" Rainbow, 2017, glass, mirror, adhesive, The Corning Museum of Glass, 2019.3.33. Photo courtesy of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, © Terre Nguyen and Benedek Bognár. 

Deborah Czeresko (United States), whose feminist take on traditional Venetian chandeliers features impeccably sculpted cuts of meat in place of the form’s typical flowered frills, a humorous and subversive critique of the male-dominated arena of the glassblowing shop. You may have seen Czeresko on the Netflix competition show Blown Away, where she won for her ideas and her impressive glassblowing skills. 

Deborah Czeresko, Meat Chandelier, 2018, blown glass, metal armature, 96.06"H x 59.84"W x 59.84"D, The Corning Museum of Glass, 2019.4.165; Photo by The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York.

Andrea de Ponte (Argentina), who, through her use of image transfer, specifically of historical maps on blown glass, creates a constrained globe that reminds people of how their expansionist relationship with geography and the planet often strains a finite reality. 

Andrea da Ponte, Globalized, 2015, blown glass, transferred image, 30 x 30 x 30 cm, The Corning Museum of Glass, Gift of Andrea da Ponte, 2020.5.1. Photo courtesy of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, © Rosana Silvera. 

Bohyun Yoon (United States), whose spinning mass of cast glass projects a human silhouette onto the gallery wall. As it turns, the projected face transforms from the artist’s profile to his wife’s, to his child’s, and back again. Surrounded by subtly shifting refracting rainbows, the piece evokes wonder at the materiality of glass, the immateriality of light, and the mystery of family connections. 

Bohyun Yoon, Family II, 2018, cast glass, motorized pedestal, spotlight (overall, with pedestal): 158 x 60 x 60 cm, The Corning Museum of Glass, 2020.4.3. Photo courtesy of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, © Bohyun Yoon. 

James Magagula (Kingdom of eSwatini), one of the head glassblowers at Ngwenya Glass in eSwatini (formerly Swaziland), uses craftsmanship and recycled glass to tell folkloric tales in his piece depicting a herd of cattle, a symbol of wealth in southern Africa.  

James Magagula, Ngwenya Glass, The Chief Herdsman and His Cattle, 2018, hot-sculpted glass, 30 x 60 x 70 cm, The Corning Museum of Glass, Gift of Ngwenya Glass, 2019.9.1. Photo courtesy of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. 

New Glass Now is on view from October 22, 2021 through March 6, 2022 at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery. See more artworks from the exhibition in our online gallery, and learn more about the free public programs we're presenting, including a virtual artist talk with Deborah Czeresko and a virtual studio visit and glassmaking demonstration with artist Megan Stelljes. 

This content was originally published here.

[foryourart]

Image courtesy of Five Car Garage. 

PLAN ForYourArt: January 25–31

Thursday, January 25

MORE ART HERE, Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica), 12–6pm. Through January 28.

Teen Hip Hop Workshop with DJ Survive and the Inner City Dwellers, Cypress Park Branch Library (Cypress Park), 4–5pm.

Botany Bay Series: Plant Science for Gardeners & Citizen Scientists - January, The Huntington (San Marino), 4:30–5:30pm.

designLAb Public Reception: Italian Style: 1930s - 1980s, Pacific Design Center (West Hollywood), 5–9:30pm.

Kim Schoen: The Hysteric's Discourse, Young Projects (West Hollywood), 5–9:30pm.

Suzanne Wright, Pomona College (Claremont), 5–9pm.

Rap on Border: A Public Conversation, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (San Diego), 5–8pm.

Reilly Rhodes on Winslow Homer, Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach), 6pm.

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb: On Cuba and Collaboration, Annenberg Space for Photography (Century City), 6:30–8pm.

Guided tour: Edgar and Norma Coronado, Self Help Graphics & Art (Downtown), 6:30pm.

Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica), 7–9pm. $65. Through January 28.

Talk: Curator Walkthrough of "A Universal History of Infamy" with Pilar Tompkins Rivas, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7pm.

At land’s edge presents Set Hernandez Rongkilyo, Revolutionary Autonomous Communities Los Angeles (Koreatown), 7–9pm.

Gifts of the Spirit: Prophecy, Automatism and Discernment, Vibiana (Downtown), 7 and 9pm.

Charlemagne Palestine: CcornuuoorphanossCcopiaee  

aanorphansshhornoffplentyyy, 356 Mission (Downtown), 7–10pm.

LECTURE: Thomas Hutton, MOCA Grand Avenue (Downtown), 7pm.

Film: Free Screening | The Chi, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7:30pm.

FeM Synth Lab How-To: Humanize Your Synths, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7:30–9:30pm.

Suzanne Hudson presents Vija Celmins, ArtCenter College of Design (Pasadena), 7:30pm.

​Twin Engines Performance Series: Brian Getnick and Christy Roberts, PØST (Downtown), 8pm. $5–10 suggested donation.

Friday, January 26

RUSSELL TYLER: Altered State, Richard Heller Gallery (Santa Monica), 5–7pm.

Combat Shock, 4864 W Adams Blvd (West Adams), 6–9pm.

Le château des destins croisés, Château Shatto (Hollywood), 6–9pm.

In Conversation: Alternative Art Spaces with Brooke Kellaway and Libby Werbel (PMOMA), SBCAST (Santa Barbara), 6–7pm.

stARTup Art Fair LA, The Kinney (Venice), 7–10pm. Through January 28.

The Pain of Others, Ghebaly Gallery (Downtown), 7–10pm.

Hayden Dunham: Canary for the Family, Club Pro Los Angeles (Downtown), 7–11pm.

Together We Plan!: Community Activism In 2018, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7–9:30pm.

Joseph Holtzman: Seven Recent Paintings, Bel Ami (Chinatown), 7–10pm.

2018 PEN Emerging Voices Welcome Party, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) (Hollywood), 8–10pm.

GUIDED TOURS with Davie Blue, Human Resources (Chinatown), 8pm. Through January 28. $10 suggested donation.

The Music of WADADA LEO SMITH, Automata (Chinatown), 8pm. $18.

Judith Butler: The Materiality of Mourning in the work of Doris Salcedo, REDCAT (Downtown), 8:30pm. $10–20.

Saturday, January 27

Talk: Gallery Course: Italian and Northern Renaissance Art, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 8:30am.

Ranch Clinic - Container Gardening, The Huntington (San Marino), 9–10am.

Talk: Responding to Sarah Charlesworth: Creative Writing Workshop with Karen Holden, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 10am.

Basic Auto Care Clinic, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 10am–1pm. $20–25.

Finding Autonomy and Connection through Contact Improv: Jen Hong, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 12–3pm. $30.

BEND, BLOW & GLOW I, Museum of Neon Art (Glendale), 12–7pm.

Johanna Breiding: The Rebel Body and Making Social, Angels Gate Cultural Center (San Pedro), 1–4pm.

Native Seeds: Food Preparation / Sun Cookies, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 1:30–4:30pm. $60–75.

Pascual Sisto: INSIDE OUT, Five Car Garage (Santa Monica), 2–5pm.

SYMPOSIUM: PUBLIC PERFORMANCE, UCLA (Westwood), 2–5pm.

Cassils | Nik Kosmas | Lesley Moon | Elliot Musgrave: The Language of the Body: Art, Physical Practice & Intersectional Action, ltd los angeles (Mid-City), 2pm.

Live Free or Die: Artist Talk with Soyoung Shin and Juliana Wisdom, The Huntington (San Marino), 2pm.

Demystifying Dim Sum with Chefs Susan Feniger and Kajsa Alger, The Huntington (San Marino), 2pm.

Women’s Center for Creative Work: Live Free or Die, The Huntington (San Marino), 2–4pm.  

Ruben Ochoa Artist Talk, Art + Practice (Leimert Park), 2:30–5:30pm.

Vija Celmins, Matthew Marks Gallery (West Hollywood), 3–5pm.

Beyond the Ordinary: A Conversation with Three Conceptual Artists from Argentina, Getty Center (Brentwood), 4pm.

Tokens of Affection: Valentines by Corinna Cotsen, Craft in America Center (Beverly Grove), 4–6pm.

Lyle Ashton Harris Book Signing + Discussion with Walead Beshty, Charles Gaines, and Amelia Jones, Arcana Books on the Arts (Culver City), 4–6pm.

Origins, Downtown Labs (Downtown), 4–7pm.  

Joan Horsfall Young: Cottages, Anne M Bray: Road Trip, and Fielden Harper: Continuum, TAG Gallery (Santa Monica), 5–8pm.

Simone Forti: Time Smear, The Box (Downtown), 5–8pm.

The Gallery @ Michael’s, Michael’s (Santa Monica), 6–8pm.

PETER WU: Or, the Modern Prometheus, Held & Bordy Gallery, Windward School (Mar Vista), 6–9pm.

MELTING POINT: MOVEMENTS IN CONTEMPORARY CLAY, Craft and Folk Art Museum (Miracle Mile), 6–9pm. $12.

Martin Soto Climent: Temazcal, Michael Benevento (Koreatown), 6–8pm.

Chad Attie: The Last Island, The Lodge (East Hollywood), 6–9pm.

Closing Reception for Aztlan: A Sense of Place, dA Center for the Arts (Pomona), 6–8pm.

Right at the Equator and Relax Shadeans, Depart Foundation (Malibu), 6–9pm.

Art Event 2018: Enter the World of Warhol, Palm Springs Art Museum (Palm Springs), 6pm.

ANNEX, M+B (West Hollywood), 7–9pm.

Closing reception: Cell, Share, Swivel Chair, Monte Vista Projects (Downtown), 7–10pm.

Closing Reception for Taking Up Space, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles (Downtown), 7–10pm.  

Music: The Music of East L.A., LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7:30pm.

ALARM WILL SOUND: 1969, CAP UCLA (Westwood), 8pm.

Winter Exhibitions Opening Celebration, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 8–11pm.

Life's not fair and people don't act right, BBQLA (Downtown), 8pm–12am.

Centennial Bash, Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach), 8pm. $25–45.

Sunday, January 28

Stories of Almost Everyone, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 11am–5pm. 

Skip Arnold: Truffle Hunt, ICA LA (Downtown), 11am–6pm; The Act of Doing: A Conversation with Skip Arnold, 3–4pm.

Brought to Light: Revelatory Photographs in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Collection and Crosscurrents: The Painted Portrait in America, Britain, and France, 1750–1850, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 11am–5pm.

Pelotas Oaxaqueñas/Oaxacan Ball Games: Photographs by Leopoldo Peña, Fowler Museum (Westwood);12–5pm;  talk, 2pm.

Cecily Brown: Rehearsal and Midori Hirose: Of The Unicorn (and the Sundowner Kids), Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara), 12–5pm.

Grin & Bear It!: Decorate your very own handmade bear workshop, 356 Mission (Downtown), 1–4pm.

Dan Levenson: SKZ Monochrome Diptychs, American Jewish University (Bel Air), 2–5:19pm.

I can call this progress to halt book launch and screenings, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) (Hollywood), 2–6pm.

Around The Table:Recipes and Stories from The Lark in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 2pm.

LECTURE: Rebecca Matalon: Welcome to the Dollhouse Walkthrough, MOCA Pacific Design Center (West Hollywood), 3pm.

Miguel Gutierrez // I am sitting on my aura, we live in space (Mid-City), 3–6pm.

Nina Könnemann: Que Onda, Gaga (MacArthur Park), 3:30–6pm.

TALK WITH CULTURAL ACTIVIST TASOULA HADJITOFI, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 4pm.

Closing reception: Pouya Afshar: En Masse, ADVOCARTY's THE SPACE (Downtown), 4–7pm.

Robert Irwin: Site Determined, The University Art Museum, CSULB (Long Beach), 4–6pm.

Latin Jazz - LIVE !, dA Center for the Arts (Pomona), 4–5pm.

Music: Crossroads School EMMI Chamber Ensembles, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 6pm.

Monday, January 29

Window Dressing, Cerritos College Art Gallery (Norwalk), 4–6pm.

This, Not That Lecture: Sarah Whiting, UCLA (Westwood), 6:30pm.

Talk: Wu Bin's Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7:30pm.

Stranger Landscapes: Films by Pia Borg, REDCAT (Downtown), 8:30pm.

Tuesday, January 30

Outcasts: Prejudice and Persecution in the Medieval World, Getty Center (Brentwood), 10:30am–5pm. 

Family Day - Word Play, The Huntington (San Marino), 11am–3pm.

JIM MORPHESIS artist lecture, Kellogg University Art Gallery (Pomona), 12–1pm.

Dance Girl Dance, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1pm.

After Concretism: Audiovisual Experiments in Brazil, Getty Center (Brentwood), 7–9pm.

How To Have Hard Conversations: Step 2, Constructive Conflict Communication at Work, Home and Everywhere In Between, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7–10pm.

READINGS: Some Favorite Writers: Viet Thanh Nguyen, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Talk: Conversation with Award-winning Costume Designer Mark Bridges, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7:30pm.

Camille Henrot, ArtCenter College of Design (Pasadena), 7:30pm.

Wednesday, January 31

Christodoulos Panayiotou: The Paradox of Acting, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Skip Arnold | Stanya Kahn | Kalup Linzy Jumana Manna | Mickalene Thomas Film screening organized by Mariah Garnett and Aimee Goguen, ltd los angeles (Mid-City), 8pm.

[micaramel]

Artist: Mona Hatoum

Venue: Chantal Crousel, Paris

Date: October 12 – December 21, 2019

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release, and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Chantal Crousel, Paris

Press Release:

Galerie Chantal Crousel is pleased to present Mona Hatoum’s 7th solo exhibition, from October 12 to December 21, 2019.

New sculptures, installations, and works on paper are presented.

Mona Hatoum’s art reflects on world conflicts, migrations, and surveillance, using materials as varied as steel, brick, concrete, and human hair, in order to create spaces of tension, paradox, and ambiguity. The motif of the grid and the sphere serve as metaphors for confinement, oppression, and destruction.

The artist articulates these issues through the use of abstraction and poetic Realism which enables her to reach a certain universality and become one of the most influential figures of her generation, as well as a role model for many contemporary artists.

From the point of creation to the placement of the work in the space, Mona Hatoum focuses her attention on the viewer’s body and on the precise moment when he or she encounters the work. Mingling the theme of everyday life with that of global instability, the artist creates a feeling of discomfort. Due to the familiarity of the forms and the poetics of the materials, Mona Hatoum’s works are attractive and irrepressibly lure the eye. Our attention is however disrupted when we approach the work as it reveals harsher and more precarious characteristics than is expected. Consider Remains (chair) V, a piece of furniture reduced to its ghostly charred remains, held together by wire mesh. This chair, a shadow of its former self, no longer suggests a refuge or comforting interior, but points to an alarming and disturbing situation.

The desire of the artist to combine geopolitical problematics with esthetical considerations leads to major works such as Concrete Mobile, Orbital II or Hot Spot (stand).

Hot Spot (stand) is a metal globe, wrapped in neon tube emitting a mesmerizing glowing red light. When approaching the work, one feels a sensation of heat and hears an unfamiliar electric buzz. Emblematic of Mona Hatoum’s work, the geographical map is here presented as a statement for a world embroiled in conflict and a territory in flux. For Orbital II, Mona Hatoum uses materials borrowed from the construction industry: the curved steel rebar forms a globe punctuated by clumps of concrete that also look like orbiting planets. Concrete Mobile is composed of the same elements this time suspended overhead. The precarious suspension of the concrete blocks suggests the erosion of a building that was once solid, down to a skeleton of fragments. Mona Hatoum produces a metaphor of a fragile world that is in a permanent state of destruction, while providing the key to a possible reconstruction. A Pile of Bricks also uses building materials. It consists of a pile of bricks that resemble a mobile architectural model and suggests a partially collapsed building with a caved-in façade.

The spatial relationships created by Mona Hatoum between those powerful works and the visitor generates a genuine visceral experience.

The grid is another theme explored in this exhibition. It initially became a recurring theme because of her interest in Minimalism and geometry. But the grid pattern has gradually evolved into a reference  to real-life situations related to confinement. In a serial approach, Mona Hatoum repeats the motif in drawings on parchment paper entitled Drawing Heat. She produces a freehand drawing with a hot metal rod creating a form by removing material from the surface of the paper. For untitled (bed springs) I & II, an organic grid shape emerges. These lithographs were produced by using bedsprings, removed from the frame and applied directly to the stone, creating a variation on the classical form of the regular, geometric grid – which then seems to evaporate and evoke a possible liberation.

The body is the starting point for much of the artist’s commentary on the state of the world. However, it may also be the object. Since early days, Mona Hatoum explored the interiority of the body, often revealing its deepest intimacy. With some humor, while still seeking to elicit contradictory emotions, the artist once again uses the sphere in the work entitled Inside Out (concrete), whose surface pattern is reminiscent of the meanderings of the digestive system. In other sculptures, the artist incorporates materials discarded from her own body: a necklace made out of her own fingernails is displayed on a wooden bust (Nail Necklace) and for Silver Ball, rolled hair forms a large ball that is placed on a pedestal like a precious object. Other small works on paper created with hair punctuate the exhibition and encourage proximity between the artist and the visitor.

Lastly, SP Atelier extends an invitation to enter a wholly different sort of privacy, that of the artist’s studio. Mona Hatoum displays a set of drawings, photographs, embroideries, and other objects, collected during her residency in São Paulo in 2014.  The elements that make up this installation are samples or preparatory sketches for pieces that emerged in São Paulo and were later presented in the exhibition that concluded the residency. The piece takes us behind the scenes of an artistic practice developing outside any fixed studio location, drawing sustenance from local materials and know-how.

As Clarrie Wallis wrote, “[Mona Hatoum] is highly sophisticated in her manipulation of materials and their metaphorical potential and, […] it is in her interface between these that the work’s meaning resides.”` The visitor’s space is filled with tensions between form and content, medium and thought, latent poetry thus resulting, constitutes the strength of the artist’s work.

In 2019, Mona Hatoum has been awarded the Praemium Imperiale prize for Sculpture, submitted by Japan Art Association, the most historical cultural foundation in Japan.

She was presented with a number of other prizes during her career, such as the 10th Hiroshima Art Prize by Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (2017), Joan Miró Prize of the Fundació Joan Miró (2011), Honorary Doctorate from the University of Southampton (2010), or Roswitha Haftmann Stiftung Prize (2004) among others.

In 2015, her exhibition at the Centre Pompidou Paris travelled to Tate London, then to the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2016).

Her work has been shown in several solo exhibitions, in institutions such as the Menil Collection, Houston, U.S.A. (2017) that toured to Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St Louis, U.S.A. (2018); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2017); Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2015); Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, Brazil (2014); Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium (2014); Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar (2014); Kunstmuseum St-Gallen, Switzerland (2013); Arter, Istanbul, Turkey (2012); Juan Miro Fundacion, Barcelona, Spain (2012); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2009); Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy (2009); Museum of contemporary art, Sydney, Australia (2005); Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (2004), Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2004), Magasin III, Stockholm, Sweden (2004); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico (2003); Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain (2002).

1. Mona Hatoum, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brésil, December 6–March 1, 2014.

2. Clarrie Wallis, Materials and Making, Mona Hatoum, Tate Publishing, April 2016, page 134.

Link: Mona Hatoum at Chantal Crousel

Contemporary Art Daily is produced by Contemporary Art Group, a not-for-profit organization. We rely on our audience to help fund the publication of exhibitions that show up in this RSS feed. Please consider supporting us by making a donation today.

from Contemporary Art Daily http://bit.ly/2LcaOJY

[wineanddinosaur]

The 9 Best Beercation Destinations to Escape Your Winter Blues

As winter temperatures plummet across the Northern Hemisphere, there’s no time like the present to plan a far-flung winter getaway to someplace warm — as long as it has excellent beer.

From laid back locales in Southern California, to Southeast Asian cities where citizens are enthusiastically embracing craft, these nine beercation destinations are VinePair-approved for winter 2019.

Austin

Beer gardens are open all year long in Austin, where temperatures and attitudes are warm, and outdoor communal drinking encouraged. Easy Tiger, a beer garden and bakery, provides a welcome oasis from Sixth Street’s debauchery. On Rainey Street, Craft Pride serves Texas brews with pizza, and Banger’s offers more than 200 beers on tap, paired with mouthwatering sausages.

Standouts of Austin’s 37 breweries include Hops and Grain, with refreshing IPAs and pale lagers, and Blue Owl Brewing, which exclusively brews sessionable sours.

In South Lamar, Austin Beer Garden Brewing Company (“the ABGB”) pairs award-winning lagers with live music. Pinthouse Pizza offers a generously-topped pie and hazy IPAs.

In North Austin, the women-owned Brewtorium is stylish, spacious, and versatile, brewing everything from Brut IPA to Altbier. The Black Star Co-op, a unique concept brewpub, pours its own brews alongside other local selections, with tasty snacks like spicy buffalo cauliflower.

No Austin beercation would be complete without a trip to Hill Country to Jester King Brewery. Spend a languid afternoon sipping spontaneously fermented wild ales and hoppy farmhouse ales with brick-oven pizzas.

New Orleans

Whether you aim to join or avoid the Mardi Gras revelry, New Orleans has a beer scene worth celebrating.

Near the Mississippi River, NOLA Brewing, established in 2008, is joined by Courtyard Brewery, Urban South Brewery, and Port Orleans Brewing.  The Avenue Pub is famous for its 24/7 schedule and big beer list.

In Marigny, Brieux Carré offers small-batch, sessionable pale ales, strong ales, and stouts. Frenchmen Street is home to the original d.b.a., a classic craft beer bar.

For beers, wings, and fries, head to Junction, which is “laid back, unobtrusive, and comes without the bro culture,” Ashtin Berry, local bartender and activist, told VinePair.

Miami

It’s peak time to visit Miami. After getting your beach fix, head to Wynwood for beer and art. Depending on your beercation style, you can take a tour (Wynwood Brewery & Art Tour, Wynwood Art and Beer Adventure), or venture out on your own.

Wynwood’s artsy reputation stems from the Wynwood Walls, an outdoor street-art museum. It’s also a popular place for breweries. J. Wakefield, famous nationwide for its sessionable sours, double IPAs, and imperial stouts, has a colorful, geek chic space (think graffiti meets Star Wars).

Other breweries include North American Breweries’ Wynwood Brewing, Boston Beer’s Concrete Beach Brewery, and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Veza Sur Brewing, a Latin-American-inspired brewery created in collaboration between Bogota Beer and 10 Barrel Brewing.

Outside Wynwood, look for Funky Buddha in Oakland Park and MIA Brewing in Dora.

San Diego

San Diego County has more breweries than any other in the nation, earning it the nickname “the capital of craft.”

In Miramar, visit Pure Project for NEIPAs, AleSmith for imperial stouts, Mikkeller for a colorful array of sours, and Green Flash for classic West Coast IPAs.

Downtown, industry pioneers Karl Strauss and Coronado Brewing sandwich smaller outfits like Mission Brewing and Monkey Paw.

Breweries in the historic-yet-hip Gaslamp Quarter include Resident Brewing (located inside the Local restaurant) and Half Door Brewing. Stone Brewing has a taproom on J Street, as well as the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens at Liberty Station.

Modern Times has two locations: the brewery in Point Loma, and the “Flavordome” taproom in North Park.

Los Angeles

L.A.’s fresh faces of craft beer are revitalizing the sprawling city’s beer culture.

Downtown, Boomtown Brewery and Arts District Brewing champion local creatives alongside diverse beer offerings. Indie Brewing Company, across the Los Angeles River, hosts the Indie-pendent Women’s Club.

Father’s Office, a gastropub with locations in Santa Monica, Culver City, and Downtown, boasts unconventional burgers by chef Sang Yoon, and 36 beers on tap.

In Torrance, Monkish Brewing, Cosmic Brewery, and Smog City Brewing are close together enough for a brewery crawl.

Three Weavers in Inglewood celebrates community and diversity with beers like its soon-to-launch Komorebi IPA, a collaboration with Japan’s Coedo Brewery, in partnership with Japanese Craft Beer. (VinePair will be at Three Weavers on Feb. 27 to celebrate the launch of Komorebi IPA. More on that here.)

And California Sun, a new neighborhood pizza and beer joint from Artisanal Brewers Collective, is slated to open Feb. 11 on Sunset Boulevard. It’s serving up New York- and Detroit-style pizzas, salads, sides, and 100 craft beers.

Buenos Aires

In Argentina, “a grassroots craft beer revolution is taking place, leaving a wave of converts in its wake,” Isabel Albiston wrote in Lonely Planet in 2015. Buenos Aires is at the center of that revolution.

Bodega Cervecera, a beer shop in Palermo, is known as one of the first establishments to offer Argentine craft beer brands to the city’s drinkers. Beer-centric local chains like On Tap are spreading across the town. BlueDog Beer Station, from the owner of local Grunge Brewing, serves Grunge beers alongside local “gypsy” brewer selections. Minta’s & Pura Birra Club pairs cerveza artesanal with gourmet burgers, pizzas, and salads.

Broeders brews European- and American-inspired ales made with local hops, malt, and water. Its beers are also on tap at its owners’ Cajun-inspired restaurant, Nola.

Rio de Janeiro

Rio is hot this time of year, and its beer scene is heating up, too. In the shadow of Anheuser-Busch InBev, which has two plants here, a growing number of beer-centric brewpubs and bars make the city’s independent spirit increasingly palpable.

Hocus Pocus, founded in 2014, has a brewpub in Rio’s Botofogo neighborhood. 3 Cariocas shows local pride with beer names such as Session IPA NEMA, an award-winning IPA named after the Ipanema neighborhood; and Saison du Leblon, named for the trendy beach area once owned by Frenchman Charles Le Blond.

2 Cabeças is another trendy outfit that collaborates with breweries including U.S.-based “gypsy” brewer Stillwater Artisanal.

Beer bars include Hop Lab in Central Rio; Brewteco in Leblon and Barra; and Bier en Cultuur in Ipanema.

Singapore

This remarkably diverse, food-obsessed city-state can be as accessible or glitzy as you make it. Straddle both worlds at Level33, which claims to be the world’s highest urban craft brewery.

Smith Street Taps, located in a Chinatown hawker center, is a “nexus for craft beer geeks,” and Burger Joint offers burgers, bourbon, an international beer selection, and a cocktail program by Proof & Company.

In Tanjong Pagar, the trendy, neon-sign-lit Freehouse bar has 18 taps dedicated to craft brews, served alongside pub grub from fries to frog legs.

RedDot Brewhouse, the first microbrewery opened by local Singaporeans (sans expats), is known for its Monster Green Pilsner, a Czech-style pilsner infused with spirulina.

Druggists, a restaurant and beer bar, pours Scandinavian-style craft beers paired with wings, sandwiches, and sliders.

At Alchemist Beer Lab, “beer infusion towers” introduce novel ingredients to house-made brews. Little Island Brewing Co., from the same owners, is a microbrewery and smokehouse located near a beach.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Ho Chi Minh City is home to more than a dozen local breweries, and although many were founded by English-speaking expats, a majority incorporate Vietnamese ingredients and culture into their beers and taprooms.

Platinum Beer, established in 2014, is considered one of the country’s craft beer pioneers. Pasteur Street Brewing, founded in 2015 by Americans John Reid and Alex Violette (the latter an alum of Colorado’s Upslope Brewing), offers multiple award-winning beers, such as its Passion Fruit Wheat Ale, and Cyclo Imperial Chocolate Stout, made with cacao beans from a local chocolatier.

Sessionable beers are the name of the game in Saigon. Heart of Darkness’s Conquistador’s Mexican Pilsner served with salt and lime, Rooster Beer’s Blonde Ale, and LAC Brewing’s Mango IPA are local favorites, and East West Brewing’s Saigon Rosé is an ultra-light (3 percent ABV), raspberry-infused treat.

The post The 9 Best Beercation Destinations to Escape Your Winter Blues appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/beer-travel-guide-winter-2019/