BY:  MONICA BYERS NEW YORK, NY – I have a special affection for Thompson Street in the Village.  My ZATAOT partner in crime, Gary, was lucky enough to live on this street for a while.  Except I don’t think he counted himself quite so lucky – he found it annoyingly student-y (NYU is just around the corner) or, at least, [...]

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK, NY – It’s hard to wander around New York City without suffering a degree of neighborhood envy on a nearly daily basis.  So many awesome areas – can you possibly pick a favorite?  Against all odds, I think I have managed to do just that. West Broadway is, in my opinion, the very best-est street in [...]

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK, NY – Tucked away on a quiet Tribeca street is New York Vintners, which calls itself “more than a wine shop.”  And, indeed it is. As the name implies there is wine for sale in the front-of-store shop, which offers a good selection of great wines.  But New York Vintners also wants to teach you [...]

    By MONICA BYERS LONDON – I admit I am biased, having resided in two different flats near Hoxton Square during my London years.  Having duly disclosed this, I still say that this setting is, to me, one of the reasons why London is so fab.  Situated in the East End, Hoxton Square is one of the city’s oldest [...]

    SAN FRANCISCO  – So, I’m what you’d call comic book challenged.  I’m the guy who asks (while watching the recent Avengers movie) whether Captain America can die and whether Black Window and Hawkeye actually have super human powers and, if they don’t, then how can they be super heroes, let alone members of the Avengers (okay, perhaps in [...]

GETTYSBURG, PA – So you’ve been roped into an educational vacation – a trip to visit the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  And wondering whether you can possibly have any fun in what appears to be a one-trick tourist town.  I was the same.  I’ve been trying to expose my British husband to all sorts of Americana, and a [...]

  LOPBURI, THAILAND – We were headed to a small town called Lopburi.  I had never been to Lopburi, nor had I heard of it prior to this trip.  In fact, I had never even been to central Thailand (where Lopburi was located).  My Thai travels had always centered on Bangkok and the various islands, with periodic jaunts to the [...]

  NEW YORK – Located smack dab in the middle of NYC’s Upper East Side is one of my favorite NYC art venues, the always interesting but often-overlooked Asia Society Museum (ASM).  I say overlooked because it’s not officially grouped in with the nearby venues along Museum Mile (that includes the Met and the Guggenheim) nor is it officially part [...]

  TOKYO - Okay, some might say that Japan tries too hard when it comes to art but, for me, some of the most original and engaging shows I’ve seen have been in Tokyo…and I don’t mean those mega put-ons at the National Museum in Ueno or those over-hyped, what-were-they-thinking exhibitions at the Mori. Rather, it’s the small-to-medium sized venues that [...]

    TOKYO – Summer, spring, winter or fall?  Due for a Tokyo fix but not sure when to go?  As with everything in Japan, it’s all about choices and options, quite often way too many.  Just have a look at the beverage section at any Japanese convenience store or the pen/pencil selection at any stationery shop (Ito-ya in Ginza [...]