March 14, 2012

Greek, White and Blue: Why Are the Buildings in Greece Painted White and Blue?

by Lindsay Shapka in Travel, History, Discovey, culture

If I were to ask you to close your eyes and picture the Greek Islands, what would you see?

White sand? Feta cheese? Brad Pitt dressed as Achilles?

February 19, 2012

When This Was A School, Nobody Died: Visiting The Tuol Sleng Museum in Cambodia

by Lindsay Shapka in History, culture, Discovey, Travel

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge — one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century — took over Cambodia.

Led by Pol Pot, the regime forced the Cambodian people to work on collective farms and labor projects, as a form of agrarian communism. Sympathetic to the peasants, they killed all who they deemed to be “New People,” or those who lived in the city at the time of their take over.

February 13, 2012

Reads For The Road: "Loot — The Battle Over The Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World" by Sharon Waxman

by Lindsay Shapka in Book List, culture, History, Travel, Discovey

In most of the bookstores I walk into, the art history section is pretty lean. There are a lot of large-scale glossy photo books with the standard famous works of art in them, but not much that is critical, new, or honest.