The Success Chain

Fans of William Faulkner will want to make their way to a New Orleans boutique hotel for November 17 – 21 to attend Words & Music, 2010, a Literary Feast in New Orleans. This multi-arts festival has been held since 1990 on Faulkner’s birthday and celebrates good books and their authors, including Faulkner, who penned Soldiers’ Pay, his first novel, in New Orleans.

Sponsored by the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society , this year’s theme is The Literature of War & Collateral Damage. Featured literature and workshops will approach the theme through fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry as well as delving into the classics, religion, psychology, philosophy, live drama, music, journalism, television, film, visual arts, and the environment. There will be a full program of hands on workshops and consultations for unpublished writers to prepare their work for submission and the publishing process. It includes top literary agents, published writers, poets, and editors.

The words & music festival brings together new and established writers. Headliners for 2010 include Tim O’Brien, National Book Award winner, Stewart O’Nan, a critically acclaimed novelist, as well as bestselling British author Simon Mawer and Heidi Durrow, winner of the Barbara Kingsolver’s Belwether Prize. Actors Billy Lyon and Heidi Jackson of American Place Theatre will perform a piece based on O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. This year the organizers have called for papers on topics related to the theme. They hope to have scholars, psychologists, academics, physicians and art and music critics present the chosen works as part of the festivities.

Anyone arriving at a Vegas resort is probably ready to be pampered for a few days. In addition to luxuriating in spa treatments, rooms, casinos and entertainment, you’ll also want to get outside and explore a part of Nevada.

Just fifteen minutes outside the Las Vegas Strip, you’ll find the Southern Nevada Zoological-Botanical Park. This three acre park exhibits over 150 species of plants and animals and is both the only zoo in Las Vegas, and the only year-round zoo in Nevada. The zoo serves as a kind of living campus where people of all ages may learn about Nevada’s plants and animals. Primarily, the zoo’s mission is to help educate people about rare and endangered plant and animal species, providing patrons with information about how important it is to protect natural habitats.

The Las Vegas Zoo includes a number of endangered cats and, in the United States, the last family of Barbary Apes . There are also eagles, ostriches, emus, talking parrots, flamingos and large exotic reptiles. Exhibits, sponsored by the Las Vegas Gem Club, also features botanical displays of endangered cycads and rare bamboos.

Hours are nine to five each day. Ticket prices are nine dollars for adults, seven for children 2-12 and seniors 62 and older, and free for those under two years of age.

Over 8,000 rowers from all over the world will converge in Boston October 23-24, 2010 for the Head of the Charles Regatta . This 46th running of the event is expected to attract up to 300,000 spectators to the banks of the Charles River for the largest two-day rowing events in the world. HOTC is expected to draw around 1750 individual boats to compete in 56 events over the weekend.

The 3.2 mile course starts at Boston University’s DeWolfe Boathouse and finishes just past the Eliot Bridge. The course is extremely challenging and includes six bridges and several sharp turns. Spectators can expect to see collisions at the Weeks and Eliot Bridges, which are particularly difficult parts of the course.

The competitive events include Championship 4s, Championship 8s, and Championship sculling, both 1x/single and 2x/double. Attendees should see current US National Team competitors as well as rowers from countries as far away as South Africa, Croatia, and China. Competitors range in age from 14 to 85.

Area colleges such as Harvard, Northeastern, and MIT as well as universities from all over the Northeast will line the Charles for a weekend of cheering, rivalries, and parties. Reunion Village is the only place on the course where alcohol is legally served. It is a group of tents set aside for clubs and alumni associations to gather and hold social events. Boston Hotels are booked solid for the weekend, so many students end up staying with friends or even sleeping on dorm room floors.

HOTC is hosted by the Cambridge Boat Club which was founded in 1909 and is located on the Cambridge side of the river, near the Eliot bridge.

Like all tourist towns and larger cities around the world Mazatlan has really matured over the past decades when it comes to shopping. There are many more options than the street flea market and craft booths along the beaches. You may still have the jewelry hustlers selling their goods along the beaches of the luxury mazatlan hotels but when it comes to some real shopping, visitors have choices these days.

For the big time mall experience, head over to the La Gran Plaza . This is a large mall experience with brand name stores from all over the world. They have a broad range of items from worldy companies like Nike and Versalles. There are also many boutique stores that would be fun to browes through because they are more fitting to the local area. That way you can still find some fun items that you may not be able to get at home.

Part of the fun of shopping in Mexico is that some things are tax free. If you are looking for some Diamonds than you may find some really great deals. Diamonds are tax free in Mexico. There are some fine jewelry stores with good reputations in Mazatlan such as Pardo Jewellers or Rubio Jewellers. Even your own hotel may have a nice sellection.