News

FEELING FLUSH IN MARRAKESH
Morocco has seen its tourism numbers grow significantly in the past few years, and this week's opening of a mammoth high-end hotel – Mazagan Beach Resort – is the latest sign of money and attention flowing to its beaches. The celebrity-studded opening party at the 500-room resort, an hour outside Marrakesh, drew Gerard Butler, Lindsay Lohan, Naomi Campbell, Guy Ritchie and Naomi Watts.
www.mazaganbeachresort.com.

THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL
Now that graffiti is established within the art world, it's taking root in the hotel business, where the “art hotel” is the latest defining idea. Graffiti art fits well in the scruffy-chic Ace Hotel New York, right, but it makes for strange bedfellows elsewhere. Cooper Square Hotel, another New York boutique hotel, has sleek interiors by Italian designer Antonio Citterio – but just outside, the hotel has hired artists to paint a graffiti mural on a nearby wall. www.coopersquarehotel.com; acehotel.com/newyork.

AN ARTFUL ALL SOULS
People in the American Southwest are good at inventing festivals: Nevada's Burning Man has inspired om-ing, flaming imitators in many cities. Tucson's All Souls' Procession is a quieter example. Founded with a local artist's performance project, it's a variation on the Day of the Dead and brings thousands of artists and attendees for a quirky mixture of memorial services, music, craft and a ritual march. www.allsoulsprocession.org

CHINA, THE MAGIC KINGDOM
This week, the Walt Disney Company won government permission to launch its second theme park in China. Hong Kong Disneyland, opened in 2005, hasn't been a smashing success. So why the new park? Some observers figure the pro-American symbolism will warm relations before President Barack Obama arrives in China this month. And since there‘s already been a Chinese theme park that used fake Disney characters, they might as well have the real Mickey.