demographics: single home buyer

Barbara Ballinger Buchholz, in an article published by The Chicago Tribune, reports that of single home buyers "women buy at twice the rate single men do, second only to married couples. Many single women prefer houses."

Other preferences may seem a bit of a cliche, yet ring true. Consider size. Men typically are interested in the "monumentality of space" and desire a large garage or parking spot to house cars, other vehicles and tools.

Consider this word, guys: overcompensate.

movie review - L'Auberge Espagnole



L'Auberge Espagnole is a light-hearted comedic affair that this blog thoroughly enjoyed. It’s the European Union version of The Breakfast Club.

L'Auberge Espagnole translated from French to English is "The Spanish Inn." The movie is a French/Spanish production shot primarily in Barcelona, with English subtitles, and features French, Spanish, English, Italian, Danish, Belgian and German main characters.

Xavier, (Romain Duris) the narrator and main subject, is a 25-year-old Frenchman in a pan-European graduate exchange program based in Barcelona. He finds accommodations with a mixed group of European students in a flat on the Spanish coast. The living situation is reminiscent of a European hostel experience. He’s in Barcelona for a year to study economics, the Spanish culture and the Spanish language. When he eventually returns to France, he will have the necessary experience needed for a job with the European Commission. He’s very future and career conscious.

The Barcelona year proves to be a period of personal growth, changes and personal upheaval. The time in Spain will make all the difference in his future life when he eventually returns to Paris.

Audrey Tautou, who did a great job in He Loves Me He Loves Me Not and the only actor in this movie who this blog has seen on screen, didn’t have a major part in this movie. Her character, Martine, played Xavier’s overly emotional girlfriend who remained in Paris.

The British gal, Wendy (Kelly Reilly), was awesome! She had this blogger cracking up all throughout the flick.

William, (Kevin Bishop) Wendy’s brother, came for a visit from England and he was fucking HILLARIOUS. Though his character was an asshole -- he was an endearing asshole.

The editing had room for improvement. There were a few scenes that were edited to a point that it served no need -- not even to color-in the characters in the scene.

The writing was delicious and the dialogue sublime. It was light-hearted comedy without the ubiquitous schmaltz that seems prevalent in Hollywood fare.

A token American character in the movie was the target of an “ugly American” political jab. That was a funny moment, too.

L'Auberge Espagnole is a good movie that this blogs recommend without hesitation.

Grade: B+

Liz's Wicker Park days are certainly over

Meghan O'Rourke, writing for The New York Times, thinks Liz Phair's self-titled record will alienate the long-time fans she's accumulated since her 1993 Matador Records debut, Exile in Guyville.

Ms. O'Rourke believes Liz Phair (the album's title) will be an "embarrassing form of career suicide" for Ms. Phair. The overtly negative review doesn't stop at the record, though:

In place of a sometime feminist icon, we have a woman approaching 40 getting dolled up in market-approved teen gear (the bad schoolgirl look, recently embraced by Britney Spears). She's junked her oddball, sui generis eccentricity for songs about thirtysomething traumas wrapped up in bubble-gum pop that plays off a cheap dissonance: underneath this sunny soundscape lies the darkness of life's hard-won lessons... Ms. Phair often sounds desperate or clueless.

Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, pondered why Ms. Phair would even attempt to capture a larger commercial audience with Liz Phair: "Phair is no [Sheryl] Crow (she lacks the sophistication) and she's certainly no [Avril] Lavigne (she's never been that naive, energetic or blissfully bubblegum). The result is one of the most tragically compromised records that a once-uncompromising artist has ever made."

Mr. DeRogatis's asked Ms. Phair a question in regards to her move to Los Angeles:

Q. Some people are going to damn you for working with The Matrix, or because you moved to L.A.

A. The L.A. thing--don't you think that's a little much? That's the psycho fringe.

Right before I left, I was in I forget what bar--like the Zebra Lounge or something over on Western--and some woman nearly punched me for leaving Chicago! She was drunk, but she wanted to really pick a physical fight. And I just thought, "Oh my fuckiing god! You're crazy!"

This week the world will get their first taste of the new Liz Phair, and if the repackaging of the former Wicker Park Chicagoan will lead to commercial success. Liz Phair will be released by Capitol Records on Tuesday and Ms. Phair will most-likely be appearing on night time talk shows to promote it.

Liz rebuts Meghan O'Rourke's words

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/29/arts/29MAIL.html

LETTERS
Liz Phair; Holocaust Documentaries
LIZ PHAIR
Chicken Little's Tale
To the Editor:

Re "Liz Phair's Exile in Avril-ville" by Meghan O'Rourke [June 22]:

Once upon a time there was a writer named Chicken Little. Chicken Little
worked very hard and took her job very seriously. Often, she even wrote. One
day, just as Chicken Little was about to have an idea, she heard something
falling on her roof. "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" she shrieked,
spilling green tea and vodka all over her work station. This commotion awoke
her three readers, who lived with her in her hut, and all three rushed
outside to see what had happened to the sky. After enduring several anxious
minutes alone, Chicken Little was relieved to see her readers return. "Oh,
Chicken Little, it was just the trees dropping their buds on a beautiful
spring day," they said. Chicken Little tried not to show her disappointment.

Not long after, as Chicken Little was poring over some back issues of other
writers' material, she felt another idea about to form in her mind. "Truth .
. . no . . . Lies . . . no . . . ummm . . . ummm . . . Conspiracy!" She was
just about to write this down, when a great clattering and scraping began
above her head. Clutching her PC to her breast, she swung her head wildly to
and fro. "The sky is falling! This time, the sky is falling! The sky is
falling!" She meant to alert her readers. She felt very responsible for
them. They played outdoors, mostly, and had very open minds. The three
readers rushed back into the hut, very concerned, and when they saw the look
of dread on Chicken Little's sweet face and her finger pointing skyward,
trembling, they immediately turned around and rushed back out to see what
was the matter. For a few breathless moments, they could neither confirm nor
deny, then they all saw the same thing at once. "Chicken Little," said the
readers, "it's only two squirrels chasing each other in amorous conquest,
skittering over the eave of our house." "It's quite funny, actually," added
one of the readers, "you should come and see." But Chicken Little was
annoyed. "I have work to do!" she fumed. "Besides, I wasn't speaking to you.
I was performing a haiku," she fibbed, faxing something.

Well, time passed, and the readers grew, and so did Chicken Little, but not
very much. The light inside the hut was dim, and she worked in a huddled
position for long hours. She grew paranoid. She began to think she wasn't
sure anymore. She began to fear she didn't know. Then, just as her resolve
was nearly wiped away clean, she heard a sound that was not very loud. She
cocked her head from side to side, her little neck pouch jiggling, and
pecked at a few pebbles lying around her desk. Yes, the sound was definitely
there. In fact, it was coming from all sides now, the sound of a million
tiny things dropping on her roof. She peeked out her window and saw a
million tiny things dropping from the sky. All her chicken senses gathered
in supreme vindication. She opened her throat as wide as it would go and
crowed, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! By God, any moron can see
the sky is falling!"

The peacefully sleeping readers were aroused, but did not pay attention
anymore, so used to her hysteria were they by now that her crowing became
one more familiar noise in the chattering nighttime forest.

"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Chicken Little screeched,
terrified they would not heed her and would be found the next morning,
buried among the intellectual debris. She pecked and pecked at them with her
sharp little beak until they finally agreed to be awakened. The three
readers rose up and shuffled outside to be greeted by a warm, summer rain
falling steady as a heartbeat, wondrous and quiet as unexpected relief from
pain. "Why, Chicken Little," said one reader, "it's only a summer shower
come to feed the land. It feels great!" Chicken Little cowered in the corner
as a fork of lightning licked the trees. "It's dangerous!" she cried, "you
could slip on the wetness! You could catch a nasty cold! You could get
electrocuted!" The three readers laughed, and went back out to experience
the mystery of the storm, without thinking, without deconstructing, without
checking what the other would do first. "Listen to me! Listen to me!" cried
Chicken Little, as she watched their backs turn. The three readers stopped
at the door and called out before leaving: "C'mon, Chicken Little. Hurry up,
you're gonna miss it!"

LIZ PHAIR
Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Meghan O'Rourke's review of Liz Phair's new album, "Liz Phair," is online at
www.nytimes.com/lizphair.

Recipe: Pan-Roasted Cod

Adapted from "Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie," by Rebecca Charles and Deborah DiClementi (HarperCollins, 2003)

Time: 20 minutes

2 cod or thick flounder or fluke fillets, each 6 to 7 ounces
1 cup milk
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cracker meal
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
1/4 cup canola, peanut or soybean oil.

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place fillets in a shallow dish, add milk and soak for 5 minutes. Mix flour and cracker meal together on a large plate.

2. Remove fish from milk and season with salt and pepper. Thickly dredge fish in flour mixture on both sides. Dust off excess.

3. Heat oil in a heavy ovenproof skillet until very hot. Place fillets in pan, whiter side down, reduce heat to medium and sauté until crust is golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn fish, place skillet in oven and roast until done, another 4 to 5 minutes. Serve at once.

Yield: 2 servings.

The bread and butter of the economy

Danny Hakim of The New York Times reported that "Honda averages $1,581 in profit per vehicle sold in North America and Toyota $1,214. G.M. made $701 per vehicle last year, and the Chrysler Group made only $226 per vehicle. The Ford Motor Company actually lost an average of $114 on every vehicle it sold in 2002."

Thanks for waking me up

audblog audio post

Study: depression illnesses cost employers $44 Billion a year in lost productivity

"'People are making it to work,' Dr. Walter F. Stewart, an epidemiologist at Geisinger Health Care Systems in Danville, Pa. and lead researcher for a study reported in The New York Times, said. 'They're just not engaged in work. They're getting to the door, but then closing it and just not functioning. People have called this presenteeism, and it is often invisible to employers.'"

Woman with borderline personality disorder is convicted of attempted murder

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported today that "a woman who shot her boyfriend four times last year after they had brief and painful sex in his University City (neighborhood) condominium was convicted today of attempted murder."

Linus Torvalds, the Finn who is the inventor of the Linux operating system, has been reported by Reuters to be taking leave of his current day job to concentrate his talents at further developing Linux and its continued proliferation as an open source operating system.

New study may have identified bipolar gene sequence

A report publshed today by researchers at the University of California at San Diego found that a certain gene sequence may predispose people to the dibilitating mood swing disease known as bipolar disorder, or manic depression.

Today's issue of The San Diego Union-Tribune published the article in which Dr. John Kelsoe, psychiatrist at the San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare System and the report's senior author, said "this is very exciting because it points to a whole new pathway for this illness that has previously not been implicated."

The full research report is made available in the publication Molecular Psychiatry.

The gene that contains the mutation is believed to regulate dopamine, one of several neurotransmitters or chemical signals between nerve cells in the brain that affect fluctuations of mood.

"We believe that a defect in (the gene) may make one supersensitive to dopamine, somewhat like being born on cocaine," Kelsoe said.

The researchers found six mutations in a specific part of the gene that controls when the gene is turned on or off. But one mutation in particular occurred three times more frequently in patients with severe manic depression than in family members and others who did not have the illness.

The mutation was found on chromosome 22.

Searching for justice in Cambodia

"I can't worry about justice for these people (former members of Khmer Rouge).  I have to try and live a good life now and be a good Buddhist so that in the next life I have a better chance and have good things happen to me then."

That is what a Cambodian woman said to Amanda Pike, a journalist investigating the genocide alleged to have been committed by Khmer Rouge security forces during the Vietnam War, and why crimes against humanity trials have not materialized in the country.

A very good Frontline/World piece is available here in streaming video.

Amanda Pike spoke before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on February 19, 2003. The transcript is here.

Urban nomads

According to an article in The New York Times, "urban nomads are defined as youths who have traveled to at least five different cities or towns in the past three years and at least three within the past year."

Let's see: Chicago, Florida and California in one year for this blog.

The banker who wouldn't say no

audblog audio post

A week to forget

This week -- June 9 to June 15 -- has been designated National Men's Health Week. This blog assumes that most people did not know that.

Fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, uncles, and grandfathers all over should utilize this week and become aware of their health risks and ways to prevent disease, disability, and injury. The goal of National Men?s Health Week is to raise awareness of the importance of early detection and treatment in men. This week focuses on a broad range of health issues impacting men at work, home, and leisure. These health issues include heart disease, cancer, injuries, and stroke. (source: Center for Disease Control)

"It was one thing for the tribe to lose 90 percent of its members to smallpox, a disease that did more than the United States Cavalry to wipe out American Indians. But in the mid-20th century, just as the population was rebounding, the federal government built the Garrison Dam. It choked off the Missouri River here and buried 155,000 acres of prime Indian farmland under a reservoir, dividing a tight-knit reservation into five districts. Many tribal members wound up in this community, on higher ground. " -- Mr. Timothy Egan wrote from New Town, North Dakota for The New York Times article

What does the flag mean to you on Flay Day

audblog audio post

audblog audio post

Don't leave home without it, MP3s that is

Hitting the road this summer? Kick out your jams with a number of tech toys for music enjoyment during your summer drive here.

Tracing AIDS

"Hunting bushmeat," according to researchers, may well be the universal origin of AIDS.

The New York Times' article explains here.

observations on June Gloom

audblog audio post

From the San Diego Union-Tribune

June Gloom is one thing, but this is more like June nuclear winter.

The sun?

It's somewhere above all the gloom, which is now at least a week old and showing no signs of deglooming.

The weather is like San Francisco's, said Bill Rueda, who's from San Francisco and is spending time this week in San Diego with his wife and kids.

"We came dressed for sun," he said, "but we don't see it."

pesotum posting from poolside. there, i wrote it, and living it. redlands, calif., an hour east of l.a. bloody mary holding things steady.

U.S. E.P.A. is sued by three states

David Deegan, spokesperson for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, responded today to a three-state lawsuit, which will compel the federal agency to classify carbon dioxide as a pollutant that must be regulated.

Today's New York Times published this quote attributed to Mr. Deegan: "The president (Bush) and Administrator (Christine Todd, who announced her resignation recently) Whitman have said that carbon dioxide shouldn't be regulated as a pollutant; the science on it is more complex, and the answers are elusive right now. They support a flexible approach that will adjust for new information and technology."

The science is there and it's sound: carbon dioxide in the volume that's being released into the atmosphere today leads to global warming, which will lead to far greater consequences in the future, from negative health impacts to irrepairable damage to our environment.

The current administration is so concerned about the environment that drilling for oil in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge has become its environmental policy.

Is it not obvious that this administration's priority is not leading the world to a decent, much less ANY, policy towards good enviromental stewardship?

F.C.C. approves new media ownership rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. communications regulators on Monday narrowly approved sweeping new rules that will allow television broadcasters to expand their reach, despite fears about reducing the diversity of viewpoints.

While some in the industry said the relaxation of the rules -- some dating back the 1940s -- did not go far enough, consumer groups decried the decision and lawmakers vowed to push legislation to roll back the changes. Court challenges are all but certain, industry experts say.

See these links for very good information regarding the new relaxed media ownership rules:

Media Reform Network and The Center for Public Integrity

All roads lead to Noam



Power And Terror: Noam Chomsky In Our Times, a documentary film by John Junkerman, is a must-see for any person of any political stripe.

Mr Chomsky, a professor of linguistics at M.I.T., has a spirited disagreement with the government of the United States, its policies and actions, and based upon the movie he doesn't seem to give a shit as to whose feathers get ruffled.

Chomsky's specialty is to point out the under-reported story behind the government's line or phrase-of-the-day. And he does a great job doing that because the points he brings to bear seem so simplistic that one wonders how -- for example -- the Iraq "war" got to be such a complicated issue. According to Chomsky it's simple, and historically it's not a novel idea either: the United States sets up a dictator (in Iraq or elsewhere) because democracies would make exporting oil a lot more complicated to control, and when the dictator, who we arm and prop up, no longer becomes our puppet (read: begins thinking outside of the What's Good For U.S. Interest Box), we topple him. In the Iraq case, it was Saddam's turn. If you want historical context to what recently took place in Iraq, Chomsky would like for us to reference Panama and Afghanistan. And on the issue of hypocrisy, Mr. Chomsky believes that it takes an extraordinary amount of "discipline for educated people to ignore the atrocities" of an ally -- Turkey -- who routinely unleashes violence on Kurds in southeast Turkey. Does that sound familiar? Iraq perhaps?

The long history of U.S. double-speak in their region is what angers the Muslim world, according to Mr. Chomsky. The Muslim world lives with the effects of U.S. (double-speak) policy everyday and because of that many more Arabs rejoiced at the events of September 11th than those who denouced it. Since the vast majority of Americans feel that the world revolves around the 48 States, September 11 was a big surprise. Not to Chomsky.

pesotum movie rating: A+