Leslie's gift

I wrapped Leslie's birthday gift into a short movie.

Volunteermatch - a great idea

Do you want to go out and do something good? The solution can be found in cyberspace. Volunteer Match the nonprofit, online service that helps interested volunteers get involved with community service organizations throughout the United States. Volunteers enter their ZIP code on the web site to quickly find local volunteer opportunities matching individual interests and schedules. This simple, effective service has already generated over a million volunteer referrals nationwide. Categories include, among others, human rights, animals, arts & leisure, environment, sports & recreation, religion, children and ethnicity-related issues. In addition there a tons of possibilities for "virtual volunteering" - volunteering from "virtually" anywhere just by using the computer.

Switzerland: European retreat for militants?

Switzerland could become a retreat in the heart of Europe for radical Islamic groups and other militant organisations that are banned in neighbouring countries, Swiss federal police warned. According to its 2003 report on internal security the country is vulnerable to the growing violence of a wide range of extremist groups even if it is not directly targeted. Apart from terror groups, police cited domestic security concerns surrounding Albanian, Macedonian, Turkish, Kurd, Sri Lankan Tamil and Middle Eastern militant groups, as well as active right wing and left-wing extremists. Switzerland’s reputation as a stable financial haven has added to its vulnerability to money laundering.

Ingenious new Jarmusch movie

I just watched Jim Jarmusch's (bio,filmography) latest movie "Coffee and Cigarettes" (trailer). Ingenious film, great cast! It took Jarmusch 17 years to finish the picture, which began as a short skit for “Saturday Night Live” and evolved into a series of 11 vignettes that revolve around conversations between different characters as they smoke cigarettes or sip coffee. BTW: Actor Roberto Benigni (love him) was 34 when he filmed his part (the same year he also did one of my all-time favorites, "Down By Law" with Jarmusch, now he's 51. The New York Times writes: "The implication that beauty and meaning can be found in odd places at unlikely, idle moments resonates through this lovely film. - Movie reviews here and here, Jarmusch interview .

Raising global military spending

Global military spending rose to $956 billion in 2003, with the U.S. accounting for 47 percent of the total, followed by Japan with 5 percent, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which called the 11 percent increase from 2002 "remarkable".

Lawsuit against U.S. companies in Iraq abuse scandal

According to the Los Angeles Times eight Iraqis filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday claiming that employees of two American contractors subjected them to abuse in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, including electric shocks, rape, and torture. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, alleges that employees of San Diego-based Titan National Security Solutions and Virginia-based CACI International, contracted for interpretation and interrogation services respectively, systematically tortured prisoners to extract more information and increase the firms' chances of winning future contracts.
Titan executives called the lawsuit "frivolous." They said the U.S. government had not informed Titan of any wrongdoing by either the company or its employees. Titan has a contract to provide interpretation services to U.S. government and military officials in Iraq and elsewhere. The company, whose shareholders approved a $1.66-billion buyout offer this week from defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., earns most of its revenue from government contracts. CACI, with a market value of $1.1 billion, has bought 26 companies since the 1990s, many specializing in the defense industry. Their company slogan: "Technology that supports America's future". - More here and here .

Bike ride on Venice Beach

Just went for a bike ride on Venice Beach...There is nothing like it.. (live webcam , forecast)

Swiss memories

Alas, these days in Switzerland! The fondue orgies, the waterpipe sessions, the night with the steak dudes, the family gatherings...

Great source for trends

Wanna know what the latest trends in arts & leisure, food & drinks, fashion, and fun are? Get the free daily e-mail service of DailyCandy. The website of Dany Levy is the ultimate source for the latest need-to-know information about (almost) everything. It's like getting an e-mail from your clever, unpredictable and totally in-the-know best friend who always has the scoop. DailyCandy comes in four flavours: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Everywhere - and kids.

Bush helped Saudis escape after 9/11

Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation's air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left. The men, one of them thought to be a member of the Saudi royal family, were accompanied by a former FBI agent and a former Tampa police officer on the flight to Lexington, Ky. The Saudis then took another flight out of the country. The two ex-officers returned to TIA a few hours later on the same plane.
For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose. But now, at the request of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, TIA officials have confirmed that the flight did take place and have supplied details.
The odyssey of the small LearJet 35 is part of a larger controversy over the hasty exodus from the United States in the days immediately after 9/11 of members of the Saudi royal family and relatives of Osama bin Laden. The terrorism panel, better known as the 9/11 Commission, said in April that it knew of six chartered flights with 142 people aboard, mostly Saudis, that left the United States between Sept. 14 and 24, 2001. But it has said nothing about the Tampa flight.

A "few bad apples"?

The torture of the prisoner in Iraq - only the work of "a few bad apples" in the U.S. army, as Bush put it? In its report titled "The Road To Abu Ghraib" The international advocacy group Human Rights Watch concludes that the Bush administration covered up the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and "circumvented" the Geneva Convention.

Morbid movies

Shakespeare in the Park? That's for wusses. Out here in L.A., we prefer Movies in the Cemetery. Not just any movies. And not just any cemetery, either. Cinespia, an organization that shows rarely screened classics in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, is the coolest way you'll find to spend a Saturday night in this town. Imagine enjoying a picnic dinner under the stars while watching cinematografical masterpieces. Add great DJs and a friendly vibe, all within a tombstone's throw of the graves of Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, and John Huston, and you've got an event that puts your usual dinner-and-a-movie plans to shame. Cinespia's next screening, Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly", is on Saturday, June 19 at 9 p.m.

New home

Here we are. Since April 2 we have been living in this great house in Highland Park district (map) of Los Angeles. A incredible place. Sunny, spacious, lots of green, charming, lots of character. It reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Fernando Pessoa:

I sleep. If I dream. I do not know on waking.
What it was I dreamt.
I sleep. If I do not dream, I waken
In a open space
I do not recognize, because I woke
To what I still don't know.
And never waking.

Here are some impressions...