History movie theatre reopened

Great architecture, fantastic program - the real movie experience.

Yea! One of the most unique and charming movie theatres in the L.A. area, the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, is now open again after a lengthy rehabilitation. The once-threatened architectonic jewel was built in 1939 by aeronautical pioneer Donald Douglas as a recreation facility for his employees during World War II. While his aircraft plant was operating 24 hours a day, the Aero did the same, so that workers could see movies any time during their off-hours. The movie theatre is operated now by the American Cinematheque which will use three-quarter of the programming from its Hollywood base at the Egyptian Theatre. It is one of the few remaining single-screen neighborhood theaters in the Los Angeles area. On the program of this month are classics like "Lawrence of Arabia", "A Space Odyssey", "Forty Guns" and "Solaris". Can't wait to go!

Confirmed rumor of the day

Shock! What the tabloid press has been reporting for quite a while is true: Hollywood glamour couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have marriage problems. Even worse: Today they announced that they have split. Yahoo News reports:

"We would like to announce that after seven years together we have decided to formally separate," the couple said in a joint statement released by Pitt's publicist. The couple didn't indicate if they planned to file for divorce. The separation, first reported on People magazine's Web site, comes 4 1/2 years after the couple's Malibu wedding and after months of speculation that their marriage was in trouble. Aniston has recently been photographed in public without her diamond-studded wedding ring, according to People, although the magazine said the couple had spent the New Year's weekend together on the Caribbean island of Anguilla with Aniston's former "Friends" co-star Courteney Cox and her husband, actor David Arquette.

Sex talk changes

Very interesting! A new study shows that the way man and women talk about sex and sexual issues has changed dramatically in the past 15 years.

Researchers say men and women still don't seem to see eye to eye when it comes to sensitive sexual subjects. In the study of the University of Florida, which appeared in a recent issue of "Sex Roles: A Journal of Research", results showed that men and women differed significantly in terms of what types of sex talk they viewed most favorably and negatively. The most favorably rated sexual terms among women were orgasm, vaginal sex, sexual intercourse, virginity, masturbation, oral sex, pro-choice, pregnancy, erection, and heterosexual. Among men, the most positively rated sexual terms were sexual monogamy, virginity, orgasm, vaginal sex and heterosexual.
The biggest gender differences in perceptions of sex talk were found for 12 often controversial sexual terms that elicited strong visceral responses from the study participants.
For example, researchers found men rated the following words more positively than women: Feminist,gay, heterosexual, sexual assault. Women, however, rated the following terms more positively than men: breast enlargement, erection, internet sex,
oral sex, pornography, syphilis, transgender.

I wonder if a thorough reread of the book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" will help me to understand...

Record spending for lobbying in Washington

From the L.A. Times (for those who don't have an account with these major U.S. newspapers, don't want to give their personal information and still want to read the full text version of the articles - this great website helps you to log-in in a anonymous way!):

As President Bush campaigned for reelection pledging to protect doctors and insurance companies from patient lawsuits while easing the tax burden on businesses, industry groups spent record amounts of money lobbying to influence the White House, Congress and their constituents. According to public records filed with the Senate, industry groups spent $1.1 billion on lobbyists and advertising campaigns for the first half of 2004, a new record. The top spenders were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Medical Association. According to the watchdog group PoliticalMoneyLine.com, the two groups spent a combined $39 million to advocate medical liability limits.

Tsunami update

Horrible. The death toll from the Asian tsunami catastrophy climbed dramatically to 147,000. Again: here is a list of agencies that are mobilizing to help the victims.

Rumor of the day

In was all over the news: Popstar Madonna apparently renewed her wedding vows with husband Guy Ritchie after only four years of marriage. British newspaper The Sun claimed the couple exchanged rings in a Kabbalah ceremony on their fourth wedding anniversary on December 22 in their Wiltshire country estate in England. The "Material Girl" has now denied everything. "No truth to it at all. We are working like a normal working class couple. Ha ha."

GOP got more bang for its billion

The Washington Post has some interesting insights about last year's most important political topic:

The 2004 presidential race was the most expensive in history. While Republicans did outspend Democrats - $1.14 billion to $1.08 billion - the difference wasn't that much. Despite their fundraising success, Democrats simply did not spend their money as effectively as Bush. In a $2.2 billion election, two relatively small expenditures by Bush and his allies stand out for their impact: the $546,000 ad buy by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the Bush campaign's $3.25 million contract with the firm TargetPoint Consulting.(...) Those tactical successes were part of the overall advantage the Bush campaign maintained over Kerry in terms of planning, decision making and strategy. The Kerry campaign, in addition to being outspent at key times, was outorganized and outthought, as Democratic professionals grudgingly admit.

White paradise

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

California and snow?? No way. Amtrak travellers between Los Angeles and San Francisco know it better - they glide through a beautiful white paradise in these days. I admit it: only on higher altitudes.
Believe it or not, Los Angeles has seen snowflakes, too, although only 20 times in the last 100 years. According to the Weather Network more than 2 inches (5 cm) of snow fell during the morning of January 15, 1932, the most ever recorded on one day in Los Angeles.

Albert Hammond was wrong

Remember the song he wrote: "It never rains in California"? Yeah, right! The weather forecast proves he made it all up: More rain and storms are expecting us in the next couple of days...

The new attorney general - a torture's promoter?

Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's nominee to succeed John Ashcroft as attorney general, told the Senate Judiciary Committee today during the confirmation hearing that he never would approve torture tactics for prisoners. Gonzales defended himself against allegations that he had helped craft administration policies that contributed to abuses of military prisoners in Cuba and Iraq. Bob Herbert of the New York Times thinks that's all just wishi-washi:

Mr. Gonzales shouldn't be allowed anywhere near that office. His judgments regarding the detention and treatment of prisoners rounded up in Iraq and the so-called war on terror have been both unsound and shameful. Some of the practices that evolved from his judgments were appalling, gruesome, medieval. But this is the Bush administration, where incompetence and outright failure are rewarded with the nation's highest honors.(...) There are few things more dangerous than a mixture of power, arrogance and incompetence. In the Bush administration, that mixture has been explosive. Forget the meant-to-be-comforting rhetoric surrounding Mr. Gonzales's confirmation hearings. Nothing's changed. As detailed in The Washington Post earlier this month, the administration is making secret plans for the possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists who will never even be charged.

Farewell to the christmas tree

Xmas is over, the tree has to go. But where - and how? The christmas tree recyling hotline of Los Angeles knows the answers.

Googlezon: The future of media

Convinced that today's media industry is in for dramatic turmoil? This CNET article has some interesting predictions:

The scenario: Within ten years from today Google and Amazon merge, forcing the beacon of mainstream media to go offline and sue the Googlezon colossus in the United States Supreme Court for violation of copyright law. In an eight-minute flash presentation, the Museum of Media History presents its picture for how the Fourth Estate will be toppled by participatory journalism, aided by the titans of the Internet industry. According to the clip, that sets the stage for dramatic changes in how people consume - and make - their news and information. Sony and Philips announce the first mass-produced electronic paper; Microsoft unveils a social news filter Newsbot; and Amazon unveils its own search engine. Awash in cash from going public, Google acquires TiVo in 2005. The following year sees the emergence of the Google Grid, which allows consumers to access an unlimited amount of storage and bandwidth to share media. Google and Amazon merge in 2008 and trump Microsoft's competitive efforts with an algorithm that allows computers to construct news stories dynamically tailored to each individual user.

A daily dose beach

Years might go by - the pacific is always here. Webcam from Hermosa Beach, California.