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Thursday, November 8, 2007

A short trailer for the movie Dark Floors, a horror starring Finnish theatrical hard rock band Lordi, has been released.

The film, set in a hospital, follows a group of people left trapped by a broken lift as they are attacked by monsters, and focuses heavily on one particular patient, a little autistic girl.

Dark Floors, acted in English by a largely Finnish cast, cost €4.2 million (approximately US$6 million) to make. It will make its full premiere in Finland on February 8, 2008, although advance screenings will begin this year.

Lordi recently attended the Cannes Film Festival to promote the movie, where the band’s lead vocalist and frontman described it as a “traditional modern horror” and promised “horrific scenes.”

Saturday, June 24, 2006

An epic round sixteen contest between Argentina and Mexico was won by a work of genius from Maxi Rodriguez, Saturday.

Juan Sorin hit a cross-field pass to the midfield player at the top right edge of the Mexican box. Rodriguez jumped to receive the ball and, in the same moment, chested high the way it had come. He met the descending ball 25 yards out with a perfectly timed left-footed volley and the ball arrowed over Oswaldo Sanchez into the opposite corner of the net.

The evenness and excitement of the match might easily be overshadowed by the winning goal. Though the shot totals were not high – Argentina had five shots on target to Mexico’s three – the action was end to end.

Part of the reason for the excitement was while Mexico tried to keep a fast attacking pace Argentina attempted to slow the game down. There could have been more goals; both Argentina and Mexico defended well and had timely saves from their goalkeepers.

Mexico got off to the best possible start with a goal from a set-piece after five minutes. Pavel Pardo’s cross from the right touchline was flicked on by Mario Mendez and Rafael Marquez slid in to score on a half volley at the far post.

For Argentina the equalising goal five minutes later was the best possible response to going behind. A corner kick was swung in low to the near post; Hernan Crespo raised his foot, Jared Borgetti stuck out his neck and between them the ball sped past Sanchez.

The match had its moment of controversy. Just before half time the Argentine goalkeeper rolled a ball to Gabriel Heinze. Somehow his defender let it go past him to Mexican striker Jose Fonseca. Heinze lunged to bring Fonseca down. Massimo Busacca adjudged Roberto Ayala to be the last defender and spared Heinze the red card for the deliberate professional foul.

Goalkeepers at either end made match saving contributions in the second half. On 53 minutes Roberto Abbondanzieri saved a defensive a clearance that deflected off Borgetti six yards from goal. Five minutes later Javier Saviola was through on goal; he went high and hard with the shot but Sanchez stuck out a strong left palm and batted the ball away for a corner.

Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez replaced Crespo and Saviola as Argentina sought to break the deadlock. A minute from time Tevez thought he was through on goal but Ricardo Osorio got back just in time and the game was destined for another 30 minutes and that special moment in extra time.

Argentina’s win meant they would play their quarter-final match in the Olympiastadion, Berlin, against the host nation Germany on June 30.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The San Diego, California suburb of Chula Vista has responded to the recent housing crisis with an aggressive blight control ordinance that compels lenders to maintain the appearance of vacant homes. As foreclosures increase both locally and throughout the United States, the one year old ordinance has become a model for other cities overwhelmed by the problem of abandoned homes that decay into neighborhood eyesores.

Chula Vista city code enforcement manager Doug Leeper told the San Diego Union Tribune that over 300 jurisdictions have contacted his office during the past year with inquiries about the city’s tough local ordinance. Coral Springs, Florida, and California towns Stockton, Santee, Riverside County, and Murietta have all modeled recently enacted anti-blight measures after Chula Vista’s. On Wednesday, 8 October, the Escondido City Council also voted to tighten local measures making lenders more accountable for maintenance of empty homes.

Under the Chula Vista ordinance lenders become legally responsible for upkeep as soon as a notice of mortgage default gets filed on a vacant dwelling, before actual ownership of the dwelling returns to the lender. Leeper regards that as “the cutting-edge part of our ordinance”. Chula Vista also requires prompt registration of vacant homes and applies stiff fines as high as US$1000 per day for failure to maintain a property. Since foreclosed properties are subject to frequent resale between mortgage brokers, city officials enforce the fines by sending notices to every name on title documents and placing a lien on the property, which prevents further resale until outstanding fines have been paid. In the year since the ordinance went into effect the city has applied $850,000 in fines and penalties, of which it has collected $200,000 to date. The city has collected an additional $77,000 in registration fees on vacant homes.

Jolie Houston, an attorney in San Jose, believes “Lenders will respond when it costs them less to maintain the property than to ignore local agency requirements.” Traditionally, local governments have resorted to addressing blight problems on abandoned properties with public funds, mowing overgrown lawns and performing other vital functions, then seeking repayment afterward. Chula Vista has moved that responsibility to an upfront obligation upon lenders.

As one of the fastest growing cities in the United States during recent years, Chula Vista saw 22.6% growth between 2000 and 2006, which brought the city’s population from 173,556 in the 2000 census to an estimated 212,756, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Chula Vista placed among the nation’s 20 fastest growing cities in 2004. A large proportion of local homes were purchased during the recent housing boom using creative financing options that purchasers did not understand were beyond their means. Average home prices in San Diego County declined by 25% in the last year, which is the steepest drop on record. Many homeowners in the region currently owe more than their homes are worth and confront rising balloon payment mortgages that they had expected to afford by refinancing new equity that either vanished or never materialized. In August 2008, Chula Vista’s eastern 91913 zip code had the highest home mortgage default rate in the county with 154 filings and 94 foreclosures, an increase of 154% over one year previously. Regionally, the county saw 1,979 foreclosures in August.

Professionals from the real estate and mortgage industries object to Chula Vista’s response to the crisis for the additional burdens it places on their struggling finances. Said San Diego real estate agent Marc Carpenter, “that kind of measure will add additional costs to banks that have been hit really hard already and ultimately the cost will be transferred down to consumers and investors.” Yet city councils in many communities have been under pressure to do something about increasing numbers of vacant properties. Concentrations of abandoned and neglected homes can attract vandals who hasten the decline of struggling neighborhoods. Jolie Houston explained that city officials “can’t fix the lending problem, but they can try to prevent neighborhoods from becoming blighted.”

CEO Robert Klein of Safeguard, a property management firm, told the Union Tribune that his industry is having difficulty adapting to the rapidly changing local ordinances. “Every day we discover a new ordinance coming out of somewhere”, he complained. Dustin Hobbs, a spokesman from the California Association of Mortgage Bankers agreed that uneven local ordinances are likely to increase the costs of lending. Hobbs advised that local legislation is unnecessary due to California State Senate Bill 1137, which was recently approved to address blight. Yet according to Houston, the statewide measure falls short because it fails to address upkeep needs during the months between the time when foreclosure begins and when the lender takes title.