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ABBA The Museum opens in Stockholm

Tuesday, May 7, 2013 by:angelico@sfgate.com (AdminSF)
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They’ve sold over 379 million records, inspired a hit musical and earned a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And now, some three decades after their split, the sweethearts of Swedish pop have added another triumph to their list of achievements — ABBA The Museum.

The museum, which opened today in Stockholm, traces Björn, Agnetha, Frida and Benny’s glittery trajectory, from their start in 1970 to the final bow in 1983. Its goal: make visitors feel as if they’re the fifth member of ABBA.

Memorabilia lovers certainly won’t be disappointed. As expected, goodies such as the band’s instruments, gold records and over-the-top costumes are on display. But it is the museum’s interactive exhibits that steal the spotlight.

Walk in. Dance out.

Visitors can belt out ABBA tunes onstage with a hologram version of the group, mix a song in the Polar Studio and strut their stuff on a flashing disco dance floor. Another unique attraction is a self-playing piano that is linked to founding member Benny Andersson’s studio. When Andersson plays the piano in his studio, the museum’s counterpart plays as well.

“The new museum will give a complete picture of the band, the music and the incredible success we experienced in the ‘70s and ‘80s, something that we haven’t been able to present until now. It will be like an experience-based music documentary that invites the visitor backstage as well as on and in front of the stage,” said ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus.

And the Scandinavian musical experience doesn’t stop with ABBA. The museum shares space with the Swedish Music Hall of Fame, which chronicles the evolution of music in Sweden from the 1920s to the present.

More information about ABBA The Museum is available at www.abbathemuseum.com.

— Laurie Isola

Video: Magic Johnson’s son comes out as gay

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 by:angelico@sfgate.com (AdminSF)
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Earvin Johnson III is out and about with his boyfriend, not afraid of what anyone says. I guess it’s because he knows that his family will always support him. His dad is very proud of his son, sources say.

Twitter buzzing about Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 by:angelico@sfgate.com (AdminSF)
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Couple kidnaps handyman, forces him to do home repair

Thursday, December 6, 2012 by:angelico@sfgate.com (AdminSF)
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ABOVE: This image released by Santa Clara County Sheriff’s department shows Chanelle Troedson. Troedson and Jason DeJesus were arrested and booked on Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, for investigation of kidnapping, false imprisonment, criminal threats, carjacking,conspiracy and assault. They are accused of luring a Northern California handyman to a home, punching him in the face and telling him to fix a dishwasher or die. Photo: Santa Clara County Sheriff / AP

By Ellen Huet, SFgate.com,

A California couple was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and assaulting a San Jose handyman, holding him hostage for eight hours and forcing him to do home repairs before he finally escaped, authorities said Wednesday.

The bizarre tale began two months ago, when the 50-year-old handyman did repair work on the water heater of a woman in Santa Clara, said Sgt. Jose Cardoza, a spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff.

He finished the work and was paid for the parts but not for the labor, leading to a back-and-forth exchange between the handyman and the woman, Cardoza said.

Then, late last week, the handyman got a call from Jason DeJesus, 36, a relative of the Santa Clara woman. He asked the handyman to come to his house, where he would be paid the money he was owed, and could do some repair work for DeJesus.

The handyman agreed, arriving Monday morning at DeJesus’ home on Caldwell Court, where DeJesus lived with a woman, 33-year-old Chanelle Troedson, Cardoza said.

Once he entered the home, the handyman was punched in the face and threatened with death, Cardoza said.

“They didn’t use weapons or firearms, but more than anything, he was scared,” Cardoza said. “He thought he was being held captive.”

The pair forced the man to repair their dishwasher and do other household work, Cardoza said. Then, around 5:30 p.m. Monday, they forced him into his own car and drove off with DeJesus at the wheel.

The man managed to get away about an hour later when the couple stopped at a gas station in San Jose and went into a convenience store, Cardoza said, adding the victim phoned police who apprehended the suspects as they tried to drive away from the gas station.

Both were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, false imprisonment, carjacking, criminal threats, conspiracy and assault with a deadly weapon. Cardoza explained that even though no weapons were used, assaults by hand can be considered deadly if they are repeated over a long period of time.

Larry Hagman, TV’s J.R., left behind “Heaven” on earth

Tuesday, November 27, 2012 by:angelico@sfgate.com (AdminSF)
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“I have an apartment in New York, a ranch in Santa Fe, a castle in Ojai outside of L.A., a beach house in Malibu and thinking of buying a place in Santa Monica,” Larry Hagman, who died the day after Thanksgiving, once told the Chicago Tribune.

Playing J.R. Ewing on the soap Dallas made Hagman one of the highest-paid TV actors, and just before his death he was earning still more, filming for the reprise of the series focusing on the next Ewing generation. Like his character, Hagman invested some of his money in oil. Those investments didn’t do well — but he did manage to amass a real estate portfolio that would have made the Ewing family proud. The late actor’s most visible property was the mountaintop estate in Ojai, in Ventura county.

Part of the reason the Ojai estate is highly visible is that it’s for sale. The listing describes it as a 7-bedroom, 10-bathroom villa with an ocean view on 43 acres, including an avocado orchard. It’s listed for $6.5 million. CarProperty.com notes that it has five garage spaces — hardly Romney-esque, but surely adequate for the average oil or TV drama baron. According to the Ventura County Star, Hagman and his longtime wife Maj called the estate “Heaven.” That’s right — whatever your beliefs about the afterlife, Hagman has already been to heaven — and he wanted to sell it.

The newspaper reported that Hagman and his wife bought the property in 1987 and turned a small house with two large garages into a 23,000-square-foot Tuscany-style compound, with such quirky details as a Harley Davidson motorcycle in the living room. Unfortunately, that piece of decor is not in the listing photos, so it must have been removed for staging purposes. There’s also a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom guest house. Two outdoor pools — a long winding one and a grotto-style spa — supplemented the indoor lap pool and Jacuzzi, the newspaper said. Regular parties the couple held included fundraisers for Sen. Barbara Boxer.

The property’s Web site, Heaven in Ojai, includes a video tour narrated by Hagman. In it, he says that when his wife started renovating and expanding the modest home originally on the property, he expected to end up with maybe a 4-bedroom home. (Talk about scope creep.) He explains how handy the helipad is for both fire safety and for getting out of town quickly. He also describes his $800,000 solar panel system, which the site says is the largest private home solar system in the United States.

Larry Hagman. (Associated Press)

Of course, Ojai isn’t the only property associated with Hagman. Since his death, tourist visits have been up at Southfork Ranch in Dallas, where Hagman’s famously black-hearted character JR lived with the rest of the Ewing clan on the show.

Soutfork Ranch (SouthforkRanch.com)

Guy Fieri responds to scathing Times review: ‘There was another agenda’ [Video]

Thursday, November 15, 2012 by:angelico@sfgate.com (AdminSF)
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By Paolo Lucchesi, SFGate.com

This morning on the Today Show, the shoe that everyone was waiting to drop finally dropped: Guy Fieri responded to New York Times critic Pete Wells’ zero-star bloodbath of a review of his Times Square restaurant, Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar. After all, when a (now viral) review consists of 34 questions, Fieri’s answers were all but inevitable.

Fieri — the Food Network star who rose to fame in the Bay Area and still boasts several local restaurants — says he flew all night to be on the show, calling the review “ridiculous” and “overboard” and that “it really seemed like there was another agenda.”

The full video is below, and Fieri went on to criticize tone and sarcasm of the review, questioning the four visits to a restaurant two months old. The timing is something he circles back to several times, without acknowledging that two months is pretty standard for restaurant critics these days. He does ackowledge that his restaurant isn’t perfect, but that he is “striving to do it perfect.” So he’s in search of the perfect Donkey Sauce. He also brags that they makes the cedar plank salmon and burger by hand. Top that, restaurants of New York City.

Fieri, who acknowledged many times that his restaurant isn’t perfect, had this final argument:

I’m doing the type of food America loves and I’m doing it the right way … To me it’s impossible to come in and have a dining experience and have every single thing wrong.,unless you come in with a different agenda and want to sensationalize something and you want to … It’s a great way to make a name for yourself.

Thoughts? Does this make you want to try his Bay Area restaurants? He currently has Johnny Garlic’s locations in Santa Rosa, Windsor, Roseville, Dublin and San Jose. He also owns Tex Wasabi in Santa Rosa and Sacramento.

Here is today’s six-minute segment in its entirety:

[via MSNBC]

Amid Sandy’s Devastation, ‘Jersey Shore’ House Looks OK

Tuesday, November 6, 2012 by:angelico@sfgate.com (AdminSF)
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Despite the damage Superstorm Sandy wrought in Seaside Heights, NJ, somehow the house where Snooki, JWoww and the rest of the “Jersey Shore” cast wasted away youthful summers still stands, apparently unscathed.

Elsewhere in Seaside Heights, media reports paint a picture of devastation, with the boardwalk wrecked and a roller coaster falling into the ocean. While owner Danny Merk told ABC News he hadn’t been back to check on his vacant property, he guessed that the basement was flooded. But from outside, the house looked OK.

In better times, the property had been offered as a party rental by Seaside Realty, promised “a once in a life time opportunity to have your Graduation, Sweet Sixteen, Bachelor or Birthday party in one of the hottest properties on the East Coast.” The house is described in the rental listing as having six bedrooms, three bathrooms and 1,884 square feet. The price is listed at $2,500 a night, including a security guard. Included at no charge are the indelible mental images of flying wine bottles and “smushing” and the sound of F-bombs being bleeped.

The cast did endure storms during their summers at the house — this Season 5 clip shows them fleeing inside from thunder and lightning — but never anything like Sandy.

The house was vacant at the time of the Superstorm Sandy, according to press reports.

Carrie Kirby is a freelance writer who recently returned to the Bay Area after living for six years in Chicago. Carrie is more heavily invested in real estate than she ever expected to be, since she and her husband are now long-distance landlords of their Chicago home, and have also purchased a house in Alameda. She posts about interesting properties and real estate trends in San Francisco and Silicon Valley every Tuesday. Carrie also shares money-saving tips on her blog, Frugalistic Mom.

Amityville Horror house on the market

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 by:angelico@sfgate.com (AdminSF)
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Just in time for Halloween, the home made famous by the Amityville Horror movie is up for sale – and has been for a while.

Located in Toms River, NJ, the house was where the cult film was shot.  The real haunted home though is in the neighboring state, according to AOL Real Estate:

The horror movie…was based on the real-life story of the Lutz family, who bought an allegedly haunted house in Amityville, on New York’s Long Island, in 1975. Thirteen months before the Lutzes moved in, a man named Ronald DeFeo Jr. had shot and killed six members of his family at the house. According to the Lutzes, they were victim to demonic, paranormal activity inside the home and left after living there for only 28 days.

The 4 bedroom, 3 full & 2 half bath home is asking $935,000 after slashing its price multiple times from the original list price of $1.45 million when it came on the market last year.  Since the cult horror movie was released in 1979, many updates and modifications have been done to the property; the once pie-shaped windows on either side of the brick chimney are now square and the roof has lost its angles.

The current owners of the house, Odalys and Jose Fragoso, purchased the colonial in 2001 and are selling because of divorce.

“My husband and I are getting a divorce,” Odalys Fragoso told CNN. “It’s not that the house is haunted or anything.”

Despite the price cuts, it’s still up for grabs.  Perhaps the home’s link to the movie has spooked out most home buyers.

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