There is more to the Chinese Zodiac than a hippety hop into year 4708 for people born under the sign of rabbit.Rabbit babies are private, introverted and withdrawn. Or quietly charismatic, thoughtful and calm? It is hard to generalize a destiny using a centuries-old system based on natural elements, marked by fixed colors and assigned a dozen animals as they correspond to the hour, date, month an

Arts & Design Jan. 12, 2011

HONG KONG (AP) ― Jiang Wen’s latest film has earned rare box-office success in the sensitive genre of Chinese political satire, but theories are flying that it accomplishes much more: eluding strict censorship to criticize China’s current government.Set in the chaotic years after the collapse of imperial rule, “Let the Bullets Fly” tells the story of a Robin Hood-like bandit who kidnaps a con man

Film Jan. 12, 2011

Salsa and cha-cha build endurance, and the tango improves muscle control and posture.Any doubts about the transformative abilities of ballroom dance should be quashed after watching one season of “Dancing With the Stars” and seeing celebrities going from flabby to fit in a matter of weeks.Sure, they’re rehearsing five to six hours a day, week after week. But the spins, turns, lifts, kicks and fast

Arts & Design Jan. 12, 2011

SAN JOSE, California ― Until Amy met the man of her dreams, and the two of them had publicly sanctified their love ― going into escrow together on a house ― it never occurred to her that the greatest danger to their happiness would turn out to be one of her best friends.Amy had developed a warm ― but completely platonic ― friendship with another man, and that caused a “huge blowout about whether o

Arts & Design Jan. 12, 2011

LAS VEGAS ― At the International Consumer Electronics Show, the massive annual expo in Las Vegas devoted to the hard sell of high tech, it’s just assumed that the next big thing is always better than what came before. That’s why director Oliver Stone managed to sound lonely in a crowded room Saturday when he suggested that, for cinema, the future just doesn’t look so bright.“Watching my children a

Film Jan. 11, 2011

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) ― Hundreds of Elvis Presley fans, including Chilean miner Edison Pena, gathered at Graceland to sing “Happy Birthday” on the late rock ‘n’ roll icon’s 76th birthday.Pena, the guest of honor at Elvis’ birthday party, cut into a 1.2-meter-high cake fashioned to look like stacked television sets as fans cheered both the singer and the miner outside Elvis’ longtime Memphis home

Performance Jan. 9, 2011

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico ― While the rest of Mexico is in turmoil, the good times keep on rollin’ at Cabo San Lucas.Landing at the tourist destination at the very southern tip of Baja California, it seems like you’re in a parallel world. Here’s an Applebee’s, a downtown mall, a Home Depot and pristine beaches as far as you can see.With only 4 percent unemployment, Cabo is safe compared to much of th

Travel Jan. 7, 2011

 GREENVILLE, Illinois ― Throughout their 170 years in Southern Illinois, the Marcoot family has adapted.The original settler, Martin Markut, was a schoolteacher before he made the arduous journey from Switzerland to the heartland of America. Over the years, Martin’s descendants changed the spelling of their name, mechanized, industrialized, moved from the Highland area to Greenville, downsized and

Food Jan. 7, 2011

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― As Michael Jackson’s lifeless body lay on a bed in his palatial mansion, a bodyguard obeyed a frantic doctor’s instructions to bag up medicine bottles and intravenous bags and shield the Jackson children from seeing their father ― all before being told to call emergency services, court testimony revealed Wednesday.Alberto Alvarez said he was the first security guard to reach Jac

Performance Jan. 6, 2011

LOS ANGELES ― Maybe 2011 is the year a clean start means returning to Grandma’s scrubbing ways and getting down on hands knees with simple baking soda and vinegar. Or maybe it means staring down that supermarket aisle of cleaning products and making better choices about the dizzying selection of powders and liquids that claim not only to clean but also to be healthy for people and the planet. Sust

Arts & Design Jan. 6, 2011