Year: 2005

The Drop Zone: Geneva, Illinois

Jae-Ha Kim

Who needs Main Street when you’ve got Third Street? Stretching along six blocks of downtown Geneva — and located 40 miles west of Chicago — the Third Street District offers quite the array for folks looking for a way to spend a lazy day. Full of antique shops, restaurants, confectionaries, boutiques and cafes, Geneva is both quaint and cosmopolitan. It’s the city’s quaint quotient that lured filmmakers to shoot part of Tom Hanks’ “Road to Perdition” here. (Drive along State Street and you may recognize some of the buildings.) So park your car, pull on your warm winter gear and take some time to stroll down Third Street.

`Geisha’ raises fears of stereotypical movie roles

Jae-Ha Kim

In both the book “Memoirs of a Geisha” and its film adaptation, women fall into two categories: sexy geisha and conniving dragon ladies, two stereotypes about Asian women that linger today. Already some members of the Asian-American community are worried that the film, which opens locally Friday, may reinforce unflattering images of Asian women as being submissive, sexual objects.

New Zealand lodges

Jae-Ha Kim

When people hear the word “lodge” they tend to think of something rustic. Nowhere is the fallacy of this assumption more wonderfully apparent than in stunning New Zealand, where a slew of lodges, numbering in the hundreds, are rapidly gaining in popularity. These lodges, which promote themselves with themes (nature, fishing, wine and more) in an effort to lure visitors from afar, are as sumptuous as they are varied.

Drop Zone: St. Charles, Illinois

Jae-Ha Kim

There’s nothing like an old fashioned bookstore. Sure, the warehouse-sized chains have tons of material to offer, but where’s the love there? At the 30-year-old Town House Books, the staff is knowledgeable and the setting is oh-so cozy and inviting … especially since you can smell the delicious dishes being cooked up at the store’s cafe. Weather permitting, you may sit outside with a book or newspaper while you enjoy a cup of herbal tea or coffee. But if you have the time, plan on getting lunch there. The soups are homemade, the salads are delectable and the hummus platter is generous enough to share with a friend.

‘Laguna Beach’s’ love lessons

Jae-Ha Kim

Every woman in a relationship should watch at least one episode of “Laguna Beach,” MTV’s reality series about a group of young, beautiful and rich kids from Orange County, Calif. This suggestion isn’t being made for the eye candy elements of the show — though there’s plenty. Rather, the male-female dynamics are something familiar to most women in their 20s, 30s and, yes, even 40s. And sometimes just turning on the TV can give you the dating pointers that your friends aren’t.

It takes little effort to find affordable jeans

Jae-Ha Kim

Jessica Simpson favors Escada’s designer jeans ($2,550) and Claire Danes has been known to “slum” it in a pair of Zac Posen’s limited-edition creations for 7 for All Mankind ($995). Yet most of us would like to spend $100 or less for denim. Preferably much less.