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Fifty six years ago, in 1951, the classic musical film An American In Paris was released and it is still discussed even today. This film, directed by Vincent Minelli, won the Oscar for Best Picture. It is the story of an American G.I. who stayed in Paris after WWII to pursue his dreams of becoming a successful artist and meeting Ms. Right.

Less than a month ago, I was an American in Paris, and my agenda was a tad different than Gene Kelly’s Jerry Mulligan. Now the only ones talking about it now are Mastercard and American Express, and hopefully, the Air France stewardess who took my card and said she would call. Read entire article.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of the weather here in New York. A week ago we had a searing hot spell. Before that, it was rain, rain, and still more rain. As I write this it has rained two out of every three days for a month. But sometimes rain is a good thing.

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I’m done with school, I’m out in the world with a good many of those items that we chase after and desire, now either in my possession, or they’ve become forgotten dreams, or, they are current items on my credit card statement. There’s a lot of truth to the expression, ‘been there, done that’ — and while it is not my mantra, it does fit comfortably.

But it wasn’t that long ago that hanging out in a tree fort, hikes in the forest with the dog, and Saturday afternoon at the movies were very important to me. And in those days, when it was summer, and there was no school, we’d play cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, or G I Joe. It was fun to be a good guy. You could be heroic, brave, never run of make-believe ammo, and it was exciting to emulate heroes.

Growing up on Long Island, in a North Shore commuter town about forty miles east of Manhattan, we watched TV, played baseball, and absorbed as many movies as possible. And we loved those movie heroes. And today is no different … I still love my movie heroes.

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Spring showers (sigh); unless the area where you live is suffering from a severe drought, most of you, and me too, would be happier if we had less rather than more rain every spring. But spring is the time when we finally get some good, warm, coat-free weather, and by the time the end of May rolls around, it is the time when we most often think that yes, spring is finally here, and summer is only around the corner.

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I waited nearly two months for Nadine Jansen to arrive. Not the real Nadine of course, but a visual representation viewable on my television or my computer.

As for Nicole Peters, I had to wait a little more than a month before her DVD arrived via my loyal postal carrier. With these videos, the delays were all post-production.

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Have you ever been seduced by something? By an idea, a place, or a desire that was so overpowering that you couldn’t think of anything else. Before you knew what you were doing, you had quit your job, or bought a plane ticket, or one morning, you found yourself in bed with someone, and you aren’t quite sure of how you got there. The odds are that you were lured, or seduced.

In the 1976 film Network, a savage send up of television directed by Sidney Lumet, we are introduced to the head of a news department of a fictional television network. This character, called Max Schumacher, played by William Holden, has to deal with the fact that his news division is struggling with falling ratings.

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Flying into Osaka twice, once from Tokyo, then again after a nice sojourn to Bangkok, Thailand, reminded me of the movie Black Rain which starred Michael Douglas as New York Police Detective Nick Conklin.

Black Rain appeared in the theaters way back in 1989, and has been replayed many times in my own home. Douglas was ably supported by Ken Takakura, as Japanese Detective Masahiro Matsumoto, and Andy Garcia as his sidekick, Detective Charlie Vincent.

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