Can’t afford to visit Italy this summer, eh? If a flat economy has put a damper on travel plans, then you can do the next best thing and visit vicariously, and do so from the comfort of your own home. All with help of movie magic. I’m quite fond of that certain sunny peninsula – you know, the one shaped like a boot – so I had the idea of listing the most engaging movies on that subject. Of course I then had to watch a wide variety of movies. (Thanks Netflix.) All in the line of duty as a [...]

The movie “Valkyrie” got me thinking about what might have been.  That’s the true story about the German officers who tried to kill Adolph Hitler in early 1944 in order to stop the war before their entire country was destroyed. Their plan required Hitler’s death because only then would the nation be freed from the oath of allegiance they had all individually sworn to that total whack job. A few days later I watched a related movie, a documentary on the carpet-bombing of Germany, and the two movies combined to stir me up pretty good. It’s maddening to realize how [...]

It was while soaking in my aunt’s bath-like pool admiring a particularly handsome grouping of palm trees that I realized what most people don’t “get” about Los Angeles. It’s the micro, not the macro. The long drives to get everywhere can sure suck, but the buildings and spaces that await you at the end of your drive can be pretty sweet. Little paradises within the landscape of sprawl. The moment came last July when Melody and I and daughter Gwenna had just traversed the entire L.A. basin by freeway to get to my aunt and uncle’s house in Murrieta, and [...]

Forget the fourteen hour flights and the jetlag with the associated zombie naps. Forget the crummy value of the US dollar (improving lately, though.) Life is short and the siren song of Europe beckons. Melody and I invited our two kids (age 16 and 12) to come on our trip to France. I’m happy to report that we all got along pretty well in our funky French rental car. The trip was fun, it was expensive, at times it was downright beautiful. Plus I get a column out of it. When on foot, take interesting looking detours A favorite moment [...]