Aviator

'Aviator' is the kind of spectacle that hasn't been seen much since the golden days of Hollywood. The movie plays like a sense memory with Technicolor skies, ravishing and silver planes and celebrated nightspots like the Coconut Grove with big-bands and showgirls.

But it is, first and foremost, the story of Howard Hughes (DiCaprio)...aviator, filmmaker, industrial pioneer and a man with many beautiful women in his life. He was the richest man in America in his day, but he took outrageous risks with his money, pushing his fortunes to the breaking point and beyond. As his fame and reputation grew, his personal demons did, too. He suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, was phobic about germs, and as his success grew, so did his paranoia.

Last night, another couple came over to my girl-friend's house for some wine and cheese. The guy had a really bad cold but after I mentioned that once in a while my girl-friend would get upset with something I say, he shook my hand to congratulate me with the fact that 'once in a while' was much better than he had to deal with with his girl-friend. After they left, the door hadn't closed yet, or my girl-friend was instructing me to wash my hands and take some flu medicine, assuming that I surely would get sick after touching his hands.

According to some sources, germs phobia can be triggered by myriad benign events like movies, TV, or perhaps seeing someone else experience trauma. So I maybe should refrain from showing the Aviator DVD to my girl-friend..

Dogma

Kevin Smith, a churchgoing Catholic, uses Dogma to explore a wide range of church-related issues. The film comes to a head at a church rededication in Red Hook, N.J., conducted by a cardinal who is interested in updating the way Catholicism markets itself in the modern world.

This Christmas Eve I attended a service in Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. And allthough the 'Our Father' prayer that we recited is still applicable today, I suggest that the Catholic church considers using these modernized guidelines for its followers to read and reflect upon:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's:
- Respect for Self
- Respect for other's
- Responsibility for all your actions
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Don't' let a little dispute injure a great relationship
6. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
7. Spend some time alone every day.
8. Open arms to change but don't let go of your values.
9. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
10. Live a good honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
11. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
12. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
13. Be gentle with the earth.
14. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
15. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds the need for each other.
16. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
17. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Beautiful Girls

In this entertaining drama, bar pianist Willie leaves New York City for Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts, to attend a high school reunion. He's unsure about his job and whether or not to commit to Tracy and finds his working-class buddies in a similar funk. Tommy plows snow for a living and is caught in the crossfire between his lover and a passionate affair with his married ex-girlfriend. Paul has just been ditched by Nan for a butcher and is mad that the women in town don't match the pin-ups on his wall. It takes three women to get these confused men straight about love relationships.

Natalie Portman steals the movie as a wise-beyond-her-years 13 year old. Uma Thurman lets the boys know what women really want. And Rosie O'Donnell demolishes the unreality of the typical male view of female beauty. Populated with colorful characters, this comedy hits the spot with its wry observations on sexual politics.

So what comes it all down to? Women seek love, men seek respect. Women want relationships, men want sex and love, women want commitment, men freedom. So men are sometimes reticent about getting into a relationship. Eventually though, most guys want to settle down. I think I'm ready to settle down..

Divorce Italian Style

Other than an amusing comedy, Divorce Italian Style is one part decadent nobility and two parts Bluebeard the ladykiller. Marcello Mastroianni proves he's a master of clever characters in the role of a self-style smoothie who intends to get rid of his pest of a signora and live to romance the girl next door. Divorce is unthinkable in Catholic Italy, but for this hot-blooded Romeo, where there's a will there's a way.

In the movie, our Romero is parading his wife around town in her most sexy outfit. He is hoping that this will induce the interest of other men resulting in one of them having an affair with her.

Over the last couple of weekends, I attended some holiday parties with my girl-friend. She dressed up as well and received a lot of attention. This weekend we're planning to go to a Christmas service in a Catholic church in San Francisco. This time, I'll ask her to not dress up..

Winged Migration

Do those who consider themselves free, think much about birds? It may only be after time stuck in a classroom, an office, or a prison, that someone watches them seriously.

The documentary "Winged Migration" follows five years' worth of bird migrations around the world. European turtledoves, jungle macaws, booming sage grouses in Idaho, Vietnamese black-headed ibexes: these and several dozen other species are observed, following the curve of the globe in the search of food and warmth.

The last 2 weeks of November, my parents were visiting me here in the US. As my mom really likes birds, I started to watch them more consciously when we were visiting places such as Año Nuevo State Park and the Pinnacles National Monument.

As birds are the ultimate representation of freedom, does the fact that I'm noticing birds mean that my relationship is showing long-term potential?