Pedro Almodovar has developed a well deserved reputation for being the world's top women's director. He is one of the few men working in film today who consistently writes rich, deep and interesting roles in his mostly female dominated scripts. Nowhere is his tender affection and admiration for the “fairer sex” more vivid than last year's Volver, a film with quiet and simple charms that has won me over more and more the longer I think about it.

The story doesn't stray so much from many of the standard Almodovar themes of loss, friendship, family, and the past. The shots are beautiful, the plot is unexpected and the cast, especially Penelope Cruz, absolutely shine. As his longtime muse, Cruz has graced the screen in several of his films, but this is by far her greatest performance. Everyone involved handles the emotions of losing people you love and the magic of second chances with grace and wit.

Like all of his movies, do not come to it with any expectations, as the film will always and, inevitably, be surprising. I have a lot of affection for this movie and the Almodovar catalog, I do hope you see it along with his other work. I recommend starting with this and 1988's equally brilliant Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

See what this town can do to people when it's hot and sticky? Poor Mark Sebastian, brother of the awesome John Sebastian, was so fed up with getting dirty and gritty from his summer spent in New York he was compelled to complain about it in song.

Summer in the City, despite it's upbeat chorus, is somewhat ominous and claustrophobic with its recordings of street noises which let you feel Mark's pain at being stuck in 90 degree weather with a jackhammer outside your window. At least his nights were fun.

I was pretty much obsessed with sk8r boys as a young impressionable. I devoured the random Thrashers I would find at boy friend's houses (as in a friend who is a boy, not a boyfriend). In those precious pages, Gator was always the cutest BUT then he killed a girl and wasn't anymore. And though Tony Hawk was okay, he was a bit too popular (young girls who think they're unique never go for the most popular dudes, it's gotta be Jonathan Knight over Joey McIntyre; John Taylor over Simon Le Bon).

I never saw Stacy Peralta growing up, he was a generation before my time, but if I had seen him I would have been a devoted follower and cried in the night just thinking of the day we could be together. He would have been the ultimate big deal skater boy of the illustrious skater boy type I thought was my dream and my destiny.

I so wanted one of my own, I even insisted one slightly nerdy kid get a skater hair cut so that I could date him. He did and other girls began to like him and then he lost interest in me.

There weren't many real skaters at my school so my friends and I would ogle the skater boys from other schools at Acacia Park, once one even flashed us his balls. I did finally end up dating one and that pretty much cured me of my obsession.

To this day however, I feel little butterflies in the stomach for an adorable boy on a skate board. And I still regret the teen age fantasies I could have indulged in if Peralta were in more prominent in Thrasher magazines from the early 1990s.

A tribute to women of Italian cinema just concluded at BAM and raven haired beauty Claudia Cardinale was one of the ladies being honored. Sure, she was weak when it came to speaking English (see Don't Make Waves with Tony Curtis) but there's no denying the stunning looks of this doe eyed vixen.

But don't mistake her for vacant, she is a major humanitarian with pro-gay and pro-women stances, and she gave many commanding and serious performances over her career. You might recognize her from any one of her many, many films including the spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West. My favorite is 8 1/2. Plus, she is downright gorgeous.

Mike and Shaun never fail to amaze me with their homemade ice creams, this one has got to be the best though. Here is the recipe.

The much talked about Mythic Creatures show is up at the AMNH and sold out constantly (get your tickets before heading down or you will be turned out of the exhibit). It's all the spectacle and pizzazz you could imagine (well, for a museum show) and well worth the admission, but all the glitter of the show also feels a bit tacky and convoluted.

Some of the statues are great looking, and the actual information buried beneath the theme park stylings can be quite interesting. For example, did you know there are birds big enough to be a threat to young children? There are also a couple hands-on displays, like a computer program that lets you build a dragon of your own design which a bunch of kids were very excited about.

You'll feel excited too after such an entertaining show, but I still had a much more awe-inspired time in the old school Hall of Forestry and in the silent Hall of Audubon paintings and with the breathtaking full scale panoramas of taxidermy animals. These quieter parts of the museum, displaying hand made scenes, intricately rendered wildlife studies, and taxidermy are so special and I hope they stay in place forever.

The new exhibits are fun and entertaining, but personally, they could never take the place of such beautiful work and such engaging education.

One of the most famous (and certainly one of the most visited) cemeteries in the world, P?re Lachaise Cemetery is the final resting place of bon vivant Oscar Wilde; “Bigger” Thomas creator Richard Wright; fictitious pilferer Jean Valjean; pot brownie chef Alice B. Toklas; mall frame shop favorite Georges Seurat; A Trip to the Moon visionary Georges M?li?s; French literary luminaries Marcel Proust and Balzac; Edith Piaf; Napolean's mistress's heart and the empty urn that held Maria Callas's ashes before they were stolen.

But when Fred and I visited in 1998, there was only one grave we were really interested in checking out: the Lizard King's. I don't know if you've ever seen the Doors movie, but at the very end there's a shot of Morrison's grave and, even more than the spot in the park where John Lennon was shot, for a young gentleman like myself, a trip to Paris would have been truly incomplete without a sojourn to this sacred spot.

The first thing that struck me is that Oliver Stone made it look a lot cooler on film. This section of the cemetery is super congested with both the living and the dead; misguided youths from all over the world loiter around the tomb, muttering the same sullen complaints and obvious observations in a dozen different languages, but there's not really a lot of space for these kids to reflect in–it's not a monument at all, just another grave packed into an overcrowded cemetery. And that awesome bust you saw in the movie: gone. Even dead I guess Morrison's still a pain in the ass, there's tons of graffiti all over the otherwise gorgeous grounds pointing the way to his tomb and Doors “fans” continue to deface not only the dark poet's, but all the nearby plots as well. What a bunch of jerks (and by jerks I mean misunderstood kids).

It was a rainy day when we visited and both of us had outgrown our serious Doors phases long ago, we wandered the sprawling grounds for some time and checked out Oscar Wilde's grave. Then we mis-qouted some Smiths lyrics. Then I remember feeling damp and cranky. Then we had a bunch of drinks with Abdo and Smarsch at their hotel.

I think the reason I just love NY1 so, so much is that is makes New York City feel like a close knit community, a small town, complete with amateur newscasts and local anchor people celebrities.

One of our favorite shows on the station is Sunday evening's repeat of?On Stage , a bungled showcase of all the local shows from Broadway glamathons to off off Broadway shockers.. or they'll focus on one or two shows and forget about anything else.

To watch the show lately, one could be led to believe that the only play in town is Old Acquaintance, with all the reviews, previews, interviews, and more coverage they've done on the show. The level of professionalism on On Stage ranges from mild to non existent. Interviews often include the phrases “I was looking you up on Google last night and I read…” or “Hmm, yeah, I was actually just going to ask you that, but I guess you already answered.” Nice work Donna and Clover!

The other great thing is that no matter how good a show is, it looks terrible, horrid, cheap and mind numbingly dumb on television (this still of Randy Quaid had me cracking up recently). Thankfully, when they can get the rights (which is not all the time) plenty of clips are included in the show to keep us thoroughly entertained.

Summer creamy perfection. I added leeks to the recipe and topped it with some clams steamed in white wine, butter, leeks, and garlic.