Grin Without a Cat (TM) is my way to use the Internet, the world's most democratic medium, to reflect personal viewpoints about film, theater, books, and other "essentials." They are essential in the sense that they enrich our core human elements: who we are and how we think. These essentials also expand our range of emotions, when daily life can conspire to constrict them.

While I certainly have strong and definite opinions about the value(s) of different essentials, I believe my most important value is adding a unique voice to the clamor that surrounds so much of what we see and read. I would love it if Grin Without a Cat was the first place you went to get a viewpoint about a film, play or book, but I will be happiest if it's not the last - and ecstatic if its articles uncover some facet that hadn't been revealed before.

Adam Blair, AdamBlairViews’/Grin Without a Cat’s Editor-in-Chief, is a professional writer/editor who has earned his keep by covering numerous aspects of the business world, most recently for Fairchild Publications and Women’s Wear Daily . He blames his obsession with film on a high school job as a movie theater usher, where repeated viewings of films such as Airplane, The Shining and Friday the 13th placed his mental health in jeopardy. Nevertheless, he is a 1984 graduate of Yale University , where he served as Arts Editor of the Yale Daily News and, on some weekends, attended as many as five films before returning bleary-eyed to class Monday morning.

Since then, his comments on film and other creative arts have appeared in Films in Review, Harpie’s Bazaar, Cinemarati.com, and since 2002, on his own website (www.adamblairviews.com), which contains musings and meanderings on film, theater and books. When not meeting editorial deadlines, Adam can be found hovering around New York City ’s Film Forum, Angelika and Walter Reade Theaters or curled up at home with his partner Noel and their cat, Asta, watching films by Howard Hawks, George Cukor or the Coen Brothers. Blair is THE source for movie and TV trivia among his family and friends, who nevertheless continue to associate with him.

You can talk back to Grin Without a Cat by e-mailing adamblair@optonline.net