Fred and Ginger

I finally saw my first Fred-Astaire-and-Ginger-Rogers movie last night. Yes, I know what you're thinking -- I call myself a ballroom afficionado, but had not yet seen a single one of their movies?! Sadly, yes, such was the case. But last night, my friend Liz invited me over to her new apartment for dinner, and after chowing down on cinnamon chicken, overdosing on Ghirardeli-chocolate brownies and ice cream, setting up her Christmas-village train set under her *gorgeously* decorated (yet, happily, not at all garishly over-decorated) tree, and spending a not insignificant amount of time flipping through her complete DVD set of Fred-and-Ginger movies and trying to decide on which one I wanted to start my F&G experience with, we settled down to watch "Top Hat" [IMDB link, Wikipedia link].

It was lovely, of course. To be quite honest, I didn't even really have a good idea of what Astaire looked like, and had always pictured Frank Sinatra in my mind when I thought of him... and so I was a little surprised to see how slightly-built a man he was. I guess I had the impression that the more-famous, Hollywood leading men of the day were were all cut, more or less, from the Cary-Grant mold. I was also quite surprised at the comic-ness (is that a word?) of his character, and the motility of his facial expressions --- I never knew him to be a master of physical comedy as well! (Think Jim Carrey, or Matthew Perry, but without the buffoonery and far more refined.) In fact, I kept marveling the whole while that the person he reminded me most of --- vis-a-vis his facial expressions, at least (and long, waggly fingers, too) --- was Stan Laurel! Again, without the slapstick, but with all the innocent sweetness and charm. Really, all I knew of him was that he could dance, and dance his audience off their feet. And that, of course, he did: I'm having a Foxtrot day today (my earlier post on the Viennese Waltz notwithstanding), with Irving Berlin's delightful compositions looping non-stop through my head. Have hunted down and bookmarked YouTube videos showing my favourite dance sequences from the movie: "No strings", "Isn't it a lovely day", "Top hat, white tie and tails" and "Dancing cheek to cheek", although you really do need to watch the entire movie, and on a larger screen, to obtain the full pleasure of watching Astaire's *face* dance as he woos Rogers. Can't wait to see the rest of their movies now.

PS: Found these, too --- also worth watching: a recording of a Kennedy Center tribute to Astaire in 1978, and a clip of Astaire dancing with imaginary props, in an episode from "An Evening with Fred Astaire". (There are links to clips from other episodes there, too, in one of which --- in which he sings "Changing Partners", while dancing with Barrie Chase --- his expressions remind me of Hugh Laurie!)

PPS: I was having a hard time deciding whether to direct my hyperlinks to the corresponding entries in Wikipedia or those in the Internet Movie Database --- and including both in the text, citation-style, completely messed up the readability/flow of article. The Wikipedia entries are easier to read, while the IMDB ones, I would imagine, are more thorough and authoritative, and perhaps more permanent, although they do require a subscription for some of the information. Besides, the Wikipedia ones do link to the IMDB ones, but not vice versa. I finally decided to go with the Wiki-option, but here are all the corresponding IMDB ones as well: Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Jim Carrey, Matthew Perry, Stan Laurel, Irving Berlin, Hugh Laurie.

Blogger's [un-]block

Today was the first Saturday I've had to myself in a long time --- hence the preceding spate of blog posts. There've been a number of topics that I've felt like writing about, but, besides not being able to relax enough during the work-week to commit those thoughts to prose, I've been also been spending most of my recent weekends with my cousins/aunt/uncle. Hanging out with family is great, of course, and does wonders for me in terms of reviving my spirit at the end of the week, but a writer can't write if he's being interrupted often, can he? ;) I came to school / the office today meaning to work, but got side-tracked into doing this instead. I don't feel too guilty about it, though --- I needed a break from thesis-writing, to be able to think about something else for a while, and it feels good to have scratched a few items off my to-do list. There are a few more things that I want to write about, but those will have to wait for another day. Thank you for being patient, my readers. ;)

Dance, then, wherever you may be

``We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.''
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

It's a little surprising, considering just how much of a passion I have for it, that I haven't yet posted anything about dancing. Ballroom dancing, that is (which also includes the Latin and Swing dances), in which I began taking lessons just under ten years ago, in my second semester here at university in the US. Lord knows I have plenty to talk about on the subject, as many/most of my friends and relatives can attest to --- dancing truly is one of my greatest joys in life, and this is as good a place as any other to give a shout-out to the people who made that possible for me: Navid Ghanadan, who introduced me to it, inviting me to a dance on campus, organized by the UMCP ballroom club, and at which I stood pressed up against a wall for two hours, not knowing how to do a single one of the various dances that were played that night, but resolving to learn them as soon as I could. Karen Trimble, the best dance instructor I have come across in ten years of dancing --- indeed, one of the best teachers I have ever had in any subject --- and whose lessons I have returned to every semester since the Spring of 1998. And Minyoung Kim, my first dance partner and very close friend, who gave me the opportunity to practice regularly, helped me improve my technique, got me to actually come out dancing socially on a regular basis, and showed me the way to truly begin to enjoy dancing.

But the idea for this particular post came from a recent realization of just why it was that I was interested in ballroom dancing in the first place. People have often asked me which my favourite dance is, and I've always replied that I didn't have a favourite dance; if I liked the music, then I would enjoy whichever dance was appropriate for that music. And I truly did feel that way --- I had no preference for a waltz over a chacha, or a samba over a foxtrot, or a swing over a rumba. It depended on the song/music, and it depended on my mood. I've had many foxtrot-y days, and just as many chacha days. One of my friends, also from India, and also one of Karen's students, and coincidentally, also one of my fellow grad students in my department, became interested in ballroom dancing thanks to having been impressioned by the Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers movies. His favourite dance is the foxtrot, not surprisingly. But I had no such affiliation. My only pre-ballroom desire to learn to dance that I could remember derived from going to parties in Bombay and watching enviously from the sidelines as the rest of my friends jived the night away. (The stand-in-one-spot-and-shake-while-moving-your-arms-randomly style held no appeal for me then, and still doesn't. Overwhelming boredom usually sets in at about the 45-second mark, even if the music is something I really like. I can groove away to a rhythm while doing something else, no problem, but I can't do nothing but groove. I need *movement*, and *variety*!) But though I definitely enjoy the swing/jive now, I've never gotten a sense of it being The Dance for me.

Then, earlier this year, I happened to be watching the final rounds of the professional/championship level at the Ohio Star Ballroom competition (held in November of the previous year), telecast by PBS as the "America's Ballroom Challenge" television mini-series, and one of the couples who took my breath away were Ben Ermis and Shalene Archer-Ermis, who, for their show dance,danced the loveliest, most gentle, and most graceful Viennese Waltz I had ever seen. As one of the commentators put it: "This is how we all dance with our partner in our dreams!" (They eventually came first in the American Smooth division of the championship.) I didn't think much more of it back then because many of the other couples in that competition took my breath away as well. (For example, see here for the tango that Tomasz Mielnicki and J. T. Damalas did for their show dance, set to Roisin Murphy's "Ramalama (Bang Bang)", and here for Mazen Hamza and Irina Sarukhanyan's martial-arts-inspired tango show dance.) Recently, though, in hunting for the music to which they had choreographed their dance ("You and me", by Lifehouse), I came across a recording of their performance on YouTube (which I've linked to above). And, in watching that clip --- and another one of David and Valentina Weise, also dancing a Viennese Waltz, this one set to Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" --- over and over again, it suddenly hit me that *this* was My Dance! This, the Viennese Waltz, was the dance that fired up the strongest passions in me, even if it was one of those at which I am least technically proficient. It's the one that, no matter what my current mood is, most easily shuts out the world around me and carries me off into a different one, where there's nothing but me, my partner (imaginary, if need be), and the dance --- although (depending on the music) the foxtrot and west coast swing are quite close behind. (And the rest of the peloton follows quite closely, too --- it's a not a clear-cut competition at all! ;) )

And then, serving as further confirmation, I remembered that, in all those ten years of lessons, Karen's infrequent announcements that the lesson for the day would be the Viennese Waltz were the ones that I met with the most unbridled joy. I never could get enough of this particular dance, and on the one occasion (besides preparing for the DCDI competition in 2004) that I took a private lesson with Karen, it was the VW in which I chose to get the extra instruction.

I don't know why I have this connection to this particular dance. It was probably something that I saw when I was very very young, and which left a mark on my sub-concious. A Disney movie, maybe? Who knows. Maybe someday I'll find out. Maybe someday I'll even find out that it's not the Viennese Waltz but some other dance that's actually my favourite. But for now, this is my answer. :)

Dance, then, wherever you may be
For I am the lord of the dance, said He,
And I'll lead you all wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said He.

(Chorus of the hymn "Lord of the Dance", created by Sidney Carter with the melody from the Shaker song "Simple Gifts", which was also the inpiration for the "Variations on a Shaker Melody" section of Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring".)

Winter's here

It snowed last week. An isolated event that dumped three inches on the ground in just a few hours, all of which had melted away two days later. But that morning, I woke up and the world outside my window was white again. White, and quiet, and peaceful, in that magical way that only freshly-fallen snow can achieve. Sounds are muted --- even the swish of a passing car, or the scrape of a neighbour's shovel. The entire world slows down, distracted from its tumultuous rush by the unhurried descent of the snowflakes. Even water stops, motionless. The muddy browns and industrial grays are covered up, hidden out of sight. Tracks in the snow tantalize you with thoughts of the animals and birds that passed by silently when you weren't looking. A pair of cardinals swoop down on the bird-feeder, flashes of red against a white canvas. Winter's here. And Spring will soon follow. It's the season for magic again.

...

It feels like last winter was just yesterday, though --- I can remember it all so clearly. The years go by more and more quickly each year. And this year, just like every other one, has left me with its own set of special memories. People who came into my life; people who were in it already, but whom I became closer to; and people who left it, but left their footprints behind for ever more. Just like birthdays, perhaps even more so than a birthday, the first snowfall of the year makes me turn around and look back at the year that has just gone by. The words of John Lennon come to mind:

And so this is Christmas,
And what have you done?
Another year over,
A new one just begun...

Turn me on

I simply *love* Cadillac's new series of TV commercials for the 2008 CTS (Ad 1, Ad 2), with its tagline:

"When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?"

So much for the old fuddy-duddy image of Cadillac. If I didn't have reservations about the quality/reliability of American cars, this one would have made it straight onto my short-list (such is the power of advertising!).

And then they underscore the point by having Kate Walsh in the pilot's seat. Consider my engine well and truly started. ;)