Swing Time begins as Fred Astaire's character, Lucky, gets tricked into missing his wedding by his coworkers (performers). His future father-in-law is so upset that he refuses to let Lucky marry his daughter until he earns $25,000. Of course, as he heads to the big city, he meets a new girl, Penny, played by Ginger Rogers. She doesn't like him at all, but when he finds out that she's a dance instructor and signs up for lessons with her, there's not much she can do to avoid him.

I like that a lot of the Astaire/Rogers movies feature an older sidekick couple. This one doesn't have Edward Everett Horton, but Victor Moore fits in nicely as Pop, who flirts with Penny's dance instructor friend. The old fogie-type romance is always amusing in comparison with the younger couple's, but it's always charming as well.

There are a couple of dance sequences that particularly stand out in this movie. One, though not very politically correct in this day and age, features a song called Bojangles of Harlem and Astaire dances around the stage in blackface. The scene opens up with Astaire sitting in front of some ridiculously large prop legs that fill half the room and are carried by dancing girls. I think that kind of encapsulates the extravagance of the stage in those days. I mean, this was in a nice club - not even on Broadway, but it was so over-the-top! The other sequence is when the couple dances all over the place through a club, including up and down a flight of stairs. The moves are so fluid and complicated, that it was no surprise to learn that Rogers really damaged her feet by doing that take so many times in her dancing heels.

All in all, I'd say this was a very pleasing pairing of the famous dancing couple, with a very satisfying sense of humor and plenty of glamor for the viewer to to take in.

Have I mentioned lately how cute my cat has been in the past couple of months? He has really taken to sleeping in this position. It's rare when I can capture a picture those back paws crunched in like that, but I did it this time, and I think it's soooo frickin' cute.

So check it out! I think I've mentioned it before but when Landlord decided to put the house up for sale, he advertised "New Landscaping". Ric and I shrugged it off since we didn't see anything new popping up in the backyard, when suddenly there was a very soft soil back there. We discovered that fact one night when taking out the trash to the back alley, and our feet kept sinking into the ground. That's a creepy feeling.

Anyway, we guessed new landscape would follow, but it never did. Then came the rains, and then the weeds. And then more rains, and even taller weeds. It's hard to tell from this picture, but some of those weeds are waist high. I'll have to have Ric take a picture of me in the middle of it before we move, just for humor's sake.

Anyway, I'm not sure how, but we started calling it Little Vietnam. I took Pip exploring through it a few days ago, to his delight.

pesky'apostrophe: Give 'til it hurts

We all believe in different things, and whether you believe one book or another, well, that’s OK with me. What makes Scientology seem more acceptable to me is that even though they’re out there evangelizing and sucking people into the religion [just like any other religious group, really], they’re not out there trying to get Congress to make Ritalin illegal or deny people psychiatric care, and pharmacists who are Scientologists aren’t refusing to fill orders for anti-depressants or whatever because it violates their religious beliefs.

Leave it to Mac to put things in perspective. She's quite good at that. I think she has a good point that while Scientology has some questionable practices, at least they aren't trying to change laws and the constitution or turn our government into a theocracy. I've never heard of right-wing Scientologists bombing an psychiatry office or launching a terrorist attack. Yes, they've done their share of dubious deeds, but hasn't every religion?

    People keep asking me about my thoughts on the whole Britney thing so I figured I would do one post about it.  I honestly feel really bad for her. I think the way people and the media are treating her situation says a lot about society's tragic attitude towards mental illness and depression.  When I was going through the worst of my own problems with depression and anxiety nearly three years ago I got some of the same questions I've been hearing about Britney, such as "What do you have to be so sad about?" and "Why don't you just snap out of it already?"  This shows a gross misunderstanding of depression and mental illness.  

    Perhaps it is the unwillingness to accept the fact that fame and fortune really aren't the answers to all of life problems, as so many people would like to believe.  If Britney were suffering from some other kind of illness, would she be treated the same way?  No.  People wouldn't stand for it.  I hope she gets the help she needs soon, before it's too late.  That's all I have to say about that.

Click on the image to supersize it.

This is one of several strips in which Nemo and his friends display awareness of their existence as comic characters, make specific reference to the artist, and manipulate the page they are on. Grant Morrison and John Byrne did stuff like this in the 1980s they were praised as post-modernists. When Winsor McCay did it in 1907 such a label didn't exist yet.

It's a pretty cheap trick, but entertaining nonetheless. I like the way it plays with cartoon logic: as the characters move from the left to right panel in each row the letters must change to stay consistent with the "Little Nemo in Slumberland" title that stretches across the entire row. Notice how even the letters in the characters' switch back and forth to maintain that consistency.