(Click to enlarge.) My favourite thing about Macs is how glossy the screen looks, making the backgrounds seem much more brilliant than on my PC. But seriously, none of the programs I used on my PC (besides the basics) work on a mac so it's been difficult trying to find alternate programs. The reasons why I like the mac are all little seemingly unimportant things (like being able to play, pause, and skip songs without having to be in the iTunes window) but those are the changes that fascinate me the most, the small "how/why did they think of that?"
Here are a couple other photos (from Lady in the Dark and Follow the Fleet, respectively):
I saw Swing Time on the big screen yesterday, and it was beyond amazing. I've never felt such a huge lump of excitement in my stomach before in my life. Playing the movie on the big screen illuminated the details that are lost in a smaller print. The bigger the better in this case! Fred Astaire's tapping in Bojangles seemed much more thrilling. The kiss scene was fantastic! Everyone was laughing the moment Ginger Rogers looked as if she'd seen a ghost in preparation to kiss Fred.
Another advantage of the big screen was being able to get a better look at the clothing. the texture of the garments was more prominent as well as the details in Ginger's dresses, like the shape of the sleeves and design in the back of the Pick Yourself Up dress. Seeing the silkiness of the Never Gonna Dance dress reaffirmed my desire to have that dress! I could more clearly see the way it was sewn together. So gorgeous! Talk about 'sheer heaven'! I could also study Ginger's often intricate hairstyles. And we mustn't forget her legs, either, which looked great on the big screen. I am very jealous.
It was so wonderful to sit with an audience that clapped and laughed... and had discussions about Ginger Rogers afterward! When Fred prepared for his Bojangles number, I heard a few murmurs, probably in response to the black face. In my opinion, I don't find it terribly offensive since I believe Fred was honouring Bill Robinson, not mocking him.
Never Gonna Dance... I was leaning forward in my seat for the duration of that number. When the two ascended the stairs and the camera panned to the side and zoomed in, I thought I would explode from amazement and jubilance. That dance is so mesmerizing on that huge screen! Not that it isn't anyway, but I felt enveloped by the dance. When Ginger began her 'super spins' (as I like to call them) near the end of the dance, and audience member exclaimed, "Oh my! Holy Jesus!" That was pretty funny and made me smile.
I also saw Bachelor Mother, which was unbelievably thrilling because I could experience Ginger's priceless facial expressions very up close. I could tell other audience members were appreciating her genius as well. David Niven's impression of Ginger dancing squeezed a ton of laughs out of the audience. The New Year's Eve dinner scene was fairly successful as well.
Overall, I think it was worth my time and money to travel and see this. I loved it. I loved the whole experience. I loved the organ player who emerged from below the stage in between acts. I wonder what he did in the meantime to occupy himself while the picture was running? Anyhow, here are some videos:
*For some reason one of the videos refused to upload, which is why "Organist 3" is missing. But I will get that one up somehow, as it is a snippet of 'The Way You Look Tonight' and I'm not giving up on that without a fight.
My camera ran out of memory space at this point :(
I felt like I needed something NOT about shoes to give myself a break. This is something I posted somewhere else a couple months ago:
About a year ago, when my obsession with I Love Lucy was in full swing, I decided to search YouTube for movies Lucille Ball was in. I came upon this trailer. At the time, I barely knew any of these people in it, but I remember thinking 'maybe I should branch out and start watching some old movies. These people look interesting.' By summer I was taking tap because of these two. I like to reflect what has happened for me over the past year. Discovering old films was one of the greatest things to happen in my life; it added a small piece to my personality that I am proud of. Finally I had found something that can make me forget about the overtly crude content in films today. With the old films I can experience movie-making in its glowing yet somehow humble past as opposed to its aloof and cliched manner now.
From 