i won't dance

I love 1930's and 40's movies. As a young boy I would lay in front of the television, transported to a cosy dreamworld, washing over me, a soothing smothering feeling. Me and Fred Astaire, alone in the study room, while it drizzled grey outside on a Saturday morning. Sadly the BBC doesn't show so many classics on a Saturday or Sunday mornings these days, another flaw that highlights it's sad decline in recent years.

I started to buy 1930/40's records when in my early twenties, by then I was old enough to realize that 'cool' music was what you liked, so when most of my peers and mates were into The Cure or Prince, I would croon to Al Bowly, or scat along with Satchmo.

Almost 30 years later, after those misspent days watching Bing or Fred as a boy, I still get a warming glow inside every time they show an old musical on Turner Classic Movies. It still gives me a feeling of coming home, a feeling of a world that is real, a world where I am not alone, where I am understood...a place where sentiment is a good thing. I stopped trying to find a reason for this perversion along time ago. I just know it's part of me, one of the very best parts. I found this beautiful tribute to Fred and Ginger while watching them on Youtube...Enjoy.