Friday, June 29, 2012

Freeky Friday: My Umbrella Is Not Really Functional



The challenge - Who is your pop culture alter ego - has nagged at me all week. Should I choose a ballplayer? Musician? Writer? The answer: (d), none of the above.

I have long admired the work of Gene Kelly. From reading about him, I know he was an exacting task master, harder on himself than anyone else. I read somewhere that the teenaged Debbie Reynolds rehearsed a single number (Good Morning) for five weeks under his direction, so that those three minutes of celluloid would be flawless.

Mr. Kelly was an inordinately talented dancer; the contrast between his style (almost athletic) and that of his contemporary, Fred Astaire, who was more ballet-like, could not be more striking. What I most enjoyed about the art of his work was the exuberance he projected on the screen.

In his masterpiece, Singin' in the Rain, Mr. Kelly's character, Don Lockwood, has just kissed the girl and is on his way home. Every time I view this scene, I am struck by the joy that is all over each move. To be able to have that feeling, to have that indescribable elation in one's heart, if only for a moment, ah, that's an elixir for an alter ego to be bottled and trotted out only on the most necessary of occasions.

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