010107 - The Old for The New

Walking back from my sister's place to mine, round midnight last Sunday, I could hear people whooping New Year salutations and see them throwing sparklers from the top floor of the block nearby. Arman (my nephew) was all excited but I didn't feel any sense of exhilaration...at all. As the years go by, I don't really feel anything different when a new one beckons. Neither am I one to make resolutions, don't believe in them. Just feel an added push to make good the plans I'm on or at least renew the spirit of them.

So I spent my early New Year's Day morning with Jervis Pendleton III a.k.a. Daddy Long Legs. I love musicals, loved them since I was a child. I remembered watching this one when I was much younger and being swept off. I know Fred Astaire is not much of a looker but he sure can dance. And of course, the songs. They don't make music now the way they used to. The simple melodies, honest lyrics and the voice.

Late afternoon, I watched Gigi. A 1958 production which garnered 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture. Enjoyed it tremendously with my sisters and my brother (Gasp, yes Man watched it! But then again, we always had that in similar-a penchant for musicals). The thing which got us cracking up was when Maurice Chevalier broke into song somewhere at the start with:

" Thank heaven for little girls
For little girls get bigger every day!
Thank heaven for little girls
They grow up in the most delightful way!

Those little eyes so helpless and appealing
One day will flash and send you crashing through the ceiling

Thank heaven for little girls
Thank heaven for them all
No matter where no matter who
For without them, what would little boys do? "

Just visualise a dandified player in his late 50s singing that while eyeing little girls. It's just so WRONG. Gone are the innocent times! Or maybe we have become more perverse.

I went to bed listening to Sarah Vaughn. There's nothing like the voice of the Divine One to wind down to. Her voice holds such longing and yet at the same time, hope. Something, I trust, I still have, in multitude...enough to last me in the years to come at least.