Routine

(Illustration Friday - August 22, 2008)

I fell behind on my drawings because of TCM's annual Summer Under the Stars Festival in August. Whose idea was it to have consecutive days devoted to Greer Garson, Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, and Gene Kelly? Thanks, but I think I nearly overloaded my DVR. In any case, on Fred Astaire Day, I pointed out my favorite Fred and Ginger dance routine to the kitties. The Mother Kitty and Simon have been practicing it ever since.

September has been busy and a bit stressful, another reason for my delayed posts. For the first time ever, I had to redraw a drawing completely - not once, but four times! The first time, I accidentally colored Kitty's tail brown. She yelled at me and spent the rest of the day licking herself. The second time, I colored her front paws brown. She shrieked and tried to wipe them off on Simon, who mistook her gesture for affection. The third time, I didn't even get to coloring, as I drew the exit door too long. At that point, Kitty rolled her eyes, stomped off, and refused to speak to me until I convinced her that we were paying homage to Fred Astaire's perfectionism by repeating the routine so many times to get it right.

In the movie Swing Time, Ginger, who plays a dance teacher, gets mad at Fred, a gambler, because she thinks he stole a quarter from her. He finds her dance studio and asks to be paired up with her "to learn," but he really just wants to have the chance to explain what happened to her quarter. [If only all of my arguments were only about a missing quarter....] He pretends to be a hopeless dancer, frustrating her into telling him to save his money and go home. Her boss overhears and instantly fires her for turning away students. Rest assured, Fred saves the day by showing the boss what he's learned from her: In celebration of completing this seemingly simple drawing and to guarantee a smile, here's The Real Thing.



As Ginger's boss praises at the end, "It's sheer heaven, my dears, shear heaven!" Enjoy!