One of my fellow August Blog Challengers (ABC) wrote a post about the need for taking a break, no matter how hectic the writing schedule might be or how scary the deadlines looming over us. I wish I could remember offhand which of these talented writers wrote that post, but I can’t. And as is the way of things, skimming back through their blogs is NOT turning up the post in question. Trust me, it was a good post. And if the author of it reads this post, I trust they’ll give me a cyber whack upside the head and leave a comment so I can do an after the fact link. A POST post, as it where.

But on with the point here.

I took my usual morning walk on the beach (is there ever a point where one can collect too many shells and pieces of beach glass? Is there a socially acceptable limit, as there is with, say, cats? Can I be a crazy shell lady?) and have spent the rest of the day so far expanding the world of my short story, Champagne, with a brief diversion to write my weekly post for Fatal Foodies. Then back to Champagne (and wishing I had a glass of it). I hit a wall about 20 minutes ago and took a meal break (whatever you call lunch and dinner when they’re combined). I turned the TV on to see if some wonderfully crapituous (it’s my word and I like it!) Sci Fi original movie was on, but it was FINAL DESTINATION II, which is only bad enough to be annoying rather than gleefully horrendous. It’s gotta be at least an 8 on the Crap-o-meter to make it in our Bad Move Night lineup. Disappointed, I did a brief channel surf to see if anything else was on. ROAD HOUSE was on AMC, Patrick Swayze and his mullet were kicking the shit out of testosterone overdosed men with inferior mullets.

This is the second time I’ve walked in on ROAD HOUSE mid-movie and considering that both times it took only five minutes to fill me with an overwhelming desire to gather a group of friends and several bottles of tequila, I decided to save it for later and did another brief channel scan. This time I found the last 10 minutes of SUMMER STOCK, an MGM musical starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. I was just in time to see Judy sing ‘Get Happy’ (as in ‘Forget your troubles, come on, get happy…we’re gonna chase all your cares away…forget your troubles, come on, get happy…we’re heading for the judgment day’). Both song and movie were part of my upbringing; Mom raised us on musicals (I found the Hammer horror films all on my own), watched the movies and played the records. She used to waltz me around the pool when I was too young to swim, and sing the songs.

Not all musicals were created equal, of course – if they didn’t have Gene Kelly they weren’t quite as good. I grew up with a very definite opinion on what the ideal male legs looked like and they were Gene Kelly’s. If you’ve ever seen THE PIRATE and watched the Pirate Ballet number where he’s wearing what might be the sexiest pirate costume ever created, you will understand why my opinion remains unchanged to this day.

What does this have to do with taking a break? Easy. Because some of my best childhood memories are based around watching these movies with Mom and Lisa after our dad moved out, hearing a snippet of one of the songs or, better yet, seeing even a few minutes of movies like SUMMER STOCK, AMERICAN IN PARIS and THE BANDWAGON (the latter doesn’t have Gene Kelly, but it has the Manhunt Ballet, which was a huge influence on Murder for Hire) is an instant mood booster. Admittedly I sometimes watch a few minutes of DAWN OF THE DEAD (my first date movie) when I need a break, but I’ve yet to see a zombie with legs as good as Gene Kelly’s.

P.S.  Go here to check out my latest post on Fatal Foodies!