Turning Point

Today is the shortest day here.  We'll have sunrise at 8:29 am and sunset at 3.38 pm.   One does get used to living in the dark, but I have tried to get out during daylight hours if I start feeling very deprived.  Fortunately, with the shortest day also comes the turning point back to longer days and shorter nights, though it's not immediately noticeable of course.

Funny enough just the other day I was reading something about Helen Mirren and it mentioned in passing that she was in White Nights, one of my favourite old movies.  I hadn't remembered her in it, but of course she was.  I just hadn't heard of her at the time.  Or Isabella Rossellini for that matter.

I ended up burning a few hours happily watching Mikhail Baryshnikov on YouTube.  I highly recommend it as a past time.  There was one video where he wasn't dancing, but at some sort of class and he was wearing grey and green sweats.  Although he was looking wonderful as usual, what I was really thinking was how much seeing those sweats took me back to the 80s when I lived in sweats and was fit and strong.  It made me want to find some classes that work for me; a mission then, for 2012. 

What really amazed me was that I found another Baryshnikov film I'd never heard of, called 'Turning Point' with Shirley MacLaine, Ann Bancroft and Tom Skerritt (whose name I didn't know, but his face is very familiar).  It has to do with a suburban dance teacher.   As an alumna of "Jewell's School of Dance" this appealed to me immensely, particularly as the film is set in Oklahoma City.  So, another road that leads back to Oklahoma.  Must definitely get a copy of that film.  Another mission for 2012!