I Love To Tap Dance!

With the magic of Facebook, I just re-connected with my childhood dance teacher. She invited me to attend the 50th year celebration of her dance studio. Yikes! And Double Yikes! since I was one of her first students! I've been dancing, on and off, for...that long.

I was a serious dance student through my thirties. I loved to take class and perform occasionally. I stayed in excellent shape and danced right up to the times I gave birth to my children. It was always pretty easy to get back into shape if I slipped a little. Until the day I got...older. I was so out of shape and didn't have the drive to overcome it. I couldn't stop dancing, so I decided to stick to tap dancing. Rarely does a tap routine require high kicks and splits. And besides, I love to tap dance.

I recently decided to teach an adult tap class. Rembering the lack of commitment adults generally display for whatever reason, I entered into the once a week commitment a little reluctantly. When I taught kids, their parents made sure they attended class. Well, unless they had a fever or a big test the next day. Adults? Well, they have a million more reasons why they have to miss. I decided to give it a try anyway.

My first class was last Wednesday. I had 6 students. Four more will be there next week (already missed the first class--"out of town," "play rehearsal," "late night at work." ). Perfect class size, since it will probably be rare for all 10 to be there at the same time. Anyway, it was a great group and what really amazed me was, unlike the teens, no one left the class to go to the bathroom, and no one paused for a drink of water. Come on. It's only an hour. It felt just like the good old days when no one would ever divert their attention away from the teacher. I hope I didn't say anything to scare them.

I can't wait for next week's class! I know most will show. They paid in advance! And did I mention that everyone is over 50, or darn close to it. I just love this class.

More people over 50 dancing http://www.movefreedancers.com/

and

http://www.legacytap.com/ is a group of tappers I meet with once a week for tap, talk and lunch. How much fun is that! And did I mention...I LOVE TO TAP DANCE!

Photo: Legacy Tap Project -- National Tap Dance Day 2009, Arts On Fifth, Fort Worth, Texas

If You Want to Be Happy For the Rest of Your Life

What's up Fort Worth? You didn't make it on Forbes List of "Happiest Cities." Depressed? Irritable? Cranky? Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off. Start all over again! Please.

San Francisco is the only U.S. city in the top 10.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/02/worlds-happiest-cities-lifestyle-cities.html

Mark Cuban Said This?

You are the youngest you will ever be today. So live like it.

365 Days, 524 Recipes by Joan Fitting Scott

Of the two, Julie and Julia, I liked Julia better. The new movie Julie and Julia tells two true stories. It showcases a blogger reporting on her efforts to cook 524 of Julia Child’s recipes in a year’s time, taking us back and forth between writer Julie Powell’s prodigious undertaking and Julia Child’s charmed life in Europe and later the United States at mid-century. Both women found cooking a raison d’etre in lives they deemed meaningless.

But as I followed Julie’s struggles, I found I counted the minutes until I could get back to Julia. Although Julie’s search for meaning and her identification with Julia resonated, I somehow felt the “Julie/Julia Project” was self-serving; isn’t that what we do in this culture—find the gimmick that gets us noticed? (It worked, by the way. Julie Powell now writes for salon.com.) But maybe I should give the woman credit; it’s not easy to work at a dull job all day and cook all night and blog in the wee hours. We writers have got to break out of the pack somehow--and Powell did.

Julia, on the other hand, was simply delightful, and once I started watching Meryl Streep channel her, I was mesmerized. She had every charming mannerism down pat. I didn’t want to go back to Julie’s dingy Queens apartment and 5 am blogging, but to hang around Paris with Julia and her diplomat husband and chic friends, French and American. Was Child really as wonderful as that? I’ll take Streep’s word for it.

For Julia is a taster not just of food, but life. Inquisitive, questing, savoring all she encounters, she devours Paris--its markets, people, restaurants and food. She is sunny and funny, and charms Parisian grouches into Huggy Bears. She is determined—as when she vows to show up her male counterparts at the famed Cordon Bleu cooking school, chopping huge piles of onions to perfect her technique. She is tenacious in pushing her piece de resistance, the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, through all the hoops required for publication. This took years. This was tough. As an author, I know.

So I’ll give the movie kudos for its warm portrayal of the doyenne of cuisine, for its humor and for Stanley Tucci, who is lovable as Julia’s devoted husband. Whoever knew this was a great love story as well as a culinary one? And Amy Adams as Julie was pretty darn good as well, even if her character is less simpatico; after all, there was only one Julia Child. Amy had stiff competition.

Joan Fitting Scott is the author of Skinning the Cat: A Baby Boomer’s Guide to the New Retiree Lifestyles

Things To Do: Catch the Wave Film Festival at the Modern Art Museum

Not the Gidget and Moon Doggie waves. La Nouvelle Vague--French New Wave being celebrated by Lonestar Film Society and the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, August 13-16 and 20-23.

“There were many film waves in the 1960s which were just that, waves. They broke on the shore and were gone. But the original wave, the French Nouvelle Vague, which crashed upon an unprepared world at Cannes in May 1959 and which brought to the fore filmmakers like Claude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut and Alain Resnais, was more like a tsunami. It helped to transform not just French cinema but cinemas the world over. Its effects are with us today.”

Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, author, Making Waves: New Cinemas of the 1960’s

Opening night reception (cash bar) starts at 6PM.

Opening remarks by author and film critic, Christopher Kelly at 6:45.

Last Year at Marienbad begins at 7PM.

For more information and schedule go to http://modern.org/films or contact auditoriumprograms@themodern.org

Bon chance!

Over 50 is a Good Time To Visit Your (adult) Daughter's Closet

From a very young age, girls have donned something from their mother's closet: high heels, hats, sunglasses. Now, according to fashion stylist Sherrie Mathieson, it's time for mothers to invade their (adult) daughter's closets. And in this economy, borrowing clothes may be the only thing you can borrow!

Mathieson says that turning 50 does not mean it's time for "dowdy, box voluminous jackets; pull on pants; gaudy floral blouses; gauze broomstick skirts; and faux ethnic jewelry." Got the picture? And hopefully, you won't find anything like that in your daughter's closet.

In her new book "Steal This Style," Mathieson shows pieces that should be shared and others that should not. But if you're like me and only have sons, you can follow Sherrie's advice below or visit her web site for more tips on dressing with style after 50, 60 and beyond.

"...the point is to look "modern" and ultimately ageless in your style. ...a classic "core"--but with a creative twist and mix. That is "youthful" in spirit, but never inappropriately "young."

Sounds good to me!

http://www.sherriemathieson.com/

Text Messaging TFWW (The Fort Worth Way)

Remember how much you loved to talk on the phone with your BFF* when you were teenager. My BFF and I still talk on the phone a lot, but she travels and sometimes our communication of choice is texting, a required skill when you have your own teens. Coco (CTPTI*) and I love to talk politics, particularly local politics. I think I still have her copy of "All Politics Is Local" by Tip O'Neill. Anyway, living and breathing Fort Worth politics like we do, my BFF and I have come up with our own lingo.

*Best Friends Forever
*Changed to Protect The Innocent

TFWW - The Fort Worth Way

MCC - Mayor and City Council

SB - School Board

BS - Barnett Shale

TAGTIFW - These Are Good Times In Fort Worth (A Mayor Barr favorite)

WWTT - What Were They Thinking

PBS - Political Bull S___ (just in case someone finds that word offensive)

TL - Term Limits

OMG! - Oh My God! (not original, but it works)

CAVE - Citizens Against Virtually Everything (not original, but it works as well)

DUH! - It's just DUH!

The following could work in other political situations.

YWCA - Your Wife Called Again

YMCA - Your Mother Called Again

This is a start and will help when we text and tweet. Please use what you like and click on comments and send me your own political lingo.

Read more about it in the WSJ (Wall Street Journal) Oh, you knew that!http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203674704574328920789548170.html?mod=yhoofront

Longhorn by Johnny Pate