"I get a kick out of you"

What a shame that so few in our generation still hold on to an appreciation of and a fascination with those things that our grandparents and greatgrandparents held so dear in their lives. The classic books, the great romantic films, the extremely talented singers, the flashy classic clothes: to most now-a-days it seems so ancient, but in fact these vintage ideas, talents and dreams are what shaped and created the culture that we love so much today.

I'm re-reading The Great Gatsby, one of my all-time favorites. The way F.S. Fitzgerald created a classic jazz-age world for readers is amazing. And I just love holding his words in my hands and pretending like I'm sitting there in Gatsby's glowing, heat-stricken parlor on Long Island in the middle of the summer during the Roaring Twenties, drinking with Daisy and Jordan, and just passing the summer by, until the season changes and "life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall" (ch VII).

And I've been listening to Frank Sinatra and some of his peers recently. The way Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald can make you want to get up and boogy is completely beyond me. The sound of that type of music is so rich, so bold, so CLASSIC. It almost takes me back in time. Check out this tune by Frank for a good 'ol classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRi7gKTNpEY

So I'm raising my plastic wine glass of Merlot (one of these days I'll buy some real wine glasses...) to those of you who still do take part in the vintage, the wisened, the cultured features left for us to enjoy by past generations. Here's to Gatsby and Nick Carraway, to Sinatra and Bill Holiday, and to the old, lone souls that are still holding out today to tell their charming and classy stories of their times during the Twenties.