Where I Want To Live

There's a scene in the film Singin' in the Rain. The first attempt at a "talkie" by the team of Don Lockwood -- Gene Kelly's character -- and Lina Lamont -- played by Jean Hagen -- has proved a complete disaster in its first preview screening. Lockwood, his best friend Cosmo Brown -- Donald O'Connor -- and his love Kathy Selden -- Debbie Reynolds -- have convened back at his Hollywood mansion to commiserate. Cosmo and Cathy try to cheer Lockwood up, but it's seemingly no use. They get up to empty their plates of the sandwiches they have presumably been half-heartedly eating. Lockwood's barely looks touched. As they head to the ice box to put perishables away, we get a view of the kitchen, which looks like the supremely modern sort touted in magazine advertisements of the time. That's where I want to live, in that moment of anticipation, the taste of white bread and milk still sweetly sour in my mouth, as I head for the revelation that's coming in a moment or two.