Guilty Pleasures Monday – Patrick Swayze

“No one puts Baby in a corner.”

If you don’t know that quote, please please rush to your nearest store and get your hands on a DIRTY DANCING DVD because you are missing something totally wonderful, which is why today’s Guilty Pleasure Monday is Patrick Swayze! Here’s a copy of the 1987 trailer for the film for you to enjoy and then you can fess up!

Who wasn’t in love with Patrick Swayze that summer. Those moves. That body. The seemingly bad boy with an honorable heart?

When I heard there was going to be a sequel titled DIRTY DANCING HAVANA NIGHTS, I was so dubious about whether the movie could recapture the spirit of the original, but despite that . . .

I had to go. So did a lot of other people since the theater had a nice crowd on opening night. When Swayze came onto the screen, people started cheering and clapping for him. His body and moves were still amazing. I pray for him to get better soon.

Of course, with Swayze’s amazing presence in DIRTY DANCING, it made it a little hard to think about Diego Luna as a romantic lead. But this was a movie — DIRTY DANCING HAVANA NIGHTS — that I had to go see. Why?

Well, when my daughter heard about it, she looked at me and said, “We’re going to go see it, right?”

When my gaze met hers, I realized that it was about more than a movie. I remembered her asking me when she was six, “When are we going to see Cuba?”

I remembered myself at six, nearly thirty years earlier, asking my mom, “When are we going to go back to Cuba?”

My daughter wasn’t really asking about the movie. She was asking for both of us to go see Havana together even though the movie had been filmed in Puerto Rico. It was as close to Cuba as we were going to get. For now, at least . . .

So we went together and enjoyed the music. Savored the recreations of the streets of Havana and the Hotel Nacional. Scenes that both of us had only seen in books or the few family photos that I had. Only from photos because I had been too young when I left to remember much about my birthplace.

It was a great bonding experience and I hope that one day we can bond again by visiting Havana.

But for now, here’s some excerpts from DIRTY DANCING HAVANA NIGHTS. It’s actually pretty good and the music is wonderful. A mix of Latin and hip-hop.

And of course, there’s those few minutes of Patrick Swayze still moving like a god. Definitely worth a trip to the video store!

6 Replies to “Guilty Pleasures Monday – Patrick Swayze”

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  2. My first-roommate-out-of-college was a production assistant for Dirty Dancing! I helped her proofread the script–and we both agreed that it was going to be a BOMB! (Guess that explains why neither one of us became big Hollywood producers.)

    When Patrick Swayze was cast, we almost died–we’d loooooved him in “North and South” the previous year. We were all fluttery b/c we had access to his home phone number (not that we ever used it, of course!).

    My roommate spent several weeks in NC for the filming. She said Patrick Swayze was a doll!

  3. I love Dirty Dancing and Patrick Swayze! He was fabulous in Ghost, too.

    Would you believe that I didn’t know the sequel was released?! I’ll have to check it out.

  4. I watched Patrick in “Roadhouse” long before I saw “Dirty Dancing”. So, I was already in love with him.That was when I fell in love with another of your Guilty Pleasures, Sam Shepherd. That is still one of my favorite movies. I haven’t seen the sequel to Dirty Dancing so I still have something to look forward to. I hope everyone had a great week-end. I did. Went to Pigeon Forge, TN and took in a couple of shows at theaters there. I like music so that was a real treat. Have a great day and hugs to all.

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