47 "I never knew the old Vienna"

"The Third Man",1949.

Years ago I was taught to watch this film and write down the lines. It was one of my English class. Actually I doubt if it is the best material for English education because half of its lines are German and the film was covered with such a noise.

But I can tell that this is just excellent, no doubt the most sophisticated masterpiece.

The fabulous music, camera, black-and-white effect, great actors and actress, of course, and also the incredible "sense of speed" strikes me. From the beginning where Holly arrives at Vienna , to the famous quiet ending, this film is actually full of accidents and adventures.

People appear and suddenly die, arrested and released, chasing the shadow, carrying flower to the girl and next time meeting with old friend as a cold-hearted villain. All the moment people are talking, walking, running, and killing. This is full of action and suspence though there's no screaming, explosion, car chasing, and a very few gun fight. (On the other hand I do know the excitement of the modern action movies full of explosion and gun fight, like "Die Hard".)

We repeatedly watched the scene over and over again, as this was the dictation study, which made me remember the most of the lines of this great script. Film starts with the monologue "I never knew the old Vinna..." and the wonderful music. The elegant and casual music.

Now I enjoy the classic masterpiece only with its sound. Sometimes when tired of listening to the radio and latest tunes, I choose to play this film.

46 London, Earls Court, 1999

好天の日曜日、住みかの床にワックスをかけてみたら、強烈な匂いの中でしばらく一時停止（ワックスをかけたところに足を踏み込めないため、一歩も動けなくなる）となりました。

そんな時には考え事にはもってこいですが、「匂い」がいかに記憶を呼び覚ますかを思い出しました。今日思い出したのは、初めて滞在したロンドンのホテルの匂い。Earls Court近くのParagonというホテルで、ロビーやダイニングは普通なのに、客室フロアには独特のエキゾチックな、フローラルの香りが常に漂っていました。客室のアロマだったのか、誰かの香水だったのか、さっぱり分かりませんでした。その後、その匂いを追体験することは二度となかったのですが、もしもう一度同じ香りと出会ったなら、ロンドンの記憶を実に強烈に思い起こさせてくれるはずです。

当時ロンドンに行ったのは、UKロックが好きだったから。Paragonの窓から外の景色を見て「Blurの"Beetlebum"に出てくる街の光景とそっくり！」などと言ってこの写真を撮っていました。

今見ると、そうでもない…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yci8GY9kUqg&feature=related

最も好きなUKバンドというわけではなかったのですが、The Verveの"Lucky Man"、広いガラス張りのカーテンウォールからテムズ河を見下ろす、天井の高い、明るい日光が降り注ぐモダンな部屋を見るたびに「これが理想の住まいだ」と確信していました。

今でもそれは、あまり変わらないのです。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qujfdzLJPyU&feature=related

45 Holiday in neighborhood 2

After conversation with the quiet still cat, I encountered this cool, fabulous car. What a wonderful design! I'm not at all familiar with car styles, but to me it's classic and sporty. Classic because of the headlight, the elegant color, or every single atmosphere it had, and sporty because it reminded me of Formula-1 race cars as the body was very very low.

Supposing if, cars, airplanes, guitars, cameras, hats, every single thing have finest style and design, half of our troubles in modern world will disappear because good design makes us happy.

44 Holiday in neighborhood 1

猫と桜。

近所の公園で散り際の桜を見物していたら、この猫が現れました。
普通の野良猫ちゃんたちは一歩近づいただけでもさっと姿を消すというのに、この猫は至近距離で写真を撮られていても、悠然と無関心に、まったりし続けていました。

たぶん、動くのが面倒なオジイチャン猫だったのかと…。

オジイチャン（と仮定）は桜の散るのを見ていたのかどうかは知りませんが、動物達は人間と違って、年を取っても（と仮定）姿がサマになるのは何故でしょうか？

オジイチャンはその後、桜吹雪で真っ白になったベンチの下に潜って瞑想を続けていました。

43 Pirates

Please be aware, this is a talk of black humor, very unusually for my blog(a friend once described it as "cute and poetic", oh what a praise!!)

I was in a diner near my office one evening. There were two young guys beside me, who I knew from their talk was apparently employees in a trading company.

They were talking about pirates, because their business actually had the risk of being attacked by the pirates.

"You know, when you are sent to the dangerous area, you need to sign a paper and sware not to complain to our company anything about the risk of death."
"Really? What about the case you being kidnapped and imprisoned, and after released?"
"You' ll be paid, because while you're alive they think you're on duty."

The sense is far from the world of the financial officers like me. Frankly, I was enjoying thier continuing talk, but some of them are too black to put on here!

42 Shirts

最近シャツを立て続けに買いました。買ってきて、並べてみて、眺めていたら、フィッツジェラルドの「グレート・ギャツビー」を思い出しました。

デイジーがギャツビーと再会した日、その膨大なシャツのコレクションに見とれて、なぜか泣き出すシーンです。泣く理由が「こんなきれいなシャツはみたことないから」というような訳だったのですが、何故それで泣きたくなるのか、実はさっぱり分かりませんでした。

別に分からなくても好きなシーンだったのですが、改めて原文を見てみたら

"They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.”

とありました。どういうわけだったのか、やっと分かりました（たぶん）。
シャツがきれいだから悲しいのではなく、こんなきれいなシャツに囲まれて生きてきた（と彼女は思っているのですが）ギャツビーと一緒に人生を過ごせなかったことを悔やみ、悲しくなった、のだと。

どうでしょうか？
彼女はもちろん贅沢志向の人間なので、贅沢な人生に憧れてこういう発想をする、という解釈もあるのですが、むしろ、上質なもの、上等なものが、手の届かないようなその価値を歴然と、容赦なく示していることに、繊細な彼女は衝撃を感じたのかもしれません。

以上、にせもの文学論。

41 April fool

One of my favorite novel, "The Corps Steps Out" (by Craig Rice, 1940) I remember a guy said "If you want to be regarded as a man of humor, you should always tell the truth" (which means, the truth is always the funny, I suppose.)

So making fine jokes is difficult. To enjoy April fool you need media. Newspapers, radio, television. I think internet is not suitable for fine joke because it is always full of lies, fine or not. With media (at least for me) lying or tricking is a little bit easier.

"Monster's Inc", shows its slap-stick "monster's failure takes." Of course it's a fake, untrue, and I adore this sense of nonsense. Maybe this is the source of culture where people can enjoy April fools.

Oh, by the way, I'll wrap up my career in financial industry soon and start working at Pixar Studio.