600 Thank you 2015, Hi to 2016

To wrap up, 2015 was a memorable year. There're lots of challenges and happenings that urged me to learn something from them. I might not be able to tackle with these tasks very well but have always been trying to jump over the hurdle and find the ground to land. Somehow I feel I would like to thank myself and appreciate me being strong and sincere. I would like to celebrate the end of 2015 and the opening of 2016, a hopeful new year. 

599 The New Year's Eve in 2015

A few hours ago I was wandering around the center of the city near to my working place. The night sight is very different from ordinary days --- the office buildings are darker than ever, because, obviously, almost no one is working in these buildings today (but you may notice a few windows are still lighten inside). The street is quiet and wrapped in the shades of night. And I found that the light is even so bright and clear. It was breathtaking.  

598 Movies in 2015

Watching Star Wars in a big theater is a wonderful thing. Watching a quiet human drama in a theater is also great. And watching from a big-badget Hollywood action movies to a small comedy at home with a tiny screen is as happy as the former ones. I wrote lots of cinema review this year (not every movie is released in 2015.) Here's some of the most unforgettable masterpieces.

Chef : The untouchable. The warmth, cheerfulness, humor, good foods and good musics are perfectly living together in the movie.

Captain America  The Winter Soldier : Sharp and amazing action sequences. It doesn't feel like Marvel's super hero story.

Cars : To be honest, I have been underestimating the movie before I see but it turns to be top-tier favorites among Pixar works. 

Dior and I : After the sad news that Raf Simmons left Dior later this year, the story of his  struggle and victory mean a lot. Together with the film about Anna Wintour ("September Issue"),  the two works remind me of the excitement to know the one and only creativity in the world of fashion.

Mission Impossible The Rogue Nation : Exciting action and fascinating story. It must be really hard to achieve this in a modern spy action film, no matter how simple it seems. What I feel about this incredible film is that it has a good faith, authenticity and honesty which otherwise we might see in Hollywood classics. 

Moneyball : The catharsis of the story is I think not for baseball fans but for business person. The great thing about this masterpiece is it has both intelligence and emotion and yet shows them in a very minimum way, which makes the film unusually cool.

Pitch Perfect : The power of music. What I like about this film is that it's full of the beauty of the power of music and at the same time it's just a silly college comedy.

Star Wars VII The Force Awakens : No need to explain more. Wholeheartedly I welcome the new saga.

597 Bests in 2015

At the end of the year, now I feel like relaxed and taking a look at with many thanks my great influencers in 2015. They have been bringing me great fun, delight, inspiration, courage, humor, energy and power to keep going on.

Taylor Swift : Her amazing album "1989" has been literally staying with me all the time. I've never listened to her music until I met her new pop songs but they seem to cast a wonderful magic to me and definitely it is my album of the year.

Jimmy Fallon : I cannot remember how many times I kept his show on Youtube playing again and again for hours. I like his style of hosting a talk show in a very, seemingly effortless and friendly manner, and his joke, humor, silly but funny games (an egg-russian roulette!), songs and dance (especially the lip-sync battles!), and above all, the purely happy laughter surrounding the whole studio every time. And of course, his amazing house band, The Roots.
  
Tai-Chi : This is certainly not a human or a thing and I only started to learn the basics of it for about three months now, but I am totally attracted by the beauty, calmness, the methodology and the philosophy of the famous martial arts. The method is always on a circular move and both the defense and attack are unified to a series of flows. I remember when I first met hip-hop dance and how I liked it right away, and this time is very similar. I've been keeping dancing for over 12 years and became a part of my life. For Tai-chi, I'm sure this fits me so well.

And, my old friends : 2015 was a year of reunion. I don't repeat each stories here but one of the amazing things is that they really understand me even if we didn't meet for a long time. In fact the older the friendship is, the better and deeper the friend can understand my sense and feelings. It was a great pleasure. I wish I could be someone to whom they can feel free to talk and trust with at ease, just as I did to them.

596 Cooking

One of the best practices I got in 2015 was to enjoy cooking more than ever. My style of cooking is very simple: pick up whatever I want to eat and cook it really simple (grill, bake, or boil) with good seasonings and lots of herbs. My favorites are salmon, tofu and ground chicken. Egg, beans, pork shoulder and avocado follow them. I frequently use such simple seasoning as salt&pepper, miso, dashi kombu, olive oil, sesame, apple vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and bonito flakes. Herbs are indispensable in my dish. Basil, parsley, rosemary, rocket, leek, radish sprouts, and sometimes accompanied by grated radish. When I'm too busy to cook, I don't hesitate to rely on canned foods like boiled mackerel in miso, boiled herring or grilled saury pike. 

What I learnt is that cuisine is a great and interesting creative work which can be well done by such an amateur like me with combining these rather limited ingredients.

595 See The Light Of Day

What do you feel when you turns to your late 30s with 10+ years working experience? I have not really cared for what I should achieve or establish something in work. This is partly because I have been working in financial industry where personal contribution is not easy to be estimated. But looking at the other fields I cannot help being inspired by the great works of contemporary creators. 

Steven Soderbergh made Ocean's 11 at age 38, Jim Jarmusch made Night on Earth at age of 38, and J.J. Abrams made MI:III at age 39. What I mean is of course not to compare myself with these genius but to think twice on achieving something to be widely known and remembered in work. That is an honor, fame and will become a track record, and also it might open the way to reach to and be recognized by the people you never be familiar with. If your work is fine enough to be memorized it might create another opportunity and change your life. 

594 STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (Spoiler Alert!)

SPOILER ALERT!
Here's only for those who have already seen the movie and also to look back my personal memo before watching it.


So this is finally all about missing Luke Skywalker. His mysterious existence has been shedding light to the hope or sometimes shadowing the untold history all through the story and the cinematic impact when he finally shows himself and face with Rey, for only a minute without any words, blew my mind. Rey's awakening of strong force, Han's tragic death caused by his own son, the fight against Star Killer, the reunion of R2-D2, C-3PO and Leia, with introduction of new attractive characters like Finn, Poe and BB-8, make us excited and satisfied, but above all, this time the magnetics of Luke Skywalker rules the movie. The reason of his missing is not specifically told but suggested that it has something to do with the fact that Kylo Ren, his nephew, turned to dark side. But the last sequence casts us further questions and curiosities to be continued to Episode VIII (in this way, the style of story telling is felt a bit like a television drama series). 

Why Luke had to disappear, what is he doing in an isolated planet, why he quit fighting as a last Jedi knight and as a leader of resistance army and left everything behind, does he know Kylo Ren killed Solo, his best friend and brother-in-law, is Rey really a child of Luke, and if so why she had to be abandoned alone in a desert planet, is she thinking about finding and asking help for a Jedi knight, or rather finding her own father, and what is the story behind Luke's lightsaber (originally, Anakin's lightsaber) returned to the owner for the first time in over 30 years?

Another mysterious leading character, Rey, is just marvelous. Her inner and outer strength, emotional depth, strong will, intelligence, tact and freshness are fully and perfectly shining. The movie no doubt succeeds to create an attractive heroine who was born to carry her own destiny and mission but also try to challenge them. She seems to be not so naive as young Luke in Episode IV, and sometimes she has mixed feelings. In one of the unforgettable scenes when Rey overwhelms Kylo Ren in their lightsaber combat, she looks truly fierce with anger for a moment as if she is on the verge of turing to the dark side. 

Finally, my personal question on AT-AT was satisfied with a very surprising way: Rey is living in a wreck of AT-AT! The idea reminds me of the scene that Luke was kept warm and alive in a Tauntaun in Episode V. Talking about the linkage with the past generation, Rey's hairstyling is very similar to Padme in disguise, and her outfit design seems to have mixed origins from Shmi Skywalker, Luke Skywalker and again Padme in combat uniform. Anyway she is already a seasoned fighter and we'll see her being trained as a Jedi not just with strength but with wisdom and balance of mind. 

593 STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

What makes Star Wars not just a series of exciting films but a modern myth to share, an icon of our age, or an influencer to our personal life story? I know not all of us feel like that but I am one of these huge fans who have been waiting for the new saga to start with Episode VII. 

I was born in 1977 when the Episode IV was released and was just 6 years old when the classic saga finished,  so obviously I didn't have the viewing experience in real time in theater. The first encounter was when I was 12 years old, which I think was the most ideal age to fully understand the depth and excitement of Star Wars saga. Simply put, the movie changed my life. If this sounds too exaggerating, I would say the movie changed me in several different ways that I aspire the world of creativity, imagine things, create things, have strong interests in space and aircraft, and learn the universal truth about good and evil, light and darkness in the modern mythical style. This is a life-changing-experience for 12-years old kid.

This is how I met and made friends with Star Wars. By the way I personally think Episode I, II, and III are wonderful works of action, arts and imagination even if they couldn't fully influence me as much as the classics did to me in younger age. 

Then this Episode VII. It's truly awesome, beautifully done, lot of fun and delight. From the beginning to the ending, I was almost gawping at the screen. I felt like I was just an early teen kid. Surely there may be some points that the creators should have dug into, but that's minor. No doubt, the movie has a "force" to attract us and arise social phenomenon that cannot be ignored. At least, is there any other movies whose creators and the audience are all huge fans of the universe?

(Comments to be continued with Spoiler Alert...)

592 Happy Christmas!

AT-AT was there in the Force Awakens, and in a truly unexpected form!

(Comments to be continued…)

591 "We Are Home"

"Chewie, We are Home."

This is my first time to post a comment on a movie before I watch it. But this is special, this is a sensation. This post is just for myself to note my general impression on viewing The Force Awakens trailers. I assume my comments will be answered, or turn out to be nothing to do with the movie, but anyway, it's fun to write.

- Why Luke seems to hide himself, just as Obi-Wan did in Episode IV?
- Where is C-3PO?
- The word "Jedi" is not found in the trailer. Why?
- We cannot even get glimpse of traditional Jedi robes. 
- We cannot hear "Sith Lords."
- OK, then perhaps the new era is not the fight between Jedi and Sith?
- The new lightsabers don't look as elegant as classical age. Does it mean anything?
- A cross-shaped lightsaber? How inconvenient it may be.
- We've never seen X-wings flying over shining water. Brilliant!
- Millennium Falcon! Incredible!
- Han Solo and Chewie! They are finally back home --- so where have they been? 
- The mask of Darth Vader --- is it from the planet of Ewok?
- We see the revival of Stormtroopers and TIE Fighter, so can we also see AT-AT?

590 Bookstore

Arguably I enjoy SNS like everyone else in this time. And recently I've got to find SNS as a bookstore only dealing with latest books for only a moment. It goes like this; if you enter the bookstore and find some interesting, intriguing covers of books saying something you would be attracted to, you can open the book and read the contents. And it doesn't take much time. You can open several different books and read the words for, say, 30 minutes or 1 hour. It doesn't take much of your time and energy. But if you are interested in a title of a book, but you don't feel like reading it right away, you will leave the bookstore, thinking you can come back later. Later, you come back and search for the certain book, only to find it has disappeared or has been lying under new, and numerous similar books that might also attract your attention. Then you have to struggle to find the book and then you feel like you should keep your eyes on the other latest books in front of you. The bookstore always has a lot of very interesting and necessary books which induce you to open the some of the books and spend some time. But soon after the bookshelf is totally changed and replaced, with the a-little-bit-old books being stored in the warehouse. The warehouse can keep all the books with unlimited capacity but at the same time more and more new books are issued and displayed in the bookstore. 

I use and enjoy and feel thankful to SNS of course, but sometimes I wonder how important for us to keep up with the speed and volume of information. One of the very successful, respected and marvelous investors of our time said there are two types of risks in investment; a risk to lose money and a risk to lose an opportunity. I feel SNS world is asking us similar question. Do you find it a risk to be drown in the sea of information, or to fail to have an important information that might change your life?

589 Anna Wintour

How does it feel like to be the Editor-in-chief of American Vogue and also the Artistic director of Conde Nast Publications, being one of the most important and respected influencers in the global fashion industry? Simply put, this is huge. I guess, it is like to be the Chair of FRB in the global economy. Ms. Anna Wintour is said to be a model for the popular Devil Wears Prada, and certainly I cannot say if she is really devilish as I have never, and will never be able to know her personally. But a fine documentary film about  remarkable people can tell us a bit of their real personality and make us think what we can learn from them. 

This is why I like to watch the September Issue again and again. I'm not particularly interested in how she governs the magazine and her way of work (seemingly cold-hearted), or how great designers and photographers are under her influence. I like how she focuses on her work, how she avoids compromise and makes decisions in very plain words that cannot be misunderstood by anybody, and how she always has a clear vision. Above all, she is strict and decisive and maybe ruthless, but what I admire most is that she seems to 100% focus on, be involved in her work of pursuit for the finest quality. I like that highest level of simplicity in work. Talented people around her, and Ms. Wintour herself thinks the work is not easygoing. But I found the brightness and genuinity in her eyes fascinating when she finds something worthy of being shared to the world through clothing, and it makes us believe the tough work means a great deal so we should hang on. 

588 The Rewrite

「言葉」が持つ力については議論を俟たないでしょう。ヴィジュアルな情報発信や、視覚でも言葉でもない体感をセンサーリングして伝えるコミュニケーションテクノロジーの進展の中においても、新聞を読み、雑誌を読み、ニュースを聞き、メールを読み、SNSに記事を投稿し、議論し、説明し、共感し、そして頭の中で考えることに至るまで、毎日接する情報の殆どは言葉によるものです。映画"The Rewrite"の主人公は映画の脚本家であり、「言葉」を生み出し使いこなすプロフェッショナルの一人です。ハリウッドから干されかけて生活のために渋々郊外の大学で教職に就き、当初は無責任で気侭な日々を送ってみたものの、好奇心旺盛で個性的な生徒達のおかげで次第に教えることに開眼し…というプロットはストレートで、今時珍しいくらいシンプルです。ストーリーが穏やかな故、主人公はほぼすべてのシーン、すべての台詞で脚本家の本領を発揮するかのように捻りの効いた、ウィットと皮肉に満ちていながら、真実を突く言葉を何の気なしに投げかけます。まるでF1レーサーがレーシングカーを乗りこなすように、脚本家は言葉を使いこなすプロであると実感させられます。この映画はほとんどのシーンが脚本家と脚本家志望の生徒達との間、もしくは文学や言語学を担う同じく「言葉」のプロである教授達との間での会話によって成り立っています。「言葉」とそれが持つ力を熟知し存分に吟味し、シェフが食材を知り尽くし使いこなすように、写真家が最もすぐれたドラマの瞬間を待ち受けてその場面を切り取るように、「言葉」を使いこなすことの楽しみを疑似体験できるような映画です。

587 Time Zone

Office work starts at 9 am in the morning and closes at around 6 pm. We usually (if we are lucky enough) get bonus in December. Kids are back to school in September. Arguably, the sun rise and sets, we wake up in the morning and get rest in the night, the seasons change in the course of 12 months. So our society and social activity are organized in certain time in a very orderly manner. That's social requirement that we accept as a matter of fact. But sometimes we need to live according to our own time zone. You can take as much time as you want to breathe, for example. You can have meals or fall asleep anytime you want (as far as you can fully accomplish your job). You can change your life in January, May, October or anytime of a year if you really wish to, no matter when the calendar year or the fiscal year starts and ends. 

Right now at this moment, time has been lost forever and never be reversed. But the fact is time is yours. So it's worth trying to take your time, if you can. 

586 Dentist

For the first time in several years I started to go to a dental clinic for my dental maintenance. Probably few people likes to go to dentist but in fact I have been amazed and even amused by modernized dental care techniques.  If you have an experience of dental composite, it really is like a minimum sized construction business. It's a medical treatment but at the same time it just feels like almost industrial process --- in the best way. Surely it's not so easy to lie down on the stiff chair and keep your mouth wide open as directed and have nothing but to stare the ceiling, sometimes frowning with a bit of pain.  However if you can feel relaxed enough to have curiosity of what your doctor is going to do with what kind of gadgets and materials, you will find the process rather interesting and learn how today's dental method has been making remarkable progress. I was lucky to look at the dentist's table and listen to the directions from the doctor to the assistants in the middle of the construction, and after I googled lots of special words and materials which had just been applied to my teeth. Not everyone can have fun in taking dental treatment, but I think it's safe to say that it's totally different from the classic method in my childhood. 

585 Less Is More #2

"LESS IS MORE" is one of my themes which repeatedly comes up to my mind. About a year ago I wrote a post titled "Less Is More" . This time is about Christmas tree. I found these fine green trees in front of a clothing shop recently renovated and renewed. Given the situation, the trees (exterior) may be left undone for a while to set first of all the shop interior and soon they will be decorated. Or maybe they are going to stand as it is without any Christmassy ornaments, socks, stars, lights and many gift boxes. I think that would be cool and is a one way to celebrate Christmas in light of "Less is More" spirit, while I certainly adore beautiful and sparkiling Christmas trees.

584 Noise Cancelling

We have splendid technology to shut noise out and enable us to concentrate on listening to music. In work life as well as social life we find it difficult to distinguish the real tone that we should hear from the noise to which we should not pay attention. At first I had uneasy feelings to the idea of defining someone else's comments or opinion as "noise" (which sounds really rude), but the fact is we sometimes (very often) cannot listen to everyone's voices. Having been involved in tons of business meetings or discussions, I see there's a truth in it and sometimes we have to shut down irrelevant, less essential points in order to manage, proceed, improve and evaluate our business. In social life it's more challenging to apply this method, as you cannot just turn down what is said by your family or friends. You might be more likely to take them into account, or at least you might pretend to do so. Nevertheless you had better try to grip what is essential and is a key value in your daily life.

However, a difference lies between music and conversation around you. In listening to music you can just shut off the noise and enjoy, In either business or social conversation you don't have to listen to the noise, but you should pay attention to the fact that you have noise out there and even if it looks quiet it doesn't meat there's nothing. That scope of recognition leads you to get some insight to what's behind the argument and might help you afterwards.

583 Undercelebrated

Graduation, wedding, promotion, retirement, getting job, giving birth, awarded, buying house, breaking record, mastering PhD, starting business, winning lottery, 15-minutes of fame, and so on. It seems we have tons of reasons to celebrate. When we hear these news from our family or friends or colleagues, we celebrate and praise them. These events shows their luck, happiness, tireless efforts, guts or any other thing worth celebrating. Sometimes we become the one.  But if you don't have these kind of life events and spend your days without any notable or enviable things that could be easily put into the framework of celebrated occasion? How about spending life just decently, surviving tough times and keeping rising even if sometimes knocked down, but never feeling like winning the game? 

I'm not going to turn to the cliche like "normal life is the most beautiful thing" or "be thankful to your small happiness", even if they describe one way of truth. We have self-esteem, we like to be recognized and respected, we have greed, aspire for success, and naturally the deeper the happiness is the better we feel. I just have been wondering that if we don't offer many occasion to be celebrated or praised, that does not mean we are lack of good fortune or effort, let alone losing in life. Do celebrate your life as it is because it's worth, just like the stunning beauty of the christmas tree always delights us, meanwhile the quiet excellence of a tree in the field (very likely to be identical to the next tree) also pleases us.

582 Coffee vs. Cigarettes

The year 2015 will be a memorable one to me in several different ways, but one of those is definitely a theme which keeps pleasing me all through the year: reunion with old friends. No doubt it's thanks to the luck that I have time to renew my old friendship and catch up with them. Recently I have another reunion with one of my old classmates. He mentioned he quit smoking and switched to coffee. I, being a huge coffee fan all my life, (for the record I'm also a huge fan of music, coffee, airplane, dance, design, radio…) suggested we should meet and chat over coffee some time. The opportunity came earlier than I thought and I really enjoyed this reunion. This meeting was the first time in over 20 years. Time usually changes people a lot but sometimes these changes are merely subtle and trivial. And sometimes, the change doesn't work as a gap between present and past, but even provides us more kindred and more trusted relationships. 

We talked and talked about the beauty and delight of the time to have a cup of coffee. I asked him why he decided to stop smoking. First of all, for health, especially he needs strong breathing capacity as he enjoy surfing. Secondly for his child. And finally he told me a reason I have never thought of. He said he spent roughly 5 minutes to smoke one cigarette. Then it takes him several minutes to search for a place to buy cigarette and where to smoke it. So he felt he was losing his time from smoking. On the contrary he is really enjoying coffee and would be happy to take time to visit fine cafes for a cup of coffee. What a difference!  

581 Sound

After days of consideration, I finally set my mind to begin writing a normal, possibly a fun, healthy story again, as I can do so even if I'm having a mixed-up feelings caused by the world affairs, my work life, or my personal life. 

I had my birthday last week and received nothing but a warmth and pleasure of friendship. I just appreciate how I am lucky to have such a good friends. And I had been thinking about the two things I wanted as my wish lists. I decided to go and buy them for myself, not as a "gift" to myself because I always feel awkward to the idea of treating or celebrating myself, but as something incentivizing me, uplifting me, and making me wish to become a person who is worth having a fine thing like this; a very sophisticated, high-quality, award-winning headphone.

I've been a huge music fan all my life and I especially like to listen to music while walking in the town watching streets, people, architecture, cars and nature. And I have to confess that I wish to be seen as if I was one of the real music professionals walking with fine headphones on their neck (yes, obviously I'm a show-off).

How do I enjoy it? Amazing. Just awesome. The first moment I put on it and started to listen to my favorites tunes, I just thought if I had this with me it would be the one and only I needed and I could easily forget the other stuffs in daily life like Facebook or Twitter. Today we gather much of the information and a bit of fun we need from visual communication like SNS but this amazing quality opens up my ears (not eyes) to the delight of truly enjoying the sense of audio.  

580 Tai chi

Very recently I started to learn Tai chi. The trigger was merely a coincidence, but once I slowly experience and learn the art of Tai chi, I got really hooked on it. I don't know the history nor universe of Tai chi yet but that doesn't matter. In learning the basic skill of it,  I immediately felt the comfortable impact on body and mind.

What I lean and know about Tai chi now is ;
 - It's graceful.
 - It makes me feel relaxed, balanced, calm and confident.
 - It's a series of movement like a dance choreograph.
 - It involves flow of arms as if they always draw circles around the upper body.
 - It helps me to chill out in the best way.
 - And it's a martial art.

It's a excellent combination of gracefulness and power, relaxation and sharp tense in defense move, peace of mind and toughness of mind. Marvelous.

579 I would like to call it "A New Year"

If I ever have talked about my birthday here (I believe I did a few times) I must have written about it later. This year I give it a new twist, as I think it would be something meaningful to talk about it before. The childhood days of party, family celebration and lots of presents have already gone. Whether it's my birthday or not, I have to work (like everyone else) and I'm not actually interested in the idea of special foods, drinks or to treat myself with special relaxing time, etc. But I'm sure I have one big special thing on my birthday (like everyone else), as I noticed that I do have a right to think as if I have my own calendar.  The solar calendar starts on January 1st. Your company's fiscal year may start in January or February or April or September. But what if we think that our lives begin on our birthday so it's a new year's day on our personal calendar? 

So, like we think about the new coming year and make a wish for it on new year's eve, I try to think about my coming birthday this year a bit --- not much of a difference, but it's fun, as I think of at least these things:

- I made my wish lists,  no matter if they're given to me or not.
- I made plan to do on my birthday eve, like new year's eve, for example to clean up and get rid of unnecessary things, in order to get a fresh start for my new year.
- Now I'm feeling excited to welcome my birthday. It works :-)

578 7 Years

I seldom write about my work. I've been in financial industry for almost 12 years. And in September 2008 I was about to find work in financial industry, which was a foolish idea but somehow I managed to do it, and since then I've been in an extraordinary adventure. My home nation didn't seem to suffer from the financial melt down and great recession as much as in US, but it was indeed a dark time. Downsizing, job cut, pay cut, business withdrawal, restructuring, fear, uncertainty, suspicion, pessimism were all over. But the right mind and deed, discipline, fearless will and strong wisdom were always there, too. There was surely a light to guide the way it should be. Only that I didn't notice it in the middle of confusion, depression, doubt, anger and misunderstanding. 

It was also a hard training period. Everyone was required to be self-sustained and high-spirited in order to behave based on firm belief and try to see the bigger picture. You need to motivate yourself, encourage yourself, care yourself, and find why and how you could keep on under the annoying situation. The crisis tests you and unveil you. It was a combat against ourselves. It seemed everyone was fighting and suffering, and there were no lose nor victory, just survival.  That's how my prosperous thirties started at the era of one of the greatest recession in modern history, and I met so many fantastic person who had right mind, generosity and identity to stand out. 

Now the world looks very different. I certainly never wish to go back to the era again, but sometimes cannot help wondering how the experience taught me much.

      

577 The Age Of Adaline

事故により29歳のまま不老となった女性、Adalineが世紀を超えて生き続けるファンタジーですが、なによりまず「美しい映画」という表現がしっくりくる作品です。1920年代から40年代、60年代を経て2010年代の現在に至るまで、美しく孤独で、若々しく魅力的でありながら老成し寂びた心を持つ女性。元々の容姿の美しさに加えその複雑な内面性がさらに謎めいた、常人ならぬ雰囲気を纏わせています。不老の身体を生み出すSF的要素は正直なところあまり現実味はなくお伽話に近いものがありますが、そんな設定にもリアリティを与えてしまう主人公の存在感は素晴らしく、波乱の20世紀を黙して静かに生き続けた彼女がいったいこの先どのように生きるのだろうかと、観客を引き込む力を持っています。20世紀初頭に生まれ、29歳まで普通に生きてきた彼女が、その当時のクラシックな上流社会のカルチャーと雰囲気と衣装を常に持ち続け、時代がどう移り変わろうと洗練された古典的美意識と、上品な辛辣さを備えたユーモアにさらに磨きをかけているのはユニークな見所です。永遠に若々しい身体に老練な精神を宿すといえば、恰も人間として無敵な存在、もっといえば人類の夢かもしれませんが、この映画は不老で生きる孤独と悲哀を淡々と描いて見せてくれます。

576 "Break"

"Break" has so many different meanings. Interruption, separation, change, pause, holiday, gap, opening, escape, opportunity to success, winning, turning point, and good fortune. The variety of the meanings is somewhat fascinating, as they carry both obviously positive and very negative things. 

I have just experienced one of these "breaks"and yet, who knows when I get another "break" in the future. I like it because overall "break" is a clear and influential change, sometimes a liberation from a deadlock. 

575 Into The Woods

It was too good to be true. I've returned to my hometown so many times but for the first time I had a breathtaking moment to witness the scenery of golden autumn woods. It was not just a wonderful sight --- it was with sweet smells of autumn trees. It was a natural forest in protection, but it also looked relaxed and casual, just like a backyard on a hill. It was just a minute walk from the subway station but in that morning almost nobody paid attention to the scenery and scent. Maybe that's because these natural beauty and the privilege to enjoy them is so common and ordinary in countryside. The place was like a magic. Quiet, magnificent, warm, tender, clean, bright, and mysterious.

574 Pasta Pot

I think the weirdest part of a weird dream is that in the dream you feel, think, or even say something in a manner which you might act in a real world.  The other day I had a little dream of me inviting friends to a dinner. I was expected to cook pasta and one of the friends was in charge of making sauce. The friend said okay and promised to bring good sauce perfectly match the pasta. At the moment in my dream suddenly I noticed that I didn't have any large pasta pot for the purpose but only had a normal one just fitted to boil macaroni. I sensed that I was in trouble as I knew the friend would make a good sauce for spaghetti, not for macaroni. Then the funny dream ended and I waked up with a clear idea that it would be better for me to go and get a pasta pot right away (which I still haven't, or, should I?)

573 The Intern

30代の若き起業家社長のもとに訪れた70歳のシニア・インターン。"The Intern"は穏やかで良質なコメディであり、年も性別も異なる2人の人間のバディ・ムービーとも言えそうです。よくある「お互いのギャップに反発を覚えつつ、次第にそれを乗り越え共感と友情に至る」という分かりやすい展開を踏むのではなく、2人はそれぞれの領域に踏み込むことなく、争うことも理解を求めることもなくそれぞれが自分のやり方で日々を歩みながら、次第にお互いを自分とは異なる（故に貴重な）存在として認め、リスペクトするようになります。ここでは年長者が経験値を振りかざすこともなく、若者が現代の価値観を押し付けることもありません。年長者が余裕と知性で若者を導くこともあれば、若者は瑞々しい精神と行動力で年長者に新たな経験を与えます。映画ではやや理想的すぎる人間関係が描かれますが、実際の人生でもこのようなバディが居てくれたなら、と誰もが思うことでしょう。大半の場面がオフィスで、大半の会話がこの上司と部下のやりとりで占められている、ある意味では単調かつ小さな世界の映画ですが、表情豊かな周りのキャラクターと、気が利いてリアルで笑える脚本が非常に活きています。

572 Ambulance

I have got on an ambulance three times, twice as a patient being carried to the ER, and the third time was as a fellow passenger. Yet I think not so many people have that experience three times. So to those who luckily never have rode on the ambulance, here's to give you a sense of it. 

First of all it is not comfortable both to the patient and to the passengers. The inside is actually not so large, as there are so many medical equipments and stuffs all around. And there's no window view, means you cannot look outside from the window. So if you are a patient you just lie down on a strecher feeling little sickness from the car going forward and round from time to time, looking blankly at the ceiling of the car, answering to the inquiry from the ambulance crew, and hoping to get to the hospital in a minute. But the whole feeling as a patient is (at least to me) far from uncomfortable --- it was gratitude and a great relief to become rescued from the suffering and fear.

As a passenger, there's lots of things to do. Looking worriedly at the patient and encourage him/her saying you're gonna be okay, while answering to the questions from the rescue crew, and finding cell phone to call to the families or friends of the patient. The seat is narrow and there's limited space for the fellow people in good health (absolutely acceptable), and as there's no seat belt, when the ambulance has to turn quickly at the crossing the passengers often bump each other. But of course, no one cares.

What I want to say is, every time I have that kind of experience, I'm really impressed by how professional, calm and reliable these rescue crews and ambulance staffs, and doctors and nurses are. Here's again my gratitude to everyone who save people.

571 Shades of Blue

シルバーのiPod nanoを長年愛用してきましたが、うっかり洗濯機に入れて洗ってしまうというミスによりやむなく買い替えに。今や殆どのデジタル機能を備えたiPhoneが普及し、さらにApple Watchが登場する中、シンプルに音楽だけに機能を絞ったiPodが存在し続けてくれるのは音楽好きには有難い話です。長い間シルバーの本体を使ってきましたが、今回初めて明るいブルーのiPodを購入。色合いはDodger Blueに近く、デジタル機器でもこのような微妙な美しい発色ができるようになったのかと驚きました。小型で軽量な中に膨大な曲を収納するiPodは、たいていポケットか鞄の中に入れられたままで、あまり外見が問われるものではないのですが、音楽を快適に楽しむための必要な機能を小型のタッチパネルに整然と並べたhandsomeな形を見るにつけ、Appleのデザインのシンプルさを突き詰めた傑作であると気づかされます。

570 Signature

I was really lucky to happen to meet Sir Paul Smith who visited one of his flagship stores. This was my first time to ask signature of a celebrity, but I don't feel it's right to call him just a celebrity. I think he is a true creator who has great influence. I have been a fan of his cloths and respected his works. I spoke with him only for 30 seconds but I did feel uplifting happiness and excitement that I was in front of a real creator, and just by shaking hands with a few words I could get an extraordinary sense that I was meeting somebody truly real and special.

He kindly wrote his famous iconic signature. This was a huge gift as it was a creative symbol of his brand and part of his design. I know I might be too excited, but the whole experience was so unexpected and unusually happy. 

569 Freedom

When you finds your life difficult, when you feel there're lots of things you cannot deal with or change, and when you feel you are stuck, this might be of a help, to think this way. You have freedom to let yourself (sometimes) be free from such notions as defined socially, ethically and in common sense. You have freedom to live your own life. You have freedom not to fix your way. You have freedom not to choose and leave things unsettled. You have freedom to do wrong deed. You have freedom to try and make error. You have freedom to enjoy unusual feelings. You have freedom to waste your money and time. You have freedom to follow your spirit and call it wisdom. 

Let yourself be free from what you can change by the way of thinking.

568 Consulting

I have been wondering why people around me starts to talk about their problems or ideas and consult me. I'm not exaggerating and please don't take it wrong, because I don't mean any kinds of self-praise. I'm just wondering because I never ask them to talk about them. Very often, when I specially need someone's advice or just need to be heard and understood,  a person I am talking with seems to suddenly get a feeling like talking about themselves. Very strange, but in fact, it's honorable at all cost. 

567 Unplug

This September I joined the annual dance showcase with my teammates. This was the 6th time that I performed dance on stage. Needless to say I am not a professional, and most of my fellows neither. But dance attracts us strongly and sometimes it overwhelms our ordinary sense of life as office worker, student, mother, or father ( by the way dancing seems to be such an extraordinary activity in modern world, which I think is funny, so all my colleagues who watch me dancing shows real astonishment and sort of shock, which, again is funny.)

I've been hanging out with dance for over 10 years and been trying to put in words to describe the special feeling that dance gives me always. Everyone says that I look very different with sharp eyes, great verve and having so much fun when I am dancing. It's really  a compliment but I have no conscious of those features I deliver. All I can feel while dancing is that this is the only time I can be almost free from the thoughts on how I look like and what other people would think about me. One way to describe this status may be "to unplug" myself from my ordinary character and identity. I love this process so much because I just throw away my self and try to unite with music.  If successfully done, this is the coolest thing to be identified yourself with the music you find cool.

566 Friendship

We have new friend, old friend, girl friend, boy friend, friend you meet every day, friend who lives in miles away (and not even have SNS relations), older friend, younger friend, friend you help, friend who saves you, friend who happens to be your ex, friend who used to be your enemy, comrade, buddy, and so many potential friends you have some connection with. I appreciate the general liberty of friendship, as it is unlimited and free. You may choose as you like, from having small number of close friends to enjoying diversity of hundreds of friends. You can dig into certain friendship deeper than other friends, change your fellow you hang out with at times, or leave all of them behind and stay alone and quiet for a while. Sometimes you may find your definition of friendship is different from that of your friend. It's no problem as long as both you and your friend act in good faith. You may fail in your friendship but there's usually a second chance (even if there isn't, you will be able to learn something and try another). The flexibility, generosity and goodness of the friendship is astonishing. Note that we should choose a certain one as our mate, our partner at the end of the day, while we may have as many, strong, happy friendship as we want all through our life.

565 Garden

What is great about garden is you can look at, touch and appreciate the beauty and virtue of it, even though you cannot own nor live in the garden. If you don't rush to find and own your one-and-only garden, which might be wonderful of course though, you may notice how generously the gardens you see allow you to explore the finest feature of them. And often, you might even find unsung greatness and the happiness that the owner of the garden has been missing. 

I mean this is a metaphor which I come up with recently. Anyone can guess what it is?

564 St. Vincent

頑固で偏屈で酒飲みでやさぐれた乱暴者の老人と、芯は強いが大人の事情に醒めた目をした厭世的でひよっこな少年の交流を描く"St. Vincent"、異端な者たちのバディムービーは数多くあり、最初は反発していた2人がお互いの真の価値を知って救われていくといった話はどこかで繰り返し見ているのですが、このテーマに新鮮で優れた脚本と素晴らしい演技者を得て、この映画は新たな名作として力強い魅力を放っています。ある程度展開の見えるヒューマンドラマに、身を乗り出して見いってしまう経験はなかなか普通の映画では味わえません。幼い少年の冷静な、偏見を離れた観察眼と達観したような台詞に、そして厄介者の老人が悪態と無謀の中に見せる善行と誠意と圧倒的な愛情に、そしてその周りの人間達の人の良さ、賢さ、愚かさ、無知、偏見、争いに、ままならない人生のリアリズムと、その中で奇跡のように立ち現れる人間の偉大さと優しさを、思い起こさせてくれます。奇跡といってもお伽話ではなくにがにがしい現実を描き、しかしシニカルな目線ではなく温かいユーモアを持って物語は強く果敢に展開していきます。映画のような感動までは体験できないとしても、実は誰の人生にもこうしたドラマが起きる可能性が添えられているのではないでしょうか？

563 Makeup

 

Why women do makeup? Why doesn't men (usually) do the same? It's interesting that women's makeup isn't only for making them look attractive and pretty, as widely recognized. In fact makeup is a public, social requirement, just like a fair attire. I can't imagine for example the First Lady or any other responsible women no matter what their occupation is, appear in the public or at their office without makeup. Of course men also does their grooming (hair-styling and beard-care, or skin-puryfying) and in that sense the requirement for women and men in public are the same; to be tidy, clean, pleasant in appearance. But women's makeup can carry more than that. Their skill of bringing beauty out of their natural-born face may lead to confidence, sense of protection maybe, and enables them to play a role, and change that role through the choice of their makeup (i.e, red lip, dark eye, healthy cheek, long eye-lush, or totally colorless?). In short, it gives a power, dignity, elegance for women to stand out.

No doubt about it, but I guess only thing that women sometimes might wonder is the definition of beauty. Makeup creates fantastic beauty, but would we come to the point where women really look beautiful with their own face with no makeup, just as children and wild animals never need it to be fine.

562 Cinderella

ディズニーの古典アニメーションにより世界中で知らない人はいないシンデレラの物語を再びディズニーが実写化した"Cinderella"は、誰もがおなじみのストーリーをきわめて美しく、格調高く、かつモダンに活き活きと描き出し、ほぼ非の打ち所のない映画となりました。魔法や動物の助けを借りるファンタジー性は必要最小限にタイトにまとめられ、代わって人物描写に重きを置いた脚本を得て、従来のおとぎ話から、いわばシェイクスピア喜劇のような人間ドラマとして新たな魅力を開拓したようです。

この有名な話は繰り返しませんが、結末に至るまでよく知られた筋立てであるからこそ、ストーリー展開に気を取られることなく登場人物の何気ない会話や表情などの描写により注意が向くとも言えます。特に興味深いのはシンデレラの2人の義姉。この映画での彼女達の悪役ぶりは冷酷さや邪悪さというより、無知や未熟さ、あるいは悪趣味から来るものと解釈されているようです。2人とも根っから悪なのではなく、ただ幼稚に、母親を真似てシンデレラを見下しているにすぎないのです。外見はなかなか美しいのに躾も教養もない姉達をシンデレラは「一度ならず気の毒に」思い、加えて実の母親までが「美しいだけで愚かな娘達」と思っているというどうにも救われないキャラクターですが、舞踏会の土産話を自慢げに、それでも親しげにシンデレラに語っている姿や、国王に身分を明かして幸福を得たシンデレラに驚き謝罪し、その幸せそうな様子を思わず微笑んで見入る2人の姿（そんな2人を、国王の信頼篤い大尉が笑顔で見ている様子も一瞬映し出されます）は、悪も善も併せもつリアルな人間の複雑さを示しているかのようです。

またシンデレラが国王に対し本名の「Ella」でなく「Cinderella（灰かぶりのエラ）」とわざわざ名乗る理由はいくぶん考えさせられました。彼女にとってCinderrllaは忌むべき名前のはずですが、何不自由なく自由に過ごした子供時代を象徴するのが本名だとすると、自身をシンデレラと名乗ることで、灰まみれで仕事に明け暮れた辛い経験も含めて今の自分自身であるという勇気ある表明なのではないでしょうか？