544 Music to the Mind : Chill Out

Chill out music is certainly a very, very different kind of thing. It's not a genre. It may be categorized as Electronica, Dance, or Lounge but I suppose it's all about the special feeling it creates. The "chill-out" feeling itself is hard to define. It might be cool, relaxed, light, uplifting, modern, peaceful, elegant, stylish, down-to-earth, subtle, natural, and most of all, definitely comfortable. With many of these elements in it, chill out to me always sounds like a further tune. It goes well with the course of mind work especially toward the unknown future. These music doesn't give clear images like rock music does, nor connect with sense of beating and breathing body like hiphop music does. Chill out music just makes me forget the past and present, and stimulate my senses to help building future and another world I've never seen.

543 Music to the Mind : Rock'n Roll

Rock'n roll music is a totally different subject. Every time I listen to rock I cannot help imagining those musicians behind the sound with guitar or base in their hands, beating drums, playing keyboards, or gripping microphone before audience, in the middle of fest field,  or in the lively studio. Sometimes those imagination takes image of short films --- which arguably shows how my childhood was deeply affected by MTV. Maybe that is one of the reason why I tend to bond rock music with past feelings and experiences I have gone through. Of course it's not just looking back these days in nostalgia. It's my own way to sympathize with the message and lyrics of the song. I feel it's like the way how actors understand the character they play through the script, by searching for their own personal experiences and feelings in the past. Rock'n roll, even if it's a brand-new one I've never heard of, has an undeniable power to appeal to the memory and come up with strangely familiar vision. 

542 Music to the Mind : Hiphop

I really care for several different kinds of music. Originally I grew up as a rock kid like many others, meanwhile I was familiar with classical music and sometimes jazz. Dance music and electronica blew my mind after I left my hometown to enter the university and knew the fun at capital city, clubbing and chilling out with friends. At the same time I do like some operas, holiday musics and Disney musicals.

Sometimes I listen to only a certain category of music all through days just for fun. And when I get bored, I switch the category to the other. This is an extreme way but sometimes it gives me a feeling as if my mind (or my brain) reacts differently to each of the category of music, like we sense different taste at different spot of our tongue. 

Here I try to figure out what it might mean.

Hiphop music is (basically) features clear-cut beat and groove, but also sampling and loop of music. It's a free style combination of beat, groove, rhythm, rap, cool melodies and whatever that identifies its sound creator. Personally I think it's all about the beat, groove and loop that makes people comfortable and uplift. It's amazing that the beat, groove and loop are something quite in line with a heart beat, breathing, and the whole circulation of blood and air. I feel that hiphop music can approach directly to our physical existence so that we might be able to grasp the feeling of "being here now", while activating our mind snappily.  

541 At Exhibition

At an exhibition of art : 

Do you closely look at the introduction note at the entrance, or just walk into the hall without paying much attention to it? 

Do you use an audio guide and follow the stream of art works, or find your own way of wandering around the space freely?

Do you like to see the picture closely, or look at it with keeping substantial distance?

Do you appreciate the beauty of the picture itself, or like to try to read the artist's mind through the work?

Do you think your eyes are likely to catch and be attracted by the color in the picture, or the shape?

Do you like to talk with your fellow audience, or keep silence when you are in the hall?

Do you try to find your interest in the pictures, or quit looking at the pictures and try to find the exit of the room, when you unfortunately find yourself bored by the works?

Do you take a break and stretch your legs sitting on the bench in the middle of the exhibition, or wait for the relaxing time over the coffee after you finish the exhibition?

Do you feel your sense is the same when you look at a picture and a sculpture, or feel any difference in it?

Do you look at a picture frame or ignore it?

Do you like to flip the pages of a catalog of the exhibition and be tempted to buy it, or like to  turn to your memory, when you like the exhibition and try to remember it?

Do you go to an exhibition searching for knowledge and experience, or for a unusual time spent with floating in the air filled with art works?

Do you think that ultimately art is an universal pursuit of beauty of human kind, or it's really a personal, sometimes egoistic activity in a best way for the artists to identify themselves?

Do you like art, or artist?

540 Protect Yourself

Wild animals protect themselves from instinct. They save energy for hunting, hide from enemies, select what to eat or not,  create a safe place, and will be extremely alert to anything they first meet. We cannot behave like them because we've been exempted from the battle for existence and survival they face.  Instead, we undertake social responsibility and obligations at home and at work.

However, I sometimes find it useful for human to remember to protect ourselves. Sometimes we had better just follow our instinct to know from what you should escape and hide yourself in order to save your body and soul.

539 Cars

Pixar映画の中で一、二を争う人気作というわけではなさそうで、ずっと見逃していたCarsですが、欠点がほとんど見当たらないといってもいい実に良質な映画です。ストックカーレースのレーシングカーが主人公ですが、映画の本質はレースシーンのエキサイトと迫力だけではなく、むしろ地図から忘れられたアメリカの片田舎の街の住人（車）たちの人間（車）模様と、老練で頑固者のレーシングカーと主人公との師弟関係に似たドラマにあります。冒頭の華やかなレースから一転して舞台となる田舎町の雰囲気に合わせて、全編がのどかでコミカルな雰囲気ですが、その裏にあるドラマは実写で人間が演じてもおかしくないような重みと説得力を感じさせます。Pixarならではのクオリティの高いCGアニメーションは、レースシーンでは圧倒的なスピード感と重量感、田舎の街では砂埃や夜の静けさ、広大な自然の中のドライブ、楽しげなネオンサインが映り込む滑らかな車体の表現など、もちろんどれも際立っています。これら技巧を尽くした映像の美しさがフォーカスされがちな映画かもしれませんが、力強いストーリーテリングの魅力も決して見逃せません。

538 Aurora

A couple of weeks ago I returned to my home town and spent a few days, meeting old friends. One of the get-togethers was a memorable because I met a friend for the first time in, 22 years. The beautiful thing in meeting old friend is that one can easily forget awkwardness and open up immediately. It's no logic but a fact. We completely forgot each other's face and had no idea how each other had turned in 22 years, but yet we found and recognize each other at once. We had a very good time.

The other friend told me an intriguing story of dream which I happened to appear. According to the funny dream, one day I suddenly called her to ask her to depart the next day for the trip to some northern countries to see the aurora, saying that I had booked everything already. Aside from the mischievous hastiness, I liked the story very much as this was a rare case that I behaved in the way just as I would have wished if I were to be in someone else's dream.

537 Magic In The Moonlight

 

Woody Allenの新作はノスタルジックな時代背景と南仏の明るい景観を舞台とした、軽快で愉快なラブコメディです。皮肉屋の男性と溌剌とした若い女性に、ちょっとしたミステリーと沢山のシニカルな会話を語らせる脚本は時にひどく軽いとも見られるようですが、小難しいこともなく観客が気兼ねなく心地よく会話を楽しみ、映画を楽しめるのはやはり熟達した脚本の成せる技です。Woddy Allenのこうしたコメディの面白いところは、のんびりと観ていられる軽妙な話の中に、何かしら少しひっかかるもの、通り一遍でない感情を起こさせるものが紛れている点にあります。

さて、楽しいラブコメディというのはだいたい結末（ハッピーエンド）がわかっており、約束されたゴールに向かってどう進むかの過程が映画の要になります。だいたいにおいて、複数の人間が絡んできて話が混線したり誤解が生じたり、あるいは優柔不断が進展を妨げたりして観客がある程度やきもきできるように作られるものですが、この作品はそうしたドタバタは案外に少なく、本来内面的なものである葛藤を、彼らと彼らの周囲の人間がとにかく終始喋って喋って喋りまくるのが可笑しく、約束されたハッピーエンドへの道程を言語が構築していく様がとてもユニークです。