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？

561 Too Good To Be True

Sometimes I look at movies critics. That doesn't mean I check with them all the time and decide which movie to watch. I just want to know hoe they share the delight brought by a certain movie that I watched and liked. If you like something and you see other person describes it much better than yourself, it would double the joy. But often (surely) there's gap between the opinions of mine then theirs.  Sometimes, a cynical critic views some happy-ending story as too good to be true and lack of realism. I would say it's no problem. Movie makes people happy, which is a great deal. We are not sure if we can make ourselves happy, but good movies can do to millions of people, with early concepts, fine script, act, music, shots, special effects, production design and edits. Surely we do enjoy and see, a Shakespeare tragedy for example, as a state of art, but it's a different thing. I assume not a few people make it a rule to watch almost every time a happy-ending movie to laugh, cheer themselves up, forget pathetic memories of the past, and gain happy spirits to move on, because life is tough and we need a little bit help. 

I still remember reading Mike Royko's column saying something like that "who wish to take the trouble to watch movie only to feel depressed? I like movies of John Wayne, a story that a hero beats bad guys." 

560 Take a Break at Airport

The famous American heroine in NYC who is "always traveling" said that when she felt depressed she jumped on a taxi to drive to Tiffany's. I assume everyone has a certain place   like that. So is my case. It would be great to breathe in the woods or seaside, or walk along the riverbank, chill out in a cafe, or forget time in a movie theater. I love all those places but nothing better than the airport. 

I don't remember when I first got special, happy feelings about airplanes and airport. The act of flying, traveling, going to far away places and the whole extraordinary experience might fit my spirit. I've always been fond of just going to airport to take a break. Looking at the airplanes taking off and landing makes me uplift the most. Airplane is fascinating because it's the embodiment of ultimate functional beauty, with tremendous power, mass and speed. Regardless of its heavy and tough body, airplane is allowed to kick the ground off and escape from the gravity. It can fly in the rain, cloud, thunder, snow, wind, beaming sun and pitch-darkness. Cars might be easily personified. But airplane needs more of that --- I might even imagine it's almost like a dinosaurs, because of its power, speed and sharp figure.

Most people doesn't especially like to be on the observation deck where you are exposed to strong wind, the smell of fuel and roaring sound of engine. It's surely weird to say those makes people in good mood.  But it's the whole thing being in airport from the gallant figure of the airplane and its functional beauty, open sky and land between which the airplane can run through. I wish I were a pilot, or a flight operations officer, and even an airplane. Might be a bit weird idea?