750 Retrospective

Occasionally, unexpectedly, a moment of strange but familiar feelings comes up in daily life, which enjoys me so much. One sunday afternoon I was at airport watching jets taking off and landing, on a comfortable, sunny and windy deck, sitting and eating sandwiches, satisfied with everything what I was seeing and feeling. Quite suddenly an old memory, or a memory of feeling in my childhood was visualized unconsciously, which brought me back to the summer day of school outing in a great mountain in my homeland. The two scenes have not much in common - sunny daylight, fine food, happy feeling, that's all - but my mind somehow showed strange creativity to combine them together. 

I always welcome these moments to come. I admire the power of memory (it doesn't matter if the memory was actual or created) that forces my sense to suddenly jump into the totally different moment. 

Especially the memory of snow is so amazing. I have experienced snow winter over 17 times and know many types and kinds of snow. I like the way snow casually rules the world and covers everything with white. What you see is only yourself and the snow field. Under the heavy snow, the sense gets more focused. Vision gets blurred and you only have chilly and dry smells of air and only feel your breathing. If you see nothing but white field and feel nothing but your breath, I now would like to think it just like a meditation, which makes the memory of the experience so special.

749 I Like What I Really Like

A college friend, whom I've been in touch for 20 years, kindly introduced me to an architect and we had a wonderful talk over a nice glass of wine. He told about the story he had been in a project of Zaha Hadid architecture which unfortunately turned to be unbuilt in the end. He wished to join the project and that made him go back to his home leaving Italy where he had been enjoying his work as an architect for 10 years. I have been always wanting to be involved in architecture and design and so I was eager to learn his experience and expertise. He explained me on some of the features of Zaha Hadid works. It is more like mathematics than structural mechanism, such as parabola-shaped building. It is of course not easy to actually build mathematics, so the core member of the architecture naturally gets specialized. "Still", he said, "talking about such special architect", and we found both of us were very fond of Frank Gehry, and he talked about his latest marvelous work of the Foundation Louis Vuitton, according to his explanation Frank Gehry's work is not only unique in its shape but also wonderful in standardization and streamlining of its building components. "Frank Gehry creates his work from 3D model, not plan, which is an totally opposite way of normal designing". 

"Who is your favorite architect of all time?" was the next question between us. I said, simply, Le Corbusier, and my memory of seeing Villa Savoye had been one of my moments in life. He agreed. I asked him what was special about the house from the professional perspective. He told there were many, but above all, the use of warm light inside and outside of the architecture. I remember it and I remember the truly happiest feeling for the two hours spent in the house filled with warm autumn sunlight. It really felt like a special light.

Talking about light, I said "I've seen a very special color of evening sky in Helsinki," and it was my turn to speak up my experience because he had never been to northern Europe. It was a clear evening in early October, about 5pm, and the sky was super beautiful azure-blue that I had ever seen.

Then we kept on talking, talking and talking. We also talked about the splendid airport architectures, which was my favorite topic, like amazing Norman Foster's works all over the world. Then we found both of us not only liked airports but also airplanes and air travel. We talked and laughed how we always felt like an excited kid when we sat down the window seat in the airplane and it was about to leave the ground. 

We talked about Kyoto and how we were fond of the old beautiful city and its depth of culture. We even agreed that there were so many cities to visit, to see and to admire, but Kyoto was kind of in a class of its own and we couldn't help but visiting the city, or even at the same spot, over and over and over again.

I have always been wishing to be a part of world's greatest architecture and design project, for once in a lifetime. I will keep dreaming of it and I was extremely satisfied, however self-contented it might be, with the fact that I could happily share my own view and sense of appreciation of these wonderful masterpieces with a professional architect, simply based on my feelings that I liked them so much.

748 Classics

"Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl" is one of the well known classic works of the two. I liked it when I watched it for the first time and have been one of my favorite cartoon short films. I liked the music, too - though I never knew it was Johann Strauss II's Overtures of "Die Fledermaus", which I first listened to it years and years later, and learned it was the music from one of the masterpieces of operetta. For a moment I was a fan of classical music and listened to it again and again. Years and year later, my music taste has been changed a lot and my iPod playlist is a combination of dance music, chill-out tunes, hip hop and a few good pops, a cycle comes in suddenly and I turn to classical music again. starting with the Overtures of "Die Fledermaus", which is, always marvelous. And it is surprisingly funny that I cannot but help thinking of the last scene of Tom and Jerry Hollywood Bowl film when the music goes to climax, where Tom has to play all the instruments in line with Jerry's conduct. When I listen to the music I should think of the scene from the operetta or the New Year's Concert, but in my funny memory the two wonderful classics seems to be inseparable. 

747 Foot Work

I live in big city always surrounded by so many people. I will look at people at subway station, from the cab window, in the park, at a busy crossing, or at a large office lobby. I think usually when it comes to look at people around you it definitely will be at their faces or their outfit, except when they are together with a dog or a cat or any other animals - which inevitably catch your eyes faster than a person does. I find another interesting way to watch people. It's to look at their foot, their walk, their in other words their move. I noticed that even human has benefit to move many parts of our body, our actual life seldom requires us to move them as much as possible. Sometimes it's really only foot that moves, as the hands and faces are stuck to smartphones. 

What possibly can people's feet tell you? I'm not sure but sometimes they seem to show the personality and identity. At least they can tell you the direction the person are going, the way the person is moving (hurried, relaxed, lost, striding, tired, on tiptoe, downbeat, or briskly, etc.) Sometimes the way the feet work can tell much more than the expression of the faces can. 

I remember once an old wise man said to me that "Watch people's foot in the crowd when you have to walk across it. Their faces never tells you which direction they are going to, but their feet does well. Watch them and you can tell the next move." I still think it true.   

746 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

SPOILER ALERT!! 
Please go back if you don't want to be informed on the storyline.

As one of the most successful creators of modern comic franchises, Marvel Studio seldom fails to meet our expectations. Looking at these overwhelming success among today's movie entertainment, thinking of Disney, Pixar, DC, Lucas Film etc., I feel these great creators are doing a marketing, in its perfect sense, not to meet our expectations but to lead us to what we want to see, establish our expectations and desire. Well It doesn't matter - when its experience is really uplifting and hilarious enough to make us purely happy, like the Guardians of the Galaxy series.

The series looks a lot like Star Wars saga and I don't think I can add something to that discussion out there but the Vol.2 is quite interesting, in the similar and different way of storytelling. In Episode 5 "The Empire Strikes Back", as everyone knows that Darth Vader tells that he is Luke Skywalker's father. Evil and merciless villain turns to be the real father of the hero. On the contrary in the Vol.2, the real father turns to be a villain. Both tragic. But the remedy is given in both story. Luke finally came to save his father by way of proving his mastered skill and mind and of believing his father. In Vol.2 Peter lost his real father but at the same time he learned he had been with his "real" father all the time, who actually was a loving father but being ambiguous and awkward. I think it very touching that both of them are wonderful in showing us the beauty of fatherliness.

745 Ip Man

I have been not familiar with martial arts films. But since I started practicing Taichi, it gradually led me to see those action films with a fresh perspective. No matter how amateur I am and no matter how poorly I practice it, at least I feel I also belong to the great heritage of martial arts. When I saw the movie Ip Man 3, I learned that the sense has changed my view. Kung-fu stars used to be super heroes to me before I started to learn Taichi, and now I know they are real super heroes.  Ip Man is a film that seems to be in between a fiction and a biography of a grandmaster, but with the awesome and breathtaking action sequence as well as drama played by Donnie Yen, to me it feels like a documentary film. The actor Donnie Yen is a real martial artist. I don't have much words to describe action sequence but the speed and power, skillful and careful move of the cycle of quick attack and defense, the tense, the impact and the serenity and stillness, everything seems to be real and it is, even if it's choreographed. and even if the story, the script and the lines are all fiction. There's no fake, no lies in the delicate and accurate action. That's the beauty of those professional martial arts films. 

744 Power of Smile

It would be fantastic if we do not fail to remember that smile is really a powerful action in life. As we all know, science studies has been telling us a lot about the tremendous positive effect of smiling. It's almost a miracle. And it's amazing that smile is such an easy action that can deliver the strongest and happiest emotion of all, but how difficult for us to keep remembering that simple fact. 

And I always wonder if smiling can be compatible with the most serious moment in life when you are in tense, really focused, and concentrated with highly sharpened sense inside and being under healthy pressure.  Can we smile under such situation, and what is the power of smile in such case? I'm really curious about it.