What's a piece of good music?

As I was listening to this (Coldplay's Postcards From Far Away), it suddenly came to me the thought that good music is like playing the tune you've already known, telling you a sweet story you've heard before, an old friend reunited, but somehow it's just buried under your consciousness. Now it's awaken once again. It surfaces from the sea of the forgotten. That's why it's so soothing and a joy to our heart. It was lost. Now found.

Buzz around Giorgio Morandi

I said earlier in my older post that Giorgio Morandi might not be very well-known.
I think I was wrong, or he and his paintings are getting more and more popular.
A new book on him ranked fifth on Amazon's recent best selling artist book list.
His retrospective exhibition is currently held at Metropolitan Museum.
And it's been reported on style magazines.
Following my own painting of toilet rolls appearing beside his on Google image search, a blogger Marisa Polin has put it on her blog along side... well, you know who.
Very flattered.
I'm going to do another experiment: put another still life up here and see what will happen.
It's "Three Jugs" I painted months after the toilet rolls, in a much realistic way as I was fascinated by the reflections.
It's now in the Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt...
No, just joking. It's few miles away, on the wall of my uncle's house.
As a gift to him many years ago.
This is not a good photo of it. A lot of subtle colours has lost.
I wish I can see it real again, some time, in the future.

Abstract Beauty

When I was an art student, once my art tutor asked me why I didn't paint abstract arts. I replied with some naivety, "To me, everything I look at can be an abstract art – a stained wall, a rusted steel. What's the point of making more?"

Of course, now I know things are more complicated (or cultivated) than that. But I still believe there were some truth in it. If you look at something harder and longer enough, you can discover art in almost anything.

If you don't believe me, take a simple test. Look at your palm. Look, like you've never seen it before. Stare at it. Gaze upon it. Follow every whorls and lines. Let them tell you that this is your hand – the very hand that you made the first touch, held your love one's, and probably felt the first pain.

For a moment. Take everything in. Now "screen cap" this image, imagine you can blow it up and frame it on a pure white gallery wall. Behold. it is a beautiful piece of art. (By the help of Lady Fame, it could be auctioned for a fortune.)

To further prove my point, can you tell what the below image is?


Take a deep breath and click this link to find out. (Hint: it's beauty above all.)

Beautifully Dissected

Not a piece of conceptual art. It's a dissected Leica lens. Looking through it, you capture your image perfect. Cutting through it, a beautiful work of art by itself.

It's funny how things can get really unfamiliar and strange when we see them in a different light.

This prompted me to Google the words "Dissected" and "Cross-section" and see if there's any weird or beautiful image popping up. Here are some of my picks. (Actually I ended up getting most good ones from Flickr.)

Grab a chainsaw (or borrow a laser gun if you can). Cut everything up, every　　　　thing shows up.

Apply to human too, metaphorically speaking, of course.

Viva La Vida

Now, millions worldwide have listened to it and thousands of review have been written. It's topping Billboard 200 album chart with over 720,000 copies sold in its first week. Can't be too bad. No British music has done that for a long while.

I'm no music expert or critics. I will just tell what touches me musically, and I think that's what music is all about.



I believe most people would agree, the climax of the album has to be Viva La Vida. Today on my way to work, my iPod was playing it just when the bus hit the highway. Fantastic! Do you have the same feeling that some songs are made for listening on a car or a train? Everything you see outside seems like beats and sounds materialized. Cars drum the same beat. Trees harmonize with the chords. Birds soar with the vocal. Your personal music video in the making. Viva La Vida is exactly this kind of song. Escalating. Enthralling. Exhilarating. While the lyrics is about the dethroning of a king, it makes you feel the exact opposite – you are the king of the world!

I like the acoustic version of both "Lost?" and "Lovers in Japan" more. Not sure why. These few lines warm my heart:

"Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I will cross..." (Lost?)

"Lovers, keep on the road you're on
Runners, until the race is run
Soldiers, you've got to soldier on..." (Lovers in Japan)

The album starts off with "LIFE in Technicolor", ends with "DEATH and All His Friends". Title wise, it's an obvious choice. But more magically (even spiritually), at the end of "Death and All His Friends", It has this extension track "The Escapist". Here we come back full circle to the same tune of "Life in Technicolor", just this time instead of purely instrumental, Chris Martin sings,

"And in the end
We lie awake, and we dream of making our escape"

It's a masterstroke.

Not a collection of songs. But a symphony of Life with 10 movements. Bravo!

Staple it the wrong way

This was the "freak statement" made the other day by my usual trusted Staple who is happily going about his business normally. My first reaction was one of amazement with a cry out, "what's wrong with you?"

I showed it to my colleagues. Everyone was puzzled. Until there is always one Mr. Knowhow who came along and explained everything. My staple is actually one of a kind possessing built-in function that can change gears from the normal staple's ends in to the advanced version of ends out. This makes a pile of documents less bulky at the stapled ends. Wow! What a revelation! (Excuse me for my ignorance if you knew this mystery long ago.)

This incident alone made me feel that day was worth while living. A simple design solution was found in the wrong place. That's an enlightenment. A lesson worth remembering.

"Wrong can be the other way right."

Ok, I know what you mean, Staple.

Autumn in Spring

Nature must have lost her diary or something.

Autumn popped in this week. Gorgeous weather. Cool, dry and blue sky.

Love the smell that came along. That intense scent/sense of Autumn. Words are useless here. The closest description I can think of – a bit like, you're in love.

Once

Just saw this movie. Beautiful beautiful movie. Beautiful beautiful songs.

How often do you meet the right person?

Once.

In Every Sunflower

This is a beautiful song I recently love. (Sorry, it's not really a video.)

"I wouldn't swap the pain
For never knowing you"

It's true, I believe, for anyone who has ever loved.

From what I was told, this was written about the band's vocalist - Paul Noonan's long term girlfriend, who was killed in a car crash late at night driving to see him after a gig. That makes it even more poignant.

Giorgio Morandi

Someone may notice the header image is a painting by Giorgio Morandi. He may not be very very well-known. But once you've seen his paintings, the mug you use to drink tea everyday will never be the same.

I remember my first encounter with the name "Giorgio Morandi". Many years ago when I was an art student, I was stuck not knowing what to paint. I picked up 2 rolls of toilet paper, put them in a "not so mundane" way and started to paint. My tutor saw and said it's very "Morandi". I didn't have a clue and looked it up. Shocked.