Inception - the lucid world of dreams

I saw "Inception" last night and was not disappointed. 

This film offers an abundance of symbolic and psychological references regarding reality as we know it. We've all experienced dreams that made us ponder on the meaning behind the images we saw. Usually there is some sort of a logical explanation for what we dream about, but sometimes, trying to explain what happened inside our dreams to others is almost impossible.

In Inception, Christopher Nolan takes on this impossible task and makes a brilliant attempt of revealing this secret nature of our dreams. This film captures the lucid world of dreams perfectly. It is not just a world of dreams, but it’s a specific world of each person’s dream, designed around individual subconscious state, where only one particular individual can change the nature and architecture within his dream until the rest of us become uncomfortable. In our own dreams, we usually never die, but in a dream of another person, death is very plausible and will not always lead to waking up. 

The most interesting aspect of Inception is that most of the film takes place in a dream within a dream, in a world so far removed that even the individual dreaming it cannot control what’s happening and has to find his way inside the labyrinthine of his subconscious mind. 

Though action packed, Inception is also filled with symbolic images and psychological "projections", representative of the inner demons, which can only be exorcised within the conscious world of a dream. The film questions reality and begs the audience to compare it to the world of their dreams. If you had a choice, where would you rather be, living in reality or in a dream?

Inception is filmed as a long dream sequence, with no beginning and no end. Full of explosive energy and hidden references, it ends leaving the audience feeling as though we just woke up from a deep and very vivid dream. We don’t really remember how the film began and it’s hard to recall all the details after going four levels deep into someone else’s subconscious world. 

Like most dreams do, Inception leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It has an ambiguous and reflective quality that keeps us guessing and pondering on the meaning of what we just saw. All we are left with are fragmented memories, which we must put together in a sequence that makes logical sense.

Yet, unlike a dream which is fleeting and can only been seen once, Inception is a film that demands multiple viewing in order to grasp every layer of its maze. I plan on seeing it again.

Old sailor's song

Come to the shore and dock your boat

Take off your shoes, take off your coat

Lend me your ears, sit next to me

I’ll tell you all about the sea

Shadows of blue and aqua green

A million hues remain unseen

Beneath the rumble of the wave

Prepare marine an early grave

Across the ocean’s golden floor
From lonely heart to busy shore
I sailed far I sailed deep

Until my soul began to weep

In silent night before daybreak

I dreamt of women half awake
A young girl’s smile, a golden curl

A silver lace, a sting of pearl

A woman dares to speak true words
While sailor sings along with birds
But in the silence of dark sea

A poet died inside of me

From port to port, from girl to girl

I learned to take and taste them all
Setting my conscience off to float
I sailed and aged inside my boat.

Now I am old and lonely man

My hair is white, my arms are tan

I traded care for treasure gold

Till my heart hardened dead and cold

Come to the shore and dock your boat

Take off your shoes, take off your coat

Lend me your ears, sit next to me

I’ll tell you all about the sea

Keane concert review

Keane performed in Houston on Sunday July 25, 2010 at my favorite rock concert venue, Warehouse Live, which was full despite the overcrowded summer concert season and competing lady gaga concert. 

Singer Tom Chaplin apologized for being away for 5 years and thanked the crowd for sticking with Keane and coming back. Chaplin put on a theatrical performance and asked early on to “Sing your heart out!” 

Keane started off with their most compelling songs from the Hopes and Fears album, such as “Bend and Break” and “We Might as Well Be Strangers,” with the stress on longing and separation, followed by an extended sing-along on “Somewhere Only We Know,” with the audience sharing the passion of the band.  


As the concert progressed, I lost myself inside the poignant piano interludes of Hopes and Fears, followed by more energetic sounds of “Spiralling” and almost anthem like “Perfect Symmetry” from the third album Perfect Symmetry.  Among the new selections from the freshly released EP, Night Train, I liked flamenco-esque acoustic and electric “Clear Skies” and current single “Stop for a Minute.” 

Chaplin's performance was humble and energetic, with his powerful voice soaring high above the audience in emotional peaks. His demeanor was honest, inspiring fans to feel along with him as he moved around the stage, throwing his arms about.  Keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley was outstanding at making the audience feel each note as he shook his body to an assortment of distorted piano and keyboards and surprised everyone with a great voice while he sang one   song solo without Chaplin. Drummer Richard Hughes and unofficial fourth member Jesse Quin (adding bass and additional keyboards) delivered grand melodies.  

The most outstanding thing about Keane is Tom Chaplin’s beautiful voice. Mixed with powerful lyrics and piano driven sound Keane's songs convey a deeper emotional range than those of guitar driven bands. 

The concert was amazing and I actually had tears in my eyes at one point. Any band that can move me to tears deserves a standing ovation.

Here is the set list, in no particular order:

1. Back in Time
2. Bend and Break 
3. Nothing In My Way 
4. Spiralling 
5. A Bad Dream 
6. Your Love 
7. This Is The Last Time 
8. Stop For A Minute 
9. Try Again 
10. Hamburg Song 
11. Clear Skies 
12. You Haven't Told Me Anything 
13. Everybody's Changing 
14. Is It Any Wonder? 
15. You Don't See Me 
16. Perfect Symmetry 
17. Somewhere Only We Know 
18. Bedshaped             
19. The Frog Prince 
20. Crystal Ball 
21. My Shadow 

The Leopard

I watched Luchino Visconti's adaptation of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's novel "The Leopard." This film is a spectacular portrayal of the wistful and melancholic nature of the fleeting age of nobility among chaotic societal upheavals of 1860's Sicily. Though long, the film is an accurate depiction of the flawed nature of class struggle, which remains relevant even today. 


I will write a detailed review of this film in the future.  For now, I'll leave one quote that is most representative of this film:

“Sleep, my dear Chevalley, eternal sleep, that is what Sicilians want. And they will always resent anyone who tries to awaken them, even to bring them the most wonderful of gifts. And, between ourselves, I doubt very strongly whether this new Kingdom has very many gifts for us in its luggage. All Sicilian expression, even the most violent, is really a wish for death. Our sensuality, wish for oblivion. Our knifings and shootings, a hankering after extinction. Our laziness, our spiced and drugged sherbets, a desire for voluptuous immobility, that is... for death again.” 

"I Am Love"-- Film Review

Luca Guadagnino's "I Am Love", produced by and starring Tilda Swinton, starts off elegantly, with black and white images and dramatic symphonic panache.   The film is a modern day melodrama, composed around the Recchi family – an Italian clan whose wealth was built on the family textile business in Milan.  


The film begins with a family gathering, during which the Recchi patriarch passes down the family business to his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) and grandson Edoardo (Flavio Parenti). 


Tancredi's Russian wife, Emma (Tilda Swinton) is initially portrayed as a secondary character - reserved, somewhat removed, she is an obedient wife who acts in accordance with the cannons dictated by the Recchi clan.  Swinton is splendid with her Russian- Italian accent that sounds almost effortless.

The film’s deliberate slow pace continues to disguise the significance of Emma's character as the centre of the story until somewhere mid film.  Although she is married to a powerful man, has beautiful children and lives in a gorgeous Italian villa, surrounded by servants, Emma is clearly catatonic in her job as the house wife. 

Through a series of events and encounters that awaken her senses and memories, Emma gradually transforms back into the young Russian girl, who remained submerged after leaving Russia to become Tancredi’s wife.  As events continue to unfold, Emma reemerges as Kitish in an attempt to flee the patriarchal world of the Recchis and keeps rising until she breaks free in a dramatic finale.  

The camera work of "I Am Love" tells the story through carefully chosen images that make Milan look like Moscow.  The film score carefully matches the setting and progression of the character development.  Composed by acclaimed minimalist musician John Adams, the  orchestral score compliments each scene with a mix of dramatic and somber tones, that accurately reflect Emma’s suppressed nature. As the film progresses, the music advances to an almost operatic climax, while dialogue becomes less and less important.  As a result, the film sounds like an opera and looks like a classical European drama.

"I Am Love" is a bold film, which Guadagnino and Swinton meticulously sculpt by using fluid cinematography, implicit glances and secret gestures.  No detail goes untouched, no gesture overlooked, no sound left unnoticed while symbolism, light and music convey the story of transformation, liberation and becoming one with love.  


A lot of furtive messages are hidden in this film and are best explained by Tilda Swinton herself in this interview.

Verdict: the film is an alluring feast of senses and I’d recommend it to anyone who cares about watching true cinema and does not mind sitting in the theater for two hours. 

Fears - translation of the original poem by Yevgeny Evtushenko

In movement no. 4 (largo) of Shostakovich's Thirteenth Symphony, the chorus sings Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poem Fears. It is a powerful poem that looses a lot in translation.  Nonetheless, I took the liberty of making my own translation attempt:

Fears are vanishing now in Russia 
As the prodigal year's ghosts they thread
Here and there, at church steps remaining
Like old ladies begging for bread. 

I remember them in their power  
at the court of triumphant lies horde
Fears as shadows crept in to devour
Penetrating through every floorboard

Softly taming the citizens about
Fears set seal  upon everything: 
When silence was proper, they urged one to shout,

While keep quiet when needing to scream 

Nowadays, all of it has turned distant  
It is strange to remember before
Secret fear of one blowing the whistle 
Secret dread of a knock at the door. 

What of fear to speak with a foreigner?  
A foreigner’s one thing, but what about wife 
And what of unfounded fear after loud marches

When alone with the silence [that cuts like a knife]

We weren’t scared of building in the snowstorm 
Or of going into battle beneath falling shells

But at times we were mortally frightened 
Of just talking alone to ourselves. 

We were not knocked down or corrupted,

With good reason now Russia instills

Even greater fears in its rivals

Than the fears it once had to defeat

Now, enlightened, I reckon new fears:

Fear of being with nation uncouth

Fear of falsehood debasing ideas

That embody our very truth

Fear of praising oneself to madness
Fear of alien words repeated to crutch

Frightful doubt of disparaging others 
While trusting oneself way too much

Fears are vanishing now in Russia

As I write this, I’m hasty at slight

And I am writing with only one fear: 
Of not writing with all of my might. 



Yevtushenko and Nixon

Masterpiece detection

New Yorker published this fascinating article on new methods of art authentication. It examines new methods of tracing evidence left behind by an artist, including chemical analysis of pigment variation, fingerprint’s characteristics and  and other “rigorous methodology” that follows “accepted police standards”. 

Forensic consultant Laszlo Biro working on an early 16th century Venetian painting on poplar attributed to the workshop of Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516).

I Need Your Love – Is that True? - a book review

Sometimes people give me self help books as gift.  I Need Your Love – Is that True? was one of such books I got for my birthday.


Written by Byron Katie,  it's worth a browse for anyone who has been unhappy in a relationship or who is currently seeking approval and love of others.


Byron Katie is an author of many self help books with one common goal: to teach people how to end their own suffering.

Katie created a process to ending suffering, which she calls The Work.  By following her method, readers are taught to identify their stressful thoughts and change their resulting belief system by reversing thought patterns.

Not unlike Eckhart Tolle, a well known spiritual author of the bestselling The Power of Now, Byron Katie discovered a new way of life after being severely depressed for almost a decade.  Katie calls her enlightenment  “waking up to reality.” She discovered that when she believed her thoughts, she suffered, and that freedom from depression was freedom from her own beliefs about the world.

In I Need Your Love – Is that True? Katie advises readers on how to find unhappiness and eliminate it its source.  Unlike Tolle’s guidance to disregard the ego and its incessant thoughts, Katie teaches her readers to trace the origins of their thoughts in order to  destroy negative thinking at its root.

According to Kaite, most thoughts that go through our mind on a daily basis make us unhappy by bending reality and questioning joy through personal quest for love and approval:

"Thoughts about your wants and needs can be very bossy. If you believe them, you feel you have to do what they say; you have to get people’s love and approval. There is another way to respond to a thought, and that is to question it. How can you question your wants and needs? How can you meet your thoughts without believing them?" 

She goes on to explain that people “are loved and supported not because of but despite their efforts.”


In other words, people cannot enjoy life without being free of thoughts that they need something other than what they already have. There is nothing others can do to keep people from loving them. The only way to lose joy is by expecting something other than what's been given. 

In her introductory chapter, Katie demonstrates that even a harmless thought can disrupt someone's joy. She asks her readers to imagine they are sitting outside, where everything is perfect, until a small thought crosses their mind. It could be as innocent as: “I wish I had a pillow” or “I wish I had someone to share this moment with me”. There is  nothing negative in this fleeting thought, but is has just disrupted your bliss and knocked you out of heaven.


In the second chapter and throughout her book, Katie deals directly with common examples of negative thinking and demanding patterns of human relationships.  She deals with the need  for approval, the fear of rejection and other areas in which self esteem suffers.

Katie focuses on relationships made unhappy by blame for being unsatisfied. By using thought questioning method, readers are shown what they really look for in relationships and are taught how to be more loving. 


Katie’s examples penetrate through readers’ innate desire for reciprocity in relationships.  They demonstrates that happiness is not measured by what we're getting from somebody else, is not based on the support of others, and is not contingent upon our expectations. 


Some examples revolve around the personal needs and wants, i.e: "I feel I need this or that from you in order to be happy". Katie asks if that's true, and continues to question until the readers realize that they don't need what they thought they needed; instead they can love unconditionally, without demands.

In other words, love is not about getting what you want, but a balancing act of accepting reality and doing what’s best for each partner individually.

Resisting reality and individual wants brings suffering.  For example, a thought like "He shouldn't be so manipulative"leaves one partner feeling helpless and unhappy.  But, if she were to simply accept the reality of her partner being manipulative she could see how her resistance further contributes to his manipulation and then decide what's best for her and how to achieve it without expecting another person to act the way she wants him to act.

After completing I Need Your Love – Is that True?, the readers are left with tools for identifying the source of their negative emotions, and are taught exactly how to trace the original thought that caused each emotion, how to question it, reverse it, and finally eliminate it from their mind.

The book maybe helpful to anyone who is suffered from being in an unhappy  relationship.  It helps to identify true source of discontentment, shows how to reverse the process, and paves the way to happiness without seeking approval or love from someone else.


Katie's approach is simple and easy to put to good use. 
I found the book to be a bit windy and condescending and would not recommended for people with serious psychological trauma. 

References:

The Official Website for The Work of Byron Katie

The Official Blog for The Work of Byron Katie

 Videos for The Work of Byron Katie

One is the loneliest number - the myth dispelled

Two things scare me.
The first is getting hurt.     
But that's not nearly as scary as the second, which is losing. 


--Lance Armstrong 


July issue of Time magazine published a great article that dispels hard set American stereotype that the only children grow up to be spoiled, lonely or as "permanent misfits".  Despite many efforts of researchers to disprove the image on an only child established by Granville Stanley Hall 120 years ago, today's America is having a hard time dealing with the fact that many families are choosing to only have one child.  


People with only one child are sometimes considered being unfit parents, who will harm their child by not providing a proper play mate. Nothing could be further from the truth. 


As an only child myself, I can testify to never feeling lonely, being unable to fit in, or being unable to achieve.   On the contrary, the stakes and expectations were always set higher for me than for my peers with brothers or sisters, and therefore, I had to adapt, be sociable and succeed in every task.  Failure simply was not an option, but I don't regret being an only child for a second.  I got more attention, more emotional support, more love and more compassion than some of my peers, yet I never felt spoiled.


With the economy taking a nose dive, it is not surprising that many families are choosing to stop at having just one child.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.


Here is a photo gallery of famous only children, who turned out just right.  The list includes Lans Armstrong, Franklin Roosevelt, Gary Grant, Frank Sinatra, and many others.  


Time does an excellent job of debunking the only child myths.  To read their article in its entirety, pick up a copy of the Time magazine; the online version does not do it justice, but the article is well written and worth the read.