About COCO CHANEL 2/2

Today I'll write about my favorite artist Coco Chanel. This blog post is next to this article, "About Coco Chanel 1/2". I wrote about chapter 5 of "Inside Chanel" before. Today I'll write about chapter 6 and 7 of "Inside Chanel".

The chapter 6 "Mademoiselle - Inside CHANEL"is this.

This film describes the period of Chanel's life that is full of freshness and youthful vigor. Having watched this film, I'm so excited because I find some names of my favorite music producer Stravinsky, Ravel, the artist I respect Picasso and my favorite producer Diaghilev. I feel that I want to go to Paris in this era whenever I watch this. I believe the wind which enabled them to feel their freedom and supports their passion for realizing their various kind of arts was blowing there. But soon, the impact of the world war made it difficult to continue her business. And finally she closed her atelier.

Next chapter 7 "Gabrielle Chanel - Inside CHANEL" is so inspirational, and this film encourages me the most.

I watch this film over and over. That's because she is back. At first French press tore her apart, ridiculing her designs and sneering at her age. But "Life" the most read magazine in the United States admired her. It wrote

"At 71 years old, Gabrielle Chanel brings more than a style, a revolution."

Her indomitable spirit changed the world. Her strong belief paved the way to proceed and become a legend.

Some famous record labels and companies in Japan tore me apart ridiculing my music when I was young. And I was shocked and full of mortification. But I changed the negative feeling into my energy and power to progress. I always believed in the power of my music. So I superimpose my feeling at that time on her mood. So I love this film.

I want to write about other things concerning Chanel more and more. But today I put the pen here. Thanks for your reading. And I hope you'll enjoy this. Feel free to leave me a comment.

About COCO CHANEL 1/2

Today I want to write about my favorite artist Coco Chanel. She is the founder of CHANEL. I'd never been crazy about her until I knew about her life story. The series of short films "Inside Chanel" that was published on YouTube in 2013 changed my thought about her. After watching the films, my feeling about her became special.

The movies "Inside Chanel" described Coco Chanel and her brand CHANEL from several points of view. The length of each of them is about just 2 or 3 minutes long. They are not so long. But they are so beautiful, inspirational and informative. Especially I love these three films very much.

The first one is chapter 5, "Coco - Inside CHANEL".

This video describes the beginning of her life. About the fact that her mother died exhausted by life, his father abandoned her and her sisters, and she spent her young life in an orphanage. And this movie also describes her meeting her important person Boy Capel who supported her to open her first boutique, the revolution brought by her and her lost of Boy Capel cause of car accident. In this video, I felt her helpless sorrow and severe pain in my chest.

But at last the film is finished with her these words.

"Either I die as well, or I finish what we started together."

And she chose to go on. That moved my heart a lot, and I trembled with emotion. I thought she couldn't help choosing to go on for him. I found the love there.

Today I put the pen here. Soon I'll write about the other two films and Chanel again. Thanks for your reading. And I hope you'll enjoy this. Feel free to leave me a comment.

About the book "To Be Loved" by Berry Gordy

  I've read the book "To Be Loved "by Berry Gordy who started the record label "Motown". The book was about his life written by him, and it was so impressive and amazing that I'm writing these sentences now.

  There are a lot of things and sentences which impressed me very much in this book. Especially I was impressed by one poem which he quoted in this book. The poem is "If "by Rudyard Kipling. It seemed that he encountered this poem when he was 15 years old. This poem indicates one way to live beautifully. And this poem moved me a lot. So I want to introduce this poem here now.

If

By Rudyard Kipling

('Brother Square-Toes'—Rewards and Fairies)

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

    And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,   

    And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

  This poem tells us the ways to be proud of ourselves and believe ourselves. Besides this poem told us the way to interact with other people. Moreover, interestingly this poem says, "If you can dream—and not make dreams your master". I love this stanza. Because I think it's indeed important to dream, but it's more important that we can't make dreams our masters. When I was young, I concentrated only on dreaming on, and I lost essential persons to me and my true happiness. So I want to cherish this stanza not to make same mistakes as a lesson. I wanted to meet this poem earlier in life. I'm so grateful for his telling me this poem.

  Besides this, I agree with his idea in this book. The idea that it's meaningless to succeed if we can't share the joy with someone important. He succeeded in making a film featuring Diana Ross. But at the same time, he failed his relation with her, and he couldn't share his joy with her. In this book, there are not only his success stories but also his failure stories like this. So I could feel as if he was next to me and told me his stories. I think it's the reason why I love this book.

  Thanks for your reading. I hope you'll enjoy. Feel free to leave me a comment.

The things I've learned from the book "How DO you live?" by Genzaburo Yoshino

I've read the book "How do you live?" by Genzaburo Yoshino recently. And the book reminds me of some important things. So I write down the things I don't want to forget here.

First, the book asked me an important question. "What do you create for this world?". I always consume a lot of things to live. At this point, I must not forget the truth that everything is made up of a lot of people's hard work. After having read this book, I want to produce more and more things for this world. I'm making some music and writing some lyrics now. But it's not enough, I think. So now I'm doing like this hoping that writing this helps someone to live their life better.

Second, this book describes the importance of what you feel from everything and how you live by thinking by not someone else but yourself. I believe this is so important. I'm writing my lyrics every day. To do so, I read a lot of books, poems, lyrics and so on. I think the writers who emphasize their way of feeling the things have such real and unique insights, ideas, and words. So their works are amazing and move my heart.

So, at last, I'm always back to myself. I ask a lot of questions to me. "How did I feel at that time?" "How do I express the emotions I had at that time by words or sounds or way to sing?" and so on. No one teaches the answers. There're answers only in my heart. Thus as every day, I emphasize how I feel. This book's message touches my heart.

Today I wrote down important two things I've learned from this book. Having read my sentences, how do you feel? I hope that this may inspire you. Love from Japan. Feel free to leave me a comment.

Fellows who chased the same thing together

When I was an elementary school student, I belonged to a choir of my school, and I was undergoing intense training every morning and every after school. I met fellows of the choir the other day. Some fellows who were very naughty in their childhood took their babies. Some fellows are so quiet but have solid comfort. Some fellows entertain us to smile. I felt happy to see them and find each unique individuality like those days. I thank them very much as if we were together all the time.

We sometimes clashed with each other, and our arguments sometimes didn’t overlap at all. But we overcame those problems together, and at last we united, and we could perform our music. I remember that I felt I was so nervous, but I was so delighted at that time. The memories of the period seems like yesterday. I found that they made what I am now. I think the experience in the choir is priceless and so valuable.

I’d loved singing since when I was young. I loved the time to sing together. I think the practices of every day were so tough now. But I didn’t feel they were hard at that time. I just enjoyed the time. I’ll never forget the days that we talked about various things, carrying each school bag after practice while the sun was setting. The days give me a push on my back for me now. Thanks. Do you have fellows who chased the same thing together? Feel free to leave me a comment.

同じものを追いかけた仲間がいるということ

小学生の時、学校の合唱団に入っていて毎日、朝と放課後の練習に明け暮れていた。
先日何年かぶりにそのときの仲間達と会っていた。
昔やんちゃしてた友達も子供を連れて来ていたり、静かにしてるんだけどいてくれるだけで安心感があるやつがいたり、みんなを笑わせて和ませてくれるやつがいたり、それぞれの個性があの頃のように残っているのを見て幸せだった。
久しぶりに会うのにずっと一緒にいたように暖かかった皆に感謝の気持ちでいっぱいだ。

時々ぶつかったり、噛み合わないことがあるときもあったけど、この前会ったメンバーみんな(1人だけ来れなかったけど)で全部乗り越えていって、最後1つになって音楽を奏でられた。
大きな舞台に立ってすごく緊張したけどすごく幸せだったのを覚えている。
あの頃が昨日のことのように蘇ってきた。
みんながいたから今の自分がいるということにも気づいた。

合唱団に入っていてよかった。
小さい頃から歌が好きだった。
皆で歌うのが楽しかった。
今思えば練習は多かったと思うんだけど当時多いとは全然感じなかった。
ただただ楽しかった。
放課後の練習が終わって日も沈んでいく中、皆でランドセル背負っていろんなこと話しながら並んで帰った日々を忘れない。
そんな日々が自分の背中を押してる。
行こうか。