“Art is important. We tend to think it is a luxury, but it gives people deep pleasure because beauty is the personification of hope that something grander is at work.” Gil Dellinger - retired Professor of Art at the University of the Pacific and internationally renowned fine artist
I don’t own ANY jewellery. Odd for a woman of my age, but I have no gold, silver, platinum, diamonds or precious stones. None.
I do not inspired anyone to buy them for me (on the occasions where such purchases have been made, the items have been returned) – as to be frank, these items hold no joy for me. I appreciate that for many, the fine line of a piece of jewellery will send them into raptures and the sparkle from a mined stone will enrich their existence - but I have never been blessed with such a reaction. Those who love me know that if you wish to give me deep pleasure – give me literature, or film or music.
The first reaction when a person enters my living room is usually a reaction to my books. They do not dominate - the room is large and airy and my collection only takes up one recessed wall – but it appears most people of my acquaintance are unused to seeing books in a living room. Coffee table books seem permissible, but one thousand paperbacks shelved from floor to ceiling seems to many a very strange thing indeed. The first question is “Good grief – have you READ all these?” - to which I have to admit that I have not only read them but these are just ones I wish to keep… most books that pass through my hands are now in the possession of Oxfam. This is usually followed by an inspection of the shelves and a comment on the lack of synergy in the types of books I read. It is true; I read social commentary, travel, factual, religious and fiction books. I have no interest in biographies and by en large romantic and crime fiction have a hard time engaging my interest. My biggest love affair with books has been with twentieth century literature. I would guess that over the years I have read quite a few thousands of books. Most of my friends and acquaintances think this arcane. The odd bit of chick-lit to them is acceptable – for what else can one do on a beach…. But to sit in ones own house reading….seems to them a very odd thing to do in the twenty first century. However they accept it as just one more thing that is odd about Jax.
Odd it maybe – but to me a book is a conversation with an interesting person. To me a book is a plane ticket to a place I have never been before. To me a book is an experience I would find hard to have with my geography and circumstance. On closing a book I feel I understand and make a little more sense of the world around us. I feel that with each book I get closer to the human condition. Literature provides a way to analyze how and why people think the way they think and feel the way they feel. I genuinely believe that such books enables us to develop our minds analytically and promotes open minds. In my case I get to see the world through the eyes of different writers from different cultures. This truly teaches me ways to deal with things happening around me. Without literature, I would lack insight and understanding of human nature. It is also wildly enjoyable – voyeuristic even!
My favourite three books of all time have to be, Confessions of a Failed Grown-Up by Stephanie Calman, Room at the top by John Braine, and Starter for 10 by David Nicholls. I challenge anyone to read those three books and not come away enriched. Curiously, all three books reflect the times in which I have lived – they perfectly represent the spirit of life in the
However, in my opinion, the greatest book of the Twentieth Century was The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It pains me greatly to give this trophy to a Yank…. But my word. EVERYTHING about what makes people tick is there… all wrapped up in a delicious tale of a young man who idolized the riches and glamour, but was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and the lack of morality that went with it. Funny enough, its author hardly sold many copies of the book, and by World War 2… it was largely forgotten. However after the author’s death it was republished and has gone on to the holy grail of writing. First published in 1925 it came out tops in The 100 Best English-language Novels from 1905 to 2005 list. Still relevant and kicking as after all these years.
The Great Gatsby was made in to many movies, but most people have come across the legendary Francis Ford Coppola version. Those who are rooted to their televisions will remember that recently in the hit series Entourage, the character Vincent Chase gets hired by Martin Scorsese for a film adaptation of the book. Great books inspire great movies.
Which brings me to the second reaction people have in house. I am lucky to have a glorious dining room which over looks my garden through French doors. However comments are usually not of the view, but of my rather substantial collection of movies shelved in this room. I have motion pictures in most formats, with the modern formats housed in the living room and the VHS and other formats live in the dinning room. They live on the wall opposite the French doors, and as I said attract more comments than the view of my suburban garden. But, I have do some friends who absolutely hate motion pictures. They think them trivial and a waste of time… and would rather go out and live than sit indoors watching actors fake it. That I see fit to not only go to the cinema but also purchase and keep my own copies of films is something that leaves them flabbergasted.
I heard the radio presenter Johnny Vaughn once say that your movie collection reflects everything any one should ever wish to know about you and should be viewed as the ‘file of me’. I couldn’t agree more. I consider movies to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating — or indoctrinating — us. Unlike literature which is restricted by the limits of the written word, the visual elements of cinema gives motion pictures a universal power of communication. Obviously a great movie will have to have a great story (or else what is the point) but it is the combination of that with sound and vision that gives cinema its power. It is also curious with 19 different genres to choose from how revealing your choice of movie can be.
I would say I primarily choose Comedy, Action, Drama, Animation, Crime, Epic, Western, Mystery/Thriller and Sci-fi. Funny, this does not reflect at all what I choose to read. I suppose by watching a movie, I get to experience things I hope I never would have to in real life, but get to react to them as if I had. I also get to observe lives like my own and gain the opportunity to react like an outsider would. Movies provide a unique vantage point to observe – and of course I also get to be entertained. I think it is interesting to stretch my mind to the known and unknown, and (in the case of sci-fi) reach out for what's beyond reality. I do not consider it a waste of time to escape the mundane and let my mind wander to what the imagination holds....even if it was created from someone else's imagination first! It keeps me sane, having something to let my mind, heart, and soul become completely absorbed in…. even if the movie is Finding Nemo! (Well… if someone said swim with the turtles what image goes trough YOUR head???)
It is much harder to draw up my all time favourite movie list… especially if I am to cut it down to three! It keeps coming out to be 12. But to be brutal if I only could take three films into the afterlife to watch over and over again till the end of time they would be: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), When Harry Met Sally (1989) Batchelor Mother (1939). I will always think these the three most awesome films capturing the human experience. Though Batchelor Mother has the double whammy… a comedy… about a single girl… with a kid???......... WHEN was this film made?? And that is what I love about films… you get a chance to be transported to the morality of the time… plus it is living and breathing around you. It’s surprising what you pick up from movies. Obviously in When Harry Met Sally… every idea on the battle of the sexes but in Shawshank… I asked myself about the twist ending a zillion times… did I look deeper at begining or did I just judge? But in Batchelor Mother, of all things I happened to notice the way the landlady was dusting picture frames when she was eves dropping…. Try it… you will NEVER use any other method… it works!
Greatest is not the same as favourite and trying to call something the greatest movie of all time is much more problematic. There are officially 19 different genres…. (Action, Animation, Bio-Pics, Comedy, Crime/Gangster, Disaster, Documentary, Epic, Fantasy, Horror, Musical, Mystery/Thriller, Propaganda, Romance, Science fiction, Sport, Travel, War, Western). No wonder it takes so long to get around Blockbuster!
Okay… I’m gonna call it… Now this wasn’t easy… it was hard, and there were moments when Cinema Paradiso 1988 (which is an Italian movie) nearly got it but I realised I was being a pretentious twat, there was also a moment when Gone with the Wind (1939) nearly got it, but the book IS better than the film so that got kicked back. I did think of Empire Strikes Back (1980) - but genius is not always greatness. I thought also of films from 2000 onwards. Many crossed my mind, I even give the brilliant movies Tropic Thunder (2008) and Live Free or Die Hard (2007) 20 seconds thought!...But then I got serious. Name a film that I truely believe Great.
There is always a seminal moment that makes a film stay with you forever… and of course it helps if the entire film is made of moments like that. For me there is just one stand alone film that has moment after moment and delivers a whole that is just… magic - ageless, timeless magic. Can you guess it…it’s the scene where the toll booth operator drops the coin and takes one second too long to get up. It’s the scene where a man who thinks he is racing to save his sister from a savage beating approaches a toll plaza, but instead a number of men emerge with Tommy Guns and brutally gun him down before he can flee. Yup… it’s the Godfather. Not part 2 (though good) and not the bind boggling travesty that was part 3 (proving forever that you really CAN have too much of a good thing). But wretched sequel apart – The Godfather (a movie version of a BOOK I hasten to add) is a masterstroke. To turn an excellent crime drama into a family epic was nothing short of greatness.
The director wished to engage our emotions and to do so, paid a lot of attention to the music. So perfect was the score for the film that the music was immediately burned into the consciousness of the world. Even today the The Godfather Waltz and the Love Theme from The Godfather, are still being used in full or in sample format in the tunes that form today’s charts. Which of course brings me to the third and final element that I indulge myself in… apparently to excess.
Like my movie collection, I have strayed beyond the one format when it comes to musc. Therefore Vinyl, Cassette and CD have to live in two rooms – downloads living much more compactly within the confines of digital storage. I have music dating from my first musical purchase (
There is a school of thought that says one can only like music of compatible genres. I offend this school of thought BADLY. I like Indie music. I like rock music. I like pop music. I like Dance music. I like Reggae. I like R& B. I like trash metal. I like Nu jazz. I like hip-hop/rap. I like Bangra. I also like music from the period 1730–1820, by the Viennese school. In fact everyday I discover a new genre I like. To me it is not about the genre but the way music reflects enhances and validates my experience. Forget the genre, just pop on a slow melody when in need of consolation. Music heals. Richards Ashcroft’s Break the Night with Colour springs to mind. Pop on something with a triumphant melody Beethoven’s 5th – the 4th movement…. Tell me you don’t feel like the ruler of the world!. Pop on a fast number.. If I am in a jolly mood the music makes it even better (what is it about the intro to Michael Jackson's Billy Jean..cue stampeed!). It never hurts to just leap around to music… dance to death is my philosophy! Conversely a fast track can marshal me to action… 50 Cent’s Don’t Push Me has been the motivator behind me when the odds seem too much. Melody of music sets the tone and often gives to focus enough to problem solve -somehow the solution gets formed in my mind automatically while the melody plays.
However music with lyrics are unbelievably powerful. An album I play a lot of is The Thirteen Senses The Invitation. This album wandered into my life in 2004 at a time when guitar/piano anthems couldn’t have been any closer to the bottom of my list… after all Coldplay, Travis and Keane kind of had that all sewn up. I was wandering through HMV when a plaintive voice called me to “Come on, come on put your hand into the fire” the voice went on to ask me to explain the route from “Samaritan to sin”. The lyrics and performance seemed to reflect a moment in my life with totally emotional accuracy. I actually stood still for the rest of the song, then approached a member of staff to ask what was playing and purchased it. My neighbours have had to listen to wailing away to that track for 5 years now!
Like a book, Music does not restrict you to a place. Since the invention of recording, music can be exactly where you are. As I sit and type this blog, I spill the contents of my head to the virtual page as music wafts from the same device. This little technophobe would have to say thanks to whom ever invented the laptop… could never have got my old typewriter to play Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D back to back with The Black Eyed Peas’ The Energy Never Dies. Music is so delightfully transportable!
The difference with my metaphorical jewellery box and a real one is that I can share the contents. As I said I own no precious stones, no precious metals, nothing of value to lash around my neck, hung from my ears or sparkle on my fingers. I know there are those who admire such things as art. But for me, if art is about sharing the pleasure of beautyI see not how these things can be at all involved in that processs. Jewellery cannot truly do anything more than be owned and admired at a distance - it can’t really be shared. True artistry is not a question of ownership. I truly believe that it is more likely to be found in a book, a movie or a piece of music. These things come alive when shared in way that a bauble never could be. So my metaphorical jewellery box is filled with what gives deep pleasure because it gives a beauty that transmits that hope that something grander is at work than just the object itself. And that sends me into raptures of delight… and truly enriches my experience.
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