Aesthetics IV

Seems to me that alongside the VERY refined taste the Japanese are rightfully renowned for they also possess a dreadful taste for kitch, the kind of stuff we Europeans can't help but heartily laugh at. Yeah, the kind of junk old grandmas like, Astral, eheheheh.

Thank God the world only stops for a split second every time Mana has a distressing incident happening to him, otherwise our astrophysicians would all end up shooting themselves!

MissUMana wrote:

Seems to me that alongside the VERY refined taste the Japanese are rightfully renowned for they also possess a dreadful taste for kitch, the kind of stuff we Europeans can't help but heartily laugh at. Yeah, the kind of junk old grandmas like, Astral, eheheheh.

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OMG, thats so true! i remember one moment from iti DVD. this one:


This supossed to be so cool and mysterious,
but i find it so funny... Cause in the oldtown of my city, you have always search for toilets in such places


Cerceaux@
I am afraid you are totally right XD

^Hahah, we have one of those underground stairways outside the local library, and it's where all the homeless people hang out.
On any given day there's a couple sleeping bags and a shopping cart in it.

The place he's at on the pic is only 30 kms away from my city!

It's a ruined castle on top of a hill overlooking the river (as always) and a Queen of France, Marguerite de Bourgogne, was imprisonned there for adultery and supposedly strangled, though the cold is more probably what killed her!

I wonder if he knew about that when he did that photoshoot. Or if he was ever told that The Elysées Montmartre was one of the temples of French Cancan, ahahahah!

Cerceaux wrote:

^Hahah, we have one of those underground stairways outside the local library, and it's where all the homeless people hang out.
On any given day there's a couple sleeping bags and a shopping cart in it.

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yeah! haha

The underground Mana comes from even doesn't look like a normal toilet, it is kind of cheap and dirty one XD.


in all the ways underground stairways make me think about dirtyness, toilets and homeless people. XD

I've never really been one for that traditional style of painting either. Not because I associate it with Grannies, though (that award goes to small pottery animals and flowery doilies). The first thing that comes to my mind when I look at that sort of art is musty old museums. Normally museums that I got dragged around aged six by a teacher who'd decided that asking a crowd of small children to not run, not talk above a whisper and not touch anything was a perfectly reasonable request to make, and that yes, of course 6 year olds who normally watch nothing more high-brow than Pokemon are capable of appreciating the finer points of Renaissance artwork.

@ Taku. I can't say the angels look fat. They look, well, average-sized to me. :/

That staircase Mana's standing on there made me think of toilets too. Not even a nice toilet- toilets in ruined old places tend to be a bit dirty and cobwebby, and not very well upkept. There's always a rusty sink or a door that doesn't lock properly, or no soap.

It's a universal thing, though. I suppose some of the things we like about Japan must completely mystify most Japanese. In fact there are probably many salarymen who, upon seeing this website would wonder why on Earth all these foreigners were bothered about a weird, long-disbanded Visual Kei band from the 90's when Japan has so much modern, popular music to offer.
I don't think it's a problem, though. One nation's clapped out old rubbish is another nation's wonderful exotic new find. It's good, in a way.

@ MissUMana: So, with that in mind, next Scape picnic to be held down a mediaeval lavatory? It shouldn't be too difficult to evacuate any spiders/mice/hedeghogs/tramps that have set up home down there. What d'you reckon?

I've never really been one for that traditional style of painting either. Not because I associate it with Grannies, though (that award goes to small pottery animals and flowery doilies). The first thing that comes to my mind when I look at that sort of art is musty old museums. Normally museums that I got dragged around aged six by a teacher who'd decided that asking a crowd of small children to not run, not talk above a whisper and not touch anything was a perfectly reasonable request to make, and that yes, of course 6 year olds who normally watch nothing more high-brow than Pokemon are capable of appreciating the finer points of Renaissance artwork.

@ Taku. I can't say the angels look fat. They look, well, average-sized to me. :/

That staircase Mana's standing on there made me think of toilets too. Not even a nice toilet- toilets in ruined old places tend to be a bit dirty and cobwebby, and not very well upkept. There's always a rusty sink or a door that doesn't lock properly, or no soap.

It's a universal thing, though. I suppose some of the things we like about Japan must completely mystify most Japanese. In fact there are probably many salarymen who, upon seeing this website would wonder why on Earth all these foreigners were bothered about a weird, long-disbanded Visual Kei band from the 90's when Japan has so much modern, popular music to offer.
I don't think it's a problem, though. One nation's clapped out old rubbish is another nation's wonderful exotic new find. It's good, in a way.

Phantom Pabulum wrote:

Maybe he has all the session files in the macbook air for the new stuff he's been working on and did not do back up

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OMG!!!!!

I had not thought of that!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

...but as I am an engineer, I know it could not happen ever ...

flowersofnight wrote:

Mana has excellent taste in art, by the way That's "Le ravissement de Psyche" by William Bouguereau.

... I'm still waiting for the set of his complete works that I ordered in March '09 It's been continually delayed.

EDIT: here's a way better version of the painting than what Mana posted
http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artwork ... tworkid=23

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these picture is quite impressive and extremelly beautiful!

*feeling moved *


lucky you to having such an exquisite piece! or pieces!

and Cupid an Psyche's tale is sooooo

gosh! i'm feeling extremely romantic right now!

hehehe

gotta find me a brand new lover! ♪

VKHistorian wrote:

@ Taku. I can't say the angels look fat. They look, well, average-sized to me. :/

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Yeah, I know, I was a little taken aback at that.

Garnet in the Eden wrote:

thanks!

hopefully Lede can start translating again, she was good at finding definitions and meanings of things and being really cohesive.

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I know. She was so eloquent. It was as if her voice and Mana's were the same.

MissUMana wrote:

The place he's at on the pic is only 30 kms away from my city!

It's a ruined castle on top of a hill overlooking the river (as always) and a Queen of France, Marguerite de Bourgogne, was imprisonned there for adultery and supposedly strangled, though the cold is more probably what killed her!

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How lucky you are ! ^^ Oh my ! Maurice Druon, Les Rois maudits <3
One of my favorite novels ^^ I read those books so many times ...
If I lived near Château Gaillard, I think that I'd come there really often ... to dream, to draw, to write ...
I don't consider that to like paintings, like those on Mana's blog or castles in ruins, is to have kitch tastes. If so, I have kitch tastes too LOL
It's a magical feeling to visit castles in ruins. To come back to Les Rois maudits, I was enough lucky to visit the ruins of Kenilworth's castle in 1990. You know ? It's the castle where Edouard II of England was emprisonned before being transfered and so cruelly murdered in Berkeley. I felt a strange and marvellous feeling. It was as if the souls, the pains, the whole feelings of the past occupiers of the castle were still in the stones. At any time, it was like a presence near me. I wouldn't be so surprised to see Edouard II or Elisabeth I themselves really appeared What a fear if they did
Ok ok, I am too sensitive and kitch I like these kinds of places. They increase the imagination. Especially if they were the scene of murders XD

I wonder if he knew about that when he did that photoshoot. Or if he was ever told that The Elysées Montmartre was one of the temples of French Cancan, ahahahah!

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Hum I wouldn't be surprised that he knew and that he chose voluntarily the two places
After all, Château Gaillard has a CERTAIN reputation and the Elysée Montmartre is well-known thanks to Toulouse Lautrec and Zola. If Mana is an amateur of art, he should know ... pom pom pom XD

voixdinferno wrote:

Phantom Pabulum wrote:

Maybe he has all the session files in the macbook air for the new stuff he's been working on and did not do back up

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OMG!!!!!

I had not thought of that!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

...but as I am an engineer, I know it could not happen ever ...

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you know, i think that he has another computer for music creating. He is professional so he has a computer that is modified for music creating with expensive sound cards and midi keyboard and all those expensive programs and synths XD. Those things cost much more than his air-chan... Synths and music creation programs and projects take A LOT OF place on pc, so it is obvious he has another pc for that...

but yeah, it is technically possible he also creates music on his air chan too XD. I do not know if those professional music creating programs work on it, but i guess they definitely should work XD.

I don't think he lost his recordings; if that were the case I think he would be (understandably) completely beside himself. He must have at least 2 computers since he was able to edit his blog after air-chan was "hospitalised".

VKHistorian wrote:

I've never really been one for that traditional style of painting either. Not because I associate it with Grannies, though (that award goes to small pottery animals and flowery doilies).

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Yeah, there's a big difference between traditional paintings and kitsch. Anyway, I think it is sweet of him to share something with us that's dear to him.

MissUMana wrote:

Seems to me that alongside the VERY refined taste the Japanese are rightfully renowned for they also possess a dreadful taste for kitch, the kind of stuff we Europeans can't help but heartily laugh at.

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Not necessarily kitsch, but definitely cute. To western eyes that often borders on kitsch. I think Mana's taste for ruins and angels has less to do with kitsch or cute though and more with romanticism. He often says in interviews that he likes old buildings because of their mysterious atmosphere and because in Japan everything is new. You always want what you haven't got, don't you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism

Iskanderia wrote:

VKHistorian wrote:

@ Taku. I can't say the angels look fat. They look, well, average-sized to me. :/

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Yeah, I know, I was a little taken aback at that.

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Same here, I'm glad someone pointed it out.

Also, I think the painting is beautiful.

VKHistorian wrote:

@ Taku. I can't say the angels look fat. They look, well, average-sized to me. :/

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I thought of angels like the one that held the cross in mana's last post or something like this not about the picture, sorry ^^ + I wasn't that serious

Geisha wrote:

VKHistorian wrote:

I've never really been one for that traditional style of painting either. Not because I associate it with Grannies, though (that award goes to small pottery animals and flowery doilies).

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Yeah, there's a big difference between traditional paintings and kitsch. Anyway, I think it is sweet of him to share something with us that's dear to him.

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I'm not sure whether an old painting can't be kitsch, to me they often seem very kitsch-y.

Whatever, I just don't like this realistic baroque style

Taku wrote:

Whatever, I just don't like this realistic baroque style

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Actually, that's not baroque style. It is 19th century academic style.

Geisha wrote:

Anyway, I think it is sweet of him to share something with us that's dear to him.

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I totally agree with you

And more. If I were he, I shouldn't appreciate to post on my blog something special to me (photo or texts) and that people began to say that it is kitsch. I know that I have a special temperament (sorry ^^) but when something is dear to someone, generally that person doesn't appreciate the critics when he or she shares it with the others.
But probably Mana is accustomed to be criticized ^^

Geisha wrote:

Taku wrote:

Whatever, I just don't like this realistic baroque style

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Actually, that's not baroque style. It is 19th century academic style.

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yeah you're right (I wikipedia-ed it ) at least realism was right ^^

@ Taku: Oh, OK . The angel in that picture looks a little bit chubby. Although I think that was just the style back then. Drawing people as thin as possible without them looking ill is a fairly new thing- back then it seemed to be more common to draw people with an average to plump build.
And I couldn't see whether he was an angel or not, but the little boy may have been meant to be a cherub, and they're supposed to be fat.

@ Geisha: As far as I can see nobody's saying Mana shouldn't have posted the picture. A few people have said they personally aren't keen on the style, that's all. Different strokes for different folks, and all that.

You're completely right about everybody wanting what they haven't got/can't have, though. I think the grass is always greener as far as everyone's concerned.