I love running, but I hate running shoes. Running shoes never felt right. I'm not a shoe nazi. I couldn't imagine playing competitive sports without decent athletic shoes. But running should be different. It shouldn't be about encasing my feet in layers of rubber and fiber that have no purpose other than to stitch a logo on. It should be about the freedom to just get up and run. To anywhere. To nowhere. Just run.
When I first got my Vibram Five Fingers, I was struck by how liberating it was not to wear shoes. They were light, and I could wiggle my toes! Then I started running in them. I quickly realized, in the way that nascent democratic states have found out for themselves, that freedom has a price. My feet and legs were unused to the freedom that the Five Fingers afforded them. I had to learn to run again.
I love watching movies, but I hate talking about them with friends sometimes. Whenever people talk about movies, they almost always talk about the dialogue.
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning...smells like victory!"
"Show me the money!"
"You can't handle the truth!"
The other day, I asked students in the MA Humanities Program of the University of Asia and the Pacific to watch Wong Kar-Wai's Chinese-language film In the Mood for Love. Without subtitles.
At first, they squirmed. Then they readjusted their seats and squirmed some more. Several students looked like they were on the verge of shutting their minds down entirely.
And then they saw the movie.
When I asked them to provide a summary of what the movie was about so far, their answers were remarkably accurate. Moreover, when I asked them to provide proofs for whatever motivations they ascribed to a character, or for elements of the plot, their answers would be fluid and, for the lack of a better term to describe their budding film sensibilities, cinematic:
"It's the way they stood beside one another."
"It's flirting with poise."
"It's the light. It was very intimate."
Even those nerds, and there always are nerds of some form or the other in such a class, who saw the film before were astonished with what they were able to discover without using the dialogue to decode the narrative for them.
For many of them, a whole new experience opened up for them. Films aren't just about clever banter. They're about moving images.
They saw the movie.
About Me
- John-D Borra
- Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines
- "Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labour by which all things live...Christianity satisfies suddenly and perfectly man's ancestral instinct for being the right way up; satisfies it supremely in this; that by its creed joy becomes something gigantic and sadness something special and small." I celebrate life. Do you?
8 comments:
First time I learned about the Vibram Five Fingers was while reading Born to Run. If you haven't read it, do so immediately. Compelling stuff.
That said, still can't bring myself to try out Five Fingers. I look strange enough while running as it is.
@Brian: I'm this close to buying that book. Most of the testimonies to Five Fingers cite it as one of their inspirations. Perhaps next payday. :)
Funny. The guy who wears them in the book is depicted to be a total lunatic. =p
Hope you take the plunge on payday. It's an awesome read, especially the later chapters.
I heard those shoes were awesome! Tinggoy started running and is looking to also get a pair. I have socks like that which I love - they warm up each individual toe and feel great so I can imagine the shoe version! ;P
@Tweet: Tell Tinggoy to get one, because they're awesome. Keep in mind though that you can't run very far the first time you use them. Some people recommend a quarter mile for the first week, just to get used to running the way nature intended us to. :)
Thanks for the advise! I shall pass it on to Goy.=)
I have no idea what the Five Fingers is but it sure sounds fascinating! I shall check out the link after I post my comment :-)
Reading your students' experience in making sense of the Chinese movie without subtitles reminded me of the time that my laptop's audio conked out. For reasons that escape me now, it took me nearly a month to get it repaired. But throughout that time I continued to watch movies on the laptop and this is when I started to appreciate the "acting" of those fellas in the movies. I watched movies from my DVD and VCD collection so they were all familiar; still, it was like experiencing a new movie each time. Or seeing it from a fresh perspective. It helped me become sensitive to other elements (including things like the way the characters stood beside each other, hehe, as well as lighting and other factors).
But what I enjoyed most was watching one of my favorite actors: Charlie Chaplin. He is awesome! Of course it's all very physical comedy, but without the music, the man's talent became all the more obvious. This was also when I discovered how truly instrumental the music is in leading the viewer's reactions and in building suspense.
Haven't been to your blog in a while. I'm glad I dropped by; will visit more often.
Have a blessed and restful weekend!
@Diana: I'm glad you took the time to drop by! You should try out the Five Fingers. It's a good way to discipline your running. It's very difficult to develop bad running habits when you use them. How I wish there was something like this for developing moral judgment! There are some legislators who could use it. :)
Charlie Chaplin is a genius! He's such an amazing physical actor, and he imbues his performances with a lot of heart. I think I'll have a Chaplin marathon. :)
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