#andrew bird

I have found the perfect song that captures the dialogue between me and Kishi, as I go back and forth in my head about the absolutely muddled and intertwined bundle of feelings Kishimoto makes me feel. Sometimes it feels like I can read his mind. Sometimes he manages to surprise me still.

It’s just weird to feel this intense, unholy connection to a creator, through a piece of his creation, and experience entire swarms of deeply repressed emotions that he manages to rouse in me, and honestly, it was only possible because he put his heart and soul in his work. Naruto and Shippuden.

Everytime I go through his work, I feel like he has hidden subtle little gems for me to find, one by one. And that makes me realize how absolutely crazy he was about Sasuke and Naruto. How absolutely bonkers. I feel their love like a tangible force of nature, something I can feel between my fingers, I can touch it, smell it, see it in colours, imagine them in my head like they had always lived there. I feel the way I do because Kish feels their love the way I do (perhaps even more) and he made me feel it too, just by telling me their story. I have never met this man and yet, I feel like I understand his motivations, I understand what he considers most important, reading his manga is like looking at a piece of his soul, his aggregate understanding of life, the lessons he learnt.

Naruto is replete with such complex and layered emotions, I am baffled sometimes how it’s possible for any storyteller to convey this myriad of such heavy duty emotions so perfectly, like nothing ever got lost in translation when he was putting his thoughts and images on paper. How absolutely passionate Kishi must have been about them. How devoted to them and their story, he didn’t leave any stones unturned, pulled no punches. It’s freaking amazing to me that so many of us can feel similarly about them, a collection of such complex emotions, difficult to put in words, and yet we all feel it nonetheless. We are as far from describing this impact accurately, just as much as he himself is, he struggles to explain it just like we do. It’s insane.

I don’t agree with all of him and I don’t even like some of it. But what I do like, I don’t just like. I love, I believe. Wholeheartedly, like a kind of love bible. I know, it sounds crazy. But that’s just how I feel, or at least it’s the best I can try describing it. Heh.

Anyway. I am replacing Andrew with me and Fiona with Kishi. It just sounds right.

Lyrics -

Me - I don’t believe everything happens for a reason

Kishi - To us romantics out here, that amounts to high treason

Me - I don’t go in for your star-crossed lovers

Kishi - In the heart of a skeptic

There’s a question that still hovers near

[Me:]

For it begs the question

How did I ever find you

Now you got me writing love songs

With a common refrain like this one here, baby

[Kishi:]

And all your left handed kisses

Were just prelude to another

Prelude to your backhanded love song, baby

[Me:]

But it begs a question

How did I ever find you

Drifting gently through the gyre

Of the great Sargasso sea, Atlantic Ocean

Got me writing love songs

With a common refrain like this one here

[Kishi:]

The point your song here misses

Is that if you really loved me

You’d risk more than a few 50 cent

Words in your backhanded love song

[Me & Kishi:]

For it begs the question

How did I ever find you

Drifting gently through the gyre

Of the great Sargasso sea, Atlantic Ocean

Kishi - The point your song here misses

Me - You got me writing love songs

Kishi - Is that you really love me

Me - With a common refrain like this one here, baby

Kishi - Is prelude to another of your backhanded love songs

Me - Now it’s time for a handsome little bookend

Kishi - Now it’s time to tie up all the loose ends

Me - Am I still a skeptic or did you make me a believer?

Kishi - If you hesitate, you’ll hear the click of the receiver

All right Kishi, FINE! I concur! You have bested me. You win. (Sighs, lays down all self protective coping mechanisms and arms and gives myself to Kishi’s magic.)

julie-sheridan:

CHROMESTHESIA - part two

An exploration of sound to colour - the evocation of colour, shape and movement in response to sound - musical mark-making

Some images, abstract musical illustrations based on my own experience of listening to certain pieces of music.

Effortless ~ Pulaski At Night ~ Watermelon Sugar ~ Cool Beans ~ Bitch Better Have My Money ~ Sunshine

Andrew Bird