Good music and other good stuff on youtube and Facebook

[Eldy]

Good song (sorta downtempo electronic), but I particularly like the video, which is all pre-war drone footage of Kyiv.

[Jude]

[Frelga]

Posting here rather than to spam the disaster thread - I like this version of The Wind and the Rain better. And I need to find that movie.

[RoseMorninStar]

I had no idea Ben Kingsley could sing! :o A lovely version also, which sounds very Scottish. The other version (in the disaster thread) reminded me a little of the pitter-patter of rain.

And.. ohmygosh.. that's Helena Bonham Carter. I've never seen her in a not odd/made-up role!

[Alatar]

[RoseMorninStar]

She's so funny. I enjoyed a tour on Loch Ness/Urquardt.

[Jude]

Here she is again!

[Eldy]

[RoseMorninStar]

That's one heck of a piece of performance art, especially if that platform is moving as fast as it appeared to.

[Eldy]

Yeah, I haven't been able to find much behind-the-scenes info beyond what's in the video description (the names of the dancers and choreographer and the fact that it was filmed in the Panthéon, which I suppose some more cultured people might have been able to tell on their own ), but it's the video as much as the song that's kept me coming back to this since it first cropped up in my YouTube recommendations.

[RoseMorninStar]

There's a Harry Styles video that uses a similar moving device. When I saw that I wondered how they avoided motion sickness.

[Eldy]

Oh, nice! I've heard that song a million times on the radio while driving, but hadn't seen the video before. Going by the credits, it had the same choreographer.

[Frelga]

That's really very impressive.

[Alatar]

This is ridiculously accurate

[RoseMorninStar]

Oh dear Al!


When our daughter was in High School we hosted several Japanese students over a period of years. One of the students was from a family who lived at a Buddhist temple. In Japan (and possibly elsewhere, I don't know much about it) temples such as this are kept within a family. It is considered a national treasure. The Japanese concept of religion is very different from the Western concept of religion and hard to explain. In any case, when our daughter was in college she spent a summer teaching in Japan and was able to visit this family at Kongorin-ji temple in Shiga prefecture. The other day YouTube recommended a video for me and it was a video of the temple grounds. It's well known for its beauty in fall. This particular temple is also known for being a guardian of children, including the unborn. The statues are of Jizo, who I believe is a protector of children who die before their parents. Bibs & pinwheels are often placed on/near the little statues.

[Sunsilver]

So, the stones mark children's graves? Is the family responsible for maintaining the grounds? That would be quite a job!

[RoseMorninStar]

Suny, no, I don't think the statues (Jizo) are graves. There are 2,000 of them at this shrine alone and they have been there for centuries. I don't know if new ones are added. Jizo are found all over Japan, but this particular shrine is known for its Jizo and it's beauty in fall. The temple was originally built around 740.

Jizo is the Japanese version of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, a Buddhist god worshiped mainly in East Asia. Jizo is, without doubt, one of the most popular and lovable of the Buddhist divinities and he has all the wisdom of the Lord Buddha himself, with this important difference, namely, that Jizo has waived aside Nirvana, and does not sit upon the Golden Lotus, but has become, through an exquisitely beautiful self-sacrifice, the divine playmate and protector of Japanese children.

Jizo has many functions and duties, but most important of them all is that he acts a protector of children and unborn children who died before their parents. According to Japanese Buddhist stories, children who face judgment in the afterlife are doomed to stack rocks on the riverbed of souls in purgatory because they didn't have a chance to build up good karma on earth. Jizo helps these children to cross the river in the sleeves of his robe.

He is the God of smiles and long sleeves, the enemy of evil spirits, and the one being who can heal the wound of a mother who has lost her child in death. Jizo is also the guardian of travelers, women and the weak.

While I know quite a few Japanese words and a few phrases, and our daughter took Japanese at University and she knows a bit more, the language barrier made it difficult to have in-depth discussions about such matters. When I have asked the Japanese I have known what religion they 'are' they tilt their heads in confusion. They do not view religion in the same way many Westerners/people of other faiths are used to. Many Japanese follow Shinto practices for 'life' (birth, marriages, day-to-day celebrations, etc..) and (in the Japanese I have known) Tendai Buddhist practices seem to be reserved for matters of death. They may follow certain rituals and traditions, but do not attend services or receive religious instruction or belong to a temple/church, etc.. the way many in other religions do.

More on Kongorin-ji temple

[Jude]

[Alatar]

Randy Rainbow's back!

[Voronwë the Faithful]