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The MTV of Life
Zeph was sitting on the front seat of the second storey of an air-con double-decker bus, going home. It was evening. The skies were greyish and rain was trickling down in big streams across the windscreen, marring the scene surreally. He could see passers-by on the streets through the “warped” glass. There was a certain darkening air of dreariness pervading it all… He then plugged into his Zen mp3 player, which played ‘Sometimes’ by Depeche Mode – Sometimes, only sometimes I question everything And I’m the first to admit If you catch me in a mood like this I can be tiring Even embarrassing But you must Feel the same When you look around You can’t tell me honestly You’re happy with what you see Oh sometimes Only sometimes You must be… You must be… As embarrassing as me Sometimes… Sometimes, only sometimes… when Zeph is in a more pensive mood, he finds himself lost in the words and tunes of slow sad songs. And he finds himself identifying with, agreeing with it all. Often, it was a case of being carried away emotionally. There is this powerful thing about any words that are choreographed with the matching imagery of sight and sound. Anything that has a nice ring to it almost seems to justify its reality. Is this not why we are so easily touched by poetry and movies, despite their messages sometimes being far from simple wisdom or even common sense?
He realised he was in an MTV (music tv; music video). The setting he was experiencing was like that of an abstract MTV – he was listening to the music of his player, and the video was on the imaginary widescreen TV he was facing – MTV live and in high definition! Scenes of real life are getting to be more MTV-like as music videos featurs more and more realistic life scenes (including the gloomy and gritty) without the beautiful and glamourous always. Alleys dirty and common people on the streets I pass by just as I see on MTV. Modern music is as varied as their videos.
MTV is about a spectrum of human experience depicted for entertainment, contemplation. A double-edged knife that portrays the good and the bad. Piped music is everywhere – mp3 players, shopping malls, car stereos, discos, elevator music, TV, radio… rendering a beat of MTV to our everyday experiences. Life is MTV; MTV is life. All kinds of songs, sad and happy, all kinds of lives. Welcome to Generation X, or Y, or Z. Each could stand for MTV. We, this generation, we make MTVs, love them and live our lives as colourfully as MTVs.
Listen to the beat jerky and catchy, see the video flashy and cool. With every haunting song’s melody and lyrics humming in your mind with moving images, your life is mostly MTV mentally when you are idle. Colourful wandering thoughts of an untrained mind, a mind that can’t sit still. Are you directing your best hit video? What keeps replaying in your mind? Images of Samsara or visions of Nirvana – if you can envision it? We are what we think. We are what we keep thinking.
On our deathbeds, it is said by some that as if a fast-forwarded video will be played in your mind’s eye. This video is solely directed and produced by you and you alone. It is the MTV of your life. You are its star. You will be viewing absolutely, without any censorship, the story of your whole life in all its full-fledged glory and shame. It will be mind-boggling, maybe a horror movie even. The vision might be as blurred as the windscreen widescreen. It is almost certain that this video will include captions from your favourite MTVs? There will be one image you will cling on to last, one lingering thought.
And this thought might be one person, or one matter, that you have yet to resolve. And if you can’t let it go, you return to life, after death. You come back to life – reborn in MTV land, where you might pick up a multitude more experiences and images, cling on to them, and be unable to let go… again. All the MTVs are filmed in Samsara, and are about Samsara. No one has a filmed footage of Nirvana – because it can’t be conceptualised. But Zeph wants to see it. This means, he’ll have to attain it. There is no other option. Last track of the album is finished. Zeph removed his earphones. Welcome back, to the real world. Hear the rain outside now, not the tune in the head. Don’t get lost in this brave new MTV world. Guard your mind.
Related Article:
Pain : Musical Melancholy
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