Constant competition. And the price paid for the sake of winning

I was quite inspired by something my teacher said - to pen down ruminations the moment they hit you, otherwise those same moments will be forever forgotten once they pass you by. Well recently i was thinking in great detail about the value of the term art, in its most loosely categorized form encompasses a great many things; be it music, sport et cetera. Now the word 'art', to many people simply means someone painting a picture on a piece of canvas. In my opinion, that is far too specific to be accurate. The Oxford English Dictionary describes the word 'art' to mean "the use of the imagination to express ideas or feelings, particularly in drawings, paintings or sculpture". This, too, is specific to conventional understanding of artistry, but i am certainly more inclined to highlight the first part of the description: that art constitutes the use of the imagination to express ideas or feelings.

Earlier this year someone brought to my attention this particular phrase - sport is the highest form of art. Such a motion can certainly be keenly contested by academicians, musicians and artists alike, but i was intrigued. I have played the piano since i was age 2.5, and while i stopped before entering secondary school in order to pave the way in athletic involvement, i can safely say that my perspective is balanced between the two faculties of art, and i do consider music an integral part of my life. That particular chapter is long gone now, however, and while i do try to engage in different sports regularly my deepest commitments remain basketball and sailing. If i am to use the first part of the abovementioned dictionary reference as a tight guideline, then i must state emphatically my belief that anything that involves any kind of creativity at all is an art form. Dancing, acting, playing the violin for example (things that are considered largely aesthetic), football (the Beautiful Game), basketball et cetera (athletic) and - the thought just hit me - COOKING is even an art form. Execution, presentation and display are the critical components of becoming a celebrated chef that culinary prowess can hardly be denied to be a form of art. One of my favorite pastimes - gazing at night scenery suggests that architecture is a form of art as well, and it is therefore no surprise that some of the biggest takeaways of visiting cities like New York and Paris, closer to home Hong Kong and Shanghai, are memories - photographic and otherwise - of their brilliantly sculpted cityscape. 

I could go on to describe the various other things that could be considered to come under the far-reaching umbrella of art, but that would only serve to bore. Hence i think i should start with with the category i understand best - sports. Style of play, no matter in what sport be it football, basketball or say tennis, can rather loosely be separated into two main groups - finesse and power. This is not to say both styles are mutually exclusive; you will find that some of the best athletes possess a superb combination of both brute strength and the soft touch, adjusting with regard to the circumstance. I think all of us have in us ingrained a sense of understanding of art, i personally find it extremely thrilling when two opponents with polar opposite forms of combat meet on a stage where the winner is left with everything and the loser is left with nothing. Some of us like the big horse, some of us like the underdog. The 2004 NBA finals reflects such a matchup perfectly, where the glitz and star power of Los Angeles Lakers, and by extension Hollywood, faced the blue-collar grit and hard nosed fight of the Motor City representatives the Detroit Pistons. In that war heart won out over talent, and in a really loosely linked way it signifies the way America is supposed to break out of a slumping economic backdrop. If i will be allowed to deviate - America has too long been allowed to rely on the brilliance of the individuals its Ivy League academies produce, and the overwhelming majority of its populace has been stagnating while the misrepresentation of finance continues to create an even larger imbalance between its Wall Street constituents and the rest of New York City's more humble-income populace. The US must recognize that the focus must shift away from its lauded Harvard graduates and toward its people, the cogs of the engine that was once touted to be an economy that could support the production of guns, butter and a welfare state to boot.

But away from finance and back to art. Simply put, an activity that consistently engages the imagination must be considered an art form. However, it is also critical to note that objective art simply does not exist, there will be no singular individual with the ability to put a definition on art, simply because it is all about perception. To certain individuals playing a violin may be considered art. But how many can argue that someone with a background with less cultural exposure will consider it so? Now at the risk of sounding like an overly romanticised pedantic, i believe that sporting artistry is all about the details. The rush of winning just goes through the penumbra of the final detail. This is reflected in the fact that an extra inch on a ball-fake will yield very different results than lazy execution; a singular boat-length of distance before changing tacks resulting in perfect mark rounding - these are carefully calculated details that to the casual observer seem so simplistic it is beautiful; and never a thought goes into the amount of split second planning required to execute these perceptibly fluid movements. Football is called the Beautiful Game for a real reason, even a person completely inexperienced in the way the game is played can be wowed by a dozen different things, the artistry of a great player weaving his way through traffic and producing a goal out of seeming nothingness, a ball seeming to defy the laws of physics by curling around a perfectly straight line from the corner spot into goal - these things never cease to amaze the layman and convince them that such skills are artistry bordering on wizardry. 

Why is it we do what we do, produce art? This is a question that remains unanswered for me, and i do hope i will be able to find the answer in the future. Whether we do it to impress ourselves or the audience, everything imaginatively beautiful is art. The movement of a dancer is art; the beauty of a play is art; a musician becomes an artist when he produces the sounds that transform into beauty to our ears; a jumpshot that swishes the bottom of the net is art; the captured scenic nightscape of a city is art. Voila. There you have it. Art is all around us, produced by unknowing souls for everybody's benefit. Why? Benevolence? Self-satisfaction? To impress?

Why, indeed. The unshakeable question that i will continue to ask until i find the answer. Why do we do what we do? 

May 23, 2010

The NBA playoffs are underway.

It's the time of the year where sixteen of thirty teams from two conferences East and West meet each other in a truly explosive battle for the one gold trophy that to them, is what the entirety of the year is all about. 

A sum up for the playoffs to this point: the conference finals have begun and the expected victors have, as expected, sizeable leads over their counterparts. The Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, 2008 finalists have been systematically plugging along, albeit in vastly different ways which prove that the finals, if they both advance as expected, will be a tantalizing matchup. There have been undoubtedly huge stories in the playoffs thus far, two-time league Most Valuable Player LeBron James' stunning no-show in what may have been his biggest game as a Cleveland Cavalier; and not surprisingly the Cavs were unceremoniously booted out of the playoffs, two rounds short of where they wanted to be. Sixty five wins later, and what was previously a brilliant year ends painfully in disappointment and failure. This is truly the NBA, and it is brutal in the sense that there will be one victor and 29 failures. And as the Cavs have beautifully highlighted, whatever you do in the regular season is meaningless for you are judged when your season ends.

Kobe Bryant has repeatedly said that the only MVP award he cares about is the one won if the Finals are won, and his Laker team have him in a position to repeat his 2009 victory with a two-to-nothing lead over the Phoenix Suns. The Lakers have ruthlessly pounded the much smaller Suns inside to a stunning degree of success, and the Suns have had absolutely no answer to LA's trio of seven-foot tall big men. Add the league's most lethal scorer to the mix and the Lakers' offense has put up an astonishing two-game total of  252 points. Kobe Bryant has raised his game to levels that the Suns cannot begin to hope to counter. 

jumpshooting for the lead;

The Celtics, on the other hand, have won with a superb combination of defense and teamwork that have effectively shut down the vaunted Magic offense. Unselfish team play and the emergence of All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo, together with a mix of veteran leaders have had Orlando reeling from repeated blows are now searching for answers that seem far too elusive to be found in just one final game. And when it comes down to it, Dwight Howard's crew, if they fail to deliver, will have the curtains closed on their magnificent season. 

HUSTLE.

 The next seven days or less promise to deliver the result. And the finalists will then be determined. And as they say, there can only be One.

//edit; excuses post tribute

I read today from someone's blog that so many things are peripheral, and that everyone wants to be a part of something that is bigger than themselves. True enough, we should step back and think about what we our giving our time, even our lives to, because many things are bigger than you. And yes, i do as well admire people who do not allow themselves to be defined by what they do, rather they know who they are and what they want, and when they do things it is a product of who they are and what they want, and not a product of some externally defined notion of expectations and identity. The world truly is, bigger than one's oyster.

I wish i could give credit to the author of this revelation, but i can't. But all i can say is that i am sincerely blown away by reading it. Brilliance (:

Back to GP now. 

916pm, the stars are shining brilliantly outside my window;

good evening, ladies and gentlemen.