JOURNEY !

(by Takaya)

JOURNEY !

My son loves Journey ! How comes he's born in the 21st century and loves Journey ? He can listen non stop to the Journey Greatest Hits.
It all started for me at home one day when he showed me a video on internet and was singing along "Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world / She took the midnight train goin' anywhere ... Don't stop believin' / Hold on to the feelin' "
His school choir had picked "Don't stop believing" (click on the link, it's a 1983 version in Tokyo) for their concerts. It was in 2011 after March 11, so there was a lot of fundraising to be done (not to say that there's less to be done today) and a lot a believing not to be stopped.
I remember of one of their versions which was very nice (in open air, split in a white and navy groups).

I was a kid when Journey was having a blast, maybe between the current ages of my son and my daughter ! So it's not really a band of my youth. I did watch maybe 50 times the closing sequence of the Sopranos and  as you probably know, Journey's playing on the jukebox.
Also Tony orders onion rings, and at that time, that got into my diet quite seriously too ! Tony certainly didn't have time to read about the benefits of Green Wheat Grass Powder !

I was listening to a band of my youth when I came home early the other night (quite rare this year). Then once everybody was sleeping, I just checked upcoming concerts and I saw that Journey would be playing in Tokyo on march 11 (coincidence). When I checked the tickets, I realised the ticket sales was closing that same night at midnight (coincidence) !
So after some good advise, tickets were purchased before the deadline...

The choir is great. Last summer, when we were driving through France, the kids would lip synch on Man in the mirror. Who does that ? I'm happy my kids do.

I remember a philosophy question in high school "if art make you think, is pop music art ?".
You relate to music and it enters in your life. I listened to a lot of bossa when I was younger and just hearing Astrud Gilberto flying to the moon will bring me back to a sunny day in june 15 years ago and a hospital bed when the only thing I could do was to listen to a cassette tape with Astrud Gilberto and Tom Jobim. So this is an illustration of music as a trigger of involuntary memory similar to the madeleine episode or flashbacks for the Lost fans out there...

So Journey is art because it made me think that we can and should densify the future involuntary memories of our children with positive thinking, happiness, stuff we do together.

Thank you Journey! Thank you School Choir !

Takaya