What art (music, movies, poetry etc.) really touches you and why?

Movies do the trick the majority of the time as they combine so many different elements to include music and poetry.

Movies that strike a chord with my personality, my hobbies, or my occupation are understandably more moving than the others.

August Rush was an excellent movie and it appealed to my musical genes as well as the romantic gene I’m obliged to hide for fear of showing others I have deeper feelings than my love for bbq’s and football.

War Horse appealed to my military gene. (despite it being a little “Disney-ish”)

Green Street Hooligans appealed to a gene I haven’t yet identified which had me playing the theme song in my head for over a week. It made me want to watch football and punch people in the face. I can’t explain it.

There’s usually a very blatant connection to my personality or the experiences I’ve had during my lifetime.. but often the mystery of movies is that I don’t know why they appealed to me the way they did.

Music has a way of reaching the deep recesses of my emotions too. I still get teary eyed when I hear I’m In a Hurry because it was played at my friend’s funeral. During the song, one of his other friends stood utterly crushed and weeping openly next to his picture. He glanced at me and I saw complete despair. That song will forever make me think of that moment.

As cheesy as it sounds Aerosmith’s Don’t wanna miss a thing will always strike a chord because it is the song I chose to play as a young navy man returning from a year of school to see my girlfriend (now my wife).

Love and Happiness will forever remind me of good times at Kelly Obrien’s (No, I’m not in the picture stalkers) with friends I almost died with.

Anyway, I could go on and on .. but perhaps you can see the connections.

Poetry in the sense of it being a bunch of words in a book doesn’t really have any specific greatness for me. On a grander scale, the poetry I often see in the world around me is much more profound.

I love Vivaldi. Almost all of his compositions. I think it is the precision and the ethereal beauty. I also like a lot of Scarlatti.

I love movies that make me think. Such as Mindwalk (which made me think until my head hurt).

I love the evocative poems of Robert Frost, because I feel like I am in the time and place he is speaking of.

There’s a lot more, but that’s enough for now.

I like Satie’s music. Filled with sadness.
And Beksinski’s paintings Troubling visions of Hell.

I love every type of art I’ve encountered, and pieces from each style can make me weak in the knees. But music is the most overwhelmingly emotional, particularly songs about death.

I brood about death almost all the time I’m awake. These songs, in different ways, punch through the distance I have created between myself and my death, and bring the darkness up to press on my eyeballs. If any of the following come on the radio while I’m driving I have to pull over immediately, because crying and driving do not mix and I couldn’t possibly switch them off.

Rabbit in Your Headlights by UNKLE – because I feel like the world is crushing me.

There’s No Way Out of Here by David Gilmour – because I do not believe in existence after death and I love living, and because I’m afraid I will end without figuring anything out.

Darkness, Darkness by The Youngbloods – because I don’t want to want death, and this song kind of makes me want to die. I don’t want death to be emptiness, but I think it probably is. If there’s one thing I think is the case, metaphysically speaking, it is that something is better than nothing. And this song makes me afraid that nothingness might be better than somethingness.

Now I’m crying, so I think I’ll tell you about some of the music that makes me feel good.

I’ve trained myself to relax whenever I hear a Jose Gonzalez song (well, most songs – Crosses is another that makes me sad) or play one in my head – not difficult to figure out why on this one, I’d imagine. Junip too, for that matter. I don’t listen to Jose and Junip just to relax, though – I find them deeply soothing and meaningful.

Certain other songs I find turn me on a lot – more than porn, and nearly as much as sensation. Simply listening to Jimi play most anything (but particularly the Band of Gypsies songs), Grand Funk Railroad (no vid for “Reaper”, but that’s the one I’d put in), 13th Floor Elevators, and I Put a Spell on You by Marilyn Manson. The last is hot in part because of that scene from Lost Highway with Patricia Arquette…yumm. As to the others, they may turn me on because I’ve dropped acid, had sex, and listened to this music all at the same time, which is a very intense experience – and so now I just find the music itself really sexy. Also, these are all bands/songs with excuse the pun a pounding rhythm. Getting turned on by certain songs is an issue, once again, when this stuff comes on the radio ;)

OK, just a quick add on some of the paintings that stick to my soul: Francis Bacon, Brueghel the Elder, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Salvador Dali – works that are, generally speaking, about humanity, madness, and death.

I don’t cry in a normal, sober state. The times I’ve almost cried from media have been when I was under the influence. It was just the right circumstances to make me emotional. Off the top of my head, there was Lacrimosa’s Requiem for My Friend, and the Theivery Corporation’s Resolution.

I don’t have time to give you my personal psych analysis, and don’t want to anyway. :P

This song reminds me of my first date. Went to a ballet or something. I dunno.

I love poetry, music, art and film, all of which move me.
Lucian Freud is my favourite artist. He captures the essence of humanity in his work. It’s rawness gives the work such depth. Here is a self portrait.
Poetry takes me to a deeper place within myself and it can lead me to get in touch with pain or joy, depending on the content. I love Plath, Tennyson, Dickinson. If by Kipling has a special place in my heart, as does Invictus by Henley and In Memoriam by Tennyson
They all remind me that I cannot give up, no matter how stormy the seas become.
Music gets where words cannot. Creak in the door by Mick Flannery makes me feel that I don’t need to pretend all of the time; the facade can come down from time to time. I like Beethoven too.
Requiem for a Dream is one of the most devastating films I’ve watched. I feel sad for quite a while after watching it.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is one of the most moving films I’ve watched. The power of the human spirit astounds me :-)

I love jazz and classical music. no words needed.

as for art, Norton Wisdom. www.nowisdom.com
He paints with a backlight, with musicians, on plastic sheeting. He washes it down, transforms it. Then digital photo. his art is breathing, deep and symbolic. I have many of his works in my home.

@stardust Thanks for sharing Freud’s self-portrait; it’s amazing and I really like it. My boyfriend saw it on my screen and asked if it was Creed from The Office.

It’s fantastic, isn’t it? :-)

@Blackberry Well, I didn’t mean what art makes you cry, just what art touches you.