Monkey Chews

Photos from last night at Monkeychews, Camden cosy like my living room, yet red and sultry like a hot night in Hawaii...

I decided to try out my new classical guitar which only arrived a week ago, we are still finding our way with each other, but like the best of friendships these things always take time....that brings my guitar collection to six ( two acoustic, it would have been three but one got run over in a horrific hit-and-run, no I can't talk about it STILL, two electric - a Fender Strat and one Cobra and two nylon-string).

Not to mention the 4 keyboards, one electric piano, one African xylophone and one chinese quqin..I could definitely do with another pair of hands. Maybe one day I will wake up like Kafka's hero and find I have changed into a bug with six arms/legs.The only problem I would foresee is the problem of getting six-legged tights. And the expense of shoes!

ahem!

Big thanks to superhosts Joel and Simba for hosting such a great night x

New demo - Falling Into Battle

New demo up of a song I wrote a while ago on Myspace, called Falling into Battle, inspired by the legend of the Spartans and the artwork of Frank Miller who did 300, one of my favourite comics and movies of all time.

Ive posted the lyrics too:

Falling Into Battle
Falling like stone
Water rushing to your head
Floating in the calm
Sound the alarm,
Somebody sound the alarm

Fighting your own shadow
Heartbeat like a drum

Moving like a tiger
Restless as a ghost

You're caught out in a firestorm
Burning like an open wound

We fall to silence under a cold moon
We fall to silence under a cold moon
We fall to silence under a cold moon

300's one of my favourite stories of all time, it's about how 300 Spartan warriors held off a huge Persian army invasion led by Xerxes, its recounted in Herodotus: the Histories if you want to find out more, I totally recommend it.

T x

www.myspace.com/tuanmac

Spooky!..

...isn't just a song by Dusty Springfield, oh no...

If you scare easily look away now..if however you are like me and stare at death in the face then welcome my dear friend I embrace you.

I got recent notice from the most excellent Jade Perez - maker of strange and wonderful dolls - that my own doll is winging its way to me this very second. I can't wait...although I can imagine it getting stuck at Customs whilst they figure out if it's a lost prop from a Tim Burton movie.

You can see her/my mini-me here, there's quite a likeness I have to say, note the mask detail..

www.newagedolls.com

Yes, I am partial to a bit of smokey eyeshadow myself...

I'll leave it up to you to decide the likeness however....

I now wish you hot mugs of tea and toasted teacakes on this frosty day as I heap another lump of coal on the fire.

Stay warm and don't forget to wrap up!The ice should be perfect for skating on soon.

See you there

Tuan x

A picture is worth a thousand words

I recently discovered a great photographer and I've posted a few of his pics here. His name is Wing Shya and his photos make me feel like im really witnessing THAT moment, full of heartbreak, passion, desire, and emotion. All the things that make us human.

I am hugely influenced and inspired by movies, photos and illustration. I love the lighting and colours in a movie particularly old movies, i love the way a photo can convey so many things, that it can make you feel like you were really there, it can make you feel that you knew the person in the picture and you can can practically breathe in the entire atmosphere. If that's not magic I don't know what is.

I try to recreate the same feeling in my songs, because songs and music, like any art form is all about communicating or evoking an emotion. Every time you respond or react to something you're evoking some kind of emotion, even if you think that you're not.

This last one's my favourite and it's a still from In the Mood for Love which is a movie directed by Wong Kar Wai, whose genius lighting and film set is captured here by Wing Shya.

(Bizarre fact - he got the title from listening to a Bryan Ferry song called I'm in the mood for love. I like that title. I'm always in the mood for love.)

To me a great picture tells a story, and it has a past present and a future, so when I look at it I like to think about what the character was doing just before the picture was taken and what he's about to do right afterwards.

I absolutely love love love this picture and all of Wing Shya's work with Wong Kar Wai (Wong Kar Wai deserves his own posting so I'll talk more about him later, but I just want to say here that his style of shooting is beautiful)

The photo's full of anguish and unsaid things and you can sense the undercurrent between the pair of them. It's sad and beautiful at the same time and the colour and lighting is so evocative

I could drown in these photos. Wonderful.

And one more thing before I forget,

love and peace to you and your loved ones in 2009

Tuan x