Art house cinema, an intelligent , philosophical conversation,being with my friends and not having to censor what I say or think, meeting creative people, observing people, telling jokes that probably only make ME laugh! Going to live, local gigs and seeing new bands. Finding inspiration from funny scenarios and incidents that happen around me.
Music
Drug Store, The Kooks, The Libertines,The Cardigans, CSS, So So Modern, Maximo Park, The Editors, Kaiser Chiefs,The Strokes,The Supremes, hip-hop (for dance floor purposes so I can pull out my funny old school stylez), seeing my friends play live,Beck, The Killers, Cheesey dance music (sometimes), Chinese instrumental erhu music,old school hip hop, alternative/indie, dirty rock n' roll...
Movies
Farewell My Concubine, The Road Home, Tsotsi, Deepha Mehta's Earth,Fire, Midnight Cowboy, Fourteen, The Three Extremes, The Shower, Beijing Bicycle, Lady Whirlwind, Welcome to the Doll House, Hong Kong Hollywood, Eat Drink Man-Woman, American Hard Core, Chung King Express, Napolean Dynamite, Office Space, The Price of Milk, In My Father's Den, London kills me, East is East, old school Chinese kungfu films, Joy Luck Club...
Television
Documentary Channel, Alt TV, Ugly Betty- Bring it on!
Books
My favourite is The North China Lover. It was given to me as a gift by my sister. It has such a cinematic feel, and the language and images are really sensual, yet the story could be construed as being socially unacceptable in these times. The feel of the book is contemporary, yet its a story about history.
Heroes
There are people who are close to me who I admire, and little things that I see in different people that I know- I look to them and feel like I want to learn from them so I can be a better person. I admire risk-takers, and creative people who can manage to have a balanced life, while working frantically and having a family etc.
About me: An introverted-extrovert, animated, creative, ambitious, quirky, complex and full of contradictions...
I hate being in boxes and I like to play with rice!
I want to be MYSELF!
I have 3-5 year plans to keep me going, and alot of things I need to achieve in my lifetime so if I don't make them happen, I would only feel I was living half a life...
I am currently making a documentary called 'The Foreign Skin' which looks into NZ-Chinese historical and contemporary perspectives. My goal is to create stories which delve below the surface and challenge an audience to see,hear and think about where their own values and politics lie.
Who I'd like to meet: People who enjoy talking about creative processes. Risk takers, quirky, random people who are who are passionate and ambitious and not afraid of expressing their own ideas and opinions, people from a wide arts base; musicians, artists, filmmakers, designers.
Peter Brooke, Robert LePage- (two theatre philophers who have broken conventions and have taken theatre, art and life into a whole new realm).
I want to wish you a very Merry Xmas and a fabulous New Year. I sent a similar message by regular email, so this is an extra copy to ensure I reach you. hehe.
Instead of the traditional e-card, I give you a link to a YouTube video that I shot on Dec 7th at Cours Mirabeau, in Aix-in-Provence, France, just before coming back to «very» snowy Montreal. It is a women choir singing a nice Xmas song, at night on the maket place. Here is the link (just copy and paste in a browser):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1b5pK7302Y
I hope you will like this little song and that it will give you joy.
Happy holiday season :)
Claude
p.s. I found myself a new erhu teacher in Montreal. will start again lessons in January. Meanwhile you can see my last «live» performances in a project management workshop, in Aix in my videos at www.myspace.com/erhusome. I guess I really need to start again lessons to kill my new bad habits :)
