Florence + (Hot Tub Time) Machine

Remixing is a real joy, building up tracks from scratch, savouring the purity of the acapella, unadultered, until you crap all over it with your faux-Kanye instrumentals.

One thing though, that really drives one to ear-gouging, head-against-brick-wall psychosis is a talented female vocalist with a voice richer than mudcake made from the purest Swiss chocolate drowned in honey served with Zooey Deschanel on top...(see Beyonce)...

...which is an awfully tortured metaphor to say that having Florence Welch in your ear for the better part of a week is equal parts great and maddening, because you want to create an instrumental to match her, and she'll be the first to let you know if you're letting the side down, the powerful bi-atch...enjoy!

Florence and the Machine feat Jay-Z - You've got the love

The start of a beautiful friendship...

These early mixes I did at the height of the so-called mashup craze really take me back. I was using CoolEdit Pro at the time and I remember losing hours of my life neurotically getting the tempos of the tracks to match. My fondest memory is when a friend of mine mimed mashing me to a pulp when he heard how I'd mashed his (then) idol Damien Rice. Ha.

Download it:

Studiogypsy remixes vol 1

(still learning Photoshop though)

Jay-Z x Michael Buble

Been sitting on this remix for a little while now. I originally did the instrumental by cutting together a few Michael Buble tracks in a 007 vein as a gift for a friend who wanted 'Dr Evil theme music' (!!!). Ended up laying the Jay verses down because she didn't like the plain instrumental.

Got a few other acapellas in the pipeline that hopefully will make it out the vomit tract, but til then, enjoy (the now not so) young Hov -

Jay-Z feat Michael Buble - What more can I say (remix)

15/60 challenge

After the Dr Sketchy's afternoon I realized how much I enjoy sketching figures. As a poor man's substitute for having a model in my living room in the middle of the afternoon I decided to quick sketch off a photo reference and see how it went. I then got n.t. to send me a photo of her choice and I tried the same thing again. Two sketches from photo reference, both done in about 15 minutes. Hence the 15/60 challenge.

(Setting myself a few too many challenges this year: 15/60, Shirt52, and I haven't even started on a New Year's resolution to write ten songs by June, and have filmed a music video for one of those...)

No Vacancy - March 2010

Tonight's creative endeavours took place at No Vacancy, where the first time I tried to get into their drop in life drawing class, they lived up to their name. Tonight I finally got in and experimented with charcoal and indian ink. Definitely more indian ink for me after this.

Quatrains of Rumi

Nicolette has been posting up poetry and so far, each piece has been perfect for me in someway. Her latest selection comes from Rumi, a 13th Century Persian poet.

Below are her selected quatrains and my attempt at translating them into Vietnamese.

A night full of talking that hurts,
my worst held-back secrets: Everything
has to do with loving and not loving.
This night will pass.
Then we have work to do.

Một đêm đầy tâm sự đau đớn,
Những bí mật xấu nhất ta đã dằn lại: Mọi chuyện
Đèo là chuyện yêu va không yêu.
Đêm nay sẽ qua.
Rồi ta có việc để làm.


After being with me one whole night,
you ask how I live when you're not here.

Badly, frantically, like a fish trying to breathe
dry sand. You weep and say,
But you choose that.

Sau một đêm suốt bên anh,
Em hỏi anh sống thế nào khi vắn em.

Bối rối cuống cuồng như cá gắn thở
cát khô. Em khóc và nói,
Nhưng anh chọn vậy.

Shirt52 project - week 3 with V Dentata @ Dr Sketchy's

Didn't think I'd be pumping out T-shirts so soon, but a unique opportunity arose at Dr Sketchy's life drawing on Sunday (see the life drawing post) and they were asking audience members to draw T-shirts inspired by the V Dentatas (the models for the afternoon). Guess who volunteered?