Mid-May Madness

Well, not so much madness as industriousness. I’m now mixing everyday on my solo album in what is, probably, the best spell I’ve had on that project. Of course, as always happens, the moment I manage to become sedulous, a number of other things pop-up to vie for my attention.

As my mentioned in my last post, my new company, SoundWallah, is active. I’d love to say that the offers and new projects have come flooding in, but, of course, that is not the case. Still, there’s lots of small things to be taken care and plenty of planning and “outreach” to do.

Last Friday I went to a music industry event organised by the Red Bull Music Academy, here in Hong Kong. It was very interesting and there will be a blog post soon on that and some of the issues it raised for me about the Hong Kong music scene. Later this month I’ll be at the Music Matters conference, which is a heavy duty industry conference with some serious names from around the world.

Also last week, I also attended an event called Web Wednesday, which is a monthly gathering for “…Digerati who work in (or are just curious about) the Internet and digital media.” Yeah, I know. The gathering seems to mostly attract people from the IT and Advertising worlds and I think it has played a role in fostering community here in Hong Kong. It doesn’t really scratch where I itch, but this month’s speaker, Siok Siok Tan, made an interesting presentation on her documentary film about Twitter users.

On a more relaxing note, I took in a wonderful concert by Dame Emma Kirkby with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. Delightful music played to an appreciative and focussed audience. In a way I felt chastened, because my not-infrequent rants about the local music scene all too often fail to note the excellent classical music that is regularly on offer here.

Last week saw me receive a photo credit and quote on AOL’s Daily Finance site. OK, it is a tiny picture, but I’m really appreciative of what is my first photo placement outside Hong Kong. On the recommendation of a friend I’m taking a good look at Lightstalkers, a site that seems to fit very well with where my photography is heading.

I’ve just finished reading Making Ideas Happen, which is a handy book. Its not unlike GTD, but repackaged for creative types, with lots of good examples in a fresh, easy to follow style. Off the back of that book, I’ve joined the Behance network, as a way to showcase some photographic work and I’m also looking at Photoshelter as a way to develop a post-Flickr photo gallery.

Also, I’ve been asked to write for a new Asian photography website. I’ll make an announcement about that in a couple of days. The site is starting small, but I’m very exited to be involved. I’m also well into planning for my first trip back to India, since leaving in 2006, with the Lumen Dei photo tour. I’ll get to see Delhi and Gurgaon again and also travel with the tour up to Srinagar, Lamayuru and Leh, visiting country I did not see when I lived in India.

Savannah College of Design have opened a campus in Hong Kong and I’ve been looking seriously at their MFA programme in photography. I’m keen to keep developing my photographic skills. But, I’m not sure if this is the right time for me to dive into that sort of a programme. I will, however, be diving back into another Berklee course, this time on Music Marketing with the Topspin platform. In the meantime I’m topping up my knowledge of Kontakt, from Native Instruments and Melodyne, from Celemony with some new excellent MacProVideo tutorials.

It’s a real thrill and privilege to be attending a cooking school with one of my heroes, Antonio Carluccio in a few days. In the last twelve years, rarely a month has gone by that I haven’t prepared something from one of his cookbooks and his Caffè in Market Place was one of my favourite restaurants when I lived in London.

Finally, I’m doing some final planning around a summer break back to Australia over June/July. It’s become something of an annual ritual to enjoy the winter down under and visit family (beaches, wineries and long bike rides also have their charms.