Just a short message to let everyone that I’m still here!
안녕. 걱정 하지마.
まだいるよ。
还活着。
I haven’t written/YouTubed in a while, for which I’m feeling a little guilty, which is why I’m writing now.
At the moment, I’m looking for a job, and researching a uni degree that will allow me to teach English properly, and in Sydney. I taught lots while I was in China, but to do so here I’ll need some sort of qualification.
I’m also getting interested in wealth management; if Aika and I are ever going to go and visit all you 한국사람 again, drop in at 中国, get some real good すし or ever hope to get our Svenska past “Hej!” we’ll have to save up quite a lot of money for plane tickets.
The business world has a whole language of its own too. “ASX” means “Australian Stock Exchange”, “volumes were down” means that “not many people were trading shares”, “rally” means “to go up”, “slump” means “to go down”… sometimes I think they’re deliberately being difficult, by not using word that everyone understands…
One of the things I love doing is poking around art galleries. There’s something very peaceful about wandering around a quiet room, looking at stuff and evaluating it.
As I mention in the video, I recently went to see “Intensely Dutch” at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (New South Wales is the state in which I live; Sydney is the capital. No one knows why it has such a dumb name.)
A lot of the small art galleries I’ve been to feature only one artist; he/she sets up a shop to try and sell her stuff. I’ve seen lots of art that I like, and have always wondered about buying a painting or drawing or something. But one question, the big question, has always had me stumped.
How much?
Obviously there are no price tags on any art anywhere. You’re expected to look at it, and come up with a price yourself. But what’s reasonable? I mean, if I offer an artist twenty bucks for his painting is he going to be insulted? Or is he going to take it as a compliment that I’m looking to purchase his stuff.
Seriously, I’m not trying to be funny. If someone has done a sketch that has taken him all of half an hour to do, is it at all within the realms of possibility that he’d say “yeah, you can have it for twenty, do u need a bag for it?”
I’m not looking at starting an art collection (but depending on how cheap everyone thinks I can buy art for, I might!); I’ve just wondered the answer to this question for a while.
And it’s not as if artists have a brochure with price tags on it. (Or is it? As far as I know that is the case.)
It actually seems that it’s been “triple” sampled… someone has sampled a Black Eyed Peas song, and put drums over it, someone has sampled that, and put bass over it, and now I’ve put guitar over THAT… it’s great how the internet allows you to do that, isn’t it?
Wininboy, of YouTube (actually of Flanders!) is a ukelele player who was kind enough to let me sample his music. (For those not in the know, when one ’samples’ something in the musical sense, one takes a ’sample’ of a recording and then incorporates it into one’s own music.)
I’ve taken his performance of “Singin’ In The Bathtub” and put a bassline and some percussion over it. Hope you like it!
It was so cool that I had to do something with it.
I hope the original singer doesn’t mind. If you do, let me know and I’ll take it down.
I hope I’ve added something to the original… let me know what you think everyone! Too much? Too little? Sounds better without bass? Wasn’t 100% sure I knew what I was doing was adding anything good, but just had to have a go.
