SkyBlueSky

A Night at the Opera

Chinese New Year, 2011 as part of my ongoing Gat Luang, Chiang Mai project I had the opportunity to spend a few evenings with a Chinese opera troupe performing at a stage near the Ping River. The troupe members were from Thailand and southern China and perform at temple celebrations across the region. When not performing many of the troupe's members live in Bangkok's Yaowarat / Chinatown neighborhood. My hope has been to try to meet up with them again as they tour through Malaysia but that  hasn't happened yet. Until then here is a multimedia of our time together last year.

 

Get Prints - Give Prints! Just in time for the holidays!

Looking for the perfect gift or just tired of starring at your blank walls? Then I have just the solution for you. Head on over to my virtual gallery where I'm offering a limited time 20% discount on all prints and merchandise. To receive the discount simply insert the coupon code EATINGASIA in the discount code box when you check out. Photoshelter will take care of the rest.

 
Take a look around my galleries of images shot on travels and assignments around the world. To make it easier I've organized a 'Top Picks' gallery of top selling images as well as 'Your Kitchen Wall' which are suggested images that I think would look great in your kitchen or dining room.

US, Europe, Australia orders typically ship within 2 working days of order placement (although given the time of year give yourself a few days extra if you want it under the tree).

If you don't see what you are looking for drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll take a look through my archives.

Happy holidays!

KL rocks to its own beat.

(above singer / songwriter extraordinaire Azmyl Yunor)

We've lived in KL for a little over 5 years now. It's great city and we've certainly enjoyed our time here but if there was one thing I would change is the lack of live music. Or I should probably qualify that, interesting live music.

I grew up with DIY / Indie bands in the US and have seen (or heard about) similar scenes popping up around Asia, but never KL. That changed when a young Indonesian friend begain waxing about the local KL scene. Hmm, better check this out...and we did..and you can read about it in this month's Travel + Leisure SEA .

(above Mathematix perform at Cafe 1).

Shooting bands is a little new to me..but it's starting to grow on me.  Every club has its' challenges to shoot in, but as I found out no where near the challenges that the musicians themselves have finding (and keeping) venues to play in.

(above Shh Diam! below Nao Band)

But the musicians we met are incredibly optimistic about the future and for a good reason.

There is just so much untapped talent in this city that it can't help but spill out into a wider audience. (below ThinkTadpoleThink)

The scene is still rather fragmented. Clubs are closed about as soon as they open so you'll need to track bands via their MySpace or Facebook pages. Every gig we went to seemed to point to yet another future gig so it's very much word of mouth, band / fan driven.

See ya at the next show!

 

 

 

Rock On!

Earlier this year we spent a week or so hanging out with bands that make up the growing Chiang Mai music scene. A summary can be found in today's New York Times Travel Section.  For a guy that used to play guitar in college bands this was pretty much a dream assignment. Although as much as I love music this was my first attempt at shooting live music. Still big fun. Here are some shots from the week.

Now We Rock Star

A quiet evening in one of my favorite Asian cities, Hsin Chu, Taiwan.

Strike up the band!

Street musicians Jogja, Indonesia, January, 2009

More to come, plus a bonus explanation as to what this blog is about. Stay tuned..