There's Someone Outside My Door

I got inspired to write this song after reading a short story about an old lady who kept hearing voices outside her flat, often to find out that there was no one there. This started to happen after the death of her husband. One day, however, there WAS someone outside her door....

There's Someone Outside My Door by Sia Joo Hiang, 2015 

There' someone outside my door 

There's someone outside my door 

Always at night, since my baby's gone. 

I can hear his heavy footfalls 

I can hear his heavy footfalls 

There's someone outside my door. 

My neighbours, they like to whisper 

My neighbours like to whisper 

They say: There's no one outside her door. 

The police boy gave me a look 

The police boy gave me a look 

It said: It must be DEMENTIA. 

My children, they all think that I am mad 

My children all think that I am mad 

They say: It's time to call the doctor! 

I may be old, but I am not mad. 

All my teeth have fallen out, but I am not mad. 

I am telling you, there's someone outside my door! 

There's someone outside my door 

There's someone outside my door 

Right now, outside my door! 

I played concert ukulele and sang, and made the illustrations using ink with brush, and pen.

nothing

 

maggie and milly and molly and may

I was thinking about partings and loss today. While reading, I came across this poem by E. E Cummings. It describes what I feel about loss and partings. I put it to music and made the drawings. i used a plastic uke to make that beat. 

here is the poem: 

maggie and milly and molly and may 

went down to the beach(to play one day) 

and maggie discovered a shell that sang 

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,

and milly befriended a stranded star 

whose rays five languid fingers were; 

and molly was chased by a horrible thing 

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:

and may came home with a smooth round stone 

as small as a world and as large as alone. 

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) 

it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

an imaginary bird + an English ballad

 

what are you reading today? DAY 12

 

Cat reads Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni

what are you reading today? Day 11

 Today I read several children books at the library. Loved all of them! Here are 2:

Joo reads Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness

Sam, Bangs & Moonshine is about a girl who tells lies like her life depends on it. And as you can see from the cover, there is a cat in the story. Not all stories with cats in them are good, but this one is.

What makes this an even better story is that there is a boy who BELIEVES everything the girl says.  Yep. Sweet...? Or... sad? You decide.  Anyway, so one day something happens, and the girl never lies again....well, not the bad sort of lies! This is a great book, with absolutely wonderful illustrations from the great Evaline Ness. 

Joo reads The Snow Maze by Jan Mark

A boy finds a strange-looking key which unlocks a gate that makes him see what others can't. Because they can't see what he sees, everyone laughs at him, except one friend. I made this drawing based on the book cover, and added myself standing next to the boy. Yep, I really got into the story. :--) A wonderful book. Nice illustrations too.

asleep

 

Monk

m a m a

nest

 

monoprints

 I had some fun making some prints the other day. Here are a few of them. You can see more in the video Will It Overturn in my previous post.

Man and Dog

Giant Head 

Aggressive and Passive

An Intense Conversation

Hungry Dog

Happy Dog

Laughing Dog

Wil It Overturn?

 A video I made for a song by my friend Kelvin Tan.  You can listen and buy the track here https://open.spotify.com/track/0bJyDvqdeC5Zs2JFEOeVbc

I used some simple animations and monoprints to create this video.

freedom