Hi, my name is Stereo Mike.

 

Synaesthete, somnambulist, obsessive list-maker. Part Hokkien, part actually-mad. Sounds like an obituary.

 

 

I'm fascinated by all forms of art. As a child, I doodled constantly, and I still do.

 

For a while, I loved photography the most, but I've recently blossomed in the film department and plan to indulge in it professionally. Favourite films? Oh god, where to start... I'll spare you any form of obsessive ordering (I actually have a list of every film I've ever seen from favourite to least favourite) and just mention a few:

 

Koyaanisqatsi, A Tale Of Two Sisters, Stalker, The Elephant Man, Spring Summer Autumn Winter... And Spring, Mulholland Drive, The Battle Of Algiers, City Of God, Sátántangó, Léon, 3-Iron, Abouna, I Am Cuba, Alien, Rocky Horror Picture Show, La Haine, The Return (2003), Oldboy, A Clockwork Orange, Les Diaboliques, Festen, Goodfellas, Walkabout, Woman Of The Dunes, Mirror, Werckmeister Harmonies, Rashômon, Taxi Driver, Battle Royale, The Spirit Of The Beehive, Metropolis, Le Ballon Rouge, Blue Velvet, Rope, M, Pan's Labyrinth, Grave Of The Fireflies, Welcome To The Dollhouse, Pulp Fiction

 

You can probably guess some of my favourite directors from the above list. But here's a separate list all the same:

 

David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky, Kim Ki-Duk, Béla Tarr, Michael Powell, F.W. Murnau, Georges Méliès, Fritz Lang, Takashi Miike, Hiroshi Teshigahara

 

Favourite animators:

 

Jan Švankmajer, Yuriy Norshteyn, Michel Ocelot, Władysław Starewicz, Tex Avery, Émile Reynaud, Piotr Kamler, Aleksandr Petrov

 

I have a certain predilection for B-movies and flawed horror films. The Evil Dead was my favourite film for a while when I was younger. And if anyone's ever seen the Japanese film Hausu... one of the best things I've EVER experienced.

 

I also have a film review blog, under the name of Celluloid Breakfast.

 

I'm also a massive fan of music, and genuinely think I have eclectic taste. As a child, I owned, among other instruments, a keyboard, electric guitar and a mbira, but didn't learn any of them properly. I currently own a melodica but am not particularly great at it. In the future, I would love to own a kora, erhu and djembe, and play all of them with aplomb. Around the age of twelve, I discovered electronica and began writing my own music on computers at school. Sadly I stopped, as I was unable to afford the necessary soft- and hardware for myself. I also believe I can sing, but have yet to perform for anyone. Roll on university and all its serendipitous collaborations.

 

From time to time, I do a bit of writing. It's mostly poetry and short stories, but I've several ideas that could span the length of a book. I'm midway through a near-impossible-to-start collaborative effort with a friend, but don't expect to see it any time soon. My favourite author of the moment is Haruki Murakami. His descriptions (or at least the English transliterations of them) are so precise that it's hard to not take the role of the protagonist for yourself. Of the more classic authors, James Joyce is a favourite. Ulysses is a terrifying, fascinating journey.

 

The musicians I listen to most these days:

 

Björk, Boards Of Canada, Portishead, Tom Waits, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, TV On The Radio, Sigur Rós, Daft Punk, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Queens Of The Stone Age, Mihály Víg, Patrick Wolf

 

The musicians I idolise, but don't listen to that often (just because I KNOW they're great, doesn't mean I have to prove it by listening religiously):

 

Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jeff Buckley, Tim Buckley, Iannis Xenakis, Philip Glass, Aphex Twin, Ali Farka Touré, Arvo Pärt, Yann Tiersen

 

My original plan when I left secondary school was to become a linguist or translator. Fat chance. I speak French and Spanish, both of which get better the more I drink.

 

Merci et adiós.