Sook-Yin Lee - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Hi, I'm Sook-Yin. I make movies, I write stories, I act in my friends' films. I'm a swimmer, I'm a bicyclist. I've never had a driver's licence. Of all the ways to communicate, singing is one of the few times I can stop thinking (phewf.) I find it very difficult to describe my music. When people ask I say, "Plump with freckles."One time I found a plastic plumbing tube in a construction site and my first impulse was to press it against my lips and blow! Out came a most unearthly sound, like a whale crossed with a trumpet! The last sound to arrest me, was on a trip to New Orleans. A homeless man walked up and asked me for some money. I could hear the cracking sound of his bones.When I was a teenager I used to scream a lot of didactic political punk songs. These days I mostly sing about love in all of its wonderful-horrible beauty.I've posted 4 songs on myspace. The first, "Lunar Lament" uses a wheezy old children's keyboard I found at the Sally Ann for five bucks. You may have heard my pal Neko Case cover my song,"Knock Loud". The version posted here is the original. "Born Free" is my interpretation of a song from the 1974 movie of the same name, about an orphaned lioness cub in captivity. And finally on, "Sweet Dreams, Get up!" my friend, alternative cartoonist Joe Matt (Peepshow) played the keyboards.I work at the Canadian Broadcast Corporation on CBC Radio 1. I host an irreverent pop culture radio show, DEFINITELY NOT THE OPERA that is a personal spin on what is going on in the world! It's on Saturday afternoons at 1PM across Canada. In the US you can hear it on Sirius Satellite Radio 137, or streaming on your computer. Go to www.cbc.ca/dnto to download podcasts, videos and stuff.Here are five videos I made with my friend filmmaker Andrea Dorfman for DNTO. The first one is a music video for BEAUTIFUL, a song I wrote for the Shortbus movie soundtrack. Awesome Owen Pallett from Final Fantasy wrote the lovely DNTO theme song. The final video is a locket sized portrait of my pal Mark Hartmaier. We had a lot of fun making these vids, which just goes to show; HOME MADE + LOW BUDGET =FUN!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/9/2006
Band Website: shortbusthemovie.com, cbc.ca/dnto
Band Members: Me
Influences: Nina Simone, Edith Piaf, Joao Gilberto, Thelonious Monk, Chet Baker, Patti Smith, John Zorn, Diane Arbus, Adele Hugo, Alice Munro, Hong Lou Meng, Albert Camus, Rimbaud, Chester Brown, Goenka, Pema Chodren, Eckhart Tolle, John Cameron Mitchell, John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Giulietta Masina, Roman Polanski, Werner Fassbinder, Claude Jutra, Woody Allen, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Pedro Almodovar.
Type of Label: None

My Blog

WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING!

HELLO PALS O' MINE!I've returned, in one piece! Many things have happened since I was last here. I went to China for the first time in my life. If you're interested, check out my blog and read about m...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:28:00 PST

BE IN MY MOVIE, SEE AN AMAZING BAND, maybe even snuggle!

Dearhearts, Good golley, I have been absent from myspace because my brain, body and soul were hijacked by art. I need your help! Sook-Yin Lee here. For my latest project, I'm making a low-budget...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:43:00 PST

SCREEEMERZ

I hope you can make it out to our function: Saturday Sept. 1st at the Silver Dollar Room, 486 Spadina Avenue, Toronto Ontario. Starts 10PM. On a bill with Tropics and Huckleberry Friends. $7 SCREEEME...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:31:00 PST

SEE US PLAY!

Hey Friendilinos! I'm really excited because I'm performing for the first time in AGES with a swell group of musicians. I hope you can make it out to see us play! Take good care, Sook-Yin Saturda...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Sun, 27 May 2007 06:59:00 PST

FAKING IT

This week on my radio show, Definitely Not the Opera, we're faking it all over the place cause faking is fun and easy! My first forays into faking it were early on when I forced all the kids in the ne...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:48:00 PST

two double oh seven

Happy new year M-friends, it's a good one! The reason why I've been missing in action is, I xscaped xmas and headed to Florida where John Mitchell and I transformed into a retired Florida couple. He's...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 01:54:00 PST

The Saga of Sook-Yin Lee

When I was thirteen years old, I was chosen to be part of a Canadian swim team made up of swimmers from across the country. We competed in Darmstadt, Germany. On the team, there was one boy I in...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:45:00 PST

from the EMAIL BAG

Hi Friendilinos! I figure this blog is a good place to share some of my Myspace correspondence. I got this email from Billy aka Willia. She wrote: hello sook-yin, I keep...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Fri, 10 Nov 2006 12:53:00 PST

resist the temptation

okay, here's the thing. today i was interviewing Torquil and Chris of the band memphis, www.myspace.com/memphiscanada . They were talking about the importance of community and connection and how they ...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Wed, 08 Nov 2006 02:15:00 PST

It's cold and wet out and I'm hibernating like a brown bear.

I'm reading the new memoir by author Bill Bryson, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and I'll be interviewing him this week on my radio show. Bill's hilarious, with his funny heartb...
Posted by Sook-Yin Lee on Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:12:00 PST