I was humbled and overjoyed with the storyboard we just received, it looks epic. It’s distinctive Asian style adds yet another dimension to the meaning of our music.

Thanks to Louise Clements- the bass player in MuHa, a great  woman  who have friends from all over the world- we have this amazing opportunity to create a Chinese animation on Ukrainian famous epic theme Taras Bulba,  which is expected to be released early in 2012. Best xmas ever!

It is easy to spot these people as they stand out from the crowd shouting or talking to themselves, crying then laughing the next moment or just standing or wandering with an absent face.

During the week preceding to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 I was listening to the monologue of a woman in a subway. She was on her own, but she talked very expressively to someone appearing to be on her left hand side as she was continually looking there as if she had a companion at that spot.

Interestingly, what she was saying was not all nonsense , it was a normal conversation… except she was having it to herself. She was talking about various things jumping from one topic to another. At one point she discussed the Freedom Tower- the fortress-like skyscraper that they are building on the WTC site and that will be the tallest building in the United States and one of the tallest in the world.

The woman said ‘ Why are they building this Freedom tower? What America wants to prove to the world?’ – Wow, I thought- she says exactly what I think about this! Then she continued with ‘ America doesn’t need to prove anything to the world- we ARE the best’ …

But there was nothing strange about this sentence either – it is a very popular view in America – this is how most Americans perceive themselves and their country in a global context. It was however strange and ironic to hear it from this poor woman talking to herself in a subway carriage.

The look of a Freedom Tower ( or WTC 1) when it is finished in 2013

I thought I will put a link to this sarcastic image as well – as to my opinion America hasn’t learnt to be humble.

Taras Bulba is a Cossack, a Ukrainian folk icon which was created by a genius Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol. His story is about strength, brotherhood, family, pride, the love to the motherland-to name just a few.

And the cover for MuHa’s album TARAS is being designed by my Ukrainian friend who does something like this :

This image was not created in 3D program- it was created in Photoshop using paths and masking layers. It took me about 10 hours to make it using a photograph as a base image.