MPH-Effects News

After the Winter

2012-03-10T21:50:00.012+02:00

These sunny days inspire me to do some photography.

'No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.' -Robert Adams

(Thanks to Hanna for this proverb, I'm totally shamelessly snatching it...=)

Our naked chimneys

Wines are waiting

The Contrast:

My Azalea is anything but dead, but it's blooming itself to grave, I'm afraid.

Rio, the Cat

Real cat's days on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Me and My Business

Graceful

Posing

Enjoying The Sun

"What are you minions staring at?"

The Moon

2012-03-09T16:01:00.000+02:00

Last night.

Aoxotoxoa @ Far-Out

2012-03-08T22:18:00.000+02:00

We have to move out. Big bummer. In few months. Major bummer.

But, before that: PARTY!
- And party we did, last weekend. Grateful Dead - cover-band "Aoxotoxoa" from Luzern was playing a concert in our basement bar "Far-Out". Far out.

Here's some atmosphere from that nice evening.

Happy Pluto-slippers waiting for the first guests. Note also Spidey.

Ducks supervising the sound quality.

Sound check =)

Fasnacht children 2012

2012-03-02T17:06:00.000+02:00

The kids are SO cute in their costumes. I couldn't resist photographying them...

My favorite: so deep in thought

Basler Fasnacht 2012 ambiance

2012-03-02T16:59:00.000+02:00

Some ambiance of this year's Fasnacht. You can read what it is all about from my previous entry.

Phase to Phase

2012-02-20T17:03:00.000+02:00

Recently I got a chance to work with Gymnasium Oberwil.

At first they requested a light design from me for their upcoming concert project. As we discussed the possibilities, I suggested the idea that the students would create the design themselves. So it turned out that I had to step into the shoes of a teacher. All this was very interesting.

First of all you have to arrange and sort out the thoughts in your head in order to be able to share them with others. This actually resulted me understanding something new about the theory =). Better late than never, yeah?

Anyhow I put together some lectures about the history and physics of stage lighting and also gave the kids couple of afternoon workshops, where they could try the theory and their ideas out. And it's always cool to be able to watch "Pulse" by Pink Floyd during your school lessons, right?

The actual performance was a live concert of minimal music with pieces from Pat Metheny, Paul Smadback, Steve Reich, Morton Feldman and Maurice Ravel. The students of the local Musikschule Leimental were playing and the third year students of Gymnasium Oberwil put together the visuals during their art lessons. The students also had some workshops on VJ'ing, so the end result was a combination of video projections and light.

It's fascinating to work with young people. Or, let's say refreshing. Because they don't yet have the fixed way of thinking and the ideas they come up are sometimes really out of the box. They just don't know the box yet and can think freely. I guess one can say that I got my thinking dusted off. Great!

Below some photos for the feeling of it...

Pat Methery: Phase Dance. "Sunny day on a beach"

Paul Smadback: Rhythmsong. "Journey, space, sea"

Ludwig Albert: Japanese Drumming. Students' idea of big multiplied shadows.


Steve Reich: Marimba Phase. Students' idea of matching and contrasting colors following the flow of the music.

Steve Reich: Marimba Phase. Students' idea of matching and contrasting colors following the flow of the music.

Morton Feldman: Piano Piece. Melancholic video clips chosen by the students.

Maurice Ravel: Bolero. Ballerina girl dancing on the video. Light stealing in very slowly.


Maurice Ravel: Bolero. Ballerina girl dancing on the video. Light stealing in very slowly	.

Electricity

2012-01-03T14:03:00.000+02:00

My mom told me two days ago, that since the big storm on Boxing Day, there is still some 50 000 households without electricity in Southern Finland.

Hang in there guys!

THE Operation

2011-12-31T18:00:00.000+02:00

On 19th of December I went under the knife. I had been waiting for this for a year or so. Ever since I broke my arm two years ago, it's been stated that the titanium plate they inserted to support the fracture, has to come out. After 12 months, preferably. But since the people at Universität Spital Basel are lame-asses, it never seemed happen, until I realized that probably I should ask the surgeon, who put the plate in in the first place.

So I called the Spital Schwyz and everything started to roll immediately. They actually asked me when I would like to schedule the operation. Cool. Asap.

So there I was, at 7:15 in the morning of the 19th. In a hospital surrounded by snowy hills. Landscape pretty. Me jittery.

The anesthesiologist was cool. He said to me that I have two options. They can knock me out completely for the operation or I could choose the local anesthesia. This would mean, that they squeeze the blood supply to my arm shut with a cuff and then inject the stuff that makes the arm go numb only to my arm. I would be awake for the duration of the surgery. "Can I get some music, so that I don't have to listen to the surgery?" Yeah, sure, music was available. So I chose the local anesthesia. Thought I might be at least more interesting of an experience.

In the OR, the nurse who was taking care of me asked what I'd prefer for music. Choices being classical, classical, classical, classical, classical, Bruce Springsteen, classical, classical... "Hey, what'd ya said about Bruce?" So Bruce it was, to accompany me to the surgery.

The operation itself was a strange experience. I somehow was aware of my arm, but couldn't feel anything real. Some nipping and tugging, but no pain at all. Could hear the surgeon cursing about lousy screwdriver =) And they had fancy lamps there in the OR, a cluster of bulbs in warm white, cold white, green and blue. Sad thing that you cannot take a camera to OR, so therefore no pic. I could use that kind of clusters in some performance, they would look great. -Well, this is what you get if you roll a light designer to a OR, I guess.

The whole thing was over in little bit over half an hour and thy rolled me back to my room. Around 13:30 in the afternoon they said that I could leave. Cool. Over in a whim. Not so bad at all. Now I have to keep a bandage over the stitches for two weeks and then I'm good to roll again. The stitches will dissolve on their own, so no post-op procedures necessary.

Was it real? A tag on my bed post...

It'll take a while before my arm is as good as it was before the whole ordeal, but nonetheless, I'm ever so happy that the stupid metal is finally out of my body.

2011 Recap part 4: Braunschweig

2011-12-31T17:29:00.000+02:00

In the beginning on December we went with "Turn the Page" to perform in Braunschweig, which is located some 200kms west from Berlin. I had really stressed with all the paperwork during the previous week, but managed to finish everything in time. My work really paid off, since there was again an accident on the German Autobahn, so we greatly delayed on our arrival to the Lot Theater.

The technicians of the house had started setting our show up even before I got there, which is always bit of a gamble, because one needs to see the space and make some adaptations, even in the best case situation. This time it all turned out perfect, because my papers were pretty exact and the stage somewhat similar to Berlin. So everything went like song and dance. It was absolutely fabulous!!! Its good to have this kind of experiences once in a while and it's definitely a perfect way to end the touring year. A big thanks to Matze and all his colleagues on Lot!!

My team mates told me that they suspect that Braunschweig is bit of a dull town with not much going on there. So I was greatly and positively surprised as the town presented itself to be very pretty and cozy looking place. It reminded me much of Oslo, as strange it might sound... The architecture is beautiful and distances are easy to handle even on foot. I enjoyed our short visit to this town!

Christmas Market downtown Braunschweig

Another view to Christmas market

Cartoon clad building near Altstadt

We were booked at the Hotel Meyer, little bit outside the immediate downtown. A very cute place, seemingly owned by a an old couple. All the furnishings and interior is somehow a mish-mash of variety of styles, but the general feeling it emits is very homey. Shower and toilets on the corridor, but no biggie issue.

The thing that amused the most me and Alice, who I shared the room with, was the remote control of the TV. First of all, we weren't supposed to have a TV, because it would have cost extra, but who cares. There it was anyway, sitting on the corner of the desk, boasting generous 14 inches or so and very blurry picture. And the darned remote was as bit as the TV itself. So no chance of slipping it into your pocket by accident =)

THE TV

Alice and THE remote

2011 Recap part 3: Turn the Page

2011-12-29T17:21:00.003+02:00

My biggest design job of this past autumn was "Turn the Page" for bigNOTWENDIGKEIT. We were working on a theme of self-narration and the documents and momories people leave behind them.

"Turn the page" brings five performers on stage to explore diaries, letters and pictures and the documentary traces left behind by five other lives. Out of these they try to create "ideal biography". Through the stories, they explore the strategies and mechanisms of self-narration and thus throw questions of self-construction, self-presentation and the ingredients for a successful thing perceived as life.

One of the early sketches

The first explorative phase took place in Zürich in October and from there we moved to Berlin in November.

All photos © Gerhard F. Ludwig / fotofisch-berlin.de

2011 Recap part 2: Schnecke renn

2011-12-28T23:37:00.001+02:00

Aka "snail races". This was the most peculiar experience of the latter part of 2011. I witnessed snails running for trophy. Some people had brought their own snails, but should you lack one, no worries, your can rent your racer =).

The consumption of beer and other beverages was wayyyys faster than the proceeding speed of the animals. They were well taken care of though, there was a designated vet to check each contestant before each round. Highly professional and proper.

The deal is that you put your racer to the center of the table and then you're not allowed to touch it anymore before one of them has crossed the finishing line. To better steer your racer, spraying teeny weeny amount of water is allowed.

2011 Recap part 1: Tallinn

2011-12-28T23:21:00.000+02:00

So, the year has almost run it's course and so many things have been left unmentioned. Bad girl, bad girl...

I try to make up for it and do a little recap on what's been going on since July this year.

Põhuteater

In the end of July I went to Tallinn, Estonia, with Sebastian Nübling production called "Mutter, Väter, Kinder". It was a very nice co-incidence timewise, since I was northbound anyway at that time and hadn't visited Tallinn in many years. And as it happened, it was also lucky on the weather scale. In the morning when leaving Basel the thermometer showed generous +8*C and when landing to Tallinn the same afternoon +29*C. So apparently it was true what people said about the hottest summer in ages in Northern Europe. We in Basel were definitely not so lucky.

Pöhütheater

The Nübling production had two shows in Põhuteater, which was a temporary festival project located on Toompea hill. Põhu in Estonian means "straw" and as it turned out; the theater was really constructed out of straw. Luckily the Big Bad Wolf was nowhere in sights, since the theater was still standing by the time I got there =)

Detail of the wall of the theater, it really is straw.

This was for me the second set of touring performances of the "Mutter, Väter, Kinder". Earlier I was with them In Gessnerallee in Zürich. That time I was trying so really hard to figure out the ropes of this particular show and get it all right, that I didn't honestly have any chance to get to know the other members of the team. In Tallinn the schedule was little bit easier for me and I realized that these are really quite lovely people. The performance is about two families on stage and their relations, which makes it all bit different. People are literally bound to each other and it gives a whole another dimension of openness and warmth to over all interaction, both on and off stage. I'm really looking forward to see if there is any future shows of this piece, now that I finally got to know little bit about these people =)

Mutter, Väter, Kinder

We were staying at the legendary (and notorius?) Hotel Viru. From outside it still looks much the same as always; the weird soviet-style concrete block on the edge of a park. I had never been inside before, and now when I finally got there, I couldn't somehow believe it. It didn't feel like Hotel Viru and it didn't feel like being in Estonia, in any way, anymore. -Mainly because this hotel is nowadays a part of the Finnish Sokos Hotel-chain and you can get bonus points by swinging your green Sokos-bonuscard when paying for your beer. And having breakfast with mere 800 vacationers with their screaming children... it's a jungle and survival of the fittest to score some scrambled eggs. Far out... but the pillows were brilliant and the view over the harbor from 14th floor not that bad. But long gone are the days, and even the memories, of the Soviet espionage and bugged rooms.

Hotel Viru, Tallinn

Food and architecture
Again, as touring often is, I was only few days in Tallinn and the time was mostly filled with loads of work. But I did have same freetime too.

Olde Hansa

One of the things I ABSOLUTELY wanted to do was to go eat at Olde Hansa, which is a very popular medieval restaurant at the heart of the old town, just around the corner from the Rathaus. I've been there many times before and it has never let me down. This time neither. I went there for lunch on one of the afternoons and had the most delicious "No longer a dish of the poor, with smoked meats" - a salad platter with all kinds of smokey thingies, yummy.

No longer a dish of the poor, with smoked meats

All the people at Olde Hansa are very friendly and talkative and the interior is also very charming. I mostly appreciate the the fact that they have managed to hide all the electric light sources somewhere out of sight. Therefore the atmosphere is somewhat genuinely believable medieval.

Olde Hansa interior

Tallinn is a very nice town to go leisurely strolling around. Distances are not so long and there is many characteristic details in architecture. One should also pay a visit to the oldest pharmacy still in business "Raeapoteek", founded in early 15th century and located on the corner of the rathaus square.

All kinds of poisons on display at Raeapoteek.

Old architecture

vs. new architecture

One of the new experiences for me in Tallinn was this place called F-Hoone at Telliskivi 60 A. This is place to go if all the buzz of the downtown starts to get to you. The restaurant and hang-out is located bit outside the common path and can be quite tricky to find, since it's on the inner yard of a factory complex. But it's worth looking up. Atmosphere is somewhat artsy and bohemian and they serve quite tasty meals on shortish list, but food is well prepared and cheap.

F-Hoone

For the last chapter; the language. It's always hilarious to visit Estonia as a Finn. Language is very close to Finnish, but not quite. One can say "same same, but different". So therefore it brings quite often involuntary smile on one's face. It just looks so funny at time. -With all my love to Estonia and Estonians.

All in all, I was happy to have this chance to go to Tallinn with this production. We had good times and the high summer was on it's richest bloom. This gave me lots of good vibrations to go to Finland on SS Superstar with, to face another production that never sailed under such sunny skies. But that's another story, which I'm still not sure if I want to share. We'll see. Later...!

Ps. Tom, if you read this... I bet you didn't think I'd ever manage to write it anymore?! =D

Best ice cream in town

2011-12-22T02:17:00.001+02:00

Now it's the heart of winter and ice cream is probably not the first thing that comes to anyone's mind. But nonetheless, this one is by far the best in town.

The cafe is called "Acero" and it's located on Rheingasse 13, in downtown Basel. They sell yummy homemade ice cream in variety of flavors and there is always some vegan choices available. Vegan ice cream is brilliant for people like me, who have problems with dairy products but love ice cream. Highly recommended and tasty!

If ice cream is not your cup of tea, Acero is still worth a visit, since they also offer all kinds of ordinary cafe goodies; pastries, paninis, quiches, Italian coffee and most likely also some light lunch options. All homemade.

Chocolate and almond, all vegan =P

Instagrams 1

2011-12-22T02:06:00.000+02:00

It's been a looooooong silence. I've been somehow too busy to take up on updating this thing here. But now I try to recap the recent past and behave better in the future =).

I absolutely love this app on my IPhone. One can add some vintage filters on photos with it.

I'm gonna share some snapshots with you guys.

Boy on a bike

Solarized leaves

By the Rhein

Dolomites

Flowers in sunset

Raeapteek, Tallinn

Screw it!

Spheres

Hvitträsk

Autumn blaze

High tops

Open air - open mind?

2011-07-21T22:15:00.000+03:00

Liestal Air is an annual one day open air music festival which brings on stage half a dozen Swiss artists. It took place in the beginning of July and I was working on the team of light technicians there.

All pretty down-to-earth and simple. The weather was nice and everything rolled according to the plan. So no big need for posting in this sense.

Liestal Air

But something funny and quite unusual did happen. This I wanna share with you guys. Maybe I get some good laughs out of you.

It was some time later in the evening and the second last act was on stage. He was an artist called Baschi, who sings in Swiss-German and is supposedly relatively popular. Although I wouldn't know because I don't listen to that kind of music. Anyway, at least the teenage girls in the audience were screaming and kept on asking for more. "Zugabe, Zugabe...!"

I guess that you can say this bloke is sort of a looker, but I didn't have any idea of this at the time. No idea whatsoever to begin with who he is?? Realised that only now, when I looked up that link to his site here. He seems to be the one who wets the teenie pants with his sweet melodies about loving you for ever. And anyhow, he is some 15 years too young for me. Well, beside my point. Or maybe, not quite. Story continues...

So Baschi was doing overtime on stage and I was waiting beside the stage with a fellow technician (also girl) for him to finish so that we can go do the swap for the next act. But Baschi's gig goes on and on and on... so there we are blabbering about something and suddenly a shortish guy comes to speak to us.
- "Are you waiting?", asks the guy.
-"???" (like what's it to you anyway?)
-"Are you waiting for Baschi?", he rephrases.
- "Well, yes... actually we're waiting for him to finish", I say.
The guy looks at us in a very odd and insulted way.... Then I explain that we are the technicians working there and this guy finally sees our belts stuffed with multi-tools, working gloves, tape rolls and screw drivers.
- "Sorry, I thought that you were groupies.", he says in an apologetical way explaining that usually the groupies somehow always sneak through the security. Then he goes back to the stage. At this point I see that on the back of his T-shirt is written "Baschi" on big letters, so supposedly he was his tour manager or something. Oooops. I didn't know that he was part of this artist's crew, or othervise I could have been bit more polite.

The one in white shirt is Baschi

I'm not quite sure to whom this discussion was more embarrassing in the end, but it made me think that I have to really take a good look to my outfit. If somebody thinks that I look like a groupie, even with no make-up and dressed all black. Go figure. Maybe I'm too narrow minded? But to be mistaken as smitten teenie drooling over her Idol?

Maybe I should have asked for an autograph (preferably somewhere on my skin)? Whaddya think?

Checking out Czech language

2011-07-21T21:31:00.000+03:00

Czech language is funny. First of all it's somehow strange to go into a country where you don't understand crap what's written everywhere. Mostly when traveling I have the benefit of other languages that may give at least hint of the real meanings of the words. But with Czech I'm mostly out in the woods. - Like I mentioned in my earlier food-related posting, the restaurant menus are a good example; if no English then I've already pretty much lost the game.

There are some exceptions to the rule, though. I was joking about the possibility of creating Czech words just by adding an "Y" to the end. To some extend this seems to actually work. At least to make plurals.
Some examples;
- autobusy
- mapy
- koncerty
And I think I even saw Sherlocky Holmesy somewhere....

Spotted on a tram.

Well, this is only for fun and entertainment only. Czech is unboubtedly fine language and it makes me humble that within a week I didn't even satisfactorily master the art of saying "Hello".

And one can always bounce this argument back to me by saying that the same method works with Finnish also, if you use "I" instead of "Y".

Ceská Kuchyné

2011-07-21T02:56:00.001+03:00

I put on some notable weight during my week in Prague. Pheeew! Seriously! From the previous trip, I remember the food having been sort of greasy and short on vegetables. This still exists, but nowadays Prague is blooming with all kinds of international kitchens. Czechs themselves even still don't seem to be so keen on fresh and green stuff.

Ceská Kuchyné - the traditional
I wanted to reminiscence the traditional way of dining the local way. My friends Johanna and Anar took me on my first day to very very local place. The name of the restaurant is Ceská Kychyné aka. Czech Kitchen. It is reallt reasonably priced funny place in downtown Prague. In this place you can find full menu including drinks for the price of main course in any other neighboring restaurant. But you need a local to accompany you if you don't speak the language.

When you enter the restaurant through a little swing gate, you are given this small piece of paper. This you have to give to the personnel on each service point and they'll mark down code for your choices. All the menus are written on the wall in czech only, so at that point a native will prove handy. Othervise your choice is to point at one of various brown sauces and take your chances with it. Depends totally on your taste, if you think you won with some internal organ sauce or not. And anyhow, one shouldn't be too judgmental, it might turn out to be delicious, no matter what it's made out of, right?

Meat sauce and potatoes and THE first beer lurking on the background.

So basically, you go through all this stations and select your stuff and finally settle down to savour it. When done, you should head back to the entrance and hand out your piece of paper with all those codes to the cashier.

In my opinion this was a nice place to eat. The space seems airy and light and definitely not too posh. Nice local touch that gives an impression of history. And food is okay, even if missing the fresh touches. My choices were not very adventurous and I went along with the recommendations of my friends. No complaints, belly full and girl happy.

Hermelin - the traditional
This is something everybody that visits the area has to taste, if maybe only once, but nonetheless. It's a strange phenomenon. A very greasy cheese which lies tastevise somewhere near "Camembert meeting goat cheese". Quite all right in small portions. The marinated one is THE traditional version of it, but you get it also grilled and breadcrusted variations of it.

Marinated Hermelin cheese

In general the Czechs seem to just love their cheeses. In every restaurant you find multiple different variouations and combinations. But rest assured, you will need a wheelcart to roll your belly out of the joint no matter which one you choose. Cheese really stocks you up. No need to consider eating for the rest of the day =)

El Centro and Cantina in Mala Strana - international

After some explorations on the local kitchen I set my sights to the international side. Had couple of real nice experiences!

First of them was this seemingly small Spanish place on Maltézské Námesti. El Centro. I was drawn to it just by the very cheery and colorful exterior of it. Bright red, blue and yellow invited me in and I found out that the place is ways bigger than I first thought, and that they also had this beautiful and peaceful garden on the backyard.

My firend Nina in the garden.

Food is very good in El Centro. I really have to boast about this garlic&Serrano ham soup that they serve. I swallowed my tongue with it, really. So badly, that I went back on another day and ordered it again. Delicious and rich with some brilliantly fresh bread to go with it. Yummy!

Garlic and Serrano ham soup.

Another dining experience that I can warmly recommend to everybody is restaurant Cantina at Ujezd 38. It is a very popular place. We walked past it on one afternoon and I thought that dishes looked fresh and good. So we decided to dine there and went back on a hidious rainy evening in the middle of week and got the last seats available. Lots of people came after us and were turned away, because it was just full. So a reservation would be a sure bet.

Cantina serves enormous portions of very straightforward Mexican food. Enchiladas, burritos, tortillas, you name it. Simple and at the same time rich. And simply huge, too huge, but you cannot stop eating because it's just so good.

Conclusion

Czech kitchen is interesting, but nowadays Prague has really turned out to be a melting pot of various international kitchens. So one can really eat well and versatile there. And even outside the immediate turist traps you can find menus in English. So go there and plunge in! Recommended ***

Cross Club

2011-07-20T20:58:00.003+03:00

On my first trip to Prague in 2007, I landed into this coolest ever club called "Cross Club". It was an eerie and maze-like experience.

Then, some years later we were driving a truck with Mitch from Vienna to Berlin and decided to make a little detour through Prague. Without a map. This didn't turn out so good and we ended up in Holesovicé, on a gas station near the train station. We didn't have any local currency and Mitch didn't feel like going hovering in a city he doesn't know when we don't know where to go. So we just drove on...

Cross Club - entrance

But I had told him about this great club and I was ever so anxious to go there again. Didn't happen on that trip. Now when I went back, I realized that we actually were some 200 meters away from this club with the truck. Only thing we should have done, would have been to go through one tunnel and we would have made it. Had I known that!!!

Anyhow, this club is great! I guess that the people who set it up had inherited loads of old industrial gear. Like a junk yard or something. They decided to use that material as decor for the club and the result is this three-storey labyrith of all kinds of mechanical gadgets and sculptures amongst which there is disco, bars, fast food grill and restaurant. They also have lovely garden in same design.


Some interior

Their program is pretty wide. There is lots of concerts and happenings. During the weekdays the entry is free, on the weekends you need to cough up some korunas if you want to go clubbing downstairs. For the upper floor restaurant there is no fee. The club is open daily from 18:00 onwards until at least 02:00, on weekends open end.

More interior

In my opinion the club is really nicely designed. they use a whole lotta little LED-diodes intergated to the objects so that they are not very prominent. It's very colorful, but not in a distasteful way. Most of the installed "sculptures" are somehow slowly spinning and moving.

If you ever go to Prague, this place is definately worth visiting. And their pizzas are not half that bad either. You'll find it pretty easily just next to the Holesovicé metro station. On the south exit, just take left and walk about hundred meters, you cannot miss it!

The Cross Club Strawberry Daiquiri is also worth tasting!

Ceské Fun Zona

2011-07-20T20:18:00.000+03:00

As said, I went to Prague to attend to this expo and meet friends. But there was soooo much more going on at the same time. On the week I was there, they had also kind of City Festival with lots of activities going on and this United Islands Open Air concert festival. So there definitely was something for everybody.

Me and my friends went to see whats cooking on that Open Air Festival. It was great, they had set up various stages on these little islands on the river and everything was free entry. From the line-up I didn't recognize one single band, but the ones I saw actually delivered pretty entertaining show.

United Islands World Stage

I was really surprised about the atmosphere on this festival. There was loads of people, but everything and everybody seemed to be really laid-back and realxed. No rushing or elbowing anywhere while lining up for your beer, food or toilet. I guess that more or less Ilosaari in Joensuu is the only Finnish festival that has bit of this hippie / family mood going on. Elsewhere in Finland, according to my experience, the audience just tends to get too drunk and agitated. But I might have this all wrong, since it's been ages since I went to an open air in Finland. Correct me, if the code of conduct has changed since nineties.

Can U Feeeestival?!

I especially liked this Catalonian / Spanish band called La Troba Kung-fu. They were very lively and funny and got the audience really dancing. I wanted to attach a video of the band, that would show the energy they had on stage, but I didn't quite find a good one. From the following example, you can hopefully get some droplets of it.

Midsummer's dream

The traditional Finnish midsummer "Juhannus" is always on Saturday that lands between 20.-26. of June. It is a very special and well liked public holiday. Everybody who has a chance heads out from the city somewhere on the countryside, to spend this weekend on a summer cottage by the water.

The tradition also claims Juhannus to be a magically romantic time, since all the singles are supposed to dream about their future spouses on the midsummer nigh. To achieve that, one needs to collect seven different flowers and put them under one's pillow. Or go dancing naked on a field at exact hour of midnight.

Midsummer night - flowers on a windowsill of Ujezd bar.

"Kokko" -a bonfire, is also an essential part of the festivities on midsummer's eve. In Finland you see these fires everywhere along the lakes when the twilight starts to sneak in. In the pagan days these fires were burned to honor a god called "Ukko" who was the deity responsible of bringing good harvest later in the autumn.

So it was only natural that the Finns in Prague would gather together and make party on this special time. We had this nice barbecue and lots of booze, and we all had the best of time. Absolutely everybody showed up and I got to exchange latest news with so many people I hadn't seen in ages. Just brilliant!

This time events rolled out less eventfully than four years ago, we just stuck on conversating and hanging out in a garden of one house. No flower picking or dancing around butt-naked. Very sophisticated... Last time we were on a picnic in Letna Park and as a closure to a perfect evening we decided to make a bonfire. Because what is Juhannus without one? The local police was not quite as enthusiastic about this as we were. Hey c'mon, it was only a very small one and in a safe place? And anyhow, no nakedness was involved that time either.

The evening ended in this very nice bar called "Ujezd" at Mala Strana.

Prague Quadrenniale

2011-07-17T21:37:00.000+03:00

Time flies when having fun... This summer was again time for Prague Quadrenniale. PQ is a humonguous exhibition for performance design and space which goes on for two last weeks in June once in every four years.

I went there last time at 2007 and definately wanted to renew my visit this year, because I knew that most of my Finnish friends and colleagues will also attend. So it was sort of big powwow for all the Finns to meet =).

Some mindflow of and about the week that I spent in Prague follows...

Main Exhibition
The main exhibition was this time arranged into the National Gallery and housed more than 60 countries, in both national and student sections.

Mainly the smörgasbord was somewhat overwhelming and in the end bit dull, because it was just too full and colorful to comprehend. But there was some pearls hidden among them too. Or at least, something that made me wonder. And it's is also curious how strongly the geographical and cultural identity shows in the exhibits. One can clearly tell apart the Latin-American countries from Scandinavian, and so on.

One of the national sections, namely Iceland, had a very strong impact on me. Icelandic space was set up as a white room with white decorative furniture and white china tea session. Among this hovered a white dressed, pale faced ice queen in a very slow motioned, regal way. In the frames on the wall were running some video clips of performances. Very calming and inviting to observe whereas many other were more off-putting with their abundance. Nicely curated altogether, and what made me really lift my hat to these people was that it was all an effort of one woman. She didn't get any support from Iceland's government, so she just put it together on her own. Way to go, girl!!!


Ice queen in her regime

Some others for comparison.

Brazil: the winner of "Best realisation of section."

Abundant USA

I was hovering for quite some time on the USA space. There was very friendly and talkative guy to assist the visitors. He came up to me while I was examining one of the models there, telling me that the designer would be there the following day to answer all the question and tell about the project. I had to confess to him, that it was all interesting and cool, but tht I was actually more interested in tiny video projectors they had placed into the model. The guy was not offended, but told me ever so eagerly where I could buy them, what they cost and what are the technical specifications. Good service, indeed there =)

Little Samsung projector in the size of a cigarette box. Want one!

Some of the sections I somewhat didn't get at all. Like Switzerland here below. The finest presentation of the country's most presentable performance design?

Switzerland

I collected below some images of curious stuff that was also exhibited in the Main Exposition. First two of them are from the Russian space. There was some acoustic sculpture kind of installations and then these plates that presented funny optical illusions created by circular scratches on the metallic surface.

Russian illusions 1.

Russian illusions 2.

Norwegians had built up this quite fascinating and elaborate mechanical landscape where objects moved in an eerie choreography combined with distorted video imagery.

Norwegian landscape.

These are only to mention few things that moved me, but I won't bore you with all of the things that made me scratch my head. Enough is enough. Let's move on...

Students

Student sections were as, or more, controversial as the national sections. I was admiring mostly the fact that the eastern European students are ever so skilled in good old fashioned painting, drawing and sketching. Makes me jealous... But some stuff that was exhibited was quite witty. I have to mention few, and not because I'm also a Finn.

The Finnish students had created this great big egg that contained a soundscape. They would perform a test before letting you enter, to determine that you're not too intoxicated (for one reason or other) to take the trip. All very proper and scientific =)

The Egg.

Instructions how to use the egg.

Me following the instructions =) Photo by Julia Stone

Another cool one was Belgium. They had used the famous Belgian mussels as their theme which dominated the whole space. Some miniature models, selection of costumes and protfolios had all been nestled inside the mussels. Cool idea.

Visitor looking into the costume exhibit.

The program of the Quadrenniale was immense. All over the city there was something going on. Directly related to the PQ or off-PQ. I didn't attend to so many of the lectures or workshops that were offered throughout the duration. My main reason to go to Prague in the first place was to meet my friends and just do some exploring in a very relaxed way.

I got caugth on attending one of the lectures nonetheless =) Photo by Julia Stone.

What I found refreshing was to get off the main track, which applies both the exhibition and the city environment. One of the cool presentations I saw was this pyro-show performed in one old squatted industrial building somewhere well east from city centre. It was very relaxing to get away from this well polished and groomed way of putting things on display at National gallery.

Fire on Trafacka by Amanitas.

I think this is already lengthy enough for now. Other postings will follow covering other aspects of my visit in Prague =). Until then, bye!!!

The artistic afterlife of pine cones

2011-07-17T20:02:00.001+03:00

After the visit of my friends Eija and Jari I got a peculiar request. Could I send couple of swiss pine cones to Eija in Scotland?

Yeah, sure? "-But why?" would one easily ask. The explanation followed. She wanted to use them as material for her Robert Walser related art work. And then, for sure, not just any cone would do =).

No worries, can do. So I shuffled to the nearest park and collected a plastic bag full of cones. Big ands small, fat and slim, all the varieties.

Later I finally saw what they turned out to be. Eija had an exhibition in a local gallery in Oulu which I had chance to visit. Here are the results:

Some of them turned into prints.

And one managed the throne =)

Somehow cute =)

Freezing February

2011-04-28T01:33:00.007+03:00

I needed to take some time off after my latest theater project. Therefore I didn't really feel like writing about it either. I'm sorry for the silence.

My boyfriend Mitch was wishing for an experience of "a real winter in Finland". You should be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. Mitch surely did...

The whole February was steady -25 degrees Celsius. And I got totally fed up with freezing my butt off every single day. But Mitch was having a blast of it and went and bought himself a humongous furry hat.

I was pondering what to show to my alpine guy that would appear to be special in my country. So finally, I chose to drive up to Oulu to visit our dear friends Jari and Eija there. Now I hear all the Finns going lilke "Whaat? Why on earth out of all the possible options?" Bear with me, I'll tell you. -Because it's white and flat there! Little bit different from the mountain region =).

Eija and Mitch and The Big White.

We had very little freetime before starting the rehearsal period of Hilda in Tampere, but couple of days trip to Oulu was well worth it. On the way up there we drove through the thickest and meanest snow blizzard I've seen in decades. Far-out experience... Mitch was thrilled.

We had the nicest time with Jari and Eija and got to see the exhibition Eija put together around Robert Walser (more about that in the next post). Some sightseeing and some sampling of local culinary specialties. Especially cold smoked reindeer was a success. Always yummy.

The Streets of Oulu

Frozen nose hair and sugarfrosting
Couple of days in Parola after Oulu were fast gone, but the weather was breath-takingly beautiful. Literally so, since the air was freezing! You experience this instant tingling feeling inside your nose as soon as you stick it outside =).

Clear skies...

... and long shadows.

I was really admiring the details The Frostman had created on our common landscape. Everything was sugarfrosted and fluffy-furry-looking and covered with billions of tiny stars! Everything looks like you would want to pet or stroke it, but if you do it's gone. So delicate.

Closer nature -

- frozen nature.

Just frozen
About the time we spent in Tampere, I don't have much nice things to say. We worked too hard in too difficult circumstances and did wayyys too long hours with mostly inadequate equipment. So better say nothing then. Frozen.

The only times I managed to see something visually nice, were the short 15-minute walks early in the morning from flat to the theater. Homebound after midnight there is not much to take in...

Central square church in pastel colors.

Smokes of Tako.

One rare Sunday we had off. But even then we coulnd't manage longer than a half an hour walk in the city before the feeling is gone from fingertips and toes. So we went to a shopping mall eventually to defrost =).

Water is exhaling on Sunday afternoon.

"Hyvä ruoka - parempi mieli"
On the off-side of our project the time in Tampere was pretty allright. We catched some cool bands playing live at Telakka and met some of my old friends. Telakka is definitely one of my alltime favorite places in Tampere. Been that for years already and probably continues to be so to unseen future.

We also managed to squeeze in a dinner in the viking restaurant Harald, which has quite deliciuos, albeit prizey menu. Full tummy and happy mind. "Hyvä ruoka - parempi mieli (Good food - better mood)".

Looking from this angle -no regrets.

Truths of life as lighting designer might see it

2011-01-29T03:06:00.001+02:00

In Facebook I stumbled on these little movies about ordinary situations in everyday life of a light designer. Their laconic humor shares some experiences that are familiar to all of us in this line of work. Indisputable truths, one may say. This just happens, quite often...

"Meeting the Set Designer" by Corypattak:

"The Lighting truck arrives"

Hmm, somehow both of these conversations sound vaguely familiar... Why the heck I never get the rental car? =)

Busy busy fun On the Kitchen Table

2011-01-24T22:39:00.020+02:00

Here is couple of press photos of my latest undertaking. Photographer is Uupi Tirronen / Kuvaunit.

I have to admit that I cannot remember when I had as much fun doing a production as this time. The week we had on the actual venue was heavy and tiring, but also very rewarding. It turned out pretty much as me and the choreographer had been discussing all along.

I hope the fun we had also shows on the outcome. We are hoping to to create a new fusion between the contemporary dance and the music of Mariska. A fusion that would interest wider audiences by combining these two fields. The aesthetical approach lies more along the lines of rock concert than a traditional way of staging dance.

Here's what the choreographer and musician think of the concept:

For getting into the mood:

- Live versions are somewhat more energetic, rock and rough. Come and check it out yourself if you're around in Helsinki this or next week.

ON THE KITCHEN TABLE (event description in Facebook)

Satu Tuomisto’s new choreography sets the table with a feast of fierce dance, flirtatious Finnish tunes, adult games, big hopes and a pile of broken taboos.

The music is composed and performed by ex-rap artist turned grown-up singer-songwriter Mariska, accompanied by her band Pahat Sudet. Four dancers deliver an electric performance with the ever-energetic Mariska and her band. The old factory hall Pannuhalli fills up with dance, music, singing and talking. And at times the silence falls.

The premiere on Sat 22nd Jan will be followed by a unique dance club event. Join in some funky group choreography, let your body do its thing and sample our home-made pancakes! Beats will be provided by legendary Basso radio DJ Selecta Andor. Competitions, surprise performances and more: Don’t miss this one, dance yourself happy! Over 18s only.

Choreography, concept and directing: Satu Tuomisto
Music: Mariska & Pahat Sudet
Performers: Mariska, Luis Herrero, Jaakko Jakku, Klaus Suominen, Satu Elovaara, Elena Ruuskanen, Petri Kauppinen, Teemu Korjuslommi
Light design: Minna Heikkilä
Photos: Marko Rantanen
Production: Zodiak – Center for New Dance, Satu Tuomisto, Mariska & Pahat Sudet

Premiere 22.1.2011 at 7 pm Pannuhalli

Other performances
26.1 at 7 pm
28.1 at 7 pm
29.1 at 7 pm
1.2 at 7 pm

On the Kitchen Table in the Facebook

Who cut my wings? (lots of yammering)

2011-01-24T21:56:00.000+02:00

Oh boy, how time flies. It's been already a month since my last post. I spent two short weeks in Basel during Christmas and flew then via Berlin back to Finland to continue this dance production we've been rehearsing.

But it was somewhat hairy to get home.....

09:00 Saturday
I woke up with a flu on Saturday 18th Dec. This pissed me seriously off. I was supposed to leave Helsinki on the following day, 19th of Dec with Lufthansa.
18:00
Early on that Saturday evening I got a sms from the airline telling me that my flight was cancelled. My easy Sunday in Helsinki flew outta the window at that second. Had to re-schedule everything and run for my shopping right then and there, before all the stores close. After trying to reach the given customer care number for hours, I decided to skip sleeping and just head to the airport to sort it out.

03:00 Sunday
Packing my shit and drinking beer.
05:00
Left for the airport. Met an italian guy at the bus stop, who studies information technology in Espoo. Services at the airport opened at 06:00 in the morning and by that time there was already an hour long line to the counter.

07:30

I got my booking re-scheduled for 13:30 that same afternoon. Problem solved, get some shut-eye.

09:00

I woke up in the lobby and saw an Asian girl standing in front of the check-in counters of Lufthansa. Nevermind.
10:00
Woke up the next time around 10:00 and saw the same girl still there. At this point I got up and went to the neigboring Blue1 counter to ask if they knew anything about the non-existing Lufthansa personnel. Very nice lady told me that all the flights to Frankfurt have been cancelled. Great.
At the airport there was no announcement whatsover on the behalf of Lufthansa to inform people. At this point there was around hundred people in the line to the arrival services.
12:30
Sms from Lufthansa apologizing the inconveninence of cancelling my flight. Me, and the Asian girl I took along with me (who also studies information technology in Espoo), lined up to the service counter from 10:00 until 19:30 in the evening, because there was at times only one clerk to sort out the flights. Pheeew, fever rising with uncontrollable chills. This sucked big time. Vaguely wondering why everybody seems to study information technology in Espoo and why they all want away from there at the same time...

18:00

There is a lady circling among the waiting passengers telling everybody should just go home. Yeah right, would you? After waiting 7 hours and there being only 20 people in line in front of you, instead of 100? NO way. Getting worried about my groceries I had in my luggage.

19:30
When I finally got to the counter again they booked me to yet another Frankfurt flight. Crazeeeee! There was thousands of people stuck in FRA and police keeping them in order. Why on earth send even more agitated passengers there? Anyhow, the clerk refused to find any other solution and gave me booking for the 06:30 flight the next morning. I suggested re-routing via Münich or anything, but no luck. She would have sent me home to wait, but fortunately I was stubborn enough to get me a hotel room for the night.
20:00
By the time I got to the hotel some ten minutes away from the airport, there was yet another sms from Lufthansa apologizing the inconvenience of cancelling my connecting flight again. Checking that my food stuff is still hanging in there with me. All good. Borrowing some space in the freezer of the hotel.

So, what to do?
- Go back to the airport where the line had reached the next terminal, estimated waiting time another 8 hours? Not cool.
- Go to the airport next morning and try to fly to Frankfurt to see how many days one can get stuck there, or at least go there and lose the luggage for undetermined time?
Not cool.
- Go to my mum's with my flu and spend the holidays there?
Not cool.

So, I went online and bought myself a direct Blue1 flight from Helsinki to Zürich next morning, for peachy price of 660€. Checked myself in and went to sleep.

08:30 Monday

Back on the airport again. My so called 06:30 flight to FRA was still standing on the field. I dropped of my luggage and went for a coffee.
10:00
There is an announcement that our Blue1 flight will be delayed for 2 hours, because German flight control won't give us the permission to take off. -Because there is not enough personnel to control the flights on the German air space. What the F**K? What flights? Nothing is moving out there? Go figure....

15:00

Finally on my way from Zürich to Basel... Pheeeew.

Tuesday

Sleeping the whole day and wishing to die to end the suffering of sniffing and couching.

Christmas advertising

2010-12-17T14:06:00.000+02:00

I have a habit of reading the free newspaper called "Metro" in the mornings on my way to work. You might know this one, because it is widely available on many cities. Metro satisfies easily my curiosity on recent happenings in the world.

This morning was special. Some of the Christmas advertisements really puzzled me. Or, to be more precise, their change over time. What say you?:

Metro 16.12.2010 "Vibration masseur Orgasmatron"

vs.

Metro 17.12.2010 "Scalp tickler & deluxe version"

??? To soothe my bruised brain, the company tells the reader that they are / have the meaning of life. Among other cheap thingies...

It is not 42 after all?

Sky on fire and other wintry visions

2010-12-15T13:33:00.001+02:00

We are rehearsing at Cable Factory in Ruoholahti. Starting in the morning, through the day all the way into the evening. The procession of the day and light behind the windows.

Early morning and the day outside.

rehearsing

From the windows of the studio we can see over the water to Lauttasaari. Weather has been genuinely wintry and the landscape has shown us many different faces. The sea is finally frozen flat. Mostly it gives you the impression of calmness and space, like everything was sleeping through the cold winter months.

Southern Lauttasaari

Today while watching out of the window, I got the strangest urge to go skiing. This is something that I didn't volunteer to do since I was 13 years old. Somehow the quality of light reminded me of my childhood skiing trips on the frozen lake. I would take hot chocolate and sandwiches with me and ski to an island or somewhere to eat my packed lunch. I usually liked doing this all on my own, the solitude of it was very important to me.

Brrrright light

Yeah, that was something special to me. But then I reached the delicate age of 13 and went to the upper high school. The nazi gym teacher we had killed all the enthusiasm in me. Didn't ski ever since. Strange how the elementary school can kill all the interest in a kid =)

Länsiväylä bridge

Perhaps now, some 23 years later I could consider to take up on my childhood hobby again. The gym teacher is only a vague recollection anymore, so maybe it would be okay?

Sky on fire

Sometimes there is quite spectacular views in the horizon. Sadly the cameras very rarely manage to capture all the splendor of the phenomena. But perhaps you at least get the idea?

Grayish and open daylight

Fiery sky in the evening

Subtlety of coffee

2010-12-15T11:40:00.000+02:00

O'joy o'happiness! Tram stop, early morning, temperature app. -10*C, mostly clear skies.

Today

When considering the subtlety of warm latte in a to-go cup in your hand on cold winter morning, I'm seriously lost for words. Pure happiness and definitely worth getting up 20 minutes earlier to prepare it to go.

Mmmmmm.... waiting for number 8

That's all....

Loooooooooots of snow and a cool production

2010-12-14T00:31:00.003+02:00

I was reading the online weather forecasts before I came to Finland. I have to say that I was bit worried about it, since the temperature hovered quite steadily somewhere around -25*C, I'd freeze my butt out, brrh. But, luckily the "shit cold" had subsided by the time I got here and it was only somewhat peachy -6*C or so. Lucky me =)

Of snow we have here plenty, though. It's kinda nice, since it is all puffy and fluffy and not wet at all. It started snowing on 6.12, the Independence Day, and by the evening Helsinki region had gained some 50cm thick layer of it, covering everything. Most of it is still around, because nobody bothered / had time to clear it away. Car owners are having major problems because their vehicles are seriously blocked and the city is sending out police to hand out fines for illegal parking instead of shovel teams to help dig the cars out. Fair game...

Pikku-Huopalahti 7.12.2010

The snow kept coming down for the following couple of days. Judging by the visuals, it really is a winter wonderland here now. So pretty, and also comfortable to experience, since it's not so freaking cold just now. I already thought that I don't really care much for winter, but this is nice, I have to admit. Snowflakes are somehow friendly =)

Frosty tree on the inner yard.

I came to Finland to participate on a new dance production. It is called "On the kitchen table" and choreographed by Satu Tuomisto. Live music is by Mariska & Pahat Sudet. The performance will open on January 22nd on the Boiler Plant on Cable Factory, Helsinki, as a part of Zodiak Center for New Dance program.

Our brand new poster! (baaaad quality jpg, will be fixed)

Is this modern dance? -Perhaps, at least until snow covers it.

I'm very thrilled about all of this, since I already did one production for Raatikko with choreographer Tuomisto and greatly enjoyed the experience. This time we get to do something even more rock'n roll. Yeah!

Bicycles by the Cable Factory

I have to say that it is really nice to work with such a team of people that feed your imagination constantly. I cannot ever remember the last time I would have scribbled so many things to my notebook in such a short time. It's just brilliat and I believe the performance will turn out fine too. You should come see! Tickets are available since to day on Lippupavelu. Bring your friends too!!!!

So, it can be stated that I really like being in Finland this time around. Groovy, I even don't mind the winter and wet legwarmers =) And it's so pretty here one can only smile =) =)

Bio waste bin got a new hat on Cable Factory yard.

Some belated flavors of October @ Tampere

2010-12-10T01:59:00.002+02:00

I know it's been ages since I managed to scribble anything here. Sorry about that... Somehow I just felt that I need bit of distance from some stuff that happened in October.

I had my breather and I finally feel ready to share some cool things that happened within the duration of my stay.

The cider

I went to a bar called Konttori with a friend of mine and did some sampling of British ciders. Each one that followed was stronger than the previous one, and also more expensive as it occurred. After a not so long a while I was happily tipsy =)

The two below were my favorites of the lot I sampled. Both of them are somewhat oaky and round in taste and don't have excessive amount of bubbles. One ice cube does the trick, they both loose all flavor if too cold.

Thatcher's Katy

Weston's Vintage 2008 Special Reserve Cider

Beautiful scenery

I got invited to a house warming party in Tahmela, on the slopes of Pispala. This is one of the most prestigious areas of the city with architecturally the most interesting (and also most expensive) real estate. Friends of friends had landed themselves a half of a double house over there with some impressive 180 m2 and open view over the Pyhäjärvi lake. We went there by the time sun was just setting and had a chance to admire one very nationally romantic view from their back yard. A view with blue sky, pine trees and sunshine glittering on the waves.

First I was bit dubious about going there, since I wasn't invited personally in the first place, but then I decided to go. This proved to be a good idea, because, as it turned out to be, I knew pretty much everybody at the party. They are all old friends with whom I used to hang out in the student parties in mid-nineties. And the house, OMG, it's beautiful!!!

House itself was quite special also, as just said. It has been built on 60's in a very functional and minimalistic style and looks still very airy and modern, but not in the 60's style modernism. I could easily imagine myself living in a house like this one, but unfortunately it's not likely that I can ever afford one =) But a girl is allowed to admire and dream, right? Anyhow, I'm very happy fro these friends, that they found and got what they were looking for.

Only thing missing is the blue-white flag on the pole.

The day Tampere disappeared

There was a day that Tampere simply wasn't there. The fog was so thick that I could barely see the next building. Somehow ghostly feeling since all sounds seemed also muffled.

Not really there. Nope.

Over the Rainbow

My dear friend Jyri invited me to go with him to listen to a band called "Over the Rainbow" at Pakkahuone. This is a band of Joe Lynn Turner, Bobby Rondinelli, Greg Smith and Paul Morris who all used to play in Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and Jurgen "J.R." Blackmore who is the son of Ritchie Blackmore.

I had no clear idea what I would be, but I was very curious. I know the old Rainbow pretty well and have always considered Blackmore being the only true guitarist for Deep Purple. Well, whatsoever.

That national warm up act was not much to say about, but OTR opened their set up strong. The guys sound pretty amazing still over all the years and the prodigal son plays guitarist with as steady hands as daddy. Pleasant experience.

The only unresolved questions concerning this band and this evening are the following:
1) Is Lynn Turner wearing a wig???
2) Why and how the heck Jurgen manages to look as old as the rest of the gang?
Go figure, cool concert anyway.

Halloween masquerade

On Halloween my friend Ulla celebrated her birthday and invited us all to a costume party. The theme was movies an television series. Pretty broad concept, which still managed to produce three nuns in a crowd of twenty people =)

I dressed up as Lara Croft, because I didn't want to invest in something "pink with fringes" or something, that eventually end up collecting dust in the back of the closet. Combat boots, t-shirt, boobs and the hair I already had, so I just needed to get some skimpy shorts and some gun straps with street credibility. It turned out pretty ok, but unfortunately I can't prove it to you guys just yet. I have to wait the photos from the birthday girl's camera... But I promise to post some as soon as I get some, seriously!

As a teaser for the mean time, I post the bartender's shot list. The bloody Sambuca was my favorite. For the Finnish reader's there is a dilemma to solve: What d'ya suppose it is supposed to read on the middle row bottom? Karannut? Kärynnyt? Both interesting choices, I'd say.

Everybody surely finds their cup of tea?

For the last but not least I want to post something I found pretty peculiar. I guess it's just one result of this dumb smoking legislation in Finland nowadays. The proprietor must designate the poor smokers to go somewhere, right? Preferably somewhere out of sight, out of mind... This is the result:

Storage for liquid gas and an ashtray, yep.

Ismo Alanko Teholla @ Yo-talo

2010-10-24T15:32:00.003+03:00

Yo-talo is definitely one of the nicest small rock clubs in Tampere. If it's not too crowded, that is. This time I went there on Thursday evening to listen to one of my all time favorite artists, Ismo Alanko. Ismo has strong roots in Finnish new wave punk scene with his bands Hassisen Kone and Sielun Veljet, since 1980. Nowadays he tours mostly with smaller set-ups. At Yo-talo he performed as a duo with percussionist Teho Majamäki.

Ismo Alanko

The evening was quite pleasant. There was just good amount of audience, -not too much, so that one can still move around and get a drink after decent waiting time. The second act of the evening was Danish band called Nephew, who played quite straight forward rock with some Depeche Mode nuances. It seemed though, that most of the audience had come to see Ismo, because many of them left after his concert. But I have to admit that this Nephew was sort of positive surprise, since I didn't know anything about them before.

Nice crowd

Below you'll find couple of samples of Ismo's music over the years. Just to give you the idea =). I really like this stuff.

One of the latest releases: Onnellisuus / Happiness

My personal favorite: Ekstaasiin

Oldies from 80's: Peltirumpu

Real Special offer

2010-10-21T00:26:00.000+03:00

Why would I buy anything for normal price ever again, if they have such veeery special offers:

Windbreaker 4 sale, Anttila supermarket, Hämeenlinna

Mainly about food in Finland

2010-10-19T21:35:00.023+03:00

Fishing for fresh fish
For me one of the thrills about going to Finland has always been the food. I guess nothing will ever change that albeit the Finnish kitchen is definitely not world famous. But there is some things I miss while I'm away.

Since I spend most of my time nowadays in Switzerland, fish is something I dearly miss. Even if Finland is by no means never considered to be any kind of seafaring nation, the fish and related products are usually really good quality, fresh and also affordable. Whereas in Switzerland the simple salmon can cost nearly 50 € per kilo. So understandably, and sadly, one doesn't eat fish in Basel every week. My man doesn't complain about the lack of fish, so obviously he doesn't share my passion =) =)

Source of fresh products in Tampere: Kauppahalli

After settling in at Tampere I headed out to hunt some fresh products. The best and the most atmospheric place to find these is Kauppahalli in downtown. Kauppahalli is a market hall that has over 100 years of history and houses today approximately 40 local providers. You can really feel the history in there, but the products are fresh =). One can also find some bit more peculiar produces here, just look around and browse some.

I was looking for a nice piece of fish and ended up buying some plain salmon. Back at the apartment I just tossed it into a frying pan and seasoned it with simple mixture of salt and black pepper. Fish is generally just so brilliant because it doesn't need complicated spice mixes or marinades to taste good, on the contrary actually. Served with some boiled potatoes, fresh salad and remoulade sauce = pretty ok tv-dinner for one.

Sometimes simplicity is beauty.

Cabbage

Cabbage is foodstuff that really divides opinions. I'm one of those who really likes cabbage. Cabbage is nice no mater how it's prepared, but perhaps the most divine approach is to make traditional rolls in the oven. This is fairly simple but time consuming recipe, so most often I just end up buying them from deli =) Anyway, the basic rule is to first cook some white cabbage leaves and then make some rolls out of them, filled with minced meat and rice. Then these rolls go into a oven for a long time and they are basted every now and then with sirupy liquid. When ready, serve with some lingonberry purée and boiled potatoes. The complete recipe here, together with some other cool Finnish recipes.

Mmmmmmm..... These are something I always absolutely have to have at least once during my stays in Finland.

Traditional cabbage rolls (photo by Aamulehti)

Great Chinese food in Hämeenlinna

I've always known that there is one very good Chinese restaurant in Hämeenlinna called Dragon. We always go there with my mom when I'm in town. But this time we wanted to try something else and went to a rival restaurant one block away (Raatihuoneenkatu 13). This one is called "Orient World" and it has already been there in the same address for many years, but I hadn't eaten there since ages.

This one was as empty as Dragon always is on the early evening. I don't know if it's because we are always too late for lunch and too early for dinner or what, but there is nobody, never. I can't imagine how these restaurants have enough customers to keep the business up and running. Well, nonetheless.

Orient World was lots cozier and somehow more Asian than Dragon and the food was more imaginative and tasty. Both Dragon and Orient World are good choices, but from me Orient gets bit more points. Highly recommended. My squid was exceptionally good since they had fried it little bit before adding it to the sauce. Very much nicer texture this way.

Mum and her Kung Po prawns

Second half of my squid in black bean sauce.

Portions in the Orient World are pretty big so immediately there was no space for any dessert. So we went home and produced couple of hours later some very Finnish thin pancakes or crepes, if you like. Fill these with nice vanilla ice cream and you cannot lose =)

Dessert: homemade pancakes filled with vanilla ice-cream

I admit that I'm a culinary enthusiast of a sort and eating well gives me a great deal of satisfaction. So therefore I feel now wayyyyys more ready and prepared to go back to Tampere and face and overcome some professional challenges and obstacles . Yay.

R.I.P. Steve Lee

2010-10-09T00:48:00.000+03:00

Gotthard

Medea in Luzern

2010-10-09T00:25:00.004+03:00

In the beginning of October I headed out to Luzern to have the last two shows of "Keep on searching for a heart of gold".

Famous wooden bridge, downtown Luzern

We performed at Südpol Theater in Kriens, which was an excellent experience. The theater is only approximately one year old and everything is still brand new. So new, that in the whole complex, we couldn't find one single floppy drive to read my show data. "Everyone has a mac laptop here..."

Südpol (Photo: http://www.reso.ch/)

The area where the theater is located, is pretty strange. You get the feeling of really being in the industrial area somewhere beyond civilization. No matter, downtown Luzern is only half an hours' walk away, but still you feel weirdly detached. The theater has a beautiful guest apartment right there and I quite enjoyed staying there and spending some time with our team members, whose I haven't seen since the disastrous Hamburg gig in mid-July.

Working in Südpol was an absolute bliss. All the gear is shiny and new, no scratches anywhere in their Robert Juliat's and ETC's. We also had plenty of time to set everything up and the ouse technicians were all very helpful and friendly. The Swiss precision in action, I should say. They really have invested in good quality there, so the venue is warmly recommended under any circumstances.

Freetime
Me and Esther went walking on our free hours in the afternoon. It was nice to just get outside the black box and enjoy the warm autumn day. The föhn wind had provided us peachy +20 degrees, so no need for dressing up like an onion there.

Downtown Luzern on the old town side we found this brilliant little take-away thai restaurant called Song Pi Nong. We landed there just in time, since one should notice that most of the restaurants in Luzern are strangely closed between 15.00-17.00 on weekday afternoons. The place can take perhaps 20 customers on one go and is very nicely designed and clean. And the food is almost as good as in Thailand and comes with all appropriate condiments. It's bit pricey (but then again; all eating out in Switzerland is), but not in an outrageous way. Well worth the investment.

Song Pi Nong

The urban legend of Swiss mountains
I was in Luzern from early Wednesday morning to Friday night. So plenty of time, and some of it free too. But guess three times if there was any visible mountains in the vicinity? The first two guesses don't count. It's been only over four years that I've tried to spot some sort of bump in the landscape on a clear day. It just doesn't happen to me, the mountains take the day off, if they hear me coming...

I just have to google them to have some proof... (photo: http://www.flowzone.ch/)

Fairy forest gone haywire

2010-09-24T23:37:00.001+03:00

While I was in Finland, I worked with dance theater Raatikko again. They did a new production for small children; the kids from daycare and first elementary school classes.It is called something like "on the paths of goblins"

The story was pretty simple. All the things are turning strange and all the beauty is disappearing from the forest. The goblins have already had to leave their homes and seek refuge with the fairies territory. Goblin boy meets a fairy girl and they become friends.

Goblin boy and fairy girl meet for the first time.

Weird bug invades the space.

Daddy-fairy encourages fairy girl to do the fairy work so that the order in the forest would be maintained. Audience, all dressed up as little goblins and fairies, is asked to participate in drying the flower petals and untangling the spidernets used for sieving the fairydust.

All the work is still not done!

Why all the goblins are in the Fairy forest??

While everybody is working something strange happens. A weird whitish object falls from the sky. Daddy-fairy finally figures out that it is a seed planted to the forest by the evil Wizard of the Crystalbrook.

Work in the forest includes drying the flower petals and untangling spider nets.

Mystical object falls from the sky.

Daddy-fairy recognizes the object to be a seed.

Daddy-fairy knows the wizard, because they used to be best of friends when they were young. They would spend their days playing eerie elf music with their magical instruments, but then the wizard got arrogant and greedy.

Daddy-fairy tells the story of the Wizard, his childhood friend.

They used to play elf-music together.

Brave goblin boy promises to fight the wizard if he comes.

Collecting fairydust - the secret weapon against the wizard.

Daddy-fairy departs to have a look into matters in goblin forest. While he is gone the evil wizard shows up and casts spells in fairy forest. First the water starts to rise and goblins try to swim in it and the fairies to fly over it. But the river is too wild. Then the wizard reveals himself and tries to take over the forest by casting spells onto the people, but they resist. Finally they conquer the wizard by blowing fairydust onto him and he escapes sneezing and promising to turn good again.

Wizard casts a spell and water in the river rises.

The Wizard shows up and tries to bewitch the fairy folk.

In the end all is well again and daddy-fairy returns. He announces the start of a big fairy party.

Fairy folk covers the wizard with fairydust and he flees sneezing.

In the end all is well and it's time for big fairy party.

Goblins and fairies are:

Script: Pirjo Toikka
Directing and choreography: Marja Korhola
Set design and costumes: Taina Relander
Light design: Minna Heikkilä
Music: Timo Muurinen

On Stage:
Musician: Jone Takamäki (daddy-fairy)
Dancers: Riku Koskinen (goblin) and Outi Markkula (fairy girl)

Premiere 18.9.2010 @ 14.00.
Shows 16.9.-27.10.2010 workdays @ 9.00 and 10.30.
Saturdays 2.10 and 23.10 @ 14.00.

Go see...

(Hyper)Active weekend

2010-09-19T19:39:00.001+03:00

It all started already on Thursday, when I went to see a play at Theater Academy. "Maallisten ilojen puutarha", directed by my friend Anne Rautiainen, turned out to be very refreshing experience which I enjoyed thoroughly. It was nice to see some real illusions on stage since a long time. Somehow illusions have been banned for a while now and nobody really uses them anymore. Sad. Even if bit kitschy, this post-modern handling managed to deal out strong emotions and beautiful, very visual pictures.

On Friday I popped into a party at Sun Effects to meet some colleagues and hear about some new innovations. It was cool that this party happened to happen just as I was in Helsinki. Managed to meet many people I hadn't seen in the longest time =)

On Saturday afternoon I went to see one of the last rehearsals of a new comedy "Eila, Rampe ja palvattu onni" by Helsinki City Theatre. This was also a positive surprise. Usually I don't think that much of comedies, unless they are really, really precise. The actors were brilliant, those real old warhorses, but the text was the thing that blew me away. The dialect Sinikka Nopola uses and the elasticity the text twists and turns makes it priceless.

After the play we went to have couple of drinks at the cafe next door and little later we got the idea of glow-bowling. I haven't done any kind of bowling since high school, so I was bit dubious about it. All I could remember from that one and only time I tried the sport in the past was, that the ball was too heavy and it refused go anywhere but the gutter. This time it was different. I actually had a blast and didn't suck at it half that much I feared. Cool sport, cool friends, nice cider. Blast!

After the bowling the Helsinki tour continued to a bar called Populus to do some karaoke. I doubt that I'll ever go there again. Far too aggressive and jam-packed for my taste. There is in the same region many others, that are ways friendlier. Not recommended. I did sing couple of songs nonetheless.

Ugly lantern and karaoke screen.

After some 11 hours of cider-sipping and various activities I went home only to continue the following day.

My Sunday started with brunch at cafe Tintin Tango with a friend. At 11.00!!! The night wasn't so sure I'd manage it. I'm a superwoman, yay! Anyhow, I spent couple of very nice hours with Favela catching up on everything that had passed since the last time we saw each other.

From brunch I continued my journey to "Habitare '10" fair to check out what's new in interior design, light and appliances. In three hours I figured out that this season design's are to my taste bit too boring and old news. The most interesting part of the whole fair was the the section of eco-designs.

Habitare '10

Stripes are popular this season, some of many

Quite pretty eco, made out of PET-bottles

Another sample of ecological design

The organizers had thrown also Art Helsinki expo to the same fair bundle. Compared to Art Basel the collection felt quite humble and pale =)

Art (?) Helsinki '10

For the evening I had got myself invited to Pikku-Markku and Kalle to cook some dinner to them. I sold my idea quite easily by promising to cook my notorious green thai curry =). There was altogether five people dining and the six liters of curry was fast consumed. My worry about loads of leftovers was premature. For the dessert we had again some apple tiramisu, it never fails.

So, it was some weekend, I'll say. On Monday I felt more tired than before the weekend. So much for relaxing time off.

Bears in Helsinki

2010-09-19T18:35:00.001+03:00

142 colorful bears have showed up in Helsinki! These United Buddy Bears arrived couple of weeks ago from Kazakstan and collect money for Unicef and other charities. Two-meter-tall statues promote tolerance between the nations and reflect the member countries of UN by standing paw in paw. Each of them is designed by local artist.

Colorful line-up at Senaatintori

Behind the idea stands an artist couple Klaus and Eva Herlitz, from Berlin, Germany, The collection of bears have been put together in 2002 and has been touring the world for past seven years. Exhibition in Helsinki is the 20th. This collection has already managed to raise 1 600 000 euros for child welfare, even though there is no admission. Money is collected out of auctions, that sell the national bear in the end of each exhibition.

Big bears

I think this is a very, very cute and cool idea. All the bears are very different from each other and one can easily spend a long time checking them out. Some of them are somewhat obvious, some really strange, but nonetheless all of them are very interesting. So colorful. And joyful.

Swiss and Finnish bear side by side, what a coincidence =)

Culinary overdose in Tampere

2010-09-15T22:21:00.001+03:00

It's been quite some time since I had a chance to write anything because my laptop went to maintenance. But now there is finally an update. More blabbering about my stay in Finland will appear shortly...

I spent the last weekend of August in Tampere with some dear old friends. The main plan was to eat well, sip some drinks and do Singstar. Our Friday night's special was something called "Apple menu".

Apple menu

The thing with this three course dinner was that all the dishes contain apple in some form. The range of possibilities turned out to be amazingly large. So many different kind of flavors, yummy...

Our first course was very creamy soup with some strong Koskenlaskija-cheese (sort of Philadelphia with Emmental flavor) and sauteed apple chunks. The contrast was very interesting between the salty cheese and the sweet apple bits and pieces. That white lump is whipped milk and egg =)

Friday first: apple cheese soup

Our main course on Friday was spare ribs, first marinated in apple cider and then cooked in the oven for couple of hours on low heat. To add the final touch, they were barbecued to get some nice grill-flavor to them. Unfortunately our master of the grill didn't want her photo published online, but I can tell you, it looked pretty far-out in the late evening; it was all dark outside already and she was wearing one of these real strong orienteering head-lights. "Let there be light..."

Well, anyway the end result of all these preparations was that the meat was literally melting away from the bones. With the ribs we had some vegetables roasted with fresh rosemary and thyme in olive oil and some real bad-ass spicy mango chutney. Fresh salad as a side dish. Sooooooo delicious!

Friday main: apple cider marinated spare ribs, roasted veggies + mango chutney

After the main course a little time-out was absolutely needed, but we got back to the eating business later in the evening. Our dessert was old and reliable apple tiramisu. It has actually nothing really to do with the original Italian tiramisu, but it's killer delicious nonetheless. This dessert is constructed in layers of:
1) apple (sour type) chunks sauteed in cinnamon, honey and this time a dash of brandy
2) crumbs of Petit Beurre biscuits
3) natural flavor fresh cheese and whipped cream mixed together.

Friday dessert: apple tiramisu

Saturday; moooooore foooooood!

The program for the following evening contained more eating.

For starter girls cooked up some cheddar cheese soup based on a recipe on Ulla's collection. It was creamy and nice. - And looked pretty much the same as the starter the day before =O Taste was very different, though.

I prepared my traditional filled chicken fillets as the main course. I rub some spices and garlic to the meat and then fill the pocket with good amount of Roquefort cheese rolled into Parma ham. This time I tried Schwarzwald ham, which worked just as fine. It just needs to be of strong flavor. These fillets were served with creamy pepper sauce and smashed potatoes with herbs. On the side little bit of sour black currant jam.

These two courses were quite unbeatable but perhaps together bit too heavy. Food coma was inevitable and no one capable of having any dessert =)

Saturday entree: cheddar cheese soup

And yes, flashlight makes everything look disgusting, sorry about that. You'll just have to take my word for the food having been delicious....

Saturday main: chicken fillets filled with Roquefort+Schwarzwald ham

Gatherer's harvest - treasures of the forest

2010-08-27T02:43:00.004+03:00

Summer is clearly over here in Finland, where I came couple of days ago. The beginning of autumn brings different kind of activities after the summer of lazy afternoons in record-breaking high temperatures.

One of my favorite activities during this season is to go mushroom hunting. - The fierce beasts of deep forests, beware -here I come!!!

Today the temperature was hovering around pleasant 18 deg Celsius (I coulda easily handled couple of deg's more, though) and me, my mom and my godmother went to the woods that surrounds my godmother's new house. The day was pretty perfect for a mushroom hunt. It had been raining some in past two days, so the expectations of finding some 'shrooms were high.

Cool autumn sun in Mervi forest.

Mushrooms seem to be just the thing for me: one can have a relaxed stroll in the forest and (hopefully) find occasional mushroom here and there sticking out of the ground. Quantity doesn't need to be that humongous and one will already have something to cook. My patience runs thin very fast what comes to picking berries or such. - Waaaayys too much work for any kind of decent amount.

'shrooms!

Mushrooms can also be frustrating at times, I admit that, especially if you don't find any =) At those times I ofter get the definite feeling of them 'shrooms laughing at me behind my back.

"Njännäjjäänjäänjäää, she didn't see us, she didn't see us here under the spruce!"

But usually, if you manage to find one you will find more, since the mushrooms tend to grow in sort of circular clusters.

I don't know soooo much about mushrooms, so I usually tend to stick to those few I know well, -so to say beyond the possibility of making a mistake with them. Luckily, in the Finnish forests there is only couple of really deadly mushrooms, it's more the question of totally spoiling your dish with something that tastes like puke or dung. The deadly ones are also quite distinctive in design, so they are pretty easy to to tell apart from the edible ones.

Chanterelle
Chanterelle is probably THE all time favorite mushroom in Finland. There are many reasons for this. It's relatively common, very easy to recognize because of it's bright color and particular shape. It's not as easy to find though as one would expect, because the autumn leaves on the forest floor try to hide it pretty effectively. These guys just below here were remarkably easy to spot, so this it the dream situation =)

Chanterelle

Chanterelle is very much appreciated also because of the ease of the use of it. It just needs to be brushed clean (there is very rarely any bugs or maggots in it) and then it can be thrown to frying pan with little bit of butter, onion, salt and white pepper. And Voilá, there you have it! Delicious, simple and absolutely delicious!

These are about 5cm in diameter

It was clear that someone had hit the source already before me, but luckily chanterelle grows quite fast and has many "rounds" during it's season, roughly from July to end of October. The ones I found today were relatively small, but never mind, they'll be just as tasty.

For more facts on any Finnish mushroom, check out this page: Fungi in Finland and Sweden and what they say about chanterelle.

The safe catch: Shape and color almost impossible to get wrong.

Sheep polyphore
Another mushroom that I quite fancy is a white one called sheep polyphore, but one has to be really lucky and find them real young. This mushroom is almost always totally infested with maggots and cannot therefore be used. But today I managed to find about dozen of really cute baby-sized polyphores, that were totally maggot-free. This one is also very simple to prepare, just clean and fry.

Sheep polyphore

Penny buns
Boletus edulis aka penny bun or porcino is the biggest export mushroom of Finland and this seems to be a year when the forest really yields plentifully. I've never seen so many so clean and big penny buns on one go before. Also my godmother was astonished, and she's been walking these forests for past forty years.

These mushrooms are also delicious without much of hassle. They just need to be cleaned and sliced and they're ready to go to the frying pan with some olive oil, pepper, parsley and salt to turn into sort of mushroom steaks.

Of course there is a huge variety of different kind of brilliant recipes for mushrooms, but somehow I just like them best in pretty simple ways. Then you can still really taste the mushroom itself without conflicting it with other flavors. Matter of taste. And I guess there is so many chanterelle now that they'll turn easily into a pie -I'll keep you guys posted on how that turns out, stay tuned =) =)

Penny bun

All in all, I just like to walk in the woods occasionally. If it's nice cool weather and the forest floor is dryish, it's just perfect a place to go minding one's own business. Never mind the mushrooms or other forest bounty, the biggest yield can actually come out of one's head.

No wonder they call the forest "the poor man's church".

Nonetheless, we did find something during our short outing. In just one hour (my mom was the first to give up) we came up with this:

Our Penny bun catch: Biggest ones nearly 20cm in diameter

Quite a nice lot of chanterelle and sheep polyphore

Nice, huh?

Update:
This is one of the things we created:

A creamy chanterelle pie with some leek. Yummy...

Bundesfeier Im Fluss

2010-08-11T18:04:00.001+03:00

Kulturfloss Im Fluss
Im Fluss is an open-air festival that has been organized in Basel for quite some years already and they always have programm for approximately two weeks offering a concert practically every night on a little raft moored just next to the Mittlere Brücke in downtown.The festival starts always on the last week of July.

The audience can sit on the stairs by the river bank or on the restaurant terraces to enjoy the concerts. I really like this festival since it's free and very popular and I always meet there whole lot of people that are usually somehow not so often on the move.

Im Fluss, the raft

The river bank

Bundesfeier
1st of August is the Independence Day of Switzerland. To honor the day city of Basel organizes every year a humongous fireworks spectacle among other things. They bring two barges to the Rhein near the Mittlere Brücke and both barges shoot in sync like there was no tomorrow. This is bigger than any New Year and widely know also outside Switzerland.

Prelude: Fireworks by Chill am Rhy restaurant

Anticipated waiting

Most of Basel and whole lot of visitors all come to the river to observe the spectacle. At the same time the open-air festival Im Fluss is also going on, so they offer usually two bands to entertain the audience while waiting for the fireworks.

Roli Frei & the Soulful Desert

Hundreds of little lanterns were released

- A benefit for Camerun organized by FAIRMED

Since I was also this year setting the equipment up for the festival, I was privileged to go see the fireworks from the raft. This is a very cool option since the river bank is totally jam-packed with people and you have to elbow your way in and crane your neck to see something. This you can see in a photo above, I guess. Instead of this, I could go on the raft where there was only something like 20 people and I could lay back on the floor. Real chill!!!

Albeit it's bit crowded by the river, it's definately worth seeing, at least once in your life if you happen to be in the neigborhood. This was for me the first time I saw it properly, previous years I've been somewhere further away. But this time, I was really in the heart of it all, soooo coooool.

This year the show lasted something like 25 minutes with enormously big rockets. It seems to get bigger every year... I would be really interested to know how much they invest into this =)

One of the two barges, some 30m away from the raft

Below you can see a little fraction of the show.

Spaktekel in Dornach

2010-08-07T19:13:00.009+03:00

On a gray Saturday on July we drove to Dornach to check out this open-air festival organized on an old castle ruins there. Dornach is a little village on the Baselland canton, just outside Basel city.

Old drawing of the castle Dornach

castle today (photo source: Rockets)

a real lousy photo of one of the stages

The festival is called Spaktekel Burgruinen-Fest and this was, as far as I could figure, the fifth time it was organized. From the outside the entrance looked pretty much the same as any other festival would, but inside it was somewhat different. It felt instantly like I had stepped through a timemachinen and landed somewhere in the Middle Ages. Or at least a live action role play of those times. Amongst the colorful tents there were fair maidens in their long gowns and knights in shiny armors scurrying about. ( The rest of the population was mostly Goths dressed in black with occasional "Muggle" here and there.

Mead (honeywine, which the hobbits also greatly enjoy) was being drunken out of horns and guys were competing in ax-throwing and archery. The whole area was lit only by candles and torches and there was also a fire-show late in the evening.

The bands performing at the festival were mostly somehow medieval or celtic tuned; lots of flutes, drums, bagpipes, vocals arranged to many layers like the Vikings used to do. For a sample check out Kel Amrun or Ilsah.

Flyer, photo by Verein Spaktekel

fuzzy atmospheric pic

This festival was a very nice and laid-back experience for me. And suitable for the whole family, so there was relatively lots of kids too. I also especially enjoyed the fact that it is not soooo commercial and merchandise-oriented, but more about just like-minded people hanging out and enjoying music. -And mead, of course. By, the Viking Blood was good, -red and strong, not too sweet. No wonder it's the bestseller of the manufacturer Imkerei.

Better day in Hamburg

2010-07-24T18:15:00.005+03:00

After a disastrous performance, I had half a day to recover and explore Hamburg before heading back to the airport again.

It was just a perfect summer day and I went walking around the city.The sky was cloudless and blindingly blue. Temperature was hovering somewhere just shy 30*C and light breeze was fluttering my hem. My plan was to make a short round-trip in downtown area and then go to the harbor.

Sievekingplatz

I guess it's since I'm from Finland, but I just looooove being near the water. No matter what kind. Strangely enough, I don't usually realize that I'm missing the element until I'm back to the proximity. I never tire of watching the glittering of sunshine on the waves. This was one of the reasons why I truly enjoyed my stroll in Hamburg. I could just take my time observing the movement of the water and all the little boats scurrying around in the harbor. All this while sipping my ice-latte, courtesy of Starbucks.

Kleine Wall Anlagen

Starbucks, my savior
A propo Starbucks. This is another thing that I absoluuuutely adore. Me being one of those lactose-intolerance handicapped, Starbucks just miraculously always pulls through for me. No matter where, I get my latte, just as I like it. Normally I try to avoid multinational corporations and chains, but my coffee is something I don't wanna live without. So I'm willing to bend my rules here. In Finland it is so easy, because all the restaurants and cafes usually have a low-lactose option available. In Europe, as civilized it may seem, you can just forget this chance or just go for it with regular version and fart forevermore. But Starbucks, thanks to their policy, have everywhere an option for me -with real milk that is, not some hideous soy-goo. Yay, yay, yippiayjee!

Near Gänsemarkt

So my first gameplan was to spot a Starbucks and get my daily dose of caffeine. I found actually three possibilities and darted into the closest one. Taking my latte with my I strolled donw to Junfernstieg and spend very comfortable half an hour by the water there in remarkably Mediterrannean atmosphere. It was hard to imagine that the Baltic sea is actually not so far away while observing the palm trees swaying in the summer breeze.

Jungfernstieg, -yes, still in Hamburg

Harbor and docks
I continued my walk passing the Rathaus in old town and heading towards the docks in the harbor. Downtown area didn't thrill me so much, since it just seemed to be packed with expensive designer labels and shopping malls. I did see the famous Hansa Viertel, but wasn't intriqued to go in. Rather stay outside on pretty days like this.

Below some snapshots from the harbor area.

Binnenhafen

Station of the harbor police, next to the Niederbaumbrücke

City sporthafen

Funny round building near Landungsbrücken

St. Pauli - Landungsbrücken

Reeperbahn
As it was just along my way back to Schulterblatt, where I wanted grab some luch before heading out to the airport, I decided to have a peek to the word-famous Reeperbahn. At daytime there was really nothing to see, as I knew it would be. Just quite normal people going about their business on the street that promoted some titty-bars, cheap hotels and porn-kinos. But now I can at least say I've seen it. Just another curiosity, more hookers can be seen on any time of a day on Sihlquai or Langstrasse in Zürich. And the actual window-shopping doesn't even exist on Reeperbahn. If that's what one is interested in and is male, then the destination is a short stretch of Herbstrasse, which is closed with gates on both ends stating that no minors or women are admitted.

Treasures of the sea
When ever I'm by the water, I try to grab some fish or seafood to eat. This is probably also due to the fact of me being Finnish. Since fish was always so widely avalable, I still seem to go for it when ever there is a chance. In Switzerland the possibilities are unfortunately usually very slim; fish is painstakingly expensive and far far far from home -meaning not fresh enough to my liking. And being in Thailand for duration, didn't cure my yearning for fresh fish, somehow =)

On Schulterblatt I found this Spanish-portuguese restaurant La Sepia, which promised fish specialities. The lunch hour specials were very reasonably priced and selection very large. I chose some mixed fish from the grill and enjoyed my lunch wholeheartedly. I can recommend this restaurant highly, but make sure you'll go there during the luch hours (11-17) and you can fill you belly with less than 10€. I got salad, main course and beverage for 7,70;-. In the evenings it's lots more expensive albeit just as tasty.

Funny observations
I was laughing out aloud when I saw some of the city trash bins. The stickers glued on them are just so hilarious!

"I devour also hamburgers"

"I have dirty dreams"

One last thing to laugh about before leaving Hamburg. The check-in automat on the airport decided to give me a nickname:

Minnapiri+ ? =)

"Don't panic" in Hamburg

2010-07-22T21:32:00.002+03:00

Warning: This post contains whole lot of complaining, whining, professional jargon and frustration. But perhaps also little bit of humour.

Once upon a time we had a guest performance on Kaltstart festival in Hamburg. They invited us and promised only fame and honor, no fortune. Fair enough, can do.

Getting there
It didn't start well. First of all, my flight from Basel was cancelled and I had to commute to Zürich on one of the hottest days of the whole summer, in a bus with no air conditioning whatsoever. Groovy, soaking in sweat and also hungry as hell. But no worries, the airline offered passengers some sandwiches, yippee. -Filled with cream-cheese and quark, just what my lactose-intolerance was yearning for. Pass. Still hungry as hell.

Eventually I arrived in Hamburg only some three hours delayed and went to see our venue in the evening. Hmmm, okay, for once the space seems bigger than in photos. But, there was no lamps of any kind and the console was baby-size Behringer-plaything. We'll worry about that in the morning, since there was nobody inquire.

Schulterblatt, St. Pauli

Equipment
We went to the theater already at 8:30 in the morning to hoist our stuff in. Set-up for the lights was supposed to strat at 10:00. This didn't perk such enthusiasm on the local crew, who slouched in during the following hour. I inquired politely the whereabouts about my equipment which was all okayed by the festival in forehand.

9 hours to showtime.

Crew: "What do you need?"
Minna: "The things that were listed on the email and are shown here on this light-plot"
Crew: "??? Oh, you have a light-plot, cool"
Minna: "??? Pheew, let's count together again... look."

Anyhow, we somehow reached an agreement on what they were supposed to deliver for our show and then the bozos head out to get the stuff. I usually mean by starting time, the time when the set-up actually starts, not the time when one starts to figure what one needs for the set-up. Please correct me, if I got this somehow wrong.

So, what I could do in the meantime was to wait. And I waited until 14:30 and then I thought it has taken long enough, because my requests were not so elaborate ones after all. I manage finally to track the crew down, only to find them drinking coffee at the downstairs cafeteria.

Minna: "Could we somehow start soon, please? I'm getting bit nervous here?"
Crew: "Oh, you wanna start already? The stuff is over there in the van, you can bring it up yourself."
Minna: "???"

5,5 hours to showtime.

Kulturhaus III&70, our venue and festival center

Setting up
Eventually all the gear was up on the stage. It was not quite what was wished for. Out of 15 requested Par 64's, they delivered 2; one functional and the other without bulb and plug. The rest of the stuff was mostly unrecognizable. My 6 x 1kW Floodlight topwash is reduced to 2 x 500W, of whose only one works in the end. Profile square is just a unprecise splotch on the floor. Washes don't cover the whole floor no matter how you squint your eyes.

Minna: "Öööö, this looks a bit like Par 56, but it has a G9 bulb inside? What is this?
Crew: "????"
Minna: "How many watts you suppose it uses?
Crew: "Don't know. Maybe 500??"
Minna: "How cool is this."

The only possible way to go about it, was just to try to deal out the things so that I could create at least homehow all the necessary directions and colors of light and settle with the fact that it's gonna look hideous.

Rigging the fixtures took most of the afternoon, everything being more or less plugged in by 17:00, at the point where I had to release the only technician helping me to have some lunch. Finished the rigging on my own. During the rigging there was lots of running around to find nonexisting extension cords and nonexisting clamps. Hmm.

My directors start to get bit agitated and ask me if there will be show tonite. I instruct them to think of the cover of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy; it says in big, friendly letters "Don't panic!"

3 hours to showtime.

Detail of the neighborhood no.1

Patching
When the technician was fed, he returned to me and we were supposed to do a hot patch on the dimmers, so that I can have my channel numbers to program with. At this point there was still a theoretical possibility for me to use Avab Cantor instead of the abovementioned Behringer. Main reason for this was that the Behringer can only do maximum 10-second fades, whereas the longest I needed was 3 minutes.

The method the technician used was not very efficient or fast, so after a half an hour and 5 patched channels, I suggested another approach since there was still almost 20 to go. At this point it comes clear that the dimmers don't work; -the light doesn't obey any number, not mine nor any other. To save time I back out of wanting my numbers, any number will do as long as it works. My technician runs to get help.

2 hours to showtime.

Around 19:15 most of the channels are somehow working and I have managed to do a very rough focusing while the guys are trying to find the missing channels. Some of the fixtures stay dead, there is bad cable or broken bulb, but no time or equipment to try to solve it. I back out wanting to do a sequence with programmed x-fades and decide to stick with the dumb Behringer, because I find out that the guys don't know how the Avab works.

Minna: "It is possible to program groups to submasters with Behringer?"
Crew: "Yes."
Minna: "It looks like a chaser should be very easy, since it's a disco-toy. Can you program one?"
Crew: "No, but give me two minutes, I'll figure it out. Its' no problem."

45 minutes to showtime.

Programming
The technicians post themselves behind the Behringer and start to figure the console out. I give them a list of 7 submasters that I absolutely need to survive the live-action-rock'n roll-show.

After a while one of the guys is beating the console and the other is reading the f***ing manual. The console don't work. Why I am not surprised at this point?

15 minutes to showtime.

Console still not working.

Detail of the neighborhood no.2

15 minutes past the supposed showtime.

Crew: "Now we think we got it for you! Please check."
Minna: "Not quite."
Crew: "Aaarghhh."

25 minutes past the supposed showtime.

Submasters are finally somewhat right, I have no chaser(s) and I'm not quite sure what is on the upper bank of the console, but I ask for the audience to be admitted in. i would figure it out as we go. "Let's rock'n roll!"

30 minutes past the supposed showtime.

We're finally on. And the show turns out to be one of the best we ever had, at least what comes to energy and mood. although, I have to admit that simulating a chaser of duration of 7 minutes by pumping submasters up and donw, is bit exhausting, when the temp is likely over 40 degrees Celsius. And that 3-minute upfade is not so smooth with Behringer submasters. I have to update our technical rider and state that Behringer and Eurolite are not wanted.

But the funniest thing in the end probably is, that I took a whole roll of Lee 201 with me, wishing to be properly prepared to use multiple 500W Floods (which were promised) instead 1kWs. The filter was the only thing that the folks at the festival had plenty of!

To live is to learn.


Bunker on Feldstrasse

After the show we just fast grabbed our gear and headed out for well-earned beer. Who needs to eat anyway? I had breakfast at 8:00 in the morning at the hotel, right =)

01:00 am.

Some of us ended up finishing the evening on top of the Bunker (courtesy of the set of keys the technical director of the festival has), sipping beer and admiring the 360deg city panorama. Finally unwinding.

Фузион!

2010-07-01T15:38:00.010+03:00

For the last weekend of June I managed to escape Berlin city-fumes and travel some 130 kilometers up north to little place called Lärz.

Lärz is literally in the middle of nowhere. There is an old formerly Russian airport on which some punks bought and arrange there every summer this humongous festival called Fusion. I've never seen anything like that.

The map of the airport city.

One half of the program.

Of course I've been to festivals in Finland and so on, but one cannot really compare this to them. On the huge areal there is something like 20 stages and places, where they stage shows for more or less 24 hours a day for 4 days for the audience of closely 100 000 people.

There is main stage, but the program is not so concentrated around happenings there as it many times is elsewhere. There is tens of thousands of people, but it doesn't feel so packed at all, because of the big space and more spread-out program. I actually found it hard to believe that there is so many people.

The ideology of the festival is somewhat of creating a parallel society for 4 days, where everybody can find their own way, space and time for action and unite with others, without prejudice and borders. And hope to make world a better place, at least for these four days.

The whole attitude of this festival is more chilling out and laying back. Somehow all the people, both guests and the orgnisation, are very relaxed and friendly. And it's not just about music, on the offer is also theater performances and film screenings. And some art-works distributed around the area, such as installations and sculptures.

Something is happening somewhere any given time.

View to the camping area from top of the Cabaret hangar.

Youtube-clip of some scenes by dEEcorPyro.

One of the reasons why I really enjoyed this festival was the fact, that it smells like Asia to me =). The vapours snaking to the air from all the food-stalls selling the variety of vegetarian food (no meat allowed on the site) and the spices they use; curries, coconutmilk, chilis... Incence sticks... weed... And also the the toilets in the heatwave of +30-something*C temperature =) =)

Weather was remarkably good for the time I was there, albeit in the nighttime it dropped to 12*C. So warm layers were really needed there, but it was so beautiful to go see the sunrise! The big variation of temperature is due of the vast open area and clear skies.

Below some impressions....

Chilling out @ Kalkutta on Sunday afternoon.

Setting sun @ Turmbühne and feather in the hat.

The real earworm of Fusion 2010
by Synapsenkitzler @ Tube Station

Salon de Baile.

Cabaret hangar.

Hmm. Got it.

Bachstelzen.

Bicycle-energy 4 the band =)
(4 Bikes on the right side of stage provide energy needed)
Ecological.

Lasers were quite amazing. Video by SexyStulle.

Blind man & Rubick's cube

2010-06-23T14:54:00.004+03:00

This week I've been in Berlin again, to set up yet another series of shows of our adaptation of Medea aka "Keep on searching for a heart of gold".

Our venue this time is Theaterdiscounter, which is quite ok place just around the corner from Alexanderplatz, on Klosterstrasse. The first performance will take place tonight and I'm somewhat ready to shoot.

It was a long road to get there, though, but I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. I was told that the equipment at Theaterdiscounter is a mishmash of old fixtures and they didn't quite have everything I needed. So, eventually I rigged up a variety of different stuff begged and borrowed around Berlin to top up TD's gear. And it looks ways better than I hoped for. How cool is this!

The biggest obstacle turned out to be the light console. Theaterdiscounter has a relatively old console by German manufacturer Transtechnik. Very reliable, real machine-look and lots of possibilities, but... But! But, it speaks Transtechnikian or something similar, so even though I know enough German to get by, I was totally lost with this one!

Usually, in my experience, even with unknown consoles, it's possible to manage, because you can guess which button does what, since the terminology and shortenings are somewhat universal. But, not with Transtechnik. There, for example, normal channel (usually known as CH or CHAN) is called SK (comes from word Strohmkreis) and delete (DEL) answers to a name LOE (löschen, written without o with dots Ö-> oe).

So, I really needed an interpreter with programming. And the manual was in German and didn't have an index, so finding things in it took forever. As the house technician said: "I feel like a blind man with Rubick's cube..." I can soooo second that!

In the end everything turned out ok though and next time I know what to expect. So to live is to learn. Even if it's to learn to solve puzzle blindfolded =)

Design: no-bullshit 70's charm

German X-files aka Akte X, almost

Say whaaaat?

Ssssss....

Sequins, chiffon.... fruitsalad

2010-06-13T18:55:00.004+03:00

I was asked to design lights for the 25th anniversary gala for a dance studio Semiramis in Basel. This studio instructs people in various dance styles, but the main focus in on oriental dance. As an ending for this semester they wanted to stage a show containing 13 choreographies in approximately 80 minutes. Content stretched from oriental to contemporary through modern variations. Venue was Theater Roxy in Birsfelden.

Technically this was an interesting challenge for me, since one had to keep the concept somehow manageable, since this was not AC/DC tour with hundred stagehands and unlimited technical resources. And still be able to create enough dynamic and variety to keep it interesting to see.

Artistically this was a very joyful and endearing project to realise. I went to see the rehearsals couple of times and discussed the needs and wishes with choreographers. Then when on stage we nailed everything down in an hour per individual piece. Concept was pretty clear and luckily there was no major problems to execute it. Mostly things fit quite well to my original idea, although, when designing, it was difficult to try to see how 15 dancers will find their places in a space that is double the size of the rehearsal studio. For example.

All in all these people, both dancers and the choreographers seem to be very energetic and positive, which made my work all the more pleasurable. Especially oriental dance is somehow filled with lots of emotions and the joy of movement. It's nice to get a chance to make dreams of this kind of people come true. Happy lot... happy designer... happy lights.

If I achieved the goal... Judge for yourselves:

First choreography was a classical oriental dance.
"Leilat Hob"

2nd: very fast paced and energetic modern dance to
the music of Prince.
"It's about that walk"

Third one jumps back to oriental. Duo with cymbals.
"Wala Tinzani"

4th: more classical oriental. Group choreography
"Hawa ya hawa"

5th: Starts with short veil dance and swaps into drum music and
very fast oriental movement.

"Bahia / Kivir"

6th: Modern dance, 10 dancers, 15 minutes. Moods swinging from
blue hour via dawning day to black'n white graphics.
Music by Ensemble L'Arpeggiata

"Traces, faces, spaces, places"

7th: Oriental stick / cane dance.
"El Lilah"

8th: oriental tango, very intimate, subtle and erotic.
"O sensin"

9th: Modern choreography, very geometric and
accentuated movement

music"Night over Manaus" by Boozoo Bajou.
"Grand cru"

10th: oriental veil dance with somehow poetic and romantic music.
"The Mummers dance"

11th: Contemporary choreography, mystical and detached from time.
"Als wär nichts gewesen"
(Freely: As if there was nothing, as it didn't happen)

12th: Oriental group dance to drum music.
"Amaya"

The grande finale with all 56 dancers.
And a chaser for 28 toplight Par cans.
"Thalia"

And for the end; I add here my light plot, so my colleaques can oggle my set up. It has some fruitsalad color also! =) =)

The light plot for "Nichts als Tanz"

Vihreän joen rannalla - By the green river

2010-06-13T18:50:00.011+03:00

While in Bern, I ate dinner in a brilliant asian restaurant, Mekong Beizli, which I already mentioned in the previous post. But it's somehow relevant to this post also, since the fortune cookie I got told me that long walks would be beneficial for both my body and soul.

So this post is about that walk.

I had a day off in Bern and the weather looked finally promising, so I took off for a walk. First I went to Elfenau and from there to the tracks along the Aare river. It was blazing hot Saturday, temperature hovering somewhere around +35*, so most of Bern were barbecuing themselves in the parks by the river. I wasn't into that, so I kept walking and admiring the unbelievably turquoise water of the river. I'm told that this very particular milky color comes from calc that is in the water. Go figure, but it's soooo beautiful!

I spent all afternoon walking down along the river, ever so slowly towards downtown Bern. Lots of people were already happily splashing in the water, but for me it was still wayyyys too chilly, so I settled for just wiggling my toes in it.

Tierpark

Elfenauhölzli

Kiikustuolissa istun,
ja sinua muistelen.
Muistini tylsillä luistimilla
luoksesi luistelen.
siihen kesään kauan, kauan sitten
syksyksi kääntyneeseen
ja omaan hahmooni ensirakkauden
poltteessa nääntyneeseen

Siellä rannalla vihreän joen
rakkaudestani kertoen
sanoin eivät kai kukkaset kuki turhaan
nyt poimimme sen, ensimmäisen yhteisen

missä oletkaan ollut kaikki nämä vuodet
ootko muistanut, kuinka silloin rakastin sua
kun tiemme joelle vei, ja joelle sanoin hei
minne meet, minne kuljetit kyyneleet
jotka kauan sitten itkin
kun yksin kuljen rantaasi pitkin, hei hei

silmääni kyyneleen suolaisen,
muistoni toi kai sen
kun aina muistoissani uudestaan
viereesi oikaisen

siellä rannalla vihreän joen
rakkaudestani kertoen
sanoin eivät kai kukkaset kuki turhaan
nyt poimimme sen, ensimmäisen yhteisen

missä oletkaan ollut kaikki nämä vuodet
ootko muistanut, kuinka silloin rakastin sua
kun tiemme joelle vei, ja joelle sanoin hei
minne meet, minne kuljetit kyyneleet
jotka kauan sitten itkin
kun yksin kuljen rantaasi pitkin, hei hei

Brrrhh...

Pelicans in the Zoo right by the river, everybody's "must have pic"

Bundeshaus as seen from Dalmaziquai

Münzrain

Again Bundeshaus

Kleine Schanze

And yes, I did get a blister on my heel, so the physical benefits can be questioned in the end. Can fortune cookies be trusted?

@ Bern

2010-06-04T01:00:00.004+03:00

Since last Monday I have been in the Swiss capital, Bern. A new guest performance, new at least for me, brought me here after only one week in Basel since Zürich. Seems like busy May for me, but that's only good, giving me a chance to patch up my finances after quiet beginning of the year.

The performance I'm doing here now is called "Wann stören wir uns endlich" and directed by Andreas Liebmann. This is a fast take over thing to me, since the guys who'd done it before couldn't come this time. It feels always bit jittery to hop on the reins having only seen the piece on DVD. -Aka, not having any kind of first hand experience on how it need to be. Nonetheless, I seem to be doing all right, we had the premiere yesterday at Schlachthaus Theater and I didn't screw it up =).

After getting the show to the run mode, I have now bit more free time in my hands. That's actually great, because couple of my dear friends are visiting this city at this very moment. So today I spent strolling around downtown Bern with my friend Jari (Oulu, Finland), whom I haven't seen in past two years, give or take some months. He is visiting Bern because his lady, Eija (Glasgow, Scotland), is doing her university thesis on Robert Walser, swiss writer. So what are the chances exactly, to be in the same city and time with these two, be it Finland , British Isles, Switzerland or any given country for that matter? =) =) So cool!

With both of them I also visited the Kunsthalle to see their exhibition about animism. I found it to be bit one sided and scarce, but having yet some interesting ideas, mainly with the video installations. Mostly boring, anyhow. Not really recommended.

In stead I can really wholeheartedly recommend something else. A brilliant Asian restaurant called Mekong Beizli on Kornhausplatz 7. The place is pretty small and very popular, so be prepared to wait a moment in the evening time, if you don't have reservation. But, I promise you, it well worth waiting for. Personnel is friendly and the place is clean and not shabby. Prices are okay compared to the general level in Bern and the food is straightforward and tasty. I was sort of impressed with my portion of chicken with cashew nuts, since this somehow reminded me of the very first dish of such in Phuket some years ago. There is billion recipes for it and this first one in Phuket is always the reference to me. Most ofter I'm somehow disappointed because the versions served are not "quite right". But this one in Mekong was a real positive surprise! Highly recommended!!!

In the evening I hooked up with yet another friend of mine. Kati, Finnish dancer, is doing a student exchange project here in Bern now and we went to have this amazing dinner and then after wards to see a dance performance at Tojo Theater. ojo is situated in former riding school very near to the main railway station and the location has sort of cult reputation of being the hangout scene for the local youth. The show "Run very far to come very close to say very little" wanted to be very cool and trendy, but didn't impress me much. It was nothing compared to the Cathy Sharp choreography "Mr. Budhoo Resigns" I saw last weekend.

Zürich without a map

2010-05-21T20:25:00.013+03:00

Today I went walking. In Zürich. Without a map. I had only some brief instructions from Ingrid on a piece of paper.

I do know how to get around in Zürich, been here for various times already. But this time I wanted to explore something new. And new things I found, indeed. One can never tell beforehand in what kind of exotic place one ends up if only wandering aimlessly =)

First I sloughed my way into a jungle,
where all the traditional pot plants grow high as houses.

(Apologies for the lousy quality of these photos.)

In the jungle I exchanged some intel with a very friendly tucan bird,
who just wanted to get closer and closer. Didn't bite me, though.

These guys just minded their own business and
paid no attention whatsoever to me.

The details of the fine designs of Mother Nature
just blew me away.

Spiraly wonders.

If you're into seeing such things personally, visit the Stadtgärtnerei, in Hubertus, ZH. Quite nice greenhouses and gardens. Also a good option for a rainy day, because of the indoors.

After the jungle experience I decided to familiarise myself with some samples of Zürcher contemporary art. For this I chose Helmhaus, which is presenting some new sculpture at the moment and located conveniently downtown Zürich.

The exhibition "AZB for ever" didn't move me at all. Or perhaps I'm just too thick to understand the finesse of sculptural art. Most of the exhibits were in my opinion very minimalistic and geometric forms with fancy names that didn't really connect. And the other end of the style scale was very detailed and bright colored genital figurines. This also continued in some of additional sketches.

So, if I put two and two together it seems to me that Swiss sculptors might have some serious issues about their sexuality or have difficulty thinking out of the box. This is totally personal impression and opinion, so don't take it too seriously. Check it out yourselves, rather =)

Very plastic and detailed. Jumped out of the collection.

Willies & co. aka "Get Physical" by Mickry 3

After Helmhaus I wanted to get a second opinion about art and found my way to Löwenbrau in Limmatstrasse. Kunsthalle and various galleries are located in these premises. But no major quakes on the emotional front there either. I ended up spending ways more time in a very decent artbook store they have there than prowling through the exhibitions.

All in all I think that my "Zürich without a map"-experience was quite enlighting in the end. And it gave me sore legs by the end of the day, so one can say I got at least decent excercise out of it. And after this my in-built citymap also got bit more connected and detailed. So why heck not to spend a sunny afternoon on following your nose?

Moodflow from Zürich

2010-05-18T18:52:00.009+03:00

I've been in Zürich since last Sunday with our latest bigNOTWENDIGKEIT production "Keep on searching for a heart of gold". We are about to have five shows here within next week, starting tomorrow.

Nothing much happened since my last entry, but since I have some time to kill, I can contaminate some innocent minds with some moodflow.

It's been pretty relaxed and easy to set everything up in Fabrik Theater. At this particular moment I'm laying on top of a pile of mattresses in the foyer and waiting for a rehearsal on a monologue to end and run-through to start. The staff in the theater are all nice and friendly and I anyway like to work with this particular ensemble.

I've made some new friends while been here. It was pretty hairy to get myself a place to stay for couple of nights in ZH, because it seems that there is a "baby-boom" among my Zürcher friends at this very moment. So, my usual accommodation options were not available. And being forced to be innovative, I ended up at Ingrid and Claudio's home. This turned out to be a very big strike of luck in the end. These people are very nice and openhearted and they serve the best coffee in Zürich, so I'm very happy that I got to know them!!!

The weather is hideous since I don't remember when. I've never experienced such warm days in the end of April and so freaking cold in all May until now. I admit without any second thoughts that I've been wearing my long-johns the whole month up until yesterday. I just hate to freeze my ass off and see no reason to do that if not forced. And all this added to the notion that Finland is the hottest region in whole Europe at the moment. Go figure, something is rotten in climate...

But anyway, having spent most of the time in a black box lately, I don't really mind. Children of the darkness, I'll say.

My new ride...

2010-04-21T18:12:00.004+03:00

... and my new pride =)

For past three years I've been wobbling my way around Basel with this very charming but ah so unpractical antique bicycle from some golden year of fiftie's. It has three gears, green color and lots of character but also very very warped body, so everytime I would pick up some speed it would start to shake and wobble. Not very safe. Somehow it seemed to get worse and worse, so now I decided it was time for a change.

In Ricardo.ch, the swiss online auction (like eBay), I saw this pretty basic bicycle whose name actually caught my eye. - Thought it would be cool to ride around with a "Postcard". And it had some yellow color. Happy bike.

My Postcard =)

So I bid on it and got it finally for 100chf. We went to pick it up the very day the auction ended. For these past couple of days I've been really happy about my investment. I didn't see or test it before I bought it, but somehow everything seems to work pretty much as good as possible. It runs very soft and smooth, and most importantly, straight and all the 21 gears click like a dream.

So, since it's springtime and the season of getting active and on the move again, I have finally the ride that brings me happily and more safe to my destination.

Boxeo

2010-04-21T17:33:00.005+03:00

My last entry, with blooming flowers and all, was bit more romantic than this one =).

Anyhow, last weekend I had A brand new experience. I was was doing the light for Sound and Light Pool on a boxing event, Boxeo. The lobby of Airport Hotel Basel was jam-packed with nearly 500 spectators who were all cheering for the local heroes punching the opponents in the nose.

I've never experienced anything of such in real life before. Of course I've seen the Rocky movies and some Muhammed Ali stuff in tv, but this was in a way even more brutal than in the telly. I personally find it hard to imagine that someone would voluntarily climb up to the ring to get his/hers ass kicked, but then again, I guess the whole point actually rather is kicking someone else's butt. Doesn't always happen though, as I quite literally witnessed when, instead of hanging in there for scheduled 6 rounds, a boxer goes down in 2:25.

The last professional heavy-weight fight.

The popularity of the event somehow surprised me. It was already sold out well before the start. And the amount of finely dressed ladies in their diamond jewellery and sipping champagne actually blew me away the most. Perhaps boxing is after all a sport for the cream of the society. I rather enjoyed more the tricks of the magician who performed between the fights. But to live is to learn... =)

The Local Hero Arnold "The Cobra" Djergjaj
bringing it down for Hungarian Norbert Sallai

Spring flowers blooming again

2010-04-08T16:53:00.005+03:00

It's amazingly beautiful again. No need to say more:

New projects to take up on

2010-04-05T22:12:00.006+03:00

It seems that I have pretty much time to kill, unfortunately. It's gonna be relatively slow on the work front this month, or at least so it looks like, until now.

I do have also a 2000 pcs puzzle, but I think I'm going to save it still for later and grab my very first real novel written in German. - Because I don't count the the adventures of the little tiger and little bear in "Wie schön ist Panama" by Janosch to this category. Sorry J!

So the very first is this minuscule edition of "Die 13 1/2 leben des Käpt'n Blaubär" by Walter Moers, which was very warmly recommended to me. - Obviously some friends of mine have pretty high expectations of my language skills, but I'm gonna give it a go. Well, one doesn't know until one tries, right? Wish me luck though, when I plonge into the wonderful world of wolperinger, eh?

Updates on the progress follow =) =)

Easy to handle 703 pages...

You are in photos, Jason - Pictures of searching

2010-04-05T21:52:00.010+03:00

A handful of photos from my latest production in Berlin.

"Keep on searching for a heart of gold"
by bigNOTWENDIGKEIT.

Breaking the illusion.

"Who is Medea?" Different definitions.

Medea the Paragon.

The ritual. Shamanism. Magié. Myth.

Beautiful in it's death.

"Du machst es gut, Jason!" Dark waters, sea scape.

"Why are the children looking at me in that strange way?"

"I'm your cancer, your misfortune, your downfall..."

The illusion. Magic. Birdie.

Keep on searching for a heart of gold in Berlin

2010-04-02T16:51:00.007+03:00

I spent again some three weeks in Berlin. This was a final phase for bigNOTWENDIGKEIT's (BN) project revolving around Medea by Euripides.

It was really nice to work again with Anna and Katharina, the director-duo of BN, and Anna-Katharina and Esther, two actresses whom I also worked with before. I also made some new friends with this project; Sahar, a very nice actress bubbling with positive energy, and Wolfram; a real priceless go-doer in bringing the set elements to life. All in all it was very rewarding to work with this ensemble, somehow we hit it off pretty well. I'm looking forward to take the production to Zürich next month with them.

The approach to this classic text was very controversial. The main goal was not to present the story as such, but perhaps more to look into and study what Medea means or could represent to us and today's society. And the outcome was something more or less new. Like Stefan Rusconi, a jazz-musicial and cultural advisor, says in his cultural tips in "Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg"-tv:
"Es ist Dialog. Es ist Pop. Es ist Pantomime. Es hat Geschwindigkeit, aber auch Ruhe und das ist ein interessantes Potpourri. Ich denke das ist ein sehr sehenswertes Stück." (yeah, we made it to the telly=)

We performed on three evenings on the Hochzeitsaal in Sophiensaele and the audience was sort of plenty and quite appreciated our interpretation. All I heard afterwards was pretty positive. That's cool, since also I liked how it turned out to be. I'm quite happy about how my Medea looks at times very intimate, warm and golden, in contrast to all the horrible things they say about killing, hatred and revenge. And from the other angle, it opens up and shows all the building blocks and intestines of the production down to very last detail. - I'll post some photos later on for you to see.

Sophiensaele was a straightforward no-BS place to work and our designated technician Nicolina very nice. Technically the biggest downfall was the light console, the old war-horse MA Lightcommander 24, who had seriously seen better days, but in the end I managed to surpass the potholes of it's failing mechanics. To live is to learn, even if it's to trick the machine =)

If you missed us this time around, there will be chance to check our adaptation out in May in Fabrik Theater in Zürich (more info here). And in the end of June we'll be back in Berlin again, on stage at Theaterdiscounter on the last weekend of the month. Come to have a look if you're around!

I had also a chance to meet some friends in Berlin, which is always great. This was first time that sound designer and musician Niki Neecke participated in BN production. Niki is my old friend from Mnemopark era, so it was cool to collaborate with him again (and also to have a chance to crash on his couch fo the duration, thanx!). And once more, there was my dear friend Julia, with whom I overdosed on sushi couple of times. I also had a chance to attend to this great party thrown by a cool director Stefan Kaegi (the director of Mnemopark), where I made some new friends and met couple of ones that I hadn't seen in longest time.

It's funny how Berlin starts to feel somehow like home by now. I definately don't feel like tourist there anymore, no any kind of feeling of being compelled to run to see the Brandenburg gate or such. And I guess that I know more people in Berlin by now, than I do in Helsinki or Basel. I could definately picture myself living there. Why not...

So, Berlin, I'm glad that I visited and I'm always willing to come back to your groove! Though next time you could provide a bit better weather and exit 8-D! (Exit meaning the minor 5 hours delay with Easyjet on not so groovy Schönenfeld airport.)

Even more snow and a castle

2010-02-11T14:42:00.004+02:00

It' actually quite amazing -there is more and more snow every day. It really is like I remember the winters of my childhood. And nowadays the kids still seem to have similar interests as quarter of a century ago. (Jeez, that's long ago...)

I was already spying on this snow castle the last time I wrote an entry with some wintery photos. But, I decided to wait and see how grand it would turn out to be =). This is a design by two approximately 10-year old girls, I suppose. Not bad... I remember how me and my best friend used to construct things quite similar to this and the time just flew away. And our parents used to worry since we didn't show up at home after school (nor in the school every day either, for that matter).

The castle, model 2010.

Oh yeah, see those two boys on the background? They were very talkative and wanted to know to which school I go to. I admitted that I used to go to the same school in Hurttala as they (just to the right from where this photo is taken). In their opinion this elementary school is bad, because the stuff they have to do is strange. I confided to them that it was just as strange when I was there =) -Somehow I doubt that I managed to make it any better for the boys, what do you reckon?

Cheeky chipotle & co

2010-02-03T19:48:00.007+02:00

On a perfectly ordinary day, during perfectly mundane and deadly boring grocery shopping trip to a local supermarket, Citymarket to be exact, I just cracked up seeing these:

Such witty steak sauce bottles, hundreds of them nicely aligned on shelves. All stating matter-of-factly "Pain is good". I'm convinced, even converted.

Mild and Medium.

It says on the label: Wimpy mild! =)

For a deeper culinary dive: Original Juan

Snowy Impressions on a sunny afternoon

2010-02-03T16:10:00.000+02:00

Finally the weather agreed with me and produced some sunshine. So I went shooting some snowy photos in the neighborhood. It's so beautiful here right now!

The wintery face of the most important landmark of Hattula:
The Holy Cross Church
the eldest brick church in Finland dates back to 14th century and is famous
because of it's mural paintings in the interior.

Small cottage just nearby the church all covered with white stuff.

New trendy head-piece for a lamp post: turban style?

Yo, Man! More laid back version...

Nobody home.

Depeche Mode, Helsinki 02.02.2010

2010-02-03T16:06:00.010+02:00

Prologue
It's been something like 14 years since I last went to see a really big name in concert, that being Deep Purple on Summum stadium in Grenoble, France. Although I fully enjoyed that, somehow I've missed the big events since. Hmm. Anyway, Depeche Mode is one of my absolutely favorite bands, so it was high time to end the silence.

Some time ago I suddenly remembered that Depeche Mode is gonna play on Hartwall Areena in Helsinki. Once I had finally confirmed my arrival to Finland, it was time to see if I can still land a ticket to this particular event. To my delight there was quite bunch of them on sale in Huuto.net (sort of national Ebay in Finland), so I could even choose.

I got a seat pretty close to the stage -so, with bit of imagination, I could reach out and try to touch Dave =)

The Act
So, how it was in the end...? It was cool. Having never seen the guys live before, it struck me as a quite energetic act, although you can sense that Gahan is not youngest of men anymore. But he gave it his best effort and the audience really bought his show. That was probably the best part of the whole show to see how all of the audience was singing along, clapping and waving their hands to the music. It gave me somehow strange sense of community even though a was sitting in the middle of total strangers.

The sea of raised hands - Personal Jesus.

The tunes were mostly the old faithful ones and included more or less all my favorites also. The band played pretty exactly two hours. The general mixing levels left me wanting bit more precision and the sync was also bit wavering time to time, but then again, it's supposed to be live act and not brain-surgery-level-perfection. Couple of the feed-backs I could have lived without, though. All in all, it was very entertaining experience and some of the melodies really rocked, like "Wrong" and "I Feel You". Some of the slower tempo ballads didn't fit so perfectly into the mix, but they gave nice breathers in between.

Wrong.

It also looked good, albeit not really revolutionary new. The highlight of the set was humongous LED-screen with a half-sphere extension "bubble" in the top-middle. Both live-stream from 7 cameras and pre-designed videos (by Anton Corbijn) were projected to this surface during the show. Read the whole concept on manufacturer XL Video's press release.

They also had four movable trusses, which were sort of arc-shaped and hinged, so with chain-hoists they can be moved both vertically and bent in various angles within one unit. These trusses were equipped with six moving heads each. This you can see from the video clip below. (I'm so sorry about the dreadfully bad sound quality.) I was sitting on the side, so the stereo sound was probably far from perfect for me, but I imagine that the movement of the trusses looked cooler from this angle than from straight front =)

A little sampler of "I feel You"
-just for technical aspects, of course =)

Set list
In Chains
Wrong
Hole To Feed
Walking In My Shoes
It's No Good
A Question Of Time
Precious
World In My Eyes
Insight (sung by Martin)
Home
Miles Away / The Truth Is
Policy Of Truth
In Your Room
I Feel You
Enjoy The Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

Encore #1
Dressed In Black
Stripped
Behind The Wheel
Personal Jesus

Helluva lotta snow / lunta / schnee / neige

2010-02-01T20:14:00.003+02:00

Is seems to be a record-breaking winter all around in Finland. I was told that there is lots of snow, but I really didn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.

This reminds me of the winters of my childhood, when you could really build humongous snow castles, snow horses, snowmen, basically all imaginable out of snow...

When I came to Finland last week, it was pretty much colder, hovering somewhere around -20*C. Now it's quite agreeable just little bit below zero. So, no more freezing my butt off.

Irjala, Tampere last Sunday afternoon.

Parola.