Lost Post 2: veden varaan

Veden Varaan was the no.1 platinum album by PMMP (2009)

Still waiting for a review from Breaking More Waves though...

 
It seems to me that the Finns have the same wary relationship to water (vesi, vetä, veden) and damp in the home as the Brits do to electricity (sähkö) - treat as a potential hazard (varaa).

In Britain we have fuses on everything, ring mains, plugs the size of a brick, and are (apparently) terrified of the thought of light switches without pull cords in our bathrooms, let alone power sockets or appliances - or at least the people who wrote our regulations were. Meanwhile we Brits seem to accept a bit of damp in our walls and when was the last time anyone in UK switched the water off to their washing machine or dishwasher between uses? And do we put our washing machine in our bathroom (with a power socket next to the shower) with a fully 'wet' i.e. tiled and drained floor just in case there is an overflow? Or on a special plastic tray for the same purpose? Back Suomessa while you can't wire a switch to a two pin plug and know which pole will be live or neutral, every kitchen sink in Finland has an extra tap or two for the washing appliances.

Culture corner

Tapio Wirkkala: Utima Thule, 1967. via.

I suppose we are overdue an Architecture Corner - but not much going on that front so we'll have to cast our net a bit wider. Although only as far as Espoo it seems...

This week we visited EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art) at WeeGee for an exhibition of the work of Finnish sculptor and product designer Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985). He trod a strange path between sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract works and apparently unwilling to differentiate between his product work and sculptures. Much of his work - certainly his best known pieces - are in carved plywood (for which he used extremely high-quality birch plywood to his own specifications). 'Ultima Thule' (pictured above) which shares it's name with the Iittala glassware he also designed, is one of the centrepieces of the exhibition, although I actually liked the roughness of his studio doors more made from simple pieces of standard timber (unfortunately I couldn't find a picture on the web and we couldn't take photos). You can read more about him here and here.

Also in Espoo last night were RinneRadio (a jazz via hip-hop, electronica, straight fusion, dark dub, ambient, and Saami yoik singing experience since the late eighties) and Circo Aereo performing 'Ruostetta iholla' (rust on the skin). Featuring a RR backed choreographed acrobatic act with scaffolding, posture balls, planks, tyres, a trampoline and a suspended hoop... you can find video of their other shows on YouTube, but here is Ommatidi from RinneRadio.

2 kysymystä

Kysymys 1: Mikä ei kuulu joukkoon?
Q 1: What does not belong in this picture?


Kysymys 2: Kuka on lavalla
Q 2: Who's on stage?

Some clues: both berries are red & Kaapelitehdas on 27 June 09 gig.
Kiitos kakusta Mari!Oli hyvää :)

22 - Joululaulut II

More impenetrable Finnish 'christmas songs' for you ulkomalainen I'm afraid... this time from Vesa-Matti Loiri. 

Another week - another (in theory) suomen joulu flavoured musical odessy. VML ('Vesku') is a bit of an institution here, an actor an singer with a deep, gravely voice and dramatic/emotional delivery, who scored nil point at the 1980 eurovision song contest.  Musically... well let's just say at one point we were dangerously close to the theme from 'Bergerac': accordion, bass, and Mark Knopfler-esque guitar nooddling. So not really my cup of tea, coffee, or any other hot beverage (although he does have a fine voice, and I did like the use of a modern, amplified kantele in one song). So mielenkintoista...  is the best I could do when asked afterwards what I though. It's a shame that he didn't have the more orchestral backing shown in the video, because the setting would have suited it.

Oh yes, the setting - the reason I didn't put up to much resistance to seeing either him or the diddily-dingers last week. In a word: Aalto.

VPL VML was performing at Finlandia Talo Aalto's 'white phase' carrera-marble-clad concert hall which, although we had a lightning tour a few months ago, I wanted to experience in operation; and Rasvaton (whatever) were at Aalto's 50-year old 'red-phase' Kulttuuritalo - which won for me in terms of the flow of the architecture, clever canopy, and intimacy of the trademark asymmetric fan auditorium.  I could write lots more on both, but it has been all said before better than I could...

14 - Joululaulut I

Rajaton Joulu - This is what we listened last night at the Kulttuuritalo (The Culture House designed by AlvarAalto) / Joulukonsertti Kultsalla eilen illalla Rajattomien siivittämänä.

Wall (1W)

Tallinn city wall surrounding the old town

Most of Tallinn's medieval city wall still stands, inlcuding 26 defensive towers. Inside the protection of the wall one can also found his/her way to DM baar (= Depeche Mode)... hmm...

Sääpäiväkirja

Keskiviikona, 22. lokakuuta: Tänään on vahan pilvista ja vahan aurinkoista. Myös tuulee. Ulkona on 10 astetta laminta. Helsingissä aurinko nousee kello 8.56 ja laskee 16.56.

Nimipäivät: Anita, Anitta, Anja, Anniina

Pilvista päivää. From Around Helsinki.

One of the things we have been doing on the suomen kielen korssi the last few weeks is to keep a weather diary (sääpäiväkirja) for each day. Since this entails looking out of the window (which I am well practiced at as my school teachers would probably remember) and looking at the outdoor thermometer (which almost every Finnish home has) this is not exactly hard work. For those of you unfamiliar with the Finnish climate, here's some background:

Finnish weather explained

+15°C / 59°F
This is as warm as it gets in Finland, so we'll start here.
People in Spain wears winter-coats and gloves.
The Finns are out in the sun, getting a tan.

+10°C / 50°F
The French are trying in vain to start their central heating.
The Finns plant flowers in their gardens.

+5°C / 41°F
Italian cars won't start.
The Finns are cruising in cabriolets.

0°C / 32°F
Distilled water freezes.
The water in the Vanda river gets a little thicker.

-5°C / 23°F
People in California almost freeze to death.
The Finns have their final barbecue before winter.

-10°C / 14°F
The Brits start the heat in their houses.
The Finns start using long sleeves.

-20°C / -4°F
The Aussies flee from Mallorca.
The Finns end their Midsummer celebrations. Autumn is here.

-30°C / -22°F
People in Greece die from the cold and disappear from the face of the earth.
The Finns start drying their laundry indoors.

-40°C / -40°F
Paris start cracking in the cold.
The Finns stand in line at the "grilli-kioski".

-50°C / -58°F
Polar bears start evacuating the North Pole.
The Finnish army postpones their winter survival training awaiting real winter weather.

-60°C / -76°F
Korvatunturi (the home for Santa Claus) freezes.
The Finns rent a movie and stay indoors.

-70°C / -94°F
The false Santa moves south.
The Finns get frustrated since they can't store their Kossu (Koskenkorva vodka) outdoors.
The Finnish army goes out on winter survival training.

-183°C / -297.4°F
Microbes in food don't survive.
The Finnish cows complain that the farmers' hands are cold.

-273°C / -459.4°F
All atom-based movent halts.
The Finns start saying "Perkele, it's cold outside today."

-300°C / -508°F
Hell freezes over.
Finland wins the Eurovision Song Contest.

...hang on a minute - didn't that happen already!?

All that Jazz

Pori Jazz Festival

Gannet Colony 

Maybe I have been sitting in the sun too long, but have you ever seen a nature film of birds (gannets maybe) where the birds are packed into their nesting grounds - social yet territorial - feeding and sending up a clamour? Well in this case the 'clamour' is Finnish and the the 'gannets' picnic-ers. And away down the bottom of the slope is a stage occasionally inhabited by jazz performers... But the huge flock feeds and socializes oblivious to the intrusion, until Santana arrive bringing proceedings to a frenzy of flapping.

Yes definitely too much sun.

Kaustinen folk music festival: Folk You!

Kaustinen Folk Music Festival 'Arena'

You may wonder at the gratuitous use of the F word in this post, and so do I... But this is the biggest folk gathering in the Nordic region so fiddles, accordians and strange harmonies abound. Costumed folkies start jamming 'spontaneously'. The festival takes over half the small town using the music school and grounds as the main base, including an impressive canopied main arena.

After a bit of wandering we see Baltic Crossing, a group of young Finnish, Danish and English musician with a passion for their music. I'm also pleased to find wireless access as well as beer and cider in the outside bar.

The main event is Angelique Kidjo, whose West African sound to be honest is not my sort of thing, but goes down a storm with the crowd - despite an enforced ban on video and photos after the first three songs. Now only the Jazz festival to, er, look forward to... but just remember Folk You!

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Sent from my iPod