Category: Antonio’s blog

The evening was promising at the
beginning. Lots of free drinks and food and a warm reception at the pub close
to the venue. But organization turned into a chaos due to the tight schedule
and I was really afraid that I would leave the place without my desired
interview. We were move in a rush to the zone close to the dressing rooms. Artists
were coming from the backstage for a short photo session and back to the
restricted area. There I could see Jenni
Vartiainen (who was looking astonishing and taller than I imagined)
together with Tidjan, the male
member of Kwan, and some other
popular people like Antti Tuisku (who
was looking shorter than I imagined) or the guys from The Giant Leap. Tarja
Turunen was a prey for the photographers, very elegant in a Marimekko black
dress, while I was not able to contact the person from her record company. The
interview seemed lost, so we went to take a look at the rehearsals. And there
was the little Anna Abreu: splendid
and sensual, with a vitality that should not surprise since she is only 17.

Being half Portuguese, it was clear that she could understand some Spanish, and
there we went with a surrealistic conversation where four different languages
were mixed in 5 minutes. As she explained, no time for after party for our
young lady; she had to come back home early after her performance to study for
an exam. But she still had time to break the rules and smoke a cigarette inside
Jäähälli under the passive supervision of the security man before the crowd
started to arrive to enjoy the show. Anna Abreu gave us good luck, since just
when we came back inside we got a short but fruitful interview with a very
friendly Tarja Turunen. The show had good and bad moments, and Anna and Tarja
were undoubtedly the most awaited ones by the audience. Time to go, and there
on the floor of Jäähälli lies the cigarette that Anna Abreu smoked some minutes
before. Even the tight rules in Finland get a bit more flexible with the
charming personality of this little volcano. There will be always some
privileged ones. Our dear Anna shone on and off stage like a little flame
coming from a languid cigarette breaking the cold darkness of an empty sport
hall.

Time ago, when I was working or
studying, Monday was (like i suppose for most of the people in the same
situation) the most hated day of the week.

Saturday was great and relaxed; on
Sunday I started to feel a particular stomach ache while assimilating the
connection again with the harsh reality and to feel the anxiety that the good
free time was over…and on Monday morning the same resignation to face a long
and monotonous week, until Thursday (…I am in Love), when the light at the end
of the tunnel was visible again.

But now, being unemployed in
Finland, I am looking forward Mondays with the same anxiety with which not a
long time ago I was waiting for Fridays. Monday is a great day: new job offers
in the recruiting websites, people answering emails and phonecalls at their
office, a new hope that the luck will be with me this time. And when Friday
comes…oh my god!, Finnish start not to answer emails, to leave early from their
jobs with their minds full of week end plans at the cottage or at the nearest
pub and my last hope of getting a job interview, a couple of lines that could make me feel like a worthy human being again, and not like a person whose profile is not suitable for the required position, fades away.

3 days of agony and desperation
until Monday comes and the cycle starts again. So I can only wait and pray to
get a job soon for starting to hate Mondays (like any other civilized human
being) again.

I was having a
cup of coffee this afternoon with Andres,
one of the members of Bullfrog Brown,
the most internationally recognized Estonian blues band. Andres belongs to that
selected and admiring group of people with a very good background and
journalistic and musical knowledge, but difficulties to find a good job that
really could reward his skills. Even though, he dedicates a lot of effort
and even his own money to his passion:
his band and the music.

As one of the
creators of FREE! Magazine, a
publication that walks on the thin line of the professionalism (by studies and
background of the editors) and amateurism (since we do not get basically any
economical reward for doing this, neither any official support), I find a
special pleasure and connection when chatting with another person who shares a
similar vision of life and circumstances. There is almost a special kind of
guilty pleasure in putting all the efforts in something that maybe will never
bring recognition (at least in economical terms).

The point is
that we go through many topics and stories, and one that comes is the lack of
professionalism of some promoters. I don´t want to give any particular names,
but sometimes you must really make an effort to understand how bands so much
needed of promotiong and help by the journalists ignore the basic rules of the
game. Few weeks ago I was denied by a promoter the possibility to meet for a
face to face interview with a band that was exceptionally geographically very
near me , while some days later their label company, whose responsible is
usually more accurate and effective professional, offered me the chance to meet
them, writing me… from far England. Well, too late, I had just sent a
questionnarie, the basic solution in these cases…that was sent back by the
promoter quite late, giving some vague exuses and provoked more than one
problem for the editorial team. A perfect example of throwing stones against
your own house.

If something I
learn day after day, is that you should show respect and interest for
everybody, no matters the first impression that can give to you, since you
never know whom you can offend with a non right atittude. Baltic or
Scandinavian countries are not so big, and often you meet the same people from
the same industry sooner or later. But well, I want to believe that it is a
question of time that attitudes will improve. My advice for the so many new
bands trying to find their space in the market: if you have a promoter or
manager, try that he gets the shit properly done. And a nice relation with the
media is essential. Sometimes a couple of nicely sentences in an email can make
the difference for a future business and promotion relation.

Another issue
that I discussed with Andres is that I do not understand the attitude of some
DVD distributors in Finland, with their “palautus” (return) policy for the film
sample copies. That means you have to review a film and send it back to the
house in a few days. FREE! Magazine cannot track or send the dvds back, since
the collaborators take care of them, and even though keeping the copies is
needed in most of the cases for future articles. But I wonder : what is the big
deal for companies that spend thousand of euros in promotion, not making the
little effort to give some more copies of dvds that can cost 10-15 euro per
unit? For me, it is an awesome good deal for those companies, that get
promotion and potential customers for that minimum cost. The record companies,
thanks god, do not follow the same trend. A good digipak edition of a cd can
cost perfectly around 20-25 euro in any shop, more than many dvds, but so far,
the film companies are the only ones following that policy. Once more, I just
advice the people to invest a bit of time and energy in good relations and
smooth communication with the new media, instead of  the silence for an answer.

In any case, watching the Princess Bride
took me into the old habit of making a top ten about some aspect of cinema
(something we did during the printed edition of FREE! Magazine), so this time I
wanted to write my top ten of princesses in movies. If you think of other names
to add to the list, feel free to drop a line and write a comment in the blogs
section.

{mosimage}Princesses in Movies:

1. Princess Leia in Star Wars (1977). Maybe Jabba the Hutt was not the most
   handsome being in the galaxy, but he had an excellent taste when dressing
   Leia in a sexy metal bikini.
2. Elora Danan in Willow ((1988). The cutest smile from a very special baby.
3. Buttercup in The Princess Bride (1987). She made Westley have a
   hard time to recover her, but they had what most of couples miss soon or
   later: True love.
4. Helene in Troy (2004). The beauty of Diana Kruger demolished the walls of Troy.
5. Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989). My favourite Disney´s
   princess. Maybe because she is a wild red haired…
6. Princess Isabelle in Braveheart (1995). Sophie Marceau knew how
   to recognize the bravery of William Wallace.
7. Princess Fiona in Shrek (2001). When an animation character has
   the voice of Cameron Díaz, she can be able even to throw kicks in the best
   “Matrix style”.
8. Princess Moana in Pan´s Labyrinth (2006). Young  Ivana Baquero was one of the best
   revelations during last year.
9. Princess Shakiko in Highlander (1986). Ok, she does not appear
   in the movie, only when Sean Connery tells the story, but don’t you feel
   like you had loved to watch how Ramirez stole her from her father’s arms?
10. Xena: The Princess Warrior (1995). Well, she comes from a TV
    series, but the wild dreams of many men after watching her adventures make
    her worthy to appear in the top ten

When writing for FREE! I often suffer of
nostalgic moments looking back to my younger years when living in a suburb near
Madrid. And I
remember, in 1996, to have listened dozens of times the original cassette that
I bought from the Germans Scorpions: Animal Instinct.

Scorpions, as many other rock/heavy bands
with great success in the 80s were not going through their best moment,
although there were still big. It would be in their next work,when recording
their classics tunes with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, that they would
come back to main positions in the media coverage and charts.

{sidebar id=7}I remember being 16 and running wild in the
streets with my gang of friends, heading to the fair where we could spot some
chicks, jumping and singing Wild Child, or feeling a shadow of sadness
every time I listened to the last track alone at my room: Daddy’s girl;
emotive son about a girl harassed by her father. But I could hardly tell you a
song I did not like from that album. For rock and Scorpions fans, the work was
released without a great success, but for me, that will be always “my Scorpions
album”. Something similar happened with Aerosmith, when I received as a
present from my sister and my mother the cassette of Done with Mirrors,
but the Americans still save one song from that work in some concerts and
special occasions: Let the Music do the Talking. How wise Aerosmith are!
A question of age, definitely.

Do you remember what albums that never got
big success made you feel great when you were younger? Write a comment and let
the reader share the experience. Maybe there is a great album out there waiting
to be re-discovered.

Finally, for motor sports and F1 lovers, and
being a follower of Alonso, I show you here a funny link that my friends
sent me some days ago, with a very special “Finnish touch” at the end of it.
Enjoy it!

I assisted to Tuska festival in Helsinki at the beginning of June; the
streets of the capital were literally taken by an army of metal fans dressed in
black. There I had the chance to talk for almost one hour in the backstage with
Fernando Ribeiro, the singer of Moonspell (interview will appear
in our pages pretty soon) while outside Stratovarius was totally blowing
the audience. Fernando and the rest of the band were very friendly with me and
it was a pleasure to spend some time with them before they left to their hotels
to celebrate the amazing gig they offered to the public. One of the best
performance at Tuska this year. Also the festival made me remember what a good
band Stratovarius is! I sadly had the chance to see only the first half an hour
of concert before the call of duty leaded me to the backstage, but what I saw
is the powerful coming back of one of the best metal bands of the last decade.
They sounded tight, aggressive and in excellent shape, which really makes me
very happy. Stratovarius reminds me of my younger years where together with Blind
Guardian, they were absolutely my gods! The Germans were also present at
the festival, so this was like a flashback to one decade ago, but I did not
enjoy their set list and sound so much.

Among the huge list of bands I want to highlight a couple more of
names: 45 Degree Woman that exhales tones of quality, great lyrics and a
great voice for their singer Mikko Viman (It is a pity that the
audience’s response is not so massive like with some other bands) and the
exoticness of the Japanese D'spairsRay that counted with many fans, specially
among the young female teenage audience.

Well, but if we really want to complain about the weather, nothing
better like looking back at the first day at Roskilde festival in Denmark. It
rained cats and dogs over there! That was literally a battlefield, and people
could not survive without rubber boots. I was quite a privileged since I
arrived the second day, and could stay every night at friend's place in Copenhagen, where a nice
hot shower awaited me. But I suppose that more than one regretted to get the
ticket for finding themselves surrounded by so difficult conditions. In any
case, the festival atmosphere was nice and more relaxed that in the Finnish
ones, thing that surprised me pretty much. Musically, I received the, maybe,
greatest disappointment of the summer due to the poor show of Red Hot Chili
Peppers. What was the problem with those guys? They did around 10 solos all
over the show, they were not able to link one song after another, and the
singer hardly spoke 3 words to the audience, hiding his face with a hat that
covered half of his head. Maybe they did not take care of themselves too much
before the late show at night (it started at 1:00 a.m.), but, come on guys!…you have to be more
professional when coming to play to Roskilde in front of such a huge audience.
In the bright side of the festival, the Swedes The Ark, gave another magnificent
concert. Ola Salo is really a great showman who knows how to entertain
the audience, with his funny speeches or with his voice, and they showed what a
good concert is about, while featuring old and new songs from their last
recently released album A Prayer for the Weekend. The Muse and Arctic
Monkeys also came to Denmark
meaning business, while during Beastie Boys and Queens of the Stone Ages
shows I was more interesting in the research of the quality of the Spanish wine
sold in the supermarkets of Denmark.
Also to remark the big amount of Finnish who assist to the festival, you can
meet groups of them quite easily all over Roskilde.

About books recently read, I was totally hooked to A World Apart,
the odyssey by the Polish writer Gustaw Herling in the Communism work
camps, years before The Gulag Archipelago 
was published. Pretty recommended, although not suggested for sensitive
people. Hard stories about a hard life and how human values can get so twisted
during war times. Second World War continues present in my present literature,
since I am now embarked in the reading of Mephisto by the German Klaus
Mann. And on Wednesday a quick visit to Helsinki. The reason: I can’t get no
satisfaction!!! Their satanic majesties, The Rolling Stones, are coming
to town !!!

{mosimage}
I look back in time and remember my summer times in Spain.
Temperatures of 40 degrees, ventilators trying to suffocate the baking hot, the
excursions to the beach (not to the beach in Madrid…obviously…so I mean really
long excursions driving many hours…), the ice creams melting 10 seconds after
you bought them… Now here in Finland
you never know what the new day will bring. Will it be warm? Should I wear
shorts or should I take a pullover with me?. And honestly, who the fuck cares?

Summer is here, and you have an amazing offer of concerts in small and big
venues for all kind of tastes. And if you do not want to stay all the time in
Finland, take a break = take a boat, and visit some of our Baltic countries
such as Estonia or Latvia; Tallinn and Riga are developing their own amazing
scene for concerts step by step, and more and more bands are visiting there.
Last year I was lucky enough to see Depeche Mode and Metallica in
Tallinn, and
this year my beloved Aerosmith will have the chance to taste a bit of
Vana Tallinn to mix with Finlandia vodka during their European tour… So if you
are not dead, you are not broke, and there are still tickets available, what
are you waiting to choose your summer concerts and festivals before it is too
late? Aerosmith

During last weeks, I have started to have my own share of action. FREE!
Magazine heavy metal fan section (meaning… me) was in Sauna Open Air
listening to Dave Mustaine and friends. Megadeth gave a great concert
and it was an excellent end for the first day of festival. It was also very
nice to see the good health that Sonata Arctica keeps showing on live
gigs. We had the interview with them a few weeks ago, and they really can
connect with big audiences. No wonder why they are one of the biggest Finnish
bands at the moment, their new album Unia sounds powerful and with very nice melodies.
At the end of the festival I reached my maximum state of happinnes for two
reasons: I sneaked off some food from the backstage area, and I saw Heaven
and Hell. Dio looks like falling into pieces, but the power of his
voice remains the same. In any case, too short concert, I must say, they did
not even play until the electricity had to be cut off. Less than 2 hours of
concert… it could have been better, it could have been worse…

Last week I also had the chance to assist to Genesis concert at the
Olympic Stadium. I have never been a great fan (in a way I should feel relieved
not to be such a big fan as Bateman's character in American Psycho), but
I truly enjoyed the show. Phil Collins is a great frontman and knows how
to entertaint the audience, and I also really liked the the design of the
stage, simulating a kind of futuristic city of machines expelling smoke all
over the audience.

And this week end more and more… Tuska festival is coming…   (a friend of mine from Spain keeps reminding
me that Tuska sounds like a dog´s name… 
What do you think, guys? Then Roskilde
in Denmark…
and then I will have to run away to New Zealand to pick up strawberries
to recover from such an intensive summer!

And after it, I just can say that I
love it. I love his raw style. I love how he expresses so frankly his
disconformities with the world where he lived. I think that his texts
are overall honest, and this is an adjective that you do not find
easily in our contemporary times lately. Bukowski has no hope or love
for the rest of the human beings, and he is not afraid to show it.
So let’s be honest for one time as well, and answer to me, what
kind of people do you meet more often, nice and friendly, or
assholes? How is it possible that some people with no talent or
extremely bad taste have a huge success, and the intelligent ones
struggle to survive day after day? This world is a strange place with
strange rules, but these books gave me hope actually. They are
refreshing in those moments when I think that the rest of the
humankind has let me down, because maybe, we expect too much from the
humankind, and at the end, everyone has to carry his own ghosts in
the most decent way.

Definitely spring has started up my joy
of reading! And after devouring Bukowski´s works, I thought
that it would be nice to change the author, so since I watched weeks
ago the excellent film Capote, I have started today the book
Music for Chameleons from the genial American writer who made
a revolution in writing style with his “non-fiction” novel In
Cold Blood. And what I read today. I must admit I liked it a lot.

Somebody said that a man is worthy
depending on how many books he has read. I think that it is not true.
A man is worthy depending on how many book he has read + how much
music he has listened to + how many films he has watched… 
Of course, I am joking, but if you let me give you one advice, now
that the sunny days have come to the city, grab a book and sit in a
park to enjoy the pleasure of reading (well, just take care it is not
cold enough that your ears get frozen during the experiment).

I must not be much of a worthy man,
since I have discovered Bukowski with 27…well, at least I try my
best when the making of FREE! Magazine spares me with some
free time. So many things to discover, and always the problem of free
time…Tempus fugit…

I still have the feeling that many people don´t know about the existance of FREE! Well, for those who are missing the fun, now it is about to know about us. And with the new cover in our 3rd issue, I am sure that loving it or hating it, it is going to create some impact, because it is definitely a catchy illustration (…and a catchy cover story, although I must say that I think we have treated the topic of sex with a lot of respect, although as well with sense of humour).

By the way, if you see any day a dark haired guy refilling one of the stands-teline of FREE! Magazine with newspapers, salutate me. We are not all day long sitting in front of our computers, quite the opposite. We, the editors, do a bit of everything.

I was a couple of hours ago in Bar Loose, one of my favourite places in Helsinki. Not only for the rock music, that is good, but also because it gives me a good vibe, it reminds me to a typical rock bar in Spain, and there are not many bars in Finland that can remind me to my homeland bars. The clients there go often, so at the end everybody knows everybody, and hours seem to pass by without noticing it. Today there was a concert by a band called Ceesar, where one of the waiters play, and actually they were quite good, I enjoyed the concert pretty much.

Some of you must have realized that FREE! is moving around, trying to spread our name. This month, we  appear with and ad in Clubland leaflet, and we will have a stand-teline in the Sexhibition, for all those who apart from "sexy time", would feel like having something to read in English. We were also last month in Tampere Film Festival, delivering copies and making some promotion. It was nice to assist, the quality of the projections is very high, and apart from that, I personally got impressed with the energy of Jonas Mekas, the 84 years old Lithuanian director. The man conserves all his lucidity and a great joy of life. It was 11:30 at night and he could appear in a club ordering some drinks  and chatting with audience, instead of being sleeping at his hotel room. Frankly impressive!

And some recomendations before ending up today. Last films I saw recently and enjoyed pretty much: Little Miss Sunshine and Capote (Seymour Hoffman is great in whatever role he plays. And if you still have not read In Cold Blood, I don´t know what you are waiting for…). In music, pay attention to the new Finnish band The Jade, I was positively delighted with the discovery. And please, be FREE! with us! Send us your pictures or your questions without answers in Tell me Why section for the next paper edition, sign our guestbook, or just simply write a couple of lines to feedback@freemagazine.fi but always remember (remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason and plot…)  that this magazine is overall planned for your joy.

For those readers who expect that I have changed my mind and become a serious keeper of a blog in Internet…well…maybe they expect too much… By the way, are there readers there??? Eh come on guys, most of the articles in the website have not received a comment at all, and the same applies to the guestbook, with only few visits every week. If you consider that something is marvelous or just simply a shit, we will be glad that you dedicate a couple of sentences to let us know, but please write!!!
It is becoming very frustrating to have the feeling that we are alone here writing the newspaper for the reindeers…

In any case, I am going to try my best and keep the blog more updated than I have done these first couple of months, although it is not easy with this hectic life. During last weeks, we have assisted to some interesting events, and I did not want to let more time pass by before commenting them.

We were on the 20th of February watching Anna Karenina at the National Opera. I must say that I enjoyed it very much. Maybe my background has more to do with being in the middle of small clubs in rock concerts than assisting to ballet, but I must say that I really liked the performance. It was dynamic, full of plasticity, and the decoration was astonishing. That week was actually pretty much of not resting at all: On Wednesday, it was time to have an interview and assist to the later concert of The Yayhoos. You will be able to read more about them in the next issue of FREE! , but well, the concert ended up having quite a cold atmosphere due to the lack of spectators, the same that the weather outside that I am pretty sure made a lot of people stay at home instead of daring to come to Tavastia to enjoy the good music of the American band. In any case, there is nothing as good against the coldness as finishing the night with some good beers and a nice talk with the Tour Manager, who was by chance from Madrid, the same than me. “Pieni Mailmaa”, as the Finnish would say.

Two days later, it was the turn of watching Apulanta in Nosturi. I find actually the place a very cozy one for concerts, although the acoustic is not the most brilliant one, I must say. The guys from Heinola really came there to make business, and provided with another good show to the delighted audience. Many young people there, almost teenagers. And my FREE! Magazine red and yellow t shirt causing amazement and shocking the masses. Goddamn, if we wanted to cause an impression when making the T shirt, we really got it.

This is all for today from this absent minded editor who must be one of the worst in the world to promote his own magazine. In Apulanta concert, I did not bring a single copy of the magazine to the entrance of Nosturi, even when we had a three page cover story about the band… well, word to mouth must work for the moment. As again Finnish say: Elämä on!

The guy was
sharp on the phone and not very eager to do much, even when I gave him freedom
of speech (as we always do, having a magazine called FREE!… 2+2…). He gave me
some excuses saying that he has to be tomorrow in Estonia, and that he could not be
reached by phone, and obviously was not going to check the mail there. The way
he talked about Tallinn,
I could have thought that he was flying to Nepal or to Mars…  I happened to have lived in Estonia during
6 months last year…and I appreciate among other nice features of our beloved
Baltic neighbour the great access they have to wi-fi connections in every
corner of the city and every café.

I chose the
option of just sending a quick mail at 13:00
in the afternoon, was asking for a very general opinion about the theory I am
interested in reporting, and the guy had a perfectly clear idea that he was
going to receive an e-mail mail in the next hours. It is almost 01:00 at night. No answer.

I don’t know
if it is by chance, but in the short history of FREE! Magazine, it does not
happen to be the first bad encounter with university professors. When preparing
our first issues, we had negotiations with a famous academic from the History
department, about the possibility of having a monthly column in FREE! He agreed
once and again, promised to send the material, the deadline came closer and
closer…and we never had farther news from him.

Not exactly
that University teachers are in the “top 10 of beloved professions”, I would
say, quite the opposite. Obviously not still at same level that my personal “number
ones”, the transport tickets inspectors, famous for their “friendly attitude”
and “exquisite courtesy”… With these attitudes, professors are climbing fast
in the ranking as well.

I encourage
to the nice professors and people from academic world in Finland (they
really exist my friends, keep the faith) to participate and collaborate with
FREE! Help us to spread the knowledge not only inside the classrooms, but
everywhere else!

I was introduced
to Edén Pastora a couple of days ago during the party held by the Finnish Film
Foundation, where they had an overview of the Finnish films that will be
released in the present year. Being honest, I had no idea that Edén Pastora
himself was coming to Helsinki
to assist to the Documentary festival, and I neither had much idea about the
history behind him.

Once I met him, I
felt thirsty to know about his actions and biography, so I researched a bit in
Internet. I got impressed, not only because the man is a real legend, but also
because even my parents knew very well about him!

Once more, this
teaches me that there is no day I go to sleep without having learnt something
new. And this is exactly what I love about the journalistic job: To have the
chance to meet so many different people, with such interesting background, and
be able to communicate that to the readers. To find that interesting angle,
anecdote, history, detail or whatever else that I would love to have learnt
myself if I were on the other side, as the reader of the article or the
listener of an interview.

Half an hour after
shaking hands with Edén and wishing him all the best, I am on the phone,
involved in a long distance call talking to Mick Cervino, top class bass
player, who has worked with huge names of rock scene such as Blackmore or
Mamlsteem. Recently, he visited Finland
as a member of the Swedish guitar player’s band, but this time the interview
was centered on his personal new project “Violent Storm”. You will have soon
the exclusive interview available the web page of FREE! Mick was very nice, and
we had a relaxed chat in English and Spanish (since he was born in Argentina).

I suppose that
these days , and the feeling of having the unique opportunity to be a
privileged one to get to know so much interesting people compensates the big
effort that is to start with a new publication in a foreign country. It is
really hard and stressful sometimes to take so many decisions, or even
yesterday I almost froze when I got lost in Vuosaari trying to find a place
where I had to make some business related to FREE!, but on the other hand, I
feel so satisfied that my curiosity for getting to know new stories, new people
and new angles to offer to the readers is totally fulfill with this project
that I hardly can sleep last nights, just thinking what new and exciting
encounters we will have in the future. And of course, you are very welcome to
be there to read it!