And the Nordic Council Film Prize goes to… Denmark

Kunsten at græde i kor, Schønau Fog’s directoral debut, tells about an 11-year-old boy’s attempts to keep his dysfunctional family together. The prize money will be shared between the director, scriptwriter Bo hr Hansen and the film’s producer, Thomas Stenderup.

The prize will be presented on the 31st of October during the annual session of the Nordic Council in Oslo.

Although member countries Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland can each choose two candidates for the Film Prize, the Finnish jury decided to only send in one film this year as it found Miehen Työ the clear candidate and couldn’t find another equally strong domestic film.

Earlier this year, Miehen Työ was also submitted as Finland’s selection for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and for the European Film Awards.

The Nordic Film Prize was awarded for the first time in 2002. The first – and so far only Finnish – winning film was Aki Kaurismäki’s Mies vailla menneisyyttä (The Man Without a Past).

Kunsten at græde i kor (The Art of Crying)

Miehen työ – Official site (in Finnish)
Miehen työ / Man's Job – Blind Spot Pictures

Nordic Council Film Prize

Related:

Miehen Työ up for Nordic film prize and Oscar

 

Yes – Symphonic Live

{mosimage}Re-release
in DVD in Finland of the classic show offered by Yes in Amsterdam during
their tour in 2001, when they fulfilled their dream of playing together with an
orchestra.

It seems
that symphonic rock is living a new golden era with new generations and old
fans rediscovering the mega bands that reached fame at the end of the 70s and
beginnings of the 80s. Recently we saw the appearance of a new DVD of Asia
featuring his old masterful guitarist Steve Howe, who stars again in
this re-release of the concert offered by Yes in Amsterdam during the 2001 tour: Yes
Symphonic Live.

This time
they enjoy the company on stage of the European Festival Orchestra, directed by
Wilhelm Keitel. Young and talented musicians who give a fresh note
backing the old monsters of rock. They provide dynamic introductions for the
songs, a lot of smiles and a good spirit that creates an excellent feeling on
stage and with the audience.

I must admit
that I have never been a fan of rock concerts where you have to seat in front
of the stage. For me rock is often associated with sweating, standing, clapping
hands, jumping and forgetting yourself for a couple of hours, but nevertheless
here you can really see the audience, composed by old and young people quite
equally, quite excited standing continuously and cheering up the band. The
vocalist Jon Anderson looks a bit forced in his speeches to the public
(sometimes he is funny, sometimes he pretends to be) but the quality of his
voice is undeniable. My favourite parts of the show are at the beginning with Close
to the Edge, and later with the classics Gates of Delirium and Starship
Trooper. The new song Don´t go from Magnification album
released that same year also sounds excellent and harmonious with the
older hits. Roundabout puts the big end to the show with the orchestra
standing by the band, and although it was never one of my favourites, it is
still highly appreciated by the fans.

All in all,
what can you expect of a symphonic rock band accompanied by a symphonic
orchestra? Well, an overdose of symphonic music. The show sometimes feels
excessive, and although I am sure that many Yes fans will enjoy every
minute of it, I found myself a bit bored during some instrumental parts. Maybe
157 minutes of symphonic rock can turn to be too much if you don’t make pauses
or have a couple of bottles of wine while watching the show. The sound quality
is nevertheless excellent and the replacement keyboard player, the young Tom
Brislin connects perfectly with the rest of the band.

For many old
fans and unconditional followers of Yes, this could be probably the definite
DVD to be purchased. In my opinion, although with some brilliant parts, it
turns to be a bit too much excessive.

Rating 3/5

PM Vanhanen to face former girlfriend in court

Vanhanen and (then) Kuronen had a nine-month relationship after the Prime Minister and his wife Merja had announced their divorce in April 2005. After their romance ended, Kuronen frequently appeared in the media to talk about the relationship.

Complaint
In February 2007 Kuronen published her tell-all book, in which she exposed intimate details about the romance and the Prime Minister’s private life. After the publication of the exposé, Vanhanen filed a complaint against its publisher Kari Ojala with the police, who investigated the case to see if charges could be filed.

Vanhanen himself announced on Friday on his web log that his complaint had led to charges and expressed satisfaction that there would be more clarity about “where the boundary of privacy runs”.

Principle
"I want to discuss the principle at stake here,” Vanhanen said to YLE News on Sunday. “Apparently some people think that the prime minister doesn't have the courage to go to court over this, and it seems that there are no limits to what is acceptable. Now we'll see whether these limits exist.”

Sensitive-skinned
Susan Ruusunen and her publisher have denied that they have broken the law by publishing the book. “Our defence will leave from the freedom of speech,” Ojala said in a reaction to Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. “Finns should surely continue to be able to write memoirs in which other people are mentioned.”

“But what do you do when there’s a sensitive-skinned Prime Minister,” the publisher added.

Susan Kuronen changed her last name to Ruusunen, the maidenname of her grand grandmother, earlier this year.

No Sweet Home Chicago!

{mosimage}

"The
atmosphere was amazing! When I was playing, it felt like I was playing to my
friends – the crowd was really responsive and we were all riding a wave upon
which the distinction between performer and audience melted away," L.R.
Phoenix says of the first Floating Cockroach alt.blues festival, held on the
restaurant boat Wäiski in Helsinki on 29th September.

The
English-born Joensuu resident and his "aboriginal" drummer Mika
Vauhkonen kick off the proceedings with a celebration of their brand new EP, The Hypnotic Songs of The Forgotten Dead. The title of the record
being the last reminder of the duo's heavy metal history, they turn in an
energetic set of electric hill country blues; the crowd is gathering, the room
is getting hot.

Next
up is Bullfrog Brown, but as I have the good fortune to constitute 1/3 of that
group, I'm not going to voice an opinion here – festival organizer Jukka
Juhola's kind comment "the gentlemen's live show is great to watch"
will have to do. With Tuomari Nurmio next in line, people keep piling in, and
by the time we finish, there are actually more than 300 people crammed into a
room fit for 250 – that's including the performers and according to Juhola.

"Is
he… alone?!" a long-haired rocker gasps as the honorable Judge is taking
the stage. Yes he is, and has absolutely no problem filling the stage, the room
and the air with his raw and rugged electric blues that sounds positively
ageless. Spicing his set with a few mutilated cover versions ranging from Hank
Williams to the Beatles, Tuomari Nurmio must be the undisputed star of the
evening for many; I tend to agree. The boat is steaming.

A
change of pace, and 22-Pistepirkko's PK Keränen and the Gambian percussionist
Janko Manneh embark on a journey deeper into the vast treasure trove we know as
the blues. Paradoxically, while their set is the most primal and blatantly
African in nature, it is also the most distinctly Finnish-sounding performance
of the night. The people appreciate that, and the house keeps rocking.

Midnight
tolls. By now, it is obvious that this is a festival unlike any other I've
witnessed. The bands are on schedule. The sound is great. The audience seems
happy and genuinely thrilled, and not once has anyone shouted: "Play Paranoid!" Also, and perhaps most strikingly, there is no
banner advertising drinks or newspapers or anything else on the stage – no,
Katja Juhola's fantastic blues paintings provide the perfect backdrop for the
show.

It's
time for Black River Bluesman & The Croaking Lizard, the latest and
greatest of Jukka Juhola's own alt.blues quartets, fresh from the Himalayan
Blues Festival in Kathmandu. Possibly the heaviest act on the bill, the
audience reaction is best illustrated by the fact that this is where the
schedule finally fails: Black River Bluesman's encores make Cosmo Jones late
for the stage.

Towards
the end of the good Bluesman's footstomping set, the rows of the audience seem
to thin somewhat: some have been rocking since 8 p.m. and simply drop, others
run to catch the first thing smoking or – to put it less poetically and more to
the point – to catch the last bus home. But there's plenty to remain, and the
joint is still jumping as Cosmo Jones Beat Machine hits the stage in the wee
hours of the morning. It's a big band, and a loud band, and the crowd is
spellbound by their mixture of eastern melodies, atonal cartoon-soundtrack
sounds and, yes, the blues.

"I think we were successful in creating a whole: each
set fit the spot perfectly, no two bands were alike, and the audience seemed to
dig every performer without reservation," Jukka Juhola says a few days
later. "I think the biggest difference compared to a regular blues
festival was that we didn't get to hear Sweet Home Chicago not once
during the evening – and there were NO wailing guitar solos!"

Indeed, at a time when the Blues In London e-zine is
marketing T-shirts with the happily dyslexic and heartfelt slogan "Clapton
Is Dog", Finland is right on the ball. As plans for next year's fest are being
discussed, the non-profit organization behind it, Alt.Blues Finland ry, will be
putting together a Finnish tour for the Italian Papa Leg Acoustic Duo featuring
Stefania Calandra in February 2008. According to Juhola, that just might
include a Floating Cockroach club night with 3-4 bands; if
not, the alt.blues boat is due to set sail again next September. 

Photos by Mira Kumpulainen

Front page: Bullfrog Brown

Inside: PK Keränen, Tuomari Nurmio, Janko Manneh

Once upon a time in America

The first couple of decades of the 20th century saw a melting pot of people arriving
to Michigan’s Copper Country in USA in search of a better life and work in the mines: Polish, Swedish, Scottish…and Finns, many Finns.

The search of hope turned into disaster for many families, mostly with Finnish roots, with the
death of more than six dozen people in 1913 at the Italian Hall in Calumet, a small village in Michigan that was at the center of the mining industry of the Upper Peninsula.

American-Finnish author Steve Lehto narrates in his new book: Death’s
Door. The truth Behind Michigan’s Largest Mass Murder, how there were many circumstances and inaccurate stories around the tragedy that, even almost one century ago, in need of getting an appropriated explanation.

Death Door

“My family is from the area where the story took place: Michigan’s "Copper Country."  There is a large Finnish community there, even to this day, and this story is legend in that community.  My family was not directly involved in the story but I had always heard about it growing up” says Steve to FREE! Magazine. And no wonder that many decades ago, the Italian Hall tragedy is still very present in the minds of the Finnish community of Michigan.

If you take a look at the list of victims, Finnish names appear in the biggest proportion. Adding the special dramatic circumstance that the majority of victims were just little children who were crushed to death in the stairs of the Hall, were a Christmas Party was being celebrated for the families of the mine workers on strike and presents and candies were handed to the smaller ones.

The main mysteries around the case turn around topics like: did somebody cried fire and provoked
the tragedy or not? Were the doors open or close? Was somebody from the Citizens Alliance the responsible of what happened? Questions with no categorical answers in the book. Lehto recognizes that one of his main goals was to solve some mistakes that he considers appeared before in another book loved by many inhabitants of Michigan area: Rebels on the Range, as well
as solving a historical debt with his community: “The ones I did speak to — about more recent events in the story — were very receptive to the idea.  It seems that everyone thought it was long overdue".

Steve Lehto

But more fascinating than trying to find a guilty person, the book turns to be extremely interesting for having a deeper knowledge of American history, and the worker’s movements and strikes against the power of the proletarians and the mine companies´ owners during the first decades of 19th century. A great effort of
documentation and historical research is clearly poured in the pages of the book. The author reckons: "I cannot begin to estimate the time spent — it would be countless hours.  I know it was about a year or a year and a half from when I first thought of the book until the book was finished.  The research is the hard part; the writing is the easy part".

Being an attorney, Lehto cannot avoid finding a special fascination about the legal aspects that surrounded not only the Italian Hall massacre, but all the happenings around the miners` strikes beforehand. A story that has its own heroes and villains personified by characters like the prosecuting attorney Lucas or the president of the company Calumet & Hecla James MacNaughton.

For those readers interested, this is not the first book written by the author. Previous works include a biography about the fascinating car driver Bobby Isaac and other related to Chrysler’s Turbine Car project of the 1960s. But as he admits about the present work on the facts happened in Calumet
“This book is more of a straight forward history book”.

And indeed it is. For those who are expecting to find a final and definitive answer to the dark sides
of the Italian Hall story, the book can maybe result not as enlightening as they would hope.

Face the book more like a history lesson, easy and entertaining to read, where you can look back
at the past and see old stories of emigrations and memories of your grandparents and how they believed in a better life and the power of workers, but where (as it remains until nowadays) there was also a dark side in the American dream with a lot of space for conspiracies and corruption.

Call a doctor

There must
be something wrong with me. Maybe I should go to the doctors. Or have a
lobotomy. I’ve often suspected it but now I’m quite sure that something is not
quite right with me. Or then there’s something wrong with everybody else.

The reason
for my pondering lies in the fact that I hated The Producers musical yet it is
one of the most popular musicals of all times. Why, oh why? Why does everybody
like it so much? I’m obviously missing the point. There must be something wrong
with me.

I saw the
opening night at the biggest theatre in Finland, the Helsingin
Kaupunginteatteri and that’s all I have to base my opinion on. I haven’t seen
the film, which I hear is a masterpiece in satire, my favourite form of comedy.
The stage production didn’t make me laugh at all. Not once.

In my
opinion The Producers should only be performed at the theatre museums as a cute
relic from the good old times. Why should the tragedy of Nazi Germany still be
given so much time and money on stage when there are tragedies happening at our
doorsteps this very moment?

And don’t
get me started on the way The Producers portrays women. Bloody hell. The long
legged blonde lead is drooling all over any man that cares to show interest in
her. And they all do as she’s well proportioned and giggles happily when the
men call her intelligent when she can answer the phone correctly. The army of
horny old ladies on the other hand chase the men as fast as they can with their
walking frames. They are to be ridiculed and taken an advantage of. They are
happy to depart from their hard earned cash in return to some silly sexual
favours by the leading men. The gay men are promiscuous, superficial and they
all seem to have weak wrists but strong lips. How ever so inventive!

I found The
Producers frightfully tedious and old fashioned. First I suffered from a severe
attack of theatre narcolepsy. It hits me quite often as soon as my bum hits the
red velvet cushions and normally lasts through the whole show only to be helped
by a refreshing walk during the interval. After a while The Producers didn’t
let me sleep though. It was slapping me in my face with its world view that was
not in focus. I simply couldn’t stand it and sneaked out before the end. I went
to the loos to squeeze the mighty pimple throbbing on my chin. Obviously that
was a big no-no as the gods of theatre punished me by making the pimple
infected. The morning after I woke up with a red crusty area the size of an old
man’s ego on my chin. Serves me right for not liking the Producers. 

Bob Geldof in Helsinki: trade vital for end to poverty

The world-famous activist also heavily criticized the ‘subsidies of surpluses’ in Europe, which, according to him, have a huge negative effect on the development of certain African countries. Geldof also stressed the importance of corporate social responsibility.

The seminar was aimed at business executives in Finland and was also attended by Finland’s President Tarja Halonen.

Watch video footage of Geldof’s speech

She’s not an idols star

{mosimage}Janita is
one of the most sensual Finnish singers. A teenage star in Finland, she moved
to New York when she was 17. During eleven years there, Janita has built a
solid career based on an elegant R&B of soulful and jazzy sounds. While on
holidays in Helsinki, the singer took a bit of time to speak with FREE! about her
career and future plans.

How do you
remember your first years in the music business?

I was a
kid, 13-14 years old and I grew up very fast. When I was 17 I felt like an
adult. I wasn’t, though. This time was one of the best parts of my life. I met
a lot of people. Everybody was older than me so I learned a lot from them.
Getting into touring, performing, having an 11 piece band… That was pretty
amazing for such a young age. I was able to fulfill my dreams.

And you
didn’t need to participate in Idols.

No, no.
This happens a long time ago. 15 years ago!

You were
also very young when you decided to move to New York

New York was
something exciting and new. I had some interests from record labels. There was
something going on there. But it has been a struggle to find my place there.
There are so many artists and everybody has to struggle for his existence. I
felt that I had the freedom to really find my own voice. New York gives you the
opportunity to find who you are as a person.

Why did you
decide to go there?

Finland is
a small place. After a while in the business, you know everybody. Everybody is
expecting certain things from you. Growth is harder. Everybody thinks you are
one kind of person, but in reality one is changing all the time. Sometimes when
people expect something from you, you stop growing. In a place like New York
you have to keep growing, to try to find new things. You have to evolve. It’s
lovely to know everyone here in Finland. I love that aspect but it can be
restricting too.

How was
playing live for the first time there?

It was very
liberating. Here everybody knew my face, my name and there I had freedom. Nobody
knew me. Fame can complicate your life.

How do you
feel when you come back to Finland?

It’s great.
I love this country. My roots are here, although I have spent already almost half
of my life in the States. I feel part American, part Finnish. Honestly. But my
roots and my family are here. But I love coming back and spending time in
Finland.

Do you know any
Finnish people there?

I have some
friends and my partner in crime is Finnish. We speak Finnish all the time of
course. I haven’t forgotten it. I speak it perfectly still. And I read books in
Finnish too. I am proud of it. I would hate to lose part of it.

In New
York, you had an accident that it was a turning point for you. What did it
happen?

It was in
my first years there. I was walking down the street and scaffolding fell and
hit my neck and back. It made me realize some things. I used to be very shy.
Typical Finnish: very humble, introverted, trying not to make a big thing about
myself. Finns are brought up that way. But it’s tough when you are too shy to
start creating. For me songwriting was something I only dreamt about it. I
didn’t have the balls to do it. After the accident, I realized how fragile life
is. I needed to express myself and do everything I want to do. You don’t know
how long you are going to be here. Things can change in one moment. That’s when
I started to get over my shyness.

What was
the first song you wrote?

I’ve been
writing some things here and then, but the first real song I wrote was Heaven.
It’s a very easy song, but it has a deeper meaning for me and I know. People
might not realize it or find other meanings.

It must be
funny when people give a different meaning to your songs.

I think
it’s great that you write a song about something that happened to your life and
somebody else finds a different meaning. That’s the whole point of it.
Everybody has their own life and his own way of thinking. That’s very positive.
Nobody has to thinks in the same terms as I do.

Are you afraid
of critics and reviews?

No, because
so far they have been pretty good. There’s no need to be scared. I’m still
finding my way, my audience. I think there are more and more people listening
to my music, but I still have lot of work to do.

Were you in
New York when the 9/11 happened?

I was in
Brooklyn. I heard of it because my mother called me. Everybody was awake in
Finland, but I was sleeping in New York. I turned on the TV and saw what was
happening. I felt it. I felt when the towers came down. All the smoke came to
Brooklyn. The smell of it lasted for four months. You couldn’t escape it. It
stayed in your mind.

Do you
follow Finnish music?

A little
bit. I checked Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat from time to time. I feel proud when
a Finnish band do well. But I don’t listen to the radio that much. I discover
new music from friends, recommendations.

Any favourite
Finnish singers?

I saw Risto
at the Flow festival. It was great. Also Tuomo. And Jaana is my friend and a
wonderful singer. There are many

Your last
album so far is from last year, Seasons of Life. How did it do?

Fine. I’ve
performed around the States a bit and I went to Japan twice. I get emails from
people who really reacted to the album and felt the music. That’s wonderful. I
always wanted to do music that it’s meaningful for people. How many people? It
does not really matter.

How was
Japan?

I loved it.
I’ve only been to Tokyo, though. But for a Finn, it feels pretty easy, almost
like home. The culture, the quite and shy style of the Japanese people… It
feels easy for me.

In that
album you did a cover of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence. Was it your choice?

The label
wanted a cover and luckily I could decide which one. Normally covers are
no-brainers. You usually choose something easy. I could have done something
from Stevie Wonder, for example. But this time I wanted to do something
different and Depeche Mode has always been one of my favorite bands, so I
thought it would be a good idea to make this cover. It’s a beautiful song.

Are you
working on new music?

I keep on
doing new music, but it is going to be more edgy. I’ve been listening to a lot
of alternative rock and some folk music. I feel like those things are
influencing me. Before I was more into soul and jazz. Now I’m expanding my
horizons.

What are
your favourite bands and artists at the moment?

Death Cab
For Cutie, Keen, Jeff Buckley, Crosby, Stills & Nash and one Brazilian
singer from the seventies, Milton Nascimento.

 

Photos by Eduardo Alonso 

HIM sets Finnish record in U.S.

In the band’s home country, Venus Doom entered at number 2 in the official album chart, where it is currently standing at number 3, behind Tuhannen riemua by Lauri Tähkä & Elonkerjuu and Eppu Normaali’s Syvään päähän.

Venus Doom has also done relatively well in album charts in Sweden (14) and Italy (20), with more moderate successes in Britain (31), Australia (32), Ireland (36), the Netherlands (36) and New Zealand (38).

HIM’s previous album Dark Light made it to number 18 in the Billboard 200 chart.

Get On!!

{mosimage}Ganes, the long awaited and much advertised film about
one of the pioneering Finnish rock and roll bands, opens today. Eero Milonoff, Olavi Uusivirta and Jussi
Nikkilä bring the Hurriganes to
the silver screen on the second film directed by JP Siili. Get on and rock and roll all night long!

In the
seventies, Hurriganes became the most successful band in the history of Finnish
rock and roll, achieving popularity and recognition even outside of Finland.
Its original vinyl records are highly appreciated in the second hand market and
they cannot be found for less than 30 euro. Ganes,
the film, tells how the band reached the top from the neighbourhood of Pohjois
Haaga in Helsinki. But the film focuses mainly on Remu Aaltonen, drummer and founder of the Hurriganes, whose life at
the time was pretty peculiar and that includes learning to play drums in jail,
among other adventures. “This is something that we discover while writing the
film”, producer Aleksi Bardy
explains to FREE!, “In order to make a dramatic movie, it has to be also
personal. It cannot be equally and democratic on three persons. We had to
concentrate on one person. Remu is the most prominent of all the Hurriganes and
his life story is particular intriguing, with his difficult background”.

From this
point of view, there is a dramatic plot that makes the film interesting,
besides the musical context. Director JP Siili, who works with Bardy again
after his first film Hymypoika
(2003), admits that “it was very important to tell the story so it would be
attractive not only for fans of the Hurriganes, but also for those people who
have never heard about ‘Ganes’”.

The story
and the Hurriganes weren’t unknown to the director. Indeed, he was very
connected to the band. “I grew up in the same neighbourhood. My elder sister
went to the same class with Cisse,
the bass player”, Siili remembers.” I felt very interested in going back to
this time. And I was a fan too. The first record I taped for myself was Rock And Roll All Night Long.

{sidebar id=25}Siili worked
with Bardy again after both did the director’s first feature film in 2003, Hymypoika. Both acknowledge that it was
long project since the writer Antero Arjatsalo (Riisuttu Mies) started working on the script in 2001. According to
the producer, there was a lot of background documentation to work with and many
music rights to solve. Also there was a lot of work on the script and many
versions were written. “When I started working on the project, we still wrote
for 13 or 14 months. I start with version four or five and we finally shot version 14”,
the director explains. “One of the most difficult things was to find the
balance between a dramatic story and the real story of Hurriganes”.

Obviously,
to recreate such popular characters, casting was a very important aspect. “JP
Siili pointed out that he wanted the cast to perform the music themselves”,
says Bardy. “That’s why he looked for musicians who can act, like Olavi
Uusivirta or actors who can play like Jussi Nikkilä, who was the lead guitar of
band before becoming an actor. The question of who Remu would be was more
difficult. We found the right person in Eero Milonoff, who didn’t know how to
play or how to sing, so he was taught from zero. It is impressive how well he
learned and adapted to that role.” This way, the music that appears in the movie
is mostly re-recordings done by the actors.

However,
lead actor Eero Milonoff will not change his profession. “No, I won’t become a
rock star”, he says to FREE!. “Maybe it will become a hobby. I had never played
before. It was fun and difficult. I started playing with hand and doing basic
things, then playing with the band and rehearsing with them, which was very
helpful for me because both Olavi and Jussi are musicians”. To prepare his
role, Eero had first hand help from Remu Aaltonen himself. “I met him a lot. We
went through the script because he has a very particular style of speaking. That’s
very important for the role. I went to his place in Porvoo with the script and
a minidisc and I recorded how he spoke and we added those expressions to the script”.

Films about
musicians have gotten very popular in Hollywood with blockbusters like Ray or Walk The Line, so what a Finnish production can add to this
particular genre? According to Aleksi Bardy, Ganes has certain characteristics
that make it very Finnish. “It’s a very edgy movie. It has some Finnish characteristics
like guts, ‘sisu’. It is also a portrait of the time. It shows how Finland was before
rock and roll came. Ganes is very Finnish. It is not as polished as other
foreign films tend to be. But I think Walk The Line is a great film and in the process of making this film, we
follow many of the good things of it with great admiration”.

If you know
and like the Hurriganes, you will find this to be the perfect film. If you don’t
know them, this is a great opportunity to learn about one of the most important
moments in Finnish rock and roll. And in any case, you will see an intense
personal story, the one about a natural born rocker Remu Aaltonen.

India in Helsinki

{mosimage}One more year you can get a taste of exoticness and discover a bit more
about the  Asian country in the festival Colours
of India that will be held next Sunday, 30 September in the Cable Factory,
Helsinki.

Everybody in Finland
seems to complain lately about the lack of time to dedicate to other activities
due to the amount of work, even if many people leave their offices at 4 or 5 p.m.  This is not the case of the brave volunteers
who formed the non-profit organization Aarambh, who are able every year
to dedicate some extra hours for a good cause: the promotion of primary
education and basic health care for people with limited access in the remote
regions of developing
economies.

The idea came some years ago from some people coming mostly from India and Pakistan, well
settled in Finland,
who wanted to take advantage of their network and privilege situation to make a
difference and help others back in the harsh reality of their native countries.
As Rajive Acharya, one of the responsible of the project explains to
us:  “As the
principle of synergy works wonders, Aarambh through the mobilization of
well-meaning and dedicated individuals aims at doing something for the
impoverished in the developing countries”.

So what the visitor
can expect from this year festival? The organizers seem to have activities for
all kind of tastes. If you like Indian food and products, or you are planning
to make a trip there in the near future; this is an excellent opportunity to
get to know all what you need. Meanwhile you can assist to the performance of Bharatnatyam,
a form of Indian classical dance, get close to the marvelous world of Indian
cinema industry with a special Bollywood dance by Etnofit dance
group or try your abilities in the “Sports Corner” playing some Indian Street
games (we have not been informed that this would involve messing around with
tigers or elephants, so you can play them safe!). The children of Steiner School
will take part in the festival as well with a theatrical presentation

Instead of sleeping
all Sunday and watching again the boring TV, do something different and fun and
drag yourself to the Cable Factory in Helsinki
to enjoy all the excitement that India and its culture can offer to
you. 

Colours of India on 30.September.2007 at Puristamo, Cable Factory.
The event is open
between 11:00 hrs – 18:00 hrs.
Entry ticket: 2
euro for adults and 1 euro for Children aged 7-13 years.
More information about Aarambh activities in: www.aarambh.fi

 

Porcupine Tree concert to a larger venue

Those who already bought the ticket can change their tickets in the evening of the concert at the Jäähalli box office. Porcupine Tree will play also in Tampere the following day. The opening act for both concerts will be Finnish band Hidria Spacefolk. The band's only concert in Finland so far was at Ilosaarirock Festival last summer.

The English band is one of the most acclaimed progressive rock bands to come up in the last 20 years. Lead by guitarist Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree has released 12 albums. The last one, Fear of a Blank Planet, released last spring, features the guest appearances of Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson and legendary King Crimson leader Robert Fripp.

Porcupine Tree: official site | MySpace

Hidria Spacefolk: official site | Wikipedia

Porcupine Tree + Hidria Spacefolk
15.12 Jäähalli, Helsinki – Tickets 42e
16.12 Pakkahuone, Tampere – Tickets 38e

The experimental accordion

{mosimage}Kimmo Pohjonen, one of the most experimental artists
in Finland, will present his work UNIKO once again in Helsinki. This
performance (25 September, Savoy Theater) will serve as a warm up for the US
premiere on October.

Uniko is a crossover work by Kimmo Pohjonen and
Samuli Kosminen. It features an instrumental line-up that includes accordion,
voice, percussion-sampler, and a string quartet. On top of that electronic
sound processing provides the essential strand of the work.

The piece was world premiered at the Huvila tent
during the Helsinki Festival in 2004. It was performed by Kluster duo (Pohjonen
and Kosminen) with Kronos Quartet. After that it was performed three times: with
Kronos Quartet in Moskow and Modle Norway and with Proton String Quartet in Leigo,
Estonia. Samuli Kosminen and Kronos will be
substituted by Juuso Hannukainen
and again by Proton.

{sidebar id=24}However,
the original line-up will travel to New York in the beginning of October. Uniko
will premiere in the United States on 3 October at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music for a total of three performances.

In
February 2008, Kluster and Proton will perform Uniko at Köln Philharmonie.


Musicians 

Kimmo Pohjonen –
accordion, voice
Juuso Hannukainen – accordion samples, string samples, voice samples
Teppo Ali-Mattila – violin
Siiri Rasta – violin
Maarit Holkko – viola
Veli-Matti Iljin – cello
with Heikki Iso-Ahola – sound engineer, sound design
Mikki Kunttu – light design

Tuesday 25.9.2007 – 19.30

Savoy Theater, Helsinki
Tickets 20/15e

{mov}kalma{/mov}

 

Front page photo by Milena Strange

Name Calling

What mental image comes to mind when you
read the name Antonio Díaz? What about Eduardo Alonso? Forget the fact that
they are coincidentally the same names as the FREE! editors, but concentrate on
the subconscious photo-fit that the names conjure. Are they handsome or are
they ugly? Are they muscular or are they wobbly around the edges? Are they
somebody you would like to meet for a coffee or would you rather snub their
ugly wobbly faces?


Names are the real first impression that we
make of people, since they walk a few paces ahead of us on class registers,
passports and job applications leaving us at the mercy of somebody's mental
interpretation long before we make a physical appearance. I know because
countless people in Finland and online have made the gender mistake with Asa,
but I guess my parents made the error first – it's a girl, Mr and Mrs Butcher!

Asa is both a male and female name
depending upon the country, yet in Sweden Åsa is only a female name, which is
why the gender confusion occurs a little more often here in Scandinavia.
Despite countless people asking about my weird name, to which I always say,
"Unique!", it has served me well, with people remembering me over all
the Johns, Roberts, Michaels and Williams. A teacher once caught me running in
the corridor during my first year and he then caught me doing something else a
few years later, so he unfairly said, "I've spoken to you before,
Asa!" 

There are certain names that are
intrinsically burned into our minds as only one person, for example in Robbie
Williams' biography he writes that some of the members of his rehab group
complained about constant namedropping, so they asked him to only use first
names: "Well, Elton and I…" There is really only one Elton in the world,
there will only ever be one Elvis, there is only one Clint and there is
definitely only one Harrison. 

"Hello, my name is Adolf!" isn't
really going to get you invited to many Bar Mitzvahs, even though over 50 boys
in Finland were christened with the name over the past seven years. The names Adolf,
Osama, Saddam, Idi, Fidel and Pol all have a slightly tarnished reputation
thanks to just one user and that's all it takes. Why do we think that somebody
christened Adolf or Osama will actually turn into Hitler or bin Laden? Don't we
realise that it took a great deal more than their first name to turn them into
monsters? Or did it?

Can the ladies imagine moaning Johnny, Albert or
Donald during the throws of passion? 

We do rely heavily upon the associations
made with names and it is something that has been embedded in our psyche from
our nickname days at primary school. How can you be considered cool with a name
like Nigel, Norman or Gerald? Can the ladies imagine moaning Johnny, Albert or
Donald during the throws of passion? Dwayne, Melvin and Ralph are, well, do you
really need me to explain? I know this is purely personal and you are probably
foaming at the mouth in anger, but I'd guess your name was featured in that
paragraph.

The Finns among you are breathing a sigh of
relief at being ignored, but, then again, you are all named Juhani, Johanna,
Tapani, Maria, Tapio, Mika, Marko, Petri or Minna, so it doesn't really matter
– hello to Jussi too! It was refreshing to read in the Finnish media recently
that the European Court of Human Rights had overturned the Finnish authority's refusal
to allow the forename Axl Mick, which is a real rock and roll name. The days of
boring first names should come to an end and with it a new dawn of how the hell
do you spell that?

Surprise performance Sigur Rós in Helsinki

The previously announced screening of the documentary about Sigur Rós’ home coming tour on Thursday the 28th of September at Andorra cinema has been cancelled.

Home – Sigur Rós will see its world premiere at the Reykjavík International Film Festival in Iceland, three days ahead of the Finnish premiere in Helsinki.

People who have tickets for the screening at Andorra can buy tickets for the Sigur Rós gig and closing screening at the pre-sale on Wednesday the 26th of September. The next day tickets will become available to others as well.

Sigur Rós last performed in Finland during two sold-out concerts at Helsinki’s Kulttuuritalo in 2005.


Sigur Rós: official site | MySpace | photo blog

Heima / Home – Sigur Rós: trailer [Quicktime, 4:17 min.]

Rakkautta & Anarkiaa 20th Helsinki International Film Festival

 

Related:

Love, Cinema and Anarchy