Author: Maila-Kaarina

FREE! Porn

Our cover story
aims at giving a glimpse into the porn industry in Finland. Even when being a relatively
small market, there are several native stars with interesting opinions to be
heard. The small size of the market also makes it perfect for new genres and
trends in making porn films, such as amateur commercial short films.

The music market
in Finland
is also small, but Finnish bands are ready to jump overseas. Some days ago,
several bands traveled to Austin, Texas, to participate in the South by
Southwest festival – this must be one of the largest music festivals in the world.
Over one week, it unites hundred of bands of any style and origin. Eleven bands
from Finland played there: Callisto, Lodger, KTU, I Walk the Line, Rubik,
Astrid Swan, Lapko, Disco Emsemble, Irina Bjorklund & Peter Fox,
22-Pistepirkko and The Crash. This is a good example that Finnish rock music is
something other than Lordi. In this issue you will read about the band Rubik discussing
their debut album only a few days before leaving to the United States. Before
traveling to Texas, Kimmo Pohjonen (of KTU) also spoke to FREE! Magazine. He is
an interesting character who spans different genres with his accordion, from
folk to avant garde, when not scoring music for films.

Don’t stop there!
You will find many more fascinating topics on comics, exhibitions, opera,
historical figures, curiosities and cinema, plus the best tips for your FREE!
time.

Whether you decide
to relax and watch some porn or prepare your schedule for the massive number of
summer festivals, we are sure that spring will be an exciting warming up season
for you. Of course, full of FREE! experiences!

Cover story Misc

Hurraa for children!

The minimum age for audience members for one of the productions
premiering at the festival couldn't be much lower: crawling and walking age
children. Working group Anttonen, Nuotio, Davies
offers them Rapurytmikarnevaali, an
action-packed crab-crawl rhythm and salsa carnival with songs that will make
everybody want to swing.

{mosimage}Children over five can
enjoy Sammakkoprinsessa (The Frog
Princess), a mix of fairytale, opera and puppet theatre, based on classic
folktales. While one of the many acts for 7 to 12-year-olds is Klokbornin Jättiläisjamit (Klokborn’s
Giant Jam), a show that combines shadow theatre with a wide variety of music
styles and brings to life the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel, created by 15th
century French writer Rabelais.

The oldest non-adults
are well catered for with Idiothello,
a joint production by the Åbo Svenska Teater and the Von Krahl theatre in
Tallinn. Directed and choreographed by Muscovite Sasha Pepelyaev, the show draws upon two classical masterpieces,
Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and
Shakespeare’s Othello. The language
used is Swedish, but the piece is performed in a physical way with little
speech.

The Hurraa! Festival
offers children many fun and exciting experiences, but also takes up some
serious topics like bullying, the divorce of parents, a mother’s depression and
children’s rights and fears. Surkeus
& Kurjuus (Gloom & Doom), for example, is a play for children aged
8-12 and broaches the fear after change and separation, plus how to conquer it.
Pikku Piru (Little Devil) is aimed at
the same age group and follows the story of a little boy who is bullied at
school, but whose parents are too busy to help him.

The festival culminates
with the Näyteikkuna (Display window)
at the East-Helsinki Cultural Centre Stoa on March 16th and 17th, offering
non-stop theatre for children of all ages, even for babies. The events at Stoa
end with a workshop and seminar for makers of youth theatre with playwrights Jeremy Turner from Britain and Maria Ines
Falconi from Argentina.

The Hurraa! Festival is
organized by the cultural departments of the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and
Vantaa in cooperation with the Finnish ASSITEJ centre, Helsinki’s Theatre
Museum and the cultural department of Kauniainen.

The performances take place at cultural centres, youth
centres, multipurpose buildings and schools throughout Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa
and Kauniainen.

Tickets 4-5 euros, festival pass for all performances on
16th and 17th March at Stoa 20 euros.

Full details on all the acts (in Finnish and Swedish, with
some summaries in English), locations and the festival programme: www.hurraa.org

Blogs FREE! Blog

Will you take me?

FREE! Magazine
offers a new look at Finnish culture. But hey, it’s in English. That’s
right! There is already a good bunch of immigrants in Finland. Maybe
you are even one of them. We are sure many of them miss reading a
magazine or a newspaper they can easily understand.

However, FREE!
is not only for immigrants. Even more than Swedish, English is the
second language in Finland. How often do you hear the English language
while walking down Esplanadi or shopping in Kamppi? Finns are very
exposed to foreign media and the Internet has blurred the language
boundaries making English the common ground.

Still, the language does not explain why FREE!
is different. Our magazine features original in-depth articles and
interviews, with the aim of showing the wide array of cultural
happenings and products in Finland. If, for some reason or another, we
are all stuck in the country, let’s have some fun. It has a lot to
offer. FREE! is created in an honest and passionate way.

Within
the pages of the first issue, you will find author Mikael Niemi talking
about his latest book and the Keränen brothers of 22-Pistepirkko
pass-by to comment upon their albums and projects. Comic artist Kaisa
Leka starts her tour around the world in our pages, while drummer Jay
Burnside explains the secrets of the new Flaming Sideburns album; even
the Ovi Bad Boys sneak into the FREE! pages.

You might
wonder what does culture means. To us, culture is about fun. It is
about entertainment. Let’s put political fights aside, let’s forget the
work problems. Take a big box of popcorn and watch a movie; pour a
glass of your favorite drink and read a book. But we are not naïve
either, so don’t expect only pop stories…

The team of FREE!
Magazine has worked more hours than a 7-Eleven to create its high
quality content and design. We hope you appreciate it. Visit our
website and tell us your feedback. We want FREE! to become a magazine for everyone.

Every month FREE!
Magazine will hit the streets with new exciting content and design.
Next time you see it, don’t leave it alone in the corner, just…

Take me! I’m FREE!