So Fresh, So Clean

For the last few days I've mostly been washing or cleaning something, clothes and windows mostly. Yesterday I was back in Joensuu, probably for the last time (for now at least), just for the day to take care of some things at work. I was planning to take some more photos there, but I didn't because it was so cloudy and rainy. But here's one of where I'm sitting at the moment:

Today I went to get some books from the library of the Theatre Academy and to get the keys for my room at the university (that I'll be sharing with Merja), and ended up spending most of the day in the city. Among other things I wanted to buy some CDs to get some new music to listen to. And I did, just not the ones I had been thinking about (The Roots & Sting), but these four, all of them were on sale:

• The Five Corners Quintet: Chasin' the Jazz Gone By (2005)
• Daniel Lanois: Shine (2003)
• OutKast: Stankonia (2000)
• Tom Waits: Bone Machine (1992)

A funny selection, all of them are so different from the rest. Although Tom Waits and Daniel Lanois are actually on the same record label these days. Daniel Lanois sounds the same as he used to when I listened to his songs the last time, must have been like ten years ago (I feel so old!), but there are more intrumentals. Maybe I should dig out the old ones, I have them somewhere on cassette, I like his sound, but the songs on this album don't seem very memorable. Bone Machine was also a favourite of mine back then, I thought it would be nice to have it on CD. It still sounds good and it's still almost impossible to know what's supposed to be serious and what ironic.

The Five Corners Quintet album (yes they are from Finland) might become the album of the summer for me, seems like something nice to have playing in the background when the sun is shining but also worth listening to more carefully. Or that's the first impression. Except for the track This could be the start of something (an old song by Steve Allen), the vocals by Mark Murphy on that one remind me too much of Frank Sinatra, very annoying. Apart from that it the album sounds kind of traditional (jazzy) and very trendy at the same time.

And OutKast, well, there are the hit songs + Humble Mumble with Erykah Badu. The rest isn't that interesting really.

Home again

As not to neglect my non-finnish speaking friends, this one in english: I moved back to Helsinki on Wednesday and now I've finally unpacked most of my stuff. The new place is much nicer than the appartment I had in Joensuu, although there are still quite a few things to be fixed. But I think I'll like it here, I'll take some photos when I get everything ready. Merja took some photos when we had finished carrying things in - which took only about half an hour! - but I haven't seen them yet.

Obviously I haven't had much time to enjoy Helsinki yet, except for the radio channels I've missed, of which I've been mostly listening to Groove FM while unpacking. Other nice ones are Radio Helsinki and a new one called Bassoradio that can be listened to online as well. And I used to like YleQ also, but there have been so many changes in the radio programming of YLE (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) that the channel is probably not the same as it was two years ago. I must be some kind of a media addict, the first things I set up here were the TV and the stereo (to listen to radio). And now I also have an internet connection here at home...

What else is there to tell, the sun has been shining and I'll be spending midsummer in the city. Feeling tired but pretty happy.

[Added June 25th:] The photos by Merja are on my flickr page, if you really want to see them... it's hard to look good when you have been sweating all day.

[Added July 27th:] I've been quite pleasantly surprised with my old favourites Groove FM & YleQ. Although both use playlists (as far as I know), the variety of music is quite wide, especially for Groove FM, which is after all a commercial channel. Both actually play quite a lot of songs in other languages than English, which is rarely the case for any of the other radios that play popular music. Well, maybe that isn't that amazing for Groove FM, because they play a lot of jazz (there's some kind of Brazilian bossa nova playing right now), but just today they played Amadou & Mariam on YleQ, right between some hit songs you might hear on any other station also. Cool!

Laatikko laatikon päällä

Päivän uutiset: viimeiset tentit korjattu (ei yhtään hylättyä eikä edes ykkösiä) ja setä haki pesukoneen pois. Iloista asiassa oli varsinkin se, etten itse joutunut konetta kantamaan. Iloista, ja vähän kummallista, oli myös tavata ruokalassa teinivuosien tuttu Tero, joka on Joensuussa edustamassa Nokiaa kuva-analyysikonferenssissa. Päällimmäisenä mielessä pyörii keskiviikko ja muutto, jo ajatus pakkaamisesta stressaa. Selkäkin on valmiiksi kipeä... oli jo ennen kuin aloitin pakkaamisen eilen. Kaksi laatikollista cd:itä on pakattu, kirjoja samoin pari, mappeja yksi ja muutama astioita, ties kuinka monta laatikollista vielä jäljellä. Tervetuloa vaan kantamaan, Joensuussa klo 9 alkaen ja Helsingissä sitten joskus klo 17 jälkeen.

Samaan aikaan toisaalla

Klassinen musiikki jaksaa näköjään edelleen kuohuttaa mieltäni, vaikka olen siitä luullut luopuneeni jo vuosia sitten. Että pitikin sitten mennä ja kommentoida tuntemattoman Klasari-kirjoittelijan hengentuotoksia. "Classical music defended against its devotees" tai jotain sen suuntaista???

Helsinki on jännä paikka

Pitääpä nyt kuitenkin äkkiä blogittaa, että katsokaa tämä Töölönlahden veroparatiisi -sivusto, kun se on niin käsittämättömän hieno. Tai ainakin käsittämätön, mutta kuitenkin hauska ja kantaaottava ja kaikkea muutakin, mitä omien nettisivujen toivoisi olevan. Joillain on aikaa väsätä.

Vaikka näyttääpä olevan mullakin. Näin muuton alla on sitten tullut tehtyä suuri määrä kaikenlaisia asioita, joita olen viimeiset kaksi vuotta lykännyt ajatellen, että no teen sitten joskus kun on aikaa. Että nyt on sitten (melkein) kaikki senegalilaiset kasetit siirretty cd:lle ja 1990-luvun kirjeenvaihdot saatu järjestykseen. Videoiden kanssa ois vielä tekemistä. Tai sitten vois ihan oikeesti kirjottaa sen medioitumisartikkelin loppuun. No, onhan sivu tekstiä päivässäkin ihan hyvin, onhan?

Mutta nyt on lähdettävä kotiin ja sieltä junalle. Huomenna Janin ja Marikan häät. (Sitä ennen eka yö uudessa kodissa ja uudessa sängyssä.) Ja toivon vaan, että mahdun kauniiseen indigonsiniseen hame-pusero-yhdistelmääni... Vähän huono juttu, kun Senegalissa ollessa laihtuu ja sitten teettää itselleen vaatteita. Vaikka ei pitäisi tietysti lihoa, mutta mitäpä muita iloja ihmisellä Joensuussa olisi kuin syödä suklaata ja surffailla netissä.

Art and politics

Another photo from my trip Helsinki: a sculpture (or whatever) of our dear president and her two cats outside Kiasma. I really like this one, especially the cats...

I just realized that history repeats itself in strange ways. When Tarja Halonen was elected president in 2000, I was in Senegal, and next year she will (hopefully) be re-elected, and again I will (hopefully) be in Senegal. And again I won't be able to vote, but I trust the Finnish people on this one.

Joensuu - Helsinki - Joensuu

Jostain kumman syystä kirjoittelen kuulumisista enimmäkseen palattuani Helsingistä Joensuuhun, mistähän johtuisi... Tässä siis Helsingin reissun pikakelausta: Lauantai ja sunnuntai kuluivat Maailma kylässä -festarilla Kaisaniemessä, ja siellä tietysti tuli nähtyä myös suhteellisen paljon tuttuja. Tämän viestin lopussa on linkkejä kuviin. Myös tuolla festarin sivuilla on joitain kuvia, ja Tuijakin oli taas kuvannut varsin ahkerasti. Musiikillisesti festari ei ollut kovin kiinnostava tällä kertaa, senegalilainen Bogostyle oli suorastaan pettymys. Tai eipä niissäkään mitään vikaa ollut, mutta vastaavia räppibändejä on maailmassa ihan riittämiin. Ilmankos en ollut bändistä kuullut aiemmin. Mutta olihan siellä ihan hienojakin esityksiä, ei sen puoleen, hyvältä kuulostivat ainakin Kimmo Pohjonen ja espanjalainen Cheb Balowski. No, tärkeintä kai oli muutenkin tapahtuman sosiaalinen ulottuvuus - ja ruoka (intialaista ja falafelia). Lisäksi alkoi tuntua edes vähän kesäiseltä, koska onnistuin polttamaan naamani ja käsivarteni lauantaina. Sunnuntaina sitten saikin taas palella. Maanantai ja tiistai jatkuivat sosiaalisissa merkeissä, välillä tuli melkein kiire juostessa tapaamisesta toiseen. Mutta jossain välissä onnistuin kuitenkin ostamaan itselleni sängyn ja hakemaan uuden asunnon avaimet ensiseltä omistajalta. Keskiviikkona pääsin sitten mittailemaan asuntoa. Sisustussuunnitelma alkaakin olla jo valmis... mutta vielä kolme viikkoa muuttoon.

And the same (or something similar) in English, just in case, I have no idea who reads these things, except for two people who have told me they do. So, I just came back from Helsinki, where my life seems to be located already, although I will still be here in Joensuu for the next three weeks. I spent saturday and sunday at the World Village Festival and met quite a lot of friends there (as I expected and hoped I would). Below are the links to my photos. There are some photos also on the festival website, and Tuija has taken quite a few as well. Musically the festival wasn't that interesting this time, the Senegalese band Bogostyle was actually a disappointment. They were ok really, but there must be thousands of similar rap bands in the world. No wonder that I had never heard from them before. There were some nice performances also, at least Kimmo Pohjonen and the Spanish band Cheb Balowski sounded good. Anyway, the most important thing for me was the social part of the whole event - and the food (Indian & falafel). And it started to feel like summer after getting my face and arms burned in the sun on saturday. Well, on sunday it was freezing again. On monday and tuesday I met more friends and bought a new bed for the new appartment in Helsinki. And got the keys from the previous owner, so that on wednesday I got to go and admire my new home. I'm looking forward to moving.

Links to photos of friends at the festival: (Saturday) Sanni & Merja & Reetta, almost-relative Leena with her dog, (Sunday) Sanni with her little daughter, Mika & Hanna-Mari, Lissu & Aleksi and my sister Ilona with others watching Maryam Mursal. You can see me on Merja's photos: [1] [2] [3] [4].