Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

Seleção!!!

Posted by jukkahoo

Brrrrraaaaaaaaazzzzzzzziiiiiillllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[samba] Auriverde rules! What could be more "beautiful game" than that? Adriano! Kaká! Ronaldinho! And Adriano again! 4-1!

Did you see how Cicinho played? The tiny man assisted in all four goals. Magnificent! He may well be the answer for Cafú´s probable departure from the international games in the near future (he did leave Auriverde after Japan, but he seems to have changed his mind at some point). Sadly, Gilberto is no Roberto Carlos, even though he isn't bad. Not just... great enough. If only Roque Junior wouldn't be Carlos Alberto Parreira's backrubber or summat.

And finally Kaká woke up. A lot of work during previous four matches, but little to show for it. Juninho Pernambucano played (what, a game and a half?), scored a glorious goal and showed amply why he is the heart and soul of Olympic Lyonnais. Kaká needs to play like this (and like he does with AC Milan) in order to keep his position. But then again, it's CAP, he is notorious for sticking with the system, and at present the system is Kaká with Ronaldinho. We'll see what happens next year, when the three champions (Il Phenomena, Il Pendolino and RC) are thrown into the mix.  Ronaldo AND Adriano up? Robinho and Ronaldinho passing the ball on up-midfield and Kaká with Whoever-likes-to-defend behind them? With Roberto Carlos and Cafú (or my new favourite Cicinho) running the sides. Could Ze Roberto or Emerson take Roque Junior's place?!! Please...?

And Adriano! Il Imperatore was sublime tonight. Two outstanding goals and great moves through-out the game. That left feet is worth its weigh in gold-pressed platinums. And more. Much more.

The Canaries are now the reigning World Champions, Confederation Cup and Copa America Champions. Rather impressive. A week ago the under-21 team were still the reigning champs. And I believe the under-17 team champions are... Brazil!

AURIVERDE!!!! [/samba]

(Um, yes... the Swecon report. RSN. Meanwhile, read what Tero has to say about it.)

Take a survey

Posted by Sari

Legolas 2/2005

Posted by jukkahoo

No, not a Swecon report, yet. Just a small personal note. The new ish of Legolas came down the mailhatch this morning. And it's looking good. A very nice cover by Tonja Goldblatt. The new font (since the beginning of this year) makes the zine look distinctively Legolas and besides, I like it. The stories are short and succint. Ninni's illos to the short story are like I expected: uniquely hers, yet oddly "just right" with the story. (And the story was still good, even though some of the suggestions I made were ignored - hey, it's not my story, so it's OK.)

Order Legolas, now. It is a good fantasy fanzine.

Another thing I wanted to note was that Tähtivaeltaja Prize was noted by the Channel 4's Text-TV. Hopefully this means more exposure for the nominees - and the whole field as well.

Next time: Conceive 2005! RSN!

It is catching on

Posted by Sari

Blogging, I mean. I am thinking of creating some sort of blogroll on the left of the blog to accommodate the increasing amount of friends who blog. Latest additions are the indifferent-to-pets cuteness-challenged Marko and the brother-out-law. To welcome them here is a  cute dog for Marko and something China related to Teemu.

Post edited year and a half later to remove the dog link because it screwed up our stats.

Lepää rauhassa, yhdyssana

Posted by Sari

Alaovella oli lappu: löydetty Silmä Lasit. Eiköhän ala olla jo aika julistaa yhdyssana yhtä kuolleeksi kuin possessiivisuffiksi. Huokaus.

Ken Burns Effect

Posted by Sari

Everybody and their sister is saying this but it is still true: Digibox is a worth-wile investment just because YLE Teema. Almost every day there is something really worth watching. At the moment my favourite is Ken Burn's documentary on American Civil war. Burns is justly famous for his documentaries, in fact his way of uniting spoken dialogue with zooming in and out of stills has become such a part of film-making that the zooming and panning effect is actually called Ken Burns Effect.

I love Burns documentaries, propably most because he is really good at picking interesting subjects. His historical documentaries have a pretty impressive range from Frank Lloyd Wright to Baseball  and from the history of Radio to American Suffragettes, and they all manage show light on one more piece of America.

Burns does follow the same pattern which can be a bit boring (you can and you really should download an absolutely brilliant Burns spoof "Old Negro Space Program" here), but the makers have made a real effort of digging up material for their films. The amount of pictures, paintings, letters, diaries and other documents make the story intimate and interesting. Even though his narrator frames the story and he obviously has chosen his original material to match, the scope of the narrative mixed with his nose for genuinely good human interest stories balance films out nicely.

Ken's brother Ric is also a maker of documentaries and had produced my favourite documentary ever: The history of New York. Last time I was over there I bit the bullet and bought the whole glorious fifteen hours of it. Now if YLE would buy that. Or better yet, make good historical documentaries. Sodan ja Rauhan miehet was the last good one, and that film is about quarter of a century old...

Edited to Add: Shelby Foote, the honey-voiced novelist/amateur historian who was the main talking head in the Civil War documentary died on last Monday night

Dark Lord of Dialogue Strikes Again!

Posted by jukkahoo

Not really going to go on about the One with a name that screams dyslexia. Just wanted to let you know that I saw it with my brother-out-law and neither of us were really that impressed. I even less than Teemu. Darth Lucas can't write dialogue worth a toffee and most of his choices for dramatics are questionable, to say the least. ("The least", he said with a wry smile.) Then again there's this POV.

Two things, neither having anything to do with the work of the carp-lord.

First: I'm going to Göteborg, in order to attend the Swecon (Conceive) 2005, with Ben and Tero. Leaving tomorrow via Turku, so I'm probably taking a 6PM'ish train. Charles Stross will be there with us. I'm coming back to Helsinki on Tuesday. Probably. Hopefully with a report or some such.

Second: Our (that's Juri Nummelin and me) reference book on Translated Horror Authors (Ulkomaisia kauhukirjailijoita, by BTJ) is nearly done. We just got the first proofs today and we're supposed to find and correct all the remaining errors and whatnot's by Friday morning. And I was planning on taking it easy, while Sari is away (she and the rest of the Polvinen women are in Mäntyharju), but evidently not. I'm slightly miffed about this one, since I really would've loved to have been able to read the proofs a LOT more thorougfully, preferably with additional pair(s) of eyes. No can do. :(

Ah weeeeeeelll, as they say. I'm also going to miss most of the Confederations Cup and World Junior Football Champs due to Conceive. (Funnily enough, the 2002 Footbal World Champs were also held during a Swecon, in Linköping that time. Is there a Football conspiracy among the Swedish fandom?)

Gotta go, lots to read. Ta!

Music meme with a twist

Posted by Sari

Blogmemes have changed into chain-letters, when did this happen? Why did I not get the memo? How annoying. The whole idea of a meme is to see how it spreads viral-like in a community. Directing it like a chain-letter takes all the fun out of the idea. So I just decided to kidnap the latest music meme and change it a bit. Instead of givin you six of my favourite songs (how do you do that anyhow, my “favourites” playlist has at least 200 songs on it at the moment), I give you six of my favourite covers.

I have always liked cover versions. Maybe because my first real love-affair with music was with classical music where one of the geat joys is to own both Furtwängler's and Harnoncourt's Beethoven's Fifth, and love them both for being very different.

The range in classical music is of course much narrower than with modern covers which are all over the place compared to the originals. The really bad ones are usually just add a techno-beat to 80s pop-classic, but some are really innovative and different. And even the not so good ones give air-time to old songs and make them familiar to new generations. Anyhow, here are my favourites at the moment:

Sid Vicious: My Way. I suppose it is a bit sad that this is a nostalgic trip down to memory lane, but it is. Even so, listening Sid maligning what for me was Sinatras signature tune is nothing short of brilliant.

Johnny Cash: Personal Jesus. Cash did a lot of interesting covers in his last recordings, most famous of which is brilliant version of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, but I like this Mode cover even more. That honkytonk piano in the backround just makes the song.

Love And Rockets: Ball of Confusion. This is originally a funky Temptations song and has also been covered by Duran Duran and Neville Brothers but Love and Rocets extremely tight and energetic version is my favourite.

Frou Frou: Holding out for a Hero. Bonnie Tyler’s last big hit was from the soundtrack of the movie Kevin Bacon will never live down, this Frou Frou cover is also from soundtrack, this time from Shreck 2. And I love it, even if the female vocalist utilizes what Koulunpenkki’s husband calls ayrshire technique

Shankaar-Eshan-Loy: Pretty Woman. Now this can’t come as a surprise for anyone who reads this blog. The Bhangra version of Pretty Woman from Kal Ho Naa Ho.

October Hill: Fake Plastic Trees. This is somehow lazier and sweeter than the Radiohead original, though it does not aim to wildly different. It is interesting how in most of the Radiohead covers I have heard the biggest change has been to substitute Thom's raw voice with female vocalist. Sometimes it works like here, sometimes the song really needs that edge to work.

Bollywood tips

Posted by Sari

The shiny new MA degree has apparently muddled Omppu's brain because in the comments she asked tips for Bollywood movies to rend from her local Indian store. I thought that was too momentous to be buried in the comment section so I decided to make a post about it. Im thinking Tarja can either comment or do the same in her LJ where there are lots more fans of hindi cinema to give additional suggestions.

First suggestion: work from the newer towards older films. The New superhits have better production values and are aimed at more international (not necessarily western, but more international) audiences which makes them easier to get into. When you have some grounding in the mannerisms of hindi cinema the older films will "open up" better. And by older I mean the Bollywood from 1960s to circa 1995. 1950s was the first golden age of Bollywood and something of a special case.

For a better take on popular movies, the best link is to Bollywhat's Rental Guide which has three different "top" lists to help to choose. Zulm is a DVD-forum for Bollyfilms, Filmfare awards are the Oscars of India, and Box office is petty self-explanatory. (Baadshaah, on the other hand might be less so, it means King.)

My favourites are not very original, and as I have been watching a film here, film there I have terrible shameful gaps in my filmography. But here goes, Sari's top ten at this moment:

1. Main Hoon Na: Shahrukh is Major Sharma who is sent back to college to protect the daughter of a general threatened by terrorist group determined to stop the exchange of prisoners between India and Pakistan. Real Masala film with over-the-top comedy, Romance, family drama, action and violence. See Shahrukh avoid spit bullet-time.

2. Dil Chahta Hai: this is more sedate look of three friends and their relationships. It is if not realistic, more real than most of the box-office fantasies. Aamir Khan, the artsy one of the reigning trio of Khans is the lead, but I think the movie is stolen by Akshaye Khanna and Dimple Kapadia who are having a bittersweet may-december romance.

3. Sholay: Sholay is the biggest grossing movie ever in India (adjusted for inflation), a classic, the revenge drama of all time. Bollywood icon bar none Amitabh Bachan plays one of two small-time crooks hired to bring in a notorious outlaw.

4. China Gate: there might be better variations on the theme of defending village from outlaws plot, but I am really partial to this one. It is a pretty straight take from Seven Samurais, and what makes it great is to see so many of the generation usually playing Bride's dad modern films taking the center stage. The coolest part is played by Nasureddin Shah, known in the west mainly as captain Nemo from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and bride's dad in Monsoon Wedding.

5 Kuch Kuch Hota Hai: Karan Johar's first movie has Shahrukh as a widowed father whose daughter plots to get him together with his best friend from college, Kajol. Bollywood romances are usualy triangel dramas: two girls and a guy or two guys and a girl. Karan has the first triangle in the first half of the movie and the second in the second half optimising the tension.

6 Kal Ho Naa Ho: This time Karan is producing but the end result is pretty much same. Awfully pretty family drama. Shahrukh moves in an Indian neighbourhood in Brooklyn and transforms the drab life of Preity Zinta. Kickass bhangra version of Pretty Woman with a rap in b-section. The mind boggles.

7 Dil Se: Mani Ratnam's movies are usually a bit off-center of Bollywood. Dil Se is uneaven, but interesting. Shahrukh plays a radiojournalist travelling somewhere where separationists are blowing up things to interview people about the meaning of India. Of course, he meets a mysterious girl and gets mixed up in all sorts of things. Weird but really great musical numbers, espcially Chayya, Chayya which is performed on the top of a train.

8 Mujse Dosti Karoge: Here I am pretty alone, most people see this as very run-of-the-mill triangle romance. And it is, it is, I can't deny it. But I love it. Rani loves Hritrik, and writes him letters as Kareena Hritrik falls for Kareena But just when he has gotten engaged to Kareena Hritrik realises it is Rani who has written the letters and is the one he loves. What to do?

9 Hey Ram: Partition dramas (movies about the split to India and Pakistan and the surrounding tensions) are one of the main genres of hindi dramas and I thought this was genuinely well made and thoughtful take on the subject. Kamal Hassan is great in the lead, and Sharukh gets to actually play a muslim character in his cameo.

10 Devdas: Sanjay Leela Bansali's movies are the most gorgeous things in the world. The colours are rich, the setting of the scenes are like paintings, but the dialogue is stilted and Devdas especially requires some familiarity both with Indian mythology, especially Ramayana and filmi conventions to make sense. On the plus side it has Madhuri Dixit in one of her best roles as Chandramukhi, and great musical scenes.

I am missing all the fun!

Posted by Sari

I have been a Watergate junkie since I saw Fred Emery's excellent BBC documentary on the subject, and - shortly after - "All the President's Men". I watched the latter in the common TV-room of my dorm in St. Andrews University and was so into the movie I really hated walking back to my room through the dark hallways. I did not really expect G. Gordon Liddy to jump from the ladies to do me in, but something of the film's exquisite paranoia stuck even after the event. Since then I have been reading on/off stuff about the break-in: Emery's tie-in book, Woodstein original, Dean's memoirs... The whole episode in its sinister incompetency just gets me.

And now we finally know who the guy in the garage was: FBI's number two man, Mark Feldt Felt. He came out of the closet in Vanity Fair, and now everybody has an opinion from  Bill to Bernstein's ex wife. But I have to say, that even though Blogistan is a good substitute, it is still not quite the same as being able to channel-hop between between news channels in feeding frenzy. Thank goodness you can get the most important one online: the Daily Show's take can be seen here, just scroll down a bit.