Posted by jukkahoo
I was on telly few hours ago. Namely on MTV3, which to all you non-Finns stands for Mainostelevisio as in Commercial Television and is also the biggest network here in Finland. They have this morning show called Ihana aamu (Wonderful Morning) where I was supposed to be talking about sf and fandom.
Today (27th of January) is the 30th anniversary of the Finnish fandom, 'cause this is the day when the Turku SF Society was founded, in 1976. Yes, only 30 years ago. How times fly.
*sigh*
Anyway, I went to speak on behalf of fandom, and I think I did a decent job at that. Sisättö called me the Finnish Ambassador of SF on his blog, but I felt more like a regular fan, sitting there under all those hot studio lights and feeling a bit iffy, since I was (and am) fluish. The seven and half minutes we had went by far quicker than I anticipated. And it took me whole of fifteen minutes to realise, I never even mentioned Finncon 2006, or mafia's, or Tom Ölander or whatever. I rambled about Warlord of Saturn and my cancer blanket, but forgot the frakking FINNCON!!! My bad.
But I did remember to point out that this is the 30th anniversary of TSFS and that we fen are pretty much like all the rest of the people out there. Only a bit more loonier, perhaps. The interviewer seemed to like it too as well as the production people, as we had a very nice chitchat after the gig. Maybe I can coerce them to do an episode closer to Finncon, with a GoH or summat. Perhaps I ought to email them about it...hmmm.
Damnation! I forgot my light saber, too!
All in all, I think it went well. Haven't watched it yet and I think I am saving it for next week or so, when me mum is coming to eat some sushi and see her eldest appear once more on national tv.
Tomorrow I'm hopefully heading to Turku, where the Official Celebrations are being held. I think this performance counts as my present to TSFS and Spin. When was the last time you got some national TV-time? :)
And since I am now at it, I think I ought to say something about my recent (Wednesday) trip to Hyvinkää where I spent couple of active hours (feverish, yes) talking about phantasy to 7th and 8th graders, their teachers and librarians. I had made this 45-50 minute "Fantasy fiction 101" speech, which I then did twice. Fairly decent Powerpoint extravaganza. So much so, that I glanced my notes only twice during those presentations. Darned shame in a way, since I actually had written some good points down that I failed to mention during the show. Then again, it's always nice to give a speech/whatnot without having to rely on your papers, eh? There is that sönösekuu feeling of improvisation and duality of "knowing your stuff" and "showing off".
The youngsters seemed to be listening, at least some of the time, since there was precious little whispering and/or snoring. The teachers and librarians thanked me at the end of it, having noted the same thing about the silence of the lambs (they were scattered around the audience, so they should know). Don't really know how much they got out of it, but I guess it could've been worse, like two hours of math, or something.
And what did I actually say, you may ask? Well, basically I divided tha topic into five smaller categories: 1) What is Fantasy?, 2) The History of Fantasy, 3) Themes and Topics of Fantasy, 4) Writers of Fantasy, and finally 5) Fantasy in Finland. Fiction of Impossible to Johanna Sinisalo and beyond. The whole lot, incl. (1) one kitchen sink. All the basics from Gilgamesh to William Morris and Tolkien, with Good vs. Evil and Bildnungsroman thrown in. And I didn't forget Harry Potter, either.
Weird habits meme coming up!
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