Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

Finncon 2008 - or, as They say: Animecon VI, with additional science fiction programming

Posted by jukkahoo

Very busy weekend, with lots of travelling included. We (that's Sari and Mekku and Teemu avec moi) stayed at Teemu's parents summer cottage, which meant approximately 80 kliks of driving every day. To each direction. Shortened the contime considerably, as we needed to get up earlier as well as leaving the premises somewhat earlier (and in case of some of us, sober...). But it was fun, honestly, I mean, I hadn't really been eaten by them mosquitoes this year! And we got to meet Retu and Tilli. And both Iiku's (mine's a he [uncle] and Sari's a she [cousin]) and Timo Kummeli. Lovely house!

But, I digress.

As expected, this was another Animecon, with Finncon added to it's side. Fun, but not very fannish. Like many have said in various discussions and blogs, there was a certain lack of fandom. There were plenty many of us, but beside Telakka-parties, did I really manage to talk and interact with that many people? No, not really.

And that's the biggest con (to use the term slightly agaist the idea of this entry) for me at this... con. To me the biggest turn-on of these here gatherings is the meeting of fen, both old and new. I could do with a longer convention, easily, as long as it'd be a bit less hectic that this year's Finncon.

About longer Finncon, I might try writing down some ideas we've been having about next year at Babek Nabel, where you can (and really should) participate the heated, yet well-behaved and rational debate about the future of Finncon/Animecon and Tammere-experience.

As said, my schedule was a bit hectic. I chew a bit more that I should've, especially the promise of doing the Tietoviisaat with Mike. Sorry about that one, really!

I barely managed to stay focused with my own program items. Which isn't really true, as I did made a blunder with my last program item, when I managed to lose half of my questions (the ones about Finncon...) due to haste. Do not put two "gadget"-programs back-to-back, it may lead into trouble.

Ie. I did my "James Lipton" with Mike Harrison just prior to Kuis? and concequently fumbled a bit. Very unprofessional...

We arrived to Tammere already on Thursday, but that was merely in order to leave my mother with my uncle and pick up Mekku from the Researcher's meeting. Friday was also somewhat less finnconnish, as we stayed at cousin Mirka's place the day and only sampled the fan-air at Telakka, which turned out to be the other refuge for the elder generation (the other being the 3rd Floor "bar" at the Tammere-talo). Fun evening, not least by the fact that Peter and Marta and Jelena and Theunpronounceble (OK, probably not that unpronounceble, but I never managed to figure it out) from Czech Republic were present. Tero knew, but didn't bother to inform anyone.

Peter was at last year's Eurocon in Copenhagen, talking about Parcon, which is this really fun-sounding Czech/Slovak national SF-con this year. I'm going, as is Tero, maybe you should too? Hey, there's JeffV and AnnV, Edward Miler and Ian R. MacLeod. And Hal Duncan! Bring your earplugs! As before, Peter was fun to talk to, as were the rest of the crew, too. Unfortunaley, due to the nature of this year's con, I never saw them at the site, only in Telakka. Which was fine, too. I guess.

So, the con?

OK, I guess. I really was only able to see the gist of it: my six program items (three interviews with the GoH's, panel on Tähtifantasia Award [well deserved win for Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Variksen velho!], panel on translated fantasies and the Kuis? about Finncon/fandom) and the parts of the Closing ceremony I was on stage, as one of the Doctors.

Talking about that one: Isn't Our TARDIS the Bomb!?

Can't say too much about my gigs, other that I agree with Tero's comment of the shortness of interviews. I could've talked a lot longer wth each one of them, probably a LOT longer with Mike. We really scratched the surface there with my questions. Panels were ok in my book; we weren't able to get any major publishing house editors to Erkka's panel on publishing, but it went fine, especially when I realised I really needed Sari there to spout her somewhat unorthodox opinions. If only she'd rant more in public the way she does in private. Fun, yet pretty poignant.

The traditionally dualistic Saturday evening party was fun. I'm one of the leading (well, if not leading, then one of loudest) proponents of the "Quiet-party" -mode. I'm there in order to talk with other fen, not to party like it's 1999, which I realise of course is both fun and appeal to a lot of people. I just hope there is always the possibility to enjoy the evening both ways. Country and western.

As we did this time, in the end. The upstairs at Eric's was a nice touch, even if the place opened only around 10PM and didn't start serving there before 10.25 or somesuch. Much appreciated.

We left after the official programming, in order to get home sooner rather than later. (We have a new dog, Martti, but Sari will blog about him later, I'm sure.) I'd love to have been at the Dead Dog Party, but decided against it, after I'd been told that it was really for the organisers and volunteers and Guests. And it was supposed to be a very small place, too. And dog dead by midnight. Well, maybe next time. If there is a next time...

All in all, I enjoyed, but didn't really see too much. Not going to see that much next year, either, but that's life, eh? See you there, right?

Koonnekshuun probleemeja

Posted by jukkahoo

The innerwebs is broke at Casa Tali, so mobile is teh best way to reach us. I'll be at work tomorrow until 2PM, so I'm able to read my email there (well, here, hehheh...) til then. And then it is:

FINNCON 2008!!!

Tammere will provide the facilities and accoutrements. Expect to see me in far too many program items: three interviews, a panel on translated fantasies, kuis (quiz!) about Finncon's and fandom, and couple of others, of which one I only just promised to be in and another that has no panel, yet!

Should (and will!) be fun! CU there!!!

More of the backlog

Posted by Sari

John McCullough: 1776

1776 was a the first and perhaps greatest do or die year of American War of independence. Early success in Boston was followed by a defeat at battle of Brooklyn hights and the Dunkerque-like retreat to Manhattan. Eventual withdrawal through New Jersey kept Washington’s army intact but left British in command of New York and with a chance to split the colonies from the middle. John Mcculloug’s 1776 is a military history of that year, a chronological narration of the ups and downs of the colonial cause from Boston to the Battle of Princeton in January 1777.
    As evidenced by his John Adams biography, he is a talented writer but 1776 is not one of his better works. His sketches of the characters involved are revealing and entertaining, but as a book about the military on the field, it never really takes off – especially if the broad outlines of actions are already familiar. I especially missed maps, which for me are essential reference when trying to decipher battles.

Harumi Murakami: Kafka on the Shore

Kafka on the Shore is a good book, but it was not a book for me. It has lots of the familiar Murakami tropes, and the fantasy elements are deftly woven into the structure. The simple Mr Nakata who talks of himself in the third person, talks to cats and goes on a road trip with his side-kick the truck-driver is appealing, and not everything is explained which I always appreciate. However, I tend to approach novels through characters, and in this case the main narrative, the  freudian survival story of a runaway teenager who wants to kill (or avoid killing?) his father and marry his mother just did not engage me.

Patricia Finney: Firedrake’s Eye

This is a first in a series featuring Simon Ames, a sephardic jew turned into one of Walsingham’s spies in Elizabethan England and David Becket, an ex solider and unemployed swordmaster. Here their aim to prevent a popish plot to assasinate the queen. Firedrake’s eye is well researched, beautifully written and quite literate mystery. Finney’s narrator is Poor Tom o Bedlam, a madman with a split personality and unexplained omniscience of the unfolding events. I was expecting just a run-of-the-mill historical mystery, so I was pleasantly surprised by the language and feel of the book. It has been used in at least one university as a gateway to Elizabethan culture and vocabulary to make Shakespeare easier to understand, and I can defenitely see why.

Wendy Cope: Serious Concerns

My sister took our (well, hers, but…) copy of this when we moved out of our shared student flat around twelve years  ago and I it took this long for me to replace it. Cope does not want to be England’s next poet Laureate, which is sort of a pity. I think she would be brilliant composing the required ceremonial poems with a twinkle in her eye. I first bumped into her poetry in 1980s wen the tube had a campaign of poetry on the underground. I remember sitting on the Northern Line train reading her “Uncertainty of a Poet” poem on the wall almost ad nauseam. Cope, often mentioned with Larkin and Betjeman, writes clever, dry and adorable poems, about life and men and poetry. She has a mean eye for parody and keen sense rhythm and structure, and is the one poet I recommend to people who are not into poetry.

Hall: Raw Shark Text

This is one of those books where my inability to “see” books is a real disadvantage. Raw Shark Text is a story of an amnesiac, Eric, who slowly learns that his loss of memory is due to the fact that his personality has been devoured by a conceptual shark, a Ludovician, who preys his victims in the sea of thoughts and memes and all the words which make up our conceptual sea. The idea itself is a delightful flight of fancy, bringing a metaphor into flesh or at least paper, even to the point of using e.e. cummings-like word-pictures and animation.  Now, I like clever books, I like books other people might find pretentious, so I was completely willing to accept Hall’s post-postmodern play on words, ideas and reality. Where he lost me was at the end when Eric and and his “guide”, Scout, find the conceptual oceanologist Trey Fidorus in caves made out of text which transform into a sea. My visual imagination just didn’t go there.

Tim Bucher: Blood River

Tim Bucher was Telegraph correspondent in Africa when he dreamed up a hair-brained plan to follow in Stanley’s footsteps down the river Congo. After years of making contacts and planning a trip others called impossible he finally did it in 2004. He flew to Kalemi on the lakeTanganiyaka and followed Congo on motor-cycles, pirogues and barges all the way to Boma.
     Blood River is the story of his trip through a country Foreign Policy considered in 2007 as the seventh worst failed state in the world.  It is one of those books which are a great introduction if – as is my case – you know little or nothing of the subject matter.  I vaguely remember the 1997 coup and the 2001 assassination of Laurent Kabila, but that is about it. Butcher unravels the past and present of the country comparing his trip with Stanley’s and also with a cruise his mother took down the river in the 1950s. The story he tells is distressingly awful and hopeless. It certainly made me look at my cute cell phone in a different light.
    I suspect however that if the reader has some expertise or even just familiarity with Congo or Africa in general Bucher’s endless andecdotes about degenerated infrastructure, and folks fleeing to the bush might feel a bit facile. But like I said, it is a great introduction and does what a great introduction should: makes you want to know more.

Sinkkuelämää (Sex and the City)

Gah. I was on my way back from Berndö, Åland via public transport and had read all books I had with me, so I grabbed this from R-kioski for few euros. In this case the translation was so annoying that I was quite unable to get past it. The faux-sounding dialogue with deliberate anglicisms left in just grated unbelievably. I don’t think I would have much cared for the book even if it had been in English but the Finnish version was just too horrid for words.

Moon Called

I usually run away fast if book has vampires or werewolves in it. This has both. And a heroine who shapeshifts into a coyote. Yes, I know. But paranormal romance is popular nowdays, and this isn’t half bad representative of the genre. Our heroine is spunky, independent, unaware of her own attractiveness and has two werewolves fighting for her attentions. There is also kidnapping, betrayal, power struggles and whatnot. A bit like Stephanie Plum books, except with a more competent protagonists. And the whole werewolf thing.  Oh, and it is a first one of a series. I wonder if Tarjas has the next one…

The Stuff Our Dreams Are Made Of

Posted by jukkahoo

I've spent these few moments of awakedness browsing thru Thom Disch's polemic Hugo-winner of How Science Fiction Conquered the World. The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of is a great read, whatever one might think of the way Disch writes about the importance and history of SF. When the book came out, some critics were less than enthused about it, but I hope that we can look at the book with more open eyes these days and see more clearly what it is: a great look at the wonderful world of Science Fiction!

I haven't read Disch's prose all that much, nor have I had the pleasure of finding my way through his poetry all that much. These past twelve hours have somewhat remedied that part, as I have read various reminiscences of him as well as snippets of his poetry.

Which still leaves most of Disch's major works like 334 and Camp Concentration unread by the oversigned. Yet again, an important author I'm about to get acquainted with, past the passing.

As said aroundishly, I haven't really read Thomas M. Disch. And now that he's shuffled his mortal coil, this reading will be posthumous. Darn. Fuck.

I understand his life had been a bit of an uphill struggle recently. He lost his partner of some three decades only just, he was facing monetary problems and for a long time before all that, been living with severe depression. Sad news. 

I've been very busy with work recently and will probably be so until Finncon. I'd very much like to continue working here, so most other things are on the backburner, though obviously not forgotten nor abandoned. I just need to focus on this a lot more if there is any chance of continuation with it. Sorry about all various and sundry and deadlines and all that. Normal service could be continued any day in the future.