Halme Polvinen Family Collective. You will all be assillymated
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Posted by Sari
Kysymys neuleblogien ystäville: onko kellään tiedossa kivaa ohjetta iPod-kotelolle? Mieluiten virkattuna? Googlettaminen antoi niin paljon hittejä että rupesi ahdistamaan. Hmmm. Jos kokeilisi säätää jotain virkatun laukun mallia puuvillaiselle pitsivirkkauslangalle…
Pitäisiköhän muuten ihan vain kirjailija Jääskeläistä kiusatakseen tekemään muffinseihinkin lisää käsityölastuja 😉
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Posted by Sari
As I am a frequent customer of academic libraries, I tend to forget just how much interesting stuff there is in the public libraries. Like music. My bus takes me every day next to Kirjasto 10 the multi-media library with lots of computers, WiFi and an extensive music collection, and it is only recently I have taken to making use of its services. Silly me.
Today on my way back from work I picked up DG’s Otello from 1994, the (so far) last big studio recording of this work, which is maybe the the greatest tragic opera of all time. My vinyl is Karajan-Vickers from 1970s, with which I have been very satisfied. Vickers’ all-out mad with jealousy and grief Otello has incredible raw power, Freni is a reliable Desdemona, and Glossop one of the most underappreciated Iagos ever. Even so I am really taken with this one. Chung has a great grasp of the score, Studer is a shimmering Desdemona and Leiferkus a really evil Iago.
But all that is really secondary to Domingo1, who dominates the set. It is his third studio recording of a role he has sung over 200 times and made his signature part. His first Otello was in 1975 and he continued to perform the part even in the new millenium. (Trivia: he sang Cassio in the early 1960s.) And, though de gustibus… and though it might well be a generational thing, you can keep Martinelli and Vinay and del Monaco and even Vickers, this psychologically astute and vocally magnificent Otello is the one for me. This is a mature artist totally in control of his instrument and interpretation and the result is nothing short of magnificent.
I could list endless number of scenes were Domingo just shines, but just listen the duetto in the third act where Desdemona pleads for Cassio and Otello keeps asking about the handkerchief. Domingo pitches the pain, jealousy and cunning of Otello perfectly and absolutely nails the scene at the end (when Otello pretends to ask Desdemona’s forgiveness only to accuse her of being a whore) with bitter irony exploding to wrath. Just brilliant.
1. In the interests of full disclosure I better own up that I grew up listening the three tenors before they became "The Three Tenors", I have seen all of them live (separately) and had a huge schoolgirl crush on Domingo when I was about thirteen.
Posted by Sari
So, Bronze. Not really that bad, definitely better than I dared to hope before the tournament. Germany has a bunch of young players (Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Mertesacker, Odonkor, Lahm…) who will hopefully be around for quite a while, so future is looking interesting too. As for the trophy, rather Italy than France, if for nothing else than Fabio Cannavaro who is and was phenomenal.
In other news, the traditional Science Fiction pick-nick at Suomenlinna was a great success. The Day was sunny and there were lots of people around, both old and new faces. Tarja and I even met another poor soul who has caught the bolly-fever.
Speaking of which, boy do I want to se Fanaa. I mean: Aamir! Kajol! Jatin-Lalit Score! The Prettiness! Poland doubling for Kashmir! Also, a love story between a blind girl and a terrorist. It just can’t be bad. More seriously, even though Fanaa has been a huge hit all over the world, there has been a political controversy surrounding the film in Gujarat.
And then there is Krrish (a flash intro) which sounds just… I mean…. It’s… The mind just boggles.
Posted by a very pissed person wearing silly yellow headgear
Ou faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak.
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*sigh*
Is this year just sodding riddled with constant failures of my various favourite teams? What sort of intercession is needed? A ritual of some sort? Do I need to sacrifice nubile virgins? Pay off some Italian judges?
OK, Portugal, make some magic. It’s all up to you now, Scolari.
Posted by Sari
White Nights. I have spent many summers and two whole years out of Finland and that is the thing I missed most. I felt almost a physical craving for the light. I gladly take the near-permanent darkness of November to be able to enjoy the luminous, numinous midnight sun in the summer.
The photos have been taken every hour from 7 p.m. to midnight on Midsummer Eve.
Posted by jukkahoo
Mr. Sanders died. It’s gone. Pining for the fjords it ain’t.
So, we got a new computer.
And yes, since it is me, I did lost some data. Especially emails. All of them in fact. So in case you’re wondering why I haven’t answered to your requests/questions/ponderings etc, it’s due to the fact that I a) do not have your email and b) no recollection of what I was supposed to be doing. I do remember some stuff, but at the moment I’m pretty much swamped with myriad of things to be done re: Finncon and Uuskummaa? -anthology, that I’m afraqid I’m going to both ask for your indulgence and patience during this time of crisis. Send me email if you need that answer asap. In fact, why don’t all of you send me email, so that I can get my eddresses back in order.
Football. Brasil winning, good. Not glorious, nor samba-like, but two wins out of two games is a helluva lot more than, say, France. Still confident.
Not only am I (yet again) missing deadlines and looking blankly at herra Miettinen, I also have these stabbing pains in my back. Literally stabbing pain (kuin veitsellä pistettäisiin) approximately middle of my right long back muscle. Sari says it’s kramppeja. I say it is some sort of punishment for trying to do everything and then some. Expect this to change.
Tired, hurting, busy, working, late. So what else is new?
Posted by Sari
It began. And with an excellent match too. Not even Jukka wearing his silly Brazil hat to the sports bar and nattering on and on and on about the excellence of seleçao could ruin the atmosphere 😉 The goals scored by Lahm and Frings were both outstanding and the game itself was entertaining. What has Klinsmann done to my dear steadily and boringly grinding Germany? Four goals! And the defence leaking like a sieve…
As far as my moment of glory goes, for this brief moment I rank as 642 of the over 400 000 people playing the official fantasy game.
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Posted by Sari
Mainokseksi tämä on myöhässä mutta kehaisempa silti. Teimme viime viikolla perhe-ekskursion villiin Espooseen Espoon kaupunginmuseoon katsastamaan viimeistä viikkoa esillä olleen Aurora Karamzin näyttelyn. Prof. T oli lainannut muutamia isoukki Polvisen korupiirroksia näyttelyä varten ja halusi käydä katsomassa olivatko ne päätyneet esille (olivat kyllä).
Ensinäkin: Espoolla on kaupunginmuseo! Kuka tiesi? Se on piilotettu Tapiolaan ostoskeskuksen ja tietyömaan taakse. Itse näyttelytila on hyvä: moderni ja helposti muunneltavissa, perusnäyttely on tiivis mutta ei kovin innostava ja museokauppa pieni mutta tuotteiltaan ihan hauska. Itse näyttely oli mainio. Se ei ollut niin suuri että museoväsymys olisi päässyt pahemmin vaivaamaan.Tilat oli suunniteltu huolella ja esim. peilejä käyttäen saatu todella näyttäviksi. Perinteistä "esineitä vitriinissä" -mallia oli elävöitetty mukavasti. Huvimajaan oli katettu 1800-luvun ateria; pieni pala puista herraskartanoa oli rakennettu näyttelyn sisään ja siellä sai sydämensä kyllyydestä kokeilla ja kosketella kopioita aikakauden hatuista, kravateista, krinoliineista ja viuhkoista; Träskendan kartanon pienoismallista saattoi arvuutella keisarillisen vessan sijaintia. Kuten nykyään tuntuu olevan vähän pakko mukana oli myös draamdokumentti Karamzinin elämästä.
Kosketeltavuus on jo pitkään ainakin Yhtysvaltalaisissa museoissa ollut yksi tavoista aktivoida katsojia ja taistella museoväsymystä vastaan, suomalaisissa museonäyttelyissä en Heurekaa lukuunottamatta ole siihen kauheasti törmännyt. Ehkä pitäisi koluta museoita enemmänkin, mutta ainakin noin kerran vuodessa tapahtuva ulkolaisten vieraiden raahaaminen läpi Kansallismuseon saa minut itkemään New Yorkin loistavien museoiden perään. Joten propsit Espoolle ja näyttelyn kokoajille.
Posted by jukkahoo
By now everyone has noticed that Hell has frozen over and Finland has won the European Song Contest. Hopefully Roy Hodgson sees this as a benevolent sign and steers us to the European Champs!
Bronze. Enough talk.
Other news: I finished 53rd at the Snickers Hockey Manager competition. Trashed our Risingshadow little league. Go Ambergris Squids!
All this is of course only a mere backdrop for the Real News of the Day: Martti Servo is back! By sheer coincidence I managed to notice this while watching re-runs of Madventures. Martti Servo is BACK!!!
This has been mostly about stuff in Finnish and of Finns in Finnish, erm.
Twentysomething days to FIFA Fußball Worldcup and about 90 to Finncon. Looking like a good summer this one!
Shame on Kimi and Mika and Kalle and the lot for not voting enough (you have money, guys! you could’ve done your bit). Armenia and Albania, hypätkää Carolan kanssa voltti.
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Posted by Sari
Last week-end the weather was just so lovely that when my sister called and asked if I wanted to go camping for a night in Nuuksio, the national park next door, I surprised myself by saying yes. Of course, others had hit upon the same idea so we had to hike little further than we originally thought to find a free camp-site. It was too dry* to make fire, so we cooked with trangia and sat by the pond enjoying tea and gorgeous sunset. Next morning we took a shorter route back and stopped to grill sausages at Mustalampi cooking site.
The topics of conversation included
1) The geography of the old West and the newest reserach on Donner party.
2) How to film Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, and the revival of Hapgood in NY with Stockard Channing
3) The possibility of building a base for a lean-to at our summer cottage
4) The unique position John Clute occupies in the field of SF critique
5) G.B. Shaw’s Arms and the Man
A good time was had by all. And I have to say that the fact you can take public transportation from the centre of Finland’s capital and be in "the wilderness" in an hour is way beyond cool.
* There is a Finnish word "metsäpalovaroitus", familiar from the summer-time weather reports. The only translation my dictionary offers is "prohibition on lighting fire in the open due to danger of forest fire". Honestly, there must be a better way to say this in English…
Pictures are at Flickr
Eating Muffins 
