Eating Muffins

Halme Polvinen Family Collective. You will all be assillymated

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  • To remove potatoes from beneath the surface

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    I’m saddened. I’m unable to go to Kööpenhamina and participate at Snorfcon the last weekend of October. Byäääh… I was forced to face the hars, cruel realities of monetary situation and pass on an opportunity to meet other Nordic bigwh… smoffers in order to make some beautiful music together. Or summat.

    This is just plain wronk and bandicoot.

    Ah well, now I am able to go and make a fo… talk about modern space opera at the Helsinki Book Fair at that weekend.

    Sari is also soon back in Finland. Today is her last day in Princeton, as she’ll be spending the last few days in NYC (ahhh… to be in Manhattan!). I hope she has at least some money to spend and pamper herself. Oh wait, she has Visa!

    I may have to start cleaning up a bit before she finally returns.

    We had a wee Turkey festival this last weekend and as is good and proper, we watched some jolly old films. Seventeen in all, as we decided not to count a TV-series episode (Rockets of the Dead from The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne) nor two first parts of old Republic serials (Undersea Kingdom and Radarman from the Moon – both staggeringly good and even more so, eerily reminiscent of Warlord of Saturn…). My picks of the lot were the following: Mustan kotkan metsästys, Jääasema Erebus, Alien Factor, Pelottomat – Aftermath and Kadonneen valtakunnan taikurit II. Now I know what REALLY happened to “Adolph” Hitler, what is homeopathical Stephen King, who is the “other” great auteur of Baltimore, how come Steve Barkett is probably the most talented survivalist-cum-moviemaker in all of California and how to make a movie out of two old c-grade barbarian movies and their “stars” some ten years after. Not a total waste of time, I’d say.

  • halling, hambo, reel, gopak

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    Lately, I’ve been mostly ill. Confoundedly, I realise that this is actually the very first flu I’ve had in a long time. Over a year. I may have had a slight case of "nuhakuume" at some point, but no real illness. I wasn’t even ill when I had my chemo, which in a hindsight can be seen as a very good thing indeed.

    These past few days have been the most troublesome. The pleghm seems to like it inside of me and sees apparently no reason to come out via my nostrils. Thus creating a rather disturbing sense of clogged nose without drainage. And the blasted cough is hard-hitting and at times really annoying, but at the same time strangely subdued, like it is behind some unknown kerberos, unable to squeeze past the beast. Lying dormant there, waiting for the right moment to pop up and start it’s merry rebelling.

    This almost happened last Wednesday ie. yesterday, when I was giving a lecture/show-and-tell on fantasy literature, with Sini Neuvonen. I started with trying to define what fantasy really is (to a three scores of bewildered librarians) and before I really managed to mangle thru fantasy and SF, I realised that I was no longer able to speak properly. My throat was dry, I had trouble breathing and my body was trying to cough, but was unable to do so. I did lost my train of thought too, which was the really embarrassing point, but I was really, really unable to continue.

    I took a wee brake, drank several cups of water (as well as popping some Strepsils and Silomat pills to my mouth) and continued with the show, trying to breath steadily, focus on the speaking – and eventually it went a lot better afterwards. We had a short break and I saw Leena who was participating and forgot to mention that Sari is in America and would most probably enjoy an email from her/anyone (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!!!). I drank a cup of hot chocolate and took another one with me to the auditorium, and the rest of the piece went very well, though I must say I was a bit dissappointed with the amount of questions we were asked. I know we’re Finnish, but last time we did the same thing, the Espoo librarians had dozens of Q’s to ask. Most of them even intelligent. Like the ones we had yesterday, too.

    I’m happy with the over-all show, even if the beginning had the makings of a disaster, but luckily there were two of us. It was a basic explanation of what fantasy is, where it comes from and what it has to do with Libraries (the main point, really) and librarians. And they payed us money. Which is nice.

    I had this other thing to say too.

    Where are all the good SF-films nowadays? I have had a LOT of time to spend, while Sari has been in US and I’ve been ill. The local Filmtown may not be a perfect specimen of DVD-rentals at their very best, but still. There’s precious little good SF available, not to mention made. This was also pointed out couple of weeks back, when we were out with Alastair Reynolds and (I guess it was Toni) pointed out, that not a single Great SF-film (and it’s Science Fiction here) has been made since the 20th century. Or can you name one? Toni later raised a flick called Cypher out as the one that’s a great one, but most of us hadn’t seen it. It’s directed by Vincenzo Natali who also made the original Cube.

    Talking about SF-films, I saw a Japanese film called Returner, which was OK’ish. It had nice visuals, decent cgi and pretty people posing, but ultimately I have seen too many "mankind is going to be destroyd by the evil aliens/robots/younameit, unless this one guy/girl manages to return back in time and save the world, while the baddies are trying get rich by being way too stoooooopid" -plotted movies. It looked good and the way over the top bad guy was fun too. The thing I had in my to mention, was the translation. Our DVD tried to made me watch it in English. I changed the setting back to original Japanese, but due to some incredibly clumsy fingering on my part, I managed to shut my machine at one point. And again our DVD tried to offer me the English version.

    And here’s the fine point. The scene when I fumbled was one where the evil dude was rebelling against his evil Chinese boss-man, who was both speaking Chinese as well as commanding the evil gun-crazy weird sicko of a main baddie to speak the lingo too. This I know from reading the Finnish subtitles. None of which would’ve made any sense if I’d been watching the English dubbing. Since they were all speaking English and the Chinese fellow didn’t order the other guy to speak Chinese. Which was still "said" with subtitles. Pleasant to see that the translation was really made from Japanese.

    Next weekend will be Turkey Festival weekend at our place. Plenty of Turkish films and bheer, chili and late sleeping.

  • Mediakritiikkia

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    Posted by Sari

    Mr. Elk (jonka kommenteihin en jostain syysta paase) kritisoi blogissaan suomalaisten medioiden, erityisesti maikkarin amerikkauutisointia. Ja aika lailla samaa mielta olen ja vahan toisenlaisesta mediaperspektiivista. Kun meidan huushollissa ei ole kaapelia ja antenni ei skulaa kauhean hyvin, ei telkkarista ole tullut vaalivaittelyiden lisaksi mitaan katsottua. Nain ollen oma uutisperspektiivini koostuu paivittain luetusta New York Timesista, Washington Postin netista ja silloin talloin kasiin eksyvasta USA Todaysta. Sita taydentavat sitten demokraattispainotteiset blogit kuten Political Animal, TalkingPointsMemo, Eschaton ja Matt Yglesias. Suomenkielella uutiset tulevat lahes ainoastaan hesarin netin sahkeuutisista. Ja huolimatta siita etta amerikkalainen uutisvalitykseni on vahvasti painottunut vasemmalle, niin hesarin kerryspin jaksaa silti aina yllattaa. Ei niin etteiko amerikkalainen eurooppa-uutisointi olisi viela paljon naurettavammalla tasolla.

    Vaaleista puheenollen, Michael Moore on onnistunut ainakin yhdessa asiassa: dokumenteista on tullut merkittava vaalitaistelun valine. Kavin eilen katsomassa Kerry-dokumentin Going Upriver, joka kuvasi Kerryn aikaa Vietnamissa ja osallistumistaan sodanvastaiseen liikkeeseen. Siina haastateltiin Kerryn sisaruksia, opiskelutovereita, alaisia Vietnamista ja kolleegoita veteraaniliikkeesta. Jollain tapaa yllattavaa oli sen sanoisinko hienovaraisuus. Ottaen huomioon kuinka taalla on tapana vaantaa kaikki rautalangasta ja alleviivata viela kuuteentoista kertaan, oli tama Kerryyn kritiikittoman positiivisesti suhtautuva dokkari ihan katsottava.

    Puhuvien paiden lisaksi sanomaa valitettiin kuvastolla: Alussa Coppolan kuvastosta tutut napalmin ja savuntaytteiset kuvat Mekong- joelta vuorottelivat filminpatkien kanssa nuoresta Kerrysta purjehtimassa ja pelaamassa touch-footballia. Haettu assosiaatio oli aika selva: JFK. Eika filmintekijoiden tarvinnut edes itsensa artikuloida tata, sen teki heidan puolestaan Nixon, joka yhdella Valkoisen Talon kuuluisista nauhoista keskustelee Colsonin kanssa Kerryn todistuksesta Senaatin ulkoasiainkomitealle: Very like JFK.

    Otaksuttavasti aika pitkalle yleiso oli Kerryn kannattajia joten leffan vaikutuksesta on vaikea sanoa mitaan, mutta oli hauskaa katsella elokuvaa katsomaan tulleiden elakeikaa lahestyvien reaktioita, heista useampi jai juttelemaan nuorempien katsojien kanssa ja kertomaan omakohtaisia kokemuksiaan sodasta tai protestiliikkeesta. Niin se aika kuluu: "greatest generation" alkaa poistua keskuudestamme ja boomereista on tulossa oraalisen historian valittajasukupolvi joka lapikay menneisyyden traumoja.

    Going Upriver pyorii elokuvateattereissa ja Fahrenheit 9/11 ilmestyi juuri DVD:na. Eniten keskustelua dokumenteista ja/tai vaalimainoksista on kuitenkin herattanut Sinclair Broadcasting Groupin paatos pakottaa paikalliset TV-asemansa muuttamaan ohjelmistoaan ja lahettamaan juuri vaalien alla Kerrykriittisen dokumentin "Stolen Honor", jonka esittamat faktat, kuten Swift Boat Veteran’s For the Truth" -jarjeston eivat oikein kesta paivanvaloa. Federal Communications Comissionin puheenjohtaja Reed Hundt on ilmaissut huolensa.

     

  • Fortunes of Fame

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    Posted by Sari

    I think it is safe to say that Bill Shatner has been going through a period of rehabilitation from camp to cool camp in the last  few years. Now he is climbing the hedy hights of critical approval with the win of a guest-star Emmy from The Practice, and his new critically acclaimed album. Yes, you did not read wrong, I said critically acclaimed. Don’t believe me? Well, go to NY Times (registration required).The Guardian leans more on the camp side of things, but still.

    And of course I bought it. Do you think I would have dared to come home to Jukka "king of novelty records" Hoo without it? I don’t think even the return of Martti Servo on the telly would have saved me. The thing is – I kinda like it. It is an expertly produced effort where Ben Fold’s instrumentalistion support’s Shatner’s recitation of mostly his own lyrics about life universe and everything. The music covers multiple genres from Manhattan transfery lounge to ballads and from penguin cafeish new age to funky percussion music.

    Sometimes it is funny. The Gospel "You’ll have time" with its deep motto: "live life like you’re going to die, ’cause you gonna," is hilarious, the grumpy old man rant about all the things in the world has the necessary self-rony to work, and the quirky love song "Ideal woman" sounds wonderfully familiar, like he is channeling Jukka.

    Sometimes it is serious, like when Shatner recites a poem about the death of his wife, and sometimes it is bit of both like in the western spoof "Has Been". The serious efforts sometimes fall a bit flat, just because there is a feeling Shatner just doesn’t have the vocabulary and mastery of metaphor to take his message across. The poem about his wife’s death especially suffers from this, lines like "her dear profile at peace at last" does not really carry.This is especially apparent when the previous "song" on the album is "that’s me trying" where the song about father trying to reach for his daughter after many years has lyrics by Nic Hornsby and works exceptionally well.

    The cherry on top is the album’s only cover,  Shatner’s wild interpretation of Pulp’s working class anthem "Common People". He really throws himself into the song with such panache, hamming the angry lines like only he can. Excellent music for burning pamphlet’s on CD’s I tell ya.

  • More Random things

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    posted by Sari

    Ten hour days at library means there is no way I can make up long and coherent messages about the state of America, or even me, so here are more tidbits.

    Overheard on campus: "and I saw it in Town Topics, in Police Blotter, and I said what were they doing with an arrow!" Maybe I should pay more attention to the local press.

    I am missing Finnish manners. Here in small-town New Jersey you are supposed to look complete strangers into eye and greet them or you are being a bit rude. In Finland people thought you rude or a bit mad if you start saying "hi, wonderful weather!" to passers-by. So, when in Rome and all that, but it just goes to show how politeness in one culture is rude invasion of private space in another….

    Do you have any idea how boring it is to push "scan" button for hours upon end. I ended up buying Harry Potter III as a CD book to listen to when doing the endless copying. I had forgotten that Harry was insuffrable already as a 13-year old, and that there is at least one really clear Tolkien-moment in the book.

  • Geeks at it again

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    Posted by Sari

    You gotta love the internet. I mean really. Last night at the vice-presidential debate Cheney countered Edward’s accusations about Halliburton by asking people to go online to factcheck.com and see for themselves the truth about his relations with his former company. Only, he meant factcheck.org, which is a non-partisan site trying to correct the political spin. Factcheck.com domain, on the other hand, was obviously owned by some  HTML-savvy democrat who forwarded the link to here.

    Go and read more from the Political Animal

    This election sure is much more fun than the Finnish ones. Anything interesting going on in the Communal election campaigns?

    Sari

  • Agreeing with the hype

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    Posted by Sari

    It must be one of if not the most hyped fantasy ever, the buzz has been on at least since Neil Gaiman gave a thumbs up in his blog, and Bloomsbury’s harrypotterhoned publicity machine has done a little too good a job about getting the message through: This is it, the Fantasy novel for adults, HP meets Jane Austen.

    I am, of course talking about Susanna Clarke’s doorstopper of a first novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Which is not really Harry Potter meets Jane Austen, but Austen meets Dickens meets Dunsinay meets Mirrilees meets Chesterton meets Stoppard meets… And darn, it is good. I might have liked it even better if my expectations weren’t so high to begin with, but even so: darn, it is _good._

    For the first few hundred pages, I was a bit sceptical: Austenite language and period in a dickensian plot with a large cast of charicatures instead of characters. Style was exquisite, the invention delightful, but there was no emotional engagement. Oh, and how original: there was a prophesy about magic. But then but after Jonathan Strange made his appearance on the pages, and I was slowly but surely taken into Clarke’s intricate, whimsical and totally believable alternative Regency. It turned out to be one of those books you want to live in, not just live with while reading.

  • Wiffaillen

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    Posted by Sari
    Jukka on “away” ilmoittaa instant MESSenger, joten lisää päiväkirjaa Princetonista:
    Uusi oravaennätys on nyt 24, joista tosin vain yksi oli klassinen musta Princetonin orava. Tuhoaako dominantti harmaa geeni mustat kokonaan? Tänä aamuna oravia oli vain 17 mutta bonarina kolme valkohäntäpeuraa lönkötteli polun yli matkalla yliopistolle. Mutta missä ovat minikanit? Mitä on Princeton ilman minikaneja? Ja Murmeleita, niitäkään ei ole vielä näkynyt…
    ***
    Vaaliväittely oli hauskaa katsottavaa. Kyllä, minä katsoin puhuvia päitä, vetäkää risti seinään. Suomalaiset poliittiset ja muunkinlaiset haastattelut ovat niin jumalattoman nolostuttavia kun haastattelija kysyy todella aivottomia kysymyksiä, haastateltava änkyttää vastauksia ja kaikki puhuvat toistensa päälle, ettei niitä kestä kukaan katsoa.
    Vaaliväittely ei ollut varsinainen väittely, Jim kysyi kysymyksen, kandidaatti a vastasi siihen kaksi minuuttia ja sitten kandidaatti b sai puolitoistaminuuttia vastaväitteisiin. Formaatti ei siis sallinut kauheasti, mutta ainakin kumpikin puoli sai aikaa esittää näkemyksensä ilman että toinen keskeytteli koko ajan. Katselin sitä kämppisten kanssa ja konsensus oli selvästi Kerryn puolella, Bush oli ihan toivoton toistoineen ja taukoineen ja änkytyksineen. Kerrykin teki pari mokaa ja molemmat tyytyväisenä eivät vastanneet kysymyksiin vaan heittivät omaa juttuaan.
    Paikallinen kommentoiti toteaa aika yksiselitteisesti Kerryn voittaneen erityisesti mielikuvallisesti, hän vaikutti valmillta ja presidentinomaiselta ja asiantuntevalta ja kaikkea sellaista. Minusta hän voitti ihan väittelyteknisesti ja sisällönkin puolesta. Suomalaisena sitä kiinnitti huomiota vähän eri kohtiin kuin jenkkikommentaattorit, esimerkiksi siihen kun Kerry kertoi anekdootin DeGaullesta joka ilmoitti Kennedylle uskovansa ilman valokuvia Kuubassa olevan ohjuksia koska luotti Yhdysvaltain Presidentin sanaan, ja kysyi kuinka moni valtionpäämies tekisi tänä päivänä samoin. Bushin ärsyttävin kohta oli mielestäni kun hän kutsui Putinia koko ajan Vladimiriksi. Kuinka hyviä kavereita he oikein ovat?
    ***
    Ulkomaanpellenä enklantilaisia lähteitä tahkoavana sitä törmää välillä kummallisiinkin ongelmiin. Vietin eilisen pohtimalla missä ihmeen kaupungissa Charles II, Englannin maastakarkoitettu kuningas oikein tappoi aikaansa 1655, tekstissä kun sanomalehdessä luki Cullen. Oikea vastaus on tietysti Köln, nykyenglanniksi Cologne. Well, Duh…

  • 15 minutes

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    Posted by jukkahoo

    I was asked, and since I’m very bad at saying "no" to ladies (even when I really oughta), I replied something akin to: "Remind me of this promise and we’ll see…" You know, almost as stupid as answering to: "Can you do *this*?" with: "If you can’t get anybody else to do it". At what point the asker (is that a word?) stops pestering anyone else.

    What I’m babbling here is of course my article of The World of Finndom at Emerald City. Cheryl asked very nicely and as I actually was very flattered and even a bit gob-smacked, I said: "Yesgoodgod, ofcoursewhendoyouwantit?" Goshboyoboy…

    Fancy this, my article appears in a Hugo-awarded fanzine! "Top of the World, Ma! I’m coming down." This article owes more than a passing reference to previous work by these three guys: Ben Roimola, Pasi Karppanen and Shimo Suntila. It wouldn’t have been possible without you, Thank You very many, I owe you some.

    Today was a bit special SF-day here in Helsinki. As you most know, the Helsinki SF-mafia meets every other Thursday (that is every odd week, as in number of weeks, not the number of the day; for example next week will be Week 41). Today – well, yesterday really, but I still haven’t slept so it’s still Thursday by default – we did have a shadow-mafia with a twist. Alastair Reynolds and his lovely partner Josette are in Finland, in order to participate the Turku Book Fair, and since Al is a (very) nice guy, he wanted to meet the Helsinki crowd, known to him as the Tähtivaeltaja-people from the Tähtivaeltaja Day in November 2002. We ate at Salve (great food, slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow service) – I’d recommend anything "fishy" on their menu – and went to Base to have a few beers. OK, some. Or many, as the case may be with some – no names here, but he usually sleeps at St. Urho, too.

    We gave a small present to Al (and we really should’ve had one for Jo, since it was Her birthday, but we did sing…) in form of a translated version of the Valentin Kalpa illustrated comic book The Killers of the Void, of the exploits of that legendary space-hero and adventurer Rocket Reynolds. Translated by the Fab Three of Vesa "Horst" Sisättö, Fionna "Fringe" O’Sullivan and Y. "Helge" T., by-the-way. Al & Jo were obviously delighted to be here, or then they are extremely devious liars and actors. Kidding aside, I had a jolly good evening. I hope you Turku-people are ready to entertain and be entertained.

    And yeah, we got Laiska-Lasse…

  • Deluge

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    Posted by Sari

    Well not a real deluge, but for a Finn the weather yesterday in New Jersey was shall we say wet on account of Jeanne dumping last of her rain on us. I stayed in the library as long as possible hoping that rain would stop but of course it didn’t. I did have my umbarella, but it was very little use, I was basically soaking wet when I got home, the rain was warm though, which was very eerie and tropical. I was terribly worried about the computer, but even though the rest of the backpack needed to be stuffed by newspapers to dry out, my toy was OK. Shoes, however were so wet they still are a bit moist and defenitely stinky. I wonder what would happen if I threw them into the dryer… just kidding.