Halloween Treat

« The saddest halloween trick or treater ever. She looks like she's about to cry. »

« The younger girls look happier, even with the giant spider and the headbands with the chunky bits that look like headphones. »

« Adorable ceramic witch outside of a ceramic art shop in Iittala. »

I couldn't decide on one photo so you get all three. Think of it as a Halloween treat. :) I don't know if it's my imagination or if there really is more Halloween stuff around Helsinki this year than last. Even so, I'm happy to see it since it is my favourite holiday of the year.

My back is still acting up in spite of getting looked at earlier this week. I haven't slept well all week as well and managed to oversleep for a birthday party I really wanted to go to tonight. Now I'm feeling crappy and am awake watching CNN talking heads shovel steaming piles of election rhetoric in between showing the Bin Laden video countless times while waiting for the weekly installment of the "global" version of the Daily Show to make it all better. If only Finland could get the Comedy Channel...

I'll note that the drunks passing me on the sidewalk while I was out having a smoke are dressed up in costume this year. One in her socks without any shoes and a white student hat repurposed as a flowered old ladies hat was particularly amusing. Oh, and since I just noticed....clocks go back one hour tonight...in case anyone other than me forgot.

permalink Ω 31 October 2004, Helsinki

A day of un-ness

« The "puunhenki", the tree spirit, in Kaisaniemi Park. It sorta has that Carmen Miranda look with the block of uncarved tree on top of his head. :) »

Not much excitement here a Casa de Ævil, unless you consider laundry a fun activity, but a few cool sites and books are worth noting.

• The absolute coolest election photography I've seen in ages, and certainly this year, is the Guardian's Documentography which is following 5 American families for the next week. It's brilliant.
• PDN mentioned Snapshot Magazine in the latest issue but....anyone know anything about this publication? The call for photos made it sound really quite interesting.
• The brand new Camerapedia looks like it has some promise to be useful and I'll probably add in a bunch of Leica info when I get to it. I can't think of any other site that would have so much information on cameras in one spot that would be useful for anyone shopping for a camera or wondering what camera is best for them.
• I could barely sit through both seasons of The Office so I'm wondering if The Office - The Christmas Specials will just make me start weeping uncontrollably for humanity. I'm a masochist, but somehow I adore this series in spite of the excrutiating pain of watching it straight through.
• If snopes took on the English language, they'd write something like Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends.
• Cook's Illustrated has two new books out that look terrific: Cover and Bake which is a book of casseroles and other baked dishes and The New Best Recipe, an updated/new version of the original which is beyond damn good.
• Creative Canine Photography as everyone should have a decent photo of their dog. I really regret not having a camera when HB was a puppy or getting an annual portrait since I think they would be a wonderful comfort to me now.
• The Dog Owner's Manual from Quirk Books, publishers of such fine books as Kung Fu for Girls and The Baby Owner's Manual. These books are a scream for nerds since they're written in the style of a technical software/hardware manual only for the baby or the pet.

permalink Ω 28 October 2004, Helsinki

Need Mo' Sunshine

« A cute barcode sticker reads "I need mo' sunshine" on a grey day. »

November is only a few days away and summer seems like it never really came this year since it rained more often than not. The days already are dim/dark by 5pm and the disorientation of sunlight at midnight seems like a vague memory. All those endless hours of light will be replaced with darkness. The upside to the sun not rising until 9am is that even night people like me can feel like there's hope for us becoming morning people afterall, even if it is only a solar illusion. November is very aptly named the 'Dead' month as without the colour of the autumn leaves or the brightness of snow, it is the darkest and most dreadful month of the Finnish year. I'll take -25C with snow in January before any day in November with it's dark gloom.

I read recently that a group of sticker graffiti artists were nabbed in a big bust down on Iso Rooba, in particular the prolific "Let me love?" person, which was very sad news. It's difficult to defend an urban artform that so many people dislike on perfectly sensible grounds, but the sticker and stencil art is often well done and they never do what the teenage fuckheads with the cans of spraypaint do, namely write fuck in as many forms possible on any surface they come across, including beautiful Jugend buildings and stonework where it is butt ugly and difficult to remove. Sticker and stencil art is often found on downspouts, ugly metal utility boxes and other places where they aren't going to do any permanent damage. I wish the cops would bust the kids who always seem to have a spare can of paint around and not a single grain of sense.

And, some people might remember Aaron Huey who walked across America with his Leica and his dog, Cosmo. I asked two publishers where I knew a few people to consider publishing his book, both of which came back with a "not original" rejection which, in publisherese, means something like "it won't sell". Updike just published his latest in a long, long lifetime of "not original", but somehow it sells. I don't understand how a guy this talented could get the HAND while some of the photobloggers who take random pictures of their feet, dinner, window, etc. are supposedly getting book deals these days. I really hope to see American Ocean in print someday. In the interim, he has finally been featured in Smithsonian Magazine's November Issue so maybe there's hope that someone will see what I see in his pictures and publish the book.

permalink Ω 27 October 2004, Helsinki

Cruel and Unsual Punishment

« I love this quote which is complemented by the 'FUCK ALL' sticker underneath it. »

Only 8 days remain until the election and I'm really quite glad I'm not in the US to watch the final stretch of the election carnival since I think it would be difficult for me to suppress all those natural homicidal urges that such fanfare tends to cultivate. I was NOT amused to see a presidential candidate on a lighted billboard last night while walking home from a movie. Today's Sanomat explained that the billboards are part of an advertising gimmick called Varjovaalit [shadow election]. In addition to the shame and self-loathing most of us Americans who live outside of America feel, must we also be reminded that the rest of the world knows more about the issues at hand and cares more about the outcome of the election than most Americans? I can avoid watching CNN and, well, the rest of the news for the next week, but I can't always avoid that shit-eating grin W has in that poster when I walk by it. I really wish Europe and the rest of the world could vote, but you can't so what's the fucking point of seeing who would win if you did vote? What if Americans had a mock vote for the Finnish presidency - would Finns give a damn? Probably not. Guess what, most Americans won't either.

I wish the Bob agency would have tried something more effective like a "Hey, you! Yeah, you, American expat! Have you gotten off your ass and voted yet?" poster campaign. Only somewhere around 10%-15% of Americans even have a passport much less live abroad at any point in their lives, but there are still enough of us to make a difference in a close election as this one will likely be. There's also a really good chance that an American with a passport is a 'liberal' for all that means to people in the EU where such 'liberals' would be closer to the conservative parties. I voted and now all I can do is avoid CNN, wait, and hope. And resist the urge to deface the Dumbya billboards around town. That picture of Kerry makes him look like Snow Miser from The Year Without a Santa Claus, too. *sigh*

permalink Ω 25 October 2004, Helsinki

Electricians are Evil

« Even the trains don't run without electricity. »

The server was down for a day due to electricians cutting the power to the server room and the system didn't come back up on its own. Electricians and thunderstorms are the bane of system administrators as abruptly cutting the power tends to make systems rather unhappy. :) Thanks, again, to Ben for getting the system back online.

Also, someone who enjoys the search.cpan.org CPAN search engine, who works in an academic environment somewhere in the New England area, and who would be willing to host a 2U Sun for the search engine, please email me as we have a box that needs a good home.

permalink Ω 23 October 2004, Helsinki

Sculpture and the 5th Circle of Hell

« Looking up through the pipes and a few other photos of the Sibelius Monument. »

I needed to get out of the house last week so I walked up to see the Sibelius Monument up close since I had only previously seen it while passing by it in a car. I must admit that the texture really makes the sculpture interesting as from a distance it only reminds me of the pixelated cities of the Atari "Missle Command" game from so long ago. The disembodied head of Sibelius is really creepy in a way that clowns are creepy. I must have watched too many cartoons as a kid that featured evil villains depicted as floating disembodied heads or something. It's a popular tourist attraction that was curiously devoid of busloads of tourists but as I was leaving a throng of Japanese tourists arrived.

And interviewing in Finland is like Dante's fifth circle of hell. A few years back, Jarkko and I were 'interviewed' by the CEO of a company we were both going to go to work for. Jarkko, being Finnish, said nothing the entire time and I tried to keep the conversation limping along while the CEO, Mr. Smooth VC Guy, turned himself inside out trying to get some kind, any kind, of feedback out of the silent man in the corner. I was amused and we eventually decided not to move to Canukistan [For those who know the story and CEO in question, he has a blog these days]. I always knew the power of silence but this was a very memorable illustration of it. Now, the tables are turned and I feel like a total freak in interviews where none of the usual verbal or non-verbal cues are there and so I find myself talking at length just waiting for that cue that moves things along or gives you the idea that you're bombing or doing alright. It's like swimming under the ice with a blindfold on looking for the hole....only less pleasant.

permalink Ω 20 October 2004, Helsinki

Space Modern Rock

« Water seeps through cracks and drips down the walls in the Temppeliaukio. A few other photos of Temppeliaukio. »

I have never quite understood why churches are often listed as primary tourist destinations for a lot of places around the globe. I mean, sure, they're often lavishly decorated and have a great deal of history behind them, but even having visited some of the most notable churches still standing I'm of the mind that if you have seen one church, you've seen them all; altar, cross, pews, organ, stained glass, etc. It also feels slightly wrong to step into one of these churches and notice that it's still an active place of worship. Helsinki's most photographed church, Tuomiokirkko [literal translation and the translation I prefer is Doom Cathedral] can be seen from almost anywhere downtown, a rather unsettling spectre on the skyline.

But there is another church that draws busloads of tourists that I hadn't been inside of before, Temppeliaukio, a.k.a. the Stone Church. It's a church....in a rock. It looks like a lunar base straight out of Space:1999. It's the atomic modern style of the 50's colliding with the space age beehive hairdo of the early 60s: Far Out. It's an unusual place and it's interesting to look at, but if I were a tourist I think I'd rather sit in a cafe or have a picnic on Suomenlinna. I kept thinking while walking around the church of how beautiful it must be to watch it snow from the inside with the lights out and how incredibly difficult it would be to heat the space inside evenly and efficiently. From what I understand, the design of the church was met with some controversy or dispute due to its 1960s minimalist space modern design but has since found plenty of admirers. Surprisingly, the space age doesn't include web site technology for the virtual tourist so a bit about the church from the brochure might be of interest.

History: Temppeliaukio Square was named in 1906, when the city plan for Etu-Töölö was confirmed. Gradually, plans arose for building a church there and an architectural competition proved unsatisfactory, and a new one was announced in 1936. This time, the third-prize winner, drawn by Prof. J.S. Sirén, was accepted as the basic building plan. The excavation work for Sirén's cathedral-style church began in 1939 but was interrupted by the Winter War. A third architectural competition was won in 1961 by two brothers, architects Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen with an entry titled the "Stone Church". For reasons of economy, their plan had to be reduced by over 4,000 cu. meters. Construction began on the 14th of February, 1968; the work advanced quickly and the church was consecrated on the 28th of September 1969 with a final cost of 3.85 million marks [about 650,000 dollars].

Architectural details: Quarried into bedrock, the church is situated on Temppeliaukio Square, near the center of Helsinki. The basic idea of the plan was to preserve the rock formation of the square and therefore the essential construction has been built into the rock as far as possible. The outer stone wall surrounding the church is made of quarried stone, piled and bound together with steel bindings. The wall shields the church from noise and people walking on the rock above. The church is covered by a copper dome which is joined to the rock by reinforced concrete beams of various sizes, in between which there are 180 skylights. On the rock to the right of the main entrance stands a cross designed by the architects. The church has no bells. The planted areas on the rocks have been designed by garden architect Erik Sommerschield.

The floor of the church is on the street-level, so that the altar can be seen from the street through the glass doors. The parish house and the offices have been built on the side of the rock to the left of the main entrance. The church has a cubic capacity of 11,000 cu. meters and has seating space for 750 people. Its inner walls consist of bedrock and quarried stone, and their quarried surface has been left rough for acoustic and aesthetic considerations. Various kinds of coloured formations of rock add to the beauty of the walls. Their surface is brought to life by water running from cracks in the rock face which is led away through covered drains under the floor. Drill marks have not been removed from the walls in order to let the working method remain visible. The height of the walls vary between 5 to 9 meters.

The inner surface of the dome is lined with 22 kilometers of copper stripping. The diameter of the dome is 24 meters and the height from the floor to its apex is 13 meters. In the rear of the church is a balcony lined with copper panels. Above the balcony is an observation room for radio and television broadcasts and below it, a small vestry. The altar wall of the church is formed by an ice age rock crevice. During the summer months, morning sunlight falls against the altar during service. The altar table consists of a slab of smoothly sawn granite. The small crucifix portrays Christ as sufferer and victor. The asymmetrical altar railing, which can also be reached by wheelchair, can accommodate 25 partakers at one communion setting. The crucifix, candlestands and the baptismal font to the right of the altar are the work of forgeartist Kauko Moisio.

The church textiles have been designed by textile artist Tellervo Strömmer. In front of the altar and low pulpit there is space for an orchestra. The church benches are of birch. Beside the pine choir dais is located the pipe organ made by Veikko Virtanen Co. The mechanically operated organ has 43 registers, 4 manuals, a pedal and 3,001 pipes. A tunnel starting near the altar wall leads to the two-floor parish premises, built of concrete into the side of the rock. The parish hall has seating space for 130 people. There are four clubrooms downstairs. The church is connected to the municipal central heating network. The premises are ventilated by mechanical means. Heated fresh air is blown into the church through ducts situated in the front wall of the balcony.

permalink Ω 19 October 2004, Helsinki

Build it and they will come

« The lucky horseshoe and outlet mall of Tuuri. »

I have previously lamented the lack of roadside attractions in Finland before but no longer. I saw an article in FinnAir's magazine about a giant horseshoe on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and knew I had to pay it a visit.

Tuuri is 145 kilometers north of Tampere. I wasn't expecting throngs of buses and old folks swarming around the whole 'outlet mall' sort of attraction. It's the same in the US since noone would bother going to Freeport, Maine, just for a few L.L.Bean shirts, but add a whole array of brand name outlet stores to the same street and people from miles around will come. I wouldn't have expected the Tuuri horseshoe and shopping outlet mall to be the most popular tourist attraction in Finland. I mean, it's not really on the way to or from anywhere except maybe Oulu. Do that many people really go on holiday to shop somewhere?

The shops apparently do enough business to be second only to Stockmann's in sales every year. For a place that's out in the middle of nowhere, that's pretty impressive. Vesa Keskinen, the owner, is planning a 5-star hotel and thinking big for the future. I'm starting to get the idea that Ostrobothnia is the Texas of Finland where everything is bigger. They also host the Miljoona Pilkki which is where 27,000 or so people go out onto the ice to fish and freeze their arse off in early March and is allegedly the world's largest such event.

One thing they need to work on is the postcards as they aren't anywhere near as cheesy as would befit a giant horseshoe out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe one postcard could feature the horseshoe with space aliens landing in the parking lot to fill up on salmiakki and vodka.

permalink Ω 17 October 2004, Helsinki

Polar Huns

« A figure carved into a door in Tallinn. What happened to his right arm? »

This week's Ask the Pilot features a short bit about Finland that is funny if a bit stereotypically unenlightened. The Finn singing Blister in the Sun is likely lucky he lived to see another flight.

First, what's the deal with Finland? My column seems to be inordinately popular there, for reasons I can't explain. Asking around, I'm told the Finns are among the planet's most Internet savvy populations, but still, five letters in less than a week? Certain places I take for granted. I receive semi-frequent mail from Australia, as an example. The Aussies speak English and have a rich aviation history. Finland I'm not so sure of.

What few things I know about Finland don't explain the mystery. For instance, I know the Finns hate being called Scandinavian. That's because they're not. The Finnish language, unlike Swedish or Norwegian or Danish, branches from the same family of tongues -- Finno-Ugrian -- that claims Hungarian.

Thus you can think of the Finns, maybe, as an alienated, dislocated community of Polar Huns. I'm also told the summertime mosquitoes in Lapland are the world's most voracious.

Possibly for these reasons, enormous groups of young Finns routinely flee their homeland. At least for the weekend. They proceed via ferry, across the gulf from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, where they spend the next three days gorging on cheap Russian liquor. Then, in what must be a truly grotesque scene of en-masse hangover and seasickness, they catch the ferry home again. St. Petersburg as a sort of Baltic Cancun.

Maybe things have changed, but that's how it was in February 1986, when I spent five days in Leningrad (as St. Petersburg was still called) at the Pribaltiskaya Hotel. What the Pribaltiskaya lacked in luxuries it made up for with a well-stocked bar and a tolerance for obnoxious revelry. The boat from Helsinki arrived on Friday afternoon, and by 8 p.m. hundreds of Finns were collapsed into unconscious pig-piles in the stairwells, elevators and hallways. Piles of drunken bodies were giving off fumes like gasoline-soaked firewood. Those still ambulatory were climbing the flagpoles and jumping head-first into the laundry chutes.

All right, in fairness I'll add that groups of partying Swedish kids were up to much the same thing. I quickly lost track of which drunken posses were the Finns and which were the Swedes.

The Swedes, it turns out, became easier to spot because many of them were weeping. Only hours earlier, Sweden's beloved prime minister, Olof Palme, had been assassinated in Stockholm. As details of the killing trickled in, distraught teenagers huddled around each other in the hotel restaurant, downing bottle after bottle of $3 champagne; pouring vodka onto the tables and slapping the puddles with their hands.

Finnair, to politely change the subject, is Finland's national airline. Founded in 1923, it operates a 60-strong fleet as far as Bangkok, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In fact it was Finnair that flew me from New York to Russia back in '86, by way of Helsinki. The airline has a good reputation and is popular for its routes to Eastern Europe. Then again, it also calls itself "the official airline of Santa Claus" and is known for cramming 10-abreast seating into its MD-11s instead of the standard nine.

In '86 it was an old DC-10, predecessor of the MD-11, and it too had the 10-abreast squeeze. Then we suffered a flat tire during a fuel stop in Montreal.

Even more disturbing than the three-hour delay and deep vein thrombosis, however, was the whacked-out man sitting behind me. This young, disheveled, and very inebriated Finn insisted on singing, full voice, all the way across the Atlantic.

First it was Grace Jones, whose songs are intolerable in any form, let alone in a Finno-Ugrian accent at 2 in the morning. This was followed by the entire Violent Femmes first album, a heretofore terrific record that I could never again listen to without shuddering, thanks to the demented Finn's drooling renditions of "Blister in the Sun" and "Please Do Not Go."

On the return I spent a snowy afternoon in Helsinki, where the highlight was finding a pizza place. Finland is known for pizza about as much as it's known for coconuts, but nothing tasted better after a week and a half of Soviet food.

And, never, ever, tempt fate by asking what more could go wrong in your wretched little life as my back is now out again for the second time in 2 years. There are few things that make you feel quite so helpless as lying in bed and being either completely unable to move or being able to move but only with an acute pain that I fail to describe adequately. It does give you a new appreciation for a body part that we take for granted. On the upside, the drugs leftover from the last time this happened are actually some really good shit. :) Better living made possible by DuPont.

permalink Ω 15 October 2004, Helsinki

UFO

« An Unidentified Furry Object on a Töölö street. I'm guessing it's a bit of tourist kitsch, but wtf is it? A reindeer on two legs with big, sad puppy eyes dressed like a Lapp? »

I found a glossy brochure on a scenic place to take an afternoon walk in the tourist bureau recently, Lahtipolku. The beautiful brochure and map are online but you'll need to read Finnish to understand anything aside from the pictures and map. I put a few of the pictures I took while we were walking the trail up in a Lahtipolku gallery which are from the same set of B&W photos I developed myself recently. The walk is really very enjoyable, scenic and well worth the short metro ride out to where the trail begins. Take something to grill as there is a public grill/picnic spot next to the water near no. 32 on the map. The very end of the trail becomes a little hard to find since the trail isn't specially marked as such so be prepared to enjoy a bit of an adventure.

As I was going through photos of HB I was thinking that I'd ask if anyone had photos of him they'd like to share, we'd be delighted to have a copy if you have the time to scan them in and email them to us. And, again, I'd like to thank everyone for all the email regarding HB. It warms my heart and really has helped ease the trauma a bit.

permalink Ω 14 October 2004, Helsinki

November cometh early

« A faded sticker of Dumbya wearing a shirt emblazoned with "I *plane* NY" on a building downtown. Americans who aren't willing to believe that the world isn't very positive about the US or its citizens these days simply aren't paying attention. »

So I finally received my absentee ballot for all the good that it will do to cast a vote in MA since it's already a pretty solid Kerry state. I've stopped really caring who wins anymore as it seems like a circus without much point. I'll vote, but with an air of the resigned to the cold truth that it doesn't really matter.

After some confusion over the burial arrangements for HB, we've settled on driving him up to Tampere ourselves to have him cremated. Monday evening when Jarkko came home he said he had talked to the people at the Vet's office who said it might take up to three weeks to get his ashes back at which point I started crying as it had been a long and difficult day cleaning the house and I had felt awful leaving him on the floor of the room where he died. Three weeks just seemed horribly long for him to be in cold storage among strangers. Jarkko called them back and asked them to keep the body while we figured out what we wanted to do. I would still like to bury him properly, but he's big which presents too many logistical problems and many of the pet cemeteries don't accept such large dogs unless they're already cremated, so cremation it will have to be. At least we'll be personally taking him up there. I can't figure out why it's so far away or why they make so few trips to Helsinki when 1/5 of the country lives here and not in Tampere. We'll get his ashes back in a few days and then we'll decide what we'll do with them.

permalink Ω 13 October 2004, Helsinki

The Saddest Day

« HB getting a morning scratch from Jarkko while I was making coffee and grabbed the camera in time sometime in July. »

I thought that my father's death would have prepared me for the pain of losing HB, but I don't know that anything could have at this point. I am completely and utterly devastated. We got away for the weekend, which was nice, but all we thought about was him anyway. I had a frightful thought while driving that what if his spirit came back to the house looking for us, would he think we left without him? He came into my life on the 12th of November 1991 so we had almost 13 years together. We decided to have him cremated, yet I somewhat regret us not taking the body ourselves and giving him a respectful burial.

Today was the worst as there was no cold, wet nose to nudge me out of bed, no one to walk, no one to make breakfast for, and none of the sounds I grew so accustomed to, only silence. I had to begin the emotional task of cleaning up his things and putting them into the attic. I felt guilty removing all the hair and slobber as it's like I'm erasing what little there is left of him. I started to sob when I was scrubbing his bowls and stand. The house is clean now and a lot more empty. There's a huge hole in the kitchen where his bowls, stand and drool mat used to be. I can't pass it by without thinking about him.

I keep hoping that he felt loved and that he understood why we put him to sleep. I also try to keep remembering the good times like the time he caught a squirrel and carried it home with his tail so high and proud or the time he was riding in the car to Boston with my mother giving him fries along the way and then complaining about his gas or walking up to the pit in Rockport on the beautiful wooded trails behind the house or walking along the beach or .... I know deep in my heart that it was his time to go, yet I can't help thinking that we should have done more which is silly since he wasn't eating and he just couldn't walk without pain as the medication wasn't helping anymore. Rational thought vs. the emotional pain of letting go don't mix.

There is one thing that has provided some comfort to me and that is something a woman said to me while walking sometime 2 years ago when she heard how old he was even then; "They know when they are loved." I will probably make a photo book of him when I feel ready and we'll light a candle for him on All Soul's Eve as feeble attempts to remember him well.

People often ask if you plan to get a new puppy as a way to make conversation but I feel like I want to hit these people. I don't know if we'll ever get another dog, but if we do it will be a while since the grief will linger. There was a guy we'd see every few days on our walks who recently lost his 16 year-old dog and who would greet HB very enthusiastically. We saw him on Friday and I blurted out the bad news and he paled, looked sad and almost haunted, and scurried off quickly after giving HB a few pats. Now I truly understand why.

And...I've got a few new photos to post when I get the enthusiasm. I don't have a lot to say right now and I don't want to wallow in my grief online, so it may be a bit quiet for a while. A note to family; I'll be biting the bullet and flying home for Thanksgiving.

permalink Ω 11 October 2004, Helsinki

Peace

« HoneyBear. A great soul and best friend. We miss you already. »

permalink Ω 8 October 2004, Helsinki

The Bell Tolls

« The slightly creepy hands next to the Kekkonen memorial pool. »

So tomorrow/today is the dreaded day. My most sincere thanks to all the thoughtful people who have sent email and snail mail cards. I keep hoping that it will all go well and that neither of us will lose it before it's all done. Afterwards, we're going to get out of town for the weekend so we won't have to sit in the quiet, empty apartment thinking of him. Life just won't be the same without him.

permalink Ω 8 October 2004, Helsinki

Herring Festival

« A herring salesman with fur hat and a few other photos from the herring festival. »

Everything I know about Baltic herring, which is very little, I learned in Finland. The Helsinki Baltic Herring Fair [a live webcam shows the market as well] has herring in just about every form imaginable and even some that aren't. Herrings apparently communicate with each other by farting [the url for the wav is wrong in the article and you'll find it here.]. Farts are pretty sonar-riffic so I suppose this shouldn't be very exciting.

I'm still not that keen on the fishy taste of herring, no matter how sexed up in some sort of sauce they are, but they're impossible to avoid here so I'm working hard to like the little buggers. Given the choice between eating herring or spending the day at Malmi like I did today, I'd eat the herring so they can't be all that bad. :)

permalink Ω 6 October 2004, Helsinki

Fish Heads

« The fiddler and the accordion player for the "Greeting to the Baltic Herring" performance on Sunday at the opening of the annual Baltic Herring Festival [Helsingin silakkamarkkinat] in Helsinki. It was theatre the way Dr. Demento envisioned it should be. The performance was terrific, if a bit less weird than I had hoped, and I totally want their herring hats. »

I read the instructions, did the math, mixed the chemicals and developed 2 rolls of B&W film tonight. The only difficult part was opening the film spools like a bottle of beer and getting them onto the film spools in complete darkness. After that, it was pretty much agitate and pour at the right times. I think I underdeveloped the film just a bit and my neg scanner is shite, but I'm still happy with the results and it's just like the time I got my first chemistry set when I was 7 except I didn't try to blow anything up this time. :)

permalink Ω 5 October 2004, Helsinki

Boing

« The bridge over the railway tracks near downtown. The wild west typeface is a fun comic book parody. »

We decided on Wednesday that we should make the appointment for HB with Dr. Death and so next Friday will be his last day. It's a difficult decision to make, but he hasn't been eating well, if at all, and he really has to struggle to walk even around the corner lately. When the doctor asks you if you'd like the body to be cremated or if you'd like to bury it yourself it's a bit like being asked, "paper or plastic?", after spending an overwhelming hour of shopping in a US grocery. It's just not a decision you're prepared to make after all the mental energy spent just getting to that point. Much of the coming week will be spent either with HB or trying to get my mind off of Friday, e.g. tomorrow's seemingly implausible, but irresistibly odd "The Winter Circus' Greeting to the Baltic Herrings" dance at the opening of the Herring Fair. I wish they had a herring poetry slam as I would feel compelled to read Conrad's ode to herring.

permalink Ω 2 October 2004, Helsinki