When puppies attack!

« Jarkko holds our eagerly awaited new baby. :) An entire gallery filled with adorable Saint Bernard puppies. »

We took a trip to southern Sweden this weekend to visit the litter of puppies we liked and to pick one along with the usual things you look at when selecting a breeder. The breeders, Lasse and Sussi, asked us to stay at their house and were really terrific people. As soon as we saw those 9 adorable little furry faces looking up at us any doubt we might have had disappeared. Of course, 9 puppies who are 7 weeks old and who are just getting their teeth in along with the teething that goes with them are dangerous creatures to everything within range of their mouths. :) We spent a few hours getting to know the furry piraña and decided on the puppy we liked originally from the pictures. We haven't picked a name for him yet, we'll just have to see what comes to us as a fitting name.

We have to wait until the first week of January to bring him home because of the EU regulations, in spite of Sweden being a rabies-free country, requiring that the puppy have a rabies vaccination before entering Finland. So, we must wait 5 long weeks until we can bring him home so he can fill the house with hair, drool, chew toys and all those familiar St. Bernard sounds that we miss so much. :) Happiness is a warm, fuzzy puppy.

permalink Ω 29 November 2004, Helsinki

Finnish Thanksgiving

« The bas-relief on this slab of dark granite becomes a cool bit of snowy art. A Thanksgiving day postprandial gallery of pictures from a November Snow to gape at in a turkey induced coma. »

Thanksgiving, a treasured holiday that involves lots of food, family and no religious obligations. A day that likely makes all the surviving Native Americans wonder what in the hell the Wampanoag tribe was thinking when they helped those prissy pilgrims survive the first few winters instead of taking care of the problem early. So much romanticism is imbued in the whole idea of Thanksgiving that even Plymouth Rock is a major tourist attraction which, I can tell you from personal experience, is the saddest bit of rock anyone might waste their time travelling down two hours from Boston to gape at.

In the annual fit of family and patriotic turkey eating frenzy, the Pilgrims were, in fact, immigrants celebrating the fact that they managed to survive a year or two in their new homeland, one that they either chose to or were forced to move to. Not that everyone shouldn't have something to reflect happily upon in the previous 365 days, but people who move to an alien land have a completely different need to do so since, like with the Pilgrims, there are lots of days where the misery you knew back home seems a lot more comfortable than the misery you are just beginning to make friends with. Simple things you once took for granted are a new challenge and few things come easily.

I didn't go home this year, much as I wanted to, but we had a 'Finnish Thanksgiving' dinner of turkey meatballs, mashed potatoes with aura cheese and garlic, and lingonberry sauce. It wasn't the same as a full spread of turkey, stuffing, giblet gravy, yams, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie, and piles of other food you try to cram in before you feel so full that you feel sick, but it was good. I don't feel much like a pilgrim but, like them, I've managed to survive so far and that's something worth treating yourself to a big meal that would drop a moose in 50 paces. Of course, this year I have something to be quite thankful for and that is, after much waiting and hoping, I finally got a job. Not only a job, but a job at the one place I wanted to work for above all the others. :) I'm happy, too, that I'll be working somewhere that I'll be, I think, the only native English speaker and where the operating language is Finnish and I will have no choice but to finally start speaking a bit more Finnish. I hope I survive the awkward stage. Getting back into a regular workday routine is going to feel really strange for a week or three I think. :)

Also, this week's paper had a story about Korttelit.fi, a pictorial map of every building in downtown Helsinki. The interface is very nicely done and the pictures are good as well. It's not finished as the person who created it is doing it himself, but I suspect there will be some commercial interest in it to make it worth his while.

permalink Ω 26 November 2004, Helsinki

Dante's Ferry

« The port of Tallinn with ferries on the left and church steeples of the medieval old town on the right in May. »

Is there a Law of Murphy that describes how that when you leave town for a day or two that all the people you have been waiting for weeks to hear from suddenly fill your inbox and attempt to call you as soon as you pass the city limits? Four of us got a super deal for the ferry and overnight stay in a nice hotel. The master planner among us [thanks, again, Arabella :)] also arranged appointments for hair cuts, manicures and such at a nearby spa which was very nice indeed. I hadn't had my hair cut in almost 2 years so it was good to lose the wookie look. :)

Tallinn isn't nearly as inexpensive as it was before it joined the EU. It's still cheap on some things but, as a rule, I don't think the prices are so low as to justify a trip only for shopping. The Christmas Market in the Old Town Square was a bit unexceptional when compared to the Christmas Market in Helsinki, but they did have a delightful Joulupukki who would ask the children to sing to him before he would entertain their holiday wish list. Totally adorable.

On the return ferry, the sea was quite stormy and I had a Dante-esque vision of hell - Imagine a small ferry filled with old people and their parents doing the tango to a loud live band playing the golden oldies of Finnish tango while being violently tossed around in seas whipped up by 17 m/sec winds while you have an angry stomach and a bit of a migrane. If the thought of freezing to death in the Baltic hadn't been less attractive than sitting in my chair trying not to hurl after the 2nd straight hour of heavy roll, pitch, yaw and tango, I might have considered jumping overboard. :)

permalink Ω 24 November 2004, Helsinki

Death be not proud

« Nathan Wood, Marine LCpl age 19, in Kirkland, WA. »

Aaron Huey sent me this photo that is featured on Sunday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer's front page and asked that I share it. My father was a Marine in the signal corps in one of those wars few remember and even fewer remember what the war was about. Fortunately, he didn't come home in a box as this teenager did. There just aren't words that describe what war is really all about better than a single picture. War is death. Death of people you know and love. Something to think about this week as families come together for Thanksgiving, some with an empty chair or two at the table.

I took this photo yesterday at the funeral of Nathan Wood, Marine LCpl age 19, in Kirkland, WA. Nathan was killed November 9 in Fallujah. His best friend, Garrett Ware, also a marine fighting in Falluja, was injured and sent home with a purple heart. In this image Garrett hugs Nathan's father, Rex Wood, at the funeral in Kirkland yesterday.

permalink Ω 22 November 2004, Helsinki

M is for....

« Look and then look again. Those who paid attention in biology or anatomy classes will see the clever twist. I walked past it myself only to stop 3 paces on and smile back at it. »

We had a lot of fun yesterday helping Jarkko's sister move into her new apartment that has a gorgeous 7th floor view. It began snowing at some point during the day and looked as though it was just a flurry until it really started dumping snow towards the late afternoon. I think we wound up with nearly a foot/30cm of the rather wet marshmallowy snow. I always love the first snow or three, especially if they're a good and proper snow. By the time February rolls around and you've trudged through the snow, ice and grit for months it loses its appeal. Of course, you have to wait until May for it to warm up and melt away.

We also went wandering out into the snow last night which was an adventure and more than a bit slippery. I took one especially amusing photo that I'm hoping will turn out when I develop the film, hopefully, later today. I also must continue to be in awe of the women who trot over the ice packed sidewalks in shoes I couldn't manage to walk in on a clear day. I'll stick to my flat-soled boots I think. :)

permalink Ω 21 November 2004, Helsinki

Sore Winners

« A mound of snow in three smiths square long before the first snow arrived. I thought it was an environmentalist group speaking out against global warming but, no, it was some goofy marketing campaign for snowboarding staged in several places around Helsinki. »

Two weeks ago, there was an article in the English edition of the Helsingin Sanomat entitled Americans living in Helsinki disappointed by Kerry defeat that featured a few Americans living here who were watching the election results and weren't very enthused. Yesterday, Jarkko pointed out a section in the Finnish edition of the paper that was a short piece written by the journalist who wrote that story detailing the 30 or so crazy email she had received from Americans angry at that story and the Americans in it. Considering how much psychotic email I received in response from what little I've written here on the topic, I'm not really terribly surprised, but I am embarrassed. The journalist included bits from three of the email, presumably because they were the only ones lucid enough to take excerpts from, that are really just pitiful. One with an especially poor concept of history suggested that the EU's pacifism was responsible for everything from Hitler to the Japanese emperor. I suppose they missed that day in school where the teacher lectured on world history or maybe they got the revisionist version where America saved Europe even as far back as the crusades and Ottomans. I wonder if she was on Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" segment where they find the absolute dumbest people in America and quiz them as though ignorance in the extreme might be comedy. People like these do nothing to change the collective picture of Americans as largely uneducated and ignorant.

This sort of sore winner syndrome is nothing short of bizarre. It is as though these poison pens know they've been duped and are desperately trying to reassure themselves that their willing self-deception is the one true reality. Anyone disagreeing or disdaining that reality is an affront to maintaining the illusion. Perhaps they took the "If you're not with us, you're against us." slogan far too literally. I also guessed wrong that Americans back home didn't give a damn how the EU felt about Bush since it's pretty clear that they do care enough to send hate mail. After the election, I didn't send out angry email to every Bush voter I could find on the internet as why would I bother? What's done is done and all we can do now is wait and hope that we're wrong. The sheer mass of vituperous email from the religiously fervent Bush club that no one expressing disappointment and/or fear at Bush's re-election seems to be immune from receiving in their inbox tends to suggest a massive compensatory reaction;"the lady doth protest too much, methinks." Of course, these are not the sort of people given to introspection so that which they suspect is happening, that they may have made a mistake, that they were lied to outright, yet ignore by shouting the loudest, will go unnoticed until it is impossible to avoid. Well, or until the bombing in Tehran starts and OPEC switches to the Euro.

permalink Ω 19 November 2004, Helsinki

Spritz

« A rather sinister looking Moomin stencil. »

Every culture that celebrates Christmas invariably has a selection of traditional holiday cookies, some of which are unique to or identified with a particular country or culture. My mother used to get the whole family into baking somewhere around 45-60 different kinds of cookies every holiday season to give to patients, nurses, interns, family and anyone else who looked like they wouldn't refuse a plate of homemade cookies. Many of the cookies were made from traditional recipes her mother gave her from Germany, like the anise cookies she'd have to hide from me since I had a bad habit of stuffing myself sick with them. :) The cookies I thought were rather bland but enjoyed making the most were the spritz cookies since I loved playing with the cookie press. We would either dye the dough green and make wreaths or use coloured sugars and candied fruits to make them into wreaths and otherwise festive symbols.

Spritz cookies are generally claimed to be of Swedish origin although just about every European country has some sort of variation on a simple butter cookie. Even with the spritz cookies, there are as many variations in recipes as there are recipes. Beatrice Ojakangas, the author of many Finnish and Nordic/Scandinavian cookbooks, has a spritz recipe that calls for cake flour that I've used before and found the cookies dull, crumbly and powdery. The closest recipe in the Finnish cookbook I could find is a generic dough called Murotaikina which is then used in a wide variety of cookies. The recipes generally call for baking powder and whole eggs. I've also seen a number of other recipes that use either margarine or shortening which I would never even consider using. They're butter cookies, not crisco or margarine cookies.

Cook's Illustrated this month takes on this abused cookie and comes up with a recipe that is the result of testing all the ingredients and finding the right combination for a buttery, slightly sweet cookie that keeps its shape and doesn't disintegrate before it hits your mouth. The creaming of the butter and sugar together is the essential step since the air pockets created by doing this give the cookie its proper texture. The method for pressing CI used was a pastry bag, but they did test a number of cookie presses and found the Wilton Comfort Grip press to be the best they tried. They do make a strong argument for the pastry bag though since it provides for more creative shapes.

Spritz Cookies

We had the best results baking these cookies one sheet at a time. When reusing a cookie sheet, make sure that it has completely cooled before forming more cookies on it. Unbaked dough can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days; to use, let it stand at room temperature until softened, about 45 minutes. Baked cookies will keep for more than a week if stored in an airtight container or zipper-lock bag.

Makes about 6 dozen 1 1/2-inch cookies

• 1 large egg yolk 
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened (about 70 degrees)
• 2/3 cup sugar (about 4-3/4 ounces)
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt 
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. In small bowl, beat yolk, cream, and vanilla with fork until combined; set aside.
2. In standing mixer, cream butter, sugar, and salt at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. With mixer running at medium speed, add yolk/cream mixture and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl. With mixer running at low speed, gradually beat in flour until combined. Scrape down bowl and give final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain.
3. If using cookie press to form cookies, follow manufacturer's instructions to fill press; if using pastry bag, follow illustrations 1 through 3 below to fill bag. Press or pipe cookies onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing them about 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time. Cool cookies on baking sheet until just warm, 10 to 15 minutes; using metal spatula, transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

almond variation: Grind 1/2 cup sliced almonds and 2 tablespoons flour called for in the spritz recipe until powdery and evenly fine; combine almond mixture with remaining flour. Follow recipe for spritz, substituting 3/4 teaspoon almond extract for vanilla.

lemon variation: add 1 teaspoon lemon juice to yolk/cream mixture in step 1 and add 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest to butter along with sugar and salt in step 2.

permalink Ω 18 November 2004, Helsinki

The Big Picture

« Mr. I. Finger visits Sinebrychoff Park. »

I put together a few panoramic photos [with craneporn] from the first roll through the Russian panoramic camera. They are mostly uninspired shots that I took to see what the thing could do with only 6 shutter speeds and partly to mostly cloudy skies. The distortions that happen when the camera isn't held level are fun and, in spite of the thing sounding and looking like it might have been a toy prize at a carnival, it's something different and the photos are cool.

permalink Ω 16 November 2004, Helsinki

Gathering Storm

« A granite column in the Jugendsali with a cornice whose flourish definitely looks like a menacing face with the dramatic lighting. »

More bad news as the only sane person in the White House, the educated moderate who could still command respect from people of very different politics and geographies, one of the few Republicans I'd be happy to vote for, resigned from his post of Secretary of State today; Colin Powell. With him goes our last hope for any kind of caution and the possibility of the US invading Iran and/or Syria becomes a lot more plausible. I hope he takes a trip to Disneyland as he looks like he could use a vacation before heading to whatever bunker he has had prepared to hide in for the next few years. In the meanwhile, the much snickered over photo of Cheney has finally surfaced after the hubbub since someone in MN graciously scanned it in for the world to gawp at. Dems should study the photo carefully and find out what caused the condition since it is reportedly difficult to have a boner and run a government at the same time. I can picture it now, "Operation Big Dick" with the mission being to keep all the neocon freaks in government engorged, erect and enjoying hot, sweaty neocon on neocon gay man love for the next four years. If there's an odd number, we'll throw in the conservative tranny Ann Coulter to even things out just for kicks. I'm getting all warm and tingly just thinking about it.

Last night there was a 1-hour program on CNN about the growing disputes in American protestant churches, particularly the Southern Baptists, over the encroachment of radical fundamentalism at the expense of more moderate pastors and members. It was mildly interesting in the same way you'd watch a Nazi documentary where you are completely unable to understand how so many people believed the propaganda instead of their own eyes yet somehow you find yourself unable to turn the channel in spite of the mounting horror and disbelief. One particularly fervent fundamentalist proclaimed, with chilling conviction and a smile on her face, that the so-called 'judgement day' will come within her lifetime. All I could think of was how all the people who are working towards this impending doomsday will be horribly livid when they realise, in the moments before their unremarkable death among millions, that the angels, trumpets and whatnot were all just the embellishment of an author with a flair for florid tales. That humans would eventually kill each other off has been and still remains a foregone conclusion, but the addition of killing for your deity being met with such grandiose fanfare makes for a more compelling story and a seemingly oft recycled one. On the upside, humans won't be doomed to repeat history again when that finally comes to pass. Always, a silver lining.

permalink Ω 15 November 2004, Helsinki

Pyhäinpäivä and Varpajaiset

« A panoramic photo of candles lighting up pyhäinpäivä in Hietaniemi Cemetery. Click on the photo for a larger version. »

There are few things quite so moving as an entire cemetery glowing in a sea of candles, each placed on the graves by someone who cared enough to visit and remember the departed. Jarkko dutifully carried the tripod as we wandered through the cemetery for 2 hours after lighting a candle for HB. I took the Leica as well as a Russian pano camera I've had for a while but hadn't tried using yet. The pano camera has only 6 shutter speeds and, at 1/4 of a second, sounds like a dying alarm clock buzzer. When I was killing off the end of the rolls of film this afternoon so that I could develop them this evening, I noticed that the Leica wasn't spooling so I took it into the darkroom and opened it up and, sure enough, it hadn't been feeding the film. The M7 is a bit tricky since the film chamber is tighter than the M6 and you have to be diligent in shoving the film canister all the way down and get the film into the prongs properly. I was in a hurry on pyhäinpäivä and didn't check it before heading out. I know this happens to the pros on occasion so I don't feel too much like a tard, but I'm disappointed at the loss of some nice photos from the evening amidst the glow.

Congratulations to Ulla and Richard on their new, yet unnamed, baby boy who was born on Friday morning. :) There are so many new cultural tidbits you find out when friends have babies. Apparently Finland requires, by law, that the child be given a Finnish name so they're going to select a name that is easy for the British side of the family to pronounce, which rules out any names with r, ä, ö, double letters and vowels that look the same but don't sound the same as in English. I can't wait to find out what name meets the linguistic hurdles when the baby is named in a week or so. We helped Richard get drunk last night and barely made it through this evening for his varpajaiset. Varpajaiset is where the new father and his male friends, if they're sober enough, count the babies toes to make sure there are 10 of them, then proceed to smoke cigars and get drunk. The word, varpajaiset, literally translates to 'toeings' and we were speculating over beers and giggles that the counting was either for how many shots of kossu the father would have to drink or, because of the small gene pool in Finland, that it was just to check that you didn't accidentally marry your first cousin by mistake. Do they get to drink an extra shot if there are 11 toes? I'd love to know where this tradition came from since the doctors are usually the ones who are responsible for making sure the baby doesn't have 2 heads and 15 toes before and after they've left the womb and they're usually sober. :)

n.b. - I stand corrected on the name being Finnish requirement. I tried to trust parents on these things so...Jarkko read the text of the law and, while vague leaving possible room for such interpretaion, doesn't require a Finnish name. The Finnish Population Registry shows that while Finnish names remain the most popular, there are definitely some kids with names that will get them viciously taunted for the rest of their lives proving that parents are cruel everywhere. :)

• Yoda - 2
• Leia - 24
• Anakin - 4
• Lancelot - 8
• Gawain - 1
• Elvis - 112
• Frodo - 4
• Aragorn - 1
• Gandalf - 5, 1 of whom is female. Sadly, no Saurons.
• Arwen - 10
• Galadriel - 7
• Bilbo - 1
• Eowyn - 1
• Engelbert - 709
• Quentin - 10
• Egon - 140
• Donald - 205, low considering the Aku Ankka craze.
• Neo - 27
• Trinity - 2
• Moon - 7
• Foo - 2, way back before 1979. Curious.
• Tintin - 4, all women
• Atari - 1
• Linux - 1, poor kid. He's probably a luddite.
• Perl - 1, around 1900.
• Ruby - 42
• Buster - 12

Hours of free entertainment to be had digging in the archives for cruel and unusual names. :)

permalink Ω 14 November 2004, Helsinki

Dildohair

« A mannequin with a seriously phallic hairdo. »

I am almost always entertained by the window dressing in shops around Helsinki. Besides the gravity defying breasts and implausibly perky nipples, the variety of mannequin styles and creative displays which rotate at least weekly make them the most interesting free show you can find. There is a mannequin in the window of UFF who has no arms and bears an expression that makes him seem as though he is being painfully savaged from behind while enjoying it thoroughly. I have dubbed him 'the agony and the ecstasy.' Every time I pass the window I giggle as the person in charge of doing the window displays has quite a lot of fun giving him a new look from the hodgepodge of recycled clothes every few days. I've been wanting to do a series of photos of him since it's pure comedy. The model with the dildo hair was pretty hilarious as wouldn't it be a bitch to wear in high winds or through low doorways? Perhaps it's easier than wearing high heeled shoes to give the illusion that you're taller than you really are. Then again, like hairstyles, nothing ever looks as good on you as it does in the catalogues or on the models.

The news continues to be rather grim and sad in spite of my giddy glee over the puppies. I have been watching the red state v. blue state, north v. south sniping grow. It just seems like the country is totally distracted with utterly meaningless shit while the stuff they should be paying attention to is going by mostly unnoticed. The Dems should be really concerned about the most important and most potentially lasting damage this president will do in the next four years; kooky ultra-neocon appointments to the Supreme Court. Instead, everyone is hissing at each other and not really doing much good. Gonzales, the new AG nominee, the guy who justified Gitmo, will likely sail on through the confirmation because of this. There is but one hope I have now after all others have failed and that is knowing that history is on our side as every radical right-wing regime in the past has managed to hang itself and be met with rejection and rebellion. An opportunity will come and we can only hope people have their act together when it does.

The NYT had an article yesterday, Even Digital Memories Can Fade, about the impending crisis with the woefully inadequate archival properties of digital media and formats. Digital fanatics scoff at me when I mention one of the primary reasons I went back to film was precisely because of film having proven archival qualities whereas digital media has a very poor record and decreases steadily over time. The digiheads try to say that film only lasts 100 years but they'll be lucky to get 10 with their digital files if they aren't vigilant. I could put my negatives in a shoe box on a closet shelf and find them 50 years from now in a still usable format. Prints on acid-free paper when stored properly could last possibly 200 years. I can use a database to help me catalogue each roll of film, assign it a number and note which binder they are in, but if that vanishes, I still have hard copy. Perhaps it is something about our attitude towards everything being disposable anymore, that living in the moment or 20 minutes into the future is hip and modern and the past is nothing more than a quaint notion, but pictures that exist only in 1's and 0's have a really good chance of being unavailable in a relatively short amount of time. Print the photos you want to keep.

permalink Ω 12 November 2004, Helsinki

Helsinki by Blimp

« Graf Zeppelin flies over Hietalahti in 1931 and, on mouseover, the same building today sans zeppelin. »

Eila, Jarkko's mother, gave me a huge stack of cool old postcards from around Finland [thanks, again, Eila :)] that I've been wading through. Some are hilarious, some are Parr-esque in their boringness and some are really interesting. I particularly liked this one since it features the zeppelin and, in spite of it's lack of any identifying marks, could be dated easily since there have only been three zeppelin visits to Helsinki. I took a photo of the same building today [the Hietalahden kauppahalli is just out of the frame to the right] where you can see some of the scars from the war remain. Postcards are just wonderful and terribly underappreciated time capsules.

I've been reading a lot of the news around the net lately and, well, I think I hit *tilt* when I read that the dark crusader known as Ashcroft has been asked to resign and complied. I'd be really ecstatic about this if I weren't worried about an even more conservative replacement. I just keep trying to think about puppies instead. "Happiness is a warm puppy."

permalink Ω 10 November 2004, Helsinki

Puppies

« One of these four cuties will be a new addition to our lives in late December. :) »

After this depressing week, I thought I'd share some happy news that we're expecting a furry four-footed ball of Saint Bernardy goodness in late December. We lit a candle yesterday for HB at the cemetery and quietly informed him that we will always remember him. I had sent email to a few breeders and found myself looking at puppy pictures and feeling guilty about it. I was reluctant to bring up the topic with Jarkko but a good friend of mine said, "Dog people need dogs and dogs need dog people.", and egged me on. Mari must be obeyed so I complied. So, we are going to go visit the pups in couple of weeks and prepare for the arrival of one of them in our lives. The world may be going to hell in a handbasket, but there's nothing like the big wet nose and wagging tail of a dog to make everything seem friendlier and, well, more hairy. :)

I found this comparison between Saint pups with a chihuahua to be pretty amusing. HB used to traumatise a neighbour who had a teacup version of one of these dogs that was just a wee bit bigger than a sewer rat which he frequently mistook for a squirrel or a rodent. I couldn't blame him for the mistake since the first time I laid eyes on the dog I thought it was a rat, too. I don't suppose my laughing every time he got that bewildered look on his face when he realised it wasn't a squirrel yet wasn't willing to accept it was a fellow canine helped either.

Doggie cuteness can be found at The Dog which is apparently pretty popular in Japan. The calendars are pretty adorable with some excellent photography and have some unusual breeds like Bernese and Newfoundland along with the far more popular breeds who are always on everything. Amazon carries all the calendars.

The Jugendsali has a new photo exhibit, Bed Sit, which features the work of 3 photographers trying to capture the youthful zeitgeist on film in an almost Lomo-ish style. Free, interesting and worth a visit.

Through November, the Goethe Institute is featuring a photo essay of Finnish and German grillis [ Nakkikioskikulttuuria ] that I've just got to go see since the grillis are as close to a White Castle and its belly bombers that I'm going to find around these parts.

The Sanomat has a flashy 24 hours in Helsinki web presentation that has some good photos taken around Helsinki at all hours of the day and night.

And, lastly, Just Coffee Art. Art made from coffee almost as thick as coffee in Finland by some Americans of Finnish descent. I found the Kalevala themed works quite lovely. I wonder if they get a serious buzz when working with the coffee.

There, I have exorcised the gloom for now. Just keep thinking "puuuupppieess...puuuupppiiiess..." and watch out for that tin man.

permalink Ω 7 November 2004, Helsinki

Boobs

« Boobs 2004 found on the sideboard of a deserted ice rink in Töölö. I'd have voted for Boobs. »

I occasionally get weird email, but if nothing else attests to the deep rift in America brought forth by this election [~300k, WashPost], it would be the large amount of ugly discourse between people who would otherwise have little or nothing to say to each other save maybe about the weather in the grocery store line. I've had a few wingnuts, but this one landed in my inbox tonight that really got to me. You know, Bush won already and it takes at least a small amount of energy to send an email to someone, so what kind of hate or fear or whatever it is does it take to send such a message? It might interest the Finns considering I've been forced by Finns into cowering on a few occasions over Bush and, well, I guess they haven't kept up with those folks over in the US who still call themselves Finns several generations removed.

Most Americans of Finnish decent voted for Bush, bar a few union socialists left over from the mining era. If Kerry was your idea of a good candidate for leadership, no wonder you are scared.  His post election speech was yet another pathetic backpedal.  Finns do well in America because we are equipped to compete, we don't need diet-socialist rhetoric because we are not a huddled mass in a bread line.

Great, so now I get to take shit from Finns on both sides of the Atlantic for a guy I didn't elect and whose policies I don't support. Can someone Finnish translate the whole thing about the Stalinist breadline jab? There has been a lot of press in the past few days, since Kerry did the necessary thing of not forcing the country into weeks of turmoil, about how the country needs to 'come together' and how the liberals need to 'understand' the heartland. I grew up in one of those flyover states, in one of the very few blue spots in there I might add, and I still have no idea or understanding of people out there voting for Bush. I don't see how people so polarized and self-righteous on both sides could possibly find a middle ground unless or until there is another terrorist strike on US soil which is always a possibility these days if not a near certainty. Otherwise, it's going to be the educated godless heathens on the coasts vs. everyone in the flyover states for the next four years. My godless heathen friends in the US, I remind you that you really should consider escaping as you can't argue with these folks and, more importantly, their rate of reproduction is likely much higher ala Utah. If a civil war breaks out though, I'll be on the next plane over.

permalink Ω 5 November 2004, Helsinki

Alien

« In front of a headstone shop on Mechelinkatu, near the cemetery, an alien sits on the sidewalk as a suggestion for something different to liven up the headstone landscape. [The Helsingin Sanomat featured an article in 12.2004 explaining that this is a sculpture by Sakari Peltola entitled Lähettiläs [envoy]. »

As the crushing reality of the US election sinks in, I feel fortunate to have escaped Jesusistan well ahead of the rush. I hear a lot of friends back home say that they're going to stay and fight which, while quaintly patriotic, is a futile and masochistic endeavour. After reading some voter responses as to why they voted for Bush, I more certain than ever that the America we once knew, the one we think of in our dreams, is gone and has been replaced with people who have no intention of upholding the separation of church and state and have no intention of ever giving it back. Those who scoff and say that Roe v. Wade will never be overturned should really take a hard look at all the things falling into place necessary for that to happen. The people who voted for Bush want it and it will come. To quote someone who makes me laugh, "You don't have to be a church-addled fag-stabber to vote for Bush. But it helps!"

Leaving the US will take some time and planning so it would be best to start now and prepare for the difficulties that accompany the transition in becoming an expat. Harper's has a cute, if not terribly useful or informative for the serious to leave, article Electing to Leave. The only statement burning your passport makes is "I am an idiot." You have to have a reason to enter another country with the intent to reside there and those legitimate reasons usually fall within 1) student 2) family ties or 3) work. There are exceptions, of course, but Americans don't qualify for refugee or asylum status in any country as far as I know. Pick a country and talk to the consulate for details on how to apply for a residence visa. Reading some expat blogs may also help understand what life is like as well as choose a country.

It's far better to be an alien in a strange land than to be an alien in your native one.

permalink Ω 5 November 2004, Helsinki

As Darkness Falls....

« Looking west from the Torni Hotel towards Ruoholahti and a few other photos of Helsinki at night. »

As I went to bed last night, I harboured a secret hope that my pessimism would be proven unwarranted. Alas, it would appear that I, and so much of the world who harboured the same hope, have been horribly disappointed. I have no explanation as to how or why such a close election could happen again save maybe that the election process in America is completely broken. It also brings into much sharper focus one of my primary reasons for leaving the US; the emergence of religious fundamentalism in American politics and overall culture. I hope the world will survive four more years and that the damage will be reversible. America itself, I fear, will not be so lucky. The first thing to go will be Roe v. Wade and suddenly, those who voted out of fear rather than religious fervor, will understand their mistake but it will be far too late.

I went up to the Torni balcony on the 13th floor, now that it has been reopened, to try some B&W film at night. I read the Ilford datasheet for the film and it recommended longer exposures beyond 1/24 which seemed to work ok, if a bit towards the overexposure side of the spectrum. Even with the larger apertures the lights have a starlight appearance along with a round halo in some since there was a bit of a light fog in spots. The grain is impressively fine, especially since I didn't use the Ilford chemistry specifically geared for fine grain. I'm not entirely happy with the set, but they aren't all that bad for a first run. On some of the shots there is a bit of glass apparent at the bottom of the photo which is a ~5ft tall glass wall surrounding the outdoor patio/balcony that, even with the tripod and extension, was difficult to avoid since my vertigo didn't make me to want to hang over the edge. :) The lights in Esplanadi Park, described very hyperbolically as a 'spectacular light installation', was a pain in the ass to photograph since the lights are on a voltage regulator which dims and brightens them at random making guesstimating the exposure a bit of a challenge.

permalink Ω 3 November 2004, Helsinki

Old glory and a bullhorn

« Bush and Kerry plague just about every bus stop around Helsinki. We should retaliate with something that Finns try desperately to not think about enlarged and illuminated in full-colour glory on billboards all over town....how about Åke Blomqvist? Hmm, no, needs to be more cruel. I'll have to do some research over beer with my psyop crew. »

Nothing starts a Monday and a new week like another vague terrorism alert in your area of the globe. I guess some clerk from the American embassy took the ferry over to Tallinn, got drunk, and someone with a sense of humour started talking about bombing Latvia which, because noone in the US seems to have a current world map, translated into the Baltic and Nordic regions. The news of this warning hit the local Finnish media, in Finnish, long before the following arrived in my inbox. I guess posting email is an arduous, time consuming and difficult task to do quickly for all 40 or so registered Americans in Finland. I feel so much safer now.

The U.S. Department of State wishes to alert U.S. citizens, either resident in or traveling through the Nordic/Baltic region, that it has received threat information and urges all U.S. citizens in the Nordic and Baltic countries to be vigilant as to their surroundings, especially in centers of ground-based mass transit, and to report any unusual or suspicious persons, incidents or circumstances to the nearest police authorities.

The U.S. Department of State will continue to monitor this situation and will revise this announcement as appropriate should other information become available.

Woo! I guess I had best start reporting all those shifty-eyed suspicious looking foreigners here in Finland. I know this one guy, he's an American Libertarian living in Finland. I find that fucking suspicious or at least highly masochistic. He's not real likely to blow up anything though since he's more like Homer Simpson rather than George Jetson. I know quite a few Americans here who didn't vote, too. May I report them? In a country where a neighbour saying hello in the hallway of your apartment building can startle you and seem really strange, are we really supposed to embrace the Ashcroftian-Orwellian state of paranoia and report people? Considering that Herr Bin Laden specifically pointed out Sweden as a country they wouldn't target since it's not a NATO country or has troops in Iraq, it's safe to assume that Finland is in the same company. Also, considering Finland's border guard refused entry to 2 of the 911 hijackers, and possibly others, I think I trust the Finnish police when they say they have no reason to believe that there's anything to worry about far more than the fear machine that generates random, vague, unspecific bullshit every few weeks/months just to manipulate fear levels for some yet unknown purpose. Safer world, my ass.

I went out this afternoon in high hopes that I'd either get hit by a bus driven by a crazed terrorist or bombed on a tram. Sadly, as you can see, I was unsuccessful. Tomorrow I guess I'll just have to wrap myself in Old Glory, march down to Esplanadi, and start shouting through a bullhorn to attract the terrorists who clearly would be thrilled to acquire a target so easily. *cough*

permalink Ω 1 November 2004, Helsinki

Hell's Lake

« Helvetinjärvi, Hell's Lake, in Autumn viewed from the shore and a few other photos of the colourful season. »

When we escaped the city for the weekend, we happened to be driving near Helvetinjärvi National Park and decided to stop and walk to see what earned the name of "Hell's Lake". It's only a one kilometre walk to the lake, but it takes a little time since the path has many gnarled and slippery pine roots along the path in addition to beautiful scenery. I noticed one woman grumbling to the man with her because she wore shoes that you'd expect to have difficultly wearing on a city sidewalk.

I hadn't really gotten out to see much of Finland's more remote wilderness or geologic features so this place was very interesting on both counts. The lakes formed in gorges caused by faults in the bedrock which means they have very steep sides and are very deep. The pine forest that surrounds the lakes is dense, mossy and boggy. There are lots of little streams that look appealing until you notice the water is brown from filtering through the surrounding peat bogs. We only walked as far as Helvetinkolu, but I wish we would have had the time to walk along the trail to Haukanhieta. Finland's National Parks really are quite gorgeous and I hope to visit them all.

permalink Ω 1 November 2004, Helsinki