Looking Up

« The very eclectic "Villa Johanna" Jugend home in Eira on Laivurinkatu that I'd like to buy in the very unlikely event that I would ever win the lottery. There is a beautiful coiled dragon on the turret above the front door which I would love to give glowing red eyes and fire-breathing steam for scaring kids at Halloween. »

The HS had an interesting article accompanied by photos on Sunday about Helsinki's turrets and a man who likes to photograph them. Helsinki was expanding at the time that Jugend was popular and so large parts of certain neighbourhoods are full of these gorgeous turreted buildings. The quote about how people never look up is true. I'm always looking up or around and only very occasionally see anyone curious enough to wonder wtf I'm looking at, if they even notice. I presume that it goes hand in hand with the whole numbness to ones own culture phenomenon.

I went to see the spectacle that was Hanoi Rocks! Stockmann Shakes! at 5p in front of Stockmann yesterday along with a huge throng of kids in glam wear and hundreds of guys toting around giant Canon kit with L lenses. I found out later that there is a contest for the 10 best pictures of the concert which might explain all the mad heavy camera toting guys since there was only one sad little picture of it in today's paper so they couldn't have all been members of the Fourth Estate. Hanoi Rocks is actually pretty good, but I don't know what their cachet is since they are described as a Finnish Guns and Roses. [ arabella and kallu have some fun photos from the concert. :) ] My photos are in the Hanoi Rocks gallery.

The band played on the ledge over the door which made for quite a dangerous situation with the trams as the kids inched closer and closer to get a better view. When the band started playing the trams had no other choice but to stop when the crowd took Alexanderinkatu completely. I had to love the Helsinki Police driving down the tram tracks and greeting everyone politely with a "Good Afternoon" before asking people to get the fuck off the tracks. :) The most hilarious scene was a group of Kelly Osbourne/Helsinki Harajuku girls when one of them pulled out a giant can of hair spray and proceeded to lay on another coat of shellac to her hair helmet. I narrowly missed getting coated and the girls behind them started laughing and saying something about how they couldn't possibly need more of that on their hair. The old ladies coming out of Stockmann with a pained look on their face and fingers in their ears was pretty amusing as well. Damn kids! :)

I'd like to quickly explain how to express days hence for social engagements as it seems to be a frequent source of miscommunication in the Finno-Anglo space-time continuum.

• Today is Saturday.
• The Saturday a week from today is next Saturday.
• Tomorrow is Sunday or this (coming) Sunday.
• The day after tomorrow is Monday, a.k.a. this (coming) Monday.
• The Monday following this Monday is next Monday.
• The Monday after next Monday is the Monday after next.

Summary: Use 'this' to indicate the day of the coming week unless it is the same day 7 days hence whereupon use 'next'. Do not use next for anything less than 7 days away, e.g. on Wednesday say something about a party next Saturday when you mean the Saturday only 3 days away as the English speaker will presume that you mean a week from the Saturday 3 days away. I don't make the rules, I just show up a week late altogether too often or get annoyed with Jarkko when we play the 'but you said next Friday, not this Friday' routine. :)

Whether it is synchronicity or someone from the HS reading this droll backwater on the intarweb, there was a nice story in Friday's paper about the Gaudí-esque building in Arabianranta that I was so curious about over the weekend. Perhaps the power of suggestion could also answer my wonderings about how the Helsinki storm drain system manages to avoid silting shut during the springtime grit season. :)