Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Fifteen and falling?


Me and my girl...
No, this blog is not turning into the weather channel. I´m just quite excited about the experience of having a real winter after years of austerity. Seems that after this year´s absolutely exceptional and record breaking summer we´re striving for sensational readings on the other side of the meter. Minus 15 so far, ladies and gentlemen. Winter wonderland. I like it! Just got my first pairs of long johns since I was a child. So I´m well prepared to find out how low we can really go! Next couple of days should be a bit warmer though. Sunset starts about 3.30pm now. And all the time I have these lines of Turbonegro´s Are you ready for some darkness ringing in my head:

You want it, you got it... 
But do you have the guts?

SONGS FOR THE DAY:

Turbonegro - Are you ready for some darkness
Joy Division - Ice Age

Friday, November 26, 2010

Hyvää syntymäpäivää!

Life in Hel would like to wish all of its readers a happy birthday!
Regardless if it is your birthday today or not. I mean who knows if I can meet or contact you on that particular day? And maybe in YOUR case the great day has already passed, so let´s get it over with: Happy birthday to all of you!
I should actually like the Finnish way of honoring the very existence of their friends and loved ones. Finns are quite careless about the exact date, sometimes even about the whole thing itself. Since I´m a sucker when it comes to remembering birthdays it would suit me absolutely fine to disguise my disability as an attempt to adjust with the Finns and their habits.

But I can´t. My German genes kick in immediately. My long term memory might be as bad as it is but I still care about congratulating or being congratulated on the exact day. And I hate everytime I forget it. Don´t know if that marks me out as a German (other peoples might be as pedantic as us) but it definetely marks me out as not being a Finn.

Of course birthdays can be a big thing here, too. But that´s for either children or aged citizens. Kids are even the synttärisankari - the birthday hero! Then they must get weaned from this affection like from mother´s milk and by the time their 50th or 60th anniversary is celebrated they don´t even think it´s such a big deal anymore.

Just recently a Finnish friend of mine invited me to his birhday party on a Friday. When I asked him if this was his actual birthday he said: "No, that will be next week´s Wednesday. And the weekend after that I´m out of town so I will celebrate already this Friday." I´m already accustomed to this habit for a considerable time now but an unknowing German brain would read out of this information Syntax error!

To celebrate (days, hours, minutes, seconds) before your birthday is unthinkable for a German mind. We get spooked out and superstitious because - don´t you know? This brings bad luck! If someone suggest doing that to us we have to close our eyes and bite our lips not to scream:
"Witch, witch! Burn the evil one! Burn, burn!"

Back in Germany me and my girl once went to one of these parties where you celebrate "into" the birthday. That is a common habit over there: If your birthday is on - let´s say - a Sunday, you have your party on Saturday and EXACTLY at midnight the music is turned off, everybody goes ape and screams "Häääbbie Böörsdee tuu juu, häääbbie böörsdee tuu juu...!" Then you get your presents and you can open them. But this all has to happen after midnight and not a second before - it wouldn´t be your birthday yet, you see? This system luckily doesn´t take your actual time of birth in account, nobody would wait until...eehm, e.g. 04.37 or 23.41 or whenever you were born.
We´re not that mad. But it seems that the right timing is crucial on a German birthday party!

Obviously I hadn´t briefed my girlfriend about our tribal rites. When we went to the party and rang the bell, the birthday boy (40something) opened the door and my better half said: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" with a big smile on her face. The reply came muttured and without a smile: "Well, actually it´s tomorrow..." I felt bad because it would have been my responsibility to tell her that you can only congratulate after midnight. But how was I supposed to know that she didn´t know? We had just encountered a cultural difference, not for the first and not for the last time.

I have to admit that sometimes I feel a bit stupid about clinging to this unwritten birthday rule myself but at the same time I like it. What can I do, I am German and it´s in my system! Maybe here the old prejudice applies that Germans are always on time - Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps. Hhmm, I dunno...maybe. About this I can only say the following: I have played in bands where we had to tell certain members that we would rehearse half an hour earlier. If we showed up at the original time we would arrive with them around the same time at the room because these certain members would always be half an hour late, no matter what. Pathetic, but that system really worked!

To wrap up this post I hereby proclaim that I don´t intend at all to kiss my stupid habit goodbye! We can party but I congratulate when it´s due!
Hugh!

SONG FOR THE DAY:

The Smiths - Unhappy Birthday

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Weather report

Nearby Klaukkala, 30 km from Helsinki
Please forget everything what I said about melting snow, too high temperatures and grey mess on the ground in my last post. That was guessing and I guessed wrong. In fact the snow hasn´t left since it came and according to the weather forecast the temperature will fall to -8 °C next week in the South of Finland. This starts to get interesting!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

First snow!

Webcam picture from Ruoholahti, Helsinki
The view isn´t exactly pretty and it´s not exactly the first snow either. But for the first time this autumn it´s constantly snowing today in Helsinki and the whole town is covered by that white stuff. It won´t stay long, that´s for sure because it´s still not cold enough yet. Soon the ground might be as grey as the sky after the snow has melted into a dirty mess. This is the time many people like the least and everybody is happy when it´s getting real cold with lots of snow. The reason is quite simple:
Snow is white, white is bright and bright means light, something that we have less and less on a daily basis now.

Somebody must be fooling around with the dimmer...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tour de Turku

Back from a very nice trip to Turku! We went there by bus to pay my gal´s cousin´s family a visit. I had been looking forward to this since my arrival to Finland, because due to several reasons (we´re living in busy times) we had not been able to make it happen sooner. In fact we hadn´t seen each other at all since I´m living in Helsinki. This had to change and last weekend the time had finally come.

They just moved earlier this year to their impressive and big house with lots of space for both kids and parents. The place was very nice and cosy and they were so hospitable that we actually stayed indoors most of the time and didn´t see that much of the town. So many things to do, you know? Exploring all corners of the house, chatting, enjoying delicious food, playing with the kids, going to sauna, kicking out the jams in the rehearsal room (cousin is a music maniac, too!), 1-2 beers / glasses of wine (I didn´t count)...Quality time!

I respect privacy so I don´t post any pictures except one, permitted by the man of the house. Thanks man, I just have to share this. Like said, the whole house was impressive, but here´s what impressed me the most:

A drummer´s dream come true and it really flushes! No interruptions anymore, just go with the flow!

On Sunday we shortly went on a small trip through the city and saw Finland´s oldest church, the Cathedral of Turku (or Turun tuomiokirkko), consecrated in 1300. Buildings this old are really rare in Finland which made it even more interesting to have a peep inside. Blockhead JottEff had forgotten his camera, so please don´t be led astray by the snow and the beautiful sky in the picture. I nicked it from the internet to be able to show it to you. We had quite bad weather, grey clouds and rain. Nothing unusual for this time of year though. More sightseeing included a car ride along the river Aurajoki, which devides the town in two parts, the harbor side with the Forum Marinum, a national marine and navy history museum and Turku Castle (Turun linna). They started to build the castle around the same time as the cathedral was built. Lots of alterations and augmentations have been made over the centuries, so it constantly grew. Today you can see all the different periods of time since groundbreaking carved into the stones of the largest surviving medieval castle in whole Scandinavia. Definitely worth a visit! By the way, again the net provided the picture (which only shows a small part of the building), next time I have to nail the camera to my forehead and take my own pictures. Sorry for the cheat and thanks to Wikipedia! Talking about thanks, visit and next time...

Dear turkulaiset, thanks a lot for your hospitality and the fun we had! I am already looking forward to the next time we´re visiting you. There are still so many things to do, you know?

Friday, November 12, 2010

1 + 1 = 0

Did a lot of thinking lately. Isn´t it funny how big things become small from a distance? In some cases it´s even the other way around. This kind of perspective doesn´t make sense geometrically but cognitively it does, at least to me. It can be a difference in time or space which makes you see things differently. For example: your view on your home country. Being no patriotic person at all, past, present and future, especially in my adolescence I wasn´t a big fan of Germany, to say the least. I still am not but today I´m far away from my teenage mindset that everything is more interesting and better, brighter, (  fill in comparative  ) elsewhere.

Touring and travelling abroad did not only enlighten me about ars vivendi in other countries, it also opened my eyes to the good sides of Germany. And it definetely has its good sides. Certain advantages I never paid much attention to because they have to do with rather small things and I took these things for granted. What else do you do when you don´t know anything about the world from first hand experience? I made my experiences over the years, the small things grew in size from a distance and I learned to value them. Today I can honestly say that I like Germany, nothing more and nothing less. Then again - what´s good, what´s bad? Human beings tend to be lazy, so good means for most of them something they know or are used to, their qualitative parameters are determined by force of habit. I can´t really claim to be an exception to that rule myself. So is the conclusion that when something doesn´t exist in another country that you call "good" in your own - then this is "bad"? Well, simple minds might think so, I think this assertion is bullshit and I just call it "different". Just to calm down anybody who is afraid of the word "different" and thus might get the mad idea that I use it in a disparaging way:
Again this is bullshit. I have positive associations to the word, in fact I somehow like to think of myself as being exactly that. What was the opposite of "different" again? "Same", that´s what it was and depending on the context it equals "boring" in my book.

Now guess what: I just discovered something that is in a way different yet somehow the same and it´s pretty, pretty bad in both Germany and Finland. Let´s embrace each other in harmony and unity because both our systems suck!

                                        Case study #1, Germany:


Civil servant: "Well, you are actually not entitled to get any financial support from us. You are young, healthy, intelligent and speak the language, you are not married and you don´t have any children. I can get you a job at McDonalds immediately. Then you will be able to pay your bills."

Person X: "But I haven´t learned two occupations to end up making burgers for a minimum wage. I just need some support for the time I´m applying for proper jobs."

Civil servant: "Sorry, no can do. You have to take on any kind of job. You are young and bla bla bla..."

Person Y: "So does that mean that if Person X would have lots of children, would not be able to speak the language and would have no talents whatsoever, Person X would get financial support?"

Civil servant: "Well, eem...eer, yes."

Person Y: "Thanks for nothing and goodbye!"


                                        Case study #2, Finland:


Civil servant: "I see here that you are voluntarily taking part in an intensive language course which is not organized by us. According to Finnish law that makes you a student. Students are not entitled to get any financial support from us. If you visit one of our courses it´s possible but they are all full and the lines are long. Maaaaaaybe next January..."

Person Z: "But I´m paying this intensive course myself to learn the language asap, also in order to be more employable on the job market. It´s pretty tough finding a job with my current Finnish skills. Any kind of job!"

Civil servant: "Sorry, no can do. We appreciate your effort but if it´s not one of our courses you don´t get anything. If you would quit your course though..."

Person Z: " Are you telling me that if I would quit my course and would not learn the language to be more employable on the job market but just sit at home doing nothing, then I would get financial support from you?"

Civil servant: "Well, eem...eer, yes."

Person Z: "Where´s the door, I´m leaving!"

Call me one-dimensional, call me polemical, call me what you will but being an eye witness of both case studies (and rest assured, they were only the tip of the iceberg) I say:

                                        FUCK THE SYSTEM(S)!

In case study #2 the civil servant even called the system illogical herself and apologized at least three times for what she had to tell person Z. I know that this doesn´t represent the whole system of either country, I know it´s not all black and white. But if person Z isn´t entitled to anything, I think person Z should be allowed to let off steam.

Yours truly,
                   Person Z     Person Y     JottEff


POST SCRIPTUM:

I would like to hear your opinion about this.
Any similar experiences out there?
Do you think someone is complaining on a high level over here?

Pro or contra, I don´t care - But leave a comment!

SONG FOR TODAY (naturally):

The Exploited - Fuck the system

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Strong feeling of déjà-vu

Wait a minute...wasn´t that already last weekend? Oh, I see. Although many other European countries celebrate All Saints´ Day on the 1st of November, both Sweden and Finland always use the Saturday between 31st of October and 6th of November. Very diligent, those Scandinavians. Let´s not waste a working day! So it was a little bit like Halloween revisited and the bakeries were still able to sell their pumpkin doghnuts. Déjà-vu.

We started the Saturday with a visit to a "rock flea market" as it was advertised on the internet. The add said that records, DVDs, clothes and the whole shebang around the world of ROCK would be waiting for us there and I took the bait. Why they provided the exact address but didn´t mention that it takes place inside Nosturi is beyond me. You might remember the venue from an earlier post about Killing Joke´s gig there (déjà-vu?). I bet 9 out of 10 Helsinkians wouldn´t be able to tell you where Telakkakatu 8 is but all 10 would know where Nosturi is located. After a small detour we realized that the flea market must be in that place and ta-daa! - Right we were. It was set in the lobby and the restaurant of the venue and radiated a real cozy and relaxed atmosphere. Not too big, not too small. Not too crowded, not too empty. We even spotted a "punk rock celebrity". Kari Heikonen, founder of the prolific underground record label Bad Vugum, was selling some records and books. A few days ealier I wouldn´t have known who this stylish looking gentleman is but thanks to Finnish television - déjà-vu. The channel YLE Teema is currently showing a series called Rock Suomi. It contains ten episodes and no. 1 focused quite much on the Finnish punk movement. Kari himself contributed some words of wisdom every now and then, of course I didn´t understand almost anything. I was happy when they played some music on the show, I think Finnish punk has a lot to offer. On a side note I would like to add that it´s great to have so much cool music here on the tube, more about that later.

It´s getting dark quite early now in Finland, at 5 p.m. it´s basically dark as night. Perfect for our plan to go to Hietaniemen hautausmaa which is an old cemetary. On All Saints´ Day it´s the custom to bring candles to the graveyard and remember the dead. A beautiful sight and a peaceful aura. Here are some impressions for you:
 After returning home a hot sauna helped to shake off the cold. It sounds maybe lame when I tell you now that we spent our Saturday night watching telly but like mentioned before, they show real cool music related stuff here since the beginning of autumn and I was waiting for the upcoming documentary like it was christmas. Anvil! The story of Anvil. The movie proved to be definetely worth the wait! It´s about the Canadian metal band Anvil. Founding members Steve "Lips" Kudlow (lead guitar / vocals) and Robb Reiner (drums) are trying for thirty years now to become rock stars. Although they had their 15 minutes of fame in the 80ties and the likes of Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer name them as highly influencial they never had a real break through and became something like an obscurity. Getting by with depressing day jobs and hitting 50 already they never gave up and have released a total of thirteen (!) albums over the years. You see disastrous tours with shows in front of 3 people, band internal struggles and fights, problems with their families and tons of devotion for their dream that one lucky day they will make it. Big time!

O Canaduh!
I want to recommend this movie to everyone, regardless if you are into music or not. This movie is about chasing and NEVER losing hope to finally fulfill a dream. It really moved me and I´m happy to read that the documentary helped them to be put back on the map somehow, playing huge festivals all over Europe. They even played in Finland shortly before I moved here. The movie´s similarity to the comedy flick This is Spinal Tap is absolutely striking. Almost spooky that the latter was written and directed by Rob Reiner (remember, Anvil´s drummer is Robb Reiner). Coincidence? Déjà-vu? Some smart guy in the tv station realized that the fictional Spinal Tap and the very real Anvil have a lot in common and put both movies on the programme, yeah! If you have never seen This is Spinal Tap something is missing in your life. It´s hilarious! Do yourself a favour and try to get to see both documentaries, doctor´s orders!

Stonehenge...

Make sure to check out:

www.badvugum.com
www.anvilmetal.com
This is Spinal Tap

Monday, November 1, 2010

Escalators & Constipators

Come on, it looks more difficult than it actually is. You can do it! 
Take a good look at this picture. Let´s say you are in downtown Helsinki and you are approaching this site. Then let´s imagine these escalators in a total rush hour at 8 in the morning. Now tell me how you would use them together with a friend / collegue / lover / parent / nurse / etc. and / or just the other people on the escalator. I will be able to tell you straight if you are a native or a foreigner.

The Finns are able to perform the following cunning stunt when using this technical marvel: They form a line on the right side and let others who might be in a hurry (rush hour, mind you) walk by on the left. Unthinkable for example in Germany. Ain´t it funny? I bet a common cliché would be that Germans like to form straight lines, but no way, Sir! It´s rather the opposite!

Let´s do our little exercise from the beginning once more. This time we imagine the same escalators in a total rush hour in let´s say, Düsseldorf, Germany. This time I can tell you that the place would be absolutely jammed with people. If you have 30 seconds to get up there because you have a bus to catch you are doomed. This bus will leave without you, no doubt about it. You will never make it in time unless you mow your way through the human obsticles with a machete. Well, one of my teachers always said when I used this case as an excuse for being late: "Get up earlier!" I can´t argue with that but this is not the point here. 

How come Finns are able to make room for others while it seems impossible for Germans? I know some will play the population card now: 82 million Krauts to 5 million Finns and their countries are about the same size. Yes, you might take that into account and of course that means that Finnland just provides way more space for its inhabitants. But do you really want to tell me that a busy city like Helsinki doesn´t look like an anthill in the morning? That Mika, Jussi and Pekka can´t possibly constipate an escalator because there is nobody else but them? I´m not talking about any small village in the countryside. The countryside is what makes Finland so big compared to the number of inhabitants, there is countryside without end. I´m talking about Helsinki, a city that matches Düsseldorf almost exactly. Same amount of people, same hurries, same shit, different day. Here and there people are late for work but here in Helsinki they have a pretty good chance to catch the bus that saves them from their bosses´ anger. But why?

My conclusion is a fundamental difference in attitude and social behavior. Finns don´t have to be told to line up on the right side of an escalator, they just do it. They don´t question it and regard it as a matter of course. Germans in contrast regard it as a matter of course to question everything, especially when it is totally pointless to do so. It becomes a matter of principal and the principal is me, myself and I. Why do I have to make room? It is my right to stand in your way! Why can´t you use the stairs? Why do you bother me? The same pathological behavior applies to the road traffic. In Germany you know how to drive a car, no one else. Only morons on the street, you are the only sane person in a madhouse. And of course you let them know, let´s teach them all a lesson. The biggest problem about this stupid attitude is the fact that it leads to many avoidable dangerous situations in the traffic. But you can notice it already by the usage of the car´s horn, actually meant as a signal for danger. The Germans use it more often as "Argumentationsverstärker", as a tool to prove their point. A pointless point. Every morning on the streets of Germany: Concerto grosso! I paid a lot of attention to this over here and I can say with utter conviction that what you hear on the streets of Helsinki is: Silencio.