Xmas 2011

Another christmas behind and what a short one it was this year. I´ve always tried to combine the holidays with some days off, unfortunately this time around it wasn´t possible. So it felt like a long weekend but who am I to complain? I´m happy that I got that työharjoittelu going right know and as a consequence I had to be back at work by Tuesday.

Christmas in Pori was great nonetheless, good food (much of it), a relaxed and celebrative atmosphere with my girlfriend´s family. Christmas Eve got so comfy that we accidently stayed up until 7am the next morning, chatting away, listening to Johnny Cash and Elvis. Maybe we had a drink or two. Suffice it to say, we used the few time that we had in the best possible way.

Many people here will remember Xmas 2011 because of the storm that came on the 25th and went wild over the South of Finland. Storm warning was given also for the 26th, the day we went home by car through exactly that region. The storm though had gone already when we went on our trip to Helsinki. On the radio we heard that 200.000 people where without electricity and all those fallen trees on our way where a tell-tale sign of how bad that storm had raged. We were relieved to find our flat where we had left it and we could switch on the light, too.

Anyway, the clock is ticking away the last hours of 2011, a year that I have spend sowing the seeds. Extensive language courses, job trainings, many sent applications and a job interview. Many rehearsals and demo recordings with my band. The band has a name now but I´m gonna tell you all next year. My hope for 2012 is that it´s gonna be a year in which I can start to finally harvest what I have sowed. Let´s see...

But for now: GUTEN RUTSCH!!!

Handle with care

Hey kids, here comes the other part of your present: the second short movie by Jalmari Helander, this one is called Rare Exports: The Official Safety Instructions.
How to handle Santa? What are the Dos and Don´ts?
You will be much wiser after watching this:



A little backround info for those of you who have never heard about the short movies and the feature film that followed them. Wikipedia, do your magic:

"In 2003 the Finnish commercials production company Woodpecker Film published the short movie "Rare Exports Inc. on the internet. Here author and director Jalmari Helander established a band of three hunters (marker, sniper and tracker) searching the wilderness of Lapland for the wild Santa Claus. After the positive reception from the internet audience, Woodpecker Film produced and published the sequel short movie "Rare Exports: The Official Safety Instructions" in 2005, again with Helander as director and author."

Finally they produced the feature film "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" with a 1,803,000 € budget. The flick hit Finnish cinemas on December 3rd, 2010. It had already premiered as early as September 9th the same year on the Fantastic Fest in Austin. The movie was never shown in German cinemas but was released over there directly on dvd and blu-ray.

Santa Clause is coming to town

Time to give you guys some presents!
You all know that Santa Clause is coming from Finland, right?
But do you know anything else about him? Here is my gift for you: the first of two short movies by Jalmari Helander called Rare Exports Inc.
This tells the real story behind Santa. This is nothing for the faint of heart.
Watch and learn. Stay tuned for more.

   

Happy birthday, Lemmy!

Today the living, breathing, drinking, smoking speedfreak and rolemodel for all of us rockers, the epitome of rock ´n´roll itself, Lemmy Kilmister, turns 66. Too old to rock? Nope! Lem´s own Motörhead is currently on a tour that also brought them to Helsinki just a couple of days ago, unfortunately I couldn´t make it to the gig. Well, I must have seen them already at least ten times and it feels like there´s always a next chance as Lemmy just doesn´t seem to get tired of playing around the globe.

Motörhead and/or Lemmy will always have a very special place in my heart. When I heard the "No sleep ´til Hammersmith" album for the first time some 24 years ago, a whole new world opened up before me and everything changed for good. They are the embodiment of my three fave genres in music: punk, metal and rock ´n´roll. All under one roof, so to speak. Lem was born Ian Fraser Kilmister on the 24th of December, 1945 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Come christmas, I´ve been raising the glass for many years to honor the man and this year I will not make an exception.

So without further ado, here´s to you, Lemmy!

Many happy returns, looks like you´re gonna outlive us all!

POST SCRIPTUM: Oh yes, and merry christmas to all my blogheads out there! Have a good one!

SONGS FOR TODAY:

Motörhead - No Class (Live from No sleep ´til Hammersmith)

Billy Idol - Yellin´ at the Christmas Tree

Ja, is denn heut scho Weihnachten?

Christmas came early this year. The present I gave myself arrived today:
The SMOKE BLOW LEGACY BOX! I pre-ordered almost two months ago and I tell you it was worth the wait. Five of their out-of-print records (one was never released on vinyl), single, back patch, silkscreen print, twenty page booklet and personal greeting card - all exclusive in a wooden box and limited to 600 pieces. Of course I had to have this gem from my absolute fave band from good old Germany! They just announced they ain´t gonna record no more but will continue to tour. As much as this bums me out I also respect their decision. They feel that they have nothing to give creatively under the SB moniker anymore but still want to play club gigs, plus their last record was killer and they want to leave this as a final statement. Chapeau! The list of bands goes on for miles and miles who should take this as an example.
Hope to see them on the road in 2012, their last "professional" tour.

I´m off to Pori now for christmas, so that´s that - I got a bus to catch.

Kaiser Franz - Ja, is denn...

Back on track

Me and my work mates. I´m the guy in the center.

Great news! From tomorrow on I can continue my job training, or to be more precise: the preparation for my professional life. The technical term has changed from työharjoittelu to työelämävalmennus in my case and now I can work three months in the same company where I spent already six weeks in September/October. The place is really cool, so I´m happy to go back there. I knew it would be only a matter of time - the continuation was offered by both the company and the employment office - but it took the latter until last Friday to send the necessary documents okaying the whole thing.

In the meantime I was applying to many other companies in order to get a steady job and scored at least one job interview. It was held entirely in Finnish and went quite fine. Although I didn´t get the place in the end, I can say that it was a great experience and next time I won´t get the jitters so easily anymore. I am really happy to return to the working life, it feels like I have the foot in the door again and my quest over here continues. At the very least it helps a lot to shake off the emerging cabin fever. Wer rastet, der rostet!

SONG FOR TOMORROW:

Cock Sparrer - Working

Pertti for president

I was happily surprised to see Pertti Kurikka among the invited guests at yesterday´s castle ball! He is of course the main man behind Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, our local punk heroes of the special kind. Cool! The picture shows him giving an interview at jatkot, the after party in the city center. During the tv broadcast of the actual celebration, held in the presidential palace, the commentary team reminded us viewers that the (yet unelected) next president was already among the guests. This year´s linnan juhlat was the last hosted by our president Tarja Halonen. After 12 years her term in office is about to end and we have the presidential elections coming up in January 2012. So, Pertti - how about?

For my Finnish speaking visitors, here´s a link to the

Interview with Pertti Kurikka

Itsenäisyyspäivä

The 6th of December is the Finnish Independence Day - way to go, Suomi!

For those of you who would like to read about it a bit more in detail, please check out last year´s post. LIFE-IN-HEL headquarters would like to wish all Finns hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää!

Compared to the previous year, my own enthusiasm (the few I felt) has mellowed out even more due to the landslide victory of Perussuomalaiset (=True Finns), the right-wing populist party led by Timo Soini. Some of his peers would like to send refugees from Somalia to work in the forests (out of sight, out of mind) or along with the gay community to Ahvenanmaa, an island in the Baltic Sea, (quote:) "to observe what kind of society they would form". Member of parliament Pentti Oinonen (PS) will not attend tonight´s linnan juhlat, the celebration in the Presidential Palace, because he would be offended by seeing gay people dance there.

I am not down with this shit AT ALL!

Of course this party doesn´t represent all Finns - but it was very successful in the last election and that worries me. I hear they got many votes from people who just wanted to protest against the deadlocked political system in Finland, a questionable maneuver in my book. Luckily many members of PS don´t miss out any opportunity to make a fool out of themselves in public but when Norwegian racist, fascist and mass murderer Anders Breivik favorably quotes MP Jussi Halla-aho in his "manifesto" it´s NOT funny anymore!

I want to emphasize here that the Independence Day has NOTHING to do with Perussuomalaiset and vice versa, plus I know many Finns who don´t want ANYTHING to do with PS, either. I am able and willing to differentiate between these things but at the same time I can´t help myself thinking about "True Finns" on Finland´s birthday.

It´s an association, nothing more, nothing less.

Here we go again

Great beer from Hamburg with always great ads!

Countdown to christmas has begun - with all the hassle, all the fun. The supposedly nicest time of the year has finally arrived, although shops and stores where already selling advent calenders by the end of October. Let´s give it up for capitalism! When I look at my blog´s header and the first sentence of this post, it seems as if I am pretty much in the mood. Was I really just rhyming there? Eer, anyway...

Alea jacta est, I will spend this year´s christmas again in Finland and I´m looking forward to it. Of course I also would like to see my folks in Germany but living abroad means that it isn´t always feasible, all you ulkomaalaiset out there know that. Maybe it works out next year then. But for now, first things first: we all have a lot of christmas parties (Finnish: pikkujoulu = little christmas), decorating, gift shopping and too much food and drinks ahead of us. So let´s roll up them sleeves and get it over with!

Where will you be spending christmas? Home? Abroad? On an island in the sun?