Yuletid!

I know I've been quiet but I've been trying to enjoy my vacation here. Instead I'm constantly reminded of the hopefully great, but at least long expected movies coming out next year. Oh yeah, belated wishes of merry winter solstice!

Checked out the American film version of Stieg Larsson's "Män som hatar kvinnor", ie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Can't really compare it with the Swedish film, but overall I must say it was better than decent. Daniel Craig was pretty useless, but Rooney Mara playing lead actress was convincing. Can't wait for the rest of the parts of the trilogy to come out.

Engines on!

I promised an update before I leave. Well, it's one hour until my flight should take off... The weather in Helsinki was horrible throughout the week. There wasn't a single day without rain. Luckily I had good company to pass the time with. Now, engines on, go!

Time to kill

I'm still alive. Currently enjoying my second cup of coffee in downtown Helsinki and watching people run by. I forced myself to get up early so I could get things done, but now I realize that I don't even have that many things to do. I am on holiday, after all.

The morning I left Jyväskylä the streets were white and the skies filled with clouds ready to dump even more snow upon the earth. Here in Helsinki it's been raining since I got here. Seems like this day isn't going to be an exception. It feels strange to see so many frowning faces rush by, when I myself am so calm inside.

On Friday I will depart for the States to visit family. I'll get back before that. To kill the time or time the kill, now there's a thought...

Bound

Life is complicated again, but I am happy. One lesser reason for happiness is the fact that the first snows came.

It is so dark

Buried, dug up and buried again

Apparently I find Summoning again and again through people. I first listened to them ages ago, but they're not exactly on the top of my playlist. Then again when people link me their songs or just happen to mention them in conversation, I feel a need to listen through most of their discography and cannot help but wonder why I don't listen to them more. I don't like to point a favorite anything out of any group, but I have always been the most fascinated with Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame. It is so grand and epic, yet still retains the grim feel of the bands earlier albums. The final song of the album is an absolute masterpiece:

"Who can find you clear springs of waters, but I can!
Who can tell you the age of the moon, but I can!

Who can call the fish from the depths of the sea, yes I can!

Who can change the shapes of the hills and the headlands, I can!"

Come winter!

I meant to post this a while back. It was early evening, but it was already pitch black outside. After Finland turned to daylight-saving-time a week back the night has come to fall very early. I yearn for snow, for it makes the world so much brighter at night.

Allure

I'm back from Helsinki and I'd like to post a ton of songs, including Sólstafirs Fjara, but as I've posted it already and I don't want to overindulge you, I'll limit myself to just one song. I'd heard Alcest before, but I'd never really listened to them. The overall feeling this one song channels is that of calm, although there are periods of strife and restlessness. Quite the opposite of my days this week.

Winter is coming

Reference to George R. R. Martin's prose is almost purely coincidental, which reminds me that I still have to read the books before the second season of the HBO series premieres...

Anyway, what I really meant was the fact that I'm drinking hot juice with woolen socks on and listening to Paysage d'Hiver's "Winter". Great song, makes me yearn for the first snows.

I'm going to Helsinki tomorrow to work at a book fair. Staying there until Sunday. Might go see Primordial, Black Crucifixion, etc on Saturday. Haven't been to any gigs for a while now.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

I had wanted to watch this movie for some time, but had not found myself in the right mood before last Sunday. Breathtakingly beautiful with an inspiring plot and a calming score. Bound to put anyone into a zen state of mind. I'll have to take a look at other titles by Ki-duk Kim when I find the time.

PS. My limited edition red transparent vinyl Svartir Sandar arrived a day late and my order of two white Sólstafir t-shirts also finally found its way home. Good stuff.

From Czechoslovakia with love

Yesterday I made some Finnish "pannukakku" (literal translation is pancake, but it differs drastically from what is internationally understood by the term) and today after taking an exam I bribed myself with greasy French onion soup topped by bread and gruyère cheese. Peeling and slicing the onions was very emotional...

A year or two ago I was introduced to Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera (Lemonade Joe), a 1964 Czechoslovak film. It was running at an old cinema that plays films from the Finnish National Audiovisual Archive and a friend of mine who has spent some time around Slovenia and eastern Europe wanted to go and see it. I agreed to go with her and did not regret it one bit. Even though half the subtitles were missing, the plot was easy to follow and the whole experience was very enjoyable.

I am clueless as to why the film came to my mind again, but I do know that it didn't take me long to find it from the internet. It was in youtube, complete with subtitles, but has been removed. Here's a bit of the action though:

Black sands

Great news about the upcoming Sólstafir album, Svartir Sandar, that I was hyped about. The whole album is streamable from Inferno magazines website. The extremely positive reviews had my expectations way up, but I was not let down. After two thorough listens, I can say that it is definite album-of-the-year material that will open up more with every playthrough. Can't wait to get my hands on the actual release. I'm still slightly torn between a limited double LP and the deluxe pack with a digipack CD.

Strenght and knowledge

Man have I had stuff to do... luckily I have less lectures in the coming couple of weeks, so I'll have more time to concentrate on the upcoming elections for the Council of Representatives of the Student Union of the University of Jyväskylä (JYY). I'm a candidate from Grönioni, the local union of green uni-students. My candidate number is five (5), which is nice and easy to remember (winkwink). Visit our campaign stand for some apples and a chat if you feel like it.

Anyway, I'm grateful for my friends, for they never cease to inspire me or supply me with great music that I haven't run into before. This one's by Canadian band and it truly fits my mood this morning. Hope it cheers you up and lets you find the strength you need to accomplish whatever it is you're trying to do.

A foggy night

I'm torn between the urge to grab my camera, hop on my bike and ride to the bridge to shoot some photos and the wish to crawl to my bed and fall asleep. I think I will follow the latter course of action, for I might have induced a slight, comfortable buzz and thus my current ability to operate a camera is slightly limited.

Who knows, I might even dream of lotus blossoms...

Coffee!

Haven't had the time to get into this band yet. First peek sounded okay so I thought I'd post em up to serve as a reminder to myself...

Pillars of light

Sólstafir... a certain sign of autumn. Their new album, Svartir Sandir is coming out within a month and I'm quite excited. A few reviews (which mistakenly claim it to be their third full length, while it actually is their fourth) have spoken well of it. I've pre-ordered it, along with a t-shirt, shot glasses and ice-cube molds.

One song from the new album was available on soundcloud... Find the Fjara video later in my blog ;)

This is from their second full lenght, Masterpiece of Bitterness:

Busy tunes

Started studying political economics in the uni here. Long days lie ahead and I might be coming down with a cold. Good music, good tea and good chocolate ought to send it away.

I saw Boris live around 2008 or something. It was one of the best shows I have ever seen. For me, right now, this song is the new Bohemian Rhapsody.

I cannot see the sun

I saw the ending of this a year or two ago. I told myself I'd watch the whole film soon, but alas that was not to happen. We see beautiful things all the time and promise ourselves we will do something about them. They slip through the holes in our memories, and only find their way back if we're lucky. 

I'm ready to go

Going to Jyväskylä for a night before continuing to our summer cottage. It's the first time I'm going there this year, and the summer is almost over. Damn work...

Found Kyuss again, thanks to a friend finding them for the first time ^^ Can't wait to get a new bass and a new amp.

Thought I had the day off...

The unifying sound of nostalgia

It had been a while since I'd seen Starship Troopers and I had nothing better planned for my ten hour shift, so I dove once again into the horrible, horrible acting and lovely, lovely special effects of the late 90s. In the end, it wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered and at one part I realized that the score was quite fantastic and sounded somewhat familiar. Not similar in the sense that I'd heard it before (as I had seen the film twice before), but in the way that I could feel the soul behind the music.

After the film I had no choice but to apply the palm of my hand gently but firmly upon my face, as the man behind the score was no-other than Basil Poledouris. Now, I'm sure most people have heard his works, but have never head his name. Those that do recognize the name might associate him with a number of flicks. For me, he will always first bring to mind Conan the Barbarian, as that is the movie I have seen more times than any other. I sure hope that the composer for the remake will at least come close to the original. I'm actually rather excited, as Jason Momoa ought to fit into the sandals of the black maned mountain lion better than Arnold. Of course, Arnold will always be the original Conan and his lines will live forever within my heart, but his character didn't really fit into the image of Conan that Robert E. Howard had created.

I also came to realize that the theme of Starship Troopers did remind me a bit of Basil's other composition, the battle theme from the 1987 RoboCop:

Tumbling down the rabbit hole

I couldn't help myself... I fell into the trap I subconsciously made for myself. Sound sane?

But from Jazz 2 to Alexander Brandon to, wait for it... Deus Ex. And we all should know that there's no going past Deus Ex.

Well, it has been a while since my last play-through anyway. For those of you unfamiliar with this extremely entertaining piece of software: listen to the following, get the game, play it and never be the same again. For everyone else: just listen, feel the conspiracy grow within you and reinstall. Or just reinstall, whatever...

Sleepless, yet awesome!

And only because I'm at work. I've somehow managed to fit quite a lot of social life into the past five days, while also doing over fifty hours of work. Still, I'm pretty worn out and two days off couldn't come at a better time.

I've actually hauled my ass into the cinema two times within the week. First I checked out the latest (last) Harry Potter feature, which turned out to be precisely what I expected. Same, unsurprising acting, tons of CGI and an unmemorable score. Yet it was a pretty decent ending for a series where the books are way better than the films and still way worse than what you'd expect from the money the author has made. I saw the 2D version, fortunately.

The second film was in 3D, but for the first time since Avatar it didn't bother me (Tron was close, but still failed). It was THOR! Corny, shiny, flashy, muscles, Norse mythology (quite accurately), beer, fire, ice, lightning, fists, swords, hammers, axes... It was entertaining, surprisingly well made and actually had a plot that you couldn't foresee and could even enjoy. And it looked and felt awesome, especially Asgard and the bridge leading to the Bifrost. Enough hype, just check it out.

This night's crawling along way too slowly... luckily I remembered an old computer game from my youth, or more specifically its soundtrack. Behold, the work of one Alexander Brandon:

PS. You might know him better from Deus Ex or the Unreals...

Melancholy sounds for the joyful mind

Sometimes its good too loose a little control, just to see which way the current is actually trying to take you. After all, if the direction isn't one that pleases you, it shouldn't be impossible to regain what you had. Of course, the worst case scenario is that you can't and the the small current escalates into a waterfall and you end up somewhere lost, confused and happy. Or is that so bad... I'm getting confused here...

The sound of a beginning

I've had all sorts of blogs and on-line diaries over the years. I still write stuff in livejournal, but for the last half a year or so all new posts have been visible only for myself. I recently started Horas Lucidas, where I try to translate into words my interpretations of moments and other deeper thoughts. I am also planning to create another one when I start studying political economics in uni this autumn, where I intend to keep some kind of a learning diary.

The idea for this one came suddenly, when I realized I don't want to spam my Facebook wall with youtube links whenever I want to share a song or a band that's really getting to me at that moment (daily?). I also thought that this would be a good place to post simple daily ideas and thoughts, maybe even discuss gigs or festivals and of course promote my photography whenever I happen to capture something new (too seldom these days...). Naturally some of these I will also be posting in Facebook and Twitter, but here older entries will be more accessible as years pass.

Anyway, let's get straight to business...

Last weekend I attended Tuska open-air metal festival here in Helsinki. I bought the tickets primarily because there were a few bands performing that I really wanted to see, these being Electric Wizard, Church of Misery, Ghost and Jex Thoth. Most likely I will post some of their songs in the future. But now I would like to promote a group that I had never even heard of before and that truly got to me on Sunday, the final day of the festival, when I was tired, hungry and hungover: Kvelertak. This six member team from Norway produced such a grooving blend of punk rock and black metal that I was instantly energized and ready to face the final day of metal madness.

I haven't gotten my hands on any of their releases yet, but some surfing in the tubes of you produced a rather interesting music video of theirs. Hope you enjoy, I'm sure I did.