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May 31, 2005

rapid fire culture

stuff to see right now in helsinki: satu kiuru has an exhibitionette going on at erottajankatu 7 (i forget the name -- go in through the 7B courtyard), small but definitely worth stopping by (besides she's an absolutely wonderful person so go check it out just to support all that is good in the world.)

also, naamio ja höyhen are running a really cool dance/theatre performance called höyhensarjan jumala this week and they basically charge fuck all for the tickets, and the short show is a full-on crowd pleaser, a very funny and touching piece on god and love and loneliness and what have you.

see also: a couple of shots from rehearsals

Posted by matti at 09:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

right, so, cologne

having travelled between helsinki and düsseldorf constantly for work for months, it turned out my last project ended and i still had an extra just-in-case flight ticket i didn't need. it was booked, by coincidence, on a german holiday (corpus christi or as the germans call it, something difficult) so it's not like it was going to be much of a work trip anyway. so i did the only responsible thing and took, in this order:
- the day off
- the flight (with the ill-advised meal choice)
- a train to cologne
- it easy.

because fate was all "it's on me" on me that day, it was the first day of no sunshine in helsinki for a week and in cologne, it was like 30°C in the shade and the sun was just blasting off. everyone was just chilling outside in parks and bars, the most strenuous thing i saw anyone do was fly a kite, a distant second being raise a finger and go something like "kölsch, bitte".

travel tip: when in cologne, go to terrarium ("snake bar") on mainzer strasse, of the wonderful waitstaff and the clientele with the most outlandish lifetime-as-interpol-fugitive life stories.

Posted by matti at 04:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

whinging; gig plug

this is ridiculous.

there's a yamaha motif 6 synth/sequencer/sampler hooked up to a brand new ibook that have been brought to the sound studio solely for me to screw around with. and i can't! i should even at this minute really be planning stuff for my sister's birthday, then next week in kuwait, and the next week's trip to stockholm, but i have to run soon to meet my partner-in-crime about taking our street art project to vienna, then run to an art exhibition opening, and from there to a play premiere and--

holy shit i was supposed to write and produce the soundtrack for a short film in the next couple of days :I

and so but on to a totally different thing:

here's something very much worth checking out. the insanely talented rebecca clamp will be playing at the following locations

piano, rauhankatu 15, helsinki, thursday 2.6. from 8pm. this gig may feature another girl who is rumoured to have a guitar.
putka, kasarminkatu 26, helsinki, friday 10.6. from no one knows exactly when.

neither of these joints charge for entrance or anything silly like that so come, hang, enjoy.

Posted by matti at 02:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 30, 2005

just not kosher

sure it was amusing that the disgusting omelette, tuna spread, crackers, jam, apple compote and nibbly bits were blessed and double-sealed by the hadass rabbinate of antwerp, but the sudden ambiguous guilt complex from pretending to be jewish en route to germany blindsided me.

Posted by matti at 11:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 18, 2005

count me in as a flickr convert

here's my feed

a really nice interface to photostreams:

we do have the best tools in the history of mankind for making our lives public, don't we?

not that it's at all what it's about, really. the type of 'publicity' we get through blogs and moblogs and camphones and imaging tech and sharing and photostreams and feeds is identity creation, not a personal panopticon, natch. which is, at the time of this writing, 80% awesome.

Posted by matti at 05:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 16, 2005

extreme candid camera

what really goes on in my head.
(may take a while to load. and yes, it's me in the pic.)

Posted by matti at 02:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 04, 2005

travel report, or: fuck wordsworth

the sixth aircraft is a lufthansa relic, seats upholstered in busted grey leather lined with grimy ex-yellow seams. the unfortunate colors match those of the tray and duplo style coffee mug, served by the distressingly attractive stewardess with the dark complexion and mysterious last name. the coffee is kind of toxic but astoundingly not the standard airline hydrochlorine poisonate. at this altitude, the sun has a special 'celestial blaze' setting. i am happy because i have double the usual leg room: i sit on the 10th passenger row in a 737, almost next to a sign daring me and/or the dozing german backpacker to Ziehen Pull. i don't see his carry-on luggage. i wonder if we have the exact same carhartt bag. this flight, the last leg, is shorter than my coffee. i still like flying for the view. the clouds look huge, bright, substantial from above, like joyous marshmallows. but they are assholes. as long as you're above them they dance and pose for you and reflect all the light in the world back to you and generally provide the dreamy ambience of a secret level in super mario, but to the masses below, oh, they show no mercy: they piss on you, keep you in the dark, crowd up in your horizon, play rorschach mind games on you and part-time as dark metaphors.

Posted by matti at 03:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack