#also look at that book about finnish nature

[thatmintleaf]

Time to learn some sweet sweet vocabulary

[negobeauriva]

The Windows95manifesto: In defense of Finland's performance for 2024

Happy first rehearsal week everyone!

The first wave of rehearsals is done, and with it, we have gotten a wave of comments about the performances. Some filled with praise and approval, but some others completely hateful and rude. And today I'm going to talk to you about this second kind of comments about one of this year's controversial entry: Finland's "No Rules!" by Windows95man (Teemu Keisteri) ft. Henri Piispanen.

Many people have said that this entry is a joke, or that it doesn't deserve to be in Eurovision because it's distasteful. But here I am, in defense of uniqueness and weirdness, not only because this entry is in my top 5 this year, but also because it's important to understand what "art" is about. Here's to all the "weird" Eurovision entries that have been called unworthy of stepping on stage because they've been misunderstood.

A special shoutout to @/tottakaibi on Twitter/X because she gave me one of the pointers for this article in particular! And she's constantly in the lookout for Teemu and Henri's projects.

Without further ado, step in and enjoy the read.

No Rules! is, undoubtedly, the most distruptive entry this year - the nudity, fast-paced music and unique mise-en-scene, all make for an entry that many have deemed nonpalatable or not artistic. But behind every art display, there is a story, and I'm here to tell you a little bit more about it.

To start, the staging of No Rules! refers to the Kalevala, a book of finnish folk poetry from the 19th century that contains the myth of creation: Earth was born from an egg, with the shells forming both sky and land. Goddess Ilmatar, mother of nature and creation, soon realized that whatever she touched would grow and her every move was an act of creation itself. And so, she gave birth to Väinämönen, the first man to ever walk upon Earth.

Teemu arising from an egg is a clear reference to the Kalevala myth of creation, and he's even referred to it in some way in a video recently posted by UMK, in which he tells the tale of how Windows95man was born and Henri, in the figure of an eagle, becomes his friend so he can walk on the rule-burdened Earth without caring much for the impositions. It's both a mythical reference and a song of liberation: to not care about what others think and what others say to live freely and happily. To disregard societal "rules" in order to pursue happiness (this, of course, in the sense that you shouldn't care about "neat" or "appropriate", and not about the lack of order).

This song has also been called an anthem of liberation for LGBTQ+ members: No Rules! refers to the absence of gender norms ("Quiet, as I speak / I am the king, I am the queen" // "Is there something wrong with the way I look? / Is there something wrong with who I am?") and to live your life expressing yourself in the way you deem the best fit for you. As an agender person who's constantly told what to wear, what to say and how to act, this song is very meaningful and close to me. It makes me feel a bit better about my identity.

Now, to the point that interests you the most - how can No Rules! be considered an artistic performance, with the disruptive elements that make many shriek in disgust?

Let's begin with this - art is subjective and it's meant to make you feel something, whether good or bad. Art is meant to move something inside you, to make you question things. Have not many artists in the past made paintings about poor people's lives to protest poor living conditions or to showcase how hard it was to get on by? To many, art forms like paintings and sculptures that we now consider artistic were once considered scandalous or distasteful. This is the exact point of this performance.

In a recent documentary called "No Shame", Teemu referred to this - the point of his art is to appeal to disgust, to weirdness and to what makes you question what's tasteful or not. Shock factor also plays an important part in modern art performances. It's about going into the raw parts of your psyche and make you uncomfortable.

Teemu has been a visual artist since 2008, under the name Ukkeli. Vibrant colors, strange outfits and drawings, uncovered butts as part of his art installations and the message "No Rules" as one of his oldest mottos (not surprising, considering that in an interview he said he grew up with hippie parents that were very permissive) are the main features of his work. It's reminiscent of early 2000's adult animation shows, who also had a big shock factor and were frowned upon back then.

In this appeal to weirdness resides the charm of Windows95man's performance - in making you feel uncomfortable and weird, you're proving the exact point of the song. You will be bitter about how Finland could've "sent something better", but that won't change the fact that Teemu and Henri were chosen by his people because they understood the art beyond the shocking display. They understood what living with no rules means, to embrace weirdness, to embrace unique, and not care about what others say. If it makes you feel happy, who says that you're not allowed to like or pursue it?

Let's take a look back - Go_A's Shum, who was also catalogued as weird due to Kateryna's bewitching voice and vocalizations, made it to 5th place with no problem in 2021. Zdob si Zdub & Advahov Brothers' Trenulețul 2022 got to number 7 in 2022, after being called disruptive noise, and Konstrakta's In Corpore Sano made it to 5th place even when it was called creepy by some. Mama ŠČ! by Let3 made it to an impressive 12th place last year, and 3rd place in Dora this year with their strange Baba Roga.

If every country sent the same cookie-cutter type of "safe" song to Eurovision, the contest would be very repetitive and monotone. Let's face it, the public loves unique, loves something that will blow your hats off for three minutes and wondering what happened. They love songs that go off the "normal" standard because it takes you for a trip and makes you jump off your seat. It's no wonder that, in contrast with No Rules! getting so much hate, along with Doomsday Blue (another of the misunderstood entries, reduced only to its wrongly called "satanistic" character), 5Miinust and Puulup seem to be favorites this year, along with Joost Klein, who is rumored to win. People either love or hate weird and unique. Sadly, Finland got the worst end of the stick, and I think that's very unfair.

There's also the double standard, many think that it's inappropriate for Teemu to show up in nude-colored underwear, but they had no problem with female contestants in revealing outfits in previous years. Here's the thing - it's either okay for everyone to wear revealing outfits, or it's not. The argument that 2022's Chanel is given a pass to wearing revealing clothes because "she's a sexy girl speaking about being sexy" is invalid. Beauty, much like art, is subjective. And I do think that Teemu is very beautiful. He is allowed to wear what he wants (of course, according to EBU's standards, and they seem to have approved of the performance as is) and you don't get to say what's tasteful or not based off an aesthetic standard settled in sexism.

To finish this off, let me sum up the most important points of my mini-essay: No Rules! is an artistic performance because it's disruptive, it has elements that refer to Finnish myths and it's a liberation anthem that is meant to reach all those who feel like being themselves is wrong, to make them forget about this world's standards for three minutes and remember that the only person they need to please is themselves. As such, this song accomplishes its goal perfectly and beautifully. To call Teemu and Henri's performance a joke is to bypass every element of its artistry and to insult the artist standing on stage. Finland chose them, and so we must respect their decision and refrain from sending hateful comments.

I do think that we need to keep high hopes for this performance. I know that the two of them will go beyond everything we know and expect and will blow us all away when the Semifinal 1 comes in May 7th. After all, Henri's vocal skills have improved greatly since UMK, and Teemu's charisma can only grow by the second. These two have everything to go far and to show everyone that sometimes, all you need is to not listen to your surroundings and act as your heart commands.

Sometimes, the only rule is no rules.

[mayusteapot]

I'm thoroughly enjoying reading everyone's thoughts and analyses about the first chapter. I'm not a new reader, a rather seasoned one, as I used to read the books three times during every summer vacation between the ages 9 and 19. I'm now 41, so it's been a while, and I've never read the books in their original language but the Finnish translation. I did start once but got caught comparing the translation to the original which was endlessly fascinating.

I did study English language and translation as a major in university, so I'm supposed to be both familiar with the language and analysing texts, but I find it really hard to get to this mindset around these books. The emotional load is such that looking at them objectively is totally out of the question, so instead I'm going to lean into it.

What jumps out at me are the colours in this chapter. It's mostly filled with dark hues (as opposed to the start of eg. Anne, which is covered in pale apple blossoms and sunset), even most of the magical elements are very untame and ethereal in their aspects. And yet there's a glimpse of the pinky-green sky around the new moon. It's very much setting us up for a darker tale, and yet there are slivers of light in it too.

Nature plays such a big part in this chapter. Even the house looks like it wasn't built but grew like a mushroom. Everywhere Emily looks she seems to see shapes of nature, slightly twisted and a bit gnarled. Even Saucy Sal (best cat ever) is like something from a Tim Burton film. Wait. The other way around, surely.

The first and last paragraph of the text do seem pleasantly (and tragically) elliptical in this chapter. Assuming Ellen pities Emily because her father is dying. It's like everything between those two paragraphs builds for us this slightly mystical world from Emily's point of view, and then rips it away from her with that last line.

I also found interesting how Emily's attitude to god and religion is also very apparent from the start. Her views are very individualistic, and she sees it as very personal, as opposed to communal. [At this point the writer of this post fell into a deep deep rabbit hole about the Presbyterian faith, Calvinism and so on. It will take a while to dig all the way through, so ending here for now.]

[vertigoblockbuster]

Mrigashira: Gentle, multifaceted

Mrigashira is the 5th of the 27 nakshatras

Following Rohini and preceding Ardra, Mrigashira lies in the late degrees of Taurus and early degrees of Gemini. It is symbolized by a deer or just the face of a deer. Mars is the planetary ruler of this nakshatra and it's governing deity is Soma. Soma is often thought of as its form as a food or drink, and the deity Soma is kind of like the personification of the qualities it brings to it's consumers.

The Symbology of the Deer

Deer are herbivores which means they don't hunt other animals. They are also very selective when it comes to the plant material that they eat. Part of why deer are such picky eaters is because the growth and health of their antlers is impacted by the quality of their food. Antlers are important for confrontation/combat and they also function as impressive displays during courtship, so the bias of deer towards nutrient-dense plants makes sense.

"Baby with a rack like this, you won't be worrying about these clowns." - Bambi's dad, probably

The herbivorous nature of deer and their high selectivity when it comes to their food suggests that people with prominent Mrigashira placements in their birth chart are 1) fundamentally gentle and 2) curious, restless, and diffuse because they constantly look for the next best thing. If you know anything about deer you also know that they are very flighty and timid animals, qualities this nakshatra possesses as well.

Another important characteristic of deer which is revealing of the nature of Mrigashira is their preference for groups. They are herd animals, not solitary ones. Something this nakshatra cares deeply about is pairing things up. Mrigashira-heavy people will be multi-faceted people with broad minds. They ceaselessly collect new ideas and update their ideologies naturally as they move through life. They look for ways to apply what they learn - not only in the way it was applied in it's original context, but in all areas of their life. These are people that will read a book about Finnish cuisine and their main takeaway is they need to reinvent their relationship to their career.

Mrigashira is ruled by Mars

Mrigashira, Chitra, and Dhanishtha are the Mars-ruled nakshatras. The planet Mars in astrology represents the way you assert yourself. Mars wants to get the job done and doesn't really care about your opinion. Actually, if you wanted to go outside and hash it out Mars would be happy to do that. It's an aggressive planet, a hot planet, a physical planet, an "I'm going to get what's mine" planet. Everybody needs a healthy sense of drive, and the condition of your mars says a lot about how you accomplish (or don't accomplish) your goals. It also gives information about your sexual desires and physical body.

So why does Mrigashira belong to Mars? How does it make sense that the planet of war lords over the same star represented by such a delicate animal like a deer? What links the hot-hotheadedness of Mars with the flightiness of the deer is desire. Mrigashira natives naturally take interest in collecting knowledge, friends, and ideas as they move through life (like a deer combing the forest floor for good food - behavior driven by a hunger, or desire) and want to combine them in ways that make everyone happy. They are driven by this desire; to diffuse and collect, and then to creatively recombine.

Soma as a Deity and as a Miracle Drug

Soma governs Mrigashira. He is the god of the Moon. As a deity, he rarely appears in Vedic mythology in human form. It's more common that Soma refers to the special drink that the gods consumed to gain immortality and supernatural strength. In ancient times it was drank by yogis and sages to bring them closer to the gods while they performed rituals. Soma provides the consumer with 2 things: health (immortality and strength), and pleasure (delight and happiness.)

Soma was created specially for Indra, who was king of the gods as well as being the god of rain and storms. Before Indra ruled the gods it was Varuna who held this authority. After Indra defeated the demonic serpent Vritra, he turned the other gods against Varuna and took his place. Varuna left big shoes to fill and Indra needed assistance to fill his new role. This is where Soma comes in.

Soma the drink was created for Indra by Soma the Moon god so that Indra could become unconquerable. Another name for Soma is Amrita, meaning "no death." All food is Amrita because we need it to live. Soma is what nourishes the plants that we get our food from - water. Water is the element closely connected to the Moon, both relating (in an astrological context) to things like emotions, femininity, nurturing and nourishment, and introspection. What Soma created for Indra was a plant that could be made into a special drink that had an intoxicating effect while nourishing the body. It's like if eating a home-cooked meal sent you on the best trip of your life.

There has been no consensus when it comes to identifying Soma in nature. It is thought by some that when Soma was prepared by regular people, it was made with poppy, cannabis, and Ephedra. Some theories exist linking Soma with magic mushrooms/psilocybin. R. Gordon Wasson was one of the first people from the West to start trying to identify what plant the Rig Veda could have been referring to when mentioning Soma. He thought that the Soma plant was Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric.

The Lesson of Mrigashira

The broad and multifaceted nature of Mrigashira can manifest as aversion to commitment. It can result in someone who is unable to stand for anything, know what they believe in, or find their own center. Focus of energy becomes too scattered to get anything done.

The medicine of Mrigashira is the balancing act of being multifaceted and diffuse in love and life without becoming a commitment-phoebe. If you're on the more rigid side, Mrigashira asks you to be open to de-compartmentalizing different areas of your life. If you're on the more fluid side, Mrigashira asks you to exercise more control over where your attention is going.

A Song to Listen to with Mrigashira Themes: Just Another Man by Glenn Campbell

-----------------------------

Credit is due to Vic Dicara for a lot of the information I talked about here. If you're interested in learning more about Vedic astrology, his YouTube channel is a great resource to do that.

[teal-skull]

Hi I saw your post about the phrase "se ei ole mistään kotoisin" and the book you linked looks interesting I just might get it 👀 I have an Amazon gift card that I want to spend on something fun and I was wondering if you have any Finnish book recommendations!! Either with translation or in simpler Finnish works too :D

Omg!

Ngl you were in my mind when I was writing that book recommendation :3 I hope you will enjoy it if you end up getting it! But keep in mind that because it is humorous it is not a deeb dive but rather scracthing the surface.

I will have to do a confession here that I don't read too much of finnish literature (something that I need to fix)

A general tip: try adding "selkokirja" (or selkosuomi/selkokielinen) to your search. Selkokirjat are books writen, or re-writen into simpler finnish than the original. (yle's website has a section "selkouutiset" where you find news in selkosuomi

Sorry, I wrote you a really long list, but maybe more is better so you can pick and choose.

-The moomin books by Tove Janson! Pick any one, Comet in Moominland and Midsommer Madness are my faves. They were originally written in swedish because Tove was swedish-speaking finn, so finnish editions are translations. There's also comics.

-Not Before Sundown by Johanna Sinisalo. English translation (and many other) is available of this one. This book is about a gay man called Enkeli (angel) who takes a baby troll into his house and tries to take care of it. But troll is part of a wild nature and the night. From tiny snippets we follow how this turns out. Finlandia Prize winner.

-The Unkown Soldier by Väinö Linna. This is THE Book in Finland. A finnish classic and the nation's "collective memory" of the Continuation war against Russia. Many movies made out of this one. According to wikipedia there is a new english translation from 2015, which is better than the previous but some of the localization has been critizied.

-The Purge by Sofi Oksanen. A very dark and depressing book set in the soviet occupation of Estonia. Haven't read this one yet but it is widely popular. Check wikipedia for more info.

-Ja hän huutaa: Splatterpunk-Antologia (Aaave Taajuus, 2014) I took you like violence and blood, well here's a collection of splatterunk short stories writen by different finnish horror authors. Havent read all of them yet, but the ones I have read have been... good in a way of "I wanted to be disgusted and I got what I wanted". Let me tell you, these shortstories are propably the most gruesome shit writen in finnish horror scene. All warnigns ably. You honestly just need to read the backcover. It's only available in finnish but I don't think the language will be too complex.

-Pyöveli by Anneli Kanto. Only available in finnish but it's a humortictic, grotesk story set in medieval Finland following the son of an executioner, a newly (un)happily married judge in Vaasa and a peasant determined to get a new, succesfull life.

- Magdalena Hai writes speculative finnish fiction

Some recomendations by my friends: -Ilkka Remes is a thriler writer but I couldn't find any of his works translated

-Childrens books: Risto Räppääjä -books (K makes references to him in few songs!) and Heinähattu ja Vilttitossu.

-Kepler62 by Timo Parvela (Scifi)

-Varjot by Timo Parvela (fantasy)

-Hirviöasiakaspalvelu, kuinka voin auttaa by Anni Nupponen (monster customer service), the publisher is Osuuskumma

-Leena Krohn writes horror/fantasy

Also some classic finnish books are:

-The seven brothers by Aleksis Kivi, the first novel writen completely in finnish. I read this one, at first it was fun but near the ending draged on way too long, sori Aleksi. You will see this one being referenced all the time.

-The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen) by Mika Waltari.

-Minna Canth's plays like Työmiehen Vaimo or Annaliisa. They deal with women's position in the victorian era.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I decided to ask around on all the fish/ocean blogs I follow: how do you learn more about the ocean?? I love the ocean and I really wanna learn more about my favorite sea creatures and beyond but I have no idea how to get started. Are there documentaries or shows your recommend? How do you go about doing research for fun (the American school system has failed me, go figure)? How do you even remember it all? I crave to learn but where I could possibly start is as vast as the ocean itself.

What a fun question! It is admittedly a bit difficult to go back to the beginning of my ocean-learning days, since I can't remember a time when I wasn't super into water and aquatic things, but I'll try! I think I started learning about oceans through books, I'd read and borrow a lot of fish and marine biology books at the library. I think they're the very best place to look to at first if you struggle with the paralysis of having too many things to do or too many places to look from! Libraries are really good sources of information, but unlike the internet, the resources are finite in some way, they're on physical paper, and tied to the place itself (until you take them home of course!), which at least to me makes it easier to start looking for what I want to know more about. Libraries make it easier for me to read things too, I get very distracted at home. Only when I am in the peace and quiet in between the bookshelves can I focus!

Another place that was no doubt a source of learning for me was natural history museums and aquariums. I was (..am) obsessed with the Finnish Museum of Natural History specifically, it was a must-visit every time we went to the capital city area up until the pandemic. Aquariums we went to less so, but the education they provide there is a gem! Sometimes you can even talk to an employee if you're lucky enough and learn extra bits of information about things. Not always free like libraries, but worth a shot if you get the opportunities to visit.

I've also watched and still watch marine/freshwater life documentaries and other educational shows! Usually I'd opportunistically go and watch them whenever one popped up on the TV, instead of going out to find them myself. This, and the fact that it's been many years since I saw some, I can't recall many of the names of the documentaries I've seen! There were some about dolphins and their fascinating behaviour and hunting habits, and this cool documentary series that divided its episodes into two parts with pure opposite climates and cultures with opposite lifestyles, but I can't seem to find the ones I'm thinking of!!! ...Ah, well. I can recommend you Planet Earth (2006), The Blue Planet (2001) and Blue Planet II (2017) from BBC, and Life on Our Planet (2023) which I'm currently watching on Netflix! Secrets of the Whales (2021) from National Geographic I didn't quite finish but it was still quite interesting, focuses on four species of whales.

As for doing my research... well, once I was old enough to get on the internet and I was super duper fixated on a specific species of animal or a group of animals, I'd do this thing where I look up the animal's name and slowly start going through every website that popped up, in order, bookmarking the websites with the most or most interesting information. I still do it. I don't know if it's the "correct" way, could there even be a correct way..? I doubt it, and it does give you many sources to reference with each other! I also like to look through videos of these animals, but, that's probably a given. If you're looking for fish info specifically, I like to fall back on FishBase, SeriouslyFish and A-Z Animals when I'm unsure about something (besides checking multiple sources), as far as I know they're trustworthy.

When it comes to remembering, I unfortunately cannot offer you any tips! I am fortunate in that I have naturally good memory and absorb information with relative ease, so I don't really have any tips for remembering things... though I do like to sort large batches of information into charts, like how I did when I was learning to take care of my shrimp! I looked through several websites and collected the suggested parameters from each, and compared them with each other. I did the same thing when I was making my informational comic about bigfin squids, I collected the depths and places in which squids were spotted in into charts. Perhaps that is helpful in some way!

So! TL;DR, libraries, documentaries, museums, aquariums, just plain old internet research. I hope this helps you in some way!!! <33 Well wishes from the fishes!

[lovelessthan]

After our little Tavastia adventure, I ventured northwards towards Rovaniemi on an 11 hour bus ride. Yes that’s right, 11 hours. And every minute of it was beautiful, except that I came woefully underprepared under the assumption that the driver would make occasional stops and let us off to top up on food and water.

I survived, anyhow, and so we move forward with The Finland Chronicles Part 2: Lapland

(Disclaimer: anyone on here who also has me on socials knows how much I loved this place and posted about it, so I promise this is the last you’ll hear of it from me…at least for a couple months)

So I arrived at around 7 in the evening, and the city is surprisingly quite walkable (barring the moments you're wheeling around a suitcase in the snow). This was a little plaza right around the corner from my guesthouse and I fell in love right away. Look how cute it is!

My first full day in Rovaniemi was a bit slower because there was laundry to be done and very few machines to go around between the guests, so I did set off a bit late. Mind you, at that point in January the sun would rise close to 11 am and set close to 2 pm so we'd get 2.5 hours of sunlight MAX. The above image is the neighborhood around my guesthouse close to 4 pm. Night. Nevertheless, I made the most of it and visited the Arktikum Museum, which is beautiful architecturally but also provides the public with interesting exhibits on the history, culture, flora and fauna of Finnish Lapland, as well as the impacts of climate change on the region. I didn't get any particularly noteworthy pictures except for one of a giant amethyst (Does anyone else think Abigail from Stardew Valley would've loved this place?) and a modern twist on the traditional clothing of the Sámi, the indigenous people of Lapland.

Afterwards, I caught a bus to the Santa Claus Village, which yes, is quite the tourist trap, but is so completely and utterly cute, and if I had to live somewhere that looked this magical (preferably sans tourists) I would not complain. A lot of shops, restaurants, and activity points in the village close quite early, so I didn't get to partake in activities like petting Santa's reindeer, but I enjoyed browsing the remaining open shops, having a quick dinner and visiting the spot in the village that marks the point of entry into the Arctic Circle.

The next day was my last full day in Rovaniemi, so to start I went on a tour I'd booked to visit Korouoma Nature Reserve, which is over an hour and half's drive away from Rovaniemi. Walking through this place filled me with a sense of happiness that I hadn't felt in a long time, it was like I'd suddenly found myself in Narnia. I feel like experiencing the rugged yet ethereal beauty of the nature firsthand also really helped me understand the mindset a lot of my favorite Scandinavian/Nordic artists, so I edited some snippets of our hike to the opening notes of "Crown" by Danish artist Myrkur.

And yeah, here's me posing on a little bridge (sidenote: those snow pants are not the most aesthetic, but when I tell you that winter gear is EXPENSIVE...these guys were so reasonably priced and they did their job well in the near -30 temps we were experiencing every day, so for that I salute them).

There are many beautiful frozen waterfalls as well as stalactities all around the reserve, but the most famous one is Charlie Brown, which preserves the beautiful blue shade of the water in the dead of winter. Having seen the main points of interest, our guide led us to a campsite, where he provided us with some tea and ginger biscuits, and grilled some sausages over a fire. I can't remember the last time I'd ever been so content.

Later that evening I set out for the last activity of my brief visit to Lapland: Aurora Hunting. The guides drove the various groups some distance outside of Rovaniemi to a spot with minimal light pollution and clearer skies, and proceeded to prepare us a meal of (yet again) grilled sausage, but also salmon and potato soup, and hot blueberry juice (which I loved). Upon realizing that the first spot would not render us any results in our hunt, they drove us to a second location, near a frozen lake, where several more groups had gathered.

I was about to give up hope, and my guide had come to call me back to the car, but luckily I had run into my guide from the hike earlier in the day (who also does Aurora tours) and he pointed out a glimmer in the sky off in the distance. So I snapped this picture. Something I learned on this tour is that oftentimes you do not see the Aurora Borealis the way your camera does, and while it is possible to get crazy lightshows, those usually happen further north of places like Rovaniemi, where the magnetic field is even stronger. So it's not my best picture, and I didn't really have time to mount my phone on my little tripod (I also could have brought a better camera, tbf) but I'm glad to have had the opportunity nevertheless, and hopefully this is not the last time Miss Aurora and I meet!

Another thing to note is that Aurora tours have become very popular, and because all these different companies try to maximize how many people they bring along with them, it can feel like a very impersonal, crowded and rushed experience. I'm sure there are private tours you can take, where you can take your time scouting different spots and taking photos, but they very likely cost a pretty penny. Nevertheless, I'm once again glad I had the opportunity and here's to next time.

And just like that it was time to leave. I was sad, but my eyelashes certainly weren't. I hopped on a bus back to Helsinki, this time better prepared for the journey ahead, but with an ache in my heart for what I was leaving behind. Lapland, I will return. Who knows, perhaps in summer.

And to conclude this chapter, here’s a little Rovaniemi haul (does not include the Reindeer chips and Reindeer jerky that I consumed on the spot after purchasing).

Until next time!

[beardedmrbean]

In response to higher taxes on sugary products proposed by the Finance Ministry in March, Kauppalehti runs an editorial suggesting that the move would likely not make Finns any healthier.

The government's proposal would raise the value-added tax (VAT) on sweets and chocolate from 14 percent to 25.5 percent. The Ministry of Finance calculated that the VAT increase on sweets could add 85 million euros to the Finnish budget annually.

The government has said they are taking the advice of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), although last month the health organisation said it did not entirely agree with the tax hike.

The editorial points out that potato chips and cookies have been left out of the proposal for political reasons.

KL alleged that the Swedish People's Party (SPP) protected the Swedish-speaking autonomous region of Åland's potato chip industry, home to the Taffel factory. The editorial also posited that cookies were excluded because the Minister of Agriculture wanted to protect domestic grain products.

The tax has been referred to as the 'Fazer tax' because it hits Finland's leading chocolate and confectionery manufacturer the hardest.

In response to the tax, Fazer has said it is holding off on a 500-million-euro investment decision.

KL said that in theory the tax sounds good, but may just push more candy-like products onto cookie shelves to circumvent taxation. Additionally, unhealthy snackers may not curb their appetites, but look to other, less-taxed junk food instead.

Summer heat

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat wrote that the summer looks promising, at least if you like the heat.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts' (ECMWF) June-August forecast promises a hot summer across the continent, between 0.5 and 2 degrees warmer on average.

The Finnish summer this year also seems to be warmer than normal in terms of average temperatures. On the other hand, rainfall looks set to remain fairly normal or below normal.

"The forecast does not say whether we will see hot spells or more evenly distributed warmth; only the daily weather forecasts will show that over time," Foreca meteorologist Joanna Rinne said in a blog post.

Of course, Rinne added that while it is possible to see general trends, predicting the weather this far out is difficult.

"However, the forecast for the Finnish summer shows that although temperatures and rainfall will vary from day to day and week to week, as is always the case in Finland in summer, the overall picture for summer should be warm," Rinne noted.

Zip it and clip it

Finns' reputation for enjoying the silence seems to have extended into haircare, as Helsingin Sanomat covered the growing popularity of barbers offering silent services.

The process involves minimal dialogue between the barber and the customer, only discussing that which is the most necessary for the haircut. As such, the barber promises not to talk about the weather or what a customer does for a living during the 30-minute service.

Kati Hakomeri, a Helsinki barber offering the service, told HS that she needs to say less than 10 words when customers choose the silent treatment.

Hakomeri said that for some people the idea of having to interact with others can make them anxious.

"I'm an introvert myself and I understand how uncomfortable it can be for a client in a situation where small talk is needed. It's against my nature," Hakomeri said.

Using an online application, customers can book and choose the silent option for a haircut ahead of time, so both the barber and customer are on the same page.

[umazane-muesli]

Jukebox January: Day 1

This is a tag started by @esskuesli ! Here is the info :)

I know it's past midnight in my timezone but uuuuh please let's pretend it's still January 1 and I'm not late (or let's pretend my lateness is totally intentional in honour of birthday boy and notorious late boy Jan Peteh)

Also I hope you won't mind, I kind of want to bend the rules a little bit... there are things that I want to include on some days that are not songs (but still start with each letter), like albums, genres, etc. I hope that's okay.

I included some spotify links for convenience but it's limited to 10 per post, so not all songs have them, sorry.

Anyway, here's my list for today:

A sem ti povedal - Live from Arena Stožice by Joker Out

Considering the nature of this blog, I just had to kick this off with a Joker Out song. I love both the studio and the live versions, but in honour of the concert movie (which I haven't watched yet lol), here is the Stožice version with the beautiful trumpet intro.

Aikuinen (feat. Vinttikoira) by Käärijä

Aaaaand here is a Käärijä song as well, of course. Aikuinen is one of my favourite of his songs, both for the music and the very relatable lyrics (or at least their translation, I still don't speak Finnish).

Avalanche by Leonard Cohen

A good portion of the songs I listen to are because of some other brainrot, be it tv shows, movies, books or anything else. Honestly you could track whatever I've been obsessed with in any given year just by looking at what Leonard Cohen song is on my spotify wrapped (his songs are good for soundtracks, what can I say). This one was used in Our flag means death, but also it's just a damn good song.

Look, is this a bit cringe? Yes. But is it fun to belt out while drunk at some lame village party? Also yes. It's a classic 80s French song (if you grow up in some rural swiss village that didn't know rap existed until like 2005 you'll know a lot of those)(yes i'm exaggerating a bit but still)

While we're on the topic of slightly cringe, I don't listen to them anymore, but shoutout to 15 year old me who was doodling little aliens everywhere because of this album. It's gonna be okay buddy I promise.

Literally nothing I love more than a good overdramatic 80s power ballad. Hell yes.

I love this song and also I have a little bit of a soft spot for Paulo Londra (even though I know nothing about him other than his music) because he's from Córdoba (Argentina) where I lived for a little bit, so it reminds me of good times :)

I used to listen to Charlie Winston when I was much younger and honestly his new album is a banger, I've enjoyed getting back into his music.

A Curious Thing by Amy Macdonald

This is not a song but an album, and it's very dear to my heart. Amy Macdonald is one of the artists I've consistently been listening to for the longest. I love all of her albums, but A Curious Thing is one of the first albums I bought with my own money as a teenager, when I went to London with my mom. It was the first time I was ever on a plane, so now every time I fly I listen to this album. Very silly ritual, I know, but I still do it.

And now a bunch of miscellaneous songs about which I don't really have anything to say but I still enjoy:

[bullet-prooflove]

HOW do you have something scheduled for every single day all the way halfway through August??? That is so fucking impressive

Ahh so you have looked at the schedule. By the way the schedule changes on a regular basis depending on what I'm writing and how excited I am about people reading it.

The WIP Board shows you what I am working on and ideas and stuff I have. - It needs updating again this week because I have been on a spree.

So what happened is this... I took a long break from Tumblr, I completed an Masters in Creative Writing - I was doing this part time around a job and other commitments so it took me two years. I got really good at dedicating time to writing because I had to for lessons and assignments - I am a super organised person anyway but this was next level because I also had lectures and reading to do around everything else.

When I finnished my MA I suddenly had this massive amount of time I hadn't had before and to be honest I was a little burnt out from the intensity of it. I had no clue what to do with it so I was like oh yea I used to love Tumblr.

So I started writing fanfiction again. It kind of started with the idea of one piece every so often but I guess all the writing habits I developed during the Master's stuck.

I usually get my rough drafts done on Google Keep on the way to work, afterwork I come home do something else for an hour or two and then sit down to work on a piece or pieces depending on how near completion they are.

It started to go up to one a week and then two, eventually it got to each one daily and I had to start prebooking it and now we're up to August. Some of them are series and if I am in the flow, I will get the entire series done in a small amount of time and then book it out once a week.

I do have a life outside of writing - I see family and friends. I go boxing and sewing on a weekly basis, dates with my husband, reading. I think the key is I just dedicate the time to it.

When I was studying for my Master's you kind of work out ways around writer's block because the nature of the course. I learned to identify the issue pretty quickly so that I can respond to it. Sometimes I'm too fried from work which is why I need that hour or two gap to adjust and relax. If I'm having a bad mental health day, or sometimes I just need to sit down and read or watch something because that kind of feeds my soul and allows me to go huh that maybe something interesting to work with or play with. I try not to let myself feel guilty about not writing but it can be hard!

Here's a bit more insight to how I keep myself organised if you are interested:

[ferrarism]

There's a party where you MotoGP/2/3, WSBK/WSSP/300, F1/2/3, FE drivers/riders or whatever are invited, but there's a catch. They need to be dressed up as something that starts as their first letter of their name/surname or popular nickname. It can be in any language you know. It can be as general as Celestino going in blue jeans and a blue sweater with his face painted in blue with black dots, as he is going as 'cielo' sky in Italian. It can also be specific as Celestino as Captain America.

So who is going to the party, and what are they wearing?

oooh an interesting question I love this very much, ty!

first of all i’ve been dying to talk about this for a hot minute so Joan Mir is there in a hot catsuit because ”mirri” in finnish means a cat. and he’d look very good in that i’d reckon.

now with one repsol honda rider we can’t miss his teammate, Marc, who obviously went for the costume route with ”Pedro Marquez” aka spiderman, a very fitting costume

the ”couple’s costume” goes for Fabio and Tom. they teamed up to for ”Tom of Finland” look with Tom dressing up in period clothing as ”Tom” Touko Laaksonen, the famous finnish artist, and Fabio in a hypermasculine leather getup reminiscent of Tom’s drawings straight from finland. it’s all very gay.

Lewis Hamilton is once again the most stylish person at the party, dressed up in his namesake Louis Vuitton’s clothing. I’d imagine it’s a loose look with interesting patterns and a pair of sunnies to go with it.

Valentino Rossi took the costume party also literally, as he is naturally going for a doctor costume. i wanna say they are doing a couple’s costume with Francesca, going as derek and meredith from grey’s anatomy (maybe the doctor’s jacket is named ”mcdreamy”)

his prodigee, Celestino Vietti is also there in a more of an interprative look, as ”vietti” means drive or libido in finnish, and he decided to dress like the god of love and seduction, Eros, with baby wings and a halo added.

Francesco ”Pecco” Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi went for a couples costume as well, going for a version of the classic finnish song ”Päivänsäde ja Menninkäinen” (Sunray and Hobgoblin). Pecco is wearing all fluffy yellow and light fabrics as the ray of sunshine, and Marco contrasts him with a darker, earthier look as the goblin.

Luca Marini matched his eyes with his outfit full of wavy blues like the sea, mare. he wore a simple coloured jeans and jacket - look that had all kinds of blues painted on.

at first glance, it looks like Charles Leclerc has just worn his ferrari suit to the party. upon closer inspection, it comes apparent that the number is 95 and those are not shell logos but rust-eze, and he has actually dressed up as Lightning McQueen.

Alex Albon loves to dye his hair so naturally he went as the redhead Archie Andrews, in a comic book style with the letterman jacket with R and all.

Lando Norris is clearly dressed like Lando Calrissian.

Max Verstappen went for a roman emperor look like Magnus Maximus, toga and all.

and who can forget Oscar Piastri, who went for a full-body golden look as an oscar statue. all the paint took weeks to come off.

Jonathan Rea shows up to the party dressed in discount tags because ”rea” in swedish means for sale. he keeps flirting with his wife, saying he’s going cheap today.

Jack Doohan took the safe route and borrowed an old race suit from his dad, because hey, there’s a famous racer named Mick Doohan out there right?

whereas the other famous mick, Mick Schumacher, took his surname literally and dressed as an old-timey cobbler or a ”shoe maker”.

i’d imagine there’s a funny moment when Casey Stoner shows up very stoned to the party.

[evelhak]

📚

I'm back with talking about my books.

💜Kaapin nurkista♠️

(from the corners of the closet)

Published: 2022 by Nysalor

Genre: Young Adult, LGBT+, Fiction

My second published book, and so far the only realistic one, which was written in 2016. Mostly when I should have been writing my master's thesis. This one was written before Unitytöt, although it was published later. To be perfectly honest, I was not going to publish it, because back when I was first looking for a publisher, everyone's reply was that a book about asexuality won't sell, and as time went on I started to feel like it isn't what it was meant to be when it was written, anymore. So even if I did find a publisher for it, it would no longer be as timely and relevant as it was, because attitudes towards asexuality were changing and therefore the experiences of teenage and 20-something asexuals, whose lives this book is about, would be changing too. However, the publisher who picked up my first book, saw a description of this work on my website and wanted to publish it, so I ended up agreeing in the end. After all, this book would still be relevant to asexuals of my own generation as a retrospective look at the atmosphere of our teenage and early twenties, so if it would be relatable to no one else, at least it would be to us. I reframed it a little, to be set in a specific year (2011) which it wasn't at first, but I felt it was important now, so that people would be able to go into it with slightly more of a historical fiction lens, because it really only makes sense when being looked at from its specific time frame.

This is the story of a 17-year-old high school student Jaro, who was forced out of the closet as early as in middle school, when no one knew what asexuality was. His strongest moral support is his best friend Venla, who is still a closeted lesbian, most of all because of her judgemental girl group. Jaro has been able to live a relatively quiet life in high school apart from one bully, until things escalate and Jaro gets the blame for his own bullying. Venla encourages Jaro to go to an ace meet to find people who could share his experiences, and Jaro makes a new friend who steers both of their lives in new directions. It's a book about the experiences of an invisible minority, loneliness and bullying, as well as the belonging and empowerment of being seen by someone. Some of the book also deals with sexual abuse in a way that might be intense to some, though not graphic.

When I first wrote this book, there were no novels about asexuality in Finnish, and I felt strongly that someone had to write the first one, which is why this is written as an "issue" book. Asexuality is its main subject, instead of including the queer narrative as just another element of the story, which is more popular these days. In fact, it was already going to that direction in 2016, but I felt that asexuals had completely missed the train of books about asexuality. (As well as other less visible queer people.) Aces were only starting to gain visibility when more well known queer identities were already moving from books about queerness to books where queerness is a factor. But asexuality still wasn't well known enough that it would have felt natural for me to skip the "issue book" stage of development, so to speak. The fact that even in 2022, when this book was published, it was still probably the first or the second Finnish book about this subject, kind of speaks for itself, although more books about asexuality did come out that same year, which is amazing! There are also many aro-spec characters in this book, as well as some other queer characters.

In the end, I'm really glad I decided to publish this book. I've had the pleasure to witness that it really was a meaningful story to many asexual people, some that were also much older or younger than me. And some who were not even asexual. I think the craziest thing I've heard said about this books is that "it was better than Loveless". I don't really care about being "better than" because art is subjective, but in that exact context it was one of those moments that made me feel like... "Woah, I'm a real author". Because I love Alice Oseman's work, so to think that someone thought my book was as real as the book of someone famous who I admire, was some moment. The criticism this book has gotten has been a lot more along the lines I was expecting. Because it's a description of what queer life was as a teenager in the early 2010s, the characters get really preachy sometimes. Because that's how it was. I knew some people would not enjoy that aspect of the book. And in general, my books are never the cup of tea of the readers who don't like to focus on relationships and introspection, too. A criticism I was actually really surprised by was that the book is too "othering". At first I felt like that was such an interesting way to look at a book that is largely about the feeling of otherness. But then I realized... this criticism is actually the best comment that I could have possibly heard. Because I only heard this from people younger than me, and if the feeling of otherness is not relatable to young people, then... that's AMAZING. That's the best thing I could ever have hoped to hear from young queer people. That means society really is changing.

As happy as I am that some people have gotten exactly what they seem to have needed from this book, my own feelings towards it remain complicated. Because it's doing so much better than my fantasy books, which are my long-term passion, not realistic fiction. This is the only one of my books to have been featured on the national news channel's TikTok, and it's also the only one that was selected on a government funded list of small distribution quality literature, which allows libraries to purchase books from that list more easily to diversify their selection. It makes no sense for me to feel disappointed about this at all, but I do a little. As unknown as I am, all exposure matters, and I would rather have it for my fantasy books. (People reading my realistic fiction book evidently doesn't automatically lead them to look for my fantasy books.) This book is something I wanted to do for the asexual community, and as such it has done its job, and of course for that I'm glad that it has a little bit more exposure than my other work. But as an author, my priority is not realistic fiction, so. *shrug*

I still want to write about more asexual characters and contribute to the better understanding of different kinds of experiences, including asexuals. Community and trying to bridge gaps between people is always going to be one of the driving forces behind why I write, but realistic fiction is just not the main way in which I want to do it. I'm a fantasy and/or a speculative fiction author, because that's just my natural style, and writing realistic fiction always feels like shoving rectangular pieces into round holes for me. As much as I love Jaro and Venla and other characters in this book, I sometimes hated writing their story. I have sometimes jokingly said that I would rather invent an entire magic system to make one plot point work, than I would Google if a shop is open at a time my characters need to visit it, or how long it takes to drive from one city to another, but with this book I felt so often that it was literally true!

Still, I love all my books.

[mindfulcuppa]

Passed Impressions; Threads Sewn with Word and Image

2 >Tokyo >Helsinki >Lisbon >Waking Life

Tokyo

Japan air flew me like a special guest to Tokyo, a delightful transportation in the air. When I arrived, I had no real idea of how to get around, nor had I any Japanese in the lexicon (if only) - so anything like beer and soba noodles would grasp towards comfort.

Call me cringe, but there was something magical about eating Japanese food in Japan. Though I did only had a brief gesture, a taste or morsel if you will, it encouraged a more detailed dive into food there. Hiromi had told me about a miniature car racetrack that they had inside of the airport, but unfortunately it wasn’t open late, so instead I sat on the Haneda observation deck in the rain and watched the planes takeoff. In the gate there were a deluge of people waiting to board to Singapore too, I sat with a family while their kids made up games to play with their temporary terminal friends. “I like to learn but I don’t like school, I like to read but I don’t like books,” one of them riddled. I sipped on a Japanese electrolyte drink and smiled at them as they laughed. 

Helsinki

Helsinki is a strange aura, in the airport at least… people at customs are very nice and all have healthy silver blonde hair. I am looking around a while, finally settling at a bar on the observation deck; I talk with the man at the bar, estimating an expensive cocktail about to be billed. Aspiring for a Finnish Vodka martini, and settling for a gin & tonic with Juniper berries, the bartender and I exchange some broken English pleasantries before I sit down and draw.

Lisbon

After about one and a half days of transit, the eventual arrival to destino Lisboa was a relief. I would walk to the bustling metro station conveniently placed 100 metres or so from the airport and try to find myself a ticket. There was a palpable stickiness to the air underground, and feeling the atmosphere inside the train grew a distant unknown. Embarrassingly I had forgotten the PIN number on the debit card I have had for half a decade, which only left me with about €50 until further notice. I would buy anything I could online, guessing items from the images with the websites all in Portuguese… Before I reached the hostel, four men on the street offered to sell me weed and cocaine (sure it was…). Oversharing, I explained that even if I wanted to, I only had €20 in cash to last me for some days and I had no access to other money. Also a heavy bag on my shoulders and way finding eyes. 

Having passed metrics of time and space now, eaten a yummy tomato and cheese baguette and 2 pastel de nata, and snapped images of old fountains - I was tired. I think I stepped over 20,000 this day and finally made it to the ‘Good Night’ hostel (phew). I listened to the sounds of the accordion on the cobblestone street from the balcony, it felt like a shift in time. 

Waking Life

In the morning, I would arrange to meet two people from the meta verse to share a car out to a 6 day festival in the Portuguese countryside (Crato). Miguel from Porto, Harry from Glasgow, and myself found each other at the aeroporto before getting picked up in an Uber, and taken for a loooong drive in context. I think it was about 200km, with 20km of that being unsealed and dust-cloud birthing abaft our bumper. 

The festival was lush (to put it lightly), and impressed with the natural mounded structures, bamboo assemblage, stage designs, and the lake (c/o mother nature, not WL of course…). There were bridges built, pontoon ferries across the lake (and if you’re lucky, with little chaperone children helpers), nests, treehouses, safe spaces, shade structures, a cinema, and regenerative forests. If one was to dream, i’m sure they would find some common ground with this festival. 

Personally, I spent lots of time reading, swimming, dancing, and listening. Some musical highlights were Donna Leake, ADAB, Cosmo Sofi, Greg Foat, Baba Sissoko & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, Daphni, ALABASTER DEPLUME, Mark Ernestus Ndagga Rhythm Force, Zozo, Palms Trax, Aleksi Perälä, and Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra. The music didn’t stop the whole time, so there was lots that missed too.

Flying a kite really high next to the music at the Praia stage provided a moment of bliss, watching others get lost in the hypnotic floating in the sky, the wavering dance, it made others smile which made me happy. There was a lot of gentle motion throughout the week; beauty in stillness, and comparative liberation through movement. Learning from each other was another noticeable effort, space being allocated to apuoro - where generous a exchange of lessons culminated around topics of dream and sensation. Specifically I enjoyed learning about reversing and remembering dreams, which has sent me on a path since. 

Another special moment was in approach of the Má Estrela set (contemporary Portuguese experimental jazz{?}). The curiosity was well and truly high in the soundcheck, in fact, only few could distinguish what was going on. I sat next to this man as he rolled some sort of smoke, he was British and we had polite conversation. On my other shoulder was a mademoiselle whom seemed to know about the band upcoming. “I’m not sure if you’ll like it…” she said throwing caution, I said “We’ll see” and we sat alone but together in observation and listening. Experiencing waves of synthesis, saxophone, drone, and erratic drums in very different ways I predict, we tilted our heads with different signatures. The British man could not handle the jazz, and left before the first song would conclude. Following the set, it seemed like there was the world to talk about with my neighbour, so we stayed in each others space together for some moments to unfold our introspections.

Enjoy the images, and a couple field recordings I snapped along the way of some of the music. I appreciate you reading these memories. 

[vefanyar]

end of year book ask: 5, 9, 31, 39

5. The longest book you read this year

That would be Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry of the Future.

9. A book that was better than you expected it to be

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. I did not particularly enjoy the revelation at the end, but oh my god, what a book. I don't remember whether or not it made me cry (as per a question in the previous ask), but it was so so good for such a dark topic - a pandemic virus discovered in melting permafrost sweeps the world, "forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy" (as per the blurb). And that's really what this is about. It's quite dark, but it's also got an enormous amount of hope and kindness in the face of something so unthinkable. I don't quite know what to expect, but it wasn't connected vignettes that were so profoundly moving.

31. Did you read any translations?

The thing here is that I'm German, and I prefer to read books in the original if I can, so mostly English originals if I can get my hands on them. (These days at least they're available, even if I have to order them from my favourite bookshop; in-store they have a two-shelf selection of English bestsellers for the most part, and that's about it.) I read four this year, two are Emmi Itäranta's The Weaver - my Finnish isn't good enough to read a book with yet, unfortunately - as well as The Memory of Water which the author translated from Finnish herself, which gave reading this a very different experience. The third is Amitav Ghosh's The Great Derangement / Die Große Verblendung, a nonfiction longform essay about (what else) the climate crisis and how it's (not) treated in popular media, especially fiction, and the influence of that on collective thinking and action. It's in English originally, which wasn't available at the point I wanted it, re: COVID, so I read it in the German translation instead.

39. Five books you absolutely want to read next year?

Just five? LMAO, no. I'll do ten, five nonfiction (work-related) and five novels, in no particular order.

Nonfiction:

Thor Hanson: Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid: The Fraught and Fascinating Biology of Climate Change

Greta Thunberg: The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions

Adam Trexler: Anthropocene Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Climate Change

William MacAskill: What We Owe the Future

Elizabeth Kolbert: Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change

Novels:

Vaishnavi Patel: Kaikeyi

Samantha Allen: Patricia Wants to Cuddle

Danielle Daniel: Daughters of the Deer

Ruthanna Emrys: A Half-Built Garden

Tasha Suri's next installment of the Burning Kingdoms series, which apparently is expected to be published next year.

(I am absolutely not looking at my bookshelf and all its unread books, none of which apart from Kaikeyi is on there...)

[doitinanotherlanguage]

April 2023 Wrap-up: 1930s

(You can read more about the challenge on my post introducing the challenge. Basically, Reading Through the Decades is a year-long reading challenge where we read books - and explore other media - from the 1900s to the 2020s, decade-by-decade.)

Another month gone by! I really appreciated going through the 1930s, learning so much. The more I read and learn about the 30s, the more I keep drawing (worrying) parallels to it and the present day. (idk i’m just feeling pessimistic and shitty bc we’re going to have a more right-wing government in Finland than we have had since the 1930s and we’re seriously gonna be so fucked 🙃)

Anyway.

What I Enjoyed This Month

📖 Lumikadun kertoja (2017; “The Storyteller of Snow Street”), Katja Kaukonen -> Lumikadun kertoja is a novel taking place from 1937 to 1942 in Poland. Bajek, the eponymous story-teller, arrives in a small Polish city, where he has been sent on a mission to observe and record the upcoming events (i.e. Nazi-Germany invading and occupying Poland). He is under strict orders not to get involved in things, but this soon proves to be difficult as he finds himself surrounded by the lively community living in Snow Street. -> This novel has a very intriguing premise since it’s made apparent in the beginning that Bajek is no ordinary man, but instead seems to be some kind of an angel. This novel made me think a lot about the choices we make, especially in difficult situations, and to question passive observation in politically effed up situations. 

📖 It Can’t Happen Here (1935), Sinclair Lewis --> This is a novel originally written and published in the 1930s as fascism was taking over all around, particularly in Europe, and the book also gained a sudden upsurge in popularity in the 2010s when Donald Trump became president of the US. The novel is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy and an alarming look at how fascism could take hold in the US. It juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a fear-mongering, anti-immigrant president who promises to make America proud and prosperous once more. --> This novel is very much of its own time yet it also gives so much to today’s reader. The back cover of my edition describes it as “a cautionary tale of liberal complacency,” which is a very apt description.

🎬 Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl (2019; When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit), dir. Caroline Link -> A Jewish family has to flee from 1933 Berlin, navigating unfamiliar lands and coping with the challenges of being refugees. The story tackles prejudice, exile, displacement, and adaptation, as told from the perspective of a nine-year-old child. -> This was a very touching film about being a refugee, based on a book about the author’s real-life experience.

🎬 Cradle Will Rock (1999), dir. Tom Robbins -> This historical drama film fictionalises the true events that surrounded the development of the 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein. It’s a social commentary on the role of art and power in the 1930s, particularly amidst the struggles of the labour movement at the time. -> I love love love stories about people making subversive art and taking a stand. Labour activism and socialism is my jam, and this is also a fun ensemble movie.

📖 Huhtikuu (1932; “April”), Saima Harmaja -> This is a poetry collection by the young Finnish female poet Saima Harmaja, who died of tuberculosis at only 22 years of age. The poems are about world-weariness, the frenzy of youth, illness, loneliness, love, nature, and death. -> This was an impulse-loan from the library, and I’m so glad I stumbled upon it! Harmaja’s poems are so very touching and lovely. I particularly adore the poem “Syysilta” (”Autumn Evening”), which is a pretty, nostalgia-tinged poem about regretting not having kissed someone in the past.

🎬 The Group (1966), dir. Sidney Lumet -> Based on a novel of the same name by Mary McCarthy, this movie is about the lives of a group of eight female graduates from Vassar from 1933 to 1940. It is a social satire that touches upon controversial topics such as free love, contraception, abortion, lesbianism, and mental illness. -> I really want to read the book now! This film was super interesting; although I found the group of upper-class women endlessly snooty and a bit boring, but the topics addressed are nevertheless fascinating. And it’s always fun to find older movies that centre women!

[tothenorthblog]

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The weather in Korouoma can be unpredictable. Wear layers to adjust to changing temperatures and ensure you stay warm and dry.

2. Sturdy Footwear

Invest in a good pair of hiking boots with excellent grip to navigate the rugged terrain safely.

3. Stay Hydrated and Energized

Carry enough water and high-energy snacks to keep yourself hydrated and fueled throughout your hike.

4. Respect Nature

Follow Leave No Trace principles. Stay on marked trails, avoid disturbing wildlife, and carry out all your trash.

5. Safety First

Always inform someone about your hiking plans and estimated return time. Carry a map, compass, and a fully charged phone for emergencies. In winter, consider using crampons for better traction on icy paths.

Plan Your Visit

Hiking In Korouoma is an extraordinary adventure that offers a deep connection with nature. Whether you’re exploring the frozen waterfalls in winter or enjoying the lush greenery in summer, Korouoma promises an unforgettable experience. To make the most of your visit, consider booking a guided tour with ToTheNorth, who offer a range of tours tailored to showcase the best of Korouoma.

Answer the call of the wild and embark on an adventure of a lifetime by Hiking In Korouoma. Your next great outdoor adventure awaits!