DAWN

This was quite heavy stuff.

THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM

One of my all time favorite TV series ever is without a doubt Twin Peaks.

There is just something about the dreamy world of Twin Peaks and it's characters. Not to mention all the small crazy details and jokes that the series were filled of. And, of course, the music of Angelo Badalamenti (a lot of the things
 that Lynch does).
I've watched the series several times over the years and also when it originally aired the first time in Finnish TV , although some of the irony I didn't catch until later; I was still rather young then.  I probably will watch it several times still. I thought Twin Peaks was something everyone had seen, but alas, I was wrong. Some of you will obviously need to correct this matter.

(source of above image: In Twin Peaks)

I had a total crush on Agent Cooper when younger. Well I wasn't alone.

And Bob is of course the scariest TV character ever! To be completely honest, I used to close my eyes in the Bob scenes. He was actually a character that was born by accident as he was a set designer who happened to be caught in a shot.

He totally manages to go all BOB in a  off scene shot too! (source: last day on the set ot Twin Peaks )
I'm sorry if I'm feeding anyones bob-phobia here with the images. I read the late Frank Silva was a very nice guy in person. IT IS JUST TV. Ok yes I still close my eyes in the Bob scenes.

The Black Lodge with all doppelgangers running around also freaks me out.

So, I am of course, very much looking forward to the 25-years-later return of Twin Peaks (next year).
Next week however there is a three-day Twin Peaks spectacle at Gloria (something of a live interactive performance-concert thing), and I am weeping a little bit that I can't attend-  it sold out right away before I even had a chance to notice. Some of our students will be there as One Eye Jack's girls for the setup and I'd totally hop in myself but I have a rather heavy pilate education weekend from morning to night coming up anyway so I'll just have to let that one go (sniff) and stick to my DVD's of the series. And the interwebs.
And Julee Cruise.

KEEP YOUR MIND CLEAR AND YOUR SHIRT CLEAN

I have neither as I have some of Dag's dinner on my sleeve and red wine in my glass.



But what I do have is a terrible nostalgia for the harbour, summer nights in the city, beer and jukebox playlists, running along the shore in Merihaka (my old jogging route) to some Marko Haavisto, driving my old Taunus to the same playlist. (Which I  can't do because Eddi has lost he keys to the Taunus and it has now been parked for xx years under an apple tree at the farm. This summer it will happen though. Locksmith. Clean up. Roadtrip, if only just a small one around the corner.)

We have this this Finnish music- challenge going on on Facebook and listening trough my favourite Finnish songs (which all tend to lean to the rautalanka sound) I got an itch for all of the above and some more. I was sure I had posted this song by Marko Haavisto & Poutahaukat here before (as seen in The Man Without a Memory by Kaurismäki) but apparently I hadn't. Well, here you go - it does not get more Finnish than this.

Now I'll have another glass of wine and play some rautalanka and then watch some more Kaurismäki clips.

ONNEN MAA

Score (by Tuure Kilpeläinen) for an upcoming series on Finnish schlager, Iskelmä Suomi. The series will be seen starting from February on Finnish TV.

Eddi and I filmed some nostalgia mood shots for the series on our farm late last summer. Most of you will not be able to see the series due to country restrictions but you can watch this video instead!

JOHN & MARY

I totally love the movie Jon & Mary with Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow from 1969.
If you manage to find it somewhere out there on the web-or elsewhere- then see it!

Many many years ago I stumbled across it half way in on TV and it always bugged me not seeing it completely nor knowing which movie it was.At some point some time later I managed to see the whole movie (I had probably just learned to google and type 'farrow+hoffman+movie' or so to find the name... I think I managed to rent it or so then). It's not considered a great movie per se, but I like the atmosphere and dialogue in it.  Now all of this this was a long time ago (maybe even the in the nineties), but I remembered thinking back then that it was funny that people in an "old movie" could talk and act just like we do today. Considered somewhat daring and controversial back when it was made (they have had casual sex already before the movie has started-oh my) although for today it is pretty laid back.

STILLS & MAKING OF

Some stills and making of-shots from the short movie by IVANAhelsinki I was in a couple of weeks back:

All photos by Samu Franzen Photography.

...I'd like to have that jacket for myself...

MOVIE MAKING

Yesterday I was filming a short movie.



It was shot in an old movie theatre.


And also in this one here!



On film, not digital.


The day was not totally without misfortunes,  first, my co-actor had, umm... disappeared and a replacement had to be found real quick. And the the "old lady" (as the car was called) did not really like the very cold weather and decided to stop by the road every once in a while.



The sound man in the snowstorm. Dressed for the weather. I was dressed for the film and had to be outside a lot too, which was less nice... (Although the jacket I wore was very nice - nice and thin... I had SO much on underneath!)



Me in the theatre. (Btw I never really got the thing when make up artists decide to only dot a little mascara on the upper lashes and leave the lower ones bare. It happens a lot. Although they probably know more about what they're doing than I. But I feel very naked without lashes made BIG. )

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW - EASY THURSDAY

Had a nice and late breakfast, muesli, blackberries and banana. Carbs rule.

Plus some baby carrots.

Wet set my hair. Really, I hate doing that; I have more hair than one might think so it takes forever.

The cats have, in their usual manners, been chilling most of the day. This time on their own leves.

After this I danced and worked on our new group routine's choreography for a couple of hours (to be seen in February at HBF), now it's time for popcorn and cinema; the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Which original title is Men That Hate Women, which of course suits the whole triogy better.

Ta-ta!

ON A WHITE HORSE

I've been rather occupied with on thing, but you will hear more on that later. And now the boys got ill and I managed to catch whatever it was they had, and have been spending most of the day in bed eating youghurt berry ice cream (pretty much the only thing I can get down as my throat is really sore), listening to opera and just now watching The Man Who Cried. Which I have seen before, even mentioned here I think. It is by no means a marvelous movie, but is has some great moments. And it has Johnny Depp as a gypsy prince on a white horse, so basically it wouldn't even need anything else...Oh well, It also features one of my favorite arias and good music in general. But otherwise it's a very sad movie about a very sad time.

(You can watch in on Youtube for example, in ten parts.)

HALLOWEEEEEEN

Last year was Horror film Halloween, remember? Two days in a row actually. This year as the actual Halloween is in the middle of the week one kind of gets to celebrate it twice, as very few things nowadays are ever celebrated in the middle of the week. So we're doing it now!
(alhtough of course, the one and only day really is October 31....)
And we're doing it in a slighly lighter verison tan last year; old horror and skeleton cartoons! Booooh!







And ot to forget; find you Halloween playlist HERE!

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW : JULY 1

First things first! This little daring rascal is now safe back home after a very worrying yesterday; I woke up and Lulu was nowhere to be found. THe cats sometimes go hide in strange places and stay quiet but mostly Pekka. I searched the whole house like crazy but Lulu was nowhere to be found. The only option I had left was that she had managed to sneak out and climb down or even worse: fall out form the little gap in between our balcony windows on the third floor. (It is common with glass panels on the balconies here that slide open, so that we can enjoy sitting outside for more than those three nights per year - alright, slight exaggeration three months - when it's nice and warm). But I had to go to work and had to leave the search for later, sort of thinking she'd still show up at the door when I returned. And when I got home from work ater midnight I did see a little balck silhouette and staring eyes in the bushes at the end of our building; my little scared cat was sitting there all alone. And she was alright. Oh the relief!


Since I've gained quite the few kilos during last year (age does not come alone as we say over here) and added some bonus squish all around after my trip to the U.S. I'm relaly trying to go super healthy. Breakfast of banana, cottage cheese, strawberries and raspberries with almonds. Well, pretty much what I'd normally have too...I'm just going to drink less milkshake in the evenings now then I guess.


Although most likely downloadable already and available in snippets on youtube, I'm very much looking forward to seeing this film in the cinemas, It'll arrive here next weekend!


And last but not least, but on with the suspense music again, it is time to reveal the winner of the Tyra Therman hair origami fascinator...

...and the lucky winner this time is Kelley from California! An email is on the way to you Kelley!

A SINGLE MAN

Inspired by our theme-party theme I finally decided to see one of the films in my must-see list; A Single Man. Which characters also had inspired the outfit's style (yes, Julianne Moore, just like Frollein von Sofa pointed out :)


It is an extremely aesthetically satisfying film with the most delicious details, it is visually perfect with perfectly planned scenes. And also with great acting. I just love the changes of hues and saturation with the small hints and perceptions of life and hope in the his (main character's) otherwise so numb state.

And this scene is shot just like a memory is:



(The film stills are googled.)

STILYAGI

I'm watching the Russian movie Stilyagi.

(In present tense yes, as I've been watching it in bits during some days and right now as a matter of fact, while waiting to load the next ship. Some movies suffer from not being watched as a whole but this works well in shorter pieces, kind of like watching a series).

It is a musical and I'm not always all that Wohoo! about those, but in this case it works very well. The movie takes place in Moscow 1955. It is super saturated and stylized in every way!

The movie tells about the stilyagas; a subculture of somthine to be labelled as hipsters or beatniks in Soviet from the late forties until the early sixties. They were sporting an exaggerated fashionable, American influenced style which was of course not considered politically corrector in suitable with socialist values.

I couldn't find it as a DVD anywhere but lucky everyone, it can be seen as a whole on youtube (<-click)! With English subtitles as those may come in handy for most of use. Worth watching!

(You can see a Soviet propaganda clip ridiculizing the stilyagi here.)

BALLET

Things I did yesterday: booked tattoo time (to May, the boys over at Legacy are popular…), bought a thick interior magazine and enjoyed it alone with sushi, edamame and a beer (sometimes dining seul is just the best thing), went to the ballet with Tinker and Aino, wore black and had before all of this spent a long time wet set waving & drying my hair only to notice the nice waves go rather straight very fast due to the moist air..

Going to the ballet was beautiful - I haven't seen a ballet in years. A long time ago I sang some seasons in the choir at the National Opera for the Nutcracker ballet. We got a personnel discount and I went to see the ballets running at that time. Anyway, tanding on the side of the stage in the choir I was surprised to hear how the weightless appearing dancers actually sound rather heavy when they hit the floor after the jumps and how the male dancers sighed of exhaustion when lifting the ballerinas. And also, how sweaty they got.

This time we went to see Manon. It had some very beautiful scenes and the costumes and setting for some of them were superb, the bordello scene for example. Which I unfortunately don't have any pictures of. But it was a lot of pastel tulle there I tell you.

I suppose one reason for us finally managing to see a ballet was the Black Swan - there has been more talk about ballet lately due to that movie. I've seen the film and wasn't blown away, but started liking it a little more the next day and thought about the film for a while, which I guess is a sign of good cinema in a certain way. What I did like right away however was the set of posters LaBoca made for the film:

(Three of them shown here. I left out the one I didn't like that much. click for a bigger view.)

I like film posters made the old school way, drawn, like Fairey's Walk the Line. I have a look at Polish Posters every now and then. But what annoys me a little bit here (listen to the expert talking here now) is the ballerina in the poster the most to the right... there's something about that silhouette that just bugs my eye but I suppose I can live with that.

Well, back to me. Black always works if having to do stuff during a day that will end up more fancy at, for example, the Opera. Well as you know I think black works pretty much at whatever, whenever. My top is from H&M - I really like the cut - it's rather early fifties. Just as the striped top this one has a big zipper halfway down from the neck that I'm thinking of removing and changing to a button and loop instead. Zippers are apparently trendy now.

(And yes, you saw correctly, trousers!)

SANTI CLAWS

I can't really decide weather this is a Halloween- or Christmas film. I usually watch it during the Christmas Holidays though; Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas:

(picture source)