A couple of weeks ago we filmed a tongue-in cheek music video for Knucklebone Oscar. (A legendary Helsinki band that has been around for well over a decade. We've done some old school live band & burlesque collaboration with another one of Oscar's bands; White Knuckles Trio.)
I took some behind-the-scenes photos during the day.
he Windows '95 Man (he has this retrotastic DJ-character thing) helping to prepare some 300 balloons.
Walking among some 300 balloons. They started moving, wandering, by themselves at some point. Freaky (and also totally explainable).
Shot on good ol' VHS with a 1989 camera!
It was a rather long but hilariously silly day.
You can see the result here - this will most likely open up more for those born in the 70's and 80's that attended school discos in their pre-teens. And have video footage on VHS of that...
(The disco-sign on the door was suitably there when we arrived already, as a remnance from the last party of the year.)
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.
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.
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.
Here are some pictures on-and-off stage from our first night of SPECTAC-O-RAMA.
The second nigt was last Saturday and even though I was still flush and with a voice that would have made even Tom Waits jealous I made it trough the night; we all did it with a bang and the house was full again!
Spectac-O-Rama is a two hour show with rockabilly music and burlesque inspired by cabaret and vaudeville. Those who have seen our shows in the early years, and our mutual shows with Sweet Jeena from those times, got a lot of old school stuff as we performed our classics like the Western Revue and The Bikini number but with new, live music twists. Birdwatching gentlemen, mescaline cacti, cardboard horses, thirsty cowboys in despair, angry monkeys and so on. The usual. We also had Mr drag n'roll Mia Li Moon and our student troupe the Shangri-La Showgirls on stage - it's rather impressive actually that we managed to fit so many people onto that small space!
Btw. You can see more of our Showgirls and what we've been up to with them and with the rest of our students as well when we organise this year's Under the Mistle Tease - the Christmas show & party of our studio and burlesque school - next week! And here I have to mention that we also have an intern working for us (wooh, adulthood points!) who we so could not have managed without during these nights as she carried a lot of stuff around and did a lot of dressing us up and down during the two hours were we change clothes so many times that I don't even want to think about it now afterwards. We'll, this production is not totally over, new stages awaits later on!
I've been fixing costumes and making arrangements the whole week and tonight it is time for the first set of our vaudeville-rockabilly burlesque spectacle Spectac-O-Rama!
The night is sold out so no use to get out in the cold and try your luck at the door! But if you missed out get your tickets for the next night which will be November 29!
Most Finnish people will still be out of reach of -or not interested in -the internet right now, post drunk and hungover from Midsummer, but for everyone else in the world, here is some Soft Sunday music.
No one can make living in a valium haze, getting shitfaced on daiquiris by 2p.m. or haunting your old lover's life with the bittersweet memories of you look as good as Lana Del Rey. I don't like all of her songs, but the ones I like I love. This is such a sad and beautiful video I've watched over and over; I've always loved Lana's appearance and also how she makes her videos look just like she sounds.
We haven't had some soft Sunday music in a while over here! (Although the actual list itself over at Spotify gets and update every now and then)
Soft Sunday Song of today is what was referred to as the "Brokeback Mountain version of Jolene". What makes this different from any other cover of the song is the fact that this is not a cover at all, just Dolly's record played at a slower speed. And it sounds pretty awesome.
Some of you may remember the giveaway we did last year with the Artful Musician NY? The Artful Musician is fine arts photographer and musician Thomas Roberts Meyers who creates art prints of music instruments and equipment. You can read more about it here.
He has now opened up a web shop of his own too, Guitar Art Print with art prints and t-shirts, as well as started selling music themed pendants in the Guitar Art Print- etsy shop.
So, in honor of that not only one or two but three readers here will have the chance to win $50 in store credit!
In order to enter we do as before; leave e a comment on this post and make sure I will be able to reach you trough it! And as usual: if you share, you get one more entry per share. The give away is open until Sunday, April 28 and the winners will be announced the day after. Good luck!
If you ever wondered where a slave to the details comes from it is form this song!
This was my all-time favorite song for many years, many years ago.
When I studied in Budapest we had this record on repeat night after night, while drinking red wine, painting our nails and smoking out of the window of our apartment on Fó utca. I just realized it has been such a long time since I have last listened to Interpol and this is an instant Budapest flashback for me, but also of my life in general in the early and mid 00's; small apartments around town, bleached hair, pale summer mornings and cold Helsinki nights, cigarette smoke.
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!
Then on another note, as it sometimes seem only bigger happenings in life brings out reactions here on the interwebs (like, getting married, buying a mintgreen smeg or having a baby) I put up a little poll there in the sidebar so you can click on themes you'd like to see more of here. Although I kind of know the answer as almost everyone will click OUTFITS anyway.
...and not that I will change anything though, I'll still keep on posting what I feel like posting and what I have time for but you know, it's always nice to get to do some clicking online isn't it? (And haha, there will only be so many giveaways as I find interesting products or get good suggestions of. I just put it there as an option because, well, because :)
I was supposed to give you some Sunday baking but the recipe did not turn out that well; we'll save it for another go and another time. The rest of the day I spent out in the sunshine in the countryside gardening (or, having others help me out with it actually) and fixing that patio of mine among the lilacs. Barefoot. So - here's a song for you instead.
Not available on my Sunday list -yet- as the song cannot be found on Spotify.
Quite a lot of contradictions there in the head line yes.
But that however was the inspiration.
Yesterday I did something I haven't done in a very long time, rarely ever; I went to a burlesque party where I did not perform. Weird. The event and theme was spring awakening (although I think Summer Awakening would be more in it's place by now, oh yes!) so I went all bazookas on flowers, fruits and big beads, warming up at home with Phyllis Dillon, Hawaiian guitars and pine apple juice (instead of tropical drinks, sniff).
The jewelry is old, my flowers from a plant store and the sequied kiwi shoe clips made by my fellow Bitty Tinker Bell.
Remember this dress? From Teneriffe earlier this year (when HAHAHA my bump was so small. And I thought it big then, well, of course I did :) I altered it a bit by 'sweethearthing' the neck line and adding shoulder straps to make it less tourist beach and more dressy.
If you're out in Helsinki tonight and are in the mood for more quality partying there's a dresscoded 20's themed speakeasy at the casino. Not for me though, even though I'd have a great outfit and all (the gold-and-blue one I made for HBF this year) ; but after getting up at eight in the morning to finnish off sewing some tassels for the not only one but two bachelorette burlesque dance workshops I held today I am totally worn out and will leave the late night dancing for somebody else who will not give birth in a few weeks...
So now I'm out in the countryside making pineapple-banana milkshakes with Eddi instead! Even better. But the band starts playing at eleven, if interested.
So, The Artful Musician NY on etsy specializes in polaroid transfers of vintage music equipment. The prints are gallery quality; archival grave printed on 100% post consumer recycled heavy weight paper, signed and stamped. Now you can get 25% off a purchase with the code FREELANCE!
...and also, not one but two of you will have the chance to win a 11x14 archival print of your choice! You can browse the prints in the etsy store HERE.
To enter, leave me a comment on this post below. As always, the winner will be drawn randomly so leave me only one comment please, and make sure you will be available to me trough that comment! However, if you blog/post/tweet and link to the giveaway you can leave me another comment telling me you've done so, you know, the usual.
The giveaway is open until next Tuesday; March 6, and the winner will be announced on March 7!
Well hello there, and thank your all so much for your congratulations! I was planning to write this baby-related thing but I'll save that for another time.
On a totally different note; I totally loved this song and video when it came out in my late teens. I found it genius. (And still think it's pretty good).
I've never been a huge fan of Lady Gaga per se, but I've always found her a rather cool artist, or should one say phenomenon. In general her music is not really my cup of tea although it is quite catchy and well produced. (But I think the refrains kind of suck.) However, I've heard some a capella or acoustic versions of hers and she really can sing! And she is a rather versatile artist, as you can see (and many probably already have) here:
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This is quite funny I think! And I love the turquoise bob. The lace dress is pretty cool too.
(But you know what's weird. Everybody knows who Tony Bennett is, or at least the name. But he is not the kind of performer or person that I think that much about, in fact I don't think I've ever thought about him or deliberately listened to him, just had it registered in my head who he is and what he does, sort of. So I thought it was pretty weird that I one night earlier this autumn had a dream where I had this big ceramic plate in my hands that said "Tony Bennet" on it, painted with a thick brush, in blue colour. And I remember walking around with that plate, holding it over my head. When I woke up I was all wtf what a pointless and strange dream. And then I opened the morning paper and they had an article about Tony Bennett!! About the new record of his that he's done together with all these contemporaneity artists, this with Gaga and also with Amy Winhouse for example. But it was a very strange coincidence to first have the dream and then read the article. OK bye happy Sunday!)
Two days spent with great company, two shows that went pretty well and far too much for breakfast, uh. THe camera however remained unused in my suitcase. Frost on the ground and a pale sun on the sky - now it's time for the half-day drive home.
