zvezda po imeni solntse

i thought i was immune, but it's true: the midnight sun will kill whatever sleep cycle control you thought you had. it is almost 5am right now...

haven't written in a bit, as the beginning of June has been the periodical and necessary downtime i'm needing to plan out certain next stages of my trip. things are looking busy in the weeks ahead already, though. here are somethings that are for sure:

1. this weekend i will be attending the 22nd annual Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä, camping out with none other than...Suvi! i hadn't planned on being around for this, but since i am and i don't know when ever again in my life i will be, i've decided to attend. oh and also, my fav Finnish musician Tuomari Nurmio is also playing Friday night at the festival

so, this fest: it was founded by the famous Kaurismäki brothers, Aki and Mika. in the past there's been guests like Paul Morrisey, Francis Ford-Coppola, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, etc.....
for some well-loved and sweet Finnish cinema, see The Man Without A Past by Aki Kaurismäki



2. next week, after the festival, i am going back to Sweden to extend my residence permit for one or two more months (for the Iceland residency). it'd be preferrable to go to the office in Luleå/Boden, since it is technically the closest, but i might have to go to Umeå, depending on my accomodation situation. in any case, i miss Sweden and can't wait to see it again

3. after the Midsummer festivities at the end of this month, i might be helping out on a friend's farm outside Kemijärvi for a few weeks planting potatoes and such. i know it sounds like i've been in Finland forever, but i'll be flying out of Oslo to get to Iceland at the end of July, so i'm saving Norway for last. also, i can't afford to be in Norway, aka the second most expensive country in the world, unless everything is planned out to T, so sadly, the less time the better (1 Coca-Cola = 8 euros/$10.678)

there are other things in the works but i am (have become?) a superstitious person and don't want to count my chickens before they hatch

ok!

here are some random snaps and tales of adventure from my past week or so. i'm back in Rovaniemi staying with the mysterious Olli, who has now graduated from school and is on a month-long vacation before starting a job at the Arktikum library for the summer.


summer is back in Lapland you guys


thus, there is much hanging out by the river to be done


unfortunately, the mosquito situation is also getting quite bad during this time, as usual. the Lapland mosquitos aren't called names like "the tractors" for nothing......i don't know if you can really see here, but i have what feels like two marble-sized bites behind my ear (among others)


unrelatedly, here is a bad photo of a beautiful pendant and ring, by Andrei from Inari (chain by Juhani) i meant to show a while ago


last week, Orkestar Business Class played an opening at the Provincial Museum of Lapland for an exhibit on gypsy culture in northern Finland. Jaakko, the front man, lived in Hungary for a year and is the local amateur expert/collector of Balkan and gypsy music. several LPs from his collection were included in the exhibit.

afterwards, we all decided to sit by the river and play music and enjoy the day...



Matti


Jaakko


singing some of that olde tyme musick


so much business so much class


on Sunday, as a i was sitting by the river, i happened to meet a Polish circus musician named Jarek from Circus Finlandia, whose trailers i somehow hadn't noticed i was sitting by.


Jarek gave me a tour


after the show


view from the musician's stand




i met some acrobats from Florida, the Duo Guerrero. Werner and Aura, husband and wife team, whose act includes not only flamenco music, but high-wire stunts and other death-defying feats


Aura Guerrero


sunday bbq outside their incredibly large mobile home - had to be shipped over from the US because they don't sell any here in Europe that are nearly as big (!!!)


their dog



other stuff:

thanks to my librarian pals, i was able to get my very own Lapland library card and have been checking out lots of music and books. for some reason, most of my experience with people in Finland has been through musicians and music - people studying it, playing it, or just being really huge fans (or all of the above). i think i've learned much about the Finnish character from what i can understand of the music and the popularity of certain genres here.....

i've also recently become more interested in popular music from the former USSR and Eastern Europe. Russia is right next to Finland, and i've met so many people who have travelled or visited there at one time or another. as for me, it's seeming quite difficult to get a visa to go there, and i have been repeatedly warned about how dangerous it is, so it might not happen. so close, yet so far! just in case, i've been purusing things of interest:

book of the month =
Rock Around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, 1954-1988 by Timothy W. Ryback

music of the month =

icon of the 80's youth/rock movement in Russia, Viktor Tsoi of the band Кино (Kino, "cinema") from Leningrad/St. Petersburg. he was a half Korean, half Russian guy who worked shoveling coal in the boiler room of an apartment building. many of the bands lyrics reflect the dissatisfaction with totalitarianism and censorship in the USSR at the time, with a sound influenced by Western rock such as Marc Bolan/T.Rex and Joy Division. Tsoi died in a car accident in 1990, and remains a John Lennon-esque tragic hero in the hearts of many Russian people even today.

outside my window - a building site
crane is working
and for the fifth year
the nearby restaurant is closed
and on my table, there's a jar
a tulip, inside
a glass, on my window.
and so the years pass by
just as life will pass
and for a hundreth time
the toast will fall on the buttered side
but maybe there will be a day
maybe just an hour
when we will get lucky.

-Кончится Лето / Konchitsya Leto / Summer will soon be Over