diamonds falling from grace.

three years ago i was quite in tune with my inner bookworm judging from a little note i wrote about admiration. nevertheless, being the one-click addict that i am, my amazon shipments have lately included a couple of memoirs – literature i knew to steer clear of before.

judging from how i feel right now, i probably should have kept on avoiding them.

since i never really discuss books here, this may seem an odd way to start – although i am not promising any continuance – but here goes nothing.

i adore beth ditto. i love the gossip. one of my most memorable starstruck moments was when i met her, post-show and after complimenting her singing she gave me the warmest, squishiest hug in the world.

it might have been the single incident that promoted a feeling that i already somehow was connected to her, that despite my overall hesitation to indulge in autobiographical storytelling, that regardless of my understanding of the perilous nature of stories describing subjective facts, that now, here, somehow it would be different.

her memoir, coal to diamonds, started as a light read that i trudged through. the unfastidious language annoyed me throughout, but it was really the structure – or lack of – that became increasingly irritating towards the end. it would be kind to describe the narrative as stream-of-consciousness or circular. truthfully, it was just a messy turmoil with no shape and time-leaps that were nothing short of confusing.

i will try to avoid the potholes of creating a mental image of beth as simple, actually i refuse to believe it, but the memoir's insights offer very little substance with heights such as – and excuse me for paraphrasing – not all people who look like punks embrace the punk mentality or queer people do not all share the same political agenda. the more interesting, complex personal-is-political issues – riot grrl, fat-positive thinking – were merely touched upon and not explained to the uneducated reader.

perhaps a good editor could have pulled this one up from its sad state that was, quite honestly, a waste of paper and time. far better queer coming-of-age stories come from jeannette winterson and, for example, ivan e. coyote – but they happily call them semi-autobiographical.

you can imagine the dread i felt yesterday afternoon when i picked up grace coddington's memoir grace. compared to the ditto version, her's is at least double the length – comparable with their respective ages – and i was afraid i would not finish it. my time is more precious than that. this morning over my cup of coffee, i turned the last page.

it was clear from page one that this was an eloquently written and well-edited story. nevertheless, after a few more pages, i already knew why my literature of choice stays on the fiction side of things: made-up stories are so much more real and insightful than actual life lived and described...

grace was a collection of entertaining dinner party anecdotes suitable for a night with acquaintances; the stories revealed only the surface of their protagonist although providing insight into the world of fashion  editing. the amount of dispensable namedropping at times felt rather ridiculous, but otherwise the accounts of adventures with famous household names provided a peek into a life normally hidden from mere mortals.

perhaps i will stick to fiction from now on then.

disruptive pattern material.

the approaching summer has brought the joys of night walks and bike rides through the city. i've strolled and rolled the streets, breathing in the smells and feeling the wind caress my bones with sometimes a stronger chill factor than june would imply.

i've got my hair wet and fallen short when trying to make it pedaling up the hill.

i've walked with a smile on my face with solid – and not-so-solid – ankles.

and i have worn a trusted set of boring old clothes and haphazardly realized my hair has grown. i have also sported an increasing amount of camouflage – i guess a need to blend into my surroundings and disrupt my edges feels more appropriate and sheltering than before.

at some opening at design forum finland with silver wearing old zara trf jacket. (photo timo idänheimo)

good old – and i mean from 2004 – vans slip ons in a limited edition stitched camo and natural rubber.

a camofleur in spring bloom.

chef-d'oeuvre.

when el bulli closed its doors last july, i was amongst the innumerable people who regretted the fact that we never took the proper steps to secure a seat at one of the extravaganza of servings they offered for the 24 years chef adrià was in charge of the kitchen.

as i read around twenty articles about the last meal served to a special crowd of invitees, my feelings fluctuated from grief to bitter rage. why did i not just once do something i intensely wanted instead of putting it off indefinitely?

sigh.

there are spots around the world where the talent can still be experienced – such as tickets in barcelona – , but it is a tepid consolation for missing out on the grand spectacle of the original.

sigh.

if i were talented in the kitchen, i could always try the cookbook. for voluntary and utter mortification, there probably isn't a better source, unless i wanted to venture to the most passé of things and got myself a molecular gastronomy kit: not sure if playing a chemist for the sake of a circus was arrogant or just plain stupid. it's as if i forced my family to endure a set of opera arias after two weeks of singing lessons...

sigh.

phaidon's newsletter around the same time as el bulli was closing intrigued me. they announced a new cookbook from adrià: the family meal. it was to be a collection of recipes the staff enjoyed at the restaurant.

i placed a pre-order without hesitation, but when the book finally arrived about a month ago, my expectations were surpassed intensely and manyfold.

it was as if adrià had realized that those of us who never got to enjoy the art of his kitchen could not attain consummation from attending copycats of molecular gastronomy, but needed gentle, warm comforting to ease our distress.

thus, he built a book of 31 meals worthy of the regular home kitchen, a great cookbook in the detailed instructions it provides and something that unassumingly reassures someone like me that "no, the fact that you had no idea how to cook caramel does not mean you're not worthy of enjoying the best cooking and dining experience."

the amount of pictures, the lists of essentials in both utensils and ingredients, and the basic recipes provide a solid foundation for anyone wanting to know the basics of cooking. the meal recipe ingredients divided into buy fresh / in the pantry / in the fridge and a timeline for organizing the menu come together as an experience only the best mannered company can provide: effortless and cordial.

i will enjoy one of the meals – perhaps #5: polenta and parmesan gratin, sesame sardines with carrot salad and mango with white chocolate yogurt –  watching the el bulli movie with the regret a procrastinator only is capable of.

and then i'll just move on, just that much wiser.

font fanatic.

as far as i'm concerned it is impossible to be interested in graphic and web design without some rather pronounced opinions about fonts and their usage. i lack all formal training, which in the world of web and graphics does not coincide with unprofessionalism since many established designers are self-educated, but i claim to be no such thing – just an avid follower.

it must come down to being a bookworm and an aesthete, but i have always given an immense importance to the form the words i ingest come in. obviously the cover design of a book is essential and i have spent several moments considering whether it is plausible to buy the same book wrapped in different covers just because they're all so incredibly beautiful. fyi, my answer so far has been no. moreover, since my early years the usage of serif and sans serif and their myriad forms have become familiar.

being an outsider of a kind – as in not taking active part in the particularities of design myself – i have not acquired many of the common pet peeves graphic designers tend to hold. but my work, which focuses on usability and functional issues, is design-oriented enough to provide me the sort of insider background to find sites like clients from hell and comic sans criminal amusing. needless to say, a throw-up of fonts in a design raises the hair on my body.

regardless of the pukey possibility offered in the project, i was thrilled to find one of my favorite games and one unsurpassed pastime dedicated to the beauty of words upgraded. andrew capener has taken good old scrabble and remade the base product classy in addition to adding a customizability option to it.

his vision is to have it produced and sold via the scrabble website where you could order the font you like best or a preselected assortment of fonts – in case you're not dismayed by the possibility of receiving comic sans in your set.

which font would you prefer?

faits-divers.

if you're a history buff, there's no way you could have avoided the decades worth of discourse around the loss of the great narrative, the significance of micro-historical examinations and the need to address times already passed from various different perspectives. the loss of belief in objective historical depictions both binds and liberates: we need to remain critical and interrogative as readers, but we're also allowed to consider a vast and sometimes unexpected body of works as informative.

although meticulous study still follows criteria that seems unsurpassable, works of fiction can reveal aplenty about the era of the writer (and sometimes even the topic) and, moreover, many of us consider (auto)biographies worthy in providing historical perspectives.

i briefly talked about my relationship with (auto)biographies here.

simultaneously with the ever-increasing demand to develop a critical stance towards everything we read, i have found literary experiences that encourage free imagining more appealing. inventive form goes a long way, but in terms of content it seems poems still provide the most self-evident media for guilt-free subjective interpretation and story building.

nevertheless, it is always impressive to find other kinds of sources for my historical imagination to run wild. having an aide at helping me go half-way is also rather great, and as it happens, joanna neborsky took the frugal current affair reports of félix fénéon and illustrated them to provide the flesh of her imagination around what fénéon's writing reveals of the early c20 france. the result is the illustrated three-line novels.

the pictures are as enigmatic as the original excerpts of information, and together they form a collage worthy of building a story around.

de charme, non? available from here.

it gets better.

very late this october a surprising (to me, that is) group in finland decided to take action. they were not people who were unrelated to the topic at hand nor people who had not taken action before – there were think-tankers, digital marketing professionals, celebrities, corporate leaders, politicians, etc – but many of the members of the group had hardly taken a personal is political stance previously.

in a couple of days they put together a video that premiered at the TEDx helsinki conference on one of the first days of november.

i had read about my friends' facebook statuses that "great things were on the way", but nothing prepared me for the actual viral. i cried, and i wasn't the only one.


(if you cannot see the english subtitles, click on cc.)

the past year in finland has felt abrasive. last summer the pride march was attacked. people interviewed on tv, columnists and bloggers have taken their liberties seriously and uttered hurtful words using both their impressions about religion and their right to free speech as excuses. yesterday a "style consultant" asked the gay couples who dared to dance at the president's independence day reception to "show some respect" and refrain from dancing.

just like everywhere around the world, gay kids are more likely to take their own lives than straight ones – the bullying and marginalization is a reality as much here as it is in where the "it gets better" campaign was started, the us.

curiously all of these people claim to know plenty of lgbti-people and that they have close friends from sexual minorities. i am sure they find nothing religiously, stylistically or veraciously problematic about hurting (intentionally?) their other friends, either.

some even ask why gays are above criticism... although none of them can give any other "critical" argument but that they're grossed out about gays (that is, imagining sex between gay men, let's be honest here) and seeing gay people being treated just like others feels like an insult on normality (i.e. forces them to imagine sex between men).

the video above was shown at schools and on all national tv stations and it created such a wave of applause that the force behind it quickly gathered people to write their stories. today, they are launched as a book. it will be available in bookstores nationwide and online (for example here).

all the proceeds go to the youth help line funded by the mannerheim league for child welfare – about which i have distressed views because of their psychiatrist's inexplicable views about gay parenting. nonetheless, the helpline is the only viable one nationally and their work is without hesitation thoroughly admirable.

the book launch is tonight at jenny woo from 7.30pm onwards. there will be a couple of short speeches, some live music, excerpts read from the book and djs, myself included.

welcome.

sleep tight.

i first encountered the photos of james mollison when i saw a copy of his book the disciples at some bookstore somewhere (sorry, the vagueness of the environment is the result of my encounters with books).

his series of photographs have kept me coming back not only because of their beauty but because his politics are apparent and obvious but also classily intertwined with the subject matter.



his latest book, where children sleep, is another collection of portraits with significance. the stunning content comes from the pairing of each child portrayed with his or her bedroom – or to put it more honestly, sleeping space. mollison has included children from around the globe, from different socio-economical backgrounds to show the variety of personal space in our world.

four-year-old kaya lives in an apartment in tokyo, japan.

what could have been a patronizing collection of presenting us with yet another set of the appalling conditions the poor of the world live in, is now a set of every imaginable angle into the habitats of children everywhere.



it is astonishing how certain spaces are familiar enough to only create a brief interest in the content of the photos while others had me peering closely to distinguish where the space for the child actually was.

seventeen-year-old, 'x' lives in a favela in rio de janeiro, brazil.

what makes the book great, in my opinion, is not that it is a work aesthetically fit for a coffee table, but that is was actually combined with children as preferred readers in mind. the texts are simple enough for a child to understand providing tools to grasp the differences in the situations their peers find themselves.

fourteen-year-old rhiannon lives in darvel, scotland.

the book fulfills two tasks in one: first, an accomplished pictorial proof for adults and, secondly, a lesson in global inequality for kids, using a subject matter they relate to and understand, other children.

night accordion.

i admit to being a bibliophile as you might have gathered from my post about mykea. although i get most of my daily intake of text online, i appreciate a rattling journal, the smooth surface of a newspaper and, most of all, the weight of a proper book in my hand.

i do not distinguish between hard and softcovers, but enjoy both equally; i love the texture and the heaviness of an artfully covered and bound piece of literature, but embrace the way soft, cheap copies collect the signature markings of their handlers. i have a habit of folding pages, i leave unfinished books contents spread out on tabletops, sometimes i scribble notes in the margins. my books are allowed to live and change, they're not collected for preservation.

just like people, even the most intricate and beautiful cover loses its shine if the contents prove to be insignificant. moreover, the deepest offense to my feelings of comradeship is when i share a book i believe a friend would like and they end up not appreciating it. it shakes my fundaments. i actually find it harder to understand than when i introduce two people i love and they end up not meshing...

i lend my favorite books to friends and never learn that they might be forever gone. when i do not get them back, i miss them dearly.



one of my treasures is a book that requires a room to read. not exactly the kind virginia woolf suggested, but close: a physical space where the beauty of the artifact can be spread out and concentrated on. because it requires a space of clarity.

it is an object of longing, and it embraces both the abstract notions of digging deep and the physical requirements a journey into human understanding of loss might take. it is the opposite, the antithesis of a virtual reading device and very much an object to move, touch and fondle.

i am talking about my copy of anne carson's nox. the book is her obituary, letter, poem, scrapbook and scholarly immersion for and into the brother she lost touch with because of his nomadic and elusive lifestyle.

as everyone who has lost a loved one knows, you are never completely familiar with someone when they live even if you're close. death opens closed boxes – whether real or imaginary – and the perspective towards a person changes drastically after death. the enigma of a person becomes more apparent when they cease to exist, and, thus, we approach those deceased differently from those who are still among us.

moving with and through the book you learn to appreciate the beauty of it, the careful study of a latin poem that while being processed like an academic work of translation, celebrates the love between siblings and the one between those living and those already gone.



a beautiful read, both content and assemblage, it is a work that proves to me that books made from pulp are far from ready to disappear.

the smartest thing she ever said.

yet another exciting project online, the ann taylor funded platform curated by alexis hyde: the smartest thing she ever said exhibits the talents of four pairs comprised of a writer and an artist.

each pair will post twice a day for three weeks, and move over for the next couple. i am particularly drawn to the website because it is a welcome addition to this age where more and more visual stimuli is offered without text – and i hardly find endless pictorial flows gratifying.

the first pair consists of photographs by laura taylor and short prose by tess lynch, and so far the text adds and twists the photos – by themselves so far rather compelling, for sure – to reveal perspectives otherwise lost.

pic+text from the smartest thing she ever said and tweaked by me.

go enjoy!

guerillart.

one item on my wishlist is definitely this forthcoming book from taschen called trespass. a history of uncommissioned urban art.



although i am a sucker for graffiti books and urban art in general, most publications i have come across have left most of the world out of their descriptions. as if street art was only happening in nyc, london, paris, etc.

in addition to expanding the urban landscape, the book exhibits guerilla art ranging from your classic graffiti to guerilla gardening, performance art and protests. what you receive is a variety of political and societal commentary that redefines, at least for me, the global nature of art as a form of insurgency – even when in forms as cute as graffiti knits.

this was parked just outside our hotel in nyc.

among many others, i was quite impressed by the works of filippo minelli whose contradictions collection had me smirking while feeling rather disturbed.



here's the video introduction (but of course!) to the book:



available in october.

passion for the night.

photo by miika saksi.

friday night i attended two book launches: miika saksi's by night and sara la fountain's passion for food.

miika's book is a recording of a bubble of helsinki nightlife from 2004 till last year. the multitalented illustrator and photographer has carried his camera religiously at parties and shot people having fun, helsinki style. the location of choice is most likely erottaja bar (r.i.p.) which you'll recognize as the turquoise background of most shots, but the streets, private residences and some other bars provide additional scenery.

the party was thrown at helsinki10, and what a suitable location it was. amongst the coolest gear were it-people sipping cocktails, djs playing tunes and miika's pictures projected onto a wall.

dj håkan tyg playing against the background of helsinki party kids.

later we joined sara whose party site of choice was the privacy of her home. the kitchen was filled with beautiful food and piles of her books were lying around the house for browsing.

her third cookbook is a journey through the different seasons, paying attention to each month with several recipes made of seasonal produce. her approach is true to traditions – seasonal celebrations play a major role in the book – and notorious of her sweet tooth, she included some amazing dessert concoctions for those of you who suffer from a continuous craving for sugar...



both books are highly recommendable. miika's is available at hki10 and stupido shop, sara's at bookstores nationwide. go get your copies!

well i need you to tell me what to wear.

sometimes pictures can suck you into a world that you cannot relate to or really understand. sugar kane mentioned how sometimes a fashion editorial apprehended in a susceptible state of mind can lead astray in clothing stores, and i can totally relate. although i'm not claiming sugar kane feels the same, i have always built my looks as imaginary pictures, little events to be captured in film, and it isn't all that hard for me to stage a shoot where the character i am playing is rather far from my daily imagery.

although playing creative, self-displacing dress-up is fun and i never intend to give it up, it can also get out of hand. when everything seems fine leaving the door but the street slaps you in the face and exposes the reality clash between you and yer surroundings, the subsequent posture you feel proper to assume is close to pathetic. needless to say, impersonation based on aesthetic whims can also be expensive. that is reason enough to avoid going all alice in wonderland too often.

sometimes i feel insulated from pictorial influence. as ranna said in the comments section of sk's blog, her admiration of innumerable styles never sets foot in her own wardrobe. her own style is solidly her own but that does not prevent her from enjoying other looks. how true an observation.

thus, i wanted to present a perfect example from my life. devendra banhart has been a sidetrack of a sort in my musical taste. i am not generally into psych folk or the sort, but he hit a chord with his single "i feel just like child".



when i stumbled across a book of photographs by lauren dukoff with a foreword by davendra, i looked closer. miss dukoff turned out to be a young hotshot photographer who has shot most of current huge names in music. her book family is a collection of a close circle of friends, including natasha khan of bat for lashes (below) and joanna newsom, and the pictures of this new generation of american nufolk musicians are impressively and, at times, breathtakingly beautiful.

although i'd probably describe her objects' style "too hippy" to my taste, the pics offer a perfect getaway to a world of americana because they so completely challenge my preferred visual stimulants. although i find familiar urban scenery in many of the pics, the stylistic whole feels distant and seductively strange.

have you immersed yourself to a visual wonderland lately? where do you prefer to get lost?

on admiration.

people often refer to themselves as fans of someone or something. part of being a fan is to be informed about the object in question, be it a person, a movement or what not, and (auto)biographies are popular methods of self-education. generally true admiration seems to require extensive knowledge of the subject.

i never liked (auto)biographies. many of them are poorly written and the writers motivation, be it praise or bashing, is often badly concealed. whether my object of fancy is a band, an artist or a thinker, i hardly ever wish to know anything beyond their work. it might be telling to explain that i usually do not recognize the singers of my favorite bands until i see them play live and, moreover, i find the personal lives of artists and authors uninteresting. therefore, it might be more accurate to say i am a fan of music, artworks or thought systems rather than the people who produce them.

in addition to lack of interest, my foremost reason for avoiding biographies is rather simple: i try to steer clear of the sort of psychological lure they inspire in people, including myself. although i can grasp the pleasure of "really understanding someone" after knowing their history and am just as prone as anyone to conduct analyses of random people over a hot cup of coffee, i knowingly try to avoid creating a sense of certainty over the motives and "true" rationales of other persons. as all biographies are already interpretations, the multiplication of internal logics are a sure method for creating incredible fables. and yet, somehow, people actually seem to think they know significantly more about a person after reading a biography. i find it somewhat self-delusional.

however, i do appreciate the potential personal narratives have for understanding human beings in general, and i do see how personal histories may explain certain actions or patterns. i just approach all non-fictional narratives very carefully and with suspicion because as often as we claim fiction ends, true fairytales seem to begin...

moreover, lately i have pondered how easily people are appalled by claims of admiring someone you disagree completely with. the small turmoil created by a finnish bb star when he stated he admired the sad, charismatic man who was responsible for the devastation we refer to as the second world war, made me realize that while people love creating categories by separation, they are hardly ever very subtle or original with them. if someone is deemed the evilest of all, then everything associated with him must be evil and, thus, not admirable. period. naturally, the bb star's blurt was dismissed as the brain fart of a simpleton, but it failed to conceal the fact that we find it hard to understand that veneration does not necessarily include agreement.

it may be that admiration strives predominantly from likemindedness; we revere people we wish we were like or consider kin. but there exist varieties of respect that require disassociation from the object and that reveal the fact that agreement is not in any way necessary for esteeming something or someone.

for example, i share with many of my friends the fascination for the slightly (or more) eccentric characters. as i watched grey gardens – the original documentary and the new hbo film – on new year's day, it was more than clear that my admiration for the beale women was detached from my own sense of self. in fact, the lunatic characters are incredible on many levels, but to think i share values or ideals with them is rather farfetched. admiration requires certain characteristics to develop from mere intrigue, but not an entirety of association. in regards to grey gardens, i admire their ability to sustain a sense of self-worth in the middle of chaotic circumstances.



after saying all of the above, i was surprised to find myself intrigued by a biography. described as probably the most wholesome of the many written so far, none other than a new biography of ayn rand created a desire to read about her background. familiar to me from my interest in women in philosophy, but better known as a fiction author, rand inspired ronald reagan among others and was the founder of objectivism, a realistic line of egoism in ethics, and, essentially, a true libertarian – although she would disagree. everything she taught and believed in i pretty much disagree with and think her objectivist credo is a bubble that already burst, but i find her compelling as a character with all the fanatic followers and discussion she still arouses and her sharp logic. thus, to say i admire her is not entirely wrong.

here she explains her political thought on television in 1959; part one.

part two and three of the interview.

since i can conduct analyses of myself without creating too much of logic buildup (although i may go haywire otherwise), i do suspect the reason behind my interest is trying to understand and, ultimately, explain away a belief system that contradicts my own so radically. i want to find trauma that could annihilate the reasoning behind rand's thinking – essentially an ad hominem against her – and, hence, seem to be lured into exactly what i have explicitly tried to avoid. therefore, it seems safer to continue debunking her theories with logic and leave her personal life alone.

since biographies are incredibly popular and if my worries are correct, there must be a vast amount of people out there who play the analyst on a regular basis. nevertheless, it is entirely possible – or even probable – that i am taking the common fascination way too seriously.

if you admire someone's work do you tend to find out as much as you can about them? if you are a fan of biographies, do you ever ponder the motives behind your interest? have you found your preconceptions strengthened or explained by biographies?

damage control.

a while ago i stumbled across a book called design revolution by emily pilloton. it holds a collection of design innovations that have ended as products that empower people whether providing education, mobility, play, or energy among others.


the starting point in pilloton's book is her dedication as a designer to devote her time towards projects that actually benefit people rather than create more of the same for the already over-consuming population of the world. her claim is that most of designer ingenuity goes toward design for design's sake disregarding the reason why great design exists in the first place, that is, for the people. the perception of ethical problem-solving as she laments comes down to regarding product design as trend-guided and superficial, disconnected from human needs. self-evidently she does not start from assuming that aesthetics are secondary, in case you were wondering.

moreover, when it comes to ecological consumption we often appear content with diminishing damage; developing hybrid cars or sustainable cotton are processes that reduce the damage traditional petrol gulping cars and cotton clothing produce and hardly improve the lives or conditions of people, but just adjust the guilt levels of the already privileged. pilloton asks a serious question about aiming higher than "do no harm" as an ethical guideline and actually striving towards "embetter".

as far as i'm concerned every single entry in the book deserves its own blog post, but i'll introduce you to some of them.

water: hippo water roller. a durable container for water transport.

well-being: target pharmacy bottle. a redesigned bottle for medication that reduces the risk of confusion between family members' pills and facilitates understanding.

energy: windbelt. a more efficient, turbine free wind harvester that utilizes the flutter effect better known for destroying bridges...

education: kinkajoy microfilm projector and portable library. a solar panel operated led based projector with microfilm content for non-electrified areas.

mobility: whirlwind roughrider. a sturdy wheelchair for rough terrain providing accessibility in areas without perfect intrastructure.

food: daily dump. an inexpensive compost for organic waste reduction.

i wanted to raise another question of whether the design ethic of pilloton could be applied to fashion consumption as well: we all need clothing but could we also do good? pilloton compares design and medical solutions, and finds that solutions in product innovations are often temporary fixes that hardly ever reach for the source of a a problem. it could be argued that systematic solutions should be preferred over temporary fixes. is there a way for an ethical consumer to start acting analogically to someone seeking medical prevention? can we consume in non-band-aid ways and start creating change with and through our consumer actions?

when it comes to taking personal responsibility as a fashion consumer, stella listed her own rules of eco-awareness with fashion, and i agree with them. as anu pointed out, we all already know how to be better consumers: buy less, buy work-ethically and ecologically sound products, buy quality, buy used. that's it, and despite sounding easy, the rules are incredibly difficult to follow. perhaps that is the reason we often stop the discussion on consumer ethics there. as anu also reminded us, the effect we as consumers have for societal change is limited and much narrower than we're lead to believe.

the basic suggestion is simple: intend to buy things that not merely avoid or do less (the usual) harm, but that actually bring about improvement. taken literally this implies a radical change in our consumption since we're used to exploitation on levels that are almost impossible to comprehend.

there are obvious requirements. there's a need to educate oneself in matters of production, social realities, marketing, etc. in order to make informed decisions. as an example of fashion, consider this t-shirt from edun that combines sustainable material (organic cotton), ethical production (sustainable factories in peru) and the added benefit of fund-transfers towards those in need (15% of proceeds to benefit war child). the last could be considered a form of pill-popping fixes, but there is no doubt some medication is also needed in this world of ours, right?


without full knowledge of the production costs and the division of proceeds it is difficult estimate whether the production is fair. as i have pointed out before, merely creating jobs is not ethical if we expect people to settle for conditions we ourselves would consider unbearable.

in addition to fair labor and sustainable materials there is a need for openness of design: kamicha called for the transparent designer, i.e. the abolition of nameless designers who copy for the mass market, but are unwilling (or unable) to stand behind their work. although there is no undeniable evidence that coming forth with your own name could secure quality (those who have recently visited marc jacobs will know what i mean...), it may improve the chances of designers creating things they actually feel proud of. assuming there is a significant addition of brand extra in the price of the edun shirt, the fact remains that a tee would probably end up costing close to a 100€ if produced ethically and priced according to global equality.

as a lover of all things beautiful, i struggle with the thought of the background of my favorite objects, and as much as i'd love to invest in couture to promote the artisanship of southern europe, i must settle for the cheaper alternatives – fully aware that they do not come cheap. could we start demanding full exposure? thus, are we ready and willing to bear the costs?

take-off.

it is nyc time. i am leaving with antti nylen's collection vihan ja katkeruuden esseitä (essays of hatred and bitterness) which i haven't had the time to read. the author himself could be described as a paradox: a dandy feminist, a conservative catholic and a vegan. riiiight.

he formed a playlist for his essays below and it's downloaded on my ipod, ready to inspire.

Pulp: The Fear
Pulp: 59 Lyndhurst Grove
Morrissey: Dear God, Please Help Me
Gang of Four: Damaged Goods
Islaja: Pete P.
Islaja: Sydänten ahmija
The Smiths: Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Smiths: You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby
Nico: No One Is There
Jarvis Cocker: I Will Kill Again

so, in case you imagined i'd travel to the city of fast sarcasm with a spirit filled with naïve energy, think again. also reading some anti-consumerism thoughts might just do me good before landing into a bonafide shopping paradise.

laters, gators!

intended consequences.

i believe wartime rape should be regarded as a weapon of mass destruction and treated accordingly by international law. planned attacks on civilian women, their bodies and sexuality injure, scar and stigmatize decades onwards; a single act of rape can destroy entire families and future generations. while many of the reasons rape results in such devastating consequences are due to our cultural and systematic views on gender and women's value in society, at the very basic level it is a brutal act of violence which often brings about an innocent, but constant, reminder: a child.

rwandan genocide in 1994 resulted in estimated twenty thousand children born from rape. the mothers struggle to sustain themselves as members of communities who shun them for raising children of hutu origin. in addition to living a life bearing the scarlet letter, these women perform their daily routines conflicted about a child they love but whose presence forces them to relive the horrors of war repeatedly.

as wartime rape remains a common form of warfare around the world -- amnesty international reports war raping at ongoing conflicts in colombia, iraq, sudan, chechnya, nepal and afganistan -- it is important to hear the voices of these women and take their experiences seriously as war crimes.

the compelling stories of rwandan women are told by jonathan torgovnik's photos at aperture gallery starting 9 march 2009 and a related book will be available.

sprouse.

stephen sprouse (1953-2004) retrospective at deitch projects, the publication of rizzoli's the stephen sprouse book (out tomorrow) and louis vuitton's limited edition line marc jacobs calls an homage to sprouse's talent, means graffiti is all over the place again.

sprouse started his work in the 80's styling and dressing musicians, such as debbie harry and duran duran. his collections got great exposure, but due to extreme pricing because of expensive materials, they (mostly) sold poorly. he inspired numerous designers throughout the 80's and 90's with his graffiti prints -- often painted by hand -- and, moreover, remember early 90's fad of replacing buttons with velcro? blame sprouse.

his biggest commercial success was with louis vuitton in 2001 when he painted the (in)famous monogram canvas, and he is also responsible for the leopard scarf i crave for. the new collection is based on the earlier collaboration, but this time it's bright and neon. since i'm not fan of the monogram canvas, there was only one item i'd consider wanting for meself: the bracelets in gold and neon. timeless!

a book about helsinki.

the launch of bulgaria's a book about helsinki 2nd edition was last friday. the party was held at motellet -- probably for the size of the bar since the place itself is so midtown-jocks-and-prom-pom-poms, it scares me. nah, we did not stay long, but grabbed copies of the book and headed towards erottaja.

the first edition of "you should be here" came out just in time for the eurovision song contest in 2007, and the second one continues in the same path, only much sturdier, i.e. thicker, this time around. the book is not your traditional guide book, but rather a beautifully shot photographic reflection of the life of helsinki hipsterdom (for the lack of a better word which no doubt the creators would sneer at as true hipsters should. haha. sorry.) it's sarcastic, but gentle towards most of its depicted objects. very limited in its choice of content and viewpoint, it is not the book to turn to when trying to find historical walks around the city, but an informative and ambitious inside joke which challenges official city boundaries creating an alternative urban picture of the city -- similar to creating a guide book to manhattan where nothing between 14th and 110th street really exists and quick transportation to brooklyn was constantly recommended. in all honesty, i'd be happy with such a nyc guide book as long as circle line was included...

since all my favorite bars, stores, bands, and my apartment building are listed there, it is the only guide book i'd recommend to any of my friends visiting helsinki.

wishy washy part two: books.

all i want for xmas... continues with some food for thought.

1. a mercy by toni morrison.
morrison reapproaches slavery but this time crossing and challenging racial boundaries.

2. 2666: a novel by roberto bolaño.
a 900 page murder mystery and philosophical exploration.

3. indignation by philip roth.
i'm hoping it will be another masterpiece of the troubles of the masculine.

4. when you are engulfed in flames by david sedaris.
sedaris goes through midlife crisis. a sure gem.

5. i was told there'd be cake by sloane crosley.
a cross between sedaris and carrie bradshaw, could this be a piece of chick lit i might be able to finish?

6. the winners by julio cortazar.
a classic by one of my favorite authors.

7. brief interviews with hideous men by david foster wallace.
supposedly a very uneven collection of essays with a few brilliant anomalies worthy of reading the whole thing. if you like wallace, that is.

8. dangerous laughter by steven millhauser.
almost chekhovian formality characterizes this much anticipated collection of stories.

9. puhdistus by sofi oksanen.
the finlandia literary price winner of 2008.

10. kohtuuttomuus by pirkko saisio.
another much awaited novel by an excellent writer.

sedaris.

continuing on the topic of favorite authors, i must mention david sedaris. my love for his self-deprecating humor started with me talk pretty one day (little, brown and company 2000), and has continued ever since. his observational skills concentrate on the every day absurdities of life and it seems his curiosity pushes him towards inexplicable explanations, as paradoxical as that may sound. he's just incredibly funny.

sedaris on letterman talking about, ahem, accessories for men.