dreamscape.

i am absolutely in love with these videos. kinfolk are a group of artists who have combined their talent to produce work inspired by their love of small gatherings.

sure, they are a little too dreamy and perfect and at the wrong moments aggravate more than soothe. sometimes – ok sure, much of the time – life seems to consist of just managing between piles of laundry, dirty dishes, dustballs, hurry and short, snappy words to those around us.

but at most times, the serenity in these little clips draws me close and reminds me of the really important things: food, friends, and the details that make the moments we share so precious.

sit back, relax and enjoy. and if you feel the urge to write thank you notes by hand or quit your job to bake bread, do not blame me...



and there are more on their vimeo page. but remember i warned you.

have a beautiful weekend.

whoah.

yes, i've been silent again. and i might be for another week because i have not slept nor have i been able to focus on anything else than work.. and an event of love.

last fall i was faced with a question that demanded a clear answer. i had been wondering aloud why pride week in helsinki was so, ahem, unprofessional and a few weeks later received a call where i was bluntly asked: "well, you said you can do it better, here's your chance. are you in?"

and i was. my responsibilities spanned from negotiating sponsors to organizing a few of events out of the over 80 that we had to booking the main artist for the park. somewhere in between i managed the technical production of the website. needless to say, there were numerous other little tasks that somehow appeared because, as volunteer work seems to go, there's always more you can do and if you don't, no-one will.

all this happened in addition to my regular work schedule as it was with everyone else involved; the entire week was put together by a group of volunteers. i cannot say it was easy and the energy that went into details and keeping things under control, was draining.

nonetheless, it has been a rewarding trip.

we made it through and the event week was a blazing success: the overall attendance went up from 19 000 to 30 000, and there were 7000 people in the parade – an all time high.

gathering at the senate square.

singer martina aitolehti with her gorgeous hairdo by mv and the park party hostess, miss jutta pinkkinen.

view from backstage during pmmp gig.

paula from pmmp.

longchamp awarding the cutest girl couple in the park with their limited edition le pliage bag.

drag race in kallio.

a very lonely truck stop late at night on sunday.

now i shall devote a few days to rest and then, hopefully, i'll have some time for this blog. cheerio!

dead drops.

it must have been about a decade ago when i was hanging out at one of my favorite bars in turku and got an idea: there were cigar boxes from all over the world decorating the shelves and i had been opening and peeking into them ever since i started frequenting the place. that night i decided to pick a small post-it from my calendar and scribbled a brief message on it saying

hello, like-minded being! please, leave me a note.

and dropped it inside one of the boxes.

i had started a dead drop without knowing the term. it comes from good old espionage jargon: a secret place to exchange information between agents without the need to meet in person.

for years i collected little messages from my box; i think there were a few dozen in total. several were from people who knew me and had seen me peeking into my precious wooden chest in the hopes of finding a new note, but many were from strangers who shared my curious nature.

most were brief, perhaps merely a "hello!", but some could be described as short letters. there was a tingling sensation each time i opened my little letterbox and every single addition felt like a revolution.

my note is still there as far as i know.

photo from deaddrops.com

a digital alternative to my little experiment is the project of aram bartholl. he has left empty usb-drives around the urban landscape for people to use for file-sharing.

his manifesto describes a publicly accessible, passively powered hub for any kind of information anyone might want to share with others and appears critical of information clouds with limited accessibility. although for someone more-marginally-than-nyc located his perception of virtual shareability as limited rather than sharing at a random physical location might seem rather distorted, i find plenty of appeal here.

popping and peeking from walls anywhere one could imagine, the excitement of finding a usable file somewhere unexpected seems like something i could get excited about.

and let's not start with the viruses, ok? i know i know, it's dangerous and stuff and everything and undoubtedly someone is going to vandalize these little ports, but let's pretend like we can trust each other for once, please.



to find out more and to install your own, go to the site.

why be square when you can be cube?

co-ownership instead of private owning and sharing instead of exclusivity has been a topic one stumbles into increasingly often. many forms of what i've been dubbing 'new collectivism' have been a part of online and neighborhood communities, such as sites like brain republic, babysitter exchange and couchsurfing in addition to all small circles of friends who order their organic produce together or share a car. we're developing our own, lihapiiri (i.e. meat circle), to include more people in the regular order of local, sustainable meat straight from a farm.

office shares have been a reality for years, but a new openness towards outside influence encouraged some brooklynites – well, surprise surprise – to develop a network of open workspaces for those who have no permanent office at their disposal. in a city where freelancers flock to little cafes and fill the seats of libraries and rents are extremely high, there is a pressing need for a room of one's own – and preferably outside the already crammed living quarters new yorkers are accustomed to – but also a sense of community.

for example, my own working time in the city was spent less at my alma mater up north by harlem and more at the corner coffee shop in williamsburg where i lived. although i recognized and greeted everyone else who frequented the same little establishment, we weren't sharing an office or a space in such a socially acceptable way to start behaving anywhere near as coworkers.

the new open network i'm talking about is called loosecubes. it started from the basic tenet that most work these days is flexible both time and location wise. add social networking and the need to connect to the equation, and you've got a basic online social application. now make it physical and material, that is, take it to the streets, to more or less established office and work spaces and, tadah, you've got a network of desks at anyone's disposal.

on their website you can look for or add a space. members can seek spaces they want to work at, and for a fee starting from zero$ a day, you can become a part of a working community – or just work silently at your own desk. always wanted to know how a psychotherapy office functions? why not spend a day at one. wondered what digital marketing agencies look like on the inside? why not go and become a part of the community for a week.

surely it can be socially challenging and even daunting to some people. sometimes chemistry can be tricky. but there is also the possibility that connections, even friendships, are formed and, moreover, the learning potential is immense.

needless to say, for a freelancer it sometimes feels simply great to sit next to a proper desk or have coworkers to talk to by the coffeemaker.

there are other such sites, like desktime. but what about starting a network of loosecubes in helsinki? go here.

independent brand.

i took some time this morning to read the piles of newspapers we have accumulated next to the sofa. i have not had a chance to read the paper for almost a fortnight and i looked forward to spreading the large sheets on the coffee table. a beautiful snowfall, a steaming cup of coffee and, finally, a less congested head capable of understanding written material – it started as the perfect morning.

profoundly fitting for the day of finnish independence were the already old news of the finished work of the country brand committee. i had browsed through the book mission for finland! – how finland will solve the world's most wicked problems and clicked their flash filled website. i found the work thoroughly finnish and optimistic – a paradox, as i was to find out this morning.

i had read some reactions to the publication from online journals, but while they were carefully positive or only slightly snickering, i was not prepared for the loathing that hit me in the face from the newspapers' opinions and editorials.

my problem with the entire project was that i do not recognize the sort of nationalistic sentiments in myself that seem prerequisite for partaking in something like this. for me, feeling proud about being a finn seems alien. it is my cultural heritage, heterogeneous as such, but my process of an identity is too multifaceted to support such statements as national pride in all honesty. still i can grasp the objective at hand. or so i thought.

the thing is, it seems many finns found the project with the objective of defining features of finnish society that could be our strengths lacking because the end result wasn't a state of the nation report. the most common source of whining was that the problems we face – longtime unemployment, terrible mental health care, youth marginalization – were not discussed. that the perspective was not that of an average or disadvantaged member of society.

i am sorry but at what point did a listing of strengths need to include the problems? the country branding report was not meant to tell the world (or ourselves) what was wrong with finland, but what was great and unique about it and its people.

moreover, anyone with culturally sensitive reading glasses can infer from many of the tasks where our problems lay: lack of communication, lack of personal social support (in lieu of institutional support) and lack of intergenerational connections. there are suggestions for improvement and change but their focus is on the positive, not the negative.

and that's where the report fails to reach (some) finns.

i guess they got that much right.

happy independence day!

celebrating growth.

tomorrow i suggest all of you in helsinki head over to kalasatama (or fish harbour) for the end of growth season party organized by dodo ry and the urban farmers of the area. there will be tastings, the first use of communally built pizza oven called "archie" that dried just in time for this weekend, and music provided by local bands.

you'll need 5€ if you want to bake your own pizza, your own utensils, plate and mug, water/drinks and appropriate clothing.

the fun starts at 5pm and goes on till midnight. the facebook event here. whoopie!

punajuuri block party.

and just when i felt gloomy over the neighborhood withering away from its days of glory, something amazing happens. and reminds me that we are all responsible for the wellbeing and positivity of our own spaces of living.

next saturday a group of people are organizing a blockparty starting from viiskulma (the five corners) at five pm and moving two blocks west. all hail them!

their plan is to show that money is not an object of organizing an event and that with the happy contributions of friends and will-be-friends, a neighborhood can come to life and promote co-operation amongst talented people willing to share their time.



there will be bands (yay, i shall see k-x-p after all!), there will be fun. i will be there.

why wouldn't you come as well?

swing to sepia.

if google maps street view project created controversy around the world for pics snapped of unknowing people going about their daily business, something exciting sprouted up from it, as well.

i encourage you to take a tour in sepia town, a collective website for old images of modern locations that you can search and, after registration, upload yourself. now listing major metropoles – nyc, london, amsterdam, paris, etc. – using google maps as a basis, it is easy to navigate.

as the service improves with the input of everyone who feels like partaking, you should eventually be able to grab a mobile device and check out instantly what the spot you're standing on looked decades or sometimes even centuries ago. for now there are plenty of interesting shots to marvel even if the coverage is still fairly limited.

here's shot of a street view at the corner of rivington and orchard street in nyc, circa 1910.

pic snatched from the site itself.

what a brilliant time machine!

bob.

having a neighborhood hangout is essential to my comfort wherever i live. the biggest reason i was restless and out of place at soho in nyc was that i did not have cafe i felt at home at. i frequented space untitled, but it was never quite casual and busy enough for me; the large airy space felt too quiet and without distraction to create a bubble of tranquility in the city.

these days i would not even consider moving to soho – first timer's poor judgment – but would head straight to brooklyn where life revolves around community efforts. fashionably [sic!] dubbed the new collectivism is definitely a brooklynite phenomenon that combines socialist ideals with respect to the privacy of residents in a way only new yorkers are able to. the combination of an atmosphere where enthusiasm always outdoes hesitation together with the locally natural cynical mindset creates a unique fertilizer for ideas to actually grow into practices without feeling too overwhelmingly naïve.

regardless of the fact that sometimes it feels inventing the wheel again is a source of overzealousness, compared to many balls of ideas we have tossed around for years with friends at various meetings, sporadic anti-intellectualism seems a small price to pay for things actually turning into sources of pleasure.

in a habitat where ideas are nurtured, businesses that feel homey and seem to last are more frequent than there where the pressure to renew oneself is stronger. one of my last visit's highlights was hanging out at building on bond. a neighborhood restaurant, cafe and bar serves a locavore menu and beer, and great cocktails (as do most places in nyc – can we have some of that here as well, please?)

we sat outside with friends, kids and enjoyed the beautiful fare. go experience!

bob veggie burger.

warriors of weeds.

unlike many of my fellow urbanites i do not desire a lot of green around me. for me, the urban landscape is not a compromise of having everything but the nature around me. it is exactly what i like and i do not entertain any wishes of moving closer to lush forests or flowing meadows. i'm just dandy with a few parks close by.

in nyc, i could see the value of central park as the lungs of manhattan and marvel at the silence within the trees, but i felt it was too big to feel like a proper park. parks, to me, are essentially urban islands of green and central park was an australia of an island that could only be distinguished from a continent by looking up at the vertical aspirations of nyc architects.

when i seek nature, i do not wish to forget the urban – the opposite of what i often hear other people say. i deal with staying at the cottage for a while, but detaching myself from the city does not feel like enclosing my being in a sanctuary. my favorite parks are surrounded by concrete, streets and people who do not even intend to visit the park. being part of the hustle and bustle is what creates the bubble of tranquility i need when taking my brief moment on a bench or in the middle of grassy areas.

to me, the essence of urban greenery is in the relationship with people living in a city. naturally occurring fields or woods can wow me once, but it is the coexistence of active limitations that apply to all living beings sharing urban space that appeals to me most. thus, i find great beauty in both perfectly tended flowerbeds and a brave little weed trying to make it through a crack in the asphalt.

although i don't need to see more green around me, the thoroughly urban phenomenon of guerilla gardening appeals to me. the term was coined in nyc in the 70's to describe taking action in derelict spaces and turning them into gardens of decorative or edible plants, but there have been notable guerilla gardeners since the 1600's onwards.

urban gardening efforts are enjoying growth (haha!) everywhere and the fruits of rooftop labor increasingly end up in the bellies of ecological proximity preferring consumers (like these anarchy in a jar preserves from brooklyn), but the notion of guerilla gardens is based on taking over public or neglected private areas and utilizing them to beautify or provide nutrition.

the guerilla gardening site linked above lists pics of projects all over the world from minimal to stupendously ambitious. they also provide instructions for revolutionary action of yer own, such as making your own seed bombs, i.e. little cocktails of seeds and fertilizer that can be tossed to places you'd like to see vegetation taking over but where you cannot work the soil for some reason or another.



there are also readymade bombs available, for example here, but i'd suggest using locally typical vegetation – unless your imagined reality is a fantasy garden which, of course, is great as well.

thus, spreading your seed just got a significance a tiny bit less evolutionary and just a tad more revolutionary. do you have a spot in mind you'd like to see blooming?

pics from here and here.

wait for me.

the increasing popularity of crowdsourcing – term coined by jeff howe in wired in 2006 – follows the tremendous force of DIT; do-it-together. it essentially means combining an open call for amateur (or not so amateur) efforts to reach a common goal whether a movie, a party or, as i've heard as the latest, an opera.

the basis of crowdsourcing is in the expansion of professional or semi-pro tools in the hands of amateurs because of their reasonable price and the growing number of freeware. anyone with a computer and a set of software can become a graphic artist, make movies, produce music, etc. as long as the talent and willingness to develop one's skills is there. it is a revolution of a sort, but not entirely unproblematic.

while the cynics claim that crowdsourcing is only a way to employ amateurs instead of trained professionals for work that is of lower but doable quality, those in favor celebrate the possibility of the web-based collaboration to have your talent known and utilized without diplomas or enviable agency jobs. taking part in a collaboration is a more efficient cv of your talent than linkedin or a personal website could ever be.

nonetheless, the downside is that the cynics have a point: it is a slippery slope down the collaboration slide towards exploiting talented people. why pay anyone for a great job if you can get similar quality for free? the phenomenon is more than apparent in interning (especially in the usa) that is a despicable field of abuse of graduate workforce – especially in fields of art, design and marketing. graduates must land internships in order to find a job – to gain practical knowledge of their field – but are increasingly finding it impossible to find start level jobs because agencies use interns for everything imaginable. interns are a free workforce, so why bother actually paying anyone...

the spirit of crowdsourcing echoes elitism, the idea that people can and are willing to work for free or for a minuscule compensation. the underlying assumption is that amateurs, the lovers of their chosen hobbies, are busybees who have a steady income supporting them while they take part in collaborations they feel a calling for. at another level there is a promise of future fame and possible work – as is with interning – which may or may not actualize. the problem is that the more eager to collaborate we become, the less likely it is that those promises will be bought and paid for.

i do, nevertheless, want to believe that crowdsourcing projects are not a way to create an underclass of creatives who depend on other means of making a living – already a familiar status quo for artists. nor do i want to believe the undercurrent that screams for the kinds of feminist critique towards describing some work as "a calling" and, thus, not requiring decent pay.

with results as great as these, i am more than happy to enjoy crowdsourcing projects. moby's competition for a video for his single "wait for me" produced hundreds of entries. what strikes me as odd is that the winner below by nimrod shapira – a cute, naive little flick – is posted on moby's site without any info on the maker or even a link.



another entry by jessica dimmock and mark jackson that moves at a level so fundamental it is impossible to ignore the human suffering. point being: these are great videos that moby did not pay a dime for...



i'm just not fully sold on the idea... what do you think?

event sponsorship 101.

for years i helped organize or solely put together fundraiser concerts for amnesty international. it was my way of participating in a cause i considered worthwhile because i find meetings and group discussions tedious and mostly a waste of my time. a yearly practical activity was how i felt i was most useful; i had strong ties to both restauranteurs and professional musicians, and i used my connections for the promotion of something beneficial, human rights.

the events themselves were not huge – three bands, a dj, info stand selling t's, a few hundred people –, but basics are the same whether you're doing a big event or a small one. some things are essential, that is.

every year i started the concert planning meeting with a list of tasks and stressed the order of doing things. i was often found annoyingly arrogant for pointing out that group members were not to run to their friends and promise them gigs nor were they to call anyone before we had a location agreement. although i was called a bitch for acting patronizingly, i knew better: my list was based on past mistakes that happened when people were overly excited about doing good.

at the time i thought the incapability to hold oneself down for the requisite time was a feature of ngo youth: excited about saving the world without a second to waste. i also blamed the inability to realize that people who had something to offer – whether it was products, their artistry or time – had to select where and to whom they'd donate it, on youth and single-minded optimism. even if my fellow amnesty activists felt human rights and the concert was the coolest thing on the planet at the time, not everyone necessarily shared their conviction.

judging from discussions of late with friends i have come to realize that this haphazard pomposity was not left behind at ngo level. musicians, representatives of cosmetics companies and those in the business of alcohol are approached all the time and asked for collaboration in a myriad of projects. some of the stories i hear are unbelievable and, incredibly, well-known brands are not exempt from acting amateurishly.

it seems simple enough: you want stuff, they want visibility, right? well, yes, but there's more to building a successful sponsor deal. therefore, i want to share some pieces of wisdom when in search of sponsors...

here's a check list:

one, have a complete proposal. throwing a great idea is nothing but a waste of time to sponsors. and they are busy people.
-fully develop your idea before approaching anyone. the amount of requests people send that only state that "this is an incredible opportunity for you to portray your talent or promote your product to international/interesting people" is overwhelming. the baffling part is that the claim is completely vacuous unless there is an actual planned event with a list of planned invitations. in case this sounds self-evident, the reason i am pointing it out is because there often is none of those when people start approaching sponsors and performers. seriously, you cannot really think that a request stating "incredible" without any feasible meat around it would convince anyone, now did you?

two, have a date and venue first – unless you have free access to venues which most of us in need of sponsorship do not.
-musicians and companies need a date before making a commitment. plan a date that's reasonable for realization. for example, fiscal years do influence the amount of funds corporations have for sponsorship, tour dates determine where bands are, etc. timing your requests indicates you have the decency to find out who you're dealing with.

three, do calculate. determine your expectations according to your position.
-if you cannot offer any compensation, you cannot expect a full concert from your favorite band. if you want samples of products, know the number you require before asking. if you want alcohol, have a plan for the amount of people and the length of service. do not ask for a vague "collaboration": you may think that it's a cunning way to lure a company to pay or give more than you first imagined, but your clever thoughts are unfortunately unfounded. they've got marketing budgets and they're not going to accidentally throw a huge amount of money at you if you cannot even determine what you need nor have the balls to be frank about it.

four, be reasonable. ask for what you need, make an agreement and stick to it.
-do not expect a company to pay for your event unless that is what you explicitly asked and agreed on. do not come adding items to the bill because you think a large company can afford it better than you – if you agreed on 3 free beers per invitee, do not add cleaning costs or napkins. (yeah, i thought this was self-evident, but apparently i was clueless...) make sure the band has everything you agreed on – a missing backline is pretty hard to come across in a matter of minutes.

five, be humble.
-even if human rights is the most important cause for you, it might not be for someone else. musicians try to make their living in music and if they agreed to perform pro bono every time someone asked, they'd play hardly any actual gigs. if your event feels like the coolest party in town, the company you're asking for liquids may not agree to get you and your fifty friends drunk just because you deem it fun. giving out gift bags may be the rave, but full-size shampoos cost enough to require a reasoning beyond "my guests liking shampoo and you getting free promotion by making them happy".

six, be open to suggestions and restrictions.
-the musician may have a new album coming out and may want to try playing new songs instead of hits – pro bono means they decide. the brewery may want to promote a new product or requires a bartender to be present. the cosmetics company may suggest a guidance corner at your event. listen to them, but do not expect them to plan your event for you (see point one above).

seven, act respectful. whatever you receive, always present it in a respectful way.
-do not comment loudly on your performers if they fail to play exactly what you wanted. do not throw free bottles of hairspray around the room or have vodka bottles on a dirty table with smashed fruit next to a passed out host. these days the pics and comments will make it to the company. needless to say, that is the end of your sponsor deal.

eight, be grateful.
-it is true your event provided visibility to your sponsors. it is deceptively delicious to believe you gave them a huge benefit and that they should thank you for free promotion. unfortunately, that is only the partial picture and many deals are not as lucrative as we as event organizers might like to think. therefore, if you cannot send an invitation to a representative of the company, send a short report, some pics and a thank you note afterwards. it's hugely embarrassing if the main sponsor shows up at your event through friends who are invited. for bands, make sure the backstage is fully stocked. i remember having trouble explaining to my fellow amnesty enthusiasts that bands expect some alcohol backstage no matter what is in their usual raiders. it's just polite to have soda and snacks. and beer.

with this list you should be good to go. the word of mouth is a terrible or a wonderful tool – depending on how everything went – but there's tons you can influence by just being respectful.

anything you might want to add? another perspective?

DIY vs. DIT.

okey, i broke my rule of no caps... bummer. i also apologize the artificial opposition in the title, since DIY (do-it-yerself) in the sense of creating something derived from an inspiration yourself is still very cool and dandy in my view -- and not exactly opposite DIT in this sense.

but to my point which is that in this age of virtual socializing and connecting, do-it-together (DIT, duh!) is making a comeback. big time! groups in facebook titled "why are we friends in facebook if we don't greet each other irl?" and "let's meet for real coffee" reveal a disturbance in our sense of social interaction and it seems the perks of re-establishing contact with long lost pals over the interweb has created a void we're more than eager to fill with real-life encounters.

i do not mean to dismiss the value of facebook, by any means; that is, i'm not one of those "i'm so over facebook" kinda people. i have witnessed several friends lose their jobs/apartments, post it as their status, and receive recommendations which lead to new jobs/apartments. i can follow my friends' kids grow in ways never imaginable before. the ability to invite people collectively over to a party through events is amazing. but it certainly does not cover everything and tends to create a false sense of connectedness with people who you might otherwise call sporadically to figure out how they are. i have noted that instead of visiting my friends with kids, i just ask for new photos in fb... and it's just lame.

another thing completely is relating to strangers, meeting new people and making contact with like-minded individuals. exchanging glances and nods at bars or at the gym hardly ever develop to actual encounters and perhaps they do not need to. most people like me who aren't into group sports or any other group activity miss out on feelings of belonging to a whole or a community -- something i do recollect from my times of playing in an orchestra. being a component of a larger mechanic is a valuable immersion that provides contentment an individualistic life never touches upon.

groups like the terror pigeon dance revolt! (yes, with an exclamation mark) are spreading the news of partaking and social interaction. their gigs come with the main performer (neil fridd), prop makers and his entourage of party starters who mingle with the audience with the sole aim of getting everyone involved in the concert. according to fridd, most of his fans are so into playing in their costumes and sword fighting that they're actually clueless as to who's in the band and who is not.

here some group of people sing together about their hearts going to explode. don't you wanna just sing along?