Alko, pizza and fried fish

I guess that I haven't written anything for a while. Mainly it's because I've been moving house, but there is a bit of laziness involved too... But anyway, apologies for my laziness and thanks to Johnny and Krista for at least writing something from time to time.

But we have moved house and it has used up pretty much 4 solid weeks of my life in painting, moving, packing and unpacking or other house moving related activities. Although I should at this stage point out that Ulriikka did significantly more work than I did!

We've moved to a slightly more residential part of the city centre. So even though we're on the ground floor we haven't heard the same amount of noise as we did in the city centre (although even there it was never too bad). We are right next door to the Alko store which means that we will never be struggling for high-percentage alcohol as long as we buy it before 6pm. We can also see a Kotipizza from the kitchen window, which might make it hard to decide to eat something healthy though. Nearby is Tammelantori where the main market is, so we can get our fried fish in the mornings.

We reserved our sauna slot for Friday evening so spent last Friday tidying away the last of the unpacked things then relaxing in the sauna. Well kind of relaxing. We have the 7-8pm slot and we were a bit late and went there at about 7:15. We didn't take a watch with us so we didn't know what time it was. After a bit we decided we'd had enough and though we should leave before the next people came banging on the door. When we got back we found that we had been away for 15 minutes. Maybe we can take it a bit easier next time.

Living in a block of flats leaves us with quite a few odd little things that we can use. We have a space in a cold storage room (which currently has paint in it) and some storage space in the attic. There are also some drying rooms which are a little bit spooky. There is also a bike storage facility but it takes about two days to walk through the maze of corridors in the cellar to get to it - where it exits out onto a different street than we live on.

But otherwise it's all weddings over here. I was in Helsinki about three weeks ago to see the UK consulate. I was made to swear on the bible that Ulriikka wasn't my sister or anything else on a list of about 30 different relations. It was all very bizarre. I had to leave all my belongings in the security lodge, taking "only the papers you need" with me. This meant that I left my cash in my bag and had to go back to get it - I suppose that would have come under the "papers I need" section of my belongings so it's my own fault. I also had my suit with me (I was at a christening the next day) so in the end I left quite a bit of stuff in the security lodge, some of which I needed. Apart from getting my first attempt at the form wrong, including writing my age down wrong, and getting my address wrong (I wrote "road" instead of "street") it all went smoothly and I should hear in the next few days whether or not I am free to get married. Or rather I am free to ask the Finnish authorites if I can get married. It's all very complicated this international romance thing you know.

I Love Lamp

Around 2005, I had a pang of sadness. George Lucas had released Episode III and the Matrix and Lord Of The Ring trilogies had finished 2 years prior. There was nothing cinematic left to look forward to. (In hindsight, it's a good thing that Lucas stopped at that third prequel and didn't go on to make the much hinted-at 3 sequels which would follow Return Of The Jedi - although we can live in fear everyday).

Anyway, my point is that although excellent films come along all the time (has anyone seen the most excellent French thriller Tell No One yet? C'est superbe!), there were no franchises left to plunder. In 2005, I was looking forward to Bryan Singer reigniting the Superman films but instead he made them drastically worse by introducing a new character which will inevitably plague any future films. And even though I knew a new Batman film (...Begins) was imminent, who would have thought it would go to become the new benchmark for comic-book movies and origin stories?

So, all the way through this period - and back to 1995 even - there's been one source of filmaking that is (almost) sure to hit the spot every time: Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California.

My fondness for Pixar started somewhere following the release of Toy Story. I used to watch the film endlessly at university, stunned not at the quality of the computer animation, but at the depth of the characters and the inventiveness of the plot. In hindsight - and in comparison with later work by the studio - there are faults with the animation: the humans aren't quite right, and everything has a glossy Star Trek-sheen as though it was (surprise surprise) created inside a computer. But the story has charm and it is this that has held the film in high regard for the last 15 years.





















Although I think A Bug's Life is a fine film, it is probably one of the weaker Pixar films - mainly because of the massive debt it owes to The Seven Samurai / The Magnificent Seven - but also it was a poor contender to Antz, which was released by Dreamworks at the same time.

Things got back on track a year later with the sequel to Toy Story - and the first of many Pixar films I would catch on the big screen. The animation is far improved from the original - just check out the fantastic opening 10 minutes - and they finally managed to get human beings looking a little less like a random assortment of geometric shapes.

Monsters Inc., released in 2001 remains one of my favourite films from the studio. It's the first of many Pixar releases that seems to be aimed more at adults than children - and considering I don't have the innocent mind of a 5-year old any more, that can only be a good thing. Again, it's the characterisation - and the interplay between the two leads - which pulls the film out of family-friendly cartoon territory and into comedic genius.

2003's Finding Nemo marks the first time the studio won the Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Although not a favourite of mine - mainly because of how child-friendly it is - there are some magnificent moments, and it looks amazing. But it is 2004's The Incredibles where Pixar really hits its stride.

Right from the trailer - which makes use of John Barry's On Her Majesty's Secret Service theme - the ingredients are perfect: a bunch of superheroes in hiding (à la Watchmen), a megalomaniacal villain encamped on an island hideaway (à la You Only Live Twice), an Art Deco design scheme, a John Barry-esque soundtrack, and a satirical edge so sharp it demands a second viewing just to digest it all.

The Incredibles was the second Pixar film to scoop the Best Animated Feature award and marks the first time a Pixar film was written and directed by an outsider. Brad Bird's touch takes the focus away from the whimsy of John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton and thankfully there's no Randy Newman songs to sour the deal either.

Of course, when you're at the top there's only one way to go, and that's down. 2006's Cars is a definite low. There's pretty much nothing going on here to keep anybody's attention, and the fact that the central character is so obsessed with money and celebrity is a really odd choice for a children's film. The same can be said of Shark Tale, Dreamworks' 2004 attempt to ape Finding Nemo. I understand that it's all about the journey, and that the message is 'friends before fame', but when you consider that most children would see a character only in the way that they are introduced, what does this teach them? Of course, it works perfectly when you look at the culture we live in: American Idol, The X-Factor, Big Brother, Britain's/America's Got Talent, and so on and so forth. Simon Fuller has a lot to answer for.

Unfortunately things manage to slip further downhill with Ratatouille, released in 2007. There's just something very un-Pixar about this film. I had high hopes, with Brad Bird returning to the fold, but it just stinks of Disney. Perhaps I need to revisit it - it won Pixar their third Best Animated Feature award, and it seems to be universally lauded everywhere else.

WALL-E, released in 2008, represents the closest Pixar has come to a nomination for the Best Picture category. Advised on lighting and atmosphere by Roger Deakins and Dennis Muren, the film looks scarily realistic, especially in the scenes on Earth in the first act. Given that it's a cartoon, the fact that certain shots that look like the real world is a testament to how far the animation has come since the very smooth-looking Toy Story days.

Another impressive feat is that WALL-E is practically a silent movie for the first half - a bold move from a studio which usually puts so much stock in the quality of its scripts. Most of all however, the one thing that makes the film truly deserving as the studio's fourth Best Animated Feature is the fact that there is more emotion and interplay between the two leads - a couple of robots - than there is in a year's worth of formulaic Hollywood bullshit.

I haven't seen Up yet, and given New Zealand's whacky release schedule, I doubt that I'll see it anytime soon. But I can't wait. It doesn't look to be aimed at children, considering that it revolves around the adventures of an old man, so that's good - and it's in 3D which I'm also looking forward to. I can't speak for a proper live-action film in 3D as I haven't had the pleasure, but an animated film is the perfect medium for it - Monsters Vs. Aliens looked amazing recently.

So that concludes the Pixar story so far. I recently read that the studio is about to start moving into live-action filmmaking, which I suppose shouldn't be seen as a surprise given the few glimpses of it we saw in WALL-E, but it makes me wonder why they would venture into a field that has been tried and tested? Pixar spearheaded computer animation so I would like to see them move into unkown territory again.

There's also a rumour that the studio will be shooting a remake of Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. It will be called Finding Nimoy.

EPILOGUE: THE SHORTS
One of the best things about seeing a Pixar film at the cinema is that you get the full experience of a short film, followed by the main feature. This is excellent as the shorts are always high on laughs and are usually just as good as the films that follow them. Given their length, they're a really good thing to have on your iPod too.
I'm not going to list every one, but here are my favourite 3:
For The Birds - a silent film, backed by some nice jazz, about a group of birds on a telephone wire. Shown prior to Monsters, Inc.
Lifted - a dark sci-fi piece following a training session of an alien spaceship as it attempts to do a spot of midnight abducting. Shown prior to Ratatouille.
Presto - a hungry rabbit and an intolerant stage magician do battle on stage over a carrot. Shown prior to WALL-E.

And finally, I can heartily recommend The Pixar Story - a feature length documentary by Leslie Iwerks, which can be found on the special features of the WALL-E DVD.

Feelin' Groovy

I'm seldom impressed when I go to see a gig. I don't know what it is, but I think I'm just very hard to please. My friends Robbie & Natalie always tease me about my standard review of bands I'll go and see at Glastonbury. "It was alright," becomes my stock response. And I think that can be applied to most musical performances. Unless something special happens - or if you have your head buried in the sand to the degree that you have no frame of reference - it's just very hard to be hit for six.

So it's with great pleasure that I can report one of these rare occasions. On Sunday, I was honoured to be able to see Simon & Garfunkel live in concert. They're not even touring! They're just doing a few dates in Australia and New Zealand for shits and giggles. Presumably so Art Garfunkel can scope out the competition for opening a chain of steak restaurants in the Australasian market and so Paul Simon can go to the open casting calls for the new Hobbit films.

I always see photographs of them on stage, with an acoustic guitar draped around Paul Simon, and I always wonder whether he's actually playing it or whether it's just for show. Mystery over - he's a freakin' genius. Although they were backed by a very proficient band, the songs that they performed alone with just their voices and the acoustic guitar really showcased his guitar playing.

They played practically all of their sixties singles - even throwing in my own favourite S&G song The Only Living Boy In New York, and my one of my favourite Simon tracks from his solo career, Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard. Halfway through they each played a short solo section, so after sitting through Art Garfunkel bringing back bad memories about bunny rabbits with Bright Eyes, Paul Simon walked on stage and an African musician on an accordion played the intro to The Boy In The Bubble - the opening song off the Graceland album. Fantastic - and I was officially hit for six.

Even their band amazed me. Their lead guitarist managed - in the instrumental section of Hazy Shade Of Winter - to play a backwards guitar solo. This was previously impossible without the aid of a time-travelling device so presumably somebody has invented a new guitar pedal. Bit of a shame really - as now truly everything The Beatles recorded in the studio can be fully reproduced on stage.

Anyway, I'm going to stop gushing now.

Terminatin'

We caught the new Terminator film last night. I must say I was mightily impressed. After 2 of the strongest science fiction films to come out of Hollywood, the third one was pretty poor, so I wasn't expecting much of the new one. Also, the way in which Auckland Sky City was promoting the film inside the cinema - a few old car tyres with bits of grass sticking out of them, to symbolise the apocolypse - left me with the feeling that I was about to see some college theatre.

Aside from a few dodgy special effects, and a few "jump the shark" moments, it was top notch. The dystopian future was perfectly realised - even though it was all a bit A-Team in that most of the action took place in the Californian desert - and all the performances were spot-on. Well, everyone except Bryce Dallas Wishy Washy Howard, who should have just stayed at home.

Unlike most effects-driven movies, where the action is too visible, it was neatly trimmed down to short, episodic set-pieces. For example, an early encounter with a primitive T-600 was awesome and ran under 3 minutes, whilst a later encounter with a huge machine (and a couple of nice nods to War Of The Worlds) was only marginally longer. Don't get me wrong - the film is full of special-effects and CGI, but the action leaves you wanting more rather than less. Which is nice for once.

If it's made with the same respect for the story, then I'm looking forward to the fifth film, but please please please can we not have the finale take place in a foundry - it's wearing a little thin.

The other thing is that they totally missed the chance to have Christian Bale's well-publicised rant playing over the closing credits, in a Cannonball Run-style gag reel. They could have even shoe-horned in a nice cameo with Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin. Dressed as priests.

Spending time in Stockholm when really I should have been in Cheshire

When I introduced Sally and Ben to each other a few years ago, I really had no idea what was going to happen. Maybe I should have realised really but there you go - I can only hold my hands up and say sorry. I don't really mind that Ben got Sally pregnant, even when you take into account what he must have been doing with her at the time it happened. But I draw the line at Ben joining the family. Luckily, I don't recognise the office of Brother in Law so I can ignore him at family functions.

In truth, I'm really happy that Ben and Sally are married of course. I was really dissapointed not to have been able to go and see it happen myself. I have since seen a video of it, so I accept that it really did happen. But somehow it doesn't seem all that real if I wasn't there to witness it myself.

The reason I wasn't there was because I couldn't afford to be there. So instead I was spending Sally and Ben's wedding day in... er... Stockholm. If that doesn't sound like the actions of a man who can't afford to travel abroad, I can only say in my defence that Stockholm is a lot closer to Tampere. And not for us the jetsetter lifestyle; Ulriikka and I gave a masterclass in cut-price city break holidays. We are a cut above the 20 minute express train from the airport to the centre. Instead we went on a small bus tour of the Arlanda industrial estates before catching a commuter train to the centre. I tell myself that this is a better way to the see the city, but deep down I know that with a little bit of extra cash I'd be on the express train every time. But honestly, the railway cuttings of Stockholm really do deserve to be savoured and not whizzed past.

Stockholm itself is a pretty wonderful city. It's like a fairytale - or is that Bruges? Either way, it was one of those cities that are nice to just walk around admiring the buildings - as opposed to Hull for example, where standing next to a man with a bayonetted rifle is a lot more dangerous.



Back here in Finland, Ulriikka and I decided that organising our own wedding wasn't giving us enough stress and have launched ourselves onto the property ladder. This means that our June will be filled with decorating our new home. I can't really say very much about the place yet as we haven't got the keys. But it is still in the city centre, just a little bit away from the main shopping streets. It's also right next to the main market square which means that I will be able to have blood sausage for breakfast every morning.

I realise that it isn't a very helpful picture, but here is our new house.

A Private Party in Trenton

Trenton is the capitol of NJ and is also possibly the worst city in the US, a friend of mine recently moved there, he has a job rehousing refugees which he feels bad that he has to re-house them in Trenton because it's just not very nice. Previously I have only been thru the city, on the train or driving, the first time I was amazed by their giant city slogan that doesn't really enhance the what could otherwise constitute a nice view. There is just something about "TRENTON MAKE THE WORLD TAKE" that puts people off, I'm not sure why, surely this slogan was decided upon by a panel of intelligent minds at some point. It's not nearly as good as the currently NJ state slogan: Come See for Yourself, if that can't bring in the tourist I don't know what will.

Driving in downtown Trenton is relatively easy; no one actually wants to go there. There is no traffic and I was able to find my friends place without any problems. We walked down the road to to get some pizza and I managed to run into a man I used to work with about 10 years ago at another pizza place. He asked me if I remembered the drug addict we used to work with named "Heroin Bill", and of course I didn't although I prefer to use the name "Methadone Bill". After that run in we decided to get a drink at a place my friend described as the only nice bar in Trenton. Unfortunately when we tried to go in they wouldn't let us. A very happy insane man who was outside dancing alone informed us there was a private party going on inside and they wouldn't let him in so he was going to have his own private party outside. A bouncer opened the door to also tell us we were not allowed in just like the crazy guy. After a few more moments watching the crazy guys hip shaking moves we decided to leave.

We went on a nice walking tour of some abandon building scenery and then hit the arena where there was going to be some kind of Rodeo. The rodeo basically subjected me to one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever witnessed when a man was trampled, stomped and head butted by a pissed off bull for about 60 seconds. What was somewhat more disturbing were the people around us who insisted that the bull should be killed on the spot, geez it wasn't his idea to be ridden. Would I go again? Yes.

After several hours of rodeo excitement we left and were instantly approached by a man: "Excuse me! I just need to tell you something! My mom just died like 30 minutes ago!"

Moving on we went driving in search of an open shop, which took us around some finer parts of the city. I was informed as we passed several abandon factories that Trenton doesn't really make anything that the world takes anymore, which was just kind of sad considering just few years ago the city spent millions fixing that slogan sign.

Here comes the summer

We spent Easter at Ulriikka's parents' house which included a walk around a frozen lake. On the way home we saw the huge lake Näsijärvi from the train and it looked pretty much frozen solid. On monday this week, I was wearing my winter coat as the temperature dropped to about -5 in the morning.

Next week is Vappu, the first of May. It's a big deal in Finland and the tradition is to sit in the park having a picnic while nursing a terrific hangover. We were looking at photos from last year when it was t-shirt weather and everything was green. We were contemplating a Vappu in the cold when something remarkable happened. The sun, which has been shining more or less constantly for the last month or so to no great effect, suddenly started feeling warm and now today it's a rather toasty 18 degrees and looks like a beautiful day - looking out of the balcony window just now, I can't see a cloud in the sky.



We've started getting prepared for Vappu and yesterday we made some Sima. Or rather, we are about halfway through making some sima. Right now it's sat on the kitchen table brewing, or whatever yeast does when it's in a pan full of sugar and water. We'll be bottling it later and the idea is that it will make a slightly fizzy weak lemon drink that we will be drinking on our picnic next Friday.

We'll have a house full next week as Lash, Stevilee, Danny and Vicky all come to visit us. They'll be arriving to Tampere at about 11pm on Thursday, which should be just as the city reaches the peak of its post-apocalyptical drinking session. It will be a baptism of fire for them - especially if they get the bus from the airport and arrive at the train station surrounded by the Ale-Pubs there. "Ale" is Finnish for discount, which means that where beer normally sells for about 5 Euros a pint in normal bars it's sold for about 3 Euros in the Ale-Pubs. This means that it attracts the... ahem... more interesting characters in Tampere.

But I don't want to paint a bad picture of Finland and Vappu is more like a festival than a party. There will be bands and fairs in the town centre. The new university students are dunked into the rapids that run through the centre of town - which might be cold since the water will be made up from defrosting ice. The Ice Hockey World Championships is on and Finland are actually quite good at it - they were finalists a couple of year ago. There is always a really good atmosphere in the city, which is maybe helped by the alcohol flowing through everybody's blood system. But I'm really looking forward to it and I will try and give an update as it happens.