PARADISE

I've played this song here before and now I'll play it again; Badding's Paratiisi is a little bit like rautalanka in the sense that you can never play it enough. It's about a summer's day, sort of.



This time perhaps played to celebrate that today it finally felt like spring!
Or that I just saved 250 euros buy NOT buying that Kitchen Aid blender I went out to get. (It actually was ugly now that I saw it the second time.) But that means poor little tired-from-Saturday-night me will be without a Sunday smoothie.

Badding, who drank himself to death in the late eigthies, wasn't exactly a pretty boy and did not elad a happy life, but he sure could sing and make music Finns like. Valot, as you've heard some Sundays ago is also one of Badding's.

psst! If you have a good clue on a nice blender that looks good hand'em over! Warings mint green one would be nice but I have a small creepy feeling it won't work over here (damn you US and youd different power system!) and pulling a cat-lamp won't work in order to get smoothies... Thinking of a Kenwood I know one can get in cream colour, but seems to be hard to find over here as other people obviously only want them in black red or white...

CAMP OVERLOAD

Joi Lansing - Web of Love; Scopitone 1966.

I have a thing for Scopitone* clips; I just can't get enough of them! Very much a product of their time, they feel utterly kitsch today. As with many popular culture things of the past, some may seem a bit too camp or tasteless**, but I don't think they were all meant to be taken too seriously in the first place - like this song with Joi Lansing. I think it's superb (in it's own category). It's also rather burlesque. And the snake, goddamit!


*) Scopitones were jukeboxes with something of music videos in them, illustrated songs, made in the late fifties and under the sixties (and somewhat the seventies too). For more, check out the Scopitone Blog for example. And Youtube.

**)well, tasteless and tasteless, that's how it's said, but one could perhaps call it another kind of taste, and lots of it. I mean, one wouldn't maybe describe all music videos of today to be made with that much good taste either?

A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

In case someone's not already, here's some stuff to get ou in the mood for tonights huge venue; The Helsinki Burlesque Festival 2011!

LAUGHTER

Soft Sunday song today is in Estonian.
I am actually a quarter Estionian, but my Eesti Keelt is mostly limited to talking about vehicles and car decks, due to work. Many people think Estonian and Finnish are pretty much the same, which isn't true; they do have lots of similarities, but just by knowing one of them does not mean you will get by on the other (like Swedish and Norwegian for example, where you understand pretty much of the other, at least on a basic level).

Well anyway, this song is called laughter; he sings about sumer ending and the could autumn wind's laughter.

You can hear all of the Soft Sunday songs on my frequently updated Spotify list; although not all songs can be found on youtube or vice versa, not on Spotify, so this song had to compromise.

Oh, and also, you still have one more day to enter my New Year's Best of 2010 give-away, I will end it tomorrow!

SONG FOR SOFT SUNDAY : IT HURTS ME TOO

In general I prefer a male voice singing to a female one. But not by default. Like here:

PRETTY MAMA BLUES FOR SUNDAY

(...although I prefer this recording version of the song, also by Ivory Joe Hunter).

(I'M RIDING A TRAIN TROUGH SNOWY LANDSCAPES RIGHT NOW)

I almost had this song destroyed for me once. Although I have turned it into a laugh instead.


Some years ago I was, how should I put it, occasionally seeing (if even that) the Big Artist for a while.
Once he called and said he'd come over and asked me if I had a printer at home. I wasn't thrilled, but fine, come on then. When he came he had a guitar with him (I wondered why) and asked to use my internet and print something. And then. He had printed out the chords and lyrics to Lonesome Town and started singing it, slowly, playing on his guitar, not good, not that bad but bad enough for it to be embarrassing; trying to get the chords right, out of rhythm, correcting himself. I was concentrating on my cigarette and then trying to focus on something outside my window, wondering what the hell was going on and how to get rid of him. I'm telling you, it was no romantic serenading, just awkward. He sang that poor song twice. Then I think I told him I had to be somewhere else.

Two for Tattuesday Saturday: Wanderful Love Under the Cherry Blossoms

In honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) , we're sharing this tattoo, which I spotted back in September:

This belongs to Rich, a musician and rap artist. He's a big Harry Potter fan, as exemplified by the magic wand. The snake at the base of the wand not only symbolizes infinity, it is a nod to Severus Snape, a character associated with the House of Slytherin, of which the serpent is the mascot.

The concept of the tattoo is exemplified by the music coming out of the wand, illustrating that sounds can be magical and that Rich is under music's spell.

The piece was inked by Chris at Lady Luck Tattoo Studio in Montville, Connecticut.

When I met Rich, he was sitting with his girlfriend in Penn Station. She introduced herself as Kytti, and asked if I wanted to see her tattoo.

But of course!

She actually has two tattoos, but lifted up her shirt to show me this beautiful design:

Kytti explained that this represents her and Rich together in Japan. They've been together for over a year and they'd both love to go there together and experience the culture. The tree is filled with cherry blossoms, a flower often associated with Japan.

Chris at Lady Luck also was the artist behind this tattoo.

Thanks to Rich and Kytti for sharing their magical and romantic tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

TANGO!

I just got back form the Gotan Project gig and it was amazing.
Makes me want to learn how to dance to tango, properly, not the way we rehearsed and learned it for prom more than a decade ago... I will just have to convince Eddi that he wants to learn it too, as you know, it does take two...

Funk (Rio) Style > Malandragem Carioca

The Funk Carioca is a mix of Freestyle, Miami bass and Funk of James Brown and so.

it's lyrics is often about crime, sex and forbidden themes, but they have a...



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10.10.10

I've been admiring the bright and rich colours this fall somehow feeling there is more of those than last year and then realized, a bit surprised, it is due to the fact that it has not been that windy lately -it has allowed the trees to maintain their colours in full glory. It's normally windy as hell around here this time of year and today we're back to normal; the wind is hard and the air full of twirlling yellow leaves. I've gone to pick up some Nepalses and mango lassi now in between the ships and am waiting to go out and face the wind and the growing waves.

This Sunday may not be a soft one, but one with work (I'd like to say hard work but Sundays are pretty easy so I'd be exaggerating) and cold, but here's some music to go along anyway:



And also, last but not least; as you may know the blog and I are aging gracefully together; I started my thirtieth year last week and the blog will now enter it's fourth (!) one. It's always funny to look back and see how some things m,ong many others have changed,; during the first year of blogging for example my work changed from freelancing with a lot of things to cutting down and mainly working in the habrour. During the second year burlesque went from becoming an interest to something I started doing for real, and the past year for me has been about changes; I moved away from the centre of town to greener areas and how two kids around the house every second week. Let's see what I can wrap up next year then!

VALOT

I would actually have hundreds (or well, ok, tens) of things to blog about but I've been busy with this and that lately -shows, dinners, other people's shows- so those matters will just have to wait. Right now I'm baking for this little thing I'm having tonight here at home and I do it to the tunes of some good ol' Finnish music.



(Oh, and about the skirts. I think I will have to go for both :)

I WENT OUT WALKING WITH A BIBLE AND A GUN

KASHMIR AND THE COLD HARBOUR

In late 2006 the company I worked for merged with another one and I started working in a new harbour. Our work teams split up and all routines and systems were new. It was cold and dark late November and we supervised a freight ship that took hours to load, sometimes having to stay at work until two in the night. I was waiting for my winter gear to arrive and froze in my short workwear jacket and rather tight pants (asa they are designed for men there's not a lot of space for the trunk-junk) and hated the fact that the stevedores were checking out my derrière. One of my old colleagues had made a mix CD that we kept in our work van and listened to trough the night. I hated that period and I missed my old work mates.


This song was on the CD and every time I hear it it makes me think of cold those dark nights in the harbour, the cold wind, rusty ship and the big waves splashing up on berth. And now I almost miss that!

IT SEEMS THE WHOLE WORLD IS YOUNGER THAN I

I have a whole lot of things to blog about but that would require a) time b) my camera and c) another environment than the one I am in now. I have none of those available right now as I have been stuck here in the harbour, pretty much for days, all of the time. I'll spend this Sunday with Beirut in between the boats so I'll share a little bit of that then:

I love Balkan influences in music (and Balkan music itself of course) and songs in minor key sung by sad men. Beirut is pretty much all that and a whole lot more too, and also a essential part of my Soft Sunday List.

The internet tells me Zach Condon, the man behind the band, was born as late as 1986 (and thus was only twenty when then first album Gulag Orkestar came out)! I get stressed by facts like that for some reason. It's strange -and stupid- but sometimes it feels like the whole world out there is just getting younger while I'm getting old (although I actually keep on forgetting my age only to remember I am not even thirty yet). You know, people born in the nineties are already grown up. But why not, although terrified by how fast time goes I, in soem ways, like the thought of getting older. It makes me feel calm for some reason.

TROUBLED PEOPLE MAKE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

Some Daniel Johnston for a soft start on the Sunday.

PULP

Kris posted this to my Facebook page and now I'm posting it to you!

And now I'm off to Stockholm!

CHUPA CHUPA SHAKE SHAKE

Now Lola Manchego, my Sailor Eddi and I are off to Turku to perform with Messer Chups! I love Messer Chups!

NEIL

We drove home from the festival we performed at yesterday in the pale summer night listening to Neil Young. I think Neil Young is perfect for whatever road you are driving on, but especially the on that leads home, in the middle of the night.

Neil Young is one of those artists I find it odd to hear somebody say they don't like. Like Johnny Cash or say, Elvis. Or the Beatles. Like someone saying they don't like icecream.

Penny's Metal Collage

Penny made me feel old.

And I mean no disrespect to her. She was more than cooperative when I stopped and asked her about the unique and colorful tattoo that graces her upper left arm.

However, I was working at a technical disadvantage (borrowed camera) and like many who have met me have observed, I don't necessarily ooze hipness.

Nonetheless, Penny indulged my photographic fumblings and I was able to capture this image, which is a fairly decent photo of her ink:

This piece is based on a collage of pictures Penny took at a handful of metal shows.

"Which bands?" I asked, hoping to find a common ground with this younger person. I cut my teeth on early American metal (I still cherish my vinyl pressing of Metallica's Kill 'Em All on Megaforce records), but then again, that was the '80s. Penny uttered names I had heard (yay me!) but alas, couldn't put in their necessary classifications.

Deathklok. Children of Bodom. Amon Amarth.

What can I say? I'm an ancient 43.

Alas, Penny was a good sport and her tattoo post has just as much to do with my feeling older as it does with her ink. Sorry, Penny.

The work she credited to an artist named Adal, who transformed her pictures into this collage on flesh in two sessions and about five hours, all told.

Thanks to Penny for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!