TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

  

VIEWING ALL POSTS FOR: APRIL 2005

Saturday, April 30, 2005

1:29 PM
Posted by jodi rose

slow sleepy saturday morning.
hardly suprising really.
back in aarre, trying to figure out the endlessly changing configurations of technology to get something useful done. sorting through audio documentation from the project, and writing up notes.
all that not so exciting or glamorous slog that goes into keeping the fairydust floating. stressed and anxious about life in general, although it seems mapped until until about march next year... but what then!
and if it all goes horribly wrong, really can't see myself settling into a normal job ever again. best keep imagining the future and then just going about everyday life as though it will happen.
today all the kids are out on the streets in their university coloured overalls with corporate patches - it's a weird finnish mayday thing. apparently the students all get very drunk and play on the statue by the ferry piers on 1st may. sounds unmissable. ;) I'll be working away on writing and listening.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

1:56 PM
Posted by jodi rose

good bye sunny zagreb
sad to leave the lush world of philippa and co
had a lovely morning wandering the streets with Aco, visited mama media lab and net culture cafe, enjoyed his very dry and funny take on life in the city.
back in helsinki trying to focus on getting documentation finished, writing up grant and residency apps to keep this circus on the road.
dropped in to mari's for coffee, she gave me great ideas for the straslund 'trash your archive' theme at next years garage festival - burn your bridges! yep it seems obvious but we will have fun building a bridge and burning it.
giggled a lot over my very silly idea about bridge transformer robot animations for the break festival in ljubljana - theme new species. bridges, get up and dance!!!!
sadly have to miss the waves talk and performance in riga tomorrow night, too many loose ends here, need to weave into something before leaving on the next leg of the crazy bridge journey.
lined up gigs in paris and berlin, details soon
working on itinerary for 5 months back in oz, then over here again to guard the bridge.
talking with andrew in mbar, about how do you sustain this lifestyle? in terms of creative work, actually producing and reflecting on what you are doing, and relationships. holding one down is obviously impossible, so how do you build them out of thin air? he pointed out that I am not living a normal life (no, really I forget sometimes) and that having such a range of connections in so many different places is hard to manage. There is no ONE place where I can be, that contains all the emotional resonances and gives a sense of home, or belonging.
Not 'poor me', but it's a tricky thing to negotiate, building so many intense connections that are so scattered and disparate. Luckily most of the people are also either very mobile, or fixed in one place, so we cross paths more or less often. It only looks like getting more so in the future, will be interested to hear any strategies from you my lovely travelling companions :)

Monday, April 25, 2005

9:33 AM
Posted by jodi rose

rtl, zagreb
started the morning with coffee at memphis and am now spending the day at work with philippa on zabrejena ljubav, the croatian soap opera 'forbidden love'. had my photo taken on the set, looking very dynasty according to philippa, watched her give the storyliners directions, and now camping out in her office, pirating media art space again.
definitely made the right choice coming here for the weekend, have been decompressing at philippa's recovery clinic, slowly returning to a level of energy and stress I can deal with. yesterday we drove to slovenia for the afternoon, had coffee and cake in ljubljana, very gorgeous old town, not so pretty industrial suburbs around it.
when I arrived, Zlatko picked me up from the airport with a sign saying 'fremantle media' and delivered me straight to placa, where the writers from the show were having a celebration dinner. Zvonomir, the philosopher storyliner told us that Croatia has the highest national debt of any of the former communist states, anyone who can afford it is addicted to shopping. Saturday morning trip around the city bore this out, everyone promenading and trying on expensive shoes - I couldn't afford them. Will have to be Tallin, like Dav said. Zvonomir tried to convince us to go to Rovinj instead of slovenia, but we woke up too late on sunday and it was a 3hr drive, so I will have to come back in the summer, when I can also visit Hvar island.
Saturday evening had delicious japanese food and watched the passing parade of croatian womanhood, all dressed in matching skin tight jeans, high pointy shoes, big hair and loads of make-up. It's really quite a look. Posh spice has a lot to answer for.
I still have to try palachinka (the little pancakes with chocolate) and the fried cheese at Boban.
Writing up notes from the bridge research today, and a few residency and grant applications, if I can stay focused that long.

Friday, April 22, 2005

1:59 PM
Posted by jodi rose

scandic easy access
writing this in a moulded plastic space chair, keyboard on my lap at helsinki aiport.
i love catching planes
achieved a dreamy state of enjoyable disconnection this morning, floated to the bus and have just amassed the most ridiculous collection of moomin paraphernalia for philippa.
very excited about trip to zagreb, hope the warmth will help decompress after the last week.
took long sauna at kallio with helen last night, meeting andrew for beers in the snow downstairs, then met mari and essie and leon and adam and tommi at the plush bar and pizza place across the lake from our mansion. very sad not to have known it was there - kitchen open til 11.30pm which would have made life so much easier a few times last week. anyway, we know now.
had a relaxed and low key evening, came home and took a turn around the living room with kate in our best jane austen gossip mode, woke up this morning and sorted through all the rubbish i've collected, now ready to travel lightly through the next month.
love you more soon
xxjr

Thursday, April 21, 2005

5:06 PM
Posted by jodi rose

where did all the headings go?

where was I?

oh that's right, recreating the after party.
sorry, can't be done.

involved climbing the roof of the island hostel, up iron ladders and narrow walkways - really dont like heights, but it was spectacular up there. perfect place for late night early morning cigarettes.

drank beer and whisky around the upstairs kitchen table with helen, heiko, mikko, august, bo, pointless, ... can't remember them all now, until finally we shared the last beer, rolled the final tobacco and the silly electronic music stopped when the laptop batteries ran out. (really it was very silly, I don't care what you say!)

guess the party is over now.

way too much time for reflection, trying to follow up on documentation but really it's all a bit blurry. putting photos in order is fun, but sad. guess a day of melancholy isn't a bad price to pay for all that insanity.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

4:59 PM
Posted by jodi rose

snows in april

in helsinki it sure does. freezing again and blizzards. really.
can't even begin to try and recreate the intensity of delirium achieved over the last weekend - probably best I didn't write anything or it could have been used as evidence....

retracing some of the *high*lights.

let's see, the story so far, we left our bridge princess at the island party, chatting with random artists on her laptop radio.

it seems so long ago, and far away now

saturday roamed the streets of helsinki trying to make street radio with varying degrees of excess. sent lots of melancholy poetic messages about people waiting for each other and breaking hearts on the train. didn't hear anything back. phone system down.

checked out some pixelache performances at kiasma theatre, very cool robovision set by the not-really-mad-but-lots-of-fun non-glaswegian glaswegians aka the pointless crew. led the particle / wavers to dinner at the seahorse, and picked up another 20 or so people on the way, hosted my first big dinner there. lots of crispy baltic herring. apparently it's been mentioned in the fin review - which i happened to see on a plane the other week - and in wallpaper, so now the secret is out! finally made it back for the finnish pancakes last night, which were worth the wait. piled up high, perfect soft tasty declicious, with lavishings of strawberry jam and icecream and cream, mmmmmmmm.

anyway, back to saturday night, and my delirium took full flight, fell apart, started smoking, danced, wandered home around 3am through bustling streets of swaying and happy people.

sunday long morning people wafting around the studio, eventually got together and talked more, came up with ideas for a radio manifesto, went to lunch at kiasma again - fed some stray starving artists - hey voytec and heiko - had intense discussions about love and various other displacements. reached a kind of demented instensity of heightened experience up until this point, then another crazy party.

started at mbar with august and bo doing there funky electronic thing, then the very fabulous pointless prince allowed me to play on his waaay cool video mixing machine - recycled from a 60's reel to reel, lots of extremely satisfying red buttons to push and levers to flick up and down, and even some fx faders. picked up a few VJ groupies - kate and christina standing in front of me, going: you're so cool!
hey. it's not me, it's the machine :) had a lot of fun. dreaming of kooky bridge robot animations to play with. transformer bridges!

http://www.thesoundsurgery.co.uk/videoswitchboard/

and then, of course, there was the after party....

Thursday, April 21, 2005

4:43 PM
Posted by jodi rose

now turned into a melancholy haze


... the radio's gone off the air

it gives me time to think


good bye ääniradio xx

Thursday, April 21, 2005

4:42 PM
Posted by jodi rose

mitä sä oikeesti pelkäät?

visited the mental wear shop today
cool red typewriter
what are you really afraid of?

http://www.mentalwear.fi/

Thursday, April 21, 2005

4:42 PM
Posted by jodi rose

delirious blur

Saturday, April 16, 2005

6:48 PM
Posted by jodi rose

just lost my previous entry which was long and rambling so this will be short... and still rambling.
everyone has gone into flocking mode, the workshop today included a picnic outside k'iama, which was meant to be accompanied by sumu's music for shopping malls but unfortunately we couldn't get the stream going. sorry sumu :) had a lovely picnic in the sun, seamus and taika went shopping and prepared it all, people dropped by on their way into the pixelache program. then went out on the street radio telephone performance piece, sending messages and texts from around helsinki to the radio station, and then being played on the radio. only the phone system went down, and so it was a little truncated. i sent lots of melancholy poetic texts about boys and girls with red hair breaking each others hearts... it was a moment.
checked out some performances, gorgeous one by the cute couple from montreal with melancholy piano and poetic text...
interrupted by brief chat with elisabeth zimmerman about going to paris to buy shoes, but she can't in may because of deep wireless conference in toronto... then talked about musique concrete and radio art.
emmanuel madan is chatting with seamus o'donnell, 'defines your musical playground, constant delay built into everything...' josh gumiela and jay needham having a deconstruct after their day recording sounds, mark mclaren chatting on skype in the corner, kate sieper building a mini fm transmitter, tianna kennedy and oliver thuns chatting, andrew paterson and leon over having a beer, it's all good.
so nice to stop and enjoy this moment of having all these totally fabulous cool people here.
dancing last night at the suomenlinna island after party was rockin - dj balkan (aka voytec) playing mad eastern european gypsy music and august and bo doing cossack dancing, fabulous cooking show with ugo vallauri and the ppl from workshop who did an amazing job catering 100 people with delicious dahl..
great phone installation by erik sandelin and co, with four big old speakers attached to bakelite telephone handsets, which collected loops when you spoke into them, and had everyone in the room laughing and vocalising in this very cool interactive improv.
just arranged dinner at the seahorse tonight, then pixelache gig at club umo. going to check the mad glaswegians performance now - mechanisma or something, 36 robovision - that's right it was about how robots see the world... conversation with 4 people sitting in a tree outside the party. also did random interviews with people at the party on the laptop, we streamed it live after the cooking show with ugo finished, and I had another excellent gonzo journalism moment. rosa from selfish shellfish gave a great rave about their performance, and sang with the most incredibly wild cracked tone in her pure voice, zeenath talked about the open program on sunday at nifca, and then it degenerated into absolute nonsense by the time heiko from hehe came along, maybe even before the salmiaki vodka drinking started. anyway, another fabulous night with 100 media artists here for pixelache, many of whom are now on the way to being best new friends. dancing at 3am really does create a bond, and art needs to be fun. i don't want to be part of your revolution if I can't dance!
yep, the freak magnet is retuned, the dancing queen is back! :)))

Friday, April 15, 2005

11:07 AM
Posted by jodi rose

listening to screeching high pitch noise in the cafe rex at lasipalatsi, where our aaniradio radio lounge is set up every afternoon from 5-7pm. first time I've been able to join - yesterday was totally insane with stress trying to get the workshop started, make sure everyone had a bed for the night, AND make some kind of process outcome piece from my bridge test recordings, since we didn't get the stream happening.
deployed all the resources to hand, the wonderful leon edited some of the test sounds into a protools sessions for me, then all i had to do was press play. lovin that performance style. it worked really well with mari's video from the day, and phone calls I made into the anniradio line updating progress. very very glad that it's over though, note to self - stop trying to do 3 major projects at once all the time.
have some more testing to do with 3G card, but am very happy with results so far. playing with sending sound through the phone, using various methods including audio input hack, headphones over telephone mouthpiece, and recording avr files to email or bluetooth later. have become resigned to working with fragments and memories... still need to spend time writing, and listen back to all the interviews kate did with people finding out their bridge stories and ideas for how they would construct a score to play a bridge. it's fun doing collaborative conversation based work... I'm really loving not having to play the artist auteur role and just getting into having people engage with the ideas.
anyway, the workshop today had some great moments, with lively conversation and interaction in the morning, very delicious lunch at kiasma cafe, and then seminar in the afternoon that didn't quite go the way we planned, but hey that's all part of the experiment.
off out to the island soon, taking the radios with us for ugo's cooking show, hopeing there is internet access in the suomennlina hostel - juha thought they had upgraded it last year....
it's so fantastic having all these great people here, playing and making radio together... exactly what we dreamed of. it's been a very interesting experience being on the other side of festival organisation, not necessarily the alternate career I was hoping for. oh well just have to stick with being the bridge chic for a while I guess.
best logout, take the 6 huge blocks of fazer chocolate and salmiaki vodka out to the island, and get very trashy. such a relief to be at that part of the event when enough things are in place, and people are here and housed, to relax and let myself enjoy some time hanging out. of course still heaps to do, street radio program tomorrow and then sunday wrap up with streaps and tob performances, but tonight it's time to party.xx

Sunday, April 10, 2005

8:13 PM
Posted by jodi rose

it's happening again
that crazy helsinki energy has me in its thrall!
haven't been home since saturday morning,
came into kiasma to meet lizzie and mike for coffee
in town for the weekend, i was their helsinki fairy
walked down to the antique shop for marimekko fabrics
lizzie wanted to see - found another crepe 30's dress
this one magenta pink so of course had to have it

went back to kiasma and worked some more,
impromptu meeting with juha hiding from skype
tried to write up texts for pixelache program
very recalcitrant so joined pixel ppl for dinner at via
then andrew took me to fabulous sailors pizza bar near his place
worked a bit longer, danced for an hour at club wahoo
came back and worked til 4am on his wireless connection
slept a bit got up and worked some more
met lizzie and mike for coffee, couldn't go to island or lotta's
cake party - happy birthday lotta!! altho she promised me some delivered soon... listening to billie holiday and sauna sounded lush
but did go for a swim with miss lizzie in yrjonkatue swimhalle and
that's always a treat. came back to siba and stream all good for
trondheim today . noi.se sat with kate and watched her play our
radio station remotely from the laptop I'm still using, in fact if it stops
broadcasting, will have to find chicken of the vlc again.

tune in now listen aaniradio.org

we are on air!
mbar had great vibe for the noi.se gig, was remarkably relaxed and some very cool sounds . jimi hendrix mash up going on when i left

planned bridge stream dream team test on tuesday
best go now and tell everyone the details
xxx we're launched, says sophea!

WE'RE ON AIR, WE'RE ONLINE WE'RE ON THE STREETS....

Thursday, April 7, 2005

11:50 AM
Posted by jodi rose

it's started!
dinner last night at sea horse, after pixelache organisers meeting. artists arriving, everyone way too relaxed - talking to helen and heiko from hehe.org, suddenly realised the festival is on in a week. why isn't anyone more stressed? why aren't I?
to do list longer than my arm, gets to the point where things just fall off. altho hopefully not hands cos I need them to type. today or friday sophea is setting me up with phone that has a radio and audio input capabilities, and then it's out to the bridge. also need to rope in someone with laptop and buy that pesky 3G card, but we'll work it out somehow. no pressure. it's interesting, there is such a culture of openness to experimentation here, that I could never be this relaxed and completely uncertain of the outcome for a show or performance in australia. feel like there is a far more finished and defined expectation of work there, that you have to present it in a rigorously polished and shiny glossy way. of course I have always worked to subvert that, and maintain some level of ad hoc, rough edges, just whipped this up on the fly what do you think? which is maybe why i never really got anywhere until i started coming to helsinki, and then it became much more glamorous to aust art eyes and ears. or it could be that hometown thing, and being on the other side of the world gives you a certain license to make things up as you go, reinvent yourself and play with ideas more freely. but then, even people who live here seem to be more like that too - or maybe I just don't see all the stress they're under.
best end this ramble now and go deal with myriad accommodation questions, write up info about the workshops and get this bridge stream underway.
back at home in the katastro.fi office, where it all began in fact almost to the day three years ago.
ahh I love my helsinki family. voytec is back from madrid, as fabulously serious and silly as always, mari will be coming with me to play on the bridge, she was my first guide here to the matinkaari, and of course all the wonderful particle wave people arrive next week to play with radio, cook and hang out together. we're going to have so much fun.
loving this informal network based on dialogue. it's all about conversations. we need to have a conversation about xyz - really loving this as a working practice. feeding back into my creative research. also made a connection with the lovely guy from hiap who run the cable factory artist residencies, he was bringing Alice who just arrived from Brazil to Linunnlaulu, and is very keen to set up something with an australian arts org. a conversation conducted from my part entirely while being consumptive, reclining on the green velour couch in the decadent 19th century lounge of our gothic mansion.

Tuesday, April 5, 2005

5:05 PM
Posted by jodi rose

weather update: spring is here the snow has melted.
temp according to thermometer on the balcony says 20 degrees,but I don't think that can be right. maybe it's farenheit. 8-10 maybe in celsius. still chilly but not sub-arctic.
health update: can't seem to shake this copenhagen flu. doesn't help staying up til midnight working all the time - trying to curb that behaviour. the infection seems to have moved into my chest, hardly slept last night with dry hacking cough. had to buy strange Finnish cough medicine from the Apotek - Apteeki, which the lovely pharmacist told me would help bring up the phlegm. man she was right, it's like sticking fingers down throat. not that I was ever bulimic - way too unpleasant. I'd far rather indulge all my senses and live with the extra voluptuousness. remembering that people do appreciate it and trying to undo many years of brainwashing about ideal beauty.
style update: re:vamp is progressing well, going for the fringe and red hair this week, and wafting around in the sun today trying to get healthy, found an amazing crepe 30's-40's fitted dress in antique shop - have to go back with advisors for final assessment. Has that lush figure hugging skimming curves thing going on, without being tight or tacky. think I need to go have some sultry satin clothes tailor made in Paris for my 30's cabaret artiste look.
housing update: which fits right into my new abode. yes, the neighbours have done it, they've driven me from puistula. ok, I'm allergic to the suburbs anyway, and hate looking at identikit apartments for 20 minutes from the train, no matter where I am in the world. But the anxiety and stress of literally not being able to move about the flat after 10pm without getting berated and bullied has finally driven me away. Into the fabulous Linnunlaulu, a week or so early. Which fits my pale tubercular look spectacularly well - it's Emily Bronte meets the Addams Family and move to Finland territory.
Set on a hill in a park of twisted black-boughed trees, with solid dark wooden ceilings, incredible painted wallpaper that breathes with the house, and dark narrow back stairs going... who knows where. Satu told us 'there's nothing up there', but that's what they always say.
bring out the madwomen from the attic! yes I'm reclaiming my inner riot grrrrl and man is she pissed off after being shut up and locked down all this time. Finland is sending me rapidly grey, altho maybe I need to cultivate the silver streak for my Morticia look.
project update: resigned as producer of particle wave. am now the radio bridge conductor. one too many demanding emails from artists wanting everything laid on - hello, I got myself over here and am not being paid for this, did you all forget the DIY community radio grassroots ethic we're getting together to talk about and play with?
too exhausted from trying to work out accom puzzle and various demands to even think about conceptual or technical development of my own project. which is really making me cranky. sophea told me to have the day off today and try to get well, but think tomorrow will eschew further production as well, so I can sit on Kate's balcony and dream up instructions for playing bridges.
decided we'd much rather stream people having fun playing on a bridge than trying to make serious conceptual art. let the games begin....

Friday, April 1, 2005

11:05 PM
Posted by jodi rose

It's Friday night, I've had a sauna, made leek and potato soup and now am enjoying my last 10 minutes of freedom before the cone of silence curfew drops over this strange apartment.
Kate moved into Linnunlaulu today, so I'm here on my own until Juha gets back on Wednesday, then moving out later that week. Will be glad to be in the city, by a gorgeous lake, able to stamp and scream as much as we want... well, maybe not. But at least talk normally. Keep getting sick here too, came back from Copenhagen and instantly had the flu again - although it may have been Jacob now I think about it. He was coming down with something the day we both left.

Anyway, I'm tired of having no energy and feeling grotty, so will take an early night and go walk around the lake in the morning with the ace miss kate. We're going to take turns around the living room when we have all our posse in the mansion, it's a fine Finnish Jane Austen setting.

Today's favourite activity was our trip to the Digita tower in Pasila, the home of ääniradio transmitter. After a slight delay due to some confusion in the Finnish translation between 'yes you have a transmitter' and 'who are you and what are you doing?' Sophea managed to get everything under control, although we start broadcasting on Monday now.

Ah well, it's the Beta Test Phase. Am learning to keep letting things go, it's an experiment, process, the outcome is unknown... thinking of bridges here, altho I do now have the very wonderful Tom on board testing the Millennium bridge for 3G access. yay.

Anyway, back to the tower - totally cool getting to rock up with Sophea's new mini mac and say, well, here's our radio station! Once the net access gets sorted (something else lost in translation), we'll be able to control everything remotely. The staff at Yle were incredibly helpful and patient, Kate and I ran around photographing everything sophea did, and revelling in the unusual situation we found ourselves. It's not everyday you get to cruise into a major national communications tower and start your own broadcast!
So ääniradio goes to air Monday with.. ahh no, I won't spoil the surprise - you'll have to tune in 99.4 FM in helsinki, or log on to ääniradio.org anywhere else in the world and find out what we choose to start this fantastic experiment.

All systems go for testing. Getting my 3G card in the next few days and going out to visit some of my favourite helsinki bridges, and see if their sounds will travel. At this point it would be appropriate - the media embargo having been lifted - to give a HUGE thank you to the Australia Council for the Arts, New Media Arts Board for their generous funding of the Bridge Stream research and development.
Thank you OZCO!

Definitely takes the edge off the past month, although uncertainty in every direction seems likely to continue on the many other levels of this operation. personal, professional.. I don't know, who needs stability anyway!? Not knowing is much more fun, once you can relax and enjoy where the journey takes you. she says, through gritted teeth. no, really, I mean it.
Looking forward to catching up with Mari tomorrow, since I missed her birthday - she texted my old Finnish mobile - and it's been nearly a month since the downhill sliding in Espoo. All the ice is melting now, it's light from 7am til 8pm already, and there's no-one walking on those lakes anymore. even the ducks have left their tiny corner and flown off somewhere.

Friday, April 1, 2005

10:14 AM
Posted by jodi rose

On a lighter note, the final New Music Academy Concert last night was superb.
Shinji Kanki created a fantastic performance by 4 mechanical pianos playing the George Antheil score written for Fernand Leger's 1924 film Ballet Mecanique. He played the film silent first, always fun to see again, and then the music afterwards - as the composer and film maker didn't work together, so the film is 11 minutes and the score 27 minutes. those kooky avant garde artists. it was completely gorgeous, watching these 4 upright pianos playing themselves, virtuoso flourishes along the keyboard, set off with various bells and train sounds, and Shinji behind them, paying close attention to the conductor's baton. I told him later that I imagined he was playing a keyboard back there, and he explained the music was all programmed already, but he did vary the tempo.
Afterwards I talked with Yukihiro Notsu, who conducted the performance and asked him about the experience. He told me it was very different to what he is used to, and as the pianos didn't change their performance when his gestures became more dramatic and impassioned, he kept the gestures minimal, and stayed responsive to their playing. We had an excellent conversation about strategies for conducting bridges!
Followed by Dario Martinelli and Petri Kuljuntausta, the Zoo Musicologists of Helsinki University with 'Do Not Feed the Artists 2005' a very cool piece composed entirely from animal sounds.
It was a beautiful show, really tickled my senses and made me smile. I even received a long stemmed red rose, after beign invited to give them to all the musicians - very glamorous to be part of the Sibelius Academy performance! And it's the venue in which I will be conducting the bridge stream in a few weeks, so was good to have a sense of the space. Although I think Mark is going to need to cover it in purple velvet for me, to break up the hushed classical atmosphere. Maybe the bridges will do that by themselves...
and now, back to the accommodation jigsaw for my lovely particle wavers.
Also we're installing the radio station today for beta test broadcast phase - quite excited about taking the mini mac up to digita tower in Pasila, and getting on air. Although in Finland, the phrase 'on air' as in radio doesn't really translate - it would be like walking on air, people tell us. Although 'in the ether' is kind of equivalent.
There is another phrase which I couldn't begin to remember, but means 'a task so trivial or boring that it cannot be done sober.' indeed. not that I'm advocating alcoholism, far from it - trying to avoid those kind of menial activities works for me.

Friday, April 1, 2005

9:54 AM
Posted by jodi rose

the neighbours have become totally outrageous after we gave them our mobile numbers to txt if our quietly talking and softly walking disturbed their delicate hearing apparatus. my god they are completely over the top.
really, I could understand if we had wild parties, played loud music, tapdanced, screamed with pleasure or passion all night - but really, all we are doing is moving between rooms, barefoot, almost on tiptoe and talking in whispers. Kate promised she'd teach me to levitate, but so far unfortunately I'm still stuck in this earthly realm.
luckily the situation is so ludicrous that I've stopped being irate and incensed by their bullying harassment and started laughing about it - they write things like 'don't tramp around banging things. don't you know it's night. why must you create this disturbance?' and last night was 'can you not try to be still'. please, if we were any quieter we'd be in a coma.
however, according to our new friend Nichlas, the Finnish building industry in the 70's and 80's was pretty shoddy and it probably is a soundbox of prefab concrete slabs - but maybe the floor needs some insulation if the sound is that amplified. altho he seemed to think it was reasonable that you had to be absolutely silent after 10pm. can you imagine, in australia, or pretty much anywhere, complaining about the people walking upstairs? I mean really, we'd maybe say something if there is constand LOUD music, or screaming, but you learn to be pretty tolerant especially when you live in an apartment. Not these people, oh no, that would be giving in. And you know the Finns never give up - it's their famous sisu! so luckily kate is leaving for linnunlaulu tonight - she's the noisy one ;) lucky girl, she gets a break - but I'm here until the 10th. give me strength.
although to put it all in perspective - Aura and her husband actually SOLD their apartment, largely because after two years with no problems, the neighbours send them a list of complaints, including my favourite: 'you lead too active a social life'.
wtf????
who ARE these people?
I tell you, it's really making me rethink my desire to spend any longer in finland than I absolutely have to.
This will pass once I'm in the gothic mansion by the lake, and having a wild time with 20 radio artists making crazy sonic interventions all over helsinki.
Brings to mind the words of the great Slavoj Zizek: 'The only good neighbour is a dead neighbour!'
... that remark needs a fair bit of contextualisation, preferably delivered by an impassioned Slovenian in a 2 hour rant - read the summary here.