Monday, January 17, 2005
A few firsts occurred this weekend. The first first, I changed the tires on Karoliina's bicycle for the winter. She now has those life saving little spikes on her tires so that she can ride her bike through the ice, slush, sleet, freezing rain, and yellow snow free from disaster. That is, of course, provided that I did a decent job and those newly placed tires don't suddenly fall off.
I'll tell you what, this was no easy task. Contrary to what everyone else told me, and I mean everyone, replacing the tires on a bike takes some time. Sure, I did it, but for a few minutes there in the beginning I had my doubts. Now? Well, now I feel I could easily accomplish the job in much less time than the 90 minutes I spent doing the job on Saturday.
The second first, I painted my black dress shoes black, in order to cover up the blemishes that occurred while living in New York. Yep, that's about it. Next comes a shine and they are good as new. I never said that all these firsts were exciting.
The third first took place yesterday at the Kataja basketball match. A place where, in my little section of seats, I am a bit of a celebrity. The old folks three rows in front of me smile at me and now bring friends who smile at me, waiting for me to erupt with chants of, "You Suck! Miss It!"and yesterday's specialty for the player from Baylor, "Go Back to Waco!" So the first that happened was when the 10 year old boy who has been booing right along side me for the past few weeks, decided it was time to heckle the Americans in their own language. At one point in the game an American named Kissner was shooting his foul shots. The game wasn't close and so I decided to save my breath, when all of a sudden the kid went wild. He began to shout, "Miss it Kissner!" in heavily accented English. Well I can't let this kid do it all himself and so I joined in the fun and together we yelled and screamed throughout the game. All this is in preparation for the big night in March when the game will be on national television and I will be as loud as I possibly can throughout the entire freaking game. And now I have a sidekick.
The fourth first will take place tonight in Pub Palaveri, when I will meet with Markku Pölönen for the first of our (hopefully) many meetings where we will talk in English about whatever. I have come to the conclusion that this meeting can go one of two ways. It can either go well, with the two of us hitting it off and enjoying each other's company, or it can go bad, with the two of us sipping our beers slowly, quietly, awkwardly, waiting for the appropriate and polite amount of time to pass before we run home crying.
I think that's all the firsts for now. Karoliina and I will be in Helsinki from Wednesday night until Saturday. We are going there for a movie premiere, a documentary about Cuba and their fascination with American cars from the 50's and 60's. It should be quite enjoyable, except for the fact that it will most likely be in Spanish with Finnish subtitles. Which means I will be trying my best to remember something visually spectacular before falling asleep so I can talk about the film at the after party - which is the real reason we are making the trip.
I will also be meeting with the Production Manager at the Finnish Film Foundation in order to figure out how in the hell to arrange a meeting with the State Authorities regarding the formation of a Finnish Film Commission and the further development of the tax incentive initiative I am working on. I will also be meeting with the International Advisor at the University of Helsinki in order to discuss my application process.
Speaking of the Finnish Film Commissions, we have just completed the first ever joint marketing effort, which will be placed in the Locations Magazine 2005. You can check it out here, Adobe reader required.
http://www.rasamaki.com/effc/15_01_effc_ad_locations_cmyk.pdf
So I think that's all for now.
I'll tell you what, this was no easy task. Contrary to what everyone else told me, and I mean everyone, replacing the tires on a bike takes some time. Sure, I did it, but for a few minutes there in the beginning I had my doubts. Now? Well, now I feel I could easily accomplish the job in much less time than the 90 minutes I spent doing the job on Saturday.
The second first, I painted my black dress shoes black, in order to cover up the blemishes that occurred while living in New York. Yep, that's about it. Next comes a shine and they are good as new. I never said that all these firsts were exciting.
The third first took place yesterday at the Kataja basketball match. A place where, in my little section of seats, I am a bit of a celebrity. The old folks three rows in front of me smile at me and now bring friends who smile at me, waiting for me to erupt with chants of, "You Suck! Miss It!"and yesterday's specialty for the player from Baylor, "Go Back to Waco!" So the first that happened was when the 10 year old boy who has been booing right along side me for the past few weeks, decided it was time to heckle the Americans in their own language. At one point in the game an American named Kissner was shooting his foul shots. The game wasn't close and so I decided to save my breath, when all of a sudden the kid went wild. He began to shout, "Miss it Kissner!" in heavily accented English. Well I can't let this kid do it all himself and so I joined in the fun and together we yelled and screamed throughout the game. All this is in preparation for the big night in March when the game will be on national television and I will be as loud as I possibly can throughout the entire freaking game. And now I have a sidekick.
The fourth first will take place tonight in Pub Palaveri, when I will meet with Markku Pölönen for the first of our (hopefully) many meetings where we will talk in English about whatever. I have come to the conclusion that this meeting can go one of two ways. It can either go well, with the two of us hitting it off and enjoying each other's company, or it can go bad, with the two of us sipping our beers slowly, quietly, awkwardly, waiting for the appropriate and polite amount of time to pass before we run home crying.
I think that's all the firsts for now. Karoliina and I will be in Helsinki from Wednesday night until Saturday. We are going there for a movie premiere, a documentary about Cuba and their fascination with American cars from the 50's and 60's. It should be quite enjoyable, except for the fact that it will most likely be in Spanish with Finnish subtitles. Which means I will be trying my best to remember something visually spectacular before falling asleep so I can talk about the film at the after party - which is the real reason we are making the trip.
I will also be meeting with the Production Manager at the Finnish Film Foundation in order to figure out how in the hell to arrange a meeting with the State Authorities regarding the formation of a Finnish Film Commission and the further development of the tax incentive initiative I am working on. I will also be meeting with the International Advisor at the University of Helsinki in order to discuss my application process.
Speaking of the Finnish Film Commissions, we have just completed the first ever joint marketing effort, which will be placed in the Locations Magazine 2005. You can check it out here, Adobe reader required.
http://www.rasamaki.com/effc/15_01_effc_ad_locations_cmyk.pdf
So I think that's all for now.
// posted by Howard @ 11:03 AM 
