HB COLD

It doesn't look like this anymore. Now it is wet and messy.

Quick action is necessary because soon after the leaves turn, they fall. For example I took this picture 2 days ago and now the tree and bushes are empty.

Just want to say a few things. First of all, the weather stinks. It's wet and cold and the leaves, which were once so colorful are now painting the streets. Soon this place will be really awful, until the snow arrives.

Second, the weather of course coincides with the film festival we are putting on right now. If you are awake and want to check it out, visit www.viscult.net and you can watch the films and discussions live on the web.

The turnout for the festival has been a huge surprise, we have had more than 50 people at the films, which is about 10 times the amount we had last year.

In other news, at this time 2 weeks from now we will be eating as much as we possibly can. Ok, at this time 2 weeks from now after sunset.

Today marked the beginning of the Festival of Visual Culture and there was an art exhibition at the city library. The artist is a friend of one of the co-organizers and there was a small get together afterwards, where we finished the punch that was served at the exhibition. So it was me, 3 Finns and a Polynesian from Denmark - all real nice, friendly and interesting. When I walked in, I interrupted a conversation between 2 of the Finns on the best technique to use when cooking 20lbs of lamb. Apparently one of the Finns, Jussi, was a gold medal winner in a natural cooking competition, a competition where you cook using only natural means and ingredients, and the other Finn, Juoko, wanted some advice. For best results cook using sand.

Then they got me thinking about the basketball documentary again because they all knew the first American basketball player to come to Finland and they befriended him quickly. Then they told a story that, for all intents and purposes is true, but it could just as easily be an urban legend, that after 25 years grows into a different tale altogether. Paint the picture just a little and you'll be able to fill in the blanks. Big, tall, black American basketball player from Harlem, comes to small, white Joensuu Finland. He's a ladies man and man are there a lot of ladies for him. Well he's real keen on one young lady who is also engaged to one of the leading merchants of Joensuu. The merchant and his fiance wed, she gets pregnant, has the baby, takes a look at it, brown. Young lady and baby move to a small town a few hundred kilometers away, basketball player signs with a team in a different town and the legend grows. When I asked the guys if they would swear on it, all of them said that yes, they swear that they heard that story, but that's as close as they get to the truth. But it's the 3rd time I have heard this story and everyone tells it the same way, with the same details. So either it is true, like they say, which is totally feasible, or else it's a legend that these guys will be telling 30 years on.

10 days ago I mentioned that the train ride to and fro sucks and it still sucks.

I was waiting to write about all of this stuff because on Tuesday we will get our new computer. It should have arrived last week, but there was a problem with the order and so it will arrive tomorrow. It's a Mac Mini. Karoliina and I had been debating between Mac and PC for several years and finally we agreed that we would like our home computer to be a Mac. We think that the computers we will get from future jobs will be PC's and so we decided for a Mac. I have been wanting one for forever, but since the pants I wear in the family are not quite the pants to wear in the family, it wasn't until Karoliina decided that she wants a Mac, that we were able to get a Mac.

Which means I will soon be able to make phone calls using the computer. I cannot wait for this to happen. I think I will just call Jen or Tricia and have them leave their computer and web cam on and I can just watch them all on tv. Being there without being there. Maybe during the TX OU game, if Jen and Mark watch it at home, I can watch along? Could be a stroke of genius.

Everything else is going along quite nicely. K and I are too excited about our trip to Texas, which will be here before we know it and we just made New Year's plans. We will spend New Year's with Scott and Joanna Horwitz in Warsaw of all places. Last year we were with them both in Dallas and this year Warsaw. Tickets were real cheap and we should be living in Helsinki by then and this makes for a wonderful cap to a hard 2005. Hard because living in Joensuu in 2005 has been pretty hard and boring and all sorts of other bad words.

I look forward to writing more on the new Mac and I will be making phone calls shortly after that.

So far the most difficult thing about school is the bed that I am sleeping on. This week I spent my nights with Virpi and Jyrki and they were kind enough to borrow a bed from some friends. But this bed was set on springs and the mattress was about 2 inches thick, which meant that I was sleeping on springs. I didn't really notice the pain until Wednesday at 2pm, when it felt - all of a sudden - that someone had stabbed me with a screwdriver right underneath my shoulder blade and then left the screwdriver there. It hurt when I breathed. It still hurts now, but after a night in my own bed and my own pillow has gone a long way towards curing the pain.

This was the first real week of class and it was very engaging. We have been discussing the essence of managing the arts. The inner forces of aesthetics, ethics and criticism at play with the outer forces of politics, economy and evaluation. Sort of learning the philosophy behind it all. Also discussing the different contexts in which art is discussed and evaluated. Not too much practical know how, but it is the introduction class of arts management when we learn what the hell it is.

Already we have had some very informative guest lecturers and already I can see that this program is highly regarded both inside and out of Finland. Also, one of the more exciting aspects of the class is the fact that I am not only there to learn, but to apply what I learn towards the Film Finland project and already it has yielded a couple of ideas. In October I hope to have something solid in writing regarding the project so that I can begin work now.

My class is made up of me, Sergei, from Russia by way of Chicago and 14 ladies. Most of the ladies are relaxed and easy to be around and talk to, but there are a couple who have a something to prove demeanor and I feel as if there is cat-fight potential on the horizon. Oh well, could be entertaining, and as long as I am not intimately involved, I am ok with a little cattiness.

OK, I lied when I said that the most difficult thing so far is the bed. It is not the bed, it is the train ride back and forth. Already at 5 plus hours, but last night, in a town called Simpele - about an hour or so away from Joensuu, so that I had already been in the train for 4 hours - we were told that the train was to stop in Simpele and remain there until another train passed us, around 40-50 minutes. Now I thought I would be a good student and pick a book out of the Arts Management library and read a little. Well, turns out my selection was horrible at best. So I had nothing to read, and two more hours to sit on the train. So I went to the bar. This is a pattern I hope not to repeat. I have to have a book that is at least decent with me on all train trips, otherwise I could very well lose my mind. Considering I got home at 9 last night and will be here for 48 hours before leaving for Helsinki on another 5+ hour train ride to Karoliina's aunt's house. Well, at least she has a real bed there. "So I got that going for me." Anyone know which movie that's from?

Also, I have chosen not to mention some of the worst news I heard in quite some time. You see, there was this football game that was between the two largest universities in the States, Texas and Ohio State. These two schools are two of the winningest programs in the history of college football dating back to the late 1800's. And in their entire history they had never played against each other, until last week. To add more intrigue to the game, this year both teams were nationally ranked in the Top 10, the game was to be played before 100,000+, at night in Columbus and on primetime national television. In short, this was THE game. And it lived up to its hype, with Texas pulling out a come from behind victory in dramatic fashion. But then I got the news that something went wrong and the game was not recorded and will not be coming my way.

So drastic action needed to be taken and I have secured a copy of the game from a buddy of mine in LA who will send it my way soon. Thank you for TiVo, a wonderful invention.

Last Friday was the orientation day for all first year international students at Sibelius. Most of those first year foreigners were first year's and they looked like it. Some were simply exchange students for the year or the semester. Which means that the majority of those attending the first year gathering were really young. Anywhere between 18-22 and then there were the old guys, me and a guy from Spain.

The day went along at a snail's pace. Finns have a tendancy to give all sorts of details about history, funding, future. Details that students just don't care about. I can honestly say that the first 5 hours were a complete waste. The only useful thing I did was enroll. But then the night's festivities came along and things picked up from there. The Student Union set about teaching the first year's about the important things, specifically which bars the Sibelius students like to inhabit. There are 5 of them and only one was new to me, but that one also had the best beer selection off them all and I was able to have a Sierra Nevada for the second time in Finland. Not that Sierra is one of my favorites, but it is a whole helluva lot better than the typical Finnish beer that over populates the place.

The next morning I was off to the summer house where the mosquitoes devoured me, but I think I wrote about this earlier. Regardless, they were awful. Although for some reason they were not biting Anneli and she is under the impression that we are all a bunch of wimps. Well, I can live with that.

Monday arrives and it is the first day that I will meet my fellow classmates. It was simply an English lesson and it was not fully attended, but it was still nice to meet a couple of the girls. Which brings me to the fact that I am, indeed, the only guy in the class. And already the female dynamic had taken effect.

Apparently there had been a breakdown in communication between the lecturer (assistant professor) - also a woman - and the students. The girls thought her attitude was a little, attitudinal and they weren't having it. And so at lunch I got an earful and they were all getting into it, saying the same thing about trust and respect. In this they are right, but they seemed to go a little overboard and so I told everyone to calm down and that we would handle this together. I think that they were thankful that there was someone - a guy - there to tell them to relax.

The next day, which was the first day of real Arts Management lessons with the professor - a guy - began with a clearing of the air and everyone seems the better for it. The first day was enjoyable with a real give and take classroom environment. We all have different experiences and perspectives and can offer as much to one another as the lectures themselves. This is a good thing because I don't know how much I would enjoy 5 hours a day of lectures.

And then the first of my many journeys to and fro - Helsinki to Joensuu and back and back - began and went just fine.

I am really looking forward to the studies because they also have a large portion of networking involved and the Finnish community regards Sibelius highly and so they are active in their involvement.

I will have more as more happens, but for right now things have started in the right direction.

I've gone almost the entire summer without any serious attack from mosquitoes. We've been to the summer house many times, but each time we were prepared, or at least I was prepared: long pants, long sleeves, plenty of OFF spray and other candles and coils that protect us from the predators. Well, yesterday we went to the summer house, and since the summer is on it's way out I thought that the mosquitoes were on their way out as well. No such thing. We arrived at the summer house at 2pm and were home by 5pm - and it takes close to an hour to get there.

I did not wear long pants, or long sleeves, or long socks for that matter and in a span of seconds I was swarmed. The OFF spray that we had did absolutely nothing against the onslaught. The coils and candles were spent - Antero and friends were there the night before and used them up, but even they were relentlessly attacked. Antero had bites marks on his temples that were raging red making him look a little like Frankenstein.

No later than 15 minutes after arrival Timo, who had wanted to spend some hours shooting his air pistol, decided that he was leaving and he left. Those of us who remained thought we would at least have some dinner and then leave - spending the night was no longer an option - but after 30 minutes of constant attack, we began to pack up and decided to make our way home or to any place where we had the advantage over the mosquitoes.

There were times when I would look down at my boots - I had taken off my shoes for the plastic boots that come up past my calves - and there were at least 10 mosquitoes on each boot, swarming and searching for a way in. I had brought a hooded sweatshirt for the late night chill, but immediately put in on and covered my head, but still they attacked my exposed forehead. If I had my hands out of my pockets for more than a minute, they would bite my wrists and fingers. I now have at least 3 bites per hand and many more on my legs. I was looking around and I think that the ratio of mosquitoes to humans was 100:1 and that might be an low estimate.

Glad to be back in a house. Tomorrow I will have my first day of real school. On Friday I went to the orientation for foreign students and then the party afterwards, where I was hoping to meet some of my fellow classmates. No such luck. The orientation was long and boring and the only thing that was worth my time was enrolling in the school. The party was fun, but since there were no fellow classmates there - or at least none that I met - it proved to be not so worth while. Although it was a good time, even if I was one of the oldest dudes around. Fortunately there was another guy a bit older than I, but that was about it. Most of the kids were in between 18-24. And one of the things that kept popping up in my head was high school band. How it exists outside the norm of social behavoir - in this case Finns who were quite socialable. How it is a small family of eccentrics, commonly referred to as band nerds. Maybe I should pick up the trombone again?