More Coruña Shots! This Part Of Spain Has So Much To Offer! 

Queluz Palace part II

Took this pic a while back and somehow it feels appropriate when you think about the events in Nice and Munich and elsewhere in the world. So many lost lives in so many ways. I wish light for everyone walking in the darkness. 

A month ago did a day trip to Berlengas Islands, 10-15km off Portuguese Coast and the city of Peniche (90km from Lisboa). Only one of them big enough to have a harbor is habitable. The paradise for sun bathing, scuba diving, seagulls.. There were tourists but it wasn’t covered with them which was super nice. The island has a hostel in the old fort but not so many proper restaurants. A small boat trip about the caves was super interesting. Such a paradise!  Took like 1000 photos in one day, here comes the first part

UMK 2024 Song Review - Sexmane

The hype is very real around Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the Finnish national selection for Eurovision and the race to Malmö continues!

Sexmane - MANIA

Max Scene aka Sexmane is currently the most streamed artist in Finland and also he has a connection to UMK. His little brother Isaac Scene competed in 2022 with Kuuma Jäbä.

Since releasing his debut album Sextape in 2019 he has been Emma awarded (Finnish Grammys) and he's managed to beat his previous successes with each release. He will no doubt have a lot of loyal young voters out there!

As a background info he and his brother grew up in a religious community where hymns were in and commercial music was not. He mentions this fairly often in the interviews so I believe it had an impact on his creativity and that he even ended up in the music industry.

MANIA is a song about mental health. "It's ok not to be ok" he says.

The song slaps you right at the face with MANIA. There's a lot of autotune in here from the very beginning and many have questioned if he can pull this through live. This is no basic pop tune you can put into a box within a certain genre. This is a hip hop / rap song with a heavy rock push. Music experts can peal this like an onion because it has plenty of layers to go around for all.

The song goes on smoothly having a strong pre-chorus and the anthemic MANIA is catchy and difficult to forget. I'm not a fan of rap music but I do enjoy listening to this even though my very first reaction was fear. The guitar solo at the end of the song is impressive and much needed add. The song ends with a scream.

Musically there's a strong pull towards our last ESC entry and a lot of people are criticizing of sending MANIA right after Cha Cha Cha (can anything be better?). In contrast to Käärijä's drinking party hit, there's some real pain and seriousness here. The beat is pushy and urges you to rush to act. And him desperately screaming in his pain and getting it out of his space - we see a lot of symbolism in the videoclip.

I kind of play with the idea of this winning because of the orange theme. In 2022 we had The Rasmus with Jezebel having a yellow staging, Käärijä last year obviously with his green effect, this would be a great continuity with the orange look.

What do you think of the second UMK24 track and would you vote for Sexmane to go all the way to Malmö? UMK final takes place on February 10th!

Some shots from earlier this year in Lisboa and about! Including Cabo da Roca, the most western point of Europe. Some photos from Almada, the other side of the river. 

Visited my hometown last week with a friend and a camera. Caught the light of the evening, sunset and the autumn. These come as they are! No filters or anything else used!

Lisbon before Covid-19 

Early Spring

Oh boy do I have news!

Thou not sure how “new” they are actually since it’s all been out in FB and Twitter for a week already.

But anyway I’m now officially Linguistic video game tester, working for http://www.babelmedia.com/. It doesn’t make video games but provides testing and translating services for those who do. I’m sure everyone’s seen a videogame once in their lives. All the text in it, the menu and directions etc – I’ll be translating it from English to Finnish. This job was so not on my list of “possible jobs in mtl”! But so far so good, based on the three hours that I’ve already been doing it. Very technical with all the computer programs which was expected but once I get the hang of it, I think I’ll enjoy working there . The atmosphere is very relaxed and warm. People seem nice and helpful. The pay is pretty good too. I should live.

The only down side is that I’m on call employee and the shifts which can vary between 7am and midnight come to my knowledge only 12-24h earlier according to my availability information I’ve given them. And even thou weekends are off it makes it kind of hard to plan the rest of your life when you don’t know IF you’ll be working this week and WHEN exactly you’ll be working. And once you’ve told them you’re available at certain time you cannot refuse to work.

(In a ferris wheel at the Fête du Neiges winter event)

At this point when I want to work as much as possible and I want to be available as much as possible for them, it leads to the fact that I’ll be kind of waiting by the phone for the shift to come in and if it ever does. Which totally sucks. But since there’s nothing better available I’m gonna give it a go. I’ve been told by the them, press, employees that the industry is doing well in Montréal however the changes in the industry can be very sudden and unexpected. And apparently being a native Finnish speaker is kind of an asset which just hasn’t kicked in yet. Who knew! #mtlmoments

Sadly with all this job hunting not going as I planned I’ve kind of decided (I keep changing my mind every minute thou) not to go to Laura Pausini’s concert in Toronto on March 9th. Or actually it’s not exactly in Toronto since Casino Rama, the venue is a couple of hours outside of the city. That was kind of the problem for me. Where in Toronto I could have slept in cheap hostels, in the Casino Rama area doesn’t have the same options or low rates. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere. So for financial reasons not going which feels ridiculous cause I had the money to come here all the way from Finland but I cannot afford to see my favourite artist to perform in six hours away from me!?

(Promotion for the Christmas gig in Italy, 2013)

I keep telling myseld that Laura wasn’t really even my priority when I came to Canada.. she just happened to have a concert nearby while I was here. I’ve seen her four times live, met twice, briefly but anyway, got two autographs, even one dedicated to me on my very first LP album. I have great memories of journeys travelled and friends made. I have been so incredibly lucky in the past... I shouldn’t be this sad! And I wasn’t even that excited about this tour. I was excited about the Greatest Hits-album but not about the tour cause I kind of dislike the tracklist, not the songs in it but the order of them which affects greatly to the atmosphere of the concert. But since I’m not going it’s not my problem anymore. Just hoping Laura will release a DVD (with a CD) about the tour for the ones that didn’t get to see her live.

But to more positive things! Otherwise events of this city just keep getting better and better. Igloofest is one of the many winter outdoor events Montréal helds but it just might be the coolest and the craziest one I've ever seen. Tells the great deal about the attitude that the people of this city has towards the weather and winter. It’s an electronic music event organized in the Old Port of Mtl on four weekends Thursday- Saturday nights. It’s the winter version for Picnik Elektronik. People of all ages, from children to older folks come to enjoy the outdoors and great music. We could never have this thing in Finland. Too many laws and regulations preventing it happen. Two stages, several DJ’s during each night, games, food, drinks etc. Awesomeness! Tickets for one night is about $20 so not expensive either! www.igloofest.ca  Definetely #mtlmoments

(Igloofest)

The adventures of my unwanted pets, the mice has ended too. Animal lovers, please don’t read the following. You don’t wanna know, trust me. Had this teeny tiny nightly incident with a rat getting caught in glue trap in my room. Nearly caused me a heart attack. Totally panic I went to search if anyone was still up – it was 1am Monday-Tuesday night. And seriously I’ve never been more grateful for having roomies cause they took the disgusting thing out of my room and seriously tried – and there were two of them, roomates not rats – to get it out of ALIVE AND WELL…with a little glue on its fur but otherwise fine.That was the goal. And according to the package it was supposed be totally possible! But… in this case it wasn’t. Again thanks to my roomies cause I was in so much panic in that point that I couldn’t have gone anyhere near that thing. Yeah the frenchie got a knife and killed it.

The next morning after a badly slept night I went out and got PERPPERMINT OIL which has worked like a miracle! No mouse or rat in sight ever since! And I don’t even have the headaches anymore because of the smell.

And then more deeper stuff...I was asked a while ago if being in Montréal has changed me at all. Didn’t know exactly what to answer in that moment but it got me thinking for sure. The thruth is that I’ve been in Canada now for six months exactly. Another six months away is also my ‘going home’. Yeah… let’s not think about that.

Before I came here I used to describe myself as an open minded person but lately I’ve realized that I really wasn’t. Not that I was a racist or anything but before I never thought I could be friends or have anything in common with people who’re from certain area of the world or are certain kind of people. And I have a feeling that this Babel job is gonna be one eye opening experience more. 

(Canadians truly love their maple syrup! They even make lollipops out of it in the snow! You just roll it up with a stick from there. Never in Finland!) 

I also appreciate more Europe in these days. Lots of canadians complain that all the places that most people can have afford  to go for a holiday are the States and Latin America and even the latter is kind of far. I do see the point even thou for me those contries aren’t exactly dull destinations to travel to. Even Canada is a huge treasurry with its all different provinces and cultures.

But I guess one of the best things in Europe is how small it is. We’ve got all those amazing countries, languages and cultures so close together to each other. Great diversity. So easy to reach and to travel to. Thanks to the European Union we can cross borders without no one asking a thing, where we’re going or why or if we’re ever coming back. No expiration date in your visa. That’s a great benefit. And a great thing to come home to. Someday.

P. S I also seem to have developed a tendency to write less frequently but longer posts when I do actually post something - sorry! Thanks if you made it this far! :)

The buildings of Helsinki. Loving the colour and small details in them.

The rest of my Coimbra photos from the city and the university.