They really are like in the post cards

April 16, 2011

Exams done, assignments handed in. Two weeks of nervous breakdowns and anti-socializing; FINITTO! All I can hear is Freedom!’90 by George Michael in my head (the difference between the first version of this song by Wham! and this one is quite interesting, you can decide yourself what I mean). I actually bought a double album of his greatest hits for only 50 cents a year ago. I wasn’t a big fan of his music, but buying a CD felt more tempting than a Snickers bar at that moment. Money well spent (though I like to use “invest” when it’s about music).

Anyhow, it was time to travel somewhere again. This is how the conversation went at the train station in the morning:
Maria: “I still don’t know where we’re going.”
Me: “Mean either, but we’ll see eventually we’re we end up.”
It was hard to know where we were heading since my flat mates were pronouncing the name of the place in ten different ways. But there was talk about seeing a flower parade and garden. Yes, it’s about time to be a true tourist again. 

Leiden Centraal is where we went, and caught the bus to Keukenhof, a famous garden in The Netherlands, and expensive. PFF €21 for entrance and bus. And the LINE! It took quite a while to get in the bus, that I and Maria had a quick sightseeing in Leiden. Well, only walked one street and back. 

The bus ride to the garden took about 25 min, and we got to see some interesting monuments of Leiden, but as we were approaching our destination, every now and then people went “WOOOW”, because of the impressive tulip fields. As we arrived there, we went to wait for the flower parade to pass by. Here I would like to emphasize the word “wait”. It’s ok for musicians to start their show late, but not an annual parade, which has a tight schedule and thousands of people from around the world coming to witness. After one hour of people taking pictures of single cars with people selling CDs, the parade finally started. 

First car. 10 minutes. Starts to rain a bit. Second car. 10 minutes. Announcement: “One of the car’s tires is flat; you will have to wait for a long time.” #):@(%#¤” Never mind let’s go to the garden, we’ve seen enough, besides we got the newspapers with the drawings of the cars that we could have seen. 

I don’t think we saw the whole garden, since it was so big. There were a lot of Spanish, Russians, Chinese, Indians etc. It was quite crowded, but I heard it can be even more crowded. 

iPad

I’m glad that I got my jumping photos and ran in the tulip fields. After the garden closed, we had to wait in a long line once again; luckily we weren’t going to Schiphol since that line was three times as long as ours. 

I remember us international students asking a Dutch friend of ours if the tulip fields in the post cards are real, and not photoshopped. She wasn’t lying.

Rockin' the Milky Way

March 30th

American girl, English guy. Great chemistry, but no, they are not a couple. Their fourth album is to be released 4.4. Though you can stream it on their website already: The Kills - Blood Pressures

Yes, The Kills give me the chills. They've been doing that for a few years now, and how great is it to go to Amsterdam for only the third time and visit the other famous venue; Melkweg, and to witness one of the coolest bands perform. What's that line they sing in the Outkast song? Aa, yes; "What's cooler than being cool? ICE COLD!". That's what was on my mind during the whole performance.

The gig started with the warm up band called S.C.U.M; the first thing I noticed was that the drummer was a female, who was pretty good, then the lead singer looked like Adam Lambert and the rest of the band members reminded me of the 70's. They had quite good songs, but somehow I couldn't take my mind off Adam Lambert, especially, when I just recently discovered he's dating Finland's Big Brother's winner. Huh?

After a while, it was time for the main act. They started with "No Wow", and just simply had a rocking start.

I was on the second row middle, and I had to look either one of them, since they were placed so far from each other. Mainly because they'd have a lot of space to move around. And for sure they did! It was sometimes difficult to take a photo due to that. Basically, it was dancing on the legs of a new born pony, left right left right, and damn that guy in front right of me has a big head.

One of the last songs they played is one of my favorites of the new album, it's called "The Last Goodbye". First time I heard it, I thought that pff what a cheesy song, it doesn't fit them all, but already after the first minute, it started to sound beautiful with its lyrics and Alison's voice, and for the first time I sensed some sort of matureness in the music. It did look like that she got teary eyes, and probably most of the fans when she sang the song. For me the song is starting to feel like something I would play in a funeral.

 

They played like 6-8 songs from their newest album, and I was so thankful that they gave a chance to stream it beforehand, so I had the chance to sing-along. And it was the first time they played Nail In My Coffin to anyone. I guess the sound was a bit circulating during that song, but hey the song is good, and it was a joy to see the band members laugh at each other after the song. However it was a bit of a disappointment that they didn't play "Cheap and Cheerful", which is the song and video that made me fall in love with the band.

In summary, what I thought; first time alone in Amsterdam and proud of finding my way and catching the train on time, even though it took a while to get out of the Melkweg and still managed to buy a shirt, catch the tram, though the tram driver kept stopping and yelling something to the back. Walking on the streets of Amsterdam was so nice with my own thoughts, maybe it would be nice to live there. Melkweg not that nice compared to Paradiso. Hating to travel by train to/from Amsterdam even more, especially during night. Blood Pressures album, perhaps being their best so far, though all albums are different form each other. Jamie such a good guitarist. Alison having smooth dance moves.

But most important of all; first time I saw a Domino band (Domino Records being my favorite record label). The Kills being a great live band. They rocked the Milky Way (=Melkweg). And yeah I also got my signed poster.

Despite the Hardships

 Last December during our Video Production course we were supposed to make a MOS short film (if you want to have a look behind the scenes, go to the "goodbye Hello" entry of my blog and look for the confused people outdoors). MOS stands for "Motor Only Sync" or "Motor Only Shot", ie. images without music and dialogue and the sounds had to be re-enacted separately from filming. A popular (presumed to be mythical) origin theory is that MOS stands for broken-English "Mit Out Sound", that is, "Without sound" as a 1920s German-émigré director might have said it.

In The Screenwriter's Bible, David Trottier credits the term to Austrian director Erich von Stroheim, who allegedly would tell his crew "Ve'll shoot dis mid out sound."

After the short intro, here is our film "Despite the Hardships" finally online. This was filmed in the cold, luckily for only five hours thanks to our talented crew and actors.

A big thank you to the crew and actors for making it happen. And Frituur Christ for de lekkerste frietjes van Nederland.

Cross-Linx Rotterdam

"Takes me a day to remember a day, I didn't mean to let it get so far out of hand ", this is how The National's front man Matt Berninger sings in their song Lemonworld, which is one of my favorite songs from their latest album High Violet released in 2010. I can somewhat relate to the feeling that it arises; here my dear readers you have one reason, why it takes me a while to update my blog. I have a bad short-term memory; it could take a week or two for me to process a happening properly in my head, however I do manage to update something within a day. Seldom. 

In mid-February took place this festival called Cross-Linx in four Dutch cities during four days. Wanting to see The National (an indie band originally from Ohio, now based in New York), I got my ticket to the one in Rotterdam. Being an Interpol fan and hearing constantly about how I should listen to The National, I finally did last spring, when the first song I heard from them was Bloodbuzz Ohio, it immediately impressed me. But it wasn’t until late autumn that I learned to love them. 

A day before the concert I listened to the other bands which were also going to perform. A Danish band called Efterklang sounded interesting with their umm “a lot of beats, horns, piano, electroish”- sound. Not that easy to describe, you just have to listen to it yourself. Or they do belong to a genre, but we don’t learn this stuff in music and media management school. If it helps, they have artists such as Jónsi, Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors related to them. Those who know these, congratulations, we’re on the same page.

Efterklang - Modern Drift

Anyways, I was glad to realize that there will be more than one good band playing at the festival. Then I noticed that there will be even more, when I familiarized myself with New York based Buke & Gass. No, it is not written or pronounced with a P. It’s pronounced “HELL YEAH I’M GONNA GO SEE YOU GUYS!” 

It’s always good to find out more about the bands playing a few hours before they’re going to play. 

So, the first to go were the Danes. There were only sit tickets available, which was a new experience for me, and hopefully the last one. There was always someone’s head in front of me and I felt uncomfortable sitting, who goes to a concert to sit? PFF. After finding a comfortable standing position somewhere in the side, their show was already over before I noticed. It took about 40min, but it felt only half of it, probably I was just so anxious to be the only one standing in the venue area. But they had this great orchestra playing with them, which gave even a more majestic touch to their music. Good bands keep on coming from Legoland.

Then it was time for the NY duo. The area in which they played in looked more like a place to store big boxes. And apparently to play awesome music. The band’s name comes from the instruments they’ve created themselves. Buke= electrified six- string ukulele. Gass= cross between guitar and bass. A rocking cute duo. Bought their CDs, got one of it signed and the set list. YEIIII. Oh look there’s the girl’s gum wrapped in the set list. And it’s still soft.

I was already by then happy of all the brilliant music I’ve heard, but there was still the icing on the cake. The use of the strobo board, front man Matt with his wine bottle and running through the crowd with a 50m mic wire and eventually disappearing somewhere for a while and then literally rolling back to the stage and just pure rock n’ roll made the icing delicious. Pity that we had to run to the train station just before the show ended. I need to jog more.

It was a great day of great music. 

It's 5am, I’m listening to an artist, which we missed in Rotterdam; Canadian Owen Pallett. Though we did see him playing violin with The National, his music alone is too good, that I hope I’d have the chance to see him on his own show. 

1/2

Half a year already. PUUF! It feels like only yesterday, when I was unpacking my luggage in my new room. And yes these six months have been great. A lot has happened, though at the same time it feels that I haven't done anything. Only after the Christmas holiday it felt like the trip is just beginning.

I really haven't talked that much about what I've realized about the culture, people and what I expected before I came here. I apologize now, if I offend someone, but here we go:


1. I thought that the Dutch would pronounce my name better than the Finns, but it's been surprisingly difficult. My German teacher once asked, is the "j" pronounced as in "j" like "jungle". Yes, at least at home. Apply that! No, but actually I don't care anymore, and this shows, when I tend to say my name differently every time someone asks. And actually nowadays it sounds pretty cute how the Dutch pronounce it.

2. Before I came here a family friend said that the Belgian cuisine is better than the Dutch. Well, I haven't tasted anything Belgian except for chocolate and beer, but all I can say that the Dutch cuisine is quite non-existing. They do often mix mashed potatos with all sorts of veggies, and that is yummy. Other than that I only find food, which are either deep-fried, full of sugar or in green cans.

3. I once saw this cartoon of a Dutch person's reaction to different weathers. When it was raining, snowing or hot there was a sad face, but when it was cloudy the face was happy. I didn't really understand how can someone be happy with a dark sky. Until I experienced it myself. It was raining for two weeks, which was terrible, after that one week of no rain, but still a dark cloudy sky; I was in a good mood. I actually was thinking in my mind, what a wonderful weather it was. And when the sun comes out, it puts you even in a more good mood. Though I love snow, I hate it here. Kids start to throw snow balls at you, that's when  I want to hit them, but no point, since they are all my size. Riding your bike gets difficult, because the snow gets stuck in your tires and everyone is late for everything, due to public transportation and your own car being stuck somewhere. Yes, weather can be very surprising here; there have been many sunny, warm days, which has felt like April in Finland, but on the other hand it snowed a bit this week. I can't wait to do some bike trips again and go to the park for a beer.

4. Train trip durations are so short here. So short that sitting 2 hours in a train feels like forever, which would be the minimum in Finland. I've gotten so used to the 30min trips that I will probably go crazy when I get back home.

5. I was disappointed to not find more than 3 German beers here. Luckily we have the Belgian ones to make up for the lost. And why does Heineken taste better in Amsterdam?

6. I've wasted (invested) most of my money on gigs and band shirts, but if you have the opportunity to go see the bands you love, you must. Quite often bands have Stockholm as part of their tour, but Helsinki is missing. I know, it is pretty scary to cross the Baltic Sea, when you have those vikings sailing around, but remember vikings are not Finnish! Another thing that I love about gigs here, is that you can take your drinks to the concert area, in Finland you just suffer of dehydration, faint and get carried to the backroom. Also it's pretty easy to get in front of the stage and have space to breathe.

7. About the people, well, they are quite similar to Finns; same kind of black, sarcastic humor and straight-forwardness. Though I would say that the Dutch come across as more rude, Finns say things a bit more gently, however there is also that keeping everything to ourselves and snapping later.

8. This is a mini-Germany. A lot of Germans, but also Spaniards. There's these stereotypes that Dutch are laid back and Germans stress. Never have I thought it to be true. E.g. on Facebook a German would have in their status "Woke up at 8 to study", for a Dutch "One hour til deadline and still haven't started". 

I think that's everything for now, once again sorry if I offended someone, but remember to not take things seriously; they don't take you.

Here is one of my favorite moments during those six months:

Less than five months left and surely that will pass quickly. I remember some people saying during Christmas that it's a pity that they did not get to know some people better before they left back home. If you don't want to feel the same in July, now would be the time to say hello on Facebook.

Iron & Wine @ Paradiso

A church converted into a hippies' living room. A hippies' living room turned into a famous music venue, having bands like The Rolling Stones, Joy Division, Nirvana, Arcade Fire and Finnish band Nightwish either recording or filming concerts there. And it took me 6 months to go there for my first gig.

Couldn't think of a better artist for that than my rainy summer day music; Iron & Wine (Samuel Beam). Hearing him sing about a godless brother in love in that bju-t-ful place with fine acoustics was perfecto.

The warm-up act Tift Merrit sounded quite good. Pity though that there was a constant background noise getting worse all the time. The main act's gig started with Samuel saying that the crowd talked through her performance and that we should all together shout "Sorry Tift" and "Next time I will listen and appreciate your music". How embarrassing..

 

The set of Iron & Wine was quite long, about 1h 45 min, but it didn't matter, everyone was having a good time. I guess being in the first row middle wasn't perhaps the best idea, since I had to look up all the time. Okey, I shouldn't complain, some people don't even get the chance to see him.

                                           

                                                                              
It was a bit disappointing that I didn't hear much of his sad acoustic songs and "Walking far from home", which is one the best songs of his latest album, but totally worth seeing how good of a guitar player and laid-back humorous guy he is and also the great touring band. And the version of "Boy with a coin" they played was simply amazing! I already thought that they wouldn't play it, because the song started with a jamming tune, but suddenly the familiar guitar tune started to play and people started screaming. It was also cool to see the roadie dancing on the side of the stage.

                                                                 

                                                                   

Overall it was a good gig, not in my top 3 though, next time I'll focus on the happy songs, then it could get better. I almost got the set list; there were no more left on the stage, so the roadie went through all his papers to find me one, but no more there either. But hey at least I got to see the famous beard.