setting fire to things seems to be pretty popular so far this year here in finland - makasiinit went up a few weeks ago and there was a few more over the following week or so - then some time early today the church in porvoo went on fire. (the cause of the porvoo fire is unknown at the moment - idle speculation on my behalf as to its cause.)(update: yeah arson - someone has been detained.)

one thing i noticed at the lordi celebrations the other night here in helsinki was the presence of a pelastuslaitos (rescue department) film crew - at one stage of the evening two fellas decided to try to swim across a narrow (10metre) channel just beside kauppatori - they spent a few minutes getting out of their clothes and a few people on both sides of the channel started to cheer them on - they took so long prepare for it that by the time one of them jumped into the water there was already two official boats in the channel (one a police boat, the other a coast guard (i think) boat). the film crew ran over and filmed what was going on - then a few minutes later (pictured) reviewed what film they got. i wonder how much of this was a follow on from stuff they learnt from the makasiinit incident a little while back.

i’ve been trying to write an ad for some työtila for the last two weeks. everytime i start the email i go blank.

moleskine diary, a muji pencil and a blue table

iittala glass and a blue table

oh man the eurovision is over. but silvia night (silvía nótt) makes me laugh so much (and makes greece go “boo”!). here are some youtube vidoes of here in action:

silvia night in mtv japan. first thing she says “dont mention björk - cos shes a retard - i feel really bad for her cos everyone is making fun of her” and then .. “i am (in japan) shopping for a kid - there are some really cute japanese kids here. for my boyfriend romario - his wife - she really wants a kid - so im buying it for her”

silvia night tokyo. a fantastic japanese / icelandic mashup of silvia night on the streets of tokyo.

silvia goes nuts after the eurovision. so fantastic - ranting at the reporters. check it out!

mastercard commercial in japan

last night i saw the greetings.fi website last night for the first time - its tag line is “postikortteja todellisesta helsingistä” (postcards from the real helsinki). lots of funny/depressing/cold pictures from the alternate helsinki - drunks, snow, ice and so on. there is a big article about it in todays helsinki sanomat (see all the things i find when i do take the time to read the newspaper!). thanks to thomas who told me about the site last night.

when i was choosing my current thesis project i thought about doing some sort of study of the kaisaniemenlahti / kaisaniemenranta area here in helsinki. i always thought it was such a lovely area but underused. the ranta (shore) is behind the (kasvitieteellinen puutarha) gardens and can seem like a very very dark and uninviting place. i was going to do some basic buildings to put them in there and just do a survey of an imaginary project for the area. in the end i chose a different project subject (coming this autumn). so reading in todays helsingin sanomat i saw there is a proposal to add 20ish floating homes to the area along with a new bridge that goes over the train tracks and a possible new ferry.

(image taken from the hs website)

1. kelluvia asuntoja 6kpl (6 x floating dwellings)
2. asuntolaivoja 16kpl (16 x apartment boats)
3. asunto-, toimisto- tai ravintoloalaivoja 5kpl (5 x living, office or restraunt boats)
4. mahdollinen kevyen liikenteen lautta (possible light traffic ferry)
5. kelluva ravintolapavilijonnki (floating restraunt pavillion)
6. suunniteltu kevyen liikenteen silta (proposed/designed light traffic bridge)

here is the article (in finnish) - hopefully there will be an english translation of the article in tomorrows english language section of their website.

update: article in english

new apple centre opening on erottajankatu 1-3 on the 18th of may. more info here: officeline.fi kotisivut.

uusi myymälä on selkeästi nykyistä suurempi, “ palvelukonseptin vieminen seuraavalle tasolle edellyttää lisää neliöitä. rrottajankadun myymälässä tulee olemaan esillä entistä laajempi valikoima “lifestyle” -tuotteita sisältäen luonnollisesti kaikki applen keskeiset tuotteet. tämän lisäksi tulemme panostamaan vahvasti palveluun – apuun ja neuvontaan hankintavaiheessa sekä aftersales tukeen. haluamme jatkossakin olla suomen ylivoimaisesti paras apple -kauppias” jatkaa alopaeus.

a new place to go drool over apples subtle bling.

somewhere along the line my media player has stopped displaying the video part to my irish tv streams. listening to television is a strange experience. slightly off putting.