if id have known this morning what i know now, i would have taken a very very very big coat with lots of pockets.
we went on a short tour of the fazer choclate factory just outside helsinki. i am addicted to their "fazer sininen" choclate and i was looking forward to this tour. i was told that you could eat as much as you wanted of choclate on the tour, but you couldnt take it between the different sections of the tour. so we arrived at the first area, a stand with many many bars of choclate, i decide to pace myself, only eating two small sininen choclate bars and a few individually wrapped squares. "its gonna be a long tour" i though "keep some space". so then we left to go to the next part.. but the next part was the shop! no more tour! all that free choclate sitting there waiting to be eaten by me! its wait continues.
it started yesterday morning at about 0900 when i was in school, no more autumn, winter is here now for the next five months or so. last night was spent running around the city in some snow storms that wasnt staying on the ground, just turning into a slush. a finnish band called aavikko were sold out in kipsari, so instead we went to alahuone. i like stories
ive become quite obsessive about email. i never know if its been delivered. be it job applications or just stupid emails to friends i get replies to only about 20% of them, and then today ive been getting an error message in outlook:
452 : requested action not taken: insufficient system storage
what does that mean? i presume its not my fault, i tried to ring the customer service, but no answer (i was only waiting a few minutes before the service shut at 2000). so, if you email me, i'll either talk to ya on irc or instant messanger or sms or when email is back up.
diesel, the expensive/cool fashion label, have a feature on their site called "work hard" (a new page will either pop up or click on the logo in the middle of the page). go to that site and complete the tasks and you can get access to a download area and download a few cool things.
go check it out, or go to a diesel store/stockist and you might be able to get one of the diaries. fantastic stuff
november 7th is when the star wars cartoon series "clone wars" is launched. from the makers of samurai jack. from a few pictures i've seen clone wars has the style of samurai jack. i cant wait.
here is a link for the bit torrent file for the complete set of images and a trailer
these tips are for overnight ferries between sweden and finland. or the return journey.- always always always get a cabin, always
- make sure you have enough reading material
- make sure you have companionship
- avoid watching the karaoke. listening to it is bad enough
- never use the "air seats" as sleeping quarters, the use of the word "air" implies "comfort" in my mind, not anymore. these seats are like concrete and you cant sleep on them no matter what. they are a good place however to watch two drunken men fight.
- prepare to meet incredibly drunk people. there are two types: drunk middle aged men, and drunk teenage girls. this can provide entertainment as one of those groups chases the other one around at 3am after the disco closes.
they are pretty cheap though, and do have cheap alcahol and they are pretty strange which is good. just make sure to have a cabin and enough distractions.
after three years, its going.
farewell, oh friends
after almost three years at the helm of the irish media industry, the moguls behind perhaps the greatest magazine to appear in any city in the world have decided that it is time to call it a day.
although now more popular than ever with young, brand-aware, consumer orientated dubliners (according to the rubbish we tell advertisers at any rate) it seems that now is as good a time as any to bail the fuck out.
we reckon its better to quit while we have legions of adoring fans rather than in five years time when the magazine is about as popular as liam lawlor.
so thanks to anybody who enjoyed the slate, and a special go raibh mile maith agat to those who were too stupid to understand our genius. anybody who's interested in keeping abreast of what we are doing next should send an email to editor@theslate.ie with mailing list as the subject header.
the slate emergency line has already been set up. just call 602 8202 where there will be expert grief counsellors at the ready to handle your distress.
sellout supernova
the best of the slate will be on sale in shops in november, and will have all the most hilarious parts of our brilliant magazine in it. it will be perfect as a momento of the slate, a christmas present for your mate and great for making us rich also. check back on this site for more info or send us an email. dublin will be poorer for it.
here is a summary of what happened over the weekend, written in finnish.viime viikolla menin ruotsiin. minulla on irlantilainen kaveri kuka on opiskelemassa yliopistossa lundissa.
keskiviikkona illalla, menin tyttöystäväni ja meidän kaverin kanssa laivalla helsingistä tukholmaan. torstaina aamulla, noin yhdeksältä me saavuimme tukholmaan, sitten menimme bussilla bussiasemalle keskustaan. yhden tunnin päästä, lähdin tukholmasta (minun tyttöystäväni ja hänen kaveri menivät ostoksille). saavuin lundiin yhdeksän tunnin päästä.
perjantaina aamulla minä ja minun kaverini, sara, matkustimme kööpenhaminaan junalla hänen luokkansa kanssa. sara on arkkitehti opiskelija ja menimme arkkitehturi kierrokselle. näimme monta kaunista rakennusta. kierroksen jälkeen menimme takaisin lundiin. sitten menimme kahteen juhlaan.
lauantaina heräsimme kahdeltatoista, katsoimme televisiota ennen kuin menimme malmöön käymään saran kavereiden luona. meillä oli pienet juhlat,jonka jälkeen menimme diskoon tanssimaan. kahdelta kun baari sulki, kävelimme bussipysäkille.
suununtaina, katsoimme naisten jalkapallofinaalin ja maanantaina menin tukholmaan bussilla, sitten laivalla helsinkiin.
i got back a few hours ago, i just slept and had a wonderful dream about københavn's transport system. the weekend was fantastic. time spent in malmö, lund and københavn was brilliant and went far too quickly. what didnt go too quickly was the travelling. verging on thirty hours in each direction. next time im going back to the method beloved of the irish, flying. none of this finnish love of ferries for me.
anyway, arrived thursday night in lund, met sara and proceeded to get a little drunk. had to wake up the next morning at 0700 or something silly so as we could go to københavn with her class on an architectural tour. i had visited københavn before but missed out on a lot of it. some places we went to included the danish architectural centre where the had a slightly irritation exhibition of daniel libeskind (the irritating aspect was the treatement of september 11th). after that we went on to the thorvaldsens museum and we saw the danish queen drive by. (she waved). this museum was based around the work of an 19th century danish sculpturer (bertel thorvaldsen). some of the items on show were incredibly impressive, magnificent in scale and detail. the building that they were housed in (a classical greek inspired building) didnt do as much for me. after this a run to the danish national bank which is one of arne jacobsen's most famoust buildings. being the complete architectural fool that i am, i had never heard of the building before, or that much about the architect. first impressions of the building were pretty low, on a windy afternoon it didnt seem to inviting, but from what we saw of the interior (not ver much) and from the brochure, the building is fantastic. a huge full height atrium is the first thing you see inside. fantastic. after that we made our way to four minutes in the "black diamond", which is the newish extension to the national library. i remember seeing this when i was interrailing in 2000, and its a fantastic building. i cant understand how it got planning permission. well done denmark. then we did a quick ferry trip around the harbour, seeing the new opera house underconstruction, but after a few hours of walking and the early start some people nodded off on the boat. anyway, after this off we went to the danish design centre where we saw a very impressive (but small) verner panton exhibition. pretty good stuff. check out that link to see some of the stuff, hard to explain. after this we went to another arne jacobsen building, the sas raddisson (another site here).
the rest of the weekend was spent mostly drunk, or watching mtvs "totally 90's weekend". after the trip to københavn we went back to lund, then onto two parties, and on saturday went for a supercool dinnerparty in malmö before heading out to a club and then to a late night bakery. yum. photos back soon, plus some from sara too hopefully. in the mean time thanks to sara, luke, ola, linnea, sweden and denmark for being supercool (aswell as the residents of #83)
going to visit sara in malmö. back on the 14th
"in america" probably the best movie i have seen in a long time (sorry to anyone who knows me because i have gone on and on to them about it). as the credits rolled, i found myself looking at familiar names in there. not friends, just people i knew of back in ireland.
mateo's paintings were done by a "lawerance o toole" (presumably the same person (leagues o' toole) who hosted the "no disco" music show for a while, and does a lot of music journalism stuff.
the overall movie soundtrack was done by gavin friday and maurice seezer, who have been going in music circles (espcially u2 circles) for a while now.
the final song in the film was sung by one of the corr sisters. i think it was andrea.
im also sure i saw one of the two sisters in the film doing a butter ad back in ireland. (might have been a margarine ad)
also, last night, trying to sleep, i suddenly remembered that i actually saw the film being shot in dublin!. they had taken over a portion of parnell street (where it meets capel street, 20metres from my old apartment) and decorated in the new york style. the street was made up to have a little italy street fair feel to it. i couldnt stop laughing last night to myself when i remembered this. anyway, go see the film so i dont have to write any more slightly strange posts like this one.
the u2 building controversy goes on and on. in an old post i showed the official winner. but there has been rumours of another winner, and now it seems that it has been found.
full story on archeire.com website.
a friend of mine, jody, is currently living in hong kong for a few months. damn him. anyway, when i was in new york a few years ago, a nearby chinease take away used to have a poster of the hong kong harbour in the background and every time i went in there for some chips i used to stare at this poster. so thankfully jody has started to email me pictures from there. here is one of an apartment block:i have included a piccie of my favourite building so far in hong kong, it's an apartment block (well, two of them, if you look closely). because of it's location on the side of the hill - elevated from the ground anyways, and then to make it 50 something storeys - and so narrow, well you can see it from everywhere. apparently it sways 7 foot each way during typhoons.
kumpula is a district about 20minutes walk from my place. its got many wooden houses and apartment buildings, an amazing place.
taken outside my apartment today. the office block in the background. the falt roof to the left. the tram lines and stops obscured by the most colourful leaves ive seen in a long time. i finally got a lend of a digital camera, and i went on a four hour tour of the city taking some pictures. more to come.
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