I've played this song here before and now I'll play it again; Badding's Paratiisi is a little bit like rautalanka in the sense that you can never play it enough. It's about a summer's day, sort of.
This time perhaps played to celebrate that today it finally felt like spring! Or that I just saved 250 euros buy NOT buying that Kitchen Aid blender I went out to get. (It actually was ugly now that I saw it the second time.) But that means poor little tired-from-Saturday-night me will be without a Sunday smoothie.
Badding, who drank himself to death in the late eigthies, wasn't exactly a pretty boy and did not elad a happy life, but he sure could sing and make music Finns like. Valot, as you've heard some Sundays ago is also one of Badding's.
psst! If you have a good clue on a nice blender that looks good hand'em over! Warings mint green one would be nice but I have a small creepy feeling it won't work over here (damn you US and youd different power system!) and pulling a cat-lamp won't work in order to get smoothies... Thinking of a Kenwood I know one can get in cream colour, but seems to be hard to find over here as other people obviously only want them in black red or white...
Soft Sunday song today is in Estonian. I am actually a quarter Estionian, but my Eesti Keelt is mostly limited to talking about vehicles and car decks, due to work. Many people think Estonian and Finnish are pretty much the same, which isn't true; they do have lots of similarities, but just by knowing one of them does not mean you will get by on the other (like Swedish and Norwegian for example, where you understand pretty much of the other, at least on a basic level).
Well anyway, this song is called laughter; he sings about sumer ending and the could autumn wind's laughter.
You can hear all of the Soft Sunday songs on my frequently updated Spotify list; although not all songs can be found on youtube or vice versa, not on Spotify, so this song had to compromise.
I almost had this song destroyed for me once. Although I have turned it into a laugh instead.
Some years ago I was, how should I put it, occasionally seeing (if even that) the Big Artist for a while. Once he called and said he'd come over and asked me if I had a printer at home. I wasn't thrilled, but fine, come on then. When he came he had a guitar with him (I wondered why) and asked to use my internet and print something. And then. He had printed out the chords and lyrics to Lonesome Town and started singing it, slowly, playing on his guitar, not good, not that bad but bad enough for it to be embarrassing; trying to get the chords right, out of rhythm, correcting himself. I was concentrating on my cigarette and then trying to focus on something outside my window, wondering what the hell was going on and how to get rid of him. I'm telling you, it was no romantic serenading, just awkward. He sang that poor song twice. Then I think I told him I had to be somewhere else.
I've been admiring the bright and rich colours this fall somehow feeling there is more of those than last year and then realized, a bit surprised, it is due to the fact that it has not been that windy lately -it has allowed the trees to maintain their colours in full glory. It's normally windy as hell around here this time of year and today we're back to normal; the wind is hard and the air full of twirlling yellow leaves. I've gone to pick up some Nepalses and mango lassi now in between the ships and am waiting to go out and face the wind and the growing waves.
This Sunday may not be a soft one, but one with work (I'd like to say hard work but Sundays are pretty easy so I'd be exaggerating) and cold, but here's some music to go along anyway:
And also, last but not least; as you may know the blog and I are aging gracefully together; I started my thirtieth year last week and the blog will now enter it's fourth (!) one. It's always funny to look back and see how some things m,ong many others have changed,; during the first year of blogging for example my work changed from freelancing with a lot of things to cutting down and mainly working in the habrour. During the second year burlesque went from becoming an interest to something I started doing for real, and the past year for me has been about changes; I moved away from the centre of town to greener areas and how two kids around the house every second week. Let's see what I can wrap up next year then!
I would actually have hundreds (or well, ok, tens) of things to blog about but I've been busy with this and that lately -shows, dinners, other people's shows- so those matters will just have to wait. Right now I'm baking for this little thing I'm having tonight here at home and I do it to the tunes of some good ol' Finnish music.
(Oh, and about the skirts. I think I will have to go for both :)
(I originally intended to do my Sunday baking a bit more often than once every 18 months but things seldom turn out the way you intend them to...)
I got a huge craving for coconut biscuits, such as my mom and grandmother used to make them and which I haven't had for years. I used a recipe from the web which maybe differed a bit from the ones I'm used to, perhaps, but anyway they're super easy to make. And works for those with gluten allergy too.
Fluff three eggs (I use ecological and ecological eggs only) and 1.5dl sugar together, add 8,25dl of coconut flakes and the peel of one small lime. The lime is not mandatory but is a nice add to the biscuits. I also found one recipe putting a little bit of rum in the mix. I'm pretty sure I've had versions made only on egg white also. Which of course gives a different result. Maybe one could try a version with one whole egg and the white from two-three?
Pour in 75 grams of melted butter (I felt there could have been a few grams less butter).
Mix all together and leave for ten minutes so the coconut flakes can soak in the moist and swell.
Use a spoon to scoop the biscuits onto a baking plate or into small cupcake molds. The result will be fluffy and slightly cone-shaped biscuits so you don't need to form them round or anything, but you can slightly shape them into cones.
Put in the oven (175C) for about 20 minutes until the biscuits get a nice dark golden color.
Let cool and out in the refrigerator for about an hour or so before you serve. You can alo dip the tops in melted chocolate and let cool, that makes a great combination.
Eddi does not have much of a sweet tooth, he'll have a couple or three at most and his kids don't really like anything I make by default, so that means lots of biscuits for me! And they taste as good if not even better after a night or two in the refrigerator.
In late 2006 the company I worked for merged with another one and I started working in a new harbour. Our work teams split up and all routines and systems were new. It was cold and dark late November and we supervised a freight ship that took hours to load, sometimes having to stay at work until two in the night. I was waiting for my winter gear to arrive and froze in my short workwear jacket and rather tight pants (asa they are designed for men there's not a lot of space for the trunk-junk) and hated the fact that the stevedores were checking out my derrière. One of my old colleagues had made a mix CD that we kept in our work van and listened to trough the night. I hated that period and I missed my old work mates.
This song was on the CD and every time I hear it it makes me think of cold those dark nights in the harbour, the cold wind, rusty ship and the big waves splashing up on berth. And now I almost miss that!
I have a whole lot of things to blog about but that would require a) time b) my camera and c) another environment than the one I am in now. I have none of those available right now as I have been stuck here in the harbour, pretty much for days, all of the time. I'll spend this Sunday with Beirut in between the boats so I'll share a little bit of that then:
I love Balkan influences in music (and Balkan music itself of course) and songs in minor key sung by sad men. Beirut is pretty much all that and a whole lot more too, and also a essential part of my Soft Sunday List.
The internet tells me Zach Condon, the man behind the band, was born as late as 1986 (and thus was only twenty when then first album Gulag Orkestar came out)! I get stressed by facts like that for some reason. It's strange -and stupid- but sometimes it feels like the whole world out there is just getting younger while I'm getting old (although I actually keep on forgetting my age only to remember I am not even thirty yet). You know, people born in the nineties are already grown up. But why not, although terrified by how fast time goes I, in soem ways, like the thought of getting older. It makes me feel calm for some reason.
We drove home from the festival we performed at yesterday in the pale summer night listening to Neil Young. I think Neil Young is perfect for whatever road you are driving on, but especially the on that leads home, in the middle of the night.
Neil Young is one of those artists I find it odd to hear somebody say they don't like. Like Johnny Cash or say, Elvis. Or the Beatles. Like someone saying they don't like icecream.
Led Zeppelin is a great band and this is a great song for lying on the grass in the sunshine, having the wind mess up your hair, resting your hangover/melancholy/lazy afternoon away; feeling the summer.
(Oh those you tube videos. This one has the words attached so you can sing along. Ta ta!)
The Sounds (and yes once again, the Finnish Sounds form the 60's, not the contemporary Swedes :) - Kaipaan Sua
The Sounds did typical rautalanka music, using influences of melancholic Scandinavian traditional songs, like in this song (although rautalanka in general is instrumental).
Roasted wholegrain bread with butter, banana, honey and sunflower seeds and a huge cup of cherry tea. And (almost) all of my Soft Sunday songs so far: Soft Sunday
(If you don't have Spotify you'll just have to do with the posted videos. Or without :)
Some time ago I said that you could ask questions if there was something you were wondering about. So here's the answers. And some soft Sunday music to go along:
(I always like the Lee parts better in all Lee and Nancy songs).
At some point earlier I got the question of how I decided where to live? -Well, apart from a couple of student exchanges abroad I've always lived in the Helsinki capitol area, the past eight years rather central. I joke that I'm slightly geographically discriminative in terms that I could not really consider myself to live elsewhere in Finland than around Helsinki. (It would probably be different if I'd have grown up somewhere else I guess...) When it comes to part of town I've lived in the same area the past five years, I originally moved there since the prices are more affordable. This summer however we'll move west of the city to a bigger home.
What computer do I have? -I used to have an 22" iMac, now I have a MacBook Pro 17". ALso dreaming about the 27-inch iMac, but I guess one computer at a time is enough...
Do I work with photoshop to get my pictures so white or is it just the natural vibe of the cold north? -It depends on the picture, when and where taken. If there's good light I use manual settings for a slightly overexposed effect, with long shutter speed. Otherwise I adjust the curves and/or add some white to faint out the edges for a more dreamy look in the pictures (like here, also with added lens flare).
Then I get a lot of questions about make up: -A tutorial? Noup, I don't think I'll ever do one but I have promised some sort of make up post forever. Now I'm really going to try and do it soon!
-The blusher I use is GOSH; the peach and the dark pink shades.
-If I change my skin routine in winter? Yes. My skin gets both flakier and fatter in the beginning of winter but evens up after some time. When cold I try to avoid too much water on my face; I wash it in the evening just before going to sleep but not in the morning, perhaps only wipe it off with tonic. I put a lot of moisturizer on at night but none in the morning, except for some eye serum. I use a serum for my lashes and lots of hand creme in winter too.
Could I post about how I tie my scarves around my head? -Yes, not that I really tie them in any special way but I'll give it a go at some point!
Is it possible to buy a IttyBitty Tease Cabaret Shake! patch anywhere? -Yup, we sell them at some gigs of ours but you'll be able to get them trough my blog soon too :)
