Finnish Fandom Resources

If you're interested in finding out stuff about findom, here are a couple of links you can follow:

• The World of Finndom is an article written by jukkahoo for Emerald City. It gives a brief history of Finnish fandom and takes a look at the present situation, including conventions, awards, clubs, and fanzines.
• SF-FAQ. It’s in Finnish, but it lists the societies and fanzines, with contact information.
• There are findom photos in Flickr if you want to see what we look like.
• I’ve collected some links in del.icio.us and plan to update the collection every now and then.
• Babek Nabel is the forum for Finnish fen to post news and discuss things. Its language is Finnish, but there’s a forum for English discussions also. If you need to ask a Finn anything or contact someone (and can’t find the contact info in the SF-FAQ), this is probably the best place to ask.
• For info about the Finnish national convention, go to finncon.org.
• And then there is of course this blog, where I report fannish events in Turku area and Finland in general. If you want to be kept up to date, you can monitor the blog via RSS feeds, or if you don’t like those, subscribe to new items via e-mail (see sidebar).

Findom in Pictures

There’s a Flickr stream for posting pictures of findom events and people. There are a couple of contributors at the moment, but anyone is free to join.

You can see the photos at <http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/findom/>. Also, you can always see the latest photos on this page: just look at the bottom of the sidebar on the right.

Meet the Fen: Turku Mafia

Here are a couple of photos taken in the Turku pub meeting this month.


The mafia gatherings in Turku take place in Bar Bremer. There are usually around 15 persons present.


Pasi, Leila and Suvi pondering the Hugo novelettes.


Elina, Jussi and Sofia.


Tytti, Jani, Kaisa & Maarit. The bar also serves delicious food.


Tomi, Aatu and Johanna

Picnic Pictures

A couple of pictures from last weekend’s Huviretki tienpientareelle, the annual relaxcon of findom.


The Turku Team consisted of J-P, Aatu, Pasi and Mika, joined by M.G. a couple of minutes after the picture was taken.


As usual, people gathered at the end of the island to sit around, barbecue, enjoy a few beverages and chat with other fen.


The weather was excellent for a picnic. There were also a few visiting alien lifeforms present. They came in peace, as long as they were fed.


Some people can’t leave sports alone even when stranded on an island…


What would a trip to Tampere be without some filking?


Uncle Pekka seemed to get depressed…


…about Sisättö’s choice of drink.


The traditional after-hours in bar Sputnik.

My picnic pictures

Highway to Tampere

We (a couple of Turku fen) are going to the Viikinsaari picnic this Saturday, and there’s one seat available in the car. So, if you’d like to go there and don’t yet have a ride, throw me an e-mail.

Update: the car is now full. Thank you for participating. :)

Hugo Novelettes Visited

Today featured the second part of the Turku Mafia Hugo Debate 2005. This time, the subjects were the novelettes. There was a lively discussion with, as usual, many people rooting for the wrong candidates. That’s what makes these things so fun: you can listen to people telling what they found to like in the stories you don’t care for, and also have to defend your own opinions to persons that think your favorites are worthless. After a while, we took a vote (and then continued to debate the merits of the outcome). Here are the results according to the Turku fandom:

• 1st place (8 votes): The One With Racial Stereotypes, or The Clapping Hands of God by Michael F. Flynn
• 2nd place (4 votes, 2 first placings): The One With Zeppelins, or Biographical Notes to ‘A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes’ by Benjamin Rosenbaum by Benjamin Rosenbaum
• 3rd place (tie, 4 votes): The One With Only Basic Story But Excellent Language, or The Faery Handbag by Kelly Link, and The One With the McGuffin Happy Meal, or The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi
• 5th place (1 vote): The One With the Sentient Car, or The Voluntary State by Christopher Rowe

There was a record turnout, 20 persons in total tonight. Some new faces also; hope to see all of you again! There were pictures from Swecon, and a con report in the mafia zine; if you missed that and want to know what I thought about the con, see my shorter notes earlier on this blog.

Picnic With Harry Harrison

As mentioned earlier, sf author Harry Harrison will be visiting Finland this month. He’ll be attending the Jyväskylän kesä festival.

On Sunday, July 17, there will be a picnic with Harry Harrison at Kirjailijatalo from noon to 4. So, if you’d like to meet the author, here is your chance.

Pub Meeting on Thursday

The first Thursday of the month: that means the pub meeting in Bar Bremer. July’s theme is the Hugo award for best novelette. We’ll be discussing the nominees and taking a vote for who the Turku fandom thinks should win.

There’s still time to read the stories: they are all available on the web. Here’s the list of the nominees:

• Biographical Notes to ‘A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes’ by Benjamin Rosenbaum by Benjamin Rosenbaum
• The Clapping Hands of God by Michael F. Flynn
• The Faery Handbag by Kelly Link
• The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi
• The Voluntary State by Christopher Rowe

There will, of course, be other subjects of discussion as well, and not everyone takes part in the Hugo speculation, so you are welcome even if you haven’t read the nominees. I’ll also try to remember to bring some Swecon photos with me.