Captain Euro

Today’s mafia had a bit of a slow start. But after a while, people started to turn up, and in the end there was the usual amount of crowd. Especially after a bunch of giggling girls appeared at the next table from the movies; from Seventh heaven, by the looks of them. Well, maybe not giggling girls. A respectable part of Turkufandom: adult, intelligent women all, I’m sure. Who just do a very good impression of giggling school girls. And I don’t just mean drawing a little heart in the guest book with “Orli” written inside…

And who’s Captain Euro, then? Apparently, he was supposed to be some kind of a super hero for the Unified Europe or something. I don’t remember who brought him up (Pasi, probably). But of course you could do things even with a lame-ass hero like that. Like have him throw his deadly euro coins at his enemies. (Who’d they be, I wonder? Maybe two sides of the same coin from the far east, Yen and Yuan. And naturally, a certain arrogant red-white-and-blue guy we all know.) Also, you could teach finance to kids: Captain Euro’s coins are so strong they are the only thing that can pierce Captain America’s shield. But only when the euro is actually stronger than the US dollar. What fine education that would make: “Now, kids all around America: remember to spend money and get the economy rising, so Captain America could finally beat Captain Euro!”

Yes, a lot of fine discussion tonight. At least we didn’t giggle.

Book Thingy Link

This is just a quick link in case you came here by a backlink from Juri or Hannu. My answers to the book challenge are on LiveJournal, and the challenge was sent to me by Hanne. We now resume our normal occasional fandom-related blogging. Thank you for your cooperation. The Blog is your friend. Trust the Blog.

Pub Meeting On Thursday

There’s a pub meeting in Turku again this Thursday. Everyone’s invited to Bar Bremer at six to meet people and discuss all things sf.

Sf Scrapbook: Johanna Sinisalo in Turun Sanomat

There’s an article about author Johanna Sinisalo in today’s Turun Sanomat. It’s about Johanna winning the James Tiptree Jr. award, and also touches writing fantastic fiction in Finland and her upcoming works.

Update: There are also short reviews on Johanna’s short story collection Kädettömät kuninkaat ja muita häiritseviä tarinoita and an anthology of Finnish short stories about the Internet Verkon silmässä, edited by her. (Review found via Babek Nabel.)

Conclave Gathering

No, I really couldn’t care less about who the new pope is, and I certainly am not going to start blogging about that. But it just so happens that “Conklaavi” is also the name of a small annual fan-run role-playing and board games convention that is held in Turku. And it is next weekend. There will be a lot of gaming, of course, and also other programming items, such as panel discussions, debates, workshops and a medieval ball. Some items that might be interesting also from a sf point of view include a workshop to create better heroic fantasy stories and a discussion about worldbuilding based on different ethics and morals from our own. There will also be some local comics and comics zines on sale. The tickets cost 6 €/day or 10 €/2 days.

Speaking about comics, another thing happening next weekend is a meeting of the local comics people. Turun sarjakuvaseura (the comics society of Turku) will probably cease to exist due to lack of resources (read: interested persons with some time on their hands) to keep it going, but everyone interested in creating, reading and discussing comics is welcome in Cosmic Comic Café on Friday at 5 to discuss possible future activities.

A Strike of Pulp With Gunsmoke

Today, there was a guest star in our mafia: Juri Nummelin, editor of Ruudinsavu, Pulp, and Isku and editor and author of quite a few books, came to visit and tell us about all things pulp and western. We had a fun conversation, after which I (among others) ended up buying some of his zines and deciding to subscribe to new issues also. Quite a success, in other words.

In addition to that, the evening went mostly as usual. That is, chatting about all things (even including science fiction) and drinking beer.


This used to be a police holding cell way back when. Much comfier nowadays, and with better service too.


We wanted fanzines. And we received them. In abundance.

Pub Meeting in Turku on Thursday

It’s once again the first Thursday of the month in a couple of days, and that means an open pub meeting for all persons interested in sf.

We’re meeting in Bar Bremer (Uudenmaankatu 1) at 6 o’clock, and everyone is welcome. This month’s occasion will be especially worthy of attending for those that are interested in westerns and pulp literature—in addition to the normal sf-related discussions and drinking beer, of course.