Fandom Friday

In today’s program was Fandom Friday, a guided Helsinki walking tour for the fen.



We had some surprise guests for the first part of the tour: the honored guests VanderMeers and Robson joined us for the walk to Paasitorni and a tour of the con site.


First stop: the Kaisaniemi park.


Sari leading the group to the restaurant Kaisaniemi.


—Paasitorni!
—Paasitorni!
—Paasitorni!
—It’s only a model.
—Shh! Besides, it can’t be, because we went inside.


The place was still relatively quiet.

There was a special treat for the tour: we got to go up to the tower, and enjoy the view of Helsinki from there.

And it was pretty.


Sari Polvinen, our tour guide, kept us amused with historical facts and anecdotes about Helsinki.


Just a little parade we arranged in honor of our friends from abroad.


Finncon takes its security seriously, make no mistake!


The Helsinki Cathedral.


We took the ferry to Suomenlinna island, where we had a short tour of the former fortress, and then had lunch at the brewery restaurant there.


Some participants had dropped off along the way, but most made it to Suomenlinna and back to the mainland again—even after some very curious loitering (which to the untrained eye might well have looked like a mad dash to make it to an earlier boat).

We took another route back to the city center, and ended the tour there. People went on their separate ways to bookshopping, to the hotel, or just wondering around on their own. Olav, Anders and I decided to have a beer on a nearby outside pub.

Really big thanks to the local guides Sari and Otto who made the tour a success with their knowledge and personal anecdotes! I had fun and hope to do a tour like this in another place at some future con too!

Finncon: Thursday

The trip to Finncon started on Thursday around noon when Pasi and I took off from Turku towards Helsinki, car full of stuff to bring to the con. There were banners for STk, buttons for Tutka (and STk as well), loads of fanzines, and of course our own stuff as well.

After a couple of hours, we arrived at Paasitorni, unloaded the boxes, picked up Jukkahoo and headed towards the Otaniemi sauna by the sea where the guests of honor would be arriving later in the afternoon (we’d promised to help Jukka with the arrangements). Once we got there, I took to warming up the sauna; gophers brought refreshments and other necessities, and Jukka continued what I understood he’d pretty much been doing for the past few days: talking on his phone, making sure everything was progressing smoothly.

Stepan and Kia Chapman, guests of the con, were the first to arrive. After a while, Eemeli brought in the guests of honor, Jeff VanderMeer with his wife Ann, Justina Robson and Rickard Berghorn. A moment later, Ipa arrived with another foreign guest, Cheryl Morgan.


Jeff VanderMeer and Justina Robson receiving their “goodie bags”.


Hanging around, waiting for the sauna to get warm.

What would a sauna be without the ritual of barbequing sausages?


Behold the sacred sausage!


Mmm… yummy!



After everyone had had their chance to relax in a hot, steamy room, the guests took off to dinner. We quickly tidied the place up and headed for St Urho’s Pub where the Helsinki fandom biweekly pub meeting was just beginning.

It was pretty hot, crowded and noisy in the pub—unless you asked the locals who said it was unusually quiet (at least earlier in the evening), but I think everyone got a seat, at least for a while. People from other cities and some from Sweden started arriving, and the guests joined the crowd after their dinner.


People at St Urho’s Pub.

I left relatively early, because I was staying with friends, and didn’t want to arrive too late at my hosts’ place (where we stayed up ridiculously late, talking this and that, and drinking some very fine 18-year-old islay malt, but that’s another story), but from what I gathered everyone had a very good time at Urkki.

Usva: Free Finnish Fiction

To celebrate Finncon Anne Leinonen has put out a special issue of her webzine Usva, full of Finnish fantastic fiction in English. Usva International is a sister issue of Usva 2/2006 and most of its contents are English translations of stories that appeared in that issue, with some additions.

Usva International has short stories by Sari Peltoniemi, J.K. Miettinen, Jenny Kangasvuo, Petri Laine, Irma Hirsjärvi, Natalia Laurila, Juha-Pekka Koskinen and Petri Salin. In addition there is a brilliant poem “The Last Eurovision Song Contest” by Hannu Rajaniemi, all post-singularity grandeur (yes, I used the s-word; sue me), heroistic bombast, and Guinness:

No one remembered
who won the last time
so we decided
to have it in Ireland
just in case

One by one
we rode
on Aibo horses
(Boom Bang-a-Bang
said their hooves)
rode
from the far corners of the Earth
to the glass mountains
called Dublin
…

Don’t be fooled by the cover that’s a bit drab (to my tastes anyway)—Usva has consistently produced interesting and fresh fiction from contemporary writers, and although I can’t say I’ve been that fond of even close to all of Anne’s choices for publication, I like it very much that she is doing a zine that has such variety and isn’t afraid to experiment (more on that below). I haven’t had a chance to read this issue yet, but based on the previous ones, I can heartily recommend it to anybody who’s interested in what Finnish sf has to offer. Go on and take a look; Usva International is available as a free pdf download!

And speaking of liking what Usva is doing: for over a year now, Usva has been proudly presenting Finnish fiction, skillfully edited to bring out the best the writer has to offer, with emphasis on low-key fantasy but ranging all the way to full-on science fiction. I meant to write about this on a separate post about Atorox, but since time doesn’t seem to permit that, I’m putting it here instead: as I was reading the nominees for this year’s Atorox award I noticed that on my personal top 5 list, four out of five short stories were published in Usva. It has brought new life into Finnish sf, and therefore I’ve decided to give Anne Leinonen the first ever Partial Recall recognition award for advancing science fiction with Usva, always exploring and pushing the boundaries of the genre. The award doesn’t come with a lot of bells and whistles (nor a big cheque), I’m afraid, but I think bying a beer for Anne at Finncon is in order. Congratulations!

Fandom Friday Approaching

Finncon is almost at hand, and a good way to start the convention is Fandom Friday, a walking sightseeing tour of Helsinki on Friday!

The tour starts at 11 in the con hotel Radisson SAS Plaza lobby. There will be a tour of the con site (Paasitorni) and Hakaniemi. From there, we’ll go through the city center, and take a boat to the Suomenlinna island. Lunch is served at Suomenlinnan panimo (Suomenlinna Brewery Restaurant) at 14. We’ll have an “archipelago buffet,” naturally accompanied by the brewery’s own beers.

After lunch, we’ll be touring the downtown Helsinki until around 4 or 5 PM, seeing sights, shops, etc. On Friday evening there’s a Finncon party at the restaurant Juttutupa.

Fandom Friday is your inside scoop on Helsinki for sights to see, places to eat and drink in, where to shop for books, souvenirs and such, and an opportunity to spend Friday with other fans.

Lunch costs 14.30 euros (plus drinks), and the return trip to Suomenlinna a couple of euros. There should be no other costs for attending (unless of course you want to buy refreshments along the way, etc.)

The lunch buffet consists mainly of different kinds of Finnish fish, so if you are allergic to fish, let us know when signing up, and an alternative will be arranged for you.

If you aren’t able to make it by 11, you can join us in Paasitorni, at noon. Or call (+358 40 861 9326) at a later time and ask where we are.

If you want to participate in Fandom Friday, sign up by e-mailing fandomfriday@finncon.org by Tuesday August 15 at the latest.

Welcome to Helsinki and Finncon!

Fantasy Feast Fotos

Fantasy Feast, the traditional “pseudo-medieval festival” was held for the seventh time this weekend. A few dozen people put on fantastic costumes (medieval, mythological, and whatnot) and gathered in the Ahtela camp center to take a break from the mundane.

Although there seemed to be fewer people present than before (the event hadn’t been advertised very widely, which might have played a role) I felt there were enough participants so that the place felt lively and full (and enough to cover all the organizing costs too, I hope). There were a lot of new faces (to me, at least), so the feast did manage to reach a new audience after all. There were quite a few twentysomethings, and they clearly had a lot of fun: singing, dancing, participating in the program and just hanging around the site. That’s a very good sign, should anybody wish to keep organizing these feasts. This year there were also a lot of kids (second generation guests) running around with their parents.

All of the photos below are from Saturday (I was only there for the day this year). On Friday, there was already a competition for the bards, and singing and dancing around the fires. Sunday’s program was (if tradition held) pretty much breakfast and hanging around for a while until the feast ended.

(There are more photos of the feast on my Flickr set.)

Loikkivan lohikäärmeen majatalo (The Jumping Dragon Inn) was the central place where people gathered.



The weather was unbelievably gorgeous once again (if somewhat hot). The place has a beautiful beach which has traditionally been a setting for a big tournament. And so once again, people started gathering on the beach around noon, waiting for the games to begin.



The tug of war—the classic among the tournament events.



One member of the team guided the others, who were blindfolded, in gathering tokens as quickly as possible.



The three-legged race became the four-legged race…



Archery was a fine event, albeit quite tournament-jarringly slow. And beanbag throwing is always harder than it seems.



The big finale was a bit of a letdown—basically just digging around in the sand until one of the finalists got lucky, found the hidden item, and won the whole tournament.



Competitors (team Ihku!) and audience.



Other events for the day: face painting for the little ones, a treasure hunt (for the little ones and the bigger ones as well), a magic wand market at the inn (I don’t think anything was left after the kids went through the selection), a mighty wizard who did neat tricks, and people entertaining themselves (as well as others) by playing music and singing (and I see the little ones seemed to be everywhere).



Guests (including the mighty wizard Pyroforius).



The kitchen staff had prepared a huge four course dinner for the guests (including roasted whole chickens, oxtail, vegetable stew, oven baked vegetables, cheese-and-egg casserole and so on, and baked apples with vanilla sauce for dessert. I don’t think anyone could have eaten a bite more!



The official program concluded with the awards. A special citation was awarded to the Jew’s harp-and-dancing number (to the two little girls doing the dancing, to be exact). Awards were given for success in the bard competition (music number and best story), and also the tournament winner got his award (but was standing his back even more turned to me than the others so there’s no picture).



There was music and dancing.



The wizard was in charge of the fireplace.



At the campfire and in the inn.



All and all it was a succesful feast. Everybody seemed to have fun—the kids most of all—there was enough prearranged program, and the food was great. A big thank you to everybody who toiled to make the weekend happen! (And Inka wants to know when the next time will be!)



Update: Pasi has photos too. Johanna wrote a few words with a couple of pictures, plus more pictures on Flickr. Ben has words (in Swedish) and pictures.

Mafia Evening

Mafia seemed a bit slow at first—I thought that the Fantasy Feast which starts tomorrow had perhaps taken its toll on participants. It turned out a couple of regulars were setting the feast up, but quite a lot of folk came nonetheless. It was hot in the bar, so we had to drink lots of fluids to keep cool.

A natural topic for discussion tonight was, of course, Finncon. The program book has been published, and quite a book it is too! 64 pages, with the program, introductions of the guests, some background on sf and fandom, a (very) brief history of Finncons and short stories by Jeff VanderMeer and Justina Robson. Wow! I really liked the way they had brought out the themes of the con, with excerpts of the associated program items put together. And the very funny “meaning of Isomäki”—explanations of many familiar-sounding terms in the vein of The Meaning of Liff. Did you know, for example, that a bester is “a book that is advertised as a nominee for an obscure award; also used of a book that has blurbs by complete unknowns,” or that clute means, “a blow instrument band put together impromptu after a night of heavy drinking,” or robson, “a drink that nobody has claimed and thus anybody can take for themselves”?

Many ideas for future fandom activities were thrown around, for example to be used at the book fair (held in October). Some obligatory YouTube mentions were made (such as Darth Smartass and Vader Sessions) before degenerating into British and Japanese quiz shows. There was also a new issue of the mafia zine, with info about upcoming events, some Finncon stuff and a review of Keeping It Real by Justina Robson.

I had to leave early today, so I hope everybody fills in the comments the parts I missed!