Markku Soikkeli Wins Portti Award

M.G. Soikkeli has won the Portti short story competition. This is the third win for Markku. The results were announced in Tampere on Thursday; this was the 21st time the competition was held.

The second place was a tie between an old hand Harri Erkki and a new name Vesa-Pekka Herva. Third place was also a tie (and shouldn’t it really be fourth since two persons came second) between Petri Laine and J.K. Miettinen.

Anne has a report with some pictures.

True Fantasy?

The 2007 Eurovision Song Contest theme is apparently True Fantasy. “Light vs. darkness, northern fells vs. islands in the south, our strong bond to nature vs. fast technological development, taciturnity against inner strength and creative madness” are among the ideas explored.

No, I don’t expect “true fantasy” from the event. But wouldn’t it be nice to actually have fantasy authors and illustrators design the thing, addressing the themes mentioned above…

Åcon Venue Announced

Now doesn’t that look nice? That’s Hotel Adlon, where Åcon will be held. Åcon will be a hotel con, which means everything is located very conveniently under the same roof. Detailed accommodation info is now available on the convention site. You know you want to attend so go there right now and join us…

Christmas Party Time

Christmas is coming, and so is the opportunity to celebrate the season with friends in fandom. Several societies have announced their annual Christmas parties already.

The first one is TSFS, whose party will be held tomorrow (November 25) at 6 o’clock at the TYY sauna (Rehtorinpellonkatu 4 A). There’ll be festivities, snacks, the “famous” ruffle and a sauna. This year’s theme is James Bond (quite a timing—Casino Royale opens here tonight). Quite how they plan to fit together a Bond-style casino atmosphere with gambling and martinis, a party for the whole family with children running around, Christmas stuff, and going to the sauna, I’m not sure, but I hope it works out.

Spektre will celebrate together with TYR on Friday December 1 at club Domus, starting at six. They have selected surrealism and dreams as the theme for the year. Surrealistic clothing is optional. There will be games, cookie eating contest, reading of dreams, and a present exchange—bring a small gift with you. It’s a potluck, so attendees should take something to eat with them. More info available from Maria Manki.

The Jyväskylä sf society 42 will have a Christmas party on December 16. No further information yet.

Kari Nenonen Has Died

Kari Nenonen, author of several sf and horror books, translator, and an Olde Cavalier, passed away yesterday in Helsinki. He wasn’t very active in fandom in his last years, and I didn’t really know him personally, but it’s always sad when a member of fandom departs this life.

Pasi Jääskeläinen Speaks

Pasi (Ilmari) Jääskeläinen was interviewed by Nadja Nowak at YLE (Radio 1) today about his new novel, Lumikko ja yhdeksän muuta. A re-run will be on YLE1 on Sunday at 8:50, but you can also go and listen to the recording on the YLE site (mp3 link).

All Quiet on the Mafia Front

An unusually quiet mafia tonight, only six people present. Maybe it was the lousy weather (we’ve finally got the first snow of the year here in Turku, yay!) or the fact that many thought they’d meet each other anyway at Halloween parties on the weekend; who knows.

Didn’t stop the rest of us from having good and surprisingly sfnal conversation anyway. Somehow I don’t seem to be able to recall much of it afterwards (no, beer doesn’t have everything to do with that, thankyouverymuch), but there were books… and movies… and conventions… and, for some strange reason, a lot of talk about James Bond. (Which, by the way, is the theme of the Turku Christmas party on Saturday the 25th.)

The mafia zine was very short this time, due to the fact that I had too much stuff to write about (yes, there is a certain logic buried under that sentence). Main topic was a commentary on the “realist fantasy” literary manifesto of late in the Finnish fandom circles. Maybe I’ll write something about that here also (later).

Necrocomicon is in two days.