Finnish Sf Film Funding

This from the Iron Sky blog: The Finnish Film Foundation has decided to give 800 000 € worth of funding to Iron Sky. Yay! Other projects getting funding include a film adaptation of Risto Isomäki’s Sands of Sarasvati, and also something called Zombie Cruise, “a film about zombies on the Finnish–Swedish ferry”. (Obviously the makers have just watched the people on the morning after the cruise and got the idea from there.)

Pub Meeting Tomorrow

The barbecue mafia planned for this week has unfortunately been cancelled due to illness. My alternative suggestion is to go to the normal meeting place, Bar Bremer. Tomorrow at six, that is. Barbecuing will be tried again next month. More info on that later.

Update: after discussion on the TSFS mailing list, the restaurant Kultainen Hirvi was decided as the meeting place for tomorrow.

Sandman Lilius Cancels Finncon Appearance

Finncon 2009 reports that unfortunately Irmelin Sandman Lilius is unable to appear as a GoH due to family reasons. Sad news indeed.

Åcon Punch Out and Play

A while ago, a package arrived from Jeff. “Your mission—should you choose to accept it—is to take this Star Wars: Punch Out and Play! book and play around with it.” As I was about to leave for Åcon I decided to take the book along.

So, besides drinking beer and talking to friends about science fiction I spent parts of the convention walking around with a bunch of paper dolls cardboard action figures, looking even sillier than usual trying to arrange them in interesting positions while explaining to passers-by that Jeff made me do it.

On the last day of the convention I visited the museum ship Pommern that was conveniently docked nearby. The con Guest of Honor Steph Swainston was also there, and got to play too.

The Jedi seemed to take to the ship like naturals. I had a hard time convincing them that it was time to go because the con was over and it was time to go home.

Without further ado, I present to you the Star Wars: Punch Out and Play Åland Adventure, a photo journey of various Jedi, Sith, and other assorted folks in Åland.

Åcon 4 Announced

Åcon4 – a new håpe will be held on May 13—16, 2010 in Mariehamn. Set your RSS readers on “subscribe”.

Back from Åcon

Åcon 3 is succesfully over and I’m back home. Despite the very sparse programming, there really wasn’t much down time at the convention for blogging and such stuff, so there haven’t been regular updates. Will try to post some thought on the convention later. Meanwhile, here are the things I posted on Twitter on Friday and Saturday:

These are the ongoing twitterings of the sf convention Åcon, its four-day mission to drink strange new bheers. To seek out new books and sfnal conversations. To boldly smof where no one has smoffed before.

Friday

• 08:34 At breakfast. #
• 09:50 Åbout to go on a tour to Stållhågen Brewery. #
• 13:02 Back from the brewery. Burp. #
• 14:15 Today's surprise hit is the ice cream the lobby bar sells. #
• 18:00 The Gothenburg fen arrived and presented Åcon with Tentakelpriset for bridging caps in fandom, awarded in June 2010. #
• 18:49 The state of Swedish science fiction (or rather the lack of it) is being lamented. #
• 19:10 Marianna waxing lyrical about current sf & f in Finland. #
• 19:45 3 panelists with laptops - I wonder if anyone notices me mentioning they abandoned the topic quite a while ago, talking about how to start writing instead
• 19:50 As soon as I had tweeted the previous comment, Ben (not with a laptop) got the panel a bit more back on track. #
• 22:23 Jukka's quiz show starting by designating the volunteers to compete and delivering various instruments that make noise. #
• 03:09 Bar closed a while ago; crowd migrated to room party. Nobody painted green yet but there's always tomorrow. #

Saturday

• 14:42 The Finncon association meeting v. productive. #
• 15:17 The copyright panel got much more interesting after getting the mandatory Mickey Mouse and copyright companies gripe over with. #
• 16:09 GoH is doing wonderful things. #
• 21:33 Will find out what "Sci Fi Babble" means. #
• 21:34 Skipped the banquet, but the alternative meal was very good, and accompanied by very entertaining conversation. #
• 21:35 Hmm, seems to be "Sci Fi Babbel," actually. No wiser yet, though. #
• 21:51 In scifi båbbel the audience gets to vote whether the competitors are being boring. Should be included in regular panels as well! #
• 01:57 Great game show, good chats in the bar. Room party. @JohanJ being painted green. There are pictures. #
• 02:32 The post-midnight Incredible Hulk photo shoot. #
• 03:41 Need... sleep... must... leave... room... party... #

Eurocon 2011 Announces Fan GoH

This just in here at Åcon: Eurocon 2011, held in Stockholm, announced that their fan Guest of Honor is none other than Jukka Halme from Helsinki, Finland. Congratulations, Jukka! (I think it’s safe to guess we’ll be hearing more of this from him. And more. And then some more…)