Weekend

Just a quick post:

on Friday, at the university library checking out some old pulp stories, then rush off to Tampere to a party that was held for the contributors of the Valo weekly; Elina's dad got sick and Elina couldn't come; lots of booze and The Crash live (they are much better than HIM and Nightwish (I still don't get why they didn't break up sooner)); I also had a quick chance to check Libris, my favourite used book store in Tampere and find some interesting paperbacks;

on Saturday, off to Nokia to see Markku and have lunch with him (thanks again for the food!) and then to see my dad and pick up books and old VHS's from him (will write about these later), he had also found a neat stack of old children's napkins for Elina's and my collection; we also had a quite long and not very friendly chat about grammatological things; then to Hämeenlinna where Kauto and Elina were;

on Sunday, back to Turku and then Ottilia came to us for Fathers' Day, which amounted to lots of noise between her and Kauto and finally to some small conflicts, but also some nice moments of warmth and friendship; then at seven o'clock I took Ottilia back to her mother and said that we'll have to rearrange some of the meetings next Spring since I'll be having a job (she said: "It's good for you to have some kind of a job"; well, does anyone reading this think I don't do work?) and then back.

Ottilia had made a very nice tie for me as a present out of felt with Kauto's picture (!) on it. The best part of Fathers' Day was, though, when Kauto behaved nicely after I'd got back and started to babble in his own way, saying words that sound like "buoy". Just imagine a small boy, sitting by himself, playing by himself, saying over and over again: "Buoy buoy buoy!" We almost started to cry, after all the commotion today.

And then I said to myself: "I don't feel like opening the computer any more." Here I am. Had to make corrections to the latest issue of Pulp which is almost mainly about British stuff.

Banalologies

I had finally some time yesterday to pick up the copies of Banalologioita, my latest self-publication. See the cover. (Oops, the scan seems to be pretty bad. Don't mind that. Just admire my AD skills...)

I read it last night. It could've been shorter (it's 42 small pages now), since there are one or two essays that now read like reader's letters to the editor. But there are some bona fide classics, such as the one about eating your lunch in public places or the one about sneezing. The one about wanking and its impact on the economy (or rather the other way around: economy's impact on the amount of wanking) is still disputed by academics all over the world.

Not.

But I am serious. I'm glad this finally saw the light of day, even as a self-pubbed book that has a limited distribution.

Lord Lister

Here is a cover of another pastiche that those German guys, Matull and Blankensee, made. Lord Lister was modeled after the British Raffles.

Great name, that Lord Lister, doncha think?

More of faux Doyle

One of the Harry Taxon stories I wrote about earlier has been published in English. Anthony Boucher picked up a story from the Spanish anthology called Memorias Intimas del Rey de los Detectives and translated it and used it in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. This was later reprinted in Allan Barnard's anthology The Harlot Killer in 1953. The story is about Jack the Ripper (as is the whole antho). The Taxon story has Jack kill his 37th victim.

Faux Conan Doyle

I wrote a small piece for the Finnish Whodunit Society's Ruumiin Kulttuuri magazine on two Finnish-language books that have been published as by Arthur Conan Doyle, but are not vintage Doyle.

The other one is one of the German Conan Doyles that were written by two guys, Kurt Matull and Theo Blankensee. It's already apparent from the outset that it's not a real thing - Watson has been replaced by Harry Taxon, young man who is an apprentice of Holmes. The Holmes is no real Holmes either, since he has loads of technical apparatus at his help. The German Holmeses appeared in 1907—1911, and Harry Taxon had his own mag, too, called Harry Taxon und sein Meister. It was published in 1908—1909. The Noble Thief is the one below.

The other one is a real mystery. The Victim of a Blood-Sucker a historical novel, set in the late 18th century and features one Luc de Kerjean. Baron Luc is setting up a conspiracy against the King. It sounds more like Alexandre Dumas or Ponson du Terrail than Conan Doyle.

The Victim of a Blood-Sucker (great title, huh?) was published in Wisconsin in 1907 in two parts by a American-Finnish publisher. I've been toying with the idea that this is a trunk novel that Doyle was able to sell only to the Wisconsin-based publisher to be translated into Finnish.. but then again, probably not.

My new job

I visited today Helsinki to see my future boss in TV. I've worked with her before and while that experience wasn't altogether successful to me, I was able to get more sense out of her this time. I also met my colleague and friend, Manu, who will also be doing the show. I also heard that Tero, who's taken photos for Elina's and my talkkuna book and some of our magazine articles is doing some inserts for it, too. This calmed me down a bit, even though it seemed that they didn't really know what they were going to do. We are shooting a test pilot on next Tuesday. The real pilot will be shot in December.

Maybe all the TV shows are done like this. No one knows what is going to be done and some just lean back and relax and say: "Hey, don't worry!" Me, I'm an amateur and don't know how things go. But it seems they really have confidence in me, since I heard there were some 20-30 people running for the job.

Someone asked me if I'll show up in tabloids from now on. FAMOUS TV FACE ARRESTED FOR SPEEDING UP CRACK! TV ANCHOR SHOOTS NEIGHBOR! ELINA AND JURI: "WE ARE NOT GOING TO BREAK UP!" JURI: "I'LL GIVE UP DRINKING!"

Blogit ja parodia

Lueskelin sattumanvaraisesti paria suomalaista blogia Sediksen linkkien kautta. Uusi maailma aukeni: maailma, jossa ei ole muuta kuin blogeja ja niiden semanttista pyörittelyä. Huomasin miettiväni, eikö kukaan huomaa, että blogien häviö on jo lähellä. Mielessä nimittäin käväisi vanha totuus, jonka mukaan parodia ja varsinkin itseparodia ovat merkkejä siitä, että jokin ilmiö on menossa mailleen. (Toisaalta parodia on aina säilyttävää, konservoivaa, ja sikäli se on myös merkki siitä, että jokin ilmiö halutaan säilöä sellaisenaan.)

Stuff on the other blog

Let me remind you there's an article on Seikkailujen Maailma in English on my other blog.

I also put the rest of e.e. cummings's poems in there. In Finnish, that is.

Cover for a Finnish pulp

This is a cover for Seikkailujen Maailma, the Finnish pulp that lived 1937-1963. In this issue, there's a story by "Charles D. Hammer", who's better known as Robert Silverberg. It will be included in the forth-coming collection of his early crime stories. Quite bad cover, I must say.

Other stories include Ron Garret's crime-themed juvie Motorcycle Murder and Westerns by Reuben Jenner and John Harrison McLean. There are also some anonymous stories. I'm thinking that Ron Garret could actually be Silverberg's buddy, Randall Garrett.

The blurb says: "The year for mavericks has begun!" (Or something to that effect.)

I got it!

I got the TV job!

Well, that's how I figured it. I was pretty flabbergasted when they phoned me earlier today and announced that they had liked me. I'm going to shoot the test pilot next Tuesday and the first real show - well, that went past me since I was in such a mess during the conversation. It seems, though, that they don't yet really know what they are going to do with the show, but I've decided that I won't mind. It pays the bills.

Now I just have to get new glasses. The current ones show reflection.

Vow! What a man!

This is an old magazine illustration by one Martti Masala, who did lots of book covers and other illos in the thirties. That swimming suit is a knockout! And the guy isn't bad himself either! (It's from a magazine called Reading for Everyone.)

Weekend

Ottilia came to us for a weekend. It was All Saints Day on Saturday and everything was close. Which didn't mean much, since the rain was coming down hard all day and we didn't get out. We had a friend of ours and his daughter come by. Kauto went pretty wild over two girls at the house. Ottilia left today early with her mother to a concert and we spent a nice evening with Kauto. He's much calmer when there's no one else around but Elina and me (and we don't just sit at the computer). He wants so much of Ottilia's attention that when she's not in the mood or is too tired to play and run around, Kauto gets pissed off. Well, not pissed off, but irritated. He performs stunts just to get attention - he for example threatens to walk off the sofa.

Today he tried to kill himself and both of us. He put a little toy box beside the television which is on a small desk and tried to get up on the desk. He tried to pull himself up by pulling from the cords... And he didn't do this only once, but at least 15 times.

It's great he's so energetic and clever, but it does eat us at times.

What else happened? Nothing much. I read some pages of Clarke's Jonathan Strange. I'm still not getting to it, but it seems to have its moments. I'm reading Moomins for Ottilia for bedtime stories. I strongly suggest everyone read Moomins. They were once voted the second best books in the Finnish literature and I won't say anything against this. Very delicate, very funny and sad at the same time, devoid of the so called wisdom that rots most of the children's classics, and also very adventurous. A note should be made of this: Jansson's books appeal to a wide range of readers, not just girls or boys.

I spent one hour of my precious life and tried to watch Perdita Durango by Alex de la Iglesias, from Barry Gifford's novel. What a waste! I mean, I'm not prudish and am the last person to claim any moral for a piece of art, but there should be at last a sign of humanity in the characters. This was too wicked even for my taste. I've seen another previous film by de la Iglesias who was a find of the Almodovar brothers. Accion Mutante was its title and it was just as "evil" and "wicked" and boring as this.

Watch out: there's an article on the Finnish Seikkailujen Maailma on my other blog. In English, so it's a treat.

Osmo Pata

Osmo Padan eli Toivo Vuorisen Sannan suudelman (Kirjamylly 1945) kansikuva. Vuorinen kirjoitti myös nimellä Topi Tuisku: novelleja lukemistolehtiin sekä 70-luvun alussa vakoiluromaanin Kolauta kohtuullisesti. Jälkimmäisen julkaisi Iltakirjat-niminen pulju. Kumpikaan kustantamoista ei käsittääkseni julkaissut mitään muuta. Mietinkin, että ne saattoivat olla liikemiehenä toimineen Vuorisen perustamia one-off -kustantamoita ja kirjat käytännössä omakustanteita.

The cover of Sanna's Kiss (1945) by Osmo Pata (= Toivo Vuorinen, who also wrote pulp stories and a late paperback as by Topi Tuisku). Nice outfit! Gotta love that tank top!

Sorry about the B&W photo - it's scanned from a xerox.

Suomeksi blogeista

(Sorry, as this is about blogging culture in Finland, I thought I'd better write it in Finnish.)

Ajattelija Karl Krausilta kysyttiin joskus, miksei tämä, nerokkaana lohkaisijana tunnettu mies, ole ikinä sanonut mitään natseista. Hän vastasi: "Ei tule mitään mieleen."

Tämä tuli mieleen, kun luin Anssi Miettisen juttua Hesarin Kuukausiliitteestä. (Aiheena siis yleisesti blogit, jos joku ei tiedä.) Jotenkin tuntui, että vaikka Miettinen oli perustanut oman blogin, antanut kommenttien lentää, laittanut juttunsa eri versioita luettavaksi ja kommentoitavaksi, jutusta ei jäänyt mitään käteen. Ihan kuin Miettinen ei olisi keksinyt mitään sanottavaa. Ei tullut mitään mieleen.

Tämä johtuu ennen kaikkea siitä, että kaikki mitä blogeista voidaan sanoa on kauhean ennustettavaa. Yhteisöllisyys, uusi journalismi, kansalaisjournalismi, narsismi, julkisuushakuisuus, kaikki tämä tulee mieleen jo viiden ensimmäisen minuutin aikana. Jos liioittelen, niin olisin voinut ilmoittaa Miettisen jutun lopputulemat jo ennen kuin rupesin lukemaan sitä. (Tosin siinä ei ollut kunnon lopputulemia - ehkä se johtuu siitä, ettei aiheesta tule mitään mieleen.)

Blogikulttuurissa ei siis ole - ainakaan omasta mielestäni - mitään kiinnostavaa sinänsä, on vain joitain yksittäisiä blogeja, jotka ovat kiinnostavia (enkä ole varma, onko omanikaan sellainen). (On tietysti joitain blogiryhmiä, joita seuraa, vaikka ne eivät olisikaan mitenkään erityisen kiinnostavia; itselleni tällaisia ovat useat amerikkalaiset rikoskirjailijoiden blogit, joissa yleensä kerrotaan työn etenemisestä tai luetuista kirjoista. Jolloin niiden lukeminen kuuluu enemmänkin työn piiriin.)

Blogeista ei tule mitään mieleen. Tai jos tulee, se on niin banaalia, että sitä ei viitsi sanoa. On erikoista, että Hesari ei saa blogeista mitään irti (mikä ei ole ihme), mutta kuitenkin samaan aikaan se perustaa monta blogia toimittajilleen ja ulkopuolisille (Mikko Rimminen). Siinä on varmaan takana se, että blogit tekevät varsinaisetkin mediat kiinnostaviksi mahdollisille lukijoille - eikö se ole vähän banaali lähtökohta?

Robert Viby's covers

Robert Viby is a Danish illustrator who made some paperback covers in the fifties. Some have been used in Finland. I am putting them here, since I was scanning them for an article in the forth-coming issue of Pulp.

The first one is for Edward Aarons's Sam Durell book,
Assignment - Madeleine, that was published by Fawcett Gold Medal in 1958. Quite a striking cover, I must say. Viby has lately done covers for children's and juvenile books and has left the world of pulp sadism.

Prather with Viby

This is Viby's cover for Richard Prather's Strip for Murder (Fawcett Gold Medal 1955), one of the best entries in the Shell Scott saga. In the climax Scott flees the nudist camp naked with a balloon and lands on top of the city hall.

More Viby

Rather static composition for Day Keene's Notorious (Fawcett Gold Medal 1952).

Brian De Palma: Blow Out

I saw Brian De Palma's Blow Out Monday evening and liked it very much. It was at least fifteen years when I saw it for the last time (at least I don't remember seeing it) and didn't remember much of it. It's a tour de force in a technical sense, but it's also an exploding critique of masculinity. It's obvious that John Travolta doesn't really love Nancy Allen, he only sees a possibility to gain back his lost manhood and pride. He uses her and gets quite a punishment.

I wondered, though, why so many people laughed at the climax, when Travolta rushed to save Allen. De Palma uses slow motion, as he often does in climaxes, and I didn't see anything funny about that. Maybe it was Travolta. Well, they could've left out the falling snow from the scene in which Travolta listens to the tape he recorded while Allen was being strangled... The final scene is crushing and very ironic. No one laughed, even though there's also jokey feel to the scene.

Which goes to prove that De Palma is a master of irony.

Even though he's rather underappreciated at the moment. I wonder why. Someone might say that his career is uneven. Hey, whose isn't? I think that even in his worst films there's something interesting, even in Bonfire of the Vanities (I wrote a positive review of it when I hadn't yet heard that it was a box-office and critical failure everywhere else; haven't seen it since, so can't really say). The Mars film has some spectacular scenes and the opening shot of Snake Eyes is breath-taking. Along with Blow Out, my personal favourite would be Raising Cain, with very good overacting from John Lithgow. (I wrote somewhere that Lithgow is a better psycopath than Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, based on the De Palma film and Ricochet by Russell Mulcahy. Should see that again to verify. Maybe I wasn't thinking clearly.)

Back from the book fair

Just got back from Helsinki where we were at the book fair to publicize our talkkuna book. Everything went well, except when we were on the way to Helsinki: Kauto kicked Elina's coffee and my tea over, with his yoghurt. It was one of those "always-need-to-be-ashamed" -situations.

I met some publishers and talked about books. There's now a chance that I might be able to edit a series of paperbacks with the real new American hardboiled and noir! This is just what I've been looking for... I'd like to introduce an idea of having some classics of the genre translated for the first time - Gil Brewer's The Red Scarf for example. And ask some Finnish crime writers to do short snappy books for the line. I have some in mind already. (I didn't remember to ask if they would be interested in the Visa Mäkinen novelizations...)

We talked also about a series of game and quiz paperbacks. We'll see about that. We've had a proposition about such a book for at least two years now, but it hasn't caught fire. I don't know if it did this time.

I think I also got a publisher hooked on the famous last words book we have made with Jukka. We'll see what comes out of that - I just sent the guy the manuscript. It's a very small publisher, but a real publisher nevertheless.

I had a pleasant chat with Jukkahoo who's the other editor of the pulp SF magazine we are doing for the Helsinki University SF club. We came up with some great ideas. The Giant Brain of Titan! Urho Kekkonen fighting the Ancient Gods! I hope this will meet with great applause and will be published annually. We talked about fake commercials for the mag. I said that there could be one about ordering stuffed girls' heads, put as trophy on the wall. I have a picture of that somewhere, I will scan it and put here for everyone to wonder just how marvellous creature a human can be!

Afterwards we spent a nice evening with Marja and Matti, our friends who live in Espoo, near Helsinki. Mari and Juha were also present. The morning wasn't so nice after all the alcohol consumed, but now, at 18.42, I feel just about normal. It's just those damn hangovers...

e.e. cummings

I remembered earlier today that in the birthday book 23 that I self-published almost ten years ago there was also a poem called "23" by e.e. cummings that I had translated just for the book. I remembered that I translated other e.e. cummings poems too and I have done nothing with them. I've been thinking for ten years about submitting them to some editor, but have done nothing.

Well, is blogging something, as opposed to "nothing"? You can see the translated poems in my other blog.

This is getting mighty literary here, maybe I should read some good old trash.