Don’t Look Back in Anger 2020

Really, that song by Oasis is a classic, totally. (Take my word for that, it’s all you’ve got in this specific virtual location anyhow.)

What is most daunting about this year is that I am not gonna live long enough to fully comprehend where in history this lands (maybe goes swiftly forgotten like the Spanish Flu) and also that maybe sooner rather than later I am gonna look back at it as another absolutely abnormally normal year in my life. 

I mean, it’s a year where buying a rubber toy cow for two euros is not buying a rubber toy cow for two euros, but the most conceptual act a fake art collector could ever make. That deep. And also that meaningless. (Note to self: delete this later, most people won’t get your cow joke.)

I have a million thoughts and feelings about 2020 that I happily (in deep despair and anxiety sprinkled with glimmering hope) share offline or you know... as a well conducted multi layered phenomenal novel written fully in GIFs. But what I am trying to do here is to look back at 2020 in a manner similar to 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019. It’s a photo blog life after all. 

So 2020, let’s shake it off (Taylor style, obv!). 

MUSIC

• Taylor Swift - Ok, so Taylor Swift became my most listened artist on those long daily walks. I just felt like I need some real good girl power and beat in my step. It is essential to note that it all happened before the collaborations with The National guys popped up. It’s important for me to underline that. So you wouldn’t think I am so predictable. ROFL. (I feel like abbreviations will become retro cool in 2021, mark my words. I mean aren’t emojis like so 2020.)
• Ruusut - What I listened to when not listening to Taylor, basically. There is a lot of irony in that and I am not ashamed to admit it. Maybe a little ashamed. Haha.  
• The Holy - Their live gig at Tavastia on 2 Oct 2020 was just SO good. They’re so good. (Wow, it is a miracle I am not world-renowned critic and writer.)  
• Joensuu 1685 - Their live gig Ääniwalli on 23 Oct 2020 was absolutely totally mind-blowing. I am not really sure how they do it. They channel some kind of live music magic energy.
• Yes, I went to live gigs in 2020. Privilege, totally. (Note to self: another novel in GIFs on what has become a privilege in 2020 and what is still totes normal.)  

ART

• Doug Aitken “I Only Have Eyes for You” was just… I am so glad I went to see it twice (especially now that Kiasma will re-open only in 2022). I love it when video art wraps itself all around my heart, it’s in many ways rare, but also looking back at 2019 top art experience - when it does it, it does it good. So good. (Take note of my multifaceted vocabulary here.)
• Ed Atkins “Old Food” reading performance at Kiasma. That voice and those vibes. Somehow the cosiest. All that still in 2020. Before living you best life in tiger print outfits became the new normal. (Yes, I am writing this in leopard print biker shorts, shamelessly so.) 
• Inspiration - Contemporary Art & Classics at Ateneum.
• Vello Vinn at Kumu. Totally makes my list of fave Estonian artists. (Note to self: make a list of fave Estonian artists.)
• I have seen a lot of exhibitions this year as going to museums and galleries was sth that was still available for a large part of the year. (Note: privilege!) Some of favourites were seen at galleries and my top gallery in town is Forsblom (they almost always have sth cool on show). 

VARIA

• So while taking those long walks listening to Taylor I also became an avid bird enthusiast (wow, like if you've ever seen an exaggeration then this one) and “discovered” Eurasian Oystercatcher - now my fave bird. So awkward, so cool. The bird that is. 
• I did travel - a mini road trip to Latvia (a country I fell in love with in 2000, so appropriate timing) and some mini trips in Finland. I could totally make a Travelogue update, but I am not feeling like it (not feeling like it is a very 2020 feeling). 
• My friend got a small summer cottage in the city, so we spent some time there and it was absolutely magical. 
• And I mean, I have acquired more than one pair of comfy velour pants - this is what dreams are made of.
• I have practiced gratitude*… for having all those people keeping me sane. (If this were a one sentence summary then this would be it. Nothing else is needed.) * As hollow as it sounds, it's not.
• I’ve done many "normal things" I love, yet I feel it’s too soon to look back at 2020 like it has been just another year. After all, isn't it still only March. 
• So let’s just call it a night and wrap up with a Xmassy photo (taken at one of my fave places in Helsinki - Hietaniemi Cemetery).  

Hello, summer!

A long weekend in Riga - only appropriate to mark 20 years (gasp!) since I fell in love with this place. I don't visit often enough. That much is obvious. Then again, these days this might be my southern destination for a while and I am not complaining, not at all!

I am such an art nouveau addict. Like, I think I might have been one of those people who came up with the designs, because they totally represent how I feel most of the time - fabulous, yet not impressed by humanity ;D It's like my favourite GIFs in stone. (I did not just make that comparison, jeez.)

And as far as obsessions go... no, I am not obsessed with colour matching cars and buildings, I am just curious - do people subconsciously buy cars that match their homes?!

Getting back to my art nouveau days (I was this dapper creator in past life, m'kay) then obviously already back in the days it was clear that the future is now! (har-har)

I also have a cat photo. You know, to be on the good side with social media gods. Purr.

Maybe, after all, I have traveled in time. My 16 year old self would be totally proud that I still get excited about Riga and hearing that voice melts my heart. This all is like a big comfort blanket. And so much cosier than daily thoughts about most everything.

Time Out Sunday

Two books I have read recently. The top one included (among other things) a conversation on democracy and images, out of time, with Walt Whitman, George Eastman, and Paul Virilio. That's like one of my favourite things now. The other book is from 1994 and probably the first "text-book" (not sure about the quotation marks here) about pop music I have ever read. Pop music has raised me, so it was kinda fun to look at it from another angle than that teen-popper (is that a thing? was I ever that really?!). Who and why and when (etc) wrote a song, produced a music video, wrote a review, took a photo, published a newspaper etc. It's all that we shall always consider. (In the age where digital literacy is so widely discussed it's good to remember it's nothing new... people have gained from critical thinking skills long before modern technology :)

And one more thing. I used to be the kind of person who removes all price tags right away, but I am glad I haven't been doing it 100%. Turns out that sometimes I absolutely adore small reminders of past travels . Strand in 2016. My kind of souvenir. That kind of souvenir that is not a rubbery made in China Statue of Liberty (okay, I have that, too, as always - the joke is on me).

In other news I have seen more baby birds this spring than ever before and while doing so also discovered this cool song:

Time Out Sunday

What feels really good? To have a new monitor calibrator! My old one was well... old (though in retrospect it worked well beyond the recommended three years; the major obstacle being no more software updates). Then again - who needs screens and calibrators when one can just make colour photos in full analog.

In some magical moment I actually pulled myself together and organised my prints from the darkroom days (not in 1917, but rather in 2017) and had a small pile of photos that didn't make the cut. Spur of a moment thing I decided to try colouring them and it was so much fun. Used my very old watercolour set (bless my hoarder soul; I am prepared for all kinds of situations) and I mean, the rest is history (like literally history as well, these days we have colour photography and all those screens). But boy oh boy, if those aren't dreamscapes, I don't know what are. Time out Sunday done right.

Time Out Sunday

I took photos of the Moon this week. This is not how you do it. I mean, you have different lens, you go outside and... but guess what, you can also just have a spontaneous bedroom shoot at midnight 'cos you feel like it. Kit lens. Squeezing yourself out from the narrow window (man, do I miss big wide windows with big wide windowsills or what). And I mean, double-triple-... exposure (in-camera). Fun fun fun. 

I have started a free MoMA online course 'Seeing Through Photographs' and I have enjoyed it more than I had expected (low expectations is my jam?!). There are more courses available and I intend to enrol for some more, you know not sticking to the familiar (but oh don't I just love photography!).  

And some tunes (my current playlist is either Taylor Swift or jazz classics):

Time Out Sunday

First things first. This not some kind of statement piece to prove that days and weeks and time in general have lost its meaning. There's always meaning, sometimes it's merely more 'meh'. It's just that I got carried away doing other things on Sunday (and the fact that some of the photos in blog posts have been replaced by error messages was a downer... like what gives, blogger, why did you break?!) So, here I am on Monday. BUT. But I have missed my 'Time Out Sunday' posts.

So, last week photos on paper got organised! And the ones that ended up in so called 'trial and error' pile got some makeover. But more on that some other time. (I might have found a new hobby that would have made me rich a 100 years ago, haha :)

I finally managed to finish reading a book and how very appropriate. What did I learn? I downloaded iNaturalist app and identified that my current favourite bird ever is Eurasian oystercatcher (they have appeared at local beach and the way they run!). Cool critter of the month sounds so appropriate.

(Notice how my home office matches the only book I've finished reading in the past weeks, aye) And drumroll... Netflix favourite is 'Most Beautiful Thing' - bossa, Rio, kick-ass women and extremely beautiful 1950s aesthetics. I am so time-traveling to open my own club and swim in the sea and be all cool.

Something new and beautiful from one of my all time favourites - James Blake:

Kiasma

When you can't enter a museum then... you lurk around it and wonder how come buildings look different when cities are empty. Even rooftops. Same same, but different.