Tuomo writes: It's amazing how muhc you miss home during the holidays, isn't it? Regardless where your home is...
Due to circumstances around Dave's father's health, the original plans on spending Thanksgiving week in balmy Florida got transferred to... well... not so balmy Rhode Island. When the captain on our Southwest flight to Providence announced that the temperature in Providence was 25 F (-5 C) - without factoring in the wind chill factor - there was this collective gasp of disbelief. One almost expected the oxygen masks to drop down due to sudden cabin depressurisation :-)
This week has been first time back to RI since Christmas. In many ways not the ideal time of the year, and a lot of the business landscape has been affected by the recent economic turmoil. But still, it has been been fun to be at Dave's parents. Home" for my I guess if you want to use formalism, where Home is in Helsinki and Home' is in Hyattsville, meaning Langley must be Home"'. At any rate the week has been full of familiar sounds and sight - not to mention some culinary treats, keeping in mind that I'm no gastronome by any extent! For five-star and more exquisite gourmet experiences in RI, look elsewhere :-)
Here are some of my favourite places for a meal in RI (besides Mamma's of course!):
Athenian Deli & Restaurant (1242 Oaklawn Ave, Cranston): Greek comfort food in a blue collar diner environment. This is a MUST and a big disappointment when it has been closed for the holidays :-)
Wien-O-Rama (1009 Oaklawn Ave, Cranston): Hotdogs like I've never appreciated before, with or without celery salt.
So, today on Thanksgiving I'm reminded again how one just can't erase 11 years of memories just like that. Prior to moving to the States, Thanksgiving was just this cultural thing that I was aware of but it really didn't mean anything else. Now it has to be one of my Top 3 celebrations of the year: no presents, no religion, and everyone, regardless of their origins, is invited to have a good meal with their beloved ones. Something that in my mind spans all human kind.
In other words, for all our readers: Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for being "you" - and forreading this blog every once in a while too :-)
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Go Obama!
Tuomo writes: OK so the US elections came and went, and four weeks later, I still haven't commented... I guess everything worthwhile saying has been said and analysed to the nth degree so that li'l ole linguistics me probably has not much to comment on the outcome.
On election night, we went over to our friends' Tim and Keith's place to watch the results roll in on NBC and CNN. On most occasions being three hours behind the east coast is a nuisance, i.e. by the time we want to call our friends and family in Maryland and Rhode Island, it's close to midnight their time! However, this time the results were in well before 9pm, and we were good to go home around 10.
IMHO McCain gave a very eloquent speech; too bad that his booing supporters continued to reveal the true colours of the Republican Party...
There was a collective gasp in the room when President Elect Obama mentioned gays [and lesbians] in his speech. There was nary a dry eye in the room as we witnessed the end to the eight years of nightmare under Dubya. It was such a wodnerful and uplifting speech... And the family is adorable too; let's hope the puppy issue gets resolved soon :-) So here's to a new dawning full of hope at a time of turmoil of various kinds, economic, social, you name it!
Ironically, on the same night that the future president of the United States explicitly made reference to gays and lesbians, more ominous news came from possibly the most progressive state in the country, California. Proposition 8, the evil-spirited move to bring down the recently passed law allowing gay marriage in California had passed. And the irony of ironies is that the people who helped boost Obama were primarily the same ones who helped this proposition pass. Not that Prop 8 would have changed Dave's and my lives in any way (at least, at this stage, thanks to Clinton's DOMA in the 90s), but it made us mad for like days.
As someone on one of the columns that I read regularly put it, this wasn't just telling us to get back to the back of the bus - we had been run over by the bus.
Thank goodness then that this has activated the LGBTQ community to stage protests across the country - or as CNN put worldwide, with a demonstration in London! Hopefully this fury encourages the community to be more forceful... I mean, if my memory doesn't fail me, just last week gay partnerships were made legal in Bhutan :-)
On election night, we went over to our friends' Tim and Keith's place to watch the results roll in on NBC and CNN. On most occasions being three hours behind the east coast is a nuisance, i.e. by the time we want to call our friends and family in Maryland and Rhode Island, it's close to midnight their time! However, this time the results were in well before 9pm, and we were good to go home around 10.
IMHO McCain gave a very eloquent speech; too bad that his booing supporters continued to reveal the true colours of the Republican Party...
There was a collective gasp in the room when President Elect Obama mentioned gays [and lesbians] in his speech. There was nary a dry eye in the room as we witnessed the end to the eight years of nightmare under Dubya. It was such a wodnerful and uplifting speech... And the family is adorable too; let's hope the puppy issue gets resolved soon :-) So here's to a new dawning full of hope at a time of turmoil of various kinds, economic, social, you name it!
Ironically, on the same night that the future president of the United States explicitly made reference to gays and lesbians, more ominous news came from possibly the most progressive state in the country, California. Proposition 8, the evil-spirited move to bring down the recently passed law allowing gay marriage in California had passed. And the irony of ironies is that the people who helped boost Obama were primarily the same ones who helped this proposition pass. Not that Prop 8 would have changed Dave's and my lives in any way (at least, at this stage, thanks to Clinton's DOMA in the 90s), but it made us mad for like days.
As someone on one of the columns that I read regularly put it, this wasn't just telling us to get back to the back of the bus - we had been run over by the bus.
Thank goodness then that this has activated the LGBTQ community to stage protests across the country - or as CNN put worldwide, with a demonstration in London! Hopefully this fury encourages the community to be more forceful... I mean, if my memory doesn't fail me, just last week gay partnerships were made legal in Bhutan :-)
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Election Day!!!
Tuomo writes: I was telling Dave last night that it feels like eight years of a nightmare are finally coming to an end. I excited, Dave's excited, and judging by Facebook, a lot of my friends in Finland are excited, too. I hope our friends in Baltimore are excited - and voting...
Now of course you all realise what this means. Yes, tomorrow the media speculation over the presidential elections in 2012 can begin :-)
In the meantime, enjoy this clip:
Now of course you all realise what this means. Yes, tomorrow the media speculation over the presidential elections in 2012 can begin :-)
In the meantime, enjoy this clip:
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Madonna in Vancouver!
Tuomo writes: As they say, "beggars can’t be choosers" and a lot of aspects in life can be best called "sour grapes," so I advise people to read my review of Madonna’s concert in Vancouver through these clichés.
For one, I hadn’t realized how big BC Place Arena is. I mean, not big – HUGE! An estimate of 30,000 people was there that night, and I think that is a fairly accurate estimate. Come to think of it, 30,000 is like 10% of all Iceland :-) Mind you, BC Place Arena will also be the venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, so that should give my out-of-Vancouver readers some perspective of the scale I'm talking about. The three of us were sitting on the fourth level in the nose-bleed, and from there the stage felt like it was at least ten blocks away. Flanked by two huge letters M in pink, the stage had three screens and two others to the side, to the left and right of the huge Ms. While the show was on, the outermost jumbo-tron screens followed what was going on on the stage while the three on-stage screens functioned as back-drops to each number performed.
As a result, Madonna appeared to be 5 millimetres tall; I hadn't realised she'd be so much smaller in person! :-) Without the two jumbo-trons, it would have been next to impossible to see what was going on on the stage. At times, when Madonna and her dancers were performing close to the back-drop screens, it was in fact impossible to see what they were doing, so a lot of the show was lost on me. In the end, if you wanted to enjoy the show, you had to keep your eyes peeled on the jumbo-trons. Consequently, the thought of purchasing the tour DVD might have been a better choice :-)
As for the numbers, Madonna performed quite a selection of her songs from along her career, focusing not so surprisingly primarily on her latest album. Some of the arrangements were interesting, to say the least, others unfortunately weren't. For example, Borderline made me think of this; had I paid to see a goth performance, I would have accepted it as is without questions, but now I’m not so sure. I didn't like the way Human Nature had been arranged either; for one, I don't care that much for this song, and two, it just didn't work for me. Others fortunately, like La Isla Bonita was arranged and mixed so that it sounded in Dave’s words like what Moldova would be submitting as their Eurovision entry for 2009, i.e. he didn’t like it, but I sure did!
In my mind, She’s Not Me and Far Away, which were new to me because I haven’t purchased the album yet, which hopefully doesn’t mean my gay card will be revoked, were arranged beautifully and the stage performance was at its best, mostly but not only thanks to the imagery on the screens. A propos, during She’s Not Me, Madonna depicted a lighter side of herself when she fended off earlier iconic stages of herself as the stage act, which I think shows that she can have a sense of humour, too. Finally, Like a Prayer and some of her earlier "standards" performed more towards the end did leave an up-lifting "party" feel in my mouth – also due to the fact that I didn’t have to peer any longer at the stage from behind the queen standing and partying in front of me when I didn’t feel yet like doing so :-)
That said, I’ll give the whole experience a B+. Once again, for $100 you can’t really expect to be within spitting distance from a major pop star, now can you? However, the fact that I was so often better off watching her perform on the big screens or I would have totally missed the pleasure of the stage action did leave bit of a - pardon the pun - sour candy taste in my mouth. But considering how much I love sour patch kids, I did enjoy the show for the most.
Two lessons to be learned. One, buy Hard Candy. Immediately! Two, for future reference, be prepared to fork out the bucks when planning to attend an event in BC Place Arena! :-)
For one, I hadn’t realized how big BC Place Arena is. I mean, not big – HUGE! An estimate of 30,000 people was there that night, and I think that is a fairly accurate estimate. Come to think of it, 30,000 is like 10% of all Iceland :-) Mind you, BC Place Arena will also be the venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, so that should give my out-of-Vancouver readers some perspective of the scale I'm talking about. The three of us were sitting on the fourth level in the nose-bleed, and from there the stage felt like it was at least ten blocks away. Flanked by two huge letters M in pink, the stage had three screens and two others to the side, to the left and right of the huge Ms. While the show was on, the outermost jumbo-tron screens followed what was going on on the stage while the three on-stage screens functioned as back-drops to each number performed.As a result, Madonna appeared to be 5 millimetres tall; I hadn't realised she'd be so much smaller in person! :-) Without the two jumbo-trons, it would have been next to impossible to see what was going on on the stage. At times, when Madonna and her dancers were performing close to the back-drop screens, it was in fact impossible to see what they were doing, so a lot of the show was lost on me. In the end, if you wanted to enjoy the show, you had to keep your eyes peeled on the jumbo-trons. Consequently, the thought of purchasing the tour DVD might have been a better choice :-)
As for the numbers, Madonna performed quite a selection of her songs from along her career, focusing not so surprisingly primarily on her latest album. Some of the arrangements were interesting, to say the least, others unfortunately weren't. For example, Borderline made me think of this; had I paid to see a goth performance, I would have accepted it as is without questions, but now I’m not so sure. I didn't like the way Human Nature had been arranged either; for one, I don't care that much for this song, and two, it just didn't work for me. Others fortunately, like La Isla Bonita was arranged and mixed so that it sounded in Dave’s words like what Moldova would be submitting as their Eurovision entry for 2009, i.e. he didn’t like it, but I sure did!
In my mind, She’s Not Me and Far Away, which were new to me because I haven’t purchased the album yet, which hopefully doesn’t mean my gay card will be revoked, were arranged beautifully and the stage performance was at its best, mostly but not only thanks to the imagery on the screens. A propos, during She’s Not Me, Madonna depicted a lighter side of herself when she fended off earlier iconic stages of herself as the stage act, which I think shows that she can have a sense of humour, too. Finally, Like a Prayer and some of her earlier "standards" performed more towards the end did leave an up-lifting "party" feel in my mouth – also due to the fact that I didn’t have to peer any longer at the stage from behind the queen standing and partying in front of me when I didn’t feel yet like doing so :-)
That said, I’ll give the whole experience a B+. Once again, for $100 you can’t really expect to be within spitting distance from a major pop star, now can you? However, the fact that I was so often better off watching her perform on the big screens or I would have totally missed the pleasure of the stage action did leave bit of a - pardon the pun - sour candy taste in my mouth. But considering how much I love sour patch kids, I did enjoy the show for the most.
Two lessons to be learned. One, buy Hard Candy. Immediately! Two, for future reference, be prepared to fork out the bucks when planning to attend an event in BC Place Arena! :-)
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