flyfishing...

Last sunday my brother from Helsinki with two 12 yearolds came to fish at Kapeenkoski. Or they came on saturday and I joined them on sunday. The weather was lovely and the place fascinating, but no fish was seen... it was of course dissappointing to boys, but we fried some sausages insted.

Paw-shop

closed on saturday and today we cleared the space. Summershop it was and that's it. I haven't yet unpacked the car.

We did some recordings to patch up the original soundtrack - haven't checked them yet, because there were some dark clouds and I'm scared of thunder - it breaks computers etc with electrical pulses. But there is a day tomorrow too.

no rain today...

It would cheer me up - rain. Soaking wet world, water pouring from heaven for months, at least two, and the pump would not shout so long in the evenings, when the consumption is highest.

Only one scene to go - but it needs a monologue - and I've not written the final words. But it is taking shape. Rather a gentle movie it will be, nice - I'm a bit ashtonished, but it is ok. They have bruises in their souls, those two, but they can still...love?

And it is the last week of August....

plane shingles

that's what they did, a couple of friends of mine. And I had my camera ' tukkasotka' with me so they will plane shingles forever... Sounds quite fatal. So I did some forging - been a long time since I was at the smithy: it has been just too hot. It was hot today, too.

time flies

just amazingly. I've dedicated my time to the film and it is so slow and timeconsuming work - I'm still cutting, now also the soundtrack. That was tricky, almost lost my nerve but now I'll manage. Still quite a lot of recording to be done: missing dialogue etc. But slow you go and good youll be...
The school has started so there is some driving around on these miserable roads.
Last night we had a bonfire at the yard, and some beer and sausages - prosaic, but quite enchanting with the darkness and the stars. There also were some northern lights in the sky like fluttering light green curtains.
Still no rain, or just so little that it doesn't matter. The pump shouts long in the evenings, when we take showers: shortage of water. Praying for the rains... wouldn't it be lovely if it rained for two months! No thunder or such, but just heavy, silent rain falling endlessly... some thirty years ago there was such a summer - I remember how I painted the walls and doors and ceiling at our summercottage and it felt like living in an aquarium. Distinct memory.
Last week we took some pictures of clothes - it did rain then!

harvest

and seeds of all kinds begin to overwhelm the nature. I have not had time to see these things in a long time. And the school began today...welcome back to the ordinary world!

lovely

to have a quiet and gutsy feeling of deep satisfaction: it is there, I just have to take of the unnecessary. As you see I've looked through the roughly cut scenes....

alone at home

so the day seems to be long and quiet.

We have filmed almost all - exept the flying of the kite, but that will be easy. And I've started to cut the scenes, to create the rythm of the whole dramatic process: a lot of work there. 'Kill your darlings' said my teacher Risto Jarva - I don't know. But little by little...

Still hot and dry weather. Yesterday at Jyväskylä to see mom and to do some shopping. I tried to film some architecture but most of the try was too restless - no cameramovements, no zoom, no no. Somehow it is very difficult to stay still. Here some pictures from last winter - how would you show it as a cinema?

hot exhibition

at äänekoski - meaning hot in centigrades, don't know otherwise. Some five of us involved and all kind of works from soap to paintings and from candies to pearls. It is just for this week when the Keitelejazz has its concerts. Spent there the last two days hanging the pictures and lusting after the beautiful long pearls, colour of mixed old rose and milkcoffee and made by Mervi Porrassalmi.

Last week we filmed for a whole day, thursday, at Kivisalmi some fifty km from here. We did some tracking shooting from a car driving round and roundand round until I felt quite sick. But it was worth the trouble: nice pictures...
And then the actors refused to understand my meaning - they just laughed and made fun of everything until they got tired. Even that was worthwhile: the dialogue runs smoothly and compactly.
Later we shot the drowning of the girl. It was windy and the water was cold, so pictures are gorgeous but the poor girl almost frose. She still shivered some two hours later.
Anyway, just a little more and then the workflow with Final cut. I have done the rough cutting all the time, but can't create the rythm before I have all the material. Seems somehow priggish, but that's just it.

windy day

and cool. I felt like going to a bikeride and then I remembered that the backtyre was in pieces. pity. Well, I should repair it, change the whole tyre. Ugh.

Otherwise I made some watercolors for the next week...

time flies

the skeleton
starring:
the cameraman
the director
the studio
and weeks pass like mellow water, not bothering but bearing on... We have been filming some and I've been skimming through the stuff several times, just cutting of the rough edges, bits and pieces. The summer around us has been warm and full of flowers, odours and hayfields. And we had a dog for a couple of days... my heart cries (and my bloodpressure goes down as it used to be), but I'm not going to have a dog, no! Tisilii, my old dog lived to be 18 years, - it is a long time to be present and responsible.
Some pictures to go with...

perseverance of the heathwave

is exhausting. I do not like heath: it is suffocating and harassing. And the thunder frightens me because it can burn the house (and all of my works, of course, and beeing a selfish and narcistic person that would be devastating), my one and only home.

The conserts are over and the market gone. Tomorrow we shall move the artexhibition to the Pawn-shop and I shall get some frames from Hankasalmi - the framedealer visitid the exhibition today.

Yesterday I had 'open doors' at the smithy. It was sweatty and i swam for the first time this summer - and not only once... And surprise surprise: my eldiest son Tuomas turned up there in the evening with his new old Mercedes. We came home together after midnight, and he left again today before noon. Such are our children, but it is good to even visit for a short while. He said he'll be back...

'The Enchantress' has been liked and praised, and here is a picture of her.

heat and exhibitions

Some hot days it has been. Yesterday I was at Laaja-art to see Improvisages, and to film them. Some really funny pictures of Ari's pictures - and the music came to tape surprisingly well. And I got pictures of Eeva-Liisa's horses as well. Captured the material in the evening and no problems with that either.

And today at ten o'clock we were building the exhibition at Konnevesi: the shoppinglists and the dragonflies went there.

I made still some more toffee - now it is finnished, the making, only selling remains. Then I had a cold shower, a glas of red wine and a cool down. - When I buildt this house, I wanted two things especially: a big window in the bathroom and a window at the kitchen where the washbasins are. It is lovely in the summer when the eveningsun shines to the bathroom...

things done and remembered

Some days ago I made the first three hundred toffees and today some four hundred more. Just a thousand to go. They are for the summerconcerts at the beach Hayrylanranta next week. For some summers I've been making them. Don't know about next year, though - but when would one know?

And today I had a visitor, who wanted to see some pictures from the great balloonflight a year ago. A warmn and calm evening it was - a bit too calm, maybe. And some three hundred pictures I took. Here are three, one to lake Keitele, the other my house and the third taken by Samuli, when I phoned him to do so: here I am in the yellow balloon!

sidesteps and lost days

A crashed dragonfly and
a poetic aquarelle.

It is so with many things as well as life itself: the little alleys and byways are much more interesting than the mainroad - or mainstream. I've been cutting our little filmfiction and as usual there are so many possibilities that it seems almost rude to choose just one. And the sound - I just don't know how to handle it - . Deep shit. But the choice is my own so who is to blame. I must be exaggerating...

So passed the midsummernight, without dreams, wide awake till morning. Alot of light and a lot of gnats.
Today my son Nasse and neighbours son Eemeli were at town Jyväskylä and a tyre blew out. So no passer-by had a suitable monkeywrench and I had to go and rescue them. Only some 50 km and back. And the spare tyre leaked too...

Not so bad on the whole...

making cards

A truly hot day. On wednesday we shall open a summershop 'Pawn' at the village Konnevesi and today some five of the local artists and artesans were furnishing and decorating the space. I sometimes think that the more people the slower everything gets done. But I'm allways hasty. So we shall continue tomorrow...

Now in the evening I've printed some new cards, two streetwievs from Helsinki and two from Jyväskylä.

thunder

Been quite a while since the last time. Because of the thunder one can't keep plugs in the sockets and that means no internet, no computer, no machines...

Been filming some three hours: our little fiction and some documentary. Sunday went in Helsinki with the crew. I've seen the material twice and it is workable. Tomorrow I'll do some rough cutting. And so on...

One problem solved

and the editing program recognizes the camera. It still won't transfer the data, but I'm working on it and perhaps some day...
It has still been cold and the wind stays in north. Yesterday I was in Jyväskylä. Got the microphone, more memory and the battery, but still no tapes. Beginnings of a crisis there.
Today I started the filming of sculptor Molsa and her horses. Quite charming wievs of meadows and horses and riding. We even made a trip with a cart drawn by the young one, Maija. It was quite exiting. Horses seem to be a lot like dogs: simple and trusting.
And tonight some more filming with the local artists.

Dipoli is new finnish architecture by Raili and Reima Pietilä.

cold for summer

Rather a cold day. I've been in the net, in the phone and using the camera and all this at the same time. There is a problem with the logging and capturing, and now I know that basically there is nothing wrong, it is only some kind on functional knot. As a matter of fact I knew that already. Well, now it has been certified after a long wait, some finnish discussion, another long wait and a longish english conversation. To put it plain: all I got was a headache.

And the virtual courses, arranging all the material to the net and hoping for the best: they will understand, and we will work on things. Yes, of course they will understand, they are clever young people. I hope that I can offer them something interesting and worth doing.

Yesterday I was at the opening of Laaja-art, artexhibition for the summer. It is allways refreshing - something new, something old too, yes. And once more it did rain....some years ago there was a mighty thunderstorm at the openings. In a way it builds quite an athmosphere...