Thank You for the Music: 20.1.2012 -17.6.2012

Eduardo Balanza, The Record Is Not Over Yet, 2011.
Music speaks directly to our emotions. Hearing a song can take us back in time. We copy the dress of our idols, our mood changes with music. Thank You for the Music – How Music Moves Us is an exhibition on how the experiences of listening to music, watching music videos or going to a concert can appear in the life and work of an artist, a music lover, a fan.

The title of the exhibition is taken from a song by the Swedish band ABBA. Indeed, we have music to thank for the pieces in this exhibition.

More info:
Kiasma - Museum of contemporary art
www.kiasma.fi

Docpoint: 24.-29.1.2012

The 11th DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival takes place in the cinemas of Helsinki city centre between the 24th and the 29th of January 2012.
The complete programme will be released in the turn of the year.

More info:
www.docpoint.info

The Finnish Miracle by André Noël Chaker

The Finnish Miracle is a book about Finnishness and success. The basic thesis is that there is a set of original national values and ways of doing things that have given Finland a competitive advantage in developing an enviable level of peace and sustainable prosperity. The book also introduces the Possibility Model, an inspiring roadmap towards greater personal and business success. An unforgettable journey into a cool string of Finnish success stories shall inspire and awaken the reader to new avenues.

"If you want to learn more about the Finnish miracle, this book is a must - a guaranteed good read."
Minister Alexander Stubb

More info:
Table of contents

Purchase the book

Kuvittajat - The Association of Finnish Illustrators

Kuvittajat (The Association of Finnish Illustrators) consists of approximately 300 professional illustrators from Finland. Their portfolio bank is full of excellent illustrators; for example Ossi Hiekkala (image illutrated by Hiekkala). Try the search by style filter of the portfolio bank for finding unique illustrators.

M83 (FR) @ Tavastia

Tavastia-klubi, Helsinki
Mon 27.02.2012
20:00-01:00
Sold Out

CSS (BRA) @ Tavastia

Tavastia-klubi, Helsinki
Thu 17.11.2011
20:00-01:00
Tickets 26 eur

More info: CSS

Flow Festival - The Documentary

A story of the Helsinki-based music and arts festival and its contributors. Select 'CC' from the video menu for subtitles in English. Read more about the project at www.nokia.fi/flow

Kalasatama Centre; EUR 1 billion project starts

The City of Helsinki and SRV signed the contracts relating to the implementation of Kalasatama centre, and the construction works will start.

Kalasatama Centre consists of six residential towers as well as a hotel and an office tower. The towers will have 20 to 33 floors, the highest being 126 meters high. The towers will house 86,000 square meters of apartments for approximately 2,000 inhabitants and 14,000 square meters of offices as well as a hotel of 10,000 square meters. Itäväylä road and metro line will be covered with a green deck.

Guess you have seen the earlier plans for the same Kalasatama area?

Wood City - a unique wooden construction project in Finland

Stora Enso plans to undertake a unique wooden construction project in Helsinki
called Wood City in collaboration with the construction company SRV.

The world-class project includes office, hotel and commercial buildings to be built of wood. The first buildings are expected to be completed in 2013 in Jätkäsaari area.

A high standard, internationally interesting and progressive plan for Wood City will be sought through an invitation-only design competition.

Wood City, the eight-storey high Bridport House in London, a shopping centre in Vienna and the Finnish Nature Centre Haltia are all real proof points of projects in which Stora Enso's building solutions have a key role, heralding the dawning of a new era of wood construction.

FinnSurf - documentary about a thing called Härmäsurf

FinnSurf is the world’s first Finnish surf film. It’s a freezing, and at the same time warm documentary of surfboarding in Finland, and in some other places as well. A film about true love and a passion larger than life. Escaping boring life and not regretting later. Winning yours fears. Aiming for balance, peace of mind and harmony. Relaxedness and pleasure. World where the life is dream and dream is everyday life.

FinnSurf tells a story of five Finnish surfers. Everyone has their own point of view on surfing, Finland and surfing in Finland.

More info:
www.finnsurf.fi
Pablo Films

Out to Sea – 150 Years of Sailing in Helsinki

The Helsinki City Museum exhibition titled "Out to Sea – 150 Years of Sailing in Helsinki" at the Hakasalmi Villa look at the maritime past of Helsinki from the perspective of yachting as a pastime. Besides boats, yacht clubs, sailors and boat races, the endangered underwater nature of the Baltic Sea is an important topic. The exhibition will also feature the origin of the Finnish blue cross flag, first used by a yacht club.

More info: Hakasalmi Villa, Mannerheimintie 13d

City Life - Views of Helsinki in the 1930s 1.6. - 4.9.2011

Heikki Aho and Björn Soldan, sons of renowned Finnish writer Juhani Aho, founded Aho & Soldan in 1925. The 1930’s were a golden era for the company, as the two men established themselves as Finland’s most highly regarded documentary filmmakers. They went on to make their mark as photographers as members of the avant-garde ABISS group, whose first exhibition in 1930 represented a sea change in Finnish photography.

The photographs and documentaries in the exhibition at Virka Gallery focus on everyday life in Helsinki, in its many ordinary and extraordinary guises. The works are imbued with a sense of light-hearted optimism as Helsinki prepares for the Olympic Games and a construction boom is changing the face of the city.

More info: Virka Gallery

Monocle: Helsinki is number one in Quality of Life

Helsinki claims the number 1 spot in Monocle’s 2011 Quality of Life survey, which ranks the top 25 cities in the world to call home. Rising from fifth position in 2010, Helsinki outperformed Zürich at number 2 and Copenhagen at number 3 to claim the mantle as the world’s most liveable city. An unorthodox but well-deserving champion, the Finnish capital stands out for its fundamental courage to rethink its urban ambitions, and for possessing the talent, ideas and guts to pull it off.

More info: Check out Monocle's Helsinki video

Are you sweet or salty?

To find out, you may want to try some of these:
Gaijin (Bulevardi 6, Helsinki)
Restaurant Lupolo (Punavuorenkatu 3, Helsinki)
Restaurant Muru (Fredrikinkatu 41, Helsinki)
Cafe Engel (Classic cafe reopened again after the renovation)
Chef&sommelier (They concentrate on organic food at Huvilakatu 28, Helsinki)
Restaurant Saaristo (The best view of Helsinki opens from the island of Klippan, open during the summer time only. Try the Slow Sunday brunch)
K17 Kitchen Cocktail (Kalevankatu 17, Helsinki)
Cafe Mattolaituri (Ehrenströmintie 3 A, Helsinki)
Paven (Island of Pentala, Espoo)

Check these out also.

Helsinki 78-82 - Cruising

More info: Helsinki 78-82 (Myspace)

Let it flow

Good upcoming gigs ahead in Helsinki...

May 15: Ladytron
May 31: Caribou
June 13: Crystal Castles
August 12-14: Flow festival 2011

Cloud City

Helsinki is currently developing new sustainable methods for building the city. Primarily these projects aim at increasing density at the expense of urban sprawl. One question is how to make existing built areas denser, another where and how to build high risers. The Cloud City project is one possible answer.

More info:
www.cloudcity.fi

Food Liberation Army

It all started by kidnapping the Ronald McDonald on 31st of Jan 2011. Hidden cameras of Food Liberation Army (FLA) reveal how Ronald was kidnapped in the middle of the day from McDonald´s restaurant.

One day later FLA announced they kidnapped Ronald McDonald! Their statement: why did we kidnap Ronald?

On Friday 11th of February 2011 FLA executes Ronald as McDonald's did not respond to FLA's demands and/or questions.

Later on Finnish artist Jani Leinonen holds the head of Ronald McDonald after its "execution" in a Helsinki art gallery Showroom Helsinki.

More info: www.freeronald.org
FLA exhibition @ Showroom Helsinki until 16th of April 2011.
Fox News Insider report

Helsinki's battle with the snow

CNN's Richard Quest reports on how the city of Helsinki has won the battle to keep the city moving during heavy snowfall... Well, the battle is not over actually.

Finland's answer to Turner Prize: Ars Fennica Award

(image copyright by Charles Sandison)

Charles Sandison won Finland's answer to Turner Prize in 2010: Ars Fennica award.

Have a look at his amazing portfolio. Now that's what I call art. WOW!

More info:
www.sandison.fi
www.bbc.co.uk

Cut Copy in Helsinki on Saturday 12.3.2011

Founded in Melbourne in 2001, Cut Copy are one of today's most successful indie electro acts along with Hot Chip, Empire of the Sun and LCD Soundsystem. Cut Copy's debut album "Bright Like Neon Love" earned the band an ever increasing following already in 2004 but the trio's popularity skyrocketed upon the release of their sophomore album "In Ghost Colours" in 2008. It topped the Australian album charts and the band played sold out tours in the U.S. and Europe with Daft Punk, Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand, to mention a few. Cut Copy are currently finishing off their third album "Zonoscope" due February 7.

Tickets 35 euro + possible service fee.

www.tiketti.fi