Wapun Pudasjärvi-muistelokisa

Wapun Pudasjärvi-muistelokisa.

It’s May, Right?!?

It’s May, I think.

Time goes by so fast, or far too slowly. And summer’s just around the corner here in Northern Finland. The temperature has been around 10 degrees Celsius lately, which is good but I prefer 20 degrees and not one degree more. The good thing is that the snow melted away a couple of weeks ago and the grass is already getting fresh green. But I’ve heard there are still places in Lapland with more than 75 cm of snow.

And I was right about this year. This year is getting more and more exciting month by month. And it’s not just about the attitude of trying to seize the day and to enjoy the moment. Well, that makes it easier to be happier. Everything’s still not in order in my life but I’ll try my best .

By the way… It’s funny I’ve never shared this song before. Or have I? Panic Room – I Am a Cat. One of my absolute favourite songs this year.

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Lights, Camera, Action!

It was a fine day for Eternal Tears of Sorrow. The very first official music video. As a matter of fact, we do have some semi-official videos but unfortunately they’re not really 100% professional quality videos. I really don’t know why. The odds and the gods of metal have always been against us.

We shot one in 1999 for “Burning Flames’ Embrace” which was a bit weird. We had a brand new line-up playing a song of the original line-up, for instance, our drummer Petri Sankala had to play the drum machine things in the video. And, of course, the overall cost of the video was 666 Finnish marks. Then, there was supposed to be a live video for a song on “Chaotic Beauty“, somewhere in Helsinki supporting Nightwish. And then, there is a nice live video for “Summon the Wild”, done a couple of years ago.

We all woke up at seven (if not earlier) to get to the place at 8.30. The production team (Mutant Koala Pictures) had arrived a bit earlier, which is natural as they had a lot of equipment with them. An hour later, we started. Hearing the same tune over and over for six hours might normally be quite boring, but we all had adrenaline rushing in our veins. Can you believe it was actually the first time a photo was taken with each member playing his instrument, including the keyboard wizard mr Janne Tolsa? But I’m sure it won’t be the last . And you’ll get to see this photo later, as well as the whole video.

Anyway, it’s been quite natural that after two days of action I’ve needed a total rest day, no matter how fun the action has been. Friday was fun and Saturday was fun. Quite different from each other, but fun. (Did I already mention the word “fun”, by the way?) In my first blog entry of 2012, I wrote:

If everything goes “as planned” (yeah right, like I would ever have a plan?), I will be happier by the end of the year. Or at least I will have learned new things about life, love, the universe and everything.

Well, I’m already happier than in January. Much happier. That’s weird because I don’t know what has made the difference. Maybe it’s just as simple as seizing the day, enjoying the moment and always trying to think positively (as my mother says to me almost every time I call her). One third of this year is gone and I just can’t wait for what’s ahead.

“Life, love, the universe and everything.” Sounds like fun. Welcome, May, you will be a nice month!

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Holiday, Vacation, Loma, Semester And So On…

People at a Vappu picnic in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki, on 1 May 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It looks like the first third of 2012 is almost over and the Finnish Vappu (i.e. Walpurgis Night) is just around the corner. Well, we Finns don’t have bonfires on Vappu but on Easter and on Midsummer. Finnish Vappu is something different. Students get drunk (as always), people make sima and Vappu doughnuts (basically, doughnuts covered in sugar and without the hole in the middle). And I still don’t have any definitive plans for Vappu. But that’s good, that’s the way I like it.

The year has been quite nice so far, actually. I’ve made some mistakes (as usually) and some things I’m really proud of, alone or with other people. One of the things that has made this year fine is a slight change in my attitude. Why should I worry about things if things are not so bad, after all? Seize the day (if possible) and enjoy the moment, that’s a good motto. I don’t have to worry about the past because it’s already done. I don’t have to worry about the future because it cannot be foreseen.

In short, it’s been a nice year so far. Looking forward to the summer!

Anyway, it’s time to get prepared. Tomorrow we’re going to shoot our first official music video ever. Still need to do some music editing with the songs with my Wavelab. And I also need new clothes. Nice.

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Google Chrome Memory Usage

Google Chrome (Photo credit: thms.nl)

I’ve been an avid Chrome user for a year now. There’s basically nothing wrong with Firefox as such, it is just a bit slower nowadays. But nowadays, Chrome has started to use more and more memory, making it virtually impossible to have Chrome windows open when making music with Cubase.

It took a while to try to Google something for this issue. Finally, I found three switches to add to the Chrome shortcut button.

• –purge-memory-button adds a new button to the Chrome Task Manager. I’m actually not sure if it works in Chrome 20 as it often crashes the whole browser.
• –enable-internal-flash makes Chrome use internal Flash player. I’m not sure if this works 100% either as watching a Youtube video crashed my Chrome this morning.
• –memory-model=low is definitely the most interesting switch. There are three memory models: “high”, “medium” and “low”. I think this switch has something to do with Chrome releasing memory back to the operating system.

But Chrome seems to work more smoothly now that my shortcut looks like this:

C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –purge-memory-button –enable-internal-flash –memory-model=low

Home. Tired. Happy.

Audio mixer faders at the Bull & Gate pub in Kentish Town, North London. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I got home from Tico-Tico Studio on Monday evening. Must have been 11 o’clock or something. And it’s kinda funny that you usually get tired after a long day at a recording studio even if you don’t play anything on that day, or just play some basic guitar tracks. You need to keep your ears active all the time (or as much as possible, anyway).

But in the end, being at the studio is still fun for me, it’s almost like holiday. It’s the place where you finally hear what your music sounds like. And it’s the right place for making some extra experiments on your songs. It’s different from travelling in a bus and playing live shows in different cities and towns. You don’t have to travel for 12 hours to a venue to play an hour or 90 minutes to get things done, anyway. Well, it’s not that I don’t like playing live. During the years, I’ve actually started to love gigs.

This weekend, Eternal Tears of Sorrow is going to record their first music video ever. Finally! I have no idea why it has taken so long. It may have been bad luck or perhaps the somewhat crooked music business that promises you a lot but doesn’t always keep its promises. Anyway, I don’t want to complain. Things are fine with the band. The music video this month, the brand new single in May or June *), the last recording sessions in July, the Chinese tour in August and September. And finally, the album should be out in…? Well, I don’t know. End of the year, probably, possibly and hopefully.

*) Just got to see the cover of the single and it looks amazing. The final versions of the songs on the single sound great as well!

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Storm Corrosion: Drag Ropes (New Video!)

Ooh yeah, this is exactly what I’ve needed after a weekend full of metal, Nuendo and so-called studio food. Storm Corrosion, a project by Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) and Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) have finally had an official video out. It’s weird, non-metal, progressive, atmospheric, experimental, melodic, beautiful, confusing and much more.

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