'--- Blog to become a film'

The title comes from a little article from The Guardian (published yesterday).

The blog in reference is an acclaimed blog created by a man from Baghdad during the initial invasion in 2003. And, I didn't know, that it has been already turned into a book. Ok, that is cool, but how astonoshing? What can that mean? What can that represent?

First thing I think about is the publication of correspondence letters (from famous writters, philosophers, politicians, etcetera) and the films made about them. Those are things from the past. And part of that past was the relevance of the life of 'publicly-important' individuals.

Something of the present is the significant attention that 'publicly-non-important' individuals can get. Other thing of the present is the change into virtual communication, and its significance for the people (with access to it), and its different meanings and consequences. This other aspect also comes in many different shapes, and it is taken into the extreme that many many of the those unknown people become known by their displays of information in virtual spaces. Other extreme is the outstanding 'celebrity' culture in the UK, where persons who were unknown yesterday turn public with the blink of the eye if they just happen to shag, snog, date, or know something about some publicly-important-one. Yet, this last condition is not only a thing of the present, it is a thing of the past too, however it is aided by the increasing access to means of communication.

I am not sure of how I actually see all that, but so far I find it very interesting and as happening way too fast. The speed is one aspect that I actually cannot comprehend just yet. But I will leave it here, because I don't want to get too serious here.

Let's better do some mental wanking. Can you imagine the whole of incoherences from the imposibility of the next happening?

'Electric Vihta Blog to become a film'

Oh Lordi

World, or at least Europe has gone mad, it's official now. Eurovision song contest has long been a lame attempt to raise some feelings for one's nationality. Funny that, as if people in their countries on this continent already would not possess those feelings. Europe is a very diverse continent with rich and complex cultural mixture and the peoples of Europe have always known this and stuck to their own countries with some exemptions of course so that the point of such contest still remains very unclear to me...

However, Lordi, with some nice assistance from their record label, caused such a stir even before anyone had heard any of the songs that few were left in darkness about their mission - to rock the stagnant and largely pointless contest. To be honest, it was about a time for someone to really do this and to question the necessity of such thing on the whole.

Well, I can't really say that much more about the song or the band except that as for the rest of the contestants, it had some more comedy and showbusiness value than most and therefore, it won. Oh, just maybe, there's also a helluva big group of people around Europe who happen to like monsters and semi-hard rock too... or not?

On another note, I will be turning 30 next week and will be visiting the city of Dublin with Xinola Mon-Tue next week. The highlight of the trip will be a meal at Patrick Guilbaud's restaurant. More on that next week once we're back. I'll write a little review of a place that I've never even thought that I'd be visiting and I am of course talking about the restaurant here.

Mad world, and it's only getting crazier as we get older....

Hard Rock Hallelujah, make your bets

This morning, waking up to the Chris Moyles show as usual, a strange out of a cavern sound was put through the radio. It was the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest entrance: Lordi and their Monster Rock.

If you haven't heard the song or seen the video, I recommend you to do so if you want to be part of this anticipation to that ridiculous contest. This goes months back...

Few months ago, Nygard showed me the Finnish entrance to the Eurovision. It was cracking at the moment, and we kind of felt sorry for the Finnish nuisance. Yet, just yet, if most of the people think that Finland will be the most annoying competitors, actually I think the whole show is meant to be that. I would be surprised if people have forgotten the horrible performers from Greece...

The anticipation for the contest is bigger this week. For example, two days ago, in Scott Mills show, they were asking the audience to mention their favorites to win. Someone called and mention, if I'm not wrong, the Romanian entry and they played the song, which sounded as usual clubbing shitty music. Right. Then someone else called and asked for Finland's entry. People were cracking, again by the embarrassment, and played the song.

I know my point is not clear as usual. I intend to raise a case against all odds and claim that although Finland is the entry said to earn ZERO votes in next Saturday's context, I am almost sure that someone will give at least one vote. I am almost sure that if this should happen, a major embarrassment then will be for the UK because three years ago it did not receive a vote whatsoever. Having a slight idea of the Brits, they will recall the time when they didn't win a vote at all, and will try to find explanations for why something like the Monster Rock received at least one vote and why 'Gemini' did not receive even a laugh.

Does any one want to bet that Finland will get a vote? I say, they will get at least one, for the sake of an honest laugh.

Travel stories...

As promised, here's a little travel diary of our recent trip. I'll keep it simple and add a few photos to illustrate some key locations....

Our first day travelling was quite a long day, made somewhat worse by a guy in seat 34K in front of me, who had the seat fully reclined for the entire 11 hour flight. I'm not complaining for complaining's sake but I'm quite tall and it's not very comfortable to try to relax for such a long time in a tiny cramped space.

Another slightly negative note to add was the so called fast bag drop at LHR. Yeah, do the online check in and drop your bags and you're off, right. In an airport such as Heatrow, there simply is nothing fast, apart from the first class passengers hurrying their way past you to the fast track luggage reclaim and migration control...

Apart from that, the journey went well and it was nice to arrive to D.F. with a hint of daylight left. The skies were clear with little pollution and we could see the volcanoes surrounding the city nicely.

The first weekend we spent in a city called Puebla and also visited some surrounding towns for Aztec ruins. Very impressive. Puebla itself is a nice and vibrant colonial city, at least for my eyes. The weather was great and the process of sunburn did not take too long to get started.

The great thing about Puebla is Mole Poblano. I've never tasted anything so voluptuous, sweet, bitter and hot at the same time, gorgeous! Made with several ingredients ranging from plantains to various chillies and roasted sesame seeds, this truly is a Mexican dish at its best. And this was the best I've tried, ever, and I've tried a few...

After the weekend we took an early Monday morning flight to Cancun (for cheap flights, check Volaris). Landing to Cancun International was rather interesting as we could see from the plane the damage done to the jungle by the hurricane Wilma.

Our destination wasn't Cancun itself but a little island called Isla Mujeres (island of women), located apprx 10km from Cancun in the Caribbean Sea. We've actually visited this place together once before and I fell in love with it immediately so we just had to go back.

Isla (as everybody seems to be referring to it) is a quaint island of some 13,000 inhabitants and a small abudance of tourists. Fortunately, there are no franchises (ie. McDonald's etc) on the island and the tallest building is limited to three storeys. The abundance of tourists is not overwhelming at all, on the contrary. We felt the place very peaceful, especially in comparison to the previous time as that was the peak season (xmas-new year).

Highlights of Isla definitely included snorkeling and beach (which you can see on the right). Holiday as ordered... Including some delicious food from the Loncherias.

From this little paradise our journey continued towards Veracruz state. 16 hours on the bus is not necessarily an ideal way to spend precious holidays, but for some reason I didn't mind. At least I had more space on the bus than I had on the flipping plane.

In Veracruz we had a wonderful time meeting family members and just literally taking it easy. Xinola already posted some pictures from Veracruz and I'm sure you can appreciate the beauty of the place from the photos. Very nice indeed. I've always had a large soft spot for nature and wildlife and Mexico definitely has some great places to explore. If only one had more time and money...

Some more beach and delicious food and it was time for me to head back to UK and boring office life again. Xinola still had some extra days with her family which she, hopefully, enjoyed whilst I headed back.

It's a shame that nice things must come to an end... Anyway, this was a great holiday during which I managed to read a couple of books and truly relax well. Can't really ask more for from a holiday, can you?