The art of war

♫ Sabaton – Karolinens Bön

I've been a slightly lazy blogger, and slightly busy in real life as well. And if I was going to write about what special I've been doing lately, you might have a déjà vu after reading "I went to see Dreamtale live" for the fourth time. *giggles*

The theme of this post is warfare as a source of inspiration for artistic endeavours. Personally, I have very contradictory feelings when it comes to war and military related imagery. I'm quite sure most people can say they hate war and wish we could leave in peace and so on, and so do I. I'm also pacifist to the point of not being enthusiastic to try firearms if I ever got a chance (I'm talking about perfectly legal hobbies here). If I was a man, I would refuse to take military service, opting for civil service instead.

However, I cannot deny that warfare is a huge part of history, inspiration for stories, and probably even a remarkable part of human nature. It doesn't matter whether we are watching Star Wars, playing a sink ship game or reading some fantasy novel; war, battle or fight is often a part of the whole thing, not necessarily everything though. And why wouldn't it be? Two (or more) quarrelsome parties disputing in violent ways is often more interesting than peaceful conciliation. I also enjoy my regular dose of warfare whenever I've watching, reading or playing something.

This blog post is about real history though, not fictional wars. I've never been a fan of war movies or books, and I have been lucky enough to graduate from a Finnish comprehensive school, high school and university without having to read or watch The Unknown Soldier. I only had to watch a few scenes of the film in the Finnish film history lectures I had to take (which were probably the most horrifying compulsory lectures in university). And well, I can say I hate live action war films with a passion!

Some time ago I came across this DVD on sale, only for 5 €. Since I had seen it in a movie theater after its release and enjoyed it, I knew it would be worth my money. Yesterday we finally had a proper movie night and watched it, and well, it was still good.

Waltz with Bashir is Ari Folman's animated documentary film, released in 2008. It depicts Folman himself trying to complete a puzzle of his memories and recollections of his time as a soldier in the Lebanon War in the 80s. And it really is a documentary film, not a drama or an action piece "based on true events" – this means it doesn't have a real dramatic arc but consists of both interview and action footage like television documents. I think I once read how some professionals in the field wondered why Folman wanted to make this kind of film using animation, but I think the choice was perfect (not only because I wouldn't have watched it otherwise). The visual style of the movie is very interesting, and I think it portrays the soldiers' feelings very well: what it is like to be utterly scared, or to have a feeling of being on a vacation even at the front.

If there is a hole in your history knowledge and you don't quite know who were fighting in Lebanon and why, the movie won't leave you much wiser. It concentrates on the veterans' feelings, fears, memories and traumas rather than politics. I would recommend it to anyone who's interested in historical wars too, but first and foremost to those who haven't enjoyed other war movies like me.

And I guess the movie's success implies it is a good one; the front cover of the DVD states it was nominated for an Academy Award for the best foreign language film and it won the Golden Globe award of the same category. (Being an Israeli film, the main language is Hebrew.) One fangirl also had trouble sitting still back then in the movie theater when OMD's Enola Gay started playing in one scene. It's also a good war related piece of art!

I won't include everything I enjoy of this theme into one single blog entry, so I will move onto music now. Ever heard of Sabaton, a Swedish heavy / power metal band whose lyrical themes revolve almost solely around historical wars? Not only are the lyrics interesting, but their musical style combined with the frontman Joakim Brodén's strong voice makes their songs very enjoyable. (Most of their songs are in English but I also really like the Swedish versions of their new songs; somehow I think Swedish suits metal music.)


Primo Victoria is about the Invasion of Normandy, and the song which got me into Sabaton in the first place.


A Lifetime of War is from their newest album Carolus Rex which was released a few weeks ago. The lyrics are a good reminder of how insane warfare actually is.

I truly suggest checking out more of their songs or videos if you got interested. I guess I will stop here, though I might write more about the theme in the future, I already have something on mind. Until the next time anyway, so long!

P.S: Anyone else experiencing problems with Blogger loading CSS stylings? My blog background and linked fonts suddenly stopped loading, sucks!

We come in peace, kind of

Iron Sky is out! The movie premiere was on April 4th, and I went to see it with a bunch of friends. Yeah, we had all been looking forward to it. In the summer of 2009 I and one of those friends were listening to a presentation given by the filmmakers, introducing their plans, and back then we wouldn't probably have believed that in less than three years we would actually be queuing to a movie hall to see it.

So why exactly have I been so interested in a sci-fi comedy to begin with? That's exceptional of me, I'm not exactly a sci-fi geek (it's enjoyable in small portions) and I'm certainly not into comedies that much! But well, the movie is hailing from my hometown. Although the production doesn't seem that "Finnish", being a co-production with Germany and Australia, while the film is in English and German, it's been interesting to take peeks at what some people I know have been working on. Had I been more daring (=talented, or had I had more self-confidence), I could have applied for a trainee post in the graphics department of the production as well.

I'm going to say a few things now, but don't worry – there will be no spoilers.

I thought the movie was somehow surprisingly fast-paced. Some say the actual plot – a Nazi community on the dark side of the Moon, a refugee camp after World War II, intent on returning to Earth – was dealt with too lightly, as if they hadn't made the most out of the actual idea. I can understand what they mean very well, but somehow that didn't bother me. It was entertaining, not deep and thought-provoking. Perhaps logic failed here and there – but if one is not looking for a coherent sci-fi film but remembers this one is a comedy piece, I would expect them to like it, at least a bit. I really liked the style of humor in the movie – I'm very picky after all, easily condemning entertainment to be too naive, stupid or what not. I'm not the easiest person to genuinely amuse.

Visually the movie was stunning, the Moon Nazi base was simply awesome. And if you're into uniforms, male or female, you might want to watch it just to be inspired by Klaus Adler or Renate Richter's attire.

How about my own outfit? I guess someone in the social media encouraged everyone to really dress up for the premiere, so I decided to...do it? Alright well, my outfit was a very strange mix of casual and formal, sloppy and elegant, put together after a long and exhausting day at work. I didn't have much time either.

I recently bought a black satin waist corset, second-hand, because I had thought I needed one – partly because I've never owned a simple black corset, and partly because my pinstripe one is slowly coming to the end of its road – or at least the bones are so twisted already... I paired it with a narrow skirt (wouldn't exactly call that a pencil skirt though), suspenders and lace gloves + a grey T-shirt. :| Okay well, I wouldn't have accepted just any T-shirt, but what I wanted was a shirt with some other colour but black. I realized I really don't have many options. Seriously. That's not particularly uniform-like, not even close to being formal, but my most formal button-up shirt with some uniform-inspired details is, well... Well, I've been laundry-fighting it for quite a while. I'm not sure if I can save that piece anymore. :/ Might need a few new button-up shirts, at the moment I have none that I could wear.

Otherwise I'm exhausted; the movie ended quite late, I had work on the following day, and what a long day it turned out to be! I had such an extreme workout right after work – so extreme that my muscles are probably crying blood now more than ever before (do bruises actually count as "muscles crying blood"? I have several in my legs). After the workout which almost killed me I had promised to see a cover band play Iron Maiden. The band started over an hour late, which meant my day was very long, and I was so exhausted. Now I've probably paid back a part of my sleep debt, but well, no rest for the wicked: It's Emilie Autumn time tonight! Today I'm actually intent on taking my SLR camera to the club, so I hope I can provide you with some good quality concert photos later! So long and happy Easter!

April goodies!

♫ Verjnuarmu – Kuuvven sylen syvyyvessä

Recently, I realized quite a funny thing; I noticed I am looking forward to the release dates of some movies and TV shows, which is quite exceptional for me. Even more so, since they are not animations! ...yet not exactly realistic portrayals of this world either, but that's another thing.

The Raven
This movie just sounds way too good! I suppose I'm not the only avid Edgar Allan Poe fan who's looking forward to this movie, yet I know it could always be a major disappointment too. The director is James McTeigue and the movie is starring John Cusack as Poe himself. (Some Poe fans have already got upset because of that.)

"A fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet pursues a serial killer whose murders mirror those in the writer's stories."

The US release date is April 27th, so... I'm not sure when it will hit the theaters in Finland. It seems it doesn't have a world premiere date.

Click here to watch the trailer! I think it looked good, does anyone agree with me?

Iron Sky
Almost here! Less than a month left before the tour with sneak previews begins in Finland and it will hit the theaters some time in spring (the beginning of April in Finnkino theaters in Finland)! I heard about this movie for the first time in the summer of 2009 when a panel discussion type of event related to it was held as a part of Lumous Gothic Festival. Later, I got to hear about it a lot at school – and I would have had a theoretical chance to end up as part of the graphics crew, but practically, well, that's not the type of stuff I do. I never started practicing 3d graphics seriously. Anyway, I know a few people who are part of the crew.

The plot in brief: After World War II, nazis fled to the dark side of the Moon and set up a military base there. In 2018 their descendants return to the Earth.

I have contradictory feelings about sci-fi; it can be interesting for sure, but many sci-fi themes don't interest me by default. Space is one of those themes which doesn't get me immediately excited, yet I was a Star Wars fan as a kid... Thus, I'm quite sure I wouldn't be looking forward to this movie this much if its origin wasn't in my hometown. However – it's an international production, and its languages are English and German.

Click here to see the trailer!

Game of Thrones Season 2
April 1st! Well, maybe not for me, gotta wait longer and figure out how I am going to watch it, but anyway; a person like me, who rarely watches TV series (and with "rarely" I mean that I've barely seen a single episode of any popular TV series you could come up with) fell in love with this one last summer! It's an HBO production, and a very good quality series in my opinion.

Haven't even heard of it? Well, it's based on George R. R. Martin's fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire. Does fantasy genre make you shiver of disgust? Well, I know people who are not particularly fond of fantasy, but who loved this series nevertheless!

Click for a trailer!

I will most likely write more about those movies once I've seen them. And then, well, I haven't yet written about the first season of Game of Thrones. I will probably make a more elaborate post of it as well, some time in the future. These were just interesting sneak peaks of the things I'm looking forward to! So long!