Heissi Marroni =P

Ojee, in central Europe autumn is the season for hot chesnuts. All around the downtown of any city or village, you can spot a little cart selling these nuts for you. Or, more precisely, you are sure to smell them before you see them.

Anyway, I've been here more than three years and I've never managed to taste these things. The smell that the carts transmit to the air is so heavenly delicious that it makes my nose tingle. And the carts are so idyllic, somehow old fashioned and welcoming. So now, by the time of the annual Autumn Fair in Basel, I had set my sights to get the tasting thing over with.

I went to the "Häfelimärt", a sort of bazaar of handicrafts and stuff at Petersplatz, to check the merchandises. So, this was the time to hit the nuts also, since in the same location there is all kinds of food stuff too.

I let my nose guide me to a cart and bravely bought a bag of nicely warm chesnuts. Oh yeah, this was gonna be it, culinary bliss. So, what you do is, you pop open the brown surface and throw the insides to you mouth. Light brownish mass reminds me vaguely that of a brain. Hmm... Mmmm... ? ..... ? .... ???? Bgrrrhhhhlääääggh, disgusting!!!!

What a disappointment and a downfall!!! The expected culinary adventure was cut short, because the long-awaited contentment didn't fill me, at all, I tell you. The taste of these buggers remind me of those floury peas that people grow to feed their cattle with.

Anyhow, I ate bravely four of those and then gave the bag to a friend of mine. Some people actually seem to voluntary eat this stuff and even like it. What a luck that the tastes are different, huh?

But doesn't it look cute and inviting??
This one in Bordeaux, France.

LiveWire

I'm glad, that ever since moving here in Basel, I've been able to take up the habit of going to rock concerts. Not every week, but every now and then at least. As I've said before, I've seen mostly Finnish acts (even M.A Numminen?! in Zürich), but there is occasionally something else too.

One of the bands that I really enjoy listening to is a Swiss band called LiveWire. They do AC/DC covers with remarkably strong energy. In my opinion they don't fall far behind the original =).

This time I saw them last weekend in Z7. They do couple of times a year this huge coverrock event there. LiveWire played in the same evening with this german Black Sabbath clone called Black Reunion, which didn't move me so much, though the lead singer tried to look like starving Ozzy Osbourne. Bleep it, I rather have the original in this case =) They were sort of boring.

So, I wasn't the only one waiting for the main act of the evening. The audience of approximately 2000 people really kicked it off with the first riffs. LiveWire delivered all what was expected, although at times bit off-tune, and the crowd kept on shouting for more. All in all it was quite energetic and cool gig to attend to, but I have to admit that on the previous club gig that I've been to all was bit more precise. Good vibrations anyhow, I'll definately go again. And yeah, BTW, the bass player of LiveWire is a chick, way to go Karin, yeah!




By the way, the thing I've always liked about the interior of Z7, is the trusses above. Z7 guys have rigged pinspots and Par 64's inside the trusses, so they kinda glow. Check it out:

Beat on the Street

On Saturday 12th of September it was again time for the Basel Street Parade called "Beat on the Street".


In Basel it's not so massive event as in Berlin or even Zürich, but fun event nonetheless. This parade starting at 17.00 lasts only for four hours, during which a procession of trailers laden with big PA's and DJ's (<-- not necessarily so big, heh.) crawl on predesigned route and people dance on the street. I guess is more or less about pimping up your PA and making it sound as massive as possible. Beats are mainly electro, techno and so on.

Waiting for the start whistle at Picassoplatz.

A medium sized PA by nxtlvl.ch vs Tribute Soundsystems.

Girlie team.

I was riding in this pretty Dodge Ram (Sound and Light Pool) with Regine and we had probably the longest trailer (InHouse Productions) of the whole procession. -And most led-lights too. I find it cool: two chicks and a massive combination, -and a cow riding on the back of the truck =).

We came up with an this idea for the next year to make an all-girlie team. We just have to dig out a female DJ. Any volunteers?? Sounds anyway like a thing to really consider.

Rolling over the Wettensteinbrücke.

Dancing on the street.

By the Rhein, on Oberer Rheinweg.

Jack in the Box going under Mittlere Brücke.

At 21:00 the procession had reached Kaserne Basel and all too soon it was all over for this year. Last echoes faded quickly away. Afterparty took place on Das Schiff, but I didn't feel like going. Maybe next year, after the girls have taken over the parade =).

Runoja raiteilla - Poetry on tracks

This August Helsinki public transportation took part to Helsinki Juhlaviikot already for the third time. Company had placed again little yellow posters with poems on the trams and metros. This is something that I find amusing and sometimes really uplifting when homebound after a long working day.

The campaing is called "Runoja raiteilla" aka "Poetry on tracks". From these little posters one can read small glimpses on everyday life and writers' dreams.

Here are couple of my personal favorites, unfortunately only in Finnish.

=).