Now that I'm a knight.

So, I'm a Finnish Knight now.

Saturday was my first ever gig with my new solo act "Waitress for the Bees," performing tracks from my upcoming dinosaur-based "Albertosaurus" album. And, despite my being terrified, it went remarkably well. See:

1) I made at least four grown men cry with my artistic rendering of mass extinction.

2) I impressed enough people to secure enough gigs to book a little Finnish tour, probably in October.

and, most importantly, surely,

3) It impressed a Grand Master enough to get me knighted. In a cellar-cavern, by a benevolent horn-head, no less.

Yeah! Yep. For real. Charlie too. Four men in tuxedos, various medallions and real-live viking hats invited us to their headquarters on Sunday. Where they processed, played a drum, read from a scroll tied up in red ribbon, and then led us, one at a time, to the knighting cavern.

In the Cavern, you could not speak. You knelt on a scarlet cushion bearing the knightly insignia and they put a quite heavy sword on your shoulders and said nice things about you in Finnish. The gave you a crest-thing, and a scroll/knightly diploma bearing your name and a bunch more nice things about you, in Finnish, and then you got to drink some "Spiritual Drink" out of a giant horn. Now, and forever, a Finnish knight of the order of the benevolent horn-heads.

Then you went back to the main house-HQ and had cake and coffee.

I can't wait for my second gig.

Sauna-Drunk

Oh boy, I am so melty right now.

Thanks, Sauna.

Sure, we had saunas back home, in Canada, and there are saunas in England too, and in somewhat out-spacey hotel basements all over the world; however, the Finnish Home-Sauna, is an entity and experience all of its own.

It consists of three chambers and outside.

-In the first chamber you take off your shoes and sometimes undress. Some people like to undress in the second chamber instead. That's okay too. Things like chopped wood and matches and kindling and clean little body place-mats for sitting on hot hot wood are stored in the first chamber.

-In the second chamber there are small basins and a big basin and a hose. You use the hose to fill the basins. You light a fire under the big basin. You do not light fires under the small basins, they are plastic. Instead, you use hot water made hot in the big basin to mix with the cold hose water in the small basin to make for the perfect luke warm water. This is mostly done with ladles. We'll get back to this luke-warm water in a minute.

-In the third chamber is heat! And some wooden benches. There is another fire, which you have lit (along with the second chamber's big-basin fire) about an hour ago. It's now rollicking along, cracking and cooking. And above this fire are the coals. These two things, the fire and the coals, make for a 75-100 degree Celcius throat burning, body dripping experience. Plus, you get another ladle in here! To ladle water onto the coals to make it Even Hotter. Have fun kids, but be careful. When you get too hot to breath, head back to the second chamber and use one of its ladles to scoop luke-warm water (or freezing cold water, if you prefer) all over yourself. This is how you bathe! Isn't it great. Then,

-Outside. Outside is outside. There are chairs here to sit naked in the fresh air while your body tries to figure out what is going on. Once it has, or once the mosquitoes have noticed you, go back in the sauna and start again. (Sometimes outside means jumping in a lake, if one is handy. Or drinking beer and/or eating something grilled.)

And again and again. And tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. To be done with family and friends. Which I think is just lovely. Sitting naked and quiet in the hot-wood heat.

PS. I didn't have energy (because I'm sauna-melted right now) to mention the vasta (or vihta ). It's great too.

Making, eating.

(my swimming lake)

I have been at Arteles, Finland, for almost a week now, and, sheesh, the Arteles folk sure know how to make a place you don't want to leave. I'm already semi-panicking about the fact that in a mere three weeks there will be no more sauna, no more lake swims, no more creative energy pulling me up and through the day on a kind of stress-free adrenaline that's next to impossible to recreate. The kind of place where you get up in the morning because the excitement of another day that is just yours (by which I mean mine) to create in is too much to sleep through.
(our room/my studio)

This is all great.

But the real thing I wanted to mention, today, is that creative people love making things. There are all sorts of creative people here, visual artists, writers, musicians, researchers, builders, all kinds. And what do creative people do for breaks from their projects? They create other, non-project things! Namely...food! There has been fresh baked bread almost every single day here. And cookies. And, of course, where you have international people, you get...international food! Installation artist Maya made us Shakshooka! And just this morning we woke up to the better-than-bacon smell of Teemus' mom's amazing Pulla!

I guess I had better pull my weight and make something traditionally Canadian. Um...poutine?

New home old home

In brief, for now,

over the next month, I will be in Finland. Here:


Just arrive, but noted thus-far:

Finland looks an awful, awful lot like Alberta.