Many Shades Of Black.

Some news that´ll make people very happy and some news that´ll make people very sad. Me at least. Starting with the sad ones. All of us who were hoping to see Josh Freese behind the drums at the possible Nine Inch Nails European tour next year (confirm that already, please, don´t just hint), I am sorry to tell you, that isn´t happening. Josh "the machine" Freese will be leaving the band at the end of this year. Yes, we are all really sad. Because he might be the best drummer the band has ever had. Sad but true.

The happy piece of news is to everyone looking for the World Cup qualifications this upcoming weekend. After you have watched Finland (hopefully) smash the Azerbaidzhan team on Saturday on Canal+/TV Viisi, be sure to turn to Urheilukanava as they are airing the England-Kazakhstan match live. With everyone´s favourite commentator of course. Wonderful. I am not a fan of these international breaks, but if one has the chance to see those and our boys (yeah, boys, old men more likely) meeting the Russians on Wednesday it can´t be that bad. Finally having the possibility to see Arshavin on action, not just hear about it.

Another happy thing is that my favourite Finnish band Disco Ensemble is giving out an EP early next year. Magic Recoveries is great and I bet the leftovers can´t be bad, so something to look for while waiting for Lapko´s new album. Whenever that comes out.

As I´m on roll to write about music why stop now? The USA Republican president candidate John McCain has managed to piss off the Foo Fighters (or Grohl at least) by playing the song My Hero on his campaign. I am sorry, but how stupid can the Republicans be? Haven´t they learned anything from the last election campaign? When Bush used the Foo song Times Like These without specific permission from the band? When the band (if I remember correctly) filed a lawsuit because of that? People, you do not use music written by mr. Grohl without asking him, especially not if you are not a Democrat. Seriously, I wouldn´t want to piss that man off. We´ll see what happens next. Maybe they´ll sue someone again.

This last one considering music will be a surprising one. It was to me. The other night I happened to turn the YLE Teema on when channel surfing and got stuck to listening something very cool. It was the Venezuelan Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. I have read about it many times before, but have never heard them. Which is a huge loss, as they were amazing. And this coming from a person who is not that fond of classical music. Here, and with Mozart, I am willing to make an exception. The joy and thrill they have when they play, it´s stunning. This will be on rerun on Saturday at 12.55 on Teema. This clip won´t do them justice, but it gives a hint of why I´m excited. This should be all of music right now...

Actually the reason why I´m posting today is that I have confess my love for YLE´s great, um, talk show Popkult. I have missed episodes, but the ones I have been around to watch, have been great. Basically the idea is they have one topic like war, men, women, violence and they discuss it with guests and have a few inserts here and there. I remember watchig the War-episode where a Finnish hip hop -artist (one of the best if you ask me), a kind of regular member to the show, Palaface got so upset about the stupid "thank you, our veterans" -shirts he fell of his chair. Last night they had a discussion about sport and you can guess I was more than thrilled. So many good points on sports on popular culture, on why sportmovies generally suck and so on. I am willing to bet far too few people watch this, because it is aired at 10.15 PM or around that time. Seriously, YLE, you have this fabolous show, respect it, give it a better airing slot and make it longer than 45 minutes. This is one of the few things our national broadcasting company does for young people. Actually, now that I start to think about what I watch on YLE, I have to say, Teema pretty much wins this one. People, it ain´t just a channel with elite culture, there are many undiscovered pearls. Like tonight. Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei, a German movie that sounds interesting. And it has Daniel Brühl.

Not only was my love declaration to Popkult my primary reason of posting today but also the topic they discussed yesterday, sport in popular culture. I can say, I can´t think of a single movie about sport that I do not find at least a bit boring. Ok, Match Point has it´s share of tennis, but it is´t a tennis movie, so as it is a fine piece it cannot be counted. Usually movies are about American football teams that in the end win everything possible or a American boxer beats the evil Russian opponent. Isn´t that what they really are all about? Or books for that matter. Name a single book about sport that is well written and isn´t a biography, but purely fictional story. Yep, I can´t think of any either. TV shows are probably the worst on this. The equation sport+popular culture seems to be nearly impossible. I think that was they conclusion last night too. Oh no, sorry, I can think of one half-decent sport movie. Bend it like Beckham.

I would like to see a completely new kind of sport movie that does not end with a victory. Either it should be a story about an athlete and his/hers childhood and youth, showing how this person becomes what he/she one day is. And end it when the athlete enters the first competition ever or something like that. Not the glory days, it´s normal, it´s usually rather boring. Or. A movie/TV show that follows, say, a team that prepares for the biggest competition of the sport. They make it fine, get until the final and then... The fuck it up. The opponent wins and this followed team comes out with nothing. Imagine the tension when you have fallen to like the team followed as that is what usually happens when you watch a movie, you symphatize with the protagonist. So when there is no happy ending and it seems like everything has been in vain. Why nobody makes a movie like that? A bit of originality. And why is there always a big rivalry between the main character and the person against him? It can´t be like that in the real sport life. But then again, no one would like to see a movie of Tero Pitkämäki and Andreas Thorkildsen throwing a javelin, I have understood they are friends on some level. It would be boring, never a blockbuster.

Still, a movie can never beat the thrill of the real sport. There is no way the feeling can be depicted. When the sure-winner team loses dramatically, when the match goes on and on without goals and ends with free kick or when someone steps over the line on javelin throw when the new world record would have been few centimeters away. When an athlete doesn´t make it to the second round, when people get disqualified because of doping use. Let´s take a walk down the memory lane. Which of these would have been written in to a movie: Zidane head butting Materrazzi at the World Cup final in 2006, Nadal winning Federer at Wimbledon 2008, Ayrton Senna crashing his car and dying at San Marino grand prix 1994, Jesse Owen ruling the Berlin Olympics 1936, Lasse Viren falling in Munich Olympics 1972 and still winning, the USA teams fucking up the relays at this years Olympics? None of these, because there is no way someone could have foreseen any pf these. Everyone has those moments that make sport so special to them. I remember rally driver Tommi Mäkinen crashing his car at Corsica and the car hanging of a cliff. There are millions of these unexpected moments that make sport one of the greatest things on Earth. Until it´s over, anything can happen. For me, the Zizou incident is one of the most memorable moment in sport, as is that aforementioned Mäkinen incident (that was when rally was shown on TV without extra costs and when my dad was really into it). If I was abit older my number one moment would be Finland winning the ice hockey championship in 1995, but as I was like 5 years old at tha time, I really can´t say it. I only remember the celebrations. I´d love to hear other people´s most memorable moments in sports. I have to refresh my memory before I can list more of mine. But please, do share.

I know this primarily is only a thing of mine, but does someone else think the president of Turkey, Abdullah Gül, resembles a footballer? I think it´s something on his facial features that makes me ask this. And don´t worry if you don´t think the same way, this is my speciality. I should collect these "spitting images of each other" -things. Kind of like a hobby of mine. A wierd one, I admit. I just see these resemblances.

I will be posting on Saturday, I promise that. But tomorrow I am thinking of doing something completely different than writing posts that are as short as Russian classic novels. Until that again, take care!

IWFT