Bear's Monthly Mayhem - August 2024!

I appreciate you for reading!

Sep 03, 2024

Fall is approaching after one heckuva long, busy month, though the days are still very pleasant! Thanks once more for reading this Monthly Mayhem catch-up email. You are genuinely the best, in my debatably humble opinion!

If you’re a new subscriber, I hope you enjoy this monthly write-up of my most recent reviews, projects, services, and merch gigs, as well as a general catch-up (and a cat picture or two)! The purple links will take you directly to the articles!

Teddy the 9kg/20lb blobcat

LIVE REPORTS

First and foremost on the live music front was Dark River Festival. While I wasn’t technically there to write — I was working with Enslain in merch, and even there only for 2/3 days — I was still accredited as a journalist in order to assist Tuonela Magazine’s guest journalist and finish up an interview with Mikko Salovaara (Kiuas), so I decided to do a bit of writing anyways. I’m sad to say that I won’t be going to DRF next year though, because they moved to the same weekend as Kosmos Festival. A bummer for me, but what can you do?

I also went to see Warmen’s final show for the year (alongside Enemies Everywhere). Even though I’m still pushing a partial hiatus from metal and live journalism, I had a friend in town all the way from Illinois who wanted to see the show, so I naturally went (and we had a great time).

MUSIC REVIEWS

There were a couple of new album reviews this month as well. I suppose this is really more of a 90% cutback than a true hiatus, but cut me some slack, I’ve been waiting for Wintersun to release “Time II” since 2012ish, so I think I’m allowed that one.

The other album I checked out this month was the self-titled debut from Smalltime Players, which is a magnificent piece of folk/country music from Iivana Records. I really hope to find the time to see one of their shows this fall, because I really want to hear how this material sounds live!

NON-MUSIC REVIEWS

While I am behind on a handful of video game reviews, I did do something a little different this summer while my friend was visiting: go to the Hämeenlinna medieval festival (Hämeen Keskiaikafestivaali). While it was a little commercial, I nevertheless really enjoyed myself and the overall atmosphere! I hope to go back again someday!

The outcome of medieval battles always tends to be that everyone is dead

PROJECTS

As promised, I’ve continued work on Aphrodite Rising, so I should probably mention that Kathy has pushed the release date until spring 2025. This makes sense, as she’s saving up for another winter trip to Finland and is just generally a very busy bee, so since she thinks the end of the story needs a good deal of reworking, the release has moved.

I suppose it’s officially time to mention that I am also writing for a new fantasy magazine based out of Australia called Fabled Magazine. I’m really excited about this because I have always enjoyed both creative writing and journalism and this is a fun way to put both of those skills to use. I’ve already finished one blog post for the website and now I’m working on my first article for the print magazine as well. I’m really excited about this and so grateful that I get to contribute! I’ll share things as soon as I can!

The first issue’s theme is “Into the Woods”

ISLANDS OF NIGHTSEA

Hiatus continues…

OFF THE RECORD

I definitely did one of the best interviews of my journalistic career earlier in August, as Tuomas Holopainen was kind enough to let me do my Nightwish interview while I was in his neighborhood, since I was working at DRF (and another show) during the press days. I’m quite astounded by the extremely positive feedback I’ve gotten for it, as well as the general response!

I’ve currently still got four interviews pending, which I’m hoping to release sooner rather than later, though I’m still waiting on audio for Plan Nine and Today Was Yesterday, unfortunately.

That said, the interviews with Rabbit Cult and Mikko Salovaara (Kiuas) are just waiting for me to edit them, so they are on my more urgent to-do list and I’m hoping to have all these interviews at least coming out once a month for the rest of the year, if I can.

GATHERING OF GEEKS

I’ve been meaning to have Miikka Hujanen of Crimson Sun on the podcast for a good long while now and since CS are releasing their third album in September, it seemed like an opportune time to have him as a guest, so we’re recording in the second week with the episode aiming for the 15th, though we’ll see when I specifically want to release it.

I also have a tentative booking for next spring that I’m very, very excited about, but I’ll just leave that as a lure in the hopes that you’ll check back in 2025!

ENSLAIN METAL MERCH

I already mentioned that I was working at Dark River Festival with Enslain earlier this month, which was a blast for the 2 days that I was there because we have a really great crew at that festival. As I said, I’ll be very sad to be not joining them again next year. DRF is still my favorite metal festival in Finland and I’ll really miss all of the friends I pretty much only see there each year.

Enslain @ Dark River Festival

In fact, the reason that I was not at DRF for the full weekend was because Enslain needed someone to cover Battle Beast at a festival in Vantaa called Vauhti Kiihtyy. That was a fun little event that I rather enjoyed, since I got to see some artists I haven’t seen before, like Popeda with Olli Herman on vocals (weird), or acts that I haven’t seen in a while, like Turmion Kätilöt.

Battle Beast @ Vauhti Kiihtyy

Then, my final show was dual-coverage of Merta and Battle Beast once more, who are, in that order, my very favorite bands to work with, so that was a fun evening of being really stressed out as I counted and set up two bands all by me onesy, but the event was really chill once I was set up and the performances were fantastic. Plus I bumped into a couple of pals from Jyväskylä whom I don’t get to often see otherwise, so that was always nice! This was also the show wherein I popped by Hirvikartano so I could check “touch a moose” off my bucket list (no, it wasn’t on my bucket list until I realized that it was possible to do safely, heh).

Merta & Battle Beast @ Lutakko

Hirvikartano

GENERAL BEARSNESS

August was a bloody exhausting month, considering I hadn’t booked myself too much in advance. I don’t know how this keeps happening. If I look at September right now, I have five things booked for the whole month, and yet I’m expecting it to be bananas as well, because that’s been par for the course all year, really.

The first thing this month was the trip to Kitee for the Nightwish Fan Meetup. Honestly, I’m not a fan-meetup kind of person. Striving to be a legitimate journalist has sort of destroyed my ability to be a big fan of anything. Besides, as nice as it is to get an autograph sometimes, I get 99% of what I need from artists from their art, so anything else on top is a pleasant bonus. It does make me a bit sad though, that I’ve lost the ability to get super hyped up about anything. I wish I had the passion and enthusiasm that a lot of the people I met have for these things.

Now, despite my own general feelings towards fan events, I went because I wanted to network a bit and I actually had a really awesome time, as did my photographer and her partner. Truly, everyone we met there was amazing — they were cool fans, not thirsty weirdos, so I actually really enjoyed spending time with them. The events were fun; again, not the sort of thing I’d do normally, but I do like to step outside my comfort zone and find out what the rest of the world loves to do and why sometimes, and this was one of those occasions. I wrote a bit about it, if you’d like to hear more.

Kiteenjärvi

I wasn’t able to stay for more than an overnight though, because I had to get back to pick up my aforementioned visiting friend. She wasn’t initially meant to be here for 2 weeks, but her week-long trip to the Netherlands got canceled, which stuck her in Finland the whole time. The plan was for her to go to DRF because she wanted to see Warmen; if you don’t know them, they’re the side-project of ex-Children of Bodom keyboardist Janne Wirman, with Petri Lindroos (Ensiferum) on rhythm guitars and growls. My friend’s a big fan of Bodom and Pete Lindroos, so Warmen is the perfect act for her to see, especially considering that they’ve been playing Bodom songs in their sets too, because she was never able to see them live. What a rude awakening though, to get off a flight, have your luggage lost, and then go straight to a festival for 3 full days (she stayed with the merch crew all weekend when I had to run off). It doesn’t surprise me that she got sick a short while after and missed the road trip to Jyväskylä.

Successful photobomb by Kalle (Merta, bass)

In the mix there, I saw my voodoo osteopath once more, who unlocked my occipital bone, which I can feel, because usually when my head pops back into place, my whole body gets very crackly and I’ve been popping and snapping ever since. Something new is creeping up under my right shoulder-blade again though, let’s see what he has to say at the end of September. On the whole though, I do feel worlds better than I did in the spring.

We hit up the Keskiaika-festival in Hämeenlinna on the 16th, lamenting that we didn’t have cooler costumes, and then went to see Warmen on the 17th — great timing for my friend’s trip, since she got to see both a festival and a club show, wherein they played their whole album and a new/different Bodom track from the previous sets! Awesome!

We spent the rest of the month taking it easy and driving to some places, like the Bodom Bar, Lake Bodom, Tuusulanjärvi, Rusutjärvi, and Ridasjärvi, just to enjoy the local scenery.

Bodominjärvi // Lake Bodom

Tuusulanjärvi // Lake Tuusula

Ridasjärvi

I spent a few of the days in there moving all the firewood indoors, which was nice and brain-cleansing while I caught up on a DnD podcast. My back was in such rough shape this spring that I wasn’t able to help with any of the wood stacking, so it felt good to get this chore done secretly while my partner was out of town.

On the 23rd I went to a Luova Challenge Lab at Aalto University, which is a project that’s trying to partner artists with businesses for mutual benefit. It’s a cool idea, to which I was familiar because I had participated in their first run in May, though I hadn’t continued with any of the groups. It turns out that my group this time around was chosen by our company to move forward with the project, so that’s very cool and I get to flex a couple of under-used skills and expand my portfolio a bit, which I’m excited about. We have a really great team, too.

Next up was the Whirling Lifedance class with Safa Solati from the 24th-25th. That was such a cool workshop and I’m really glad I went. Everyone had a very different experience, some of them even spiritual, all of them cleansing, which was in part due to the notably open group that we had and the warmth of our host. There’s a free trial class coming up on September 10th, so if you’re local and you’ve ever wanted to spin in a circle a whole lot, or are looking for a spiritual cleansing, or to test a new dance, or just want to try something new and cool, it’s a near relative of sufi dancing, so come check it out! You can also read about the workshop here!

The 26th was exciting, because an Estonian tattoo artist, Erik Hallik, that I’ve been following for at least 2 years now happened to be in town for a few days, which meant that I could get a tattoo that I’ve wanted for about 4 years. I always tend to have an instinctual knowledge of what I want and who I want to do it (which admittedly took some time to hone) with tattoos, but they’ve also been a luxury I couldn’t justify for nearly 10 years… until now, when I asked for contributions for my last birthday. Suffice to say I have a bit of a back-log of body art planned for whenever I can swing it. So, a huge thank you and shout-out to my partner and everyone else who contributed to this if you’re reading, because round 1 is finally done and I’m over the moon with how it turned out. The fine detail in the face is more than I could have ever imagined possible as a tattoo. I look very much forward to seeing how it’ll all come together when it’s finished. The tattoo is of a character from Dimension 20, who felt like a nice embodiment of who I strive to be, so I wanted to have them where I could see them every day. To have an artist create a completely custom version of this character to my exact nit-picky specifications and then execute it so flawlessly is absolutely beyond my expectations. I could not be happier.

So, August ended up being pretty busy, but certainly not in a bad way, even though I was trying not to plan too much. I suppose we’ll see how my efforts pan out in September then, yes?

“A knife of the keenest steel requires the whetstone, and the wisest man needs advice.”

— Zoroaster

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Coming Next Month…

I keep saying that I’m not going to book much, but we all know how that turns out, so I’ll just say that my Nightwish album review of “Yesterwynde” will be coming out on the 6th, with a review of the upcoming Crimson Sun album to follow. Otherwise, I think September will be pretty chill for music reviews, though I will be spinning the new Where’s My Bible release to see if I have anything to say.

On the live music front, there is a King of None show I’d like to see but am not sure I’ll have the energy (or car to get to town) for on the 5th. Merta is doing a show on the 6th with Mustasch, so I’ll obviously be there, and I’m not sure yet if I’ll be doing merch again on the 13th in Lahti for Where’s My Bible and Brymir, or if instead perhaps I can check out a Bond music show. I’ll be working at Helsinki Tech Fest in merch on the 20-21st, and then there is a Symphony X show that I may or may not write up on the 24th. Chances are I’ll also be at the Frozen Factory show on the 25th as well.

As mentioned, I have a backlog of casual writing to do, as well as some actual projects, so chances are, I’ll be doing some catch-up on game reviews, as well as some other personal writings.

The Mysterykah music video will start recording in September as well, so there’ll be some news on that project, which I last mentioned in July. Otherwise, as I said, I’m trying to keep the fall more peaceful, though it rarely stays that way.

Thanks again for reading along this month!

And below is my Best of 2024 playlist, which has been through it’s halfway-through-the-year purge recently! Welcome to follow along!

Bear's Book of Balance