Bear's Monthly Mayhem - December 2024!

Happy end of the year and thanks for sticking around!

Dec 31, 2024

And just like that, another year is behind us! Thanks, as always, for reading this Monthly Mayhem catch-up email. It’s very cool of you to stick around and keep reading up on my goings-on! I hope you’ll keep checking in on me in the new year! Do expect my yearly wrap-up tomorrow as well.

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!

LIVE REPORTS

After two quiet months on this front, it was gig-time again! A bunch of the folks that I know from the Altamullan Road shows and the Nightwish Fan Meetup all joined up to come to support Johanna Kurkela’s Christmas tour with Timo Kurkela and Troy Donockley. The other guys hit up Vantaa and Turku as well, but I was only at the Tampere and Lappeenranta shows.

I was also surprised by the opportunity to get to see Johanna & Mikko Iivanainen’s “Seimi-yö” [manger night] show on the 14th. I thought I was going to see Ensiferum but I changed my plans to see them instead.

MUSIC REVIEWS

Octopie’s new album came out this month! Gosh, I love Octopie, they’re psychedelic rock insanity in the best sort of way. And their singer is bonkers incredible. Their new album, “Green Divine,” is a wild ride and a half. Definitely recommended for lovers of psychedelic prog!

I also threw another year-end list to Tuonela Magazine, but I believe that won’t be out until next year.

Also, here is an article on 3 Albums I Should’ve Reviewed in 2024
Here’s also an article on 15 albums (or discographies) that have stuck with me as a journalist over the past 15 years

NON-MUSIC REVIEWS

I promised to wrap up some unfinished reviews from this year in my last newsletter, so here we go! I finished writing up the incredibly silly West of Loathing, which I actually played back in the summer. I also finished up Super Mario Odyssey, which was mostly awesome. Then there was the fun but flawed Cult of the Lamb. Lastly, we have The Last Campfire, which was a spontaneous purchase that I ended up really enjoying.

I also decided to finally write up the “eco” company LastObject, but it’s largely my justification for calling them out for being a green capitalist company. I’m a little disgusted, not gonna lie.

Here’s an article on 3 awesome happenings that I didn’t write about in 2024!

And, of course, here’s my 2024 Gaming Recap!

PROJECTS

“Aphrodite Rising” can be preordered now! I’ve been through it twice and now I want a bit of time off so that I can be fresh when I give it a last run-through. You can’t imagine how proud I am of Kathy for the work she’s put into this book. It was already a really solid “first” draft, but the way she’s sculpted it over the last few months has been phenomenal! You can also check out @stardatextoday on Instagram to see about her recent trip to Finland for those Christmas shows, or read her blog/gig report here!

I’ll have more info next year on what else I’m up to!

ISLANDS OF NIGHTSEA

Hiatus continues…

THE VITMAR CHRONICLES

You can read the first ten pages of the story for free here on my website!
You can also watch a video I made about the series here on my home page!
The book is available on Amazon, Google, Kobo, and the Draft2Digital network (the EU links are included at the end of this mail)! Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but thanks again for all the amazing feedback!

Cover largely done by Kathy Criswell, who remains awesome

OFF THE RECORD

It was a little last-minute, but I managed to sneak a Yuletide Special interview in with Johanna Kurkela, Timo Kurkela, and Troy Donockley during the tour I mentioned earlier. I’ve never done a seasonal interview before, so this was a very fun change of pace for me!

I also finally have the audio for the Today Was Yesterday and Ayreon/Plan Nine interviews from May, so those will go up sometime in January. Huge shout-out to Harri Koskela from Grey Realm Studio for helping me out with the audio!

GATHERING OF GEEKS

Same as last month: nothing new has come out, but I’ve got maybe 4-8 amazing guests tentatively lined up for 2025, so stay tuned! I’m excited!

ENSLAIN METAL MERCH

I was in Lahti selling merch for Tyrantti on the 13th, which was very entertaining. Those guys are almost all impressive geeks, so perhaps I should be getting some of them on Gathering of Geeks next year too! They were a lot of fun to hang out with and I learned a bit about the local wrestling scene on the trip as well, which was very fun for me.

Sharing my setup with Kotiteollisuus

There was also Merta’s final show of the year this month in Tampere, which was also perhaps one of their best shows. G Livelab was a totally new venue for me but I was surprised by how much I liked it. Stay tuned for many more shows with them in 2025, it seems!

These guys are just the best <3

GENERAL BEARSNESS

Well, I suppose the first thing I should catch up on is ye olde physical condition, since I was a complete mess at the end of November. I do love my voodoo osteopath — by the way, I just learned the actual term for it: biodynamic osteopathy, haha — as he seems to enjoy treating me. Granted, I’m surely an interesting patient if you’re interested in how the body works and healing and alignment, haha.

Anyway, I told him what a mess I was and he touched me for all of two seconds and went, “Oh yeah,” and then got to work. Seems my pelvis was twisted out again and a lot of the trouble was solvable by working on the left wrist. Interesting, because that wasn’t even what was bothering me most, it only hurt a bit if I bent it too far forward. But he gently pushed it here and there and suddenly I felt a really numb sensation in my left shoulder-blade. I don’t normally feel much of what he’s doing. Usually, it feels like some tiny spark of pain or sensation that moves around and then vanishes, but this was a huge portion of my shoulder that I could feel very intensely, which then traveled into my upper left arm. It was a wild sensation. My neck loosened up a bit too — I could feel that my skull wasn’t on straight.

I’m still pretty sore in all the same places — wrist, ankle, shoulder — but I’ve gone from extreme pain back down to manageable pain, so that’s fine. We’re back within the realms of my standard chronic daily pain, not extremes, so I’ll live with that if I need to.

Despite having had osteo the same day, I was still able to attend the final Whirling Lifedance class on December 3rd, which was so much fun. Apart from recognizing three people from the summer workshop and one of the board members, I also brought a friend and an acquaintance with me and it was really great to watch them. Some musicians in attendance were performing with some folk instruments that were amazing to whirl to, which made it even more special. It was a fantastic evening and definitely the most magical time I’ve had at a session so far. It seems as though our teacher will not be remaining in Finland, which is really a shame, but I can’t blame her, especially after she was brutalized by the train station guards for trying to take a video of her dancing. Sometimes this country makes me ill.

Photo by atp kuvat

After that, we took advantage of an invitation to go to the Talvisirkus Fantasia, a winter circus, where our friend Helena Haaparanta was performing as a musician/vocalist. I can’t begin to explain what a phenomenal experience this show was. Children and older folks alike around us were exclaiming from the edges of their seats at the phenomenal talent on display from musicians, acrobats, jugglers, and so much more. I can’t even… my brain… so cool… if you live locally, please treat yourself and go. It’s still running through January and it’s the best thing I’ve seen since the Kosmos Festival circus, and that’s basically my favorite thing ever. Cooler acrobatics, less fire.

Another interesting thing this month was finding a German shepherd in my driveway. Our neighbors never walk their dogs off-leash, so I had to stick my head outside and see what was going on. There was no one with her, so I tried to make friends with her. I was quite sure that I recognized her — one of our neighbors had gotten a German shepherd puppy earlier this year (who tapped at me every morning when I was out gathering herbs). I followed her down the road and she went to the house that I thought she had come from. She wasn’t very well-behaved but she was generally very nice once I made sure she knew that I didn’t have any bad intentions. Just full of energy and a bit bitey (not too hard, fortunately, but I’m also good at deflecting dogs who run at me). She followed me around and seemed very happy to have some guidance; she seemed pretty confused. I brought her back to our place (we’re the only yard with a fence) and threw snowballs at her for an hour or two (seriously, she did not run out of energy at any point in that time and was not tired when I was done with her either) while my partner tried to call the neighbors to see if anyone knew those guys’ number. Nobody did, but we got a leash from another neighbor so we could take her home. We realized then that the patio door was open, so we just put her back inside, closed the door, and left them a note. They were sweet enough to bring us a poinsettia as a thank you from Martta (the dog) a day or two later.

One of my early-Europe-times besties, Max, came to visit over the holidays, which was really nice. I think Max last visited in 2021 and I last visited him ages ago (2014, maybe!?), so it’s always nice to see old friends. Especially those who happen to be Max! We played a few board games, which is nice because many of our games are best suited for 3 players.

My annual gathering for chosen family and foreign friends who don’t go home for Christmas (affectionately referred to as Winter Solstish Turkey Thunderfuck, or in this case, Double-Chicken Thunderfuck) took place on the 25th. This has been a tradition for… I want to say maybe 5-7 years now (obviously excluding years I’ve been in Canada) and it’s very fun. It was a fairly small crowd this year, but a nice one nevertheless.

Custom Yuletide bear paw sweater courtesy of my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law <3

“…remember that you’re not alone, even if you don’t have a family or Christmas isn’t a big thing for you… you’re still a part of this universe family that we’re all part of.”

— Johanna Kurkela, 2024 Yuletide Interview

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Coming Next Year…

Next year’s already looking interesting. I’ve promised to accompany Lady Enslain to the US, so I’ll be over in Pennsylvania in the middle of January. Then, I’ll be going to Barcelona in March for a weekend and to the Netherlands in September to see Ayreon.

I’m lined up to see quite a few shows already, from Machinae Supremacy to the music of Avatar: The Last Airbender, while I’ve arranged to sell merch for Enemies Everywhere, Merta, and Marko Hietala in the spring.

Summer will probably include Tuska Festival, Kosmos Festival, Hellsinki Metal Festival, and maybe the “Yesterwynde” Symphony. There will also be the Nightwish Fan Meetup so I may have to check that out again since I had fun this year. Auri will also be having shows, so there will surely be a big crew meeting up again, all over Europe.

I’ll be getting “The Living Dream of Chartholaine” ready for spring for the people who bought “The Vitmar Chronicles” directly from me this year, and I’m hoping to publish two more volumes of “The Vitmar Chronicles” as well, but let’s see how busy I end up being, especially considering I just came up with a fabulous new idea…

I would love to do no more than twelve album reviews in 2025 and seriously limit my gig attendance, but let’s see who’s releasing new material…

That’s it for now! I’ll catch you all again in 2025!

Below is the final form of my Best of 2024 playlist!

Bear's Book of Balance

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