Bear's Monthly Mayhem - September 2024!

You know what you are? The best!

Oct 01, 2024

September has come and gone, warm and welcoming us into the fall season like a lamb and leaving like monsoon season! Thanks once more for reading this Monthly Mayhem catch-up email. As per usual, I can’t express how much I appreciate all of you who read this!

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!

Clearly we sleep on the floor

LIVE REPORTS

Most of the live events I was at in September were merch gigs, like Merta with Mustasch (such a weird pairing) and Enemies Everywhere, Brymir, & Where’s My Bible, but I did go see Symphony X with my partner and his friends on the 24th, since they came to town and offered us tickets. That was a cool show, and not one that I’d have likely gone to otherwise, so I appreciated the opportunity. I know the band only by name, but I know Russell Allen from Ayreon and it was fun to see him live. However, when it comes to writing live reports this month, I didn’t do a single one and I’m fairly happy about it! It’s nice to be able to see some shows without obligations once in a while.

MUSIC REVIEWS

You know that, of course, my Nightwish review for “Yesterwynde” came out this month! I still can’t decide where it ranks for me against their other material, but it does give me the feeling of a Floor Jansen-era album done in the style of “Once” meets “Imaginaerum,” so I’m at least really enjoying it so far!

I also finally wrote up the new Crimson Sun album, “Sorrowbreaker,” which came out the same day (unfortunately?). I hope this one doesn’t fall under the radar too much because of it, because it’s a really solid release and I enjoy it quite a lot.

NON-MUSIC REVIEWS

Since I wasn’t reviewing too much else, I finally got caught up on some game reviews. The first was of a very short, goofy game called Donut County, which I played through in about an hour one night.

Also, since rainy season is upon us, I decided to write up a review of the waterproof hemp shoes (two version) from 8000 Kicks. I’ve been using my Explorer sneakers for a few years and we’ve had the Sunslide slip-on shoes for a year or so now and we both like them a lot, so you can learn more there (also, find out about the Weedo shoes, just for giggles).

Lastly, but I began replaying a game that I enjoyed back in the end of my high school years called Baten Kaitos, a JRPG that I remember for having an interesting card-based battle system, as well as some of the best story twists in gaming memory. Expect a long-winded review of that game eventually!

PROJECTS

Editing Aphrodite Rising of course is still ongoing and I think Kathy has a release date set now for March 1st, 2025. Worth mentioning that she also has physical copies of her short story, “When it’s Time” available now as well! I will certainly be getting one.

I love what she’s doing with the cover design (subject to change, of course).

The Luova Lampio project I’ve been working on is also well underway and I’ve really enjoyed seeing it come together, though the whole process is a bit strange, because we’re not sure how involved the people for whom we’re making the project are meant to be in our artistic process (the implication is that they are less involved than we would like them to be). It has given me an opportunity to stretch my wings with voice acting a bit though, which has been really fun and interesting, and surprisingly challenging. I’ve learned a lot right away.

ISLANDS OF NIGHTSEA

Hiatus continues…

THE VITMAR CHRONICLES

What ho, a new segment? If you haven’t heard me talk about The Vitmar Chronicles before, you can get some backstory on my website, but suffice to say that I’ve been working on this series since 2008 and since I started self-publishing last year, I’ve been feeling like this story has been sitting in my heart for far, far too long, and it’s time to set it free.

I was thinking of teasing the series by rewriting a short story or two set in the world, but then I thought, why would I do that when the first part of the story has been written and rewritten to death already?

Ultimately, I gave myself the pretty idiotic deadline of my birthday, which is October 4th (that’s this Friday), so I left myself with less than a month to do any necessary rewrites and adjustments. You know I’m rewriting it all again in a week or so, so hopefully it’s not a total catastrophe.

Now, something important regarding this particular novella, for those who are interested: I’m trying to be as independent of an artist as humanly possible for this release, as a bit of an experiment. As someone who deeply misses simpler times, I want to have a go at avoiding as many groups and collectives and companies who want to profit from me. I have a story and if you’re interested in reading it for any reason, I want you to have it, plain and simple. I go into more detail about how and why I’m doing this on the Direct Artist Support page of my website. But the long and short of it is that I hope you’ll consider getting the story from me directly, and if you do, it’ll be both cheaper and I’ll send you the first short story set in the world, gratis, when it’s done next spring.

Of course, “The Vitmar Chronicles” will still be available on Amazon/Google/Kobo along with my short stories (“Adrift” and “Soulsong,” which are from the Islands of Nightsea world), but I’m really hoping that at least a few people will be willing to help me out and spread the story to anyone who might be interested in some out-of-the-box slice-of-life fantasy that doesn’t involve anyone saving the world. If you’re curious, you can read the story teaser here!

Kathy obviously helped me with the cover, because I do not know how to Canva

OFF THE RECORD

As promised, I’ve started to release the interview backlog that I’ve been developing. The first one I got out this month was my interview with Mikko Salovaara of Kiuas. I did this interview back in June or July, but due to, if I recall correctly, the lack of space on Mikko’s phone, my recording service didn’t record the audio for the second half of the interview (which was very strange). So we finished it up at Dark River Festival, which is why it jumps to F2F at the end.

I also happened to get a nice, long interview with Ensiferum’s Sami Hinkka this month, where we talk about the band’s history, cats, and the new album. This was a fun one but I think I need about 3 hours to get through all of the questions I had. Who knows, maybe we’ll keep this going another time?

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 Crimson Sun released their aforementioned third album in September, it seemed like an opportune time to have him as a special geek, so that was fun to finally do. We both really enjoy our TTRPGs, as well as good storytelling.

One of the pictures with a cat had to make it in somewhere, right?

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

This month I was up in Tampere with Merta again on the 6th, who were bafflingly opening for Mustasch — what a bonkers weird pairing, but a fun night, especially since I convinced a friend that I haven’t seen in a while to come out! I did have to pack up during Mustasch’s set though, because people were getting mad at me for not having their merch too (haha… people do not know how merch works a lot of the time).

Love having the who merch space to myself!

Next, I was meant to be assisting/keeping Lady Enslain company at the Brymir & Where’s My Bible show on the 13th, who were celebrating the release of WMB’s new album, “Kave.” She ended up getting sick before the show though, so I ended up doing that one myself, which included Enemies Everywhere. That was a good night of good music, I must say.

Then, since Lady Enslain has been touring with Kaunis Kuolematon lately, two of us were meant to take care of a small festival… but then my partner woke up half-dead with some sort of flu. I ended up having a really good time holding the fort on my own the first night, but the second night was such a bloody catastrophe that it led to me full-on packing up and going home before doors opened. I was so totally wound up and frustrated that I wanted to drink for the first time in 6 years.

After such a nightmare on day 2, I was overjoyed to receive such wonderful feedback from two of the bands from the first night later on!

GENERAL BEARSNESS

I managed to keep my September from getting overcrowded, though perhaps that’s just how things go after summer dies down. I did have one Sunday that bummed me out because I didn’t have the car, so I missed both Musamimmien Päivä — which is some sort of networking and info event for music industry women that I’ve been wanting to go to forever — and the exhibition from V.V. Machine, the artist who was responsible for a lot of what we saw in the woods at Kosmos Festival this summer. The exhibition ended on the 21st, so I never managed to make it to town while it was running, sadly.

I did, however, started my belly dance classes on the 1st. I saw the teacher performing at Helsinki Psych Fest earlier in the year and was reminded of how cool I think belly dancers are, so when she announced a class for the fall, I signed up. My immediate thoughts were, “oh, this is exactly what my spine needs.” The moves seem to be heavily focused on isolating certain parts of the body (mainly the spine), and working them, which is indeed exactly what my spine needs.

During every class so far, I’ve found myself feeling uncoordinated and uncomfortable, like an elephant in high heels (dance has never come easily to me), but as I practiced the movements on my own outside of the classes, I was surprised at how quickly I improved. It occurred to me that, having actively rejected that which is feminine my whole life, it’s hard to see myself dancing, especially in a way that’s so elegant when done well. It’s an interesting experience, after several decades, to explore my feminine side and I can’t say that it comes very easily or naturally. But, life is not interesting if I’m not challenging myself, so dance I will.

It is worth noting though, how careful I need to be. I tweak and pull little muscles regularly (they are usually fine after a day or two), and I have to be very slow and gentle with the movements, just because of the overall chronic pain I feel all over.

On that front, I had osteopathy again just yesterday, and I learned that both my left ankle and my right shin are apparently problem places, as is the base of my skull (none of this was new information), and because they all twist in different directions, that’s why there’s a spot in the middle of my spine that won’t really untwist that haunts me endlessly. Well, I may have mentioned that it went back where it belonged once, but then slipped out of place about 5 days later. Perhaps if it ever goes back permanently, I’ll have a normal range of motion again. One can dream, at least.

Ultimately, I’m just pleased to be in a mental state right now that’s manageable, so that I have a bit more energy to dedicate to my physical state again. It’s a tough transition, but I hope it becomes easier with practice. I had a 6-week break from osteo this time, rather than my usual 4, and I booked my next session for mid-November, so wish me luck that nothing too drastic pops out of place before then.

Another new thing this month was that I finally got to have a face-to-face (online) meeting with my editor from Fabled Magazine, Natasa Xerri. I’ve really enjoyed her first book, “A Stranger’s Tale,” which I recommend for anyone who’s a fan of books that have a strong folklore mysticism. I really like the vibe she gives off, as well as her style of writing, so I’m really looking forward to working with her some more in the future. I’m currently working on an article for the first print edition of Fabled, which will hopefully be released next year!

There’s been a lot of stress around here because Teddy has started peeing on the furniture again (our poor, poor couch, it’s only 3 years old), and there’s clearly something wrong with Beans, because he’s not using the box properly. So the cat situation in the house is getting problematic and Beans needs to go to the vet, so hopefully that gets sorted out and there’s nothing too severely wrong with him.

Somehow, September flew by faster than I can really comprehend, despite me actually successfully taking it a bit easier. Hopefully the fall stays similarly chill, though time could stand to slow down a touch, if it doesn’t mind?

“You hold the pen; you’re the only one who can make your next chapter amazing.”

— unknown

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Coming Next Month…

I actually have a lot of potential shows lined up for October, starting with Love Potion Club on the 2nd, Crimson Sun’s album release show with Nestruction on the 3rd (that’s also my brothers’ birthday, so shout-out to them for being old), and then, of course, the 4th is book release day and my berfday! Then the 5th is a friend’s birthday, so… busy, busy.

I’d love to make it to another whirling class or another IGDA meeting in October if I can, but it all generally depends on my energy levels and whether I have a car or not.

Later in the month is a prelistening session for Ensiferum that I promised a friend I’d join her at, and the Smalltime Players show that I’ve been waiting for all September (I haven’t been able to go yet because the nearest shows have all been on days when I’ve been busy).

I also have the new Ensiferum and Andy Gillion releases in my review pile! I’m really excited about the latter, since apparently it’s the follow-up to his fantasy album, “Neverafter,” from 2019.

I’ll have a full weekend later in the month where I’ll be trapped at home alone, so who knows what I might plan for then. Hopefully something fun for myself.

That’s it for September! Thanks again for reading along this month!

And below is my Best of 2024 playlist, which probably is due for an update since a few solid new albums have recently come out! Welcome to follow along!

Bear's Book of Balance