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1. Finnish Studio Gigglebug Shares 7 Insights on Turning An App Into A TV Series

The creators of the Finnish cross-media brand "Gigglebug" share their unconventional app-to-broadcast journey.

The post Finnish Studio Gigglebug Shares 7 Insights on Turning An App Into A TV Series appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

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2. Artist of the Day: Eva Vilhelmiina Eskelinen

Discover the art of Eva Vilhelmiina Eskelinen, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day.

The post Artist of the Day: Eva Vilhelmiina Eskelinen appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

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3. How much do you know about Nordic countries and international law?

Which Nordic state had sovereignty over Iceland until 1918? Which state was allowed to discriminate against a transgender woman by annulling her marriage? Who disputed ownership of Eastern Greenland before the Permanent Court of International Justice? In preparation for the European Society of International Law's 11th annual conference, this year held in Oslo, test your knowledge of Nordic countries in international law with our quiz.

The post How much do you know about Nordic countries and international law? appeared first on OUPblog.

0 Comments on How much do you know about Nordic countries and international law? as of 8/3/2015 5:09:00 AM
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4. Maggie Welcomes Thousands of Visitors Worldwide

Maggie Steele, the storybook heroine who vaults over the moon, has been attracting thousands of visitors from around the world. So many visitors, in fact, that she’s using a time zone map to keep track of them all.* People are … Continue reading

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5. Gigglebug Makes Children Go Crazy…With Laughter

Gigglebug, a newly released iPad app from Finland, uses infectious laughter to encourage social play among children. Through touching and swiping the screen, players can tickle various 2D animated characters to make them smile and laugh. This sort of interactive, responsive play is irresistible to kids, and elicits a reaction that may or may not be desirable to parents:

Infectious laughter has proven to be a guaranteed form of entertainment—how else could videos of laughing babies have 60 million views on YouTube? Several cartoons, toys and other products have found success in using laughter, such as Sesame Street shorts and Tickle Me Elmo.

Then there’s Sh-h-h-h-h-h, a clasic Tex Avery cartoon about a man trying to escape the constant laughter and noise of his surroundings. The soundtrack of the cartoon comes from the early-1920s Okeh Laughing Record, a bizarre recording that features a man and woman laughing uncontrollably.

Gigglebug also features lush watercolor backgrounds and laugh scenes that are fully animated with quality not often seen in 2D animated apps. Not surprisingly, the app was developed in part by Helsinki-based Anima Boutique which has extensive experience producing animation for entertainment purposes. They are simultaneously developing Gigglebug as a children’s TV series. The success of another Finnish creation, Angry Birds, appears to have normalized the idea that a successful app can lead to cross-media adaptations on more traditional platforms like TV and film.

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6. How the Finns Create a Sense of Community in Their Schools

How do we compare a country with a fairly homogeneous population of five and a half million people, with less than 5% of the population in poverty, to the United States? Well, forty years ago, when Finland was overhauling their education system and studying models from other countries, they could have followed our lead and jumped on our No Child Left Behind bandwagon, eventually moving to high-stakes testing and teacher assessment as a means to improve education.

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7. Lotta Nieminen—Design

While most Grain Edit readers know Lotta Nieminen for her extraordinary illustration styles, but she also has an incredibly rich and beautiful design portfolio. Her keen eye for typography and layout design is relatively unmatched, and each project somehow manages to out-do the last. Together, her two portfolios create an exciting mix of work & almost a perfect dichotomy of truly minimal vs. extremely detailed.

Be sure to keep up with Lotta’s current projects on her websitetwitter and on dribbble!

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Atipus
Lesley Barnes
Jesse Ragan

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8. Notcon: Finnish comics anthology KUTI

kuti24 pdf Notcon: Finnish comics anthology KUTI
For all you stay at homes who are sick and tired of endless San Diego talk, we hope to provide a distraction or two. Like KUTI, a Finnish comics anthology drawn mostly by members of a comics association called Kuti Kuti. You can download all the issues as pdfs. We’ve always found Finnish humor to be equally fatalistic and merry, and so is Kuti. Contributors to the new issue include:

Zven Balslev (DEN), Benjamin Bergman (FIN),
Lilli Gärtner (GER), Roope Eronen (FIN),
Jeffrey Kriksciun (USA), Tiina Lehikoinen (FIN),
Søren Mosdal (DEN), Michael Olivo (USA),
Boris Peeters (NED), Aapo Rapi (FIN),
Martin Romero (ESP), Maria Rostocka (POL),
Kari Sihvonen (FIN), Jari Vaara (FIN),
Brecht Vandenbroucke (BEL),
Emelie Östergren (SWE) & Jacob Ørsted (DEN).

The above it the cover by Kari Sihvonen.

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9. Happy St. Urho’s Day!

By Sydney Beveridge


While Irish eyes are smiling on St. Patrick’s Day, many Finns are already celebrating St. Urho’s Day. The holiday was first celebrated in Minnesota on March 16th, which happens to be just before St. Patrick’s Day.

It honors the legendary Urho, the patron saint of vineyard workers. As the story goes, he saved the grape crop from a grasshopper infestation with his horrible breath as he yelled, “Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen!” (Grasshopper, grasshopper, go away!)

Soon after the first St. Urho’s Day was celebrated, the 1960 census reported that there were 240,827 people in the US born in Finland, representing 0.1 percent of the total population.

Over 15 percent of them resided in Minnesota, where St. Urho celebrations first originated.

According to the 2010 American Community Survey, there are now 647,697 residents of Finnish ancestry, making up about 0.2 percent of the total population.

Some St. Urho’s Day revelers dress up as grasshoppers and grapes to celebrate. As you can see, Finns are especially concentrated in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Explore the map to see where you should plan your next St. Urho’s Day outing, or if you are a grasshopper, where to avoid.

Map of Finnish Residents in the US (2006-10 Census)

Happy St. Urho’s Day from Social Explorer!

Sydney Beveridge is the Media and Content Editor for Social Explorer, where she works on the blog, curriculum materials, how-to-videos, social media outreach, presentations and strategic planning. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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10.

Thanks to Amy, my counterpart at Fort Erie Public Library, who forwarded a link for The First Banned Books Video Calendar. Says Amy, "For years and years Finland had the highest literacy rate in the world, largely due to the fact that 99+ % of Finns were Lutherans, and the Lutherans made sure all children could read, so they could read Luther's catechism."

The Entresse Library in Espoo, Finland and FAIFE (IFLA Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression) have partnered to create this resource.

Following the tradition of the Advent calendar, each day between December 1st and December 24th a new window will open and a new book will be presented on several sites throughout the world.

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11. Sac Magique

Sac Magique

Finland based artist and illustrator Sac Magique’s bold and direct style is comical and entertaining. He has a way with pairing bright and sometimes unusual color combinations with rich textures to create whimsical images of people and animals. Sac describes his style as “playful aggression, like a delicious custard pie in the face”. I couldn’t think of anything more fun and refreshing!

Sac Magique

Sac Magique

Sac Magique

Sac Magique

Sac Magique

Sac Magique

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12. Two things I have learned about Finland — first,...



Two things I have learned about Finland — first, Valentine’s Day is called Day of Friends, and celebrates ALL relationships, romantic or otherwise, and secondly they celebrate it, in part, with wacky illustrated postage stamps like these, designed by Janne Harju



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13. More Finnish children’s books

Today’s post is about signposting you to more children’s books either by Finnish authors / illustrators or with Finnish themes. Perhaps you’re simply curious about children’s literature from another part of the world. Or maybe at some point this year Finland will be in the headlines (for example because the Finnish city of Turku is joint European City of Culture in 2011) and you’ll want to find some books to read with your kids to complement learning about Finland. Either way, this post will provide you with some starting points, and hopefully whet your appetite for Finnish children’s literature.

I haven’t read all the books mentioned in today’s post (although in researching this post I’ve added lots of books to my wishlist!), and the list is certainly not exhaustive – rather I’ve tried to highlight some of the best Finnish books out there, using various reference works and recommendations to guide me in my selection.

A to Zoo: Subject Access to Children’s Picture Books lists The Princess Mouse by Aaron Shepard, illustrated by Leonid Gore (and no other books) under the heading for Finland.

Based on the Finnish folktale The Forest Bride, the full (but unillustrated) text is available on Aaron Shepard’s website. Booklist says “Shepard’s charmingly droll version of a Finnish folktale combines classic elements with unexpected, witty details–among them, an outspoken mouse who sings a little song in the story (lyrics and melody appended). The jewel-toned art has beautiful luminescence; the elongated, somewhat blocky look of the characters reinforces the fantasy; and the mice are downright irresistible.”

Outside In, a UK based organisation dedicated to promoting and exploring world literature and children’s books in translation is a great place to visit to find information on children’s books in English, originally written in other languages. It’s possible to search by age and country of origin and is a wonderful resource!

The two picture books (for slightly older children) listed in 3 Comments on More Finnish children’s books, last added: 1/13/2011
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14. Pannukakku, candles and dinosaurs singing heavy metal!

**Don’t miss out on your chance to win a Moomin mug and plate set! Click here and leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning! (European addresses only)**

An important part of Reading Round Europe for us is going to be using the books we read as a family to explore other countries and cultures. So to go with our reading of It’s Snowing in Animal town (review here) I searched high and low for a genuine, fun Finnish activity for us to get up to us a family. I wanted something more interesting than colouring in the Finnish Flag so I reached out into the blogosphere for suggestions and discovered Ruth who blogs at The North Wing.

Photo: Ruth Landesa

Ruth is a jewellery maker and designer based in Finland and when I stumbled across her blog and website I was immediately drawn in by her beautiful photography which reminded me of another blog I enjoy, Bloesem. I wrote to her asking if she could help suggest an activity for me and my girls and despite it being the week before Christmas when I contacted her, she came up trumps and very generously wrote up a recipe for Pannukakku, “a very, very traditional Finnish dessert that is really easy and good to prepare with kids“… what could be better than that?!

Photo: Ruth Landesa

Ruth’s Pannukakku

For 2 generous portions

  • 1 dl flour – I’ve never measure flour like this, but I just put it in a measuring jug up to 100ml and that worked fine
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 3 dl milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 spoon margarine or butter
  • For 6 portions

  • 3 dl flour
  • 1/2 tea spoon of salt
  • 8 dl milk
  • 4 eggs
  • 2-3 spoons margarine or butter
  • 1. Preheat the oven at 225 degrees Celsius.
    2. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add half quantity of the milk and whisk until the mixture is smooth.
    3. Add the rest of the milk. Add eggs and whisk.
    4. Grease a pan (Ruth uses a glass oven-pyrex pan for the small pancake and for the 6 portion pancake a pizza pan of about 30×40 cm size). Place the butter or margarine into the pan and put the pan for a few minutes into the oven until the fat melts and starts to get a little colour.
    5. Pour the mix into the pan and bake at the middle level of the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until the pancake has puffed up and has a beautiful colour.
    6. Leave to cool in the pan and cut.
    7. Serve the pancake as a dessert with fresh fruit – Ruth normally use berries, berry jam or comp

    3 Comments on Pannukakku, candles and dinosaurs singing heavy metal!, last added: 1/6/2011
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    15. Kidlit destinations in Finland

    Suitcase packed and passport at the ready? Then we’re off, on the first stage of our European tour – and this week’s destination as part of Reading Round Europe is Finland!

    Finland’s most famous children’s author has to be Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins. Interestingly, Jansson wrote in Swedish rather than Finnish – about 5-6% of the population of Finland have Swedish as their mother tongue. Her first Moomin book was published just over 65 years ago, but today Moomins are probably more popular than they’ve ever been.

    Given this background, it’s not surprising that the two biggest kidlit destinations in Finland are both Moomin related.

    The Moominvalley of the Tampere Art Museum is a museum devoted to original works by writer and artist Tove Jansson and can be found in the centre of the city of Tampere.

    Photo: Tampere Art Museum

    The atmospheric Moominvalley art museum hosts a constant exhibition for a part of the collection of c. 2,000 works donated to the City of Tampere and the Tampere Art Museum in 1986 by Tove Jansson (1914-2001), Tuulikki Pietilä (1917-2009, graphic artist and Tove Jansson’s partner) and Pentti Eistola (a frequent collaborator with Jansson and Pietilä on Moomin projects).

    Photo: Tampere Art Gallery

    In addition to the permanent exhibition, there is currently a special exhibition, Dancing Moominvalley, focussing on movement and dance in the Moomin art of Tove Jansson, who apparently loved to dance herself. Alongside the exhibition dance company Tanssiteatteri MD is currently performing a contemporary dance piece also titled Dancing Moominvalley – you can see images on the Dancing Moominvalley blog.

    If you can’t make it to Finland, you could instead visit Bury Art Gallery, Manchester (UK) which is currently hosting a temporary exhibition of Tove Jansson’s illustrations on loan from Tampere Art Gallery.

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    16. Sanna Annukka Shop - Soul Birds

    sanna annukka

    Sanna Annukka Limited Edition Wooden Soul Birds

    Sanna Annukka recently launched a new portfolio and online store. I love these solid brown oak Soul Birds which are now available for pre-orders in her shop. I’ll have to add these to my Christmas list!

    On her website, Sanna shares this bit about the the Soul Bird which stems from Finnish mythology. “In Karelia there was an ancient belief in the Sielulintu or Soul bird. The Sielulintu was thought to deliver the soul to newborn babies and also to transport the soul to the afterlife at the moment of death.
    It was believed the Sielulintu protected a persons soul at it’s most vulnerable; when dreaming, and it was tradition to keep a carved wooden bird by the bedside to keep the soul safe during sleep.”

    sanna annukka

    sanna annukka marimekko

    Pillows and wall art designed for Marimekko (Not available in Sanna’s shop, but should be available at Marimekko).

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    Also worth checking: Vintage Russian posters.

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    Congrats to B. Rane! She is the winner in the Photo-Lettering giveaway.



    Grain Edit recommends Annonce. A font designed by Canada Type. Check it out here.



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    17. Lotta Nieminen Illustration

    lotta nieminen

    I spy with my little eye—a dapper gentleman suffering from writer’s block!

    Created for Markkinointi & Mainointa (Marketing & Advertising) magazine by Finnish illustrator Lotta Nieminen, this illustration has varied textures and layers that work so well together. The color palette is cool and complementary, and I really dig the different shapes that she uses to accentuate the man’s face and clothing…symmetry at its finest!

    lotta nieminen

    lotta nieminen illustration

    lotta nieminen illustration agent pekka

     agent pekka

    Finnish Illustrators

    lotta nieminen illustration agent pekka

    lotta nieminen illustration agent pekka

    Lotta has a lovely collection of work. To see more, check out her portfolio at Agent Pekka.

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    Also worth checking: Sanna Paananen (now Sanna Mander).

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    Congrats to B. Rane! She is the winner in the Photo-Lettering giveaway.



    Grain Edit recommends Annonce. A font designed by Canada Type. Check it out here.

    <

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    18. Vintage Travel Posters

    vintage travel posters

    1. Come to Africa - Designed by Gerard van de Voort - c1975

    How about virtual tour around the world to start off the week?  I dug up a handful of travel related posters from 1950s -1970s for all the desk jockeys that are itching to get out of town. Enjoy!

    vintage travel posters

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    vintage travel posters

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    2. Argentina c1950 -Poster artist - Cesareo  3. Beieren c1960- Designed by Herman Verbaere 4. Paris-Orly for Air France c1962- Design & Illustration by Jaques Nathan Garamond 5. Air Afrique c1965- Designed and illustrated by Jacques Auriac 6. Finland print for Finnair c1958  - Design by Erik Bruun   7. Rainbow poster for EL AL Israel Airlines - Design by Dan Reisinger 8. Switzerland c1967 - Design by Herbert Leupin  9. Turku Abo - Tourist poster for the Finnish town of Turku c1966?- Design by Marti Mykkanen 10. Hunting in Poland c1961 - Design by Wiktor Gorka 11. Switzerland poster for EL AL Israel Airlines - Design by Dan Reisinger  12. Poster for Belgian Railways c1966 - Design by Wictor Langer 13. Wengen Switzerland poster c1965 - Design by Martin Lauterburg + Fritz Lauener 14. Austria poster for Pan Am Airlines c1971 - Design by Chermayeff & Geismar 15/16. Israel: The land of the Bible produced for the State of Israel Tourist Centre - Design by Jean David 17. Travel Royal Blue c195? - Design & illustration by Daphne Padden 18. Great Canadian North -Pacific Western Airlines - Anonymous c1960

    (images 1,2,3 via Van Sabben auctions) image #12 via grid studio , image #14 via the excellent Container List, image #17 via Larking About

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    Also worth checking: David Klein TWA posters.

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    Congrats to B. Rane! She is the winner in the Photo-Lettering giveaway.



    Grain Edit recommended reading: A Russian Diary



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    19. Ella ja Aleksi – Yöjuna Rovaniemelle

    I know nothing about this, other than having found it on my friend JvB’s Facebook page and being utterly smitten by its adorableness. The voice of the kid singing: priceless! And I can’t stand kids!

    If you know any details about it, please add them to the comments below.

    UPDATE: I just found this on Last.fm:

    Ella ja Aleksi is a Finnish duo consisting of two children. The project was founded in 2004 by Markus Koskinen of the band Teleks and Sampo Haapaniemi of Egotrippi. It released an album named Lenni Lokinpoikanen (Lenni the Baby Seagull) which went platinum (30,000 sold copies) and stayed on the top four of the Finnish charts for four weeks. The latest album is Kolme muskettisopulia (The three musketeer lemmings) 2005.

    The band’s lyrics are about human relations, family, and close surroundings. For example, the lyrics of the radio hit MC Koppakuoriainen (MC Beetle) are about the importance of parenting and not bullying others.

    UPDATE #2: Well, five minutes of Googling, and I found the animation studio which produced this: Anima Boutique.


    Posted by Luc Latulippe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | 2 comments
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    7 Comments on Ella ja Aleksi – Yöjuna Rovaniemelle, last added: 10/3/2009
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    20. Photo Op - Virolahti, Finland

    One of my closest friends, Taina Mustamaa lives in Kotka, Finland. That is east of Helsinki. She and her family own a quaint, rustic cottage (with no running water or electricity) in the rural southeastern part of Finland, close to the Russian border. This is known as the municipality of Virolahti. The population is extremely sparse, but nature abounds. Click here for Google Map.

    full-moon1

    the-scenery-at-the-end-of-the-island1

    the-scenery-from-the-window

    in-the-cottage

    Thanks for the photos Taina! I miss you!

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    21. Maija Louekari: Illustration & Design

    Maija Louekari

    What a scrumptious illustration by Finnish illustrator and designer, Maija Louekari! She has a sensational eye for bright punchy colors, geometric forms and patterns, as well as fine lines. Louekari won a design competition staged by the Univeristy of Art and Design Helsinki and the iconic textile and clothing designer Marimekko in 2003.

    Maija Louekari

    Since then, she has continued to create playful designs for Marimekko, including this one entitled Karkutellä (Translation: At Large). At first glance, I just noticed the candy colored elephant and the long legged pelican. Then, I noticed the animals wearing two different types of boots. That’s when I realized there’s a zebra in front of the elephant! The layers are a true delight, as well as the varied forms.

    Maija Louekari

    Maija Louekari

    Maija Louekari

    Maija Louekari

    Inspired by all the intricacies of life (daily observations, people, the city vs. the forest), Louekari creates her own colorfully complex worlds filled with beautiful details. To find out more, visit her website and read an interview with her on Marimekko.com.
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    Also worth checking: Sanna Paananen - Illustration

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    22. Janine Rewell: Graphic Design & Illustration

    Janine Rewell

    Finnish designer and illustrator, Janine Rewell, has a wonderful way of fusing colorful detailed illustrations with clean, simple type. There are surprises in every corner of her work, this piece being no exception.

    Created for the Helsinki in Berlin music festival in 2008, we see a lot of musical imagery, with guitars, flutes, and keyboards hiding throughout the illustration. I especially like that there are even tinier images playfully hiding within the text. It reminds me of playing “Hidden Picture” while reading old Highlights magazines at the Dentist’s office as a kid. I also enjoy Rewell’s use of wine bottle and martini glass buildings. Although densely clustered, her composition is right on, implying “”We’re gonna drink, listen to good tunes, and have fun!” Wahoo!

    Janine Rewell

    Here’s another fun project: sustainable, pocket sized bamboo SPORKS! Who knew the dull second-rate plastic spork could be transformed to be a first class hero of design? I really dig the shape of the package, as well as Rewell’s cheerfully ornate, but simple, designs on both the package and individual sporks.

    Janine Rewell

    Geometry plays a major role in Rewell’s work, and we see this in her experimental typeface.

    Janine Rewell

    All in all, Rewell’s work is utterly whimsical and absurdly entertaining. Check out more of her work on her website, janinerewell.com.

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    Grand Prize goes to MidcenturyMaude 2nd Prize goes to Abby S

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    23. Did Some Quack Ban Donald Duck in Finland?

    Snopes is a great website for clearing up unanswered questions or finding the answer to a bet.

    Was Donald Duck banned in Finland because the character doesn't wear pants? According to Snopes: False.

    The origins of the legend begin in 1977.

    ...when the city of Helsinki found itself in a bit of a financial crunch. With monetary resources limited, Mr. Markku Holopainen, a local Liberal Party representative, proposed at a meeting of the board of youth affairs that the city economize by discontinuing its purchase of Donald Duck comics for youth centers in favor of hobby and sport publications. His suggestion was heartily approved.

    A year later, while Holopainen was in the midst of an election campaign for a seat in the Finnish parliament, word was leaked to the press that he was "the man who banned Donald Duck from Helsinki." The chairman of the board of youth affairs failed to come to Holopainen's defense -- not surprisingly, since he himself was a candidate as well. Holopainen explained in vain that the decision to discontinue the purchase of Donald Duck comics with city funds had passed unanimously and was made solely for economic reasons. Holopainen lost his battle with the press -- and he lost the election to the now-silent board chairman.

    When a similar incident had taken place in the Finnish town of Kemi a few years earlier, the international press had gleefully exaggerated the story with headlines such as "Finland Bans Donald" and "Donald Vanishes from Libraries," reporting that Donald's banishment was due to concerns over his lack of pants and questions about his marital status. As the foreign news reports about the alleged banning of Donald Duck filtered back to Finland (and neighboring Sweden), the local tabloids didn't attempt to verify the story -- they merely ran articles about the reaction it was receiving abroad. "Donald Not Married; Politicians Outraged!" and "Donald, Where Are Your Trousers?" were headlines in foreign papers, Finns were told.

    The furor quickly blew over, and within several months Disney cartoons became more prevalent on Finnish TV, leading the more cynical to wonder if the whole thing hadn't been encouraged as a clever publicity stunt by Disney.

    Join the over 50 people who have joined the "Banned Book Challenge." It will run until June 30.

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    24. Sanna Paananen: Illustration

    Although it is raining, I’d love to join this golden man for a relaxing tranquil time at the beach. Finnish illustrator, Sanna Paananen, has a real knack for using rich saturated complementary colors and thoughtful line work. In this pleasingly orchestrated composition, we see a nice contrast between the golden sands of the beach and the blue details of the rain, umbrellas, and man’s speedo. Paananen plays with the positive and negative space, concentration, and shape of the rain drops, creating a rhythmically soothing effect to the piece. I especially like the simplistic details in the shell’s line work.

    Dig that sweat drop! In contrast to goldie at the beach, this album cover for Finnish jazz band, The Five Corners Quintet, has a more energetic vibe about it. I really get a kick from the dynamic lines and highlights accompanying those banging hands and stomping feet! This album cover has a nice textures, and I adore its simplicity,  especially with the drum.

    Pretty and perfectly composed, Paananen’s work is a true delight. To find out more, visit www.pekkafinland.fi.

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    25. New York Philharmonic In The Park: Jean Sibelius

    Tonight I am planning on attending the New York Philharmonic’s performance in Central Park, presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer. I’m not a classical music buff but I have clearly heard of Tchaikovsky and Beethoven the first two composer’s on the bill. The third though, Sibelius gave me pause. So I turned to the new Oxford Music Online gateway which led me to The Oxford Companion to Music’s biography of Jean Sibelius, which I have excerpted below. Enjoy- and if you are in New York come listen tonight!

    Sibelius, Jean (Julius Christian) [Johan Julius Christian Sibelius] (b Hämeenlinna, 8 Dec. 1865; d Järvenpää, 20 Sept. 1957).

    Finnish composer. He was unquestionably the greatest composer Finland has ever produced and the most powerful symphonist to have emerged in Scandinavia. His father was a doctor in Hämeenlinna, a provincial garrison town in south-central Finland. Until he was about eight years old Sibelius spoke no Finnish. However, when he was 11 his mother enrolled him in the first grammar school in the country to use Finnish as the teaching language instead of Swedish and Latin. Contact with Finnish opened up to him the whole repertory of national mythology embodied in the Kalevala. His imagination was fired by this, as it was by the great Swedish lyric poets J. L. Runeberg and Viktor Rydberg and, above all, by the Finnish landscape with its forests and lakes.

    In his youth Sibelius showed considerable aptitude on the violin and composed chamber music for his family and friends to play. There were few opportunities to hear orchestral music: even Helsinki did not have a permanent symphony orchestra until Robert Kajanus, later one of his staunchest champions, founded the City Orchestra in 1882. At first Sibelius studied law, but he soon abandoned it for music, becoming a pupil of Martin Wegelius. At about that time he decided to ‘internationalize’ his name (following the example of an uncle who had Gallicized his name, Johan, to Jean during his travels). It was not until he left Finland to study in Berlin and Vienna that he measured himself for the first time against an orchestral canvas.

    It was in Vienna that the first ideas of the Kullervo symphony came to him, and it was this work, first performed in 1892, that put Sibelius on the musical map in his own country. The music that followed in its immediate wake is strongly national in feeling: the Karelia Suite, written for a pageant in Viipuri in 1893, has obvious patriotic overtones. So too has the music he wrote six years later for another pageant portraying the history of Finland which became a rallying-point for national sentiment at a time when Russia was tightening its grip on the country. One of its numbers, Finlandia, was to make him a household name; its importance for Finnish national self-awareness was immeasurable. From the time of Finlandia onwards, Sibelius was undoubtedly the best-known representative of his country, and many who would never otherwise have become aware of Finland’s national aspirations did so because of his music. (His birthday was a national event each year, and in 1935 his 70th culminated in a banquet at which were present not only all the past presidents of Finland but the prime ministers of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.)

    If the 1890s had seen the consolidation of Sibelius’s position as Finland’s leading composer, the next decade was to witness the growth of his international reputation. In 1898 he acquired a German publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel. (He later sold Valse triste to the firm on derisory terms, a decision he regretted to his dying day.) But his fame was not confined to Germany: Henry Wood included the King Christian II Suite at a Promenade Concert as early as 1901, and during the first years of the century his works were conducted by Hans Richter, Weingartner, Toscanini, and—in the case of the Violin Concerto—by no less a figure than his contemporary Richard Strauss. The Violin Concerto was very much a labour of love, as one would expect from a violinist manqué who had nursed youthful ambitions as a soloist.

    Sibelius’s early compositions show the influence of the Viennese Classics, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky, and by the middle of the first decade of the 20th century, when Sibelius entered his 40s, his star had steadily risen. The Third Symphony (1907), however, brought a change in direction and showed Sibelius as out of step with the times. While others pursued more lavish orchestral means and more vivid colourings, his palette became more classical, more disciplined and economical. It was while he was in London working on his only mature string quartet, Voces intimae, that Sibelius first felt pains in his throat, and in 1909 he underwent specialist treatment in Helsinki and Berlin for suspected cancer. For a number of years he was forced to give up the wine and cigars he so enjoyed, and the bleak possibilities opened up by the illness served to contribute to the austerity, depth, and focus of such works as the Fourth Symphony (1911) and The Bard (1913). For tautness and concentration the Fourth Symphony surpasses all that had gone before. It baffled its first audiences and was declared ultra-modern; in Sweden it was actually hissed.

    Although each of the symphonies shows a continuing search for new formal means, in none is that search more thorough or prolonged than in the Fifth (1915). Sibelius was a highly self-critical composer who subjected his music to the keenest scrutiny. In the early years of the 20th century En saga and the Violin Concerto were completely overhauled, and the Lemminkäinen Suite (1895) was revised twice, in 1897 and 1939. The Fifth Symphony gave him the most trouble of all: in its original form it was in four movements, and was first performed on his 50th birthday. It was turned into a three-movement work in the following year and entirely rewritten in 1919.

    After World War I Sibelius’s music struck ever stronger resonances in England and the USA, and (perhaps because of that) fewer in Germany and the Latin countries. None of the symphonies is more radically different from the music of its time than the Sixth (1923), especially when compared with the music composed in the same year by Bartók, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Hindemith, and the members of Les Six. The one-movement Seventh Symphony (1924), which can be seen as the culmination of a search for organic unity, demonstrates the truth of the assertion that Sibelius never approached the symphonic problem in the same way. Tapiola (1926) crowns his creative achievement, evoking the awesome power of nature with terrifying grandeur. Of all his works this is the one that makes the most astonishingly original use of the orchestra.

    Sibelius’s inner world was dominated by his love of the northern landscape, and of the rich repertory of myth embodied in the Kalevala. The classical severity and concentration of his later works was not in keeping with the spirit of the times, and after World War I he felt an increasing isolation. As he himself put it, ‘while others mix cocktails of various hues, I offer pure spring water’. For more than 30 years after the completion of his four last great works—the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, the music for The Tempest, and Tapiola—Sibelius lived in retirement at Järvenpää, maintaining a virtually unbroken silence until his death in 1957. Although rumours of an Eighth Symphony persisted for many years, and its publication was promised after his death, nothing survives apart from the sketch of the first three bars. Near completion in 1933, it fell victim to his increasingly destructive self-criticism during World War II, probably in 1943.

    Sibelius’s achievement in Finland is all the more remarkable in the absence of any vital indigenous musical tradition. Each of his symphonies is entirely fresh in its approach to structure, and it is impossible to foresee from the vantage point of any one the character of the next. His musical personality is the most powerful to have emerged in any of the Scandinavian countries: he is able to establish within a few seconds a sound world that is entirely his own. As in the music of Berlioz, his thematic inspiration and its harmonic clothing were conceived directly in terms of orchestral sound, the substance and the sonority being indivisible one from the other. Above all he possessed a flair for form rare in the 20th century; in him the capacity to allow his material to evolve organically (what one might call ‘continuous creation’, to adapt an image from astronomy) is so highly developed that it has few parallels. His mature symphonies show a continuing refinement of formal resource that (to quote the French critic Marc Vignal) makes him ‘the aristocrat of symphonists’. Vignal was referring to the sophistication of his symphonic means, but late Sibelius is also aristocratic in his unconcern with playing to the gallery and in his concentration on the musical and spiritual vision.

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