I've been living off a bag since August. Technically homeless, bunking down in benevolent c/o addresses and optimising baggage allowances. Yet not travelling enough to brag about it. At least my carbon footprint is in check then.

Now, I get on with a two-part lowdown on the last eight weeks. The events take place in Helsinki metropolitan area.

Lectures and presentations

Someone said that the English language is devoid of the word sivistys / die Bildung. I guess the closest word is cultivation. Anyhow, the first one was about X and technology, and second one about X and the political left.

The grand old man of communication and technology, Osmo A. Wiio talked to a middle-aged audience about surviving in today's technoscape. There was hardly any beef there; buy an Apple computer and get spared from viruses, is not much to write home about. However, Prof. Wiio has been around since 1940s and should just be let to tell stories from the course of his life – that would be priceless. Now he just scraped his reservoir of anecdotes.

A more engaging talk was given by dramaturgist Outi Nyytäjä to another middle-aged group, namely the intellectuals of the social democrat party. Nyytäjä is an elderly woman and thus excused to behave outspoken, even badly. Sharp witted, Brittany based and fluent in several languages she did her best in trying to spark up the ideological flame of this very mossy party in a clueless situation.

Megapolis 2022 event attracted crowds to Vanha. Headline: "Environmental problems are solved in cities". Speaker lineup was rather media sexy indeed. As a satellite event there was a presentation by fantastic artist duo HeHe. Over the winter they're working on Nuage vert laser projection in Helsinki. This was also the first session of the Pixelache University. In the lobby I made the first contact with the Wikiparty – a young movement of great expectations.

Then, there was also a Graffiti Research Lab show & tell and laser graffiti night, where my bicycle also got pimped out with LED throwies.

Football

My pals Markus, blogger of Lighthouse, and ml - top commenter and Bird-list contributor on this blog and I went to see two FC Honka matches. Matches at that point of the season seemed a bit lacklustre on Honka's part, but Markus had a great anecdote about Honka's and HJK Helsinki's extraaathletic rivalry on the heights of stadium light posts. Obviously, no visit is complete without a visit to Gallows Bird where I'll be heading next on St Thomas' Day for traditional winter solstice brews session.

Earlier this year I thought the Finnish football culture had taken a social turn, when I saw people flocking at pubs to see Euro qualifications. Maybe that's just because they're are on pay channels now, but during the Belgium match everything was absolutely packed. Except one, and as told by a film critic, "Going to an Iguana is like FU'ing yourself".

Cultures

On that Megapolis 2022 day I opted out from presidential keynote and accepted Keltanen's offer to see Get Yor War On at Espoo City Theatre. Fantastic political play after eponymous comic completed with extensive choreography on overhead projectors. Tickets courtesy of Riikka, extending thanks here and now.

I'm not contributing to Prenzlauer Berg's baby boom in the foreseeable future, but the children's play Ahmatti I saw at the Alexander Theatre courtesy of the director, was damn good stage art for children over five years. Parents ahoy!

Because monolingualism is overrated, I gained an ego boost from keeping up with Jag är min egen fru at the Swedish Theatre. One-man play about the prominent Berlin transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who assumed life of a housewife hoarding Gründerzeit memorabilia. Without the turbulent historic circumstances, that would not be the most exciting theme, but it made a satisfyingly laid out play nevertheless.

Freja cordially tipped off to the opening of their Megafån group's Feminist Wallpaper exhibition. I'd personally rather be pro-equality than pro-feminism or any other gender-biased ideology, but I like this work. Prime example of crowdsourcing in art as well.

To conclude I went to the Helsinki Book Fair for the first time. My friend Taina published her new book on the relationship between religion and politics there, which I'm looking forward to read in the holidays. Karstein was on the panel there as well (missed that, but luckily we had the pints @ Pikkulintu) and he's come out with a new Fakta book (#3). Congrats!

Otherwise, I scanned about half a dozen interesting titles, but my personal baggage allowance would not bear any weight of paper.

They're closing at Melis now, so we must have a break here.