THE SHANGRI-LA SUMMER SHOW, THE 5th EDTION

I made a poster and next week I am putting up a show - come go bananas with us, our co-performers and our students at The Shangri-La Summer Show 2019!

About 1/3 of the tickets are left, get yours from our webshop via tiny.cc/SUMMERSHOW2019

APRIL FOOLS & RUBIES KLUBIT

Entertainment-tip for this weekend:

April Fools Burlesque in Pikku Hanhi in Lahti and our RubiesKlubit: Hikiklubi at Sture 21 in Helsinki tomorrow! Come join the fun!

THE SEASON(S) APPROACHING...

Let me first start this by saying that I am definitely and foremost waiting for Halloween (and now that the second week of October is about to start I consider Halloween-season here!).

But.

While it is as little as 80 days until Christmas (!!!),  it is only 56 until our yearly Christmas show, which this year will kick off the whole festive season:

This year we are celebrating at our Rubies-Klubit burlesque club's home venue Sture 21.

Tickets are on sale now; get them in time as they tend to sell out!

Poster by me, as usual.

Ps. and first Halloween, yes. Catch me at these Halloween events: Horror & Tease in Tampere Oct.13 and our very own Rubies Klubit: Demoniklubi on Oct.27!

SUMMER CELEBRATIONS: THE SHANGRI-LA SUMMER SHOW JUNE 8!

If you want more sparkle in your life, and even if you don't, but just want to have fun and be entertained, come watch our studio's Summer Show Friday June 8th at Sture 21!
Coming to a show is always a win-win -  you have a great time and help put bread on the performers' tables. Plus get your daily/weekly/monhtly dose of sparkle and (biogradable) glitter.

It is already the 5th summer show we organize, and as usual we feature both students and teachers as well as resident Shangri-La performers. And a lot of other fun stuff! It's a bigger show than our regular clubs, and we turn the madness down a little bit (just a little) when hosting.

Find out more on the event page, and get your tickets from our webshop here: Summer Show tickets.

Also, a small reminder that I have created a discount code for my blog readers to our studio which gives -15% off pretty much everything - also summer show tickets! We have several summer classes and courses coming up in June as well so have a look at our studio's webpage (still only in Finnish I am afraid, although we do teach some classes in a multilingual style Finnish-English-Swedish).

The special only-for-you-discount to our webshop is FREELANCERS15

SUPERWOOD

Today I am traveling to Strasbourg to perform at a festival (at Elsass Rock & Jive) in warm and sunny weather!

So, logically I thought I’d look back some six months ago to to a very different kind of season, festival and ambience - Paola Suhonen’s SuperWood Festival.

The very first Superwood took place late last October just east of the Helsinki city centre in a now hotel, then 1960’s bank conference building; Hotel Rantapuisto. In all it’s 60’s design glory is a prefect base for the event, which, as one would expect when created by Paola Suhonen / Ivana Helsinki, mixes music, art, design and Finnish nature.

It’s a rather grown up festival, in a good way, with nice dining and movie screenings - forget muddy fields and tents, and enjoy lounge bar concerts with a living room feeling design hotel rooms - with a twist of spooky woodland vibe:
(Photo credits at the end of the post)

I only attended the first night but immediately regretted not booking the whole weekend. I managed to miss my old pal’s Suad’s sunset concert opening the night (Finland, October, it sets early) but got to listen to a truly magical Mikko Joensuu auditorium set, and then join the wood tour, which Paola put together of different musical performances and installations in the woods surrounding the hotel. A super idea although a bit over crowded, but let’s see how they do it this year.

The hotel restaurant had put together a vegetarian buffet of which lots of the ingredients were picked from the backyard -like sugar coated lichen decorating the dessert. And Pekka Haavisto (Finnish presidential candidate) was DJing! I ate so much I had to lounge on a pile of cushions to get over my food coma while watching one of the feature films.

Looking forward to this upcoming autumn to see how the second year of the festival will turn out!

Photos from the Superwood FB page by
1. Aleksi Tikkala - 2 & 5. David Jakob - 3. Tero Kiiski - 4. Mira Lintunen - 6 & 7. Paula Hiipakka

Square instagram photos by me except photo of Pekka Haavisto from @pekka.haavisto

WONDERLAND

Tonight! At our studio starting 18hrs - Dr.Sketchy's Helsinki presents: Wonderland! Come and draw and enjoy the nice setting, music and atmosphere.

Photo by Neil Kendall.

BUNNIES OFF DUTY

The Helsinki Burlesque Xmas Xtravaganza event I performed at all weekend long was truly fantastic but really sucked the juice out of me as well. Here's a Lynchian moment from when the party was over last night, with some go-go bunnies off-duty chilling.

HALLOWEEN FUN, TODAY!

What to do today?
Let me help you with that:

Come to Sture 21 for a set of Dr. Sketchy's and then in the evening join the best, most sparkling and craziest Halloweenn party in town, when we throw our RubiesKlubit: MÖRKÖKLUBI Halloween burlesque show.
Booooh!

SPACE OUT WITH US / DR. SKETCHY'S HELSINKI 23.4

It's time for the next Dr.Sketchy's Helsinki! This time we create you a little mini cosmos over at our studio, where the drawing takes place.

Dr.Sketchy's is an "anti-art school", a so called 'cabaret drawing'- event, where attendants can draw and paint croquis with a little different setting than the one you might be used to from art school. Usually with a specific theme, styled and set up according to that, and with great music.

Photos by Asko Rantanen, whose alter ego Johnny Moth also will serve as our model.
The space shuttle will be navigated by Tinker Bell and yours truly.

So, Sunday 23rd from 4pm onwards. Bring pencils papers and cash and see you at Shangri-La!

SHOWTIME!

A few photos from a show we did last week with The Ruby Knuckles Sextet.

All photos by Jani Karlsson.

A SELFIE AND IT'S META VERSION

Last night at the club night I co-produce -RubiesKlubit -Nancy took a photo of me and these two gold sparkling performers, Bébe and Bent, while we were indulging in the act of taking mandatory backstage selfies.

I probably have a thousand of photos like these by now in my phone, smiling fab people with a lot of glitter on them squeezed together to fit an instagram square (as well, as fit in a tiny backstage). But they keep on appearing, just the heads in a different order, after every show...

HALLOWEEN AT KAUHUKLUBI

Happy Halloween! (Because, even  though it's past midnight here by now there's still some Halloween left somewhere in the world).

Last year I spent my Halloween (with a skeleton) at a pilates trainers camp, but this year I got to celebrate it big time at the horror-themed RubiesKlubit burlesque club I produce with Tinx. It's great when you get to host an event with a spooky voice all night long.

Here are a couple of shots from the show, all shot by Bernhard. Miettinen.

I did my 50ft woman thing, inspired by the, ehrm,  epic masterpiece from 1958.

Pepper Sparkles.

Vera de Vil.

Tinker in monster mode.

Bent van der Bleu.

One of the winners of our costume competition and my skeleton hand handing over his price.

We run RubiesKlubit about every six to eight weeks at Mascot in Helsinki's Kallio district, always with a different theme. The concept has worked really well and it has developed into a great club night with a super audience each time. The next RubiesKlubit will be on January 13, but before that we'll throw our yearly Christmas show Under the Mistle Tease on Decdember 17!

DR. SKETCHYS GOES SWINGING SIXTIES

Groov-ey! Dr.Sketchy's Finland in Helsinki (me and Tinx, that is) is hosting the next event on September 10 at our studio.  Jackie will model and there will - as usual - be good music and red wine.

If you want to get in the mood earlier already and are in for some serious shake-a-delic action join in on our GoGo-dance mini-course where we'll recreate a choreo from a 1966 music video. September 3 & 10!

FLOW

I'm back home again and now straight off to enjoy Flow for one day and then to perform at Huuhkajavuori Blues tomorrow!

I am actually rather excited to be able to catch a day of Flow Festival - the other years I have been busy or not even thought of attending (and sometimes also slightly annoyed over the hype for the coming festival that begins as soon as the past one is over, although, there is a reason for that- Flow is an extraordinary happening) -I was at Flow back in 2008 but not since. This year however with Iggy Pop and Massive Attack and a clear spot in the calendar I gave it a go and got Eddi and me Friday tickets for his birthday.
Flow is a lot more than just the music acts though, with arts, installations and talks and food experiences (Yazzz!) all sustainably organised - the carbon footprint of the festival is neutral.

Then comes of course the question of what to wear! For now in a vintage dress and Hasbeens, but there's still some time to go, and a risk of rain, so this might still change a few times...

VACATION TIPS : DAYTRIP TO FISKARS

We are still vacationing in Denmark and Sweden. Meanwhile, here's a little tip for a nice summery day trip - head over to Fiskars in Western Uusima/Nyland!

These photos are from our visit there one warm day last year:

Fiskars is an old steel mill town from the 1600's that nowadays is home to many artesans, artists and Finnish design - as you can see from the name, it is also the home of the famous Fiskars scissors. 

The surroundings and buildings are such that they will, at least for a little while, make you envious of the fact that you don't get to live and work there yourself.

What's under the bridge?

(The answer: statues!)

You can mainly just stroll around the lush green areas and pitoresque old buildings and enjoy the atmosphere but of course also shop the local arts, see exhibitions, take guided tours and catch a glimpse of some work in action as well.

There are also workshops for children, and there is a big playground in the area.

(For the slightly bigger kids as well.)

Lunch above the rapid stream!

(This year Dag has been wearing his glasses over his mouth instead; it is his ninja-facemask-sheild-thing...)

We ended the day with ice cream.

Fiskars is about one hour 15min from Helsinki by car. The re are summer busses to Fiskars from the city centre in the weekends.