A THIRD DECADE AND SIX MINUTES OF 2019

We are in the year 2020 and that means a third decade of keeping this blog has started.  It sounds like a lot, perhaps like more years than it actually is, but nevertheless that is the case. During these years the internet has changed, of course. Blogging has changed. And  I have changed - would be rather terrifying if I hadn't. My first very first blogpost was about my 26th birthday and I will be 40 next year.

The past years I have not had the same time to blog - as someone might have noticed (but not the 3746 spambots that happily keep on commenting about escorts and digital marketing) - but in moments blogging also felt too trivial, with all that has been going on in the world and society. I feel those who still hard core blog are so branded it's mainly just about sponsorship and product placement and I get it - blogging takes time and time is, after a certain amount of it at least, money. I am busy running businesses; both the studio and the showbiz and some kind of brand of my own.d At one point I got invited to things and events as a blogger or featured because of my style, what I was wearing and how I'd styled it and it always felt off, as I'd rather bring forward what I do as an artist or an entrepreneur. For years a very big portion of what I did was seen trough the eyes of, or reflected via the blog -  how to post about this event or action, keep the camera ready, post it before it  gets "cold". I do miss blogging from time to time but it is also a relief to not have this feeling of obligation hanging over everything all of the time.

So what about the "new" 20's? Do I still keep the blog up in it's third decade? Do I turn off the comment-turn-spam section? Do I perhaps update this ancient 2007-template? We'll see.

But before we dive into 2020, here is 2019 in six minutes, one second a day:

MAY IN HALF A MINUTE

Now that we have lived one week of June, lets have a look at May in thirtyone seconds!

CANDY FOR THE SENSES

Hong Kong Ballet 40th Anniversary Season Brand Video from Design Army on Vimeo.

I am away performing in Turku but meanwhile here is some brain candy and eye orgasm for your Sunday!

THIRTY SECONDS OF APRIL

Not totally sure whats going on, if I am standing still in space or what, as time seems to go faster day by day and year by year. So just like swish! April went by and here is what it looked like, compressed to one tiny second per day:

AND THEN WE HAD MARCH

Not sure how it happened, but apparently the first quarter of this year has gone by already?
That can only mean that It'll be Christmas again in no time!


But first, lets set our minds on spring and the eventual summer! Here's what the switch from winter to spring looked like, and everything else and  in between, a second a day in March 2019.

TWENTY EIGHT SECONDS OF FEBRUARY

Because March is almost over by now, let us naturally (dum di dum...) look at the month before that; one-second-a-day: February 2019

These are so fun to do and I love watching other's mini videos of their months!

THIRTY-ONE SECONDS OF JANUARY

The first month of 2019 went by, lets see how the rest of 2019 goes!

This year I started with the collect-one-second-a-day-clips, which a lot of my friends did last year. (I coudn't start then as I missed the first month and my inner system would not allow me to not start on January 1.)
A fun small way to gather memory snippets.

BLUE MONDAY

Lets end the week with some creative music playing. Or making.

Orkestra Obsolete play Blue Monday using 1930s instruments  (BBC Arts)

In Swedish there is actually a separate verb for playing and making music on an instrument, more in the sence of performing it or playing together: musicera, as can you say 'musisoida' in Finnish. One can refer to that as musicerande (kind of like something that someone or some people were occupied with, or "the music that they were making" as in the present particle of the word. < I had to look that term up, as it is after all almost 20 years since I last had grammar, erhm). But there does not seem to be an English equivalent for such a word... Briefly and totally non-academically based on how other words and endings are used (for example a demonstration of something - to demonstrate), I would make the word musicate up, but it already exists on the internet (not in Merriam Webster though) and means something else: to be absored in music. But well, why not:
Let's end this week with some creative musication shall we?

THE VINTAGE REALM

Ok everybody!
Long time no internet, and happy we-are-totally-living-in-what-was-once-sci-fi-future-2018!

So, last year I was working in this production that will now be on TV1 starting March 29; Vintage-valtakunta:

Here's the teaser clip! Sadly it won't show abroad, Finland only:

Vintage-valtakunta | Teaser | Vintage-valtakunta

SHOOTING THE MUSIC VIDEO

The other day we shot the music video for our UMK song.

The second look for the day.  That's a lot of brushing and hairspray there I tell you.
...and a lot of conditioner afterwards.

A bunch of fabulous friends as well as our burlesqe students joined in on the shoot.

My glitter boots are surprisingly comfy but after a whole day of dancing on an uneven concrete floor the only thing you want to do is take them off and put your feet high high up in the air.

 It's good the behind-the-scenes interview was done only waist up. Wool socks for the win!

Checking out the group dance shot with Antti; our director. I have worked with him on a few occasions before, when we shot Iskelmä Suomi for example.

Shoot done! All the videos will be out on the 31st of December!

SIGN OF THE DOG

Here's the video for Dark Country that we shot earlier this spring!

You can see some behind-the-scenes footage and making-of in my previous post.

A BLISSFUL SATISFACTOIN OF THE MIND

A video posted by TurrrboCherry /Ulrika Bachér (@turrrbocherry) on Dec 26, 2015 at 2:19pm PST

Not really that amazing that I wold have to dedicate a blog post about it would it not be for the fact that it is pretty much the main thing I've done the past two days now. So there is (almost) nothing else to post here but CUBES. Cube mania.

Dag scrambles them up when he tries ("it was not so easy" he says) and I practice putting them back together. Very addictive.

And my very first one required wine, some swearing and  a whole lot of internet. Now they get done with a little less. (The explanations from Rubik's were the best, in case any of you decide it's time to once and for all get that damn cube figured out.)

KING OF HELSINKI

A couple of weeks ago we filmed a tongue-in cheek music video for Knucklebone Oscar. (A legendary Helsinki band that has been around for well over a decade. We've done some old school live band & burlesque collaboration with another one of Oscar's bands; White Knuckles Trio.)

I took some behind-the-scenes photos during the day.

he Windows '95 Man (he has this retrotastic DJ-character thing) helping to prepare some 300 balloons.

Walking among some 300 balloons. They started moving, wandering, by themselves at some point. Freaky (and also totally explainable).

Shot on good ol' VHS with a 1989 camera!

It was a rather long but hilariously silly day.

You can see the result here - this will most likely open up more for those born in the 70's and 80's that attended school discos in their pre-teens. And have video footage on VHS of that...

(The disco-sign on the door was suitably there when we arrived already, as a remnance from the last party of the year.)

DAWN

This was quite heavy stuff.

HA-HA-HALLOWEEN NAILS!

A video posted by turrrbocherry (@turrrbocherry)

Here's a little silly instagram video of this month's manicure that I forced my dear husband to film.
Note that is has extra zombie-moster sound effects in the background improvised by my two-year old son. Family project!

I have tried out a couple of different shades of a colour changing gel polish this fall (not at home, at my salon) and I am excited like a child about how my nails shift in hues and colour (darker when cold and lighter/brighter when warm)! Variation for the win. This manicure in honour of Halloween goes from a sparkly red to a sparkly purplish-black.

Oh, and,  not to forget: Happy Halloween!

SHADES OF COOL FOR THIS SUMMER SUNDAY

Most Finnish people will still be out of reach of -or not interested in -the internet right now, post drunk and hungover from Midsummer, but for everyone else in the world, here is some Soft Sunday music.

No one can make living in a valium haze, getting shitfaced on daiquiris by 2p.m. or haunting your old lover's life with the bittersweet memories of you look as good as Lana Del Rey. I don't like all of her songs, but the ones I like I love. This is such a sad and beautiful video I've watched over and over; I've always loved Lana's appearance and also how she makes her videos look just like she sounds.

THE LITTLE PIANIST

CATS AND STAINS

This is a pay-per-view video sponsored by Vileda for a campaign which aim is to ironically depict the consequences of the persistence of stains on the floor in the long run and to joke around the importance of immediately cleaning them up.
I decided to post it as it has funny cats in it!

Of course in my home  I am rather owned by those felines of mine; constantly cleaning from the mess they've made, not a mess produced by me. And nowadays I'm more worried about saving the I-throw-everything-on-the-ground-and-put-everything-and-I-mean-everything-in-my-mouth-baby than the cats -I really do have to clean everything up immediately! (yes my son has tasted cat food...) But at least I get clean floors that way, giving them a go a couple of times per day...

ON AVANT GARDE

I should probably start a new label here called "the internet" or something (or wait, let's make it Teh) - I can get stuck on a certain page I bump in to or am told about and then I sit there for hours or follow link after link for the rest of the night.. Tonight, instead of wrapping gifts and making Christmas sweets I've been watching videos over at THE AVANT/GARDE DIARIES.

When I was in design school we had the rather diffuse but also interesting courses of the philosophy of art and on the sociology of art; i.e what defines and artist, what puts a certain piece of art into a certain genre, what is considered avant garde, and so on? THE AVANT/GARDE DIARIES idea is maybe something in that direction, showcasing creative individuals view on avant garde or what perhaps could be considered that. This trough very different short movies about creative personalities, such as authors, fashion designers, musicians, artists and more. Some less, some more know to the public, like the Cobrasnake here above. Interesting; so my gift wrapping will have to wait a little while still!
I you are interested in the articles/videos and persons featured, find them at www.theavantgardediaries.com.

NEW ORLEANS, HORIZONTALLY

With some captions this time!

Bourbon Street.
Which was not a sad lonely jazz tune in the night and Tom Waits sipping whiskey, but more something like Pattaya or Viking Amorella. Broken illusions. But there were other streets near by that had more of that jazzy spirit. (That Clover grill was good; Eddi had a great burger there and they had a waiter just like Lafayette. Seriously.)


Husband and horse.


More of those Mardi Gras beads. I like the fact that they're everywhere. The owner of this house came up from around the corner and was all What The Fuck!?! though, until I showed him I only took a shot of his beads. Not his empty porch.


Uptown shot. The French Quarter is, of course, great, but it is worth taking a walk elsewhere too.


...and back in the french Quarter.


There was also one powder to stop gossip! These were sold by a woman known as Priestess Mariam.
Didn't get any though. (But I sure as hell could use some, cruel and evil world.)


Heart covered coffin! There's nobody in it though.


Tomb / prayer.
But for some seriously fancy cemetary photos, check out those by my New Orleans friend Kaylin Idora, whom we also hang out and had a great time with. She has made a book on the subject.


Tomb of Marie Laveau. Although we were told that the scribble on the tomb and the sacrifices actually are shameful, although people obviously do it with good (and selfish, to be granted wisehs etc.) intentions.


Since we traveled by ourselves after Vegas there are not too many photos of us together. But here's one! By the cemetery. If there would be a small goth in each and one of us, mine would celebrate.


The Easy Rider acid scenes were shot here. They had apparently not asked for permission, but filmed it secretly.


Back on 'our' street. The guy who lived in this pretty house introduced us to a Swedish girl who lived across the street, i.e. next to where we were staying. "You're from Scandinavia? Do you know Linda?" Noup, but turned out her roomate was actually Finnish. We did not know her either though. But it was pretty funny.


The sun is setting outside our room. We did not stay at a hotel but rented a room in the courtyard of a house. Very good solution.


Moon over Bourbon Street.
Well not really. As just said that was neon lights all the way. But nearby.


Last, and least indeed - a video I shot on town. Not that much to cheer about cinematically I'm afraid, but there's some ambience for you; young lads playing in the corner of Frenchman and something.

And this will be the end of my (coincidental) New Orleans themed week.