What are your Halloween plans this year, during covid-19?

[Aniia]

That sounds like a fun Easter tradition! I wonder how that originated.

 

My husband tells me that as a kid he wasn't that into Halloween. As soon as he was old enough to buy his own candy instead of going begging, he started doing that instead! Lol that seems like missing the point of the spooky fun, but to each their own 🙃

[Classycal]

I stayed at home hunting dragons!  I had not even one trick or treater.

[Tiira]

@Aniia Hahah! But you're right. I think I've heard that tradition has various origins which have been mixed together, partly religious but not only, though I don't remember more. I'd say there has been some influence at least from the Karelia area in the east. Sadly, it seems it has become less and less common in my region. When I was little everyone loved it and the next day at school it was always the main discussion topic because of course we had to know who got the most candy!

[catstaff]

@Varislapsi I realize you'll probably be seeing this a day late because I forgot time differences like an idiot. But...

Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää!!!

[Tiira]

@catstaff That's so kind of you! Kiitos paljon! I had never realised anyone outside Finland would even know about it!

[catstaff]

52 minutes ago, Varislapsi said:

@catstaff That's so kind of you! Kiitos paljon! I had never realised anyone outside Finland would even know about it!

 

Thank YouTube reactors for introducing people all over the US (and other places) to bands like Nightwish, Wintersun, Tarot, Amorphis, Swallow the Sun, Children of Bodom, Korpiklaani, Insomnium, Dark Sarah, Sonata Arctica, etc. I've seen it said that Nightwish's Ghost Love Score official live video from Wacken 2013 is the most reacted-to video on YouTube. And of course, with the lockdowns, people have time to look up all sorts of trivia, so why not look up stuff about where their new favorite music comes from?

 

One of the reactors I follow kicked off a livestream yesterday with a video of Tarja Turunen singing the Finnish national anthem, in honor of Independence Day. We had people from all over the world listening. It was beautiful! But then again, as I've recently learned on Duolingo, Suomi on kaunis maa!

[Tiira]

@catstaff I definitely wasn't aware of that! But then again, I don't follow any youtubers and I had to google what a Youtube reactor is. I had never heard about reactors before! Also, to be honest, I rarely listen to any Finnish music. I like some folk songs and Scandinavian Music Group is one of my favourite bands but that's it. One of my old friends is a Nightwish fan, though, and she has made me check out some of their ballads which are really beautiful!

 

Minustakin Suomi on kaunis maa. Recently, I've actually become slightly obsessed with getting to Northern Finland. It seems that this could be another snowless winter for us in Helsinki and I hate that!

[catstaff]

@Varislapsi Silly me for assuming you'd heard of YouTube reactors! Sometimes I think I've talked about something with Person A, but I really talked about it with Person B, so then when I mention that something to Person A, Person A has no clue. Looks like I did it again, sorry about that.

 

As for my love of Finnish bands, I've been a hard rock/metal fan for decades, going back to when I first heard KISS and Black Sabbath in the 1970s, so yeah... no real surprise that I'd discover just how much metal comes out of Finland. A lot of good music there. I'm even following Masked Singer Suomi online these days, which is pretty funny since I don't watch the American version. But I'm pretty sure "Tohtori" is Marko Hietala from Nightwish. Hope he wins!

 

I'll keep sending cold thoughts towards Helsinki in hopes you'll get your white winter instead of a wet winter. I remember you said you'd like to move to Rovaniemi for the winters. I'd love to see a Lapland winter myself! Well, maybe I can manage a visit sometime when it's possible to travel again.

[Tiira]

@catstaff I'm not into hard rock myself but I knew we have quite many well liked metal bands here! Thank you for your wishes. I hope you too would get at least some nice winter days there this year! In reality, I've never even been in Lapland; I've travelled so little in my own country, so a long visit would be a wonderful starting starting point for me as well.

[Aniia]

On 12/7/2020 at 6:56 AM, catstaff said:

 

Thank YouTube reactors for introducing people all over the US (and other places) to bands like Nightwish, Wintersun, Tarot, Amorphis, Swallow the Sun, Children of Bodom, Korpiklaani, Insomnium, Dark Sarah, Sonata Arctica, etc. I've seen it said that Nightwish's Ghost Love Score official live video from Wacken 2013 is the most reacted-to video on YouTube. And of course, with the lockdowns, people have time to look up all sorts of trivia, so why not look up stuff about where their new favorite music comes from?

 

One of the reactors I follow kicked off a livestream yesterday with a video of Tarja Turunen singing the Finnish national anthem, in honor of Independence Day. We had people from all over the world listening. It was beautiful! But then again, as I've recently learned on Duolingo, Suomi on kaunis maa!

 

Actually, my introduction to a lot of those bands was through Pandora - though I did first get into Swedish metal bands from... Youtube music videos =P Before that, the only one of those listed that I knew was Nightwish.

 

Also, Duolingo is fun! But I wish I could find other people to practice verbally with, instead of just my phone app.

[catstaff]

15 minutes ago, Aniia said:

 

Actually, my introduction to a lot of those bands was through Pandora - though I did first get into Swedish metal bands from... Youtube music videos =P Before that, the only one of those listed that I knew was Nightwish.

 

Also, Duolingo is fun! But I wish I could find other people to practice verbally with, instead of just my phone app.

 

I agree about wishing I could find someone to practice speaking with! I have to laugh at how well some of the Duolingo lessons fit my life, though. I've actually found use for "Ei! Tuhma kissa!" fairly often. (That's "No! Bad cat!" for the non-Finns out there - one of my furbabies loves jumping on keyboards and trying to drink from my cup.)

 

My introduction to Swedish metal bands came from... Nightwish! Because of everyone mentioning in comments that Floor Jansen is married to Hannes van Dahl of Sabaton and they've got a daughter who's almost 4 now. (Did you see Floor's cover of Let It Go from Frozen? She said she did that one especially since it's one of Freja's favorite songs.) I ended up checking out Sabaton and I like them, especially the song Night Witches.

[Tiira]

1 hour ago, catstaff said:

 

I agree about wishing I could find someone to practice speaking with! I have to laugh at how well some of the Duolingo lessons fit my life, though. I've actually found use for "Ei! Tuhma kissa!" fairly often. (That's "No! Bad cat!" for the non-Finns out there - one of my furbabies loves jumping on keyboards and trying to drink from my cup.)

 

If you ever need more Finnish expressions for those situations, I can definitely provide you with some, as a Finnish cat owner, hahah. Although, jumping on the keyboard or drinking from someone's cup sounds quite, eh, modest, compared to my cats. But they are still young, so...

 

Also, I can relate so much to missing someone to talk with in a language you're learning. I'm obsessed about Italian, it's even my secondary subject in the uni and I can already read books in Italian but speaking it is hard for me! So my plan would be to spend some time in Italy before I move to Rovaniemi.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Varislapsi

[catstaff]

1 hour ago, Varislapsi said:

 

If you ever need more Finnish expressions for those situations, I can definitely provide you with some, as a Finnish cat owner, hahah. Although, jumping on the keyboard or drinking from someone's cup sounds quite, eh, modest, compared to my cats. But they are still young, so...

 

Also, I can relate so much to missing someone to talk with in a language you're learning. I'm obsessed about Italian, it's even my secondary subject in the uni and I can already read books in Italian but speaking it is hard for me! So my plan would be to spend some time in Italy before I move to Rovaniemi.

 

Well, the problem is that the cat in question likes to drink from my cup while stepping on the keyboard, so she edits my stories while getting water or worse all over the desk and computer. I do know a couple other Finnish expressions for those situations... 😁 there were more than a few repeats of the one that starts with "v" and ends with "u" the day she somehow deleted five paragraphs of my story and then managed to hit save, so that I couldn't just use the undo-edits to get it all back. 😠

 

Italy is very beautiful; I spent a few days there as part of a school-sponsored package tour... sheesh, 35 years ago now. When the heck did I get this old? It was a fun trip - Pisa, Rome, and Florence in Italy, then a night in Geneva, and two nights each in Paris and London. The teacher who chaperoned us did seem to forget that we were a bunch of teenagers, though, and got mad when we all wanted to go to McDonald's when we got to Paris. The problem was, we had already spent a week eating food we didn't recognize, and while I still don't know for sure what kind of meat they gave us for dinner in Geneva, we pretty much all agreed that we hated it, and the rumor went around that it was horsemeat. Being teenagers, American teenagers at that, we didn't want another fancy gourmet mystery meal when there was familiar fast food available. 🤷‍♀️

[Tiira]

@catstaff Uh-oh, then I understand. I hope my cat (the one that needs all my attention every moment) won't come up with the same idea anytime soon. 😹 I've also visited Pisa and Rome as well as Genova, the Cinque Terre and a tiny Ligurian village called Sestri Levante, and Venice when I was younger. Most of those were just one-day excursions, unfortunately. On my second trip (and last so far), five years ago, we stayed a few days in Rome and around one week in Sestri Levante where I could actually practice my Italian because they didn't know so much English there. If I had the possibility travel to Italy again, I think I would love to see Naples!

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Varislapsi

[catstaff]

@Varislapsi Yeah, I adore my bad girl, but she does have moments when it's a good thing she's so cute! The other cat just likes to sleep most of the time and even when that one hops on my desk, she avoids the keyboard. I will send calm kitty thoughts towards your cat, in hopes she won't follow my cat's example!

 

I'd love a chance to see Venice one day, and Naples as well, as I think that's where my grandmother's parents were from. I'm pretty sure she was born in the US, but I know her parents were immigrants. Not sure if anyone on that side of the family knows of any relatives in Italy, though. I can claim family in Ireland, although I'm not sure which side they're related to - there's Irish heritage on both sides of the family - but I do know my parents met some second cousins or something like that when they went to Ireland a few years back.

[Aniia]

19 hours ago, catstaff said:

My introduction to Swedish metal bands came from... Nightwish! Because of everyone mentioning in comments that Floor Jansen is married to Hannes van Dahl of Sabaton and they've got a daughter who's almost 4 now. (Did you see Floor's cover of Let It Go from Frozen? She said she did that one especially since it's one of Freja's favorite songs.) I ended up checking out Sabaton and I like them, especially the song Night Witches.

 

I haven't seen Floor's cover of Let It Go, I'll have to check it out!

 

Sabaton was actually my main draw into European metal bands. I first found them on Youtube quite randomly six years ago, but I've seen them in concert 3 times now, along with ummmm... Battle Beast, Leaves' Eyes, Cyrha, Kreator, and Hammerfall. Leaves' Eyes and Kreator are not my cup of tea, but there is so much great metal out there! It's a shame that the metal genre is basically underground in the U.S. I also like Within Temptation a lot, I think they're... Dutch?

[catstaff]

1 hour ago, Aniia said:

 

I haven't seen Floor's cover of Let It Go, I'll have to check it out!

 

Sabaton was actually my main draw into European metal bands. I first found them on Youtube quite randomly six years ago, but I've seen them in concert 3 times now, along with ummmm... Battle Beast, Leaves' Eyes, Cyrha, Kreator, and Hammerfall. Leaves' Eyes and Kreator are not my cup of tea, but there is so much great metal out there! It's a shame that the metal genre is basically underground in the U.S. I also like Within Temptation a lot, I think they're... Dutch?

 

Yes, Within Temptation is a Dutch band, along with Epica and Delain. More Nightwish connections there, too, lol, Mark Jansen (no relation) used to be in After Forever with Floor before he and Simone Simons formed Epica... and Simone is married to Oliver Palotai of Kamelot and guested with them on the song The Haunting (Somewhere in Time)... and former Kamelot backup singer Elize Ryd (currently lead vocalist for Amaranthe) performed with Nightwish at the so-called Denver Debacle when then-NW vocalist Anette Olzon got rushed to hospital just a couple hours before the show, which of course was the catalyst for Floor joining Nightwish... and Floor and Marko Hietala both guested with Delain on the song A Day for Ghosts, plus Marko's done a lot more guest-work with Delain as well, songs like The Gathering, Nothing Left, Sing to Me, and Control the Storm. Talk about everyone knowing everyone else!

I really liked the Vinland Saga album from Leaves' Eyes; the rest of their stuff is good, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it either. I've heard a little from Hammerfall but not enough to form an opinion just yet and I don't think I've heard anything from the others. Any recommendations?

 

Floor, in the spirit of keeping busy, has dropped 3 covers on her YouTube channel in the last month - Let It Go, of course, plus Hear's Alone a couple weeks back, and Is Dit Nou Later by Stef Bos just this past weekend.

 

Oh, if you like oddball stuff, Alestorm (Pirate Metal, crazy as that sounds) has a couple of funny ones, especially the song Drink. (I think Korpiklaani still wins on the sheer number of songs named for alcohol, though!) And for other craziness, you might check out Nanowar of Steel; first you die laughing at the lyrics and then you realize that they're a really talented bunch of musicians. Valhalleluja is a great song for this time of year... or if you've ever bought anything from IKEA. 🤣 Even Nightwish has a funny, somewhat holiday-related song (although it's admittedly more about shenanigans on tour), called Christmas Song for a Lonely Documentarist. It sounds like it ought to be heard in a Skyrim tavern or something, and definitely shows off Marko's sense of humor! 🤣

[Tiira]

19 hours ago, catstaff said:

I'd love a chance to see Venice one day, and Naples as well, as I think that's where my grandmother's parents were from. I'm pretty sure she was born in the US, but I know her parents were immigrants. Not sure if anyone on that side of the family knows of any relatives in Italy, though. I can claim family in Ireland, although I'm not sure which side they're related to - there's Irish heritage on both sides of the family - but I do know my parents met some second cousins or something like that when they went to Ireland a few years back.

 

Oh that's so cool! I might even be a bit jealous! You know, before my passion for Italy and the Italian language, when I was younger, I was very excited about Ireland and planned to learn Irish. That never happened and I've never been there but I once had an English language teacher who was Irish and quite patriotic, and when he heard I was or had been interested in Irish language and the coulture, he started bringing me these books that I could use to start learning it. That was kind, he was very kind but also quite eccentric... fortunately he understood, in the end, that I had already too much to do with all my university courses. Although he did emphasise that I could always contact him later, it didn't matter at all that it was his last year before his retirement. 😹

[Aniia]

4 hours ago, catstaff said:

 

Yes, Within Temptation is a Dutch band, along with Epica and Delain.

 

I've heard a little from Hammerfall but not enough to form an opinion just yet and I don't think I've heard anything from the others. Any recommendations?

 

Oh, if you like oddball stuff, Alestorm (Pirate Metal, crazy as that sounds) has a couple of funny ones, especially the song Drink. (I think Korpiklaani still wins on the sheer number of songs named for alcohol, though!)

 

I like what I've heard of Delain on Pandora, but I don't know that much from them (yet). Hammerfall is pretty catchy, I was new to their music until they headlined with Sabaton, but I'd totally go see them again. It's so funny you mention Drink by Alestorm - that song is my guilty pleasure! I've heard Korpiklaani on Pandora, too, but like with Delain, I don't know a lot of their stuff.

 

Battle Beast has some good albums, Noora Louhimo has an amazing voice that really holds up during the live shows. I think Bringer of Pain is my favorite album, but there are some great songs on the others as well. Of the live performance I saw, Straight To The Heart and B*****d Son Of Odin were my favorites (from Bringer of Pain).  

Not too sure what to say about Cyhra, when they opened for Sabaton they were still really new, and as far as I know they've only released singles. Their lead vocalist is Joacim Lundberg from Amaranthe, they have a good sound though.

 

Ummm... let's see. Of German bands, I really like Mono Inc, though they are quite mellow and gothic compared to all the bands we've been talking about. Powerwolf has some songs I like, too. I used to listen to Rammstein and Nocturnal Rites (I know, not German) in my teen years, but I've sort of outgrown them. If that makes sense. Or at least, I don't know any of their music that came after hmm.... 2003? 2004?

 

I just came across a relatively new group called Skáld. There's not much info on them in English, but I think they are a French band, though they make "Viking" music. I like their sound; their new album is on their Youtube channel if you want to check it out.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Aniia
Oops, didn't realize the B-word would be starred out.

[catstaff]

@Varislapsi I'm a bit jealous that my parents made it to Ireland as well! That tour I went on all those years ago was actually not what I'd originally signed up for - they'd advertised one that was supposed to go to Germany, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland, but for whatever reason, that one didn't happen and they substituted the one that took me to Italy instead. Not that I minded going there, but I would have liked to have spent more time in the UK. I can only say one phrase in Irish, though - I can tell someone to kiss my backside! 🤣 I like that former teacher of yours, though, I wish I'd had a few like him.

 

@Aniia I'll definitely look up some of those songs. I pretty much stopped listening to Pandora since they changed whatever they did to make it so you can't listen if you're using an adblocker. I'm pretty much only on YouTube for music anymore. When it comes to German bands, I pretty much only know the Scorpions (yeah, I'm old!) and Rammstein.

 

Which reminds me, have you heard of Crewish? With no tours happening this year, Nightwish's techs and roadies put out an EP of Nightwish cover tunes (with the full approval and endorsement from Tuomas) with all profits from the sales going to said techs and roadies to give them some kind of income while they're unable to work due to Covid. Anyway, each of the five songs they covered got done in a different style - Nemo sounds almost AC/DC-ish and Amaranth is kind of jazzy reggae style - and Sleeping Sun sounds a crazy lot like Rammstein. And yes, there's a video on YouTube. 😊

[Aniia]

2 hours ago, catstaff said:

I'll definitely look up some of those songs. I pretty much stopped listening to Pandora since they changed whatever they did to make it so you can't listen if you're using an adblocker. I'm pretty much only on YouTube for music anymore. When it comes to German bands, I pretty much only know the Scorpions (yeah, I'm old!) and Rammstein.

 

Which reminds me, have you heard of Crewish? With no tours happening this year, Nightwish's techs and roadies put out an EP of Nightwish cover tunes (with the full approval and endorsement from Tuomas) with all profits from the sales going to said techs and roadies to give them some kind of income while they're unable to work due to Covid. Anyway, each of the five songs they covered got done in a different style - Nemo sounds almost AC/DC-ish and Amaranth is kind of jazzy reggae style - and Sleeping Sun sounds a crazy lot like Rammstein. And yes, there's a video on YouTube. 😊

 

I was annoyed when they changed that, too, but its no worse than radio was back in the old days. They only play two commercials at a time, though some are quite repetitive.

 

I haven't heard of Crewish, but it sounds really cool!

[catstaff]

14 hours ago, Aniia said:

 

I was annoyed when they changed that, too, but its no worse than radio was back in the old days. They only play two commercials at a time, though some are quite repetitive.

 

I haven't heard of Crewish, but it sounds really cool!

 

I just hate "disable your adblocker or we won't let you do anything" even more than I hate ads, you know? So I tend to stop going to sites that try to force the issue.

 

Here's a link to Crewish's version of Sleeping Sun, if you'd like to check it out.

 

[Tiira]

@catstaff Thanks again for your cold thoughts. This weekend we got at least some snow in my area and I couldn't be happier! (All but one of the pictures in the news article are from Helsinki or our neighbouring city, Espoo. ❄️)

[catstaff]

@Varislapsi You're welcome, and I'm glad they worked! 😄 And I'm so proud of myself right now - I might have only had a couple of weeks on Duolingo, and learned maybe 150 words so far, but I actually figured out the gist of one whole sentence in that article, between recognizing a couple of words and trying to figure out the context!

 

That said, Google Translate is still my best friend if the conversation is anything more complicated than "Tuo suomalainen muusikko on erittäin komea." (Yeah, there are a few who qualify. I might be 50, but I'm not blind yet!) 😇🤣🤘🎶

[Tiira]

@catstaff Well done! That's a great feeling! Oh yes, Google Translate can be very handy, even though it can also offer you a good laugh sometimes. 😹 And that sentence is a good starting point. My Italian vocabulary includes, first and foremost, very similar phrases (and I'm supposed to study it at university level now...)