Finncon, 8.-9.07.2022

 This was my second time in Finncon, as I was there once in 2013 when the con was in Helsinki. The con actually lasted from Friday to Sunday, but I only went on Friday and Saturday. I was meant to cosplay Cherry from Studio Killers the whole con, but my friend who come to help with my wig said they could not go at Friday. So I went there in my normal goth clothes. I arrived there quite early since I did not realize the con opened at 3 PM, I arrived at 2 PM. So when I arrived the people in seller's hall and artists alley were just putting their things on display and literally no one was in cosplay. It took a few hours to get the cosplayers there. The seller's hall and artists alley was bit confusing; most of the people there were people selling their own products, there were some selling sci-fi books and comics and Head Hunter Store selling their stuff. I saw this Estonian woman selling keychains that had cat heads in them. I saw one in red and black and had to buy it. She sold it to me with 12 euro, which was a nice price. I asked about it, she told me she did the keychain herself and the cat is her own cat. Her username is St4rfighter, check her out. I also bought another keychain, a black mermaid tail. Her name is Feryares. The keychain seems to be good quality and it's big. I really like it. The keychain also cost 12 euro.

At Friday I really did nothing, I hanged out the whole con, and the fact I could not cosplay kind of affected my mood. But at Saturday I did my first cosplay since 2014. I was meant to come back at 2020, but you know what happened, so I had to wait another two years. For years I wanted to cosplay but I thought I was too big and it would "ruin" the character. But now I have seen many beautiful plus size cosplayers, and I thought I can do this too.  I wanted to start from something simple and easy to wear, so I chose Cherry from Studio Killers' music video Ode to the Bouncer. This has has been on my cosplay list since like 2012 but I never had the chance to do it. I thought this was going to be a easy cosplay, how wrong I was! I had seen many dresses in Chinese sites that fit Cherry. Too bad none fit me. I even asked for a custom size and they all said no. But all honestly, a white fabric would have been wrong, since Cherry's dress is blue-ish. So I bought the fabric from Eurokangas and got it made.

 The shoes and the wig were also difficult. Cherry's hair is very odd shade, it is not blue or green, but in between.  I bought a wig made for Elizabeth from Seven Deadly Sins, but that got cancelled, and I did not notice it. Also the wig was too long, I would have needed it styled, which would also cost money. But I found almost perfect wig from Coscraft. The wig was blue, but totally blue, it had a slight grey-ish tone. It did not need to be styled so I bought it. The shoes were other difficult thing. I had seen perfect boots from Zalando and I thought I'm going to buy those. But my size was always sold out! I had an email come to me when the boots were available, and they literally sold out in 20 minutes. Just by luck I managed to buy the shoes a week before the con. I literally hunted for those for four months. I was afraid of her makeup but the tear lines were not as difficult to do. She had dark lines on her eyelids but I could not do those so I went without. Overall I was happy with the cosplay and people even recognized me. I also met a woman who is working on a game for Studio Killers, and she liked my cosplay. I also sent a message to Eliza Jäppinen, the person who created Cherry. We met at Popcult (in Finnish) back in 2017, she was so lovely, and she liked my cosplay. Studio Killers also left a heart at my Instagram post, which I loved. I also met Liltsy and her friends. Liltsy I have met quite a few times, we first met at Tampere Kuplii, then at Kibecon, and now here. I heard she is going to Kitsunecon next month where I'm also going.

I also visited the con's evening party. I met Elli, who had an amazing cosplay on her. She had so many details and she had done it herself. She had participated at cosplay competion and won. Finncon's cosplay competion was a bit odd, they alloved costumes that have not been self made and called it a "masquerade". The ticket for the evening party was 10 euro, but it was not bad, as the con itself was free. I stayed there for two hours, but then it seemed no one there was a participant of Finncon and we were the only one's in cosplay, so I decided to leave. But overall I had fun and it was so awesome to cosplay again after almost ten years.

A selfie I took in my Cherry cosplay.

A full photo. This is the first picture in ten years where I'm posting my full body and I'm not wearing a corset. I'm not wearing shapewear underwear or a corset under the clothes, so you can really see everything I don't usually want people to see. But I'm on a road of acceping myself.

The cat keychain from St4rlight, that cost 12 euro.

The mermaid tail keychain that cost 12 euro, from Feryares.

Extra photo: my look from Finncon 2013, where I posed with Tardis.

Desucon, 17.-19.6.2022

Desucon was once again and it is still the best con along with Tracon. It's been two years since I have gone to Desucon, so I really missed it. Desucon, along with its winter variant Desucon Frostbite, is for people over 18 only. So there were no children in the con, and pretty much everyone was in the same age group as me. Desucon is in Lahti, which is one hour away from Helsinki if you take the train. Desucon is at Sibelius Hall, and it is a big and nice place to have a con. It is quite close to the train station, and it is that big that many things fit in there.

 Desucon has it all; an artist alley, seller's hall, place to play games, restaurant, bar, a meido cafe and much more. It also has a second hand shop, and when I arrived, there were such a long queue to it that it went outside. After I put my stuff at cloakroom, I went to the queue and I was in it it for an hour. I went to find one thing, and that was an anime figure, and that's why I had taken ATM money. I found nothing! All the figures were either male or kawaii figures. There was one, Yaguy Jubei 1/8 Final Bride ver from Hyakka Ryouran, made by Alter and Hobby Japan, but it cost 150 euro, and that figure is not a must have so I did not buy it. I also do not collect 1/8 scale any more, as they are so small. I also looked for Umbreon and Super Sonico stuff like keychains, but could not find anything. I found a small wallet which had Eeveelutions from Pokemon (and even Umbreon on it) and it cost 12 euro. I checked out that in Pokemon Center is had cost 39 dollars, so it was a pretty good deal. The item was in plastic wrapping so I did not really see it that well, but when I opened it it it was pretty worn out which was sad. I also found a PVC miniskirt by Killstar but there was no way it could have fit me, even though the skirt was size XL. Most XL clothes fit me, but Killstar's sizing is so tiny that there is no way. So I sold it. But what I really thought was a pretty darn good deal,  was it there was a Rise Me Black handbag by Banned only 10 euro! I had to get it. This is a bag I would not pay 40 euro for, but as it was only 10 euro, I thought I did a pretty good deal. 

I have new fire inspired hair and nails, so I decided to try to do a fire inspired makeup on Friday~

I saw many of my friends, some more and some more briefly. I saw Rope, who had a wonderful look - they had a green and pink outfit that was so cool, with so many details. When I saw them I knew I had to talk to them. So I hanged out with them and their friend Soda. We talked in the evening, there was actually a lecture about hentai that time but I decided to stay with my friends, hentai does not interest me that much. Friday's evening was really nice, it was warm and sunny. The same could not be said about Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was really cold and it rained the whole day. Before Desucon I had not slept at all and in the night between Friday and Saturday I slept about few hours, so I was quite tired. I got up, but my makeup on, took the bus to the con and straight away I walked to the info and asked someone to put my corset on. One of them decided to help me, but she was quite small so she said she didn't have the strenght to put in on, so some guy at the info helped her. Eventually I got my corset on and I was happy.

I went to the seller's hall as it had opened on Saturday. Finnish cons are amazing because there are no bootleg stuff. All items sold are legit. I don't usually buy figures from the sellers hall because they are so over-priced. I also did not see any figures that interested me, pretty much all of them were kawaii figures, I only found one sexy female figure that would fit into my collection but she cost 180 euro so I did not buy her. I found a shirt from Banned sold by Kuroineko, a fox shirt from Wonder Shop. I also bought a large 30cm Niffler plush made by Furyu. I kind of regretted it, I don't really have space for it and I'm not the biggest fan of the Fantastic Beasts series, so I sold it. I met so many new people and was stupid and did not ask Instagram from all of them. In the evening I met Saara, who had came to the con alone. We talked fot a hour and and a half until it was 8 PM. At 8 PM there was also other lecture about hentai that I thought was interesting, but I decided to go to the evening party with her. The evening party is part of the ticket, where in Tracon, you have pay 15 euro entrance fee. I hanged out with Saara and her friend whose name I no longer remember, but she had to leave quite early. She came from Helsinki and she did not have a place to stay for the night. I met a lot new people including Severi, Teppi and others and I had so much fun. We talked about many things and playfully argued (they literally had a 15 minute argument over it is spelled "jauheliha" or "jauhenliha") and we had a good time. I only drank four drinks, the bar was expensive (like all bars in Finland) and the queue to the bar counter was ridiculously long, it took me 20 minutes to get a drink. So I decided to to leave and go to the Airbnb house I was sleeping in. 

My look on Saturday. 

At Sunday, after two days wearing a corset as tight as it can be worn, I just decided to go with a red and black leopard summer dress. I went again to the seller's hall just to look if I had missed anything, and found nothing new. There was a red and black wallet by Banned sold by Kuroineko, and unlike handbags, I don't really collect wallets, I usually have only one at the time. But this wallet was on sale, the sale was not big but I did not had to buy shipping on top of it, so I decided to buy it. There is also a matching handbag to the wallet, but it is so tiny, I have to pass. I really did not meet anyone, Saara said she did not come for Sunday. I decided to leave quite early, but just before leaving, I met Saija, a woman with whom I went to see a Harry Potter concert years ago. We talked briefly and then I left. It was a nice con, first proper con in two years, and definitely the best one along with Tracon.

My look on Sunday.

My favorite thing that I bought, this Banned Rise Up Black bag at very nice ten euro price. I have used it a few times, and I have previously used a handbag from Restyle that has three pentagrams and and kinds of metal on it, and this bag is so much lighter. This is not a bag I would have paid the original 40 euro, but 10 euro is just fine.

The wallet from Banned. I really did not need a new wallet, but it was on sale, so I bought it. It cost 15 euro.

A large 30cm Niffler plush from Furyu. It cost 28 euro.

The shirt from Banned. It cost 20 euro.

The Banned shirt also has a semi-see trough mesh back, which is cool.

A fire fox shirt from Wonder Shop. I like feminine clothes, and this shape of shirt really is not feminine, but I had to buy it because of the print. The print is beyond beautiful. The shirt cost 25 euro.

A skirt by Killstar. It is slightly too small for me so I sold it. It cost 8 euro.

I bought this La Maison de Eievui card case. It was in a plastic wrapping, so I did not notice it was quite worn out. It cost 12 euro.

The card case from behind. It has all Eeveelutions, including my favorite, Umbreon.

Rammstein, Europe Stadium Tour, Tallinn, Estonia, 20.07.2022

 This gig took years of waiting and it was worth it. Rammstein, like always, completely blew me away.  The band's live show is incredible and I love their songs too. I also wrote about the Ratina gig at 2019, if you are interested, you can read it here. This was the fifth time I saw them live and they do better at every time they do a liveshow. I went there and for the first time I went tob a cruise alone. I met Helinä, Laura and Nelli who were so nice to me and also going to Rammstein's gig. We hanged out and talked about Rammstein and other things, and when the ship arrived at Tallinn they left because they wanted to be more at the back of the audience unlike me.

 Like at Ratina, they played many of my favorites such as Du hast, Sonne, Ich will, Heirate mich and Mein Teil. They also played to same new songs from the 2019 album such as Radio, Ausländer and Deutschland. Back in 2019 I did not care for those songs, but now I think they're fine.They played Zick Zack, that actually sounded pretty sweet live, and also Zeit and Armee der Tristen. Zeit I did not really like, but the others were pretty good. The explosives were as over the top as always, and Rammstein really does have the biggest live show ever. Almost every song had some kind of fire trick. I had a friend called Vera with me, and we had a blast. Without her I would have been probably lost and in general she was so nice to me. <3 The show was partially same as the Ratina show in 2019. They had the same supporting band playing their songs on piano, they had some of the songs with the same show, including the song's they always do the same way like Du hast and Mein Teil, and they had the same crowdsurfing with the boats when Duo Abérlard played Engel, when the crowd was asked to use their phone's flashlight like a lighter. 

 I thought going to Tallinn would be too troublesome, but overall it was not that bad. I walked about 8km, which was my record for a very long time. What I did not mention in the old Ratina post was how much pain I was in when I stood there for about six hours. I had to walk a kilometer to my mom's car and I was in absolute pain. Walking and standing this much hurt a lot, but not that much this time. I was in pain, but not in a devastating pain like I was in Ratina, so it's good I'm in little bit better shape. What I was surprised about that nothing was open during the night! I had my ship leave at 6AM so I had to find a place to be. Literally all the bars and pizzerias closed at 2AM and the terminal to the ship was not open during night.  I met Janette, who left at 8AM ship. So we went to a bar called Musicbar what was open 24/7.  But they did not serve alcohol after 2AM so I literally drank water and Coca-Cola. But it was nice to be somewhere inside as the night was slightly chilly. We walked bit over 2km to the terminal, and Janette was there to wait her own ship. I also met I., who went home with the same ship as me. She was super nice also and I, did not feel jealous for her, she lives in Tampere and she had to travel all that way home. For me it takes literally 30 minutes to come home. But overall super nice gig, and I'm looking forward for them to come at Finland at some point. I also filmed parts of their songs, including Mein Teil, Zick Zack, Links 2-3-4 and Zeig Dich. They are public on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, if you are interested. 

A pic I took when I was going there by ship.

Here you can see the show.

Hypecon, 11.06.2022

 So I decided to go to Hypecon, even though I thought I would not. Hyvinkää, where the con is, is only 45 minutes away from Helsinki, so overall it took me a little over an hour to get there. I could not get my friend to put my corset on, so I decided to go in a black and red summer dress and fishnet stockings. The dress is beautiful, it has red and black checks and a leather harness on the front. If I remember correctly, last time I have been in Hypecon was in  2014, and I've always had a lift to the con. This is the first time I had to go there by train. But the train journey was not too bad and it was fun to see cosplayers. I did not know where to con is, so I decided to follow the others. Google Maps said it was a 1,3km walk there from the train station but it did not feel that long. 

The con itself was a lot bigger than I expected. The seller's hall was massive, and there was three buildings for the con. What I did not like was that the second hand shop tables were separated. They had four different tables that were far away from each other. I did not even realize right away where the second hand shop was. I also had hundred euros cash for a figure from the second hand tables, but there was almost no figures. I was really surprised, since usually second hand shops have a lot of figures. I also did not like that the artists alley was right in the same place as seller's hall.

My look during Saturday.

Just like in Kibecon, this was a free event. They even gave us wristband to count how many there was in the con. I think there was blue one, turquoise one, pink one and orange one. They apparently did not have any red ones, so I took orange, it at least matches with my hair (yes, I have new hair, my hair is now half red and half orange).

Because this was a free event, pretty much everyone were children. I had asked many of my friends did they come to Hypecon, and they all said no, so I decided to go there alone and just find someone. I hanged out with teenagers  all con, until I met the sisters of Asikainen, Päivi and Satu. It's been years since I've seen them and they looked amazing, as always. I just enjoy people my age or older. I feel quite awkward with teenagers. But I had a lot of fun with them. They had a workshop, where people could create their own jewelry, so unlike me, they dd not hang out in the con.

I also met Pipsa, the same person who I went to London with years ago. She had been working the whole con so she could not hang out, but after her work she came to talk to me, We talked about meeting, Pipsa lives in Vantaa which is not that far from Espoo. She even gave me a can of Pepsi Max <3 She is so lovely.

They also had a partly in the evening, and I stayed there for about 20 minutes. It was for everyone, so there was no alcohol involved. The music was not Japanese, they played Korean pop songs that I did not like. Only like five people were dancing and I was there alone, so I decided to left. I had no one to follow for the railway station, but the walk was pretty much straight, so I did not get lost. 

When I was young I could not ever find anything from cons except jewelry, and literally never bought anything from Manga Cafe as I felt they are expensive. But now I think it's not that expensive, as they have to pay customs and shipping for their products. So I literally bought stuff with 25 euro. I bought strawberry mochis, that were exactly same as the ones I bought from Tampere Kuplii, just in diffrent package, the same dry ice cream I bought from Kibecon, strawberry Kit Kats, Mochis with rasberry custard and chocolate cookies that were partly mochis that had banana paste inside. One of my friends said that Japanese flavored Kit Kats are not from this world. I have never liked Kit Kat's chocolate, and I decided to test it. It was not bad, but it was not good either. I just don't like their chocolate.

I also bought a shirt from Banned and a necklace.The necklace was from Sir Roi, and she was so nice. She had a necklace of a beetle but it had green rhinestones. So I asked her if she could make it with red or black rhinestones. She happened to have it as an earring with black rhinestones, so she made it into a necklace. She did the the chain too short first, and she had to make it longer. I had before that asked for a sale, and she said she would sell it with 17 euro instead of 19 euro. She still gave me the sale! Even though she went through all that with the chain. I was so happy.

From KuroiNeko I bought a shirt from Banned. It was on sale and it cost 25 euro, which was a very good price. The shirt was super beautiful and I loved that they had it in bigger size. Banned clothing is very large, I have two shirts from them a size smaller that still fit, but the shirt looked very good. The shirt was simple black top with corset-like decoration. 

Flavored mochis, dry strawberry ice cream and strawberry mochis from Manga Cafe.

Mochi cookies with banana paste. This was super good.

Strawberry Kit Kats.

A shirt by Banned sold by Kuroineko. This shirt cost 25 euro and it is very good quality.

A beetle necklace from Sir Roi Jewelry. The original cost was 19 euro, but she sold it to me for 17 euro <3

Overall a good experience, and I might go next year time too.

Beautiful Torture 10 Year Annivesary

 This is going to be a short post, I apologize. Also I was supposed to post this yesterday, as it was 6th of July when I started, but I forgot. So here it is! I started to write this blog at the mature age of 15 in 2012. Back then I did not think anything about this blog, never thought anyone would read it and I thought I would only write for a while and then delete it. How wrong I was! Here we are, ten years later. Things have changed a lot. I still have depression, but when I was 15, my depression was really severe. I had had a burnout for years and years at that point and honestly I thought that dying would be easier than living. Fortunately, I never managed to take my own life. Now I have my own apartment, my relationship with my parents is better and I have my depression under control. My life is still not easy, but it is easier when I was a teenager. Even though I had a hard time with passing of Ella I have a new dog, called Gringo. He is a four year old boxer, who is originally from Spain. I might wrote about him in the future. Unlike Ella, Gringo is very calm. He is a lot more nervous than Ella and does not greet visitors like Ella did. I still miss Ella, she was such an important dog in m life, but I like Gringo too.  

I started to do new things. I always knew that cyber goth look was the goth look I liked the most, but it took ten years to actually dress as a cyber goth. I had cyber lox for years, but never really had anyone to put them on my head, as I cannot do it myself. In Tampere Kuplii and Kibecon I dressed as a cyber goth, and the experience was awesome. There is also a goth meeting in next month, where I might dress as a cyber goth, I also started finally to learn how to contour my face. This is something I have been thinking for ten years now, but never really had the courage to actually do it. I also started to cosplay again. I actually tried to come back in 2020, but then the coronavirus came and you know how that went. I tried to make a cosplay for Kibecon and Desucon and failed. I hope I have to cosplay at least in Tracon, or maybe in Kitsunecon, what is a month before that. I have also accepted my body that I have been wearing dresses. I usually dress quite feminine, I have not own pants in years and at winter I had a a skirt and a leggings. But wearing a dress has always been a bit difficult for me.  I simply think that my plus size body does not look good in dresses. But now for last six days I have been only wearing dresses, I just bought a 50s style dress from Dolly & Dotty and next time I go to my mom's house I might go to Muotiputiikki Helmi, that sells 50s style pin-up dresses. 

Some pic I took yesterday. I have new necklace, new lipstick and a new dress. In this photo I'm actually wearing contour on my cheeks and my forehead, but you can't really see it. Overall I'm feeling well.

Nightwish, Helsinki Ice Hall, 24.4.2022

 I have been fan of Nightwish since I was a little kid, I have been listening to them since I was six years old. Tarja Turunen was my first Nightwish vocalist and she is still my favorite, but I was quite young when she got fired so I never saw her live. I have seen her perform Christmas songs in a church in Kotka, and I wrote about it (in Finnish) back then.

This time I saw Floor Jansen, who is really good, but I still have to say I prefer Tarja. Floor's singing technique is better than Tarja's but I still think she sounds more like a basic metal singer whereas Tarja's soprano sound was so unique. But I still really liked Floor. She is definitely a good lead for a metal band, she feels like a metal vocalist. 

I recorded some of their songs, including She is my Sin, Nemo and Ever Dream. I decided not to upload them to my YouTube channel, but I uploaded them to my Facebook page and made them public, so you can check them out. These were all some of my favorite songs, and they also played Planet Hell, which is such a powerful song. In Planet Hell she actually sung Marco's parts, which was cool.  Storytime sounded so much better sung by Floor than Anette, and at the end when they played Ghost Love Score I felt like I was in heaven. I still think that Tarja's songs sound better with her voice, but that's just my opinion. 

I was there quite early so I managed to get quite close to the stage. Helsinki Ice Hall is a nice place to have a gig like this, at it is so big that it does not feel crowded. I am going to see Rammstein in Tallinn this month, even though here I wrote I would not go to Estonia, I decided to go anyway, oops. There is a 3km walk to the Laululava from the harbor, I have to stand up for several hours and then walk back the 3km. I already know I'm going to be in pain. There was actually a ship that leaves at 1.30 AM, but it is quite expensive, almost 100 euro, and I would need to be there at 1 AM so I would probably miss it. So I decided to take a ship at the morning that leaves at 6 AM. I'm going to be awake the whole night, but hey, for Rammstein I have to suffer. Those are the only metal gigs I had for this summer. I almost went to Rock in the City Vantaa, but decided not to, as Desucon was in the next weekend. Also Hypecon was at the same time, so I decided to go there. 

Here are some videos that others have posted:

Nemo

Storytime

 

Planet Hell

Ghost Love Score

I actually completely forgot about this post. I accured me few days ago that I had forgotten to write about the Nightiwish gig. So I wrote about it. Thankfully I realized now and not months later. 

Zorro the Musical, Kajaanin Kaupunginteatteri, 30.4.2022

 I saw Zorro the musical in Kajaani with my friend Hanna. Kajaani is far away from Espoo, and going there took six hours in train. I actually managed to forget what time the train would leave; I remembered it would leave 12:19PM and not 11:19AM. So I left in quite hurry, but I managed not to miss the train. I forgot my headphones, but Hanna was lovely and borrowed hers to me. The journey was not easy per se, as there is so little room in the train, but surprisingly the six hours went quite fast. We arrived at the hotel, left our stuff there and went to the theatre. We were originally supposed to go there in 22th, but the event got cancelled, so we went there in 30th. So we spent the May Day there, I would have loved to see my friends that day, but we can't always have what we want.

The musical itself was pretty good. It had a lot of energy, the songs were fine even though none of them really stood out, and the singing was pretty good. They had some of the orchestra players on stage in costumes, which was a nice touch. Zorro was played by Jukka Peltola and he was pretty good. He had a nice voice and presence. What I was a bit disappointed with, was that there was not a lot of sword fighting, but he did his fighting pretty well. 

The actress that stole the show was Maija Pihlajaoja. She played Inez, a woman in love with Diego, and she was such a strong and fun character. Pihlajaoja sung really well, she probably had the best voice of the cast, and her movements and attitude was so great to the character. Her dress also looked super cool.

Another woman in love with Diego was Luisa, played by Satu Turunen. She looked very Nordic, she was pale with blonde hair, and that really did not give me a feeling of a latina. Her voice also was not the strongest, but I still liked her. Her acting was pretty good, and her more calm attitude was a fun contrast with Inez's fiery one.

The villain of the story was Ramon, Diego's brother. The story basically was that Diego went to Spain and never returned, and Ramon, his power-thirsty brother, had kidnapped their father, said he was dead, and made himself as the governor. Ramon was so over the top evil and I loved it. He hanged two boys for treason for no reason, and there was even a scene where he had a whip, suggesting that he whipped people. The actor, Tom Salminen, was also quite Nordic looking, with blond hair and pale skin. In the end of course it is revealed that their father was alive and Ramon got killed.

Like I said, I could not really remember any of the songs, they were very similar, but I appreciate the actors' energy. In the end we talked one of the ensemble cast, told her that we were in a train for six hours just for this musical, and when she asked what musicals we wanted to see, I of course said Tanz der Vampire, which she had said seen in Vienna. She also said she'll tell forward about the musical I had suggested. After the musical we went to a bar for few drinks, it was May Day after all, but we did not stay long because we needed to wake up next day early. Anyway, it was a great experience, and even though Kajaani's theather is a small one in the middle of nowhere, it was still pretty good. In this year I am going to see the Finnish version of Anastasia the musical, in Kotka I will see The Addams Family musical, which I saw earlier in Jyväskylä, and at the end of the year, the British version of Cats will be touring in Finland.

Zorro, played by Jukka Peltola.

Inez, played by Maija Pihlajaoja.

Luisa, played by Satu Turunen.

Ramon vs Zorro, played by Jukka Peltola and Tom Salminen.

A free program they had. It was really small, but it had a bit of information. Too bad I've broken it.

Kibecon, 14.-15.5.2022

 I already kind of opened the con year when I visited Tampere Kuplii at Sunday, but Tampere Kuplii is not a con technically, it is a comic book festival. So Kibecon was the first con of this year. Kibecon is very nice because it is so close to me. It is in Sello Library, that is only 15 minutes away from me. So going there was not very difficult. I was planning to get a cosplay there, but I had no time, so I went in a cyber goth look. I actually was quite a bit late on Saturday; I was planning of going there at 12, but I had managed to lose my headband which I need for the look. I looked everywhere for over an hour, and could not find it. When I used the headband in Tampere Kuplii I took it off in my home, so it has to be here. But I could not find it, so its location is a mystery.  Because of that I was quite late, arriving at the con at 2PM. But I managed to pull off a pretty nice look. My makeup was fine, and I absolutely loved my outfit; red and black cyberlox, metallic red PVC corset, PVC miniskirt and fishnet stockings. I got many compliments and many people wanted to take pictures with me or of me. Kibecon is a small con without an entrance fee, so most of the people there were children. I actually hanged out with teenagers the whole con. As a 25 years old, I felt sooooo old, oh my god. One of the funniest comments that I got was from a girl whose age I don't know, but she was quite young. She told her friend wanted to be a cyber goth when they were at second grade. Second graders are eight year olds, so that was quite funny.

I met Luca, who I noticed from his piercings. He had a massive 8mm septum piercing, which was super cool, even though I would never stretch my septum to anything big. He showed his pictures which showed that he was a goth, and he looked so good. Too bad he lived far away, he actually told he and his friends travelled to Kibecon for five hours, which I could not fathom. He was 19, and I felt kind of old, but at least he was an adult. He was super nice and friendly, and we talked about going to other cons; they are apparently going to Kitsunecon where I'm also going.

I was little bit disappointed at the seller's hall, since they mostly had people who only who sold their own artwork. They had two people who sold plushies and figures, someone who sold kawaii stuff, and Manga Cafe, who sells Asian treats. I wanted to buy something from the con but I could not find anything, so I bought a bag of candy and a dry strawberry "ice cream". The "ice cream" is from a company called Giant Caplico and it was super good, gotta buy it sometime later also. The candy bag was actually American, and I did not even know that Manga Cafe sells American products, but it was not very good, so not gonna buy it again. 

At Saturday I actually walked with my Demonia boots for about an hour, but not any longer. When I was young I could walk long distances with the boots and wear them for hours, but not anymore. But I had black ankle boots with a shiny snake skin pattern, so I think my shoes looked still pretty good.

I also met Liltsy and Ramona, who I met in Tampere Kuplii this year. Liltsy was cosplaying Grell Sutcliff from Kuroshitsuji, and that gave me serious flashbacks, since I also cosplayed her years ago. We had a small photoshoot, their friend had a proper camera but the circumstance was not ideal; cyber goth look should be photographed inside, because the cyberlox goes everywhere in the wind. We took many pics, but unfortunately I could not use any of them.

The whole con was just hanging out. I had no programs to go to, they had Another Castle, a choir that sings nerd tunes at Saturday, but I missed it, and it was the only program I wanted to see. So I just hanged out the whole con. 

My look after the con in Saturday. I took this picture in a hurry so my cyberlox is quite messed up and  I'm not wearing the headband which makes me look a bit silly. I actually thought can I go to the con in a cyber look without headband but I decided to go anyway. Too bad I don't have a full picture of the outfit.

The products I bought from Manga Cafe. The candy bag was quite bad, but the "ice cream" was delicious.

 

Hobitti, Turun Kaupunginteatteri, 9.4.2022

 I saw Hobitti, the play based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit book. The play was pretty well made, it had a lot of imposing scenes and costumes. Turku's circus was hired to be in the play, so there was a lot of tricks with fire and other circus tricks. I actually saw their Lord of the Rings play back in 2018 and decided no to write about it. This is really a shame, since I would have loved to read my thoughts about it. So I decided to write about the Hobbit play. Mika Kujala returned as Gandalf and Miska Kaukonen as Gollum. Bilbo is usually played by Teemu Aromaa, but this time he was played by understudy Ville Seivo. Thorin Oakenshield was played by Stefan Karlsson and Fili and Kili were played by Ulla Reinikainen and Minna Hämäläinen. Gloin was played by Antti Kyllönen and Dwalin by Marko Pekkarinen. As you can see there was only five dwarves and Fili and Kili were played by women. Of course thirteen dwarves would not work and I understand that, but I'm not really sure if I liked the fact Fili and Kili were played by women. Everyone did fantastic job, I especially liked Miska Kaukonen as Gollum as his costume was so well made.

 Miska Kaukonen also played other roles, like troll Tom, Thranduil, and a guard in the Laketown. I was especially interested how they would make Thranduil as I absolutely loved the film version of him. Thranduil was done pretty nicely, I really liked his costumes. He had a green robe in his first scene and a green robe and brown armor in the Battle of Five Armies. I also liked his crown, as it was different what we've seen in the films.

Janne Sundqvist played many characters including Beorn, troll William, big orc and guard of Laketown. Beorn was the part I liked best, since he managed to portray Beorn really well. Beorn looked really cool, I liked how he was acted and he also had his bear form. They also showed his servants, who were people in animal costumes.

The translation was bit odd since they created words that have not been used in Finnish Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit books. In Finnish Gollum's "precious" is "aarre", here they sometimes called it "ihanuus" which has never been used and sometimes "aarre". Also Bilbo is called "burglar" and that is usually  translated as "voro". Here it was translated as "aarteenetsijä" which literally means "treasure seeker" and I was a little bit confused.

The circus performers also played the spiders in Mirkwood and their costumes were pretty great. They crawled from the roof and their movements were so spider-like. 

The book had the problem with no female characters, and I liked how some of the orcs had female actors (even though the characters were still probably male) and some of the Mirkwood guard elves were women. This kind of bothered me when I read the book, but to be honest, I originally really disliked Tauriel from the movies who was created to fix this problem, but now I think she's fine. 

And of course, there's the climax, Smaug and the Battle of Five Armies. Smaug was a huge puppet and he was cool. His movements were done really nicely, and I liked his voice. I could not find from the program who was his voice actor. They had him have a hole in his scales, and then Bard shot him down. They had a screen where they showed Smaug attacking the Laketown and then his death. The Battle itself was very short and I was a bit disappointed. They basically fast forward the whole thing, the whole Battle was over in a minute. But overall the show was pretty good.

Bilbo (Teemu Aromaa), Gandalf (Mika Kujala), and the dwarves (Stefan Karlsson, Marko Pekkarinen, Minna Hämäläinen, Ulla Reinikainen and Antti Kyllönen) at the Shire.

Bilbo (Teemu Aromaa) and the trolls (Markus Ilkka Uolevi, Janne Sundqvist and Miska Kaukonen).

Bilbo (Teemu Aromaa) and the dwarves (Stefan Karlsson, Marko Pekkarinen, Minna Hämäläinen, Ulla Reinikainen and Antti Kyllönen) at Mirkwood.

My look in the show. 

The program that cost 6 euro.

Erika Vikman, Tavastia, Helsinki, 17.3.2022

 I've had tickets for this show for two years now. I originally purchased them in 2020, when I was a really big fan of Erika Vikman. I'm no longer the biggest fan of hers, but her music is good, her style is amazing and she is a very good performer. I had a friend coming with me but they said they did not want to come. So I went alone. I talked to some girls but could not really find any company, so I left right after Erika had stopped her show. But the show itself was great. She performed my favorite songs Cicciolina and Syntisten pöytä, Cicciolina she actually performed twice. And I have to say that Häpeä and Aikuisten rannakkeet are very good songs when I heard them live. I actually filmed Cicciolina, Syntisten pöytä and Anna rakas raju hetki but decided not to upload them to YouTube. I put them public on my Facebook page, if you're interested.

When Erika was in UMK, where is decided who Finland will send to Eurovision, I heard Cicciolina for the first time and thought it was awful. But then I listened it on repeat and I started to like the song. When Syntisten pöytä came out I absolutely loved it. The song and the music video were so good and I would really love an industrial metal cover of the song 

The CD she published was little bit disappointing, since it did not have any hit songs like I thought it would. Some of the songs were pretty good, but none of them stood out. But after I heard Aikuisten rannekkeet live, I realized it is a pretty good song.

Here are some of her songs she performed.

Cicciolina and Aikuisten rannekkeet.

Pyhä Erika and Anna rakas raju hetki.

Häpeä.

Syntisten pöytä.

Overall a good show, it's been a while since I have been in a concert.

 

Addams Family the Musical, Jyväskylän kaupunginteatteri, 11.09.2021

Sorry that this post has taken so long. I finished the text months ago but I lost the program and I was too lazy to find it. Also I have not had a lot of inspiration to write this blog.

As I'm a goth, I'm ashamed to say. it took me over ten years to know the Addams Family, even though that show is part of the goth subculture. I thought of watching the movies for over 15 years, and watched them three years ago. Before then I had only seen some scenes from the 60's show and listened the theme music. But when I heard there was going to be an Addams Family musical, I knew, that I had to see it. The only problem was that it was in Jyväskylä, and it takes 3,5h to get there by train. Thankfully my friend Minna decided to go with me, and we booked the tickets. My original plan was to leave after the musical, but none of the trains left in the evening and we would have needed to stay up for the morning train. This would have worked for me, but I did not want to ask this for Minna, so we decided to take a hotel. We took Omena Hotel, the cheapest possible hotel and stayed there. I had Omena Hotel when I was in Tampere, and that hotel was pretty bad. So I was surprised that the Jyväskylä Omena Hotel was a lot better. But the entrance was kind of confusing. When we arrived there, there was a barrier and text that said "no enter" and then a door. So we did not even see the entrance of the hotel. But we arrived there, and after a while we arrived to the theater. The seats that we bought were not in use, but thankfully we got quite nice seats at the third row.

The show itself was pretty good. Gomez Addams, played by Paavo Honkimäki stole the show. He was just too good it is difficult to put to words. His acting and singing was perfect. I liked Morticia (Tytti Vänskä) and Wednesday (Saara Jokiaho) as well. They both sung very well, and I liked especially Wednesday. I never really liked Fester (Pekka Hiltunen), but he was not as annoying as in the movies, and Pugsley (Sami Ulmanen) was fine as well. Lucas Beineke (Miko Petteri Jaakkola) was super cute, and I really liked his singing and acting as a teenager. Some of the best notes were sung by Anna-Maija Oka who played Alice Beineke, and Grandma (Anneli Kauppinen) and Mal Beineke (Markus Virtanen) were okay as well. 

Overall the musical was good, acting and singing was good and the band played well as well. The only thing I did not like were the costumes. They did not have their classic costumes, which really bothered me. Gomez did not have his classic pinstripe suit, but this weird red and black cape and vest. Wednesday's outfit was kind of weird as well, as she had this red and black dress. But at least she had her classic braids, as in some productions of this musical she has a different hairstyle. But the outfit of Morticia, oh my god, I hated it. She had this awful red and black flamingo style dress. Morticia would NEVER wear something like that. She would only wear full black dress. In the end she had a beautiful full red dress, but I kind of felt red is not her color in clothes. Also her hair was kind of weird, as usually the hair is down, she had this weird updo hairstyle. Wednesday and Morticia also did not have wigs, the actors had their own hair, and so neither of them had black hair, which kind of bothered me, as they should not have brown hair.

What also kind of bothered me, but what was funny at the same time, was that Gomez was taller than Lurch (Jouni Salo). Lurch is a character that is meant to be extremely tall. Even though he had 10cm platform shoes, he was still shorter than Gomez.

I had never seen the musical and decided to not to spoil myself. I had only seen the beginning, the overture and the song When you're an Addams. The plot was kind of silly. Basically Wednesday has fallen in love with a "normal" boy and that boy's family had been invited to visit the Addams. Wednesday said very clearly that they should act normal when the Beikene family arrives. This confused me. I thought the Addams family thought they were the normal, and everyone else was different. I'm not sure if the creators of the musical really understood Addams Family. 

Anyway I really liked the show, even though the journey there was not that easy. Thankfully the trains of this day and age are not that uncomfortable. The next show I'm going to see is not a musical, but a play. I'm going to see The Hobbit play, as few years ago I saw the Lord of the Rings play. 

Here you can see Gomez's and Morticia's outfits. Even though Gomez's outfit is fine, I prefer the classic pinstripe look. Morticia's outfit was just awful as you can see, she would never wear anything like this.

The dress at the end. This is better what she wore to whole musical, but I still don't think that full red is Morticia's color. But the dress was beautiful.

The program. It was quite small, but it had nice information about the show and its makers. The price was good, it only cost 5 euro.