Thought I'd update my Journal. Last time my entry was mostly in Finnish since I felt that my thoughts were best described to Finns, who can relate to them better. Basically it was about the 70th "anniversary" of the Winter War's start date, November the 30th 1939. My thoughts circled about the unity of the people at the time, in comparison to this day when we argue over things. People don't seem to understand that they should be grateful for being able to do that, to question, debate and argue. My message was for people to remember the lessons of our military history, what ever the political or ideological viewpoint.
Went to see the new
Täällä Pohjantähden Alla "Under the North Star", historical film directed by Timo Koivusalo (better known from his countryside comedies). Based on Väinö Linna's novel trilogy of the same name, there has already been a film version directed by Edvin Laine in 1968. The story is related to Linna's another bestseller
Tuntematon Sotilas "The Unknown Soldier" with some events and characters. There are two film adaptions available from "Tuntematon" as well, first black&white by (also) Edvin Laine in 1955, and another (in colour) by Rauni Mollberg in 1985. Confused enough? Watching the new
Täällä Pohjantähden Alla was pretty much similar to watching the new
Tuntematon Sotilas, the original films are so iconic in the Finnish film history that it's hard to not compare them, although they should be seen as independent projects. Filming techiques etc. have changed much in 40 years and the harsh realism is what I count in favour for the new film. The actors are pretty well chosen for their parts, but the original actors of the -68 film still loom in the back of my head when watching the new film. Basically the film is good, but it still puzzles me, why we need to re-direct the existing films that still remain good?
Täällä Pohjantähden Alla tells a story about Finnish families and their social tensions and division into Reds and Whites. The film starts from the end of the 19th century with Finland still part of the Imperial Russia, continues into declaration of Independence in 1917 and into Finnish Civil War of 1918 and its bloody aftermath. Like the novel, the future-coming sequel continues the story well into 1950's, but that'll be another story.
Artwise, I have some acrylics illustrations and at the moment one charcoal-work waiting to be resized and scanned. There also couple works sketched and in progress, I hope to get them into dA before Christmas
Lately I have noticed the increase of dA "art theft" and clear copies of someone else's work. Persoanlly, I encourage people to study and use references for their works. Influence and inspiration from someone is unvoidable and often necessary for creating a personal style. But straightforward copy of someone's work, not to mention the use of someone else's work, should be accompanied with mention of the original artist. Is that's too much to ask?
Finally the winter has found its way here too, I was afraid that there's going to be another "dark" Christmas like the previous one, but it's going to be a snowy one after all. For couple of weeks the temperature has circled around -13 to -25 celcius (that's 9 to -13 F) here.
I'd like to use this opportunity to wish all Deviants a
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010! Member of:
These are the artists I like to watch...
Paleo (or some paleo-related):
other explainable (more and less) people: 
ATTENTION ALL !
Winter Downs
>link< 
Hysterical
