I have a trauma. Microtrauma.

Microtrauma is a duo of Daniel Päßler and Ricardo Linke. Microtrauma had its first release in 2007 "Wake up" and their own release soon after called "Collar EP". They make great music. Minimal is the way!

Microtrauma - "Input"

Microtrauma - "Monody"

Microtrauma - "Solitone"

Microtrauma - "Reflections"

More releases from Microtrauma: http://microtrauma.com/?page_id=2
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/microtrauma
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Microtrauma
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Microtrauma
And what is actually a microtrauma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtrauma
Check also the record label TRAUM for other cool artists: http://www.traumschallplatten.com/

They are playing in Amsterdam October 20th 2012 at Panama. http://www.panama.nl/

Millions and millions

It sometimes dazzles me to see how many millions of people have seen some video in YouTube. When you see 40 million under a movie clip it's just crazy to think about such a huge amount of people. And it becomes even crazier when you start to compare statistics of different countries. Thinking about the worlds population at the moment which is around 7 billion! So it's 7,000,000,000! And more than half of this amount is living only in Asia! There lives approx. 4.2 billion people which makes it over 60% of worlds population! And the worlds two most populated countries are China and India which make it together already 37% of worlds population!

"It is estimated that the world population reached one billion for the first time in 1804. It was another 123 years before it reached two billion in 1927, but it took only 33 years to reach three billion in 1960. Thereafter, the global population reached four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987, six billion in 1999 and, according to the United States Census Bureau, seven billion in March 2012"

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

"U.S. Census Bureau – World POPClock Projection"

I just keep wondering what is the population limit of the world? And when we will meet this limit?

On the most viewed videos in youtube are names like Eminem, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and the first on the list Justin Bieber with insane number like 784,116,140! I wonder when first video is braking 1 billion line! And now I would like to do some statistics of my own. We have 5,417,098 million people living in Finland. We would need approximately 144,75 Finlands to watch the "Baby" by Justin Bieber to make up to the same numbers. Now let's count how much time (youtube) world has spent listening and watching the video "Baby" 2,705,200,683 minutes which makes it roughly 45,086,678 hours and it makes 5143,4 years! Everyone counted (from this one video from Youtube) the world has been listening Justin Bieber "Baby" for 5143,4 years all together!

It shows how immense power we could have if we stood together for something. We are not small, we have voice, but so many people have forgotten to use it. Can you imagine what could happen if this amount of minutes that people have been spending on watching Justin Biebers "Baby" would invest it into fighting for equality, compassion, taking care of each others? Lets have a imaginary play; what would happen if this "Bieber army" would stand against the war in Syria to end it? Or what if they would all stand for solar power and against drilling oil? Or to stand against bullying? It's crazy to think that only this "Bieber army" could end wars, to save actually peoples lives, to bring up subjects that need to be talked about, but I believe that it's possible.

It's also crazy to think how fast things can become such huge phenomenons in such a short time. Person who had lost his camera in Finland found it accidently when reading post in America from reddit only after 20 hours that a Finnish cop had put some pictures from the camera into social media!

How the muslim parody video made it into news all over the world in such fast time and rised so much talk (and ended up into people getting killed) in such a short time compared to the Syrian civil war that has been going on already more than a year. It started 15.3.2011 when public protests took place demanding the end of Ba'ath party rule and resigning of President Bashar al-Assad. And UN can't still make anything to it, and big countries like Russia and China don't accept intervention and were against international sanctions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war

It's crazy how the media attention is spread nowadays. People tend to forget actual facts when some channels are bombing only news that are colored by "who founds what" and where the money comes from. What we need more than anything in the media now is debate and criticism. Don't believe straight everything what people are pushing to you. There's mostly always someones benefits behind. The actual amount of free speech and debate towards mainstream media is less in United States of America that it is in Russia I would  dare to bet! We need people who are ready to take steps to write and send letters, make calls to their representatives, demand equality at schools. We need to re-figure out so many things. We have been enough  long stuck and it's time for a change!

Here are some interesting links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
http://www.hrw.org/home
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/
http://fulldocumentary.com/

                                                      Ellie Goulding - "Anything could happen" 

Balam Acab - "Expect"

Beautiful mind

This is my first only text post. I wrote the text already about half a year ago. Thought to share it here. Comments and thoughts are always welcome! Copyright belongs to me, if you want to quote something from the text please remember to note the original source.

Text: R. Hämäläinen

Being around  

Mind is mysterious. We claim to know so much, but we know so little about our minds, ourselves, what really makes us what we are.

Can a person with a mental illness have a beautiful mind? I believe so. Our mind is sometimes our safe heaven, from all the things. But it can be also a trap. Endless labyrinth that you need to find your way, not necessarily out, but your own way. Making your own decisions.

I don’t like when people claim to be so ZEN while forgetting the world around them. I find it as one bad excuse! We are here with so many people around us, and so many of us not feeling good. We should take care of each others, use the universal social healthcare that is free to us; help, compassion. We should remember to use it! Remember the compassion towards each others. To give.

It’s important to be okay with yourself because that’s the point where everything starts from. You have to accept yourself. It’s good to have piece of mind, but you should not get stuck to it and forget the outside world for too long. Then it would be just ignorance!

At this time so many people have serious mental health problems and issues that could have been prevented with this free social health care called taking care from others. Talking with the people. Sharing feelings. Because at the end of the day we just want to be happy. And I hear so often this sentence “I will be happy when…” Why we can’t just be happy at the present moment? Why should we wait with such a thing? Why happiness is thought being bound into something when it is not material. Happiness is an emotion, feeling!

It makes me sometimes sick to see how many people are suffering around us, not happy and sick. And so many people are just watching.

We medicate our brains out with things that should not belong into our body. We medicate ourselves to forget, to fit into something else, instead of to feel things! Medication is only a short time solution, it doesn’t solve our problems. The solution comes from somewhere deeper, from ourselves. But we can always ask help. And we should understand that asking help is not a sign of weakness but a sign of development and power inside us; we want to go further instead of just being at the same point. It feels still hard up to date, but we are learning.

We should also learn that doing mistakes is okay. That’s way to learn. How many people you hear nowadays talking about their mistakes? Not so many! Everybody just wants to aim for perfection and goes around boasting how perfect they are! Where is the humbleness of people? The world is neither perfect and it never can’t or won’t be, so why do we try to demand it from our selves? Why we run around trying to prove it to other people? It doesn’t make any sense.

We should be true to ourselves and watch ourselves from the mirror and see how we could change things and our own actions because that’s the only way of going truly forward.

Mohn and "Words and thoughts in RGB"

Did you know that all babies are color bind until they are around 4 months old? Do you ever think that someone might see the color that you see differently? Do you know that there was no word for orange in the Middle-Age?

"Words and thoughts in RGB" by Eduardo Morais.

Words and Thoughts in RGB (2005-2012) from Eduardo Morais on Vimeo.

MOHN.

"MOHN is Burger/Voigt's new project (Jörg Burger and Wolfgang Voigt)

MOHN is extremely decelerated, slow motion techno with and without bass drum, containing lots of plasticiser

MOHN is slow, sublime, sombre music, fusing different ambient styles to one new one

MOHN LIVE primarily is a non-stop concert-lecture for a seated audience (theatre), but it also works standing up(shoegaze, ambientbounce, ambientgrunge,...)

MOHN comes at a scale of 16:9

MOHN is opium for the people

Lets MOHN together"

From: http://www.kompakt.fm/artists/mohn

Mohn - "Eberplatz 2020"

Mohn - "Saturn"



"Roses are red and violets are blue..."

Pilvi Takala - The real Snow White

"Pilvi Takala (*1981 in Helsinki) deals with the constitutions and limits of social groups and communities. Her videos, books, and installations are based on interventions in (semi-)public spaces, and this first monograph documents most of her work since 2005."

- Taken from http://www.hatjecantz.de/controller.php?cmd=detail&titzif=00003352&lang=en

She has most brilliant ideas in her videos. Like in Wallflower waiting in a Finnish dancing hall if someone would come to pick her up, for the whole evening. As a trainee in a company doing thinking work without the computer or driving the whole day in an elevator. Or going with two other women into a Turkish tearoom. Or building castles of 1 and 2 euro coins. What happens when Snow White tries to enter to Disney world?

Watch the videos for more info. They are awesome. Check the webpage for all of them. http://pilvitakala.com/

Women in Kahves (2005)

http://pilvitakala.com/womeninkahves01.html

Easy rider (2006)

http://pilvitakala.com/easyrider01.html

Wallflower (2006)

http://pilvitakala.com/wallflower01.html

The shining shining (2007)

http://pilvitakala.com/theshiningshining01.html

The trainee (2008)

http://pilvitakala.com/thetrainee01.html

The angels (2008)

http://pilvitakala.com/theangels01.html

The real Snow White (2009)

http://pilvitakala.com/realsnowwhite01.html

From the North

Nordic countries have a special atmosphere. We have certain way of understanding others. We know how to survive from the dark winters. I think in most Nordic music you can see and feel the fact that we have so little sun light almost half of the year. I think that's why there's so many metal fans in Finland and in Scandinavia. But especially the electronic music scene is something quite unique in Finland. And so long all the Icelandic composers who's music I have been listening to have something very common. The compositions and the atmospheres of the music are so fragile and at the same time beautiful. It's not easy listening. It demands concentration from the listener. It brings you into the darkness of the winter of the North but then reveals also the light. It's very confronting and honest music. How is the Nordic mentality too.

I love the the honesty of people in the North, you don't need to pretend to be happy or something else if you don't feel like it. Where in some Mid-Europe countries you always see this phenomena of people trying to play the hard guy, something else or just trying to keep up the smile. I hope these both groups could learn things from each others. To give the peace to people to be alone if they need to be but also to be able to show the joy if they feel happy. To be able to be honest towards others. To show the care towards others around you.

I found two to me new Icelandic composers. Daníel Bjarnason released his debut album "Processions" (2010). He is a composer but also a conductor and has worked with London Sinfonietta, Icelandic Opera and Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. He has had collaborations with bands like Sigur Rós, Efterklang and Múm just name some. In 2011 Bjarnason collaborated with Ben Frost and together they created the album "Sólaris". Here you can listen two songs from this album: http://www.bedroomcommunity.net/releases/solaris

Here you can watch the teaser of Sólaris:

Frost and Bjarnason are performing Sólaris together with the Sinfonietta Cracovia at Todaysart festival in Den Haag 21.9 20.00-21.00 o'clock. You can check for more info about the concert here: http://todaysart.org/2012/artist/?aname=music-for-solaris&lang=en

But if you don't have the chance to go to see it yourself you can reserve a virtual seat for the concert via here: http://disquiet.tv/ Reservations are free but limited to 200, so be fast!

Daníel Bjarnason - "Reyja"

Check here the MySpace page of Bjarnason: http://www.myspace.com/danielbjarnason

Another Icelandic composer and sound artist I found is Bjarni Gunnarsson. He is currently living in Den Haag in the Netherlands. He's music is more abstract, rough and sometimes I could say, scary.

See more info about him here: http://bjarni-gunnarsson.net/

Album video for "Dried up".

"Timeless"

Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine (1874-1940) was an American photographer who used photography as a tool to bring out the social problems of the society, to make a change. He took photos of child labor in USA, immigrants for searching better live overseas and steel workers, building Empire state building. The famous picture with the workers of Empire state building sitting on a steel bar is also by Hine.

Self portrait of Lewis Hine

I got the chance to see the exhibition of Lewis Hines pictures in Nederlands Fotomuseum. There were so many really stopping pictures. There's so much feeling in the photos. Stories of child laborers, a newspaper boy that is sleeping on the stairway, a small boy that is picking cotton. A small baby in front of the "temporary home for colored children".

Here's just some of the photos. Rights belong to their respective owners.

"Little spinner girl in Globe cotton mill"

"Shrimp and oyster worker" (1911)

"I wanted to show the things that had to be corrected;

I wanted to show the things that had to be appreciated."

- Lewis Hine

"Underprivileged child at Hull House" (1920)

"A sleeping newsboy" (1912)

"Candy worker" (1925)

"Rockefeller Center Construction Site, c. 1930"

"Photography can light-up darkness and expose ignorance."

- Lewis Hine

"The girl works all day in a cannery." (1911)

This was the most stopping picture of the whole exhibition. Too bad I couldn't find any better version of the picture from the internet. In the white board it says "temporary home for colored children"

Learn more about Lewis Hine:

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hine-photos/

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hine

http://www.geh.org/fm/lwhprints/htmlsrc2/hinekit_idx00001.html