YOUR EASTER WITCH

Ok, perhaps not exactly. But suitably for a time of growth, flowers, resurrection and Easter witches Asko and I did a photoseries for my act Happily Ever After, which is something of a reversed Sleeping Beauty ghost story.

Photos by Asko Rantanen / Asko Jonathan Photography
Concept and muah by me.

BUNNIES OFF DUTY

The Helsinki Burlesque Xmas Xtravaganza event I performed at all weekend long was truly fantastic but really sucked the juice out of me as well. Here's a Lynchian moment from when the party was over last night, with some go-go bunnies off-duty chilling.

HALLOWEEN FUN, TODAY!

What to do today?
Let me help you with that:

Come to Sture 21 for a set of Dr. Sketchy's and then in the evening join the best, most sparkling and craziest Halloweenn party in town, when we throw our RubiesKlubit: MÖRKÖKLUBI Halloween burlesque show.
Booooh!

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: SUNDAY

In a time when I kind of dream I would catch the flu so I could lay in bed and just watch Netflix  with a clean consciousness (that wouldn't be able to happen even if it did happen) a weekend off is a truly amazing thing.  Being in a rather constant mode of constantly needing to perform and produce things, even anticipated events in the free time start feeling like something that you have to accomplish rather than get to experience and thus becomes harder to look forward to. They turn into another task to manage yourself trough. This weekend however was totally off-duty-time and on Friday I got into a real relaxation-mode as I attended the first night of the Superwood-festival (more on that later). And then I got to spend the rest of the weekend at home! Eddi is off on a three-week work trip to Yazd, the stepsons away for the autumn holidays so it's just been me and Dag (and some to do's and work which I have exceptionally well been able to neglect) enjoying the late autumn sunshine.

 The first frosty nights have arrived and left traces that won't melt away until the afternoon.

 Picking rowanberries, the last ones available, to dry for a tea infusion.

Enjoying  a chocolate-lingonberry cake that we baked with Dag!

And working on a new dance partner of mine for our up-coming Halloween show. Ergonomically on the kitchen floor; I've used up all other workspaces and surfaces available in the house.

And come evening, I might allow myself some non-guyilty Netflix time as well!

UNDER THE MISTLE TEASE

I made a poster today.
And I am making an event in two months:

This will be the fifth edition of Under the Mistle Tease already! Crazy how time flies.
More info on the event page, tickets from our Studio Shangri-La webshop.

But before that it's time for our other event; the Halloween edition of Rubies Klubit: MÖRKÖKLUBI! October 28th at Sture 21.
Be there or, umm, be taken by some ghouls or so.

À BRUXELLES!

Hello there!
I am on my way to Brussels to perform and it seems I am only, or well mostly, planning on wearing green things.
Must be a sign that autumn is here.

THE SPECTACLE

A couple of photos from the gigantic number we created for the tenth and final Helsinki Burlesque Festival with both of our performing student troupes from our burlesque school  -

We are already on our eight and sixth season with the troupes, and so far we've created ten acts for them separately, but this was the first one we did with both troupes together and also the first one we put ourselves in as well. And it was, like said, the biggest number done over here so far. And as far as we've concerned, that ever will be; we'll stick to choreographing for max 15 persons; 27 was quite the challenge when it comes to rehearsal space and noise, mainly noise, in the studio.

Not sure when we'll get to do this act again with the full cast - smaller versions will most likely be seen, but I'm super happy that we got our ladies up on that big stage and made lots of epicness happen!

Photos with watermark by Tuomas Lairila and the others by Jari Miettinen.

(In case you've missed it, the studio we run is Studio Shangri-La and our burlesque school -first of it's kind when we started -is called the Shangri-La School of Showgirls.)

RUBIES STYLE / POSING FOR LUCIE

Last November when in Prague we had a chance to do a quick (in the lobby of a dance studio) and fun shoot with fabulous photographer Lucie Kout.

These costumes are from our Give it Away-act that Ira-Maria Peltoniemi/Ira's Studio made for us.

Lucie will most likely be coming to Finland at some point this year so there will be a chance for pin-ups and performers, aspiring or established, to shoot with her. I'll post more info about that on my FB page when dates are set!

FOR THE 10TH AND LAST TIME

Tonight the tenth -and final- Helsinki Burlesque Festival begins!
Just checked into the hotel (staying in the city to avoid the long drive home two nights in a row, plus to be able to sip some bubbly as well ;) and will head to the venue in just a bit.

Today we are opening the festival with a  gigantic number featuring  both of our performing student troupes on stage, as well as Tinker Bell and me. That means 27 pairs of legs dancing around and a whole lot of choreographing with small warrior orcs (from some role play game that one of our students gave us to use, the way some use chess pieces -  to structure formations and positions of the dancers on a small scale) before that  -it's an act and  a concept we've planned for over a year and have rehearsed for six months with the ladies and it's very rewarding to get it out on stage tonight. A A bit artsy (with proportions like this it has to), super classic and, as already said - huge. Above is a little sneak peek without giving too much away. For those of you with tickets, see you soon, for the rest, we'll get back to this in pictures later on.

SHOWTIME!

A few photos from a show we did last week with The Ruby Knuckles Sextet.

All photos by Jani Karlsson.

A SELFIE AND IT'S META VERSION

Last night at the club night I co-produce -RubiesKlubit -Nancy took a photo of me and these two gold sparkling performers, Bébe and Bent, while we were indulging in the act of taking mandatory backstage selfies.

I probably have a thousand of photos like these by now in my phone, smiling fab people with a lot of glitter on them squeezed together to fit an instagram square (as well, as fit in a tiny backstage). But they keep on appearing, just the heads in a different order, after every show...

WINTER WONDERLAND

After a weeks of rain and mush we got outselves a crisp white and sparkling winter! Here's an old postcard-inspired photo Asko Rantanen took and made of me in honour of that.

Well, two years ago actually. Today it's -20C, no one would go out and pose in the woods like that now, that'd be insane. Painfully insane. This was taken on a nice and snowy -1C day that was perfect for shooting, especially since we'd planned a snow queen shoot for weeks but it had kept on raining and we had decided on the date for the shoot and to just go with what the weather offered and ta-dah! In the morning everything was white and beautiful.

And now it's also breathtakingly beautiful. Quite literally, go beyond minus fifteen and it actually hurts to breath. (But to be honest I am enjoying it when it last three days or less. You got to have yourself a little winter every once in a while.)

CASUALLY HANING OUT ON THE FAINTING COUCH

Some time back we had a photoshoot at home with Asko Jonathan Rantanen. (It's convenient when you have a house that can double as a suitable set for a photoshoot. Although for the nearest future it cannot, as there are moving boxes everywhere)

Here are a couple of photos from the first series -

I've worked with different things with Asko and his partner Nadja for years and it's always fun to come up with new themes and settings to shoot!

BACK IN HAMBURG

 At the end of last week I traveled to Hamburg again to perform at the Home of Burlesque.
As we shot the music video the night before I opted on the late afternoon flight; to once not have to get up at 6am with just a couple of hours of sleep to go to the airport. Arriving late when performing the same night is always a bit risky, but with a straight flight on a well travelled route you'd still think you're pretty safe, because things can go wrong but in the end they don't actually do that often.

This time it did though; first the Helsinki airport was shut down due to a rescue operation, which resulted in delays and too many people wanting to get to the same point (=inside) at once. I worked with transportation and travels for over a decade, and I know what it's like to be on duty when the shit hits the fan and you can't do anything to solve the problem, only try to make the situation run as smooth as possible, and boy was I glad I was not somebody working at Helsinki Airport that day.
But well, we made our plane on time but the flight itself did not, so we left a over an hour late.  Was already seeing the scenario of me putting the stage face on in the airplane, but we still time to make the show!

Upon arrival in Hamburg it's pretty easy to get  to the venue; straight with one train and a little walking-and-bag-dragging. However, one situation was not enough; there was (apparently) an incident on the tracks so at some point we found ourselves, our bunch of bags and a clearly added sweat-layer to our foreheads stepping out on some train station in Hamburg as the trains stopped moving. But, there's always a cab to be found somewhere; we made it on time to our show in the end but I am seriously wishing I was able to do all my show travels a day in advance... The rest of the shows went well (we perform for three days in a row) except for one moment when the DJ managed to accidentally mute my track and I found myself just clapping my hands to get the crowd going, starting to do jazz hands (and singing JAZZHANDS YEY) after a while as nothing was happening, and finally getting the DJ, who seemed rather clueless and actually asked me what to do to just play any f-ing music ok? and then improvising myself trough some random rockabilly song to finish my act. But those things have to happen sometimes too. And the bar serves good gin afterwards to cool your nerves.

Otherwise -

- late evenings and late mornings, the usual traveling showgirl nutrition (a mix of yin and yang there I tell you), my have-to-go in Hamburg: Miniatur Wunderland, harbours makes me happy (both miniature and actual ones), Christmas markets and fairs too. Also the Reeperbahn version, because: mulled wine, although I am a little more traditionally put and thus care more for candy apples and gingerbreads than giant inflatable dicks. By large.

Now I'm back home and this weekend it's off to Southeastern Finland to perform. And next Saturday it's time for our fourth (time flies!) Christmas revue, Under The Mistle Tease!  Everybody has to come.

TÄHDET TÄHDET; ALL THE STARS

I'm home from Prague and started my week by visiting the rehearsals of the Tähdet Tähdet-show, where we got to coach fabulous singer Johanna Försti some burlesque posing and confidence.
You can see it on Sunday evening at mtv3!

SNAPSHOTS

Yesterday we shot a thing with huuuuge hair!

Today we filmed a thing with sleek hair and a cool leatherjacket.

And now I'll go to sleep on a lonely mattress in my empty city apartment as I am off early tomorrow morning to Prague to perform! I'll also teach a workshop on Sunday; join in if you're over there!

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: LATE MONDAY EVENING

It looks like this when you open the door:

Which a) is just so wrong as it's only the 7th of November (yes, that is my sad frozen Halloween pumpkin under all that snow  -ffs this snow fell ONE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN. So wrong.) and b) would be cozy would we be three weeks from now and would one not have to go anywhere.

I've been outdoors today, sadly, and driving home late at night was not very nice.

For the moment indoors is not that nice either. It's all full of boxes; we have pretty much emptied the city flat by now. Or, I have, suitably we had to move out the month when I'm alone in the blizzard while Eddi is in a sandstorm in a dessert in Iran for four weeks, doing stuff geologists do (in this case; teaching research methods). These boxes will empty one by one as we get some renovation done upstairs while others will be repacked to wait for future times and possible new flats. So now we a) don't have to have Christmas at our place this year or b) should have Christmas at our place this year as there will certainly be chairs and plates for everybody. Ha. Ha.

No but really, it will turn out nice here once we get it sorted out and renovated up. Just need a lot of money and spare time first, peanuts!

Talking about peanuts, made a big batch of quinoa snack bars/cookies/mush to munch on for the rest of the week - I  haven't made any of my usual vegan yummy-but-yucky-looking-stuff for a while so really had to restrain myself from eating too much at once of these. Which isn't that hard, as the raw bars I make are rather heavy; these however a bit lighter thanks to the quinoa. I've been eating so much chocolate and quick snacks lately as I'm on the move a lot and constantly, but now I'm hoping to get away from that a bit again and instead get my sweet tooth soothed and energy need fulfilled with better options (which I was better at before when I had a bit more time on my hands).

These bits took a blend of cashews, sun flower seeds, buckwheat (for a little crunch), dates, cocoa, coconut flakes, oats, coconut oil, a spoonful of organic peanut butter, cardamom and vanilla, liquorice flavoured sea salt and cooked quinoa; a mix on the recipe for the quinoa cookies and the raw bites that I usually make. Which reminds me; I should go and add some hemp seed on top!

Before calling it a night I still intend to finnish fixing a costume of mine that needs a few more sequins; heading over to Prague to perform and teach this weekend! Getting that costume work done is not so easy when the cat decided the dress was his spot tonight. But they blend together quite nicely, don't they?

HALLOWEEN AT KAUHUKLUBI

Happy Halloween! (Because, even  though it's past midnight here by now there's still some Halloween left somewhere in the world).

Last year I spent my Halloween (with a skeleton) at a pilates trainers camp, but this year I got to celebrate it big time at the horror-themed RubiesKlubit burlesque club I produce with Tinx. It's great when you get to host an event with a spooky voice all night long.

Here are a couple of shots from the show, all shot by Bernhard. Miettinen.

I did my 50ft woman thing, inspired by the, ehrm,  epic masterpiece from 1958.

Pepper Sparkles.

Vera de Vil.

Tinker in monster mode.

Bent van der Bleu.

One of the winners of our costume competition and my skeleton hand handing over his price.

We run RubiesKlubit about every six to eight weeks at Mascot in Helsinki's Kallio district, always with a different theme. The concept has worked really well and it has developed into a great club night with a super audience each time. The next RubiesKlubit will be on January 13, but before that we'll throw our yearly Christmas show Under the Mistle Tease on Decdember 17!