25 Random Things About Me

I just answered this meme that has been making rounds at Facebook, and for purely narcissistic reasons, I guess, I reprint it also here.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

Säännöt ovat seuraavat:

Kun sinut on merkitty, sinun olisi tarkoitus kirjoittaa muistiinpano, joka sisältää 25 satunnaista asiaa, faktaa, tapaa tai tavoitettasi. Lopuksi merkitse 25 ystävääsi. Sinun täytyy merkitä henkilö, joka merkitsi sinut. Jos minä merkitsin sinut, se tarkoittaa sitä, että haluan tietää sinusta enemmän.

(Tehdäksesi tämän, mene muistiinpanoihin (notes) profiilisivultasi, liitä nämä ohjeet muistiinpanosi alkuun, kirjoita 25 satunnaista asiaa itsestäsi, merkitse 25 ihmistä (sovelluksen oikeassa yläkulmassa) ja julkaise.)

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1. I was born in Lapua in the Southern Ostrobothnian province in Finland and have lived in Tampere since I was one year old.

2. My birthday is the 26th of July; the same as that of Carl Gustav Jung, Aldous Huxley, Stanley Kubrick and Mick Jagger...

3. I'm supposedly related on father's side to Antti Rannanjärvi, one of the Ostrobothnian "häjys", notorious knife-wielding rogues terrorizing that rural area in the 19th century.

4. On mother's side, Essi Wuorela of Rajaton accapella group is something like a second or third cousin to me.

5. I am lefthanded.

6. The colour of my eyes is something like in between green, brown and gray; probably green being the most dominant.

7. My favourite colour is blue. (Sorry, this sort of trivia is so boring and teen-mag, but I'm having trouble filling in all 25 points.)

6. When I was child, my future dream professions would be, in their respective turns: a policeman, an astronaut or an archeologist. All inspired by TV or popular culture, of course.

7. When I was a child, I was often thinking about ontological questions and wondered if reality, as I perceived it, would only exist for me and no-one else; and if actually the "real" world (which I couldn't see myself) would be that of green and red amoebas, for example. Later on, I found out also other children have had similar ideas. Very Philip K. Dick, I guess.

8. I was also a little bookworm, carrying all the time loads of books from a local library to home, just devouring every piece of information I could.

9. Though I got through the basic school system OK, from primary school to high school (only dropped out after wasting nearly a decade in the cogs of academia), during my childhood and adolescence I learned to grow a certain dislike towards educational systems. Probably on my path of learning there were just too many little tyrants, hysterical people and small-scale psychopaths calling themselves teachers (though naturally also some likeable characters). I preferred self-learning and still do.

10. I used draw comics in my childhood and teens, but probably my enthusiasm waned when I received some flak about them, being in such a tender age. Now I think it was foolish and I have regretted many times afterwards that I stopped honing my skills as an illustrator.

11. I also dreamt of becoming a film director when I was a teenager, but apparently my dreams and reality weren't interchangeable. I went to movies several times a week, was a member of film clubs, subscribed to film magazines and generally read everything about the history and present day of cinema, and so on.

12. I've actually never had a chance to travel any further south than Sweden and Denmark, those being as far abroad I ever was. I guess it has always been the lack of money, suitable travelling companions and so on.

13. Before I became pHinn, I used to work in a local comics shop, some people I still associate with learning to know me from behind its desk.

14. After that experience came to its end, gradually my enthusiasm for comic books and wasting most of my money on them was replaced by that for music and wasting most of my money on records.

15. I started in 1996 the Website that became in time pHinnWeb.org, probably being the reason most of people have heard about me in the first place.

16. My original DJ name was Nemo (after another childhood hero of mine, Captain Nemo of Jules Verne) but after receiving a dismayed mail from a person in Helsinki also calling himself DJ Nemo, I decided to rechristen myself as DJ pHinn, after my Website. I haven't heard about the other DJ Nemo or his activities ever since.

17. As a DJ, I never really became technically proficient in such things as beatmatching, not owning my own set of SL-1200s, but some people seemed to like my selections anyway.

18. After the mid-2000s my career as a DJ seemed to wane gradually, for various reasons, so I thought just concentrating on creating our own music was a better option to spinning that of the others. If provoked hard enough, I might still do a DJ set some time, but don't expect the latest flashing, banging, hippest, trendiest sounds from me then. I lived that life through already and I'm not going back.

19. I am very much into DIY and "Outsider Art". I think being a virtuoso or an expert of your craft doesn't hurt, but when one has an urge to express, one shouldn't be hindered by the formal lack of skills or education. Of course, "dilettantism" is always frowned upon by the gatekeepers of culture worrying about their carefully secured positions, but it's important to keep creating, even if it was only for your own personal entertainment and no-one else's.

20. The City tabloid of Tampere elected in 2001 me as "The Best Underground Man in Town". That was quite exhilarating and funny, when you start to think about it.

21. Both my father and grandfather died in 2007. Kompleksi's first album is dedicated to them.

22. Though never having had any problems with alcohol, I decided to quit drinking altogether after June 2008. I haven't regretted a day. I think I generally feel better, have less negative thoughts to shadow my mind, and I'm a nicer (if more quiet) person when I'm sober, less prone to "clever" remarks and boasting, even though I can't hide behind that shelter of false confidence any more.

23. I don't really know why I answered this query. Perhaps because I'm a sucker.

24. Using any standard economic yardstick and also considering from some social points of view, I might well be called "marginalized", but I've stayed out of the gutter so far and some things seem to be actually advancing in my life, so I guess there's still hope.

25. I think I've got a guardian angel. Or more precisely, along my path there have been many of them.

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And another FB meme where I was tagged recently: "10 questions and answers about music".

Answer honestly and try not to appear cool -- it doesn't work amongst friends. After answering, tag those whose musical taste you wish to know more about.

1. What are you listening to right now?

This week Isaac Hayes, Björk, Nick Cave and some Brazilian compilation. Next week something else.

2. As a teenager, what was a band you were ashamed to admit to liking?

Not a band but a solo artist: Prince. Because my AC/DC-worshipping classmates thought he was gay and kept picking me about my adoration of his music.

3. And today?

Nothing, really. My tastes are pretty eclectic and I can listen to anything, though I have no time for Top 40 myself.

4. Have you met an artist you admired? How did it go?

Sure, several of them, some of them in real life, even more only through E-mail, but I think it's better to keep my lips sealed about those encounters. More and more, I try to live by the rule of thumb: "Never meet your idols, they're bound to let you down". If I'm a fan of a certain artist, I don't want to meet him/her, because I'm always afraid s/he will turn out to be an a**hole, and I couldn't listen to his/her music again. Artists with their egos, tantrums and constant insecurities... try not to tread on the tiger's tail. (Well, to make it clear, I don't have as my FB friends any artists who I would really have a problem with - if you think it's YOU I'm talking about here ;) Of course, I've met many nice ones, too. Circle's Jussi Lehtisalo is always my prime example of a Really Nice Person Who Also Happens To Be A Musician.

5. Have you had dreams about bands or artists? What happened?

I once had a dream where I shook hands with Iggy Pop at a gig.

6. What was your first gig?

Can't remember.

7. Which living artist you still haven't seen, but desperately want to?

No-one, really. I don't really want to see my old heros who are still alive and past their prime, and I'm not any more into doing pilgrimages to worship some idol.

8. Who or what band would you like to resurrect and see live?

No-one, but I am just reading "White Bicycles - Making Music in the 1960s", the memoirs of producer Joe Boyd, responsible for the first single of Floyd, and inspired by Boyd's vivid recollections, I thought it would be nice to have a time machine and travel back to check the Syd Barrett-era (1966-67) pre-dinosaur Pink Floyd at UFO club of London.

9. Which riff would you like to learn to play or sing 'just right'?

Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major.

10. How many records do you own, or how many songs do you have in your itunes/mp2 player?

Haven't really counted, but my approximation is somewhere in between 1000 and 2000. I've always received flak from certain family members about my hobby of music and wasting money on records, so it's always a guilty pleasure. I don't own any of these fancy iTunes/MP2/whatever players and don't do filesharing or download music. The music department of Metso, Tampere's main library, is enough to fulfil my free music needs.