Saturday 30 December 2017

The last post on this blog

Normally, this would be the time for my annual "The last post before the turn of the year" blog post, but this time, it's going to be my last post on this blog overall. 

The reason for that is a very happy one... 

Our marriage announcement which was published 
on 12th November 2017 in "Hufvudstadsbladet"


My love and I got married on 15th October 2017 in the Turku Castle, and in the course of it, my name changed from "Stefanie Singh" to "Stefanie Nysand", so I will continue to blog under my new name here: http://stefanie-nysand-sound-kitchen.blogspot.fi/.

This blog will be preserved as a kind of archive.

See you on the other site... ;o)

Rock'n'Roll!
Stefanie 


Monday 13 March 2017

Celebrating our birthdays with Michael Monroe on "Viking Grace"...

The title says it all: This year, we celebrated our birthdays with the Michael Monroe Band on Viking Line's cruiseferry "Viking Grace" somewhere on the Baltic Sea between Turku / Finland and Stockholm / Sweden. Here are some snapshots from our way to the port of Turku and the concert itself... 





















And last but not least, here is an audiovisual impression of the band's performance on "Viking Grace"... Enjoy! 


Monday 13 February 2017

"There is nothing permanent except change."


"There is nothing permanent except change." 
- Heraclitus of Ephesus - 


As it could be read in Tromsø's daily newspaper "iTromsø" and Northern Norway's largest newspaper "Nordlys" on Friday (10th February 2017), Northern Norway's biggest student magazine "Utropia" does no longer exist. After 41 years of activity, the production of the print magazine has been discontinued. There are plans to establish a brand new student print magazine in Northern Norway called "Midnattssolposten", so the discontinuation of "Utropia" has nothing to do with the ongoing crisis of print magazines in general. However, I won't be part of the new student magazine since my journalistic focus has always been on music and other cultural topics and never on student life (which will be the main focus of "Midnattssolposten"). 

So long... 

Tuesday 17 January 2017

From music to movies... to books!

I had a blog post with the headline "From music to movies... to books!" in mind for a few weeks now, in honour of my very first book review and what has come with it, but I usually have to wait with my blog posts until the corresponding review has been published, and that naturally takes some time in the world of print media. And while I have to wait with the publication of a blog post of mine, the world keeps turning. And, sometimes, the original focus of a blog post may change, due to what is happening in the world in the meantime. This is the case right now with this very blog post.


Originally, I wanted to write about my very first book review, the content of the reviewed book and how that book also played a role in my private life. Not to mention the pleasant news that I have extended my field of activity during the past few months, from mere music journalism to broader cultural topics such as movies and books. A change that is not only pleasant but was also long overdue.

Now, I'm going to postpone everything regarding the book (and reading overall), in order to broach the issue of the pleasant news which became even more pleasant as of today. 

What happened? Well, today, I stumbled on an article about the singer of an American band who allegedly insulted an American online magazine with very vulgar words. The cause for the conflict was the release of an album by the band almost twenty years ago; the album was rated rather low by the online magazine back then. Now, almost twenty years later, there is a re-release of the album. For this reason, the album was reviewed again by the aforementioned online magazine - but this time, the rating is very favourable. 

I want to emphasise that the singer allegedly (!) insulted the online magazine with very vulgar words and that the singer allegedly (!) accused the online magazine of hypocrisy (After the first review was published, the album turned out to be a huge commercial success) since I could not find any source that backs up the content of the article I stumbled on today. So, either the whole story is made up or the singer has removed the corresponding source from the world wide web in the meantime - which seems to be common practice nowadays, especially for those who type first and think later. In any case: Stuff like this happens. All the time. It has happened to me, too. And what I always do in such cases: I just move on. 

As a music journalist, you have a gigantic selection of music, bands and events that you could write about. If you or your work is dissed because a musician or the organiser of an event cannot deal with criticism or - even worse - believes that everything he / she does is always worth at least 10/10 and never "just" 9/10, you as a music journalist realise in this very moment that you just dedicated your time, your work and also the space on the website or in the print magazine to the wrong band / wrong event. All of this should have been dedicated to another band / another event. A waste has taken place. A waste of time, work and space. Personally, I consider it as the best solution to just move on in such cases. The waste has taken place already and, unfortunately, it cannot be reversed - but from that moment onwards, one can make sure to not waste another second on this band / this event in the future. This is how I deal with such cases, and this practice is only applied in cases of insults and not in cases where someone may be dissatisfied with something. The latter are usually mature and professional enough to ask questions. 

But back to the American singer. If the defamation really took place, it tells a lot about the singer himself - in a not so positive way. And the older you are, the more embarrassing is such an immature - not to say childish - behaviour (In this specific case, we talk about a man in his fifties). However, it's not the part with the alleged defamation that makes me write this blog post; it's the part with the two reviews which were published by the online magazine. 

The same album, reviewed by the same online magazine. Once with a low rating and once with a high rating. In between: Almost 20 years. Obvious die-hard fans of the band post their "discovery" of these two contrary reviews by the same online magazine on Instagram and the like, either accusing the online magazine of hypocrisy or claiming that time had turned the album into a classic, while putting in their two cents here and there without thinking. The most logical context here does not seem to cross their minds: It's the question of the person who wrote the review. And guess what: It's not the same person behind these two reviews. There are two reviews on the same album published by the same online magazine, written by two different persons. Judging from a facebook post on this topic, only 3 out of 122 commentators seem to understand this fact. 

As if that wasn't sad enough: Even if both reviews had been written at the same time, there could have been differences in the evaluation, because a review reflects the opinion of the respective reviewer and not the opinion of an entire editorial office. One would think that such contexts would be a question of common sense, but apparently it's not the case. And let's assume that both reviews would have been written by the same person: There are nearly two decades between these two reviews. Who does not develop in the course of such a long time?

Maybe this is the usual social media madness where people push the buttons of their smartphones faster than they think. If they think at all. And maybe the fan base of this band is not as dumb as it seems at first sight. The smarter part of the fan base may have better things to do than to hang around on facebook, Instagram and the like, sending inconsiderate nonsense into the world wide web (and is therefore invisible). Apart from that: If the second review had turned out as negative as the first one, wouldn't the clamour have been just as loud as it is now? Nagging for the sake of nagging? At least the singer should be aware of the respective contexts, should the alleged defamation be true. However, there is also the possibility that this whole thing might have been hyped: Attention for the band, their brand new album and all the re-releases which are to come in the course of this year, plus attention for the magazine. Maybe, maybe. 

The reason why all this turns the extension of my field of activity into an even more pleasant news should be obvious: I no longer have to deal with such a kindergarten. Not even while working. 

To be continued... 


Sunday 8 January 2017

Happy New Year 2017!

As usual, I'm a few days late, but: Happy New Year 2017, everyone! ♥ ♥ ♥

As mentioned before, we dropped the idea of having another New Year's Eve cruise on Viking Line's "Viking Grace" after the confirmation of a New Year show here in Finland. Things went a little back and forth since the venue didn't seem to be able to reply to emails. While assuming that we would go back to the original plan of a New Year's Eve cruise, another New Year show here in Finland was confirmed, and this time, things ran smoothly, so we ended up spending New Year's Eve 2016 / 2017 in Finland's capital Helsinki. 

With this turn of the year, Finland started its celebrations for 100 years of independence, amongst others with a huge firework and laser display in the city centre of Helsinki. We got to see the first few minutes of it since we arrived in Helsinki around midnight, heading to "Hard Rock Cafe Helsinki", in order to see the New Year show of Rebellix. So, we kicked off the year 2017 with two premieres. First of all, it was our very first visit to the "Hard Rock Cafe" in Helsinki which was opened a few weeks after our move from Helsinki respectively Espoo to Turku (either on 15th October 2012, according to their official web page, or on 15th November 2012, according to their official facebook page). 


The very first time that I took a seat in a "Hard Rock Cafe" was one and a half years ago in Sweden's capital Stockholm. Back then, I stated that visiting a "Hard Rock Cafe" was pretty much as I had always imagined it: Overpriced drinks and food served to the tunes of rock songs which couldn't be more mainstream (KISS, Metallica, Nirvana and so on and so forth). This time, in Helsinki, the only music we were listening to came from the bands on stage, and, overall, time was flying while we were at "Hard Rock Cafe Helsinki". I can still vividly remember how damn boring it was at the "Hard Rock Cafe Stockholm" although we were there during a bigger event (The official after-show party of Alice Cooper). While I wouldn't be keen on visiting "Hard Rock Cafe Stockholm" a second time, I definitely wouldn't mind to visit "Hard Rock Cafe Helsinki" again. 


Our second premiere was to see Rebellix live on stage. Last time I saw frontman Joel Nybondas aka J Dee Nighte live on stage was with his former band Sinner's Gin, almost five years ago.

We saw the gig together with some dear friends of ours and... What can I say? Especially in times like these where the music industry is going downwards constantly, it's comforting to see that not everything regarding Rock'n'Roll is lost (yet). 


After all the Rock'n'Roll at "Hard Rock Cafe Helsinki", we strolled around the city centre and didn't leave Helsinki before the afternoon... 




Good times. May the year 2017 be filled with more of such good times. 

Rock'n'Roll!
Stefanie