Keeps Getting Petter And Petter

Puntalarock 2017! / Eternal megatired // This year was actually very perky in my part! I didn’t drink too much or too little, weather was okay, camping site was awesome… Zines and patches I totally should’ve bought, though.

KUSIPÄÄ. / *shit-eating noises* / Oopsie daisy. / I hope he’s fine. // I had cool denim boxers again! Hello boys.

KOVAA RASVAA! / Two minutes in: / *wheeze* / I’m too unathletic for moshpit. // Then I smooched a cute Dutch boy. Smoochy smoochy.

*Casual rape banter* / What the–?! / This shit is worse than that other band in our stageplay promo party. / What kinda old dirty man punk… // I handed out stageplay flyers. / Hey, broke-ass southerner! Come to Oulu to see a stageplay! / Of course I will!

… // LILITH!!! / Nature voicescape of the week. // We happened to have some homophobic camping neighbours now. / We stole a few beers from them. / THAT’S ALL

Hirvitalo front yard. Warm beer. I’m home.

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Life control skills of an unemployed art shit: / Clean desk. / Matching intact socks.

Since I’m staying in Oulu for the summer… // I’ll die of loneliness if I just stay at home working on my graphic novel. I’ll apply for an amateur theatre play! // You’re cast as Anki Nordström, an enigmatic trans woman. Welcome to the production! / Trans woman? // Cis guy playing a trans woman again! Harmful stereotypes! / Do I have to let them down and turn down the role? Insincere! Unethical! Transphobic! / I thought the casting call said Anki is a crossdresser or a drag queen!? / I wish I had helped them find a real trans woman for the role! But isn’t that the director’s job, after all… / I must discuss with the director and the playwright.

We’re a small university theatre, not a huge Hollywood studio. Sometimes we gotta do a lil D.I.Y.! / In my artistic point of view (and trans man opinion) two cis actors are okay to play trans guy and trans gal in a queer-feminist summer play without it being the end of the world. / I guess, but… // Eventually I didn’t back out of the production. There might be some internet heat, but as an actor I am willing to own up to my decision to see this through. / One can’t live their life as a constant declaration of human rights or a bright example to others. / Sometimes one can apply crass humour? / (Quotes from The Swaying Tower, written by Epe Niiranen in 2017.)

In other news! // Pling! // (Arttu the roommate) / We’re having a new subtenant! / ? / A cat! / ??? // You didn’t ask my opinion about getting a cat though, but I’m not even mad. Cats rule! / I have talked about this in length. You just never remember anything anyone says ever. / True. // PARHAAT YSTÄVÄT! // His name is Sigmund. / Cock pussy motherfucker.

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Again, I haven’t drawn in weeks. / (GUILT) // Robbie visited. / I’m a bad person. // It’s easy to fall into mental depths as an unemployed artist. Especially with a non-existent work morale like mine, and when I’m supposed to be my own boss in a self-employing profession. I don’t know how to have self-discipline. // I gone and done had a new tattoo made! / I used Gaylord Phoenx by Edie Fake as source material and inspiration for my bachelor’s thesis. Experimental alternative comix.

I took on theatre. / We’re working on The Toppling Tower by Epe Niiranen, his first play. 80’s punk and 2010’s artist crises in Oulu, with a touch of LGBTQ stuff.

Training has been physically taxing. / My character will be spending a lot of time climbing, as the name of the play suggests. Better start exercising! / I don’t know what else has been going on in my life during the past month. I gotta learn how to draw again first. I feel inadequate

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So I got the apartment in Tampere, moving in June. // Two weeks later, at night: / OUUU-HUHUHUUU! I’m gonna miss my friends! And Snooker Time! And Heinäpää! And Snooker Time! OUUU-HUHUHUUU!!!

Social circles change all the time, it’s no use crying over it too much. / You can’t stay in Oulu forever! Live a little! / The decision must be yours. We will be here to support your choice, but we can’t make the decision for you. // In the Villa Salin Comics Camp Residence, Helsinki, my thought process got into its logical conclusion. / (I wasn’t actually on the phone but it made more narrative sense to me.) / (I caught a cold.) / My life is too turbulent to move to another city right now. I gotta put Tampere on hold until I sort things out. / That’s understandable, but I wish you had told me you need some time to think.

Moving while unemployed is a hassle even if one were not mentally unstable – especially to an apartment with a contract for less than six months! / (Oh and I also graduated from school, graduation party date TBA.) // So! I’ll stay in Oulu until my money flow becomes more preditable, or I find a more stable housing in Tampere. / I will put the upcoming summer in use artistically as well as I can. Wish me luck!

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Tampere Kuplii 2017! / Feels exotic to be able to afford the train. A four hour trip feels like nothing! // Comic Finlandia prize went to Voro (The Thief) by Janne Kukkonen. / But art! / War! / Cows! / Tut-tut, you’ve been conditioned to think less of less high-brow comics! / I was so sure of Kannas (The Isthmus) by Hanneriina Moisseinen winning that I was utterly perplexed. // Rationally thinking, of course, The Thief is an extremely well-executed and visually coherent an adventure. Congrats, Janne! / Look at you fuckin’ reading all this artsy shit and ending up drawing about furries drinking booze and making poop jokes. Lol!

Saturday in zine sale: // (12-13-year-old anime kids) / (One of their friends who forgot to eat, drink and/or breathe) // Hey! // Please take your friend to the event organizers. // I saw you from back there. For a moment I thought you were manhandling that kid! // Nixu the child abuser! Oooh!

I managed to schedule my lunch break so inconveniently that I missed all the interesting panels. / Then again all of the panelists were my friends and acquaintances so I probably hear about their projects and thoughts all the time anyway. // Kirnupiimä Kuplii in Pispala Library! / I’m moving out of my hometown for real. I have to start everything all over again in Tampere. I feel so damn melancholic. I owe this to myself to do something big and radical in my life. I’m scared and sad. I feel homeless. // So I went to Artturi to see Jukka Takalo live and had a few beers with people from Oulu. / (Oulu dialect gibberish) // It’s a good thing there are so many people from Oulu living in Tampere so I won’t miss Snooker Time Pub, Toripolliisi statue or garlic ice cream too much. / (even more Oulu dialect gibberish)

(Hangover) // Autograph, please? // My idiot gut reaction says: / Why would Kaisa Leka the great artist want an autograph by little old Niko-Petteri from the block? / But my rational mind intruded: / Comic artists are not celebrities but rather a bunch of bullied nerds with book deals. / I dunno, that sounded kinda harsh. Anyway. // I checked out my friend’s apartment in Kaleva region to see if I could become their roommate for the summer. // Then I took the liminal space also known as the train to one un-home back to another un-home. / Monday marked the beginning of my last week at work. Next week I’ll get my degree certificate. SPRING.

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