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Tinder in Finland from a male perspective (Part 1).

Yes, I use Tinder and I am not ashamed of it. I am not alone, many single (and a few non single people) use it too. The story usually goes as a friend recommends you to use it and you give it a try, as was my case when a couple of friends mentioned it the same week.

The trend to have dates from online apps is increasing in Finland and in many other countries although there is still a certain taboo to talk about it. But the reality is here, we live in a fast paced world busy with work and hobbies and studies and friends and there is a point where is not so easy to find nice interesting people in everyday life. Here applications such as Tinder make our life easier, simple to use and start chatting with people you consider attractive.

I want to divide this series of articles about Tinder in two parts. The second part will go to share simple but effective tips to other male users about what I think that works the best and what not in Tinder when you are a male user in Finland. This first part I just wanted to share my thoughts about the many female profiles I have seen through the months.

I want to make clear that I write this as a sarcastic and humoristic article. We are far from surprised when we see in women’s magazines articles about what the men SHOULD NOT do in a date or in their profiles online, but we seem to forget how funny can be to apply those rules when you see Tinder from male eyes. So I just wanted to write a list of what NOT TO DO for women who would use Tinder. I guess that some people could be offended for what is written here. Please do not. Just take it not so seriously as a male opinion, some things said here could be agreed by many other men or some women and some things here are very personal views that maybe are totally distorted, but at the bottom, this is just to put a smile on your face when you reflect about what is written here and maybe a thought could come to your mind such as “I have seen that in a profile too!

WHAT NOT TO DO FOR WOMEN IF YOU HAVE A TINDER PROFILE. 18 GOLDEN TIPS ON THINGS TO IMPROVE THAT YOU COULD SEE IN A WOMAN’S PROFILE:

1. Please put a photo there if you want to use your profile.

Empty profiles with no photos do not say anything to us men. We are visual animals, we are not going to like your profile thinking that you can be the shy princess of our dreams and when we chat, then you will send an amazing picture of a beautiful lady. We want to see how you look like, and we want to see it clear, not with a blurry photo or a photo copied from a Disney movie. If your profile is empty, we will think you are just stalking here for the sake of it, which in some cases could be true.

2. Social yes, but no need to overdo it.

It is cool you show a photo with your friends, but there is no need that you are surrounded by friends in every photo. In fact, if that happens, we will not know who you are among the group. Also, if your friends are hotter than you, that is not going to play in your favour, as most of guys will think that would be nicer to date your friend than you. Post one photo with friends if you wish to show you are not a loner, but think which one you choose.

2. We do not like pictures where you appear with other guys in a loving attitude.

I have seen all kind of these pictures, from some with the gay friends to others that look obvious you appear with the ex boyfriend (or maybe still boyfriend) or the ex husband. This is a dating site and it is really a turn off for a man to see you looking with loving puppy eyes to other guy. Special mention to those women who post photos with a wedding dress or in a wedding ceremony. Most guys will reject your profile faster than you said yes to your ex husband in your wedding ceremony.

3. No children please.

You cannot imagine the amount of women’s profiles that show photos of their babies and children. Children are great, we agree, I love my daughter’s children. The problem is that I do not think that a dating app. is a place to post photos of your children. You do not know who is looking at the other side and nowadays takes 1 second to take a screenshot of a photo. Yes, I understand many women want to make clear they “come with a package” and they have family, but honestly, you can tell about that later when chatting. And if the point to show your children is that you are secretly looking for the next father, relax, 95% of the guys do not want that kind of pressure from date one.

I come with a package

5. The gym selfies.

Many women have told me they find stupid the male’s profiles where they take selfies without t-shirt in the gym. Well, these kind of pictures are also commonly posted by girls. Imagine actually how ridiculous is the situation to have to stand in front of your gym’s mirror waiting for nobody to being around to snap a photo of the great workout you just had… Yes, surely we like fit women, but you do not need to post all your five profile photos at the gym. As far as you look nice and take care of yourself, in fact we do not give a fuck if you do a lot of sports or not, off the record for many guys is actually a turn off if you happen to have more muscles than them. So it is cool you like doing sports but no need to show only that side of your life, if you happen to live all day every day at the gym, then probably you are missing other important things in life, like reading a good book…

4. “I love my pets among all the things on the surface of the Earth.”

Yes, you have cats or dogs and you love them. Sure, we men love animals too. But we do not get depressed when our cat suffers from diarrhea. Point here is that surely a photo with your cat or dog is cute, but there is no need to post all five with them. It will end up giving us the impression that you are suffering some case of life crisis where you do not have much social life and you get surrounded by animals to balance the lack of affection from friends or lovers. Which could not be such a wrong shot in some cases…

5. I want to look ugly on purpose so you will fall in love with me just for who I truly am inside!

We do not need that you look like the Queen of Saba in your first profile picture, but surely we men like if you post a nice photo, not blurry and not wearing your most horrible pyjamas while putting a mockery face to the camera. This is a dating app. Try to present yourself at your best. And please smile, it does not cost so much and it makes a huge difference.

8. The cliché sentences in the description.

“I am selfish, impatient and a little insecure… etc etc”. Do those lines ring a bell? Probably, as the infamous words by Marilyn Monroe appear copied in one of every twenty female profiles you see around.

Well, let me break the news from you. First, you are not Marilyn Monroe, sadly but she is dead. The same I happen not to be George Clooney or Brad Pitt. And most of rational men would hopefully run away from people who are selfish, impatient and insecure. So if you think that those lines from Marilyn define your personality, I would say that you have a problem in your life and you should seek for assistance. There are other classics that most women use like “Live, love laugh” or super philosophical things like “you make your own luck” or “you can be as happy as you choose to be” etc.

Well, all those great lines really do not say much to us men. We do not choose how happy we are when we have a huge loan to pay back to the bank or our boss is busting our balls at the office on daily basics. If we would choose to be happy, then we would choose to win the Eurojackpot and buy our own island in Caribe surrounded by an army of hot bisexual models that would assist all and every one of our needs. But we cannot choose that. So why don’t you put something nice and simple about what are your tastes and what kind of person you think you truly are? Believe me, if you like sci-fi movies or videogames, you already have gained half of a heart of a man. The other half comes if you give great head, but yeah, we are not expecting that you share that kind of info in your profile description.

Great pic and collaterally showing my ass

9. According to most tall girls in Tinder, short guys can shoot themselves and die fast.

Classic beginning of a profile description: “1.76 cm” followed by some other couple of words. So like really..? The most important feature of yourself is how tall you are? Yes, I know I know is a clear message that says “I do not like shorter guys than me”. Well girl, in that case, you are really missing to get to know a lot of great guys out there. I personally find so impolite when the first sentence a girl writes to you is to ask “how tall are you?” How would a woman feel if a man wrote in the description that only expects to meet girls with boobs DD size and up?

Height is something that a man cannot change, same than age. Remember girls your ex was probably a tall guy and that did not stop him from being a fucking asshole. It is not like you gain more neurones per centimetre grown…

10. Posting the same photo.

You have 4 photos posted in your profile and they are just the same photo repeated 4 times. We got the idea with the first one, thank you.

11. Everybody can follow how mega super hyper cool I am in Instagram.

This is almost a rule in the description field of most hot young girls, to include in the description field their Instagram user name. I personally do not use Instagram, but even if I use it, I do not see the point in Tinder. Yes, we already saw in your pics in Tinder that you look fine, then what we want is chat with you and set a date. We do not need to see your other 100 photos in Instagram of your cats, what you prepare for breakfast and how nice was the beach in Thailand where you were last summer. Maybe some chicks just expect a model hunter recognizes them as the next super top model. Probably many just do it to show off because girls love attention, we have to recognize it. Point is that we do not care so much what is your Instagram account. Say something about yourself instead: are you a person with a good heart, friend of her friends, faithful and trustful? At least those features seemed to matter not so long time ago apart from how great you look tanned at the beach…

Remember that Tinder is full of beautiful young girls and competence is ferocious. Try to make a difference and show that you are more than a nosed up girl who only craves attention.

12. “Why am I framed as an easy party girl?”

Number one complaint of women in Tinder is probably that most guys want sex. Well, I do not want to enter to argue about that, as I do not like the old cliché of “all men being perverts and all women innocent flowers”. I guess everybody likes sex in good company when chemistry kicks in. But the perception of the guys is not gonna be exactly as you are girlfriend material if your pics, specially your profile pic, shows yourself half naked or with your boobs about to jump out of your dress, or if in every one of your five photos you are holding an alcoholic beverage and partying in the club. And yeah, for us men there is no big difference between you wearing a tiny bikini and sexy underwear, we know the tiny bikini it is just the socially accepted way you can show most of your flesh. Just saying.

Note: profiles with photos of beautiful women that state in the description they want straight sex and contain a url link to a site are 100% always fake.

I never seem to find suitable clothes to cover myself

13. “I have so super healthy lifestyleeee and you have to be like me.|

Yes, you are addicted to gym, you do yoga and drink smoothies and you do not smoke. Great for you. A man does not need to be like you. Men want to date a girl, but that does not mean we want to go to train every day to the gym with that girl or we have to quit smoking because of you or not drinking beer anymore or having to join zumba lessons just cause you love it. It is good you take care of yourself. Just do not make it an obsession like if any man who does not live as healthy as you is not worthy to talk to.

14. I love travelling!

Well, guess what, everybody loves travelling! But sadly most people have to work to pay bills, so it is not like you can travel every week. I appreciate well-travelled women as it really avoids having a narrow-minded perception of the world, but really, you do not need to show off in all your photos how many amazing trips you have done. The sad reality is that probably most of the days after work you just arrive home, put on the pyjamas and lay on the sohva watching your favourite TV series and eating candy while daydreaming of that prince in shiny armour, tall, sporty, rich, kind and amazing lover that you never seem to find in Tinder.

15. Flashback in time.

In the first photo you look cute and thin and then in every next picture you look older and older and more overweight. Yeah, it is true we men are a bit blind to notice changes in women, but believe me, if your first pic is taken 15 years younger than the last one, we will notice. And unfortunately for overweighed girls, just because you post photos showing only your face, it does not mind we will not realize what you are trying not to show there.

16. “I am just looking for new friends!”

Right, maybe you want to make it believe that to your friends, couple, husband or even in some kind of self denial to yourself. But we know this is a dating app. and you are scanning the market if “somebody special” pops up to spice up your life. And deep inside you, you know it too…

17. “I am just looking for a serious boyfriend, not casual dating nor one night stands”

Is not putting a little bit of too much pressure from first date to look for only your next husband (or ex husband). Besides, probably 80% who say they do not look for one night stands from Tinder is because actually they have had one night stands with guys from Tinder.

You are going to be my next ex husband

18. The men hater style.

Other classical female profile, usually posting sexy photos while telling in the description how she hates players and she knows everything as she has been around followed by a long list of the kind of guys that is better never to meet. Well, this is a dating app., so is this not about going with open mind to meet interesting people how this should work?

If your view is that all men suck, then maybe you should not use Tinder or just select to see other female profiles if you are into women. There are some lines I have seen in women’s profiles such as “I love more my dogs than any man I have met” that are really offensive and sexist towards men, and probably if a man would write something similar about women, he would be labelled in 0.1 seconds as a chauvinistic pig. A man should not have to apologize for being a man the same that no woman should have to apologize for being a woman; equality rules as far as there is respect.

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And after that list, many readers could think. Ok, so then men do not like any kind of profile at all? Not true. I am not going to deny that most men are simple straightforward creatures, so probably just with a couple of very sexy pics, you will have the 95% of male matches secured. But we are talking here not just about the looks, but about how to present yourself attractive in general as a quality woman, not just like a piece of ass in a thong to have men fantasizing about you.

Having a nice and attractive female profile is not so difficult, and in fact women know much better than men how to select the photos that suit them best. Just select some photo where you look nice, no need to overdo it with the sexiest dress in the world or tones of make up but make the effort to select a photo where you feel pretty at your best and you have made an effort to look good, just with some nice photos of you and one of a hobby would do, followed by some short description of what floats your boat, what are your passions, hobbies or what kind of people you would like to meet. No need to write the Bible there either, you can chat more later. Be honest, be friendly and be nice. And if you have good sarcastic sense of humor, show that too, we men love a woman with good sense of humour who does not take things too serious and is not a drama queen.

There will be farther a lot of time to chat or talk face to face and get to know each other. Remember, try not to be too bitchy from the beginning, because in fact, when your profile is dismissed, there are tones of other pretty girls in the line. So be yourself, be positive, be friendly and be a bit flirty too if you wish so. There are many cool guys out there waiting for your match, and life is too short to waste great company!

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Candy Test from Finland Video

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What you always wanted to know about public bus transportation in Helsinki (and never dared to ask)

Written by Antonio Diaz

So here you are! You just arrived to the capital of Finland. It can be for studying a few months or a few years, for visiting a friend, a relative or a lover, just for a few hours before continuing your trip somewhere else, a new job, a permanent life here… In any case, once you step out of the airport, bus or train station, there is a lively city out there to discover and probably some distance to your destination.

Taxi prices in Helsinki can be considered everything but cheap, tram is nice for a ride but extremely slow, train network is improving but still insufficient… so there they are! Painted in white and blue, reaching all neighborhoods of the big capital area and running almost at any time of the day and night: the public buses!

FREE! Magazine gives you 20 helpful and funny tips so from the first time you step on a bus in Helsinki, you can feel at ease like a local!

Helsinki public bus

1. The main Helsinki Public Transportation office is located at the heart of the city in the metro station down the Railway Station. If you will stay for long time, the easiest way to travel is getting a transport card that can be loaded with just a selected amount of money or monthly. And they allow you to choose your favorite color, how cool is that!

2. Students (holding Finnish student cards) get half the price when loading the transportation card. In general, they always get 50% of discount traveling around Finland. So find any excuse to start or never leave your studies! And second saving money tip, line 615 will also take you to and from the Vantaa airport to Helsinki centre much cheaper than the buses provided by the flight companies.

3. So now you are at the bus stop ready for your first bus trip. Congratulations! Many around the city count with a digital board where you can easily check the minutes remaining for the bus to arrive, controlled by GPS. But watch out, although they usually work like charm, they are not always accurate. Technology is not always an exact science! Just in case, you will also find paper printed timetables in every bus stop.

4. Buses are VERY punctual in Helsinki. If it is written that will leave at 15:38, it will leave at 15:38. So be punctual to be on time at the stop. Of course as good Murphy’s Law, when some foreign friends come to visit you and you brag about the great punctuality of the buses, then the bus will be exceptionally late and you and your friends will freeze your asses at -25 degrees waiting half an hour for the next one…

5. There is a very easy to use mobile application called “Reittiopas” that will show you the fastest route on your phone when you just type your destination address.

6. At winter while you wait for the bus with your nose getting frozen, you would expect at least a small shelter in every bus stop that would protect you from that hard snowstorm falling, right? Nope, forget about it, a simple post marking the stop point will suffice and you will find no cover in the middle of the forest from the snow trying to bury you alive. Thankfully as we pointed before, the buses are punctual, so try to be on time, but do not try to be too early when it is minus 30 degrees out there and it is snowing like there is no tomorrow!

Helsinki public bus

7. The non-written rule while waiting the bus is to keep as much distance as possible from the other people waiting. Do not expect a clear organization to form the queue; it does not matter if you were the first one waiting for the bus. People do not mind trying to enter from any direction once the bus approach, so sharpen your skill to foresee the exact spot where the bus will stop!

8. Do not worry if you do not speak perfect Finnish when trying to communicate with the bus driver. Many of them are actually foreigners and in general almost all of them can speak good English. In any case, if you do not have to buy the ticket directly from them, your only interaction is placing your card in front of the reader at the entrance of the bus and, optionally, telling “moi” to the driver. It is up to the good or bad mood of the driver to answer back…

9. Remember what we say about keeping as much space as possible from the other passengers while waiting the bus? Well, now when you step inside the bus, remember one of the most important rules if you do not want to assist to public suicides inside the vehicle: you NEVER sit close to another person as far as there are 2 free seats in another row of the bus. We repeat, NEVER. If you do so, God will erase all the kitten photos from Facebook and Swedish will replace Finnish as the official language of the country. Do not say later we did not tell you!

10. If the bus is full, there will be 3 or more people around you using their mobile phones. If those people are teenage girls, be sure 100% of them will be using their mobile phones.

11. Just because that boy and that girl sitting together in front of you have not exchanged a single word during the whole bus trip, it does not mean they are not happily dating.

12. Alcohol consumption inside the bus is prohibited. However, the rule gets more relaxed during the weekend, depending also how strict the bus driver is. If you do not make a mess and drink sneakily at the bottom of the bus, and you manage not to puke around, everything should be fine. But remember not to smoke inside the bus that will end up no other way than hated by all other passengers and with your bones quickly thrown away outside the bus.

13. Since last couple of years, now if you hold a monthly transport card, you do not need to pay any extra fee for night tickets. A very convenient change, taking into account the extremely expensive prices of taxis in the city. The down side is that it has killed quite a few opportunities to flirt at night with that stranger who wanted to share a cab or was looking at you with puppy eyes to help him/her to pay the night fee ticket.

14. Do not expect that the passenger sitting close to you who needs you to stand aside to exit will communicate this verbally to you. Listening to a small cough, watching him/her punch the stop button or observing the beginning of his body movement separating the ass from the seat should be enough for you to understand that you need to move. Who said verbal communication is needed inside a bus?

Helsinki public bus

15. If there are teenagers sitting close to you in a bus and they happen to be of the talkative kind, you will hear the word “vittu” at least 3 times every 30 seconds.

16. If the driver forgets to stop in the requested stop or open the door, passengers will patiently wait a few seconds before (maybe) managing the braveness to shout at him for the mistake.

17. When there is a sudden break due to an almost accident on the road, you will notice clearly the dissatisfaction of the other passengers listening only to their grunting.

18. If there is an old lady (mummo in Finnish) just trying to punch the transport card in the system, you will always have to wait 1 more minute than normal to enter the bus until the driver finally takes her out of her misery and punches the transport card for her.

19. School children also use public buses to move around the city under the surveillance of their teachers. This probably would be a nightmarish thought for any other adult passenger. However, they usually behave well and make not much noise or hassle. It must be due to the fact that Finnish children do not usually sing in the bus when going on excursions… They wait until they become teenagers to join a heavy metal band.

20. Some people even shout “thanks” before jumping out of the bus, although is not always required. Be nice and show kindness to the driver. You arrive safely and cheaply to your destination! Until the next bus ride!

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Teemu Selänne: A True Finnish Legend

Current season 2013/2014 will probably see the end in the career of Teemu Selänne, who can be accurately considered one of the best and most charismatic Finnish sportsmen of all time.

Having seen him to help the national team to achieve the bronze medal at the recent Winter Olympic Games in Sochi at the amazing age of 43, being nominated as the MVP of the Olympic tournament, FREE! Magazine also wanted to pay his little tribute dedicating an amazing video to the ice hockey legend. Long life to the “Finnish Flash!”

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Huominen on Huomenna. Finnish music MTV style…

Not sure what I find more distorted in this video, if the portray of Finland as being in a beach in Brazil or Spain with drunk Finn brainless wannabe cool teenages on a spring break… or Anna Abreu showing boobies…

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Beauty and the Beast – The true story of Estonian men and women

Written by Gunnar Sorensen

Gunnar Sorensen is a Danish comedian who has been living in Estonia for a couple of years. Here offers exclusively for FREE! Magazine a pick of what you can find in his blog, treating with sense of humor his views on Estonian women and men:

A friend came to visit me in Tallinn and asked very honestly while in a nightclub “Why are there so many prostitutes in here”!!! Before you think we were in a very seedy place, we were not. What he was simply referring to is that Estonian woman are far more attractive than their male counterparts.

So why is it like this? Well for every 100 men in Estonia there are 119 women, rising to almost 130 in the capital city Tallinn, comparing to 1/1 in Sweden. This phenomenon creates a high demand and competition for available men.

So how beautiful are the women? Well Estonia has the highest number of international models per capita than any nation in the world. When walking the streets of Tallinn you will not just notice the beauty of the women, but also the sheer number of beauty salons created to cater to their need.

Estonian Women

So guys, sound like the perfect country? Well it gets better. All those hours you spent in the gym, that funky new haircut, the expensive suit etc…! In Estonia you don’t need that!! Well with the vast surplus of women that classic image of the man chasing the women has been reversed. So you can put on your comfortable sports trousers and that favourite old hooded jumper and still get the girl!!

This lack of effort needed by Estonian men to get a girlfriend is summed up by this pick up line I heard an Estonian man say one evening “Do you like having sex with men?”

Not only is the girl hotter and easier to get with, you know that night out you want to go on with your friends, guess what? She will let you go!!

I know you are asking, before I quit my job and get on the ferry, what’s the catch?
Well did you know that Estonian men live on average just 69 years, the lowest in the whole of the EU! A large part of the reason behind this is typified in the popular joke ¨ That awkward moment when an Estonian man is sober”. Considering all the attractive girls and all the fun you can have, it sounds like a reasonable sacrifice right??? Maybe not….
That idea of the perfect wife, family and home you had in your mind it is not likely to happen in Estonia. Present figures show that in Tallinn alone 80% of high school students are living in single parent families.

Akarusa Yami

Although us men would almost certainly unite in saying having a few drinks with our friends would be preffered to putting up those shelves for the mother in law. It is now clear that our Scandinavian women are just helping us to become better men and healthier, husbands and fathers.

For those who want to know more about me and how I came to this conclusion. I am a Danish citizen who has been living in Tallinn, Estonia for the past 2 years. I work in the Finance sector, but since arriving in Estonia it is the psychological aspect of the people that has most interested me.

I noticed almost instantly the cold and serious nature of Estonians, however what struck me must profoundly was the countries lack of laughter. With no real comedy shows on TV and no internationally known comedian. I found out very quickly that the only people trying to make Estonia laugh were foreigners.

Although the humour of my blog has encountered some negativity in the Estonian press. It would be hard to find a comedian who has not experienced that at some point. It is our duty to use humour to test the boundaries and bring those avoided or controversial topics in to daily conversation.

For more humour about Estonian men come and visit my blog:

http://eestimees.wordpress.com/

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Kids Rock in Finland… if they have the money to pay for it

There is a series of concerts aimed at Finnish kids called KidsRock! that is touring around the biggest cities of the country, ending in the capital the 2 of December with artists that the younger (and not so younger) of the families get crazy about such as Antti Tuisku, Anna Abreu or Anna Puu. www.kidsrock.fi

A great initiative, until I checked the list of prices and realized that the tickets for children below 15 years old were 19 euro. Not really the most affordable price for kids who supposedly do not have any source of income yet apart from asking money from their parents, isn´t it?

Winnie goes to jail

So Finland seems to love that their children love rock…as far as they pay. Not a good example? Check then this recent case of a 9 years old girl whose house was visited by the Finnish police because she downloaded some songs from her favorite singer Chisu (a singer I also love too, by the way). http://www.inquisitr.com/410613/winnie-the-pooh-laptop-seized-police-raid-9-year-old-music-pirate/

 

The mental image of a big Finnish policeman leaving the house carrying the Winnieh the Pooh laptop seems more proper of the sick imagination of a drunk stand up comedian than of the duties that the officers in charge of protecting law and order should be performing in Finland. Not the first case when you see police resources wasted. Check in the streets if you are some day lucky some public demonstration with 20 pacific demonstrators and 50 policemen sorrounding them, or how it seems to be needed 100 officers located in a space of 50 square metres to check in customs area the cars that come from Tallinn or make alcohol tests to drivers at the weekends… Meanwhile this is happening, you could perfectly walk outside some bar areas at night sorrounded by agressive drunkards with no police office in sight…

Let the children enjoy their music in peace… and please, also cheaply. And let´s encourage the police to do their job in a meaningful way that matters, not just chasing shadows. If I would be a father, I `d be kind of scared to let my child go to Kaapelitehdas concert in December in case the police decides to raid the place…

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Pedro Delgado – the romantic ideal of the everyday Spanish hero

I am a great fan of cyclist competitions since I was a little child, basically since I have memory I remember following on TV the heroic acts of the Spanish competitors in the hot summer evenings during Tour de France competition.

This evening there was a day in cyclist history to be remembered, a great victory by the Spanish champion Alberto Contador who threw an attack like in the good old times, many kilometers away from the final line, over his also Spanish opponent “Purito” Rodriguez. A very emotional victory for Contador just after his comeback to the big competition (he was involved in a very unclear case of doping too complicated to explain here). And also not forgetting the loser, “Purito” behaving like a gentleman and a true sportsman in a very bitter day.

Pedro Delgado

One of the commentators in the Spanish national TV channel is another great ex-champion, actually the one I grew up following to: Pedro Delgado, nicknamed “Perico” for the whole Spanish nation during the 80s and beginning of the 90s.

Delgado could symbolize very well the Spanish nation. A short average looking guy, friendly always, with great skills to climb but also eager to do crazy amazing unexpected attacks and with a touch of drama and passion revolving around all his actions and circumstances on the road and outside the road, able to lose time in the most stupid way arriving himself late to the beginning of the first stage of Tour de France one year later he would have won, that being among one of his most famous anecdotes.

I had the pleasure to meet and interview “Perico” more than 10 years ago, when I was just a journalist student in Madrid. They proposed us to try to interview to whoever person or idol we would have, and I did not hesitate to contact him. We met and chatted in a restaurant near his home in Segovia, a town not far from Madrid where he is still a legend (actually he remains as one of the most beloved sportsman in Spain).

Not every day one can meet his idol face to face, and I was a bit nervous. But when Delgado appeared on his bike at the door of his restaurant and started to joke about how hard was to climb that mountain, I instantly felt that the image of great guy he exhales on TV was actually how he really is. We talked for almost 2 hours about his career while the owner of the restaurant could not believe that “Perico” was just there, asking us to take some photographs altogether at the end of the interview, and of course inviting us for free to all the drinks and food… interviewing a legend has its little privileges…

George Orwell used to account in his memories of the Spanish Civil War how the Spaniards were horrible about planning war, being on time, taking discipline… but how they were so good about making a visitor feel welcome and sharing everything they had and enjoying the little things of life to the fullest.

Now it seems that internationally there is talk about Spain only in a negative side due to the economical crisis (and yeah, our Mediterranean temper seems to affect us negatively in trying always to cheat the system and break the rules), but I would also like to pinpoint that, similar to these amazing cyclists, the Spanish every day men and women, those anonymous heroes that try to make the ends reach with microscopic salaries and huge loans, are also full of joy, a romantic touch of craziness and stubbornness in lost causes and a philosophy of not taking life too seriously and sometimes making fun of everything themselves. As another great writer, William Shakespeare, said “All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players”.

Pedro Delgado. Tour de France 1988

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Tie Pohjoiseen – The new movie by Finnish film director Mika Kaurismäki

The most internationally recognized Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki will have a new movie in the cinema theatres with premiere on the 24th of August, featuring Vesa-Matti Loiri and Samuli Edelmann. Here you can have a bit of a taste with the trailer.

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Stories of the backstage. Press passes are not candies.

From time to time, there is always some friend who knows that I work as editor and freelance journalist and I have the good luck to cover some great gigs and festivals, mainly in Finland, who asks me the same question: “Hey, and could you get me also a free press ticket?”

They tend to forget that press passes are not delivered like candies. Usually you (still) need to work as a journalist. You need to have arranged interviews or reviews of the events, and deliver the content once you assisted. Often you miss the best concerts in the festival while you are making your interviews in the backstage, far from where the action is happening, and for a person having a small publication like I have; many times even the editor in chief will end up with empty hands. Organization can have a limited number of press tickets, the artists themselves decide to give only to the big media, or simply they do not trust on you if they do not know you and you think you are just another of the millions of bloggers around.

Press passes

So no, press passes are not easy to get, they are not just a VIP free invitation delivered to your group of friends. Only a few times you can have the luck to count with a photographer to cover a concert with you, which on the other hand is nice if you go alone to a gig, because otherwise tends to be boring if you do not know anybody around and you are just waiting for your turn to make the interview.

So what can people expect in that mystified media area in the festivals of Finland, behind the fence, where only a few humans can have access under the gaze of the security guys? Well, most of the times… nothing special. Usually the journalist has to pay for the drinks at exactly the same price than outside the media area. Finland is a small country, so people who work in the media industry usually know each other and assist to the same concerts, clubs and parties. So most probably they will have a good time getting drunk together and remembering past battles and anecdotes while you sip your drink in a corner and from time to time they look at you wondering who the hell that foreigner is. On the other hand, if you have friends around, it can be fun. A few advantages is that usually you do not have to wait for long queues at the portable toilets and maybe you can order a drink faster than in the bar outside where the rest of the people queues for eternal minutes. Also if you are lucky, sometimes you can get some free merchandise like a free CD from some band performing.

And no, do not get mistaken again. The press pass that allows you to the media area is not the same than having an all area access pass. So you are not going to be mingling much with the artists, unless that they want to go out and drink with some friends who happen to be journalists or marketing people from their record company.

So as you see, on the other side of the fence, there is not so much glamour as you could expect ;not many wild stories of wild sex with groupies, drugs and tones of booze. That does not mean that sometimes cannot be fun. Artists are usually bored backstage before or after their concerts, so it has happened a few times than after the interview we would enjoy a great conversation and drinks together. I remember having quite too many drinks with the guys of Black Lips long time ago at Provinssirock, or how friendly and gentle Ginger (the leader of The Wildhearts and nowadays part of Michael Monroe´s band) was at the backstage at Rabarock in Estonia as well as how enjoyable was to talk to the Portuguese Moonspell during their visit to Tuska festival in Helsinki some years ago, or how I continued the night partying with the guys of Lovex after their gig in Tammerfest, especially with his great bass player Jason.

But still no, usually if you want crazy stories about rock bands and backstages, you`d better have to read some Neil Strauss´s books to find them. And no, I still will not get a free press pass for you!

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Blogs Concerts FREE! Blog Music

Monster Magnet at Tavastia. 13-11-2011. Pics & Video

Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet

Monster Magnet – Space Lord at Tavastia 2011

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Vincent Chase vs. Hank Moody

Well, obviously in the last couple of years, TV series have gained a lot of quality, popularity and budget (thanks in great part to the appearance of HBO channel). While when I was a child, the humor on the TV series was more related to theatrical situations, nowadays it is raw, sexy and closer to a Hollywood movie than any other thing.

Relationships and sex have a key role in some of the most successful series of the last years. Is there any young woman who does not list Sex and the City among her favorite TV series in any social network lately? Women and series for women have gained more and more space in the schedule of the big major channels, with the major companies wisely realizing that they are probably the most powerful sector at home (who controls the remote controller, controls the world indoors).

Adrian Grenier

However, because I cannot deny I am a man, I prefer to watch more “masculine” series (not meaning that those series are just for men and women, but certainly they have different target audiences in the producer’s minds). The ones that lately have caught my attention are Californication and Entourage.
I am not going to explain here the plot of every one of those, if you don´t know them, because you can easily check them out in Internet. But among other things, both series share a couple of features: they are full of beautiful women, and they both have characters that seem to get more pussy than George Clooney and Brad Pitt together: Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and Hank Moody (David Duchovny).

Honestly, although I do not complain about the abundant beautiful female presence in both series, it is not one of the main reasons I like them (although obviously I neither complain). I like series with good script, humor and a lot of winks and references to music and cinema; some things that the scriptwriters there had been able to create wonderfully, apart from choosing a great cast. Some of the secondary actors in Entourage like Kevin Dillon or Jeremy Piven are just awesome.

However, although both main characters, Chase and Moody, are always surrounded by beautiful women, there are quite a few differences between both of them. I feel like Moody could be like an older brother or a young cousin that you know it will be fun to go out with to a crazy trip, party or holiday. Even if he naturally attracts women, he is intelligent enough to make everybody have a good time, and apart from the good looks, he always has a witty comment and sarcasm. He does not need to get laid, but basically that makes him get laid.

David Duchovny

However, Chase is the typical pretty boy who has not read more than 10 books in his life, but has been favored by the gods having great looks and a puppy gaze that uses to “seduce”. Well, he basically does not need to seduce, women just throw themselves at him, and he just needs not to fuck the situation up keeping quiet. It is true that he is caring with his friends and not always shelfish, but he has those strange changes of moods proper of stars that sometimes do not live in the real world. While Moody would become a great experienced partner to hang around, Chase would be the typical case of the “pretty boy” of the gang of friends who would end up making out in the back door with the girl you had been dreaming about all night. But he is so charming that you would forgive him next morning.

Which one do you prefer as a comrade, partner in crime or potential lover, Moody or Chase?

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Concerts FREE! Blog Music

The Jayhawks – Pics & Video. Tavastia gig. 14/08/2011

Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet

The Jayhawks – Two Angels at Tavastia 2011

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Competition – The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

FREE! Magazine and Random House Group bring you the best of the best in fantasy literature!!!

Get one of the three amazing packages we are giving away for free as a present to our readers with the full 5 books published so far of the saga The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by The New York Times bestselling Michael Scott:

The Alchemyst
The Magician
The Sorceress
The Necromancer
The Warlock

books for free!

Just send the correct answer to the following question below by email, writing in the subject field “Michael Scott competition”, to free(at)freemagazine.fi or to the editor antonio.diaz(at)freemagazine.fi and the books can be yours!!!

Question: The author Michael Scott is:

a) Finnish
b) Swedish
c) English
d) Scottish
e) Irish

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Game of Thrones – Will George R.R. Martin finish the saga of Song of Ice & Fire?

The first season of the TV series Game of Thrones is over. Yes, I confess, I am also a fan. I was already a fan of the books before the series started, so as many others, I was expecting it with joy and fear. And the result, I must say, has been superb! Congratulations to HBO, because it was not an easy task to comprise the first book in just 10 hours (10 chapters of 1 hour), and they did an amazing job with a great script, decoration and cast.

Of course, there will be always fans that won´t be totally happy with everything. Some complained that the werewolves were not much shown, others that there were important scenes cut, etc. I think that all in all, you cannot ask for much more in a TV adaptation of such a twisted saga of books. The cast was mostly nailed (maybe I am not totally satisfied with Catelyn Stark, but well…) and the extra scenes added that did not appear in the book, such as the fight between Jamie and Edward Stark, did really give some extra value there. Besides, the intro is one of the best I have ever seen in cinematographic history, and the soundtrack really gets you hooked, I already have the intro song as ringtone in my mobile phone ;)

Daenerys

Now the sad part is that we will have to wait for another year for the second season, that it is reported to being shot in Ireland this summer. The task becomes bigger and bigger, the plot in the books gets more diversified, with more characters added, more magic, more important situations that are keyword to understand for what is coming next… Will HBO be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat again? It is a difficult question, taking into account that more special effects will be needed. And even more important, how would it develop in the series, as in the 4th and 5th book, they narrate the story of only half of the characters? Will the fans have to wait one year for example if this reaches season 4 to see later what Tyrion is up to?

Questions with no answers yet, for the moment we will have to pray that at least the series continue offering the same level of quality. And if somebody can do it, those are the guys of HBO, who by the way also deployed a super official site for the series, sometimes even offering the chapters to see fully for free there.
I had the chance to interview the author of the books, George R.R. Martin, a couple of summers ago, during his visit to Tallinn. And I have to say I have a bittersweet memory of the encounter. First, he held a meeting with the fans, and was all sympathy and jokes. Somebody asked about the possibility of he not finishing the saga, and he just joked that he was keeping at a safe distance of the buses. But when I repeated politely the question in the interview, he was quite cold about it. And let´s be honest, it is the question that everybody is wondering about. We wish George a long happy life, but he is not a child anymore, and the last book had continuous delays. My interview took place in summer 2009, and he said that the new 5th book, A Dance with Dragons, would be released that September. Well, it has been released just some weeks ago, 2 years after he announced that. And magically, it happens to be released at the same time that the TV series first season is over.

Was the book ready for 1 or 2 years, and they preferred to have the marketing strategy of making the fans wait, to take more advantage for the sales of the heat of the TV series? It looks like, which was not very polite and considered for the fans that had been years waiting for an update in the saga.

George R.R. Martin in Tallinn

Martin also dedicated himself in the middle of the interview to sign books that were on the table, which I do not consider a very polite gesture towards the interviewer. He has been journalist himself, so should have a better notion about these things. And the cherry on top of the cream came when at the end of the interview, his wife came very angrily to tell me she had not liked the question about his future and the possibility that he would not finish the saga, and I should erase it from the interview. Martin was a few meters away, and he did not open his mouth to try to smooth the situation.

Was it not polite to ask him? Well, it is what all the fans are wondering about, and I only asked if he had any other author in mind that he would like to continue his saga if for any reason he could not finish it (does it ring a bell the unfortunate death of Robert Jordan and his amazing Wheel of Time saga?). It shocked me that they showed their best friendly face to the fans who asked the same things, and then with me, a journalist from a small media (who is basically a fan), they were so annoyed and not totally polite. Reality is the way it is, if it takes 3-4 years for him to release a new book, and there are still at least 2 to be written, what would happen when the TV series, that it is broadcasted 1 season per book, reaches the stage where the last book was published?

Good news could be that while the release of the fifth book was procrastinated, maybe Martin was already advancing the work for the 6th book. But probably nobody knows except of himself and his publicists.

All in all, I think that a fantasy and science fiction writer like him owes respect and seriousness in his work to the fans, who are the ones that made him famous and gave him money. So maybe instead of embarking in long tours around the world to have a full stomach eating well and get bathed by the adoration of masses, and assisting HBO with the series, he should do what he can do best as a one of the greatest fiction writers nowadays: to sit and write and end the saga. Millions of fans are craving for it, and they have been waiting already too long.

Game of Thrones – Trailer