Honey

Bonjour gentlemen and gentlewomen! Didn't write for a while and I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience  So I had to write about something. Therefore this post will be as random as most of my publications here: it is about honey and honeymakers' gathering in Tallinn. I provide you with photos from the gathering:

Iisaka Farm from Northern Estonia

"Propolis", "Honey Comb"

Estonian Honey Days
(next event: 12.-13. October 2013)

Honeymaker from Lambri Talu in the Central Estonia (Tartumaa)

The fans of honey also organized a lecture about the God's nectar. The only things I remember from that lecture is that honey is good for your body, especially if you have constipation. So here you go, if you are having "stomach problems" - eat honey, or better drink it with tea. Another useful fact that was announced: add honey to a warm cup of tea only when it is 40-60 degrees celcius, since if tea is too hot it will kill most of the useful features of honey. See you soon with some more exciting and amazing stories. Amen.

E-government

     Estonia has been boasting about becoming a pinnacle of e-government, e-economy, e-commerce in Europe and beyond. Truly, now you can vote through the Internet (not sure who is observing the elections now), most of payments are done virtually, companies are run from computers.

     However, here is a little story from reality. I registered acompany using my ID-card attached to my computer through an ID-card reader. Next day I got an e-mail stating that “the company’s name is already a registered trademark in this area of activity”. Basically I had to change the name or register a different area of activity for the company. I wanted to keep the name and changed the activity. Then I received an e-mail saying that I will get answer in the next 5 working days. After three weeks of no answer and tons of phone calls to various institutions which kept giving me different phone numbers, I decided to visit the damned registry department, analogue of the British Companies House.  

     I entered the old factory building where they were located and took a huge industrial elevator to the fourth floor, and entered an empty hall with couple of elder-looking women chatting in a corner. The moment I stepped in, I knew I would have to deal with predictable bureaucracy, still so common here. And as I had expected, a dull looking woman in her 60-s greeted me with concrete face that reminded me of Berlin Wall or barb wires of Gulag in Siberia. She explicitly stated that I have to change the name of a company and not the area of activity. Moreover she said that area of activity doesn’t matter at all. Following this logic, I wouldn’t be able to use any words that make sense, for my company’s name.

     After couple of days of not being able to change the name through the Internet registration portal, I thought that I would lose the money spent on registration and one month’s time on nothing, I got an e-mail saying my company has been registered under the name I wanted to use in the first place.  Apparently some employees do not know how to do their job.

     

     What is needed to be said in conclusion, that you may try to act as a cutting-edge, modern and efficient e-system that revolutionaries the way we live, but you can’t ignore the silliest inconveniences in your system, because they define your system, they are your system. Once you address the issues that are basis for problems, you will be able to create a truly quality service/product. In another words, don’t fucking judge a book by its cover. If you don’t know how to do business, e-commerce will not help you, if you don’t know how to run a government e-voting is not going to make it more efficient, if you suck at filming expensive red cam is not going to help you. Amen.

On a brighter note, I provide you with fail compilation video.

Sigma (UK)

Just got my new camera, so wait for new posts soon!

For now, just gonna publish an interview we filmed two weeks ago in Tartu, Estonia, with UK DJ Sigma (with Russian subtitles):

The whole footage was filmed in club Illusioon in Tartu.

filming sessions

My camera broke after falling down on the floor, so do not expect photos any time soon. Last month was spent filming different parties in Tallinn. It is part of a future TV show. I will write about it more throgougly after we finish filming the pilot episode covering music and night life in Tallinn and Estonia in general.

In short, what our company wants to achieve is to exchange English style cinematography with lifestyle and music in Estonia. It still seems like there is not enough of cultural and music communication between Estonia and other  European countries, and that is what we are trying to improve at the moment.

While I am busy organizing shootings in Estonian clubs, I'll post a video we have filmed couple of weeks ago in Club Hollywood in Tallinn:

(DJs: Fred V & Grafix)

Performance at KuKu Klubi

Me singing and Mihkel Kleis playing the synthesizer at KuKu Club in Tallinn, Estonia. (17.03.12)

Duo is called Ratkiller. 

Video taken from a phone so the quality is usual. I do not usually perform, but I couldn't turn down an offer to perform with Mihkel, whose music is really great. 

a little advertisement

I have been helping out my friends with their production company in England. After a lot of work this autumn and winter, we finally came up with couple of short films and clips that became popular. Also we will hold two premieres for our films in Portsmouth (26th April @ Omega Centre) and Wolverhampton (24th April @ Lighthouse Cinema) next month. So drop by to watch some films if you are around at that time!

Check out the video my friends did for DJ Wilkinson:

Also, more information can be found at www.vitapictura.co.uk and at our Facebook page

PS: I remember I wrote a manifesto against all things commercial and  mainstream sometime last summer in my blog. Well, I changed my mind! Ha!

Simple Contemplations at 1:00 AM

For me Tallinn is a unique place on Earth. After spending half a year in France and UK, difference between living in Estonia and living somewhere in Western Europe is huge. For me, Estonia is the safest place in the world. I think I have some legitimacy here. It is a place where no one is going to harass you without a reason (or with a reason)... Maybe unless you meet a drunk on one of the streets of Old Town... People are quiet, there's not a lot of them either - outflow of population is still a problem. With time, you get bored and depressed in winter. The place is perfect for writing a book on philosophy.

It is difficult for me to adapt to different mentalities of people: in UK I thought everyone was so noisy, I wanted to hide myself somewhere in a cave. In Estonia everyone is so quiet (when sober) most of the time that over time you become restrained and speechless yourself and start trying to figure out what has happened to you. It has something to do with Soviet times, when you had to be quiet and not raise your voice against authority, otherwise you'd have problems.

I mentioned about lack of protest against stupid government decisions here in Eastern Europe before, and well, it is all connected with each other. As a result, social responsibility is not something that flourishes here, like let's say, in the rest of Europe. On a positive note, Estonia has something that Western Europe doesn't - there is a lot of room for progress. For example, my friend says that 60's never happened here. Obviously because of the iron curtain that divided Europe until 1991. That is why little groups of people, often with a very naive view of the world, try to imitate social behavior/trends that were happening in Europe before, and the outcome usually is, let's say, intredasting.

Finishing on a more positive note, if you think you have seen everything and travelled everywhere, come to Estonia, have a coffee in one of the cafes in Old Town, and observe. Just observe and listen. Spend a month here. You will be amazed - of your own thoughts and the way you perceive reality. But if you are simply a sex tourist who wants to have a stag party, please visit Riga in Latvia.