NO TO COAL MINING IN KARVINA

As I sing in Miners, coal mining is a dirty and destructive work. In my opinion, coal as a source doesn't belong in the 21st century but I keep hearing news about intentions of OKD to expand coal mining areas in Karvina region where I grew up. It sucks mainly because coal mining:

• ruins the environment (waste, dust, messing with eco-systems)
• affects the face of towns and their historical sights
• undermines inhabited areas forcing people to leave their homes.

Here is a little example of subsidence of undermined land, the leaning church in Karvina.

My band in front of Peter of Alcantara church

Due to coal mining the ground under the church dropped 37 metres and caused the church to tilt. Now it's admired as the "Czech Pisa". But hey, some people actually live in tilted houses where walls are cracking. (I should know. My grandma's former house was undermined, too. It's still standing but I wouldn't live in it for a million bucks.) 

OKD buys badly undermined houses, thus "rescuing" people from their homes before the roofs collapse on their heads. They also buy houses "preventively" in areas where they intend to start mining in the future, Karvina in particular. Thousands of locals are protesting. Theoretically if people stop selling their houses, OKD cannot start mining in new parts of the town.

I'm scared that once Karvina's coal is all dug out, OKD will move to other areas like the beautiful Beskids because there is coal under those mountains. But I guess my fear is useless. Or is it?

Beskids, view almost from the top of Lysá Hora (1323 m)

So far they have stated they will not dig into the mountains* but it's good to be alert. I don't live in the area anymore but that doesn't mean that I don't care.

The shitty thing is coal is intertwined with other industries: metallurgy, chemical industry - they use coal and produce a huge amount of waste. Coal plants pollute inhabited areas at night, letting out some unidentified waste dust.
No wonder people in the region are somewhat poisoned, which can be seen in the form of allergies and breathing problems, just to name a few. OKD acknowledges its major influence on the environment and it is providing funds for rehabilitation of the landscape. Ooh that's nice, so they are trying to clean up the mess they made and at the same time they're making new mess.

The company is our country's biggest employer in the private sector. People need jobs and as long as they have them, they don't care about environment that much. Namely, miners get quite high wages. All the while forgetting that the extra money they earn will go into their medical bills later when they or their children have asthma.

I wrote this article in English to rise awareness. More info about the situation in Karvina can be found on these pages: Karvina citizens against coal mining. They have already filed in a petition earlier this year but it seems like more petitions will be needed.

Even if you're not Czech and you don't live in Karvina, you can still help. You can for example like their Facebook page and you can share this information in contrast with endless propagation of Prague as the only place in the Czech republic worth knowing.

Virtual insanity

My website has been out of order due to unknown reasons for more than a month now, which has led to a shocking realization: if I don't exist virtually, I don’t exist at all! :D
Jamiroquai was on point in his Virtual Insanity. I’m living in it right now.

I got back to my old blog because I want to inform everyone that I haven’t given up on music and that I’m still very much active, although I’m not writing about it to the whole world every five seconds.
Nowadays sharing is a must. Social media is a new drug and most of the people I know are addicted to it. Maybe they don’t admit it but they are.
Own it, people! Most of you surf Facebook twenty times a day. At least I do.
Mainly to promote my music and get gigs, of course, but I like to keep in touch with my friends and Facebook happens to make it easier for me.

Then there is YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn and many more online societies of virtually insane people. We take them for granted but only ten years ago there was none of these things.
Don’t you just love the 21st century? I don’t know what I would do if I was suddenly teleported to the Middle Ages. I would probably get killed by barbarian thieves or a herd of wolves within two minutes – and my last thought would be ”gee, let me take a picture of you biting my leg off, so I can post it".

My biggest news is that I’ve started recording my second album. We are working on it almost daily @ Volume Productions’ Studio here in Helsinki. I’m pretty excited because this time around I have much more time to create a cool record and make a statement. My debut album Doses was recorded in 2011 within two weeks. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It turned out pretty good ;)
But now I have two months on my hands and superb musicians and producer to support me. I can't wait to hear the end product and I hope you listeners can't either!

Here are a few pictures of our creative process so far.

Because one bass drum is not enough :-)

One bass for every song!

Videos coming up soon, so stay alert and wait for exclusive studio footage ;)
 
Staying true to the trends, here are the addresses where you can follow me, when my website isn’t working:
https://www.facebook.com/lucieniemela

https://twitter.com/lucieniemelahttps://soundcloud.com/lucieniemela

If you’re reaaaally missing me, you can always buy my album on iTunes or listen to it for free on Spotify.
Oh wait, let’s not forget our good old LUCIE NIEMELÄ YOUTUBE CHANNEL!

That's all promoting for today but I'll be back soon. Have a great day!

Yours LIVE-MORE-TWEET-LESS-Lucie

May Day

I decided not to write about music for a change.

For me, May Day will always be about two things: celebrating spring & celebrating working class. 

Czech May Day
I lived my first four years in the era of socialism. Back then, May Day was actually a Labour Day, a time to celebrate all the hard working citizens. My parents would hang Czech and Soviet flags into the windows and in the afternoon we would go out and join the huge parade that went through the city singing socialist songs (many of them Russian), celebrating not only the idea of communism but also the precious friendship of our little socialistic country and its big sister.

Everyone had to go unless they were sick. If you were a pioneer you had to dress accordingly: blue shirt, red scarf or tie.

I remember only fragments of these parades. Hundreds of people walking peacefully, festive and very socialist music playing.  I remember sitting on my father's shoulders and waving a flag or a parade stick. There was something magical about people gathering on this one day although I had no idea about the purpose.

After the Velvet revolution there have been no parades on 1st May in Czechoslovakia and later Czech republic. Most of the people are trying to wipe out some traditions that would remind them of socialistic regime. Nowadays May Day is not particularly celebrated in the Czech republic but it remains a holiday and people think of it as day of spring, flowers and freshness.

The tradition that remains is connected to spring and is kept only in the country, not in towns. People errect special decorated maypole called máje or májka. Sometimes men keep night watch because "evil" guys from another village might come and knock the maypole down. And even more interesting: boys build a maypole as a declaration of love in front of the house of their beloved. Isn't that cool? :-)
This pagan ritual is still popular in Austria, Germany and Sweden.

And there is one more tradition, connected to love: every woman should be kissed under a blossoming cherry tree. Otherwise she'll have bad luck. I wonder what feminists say to that :-)

It's a shame Czech people don't sing any songs or don't arrange picnics. They just enjoy the fact they have a day off and spend it usually with their family, doing some barbecue, minding their own business. I think they should learn something from the Scandinavian folks:


Finnish Vappu
I really like the Finnish version of May Day. I would call it a mixture of celebrating Labor Day and a Picnic / Spring Day and a Students Day :-)
That means the working class organizations have their own gatherings and people who don't care that much about the political aspect of the 1st May just go to a park and take some good food and sparkling wine with them. You can see adults hanging around wearing white caps - those are secondary school alumni. No matter how long ago they graduated, there are old grannies and middle-aged couples wearing the caps, still proud of what they accomplished when they were nineteen.

 But don't worry, you don't have to be a graduate to enjoy Vappu! With or without the "magical white cap" friends meet up and enjoy the wonderful warm 12 degrees Celsius :-) Often there is rain on 1st May (or snow) but it doesn't stop anyone, no! We all want to believe so desperately that summer is around the corner.

I did a little research and the tradition of celebrating spring on the 1st May dates back to the 8th century! No wonder, because spring is a big deal in Finland. By 1st May snow has hopefully melted away and after six months of winter we feels such joy from being able to sit on the grass that words can't describe it. Of course it's wise not to sit directly on the grass because the ground is still freezing cold but these are things many people happily ignore as they warm themselves internally with different potions ;-) and of course they warm each other because Vappu is a good excuse to be hugging people publicly.

Finns even have a traditional snack (tippaleipä) and beverage (sima) that belong to Vappu celebration.

Finnish Vappu reminds me of my childhood and the socialistic parades because there are so many people in the streets and parks. It's definitely a day to be enjoyed!

In fact in Finland we start celebrating the evening before, on 30th April, and this year is not an exception. I will be guest-singing with Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha again. The concert will be in Dubrovnik club, Helsinki. If you're around here, don't forget to join us! These boys just know how to give people good music and great party.

Happy Labour Day!
Hauskaa vappua!
Klara Vappen!
Čus bus, 1. máj! :-)