I'm listed at minnesotafinnish.org, and I'm homesick.

I've been really ancestorally-homesick for Finland and Sweden these past few weeks. I've had many reminders of my family homeland lately.

I just got listed on the minnesotafinnish.org, the regional online source for all Finnish culture in the state. The webpage used a cool photo of me. It was taken a few years ago on my first visit to Finland, outside a really cool club show I played in the city of Turku. Check out those awesome posters on the telephone pole! I'll never forget the other opening band on the bill, Big White Monkees: they had two singers who sang each song in perfect unison...no harmony notes all night. And funny self-referential lyrics...they had a chorus that went something like "which band has the greatest fans? BIG WHITE MONKEES!" Hopefully being on this webpage can lead to some musical opportunities to play for the Finnish community here in the Twin Cities.

In other Nordic news:
+ Paavo and Svea and I went to the FinnStyle store in downtown Minneapolis today, and we checked out some cool Finnish imports
+ I'm looking forward to next Summer's FinnFest gathering, which will happen just up the highway in Duluth, MN. Hopefully I can figure out a way to play music there, too.
+ Today Paavo returned to his Swedish-language preschool Barndalen, where he learns the Mother-tongue of Dawn's relatives in Sweden and my relatives in Finland
+ got an email from my cousin Carl-Kristian Rundman (that's C-K on the right) who is performing in a brand new theater production in the Helsinki Theater. Check out their show Geneve and see if you can read the details! All I need is a plane ticket and a theater ticket.

It's been almost two years since our last family pilgrimage overseas. Now that Svea is mobile and a bit more self-sufficient, seems like it's time to investigate another trip over there. Maybe in 2008? I know from checking my Blogger visitor statistics that there are quite a few Finns and Swedes that read this blog....hey, find a me a gig over there! I wanna come play those Summer music fests that are always going on....