"laestadian, apostolic, gay, lgbtq, ex-oalc, ex-llc, llc, oalc, bunner" LEARNING TO LIVE FREE: Ievan Polkka by Loituma

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Ievan Polkka by Loituma



Hello! For my first post, I'd like to bring a little Finnish fun to the blog. This silly but hypnotizing song is Ievan Polkka, performed by the group Loituma.

I'm a former Laestadian, hailing from a group associated with the Federation but similar in many ways to the OALC. Free has asked me to share my thoughts and experiences with you in our ex-Laestadian community here.

16 comments:

  1. The layering of Finnish folk singers with the OALC mysteries, depression, books, school board debates, the right and left boxing match(here's to you MTH) and Frees exasperating infatuation with things "progressive" makes this blog one big fabulous lasagna.

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  2. LLLreader: Yes sir, we have the whole enchilada!

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  3. ummmm...I see the word "democrats" in that url. Could I be confident that this is some of that unbiased information I like?

    Just wondering...

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  4. Hold, on Free, while I call Barbara Boxer's office as I am having a hard time deciding who to vote for.

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  5. Free...
    She said that I am a difficult case and consequently have to be baptised into the fold. The sacrament is scheduled for next week at the "We Be Righteous Compassionate of All Peoples Coalition" and attended by Michael Moore, Maxine Waters and via teleconference Mumia Abu-Jamal(another progressive celeb of the optimally aware itellectual left). As soon as this is accomplished and my soul is filled with the warm fuzzies, I will log on to your website.

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  6. Ilmarinen,
    Kiitos Loituman laulun. Se oli mukava lahja, ja minä olen jo tillaanu toista neidän musikkit.

    Minun Suomenkieli on huono, mutta viellä joitaki sanat tippuu kielestä. Nyt me nakemme jos toiset ymmärtää.

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  7. cvow: could you translate for us young uns who can't decifer the Finn?

    Thanks Ilmarinen, that was fun, funny, and hypnotizing of course!

    This blog certainly has been interesting and entertaining lately. Thanks, everyone!

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  8. Free...

    I am sitting here contemplating my upcoming conversion to the compassionate and caring segment of our society. Sporting my new "Che" t-shirt and writing a get well card to Fidel I am starting to feel like Robert Redford. It's happening! A trip to Havana to help out in the sugar harvest may be in my future... (I know, I know that old Fidel has quarantined the AID's patients and jailed the homosexuals, but that doesn't matter... he has national health care.)

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  9. OK, OK, Joy and Free, here's your darned translation...

    Takker De Ilmarinen, for den bemerkelsesverdig presang av videoen ved Loituma. Jeg allerede bestiller mere av deres musikk.

    Mens min Finnish er rusten, et par stille ord drypper fra tungen. Nå la oss se som forstår.

    Happy now?

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  10. Cvow, du sa en gang at du var tospråklig men nå ser det ut som om du like greit kunne ha sagt at du var trespråklig! :)

    ------

    That loituma song is really hypnotizing! And it seems like it's not just us, if you take a look at all the loituma videos on Youtube you'll see that it's given inspiration to a whole lot of funny videos made by Italians, Czechs, Poles, Russians etc. I'm not sure if I like the words though... If I get it right it's about a young man dancing with Ieva and mocking her religious mother who is singing hymns, and it ends with the man suggesting she'd better go back to her dirty little hut if she doesn't want to get beaten up.

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  11. Free, do the consequences really have to be so dire as the guillotine? However if it is to be then Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutamus.

    Of course, I would only make important points in English, but I was just thanking Ilmarinen for the remarkable gift of the music video by Loituma -- and said I liked them so well I ordered two fo their CDs. I also alluded to stirring the pot again.

    I was kind of wondering what language you were gonna come out with, knowing that you had to pursue one in your path to education. I had thought that perhaps, knowing your alma mater, you would have pursued something scandihoovian, but true to form at that hotbed of liberalism, you chose French apparently. C'est la vie. Laissez le bon temps rouler!

    Theoforos, I've been accused that the silver tongued devil and I are more than casual acquaintances!

    I crack myself up sometimes.

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  12. Wow. I had never heard of association with the OALC being so negative that it would cause one to avoid all things Finnish or even Scandinavian or Midwest. How sad.

    I've always waved the Finnish flag high -- even literally, as one flies at my house all of the time. I sort of ignore the concept of lipputuspaivat (flag days) and keep it up year round. It's right next to my American flag. I guess I never made a hard connection between Finnish and OALC, even though I was around when it was the OFALC. That to me would be sort of like saying I don't like America just because I detest the American Civil Liberties Union. Pot, boil and bubble, stir up emotion, stir up trouble...

    In my travels around the world, I've learned there are key phrases one must master regardless of where you are: "Hello", "Where is the toilet?", "Thank you", and "Goodbye". You can accomplish a lot of important stuff with those phrases.

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  13. You know, in thinking further about the avoidance of Finland due to the bad OALC experience, it brought to mind another similar situation.

    I graduated from high school with a girl (non-OALC) who had a Finnish heritage. Her father, grandmother, grandfather, and several other family members were alcoholics. At that time, it was an interesting phenomenon in our community that Finns tended to either be teetotalers or town drunks. Anyway, this girl would not even recognize her Finnish roots, and in conversations about it, said she didn't know of anything Finnish that was of note. (You think the fur flies on this forum? You ain't seen nothin' yet! Hoobaby, that was a good scrap.)

    I wonder if she disavowed her Finnish identity because of the stigma of her relatives being Finnish and being community pariahs. Waddayallthink?

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  14. theoforos,
    Unfortunately for me, all I know of the meaning of the song comes from that Wikipedia article. My grandparents speak fluent Finnish (of the 1900 flavor, with a little Swedish mixed in), but the Finnish didn't make it down to my generation, other than a few phrases. I wish that weren't so, but that's how it goes, I guess. It seems many Finnish folk items don't have Disney-fairy-tale storylines. The Kalevala surprised me with some of the passages when I read it for the first time!

    As far as the Finnish heritage, I always kept some distance between Finnish and Laestadian. When I rejected the Laestadian identity, I still held to the Finnish-American one. Actually, my generation seems to have a stronger pride in things Finnish than my grandparents did when they were young. When my grandparents were young, being Finnish was something looked down upon. They told me many saw it as too unsophisticated or something to be ashamed of.

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  15. One question....... Uh, what the heck do the lyrics mean? The song is fun to listen to but when I saw the English lyrics it kinda sounded like...... They were gaving IT :O eeeeeeeew So yea.
    And no I am not immature. I just think having IT is one of the most digusting things in this world (even though that is how we are created)...... So yea...... Anyway........ Carry on people. Peace out. Yeah.

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