Bring Mieka to Ireland! ok?

www.mieka.com
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Let it Ring

Carla, a girl whom I used to work with many moons ago, texted me (sms) the other day to tell me she'd downloaded "Rooms", one of my songs, and that it was now her ring tone.

"Problem is", she said, "I don't want to answer the phone now!"


Then she asked me to play at her wedding. Crafty or what?

OK Carla, I'll see you there. But I don't know any Boy George songs, just one or three of my own, ok?

Turn your phone up a bit!

"Come in" they said.. Part I

I was recently reminded upon visiting my erstwhile home in Helsinki, of how good some folk can be. We spend a lot of our time complaining about one thing or another, finding fault with this and that-when, out of the blue, someone comes along, to shake you up with (as Mr. Vance would say), an "Indiscriminate Act of Kindness".

In 2005, just after returning to Ireland from promoting the Finnish release of my debut album, a dj from Radio Helsinki contacted me to say he was sorry to have missed me. Emails were written and it soon became apparent that he had connected with my songs.


Before recently returning to Helsinki to do some prep work for the Desperation video, I emailed Mikael to see if he fancied getting together for a beer. I got a prompt reply (it's Finland after all!) where my hosts to be, invited me to have dinner in their home-plus beer!

It had been a while since I was pleasantly taken aback by such simple hospitality, for I knew that the most contact they'd had with me up to that point was via a few emails and through my songs, which in the end, according to them, was all they needed.


I arrived and was welcomed into a converted summer cottage. The food was on, the records climbed from the floor to the ceilings on more than one wall. There were instruments strewn around the room. There were separates (amps, cd players etc) cds, cassettes and books. There was a lampshade that belonged to Great Grandparents and an earth globe light that Carita had bought them. I was in the home of music lovers.

We ate and quickly cut to the chase on many a topic. It soon became obvious I was in the company of "my own". Mikael's wife, Maru, was earth-mother incarnate, calming, attentive, generous and kind. Having read a bit about June Carter, I couldn't help but imagine a likeness in Maru, for how I had pictured the man in Black's wife to be.

Maru has long dark hair. She oozed the sixties, and it was almost like at some point a while back she decided, in some ways to stay there. There was a peacefulness. We gradually moved around the house, starting with a little room at the back, where the guitars were taken and songs were sung. My hosts were able to request favorites from my album and who was I to argue. Here was Mikeal Wiik and his wife, Maru, playing and singing along with my songs in their house. It was something. Afterwards I played some new songs, some of which hadn't been played to anyone-which says it all really. I was on my toes and without my Avalon, but after 5 new songs and no comments, I finally got some reassuring feedback. I could relax again.

Having my eyes closed I wasn't sure where the harmonies were coming from, whether it was Jenny in my head, or God knows what. It turned out to be Maru, quietly edging her way into the fray. She wanted to sing, and sing she could. We moved to the piano room.

Mikeal sat down to the Johanna.

"He wouldn't go out of his way.....

...to speak to you".

I found myself thinking about this expression recently, well today actually. What made me think of it and what does it mean anyway?

I was in the queue in my local spar this morning with a box of start under my arm-obviously hadn't had breakfast yet and the above saying came into my head. I thought it quite absurd, for why should someone go out of his or her way to speak to you in the first place? I mean, would you, driving down a one way street, realising you've passed a neighbour without waving, say to yourself;

"Jesus, I'd better reverse back up (go out of your way) this one way street here and greet my neighbour"?

Of course not because you'd be going out of your way to do so. Might even cause an accident. I stood there in line, wondering when the last time was when I "went out of my way to speak to someone, or when someone went out of their way to speak to me? I couldn't remember. Maybe because people as a rule tend not to go out of their way to greet each other. That's the point, they would if it wasn't out of their way.

Furthermore, if someone did go the extra mile, do an about turn, approach you to say "how you getting on?", you might just look at them funny, and think, "what's wrong with yer man"?

Maybe I should get out more...

Chelsea Hotel

Just learned that the person who gave Cohen head in the famous song "Chelsea Hotel" was none other than, Janis Joplin. Ruined, forever! Not that I listened to the song every night trying to figure out who it might have been... cracking, ahem, the code as it were.. but still, it's quite the image, with the limo waiting downstairs etc.. Well, at the same time, there's nothing like context to give you perspective. But, to be honest, the song will never be the same again.