What Now with Simo

Simo Sakari Aaltonen
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A freeform, wide-ranging podcast by writer and composer Simo Sakari Aaltonen on any topics foremost on his mind at the time of recording. The seasons are also collected in book form. Some favourite topics include creativity and all the arts — music, films, screenplays, fiction, poetry, comics, games, comedy, and everything in between. Messages from listeners welcomed for possible inclusion in an episode. Note that sending a recording for inclusion in an episode of this podcast implicitly gives permission to do so.

  1. 5.17 End, Middle, and Beginning

    JUL 20

    5.17 End, Middle, and Beginning

    24 March 2025 — Final episode — Café de Halle — Tampere Market Hall — Past, present, future — The decision to end this podcast was made before David Lynch left for the White Lodge — Major Briggs — Timings converging — Five years, seasons, and books — Started on 24 March 2020 in Iceland — The last two transcript books — Modern type of journal — Looking back — Hallituskatu — Lake episodes — Episodes in cafés — Tea with honey and ginger — Finishing things — David Lynch throughout this podcast — Inspiration — Short story “The Scarecrow” — At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Fully me — Every human soul — Successes and failures — We fail because… — Life humbles most of us — The edges of your life — Limitations as keys to freedom — True to the roots — Just a private talk — Five years of changes — Accents and spellings — My teenage video diary entries — Proto-podcast — Australian accent — Crocodile Dundee — TV series from Australia and New Zealand — Episodes of The Ray Bradbury Theater filmed over there — Quote from Robin of Sherwood (starring Michael Praed) written by Richard Carpenter — Forced to take a break — Addressing what just happened — Authenticity — Nauseous — 2024 diagnoses — The future — Ambulances — Certain readings — Convergence into a breaking point — Lifelong condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) — Further discussion elsewhere — Connections — Putting creativity in context — Disabilities, debilitating conditions — Overlap — Boxes — Bringing everything together — Invisible walls — Creating a new place — My new online home and headquarters — Dialing down social media activity — The sum total of my creativity so far — A private Patreon — No public shares — An extension of my home — Not a public forum — A private space — We need spaces where we can be at ease — Declining to enter into negative exchanges — The Better Patreon — Many meanings — From the abstract to the concrete — $3 tier: every post of every kind — Ten books, five music albums, three singles — All the ebooks in The Better Patreon Shop are in 100% print replica format — MP3s and the original full-quality WAV files — $9 tier: every post + all my creative works so far for no additional cost — Notes on some of the works — The original and Large Print Editions bundled (single purchase) — Tales from the North, Book I book + demonstration album (likewise) — 3-day weekly cycle (Monday to Wednesday) — Ideal to have days off as well as the cycles of activity — Some of the weekly series — A little poetry each day — One short story per week — Art & Love non-fiction chapters — Full Northern Exposure rewatch and creative appreciation — Connecting the various topics — Early thoughts on video and audio content — Invitation — Thanks for all your support in all its forms — On to The Better Patreon — Signing off

    1h 4m

  2. 2024-09-20

    5.16 On a Train, Mystery, Love, and the Four Elements

    Train — Substantial — The aims of this podcast — Monty Python’s Flying Circus — Village idiot sketch with John Cleese — Providing a useful service — An effect behind the surface effects — Writing sketches also for or featuring the others — Introducing the next topic — The themes of mystery, hope, and love — “Platitudes” — Shorthand for something less damning? — Troubling — A sickness of thought — Authentic realities — Love or not? — A creator who absolutely believes in love and mystery — David Lynch — Wild at Heart (1990) — Earlier mention of this film in season 4 — The Wikipedia article — Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as Sailor Ripley and Lula — Mystery, love, hope — Barry Gifford’s novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula (1990) — Hope and the ending of the story — Things work out — The love of Sailor and Lula — Their own world — In love, devoted to each other, and into each other — Important in any romantic love — Getting off on each other — Mr. Lynch’s clear belief all along — Twin Peaks (1990–1992) — Blue Velvet (1986) — Film critic Roger Ebert’s comments on Wild at Heart — Misunderstanding — He had taken the film to be parody and satire — No, presented without guile — Eraserhead (1977) — Leaving Dune (1984) out of the discussion — More Frank Herbert’s creation — No interest in seeing the new film — Plastic and oil — Side track, main track — Icons and iconography vs. living, conscious, evolving, human beings — Mr. Lynch was into all of it — No parody, no satire — It’s a love story — Humour also — No dishonest moments — Trilingual (Finnish, Swedish, English) announcement (Jämsä) — Twin Peaks season 3 (2017) — Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) — Evolving understanding of “mystery”, “mysticism”, “mystic” — Murder mystery — Mystification — Nature mysticism — Direct experience of something — Problem about talking about these things — Anecdote about speech and experience — Being taken out of the moment — Failed communication — Deflated moments — Beyond words — Words and deeper feelings — Language came after — Its limits — Experiences beyond language — Acknowledging my contradictions — Walt Whitman on contradicting oneself — “I contain multitudes.” — A matter of authenticity and of compatibility — Lifelines — Fresh air, water, wood, the sky… — Forgot to mention stone (earth) — Shoulder bag as pillow — Grounding element — My rock collection once upon a time — Eventually let go of it — Who owns rock? — Downsizing — Owning stuff as a mental and physical burden — Hoarders — Back into nature — The hippo stone — Playground sandbox — The four elements as a principle applicable to both art and life — Philip Glass — Koyaanisqatsi — Director Godfrey Reggio — The Qatsi trilogy — Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988), Naqoyqatsi (2002) — The basis or bases of all matter — Something missing? — Balancing the elements — Applies vastly — Differing ratios — An ideal balance — A matter for intuition — Many works these days try to be all earth and fire — None of the creative arts? — Water, fluidity — This understanding goes back to our earliest art — Prehistoric cave art — Discussions between Pierre Estève (much more knowledgeable than me on this) and me — Monolingual (Finnish) announcement (Orivesi) — Creative record — Already an understanding of the four elements — Elegance a very advanced quality — Pablo Picasso — Panoramas and layouts — Disclaimer about personal ignorance — Later in time — Not an expert — Philip Glass and Samuel Beckett — Letting go of things tiring or even nauseating — Burdens of the past — The elements applied to our own places of living — A tool for troubleshooting daily life — Balcony drenched with fresh air — Phone alarm — Bathing in fresh air — Bath tub — Perfecting the elements — Good sleep — Journey ending — Returning

    1h 1m

  3. 2024-08-19

    5.15 Windows of Opportunity, Aims, and Seven Works in Seven Months

    8 August 2024 (recording date) — Beautiful summer morning — Slice of dream country on the outskirts of Tampere — Rowing service gone — The wooden bridge — The cover of At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Bridge modifications — Lagoon — Esthetics — Windows of opportunity — True also with creative works — This podcast — No song-and-dance person — Leafing through the volumes of the podcast transcript books — Word-for-word transcripts — My favourite type of interview or discussion to read — Interview articles used to be edited to a very high degree — With recitations of facts — Thousands of interviews — Some humility — A journal — A place to reflect on my own and other people’s works — Some autobiography — Goose-stepping — Looking back on episode 4.15 — A new freedom in music in the early 1960s — A few pieces by The Scorpions and The Ventures — Speed — Cars and motorcycles — Being able to go fast and freely — Emerged in the 20th century — Rock music — Expressing new feelings of freedom — Related feelings of exhilaration — In earlier centuries — Trains — Horses — Not the same thing — Creative update — Backlog — So far this year — One full work per month — What Now with Simo, Season 3 transcript book — Discussions with David Lee Homb and Pierre Estève — Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems (Large Print Edition) — Singles “That Dark, Dark Night” and “In the Fog, Deep” — Album Passages Dark and Light II — Sheet music book Tales from the North, Book I (12 piano duets) — The real world premiere of any of the pieces or the full set — Intentionally crude demonstration album — At Dawn: Early Short Stories (Large Print Edition) — Accessible for people with any visual impairment — A dear project to me — 18-point font for the book of poetry — 24-point for the book of short stories — Also for people who simply prefer to read a large font — Different editions of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass — Enjoyed the large print edition most — Inspired by the references in Northern Exposure — Certain things happen only when reading physical works — Mind quietens down, goes calmer — Tactile and sensual elements — David Lynch tweet — Emphysema — Smoking can’t be removed from the equation — Otherwise in great health and filled with happiness — Will never retire

    26 min

  4. 2024-03-24

    5.14 4th Anniversary Special: Passages Dark and Light II

    24 March 2024 — Passages Dark and Light II: Passages 1–43

    46 min

  5. 2024-02-09

    5.13 In the Dream Spa Part Under Construction

    Friday, 9 February 2024 — Table of contents not available for personal reasons

    1h 16m

  6. 2024-01-01

    5.12 Rendezvous at the Dream Café

    A place of the imagination — Bar / café — Still under construction — My music in the background — Albums and singles — The person in charge of the music — Passages Dark and Light — Tales from the North, Book I — Early Music Archive — “Land of Youth & Beauty” — 1 January 2024 — David Lynch’s weather reports — “January one” — Being and becoming yourself — Finding your own things — Patreon plan — Seeking support — Possible future episodes to help people sleep — Sleep issues — Music intended to be calming and soothing — May not work for people with troubled, restless minds — Too easy to tune out — Occupying your attention — Season 3 of Twin Peaks — Freed from anguish for a time — An array of elements arranged in such a way that it alters your state of mind or the way you are feeling — What art can be — We may remember from childhood — Discerning — “Critical thinking” — A lot of my early music — Music system glitch — New stage a few years ago — Directness — “Turtle Morning” — American Indian ponderosa pine flute — Had with me on my travels — Start of the COVID epidemic in 2020 — Dropouts part of this piece (“Stream No. 1”) — Thump — The way I play this flute — Voice out of practice — Plans for this year — Backlog — Started putting out my own creations only in 2019 — At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Creation of more than 20 years — The most central things — Fiction, poetry, music, filmed works — Reading of Lovecraft poem “The Garden” — Early work on four games — Started focusing on my own creative works — Everything a result of long, careful work — Documenting — Preserving the magic and surprises — Responsibility of artists — Everything affects us one way or another — Fiction and nonfiction — The core things — Art & Love series — Dreams after a bad day — Dangerous state — 1) Grisly dream — Place of several rooms — Warning — Someone was going to chop up a body — Podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend — Was able to turn and move the “camera” elsewhere — 2) Bicycling around an amalgam of places where I’ve lived — Lake shores — Causeway — Bridges — Rain — 3) Meeting in a tunnel system — Brief exchange — Took off jogging down the long tunnel towards the light — Backpack — Felt light, healthy, fit — An uncommon habit developed a long time ago — Sneakers — Reflected real life — Underpass free of ice and snow — Great things about Conan O’Brien — Jim Downey — Saturday Night Live — Scene from Billy Madison (1995) — Adam Sandler — “Everyone in this room is now dumber…” — Norm Macdonald and crafting perfect writing — “Weekend Update” — Objectively good writing and editing — One word created a little vignette or story — What makes us laugh is separate from what we may “approve of” — Close to closing time — Test crowd — Figuring out the configuration of the place — A creative space — Thanks to certain special people

    1h 6m

  7. 2023-09-29

    5.11 Summer Day, Rainy Night

    PART 1: SUMMER DAY: One last summer day — Boat on the shore — Did go rowing — Times I had the beach to myself — Later realised why — Water just right — Giving thanks for the beautiful day — Phone alarm — Many motivations — Boat drifting — Oh, a fish | PART 2: RAINY NIGHT: Rainy night on the balcony — Most of the lake recording unusable — Something discussed in season 1 — Artist Curt Swan — Known for his work on the superhero Superman — Feels strange to be talking about this again — A later realisation — Swan was pushed aside — Had to happen — Necessary change — Shifted position — This character — So strange I ever said it — Like another person — A personal reason — A brief good period for those comics that coincided with my teens — Intricate continuity — For the first time a sense of evolving into something more — “Mature” — Disastrous results — Wrong turn — Misguided — Not the right place for those kinds of stories — Simply had some fond memories — Sweet ideals — Being a decent, even a really good person — Intentionally misleading covers — Acknowledging my changed views — Another reason to be thinking of change — Too static — Lacking magic — Things that can make you feel good every day — An insidious way for a person’s life to become less beautiful and treasurable — Times of staleness — Even when at the same time creating meaningful things — Why I’m here — Always different levels — Not rejuvenating, revivifying — Being able to wake up refreshed and recovered — Reasons why it may not happen — Sleep deprivation and illnesses — Life becoming more narrow and restricted — Freedom and new possibilities — Change becomes more difficult, if not impossible, the longer the static circumstances continue — Consciously shaking things up — Realising the need for change — Amassing more and more — Then started getting rid of things — Oppressed by all the stuff — Not giving me anything anymore — Seller’s tables at Finncon — Long time ago — Sold most of what I had — Happier afterwards — The horror of hoarding — A psychological problem — Mental health issue — Can be extremely damaging — Becoming encased in your collection of belongings — “Will I really miss something that I’m now getting rid of?” — No — That voice should be ignored — Life became lighter — Collecting as a form of hoarding — Seeking security by owning physical things — I love having room rather than stuff — Not enough life for any human being to keep returning to thousands of things — Dust — Mould — The feeling of being normally healthy — Feeling good about being alive and able to breathe easily — Not something to take for granted — Some inner journeys are delusions — Good health is luxurious — Young people’s beliefs that they’ll always find meaning in the things they currently do — Happiness not in things themselves — No reason to keep a thing anymore — A lighter life — In the here and now — The future is not guaranteed — Wishes for insight and ability to make changes

    42 min

  8. 2023-08-28

    5.10 Danger of Triviality, Creative Practicalities, and New Music

    “Season 5 Opening” (@ 0:00) — Second episode of the day — Recorded on different dates — Closer to the mic again — Nicer listening experience — Lake episodes — Drifting ever so slowly — Without larger goals, danger of falling into triviality — Dreams, aspirations — Not selfish things — Couples bickering in grocery stores over trivial things — Triviality has taken over their lives — Many different forms — Obsessions — Hypochondria — Can be learned from others — Empathy for people with this problem — Be careful — Preoccupation with quirks — Irritability, pettiness — Policing other people’s behaviour — Bike example — Rageful people — Eliminating ways of wasting time — One way to avoid this fate — Lost human potential — Being creative — Numerous ways — My mother’s creativity — She made our whole yard bloom — Kamikaze motorboat — Album Early Music Archive — 50 early tracks — Wide variety of styles — American Indian ponderosa pine flute — My way of playing it — Lovely mellow quality — On Bandcamp, streaming, and for download — Praise for Bandcamp — Great way to support artists — Ways to help artists create more — More income from creative work equals more creative work possible — And faster — Reacting, sharing, word of mouth — Adding tracks to playlists — One thing leading to another — Chains of events — Simply doing my work and putting out information about it — Limits of what artists themselves can do — The rest depends on others — Not becoming an advertising agency — The people I hope to reach — My first single — “Land of Youth & Beauty” — “Lake Presentation” video (2022) for the book Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems — Vision of a book in a lake — Recap of the creation story — The vision happened again with the book with me — Sunlight shimmering — No special effects — The life of an independent creator — Thousands of small steps building towards larger goals and dreams — Albums and a single — Further along on the path — The books of short stories and poems — Cornerstones — Following natural schedules — Pierre Estève: “Time is on our side.” — Faith in time — Drifting and talking — Beach all to myself for swimming — Water the perfect temperature — PayPal donations possible via my site — Calling millionaires and billionaires — Everything helps — The bottom line of how much one can do in a lifetime — Updating my site — New functionality — Picture of all my works so far — Always up to date — More sheet music — Interpretations always different — The way lakes and seas and waves are — No indications of dynamics — Tales from the North, Book I — Same for tempi — Apology for not having yet continued the serialised discussion of Andrew Mellor’s The Northern Silence — Peter Falk’s memoirs — Reminder to myself — “Season 5 Closing” (@ 30:06)

    30 min
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About

A freeform, wide-ranging podcast by writer and composer Simo Sakari Aaltonen on any topics foremost on his mind at the time of recording. The seasons are also collected in book form. Some favourite topics include creativity and all the arts — music, films, screenplays, fiction, poetry, comics, games, comedy, and everything in between. Messages from listeners welcomed for possible inclusion in an episode. Note that sending a recording for inclusion in an episode of this podcast implicitly gives permission to do so.

Information

  • Creator
    Simo Sakari Aaltonen
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    82
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Simo Sakari Aaltonen 2020
  • Show Website
    What Now with Simo