NetDynam 2.0

An ocean view is what you want, the sight of pieces of ice floating by the goal of the ferry passenger. The Tallink Ferry Super Star taller than a ten story building: it is a ten storey building, and taller, brightly coloured and heading due south out of Helsinki west port at exactly 2.30pm on its way to Tallinn, decked out inside like a rugby leagues club.

The front piano bar is under the three story sweeping slanted windows, the decks of the piano bar like the dress circle of the cinemas of my youth, the gods, looking down on the stage and out on the advancing Baltic Sea—all seating occupied and the passengers hunkered down for the two and a half hour trip, their baggage beside them.



We thought it might be warmer in Estonia, it being south of Helsinki, and the recent overnight temperatures, given the clear skies, going down to minus 7, warming up during the day to minus 1. There is less snow everywhere, but the cold persists. Yet it seems to be even colder in Tallinn, our noses freezing as we walk about the old town in the early evening in March.

We end up in a bar with a sign telling us that tonight there will be free jazz at 21.00, so we go in and order some food and drink. We are disappointed in both, and so I do not go into detail. My interest in food (see forthcoming posts on Italy and Finland) means that I will judge the liveability of a place and indeed their whole culture, on the type and way that food is served. And so, due to my disappointment here, I decline to elaborate—mainly since there may well be another place around the corner where the fare is better. Then again, random selection should subvert any partiality in survey results.

The voice which accompanies the guitar, however, is very clear and strong, mild and confident, it springs lightly over the notes, clean, unstrained, bright but not scratchy. She is from Brazil, but has made Estonia her home. I don’t even like Latin-American music normally, but her voice makes up for any of that. It’s a big contrast from the voice in the piano bar of the Super Star that afternoon, a voice almost laughable in its high thin smooth carrying of the tune.

I ask for her name before we leave, so I can listen again on YouTube perhaps. Denise Fontoura, but her YouTube recordings are not doing her justice, and many of them concentrate on a larger backing band. In contrast, one of her songs has been used as a backing for a strange and compelling video, part animation, with apparent Japanese elements.