EDITORIAL W
ell, the summer is more or less over for good now and it is time for the ever-depressing 7 months of darkness here in the north. It’s time to look both back and forward, what did the summer have to give us this year, and what is waiting for us during the winter. From Godartet’s perspective, at least in Finland, the summer never really even started due to horrible, horrible weather and culturally there wasn’t really too much to experience. But isn’t that always the case during summer? The theaters and opera are on holiday and cinemas are packed with blockbusters, only festival strive but they tend to lack decent content. So one might almost feel lucky the summer is a thing of the past!
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o what is there left for the autumn and winter then? Well, at the time of writing, the Love & Anarchy film festival is in full swing in Helsinki, the Helsinki Design Week just passed (more on that in the upcoming October paper!) and the book festival is just around the corner. There are also many interesting things coming around Scandestonia and Poland, not just festivities and design-weeks, but gigs, books, movies, theatre, exhibitions… You name it! From this perspective, it’s actually pretty neat to have autumn here.
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s for Godartet, we keep doing what we’re doing and may consider trying to do it even better. We look at the leaves of grass and won’t go gently into the night, but we hope to hear from you guys, we’re always open for artists and writers who wish to see their work in our fine paper. So, without further ado, enjoy this September issue and keep rolling strong! Like we almost do.
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EDITORIAL 2 COLUMN 4 ESSAY 6 THE GREAT MUSEUM BATTLE 8 COLUMN 11 5 NIGHTS UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN 12 COMICS 13 BATHROOM STALL WALL 14 LAST PAGE 15
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COLUMN Ville Koski
IF A TREE FALLS IN A FOREST VILLE KOSKI
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ecently watched an interesting documentary about archeology. The focus of the documentary was a group of scientists who had happened to stumble upon a group of bones in Africa and discovered that it was actually an ancient burial ground from a couple of thousand of years before the time of the pharaohs in Egypt. Nobody had ever known about the place or the people before now and they found dozens of bodies buried in what clearly proved that whoever they were, they knew the ever-so-fun art of ceremonial burial. Other than that, the place and the people remained a mystery. This made me think about the purpose of culture and art and their relation to time.
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ccording to the magical science of carbon dating, the people buried there were hanging around the time before Pharaohs and then disappeared. Now, as all of us who have read Mika Waltari’s The Egyptian knows, when the Egyptian Pharaohs really, really disliked some people, they weren’t just contented with killing them, they erased every piece of evidence of their existence so that nobody would ever know about them. And this isn’t even an unusual thing from the past. It’s pretty much done by every major leader around the world and is still (at least attempted to be) done by ISIS at this very moment. However, it is a chilling concept to think that whole cultures have vanished without a trace. What did they do? What was their art like? Who were they? Thousands of questions but no answers.
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s another example, I have no idea about the lives of my grandparents and the people before them because all photos, diaries and other physical evidence was destroyed in an air-raid during the war. Those people lived and existed, but I do not know even their names. So why do we do anything, as individuals or as cultures? Why are we constantly creating something new, whether they are buildings or pieces of art if there is a chance none of it will exist 100 years from now? Partly, probably, because of being aware of just that. It is the strange fear of death that pushes us to do something that lasts, something that says we were here. Jewish people have a saying that goes something like this: “Nobody dies until they are forgotten”, which is a really nice way of saying that what we do does matter. As long as we are remembered our spirit isn’t really dead. However, I personally see this as selfish self-promotion in the face of impending death and like to think that what motivates us to work is something more related to this day. This was also shown in a fascinating way in the documentary: Some of the people were buried together, hand-in-hand or in a hugging position. And because burials are essentially for those left alive, some people considered them cool enough to have them buried with honours, meaning they were cool guys while they were alive. 4
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f I remember correctly, Japanese have a saying: “One should live in a way to earn a decent burial”. As nobody can really have a say as to how they are buried, the saying puts the emphasis on how we act today. we should all behave so that people would be willing to give effort in our funeral. And that’s the way it should go, because that’s all we really have. Archimedes was a great philosopher and thinker, but a kind of a bastard as well so he got a sword to his head and it doesn’t matter how cool my grandparents maybe were because generations after me probably won’t even know why we don’t have any photos of them. Looking at things on a wider spectrum, focusing on today is even more essential. Civilizations will crumble over time and vanish, the Sun will burst one day, wiping us all and even if humankind could escape that to another galaxy, the whole universe is still going to come down eventually. And then there will be no one to ask if humans make noise if they fall without anyone listening.
Ville just started playing The Last of Us and pre-ordered Fallout 4.
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ESSAY
Juha Heikkinen ON CREATIVE LAZINESS JUHA HEIKKINEN
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ately I’ve been struggling to be interested in literature or even reading outside of work for that matter. During my studies, the complex worlds and emotions that were presented on the pages of a novel were my greatest passion. While completing the simplest assignment for a course was a struggle motivation-wise, I was always thinking two books ahead. I was never short of books to read and I was quite proud of the long list of volumes I had finished. Nowadays, having worked for almost six months in the same job, I have noticed that I suffer from a lack of motivation and, with it, the ability to quite understand the subtlest situations and images. I just read through rather than find a connecting point with my own existence, finding myself on the page, joy and pain alike. I always thought of myself as a dreamer who could not keep a job because of a lack of discipline and motivation. I would therefore have to find a different path for getting a paycheck and developing myself. So I read and I wrote, hoping that some day the material I wrote would not feel like such utter shit afterwards. You read, find inspiration in order to reach a certain state of mind and you try to turn it into something valuable. It is a beautiful feeling, to feel a strong connection to what you are reading and if the character’s pain feels painfully familiar and makes you pause and look up into the distance, all the better. Our lives are filled with painful periods that do not leave, no matter how we try to focus on the problems of others to forget our own. But what if the problems we face are existential? Often the questions we ask when we have time to think about them feel pointless to the moving observer. But when you have stopped moving and are stuck with your thoughts, you have the questionable luxury of questioning. And when you go on that road, there is a lot of ground to cover.
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ike I mentioned earlier, I’ve been moving for quite some time now and I can definitely feel the lack of curiosity: I watch at our small pile of books that has not grown in what feels like ages and the initial excitement I had for collecting Polish literature has died down. Whatever intellectual curiosity I have is spent at work, wondering all things invoices. And not to say that I do not enjoy my work or am not grateful for the opportunity to work. I just find it quite sad that what was before more of a collection of books read is now just some book that I read before going to work.
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s it really necessary to have all that downtime to be truly creative? I’m sure whatever answer you come up with does not apply to everyone but when you look at the great minds that have shaped our understanding of the world in their own way, you see people that had the luxury to do so. Of course, if you were truly driven to create and express yourself, you would do so no matter the challenges. Or at least that is what you are supposed to be like, a moving train that keeps on moving no matter how much weight is placed on your shoul-
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ders. Some years ago I read a collection of articles and reviews by George Orwell. The writing was collected together after his death, so it served as a sort of biography of the man who apparently was against having a biography made of him. So they collected his writings, making at least some kind of a book about his life. In quite a few letters Orwell was longing to be able to escape to a cabin for a few months to be able to finish his unfinished manuscript which would eventually become his novel 1984. He spoke for the downtime needed to be able to concentrate on your imagination and creative curiocity and the literay reviews he did for a living, among other things, he called ”grunt work”.
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ince this piece is about creative laziness and the need for downtime, I would like to explore the situation where you create when you do not have any other obligations to fulfil during the day. Just like what I am experiencing now. I am writing this in my girlfriend’s sister’s house, where the only obligations are those I feel like doing so that our hosts, the parents of two young children, have some time for themselves or, as it seems to be in their case, for their children. My difficult tasks include filling and emptying the dishwasher as well as helping with cooking and setting the table. So basically I have a lot of time on my hands. But here’s the problem of having time: Many of us prefer to use this downtime to just lay down and stare at the ceiling. It is quite relaxing to just be and not even think properly. Of course some sort thoughts always occupy your head but what to eat next doesn’t really count.
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o now that we’ve established a perfectly relaxed state, we should be set to create. Except we aren’t. Where is that drive? Even though I had plenty of time to write whatever this is about the lack of curiosity, I am still faced with a deadline that is the only thing that is succesful in making me do things. To me the idea of writers, artists and musicians creating anything under pressure sounds almost impossible. But then again, as is the case with any work, without external pressure most of us wouldn’t be able to get the most out of ourselves. Which is why many of us aren’t self-employed, because you need someone to push you forward. The writer who is working together with the publisher has someone pushing them forward, giving them valuable critisicism in order to push them to create the best work possible. A truly refined piece of art isn’t the first draft. You have to get the idea out of your head first before you can start moulding it into what it will eventually be.
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hat you need for a good piece of writing is a good ending, so here is mine: I have to start packing for our trip back home so I will wrap this up quickly. I wish you all the best in your efforts to create and make something valuable. I’ll go find my socks.
The writer is feeling lazy and somewhat creative.
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THE GREAT MUSEUM BATTLE A
MUSEUM. It’s a word with an air of elegance and grandeur. As a phenomenon, it is the bearer of light during dark times and the messenger from our ancestors to us, carrying the secrets of years gone by for the people of today. We at Godartet naturally love all kinds of museums and wish to share our experiences and knowledge of the magical havens of information as far and and as wide as we possibly can, so in this piece we decided to go head to head with our current stationary cities to see which one holds the best museums. Juha in Krakow, Poland and Ville in Helsinki, Finland. We didn’t set any other rules than that we should find the most intriguing museum and write about the experience. The results are as follows and it is up to the readers to decide who won.
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ELSINKI:
t’s good to be a museum-lover in Helsinki these days. At the moment of writing this piece, the amount of brilliant exhibitions in town is almost too big for one humble mind to bear: There’s Robert Mapplethorpe’s photos in Kiasma, the Magic North exhibition exploring the myths and legends of Finland and Norway in Ateneum and Rococo art in Sinebrychoff’s art museum just to name a few. However, this is a bit of a competition, and knowing that Juha is going to have a field day in Krakow’s brilliant museums, I needed something special. I decided to find something suitable for the whole family. There may be kids that don’t find rococo too fascinating and Mapplethorpe’s penis-photos may trigger some East Berlin-flashbacks for your grandpa so I wanted to find a museum that would thrill, excite and touch everyone regardless of their age or background. Then I found the Finnish Monetary Museum and their latest exhibition, “Our Mutual Debt, Finnish Government Borrowing 1859-2015”.
about 94 billion euros when I was there. One would have to be a cold-hearted person not to be in awe of all this.
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he museum consists of two parts; the enchanting basic exhibition that is actually a thrilling journey through the history of monetary issues from the first
nd to top it all off, the museum isn’t just seeing and reading, there are some fascinating interactive games as well. A visitor can easily compare modern day prices of say, a piece of bread, to what it was in the 1950s or even the 1800s! An economy quiz is also a fun way to play against your friends and in the monetary policy game you can destroy a nation’s economy by correlating the key interest rate in less than 10 minutes. All in all, the monetary museum and its debt-exhibition is a true gem in the museum map of Helsinki - and the world - and gives its visitors hours of fun while digging deep into the magical world of financial interest rates, currency policies and payment methods.
mentionings of Finland and money in the same context (King Magnus Ladulas’s will from 22 February 1285) to modern day credit card payments. It is hard to stay in one’s trousers when the other wall gives you knowledge of the very first banks in the world while on the other side a mind-blowing chart shows how the current account balance crisis was solved by IMF-supported economic adjustment programmes in 1975 - 1976. And to think that this is just the basic exhibition! The changing exhibition is at the time of writing an inspiring view on Finland’s government debt and its history. There were old war bonds, something written in Russian from back in the day and a constantly running debt-clock that was
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HE STAINED GLASS MUSEUM IN KRAKOW
rakow can be proud of its museums. With a rich history going back at least a thousand years, most of the information a traveler runs into deals with the Nazi occupation and the Jewish situation. But if you feel like skipping the history, what is there to see? I went to find out and was fortunate to stumble upon a certain gem. It is the only one of its kind, which means you would expect people were lining up on the streets to reach this place. I am of course talking about the stained glass museum, which, to my surprise, was not filled with people waiting to see what the exhibition had to offer.
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y first thoughts when walking into a glass museum was that I would be treated to the exciting history of how glass has been made throughout the centuries and the eclectic selection of designs this wonderful material has been molded into. Also, what I was perhaps most looking forward to was the possibility to learn of the physiological properties of glass, of the forces needed to break it and so on. However, I must admit I was a bit disappointed to find inside an exhibition into the age-old tradition of creating the stuff. In this place, the designers have been able to fully realize their vision by working closely with the craftsmen responsible for physically creating the material.
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ot only was the workshop meant as a place for manufacturing glass, it also worked as a place to train craftsmen and designers. Apparently the �best� Polish artists of the early 20th century worked closely with the workshop. So not a pointless place at all. The question that arose in the museum is when does crafts become art, but that is topic for a different time. eeing all the beautiful things glass can be molded and decorated into, I must admit that I never thought glass had such appeal. I always considered it to be a thing you look through, something that keeps the cold out. But no! You can actually make something out of it that you really want to look at ! And that is truly amazing.
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n a side note, I was disappointed to skip the Museum of Insurance, as the opening hours were a bit too tricky, from Tuesday to Friday 9 - 12. What an adventure that would have been!
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COLUMN
Fanny Grazzo
We can’t even sleep anymore because this monster comes into our dreams, we can’t eat because the taste reminds of him, nor shower because we feel him.
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ey ho darlings, grab your aunty by the ovaries and take her for a spin! I am a bit late I must say, I just bought a reindeer and I painted her with the most beautiful green color you ever saw. And flowers on her and all! She flies like the devil, she does! Oh and speak of the devil, Dante was actually not a brilliant man at all. We had some mushrooms, he kept crying all night about these different levels he was in and I was like, deal the damn cards alredy! He should have made video games, that one. All the weird shit he was talking about, he would fit right in with a table full of smelly nerds.
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mm, smelly cheese… Oh sorry, I was just about to have a bath. What I like to do is throw blue cheese in with my bath. Feels wonderful, I tell you! Fills the pores, fills the heart hahahahaa!!! I feel blue, how do you do? I cannot believe that they said boo!!!! Oh what am I saying! Well I mean it wasn’t my fault that they simply do not understand my genious. I wanted to create a new form of cinema. I call it horrendous porn. I will create the most naturalistic form of live performance that will make de Sade blush. He actually was an interesting chap who never really knew what to do with himself, hmm hmm hmm… I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a room with him. Because he would not like it HOHIHIIHOOO!!!!
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ell I cannot say what has gotten into me these days. I am all about the this and not about the that. What is that? Well, I never! Oh I do love a rainy day, running on the green meadows of my homeland of --------------------------. I do miss home sometimes. But I cannot go back, my daddy does not approve of my lifestyle. He always said, “Fanny, you are too quiet and, well boring. Say something for the love of Boorad!” He really hurt my feelings sometimes. Should I just go on with it and try to visit that old bugger? He is perhaps dead by now so it could be a rather nice trip, laadilaadifreccklespecks…
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he only thing I do not approve in this universe of ours is the lack of quality day time programming. I mean come on, I cannot for the life of me figure out what they see in Ridge. David Hasselhoff was always more to my liking, but he is already taken by Germany. If I were his manager, I would make him Big in Japan! Hohohoo, but I jest. He would be the first human to have a concert in the moon. And finally Earth would be invaded. Would that be a good thing or a bad thing? I should watch another Tom Cruise film to figure it out. Nowadays he seems to be confused about the time he lives in and who he is. I say, religion isn’t good for you. Or Oprah. I try to tell people, Oprah is not from Earth. But nobody ever listens! Maybe now they will sue these fine gentlemen who run this fine magazine and finally people will start to think!
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must be off now, I will go home. Hopefully daddy is dead so I don’t have to do the dishes. Cheerio and all that!
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5 NIGHTS UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN D A
AY II
s the dawn broke on the second day of our journey,I bravely marched through the frozen path to the official pressroom of the festival to get Godartet’s first ever press pass. Surprisingly, we actually got it, along with a possibility to hang around the press office. Alongside us were many important reporters from big magazines - you could tell by the fact that nobody would talk to us. However, as days went by we were the only ones hanging around for the full duration of the festival. That is because we have integrity and we take pride in our work, even if it doesn’t always show.
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fter getting the press pass I strolled to the Peter von Bagh matinee that started the whole festival. The matinee consisted of his colleagues and the leader of the festival cherishing the memory of this fine man, and the overall mood was of absolute sadness. Even the great director Aki Kaurismäki was present, sitting by the isle with the saddest look I have ever witnessed: It was the expression of loss without any consolida ion. Just pure grief. It became painfully clear that we as a people had lost more than we could ever deserve.
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fter this carnival of fun came the time for me to hit the movies. On the first day I only saw two, but I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. My plan was originally to top it all off in the big tent with the 70 mm version of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey, but as the breezing night air hugged me tighter and tighter as the evening grew longer, I chose to skip it and make my way back to headquarters and deep into the relative warmth of my sleeping bag.
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It was then when fate gave me an absolutely beautiful example of karma in the works: You see, when I stumbled back to my tent, I noticed that over the course of the day I had gotten two neighbours. In the other tent was a balding middle-aged dude and in the other two young ladies. As I went to sleep, I could hear the ladies in their tent just chit-chatting away. I didn’t bother: One who goes to a camping site knows that the sound-proofing is rarely perfect and the ladies weren’t shouting or yelling, just talking and laughing. I didn’t mind, but oh the bastard relieved from the burden of hair sure did. All the time he was grunting, cursing to himself and sometimes when the ladies laughed a bit louder, he’d give a fake-laughter with a mean tone. Personally, I loved the asshole’s misery up until the point he just shouted “shut up!” and managed to silence the ladies. I almost thought I should shout something back or go out and take a leak on his tent, but karma was on my side (and the ladies’) as the talk-free silence lasted for about 30 seconds when the cover band in the local bar started blasting AC/DC on full volume and the brisk air brought the music all the way to the camping site with a volume much louder than that of the ladies. The asshole in the other tent immediately sighed a loud “oh my fucking God” and I burst into a joyful laughter. There is no joy greater than the pain of a douchebag.
Continues in the next issue of Godartet!
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nce again, Rufus wasn’t content. He felt as he was spending his whole life in a crappy job he hated and wanted a change. Like ever so often, Rufus reached his best friend for life, Simon the Sassy Salamander for advice.
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Quit your job,” he said, “you must trust that life carries you, you’ll find a better job. Care to lend me 50 bucks?”. Rufus was thrilled, lent Simon the money and immediately called his boss to resign. His boss sounded oddly pleased and Rufus went home, walking joyfully.
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owever, after 3 months of active jobsearch Rufus hadn’t found anything and lost all his money. He was getting anxious, but then remembered that Simon still owed him the 50 dollars that would save Rufus from losing his home! He called Simon the Sassy Salamander.
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How dare you attack me like that, in my time of despair,” Simon yelled to the phone because the exclusive club he was in was noisy, “I can’t just pay you back. You truly are a bad friend for even thinking about that”.
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o Rufus ended up getting evicted and thrown into the men’s shelter. There he cried himself to sleep, for he realised it was his ambition that took him there and he was a bad friend to a man like Simon. 1 3
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ONE MORE THING, JUST FOR YOU, OUR DEAR
NORWEGIAN/SWEDISH/FINNISH/ESTONIAN/POLISH READER!
ARE YOU AN ARTIST, OR DO YOU KNOW ANY ARTISTS OR THOUGHTFUL PEOPLE IN SOME OTHER FIELDS? YES? WOW, THAT IS SO COOL! IF YOU OR YOUR FRIENDS WISH TO SEE THEIR NAMES IN THIS MAGAZINE, THAT CAN EASILY BE ARRANGED! HERE’S WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR: WRITERS!
ARTISTS!
Essays, short stories, poems. You name it, we’ll take it! If you have anything in your drawer just waiting to see the light of day, send it to us and we might just publish it. We’re not telling you how to write your stuff, but in essays we’re looking for something that’s related to Nordic arts or culture. Poems and short stories are of course a free-roam, but local point of view is preferred. We don’t have any word or character limitations like those silly professionals, but we hope that you remain in a maximum of 15 A4 pages with some basic size 12 font. Also, no politics, religion, sports or other unrelated boredom!
This is why we do this, to give visibility to amazing artists. Whatever is your medium, from painting to sculpture and photography to textile design, we’re willing to let you promote yourself. In each number we have room for 5 artists and each artist gets a total of 6 spreads to promote themselves (1 spread is a mandatory cover, so 5 is just for art) that you can use any way you wish. Not all of them have to be used, of course. We’ll take care of the lay-out and the end result will always be approved by you before publishing and all the copyrights remain with you.
TIPS!
READERS!
Do you have local knowledge of the best culture events in your town that nobody else knows? Or maybe you have a great idea for a feature story, Gonzo-concept or otherwise great ideas on how to make Godartet a better magazine? If so, do contact us! We’re eager to know what’s happening out there.
If you don’t have anything to contribute, but just like to read our nifty little paper, do share us with the world! We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Issuu, we have our own webpage and a YouTube channel so there are many ways for spreading the word about Godartet. And for this, we salute you! Sharing is daring... Or something like that.
And just for all to know, we can’t compensate for your writings, as Godartet works purely on voluntary work (this includes Ville and Juha). However, we also won’t be charging you for anything, and we hope to help you in any way we can. Also, don’t worry about your English, because Godartet has a professional proofreader, who makes sure your words are solid. Hope to hear from you soon!
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LEGAL INFORMATION GODARTET IS A NON-COMMERCIAL, NON-PROFIT MAGAZINE AIMING TO SUPPORT, SPREAD AND ANALYSE ART AND CULTURE FROM NORWAY, SWEDEN, FINLAND AND ESTONIA. THE MAGAZINE IS BASED IN HELSINKI, FINLAND. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: VILLE KOSKI. SENIOR EDITOR: JUHA HEIKKINEN. EVERYTHING PUBLISHED IN GODARTET IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND ALL OF THE COPYRIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE MAKERS UNLESS SPECIFICALLY MARKED OTHERWISE. DO NOT COPY, ALTER, SHARE OR IN OTHER WAYS USE THE MATERIAL IN GODARTET WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE SPECIFIC COPYRIGHT OWNER, WHOM YOU MAY CONTACT DIRECTLY OR THROUGH GODARTET MAGAZINE. ANYONE BREAKING THESE RULES WILL BE CAUGHT, FOUND AND - FOR YOUR INFORMATION - WE THINK LANNISTER IS THE COOLEST HOUSE IN GAME OF THRONES. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS CAN BE SENT TO GODARTETMAGAZINE@GMAIL.COM. HAPPY READINGS!