Maddie Grigg on Bridport: Hurry!

An important posting.

Zisimos, Corfu Liston, where the serious business is done

The place to hang out in Corfu, if you are of a certain gravitas and age...

I wouldn't want them to change or modernise anything, except perhaps the meze served with ouzo

Sad news: Update (August 2012) concerning the closure of Zisimos, Cafe Olympia, from John's Corfu World

Athens News is 60

Congratulations to Athens News, a great little newspaper.

I always find the Letters to the Editor of interest.

Thessaloniki (Salonica), Centenary of Liberation, 2012

Once upon a time I lived in an apartment (in a modern block) approximately in the same location as the building to the left of this picture (above). 

Later, we moved to Panorama, with this sort of view -

if you track left

Edward Lear, Salonica (detail, from Vlatadon Monastery)

Thessaloniki , with a history dating back to 315 BC, celebrates a Centenary of Freedom

A short history

Dromoi Palioi (Anagnostakis/Theodorakis)

Theodorakis sings Anagnostakis

Poems by Manolis Anagnostakis (1925-2005) in English, tr, David Connolly (see Thessaloniki, Days of 1969 A.D.)

From The Gulf, by Klitos Kyrou (1921-2006) translated by Kimon Friar:

He stammered a difficult language

The house of commerce was not suitable

As a loudspeaker the corridors impenetrable

Crammed full of bank notes and bills of lading

There was no place where he could stand

He preferred the language of poets...

Sometimes I feel like one of the ghosts, walking the old streets of Salonica, streets which the poets have loved and hated,  interminably, without end...

***

From Manolis Anagnostakis, Ta Poimata (Pleias, Athens), "Pente Mikra Themata, III"

UPDATE ON THESSALONIKI 1912-2012 EVENTS

Street in Thessaloniki, Osbert Lancaster 

(from Classical Landscape with Figures, London, 1947)

George Ioannou, In an Old Turkish House:

From Ta Chillia Dentra kai alla poimata (Athens, 1982)

I was on the Organising Committee for this September 1981 Conference on the Conservation and Rehabilitation of Traditional Buildings and Urban Complexes:

It made me very interested in traditional Greek architecture, as in Zagori (Epirus)

Another Edward Lear image here

It's distressing to read the negative comments about Salonica made by Edward Lear, Osbert Lancaster and Francis King. For five years I was very happy there. My last big project before I transferred to Prague was to initiate an exhibition of the watercolours and drawings of Walter S. George and others, important copies of the murals, mosaics and frescos of the Byzantine Church of Saint Demetrios, (for the Demetria Festival and the 2300th Anniversary of Thessaloniki). The church was devastated by fire in the Great Fire of 1917. Although some wonderful mosaics were not damaged, these records are of vital artistic and historical importance.

As my successor noted in the exhibition catalogue:

"It is offered in recognition of the high regard and mutual respect which exists between the British Council and the Municipality of Thessaloniki".

It was a true labour of love for all concerned, and a fine example of collaboration between the British Council and the British School at Athens.

With the Mayor

***

From a poem attributed (by Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis) to Simeon of Thessalonica (d.1429; Archbishop of Thessaloniki from 1416/17 until his death):

Saint Demetrios:

Despair not, my birthplace,

beset by tyrants,

from whom deliverance

through me thou seekest to find....

Thessaloniki:

Through thy intercession

from woe was I rescued,

under thy wings

kept safe forever...

Help me, Demetrios... 

Hail, Demetrios.

(From 'Thessaloniki and Life", Mother Thessaloniki, Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, tr. Leo Marshall, Kedros Modern Greek Writers, 1998)

Old Photos of Thessaloniki (slide show)

Old Photos (2)

Old Photos (3)

Mayor Yiannis Boutaris on the future of Thessaloniki

More on the Mayor

Video on modern Thessaloniki

Update, Greek Reporter, October 26, 2017:

The Unknown Cart Maker Who Contributed to the Liberation of Thessaloniki

Poverty in Greece

I have been hearing a lot of distressing stories of hunger and poverty in Greece, and this blog posting provides photographic evidence, if any was needed.

Eye witnesses of the 1941-1943 period are beginning to make comparisons.

Dangerous talk.

Also, BBC World Service this morning, on the state of Greek hospitals, shortages and the healthcare system.
Starts at 16.34 (minutes), available on BBC i-player until 9 February

Corfu's Richard Pine, in The Irish Times

John Psaropoulos (The New Athenian).

Kano, Nigeria

Mark Doyle's BBC reports about events in Kano, Nigeria, make for difficult watching and listening,

TV report

Mark Doyle BBC World Service Special Essay (I-Player) today, 1st February.

Some verses from a song written after my own visit to Kano in happier times:

Trying to keep cool in Kano

I've got no sense of direction,
I don't know which path I should choose.
I'm just trying to keep cool in Kano;
Last week I had snow on my shoes.

The roads were all blocked by the blizzards,
I half hoped I might miss the flight;
But as soon as I checked in they grabbed me,
They strapped me in for the night...

I'm deep in the North of Nigeria,
The harmattan's blowing today.
They've never seen a homesick snowman,
They won't mind if I just melt away...

Kano Hip Hop Music

Kano, Duelling Kuntigis