Muti στον κήπο του ΜΜΑ

W.A. Mozart: Symphony no 36, "Linzer"
F. Schubert: Symphony no 8, "Unfinished"
P.I. Tchaikovsky: Symphony no 6, "Pathetique"

Wiener Philharmoniker
Conducted by Riccardo Muti

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Cracks not faultlines

Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today, by John Holloway, 2002

Crack capitalism, by John Holloway, 2010

Στη Γεωπονική, 18-20/6

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Ζέστη

Στην έρημο του Ραζαστάν, στην ΒΔ Ινδία τέλος 1993

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Athens Pride 2010

Ακόμα και το γλυπτό της Κλαυθμώνος όταν γιορτάζει φαίνεται σχεδόν συμπαθητικό

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Pastoral Jazz (by Olga Broumas, 1983)

Bride

The  sea is known to those who sail it
while those who long for it and weep distort
to hate their own salt, small and incapable
of round horizons. Song of the sea away from sea
engulfs the mouth it drowns in. Who can be happy without cause
to sing? Even in dreams the waters part, open up all the way
one way, diaspora, dust to dust. Some of us give our lives
to study
             the rate at which an animal can unlearn fear
and fall asleep to dream we dream. Tonight I will
to lie down in my native, palpitating
port, to fill
the chill dome of the mind with murmuring, subdued
old florid story of the blood, repeated wet
vow and lament.

Η Olga Broumas, καθηγήτρια στο Brandeis University, διάβασε ποιήματά της στο Θέατρο Ελληνοαμερικανικής Ένωσης.

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We're sea(n)king slowly (* )- Ένα καράβι για τη Γάζα

Πάθος, ''συναισθηματισμός'', -με ή χωρίς εισαγωγικά-, ακόμα και έλλειψη κοινής λογικής, αποτελούν τελικά συστατικά του ακτιβισμού;

(*) graffiti στο μετρό στο Μοναστηράκι, έξοδος Θέμιδος

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Le pouvoir /[La puissance] d’être affectée

Deleuze sur Spinoza. Aναφορά του Άκη Γαβριηλίδη στην παρουσίαση ''Ηγεμονικές Αρρενωπότητες''. Εργαστήριο του Β-fest Reloaded: H επιστροφή των σημασιών. Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών, 26-30 Μάη.

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Επίκαιρα

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9th African Food and Handicrafts Festival in Athens

at the gardens of the South African Official Residence

καφές στο αιθιοπικό περίπτερο

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Νύχτα Μουσείων

Στο Μουσείο Ηρακλειδών. "Η πλήρης συλλογή γλυπτών του EDGAR DEGAS". Με μουσική υπόκρουση Chopin, Satie, etc. Η καλή ιδέα:

Kαι η κακή ιδέα:

To «μαυρισμένο» κοριτσάκι που όταν δεν χορεύει αφήνει «δαχτυλάκια» παντού.

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River Sounding

A journey through the hidden sound worlds of the River Thames. Bill Fontana at Somerset House, 15/4-31/5)

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London at elections 2010

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) protesting in front of UBS

Περιμένοντας τους Ολυμπιακούς του 2012

Στο αίθριο του Somerset House

To Δημαρχείο του Λονδίνου (1998-2002) του N. Foster

Άποψη από τον Πύργο του Λονδίνου

More London walk έξω από το Δημαρχείο

Swiss Re HQ (1997-2004) a.k.a "Gherkin", του N. Foster

Cheeese in the entrance of the Gherkin restaurant

Κοινωνική κατοικία στο Islington

Χτισμένα παράθυρα για φορολογικούς λόγους

Το Πάρκο στο Islington μια καλή μέρα

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Athens calling

Dear J.+B.,

Txnx for your email and for your concern. I am doing ok for now but like everybody else can’t help wondering how even the very near future will unfold. Fortunately the media once more has blown the whole thing out of proportion, which means that at least for now we don’t kill each other in the streets…

Still, there were 3 dead people last Wednesday and no matter whom we blame: be it agitators, extremists of the right, «anarchofascists» -term borrowed by a friend’s blog-, the respectable head of the bank who threatened layoffs if employees participated to the general strike, the listed building which didn’t provide for a fire-escape, or most worrisome, the indifferent crowd/spectator, the collective numbing that followed compares only with the aftermath of Dec 6th 2008. Of course no massive outpouring of sympathy occurred this time, possibly because bank employees are not exactly popular at the moment, and here is the problem: when we reach the point when the bank employees stand for «the banks», abstract and hateful idea as may be, then we are heading for big trouble (Insert your favorite group target in «the banks» field…).

Last night the nominally democratic Parliament approved the cuts demanded by IMF. As expected there was protest and this is bound to happen regularly from now on establishing the centre of Athens as a no-man’s land. Like you say the small people are called to pay and what’s to be afraid of, the current weak government can’t guarantee that Greece will avoid bankruptcy in the end. Among those people though they are distinct groups which will suffer in various degrees and the ones that burn with holy wrath are not necessarily suffering the most.

The shift affecting public servants is of great importance since it would be considered unthinkable some months ago. A comparatively comfortable middle class mostly benefiting from a disproportioned public sector all of sudden (?) confronts with pension cuts, longer working years and worse, will have to see its offspring leaving the country if they are going to have any future at all. Greece may used to be an immigrant nation only a few generations ago but peace and borrowed prosperity erased the memory.

Vastly hit by this change are old people/people with –real- disabilities of no means, so-called illegal and not only immigrants, temps, part-timers and free-lancers working in the private sector wild-west style, «lowly» public servants who –surprise!- work hard, and in sum, whatever vestige of social security net remains.

Somewhere in between lies stuck the enterprising factor: small scale -very often family- business with little hope to innovate/restructure or even survive.

There are people who have been living within or even beneath their modest means by choice that soon turned into necessity before the «golden» Olympics and even during the stock market bubble, and I see me and many among my not-so-young friends in that place. To paraphrase a slogan: we didn’t benefit from any kind of public favor neither vote for them –and by «them» I mean the so-called right and socialist parties/«families» that take turns in power for the last 36 years. We mostly lived alternative-style lives, often turned green, sometimes contributed to culture/society, even tried by example to open a little more our «greekness» to the world. Does it make any real difference?

As I wrote to another concerned friend: «Too bad on top of «our» own bad management, corruption and big spending, we are being used as the proverbial canary in the coal mine of E.U.» We’ll probably get to know first the shape of things to come…

Till then and in spite of all this I am glad that things look promising for you and your country and still hope I may have the chance to see in person how great your attic turned!

Genki de, (*)
F.

(*) bless you (in Japanese)

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A letter from Budapest

Hi F.!

How r u? News about Greece is really dramatic. I hope the situation is not as tragic as it's presented in the media. We read about 3 people who died and various cars burnt, apart from the tough economic condition.

I understand quite well the feelings of disappointment because in Mexico it has happened too MANY times that politicians make economic commitments for small people to pay the debts, and Mexican foreign debt is HUGE!

Here in Hungary we just had elections and the opposition won; people were fed up with the so-called socialists, because they lied too much about the economic condition of the country and there was rampant corruption. People now have some hope that at the end of the month the new -right wing- government will make a difference. As far as I' m concerned I don't trust politicians too much. But it's true that in Hungary right and left have different meanings than in other countries. The right wing majority party is not my favorite but they aren't extreme.

Unfortunately an extreme-right party also made it to the Parliament because their motto was Delivering Justice against corruption, which is ok but also some of its members are against gay rights and talk against immigration: for a Hungary for Hungarians (!) -when their leader was publicly asked what that meant in the context of the E.U. he hesitated and said that a Hungarian is not a person who has just a passport but one who feels Hungarian…

Besides that we are doing more or less ok. B. got back his previous job and they started by paying him the holidays they owed him for 4 (sic) years! So now he's starting a very looong holiday. When he goes back to work by mid Sept. we expect his former bosses will have been replaced –because of the political changes.

I keep teaching and it's something I really enjoy. We'll very likely start building an attic to extend the space of our apartment. I guess you'd like to see it, it's quite interesting!

What about you? Please let me know how r u and any special news there is in Athens…

Hugs, 

J.

P.S. Greetings from B.

(*) J. is a Mexican graphics designer and an activist for the rights of Chiapas living in Budapest. B. is a Hungarian journalist. We all three met in Tokyo back in 1994.

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Longing for Japan

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