Plaque marks Greeks’ arrival in Canada January 14, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Greek Diaspora.comments closed
The first Greeks arrived in London, Canada in 1900, fleeing the poverty of their homeland.
By 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, they officially organized as the Greek Orthodox Community.
Yesterday, Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best helped unveil a plaque at city hall that marks the 106 years Greeks have lived in London, and the 71 years, to the day, since they organized.
“London is our home, and thank God for the people who came before us who organized the community. Our transition would have been much more difficult if they hadn’t,” said James Giannoulis, president of London’s Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Community.
Giannoulis came to Canada with his mother when he was 16. His father and sister came before to help Giannoulis’s widowed aunt with four children.
“We really love this city. We grew up here, our homes are here, we had children here, our businesses, we got our education in London. It’s home. “Thank you to the pioneers . . . they made it easier to transition to the Canadian way of life.”
The Greek community in London can trace its origins back to a single settler in 1900, Peter Karkambasis, who came to Canada because of “poverty in the homeland.”
“Other immigrants come because of political problems in their homelands or because of wars. The Greeks came because of poverty,” said Gary Kerhoulas, one of the organizers of yesterday’s unveiling. Although born in London, he can speak fluent Greek and is very involved in the Greek community. “We want to thank the city for Canadian democracy, Christian spirit and giving us the freedom to be ourselves,” Kerhoulas said. “In ancient times, the centre of Europe was thought to be in Greece . . . in this city, the hub of this city is this building,” he said at city hall during his speech prior to the unveiling.
After a brief prayer led by Greek Orthodox Rev. Elias Drossos, DeCicco-Best said she is proud to represent the diversity of Londoners. “You celebrate all the things that are unique to you and yet you are still a part of London,” she said. “But you still know where you come from.”
The plaque hangs in the lobby of London City Hall.
Conference on Ferdowsi, Homer to be held in Greece January 14, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Shows & Conferences.comments closed
A conference on Ferdowsi and Homer will be held at the Greek National Research Center on January 19, 2007.
The upcoming event has been organized jointly by Iranian Embassy in Athens as well as Greece’s Cooperation Council for Promotion of Persian Language and National Research Center.
According to a report released by the Public Relations Department of Iran’s Organization of Culture and Islamic Communication (OCIC) on Saturday, the remark was made by Iran’s cultural attache to Athens, Seyed Mohammad-Reza Darbandi.
Darbandi said that the two-day event aims to familiarize Greek intellectuals with the outstanding Iranian epic poet, Abolqasem Ferdowsi, and establish communication between Iranian and Greek university instructors of literature.
He said that during the conference, six professors of literature will compare the works of Ferdowsi and Homer and will express their views on the issue, adding that three of them will be Iranians.
The ambassador said that “Homer and Ferdowsi like father and son”, “Epic in the works of Ferdowsi and Homer”, “Ferdowsi, Iran’s national poet”, “Comparison of the heroes of Shahnameh and Iliad” and “A study of Shahnameh’s miniature” are among the articles to be presented at the upcoming event.
“The conference will simultaneously be held in Tehran. It will be organized jointly by Council for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Book City and the Greek Embassy in Tehran,” said the Iranian diplomat.
Graphic designers called to compete January 14, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Internet & Web.comments closed
Graphic designers, illustrators and multimedia designers who think their contributions to industry have been exemplary are being called to compete by the European Design Awards.
Winners will be showcased at a high-profile conference and in a glitzy publication, both designed to highlight the best in communication of design in Europe.
A specially designed Internet portal will also spotlight the winners, gaining them unprecedented exposure among their peers, clients and prospective clients.
There are 40 categories in which to compete, including digital media, publications, posters, packaging, illustrations, self-promotion, environmental design and typography.
To enter the competition, creatives must accompany their work with details on the brief, target audience and the “rationale behind the solution” offered to the client or company.
Publishers, editors and art directors from some of Europe’s leading design titles will be judging the entries, with winners to be invited to an awards ceremony in Athens, Greece to celebrate.
For more information, including how to enter, please see the ED website >
http://www.ed-awards.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Sleuths close in on Odysseus home January 14, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Archaeology Greece.comments closed
British history sleuths say they have uncovered new geological evidence to solve one of the great riddles of ancient Greece, pinpointing the ancient island of Ithaca, home of Homer’s legendary hero Odysseus.
“We are one step closer to solving the age-old mystery,” said management consultant Robert Bittlestone who has worked with professors of classics and geology to piece together an intriguing archaeological jigsaw puzzle.
Finding Ithaca could rival the discovery of ancient Troy on the Turkish coast in the 1870s. No one can be certain whether Odysseus or his city really existed. But the discovery of the ruins of Troy, where Odysseus and other legendary Greek heroes did battle, has led scholars to believe there is more to Homer’s tales than just legend.
Until now, the kingdom of Ithaca was thought to have been on the Ionian island of Ithaki. But Bittlestone’s team say they believe it is on Paliki, a peninsula on the island of Kefalonia, west of Ithaki.
Bittlestone, who became intrigued by the riddle while on holiday in Greece, enlisted the help of Cambridge classicist James Diggle and Edinburgh geologist John Underhill to drill a 122 meter (400 ft) bore hole on the isthmus joining Paliki to the rest of Kefalonia. It met with no solid limestone bedrock, suggesting Paliki could once have been an island in itself.
The team say rockfalls and landslides triggered by earthquakes may have filled in an ancient sea channel. Bittlestone said further tests would have to be made along the length of the isthmus to prove their island theory.
“There is every evidence we are on the right track,” he said. “For thousands of years people thought Homer was wrong in how he described the location of Ithaca. I believe Homer was right but we didn’t see it because the landscape has changed.”
Secrets of the past January 14, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Movies Life.comments closed
IMAX’s ‘Greece’ sparks desire to learn more
The IMAX film opening at the Louisville Science Center manages to cram bits of cultural history, tantalizing archaeology, geological science and spectacular scenery into its 45-minute running time.
Given that the theme of “Greece: Secrets of the Past” is that much of Western civilization’s worldview came from the brief flourishing of Athenian culture, less than a century between 500 and 400 B.C., this telescoping of detail is probably appropriate. Perhaps the best thing about the movie is that it should stimulate viewers to find out more about Greek civilization. At the very least it should inspire travel plans to the Greek islands.
Nothing captures remarkable vistas like the IMAX camera, and the quality of the light on the dramatic Greek landscape is one of the treats in the film. You may have heard that the crystal clarity of the air snaps the iridescent blue of the seas and the dazzling white of stone from which Greek cities are built into sharp relief. If you haven’t been to Greece, this is the next best way to experience that dramatic visual effect.
The film follows an archaeologist and a geologist as they explore the demise of a town on the island of Santorini. The archaeologist and his team are painstakingly reconstructing murals that were shattered when the island’s volcano erupted and buried the city. An unresolved mystery is what happened to the inhabitants. No traces of human remains, such as those from Pompeii, have been found. The geologist helps reconstruct the timeline of the volcano’s eruption and it may be that the island dwellers had time to escape by boat.
Realistic computer-generated graphics reproduce the force of the volcano’s blast. As dramatic, but moving rather than terrifying, is the computer regeneration of the Parthenon. Having been struck dumb by the beauty of the curiously lifelike Parthenon Marbles, now housed at the British Museum in London, which once decorated the Parthenon, I found its reconstruction especially fascinating. The building was a temple to Athena. The 40-foot statue of the goddess that it housed is reproduced in the film as well.
“Greece” also drops hints about how the Golden Age of Athens echoes through our own culture, such contributions as philosophy, democracy, a manageable alphabet and science. The Science Center doesn’t have a special exhibit complementing the film, but it could do a great service to intrigued viewers by stocking Thomas Cahill’s “Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter.”
‘GREECE: SECRETS OF THE PAST’
Opens: Tomorrow at 11 a.m.; 1, 3, 5, 7 p.m. at the Louisville Science Center, 727 W. Main St. For further showtimes, call (502) 561-6100 or visit www.LouisvilleScience.org.
Admission: A ticket to the film alone is $8 for adults and $7 for seniors, students and children ages 2 to 12. Combination tickets to the Museum and the film are $13 and $10.
2007 > A year of major tributes January 14, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Arts Events Greece, Arts Exhibitions Greece.comments closed
The artist. A work by Nikos Engonopoulos, one of 250 works to go on display at the Benaki Museum in November in the first retrospective of this size. Other events include an exhibition at the Macedonian Museum of Modern Art, a scientific exhibit, publications and theater.
Tributes to prominent figures in the arts and letters, such as Nikos Kazantzakis and Maria Callas are the focus of a program of events for this year announced by Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis.
It is now 30 years since the death of Callas, 50 since that of Kazantzakis, 150 since the death of Dionysios Solomos and 100 since the birth of poet and painter Nikos Engonopoulos. The announcement of the tributes was a form of dress rehearsal for the way the ministry’s various departments and organizations are to work together.
Maria Callas. Events are to include recitals by foreign artists, an international competition to find the best Violetta, Athens Festival events, concerts in the Ancient Agora, an opera at the Herod Atticus Theater, a gala at the Paris Opera, a tribute at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and television programs throughout the year.
Nikos Kazantzakis. A traveling exhibition at home and abroad, speeches, conferences and symposia at universities abroad, publication of an album, re-publication of permanent collections at the Crete History Museum, a special stand at the Thessaloniki Book Fair, concerts, a stand at the Beijing International Book Fair, a presentation at the Frankfurt fair, theater performances and cinema tributes.
Dionysios Solomos. Concert by Yiannis Markopoulos, monologues at the National Theater, special presentation at Thessaloniki and Frankfurt book fairs and a television special on Greek state media (ERT).
Nikos Engonopoulos. The first retrospective of 250 paintings at the Benaki Museum in November, an exhibition at the Macedonian Museum of Modern Art, a scientific exhibition, publication and performance are just some of the events. The National Book Center is undertaking to organizing many of these events with a committee that includes Nikos Vagenas, Stavros Zouboulakis, Aris Marangopoulos and Catherine Velissari.
Iron Maiden to rock Greece in March January 14, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Music Life Live Gigs.comments closed
Iron Maiden have confirmed that they will be playing a headline show in Athens on Sunday March 11th 2007 as part of a short run of dates in mid March which include Dubai Desert Rock Festival and two more shows soon to be announced on www.ironmaiden.com.
The venue is the 10,000 capacity Faliro Pavilion Indoor Arena in Athens and tickets for the show will be going on sale on Tuesday 16th January.
Bruce Dickinson said: “Greece has always given us such great support and we understand that ‘A Matter Of Life And Death’ was the number one album for 4 weeks and we will of course be playing some songs from that album. We were sadly unable to arrange a date in the first part of the tour so we are all very pleased to be now able to play in Athens and we expect to bring with us the full staging we have been using so far on this tour. The Greek audiences are amongst the craziest anywhere and we look forward very much to playing the show. And so of course does Eddie”.
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