Drink your way to beauty June 8, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Fashion & Style, Health & Fitness.comments closed
Instead of going out and spending a fortune on manicures and facials and other beauty procedures, you can drink your way to stronger nails any younger and healthier looking skin.
If you want longer, stronger nails that won’t break (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), stop wasting your money at pricey nail salons. You can naturally strengthen your nails by drinking soy milk. Soy in loaded with protein, a main nutrient that controls the growth of nails. If you drink one eight-ounce glass of soy milk daily for one week, you should notice a difference in the length and strength of your nails. Instead of pouring regular milk in your cereal, pour in vanilla soy milk. Or treat yourself to a glass of chocolate soy milk in lieu fattening chocolate milk.
If you have fine hair or are noticing hair loss, you should drink apple cider vinegar. Thinning hair is typically a result of a lack of minerals in your hair. Ingesting the apple cider vinegar, which is rich in minerals, can result in thicker, stronger hair. Drink three teaspoons of vinegar, followed by a glass of water, first thing in the morning or before meals. Another positive aspect of drinking vinegar is that is also aids in weight loss.
In Greek mythology, pomegranates were once the fruit of choice for the Greek gods who believe it could make them immortal. It’s no wonder pomegranates have been proven to strengthen the body’s natural SPF by 25 percent. Pomegranates may also have a hand in making skin have a more youthful appearance. One eight-ounce glass of pomegranate juice daily is all you need to benefit your skin. You can find it at your local grocery and health food stores.
Green tea has a great reputation for being packed with antioxidants, but many people aren’t aware of another tea that has even more antioxidants than green tea. Rooibos, a red tea with 50 percent more antioxidants than green tea, is great at batting wrinkles that are caused by free floating radicals in the body. Like the other beauty beverages, drink an eight-ounce glass of the tea daily for younger-looking skin. You can find Rooibos in Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Vanilla Red Tea.
It may not be the fanciest or trendiest drink, but water should be the go-to drink of choice for everybody. Drinking six to eight eight-ounce glass of water daily leads to healthier skin and shiny hair. Not to mention its many health benefits like the fact that it aids in weight loss by filling up the stomach so you don’t have any room for an extra serving or dessert. So be sure to drink up!
Things you buy for love June 8, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Fashion & Style, Shopping.comments closed
Cartier’s Love Charity Bracelet benefits ELEPAP
Luxury powerhouse Cartier has one question for you this week: How far would you go for love?
The French jewelry house has declared today «International Loveday», a few hours dedicated to charity and overall generosity. For Cartier’s faithful folk, this translates into some good spending at the brand’s worlwide boutiques. In Greece, the three-day Love Charity campaign kicked off yesterday and continues today and tomorrow.
At the downtown Cartier outlet, 10 percent of sales of items included in the Love Collection will be donated to the Hellenic Society for Disabled Children (ELEPAP). A non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1937, ELEPAP provides rehabilitation to physically disabled children in Greece.
More good work will be accomplished with the Love Charity Bracelet, specially designed by the jewelry house for the Loveday campaign. All proceeds from the sale of the white gold band with the powder pink cotton cord will also benefit the energetic Greek charity organization.
Cartier, 7 Voukourestiou Street, Athens, tel 210 3313600.
European Design Awards in Athens June 8, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Media Radio TV.comments closed
A new event and publication for communication field > The publisher of Greek magazine +design initiated the awards event
An event aimed at promoting communication design across Europe was held internationally for the first time this year.
The European Design Awards ceremony, which took place in Athens, was the initiative of Dimitris Fakinos publisher of +design, a bimonthly Greek magazine on design that has been published for the past nine years. Fakinos contacted 12 other leading design magazines published in different European countries and collaborated with them to organize the event.
A catalog that presents the winners of the awards has just been released in the Netherlands and will be available in Greece in the next few weeks. Orders can also be placed at www.ed-awards.com
Of the roughly 450 submissions for participation, 51 works from 15 countries were awarded. The categories in which the participants competed covered specialized areas of communication design. These were identity (as in brand logos for example), publications, digital media, packaging, posters, illustrations, typography, self-promotion, enviromental design and their sub-categories. There was also a jury prize which was given to Dutch group De Designpolitie and a Hall-of-Fame award (it included short-listed participants chosen from the 12 design magazines) which was given to renowned German designer Erik Spiekermann.
The jury’s members came from the magazines that coorganized the event (these are: 2+3 D, CAP & Design, +design, Etapes, Eyes, IDPURE, Items, KAK, Lineagrafica, novum, TYPO and Visual).
Of the 51 finalists, five were Greek: The packaging graphics award was given to Looking for their work for the Mastiha Shop products. K2DESIGN was awarded for its work for Korres natural beauty products. Beetroot Design Group was the winner in the corporate illustration category. Both designersunited.gr and “g” topped the cultural poster category.
The European Design Awards is, according to Fakinos, the only event in Europe that encompasses such a broad range of categories in communication design. What led Fakinos to initiate the event was the success of the EVGE awards on Greek graphic and illustration design, an event that +design has been organizing for the past six years.
The European Design Awards also fills a gap in the area of communication design. It is a way of promoting the work of designers and creating a network that will enable future collaborations among designers. More importantly, it helps to establish standards of artistic excellence in the field and plays an educational role for aspiring designers.
A conference that was organized in conjunction with the award ceremony (other parallel events also included two exhibitions) was another way of sparking discussion and bringing designers together. Next year’s European Design Awards will be held in Stockholm.
Petra Festival to be a rich and varied mix June 8, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Arts Events Greece, Arts Festivals.comments closed
Melodies from Cape Verde and Africa, classic Greek tunes, ancient tragedy, modern satire and comedy, dance, hip-hop and politics have all been thrown into the mix at this year’s International Petra Festival, held annually at the open-air municipal theater in Petroupolis, west of Athens.
The event, which began on June 1, will run through September 14, with a small lull in August to mark the customary exodus from the capital city.
Upcoming performances this month begin on June 16 and 17 with the 1st Anti-Racism Festival of Western Athens, which will begin daily at 6 p.m. and feature bands, stands and more to help raise public awareness of social and institutional racism.
Active Member, a local low-bap act with an avid following, will follow on June 20 and following that, on June 25 and 26, the festival has organized a tribute to the acclaimed Greek composer Nikos Mamangakis, featuring “The Ballad of Erotokritos” and a medley of airs on the first night, and an anthology of his songs on the second. The cast of singers includes Savina Yannatou, Melina Kana, Orfeas Perides and others.
The month will end on a comic note, with a performance of two one-act plays: “The Grocer’s Daughter” by Angelos Vlachos and “Servant Wanted” by Babis Anninos.
The rest of the season has plenty to offer, including performances of ancient drama and comedy, Aristophanes’ “Plutus,” “Thesmophoriazusae” and “The Knights” and Sophocles’ “Antigone”, a staging by the Regional Municipal Theater of Crete of Nikos Kazantzakis’s “Captain Michalis,” Bost’s “Medea” and more, while on a musical front, acclaimed Greek singer Haris Alexiou will pay tribute to the groundbreaking composer Manos Loizos on July 2. The “Barefoot Diva” of Cape Verde, Cesaria Evora, who has held several sold-out concerts in Greece in the past, will appear on July 8, talented local singers/songwriters Socrates Malamas and Alkinoos Ioannidis will join forces on July 9, pop crooner Michalis Hadziyiannis will play solo on July 16 and, in September, the Mama Africa festival will start off the month. A week later Goran Bregovic, best known for his many years of collaboration with Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica, will appear at Petra with his Wedding and Funeral Band.
Petra Theater, Petroupolis, Athens, tel 210 5012402.
Celebrating 13 years of dance June 8, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Arts Festivals, Ballet Dance Opera.comments closed
Kalamata’s annual Summer Festival returns with more captivating shows and events > ‘Spiegel’ is a compilation of scenes from six different works by pioneering Belgian choreographer Wim Vanderkeybus
Kalamata’s International Dance Festival, one of Greece’s annual summer highlights, promises to be even richer and more interesting this year. With powerful performances from Belgium, but also France, Sweden, Israel and, of course, Greece, the festival will take place July 13 to 22. The shows, as well as a variety of parallel events and educational seminars will be spread across various venues of the southern city.
The festival, which is keen on representing all tendencies of the contemporary dance scene and has hosted performances by highly distinguished artists since its inception in 1995, has become a well-known institution, as underlined at Wednesday’s press conference by Minister of Culture Giorgos Voulgarakis. «Dance is a privileged field because it transcends language barriers and can be understood by people of different cultures and nationalities. Greece can have results by investing in it,» said Voulgarakis, who also announced his decision to have Athens’s Embros Theater stage dance productions exclusively. This year, the Ministry increased its funding for the Kalamata Festival to approximately half a million euros.
The fact that a provincial city such as Kalamata, which lacks the capital’s structure, has managed to establish a landmark dance festival and set precedents is very important, as pointed out by the Minister of Culture. The city’s international dance center is active throughout the year, engaging in research and cultivating relations with institutions abroad, the festival’s artistic director Vicky Marangopoulou explained. Educational activities are of major importance for such a festival to grow, she emphasized, adding that what has made it all possible is the existence of DEPAK, the city’s municipal organization for cultural growth.
Kalamata’s 13th Festival will comprise three sections: the main program of performances, educational seminars and parallel events. The main program has a strong Belgian presence, Belgium being a country which has been setting new standards in contemporary dance since the early 1980s, with the contribution of artists such as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Jan Fabre and the eruption of the so-called «vague flamande.» Wim Vandekeybus, one of the pioneers of Belgian contemporary dance, will present «Spiegel» (Mirror), a compilation of scenes from six landmark works of his from the past 20 years, with his group Ultima Vez. «This performance can provide a second reading of his work,» said Marangopoulou.
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, another Belgian artist, may only be 30 years old but he has already made a name for himself worldwide and is an expert at combining various techniques. «Myth,» one of the festival’s highlights and Cherkaoui’s first choreography for the Toneelhuis company, features 21 dancers, actors and musicians. Exploring the ways that traumas influence people, the performance has a setting that combines elements from Hieronymus Bosch paintings and Japanese manga.
Two years after its first appearance in Kalamata, Belgian contemporary dance collective Les Ballets C. de la B. will return with choreographer Koen Augustijnen’s latest production. «’Import Export’ is about globalization and people’s weakness and difficulty in responding to all the pressures,» said Marangopoulou. Another two artists who have emerged from Belgium’s dance scene, Greece’s Linda Kapetanea as well as Josef Frucek, will perform «Sudden Showers of Silence.» Founders of the Rootlessroot company, Kapetanea and Frucek previously worked with Vandekeybus.
In his first appearance in Greece, Sweden’s Palle Dyrvall will perform the solo black comedy «Catastrophe Communication Combinatoria,» a monologue of destruction which combines dance, movement and recitation which he choreographed with his collaborator Caroline Hainaut. France’s Dominique Boivin and Pascale Houbin will cast a poetic look at the medieval love story of Abelard and Heloise in «Bonte Divine.» Houbin is the founder of her Non de Nom dance company and Boivin is co-founder of the Beau Geste company.
Israel’s Batsheva dance company will perform Ohad Naharin’s choreography «Mamootot.» The production, Naharin’s first work following his wife’s premature death, is different from the choreographer’s previous work.
Greek of Cypriot descent Fotis Nikolaou and the X-It company will perform «9th Hour,» a work about death, loss and abandonment. «It is very important for Greek groups to participate in festivals alongside dance companies and choreographers that have been such an influence,» said Nikolaou.
«The parallel events will help give an atmosphere of celebration to the city,» said Marangopoulou, explaining that they will help even those who are not acquainted with dance to get a feeling of it. The events will include a site-specific duet by Dominique Boivin at the city port, Italian tarantellas by the Encardia ensemble at the Municipal Railways Park, live music shows by Belgium’s Think Of One and the screening of Buster Keaton’s «Navigator,» accompanied by live music. The seminars will be conducted by Frey Faust.
Greek National Opera Ballet’s Lynn Seymour quits post June 8, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Ballet Dance Opera.comments closed
Classical dancer Lynn Seymour served as artistic director at the Greek National Opera Ballet
Lynn Seymour, the world-renowned Canadian classical dancer who served as artistic director at the Greek National Opera Ballet for the past year, has resigned from her post.
Commenting on her decision, Seymour noted that her “artistic objectives could not be reached under specific working conditions,” while adding that changes she had proposed “could not be implemented in the near future.” The Greek National Opera Ballet, which has accepted Seymour’s resignation, said that ties between the two sides remained amicable.
A legendary dancer in classical ballet and more recently an instructor, Seymour was offered the post of artistic director at the National Opera Ballet by Stefanos Lazaridis, shortly after he had assumed its management with the aim of reviving the entire approach to state ballet performances in this country. Throughout the National Opera Ballet’s hierarchy, however, Seymour apparently began to encounter an unproductive work environment stifled by public sector-type complacency.
Making no attempt to conceal her frustration, and hinting that resignation was not too far off, Seymour, in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini published last January, had remarked: “Greek bureaucracy is continuously creating obstacles for me. Such regulations have no place in the arts.” “You cannot direct an artistic group as if it’s a post office, a provincial one, too,” she added.
Reports said that Seymour had returned to her home in the United Kingdom. As for the National Opera Ballet, its artistic agenda for next season has already been mapped out, sources said. Seymour’s successor, the sources added, will be announced very soon.
Seymour, the inspiration for many choreographers, particularly Kenneth MacMillan, emerged from the ranks of the UK’s Royal Ballet in the late 1950s and early 60s, when the company became one of the world’s greatest.
Ballet critic Zoe Anderson, in her book “The Royal Ballet: 75 Years” (published by Faber and Faber, 2006) described Seymour as a “classical dancer of extraordinary individuality, musical and powerfully expressive.”
Greece snatches late victory June 8, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Football.comments closed
National Team now five points clear in Euro 2008 group after 2-1 win over Moldova
European Champions Greece stretched its lead at the top of Euro 2008 Group C with a dramatic 2-1 win over Moldova, courtesy of an injury-time goal from substitute Nikos Lymberopoulos, in a qualifier on Crete on Wednesday night.
The win, which follows Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Hungary, gives Greece 18 points from seven games, five more than Turkey, who have a game in hand, Norway and Bosnia. Also Wednesday night, Norway defeated visiting Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina, at home, struggled to overcome Malta for a 1-0 win.
Though not satisfied with his team’s performance, Rehhagel stressed that lowly rivals were not necessarily easy to beat, though the two latest wins will take some pressure off the German coach.
“I’ve certainly experienced lots of situations such as this before. It’s difficult when you’re up against opponents with nothing to lose. Italy won 2-1 at Faroe Islands and Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Malta by just 1-0,” said Rehhagel, while warning that Greece still had work to do to secure its place in the Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland. “We’re not looking at the standings yet. The second round has just begun. If we win the next three games, then we’ll take a look at the standings.”
The seven-team group’s winner and runner-up qualify for the Euro 2008 finals.
After striker Angelos Charisteas put Greece ahead on the half-hour, the National team appeared headed for an easy victory. Greece, mediocre in the second half, was unable to stretch its lead and was made to pay when Moldova substitute Viorel Frunza equalized 10 minutes from time.
The alarm sensed by the Greek team generated purpose which was rewarded in the fourth minute of stoppage time when the long-serving striker Nikos Lymberopoulos, a frequent late scorer throughout his career, sneaked the ball into the net after a long pass into the box from right-back Yiourkas Seitaridis.
Responding to Moldova’s last-minute defeat, coach Igor Dobrovolsky said it helped to instill wisdom into his young team. “I’m glad we conceded a goal in the 94th minute. The boys are young, we’re building a new team. Coming at that stage of the game, it is a lesson for all of us,” said Dobrovolsky.
For its next encounter, following the summer break, Greece will be hosted by Norway on September 12. Also Wednesday, Greece’s Under-19 team qualified for next month’s European Championships with a 4-0 home win against Sweden.
Greece, which captured top spot in its qualifying group, struck three times in the game’s final 10 minutes. The draw for the tournament, to be held in Austria from July 16 to 27, will be held next Wednesday. Eight finalists will compete.
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