George Michael’s Athens concert July 12, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Music Life Greek, Music Life Live Gigs.comments closed
One of the top events in Greece this summer, if not of the year, is the forthcoming live performance of George Michael in Athens, July 26.
One of the Greek lifestyle magazines, titled Downtown, published the news that Greek-Cypriot singer Anna Vissi will open George Michael’s concert as a support act. However, local Love Radio published on its website that these news are false. The radio claims that Anna Vissi is currently recording her new CD album in Los Angeles and travels between LA and New York where Anna owns a house as wel as a restaurant business.
George Michael’s Athens concert is on 26 July at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex Stadium.
And by the way, did you know that superstar George Michael is of Greek-Cypriot origins?
Michael was born Giorgos Kyriacou Panayiotou in East Finchley, North London. His father was Kyriacos Panayiotou, a Greek-Cypriot restaurateur who moved to England in the 1950s and changed his name to “Jack Panos”. Michael’s maternal grandfather was from a poor working-class English family and his maternal grandmother was from a wealthy Jewish family. Their daughter was Michael’s beloved mother, Lesley Angold Harrison, a former dancer who died of cancer in 1997.
He spent the majority of his childhood in North London living in the home his parents bought shortly after his birth. He began his career by forming a short-lived ska band called The Executive with his best friends Andrew Ridgeley, Paul Ridgeley, Andrew Leaver and David Mortimer (aka David Austin). George attended Kingsbury High School, briefly in 1974, as did his sisters Melanie and Yioda.
With or without Anna, HomeboyMediaNews’ Editor will be there! Join me!
Related Links > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Michael
Official website > http://www.georgemichael.com
Tickets for George’s concert > http://www.ticketnet.gr/reviewsMichael.html
Forsythe tribute ends with performance installation “Heterotopia” July 12, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Ballet Dance Opera, Hellenic Athens Festival.comments closed
The show will open tonight and will run to Saturday at the Pireos 260 venue. It is performed by Yoko Ando, Esther Balfe, Francesca Caroti, Dana Caspersen, Marthe Krummenacher, Roberta Mosca, Nicole Peisi and Yiannis Mandafounis, among others.
The Athens Festival’s tribute to acclaimed choreographer William Forsythe will end with one of Forsythe’s more recent works, the performance-installation “Heterotopia” performed by the Forsythe Company at the Pireos 260 venue tonight to Saturday.
If one assumes that dance has always held a defining role in the arts, then that concept was given new meaning by Forsythe. His Forsythe Company became the tool for exploration. “Heterotopia”, something between a performance and an installation, appeals to more than one of the audience’s senses. Powerful movement and speech, set against an unconventional setting, public venues and museums, are the materials used by the inventive choreographer. It is a study on the nature of interpretation and its failed efforts to provide explanations. The work is divided into two complementary parts.
The music is by Thom Willems and the sound mixing is by Dietrich Kruger and Niels Lanz. The costumes were designed by Dorothee Merg. The production features interpreters Yoko Ando, Esther Balfe, Francesca Caroti, Dana Caspersen, Marthe Krummenacher, Roberta Mosca, Nicole Peisi, Yiannis Mandafounis, Fabrice Mazliah, Christopher Roman, Yasutake Shimaji, Ander Zabala, Jone San Martin, Elizabeth Waterhouse, Cyril Baldy, Amancio Gonzalez and David Kern.
For tickets call 210 3272000.
Kurdish girl revives musical traditions July 12, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Hellenic Athens Festival.comments closed
Aynur set to perform in World Music series of Athens Festival
Aynur, the “Kurdish girl” as she is fondly called by fans, will be coming to Athens to appear at the Scholeion Theater on July 19 in the World Music series of the Athens Festival.
One of the singer’s greatest achievements is the revival of traditional music, as she renders the emotionality of music and the lyrics with emotive sensitivity.
A selection of Cycladic treasures > a brief guide July 12, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Arts Museums, Books Life Greek.comments closed
The Museum of Cycladic Art has issued a new guidebook on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.
Rather than presenting an overwhelming and all-inclusive tome, the archaeologists-curators of the Museum were asked to select what they saw as representative objects of its permanent collection, accompanied by succinct descriptions. The visitor buying the conveniently sized book is provided with an easy way to recall or become familiar with both the way the antiquities are laid out and with the chronology and contexts of the pieces.
With clear, color images of objects from the Cycladic, Ancient Greek and Cypriot collections, elucidated by readable descriptions, the guidebook, like the Museum itself, presents the various eras and art of the period in a manageable, distilled way. The guidebook also explains the Museum’s increasingly important role, through its temporary exhibits, of highlighting the influence of Cycladic art on modern artists.
A text definitely meant to be used and read rather than relegated to the coffee table, the guide narrates the development of the museum from the 1986 opening of the private collection of Dolly and Nicholas Goulandris as it grew to a collection encompassing temporary modern exhibits, different eras of Greek antiquity, research and multiple educational programs. At the heart of the Museum, however, is the ever-intriguing and mysterious Cycladic era, its marble figurines consistently, as the guidebook attests, “opening the way for an ongoing and productive dialogue between the ancient and the modern, the past and the present.”
“Museum of Cycladic Art: A Brief Guide” is on sale at the Museum gift shop, 4 Neophytou Douka Street, Kolonaki, Athens, tel 210 7228321, in both a Greek and an English version, for 15 euros.
Baev, Christofidelis end Greece careers July 12, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Baseball Handball Volleyball.comments closed
The Hellenic Volleyball Federation decided yesterday to exclude star players Todor Baev and Costas Christofidelis from all future activities of the Greek National Team, due to their alleged lack of interest.
Baev and Christofidelis have turned down invitations to the National Team by coach Alekos Leonis, ending their Greece career despite being only 30 years old. Greece is expected to feel their absence at the European Championship in September.
Leonis yesterday invited his squad of 16 players to start training for the year’s big event at National Team level. The good news is the return of skipper Marios Giourdas, who was not selected for the European League in May and June.
The eighth wonder of the world July 12, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Greece News, Vote For 7New Wonders.comments closed
It is unclear exactly what the criteria were in the recent competition for the selection of the “new seven wonders of the world”, an online poll that attracted such worldwide interest.
Was it the size of the monuments that influenced the vote? Was it how imposing those monuments were deemed to be? Or perhaps it was their recognizability? Maybe the population of the countries where the monuments are located played a role in the voting process. It is not unlikely that a certain form of “monumental patriotism” drove a large proportion of the population in many countries to send in their votes. But it is strange that such a fever did not sweep along many Greeks, who once set the top spot in the Eurovision song contest as a National goal.
Certainly the contest did not judge the artistic value of the monuments. On the one hand, this cannot be assessed by any opinion poll. But on the other, how can one compare the reinforced concrete and soapstone statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro with India’s Taj Mahal. Furthermore, the contest did not consider the contribution made by each monument toward shaping civilization. The Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru may be striking and beautiful but they had a relatively small impact on modern civilization, as they were only discovered about a century ago.
In the final analysis, the greatest miracle of this contest was its organization. Let’s consider that for a moment: A private company managed without any help from national or international organizations, to coordinate an international ballot that attracted 100 million people. A contest that some may have regarded as silly drew the active participation of 1.6 percent of the world’s population.
According to estimates by international organizations, a quarter of the world’s entire population heard about the initiative before the results of online polling were announced during a ceremony in Lisbon.
Ministers of European Union member states found themselves obliged to make statements, albeit discrediting ones. I am not just referring to Greece’s Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, who makes statements at every given opportunity but to also his French counterpart Christine Albane, and others.
In a few years, no one will remember the results of this contest. It was a “media event” which will be forgotten like so many others before it. It was useful though, as it highlighted a real miracle: the technology we possess in our offices and homes. And this is the eighth and greatest wonder of our modern world. We do not see it because it is constantly before our eyes.
It is this same wonder that mobilized so many Greeks to protest the destruction wrought upon Mount Parnitha.
Related Reading > The Power of the (wired) masses.
Aegean Airlines shares surge on debut July 12, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Business & Economy, News Flights.comments closed
Shares in Greek carrier Aegean Airlines which went public in late June, gained 22.37 percent on their debut on the Athens bourse yesterday.
The first airline to list on the Athens bourse, Aegean, which competes with Olympic Airlines on domestic and international routes, went public at 7.60 euros a share, raising 136 million euros. The IPO price translates into a market capitalization of 542 million euros for the carrier. The airline offered 25 percent of its share capital, issuing 17,854,280 new common registered shares. It said it will use the IPO proceeds to finance new aircraft for its fleet and route expansion.
«The market is looking to the future and, based on Aegean’s ambitious business plan, the valuation is attractive,» said analyst Angelos Chorafas at Eurocorp Securities.
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