Nick Galis inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame September 13, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Basketball.comments closed
Retired Greek basketball legend Nick Galis was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame yesterday.
Galis, now 50, who was in the stands to see Greece beat Portugal on Tuesday and advance to the Eurobasket quarterfinals in Spain, received an extended standing ovation when presented to fans.
“No player can reach objectives without the support of a great team,” said US-born-and-raised Galis. “That’s why I’d like to thank my teammates, coaches, and the Greek basketball federation for standing by me all these years.”
Following Tuesday’s win over Portugal, TV cameras showed scenes of a jovial reunion between Galis and his former Greece and Aris teammate Panayiotis Yiannakis, now Greece’s coach.
Galis, who averaged over 30 points per game for Greece in a 16-year career and helped the team win the European title in 1987 was one of 20 players, coaches and technicians inducted into the Hall of Fame at this ceremony.
Thessaloniki Concert Hall program on a small budget September 13, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Arts Events Greece, Ballet Dance Opera, Music Life Classical.comments closed
Perhaps small in scope but rich in quality > Dimitris Baslam’s fairy-tale music and narration spectacle ‘O Gargalistis’ is a children’s event that will be staged December 15 to 19.
The Thessaloniki Concert Hall is about to embark on the new season with a rather restricted program. Its stable, yet meager, funding, which amounts to just 1.5 million euros, has resulted in a very small number of events for the autumn period. Highlights from October to December include a Christmas gala, the concert hall’s 12th opera production, Strauss’s “Salome,” and a concert by the Munich Symphony Orchestra.
The new year will feature two major concerts, with the Salzburg Camerata Orchestra, under the baton of Leonidas Kavakos, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, which will be conducted by distinguished maestro Zubin Mehta.
The season will kick off with a jazz night on October 1, where saxophonist Dimos Dimitriadis and pianist Giorgos Kontrafouris will play classics by Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and other composers.
Richard Strauss’s opera “Salome,” a joint production of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall and the City of Thessaloniki, to commemorate the 42nd Demetria Festival, will be staged on October 12, 14, 17 and 20. Directed by Nikos Petropoulos, the production will feature opera singers Daphne Evangelatou, Vangelis Hadzissimos and Maroussa Xyni as well as the City of Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Nikos Athineos. The opera will have Greek supertitles.
Conducted by Georg Schmoehe, the Munich Symphony Orchestra will give two concerts in November. On November 14, the orchestra will perform compositions by Brahms and Beethoven, joined by violinist Simos Papanas, and on the 15th it will perform works by Beethoven only, along with pianist George-Emmanuel Lazaridis.
Dimitris Baslam’s fairy-tale music and narration spectacle “O Gargalistis,” about an eccentric traveler who steals laughter from children who have too much and gives it to children who don’t, will be the children’s event marking the end of the year December 15 to 19.
The year will officially end with the annual celebration gala, which will take place on December 23. Tenor Mario Frangoulis will join forces with soprano Deborah Myers, accompanied by the City of Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, under Nikos Athineos.
The concert hall will continue its series of concerts in its foyer as well. Violinist Danae Papamathaiou-Matschke and pianist Uwe Matschke will perform works by Mozart, Beethoven, Ysaye and Brahms on November 5. On November 19, the foyer will host a musical soiree titled “Thessaloniki: Poetry and Music,” with vocalist Dimitris Nikoloudis, and in “Romanticism and Love in Lied,” which will take place on December 10, soprano Marina Vouloyianni will perform works by Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Mahler, Brahms, Poulenc and others, accompanied by pianist Nikos Zafranas.
The concert hall will also make an innovative move this season, as some of its concerts will be broadcast live to various Greek provincial towns, starting with Trikala. Concerts will be transmitted with high-quality sound and image, as part of a European program of the Thessaloniki Technical University.
An all-time classic, Carol Reed September 13, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Movies Life Greek.comments closed
Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles star in the 1949 film-noir classic ‘The Third Man.’
September’s film agenda will be further enriched by a tribute to classic filmmaker Carol Reed. The retrospective, which will feature the screening of 13 of his masterpieces, was planned on the occasion of the 100-year anniversary since Reed’s birth. It is part of the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s activities and first takes place at the Apollon cinema in Athens through September 18, starting tonight. It will then move on to Thessaloniki’s Olympion cinema, from September 20 to 26. Proceeds from the screenings will go to the people affected by the recent fires.
Reed, who was born in 1906 and died in 1976, is a landmark personality in British cinema. A contemporary of Alfred Hitchcock’s, he started directing in the mid-1930s. He worked in almost all kinds of narrative filmmaking, from the popular screwball comedies to film noir and documentaries, even musicals. He collaborated with many distinguished actors, including James Mason, David Niven, Rex Harrison, Michael Redgrave and Sir Alec Guinness as well as authors of the caliber of Graham Green. Reed’s collaboration with Green resulted in the 1949 classic “The Third Man” which won the Grand Prize at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival.
“The Third Man” which stars Orson Welles, is one of the films included in the Thessaloniki Film Festival event. The tribute will further feature the 1947 “Odd Man Out,” starring James Mason as the leader of an Irish organization who tries to escape the police. The 1945 WWII documentary “The True Glory” as well as 1948’s “The Fallen Idol,” about a butler accused of murder, will also be screened. The musical “Oliver!” based on Charles Dickens’s novel “Oliver Twist,” a 1968 production which won five Academy Awards, including that of Best Director for Reed, could not be missing from the retrospective.
Apollon Cinema, 19 Stadiou Street, Athens, tel 210 3236811.
New routes for Jet2.com September 13, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in News Flights.comments closed
From May 2008 holidaymakers will be able to fly from Leeds Bradford airport to Paphos in Cyprus and the Greek island of Crete.
Greece and Cyprus flights cost £48.99 and £58.99 respectively.
“We are now offering direct flights to 36 destinations across Europe from Leeds Bradford and we’ve got some fantastic new destinations on offer. Our unprecedented route expansion today includes top sunshine destinations in two countries we’ve never served before, Paphos in Cyprus and Heraklion in the Greek island of Crete,” commented Philip Meeson, Hhead of Jet2.
Related Links > http://www.jet2.com
Greeks ready for vote this Sunday September 13, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Politics.comments closed
The majority of the 10,000 judicial representatives that will help oversee the electoral process at voting booths across the country on Sunday 16 September have been notified of their duties, court officials said yesterday.
Just over 100 representatives had yet to receive their notices. All other procedures regarding the appointment of election officials have also been completed, officials added.
Arsonist began nine wildfires September 13, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Greece News, Police & Crime.comments closed
A 32-year-old man who confessed to setting nine fires in parts of the Peloponnese this summer told police yesterday he enjoyed watching firefighting planes fly over head.
“I enjoy watching the flames and the planes dropping water on the fire,” authorities cited the suspect as saying. The man, who has been treated at psychiatric clinics in the past, confessed to setting fire to parts of Nafplion, Tolo and Corinth. He re-enacted his crime with authorities yesterday, describing in detail how he went about the arson attack.
“Despite the fact that he has psychological problems, he appears to be well aware of what he has done. While being questioned, he admitted to setting fire to particular areas of forest that were dense and off limits to firefighting trucks,” said a senior firefighting official.
Separately, police said yesterday they found a homemade incendiary device in the burnt forest area at Ancient Olympia.
Cyprus broadband subs exceed 50% September 13, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in Internet & Web, Telecoms.comments closed
Broadband subscriptions in Cyprus exceed 50% of the total in 2006, according to the latest figures of the Statistical Service.
Mobile subscriptions are more than 100%, reaching 1,115 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2006, compared to 1,021 in 2005 and 584 in 2002. The number of analogue telephone lines per 1,000 inhabitants decreased from 524 in 2005 to 495 in 2006.
In 2006 the subscriptions for Internet access per 1,000 inhabitants reached 140, compared to 123 in 2005. There was a significant change in the type of Internet connection. Dial-up and ISDN decreased, whereas broadband connections were significantly increased, to 58.2% of total subscriptions in 2006 compared to 36.5% in 2005.
The percentage of households in Cyprus having a computer reached 52% in 2006, compared to 46% in 2005. In 2006, 37% of households had Internet access. Internet access in the different education levels is as follows: In 2006, in Primary education there were 6.4 computers connected to Internet per 100 pupils (5.7 computers in 2005), in Secondary education 13.1 computers connected to Internet per 100 pupils (12.2 computers in 2005) and in Tertiary education 14.0 computers connected to Internet per 100 students (11.7 computers in 2005).
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