You are all invited to a blog party this Thursday March 31, 2005

in  Kailoipalogion(my other (greek) blog)

Είστε όλοι/ ες καλεσμένοι/ ες σε ΜπλογκοΠάρτυ (ελληνιστί ιστολογιοεσπερίς) στο <a href="http://etcetcetcetc.blogspot.com/">Καιλοιπαλόγιον</a> (το άλλο (ελληνικό) μπλογκ μου αυτή την Πέμπτη 31 Μαρτίου (και μετά)

I thought I try a blog over at blogspot too… and see what happens…

Today, 25 of March, it’s a national holiday here in Greece,  something like Independence Day, commemorating the start of the revolt against the Ottoman Turkish occupation of Greece in 1821.

And, as every year, there was that big military parade. Thousands of soldiers, sailors, paratroopers, tanks, missile launchers, jets and helicopters flying overhead, etc…etc…. A loud military cacophony, a symphony of death. As I already have told you, I live, and work, right in the center of downtown Athens, so I was right in the middle of that military mayhem. I felt a bit like a war correspondent. Also, as in every inner city in every western country, my neighborhood is full of immigrants. Today they seemed to wander aimlessly looking a bit perplexed and a bit frightened by all this hullabaloo. As was I, although that I lived with that annual farce all my life. Of course I enjoyed parades in the past, until the age of 9.

And of course this is another long weekend. Everybody, and his dog, have gone away to the “country”. I decided to stay at home and work. No, not even to Nea Filadefia and mother’s food and TV.  What I need right now is some quality, creative, work time. I feel so much better when I create something good. I already have finished three cartoons for the “9” magazine and I am quite pleased with them. And not television, no thank you, no, no! I think that’s what makes me feel low, a mindless waste of time in front of that stupid box. I don’t watch even the DVDs that are included in the newspapers.

Back to the books! Now, I’m reading a 1956 book about the dead sea scrolls, don’t ask me why, I’d don’t know, I am not religious at all! It is just simply that the secondhand bookstore in my neighborhood, that I usually buy my books from, seemed to have replaced all their books with “romantic” novels. So it was either those books or the book about the dead sea scrolls. It wasn’t such a tough choice!

I rediscovered the dictating tool of the Windows xp and although it’s not perfect it is helpful. And as, since the stroke I had, I have some difficulty typing, now I can write more than a couple of lines in my blog… I don’t know if that’s such a good thing but anyhow…

OK… bye bye my dears

Today I read in Eleftherotypia that Liberation had as the main story something about blogs. I went to Liberation’s site managed to find the article (or is this the one) but that was as far my (non existent) French took me. Does anybody know where I could find an emglish (or greek) translation of it?

You simply have to check out this outrageous and extraordinary (in the full sense of the world) "family album". I found it thro’ Pooka’s blog (in Greek) that has to be the sweetest blog around! Diabetics Beware!

I am feeling kinda better… I am working OK therefore I am OK…

In a week (March 31^st) I will cross the threshold of the big five-oh too… I suppose even just that is enough to dampen any mood!...

About greek blogs written in English (in greek) here, in varometro blog

The (fellow) cartoonist’s blog, that I mentioned few days ago, is getting better and better all the time! It is getting simply irresistable! One more to check daily!

Well... I was not 100% truthful when I said that I was going nowhere… I came to my mother’s house for a couple of days. I didn’t mention it ‘cause:

1. I do it every week

2. it’s only a 20 minutes taxi ride away. I live smack in the center of Athens (2 blocks away from Omonoia Sq.) and she lives in Nea Filadelfeia (North Athens)

…still…

…on a brighter side…

… I go from this…

..to this…(the laptop always with me)

…and from this view

...to this view…

(this is an aprx. 150 degrees panorama from west-left to north-right)

…and on the darker side (or not)…

…from this…

...to this…

(from books to tv)

OK… bye my dears….

Later I cooled down and realized two things:

first there’s such a thing as subjective perception, you know like a pregnant woman keeps seeing other pregnant women, or if you are an artist trying to strike an harmonious combination of a dark red with a dark green keeps seeing examples of it all around…

and second we are talking about the major band in history and not some obscure assemble…

Of course these rationalizations don’t take away of the magic, far from it, the whole thing enhanced the pleasure of my cartoon creation…

“Which is the band?” and “what is the cartoon about?” you ask? Well patience… you have to wait a few weeks… I can’t give the gag away!

On a different note, everybody, here in Greece, has gone away. We have a long weekend and on Monday we fly kites and eat non-meat delicacies. Even my aged mother will go on a day trip tomorrow! Everybody has gone away, except me! I do not know if it is the backlog of work that has to be delt with, or my lack of mobility after the stroke, or if these are just excuses and I am really a lazy, antisocial person who can’t be bothered. The truth, though, is that I do enjoy my work, most of the times, it has a relaxing/exhilarating effect on me! On the other hand being squeezed in an uncomfortable bus full belching, farting, smoking, swearing, opionated strangers and screaming kids to go to a place crowded with even more of the same people for the purpose of doing absolutely nothing is not my idea of fun, and very tiring to boot!