#giorgos-posts

[probablyasocialecologist]

Degrowth basics

"The word degrowth stands for a family of political-economic approaches that, in the face of today’s accelerating planetary ecological crisis, reject unlimited, exponential economic growth as the definition of human progress."

What is Degrowth? | Caracol DSA

Why degrowth is the only responsible way forward | OpenDemocracy

Degrowth and MMT: A thought experiment

We Need A Fair Way To End Infinite Growth | Current Affairs

Degrowth: A Call for Radical Abundance | Common Dreams

Can degrowth save us and the planet? | Nottingham Trent

Defending limits is not Malthusian | Undisciplined Environments

Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth? | New Yorker

The Urgent Case for Shrinking the Economy | The New Republic

Giving Up on Economic Growth Could Make Us Cooler and Happier | The New Republic

A guide to degrowth: The movement prioritizing wellbeing in a bid to avoid climate cataclysm | CNBC

What is ‘degrowth’ and how can it fight climate change? | Popular Science

Enough for Everyone | Yes! Magazine

Toward a Post-Capitalist Future: On the Growth of “Degrowth” | Lit Hub

All we are saying is give degrowth a chance | The RSA

A pathway out of environmental collapse | newsroom

On Technology and Degrowth | Monthly Review

What is degrowth (and more importantly, what is it not)? | META

Green growth

"There is no empirical evidence that absolute decoupling from resource use can be achieved on a global scale against a background of continued economic growth."

Is Green Growth Possible? | Jason Hickel & Giorgos Kallis

The Myth of America’s Green Growth | Foreign Policy

The decoupling delusion: rethinking growth and sustainability | The Conversation

Is green growth happening? | Uneven Earth

Green Growth | Uneven Earth

The Delusion of Infinite Economic Growth | Scientific American

Degrowth is not austerity – it is actually just the opposite | Al Jazeera

A response to Paul Krugman: Growth is not as green as you might think | Timothée Parrique

Deceitful Decoupling: Misconceptions of a Persistent Myth | Alevgul H. Sorman

Degrowth isn’t the same as a recession – it’s an alternative to growing the economy forever | The Conversation

Degrowth and the left

"In the middle of an ecological emergency, should we be producing sport utility vehicles and mansions? Should we be diverting energy to support the obscene consumption and accumulation of the ruling class?"

The Left should embrace degrowth | New Internationalist

Ecosocialism is the Horizon, Degrowth is the Way | The Trouble

Degrowth: Socialism without Growth | Brave New Europe

Toward an Ecosocialist Degrowth: From the Materially Inevitable to the Socially Desirable | Monthly Review

For an Ecosocialist Degrowth | Monthly Review

Degrowth and Revolutionary Organizing | Rosa Luxemburg NYC

The necessity of ecosocialist degrowth | Rupture

Degrowth is Anti-Capitalist | Protean Mag

Degrowth Communism | PPPR (Part one | Part two | Part three)

Economic Planning and Degrowth: How Socialism Survives the 21st Century | New Socialist

Degrowth and the South

"Southern countries should be free to organize their resources and labor around meeting human needs rather than around servicing Northern growth."

Who is afraid of degrowth? A Global South economic perspective | IBON Foundation

The anti-colonial politics of degrowth | Jason Hickel

Unlearning: From Degrowth to Decolonization | Rosa Luxemburg NYC

Degrowth requires the Global South to default on its foreign debts | Resilience

Journals/Reports

Degrowth: a theory of radical abundance | Jason Hickel

A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights

What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification | Jason Hickel

Providing decent living with minimum energy: A global scenario | Global Environmental Change

Urgent need for post-growth climate mitigation scenarios | Nature Energy

Degrowth and critical agrarian studies | Julien-François Gerber

Decoupling debunked – Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability | European Environmental Bureau

Incrementum ad Absurdum: Global Growth, Inequality and Poverty Eradication in a Carbon-Constrained World | David Woodward

Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help | Nature

A New Political Economy for a Healthy Planet | Jason Hickel

Planning beyond growth. The case for economic democracy within limits

Millionaire spending incompatible with 1.5 °C ambitions | Cleaner Production Letters

Is green growth happening? An empirical analysis of achieved versus Paris-compliant CO2–GDP decoupling in high-income countries | The Lancet

Books

Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide | Pluto Press

A People's Green New Deal | Max Ajl

Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World | Jason Hickel

Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job | Verso Books

The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism | Verso Books

The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism | Verso Books

Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism | Kohei Saito

Degrowth & Strategy: how to bring about social-ecological transformation

27 Essays and Thoughts on Degrowth | Giorgos Kallis

Videos

Yes To Limits To Growth! | The Other School

How Degrowth Can Save the World | Andrewism

How We End Consumerism | Our Changing Climate

Demystifying Degrowth | Rosa Luxemburg NYC

Degrowth is not Austerity | John the Duncan

Degrowth and Ecosocialism | Planet: Critical

Degrowth in 7 minutes: Fighting for climate by living better | Think That Through

The Future is Degrowth (w/ Aaron Vansintjan) || SRSLY WRONG

"Degrowth means power to the working class!"with Jason Hickel | GND Media

Others

degrowth.info

Degrowth Journal

Doughnut Economics

[richiehugs]

Some of you might have been wondering what has happened to Giorgos and his updates.

On the one hand, I didn't have much free-time to organize. On the other hand, there was really nothing to give you an update about. But here is a little update with some more "successfull" screenshots.

So, he reached his peak of 95 kilos / 210 or so pounds in mid May. But, he was planning to do a trip to the monastery on the Athos Peninsula. He had the trip on the last days of May, walking for hours under the scarching Greek sun, with little food and no alcohol near. Looks like he rapidly lost 5 kilos / 10-12 pounds, reaching his "ideal" weight of 90 kilos / 200 pounds. The first four pictures are from early June, around this weight.

Then, he found himself a new job and passion - construction. That's right, he started to work at his father's housing company, building houses and apartements with his two hands. He also had to move to Athens, but he keeps visiting home back to his village on the Peloponnese. Pictures 5-6 are from this time, late June-early July. New environment, without mama's cooking, and the little time to eat made him lose another 5 kilos / 10 pounds, falling back to 85 kilos / 188-190 pounds. Then he vanished from socials (I thought he had a love affair, but he stayed single whatever happened).

The last four screens are rather recent (mid July). He seems to have accomodated to the new environment, seems to have figured things out, and I'm positive he got confident enough to "care about his body" some more. He is allegedly still 85 kilos, he looks kinda proud of his weight loss (he brags about him to anyone calling him fatty - 10 kilos in less than two month is still quite impressive - I'm afraid he gets too cocky about it and will keep up "dieting"), but he still won't give up on the belly.

To be honest, his ten kilo weight loss hardly shows. Of course, that belly would look a lot softer and a lot more like Giorgos, but he still has a lot of it. He has finally found himself a passion, and hopefully it's just a question of time till the late-night gyro-runs start to show. It's also the middle of the hottest summer ever recorded in Greece, and don't forget that he is a physical worker now - I actually find it surprising he didn't go lower than where he is now, and that he is still looking out of shape. Somehow his muscles don't seem to develop, maybe because of the inappropriate diet he is following.

And you know what this means? Instability. He has no balance. His body knows that it can't go lower and has to keep storing the amount of bodyfat he is having. And I'm counting on that as soon as summer is over, his hunger will grow (as people are bilogically installed to craving less energy during the summer and more in the winter). As we know him, he won't probably be able to hold himself back, especially during the holidays. You remember how he ballooned up to 95 kilos before Christmas? And he didn't even care.

Anyway, this might mean less updates until something interesting happens (e.g. no more constructions for a while / going back to a sedentary lifestyle, getting homemade meals, probably a girlfriend who can cook for him?). I still have some "material" to post if anyone is interested but it would take some time and patience to make it publishable.

[maxwell-grant]

so with the show gone, what's your headcanon on the ventures's future? have the creators mentioned anything about it?

A few things in passing but not too much. Namely just that Dean is gonna lose his hair and that Hank will eventually step foot in Mars as an adventurer. I think Doc and Jackson said as much that they want to keep the door open for future stories in case they do get to come back, and that they'll always have new things they'll want to do, but anyway yes okay, post-show headcanons:

Doc burns through Jonas Jr's fortune and for the most part remains the same, but he eventually achieves a true breakthrough of his own: a permanent solution to hair loss. It comes with a few little side effect mutations but for the most part it does work and Doc is, reasonably pretty happy that for once he gets something to his name that he actually made and isn't something horrible done to him. "Reasonably happy" is as happy as Rusty is ever allowed to get, and he dies a few weeks later by something predictably stupid, like auto-erotic asphyxiation.

It's shitty, Dr Orpheus cries over it, but everyone kinda saw it coming.

Most of Doc's assets get seized and the boys actually don't get much, he forgot to put them in the will because he made it back when he still had the clone farm. Rusty's last wish is to be cremated so nobody gets to clone him, and for his ashes to be scattered at Spanakopita, which has become a big White Lotus-esque resort island since Doc's last visit, built by Giorgo almost entirely off the Venture fortune. On the boat ride to Spanakopita, (WHITE LOTUS SEASON 2 SPOILERS) Sgt Hatred dies exactly like Tanya did and nobody bothers to fish his body back up.

Eventually some Rusty clones will pop up over the years, one of which is gonna be on that offscreen Rusty that went on the Cleveland Time Machine adventure with Billy. Once they leave Rusty's science basement, Billy and Pete White will never make it to the big leagues, but they'll pretty much be together until the end, and they are gonna go on some real weird adventures, like freaky Doom Patrol stuff, St.Cloud is gonna get up to some shit in the future once he bumbles into becoming rich enough to warp space-time around him just by existing and turn into the world's first Level 100 antagonist by the least amount of effort humanly possible. Actually the whole world is gonna get a lot weirder in the future, when stuff like the cloning tech and anti-gravity music boxes bleed over into general public use.

At some point the Earth will be menaced by the return of General Treister, who has absorbed enough cosmic radiation to become Galactus (this one was mentioned in the artbook as something they'd play around with, if they ever brought Treister back). He will be stopped from devouring the planet by a joint effort between Hank Venture, the Guild and the OSI, and Hunter Gathers will sacrifice herself in the process, passing the OSI's leadership to Shore Leave, who will bring SPHINX back every few months just so he has an excuse to interject SPHINX! into sentences again for funsies. Brock essentially becomes the OSI's equivalent to Red Death: basically retired, but he goes on assignments a couple times per year or gets brought onboard for decision-making, some part of him actually does kinda like this life and he stands by the friends he's made in it. He keeps touch with the Ventures but for the most part he flies solo. At some point he will have enough illegitimate children across the world for them to start their own super spy group.

Hank becomes an adventurer, and for the most part he just remains Hank as always. He makes a lot of strange alliances all over the place, he doesn't resort as much to his entourage of personas but some still come up on occasion (the double life of Enrico Matassa is one for the history books), he reforms Shallow Gravy with Dermott (who is totally 100% getting kicked out of the OSI) and Gary and HELPeR and Scare Bear playing the triangle, for the most part he lives up to the idea of being more "Rusty Venture" than Rusty himself ever was and he becomes like the first major Venture adventurer who's not some kind of monster. He completely and totally blows out any chance at settling down into normalcy, but he lives an exciting life. 50/50 on him either dying young doing something incredibly stupid and careless, or somehow stumbling his way into full-blown Highlander immortality just as 21 foresaw.

Dean I think stays in New York full time and is another 50/50 on him: he's either gonna succeed in having a normal life, or he's becoming a villain, I'm taking the fandom side on this one, villain Dean is not the most exciting idea in the world but it has some legs to it and I can't see him being anything else if he's gotta be a part of that binary whether he likes it or not. In the former, I imagine he finishes college, maybe gets a degree in something lowkey, probably changes his name and settles down with somebody and stops answering most calls, basically makes it like Professor Van Helping in that his life is okay and that's just how he wants it. Villain Dean I think happens in largely a similar way to how it happened to Dr Girlfriend taking over the Guild: not something they wanted or planned to, but it's the best way to keep things stable and keep themselves afloat amidst the chaos that surrounds them whether they want it or not. Maybe he finally listens to King Crimson and it breaks his brain into mad science a bit, as it tends to do, or maybe he invokes his blood right to appoint himself Sovereign but otherwise keeps hands-free of the Guild, and only does it so the Guild leaves him alone and he can boss other villains into standing down. He's gonna have freaks in costume trying to get him for the rest of his life so, fuck it, when in Rome or something.

At some point in the very near future Mantilla takes over the Peril Partnership and guts it to make ARCH a real thing, and maybe in the future ARCH kinda replaces the Guild at the forefront of supervillain institutions, with the Guild having the final word in matters of diplomacy and the old guard and ARCH as the new high-tech face of things. She never succeeds in getting to be besties with Dr Girlfriend, but she does hit it off nicely with Sirena, who takes over after Wide Wale and fires basically everyone that was still around after the Morpho saga. The Order of the Triad actually does succeed in making it pretty big, with comparatively few players but some very powerful additions like Lila, Red Death's daughter, and some of Jefferson's old buddies. Definitely not Triana though, she's got better to do than run with her dad's crew. Somehow HELPeR winds up joining and gets married to the Pants Golem.

Gary is gonna keep on being Henchman 21 up until the moment The Monarch dies, at which point he might actually undergo another big transformation of the self and will probably just outright become a sidekick to the heroes. He's never going to truly be a hero or a villain himself, he gave those a try and he's pretty firmly the kind of guy that only comes to life when someone else tells him what to do, so I imagine he's gonna bounce around until he finds something he finds fulfilling, will probably go on plenty of adventures with Hank. Really by this point he's already an honorary Venture, with The Monarch out of the picture so goes the pretense. Sheila, I think she just runs the Guild for as long as she can, probably reformulates it into something more sustainable by the end of her run. Sheila's arc in the show is about her climbing the ranks and moving away from her role as a number two, and distancing herself more from The Monarch because of it, and she's not going back to her old life so I think she's just fully going to remain The Sovereign up until she gets too sick of it, possibly moves into politics at Radical Left's suggestion and hands the Guild off to Phantom Limb. Maybe even becomes President of the United States for a bit, if anyone in the cast is becoming president it's really gotta be her. Or maybe not since she's overqualified, but still, if she does, in the process she hands the Guild to Phantom Limb, who basically makes it a drinking buddies gentleman's club and is too retired and rich and old to care much about anything anymore.

The movie ends with a pretty firm statement that The Monarch is just going to keep on being The Monarch no matter what and that he will in fact never stop trying to arch Rusty, and he's had like a million chances to kill Doc by now and didn't seize any of them so really yes he will just keep doing this until one or both pass. And I'm definitely thinking Doc goes first, Malcolm is torn between celebrating and flipping the fuck out that Doc DARED to not let The Mighty Monarch kill him, and for a brief moment he's completely and totally unsure as to what the fuck is he going to do with his life. He's like this close to genuinely trying to turn his life around and try to be a Blue Morpho-esque hero again if only because he and Gary had some good times and, y'know by this point he hates the Guild more so than the OSI, but then the Rusty clones show up and, you know what, fine, I can work with this, THE SWEET RELEASE OF DEATH IS NO MATCH FOR THE ACID CUMSHOT OF VENGEANCE, DOCTOR VENTURE, MUUUHAHAHAHAHAHAH!! and then he crashes his new butterglider into a cliffside Wile E.Coyote style and he dies like two weeks into a new plan.

Gary cries, Sheila's heartbroken, but again, they and everyone totally saw this coming.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

A rising tide and a bigger pie: Economic growth has long been considered such an obvious boon that it’s pursued by governments across the world as a matter of course. But in 2016, when a London professor warned an audience in Newcastle that Brexit would lead to a precipitous drop in Britain’s gross domestic product, that well-worn measure of economic activity, one woman’s heckling caught him by surprise. “That’s your bloody G.D.P.,” she shouted, “not ours!”

The eruption tapped into a suspicion supported by reality: Gains in economic growth have too often buoyed the fortunes of the richest instead of lifting all boats. Prosperity even in the most prosperous countries hasn’t been shared. But all the attention to inequality is just a crack in the edifice of economic orthodoxy. Now a much more radical proposition has emerged, looming like a wrecking ball: Is economic growth desirable at all?

Less than two decades ago, an economist like Herman Daly, who argued for a “steady-state economy,” was such an outlier that his fellow economist Benjamin Friedman could declare that “practically nobody opposes economic growth per se.” Yet today there is a burgeoning “post-growth” and “degrowth” movement doing exactly that — in journals, on podcasts, at conferences. Consider some of the books published in the last several years: Tim Jackson’s “Post-Growth: Life After Capitalism,” Kate Soper’s “Post-Growth Living,” Giorgos Kallis’s “In Defense of Degrowth,” Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson’s “Exploring Degrowth,” Jason Hickel’s “Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World.” The proliferation of the term is as good an indicator as any: The literature of degrowth is growing.

In 1972, the French theorist André Gorz coined the word décroissance to ask whether “no-growth — or even degrowth” in material production was necessary for “the earth’s balance,” even if it ran counter to “the survival of the capitalist system.” Gorz was writing the same year that “The Limits to Growth” was published, a report by a group of scientists warning that surges in population and economic activity would eventually outstrip the carrying capacity of the planet. “The Limits to Growth” was initially met with skepticism and even ridicule. Critics pointed to humanity’s undeniably impressive record of technological innovation. As one representative economist put it, “Our predictions are firmly based on a study of the way these problems have been overcome in the past.”

And so degrowth remained on the fringes of the fringe for decades, until increasing awareness about global warming percolated into public debates in the early aughts. The realization that we hadn’t innovated our way out of our ecological predicament, along with inequalities laid bare by the 2008 financial crisis, fueled a more widespread distrust of the conventional capitalist wisdom. Maybe relentless economic growth was more poison than panacea.

[sugaroto]

Since I have polls, that means GREEK SEXYMAN OF TUMBLR can begin

If you're not greek don't worry! You can vote too, I plan on putting photos next to each person so you can vote based on the vibes and their descriptions

First of all, here they are, the candidates

Gabriel vs Hermes (TV show: Ουκ αν λαβοις πάρα του μη έχοντος/ You can't take from the one who doesn't have)

Christopher Papakaliatis (actor/screenwriter) vs Lazaros (TV show: Είσαι το ταίρι μου/You are my match)

Deligiannis (old politician) Vs Aris Pavrinos (Fictional politician TV show: Πάρα πέντε/At the nick of time)

Andreas (TV show: Πάρα πέντε/At the nick of time) vs Gerasimos Skiaderesis (actor)

Jose (Σάββατογεννημένες /Women-born -on-Saturday) vs Menippos (Ουκ αν λαβοις πάρα του μη έχοντος/ You can't take from the one who doesn't have)

2J (YouTuber) Vs Mpezos (actor)

Antonis (Maestro in blue) vs Evaggelatos (News)

Venizelos (old politician) vs Konstantinos Emmanuel (influencer?)

George Theofanous (musician?idk someone recommended him) vs Sakis Tanimanidis(presenter)

Sakis Rouvas (singer) vs Manthos Foustanos (Konstantinou and Eleni's)

Thiramenes (ancient politician) vs Antonis Kanakis (presenter)

Ntanos (old survivor player) vs Paris Skartsolias (actor)

Charos(Ουκ αν λαβοις πάρα του μη έχοντος/ You can't take from the one who doesn't have) vs Eponimos (YouTuber)

Marios (survivor player) Charis Romas (actor)

Periandros Popotas (Το καφέ της Χαράς/Charas's Cafe) vs Socrates (Philosopher)

Fotis (Ευτυχισμένοι μαζί/ Happy together) Vs Alexis Kostalas (art presenter? Idk)

Fatseas (Tο καφέ της Χαράς/Charas's Cafe) vs Sportacus (Lazy town)

Trikoupis (old politician) vs Sotiris (Eίσαι το ταίρι μου/You are my match)

Giannis Chatzigeorgiou (actor) vs Spyros (Ευτυχισμένοι μαζί/ Happy together)

Dionysis Atzarakis (comedian) vs Aristotle (philosopher)

Konstantinos Katakouzinos (Konstantinou and Eleni's) vs Maraveyias (singer)

Lambros Fisfis (Comedian) vs Samuel Toci (influencer)

Platon (Philosopher) vs Makis (Ευτυχισμένοι μαζί/ Happy together)

Ex King Of Greece Konstantinos vs Mouzourakis (singer)

Giorgos Kapoutzidis (GodActor) vs Petretzikis (chef)

Karagiozis (Main character, barbie but poor) vs Mitsotakis (president)

Tsipras (ex president) vs Kolokotronis (commander/soldier idk)

The posts with each poll will have more descriptions

I'll pin this post, and update it each time with the results

Questions

[gemsofgreece]

Ancient Greece left a mark in myths and literature, but do you know any Byzantine stories that are worth being recognised? Also do you know any stories by modern Greek authors that deserve the same hype as the old ones?

Yes! The issue with Byzantine literature is that too little survives and even less survives in full, which is a result of both the relentless warring and invasions of the Byzantine Empire from west and east alike and the loud indifference regarding the preservation of anything Byzantine for the longest time, as opposed to the mania with Ancient Greek literature.

Regarding Byzantine fiction in specific, which is what I think you are asking, I think three romance novels survive and an epic poetic one. That last one is the trademark of Byzantine literature:

Basil Digenés Akritas (Βασίλειος Διγενής Ακρίτας), 9 - 10th Century

This versed epic novel is the best known amongst the acritic songs. Those poems were about the exploits of the akrites, meaning the soldiers / guards living and protecting the borders of the Byzantine empire. Digenes Akritas was a hero coming from two different bloodlines, as also evident by his epithet "Digenes", his father was a Saracen emir and his mother was of Byzantine Greek noblility in Cappadocia. Digenes has essentially supernatural power - there are herculian parallels - and he is not infallible in his morals - the story narrates his bravery, manliness, exploits and romance(s), and his piety - in a paradoxical combo truly few could master as much as the Byzantines.

Erotókritos (Ερωτόκριτος), 16 - 17th Century

The monumental versed romance of post-Byzantine and very early Modern Greece is this classic of Cretan literature, composed by Vitsentzos Kornaros. Incidentally getting written the same time as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, I will go fully on record saying it's better than Romeo and Juliet. The reason I make this comparison at all is because the general concept is similar, although it unfolds entirely differently in the process; the forbidden love between two young people and the fierce objection of the parents. And also, because I don't get the fuss around R&J. Anyway, apart from the concept, the story is different, it's a friends to lovers, not enemies to lovers, one is a royal, the other is not, and the main character is , again, a super skilled warrior on top of everything else. The story is also set in a fantastical multi-Greek world: it's officially set in Ancient Athens, but it has Byzantine, Cretan, Greek folk and Frankish elements. The lovestory of Erotokritos and Aretusa remains the ultimate Greek romance and the poem has turned into folk songs that are well known and loved by all of us. The Cretan literature of the time produced more notable works, such as Erophile, which is super morbid and dark as hell, but I don't know much about it yet so I can't recommend it.

As for Modern Greek literature, I am going to state another potentially surprising opinion. I do not consider myself an expert at it, however from the little I've read I like it wayyyy more than Ancient Greek literature, excluding the Homeric epics. Granted, it might have to do with how each can possibly resonate with us but it's also about the prose. This is subjective but I LOVE modern Greek prose and poetry. My mouth always threatens to drool when reading the Skiathitic dialect of Papadiamantis *shrug*.

You didn't ask about poetry but modern Greek poetry is 100% verified drool worthy. I don't know if you know Greek though, certainly translations aren't equal to the real thing. Still, I recommend the poetry of Odysseus Elytis, Giorgos Seferis, Constantine Cavafy, Giannis Ritsos, Nikos Kavvadias, Dionysios Solomos and so many more.

As for prose, I will start as a broken record once more, with the short novel "The Murderess" (Η Φόνισσα) by Alexandros Papadiamantis. You need no more description, that's all.

Here is a list of the 200 best modern Greek novels, as voted by readers. It's in Greek though. I didn't know it, but the Murderess is the most upvoted. I approve.

I will add nine more from this list to make a random Top 10 of classics:

Ματωμένα Χώματα (Bloody Earth) by Dido Sotiriou, 1962

Ένα παιδί μετράει τ' άστρα (A child counts the stars) by Menelaus Loudemis, 1956

Παραμύθι χωρίς όνομα (Fairytale without a name) by Penelope Delta, 1910

Η Μεγάλη Χίμαιρα (The Great Chimaera) by Manolis Karagatsis, 1953

Η Ζωή εν Τάφω (Life in the Grave) by Stratis Myrivilis, 1924

Ο Χριστός ξανασταυρώνεται (Christ, Recrucified) by Nikos Kazantzakis, 1948

Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά (Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas) by Nikos Kazantzakis, 1946 (also known as "Zorbas the Greek" abroad...)

Το Τρίτο Στεφάνι (The Third Marriage) by Kostas Tachtsis, 1962

Η Πάπισσα Ιωάννα (Popess Johanna) by Emmanuel Roides, 1866

Το Νούμερο 31328 (Number 31328) by Ilias Venetis, 1931

[mariacallous]

Protests were held in Keratsini in the Piraeus area, Athens’ Attiki neighbourhood, Thessaloniki and other Greek towns on Monday to mark the tenth anniversary of the murder of Greek anti-fascist rap musician Pavlos Fyssas by a Golden Dawn member.

Union members, students and political party activists shouted slogans like “Paul lives on, defeat the Nazis” and “Neither in Piraeus nor anywhere else, block the fascists in every neighbourhood”. One person was arrested, Greek media reported.

Pavlos Fyssas, known as Killah P, was murdered at the age of 34 on September 18, 2013 in Keratsini by 45-year-old Giorgos Roupakias, a member of the neo-Nazi criminal organisation Golden Dawn. His killing was attributed to political motives.

According to the Greek police, Fyssas died after being stabbed three times by Roupakias in an attack that had been directed and approved by the Golden Dawn hierarchy.

The murder of Fyssas sparked protests in Greece and abroad and led to a judicial investigation into Golden Dawn’s criminal activity.

In October 2021, eight years after the murder, the Tripartite Court of Criminal Appeals of Athens declared Golden Dawn a criminal organisation and convicted 50 of the 65 defendants of participating in the killing.

The case is now in the appeal process.

Despite the outlawing of Golden Dawn, three far-right parties that competed in parliamentary elections in Greece in June managed to win seats in the legislature.

The far-right party National Party – Greeks of Ilias Kasidiaris, who was sentenced to prison for his leadership role in Golden Dawn, was banned from participating in the June elections.

But a new far-right party, the Spartans, supported in Twitter posts by Kasidiaris, was elected as the fifth party in the Greek parliament.

Kasidiaris is also a candidate to become mayor of Athens in the upcoming local elections in October.

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Good evening Europe!

It's that magical time of the year again when we all come together to trash each others' musical tastes!

The point system has changed many times over the years, and as various countries have come and gone, it is hard to determine who did "the best" based on the points they got alone as, since the maximum available points doubled with the jury and televote scores no longer being combined, post 2016 entries would have an obvious advantage and, likewise, the contests with 40+ participants would also have more maximum available points to give so a country getting 200 points in 2004 is not the same as another getting 200 points in 2009 or 2016.

But if we divide the points each entry got by the maximum available points for the respective year it competed, we get a percentage score that can easily be measured against entries from years with differing point systems.

So, for example, in 2009 42 countries participated. The maximum points each country can award is of course 12 and you can't vote for yourself. So 41 × 12 = 492. Let's then take Norway's total of 387 points and divide it by the 492 total of maximum available points. We get 78.6, meaning Norway and Alexander Rybak amassed 78.6% of the total points in 2009!

In the case of tie breaks the entry that placed higher in its respective year wins the tie break and if there's still a tie I used rules similar to the actual contest; the winner of a tie is the entry that received more points from televoting. If there are no split results available to the public, the entry that received points from more countries, then the country that received more 12 points, then 10 points all the way down to 1. If the tie cannot be broken in this way, the entry that performed earlier wins the tie break.

I've set 2004 as the "beginning of time", if you will, because that's when I started watching Eurovision and because there also had to be some sort of limit to how far back I would go with this 🤣

With that very long-winded explanation of my measuring tactics out of the way, shall we see our current Top 100 before new entries are added after the 2023 Grand Final is over?

100. Greece 🇬🇷 - 2010 - Giorgos Alkaios and Friends - Opa - 30.7%

99. Armenia 🇦🇲 - 2010 - Eva Rivas - Apricot Stone - 30.9%

98. Bulgaria 🇧🇬 - 2016 - Poli Genova - If Love Was a Crime - 31.1%

97. Belgium 🇧🇪 - 2010 - Tom Dice - Me and My Guitar - 31.3%

96. Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 - 2019 - Chingiz - Truth - 31.4%

95. North Macedonia 🇲🇰 - 2019 - Tamara Todevska - Proud - 31.7%

94. Serbia 🇷🇸 - 2008 - Jelena Tomasevic feat. Bora Duguc - Oro - 31.7%

93. Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 - 2010 - Safura - Drip Drop - 31.7%

92. Bulgaria 🇧🇬 - 2007 - Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov - Water - 31.7%

91. Moldova 🇲🇩 - 2005 - Zdob si Zdub - Boonika bate toba - 32.4%

90. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2006 - Tina Karol - Show Me Your Love - 32.6%

89. Denmark 🇩🇰 - 2010 - Chanée and N'evergreen - In a Moment like This - 32.6%

88. Finland 🇫🇮 - 2021 - Blind Channel - Dark Side - 33%

87. Hungary 🇭🇺 - 2014 - András Kállay-Saunders - Running - 33.1%

86. Turkey 🇹🇷 - 2007 - Kenan Dogulu - Shake It Up Sekerim - 33.1%

85 Greece 🇬🇷 - 2013 - Koza Mostra feat. Agathon Iakovidis - Alcohol Is Free - 33.3%

84. Serbia 🇷🇸 - 2022 - Konstrakta - In corpore sano - 33.3%

83. Latvia 🇱🇻 - 2005 - Walters and Khaza - The War Is Not Over - 33.5%

82. Israel 🇮🇱 - 2005 - Shiri Maimon - HaSheket SheNish'ar - 33.7%

81. Germany 🇩🇪 - 2008 - Michael Schulte - You Let Me Walk Alone - 33.7%

80. Italy 🇮🇹 - 2017 - Francesco Gabbani - Occidentali's Karma - 33.9%

79. Austria 🇦🇹 - 2018 - Cesár Sampson - Nobody but You - 33.9%

78. Norway 🇳🇴 - 2019 - Keiino - Spirit in the Sky - 34.4%

77. Romania 🇷🇴 - 2007 - Luminita Anghel and Sistem - Let Me Try - 34.6%

76. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2019 - John Lundvik - Too Late for Love - 34.7%

75. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2011 - Mika Newton - Angel - 34.8%

74. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2017 - Robin Bengtsson - I Can't Go On - 34.9%

73. United Kingdom 🇬🇧 - 2009 - Jade Ewen - It's My Time - 35.1%

72. Romania 🇷🇴 - 2010 - Paula Seling and Ovi - Playing with Fire - 35.5%

71. Turkey 🇹🇷 - 2009 - Hadise - Düm Tek Tek - 35.9%

70. Norway 🇳🇴 - 2008 - Maria - Hold On Be Strong - 36.1%

69. Lithuania 🇱🇹 - 2006 - LT United - We Are the Winners - 36.4%

68. Belgium 🇧🇪 - 2017 - Blanche - City Lights - 36.8%

67. Turkey 🇹🇷 - 2010 - Manga - We Could Be the Same - 37.2%

66. Switzerland 🇨🇭 - 2019 - Luca Hänni - She Got Me - 37.9%

65. Moldova 🇲🇩 - 2017 - SunStroke Project - Hey Mamma - 38%

64. Russia 🇷🇺 - 2013 - Dina Garipova - What If - 38.1%

63. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2006 - Carola - Invincible - 38.2%

62. Russia 🇷🇺 - 2019 - Sergey Lazarev - Scream - 38.5%

61. Romania 🇷🇴 - 2006 - Mihai Traistariu - Tornerò - 38.7%

60. Armenia 🇦🇲 - 2008 - Sirusho - Qélé, Qélé - 39.4%

59. Latvia 🇱🇻 - 2015 - Aminata - Love Injected - 39.7%

58. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2021 - Go_A - Shum - 39.9%

57. Armenia 🇦🇲 - 2014 - Aram Mp3 - Not Alone - 40.3%

56. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2004 - Lena Philipsson - It Hurts - 40.4%

55. Cyprus 🇨🇾 - 2004 - Lisa Andreas - Stronger Every Minute - 40.4%

54. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2011 - Eric Saade - Popular - 40.5%

53. Iceland 🇮🇸 - 2021 - Dathi og Gagnamagnith - 10 Years - 41.4%

52. Italy 🇮🇹 - 2011 - Raphael Gualazzi - Madness of Love - 41.4%

51. Australia 🇦🇺 - 2015 - Guy Sebastian - Tonight Again - 41.8%

50. Norway 🇳🇴 - 2013 - Margaret Berger - I Feed You My Love - 41.8%

49. Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 - 2009 - AySel and Arash - Always - 42%

48. Russia 🇷🇺 - 2007 - Serebro - Song #1 - 42%

47. Malta 🇲🇹 - 2005 - Chiara - Angel - 42.1%

46. Greece 🇬🇷 - 2008 - Kalomira - Secret Combination - 43.2%

45. Cyprus 🇨🇾 - 2018 - Eleni Foureira - Fuego - 43.2%

44. Serbia 🇷🇸 - 2012 - Zeljko Joksimovic - Nije ljubav stvar - 43.4%

43. Iceland 🇮🇸 - 2009 - Yohanna - Is It True? - 44.3%

42. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2008 - Ani Lorak - Shady Lady - 45.6%

41. Belgium 🇧🇪 - 2015 - Loïc Nottet - Rhythm Inside - 46.3%

40. Turkey 🇹🇷 - 2004 - Athena - For Real - 46.4%

39. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2022 - Cornelia Jakobs - Hold Me Closer - 46.7%

38. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2013 - Zlata Ognevich - Gravity - 46.9%

37. Switzerland 🇨🇭 - 2021 - Gjon's Tears - Tout l'univers - 47.3%

36. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2007 - Verka Serduchka - Dancing Lasha Tumbai - 47.7%

35. Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 - 2011 - Ell and Nikki - Running Scared - 48.4%

34. Spain 🇪🇸 - 2022 - Chanel - SloMo - 49%

33. Italy 🇮🇹 - 2019 - Mahmood - Soldi - 49.1%

32. United Kingdom 🇬🇧 - 2022 - Sam Ryder - Space Man - 49.7%

31. Russia 🇷🇺 - 2016 Sergey Lazarev - You Are the Only One - 49.8%

30. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2014 - Sanna Nielsen - Undo 50.4%

29. Greece 🇬🇷 - 2005 - Helena Paparizou - My Number One - 50.4%

28. Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 - 2013 - Farid Mammadov - Hold Me - 51.3%

27. Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦 - 2006 - Hari Mata Hari - Lejla - 51.5%

26. Netherlands 🇳🇱 - 2019 - Duncan Lawrence - Arcade - 51.8%

25. Australia 🇦🇺 - 2016 - Dami Im - Sound of Silence - 51.9%

24. Israel 🇮🇱 - 2018 - Netta - Toy - 52.4%

23. Russia 🇷🇺 - 2012 - Buranovskiye Babushki - Party for Everybody - 52.6%

22. Germany 🇩🇪 - 2010 - Lena - Satellite - 53.9%

21. Russia 🇷🇺 - 2008 - Dima Bilan - Believe - 53.9%

20. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2016 - Jamala - 1944 - 54.2%

19. Serbia 🇷🇸 - 2007 - Marija Serifovic - Molitva - 54.4%

18. France 🇫🇷 - 2021 - Barbara Pravi - Voilà - 54.7%

17. Netherlands 🇳🇱 - 2014 - The Common Linnets - Calm After the Storm - 55%

Honourable Mention. Turkey 🇹🇷 - 2003 - Sertab Erener - Everyway That I Can - 55.6%

16. Russia 🇷🇺 - 2006 - Dima Bilan - Never Let You Go - 55.8%

15. Italy 🇮🇹 - 2021 - Måneskin - Zitti e Buoni - 57.4%

14. Greece 🇬🇷 - 2004 - Sakis Rouvas - Shake It - 60%

13. Denmark 🇩🇰 - 2013 - Emmelie de Forest - Only Teardrops - 61.6%

12. Italy 🇮🇹 - 2015 - Il Volo - Grande amore - 62.3%

11. Bulgaria 🇧🇬 - 2017 - Kristian Kostov - Beautiful Mess - 62.5%

10. Serbia and Montenegro 🇷🇸 - 2004 - Zeljko Joksimovic and Ad-Hoc Orchestra - Lane Moje - 62.6%

9. Russia 🇷🇺 - 2015 - Polina Gagarina - A Million Voices - 64.7%

8. Finland 🇫🇮 - 2006 - Lordi - Hard Rock Hallelujah - 65.7%

7. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2004 - Ruslana - Wild Dances - 66.6%

6. Austria 🇦🇹 - 2014 - Conchita Wurst - Rise Like a Phoenix - 67.1%

5. Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 2022 - Kalush Orchestra - Stefania - 67.4%

4. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2012 - Loreen - Euphoria - 75.6%

3. Portugal 🇵🇹 - 2017 - Salvador Sobral - Amar pelos dois - 77%

2. Sweden 🇸🇪 - 2015 - Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes - 77.9%

1. Norway 🇳🇴 - 2009 - Alexander Rybak - Fairytale - 78.6%

And there it is! The 100 most successful Eurovision entries from 2004 to 2022?

Did your all time fave make the cut?

[brwncns]

OBJECTS OF DESIRE - INSIDE by Vasilis Katsoupis

We talked to Greek director Vasilis Katsoupis about his feature film debut INSIDE, starring Willem Dafoe as an art thief.

What was the initial spark for INSIDE? Did you want to make a heist movie or a film about art? The idea for the film came after my studies, when I first went to New York. These huge buildings and all this stuff, this is where the idea sparked. The heist element came later. The initial idea was someone stuck in a penthouse. The heist element came to make a narrative for the film. But from the beginning I wanted to have a very well-designed penthouse full of artworks and objects of desire. Because I really wanted people to get goosebumps for everything that he destroys. Before my bachelor degree, I studied the history of art, and that that was something really new for me because in the Greek high school and curriculum there's no any mention of the history of art, at all. That sparked my fascination with the art world.

Nemo, the thief played by Willem Dafoe, uses the art in the film like a tool, like a caveman. The art becomes a way to break out and at the same time he's becoming something of a primitive artist himself. He not only turns shamanistic but transforms the setting around him, from a normal beginning to an almost religious or spiritual ending. How did the story change over time? From the very beginning, I said it is a project that I don't want to write. I had a timeline. I had a treatment. I had all of this. And then Giorgos Karnavas, the producer, found the writer Ben Hopkins. We talked with Ben, and he found it very challenging to write the story because there's no dialogue. He's a great writer, a great director, and he's an amazing collaborator. So he made a fantastic treatment in order for us to get development money from the European media fund. And this is how it started. If you read the script, it's a very beautiful script. It puts you inside the story, you can smell, feel the story. He writes it like literature. It's amazing how Ben makes you see the film.

How much was planned in the preproduction, how much improvised? It was difficult for me to do the storyboarding because there was no location. The only thing we had from the location was a SketchUp, a model. The production designer Thorsten Sagel had a friend, a computer genius. He took this model and put it on an Unreal engine so I could make some screenshots and have a dummy of the place. We flew Steve Annis, the DoP, to the office in Greece and we storyboarded together through this thing, Steve is a very experienced and amazing DoP. Because we were shooting in the studio, he made a set of lights that we could change very, very quickly. Mainly the light was coming from outside the building. Rarely, maybe in one scene, he put lights inside. So everything was achieved by using he security lights around the house. We built these lights in the corner of the house and practical lights and some soft stands outside of the screen together with the projection.

It's one of those projections where you already see the city in the studio, not a green screen, right? It was front projection, yeah. That was something I really wanted from the beginning. First of all, it works perfectly with the actor in order to perform. The actor feels the day, the night. It's completely realistic where he works. Secondly, it could be a hell in post-production to do the green screen through glasses. It looks really good now but it was something that worried me until the premiere in New York. It was funny when New Yorkers came to me there and said, where is this? Who lets you destroy their penthouse? When you get that from real New Yorkers, when they think it's a realistic place, it worked. It worked because Thorsten made a fantastic set.

Was there a real ceiling? The center piece was removable. You can take It down where the light comes out. The ceiling was fixed but it was, and this is how clever Thorsten was, made of fabric. Very, very light. So it looks like cement, but it's fabric. It's amazing.

How much time did you have to plan and to build? We talked a lot a year before the start because we were developing and waiting for money. We talked a lot and exchanged ideas, and then we built it. To make the tower was also very difficult. Don't forget that all the set had to be waterproof because it gets flooded. There were many elements that we had to overpass. To shoot chronologically helped the performance so much. It helped to sculpture the character and the personality of the protagonist. Because neither me nor Willem wanted for this character to have a backstory. It would be this character getting trapped, and from that, we start understanding this person: Who is it? To shoot chronologically is a luxury for many fields. For us it was inevitable because everything was getting destroyed as the film progresses. But we were very, very careful with continuity. At the end of the day, when we edited the film, we saw that we were overly careful with the continuity because everything's getting in a time warp, and you don't care what's going on. So that was really good, but it was good that we were extra careful with the continuity. The problem with shooting chronologically is that you cannot go back. If you find out that something is not working or something is destroyed, you cannot go back and reshoot it. But that was the pact I made with Willem. I said to him, we have a beautiful script but from the moment we get to the set we can follow the script but there will also be thousands of things that will come to our mind and for us to try. There is 40% in the film that is not scripted. And this is why I love Ben, because his script gave us this freedom.

Was the Macarena song in the script or something you chose? It was in there from the first drafts. When we were doing the film, it was something I wanted. Mainly because it's a ridiculous song, and second, because the building is trolling the protagonist. But also because it's a song that the American Army uses to befriend the enemy. And I guess it works also as a torture device.

You obviously have many artworks in the film.They are objects of desire that later become tools for escape but they are also status symbols for the owner. What were the criteria you discussed with the curator who made the selection? Leonardo, the curator, was found by the producer, Giorgos. It was something I really needed. We found him last minute. He then had three or four months to make this collection, and that was a really difficult task. I talked with Leonardo about the characteristics and the personality of the owner who conceived this collection. I had done my research but my collection was very scattered. It wasn’t a believable collection. So he had to make the collection realistic. Because if it wasn't, we were to have the backlash of the whole art community that we really wanted to have in on our film. And it happened to many films before, when they just use lookalikes.

It’s true that art often looks bad in movies. There’s something that quickly can make it look quite cheesy through the camera lens. Yeah, if it's not real. It is very difficult. I think it’s maybe the first time that this happens in cinema, that you have a collection of contemporary artists that are alive. It's fairly easier to get art from artists in institutions, where you just go and get a license. But when you have people that are alive and still work like Cettelan, like Clemente, all these huge artists, then it’s not so easy to convince them. Because they need to be convinced that their artwork will be well-treated. It was a risk for them as well. And only to make the contracts of how the art will be treated was a huge project by itself. It's a big conversation.

What's your view about this kind of collecting and the art market? I don't know so much about collections and collectors. I wish that all the artworks would be accessible to the public and not hidden in a vault of some multi-billionaire in Japan. I don't understand why something should be evaluated a hundred million. It's good for the artists that are alive to get to make work. But I really don't understand why a Francis Bacon picture is worth 50 million, as much as I adore it. It works like the stock market. It becomes an investment. It is a way of some rich people to wash money and not pay taxes. But at the end of the day, art is a creation. So it'll be there even if the stock loses valuation.

The way Nemo comes into the apartment and then uses the art as a means of escape also talks about the value of art in a time of crisis. The art becomes a piece of paper or wood and has no representative value anymore. Is that something you were thinking about, how art changes its worth in different times? Inevitably. I think that’s how it works at the end of the day. It's a canvas and paint. For me, there is one scene in cinema that also worked very much not so much as a reference but that was inspirational for me. It’s in a film with Peter Sellers, THE PARTY. There is a scene where he goes to the bathroom and the toilet paper clogs the toilet. And behind the toilet there is a beautiful painting by Chagall. It falls inside the bowl, and he takes it out and takes some paper to clean it. If you know whose painting it is, you see it with different eyes. The value of the same painting changes by how it is perceived by the viewer.

It reminds me of the time a person washed a Jesus painting in a church and the religious painting started to look like a cartoon. At the same time, this comic figure is probably so famous now and iconic on its own terms that it might be just as valuable as the original, or even more. Leonardo told me that there are collectors that have their collection in their living room and maybe the kids go and play with the artworks. Others find that an artwork should be adored and praised like a holy grail. It changes with time. But if you ask me, I wouldn’t let any kids play with it. (Laughs.)

Nemo is transforming a lot in the film, physically but also spiritually. What’s his journey, is it a kind of catharsis for you? Does he go insane or does he find the destiny he was supposed to find? Is it connected to his background? There was just a little hint about a sketchbook in his past. When Willem talks about the character, he says he doesn't go insane. And I believe that he doesn't go insane as well. When you are alone for so many days, it's not insanity that hits you. It's that you are uncomfortable. Then malnutrition comes because he doesn't have any food anymore. So he’s just in a bad situation, physically, organically. But I don't know if there is a catharsis in all this. I've never thought like this. For some reason, I just observe him rather than trying to drive him somewhere.

I like the fact that it's not openly about someone with a backstory wound and then through a process of crisis gets healed from it. It's something that often really annoys me. Do you remember a film like GRAVITY with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock where they are trapped in space? I haven't seen it. But someone told me about GRAVITY and they told me that what they didn't like about GRAVITY is that you have the protagonist always talking, explaining what she is doing, something that we really didn't want to happen in our story.

I thought of this movie because Bullock’s character is trapped in space, and she gets out of it, but in the end it is mainly about her overcoming the trauma of losing her child. So the whole thing becomes reduced to that, that she finds life again. You make a movie in space with so much spectacle but thematically it seems very limited in the end. When you start talking about a film, especially with the screenwriter, he asks you, okay, what's the backstory of the protagonist. And I was telling Ben, I don't care about backstory. There is no backstory to this guy. We only care about him when he's inside. No backstory. For me, the audience should reflect on this character. After that, we had the first meeting with Dafoe. Giorgos, the producer, told me, look, man, the first thing Willem will ask is the backstory of the character. This is what all actors ask before talking about a role. And I said to them, there is no backstory. I don't give a fuck. But they were no, no, no, we really have to think of something, if he asks, we have to answer. So I spent the whole day before the meeting with Ben and Giorgos and we made up a backstory. And we go and meet Willem and we start talking. He had already read the script. I show him the mood video I made, my presentation. He really likes it and he says, guys, I'm Nemo. There's no reason to look further, I want to do it. And we are all happy. And, and at that moment, I say to Willem, look, let me tell you about the backstory of the character. And he goes, no, no, no, no. Don't tell me anything. I don't want to know about that. Because if you tell me, I have to play this character. So this is what you say about GRAVITY. The same thing, that then, you have only one dimension for the whole narrative. This is what I liked about Willem. We were on the same page from the beginning.

Vasili, thank you for the interview.

INSIDE is out in Greece and the US.

German theatrical release is on March 16th 2023.

[byneddiedingo]

Anthony Quinn and Lila Kedrova in Zorba the Greek (Michael Cacoyannis, 1964)

Cast: Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova, Giorgos Foundas, Sotiris Moustakas, Anna Kyriakou, Eleni Anousaki, Yorgo Voyagis, Takis Emmanuel. Screenplay: Michael Cacoyannis, based on a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Cinematography: Walter Lassally. Art direction: Vassilis Photopoulos. Film editing: Michael Cacoyannis. Music: Mikis Theodorakis.

For a film that supposedly celebrates the life force embodied in its title character, Zorba the Greek sure is full of cruelty and death and destruction. I don't think I know a scene more horrifying than the ransacking of Madame Hortense's hotel after her death, when the black-clad, toothless harpies of the village swarm through in a riot of looting that ends with the dead woman on her bed in the stripped room. And yet at the end, after their mining efforts have collapsed spectacularly, after Basil has unwittingly caused the death of the widow and the suicide of his rival for her affections, Basil and Zorba dance. I suppose this is supposed to signify that life goes on. It was, nevertheless, a critical and commercial success, even though to my mind it's a disjointed film with radical switchbacks in tone. What it has going for it is a couple of colorful performances by Anthony Quinn as Zorba and the Oscar-winning Lila Kedrova as Madame Hortense. Alan Bates, usually a fine actor, seems a little off in his performance, as if he hadn't quite got a hold on the character of Basil beyond the obvious odd-coupling of his mildly stuffy Brit with the flamboyant Zorba. It might be fun to see this film back-to-back with An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky, 1978), in which it's Bates who plays the life-force character, the shaggy artist Saul Kaplan, who brings Jill Clayburgh's Erica out of her post-divorce funk.

[elladastinkardiamou]

This week's newsletter from AthensLive is out: "Our far-right people"

* Far-right machinations with elections ahead  * Why would a prosecutor obstruct an investigation into a massive scandal? * Breaking developments and (most possibly) empty promises

- are the main headlines to be found inside this highly informative weekly must-read from and about Greece. Two arrests have been made about journalist Giorgos Karaivaz's murder; it was reported on Friday, with no further details being released. The Citizen Protection Minister attacked those who have been casting doubt on the Government as to the case. The two biggest parties, ND and SYRIZA, made big electoral promises this week.       Highly suspicious moves by far-right parties to secure participation in the forthcoming elections have been reported. Fears have been expressed that they could finally end up participating in disguise. This is happening due to the highly problematic legislation the Interior Minister passed. However, some of the Minister's connections suggest he was the wrong person for this task. The Top Public Prosecutor admitted that he would have obstructed an investigation by Independent Authority ADAE in the context of the wiretapping scandal had he known in time. At the same time, the mainstream media attacked ADAE's president for doing his job.

It cannot be recommended strongly enough to read and share this week's updates on the events and developments in Greece here:

https://steadyhq.com/en/athenslivegr/posts/2c0affa8-dc8d-4f6d-8835-1be3aa118691

For anyone with a wish or need to follow and to gain an insight into recent events in Greece and to read and support independent and investigative journalism in English, the weekly newsletter from AthensLive should be a core element in the reading flow.

If you want the best overview of the events and developments in Greece right now, this is the place to go. Not the mainstream Greek news, but independent journalism with sharp analysis and links to interesting and important topics from a variety of sources.

Become a member and get the newsletter in your inbox every week here:

http://bit.ly/2GkVuYt

[head-post]

Jailed Greek politician in Albania becomes candidate for EU parliament

Greece’s ruling New Democracy (ND) party announced on Monday that it has nominated Fredi Beleri, a jailed politician from the Greek minority in Albania, as its candidate for the European Parliament elections to be held from 6-9 June.

Beleri, a candidate for mayor of Himare, an Albanian coastal town populated mainly by ethnic Greeks, was arrested last May 12 by Albanian police when he allegedly offered about 40,000 Albanian leks (360 euros; $390) to buy eight electoral votes ahead of the May 14 local elections that resulted in his election.

In March this year, an Albanian court sentenced Beleri to two years in prison for election fraud. His arrest has strained relations between Tirana and Athens.

Some Albanian and Greek media and newspapers also claimed that Beleri was involved in a 1994 terrorist attack on an Albanian border post that killed two Albanian soldiers, as part of the far-right terrorist group MAVI.

Other candidates include New Democracy’s current MEPs, Greek journalists Giorgos Aftias and Eleonora Meleti, and former weightlifter Pyrros Dimas.

According to the latest census, Greeks are the largest minority in Albania, making up 0.9 per cent of the total population.

Read more HERE

[movementmoodmidsummer]

ΜΑΝΙΑ 1985, η ταινία που πρότεινε ο Γιάννης είναι πολύ ωραία αναφορά για το Όνειρο. Είναι πράγματι δύσκολο να βρεθεί, την εντόπισα εδώ: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8pe8jr και εδώ.. για τους φιλομαθείς υπάρχει μια ανάλυση (πολύ μεγάλη) γύρω από τον διονυσιασμό, το ανοίκειο και την ταινία Μανία: https://filmiconjournal.com/blog/post/69/in-praise-of-the-dionysian-on-giorgos-panousopoulos-mania

[sugaroto]

Round three

Lazaros, character from Είσαι το ταίρι μου/ You are my match. He lives in a house with his best friend Mitsos(see image) and his roommate -also friend Grigori

Dionysis Atzarakis is a comedian

Giorgos Kapoutzidis is a famous actor/screenwriter/presenter. He's mostly known for writing the shows Στο παρά πέντε/In the nick of time and Σαββατογεννημένες/Women-Born-On-Saturday in which he also had main roles as Spyros and Jose respectively. He talks openly about his sexuality and how people with different sexualities should not be treated as less human. Also, it appears like he only writes lgbt roles for himself so far, (Spyros was ace and Jose bi) Last year he was also the speaker on Eurovision and currently he is working on the script of Σέρρες/Serres, and his play called "42497"

OG POST