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Thu 6 March - Is the planet in fourth gear? Seems we are speeding through time. It's already March, Spring and time to wipe the winter sleepiness from our eyes to face another Season ahead. Before we talk about Summer however, there's alot going on over the next week. There are parties to go to. Tonight at the Mylos Creperie, Karamela Cafe will surely also be celebrating prior to the big Carnival, the Carnival party at the Stavros community center on Friday night. And in Vathy on Friday, Forkis Theatre Group Party at Cultural Center (note this is back to the original venue and date) - theme 60s. So much to do and so little time. Then on Sunday, the Vathy Carnival explodes in the streets of our capital and on Monday its' Kathara Deftera (Clean Monday) with kite flying and picnic in Anoghi. Check calendar for all the events. If you're coming to the island, just mingle, it'll be alot of fun. |
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Wonderful Spring days on Ithaca, warmth and sunshine, but there is a predicted change on its way with rain and snow again in the north. |
As so many of you share things with me, I'll share a little with you. Some of you know I used to be a musician, well my winter project 'lola demo' www.lolademo-music.com is something I do in the quieter times on the island. This past January I had the opportunity to write and record some new songs right here on Ithaki, now on a 10 track cd 'strung out', The cd was helped along by Rien Post in the final processing. (Lucky for me) Anyway, I've also made a couple (so far) of videos if you'd like to see them (mind you they're a little alternative due to the quality. filmed on my ithacagreece.com camera and edited on the basic windows movie maker), click here or go to www.youtube.com/lolademo. Rien post has also made a video for one of the songs 'dead end ahead' from footage he took when he first came to the island. |
To see a video of a Drive from Vathy to Stavros, click here
Fri 7 March - The Ithaki Theatre Group (Forkis) Carnival party has had the venue and date changed again. It's on tonight!! 10pm at the Cultural Center.
Ithaca, along with the rest of Greece, has been left in the dark due to issues with DEH. Random power cuts will continue until next Wednesday... Good timing. Just as the weather turns bad.
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Left - Last night, Niko and Viki put on their annual pre Carnival Party at the Mylos Creperie, which had everyone doing the 70s glam. Theme for night seemed to be 'dance in your underpants.' For more pics click here or on photos left. |
Sat 8 March - The power cuts have been playing havoc over this carnival period and not only is there 1 each day, yesterday there were 2 and 3 are predicted for today, so I'm hurrying to get online everything before this happens. |
The Forkis Theatre Group Carnival Party 2008 |
This annual event gathers Ithacans from north and south. It's the Gala event of Spring each year as the Theatre Group puts on this spectacular dance to raise money. Click here or on Photo bottom left for more, including a little movie. |
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So that Pc and Mac users alike, can see the videos made for the website, I've started up www.youtube.com/erikabach where you'll be able to access all the movies from ithacagreece.com. The quality isn't as good, due to the compression they use, but its a small price to pay so that you can all view them. The videos are embedded into pages of ithacagreece.com for convenience. |
Many people suffer from vertigo and never get to go up, let alone down the steps of Ag. Marina church in Exoghi, so click here for the experience without fear of falling. |
Sun 9 March - Today is Carnival Time around Greece. Ithacans will be heading to Vathy for their Carnival at around 2.30pm if the rain holds off. Last night it hailed and poured and although the skies are a little blue, there is some black lurking on the horizon, so everyone has their fingers crossed. |
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In an Athens News article, which I was alerted to by Mr. Post, writes that the Greek government wants to include internet blogs and bloggers under the same legislation as Press and TV to stop libel and defamatory content from being published on the internet, giving the government more power to track down offenders to prosecute them. They won't be drawing up a new law, but intend to amend an old law (pre-internet
- #1187). The amendment will call for IDs and the personal information on the blogger on their homepages. Maybe they've forgotten about law 101 - freedom of speech. Greek Bloggers are outraged and will be demonstrating on Parliament to show their discontent on March 9. As Mr. Post (one of Ithakis Bloggers, blogging on a server outside of Greece) points out, the amendment won't stop anything. Greek bloggers will just put their blogs on servers outside of Greece. Those who will suffer are the Greek Internet servers who may be abandoned by over 40,000 bloggers currently blogging in Greece. As a Blogger quoted in the Athens news, blogging needs a Code of Ethics, not an amendment to a law that was drawn up before the internet existed. If the government is really going to crack down on blogs then the biggest blog of all time, the Gob (Aussie slang for mouth), the verbal blog that goes on around the Greek Cafenion, spawns many more libel and defamatory comments, and has for more decades than I remember. From my experience you can't stop a Greek from being passionate about his politics or religion whether through a blog or in a conversation. The March 9 demonstration will no doubt end in tears. (tear gas) To read full article in Athens News click here |
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Vathy Carnival 2008 |
There was a promise of a sunny afternoon, but black clouds quickly began to cover the island and before anyone knew it, the rain began to pour down and put an end to the Carnival. Before it did, we got a few shots and a video, so click here or on photo left to see them. For the video you can also click here to go directly to the ithacagreece.com movie room. |
With so many parties and Carnivals I couldn't get to go all, but I would like to mention the Carnival Party held last Friday night in Stavros at the new Community Hall was a great success. Word has it, it was a great night with alot of Kefi and Yiannis Andrianatos and band entertained the audience very well with a great selection of folk tunes. I'm sorry I missed it. |
Kathara Deftera in Anoghi |
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Mon 10 March - Right - Lent begins with Kathara Deftera in Anoghi. The second year in a row without sufficient wind for the traditional kite flying, but a great morning and afternoon anyway. Kathara Deftera in Anoghi is one of the special occasions no matter what the weather. Click here or on photograph right for more pics and a movie. If you want to miss the pics and go directly to the movie, you can click here. |
The power cuts which were touted to go until Wednesday, seemed to have stopped since yesterday. Rumours have it that the lawsuits filed against the Electricity Co. may have made the company think twice about its power outs. Seems there is enough power to provide to everyone even with the strike. Power cuts on Ithaca are notorious destructors of many electrical appliances. Many lose their tvs, computers and fans, dvd players, air-con etc. through persistent cuts which stop the appliances mid stream, with unhealthy spikes in the grid nudging appliances toward quickly becoming obsolete when the power is turned back on. My 2 year old reverse cycle air-con unit for instance, which we use for heating, sounds like a nuclear power plant starting up each morning. |
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Thur 13 March - Above - Last week there were so many parties and festivals I couldn't get to all of them. One was the Perahori dance on Carnival sunday night. Panos Dorizas from Perahori, sent in a couple of photos. As usual, many headed up to the southern mountain village where the locals put on a grand evening for all.
National strikes are still going on in Greece. Many government and private businesses have limited work possibilities. The banks for instance. Our Ithaki branches are open and running, but anything that requires the central banks computer systems is not working and hasn't for over a week.
For a video of a quiet Vathy morning, click here.
For more videos of Ithaca you can also visit www.youtube.com/rainscratch where G. Florence has converted some of his film footage of Ithaca onto youtube which he has taken and collected over 30 years.
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Sun 16 March - Above Left - Lefki to Fiscardo views. Above Right - Alexander and father Nico are on Ithaca for a couple of days working on their boat and Ithacan home. They are here from the Netherlands, but are by no means new to the island. Their relationship to ithaca is about 11 years old. After ithaca, Nico takes to the road with the Celine Dion tour, for which he drives a tour truck. Nice life. Below - All the signs of Spring. |
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