As usual the summer Paros Life is chock-a-block full of music concerts and art events.  One that did not make the listing deadline has an Oregon connection. Also it is coming to Paros at the instigation of our American friends of Scooter Rally fame, Al and Ardy.

The Cappella Romana from our home city of Portland, Oregon is celebrating its 20th Anniversary by singing at the Patmos Sacred Music Festival and on Paros at the Church of Panagia Ekatontapilliani  which is one of the oldest and most important churches in Greece.

The group will sing music ranging from Medieval Byzantine chants to modern choral works by Californian Greek composers, including rhapsodic works by modern Greek composer Michael Adamis.  The Paros concert on 5 September at 8:30 P.M. will be recorded by a Grammy winning record producer.

We are really looking forward to this event.  The first concert that I attended on Paros was held in the courtyard of Ekatontapilliani and I still remember the magic.

We are always on the look out for articles and books about Greek island life.  There was a new book out last June but I missed the “virtual book tour” whatever that is.

One reviewer had this to say: “When I agreed to read and review Cafe Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island I did not know it was an expat slice of life read in the voice of a main character who, among other things, is writing about yoga mantras. Had I known that, I’d have rejected the book out of hand, thinking it yet another “me and my feelings in a land of wacky, colorful locals” story. And that would have been a shame because, what do you know? I rather liked this book.”

Read more from this reviewer here or read more at the publisher’s site here  Or USA readers can use the link below on the left for Powell’s Books and Europe readers can use the one on the right for Amazon U.K.

If anyone has read this book, please comment here.

Greekophiles are all familiar with Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis as well as  the annoying little ditty played on many sites. Play  Nothing against the music, I like Mikis Theodorakis, just not while trying to gather info from a web page.

Now the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum in Myrtia, Crete, near Iraklion has opened a permanent exhibition on Nikos Kazantzakis.  He lived a fascinating life so I am sure this museum would be worth a visit. 

While I found Zorba the Greek a great read with insight to Cretan culture, most of Kazantzakis’ literature is heavy going. For a quick and easy lesson buy the video.  Cheers.

I love that title and use it a lot when promoting my workshops on Paros.  But today it is announcing a series of free mini e-courses by deTraci Regula who edits the Greece Travel part of the About.com network.

She is offering the following:

• Plan Your Trip to Greece -  Plan your trip to Greece with these tips for Greek travellers
• Learn the Greek Alphabet in 8 Three-Minute Lessons - Learn the letters of the Greek Alphabet quickly and easily with these fun, easy lessons.
• Learn About Greek Mythology - Learn about the Greek gods and goddesses in this easy e-course on Greek mythology.

Think Greece  --  Have Fun  --  Sign up here

Yesterday was a quiet day; a little on the warm side and humid.  Karin wanted to get out and do something but riding our scooters on the asphalt would be hot during the day.  So we decided to have an early dinner and then in the evening ride over to Prodromos, a small village that I had only passed by in the last eight years on the island.

When we turned off the highway and into the main village square we discovered a sound system and chairs being set up for a concert that evening.  So we decided to kill some time and wait the hour or so before the music started to see if we wanted to stay.  There is a local group that we don’t particularly care for, but a friend had told us they liked this one. 

A Greek village welcome

To start we walked through the narrow footpaths—no cars allowed—admiring the details of the old, traditional Greek village.  Around one corner we were suddenly looking through a large glass window at an open hearth oven as a man and woman were loading several pots of various size and shapes into it.  Karin used a little Greeklish to discover that this was a community oven that would now be sealed for 12 hours until Sunday morning.  The main thing being cooked was Revithia, a bean soup, that is best when baked in this traditional method.

Well used oven

When we finished wandering the streets it was dark so we headed back to the main square and went into the one village taverna for an ouzo.  Just as we finished we heard the music starting so quickly grabbed the free suma and nuts on offer and sat down.  We were surprised to see not only a friend from Aliki who plays the drums, Yannis Paroussis, but also another friend and hotel owner, Ioannis Xydis.  We knew he was an ex-professional singer but had previously only heard about his impromptu performances after the fact.  So this was to be our first time hearing him perform.

Ioannis Xydis in Prodromos

We were shocked.  He is very good!  I won’t give a concert review but this group of about 5 musicians and another 5 singers put on a fantastic show full of Greek themed music without much of the heavy folk music that we usually hear.  The audience was really into it and several gave impromptu dances which were also good.

Feeling the music

This group is good enough to be performing at a night club with a cover charge and expensive drinks.  Here we were in a pleasant village square full of people who knew each other and served free drinks and snacks.  Thank you Paros.

Last night we went into Parikia for a mixture of culture and school play.  As an extension to their English language studies a group of young people, with the help of their teacher, of course, presented a series of Shakespeare excerpts.  There were sonnets and parts of plays around the theme, The Ages of Women.

The leads all did a credible job but it was obvious that some of the supporting cast was forcibly recruited.  Over all the costuming, music and presentation were well done which made it an enjoyable show.  The Elizabethan-style juggler stole the show, however.

In the advance publicity one of the players commented that as they rehearsed they understood the meanings of the English words and phrases but when they read a Greek language translation it lost meaning because of the different style of expression between Greek and English.  This cultural difference is something we experience every day.

As usual we capped off the experience with a gelato from Gelato Sulla Luna.  The pistachio was heavenly; made on the premises.  Do visit Denise there and say hello from Michael of Aliki.

Here is a Greek version of an old joke. I stole it from another blog.

For the last month I have been looking at this milestone with trepidation. I have not commented on previous anniversaries or 100 posts but somehow 300 seemed like it should be noted.

However I have come up try for anything special to write about. So I decided to do a retrospective like the professional journalists who take a holiday at the end of the year.

This is my first post, including typing error: 19 September 2005
Hi, I am not sure how I will be using this blog. Since everyone is interested in the weather I will start by saying it is now quite warm and sunny after starting out clowdy. Michael

I've come a long way, ain't I. I should have found my top one or two posts to repeat here but I enjoyed reading the old stuff so much that I didn't get any further than the first two months.

This from 7 October 2005: Antiparos Back Country Beaches
Yesterday was cloud free so Karin and I decided to take the afternoon off and explore a back road on Antiparos that we had not traveled before. Although windy it was a delightful day and we helped replenish our suntans.
It was actually quite hot while we ate our picnic lunch on a small isolated beach. We thought it was the end of the road until afterwards we noticed a mast sticking up between the hills and thus discovered a tour group having lunch on an even better beach. While the guests waved the boat operator seem perturbed that we had spoiled the exclusivity of his offering.

We just moved on to explore some unusual rock formations and some other back country curiosities. For our swim we shared a beach with a retired couple and their camper van at one end and a young nudist couple at the other. We were in the middle literally and figuratively.

This from 14 November 2008: Learn Greek
We just got back from our first Greek language class. It went better than everyone expected, i.e. virtually no grammar. The teacher started with asking us what Greek we already knew and building or reinforcing from there. That is we had all heard and repeated words and phrases that we had questions about. Later the teacher said we would not be conjugating verbs, rather we would memorize and use common forms from everyday speech. Great!

We six students are a mixed bag; one has been living here for about 10 years, Karin and I for 6 seasons, three others just moved here this year but holidayed in Greece before. All of us past the age of easy learning. None of us able to speak a full sentence of Greek.

The hardest word to pronounce χτεσ (htes or chtes) meaning yesterday.

Hmmm, what should I do for post 301?