2nd September: It has just been announced that the composer, Mikis Theodorakis, has died at the age of 96. Three days of national mourning have been declared. He is most famous for the music of the film, Zorba the Greek. His was a full life: imprisonment and exile during the dictatorship; a move from the... Continue Reading →
Greek Word 16/2021
μπερμπάντης – berbandis, plural μπερμπάντηδες, from the Italian birbante. The etymology was a bit of a surprise as I was expecting it to be another Turkish loan word. At the end of last week Akis Tsochatzopoulos died. He was a huge figure in PASOK from the early 80s until the mid 90s. There were good... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 16/2021
The dominant stories in Greece are forest fires and Covid. Covid cases are increasing. The table below shows figures for the beginning and end of August. Date (24 hours leading up to 3pm on)New CasesDeathsIntubated2 – August - 212,156818827 – August - 213,0762233728 – August - 213,0643533330 – August – 21*2,34319338 Numbers are generally lower... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 15/2021
An encounter with the Greek health system. On August 2nd or 3rd, I left our first floor flat to do some shopping. Halfway downstairs I realised I’d forgotten my mask and charged back to the flat. By the time I got to the door I was completely out of breath and finding it hard to... Continue Reading →
Greek Word 15/2021
τζίτζικας [tzitzikas], an alternative form of τζιτζίκι = a cicada. A quick entry this week. We are currently experiencing the hottest temperatures since 1987. It’s over 40oC in some places. Getting into my car the other day reminded me of summers in Saudi Arabia. As I write, forest fires are raging around a town called... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 15/2021
We’ll start with Covid. Yesterday, Tuesday July 27th, saw a significant rise in cases – just a whisker short of 3,600 cases yesterday, of which 15 (0.4%) were detected at border entry points. A few weeks back, the government was panicking as intubations rose to nearly 800, but on Monday there were only 142 in... Continue Reading →
Greek Word 14/2021
γούνα [ghouna] = fur or fur coat. From Late Latin/Early Italian gunna One of the problems of looking up a Greek word or expression is that it is like getting lost in YouTube. You want to see an excerpt from your favourite comedy or listen to a song, only for five minutes to turn into... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 14/2021
Saturday 5th June. It is becoming harder to get basic Covid facts from the Greek Press, by that I mean the Greek-language press. Covid continues to abate with 932 new cases recorded today, 35 deaths and 445 undergoing “invasive treatment” as it says in the English-language Greek Reporter. One consistency over the past few weeks... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 13/2021
Despite the country opening up to tourism and despite the increasing air of normality, there has been a steady decrease in Covid. Today’s figures are 1,007 new cases, 41 dead and 480 in intensive care. Of the new cases, only one was detected at a border entry point. The press seems puzzled that over half... Continue Reading →
Greek Word of the Week 13/2021
English-speaking students of Ancient Greek often refer to the Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon for help. It has just undergone a re-writing so deep and wide in scope that the editors have dropped the names of the original compilers; it is now called the Cambridge Greek Lexicon. More information can be found here: https://greekreporter.com/2021/05/27/cambridge-university-creates-monumental-new-ancient-greek-dictionary/ The... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 12/2021
Hurrah for tourists. May they come in droves. The Greek government, I believe, would have kept us in lockdown indefinitely were the economy not so dependent on tourism. The number of new Covid cases, deaths and patients in intensive care has not really gone down as much as the authorities would like, but the gates... Continue Reading →
Greek Word of the Week 12/2021
It is getting better but mobile telephony in Greece is still quite expensive. There is still no real competition as neither Wind nor Vodafone is allowed to undercut the former state-owned COSMOTE. I’m with the bad boy COSMOTE and I am a light user. To tell the truth, one thing I do like about COSMOTE... Continue Reading →
Greek Word of the Week 11/2021
καμπάνα – (kambana) bell, bell-bottoms, a fine Obviously a borrowing from Latin, καμπάνα has several extended meanings including the flared trousers popular in the 70s, also called bell-bottoms. In an article about the biologist, Professor Sotiris Tsiodras in www.instanews.gr the writer states “ο Σωτήρης Τσιόδρας … έκρουσε …. το καμπανάκι του κινδύνου για τον αριθμό... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 11/2021
Orthodox Easter is on May 2nd and very few people will be travelling for the second successive year. A drip-drip of ministerial leaks and utterances have prepared us for the non-surprise announcement by the Prime Minister yesterday, an unfortunate date as 21st April 1967 was the date of Greece’s last military coup. The date for... Continue Reading →
Greek Word of the Week 10/2021
χουνέρι (khuneri) Another borrowing. Persian in origin but coming to Greece via Turkey. Having checked various dictionaries and online sources, I’ve found that there is little agreement on the precise definition of the word. This gives me the confidence to add my own translation. My old Crighton does not have the word. Nor does my... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 10/2021
My original intention when creating this blog was to focus on Irish music and life in Northern Greece, specifically on Thessaloniki. Circumstances that we are all aware of have limited musical performance. Moreover, my comments on Greece have focused on the country as a whole and its response to Covid 19. This has meant that... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 9/2021
It’s been a great week in terms of discovery. I have always poo-pooed the idea of ABC musical notation, failing to understand why anyone would choose to labour over the differences between G, (the G below middle C [the comma is a symbol, not punctuation]), G and G’ instead of “learning the dots” as it... Continue Reading →
Greek Word of the Week 9/2021
There were several candidates for Word of the Week, mainly words to describe a fondness for bad language: αθυροστομία, βρωμολοχία, υβρεολόγιο but the winner is another word from www.menshouse.gr άμπαλος = abalos I had difficulty working out the meaning because my first instinct was to read it as “ambalos”. Had I read it as “abalos”,... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 8/2021
The music scene has blossomed technically and online. My lack of computer savviness (apparent in the design of this blog) has improved. I’m downloading video clips, converting them to mp3 or mp4, changing the key or tempo as and when necessary, converting PDFs to jpeg. Small beer, admittedly, but a big personal improvement. Our Sunday... Continue Reading →
Greek Word of the Week 8/2021
Usually, I focus on words with non-Greek roots, so-called “loan words”. Why do we call them that when we never give them back? Anyway, this week’s word is Greek through and through unless someone wants to take me to some dark corner of Indo-European historical linguistics to prove otherwise. επιστράτευση – epistratefsi = mobilization. The... Continue Reading →