Κατηγορία: αναμνησεις

By the (breaking) sea wave: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

Mr. FFF: Παρα θιν αλος. By the breaking sea wave.

MM: I see Priest Chryses praying. For his daughter Chryseis has been kidnapped by Agamemnon who does not want to release her.

…βή δ’ ακέων παρά θίνα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης…

πήρε βουβός του πολυτάραχου γιαλού τον άμμον

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α34

Without a word, he went by the shore of the noisy sea (or ‘sounding sea’)

Homer, Iliad, A34

Mr. FFF: The priest Chryses prayed to Apollo to punish the Greek army, so that Agamemnon is forced to return to him his daughter, Chryseis.

Mrs. T: The deep sound of the sea is in stark contrast with the priest’s silent suffering.

Είπε, και την ευκή του επάκουσεν ο Απόλλωνας ο Φοίβος,
κι απ᾿ την κορφή του Ολύμπου εχύθηκε θυμό γεμάτος

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α43-44

He spoke, and Apollo Phoebus listened to his wish

and from the top pf Olympus he rushed away full of wrath

Homer, Iliad, A43-44

MM: Apollo shot the plague to the Greek Army, and Agamemnon had to return Chryseis to her father.

Mrs. T: As a compensation for his loss, Agamemnon took Bryseis from Achilles.

Mr. FFF: Achilles is furious at the loss of Briseis.

Briseis returns, sculpture by Michael Talbot

Δακρυσμένος τότε ο Αχιλλέας απ᾿ τους συντρόφους του μακραίνει και καθίζει

μπρος στον ψαρή γιαλό, το απέραντο το πέλαγο θωρώντας,

κι απλώνοντας τα χέρια ευκήθηκε στην ακριβή του μάνα

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α348-352

Achilles in tears strays away from his comrades and seats

on the beach, and looking at the vast sea,

unfolded his arms and prayed to his mother

Homer, Iliad, AHomer, Iliad, A348-352

Mr. FFF: Greeks of any age, starting with Homer, have a special relationship with the sea.

Mrs. T: The sea was considered to be the home of many deities.

MM: The sea was also a place of catharsis, a cleansing place for mortals.

Wie Meerekuesten, wenn zu baun

Anfangen die Himmliwschen und herein

Schifft unaufhaltsam, eine Pracht, das Werk

Der Woogen, eins uns andere, und die Erde

Sich ruester aus, darauf vom Freudigsten eines…

Wie Merekuesten…

Friedrich Hoelderlin

As upon seacoasts, when the gods
Begin to build and the work of the waves
Ships in unstoppably wave
After wave, in splendour, and the earth
Attires itself and then comes joy
A supreme, tuneful joy, setting …

(translation by David Constantine)

Wie Merekuesten…

Friedrich Hoelderlin

MM: I see the beach walking and…

Stephen Daedalus: Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strand? Crush, crack, crick, crick.

MM: Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells.

Leopold Bloom: I am wandering around, avoiding to go home. I am on Sandymount strand. Following Stephen’s steps.

(young) Gerty: It is almost dusk. Roman candles are fizzing through the air.

Leopold Bloom: I cannot get my eyes off her!

(young) Gerty: I pulled my skirt up and revealed my garters.

Leopold Bloom: I surrender, I am too weak to resist.

(young) Gerty: I behaved as an exhibitionist. Will I ever be as important as Molly is?

Leopold Bloom:  I behaved as a true voyeur. I am aging.

Mr. FFF: I like garters.

Mrs. T: The description of the episode with Bloom and (young) Gerty made the US Courts to ban the book as indecent.

 

The beach shines like a mirror, swallowing the confusion of forms, creating whatever it likes.

Here by the beach, I will be covered, in whole, by a layer of sugar, like snow.

It is a sin to be absent from the present.

Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, Mrs. Ersis’ Novel

Ο γιαλος στιλβει σαν καθρεφτης, καταπινοντας τη συγχυση των μορφων, σχηματιζοντας ο,τι θελει αυτος.

Εδω στην ακρογιαλια, ολοκληρον, θα με καλυψει σαν χιονι ενα στρωμα απο ζαχαρη.

Αμαρτια η απουσια απο το παρον.

Νικος Γαβριηλ Πεντζικης, Το Μυθιστορημα της κυριας Ερσης

Πῶς δύναται τὶς νὰ γίνει ἀνὴρ χωρὶς ν᾿ ἀγαπήσει δεκάκις τουλάχιστον, καὶ δεκάκις ν᾿ ἀπατηθεῖ ;

How could anyone become a man without falling in love at least ten times, and betrayed ten times?

Alexandros Papadiamantis

MM: I see the kissing-on-the-beach sequence where Lancaster and Kerr roll around in the Pacific Ocean’s frothy waves, lips locked as the surf washes over them.

Mrs. T: Lancaster’s sergeant (Milton Warden) with Deborah Kerr playing Karen Holms, another officer’s wife

Mr. FFF: The American censors deleted four seconds from that provocative love-making scene.

Mrs. T: From Here to Eternity was nominated for 13 Oscars and won eight, including best film and best director. It won rave reviews and became one of the highest-grossing films of the Fifties.

Du musst das Leben nicht verstehen,

dann wird es werden wie ein Fest.

You should not understand Life,

then it will be like a celebration.

Rainer Maria Rilke

MM: I see the beach swimming after sunset

Mrs. T: I have never done this.

Mr. FFF: I had a friend who rejoiced every time she had a chance to swim during the night. She could stay up all night swimming.

Τα πρωτα μου χρονια τ’ αξεχαστα τα’ ζησα κοντα στ’ ακρογιαλι,

Στη θαλασσα εκει τη ρηχη και την ημερη,

στη θαλασσα εκει την πλατιεα, τη μεγαλη…

Στη θαλασσα εκει…

Κωστης Παλαμας

I have lived my first unforgetable years by the beach,

There by the shallow and quite sea,

the wide, the great sea, there…

There by the sea

Kostis Palamas

MM: I see the Hotel des Roses in Rhodes.

Mrs. T: I like roses.

Mr. FFF: This is where I was going to swim when I was a kid. For hours on and on. 10am to 7pm. Full time job.

MM: I see the bay of Ladiko, near Kolymbia in Rhodes.

Mrs. T: Looks great!

Mr. FFF: It was even better when there was nobody there! Years ago, access to the bay was blocked and the man who had the keys was a good family friend.

MM: I see food and drinks by the beach.

Mrs. T: Allow me. First stop is Damianos Fishtavern, Ambelas, Paros island, Greece.

Mr. FFF: Wonderful setting, and dedication to serving good seafood all year round.

Mrs. T: It is amazing how different food tastes when you smell the sea breeze!

MM: I see food and drinks on the cliff.

Mrs. T: Second stop. Akelare Restaurante, San Sebastian, Basque Country.

Mr. FFF: Up on a cliff, overlooking the Atlantic, stands one of the shrines of gastronomy in the wonderful land of the Basque people.

Mrs. T: The place is full of the joy of life.

Η θέα

MM: I see seafood by the beach at night.

Mrs. T: Third stop. Ristorante Uliassi, Senigallia, Marche, Italia.

Mr. FFF: Now we are in the Riviera Romagnola, where the ITalians have invented the “beach without the sea”. Nevertheless, in this riviera, where everything happens, where the high and the low co-exist peacefully, Uliassi does his magic. It is worth the trip. Even if you do not make it to the sea.

MM: I see seafood on a balcony overlooking the beach.

Mrs. T: Aristodimos Fishtavern, Pachi, Megara, Greece.

Mr. FFF: Back to the homeland. An unassuming small seaside town 40 km from Athens presents the goods of the sea in a way that honors centuries of eating seafood.

Κουκλι σκετο, με το κλωναρι συκιας να βγαινει μεσα απο την προβλητα!

MM: I see Death encounters by the beach.

Mrs. T: Disillusioned knight Antonius Block and his squire Jöns return after fighting in the Crusades and find Sweden being ravaged by the plague. On the beach immediately after their arrival, Block encounters Death.

Mr. FFF: Black and White. The agony of Man in front of the inevitable. But the sea makes everything look natural. This is why the sea gives another meaning to life.

Mrs. T: (reading from a book): “The whole beach, once so full of colour and life, looked now autumnal, out of season; it was nearly deserted and not even very clean. A camera on a tripod stood at the edge of the water, apparently abandoned; its black cloth snapped in the freshening wind.”

Mr. FFF: (reading from the same book): “Some minutes passed before anyone hastened to the aid of the elderly man sitting there collapsed in his chair. They bore him to his room. And before nightfall a shocked and respectful world received the news of his decease.”

“Prayer does not change God, but it does change the one who prays.”
Soren Kirkegaard

“The essence of truth is freedom”

Martin Heidegger

Participants

Achilles

Ingmar Bergman, Swedish Film Director

Leopold Bloom

Briseis

Priest Chryses

Chryseis

Stephen Daedalus

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Caspar David Friedrich, German Painter

Martin Heidegger, German Philosopher

Friedrich Hoeldrlin, German Poet

(young) Gerty

Homer, Greek Poet

Soren Kirkegaard, Dane Philosopher

MM, partner

Kostis Palamas, Greek Poet

Alexandros Papadiamantis, Greek Writer

Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, Greek Writer and Painter,

Otto Preminger, American Film Director

Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian Poet

Mrs. T, gourmant

References

Akelare Restaurant, San Sebastian, Basque Country

Aristodimos Fishtavern, Pachi, Megara, Greece

Damianos Fishtavern, Ambelas, Paros Island, Greece

From Here to Eternity, A Film by: Otto Preminger

A Hole in the Head. A Film by: Frank Capra

Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite), A Film by Fatih Akin

Restaurante Uliassi, Senigallia, Marche, Italia

In memoriam

Taiv 1961

Η ΑΡΜΟΝΙΚΑ

Ποίημα του Νίκου Εγγονοπουλου

***

τη μητερα μου θα τηνέ βλεπω μόνο- και πάντα –

νέα κι ωραία

ως ήτο

***

ψηλη ξανθια

με το γλυκο

κι απαλα θλιμμενο της

βλεμμα

***

στέκεται μπρος στον ολόσωμο καθρέφτη:

ελέγχει το άψογο της κομψοτάτης

αμφιέσεώς της

καθως σε λίγο

πρόκειται να βγει

***

(απ’τα στόρια των παραθυρων

γιομιζει το δωματιο

ενα ήρεμο πρωινό φώς)

***

πλάι μια παιδικη μουσικούλα

παιζει ενα τραγουδάκι

χαράς

και γιορτής

Taiv 1982

HARMONICA

A poem by Nikos Eggonopoulos

***

I will see my mother only – and always-

young and beautiful

as she was

***

tall and blond

with her sweet

and mildly sad

eyes

***

she stands in front of the full body mirror:

she ckecks the perfection of her stylish

attire

as she is about

to go out

***

(from the windows’ shades

the room is full of

a mild day light)

***

nearby child’s music

is playing a song

of joy

and celebration

On the Dark Side: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

Ludwig Wittgenstein: “In a conversation: one person throws a ball; the other does not know whether he is supposed to throw it back, or throw it to a third person, or leave it on the ground, or pick it up and put it in his pocket,…Any interpretation still hangs in the air along with what it interprets, and cannot give it any support. Interpretations by themselves do not determine meaning.”

Socrates: So it is that the good man too could sometimes become bad, either through age or toil or disease or some misfortune – for doing badly is nothing other than being deprived of knowledge – but the bad man could never become bad – for he is bad all the time – but if he is to become bad he must first become good.

MM: Are you a good man?

Mr. FFF: I am good and bad at the same time. And not because of lack of knowledge.

Mrs. T: Are you then disagreeing with Socrates?

Mr. FFF: Good and bad is only one of the “dialectical” dichotomies of man. Others being: reason / faith,  bright / dark, rational / irrational, sacred / profane, Apollonian / Dionysian, nature / culture. Dialectics dictate that both sides are taken together, and dealt with as a whole.

Friedrich Nietzsche: Every human embodies a compound of nature and culture, chaos and order, instinct and reason… symbolised by Dionysus and Apollo.

Mrs. T: What are the origins of bad, of the dark side? Was man in the past a unitary entity? How did this dichotomy of bright and dark come about?

Mr. FFF (Reads from Genesis): “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’  And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die.’  And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die for God knows in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate.  She gave also to her husband with her and he ate.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

St. Augustine: We took away an enormous quantity of pears, not to eat them ourselves, but simply to throw them to the pigs. Perhaps we ate some of them, but our real pleasure consisted in doing something that was forbidden. .. the evil in me was foul, but I loved it. I loved my own perdition and my own faults, not the things for which I committed wrong, but the wrong itself. My soul was vicious and broke away from your (God’s) safe keeping to seek its own destruction, looking for no profit in disgrace but only for disgrace itself.

Mrs. T: Surely the Judeo-Christian view is not the only one.

Mr. FFF: Of course not. To take an example, daemons were benevolent spirits in the time of Hesiod. It was Plato and his pupil Xenocrates, who first characterized daemons as dangerous spirits. This was later absorbed by the Christians.

Mrs. T: Is the dark side a moral construct?

Mr. FFF: The dark side is a multifaceted construct. It has moral and religious connotations to say the least.

MM: The seductress of Juliette claimed immediately after the act that morality and religion are meaningless.

Mr. FFF: Lets put two of the prominent “dark side” attributes on the table: sin and evil.

MM: Juliette’s aim in life is to to enjoy oneself at no matter whose expense. What is the meaning of sin and evil for Juliette?

Clairwil: I expect Juliette to do evil – not to quicken her lust, as I believe is her habit at present, but solely for the pleasure of doing it…one must proceed calmly, deliberately, lucidly. Crime is the torch that should fire the passions.

Mephistopheles: Das beste, das du wissen kannst, / Darfst du den Buben doch nichts sagen.

(Mephistopheles: The best of what you know may not, after all, be told to boys.)

Georges Battaile: Sexual reproductive activity is common to sexual animals and men, but only men appear to have turned their sexual activity into erotic activity. Eroticism, unlike simple sexual activity, is a psychological quest independent of the natural goal: reproduction and the desire for children…Eroticism always entails a breaking down of established patterns, the patterns, I repeat, of the regulated social order basic to our discontinuous mode of existence.

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pigs”): “Την κοιτουσε απο κοντα. Καρφωνε το βλεμμα του στα χειλη, στις λεπτομερειες της επιδερμιδας, στο λαιμο, στα χερια που του φαινοντουσαν εκφραστικα και μυστηριωδη. Ξαφνικα καταλαβε πως αν δεν τη φιλουσε, η στερηση θα ηταν ανυποφορη. Ειπε μεσα του: “Ειμαι τρελος”. Κι επανελαβε πως αν την φιλουσε, θα κατεστρεφε ολη αυτη την τρυφεροτητα, που τοσο αυθορμητα του προσφερε εκεινη. Θα εκανε ισως τη λαθος κινηση, που θα την απογοητευε και θα τον εμφανιζε σαν ενα ατομο χωρις ευαισθησια, ανικανο να ερμηνευσει σωστα μαι πραξη γενναιοδωριας, σαν ενα υποκριτη που παριστανε τον καλο, ενω μεσα του κοχλαζουν οι χυδαιες ορεξεις, σαν εναν ανοητο που τολμα να τις εκφρασει. Σκεφτηκε: “Αυτο δε μου συνεβαινε αλλοτε” (και ειπε μεσα του πως αυτο το σχολιο του ειχε γινει πια εμμονη ιδεα). “Σε μια παρομοια κατασταση εγω θα ημουν ενας αντρας μπροστα σε μια γυναικα, ενω τωρα…” Κι αν τωρα εκανε λαθος; Αν εχανε εξαιτιας μιας αγιατρευτης ντροπαλοσυνης την καλυτερη ευκαιρια; Γατι να μη δει τα πραγματα απλα, να μην αφησει τον εαυτο του να καταλαβει πως η Ν κι εκεινος…”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pigs”): He was watching her from a close distance. His stare was penetrating her lips, the details of her skin, the neck, the hands, mysterious and ever so expressive. He told himself: ” I am mad”. And repeated that if he were to kiss her, he would destroy all the tenderness that she was so spontaneously offering to him. He might make the wrong move, that would disappoint her and present him in her eyes as a person without sensitivity, unable to interpret correctly an act of generosity, like an hypocrite who was pretending to be good, while inside him burn all sorts of vile desires, like a fool who dares express them. He thought: “this was not happening to me in the past” (and told himself that this was becoming now a persistent thought). “In a similar situation in the past, I would be a man in front of a woman, while now…” And if he were wrong? If  because of this incurable shyness he was to miss the best chance? Why not see things in the simple way, not let himself understand that N and himself…”

Michel Foucault: …transgression is not related to the limit as black is to white […] the outside to the inside […] their relationship takes the form of a spiral which no simple infraction can exhaust…sexuality is a fissure – not one which surrounds us as the basis of our isolation or individuality, but one which marks the limit within us and designates us as a limit…transgression and the limit has replaced the older dichotomy of the sacred and the profane.

Marlow: And perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom and all the truth, all the sincerity, are just compresses into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.

Brother Medardus: One morning when I was going to the choirmaster for my music lesson, I caught his sister by surprise in a light negligee, her breast almost completely bare. She swiftly covered it up, but my prying eyes had already seen too much. Words failed me. New, unknownfeelings welled up within me and drove the red-hot blood through my veins so that my pulse beat out loud for all to hear. My heart was held in a convulsive grip and nearly bursting, until I eased my torment with a gentle sigh.
Georges Bataille:  …eroticism fell within the bounds of the profane and was at the same time condemned out of hand. The development of eroticism is parallel with that of uncleaness. Sacredness misunderstood is readily identified with evil.
Michel Foucault: If it is extremely dangerous to say that reason is the enemy that should be eliminated, it is just as dangerous to say that any critical questioning of this rationality risks sending us into irrationality… if critical thought itself has a function…it is precisely to accept this sort of spiral, this sort of revolving door of rationality that refers us to its necessity… and at the same time to its intrinsic dangers.

Mr. FFF: The spiral negates the dichotomy. A new paradigm is born. I am a descendant of Gerard de Nerval.
Friedrich Nietzsche:…morality takes good and evil for realities that contradict one another (not as complementary value concepts,which would be true), it advises taking the side of the good, it desires that the good should renounce and oppose the evil down to its ultimate roots – it therefore denies life which has in all its instincts both Yes and No.
Alexander Nehamas: The essential unity of what we commonly distinguish as good and evil is one of the most central themes in Nietzsche’s writing.
Georges Bataille:  If they want to elevate sexuality above its organic matrix and turn it into a spiritual activity, human beings cannot but conceive erotism as a gateway to death and the diabolical. The taking over of evil is an extreme and sovereign value. This process would not require the excision of morality, rather it would bring forth a higher level morality, an a-theological “hypermorality”.


Marlow: We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.
Mr. Kurtz: The Horror, the Horror!
Marlow: I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.
Friedrich Nietzsche: It is with people as it is with the trees. The more they aspire to the height and light, the more strongly do their roots strive earthward, downward, into the dark, the deep – into evil.
Marlow: The mind of man is capable of anything – because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future… Droll thing life is – that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself – that comes too late – a crop of unextinguishable regrets.
Friedrich Nietzsche: Human beings need what is most evil in them for what is best in them… whatever is most evil is their best power and the hardest stone for the highest creator… human beings must become better and more evil.

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): “Πιστεψε πως δεν ειχε πια ουτε δυναμεις ουτε ψευδαισθησεις για ν’αντεξει τη ζωη. Η φιλια ηταν αδιαφορη, ο ερωτας ποταπος και απιστος και το μονο που περισσευε ηταν το μισος. … του περασε απο το μυαλο μια λυση που αξιζε τον κοπο να την μελετησει κανεις¨το ιδιο του το χερι, οπλισμενο μ’ ενα φανταστικο ρεβολβερ να τον σημαδευει στον κροταφο.”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): “He felt that he no longer had any powers or illusions to stay alive. Friendship was indifferent and love unworthy and vile and the only thing in abundance was hatred… a solution emerged in his mind to be further explored “his own hand, armed with a imagined revolver, aiming his temple”.

Participants

Georges Battaile, French writer and philosopher

Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer

Clairwil, character in de Sade’s “Juliette”

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Michel Foucault, French philosopher

Mr. Kurtz, half-English, half-French, ivory merchant and commander of a trading post

Marlow, main character in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Brother Medardus, a Capuchin Friar

Mephistopheles

MM, partner

Alexander Nehamas, professor of philosophy

Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Socrates, Greek philosopher

Mrs. T, unknown ethinicity, gourmant

Grilled aubergines and skinless sausage Italian style

Summer has arrived!

I can tell, not because the daily high temperature is steadily at 35 degrees Celcius, but because the aubergine are ripe and ready for the eating.

They sing their little song every morning when I open the door and face the vegetables garden.

Today I could not hear the song anymore. I had to make my heart stone-cold, and face the inevitable: I was going to have the aubergines for lunch.

Respect for the ingredients in ceremonies of this sort is mandatory.

The original flavours must dominate the experience.

The sweetness of the flesh must accompany the traveller for long after the meal is over.

So they were grilled with a touch of olive oil, and served on a bed of coarse sea salt.

The company the grilled aubergine demands is noble.

Noble in its extreme simplicity.

It had to be skinless sausage, Italian style.

Extremely good quality pork belly, deboned and minced coarsely.

Then garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well, compact in a container so that there are no air bubbles left in the mix, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Then grill in fierce fire.

The result is more than satisfying. The meat is extremely juicy and tasty, with incredible texture.

It accompanies well the protagonist of the meal, the sweet, tender, delicious aubergine.

A red with character, like a Rosso di Montalcino, paying tribute to the culture that created this sausage, should accompany the meal.

The Sea: A “Fluxus Eleatis” discourse

Archilochus: Look Glaucus! Already waves are disturbing the deep sea and a cloud stands straight round about the heights of Gyrae, a sign of storm; from the unexpected comes fear.

Julia Kristeva: We are no doubt permanent subjects of a language that holds us in its power. But we are subjects in process, ceaselessly losing our identity, destabilized by fluctuations in our relations to the other, to whom we nevertheless remain bound by a kind of homeostasis.

W.B. Yeats: What can be explained is not poetry. 

First Steward: Good evening Mrs. T, Mr. FFF, welcome on board! Your cabin is ready. Is there something we can do for you before we show you to your cabin?

Mrs. T:  Good evening Mr. Gerassimidis! It is always nice to see you!

Mr. FFF: Good evening to you too! It is good to see you again! Are we on time?

First Steward: We are on time, and we are going to have calm seas.

Mr. FFF: What time is dinner served?

First Steward: We start at 8pm sharp. Shall I book a table for you?

Mr. FFF: Yes, please. Now you can show us to our cabin.

Mrs. T: How long is the journey?

Mr. FFF: Approximately 18 hours. Assuming the sea is calm. It could be 14 hours, but with all the interim ports of call the time increases significantly.

Mrs. T: Are we going to see the dolphins?

Mr. FFF: Only if we are lucky. But if we do, it is a spectacular ballet show. And the music of the sea with the humming of the ship’s engines in the background brings the experience to supernatural levels.

Ανωνυμος Ναυτης: Θυμαμαι την πρωτη μου αναχωρηση μ’ ενα μεγαλο ποσταλε. Τη στιγμη εκεινη που πραγματοποιουσα το λαμπροτερον ονειρο μου, ημουν γιοματος αμφιβολια και φοβο.

(Unnamed Mariner: I remember my first sailing on a big postale. The moment I was realizing my brightest dream, I was full of doudt and fear.)

Alvaro Mutis: This is how we forget: our affairs, no matter how close to us, are made strange through the mimetic, deceptive, constant working of a precarious present. When one of these images returns with all its voracious determination to survive intact, then what learned men call epiphany occurs: an experience that can be either devastating or a simple confirmation of certain truths that allow us to go on living.

Maqroll “el Gaviero”: I think I’ve exaggerated the true significance of the death of the Duc of Orléans. . . . There’s a monotony in crime, and it’s not advisable to have too much to do with it in books or in life.

Jon Iturri: For three consecutive days we stayed in Hotel Lisboa without exiting the room, which we had transformed into a kind of our own universe, where incidents of eroticism were coming one after another, with the only words given to describing our childhood years and how we discovered the world.

Alvaro Mutis: Because, of course, in a place like that, one experiences situations which are extreme and absolute. In there the density of human  relations is absolute. And there is one thing you learn in prison, and I passed it on to Maqroll, and that is that you don’t judge, you don’t say, that guy committed a terrible crime against his family, so I can’t be his friend. No, in a place like that one coexists. The judging is done by the judges on the outside.

Ανωνυμος Ναυτης: Δεν μπορω να καταλαβω κι εγω ο ιδιος τον εαυτο μου. Ειναι ωρες που νομιζω πως δεν ειμαι τιποτα περισσοτερο απο το μαυρο θερμαστη Τζοννυ, που ζει μοναχα για να τρωει. Ειναι ωρες που νομιζω πως ολα μεσα μου εχουν πεθανει και λεω πως η καρδια μου εχει σκληρυνει, καθως οι παλαμες μου. .. Εχω δει τοσα και τοσα… Κι αλλες ωρες παλι, νομιζω πως μεσα μου εχω ολη την καλοσυνη και την αγνοτητα, που λειπει του κοσμου…

(Unnamed Mariner: I cannot understand my own self. There are moments I think I am nothing more than the black fireman Johnny, who lives only to eat. There are moments I think that everything inside me is dead and I say that my heart is as tough as my palm… I have seen a lot… And then, I think that I have in me all the goodness and purity that the world is longing for…)

Mr. FFF: I have often pictured myself in Tangier, restless and subdued, loving it and hating it, looking from a hill all the way to the north, to Gibraltar, to the escape. Crossing the Pillars of Hercules, entering another life, another planet, another universe, getting away from all the mess. In this sense a sea journey always has this cleansing aspect. The sea takes away all the mess you carry with you.

Mrs T: Why in Tangier?

Mr. FFF: Because I still have this dream that I am in Tangier and I meet W S Burrows in one of the tea shops up on the hill. And then I get on a boat and leave him behind. We do not exchange a single word. We just look at each other and drink tea. As a matter of fact, nobody in the tea shop talks. They drink tea and smoke shisha. I wanted to ask Burrows why he killed Joan Vollmer.

W S Burrows: (we hear his voice through a cloud, but cannot see him) I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing. I live with the constant threat of possession, and a constant need to escape from possession, from control. So the death of Joan brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a life long struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out.

Mrs. T: The sea cleanses, the sea kills, the sea destroys all evidence of a committed crime. The sea gives you refuge, the sea hides you away from the prying eyes of society, it is the protector of the all the runaways. Hide away, hide away sinful souls! But even worse is the running away of those who have not committed any crime, but run away from themselves. Even the sea cannot save them.

Headwaiter: Would you like to have a drink before your meal?

Mrs. T: I would like a bitter Campari with soda water, a slice of lemon and ice.

Mr. FFF: A double scotch on the rocks for me please.

Headwaiter: Certainly. Here is our menu for tonight. I recommend the grilled shark steak. It is as fresh as it gets.

Mrs. T: Did you catch the shark while sailing? I would loooove to have the juicy grilled shark steak with sea weed rolls stuffed with angulas. 

Headwaiter: I had these rolls in Bilbao, and I loved them,. Unfortunately I cannot offer them to you tonight. Could I possibly offer you instead boiled vegetables with mustard sauce?

Mrs. T: Of course, it was a long shot anyway! Boiled vegetables will be fine. But please hold the mustard sauce.

Mr. FFF: Shall we have a robust white wine with the shark? Like assyrtico from Santorini.

Headwaiter: Splendid choice, I can serve you “Santorini” by Sigalas, 2008.

Ανδρέας Σπερχής: Βεατρίκη!…Βεατρίκη!…Συγχώρησέ με.

(Andreas Sperchis: Beatrice!.. Beatrice!… Forgive me!)

W.B. Yeats

Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death.
Horseman, pass by!

Υβοννη: Τι συμβαίνει και δεν ημπορεί κανείς να απολαμβάνη πάντοτε τον έρωτα σαν μίαν ωραίαν οπώραν {…}, σαν ένα ωραίο τοπείον, σαν ένα ωραίο ξένοιστο πρωί, πασίχαρο, αυροφίλητο, γιομάτο ευφροσύνη, σαν ένα μυροβόλο περιβόλι, ή σαν μια καθαρή αμμουδιά, λουσμένη από γαλάζιο πέλαγος ευδαιμονίας; Μήπως δεν φταίει καθόλου, μα καθόλου ο έρως  (εξηκολούθησε να σκέπτεται μα αιμάσσουσαν καρδίαν η Υβόννη). Μήπως φταίει ο τρόπος με τον οποίον αντιμετωπίζουν οι άνθρωποι τον έρωτα, τόσον εις το ατομικόν, όσον και εις το κοινωνικόν επίπεδον; Μήπως, αν δεν έμπαινε στη μέση το λεγόμενον «αίσθημα» και η λεγομένη «ηθική», θα ημπορούσε τότε μόνον να είναι ο έρως τέλειος και απλός και εύκολος, επ’ άπειρον πανήδονος και απολύτως παντοδύναμος – όλο χαρά (μόνο χαρά), όλο γλύκα (μόνο γλύκα), χωρίς απαγορεύσεις, στερήσεις, πικρίες, διάφορα «μούπες-σούπα» και άλλα αηδή και ακατανόητα, όπως η αποκλειστικότης, η εντός του γάμου αγνότης και όλη η σχετική με αυτόν απέραντη όσον και μάταια ηθικολογία και φιλολογία;

(Yvonne: Why is it that one cannot enjoy sex as a tasty fruit… as a beautiful landscape, as a wonderful morning, without worries, full of joy, fresh air, as a garden full of perfumes, or a shiny sandy beach, caressed by the blue sea? Could it be that this has nothing to do with eros? < continued to wonder with her heart bleeding >. Could it be the way that people handle eros both on a personal and on a social level? Could it be that if there were no “emotional” component and the so called “ethical” dimension, that eros could be perfect and simple and easy, endlessly hedonistic and absolutely omnipotent – full of joy – only joy – without prohibitions, bitter moments, all the incomprehensible  nonsense like fidelity, exclusivity, purity within the wedding and other similar stuff?)

Mr. FFF: (reading from the voluminous novel “Great Anatolikos”, of Andreas Empeirikos) Yvonne all of a sudden stopped crying. It was as if she saw a light, a bright light coming from a lighthouse off the southeastern tip of the coast of Ireland.

Υβοννη: Μήπως, μα τον Θεόν, ο μόνος Θεός ήτο ένας τεράστιος και παντοδύναμος Ψώλων και, ουσιαστικώς, υπήρχαν μόνον ηδοναί, διά του πανισχύρου Πέους του και του υπερπλουσίου Σπέρματός του χορηγούμεναι; Και μήπως αι ηδοναί αύται, τουτέστιν αι ερωτικαί, ήσαν αι πράξεις εκείναι, που επλησίαζαν ασυγκρίτως περισσότερον απ’ οτιδήποτε άλλο τους ανθρώπους προς τον Μεγαλοψώλονα Θεόν, τον απόλυτον Πλάστην και Κτήτορα του Κόσμου, τον απόλυτον Κύριον των Δυνάμεων, τον απόλυτο Άρχοντα των Ουρανών και της μικράς μας Γης;

(Yvonne: Could it be, that the only God were a huge omnipotent Phallus, and, essentially, there were only pleasures on earth, disseminated eternally by its powerful flesh and abundant semen? And it could it also be, that these erotic pleasures, were the actions that were bringing humans close to the Omnipotent Phallus, the Absolute Creator and Owner of the World, the absolute Keeper of the Forces, the absolute Master of the Skies and our little Earth? )

Stendhal: J’entreprends d’écrire l’histoire de ma vie jour par jour

Γιωργος Σεφερης: Μερα με τη μερα ζουμε τη ζωη μας – δεν τη γραφουμε.

(George Seferis: Day by day we live our life – we do not write it.)


Dimitri Mitropoulos: There is a plan for April 1052, a grand tour; travelling on a ship we will call on all Mediterranean ports, where the Philharmonic (New York) under my humble direction, will play, not on board the ship, but in the concert halls of the cities. The route is roughly this: Liboa, Barcelona, Palermo, Athens, Tel-Aviv, Napoli, Roma, Firenze, Milano, Genoa. Later we added Paris to the tour, which means that the whole Orchestra will get off the ship in Marseille and return to the States from Cherbourg on another vessel.

Mr. FFF: The ashes of Maria Callas have been scaterred over these blue waters.

Mrs. T: Why did she die?

Mr. FFF: Because she could no longer love. And life without the ability to love had no meaning for her.

Mrs. T: If you have the ability to love, other people love you?

Mr. FFF: Not necessarily. But you have piece with yourself.

Mrs. T: So you are saying that Callas died because she could not find piece with herself.

Mr. FFF: Yes, you could put it this way.

Mrs. T: Why is it so hard. if not impossible, to find inner piece if you have lost the ability to love?

Mr. FFF: When you lose the ability to love, you begin to view life as an end, the end. Death takes over the mystery of life and it no longer is a mystery, but a horrid affair.

Ανωνυμος Ναυτης: Δεν εχω ερωτευτει ποτε στη ζωη μου… Εγνωρισα χιλιαδες γυναικες. Ειναι ολες τους παντοτε ιδιες… Εχω καιρο να κοιμηθω με γυναικες. Γι’ αυτο το πραμα οι ναυτες με κοροιδευουν. Εγω δεν φταιω… Ειναι μια ιστορια που η αρχη της ειχε γραφτει στο επιβατικο, που ταξιδευα αλλοτε… Ειναι μια θλιβερη ιστορια…Δεν θυμαμαι πια τ’ ονομα της. Αυτο δεν εχει καμια σημασια. Οι γυναικες δεν θα’ πρεπε να’ χουν ονοματα, αφου ολες τους ειναι ιδιες… Ταξιδευε απο την Αλεξανδρεια για τη Μασσαλια με τη μητερα της. Ητανε κορη ενος βαμβακεμπορου, που ειχε ξεπεσει κι αυτοκτονησε…. Μου χαρησε ενα πορτοφολι απο ψαροδερμα και της χαρισα το Σταυρο μου… Υστερα απο τρια χρονια στο Μπουενος Αιρες κοιμηθηκα μια νυχτια με καποια γυναικα. Το πρωι οταν εβγαλα το πορτοφολι μου να πληρωσω, δεν ξερω πως, εβγαλε μια φωνη καθως το ειδε κι εγω αλλη μια, οταν ειδα ενα μικρο σταυρο καρφωμενο στη ρομπα της… Μπορει και να το’ δα στον υπνο μου. Μου φαινεται ομως πως ολες οι γυναικες ειναι το ιδιο.

(Unnamed Mariner: I have never fallen in love in my life…. I have met thousands of women. They are always all the same… I haven’ t slept with a woman for a long time now. One of the reasons the sailors make fun of me. It is not my fault… It is a story whose beginning has been written on a passenger ship, where I used to work… It is a sad story… I no longer remember her name. It does not matter. Women should not have names, as they are all the same… She was travelling from Alexandria to Marseille with her mother. She was the daughter of a cotton merchant who went bancrupt and committed suicide. .. She gave me a wallet made of fishskin and I gave her my cross… Three years later, in Buenos Aires, I slept one night with a woman. In the morning, when I took out my wallet to pay her, I do not know, she screamed as she saw it and I screamed back when I saw a small cross pinned on her dress… I could be dreaming. Nevertheless, it appears to e that all women are the same.))

Frederico Fellini:  I love shipwrecks. Decadence is indispensable to rebirth

Mr. FFF: A dear friend years ago was bragging about specializing in the hauling of shipwrecks. In his own sarcastic way he was referring to his need – of the time – to relate to women in the middle of a huge personal crisis.

Alberto Moravia: (on Frederico Fellini’s film “E la Nave va”) What is brilliant,” is the intuition that European society of the Belle Epoque had emptied itself of all humanism leaving only an artificial and exhaustive formalism. The result was a society founded on a continuous yet contemptible melodrama. The other genial intuition is that of the fundamental unity of the world back then which was completely bourgeois or utterly obsessed with the bourgeoisie. This idea comes through magnificently in the scene where immaculate opera singers perform leaning over the iron balcony of the engine room as sweat-grimed workers cease stoking the furnace with coal to listen to the splendid voices.

Frederico Fellini: Opera has an insane aspect that is truly fascinating. Opera is a ritual, a Mass, a shepherd’s song…

Dimitri Mitropoulos: Here I am, on solid earth again, after an unforgettable sea trip! If you could only see me from a distance, how I survived these 19 horrible days on the lousy ship. But as you can see, I did not die; I made music and played bridge, trying to fight against the complete lack of comfort, the detestable food and the continuous rocking of the boat… I have thought of you more than one thousand times, I was sad, sad in the thought that it will be a long time before I see again the people I love. I wonder if my musical gifts and talent deserve this sacrifice.

Frederico Fellini:  It (filming) makes us regard people and things as if the whole world was a set at our disposal, an immense prop de­partment on which we lay our hands without asking permission. It is somewhat like a painter for whom objects, faces, houses, the sky are merely forms at his disposal. For the cinema everything becomes a still life without limits; even the feelings of others are something placed at out disposal.

Ανδρεας Εμπειρικος: Χτες ακουσα τον μεγαλυτερο μπασο του κοσμου τον Chaliapin. Τραγουδησε την περιφημη αρια απο την οπερα του  Mussorgsky Boris Godunov οπου ειναι θειος. Τραγουδησε και πολλα ρωσικα τραγουδια δραματικα, λυρικα, και λαικα. Και παντου θριαμβεψε. Τι φωνη, τι μεταλλο, τι χρωμα τι δυναμη! Σε κεραβνοβολει και σε χαϊδεβει συναμα. Μεγαλος αρτιστας ο Chaliapin.

(Andreas Empeirikos: Yesterday I heard the greatest bass of the world, Chaliapin. He sung the famous aria of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. He was divine. He also sung many other songs. He triumphed in each one of them. What a voice, what metal, what colour, what intensity! It hits you like a thunder and at the same time it caresses you. Chaliapin is a great artist.)

Mr. FFF: My grandfather was very fond of Chaliapin. He had loads of his records. But he had to exchange them for olive oil during the second world war. Primum vivere, deinte philosophare.


Ανδρεας Εμπειρικος: Πατερα… Δεν μου φαινεται δυνατον να συνεργασθω με εναν ανθρωπο σαν και σενα παρα την μεγαλη αξια που σου αναγνωριζω σε πολλα επιπεδα. Δεν ειναι αρκετα ανθρωπος για μενα. ..Λοιπον αντι να ξαναμπω στις δουλειες σου παραιτουμαι απ’ ολες περα για περα και σου αφηνω γεια.

(Andreas Empeirikos: Father… It does not appear possible to work with a person like you, in spite of how valuable I consider you in many areas. You are not human enough for me… So instead of joining you again in your business I resign from everything and bid you farewell.)



Ανωνυμος Ναυτης: Ζαλιστηκα. Ετσι οπως τοτε παιδι, που μ’ επιανε η θαλασσα. Τι ατιμο πραμα η ναυτια… Ξερατο, χολες. Γινεσαι μπαιγνιο, κουρελι. Τιποτ’ αλλο δε σκεφτεσαι, παρα πως θα ξεμπαρκαρεις, μολις φτασεις στο πρωτο λιμανι. Εφτασες; Τα ξεχνας ολα και ξαναφευγεις. Αρχιζεις να συνηθας. Νομιζεις. Δε σε ζαλιζει πια το ποτζι, μα σε χαλαει το σκαμπανεβασμα. Παει κι αυτο. Σου μενει να συνηθισεις τωρα οταν σκαμπανεβαρει και ποτζαρει μαζι. Εισαι νετα. Κανεις αχταρμα. Αλλαζεις καραβι. Πρεπει να μαθεις τα κουνηματα του καινουργιου. Καθε καραβι εχει τα δικα του. Ενας φορτηγισος ζαλιζεται σ’ ενα ποσταλι. Παραξενη αρρωστια. Φαρμακο… η στερια. Οι κουφοι, εκεινοι που εχουνε χασει την οσφρηση, δεν ζαλιζονται. Μητε οι τρελοι.

(Unnamed Mariner: I am sea sick. As when I was a kid, and the sea was making me sick. What a terrible thing … sea sickness. You become a wreck. You cannot think of anything else, but how to get off, as soon as you arrive at the first port of call. Have you arrived? You forget everything and sail off again. You begin to get used to it. You think you are. You change ship. You have to get used to the movements of the new ship. Every ship moves in its own way. A cargo ship sailor gets sick on a passenger ship. Strange sickness. The only medicine is the ground. The deaf, the ones who cannot smell anything, they do not get sea sickness. Neither do the mad.)

Ιωαννης ο Θεολογος (Αποκαλυψη): Και εδωκεν η θαλασσα τους νεκρους τους εν αυτη, και ο θανατος και ο Αιδης εδωκαν τους νεκρους τους εν αυτοις, και εκριθησαν εκαστος κατα τα εργα αυτων.

(St John the Divine: The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.)

Participants

Archilochus, 7th century BC Greek poet, from the island of Paros

Andreas Empeirikos: Greek born and raised in Vraila, Romania, writer and psychoanalyst

Mr. FFF, Greek, wanderer

First Steward, Greek, passenger ship

Frederico Fellini, Italian film maker

Headwaiter, passenger ship

Jon Iturri, Basque sea captain

Saint John the Divine, author of the Revelation

Maqroll “el Gaviero”, unknown ethnicity, hero in many Alvaro Mutis novels

Unnamed Mariner, in the journals of Nikos Kavvadias

Unnamed Millitary Officer, South American

Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek conductor and composer

Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist

Alvaro Mutis, Colombian writer

Captain Nick, Greek, captain of motor ship “Gloria”

George Seferis, Greek poet and Nobel Laureate in Literature

Andreas Sperchis, Greek of Wallachian origin

Stendhal, French writer

Mrs. T, unknown ethnicity, gourmant

Voltaire: French writer and philosopher

W.B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright

Yvonne, a passenger of “Megas Anatolikos”

Mushrooms and Truffles: A “Fluxus Eleatis” disourse

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin: The word gastronomy has been revived from the Greek; it sounds sweetly in French ears, and although imperfectly understood, simply to pronounce it is enough to bring a joyful smile to every face.  We have begun to distinguish gourmandism from greed and gluttony; it has come to be regarded an admissible inclination, a social quality welcome to the host, profitable to the guest, and beneficial to the art: and gourmands are now classed with all other enthusiasts who share a common predilection.

Mrs. T: Mushrooms are primarily texture. Truffles are primarily flavour. Mrs. T: We had grilled mushrooms, in the Dimatis Tavern, Aghios Dimitrios, West of Mount Olympus in Greece. The mushrooms were collected earlier on the day we had lunch, grilled and sprinkled with coarse sea salt, crushed garlic, parlsey, olive oil and lemon juice. Perfection in simplicity, the apotheosis of texture.

Mr. FFF:  Mrs. T will reveal herself today, as a person, of unknown ethnicity, born in Romania, a few days after the Revolution of 1989 in Timisoara. Her parents died in a car crash the day after she was born. I found her by accident – most important things in life happen by accident – and we have been together ever since. She has become my gourmand alter ego. Mrs. T: I met Mr. FFF in Targoviste. It was 24th December 1989. I was 3 days old. Abandoned in a trash can.

MM: Why was Mrs. T found in Targoviste, a town 500 kilometers east of Timisoara, on the day the Causescus were arrested and taken into custody?
Mr. FFF: After the grilled mushrooms west of the mount of Greek Gods, I beg to travel East, and taste crispy deep fried mushrooms with wasabi flavor. I thank Arlene B. Hsu for the recipe, I fell in love with the dish. Arlene says it can be found in variations as street food in Taiwan. This alone is a good reason to visit the island country. Succulent juicy but firm mushroom flesh, coated in crispy dough, oozing wasabi heat and intensity, gives you a reason to live, in spite of the fiscal mess in Europe.
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán: Cookig is a metaphor for culture. Eating means killing and swallowing a being which has been alive, whether animal or plant. If we directly devour the dead animal or the uprooted lettuce, one would say that we were savages. However, if we marinade the beast in order to later cook it with the aid of aromatic Provençal herbs and a glass of rancio wine, then we have effected an exquisite cultural operation, equally based on brutality and death. Cooking is a metaphor for culture and its hypocritical content.
Fricando +

Mr. FFF: The road has been opened centuries ago and traversed billions of times since then. From the grill to the frying pan, and then to the stew pot. Fricando (beef stew) in Restaurante Ramon Freixa, Barcelona, Cataluna. Wonderful flesh, superbly cooked slowly until it becomes soft and delicious, with the tasty mountain mushrooms “moixernons”. It was served with garlic cloves (like candy) and the green stuff that was absolutely amazing: bitter, crunchy, full of flavour!  This dish is like a volcano of flavours!

Ferran Adria:  the creative inspiration I have drawn from Japan is a revelation, a drink from the fountain of youth.

Akelare: Wild mushrooms and egg pasta (Μανιτάρια με παστα)

Mr. FFF: Wild mushrooms and egg pasta in Pedro Subijana’s restaurant, Akelare, near San Sebastian.

Pepe Carvalho: She asked me to be taken “somewhere where we can  just  eat anything”,  just anything being, precisely, what I never wanted to eat.

Mrs. T: Who was this she?

Pepe Carvalho: Teresa Marsé, a spoilt member of the bourgeoisie dedicated to shopping.

MM: Pepe Carvalho tiene una relación  tormentosa con Charo, su novia. Charo es puta; puta feminista para más señas… ante la promiscuidad de Carvalho ella  se enfada, aunque no ocurre al contrario ,el detective comprende y acepta el trabajo de su novia…

Amanita muscaria

Amanita muscaria: I do not know what to say, may be it is enough to say I am beautiful.

Mr. FFF: Between dishes it is always good to cleanse the palate with fizzy water.

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin: A saute of truffles is a dish of which the mistress of the house always does the honours herself; in short, the truffle is the jewel of cookery. I set out to find the reason for this preference, for it seemed to me that several other substances had an equal claim to the honour; and I found that reason is the widespread belief that truffles are conductive to erotic pleasure; what is more, I became convinced that nearly all our tastes, predilections, and admirations are born of the same cause, so closely are held in thrall by that most capricious and tyrannical of the senses.

Mr. FFF: Mugaritz. Loin of duck, served with iodized compliments; crumblings and shavings of summer truffle in the Mugaritz restaurant, near San Sebastian.

Julia Kristeva: Analysis strictly speaking exacts payment of the price set by the subject for revealing that his or her complaints, symptoms or fantasies are discourses of love directed  to an impossible other – always unsatisfactory, transitory, incapable of meeting my wants or desires.

MM: I did not set a timeframe, but I expected to see a mushroom article – an exhaustive one.

Amanita phalloides: I am deadly poisonous! I contain both phallotoxins and amanitins. It is the amanitins that are responsible for the poisonings in humans. Amanitins are cyclic octapeptides that stop protein synthesis in the cells they encounter. All human organs are effected, but damage to the liver is most severe and liver failure is primarily responsible for the death of my victims. Symptoms usually appear 8-12 hours after ingestion. Death occurs in 7-10 days in 10-15% of patients.

Julia Kristeva:  My commitment to analysis … is ultimately shaken by the discovery that the other is fleeing me, that I will never possess him or even touch him as my desires imagined him, ideally satisfying.

Mrs. T :  Artichoke cream with black truffle, in Restaurant Cilantro, Arles, Provence, France.

Pepe Carvalho: Sex and gastronomy are the two most serious things there are.

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin: Hence it may be taken for certain that the truffle is a food as wholesome as it is agreeable, and that, eaten in moderation, it goes down as easily as a letter into a postbox.

Mrs T: When we went  to Arzak’s restaurant, we had the wonderful truffle egg. But Elena does not want us to publish any of our photos, and we respect this wish. I therefore share a photo from Arzak’s recipe book published by “El Pais”, Baked potatoes stuffed with truffles. Wonderful in its simplicity.

Joni L. McClain: In March of 1985, four illegal aliens who had been without food for several days consumed fried wild mushrooms after picking them in a field in Southern California. They each ate between one a nd six mushrooms and, approximately one to two days after consuming the mushrooms, all four men developed gastrointestinal symptoms including nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and watery diarrhea. They went to a local mission for the homeless where they were unable to eat. Their symptoms continued and they were taken to two local hospitals. On admission, all four men appeared dehydrated and three were hypotensive (blood pres- sure less than 100/50). One man stated that he had developed “white stools .”  Three of the men were initially assessed as having gastroenteritis or acute hepatitis or both. The fourth man had been admitted to a sepa rate hospital with the diagnosis of possible acute mushroom poisoning when he was able to ident ify the mushrooms he had consumed f rom a picture of Ama nita phalloides. The hospital where the other three victims were being treated was contacted and the diagnosis and treatment were modifed accordingly…Three of the men died within three days of admission (five days after eating the mushrooms ), and the fourth died eight days following admiss ion (eleven days after eating the mushrooms) . At autopsy, each of the men d emonstrated findings typical of hepatic failure ..The kidneys were pale, swollen, and  in one case displayed multiple cortical infarct ions. The heart in each case demonstrated hemorrhage ranging f rom patchy petechiae to confluent subendocardial left ventricular intramuscular hemorrhage. Two of the men demonstrated hemorrhagic gastritis , one had focal rectal ulcers, and the fourth had no gastrointestinal abnoralities. Mrs. T:  Veal Sweetbreads with artichokes, black truffles and mashed potatoes, in , Restaurant Cilantro, Arles, Provence, France.

Pepe Carvalho: One must drink to remember, and eat to forget.

Terence McKenna: … the transformation from humans’ early ancestors Homo erectus to the species Homo sapiens mainly had to do with the addition of the mushroom Psilocybe cubensis in its diet – an event which according to his theory took place in about 100,000 BC (this is when he believed that the species diverged from the Homo genus)…In higher doses, the mushroom acts as a sexual stimulator, which would make it even more beneficial evolutionarily, as it would result in more offspring. At even higher doses, the mushroom would have acted to “dissolve boundaries”, which would have promoted community-bonding and group sexual activities-that would result in a mixing of genes and therefore greater genetic diversity. Generally McKenna believed that the periodic ingestion of the mushroom would have acted to dissolve the ego in humans before it ever got the chance to grow in destructive proportions.

Porcini e fegato di vitello

Mrs. T:  A divine combination, porcini mushrooms with tender ultra sweet calf’s liver, from “dal Pescatore”, in the Park of River Oglio in Northern Italy.

Mr. FFF: Carles Abellan. Deconstructed three-part tortilla (omelette).

MM:  You are a mushroom and truffles man.

Mr. FFF: A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean mushroom; spore dispersal is accomplished through fungivores, animals that eat fungi. Almost all truffles are ectomycorrhizal and are therefore usually found in close association with trees.

Robert Burton: Cookery is become an art, a noble science: cooks are gentlemen.

La Famiglia Urbani

Olga Urbani: Truffles grow wild, underground, usually at the base of an oak tree. They used to use pigs, but they ate the truffles.Very rich American people they only see truffles on the table of a very elegant restaurant. They don’t see this. Now you know why they are expensive, right?

Florence Fabricant:The prized, richly fragrant black truffles of France have been called black diamonds. But for some swanky dishes this season, zircons may be more like it. Another, cheaper kind of black truffle, the tuber himalayensis from China, has been flooding the market. This influx has created a problem because unscrupulous dealers in France have been mixing the two and selling them all as French truffles, tuber melanosporum, to restaurants. Dealers in the United States have been doing the same. Although the two types look the same, the Chinese truffles, when cut, are likely to be blacker, with less veining. They tend to have a chemical odor and very little flavor.

Animelle co i funghi

Mr. T: Sweatbreads with mushrooms. Animelle co i funghi del Monte Algido, in Osteria di San Cesario, San Cesario, near Rome, Italy.

Daniel Boulud: Right after Christmas I started getting some truffles that I thought were overripe at first. They were very dark and had very little veining. They smelled of benzine and tasted like cardboard. Then I began hearing about the Chinese truffles.

Mrs. T:  Venison tournedo with foie on top, potatoes, chenterelles and black truffle, in La Provence Restaurant, Vilnius, Lithuania.  . The meat was medium rare, as it should, and it was delicious! The combination with the foie was also a good one, it worked!

Roland Griffiths:As a reaction to the excesses of the 1960s, human research with hallucinogens has been basically frozen in time. I had a healthy scepticism going into this. [But] under defined conditions, with careful preparation, you can safely and fairly reliably occasion what’s called a primary mystical experience that may lead to positive changes in a person. It is an early step in what we hope will be a large body of scientific work that will ultimately help people. When administered under supportive conditions, psilocybin occasioned experiences similar to spontaneously-occurring mystical experiences that, at 14-month follow-up, were considered by volunteers to be among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives. One mechanism underlying these effects appears to be that psilocybin occasioned an experience having features similar to spontaneously-occurring classical mystical or religious experiences. A limit to the generality of the study is that all of the participants reported at least intermittent participation in religious or spiritual activities before the study. It is plausible that such interests increased the likelihood that the psilocybin experience would be interpreted as having substantial spiritual significance and personal meaning. A systematic replication of the study comparing groups having different levels of spiritual/religious dispositions or interests could be informative.

Mr. FFF: Psilocybin mushrooms, also known as “magic mushrooms”, were used in ancient times, and were depicted in rock paintings. Many native peoples have used mushrooms for religious purposes, rituals and healing. In modern day society they are often used to evoke a “high”, which is sometimes described as spiritual experience and is often euphoric in nature. Sometimes however, the disorientation of psilocybin and psilocin’s psychedelic effects may bring on anxiety such as panic attacks, depression and paranoid delusions. However, recent studies done at the Imperial College of London and also at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine conclude that when used properly, psilocybin acts as an anti-depressant.

“I had a rough day. Lets have a smoke and some mushrooms…”

Roland Griffiths:When administered under supportive conditions, psilocybin occasioned experiences similar to spontaneously-occurring mystical experiences that, over a year later, were considered by volunteers to be among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives and to have produced positive changes in attitudes, mood, altruism, behavior, and life satisfaction. In addition to possible therapeutic applications, the ability to prospectively produce mystical-type experiences should permit rigorous scientific investigations about their causes and consequences, and may provide novel information about the biological bases of moral and religious behavior.

Funghi Porcini

Participants

Amanita muscaria

Amanita phalloides: also known as the Death Cap, is the most deadly and poisonous mushroom on Earth.

Ferran Adria, Catalan chef and co-owner of the El Buli restaurant in Roses, Cataluna

Daniel Boulud, chef and owner of Restaurant Daniel in Manhattan, New York

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, French gourmand and author

Robert Burton, English Scholar and Vicar

Pepe Carvalho, Catalan private investigator

Florence Fabricant: American, New York Times journalist

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Roland Griffiths, of the department of neuroscience and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School, USA

Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian-French psychoanalyst

Joni L. McClain,  American M.D.

Terence McKenna, American philosopher, psychonaut, researcher, teacher, lecturer and writer

MM, partner

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Catalan writer and journalist

Spencer, private detective

Mrs. T, unknown ethnicity, the gourmand alter ego of Mr. FFF

Olga Urbani, Italian truffle merchant

Objects that tell a story: (1) Carved Rosewood Sofa

Today I start a new series of posts, on objects that tell a story.

The first object is a carved rosewood sofa that I inherited from my mother, who died almost two years ago, on 5th August 2009. Her memory brought back to my mind this storyof the sofa.

The sofa was bought by my maternal grand father, Spiros, at the beginning of the 20th century. It was hand made in France and imported in Greece, where it took a prime position in the seating area of my grandfather’s house in Athens.

When the Germans occupied Athens in 1941, a Jewish family of friends came to my grandfather’s house in Koukaki, a neighbourhood near the Acropolis in Athens, and asked for help as they were persecuted by the occupying Germans.

My grandfather and grandmother both decided to help their Jewish friends. The Jewish family stayed with my grandfather’s family until the liberation of Athens in 1944. Due to lack of space, my mother, a young woman at the time, had to abandon her bedroom and sleep on the sofa.

This is why my mother was always calling this sofa “my little bed”.

After the liberation the family of friends left Greece and ended up in Israel. The two families lost touch until sometime in the early 80’s, when my mother got a telephone call from the elder son of the family. He was visiting Greece and wanted to see her. They met, like they were together the day before, although so many years had gone by. Time for them would be frozen, in the house in Koukaki.

Greek Pro-Wrestling – Ελευθερη Παλη ή Κατς (Σικε, Απατη, αλλα σκετο Ονειρο!!!!!!)

Εισαγωγη

Σημερα θυμαμαι. Θυμαμαι τα ζεστα καλοκαιρινα βραδυα στην Αθηνα στο τελος της δεκαετιας του 60, αρχες του 70. Χουντα και ξερο ψωμι. Φορουσα κοντα παντελονια και τα ποδια μου ητανε γεματα πληγες, αλλες παληες, κι αλλες ολοφρεσκες και αιμορροουσες.

Μεσα στην ραστωνη της καλοκαιρινης νυχτας, πηγαινα στη Λεωφορο, το γηπεδο της Παναθας, οπου στο πεταλο της Θυρας 13 γινοντουσαν αγωνες κατς. Με καλο προγραμμα γεμιζε ολο το πεταλο. Την καλη εποχη οι πρωταθλητες εκαναν και “τουρνε”, δηλαδη περιοδεια. Καποια χρονια τους ειχα πετυχει στην Ροδο, συγκρατω το ονομα του Πετρου Ασημακη, που στην δεκαετια του 1980 τον εβλεπα στο θυρωρειο του ΥΠΕΘΟ στην πλατεια Συνταγματος.

Απο το ψηφιακο Αρχειο της “Αθλητικης Ηχους”

Με τα χρονια το κατς παρηκμασε, το κοινο του μειωθηκε, και το πεταλο της Λεωφορου δεν γεμιζε πια. Ετσι οι αγωνες μετακινηθηκαν προς τις συνοικιες. Θυμαμαι Αιγαλεω και Κορυδαλλο.  Οι τελευταιοι αγωνες που θυμαμαι, το 1990, εγιναν στην “κλουβα”, το κλειστο του ΠΑΟ στη Λεωφορο.

Αυτο το αρθρο ειναι μια μικρη αφιερωση στην ελληνικη ελευθερη παλη, το κατς, που σημερα δεν υπαρχει πια.  Οπως καθε τι που κανεις γευεται οταν ειναι παιδι, το κατς ασκει ακομη και σημερα την ανεξιτηλη γοητεια του πανω μου. Το αρθρο δεν θα ειχε το υπεροχο φωτογραφικο υλικο αν δεν υπηρχε το καταπληκτικο ψηφιακο αρχειο της Αθλητικης Ηχους.

Οι παλαιστες

Ο πρωτος που θυμαμαι απο τους αγωνες στη Λεωφορο, ειναι ο Αττιλιο. Η φημη του τον εκανε “Ασιατη”, κατα πασαν πιθανοτητα θα ηταν Μικρασιατης απο τη Νικαια η τον Κορυδαλλο. Στην κουλτουρα του κατς υπαρχει εντονο το εθνικιστικο στοιχειο: ο Ελληνας πρωταθλητης τσακιζει στο ξυλο εναν “ξενο”. Οσο πιο ξενος, τοσο περισσοτερο ξυλο θα πρεπει να “φαει”. Ποτε βεβαια δεν ηταν ακριβως ετσι, αφου το κατς ειχε “σασπενς” και αιμα και δακρυα. Βρωμικος και θηριωδης. Η αγαπημενη του κινηση ηταν να βαζει τα δαχτυλα του στα ματια των αντιπαλων του, οπως βλεπετε να κανει στην επομενη φωτογραφια, οπου το θυμα του ειναι ο Αμερικανος “Σουπερμαν”.

Αθλητικη Ηχω, Κυριακη 10 Αυγουστου 1969

Ο Σπυρος Αριων, ο Ελληνας “Μασιστας” που παλεψε στο “κλουβι” με τον Ρωσο “Κοριενκο. Το “κλουβι ηταν μια απο τις ατραξιον του θεαματος. Κλειδωνανε μεσα τους δυο παλαιστες μεχρι τελικης πτωσεως. Ουτε διαιτητες ουτε διακοπες. Δυστυχως δεν βρηκα φωτογραφια με το κλουβι.

Αθλητικη Ηχω, Κυριακη 10 Αυγουστου 1969

Μεγαλη μορφη και ο βρωμικος καλογερος “Ρασπουτιν”, που εμφανιζοταν ως Αγγλος. Εδω πρεπει να αναγνωρισω την φαντασια και δημιουργικοτητα των μανατζερς του κατς, αφου εβαπτισαν τον “Αγγλο” παλαιστη Ρασπουτιν, αντι για κατι εγγλεζικο, οπως Τζεϊμς η Τζον. Ειναι φανερο οτι τα ξενερωτα εγγλεζικα ονοματα δεν ενεπνεαν το δεος, ενω “Τζακ ο Αντεροβγαλτης” παρεπεμπε σε αλλα εγγλεζικα σπορ. Επειδη ομως οι μανατζερς του κατς δεν εγνωριζαν τη λεξη αδιεξοδο, βαφτισαν τον “Αγγλο” Ρασπουτιν για να ειναι σιγουροι. Ο προνοητικος συντακτης της “Αθλητικης Ηχους” προειδοποιει τους αναγνωστες της το Σαββατο 9 Αυγουστου 1969:

“Προσοχη! Μ’αυτην την ιερη φορεσια κυκλοφορει ενα ανθρωπομορφο τερας με ψυχη αδιστακτη και κατεστραμενη. Προκειται για τον σατανικο “Ρασπουτιν”…”

Αθλητικη Ηχω, Σαββατο 9 Αυγουστου 1969

Ο δαιμονιος και μανιακος καλογερος καταφερε να δεσει στα σχοινια του ρινγκ τον Αττιλιο και του “ερριξε” το ξυλο της χρονιας. Εξαλλος μετα το ματς το Αττιλιο εκανε δηλωσεις. Παντα εξαλλου η “ρεβανς” ητανε το καταφυγιο του καθε ηττημενου. Εκει θα εκανε οσα δεν μπορεσε να κανει στον πρωτο αγωνα.

Αθλητικη Ηχω, Σαββατο 23 Αυγουστου 1969
Αθλητικη Ηχω, Σαββατο 23 Αυγουστου 1969

Ενας “τζεντλεμαν” του ελληνικου κατς, ο Κωστας Παπαλαζαρου, απειληθηκε πλειστακις απο τερατομορφους και πανουργους αντιπαλους. ΘΥμαμαι τον ΠΑπαλαζαρου αρσαλακωτο, ακομη και οταν τον επαιρναν τα αιματα, αυτος ο ανθρωπος ειχε τον αερα του αριστοκρατη, του ευπατριδη, που και στην χειροτερη στιγμη του διατηρουσε τον αερα και τη νοοτροπια της υπεροχης.

Αθλητικη Ηχω, Σαββατο 30 Αυγουστου 1969

Ενας εξ αυτων ηταν ο Κουσιμοδος, η Κουασιμοντο επι το Ευρωπαικωτερον. Ο τερατομορφος αυτος παλαιστης ειχε συντριψει πολλα καλα παιδια της Ελλαδας, οπως ο Καρυστινος, ενας σταθερος και θεαματικος παλαιστης, που ετρωγε αλλα και εριχνε πολυ ξυλο. .

Αθλητικη Ηχω Κυριακη 31 Αυγουστου 1969

Ο “γερολυκος”Θανασης Καμπαφλης εδερνε μεχρι που μεγαλωσε αρκετα. Στην επομενη φωτογραφια δερνει τον “Δρακουλα”, που ομως φαινεται να εχει παρει αδεια απο το ΚΑΠΗ της γειτονιας του για να αγωνισθει.

Απο το ψηφιακο Αρχειο της “Αθλητικης Ηχους”

Η Παρασταση

Εκτος απο τους αγωνες ενας προς ενα υπηρχαν και οι διπλοι αγωνες, οπου συνηθως ειχαμε την αποκορυφωση της τραγικης εξελιξης της παλης.  Συνεχες κυνηγητο, συγχυση, ο διατιτητης σαν αλλοπαρμενος να προσπαθει να επιβαλει την ταξη και τους κανονες, τη στιγμη που ολο το κοινο, μηδενος εξαιρουμενου, επιθυμουσε διακαως την πληρη και ανευ περιτροπων παραβιαση ολων των κανονων. Οι κλωτσιες στα αρχιδια ηταν απλο παραπτωμα, αλλα βεβαια δεν ηταν πραγματικες, αλλιως ολοι οι παλαιστες θα ηταν ακληροι απο τις κλωτσιες που τρωγανε συνεχεια.

Στην επομενη φωτογραφια, απο τον αγωνα Παπαλαζαρου – Μεγαριτη εναντιον Αττιλιο – Ναζιριαν, βλεπουμε τον Παπαλαζαρου να ιπταται εκτος ρινγκ, μετα απο αυροφροσυνη του Αττιλιο, ενω ο Μεγαριτης με το ασπρο βρακι θωρει απειλιτικα αλλα εξ αποστασεως τον “Αρμενιο” Ναζιριαν. Αυτη η συντομη εκδρομη εκτος ρινγκ προσεδιδε παντα μια αμεσοτητα στα δρωμενα, και οδηγουσε πολλλους παλαιστες στο να συνεχισουν τον αγωνα εκτος ρινγκ, μερικες φορες δε εισχωρουσαν στον χωρο των θεατων.

Αθλητικη Ηχω Κυριακη 15 Σεπτεμβριου 1968

Απαραιτητο στοιχειο της ολης εμειριας ηταν ο ιδιομορφος διαλογος παλαιστη με το κοινο, ιδιαιτερα οταν ο παλαιστης ειχε “αδικηθει” απο τον αντιπαλο του.  Στην φωτογραφια που ακολουθει, ο Μεγαριτης αιμοφυρτος συνομιλει με το εξαγριωμενο κοινο, και του υποσχεται οτι θα συντριψει τον αντιπαλο του, οποτε και οταν του δοεθι η ευκαιρια.

Αθλητικη Ηχω, Κυριακη 22 Σεπτεμβριου 1968

Το αιμα ηταν ενα απο τα κυρια στοιχεια της σκηνογραφιας, οπως στην επομενη φωτογραφια, οπου ο Παπαλαζαρου αποχωρει απο τον αιματοβαμμενο του αγωνα με τον θηριωδη Αττιλιο, φορωντας τη ζωνη του πρωταθλητη.

Αθλητικη Ηχω, Κυριακη 29 Σεπτεμβριου 1968

Τα λεγομενα “αεροπλανικα” κολπα ητανε στην πρωτη γραμμη. Ο ιπταμενος παλαιστης επεφερε συντριπτικο κτυπημα επι του αντιπαλου του, ιπταμενος. Ο Μπουρανης στην φωτογραφια που ακολουθει εφαρμοζει κεφαλοκλειδωμα με τα ποδια επι του εμβροντητου Μουσταφα.

Αθλητικη Ηχω, 1 Ιουλιου 1970

Και ενα ακομη αεροπλανικο, αυτη τη φορα απο τον τρομερο Τρομαρα.

Αεροπλανικον κολπον Τρομαρα

Συνεχιζω με την στρεβλωτικη ποδολαβη που εφαρμοζει ο Αττιλιο επι του Ρωσου Κοριενκο. Με απλα λογια, πιανει το ποδι του αντιπαλου που βρισκεται με την πλατη στο καναβατσο και προσπαθει να το γυρισει προκειμενου να του δημιουργησει θλασεις στους μυς του γονατου, πρακτικα καταστρεφοντας τους. Βεβαια ποτε κανεις δεν εφτασε στο σημειο αυτο, παρολον οτι οι κραυγες και οιμωγες του πεσμενου παλαιστη εδιναν την εντυπωση οτι τουλαχιστον σφαγιαζοταν.

Απο το ψηφιακο αρχειο της Αθλητικης Ηχους

Οι κωδικες

1. Παραβιαση ολων των κανονων

2. Ο διαιτητης ειναι εκει απλως για να προξενει δυσφορια στους παλαιστες και τους θεατες (βλεπε παρακατω σχετικο αποσπασμα απο συνεντευξη με διαιτητη αγωνων κατς).

3. Ο αγωνας εχει και εθνικες διαστασεις, οι Ελληνες εναντιον ολων των αλλων φυλων.

4. Υπαρχουν πολλοι πρωταθλητες και απειρες ζωνες, οσο πιο φαρδια η ζωνη, τοσο πιο σημαντικος ο πρωταθλητης.

Το κολπο της προσγειωσης

5. Αν δεν ματωσει τουλαχιστον ο ενας απο τους παλαιστες, θελουμε τα λεφτα μας πισω.

6. Οι γυναικες θεατες ειναι πιο μοβορες απο τους αντρες.

7. Ολοι καταγγελουν οτι οι αγωνες ειναι σικε, ομως αυτη ειναι η κρυφη και φανερη πηγη της γοητειας των αγωνων, και το ξερουν ολοι.

8. Ο παλαιστης ειναι κατ εξοχην ηθοποιος και ζογκλερ, ο κοσμος του κατς ειναι ενδιαμεσα στο τσιρκο και το παλκοσενικο. Γιαυτο και οι παραπλησιες ασχολιες των παλαιστων ειναι κυριως ρολοι σε ταινιες.

Παραπλησιες Ενασχολησεις

Η παλη αφεαυτης δεν μπορουσε να συντηρησει τα καλα παιδια της. Ο Αποστολος Σουγκλακος εγινε ηθοποιος. Πρωταγωνιστησε σε πολλες ταινιες του ελληνικου “τρας” κινηματογραφου. Στην φωτογραφια μοστραρει το τσεκουρι με το οποιο πετσοκοψε ουκ ολιγα αθωα θυματα στην παραζαλη του ως μανιακος σκεπαρνοφορος δολοφονος.

Ο Αποστολος Σουγκλακος στην Ελληνικη εκδοχη του μανιακου δολοφονου με το σκεπαρνι

Ο πρωτοπαλαιστης Τρομαρας πραγματοποιουσε διαφορα “σωου”, οπως το να σερνει τρενα με τα δοντια του. Τον Ιανουαριο του 2011, κυκλοφορησε η ειδηση οτι ο βοηθος του Κλιντ Ηστγουντ προτεινε στον Τρομαρα να παει στο Χολυγουντ για να παιξει τον Αλκιβιαδη:

«Τις ημέρες των Χριστουγέννων πήγαινα σε μαγαζί στην Πλάκα. Εκεί με πλησίασε ο κ. Τρόφι και κάποιοι που τον συνόδευαν σχολίασαν την καταπληκτική ομοιότητα που κατά τη γνώμη τους έχω με τον Αλκιβιάδη, τον πολιτικό και στρατιωτικό ηγέτη της Αθήνας του 5ου π.Χ. αιώνα.

Μου είπαν λοιπόν ότι αυτό το πρόσωπο θα απασχολήσει τον Κλιντ Ίστγουντ στην επόμενη ταινία του και μου ζήτησαν να συνεργαστούμε», εκμυστηρεύεται.
«Πoλλά χρόνια μετά το μεγαλείο της άθλησης και γυρίζοντας όλο τον κόσμο, είχα πολλές συμμετοχές σε ταινίες», εξηγεί στην Espresso και συνεχίζει:
«Ντουμπλάρισα έναν Γερμανό, έπαιξα με την Καρντινάλε, τον Ασναβούρ, στο σίριαλ Τόλμη και Γοητεία και πολλές φορές τούς έκανα να παραμιλάνε…».
Ο παλαιστης Τρομαρας

Αναμνησεις ενος Διατητη

“Ιστοριες παρα πολλες… Γιατι σας ειπα, εχω διαιτητευσει διεθνεις αθλητες, χωρια οι Ελληνες. Εντυπωση μου εκανε μια φορα στον εαυτο μου κατι που… η μαλλον δυο φορες. Μια φορα ηταν που διαιτητευσα στο Αιγαλεω τον Καπαφλη μαζι με τον Dollars, εναν πρωην πυγμαχο που ειχε αντιμετωπισει τον Joe Lewis -πολυ τρομερος παλαιστης αυτος- και μετεπηδησε στην επαγγελματικη παλη. Ηταν πολυ γερος, δεν καταλαβαινε τιποτα. Θυμαμαι ομως, πριν ακομη διαφημιστουνε και ακουστουνε αυτα τα πραγματα για τα ντοπαρισματα, που παιρνουν χαπια και λοιπα, τον θυμαμαι μεσα στα αποδυτηρια, πριν ακομη ξεκινησει ο αγωνας, επινε δυο-τρια χαπια μαζι. Ποιος να τον επιανε μετα επανω, ηταν σκυλι μοναχο, δεν καταλαβαινε τιποτα. Και μου λεει ο Καπαφλης, θυμαμαι, εαν δεις τιποτα, πιασ τον απ τα μαλλια, κι εγω ο χαζος, σα χαζος βεβαια, την ωρα που εχει τον Καπαφλη σε μια λαβη, κι εκεινος παει να του φυγει, εγω για να υποστηριξω τον Ελληνα τονε βουταω απο τα μαλλια και τον τραβαω. Και τοτε μου κολλαει μια, θυμαμαι ! Και ευτυχως που δεν την εφαγα στη μουρη. Πυγμαχος ηταν, παλαιστης, δεν ξερω ποσα κιλα, βαρεων βαρων, και μου δινει μια εδω στο στηθος και φευγω εξω απο το ρινγκ, πολυ δυνατη μπουνια. Ευτυχως, ομως, ανεβηκα παλι και συνεχισα, που αν ηταν αλλος επρεπε να μην ειχε συνεχισει.”

(απο μια συζητηση με τον  Χρηστο Λεβεντη, ζωγραφο και διαιτητη, που δημοσιευτηκε στο  LIFO, Magic Circus, το Φωτο Μπλογκ του Σπυρου Σταβερη)

Ο διαιτητης Χρηστος Λεβεντης

Τα αξεχαστα

“Σε κάποιο ματς, ο Σουγκλάκος εμφάνισε ένα πιτσιρικά
και αποκάλυψε ότι ήταν “χαμένος γιός του” από τον Καναδά !

Σε ένα άλλο, ο κόσμος κορόιδευε τον μάνατζερ Πητ Παπαδάκο (“Πητ ! Ο Σατανάς !” φώναζαν).
Ο Πητ ανέβηκε τσαμπουκαλεμένος στις κερκίδες, αλλά είδε πολλούς αγριεμένους τύπους και ξανακατέβηκε !

Επίσης σε ένα άλλο ήταν σπόνσορας ένας οίκος νυφικών.
Και διέκοψαν τους αγώνες για … επίδειξη νυφικών !
Έπεσε τρελό μπουκάλι και απίστευτα σχόλια για τα μοντέλα που έκαναν τις νύφες.
Παρουσιαστής ήταν ο Αλέξης Πετρίδης, στον οποίο ο κόσμος είπε το ανεπανάληπτο σύνθημα :
“Αλέξη, ζούμε, νυφούλα να σε δούμε” !

Μια άλλη φορά ο Σουγκλάκος διοργάνωσε ΔΩΡΕΑΝ αγώνες κατς,
μόνο και μόνο ως συμπαράσταση για το λαό της Σερβίας που βαμβαρδιζόταν από το ΝΑΤΟ.

Ή σε μια άλλη εκδήλωση, κυκλοφόρησαν αφίσες παραπλανητικές, ότι δήθεν
μαζί με τους Έλληνες παλαιστές θα έρχονταν και διάσημοι ξένοι (Χόγκαν κλπ).
Φυσικά στις εξέδρες, έπεσε πάλι απίστευτο γιουχάρισμα και κράξιμο.

Γενικά σε τέτοιες διοργανώσεις, όλα τα λεφτά ήταν η κερκίδα,
και τα (ομολογουμένως ευρηματικά) συνθήματά της.”

(απο το “ρετρο αγωνες παλης“)

Απο αγωνα στο κλειστο του ΠΑΟ το 1990

Η Αναζητηση δεν εχει ορια, δεν εχει τερμα, δεν εχει πατο, δεν εχει ταβανι

Στη σελιδα “Πλινθοι και Κεραμοι“μπορεις αγαπητη αναγνωστρια να βρεις και αλλα αρθρα με ιστορικη μνημη, πολιτιστικο βαθος, επιστημονικη υφη και συγκλονιστικη πρωτοτυπια.