Melange with Anchovies – Συνθεση με γαυρο

Today I will cook a melange with one my favorite small fish, the anchovy (gavros in Greek).

The idea of the recipe came to me as a variation of the patties I have described in another post.

The first step is to get the most fresh anchovy you can find and fillet it.

Second step is to get the best onions, and fresh garlic, and chop them. You need a lot of onions, as they will form the body of the melange.

Add one chopped tomato to the mix, a bit of cardamon, and fennel. Season with salt, chilli flakes, a bit of olive oil, and squeeze one lemon over it.

I get hungry only by looking at the mix, as it stands, there, waiting to be cooked.The last step is to add a bit of flour, just to give the mix a binding agent.

Getting to the cooking now, it is quite simple. Pour the mix over a baking dish that has been oiled, and bake in 180 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes.

The true sign of being ready is to see in the baking dish the colors of Rembrandt’s palette. Earthy, browns, dark reds, ocher, a bit of white.

Serve very hot, over crispy potato cubes.

The melange is very soft in its texture, but the bouquet of flavors is complex and powerful.

The soft texture of the melange is contrasted by the crispy texture of the potato cubes, whose flavor is mild, thus comforting the palate that is bombarded by the melange.

I strongly recommend to have ouzo with this dish, or asyrtico white wine. Enjoy!

PS. I dedicate this creation to my dear friend Yanna, whose imperfections include her being a supporter of Olympiacos Football Club, known in the World as “GAVROI – the anchovies”.

Women's Day 8th March 2010

Today is Women’s Day, and I felt it would be nice to share with you some pictures and images.

Many Happy Returns – Enjoy it!!!

Tracy Emin in a Vivienne Westwood frock, and her sardonic smile.

Paula Rego: Annunciation

Tracy Emin: Automatic Orgasm

Paula Rego: Rapariga com Gladiolos

Sarah Lucas: Beyond the pleasure principle

Paula Rego: Working girl in Boots

Gerhard Richter: Betty

Vivienne Westwood: clothing + Catwalk Manifesto

Paula Rego: The fitting

Gabrielle Chanel circa 1937

Paula Rego: Anjo

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo: Le Due Fride

Nikolaos Gizis: Mother

Gerhard Richter: Muter und Tochter

Giorgos Mavroides: Nude

Giorgos Mavroides: Nina

Nikolaos Gizis: Hellas

Remembering Eugene Ionesco (Eugen Ionescu)

“Explanation separates us from

astonishment

which is the only gateway

to the incomprehensible”

Bold Soprano Graphic by Massin (1964)

This is what my friend Ana wrote on the back of a post card she brought me from Paris, where she spent some of her holidays.  Ana is Romanian and Ionesco is dear in her heart. This event lead me to write this post, remembering the great writer and man.

Ionesco’s first play is “The Bald Soprano”, which he wrote when he was learning English.

In ”The Bald Soprano,” which the author labels ”an anti-play,” he assails the craze for conformity that he found ingrained in our society. As he made clear, the play is intended not as a satire on bourgeois English life, but as a play about language and ”a parody of human behavior and therefore a parody of theater, too.” It is also, the author said, ”a completely unserious play.” In that respect, Ionesco was, of course, being ingenuous.

Though the surface is light spirited, the play has a cosmic awareness of how man debases – and defeats -himself, often through his choice of words. The play has not aged. One might even suggest that we have caught up with ”The Bald Soprano,” living, as we do, in a computerized world where information is byte-sized and news becomes photogenic.

(NY Times Theater Review)

Ionesco himself reminisces:

“A strange phenomenon took place. I don’t know how—the text began imperceptibly to change before my eyes. The very simple, luminously clear statements I had copied so diligently into my notebook, left to themselves, fermented after a while, lost their original identity, expanded and overflowed. The clichés and truisms of the conversation primer, which had once made sense […] gave way to pseudo-clichés and pseudo-truisms; these disintegrated into wild caricature and parody, and in the end language disintegrated into disjointed fragments of words.

Looking back

Before the Bald Soprano, which appeared in 1950, we had the Absurd expressed in literature by the existentialists

Nausea by JP Sartre

The Outsider by Albert Camus

Looking forward

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter

”Who Needs Theater Anymore?” – Mr. Ionesco’s answer is simple: ”Tout le monde.”

”People have needed the theater for thousands of years,” he said. ”There’s no reason for this to change.” But why do they need theater? ”For nothing,” he said. ”The theater is useless, but its uselessness is indispensable. Why do people need football? What purpose is there?”

”Theater doesn’t exist at the moment,” he said, through a translator, in his suite at a midtown hotel. ”It’s bad everywhere. Between 1950 and 1960 it was good. Beckett, Genet, Adamov, moi. It was theater where you posed a problem, the most important problem of all: the problem of the existential condition of man – his despair, the tragedy of his destiny, the ridiculousness of his destiny, the absurdity of his destiny. Another interesting problem is the existence of a God, a divinity, as Beckett writes about in ‘Waiting for Godot.’ Man without God, without the metaphysical, without transcendence, is lost.” ‘Everything Is Invention’

Mr. Ionesco has long criticized the American realistic, or naturalistic, theater as naive and simple-minded. ”Realism does not exist,” he said. ”Everything is invention. Even realism is invented. Reality is not realistic. It’s another school of theater, a style.”

He paused and smiled. ”What is real, after all?” he said. ”Ask one of the most important geniuses of science, physics or mathematics. He will not be able to give a definition of real. The only reality is that which comes from inside – the unconscious, the irrational, our thoughts, images, symbols. They are all truer than the truth, than realism.”

(NY Times Article: Eugen Ionesco in Defense of the Absurd, 1988)

Associations:

alienation, paranoia, absurd, double origin, proliferation

symbolic,archetypal,mystical

Ionesco’s Grave in Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France

The inscription reads:

“Pray to the I do not know Who

I hope Jesus Christ”

 

The Greek Problem: aphorisms – Αφορισμοι για το Ελληνικο Προβλημα

   

αυτο το αρθρο αφορα την παρουσα κριση που ταλανιζει την Ελλαδα  

προεκυψε οταν εγραψα ενα σχολιο σε ενα αλλο αρθρο, και συνειδητοποιησα οταν εχω καποια πραγματα να πω εστω και ατακτως εριμμενα  

  

η κριση εχει κυριως οικονομικο και πολιτικο χαρακτηρα και διασταση  

δεν θα συμφωνησω με την “εθνικη” διασταση (βλεπε σημειωση 1) που επιχειρειται να αποδοθει στο θεμα  

το “εθνος” δεν εμπλεκεται ως πρωταγωνιστης, αλλα ως απροσωπος παραληπτης σε μια γενικευση που βολευει τους υπαιτιους   

  

τα “εθνικα” τα λογια τα μεγαλα λεγονται στους πολιτες απο “επιτηδειους”, για να ζαχαρωσουνε το χαπι που θα καταπιουν  

οι επιτηδειοι αυτοι εχουν διαφορες γεωγραφικες θεσεις, εντος και εκτος ελλαδος (βλεπε σχετικα το αρθρο του δημητρη δανικα, για ενα τυπο επιτηδειων)  

  

 η χρηση και επικληση της Ελλαδος ως κοιτιδας πολιτισμου ειναι εξ ισου αστοχη και απρεπης, 

 

οσο και εκεινη που αφορα το “εθνος”  

τα γαργαλιστικα η προκλητικα δημοσιευματα διαφορων φυλλαδων της ευρωπης βεβαιως και χρησιμοποιουν οτιδηποτε θα κανει το θεμα πιο “καυτο” για τον αναγνωστη που θελει να βλεπει και δυο ολοστρογγυλα στηθια στην τριτη σελιδα  

  

η οικονομικη κριση της ελλαδος εξισωνεται ετσι με τα ημισφαιρια της ηδονης των κιτρινων φυλλων 

και μεσα στην παραζαλη της ηδονης των ημισφαιριων, ολοι οι ελληνες γινονται συλληβδην κλεφτες, ολοι οι γερμανοι ναζι, και δεν εχει τελος αυτο το κουβαρι

 

ανακεφαλαιωνω: το θεμα ειναι οικονομικο και πολιτικο, αλλα κατα βαση οικονομικο  

(καρλ μαρξ 1 – λοιποι 0)  

  

τα χρεη προεκυψαν απο την ιδιοτυπη χρηση οικονομικων πορων και για αυτο δεν φταινε ουτε οι γερμανοι ουτε οι ξενοι, ουτε οι ελληνες, φταινε συγκεκριμενοι οικονομικοι και πολιτικοι παραγοντες που δεν προσδιοριζονται ουτε εθνικα ουτε πολιτιστικα,  

αλλα εχουν σχεση με το ελληνικο Κρατος  

 τα τεραστια ελλειματα δημιουργηθηκαν απο την ασυστολη κατασπαταληση οικονομικων πορων απο οικονομικο-πολιτικες δυναμεις που ειχαν και εχουν τον ελεγχο του κρατικου μηχανισμου 

στο ΕΠΙΚΕΝΤΡΟ του φαινομενου βρισκεται το φαυλωτατο και σεσηπον ελληνικον ΚΡΑΤΟΣ και οι ηγεμονες του

 

 το ποιος θα πληρωσει την ζημια (που ειναι ταυτοχρονα τεραστιο κερδος για καποιους) πολυ λιγο ενδιαφερει σημερα τις δυναμεις που κινουν την αγορα το μονο που τις ενδιαφερει ειναι πως θα βγαλουν – αν μπορουν – ενα ζουμερο κερδος και απο αυτην την φαση του φαινομενου 

 σημειωνω οτι ουτε εκεινοι που δημιουργησαν το προβλημα ενδιαφερονται για την επιλυση του, παρα μονο για την επιπροσθετη αξιοποιηση των περιστασεων για επιπροσθετα κερδη και αποδοσεις   

  

  

 

 το επικαιρο κοινωνικο θεμα ειναι οτι στη διαδικασια της κατασπαταλισης των οικονομικων πορων του ελληνικου κρατους, οι ηγεμονες συσπειρωσαν και ολοκληρες στρατιες απο μικρομεσαια στρωματα στα οποια εριχναν ψιχουλα απο τα λαφυρα 

 

και αυτοι οι ενθουσιωδεις και θορυβωδεις μικρομεσαιοι ακολουθουσαν, φτιαχνοντας πισινες, αγοραζοντας το καγιεν και τη μερσεντε, πνιγοντας τους καημους τους μεσα στα μπουζουκολουλουδα και την σκυλοκαψουρα  

ειναι καθαρη ειρωνεια οτι οι περισσοτεροι απο αυτους τους ευκαιριακους οπαδους της καθε ατασθαλιας και λεηλασιας πλουτου βρισκονται στον πρωτη γραμμη των “κοινωνικων” αγωνων εναντια στα “μετρα”  

ελεος, ακομη και οι πετρες εχουν κοκκινησει απο ντροπη!

 

Σημειωση 1. Περι του εθνους, αξιζει κανεις να διαβασει το αρθρο του Αγγελου Ελεφαντη που ηξερε να γραφει καθαρα και καταληπτα.

The "Real" Greece – Part II: Philosophy and Poetry in Hoelderlin's Hyperion

“But then she [Gaia] did couple with Ouranos
to bear deep-eddying Okeanos,
Koios and Kreios, Hyperion and Iapetos,
Theia and Rheia, Themis and Mnemosyne,
as well as gold-wreathed Phoebe and lovely Tethys.”
(Hesiod, Theogony, 132-136)

“Hölderlin is one of our greatest, that is, most impending thinkers,” wrote Heidegger, “because he is our greatest poet. The poetic understanding of his poetry is possible only as a philosophical confrontation with the manifestation of being in his work.”

Today I continue with my quest to discover and present the “real” Greece. I strive to unearth the riches of Greece and Hellenism and based on this to determine what constitutes Greece and the Hellenism! It is a circle pointing to itself, and in order for it not to become a vicious circle, I have to break into it!

(η αποπειρα μου ειναι περισσοτερο να αναδειξω τον πλουτο που ενυπαρχει στην ελλαδα, στον ελληνισμο, και με βαση αυτην την αποπειρα να προσδιορισω και το τι ειναι η ελλαδα και ο ελληνισμος! ειναι μια κυκλοειδης διαδικασια, ειναι μια διαδικασια που για να μη γινει “φαυλος κυκλος” θα πρεπει να εισχωρησουμε στον κυκλο!)

I have chosen Hoelderlin’s Hyperion, as it is the perfect ground where poetry and philosophy cross each other, and because it opens the door to some very interesting considerations regarding the path of life. This topic in my view exemplifies what are some of the elements that constitute the “real” Greece. By necessity, I have used long quotes to get the basics of the story across, and then to convey some thinkers’ views and interpretations.  The reader who endures the difficult read will be rewarded.

“The novel Hyperion presents different practical approaches to dealing with the bi-polarity of the “eccentric path.” This novel is a collection of letters, mostly written by the novel’s modern Greek hero, Hyperion, to his German friend, Bellarmin, in which he recounts his adventures, states of mind, and longings. The original unity which Hyperion was, from the outset, keen to recapture, is understood in different ways by Hyperion at different stages of his life. Ultimately, he will realize that none of these is satisfactory, but that they represented ways of approaching that which is the underlying unity, i.e. Being, throughout the course of his life.

These different representations of unity are of ancient Greece (also reflected in childhood), of modern Greece liberated from Turkish rule, and of aesthetic beauty. This trilogy is not random but corresponds to different temporal understandings of the idea of the fundamental unity of Being. It is first grasped as belonging to the past (Childhood/Ancient Greece), then the future (liberated Greece), and finally the present (immediacy of aesthetic beauty). Each way of life is exemplified by a character with whom Hyperion is connected, respectively through a master-pupil relationship (Adamas), friendship (Alabanda) and love (Diotima).

Symposium, Tomb of the Diver, Paestum

In each case, Hyperion attempts to fully adopt the corresponding way of being only to find its limitations and be confronted with the need to move on. Thus, with Adamas, Hyperion feels compelled to leave his master and seek another way of life because of man’s lack of contentment and constant desire to go beyond his current condition: “We delight in flinging ourselves into the night of the unknown, into the cold strangeness of any other world, and, if we could, we would leave the realm of the sun and rush headlong beyond the comet’s track” (Hölderlin, 1990, p. 10) [“Wir haben unsre Lust daran, uns in die Nacht des Unbekannten, in die kalte Fremde irgend einer andern Welt zu stürzen, und wär’ es möglich, wir verlieβen der Sonne Gebiet und stürmten über des Irrsterns Grenzen hinaus” (Hölderlin, 1999, p.492)]. After leaving home and learning about the world, his encounter with Alabanda is that of a soul-mate who has fought his way to freedom. Together, they plan noble and heroic deeds, but Hyperion’s world crumbles when he realizes the dark side of such purported moral ambition. Alabanda’s friends are ruthless revolutionaries who seek to overthrow the present powers by violent means: “The cold sword is forged from hot metal” (ibid., p.26) [“Aus heiβem Metalle wird das kalte Schwert geschmieden” (ibid., p. 510)]. Through this experience, Hyperion grasps something of the conflictual nature of human life: “If the life of the world consists in an alteration between opening and closing, between going forth and returning, why is it not even so with the heart of man” (ibid., p.29) [“Bestehet ja das Leben der Welt im Wechsel des Entfaltens und Vershlieβens, in Ausflug und in Rückkehr zu sich selbst, warum nicht auch das Herz des Menschen” (ibid., p.514)]? However, it is by encountering beauty in the person and life of Diotima (Book II of Volume I) that Hyperion believes he has found what he is looking for, i.e. the Unity he is after: “I have seen it once, the one thing that my soul sought, and the perfection that we put somewhere far away above the stars, that we put off until the end of time – I have felt it in its living presence” (ibid., p.41) [“Ich habe es Einmal gesehen, das Einzige, das meine Seele suchte, und die Vollendung die wir über die Sterne hinauf entfernen, die wir hinausscheben bis ans Ende der Zeit, die hab’ ich gegenwärtig gefühlt” (ibid., p.529)]. A period of bliss ensues, but Diotima understands that Hyperion is “born for higher things” (ibid., p.72) [“zu höhern Dingen geboren” (ibid., p.566)], that the simple harmony of her life is not for him. He must go out and bring beauty to those places where it is lacking. Having grasped this (Book I of Volume II), Hyperion answers Alabanda’s call to join him in battle to free Greece.

Hyperion’s departure for battle is followed by several letters addressed to Diotima and a couple of her replies. After initial success in the fight against the Turks, Hyperion’s men are delayed by the long siege of Mistra. Nonetheless, as they finally enter the town, they go on a]rampage, pillaging and killing indiscriminately. Rather than face the enemy, Hyperion’s army disperses once its lust for plunder is satisfied. This leads to the death of forty Russian soldiers who stood alone fighting the common foe. Hyperion takes his army’s dishonour to make him unworthy, in his eyes, for Diotima’s love: “I must advise you to give me up, my Diotima” (ibid., p.98) [“ich muβ dir raten, daβ du mich verlässest, meine Diotima” (ibid., p.597)]. In letters to Bellarmin, we discover more details of the battles fought by Hyperion and Alabanda. Their friendship flourished again, but Alabanda’s lust for battle eventually came to an end, thus pointing once more to the limits of his way of life.

In a letter from Diotima that arrives later, it emerges that she lost her will to live as her lover did not return, and she finally let herself die. In a development which reflects Hölderlin’s understanding of human life, the effortless harmony of Diotima’s world of beauty, once disturbed by the fire of Hyperion’s free aspiration to noble deeds, could not simply return to its original form. Rather, it became something to aim for, something Diotima thought Hyperion could achieve for her: “You drew my life away from the Earth, but you would also have had power to bind me to the Earth” (ibid., p.122) [“Du entzogst main Leben der Erde, du hättest auch Macht gehabt, mich an die Erde zu fesseln” (ibid., p.626)]. It is, thus, through its very destruction, that Diotima’s way of life ceases to represent that which Hyperion could have sought to take refuge in. Diotima’s words illustrate the whole problem of life as an “eccentric path,” but her death, apparently, only leaves Hyperion confused: “as I am now, I have no names for things and all before me is uncertainty” (ibid., p.126) [“wie ich jetzt bin, hab ich keinen Namen für die Dinge, und es ist mir alles ungewiβ” (ibid., p.632)]. At the end of the novel, however, the beauty of Nature once again fills Hyperion with joy, and this poetic sense of oneness reaches beyond separation and death to Alabanda and Diotima. Somehow, he has made some sense of his experiences. Thus, after all these tragedies, an overall feeling of unity prevails: “You springs of earth! you flowers! and you woods and you eagles and you brotherly light! how old and new is our love!- We are free, we are not narrowly alike in outward semblance; how should the Mode of life not vary? yet we love the ether, all of us, and in the inmost of our inmost selves we are alike” (ibid., p.133) [“Ihr Quellen der Erd! Ihr Blumen! Und ihr Wälder und ihr Adler und du brüderliches Licht! Wie alt und neu ist unsere Liebe! – Frei sind wir, gleichen uns nicht ängstig von auβen; wie sollte nicht wechseln die Weise des Lebens? Wir lieben den Äther doch all und innigst im Innersten gleichen wir uns” (ibid., p.639-640)]. However, the last words of the novel suggest an open ending: “So I thought. More soon” (ibid., p.133) [“So dacht’ ich. Nächstens mehr” (ibid., p.640)]. Thus, after all the ordeals that he has worked through in these letters, Hyperion’s life goes on. This seems to point to new experiences and the possibility of revisiting his interpretation of his life thus far.”

(Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

“…..The main work of this period is the novel
Hyperion oder Der Eremit in Griechenland (2
volumes, 1797-1799; translated as Hyperion; or, The
Hermit in Greece, 1965). Hölderlin had begun the
novel during his student days in Tübingen and
had revised it continually during his stays in
Waltershausen and Jena. In 1794 a preliminary
version was published under the title “Fragment
von Hyperion” (Fragment of Hyperion) in Friedrich
Schiller’s literary journal Neue Thalia. This version
of the novel is cast in the form of letters from
Hyperion, a young late-eighteenth-century Greek,
to his German friend Bellarmin. The letters depict
his constant struggle to attain the moment of
transcendent experience in which all conflict is
resolved and temporality is suspended: “Was mir
nicht Alles, und ewig Alles ist, ist mir Nichts”
(What for me is not All, and eternally All, is
nothing). In nature, in love, in a visit to Homeric
sites, Hyperion experiences momentary
intimations of his ideal, which constantly eludes
him, so that his aspirations remain unfulfilled.
The image of the “exzentrische Bahn” (eccentric
path), which constantly diverges from the center
of Being that it always seeks but can never
permanently attain, becomes a symbol of the
course of human existence.

Fichte

In Jena Hölderlin had revised this version, partly
in order to take account of his attempt to come to
terms with the philosophy of Fichte. In a metrical
version and a fragment entitled “Hyperions
Jugend” (Hyperion’s Youth), he abandoned the
epistolary format in favor of a retrospective
technique in which the older Hyperion looks back
on his youth. The narrator, relating his story to a
young visitor, acknowledges that the process of
reflection has made him “tyrannisch gegen die
Natur” (tyrannical toward nature), in that he has
reduced nature to the material of selfconsciousness.
This theme echoes Hölderlin’s
criticism of Fichte’s philosophy and its
preoccupation with the autonomy of the “absolute
ego.” Hölderlin’s new orientation finds expression
in the Platonic view of love as the longing of the
imperfect for the ideal, and in a new conception of
beauty, which emerges as the only form in which
the unity of Being, unattainable precisely because
it is the object of striving, is incarnated: “jenes
Sein, im einzigen Sinne des Worts … ist
vorhanden–als Schönheit” (Being, in the unique
sense of the word … is present-as Beauty). With
this subordination of self-consciousness to the
realization of beauty, Hölderlin establishes the
conceptual framework that he follows in
completing the novel.
The final version of the novel, the greater part of
which was completed during the period he was in
Frankfurt am Main, shows Hölderlin’s increasing
stylistic and formal mastery. He returns to the
epistolary form of the first version, but now
endows it with a particularly sophisticated
structure. Hyperion presents a retrospective view
of his life, beginning at the stage at which, after
having lost his beloved and his friends, he returns
bitterly disappointed to his native land, intending
to take up the life of a hermit. The main focus is
not the sequence of events but the act of narration
itself. The seemingly disconnected fragments of
his experience are integrated through the process
of reflective recapitulation and gradually assume
a dialectical structure in which union and
separation, joy and suffering come to be seen as
inseparable parts of a complex unity.

Heraclitus

….

The principle of “das Eine in sich
unterschiedne” (the one that is differentiated
within itself), which Hölderlin adapted from a
formulation of Heraclitus, defines at once the
essence of the Athenian and the nature of beauty–as opposed to the one-sidedness and
fragmentation characteristic of the Egyptians and
the Spartans, and, in Hölderlin’s view, also of
modern times.”

Source: Hoelderlin, Duke University

Gothe

“Like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Schiller, his older contemporaries, Hölderlin was a fervent admirer of ancient Greek culture, but had a very personal understanding of it. Much later, Friedrich Nietzsche and his followers would recognize in him the poet who first acknowledged the orphic and dionysiac Greece of the mysteries, which he would fuse with the Pietism of his native Swabia in a highly original religious experience. For Hölderlin, the Greek gods were not the plaster figures of conventional classicism, but living, actual presences, wonderfully life-giving and, at the same time, terrifying. He understood and sympathized with the Greek idea of the tragic fall, which he expressed movingly in the last stanza of his Hyperions Schicksalslied “Hyperion’s Song of Destiny”. (Source:  icompositions).

Hyperion’s Song of Destiny
by Fr. Hölderlin

Holy spirits, you walk up there
in the light, on soft earth.
Shining god-like breezes
touch upon you gently,
as a woman’s fingers
play music on holy strings.

Like sleeping infants the gods
breathe without any plan;
the spirit flourishes continually
in them, chastely kept,
as in a small bud,
and their holy eyes
look out in still
eternal clearness.

A place to rest
isn’t given to us.
Suffering humans
decline and blindly fall
from one hour to the next,
like water thrown
from cliff to cliff,
year after year,
down into the Unknown

We have no footing anywhere,
No rest, we topple,
Fall and suffer
Blindly from hour
To hour

like water
Pitched from fall
To fall, year in,
Year out, headlong,
Downward for years to the vague abyss

“Philosophy then, is not born out of the nostalgia for an absent unity, nor out of the exile from the All, but out of an accord with that which is in the difference of its multiplicity. For what is thus achieved is a concept of beauty different from that of Platonism and from that of the classicism of Goethe and Winckelmann: no longer the becoming-visible of the idea, but the harmony of opposites, no longer the static concept of an atemporal beauty, but the dynamic one of a living beauty that Plato himself, citing Heraclitus, has not perhaps ignored, as Hoelderlin implies in the preface to Hyperion, when he exclaims, after having alluded to the already realised presence of being as beauty:

Plato

I think that in the end we will all cry out: saint Plato, forgive us! We have gravely sinned against you!
For it is on the basis of such a sensible presence of beauty and of the effective presence of the union of the infinite with the finite that Greece is defined in Hyperion as the homeland of philosophy, in opposition to Egypt and the North:
Do you see now why the Athenians in particular could not but be a philosophical people too? Not so the Egyptian. He who does not live loving Heaven and earth and loved by them in equal measure, he who does not live at one in this sense with the element in which he has his being, is by his very nature not so as one with himself as a Greek, at least he does not expewrience eternal Beauty as easily as a Greek does.
It is, in fact, only Greece that is capable of this harmony with the sensible and with exteriority which procures it the harmony with the intelligible and interiority: neither the Oriental (the Egyptian), subject to an exteriority which appears like a “terrible enigma”, nor the Nordic (the German), enclosed in an interiority without an outside, are capable of such a harmony and can be open to a beauty at the same time “human and divine”. Must Greece, then, be resurrected?” (Source: Francoise Dastur: Hoelderlin and the Orientalisation of Greece)

“Oh! were there a banner … a Thermopylae upon which I could spill my blood with honour, all that solitary love for which I can have no use.”

“Hölderlin’s glory is that he is the poet of Hellenism. Everyone who reads his work senses that his Hellenism is different, more sombre, more tortured by suffering than the radiant Utopia of antiquity envisaged during the Renaissance and Enlightenment. But his vision of Hellas has nothing in common either with the tedious, trivial, academic classicism of the nineteenth century or with the hysterical bestiality with which Nietzsche and the imperialist period envisaged Greece. The key to Hölderlin’s view lies then in the understanding of the specifics of this conception of Hellenism.”

Georg Lukacs, Goethe and His Age, 1934

Real Greece – Part 1: Thermopylae by Cy Twombly and Konstantinos Kavafis

This is the first post in a series of posts on Real Greece,. The events of the last few months have shed a very negative light on Greece, and I feel the need to  share with you the “real” Greece, which is the Greece I know.

Today I present sculptures made by Cy Twombly, an American artist who I like very much. The sculptures are named “Thermopylae”, after the narrow passage where the Greeks fought the Persions back in 480 BC, and are paired with the poem of Constantinos Kavafis.

The bronze sculpture is on display at the Brandhorst museum in Munich, Germany.

There is also a sibling plaster sculpture, on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

I quote from Jessica Stewart’s text:

The work is inscribed with lines from modern Greek poet Constantine Cavafy, who was similarly inspired by the illustrious battle. Twombly often makes bronzes of his “white originals,” and particularly in its cast rendition Thermopylae relates closely to a fifth-century BC battle helmet. The mounded dome from which four tulips rise calls to mind another ancient association, an Etruscan tomb with burgeoning vegetation.

spacer As poet and critic Frank O’Hara suggested in 1955, Twombly’s sculptures are both “witty and funereal”; they are also elegant and coarse, fragile and monumental, visual and literary, and above all, ancient and contemporary. Metamorphosis is an essential aspect of Twombly’s works, and these dualities highlight the depths of meaning contained in their often quotidian forms. Twombly’s spare wooden constructions–or their bronze surrogates–distill archaic sources and present them in a uniquely modern language of form.”

Thermopylae

Translated by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard

Honor to those who in the life they lead
define and guard a Thermopylae,
Never betraying what is right,
consistent and just in all they do
but showing pity also, and compassion;
generous when they’re rich, an when they’re
poor,
still generous is small ways,
still helping as much as they can;
always speaking the truth,
yet without hating those who lie.
And even more honor is due to them
when they foresee (as many do foresee )
that Ephialtis wil turn up in the end,
that the Medes will break through after all.

Costantinos Kavafis

1000 reasons for PAOK to win the football league – 1000 λογοι για να κερδισει το πρωταθλημα ο ΠΑΟΚ


Ειμαι Βαζελος και το ξερετε οσοι με διαβαζετε και με πειραζετε γι αυτο.
Ομως φετος το πρωταθλημα θελω να το παρει ο ΠΑΟΚ!
Γιατι; Να μερικοι λογοι, και γραψτε κι εσεις κι αλλους.
1. Γιατι ειναι ωραιο να κερδιζει το πρωταθλημα μια ομαδα που πρακτικα ειχε χρεωκοπησει στην αρχη του πρωταθληματος.
2. Γιατι ο ΠΑΟΚ δεν σταματησε με τιποτα να κυνηγα μια διακριση.


3. Γιατι η Θεσσαλονικη ειναι μεγαλη Πολη και το αξιζει να εχει Πρωταθλητες!


4. Γιατι ο Ζαγορακης ειναι ωραιος, ενω ο Πατερας ειναι μοιραιος! (οπως λεει η Ρουλα, μεχρις οτιυ παρουμε οι βαζελοι την κουπα ο Πατερας μας θα εχει γινει Παππους)


5. Γιατι μωρο μου σου πανε πολυ τα μαυρα: “φορα τα μαυρα φορα τα γιατι σου πανε τρελλα, και με τα μαυρα κουκλα μου στην αγκαλια μου ελα”.


6. Γιατι ο Γκαρσια ειναι κλαδευτηρι μεγαλο και μαγκας και καραμπουζουκλης


7. Γιατι ο Σαντος ειναι προπονητης με αρχιδια και καπνιζει και πεντε πακετα στη διαρκεια του αγωνα


8. Γιατι η τουμπα ειναι σκετος οργασμος στη διαρκεια του αγωνα.

Η κερκίδα της Τούμπας χωρίζεται σε δυο ημιχόρια:

Α’ημιχόριο:Δικέφαλε αρρώστησα θέλω γιατρό
Δικέφαλε για πάρτι σου θα τρελαθώ

Β’ημιχόριο:Για σένα έχω κάνει κρατητήριο
Και σκότωσα για ένα εισιτήριο

Α’ημιχόριο:Ποτέ σου δεν θα παίζεις μόνος να το ξες
Στα αρ…α μου οι μπάτσοι και οι κάμερες

A και Β εν χορώ:Θα αφήσω την ζωή μου σ΄ ένα πέταλο
Που θα φωνάζει ΠΑΟΚΑΡΑ Σ’ΑΓΑΠΩ

(ευχαριστω τη Ρουλα για το παραπανω τραγουδακι)

9. Γιατι ο λαος του ΠΑΟΚ ειναι και γαμω τα παιδια
10. Γιατι τα πρωταθληματα θελουν ψυχη, και η μονη ομαδα που εχει φετος ψυχη ειναι ο ΠΑΟΚ
Σταματω εδω και σας καλησπεριζω.
ΥΓ. Η αρνηση της τεχνητης πραγματικοτητας ως πραγματικης πραγματικοτητας ειναι προυποθεση για να δουμε οι βαζελοι μιαν ασπρη μερα. Στο μεταξυ ας απολαυσουμε την ΠΑΟΚαρα!

ΥΓ2. Αφιερωμενο εξαιρετικα στη Μεγαλη Ρουλα, τη Βορεια, που εμπνεει και παρασυρει και οδηγει προς νεους δρομους και λεωφορους.

Restaurante Martin Berasategui – Lasarte, near San Sebastian, Basque Country

It is not often that one is blessed to enjoy the finest of food prepared by one of the top chefs of the world. During my recent visit to San Sebastian, I was fortunate to have lunch in the restaurant of Martin Berasategui, in Lasarte, a small town near San Sebastian. The chef proposes to the visitor to taste rather than eat. This means, he prefers to serve small bites of representative dishes that he has created over the years, rather than one or two big dishes. The degustation menu that he has put together spans the period from 1995 to 2010.

Lightly smoked cod with powder of hazelnuts, coffee and vanilla.

The official name of the dish does not mention that the thin slice of the fish rests on a puree where the taste and flavor of parmesan cheese is prominent. The fish actually disolves into the puree and the combination is inspiring!

Mille feuille of smoked eel, foie gras, spring onions and green apple

This is a signature dish of the chef, one of the dishes that have established him in the Pantheon of modern gastronomy. What is quite remarkable is the balance that he manages to maintain, between the eel and the foie, which have abundant flavor and “personality” .

Salmon de Keia with seaweed, cucumber, lemon and celery ice cream.

This is a very fresh, light bite, made even lighter by the celery ice cream and the strip of lemon sauce. The salmon is velvety, full of flavor.

Squid soup, creamy squid ink ravioli, served with squid crouton

The black ball is a ravioli filled with squid ink, the crouton is a flake with ink juice and rice, and beneath it the chef has placed razor thin slices of squid. This dish is the essence of squid, presented in three distinct forms. The instruction is to put the ravioli in your mouth intact, and then crush it in order to enjoy the power of the ink’s taste. Then you water down the powerful taste with the soup’s liquid and the rest. The slices of squid add to the harmony of textures, but the taste and flavor are in the liquid stuff.

Oyster with water cress, rocket leaves and lemon grass cream, apple chlorophyll, and oxalis acetosella (wood sorrel)

Extremely delicate flavor and taste, requires meditation to obtain the depth of the delicate structure the chef has put on the dish. A very intellectual dish!

Little pearls of fennel, with emulsion

What you see in the middle is a bouquet of tagliatelle made of gelatin and fennel. It is surrounded by the foamy stuff that also has fennel in it. It is a dish that uplifts you because it is so light!

Cheese and Carabana oil Bubble with endives, red onion juice and Iberian bacon

This is a heavier dish, the bubbles are quite tasty and hearty, while the vegetables and the liquids accompany them well.

Farm’s Egg with beet root and liquid salad, lardon and cheese

The test of the artistry of a chef is the cooking of an egg. Here we have the egg (poached without the white) covered by a transparent slice of lardon  fat. On top we have pieces of beet root a bit of cheese, black truffle and the liquid herb salad. The combination is ok, but lacks focus. Of all the dishes I tasted this was the weakest.

Warm vegetable salad with seafood, cream of lettuce hearts and juice

This is a painting, a pleasure of the eye. Once you start tasting the salad, you have the feeling of being submerged up to waste level in the sea, and from the waste up to a vegetable and fruit garden. A sheer delight, the gastronomic equivalent of Mozart’s String Quintet 6.

Roast red mullet with crystals of soft scales, pig’s tail and seaweed

This is an audacious dish, the combination of the mullet with the succulent pig’s tail is incredible! Not to mention the scales, that have been turned into air by the chef.

Roasted Araiz’s Pigeon, mushrooms and truffle cream

Wonderful flavor of the pigeon, assorted by the woody mushrooms and the truffle sauce. This may have been the best pigeon I have ever tasted!

The deserts were a disappointment, after the huge satisfaction of this display of culinary expertise and creativity.

Coffee came with this nice tray of cookies and tasty liquids.

At the end of the meal, the maitre d’ hotel asked me to go to the kitchen, where I was greeted by Hector Botrini, the best Greek Chef. Hector was visiting Martin as they are good friends and enjoy working together. Martin Berasategui was very polite, he asked whether I enjoyed the food and why. It is good to see that one of the best chefs of the world takes time to ask his unknown customers about their feedback. It is one of things that can keep Martin at the top for many many years to come.

Artichokes Jewish Style – Carciofi alla Giudea

This is a classic dish, and a very tasty one!

I was in Rome for one day and had the chance to grab “carciofi alla Giudea” for a bite!

It all begins with an excellent product. The roman artichoke. Look at it! Nice, round, plumb, a sphere full of flavors!

The artichoke is fried twice, once as a round object with a bit of the stem sticking out, then it is flattened so that the leaves become like an umbrella and then fried again, until the leaves become crispy. These crispy leaves, partnered with the sweet tender flesh is an unforgettable combination.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

To the Women

"Poppy" Georgia O'Keefe

and Men on Earth and beyond,

I wish the happiest Valentine’s Day

Love is a hard, difficult thing

Tracey Amin

Our life is full of promises

Suffering is the bread if love is the butter

And it usually starts very differently

Tracey Amin

“When everything has been said,

when everything has been done,

just remember

I never stopped

loving you”

"Porchsester Baths" Tracey Amin 1988

Paradise is lost….

"Paradise Lost" Emil Nolde

……. but there is nothing more comforting than a kiss…

Roy Lichtenstein

…and a walk to the seashore

"By the Seashore" Emil Nolde

Happy Valentine’s!