konstantinos’ blog

All photos taken in Riga, Latvia on 27th and 28th of September 2008. Click on the thumbnails for hi-res photos. Thanks to Christos (aka Marvin the Martian), his bebe and Sofia for this nice weekend.

A beautiful night at Islington Academy in Angel, London watching Delerium on stage… and taking advantage of my brand new camera in difficult shooting conditions! The canadian “band” was great and especially the singer with her theatrical performance and the strong voice. Nice touch, the video projection of images and video related to the (mainly) ambient songs. And not to forget, Christos and Christos… whose company I really enjoy lately.

In general, a nice gig that cannot be compared though to the last one I went (back in October if I remember correct, lol). Then it was LCD Soundsystem, an unknown to me group by that time. Of course, I always enjoy gigs and since I haven’t been to many in the past years, it’s among my first priorities from now and on.

So have a small taste of Delerium live by looking at the following photos. I’ll let you choose on your own the soundtrack…

the opening supporting group… or should I say solo artist!

when the supporting solo is turning to a group! (…nice track by the way)

and still “supporting” with male vocals this time

the intermediate (really good) dj set before Delerium come on stage

and the essential (shitty) artistic photo! hehe

Delerium have just started playing

Delerium’s singer; a voice not as ethereal as Sarah’s McLahan or Leigh’s Nash but still great!

emotional performance combined with inspiring video projection

(almost) the whole group on stage…

…and here’s the soul behind Delerium; Bill Leeb

And a memo photo to remember this night out (hope you don’t mind Christos on the right!)…

P.S. Did I mention how impressed I’m with my new camera? Believe me, it’s hard to get these photos with an inexpensive compact digital camera… Hail Ricoh!

My holidays in Greece are history and I’m back in London since last night. With all my personal belongings this time! (almost all… my new favourite smart jacket is still somewhere in an empty house in central Greece). Undoubtedly, I had a great time in all the places I visited. My only concern is the fact that due to practical difficulties I didn’t meet many of the friends I really wanted to see this time (especially Anda and Kostas… if you read these lines). The new thing in these holidays has a name: Sarah. My friend, course-mate and iColleague who came to visit me in Athens for the last 5 days of my stay there. Showing mainly Athens to a foreigner through the perspective of an Athenian was something I was looking forward to since the moment that Sarah suggested coming to Greece back in February. The whole process turned out to have much more fun than I’d have expected. Along with Sarah, I also had a great time, especially cause I spent many hours close to the beautiful west coastline of Attika. And believe me, what I really miss since I moved to London is not the Greeks or the food, but some wine the sea and the sun. A daily trip to Hydra was also the highlight of Sarah’s visit to my home country. And along with that a sunburn (which I hope it turns to a discrete tan in the next days). Probably Sarah should comment here with her impressions from her journey… but from what I know two things made her good impression; the men and the food… and the order is probably not random cause as she is a vegetarian she didn’t have the chance to eat many of the infamous dishes of the greek cuisine.

I could write many many things as always about the last 10 days but as is usually the case I won’t do it. lol. I’ll just put here a few of the photos I shot with my new present (thanks a lot). Enjoy…

Nice things are soon to follow. And returning home feels always so pleasant even after leaving back all these beautiful places. First day at work tomorrow! Hooray…

When music feels so good…

Friday Midnight is almost here! And Ghetto is close! Have fun and daaaaanceee
At least I’ll do that…

Mommy, can I go out and kill tonight?
I feel, I feel like taking a life.
Please, I wanna seal the kitchen knife
and feel, feel like taking a life.

Rippin kittin kidding on the round (x2)

Daddy, can I go and haunt tonight
like you do on Sunday mornings.
Honey, give me a real gentle knife
to feel, feel like taking my life.

Rippin kittin kidding on the round (x4)

Mommy, can I go out and kill tonight?
I feel, I feel like taking a life.
Please, I wanna seal the kitchen knife
and feel, feel like taking a life.

Rippin kittin kidding on the round (x4)

Mommy, daddy, please let me go (x2)

…was the weekend that has just given its turn to the third Monday of this month. A weekend characterised by one thing; rediscovering how interesting life in London can be. In a few words and in chronological order, a masters course mates reunion and the discussion that took place around a “new kind of subject” untouched until very recently (my mistake!), an amazing new night-life spot which I want to believe that few people in London already know (call me “Shunt”), a retrospective exhibition at Tate which makes me realise that even sculptor is a new art territory of interest for me (call me “Juan Muñoz” exhibition), a visit to a relatively new and promising (g/c)lubbing space in Soho (call me lo-…) and finally a sunny Sunday spent at various districts of this city (Picadilly, Tottenham Ct Rd, Angel and Canary Wharf… ouf) including a nice lunch (call me “Satsuma), a quick “business” meeting, a “pastitsio from Alkisti, Kely and the new couple” dinner and a great movie (call me “There will be blood”).

What else can someone ask from his weekend? … a repetition in 5 days could be a good proposal… although next weekend starts on Saturday evening… so a repetition in 6 days could be the proper proposal.

“Spanish sculptor (b. June 17, 1953, Madrid, Spain—d. Aug. 28, 2001, Ibiza, Spain), created moody and challenging installation artworks, most of which featured monochromatic human figures placed amid unnerving architectural spaces and often incorporating animatronics and sound.”

Back from California… back to London. Maybe it’s funny to say that but I really missed London. After all it gets a bit tiring living in a hotel (three different hotels particularly) for 24 days! However, I have to admit that my trip to Cupertino and San Francisco was a great experience for me and I am looking forward to the next time I can travel there.

I could probably write thousands of words about the places I visited, the places I ate or had a drink at, the things I did or the people I met. But since I write this post while I am at the office, I will just give you the link to the gallery I have created with some of the photos I took while being at US. And to make it more official: (lol)

I think that many times lately I find myself considering of music not as bad or good, touching or indifferent but as stylish or not! I don’t know if there is a point in that, and moreover if music critique can be based on this criterion (and actually what makes a musical piece, track, song stylish?) but I like to use this term when I listen to music that could be heard in an ultra fashionable bar, a stylish restaurant or the lobby of a design hotel. That doesn’t mean that this music can be enjoyable only there but I think it would fit perfectly there…

So two of the tracks that come instantly to my mind this period when I think for something stylish are from Walter Ego and Simian Mobile Disco. Walter Meego is a musical duo from Chicago, Illinois whereas Simian Mobile Disco (even the name is cool!) come from a closest to mine neighbourhood as being an English production and remix team. Actually there is a story on how I discovered these groups and their music and the connecting link is “Diesel Liquid Space” (right, the latest ultra-chic and super-ultra- hightech fashion show from Diesel where holographic projection was used for the first time in that kind of live show … Alexander McQueen’s fashion show in Paris followed with a hovering ethereal Kate Moss! … but enough with this enormous parenthesis!). As you can imagine tracks from both Walter Ego and Simian Mobile Disco were used to dress musically the show, along with tracks from other producers of course.

Anyway, below you can listen to “Romantic” from Walter Ego (which is heard during the catwalk… search for the Flosstradamus remix) and to “I Believe” from the English duo (though the track used for the show is the “I Got This Down”… but no clip for that).

Date: 28 October 2007

Time: evening

Destination: Tate Modern

Place: river Thames, London

Participants: Marios, Vasilis, Konstantinos

yes, I am going to Berlin… my first trip outside UK … at last! any information about Berlin from people who have been, lived, born, fed, studied there is more than welcome! and I know many of you fit in that category… people who have studied at Galatsi Schule and other who speak German better than English! …maybe it’s time to learn more that the one word I know in German: “mandarinenbaum”!

Finally, almost after a month of intensive negotiations between a company of 5 people, everything is arranged for our short vacations on Skiathos. Skiathos is a city and a small island in the Aegean Sea belonging to Greece (…where else). Rooms to let, bus and ferry tickets are booked and the only thing that keep Thanasis, Michalis, Georgia, Stathis, Ifigenia and me, from the island is these 10 days that we will have to wait for that…

I’m really happy for two reasons. Firstly, the obvious one of going on summer vacations in a really nice place with sea, sun and a temperature almost 25 degrees higher than the temperature I have been experiencing for the last 2139412734 months in trendy cosmopolitan beautiful centre-of-the-universe mouldy London! It’s a big difference going from 15 degrees to 40 degrees. I don’t know how shocking this difference will be though! It sounds very strange to me that I won’t have to carry an umbrella or my beloved TOPSHOP trendy jacket (lol) when going out! But of course, I will survive!

Skiathos is a great island and in my opinion has one of the most amazing beaches in Greece called Koukounaries. I had visited the island 6 years before, if I remember correctly, with a completely different synthesis of a friendly company and I still remember that beach! Moreover, Skiathos is by general acceptance the “greenest” Greek island of the Aegean Sea and that makes it even more interesting. Night-life at the island is not disappointing at all. However, I am not sure if I care about that now You see, the last couple of months in London have been more than interesting regarding night-life, partying, clubbing, drinking… On the other hand, greek summer night-life is great and I am looking forward to go out when I’ll arrive to Greece. So Athens will cover this need better than any other place in Greece (I believe).

The second reason for being happy is that after 2-3 years I am going for second time on vacations with my friends from Patras. Unfortunately, not all of them will be there (why John, Mixaloybas, Alf, mmmmmmmmmmm ?) but a lot of effort has been put into arranging these short vacations with 5 of them… I don’t want to imagine the same process with all of them

Anyway, my summerish mood is already very strong (in contrast to my “sit down and do your dissertation” mood), so I’ll close this post with a few photos from Skiathos… to inspire a similar mood to those of you that won’t go on vacations in a summer destination or that have to stay in cool leading attractive all-this-happen-here London.