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Insider Weekly Newsletter – CULTURE LOADING!

The house where Cohen lived on Hydra, in November 2016. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP /Getty Images

News | 06 Apr 2020

The new FOMO of our isolation age is Fear of Not Doing Enough! It’s almost as if we’re expected to pack every minute of our confinement with more information, more entertainment. Cultural venues, chefs, concert halls, Greece’s Tourism Ministry (Insider too!) have all scrambled to create more content to keep us ‘engaged’. How transporting then to dive into poet Alicia Stalling’s TV-free Angistri and Polly Samson’s bohemian Hydra where peacocks and creative geniuses hold their own!

INSIDER STORIES

A Time Outside of Time

Pulitzer shortlisted poet and MacArthur Fellow Alicia E. Stallings mines the surrealities of the pandemic to evoke insights into life on a tiny island where the raucous mating dance of its “pullulating population of feral peafowl” substitutes Netflix! READ MORE

WHAT’S ON

Join Diane Kochilas’ Greek Easter webinars

Acclaimed chef, cookbook author, TV host and passionate culinary ambassador Diane Kochilas dons her apron to create an Easter menu. Zoom in on Saturday, April 4 at 9pm Greek time, 2 pm EDT. READ MORE

WHAT’S ON

Alban Berg’s Lulu

The Athens Concert hall kicks off its ‘Stay Home’ campaign with Alban Berg’s Lulu. READ MORE

CULTURE

Why you should read Polly Samson’s book on Hydra, A Theatre for Dreamers

A brilliant read, full of humour and spontaneity, Polly Samson’s skilled writing offers a fascinating, often voyeuristic account of the sexual jealousy, alcoholism, and bohemian lifestyle that pervaded the creative set in 1960’s Hydra. Recounted through Erica, the daughter of Australia’s tragic literary couple, writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift, the book dives into their fraught lives, of their friend Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne, when they were all struggling to make it, typewriter-to-cheque, on a sun-drenched isle. Sudha Nair-Iliades reviews A Theatre for Dreamers. READ MORE

CULTURE

In The Blink of an Eye –
Global Museums and Landmarks

Those once-packed museum and galleries, sit empty and silent, but our social distancing doesn’t need to quarantine us from the art which ‘makes us breathe a different kind of happiness.’ Elena Panayides explores the online collections, virtual tours and museum technology that is transforming our homes into cultural hubs. READ MORE

CULTURE

The Corona Viriade

Stuck indoors as everyone else, John Carr adds a bit of levity to our unsettling times by thumbing his nose at the Coronavirus. READ MORE

GREEKISM OF THE WEEK

Stories for savages

(Ιστορίες για αγρίους) (Istories gia agrious)

Meaning: lame or preposterous excuses
Here lies another trace of the ancient Herodotian dichotomy between Greeks and “barbarians.” It’s a trace that remains firmly in the Greek psyche, resistant to present notions of political correctness that frown on the use of the word “savage” to describe primitive people purportedly prepared to believe anything. There is, however, an ambiguity in the Greek preposition “for,” which is also translatable as “about.” Thus stories about savages could be a synonym for fairy tales. BUY NOW!

INSIDER RECOMMENDS
CULTURE	CULTURE
Closer, not Closed: The Onassis Cultural Centre goes digital From April 3, the Onassis Foundation uploads and shares images, discussions, sounds, emotions, sold-out shows, new podcasts, educational programs, virtual cinematic experiences, online courses, secret concerts on its YouTube channel. READ MORE	TIFF ‘Spaces #1’ Short Films Online Premiere The Thessaloniki Film Festival ingeniously pivots the postponement of its Documentary Festival due to the coronavirus pandemic by assigning eleven Greek directors to shoot short films on their new quarantine reality at home. READ MORE
NEWS	FOOD & DRINK
Greece from Home: Fall in love with Greece wherever you are A unique, engaging interface that allows visitors to relive their holidays in Greece by offering a glimpse of what this ancient yet contemporary destination can offer “Greece from Home’ developed by Greece’s Tourism Ministry, the Greek National Tourism Organization, Marketing Greece and Google aims to promote Greece in the hearts and minds of visitors. READ MORE	Learn to home-cook with Michelin Chef Nikos Karathanos The one thing we can be sure of is that this period in isolation will teach us a few precious life-skills, and most of us will end up becoming better cooks! Chef Nikos Karathanos suggests comforting recipes, easy enough to follow, whether you’re a seasoned home-cook or a kitchen-shy novice. Don your aprons, and succumb to the indulgent, therapeutic pleasures of cooking. READ MORE

Insider Weekly Newsletter – CULTURE LOADING!