It's the first gay marriage in Greece bitch! (the S. African way)

Believe it or not, the first gay marriage in Greece for a greek lesbian couple (we already had a gay couple marrying at a foreign embassy under foreign law) is set to take place next week!

I remind you that the Greek law on civil marriage includes five exclusive prerequisites for couples, none of which is their sex, thus the Greek civil marriage law does not technically exclude same-sex couples from marrying, as soon as they meet the exclusive criteria set by the law!

Nevertheless, no same-sex couple in Greece has ever even tried to go to a city hall and request to get married...
At least not until now! The Greek Gay and Lesbian Community (OLKE) announced on March 13, 2008 that next week the first same-sex couple in Greece, two women, will get married at Kesariani City Hall in Athens! Kesariani's mayor (who's a member of KKE the Greek Communist Party) said that he has no objection to marry a couple as soon as the law does not provide any such prohibition. Tbe same mayor also sais that he hasn't yet officialy received any application for this marriage.

The OLKE also announced that two men will also try to marry next week in a City Hall of Thessaloniki and that the mayor of an island in the Aegean (elected with the socialist PASOK party) also informed OLKE that he wants same-sex marriages to take place on his island!

I do hope that everything goes fine with the couple next week and that we will have a precedent for other couples. If anybody has objections to this marriage, the case has to go to the Greek Courts and if the courts decide that the law is not broken then Gay Marriages will be legal in Greece without even the government trying and without civil union contracts and such!

A same thing happened in South Africa where the law did not clearly state the gender of the couple to get married. So some couples got married and some people went to court about it, then the South African High Court decided that no law was broken and since the country's constitution provided for no discrimination, it officialy called same-sex marriages legal in the country without any amendment to the existing laws!

The only thing in Greece is the way our High Court will define the word "marriage" as used on the civil marriage law of the 80's. The only way the court can deny same-sex marriages, is by defining the word "marriage" as used in the 1980's law as meaning a union between a man and a woman according to common practice back then. But this is only a weak argument, provided that the Greek Constitution has a clause against discrimination (although sexual orientation is not clearly stated in the Constitution)...

Anyway, a good story has started and let's hope that we'll soon have gay/lesbian marriages in Greece, without having to uncloset the Government which is already facing troubles setting up civil unions for heterosexual couples...

Aricle on "TA NEA" newspaper about this.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that the Greek Minister of Justice said on a meeting with OLKE's representatives, that in a first stage, same-sex couples won't be included in the civil union law, and that's because he already faces criticism about opposite-sex civil unions! He even has to meet with the archbishop to explain to him what the new law brings!
Now what's that??? Why does a democratically elected government ever have to ask or even explain its laws concerning its citizens liberties, to the archbishop!!!

For Brahmapoustra's sake! What f***ing nonsense is that??? Separate State and Church immediately!!!

Post Scriptum: Just quoting Wanda Sykes on the video:

What are you afraid of in gay marriage?

Are you afraid your wife would nag you or stuff?

Like:

--“Honey honey look at Bill and Tedd! Oh my god! Look at those guys! They sat on that proch for hours and I run into them all the time... At the mall... they go shopping... I mean, they spend a lot of quality time together! I wish we could be more like them, wish we could be more like Bill and Tedd!”
--“Really? Well, maybe if you let me fuck yo’ ass a couple o’ times…
That could be me and you right there baby, we could have that!”

Just ROTFL!!!

Why should we ask the Almighty Church for a muslim cemetery bitch?

I read today an unbelievable piece of news here on in.gr! The new archbishop (from whom as you know, I expect a lot less intervention to State matters) met with the Minister of Education and Religion! (unbelievable yes, but we do have a Minister of Religion in our "progressive" country where Church and State are one, the State pays for Orthodox priests but not for other religious ministers etc.)
And why did they meet, because the Greek Church will give a field (from its colossal property) for the creation of a Muslim Cemetery, and yes it has given the Goverment its go-ahead for this!

They had to ask the Church for the creation of a Muslim Cemetery! Isn't that unbelievable or what!

Of course there was no refference to a Mosque! Something that the growing (mostly immigrant) Muslim population desperately need and of course our State and our Almighty Church fiercely oppose or, better say, find a million reasons to postpone, forcing our Muslim co-citizens to pray in basements and under shameful conditions, where among the other microbes that inhabit those decadent places (that do not resemble at all a proper praying place that everybody deserves), religious fanatism can find a prosperous field to flourish!
It is a shame for all of us to see other citizens of our country to be forced to pray in such miserable conditions!
But, the Almighty Greek Chruch opposes a Mosque in Athens, because they say that if it's close to downtown it will disturb (?) christian citizens!!! If it's outside the city, close to the airport, it will be the first thing that tourists will see when they land to our national pride, the Athens International Airport, and that's unacceptable according to them! So it's better to leave our muslim fellow citizens pray in basements hidden from the easily-offended christian "majority" (if such a thing exists)!
Moreover, the politicians say, that if the Mosque is built by Saudi Arabia (because the Greek State doesn't want to pay for a Mosque, although they pay millions every year to Orthodox preasts) then it will be an uncontrolable center of Muslim extermism!

Now, all of this absurd racism is not happening in some theocracy far far away, it is happening in our Greek Theocratic Democracy (the birthplace of democrating values and respect to human dignity according to the same fascists)!!!

First, we have to wait for the Almighty Greek Church to give its permission and part of its land for a Muslim Cemetery in Athens (now our Muslim fellow citizens have to carry their friends' and family members' remains to Thrace if they want for them a proper burial)! And then we need the Church's and nationalists' and fascists' permission for the creation of a proper Mosque for them!

Now that's Greece, whether you like it or not! And nobody from our self-declared progressive parliamentary representatives seems to give a dime!

Of course there is no civil cemetery in Greece for anybody who doesn't want a religious burial and cremation is strictly prohibited becase the Greek Church says it is contrary to Our Almighty Religion! Do they remember that not all of us living in this country are members of this church? It seems they start to believe their own false statistics that show that 97% of Greeks are Orthodox Christian and they also don't want to understand that even a mere 3% (although it's probably a lot more than that) still has the right to choose the way they live and of course the way they die, without having to ask their perverted leaders for a permission!
To be more precise, not long ago, the Greek Parliament voted a law that allows for cremation, but only "to people who's religious beliefs allow it", and since in Greece 97% of us are officialy and arbitrarily registered (yeah religion is still registered) as Orthodox Christians, it is thus through this vague statement still prohibited by law to choose the way your body is to be treated after you die! And of course there is no cremation facilities in Greece!


PS: Click on the image of Beba Blanche waving a historic relic usurpated for their own dissembled cause, in the past "glorious" times of Church portests against the removal of religious affiliation from Greek ID cards, to read an information site about recent developments in the separation of Church and State field!
Just remember that in Catholic Spain, Zapatero had the guts to oppose the Almighty Catholic Church and legalize same-sex marriage, without being afraid of them!

PS2: The video is a very interesting spot by the Greek Liberals that shows why the Church and State really remain together!

Enjoy and... Salam/Peace/Shalom to all of youz!

It's time for civil unions in Greece bitch!

Probably you heard about it (I hadn't until today)...
It was a piece of news that didn't get much attention by our "unbiased" (haha, the other with the Toto you know?) Media (with a capital M) or I was too consumed with my own astrological problems that I didn't notice such an amazing piece of news!

The Greek Ministry of Justice has proposed a new law that will allow heterosexual couples to sign a civil union contract that will give them all the rights of married couples without the unnecessary fringes (like the whole paperwork to get a divorce)! The union and the divorce will be just a notarial act of signing a contract or a paper infront of a notary!

This looks quite normal in a country and in a world where marriage per se is becoming more and more untinteligible to young (and older) people!

And this will be the first step for an, inevitable, recognition of civil unions to same-sex couples too!

The weird thing is that this proposal comes from the "conservative" New Democracy party. Of course I noted on a previous blog entry that it is commonly known that on LGBT matters ND is more sensitive because of its high load of closeted gays (including -according to some- its founder and its current leader), while the "socialist" and sensitive PASOK and the "communist" KKE, although known for their "social sensitivity" are quite unsensitive when it comes to LGBT matters (you know their voters are sensitive when it comes to their pocket but not when it comes to other peoples' right -and especially their children's right- of self-determination)!

So what is happening now is that the "conservative" government of ND is doing the first step towards an inevitable recognition of same-sex unions!
And what did PASOK do? A few years ago (in 2006 I think) they prepared a draft proposal for heterosexual and homosexual civil unions that never became an official party proposal, although the party's president is known for his liberal sensitivities (but he's only there because he's the founder's son and his personal views have nothing to do with the rest of the party)! Of course PASOK's draft proposal contained a clause that strictly prohibited same-sex couples from adopting children!
The draft proposal remained a draft, and when some party members organized an official presentation of this draft no high-ranking member of the party appeared (probably afraid to be critisized by the almighty Greek Church and the party's selectively liberal voters)!

So we have the paradox that a conservative government is doing almost exactly the same timid steps as the self-proclaimed socialist progressives proposed a few years ago (when they already were the opposition in the parliament and were not afraid of the Church Almighty)! And don't forget that to its honour, it was PASOK that instituted civil marriage in Greece and to its dis-honour prepared a mere draft proposal for same-sex civil unions that strictly prohibited the "unethical" and "perverted" right of same-sex couples to adopt children!

Now of course, Beba Blanche is not our archbishop and Ayatollah anymore and the new straight archbishop (60 180 90 str8 unc) seems a lot more liberal and uninterested in messing up with the State's business and the timing is good! (Freaking gays, they always want to mess up with everything, a straight guy is better for archbishop it seems)

We can hope that if civil unions (for opposite-sex couples) become a law then in a few years that people will get used to it and same-sex unions will come as a logical step forward or even better we can hope that with some clever political moves in the parliament, the word opposite-sex as a prerequisite for civil unions can be deleted from the proposed law in the first place!

I just want to remind you that the current greek law on civil marriage does not specify opposite-sex in the list of exclusive prerequisites for such a marriage! The only reason for no same-sex marriages in Greece is that the word "marriage" itself, interpreted in the greek common sense (whose sense is that I don't know, don't ask me) by our bright jurists, means a union of a person with a penis and a person with a vagina... Wow, a shitload of information for such a tiny word (only 5 letters in greek)!

I have proposed in the past (and I still propose it, even if civil unions for same-sex couples become legal) that some organization or simple people take the matter to the High Court and demand an interpretation of the current law and why same-sex marriage is not allowed! Believe it or not, nobody has ever even tried to apply for a same-sex civil marriage in a greek city hall, just to see if and why their application would be rejected (although the reasons for rejection are clearly and exclusively specified in the law and do not contain any refference to the couple's sex)!
In other countries (like S. Africa) where the same happened, i.e. the law not specifying opposite-sex as a prerequisite for marriage and the constitution (like the Greek one) prohibited discrimination based on a person's personality etc., they managed to legalize same-sex marriage by a mere appeal to the country's Constitutional Court! But here, no jurist has the guts to do anything like that, they prejudge that our overage and conservative High Court judeges will reject such and appeal, so nobody has ever tried it!

Anyway, I think it's time for some action by LGBT activists and of course their straight friends (like Stavros Theodorakis and his exceptional reportages like the one yesterday) so that the new law in Greece will give the same rights to everyone regardless of the way their brain is wired with regard to sexuality!

Shalom/Salam/Peace to all of youz and here's my small present, a video from EUtube, the EU's official channel on YouTube! The video is about love and how it is depicted in european films! The two, otherwise unnoticeable, scenes where a gay and a lesbian couple are making out, caused a huge reaction by Holy Poland Almighty, Blessed Be Her Name, a country up to recently ruled by two brothers, one of whose is a closeted and highly disfuntional gay, that prefers to live with his mother and his cat rather than let any male part penetrate his anus!
I love this video, it shows how sweet love is and how this great media the cinema can do wonders when it doesn't care about money so much!


Post scriptum: A PS is always indispensible, so is an Easter Egg and as always it's hidden in the main article picture (and every other picture in the article). It's the website of PFLAG, the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

Post scriptum secondum: I've been to Il Postino today for the second time this week, next to En (a)Delfois on 3 Griveon str. in Kolonaki! The menu is short and constantly changing, including delicious pasta, entrees and a delicious selection of or-d'oeuvres presented to you on a huge platter by the waiters when you order! The atmosphere is really relaxed and friendly (with Popi being my favourite waitress) and the prices are really rational!

Post scriptum inferum: Let's call it Nitsa, from Makedonitsa, enough is enough guys! Let the people be called whatever they want! If you feel your identity at stake by a bunch of people in your northern borders that shop from AB, eat at Goody's and call using a Cosmote mobile, then you have issues that need to be resolved with the help of a professional! Oh, and let's not forget that of course we should have no Mosque in Athens, Aromanians/Vlachs (half me) are Greeker than Greeks that happen to speak a language that happens to look like ancient Romanian, and Slavomacedonians in Florina are just some weird Greek people who have the habbit of speaking an amazingly stupid language!

Since I referred to many mainstream political parties in my last posts, maybe you should also take a look at the website of the Liberal Alliance, the Greek Liberal Party that was founded only last year by young people, does all of its work (including members' debate) through the internet and has a really interesting political agenda! They got a decent 1% in the last elections, although they came only 3 months after the party was founded! Take a look on their website and their ideas!

Great reportage Stavros!

I hope you all watced "Protagonistes" by Stavros Theodorakis last night, the one that I announced on a previous blog entry! I was in Chalkida for a drink with friends so I watched it on my cable TV (On Telecoms On Rec that gives me the full programming of greek channels for the last 72 hours!) and I can say it was (as I expected) just excellent!

The main subject of this reportage was love, in all its expressions!
Love the ultimate driving force of life!

It was divided into three parts.

The first one about how a girl fell in love back in the 70's with one of the most famous Greek actors who was 7 years older than her father, and how they still live together and have created a beautiful family and have lived together 35 beautiful years without any problems, with respect to each other's personality and private life!

The second part was about a young lesbian girl from Athens. It was a very intimate and sweet approach of a young LGBT person's life, without cliches and prejudice!
The girl talked about her coming into terms with her sexuality and herself, the difficulties she had to come out to family and friends and how, finally, she managed to get along well with her family, friends and partner!
A very interesting approach of a gay person's life, that most of LGBT people out there will either find really close to their story (if they have taken the big step of coming out) or will find very encouraging to proceed with their own "liberation" if they haven't already done so!
The interview with this girl, made it clear that LGBT people can lead normal lives with the people they love (family, friends and partners) if they decide to face their self and their sexuality first and not let prejudice and social pressure destroy their lust for life and for love!

The third part was about a very famous greek heretic Poet, Dinos Christianopoulos, who's not afraid to write poetry about love using so called "dirty" words!
Dinos Christianopoulos, a gay man himself, now 77 years old, shows us that LGBT people even in times where homosexuality and difference were out of the question, managed to lead their life with dignity and courage, living the most out of life and love without letting themselves be oppressed!
One of his phrases shocked me: "The oppressed and exiled can express their oppressors better! The one that are different in love can express mainstream love better!"
His poetry is a tribute to love and human affection without complexes and fake puritanism!

Here and in this gay-friendly blog is a small collection of his poems and here is a very interesting blog entry I found about Dinos Christianopoulos and how gay people in pre-conquistador America were considered wise and were teachers for children and were allowed to marry! Moreover this blogger from Larissa also supports that he admires Dinos Christianopoulos very much and would want him as a teacher for his children and for his poems to be included in school books (since there had been some people that called Christianopoulos' poetry perverted and wanted his few poems that are included in greek school books removed)!

You should definitely watch the show, when it's aired again!

It's Greek kitsch bitch!

希腊生活美丽神话！



No comments...

Beside the kitschy national tourism campaign, it's still a beautiful country... And not only souvlaki, baklava and mousaka, there's still pretty much going on!

The Muppet Show couldn't comment better on the Greek Stereotype®!
Enjoy!



PS: The guy who messed the bazooka with the bouzouki probably has the same problem with the guys who burn everything up in downtown Athens on various occasions, A.K.A. the good unknown-known kids who are so bored of their North Suburb mansions and their parents always talking in the parliament and decide to demonstrate peacefully in and around the Polytechnic and the Propylaia...

PS2: For the real freaky-official website of Athens Tourism visit Frikipaideia, the freak encyclopedia, that "no one should want to edit" (sic), a valuable source of non-information! It's the same as watching the 8 o'clock news! Even better than the Star Channel "news"!

It's Nikita la femme bitch! and... is he really a bitch?

Have you ever heard of La Femme Nikita?
No, I'm not talking about the film, I'm talking about the mayor of Athens! At least, that's how most of the LGBT community of Athens ended up calling the new mayor of Athens, Nikitas Kaklamanis after he personally decided not to sponsor last year's Athens Gay Pride!

The story goes like that: the second Athens Gay Pride last year asked the City of Athens for a sponsorship (you know, just the City of Athens logo on posters and flyers, money is not a prerequisite for City sponsorships). And although all parties in the city council (including the mayor's one) were in favor, the mayor himself was reported as saying in the city council meeting that "sponsorships/aegis, are the mayor's job, so let me deny this one", although the City of Athens routinely supports almost all festivals that apply and the city council decides on the matter! So the mayor decided to use his special veto power only on this one! And the question is why?

There are two explanations that I've heard in talks with a lot of people:

• The first one is, that the mayor rejected the sponsorship for personal reasons. It's common knowledge in Greece that there are rumors (which I don't support, especially now that the Greek Governemnt wants to impose censorship on blogs and I could go to jail for insulting the mayor) that Mr. Kaklamanis is himself a closeted gay. He still lives with his mother, has been married once and the rumors (although I once again sincerely say that I cannot say if they're true or not) are that he's gay. That's why the majority of the athenian LGBT community supported Mr. Kaklamanis for mayor with their vote and was expecting a more positive stance from the new mayor on LGBT issues, than from previous mayors.
  



• The second one is that last year's Athens Pride had become too political for a Gay Pride, and it's true that last year's gay parade although attended by many athenian LGBT people who went there just to express their pride and their demand for more rights, was also attended by anarchist and leftist groups who managed to turn this peaceful and joyful parade into another vicious negative-gratia-negativeness demonstration with loudspeakers and political banners like the ones that trouble the daily life in downtown Athens almost everyday! It's true that many people who attended this demonstration and felt that it was a demonstration above small party lines and interests, were clearly dissapointed with this!

So, I sincerely hope that Mr. Kaklamanis rejected the sponsorship because of the second reason, because he didn't want the City of Athens to sponsor another of those vicious demonstrations, where a handfull few manage to obstruct the whole city's life almost every day!

I sincerely don't want to believe that he denied the sponsorship because of the first reason!
Because if that happened then it proves once more that even if the society is getting more and more progressive, it is us gays who are being more homophobic and harmful to our interests than anybody else!
Why should a mayor be afraid to sponsor such an event, regardless of his/her sexuality?
Why should the mayor of Athens be afraid to be stigmatized by being the first mayor to support this new festival (the first Athens Gay Pride was only organized in 2006, and the 2007 Gay Pride is the one I'm talking about)?

Many cities, like Berlin, have had or have an openly gay mayor and Oxford has a lesbian trans-woman mayor whose partner is also a transwoman!

I know, that even in more progressive countries it's difficult for a politician to come out as openly gay or to just support gay rights!
But why in Greece the self-proclaimed "progressive" Synaspismos party doesn't have any openly gay MPs and is also afraid to support full civil rights for gay couples? We all know what a Synaspismos MP Mr. Gregory Psarianos said about "evil gay mafias" that control many sectors of public and artistic life! (To be completely objective, the MP gave an answer to all that, which you can read here in his interview to the the greek gay magazine 10percent.gr.)
Why is the Greek Communist Party KKE one of the most conservative parties when it comes to social liberalism and never takes a clear position on LGBT rights?
Why is PASOK (the Greek member of the European Socialist Party) being selectively progressive by proposing a civil union pact with "strict prohibition of adoption by same-sex couples"?
Why does the currently ruling party New Democracy (the Greek member of the European Popular Party) have so many closeted gay members and MPs and it still opposes any talk about civil liberalism (LGBT rights or even more fundamental things like Church and State separation, although the new archbishop is in favor)? Some ND members even go as far as to say, that their party has a don't-ask-don't-tell policy and they say that even the founder of the party was himself a closeted gay!

Isn't this all just hypocritic and outrageous? Are we living in some theocratic conservative country or not?

And since, I talked about the Greek Church and the new archbishop, Father Ieronimus, you might find this blog interesting, it's called Klerikoi Adelfopoiemenoi and it's written by an anonymous blogger that calls himself, Father Avercius Ecclesiarches, who supports he is a high ranking cleric in the Greek Orthodox Church. Father Avercius, writes about the ancient ritual of making two men into brothers, which he supports was an official blessing of the Church for homosexual male couples, and which has been banned in the modern day Orthodox Church!
Even though I don't agree with Father Avercius view that the reason for homosexuality are troubled families (my family was and is a loving and caring one and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world), this blog still is a good source of inside information about the high ranks of the Greek Orthodox Church where almost everybody is gay! Father Avercius gave a very interesting interview to 10percent.gr which you can read here!
In his blog, Father Avercius, supports that for example, the previous archbishop's female nickname was Beba Blanche and he had a long term relationship with his secretary while also travelling often to expensive hotel suites abroad in order to have sex with other clerics and laymen and that the Ecumenical Patriarch also has a female nickname, Bartha! I don't know if this all is true, but it clearly gives a morbid image about the Church...

The new archbishop is reportedly an exception to the rule, and not gay, to the dissapointment of many high ranking clerics. I hope at least that this is good, because we've seen that previous, reportedly gay, archbishops have been more than harmful and hypocritic, denying any discussion about gay rights and calling homosexuality an abnormality and a disease!

It seems that we need a non-gay to fix things for us, and the new archbishop seems quite progressive in matters of Church-State separation and of non involvement of Church into State matters that might actually allow for some liberal reforms, that all previous governments were afraid to do because the Church threatened them with "flock"/popular demonstrations and strongly opposed any liberal move using its power!

And this brings us back to the previous post's question: Are we gay being more homophobic and more harmful to our causes? The closeted ones of us, are they being more homophobic than homophobic because they are afraid to be revealed? And the rest of us, are we afraid that more and more straight people simply don't care about our sexuality? Are we afraid that we will have to stop complaining about discriminations and that we'll have to face the world on equal terms with everybody else, without the self-delusion that it's not our fault because we're always subject to discrimination?

I really want to hear your views on that...

Post Scriptum: I watched the movie There will be blood today, and can't say it seemed as this big landmark to modern cinema, as my good friend and amateur cinema critic George, the road-movie blogger (by the way the inventor of the term pseudo-alternative) and many cinema critics said it was! Daniel Day-Lewis was really good, but not exceptional, in my point of view, and the movie was too long and quite exhaustin...

Post Scriptum Secondum ad Sonticum: Hehe, you thought there wouldn't be and Easter Egg in this post? There always is one! By clicking on the former archbishops sketch on the beginning of this article, you can read how one of my favorite greek gay writers, reporters and activists, Lyo Kalovyrnas, commented on the previous archbishop's death on 10percent.gr... I tend to agree with Lyo...

Post Scriptum Inferum: Just a small comment on Mayor Kaklamanis' first year in office. Personally, as a citizen of Athens, I haven't seen any real work by the new mayor... Apart from the whole story with the Gay Pride Sponsorship, this mayor is virtually non-existent... Anyway, I don't want to be hard on him, I will be eager to judge his work after his four year term is over. After all he said in his campaign that he won't talk a lot but he'll do a lot, let's wait and see...
You can always see his 2007 report on the City of Athens page about the official press conference the Mayor gave about his first year in office.



And... since we talked about clergy, archbishops and popes... here's a beautiful video about Francis Bacon's art. Probably his most famous painting is the Study after Velázeuz's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, where the Pope is seen like burning on the electric chair.
In brief, Francis Bacon is one of the most famous figurative painters of our times. He led a long and troubled life and through his art he expresses his fears, his anxiety, his love, passion and nightmares...

Enjoy!

1. 
   

More Dana bitch!

Woke up today in a perfect mood and while drinking coffee at home with two good friends of mine one into hebrew (he speaks better than me because he's listening to israeli music all day) and one Greek-Korean (but not really speaking any Korean) I though of giving you another very happy and funny song from Dana's new album!

It's called "Yesh li love boy" יש לי לאב בוי (I have a love boy)!

Enjoy:


יש לי טריק קבוע
פעמיים בשבוע
יש לי לאב בוי

It's the Gay Olympics bitch! ...and who gives a dime!

Well, it's that special time of the year where for just one night gay people don't hit the bars but stay home! Yeah! It's Eurovision time bitch! A.K.A. the Gay Olympics or Gay Football, this high class event of the ultimate expression of true art® is said to be designed by the EU together with the C.I.A. (creator of the American Gay Olympics, the Tony Awards) in order to control the gay population for at least one night every year!

Following my previous post about how LGBT people always manage to adopt the worse icons ever, I would say I still hope that there are still a lot of us out there who don't give a dime and enjoy good music (click on the link but don't pay attention to Dana)...

The best thing though, about the greek Eurovision show were undoubtedly the Maggira sisters, especially Mathilde Maggira, one of the best modern stand-up and cabaret comedians, who actually bring stand-up comedy and cabaret to a new level in Greece! If you haven't seen their show last year at the Ciro's Pomodoro (Anna Vissi's franchise pizzeria in Athens), you should definitely do so when they do their show again!



Post Scriptum: By the way, there is a real Gay Olympics, called the Gay Games!

Is it us who are doing more harm to ourselves? Come on, grow up bitch!

Well, there has been much of a conversation on another forum about my refference to Britney Bitch on this blog and the previous post (by the way, if you're greek and love cats, visit www.gatospito.com and www.mycat.gr you can discuss everything about cats and more there, with really interesting people)!

So, a cat lover actually asked me on that forum if the refference to Britney Bitch in my blog and generally by gays, is more of an insult to LGBT people themselves, as they, too, have been through a lot, like poor Britney! And for the same reasons (the vicious system that uses and consumes us all, driving us crazy)!

And that's true! It's been quite a shock to read that from a straight person who actually has no problem with other peoples' sexuality! So that's a legit question, are we LGBT people being more harmful to our social status than the normal "bad guys" (homophobics, racists, religious fanatics etc.)? And probably, the answer is yes!

You've probably noticed how Ms. Britney Spears has become more of a gay icon after her long and undoubtedly spectacular fall in front of millions on the MTV show!
LGBT people have actually identified with devastated Britney not out of sympathy but probably because in her they see their own oppresion and their own fall generated by the exact same causes that caused Britney's fall!

Maybe it's time for LGBT people to wake up and realize that there are quite a lot of straight people out there who just accept us as we are and want to be our friends not because of our sexuality or our relaxed view thereoff but because of our character, of our deeds, of our contribution to society, politics, religion and all other sectors of social life, like any other person! We shouldn't ourselves be narrow-minded and expect everybody to be against us, thus driving ourselves deeper and deeper into the dark pit that some conservatives want to drive us in!

So wake up bitches! It's time to realize that you should stand on your own two feet and not complain all the time! Find better icons or even better, don't have icons, trust in your own self! Don't let your sexuality control your whole life! Get over it! There's so many things to live, and of course love is one of them (maybe the most important one)!

So Shalom/Salam/Peace to all of youz and may you all find true meaning and happiness in your lives! And may we all wish the shame for the truly incredible and fabulous Ms. Britney Spears, I'm sure she still has a lot of spice to offer to our lives and it's really bad to see her so devastated! After all, she still has her two children, probably the most ultimate source of love and lust for life than anything else!

Here's a small sweet present about the joy of love that every human being hides inside them (and that's it with New Age crap and finding internal peace, I promise I still am quite bitchy, LOL)! The video and the exceptional music are from the amazing post-rock Icelandic band Sigur Rós:


Post Scriptum: Hehe! You thought there wouldn't be a post scriptum here? I always got an Easter Egg! Gotcha!
Click on the "Love Knows No Gender" icon on the beginning of the article to go to a very interesting photo album by a Chinese-Australian on Flickr! Really beautiful pictures!

What's the whole deal with the word "bitch" bitch?

You've probably noticed the word bitch many times on this blog!

Well, here's the story behind it revealed!!!

You've been waiting for it and here it is!

It's actually a paraphrase of the "incredible Ms. Britney Spears" as she appeared on the stage for the first (and last) time after a long time of absence due to psychological problems (that what happens when one gets so famous at age 15)! She's lived everything by now, she's recognizable by everybody and it seems there's nothing else to live for 26 year old Britney...

On the stage where she started her appearance with the phrase "It's Britney bitch!" she was obviously devastated (probably stoned, she's known for her addiction to drugs) and she was unable to follow the choreography! The audience, as you can see on the video was actually shocked by her appearance, and it wasn't long until she got in hospital again, where she remains up until today, with her father taking care of her fortune and her children...

The whole thing shocked everybody as you can imagine and it's a proof that the vicious world we're living in is not only consuming simple people but also its produce of stars and famous "beautiful people"!

So be pseudo-alternative and enjoy it!

It's Britney bitch! Enjoy her fall:


Post Scriptum: By the way, for those of you who don't have time to cook and want to eat decent food, give 99 Gefseis Cadillac "fresh food delivery" a try! Their food is amazing, fresh and clean and they have a vast selection of simple food, pizzas, salads and more gourmet dishes (like pasta fresca and risoti)! They prepare your meal when you order it, so it usually takes 35-45 minutes for delivery, but it's totally worht it if your area is served by their delivery! You can also visit your local store to check for yourself their kitchen and products used!
Definitely my favourite delivery! L' Artigiano is more famous but it's not as good! And of course your local Souvlatzidiko-Pizzeria-Cookery is the best budget solution for when you just want junk food!
Don't go for McDonalds and Goody's and stuff, it's always better to eat a traditional souvlaki or a crappy pizza from your local "Emergency Souvlaki Hotline" rather than go for chain fast food!

Post Scriptum secondum: Did you watch the film La Antena? It's a marvelous modern tribute to silent movies! If you haven't there still time! The movie is currently only played at Mikrokmos on 106, Sygroy Ave. close to the Sygrou-Fix metro station!

Special post: It's Stavros Theodorakis bitch! And he's airing a reportage on greek LGBT people (4 March 2008, 24:00, Mega Channel)!

On Tuesday midnight (4 March 2008, 24:00) on Mega Channel, Stavros Theodorakis, one of the most well known radical greek journalists and a big straight supporter of LGBT and human rights, is airing a special episode of his show Protagonistes, about gay raltionships and couples in today's Greece!

He's taking a more intimate look on gay and lesbian peoples' lives, their relationships and their daily life with each other! They've always been here bitch and they still are living their lives with dignity despite all odds!

Don't miss it! Stavros Theodorakis is well known for his high quality jouranlism and his radical and critical view on social issues and historic events in Greece and around the world (N. Korea, Latin America etc.)!

Click on Stavros' photo above to read an interview of his at the greek gay online magazine 10percent.gr.

PS: It's amazing that I saw the ad about Protagonistes a few moments after I finished the previous post about how LGBT people have always been here and about my favourite painter, Gustav Klimt! And Stavros proves they still are, not through art but through journalism!
And as long as LGBT people were and are here so are unique people like Stavros, Klimt, Mahler, Sappho, Cavafy, Petros, Kostas, Soula, you and me who through their work and their dignity in life prove that there should be no boundaries and no restrictions in the development of our personality in dignity as the UN Human Rights Charter, and the videos on a previous blog entry, strongly declare!

Here's an interview by Stavros Theodorakis with on of the few gay men in Greece who's living with his male partner and his son (from his previous marriage to a woman that abandoned them)

Thanks to Chris for that!

They've always been here bitch! And they did great deeds!

Undoubtedly, Constantine P. Cavafy is one of the most famous and influential greek poets of the modern times! His journey through a troubled life in a world that was changing, produced some of the most marvelous poetic works of the last century!
His sensual poetry, written in times of true sexual arousal and desire, although hugely underestimated by researchers compared to his mainstream work, will be a huge source of poetic and sociological wealth when and if sometime there is an LGBT department in our anachronistic Greek Universities...


Here's another poem by less known surrealist greek poet Napoleon Lapathiotis, his idiolect is clearly influenced by Kaliarda, the greek gay dialect of the late 19th and 20th century...

"...Ζινόντας τ' απονίδονο λαβίνι
κι απονιβόντας ερομιδαλιό
σινέρωσα το δέρο τού χαβίνι
κον' άλικο δομόνικο λαρό!..."
 

Helias Petropoulos was a famous heretic and a passionate amateur linguist that researched and thus preserved the special dialects used in the late 19th century and up to the 1970's by various unprivileged classes of the greek capital (drug addicts, port workers, gays, prostitutes and pimps etc.)! His work of life is a tribute to all those oppressed groups, their need for communication outside the censorship of a discriminating and conservative society and reveals the beauty and wealth of those simple peoples' mindset! His books are a must have for anyone who's interested in the evolution of alternative moves in the greek society up to the metapolitefsi and the late 70's!

Helias Petropoulos died in Paris in 2003 aged 75, leaving behind him a great work! He will never shut his "dirty" and tameless mouth, he never did during his life (that's why he exidled himself in Paris) and he certainly will continue to talk through his works in eternity!

Here is a modern text written in Kaliarda with the help of Helias Petropoulos' dictionary of Kaliarda.


For Ancient Greek LGBT poetry, look for poetry by Sappho the Lesbian (Lesbian=woman from the island of Lesbos)...
Here's a comprehensive collection of her poetry in English and Greek:
http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/sappho/

They've always been here, and they did greats deeds...

Post Scriptum: And the painting above is Sappho the Lesbian as Gustav Klimt (my favourite painter) imagined her. Gustav Klimt was an amazing person, deeply touched by the philosophy of his times and a great painter! He was a passionate person and was a radical by drawing naked women (his biggest passion in life) and went so far as to depict naked pregnant women and women masturbating, a deeply radical and feministic move back then by a straight man, breaking the taboos of his time that wanted women not have their own sexuality but rather be there only for men's pleasure!
Here is a touching video dressed with superb music by Gustav Mahler about Gustav Klimt´s art:

It's Agia Paraskevi bitch! (and it's not always as bad as you pseudoalternatives might think)

Oh my Brahmapoustra!

What a day! I was going out (of my closet) like every Greek that respect themselves tonight Tsiknopempti (lit. roasty Thursday) to get my dose of cholesterol! Of course we ended up at a friend's place, like most of the athenians today, in Agia (Agia means Agia Paraskevi bitch, my god you're such an υψομετρού) because even if a pseudoalternative person wants to go to a taverna (not an artsy greek fusion restaurant or a gay minimal pink taverna, I'm talking about the real stuff with the real people who remind you of your mom and the real music that reminds you of... Digital Taxi-driver FM) even once every year, the Almighty Brahmapoustra, the Ultimate Pseudo-Alternative Truth doesn't consent and everything is booked! So, we tried to order souvlaki but the souvlaki emergency hotlines where going crazy, so we ended up eating really traditional (and delicious) pasta fresca and rocket-parmesan salad from L'Artigiano...

The thing is that my best friend who's studying in New York decided to surprise us and he showed up at our traditional dinner party making everybody start screaming and hugging him... Anywayz, he's leaving on Monday and I've been to NYC three times this year (fourth time will be in two weeks) so it was not that of a surprise but as any good alcoholic would tell you, that was a good reason to celebrate and drink, so to everybody's initial dissapointment, we decided to hit the bars of Agia Paraskevi after, of course, wipping out every last bit of our Tsiknopasta...

Well, Agia Paraskeci is really a no-no place for people that respect their pseudo-alternativeness (although Alba on Asimakopoulou and Ierolohiton streets is somehow pseudo-alternatively tolerable, especially when it's not crowded) and of course I was not that happy. But then a friend suggested this new place DaVinci (it's on Agiou Ioannou str. close to the Applebee's)! And I can tell you it rocks!

From an architectural point of view the building is amazing, high ceilings and the decorator at his best (you know the connection with the ultimate truth of ragout, cinammon and good taste)! The (rare for Athens) well groomed garden, two oversized american bold eagle replicas and lots of oversized mirrors hanging from the roof, a bar, two all-day restaurants (including a gourmet one) and the arched construction behind the bar, all try to give you the delusion that you're on Sunset Boulevard (and not Agiou Ioannou) and that Britney Bitch will sniff her next line off the table next to you!
It looks quite poshy at first, right next to the Porsche boutique, but I can tell you it's really relaxed... The crowd is of course "northern suburbs beautiful people®" of the ones we (pseudo-alternatives who live in a 3 mile perimeter around Avramiotou str.) love to hate but it's not that bad and you can actually have a really good time!

The music alternates between really good modern Italian and Latin jazzy-wannabe pop stuff and annoying carnival music Rio style, but as we found out, the annoying part is because of the carnival that officialy started today in Greece...

The drinks are great, the champagne cocktails are outstanding and the prices are somehow exaggerated (9 Euro for cocktails and 14 Euro for champagne cocktails) but it's totally worth it! A Bellini, a margarita and some tequilas comparable to those of "Mexikanos" (my favourite mexican restaurant on Eleftherias sq. at Goudi with the famous roasted grasshopers) can prove it! Mr. Greedy Guts was stuffed with Tsiknopasta so I'll tell you about the food another time (although I don't think it will be anything special)...

Give it a try! It's good to see that the outskirts of the northern suburbs (A.K.A. northern suburbs light) are not a dead case and there is still hope, if your budget allows it, to find some places for those special moments where you want to be a little more (but not too much) mainstream!

Shalom/Salam/Peace to all of youz and here's a small sample of DaVinci's music, one of my favourite songs of the last months, Gianna Nannini and Meravigliosa Creatura!

• Long Post Scriptum: Have you ever heard of Sarah Silverman? No? Then you should! Not because she's Jimmy Kimmel's girlfriend (who the fuck is Jimmy Kimmel and why should I know him if he's straight)... But because she's doing something that every straight woman, gay man, straight man, lesbian woman and any kind of sexually capable creature on this planet would want...
  

She's fucking Matt Damon!!! And if you don't believe me, here's the proof!



Wow! Gimme (not more bitch) a break! On the bed, on the floor, on a towel by the door? In the tub, in the car, up against the mini-bar? Honey did you hear that? That's why he was voted as People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive for 2007 and you? You're still with me...
Great song by the way, especially the rap part (knock knock, who's there knocking at my door)! Really better without the beeps (freaking censorship, freaking ΕΣΡ or... whatever they call it in the US)! Thanks to "It's blogging bitch"'s correspondent in the States for this!

(Well the story behind that is that actually Matt Damon has been her boyfriend Jimmy's, the host of a late night comedy show, object of gags for years and she decided that a song about her fucking Matt Damon would be a perfect present for Jimmy's anniversary show...)

• PS2 (and I'm not talking about the damn thing by Sony that drives all straight men crazy): The tooth fairy with the parrot will give you an easter egg-food for thought if you tease her!

We all got Human Rights bitch!

You have the right to freely and fully develop your personality with dignity!
Don't let anybody take this right from you! IT'S YOUR LIFE, LIVE IT AND BE PROUD!

Human Right #1: We are all born FREE and EQUAL!


Human Right #12: Right to Privacy!


Human Right #3: Right to LIFE!!!


Human Right #30: You GOT HUMAN RIGHTS! No matter what!


Visit www.youthforhumanrights.org or read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the UN site!
You have the right to LIVE with dignity and be PROUD for who you are no matter what!



和平 bitch!

It's out "into the wild" bitch! Plus mamma's veal ragout by Mr. Greedy-Guts!

I watched this movie "Into the Wild" on Sunday and it's really shocking!

It's the real story of Chistopher McCandless who, aged 23, after graduating college, decided to leave the vicious society behind him (troubled family, studies, carreer, strugle) and live in the wild, in Alaska. We see how through this life-changing experience, Christopher found peace and wisdom within him. Unfortunately he didn't manage to tell his story himself, but we know what we know from his travel journals during his stay in Alaska and the letters he sent to his beloved sister before leaving for the North! Christopher died at age 24 trapped in the wild of Alaska that had been his refuge and hermitage, after a long but worthy quest for his personal Ithaca...

A different kind of road movie that reminds us that there is still good (independent) cinema in the US, especially those days that the Oscars (finally) got the lowest viewing ever!
The pseudo-alternative mime seems to be spreading on this planet...

Anyway, I really want to see one Oscar movie, the infamous "There will be blood".

My good friend George told me that "There will be blood" is one of the rare examples of how mainstream Hollywood movies make a difference and it will leave a legacy for years to come... I'll let you know as soon as I watch it.

By the way, take a look at George's blog, the Road Movies Blog! George is a genuine cinema lover and an excellent film critic!

And last but not least, please, PLEASE, watch Kim Ki-duk's 3-Iron! It's probably the best film of the last five years! What a critic said about the movie is actually true, when you come out of the theatre you'll listen to the cars and the traffic and you'll think it's birds singing! This movie travels you to a completely different space where nothing is more important that human contact and true affection!



PS from Mr. Greedy-Guts: For the best mamma's veal ragout try "Kanella" (Konstantinoupoleos and Eumolidon str. in Gazi). As the name suggests, they love cinnamon and probably that's the secret behind their perfect ragout! Although sometimes, when the chef is not connected to the ultimate universal truth where cinnamon and veal ragout become one, it might not be that good, so cross your fingers and dive into Kanella's ragout! Try it with home made mashed potatos!