English

I wrote this on my Facebook, but since I’m definitely more of a blog kind of guy than a social media maven (as you can tell by the number of likes inversely proportionate to the number of words), here goes: Places like Amsterdam, Venice, Lisbon and even our own Athens are experiencing overtourism. We all know what it’s about: “the phenomenon of a popular destination or sight becoming overrun with tourists in an unsustainable way”, according to the Collins dictionary. This word didn’t exist before 2016, and one popular newspaper said that it should be “the word of the year 2018”. Overtourism means that not only do popular destinations become less appealing, but also locals find that this blessing is actually a curse in disguise that destroys their quality of life. It might sound like a first world problem (sort of like overconsumption), until of course it is your city that is hit by overtourism. Then, all of a sudden, rent becomes impossible to afford, small businesses disappear and your neighborhood turns into a theme park geared to satisfy the needs of the visitors, not the residents. Thankfully, we don’t have to be part of the problem just by fulfilling our urge to explore. Here’s an initiative to help spread tourism around the world to places that really need our time, attention, money and understanding. The global ‘underdogs’ in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia deserve to be our next travel destinations as much as any of the ultra-popular “musts” that could really do without us. I’m writing all this because we just launched a crowdfunding campaign at bravely independent Spotted by Locals. Do you like what we’re doing? I’d be very grateful if you can contribute and / or share. You’ll also get a good deal in return, especially if you consider yourself a demanding, mindful traveller. I’ve been an Athens Spotter for Spotted by Locals since 2013, and the network’s editor since last year, and I can vouch for them. I was with them yesterday, helped them shoot the video below. It’s not just that I have the good fortune to work with Bart & Sanne closely: these guys have a brilliant, caring vision about a sustainable, no-borders world, and I truly want this campaign to become a success. Check it out here: https://igg.me/at/spottedbylocals and thank you so much for caring for the future of local travel!

Get a feeling for the Spotter’s Weekend 2018 by the two videos below I lovingly created.

The first one is for Easy Greek, so more of a focus on language. We discuss Spotted by Locals with another three Greek Spotters.

The second one is shorter and has no words. Just images, music, energy, feelings. I loved editing this one together with Marilena. Putting together videos is one of the few creative things you can do on a computer that’s better when you have a second person present next to you — an extra pair of eyes, a second opinion on what works well and what not.

And here’s the more detailed write-up.

BTW, this house looks exactly like a parallel-universe Olde Vechte, I swear…

 

Once upon a time, illicit recordings of Pink Floyd concerts were actually collectable among fans. Those were the days when in order to hear these recordings, you’d have to have a friend who had caught one on tape or something. A select few seem to have even been printed on vinyl and sold, I presume illegally, with all the weird logistics that must have entailed.

As we all know, the web, and more specifically Youtube, changed everything. That includes making Pink Floyd bootlegs available for all to listen, a possibility which for some reason hadn’t actually occurred to me until very recently.

I never thought I’d listen to them live like this — raw, unedited, a genius band in their best years. How emotional it must have been to be there and see the Floyd live, when concerts had power outtages, when fans would just never shut the hell up (and throw fireworks at that!), when bands would play unreleased, unfinished songs in front of huge audiences… it feels like unearthing beta versions of famous games. I mean: versions of Echoes with a saxophone solo?! It seems crazy that these treasure chests could have been kept in the (relative) dark for so long!

I just had to share this with you, whoever you are, wherever you may be. If you can understand the importance of being able to listen to these recording now, 45 years later, just know: we are not alone, you and I.

9 hours! 4 days of concerts in Feburary 1972 — preview versions of the full, unreleased Dark Side of the Moon from back when it was called Eclipse (with some renditions better than what’s on the record, honestly) and brilliant second sets with lots of my favourites from their previous work, like the afore-mentioned Echoes, One of These Days, Careful with that Axe Eugene and A Saucerful of Secrets.

Check out On the Run, or The Travelling Song, on the pre-release version of Dark Side of the Moon above, and in the concert below, three years later, after it had become a worldwide hit. Can’t decide which one I like more.

“This one – taken from the band’s 1975 tour supporting Wish You Were Here – is a legend amongst bootleg collectors for two reasons. Firstly, there’s its track list. Featuring most of the WYWH album, a full run through of Dark Side and a mammoth closer of Echoes, it is perhaps most intriguing for its two opening songs. “Raving and Drooling” and “You’ve Gotta Be Crazy” are early – and markedly different versions of “Sheep” and “Dogs” from the then-unreleased “Animals” album. Secondly, legendary bootlegger Mike Millard made this recording and the sound quality is absolutely phenomenal with a you-could-hear-a-pin-drop audio fidelity that belies its bootleg status. Essential listening.” (source)

For a merry change, the Youtube comments down this way are pure gold. Happy hunting.

All rise and no fall: how Civilization reinforces a dangerous myth –Article from Rock Paper Shotgun — One of the things I’ve been consistently wondering about the direction the franchise has taken is “what is the true cost of my actions?” The negative penalties tied to pollution, global warming and limits to growth  that made older games kind of frustrating have mostly been replaced in newer itterations with choosing just one of several buffs best fit for your playstyle and merely missing out on all the other ones. The world doesn’t work that way.

“It’s just a game,” you might say, “and it doesn’t have to model the world precisely.” I disagree. What we choose to model in games is what we want, or don’t want, our fun to signify—which is why games like Rapelay, Postal etc. get shunned, which is not because they’re not fun to play.

Navigating “the 8th Era” and steering your civilization into deindustrialization after, while, or hopefully before it’s converted the planet into a hollow, lifeless, plastic-ridden husk sounds like tons of fun to me, and even I and my zero hours of experience in game design have thought of great ways sustainability could be added into Civilization, e.g. by turning the late-game into reverse 4X and a kind of survival game. Now THAT would be the breath of fresh air into the franchise Firaxis has been desperately trying to puff out.

No; all this is not about keeping the game fun: it’s about keeping the fantasy intact. Make no mistake: it is clearly political. Just imagine how many Trump supporters and climate change denialists (who are very vocal about it in the comment section in the article above) would just boycott the game if it implented ecology and you’re closer to the real heart of the issue here.

The Story of H What’s up with the letter H? Here’s a very interesting article. Bonus points if you’re a linguist.

This man knows a language spoken by the Sephardite Jews who were kicked out from Spain the same year Colombus (‘Colόn’, who I always like pronouncing in my head as ‘colon’) set out to discover an alternative sea road to the Indies. These Jews settled in the same Ottoman Empire we Greeks have learned to think as ‘intolerant’. As the saying goes, Spain grew poorer and Turkey became richer — and I’m not (just) referring to the financial social niches Jews would occupy historically.

This man is a descendant of those Jews who first settled in Thessaloniki. His family escaped being sent to Auschwitz. He speaks Ladino, a language that’s just like 15th century Castillian Spanish, just without the purifications that it went through over the centuries and with some Hebrew and Turkish words thrown in.

This is what history looks and sounds like.

One of my worst web habits is keeping tabs with interesting links open, session after session, instead of more actively using a tool like Pocket that stores them away, out of sight and (let’s be honest) out of mind. I remember at one point a few years ago I managed to reach 80+ tabs on a single Firefox session, collected over a period of a few months.  I understand this behaviour as an early 21st century equivalent of the trappings of a newspaper hoarder.

Here I’ll  I’ll be sharing the links that I have found interesting and perhaps not even read yet; making lighter the burden on my laptop’s RAM; cleaning up my virtual workspace-cum-playden; making a journal-style post to return to in the future and ponder on what I’d spend time and energy (=awareness) in my late ’20s, and maybe, hopefully, inspiring you to go down yet another rabbithole. You know you want to…

“Why do so many people seem to have difficulty following simple instructions?” — Straight Dope forum post from 2005 — A discussion on the psychology of below-average intelligence (by necessity half the population), disobedience, poorly designed systems and operating instructions and the widely held belief that we’re already smarter than the person giving us intstructions and that there’s no possible new information to be gained from the exchange.

See also: The Basic Laws of Stupidity

Note to Self — New York public radio (WNYC) podcast about the issues  and challenges emerging from ubiquitous, pervasive and often indirectly transgressive social media and always-on Internet — I really like the choice of topics and episodes, but the host Manoush Zomorodi keeps rubbing me the wrong way — mostly her accent. I feel she’s acting more ditzy than she really is, something that I actually find annoying about the inflection of many American women. I’ve been trying for many years to put my finger on where this misophonia is coming from. Unsuccessfully. I hope you find her less grating than I do, because there’s some good stuff here, like the obligatory Black Mirror episode with Charlie Brooker.

Maybe I should get her book Bored and Brilliant, though I can safely say I won’t be getting the author-narrated audiobook this time.

Everything Change: An Anthology of Climate Fiction — “Twelve stories from our 2016 Climate Fiction Short Story Contest along with a foreword by science fiction legend and contest judge Kim Stanley Robinson and an interview with renowned climate fiction author Paolo Bacigalupi.”

I wrote a story for that contest myself called Syntopia, though it didn’t make it very far. Not sure if I’m proud of that story or not, but I’d sure like some feedback on it, so please do read it if you’re feeling like it!

Everything Change is free to download, read, and share, and I’m itching to do just that. Actually, I did just share it, didn’t I?!

How to Disagree on the Internet — Paul Graham piece from exactly 10 years ago that is obviously as relevant as ever.

What You Can’t Say — Another piece by Paul Graham from 2004 this time that is one of those texts that have this timelessly thought-provoking quality about them.

“If you could travel back in a time machine, one thing would be true no matter where you went: you’d have to watch what you said. Opinions we consider harmless could have gotten you in big trouble… What would someone coming back to visit us in a time machine have to be careful not to say?”

Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson Have the Most Epic Conversation About Existence, Mythology, Political Correctness, and Free Speech — I’ve been obsessed with Dr. Peterson for some months now, and this was one of my entry points to his teachings and philosophy. I suggest you download to your phone/mp3 player using the likes of 4K Video Downloader, convert to audio and listen to it while taking a walk somewhere.

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales — It’s on Jordan Peterson’s 2017 recommended book list (“A list of great books that will benefit the reader immensely. Including books on Clinical Psychology, Neuroscience, Literature/philosophy, and more.”) The title is what attracted me.

Self Authoring — Self-reconciliation/discovery writing program co-developed by Dr. Peterson (I told you I’ve been obsessed) I’ve been following on and off. I’ve kept it on a tab to inspire the effort I’ve been avoiding to put on it, but which it certainly deserves. Time to get serious.

THE FURBY ORGAN, A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MADE FROM FURBIES — A video that is equal parts genius and despicable, enviable and disturbing. One of the things I prefer leaving the jury out on whether I love hating or hate loving…

 

 

 

So I did it! I went to Iceland for New Year’s.

Marilena got me into it — back in summer, she went on and got us tickets for Sigur Ros and one of their concerts in Harpa, Reykjavik’s fancy concert hall. How could I (and why would I want to) ever refuse?

Until the last minute, I was subconsciously trying to forget this was happening: part of me feared that thinking too hard about it would jinx the whole thing, as if being excited about something was enough to make the Universe consider whether it had thrown a few easy balls at me and if maybe it was time to throw me a trick one just to mix things up a bit.

The Universe spared me. We spent a couple of days in Stockholm, including Christmas and Christmas Eve,  (not really recommended in the holiday season) and stayed in Iceland for a whole week!

Here are some things that stood out for me from this dream trip.

The Northern Lights

I must have started dreaming of going to Iceland the minute I found out it was possible to see the Northern Lights from there. It’s quite possibly the wish that’s ended up in the most bucket lists in my life.

I knew one day I would take a picture of them.

And I did.

Heh. I wish! This is what I actually took:

I didn’t really see it properly; the terrestrial weather in Reykjavik was a crisp and clear -8 to -3 degress every day, but unfortunately, space weather was not favorable. The above picture was kind of a fluke, but we did catch a good 30-minute spell of auroras on the plane from Stockholm to Reykjavik. Watching it put me in a right trance…

What made the biggest impression on me about the Lights was how dlm they actually were. In photos they appear much brighter and vivid than how they actually manifest up in the sky (or it could be that they were just not very bright that night). This low brightness made them almost invisble through city lights, and much more ethereal and mystical — it was almost as if I was imagining them, at least until the next wave of purple blooming  out of the green bubbled up. Their movement reminded me of steam forming on the surface of black filter coffee, only more “linear” and abrupt.

It’s interesting to note that cameras are better suited to capture the colour spectrum of auroras than the human eye, thus it’s not very difficult to get an impressive picture of them if you’re properly prepared (and lucky enough).

I didn’t see them as much as I’d like to (can anyone ever have enough of them, I wonder?) and I’d be delighted if I could ever set my eyes upon them again!

Running 10K on New Year’s Eve

Every New Year’s Eve, Icelanders have a nice tradition of running 3 and 10k races where it’s popular to run in fancy dress! Although I didn’t have any especially weird costume to run in apart from my ordinary slightly mismatched winter apparel, that didn’t stop me from joining, no sir!

I did spot a wild Pikachu running (fleeing?), a bunch of Santa Clauses (of course), a guy wearing dwarf-shaped leggings that made him look as if he was being carried around rather than running himself (so clever), vikings, etc. I wonder if we have such a thing here in Greece. Wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t — we like our sports, like so many things, rather dry and humourless.

My time was decent. I was determined to overtake the “ghost” runner with the blue balloon that marked the constant speed I needed to go at to finish at 55:00. I focused with what fatigue made feel like heroic concentration and, finally catching up the pace at the final 2km, managed to do so.

My official time was 55:15, but my ‘real’ time from start to finish, if you account for the laggy start, was around ~54:27. I got a medal, too: all participants could buy their memento/bragging rights at registration for 600ISK (5 euros) .

It was one of the hardest runs I’d ever done and/but I really enjoyed it! Sadly, I don’t know where I can go from here, if I’ll ever run a half-marathon or go beyond: unfortunately, my knee cartilages tend to complain a lot after I put them under such an unusually high amount of stress, and I’m wondering whether I might be focusing on something that will come back to bite me in the ass.

Still, looking at all the Icelanders with their costumes, kids and all the commotion and running with them somehow made me really content and was a happy way to close 2017. Not to mention: the pint of Gull after the run was especially tasty.

Tourists, Prices, Low-Budget Tips

 7 things Icelanders hate about tourism in Iceland

Iceland’s population is around 300,000. Last year, they got an estimated 2.3 million arrivals — that’s more than 7 times their population. By comparison, Greece only has an estimated 30 million each year — roughly just 3 times our population.

Reykjavik felt like a bit of an Iceland-themed Disneyland. I’m well-aware that I actually contributed to this by going there and eating some of their cod and lobsters (coughflexitariancough), but at least I feel as if I would never do any of the things pointed out in this list of stupid things tourists do — I want to think that counts for at least something as far respecting my hosts goes.

This insane growth has brought prices up to mind-numbing heights. If travelling and spending time in Scandinavia (or Stockholm) was roughly twice as expensive as living in Athens, Reykjavik must have been up to three times as expensive or even more.

Beer roughly cost €9 / 1000kr. per 330ml glass in most places, and it was impossible to get lunch or dinner for less than 8€/900kr. (but that was a tasty vegetarian ramen soup at Noodle Station).

Another example: Blue Lagoon is definitely one of Iceland’s most famous (and overpriced, but that’s a given by now) sights. It was almost dusk when we entered the warm water. The fog was so thick, we could see nothing but light blue everywhere around us. Truly magical. Still, what made the biggest impression on me was the high number of (mostly, though not by any means exclusively, Chinese) fellow tourists bringing their smartphone into the water to take selfies of themselves in the blue expanse to send to their friends back home.

I bet the pictures must have looked cool, but swimming around using just one arm because the other one was too busy filming their ego, was the very opposite, at least if you ask me.

To put it simply: now is not the time to visit Iceland (sorry, Marilena). Wait for the hype to die down a bit. Yes, the bubble will have burst by then and the centre of Reykjavik will be full of high-rise hotels, but at least it hopefully won’t be as ridiculously overpriced and crowded as it was in New Year’s ’18. I would still recommend making some granola bars to take with you like we did — it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find cheap, nutritious, vegan-friendly food in the country in the near future.

At any rate, I’d definitely recommend visiting Bike Cave — probably the only Spotted by Locals-worthy place we visited during the whole trip.

And here are some pictures and a short collection of clips I threw together:

The concert was amazing, by the way.