Daily Archives: August 7, 2015

Γεννήθηκε στα Τρίκαλα στις 29 Μαρτίου 1926. Ο πατέρας του, πλούσιος τυρέμπορας, τον στέλνει στην Κοργιαλένειο Σχολή. Τελειώνοντας το γυμνάσιο το 1943 κατεβαίνει στην Αθήνα και φοιτά στην Πάντειο. Ο ίδιος σύμφωνα με διηγήσεις του έγραφε στιχάκια από νωρίς, αλλά ήθελε να γίνει σκηνοθέτης μιας και του άρεσε ιδιαίτερα το θέατρο. Η εμφάνισή του στο χώρο του τραγουδιού στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του ’40, και η καταλυτική παρουσία του σε αυτήν του ’50 όπως και στη συνέχεια, έδωσε στην ιδιότητα του στιχουργού την υπόσταση και το κύρος που δικαιούται.

Ο Βίρβος με την παιδεία, τον όγκο και την αξία της τέχνης του αλλά και τον αγωνιστικό του χαρακτήρα τοποθέτησε τον στιχουργό τουλάχιστον σε ίδια θέση και μοίρα με τον συνθέτη, και με την οπτική και την τεχνοτροπία του, την λυρική αλλά βαθιά ρεαλιστική γραφή του σηματοδότησε τις εξελίξεις στο ορθόδοξο λαϊκό τραγούδι με σημαδιακό και καίριο τρόπο. Χωρίς να θέλουμε να υποτιμήσουμε μορφές του λαϊκής στιχοπλοκής όπως ο Γιάννης Λελάκης, ο Χαράλαμπος Βασιλειάδης (ο περίφημος Τσάντας), η Ευτυχία Παπαγιαννοπούλου, που λειτούργησαν πριν αλλά και παράλληλα με τον Βίρβο, ο τρόπος που κινήθηκε ο τελευταίος, η συνέπεια και συνέχεια του και τα ξεκάθαρα καταγραμμένα αποτελέσματά του, τον χρίζουν ως τον πρώτο – χρονικά, ποσοτικά, ποιοτικά – επαγγελματία στιχουργό στο λαϊκό τραγούδι. Ακόμα και ο Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης, ο Νίκος Μάθεσης και άλλοι πρωτοπόροι του ρεμπέτικου, παρά την αρτιότητα και την έκταση των γραφόμενων τους δεν μπορούν να θεωρηθούν, με την αυστηρή έννοια του όρου, ως επαγγελματίες του λόγου στο τραγούδι.

Πηγή:popaganda.gr

With numerous supermarkets springing up in every Australian suburb and town, milk bars are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

But before shopfront windows became abandoned or transformed into the next bustling local cafe, how did the milk bar concept develop? When and by whom?

These are the questions being researched by historian Leonard Janiszewski and documentary photographer Effy Alexakis, who will be presenting a lecture on the international cross-cultural origins of the milk bar.

Their research has concluded that the humble milk bar was not only an Australian-first, but a first world-wide.

History was made in Sydney in 1932, when a man of Greek origin by the name of Joachim Tavlaridis, also known as Mick Adams, opened The Black & White 4d Milk Bar.

Stylistically influenced by American culture, once people caught wind of the successful concept, in a short five years close to 4,000 milk bars were operating throughout the country, most of which were Greek-run.

It wasn’t long before the idea was picked up abroad; Greeks opened the first milk bar in New Zealand in the mid-1930s, while Great Britain, South Africa and the South Pacific islands also attempted to introduce the idea into continental Europe and America.

Considered now to be an Australian and international food-catering icon, this lecture will provide an insight into the milk bar and its development within Australia, its subsequent distribution overseas, and its role as a vehicle for Americanisation.

Organised by the Royal Australian Historical Society, the lecture will be presented by Mr Janiszewski and Ms Alexakis, who have been researching the historical and contemporary Greek Australian presence both within Australia and overseas since 1982.

This content is a part of their ongoing project and archive In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians, which has been recognised as one of the largest collections of Greek Australian material in the country.

The lecture is a free event and will be presented on Wednesday 5 August at 1.00-2.00 pm at History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney. For more information call the Royal Australian History Society on (02) 9247 8001, email history@rahs.org.au or visit www.rahs.org.au

source:Neos Kosmos

The man in a red and white checked shirt gingerly waded through the water holding an infant.

Seconds after shrugging off a life jacket, Syrian refugee Mustafa Mohammad embraced the first person he met in Greece.

A two-hour sea journey from the western shores of Turkey, this bamboo-fringed coastline on the northern Greek island of Lesvos has become the main gateway into the European Union for refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and the wider Middle East.

Others on the inflatable white dinghy whooped and cheered as they hit land. Two men alighted and knelt on the pebble beach, their foreheads touching the stones in prayer. A woman wearing a hijab picked up a pebble and hurled it into the sea.

Within one hour on Thursday, Reuters journalists on the island saw two boatloads of refugees landing on the Greek territory, one carrying roughly 40 Syrians, the other the same number of Afghans.

They are among the tens of thousands who have entered Greece illegally since the beginning of the year, representing what the European Union has described as one of the biggest humanitarian crises since World War Two.

“I don’t care where I go, I’m just so glad to be out of Syria. We all deserve to live,” said a 26-year-old man, travelling with his younger sister. A barber by profession, he would only give his first name, Issa.

“My parents are still in Homs,” he said, a war-ravaged Syrian city which has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the in that country’s conflict.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that Greece has received more than 107,000 refugees and migrants this year, more than double its 43,500 intake of 2014.

From several accounts of people now in reception centres on the island waiting for papers to move to other European countries, dinghies are the primary means of transport across a sea strait about 20 km between Turkey and Lesbos.

Hundreds daily

Testament to that is the dirt track between the northern Lesvos communities of Mithimna and Skala Sykaminias. It is strewn with debris from inflatable dinghies and life jackets left in piles along the shore.

The dinghies are slashed when refugees reach land. In both of Thursday’s cases, and within minutes, men in double cabin pick-ups arrived on the remote track to retrieve what could be salvaged; the expensive motors, and a wooden and fibreglass base used at the bottom of each dinghy.

Observers say the flow of refugees reaches on average 250 daily. Some make their way to volunteers who make arrangements for them to be fed, and buses to reach the main city of the island, Mitilini, where they are taken to reception centres for identification.

Others walk. Not knowing where they are going, the boatpeople take to the dusty road to reach the nearest community about 10 km away.

Mustafa Mohammad is still elated, but looks confused. “Where do I go now?” he asked, before following the rest of the refugees kicking up dust as they walked up a mountain.

source:ekathimerini.com

Bank stocks led a much-needed Greek bourse rebound on Thursday, making up some of the ground lost in the first three sessions since the market reopened. However, traders viewed the recovery more as a correction and less as evidence of genuine expectations of an upward move in the coming days. That was also clear from the drop in trading volume.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 666.68 points, adding 3.65 percent to Wednesday’s 643.22 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index expanded 4.81 percent to end at 197.96 points.

After the three-day 63.8 percent decline, the banks index clawed back 17.78 percent, as Alpha started the day at the limit down and ended 11.61 percent higher, National rose 27.47 percent and Eurobank gained 17.31 percent. Grivalia Properties lost 6.08 percent.

In total 71 stocks moved up, 22 came down and eight stayed put.

Turnover amounted to 73.4 million euros, down from Wednesday’s 81 million.

source:ekathimerini.com