There was an interesting post on the Hellenic Voice Facebook page a few weeks back that I couldn’t help from responding to. There was a tiny bit of controversy about the press around Dogtooth/:

Discussion on the Hellenic Voice

I need to make the important caveat here that this is about Greek films that are most commonly consumed outside of Greece. It’s fantastic that there are many Greek film festivals popping up in the diaspora – New York, LA, Montreal – that celebrate the diversity of film available.

To develop on this a little more, what we see a lot of outside of Greece fall mainly in one of these two categories:

• Movies by Greeks about Greece/Greeks for The World (often what I call “Greek Island P**n”) [later edited this word as my blog was getting traffic for ALL the wrong reasons!]




• Movies by Greeks about Greece for Greeks

What I’d like to see more of are:

• Movies for The World that happen to be by Greeks that are not (overtly) about Greece

—and Dogtooth is a great example of film in this vein. And we are sorely lacking in this category. Now, admittedly, I am no expert on Greek cinema, but when I try to think about movies like this, why is it that the only other film that stands out in this category is Z—a stellar masterpiece of a film—but it was made in 1969! True, at its core it is an incredibly important story about Greece, but it’s not overt and it thankfully never resorts to tourist-bait storytelling.

I’m glad Dogtooth made it big. It’s a Greek movie where the fact that this movie takes place in Greece or is about Greeks (and it isn’t, really) is not the central point. That we’re not focusing on one of our Great Ethnic Struggles, to me, is a sign of progress in maturity of Greek film and how people receive Greek work. It’s not that the Greek/diaspora story has been told – that story is never over! – but we’re no longer at a point where we feel obligated to educate people about our basic ethnicity and identity when we have the stage. Now, our background can take a backseat to the creativity we want to convey and instead of the Greek story being the center, it becomes the lens. It’s an influencing factor but not the main event.

So often media of a people becomes its sole loudspeaker and platform to tell its story to the world and it becomes a representative of that people, whether they like it or not. Lots of Greek-Americans that grew up in the the U.S., Canada and Australia got non-stop references to Zorba the Greek and Never on a Sunday from the well-meaning public. In my own generation, it was the same experience but with My Big Fat Greek Wedding. (Thanks, Nia Vardalos!)

It’s a sign of huge progress that the Greek identity has become a bit more secure with itself, as have the various Hyphenated Greeks, that movies from ‘us’ are no longer about Telling Our Story, but Telling A Story—a story that no longer has to be about us.

Anyone who has had a decent art history course knows why these pieces are significant both in the context of Greek/classical history and to art history in general. I was very very glad I got to see these masterpieces in person, despite the fact they were not in Greece.

Fresh cut flowers from my mother’s garden, including fragrant daffodils and (my favorite) hinodoxa.

When Harvard Square became Hogwarts Square

And, despite the best efforts of many griefers-armed-with-megaphones, nobody managed to spoil the HP7 ending to the crowd, so many thousands of kids went home happy to voraciously read. How cool is that?

The crowd at ArtBeast

I volunteered at this year’s festival, basically selling items like t-shirts and dogtags to benefit the Arts Council, as admission to the festival is free. On top of meeting notables like our Mayor Joe, it was a beautiful experience to see such a huge variety of people walking by, taking in the crafts and music and having a wonderful time being out and about. Folks from all walks of life, all races, all ethnicities, all socio-economic statuses. I got to meet and talk with many of them, from other new residents (like myself) to old townies who’ve been in this town for ages, back when the nickname “Slumerville” was pretty apt. It was fascinating to hear their stories, and very heartwarming when they wished me welcome to their town.

Moored boats right outside of Nantucket town

Old Ironsides’ bell and the Boston skyline

In addition to the USS Constitution, we also explored the WWII Destroyer the USS Cassin Young, which has taken the place of the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier, the USS JFK. I’m a bit of a nerd for computer war strategy games, so I felt like I was walking around in one of my chess pieces, so to speak.

That’s the “brief” version of what I’ve been up to these past few weeks. I’m not sure what I’ll be up to this weekend other than getting some errands done, which isn’t very exciting or blog-able.

… I did just find out that there are actual Greek frappes in the area (it’s pronounced “fra-PAY,” not “frap” in the New England tradition). These drinks are the staple of Greek summers. Very simple to make, very effective in keeping you cool. I’m not sure how or why they’re so delicious as they’re made with simple freeze-dried Nescafe crystals, which are normally disgusting, and a very tiny amount of sugar. They’re supposed to be pretty bitter, from my experience. But still, on hot summer afternoons, I miss them. Hopefully before summer’s end I’ll finally drink one!

A note to anyone attending AX: I’ll be wandering around booths and movie showings with friends in addition to hopefully scoring a few artist interviews. Drop me a comment or an email if you’ll be there too and want to say hello, I’m always psyched to meet new folks.

One of the take-aways I got from speaking with Audrey was an overall attitude towards the American idea of “feminism” versus women’s attitudes elsewhere. Social academics, especially in the Japanese studies circles, have been discussing women’s roles in Japanese society for years. What some American scholars wonder is why the American interpretation of “feminism” never really caught on in Japan. (I’m citing this anecdotally at the moment, but I can’t tell you how many hours in college I heard students and professors going back and forth on this very topic.)

The gigs Audrey signs have an interesting if not slightly befuddling response to all that. Their music is not political. They are not railing against “the man.” I can’t think of the Japanese equivalent of Ani DiFranco, though perhaps there is one.

Instead, Audrey says the motto for these groups is as simple as Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” That’s it. Across all genres, from punk to ska to rock to hip-hop, these artists perform because they enjoy entertaining. They’re not vehicles for a Big Message, nor are they putting themselves in some bigger broader sociopolitical context. Either they’re already well beyond issues of gender struggles or such problems never bothered them in the first place.

Depending on your worldview, this is either refreshing or distressing. Interpret it as you like.

I just realized that WordPress has a “nofollow” policy on links left in comments. As I’m somewhat new to WordPress, forgive me for not realizing this earlier. The moment I have access to FTP, I’ll install a “dofollow” plugin for links in my blog to make things equitable for people kind enough to comment here. (And if you have no idea what I just said, my apologies for that as well!)

Tonight the Social Media Club of Boston hosts its June event: Making the business case for social media. I’m fascinated by this topic so I’m hoping I can attend. If you need to prove ROI for investing in social media at work, it sounds like this panel will be a great guide for doing just that.

And finally, a big thank you to the people who emailed me in the past week. Jake Wark sent me two photos in response to my post and photo about Faces, Cambridge’s magnificent eyesore. Unfortunately, I was slow in posting these pictures so Universal Hub beat me to it—but I’m happy to be beat by such a great resource. Jake’s pictures are at that link, do check them out and read the responses. That abandoned building definitely has a … “special place” in the hearts of us locals who, in typical Cambridge-logic fashion, are sick to death of looking at the ugly thing but also worry how new development might impact the surrounding nature reserve.

I also got a few emails from Greek and Greek diaspora who are J-rock fans. I’m tickled! Yes, Japanese rock is somewhat obscure outside of Japan, and in Greece even more so; however, I recall seeing a flyer for a J-rock party at a club in Thessaloniki of all places. So certainly the global Greek diaspora population, by pure statistical probability alone, has a J-rock-adoring fanbase. We just need to find each other! :) Rock on, παιδιά!

click to enlarge the picture

Reaction #1 (too-cool-for-this neo-geek-hipster wanna-be snark): O RLY?

Reaction #2 (cripplingly self-conscious): is my greek so bad that flickr assumes i don’t even know how to say hello?

Reaction I should have had: How many Greeks wrote emails to flickr to get “yasou” on the international greetings banner? And how long will it take for a counter-reaction of Turks to mobilize and demand “merhaba”? ;)