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As you turn the pages of NEu Tymes Vol.38 a summer breeze of industrial design*, citizen journalism, brilliant working ideas hosted in a loft, exercises to democracy, dreams that sounds pop and a publication about a Greek seaman shall keep you focused all the way till the end of your reading. *Industrial music instrument's DSDV 3 bass article is photographed by Kuba Styperek
Citation preview
Vol.38Summer2013
PublishingArt & CreAtive DireCtioneDitingPetros (ptrs_0) Vasiadisδeface365Athens, greeCe
sPeCiAl ContributorNiki sorogasMusic Editor
© Brigitte Polemis
A magazine about extraordinary
humans, their ideas and achievements!
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dsdV 3BassLoft2WorkNo Hard Feelings Memoirs Of A SeamanradiobubbleUmmagmaWhite House BiennialExercises To Democracy
dsdV 3BassLoft2WorkNo Hard Feelings Memoirs Of A SeamanradiobubbleUmmagmaWhite House BiennialExercises To Democracy
Loft2Work is a social business, dedi-cated to motivate, unite and encour-age people to accomplish enterprising ideas for sustainable impact through interaction and collaboration.
Loft2Work offers access and resourc-es to an emerging ecosystem of peo-ple working collectively for a better world.
Loft2Work initiates physical, virtual and social spaces for change across countries, organizations and cultures. Through research, planning & imple-
mentation. Loft2Work will create micro-structures aiming to fight unemploy-ment and social exclusion in countries under crisis, such as Greece.Our job is to make you feel at home and to show you that work in the proper en-vironment can be creative, fun and re-sourceful. Loft2work is a coworking space where people can meet up, work, introduce themselves, have a brainstorming ses-sion, have a business meeting, attend a seminar, watch a screening and so much more.
www.loft2work.gr
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"It's crusial, the stories and the views and the problems of real people that get out there and are heard"
Jon Henley- guardian -
We’re an open medium
for communication
and information, run
by a community of
volunteers. We’re
based in Athens, even though many of
us live in other cities around the world.
We operate on the basis of relation-
ships of trust and mutual respect. We
don’t follow the hierarchical structure
of conventional, mainstream media.
We inform the world of events in crisis-
hit Greece through a permanent news-
feed. We conduct in-depth research on
topics that the mainstream media tend
to ignore. We participate in cultural life,
promote communication and spread
information. We develop, promote and
support solidarity initiatives for people
in need.
live radio. In 2007, we
called upon citizens to take the
media into their own hands. To
date, 7,500 radio shows have been
uploaded onto our website. They
include shows about politics, music,
culture, Creative Commons and
open source software; original
radio plays; radio documentaries;
and interviews with both news-
makers and ordinary citizens.
News & interna-tional News. In 2011, we
created the hashtag #rbnews and
called on people to use it to tweet
news. Hundreds thus became citi-
zen journalists, and #rbnews was
the second most popular hashtag
in Greece in 2012. We collaborated
with tweeters to develop a volun-
tary code of conduct regulating
the use of the hashtag. Cross-
checked information is published
on our news pages, combining the
tools of traditional journalism, new
media and participatory report-
ing.
Hackademy. In 2012, we
created this informal learning or-
ganization providing workshops
and skill-sharing sessions in new
media and participatory journal-
ism. Hackademy connects civil
society, media professionals and
academic society.
the Blogs section posts the thoughts of
Greek bloggers and poets online, and publishes the free
magazine Μπαχάρ* to bring them to print.
the music section proposes a diverse,
and sometimes eclectic, selection of music to our radio
listeners and readers of the blog, and organizes events
and concerts in the radiobubble Café/Bar.
the Community section hosts radio
shows and podcasts produced and uploaded by citizens.
Our home is the radiobubble Café/Bar: a space
open to all, where Greek bloggers but also international
journalists and activists visiting Greece get to meet and
chat (on air or off air) about news, politics, arts, radio cul-
ture, technology and new media.
We're keeping this description short, but if you want to read more
about our projects click here.
#rbnews: Been there, seen it, shared it.
We monitor the #rbnews hashtag 24/7 to curate news pro-
vided by Greek Twitter users.
#rbnews international:News from Greece you haven’t heard about
We inform the world of developments in Greece in 8 languag-
es.
Un-quote: Online news for offline people
We’ll reach out to offline people with a weekly newsletter
about Greece.
#rbnews: History and a hashtag
We study the role played by #rbnews in Greek citizen journal-
ism.
Hackademy
We train citizen and professional Greek journalists in partici-
patory journalism and new media.
tracking privatizationsWe research and assess the anticipated impact of mass privati-
zations in Greece. Water and sanitation in urban areas of Greece
We provide a platform for activist groups opposing the privat-
ization of Greek water. The crisis and vulnerable social groups
We analyze the impact of the crisis on vulnerable social
groups in Greece.
the second generationWe give a voice to the second generation of immigrants in
Greece.
Charting solidarity initiativesWe network with solidarity initiatives in Greece and abroad.
Researching the impact of mining in Halkidiki.We report on the
movement against gold mining in Northern Greece.
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click here to
EmpowerCitizen
Journalism
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UMMAGMANiki Sorogas meets
UMMAGMA
Ummagma is refueling my musical appetite for some time now. Its Ca-nadian/Ukranian duo: Alexx Kretov & Shauna McLarnon. Apart from their daughters name being a letter away from mine, there is a better story to tell. Our relationship started as I was that click away from them somewhere on the internet , striving to discover any lustful tune. The play button insisted on the name of the band that shook me back to my teenage era, and went on for hours, as anyone in my desk chair would have committed the same ear crime, enchanted by Shauna’s
mesmerizing voice (a new Liz Frazer!) and Alexx’s soundscapes dwelling me into Floydish-Fripp paths. Their own Fantastic “Rocky Road” that’s smooth as a candy swirl from 2003 to 2012 put into format. Inhaling away a security and warmth from a 4AD,80s-90s era I knew that our musical tastes were indeed hungry for the same reasons. For starters, Ummagma blends in heaps of gen-res from DreamPop,Post-rock, Post-Punk,Space Rock to Shoegaze and Ambient you name it. No I’m not joking! I can only describe it as a form of art a musi-cal canvas, a story that disappears into a different skyline each and every time! The band, has independently released 2 full length LPs (Ummagma and Antigravity) on Bandcamp (go grab a copy and support-name your price!) and have a New Split EP with Finnish band Virta. You’re in for a splendiferous jour-ney and you might even stumble upon some beloved atmospheres (Cocteau Twins,Blonde Redhead ,Peter Gabriel,David Sylvian,Sigur Ros,Lush,M83….). For the stats Ummagma,is an extraordinary band, with over 155 unique press posts already in more than 20 countries and have gained Radio Airplay in over 30 more .The musical Word is floating around the globe and just landed today in Greece for you. Here we are ready to get into a cozy conversation, so sit back and relax while listening to Ummagma! I ethereally dare you!Visual and mental games: when I came across Ummagma on the internet, the
"Ummagumma" album from my favourite band Pink Floyd popped into my head. Was that intentional to draw some listeners in your direction? Have you invented any Canadian-Ukrainian slang yourself! (like this instance with Ian Moore's Cambridge slang sex term for peculiar minds!)
Well, we do love Pink Floyd and our band name was derived from that album’s name, but not so directly as you might think. Ummagma was my husband’s username on various photography and music gear forums and one day, when we were getting ready to release our debut albums, we thought “hey, we don’t have a band name” and we had to make a choice. You know the result
About any Canadian-Ukrainian slang, we don’t have any specific slang words (that I can recall off the top of my head), but my husband often end up mixing bits of English together to create something new that then becomes part of our common speech, like “I love you, my understand me”. I understand him.
What were the first albums you remember buying, the same goes for attending a concert, and did it change your life?Blondie “Eat to the Beat” was the first vinyl album I ever bought with my own mon-
ey, but the first cassette was likely Rick James “Super Freak”. I had won a Walkman when they just came onto the market and couldn’t wait to buy my first cassette. I used that same Walkman until I finished university (nearly 10 years)… those were the days of reliable equipment. First concert – you don’t want to know, but the first one that really impressed me was Paul Young in Calgary. You’d have to have lived through the 80s the see the attraction there, but he did pull off a great live show. None of that changed my life –but like any experience, everything does add its drop in the pond that ‘shapes’ your life. Have you encountered any difficulties or challenges related to being partners for
life and in a band? By the way what a lovely photo puzzle on your official band site. It’s an enthralling Love For Life memoir.Oh yes, that is, at the same time, one of our biggest advantages and chal-
lenges. For one, we’ve been together for 10 years specifically because we are in love, married, have a child together. Many other projects like ours might have fallen apart in that time without all that ‘glue’ to keep them together. On the flip side, this love-music relationship also means that everything we are going through in our lives affects the music (for both of us) and it also affects when we do or don’t make music. When things are sour in our relationship, we do not write any music at all, for instance. For other bands, usually there are several songwriters and they might even channel their negative experiences into creating music. For us, we just ‘shut off’. So, we have to be in a good headspace (both of us) to create our music.
The best advice someone has given you?Listen to other people, but don’t follow anyone’s advice. Make your own de-
cisions. What is right for you may not be right for others (in our case, this is more than certain), so don’t pay too much attention to what others are doing or compare yourself to them. There’s really no point in doing that. You only have one path – keep it YOURS! I must remind myself of all of this from time to time, as I often forget and distracted from my own path.
Considering that you started creating music together in the 2000s, were there some drawbacks or periods of brainstorming?There was a long period at the beginning of our musical experiments when we
were still figuring out what kind of music was ‘ours’ and we wrote a lot of material along the way that will likely never see the light of day, so to speak. We really are not in favour of releasing anything that is depressing or negative, unlike so many other bands and we used to create music under any circumstances. But we’ll never use the material born of our darker moments, so now we just don’t write music when we are in a bad mood – period. It’s just better to wait until we are in a bright space, because our ultimate goal is to bring more light into this world and to convey that through our music.
How does money affect you in your music or everyday life as people and music makers – in terms of sharing things that you love and or even making music as something you love? In a materialized world, you are a DIY band and that means a lot to your fans!Money, oh that… haha. It can empower us or disempower us. It’s due to lack of
money that we still haven’t been able to make our music available on any physical media like CDs, vinyl or cassettes. Thank goodness for Bandcamp. It has helped us get the music out to thousands of listeners. Likewise for Soundcloud and Reverbna-tion. For years, all our free cash has gone into purchasing all the equipment and instruments we need to produce this music.
http://www.ummagma.com
http://ummagma.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/ummagma
https://www.reverbnation.com/ummagma
https://twitter.com/Ummagma
http://soundcloud.com/ummagma
http://www.photoshop.com/users/ummagma
Do you think social media changed a piece from the pie(i.e. gave us a million things but deprived us of other things)?Yes, but the truth is that, as an in-
die band, it has been 1000% more effec-tive in getting the music out there than we could have ever imagined. This fact stands tall above all the drawbacks. The one thing I regret is that it takes so much time to adequately promote yourself through all of these social media platforms at the same time. We would much rather be making music or spending time in the studio instead.
In what direction do you think music and technology are headed, and what advice could you give to people that want to share their music with the world?I think technology will develop
more and more in favour of the users (listeners) and in favour of the few mu-sicians that figure out/develop other ways to capitalize on their music. That is already hard right now and will become harder with every passing year or new application invented. So my advice is this – as harsh at is may sound: if you are making music for the love of music, keep doing it. If you are making music to share it with as many people as pos-sible, do it and work at making that hap-pen – often the audience won’t come to you; you have to find them. And if you are in this for the money, get out of this business; become an IT programmer or economist instead.
What do you think about online music sharing? Have you got any plans
for a release physical in the next few months?Well, we are giving away our music for free or whatever people want to pay
because it’s listed as “name your price” – of course, most people pay nothing, but there are some who really appreciate us and they do. I am all in favour of online sharing – for us, it’s a great way to get our music known. Otherwise, how else would someone in Chile or Indonesia learn about Ummagma or obtain our music? Regard-ing a physical release, yes, we plan to finally release our 2 albums in a double-CD package. We are entering the design stage for that, so stay tuned! As for our next EP, we are currently ‘shopping around’ for a label to release that through.
How did you end up collaborating with the Finnish band Virta to release your new Split EP (released on May 25 via Bandcamp)? This was the initiative of Italy’s Som Non-Label. The label’s founders were sup-
porters of both of our bands and felt that we would combine well as a Split EP, which they will continue to do as tradition. Two tracks were taken from Virta’s debut EP and, since we debuted two albums at the same time, they decided to take one track from each album. We are usually more dreampopish than the two tracks chosen, but, in the context of the two Virta tracks that were chosen, it turned out that all four tracks fit together perfectly.
You won the Alternative Eurovision on Amazing Radio this month from amongst 21 countries with your track "1+1=3".How do you feel about your music’s evolution, and what do you think about its future?Actually, we were surprised that they chose that particular track to enter into
this competition, because it is one of our most alternative songs. I thought we would have a much better chance to win if they had chosen one of our other ‘chart-maker’ songs – like ‘Risky’, ‘Lama’, ‘Human Factor’, ‘BFD’ or ‘Rotation’. So we were surprised, yet very pleased, to learn we had won. Anyways, it’s hard to talk about a specific way our music has developed and will develop. The truth is that we just play what-ever we want without thinking about some concrete tendency or specific hallmark sound or genre in the music we are making. Music for us is like random thoughts – sometimes you just can’t control what thoughts are popping into your head. You can, of course control what you put on your album, but why would you limit yourself to certain genres when nobody is imposing such boundaries on you?
As a DIY supporter that dwells in earlier times, we share the same love for the 4AD label output and the 90s. I believe that "the times, they are changing" and so is your music. I’m fascinated with the soundscapes that alternate in each song to convey a feeling. How long does it take to put thought in a piece, from paper to reality?It’s different for every song. The composition and recording of one song might
take a day or a few days, while others are written “in layers”. For instance, “Lama” took about 5 years to do because of that. I wasn’t even pregnant when Alexx started
composing it and then he set it aside for a few years. Then he picked it up again after Nika was born (and after we moved our studio around from city to city and country to country) and finished it off instrumentally. I laid down the sample vocals when she was about 2 ½ and finally recorded the final version when she was 5. You know the expression “all in good time”… well this was some chunk of “good time”.
When listening to Ummagma, my cells are floating into a sen-timental abyss.That joy warms my heart.Do you propose that music can be a savior factor in one’s state of mind? And what do you think when some people say "I don’t lis-ten to music at all"?I totally agree. Once, when I was living in Siberia, I was
robbed and I had only $10 left, so I borrowed some money from friends and tried to arrange to have some money sent to me from Canada. It was a really difficult time, but I had 6 cassette tapes and my Walkman with me – I swear that Australian band Frente saved me from falling into depression. Whenever I felt low, that is what I listened to. To those who don’t listen to mu-sic at all, let’s hope you start one day… it would be to your benefit too.
Would you like to share anything with us Greeks about cor-ruption in this world? Corruption is so commonplace now that it is sickening
and many people lose faith in ‘the system’. We unfortunately are part of the system, but we also create alternative sub-systems (i.e. through barter, societies of like-minded people with an alternative vision, through protests, etc.). Some are more formal and some are less formal. The thing is – with cor-ruption so pervasive in so many realms of our lives and in so many countries, it seems that the only way to beat the system is to, as much as possible, bypass the system, create alterna-tive sub-systems and function, where possible, within these sub-systems rather than the larger them-controlled system. This all might sound abstract, but I think some people will ‘get me’ right away.
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Open_Case_303303, Kifissias Av. 14561 Kifissia, Athens, Greece
1 June – 10 July 2013
a project by Nicos Charalambidis
Open_Case_303303, Kifissias Av. 14561 Kifissia, Athens, Greece
1 June – 10 July 2013
a project by Nicos Charalambidis
A.M.W.E. by Ioanna Pantazopoulou
stelios karamanolis
the great eastern,
dionisis Christofilogiannis, thanos kyriakides, giorgos tserionis
sHell-fontana Nikos Charalambidis
Nikos Charalambidis
khaled Hourani, doCUmeNta
2012, Picasso in Palestine
Leaving in times of de-cay the Greek Demo-crat lacks political shelter. None of the parties that claim governance of the country which was the birthplace of Democ-racy represents him in
a meaningful way. With “Exercises on Democracy” Nikos Charalambidis ad-dresses once again the concept of house, home and homeland, thus cre-ating a heretic “house to house bien-alle” which stretches from the partici-pants’ home to the White House, the emblematic residence that houses the President of United States Democ-racy and his family. It is about a series of multi-level events for the period of 2 years which are carried out in the framework of the extended pro-ject www.whitehousebiennial.com in various exhibition centers, public mu-seums, galleries and other alterna-tive venues curated by Orlando Britto Jinorio and co-curated by Maria Sta-this and Sotiris Bachtsetzis.
Following the presentation of the White House Biennial at a special booth at ART ATHINA Internation-al Fair 2013, OPEN_CASE_303, a new 3-level art space, was inaugurated in Kifisia with an extended presentation of international and local artists under the framework of WHB. Artists such as, Khaled Hourani (Palestine), Moataz Nasr (Egypt),Helidon Gjergji (USA- AL), Sandra Ramos (Cuba),Ilona Nemeth (Slovakia), Baptiste De-bombourg (France), Txuspo Poyo (Spain), Eric Valette (France), Ry-usuke Kido (Japan),JurajDudas (Slo-vakia), DEMOCRACIA (Spain), Ai WeiWei (China), Olaf Nicolai (Germa-ny), Dash Snow (USA), Savvas Christo-doulides (CYPRUS), Driant Zeneli (Al-bania), Nate Lowman (USA),Artan Shabani (Albania), Marco Fantini (Al-bania), Dritan Hyska (Albania), Nicos Tranos(Greece), Mounir Fatmi (Mo-rocco) Danielle Le (France), are only a few of the many participant. Note-worthy is that not only at the first part of this introductory presentation (June 1st – July 10th 2013) but also at the second part coming up next October, works of Pablo Picasso from the Nak-
agawa Collection owned by the Japa-nese collector Tarohei Nakagawa are frame “Picasso in Palestine”, the work of Khaled Hourani which was well re-ceived at the recent Documenta in Kassel.
Emphasis is given to the Greek par-ticipation which is empowered by a selection of artists that have worked as a group or as members of a col-lective, thus developing a common practice spirit which is essential el-ement of very political expression,
eva marathaki
www.opencase303.com
www.whitehousebiennial.com
including:(GLASNOST) Eirini Tsachre-lia, Ioannis Oikonomou, Dimitra Tsachrelia, (Binary Art Group)Achil-leas Kentonis, Maria Papacharalamp-ous, (Microgeographies) Yiannis The-odoropoulos, Caroline May, Nikos Papadopoulos, Aggelos Skourtis, Ko-stas Tsolis, Rika Krithara, Vasilis Vasi-lakis, Dimitris Papachristos, Chariklia
Chari, (Lo and Behold) Artemis Pota-mianou, Giorgos Papadatos, (SKOUZE 3) Eva Marathaki, Lito Kattou, (Hydra School Projects)Dimitrios Antonitsis, Ioanna Pantazopoulou, Nate Low-man, Dash Snow, (Provo Principles)Giorgos Tserionis, (3_137) Paki Vlasso-poulou, (TO.BE) Eva Mitala (Daily Lazy Projects)Stelios Karamanolis, Tula Plu-
txuspo Poyomi, Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Kostas Roussakis, Thanos Kyriakidis, (Salon de Vortex) Yiannis Grigoriadis, Yiannis Isidorou, (Hollow Airport Museum) Ko-stas Emmanouilidis, Nikos Larios, An-dreas Lyberatos, Thanos Triantos, Yula Chatzigeorgiou, Andreas Savva, Babis Karalis, Ioanna Myrka, Danae Stratou .
Nicos Charalambidis kostas roussakis
Nicos Charalambidis
Performances: -Eva Marathaki, Lito Kattou, Sofia Marathaki – (21:30) Coordination: Vissi solomou -Vassilis tzavaras - guitar, loops, effects (20:30 & 22:00) Exercise #1 - (improvisation on Allen Ginsberg's "America") Exercise #2 - (improvisation on Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night")
Nikos tranos
savvas Christodoulides
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DSDV 3 b a s s This instrument might appear hi-tech but it’s not quite
- it’s pure DIY - carefully designed and patiently hand-
crafted in a garage workshop. It involved lots of pro-
totyping and required me to learn a lot as the project
progressed, so the entire process of creating this
bass had spanned over a period of almost four years
- an adventure I wasn’t even expecting.
DSDV 3 b a s s
An electric upright bass or a EUB is ba-
sically an electric, solid body version
of an acoustic double bass, so unlike
the electric bass guitar it is suitable
for bowing and as its name indicates
it stays upright when played. Further-
more the DSDV 3 bass is shaped to suit
a double bass player by maintaining
the feel and playability of an acoustic
instrument in a form that’s more than
just the interface. Although the bold
silhouette of an acoustic double bass
bears an expressiveness that can’t
be achieved by a more compact elec-
tric instrument, with the DSDV 3 bass
I wanted to experiment if an electric
upright bass could become a distinc-
tive, contemporary visual sign that
speaks for itself.
The whole story started somewhere in 2008. I had just com-
pleted my first electric guitar - a headless travel guitar - and
moved abroad taking it along. I soon noticed that this instru-
ment feels not right, somewhat different from what I was ac-
customed to. While playing with the design I was overly fo-
cused on pursuing the different look and so as a result the
playability got reduced. Yet it was worth the time spent on it,
mainly because working on that project I gained the essen-
tial skills and confidence in woodworking. I also became more
practical so back then I started to deliberate over the fact
if going against the player’s habits makes any sense at all.
The idea of a re-design of an instrument is a pretty daring
one and requires a solid motive - a problem to resolve – or
else it might turn into a pretty shallow toying with the image.
I aimed for a small sized travel instrument and made myself
a trustworthy travel companion that is a bit less of a player
but still does the job. Said that, it’s not that easily recognizable
as a guitar – it appears more as some artefact than a reli-
able plug-and-play tool – it proved I needed to learn few more
things about the visual language.
Having already a good grasp of the
craft yet feeling a rather intimidated
as a designer I decided next to go
for something different and build a
slightly modified copy of an electric
guitar model produced by one of
the big brands, namely ESP Pot-
belly. Custom made rather than
custom designed it was meant
to be an exercise in working out
the conventional details, a play
with the traditional “language”
to get to know it better. Sure it
was a valuable experience but
if I were to say what I like the
best about this guitar it would
be that it’s bold and black – it’s
the real thing – needless to say
that’s what I wanted my original
design to be. Although aware of
innovators in the field, principal-
ly Strandberg Guitarworks that I
greatly appreciate, I like the electric
guitars as they are. It’s not that I don’t
see space or reason for improvement,
I would rather say I just don’t see
there any open problems need-
ed to be resolved.
That was more or less the point where I
got before 2009 when I started discuss-
ing with Simon, a fellow double bass
player, the idea of creating an electric
upright bass. Instruments like that are
a relatively fresh thing and keep be-
ing developed spontaneously, mainly
by individual instrument makers and
small brands. NS Design is a notable
manufacturer that went further and
designed from scratch a standardised
version of a EUB with many genuine
features. Their basses were the very
first of the kind that caught my atten-
tion. They made me realise that such a
“stick” can be an interesting thing but
also that there’s still more that could
be done.
Together with Simon we had spent a
good half a year discussing the pro-
ject. At that time I knew very little about
double basses and needed to catch
up. Once we had the essential fea-
tures traced out, I started working on
a mock-up design that resulted in the
original concept design that evolved
further into the final DSDV 3 bass de-
sign. From the very beginning the flag-
ship feature was the Möbius strip-like
wing that delimits a virtual sound box. It
isn’t required by an electric instrument
to produce sound but allows the play-
er to rest the instrument on his or her
body in an accustomed playing position.
It’s there to give the bass the right feel
and a sense of volume. The concept of
a hollow wing shaped like a contour of
the double bass’ sound box is nothing
new but my design features its full func-
tional integration, it’s an essential part
of the instrument. Furthermore that’s
what gives the DSDV 3 bass its visually
expressive and recognizable charac-
ter and this is how I imagine an electric
upright bass I would want to see live on
stage.
Piotr Sell
photography by
Kuba Styperek
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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BOOK PUBLISHING PROJECT NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION!
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BOOK PUBLISHING PROJECT NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION!
No Hard FeelingsMemoirs Of A Seaman
Life is a wonderful adventure or nothing. Helen keller
No Hard FeelingsMemoirs Of A Seaman
© Brigitte Polemis
The story behind the bookMy uncle the late Captain Nicholas H. Raissis handed me his typed memoirs and his archive a few months before he passed away in June 2011 at the age of 99. I felt compelled to publish this book and thus pay tribute to the mariners of the twentieth century.
A real life story As a teenager Nicholas chose a career at sea. His mem-oirs start from his first day onboard as a deckhand on a merchant ship, in 1927 at the age of 17, in an age when the merchant marine was strictly reserved for men with fierce souls.
His memoirs are a ode to the simple things in life. Onboard and onshore he tells his story of achievements and failures, heroic times and moments of personal humiliation with wit and honesty.
His story is an intensely personal account of one man’s struggle with himself against the backdrop of the challeng-ing times in which he lived. This is a man who travelled the world for the most of the twentieth century, who fought in the Second World War, left his country to live in England but who returned in the end to the island he came from.
His personal life was just as difficult as he fought to keep his family together. He was a hard man. Hard with everyone including himself, realising too late that commanding a ship and having a family are two entirely different things.
A man's face is his autobiography
A man's face is his autobiography
How the Ιndiegogo crowdfunding platform helps fulfill the wish of late Capt. Nicholas H. raissis to publish his memoirs.
Thank you for your time and consideration
Panayiotis Raissis
Book specificationsDimensions 24 Χ 14 cm352 pages60 original photos5 illustrated maps
NO HARD FEELINGS. THE PERKS !There is a selection of perks in exchange for a contribution waiting for you when you get involved in this campaign.Check them out!
These memoirs record at first hand the untold story of the passage from steam to diesel and the rise of Greek ship-ping. They give an anecdotal account of day to day life on ships and how that changed as the 20th century unfolded, in an era where the merchant navy was more than just a job.
Why your support is so important As a journalist, I have already researched the book in my own time and have finalized the original editing of the pho-tographs, maps and manuscripts that will be included in the book. This is a self publishing project in association with the kairis library.
I have hired historian sarantos kargakos as editor and his-torical proof reader. The artist Brigitte Polemis will design the original cover for the book inspired by her recent S/S Hellas Liberty exhibition.
We believe that this book is a legacy which is part of our cultural heritage. It needs to be published and made avail-able to all of us and to future generations.Without your support this fascinating, culturally valuable and touching story will remain untold.
Join us in publishingthe autobiography of
Captain N.H. Raissis,
a hard man who
sailed the world
for 40 years
and lived
to tell
the tale...
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>C© Brigitte Polemis
CHILDREN & OLDER PEOPLE ARE LOSING
THEIR FAMILIES DOWNTOWN. USUALLY
IN CROWDED PLACES WHEN PEOPLE SEEM TO RUSH. THE SAME PEOPLE
AT THE MOMENT MIGHT BE WITHOUT ANY
SUSPICION. CHOOSE ALWAYS THE SAFEST
WAY~
CHILDREN & OLDER PEOPLE ARE LOSING
THEIR FAMILIES DOWNTOWN. USUALLY
IN CROWDED PLACES WHEN PEOPLE SEEM TO RUSH. THE SAME PEOPLE
AT THE MOMENT MIGHT BE WITHOUT ANY
SUSPICION. CHOOSE ALWAYS THE SAFEST
WAY~
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tHaNks For YoUr oFFer
>C
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