What is there to say?

Why don't you love me?
When I am so easy to love?

The same

I think the biggest problem with growing up is losing your identity. Not exactly sure if young people do have one in any case, but let me explain what I mean.

You come into this world, young, naive and clueless. Do you have an identity, do you have an opinion? Well, you sort of do (kids do say 'i like this','I don't like that') but they are swiftly silenced by their parents, who quickly impose their own beliefs and desires to their children, creating an army of spooky mini-me's.

Then you grow up, reaching adolecence, and you try to find a voice, you read a little, travel a little, see a movie or two, talk with a couple of people who are different than you. You think you have an opinion, you think you are starting to find yourself. Only to find out,perhaps years later, that you did exactly what your 'generation' did: everybody raised in the same time, in the same country (or perhaps in the whole world) likes, behaves, thinks of the same things. Childern of the sixties, the Romantics, the yuppies, Genration X and so on and so forth.

Then you get older still and you really think you'll get it. You get a job, you become more mature and you think you can actually see the real you. But then the other tragedy happens, you find the person you love. And then all your own self is stiffled inside the all-singing, all-dancing monster of couple-dom. There you really lose yourself and you really do not know where your own thoughts, desires, opinions start and where the better half's end.

Having all this fairly pessimistic story in mind, it was a real pleasure for me to see my friend R who is seven months pregnant. Normally pregnant people go through yet another transformation: from their normal selves to this 'mommy' thing, who doesn't have another topic of discussion and concern apart from the unborn child (for things to become only worse when the child arrives - but let's leave this one asside). For someone who has no children, my biggest fear for when this time comes is how will I keep my individuality when the little person arrives. So, it has been such a pleasure to see that other people can actually do that, they can still be themselves even with a belly superimposed on them. And having children (or about to) does not necessarily entail a total loss of self.

Could we be in it to win it, us mothers-to-be of the new milleium?

Important questions?

What is a new year? What does it mean? What does it bring?

It can be one of the same, you can continue doing exactly what you did the previous year and pretend that it's ok.

You can continue doing exactly the same than the previous year, minus a bleep in January, when you pretend that you've changed.

You can try to change - but fail.

Or you can think about it.

I don't mean 'think about it' in a cliché way, we are all so grateful and we need to evaluate our lives etc. You can really just sit and think about it. You can think, what's going on, do I like myself, am I cool, am I nice to other people, am I nice to myself? Do I like my life?

I think this is perhaps the best question one can ask oneself: do I like my life? Is it 'me', this life, does it suit me? Is it what I always wanted to do, is this where I always wanted to be?

Not all our childhood dreams come true, but there is a sense in which we need to be true to ourselves, at least as much as we can be. We need to remember and remind ourselves what we used to like, what we wanted to be like. And when what we are really, really doesn't match that, perhaps we need to consider changing. Not for any other reason but because clichés are true, and we only live once. And before you die, you know, you need to look back and regardless of anything else, you need to be able to say that you were happy. You need to say that you had one chance in this world and you didn't blow it.

And if what I say doesn't persuade you, I suggest you read The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy.

Other than that, Happy New Year everyone, and Happy New Decade!

Happy Christmas!

What is Christmas? Why does it matter to everyone?
Silly, cliché question, you might say, but as all things cliché, it is also so true these days.

I think Christmas is just pure and unconditional love.
So I am happy to be spending it to my new home, for the first time, with the people I love.

Happy Christmas everyone, and I hope you all feel it these days, both the Christmas spirit and the love.

Is this the same person?

Amazing charisma and swagger:



But also great voice and vulnerability



I always thought Jools Holland is amazing in introducing new artists...

Gearing towards the holidays, Christmas tree is up, not a lot of shopping yet, but there's still time...

Till then, let's sing:

Do it like a brother, do it like a dude...

Activism rules, Greek-stylee

This is the website of atenistas, a citizen's group for Athens:

http://www.atenistas.gr/

For as long as I remember myself, there is one thing I hated in Greeks: their constant moaning and evading of their responsibilities. Greeks are unhappy, and they think it is not their fault. Most often it is the government (that they vote for), the 'others', the neighbors, the people who tax-evade, the Americans (everyone's favourite vilain).

But crucially it is never their fault.

But if it is not your fault then you cannot do anything about it.

Atenistas think differently. Perhaps bad things are our fault, not because we did them, but because we are not doing anything to change them. Let's do that then!

In a country with non-existent state presence, citizen's groups are long overdue.
The only ones who can do something are sensitive, educated, concerned citizens.

Good luck guys, I wish I were there!

The comeback

I wouldn't necessarily post two videos in a row but this song is phenomenal.
And in the process it shows a couple of things about the world:

1. Mark Ronson is great. Version was not a one-hit wonder and Ronson is not a one-trick pony. This song is different, deep, pop and in short perfect.

2. Boy George has an amazing voice. We knew that already of course, not least because of another comeback attempt 2-4 years ago in the Antony & the Johnsons album, in their song 'for today I am a boy'.

3. Comebacks are amazing. Boy George has been exiled and neglected from the mainstream UK scene in the recent years. Perhaps because of his drug problems, perhaps because he seems to people to be a fat, odd-looking relic of the '80's. But this song, that has made him relevant, beloved and Radio 1-playable again, may haver put him on the map.

Like Travolta and Tarantino, comeback stories are even more glorious than success stories, perhaps because they are the ultimate success stories. Like a rise-and-fall-and-rise-again Scorcese movie, comeback stories show people that success is worth nothing when you lose it. Unless you manage to win it again.

This might be a useful message to X factor people.