Welcome to the Aegean

At my feet today.

Fishing Metaphor #1

Since my newest hobby is staring at my ceiling for hours each night, I get to think about things.  Like the metaphors I'm here to discover.

I think about the thousands of fish hooks Christos gave me from the cargo ship he worked on in 1962.  And I think that hooks, and fishing in general, are metaphors for desire and intent.

There is a Greek term for "spearing", kamaki.  It's sexual (the obvious metaphor), but I think it's more than that too.  A hook involves luring; a spear is direct.

But I can't ignore the myths and Biblical stories about fishing and water, so it's interesting to think about where desire fits into casting one's nets only to come up empty. . .and then to have them miraculously filled with fish.  Or for the island of Skopelos to be considered a splinter of Poseidon's trident in a battle between himself and brother Zeus over the underwater horses.  Plus, Poseidon is not only ruler of the seas, but creator of horses.  Horses symbolize desire and power.  

Maybe myths and miracles are about desire, generally speaking.  And tools allow us to attain our desires.  Something to think about at 3am this morning.

Poseidon (http://groups.msn.com/TheGreekMythologyAge/posiedon.msnw)

Photos

I call this one Dusk and Fig Tree.

 This is Skopelos, Sans Tripod.

My apartment and the studios sit high above the town.  At night, I can look down in utter quiet, broken only by a goat just yards away that I can't see.  (The first time scared me, and I was on the edge of the road. . .I could have tumbled into the goat.)  And then the chickens.  And then a horse too.  All in someone's backyard.  It redefines the American idea of city limits . . .

 

I've arrived in Skopelos a few weeks after fig picking.  Now the little brown fruits sit on the ground everywhere, too many to tend to.  Grapes are on the vine on many patios, including under my balcony:

 

 

 

Movie Stars, Drugs, and Bad Art

Yesterday I walked along the horseshoe-shaped sidewalk that parallels the shoreline, the path that makes up the main street of Skopelos.  There are clothing, upscale jewelry, and pottery shops there for tourists; kiosks for those of us who want phone cards and breath mints; and tents under which you can eat Greek pastries (apricot) and sip the best coffee in the world.

As I was walking, I passed Amanda Seyfried from HBO's hit and personal favorite, Big Love (see www.hbo.com/biglove/cast/index.html for the all-star cast).  I said something fan-ish but extremely brief (five seconds or less) so she didn't have to be bothered.  She looked surprised, I think because I look Greek (so I'm told) but spoke English without an accent.  And she thanked me.  All of that while we both were still walking.  Tom Hanks is here too.  If I see him I won't have the courage to say anything but maybe "my husband loves your work," in which case I would be embarrassed because of the implication that maybe I don't but Matt does.  When I do.  Anyway.

Also, yesterday I ate incredible octopus, fresh tuna, and other sea creatures.  And you haven't had good feta or yogurt until you've come to Greece. 

Last night I awakened after three hours of sleep, once again.  I painted my nails, read parts of two books, worried about making art, then didn't worry about making art because I gave myself permission to make bad art, ate a peanut butter sandwich, killed a centipede-ish thing on the wall, and almost killed a little mosquito on my shoulder (the evidence of which is in three spots on my right leg today).  Not tired after two hours of this, I took a Unisom.  And woke up at 11:30 am.  What a hangover.  I came up to the Foundation, drank three cups of coffee (which is the proper remedy for how I was feeling), and started three pieces made of fishing hooks stolen from a cargo ship in 1962.  Not to brag, but I run into the best found objects.  It's something I was born with.

I have to go (still need to post photos). . .I am eating lentils with the neighbors tonight.   That means I will learn more Greek words from the two-year-old Zoey and will get to say "efharisto" many times, which means thank you, and "mia", which means, one more.  Because they are good cooks. 

Eat well with friends today.  

In Skopelos

 Lynn Manos

I'm at the Foundation now, a very welcoming place, family run, well equipped, and encouraging.  I had the tour, unpacked my suitcases, went grocery shopping, and made arrangements with Christos, a friend of the director, to see fishing tools.  I'll begin making rubbings tomorrow.  I get to work on a 20-foot-long clean white table that parallels a wall of windows looking onto the water.  Pinch me.  And I have access 24/7.  Fantastic. 

I'm writing after hours from the Foundation's computer (no need to trek down to the internet cafe and pay for access).  Nearly every window has a view of the Aegean from where I'm sitting.  When I walk out of my apartment I get the same beautiful view.  All water, very blue, surrounded by Mediterranean stucco houses with tile roofs, nestled in steep wooded hills.  My pictures coming soon. 

There are five thousand people who live on this island overall.  I am guessing that there are ten thousand cats.  And it looks as though they are cared for.  It's like dogs in Spain -- they're royalty.  And it is expected that you would be standing in your kitchen, lifting up your eyes only to see a cat or two across the room.  And not your own.  I like cats a lot, but I think I'll let them hang out on my balcony instead. 

There have been Pierce Brosnan sightings in the days before my arrival.  And there's a good chance I'll be privy to a talk by Meryl Streep here at the Foundation later this month, fingers crossed.  But no word of where Colin Firth is hiding out on the island.  

I'm drinking Folgers Instant right now just to keep me up until 9pm, a more proper time for bed than 6.  The sun's going down a bit, and I see that the mountains are turning the watermelon color of the Sandias in Albuquerque.  Today, as I travelled to the coast to catch my ferry, I concluded that this place is almost exactly like the high desert. . .it just has lakes, then sea, in the low places (imagine that, New Mexicans).  The brush is an exact match in places.  The resemblance is striking. 

My first sunset here. . . I'm off to my apartment to get my camera.  Have a great day where you are.

Getting to Athens

The first step to getting to Athens was spending a day in Minneapolis, where my in-laws provided a place so calm for me that I got my best night's sleep in weeks.  Not to mention just great company.  Got to see little Ethan and Jacqui and Jason too.  A great way to start this trip.

The flight was very smooth and particularly gorgeous going from Philadelphia to Athens.  My favorite parts were seeing sleeping cities.  Flying over a night time Paris, I was surprised to be able to easily locate Champs-Elysees.  I also saw a place that looked like what you sometimes see mapped out as your brain on Nova or other PBS shows:  a black sheet dotted with orange dendrites, lit up areas of activity, some of them very clearly with lines and dots, and others more nebulous, Milky Wayish.  The stewardess told me that was Shannon Island, Ireland.  What I liked most about it was the shoreline of towns (orange lights on black), last bastion giving way to deep darkness, water.  Each town street was so well outlined with lights that I could identify Main Street for each one, even from 37,000 feet.

And then, on the water, only a dot of white light from some lone boat. . .

Once in Athens, again, things went very smoothly.  I caught the bus from the airport and was surprised to soon have my view blocked by a huge blue cube of a building:  IKEA.  Funny how that wasn't on my list of expectations!  Then, I enjoyed how the 1960's architecture (think of older James Bond movies, very metropolitan, baby) tended to scoff at the ads for say, Dolce and Gabbana.  One era gets its inspiration from the other, and they coexist in a beautiful, market economy kind of way here.

The mountains here are geologically similar to Albuquerque's.  But they're everywhere, so I have to break out my compass to get around.  No depending on "the mountains are East" here.

Once I found my hotel (and got tickets for the bus and ferry today -- and took a long hot bath in my fabulous Athens bathtub), I walked for two or three minutes to the National Archaeological Museum.  It's simply stunning to see so much revered sculpture in one place.  And the pots -- I realized I'm a sucker for Attic amphorae (see www.yasou.org/ancient/vases/fig17.jpg), especially the sophisticated and moody use of negative space around figures.  Gorgeous.  And besides the traditional greats that are in the museum, I was particularly drawn to a 200 b.c., 10-foot bronze sculpture of a woman.  It was found in the Aegean at the late date of 1994.  The bronze was pitted and green and red and textured and worn, yet preserved -- I was in love.  She was just haunting and graceful.  I wanted to know the spot where she'd been living for centuries.  I would give you a link to that one, but she's so new that the museum hasn't published her image yet.  It's nowhere to be found, and I was prohibited from being the first to publish her image with my own camera.

Leaving Athens at 6:30am.

So, today I am off to the island of Skopelos.  It's a 2.5 hour bus trip, then two more by ferry. 

And for you Broadway fans, Mamma Mia! the movie is being filmed on Skopelos.  Pierce Brosnan is in it.  He says, 

 "What a kick in the pants, to be able to go off and spend time with Meryl [Streep] on some Greek island, singing Abba songs."

More soon. . .