Geske

Hey, A.A., I like hard rock too (grew up with Metallica and Iron Maiden, oh yes, I've skelettons in the closet), but DON'T say things like that about Elvis, you'll get yourself lynched Chris' tongue has a very sharp edge when he is annoyed. Anyway I disagree with you about the King. He's not my great man but he is a GREAT man nonetheless.

Chris, those are very intimate questions to ask a woman (or a man for that matter) My computer is a pentium, but only just. It still runs Windows95 'cause it isn't really up to anything newer. And the modem is positively ancient...

Well, so I'll take the opportunity to say something iggerant : Who is Marinella? I've never heard of her and you have made me very very interested.

Aha! So Nikolas is a Dutchman and Socrates a Frisian! Specially if you're blonde as well! LOL!!!!! p.s. Frisians live in the northermost province of the Netherlands - they are even taller than average p.p.s. yes, barbarians eat potatoes! In fact only the Irish eat more potatoes than the Dutch, q.e.d. :sky:

Hear! Hear! Nikola, you are indeed wonderful. In fact, I keep being surprised at how well everything works on this site in general and the forum in particular. Michael, I too heartily approve of the "do you know Greek" in the profile. But Sarantiiiis, please, NO, no jpeg's or pic's or anythings in the forum pages - do you know how long my computer takes to load each forum page as it is?? Having them in a separate section of the club would be quite good though. I could go bonkers seeing what I missed Nikola, I've been watching those little suns and found something funny: when I use the "mark all posts as read" function (top bar on the main board page), I click once, the screen reloads and all the suns are as before. I click again, the screen reloads again, and now the suns have gone blue and all posts are indeed marked as 'read'. It does this every single time so far.

Michael, thank you for all the trouble you took. And do stop apologizing for the wrong things - your English is NOT bad. It is not 100% without mistakes but that goes for all of us!!

I'm trying hard (and unsuccessfully) to ignore the postings about utterly wonderful videos with magical guitars in them - makes me want to *SCREAM* and tear out my hair!!! On a saner note, I would like to agree wholeheartedly with Socrates [that is fast turning into a habit ] about Krymmena Kleidia. This was the first song on the new album that so caught my fancy that I could not resist having a go at understanding the lyrics. I'm not sure how successfully but anyway I can't hear it without dropping everything to just listen.

Dalaras sure enjoys it. Even if he hadn't said so (and he has), the look on his face is more than eloquent. And oh ye gods it IS so good!!

To get back to the topic: who do we want to sing with Dalaras? Keti Garbi sounds like a good idea - I've not heard her, though I've heard of her (vaguely) - but anyone Dalaras thinks well off sounds like a good choice to me I would not have picked Mouskouri myself because I do not think hers is the best voice to complement Dalaras' . As I've said in the tread on concert experiences, I find that other singers' voices tend to 'disappear' next to his. Now yesterday I was playing my tape of a concert that Dalaras and Dimitra Galani gave together (the Xarcharkos concert) - SHE has a voice I like!! Jeez, we don't grow them like that around here. But I don't know whether she is still around, and famous enough to qualify for the Olympics? [Despite your efforts, I'm still your iggerant barbarian ]

####! You guys are at it again! Will you behave???? Chris, Michael's got a right to be critical of anyone he likes - so far, he is quite polite about it. He seems a bit schoolmasterish to you, well, that's no reason to get on your high horses... please? Anyone he has the right to be disappointed when he sees artists rise to international fame on music that does not touch his own heart. I do not quite agree with Micheal, that Greek artists should stick mainly to authentic Greek music. They can sing anything they like for me - as long as it is GOOD music. But like Michael, what I think is good music, is not always what the big audiences think is good music. And we all know that there are artists who choose their songs because they think they will sell, not because they think they are beautiful. Come on, Chris, you know that too!! (Mind, I'm not saying Mouskouri or anyone in particular does that - only that it does happen, and that it is to be feared). Now to be specific: I don't know Yanni, I don't like Demis Roussos or Nana Mouskouri, but I've been fond of George Moustaki since I was a child. Only I never realized till two days ago that he really is Greek. Is that good or bad? I expect Michael regrets it. Me, I don't think it matters. He sings what he sings, he sings it well, I like his voice and his songs, and that's it. Having tried to pour some oil on the waves, I'll start a new post that is somewhat more ON-TOPIC

Purely as a matter of personal taste, I think more highly of Schwarzennegger as an actor, than of Mouskouri as a vocalist. But do understand your comparison, Michael, and it is appropriate enough in a way. As it happens, I don't like Mouskouri's voice very much, or her way of singing - no sin there... But besides that, I must admit to a certain resentment against her. Remember the thread where we discussed getting people to listen to Dalaras? And how difficult it is to get some unpartial, unprejudiced attention? Well, one sneering remark I've heard rather too often is "oh, a Greek singer, like Nana Mouskouri". Then I say "no, not like her, I don't like her either", but the harm is done, people listen with a bias. It is not her fault, or not entirely - she has that kind of voice and that kind of succes and that's the way it is - but I can't help resenting the side-effect. p.s. Michael, if you can spare a minute, could you possibly give me a hint on that Kougioumtsis quote? It's a bit above my Greek (put it on the messenger perhaps?)

Problem solved!! Talked to my guru yesterday night... The trouble was that, in setting up my Windows, he had not included the Greek language support - so I followed the instructions on that site Michael gave me and installed it. After this my computer was able to use the fonts downloaded from the site Nikolas gave me. And Netscape does let me change the fixed width font to courrier greek. Ola kala ki ola oreia! And thanks a whole lot for your help!

About you: Milk and potatoes - exactly what the Dutch grow on - are you 190 cm tall, like the Dutch young men your age? About me: How about "too-talkative barbarian" ?

Nikola, thank you for the tip! I went and downloaded the fonts and installed them - no problem there. Then I went and told Netscape to use Greek arial for a proportional font - it lets me make the setting, the screen flashes briefly showing a different font, then goes back to the ugly one I'm used to. As for the the fixed width font, I can't even change it, it won't let me. I'm afraid it's a bug in my Netscape (it's an elderly version anyway), so I'll have to get my computer guru to look at it

Lynne, you've just made me BLUSH crimson. And it is not fair to single me out for praise either - I think English is a second language even for most of our members across the Atlantic - and everyone is making themselves understood very well indeed! Also, the "Brits" are no more lazy than anyone - if they got 80% of their movies on TV subtitled, like the Dutch, they'd learn quickly enough! There are advantages to being a minority As for me, I've had unfair advantages, like growing up bilingual (Dutch at home, French outside), having Dutch for one mother tongue (and that's a first cousin to English), and getting a great kick out of the beauty of language for its own sake. I learned my first English from Tolkien and Dorothy Sayers, with a bit of help from the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen... you've got to start somewhere don't you? Speaking of beauty - it's fair to say that I've fallen in love with the Greek language - the sound, the way it's put together... everything!!

I think it's genetic No really, the Greeks are just more musical than anyone else - except possibly the Irish. Btw, Springsteen used to do it too - one instance even got onto the Live boxed set (Hungry Heart: the band plays the intro and the audience starts off and sings the first verse without him).

Annemarie, I found 'le meteque' in my old, old 'chansonnier' that we used to pass around the campfire - barely legible, but I posted off the lyrics to Nikolas this morning. Mieux que rien! Sarantis, all I know about guitar is that it is the most wonderful musical instrument created by man (except possibly the lute), and that I gave up in despair on learning to play one! And like most of us here, apparently, I like them acoustic and undistorted. O metoikos still favourite here. Working hard on understanding the words... it's easier with the French crib, even though it is not a litteral translation. My two other favourites on that record are "O thanatos tou poiti" (for the melody and for that unbelievable flamenco thrill), and "M'ekopsan me chorisan sta dyo" (plain genius - that man Kougioumtsis again!!).

Michael, thank you!!! I've had a look at that link and am now printing out the whole thing to read comfortably. It certainly looks very gruendlich. Miam. You are right, changing the size and font is possible on Netscape; I've done it and it works fine in the normal (western) encoding. But when I apply the same kind of changes to the Greek, there is no change in the appearance of the font, only in the size. The most probable (but not the only possible) explanation is that my computer does not know any other Greek fonts. Meanwhile, I've been experimenting, with saved files, with the "composer" function, which lets me put the whole in italics - and suddenly they are perfectly legible. So when I really need to study something, I print it that way.

Good tip! But Nikolas' site is even better... Praise!

Socrates, you wise man, I'm with you all the way: we, as fans, ought to leave Dalaras' personal life severely alone. He wants to tell us - he does. He doesn't want to tell us - ours not to ask! Gossip turns my stomach. "If you love somebody, set them free" - one very good song by Sting. But we still haven't picked a woman vocalist to "do" the Olympics with him. Suggestions?

Well, as I said in the other thread, I'm not sure wether the problem is in my computer, or in the site. Anyway it's a "cosmetic" problem, not a serious one. I'm using Netscape and have found (under View/Encoding/Greek) how to get Greek letters on screen; they will also print, no trouble there. Typing them is quite hard, but only because I haven't yet made a crib for where they are on the keyboard. So far, so good. What annoys me, is that this Greek font is ugly and quite hard to read. First I thought the site is made with this font and my screen shows it like it is made. But now I suspect my computer just uses its 'standard Greek font', the only one it knows. In my usual western encoding, that standard font is Arial and I think I know how I can change it. For the Greek encoding I don't seem to have any choice, as far as I have found out. But then I am even less expert on computers than on Dalaras Any suggestion will be appreciated!

One more remark: whatever you do, please don't put in to much graphics thingies, meaning pictures that take a lot of time to load. My modem is stone-age and accordingly slow and I've been really, really grateful for the quick loading of your site, including the club. I've seen forums that had portraits of members and so on in the postings - that kind of thing would slow me down hopelessly. Besides I think it's useless. About the guests: aren't most of those 'one time visitors'? Or can you tell, at all, what kind of people visit the site? I have no idea how these things work really.

Nikola, so you have dubbed yourself "aardappeleter" (yes that's Dutch for potatoe eater) - I can't think why? Isn't it me that ought to be called that, considering it's a nickname for the Dutch? Or are you going to tell me you've got Dutch ancestors somewhere? Anyway, you folk ought to be able to think up some designation for me. C'me on, help me - all I can come up with is "Dalaras addict", which is not funny enough!

Michael, thank you... I'm listening right now to those of your examples that I have (3 out of 9) and will look up the others when I can. Reading your postings is an education all by itself - I'm suspecting you of being some kind of musicologist (surely you haven't told us everything in your post in the "addiction" thread?). No one seems to feel like unconfusing me about the laiko, dimotico, and neo elliniko tragoudi (my post of July 21st), but never mind - I'll find out eventually!

Yes, I WAS sky-high - but not on any kind of dope - on PURE unadulterated DALARAS! And oughtn't he to be banned for being highly addictive??