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What’s happenin’….?

By John on June 1, 2017 in Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, Paroikia, Paros, road biking in Greece, spiritual journey, The Circle of Paros Bicycle Race, Uncategorized

Kalo Mina! I haven’t posted anything in well over a month. Why? Just being lazy, I suppose, because there is so much to talk about! I should probably just get some stuff out of the way.

I am appalled by the behaviour of the current US President and his smarmy, creepy entourage. His European trip is finished (probably his only trip here) and he acted poorly–immature, arrogant–the worst kind of visitor. I am not the only one to be shocked and amazed at his ignorant, insulting and banal actions. We have all read the news. We have all seen the clips. I am not going to link to anything. I am appalled and disturbed to know that there are people in the US who believe this kind of behaviour is acceptable. Educated, well-read, professionals who feel that this is how an American President should act. I even know some of these folks. How ashamed I am to be connected to the US at times like these. Phew! Enough of that…

I have been invited to show some of my work in a small group exhibit in September. It will be in Hudson, New York and the woman who is organizing the event asked me to send a few pieces. I have 7 new prints from the darkroom and will send an additional 6 from previous shows that I already have matted and framed. A Baker’s Dozen of b/w darkroom work, some of Greece and some of the area where the show will be held. I will price them well and my instructions to her are to not send any of them back!

I have decided I need an agent to sell me and my work. I cannot do it well. Other people see things in my work that I do not and are better at that kind of ‘retail’ mentality. So I will ask around. It needn’t be a full time job or even the first and last agent I have. Just someone to get the process off the ground.

I competed in the 7th Round of Paros bicycle race last Sunday and I did very well. The morning was perfect for the race, with light breezes from the north, sun and clouds. In short, not too hot. I was able to ride the 61km course in 2:31:45, which is a 6 minute improvement over my best time on the same route. I placed 59th out of 99 bikes and 12th out of 18 in my age-group. I am happy with these numbers. Now I begin working towards the 40km mountain bike race on Paros towards the end of September which will be gruelling. Plus, the sea is wonderful so there is swimming every day. In fact, I hope to do both–bike and swim–as soon as I post this missive.

I have begun yoga. Odd…yoga has been around my life for so many years, people urging me to try it and all that. I think my mind and heart were not ready. There was too much I had to let go of before I could open up and do it. Death, tumultuous change, perceived uprooting…On the surface it is allowing me to stretch muscles that I have been using in a way that actually stretches them. I have discovered that those calisthenics and stretches I learned in high school were mostly wrong and don’t really stretch anything at all. Deeper inside..I don’t know. I have only taken three classes (once a week) so I’ll let you know what rises to the surface. I know that I have moved on from where I was.

Uphill and off the saddle in Kostas

–JDCM

Buona Pasqua da Padova…!

By John on April 16, 2017 in Polly Jo Masters, Uncategorized

Padova is a lovely place to visit. It is not a touristic town—all the tourists are in Venice, just north of here. The current groups are mostly Italian, here for the Easter weekend. There are lovely basilica (Basilica Pontificia di Sant’Antonio di Padova, etc…), some outstanding frescos (Cappella degli Scrovegni housing the most important…). The restaurants are good to excellent. My lodging is fine–the Hotel Donatello–a clean and neat family-run place right on the piazza opposite ‘Il Santo’….It has that thing that all 3-star Italian hotels seem to have–a sense of slightly frayed and rundown charm. I’ll write a more comprehensive review of food, lodging and sights later.

The real reason I came here was to have my mother’s Olivetti Lettera 22 repaired and refurbished by Alessio Vescovo. When the Olivetti was stripped down it was revealed to be more complex and more interesting than a modern computer. He disassembled, cleaned and the reassembled it, making the necessary needed repairs along the way. He did all of this with a great sense of confidence and care. Today’s post only has photos of the disassembly. Later will come photos of the cleaning and reassembly. We found out some things. It was built sometime between 1952 and 1954 and had been repainted a slightly darker shade if green before my mother bought it used in the mid-60s. Interesting, no?

So Happy Easter, Kalo Pascha, etc…It’s all about renewal.

–JDCM

Lebanon, part 2…

By John on March 20, 2017 in John D.C. Masters, John Masters, Uncategorized

I don’t know why being in Athens makes me want to blog more about Lebanon. Maybe it is this early morning, 7am light coming through the window of my hotel room…Not that that has anything to do with Beirut or Lebanon….So let’s talk about the food in Lebanon. Like the stereotypes of falafel and kebabs, these places exist there and, trust me, the worst there is better than the best anywhere else, but there is so much more! Salads much like the way salads are thought of here on Greece, as side dishes. Eggplant, tomatoes, onions, etc…tabbouleh…Also plates of grilled meats (no pork) on sticks and the wonderful, fantastic kibbeh nayyeh (nigh-yah). I may be weird, but there is nothing quite so good as prepared raw meat, either lamb or beef. Mixed with salt, pepper, spices, olive oil….amazing! I have only one photo and it doesn’t show details, but I have included a link that has good pictures and a solid recipe should anyone wish to try it.

I feel that this dish is a symbol of what can be right with the world. You need meat that is fresh, handled by as few people as possible, from a source you know and butcher who knows what you want, i.e. no processed, packaged brand name big store shrink wrapped meats. Buy local, stay healthy–in mind, body and planet!

Let’s talk about the government for a bit. This is what I know: Lebanon is a ‘failed state’ and, as such, has no government. Yes…they have a president, a parliament, etc…they even have diplomatic relations with many countries like the USA, France, Greece…so on that level they are legitimate. But the government doesn’t run the country. The country is run by a group of families–let’s say 20-most of whom have been in power of some sort since the Middle-Ages. Now, these families are very wealthy and most own the very legitimate and wealthy banks. They are also the patrons of the very good and well-known hospitals and universities in Beirut. They are the patrons of everything. Think of it as the Five Families that run New York in ‘The Godfather’ and you’ll get the picture. They run it all and, for the most part, the people like it that way.

Regarding militias…all but one militia have officially disarmed. That is good. These patrons, these wealthy families, are not all associated with militias, but the militias are all associated with wealthy patrons. Make sense? So whether you are Christian, Druze, Sunni or Shia–you have a friend somewhere making sure that your children go to good private schools, your parking spaces on your street are kept up, your fuel oil is delivered in the winter, you have medical care for your family, churches and mosques are kept up and polished, etc…

Let’s talk about the Power Ship! Electricity is scare on Lebanon, hence the air pollution problem one sees everywhere. Private home generators are needed to compensate for daily brown-outs which as a tourist, you’ll never notice. In 2013, a Turkish company floated this amazing thing over to Lebanon and leased it to them for a few years. There is a better article about it and the company here. It is a pretty interesting idea–and one that is supposed to be temporary. The problem is that the Families that run the country cannot agree in where to put the new stand-alone, on-shore, full-time power station. No one wants to miss out on the money and no one wants to donate the free land for building, etc…so the Power Ship sits, expensively sending its energy to the country–and everyone loses.

My friend Thanassis took the photo of supper and the Power Ship photo came from the web somewhere. That wide angle lens on the iPhone really distorts the image a lot…

–JDCM

A Cold Day…

By John on January 20, 2017 in Uncategorized

“I really am a pessimist. I’ve always felt that fascism is a more natural governmental condition than democracy. Democracy is a grace. It’s something essentially splendid because it’s not at all routine or automatic. Fascism goes back to our infancy and childhood, where we were always told how to live. We were told, Yes, you may do this; no, you may not do that. So the secret of fascism is that it has this appeal to people whose later lives are not satisfactory.” Norman Mailer

“It is not truth that matters, but victory.” Adolph Hiltler

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” Benito Mussolini

“Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion.
Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.” Henry A. Wallace

“The United States is extremely lucky that no honest, charismatic figure has arisen. Every charismatic figure is such an obvious crook that he destroys himself, like McCarthy or Nixon or the evangelist preachers. If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response.” Noam Chomsky

“The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his “ideas” almost idiotic, while his celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his yet more celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store. Certainly there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches, nor anything convincing in his philosophy. His political platforms were only wings of a windmill.” Sinclair Lewis

“I do not fight fascists because I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists.” Chris Hedges

— My thanks to Goodreads and Brainyquotes for the ability to cut and paste…

—JDCM

Man, oh man, oh man…

By John on December 22, 2016 in beauty, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, Paroikia, Paros, quiet islands, Uncategorized

Ha! Well, I had grand ideas about updating the blog after the Presidential Election in America…and then I did not. Then again when I went to Santorini for a quick visit…and I didn’t. Time has gone by, the Winter Solstice was yesterday and in acknowledging this planetary shift I am locked in to updating this thing today. This afternoon, I think. I’ll write, edit, load the new header image and post from the very same cafe where I currently sit, snug and warm and out of the cold and rain. And, yes…I have a head cold. Shit. ‘Tis the season. It is a wet and windy 6C (42F) outside and with the 43km north wind it feels more like 3C (38F). Suffice to say that those of us who live in houses without central heating all wear clothes, all the time. I sleep in fleece and base layers. And a hat.

So there are the bullet points.

–Santorini was good. I went solely to visit the archeological site of Akrotiri, which was closed the last time I visited 10 years ago. I took the ferry on Friday afternoon, saw the site and both museums the next morning and then took the boat back. I was off-island for just over 24 hours. I was glad to be back on Paros. Aside from the caldera and the archeological sites, Santorini is pretty dull. Too built up, too barren and, at this time of year, mostly closed. Some that is no one’s fault. 3400 years ago the place blew up and has never really recovered. I guess that is part of its charm. It is, after all, still an active volcano. This link is really good…Hey man…that’s my neighbourhood!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption

–I have been re-watching ‘The Sopranos’ since I never actually finished the series a few years years ago. It is very good. I have fallen in love with this clan of sociopathic narcissistic trash. Really amazing. Like watching a train wreck. And then, somewhere in the middle of Season 2, or maybe 3, it dawned on me…The White House has been handed over to The Sopranos! Think about it. Complete with a goon squad!

–“For the love of money is the root of many evils…” (1 Timothy 6:10) If this guy (I daren’t say his name) didn’t have any money, he’d just be another vulgar, racist, sexist, loud-mouthed, annoying asshole xenophobe sitting at the end of the bar. Really. No joke. He is proof that money cannot buy you class or taste. In fact, he symbolizes all that is wrong and bad in our world–avarice, hubris, graft, ignorance–a deep soul-sickness lying beneath his veneer-like need for attention. He is the winner of that contest, hands down. I think he’d even win the popular vote. This makes him very dangerous. Anyone who studies history knows this.

–I’ll blog again before the new year. There is more to report from this lovely rock in the middle of the Aegean Sea. Have a Merry Christmas everyone, or whatever you wish to celebrate!

–JDCM

Autumn, elections, swimming, biking…even photography!

By John on November 8, 2016 in 120 film, 35 mm photography, beauty, biking, craft, darkroom work, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, mountain biking in Greece, Paros, Polly Jo Masters, quiet islands, rangefinder camera, silver darkroom, skill and craft, Uncategorized, working

*It has taken me some time to get back on the horse. I was out the other day with my Voigtlander, exposing some film…it felt good…gentle. No urgency, no great time-line to follow. So I took some pictures. I have some ideas.

*I have been combing through my negative notebooks, trying to find images of my mother’s office. I have found some. I know there are others. I would like to print some of these this winter.

*I need to type up my mother’s newspaper articles. I keep on saying that to myself…siga-siga…it’ll happen.

*I developed the 4 rolls of Tri-X that I shot when I was back in America in July. The camera I had on hand was a medium format Holga, so that’s what I used. I guess that sums up a philosophy…The best camera I could use is the one I am using. People talk a lot about camera X, or lens Y. They list the many attributes and the technical aspects…these things never made a photographer better, or even good. That has to come from within. Ansel Adams said something about that…good gear, bad photography…I can’t remember the exact quote. Liz knows.

*It is autumn, and we have had some cooler weather, but not right now. It is Little Summer and the scirocco blows a steady Force 5, gusting to 6. The air is hazy and hot and feels like 26C. I was out for a bit of mountain biking and then a swim in the sea. People here say the water is cold, but they haven’t been in Cape Cod in August.

*The election for the next American President is today. Polls have begun to open, voters are lining up to cast their ballots. There is so much at stake in this contest. I am not sure anyone can really guess everything that hangs in the balance. I mailed in my absentee ballot well over a month ago. We shall see. I am more concerned about the potential for aggression and actual violence at the polls. America will be divided whatever the outcome.

–JDCM

Thoughts meander…

By John on September 28, 2016 in Athens Greece, autumn, beauty, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, Paroikia, Paros, quiet islands, Uncategorized, working

The sun rose golden peaches as I departed the Port of Pireaus 3/4 of the way through September. I have been back in Greece and on Paros since the middle of August. Through a window of the Blue Star Delos and across the gulf the mountains surround Attica. How I love this place. Ancient rocks cradle my heart and timeless seas ferry me home…

I haven’t blogged in a long time and I apologize. Sometimes I have had too much on my mind and to sort out any coherent thoughts and to put them down seems daunting. What I need is time to let the events of the past year-and-half filter out into something resembling…something, something solid.

I return to the island after a long weekend wth friends on another island, another archipelago. This marks the last of my long-term commitments for 2016 and I finally feel like I can relax. The deeply emotional yet business-like events of laying my mother to rest and selling the family home are behind me. My inherited furnitures, works of art, books and homewares are tucked away in storage units. I packed my bags with those things that I could smuggle and left America. Oddly enough, I feel no sadness in leaving the house I called home for so long. With my mother’s absence, the place felt empty and hollow. She had been its heart and soul and without her it was just a shell.

I have finally found an ear doctor who has offered anything like a solution to my labyrinthitis/Meuniere’s/tinnitus…Dr. Peraki’s prescription has improved my hearing almost 10% over the past month so I have been told to keep at the regimen and we shall see what is what in about 2 months, just before Christmas.

Speaking of that…one novel feeling…I am not thinking about plane tickets back to America. This time, during the past several years, I would begin looking at dates, routes, etc…not today, thank the gods. I am looking forward to being here through all of December and January, February, without the interruption of having to leave.

And so on I ramble…

—JDCM

Flowers…

By John on August 8, 2016 in Uncategorized

I haven’t updated in a long time. Much has happened in the past 2 months. I have written list after list, big and small. All but a few items have been crossed off. I have much to say but words fail…

yucca

lilies and hydrangea

by the pond

reflection

Pink Barn

Queen Anne’s lace

lilies and wall

sunflowers –JDCM

Kythnos and a change of plan…

By John on May 25, 2016 in 35 mm photography, beauty, Cyclades stone walls, Cycladic stone walls, Greece, hiking in the Cyclades, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, Paroikia, Paros, quiet islands, skill and craft, spiritual journey, spring in the Aegean, stone walls, Uncategorized, working

–There is a lot to see and do on Kythnos and by the time I leave on Friday I will have seen and done most of it. Superb hiking, archaeological sites (mesolithic, Byzantium, 19th century mining…), good eats, friendly folks…The weather was so-so for the first two days but then the sun came out, the winds shifted and there was fine weather for getting lost on the donkey trails and photographing more stone walls than I knew what to do with. I am pretty much saturated with walls at the moment. I have a feeling I will finish up the roll I have in my camera today and be done with this island for the time being. I have one more long hike to do tomorrow (12 km) so perhaps I will try to use one more roll. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.

–I found an excellent little taverna on the port of Merichas. Typical family-run, spitiko, without all the frippish tom-foolery of frankish cuisine. I ate roasted goat in lemon sauce last night; grilled fresh sardines the night before…local, mild feta on my salads. I’ll go there again tonight. Funny thing…when Kostas, the owner’s son, heard I was from Paros, he told me that his cousin Giorgos worked in a fish taverna in Paroikia…Hmmm…I know Giorgos well! We had a good time and then Kostas called Giorgos and he and I had a quick chat. I love these alliances. So Yalos Byzantio is my spot. I dine there again tonight.

–My lodging has been excellent. My small studio overlooks the harbour of Merichas. The ferries dock just a few hundred meters away and the ins-and-outs of tourist sailors in their small rented sailboats make for interesting comedy-drama. Only some seem to be good sailors. The rest look like they are trying too park their cars. Oh well…I wish them all the fun in the world. The Aegean is a lovely place to sail.

–I am tired. I am tired of living out of my luggage. I will have a lot more of that this summer so I suppose I should get used to it, but for the moment…

I left Paros on May 10th, after a four-day general strike which threw all my plans into the air. As a result of this strike, I was forced to use one of the High-Speed ferries that runs around the Aegean. I hate these things for many reasons. The only other time I was on one was in 2006 and I picked up a terrible respiratory bug just by being shut inside the interior for several hours with no fresh air. True to form, by the time I reached Evia on Thursday the 12th, my throat was scratchy. By Saturday I was on antibiotics, decongestants…sick. 11 days later I am finally off the meds. I need to go home. I feel great, but it is time to sit on my own terrace, sleep in my own bed…

As luck would have it, the same ferry that would have brought me to Syros, continues on home to Paros. So I will leave Kythnos Friday morning and be home in time for tea…

Pezoules, walls and and Agios Anathasios, Kythnos, 2016

–JDCM

Hopping my way back home…

By John on May 15, 2016 in Uncategorized

I have spent the last weekend on the island of Evia, northeast of Athens, for a non-sectarian weekend of fun, food and fellowship. I saw people I had not seen in months, years and even decades. A superb time!

My goal was to ride my bike there but the 4-day ferry strike two weekends ago prevented me from leaving Paros on the day I wanted, so I had to hoof it instead. Ferries, taxis, busses, etc…I got there. That’s all that’s important.

This morning I accepted a lift from a friend back to Athens where I caught the regional bus to the Port of Lavrio where I will take the Marmari Express to the island of Kea. I will spend a few days there and then head to Kythnos. Due to the ferry schedule I am on Kythnos for a week. From there I head to Syros. I have about 10 rolls of 35mm film and also my Fuji X-t1. The weather is looking so-so…It is, after all, only mid-May which means anything could happen. The reports say 22-25C with Beaufort 3-5 all week. Being the Kyklades, this means almost nothing, but it sounds good. Currently I am in a cafe waiting for the boat to take me on…good Greek coffee!

On the way back to Paros I am getting back into photographing the ‘xerolithia’ (schero-lithia), the dry stone walls of which I am so fond. After Kea, Kythnos and Syros, I will only have to visit Tinos and Andros. I think I might try to put a book together someday…

–JDCM

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