Karaghiozi Shadow Theater

Karaghiozi Shadow Theater, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Taken at the 11th Anti - Racist Festival, Thessalonik this weekend.

Naked bike ride runs foul of police

Green activists in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki clashed with riot police during their attempt to hold a naked bike ride in order to protest excessive car use. Senior police officials, however, had warned that anyone not wearing clothes would be arrested and so the ride went ahead with the protesters clothed in beach wear and body paint.

According to protest spokesperson, Kostas Terzopoulos Thessaloniki is the dirtiest city in Europe especially in term of pollution and that excessive car use leads to massive problems with air quality and noise pollution.

Problems began when riot police closed the main road leading into the city and forcibly arrested an English protester who they claimed was naked. Amidst tense scenes the hundred or so cyclists eventually persuaded the riot police to let the bike ride continue.

Later cyclists closed the main Tsimiski St with a sit down protest in order to demonstrate against the detainment of their fellow protester who was, according to police authorities set free. They condemned the police handling of the ride as heavy handed and out of all proportion.

The Greek police force has a chequered history as far as the handling of public demonstrations and has often been the target of complaints and law suits over excessive use of force. Last September English teacher and NowPublic contributer, Craig Wherlock was hopitalised by riot police for taking pictures during a peaceful march.Whilst in November 2006 Cypriot student, Augustinos Dimitrios was savagely beaten by plain clothes officers. Despite the fact that the incident was captured by TV cameras and shown on national TV no officer has been charged with a criminal offense.

According to the national daily Eleutherotypia newspaper one person per week died in custody in Greece in 2007. Whilst the country has been convicted seven times by the European Court of Human Rights for police abuse.

Story from NowPublic.com

Bike protest stopped by riot police

Following the example of other cities green activist organised a naked bike ride to highlight the problems caused by excessive car use in Thessaloniki. However, the public prosecutor threatened to arrest anyone who demonstrated without clothes.

The riders complied with his request but that didn't stop the riot police turning up in force and arresting a English Cypriot protester for allegedly being naked.

See here for the story in Greek.

See here for the story in English.

Video from Thess.gr

Cafe with a view

Cafe with a view, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Waiting for Madonna

Waiting for Madonna, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

In line for tickets for Madonna's Athens concert.

Wedding

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Lydia was a bridesmaid at this wedding. I hung around and took a few pictures of the couple and it was soooooo obvious how much in love they were. I hope to have captured a taste of that in this picture.

At the folk fair

There was a folk festival on the seafront last night. I wandered by and took a few pictures.

Stefan Schwerdtfeger

Stefan Schwerdtfeger, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I bumped into Stephan as I was going through Aristotelous Square and after catching up on news and stuff I asked to take his photograph. Check out his website and video.

http://www.bigsleepacoustic.com/

In praise of older buildings

Learning from what is around you

When I was younger and saw pictures by photographers I liked I thought that to take such images you had to live in exotic places such as Paris or New York, hanging out in jazz clubs or bistro wearing the coolest shades money could buy. It was a little hard to captures th same kind of ambience in suburban Bristol with its newsagents and chip shops. It wasn't the kind of place where cool sax players hit the streets at dawn in the sharpest suit you could possibly imagine.

Still, the good news is that there are interesting images to be found in the most unlikely of places and most importantly there are right on your doorstep. No need to jet off to exotic locales when you can find something to shot from your everyday life.

Oz ain't what it used to be

Oz ain't what it used to be, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Lydia as bridesmaid

Lydia as bridesmaid, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Philip Jones Griffith's Vietnam Inc.

Philip Jones Griffith's Vietnam Inc., originally uploaded by looking4poetry.

One of the things I like to do is buy books with the works of famous photographers in order to draw inspiration and if possible, copy their style in order to incorporate it into my own. One book I bought recently is Vietnam Inc. by Philip Jones Griffiths, a Welsh photographer who covered the war. In 1971 he published his book of images which was a damning indictment of what America was doing in Vietnam.

Here is a Magnum podcast which includes interview footage of Griffiths intercut with pictures from the book. Be warned some of the photos are harrowing.

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/warsgriffiths

Protesting raising prices,

Protesting raising prices,, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I took this picture at a demo in which people were protesting rising cost of living. As is the case with many places in the world oil and food prices have gone up dramatically in the last few years.

However, the situation in Greece has become desperate as the cartels and monopolies that control so much of the economy have used the current international climate to hike up prices at a far greater rate than in other European countries.

On the other hand wages have remained more or less static for the best part of decade.

Shopkeeper

Shopkeeper, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I was taking pictures in the centre in an abandoned building near this guy's shop. He popped out of his place and politely asked me what I was doing and after I had explained I asked if I could take his picture.

Uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ on 18 Jun 08, 6.01PM EEST.

Nothing is carved in stone

Nothing is carved in stone, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Junior BAFTAs

"And the winner is...... just let me fumble with the envelope for a moment or two to create a false sense of suspense......."

I just thought I'd post a few more pictures of Lydia at her last school play for the folks back in England. Still, me and Lydia shall be flying north in a week or so, if all goes according to plan and I don't fall foul to any snags in the paperwork I'm wading through.

Cubist Angel

Cubist Angel, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Sunday out

Woken at 7am by the sound of yet another digging crew churning up the road outside my place I decided to take the hint and get up and do something more productive than moan about noise pollution. So I wandered around the city, took in a Dali exhibition, visited a church and bumped into friends and had a coffee. So, once again thanks to Theodora P and family for their company.

Tonight's storm

As often happens at the this time of year there was a lightning storm over the bay. I went on the balcony to take few snaps. Well, it was either that or see the Euro football championship, which is about as interesting as watching grass grow for me.

In the centre

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I just had in mind some kind of late 70's - early 80's album cover. The kind of thing Bauhaus or OMD would have used.

Out the window

Out the window, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

On the streets

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Created splicing the genes from Martin Parr and Bruce Gilden.


Uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ on 13 Jun 08, 8.02PM EEST.

Looking at me?

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Making time for the important stuff

As school has finished I have more time on my hands so that means I get to catch up on things I missed during this last frenetic winter. Lydia was in a school performance today and so I was able to attend her Oscar winning performance as a forest elf in her school play.

As seen on TV?

Tonight Greek TV (ET 1 at 10.00pm) will show a documentary made by the Reportage Horis Synora team (Reporting Without Borders) on police violence in Greece. When they were making the programme a film crew came up from Athens to interview me on my experiences at the hands of the riot police last September (see here for more details). For the dreadful crime of taking pictures of the police during a peaceful march I was attacked by them and detained. As a result I was left with a broken nose, dislocated shoulders and other various injuries that took up three pages in the medical report I received.

Still, compared with many other cases I got off lightly, I was released quickly and in the police department I was taken to (in an unmarked van with four uncover cops - not an experience I recommend) I was not beaten, which more than I can say for many.

The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Phone company on strike today

Phone company on strike today, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

The Voice of the Socially Excluded

Yesterday I took the opportunity to go to The Voice of the Socially Excluded conference which was held at the Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki. This was a two day event which gave various social groups such as drug uses, ethnic minorities and immigrants the chance to voice their opinions to a wider audience .

Genti Guri, an immigrant from Albania who has been in Greece for nine years spoke of being imprisoned in the country as he is obliged, like so many others to get a residence permit every two years. No problem there you might add but the procedure is long, complicated and expensive, riddled with corrupt official on the take. As a result the process can take up to two years every time, during which the person may not leave the country even for such crisis such as a death in the family.

Others such as Mustapha Serwan, a disabled immigrant originally from Afghanistan and Larisa Iasonidou, an ethnic Greek from Armenia both told of the problems faced by people trying to life in a country where who you know rather than what you know is the main determiner in getting a job and in fact, virtually every aspect of public life here.

However, the most heartrending moments were delivered by Alexandros Karasiadis, a member of a team of Greek lawyers and human rights activists who have been investigating what can only be termed Greece's hidden gulag in which asylum seekers are held for months in absolutely appalling condition in warehouses and old cow sheds with no heating, running water, access to legal services or even a phone, for that matter.

Then the immigrants are often deported from the country without the opportunity to even apply for asylum. Not that that would help much as less than three percent of such cases are approved. The border police's casual brutality and the unwillingness of Athens to follow European law or even its own legislation has drawn criticism from Amnesty international, the United Nations and many other European countries such as Germany and Sweden which have refused to return younger immigrants to Greece due to numerous allegations of ill - treatment.

The Holy Church of Our Christ Electric

The Holy Church of Our Christ Electric, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Everyone can be replaced

Everyone can be replaced, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.