photos taken at Knossos:
Category Archives: AK - Blog 2011 - Page 3
Sunday, September 4, 2011 — The Prince of the Lilies
We spent the night sleeping fitfully on the deck of the Olympic Champion, and docked at Iraklion at dawn. The first bus to Knossos would not depart for a while, so we spent the early morning walking in the center of the city, which still has its Venetian wall intact. Ottoman rule seems to have left little architectural influence on the city, but the centuries of Italian rule clearly did. There was also a nice early Byzantine church. Over the centuries, it had been converted to a mosque, then to a Catholic church, then restored to the Orthodox rite. Very simple in plan, it quite nicely preserves the origins of the Christian church in the Roman municipal office building (basilica). Read more »
Saturday, September 3, 2011 — Athens Redux
The first things we noticed about Athens were the unmistakable signs of a police state. Cops everywhere, in gear more appropriate to an invading army, sometimes toting machine guns. Parked near the University, and around Syntagma Square, were the riot wagons — sinister armoured buses full of gas masks (clearly visible through the slit windows) and god knows what dissent-crushing tools. On a back street, we found a home-made monument to a sixteen-year-old shot by the cops. The city is dirty and run down. The Metro is closed “for repairs”, but actually for a strike. Most people look like they’re grudgingly marking time rather than planning for the future. I saw more ragged people, addicts openly plunging needles into their flesh, and desperate-looking young men than I’ve seen in any European city. Read more »
Friday, September 2, 2011 — There ain’t no justice on the Areopagus
Thursday, September 1, 2011 — On the Road Again
Tomorrow, I’ll be in Greece. I’ll be meeting my stalwart friend, Filip Marek, in Athens, and shortly after, we’ll head for Crete.
Anyone who knows me is aware that, for most of my life, I’ve has personal fascination with ancient Minoan civilization. My living room wall displays a large framed print of the “palace” of Knossos, as somewhat imaginatively reconstructed by N. Gouvousis. The older version of this website was decorated with an iconic Minoan mural. I’ve always preferred the fluid, sensuous Minoan and Mycenaean art styles, with their domestic and nature-oriented themes, to the more rigid and often militaristic styles of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The mythological story of Theseus, defeating a tyranny by entering the labyrinth (a fairly obvious metaphor for the search for knowledge), and fighting the monstrous Minotaur, finds its way into my writing in various forms. I would count myself a failure in life if I did not at least once set my foot down on the site of the real Knossos. Now, fortuitous circumstances allow me to do this, and to spend some time exploring less popular archaeological sites, and the back country of Greece. Read more »
Image of the month: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Hugh Marlow and Joan Taylor in the 1956 science fiction film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. While it was in a naive attempt to cash in on the newborn flying saucer cult — a pseudoscience which most professional science fiction writers looked at with derision — it nevertheless had a fairly good script, decent performances, and superb special effects by stop-action animator Ray Harryhausen. Those affects are the main reason the film remains popular to this day. The final scene in which the flying saucers demolish Washington D.C. is a delight.