Got hooked with Tribal Wars....

Have you heard of Tribal Wars? Yesterday, I logged in it! It's a browser-based game set in the Middle Ages. Every player controls a small village, striving for power and glory. You can register and play the game for free! It's not addictive like the RPG ones, you can log in to your account and play whenever you want, wherever you like! Personally, I spend playing about a quarter of an hour every day, so I believe you won't spend hours in playing neither!

If you have already an account in TW, add me as a friend, my username is johntgr (like my blogspot one) and my village is called Lundenwic (after the medieval name of London) in Continent 26, World 12.

So here are two screenshots: the first one shows you an "aerial" view of my village and the second one shows the location of Lundenwic on the map.

My friend's Greg blog.... (In Greek!)

http://brainsystem.blogspot.com/

Have a look at that blog... It's about electronic music, feelings and a bit of philosophy and photoshop-processed pictures! My friend has a good sense of what art is, and proves that by his saying and artistic expression. Oh, please leave him a comment of what you thing of the blog and its posts, he will appreciate it!

The best of New York City webcams!!

Like what I did for London, it's time to present you the best of the NYC webcams - located in the heart of the city that never sleeps, and you can make out by yourself why the city got this moniker. So, let's start the tour!

1) The fifth avenue webcam:

This is a view looking up north Fifth Avenue from the southeast corner of 45th Street. A new picture is available every 5 minutes (it does not update automatically yet).

2) Three webcams located at the top of Worldwide Plaza at 8th avenue and at Weehawken, NJ:

Looking southwest and southeast from the Worldwide plaza: At the second link, notice the Times Tower and the Empire State Building.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/webcam/
http://www.wirednewyork.com/webcam2/default.htm

The next one is located at Weehawken, NJ. You can get a nice view of the Manhattan skyline and the Hudson river.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/webcam3/default.htm

3) West New York, NJ cam:

Located at the corner of 65th and Park Av., it refreshes every few minutes.

http://www.mycampage.com/wnylive

4) The Rockefeller Center cam:


Live images from the heart of the center.

http://www.rockefellercenter.com/viewer/viewer.html



5) The Little Italy Cam:

This camera is brought to you by Il Cortile Restaurant and Buona Notte Restaurant, two of the most famous Italian bistros in the heart of New York's Little Italy. Located on a rooftop at the famous Mulberry street.

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/nyc/littleitaly/

6) Webcam panoramas from the top of the ESB!

Real time panoramas from the top of the tallest and most famous skyscraper of NY, the Empire State Building! You can zoom on the images too!

http://live7.truelook.com/face/newface.jsp?name=/strends/esb&width=640&height=480&overlay=default

7) Ground Zero webcam:

Four webcams overlooking the WTC site and its progress in building the new WTC and the Freedom Tower.

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/groundzero/



8) The Colombus Circle cam:

Located in one of the most busy intersection in Manhattan - the converge of 8th avenue, the Broadway, and the Central Park South - you can make out why New Yorkers get tricked by this circular square!

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/columbuscircle/#

9) The Midtown cams:

Three cams on one page - the first one at the intersection of 8th avenue and 34th street, where the new Penn Station will be relocated. The second one features a north view of Midtown from the ESB and the last looks south from the same building:

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/midtown/

The best and the last ones! :

10) The Times Square webcams:

Known as "the crossroads of the world", Times square is always packed with people and traffic. Here you can find sixteen webcams (!!), positioned on differents spots of the square. The last four cams are located inside the Hawaiian Tropical Zone bar, but the most outstanding of them (and the best webcam in the world) is Cam 1, which is a live 24/7 streaming cam with sound, so you can also hear the bustle and hustle of the metropolis. This cam changes view automatically every few seconds, so you can spot various famous landmarks as the MTV studios, Times Square One, the TKTS booth and the Marriott Marquis Hotel. So, what you're waiting for? Go on and get a glimpse of the NY from the comfort of your couch!!

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/

Mojo's event cancelled, due to cancelled flight from Sofia!

Due to a cancelled flight from Sofia (Bulgaria experiences bad weather conditions at the moment), Paolo Mojo won't appear at Au Bar today... The event is to be postponed. Date to be announced.

I will let you know if I have any news...

Greek Webcams

It's time to show you some of the best greek webcams around. Unfortunately, Greece is well behind other countries in that matter, so you can only find few of them. Anyways, here you are:

1) Athens from the Penteli Mountain slope:

http://nifada.com/index_gr.htm

This is the webcam of Nifada (snowflake in English), a site dedicated to the weather conditions in the Athens area.

As you can see, this cam has a great view over the metropolitan athens area - it updates automatically every few seconds and you can make a picture of what the Athens sky looks like any time you want to know the weather conditions in the capital.

2) Salonica high street from a balcony

http://www.iama.gr/

Situated on a balcony over a pharmacy in the centre of Salonica, this cam shows you Egnatia avenue, the high street of the city and "Kamara", an ancient gate from the Roman times. Updates every few minutes.

3) Arillas Weather Cam - Corfu

http://www.arillas.com/webcam/weathrcam_history.html

Finally a webcam of Arillas beach in Northwestern Corfu. Updates every five minutes and it works from dawn until dusk. Especially in the dusk you can take a glimpse at the famous Corfu sunsets!

That are my favourite webcams from Greece, actually I think there are a few more working - I haven't made any research to find them, sometime I will :) That's all for now, see you!

Corfu's official chatroom On GrNet

#kerkira

The official Corfu chatroom on the Grnet Irc Network. Just open your Irc application, connect to the GrNet network and join #kerkira.

You will find me there as "Propeller^Head". There you will find people who will help you with any possible question you may have about Corfu. Also you can make good friends by chatting. Whether you are a traveller or a Corfiot, you will find this chat room useful!

This week personal chart (14/11/07 - 20/11/07)

Well, this is my current top - 10 for the week:

1) Oliver Huntemann- 37 Degrees
2) Depeche Mode- Everything Counts (Oliver Huntemann and Steven Bodzin remix)
3) Rekorder- Rekorder 10.1
4) David Guetta - Love Is Gone (Fred Rister and Joakim Garraud remix)
5) Lady Sovereign - Those Were The Days
6) Serj Tankian - Empty Walls
7) Timbaland feat. One Republic - Apologize
8) Dave Gahan - Kingdom
9) Prodigy - The Shadow
10) Kraftwerk - Aerodynamic (Hot Chips Intelligent Design mix)

London-based Paolo Mojo to appear @ Au Bar this Friday 23/11/07

A London-based progressive house DJ will be on the decks of Au Bar club this Friday for an exclusive and uplifting set, full of melodic and harsh prog tunes. If you will be at Corfu this Friday and you have nothing better to do that night, come to Au Bar and let yourself to the sounds of Paolo.

I will go to the event and I will cover it with my digital camera, so expect sometime on Saturday to post some pics and videos in this blog, like what I did for the Huntemann one.

So, keep in touch with this page!

A funny web finding (Warning: In greek only!)

LEFTA STO LEPTO - TELEMARKETING - A PRACTICAL AND INNOVATIVE WAY TO SEND MONEY TO YOUR WIFE, YOUR CHILD OR TO YOUR FRIENDS!

http://www.leftastolepto.gr/index.html

Check it out - if you understand greek and laugh till you cry!

The Philharmonic Society of Corfu - The second oldest art institution in modern Greece.

The Philharmonic Society of Corfu, known among Corfiots as "The Old Philharmonic", was established at September 1840 by some of the most prominent Corfiots of the time. Its establishment was in league with the general wave in establishing such kind of institutions which flourished in the middle of the 19th century in Europe, a fact which was well known among the Corfiots who have studied abroad.

The reason for creating such an establishment, was the react to the decision of the English administration (Corfu, as well as the other Ionian islands were under English occupation from 1812 until 1864) to prohibit the English militaty band to take part in the St. Spyridon's processions. During the 163 years of its existence, the Philharmonic played an important role in the art and culture affairs of the island.

The institution was lucky enough to have in its dynamic a great Greek composer, Nicolaos Chalikiopoulos Mantzaros. He dedicated his life to the Philarmonic until his death in 1872, teaching the youth of Corfu the fine art of music for free. Also, the band played the greek national hymn, as well as the Olympic one at the first modern Summer Olympics which took place in Athens in 1896.

Today, the institution contains a 150-people band, a 90-people youth band, a jazz band and a small symphonic orchestra. The band itself have given concerts in many places around the world, such as New York, Moscow, Copenhagen, Belgrade, Cyprus, Italy, England and in many places in Greece, like the Athens and Salonica concert halls.

The band website is http://www.fek.gr/ . Unfortunately, this website is in greek... Even if you can't understand greek, pay a visit, there are lots of photos there. Below are some of them:

My Videos from the Oliver Huntemann event!

I finally managed to upload my videos from the Huntemann event to YouTube, after several days of trying. Below are the link to each of these nine videos, taken with my Olympus camera and my K810i phone:

Shortly after Oliver got on the decks:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9oMAbmTmgS8

Rockin tune:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VuNQ6PaY-Qc

Quite interesting tune - isn't it?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-hqphnF4g5U

Mind blowing:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=L9YBJJvNjM8

True Electro:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ov1-tA703rA

Oh God! Listen to this - techno is Mayhem!:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vk2qGtu6Ngo

Another great Electro / Techno track - notice how uplifted was the crowd!:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KOa6miruVM0

Playing "37 degrees", his most famous track:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T1Pt6RWXnPo

Finally, the best track he played that night - his remix on Depeche Mode "Everything Counts"!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_UQn4kFYf8w

That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed them and make sure, if Oliver comes to your town for a gig, go! :)

My favourite tunes for the week 7/11/07 - 13/11/07

1) Depeche Mode - Everything Counts (Oliver Huntemann and Steven Bodzin remix)
2) David Guetta - Love Is Gone (Fred Rister and Joakim Garraud remix)
3) Oliver Huntemann - 37 Degrees
4) Prodigy - The Shadow
5) Dave Gahan - Kingdom
6) Kraftwerk - Aerodynamic (Hot Chips Intelligent Design mix)
7) Lady Sovereign - Those Were The Days
8) Serj Tankian - Empty Walls
9) Marilyn Manson - Heart-Shaped Glasses (When The Heart Guides The Hand) [Inhuman Remix By Jade E. Puget]
10) Swen Weber - Maya (Acid Rework mix)

East London on fire!

A blaze burst out of a warehouse in Stratford, East London (the place where most of the 2012 Olympics will take place) this morning. A huge plume of smoke came out of the burning building, situated in one of the most industrialized districts of the city, which was visible from central London and from the most of the outlying suburbs.

Hopefully most people say that the incident is not connected with any terroristic activity, though authorities say it's too early to jump into any conclusions. Below, is a picture of what the horizon looking east looked like this morning, taken from the top of a building somewhere in central London

UPDATE: I just managed to spot the exact location of the warehouse from which the blaze started, with the help of some photos and the windows live local. So here is a a print screen showing a bird eye view of the area, taken from the windows live local:

And an AA map of the area (the red spot is the location of the burned building)- It's in the east London area of Stratford (although the site is nearer the Hackney Wick area) off Waterden Street:

My A-Z London atlas shows something that the AA atlas doesn't: The new Channel tunnel rail link passes right underneath that building! Hopefully, the fire will not influence the route (first trip to Paris is scheduled for Wednesday), because the tunnel was bored at a great depth. Also there is an estate labelled as: East Cross centre right next to the burned warehouse, which after a quick research I did in google, appears to be a building which houses a collection of shops and nightspots.

GP Grand...An american-style rapper in Giannena!

It's time to present you a friend of mine from the city of Ioannina in Epirus, Gp Grand. He's up and doing rapper, he's rapping in English and in my opinion that is the reason why he stands out of other greek rappers. He comes from the Canadian province of British Columbia, but now he resides in Greece.

About Gp Grand (taken from his myspace profile) :

"Born and raised in BC Canada,and now i'v been living in Greece for 4 and a half years. Recently worked on the Greek Island of Santorini for 5 months. I've been writing lyrics since 2003, rapping for 1 year now, and just started making my own instrumentals. Started writing lyrics while seeing the changes that 2 countries have between one and other and recognizing how the difference of one culture can change a whole country, and its lifestyle. I always keep focused on even the smallest things , because those are what no one is seeing and then they always try to turn back when that small thing goes wrong for them ,but its always to late!!!... For any questions feel free to get at me, or just if u wanna chat .. thanks for taking the time to read what's written OWwww.. theres more !!! Since i can remember , i grew up playing basketball and always listening to 2pac , DMX, bone thugz and many more,,, good times on the court!! never forget!!!.. sending some love out to everyone that supported me on everything i do.. and still support me today !!!! I speak 2 languages, English and Greek.. !! they tried to teach me french for 4 years back in highschool, i never was interested in it !!! Growing up was not too much of a struggle as some rappers may have had, but ive moved across the atlantic and seen the differances, there are drastic changes from one world to the other !!!!.. For anything more contact me... stay good, and never give up."

Gp Grand Myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/gpgrand1 Make sure you pay a visit in his profile, add him as friend if you have a myspace profile and listen to the samples of his work to get an idea of what his music sounds like.

Click and watch the recorded Oliver Huntemann event!

Just click on this link and watch: http://www.corfuland.gr/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=351

The sound quality and the video are quite good - plug your earphones, pump up the volume and enjoy what you missed!

Yesterday I finally went to Oliver Huntemann and it was ace!

Oliver rocked us yesterday! He got on decks around 2.30 a.m and when we left at 5.30 a.m, he continued to play some really hard and banging progressive/electro house music. The club wasn't full, possibly due to the bad weather conditions (we had a storm last night with periods of heavy rainfall and gusty winds). Actually the club was near to being full, but that was good for us cause we had more space to move and dance.

The most amazing and recognisable track that Huntemann played last night was his remix on Depeche Mode classic "Everything Counts", which took us to heaven!

To conclude, Oliver worthed the 10 euro admission that we paid, he worths even 20 euros, cause he played much like any other more famous dj - his sound has quality and power!

Here is the link from which you can download the photos and the videos from the event: http://www.sendspace.com/file/5e4gqp There are all into a single .rar, around 80 mb in size.

Kanoni - The first and most famous corfiot resort

I decided on early September to do a big stroll with my bicycle around the Garitsa and Kanoni districts of Corfu town. The weather was sunny and very warm, we hadn't already passed on to the fall.

Kanoni is a suburb situated south of the town, in a peninsula where the ancient town of Corfu was, easily reached by the bus line Mantouki - Kanoni (passes through the town centre as well). It's a mere 3 km distance to the tip of the Kanoni peninsula where the famous Vlaherna church and the Mouse island are situated.

So, let's go to the tour. I followed the internal bay road which leads to Kanoni. Behind the road, there is a district called Garitsa, followed south-easternwards by another minor district called Anemomylos. Both, together with Mantouki, were the first real suburbs of Corfu Town, developed in the 17th - 18th century.

Here it's a Google Earth satellite image of Corfu Town and Kanoni area, in which I drew with Photoshop the route I followed. Excuse me for my poor Photoshop skills!

I passed by the remnants of an old building on the internal bay road, probably a hotel.

A picture of a charachteristic section of the Garitsa bay internal road:

After cycling some hundreds yards, I found a very old church, probably 400 or 500 years old. Forget me but I can't recall its name...

In the Anemomylos district, there is the oldest still running and the most famous church after one of the St. Spyridon (Corfu's patron saint), the Iasonas and Sosipatros Church. It is dated from the Byzantine years, so actually it's one thousand years old! It is fully renovated and services are being held every Sunday.

Turning right from the bay road, you will get into the main road to Kanoni. In the beginnings of that road, on your right hand you will find an old villa, probably over one hundred years old. It's called "Kokotos Villa", named after its the owner. Some people say it is spooked, personally I haven't heard any remarkable story or experience about this fame. Here is a picture of the house, taken behind the lattice-work.

The Kanoni road is very narrow and it's an one-way street as a result of its narrowness.

Also the area continues to experience a non-stop built-up, with new houses and apartment buildings been built year after year.


The road still continues for about one kilometre till reaching the tip of the peninsula.

In the last photo, you can see on the right side the beginning of a minor road leading to the marshes near the airport's runway. Following that road, you will meet a tiny church, built in the traditional corfiot style, as well as a football stadium.



Back on the main road, after 500 metres you will finally get to the tip of the Kanoni peninsula. There, you can see the famous Vlaherna church and the Mouse island. It was and still is, the most recognisable image of Corfu worldwide. When I was taking photos of the place, an aeroplane was landing, flying above Mouse island and Vlaherna church. I have to notice that the Corfu's airport runway starts right after the Vlaherna and the pedestrian bridge which connects Kanoni with the village of Perama. Especially in summers, you can stand in the middle of the bridge and wait for a plane to pass over your head. The experience worths any waiting!

Going back from the tip, we finally follow the ascending road which leads back to the town. That road offers us some great views of the Vlaherna and Mouse island, as well as the runway.

When the road going back to the town reaches the highest elevation, there are some big hotels, such as Hotel Royal (in the following picture - its name echoes the former grandeur), Hilton Hotel (now Corfu Holiday Hotel) and some other lesser known ones.

The entrance of a secluded villa.

Another photo with a view which someone can get by driving the main road to Town. You can see the Runway, the football stadium and the two masts of television antennas.

On that road, there are some really cool houses like that one:

These are the ruins of the oldest church ever built on the island: the old basilica in the ancient town. Archeologists say that the basilica was built somewhere between the 2nd of 3rd century A.D., making it a very important finding for christianity and Corfu.

Finally, the road leads you back to the Anemomylos district where we can get some real cool views towards the sea and Corfu town.