Corfu: A Tale Of Two Islands

   An ITV documentary following the lives of expats and tourists enjoying the attractions of the Greek island.    

Episode: 1/8

  Tucked away in this jolly film about the lives of expats on Corfu is an extraordinary snippet. It is, according to Mary (a Shirley Valentine who arrived in 1980 as a holiday rep and married taverna owner Nico) cheaper to order certain food online from a UK supermarket and pay someone to deliver it than buy it locally. Such is the state of the Greek economy, even olive oil is cheaper.  The rest of the documentary focuses on the work of wedding planner Sally, another rep who stayed, although she didn’t marry because of her fiance’s fiercely traditional attitude to women.

Episode: 2/8

Marcus sells and develops multimillion pound, beachfront properties. He’s profiting from Corfu’s shift in industry from the agriculture that dominated the economy up until the 60’s, to tourism today. But as the island grows more popular it is becoming increasingly difficult to track down the picture-perfect plot.
Marcus’s most recent client is Oxfordshire housewife Susie who, along with husband Mark, has scoured Corfu for the perfect retreat from the stresses of life in the UK.
Further inland in the shadow of the “The Almighty”, Mount Pantokrator, lies a village where one couple are trying to reinvigorate the old ways. Mark Hendriksen and his Dutch wife Saskia Bosch fell in love with the abandoned village of Old Perithia while on holiday. The pair have now started an ambitious project to breathe life back into the idyll, and the first step is to get theirBoutique B&B up and running.

Episode 3/8:

This episode focuses on Bernard and Heather, who are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary during their annual holiday. Also featured are Tim and Victoria, who love Corfu so much they built their own house there, and a couple of pop stars looking to make it big.



Episode 4/8:

The series meets 17-year-old Abi who is finding it hard to get work over the summer season and an ex-antique dealer from Kensington attempting to live the artistic dream in Corfu. The show also meets Scarlett who came to Corfu on holiday and never went back home.



Episode 5/8:

A hotel manager feels the impact of the economic downturn and a group of tourists takes a trip to Kavos in memory of a deceased friend. Plus, the story of a boat-mad Brit who lives life in the fast lane.



Episode 6/8:

A barrister considering a permanent move to Corfu, a man enjoying life in its agricultural heartland and a club promoter who has spent the past five years working in the lively resort of Kavos.



Episode 7/8:

Landscape architects Alithea and Marcus, and entrepreneur Trevor, who is launching his new venture in Kavos. Lucy, who only intended to complete one season in Corfu as a holiday rep but fell in love with a local, decided to stay.



Episode 8/8: 

 In the final episode, Lisa and Marc explain why they have spent their last 17 holidays at the same resort. Plus, Tanya talks about her success in the Kavos tattoo trade since relocating from Kent, and Mary reveals why her children are having to move abroad. 

"Carmina Burana" in the OId Fortress

   Yesterday there was a great concert inside the Old Fortress. The Greek State S.O. in collaboration with the  local municipal choir "San Giacomo" presented Carl Orff's masterpiece "Carmina Burana". Although I did not attend the concert, it should have been an amazing event. More than three thousand people attended, filling in the esplanade in front of Saint George neoclassical church.
  There are two videos of "O Fortuna" (the most famous part from "Carmina Burana") below. As you can see, the atmosphere was amazing. It was a really unique event for our island.

Vivaldi's "Juditha Triumphans" oratorio by the Philharmonic Society of Corfu

   On August 11th, Corfu celebrates the abandon of the turkish siege of 1716 which was very crucial for the european history. On that day a tremendous thunderstorm forced the turks to break the siege and leave the island. The locals believe that it was St. Spyridon that saved the island from the muslims.
  The doge, in order to commemorate the victory, commisioned the famous venetian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi to compose a musical piece dedicated to this important event. He eventually composed "Juditha Triumpans", a war oratorio. The plot takes place in ancient Israel where Judith, a young Jewish widow, behead Assirian general Holofernes saving the country from the assyrian king Nebuchadrezzar. Judith's victory is an allegory of Venice defeating the invading turks in Corfu.
  This year, Philharmonic Society of Corfu symphonic wind band performed the famous "Arma, caedes, vindictae, furores" part from the oratorio. On the solo trumpets: Andreas Riggas and Aggelos Protopsaltis.

A lecture about the 1716 siege of Corfu (in greek)

   Professor George Zoumpos gave recently a lecture at the palace's gardens about the great siege of Corfu which took place in 1716. This important battle is commemorated every August the 11th with the litany of St. Spyridon who, according to the local religious beliefs, saved the island from the ottoman turks.
  During this one hour-long lecture, mr. Zoumpos is giving us a detailed discussion about the siege after many years of personal research.

A special concert featuring only percussion instruments

  Last Monday in the front of Town Hall there was a special concert given by Philharmonic Society of Corfu's percussionists. They performed a wide range of pieces, some of them directed by the dutch percussionist and music teacher Ruud Mourik.
  Below there are two videos from Monday's concert. In the first one, a group of percussionists who back in 1994 performed the first rhythmic solo for percussion while giving a marching show at the Esplanade. The second one is the well-known "Sabel dance" by Khacharturian performed by xylophones, metallophones and other percussion instruments.

The Philharmonic Society of Corfu & Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" junior band concerts at "Plakada Tou Agiou" square

   Last Friday 20th of July and yesterday, 23rd of July the junior bands of the Philharmonic Society of Corfu and the Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" respectively gave two marvellous concerts at the Plakada tou Agiou square demonstrating to corfiots and tourists alike the high quality of music education in Corfu.
  The young musicians performed a wide selection of music with passion and dedication and were warmly being applauded by the public each time a musical piece ended.
  I would like to congratulate them for those great concerts, the future belongs to them! Corfuweb1 was there and uploaded five videos from the concerts. Hope you will like them.

"Indiana Jones Raiders March" by the Philharmonic Society of Corfu junior band




Ruud Mourik's "City Hopper Marsch" by the Philharmonic Society of Corfu junior band




"Cine...Manos" by the Philharmonic Society of Corfu junior band



"The Mantzaros theme" by the Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" junior band




"Come back to Sorrento" by the Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" junior band

An adaption of Monty Pythons' "Bright Side of Life" shot in Corfu

  The song is the greek version of Monty Pythons "Bright Side of Life" by the band "Makrina Xadelfia". The video represents the song's lyrics in the greek sign language. It is a really good idea to shot a video of such a happy song in the sign language around Corfu Town. We would like to thank them for this iniciative. Enjoy!

 

Another music videoclip shot in Corfu: 2Carat feat. BigJay - Sinanay 2012

   Not my kind of music but I like this video just because it was shot in our favourite island, Corfu. The video seems to had been taped in a tourist resort and in some beaches which I can't recognize. The group comes from Germany and they sing in german.
  Can any german speaker translate the lyrics in english for us please?


 

Greek Sun Chasers feat. Ivan Baskakov - Falling Away

   This is a summer dance song composed by two good friends of mine. The video was filmed in Chania, Creta. Please share the video with your friends. 
The video's URL: http://youtu.be/CgF_ZKRAzi4

Α little concert with songs by the corfiot composer Giorgos Katsaros

   Yesterday the Philharmonic Society of Corfu performed four famous songs of the well-known corfiot composer Giorgos Katsaros.
    First song was "Kathe Limani Kai Kaimos".



Then, "Kithira"...



...and finally, "To Petinari" and "Kerkyra me to Pontikonissi" originally sung by the old corfiot actress Rena Vlachopoulou





All videos taken from CorfWeb1 channel in YouTube.

The C.U.L.T.U.R.E project video about Corfu's historic centre

   Most of you already may know that the old Corfu town is a monument protected by UNESCO. Recently, the municipality of Corfu published a video funded by the organization and the E.U. about the protection and enhacement of the cultural identity of  the historical urban center. In the video, the neglect and indifference of the local authorities and a large part of the residents is discussed who don't appreciate this unique historic core, one of its kind in Greece and in Europe as a whole.

   The video is very interesting. The views of some locals who love their town and feel sad about its deterioration are expressed  and share their ideas on what should be done in order the beautiful historic centre become alive again.

Corfiot Easter 2012 - a video compilation

   Ι made this compilation of videos that I found on the net to show to the world how special is our Easter festivities and traditions.

   The first video shows the traditional easter carrols performed by the Mantzaros Philharmonic Society on Easter Monday:



   The epitaph (funeral procession) of Saint George's church in the Old Fortress:



   The Philharmonic Society of Corfu performing the famous Albinoni's Adagio at the epitaph of the Cathedral (Mitrópoli):



   At the epitaph of Saint Spyridon which takes place on Easter Saturday morning, the Kapodistrias Philarmonic Union performs the funeral march from Beethoven's Third Symphony (Heroica) while the Philharmonic Society of Corfu performs Franco Faccio's "Hamlet":





   The so called "First Resurrection" takes place at 11 a.m. with the throwing of clay pots ("mpotides") from the windows: 



   Also at the very same moment, another custom takes place: that of "Mastela". A guy dives into a barrel of water which is full of coins thrown by passerbys and he collects them:



   At 12 p.m., the Philharmonic Society of Corfu gave a marching show attended by hundreds of spectators:



  At midnight, after the Resurrection an amazing fireworks show brightens the skies. Afterwards, the bands parade in the streets of old town playing the "Graikoi" march and giving shows by their percussion teams:







   The procession of Resurrection of "Panaya ton Ksenon" church on Easter Sunday morning: 




  The Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" performing Kritikos "Marcia Trionfale" at the procession of Resurrection of Saint Spyridon:


 


   - Read more about what is happening during the Holy Week in Corfu here: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-in-corfu.html

Philarmonic Society of Corfu yesterday's Easter concert

   Yesterday, the band which I'm a proud member of, gave a marvellous concert at the Municipal theatre performing pieces by Verdi, Purcell, John Williams and many more. There were three soloists: trumbetist Dimitris Agathos, clarinetist Aggelos Politis and percussionist Marios Mouzakitis. The last one played a segment from Ney Rosauro's "Concert for Timpani and Band" which was really impressive and unusual because most of people think that doesn't exist concerts for percussion.
  Below, there are three of the pieces performed, uploaded today by a user named lisistratos62 on YouTube. The first one is Purcell's "Concert for trumpet", the second is Hellmesberger "Devil Dance" (usually perfomed by the Vienna S.O.) and the last one is the segments from Rosauro's concert for timbani.







  It was a great night packed with melody, rhythm and styles from distinct eras proving that corfiot bands' artistic level is quite high.

The Mirtiotissa beach paradise

   Recently, a greek travellers site called Voyager-tv uploaded to its YouTube channel a marvellous video demonstrating the beauty of Mirtiotissa beach a paradise for nudists and for those who love secluded beaches.
I have heard that Mirtiotissa had been voted as one of the most beautiful beaches worldwide. By seeing the video you can see why it got that dinstinction.

This year's "Sunday of Orthodoxy" litany

   Last Sunday, the greek orthodox church celebrated the "Sunday of Orthodoxy" (known as well as "feast of Orthodoxy"). In Corfu we celebrate it with the litany of St. Theodora's relics around the old town accompanied by the philharmonic bands, numerous schools and the scouts.
   That day the weather was great. It was sunny and warm so lots of people decided to come to old town centre to watch the litany. Below, there are two videos covering the whole procession, courtesy of corfweb1 channel in YouTube.

A documentary about our patron saint

   Here is an interesting documentary about Corfu's patron Saint Spyridon, originally produced and broadcasted on an ukranian channel but translated in greek by a local channel. By watching it you can tell how important is our saint in our lives and how much we love him.



-For a Saint Spyridon's bio, read this post: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-saint-spyridons-day.html

Bizet and Joplin at the theatre

   Tonight the Philharmonic Society of Corfy symphonic orchestra gave a wonderful concert. A diverse selection of music works were skillfully performed like the Rodion Shchedrin/Bizet "Carmen" suite and Gunther Schuller "Journey to Jazz". Four ragtimes, specifically arranged for symphonic orchestra were presented, including Scott Joplin's "The entertainer" theme heard in the famous 1973 american film "The Sting".
  Here are three short videos from tonight's concert. The first two are taken from the "Carmen" suite while the last one is "The entertainer" ragtime.

A 90s greek videoclip shot around Corfu Island

    Kostas Bigalis, a known greek singer who has a series of hits back in the 90s, had shot the video for his 1995 song "Varkáda" ("Boating ride") in various corfiot locations like old Corfu town, Kanoni and Kaiser's bridge near Benitses. 
   It is a nice happy summer song, back from the era when greek pop music was flourishing and unpretending. Here is the rare video:

Merry Christmas from John!

  I wish to all my readers Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012 filled with peace and prosperity. I hope to see you all in our beautiful island next year!

Here are three videos from a christmas concert given by the Corfu conservatory's children choir and the brass ensemble in the catholic cathedral of San Giacomo. In the first one, the choir is singing the famous spanish carol "Feliz Navidad" while in the last two the brass ensemble is perfomorming "Christmas swing" and a selection of corfiot and other greek carols.

A concert in honour of our patron saint

  Today our island celebrates its patron saint, Saint Spyridon who has helped Corfu and many people in many occasions. In order to honour him, every year on December the 12th, the Philharmonic Society of Corfu is giving a concert in its own mini concert hall on Nikiforou Theotoki street. The hall is always full of people waiting for the concert to start.
  Below, there are three videos from today's concert.