“Lust flew over the city. / Some ran to defend at a minimum.

I will “steal” a verse from a poem he sent me last Sunday to introduce you to Giannis Nazlidis. Poet, artist, but above all with hands and soul in Veria’s Refinery of Ideas. The high school students who staged their play there told me that it was a “good feeling processing plant.”

Book presentations, caricature exhibitions, poetry evenings and even refreshments to discuss the years of Alexander the Great. And to think that it all started with a disaster. An endless hail that “burned” everything on the plain of Berea.

Yes, but very small. Dad, who had paid in advance for the purchase of cotton, it was impossible to return the money to the unfortunate farmers who had no production. So our ship sank and I was saved.

“An idiot with a Mercedes, with special tastes, with long trips. Fortunately, the Lord took care to keep me within the Greek borders. Elitis says: “Olive tree, sea…” If they put me in jail and give me all of Elitis, I don’t need anything else.

– And I am pleased to remember that his father, whose name was Alepudelis and who owned a soap factory, told him: “Come and take control” and told him: “Dad, I don’t want soap.” And eliminated it. And when he later received the Nobel Prize, one word from him made me cry a lot. “What a pity that you do not speak Greek and understand only 15% of what I write.”

– Languages ​​themselves are a mirror of objects. “Sorry” won’t mean “I’m giving you a seat”. Sorry, but it will say “co-space”. All words have depth. They are not verbal. These are ideas and meanings that live in the hearts of people.

– Superiority is not in the sense of “long live Greece, down with everyone else”, there is no such thing. Excellence is his humility, his sweetness. “Holy spirit, host, life-giver,” says the Church. The legacy left to the modern Greek tinsmiths.

– Yes, and I would have cheered, but not to show superiority, but to tell the truth, which the world lacks today. Classical antiquity worked to please the gods. When I went to London to visit the museum, I was hooked. How I fell in the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I saw the figurines. My God! My God! Greek art is the control of the spirit. Kandinsky said a very sweet speech: “Think of two people with an open book on their lap. In a Greek statue, a man is reading a book; in a Roman one, it is a monkey looking into a book.”

– I have no such perception. But the fact is that the Greeks went to the market not to buy canned food, but to buy … One will go to the center, talk, turn around, the other will come in. And raised the spirit. This is an amazing amount, and if the Scots were in the place of the Greeks, long live the Scots.

– To rejoice that our great-grandfathers created such a culture, this does not want to humiliate or humiliate anyone. Do you know of another culture that said, “Bring all the money and throw it to the gods”? And they built the Parthenon.

– Peter Brook comes and says: “I am a prisoner of Greek tragedies.” So when Brooke stands up and says with his head down, “We’re touching values ​​that are second to none,” that’s it, why shouldn’t I be proud of that? Not to say to a foreigner: “I am a Greek, and you are nothing”, no, by God… But it is a fact that our civilization has succeeded and gone much further. He raised the spirit every day, he said: “You are fighting, we are making the Olympic Games, and no one will raise swords …”. I am damn proud that we have such a history and such people behind us.

“The good God saw to it that I stayed within the Greek borders. Elitis says: “Olive tree, sea…” If they put me in jail and give me all of Elitis, I don’t need anything else.

– I turned 17 yesterday … I am 71 years old.

“How many times have I not promised to apologize / for the months that I was not in love. / How many times have I promised not to grow again.”

– I’ve been told so many times. What should I do for the mayor?

– A deputy told me. I don’t know if you know about the exploits of the mayor of Chile. Taxi drivers put a box in which everyone wrote their impressions. Every month the best taxi driver received a commendation. He also created a troupe of costumed carnival men who, upon seeing cars on the sidewalks, shuddered and danced around the cars. They did amazing things. I also have hundreds of such ideas.

“I said to hang five boards on the five main streets of Veria and that the children of the 3rd Lyceum write there what they would like to say to their fellow citizens. “I am so-and-so, until when will buses run to Agios Georgios?” “Anyone going to Paris?” “I’m Eleni, I studied law, I don’t have much money at home, if you are so kind, help me.” Various such extremely beautiful. I said to write on the sides of the buses: “Compatriot, what are you doing? Are you okay; Call me.”

– I wrote 3700 poems. But if someone calls me that, I will punch him in the face. When I was 16 years old, my father, who went bankrupt, worked part-time, bought a painting by Sifnay and brought it to me as a gift. And when I was a student, I received 220 drachmas a week, I gave 50 drachmas to the gallery and bought works. I bought from Sikeliotis the work “Evangelism”. I say “I’ll take it” he says “You’re crazy, do you know how much it does?” 20,000″. I say: “It doesn’t matter how much it costs, I’ll take it.” How does a Sicilian get into a gallery? I say: “Sorry, I want to take this project.” “Take my child.” “Yes, but 20,000 fit, I’m a student.” “What can we do; “. I say: “I’ll steal.” He says: “What are you?” We start, we talk, we talk… Then he says: “Costa, let’s go for 2000.” And I got it.

“I’m crazy about Lennon’s performance. They used to play for the VIPs of London, duchesses, etc. And he says: “Good evening, thank you very much for coming, I would like the last rows to give 5 euros and the first rows to give us their bracelets, their rings and their necklaces.”

– Bitclomanis since childhood. I made another good one. With Maria, my wife, we had a house in Berea, where you could hardly count less than 15 people inside. The door was open. And since it didn’t leave us alone for a minute, I wrote a sign on the door that “Mary and I decided for three days that no one would come to the house because we wanted to say something very romantic.” What I wrote was much better, but that’s the point… Dalaras calls me “choghlani”. I have known him since the 70s. I was at Berea’s student association and we invited him to come with Harula, who was meeting for the first time at the time. At the Oliva Center, he had about 500 guards. And it begins with the words: “Be patient, and the sky will become bluer.” Giorgos is a sensitive guy, a nice person.

– We had an apartment opposite the Gymnasium, a penthouse overlooking the schoolyard, and we did choreography on the balcony, 15 people. And all the students turned to the penthouse and looked at us. The bell rings, no one leaves. Teachers shout: “Come on, ring the bell”, nothing.

– Yes, sabotage in the daily repetition, which does not know how to touch the souls of people.

Book

Nazlidis is always loaded. With books, manuscripts, paintings. But this time he has only one book in his hands: Memories of Memory! “300 Berea,” he tells me outrageously, and explains: “I wrote 140 stories about the townspeople. And after I wrote them, one evening I said to my friends: “Hey guys, are these people interesting who have won people’s feelings and hearts?” And these were not mayors, prefects, policemen… And, finally, 40 people wrote to 300 people. Another wrote for five, the other for two. For Marigulo! There was a merchant’s wife who every evening dressed up in beautiful dresses, in gold, sat by the window and waited for the prince to come and steal her away. Marigolu created free myths about the city. The baker Polychronis, who had an Arabian black horse. He mounted a horse and rode up and down the city. So-so, so-so, proud horse, amazing. Erotokritos Katsavunidis and his company have now received something like the Nobel Prize in Physics for gravitational waves. I mean, think of it like a movie. Let the whole city resurrect.”

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