I'm ready. Are you ready? Let's go!

Watching the 100m dash on TV last night from the world championships, in the same stadium in Berlin where 73 years ago Jesse Owens made sporting and world history, left me speechless, jaw-dropped and misty eyed. Some hours after the event my own words still fail me but I wanted to make this entry today because something worth blogging about has taken place. Something momentous. The best I can do is make a little collection of quotes.

"When Bolt ran 9.69 secs last summer in Beijing, even that seemed an impossible time. To take another 11 hundredths of a second off that defies logic, history and everyone else's biology." - Tom Fordyce, BBC Sport

"The Earth stopped for a second, and he went to Mars." - Maurice Green, former 100m world champion and world record holder

"We've never seen anything like him, and I'm not sure we'll ever see anything like him again." - Michael Johnson, former 100m world champion and world record holder

"I ran the best I could but it was not enough. I believe I put in a championship performance and I am very pleased with the national record. I'm happy he ran 9.5 because I knew he could do it. I'm happy for him." - Tyson Gay, reigning world champion coming into last night's final and US record holder

"Jesse made history here, so I'm going to try to do the same" - Usain Bolt before the race

"I'm ready. Are you ready? Let's go!" - Usain Bolt at the camera seconds before the start of the race

Remembering Athens

The mind moves in mysterious ways. For some reason these last few days I have really been thinking about one of my favourite music groups. The long now defunct Stereo Nova. Greece's first electronic outfit to have an impact beyond the club scene and one of my first personal forays into the exotic and wonderfully alien landscapes of electronic music. I think Stereo Nova as a group of artists and as a body of work would be a great subject for many a blog entry but I'd like to keep this one about just one specific song, and just one special memory.

It was August 2004, the day the Olympic games were starting in the city of Athens. I was in London working at the estate agency and because of work I missed the bulk of the most talked about opening ceremony of recent times and I think, even after Beijing, the one most people still consider the best. So because of work I missed a lot of the spectacular set pieces that blew people's minds away and was back just in time for the Parade of the Athletes. Greece took a great risk with this by employing a DJ to do a live mix. I thought it was a great idea, I was just a little less thrilled with the choice of DJ. Trance superstar Tiesto's two hour set was a great success and made for what by most people was the best (or least boring athletes' parade). Not by me though as euphoric trance is just not my cup of tea.

So here I was sitting through this all the while thinking, why couldn't you just commission a Greek DJ who would do a much better job for a lot less money. More specifically I was thinking why couldn't they get Konstantinos Vita of Stereo Nova to do this? So after many hours of Tiesto's muzac, after every single athlete had his moment in the stadium ... after the lighting of the cauldron (which was very good by the way), when the big firework and light show starts, when it's all about finished ... I hear the first notes of Opalita. One of the best pieces of work by Konstantinos Vita (essentially one half of Stereo Nova) sampling Nena Venetsanou's singing from Manos Hadjidakis' "Ela pare mou tin lypi" (Come take my sorrow away) from 1958 over very intense drum n' bass. The repeated mantra in the song "Eisai ena peristeri pou peta ston ourano, pame na vroume ena asteri s'ena kosmo makryno" (You are a dove flying in the sky, let's go find a star in a faraway world) seemed very appropriate as the music, alongside the lights and the firework explosions was simply out of this world.

I have searched long and hard for a youtube clip of this and finally I found one but it doesn't quite do it justice as the sound is very bad and the take is from outside the stadium which even though breathtaking, is simply not as intense as the shots from inside the stadium I remember from the BBC. I will include it here anyway though. Following that I will put a link so you can at least listen to the song in its full glory. Hope you enjoy:



Konstantinos Vita - Opalita

Larnaca Salt Lake 24th January 2009

Cyprus has been having a very bad drought for the last several years. A seriously bad drought ... we only have running water 3-4 times a week. Rain is a very rare occurrence, even in the winter, so this morning was a very special one. After having enjoyed several cups of tea, listening to my favourite techno and looking outside my window, I decided to make the most of my Saturday morning by going for a drive to the Salt Lake. And who better to go with than my beloved godchild. The little darling not only wasn't phased by the rain but on the contrary she was quite keen to come along and she enjoyed herself immensely.

I took some pictures with my little all-purpose 100 dollar Nikon, wishing I had a better camera to do justice to the glorious scenery, but I was still glad I at least had that. Anyway ... here's some of the pictures I took:

Flamingos at the Salt Lake

The Hala-Sultan Tekke mosque

She's my queen.

Flamingos on the other side of the lake

The little darling

Flamingos moving along.


One last picture

Watamu Beach

I wrote a bunch of stuff about this piece of music and how it makes me feel and what it makes me think about etc etc but in the end when it came to publishing it, i wondered if any of it was necessary, and thought that it probably wasn't.

So please, just listen. Words could never do it justice.

Moritz von Oswald - Watamu Beach Rework