Tolis Aristeidou

Tolis Aristeidou of Greece will return to Los Angeles February 22-26
as part of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) Gold Stars’ Tour. The International Visitors Council of Los Angeles (IVCLA) arranged his initial visit to Los Angeles in 2009 as an IVLP participant, making connections that included meetings with Justice by Uniting in Creative Energy (JUiCE) and DVA Media + Marketing.

During his return visit to Los Angeles, Aristeidou will reunite with some of the connections that made an impact on his work back home, as well as meet with new professional resources in Los Angeles. In addition, he will visit local high schools to talk about his important work bringing hip-hop to underprivileged youth throughout Greece and the Balkans.

Aristeidou is the director and exclusive organizer of the Balkan Break Dance Competition “Battle of the Year – Balkans.” Aristeidou is well-connected to the youth community in Greece and urban street culture phenomena. He understands and connects to young people, often underserved and inner city groups,
through new and innovative ways. He organizes events to bring together young people from all over the Balkans, promoting mutual understanding and tolerance for other cultures. In his role as director, he is the main developer for break dance events and festivals in Greece and the Balkans. His office also organizes dance seminars, film screenings, dance-theater events, hip hop concerts, graffiti exhibits, and other events related to the hip hop culture.

The counterparts he met in the U.S. in 2009 have almost all become close contacts that he reaches out to for events and ideas. In particular, his meeting with the representative of Hip Hop International (the organizers of the largest and most prominent international Hip Hop dancing competition in the world) resulted in an immediate partnership between the two companies. Within a year after his return to Greece, Tolis organized the first Hip Hop International – Greece competition in Athens, with a record 25 dance groups participating and competing – this included groups from across Greece as well as Cyprus. With the support of the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Tolis brought top American Hip Hop dancers Eddie Styles and King Saso to judge the competition. The top two groups went to Las Vegas last summer to represent Greece for the first time in the Hip Hop International competition. This came just six months after he brought top U.S. breakers Bboy Ronnie and Rockadile to judge a national Greek breakdance contest and lead a workshop that also promoted healthy, drug-free living. His IVLP program also connected him with some of the top Hip Hop impresarios in the U.S. leading to a constant stream of American talent being invited to participate in his events.

The Gold Stars’ Tour is for alumni of the IVLP who made an impact in their community or on the world as a result of their experience in the United States. Aristeidou has been selected as one of two gold star alumni among thousands of nominated individuals. Through this special initiative, IVLP gold star alumni are recognized for their excellence as citizen diplomats through IVLP-inspired initiatives abroad and for demonstrated leadership in their local communities.

About the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP)
The International Visitor Leadership Program is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program, connecting current and emerging foreign leaders with their American counterparts through short-term programs to build mutual understanding on foreign policy issues. Nearly 200,000 distinguished individuals have participated in the program, including 330 current and former Chiefs of State and Heads of Government, and thousands of leaders from the public and private sectors.

About the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles (IVCLA)
IVCLA has been working since 1980 to increase international understanding and communication in the Los Angeles area by arranging personal exchanges between emerging international leaders and the citizens of the Los Angeles region. IVCLA coordinates programs for participants in the U.S. Department of State sponsored International Visitor Leadership Program, as well as other publicly and privately sponsored international visitors. The programs provide the visitors with insight on how we live and work,
and local Citizen Diplomats with a better understanding about the rest of the world.

The team of scientists, including Greek-American UCLA Professor Vassilis Angelopoulos, using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft, discovered that the missing electrons are being swept away from the planet by a tide of solar wind particles during periods of heightened solar activity.

During powerful solar events such as coronal mass ejections, parts of the magnetized outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere crash onto Earth’s magnetic field, triggering geomagnetic storms capable of damaging the electronics of orbiting spacecraft.

These cosmic squalls have a peculiar effect on Earth’s outer radiation belt, a doughnut-shaped region of space filled with electrons so energetic that they move at nearly the speed of light.

“During the onset of a geomagnetic storm, nearly all the electrons trapped within the radiation belt vanish, only to come back with a vengeance a few hours later,” said Vassilis Angelopoulos, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences, and IGPP researcher.

Key observational data used in this study was collected by a network of NASA spacecraft known as THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms); Angelopoulos is the principal investigator of the THEMIS mission. Additional information was obtained from two groups of weather satellites called POES (Polar Operational Environmental Satellite) and GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite).

Vassilis Angelopoulos was born in 1965 and graduated from the Physics Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1986, obtaining his PhD in Physics from UCLA, with specialization in Space Plasma Physics in 1993, having obtained a scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation.

(Sources: Pathfinder, UCLA Newsroom)

The featured lecturer will be Dr. Stergios Skarpedas. Dr. Skaperdas is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Irvine. Born in Greece, he was awarded a BA in Economics from Reed College and both MA and PhD degrees, also in Economics, from Johns Hopkins University. He has received numerous academic distinctions and is a member of many think tanks. His research has been published in various economics and political science journals. Dr. Skaperdas’ recent New York Times article, “ How to Leave the Euro ,” promotes the idea that the sooner Greece leaves the Euro, the better for its economy.

The event starts at 4:00 pm and dinner will be served at 5:00 pm. The lecture will commence at 6:00 pm followed by a Q&A session. Cost to attend the Dinner will be $40. RSVP and tickets are available online at the American Hellenic Council website, or for reservations call 323-651-3507.

HSOC President Mike Begakis (right) with his brother Nick (left)

On Saturday, Jan 14th, the Hellenic Society of Constantinople will hold its annual Dinner Dance at the Wilshire Country Club. This will be the 45th consecutive year that the organization “cut” its vassilopita. The Hellenic Society of Constantinople was founded by a group of Greek Americans who came to the US from Istanbul for a better future. Every year the organization honors a person of Greek descent who has promoted Greek heritage. This year the organization will honor the philanthropist and LTC Properties Chairman Andre Dimitriadis with the annual Yianni Begakis Award. The goal of the Gala is to raise funds for charity organizations of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The cost of the ticket is one hundred and twenty five dollars, and checks may be made payable to The Hellenic Society of Constantinople.

Where:Wilshire Country Club (301 N. Rossmore Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90004).
Date & Time: Jan 15th 2012 – 5.30pm
RSVP: For reservations or more information feel free to call,
Mary Morrison (818)500-0904, Jeanete Benetatos (323)660-5707

Can you sense the sarcasm in my voice? Don’t get me wrong I have lived the whole “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” story with my father working at four different Greek diners and my mother telling me every day of my life to find “a nice Greek boy to marry.” But I don’t think, I can say that every Greek-American reading this believes the same thing, that this is not the way to promote Greece. The person responsible for this brilliant idea is the deputy minister of tourism and culture Mr. George Nikitiadis. His idea goes as follows, to grab a bunch of Greek artists put their work on these placemats, which as well know that these very same placemats get crumbled, doodle and wipe off everybody’s spills and leftover food daily. The sad part is not just the idea but that commercial sponsors from Greece, like ΟΠΑΠ and the restaurant association are giving money for this idea to blossom and come alive.

About 6 million euro’s are being given for 7 million throwaway placemats to be printed and distributed to diners across America. It doesn’t end here also plastic throwaway cups are going to be given to the customers of these diners as well. What happened to posters, art exhibits with various Greek or Greek-American artists, concerts and dance festivals to raise money to promote Greece? You can just shoot a commercial in Astoria, Queens in New York City and you have your promotion right there.

I might be the only one angry and annoyed about this “awesome”, “brilliant”, “extraordinary”, and “wonderful” tourism idea but I believe Greece deserves better than throwaway placemats and plastic cups, especially in the times that we are in now.

The award will be presented in December 2011 at the IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom) 2011 in Houston, Texas. Globecom, the annual flagship conference for the IEEE COMSOC, is the premier telecommunications event for industry professionals, academics, companies and government agencies around the world.

Dimakis is an assistant Professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. He has been a faculty member at USC since 2009. He received the Diploma degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 2003, and the M.S. and Ph.D. in 2005 and 2008 respectively in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for the Mathematics of Information (CMI) at Caltech from 2008 to 2009. He received the Eli Jury award in 2008 for his thesis work on codes for distributed storage, two outstanding paper awards, the UC Berkeley Regents Fellowship and the Microsoft Research Fellowship. He recently received a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). His research interests include communications, coding theory, signal processing, and networking, with a current focus on distributed storage, network coding, large-scale inference and message passing algorithms.

Alexander “Sandy” Sawchuk, Systems Chair of the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, said: “our faculty join me in congratulating Alex Dimakis for the 2010 IEEE COMSOC Technical Committee on Data Storage Best Paper Award. It is a notable affirmation of the quality and significance of his research.”

The event was hosted at a West Coast hotel and included among others the presentation of traditional products and wines, lectures on the therapeutic attributes of olive oil and the Chios mastic, a demonstration of cooking Greek recipes by Greek chef Elias Skoulas, who has travelled to the USA especially for the occasion, and a Greek cuisine lunch with gourmet Greek delicacies.

The opening gala was attended by representatives from companies importing food products, distributors and several experts on food issues. During the gala, Greek delicacies and wines were offered, as well as informative material and gifts with sample of traditional Greek products, such as mastic and olive oil.

General Consul of Greece to San Francisco Mr. Ioannis Andreadis delivered a welcoming speech, while composers Minos Matsas and Alex Grapsas performed classic Greek songs on the piano.

Furthermore, Greek researchers from the UC Davis University Mrs. Eleni Melliou and Mr. Prokopis Magiatis presented the findings from recent studies on the important role olive oil and mastic from the island of Chios can play in human health.

Tell us about your Greek roots.

I was born and raised in California. My father is from Kefalonia and my American-born mother has roots in Sidirokastro near Thessaloniki and Simiades near Tripolis. I spent all my summers in Greece, mostly in Kefalonia. The rest of the year, my time was filled with Greek School, Sunday School, GOYA, basketball and more. We went to Holy Cross Church in Belmont. I was also very involved in Greek folk dance, from 4 years-old through college. I got involved with the Greek Orthodox Folk Dance Festival in LA, and for years helped organize the festival. My husband and school would prompt a move to LA, where we now live. For a time I directed a Greek dance group in LA. I’ve taught Greek School at the Saint Sophia Cathedral in LA.

You couldn’t find the invitations you liked. What did you do?

I took some courses at the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA, so I could learn more about this craft. There, they had every single letterpress ever made. It was so cool. I attended classes on weekends, and met someone there who could help me print my invitations, once I designed them. We spent considerable time there, printing 200 wedding invitations – five pieces with two colors each. I really enjoyed the entire process. It was great to see the results of what I’d created. Nothing like this ever existed. I was so excited, so I started the business.

What kind of work are you doing?

I started out doing work for friends, and then began designing Christmas cards, and it took off from there. I’ve met a lot of Greek brides from around the world; a lot of Greek brides in Germany, Singapore. I’ve also worked with quite a few brides who were not Greek, but were marrying Greek, and felt it important to keep the Greek as a part of their wedding.

The website is my portfolio, and all jobs start there. Wedding work is typically all custom. Brides tell me their colors, theme, what they are looking for, then I create something and we tweak it together. I also design invitations for bridal showers, baby showers, baptisms, any sort of invitation desired, as well as greeting cards. When I’m not super busy with custom work, I develop more greeting cards. I sell the ready-made line of greeting cards on Etsy. There you can find holiday cards, thank you cards, and more.

You’re pretty much self-taught.

I have no formal training in design. I always loved to draw and paint, do crafts.

You work in PR too.

As the business is building, I still work part time for a small PR agency in LA. I have a Master’s in Public Relations and a BA in Communications. My clients are all architects and designers, which is a great environment for me.  It’s fun to work with them, since I understand the creative process and what they are going through, how it all works together.

What’s up with Goddess of the Hunt?

A couple of years ago, I was featured on their site, and I kept in touch with editor Dana Siomkos. We’ve developed a line of prints that have to do with the graffiti in Athens. Dana got some photos from Greece this summer and I turned them into line art. We’re selling them in the ‘Goddess’ boutique.

What else is new?

We’re selling a lot of Greek and English Christmas cards. I’m getting a lot of custom orders for photo cards, too. I’ve also developed a line of prints of different islands. They’re maps, 5×7 flat prints. We’re getting a lot of requests to add more islands.

Writing cards is still important.

These days, everyone is sending email or communicating on Facebook and Twitter, however, sending Christmas cards and writing cards is important. Written communication is still very important.

Watch the video of the making of the graffiti prints.

Singer Anna Vissi, director and actor Nick Cassavetes, rocker and Broadway star Constantine Maroulis and entertainer Louie Gundunas are among the 2011 honorees of this year’s glamorous Greek-American show business gala. Anna Vissi and Constantine Maroulis will also perform at the event, along with a to-be-announced lineup of other actors and performers.

Proceeds from this year’s gala will support several organizations and projects that preserve and promote Greek heritage and the arts. This year’s beneficiaries will be announced at a later date.

“The Hellenic Charity Ball represents a synthesis of achievements: a veritable Who’s Who of the most influential Greek Americans in business and entertainment today, joining to celebrate centuries of Hellenic influence on American culture: one part Greek family reunion, one part gala fundraiser, finished with a touch of Hollywood glamour,” said Elios Society President Anthony T. Saris.

Founded to celebrate and preserve the spirit, values and ideals of Hellenic culture and heritage, the Elios Society launched the Hellenic Charity Ball in 1997 as a way to continually note the ongoing arts and entertainment contributions of Greek-Americans on American culture.

Past honorees and participants have included Michael Chiklis, Maria Menounos, Marilu Henner, Nia Vardalos, Olympia Dukakis, Nicholas Gage, Tony Orlando, Melina Kanakaredes and many others.

Addressing the council, one of the most significant foreign policy think tanks on the US west coast, Lambrinidis outlined the immense effort being made by Greeks to deal with the crisis and the significant achievements that have been made recently, as well as the the government’s determination to fulfill the targets of its fiscal adjustment programme, and underlined the importance of the July 21 eurogroup decisions and need for their implementation.

In a discussion with the think tank’s members, Lambrinidis explained the reasons why, despite the EU’s important decisions and Greece’s achievements, the international markets continued to be reserved, noting that “the constant speculation” of default and exit from the euro disregards the real facts and Europe’s and Greece’s political determination to deal permanently with the crisis and, conversely, makes its management more difficult.

The foreign minister also paid tribute to the “wisdom and determination’ of the Greek people, despite the measures that have caused “unbelievable pain”, to tackle the crisis and remain in the single currency, adding that the “punishment rhetoric” must stop and the developmental proposals that have already been decided must be speedily advanced.

During his brief visit to Los Angeles, Lambrinidis had a 90-minute-meeting with the publisher and editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times, with the discussion focusing on the latest developments in the European and international economy, the major reforms in Greece and prospects for the country’s exiting the crisis, as well as matters concerning stability in the eastern Mediterranean.

Lambrinidis further met with representatives of the local Greek community, whom he briefed on the developments in Greece and the fight being waged by the Greek people and government, as well as ways in which their cooperation, in their fields of activity, with corresponding agencies in Greece may be enhanced or cultivated.