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 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.

BOOK REVIEW

We all make mistakes; we’re only human. Sometimes we make the same mistakes over and over. Fortunately, it is possible to learn from others’ mistakes, and that’s what is presented in The Diva Doctrine: 16 Universal Principles Every Women Needs to Know, by Patricia Volonakis Davis. The book will be released next month.

The award-winning author of Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece will tell you she’s an “expert at failed relationships.” In her forthcoming book, she shares her words of wisdom – earned through the trials and tribulations of her own life – told with her signature candor mixed with a healthy dose of humor.

Among her principles, readers will find advice on managing parental relationships, friendships, dealing with jerks, finding the right “one” and more. Not that we needed permission, but if you’re looking for permission – or license – to be the strong, confident and enterprising woman you are, here it is.

This book sprung out of a blog post Davis wrote, entitled “Advice from an Older Woman to a Younger One,” regarding advice she would give to her younger self. It resonated with readers, and quickly went viral. Representatives from Cedar Fort Press heard her speaking about the post on a radio show. They immediately contacted Davis and approached her to expand this one little post into an entire book.

Call it a pocket guide, if you will, but keep this book nearby in the event you need to reference it again – you probably will. We do get caught up in things and forget that we are people too, and not just moms, wives and daughters. Sometimes we need to be reminded that we are spirited, dynamic, smart, ambitious, passionate, resilient, and of course, we are divas – “in the truest sense of the word, a diva is a woman who is successful, happy, and most of all, confident.” We aren’t talking primadonnas here. We are talking about vital, robust individuals who have much to contribute, in their homes, to their families, to their workplaces and in the world.

This book is a must-have for every woman.

Patricia Volonakis Davis, award-winning author and the editor-in-chief of the online publication Harlots’ Sauce Radio, is a talented wordsmith and an inspiration to aspiring writers around the world. She decided that 2011 would be her “year to be daring,” and thus, has embarked on a brand new adventure – president of Harper Davis Publishers.

The company was actually created in part, due to her first book, Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece, when the founders read her book and two others, and loved them so much they wanted to see them in print. They had ambitious plans to publish other new titles, but then the president resigned for personal reasons. Never one to shy away from an opportunity, Volonakis Davis stepped up to the plate. The author spoke to Greek Reporter about her new adventure.

Why did you want to take over Harper Davis?

I’ve always enjoyed the many aspects of publishing, not just the writing of my own words. I enjoy helping new writers, discovering new authors; I love coaching authors on how to market their work, and love working with booksellers. Plus, I’ll always be grateful to Harper Davis Publishers for the opportunity it gave me to see my first book in print. For all these reasons, I decided to give it a go.

What are your plans?

I have a vision for this company that I never would have imagined I’d want to see instituted until I started on the road to having my first book published back in 2007. In the same way that I worked for Scholastic in Greece (a successful career in the mid-1990s) and saw all the possibilities there – where other people only saw problems – I see the same again here with publishing in general.

What needs to change in publishing?

There’s so much involved with why things aren’t working, and a good portion has to do with myopia and reaction motivated by self-interest in too many, from the publishers to the writers. Often when any industry change is imminent – talking pictures, video cassette players, copy-able CDs, print-on-demand publishing, just to name some – and people working in that industry recognize that they will be affected by that change, their first instinct is to stop it, rather than to think, ‘How can I utilize this to my advantage?’

I’ve come up with some ways which I think will help writers, publishers, booksellers, and I want to try them out. Many say that the publishing industry is imploding, but it doesn’t have to be that way, if all people in the industry would use their imaginations and be willing to be work a little differently than they’re used to. I’m excited to launch a new publishing model and turn this publishing house into a model of innovation, one that will benefit the entire industry – author, bookseller and publisher. We hope to become an inspiration for other publishers.

Are you the “Davis” in Harper Davis?

It’s funny – Davis is such a common name in the publishing industry. When people learned who published my first book, they’d always asked if I was the ‘Davis’ in Harper Davis, and I’d reply, ‘No.’ Now I guess I can say, ‘Yep – that’s me!’

You have a new book coming out soon.

The Diva Doctrine: 16 Universal Principles Every Woman Needs to Know, will be available in May 2011 from Cedar Fort Press. The book came about due to a blog post I wrote, based on advice I’d give to my younger self. Within a week, it became an Internet sensation, and was reposted by countless other blogs. It also caught the attention of the book’s publishers, who asked me to expand it into a full-length book.

She assumed her new post on January 1, and will continue to present her e-magazine Harlots’ Sauce Radio – now an affiliate of Harper Davis  – as well as write and blog.

“It’s impressive how the bodies of foreign dancers, who do not use words and emotionally charged, react to rembetiko music,” said Minos Matsas about the “Rembetiko”, which brings together dancers from America and Taiwan. “No matter how many times I played these songs for people who are not of Greek origin I saw the same reaction: a sparkle in their eyes and their expression changing immediately. Something hits really deep inside of them.”

All of the scenes are filled with strong feelings such as refugees from the lost homeland along with Greek dancing traditions. The performance will start off playing for three nights and will play another three nights by the end of the month. It will be staged at the renovated ODC Theater, one of the most important and oldest theaters for dance in San Francisco.

Rembetiko music comes from the soul, states Katerina Klabaneva. A big part of my work is my passion to show people what this type of music is. For Katerina, Rembetiko music is an idiom of geographical and cultural borders.  She has been singing this type of music for years in the U.S., Britain and Greece.
The “Rembetiko” which was suggested to be brought to San Fransisco by the ODC theater organization and the Foundation CounterPulse, has been invited to stage performances in New York next year.  Discussions are underway for performances in Athens.

For more information:
“Rembetiko” with choreography by John Antoniou, music by Minou Matsa will be staged at the ODC Theater in San Francisco October 21st-24th and 28th-30th. Visit their website at: www. odcdance.org/

She indirectly sent another message to the Skopian Republic with the option of using the term “Makedonia”, referring to the northern neighborhood.  Clinton has strongly supported the Greek “2014 Agenda” for the accession of the whole Balkan network of Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo into the E.E.

The Blind Type is a product that promises to revolutionize the huge industry of touch-screen devices experts state.  Before it reached the market, Kostas Eleftheriou and Panos Petropoulos had built a page on the internet which showed their product. In one night the application was placed first on technological news sites.  Thus came the acquisition by Google.

Kostas Eleftheriou is the creator of iSteam.  iSteam is one of the most popular applications of the iPhone, which has been downloaded by more than 3 million people. The inspiration that the young artist had in his bathroom reached the interest of large newspapers such as the New York Times and the London Sunday Times.  Kostas Eleftheriou collaborated with two other Greeks and it took a mere seven days to write the program.
The first week 1 million people downloaded iSteam, and as reported by the New York Times granted the creators of the application more than $100,000 dollars in just three months.
This success attracted the attention of Prime Minister George Papandreou who made specific references to iSteam and its three authors in a recent speech.
Note that the group that created iSteam and the duo who built BlindType, were forced to leave Greece in order to monetize their ideas.
Because of the large bureaucracy in the nation, Kostas Eleftheriou founded the company behind iSteam in England. When he entered the pipeline in BlindType, sought his fortune in Silicon Valley.  It took just 15 minutes to set up a new company simply by filling out a form via the Internet. His cousin, 38 year old Panos Petropoulos left Greece in May to join him.
Panos Petropoulos studied marketing, but says he never particularly loved the area.  Instead he deals with computers since he was 15  and as stated in his biography:  “it sometimes seems to have more flexibility with the x86 programming language than the Greek.”

26 year old Kostas Eleftheriou, along with his related studies at the British University of Warwick, has created games for PCs and applications for the iPhone and the trading platform in the forex market ZuluTrade.

The author recently spoke to Greek Reporter about her new memoir.

Why did you go to Greece?

My parents, specifically my father, wanted one of his kids to experience Greece at the same age he had – he was nineteen – but this time for a year of college and not just a long visit there. Fortunately, I was chosen, since I was the one who had the grades to make it happen.

What was it like?

It was quite an adventure, going from a small Midwestern town to Athens. My mom got married young, so I think my parents thought maybe I’d find a nice Greek boy there and either bring him back or settle down there, not realizing how much more advanced and European it was compared to home.  I arrived by ship and along with me came my sheltered upbringing from Muncie, Indiana. I’m sure my parents thought that most Greek girls were like me. But because I felt restricted by the very limiting but loving ethno-centric world in which I was brought up, I seized upon this time of self-discovery.

There I was in Athens, Greece after the king had been overthrown. Tanks rolled down city streets, soldiers and military symbols were evident at every turn. It was frightening and fascinating all at the same time. Life in Greece runs at a much slower pace than I was used to. Besides, when you’re 18, a year feels like a decade. By the time my parents came to “collect” me, I felt as if I had become a permanent resident.

Where did you study?

I studied at Pierce College, now known as Deree University in the Athens suburb of Aghia Paraskevi – St. Friday. What I learned could not be contained in schoolbooks alone. I learned about the world, about myself — things that are still with me to this day.

What was it like to leave?

Truth be told, I would have done anything to stay. I had to face the idea of transitioning back to my small town – surrounded by cornfields – after experiencing the time of my life in Athens. Indiana became so very different to me because I had changed. I didn’t see things through the same filter as when I left. The experience made me realize that there was so much more out there to do.

Tell me about the book.

It’s a novella-length eBook – a quick-read. I use humor to tell the story of my personal odyssey because growing up is so rife with embarrassments and lessons; you can only learn by falling down and getting up again.

Tell me about your other work.

I’ve been writing professionally for 15 years on all sorts of topics, ranging from midlife romance, celebrity profiles, real estate and more. I have been writing two columns for Examiner.com, and recently was named the Greek-American Culture Examiner as well. I’ve authored, co-authored and ghostwritten four books and was a regular columnist for the Sacramento Bee. Several of my articles and feature stories have been published in newspapers across the country, and some of my personal stories have been included in books. I am also a public speaker and professional trainer.

How is the eBook being received?

The preliminary feedback is heartening and I’m getting some really positive reviews. The school itself has pledged to promote it, so I’m hopeful it will gain a diverse audience both here and in Europe. It’s easy to read, and it sparks a sense of nostalgia to those in my age group, but I think college kids may enjoy it, too, since we all go through these watershed lessons at some point in our lives. I’m flattered that there is a broad range of interest.

What’s next?

I’m shopping the story to publishing houses, so hopefully you’ll see it in published book-form soon.

The author, a San Francisco native, lives with her husband in Northern California. She has one daughter, now a successful entrepreneur.