Check out this ad that appeared in Swedish newspapers a couple of months ago from fast food king McDonalds. Did the copywriter associate Turkey and Greece on purpose (probably)? or was it subliminal?... either way, good copy writing...
adrants
posted on Wednesday, May 7
...just finished watching Charlie Wilson's War on DVD. Wow. Amazing story of a renegade U.S. congressman who took on the task of helping Afghan freedom fighters beat back the Russians in the late70's through the late 80's.
One of the central figures i this story story is a Greek by the name of Gust Avrakotos (funny-literally, Avrakotos means "no underwear"). He was a streetwise covert CIA operative that was instrumental in the whole war.
Really a fascinating movie. Go see it.
Now if someone can explain how you get "Gust" in English from Kosta in Greek... :)
- Spiro
"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." --Plato
We're firm believers in the political process. Democracy for all. It's in the blood--we can't help it. However, we keep this website pretty apolitical. DF's here to cheerlead Greece into the next 100 years--not to offer political punditry.
So, forgive us for a moment if we talk politics. We think we might have a good story here, and a unique vantage point into history in the making. No, we're not talking about political wrangling in Cyprus, Turkey or even Greece. We're talking about U.S. politics --specifically, Barack Hussein Obama.
How do you explain the surging popularity of the U.S. democratic nominee hopeful presidential candidate? Rock star persona aside, there maybe something else afoot. A hidden story in his rise to popularity may actually involve his website. Let us explain.
Pretty much anyone with a little know how can whip up a basic website or blog these days. It's actually pretty easy--takes all of 5 minutes if you know what you're doing. The trick (if you want to do something different anyway) is putting the elbow grease in and placing your unique stamp on it. Make it real. Authentic. Kind of like our story at Daily Frappe--three friends getting together and toiling away in relative obscurity for no good reason other than they enjoy it. For the love of Greece. But, we digress...
All the presidential nominees have their own website. However only one has a signature look. The creative guru's behind the Obama site know something about the web. Long time readers know that our man simplescott designed the look of the pages you're reading now. What you don't know is that Scott jumped ship from a high priced creative boutique (working on campaigns for Fortune 100 companies), to work for Barack. He's not the only one. Chris Hughes left his post as a co-founder of Facebook (yes, Facebook), to build out the social networking portion of the Obama site. It's really the first time a political candidate has been "branded" online. Take a look at the site. It's sweet. Most political websites are not in the least bit remarkable. Even if you're not into marketing, you can tell there's a lot of hand crafted love that went into the site. The point here is that for whatever reason, the Obama campaign is attracting talented individuals. Perhaps a metaphor to why he's attracted a lot of voter attention as well. When opportunity, passion and inspiration collide, good things happen.
Regardless if Obama wins the nomination, Mr. Obama has made an indelible mark. Why should you care? Because people on a mission can not be stopped.
Which leads us to a newly formed political group called 'Greeks For Obama.' What? Yup, you read right.
Sure, we know what you're about to say--Greek-American don't vote in packs ... They're not like Latino's or blacks or old white men in Virginia. There is no such thing as a Greek voting block.
Well, all of that may be true--you can blame an independent spirit and an amazing ability to integrate into American society. However, For the first time in a long time, we sense there is a bit of interest forming around the idea of Greek political unity--at least at a grass roots level. Much of that interest can be pinned to a young Greek politician in the U.S. named Alexi Gianoulias. He's the youngest person, 31, to hold a statewide office in the Unites States (Treasurer of the State of Illinois).
Giannoulias, as the story goes, was inspired by his mentor, Barack Obama, to quit his day job (running his family's highly successful bank) and take a shot at public service. Obama endorsed the young Greek during his successful bid for Sate Treasurer. As a spokesman for the Greek community, it's only natural that Giannoulias returns the favor and rallies the troops by creating an organization dedicated to getting his friend elected.
What's interesting here is that Greeks for Obama isn't about a Greek cause, say for example, the Cyprus issue. It's more about the right forces coming together at the right time. If political influence emerges as a byproduct, all the better.
Back to our little story about websites. You see, it seems like every coalition has a support group at Obama.com. Latinos for Obama. Women for Obama. Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders for Obama. African Americans for Obama and the list goes on.
Well, what the hell. We want a Greeks for Obama web page as well. Why shouldn't Greeks be on the Obama radar? Count the Greeks in!
posted on Monday, February 18
Broadcast yourself! To DF that is. As easy as pointing to the YouTube link, now videos or promos can be shown on events that you add. Try adding an event and you'll see just how easy it is. (add event)
-Kostas
posted on Monday, February 18
Lazy rainy day...check. Venti frappuccino...check. Internet access...check. Music...forget about it! That pretty much sums up my Starbucks-Athens (just outside the Panepistimiou metro stop) experience. OK, forget about the fact that I went to a Starbucks in Greece (when there are so many great cafes) for a moment -that's not the point. My gripe is that I traveled some 8746.77km and after about 20 minutes of banging away on my computer, I found myself looking up at the ceiling and staring in disbelief. This can't be the same soundtrack that I listen to in Naperville, Illinois? Kenny G? Oh yes, it was. Globalization, 1; Customer, 0.
I'm a longtime fan/patron of Starbucks in the States and have been following closely the recent woes of the company. If Howard Schultz has any chance at revitalizing his company, he's got to figure out a way to bring back the magic for the customer --regardless of where they are located. A homogenized blob of a company is not good for anyone.
Magic my friends, is what makes people plunk down €5 for a cup of coffee.
p.s. by the way, there are 65 Starbucks locations in Greece today, so regardless of my rant...Starbucks and the Marinopoulos Brothers must be doing OK. It was actually refreshing to see most people sit down and enjoy their cup of coffee, in a ceramic Starbucks mugs. God bless the Greeks. At least we have enough sense to not drink out of paper when you don't have to...
spiro
posted on Wednesday, February 6
Thinking of warm summers....
So yes, I live in Chicago and yes we are accustomed to fierce winters but this one in particular has just been too much. Three snow storm in about one week have left me seriously wishing I was in Greece right now. To think that only one month ago I was strolling around in sunny warm Athens at the foot of the Acropolis in Thissio, enjoying a nice cafe...ahhh.
Instead, my face is half frozen from the snow hitting my face hour after hour as we tried to keep up with the accumulating xioni today. Aman.
Anyway, for those readers near Chicago - Kati Garbi will be in town tommorrow (February 7th) at the Crystal Palace for what should be a great performance.
Auta for now...
K
posted on Wednesday, February 6
Sooooo,, as you can plainly see, we've gone to town with our events system. New features I'm throwing in every day. Vre paidia, this really is THE best greek events system out there.
But why should we have all the fun? right? Now anyone can just throw up DF events on their own blog or website. Just add the following html to your site, and voila - your website will instantly be an agent of uniting greeks far and wide ! You'll love it, trust us :) -Kosta
posted on Wednesday, December 5
Now available in each user's profile section is the checkbox
'collapse previous day's articles'
This will display on the main home page the previous day's stories collapsed and offer a +/- to allow the user to expand the image and story text.
The option is active after a user logs into his/her account.
-Kosta
posted on Sunday, October 28
Events now officially out of beta mode gets its production facelift today.
Some snazzy pink gets in there, I reordered the tag cloud and the search bars, and most importantly, a new events plug in makes its way front and center on the main home page. Autosuggest is there for searching and the listings show the next upcoming 5 events.
Nice, clean, and very happy with it.
-Kosta
posted on Tuesday, October 23
New to the events search text box that sits right above the events listing comes an auto-suggest feature. Just type in a few characters of the search term you're looking for, and DF will popup some auto-suggestions for you. For example, type in 'athens m' and you'll get some suggestions like:
athens marathon
athens museum
athens mall
etc...
Just one way to make finding that event you're looking for that much easier.
-Kosta
posted on Tuesday, October 9
