The Loose Connections Recommender #15

On Greek Music, Retsina & Good Times

Greeks really know how to have a good time. So if you’re looking for one, I recommend going to a Greek restaurant with live music.

Preferably one like the one I went to last night.

Even their most haunting songs about having a very bad time make you want to stand up and kick up your heels and close your eyes and throw back your head and stamp your feet and lose yourself in the music like Melina Mercouri. Greek music unleashes something primal and wild within us, even when the dancing begins with the formal traditional dance moves it almost always devolves into something far more unhinged and abandoned and spirited.

I think my love for everything Greek must have begun when I used to tag along with my dad to his gigs as a little kid, and he and the musicians he played with would go to the Greek restaurant in downtown Hindley St, Adelaide (known as the Athens of the South) for a late night post show feast. This is a tradition now held dear by me and my music friends, who love to stumble post show into Sydney’s long running Steki Restaurant and eat and dance and drink and toss napkins on the dance floor (apparently symbolising feeling free as a bird!) and generally getting amongst it, always welcomed with open arms by the gregarious and generous Greek staff and community.

Last night at the gorgeous and pumping Little Kalymnos restaurant which is basically a Greek wonderland in a carpark in Earlwood NSW, the food was simple and flavorsome, the waiters were so easygoing they often delivered dishes we hadn’t ordered and remained totally unphased, when my son and I were drawn inside to listen to the musicians up close (their music was playing outside over speakers), they pulled up a table for us and told us ‘We don’t stand on ceremony here, do whatever you want!”. We all left feeling like we’d been on a Greek holiday.

Greek philosophers from Plato to Aristotle have recognised the need for meaning and ‘the good life’. When Greek people are celebrating, whether it’s a marriage or their very survival, they shout ‘Opa!’, which is more than a word, it’s a really an ode to spirit and resilience and gratitude for life.

Today’s Loose Connections Recommendation #15 is to lose yourself in some rembetika, yemista and retsina if and whenever you get the chance.

If that’s not possible, curl up and watch some Melina Mercouri videos, put some Theodorakis on the stereo (or your bluetooth speakers), buy yourself some frozen spanakopita and toss some napkins around.

These Third Man Records beautifully curated compilations of old Greek folk music are fantastic.

I’m going to take some aspirin, drink some water and go back to bed and sleep off my good times for a while and then listen to my small but beloved collection of creaky Greek vinyl. Opa! x