News, info and works of Greek-American artist, Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas); visual artist, music-maker, writer, photog, citizen biologist & saltwater nomad (surfer). Lives between LA, CDMX and AkahtiLândia, Brasil. Ithaka official instagram: @_ithaka_
A young man seated on the rooftop of a skyscraper rooftop in downtown Los Angeles pensively launches a paper airplane into the sunset. Director David Fincher. Starring: Ithaka Darin Pappas
So Get Up, a lyric poem by Greek-Californian interdisciplinary artist and songwriter, Ithaka (or Ithaka Darin Pappas), was written on December 13th 1992 on a cafe napkin in the Amoreiras neighborhood of Lisbon, Portugal (where he worked and resided from 1992-1998). At the time, Ithaka had been guest hosting segments of "4º Bairro" on the national station Rádio Comercial during which he would often read his own short stories and poems. Having arrived to the station that day with little or no material to recite, Ithaka wrote So Get Up and a couple of short prose pieces at a coffeeshop on the side of the station's studio, just prior to going on air. A few months later, Ithaka recorded an electro musical version of So Get Up and other songs with a production team in Manchester, England released by Embryo Entertainment with little public attention.
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Information about the iconic 1992 vocal acapella song by Greek-American songwriter and interdisciplinary artist Ithaka Darin Pappas (Ithaka). As of 2025, this example of lyrical mastery has been remixed over 800 times. In 1994, a hit remix was made by an acid house project from Underground Sound of Lisbon (DJ Vibe, Rui da Silva) and presented as a 100% Portuguese project with absolutely no mention of its creator Ithaka...now considered one of the biggest musical coverups since Milli Vanilli.
"Muerto Escondido" is a 2004 bilingual, travel-oriented hip hop story-song by Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas).
Lyrically the song was inspired by and written during a voyage to Mexicoand is a dark portrayal of a seaside surfing village that is overrun with narcotics, ghosts and monsters, "where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets".
Ithaka later pre-produced the instrumental base in Los Angeles. Final recordings were completed at Estúdio Monoauralin Rio de Janeiro including Ithaka's English language verses, the Spanish choruses hauntingly vocalized by Latin Grammy-nominated Brazilian singer and actress Thalma de Freitas and the tribalesque percussion, Pepe Cisneros.
I know a place that's hot most the time, a spliff cost a quarter, a beer cost a dime. I've roamed the globe, Nairobi to Kyoto But my favorite ghetto is in the depths of Mexico. Paradise is where you make it, but this ain't for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets The water's blue, sand black, skin brown, near a little ghost town that never shuts down. Beauty all around for miles, but there's darkness in their smiles....there's darkness in their smiles. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en muerto escondido. Muerto's got swells that'll kick yo' ass, sprain yo' ankles or leave 'em casts. There's tropical rain to wash away the pain, but ain't nothing to keep you from going insane. Jacking straight up with a chip on her shoulder one-woman army, million-gallon liquid soldier. Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Ants the size of roaches and roaches the size of mice. Scorpions in your shoes and beds full of lice. Inside, frogs and 'squitos in the shower. Outside, guns, knives and murder. When a house gets robbed, I mean the house itself. They kick your sorry butt out and move it someplace else. It's no man's land, It's no thugs land It's no one's land, e' loco-land. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido. Suicide and homicide with dead dogs by the roadside .The river runs with blood the sixth of the month, coinciding with the local eclipse of the sun. Took 'shrooms at dawn and thought I saw god, (he) told me to drink more tequila, stop drinking so much rum. Went to a party at that house up on the hill, with lizards on the walls and ghosts in the halls. Sat down to a plate of fish head stew, sucking on an eyeball, I'd been trying to chew. Saw ants moving bread across the floor, through the dining room, the kitchen and out the door They didn't even wait 'til we got to desert, but neither did the skeezer with me trying to flirt. She said, "I'm from Italy, but I've lived here ten years. Now I have two husbands and I have six kids." Her mouth was melting as she tried to speak. Said, "Caro Ithaka, let me give you a treat." She started unzipping, but I was not with it, had a chancre the size of a quarter on the outside of her lippage. Left the room, left the house. But that ghost in the hall followed me out. He said, "You can run, but you cannot hide from that little dark lie you call your life. Won't you come back in and stay awhile, drink some blood with Tequila, Escondido style." Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido. Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido.
Ithaka Darin Pappas photographed by Dede Fedrizzi (São Paulo, Brazil)
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Forget the past, go outside, have a blast são palavras que, a dada altura durante os anos 90, tiveram tanto impacto pelo mundo quanto a famosa expressão de Timothy Leary: Turn on, tune in, drop out. O seu autor é o norte-americano Ithaka Darin Pappas
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Forget the past, go outside, have a blast are words that, at one point in the 90s, had as much impact around the world as Timothy Leary's famous expression: Turn on, tune in, drop out. Its author is the American Ithaka Darin Pappas. The song was called 'So Get Up' and became, at that time, a true anthem for dance music fans.
Olvida el pasado, sal, diviértete son palabras que, en algún momento de los 90, tuvieron tanto impacto mundial como la famosa expresión de Timothy Leary: Enciende, sintoniza, abandona. Su autor es el estadounidense Ithaka Darin Pappas. La canción se titulaba "So Get Up" y se convirtió, en aquel entonces, en un verdadero himno para los aficionados a la música dance.
So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up,