Ithaka's "Portugal Years" (1992-1998)

Ithaka Darin Pappas is a Greek-American multidisciplinary artist born in Californian. His early years in Los Angeles included photographic work for the film and music industry of subjects including; Giancarlo Esposito, NWA, early sculpture exhibits of his thirty year project The Reincarnation of a Surfboard, early writing such as the short story Stellafly and minor minor acting jobs (including Levi's commercial with world renowned director David Fincher). Between 1990-1991, Ithaka Darin Pappas spent large amounts of time in both Athens and Tokyo, but a lengthier relocation to Lisbon, Portugal in July of 1992 (until September 1998) proved to be a catalyst for his creativity. In Portugal, Ithaka Darin Pappas immediately began involving himself in photography and sculpture exhibits and continued with his poetry and short story writing. An on-air interview on Lisbon station Rádio Comercial regarding his audio-visual exhibit "As Aventuras do KorvoRão" led to a regular guest spot on the program Quatro Bairro (4º Bairro) at the invite of show producer Eduardo Guerra, who described Ithaka calm, lethargic delivery as a Valium Voice. Except for being the narrator of a Texaco TV commercial in 1989, Ithaka had almost no previous experience on the microphone. Recordings (three albums, an ep and several guest appearances) Albums: So Get Up & The Lost Acapellas Flowers And The Color Of Paint 1. Street Loyalty? (ft. Ninicha) 2. The Umbilibus (ft. Lince & Marta Dias) 3. Fishdaddy (ft. Mimi Tavares) 4. Escape From The City Of Angels (ft. Marta Dias) 5. Erase The Slate Of Hate (ft. General D) 6. Been Four Years 7. Somewhere South Of Gibraltar (ft. Joao Paulo Feliciano) 8. The Pigeon Lady 9. Stonemobile 10. Rich Girl (Ketchup Love) 11. Sleepdriver 12. Goodcookies (ft. Marta Dias) 13. Flowers And The Color Of Paint (ft. Ninicha) The Bum With Blue Blood Stellafly Substance-Free Exile The Plot Eden By The Sea Ain't No Breeze Butterfly Of Wisdom Seabra Is Mad Stay Strong Little Brother ft. Hi Fi Jo) Capricorn And Cancer (ft. X-sta from Djamal) King Tardy Sunny The Bunny (with band Red Beans) Sushi-Pack Subway (with band called Red Beans) Alabama Cave Party (ft. Ace from Mind da Gap) The Rise And Fall Of A Fortune Spiritual Graveyard Ursula Of Ithaka ft. Marta Dias Stellafly 1998 Escape EP Escape Seabra is Mad (Rockhead Mix) Ithaka +Arkahm Hi-Fi "The Day was hot" 1992 So Get Up (single) [Embryo Entertainment] 1993 So Get Up & The Lost Acapellas (spoken word album) [Sweatlodge Records][60][61] 1995 Fishdaddy (single) [Movieplay Records] 1995 Flowers and the Color of Paint (album) [Sweatlodge Records/Movieplay Records] 1997 Seabra Is Mad (single) Parlophone/Warner Music Group 1997 Stay Strong Little Brother – (single) Parlophone/Warner Music Group 1997 Stellafly: European Edition (album) Parlophone/Warner Music Group 1998 The Rise And Fall Of A Fortune (EP) Parlophone/Warner Music Group (8 songs as guest artist) 1996 Marta Dias "Look To The Blue" (lyrics and additional lyrics) 1996 Marta Dias "Learn To Fly" – "Look To The Blue", "Learn To Fly" (Ithaka: lyrics and additional lyrics) 1996 Red Beans – "Sunny The Bunny", "Sushi-Pack Subway" "excerpt from Return To The City of Angels" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics)(Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) 1996 Cool Hipnoise – "Hidden By The Sea"" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) 1997 General D – "Ekos Do Passado" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) 1998 Tejo Beat – "The Day Was Hot" (Ithaka: vocals/lyrics). Production Mario Caldato, Jr. 1998 More Republica Masonica – "Grounded Song" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) 1998 Mind Da Gap – "Intro" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) Solo art exhibitions in Portugal 1992-1998 (six solo showings) 1992 "As Aventuras Do KorvoRão" Photographs, Sculpture, Audio story Venue: A Casa Amarela, Paredes, Lisbon 1993: "As Aventuras Do KorvoRão" Photographs, Sculpture, Audio story Venue: O Foz Clube, Porto 1994 As Folhas Perdidas de Coriell (sculpture) at cafe Targus, Bairro Alto 1995 "Umbilicus" at Instituto Português do Juventude (photographs) 1995 As Folhas Perdidas de Coriell and "As Aventuras Do KorvoRão" (sculpture) at Universidade Moderna (Lisbon) 1998 :Quality Time: Part One: at Ze dos Bois Gallery Writing: Zé dos Cães, or José of the Dogs (short story) *Charles Didn't Surf (short story) *Cactus Crater Live concerts and performances: 1994: "Feira Virtual" (spoken word poetry on electronic music). Venue: Santa Maria de Feira Castle 1997: *Blitz Awards (live on Television) 1998: *August 1st 1998 Sony Stage at Expo '98, Lisbon (World's Fair) * August 28th 1998 Noites Ritual Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, Porto, Portugal on August 28, 1998 Noites Ritual Record cover photography (15 record covers): Ramp General D "Kanimambo" General D "Estado do sitio) General D "Black Magic Woman single General D "Portukkkal e um error" General D e os kaiaparinho pe no chao larapinho no ceu (album) Blitz cover General D Sergio Godinho "Domingo no Mun6o" album cover photography Tina and the Top Ten Flood (despertar) (album Flood "Por Que?" (single) Unaio Lisboa Boss AC (portraits of rap star Boss AC) Miguel Castro "Estrada do vento" album cover Rtimo As Palavras Confusao) album cover) Ad work for Redly Shoes (Morocco) Super Nova (innersleeve photography) Djamal Abram espaco cover) frquent freelance to surf portugal, Ler Alcoolemia (no ha tretas) Kussondula ta se bvem (album cover) Marta Dias YUE (album cover

"Agora Recorded In Rio" (Público) Ithaka Darin Pappas

 

Excerpt from article by Vanessa Rato (Jornal Público, June 2004) 

It was 1982 in Los Angeles, three high school classmates in their teens were trying their hand at a minor specialty of petty crime: Dine 'n' Dash.

They started by chance. One day, after a particularly long surfing session, they ended up eating together at a Chinese buffet where, in the end, no one seemed interested in receiving the bill. Twenty minutes later, they decided to leave without paying. Unexpectedly, no one followed them.
It could have been the beginning of a spiral toward the abyss of a juvenile detention center. And indeed it was, but only for one of them. Turns out, that would be another story. The point: three weeks after the Chinese buffet, always shaking sand from their feet and with water roaring in their ears, the group was repeating the feat of eating out for free daily and with honed technique. Until, at Bob's Big Boy, they crossed paths with a girl named "Rita." On the run. It's not easy to escape a waitress who's a former long-distance runner, especially when she's the kind of woman a teenager would actually prefer to be caught by—for the one whose trail is important here, it was the end of a career in crime, but, in compensation, the beginning of a love-until-something-does-us-part story and a step toward a career in the arts.

More than two decades have passed. It's with this snapshot of memory (in the first person and with plenty of what the British would call "guillotine humor") that "Recorded in Rio" begins, the fourth album by Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas)—15 tracks of old-school hip-hop with forays into soul and an all-flavor mix of electro, blues, jazz, reggae, and Latin ambiances (Brazil and also Mexico) with a soundtrack echoing spoken word. Apparently, there's nothing to hide—it's the motto "live it, write it, rap it": "The artists I admire aren't even, perhaps, the ones with the best results. I'm interested in the process, so I like people who aren't afraid to expose themselves. The average person is so afraid to show themselves that we can know them for years without really knowing who they are," says "Fish Daddy" Ithaka Darin Pappas himself.

To illustrate the idea, he doesn't give an example, he mentions a true idol: "Look at Bukowski. You might think: that's shit! But it's his shit. It's absolutely honest work. That's the most important thing." (Absolutely reliable aside: in 1996 someone gave the writer's widow the song "Umbilibus" from the album "Flowers and the Color of Paint"; she liked it so much that when she learned Ithaka was a fan, she sent him a package with several books and a precious blue shirt still covered in wine stains - he never washed it, "so as not to lose his soul" and still wears it from time to time). in Portugal. It's 9:45 a.m. in mainland Portugal, eight hours earlier in California, meaning 2:45 a.m.—late for those who wake up at 7 a.m. to catch the empty beaches and the best waves. But that's not why, on the other end of the line, Ithaka drawls and slurs his words. He speaks like this, inwardly, as if mulling over what he's saying, with a coolness tempered by West Hollywood, Korea Town, the beaches of South Bay, and basically any hidden corner of the planet that comes to mind.

The term "globe-trotter" would be a good shortcut to describe his global wanderings, if it weren't for the fact that it suits him so poorly. Because, unlike those who allow themselves to be catapulted from place to place, with self-propelled engines on the verge of implosion, Ithaka likes to linger in the places he passes through. That's how he ended up staying in Lisbon for almost six years. For those who have forgotten: he arrived in 1992 and left only in 1998. In between, he released two albums, "Flowers and the Color of Paint" (1995) and "Stellafly" (1997), considered by some to be "the most powerful and consistent" national recordings of those years. Musically, among many other collaborations, he is also the lyricist & vocalist of the highly internationalized "So Get Up". 

Track List:
0:01 - Same Room Blues
1:49 - Dine n Dash
5:39 - Who's Your Daddy?
9:14 - The Bus Song 2004 (feat. BNegão)
13:44 - Technically A Failure
18:09 - Who's The Enemy? (feat. Gabriel O Pensador)
23:16 - Work Related
26:46 - I Ride (Original Mix)
31:34 - Marta De La Vallarta
35:58 - Brother Barstow
38:46 - Like A Bottle Of Baccardi
42:50 - Muerto Escondido (feat. Thalma de Freitas)
47:44 - Stingray Shuffle
49:59 - Sleeping In The Shade
54:59 - In Portugal (feat. Thalma de Freitas)

Trecho do artigo "Agora Recorded In Rio"

Vanessa Rato (Jornal Público, Junho 2004) __________________________________________________ Estava-se em 1982. Entretanto, em Los Angeles, três colegas de liceu em plena adolescência testavam a mão numa especialidade menor do pequeno crime, o "Dine'n'Dash". Começaram por acaso. Um dia, depois de uma sessão particularmente longa de "surf", acabaram a comer juntos num "buffet" chinês onde, no fim, ninguém parecia interessado em receber a conta. Vinte minutos de espera mais tarde, a opção foi sair sem pagar. Inesperadamente, ninguém os seguiu. Poderia ter sido o princípio de uma espiral em direcção ao abismo de uma casa de correcção juvenil. E na verdade foi, mas apenas para um deles. Acontece que isso seria outra história. O que interessa: três semanas depois do "buffet" chinês, sempre a sacudir areia dos pés e com água a estalar nos ouvidos, o grupo estava a repetir a proeza de almoçar fora de graça a ritmo diário e com técnica apurada. Até que no Bob's Big Boy se cruzaram com uma rapariga chamada "Rita". em fuga. Não é fácil escapar a uma empregada de mesa que é ex-corredora de fundo, sobretudo quando ela é do tipo de mulher por quem, na verdade, um adolescente prefere mesmo deixar-se apanhar - para aquele a quem importa aqui seguir o rasto, foi o fim de uma carreira no crime, mas, em compensação, o princípio de uma história de amor-até-que-qualquer-coisa-nos-separe e um passo na direcção de um percurso nas artes. Passaram-se mais de duas décadas. É com este recorte de memória (na primeira pessoa e com muito daquilo a que os britânicos chamariam "humor de guilhotina") que arranca "Recorded in Rio", o quarto álbum do Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas) - 15 faixas de hip-hop "old school" com incursões pela soul e um "todos-sabores" electro, blues, jazz, reggae e ambiências latinas (Brasil em fantasma, mas também México) com eco de banda sonora sobre "spoken word". Aparentemente, não há nada a esconder - é o lema "live it, write it, rap it": "Os artistas que eu admiro não são sequer, se calhar, os que têm melhores resultados. Interessam-me os processos, por isso gosto de pessoas que não têm medo de se expor. A pessoa média tem tanto medo de se mostrar que a podemos conhecer durante anos sem realmente saber quem é", diz o próprio "Fish Daddy" Ithaka Darin Pappas. Para ilustrar a ideia, não dá um exemplo, faz menção a um verdadeiro ídolo: "Veja-se o Bukowski. Pode-se pensar: é uma merda! Mas é a merda dele. É um trabalho absolutamente honesto. Isso é o mais importante." (Aparte absolutamente fiável: em 1996 alguém deu a ouvir o tema "Umbilibus" de "Flowers and the Color of Paint" à viúva do escritor; ela gostou tanto que ao saber que Ithaka era um fã lhe mandou um pacote com vários livros e uma preciosa camisa azul ainda cheia de nódoas de vinho - ele nunca a lavou, "para não perder a alma" e continua a vesti-la de vez em quando). in Portugal. São 9h45 em Portugal continental, oito horas menos na California, ou seja, 2h45 - tarde para quem acorda às 7h para apanhar as praias vazias e as melhores ondas. Mas não é por isso que, do outro lado da linha, Ithaka arrasta a voz e enrola as palavras. Ele fala assim, para dentro, como quem rumina o que diz, numa "coolness" temperada entre West Hollywood, Korea Town, as praias de South Bay e, basicamente, qualquer canto recôndito do planeta que venha à memória. O termo "globe-trotter" seria um bom atalho para falar das suas deambulações mundiais, não fosse dar-se o caso de lhe ficar tão mal. É que, contrariamente àqueles que se deixam catapultar de lugar em lugar, com motor de auto-propulsão à beira da implosão, Pappas gosta de se demorar nos sítios por onde passa. Foi assim que acabou por ficar por Lisboa quase seis anos. Para os mais esquecidos: a chegada foi em 1992 e a partida só em 98, pelo meio ficaram dois álbuns, "Flowers and the Color of Paint" (1995) e "Stellafly" (97), considerado por alguns como "o mais poderoso e consistente" registo nacional desse ano. Em termos musicais, entre muitas outras colaborações, ficou ainda a letra e vocalista do internacionalizadíssimo "So Get Up" para os USL.

Excerpt from article by Vanessa Rato (Público, June 2004) 

It was 1982 in Los Angeles, three high school classmates in their teens were trying their hand at a minor specialty of petty crime: Dine 'n' Dash.

They started by chance. One day, after a particularly long surfing session, they ended up eating together at a Chinese buffet where, in the end, no one seemed interested in receiving the bill. Twenty minutes later, they decided to leave without paying. Unexpectedly, no one followed them.
It could have been the beginning of a spiral toward the abyss of a juvenile detention center. And indeed it was, but only for one of them. Turns out, that would be another story. The point: three weeks after the Chinese buffet, always shaking sand from their feet and with water roaring in their ears, the group was repeating the feat of eating out for free daily and with honed technique. Until, at Bob's Big Boy, they crossed paths with a girl named "Rita." On the run. It's not easy to escape a waitress who's a former long-distance runner, especially when she's the kind of woman a teenager would actually prefer to be caught by—for the one whose trail is important here, it was the end of a career in crime, but, in compensation, the beginning of a love-until-something-does-us-part story and a step toward a career in the arts.

More than two decades have passed. It's with this snapshot of memory (in the first person and with plenty of what the British would call "guillotine humor") that "Recorded in Rio" begins, the fourth album by Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas)—15 tracks of old-school hip-hop with forays into soul and an all-flavor mix of electro, blues, jazz, reggae, and Latin ambiances (Brazil and also Mexico) with a soundtrack echoing spoken word. Apparently, there's nothing to hide—it's the motto "live it, write it, rap it": "The artists I admire aren't even, perhaps, the ones with the best results. I'm interested in the process, so I like people who aren't afraid to expose themselves. The average person is so afraid to show themselves that we can know them for years without really knowing who they are," says "Fish Daddy" Ithaka Darin Pappas himself.

To illustrate the idea, he doesn't give an example, he mentions a true idol: "Look at Bukowski. You might think: that's shit! But it's his shit. It's absolutely honest work. That's the most important thing." (Absolutely reliable aside: in 1996 someone gave the writer's widow the song "Umbilibus" from the album "Flowers and the Color of Paint"; she liked it so much that when she learned Ithaka was a fan, she sent him a package with several books and a precious blue shirt still covered in wine stains - he never washed it, "so as not to lose his soul" and still wears it from time to time). in Portugal. It's 9:45 a.m. in mainland Portugal, eight hours earlier in California, meaning 2:45 a.m.—late for those who wake up at 7 a.m. to catch the empty beaches and the best waves. But that's not why, on the other end of the line, Ithaka drawls and slurs his words. He speaks like this, inwardly, as if mulling over what he's saying, with a coolness tempered by West Hollywood, Korea Town, the beaches of South Bay, and basically any hidden corner of the planet that comes to mind.

The term "globe-trotter" would be a good shortcut to describe his global wanderings, if it weren't for the fact that it suits him so poorly. Because, unlike those who allow themselves to be catapulted from place to place, with self-propelled engines on the verge of implosion, Ithaka likes to linger in the places he passes through. That's how he ended up staying in Lisbon for almost six years. For those who have forgotten: he arrived in 1992 and left only in 1998. In between, he released two albums, "Flowers and the Color of Paint" (1995) and "Stellafly" (1997), considered by some to be "the most powerful and consistent" national recordings of those years. Musically, among many other collaborations, he is also the lyricist & vocalist of the highly internationalized "So Get Up". 

Ithaka Darin Pappas at 2024 Emmy party at Hotel Mondrian, Los Angeles

Greek-American multi-disciplinary artist Ithaka Darin Pappas at 2024 Emmy party at Mondrian Los Angeles hosted by We Audition and Sky Bar.

The end of the earth is upon us

Pretty soon it’ll all turn to dust

So Get Up !

Forget the past

Go outside and have a blastGo a thousand miles in a jet airplane

Go out of your mind go insane

To a place you never been before

Eat ice cream our you’ll lick the floor

Because, the end of the earth is upon us

Pretty soon it’ll all turn to dust

Goodbye my friends

Goodbye world

I’ll see you in the next life

DJ Vibe, Underground Sound Of Lisbon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yZhWfdSEwshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yZhWfdSEws

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5225987/

Portrait of Ithaka Darin Pappas photographed by Dede Fedrizzi (São Paulo, Brazil)

Portrait of Ithaka Darin Pappas photographed by Dede Fedrizzi (São Paulo, Brazil)

Moments Of Insanity: Part One new book by Ithaka Darin Pappas

Moments Of Insanity: Part One a short adventure story by Ithaka Darin Pappas released in February 2023 by Sweatlodge Publishing. The story revovles around a day trip to an unihabited island of the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Ithaka

https://open.spotify.com/artist/19D6c1zHSp2sHkOvUIuVBz

Professional Surfer Kelly Slater and artist-songwriter Ithaka Darin Pappas - Brazil June 2009

Eleven-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater and artist-songwriter Ithaka Darin Pappas (Escape From The City Of Angels) in Imbituba, Brazil in the State Of Santa Catarina. Pappas was the English language comentator for the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro WSL [then ASP] world tour surf event.

Portrait of Ithaka Darin Pappas by artist Delphno

Portrait of Ithaka Darin Pappas by artist Delphno

Ithaka Darin Pappas (Diário de Notícias, Portugal 1997)

Artist-songwriter, Ithaka Darin Pappas. Photo from Diário de Notícias newspaper, Portugal 1997

Ithaka Darin Pappas at his Brazilian art ranch, AkahtiLandia

Artist, songwriter, photographer Ithaka Darin Pappas at his beloved AkahtiLândia on the edge of the Mata Atlântica in southeast Brazil. Footage created by Moana Filmes.

#Escapefromthecityofangels

Ithaka Darin Pappas (Hawaii)

Artist-musician-photographer Ithaka Darin Pappas by photographer Dede Fedrizzi (São Paulo Brazil 2013)

 Artist-musician-photographer Ithaka Darin Pappas by photographer Dede Fedrizzi (São Paulo Brazil 2013)

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Ithaka Darin Pappas "Floral Attraction" ©2020

"Floral Attraction" 

a photograph by artist Ithaka Darin Pappas  © 2020

@photographer_ithaka.d.pappas

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Photo: Ithaka Darin Pappas © 2020

Note: This image is not Public Domain, it is Necessary to acquire authorization

 before reproducing in print, online or merchandising.
Please contact ithaka.art@gmail.com - thank you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Takashi Murakami with "Polyrhythm" (1992) Photographed by Ithaka Darin Pappas

Takashi Murakami with "Polyrhythm" (1992) Photographed by Ithaka Darin Pappas at Galerie Mars in Shibuya-Ku

 At the beginning of his career, Murakami appeared to be content with the lot of most successful contemporary artists: to create work that is admired by critics and desired by wealthy collectors but leaves the general public baffled or hostile. He was constructing conceptual pieces similar to the art being made in the West. Among those early works, which began attracting attention in the early 90's, was "Polyrhythm", a seven-foot-high slab of yellow resin, minimalist in form, on which many toy United States infantry soldiers climb. 

Read Full article here:  https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/the-murakami-method.html

Takashi Murakami photographed with "Polyrhythm" by Ithaka Darin Pappas 

in Tokyo Los Angeles (1992) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Murakami

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For more information about this image please contact: 

ithaka.art@gmail.com - Also see: @_ithaka_

Takashi Murakami with his piece "Physical Pie" photographed by Ithaka Darin Pappas (1992)

 

"Murakami Yawns At Mars"

World-renowned contemporary artist #TakashiMurakami @takashipom photographed at Mars Gallery in Shibuya-Ku, Japan, Tokyo (1992) by Greek-Californian artist/photographer #IthakaDarinPappas @_Ithaka_ @photographer_ithaka.d.pappas

For licensing inquiries regarding these rare images of

Takashi Murakami by Ithaka Darin Pappas,

please contact ithaka.official@gmail.com

"Physical Pie" by Takashi Murakami (1992)

Takashi Murakami, Ithaka Darin Pappas, Takashi Murakami, Ithaka Darin Pappas,

Takashi Murakami, Ithaka Darin Pappas, Takashi Murakami, Ithaka Darin Pappas,

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