Greece theatres threatened by chewing gum and high heels

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July 4, 2008

According to a article in Times paper – Greece threatres threatened by high heels

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Chewing gum, high heels, booming amplifiers and other modern plagues are seriously damaging Greece’s 2,500-year-old outdoor theatres and should be banned, according to the country’s powerful archaeological establishment.

As the shows become more elaborate, with bulkier sets, highvolume speakers for acoustic shock effect, and high heels clattering on the ancient marble, experts fear that theatres such as Epidavros, built 2,400 years ago for men in leather sandals and relying on natural acoustics, are under threat.

“When the ancient Epidavros theatre, above, was built 2,400 years ago most of the audience wore leather sandals”

Add the countless wads of used chewing gum that regularly stud the old terraced marble seats, requiring painstaking removal, and the Central Archaeological Council has declared war on modernity. “We find ourselves regularly cleaning kilos of chewing gum from the Herod Atticus theatre,” said Kathy Paraschi, an architect working on the Parthenon restoration. “It’s an amazing and awful situation.”

She added: “Speaking as a woman and an Athenian, I like my fashionable spiky heels.” But wearing them to Epidavros is “like taking a hammer and splitting the blocks apart”.

The Central Archaeological Council is considering a ban on chewing gum and high heels, though the Herod Atticus theatre on the south side of the Acropolis is made of tougher Attic marble and can better stand up to modern footwear fashion.

As if that were not enough, avant-garde directors are being blamed for damaging the sites where ancient writers once performed their plays. “Despite repeated warnings,” the council said in a recent statement, “stage sets seem to be getting bigger and decibel levels louder. This could inflict damage on the ancient structures.”

Some see the archaeologists’ complaints as part of a conservative campaign. At Epidavros last month Matthias Langhoff, a German director, interrupted his production of Sophocles’ Philoctetes, revamped as a modern antiwar play. In mid-performance he harangued his audience to denounce what he called “Greek culture-politics”. The council had previously objected to Mr Langhoff’s large set and avant-garde interpretation, which they said took unacceptable liberties with Sophocles’s original text.

Mrs Paraschi complained that many modern directors “don’t respect the rules about keeping the theatres safe and clean”. “Is Greece really protecting its antiquities?” wrote a reviewer in Kathimerini newspaper.

“We love them, of course, [but] in any other way, in all the other crucial ways that actually matter, we don’t really pay them that much attention.”

Shoes designed and handmade to fit the feet that wear them

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July 2008 • Vol. 14 • Number 10

Word of foot puts Benzie company on the map – Read complete Story

By Danielle Horvath

Owner Tim McKay outside his shop at the top of the hill in Benzonia where he makes custom, handmade shoes. Photo by Danielle Horvath

BENZONIA – In this technology-crazed world we live in, Fernand Footwear makes shoes that are designed and handmade to fit the feet that wear them.

In his small, but airy Benzonia shop just off the main drag, owner Tim McKay traces his customers’ feet and creates a one of a kind pair just for them. He hand cuts the insole to the foot shape, hand stretches and works the leather over a piece of iron, and using just a sewing machine and small grinder, assembles each pair by hand. The entire shoe is then dunked in water and pushed out by hand to the final shape, all for less than $200 a pair.

With a “Made in America” Vibram sole, vegetable-tanned full grain leather insoles and water-resistant oil-tanned top-grade cowhide uppers, the shoes are lightweight, flexible and laminated to fit the curves of your sole. The oil-tan uppers are supple, durable and breathe through the grain.

McKay can build around any shoe inserts or orthotics and is often told by his customers that they have been unable to find a pair of shoes commercially produced that fit and feel good. They also service what they make with resoling and reconditioning.

“There are people walking around with Fernand’s made in the late 1980s that have been reconditioned,” said McKay.

In a good week, McKay and his part-time assistant can make about 15 pairs. He has a four-month backlog of custom orders and admits, “I’m always looking for interested and able assistants. It is very physical work and requires craftsmanship, strength and attention to detail, but it beats swinging a hammer.”

McKay is a former construction worker who worked and learned from the original owner Steve Fernand, and then bought the business in 2006.

“The learning curve on just what it takes to run a business has been huge,” he said. “But it was a logical progression once I learned from Steve, and he was interested in selling and moving on to other things.”

“The Fernand brand name is well-established and we get customers by word of “foot” as Steve used to say,” said McKay.

Fernand started the Comfoot Shoe line in 1978 and the business has been in Benzonia since 1987. There is a large file of “shoe love letters” from satisfied customers raving about their shoes and often wanting another pair and catalogs to pass onto their family and friends.

Although the 60-hour workweeks have been a surprise to McKay, he sees the business as an important link to his personal beliefs of sustainability and concerns about the environment.

“It’s been a pleasant surprise that people are more conscious of where and how the products they buy are being made. I’m really glad to see that. The product sells itself. I could probably move the business anywhere and customers would find me.”

McKay chose Benzonia for its small town qualities. “I ride my unicycle a few blocks to work all year around, it’s a good place to raise my 15-year-old daughter, I play music in a local band when I can and, for now, that all fits. I’m hoping in a few years to run the shop with alternative energy and go off the electrical grid, and that’s entirely possible here.”

For those wanting to forgo the custom shoe wait time, there are several styles available in the “shoe room” including loafer and oxford styles and sandals. McKay is also expanding a line of handmade leather purses and pouches. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Saturday year-round, he will also take appointments if customers call first.

Check out www.fernandfootwear.com, or call 800-419-8621.BN

Man sues Waukesha County, jail over amputated toe

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By MIKE JOHNSON
mikejohnson@journalsentinel.com

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Posted: July 3, 2008

Waukesha – A New Berlin man is suing Waukesha County and its work-release jail, contending that his left big toe had to be amputated because jail staff would not let him wear orthopedic shoes prescribed because of his diabetic condition.

Warren J. Krohn, who is in the Huber work-release facility in connection with the theft of natural gas, says in the suit he was required to wear the jail’s standard-issue footwear. As a result, in August he began experiencing leg pain and ultimately developed blisters on his foot, the suit says.

The suit, filed Thursday in Waukesha County Circuit Court, says Krohn immediately told Huber authorities about the problem but staff denied him permission to wear the medically prescribed shoes.

He is seeking unspecified damages from the county, including for his “past, present and future pain and suffering,” the suit says.

Krohn’s toe was amputated Sept. 10, the suit says, and he needs ongoing medical care, including additional surgeries.

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