My Mentor’s Autobiography

Hi! I am Vasilios Gardiakos' imaginary friend.

Vas named me Vif but I complained and so now he calls me Ardi. I should have stuck with Vif. Oh well! So, call me Ardi.

Yes, Vas also has real, un-imaginary friends but no one knows him as well as I do. We are very close. In fact you may say we are related, perhaps not by blood per se but by spirit. You may think of me as his missing identical twin than has recently re-appeared. Better yet, just think of me as one that has taken a real sincere interest in Vas and promises to expose some of his skeletons to the world. To help you understand Vas, I occasionally and perhaps too often by some standards, talk about myself. Ok, so I am little self-centered.

You may wonder if I am truly legitimate. Well Vas has assured me directly that he has a poetic license which allows him to very well do what he pleases when writing. I suppose I could ask to see the license, but that may be kind of awkward. Anyway I do not want to do anything that may upset him due to my precarious position, if you know what I mean. I should add that for those of you that do not believe in mental telepathy I assure you that this works just fine for us.

I also wonder why he selected me to write his autobiography. When I asked him why he chose me, he replied with the question “Why am I me” so I dropped the subject. Perhaps he may expound on this philosophical statement and relate it to my question in the future. I suspect that I have been recruited so that Vas will have plausible deniability for anything written concerning him. He can claim “I didn’t write this.” Yea sure!

Some of you may wonder if Vas is schizophrenic. I can confirm that he is not. And if you are wondering weather I am, that is schizophrenic, well again the answer is no!!! We are both very sane though I might add he is slightly eccentric. I could use the word crazy but for the rich, famous and artists, eccentric is more appropriate. Let me give you a clue, he is neither rich nor famous as of yet.

It is my job to make Vas look good, as he does not like to brag about himself. I will tell you about his thoughts, adventures, misadventures and about a few of his accomplishments. If he allows me, which is highly unlikely I will also tell you about his shortcomings. Vas too often reminds me that I am his number one shortcoming, but what does he know that I don't?

To get on his good side I wanted to call him God but he has so far refused any deification. I suspect this restriction may be lifted someday. I could call him my creator, which he is, but again he may object. He prefers I call him my mentor or Vas for short.

Due to his lifelong obsession with the answer to the divine question he has felt all along that he is on a divine mission. Finally after forty-one years with the completion of his quest he now more strongly feels the Devine presence though strangely he is in odds with it. Vas wonders why he was chosen. Though his mission on earth may not be immediately understood, it will nevertheless prove to be noteworthy. More on this later if I am allowed to express the details or perhaps I can ask Vas provocative questions during my interview unless Q gets the honor to interrogate him.

The other day we were thinking out loud and he hinted, I suspect kiddingly that when he dies that he will have someone offer free “Art by Vas” t-shirts to the first two people that attend his funeral and the next two who show up they will be offered a half price for the t-shirts. My, he is optimistic, four people? Certainly optimistic but within the realm of possibilities I may add. I will definitely be there, but perhaps I do not count.

I heard but I am not going to say where that Vas was extremely popular with the girls. He must have been a very cool guy. He himself has often remarked "I used to be cool". So maybe he was cool but I wonder where is his coolness now? Is there anyone out there that can vouch that Vas was cool at any time? Any one?

Kalamata

Well let me start at about the time his life began. Vas was born in Greece in the Peloponnesus in the province of  Messinia, in the town of Kalamata. He is very bright as I mentioned earlier. (Hee! Hee!) He asked me to remove the "Hee! Hee!" but I refused for obvious reasons! I could loose my job for this though unlikely as he will have a hard time finding a replacement for someone as talented as me. Ok I am bragging!

One of my mentor's favorite songs is I Did It My Way by Frank Sinatra:

I did it my way.
Regrets, I’ve had a few;
But then again,
too few to mention.

Tra la la la la la.
Sing it Franky!

Vas has changed the song to more accurately express the reality of his life, for all the things he did or failed to do:

I didn't do it my way.
Regrets I have a ton
but then again
I will regret
if I divulge them

Ok it doesn't rhyme. Well he is not a poet, obviously! As for humor, check it out for yourself. I must add that Vas solutes all those that did it their way, with or without regrets! I suppose if one is to have regrets it is better to have them of actions of their own choosing than to have regrets on actions at the behest of another. Enough on this subject!

Vas has promised me that one day he will spill his guts out and tell me all the things he did but should not have and all things he did not do but should have. Oh! How I dread this day. Let hope he has forgotten most of his regrets. Better yet I hope he forgets altogether. If he remembers I will threaten him by insisting I be the first to spill the guts.

Now for the boring background stuff. Vas has lived in Kalamata, New York City, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, Athens and a few places in Florida. 

Vas is single as of early 2006. He tells me that no lucky lady ever asked to marry him. The reasons he is still single may become more obvious as my mentors biography progresses.

Vas in 1972 opened the Athenian Room in the DePaul area at Webster and Halsted in Chicago. With zero restaurant experience and very limited funds he quickly set it up. It was an instant success. People lined up outside this small restaurant on the very first day. The day he opened he had band aids all over his fingers due do his inexperience in cutting tomatoes. Good thing tomatoes are red. The first several gyros he made were held up by wire coat hangers to prevent them from falling off the skewer. He spent six months getting costumer feed back until he perfected the gyros recipe. The spicy succulent gyros and sauces brought him much local recognition and success.

In October 1973 he bought the 27 foot Alden cutter "Juliet" and on November first sailed down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. In 1975 he again went south on the Mississippi river on November 1 again. This time it was on the 32 foot Deering steel sloop which he named "Aethra".

Vas on Lake Pontchartrain

Juliet on the Mississippi River at St. Louis

Many years later Vas moved to Greece. In Kalamata he had three options for a career, photography, music or writing. He started photographing the walls exposed from the 1986 earthquake and other primarily abstract subjects. Soon he realized that even though he liked photography there was no way to make a living with it especially shooting the abstracts which he enjoyed.

He then tried music creation. His incomplete music studio and underpowered computer and lack of computer skills put a halt to this dream. He did however record five pieces which were included in the1998 release of his Dichotomy CD. Plan B also did not work for him but will Plan C be ok?

In Kalamata he finalized the research he had started in 1982 and wrote The Smile Method - How to Avoid Gum Surgery and Dentures. Vas has sold many thousands copies of this book.

At the age of 18 he first noticed the 3_4_5 Pythagorean triplet start in pi. Interestingly enough his strong desire to search for the meaning and origin of our existence coincided with the early discovery. For forty-one years Vas sporadically studied pi looking for more what he calls oddities. The evidence produced by the oddities prove the existence of God. Now on his fifty-ninth birth-year he published his phenomenal findings for all to examine.

Lately he has written a several very short stories of which two are ready for you to read. His present focus is setting up his music studio and recording some music. If you have any comments to make click here. I am certain Vas would enjoy hearing from you.

        
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Copyright 2007 V. Gardiakos