Georgian Graffiti

First two are from the same author- Miro. Third one belongs to other guy. You can see some works of Miro on Flick: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mirtsumi/ or click here

Beer in Georgia

As GBC (Georgian Business Consulting) reports 70 million liters of beer sold in Georgia in 2006.

According to beer producers, there was sold nearly 70 m liters of beer this year, which accedes by 18-20 % to the last year’s data, when there was sold only 58 m litters of beer a year. Local beer Market is full of national production.

The market is mainly controlled by three leading beer companies, which control nearly 95 % o the local market. According to beer producers Georgian market is divided as follows: Kazbegi-50 %, Lomisi-28 % and Castel-17 %. Imported production takes only 5.
A man drinks average 230 litter of beer a year. “According to our survey, a man average drinks 1.15 little of beer one time and 140 times a year.

Free Hugs in Georgia

Upaso Chaxuteba

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www.freehugscampaign.org

New map of Tbilisi

New map of Tbilisi with extended borders. Thanks to Dvorsky!

Tbilisi still ghetto for extraordinary people?

About that sings georgian rock band "Nebo SSSR" from their album "End of Ghetto?". They sing in Russian as well as in English. They can be found on Myspace here (russian songs) and here (english songs).

German Guy makes Khinkali

Ingredients:
Fat mutton/meat/ - 300 gr,

Pork/meat/ - 200 gr,

Onions - 3 bulbs,

Wheat flour - 500 gr,

Parsley, coriander, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Cut the meat into pieces and mince it together with onions.

Season the force-meat with parsley, coriander, rosemary, pepper and salt, add 1/2 glass of warm water and thoroughly mix.

Sieve wheat flour, collect it into a heap, make a dip in the middle of the heap, pour a glass of water into it, and add some salt and mix.

Roll out the paste to a thin layer (about 2 cm thickness) and cut out round pieces with glass and then make thinner of a dessert plate size.

Put a table spoonful of the force-meat on each taste piece/collect the edges to a bunch/, twist them and slightly press, giving them the shape of a bulb.

Put the khinkali into a sauce-pan with salted boiling water and boil them. Stir carefully from time to time preventing the khinkali from sticking to the sauce-pan bottom.

When the khinkali are float, they are ready and can be served.

Taboo Websites?

I was wondering which georgian Websites could be potentially tabooed in georgian society and found only three. There are 3 reasons why I found only three : 1. I searched in Georgian net badly 2. Georgian society is very tolerant 3. Georgian net is very poor with good or bad websites in general. I have such a feeling that the last reason is the closest to truth...

There are at least 2 themes in georgian society that almost nobody wants to discuss and make opinion on them publicly: religion and sex. Websites that i found are directly connected to both of these themes.

1. www.religion.ge often criticizes official georgian orthodox church and takes tolerant position to other religious denominations in Georgia.

2. www.inclusive-foundation.org this website focuses on sexual minorities in Georgia and advocates their rights.

3. www.psycho-log.blogspot.com is only in English and one might think, that it's not georgian website, but counters that are on this site makes me suggest, that this site is for small, but still for georgian audience.

If you know other websites please write them in comments.

Georgian soldiers in Iraq

I found first (i guess) georgian soldier's blog. He is based in Iraq and has some interesting photos, along with his commentaries, about his life in Iraq(though most of them are in georgian).


http://armyranger.wordpress.com/

Currently 850 Georgian troops are deployed in the cities of Iraq (Baghdad and Baqubah), making Georgia one of the top contributors to the U.S.-led coalition on a per capita basis. As for Afghanistan, 150 soldiers are stationed there contributing to the NATO-led operation. Georgia is to increase its military contingent in Iraq to 2,000 troops and in Afghanistan 100 more Georgian troops will be sent.

Ozoni (georgian music magazine)

Ozoni Advert


Ozoni on MySpace

Georgian Gothic Music

Gothic music is not popular in georgia. I know only one Band called Yorick.

They recorded two albums: "The Rest is Silence" and just released "Plebeian reign". You can find some info's on their Website.

I found on youtube their song: "Time to go! Time to go!". Main theme of the album is based on Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita". Other two songs are based on Lermontov's "Demon" and Tolstoi's "Anna Karenina".

In this song featuring Artist is "Pecho" ex-vocalist of Soft Eject, who sings The Master's part.

Folk&Classic Music on MySpace

Soft Eject

Soft Eject on MySpace
Is 6 member band from Tbilisi, Georgia. Founded in 1989. The first performance at Batumi, Georgia rock festival 1990. 1995 the band made their first music video Please Just Carry On in Tbilisi, and still appears on top Georgian musical TVs along with other videos of the band. 1996 SOFT EJECT established own S.E.Studio in Tbilisi. 1996-2000 - the band experimented with synthesizing rock, folk and classical music genres. Experimental music was successfully performed at the Tbilisi Guitar Festival 2000. Soft Eject performed number of solo and joint concerts throughout Georgia. June of 2001 SOFT EJECT performed in The Central Philharmonic Hall in Tbilisi. The concert had a live TV and online broadcast. In 2002 the film Soft Eject Wanderer by Nino Dalaqishvili was released. In September 2002 Soft Eject visited the UK, participated in, the In The City festival in Manchester and performed on Georgian Night concert featuring 4 bands from Georgia. Afterwards the band performed in various clubs in Greater Manchester and Liverpool. 2003 The second trip to UK featuring 19 performances in 22 days. In 2003 the band worked on their new CD Caucasus Dances. 2003 September - the band organized and performed the public project called Vote For Your Future and intensively toured around Georgia with other leading bands of the country. November 2003 organized and participated in the concert Help Your Country in Tbilisi. The gig was broadcasted all over the country. 2003 During the Rose Revolution the band actively participated in the revolutionary movement, supporting the peaceful manifestations in Tbilisi in cold and rain days of Late November. As a result Soft Eject, along with few other performers, were nicknamed The Rain Musicians. 24 November 2003 - The band organized and participated in the concert held in front of the Parliament House of Georgia celebrating the anniversary of the Rose Revolution. 2003-2004 organized and participated in the tour supporting the newly elected President. Performed during the 2004 New Years Eve concert on the central square of Tbilisi. 2004 - Extensively toured across Georgia. May 2004 organized and participated in the concert at the Batumi Stadium with over 100 000 audience, which was broadcasted countrywide. 2004 participated in Georgian Folk Festival ArtGeni. 2005 Soft Eject participated intensively in various live TV and radio shows. 2005 August - Participated in Kvariati Summer Festival Print on the Sea, organized by company Step Records. 2005 September - Tbilisi Days In Kiev concert in Baboon Cafe with Green Room 2005 September Prelude Festival, Kennedy Center, Washington USA, Gig in Iota Club, Arlington VA. Discography: Nine mountains Away 2002 Night - 2002 Wanderer 2001 Collection - 1995 Now! 1995 Something New 1994 Everybody 1993 Bottom of Form.

The Shin

The Shin on MySpace
The Shin are Zaza Miminoshvili (guitars, panduri), Zurab J. Gagnidze (electric and acoustic bass, vocals) and Mamuka Gaganidze (vocals, percussion). In their Georgian homeland, these musicians belong to the artistic elite of the country and are well known as leading composers and musicians. They have scripted pieces for productions at the Tbilisi State Theatre, numerous film, TV, and radio projects in Georgia and around the world, have taken part in several international projects, working together with great composers, directors and artists such as Gia Kancheli, Robert Sturua, Giora Feidman, Chaka Khan, Randy Brecker, Okay Temiz, Fuat Saka and many others. Musicians have lead several workshops on Georgian polyphony polyrhythmic and improvisation-theory. The Shin has participated in various festivals and won several prizes in recognition of their work. In Georgian Shin means "the road home". Even though each of us has our own personal road home and our own personal home, the music of The Shin has the amazing ability of leading everyone "home". The music leads you to somewhere you know you've been before, where the windows are fogged over from the rain and it smells of kitchen smells, where you hear voices and, even though you might not understand what they are saying, you understand everything anyway. This music leads you home, no matter how far away it is.

Levan Tskhadadze

Levan on MySpace
Levan Tskhadadze was born in 1983 in Tbilisi; He studied in the E. Mikeladze School of Instrumental Music and V.Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatory with Davit Djishkariani. In 2009 he graduated at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he studied with Harmen de Boer.

In 2010 he continued his studies with Michel Lethiec in Nice Conservatory, at this moment he is finishing his master studies in Amsterdam Conservatory.

Levan is a founder and artistic director of the Tbilisi Wind Festival, where he collaborates with such musicians as Radovan Vlatkovic, Sergio Azzolini Maurice Bourgue and many others.

He won several prizes during his studies, such as: Georgian President's Scholarship, Francois Leleux Wind Competition in Tbilisi, Scholarship of the foundation "Solo", founded by Elisabeth Leonskaya.

Levan received master classes from Karl Leister, Ralph Manno, Joan-Enric Iluna, Paul Meyer, Anthony Pay, Menahem Pressler and Michel Lethiec. Levan played as principal clarinet in Tbilisi Opera Orchestra, Georgian Chamber Orchestra in Ingolstadt, Europa Philharmonie and Belfast Ulster Orchestra.

He performs with different Georgian Orchestras as a soloist and plays chamber music in various halls of Europe.

Nino Gvetadze

Nino on MySpace
Nino Gvetadze won the Second Prize, Press Prize and Audience Award at the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition 2008. She has received a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2010.
Born and raised in Tbilisi , Georgia , Nino Gvetadze studied with Veronika Tumanishvili, Nodar Gabunia and Nana Khubutia. After her graduation in the Tbilisi Conservatory, Nino moved to the Netherlands , where she studied with Paul Komen and Jan Wijn.
During her studies Nino received various awards, among those: Grant of the foundation of "solo" founded by Elisabeth Leonskaya, Grand prize and 2 special prizes at the YPF Piano Competition, Holland.
From the age of 6 Nino has performed with orchestras. She has played with such conductors as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Michel Plasson, Michel Tabachnik, Otto Tausk, Etienne Siebens, Jansug Kakhidze and John Axelrod, and performed with such orchestras as the Brussels Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Philharmonic and Radio Chamber Philharmonic, the Hague Residence Orchestra, Limburg- and Brabants Symphony, Rheinische Philharmonie and Seoul Philharmonic.
She has participated in various music festivals around the world including chamber music with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Spoleto Festival, recital in Bayreuth, Germany on the Grand piano of Franz Liszt, Recital in the Pro Musica Preisträger am Klavier-Zyklus in Hannover, a China/Korea tour in July 2010, concert with the Georgian Sinfonietta on the Young Euro Classic Festival in Berlin, Germany, recitals and chamber music on the Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam, Holland, Concert with Brussels Philharmonic during the Brahms Festival in Brussels, Belgium and many others.
In March 2010 she performed on the famous Grand piano of Vladimir Horowitz live on Dutch Television. In 2009 Brilliant Classics released a CD of Nino Gvetadze featuring the piano repertoire of Modest Mussorgsky. Together with violinist Frederieke Saeijs, she recorded complete Sonatas of Carl Maria von Weber for Naxos. Her radio recordings are frequently broadcast by different channels of European TV and Radio.

Nino's Website

Electro Music Boom in Tbilisi

At least if it's not a Boom, it's very "cool" to listen e-Music and if you can also mix some tracks with software called "Traktor" than you are really cool guy here! Clubbing in Tbilisi is popular and cool stuff to do, though their are not lot of clubs. Their is also trend to minimal techno/house style music. I will use again MySpace to present some of georgian Dj's, that I find play interesting music, though I am not big fan of electro music:

Sikha

Sikha's MySpace
Sikha was born in Tbilisi capital of Georgia (small country near Black Sea). As a teenager he was playing in various bands on bass guitar and was studying at the medical school at the same time. In 1994 he founded underground band Afternoon Version together with his close friends, which had success and won prize in 2000 on Georgian music festival. In 2001 Sikha moved to London to pursue his dream of music production. Apart from producing solo work he is also collaborating with other musicians. MOst recently he has started experimenting with laptop DJing and it proved to be a successful experiment. Several of his tracks were included in various compilations in the UK & USA. Released Tracks: Early 2003 - Track Something (original track from Afternoon Version album To-gether) was included in Peoplesound.coms compilation CD complimenting DJ Dave Pearce's new dance column feature in Daily Star newspaper in UK 2003 Track Together car remix (original track from Afternoon Version album Together) was also included in American label Abstrakt Realitys compilation CD Chill Vol 2. www.abstraktreality.com 2004 Sunday Morning remix of original track by Levan on deep touch www.sfprecords.com 2004 All Night Long Levan & Sikha released on KYR Records Netherlands http://www.kyrrecords.nl/ 2004 Summertime revision Sikha & Zuricha (as Guria Revision)- Released on Chica discos label together with another track Dust www.chica-discos.com 2005 Beautiful day D32 Remix - on VIPNIK sounds.

Ekala

Ekala's Myspace she plays minimal techno/house.

Levan

Levan's MySpace he is also based in London.

CRRC Research Fellowships

CRRC is preparing a new round of research fellowships. Are you curious about a social science issue? Do you have some ideas or hypotheses that you want to explore further? This fellowship could be the perfect opportunity for you!

What issues are we looking to address?

We're looking for social science research that addresses pressing issues your country faces. The Millennium Development Goals constitute one such urgent research agenda. Other likely issues include child poverty, migration and democratization. However, we are happy to listen to your suggestions. We can also help you develop your ideas, if you are still unsure, but are committed to undertaking professional research. Look at our blog, http://crrc-caucasus.blogspot.com, to see some of the issues that previous fellows have worked on.

What issues are we NOT looking to address?

We are open to innovative ideas and projects. But we are not particularly interested in geopolitical studies, partisan pieces, or research that is unfocused, speculative (or too theoretical) and does not ground itself in the relevant existing literature. We prefer research that can make a real impact by improving people's lives.

What results are expected?

We want you to produce international quality research. You should aim to publish your research in a peer-reviewed journal. This will give your research international recognition. We will help you find an appropriate journal to which you can submit your work. We also expect your work to contain prescriptive richness and ask you to present you findings to relevant interested groups (international organizations, NGOs, government agencies) in your home country.

Who is the fellowship for?

You are smart, committed, curious and want to apply all your abilities. Typically you will have at least a Master's Degree. You are committed to develop your research ability and have a track record of excellence. You may work in fields other than research, but you are interested in getting back into research because you realize there are excellent long-term opportunities in the field. We require a working knowledge of English, since you want to publish internationally. Exceptions can be made for those doing quantitative and survey work. (Sorry, no funding for stipends abroad, or for Westerners.)

What do you get?

Primarily you get the satisfaction of doing excellent work and of being part of a small but vibrant community of internationally recognized research scholars in the South Caucasus. Moreover, if you get published internationally many opportunities follow. The fellowship provides an opportunity to prove your professionalism, which you can use for many other applications (jobs, consultancy work, joint research projects, conference participation, to name the most obvious). Depending on your research project, you can also get between 2000 and 4000 US dollars for pursuing your research interest (surveys, for example, may have higher costs).

Is it easy?

Yes and no. We will help at every step. But it certainly is not easy money. In research you confront new challenges and difficult decisions all the time. That is why we are doing it, after all. It requires determination and persistence -- we hope you will join us in the thrill of discovery.

How to prepare?

Our application procedure is specifically designed to help you develop your research proposal. Write us a short e-mail now (by the latest February 22) to Tamta at tamta@crrccenters.org to find out more, telling us about your field of interest. We will send you an email to let you know about the next step and to invite you to discuss your ideas at our open houses.

Georgians on MySpace

I posted in Septemeber, about some georgian musicians on MySpace. I will try to track Georgians on MySpace and give roundups time from time. In this post I will try to give look at some bands who play Indie music.

OTAR my cousin and grandson of georgian composer Otar Taktakishvili. He released two albums: Fuse (2002) and Rebel Record (2006). He plays with the band called The Gglitch.
The Gglitch - International Drinking Song

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Otar's MySpace.

John Jolly is also known as SirG and Gvarj. He's been a part of numerous bands and projects (Sakhli, Genetic Code, Georgian Dance Mpire, Somebodies, SD1, Bibi da Sergi). Sergi is editor in chief of the only music magazine in Georgia (OZONI) and presents two radio shows. MusicHall (Thursdays, FM103.4, TBILISI, GEORGIA) covers newest developments in nearly every genre of electronic music. Muzorama (Sundays, FM106.9 , TBILISI, GEORGIA) is for those who’ve been interested in modern rock, indie, alternative, punk reggae and innovative pop music. Both shows provide information about newest releases, legal MP3 downloads, interesting remixes and cover versions. Listen 2 the shows @ MUZORAMA.

Young Georgian Lolitaz (see my post) recently moved to London and gave their first concert. Here is video

You can read interesting article about Indie music life in Moscow here. eXile complains about low quality music played in Indie clubs.
eXile: ,,the fact is that Moscow's indie scene has almost nothing to do with "indie." And in part, that's because "indie" itself has pretty much become little more than a stance or a fashion choice. The original "indie" grew out of the post-punk college radio scene during the 1980s. It was a mostly Middle American avant-garde movement that took anti-fashion and anti-commercialism as seriously as Middle American Protestants would. That meant wearing worn-out clothes, not combing your hair, and basically not caring. Punk was too fashion-victim. Indie was all about not giving a shit. Or at least pretending to not give a shit,,

,,From what I could tell, the context was all lost on Muscovites. Indie here is just a way of differentiating yourself, of being a bit more Western, a bit more kewl, than the tired old raver hags. As Walter Sobchak might say, Moscow indie in Moscow has no frame of reference, it's like a child wandering in the middle of a movie and...,,

What will be instead of "Evrika" ?

As Radio Imedi reports Georgian patriarchate establishes its TV channel. Patriarch Ilia said: television company will have a public broadcasting and it will be called “Georgian International TV Chunnel”. TV station under the patronage of the Georgian Orthodox Church will begin broadcasting aimed towards promoting, as the founders say, “Georgian national values”. The television station won’t be political and informational. Mainly, it will have cultural-cognitive and educational programs and religious broadcasts. The important part will be appropriated for broadcasts for diaspore.
Tbilisi-based Evrika TV, owned by ex-communication minister Pridon Injia, who is currently affiliated with the opposition Labor Party, will give its TV frequency for the Church's broadcasts. Currently the frequency is leased by the Tbilisi-based TV studio Maestro, the channel mostly shows entertainment programs including studio “Maestro’s” reality show “Amtanebi”, which is popular among youngsters; however the Patriarchy and conservative circles have negative attitude toward this program.
The station will be chaired by Giorgi Andriadze, former parliamentary secretary of the Georgian Orthodox Church and founder of the public movement National Lobby.

Evrika was one of the worst TV stations and somehow I don't believe new one will be better...

iPods & Big Macs

CRRC Blog has very interesting post about iPods and Big Macs as a comparative tool to measure purchasing power and currency valuation in South Caucasus. Blog refers to Economist and Marginal Revolution Blog (Big Mac case) and Australian Bank (iPod case).
CRRC compares prices of iPods in the region and argues that they are not as low, as it schould be expected since iPods sell for much more than their production costs.

2 GB iPod Nano:
Armenia, 288 US dollars
Georgia, 224 US dollars
Azerbaijan, 199 US dollars

CRRC Blog gives various possible explanations for such price differences:
1. Azerbaijan may have a larger local customer base, allowing them to charge less for the individual item.
2. Armenia may have higher transport costs, or simply a dealer that can keep a very straight face. It is also possible that many Armenian customers actually shop abroad, and those that are left locally are prepared to pay the premium.

No suggestions are given for georgian case though.

შერეკილები (Crackpots)

One of the best Georgian movies!!! (with english subtitles)

Merry Christmas! but when and why?

Nugzar Papuashvili and George Nigharadze talk about celebrating Christmas in orthodox Christian countries such as Russia and Georgia. They argue why Christmas should be celebrated on 25-th of December and not on 7-th of January.

Who will be on the first georgian Playboy Magazine's cover?

As media.ge reports Georgia will become third country in the CIS where ,,Playboy" Magazine will be published. Monthly circulation will be 15 thousand and magazine will cost 5 GEL.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!