New older images from Tusheti by Keti

Keti's father with friends


Bakuri


Lasharoba in Chigo


Lasharoba in Chigo


Car accident

Keti from Chigo near Dartlo is now living in New York and was so nice to send me some older photographs from Tusheti

Giorgi Khachapuridze on Tsereteli's new sculpture

"...Russia has let loose the mega-vandal on his native Tbilisi." Link

Giorgoba, George slays the dragon, Zurab Tsereteli

george-slays-dragon-tbilisi, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Zurab Tsereteli's sculpture Monument of Freedom will be revealed on Freedom Square Tbilisi on Thursday, November 23th. Details here

In the Georgian Times it is said, that the descision to put it on the column was made by Gouvernment, wich is difficult to follow. I definitly think, it was the artists descision, no matter by whom it was, it was very wise.

The column with the rider Giorgi on its horse slaying the dragon has a big impact to the composition of the whole ensemble Freedom Square [Georgian: Tavisuplebis Moidani], like an "i" with the point golden illuminated in the sky. And it got the perfect size to look at, it seems to ask your eye, "follow me..."

It is a representive piece, deeply connected with myth, history and reality of the symbol and with Georgia on the other side. It could stand in other countries, like the U.S, in other cities like Moscow, but there it seems to be beautiful but a little dishonest. Here in Georgia has it found its right place, a kind of true message: We are small, we had been beaten, but we always fight back. We do not want any evil to others, as we rest in our selfs, in our families, our land, in our language, poetry and habits. We are dreamers and sometimes go for taking the skies.
Saw you Misha storming Shevardnadzes parliament ? This is George, hotblooded but undaunted by death.

We feel reflected in George. The sculpture is vivid, changing and lively. It mirrors the Georgian character. It is right in our centre, between the earth we stand on and the heaven far above. It is an ideal to strive to, as we are far from perfect.

And it's a delighted elegance around Tsereteli's George, bringing the death to the monster in a playful dance. Compare it to the stress of other Georges fighting the mighty dragon.


St.Georg, Berlin

Tsereteli's sculptures are admired but got lot of critic too. See here examples of his works:

In Russia and Ukraine

http://www.tsereteli.ru/eng/g.php?country=RUSSIA,%20GEORGIA,%20UKRAINE

in the US

http://www.blueofthesky.com/publicart/works/goodandevil.htm

http://www.tsereteli.ru/eng/g.php?country=THE%20UNITED%20STATES%20OF%20AMERICA

with the discussion of Tear of Sorrow on a Russian blog

http://www.russiablog.org/2006/07/russia_donates_911_memorial_to.html

and the controversy on this monument dedicated to 9/11

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/09/12/monument.shtml

"Controversy also emerged when it transpired that the sculptor had mistakenly included the names of about 40 people on the monument who had survived the attacks, but were on some lists of presumed fatalities."

http://zeebeam.blogspot.com/2006/10/911-memorial-by-zurab-tsereteli.html

http://smetanka.blogspot.com/2006/09/russia-tear-of-grief-intro-to-orthodox.html

and other critical voices

http://www.veryrussian.net/2006/zurab-tsereteli-goes-america.html

Art Students earlier this year protested against the plan of Tsereteli's sculpture. What instead of the "better contemporary",as you demanded, you wanted to place here ?

Zura, this is a master piece !

Urlaub 2007 in Imeretien, Westgeorgien

in Kooperation mit Argo-Travel Kutaissi


Urlaub in Imeretien


Kultur in Kutaissi


Typische Landschaft in Imeretien


Zwischenmahlzeit


Krönungskirche Bagrati, Kutaissi


in Kooperation mit Argo-Travel Kutaissi

Das georgische Landleben mit viel Entspannung hautnah erleben, Mai-Oktober 2007

Im westgeorgischen Gebiet Imeretien haben wir mehrere Dörfer mit besonders schöner Naturlage unweit von Wäldern, Flüssen und Bergen ausgewählt. In diesen Dörfern haben wir Kontakt mit typischen georgischen Familien, die unsere Gäste empfangen und nach Wunsch betreuen. Natürlich sind das gut eingerichtete Häuser mit Dusche, WC und dennoch taucht man schnell in das zeitlose, scheinbar idyllische Leben auf dem georgischen Land ein.

Die Familien leben auf angenehmen Höfen mit schönen Obst- und Gemüsegärten, mit Weinberg und Weinkeller. Unsere Gäste werden in einer ökologisch intakten und sauberen Umgebung wohnen, naturbelassenes Essen zu sich nehmen können (Obst, Gemüse, Fleisch, Milchprodukte, georgischen Mazoni (Yoghurt) und die Reichhaltigkeit der georgischen Küche kennenlernen. Gern können Sie an der Zubereitung der Mahlzeiten teilnehmen und exotische Rezepte mit nach Hause nehmen (Schaschlyk, Chinkali, Chatschapuri, Sazivi, Elardshi )

Es gibt Möglichkeiten zum Reiten, Fischen, Pilzesammeln und Wandern im Wald und in der näheren Umgebung (z.B. im Kurort Sairme)

Gern versuchen wir Sie in georgisches Brauchtum einzuführen und laden Sie ein, an einer traditionellen georgischen Hochzeit teilzunehmen und die Besonderheiten der georgischen Tafel ausgiebig kennenzulernen.



Empfohlene Tourdauer ab 1 bis 2 Wochen
Die Gäste werden auf Wunsch von einer deutschsprachigen symphatischen Dolmetscherin begleitet.

Reisepreis EUR 80.00 Euro Tag je Person, Kinder bis 14 Jahre 50% ermäßigt

Kontakt:

Tusheti. From Village Koklata by Tamuna

Tusheti. From Village Koklata, originally uploaded by Tam*Tam.

See Georgia through the eyes of Tamuna, follow this Link to her Flickr-Set

When Georgian school girls are rocking

Mari, Sali, Nino and Salome
See my previous posts here and here

George slays the dragon, Tbilisi by Zurab Tsereteli

I really like the new eye-catcher at Freedom Square Tbilisi. It fits so perfect with the place and lets your mind wander by slowly walking around to see it from every different angle.
Thank you Mr. Tsereteli !

On second no. 6 you can hear the now so typical Alarm horn of the Patrol Police. Who has been in Tbilisi, recognizes.

george-slays-dragon-tbilisi2, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Border guards

ausst71, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Hans Heiner Buhr 2001

Khatia

khatia, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Photo: Wilhelm Siepe, Cologne

Abenteuertrekking Nationalpark Lagodekhi Georgien 2007

sterndolde, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Trekking National Park Lagodekhi
05.08.-15.08.2007
Wine Region Kakheti and the Mountains of the Lagodekhi NP
EUR 1160.00
More info at Kaukasus-Reisen
(German/English/Dutch/Russian)

Tiny Still-lifes from Georgia

Somewhere in Shiraki, 1998


Somewhere near Borjomi, 1996


At Korsha, Barisakho, 2000 Photo: Maurice Wolf


Near Borjomi, 1996


Near Borjomi, 1996

I opened three new Flickr-Groups today: Khevsureti, Tusheti and Buzkashi
Have a look and if you like it, Please join.

View to Gldani, Tbilisi

autobasar200mm, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Gldani bridge, cold November evening, big size here

gldani1, originally uploaded by grijsz.

gldani2opt, originally uploaded by grijsz.

If you like Chocolate, like I do, you will find this blog nice: http://parisbreakfasts.blogspot.com/

More observations on Georgian youth or what is a blog ? Let's take PICZO

Trying to establish a blog for an 8th class in Tbilisi is not that easy, as the common answer is "What is that, a blog ?" As I describe, ah, yes, better then lets take Piczo..."
I never heard of that piczo, first I thought, that must be a small Georgian web ring or something like that. So I jumped to piczo and started to play and fast figured out, that this free mash-up of photos, text, blinking animations, videos et cetera must be much more appalling for the kids than the dry features you have in Blogger or even Blogger in Beta. Back to the kids, who are 13-14 years old, I found it stunning, what they do in their free time and what profession they will later choose, if they know so far. Here are some short answers:

B plays very good soccer, Tennis and Volleyball, has no Email-Address but is often in the Internet (Soccer clubs) and wants to study German at the Goethe Institute

D wants to study Linux and Excel, become an Engineer. He has E-mail and is 2 or 3 times a week in the web and for chat and visits www.babajana.com and www.boom.ge

G wants also to study Linux, plays Tennis and Computer games, especially likes to destroy cars in these games

N uses piczo, Email and skype. She wants to become a Diplomat, is 4-6 hours daily in the Internet, chats with lots of friends, won the 1st prize in a Tennis cup in Egypt, and goes in the winter for a 1-month-visit to the US

A is danceress at the famous Sukhishvilebi-Group, wants to become a Diplomat, uses also Google and is also a good Swimmer. She is every day in the Internet.

L loves Yahoo, soccer, Google, chat and Snowboard. He is also a good dancer.

N collects LEGO, uses the Internet for new products of Lego, wants to study Finances at the Caucasus Business School in Tbilisi. Besides he loves to make small sculptures of Soldiers from Modeling clay and reads lots of books on the Roman Empire.

K wants to study Fine Arts/Painting, uses the Internet for search on her famous Rock groups and uses piczo by updating her own site every day. She swims very good.

Piczo must make tons of money by the Google Adsense Programme, as those ads are at the top of every site. I liked to arrange stuff on piczo and think it could be a great tool for "serious" themes too, if you never had a website, but wanted one, try it and have fun. Here you get a glimpse: http://khevsureti.piczo.com

This is a impression of the Sukhishvilibis, where A. dances

Der Osten ist lange her

aber siehe da, manchmal kommen die "bösen" Erinnerungen wieder hoch und der Schrei nach Freiheit, wie hier von Peter Michael Buhr in der Zeit

Karabair-ole

karabair-ole, originally uploaded by grijsz.

I wanted to write something about Toyota Landcruiser, Lada Niva's, Pajero and Nissan Patrol and their use but struggled the whole evening and half night with my so-called "ADSL"-connection, that I gave up and postet this nice image...

In the recent reshuffle of the Government last week I absolutely could not see much sense, now got to read this analyze on Messenger, not sure if that is the last and best conclusion (but I have no better).

Kids-ovcharka

kids-ovcharka1, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Hansi Grijsz Niza

Avchala panorama

avchala-panorama-opt, originally uploaded by grijsz.

View to Avchala,Tbilisi, river Mtkvari. See the big panorama 3000x804px here

The people with the limited opportunities

The people with the limited opportunities, originally uploaded by khvliksi.

by Paata khvliksi

Buzkashi in Kyrgyzstan by Fi

Buzkashi in Kyrgyzstan, originally uploaded by Fi's Space.

Four wonderful photos from a Buzkashi game in Kyrgyzstan by Fi.
Definitly, his images are a discovery:http://flickr.com/photos/mfi/

By Bike over the Caucasus: Oleg,Rodion,Juri,Ivan

4 nice guys, Oleg, Rodion, Juri and Ivan going from Kislovodsk to Dagomys/ Sochi at the Black Sea over the Caucasus Range in 9 days. Impressive photos of the journey here
http://www.designeous.com/rodion/

who-where-with-whome ?

who-where-with-whome, originally uploaded by grijsz.

One of the secret highlights of Tbilisi. I never met a foreigner, who was not making some great comments on this weird building, the former Ministry of Transportation, now the Department of Roads, where are made a lot of key decisions for the development of the infrastructure of Georgia these days. By 2009 we go in 3,5 hours straight to the Beach of Batumi by speed 150 ! (If allowed ;-))

Khevsureti and Cafe Paradise

Oh, no, it is a paradise but has no Cafe Paradise yet, although that would be a cool idea, at least from May to October somewhere near the road at Barissakho or Shatili, or maybe at the Datvis-Dshvari-Pass ? In Georgia Today Karen Shimizu wrote a nice piece on a journey in Khevsureti in company with Mindia Tsiklauri and 20 musicians from the Village Harmony Music Camp: Touring Khevsureti. The hills are alive...
As I read that, I sit in the new opened Cafe Paradise right on the opposite site of the famous Cafe Kala and next to the Old Gallery and it's rarity of Georgian art and images and frames. It is small, just for 20 or 25 people and has a warm, dark, oriental atmosphere, where I will spent probably lots of cold and windy Tbilisi winter days.



And for Khevsureti, I think I am going next weekend there.

khevsureti-from-roshka, originally uploaded by grijsz.

If you want to join us next season, contact me via Kaukasus-Reisen

Nice pool at Flickr: Caucasus Mountains

treck-abano-pass, originally uploaded by grijsz.

http://flickr.com/groups/caucasus-mountains/pool/

Some November Observations

As I work recently teaching German Language to Georgian schoolkids I am connected to every-day-life really every day. Here are some observations: Georgian youngsters giving plenty of hope for the future. They are smart, agile, talented, fresh and visionary. Most of them want to become successful businessmen. But don't forget the girls, they too want in the business or going for law, medicine, computer science. Most of them have E-mail and use the Internet daily. After school it's normal to attend extra lessons in the most important subjects with private teachers. A lot of them do dancing, traditional, modern and mixed. Some boys are very active in the sports like Rugby or Water polo or Karate. Cell phones are tools of communication, chatting with friends, or answer calls by mom and dad. Some of their phones have the camera function or one can use them as voice recorders. I asked once or twice about the price of these nice tools and they told me cold-blooded prices of USD 600 and more. (I use a geriatric phone for under USD 100). In the classes seems to be no rivalry of fashionable wear, like that is a big problem in Germany, but yes, they do compare their cell phones. Quite a lot of girls start smoking secretly quite early, in a lesser case the boys. Boys are cool these days when wearing longer hair, down to the shoulders and almost everybody wears necklaces with silver or wooden crosses. The Georgian skills for learning languages are amazing, they learn fast and many speak after a couple of years with few or without foreign accent. English and German are about even popular and to know a basic Russian is quite normal.

Makunia has a nice set of photos from Tbilisians- Tbiliselebi

Partizans visiting Baku and Tbilisi

Some guys from abroad are travelling the region and blog their impressions (they seem to be much impressed) in a Blog called Partizans in the Caucasus, further reading here

Kaukasus-Kaleidoscope and Flickr-Sets

"It was nice pictures that gave lot of joy to see the dissapearing way of life." M.T.

Want to get more impressions from the Caucasus ?

Kaukasus-Kaleidoscope

My Flickr-Sets

Georgia Caucasus and The Georgians

Animals and Plants

Popart and Painting

Other Cool Flickr-Sets from Georgia

vshioshvili Taktaka Khvliksi tabu

Julias Kunstkamera

Not in the mood for photos but for political analyzes of the New Great Game ?

Read "A Decisive Battle for the Caucasus " by Levan Pirveli from The Georgian Times

Avchala Fine Art Collection

Koka, Tskhvediani, Bullfight, Oil on Canvas, 2006

I started a new blog, showing highlights of my growing collection of Contemporary Art
http://avchala.blogspot.com/

Retrospections on Sukhumi, war and pain

by a Blogger, who remembers the war in 1993 and the recent situation in the frozen Abkhazian conflict. In Russian Language

Воспоминания о Сухуми, войне и боли

http://sukhumi.blogspot.com/

Wikipedia on Abkhazia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazia

Cossacks

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey
Ilya Repin, 1880-1891
canvas, 2.03 m × 2.58 m
Russian Museum of Alexander III

Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!

You, sultan, turkish devil, brother and comrade of the Devil, secretary of Lucifer himself. Some kind of damn knight you are, who cannot stick a pin into a bare arse! The devil shits, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make sons of christians your subjects; we are not afraid of your soldiers, we will fight you on land and on sea, screw your mother.

You are the Babylonian scullion, Macedonian cart-driver, Jerusalem brewer, Alexandrian goat-fucker, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, Armenian pig, Podolian thief, Tartar catamite, Kamyanets hangman, and the fool of all the world and underworld. An idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and a bend in the dick. You have a pig's face, a mare's arse, you're a butcher's dog, an unbaptized head, fuck your mother!

That is what the Cossacks say to you, asshole. You're not even fit to feed pigs of christians. Now we end, we know not the date and have no calendar, the moon is in the sky, the year the Lord knows, the day is the same with us here as with you over there, now you can kiss our arses.

Koshovyi Otaman Ivan Sirko and all the Zaporozhian Cossack Brotherhood

Source: Wikipedia

A Front-Row Seat At The Saakashvili Show

by Matthew Collin in the St.Petersburg Times

Vom Bild der Welt: Der neue gefeierte Roman der legendären Kaukasus-Journalistin Andrea Jeska

Andrea Jeska ist gnadenlos in diesem Buch; wehmütig, zerstörerisch und ausweglos. Eine heimatlose Journalistin auf der schmerzhaften Odyssee durch unsere innere und äußere Welt der Katastrophen, des Elends, der Verachtung und Gleichgültigkeit. Das Eurasische Magazin schreibt eine schöne und lange Rezension zu diesem Buch: http://www.eurasischesmagazin.de/artikel/?artikelID=20061016

Flora im Kaukasus 2007

22.06. bis 06.07.2007
Erleben Sie botanische Höhepunkte auf einer Reise durch die Pflanzenwelt des südlichen Kaukasus: Flora im Kaukasus 2007

Federgras-Bestände (Stipa spec.) in der Steppe östlich von Tiblissi, Juni 2006

Trekking up the mountains at Lagodekhi

The famous Sakhara can not await the mountains


The lovely view from the Alazani Valley


Our team on half way


One of the many cool views


We meet rangers of the Park on our way


Coffee, Tea, Shashlyk and Dshadsha makes a perfect dinner

I wanted for three days to blog this story but, Blogger has it's outages, or does not store more images on its Servers ;-( Update soon