Wu Wei

Ashton's ballets in Tbilisi

So today I went to the ballet for the first time. Well first time in Tbilisi, I'm not quite that uncultured.

Connections got us a front seat at the 1st loge.
It was billed as Frederic Ashton's ballets, and since none of us were ballet buffs we weren't sure what that would mean in practice.

The opera and ballet theatre has seen better days, and seats are still cheap. Although the auditorium is quite quite small on plan it has 5 galleries of seating above the stalls, so holds quite a few people. It was practically full for the last day of the 3-day performance. It was a matinee, so full of children reasonably well behaved given it wasn't a children's programme.

We got "A Birthday Offering" in Act I, pas de deux from Thais, Sylvia and La Chatte in Act II and the full Marguerite and Armand in Act III.

Thais was very sexy, as required by the story of a religious fanatic who tries to rescue a courtesan. Sylvia more classical, as a Nymph of Diana, accompanied by a more down to earth male dancer. He dispensed with tights revealing nobbly knees, not enhanced by supposed hunting kneeboots of an unfortunate purple and beige colour, making them look more like rugby socks. A hairy chest revealed by a modification of the tarzan costume, (no leopard skin but the usual one shoulder exposed) did not improve the impression. In La Chatte, a rather appealing cat stretched and prowled but was let down by a late arrival (it seemed to me anyway) of the radar controlled mouse. In order to keep up with the music, she had already leapt on the chair and "screamed", eventually jumping down in a tizz when the mouse finally appeared. The mouse got a special "bow" from the rest of the cast at the end. In case you are wondering why this was necessary, the full title is La Chatte metamorphosee en femme.

The theatre outside the auditorium is very dark and dull: no photographs of previous performances, no proper bar, nowhere to promenade, to see and be seen. Although it was a matinee, we managed to find a bottle of wine, but when we went back for more, it was the only one, so one of us had to go without. Not recommended!

The third Act was Marguerite and Armand, originally written for Nureyev and Fonteyn. It seemed it had "died" with them and only recently been revived for other artists. I can't say what it must have been like with the originals but Nina Ananiashvili and Vasil Akhmeteli were fantastic.

The performance's only bad point was when I got home and found my phone had vanished. I dashed back with a colleague and eventually got in round the back way involving coming on stage, back into the auditorium. Luckily the phone was still under the seat. On the way out again we found the photo exhibition on a wall backstage (a funny place to put it).

Checking facts on the internet to write this, I found this interesting snippet about Frederic Ashton here:

He had a sense of humor in person to match the one he displayed on the dance stage, and among those who enjoyed it was Queen Elizabeth II, whom he once taught to dance the tango. Ashton could mimic various well-known British personalities including the queen, who, it is said, retaliated with an Ashton imitation of her own when she heard about his routine.

Technorati Tags: ballet, Frederic Ashton, Tbilisi

Not quite as smart as the May Day Parade

Borrowed from English-Russia's selection from Miss Russian Army





Ill-equipped recruits or fancy dress? What does the army devochka wear? Try here


Technorati Tags: Russia, devushka, army

More rain

Another public holiday and another downpour. I'm beginning to feel glad I'm not so far from Mount Ararat when the Flood begins.

Still at least it's not July 15, or St Swithin's day or rain would be here for 40 days.

Technorati Tags: rain, weather, flood

Medvedev's inauguration

On the 9 o'clock news this evening we were treated to Medvedev's inauguration. Most of the commentary was in Georgian so I can't say whether it was favourable commentary or not. There were only a few clips of film which were alternated desperately for at least 15 minutes. One had Medvedev striding manfully on his own (not allowed an escort or a retinue) towards the camera, which made him seem a bit embarrassed. He climbed up a rather long and lonely red-carpeted staircase, eventually coming to a door opened by flunkeys (the effect rather spoiled by their jackbooted marching) which revealed another long corridor through cheering bystanders (probably grandees of Putin's party, or whatever grandees are called in post-modern Russia).

I am afraid I was reminded rather too much of the style of entry of contestants to Big Brother in Slovenia. I have only seen it there so I am not sure whether it is de rigeur for contestants to enter up a long staircase with cheering fans then through a dark passage eventually opening into the bright welcome of Big Brother house. It did make me wonder for a second how long it would take for TV viewers to vote him out of Big Brother house, but then I remembered that there is another set of rules for Russian Big Brother. In this case Big Brother becomes Prime Minister and even watches over the President, who has not had quite the same training in watching. Big Brother was in fact waiting at the altar for Medvedev. So then the camera alternated between the two, though only one side was required to recite any vows. (Should the ex-President promise not to interfere and let the new one make his own mistakes? or was it "till death us do part").

There were canons but it was hard to see whether it was the full 21 gun salute, and the film showed them being fired by someone (the White Rabbit?) popping out from behind a hedge, which did not lend dignity to the occasion.

After this reverie, I noticed the film loop had stopped and Putin and Medvedev had put on their macs (it was clearly raining outside) and had gone out to some balcony for a wave like royalty. There was a disrespectful close up of them coming down the stairs like an oddly assorted couple after the registry office wedding. Not holding hands, you understand, but the British Press would never have shown their crumpled macs, which made them look like they had spent the night already.

The only other clip showed Medvedev swearing an oath with his hand on a book (should it have been his heart, Father I cannot tell a lie). The hand obscured what sort of red book it actually was (of course it would be red in Russia), and the commentary was still in Georgian so I will have to wait to ask tomorrow which faith Medvedev actually follows. With some separation of state and religion these days in Russia, it is clearly not obligatory to be crowned in one of the churches of the Kremlin, as required in Britain. Nevertheless one could have wished for a bit more pageantry and a quick blessing in church for the civil ceremony would not have gone amiss.

Turning later to BBC World, we only saw a short stretch of the staircase marathon, and a short clasp of the hands of the new partners. Deference required that the mac scene was cut, of course. There was more about the march past and defending the realm in the speeches, which I could understand this time. The talk was of a dual power, a sort of "WilliamandMary" as learnt from "1066 and all that".

Lest this report be deemed too disrespectful, we should remark that this is a peaceful transfer of power (if any is transferred) and Medvedev has not (yet) been jilted. It is difficult for a post modern society to devise meaningful rituals for these rites of passage in society.

Technorati Tags: medvedev, inauguration, putin, rites of passage

An evening of Georgian television (Rustavi 2)

For a change I sat in front of the TV this evening. I decided that it was time to review Georgian TV adverts for the future work. I always find TV adverts in another country interesting (well apart from all the washing powder, hair products and toothpaste ads which are just plain boring anywhere).

What I enjoy are the cultural messages that get crossed. I remember in the 90s seeing a Russian advert with a young couple pushing a pram with a baby, posing as an upwardly mobile couple getting a mortgage. Nothing special about that, but in the UK, (at the time anyway) the guy would have had a suit, and not jeans and a ponytail. I can't imagine any UK bank using a guy with a ponytail as a suitable model for a creditworthy responsible man.

I can report that the only ponytailed man on an advert this evening was advertising a remedy for stomach pains, and he was not young. Serves him right.

Many boring episodes of low budget soaps followed (cut from close up of one couple in bedroom to close up of different couple in another room; saves a lot on sets and outdoor shots). A slight variation came with a young lady in a wheelchair, which offered the opportunity to show you could get a big car with a comfortable conversion to sit comfortably at a table. Perhaps you need one too? No one showed whether it was easy to get in and out, if you are disabled. The lady looked suitably sad dressed in black (but then most Georgian ladies of all ages wear black) but a novel addition was bright green leggings.

I learnt that most adverts favoured rather bright colours, especially a colour I can only describe as cerise. This figured heavily in a rather disturbing advert. A young couple were sitting with their TV dinners minding their own business, when in come two female aliens and whisk away their dinners. By the look on their faces, this was before they had finished. The aliens retire behind a curtain and after seeing their uniform you are supposed to recognise them as air hostesses. Whilst often you are glad to get rid of an airline meal, it is another thing to have your own (thawed and microwaved) home made dinner removed by uninvited aliens.

Then all was revealed. It was an ad for flyLaL (ex- Lithuanian airlines), which has just begun flights to Tbilisi from Vilnius. For a new airline I am not sure it created an entirely favourable impression in my mind,as the only attraction was a price of 339 GEL, presumably to Vilnius.

Only one political advert appeared, for party no 10.



Technorati Tags: Georgia, advertisements, TV, flyLAL

News from the front line (?)

Watching BBC World News this morning, it seemed that I would soon get phone calls and emails asking me if it was safe in Tbilisi, since war was imminent. However I can report that nobody bothered. Either nothing is being reported about the situation on home news or nobody cares.

I can report that nobody here is giving it much thought either. Nobody is stocking up with food, or protesting with "Russians go home" or "Hands off Abhazia" posters. After careful enquiries we have dispatched our team of engineers to a location close to the Abhkhazian border, as nobody seems worried.

One of the blogs I read yesterday pointed out that there must be some unholy plot between Putin and Saakashvili, (or should we say Medvedev and Saakashvili now, more later). What country facing elections in the next couple of weeks would go to war? So is Putin creating this phoney war to make it easier for Misha to win? Why are there no posters saying "would you trust the opposition to defend Georgia?". Of course you could equally well ask why there are no posters at all apart from for Party No 5?
Technorati Tags: Georgia, Russia, war, Abkhazia

EU Budget Commissioner says "spend it or lose it"

How nice to see the EU Budget Commissioner complaining about people not spending the huge amount of EU money they got when they joined the EU.

Dalia Grybauskaite was a pretty tough Minister of Finance in Lithuania. When she was given the job of understudy to the Commissioner for Education in the last European Commission she was heard to complain that she wanted a job about which she knew something. So we were pleased to see what she got in the new Commission.

Here is what the FT says this morning:

Former communist countries in central and eastern Europe were warned to do a better job of absorbing billions of euros they receive in European Union regional aid.

Dalia Grybauskaite, the EU’s budget commissioner, said some countries had failed to take up as much as 20 to 30 per cent of the funds available to them.

She issued her warning as she released details of the European Commission’s draft 2009 budget, which sets spending at €116.7bn (£91.8bn, $181.6bn), a drop explained largely by technical factors of €3.9bn, or 3.3 per cent, from this year’s levels.

“New member states should have not only the pleasure of receiving funds but the obligation of using money properly, on time and transparently,” Ms Grybauskaite said. “This responsibility is important in political terms. If member states can’t demonstrate that they can absorb funds properly, I can’t imagine from what position they will negotiate the new financial framework.”

She was referring to negotiations among the bloc’s 27 countries on the EU’s next seven-year spending cycle, from 2014 to 2020.

According to the Commission, the 12 countries that have joined the EU since 2004 – 10 in central and eastern Europe, plus Cyprus and Malta – will receive 50 per cent of EU regional aid expenditure next year. That is an increase from 47 per cent this year, 44 per cent in 2007 and 23 per cent in 2006.

But if they really don't know how to spend it, should they really be encouraged to spend it badly now, in a rush, and then be rewarded with more next year?

Technorati Tags: EU Commission, structural funds, EU budget, Grybauskaite

Bank holiday weather in Georgia

It's been raining for the last few days without sign of any end. Just like the weather on any public holiday in Britain.


Technorati Tags: weather, rain, georgia

More books

Haven't had much time for book cataloguing recently. My books are in Oxford, I'm in Tbilisi. Too much of a backlog to allow for buying new books. Not much time even to read them.

But today I managed to add a few to my list on Librarything, which is a wonderful online cataloguing system for books. I first found it on Stepping Stones blog (though it's gone now) and I quickly became addicted as it is so easy, and you can even get an ISBN scanner. What's more it has just got a lot better and easier. They are busy adding library catalogues from across the world, as well as linking to Amazon etc. That means that most of your books are already on there complete with the covers, so all you have to do is type in the title and author (or scan the ISBN) and there is your book, complete with links to reviews by other Librarythingers.

There are 25 million books in the catalogue with coming up to half a million members. Plus there is all the social networking stuff and opportunities to look at other people's libraries, including famous (live and dead) people.

The largest private library to date is 40,000 books. In my humble way I was pleased to see that our family total (around 1750) makes me number 1765 in size of library. There's a widget on the side of my blog showing a random selection of the books. It constantly surprises me about books I have forgotten I have got.

It also comes in several languages, encouraging people to add books from several national libraries in Europe.



Technorati Tags: Librarything, books, online library, online catalogue

Musical life in the Soviet Union

Just been watching a strange programme on Mezzo, the French music channel. It was a retrospective on musicians' lives in the Soviet Union, with lots of old film:

a clip of young Stalin in colour, looking so like a robot it is hard to believe he is not a prop in an Eisenstein film; more clips showing cheering or adoring workers shouting "Stalin"

a clip of a whole orchestra of eight year old girls playing violins, as an example of the excellent musical education;

an explanation of why Shostakovich agreed to work with the Soviet regime (to help other artists)

At first it was hard to follow and I wasn't concentrating either on the Russian or the French subtitles, which seemed to be showing the standard Soviet propaganda. Today it just seems laughable or pathetic. Then I began to listen more carefully.

The Russian narrator produced the following anecdote about a rehearsal in America of a Shostakovich symphony (the 4th, 2nd movement?) where a tune on the percussion resembled to westerners the clip clop of a horse and the violinists began to laugh. The narrator gave another explanation from the composer, himself: it was a tune from the prison, a prisoner tapping on the pipes to communicate with someone else, to transmit a message. Different interpretations, from different cultures. Certainly no laughing matter.

Also the narrator showed the frequent Kafkaesque situations musicians found themselves in. Asked to authorise a concert of the first symphony of Schnittke, Khrennikov, the Secretary of the Composers Union refused to answer Schnittke except "how can I authorise what I have not forbidden", knowing perfectly well what he was doing, and that was the end of the beginning of Schnittke's career. Perhaps now, Schnittke is better known than Khrennikov.


Technorati Tags: Soviet Union, Mezzo, music