Viva la Revolution

At 11 o'clock at night on November 22nd of 2003, I was stuck in the back of a Russian jeep - something with a vaguely mercenary name like "Lada," "Niva" or "Uzi"- in the middle of a very cold, very empty desert near the Georgian-Armenian border. The Uzi was sitting still - had been for an hour - because the driver had taken it on a joyous drunken drive through a nature preserve the night before, and no one had remembered to pack extra gasoline.

There were three cars that had been caravaning through the desert. Only one car (belonging to a Peruvian-American) had not participated in the ravaging of the nature preserve, and thus still had gas in its tank.

A driver was dispatched to find a village and, if possible, gasoline. (And if not gasoline, then a vehicle with a full tank and enough seats to retrieve three Uzis of stranded Americans).

After an hour or so of sitting in the dark, waiting for something to happen, the man riding shotgun got a call from his daughter in Tbilisi. A street protest that had been going on for weeks had just turned into a bloodless coup. Protesters had stormed parliament with roses in their hands and routed the sitting government.

For the next couple of weeks, the evening news showed party people dancing and drinking in the streets of Tbilisi. Young men took turns trying to shimmy up the flagpole in front of the capitol building. News vans, trapped in the city-wide party, ended up with speakers on their roofs next to their satellites, and the song that seemed to be on constant rotation was this simultaneously catchy and kitchy pumped-up Georgian folk song, with heroic male voices and a war-like dance track.

I *love* this song. It makes me feel drunk and goofy, and whenever I hear it I whirl around my apartment high-kicking the shit out of the air and pumping my arms like Seiji Ozawa, if Seiji Ozawa was having a seizure.

And now, three years after the Rose Revolution and one hour after some heavy Googling, I finally know what the song's name is: Samaïa. What's more, there's a music video that aired on VHUn or whatever in France. And what's *even* more - and what made me sit down and write this lengthy (for me) and (not atypically) gushy journal post - some geeky French georgiaphile has posted the Samaïa music video on YouTube.

And so this is where Chris and I are bound: the land of flying Tartars. Enjoy.



Yes, awesome beyond words. Yes, Georgians can defy gravity for minutes at a time. Yes, I have posted the soundtrack to the Rose Revolution here for you to download.

Samaïa