Department of Don't Mess with Georgia--The REAL Georgia

I live in Portland, Oregon, USA. It is a very nice place, filled with lots of very nice people. But--we are not exactly living in the center ring, as we used to say where I came from.

Mr. Vladimir Putin.  The current Russian Prime Minister just does not care for Georgian techno music--especially when they don't wanna Putin...HA HA HA!

Nevertheless--I just learned there is an annual (I think it's every year) musical competition called "Eurovision," where each member country submits an entry, and there is some complicated process to decide who wins......All well and good. HOWEVER--because feelings can run pretty high with this kind of stuff, each song MUST NOT be political. No politics, end of story. Which of course is in itself an extremely political position--but we digress.

This year, the competition will be held in Moscow (Russia, not Idaho).  The good people of Georgia (Tbilisi, not Atlanta) decided to take the competition seriously, and entered this ripping good techno pounder by that great group Stephane & 3G:  "We Don't Wanna Put In"; an eclectic (if somewhat cryptic) disco ballad.

And yet--those prickly Russians just did not care for this particular tune, and told the Georgians to send some other girl group. Georgia declined, and unfortunately the European Broadcast Union agreed with the Russians.

But not to worry:  while Stephane & 3G will not be preforming their magnum opus in Moscow, they will be blasting the faithful at the Tbilisi Open Air, or "Alter-Vision" as the locals refer to the concert.

For me, I just have to keep my fingers crossed that when it's time for the Stepahne & 3G World Tour, they deign to play Portland (Oregon, not Maine). If they do--coffee's on me.

"Stephane & 3G  got kicked out of Eurovision 2009?  You Bastards!"