Well, it's been an interesting week here on cilicia.com. After a little good hearted bluster, seems like everyone is settling in with their new ventures and we bid Ara good luck. If I may indulge a bit, I remember Raffi Kojian asking me two years ago to be a guest on this log after my 2001 trip to Armenia. It was my second time to Armenia after a disappointing first trip to Armenia/Karabagh in 1998. Since then, I've been to Armenia two more times and have started and continue to run a world music label, Pomegranate Music. I must admit that the reason I bring this up is because the 2001 trip re charged a lot of personal internal batteries as well as changing my outlook on Armenia, etc. I was in a professional and personal rut at the age of 30 and decided to visit a good friend of mine who recently moved there at the time. Having the "first time" let-down experience behind me, it was time to go to Armenia to just enjoy being there on vacation without worrying about trying to "do something to help the people". Obviously, people in Armenia can help themselves if given the resources and having a view of working in cooperation with our brothers and sisters over in Armenia was the way to go instead of thinking that "we, the Diaspora were going to save Armenia."

The longer I have been away from Armenia (Feb 2002), the more out of touch I feel with Hayastan. Luckily, really good people are carrying on well with some of our music projects in Armenia such as Rhoda Manook with Hover Chamber Choir of Armenia. Also, we are trying to get Bambir to finally get their butts to Yerevan from Gyumri to put on a few concerts to celebrate the Pomegranate re-release of "Quake" and their new self produced "J&G" album which is not available just yet. My very first artist signed Gor Mkhitarian is now staying in LA these days getting ready to tour and promote our biggest release yet, "Godfather Tom: Music from the Armenian Underground". I will be going to WOMEX (www.womex.com) for the largest and most important world music convention of the year in Seville, Spain during the last week of October. I hope to land a UK distributor for our CD's. There are some meeting set up with a Benelux and French distributor. Hover Chamber Choir of Armenia will be traveling to the UK (thanks to Rhoda Manook, Tom Samuelian, Tamar Hajian, etc and some really awesome sponsors) to give a set of 5 concerts with the European premier of our new recording, "6 Fables: Based on the Writings of Vardan Aigektsi".

There's nothing interesting going on here in Boston to report regarding Armenian issues. That's usually a sign that it is time to visit Armenia again. That's where the real action is at.