Yet another thank you to Mr. Kirkorian for funding the restoration of most of our entertainment venues.

When I visited Armenia 4 years ago, almost every theatre felt dead. For instance, there would be just a few dozen people in the Symphony building, and the place would be cold as hell. It would be so cold you could see your breath in the air.

These days the majority of all the concerts and plays are practically sold out. Ticket prices have also gone up, but at least the furnaces are back on.

Friday I attended the 80th Anniversary/Grand Opening of the oldest working theatre in Yerevan ... the Sundukian Theatre. Both the President and the Catholicos were there, as well as many celebrity politicians, actors and one or two mafiosos.

The next day I attended yet another concert from the #1 choir in Armenia, the Chamber Choir, and they performed Schnitke's Concerto for mixed chorus, based on Narekatsi's 1,000-year-old "Book of Mournful Songs".

The following day was my birthday, so I was taken out for dinner, followed by the "Tagharan" concert (a group of young musicians performing on old Armenian and other ethnic instruments, accompanied with singers). They performed many pieces from Komitas, both spiritual and folk.

Monday was a concert-break day, but yesterday was the sold-out State Dance Ensemble performance. (Madlene had her take, and now here are my opinions ... are you ready for this?)

The performance was good. Majority of the time I was distracted reminiscing of me dancing again. Since I was about 5 I have been dancing in the Arpi Meras Dance Ensemble of Canada. We have traveled across Canada, won numerous awards, traveled to the States, down to Peru, performed hundreds of times as the Armenian Dance Ensemble Group of Canada, and have received many more invitations from around the world. Yesterday's dances were not bad, though a couple were a little too long, and the Ara Gevorgian pieces, being played on cd, I didn't really enjoy. At one point I turned to my aunt and said "I don't like it when they play these cds, especially since the music is so synthesized". If the entire show was like that, it wouldn't bother me as much, but there were live musicians on stage, and going back and forth from live music to cd I thought was a little cheesy. As soon as I made this remark the cd screwed up and the musicians decided to continue the song live ... which to me sounded much better. Overall, I have to admit that I think I prefer the Barekamutyan dance group.

This summer these venues are going to be insane. These shows being sold out now, when it's not even tourist season, is definitely a good sign.

Anyway, after the show I went to Cafe Vienna in the Marriott Hotel, which has some really yummy desserts. This is a pic of the carrot cake I had. It was ok, but the chocolate ones are SO DAMN DELICIOUS!