Last Friday night I went to the Avantgard Folk Club to attend the “Night of the Spanish Guitar” which turned out to be a really nice evening. A few students from the Yerevan conservatory were playing Flamenco music. They were excellent musicians, and it was particularly nice that they integrated a Duduk into the music. The only thing they have to work on, it seemed to me, is the way they presented themselves. The only time a band member spoke was at the end of the evening, when he was stating that the concert was over. It was a really pleasant experience to listen to Spanish music on such a high level here in Yerevan.
On Saturday my wife forced me to watch System of a Down perform at the European Music Awards in Lisbon. She likes them a lot, especially since she saw and spoke to Serj, their lead-singer (the one with the goatie and the curly hair) having lunch at Artbridge a week or so ago. Rumor has it (confirmed by Serj while at Artbridge), that they are making arrangements to perform in Armenia next year…
On that same Saturday, my Niva finally broke down. I had had some problems with the battery before, but could always jump-start the car. This time, I pushed it down Teryan, but it still would not start. So we brought and installed a new battery, which did not help. As usual, the open hood attracted quite a crowd. At the best of times, I had 7 people standing around the car discussing how to fix the problem. One of them, Tigran, was particularly persistent. He put several tubes into his mouth and sucked on them. When that did not help, he said, we should try pushing the car again. So off we went, he sat in the driver’s seat and I started pushing: From the crossroads of Teryan/ Tumanyan to Abovyan and then all the way down to the park opposite Congress hotel. It was quite a work-out for me (and I guess quite a laugh for the people watching), but did not help to start the car. Finally we found a pretty drunk electrician, who despite his state fixed the car in about 10 seconds. He did some further repairing at his workshop and now the Niva runs like a Mercedes again. The whole episode took about 6 hours, and Tigran stayed with me for about 4 hours! I wonder whether I get special treatment as a foreigner, but the helpfulness of the people here (despite their grumpy faces) stuns me again and again.
On Saturday my wife forced me to watch System of a Down perform at the European Music Awards in Lisbon. She likes them a lot, especially since she saw and spoke to Serj, their lead-singer (the one with the goatie and the curly hair) having lunch at Artbridge a week or so ago. Rumor has it (confirmed by Serj while at Artbridge), that they are making arrangements to perform in Armenia next year…
On that same Saturday, my Niva finally broke down. I had had some problems with the battery before, but could always jump-start the car. This time, I pushed it down Teryan, but it still would not start. So we brought and installed a new battery, which did not help. As usual, the open hood attracted quite a crowd. At the best of times, I had 7 people standing around the car discussing how to fix the problem. One of them, Tigran, was particularly persistent. He put several tubes into his mouth and sucked on them. When that did not help, he said, we should try pushing the car again. So off we went, he sat in the driver’s seat and I started pushing: From the crossroads of Teryan/ Tumanyan to Abovyan and then all the way down to the park opposite Congress hotel. It was quite a work-out for me (and I guess quite a laugh for the people watching), but did not help to start the car. Finally we found a pretty drunk electrician, who despite his state fixed the car in about 10 seconds. He did some further repairing at his workshop and now the Niva runs like a Mercedes again. The whole episode took about 6 hours, and Tigran stayed with me for about 4 hours! I wonder whether I get special treatment as a foreigner, but the helpfulness of the people here (despite their grumpy faces) stuns me again and again.
posted by Klaus at 10:02 PM
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