Movie production

The other day I saw the filming of a scene from Mer Pag 3 taking place on Abovian Street. It was quite good to see that movies are still being filmed - and certainly Mer Pag is a popular post-Soviet classic. Hopefully with the privatization of HayFilm - whatever you think about it - by Cafesjian and ArmeniaTV, that studio will also be brought to life and new and interesting Armenian movies will start coming out...

water water everywhere...

The water issue seems to finally be improving in Yerevan. Although I have heard of very few cases (1 to be exact) of anyone's water going to 24hrs a day, it does seem that the number of hours the city water comes is getting vastly better in places. I am probably getting about 4 hours more water during the day than I used to, and sometimes more. Quite nice I must say...

Howard Dean

Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential candidate in the last elections - who was front-runner in the beginning - is in Armenia for a couple of days. He is now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and the ANCA has brought him to Armenia to check it out. I got a chance to meet and talk to him yesterday, and as far as Armenian issues go, he was very clear and very on the money. It's good to see people like him, and Eric Garcetti (an LA City Councilman visiting as part of the same group) visiting Armenia. Eric was also an interesting guy, and will spend a week extra in Armenia exploring. Very cool! Great job by the ANCA bringing these folks over here...

Pictures!

The Soviet 70's style lobby of a hotel at Lake Sevan
Sunset at Lake Sevan last weekend
Northern Avenue yesterday
Newest T-shirt to hit Vernissage

VICTORIA'S SECRE :-)

Armenian Product Distribution

The non-profit music thing sounds good, Raffi... unfortunately the Armenian market is so small that for profit is hard to pull off.

I think a non-profit/small profit distribution center is badly needed in the US for Armenian products. You just get your product to them and they put it on Amazon, Narek, get it in the major Armenian bookstores, etc... (even try some odar outlets where appropriate) I think it would be great to run this out of one of the Armenian retirement homes, preferably in LA, but beggars can't be choosers. It would make the production of Armenian goodies so much easier and more profitable, that it would lead to an increase in Armenian books and products. As it stands I don't know what to do about distribution in the US for Rediscovering Armenia. Everyone like me I talk to who has similiar products, has similiar problems. Each has to try to solve the problem for himself, usually burdening their family with the task.

Anyone want to tackle this? Or suggest it to the retirement homes? :-)

No Armenian Prayers in Kars

IMAM OF KARS DOES NOT ALLOW ARMENIAN TOURISTS TO LIGHT CANDLES IN CHURCH TURNED INTO MOSQUE

KARS, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. A number of Turkish
newspapers ("Hurriet", "Milliet" and some others) reported on August
15 that the imam of the city of Kars did not allow a group of tourists
from Armenia to light candles and hold a religious ceremony at the
Church of Twelve Apostles turned into a mosque. The Armenian Apostolic
Church was turned into a mosque in 1998 and called Qumpet Chamii. Imam
Mehmed Altun prohibited the Armenian tourists from lighting candles or
singing in the former church. According to the imam, such ceremonies
are not allowed in a mosque, the newapaper "Marmara" wrote. Later the
tourists intended to light candles in the garden of the former church,
but this time some locals intervened, preventing them from doing
so. The Armenian tourists had to interrupt their ceremony and leave.

Raffi's note: The church in question is the Cathedral in the photos on this page.

Victoria's Secret

Lingerie lovers get ready for Victoria's Secret on Mashtots Street, next to Giordano and across from Hugo Boss. That Yum Yum Donuts is starting to look out of place now.

The Road to Home

That's the name of Vartan Gregorian's autobiography. I have not reached page 100 yet, but I am spellbound by this tale. The amount of kindness and generosity he has been the recipient of from other Armenians, the number of amazing people he has met, the descriptions of growing up Armenian in different places during an interesting period... so far I am very impressed. He has accomplished a great deal in his life, and no doubt is showing others similiar compassion and generosity, as evidenced by his offer to post bail for the Turkish scholar now on trial in Yerevan...

A crazy thing it is, being Armenian. I have to thank Thelma Tajirian for the book :-)

Labor Shortage in Armenia

Yes folks, it's not a mistake, there IS a labor shortage in Armenia. Despite all the unemployment, there is a demand for people with certain skills that is not being met. I have seen it at previous jobs trying to hire Armenians with excellent English skills, and personally when trying to find someone to work on my websites with decent English and computer skills (still looking)... today there was an article on Armenialiberty about the shortage of skilled programmers in Armenia, something I had heard about for years. There are not enough students in the courses offered at universities, and the level of education is not high enough for the graduates. Here is a link to the article.

If you want to teach a man to fish, instead of giving him fish every day, this is a perfect opportunity for a large project. A non-profit vocational school to teach computer programming to Armenians. Staff/instructors are a combo of paid and volunteer. Students are admitted based on some tests, and taught on a student loan bases in something like a 1 year program, and then pay back the costs of their education over time with the jobs the education should lead to... simple, sustainable, encourages a clean industry with high salaries, immediately fills needs for jobs... how perfect is it? And once a place has a good pool of programmers and software companies, the whole thing feeds upon itself and grows and local innovation and business takes off.

ArmeniaInformation

The name of Armenia's tourist information office in Yerevan is ArmeniaInformation. I opened it 4 years ago this month, for a US NGO, in order to hand it over to a semi-Armenian-governmental organization, with funding at the time primarily from the US govt, with some also coming from Vahakn Hovnanian, and imaginary funding coming from the Armenian government. Today I believe funding comes primarily from Vahakn Hovnanian with a bit coming from the Armenian government - but I'm not sure. These are not unusual arrangements in development work, but can be a mouthful to explain. In any case, I don't believe Georgia or Azerbaijan have one yet, so it is really quite impressive - a very nice facility with a very helpful staff and great (also thanks to US govt) website.

The reason I log about it, is for the first time in years I spent an hour in the office today, and was quite impressed to see it in action, and the flow of people from all over the world in there - including Japanese, French, some who I couldn't place and Diasporans from all over. It was really cool... a nice, warm and fuzzy feeling :-)

Organic Produce

Want to get emails like the following?

This week we will have the following:

Corn - 200dr/ear
Peaches (no kidding) 300 dr /kg
Cherry tomatoes 200dr/kg
Cucumber (to be confirmed) 200dr/kg
Honey 1500 dr/ jar (490gr)

They are selling organic produce at these prices, including delivery to your door. Quite impressive. And the corn is SWEET corn...

Write to market @ organic.am to be added to the weekly email list.

Reside in "Poqr/Central" Yerevan ... only for the rich $$$

There is SOOOOO much construction. We say this over and over again, but the more you look around, the more you notice how much the city is changing.

Sure there is North(ern) Avenue, which includes more than a dozen new residential buildings, but there is also the Main Avenue project, which will probably include another dozen or more new buildings, plus all the other new buildings being built around the city.

Right now, I can think of about 40 or more new residential buildings going up right in the center. (Imagine, 40 buildings, 8 floors each and 4 apartments/floor = almost 1,300 new apartments. This is a big underestimate, considering many of these buildings are double in size... 16 floors + 8 apartments/floor.)

Most locals seeking new apartments can't even bother looking into these places, which cost anywhere from $650-1,000/square meter (on North Avenue ($1,400+++) ... UNFINISHED ... meaning you have to paint; do the floors; install all the inside doors; kitchen appliances and cabinets; washroom sinks, showers and toilets; etc. Apartments are between 90-160 square meters (and sometimes more.) Ultimately, a one bedroom 90 square meter finished apartment (not furnished) will cost over $70,000, and believe me, 90 square meter apartments are rare in these buildings. The majority start from 140 square meters.

According to the people at Elite Group Real Estate, almost all of the apartments in the 5 or 6 buildings they are currently building are sold out, mostly purchased by Russian-Armenians.

The first pic is an unusual looking business building being built close to Congress Hotel on Khorenatsi; this second one is one of my most favourite new buildings, which is being built on Main Avenue right next to Charentz's Museum on Mashtots.

They grow 'em big in Armenia

This story is just too hilarious not to post here.

They grow 'em big in Armenia

It's about an Armenian cucumber sort that has fascinated many veggie-lovers.

A website selling the seeds mentions this...
"The Armenian Yard Long Cucumber, also known as the Armenian Light Green Serpent Cucumber and Armenian Burpless Cucumber is one of the most desireable cucumbers sought by gardeners due to it's excellent taste, huge size and unusual appearence.

The Glass Building

Here is the other building at the head of the new Northern Avenue that is almost finished, and references have been made to the glass for one reason or another. Behind the building (across the avenue), you can see the big tower that will be at the top of the avenue, and just to the left of the tower you can see a bit of the other building of the avenue which I posted a couple of days ago... so perhaps you can start to get a feel for the end of the street that is nearing completion.

Hastert controversy heats up...

The question of whether house speaker Hastert took a bribe from Turks to prevent a house vote on the Armenian Genocide is heating up... I can just see him counting up Armenian letters of support for the vote and telling the Turks the price has gone up due to all the support...

Hazardous Hotel and Scandalous TV

I’ve heard a few stories that would make you think twice about staying at one of the popular Yerevan hotels. Other than personal stuff being stolen from your room while you are out, I recently heard another story which was really freaky.

Imagine you are sleeping at night, and one of the "security" guards walks into your room, stands at the edge of your bed, and stares into your eyes? I will leave it at that. The hotel's name is made of 3 letters.

On another note, almost every hotel in Yerevan is completely booked this summer.

I still think Congress is the most decent with its affordable prices. Plus their outdoor café/restaurant and pool are really nice, especially in this heat. (By the way, apparently it's supposed to reach 40c (104f) in the next few days.)

Golden Tulip Yerevan and Marriott are a little pricey; that dilapidated Erebuni Hotel, with its awesome location, really needs to be rebuilt; Europe Hotel is currently being boycotted, by a group of travel agencies, for false advertising their prices; and Golden Palace is not in the center. Then of course we've got locally owned hotels which are usually not of international standards. Soon the Soviet-era Youth Palace will be torn down to be replaced by a 5-star hotel. Which I need to photograph like mad before it's demolished.

Anyway, so I've logged about a few immoral commercials I have seen on TV, but these 3 or 4 Giani jewelry commercial series are really sad. It started off with a young guy who bought his girlfriend a gold necklace, though he had another lover on the side. The same people were portrayed a little older in the second commercial, and the third one had the lover having nightmares of the guy's girlfriend having the nice Giani necklace and not her. This fourth commercial I saw had the same actors, though I'm not 100% sure if it was actually a Giani commercial. The man is in bed with two girls and is talking on the phone with his lonely clueless wife. Sure they're nice, but non-Christian, "fantasies", but why does the State TV channel have to encourage it by constantly airing it?

Another commercial shows a woman making coffee for her lover, who is laying down in her bed in the next room. The husband comes home early after work and bumps into her wife coming out of the kitchen. She says to her husband, “Here, I made coffee for us”, at which point the lover comes out of the bedroom with only his t-shirt and underwear. I can't even remember what they were advertising, but I'm guessing it was a coffee commercial. But why? What is the purpose? Is there no other way to advertise jewelery and coffee? I don't get it.

On the State H1 TV channel, they have a show called Open Project, and it’s basically a talk show (sort of like Jerry Springer but actually real and not as scandalous.) They recently had a show titled ... "The Person You Love Has a Family ... When you love, you forget about many things: for instance that the person you love has a family and it is impossible to love on demand." HUH???

Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

All these construction projects of new roads, buildings and hotels are really really nice ... but we have sooooooooo many social issues that desperately need to be dealt with. I just wish our Church was a little more active with these issues.

Sorry for the depressing log. I'll try to be a little more happier in my next one. :-(

Blog Barrage

Yes, this is a new record for me - back to back to back logs... just been wanting to get these up and am posting them all at once! Wanted to share a fun new log called Glendale Chick, which has some interesting commentary about the LA Armo scene. Fun reading...

Aside from all this, summer continues in full swing... heat, tourists, cafes...

Here is the new "Main Avenue" they have started building in Yerevan (not to be confused with the pedestrian Northern Avenue pictured below). The big buildings in the background are not even part of it. The small building in the foreground will be torn down for it, and the ones next to it are already gone....
Here is the first big building of the Northern Avenue to pretty much reach completion. Not great, not terrible. I'll have to add a couple more photos of the buildings going up, and the MASSIVE hole where construction will take place soon...

Here's a view of the renovations going on in Batumi... looks much like Tblisi, but with palm trees...