Found in New Mexico

With about three months of rest from the blog scene, I am back and wish everyone a Happy New Year.

I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Albuquerque, NM after having been traveling about the state for the last 5 days. I will be here another week working on various personal projects. My friend Kevork Imirzian (and producer of Iakovos Kolanian- Shoror: Armenian folk music for guitar) joined me from Saturday through Tuesday. After the success of our first Kolanian album, I wanted to have Kev join me for 4 days in New Mexico for us to discuss our next Kolanian project. So, call it a work retreat if you will. We traveled to Santa Fe, Taos, Pilar, Alamagordo (White Sands), and checked out Albuquerque, NM. All the while we focused on our next project loosely titled Iakovos Kolanian- (Haven't figured out the front end of the title: Guitar Music of Agustin Barrios). With Kev not only being a professional grade photographer (www.studioduende.com), he is also quite a writer (Masters in Jounalism) and music afficionado. Specifically, he is a guitar buff. With the new Kolanian Barrios album, Pomegranate steps out into uncharted waters as we explore the world of non-Armenian music (performed by an ethnic Armenian though). My hope is to score big with the Barrios album and reel people in to the Armenian side of our label. It's really the only way to get bigger and generate meaningful revenue to continue with projects. With Kevork being tapped as the producer of the album, we anticipate the Master recording to be in our hands within the next week. It is being sent by Iakovos from Athens as the entire recording was done in his new home studio. In fact, his first album with us (Shoror) was also done in his previous home and many have called the actual quality of the recording one of the best sounding guitar recordings they have ever heard. So, we look forward to the new album in 2006.

So, back to New Mexico, why am I here? Ever since the last time I visited this great state I have been captivated by the scenery and the artistic flair of places like Santa Fe and the surrouding area. Every time a change in my life has taken place (or has about to have taken place), I go to new Mexico to collect and gather my thoughts, recharge my batteries, and prepare for the road ahead. My personal project is that I am writing a book that I intend to have publish in 2007. It will be my first and it's something I've always wanted to do. I felt that New Mexico gives be enough distance from everything familiar to me to start the project I have been looking forward for some time. In general, I will touch on my Armenian Diasporan background, trips to Armenia, the music business, my marriage to a non Armenian, and some anecdotes from my past. Even if no one reads it, it will be nice to put this in writing for myself and any future family members that happen to pop up. (Kids) The other book project I have slated is a guide to how to start a world music label. That will be shopped around once completed. I have picked up a bunch of books including memoirs by Amy Tan and Stephen King's "On Writing". Hopefully, workshops and writing seminars are something I can take part in when I get back to Boston. However, for now, I just want to brainstorm and see what happens. Just to get out what I am trying to say in a very raw form.

So, aside from the writing and formulating a marketing and advertising strategy for our new Kolanian CD, I will do what is the very essense of this blog. I will visit and meet with Armenian Diasporans in New Mexico and hopefully have some pictures to show any church or cultural center. As they say, there are Armenians everywhere.