EL Style Billboard / Armo Car Chase
A billboard on Tumanyan Street - cover of the current issue of EL Style (Elite Life Style) Magazine, featuring lots of risqué pics of the group HAYQ. I wasn't there for the photo shoot, but I went mute when I saw the pics. All I could think of was, "Armenian parents are going to hate these guys!" The group just recently did an ice cream commercial for Grand Candy as well.
I witnessed my first car chase the other night. The idiot was flying down Mashdots, and all around central Yerevan, through red lights, on-coming traffic, cops chasing him. All I could do is pray for no one to get hit. Not all locals look out before crossing the streets.
posted by Der Hova at 2:22 PM
19 Comments:
I saw a car chase in an Armenian highway at night. It was funny scene. The running car was a Mercedes and the police cars were Lada. So this "runner" drove in circles by crossing the median and getting the opposite side knowing that police would never manage to stop them.
Not sure how it ended up as we drove away.
I remember one car chase results in 1992. A couple of teenage kids from Masis had 'borrowed' one of their dad's car and were joyriding. The cops tried to stop them, and obviously the kids didn't. After a brief chase the cops fired and killed one of them.
That was the time when the authorities were trying to reign in on the criminals who had become a problem after the collapse of the communist regime, and before the independent Armenia could regain some law and order (being at war which consumed huge amounts of resources didn't help either).
The ARF organized a protest and had the Baghramian street closed for a few days. They had a perfect opportunity to complain about police brutality (and kick some Siradeghian butt in the process :).
I don't think it would happen nowadays since most of the police are not armed. I've seen only two places where they had guns. There is a checkpoint stop sign near Spitak where all the cars stop. Then there is a location on Dilijan - Vanadzor highway where there is almost always a police officer armed with a Krinkov - I've never seen any cars being stopped, though. I guess these checkpoints are for smuggling purposes since the main trade route with Georgia runs through Vanadzor.
risky pics agree with you hova lol....
am just enjoying this time on the net :S
I'd like to see this spread...Der Hova, are we gonna get a link to the scanned pages soon? I'm curious to see what constitute as "risqué" by Armenias standards :^)
is it just me or is there a black guy in Hayq? Whats the story there? Not many black people in Armenia, from my experience. Interesting.
I saw a group of guys standing infront of that billboard starring and commenting... but I didn't hear what they have to say. Then again, Hayastansi men have perfected the art of standing around on the streets.
I don't think Armenian parents would get any more or less upset about a picture like that than the average parent of any other nationality. Parents are parents. Some Armenians are conservative, some aren't. Some Armenians are prostituting themselves in Dubai. Some Armenians are artists and painters. Armenia is a country and society. You get the full spectrum of people and beliefs. I don't think we should confuse the term "Kyughetsi" with "Armenian".
Does "El Style" magazine have a website?
...and don't forget the art of staring Arsineh. Standing only goes so far...the beauty in the art of is in the stare off.
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anonymous, my "Armenian parents" comment was because no other musical artist, singer, group or whatever you want to call them, has done anything this risqué.
Parents of other nationalities, such as Americans and so on, have seen all this stuff in their people, we really haven't.
The riskiest behaviour local Armenians see is on Russian television, which doesn’t seem to bother locals all that much. But when a local Armenian wears a shirt with her belly barely showing she is labelled a whore. And it's not only limited to local Armenians. I've heard diaspora Armenian visitors say, "Why do the girls dress like this? They look like sluts."
The "Kyughetsi" vs "Armenian" comment, it’s funny, cause all my friends and I, including locals, call Yerevan the biggest Armenian “gyugh/kyugh”.
EL Style magazine on the net is at www.el.am, but it doesn’t seem to work properly.
loool, this reminded of something -I like to refer to North Hollyood, California as one big Kyugh or even ‘a yergrort (second) Etchmiadzin’ (the kaghak that is). Those of you from LA or the valley can perhaps relate to why I say that...I agree with one thing you said DerHova - why is it that the Armenians almost nonchalantly put it behind their ear when they see the Russians behave all risqué? Have you seen some of their music videos people??? The production level and quality of footage is quite high (I’ll give them that), but the overall choreography, theme of videos and outfits? Mamma Mia!!!! So I took the liberty of asking a few Armenian baby boomers this Q and they replied as such: (almost unanimously) Russians have always been known for their wantonness…their debauchery is apparently notorious. In fact, younger females in their preteens are usually encouraged to “play the field” it’s a “coming out in society” if you will and is regarded with importance – for it only indicates “life experience” and bigger and better – uhm uhm: ‘conquests’…de ari es argumenteh Hye tzenoghnerin batsatri!!! :\
P.S. it’s like a game of ‘Dangerous Liaisons’…
der hova, because I don't live in Armenia, there's no point on me commenting on public opinion. I am not exposed to the mentality on a daily basis.
I know the Armenian diaspora tends to be conservative, but then, most diasporas tend to be conservative compared to the nation they come from.
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Parents of other nationalities, such as Americans and so on, have seen all this stuff in their people, we really haven't.
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I don't believe this for a second. This is a misnomer that many Armenians tend to believe. It is a commonly held complex that assumes that Armenians are basically these church going villagers, while Americans are these open minded, progressive "Sex and the City" F-dolls. (Ehem, pardon my French). Anyway, that's hardly the case.
If anything, Yerevantsi aghchigner dress more provocative and revealing than your average modest, domestic, sweet home Alabama Anglo-American.
Americans are puritans in their nature man. No doubt about it. They like to believe they are open minded though.
As for Hayastantsis, if I lived there I could form a proper opinion. But then again, that's why I'm here reading these blogs! ;-)
Anony, yes and no...sure there are midwesterners in the States far more "pure" and demure and reticent in their approach to life and ethical regard for such things etc etc than in Hayastan, but do consider that we have a largely European influence that has shaped the open mindedness of mainstream American society over the last quarter plus century...Armenia on the other hand, is just now reaping the influences of being exposed to the outside world post soviet communism. Though, for the last decade or so, they have been trying to fathom most of it in. They are essentially stuck in a place right now where they have a lot of catching up to do and the realities of being - well, Armenian after all. This in turn poses additional struggles to the existing preconditioned mentalities we are encouraged to abide by as Armenians. Even though most of the up and coming generation and Gen X-ers have often accepted and/or defied these mentalities with vehemence and conflict growing up...on a superficial note, it is my sincere belief that there's a certain 'Armo' gene we get passed down and that it is physiologically indebted in us (I swear!) to consistently comment on risqué behavioral patterns of odars and other Armenians alike(at least we’re always much for critical of our own kind) Come to think of it, this gene solely exists so that we can find and label (we luuuv to label) all aspects of nonpuritan behavior as risqué, moreover wrong, furthermore unacceptable. Woopdie freakin'doo, we’re all gonna wither and decay in hell (I just hate the phrase “burn in hell”)... You know, maybe Armenians are like modern day Puritans with orthodox rituals and symbolisms...or at least we love to live with a similar ‘front’ tsk tsk... che vor menk bolores soorp enk...
whatsinAname, not to drag this thing on, but it's turned into quite an interesting discussion.
I generally agree with your points regarding Armenia being a closed society all these years, but with a couple of exceptions.
One is that we cannot discredit the Russian/Soviet influence on Armenian society. Armenian society really embraced theatre, museums, the arts, etc.. (actually I think this is an innate trait of our culture anyway, but it was further cultivated under communist regimes). By default, being artistic tends to make one open minded.
Second is that, referring to the "Armo" gene, I think most ex Byzantine/Ottoman peoples **in diasporas** would say the same thing.
Living in Canada, I've heard Bulgarian-Canadians, Serbian-Canadians, Croatian-Canadians, Greek-Canadians, Italian-Canadians say the same thing (I know, Italians are not post Ottoman, but I just threw them in there to make a point.) Because these communities are owned by the church, they reflect church values.
But in fact nothing can be farther from the truth in those countries. Many balkan slavic woman are notorius for being whorish gold diggers so I am told by people from those countries. In Greece, actual orgies happen in public in bars on islands such as Zakynthos. Parties never stop on Mykonos day or night. And you find junkies shooting up in the center of Athens. Even their films are full of open sexual language and sex scenes.
But if you ask a Greek-Canadian, they'll tell you Greeks have "Greek" gene that makes them conservative. And they really believe that. Italians have an "Italian" gene. Croats a "Croatian" gene etc..
I'm telling you, it's purely a psycological complex caused by church controlled diasporan communities. It's common throughout.
k i would just like to say i think the group is hott!!! armenian music needed a change and HAYQ the icing on the cake. im honestly sick of hearing this spanish crap it's too played out. Let HAYQ take risks taking raunchy risky pictures who cares, armenian parents arent supposed to listen to that type of music anyways k. o ya who cares about the black guy, lemme tell you something about Hrant... he's more armenian than any of us can ever be i dont see why everyone is making such a huge deal about this he's armenian that's it... i look pur egyptian but im armenian are you gonna discriminate me for that too? he was raised in armenia and armenian is all he knows therefore he is armenian. AND whatsinaname SHUT UP!! my gosh it's getting soo annoying euff stop fighting with der hova if we wanted a history lesson we would take a history class... NOBODY CARES
Tsk Tsk Tsk...to the censorship committee that is. Apsos, freedom of speech has lost its objective over the years...In principle, my last comment in defense of myself (apparently not available for viewing) had........pertinence!
You know it. I know it.
Tsk tsk tsk to you, whatsinaname. Your post had both the f* and the sh* words in it. You know it and I know it, so save your holier than thou lecture.
This is addressed to the last Anony just before this post: For starters, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I'M FIGHTING WITH DER HOVA? Come to think of it, Who the hecks fighting or disputing the HAYQ spread period? I commend HAYQ and all of Der Hova's efforts - The song kicks butt and is highly original to our culture and I hope IT and The group and all the people behind it take off to amazing and unprecedented proportions...
Secondly, I have no personal judgment towards the spread or the cover, nor would I allow myself the right to have one - unless it was completely offensive & distasteful (which I hardly doubt it is) and in which case, it would probably be completely subjective and limited to the person who felt that way in the first place...
As for the other discussions these posts evolved into: I believe, neither Der Hova nor HAYQ were mentioned or subjects at hand... PLEASE get your facts straight before you give yourself the right to tell me to "shut up" and make brash accusations etc etc...
if youcan't handle tongue-in-cheek type remarks or satirical comments on generic observations made on our own culture, then this my friend, is perhaps your misfortune!?! Who knows?!?
P.S: And if it came across that I was arguing with you in this post, then you have just been refuted.
P.P.S: If I have now or at any point offended Der Hova or anyone else during this topics' posts, then I would like to apologize in advance and hopefully, what I felt was amusing to me, wasn't taken out of context...
P.P.P.S:Thanks Raffi.
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