Music Everywhere

It seems I'm surrounded by music these days. It all started when I started hanging out with some very interesting people, one being Araz Artinian, director of "Genocide In Me." Others include Lucy from LA, Artyom (bassist for the Armenian Navy Band), Mher from the Yerevan rock band Sakvoyage, and a few others who come and go... other local musicians, other familiar faces, and of course the remaining visitors from the US who apparently don't have to start school until October.

We have been making regular visits to the Stop Club as many of these guys play there... either jazz, rock, blues, whatever they are feeling that night apparently... and whoever is available to play. The highlight of my week was that a few of us went to Gyumri over the weekend to visit Mher's family and see people Araz knew from filming her documentary on the Earthquake.

Mher's parents turned out to be TOTAL characters. It's no wonder he's a musician as both his parents are. His mother plays for a Symphony, and his father also plays folk rock and is close to the original members of Bambir. Mher himself was in the offspring of Bambir until he started his own band. The family has photos of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, and of course their beloved son's band Sakvoyage all over the walls. The father built a guiltar by hand, and as seen in this photo, made me a leather bracelet. Infact, their home is right next to the music school and they are staying there until their house is finished being remodeled. Not your typical family. There's respect for each other. The mother dished back whatever the men threw at her... verbally of course. Everyone was equal. I needed to see this after months of seeing everything but equality.

We also went to visit the people Araz met through her documentary and they were a lovely family of dentists and intellectuals. But it was then that I realized the continuing effects of the earthquake. The trauma endured is still being felt as people who lost limbs find it hard to work, stress builds and the loss is still felt. Though Gyumri is in constant "rebuild" mode, there's no escaping the damage.