Category: Culture

An Interview with Hovhannes Kourghinyan | February 28, 2005
Hovhannes Kourghinyan is better known as the lead singer of Vostan Hayots, one of the most popular Armenian rock bands of recent years. Considered to be representative of what has become known as the "third wave of Armenian rock,"...

Erasing history | February 23, 2005
There is a story on the Azg website about the Ud minority in Azerbaijan. "Christian minority in Azerbaijan gets rid of Armenian eyesore" Afraid of being associated with Armenians, they have erased Armenian inscriptions on their church and tombs. "Armenian-sounding...

Ararat | February 16, 2005
This is rather off-topic by recent standards, but I found a rather nice image of Ararat produced by NASA from a mixture of satellite imagery and elevation data. You can download the full resolution image from here. (125kb)...

Tiarnndaraj | February 14, 2005
Today was Terndez but as it's freezing outside and I'm already catching a cold I missed out on an invite to attend the event this year. So, a few images I took in Oshagan in 1999, I'm afraid. I'll...

Sideways | February 07, 2005
The hip new movie this year happens to feature Armenian-Americans and an "authenic" Armenian wedding. Sideways is a good arthouse movie with good dialogue and plenty of funny moments. As Asbarez points out, the Armenian wedding interior shots are in...

Hayfilm | February 04, 2005
I was tempted to call this post Haywood after Hollywood and Bollywood, but that's a real name. Today there is an article in Azg Armenian Daily about Hayfilm, the studio set up in 1923. Like many Soviet-era institutions, today it...

Happy New Year! | January 04, 2005
I am back from the holidays and will resume posting shortly. If anyone has good photos of the holidays in Armenia please let me know! Happy New Year!...

Deti Picasso | December 16, 2004
This Armenian group based in Moscow comes highly recommended. Deti Picasso: Vocalist Gaya Arutiunian sings songs in Russian and Armenian, astounding the public with the feeling and expression of her performance. Ancient Armenian chants blend with new forms of guitar...

Vodka Lemon | December 13, 2004
My father went to see the film Vodka Lemon (2003) in London last week. I hadn't heard about it, or at least it hasn't reached Tokyo yet. Apart from the fact that this film is set in a small village...

Genocide on Broadway | December 07, 2004
A play about the Armenian Genocide is to debut on Broadway, reports Asbarez (Via Pacific News Service) Armenian-Americans will be doubly compelled to see this play. On a purely human level, the audience must grapple with the complexity of how...

New works on ArmenianHouse.org | November 27, 2004
ArmenianHouse.org has added some new works in Armenian and Russian to its electronic library of documents on Armenian literature, history, and religion. The latest offerings are:...

Moushegh Baghdasaryan | November 25, 2004
Moushegh Baghdasaryan is a 14 year old boy from Armenia who made the film "Intervention" last year. His film has been included in the 2004 Chicago Film Festival. Hakob has forwarded me this link to an article about him in...

Nonny Hogrogian | August 24, 2004
Nonny Hogrogian is an award-winning illustrator of children's books from New York. She was twice winner of the Caldecott medals in 1966 and 1972. Much of her illustrations are for books of Armenian fairy tales. Nonny Hogrogian was born on...

Pan-Armenian cultural festival | August 22, 2004
ArmeniaNow.com has a good roundup of the Pan-Armenian cultural festival. The first Pan-Armenian cultural festival started last Sunday with ceremonies in Freedom Square, where 1,500 artists from 15 countries were greeted with applause while they walked down a red carpet....

Armenian House | August 20, 2004
armenianhouse.org is a website which describes itself as is an electronic library featuring a huge collection of documents on Armenian literature, history, religion and anything else Armenia-related. There are texts in Armenian, Russian, and English. Recent additions seem mainly Genocide-related,...

AGBU to open Yerevan school | August 19, 2004
The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) has announced plans to open a new school in Yerevan, the "Melkonian educational center". The school will reportedly cater for up to 200 students from around the world. Young diasporans can learn language, culture,...

The Pontic Greeks | August 08, 2004
Pontic Greeks still live in Armenia. They are not from modern Greece, but descendants of Greeks from Pontus, the Greek name for the area of Asia Minor bordering the Black Sea, who lived in what is now the Black Sea...

Armenia's ethnic minorities facing difficulties in preserving culture | August 06, 2004
Armenia's ethnic minorities make up something like 3% of the population, and according to this report, they are facing difficulties in preserving their culture. The Armenian government is currently elaborating a number of concepts to preserve the cultural originality of...

Armenian art on the walls of Jerusalem | August 04, 2004
Haaretz reports on a new mural made of Armenian tiles in the heart fo Jerusalem. A huge mural made of Armenian tiles featuring the sea, animals, plants, trees and Noah's ark will be dedicated next week at 14 Koresh St.,...

Photo presentation | August 03, 2004
I gave a sideshow presentation about Armenia to members of a travel and outdoor sports club here in Tokyo. It was interesting: an odar talking to odars about Armenia. I started by explaining the region, and some of the history,...

Ashot Avagyan | July 28, 2004
In 2000 I travelled for the first time to Syunik, and the town of Sisian. There, I was privileged to meet Ashot Avagyan, an artist who takes his inspiration from the pre-historic rock art found at Ughtasar, high up in...

Where politicians fail | July 26, 2004
ArmeniaNow.com reports on the successes being met by some Armenian artists and musicians in Turkey. The duduk maestro Djivan Gasparyan was apparently invited to Turkey during Soviet times, but only on the condition he change his surname. Naturally he declined....

Haidouks | July 21, 2004
Groong has a story by Ruth Bedavian about the House-Museum of Poet-writer Avetik Isahakyan in Yerevan. Isahakyan's House Museum is filled with memorabilia from his long and illustrious life. Display case after display case yields artifacts, photos, news clippings and...

Little Armenia | July 20, 2004
Impearls, which put together the Greater Armenia last month has a follow up in the form of a Little Armenia post. There's probably nothing here that anyone familiar with Armenian history doesn't know (and how many Armenians aren't familiar with...

Vardavar | July 19, 2004
The third Sunday of July every year is Vardavar, the Armenian festival where all except the elderly throw water at each other. HETQ Online has a photostory called 'A Pagan Vardavar'. There are some wonderful pictures of the festival held...

Learning Armenian in Japan | July 12, 2004
I've never posted anything about myself except perhaps a link to my sustainable tourism project, Zangezur Ashkhar. However, I thought it would be worth posting about my Armenian language class here in Tokyo. Yes, you read that correctly, you can...

Ararat wins top honours | July 06, 2004
Atom Egoyan's "Ararat" won the top prize at the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan, reports Canada's CBC. Unfortunately it cost $15 million to make, but brought in only $2.7 million in worldwide box office receipts....

Yezidi Wedding | July 06, 2004
Is it Yezidi, Yazidi? Apparently the name comes the city of Yazd in Iran, now famous for its Zorostrian fire temple. I was lucky enough to visit Yazd a few years back, and visited the fire temple with its flame...

Greater Armenia | July 02, 2004
Impearls has a detailed post about Greater Armenia (Via The Argus). It's an 'all you ever wanted to know about historical Armenia but were afraid to ask'. These are the headings: Introduction The Arab Conquest Recovery and Independence The Arabs...

"Golden Apricot" Film Festival starts in Yerevan | July 01, 2004
A new film festival (Via Groong)has opened in Yerevan, the "Golden Apricot" Film Festival which is being staged for the first time. There are 63 films for the festival, which will begin with Roman Balayan's film, "The Night is Bright."...

Daily Soap | June 22, 2004
Another good crop of articles over at ArmeniaNow.com include this story about the Brazilian-produced soap set in Morocco. "Clone" is a Brazilian-produced serial set in 1980s Morocco, about a love affair between a Brazilian man and an Arabic girl, about...

Do you speak Armenian? | June 17, 2004
The Modern Language Association has produced a very interesting interactive map using 2000 census data. This map shows the distribution of languages in the United States. If you go to this URL, select Armenian from the pull-down menu, and hit...

Armenian fonts | June 03, 2004
This is something I have been thinking about recently: Armenian computer fonts. Getting Windows and Mac computers to properly display Armenian letters is often difficult. What is more, making web sites correctly display Armenian is not as straight forward as...

Armenian Cultural Week in Tehran | June 01, 2004
Armenian films and art will be on display at an Armenian cultural event in the Iranian capital, starting June 24th....

Learning Armenian Online | May 14, 2004
Birthright Armenia has created the "Depi Hayk" Eastern Armenian language tutorial on its website. The Depi Hayk on-line tutorial is by far the most exciting component of the list of meaningful tools and resources Birthright Armenia offers to enhance the...

System Of A Down and their new album | May 12, 2004
OK, this is a little off-topic for this blog, but System Of A Down are well-known for their pride in their Armenian heritage. Chartattack.com has a story about them and their upcoming album.    ...

Raffi's Blogs | April 04, 2004
I've just been looking at Raffi's blogs, there are 3 of them in all: Hayastantsi Log Diaspora Log Diaspora in Armenia Log The Diaspora in Armenia Log is particularly interesting, especially to me because they are discussing the purchase and...

Enough is enough! | April 03, 2004
The Minneapolis Star Tribune describes Armenia thus: ...a country that throughout history has been ravaged by war, poverty, substance abuse, emigration and crime. Now this was part of a review of a movie, but we've got to tell everyone the...

Caucasus Gallery | April 01, 2004
I found the Caucasus Gallery by Heidi Bradner on the website of Institute for War & Peace Reporting. Rather dour but stirring images....

New Dawn for Armenian Cinema? | April 01, 2004
Got this from Groong. It's an article called New Dawn for Armenian Cinema? It appears on the website of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. The Caucasus page has some interesting articles. Well worth a read. In English and...

NY Armenian Film Festival | March 26, 2004
From Groong. Anyone in New York in April can check this out. I'll be there. NEW YORK - Following its sold-out run in San Francisco, the Armenian Film Festival is bringing a program of feature-length and short films by and...

Pan Armenian Cultural Festival to be held in Armenia on August 14-23, 2004 | March 25, 2004
This from Armenian News Network: A pan-Armenian Cultural Festival will be held in Yerevan, Armenia on August 14-23, 2004. The festival is organized by the Armenian Ministry of Culture and Youth to promote cultural ties and cooperation between Armenian organizations...