My first night in was a little excitable, as the downstairs Karaoke was quite loud -- I thought it was the neighbors having a party. Not!
Managed to wake up by noon, and since it was Monday, visited the Paradjanov museum, the only one open today. This home dedicated to the art and life of cinema director legend Paradjanov is a little out of the way, but contains an intersting collection of his cinema life, lots of collages, drawings of his cell mates when he was jailed, and artwork donated to the museum.
In the afternoon, walked around town. I am getting to know a few of the streets now, and stopped by the Aram Khatchadourian music hall. I got tickets for two upcoming concerts: Hilliard Ensemble performing Bach, and for next Sunday, a concert dedicated to the 85th birthday of composer Arno Babadjanian.
The 1st concert was a blast. The music was beautiful, and I bumped into acquaintances: Professor S. Peter Cowe of UCLA - my thesis adviser and Classical Armenian teacher at Columbia University; Prof Raffi Setian; composer Tigran Mansuryan (see earlier blog entry about music); and Artsvi, whom I knew only by picture, and whose poetry we had scheduled to record for the Armenian Poetry project.
Artsvi and I had tea and chatted quite a bit. He is very kind and generous with his information regarding the City. He even offered me his cellphone, which I refused.
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