Concerts, Birthdays, Blazing California, and Malarchy in General

Where does the time go? Two months of LA and I am still discovering an utterly new universe complete with gale force winds, burning mountains, and gridlock...What an amazing state and amazing state of affairs to find yourself in. Two small concerts later (Festival and a gig for the AGBU) I am gearing up to play the Telethon next month but more importantly I find myself writing again. The characters that surround me are enough inspiration to write an entire symphony - so here I go...

With Halloween around the corner I bought myself a harem girl costume today complete with gold bangles and earrings. The inflatable genie lamp was tempting but I decided to give it a miss.

Last Sunday I was in Santa Barbara for lunch. What a beautiful little place complete with outdoor cafe's, boutiques, artsy fartsy stuff and a beach! I didn't realise how close I was as we drove through what appeared to be the center of hell as fires blazed all over LA. Escape from LA? Yes definitely. It was a nice trip up North but passing by Malibu you could see a completely yellow sky and red sun...it was surreal. I had family that was evacuated from their home because of the fire but God is great and the house and garden are standing although less than half a mile away was burned to nothing.

So far I have had a jam session with my cousin Vinni (Yes I really have a cousin named Vinni/Vahan) and attended two birthday parties - one in which I discovered the largest pie of pizza I had ever seen in my entire life. When people say things in LA are bigger than in NY they are serious. This monster of a pizza pie was actually devoured by some 40 people and even was a breakfast afterthought for some. My friend Karen who is a magician (see photo) and is an incredible character had his birthday last week too - a very random party with incredible tacos which ended with one of his dogs dying. The poor thing had departed once before and come back to life - this time it seemed doggie heaven was on the cards. It was a cute little roly poly chihuahua which I likened to Anthony Hopkins because of its facial expression (sort of like in Legends of the Fall). I also managed to see the Dirty Diamond perform again (which is quite a good band)! and catch up with Kohar who had arrived here with all 170 people from Armenia. A successful performance at the Gibson Ampitheatre with a whole tour ahead of them makes it an exciting time for them. I wish them every success as they share history, culture and art with us. They are now in San Francisco and will also be heading to Montreal, New York, and Boston to name a few. Don't miss the opportunity to see them. The picture above of the boys sleeping was taken at intermission. Obviously they weren't as excited as I was.

On a day to day basis I look for work which seems more difficult than I thought. Hence I try and refrain from going to shopping malls, Target, TJMaxx and anything else which might be hazardous to my health. Ocassional trips to Vrej pastry for Armenian goodies is however excusable.

I am discovering Hollywood and Downtown LA which seem more my style than the suburbia I am in. I like the idea of walking everywhere which is an old Yerevan pastime but LA is not very forgiving and it seems you need a motor vehicle so therefore my only form of excersize has been turning a steering wheel from left to right and occasionally pressing and releasing a foot pedal. I have fantastically toned calves and forearms as a result...

This weeks discovery of humans behaving badly was the amount of junk everyone receives in the mail. Every day there are about 4 paper booklets of coupons, savings, advertising from local supermarkets and businesses. I cannot believe we don't have the power to stop it. With modern day email can't we think about saving the trees?

So that's it for now - I am off to yet another birthday this eve where I am sure I will get acquainted with a few more faces. Its a tiny little Armenian world we are living in. I recently met Krikor Satamian (comedian/actor) and Raffi Hamparian (mover and shaker on the political arena). How about the Resolution 106 getting passed by the House?? Its about time is all I can say. Each of us makes a difference (this is confirmed by Raffi) and so it is important we stand for the truth. Truth does set one free - definitely.

So onwards and forwards. Not looking for love, not looking for joy, not looking for anything but to make the here and the now worthwhile which means that I am even breathing with passion, sleeping with passion, eating with passion, singing with passion, and I guess writing with passion eh?

Peace and love

S

Celebrating Life with Good Friends (Montreal)