Today was one of those days when I wished that YouTube had an auto-reply button on it’s videos. My Persian-Armenian friend who’s currently residing in California sent me a quite unusual video commercial of an auto repair shop and I’ve been watching it over and over again for the last 30 minutes. Probably the most arousing car repair commercial that I’ve ever seen, congratulations to it’s makers. See it for yourself, it’s hilarious.
In the past years my visits to the church have been rare and I can never observe any religious event without remembering how as a young boy I was fascinated by the elaborate dresses which the highest priests wear during the church rituals. I wonder what young people think of the liturgy today?
I was having a tea at a friends place when she showed to me this image(above). Out of curiosity I asked her about it’s origins and this is what she had to say — “I was being shown old family photos most of which were black and white from 1920’s and amongst these photos there was a series of colored pictures which were of the anointing of Karekin II during his consecration as Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia. This event took place on 29 of May 1977, Sunday. Part of the ritual is to appear as the live bride of Christ wearing a transparent veil also know as the bridal veil.”
An unknown artist’s work left inside the small Long Island bungalow where he once lived has been valued at up to $30 million. The artwork was discovered by Tom Schultz in 2006 when he bought the cottage and detached garage in Bellport as an investment property for around $300,000. Schultz, a former deli owner and a father of three, had been instructed by the cottage’s previous owners to throw all the works away, but as he looked over the collection of almost 7,000 paintings, drawings and journals, he just couldn’t get rid of them.
“It was just someone’s life’s work, and it doesn’t belong in a Dumpster,” he said. The art was by an obscure Armenian-American painter named Arthur Pinajian, a decorated World War II veteran and former comic book illustrator. He’d lived with his sister in Bellport until his death in 1999. Friends like Nick DiPaolo, who works at the local natural food store Pinajian often visited, remember him as a simple man who painted for the love of it. “I don’t believe he was selling any work at all,” said DiPaolo. “It didn’t seem to bother him at all that he was not getting recognition.”
The anonymity ended when Schultz presented Pinajian’s works to historians and art appraisers like Peter Hastings Falk, who once appraised art from the Andy Warhol estate. Falk describes Pinajian’s paintings as lyrical abstract landscapes. One art historian called Pinajian a “brilliant colorist” who displayed “genius” in his work. Pinajian’s paintings have now been displayed and sold in galleries from New York to Los Angeles, and his art, once abandoned as trash, is being valued by some at between $25 to $35 million. Some pieces already have sold for $500,000. Fifty of his landscapes are currently on exhibit at Manhattan’s Fuller Building.
“He wrote in his journal that he always wanted a show in New York,” Schultz said. “We think he’s smiling down on us now. As for why Schultz saw treasure while others saw trash, the father of three credits his own dad, whose death, Schultz said, taught him to appreciate the value of a man’s life’s work.
Source: NBC News. Also, read this and this, or simply google Arthur Pinajian.
Salon Mashup — Armenian Perspectives on Displacement and Regeneration is a four day radical new art and performance event bringing together artists, performers, musicians and filmmakers. The event will take place from 31 January to 3 February at the Shoreditch Town Hall, a popular contemporary arts venue in east London. For a full programme of events go to the Armenian Institute’s website and for a more detailed description of the event please visit here.
There are very few blackletter fonts which when looked upon will make your soul warmer and among those rare creatures is Hades. Designed in 2012 by Dino dos Santos; Hades is an exquisite blackletter typefaces suitable for use in posters, book covers, magazines and packaging projects. It is available as a free download from DSType Foundry’s website.
I do not fancy myself as a wine drinker, but I wouldn’t decline an offer to try something new which has been praised by a wine enthusiast. I also get very excited whenever I come across anything which is beautifully designed and has delicately drawn letters on it.
The admirable character on that label above is the capital letter ‘Զ’; its name is ‘Za’ and it’s the sixth letter of the Armenian alphabet. The design of it was most likely inspired by initials found in early Armenian manuscripts and those of you with keen eye vision will probably notice that it is made up of a bird.
Bird-style letters or ‘Trchnagir’ as they are called in the Armenian language are a type of ornamental letters which appear in Medieval Armenian manuscripts. As their name suggests; this letters resemble birds and they would appear at the start of the reading text indicating the beginning.
I’d like to add that I took the pictures from zorahwines.com, and if you drink wine then you should certainly visit the website and learn more about them.
For a very short time only — the Rosetta Type Foundry is having a 25 % discount on all of it’s fonts. With every order that you’ll make you will also receive the beautifully designed Rosetta Type Specimen #1, plus a small surprise gift. Among the nine beauties which you can own is the newly released Arek font family which has been equipped with an excellently crafted Latin companion. Please madam/sir, indulge Yourselves and don’t forget about your fantastic designer friend. A recent study has shown that fonts make great Christmas gifts.
The Moufflon Bookshop is moving into new premises – on Saturday while they were emptying the shelves I managed to pick out few archaic looking journals which I think many of you would be interested to know about – BANANAS.
BANANAS was a short-lived British literary magazine which ran for 25 issues from 1975 until 1980. Not a magazine about a fruit; it’s typical readers would have been liberal and cosmopolitan housewives. It’s editor was the novelist Emma Tennant and according to Wikipedia she chose to name the magazine after the movie Bananas, by Woody Allen. The design of the magazine was created by Julian Rothenstein and it appeared in two-color tabloid newspaper format. Later issues were produced in a smaller A4 size. The magazine featured writings and interviews by many famous people such as Andy Warhol, Charles Bukowski and etc.
What I like the most about this journal is the Constructivist approach to the design of it’s covers which you can appreciate better in large sizes on my flickr and don’t miss the rebus version of Mein Kampf from BANANAS No. 4.
You see, it’s the slow knife, the knife that takes its time, the knife that waits years without forgetting, then slips quietly between bones. That’s the knife that cuts deepest.
THY voice is soft, thy speech all sweetness flows;
May he protect who hath thy heart, my love!
Thy waist is the gazelle’s, thy hue the rose,
Brocade from Franguistan thou art, my love!
If I compare thee to brocade, ’twill fray;
If to a plane-tree, ’twill be felled one day;
All girls are likened to gazelles thou’lt say —
How then shall I describe thee truly, love?
The violet is wild, and low of birth;
Rubies are stones, for all their priceless worth:
The moon itself is made of rocks and earth —
All flame, thou shinest like the sun, my love.
Thy door I seek as pilgrims seek a shrine:
Thine eyes are roses, new-blown eglantine;
Thy tongue a pen, thy hands like paper fine,
A flower fresh from the sea thou art, my love!
Within my soul thy hand has placed love’s seed;
Thy wiles and coyness make my heart to bleed:
Thy Sayat Nova thou hast slain indeed,
Thine evil fate he bears for thee, my love.
An ashough is a poet or a performer who entertains people at weddings and other festivities. They sing also on public squares and wander from courtyard to courtyard. To accompany their songs ashougs play on instruments such as saz, tar or kamancha. The name ashoug is comparable with terms such as bard, minstrel or troubadour. A street musician could be considered as the modern day ‘ashough’ waiting to be discovered by a producer, roughly speaking.
One of best known ashougs of the 18th century was Aruthin Sayatinyan, better known as Sayat Nova. Born in 1712, he was a special favorite at the court of the Georgian king. He also wrote songs of love in Armenian and Turkish. ‘Thy Voice is Sweet’ is a poem he wrote to express the deep feelings of his heart to his love, not all of his poems were always merry, though; they were sometimes sad, sometimes even bitter — like his life.
It is believed that he was forced to become a monk after rumors that Sayat Nova was in love with the king’s sister reached Erekli Khan, and his life as a royal ashoug ended in 1759. After becoming a priest he secludes himself from wordily matters in a lonely monastery, far away from Tiflis. He was put to death in 1795 by then Shah of Persia: Agha Mohammad was ravaging Georgia at the time when Sayat Nova was there. He refused to give up his Christian faith.
