My friend Yeghish

I was listening to my local classical music station last night as I worked on cutting fabric for a quilting project (more on that later). The particular show highlights different types of music and instruments from around the world, and last night they featured the Duduk. The Duduk is a traditional woodwind instrument of Armenian origin. It is one of the oldest double reed instruments in the world and dates back over 3,000 years. It looks like this.

Several years ago I spent a summer in LA with my friend Krysta working with her parents' foundation to put on concert to promote peace in the Middle East. One of our responsibilities was to transport Yeghish Manoukian, a master Armenian Duduk player, to and from the event. He lived in downtown LA and the drive from his place to the concert venue took forever. I'm sure it seemed longer to him though because he liked his cigarettes and probably smoked a whole pack from the time we got him to rehearsal to the end of the show. How someone who plays a wind instrument (especially as well as he does) can smoke like that is beyond me. Whatever he's doing works for him though because his music is amazing. Go here to listen to him play (it's not from the concert we did, though it was in LA). He was actually a really awesome guy, and I joked with Krysta's family that my 11th son would be named Yeghish. With that in mind, I wonder if Matthew is still interested in having 12 boys.