Kyrgyz Music Friday: How to keep up with your favorite artists

For this absolutely positively final* edition of Kyrgyz Music Friday, I’m posting all resources I can possibly think of so that you can keep track of your favorite artists from Kyrgyzstan. Step 1: use Chrome and take advantage of its auto-translate function (it won’t work for Kyrgyz-language websites, but it’s good enough to make sense …

Bishkek Block Party photos

The Block Party was great! What a spectacular way to send off Plov for Two. I was up front for most of the show, taking photos and dancing to all of the sweet tunes, so I can’t speak for the rest of the (fairly large) crowd, but I had a good time, and I think …

Bishkek Block Party

If you’re in Bishkek, then congratulations! You have plans this Saturday! (Yay for you!) (If you’re not here, this post will be a total bummer for you. Sorry.) Farrell and his bandmates have been hard at work organizing what is shaping up to be an epic music festival called the Bishkek Block Party. As I’ve …

Kyrgyz Music Friday

Kyrgyz Music Friday is a (sometimes) weekly feature in which I post a pop music video from an artist in Kyrgyzstan. It could be catchy, annoying, funny, insightful, brilliant, awful, or anything in between. It’s what’s playing on the radio, what all the cool kids are listening to these days. Kyrgyz Music Friday is not …

this is what sucks about being an expat

I had to say goodbye to a really good friend last night. Farrell played a show at an outdoor cafe with Eholami and Dad Manki. It was a beautiful, clear night, and I sat on the grass while Darwin managed to sleep for several hours in a pair of “junior-sized” noise-blocking earphones. People rocked out. …

Kyrgyz Music Friday

Kyrgyz Music Friday is a (sometimes) weekly feature in which I post a pop music video from an artist in Kyrgyzstan. It could be catchy, annoying, funny, insightful, brilliant, awful, or anything in between. It’s what’s playing on the radio, what all the cool kids are listening to these days. Kyrgyz Music Friday is not …

Kyrgyz Music Friday

Kyrgyz Music Friday is a (sometimes) weekly feature in which I post a pop music video from an artist in Kyrgyzstan. It could be catchy, annoying, funny, insightful, brilliant, awful, or anything in between. It’s what’s playing on the radio, what all the cool kids are listening to these days. Kyrgyz Music Friday is not …

Mister Kyrgyzstan 2013

This event was amazing. It’s ranked up there with the cat show for Best Things I Ever Experienced In Kyrgyzstan. This was the Mister Kyrgyzstan 2013 competition. Thirty-three of Kyrgyzstan’s most strapping young fellows competing for a coveted title and a free trip to Turkey. (This post is really heavy on the photos, so click …

Cat Show in Bishkek

I first heard about a cat show hosted in Bishkek over a year ago (maybe even two), but news about the event had only ever reached me after it had already happened. Until now. I went to a cat show in Bishkek, and it may have been the best day ever. I had a few …

How Bishkek celebrates Valentine’s Day

Like every other holiday, whether or not it originated in Kyrgyz culture, Bishkek doesn’t miss a chance to set up colorful photo backdrops in Ala Too Square and bring out various props to pose with. (A photographer pep-talk, holidays are big business on the square.) Sometimes that prop is a giant komuz. Sometimes it’s peacocks …