Part 2: Is Quality an Issue Again?

 

On November 28, 2025 this article was published in the Wall Street Journal:  American Consumers are Madder Than Ever.    The article had the following tagline: 

It has never been easier to buy stuff. But dealing with product and service problems has never felt so difficult, consumers say.

The article was about the National Consumer Rage Survey which reported the highest percentage of customers experiencing a product or service problems in their latest survey.

Seventy-seven percent of customers reported experiencing a product or service problem in the previous 12 months, according to the latest National Customer Rage Survey, conducted in February.

That was a new high, surpassing 74% in 2023, when the study was last conducted, and 66% during the height of the pandemic in 2020. Only 32% told researchers they had experienced a problem in 1976, when a similar version of the study was first conducted. 

Businesses claim to take product and service quality seriously.  My general perception is that we have improved in quality as many companies are now measuring defects per million items versus defects per hundred items back when the National Customer Rage Survey began in 1974.  So, why are 77% of the people reporting they have experienced product or service problems in the past year? 

There might be a few ways to explain this.  First, we buy a lot more products than ever before.  Second, many of the products we buy, including electronics, cars, and white goods are more complicated than ever.  They seem more expensive and don’t seem to last as long.  I look at the life expectancy of our HVAC systems, water heaters, and washing machines.  I thought the idea of planned obsolescence was long gone until I began to understand that getting 10-12 years out of these products is often the most one can expect.  Gone are the days of the Maytag repairman being the loneliest man on the planet.  Actually, gone are the days of repairmen.  It is often cheaper to replace items than to repair them.  These are my observations.  They are a bit more than anecdotal but certainly not definitive.

In my own case, I have a school issued Dell laptop and, at home, my own iMac desktop computer.  I bought the iMac when I started teaching at North Park full-time.  It has lasted 11 years nary a problem except that the keyboard and mouse pad go through batteries way faster than I expected.  In that same time period, I am on my fourth laptop.  The first three simply died.  I have to replace my iMac because the processor is so old that it can no longer support operating system, browser, and software upgrades and thus starting to slow down and do glitchy things.

Complexity is certainly and issue.  The products I have spoken of are sophisticated engineering marvels designed to be very power efficient and thus requiring more parts that are more expensive and operating, sometimes, at the upper extremes of the performance curves. 

Another part of the problem with quality these days is the drive to keep prices down.  Taking more and more cost out of products and services can only go so far before the next level of shaving off more cost is at the expense of quality or reliability.  Combine this cost cutting with product complexity, and voila you get an uptick in defects and less reliability i.e. products with shorter lifespans.

The same can apply to service.  Businesses are coaxing if not forcing most customers to interact online when needing services as well.  Talking to human beings is harder than it should be causing frustration if the online systems are not really intuitive.  Case in point, ordering on Amazon so fluid and easy and we don’t recognize until we try to interface with almost any other online shopping or service portal.

In thinking about this, I am not surprised by the findings in the Wall Street Journal article. 

Is Quality an Issue Again?

 

Part 1:  My Background in Quality Management

My career was heavily rooted in Quality and Reliability beginning with my first real job at Ford Motor Company.  In 1976, I started working in the Warranty and Reliabiliity Department of the Body and Electrical Products Engineering division.  My job was to track the one and three month in-service warranty incident rates on several subsystems across all cars and light trucks.  I did rudimentary forecasting by month on these two data sets to upward trends before they become too costly. 

It was a fun and interesting time to work in the auto industry.  It was becoming clear that the Japanese cars were better than ours in some significant ways.  They cost less.  There outer dimensions of their vehicles were smaller than our comparable models but, remarkably, their interior dimensions and cargo dimensions were larger.  They had better fuel economy.  Lastly, their cars had significantly lower defects and higher reliability than ours.  To top it all off, the Japanese, primarily Toyota and Honda, could crank out new models in about two years versus four years for ours. 

It was a crazy time and the management of the Detroit Big Three keep trying harder to do things the way they were used to doing.  Henry Ford himself was fond of saying, “If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got”  The company that he founded had forgotten that bit of wisdom. 

D-day came on June 24, 1980 when NBC aired a segment of their acclaimed documentary series NBC White Paper.  The show that night was called If Japan Can… Why Can’t We?   The gist of the report was that the Japanese was that the Japanese were used methods developed in the US, that we had essentially forgotten about and barely used anymore, to achieve the better designed and higher quality products taking market share away from the US auto makers.  The report hosted by NBC newsman Lloyd Dobbins, introduced us to an American man who, W. Edwards Deming who given much of the credit for teaching the Japanese about Quality Management. 

The next day, everyone at Ford Motor was discussing the show and this fellow Deming that no one had ever heard of.  Ford bought hundreds of copies of the show on and had every department watch it.   Within a few days, Deming, then 80 years old, was at the Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, MI lecturing the top executives in the company.  With a month, I was at a session in an auditorium at the headquarters listening to a lecture by Deming.  I went because someone in our department had to go but no one else wanted to go.  It was decided to “send the kid.”  I was the kid. 

I had no clue of what Deming was talk about, but it changed the course of my career.  Soon, Quality become Job 1 at Ford and for me as well.  I was looking for another Master’s degree.  By all logic, I should have enrolled in an MBA program but I wanted something more technical.  I stumbled upon an ad for the masters in Operations Research, the science of informed decision making, at Wayne State University.  Two of the primary professors Leonard Lamberson and Kailash Kapur had written the best book of that era on Reliability Engineering and the program included courses on Quality Management.  It was perfect.  While at Wayne, I took a classes from the Math Department on Probability and Statistics to really learn both subjects.  I ended getting an MS in Operations Reserch/Industrial Engineering and an MA in Statistics.  My career was set.  I was part of the Quality Revolution in the US. 

Over the years the auto industry closed the gap with the Japanese though I still believe Toyota and Honda have an edge.  At the beginning defect rates were measure in defects per hundreds in a subsystem to now being measure in defects per million.  I worked on product quality in the auto industry at Ford, Rockwell Automotive, and TRW.  I then moved to the fast moving Consumer Packaged Goods industry and work at Colgate-Palmolive where order fulfillment quality was their biggest issue.  I helped lead an effort that took Colgate from worst in class to best-in-class in Latin America.  

I moved to Supply Chain Management for the tail end of my corporate career but in every job thereafter include my current as a professor at North Park University, I focus my work through the lens of Quality Management, Process Improvement, sound metrics, and team building. It works and the results and legacy speak for themselves.  

Death Cross?

Bitcoin Death Cross - Investopedia

 

I have never really understood cryptocurrency.  It seems fake and built on nothing tangible.  That being said, most other currencies were built on shiny metals which seemed to hold little tangible value other than for jewelry and utensils in days of yore.  They had value because we coveted them over other metals and stones by a wide margin.  In a sense this valuation was fake as well.  The difference between cryptocurrencies and gold backed currencies, when currencies were indeed backed by gold, was you could touch and feel the gold.  Now, we just value the paper and the numbers printed on them.  As for cryptocurrencies, we jumped right to valuing the numbers displayed on computer screens.

No matter what I believe I don’t understand about cryptocurrencies, people have been trading them for fifteen years.  I have yet to trade in that market.  If, in the “woulda shoulda coulda” world of missed investment opportunities, I had bought $542.20 worth of Bitcoin on my 60^th birthday in 2013, I would have 5.54 Bitcoin that would be worth $500,018.55 today.  How do I know this?  There are several Bitcoin calculators available online.  I chose What if I Bought Bitcoin Calculator – By Date (FOMO).  I guess I am not alone the in fantasizing about how much I might have profited if I had bought some Bitcoin back then.  But I didn’t because it seemed fake.  What do I know? 

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been in the news lately because the market has dropped and dropped significantly.  Per ABC News: 

The election of Trump, who dubbed himself the “first crypto president,” set off a surge in the price of digital assets.

 

Bitcoin climbed 40% in a matter of weeks, surpassing $100,000 for the first time last December. After a dip in the spring, bitcoin rallied to a record high of about $126,270 on Oct. 6.

 

In recent weeks, the price of bitcoin has dropped nearly $40,000 or by about one-third. Still, the price remains more than 25% higher than where it opened trading on Election Day last November.

In mid-November, Bitcoin made a death cross.  It’s 50 day moving average of prices crossed below its 200 day moving average.  A death cross is a major downward (signal) in a market.  

In the same ABC News story, they interviewed Hillary Allen a Professor of Law specializing in cryptocurrency policy at American University.  She noted, “We’ve seen plenty of crypto crashes before.  With something like crypto, the air comes out every now and then.”  The new story summarized her assessment of the volatility as being due to “an absence of fundamental value that would otherwise anchor the price.”  Was she speaking about cryptocurrencies not being rooted in something like… um… I don’t know… a shiny metal?

The truth is that cryptocurrencies are moving toward more regulated markets through several key developments around the globe:

• Comprehensive Regulatory Frameworks: Jurisdictions are implementing dedicated legislation, shifting from a fragmented "regulation by enforcement" approach to clear, unified rules. The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation is a prime example, providing a uniform licensing and operational framework for crypto service providers and stablecoin issuers across all member states.
• Enhanced Financial Crime Controls: Governments worldwide are enforcing stricter Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols for crypto exchanges and businesses. Many are implementing the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) "Travel Rule," which requires Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to share customer information during transactions, bringing crypto in line with traditional finance standards.
• Integration with Traditional Finance (TradFi): The approval of regulated investment products, such as Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), signals a major step in bringing crypto assets into the traditional financial system. This provides a clear, regulated channel for institutional and retail investors to gain exposure.
• Stablecoin Scrutiny: Regulators are intensely focused on stablecoins, seeking to mandate that issuers maintain adequate reserves and ensure transparency to safeguard financial stability.

These trends, driven by the industry's growth and international cooperation, aim to balance innovation with critical goals like investor protection, financial stability, and the prevention of illicit activities.

I do believe this move to more regulation is a good thing.

One A Day

https://www.livewell.bayer.com/ 

 

In December of 2020, January of 2021, and again in January of 2022, I wrote and posted a bloggy bit each and every day of those months.  I thought it was more recent but the last time I posted a piece every day of a month was essentially four years ago.

This year, as of the end of November, I have only posted 33 times.  That is a lowly three posts per month.  If I post that average in December, it will be my lowest annual count since 2017.  I attribute this dip in productivity to the lethargy I wrote about in August:  A Lethargic July.  Last night on a flight back from Los Angeles visiting my daughter and her family for Thanksgiving, I was feeling energized and I got the notion to post every day this month. 

To accomplish this, I will have to overcome the lethargy which up until now I have only accomplished for a few days at a time here and there.  I will have to be more disciplined, and I will need to stay off of social media where I lose hours watching reels of all things.  I hate and resent being manipulated by an algorithm, wasting hours, and having nothing to show for it.  I know I am not alone in this addictive behavior. 

So, let’s see what I can do with this brand new month.  I am going to try to produce a post a day.  This is day one.  I have a lot of other must dos at this time of the year the will be vying for my time and attention.  First, I have the end of semester grading and the submitting of grades.  I have a concert this coming Sunday with the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble of the University of Chicago.  There is a practice on Thursday and a dress rehearsal on Saturday all in Hyde Park each of which will consume more than half and day each.  Then there all the prepartions and festivities for the Christmas and New Year holidays.  Posting daily will be a daunting task for which I might have to pre-build an inventory of posts.

A bright spot this year has been on my poetry blog.  I have written 35 poems this year which is the most I have written ever.  I have average 8-9 poems a year since 2009.  If poems are the writing equivalent of reels, it all balances out in some odd way.  I would boost these more on social media, but I am less sure (maybe secure is even a better word) of my skills in this genre.  Here are two poems that the Armenian Weekly published since October.

• Makam Choonim   
• Andon’s Peşrev

I have a list of topics I want to write about and, sadly, several friends that have passed on that I need to write about.  Certainly, the crazy state of this country and the world is good for another half dozen posts.  I want to write about AI and its impact on my own writing and what I am now believing is the best way to use it in the classrooms.

The topics are there, I just need to make sure I carve out the time to write.

A Sweetly Bittersweet Film

 

Originally published in the Armenian Weekly on November 6, 2025 

On October 26, 2025, the Chicago chapter of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) launched its AREV Film Series at the Glenview Public Library. The series marks the inaugural initiative of the Kazarian-AGBU/Chicago Armenian Humanities Festival, an ongoing celebration of Armenian heritage and culture in the city. The first film, “My Sweet Land,” is a documentary by filmmaker Sareen Hairabedian that depicts the plight of Artsakh Armenians through the eyes of a coming-of-age boy, Vrej, amid the recent sad history of the Republic of Artsakh.

Hairabedian grew up in Jordan, immersed in a family that celebrated the arts. She moved to the U.S. for her education, earning a Bachelor of Arts in film and media studies at American University. In 2016, she founded her production company, HAI Creative, which collaborates with organizations like HBO, Sesame Workshop and the United Nations Women to produce media focused on social issues.

Since then, Hairabedian has become an award-winning documentary filmmaker known for her intimate, human-driven approach to telling socially conscious stories, often focusing on the unheard and underrepresented.

Many in the diaspora recall the 2008 mass wedding ceremony in Artsakh, which became a powerful symbol of resilience and efforts to repopulate the region. Hairabedian decided to make a documentary exploring how one of those marriages grew into a family. In her research, she interviewed 23 families before settling on Vrej Khachatryan and his family in Martakert. She began living in Armenia and traveled to Artsakh for a week or two at a time. 

The film opens prior to the 2020 war — in which Azerbaijan employed drones and other advanced weaponry, funded by their oil industry, aided by Turkey and mercenaries from Syria — and continues through the fall of Artsakh after the 2023 blockade. As these events unfolded, Hairabedian kept filming, giving the documentary added urgency and poignancy.

We read a bit about the film before going to see it. We were prepared to relive the gut-wrenching feeling we experienced when Artsakh fell.  But rather than focusing solely on tragedy, the film emphasized Armenian traits of endurance and communal spirit — the fate that has helped us survive tragic periods and also to thrive. 

 

Under Hairabedian’s beautiful cinematography and artful editing, the documentary highlights the Armenian spirit in a somber yet dignified way. Vrej’s soliloquy at the end of the film — which Hairabedian said was spontaneous, unscripted and uncoached — makes the film all the more endearing. The history is what it is, but in the midst of it, Hairabedian has produced and gifted us a documentary that is bittersweet, not just devastating. I suppose we could call this the Armenian dichotomy.

Hairabedian began filming the documentary in 2018 or 2019 and concluded in 2024. What dedication and time commitment to gift the world this special film for all Armenians and the world. Our story often seems small and is treated as lesser compared to whatever else is dominating the news. It is only appropriate that Hairabedian’s focus was even smaller — telling the story from the perspective of one boy, the child of one of those 2008 mass-wedding couples.

After the screening, Hairabedian spoke briefly about the film and took questions from the audience of about 60 Chicago Armenians. She was humbled by the generally good reaction and reviews of “My Sweet Land.” Generally good reaction? 

Well, predictably, Azerbaijan has lobbied against the film wherever and whenever it can. Jordan nominated it for an Academy Award for Best International Feature — a category that required a nomination by a country — but Azerbaijan pressured Jordan to withdraw the nomination. The film was due to be shown on April 24th at the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center, but the screening was postponed after Azerbaijani students and the Azerbaijani consulate protested. The film was also dropped from a screening in India due to Azerbaijani pressure. This PR and misinformation campaign constitutes a second front from the Azeris against Armenians. 

Lastly, Hairabedian said that when she showed Vrej the finished film, he told her,“Now, I see why you were filming so much. It is not only my story, but every child’s in Artsakh.”

Indeed, it is.  Every Armenian should see this documentary, which hopefully will air on PBS in the coming year.

Here is the schedule for the rest of the AREV Film Series in January and February. I encourage everyone in Chicago to take advantage of this series:

• Jan. 18, 2026 — “Women in Black,” Director: Gor Kirakosian
• Jan. 25, 2026 — “The Reverse Side of the Medal,” Director: Anna Maxim
• Feb. 1, 2026 — “Amerikatsi,” Director: Michael Goorjian
• Feb. 8, 2026 — “Tezeta,” Director: Aramazt Kalayjian
• Feb. 20, 2026 — “Warrior Saints,” Director: Roger Kupelian

 

 

Sweatshirt Weather

 

 Today was a beautiful fall day.  The sky was blue and painted with wisps of clouds.  The autumn sun shone in a shade of gold we only see in the fall.  The air was crisp, a word we seem to only use in the fall, with the temperatures in the low 50s and a nice breeze.  It was a perfect kind of fall day.  It was the first really nice fall kind of day.  It was sweatshirt weather. 

I did not set out to take a long walk, hike, or bike ride.  There was no plan to smoke a cigar or have lunch outside.  I had a fair amount of schoolwork to attend to.  I only went outside when I ran some errands that I needed to do today.  I do believe when one is really busy, a little break to enjoy to outdoors is even more meaningful, more special, than if had spent the whole day outside.

While in the center of town, I took some photos.  It was hard to find scenes with vibrant colors for the photos.  Most of the trees still had green leaves.  I remember hearing a news report back in September that predicted the fall colors were going to be muted this year because the cool down was going to gradual.  We would miss the vibrant reds and oranges.  The transition would be slow from green to muted yellow to brown.  That is exactly what happened.

 

 

  

 

Historically, before the reality of climate change, by Halloween, all the leaves would have fallen.  That has not been for case for, I want to say, the past ten years.  The winters in the past several years have been temperate as well.  Oddly, the prediction for winter is for a colder and snowier one because a La Niña weather pattern is expected.  Google’s AI summary is for a “potentially very cold and snowy, with forecasts for a stormy season featuring multiple large snowfalls” for Chicagoland.  I know I in the minority on this, but I would love to see an old fashioned winter with some below zero cold spells and a few blizzards that results a snow day or two.

Winter will be what it will be.  I sure did enjoy this lovely fall day.

 

Postscript:  Well… I had this post three-quarters done when Microsoft informed that there was an update to Word.  I saved the document, closed Word, and restarted as is the protocol for an update.  Much to my surprise, everything I had typed was gone.  All that remained was the title.  I am not sure what I did or didn’t do but it gone.  I have to assume it was my fault.  It has been a long while since that kind of boneheaded thing has happened.

It is also clear that I had not used AI to write the post.  If I had I could have simply copy and pasted the content again, or if I had signed out, I could simply reenter the prompt and have a brand new version to cut and paste.  My only options were to rewrite it or forget about it entirely and live to blog another day.  I opted for re-writing it.

 

  

 

The Same Old 6 and 7

 

Young people always have slang that us older folks don’t understand.  The life span of these slang terms is very short.  Words and phrase are always entering and leaving the slang lexicon of young people.  Thankfully, the Wall Street Journal will occasionally publish an article presenting and explaining the latest slew of terms.  Because of this wonderful service from the Journal my kids were surprised when I would throw one of these words or terms.

A recent article in the Journal, The Numbers Six and Seven Are Making Life Hell for Math Teachers, introduced the latest piece of slang is taking over classrooms and social media feeds, leaving teachers and older generations scratching their heads: the phrase "6-7" (often pronounced "six-sev-eeennn"). This simple numerical pairing, frequently accompanied by an excited, palms-up hand gesture, has become a linguistic rage for a generation of young teens and kids, collectively known as Gen Alpha. Its rise is a perfect case study in how modern memes are born, spread, and evolve into a cultural phenomenon that signals who is "in" on the joke.

Per the Journal article:

Math teacher Cara Bearden braces herself for any equation that yields the two numbers, knowing her students will immediately scream them right back at her. “SIX Sevennnnnn,” they squeal with a palms-up, seesaw hand gesture that looks somewhere between juggling and melon handling. The meme is ripping across the internet and spilling into real life, especially at school.

“If you’re like, ‘Hey, you need to do questions six, seven,’ they just immediately start yelling, ‘Six Seven!’” says Bearden, who teaches sixth- and eighth-graders at Austin Peace Academy in Austin, Texas. “It’s like throwing catnip at cats.” 

The root of this "6-7" is a rap track "Doot Doot (6 7)" by artist Skrilla, released in 2024. The song snippet quickly went viral on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. Its popularity was significantly amplified by a loose connection to the world of sports, as the audio was often used in video edits featuring NBA star LaMelo Ball, who famously stands at 6 feet 7 inches. This association helped cement the phrase in the minds of young users. The trend achieved full-blown meme status thanks to subsequent viral moments, including a video of a high school basketball prospect using the phrase and another of a young boy (dubbed the "6-7 Kid") enthusiastically shouting it at a game, complete with the now-iconic hand gesture.

 

 

"6-7" is a joke with no punchline; it doesn't actually mean anything. It functions as an absurd, random exclamation, often shouted when the numbers "six" or "seven" are mentioned, or sometimes, for no reason at all. Communication experts and linguists note that its very meaninglessness is its power; it serves purely as a social tool. By using "6-7," kids and teens create a shared language that instantly identifies their peers and separates them from outsiders, a classic generational practice that reflects the rapidly changing nature of digital culture.  And… it is fun.

But it is not as new and recent as we all think. 

Let’s go back to the 1970s.  I was in my mid-twenties working at Ford Motor Company.  One of my work colleagues was an engineer, a proud Purdue graduate, named Bill Granberry.  He was a few years older than me, great fellow, and a good work friend.  One day, we were talking, and I was expressing bewilderment at something, perhaps an organizational move, or product decision.  Bill kept saying “it’s the same old 6 and 7” which I thought was his attempt to clear up my bewilderment.  As it meant nothing to me, I finally asked out of a bit of frustration, “What is 6 and 7?”  He paused a second, looked at me and said, “13.”  After another moment, we both started laughing.  Bill got me.

Upon learning of the current “6 7” craze, it made me think of Bill’s use of it 50 years ago.  So, in summation, all I can is what’s old is new again.

Michigan Football 2025 Season Thus Far

 

I am watching the Michigan v Washington football game as I write this.  This is the week after Michigan got smoked by Southern Cal 31-13.  Washington kicked off to Michigan who prompted did nothing on 1^st and 2^nd down to have a have a 3^rd and 9.  Underwood completed a pass, but it was short of the first down forcing Michigan to punt. 

Michigan punted.  Washington promptly ripped off two first downs borrowing a bit from the Southern Cal playbook from last week (effective screen passes).  After that the Michigan defense toughened up and forced a punt. 

Michigan took over and the offense looked more like it should to us Michigan fans.  They had a few gutty runs for decent yards, a reverse, and some good passes.  After two first downs, they were penalized for holding and faced with a 1^st and 20.  They got to 4^th and 1.  But, Semaj Morgan dropped a swing pass that would have clearly been a first down.

Washington’s first play was a 48 pass to the Michigan 19.  Michigan held them forcing a 3^rd and 9 which ended up being an incomplete pass in the endzone.  Washington attempted a field goal which, whew, went wide right. 

Michigan is a very young team.  Our quarterback is a freshman who shows signs of brilliance and, more importantly to me, showing signs of improvement.  With an injury in this game to a senior offensive tackle, half of the offensive line are redshirt freshmen.  The Last year was a rebuilding year.  The cupboard was bare after the 2023 National Championship Season, and we had five losses going into the Ohio State game which was a brilliant upset.  Michigan put an exclamation point on the season by then beating Alabama.  We did not have a spectacular offense, but our defense got stingier with each game and ended up being very strong in the impressive wins over Ohio State and Alabama.

There is promise on this team and I am still optimistic given our that we have two losses to Oklahoma and Southern Cal.  If Michigan beats Washington, most pundits think they should win their remaining games until the regular season finale versus Ohio State which is in Ann Arbor on November 30^th.  If that happens and then if Michigan beats Ohio State for a 5^th straight time, Michigan should have a chance for the championship playoffs. 

My biggest concern with this program versus Ohio State is that Ohio State is strong every year.  As one commentator said many years ago, “Ohio State never has to rebuild, they just reload.”  Their pipeline seems to always be full.  If a player goes down in the middle of the season, they just put the next player in line, the back-up, in to take his place.  They  just reload.  A talented quarterback graduates, goes pro, or transfers to Texas… the back-up becomes the starter, or they get a championship ready fifth year replacement from the portal.  They just reload.  Michigan is good, they recruit well but, they just haven’t built that full pipeline culture that would allow them just to reload.

 

Tayf: A Blooming Success

 

I went to a concert on Monday, October 13, 2025, at the Chop Shop in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood.  If I really enjoy a concert, I don’t listen to any music on the way home in order not to ruin the vibe created by music performed in the concert.  In this case, I not only didn’t listen to any music on the way home, but I have not listened to other music for a full 24 hours.  This is a testimony to how much I enjoyed the concert and wanted to sustain the mood it created.

Who was performing that made such an impression?  It was Tayf.  Per the website, TAYF: From Ash to Bloom, promoting the concert: 

TAYF طَيْف , captured in English, can mean spectrum, diversity or vision. The ensemble widens the aperture on traditional maqam to center queer, non-binary and women performers, too often on the periphery of the tradition. From its inception in early 2024, the ensemble has performed across Chicago – keeping inclusion and activism at its core. From its debut at a sold-out Old Town School of Folk Music auditorium, to headlining the Fields of Palestine: A Benefit for Gaza, TAYF طَيْف has cemented itself in Chicago’s music scene as a pillar of innovation and community.

The band was made up of: 

• Sham Abyad – Lead Vocalist
• Dr. Aliah Ajamoughli, PhD – Cello
• Phaedra Darwish – Flute, Vocals, Dancer
• C Mikhail – Bass, Oud, Vocals    
• Karl El Sokhn – Guitar, Riq, Drums, Vocals
• Dr. Shayna Silverstein – Violin
• Kai Samih Movagh – Tabla
• Yasmeen – Dancer
• Bios of the musicians are available on TAYF: From Ash to Bloom.
  All the musicians currently play or have played in the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble (MEME) of the University of Chicago. 

The show was masterfully produced and promoted by Biya Biya Productions founded and run by Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel.  The Chop Shop venue was a perfect venue for the enthusiastic audience of 150 or so.  The program was two sets of dance and music with the second set being a tribute to Ziad Rahbani (1956-2025).  Rahbani “was a Lebanese composer, playwright, and political commentator. Son to singer Fairuz and composer Assi Rahbani, he was a musical prodigy. His bold fusion of Arabic music, jazz, and classical forms pushed the boundaries of Arab musical tradition. His impact extended beyond art, as he was a fearless social critic who gave voice to the frustrations of everyday Lebanese people during and after the civil war.”  The mood was enhanced by a video backdrop that had a loop of beautiful and engaging photos and videos of flowers blooming as well as the countryside and cityscapes of the Levant.

The music was wonderful.  It was uplifting, beautiful, and inspiring. 

It was evident from the opening dances of Yasmeen to the rousing encore at the end of the evening.  The crowd applauded each and every song.  They applauded the drum solos of Karl and Kai.  They applauded the cello, violin, and oud taksims and improvisations of Aliah, Shayna, and C.  They applauded and truly loved the vocal stylings of Sham.  When I stood in the back, easily a third of the audience was capturing video on the cell phones.  It was an amazing time.

     Sham was exquisite.  She is a natural talent with a deep and profound love of the Arab music she sings.  You certainly hear it in each lilt and sustained note that made the audience spontaneously applaud in the middle of a song.  Her body language complimented her singing with every single look, from playful to coy, from soulful to full of emotion.  Sham’s stage presence is genuine.  Her humble and engaging personality is evident especially given that half the audience already admired her for everything I have written here.  While one might be tempted to say she was the star of the show, I would rather compliment her on being such a talented singer and ensemble member at the same time.

C is also the soul of the ensemble and this concert.  A few folks with insight, spoke of C’s tireless work behind the scenes for months preparing the concert, organizing rehearsals, working with Yasmin on the production for the staging of the show.  C founded the ensemble and is dedicated to its mission and values as stated above.  C’s organization acumen is on par with their brilliant musicianship.  I cannot enumerate the number of times C would play a bassline at a MEME practice that literally made me stop playing and look at them in admiration and astonishment.  C has only been playing the oud for like a year and getting applause for their improvisations.  C is multi-talented and living their dream.  

Honestly, I do not mean to take away from anyone else in Tayf.  I could write an article on each member of this ensemble.  I loved Aliah’s cello taksim.  Phaedra, Shayna, Karl, and Kai were all solid.  Karl played a beautiful guitar taksim.  The ensemble was for the most part tight and unified.  They made an oops once or twice but they took it in stride, made light of it over the mic, laughed it off, and kept going.  And the audience laughed right along with them.

Right now Tayf is a Chicago gem.  I will not be at all surprised to hear that they take this show, From Ash to Bloom, or their next show on a national tour. 

It was a most special evening.  Whenever Tayf plays I will attend, if I can, knowing I will leave inspired, impressed, and in what I will now coin as a Tayf state of mind…

AYF Olympics Reporting: Honoring Legacy and Community

The always popular 'Kiddie" Race

The end of August and the beginning of September are always busy for me, especially given the start of the fall semester of the new academic year and the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Olympics — both occurring during the same period of time.

I have been taking photos and writing daily articles for the Armenian Weekly at the AYF Olympics, which take place over the Labor Day Weekend, for eleven years now. The writing doesn’t stop on Labor Day, however, as I also contribute to the Weekly’s AYF Olympics Special Issue. This year, the Weekly is producing its first-ever AYF Olympics Special Issue Magazine covering the 2025 AYF Boston Olympics, for which I wrote a few articles, with a mid-September deadline. 

The combination of the start of school while covering the AYF Olympics is definitely challenging, leading to a bout of exhaustion after the Labor Day Olympics weekend. While I have gotten efficient at taking photos and writing articles, it is time-consuming and makes for long hours and while the weekend is full of fun and socializing for all the attendees, it is much less so for me. I do manage to fit in some socializing as I am often in the middle of the action, and interacting with our AYF youth is always enjoyable, but it is nothing like the fun I had before I started reporting. It might sound like I am complaining, but I am not. It is a wonderful, though exhausting, labor of love. 

That is the kind of organization that the AYF is. For several generations, the AYF has been responsible for instilling and nurturing Armenian pride, patriotism, community and political activism in its members and alumni.

For me, this reporting and writing has been the most significant Armenian thing I have done and something I am very proud of. My Dad, Aram “Sonny” Gavoor, was very involved in the Olympics, helping organize the weekend and running the games as a member of the Governing Body, which is a rotating team of three alumni that ensures efficient planning, continuity and ongoing improvement of the games. He then became the coach of the Detroit “Kopernik Tandourjian” Chapter team and led them to their first Olympics wins. 

My Dad was also an Olympics King along with his brother, my Uncle Buddy. My sister Nancy and maternal Aunt Suzie are Olympics Queens. The Olympics King and Queens are honorifics, akin to an Olympics Hall of Fame, for those who were athletic standouts or great supporters of AYF Athletics. My parents were also the first recipients of the Varadian Spirit Award, established to honor alumni who best live their lives with the AYF spirit.

My contribution was never on the athletic fields. I competed every year when I was a member, but never scored even one measly point. However, I possessed a writing side, which comes from a few inspiring figures. 

My great uncle, Rouben Gavoor, was a lifelong writer for the Weekly. As much of an influence Uncle Rouben was on his own, it was enhanced even more by my mother, Violet’s, admiration for his writing. 

Not all my inspirations were family members. Tom Vartabedian used to report on the Olympics all by himself. He was a great cheerleader for my writing, slowly but steadily nudging me into being part of the team that replaced him in writing for the Weekly’s AYF Olympic Special Issue. In the days when I had more capacity for fun and socializing at the Olympics, I noticed that Tom was always on the move with a camera around his neck and his reporter’s notebook sticking out of his back pocket. He never had time to talk very long with anyone… and he was not even writing daily articles back then. Tom was a great influence, and I miss him dearly. 

I also have to recognize the most recent editors of the Armenian Weekly. Pauline Getzoyan and her first assistant editor, Leeza Arakelian, were so easy to work with and so encouraging. With the current Weekly editor Lilly Torosyan taking the helm after Pauline, we have not skipped a beat in terms of teamwork and responsiveness — not to mention their editorial skills. It is a great pleasure and inspiration to work with such competent and congenial professionals.

There is a great sense of accomplishment and a huge sigh of satisfaction when all the reporting is done for the AYF Olympics Special Issue of the Armenian Weekly. This year’s AYF Olympics Special Issue Magazine is no different, if not more exciting. 

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First published September 29, 2025 in the Armenian Weekly.