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The chaos theory of Mongolia

I returned to Mongolia 15 years ago after an absence of 13 years, save for the occasional 2-week leave from work, and that time I spent a semester and a half at a local university drinking endless cups of brown, watery 150 Tugrik instant MaCcoffee at the cafĂ© strangely, or perhaps egotistically, named "In my memory", writing the first and so far the only book that got us into trouble with the local intelligence who apparently had little else to do than to pore through the ramblings of teenagers to catch the tell-tale signs of drug dealery. But I digress. When you visit a country for a short period, be it home or not, you hardly have time to immerse yourself in the spirit of the country and the city and feel the nitty gritty and dirty shiny of it all. So after 13 years, it took me a while to readjust and finally understand what the hometown of my childhood had become.  The most striking, ubiquitous, and inescapable feature was and still, unfortunately, is the traffic. In 2008,

Mongolian Ethno-Jazz Band "Arga Bileg"

Just a quick post to announce that Arga Bileg, a very interesting ethno-jazz band, is holding their CD launch gig tomorrow at 6pm at the State Philharmonic Hall. Tickets are available in advance from the venue box office for 10,000₮. I've been waiting to see them live for quite some time.


Here's a video of their song "Gemtei dee" featuring Erdenechimeg, a vocalist from the modern long-song band Shurankhai.



They also composed the soundtrack for "Dev", a Mongolian horror movie recently released. Here's a piece from the soundtrack.

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