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Adrienne Barbeau: actress, sex symbol, writer - Armenian Reporter

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the armenian<br />

reporter<br />

July 12, 2008<br />

July 12, 2008<br />

culture&<br />

arts<br />

the armenian reporter<br />

&<br />

<strong>Adrienne</strong> <strong>Barbeau</strong>:<br />

<strong>actress</strong>, <strong>sex</strong> <strong>symbol</strong>, <strong>writer</strong><br />

See page C6<br />

Faith<br />

in the<br />

inner<br />

eye<br />

Page C4<br />

Celebrating<br />

Jirayr Zorthian’s<br />

legacy<br />

Page C2<br />

The voice<br />

behind<br />

the echo<br />

Page C9


Celebrating Jirayr Zorthian’s legacy<br />

A new exhibition<br />

documents the late<br />

artist’s collaboration<br />

with physicist Richard<br />

Feynman<br />

by Adrineh<br />

Gregorian<br />

Jirayr Zorthian said, “The purpose of life<br />

is living.” Though this statement seems<br />

obvious, very few people truly live life.<br />

Modern norms have confined humans to<br />

a seat not far from one screen or another.<br />

We have in some form or another suppressed<br />

our imagination and our minds<br />

have been numbed by convention. Zorthian,<br />

however, never subscribed to the<br />

norm – not in his upbringing, not in his<br />

profession, and definitely not in his lifestyle.<br />

Zorthian was born in Kutahya, Turkey,<br />

on April 14, 1911. He and his family survived<br />

two massacres during the <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Genocide. In 1923, when Zorthian<br />

was 9, his family sought refuge in New<br />

Haven, Connecticut, by way of Europe.<br />

While in Europe, Zorthian’s father exposed<br />

his young son to the arts.<br />

This exposure would eventually change<br />

the course of Zorthian’s life. In 1936, he<br />

graduated from Yale University with a<br />

degree in fine arts and flew off to Italy<br />

to study at the American Academy of<br />

Rome.<br />

Back in the United States, Zorthian’s<br />

reputation as a mural artist burgeoned.<br />

His artwork can be found in 42 buildings<br />

throughout the country. Zorthian then<br />

took his artistic vision into the third dimension<br />

as an architectural and design<br />

consultant.<br />

Despite a long career of creating artwork<br />

and designing structures, Zorthian’s<br />

lifestyle and contribution to the<br />

artists’ community can arguably be his<br />

lasting legacy.<br />

In 1945, he purchased a 45-acre ranch<br />

outside Pasadena, California, and<br />

turned it into The Center for Research<br />

and Development with an Emphasis on<br />

Aesthetics.<br />

This ranch was Zorthian’s refuge. It<br />

wasn’t so much for escaping the world;<br />

rather, he was showing the world how<br />

it could be. With decades worth of collected<br />

recycled materials, Zorthian constructed<br />

buildings, art installations, collages,<br />

and sculptures.<br />

For their bohemian lifestyle, Zorthian<br />

and his wife, Dabney, created a self-sufficient,<br />

sustainable existence by raising<br />

their own livestock and growing their<br />

own vegetables.<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture<br />

Copyright © 2008 by <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> llc<br />

All Rights Reserved<br />

Contact arts@reporter.am with announcements<br />

To advertise, write business@reporter.am or call 1-201-226-1995<br />

Jirayr Zorthian, The Divorcement, 1952 Ink on paper 17 x 24 inches<br />

Zorthian in “Planet Zorthian”<br />

In 1957, Zorthian established on his<br />

ranch a summer day camp, called the<br />

Zorthian Ranch for Children, where<br />

youngsters could develop their creative<br />

and athletic potential. Zorthian served<br />

as camp director for the following 25<br />

years.<br />

Zorthian would go on to become a<br />

staple in Southern California’s art circles.<br />

Throughout the decades, he accommodated<br />

a large number of artists and<br />

free spirits on the ranch. By doing so,<br />

Zorthian created his own eccentric community.<br />

One facet of this community was<br />

the friendship between Zorthian and<br />

CalTech physicist and Nobel Laureate<br />

Richard Feynman. Their friendship became<br />

the catalyst for a notable exchange<br />

of the scientific/objective and artistic/<br />

subjective worlds, and Zorthian became<br />

Feynman’s artistic mentor.<br />

Every year the Zorthian clan participated<br />

in two major celebratory events.<br />

The first was the annual Blessing of the<br />

Animals, around Easter, when the Cardinal<br />

of Los Angeles blesses animals on<br />

historic Olivera Street in Downtown.<br />

Zorthian and his family would gather all<br />

their pets and livestock to participate in<br />

the procession of animals.<br />

The second event was “The Primavera,”<br />

celebrating the coming of spring, the<br />

birthdays of Zorthian and Dabney, and<br />

their wedding anniversary.<br />

Both of these events are chronicled in<br />

Planet Zorthian, a 2004 film collaboration<br />

between Harout Arakelian, Lisa Tchakmakian,<br />

Sevag Vrej, and Arno Yeretzian.<br />

While the four filmmakers followed the<br />

artist independently of each other, their<br />

films combine to create an experimental<br />

On page C1: <strong>Adrienne</strong> <strong>Barbeau</strong>, a successful <strong>actress</strong>, known for her roles in<br />

horror movies, has co-written a new book, Vampyres of Hollywood. Read a<br />

reprint of her interview with the British online entertainment magazine<br />

Den of Geek on page C6. Photo: Pamela Springsteen.<br />

“cubist” documentary, whereby each of<br />

the four segments can be seen as standalone<br />

pieces yet complement one another<br />

by offering individual perspectives on<br />

the life and work of Zorthian.<br />

Zorthian passed away on January 6,<br />

2004, at the age of 92. Dabney died in<br />

2006. Though he is no longer with us,<br />

his spirit lives on in his art, his passion<br />

has permeated thousands who passed<br />

through his ranch, and his example is an<br />

inspiration to many still to come.<br />

Since the 1950s, Zorthian had rarely<br />

showcased his work in exhibits. While<br />

most of his public art consisted of murals<br />

in buildings across America, his<br />

sketches and paintings remained in his<br />

private collection. This year Jay Belloli<br />

and the Armory Center for the Arts in<br />

Pasadena have curated an art exhibit<br />

titled “Jirayr Zorthian/Richard Feynman:<br />

A Conversation in Art,” running<br />

through August 31, 2008.<br />

“Everybody knew Zorthian,” says Belloli.<br />

“He was such a colorful personality<br />

that everybody knew him. But hardly<br />

anyone knew the art because he hardly<br />

every showed.”<br />

Most of Zorthian’s artwork is still at<br />

the ranch.<br />

“Jirayr was extraordinarily talented.<br />

He was really almost like a prodigy,” says<br />

Belloli. “A lot of the artwork in the show<br />

is from very early in his career. He was<br />

doing important art when he was still a<br />

student at Yale University. It just shows<br />

how good he was.”<br />

Belloli goes on to say, “Zorthian had<br />

an incredible facility, astonishing drawings<br />

in the show, very ambitious drawings,<br />

wonderful portraits. He was just<br />

really very good.”<br />

According to Belloli, Zorthian considerably<br />

influenced Feynman through his<br />

mentorship and their close friendship.<br />

C2 <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008


Jirayr Zorthian, Cortez in Mexico, 1936 Tempera and gold leaf on board 52”x 67 1/3”<br />

“Feynman didn’t think he could draw<br />

and Zorthian really taught him how to<br />

draw,” Belloli says. “The exhibit really<br />

became about both of their work and<br />

their close connection as friends and as<br />

Zorthian serving as Richard Feynman’s<br />

mentor.”<br />

Zorthian started off in the 1930s, the<br />

period of social realism, with very realistic<br />

art. By the 1940s, he progressed<br />

into expressionism. In the late 1950s<br />

and early 1960s, he focused on elaborate<br />

realistic drawings. Some of the artwork<br />

featured at the current exhibit is<br />

unprecedented in terms of size. “It just<br />

shows that even though he got older, he<br />

was still being ambitious in the art that<br />

he made,” says Belloli.<br />

Until his death, Zorthian and Dabney<br />

lived, worked, taught, and entertained<br />

at this small utopia they called home.<br />

Not only did he build this lifestyle, but,<br />

more importantly, he planted the seeds<br />

for future generations to cultivate their<br />

own self-expression.<br />

“Jirayr Zorthian/Richard Feynman: A<br />

Conversation in Art” will be on view in<br />

the Susan and John Caldwell Gallery at<br />

the Armory Center for the Arts Tuesday<br />

through Sunday, noon-5:00 p.m. Admission<br />

is free. The Armory is located at 145<br />

North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA<br />

91103 f<br />

connect:<br />

armoryarts.org<br />

zorthian.com<br />

The artist in action...<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008<br />

C3


Faith in the inner eye<br />

The art of Seeroon<br />

Vassilian-Yeretzian<br />

by Mariette Tachdjian<br />

There is a bittersweet quality to Seeroon<br />

Vassilian-Yeretzian’s voice over the telephone.<br />

Remaining palpable even after we<br />

meet face to face, it is the same quality<br />

that is characteristic of many artists who,<br />

through their own personal struggles,<br />

have transmitted their lives onto canvas.<br />

Then there is her brilliant artwork. A true<br />

testament to a woman’s hardships resulting<br />

from genotyping and the yearning for<br />

expression, Seeron’s paintings became<br />

chapters in her own spiritual evolution.<br />

At the Roslin Art Gallery in Glendale,<br />

which she owns, Seeroon unravels her<br />

many layers, through both the canvas<br />

and her voice.<br />

It doesn’t take a skilled eye to interpret<br />

the anguish present in her early<br />

works. Dark, sometimes morbid figures<br />

are immortalized through oily hues of<br />

black, blue, and gray. Anyone can feel<br />

the torment that cries out from the<br />

nightmarish faces in her 1988 piece titled<br />

“Condemned.”<br />

Macabre subjects are just one aspect<br />

of this multi-faceted artist, however.<br />

“My art became like my diary. You bring<br />

from the past, you go forward, and you<br />

watch around you,” says Seeroon, who<br />

spent her first 17 years of life in a South<br />

Beirut <strong>Armenian</strong> refugee camp. Shortly<br />

after trading their shanty town hut<br />

for a real house, Seeron’s father tragically<br />

died. Pain and suffering have been<br />

known to create great art. But perhaps<br />

it is her later pieces illustrating crucified<br />

women that really pushed her own edge,<br />

and that of her audience.<br />

In an attempt to expose the enigmatic<br />

underside of a woman’s resilient exterior,<br />

Seeroon used the creative process to<br />

peel back all of her fragile layers, starting<br />

from her early adulthood.<br />

It was the dawn of the civil war in<br />

Beirut, and Seeroon, having been discouraged<br />

by her parents from pursuing<br />

art, decided to study opera, followed<br />

by fashion design. An impressionable<br />

young woman, her fate seemed to be realized<br />

as she fulfilled the expected role<br />

of becoming a bride. But little did she<br />

know that her marriage to an intellectual<br />

named Harout Yeretzian (who would<br />

later become the proprietor of Abril<br />

Bookstore in Glendale) would one day<br />

create a harmonious existence between<br />

art and literature. With their son and<br />

a few coins in their pockets, the Yeretzians<br />

moved from Beirut to Los Angeles<br />

in the 1970s.<br />

Still starving for formal training in<br />

the fine arts, Seeroon studied at the<br />

prestigious Otis Parsons Art Institute<br />

and UCLA. The liberated soul was finally<br />

allowed to channel her experiences and<br />

emotions onto the canvas for the first<br />

time, without restraint or censorship.<br />

Influences of Picasso, Dali, Miro, even<br />

Francis Bacon, are evident in her early<br />

work, though she will tell you that they<br />

may have been at play only at a subconscious<br />

level. Seeroon went on to draw<br />

inspiration from her <strong>Armenian</strong> and<br />

Middle Eastern backgrounds as well as<br />

the underbelly of American life.<br />

Of particular interest to her were the<br />

Top: Evolution. Above<br />

left: Condemned.<br />

Above right: Self<br />

Portrait. Left: Seeroon<br />

Yeretzian<br />

homeless in Los Angeles, a sight that<br />

disillusioned her at first, as she herself<br />

had come from a childhood of poverty.<br />

“We were homeless but we had a<br />

home, and a father and mother… it was<br />

a commune,” she says. Perhaps it was<br />

that sense of the loss of innocence that<br />

burst out in pieces like “The Mattress”<br />

(1989) and “Timeless” (1999s). Along<br />

with a newfound freedom in the City of<br />

Angels, she became keenly aware of the<br />

estrangement that is often felt in such a<br />

vast and impersonal city. “Here we live<br />

in homes, but we are not a community,<br />

we are in cages. We care about humanity,<br />

but we don’t care about our neighbors,”<br />

she explains.<br />

Darkness and destitution unquestionably<br />

inspired some of her masterpieces.<br />

But perhaps her most striking, and controversial,<br />

work to date is her series of<br />

crucified women, which she completed<br />

in the 1990s. At first glance, these paintings<br />

appear sacrilegious. But beyond the<br />

religious <strong>symbol</strong>ism, there is a clearly<br />

metaphorical treatment of female martyrdom<br />

on those canvases. “It’s not only<br />

Christ who gets crucified. Each of us has<br />

a process,” says Seeroon, who still sees<br />

women’s roles as inherently difficult<br />

amidst a society of material abundance.<br />

C4 <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008


Above: Glory Alphabet. Left: Timeless.. Below:<br />

The Trap.<br />

“We inflict our wounds. Sometimes it’s<br />

self-inflicted,” she says. The paintings<br />

were not exactly palatable to <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

audiences. But Seeroon adds with conviction,<br />

“I didn’t care. I don’t paint to<br />

sell.”<br />

Though her work is first and foremost<br />

provocative, Seeroon has been able to<br />

move from one phase to the next without<br />

compromising her artistic integrity.<br />

These days she is focused on more natural<br />

elements and livelier subjects, such<br />

as her evolving series based on and inspired<br />

by medieval <strong>Armenian</strong> illuminated<br />

manuscripts, which she calls “our <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

jewels.” She expands on the natural<br />

themes of birds, peacocks, as well as<br />

human forms, using vivid purples and<br />

golds, reds and blues, to create illumination<br />

(stylized lettering accompanied<br />

by painted figures). She has mastered<br />

this style, having been influenced by<br />

medieval masters such as Toros Roslin<br />

(after whom Seeroon’s gallery is named).<br />

Through her own interpretations, she is<br />

able to create anything from a meditative<br />

mandala to intricately decorative<br />

depictions of the <strong>Armenian</strong> alphabet.<br />

Seeroon’s work has been featured at<br />

UCLA’s Kerchoff Hall, Otis Parsons Gallery,<br />

as well as the J. Paul Getty Museum’s<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> and Iranian art festivals.<br />

She was even invited to participate in<br />

a large public-art installation commissioned<br />

by the City of Los Angeles in<br />

2002. If you were an Angeleno back in<br />

2000–2002, you may recall the “Community<br />

of Angels” project, in which<br />

dozens of unique, six-foot-tall statues<br />

of angels – commissioned by the<br />

city – were displayed near landmarks<br />

throughout Los Angeles. Seeroon<br />

– the only <strong>Armenian</strong> artist invited to<br />

participate in the exhibition – created<br />

her “Angel of the Century,” by painting<br />

angels of various ethnic backgrounds<br />

onto a statue that stood at the Century<br />

City Plaza Towers.<br />

Seeroon’s personal life has allowed her<br />

to embrace the best of <strong>Armenian</strong> art and<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> Paradise.<br />

literature. “We are book and art pushers,”<br />

she says, of her collaboration with<br />

her husband. Together, they have created<br />

a unique voice in the community.<br />

But that voice also feels strongly about<br />

supporting other artists. “If we support<br />

our artists, we are supported,” she says.<br />

Seeroon currently displays her work<br />

alongside other notable artists from the<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> community, at the Roslin gallery<br />

in Glendale.<br />

f<br />

connect:<br />

roslin.com<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008<br />

C5


The Den of Geek interview: <strong>Adrienne</strong> <strong>Barbeau</strong><br />

The formidable star of<br />

Escape From New York and<br />

other cult classics chats<br />

with DoG about writing,<br />

bats, therapy, and kicking<br />

ass...<br />

by Martin Anderson<br />

Editor’s note: We are reprinting this interview<br />

with permission from Den of Geek,<br />

the British online entertainment magazine<br />

which published the piece earlier this<br />

month.<br />

<strong>Adrienne</strong> <strong>Barbeau</strong> negotiated a successful<br />

Broadway career – during which<br />

she originated the role of Rizzo in Grease<br />

- into a successful television career in the<br />

1970s on the hit comedy Maude. A meeting<br />

with John Carpenter, who was casting<br />

his acclaimed TV thriller Someone’s<br />

Watching Me, led to a role, marriage,<br />

their son Cody, and yet another career<br />

as an acclaimed “Scream Queen” in the<br />

likes of The Fog, Creepshow, Swamp Thing,<br />

Two Evil Eyes, and Escape From New York.<br />

Following the acclaim of her 2006<br />

memoirs There Are Worse Things I Could<br />

Do, <strong>Adrienne</strong> has now written a horror<br />

novel together with author Michael<br />

Scott, in which heroine Ovsana Moore is<br />

a rather <strong>Barbeau</strong>-esque <strong>actress</strong>... who is<br />

also a vampire! The novel follows her efforts<br />

in concert with an LAPD detective<br />

to find the serial killer who is slaying the<br />

“A-list” stars of Hollywood...<br />

[N.b.: Vampyres of Hollywood did not<br />

arrive on my desk until four hours before<br />

this interview took place, so I had<br />

only read the early chapters at the time<br />

- M.A.]<br />

Martin Anderson: Is Vampyres of<br />

Hollywood the first time that you’ve really<br />

looked for that creative voice inside<br />

yourself<br />

<strong>Adrienne</strong> <strong>Barbeau</strong>: It’s the first time<br />

I’ve applied it to fiction, yes. I guess I<br />

found a voice when I was doing There<br />

Are Worse Things I Could Do, and tried to<br />

bring it into this one as much as I could.<br />

M.A.: You seem like a really social person,<br />

so how does the writing life suit<br />

you<br />

A.B.: There’s a part of it that I love,<br />

and some of that is not being dependent<br />

upon anyone else for my creativity.<br />

I don’t have to wait for the script to<br />

come, I don’t have to wait for the offer<br />

to come in or for the money to be raised<br />

[laughs]. So it’s wonderful just to be able<br />

to get up in the morning and get the<br />

kids to school, and then come back and<br />

sit down and try to fashion something<br />

that didn’t exist before. Because there’s<br />

so much else that I have to do in terms of<br />

being a mom and continuing my acting<br />

career and all of that, I don’t sit at the<br />

computer for days on end without talking<br />

to other people. We have a house at<br />

the New Jersey shore, and we’re here for<br />

about five weeks - my husband has been<br />

loving enough and gracious enough to<br />

take the kids on some four-day field trips<br />

[laughs]. They’ve gone off to Boston, so<br />

Adrienna <strong>Barbeau</strong>: “I never set out to be a <strong>sex</strong> <strong>symbol</strong>.”<br />

I am able to just get up and sit down<br />

and just write straight through - but I’m<br />

able to balance the communication with<br />

other people with the communication<br />

with the computer [laughs].<br />

M.A.: So you’re developing your own<br />

routines<br />

A.B.: Yeah, I guess I am. It’s still new<br />

enough to me that I don’t trust how<br />

much time I can take away from it, if<br />

you know what I mean. So if my husband<br />

says “So-and-so’s having a party<br />

on Friday night and I think we should<br />

go,” I tend to think “I don’t know - how<br />

many words am I gonna get written<br />

this week” [laughs]. So I worked out a<br />

monthly deadline and when I get there<br />

and realize that I’ve written as much as<br />

I’m supposed to have written, then okay<br />

- I can go off and go shopping.<br />

M.A.: Many <strong>writer</strong>s say that they<br />

surprise themselves at what they come<br />

up with when they’re writing - has that<br />

been your experience That you have access<br />

to creative resources that you can’t<br />

normally get to<br />

A.B.: Yes, it has, and the way I would<br />

explain it is that I’ll go back maybe 60<br />

or 70 pages, or back to the beginning or<br />

whatever, and I’m reading through it and<br />

I find myself thinking “Did I write that”<br />

[laughs]. Where did that come from Out<br />

of me There are other times when I’ve<br />

written something and I think “Oh, that<br />

works,” and I’m sorta proud of that. But<br />

even as I’m aware of that, I’m also aware<br />

that it wasn’t anything that I thought of<br />

before I put my fingers on the computer.<br />

And it’s really fascinating.<br />

M.A.: You’ve said that you didn’t turn<br />

to George Romero or John Carpenter<br />

before the novel was completed. So was<br />

the feedback loop during the writing<br />

process between you and Michael Scott,<br />

or was there someone else to turn to<br />

A.B.: Hmmm... I don’t want to get<br />

confused between the first one and the<br />

second one, which I’m writing all by myself.<br />

That one I have definitely shown<br />

to my husband and I have two other<br />

friends, both of whom are <strong>writer</strong>s, that<br />

I’ve sent chapters to, asking “Am I still<br />

on track” - that kind of thing. Vampyres<br />

Of Hollywood I’m sure I showed to Billy -<br />

my husband - but I don’t think I showed<br />

it to anyone else as I was going along. I<br />

think there was one night when I got<br />

together with a bunch of girlfriends<br />

[laughs] and I read the opening pages so<br />

that they’d know what I was doing.<br />

With Vampyres, Michael and I were<br />

bouncing it back and forth. He’s an<br />

expert at these things, and that was<br />

enough - except for my husband.<br />

M.A.: Speaking of the opening pages,<br />

which I’ve read – “Death By Oscar’ [in<br />

which a deplorable actor who has just<br />

won an Academy Award is found dead in<br />

a taxi with the statuette shoved up his<br />

rectum]... – man, that’s a nasty death!<br />

[<strong>Adrienne</strong> laughs]. Is this maybe a case<br />

of having a little bit of payback on one or<br />

two real characters from your own life<br />

A.B.: I hadn’t thought of that part<br />

of it being a case of getting revenge! I<br />

have a feeling that if I go back and look<br />

at it, there’s probably a few things in<br />

there... [laughs]. I hadn’t really realized<br />

this about being a <strong>writer</strong>, but a friend of<br />

mine told me that another well-known<br />

author has always said to her “I’m the<br />

Goddess! I can do anything I want!” I’m<br />

just coming to realize that. If there’s a<br />

book I like that I’m reading, I can have<br />

my character read that book, and I can<br />

give that author a boost. And that’s<br />

great fun.<br />

M.A.: But it’s quite therapeutic as well<br />

as creative<br />

A.B.: I think so. You know, because<br />

you read the memoirs, that I’m not looking<br />

to drag too many people over the<br />

coals [laughs], but it’s fun to be able to<br />

get those little details in there that some<br />

people will recognize.<br />

M.A.: There’s a nice division in the<br />

book between Ovsana’s voice and the<br />

detective’s voice - is that how the work<br />

divided between yourself and Michael<br />

Scott in practical terms<br />

A.B.: No, actually - the voice is a<br />

real amalgam of the two of us. I think<br />

that the final chapters, the battle and<br />

the monsters and the Vampyrs and the<br />

Weres, more of that came out of Michael.<br />

We sat down and outlined the<br />

whole thing together, in the same room,<br />

saying that this was where we wanted<br />

to go and this was what we wanted to<br />

have happen. The structure of it is really<br />

Michael - he wrote the first draft of the<br />

chapter and then he sent it to me and<br />

said “This is your book, just do whatever<br />

you want with it.”<br />

So the voice, the actual words on the<br />

paper... the voice is more mine. The dialogue,<br />

the way they speak - that’s more<br />

me. But when we went back over it, we<br />

both agreed that we couldn’t tell where<br />

I had left off and he had picked up and<br />

vice versa. I had to look something up<br />

the other day and I thought “Is that in<br />

Michael’s first draft or mine” I couldn’t<br />

figure it out. We really found a way to<br />

blend the two, I think.<br />

M.A.: Ovsana seems like a melding of<br />

all the roles that you’re loved for, like in<br />

Escape From New York, Swamp Thing, and<br />

The Fog... surely there’s got to be a film,<br />

and you’ve got to play her.<br />

A.B.: [Laughs]. Well, I think she looks<br />

younger than I do! Well, you haven’t read<br />

it all the way through yet. But maybe I<br />

can play the villainess at the end - who<br />

looks like Betty Davis as Baby Jane Hudson<br />

in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane!<br />

C6 <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008


M.A.: Did you hesitate to put so many<br />

real-life Hollywood stars of the past as<br />

vampires in the book They’ve even got<br />

dialogue...<br />

A.B.: No, I just had to do a lot of research.<br />

We didn’t hesitate [laughs]! I<br />

didn’t always use these specifications,<br />

but I tried to find people who had died<br />

in a manner where I could logically conceive<br />

of bringing them back, like Olive<br />

Thomas, who died so young that she<br />

never aged, that kind of thing. In the<br />

end I don’t think I succeeded all the way.<br />

I just went back and I looked at some of<br />

the bios for the characters that we used<br />

- some of them did live quite a while!<br />

I tried to pick ones that had died of a<br />

death that could be faked, that kind of<br />

thing. But it was great fun.<br />

M.A.: How far advanced are you on<br />

the sequel<br />

I’m almost half-way through. I’ve got<br />

a deadline of January, and I’ll make it!<br />

M.A.: I’m asking blindly, since I<br />

haven’t read the whole of Vampyres yet,<br />

but can you tell us anything about the<br />

direction that Ovsana will take in the<br />

new book<br />

A.B.: There’s a relationship that develops<br />

between Peter and Ovsana, much<br />

to Maral’s distress, so I’m gonna explore<br />

that a little bit. But it’s a true sequel,<br />

picking up not long after this one ends,<br />

and dealing with the fallout of this one.<br />

M.A.: Would it have been harder to<br />

originate this first book alone<br />

A.B.: Yes... definitely! I don’t know if<br />

I would have! Michael was the driving<br />

force right from the beginning. I met<br />

Michael through another friend, and<br />

the first night I met him, he had read my<br />

memoir, and he knew my film history<br />

and my career, and he said you should<br />

be writing a novel for your 18-34 fan<br />

base, all the guys –<br />

M.A.: 18-41. Please.<br />

A.B.: [Laughs]. Ah, thank you! Since<br />

I’ve been doing these conventions, I’d<br />

say it was like 18 - death! People who<br />

like horror films, they don’t stop liking<br />

them! They are fantastic fans; it’s an<br />

incredible... support system! So he said<br />

“You should be writing a horror novel for<br />

your horror-genre fan base. And I said<br />

that I didn’t know, I’ve never written a<br />

novel, just this nonfiction book, and he<br />

said “Oh, I’ll help you - that’s nothing!”<br />

[laughs]. Okay - fine! So we sat down<br />

and he said “Okay, what do you want to<br />

write Science fiction, like Escape From<br />

New York, or a ghost story like The Fog”<br />

A.B.: And I honestly don’t remember<br />

how I settled on vampires. But what I’ve<br />

come to realize, now that I’ve written<br />

one and we’re in the middle of writing<br />

the next one, is that Ovsana’s character<br />

- a female vampire - is very much akin to<br />

the characters that I read all the time. I<br />

read Lee Childs, the Jack Reacher novels...<br />

he’s one of your countrymen, actually,<br />

although I think he lives here in the<br />

States now... but I read detective novels,<br />

or mysteries or thrillers or whatever<br />

you’d [call them], and Jack Reacher is one<br />

of my favorites. And when I think about<br />

it, Ovsana, she can kick ass [laughs], just<br />

like all these guys that I read, and like the<br />

characters that I usually play. So I guess<br />

that’s where she came from. What better<br />

format to write the kind of woman that<br />

I would like to be - and like to think that<br />

I am, on occasion, and that I play in the<br />

movies...the strong survivor, fighting for<br />

justice... [laughs].<br />

M.A.: Of course I was going to ask, is<br />

that tough “<strong>Adrienne</strong> <strong>Barbeau</strong>” character<br />

- for which you’re celebrated - someone<br />

that you’ve grown into or someone<br />

that you maybe admired and would like<br />

to be Is it a fantasy or a reflection of<br />

how you’ve lived your life<br />

A.B.: You know, I think it is. I think it’s<br />

a reflection of my heritage, in some ways.<br />

I’ve dedicated the second book to my <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

aunts and my grandmother. I’ve<br />

come from a culture of women - at least<br />

my relatives - that were survivors. They<br />

survived the holocaust. You’ve read the<br />

memoirs, so you know that I have one<br />

relative that walked away from her two<br />

year-old son and never saw him again in<br />

the hope that he would be taken in and<br />

survive; she escaped and she eventually<br />

lived a very long life.<br />

So I think some of it is in the DNA -<br />

and we use that with Ovsana, as she’s an<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> vampire. The rest of it, I guess,<br />

is the person that I became, or maybe<br />

that I grew up as and then became. I’m<br />

not a victim [laughs]. I’ve sort of spent<br />

my life trying to grow into... if I say a<br />

strong person, I mean a capable person,<br />

or a person who can take care of herself<br />

and hopefully take care of the people<br />

around her.<br />

I would like to think that if I were in a<br />

terrifying situation, I would act the way<br />

the characters that I’ve portrayed act<br />

[laughs]. I’m never tested. But I value<br />

strength in a person.<br />

M.A.: Aside from your physical attributes,<br />

do you think that it was the<br />

independence and strength of your onscreen<br />

characters that made you a <strong>sex</strong><br />

<strong>symbol</strong><br />

A.B.: I don’t know, Martin. You know,<br />

you’ve read the book. I never set out to<br />

be a <strong>sex</strong> <strong>symbol</strong>, and I don’t know what<br />

makes a <strong>sex</strong> <strong>symbol</strong>. I think that it was<br />

the camera, or the media or whatever,<br />

that made me a <strong>sex</strong> <strong>symbol</strong>. I wasn’t playing<br />

those roles, but they just… [laughs].<br />

M.A.: You talk about the visualization<br />

that helps you get the things that you<br />

need and want - were you visualizing<br />

something like the Vampyres project<br />

when Michael Scott turned up<br />

A.B.: I don’t know if I was visualizing<br />

something like this project. I think that<br />

years ago, before I ever started writing,<br />

it was in my head as something. I read a<br />

lot, and whenever I read somebody that<br />

I love I always thought “God, I wish I<br />

could write like that.” And I know that for<br />

years, going back, I thought “Wouldn’t it<br />

be wonderful to be a <strong>writer</strong>, and you<br />

could do it anywhere…” You could go sit<br />

on a beach, you wouldn’t have to be in<br />

Los Angeles or New York, on Broadway.<br />

So I was putting that kind of thought<br />

out at least, that it would be a wonderful<br />

career to have.<br />

I had a friend years ago, he was a therapist,<br />

he used to say “<strong>Adrienne</strong>, someday<br />

you’re going to reach a lot of people<br />

in some other way. I think you’re going<br />

to be a teacher or something, but<br />

you have something else you have to say<br />

that you’re not saying as an actor.” And<br />

I just thought “I don’t know what that’s<br />

all about.” But maybe this is it.<br />

M.A.: I get the impression that your<br />

own lifelong struggle to find your voice<br />

has given you character and attitude<br />

that you might have otherwise struggled<br />

hard to find<br />

A.B.: Yeah, probably so. The struggle<br />

or the search was always to understand<br />

myself, I think. And to communicate.<br />

I’ve always been fascinated with communication.<br />

I’ve taken a course... there’s<br />

a fella whose name just went out of my<br />

head [laughs], who teaches all over the<br />

world and has written a book called Nonviolent<br />

Communication, I think. I went<br />

and took a couple of weekend seminars<br />

with him. I remember back even before<br />

my first son was born, so that’s about<br />

25 years ago, reading Parent Effectiveness<br />

Training, and they talk about methods<br />

of communication, “active listening,”<br />

things like that... and it’s what I was in<br />

therapy for, I think... to learn to communicate.<br />

I hadn’t thought of it until just<br />

now, when you asked me the question<br />

[laughs]. I’m communicating again!<br />

M.A.:There were some really good <strong>actress</strong>es<br />

out there kicking ass in the 80s<br />

- and you were amongst them - but it<br />

really kind of took off in the 90s and beyond.<br />

Do you feel that you kind of paved<br />

the way for that, or maybe regret that it<br />

all happened later<br />

A.B.: What I feel is that I wish someone<br />

was still interested in seeing somebody<br />

like me doing it again [laughs]!<br />

M.A.: I’m interested...<br />

A.B.: Ahhh, thanks! Did you see The<br />

Convent<br />

M.A.: I did.<br />

A.B.: That came along just at the time I<br />

was saying to my husband “Ah, nobody’s<br />

gonna hire me to pick up a gun again.”<br />

But yeah, I wish that kind of character or<br />

those kinds of roles had been as popular<br />

when I was doing them as they are now.<br />

Or as “mainstream” as they are now.<br />

What with the advent of the popularity<br />

of video games and everything, so<br />

that you’ve got... well, I’m going back a<br />

ways now and thinking about Lara Croft.<br />

There must be something more recent...<br />

but you know... big films. Because I still<br />

love doing ‘em. But I’m just glad I had<br />

the chance, you know [laughs].<br />

M.A.: One of the things I loved in your<br />

memoirs was the story of “the trapped<br />

bat,” and I was wondering if you’d tell it<br />

again for our readers<br />

A.B.: Oh, poor John! [Laughs]. We<br />

had just moved into a home that we<br />

bought, up in Inverness, where we shot<br />

The Fog. A gorgeous part of the country,<br />

and this house was in the middle of the<br />

woods - there was nothing around. It<br />

was Labor Day weekend, which meant<br />

that Jerry Lewis was doing his telethon,<br />

for muscular dystrophy or whatever it<br />

is that he does. John [Carpenter] had<br />

to stay up and see it - that was his annual<br />

night-time watching. So I went to<br />

bed and I was sound asleep, and all of a<br />

sudden I hear John’s voice saying “<strong>Adrienne</strong>!<br />

<strong>Adrienne</strong>!” And I looked around<br />

and I didn’t see him... and he was on the<br />

floor, on his knees, with a towel over his<br />

head - the master of horror! And he said<br />

“There’s a bat in the living room!” And I<br />

said “Well... yeah” And he said “There’s<br />

a bat in the living room!” So I got up and<br />

got to the living room and opened the<br />

door and this little bat flew past me and<br />

flew out the door [laughs].<br />

M.A.: So cool - someone who makes<br />

horror movies is bound to be frightened<br />

of bats! Totally makes sense...<br />

A.B.: [Laughing] Yeah!<br />

M.A.: You talk about the hard time<br />

you had making Unholy at the end of<br />

your memoirs, and I kind of expected<br />

you to finish with “Oh boy, never again,”<br />

but instead you take it all in your stride.<br />

How do you get to think like that<br />

A.B.: This sounds sort of hokey, but<br />

for me it always begins with the words.<br />

So I’m always aware that something<br />

could come along and be really valuable<br />

because of the words, the script.<br />

But it may not necessarily be the one<br />

that somebody with a lot of money<br />

wants to finance. I just did another one<br />

last November that was just a wonderful<br />

character for me to play, and I’m<br />

so glad that I did it. But it was lowbudget.<br />

What I learned from Unholy<br />

is that I make sure I have a dressing<br />

room [laughs]. There were kids in that<br />

movie who were dressing in a tent at<br />

18 degrees, and I sort of draw the line...<br />

I’ve got to have at least a heater in a<br />

room [laughs].<br />

M.A.: I could feel the cold as I was<br />

reading it.<br />

A.B.: Oh, it was a nightmare. But then<br />

you turn around and do one like I did<br />

last year [Reach For Me]. Seymour Cassel<br />

is starring, and Alfre Woodard and<br />

LeVar Burton, and LeVar directed it. I<br />

loved the character and I got to do some<br />

work that I wouldn’t have gotten to do<br />

if I wasn’t willing to put up with the lowbudget<br />

aspect. I just like to work.<br />

M.A.: Have you ever wanted to take<br />

the reins yourself and do some directing<br />

A.B.: Never. It doesn’t interest me<br />

at all. What I think I might be good at<br />

would be directing an actor, maybe onstage<br />

or in a scene, but I don’t understand<br />

filmmaking at all [laughs]. I know<br />

what’s wrong... I know what an actor<br />

needs to do to get him where he needs<br />

to be, and I could probably impart that,<br />

but I’m not interested in directing.<br />

M.A.: Do you like horror any more<br />

now than you used to In your memoir,<br />

you say that you’re not a great fan...<br />

A.B.: [Laughing] No! My husband<br />

wanted to see The Happening, which just<br />

came out, and the previews looked really<br />

good. But I said “I don’t wanna go<br />

in there” [laughs]. I don’t want to have<br />

them do that to me! I don’t like it. I<br />

love action-adventure - I’m right there<br />

for James Bond or thrillers or anything<br />

like that, but if it’s gonna make me jump<br />

and scream...<br />

We went to see Get Smart yesterday<br />

[laughs], and my poor kids were sitting<br />

in front of me... I don’t know what happened,<br />

somebody stepped out of a closet<br />

or something... and I screamed! f<br />

connect:<br />

denofgeek.com<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008<br />

C7


The show must go on<br />

Paul Meshejian is the<br />

driving force behind<br />

the annual PlayPenn<br />

theatrical conference<br />

by Armina<br />

LaManna<br />

PHIL ADELPHIA<br />

and LONDON<br />

– As the founding<br />

artistic director<br />

of PlayPenn, Paul<br />

Meshejian is an integral part of the greater<br />

theatrical community of Philadelphia. Recently<br />

he stole a little time from his overwhelminlgy<br />

busy schedule to talk to me<br />

about PlayPenn and Another Man’s Son – a<br />

play written by Silva Semerciyan, which<br />

will be featured this month at the Play-<br />

Penn 2008 Conference in Philadelphia.<br />

Meshejian had spent several years<br />

working as an actor and director in Minneapolis,<br />

where he first came across<br />

the Playwrights’ Center – a big laboratory<br />

dedicated to the advancement<br />

of playwriting. “When I was getting a<br />

little tired of acting, I started to think<br />

about what work in the theater satisfied<br />

me the most,” Meshejian explained. “I<br />

found that it was my time there, at the<br />

Playwrights’ Center!”<br />

Realizing that Philadelphia had nothing<br />

like the Playwrights’ Center and how<br />

ephemeral work in the theater could be,<br />

Meshejian started talking to artistic directors<br />

around town about beginning a<br />

similar program in Philadelphia. “Almost<br />

everyone said that they needed something<br />

like this,” Meshejian said. “So one<br />

day I was talking to someone about this,<br />

and he asked me how much I needed. I<br />

foolishly picked a number out of the air,<br />

and this guy said that he’d give me half<br />

that for three years. And that kind of<br />

money – $20,000 a year for three years<br />

– was the seed money that allowed me to<br />

ask other people to invest. And they did.<br />

The first year, 2005, we raised $50,000,<br />

then last year our budget was around<br />

$94,000, and then this year our budget<br />

is $148,000. But we haven’t raised all<br />

that money for this year yet.”<br />

Meshejian described PlayPenn’s expansion:<br />

from four plays during the summer<br />

conference to six; from a single symposium<br />

to two; and then this year they are<br />

adding two extra readings. “It’s clear that<br />

there is a need for it,” Meshejian said,<br />

referring to the significance of PlayPenn.<br />

Even before finding success locally,<br />

PlayPenn made headway on the national<br />

scene. Out of the 14 plays developed<br />

so far, eight have been produced<br />

around the country. “One of the things<br />

I wanted to do was introduce new work<br />

to Philadelphia,” Meshejian said. “I’m<br />

very happy to say that of the six plays<br />

we developed last year, four are being<br />

produced this coming season, and three<br />

of them are seeing productions at local<br />

theaters: the Arden, Interact Theatre,<br />

and People’s Light.”<br />

I asked Meshejian about how he came<br />

across Semerciyan’s play: “Early on the<br />

ADAA [<strong>Armenian</strong> Dramatic Arts Alliance]<br />

got in touch with me, right when they<br />

“I’m very happy to say that of the six plays we developed last year, four are being produced this coming season, and three of them are seeing productions at<br />

local theaters: the Arden, Interact Theatre, and People’s Light.”<br />

Silva Semerciyan.<br />

Actors Harry Philibosian and Larry John Meyers.<br />

were first starting. I became a member.”<br />

Meshejian continued to tell me about<br />

how he searched for ways to reach out to<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>writer</strong>s who were doing work<br />

that would be interesting to a broader<br />

audience. “First, the richness of our history<br />

is worthy of reflection,” Meshejian<br />

said. “Second, the Genocide experience<br />

is lost in the shadow of the Holocaust.<br />

Not that there’s a competition, but there<br />

just hasn’t been any public, formal recognition<br />

of it.” To illustrate his point,<br />

Meshejian referred to Peter Balakian<br />

and his book, Black Dog of Fate. “What he<br />

[Balakian] says is that there is no way to<br />

understand a thing like this [Genocide]<br />

until art gets made from it,” he said.<br />

To this end, Meshejian said, he put a<br />

call out to the ADAA for <strong>Armenian</strong> plays<br />

tackling these issues. The response came<br />

in the form of two plays, one of which,<br />

Another Man’s Son, was a family drama.<br />

“The politics of this particular family reflect<br />

the invidious influence of tyranny<br />

and how that tyranny, which comes from<br />

without, gets exercised at home,” said<br />

Meshejian said, who seemed very enthusiastic<br />

about the play. I could understand<br />

why. I recently read the play and found<br />

myself drawn to the family, especially to<br />

Lucine, the heroine. The <strong>writer</strong>, Semerciyan,<br />

an American who has been living<br />

and working in England for the past ten<br />

years, will be making a special trip to<br />

Philadelphia for the PlayPenn 2008 Conference<br />

to see a reading of her play.<br />

When asked about where he sees Play-<br />

Penn in five years, Meshejian laughed<br />

heartily and said, “What I would love is for<br />

PlayPenn to extend the work of the conference<br />

outward throughout the year. I would<br />

like to offer a weeklong reading workshop<br />

to a worthy play and playwright. My fantasy<br />

would be to find the funds that would<br />

allow me to invite <strong>writer</strong>s here, give them<br />

a good enough stipend, so that they can<br />

establish themselves here, make relationships<br />

here with local theaters, and possibly<br />

become interconnected with the actors<br />

and directors of this theater community.”<br />

Meshejian continued to tell me that he<br />

would also like to be able to give local <strong>writer</strong>s<br />

the opportunity and resources to hear<br />

their plays performed by actors. All these<br />

plans require the support of the community<br />

at large. “It’s such a rarity that the<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> people, history, and culture get<br />

such exposure,” Meshejian said. “So this<br />

is a great opportunity for people who are<br />

interested in fueling this exposure to step<br />

up and contribute to PlayPenn.”<br />

Another Man’s Son is a play that tackles<br />

issues of filial duty, tyranny, loyalty,<br />

and love. Its protagonist, Lucine, a brave<br />

young woman, faces and confronts these<br />

issues head on. Semerciyan and I had a<br />

chance to discuss the play over the phone.<br />

As her determined and passionate<br />

voice came through the headset, I started<br />

to sense similarities between Lucine<br />

and her creator. “I studied playwriting at<br />

the University of Michigan,” Semerciyan<br />

said. “I was really taken by playwriting<br />

and knew that I’d always be interested<br />

in it. After my move to the UK, I had to<br />

move away from it, but then returned to<br />

it about four years ago. And I began with<br />

Another Man’s Son.”<br />

She went on to tell me that the knowledge<br />

she accumulated over the years<br />

about playwriting was applied to her play,<br />

which she hopes will one day come to fruition.<br />

“Along the way I wrote other plays,”<br />

she said, referring to Playthings, Filibuster,<br />

and Down the Packhorse. I asked Semerciyan<br />

about how the characters in Another<br />

Man’s Son came about. She explained that<br />

they were fictitious. “But even fictitious<br />

characters have antecedents in life,” she<br />

said. “Lucine is kind of like me, you know.<br />

What if I had been born back then And,<br />

of course, a little bit of imagination.” Semerciyan<br />

added that the father character<br />

was a composite of patriarchs that she<br />

had come across and heard about over<br />

the years. “The factual information about<br />

the father surviving the Genocide – I got<br />

from my grandfather,” she explained.<br />

“But to really bring characters into conflict<br />

the way that they do in my play, it had<br />

to come more from the fictitious realm.”<br />

Originally, Semerciyan had submitted her<br />

play to a contest held by the ADAA, then<br />

she was invited to submit it to PlayPenn.<br />

“I am hoping that hearing it out loud from<br />

start to finish at PlayPenn will give me a<br />

better idea of how it plays and how to better<br />

gauge the dramatic action,” she continued.<br />

“This is a great opportunity to see<br />

how it works.” When asked if there was<br />

a specific theater that she hoped would<br />

produce Another Man’s Son, Semerciyan<br />

simply said, “I would just like it to have a<br />

life after PlayPenn. To be seen!”<br />

The debut public reading of Another<br />

Man’s Son will take place on July 26, at 8<br />

p.m., at the PlayPenn 2008 Conference. f<br />

connect:<br />

playpenn.org<br />

C8 <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008


The voice behind the echo<br />

Ardzagang <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Television continues to<br />

grow strong<br />

by Armina LaManna<br />

NEW MILFORD, N.J. – In last week’s Arts<br />

& Culture section, the <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong><br />

presented the story of a young and multitalented<br />

artist, Haik Kocharian. In that<br />

article Haik talked about the influence<br />

his parents, also artists, had on him. It<br />

is them – Haik’s mother, Karine Kocharian,<br />

in particular – that we shall tell you<br />

about today.<br />

An accomplished actor and a dedicated<br />

journalist, Mrs. Kocharian enjoys<br />

the love and respect of those who surround<br />

her and those who get to see<br />

her and her work weekly on the “Ardzagang”<br />

television program. Co-produced<br />

by Aram Manoukian and Haik<br />

Kocharian, the Brooklyn-based show<br />

offers news and cultural information to<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> communities in the tri-state<br />

area. Cablecast on Brooklyn Community<br />

Access Television, “Ardzagang” is<br />

also broadcast throughout Southern<br />

California.<br />

For those of you who have had<br />

the pleasure of seeing plays at the<br />

Sundukian Theater in Yerevan in the<br />

70s, 80s, and 90s, will undoubtedly already<br />

be familiar with Karine Kocharian<br />

– a woman whose talent, drive, and<br />

love of her people helped her overcome<br />

the difficulties of a homeland in great<br />

flux, and who, together with her husband,<br />

Ara Manoukian, created a muchneeded<br />

bridge between Armenia and its<br />

diaspora.<br />

Mrs. Kocharian is a graduate of the<br />

Yerevan Fine Arts and Theater Institute.<br />

“There is a funny story about how I got<br />

admitted to the program there,” she remembered<br />

fondly. “After the first exam,<br />

I fell and broke my foot. Obviously, I<br />

thought that I wasn’t going to be admitted<br />

since I missed the other exams.<br />

But, shortly thereafter, Vartan Ajemian<br />

sent me word that he would be taking<br />

me into the program.” She then continued<br />

to tell me that at first she went to<br />

university to study something else, but<br />

when her teacher noticed that she was<br />

not into her French exam, “she asked<br />

me why I wasn’t responding to the questions.<br />

I said because I wanted to be in<br />

the theater program. That’s when the<br />

teacher told me to just go to the theater<br />

program,” Kocharian explained.<br />

At the very young age of 19, Karine<br />

married Vladimir Kocharian, a renowned<br />

actor and artist in his own right.<br />

This was a union of love and to this day<br />

she fondly recounts her days with her<br />

husband. The couple later moved to<br />

Leninakan (now Gyumri), where Karine<br />

worked at the State Theater of Gyumri.<br />

“A couple years later, Vartan Ajemian<br />

and then Hratch Ghaplanian invited us<br />

back to Yerevan to the Sundukian Theater.<br />

Being invited to the theater was a<br />

big deal then,” recalled Kocharian. But<br />

tragedy struck in 1989, when Vladimir<br />

suddenly died. “This was a great, great,<br />

great tragedy for me,” she stated.<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008<br />

As we spoke, it was clear to me that<br />

she was greatly fond of the Sundukian<br />

Theater and her years there. After all,<br />

she thought of that theater as her home.<br />

There she appeared in many leading<br />

roles, ranging from Shakespeare to Ostrovsky.<br />

“My life’s meaning has always<br />

been in the theater!” Kocharian said.<br />

“And I feel a great void now that it’s not<br />

part of my life.”<br />

Kocharian then excitedly told me<br />

that later this year she will be back on<br />

stage at the Sundukian Theater, to play<br />

the title role in Brecht’s Mother Courage.<br />

“This is a dream come true for me,” she<br />

commented. To Kocharian, teaching<br />

proved to be another source of much<br />

happiness and joy. “My students at the<br />

Yerevan Fine Arts and Theater Institute<br />

and the Pedagogical Institute gave me<br />

life,” she said. Talking about her teaching<br />

years and her students was a very<br />

nostalgic moment for Kocharian. She<br />

spoke about the guilt she felt for leaving<br />

her students when she resigned<br />

from her teaching post. She said she<br />

even wrote a play about a similar scenario<br />

– only in her play the students<br />

were able to get their teacher to return<br />

to them.<br />

At this point in the conversation, Kocharian<br />

told me about a truly joyous<br />

moment in her life: her reunion with<br />

Ara Manoukian, a fellow actor, in 1994.<br />

Before coming to the States, Manoukian<br />

and Kocharian performed in Europe for<br />

a couple months. They continued acting<br />

in America and even performed for what<br />

was then a small <strong>Armenian</strong> community<br />

in Colorado. Manoukian finished Ghaplanian’s<br />

theater program in Yerevan and<br />

has been seen in many plays and films<br />

in Armenia. “To this day Ara and I still<br />

don’t know what kind of force brought<br />

us together,” Kocharian said. “But what<br />

I can say is that Ara gave me a will to live<br />

again.” Kocharian credited Manoukian<br />

for the fact that she is still around and<br />

that she is still creating. “I had cancer a<br />

few years after we arrived in the States.<br />

We lived through many troubles,” she<br />

recalled.<br />

In the mid 1990s, it was suggested to<br />

them that they begin a television program.<br />

The rest, as they say, is history.<br />

Kocharian and Manoukian went back to<br />

college, got certified as producers, and<br />

began their new careers in the fledgling<br />

world of <strong>Armenian</strong>-American television.<br />

“It was on April 3 of 1996 that our first<br />

program aired,” Kocharian remembered<br />

and proudly stated that “Ardzagang” has<br />

Above: Ara Manoukian<br />

and Karine Kocharian.<br />

Right: Karine<br />

Kocharian. Below:<br />

Kocharian and<br />

Manoukian’s many<br />

characters.<br />

been on for 12 uninterrupted years. “Ara<br />

is in charge of the filming and I write<br />

the texts and programs,” Kocharian explained.<br />

The show covers topics ranging<br />

from culture and education to religion<br />

and politics, and features profiles of and<br />

interviews with cultural leaders, clergy,<br />

and politicians.<br />

“For the past two years I have also<br />

been working for Voice of America,” Kocharian<br />

said. “I prepare programs which<br />

I send to Washington and from there<br />

they get sent to Armenia.”<br />

Karine moved on to talk a bit about<br />

politics and the relationship between<br />

Armenia and the diaspora. “When Armenia<br />

was closed to the diaspora, that<br />

same diaspora cherished <strong>Armenian</strong>s<br />

from their motherland,” she said. “Then,<br />

when Armenia first opened up to the<br />

diaspora, something similar to animosity<br />

ran amongst everyone. Now it is my<br />

opinion that after getting to know each<br />

other better, the diaspora and Armenia<br />

are once again united.”<br />

Kocharian added that it is the specific<br />

mission of “Ardzagang” to better investigate<br />

the differences between <strong>Armenian</strong>s<br />

of various countries of origin, to help<br />

us see each other in a more informed<br />

light, and ultimately strengthen the ties<br />

that bind us. “Healthy criticism is a good<br />

thing,” Kocharian said. “But there are<br />

times and situations when we have to<br />

have a more constructive attitude rather<br />

than a judgmental one.” It is to this<br />

vision that Kocharian and Manoukian<br />

wish “Ardzagang” to ‘contribute.<br />

“‘Ardzagang’ is television for our diaspora<br />

here in and near New York and is<br />

about our diaspora in New York,” Kocharian<br />

said and added, “We cover everybody,<br />

no matter what their political associations,<br />

no matter what their religious<br />

denomination. We treat everyone fairly.”<br />

Since the launch of the program, “not<br />

once have we had a rerun,” Kocharian<br />

continued. “Recently there was a flood<br />

and we lost almost all our equipment. Yet<br />

even then, our programs did not have a<br />

break. After all, ‘Ardzagang’ is like a child<br />

to us!”<br />

f<br />

C9


Program Grid 14 – 20 July<br />

USArmenia is a 24-hour broadcasting station specializing in the full spectrum of HD-quality <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

programming.<br />

Located in Burbank’s famed media district, our headquarters comprise 15,000 square feet of studio<br />

space and production facilities, in addition to 40,000 square feet of offices.<br />

Our programs are broadcast locally on Charter Cable’s Channel 286, and nationwide on Global Satellite<br />

117 and through the Dish Network, to a viewership of over 100,000 households.<br />

Our broadcast lineup consists of original programming produced both locally and in Armenia. It<br />

includes local, national, and international news, news feeds from Armenia four times a day, as well as a<br />

broad range of proprietary talk shows, soap operas, reality shows, documentaries, and feature films.<br />

USArmenia holds exclusive rights to the Hay Film Library, a collection of hundreds of <strong>Armenian</strong>- and<br />

Russian-language movies released since 1937. To date, more than 550 titles in the collection have been<br />

restored and upgraded to HD quality.<br />

USArmenia works in conjunction with the <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong>, an independent English-language weekly<br />

newspaper with a circulation of 35,000 across the United States.<br />

For timely and highest-standard local and national news coverage, USArmenia maintains a mobile HDproduction<br />

unit in Southern California and a reporting team in Washington<br />

EST PST<br />

22:00 1:00<br />

23:00 2:00<br />

23:30 2:30<br />

0:00 3:00<br />

0:30 3:30<br />

1:00 4:00<br />

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19:30 22:30<br />

20:00 23:00<br />

20:30 23:30<br />

21:30 24:30<br />

14 July 15 July 16 July 17 July 18 July 19 July<br />

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner Serial<br />

Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Express<br />

Weekend News<br />

Bernard Show<br />

Cool Program<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Express<br />

YO YO<br />

Weekend News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Bernard Show<br />

Weekend News<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

YO YO<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Cool Program<br />

News<br />

Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Bernard<br />

Show<br />

Bari Luys<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner Serial<br />

Insurance<br />

Forum<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

Bernard Show<br />

Cool Program<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Insurance<br />

Forum<br />

Express<br />

YO YO<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Bernard Show<br />

News<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

YO YO<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Cool Program<br />

News<br />

Insurance<br />

Forum<br />

Bernard<br />

Show<br />

Bari Luys<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

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Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

Bernard Show<br />

Cool Program<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Express<br />

YO YO<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Bernard Show<br />

News<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

YO YO<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Cool Program<br />

News<br />

Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Bernard<br />

Show<br />

Bari Luys<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

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Harevaner Serial<br />

Insurance<br />

Forum<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

Bernard Show<br />

Cool Program<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Insurance<br />

Forum<br />

Express<br />

YO YO<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

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Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

YO YO<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Cool Program<br />

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Insurance<br />

Forum<br />

Bernard<br />

Show<br />

Bari Luys<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner Serial<br />

Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

Bernard Show<br />

Cool Program<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Express<br />

YO YO<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Bernard Show<br />

News<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

YO YO<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner<br />

Serial<br />

Cool Program<br />

News<br />

Discovery<br />

My Big Fat Arm. Wedding<br />

Bernard<br />

Show<br />

Bari Luys<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Unlucky Happiness<br />

Harevaner Serial<br />

Insurance<br />

Forum<br />

Express<br />

News<br />

Bernard Show<br />

TV Duel<br />

Bari Luys<br />

Fathers &<br />

Sons<br />

A Drop of Honey<br />

Armenia Diaspora<br />

Dar<br />

YO YO<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Dancing With The Stars<br />

News<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

Bari Luys<br />

YO YO<br />

Fathers &<br />

Sons<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

TV Duel<br />

Dar<br />

News<br />

Film Story<br />

+<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Movie<br />

The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

News<br />

20 July<br />

Sunday<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

News<br />

Film Story +<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Movie<br />

TV Duel<br />

The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Fathers &<br />

Sons<br />

A Drop of Honey<br />

Armenia Diaspora<br />

Dar<br />

YO YO<br />

News<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

Dancing With The Stars<br />

News<br />

Tele Kitchen<br />

The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

YO YO<br />

Fathers &<br />

Sons<br />

CLONE Serial<br />

TV Duel<br />

Dar<br />

Weekend News<br />

PS Club<br />

Blef<br />

Cool Program<br />

Super Duet<br />

The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Weekend News<br />

Space matters<br />

John Halajian’s<br />

riveting account of<br />

lunar exploration<br />

by K. N. Mouradian<br />

Moon Stories: A Roadmap to Lunar<br />

Exploration and Beyond is the last<br />

book written by John Halajian, a<br />

pioneering engineer and an expert<br />

on <strong>Armenian</strong> architecture died last<br />

year.<br />

As with his previous works<br />

– like 2006’s <strong>Armenian</strong> Church Architecture:<br />

From Dormancy to Revival<br />

– Moon Stories reflects the<br />

author’s expansive knowledge of<br />

multiple aspects in the sciences<br />

and arts. Halajian writes his stories<br />

as a quest to understand the<br />

moon, and pays homage to the unsung<br />

heroes he worked with while<br />

serving as a technical consultant<br />

to NASA during the peak lunar-exploration<br />

years of the 1960s.<br />

Halajian begins with a chronology<br />

of events that led to the photometric<br />

mapping of the moon. The<br />

ensuing narrative is as much a<br />

scientific account as it is a human<br />

story, and unfolds the trials as<br />

well as the excitement and humor<br />

of the uncharted journey. During<br />

the course of the moon stories, the<br />

journey itself becomes the destination,<br />

and the author conveys how<br />

events came together, through either<br />

coincidence or fate.<br />

The book also depicts the means<br />

by which discoveries are made and<br />

transformed into new technologies.<br />

The antithesis of the book may be<br />

initially viewed as the post-lunarlanding<br />

days, and the premature derailing<br />

of many lunar research programs.<br />

But further reading offers an<br />

optimistic view of the reinvention<br />

of ideas, from the mapping of the<br />

moon to that of our own planet.<br />

Specifically, the author’s invention<br />

of the first computer-compatible<br />

digital imaging system to map the<br />

“integral brightness,” polarization,<br />

and color of the moon inevitably<br />

led to the evolution of the digital<br />

camera we use today. As the book<br />

approaches its final chapter, the author<br />

becomes more philosophical,<br />

touching on human origin and destiny.<br />

Moon Stories is a must read for<br />

those with an appreciation of the<br />

sciences and a sense of adventure.<br />

Halajian was the co-inventor<br />

of a version of the digital camera,<br />

which he developed to map the<br />

moon. He is also known as a <strong>writer</strong><br />

of essays on a variety of subjects<br />

including history, science, religion,<br />

architecture, and music. He built<br />

his own house in Long Island, New<br />

York, where he lived until his final<br />

days with his family. During the<br />

latter part of his life, Halajian lost<br />

the use of his arms and legs following<br />

spinal-cord surgery. However,<br />

with the help of an energetic support<br />

team of caregivers, friends,<br />

and family, he was able to channel<br />

his knowledge and creative ideas<br />

into books.<br />

The recent revival of the lunar<br />

exploration program on a global<br />

level is a tribute to the author<br />

and his pioneering peers. Halajian’s<br />

moon stories are an important<br />

link in the continuity of new<br />

lunar discoveries and innovative<br />

technologies.<br />

Technical papers and reports<br />

written by the author on photometric<br />

measurements of simulated<br />

lunar surfaces and other related<br />

lunar topics can be found on the<br />

NASA Technical Reports Server at<br />

ntrs.nasa.gov/.<br />

f<br />

Moon Stories: A Roadmap to Lunar Exploration<br />

and Beyond<br />

By John Halajian. Tate Publishing, 2007.<br />

Available at abrilbooks.com, amazon.com,<br />

and other booksellers.<br />

John Halajian’s last<br />

book, Moon Stories<br />

C10 <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008


Watch Armenia TV on Dish Network. To get a dish and subscribe, call 1-888-284-7116 toll free.<br />

Satellite Broadcast Program Grid<br />

14 – 20 July<br />

14 July 15 July 16 July<br />

Monday Tuesday Wednesday<br />

EST PST<br />

4:30 7:30 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

4:50 7:50 Good<br />

Morning,<strong>Armenian</strong>s<br />

6:10 9:10 PS Club<br />

6:45 9:45 Teleduel<br />

7:30 10:30 Bernard Show<br />

9:00 12:00 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

9:20 12:20 A Drop of<br />

Honey<br />

9:50 12:50 Yo-Yo<br />

10:00 13:00 Neighbours-<br />

Serial<br />

10:45 13:45 Telekitchen<br />

11:05 14:05 Fathers and<br />

Sons<br />

12:00 15:00 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

12:25 15:25 Italian Serial<br />

13:15 16:15 Blitz<br />

13:35 16:35 Hit Music<br />

14:00 17:00 In the World of<br />

Books<br />

14:20 17:20 Chameleon-<br />

Serial<br />

15:00 18:00 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

15:25 18:25 Express<br />

15:45 18:45 Through the<br />

traces of past<br />

16:05 19:05 Cobras and<br />

Lizards-Serial<br />

16:45 19:45 As a wave-<br />

Serial<br />

17:30 20:30 My Big, Fat<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> Wedding<br />

18:00 21:00 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

18:25 21:25 Unhappy<br />

Happiness - Serial<br />

19:05 22:05 The value of<br />

life-Serial<br />

19:45 22:45 Bernard Show<br />

21:00 0:00 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

21:25 0:25 The Making of<br />

a Film<br />

22:00 1:00 The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Film<br />

23:30 2:30 Telekitchen<br />

0:05 3:05 Teleduel<br />

0:50 3:50 Yo-Yo<br />

1:15 4:15 Hit Music<br />

1:40 4:40 Blitz<br />

2:00 5:00 Italian Serial<br />

2:50 5:50 In the World of<br />

Books<br />

3:10 6:10 Chameleon-<br />

Serial<br />

3:55 6:55 Express<br />

EST PST<br />

4:30 7:30 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

4:50 7:50 Good<br />

Morning,<strong>Armenian</strong>s<br />

6:20 9:20 Cobras and<br />

Lizards-Serial<br />

7:00 10:00 My Big, Fat<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> Wedding<br />

7:30 10:30 Bernard Show<br />

9:00 12:00 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

9:20 12:20 The value of<br />

life-Serial<br />

10:00 13:00 Unhappy<br />

Happiness - Serial<br />

10:45 13:45 Telekitchen<br />

11:15 14:15 As a wave-<br />

Serial<br />

12:00 15:00 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

12:25 15:25 Italian Serial<br />

13:15 16:15 Blitz<br />

13:35 16:35 Hit Music<br />

14:00 17:00 <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Diaspora<br />

14:20 17:20 Chameleon-<br />

Serial<br />

15:00 18:00 News in<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong><br />

15:25 18:25 Express<br />

15:45 18:45 The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

film-Bumerang<br />

16:05 19:05 Cobras and<br />

Lizards-Serial<br />

16:45 19:45 As a wave-<br />

Serial<br />

17:30 20:30 My Big, Fat<br />

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Serial<br />

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17 July 18 July 19 July 20 July<br />

Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday<br />

EST PST<br />

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Morning,<strong>Armenian</strong>s<br />

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Serial<br />

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Serial<br />

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Cartoon<br />

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traces of past<br />

EST PST<br />

4:30 7:30 The <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

Film<br />

6:00 9:00 VOA(The Voice<br />

of America)<br />

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Serial<br />

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film/Bumerang<br />

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of America)<br />

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Serial<br />

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23:50 2:50 Exclusive<br />

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2:00 5:00 Discovery<br />

2:30 5:30 Mosfilm<br />

Remembering Harry Barba<br />

by Christopher Atamian<br />

He believed that writing should<br />

instruct and elevate the soul. He<br />

turned out finely crafted, oldfashioned<br />

realist prose. And he<br />

spent much of the latter part of<br />

his life concerned that he and his<br />

writing had already been forgotten<br />

by the general public. Noted<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong>-American <strong>writer</strong> Harry<br />

Barba died on December 4, 2007,<br />

at the age of 85.<br />

A Pulitzer Prize finalist for his<br />

1985 novel Round Trip to Byzantium<br />

and an accomplished shortstory<br />

<strong>writer</strong>, Barba belonged to a<br />

pioneering group that helped pave<br />

the way for succeeding generations<br />

of <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>writer</strong>s in the<br />

United States. Barba tackled issues<br />

of ethnicity and assimilation, perhaps<br />

in a more indirect but no less<br />

important manner than his more<br />

famous contemporaries William<br />

Saroyan and Marjorie Dobkin.<br />

Barba belonged to a generation<br />

of <strong>Armenian</strong>-American <strong>writer</strong>s<br />

who often lived their ethnic identities<br />

half-in, half-out, and who,<br />

for whatever reasons, occulted<br />

their own and their characters’ <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

roots. Another successful<br />

Barba novel, For the Grape Season<br />

(1960), introduces readers to a<br />

group of seasonal grape pickers<br />

who move to a remote Vermont<br />

valley and are never explicitly identified<br />

as <strong>Armenian</strong>. Rather, we are<br />

led to believe that they are Tatar<br />

or Iranian, or simply from some<br />

nebulous genetic starting point in<br />

the Caucasus.<br />

Barba belonged to a<br />

pioneering group that<br />

helped pave the way for<br />

succeeding generations<br />

of <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>writer</strong>s in<br />

the United States.<br />

In Round Trip to Byzantium, an<br />

American Fulbright professor<br />

travels to Syria to teach English<br />

literature. At one point, a female<br />

student is dismissed by her Arab<br />

classmates as “an <strong>Armenian</strong>.” Later<br />

on, the main erotic interest in the<br />

book is a mixed Armeno-Byzantine<br />

Lolita character who could have<br />

walked straight out of a Middle<br />

Easternized version of Nabokov’s<br />

imagination. Once again, however,<br />

a Barba protagonist, in this case<br />

the professor, is never identified<br />

as <strong>Armenian</strong>, although he is obviously<br />

based on the author himself.<br />

And in the racy short story “Love<br />

in the Persian Way,” the over<strong>sex</strong>ed<br />

teenage protagonist, who makes<br />

a favorite pastime out of bedding<br />

every female in his household, also<br />

has an indeterminate ethnic identity.<br />

The orientalized, the exoticized,<br />

the repressed Other: all these<br />

things haunt Barba’s prose like<br />

ghosts from an ethnic past, clawing<br />

at the edge of page and story,<br />

waiting to come out of hiding and<br />

declare themselves for who they really<br />

are. But Barba – who was born<br />

Nahabed O’Hanessian – is relevant<br />

to the general public as well. His<br />

insistence on “socially functional<br />

writing,” which posits that literature<br />

has both a redemptive and a<br />

moral value, is certainly a powerful<br />

if somewhat out-of-vogue viewpoint<br />

these days. And some of his<br />

short stories, such as “The Man<br />

Who Didn’t Want to Box Muhammad<br />

Ali” and “The Plum Tree Plunderers,”<br />

are simply outstanding.<br />

It’s good to be<br />

reminded of literature’s<br />

redemptive powers.<br />

It’s good, as well, to<br />

read well-crafted and<br />

sometimes salacious<br />

prose.<br />

In the end, it’s good to be reminded<br />

of literature’s redemptive<br />

powers. It’s good, as well, to read<br />

well-crafted and sometimes salacious<br />

prose. Finally, it’s good that<br />

we have had people like Barba, for<br />

whom writing and teaching, along<br />

with family life, represent a raison<br />

d’être unto themselves. Thanks in<br />

part to Barba and his generation,<br />

those ghosts from the <strong>Armenian</strong><br />

past have finally made their way<br />

onto the page in bold letters, jinns<br />

sprung from the bottle, never to<br />

return.<br />

f<br />

<strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008<br />

C11


C12 <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> Arts & Culture July 12, 2008

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