Western U.S. edition - Armenian Reporter

Mark Arax will
change the way
you see California
Mark Arax.
LOS ANGELES – Award-winning
author and journalist Mark
Arax, a former senior writer at
the Los Angeles Times, will be
hosted by the agbu Young Professionals
of Los Angeles for a
book talk on June 3.
Arax’s new book, West of the
West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders,
and Killers in the Golden
State, gives California readers a
fresh perspective on their adopted
home state. The world’s
perception of the states - a place
of earthquakes, fires, celebrities,
and good weather - takes a
back seat to the reality of Arax’s
descriptions of the grape fields
and the marijuana fields and all
who contributed to the evolution
of the nation’s richest and
most mystifying state.
This rare opportunity to meet
the author and discover how
Arax wove these unique Californian
tales together in West of the
West will be taking place on at
Vertical Wine Bistro, 70 N. Raymond,
Pasadena, Calif. Copies of
the book can be reserved, with a
10% discount, by e-mailing agbu.
ypla@gmail.com.
Al Pacino to play Jack
Kevorkian on hbo
Al Pacino will star in an hbo
made-for-cable movie about
right-to-die champion Dr. Jack
Kevorkian, Variety reported on
May 26. The pic will be directed
by Barry Levinson.
The movie will revolve around
Dr. Kevorkian’s construction of
his “Mercy Machine,” his first
assisted suicide in the early
1990s, and the resulting media
frenzy.
Dr. Kevorkian was convicted
of second-degree murder in
1999 as a result of his involvement
in an assisted suicide
that was videotaped and later
shown on TV. He was released
from prison in 2007.
The movie is based on a
manuscript for a book about
Dr. Kevorkian, “Between the
Dying and the Dead,” written
by Harry Wylie and Neal
Nicol, longtime friends and
associates of Dr. Kevorkian’s.
According to Variety, it is
not yet known whether Dr.
Kevorkian himself will be involved
in the production of
the movie.
Al Pacino.
Mr. Jones also just completed
work on a feature-length
domentary on Dr. Kevorkian’s
unsuccessful bid for the U.S.
House of Representatives last
year. He was running against
Joe Knollenberg, a passionate
advocate of Armenian-American
interests who at the time
was co-chair of the Armenian
Caucus in the House.
14 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture | May 30, 2009