Anita Vogel: Network correspondent - Armenian Reporter
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armenian
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July 19, 2008
July 19, 2008
reporter arts
Anita Vogel:
Network correspondent
ALMA and
ATP announce
exhibition
Page C3
Anne Bedian:
inspiring on
and off the
screen
Page C9
A reporter of
truth, an advocate
of justice
Page C8
See page C6
Siren’s Feast, or on the road with Nancy Mehagian
Siren’s Feast: An Edible
Odyssey by Nancy
Mehagian. Cielo Press,
2008, 340 pp.
reviewed by Shushan Avagyan
Siren’s Feast: An Edible Odyssey is a fascinating
autobiography, often described as
a culinary memoir, by Nancy Mehagian,
who has been involved with food and
healing since 1969, when she opened the
first vegetarian restaurant on the Spanish
island of Ibiza.
Set primarily against the backdrop of
the 1960s and early 1970s, and highly
reminiscent of Jack Kerouac’s famous
novel about spontaneous road trips
across America, Siren’s Feast weaves
stories of Mehagian’s spiritual journey
Shushan Avagyan is a doctoral student in English
and comparative literature at Illinois State University.
She has translated a volume of poetry by
Shushanik Kurghinian and a book on plot by Viktor
Shklovsky.
by Betty
Panossian-
Ter
Sarkissian
YEREVAN – For decades, the bronze
statue of Gara-bala had been a fixture
on Abovian Street in Yerevan, close to
Republic Square. It has now been temporarily
moved to the opposite sidewalk because
of construction work being carried
out on Northern Avenue, in the heart of
the capital. Old Gara-bala is a favorite
with locals and also with tourists, who
stop by to take photos next to the twometer-high
figure.
The statue of the old flower seller is
the work of Levon Tokmajyan. It was
erected in 1959. With his ragged clothes
and shabby appearance, Gara-bala somehow
captures the attention of passersby.
This affection is largely induced by
oral accounts of his life story and a folk
song that has made a legend out of this
scruffy old man.
According to the folk tale, Gara-bala
was a wealthy denizen of Yerevan at the
threshold of the 20th century, then a
grimy town with mud houses scattered
along Astafian Street (now Abovian
Street), its main thoroughfare. The leg-
Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture
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from the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, to
the most remote outposts of the world,
with over 40 delicious recipes, including
those from her Armenian mother’s
kitchen.
The book opens with the most amusing
lines, “Don’t you dare have that baby
today, Florence, and ruin our dinner,” as
the family matriarch issues instructions
to Nancy’s mother on Christmas Day.
Shortly after Nancy’s parents return
home from the family dinner, Florence
goes into labor, giving birth to a daughter,
who “having been made to wait developed
a certain impulsiveness.”
By 14, Nancy starts sneaking out from
home to hang out at the ballrooms in
South Phoenix, where Ray Charles and
James Brown performed. Later, in 1966,
when she transfers to the University of
Southern California, she persuades her
parents to send her to Italy to study at
the University of Florence for a semester.
By this time, she has already read
Dante and Pirandello in the originals,
smoked marijuana, and dropped acid
with a group of friends.
In January 1968 Nancy flies to Lisbon,
from where her incessant travels begin.
end says that Gara-bala once had his own
grand house on Astafian, a large family,
and a prosperous life. Good-hearted and
generous, he ended up losing all of his
wealth as he was in the habit of giving
money away to whomever asked for his
help. Gara-bala then became senile and
spent the rest of his days walking up
and down Abovian Street, handing out
flowers from his basket.
Today people celebrate Gara-bala as
a good-hearted person, a respected old
man with a hint of a philosophical approach
to life.
The folk song reinforces this story
with the words:
Gara-bala, Gara-bala,
You old flower seller,
The sweet smell of your flowers
Cannot be possessed by any other flower.
Gara-bala, Gara-bala,
You old flower seller,
The folks of Yerevan have not
In the slightest forgotten your flowers.
However, another version of Garabala’s
long-forgotten true identity persists
in the oral histories transmitted by
his contemporaries. He is remembered
as a ragged, skinny old drunkard, a tall,
skeletal figure, withered by alcohol, donning
a worn-out frock that wrapped his
body with its dusty color. His face was
black – either because of exposure to
the sun, since he spent his days walking
up and down the streets, or due to
the dirt that masked his face. His grizzly
hair and beard had not been combed for
She hitchhikes through Spain, boards a
ferry to Tangier, and, instead of going to
Italy, decides to stay in Morocco, where
she meets her first love, a Spaniard
named Alejandro. Her parents manage
to coax her to come back to Phoenix for
a short period. Here Nancy meets Taj
Mahal, who later comes to visit her in
Ibiza.
The sun-drenched island of Ibiza, like
a magnet attracting colonies of American
and European hippies, artists, and
musicians, soon becomes Nancy’s second
home, where she opens a vegetarian
restaurant called Double Duck, welcoming
everyone from her multifarious
“Ibiza family” of expatriates. But the
road keeps calling her, and after staying
in Ibiza for a year, Nancy sets out
for Kathmandu and from there to New
Delhi, where she meets up with friends
from Ibiza.
The next voyage takes Nancy to Beirut,
from where, after a series of dangerous
affairs, she ends up in Syria
with a troupe of cabaret dancers. In her
typically impulsive way, Nancy falls in
love with a Bedouin fiddler and at 24
becomes pregnant with his child. Un-
Who was Gara-bala, the old flower seller?
Gara-bala’s statue in Yerevan.Photos: Photolure. The original Gara-bala.
years and had turned into an indescribable
color in shades of black and gray.
Blackness was all around him and that
is why he was called Gara-bala, meaning
black boy.
The real-life Gara-bala liked to walk
up and down Abovian, a basket of
flowers dangling from his arm, his
head lost under the effects of alcohol,
not aware of where he was coming
from or where he was going to.
He liked visiting the pubs one by one
– not to meet people and chat, but to
get his daily alcohol fix. He used to
pass from one table to the other, and,
whenever he saw a beautiful woman,
he mumbled some words and handed
On page C1: Anita Vogel is a Los Angeles–based correspondent for Fox News.
Although she believes in luck and stars and planets aligning, her success is
due to her talent, courage, and persistence. Behind the delicate exterior lies a
feisty spirit. See story on page C6.
fortunately this moment of joy is shortlived
as Nancy gets herself in serious
trouble and ends up in the infamous
London prison. After a 16-month incarceration
and giving birth to a lovely
daughter named Vedra, Nancy’s journey
comes full circle when she returns
home and finds her true purpose and
meaningful work through Mary Burmeister,
an enigmatic teacher of the
ancient Japanese healing art of jin shin
jyutsu.
Mehagian begins each chapter with an
epigraph from various adored authors
and poets such as James Baldwin, Cervantes,
William Blake, Edna St. Vincent
Millay, Oscar Wilde, Zora Neale Hurston,
and many others. And to offer
food for thought, literally, the book’s 36
chapters are interspersed with most delectable
recipes from all over the globe
– as Quincy Jones puts it, “I don’t know
whether to eat this book, smoke it, or
make love to it.”
Siren’s Feast is full of vitality as well as
profundity, resonating with meditations
and memoirs that grip you with sensual
impressions and storytelling that’s captivating,
engaging, and fresh. f
her a flower.
As a rule, Gara-bala was treated to a
glass of wine, which he swigged in one
gulp then approached the next table,
where he would be an object of entertainment
to the wealthy young boys.
So, moving from one table to the next,
wandering from one inn to the other,
Gara-bala passed his days. As evening
approached, he shuffled in his worn out
shoes towards Kond, in the peripheries
of what is now the Central District
of Yerevan, to spend the night in his
hole. Come morning, he would reprise
his routine.
It is not clear how the shabby old drunkard
portrayed by his contemporaries has
been transformed into the philanthropist
whose life in his old age had a twist of
tragedy. Whoever he may have been, the
endearing figure of Gara-bala’s statue will
continue to be a beloved landmark, giving
Abovian Street its own cultural flavor. f
C2 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008
Soundtrack of your life
Gor Mkhitarian, United
Fantasies: Exit Ahead
(PE-KO World Music and
GorMusic, 2008)
reviewed by James R. Russell
The new album by Gor Mkhitarian, a musician
and poet from Kirovakan/Vanadzor,
Armenia, has 12 tracks in Armenian
with one remix of “Dream” (“Yeraz”), a
song from a previous album.
Gor’s early records deal with life
in Armenia. After recent forays into
English-language lyrics and an appeal
to the mainstream of the U.S. market,
Gor returned in his last album, Acoustic
Folklore, to the Armenian language and
themes. The heroic ballad of the region
south of Van, Mokats Mirza, recorded
by Komitas Vardapet, receives an exciting,
ingenious new interpretation on
that record, as does the ancient folk
song of the Bingöl region northwest of
Van, Tehkonda. The latter, titled after
its first line, “Inchu Bingyole Mtar,” can
be enjoyed also as an animated video
clip on Gor’s site and on YouTube. These
modern arrangements are an important
contribution to the world music genre
and are a welcome phenomenon on the
Armenian musical scene as well.
All the songs on United Fantasies are
in Armenian, and the booklet in the CD
case contains full texts with English
translations. The artists are new. Though
one misses the virtuoso banjo picking of
Aaron Stayman from the old band, the
all-new ensemble, from the electronics
and percussion to the keyboard (especially
on “Last Letter”), are excellent.
The focus of the album – when not
on personal issues – is not so much
WATERTOWN, Mass. – The Armenian
Library and Museum of America
(ALMA) and the Armenia Tree Project
(ATP) have been collaborating on “A
Photographic Journey of Armenia’s
Natural Treasures,” a juried environmental
exhibit that aims to bring attention
to Armenia’s ecological heritage
and evolving environment.
This past spring the two organizations
hosted an open call for
submissions that attracted more
than 600 submissions from photographers
throughout the world.
Following the judging process, the
submissions were narrowed down
and 35 winners were chosen. According
to ALMA, the selected exhibitors’
photographs range from
landscape and nature shots to ones
that illustrate Armenia’s biodiversity
and environmental challenges.
on Armenia proper as on the Armenian
life of the diaspora. So there is a
dark piece on being ground down and
alone in New York; another, in an appropriate
reggae beat, deals with the
racist harassment Armenians and
other Caucasians and Central Asians
suffer in Russian cities (“Moscow”).
Many families in Armenia survive on
remittances from abroad, and most
of those workers who send money to
their loved ones are in the Russian
Federation. In recent years, one sees
more and more often pairs of cops at
metro stations stopping and hassling
anyone who looks a shade darker than
the Slavic norm. The skinheads paint
swastikas and slogans like “Bei Khachei,
spasai Rossiyu” (Kill the Khachiks and
save Russia). This is a modification of
the pogromist motto of Tsarist days,
when the intended victim was not the
generic “chornozhopaya gnida” (a derogatory
term for dark-skinned persons)
from the southern and eastern lands,
but the “Zhid” (an epithet meaning
“Jew”). It’s not just harassment: an Armenian
teenager was knifed to death
at Pushkinskaya station in Moscow
– the equivalent of, say, Park Street on
the Boston T – and on the outskirts of
St. Petersburg, not far from where I often
stay, a 14-year-old Tajik schoolgirl
was murdered.
On his website, Gor lists multiple inspirations
and influences, including Narekatsi,
Charents, Edgar Allan Poe, Bob
Dylan, Elliott Smith, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, and God. Though the
list is long, the artists cited tend to folk
rock and the bardic mode, more acrossthe-Channel
European chanteur than
U.S./U.K. kick-ass. Which is all right, so
one hears in songs like “Good Morning
Defeat” and “Song Unvisited” (yes,
they’re mostly downers) a little of the
The winning photographs will be
featured in “A Photographic Journey
of Armenia’s Natural Treasures”
beginning September 11,
2008. The exhibit will be displayed
guitar artistry of Phil Ochs and a little of
the Slavic folk beat of Russian bands like
Chizh – compare their rendition of the
loud Cossack desperado anthem, “Vot
pulya prosvistela” (“The bullet whistled
by and hit me in the side”), a live performance
of which can be enjoyed on
YouTube.
The hauntingly beautiful song “Walk
with me” (“Kaylir Indz Het”) begins,
“Kaylir indz het, hents hima, hima yev
vaghe, vaghe yev misht” (Walk with me
right now / Now and tomorrow / Tomorrow
and forever), and is followed by two
wordless beats to which I instantly sang
A-men! on first hearing (and second and
third, as you may verify if you see an aging
Armenologist bopping down Mass.
Ave., oblivious to everything but his
iPod and other people’s motorcycles). It
is a love song, as any Psalm, any prayer
must eventually be. In my translation:
Walk with me right now,
Now and tomorrow,
Tomorrow and forever.
Turn mine own until
The knock of Sir Death at my door.
At daybreak I will say to you
How till now it was for you I’d been
waiting –
And when that mocking shade,
That trickster, happiness,
Comes paying us a visit in the Spring,
Gladly we’ll fall for his trap.
Be one with me, to the north we’ll flee:
It’s always cool, nothing wicked there.
And in my house of clay we’ll be,
And have done with cheapened words.
At the break of day smile at me
And I shall know that you are near me,
That you are with me still.
If you are out of the habit of praying,
this is a good way to start back in, in
modern Eastern Armenian, perhaps be-
in ALMA’s Contemporary Art Gallery
through October 9, 2008.
Founded in 1971, ALMA is one of
the world’s largest repositories of
Armenian books and artifacts, in-
fore attempting the Book of Lamentation
of St. Grigor Narekatsi in grabar. Another
song, “Hallucinogen,” evokes that
different sort of synesthetic experience
of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” my
learned Harvard colleague Dr. Timothy
Leary considered religious as well:
The notes of this song have a scent;
Its melody, a taste in the vortex
Where my music mixes:
Ringing telephone, you are blue
To my sight once again,
Visible as the wind stands still
And flashes me a smile.
Paradise unknown, chromatic hell:
Slowly did I visit the blink of an eye, a
century –
Transparent cage, there’s no way out.
You can’t return back down
Those everlasting, multicolored hours.
There’s nothing to lean on
And never was.
Insubstantial clouds the shape of parachutes
Enfolding convey me above
To a place beyond pain and astonishment:
Impatiently I looked on
And in spectral lightness
Palpated the nerves on my skull
That had burst into flame.
One recalls the reveries of Yeghishe
Charents, in which time stands still.
And all of this is rock and roll the way it
should be, full of poetry and the depth
of the long tradition, as passionate and
despairing as King Lear’s cry, music that
you want to become the soundtrack of
your life. f
connect:
gormusic.com
ALMA and ATP announce exhibit of photo
contest winners
“Summer Time” by Hrair Khatcherian.
cluding heirlooms. ALMA has grown
into a major center for Armenian
studies and the preservation of the
Armenian heritage. The Armenian
Museum of America, a subdivision
of ALMA, organizes various exhibits
as well as lectures and presentations.
Established in 1994, ATP, a nonprofit
organization based in Watertown
and Yerevan, has conducted
numerous environmental projects
in Armenia’s impoverished and deforested
zones. ATP works on three
major program initiatives: planting
trees at urban and rural sites; environmental
education and advocacy;
and community socio-economic development
and poverty reduction. f
connect:
almainc.org
armeniatree.org
Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008 C3
A powerful mind recreates the lives of two
powerful icons through film
Nouritza Matossian on
Gorky and Dink
by Adrineh
Gregorian
When you stand in front of the painting
“One Year the Milkweed” (1944), you can’t
help but become completely enraptured
in its rage and lyricism. To think that
once Arshile Gorky stood at the same distance
from this same painting. What was
he thinking, you may ask? What was he
feeling? What compelled him to push the
boundaries on this canvas and become a
powerhouse of modern American art?
One can’t help ponder these questions.
Arshile Gorky. Genocide survivor. Artist.
Tortured mind.
Anyone who has heard the story of
the Armenian Genocide can understand.
Anyone who is Armenian can
relate. Here is a man whose thoughts
were plagued by tragedy – whose talent
turned him into a master artist. Here is
a man who told the story of Armenians
with each stroke of his paintbrush.
Sixteen-year-old Nouritza Matossian
understood the power of a Gorky the
first time she saw one of his paintings
at the Tate Gallery. Much like the thousands
of patrons who currently pass
through the halls of Washington, D.C.’s
National Gallery, which houses the famous
“The Artist and His Mother,” Nouritza
felt the rapture as well as the macabre
undertones in Gorky’s poignant
paintings, without knowing he was
Armenian. There is more to this story,
Nouritza thought, and set out to find
the astonishing truth.
Gorky’s paintings are defined by ambiguity.
They speak of jewel color and
capriciousness, and to the untrained eye
they may even be defined as playful. But
those who know his story would see the
taut whiplash line of Armenian sculptors
and miniaturists behind the kaleidoscope
of color – you would feel both
the ecstatic joy of a strong temperament
and the grief that resided deep inside
the artist, one who has experienced the
pain of genocide first-hand.
Nouritza has dedicated much of her
career to revealing the history of Gorky.
With her book, Black Angel: A Life of Arshile
Gorky, she has provided a glimpse
into the artist’s mind and soul. With her
one-woman show, she has reincarnated
the four women who were the most influential
in his life: the mother, the sister,
the sweetheart, and the wife. Nouritza’s
story, along with Gorky’s, was played
out on the big screen via the character of
Ani in Atom Egoyan’s Ararat. In a sense,
through Gorky, Nouritza has realized
the artist within her soul.
A portrait, “My Sister Akabi,” National Gallery of Art, Washington. Abstraction.
Nouritza as Shushanig, a photo from Nouritza’s one-woman show.
A chronicle of Hrant Dink’s
last years
Later in life, Nouritza met another great
Armenian figure, the late Hrant Dink.
They met in 2003, when Nouritza was
lecturing in Turkey. Like two illuminated
spirits, they hit it off immediately. “He
was an extraordinarily open, democratic,
cool guy. He was very clued up,” she says.
Nouritza knew that Dink’s passion,
perseverance, and kinetic energy needed
to be turned into a film. And so she
turned on her video camera and began
the private interview. “I was using my
camera as a diary,” she says. “I just want-
Nouritza Matossian’s book, Black Angel.
ed to capture every word he said and see
what he said… I just felt that there was
something very precious, very valuable.
They were my notes for the film.”
Dink and Nouritza met a handful of
times throughout a period of four years.
Though Dink suspected his life was
threatened, he courageously persisted in
his cause. After his assassination in January
2007, Nouritza transformed their
informal conversations into a 14-minute
documentary that was shown as a tribute
after 40 days from his death. “I just wanted
to give him back to his family, if I possibly
can, the people who loved him, and
those who never knew him,” she says.
Recently Nouritza extended the short
film into a feature documentary, Heart
of Two Nations: Hrant Dink, which premieres
at the 2008 Golden Apricot Film
Festival in Yerevan this month.
Through the film, the viewer gets a real
sense of the true nature of Dink. The
C4 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008
Cover of Portraits of Hope.
footage is raw and uncontrived, as it was
never meant to be used in the final film
– Nouritza decided to use the footage
she had, “Like guerrilla filmmaking, just
to show people who he was and what
kind of man he was,” she says. “And to
make him more present to them rather
then have people talk about him.”
Nouritza’s film is arguably the most
intimate portrait of Dink. “Because he’s
just really talking to a friend with a tiny
camera, nobody else in the room, and
he’s pouring his heart out,” she says.
“Especially in the last interview, which
is after he was sentenced to prison and
started getting death threats.”
At the end of the film, Dink actually
talks about his own death. Nouritza recalls
him saying, “If I go, I’m not going
to leave quietly like the others went
before me. When I go, this country will
shake to its foundations.”
“I am very excited by the invitation
to Armenia to show my film on Hrant
Dink,” says Nouritza. “Also to visit the
Cafesjian Center for the Arts, a new
cultural center for Armenia. They will
be having a Gorky exhibit in September-
October and asked to screen a film of my
one-woman show. The center is going to
be a huge encouragement for the many
fantastic artists in Armenia, as well as
a boost for the general public. I believe
Mr. Cafesjian is providing Armenia with
a power station for modern art.”
A new documentary on Gorky
Currently Nouritza is working on The Art
of Arshile Gorky: A Survivor’s Passion, a
documentary being produced in partnership
with The Tate Modern. “I want to tell
the story of his life through his paintings
because his paintings are autobiographical,”
says Nouritza. “When I wrote the
book, I saw the film in my head.”
She is also working closely with Michael
Taylor, the curator of the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, to premiere a retrospective
of Gorky’s career. In addition,
Taylor has invited Nouritza to perform
her one-woman show in Philadelphia at
the time the exhibition opens there, in
fall 2009. Subsequently the exhibition
and one-woman show will be presented
at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary
Art, in early 2010, followed by a
turn at the Tate Gallery in London.
“I have to say that ever since I’ve been
obsessed with Gorky, I’ve always wanted
to make a film about him,” Nouritza says.
“We are making a film which will tell the
amazing story of his life. It is a classic
The Liver is the Cockscomb, Allbright-Knox, Buffalo Gallery
immigrant story of an obscure refugee
who becomes a great American icon.”
Now people have accepted the fact that
Gorky was Armenian. But when Nouritza
first started her research over 30
years ago, Gorky was generally thought
to be Georgian or Russian. “[At the time]
I did all the research and found out his
Armenian background, there was a great
deal of Gorky’s background, of his life,
that wasn’t known – [for instance,] the
fact that he was involved in the defense
of Van (which is something his sister
told me). The more I studied him, the
more I realized how deeply he was traumatized,”
Nouritza says.
Nouritza’s research unfolds the reasons
that Gorky had to change his name
from Manoug Adoian and put his Armenian
past behind him. Like most immigrants
at the time, he rapidly transformed
his identity so as not to be stigmatized
as “a starving Armenian.”
“This is one of the greatest stories of
any great artist,” says Nouritza. Gorky
survived the Genocide, lived through
World War I and II, and still managed to
become one of America’s greatest modern
painters, whose paintings hang side
by side with Picasso’s, Warhol’s, Liechtenstein’s,
and Pollack’s in every major
museum across the globe.
“There has never been a modern artist
with a history like Gorky’s,” Nouritza
says. “He overcame his trauma to paint
these extraordinarily beautiful, extremely
modern, cutting-edge works. He was
the person pulling the New York artists
into the future. [He was] helping to push
forward this movement of abstract expressionism,
which allowed him to express
his deepest feelings, memories.”
“A lot of his work is based on the colors
and forms of illuminated manuscripts,
which he saw as a young boy,” she adds.
“The colors of the Van region, the church
of Akhtamar – all of that is Gorky’s
background, that’s the soil from which
he sprang, that’s what I want to show.
His lost paradise!”
“I would love to film Armenia and to
show how his paintings relate to this ancient
culture that he came from,” Nou-
Hrant Dink. Photo: Murat Turemis. A self portrait sketch by Gorky
Nouritza Matossian and Hrant Dink at a press conference in London.
ritza continues. “I want to put the two
halves of Gorky together again.”
Like a secret earthquake, Gorky’s
paintings are imperiled by the theme
of abandonment brought on by genocide.
Abandonment also motivated his
suicide. Today, the Armenian Genocide
is as relevant as it was in 1915. There
are ethnic groups around the world that
face the same risk as the Armenians did
a century ago. People are being ripped
away from their homelands. The feeling
of not belonging persists. How do they
deal with it? Gorky dealt with it through
his paintings. He redeemed himself
through art. In the process, he created
a new way of painting, which he then
passed on to future artists.
“I just want to give him back to the Armenians,
for all the world to understand
him, because he’s one of the greatest artists
of all time,” Nouritza says. f
Black Angel: A Life of Arshile Gorky by
Nouritza Matossian (New York: Overlook
Press, 2000).
connect:
arshile-gorky.com
nouritza.com
gaiff.am
Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008 C5
Anita Vogel: Network correspondent
by Jo Nelsen
“I’m five feet from Bill Clinton. He’s either
going to brush by me or take my question,”
Anita Vogel describes the scene.
She’s on location in a noisy Vegas casino
where Mr. Clinton made a surprise visit.
She’s been warned he’s not taking questions,
and security pushes her away. “It
can be intimidating,” she admits. But the
petite Ms. Vogel elbows her way forward.
“What are they going to do, arrest me?”
she wonders. “I just felt intuitively that
Bill Clinton was not going to walk by a
live microphone.”
It was pandemonium, hordes swarming
around him. Fans shouted slogans
and waved political signs. Vogel circled
patiently, updating the anchor at the station,
cheerfully assessing her position.
Suddenly, when the timing was right,
she made her move, thrusting her arm
into the center of the crowd. The former
president turned. Eye contact. She had
him. Every question was addressed. He
commented on the caucus sites, possible
voter suppression, and the unfair advantage
given some. “Everyone should
have equal access,” he concluded.
Vogel tells me, “I don’t know whether
I’ll ever encounter as exciting an interview.
My Blackberry was exploding for
ten minutes afterwards!”
She ascribes her success to luck – stars
and planets aligning, talented anchors,
photographers, producers, and experts
in the control room. “It was a team effort,”
she says. “I just kept my eye on the
goal, as any good reporter would do.”
Vogel is quick to credit others, but I
watched the interplay, and believe me,
her success is due, in no small part, to
her own talent, courage, and persistence.
Behind the delicate exterior lies a feisty
spirit with the unwavering desire to get
to the truth. It’s not luck, but hard work
that has earned Anita Vogel the coveted
position she has held for the past six
and a half years: Los Angeles-based correspondent
for Fox News.
The glamour and grind
If you’ve ever thought the job of reporting
might be cushy, here’s the scoop.
Vogel’s out of bed at 5:10 and at the office
by 7. To catch up on the news she
reads 15 online newspapers – all before
an 8:30 meeting with co-workers in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle via
conference call. Then she pitches a story
to the bureau chief, and collaborates with
a producer to write it. Vogel mentioned
there’s support available from a research
database she called “the brain room,” and
while this assistance sounds appealing,
we know whose intelligence puts it all
together. Extreme versatility is required,
with stories ranging from American Idol
to America’s homeless, but by 4 o’clock
the story is ready for airing.
If there’s breaking news, Vogel is sent
out on assignment. Three packed suitcases
are always ready in the back of her
car: one with professional suits, another
with fire attire, and a third full of rain
gear for hurricane stories.
“Katrina was rough,” Vogel recalls
thoughtfully. “Conditions were the
worst I’d ever seen, and it’s the story
that’s made the biggest impact on me. I
just couldn’t believe it was happening in
the United States.”
The making of a reporter
From the start, Vogel has known exactly
what she wanted to do. Watching local
news on television at age 5 or 6, she remembers
thinking: “That is so cool. It’s
what I want to do. I could be good at
that.”
The University of Southern California
wasn’t a school she could afford, but it
was where she wanted to go (UCLA had
no journalism program at the time.) So,
she explained, she went ahead and got
a few scholarships, her mother helped
as much as she could, and she took out
student loans, confident she’d be able
to pay them back. Vogel graduated from
Anita reporting from the red carpet at the Grammy Awards.
USC in the late 1980s, with a bachelor of
arts degree in broadcast journalism and
political science, and finished paying off
student loans two months ago.
Left: Anita on the
job. Below: Anita on
the set at the Fox
Studios in New York.
Below left: Anita
on the job covering
the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina in
New Orleans.
The professional journey
Out of college, at 23, she worked at ABC
News in Washington as a desk assistant
for This Week with David Brinkley – a
C6 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008
Anita and Carrie Underwood. Anita with her political science professor from USC, Dr Richard Dekmejian, photographed at the
Debutante Ball.
Anita at the Grammy Awards.
pretty good gig for starting out, and she
could have stayed and worked her way
up to becoming a producer. But Vogel
knew she wanted to be a reporter. For
that, she needed to find a job in a small
town. So she began sending out resume
tapes – hundreds of them, probably 500,
she said. She was mostly ignored, seldom
even received rejection letters, but she
kept the faith.
“I figured that one day someone
would call.” And one day someone did.
It was Erie, Pennsylvania. She was ecstatic:
“Yes, of course I’ll come for an
interview,” she said and hung up before
realizing she had no idea where
Erie, Pennsylvania was. She found
it on a map and spent the next two
years there. It was advertised as a parttime
position, and she was prepared
to waitress to supplement her income.
Upon arrival, it had become a full-time
job, and that made her doubly determined:
“I am getting this job,” she said
to herself. “It’s meant to be!” And so it
was. “Of course you never know when
you start if you can do it,” she admits.
But within the first few weeks she was
confident it was a challenge she could
handle.
Next, it was three years at a station
in Jackson, Florida. Off she went
from snow and cold to humidity and
Anita on the job covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
heat. Weather shock! And after that,
it was back to her beloved California.
She worked at KCRA-TV (NBC) in Sacramento,
where she covered the State
Legislature and the Governor’s Office.
“It was a great experience, and the people
were wonderful,” she says. Actually,
Vogel gave that same glowing assessment
to every single job she told me
about. The law of attraction at work
perhaps.
When she wanted to come back to
Los Angeles, Fox News had an opening.
Again, Vogel claims the stars and planets
aligned, and she was hired. “People
enjoy working there and it shows,” she
says. “It’s the best place to work. A
perfect job for me. I get to live in L.A.,
where I grew up, and report on networklevel
stories. I am lucky and blessed to
work there!”
Raised Armenian
Vogel’s mother, Mary, was born in New
York and has a New York accent, but her
Armenian grandmother lived with them
while Vogel was growing up in California.
There was no possibility of sneaking
home late or disobeying rules, Vogel says
with a grin. “I was raised Armenian!”
Vogel’s father, Sol, of East European
descent, passed away when she was 11
months old. Her mother’s family had es-
caped from the small village of Evereg,
Turkey, her grandmother’s father vowing:
“We’re not going to let them kill us.”
They plotted to give the impression of
converting to the Muslim religion. Vogel
emphasizes how difficult that would
have been for Armenians, the first nation
to officially accept Christianity, but
it saved them. Her grandmother’s brother
came to America in the early 1920s;
her grandmother and sister waited in
Cuba for citizenship.
Vogel’s mother wanted to raise her
and her brother, Mark, in California.
She had visited once and fallen in love
with it, so when Vogel was two years old,
the family moved from New York to Tarzana,
where she still makes her home.
“My mother is the guiding force of my
life,” Vogel says. “She worked as a banker,
an executive secretary, and earned a
degree from Pierce College while raising
two children and working to support
them. Armenians are survivors. We
don’t give up.”
Referring to the strength of the Armenian
community today, Vogel believes
that the Armenians’ focus on preserving
their culture, language, and history
is fueled by their near extinction. “I
am an American of Armenian descent…
American first,” Vogel says, “but I will do
everything I can to help the Armenian
community counter the negative effects
of history that affected my own family.”
She is a member of the Armenian
Professional Society and the Armenian
International Women’s Association.
Vogel made her first trip to Armenia
this month. She plans to visit the capital,
Yerevan, and is scheduled to speak
to students on the subject of Western
media at the Golden Apricot Film Festival.
I trust she has a fourth suitcase
ready for fun.
Making a difference
Does she want to be a reporter forever?
“I love the field of communications,”
she says, “but some day I might like
to teach, consult, mentor, or write a
book.” And probably one day she will.
She doesn’t wish to become an anchor,
though she’s happy to be a reporter who
can anchor.
She has won awards: that of the Pennsylvania
Association of Broadcasters for
Best Documentary, and she was part of
a team honored with an Edward R. Murrow
award and a Regional Emmy award
for Best Newscast. Regarding what is
most deeply satisfying about her job,
Vogel answers: “I hope some good comes
from the awareness I bring by putting a
spotlight on a story.” She tells me with
pride, “I am constantly amazed at how
many people come up to me, much later,
and recall a story. The level of remembering
the details is amazing.” And that
is her confirmation – someone who sees
the story, is touched, moved, or learns
something that will make a difference
in their lives.
She’ll keep healthy, she says. She’s a
runner, aspiring to a marathon. She believes
in the Golden Rule. “Try to be a
good person, non-judgmental” is how
she sums it up. And Anita Vogel is certainly
that. She is an inspiring role model,
with her feet on the ground and her
heart in her work, the healthy balance
of life and career evident in the radiance
she exudes.
She loves wine tasting, travel, friends,
family and concerts. One day she hopes
to marry and have children. With characteristic
optimism, she believes, “If it’s
meant to happen, it will yet.”
“Life is good” are her parting words.
What better news to report? What better
prize? f
Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008 C7
A reporter of truth, an advocate of justice
Ben Bagdikian continues
to fight against media
monopoly
by Alexandra Bezdikian
He is a small man, a well-dressed man
with boyish charm and an infectious enthusiasm
for life.
Yet despite his small frame and seemingly
shy disposition, 88-year-old Ben
Bagdikian is a colossus. A renowned
media critic, an award-winning journalist,
and the author of several industrychanging
books, he has been a reporter
of truth and an advocate of justice for
over six decades. With longstanding
positions at publications like the Providence
Journal, Columbia Journalism Review,
and the Washington Post, among
many others, Bagdikian is quite simply
a force to be reckoned with.
“I read his work in graduate school,
and it was just really seminal in shaping
my understanding of the foundational
values of journalism,” said Mother Jones
Editor-in-chief Monika Bauerlein. “He’s
also an archetype or a godfather to the
contemporary media critic in that he
was one of the first people to identify
the threat that media consolidation and
corporate control of media pose to independent
journalism.”
Not surprisingly, Mother Jones, an
acclaimed progressive publication, has
named its fellowship program after Bagdikian.
With an agenda that includes
cultivating a new cadre of smart and
fearless journalists within the context
of an independent media model, Bagdikian
fits right into the Mother Jones
modus operandi.
“The thing that makes him particularly
apt for the Mother Jones fellowship program
is that he is the man who literally
wrote the book on media monopoly,”
said Mother Jones president and publisher
Jay Harris. “Indie media generally,
and Mother Jones specifically, are
part of the antidote to monopolized,
homogenized, sanitized corporate media.
By naming our fellowship program
after Ben, I think it nicely complements
his classic critique with a program that
should help make the journalism future
brighter.”
Upon meeting Ben and Marlene
Bagdikian, first impressions teetered
somewhere between hopelessly unconventional
and slightly old-school. After
all, he was wearing a well-pressed, sky
blue and pink-striped button-up, delicately
tucked into his perfectly creased
khaki trousers, completing quite a mildmannered
outfit certainly befitting of
such a mild-mannered man.
She was charming and diplomatic, radiating
a certain ineffable elegance that
seemed to multiply when she was by his
side. He was born in Turkey, she in Austria.
Together, the Bagdikians were the
image of the American Dream.
It was only when Bagdikian enthusiastically
belted, “You’re Armenian! It’s
so good to meet you,” that first impressions
quickly dissipated. It was the typical
“ian” ending of Armenian last names
that tipped him off, and it was his genuine
delight to meet another Armenian
journalist that burst my first-impression
bubble completely. “Don’t judge me,” he
said with a smile. “I don’t speak Armenian
that well.” I promised I wouldn’t
dare.
As the three of us sat down in the ballroom
of Fort Mason’s Officers’ Club in
San Francisco, at a luncheon commemorating
Bagdikian’s legacy in journalism
and the naming of the Ben Bagdikian
Fellowship, it quickly became clear that
this man was a titan; he’s one of the
last living American storytellers of our
time. And if it were possible to look just
beyond the veil of the oddly stylish, redframed
glasses whimsically fastened to
the bridge of his nose, one could almost
see the stories of his past delicately flutter
by with each blink. And it was there,
in the ballroom of Fort Mason’s Officers’
Club, that the titan storyteller became
flesh and blood.
“I originally wanted to be a doctor,” he
revealed. “But my feet had better instincts
than my brain did… I became a
reporter and never went back.”
As we started talking about his
past, the good times and the bad, the
many awards given to him over the
years, and the various publications he
worked for since becoming a journalist
in 1941, the stories simply started to
seep out of him. It was as if he had to
get them out, exorcizing his personal
experiences onto a future generation
of storytellers, sprinkling bits of himself
throughout the greater tapestry of
American journalism. And he was filing
through the decades with Rolodex
efficiency.
“As one of my operating instincts,”
Bagdikian explained, “when writing
about a story that affected people, I
would read all of the authoritative books
and data that I could get, and then I
would live with someone in that group
that I was writing about. If I was writing
about poor farmers, I would go live with
them for a few weeks. If I was doing a
piece on warehouses, I would go live in a
warehouse.” He wasn’t joking.
He told me tales of working with the
poor in Appalachia, how exciting it was
to work during World War II and the
dawning of the atomic age, the Suez crisis
of ‘56, and about that one time he
lived in a flophouse on “skid row” in the
West End of Chicago.
Marlene shook her head with a sigh,
giving me a look that unmistakably said,
“Only this man could get away with these
antics, only this man.”
It was certainly obvious that Bagdikian
was hard-core. There’s no other
term for it. But it wasn’t just the complete
dedication he had to his career in
journalism, or his emphatic belief in
Ben Bagdikian. Photo:
Ed Homich, Mother
Jones.
the inherent importance of his work, or
even the way he spoke for the masses
of disenfranchised – living with them,
enduring “weeks of research and travel”
to give them a voice. Ben Bagdikian is
hard-core because as he spoke, I believed
him. I believed in the sincerity of his
words, and the passionate faith he had
in making this a better country worthy
of democracy. His style and charisma reflected
what journalism in America was
at one time – what was good and honorable
at one time.
Ben Bagdikian is dedicated to seeing it
made happen again, and he is willing to
work with a new generation of journalists
of equal passion. That is what makes
him hard-core, and that is what the future
of journalism aspires to become. f
C8 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008
Anne Bedian: inspiring on and off the screen
by Adrineh
Gregorian
There’s nothing that can stop a woman
who has joined the Navy at 17 and gotten
a tattoo of an anchor to prove to everyone
she was serious about her decision.
The Navy was the first stop for Anne
Bedian. “I was convinced I could do anything
I wanted to do,” she says. After a
stint in accounting, she opted for her
ultimate dream and Hollywood came
calling.
“I always knew I wanted to act,” she
says. “It gelled in my mind when I was
12 – not that I did anything about it. It
was something that was always calling
to me.”
Like most actors, Anne knew that her
preferred profession would pose some
undesirable obstacles. “I would rather
be unhappy, or temporarily unhappy,
‘cause I’m trying to follow my dream,
than [accept] long-term unhappiness
because I never really tried,” she notes.
Words to live by.
Anne pursued acting while maintaining
her job as an accountant. After landing
small roles in her native Canada,
she knew it was time to begin a proper
training regime for acting: the Meisner
technique. “I was adamant on keeping
my day job and doing accounting until
I was ready to give it up to go full force,”
she recalls. “Then the people I work for
said, ‘You’re on a show in Canada. We
think you can stop coming to work.”
The show was a sci-fi animated show
in Canada, followed by an NBC pilot, and
then a national ad campaign for Claritin.
Anne moved to New York in the summer
of 2004 to continue her Meisner
training. She left Canada just as her career
was building momentum. “I used it
as a springboard to move to New York,”
she says. Nothing was going to stop her
from pursuing her dreams.
“I really think that everything I’ve
done so far was helping build discipline
and all my layers as an actor from life
experiences,” Anne says. “That discipline
as a solider has made me the actor
I am today. I have a side to me that
likes to make big changes, because it’s
possible, right? You don’t want to limit
yourself in life.”
Anne says the acting profession has
required a lot of patience. “It’s easy to
call yourself an actor when you’re working
and people are hiring you,” she explains.
“The real test is to keep calling
yourself an actor when no one is hiring
you. That’s when you’re really doing the
work of an actor, preparing, doing your
training.”
“It’s been an amazing journey and it
kind of feels like a ladder and I keep on
climbing up and up,” adds Anne, who
believes that every role she’s gotten has
led her to a better one.
Currently Anne can be seen in primetime
television hit shows such as CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation, Law and Order,
Anne Bedian.
The Unit, The Closer, and Lost. But it’s
Anne’s newest role, as Marina the Armenian
psychic, on the CBS pilot The Ex List
that’s getting all the buzz.
The Ex List is the American version
of a hit show in Israel. The new version
stars Elizabeth Reaser as Bella, a
single girl who stumbles upon a psychic,
Marina, who tells her she has a year
to get married. If she doesn’t get married
within a year, she never will. And
here’s the kicker: she already knows the
Above: Anne Bedian
with Elizabeth Reaser
on the set of The Ex
List.
Left: Anne Bedian as
Marina, the Armenian
psychic.
guy. As the story line progresses and
Bella retraces her past, she seeks guidance
from Marina.
The show’s writers based Marina’s
character on a real-life Armenian woman.
Anne describes Marina as “Armenian
fabulous,” a character that brings comic
relief to the show.
As Anne read the script, she imagined
this woman as the real deal. According
to Anne, Marina reads coffee cups,
hangs out at the MAC make-up counter
at the mall, and shows up to the gym
with big earrings and a clutch purse.
“She’s a tough character with a really big
heart,” she says.
Even though Marina doesn’t listen to
heavy metal, Anne says she would have
a poster of System of a Down on the
wall, right next to a picture of David of
Sassoon.
Anne’s unique look has allowed her to
portray a wide range of characters. “It’s
never boring,” she says. “I can go from
Israeli to Greek to Italian. It’s very representative
of the United States because
it has so many different cultural backgrounds
and today the American networks
are reflecting that,” says Anne.
Maybe ten years ago television executives
would have been reluctant
to feature an Armenian character in a
prime-time show. Now, however, with
characters like Marina, the future looks
promising.
The Ex List will begin airing in September
on CBS. f
Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008 C9
connect
cbs.com
Program Grid 21 – 27 July
USArmenia is a 24-hour broadcasting station specializing in the full spectrum of HD-quality Armenian
programming.
Located in Burbank’s famed media district, our headquarters comprise 15,000 square feet of studio
space and production facilities, in addition to 40,000 square feet of offices.
Our programs are broadcast locally on Charter Cable’s Channel 286, and nationwide on Global Satellite
117 and through the Dish Network, to a viewership of over 100,000 households.
Our broadcast lineup consists of original programming produced both locally and in Armenia. It
includes local, national, and international news, news feeds from Armenia four times a day, as well as a
EST PST
22:00 1:00
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broad range of proprietary talk shows, soap operas, reality shows, documentaries, and feature films.
USArmenia holds exclusive rights to the Hay Film Library, a collection of hundreds of Armenian- and
Russian-language movies released since 1937. To date, more than 550 titles in the collection have been
restored and upgraded to HD quality.
USArmenia works in conjunction with the Armenian Reporter, an independent English-language weekly
newspaper with a circulation of 35,000 across the United States.
For timely and highest-standard local and national news coverage, USArmenia maintains a mobile HD-
production unit in Southern California and a reporting team in Washington
21 July 22 July 23 July 24 July 25 July 26 July
Monday TuESday WEdnESday ThurSday Friday SaTurday
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The Beautified Project rockers sing about pain
First English-language
album released in
Armenia
by Betty
Panossian-
Ter
Sarkissian
In April 2007, when the Armenian Reporter
first featured the acoustic rock band
The Beautified Project, it was a newcomer
to the Armenian music scene. Its founder
and frontman, Andre Simonian, had been
in Armenia for only a few months and
was considering a move to his homeland.
A year later, the band, now reduced to
three of its five original members – Simonian,
Armen Shahverdian, and Arlen
Shahverdian – is already a factor in making
the rock scene in Armenia move forward.
What is more, The Beautified Project
is aspiring to become the band that
represents rock music in Armenia.
behind the happy mask…
In April this year, The Beautified Project
released its second record, behind the
happy mask… It is the first English-only
rock album recorded and released in
Armenia. The band’s debut album, Serenades
for Insanity, was released in 2006,
in London, where The Beautified Project
was launched in 2004 by Simonian.
The eight songs on the new CD deal with
issues hidden behind the happy mask that
people wear every single day. True to the
band’s signature sound, the latest album,
too, features genuine modern acoustic
rock, with no Armenian or Middle Eastern
elements. “We have tried to make a
world-class album representing pure rock
in Armenia,” Simonian explains.
The new album tends toward the
Gothic. While the music and lyrics
are still very dark, the rock element is
stronger than ever. “There is a kind of
positive energy in this album, but it exists
in the very dark,” Simonian says.
Every song on behind the happy mask…
contains the word “pain,” “because pain is
what we are born of, pain is what we live
with and go through every day,” Simonian
says. “And one day life and pain, joined together
hand in hand, will decide to stop!”
All the lyrics of the new album were
written by Simonian, and the music was
composed and arranged by all members
of the band.
A piano burns in the snow
One of the songs featured in behind the
happy mask…, “Angel,” a hit with fans
even before its release on CD, was turned
into a snowy video clip.
Recording a video in the snow was
something Simonian had always wanted
to do. “I just liked the concept of
snow and some dark angel approaching,”
he explains.
The clip features a girl, “the falling
angel,” who comes to find the band
playing in the snow. While the clip was
being shot, the temperature at the location,
near Lake Sevan, was freezing cold,
at -25 degrees Centigrade. However, the
first 20 seconds of the video were filmed
in Sweden. “We were looking for a spe-
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Cover of the
Beautified Project’s
latest album.
cific dark scene with gravestones, and
that kind of Gothic feeling we could not
find in Armenia,” Simonian explains.
Filming the clip was a great experience
for the band. The odd and fun part began
with dragging an old piano into the snow
and setting it on fire. A computer-generated
piano set on fire would have cost the
band a lot more money, as they had bought
that piano really cheap. “At first, I felt guilty
about burning a piano, but then I made
sure nobody wanted to play on it in the
house I bought it from,” Simonian recalls.
Continued on page C11 m
C10 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008
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Satellite Broadcast Program Grid
21 – 27 July
21 July 22 July 23 July
Monday TuESday WEdnESday
EST PST
4:30 7:30 News in
Armenian
4:55 7:55 Good
Morning,Armenians
6:10 9:10 PS Club
6:45 9:45 Teleduel
7:30 10:30 Bernard Show
8:45 11:45 Cool program
9:00 12:00 News in
Armenian
9:20 12:20 A Drop of
Honey
9:50 12:50 Yo-Yo
10:00 13:00 Neighbours-
Serial
10:45 13:45 Telekitchen
11:05 14:05 Fathers and
Sons
12:00 15:00 News in
Armenian
12:25 15:25 Italian Serial
13:15 16:15 Blitz
13:35 16:35 Hit Music
14:00 17:00 In the World
of Books
14:20 17:20 Chameleon-
Serial
15:00 18:00 News in
Armenian
15:25 18:25 Through the
traces of past
16:05 19:05 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
16:45 19:45 As a wave-
Serial
17:30 20:30 My Big, Fat
Armenian Wedding
18:00 21:00 News in
Armenian
18:25 21:25 Unhappy
Happiness - Serial
19:10 22:10 The value of
life-Serial
19:45 22:45 Bernard Show
21:00 0:00 News in
Armenian
21:25 0:25 The Armenian
Film
23:30 2:30 Telekitchen
0:05 3:05 Teleduel
0:50 3:50 Yo-Yo
1:15 4:15 Hit Music
1:40 4:40 Blitz
2:00 5:00 Italian Serial
2:50 5:50 In the World
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3:10 6:10 Chameleon-
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3:55 6:55 Through the
traces of past
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4:30 7:30 News in
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4:55 7:55 Good
Morning,Armenians
6:20 9:20 Cobras and
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7:00 10:00 My Big, Fat
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7:30 10:30 Bernard Show
8:45 11:45 The Armenian
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9:25 12:25 The value of
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12:00 15:00 News in
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13:15 16:15 Blitz
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14:00 17:00 Armenian
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14:20 17:20 Chameleon-
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15:00 18:00 News in
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15:25 18:25 Express
15:45 18:45 The Armenian
film-Bumerang
16:05 19:05 Cobras and
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16:45 19:45 As a wave-
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17:30 20:30 My Big, Fat
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18:00 21:00 News in
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18:25 21:25 Unhappy
Happiness - Serial
19:10 22:10 The value of
life-Serial
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21:00 0:00 News in
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21:25 0:25 Mosfilm
22:30 1:30 Fathers and
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23:30 2:30 Telekitchen
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1:15 4:15 Hit Music
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2:00 5:00 Italian Serial
2:50 5:50 The Armenian
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3:10 6:10 Chameleon-
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3:55 6:55 Express
Inspired by Hamlet
The word “Beautified” has been known
to raise eyebrows. As the band’s godfather,
Simonian says he loves it when
fans and journalists ask him about
the origins of the name “The Beautified
Project.” “I love the kinds of mystic
words that do not make any factual
sense,” he says. “I like titles that are not
very clear and people can have different
takes on them.”
“In Armenia a lot of people make
the mistake of calling us ‘The Beautiful
Project,’” Simonian notes, adding
that he is a big Shakespeare
fan and that his inspiration for the
band’s name comes from Hamlet.
“When Hamlet was in the first stages
of going mad and was still enjoying
pretending to be mad, he called
his fiancée ‘my soul’s idol, the most
beautified Ophelia.’ Nobody knows
what he really meant by that and
EST PST
4:30 7:30 News in
Armenian
4:55 7:55 Good
Morning,Armenians
6:20 9:20 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
7:00 10:00 My Big, Fat
Armenian Wedding
7:30 10:30 Bernard Show
8:45 11:45 Cool sketches
9:00 12:00 News in
Armenian
9:25 12:25 The value of
life-Serial
10:00 13:00 Unhappy
Happiness - Serial
10:45 13:45 Telekitchen
11:15 14:15 As a wave-
Serial
12:00 15:00 News in
Armenian
12:25 15:25 Italian Serial
13:15 16:15 Blitz
13:35 16:35 Hit Music
14:00 17:00 The Century
14:20 17:20 Chameleon-
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15:00 18:00 News in
Armenian
15:25 18:25 Express
15:45 18:45 A Drop of
Honey
16:05 19:05 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
16:45 19:45 As a wave-
Serial
17:30 20:30 My Big, Fat
Armenian Wedding
18:00 21:00 News in
Armenian
18:25 21:25 Unhappy
Happiness - Serial
19:10 22:10 The value of
life-Serial
19:45 22:45 Bernard Show
21:00 0:00 News in
Armenian
21:25 0:25 Fathers and
sons
22:25 1:25 Through the
traces of past
22:55 1:55 Concert
23:30 2:30 Telekitchen
0:05 3:05 The Century
0:30 3:30 Discovery
1:15 4:15 Hit Music
1:40 4:40 Blitz
2:00 5:00 Italian Serial
2:50 5:50 A Drop of
Honey
3:10 6:10 Chameleon-
Serial
3:55 6:55 Express
there are still major debates going
on about the meaning of this word.”
Simonian has given the word a meaning
of his own, though. “In a world where
everything goes towards pale, you create
a song, music, so you beautify your
art towards a given direction, a channel,
and make it further beautiful, attach to
it even more sense, and give it back to
people who can relate to it,” he says.
Simonian claims that The Beautified
Project remains a noncommercial band,
with its expenses covered by the band
members themselves. “We are lucky to
have Arvin Kocharian as our manager,
our designer, and photographer,” Simonian
adds.
In the past year, The Beautified Project
worked on broadening its fan base
in Armenia. In May this year, behind
the happy mask… was launched with a
sold-out party at Avant-garde Folk Music
Club in Yerevan.
As for upcoming projects, The Beautified
Project is considering making a vid-
24 July 25 July 26 July 27 July
ThurSday Friday SaTurday Sunday
EST PST
4:30 7:30 News in
Armenian
4:55 7:55 Good
Morning,Armenians
6:20 9:20 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
7:00 10:00 My Big, Fat
Armenian Wedding
7:30 10:30 Bernard Show
8:45 11:45 The Armenian
Film
9:00 12:00 News in
Armenian
9:25 12:25 The value of
life-Serial
10:00 13:00 Unhappy
Happiness - Serial
10:45 13:45 Telekitchen
11:15 14:15 As a wave-Serial
12:00 15:00 News in
Armenian
12:25 15:25 Italian Serial
13:15 16:15 Blitz
13:35 16:35 Hit Music
14:00 17:00 Cool program
14:20 17:20 Chameleon-
Serial
15:00 18:00 News in
Armenian
15:25 18:25 Teleduel
16:05 19:05 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
16:45 19:45 As a wave-
Serial
17:30 20:30 Armenian
Diaspora
18:00 21:00 News in
Armenian
18:25 21:25 Unhappy
Happiness - Serial
19:10 22:10 Captives of
fate-Serial
19:45 22:45 Bernard Show
21:00 0:00 News in
Armenian
21:25 0:25 In the World
of Books
21:50 0:50 A Drop of
Honey
22:15 1:15 Health
Program
22:45 1:45 Yo-Yo
23:00 2:00 Armenian
Diaspora
23:30 2:30 Telekitchen
0:05 3:05 Yerevan Time
0:35 3:35 Teleduel
1:15 4:15 Hit Music
1:40 4:40 Blitz
2:00 5:00 Italian Serial
2:50 5:50 Cool program
3:10 6:10 Chameleon-
Serial
3:55 6:55 Express
EST PST
4:30 7:30 News in
Armenian
4:55 7:55 Good
Morning,Armenians
6:20 9:20 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
7:00 10:00 Hit Music
7:30 10:30 Bernard Show
9:00 12:00 News in
Armenian
9:25 12:25 Bernard Show
10:00 13:00 Unhappy
Happiness - Serial
10:45 13:45 Captives of
fate-Serial
11:15 14:15 As a wave-
Serial
12:00 15:00 News in
Armenian
12:25 15:25 Italian Serial
13:15 16:15 Blitz
13:30 16:30 Hit Music
13:50 16:50 Health
Program
14:20 17:20 Chameleon-
Serial
15:00 18:00 News in
Armenian
15:25 18:25 Express
15:45 18:45 PS Club
16:05 19:05 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
16:45 19:45 As a wave-
Serial
17:30 20:30 A Drop of
Honey
18:00 21:00 News in
Armenian
18:25 21:25 Neighbours-
Serial
19:10 22:10 Captives of
fate-Serial
19:45 22:45 Bernard Show
21:00 0:00 News in
Armenian
21:25 0:25 Mosfilm
23:20 2:20 Fathers and
sons
0:25 3:25 Health
Program
0:55 3:55 The Century
1:15 4:15 Hit Music
1:40 4:40 Blitz
2:00 5:00 Italian Serial
2:50 5:50 Cool sketches
3:10 6:10 Chameleon-
Serial
3:55 6:55 Express
The Beautified Project rockers sing about pain
n Continued from page C10
eo clip for “Me and My Despair,” another
song from the new album. Throughout
this summer, the band will give several
concerts and have guest appearances at
various events. Currently the band is
EST PST
4:30 7:30 News in
Armenian
4:55 7:55 Mosfilm
6:20 9:20 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
7:00 10:00 A Drop of
Honey
7:35 10:35 PS Club
8:10 11:10 The Armenian
film-Bumerang
9:00 12:00 News in
Armenian
9:25 12:25 Captives of
fate-Serial
10:00 13:00 Neighbours-
Serial
10:45 13:45 Telekitchen
11:15 14:15 As a wave-
Serial
12:00 15:00 Italian Serial
12:50 15:50 Unhappy
Happiness - Serial
15:00 18:00 Chameleon-
Serial
15:40 18:40 Through the
traces of past
16:05 19:05 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
16:45 19:45 As a wave-
Serial
17:40 20:40 Cool Program
18:00 21:00 VOA(The Voice
of America)
18:20 21:20 Neighbours-
Serial
19:05 22:05 Captives of
fate-Serial
19:40 22:40 Fathers and
Sons
20:40 23:40 The Armenian
film
22:00 1:00 News in
Armenian
22:30 1:30 Teleduel
22:15 1:15 Cool sketches
23:30 2:30 Telekitchen
0:05 3:05 A Drop of
Honey
0:55 3:55 In the World
of Books
1:15 4:15 Hit Music
1:40 4:40 Blitz
2:00 5:00 Italian Serial
2:50 5:50 The Armenian
Cartoon
3:05 6:05 Chameleon-
Serial
3:50 6:50 Through the
traces of past
EST PST
4:30 7:30 The Armenian
Film
6:00 9:00 VOA(The Voice
of America)
6:20 9:20 Cobras and
Lizards-Serial
7:00 10:00 Fathers and
Sons
8:00 11:00 Cool Program
8:20 11:20 A Drop of
Honey
8:55 11:55 Yerevan Time
9:20 12:20 Captives of
fate-Serial
10:00 13:00 Neighbours-
Serial
10:45 13:45 Armenian
Diaspora
11:15 14:15 As a wave-
Serial
12:05 15:05 The Century
12:25 15:25 Health
Program
13:00 16:00 My Big, Fat
Armenian Wedding
14:10 17:10 Blitz
14:30 17:30 Yo-Yo
14:55 17:55 Captives of
fate-Serial
16:40 19:40 A Drop of
Honey
17:00 20:00 The Armenian
film/Bumerang
17:25 20:25 PS Club
18:00 21:00 VOA(The Voice
of America)
18:20 21:20 Neighbours-
Serial
19:00 22:00 Teleduel
19:45 22:45 The value of
life-Serial
21:00 0:00 News in
Armenian
21:30 0:30 Health
Program
22:00 1:00 Concert
23:00 2:00 Yerevan Time
23:25 2:25 Armenia-
Diaspora
0:00 3:00 VOA(The Voice
of America)
0:30 3:30 The Century
0:55 3:55 Yo-Yo
1:15 4:15 Hit Music
1:40 4:40 Blitz
2:00 5:00 Discovery
2:30 5:30 Mosfilm
4:00 7:00 The Armenian
film/Bumerang
working to realize its goal of performing
in the United States. f
connect:
thebeautified.com
Band members
Andre Simonian,
Armen and Arlen
Shahverdian on the
back cover of their
album.
Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008 C11
C12 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture July 19, 2008
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