DeLay's Replacement

A quick update on the Delay story, Drier is not going to be the House Majority Leader, Roy Blunt is stepping in as temporary leader. He is NOT a friend of the Armenians, however, he will be sharing responsibilities with Drier. Hastert just had to mention that Delay is only “temporarily” stepping down and that he will still be on the sidelines overseeing the process I guess. It’s still a great thing though. The republicans are under a lot of heat right now, which is not a good thing considering they are the ruling power right now and our country is struggling between hurricane season, a continuing war and gas prices through the roof. I want my government to be able to do their jobs, but the sad reality is that they weren’t doing it very well before, so let’s weed out the dirt. Delay is a dirty man, and the mere fact that he was walking around yesterday with a smirk on his face disgusts me. Anyway, this is a developing story... new bits of info and spins come out every minute, of course Washington is a buzz over the whole thing... oooooo you thought things were so divided before. What a cat fight. More later.

Calling on Hastert

Demo at Hastert's office was a success. Turns out Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan both made it, and Serj spoke, as well as Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA, and a few others. Here's follow up news coverage.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=3483619

Very Exciting Times

What drama! DC and Turkey are some hot spots for debate it seems.

So to follow up on the passing of two genocide resolutions last week, Serj Tankian from System of a Down has made it his mission to pressure Speaker Hastert to put the resolutions to a vote. Initially he wanted to meet with Hastert while in Chicago before the System concert, but apparently Hastert will not be there. So instead, Serj initiated a protest. Enter ANCA and AYF. The AYF is now organizing a demonstration in Chicago outside of Hastert's district office to take place on Tuesday, to which Serj will attend... along with many other fans it seems. This should be an interesting event. Can't wait to see how Hastert (and the media) responds.

On the other side of the world, we have Turkish scholars holding a conference to discuss the Armenian genocide. Here's an interesting article in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/23/AR2005092302365.html?sub=AR

Schedule months ago, the conference was cancelled under pressure by the Turkish government, even after they claim to be the ones opening up the debate to "factual" discussions. So the conference was rescheduled to last Thursday... until court ruling banned the conference to take place at certain universities listed to sponsor the event, one of which was where it was scheduled to take place. Intentionally or unintentionally, one of the university listed to sponsor was not banned. Next thing you know, Prime Minister Erdogan comes out "a hero" and condemns the rulings... probably to portray himself the freedom loving democratic leader just before EU talks on Turkey. Regardless, the conference was rescheduled for Saturday and has been taking place. Protesters have been chanting outside, but if I understand correctly, some have protested FOR the conferences as well. Regardless, the best part is that many Turkish scholars have been standing up and intelligently discussing the facts that it was a genocide and that Turkey must take responsibility for their history.

I have no other news other than what I read on AP, but I SOOO wish I could be there. Just to witness this debate take place within Turkish borders must be surreal.

As I said, exciting times. We'll see if the AYF/SOAD demo in Chicago makes a dent in Hastert's conscience, but without a doubt, it will draw more attention to an already hot topic.

On the personal front, my house was invaded by the "barskahye mob" (my parents' friend) for my mother's surprise birthday party. I haven't seen a smile on her face like that in years. It was nice to see, but BOY was there some singing lasts night (some of the strongest barskahye accents known to man). I love it though. My aunt and grandmother came in from LA, relatives from NY, sister and brother-in-law, a good friend from Cincinnati, and lots of my parents' dearest friends. They used to be the King and Queen of parties. I remember as kids we used to have adults in our house all the time. We would often to go to sleep to the sound of my parents' friends playing piano and singing songs, chattering, etc. It was a long time they didn't do that, mostly because my mother was taking care of my grandmother. And although these were mom & dad's friends, I grew to think of some of them as my own friends as well and got to catch up with a lot of them. Every other one of them said to me, "So I hear you are moving to Armenia? When are you going?" If it wasn't that, it was, "you grew up to be just like your mother," of course meaning it as the highest compliment. There was a lot of grey hair, but the best part about last night was that not one of those people seemed old at heart, and that's inspiring. This morning, as cliché as it sounds, I woke up to the sound of laughter from the kitchen. If only that could be every day of our lives. I suppose I'm fortunate enough to have it at all.

Back to Reality- Sort of

As I ease back to life here in Boston after a quick 7 day trip to Armenia, I've had the pleasure (and need) to keep in touch with some of the projects I am working on over in Yerevan. I just got off the phone with Ara Gevorgian regarding his latest project "Adana". If you go to his website www.aragevorgian.com, there is more info on that. YerazArt is going to produce the CD and they have asked me to step in and shape the release with a designer and do some liner notes stuff. (Arsineh, we got another CD to do!)

On another note (bad pun), I also spoke to Lilit Pipoyan's husband Stepan today to confirm some recording studio booking times. She is excited to be releasing her first CD in a few years and I am also looking forward to our first project in almost a year. It's amazing what can be accomplished just a phone and internet connection. With Lilit, I am going to market her in a Brazilian Caetano Velosa way. I am borrowing a term used by Rufus Wainwright to categorize Lilit called "Baroque Armenian Popular Music". Part of the process of releasing an album is creating a "story" and "image" to sell to the public. Something easy for people to catch onto. Thus, the recording design, interviews, music videos, and concerts have to have a consistant theme. This even relates to the colors used in all mediums. The research and homework involved in re-branding an artist can be daunting in that you want to make sure the public will buy what you are offering. With Lilit, it is a safe bet I will rely on the "independent Armenian woman theme" as well as dipping into "classic contemporary" Caetano Velosa mode. We'll see...

Lastly, Pomegranate Music Events is sponsoring an old friend Gor Mkhitarian in Concert. Here is the info...

Presented by Pomegranate Music Events

Gor Mkhitarian In Concert at Toast Lounge, Somerville, MA.

Saturday, October 1, 2005
Show starts at 7pm sharp.
Tickets $20 at the door.
Doors open at 6:30pm.
For more info, please call Raffi Meneshian @ 617-686-6556.
150 tickets available.

Toast Lounge
70 Union Sq
Somerville, MA 02143
(617) 623-9211

I went to Tower Records yesterday and purchased a few CD's. The first is "Niyaz", by the lead singer of Axiom of Choice as well as "The Very Best of Caetano Velosa" with "The Now Sounds of Brazil" thrown in there for good measure.

With the AYF Olympics in Milwaukee next year, I am lobbying my brother (of all people) to get Gor to play at the Friday night dance. Come on Sevan, can you pull some strings?

Back in Boston

Well, I am back in Boston and well rested. Ready for the daily grind again. I felt my Armenia trip was very productive for the 7 days I was there. My impressions of Yerevan from the surface and only in the city center (since it is where all of my meetings were) is that the place is booming with construction, lots of good music, and plenty of good places to hang out including cafe, bars, restaurants, lounges, etc. I went out to dinner on my last night to a place called "Garo's". The Bolsahye/French owner was really funny. The places has about 6-8 tables and Garo himself came out to greet us. Pretty much Western Armenian fare. The food was outstanding. Next to our table were a group of four Turkish visitors who did a story on the owner, Garo. Not bad for my last supper.

The next day was the annoying task of getting home with the long air flights, lines, and connections. This was my first time flying on British Airways. Overall, it was a very solid experience with a few minor delays here and there. The airport seems better, with workers more professional and less of the "give me $20 and I'll get you to the front of the line" thing at the ticket counter. Once I got to London, I did the email thing and hung out for a few hours. Then, it was on to Boston where I've discovered that the Red Sox are only 1/2 up on the Yankees. Somehow, when you are in Armenia with limited TV access, you just don't care about these things. It was great to see my wife after 10 days and we chatted about the trip.

Thunder, organization, and Chicago :)

I'm back in Cali..... Today I was woken up with the sound of thunder... quite scary, since from my deep sleep, I thought it was an earthquake. (paranoid californian! haha) Anyhow, I suppose fall is here in L.A., but then again you never know cause tomorrow might be 85 degrees again.

Currently I'm jobless... which is somewhat weird for me. I have started going to school again - taking some classes and trying to see if I can get back into school mode. Let me say, that too is weird. Everything else seems to be just about the same out here. Not much changed over the summer. (I don't know what I had expected to change).

I suppose I haven't logged lately, because there hasn't been much to write about. It's funny how now I have all this time to re-do my closet, organize my cd's, read books, actually make my bed in the morning... This week's project is organizing all my teaching materials I won't be using this year, so that they will be usable in the future. I miss teaching a lot though. I visited my students on the first day of school and realized how much I had missed them. 2 months, and they had grown and changed so much. Good thing I taught them LAST year, because this september they were all taller than me! hahaha :)

This past weekend I had gone to Chicago for a wedding. Very different - not the typical armo wedding we are used to out here (I'm still trying to decide if that was good or not). For one, the table wasn't full of 234029 mezze-s, and also they had a REAL bar, with bartenders (not the "help yourself" bottles on the tables). Overall it was a great trip, especially dinner on the 96th floor of the Hancock building... wow! I also had a chance to see Northwestern University's campus... and it made me wish I was 18 again, so I could study SOMETHING (anything) there. I never thought I'd be one of those people to say, "If I knew then, what I know now". :)

Well that's my update for now. My new discovery is www.myspace.com - check it out!

TSUH! :)~

Genocide Resolutions Pass in IR Committee

Incredible. Both resolutions were debated and passes with overwhelming support today, even with a few surprises. The first surprise was Chairman of the International Relations Committee Rep. Hyde's strong support, which was predicted to be neutral at best. After many moving speeches, he expressed great pride that "his committee" spoke so boldly on the issue.

The one that dropped my jaw was Cong. Lantos voting FOR the resolution. For those who may not know Lantos's voting history on the matter, he has been one of our strongest opposers. He has spoken so aggressively against calling it a genocide, even in his speech today. He started by saying that he truly believes it was not a genocide, but he was so upset about Turkey's denial of US passage to Iraq through their borders, he decided to vote for it to spite Turkey. This is by far the wrong reason, and it sickens me that the genocide issue would be used as a politicall tool, but we'll take it. Keep in mind, Lantos is a Holocaust survivor.

Anyway, time to compare. The last genocide resolution as I mentioned before was a general resolution covering all acts of genocide. That one originally passed through the Judiciary Committee without discussion and passed through unanimously without debate. Unfortunately, it also never reached the full House floor. This time around, two resolutions were introduced simultaneously in the House, both focusing specifically on recognition of the Armenian Genocide, one particularly targeting Turkey's denial of genocide. Debated in the International Relations Committee, there were the few usual suspects who spoke against, Burton, Wexler, and I can't remember the other. So many others spoke so eloquently for the resolution, I thought it would be appropriate to share some highlights below. Before I do, I'll say this. It seems that we are slowly moving closer to a point where denying the genocide is becoming MUCH harder on the Hill, and soon enough it will be taboo. Turkey's grip on the US is slipping, and it's possible that the exposure of Turkey's attempts to bribe Hastert has convinced the few "neutral" Congressman to say "enough of this, let's just get this thing done."

So here are some quotes (not full text) from our US Congressmen on the International Relations Committee during today's debate:


CONG. HYDE (Chairman of the Committee)

The overriding purpose of your work and my work in congress is to promote the interest of the US. The argument has been made that these resolutions if adopted will be harmful to those interests by undermining our relationship w/ Turkey. This is a serious charge and worthy of serious attention. I very much believe the relationship is of great importance to us and the possibility of peace and stability in the volatile regions that Turkey borders. I don't believe that these resolutions will harm that relationship. They merely recognize the fact that the authorities of the Ottoman Empire deliberately slaughtered the majority of the Armenian community in that Empire. Denial of that fact can not be justified on the basis of expediency or fear that speaking the truth will do us harm. Having said this I want to strongly emphasize the need of the Republic of Turkey or the Turkish people bare responsibility for their crimes that undoubtedly took place.


CONG. SHERMAN

It's time for us to criticize the Ottoman Empire for the first Genocide of the 20th century. That's why we ought to pass these two resolutions.

We have to bring the resolutions to the floor.


CONG. CARDOZA

It is inexplicable to me how you can not denounce evil and the evil of genocide upon every occasion when evil becomes onto you.


CONG. MEEKS

That doesn't take away from the fact that when I look and I ask and I talk this out, I can feel the pain of the Armenian people who feel I'm sure the same pain I feel for my ancestors (through slavery).

I support this resolution simply because I believe it's the right thing to do.

I do believe that we go to acknowledge the fact that there were a people that unjustly were killed, were raped, were wronged simply because of their ethnicity. And you got to acknowledge that and we've got to try to heal and go better and do better.


CONG. MENEDEZ

In my view, America must recognize that the atrocities were committed, and those atrocities committed between 1915 and 1923 constitute genocide. We don't use that term lightly, but the word itself makes it a powerful statement that the horrors suffered by the Armenian people.


CONG. BERKELEY

The fact that every Armenian wasn't slaughtered doesn't mean that that wasn't the intention of the Ottoman Empire.

The reason this resolution comes up year after year is because this Congress fails to act upon it. This is an open wound for our American-Armenian fellow citizens. Our fellow citizens are coming to Congress to readdress their grievance and I am prepared to do that today.


CONG. ENGEL

This April will mark the 90th year anniversary of the attempted annihilation of the Armenian race that occurred in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. It's been said many times without appeal that one and half million Armenians were killed and over half a million who are survivors were exiled.


CONG. ROHRABACHER

We should be on the side of truth. And the truth is at least a million people were massacred and we need to recognize and the Turks need to recognize that and move on.


CONG. WATSON

This is about whether we as Americans are going to officially acknowledge one of the hideous crimes the world has ever known. 1.5 million Armenians were murdered in an organized, systematic fashion. This is about a documented fact and there is no way you can erase that factual history. And denying it, even by failing to call it what it is, genocide, is a disservice to the United States of America.


CONG. LANTOS

On March 2003, at a time when American forces were gathered on the Turkish border to enter Iraq and had they been allowed to do so, the entire evolution of going to Iraq would have been dramatically more favorable for American forces and a large numbers of American lives would have been spared. As a matter of fact, the ongoing violence today is in no small measure attributable to turkey's refusal to allow American forces to enter Iraq from the north. This was a matter of major and historic consequence that Turkey caused and some of us, certainly I, have not overlooked. More recently, Mr. Chairman, when the distinguished Prime Minister of Lebanon was assassinated in a huge suicide bombing episode in the heart of Beirut, the large numbers of innocent people dying, including Prime Minister Hariri, the only country on the face of this planet, which called for sympathy for the Syrian regime, which called for peace and stability and not disturbing the status quo, with respect to Assad of Syria was Turkey. I find this statement and this move incomprehensible. Be that as it may, our Turkish friends need to understand that support from the United States for matters that are important to them is predicated upon their support of things that are important to the United States. This is the prid pro quo that I asked for from Russia. This is the prid pro quo I'm asking for from India. And it is the prid pro quo I'm asking for from Turkey. Turkey ignored our interests with respect to Syria. Turkey ignored our interest with respect to the movement of our own armed forces. Under these circumstances, I will support both resolutions because I believe that our allies and friends from Russia to India to Turkey must understand that if they expect the United States to support matters of great interest to them, we in turn on a reciprocal basis expect them to support matters which are of great interest to us. I intend to vote for both resolutions and I thank you Chairman.


GONG. NAPOLITANO

Our friends must recognize that we all must be up front about with what is right and the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is right.

Resolution Mark-up, Time Apology, New Orleans, & Olympics

Political Update: 2 Armenian Genocide Bills will be marked up in the International Relations Committee tomorrow which seems to have the necessary support. I may have covered this before, but the reason for 2 similar resolutions in the House is probably ego related among Congressmen. But no matter, the issue is up for discussion. Of course, this is a vote in a committee and the next step will be to push for a vote on the full House floor. If you recall, the last vote was never put to a full house vote because Speaker Hastert and Cong. Frist denied the vote. Well, Hastert's relationship with Turkey has been exposed this time around, making the case much more sensitive, so it should be interesting to see how that affects how the House handles these resolutions. The other issue is that the previous resolution included language on all genocides, where these are specifically "Armenian Genocide" resolutions. I'll deliver an update tomorrow.

Otherwise, apparently Time Europe delivered an appology to the Armenian community for distributing the Turkish DVD propoganda, apparently to avoid a serious law suit that was in the works. Not sure if that's enough since all their subscribers have seen the DVD, but not the truth, so anything short of educating the same subscribers on the facts I think is a mere attempt to avoid a very public case that might challenge their credibility.

I was going to write a whole thing about Olympics, but I have received a lot of feedback on my photos telling me that the photos speak volumes, so I'll let them speak for themselves. The entire collection is up on my website: http://www.digitalrailroad.net/Arsineh

On the New Orleans front, I'm happy to say all the people I know, including my brother, have found new homes far from New Orleans and are safe. But the reality for so many others has truly consumed America, this is all people talk about, despite the massive explosions in Iraq... oh yeah, that war. But I'm glad to see that people aren't letting Bush get away with inaction on this one. His approval ratings dipped so low he barely has anything to say in response. However, my personal view is that Bush probably would care if he wasn't so agenda driven, but unless it falls in his agenda, he doesn't act (ie: Terry Shiavo's case that forced him to return from vacation immediately to address the issue has been compared to this.) There's no spin that excuses this inaction.

Otherwise, my calendar slowed down tremendously since Olympics finished. Ah, finally I can fit some "Arsineh" time in.

Greetings from Yerevan

I arrived in Yerevan early Tuesday morning (about 1:30am) and was up later in the day at around 1pm. After getting settled, Aram Hajian and I grabbed some lunch at Square One and caught up a bit. Aram was the best man at my wedding last year and has been living in Armenia for about 5 years doing various things, including being involved in the Chess Federation here. After lunch, we went to Oscar Records in the Marriot Hotel Armenia and I worked out a deal to sell our Iakovos Kolanian CD's. They pretty much have all of the Pomegranate stuff. However, with artists like Bambir and Hover, I let them sell their stuff in Armenia with all proceeds going directly to them.

After a little walk through the city center with Aram, I decided to call up Lilit Pipoyan and see how things were going. We met up in the late afternoon and caught up with some things, finalized the process of recording her new album to be released on Pomegranate. I really enjoy hearing Lilit and had a chance to hear the sketches of her new songs. I hope to have her playing more concerts in Yerevan and in the West soon as things head toward a CD release date in 2006.

Later in the evening, I met up with Raffi Kojian and some other friends at the Avant Garde Folk Club where we saw an Argentinian trio of musicians perform. Good stuff and very smooth. I ran into Artur Ispirian and we chatted for a brief while and he gave me a copy of his stellar new CD Jazzavans. Although I've met Artur only a few times, very classy guy and good voice. We then bumped into Armenia's premier Duduk/Zourna player Vartan Gregoryan (Armenian Navy Band, etc) and I had a chance to listen to his demo with Artur in their car. It's the best place to listen to music and this is how record deals are done sometimes. I was impressed and we may work something out for it to be released soon.

Later that evening, Dave Kelly, Aram and another friend went to Caucauses restaurant where we ran into Garo Adanalian. He is getting married this Saturday. Congrats to him and his fiancee. I know him back from our Boston days. It's certainly a small world.

Today, I went with Lilit Pipoyan to Vem Recording studio near the Vernisage where she checked out the space and booked some studio time for October. More on that later. We joined up with Aram and had some lehmehjun at a place near Opera and just chilled. I will probably catch some jazz tonight with a band at the Stop Club.

Tomorrow I meet with the sponsors of my trip, Noubar Afeyan and Raffi Festekjian to start working on our www.yerazart.org plans with New Names here in Armenia. We will meet for two days until they get going on their 2020 conference. Even though I was invited to attend the conference, I will skip that to continue working with some local talent to see the best path to get their careers moving.

Local Armenian musicians continue to fight a very tough battle to sell their music and perform live. I really encourage people to boycott buying pirated CD's from stores as the artists or labels never see the profits to further projects in the future. The profits go into the hands of local record stores and their theiving suppliers who create the illegal copies. The best way to stop this practice is to buy the real thing and boycott the illegals. I encourage people to go and see live shows and buy there.

Dear Senor Juan Abadjian, I received the CD from Kojian. Thanks a lot and I listened to it last night. Very fun stuff...!

More tomorrow.

Pomegranate Music Now on XM Satellite Radio

I just got a call from my friend Pat Redgate who told me that at around 6:30ET he heard Gor Mkhitarian's "Godfather Tom" being played on XM Satellite Radio's World Zone channel, number 100 on the XM dial. I spoke to World Zone's Washington, DC based DJ Nikki Strong a month or two ago and made arrangements to have our Pomegranate Music catalog available for them to use and play as music partly representative of Armenia (the extreme fringes). The other Armenian stuff they play is pretty much duduk music from Jivan Gasparian. So, it was time to change that. Aside from requests, now our artists are being played in regular rotation apparently on World Zone. Gor, Bambir, Hover, Iakovos, and the Karabagh choirs.

If you have XM Radio, the station is 100. You can request our tunes amongst all the other global music played. Shoot Nikki an email at worldzone@xmradio.com. Or go to www.xmradio.com and go to the world music section under World Zone. There is a request section.

I also sent off Pomegranate's entry into the 2006 Grammy Award nomination process. The albums eligible were Iakovos Kolanian's, "Shoror: Armenian Folk Songs for Guitar" and our Tufenkian Karabagh CD entitled "Fortress City: Armenian Songs from Nagorno Karabagh". Each album could either be considered in the World Music section (section 73, I think) or the classical area. Both albums will are both unlikely to make it to the final 5 or 6 nominated for Grammy's in each category. In fact, it would be like winning the lottery. But, you have to play to win. If you know of any Grammy voters, pass on the news and tell them to vote for us. Unfortunately, I can't vote for my own products. It is a pretty exciting process, nevertheless. www.grammy.com for more info on our organziation.

See some of you in Yerevan next week. Bring those demos! I will be in talent search mode looking to sign one artists/act/band.

AYF Olympics 2005 in Washington, DC

So much to tell, not enough time. But for now, here are some photos out of 1500 highlighting the weekend. All photos will be uploaded to my website soon, will let you know when, and I'll share some stories soon too.

On a lighter note

I think we need a break from the serious topics. It's Wednesday night before the storm... AYF Olympics. Nune arrived Monday night fresh from Yerevan, and is now in Atlantic City with the band unwinding before her performance Friday night. A few other early birds arrived over the weekend. Otherwise, the whole week has filled up my cell phone minutes, voice mail and email with last minute loose ends. I'm very happy that my boss and co-workers are quite understanding. They even said they might drop by, since we are right around the corner. If so, they are in for a weird experience.

Anyway, the anticipation grows. People I haven't talked to in a while keep calling, emails are floating around asking "who's gonna be there?" and so on. Geez, I even got an email from someone I don't know asking if I'll be there, they want to meet me to discuss possible creative projects. Networking is definitely one of the bonuses of the weekend.

For those of you who may not understand why it's a big deal... it's not really. It's just so much fun and such a unique experience. But it brings thousands of people back every year for whatever reason, each person has their own. For the Armenian diaspora in the US (outside of LA) people seem to value their time spent with other Armenians more because it's not as regular in their lives. When your Armenian identity is removed from your daily routine, you long for it more. Well, It seems like for so many people, this is the ultimate weekend to see all your friends in one place for 4-5 days. There is something going on every minute of the day. It's a cap on the summer where people unite after their summer trips, internships, vacations, etc. and share their experiences (especially those who have been in Armenia). It's where we all come together in one place and party with friends old and new. To entertain us through the weekend, there's some sports, some music, some dancing, some food, and lots of good times.

So I hope to see some of you there. I'll be off line for the next few days, so I'll see you on the other side.