AK Photos on display in NY

I often like to put the spotlight on other Armenians succeeding in unique ways. Well, today I'm putting the spotlight on myself for fun. As you may know, I have a photo website as part of a membership/service with www.digitalrailroad.net (a revolutionary photo webservice) which provides the space, etc. They recently had a huge Holiday Party for hundreds (800 I believe) of people in the photo industry in New York City and presented a slideshow of photography from their members, mostly professionals, some for National Geographic, etc. They have hundreds of members, and they approached me to include some of my images.

I'm happy to say they included 5 of mine in the 91 image slideshow (thought this may have been edited down, but I know for sure 3 of my photos were presented). Please go to the link to see the entire slideshow (the photos are displayed on Olya's website... she works for digitalrailroad.net and set these aside in her site as a lightbox. She shared this link with me just for my interest):

http://www.digitalrailroad.net/olya/glbs.aspx?lid=755507&e=0&p=0

I hope you enjoy my photos and everyone else's as well. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Good Times and a Merry Christmas!

It's been a quick and fun December. Sadly part of the fun came with many goodbye parties. DC is a transit town, and as they do, people have come and gone. Two of my friends returned to LA after a lengthy time spent in DC. The one thing I learned is that you can never have a long term friend in this city because they only stay for so long. I can count the friends I have had from 3 years ago when I moved back to DC who have stayed all the way through. Actually, the number is like 2. Everyone else has come and gone. And soon, that shall be true of me too.


The holidays started with a great day at the park. You all know what a football fan I am, and I had the ultimate football experience. My mom and I went to the Washington Redskins vs Dallas Cowboys game with box suite tickets. For those not brushed up on American football, these two teams are two of the biggest rivals in the National Football League. Not only did we go to the game, we DESTROYED the Cowboys. I was jumping out of my seat the whole time.

Now for the Armenian relevance in the story, the way we got the tickets was that the owner of the suite is a friend of my fathers. He invited another doctor who brought one of his friends (usually more than 20 people float around the suite at a time) who walked up to me in the beginning of the game, looked at me and said, "I don't believe this!" It was my AYF Advisor from 15 YEARS AGO!!! I haven't seen him SINCE! He heard there was another Armenian in the suite and had to find out who. Of all the places, all the times, all the suites in the world, he happened to be at the Redskins vs Cowboys game (hardest tickets to find in DC) in the same suite on the same day. By the way, the Redskins continued to beat the New York Giants the following week. :)

Anyway, of course, it is the holiday season and it has been merry. I went to New Jersey with my parents to spend American Christmas at my sister's in-laws' house. I got great gifts, but most importantly, we spent more time at the dinner table than NOT at the dinner table. Boy did we eat! This weekend is a simple gathering with friends... we'll probably drop by the monuments to celebratae with the rest of DC in the cold weather... hopefully Jack and Coke will keep us warm.

Video of Azeris Destroying Khatchkars

That's the understatement of the year. Destroying? More like taking a sledgehammer to my ancestor's resting place. It's not enough they wont let us live in peace, they wont let us die in peace either.

Well, this is something we knew was happening, but now we can see it for ourselves. To see the footage, go to:

http://www.hairenik.com/Haireniktv/HA_TV_Clip04.htm

Once you get that sick feeling in your stomach from watching them hammer away at the khatchkars and you decide to take action rather than sit in disgust like I did for a while, go to www.anca.org to send a webfax to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice about it.

Passing time

Life has been very inward lately. I have avoided a lot of responsibility (YAY!) but also have been out of the loop on interesting things. I finally managed to send out my Christmas gift suggestion list which is blogged on www.myspace.com/arskhach just for easy accessibility sake.

In the last few weeks, I have gone to a Karnig Sarkisian dinner event, seen a lot of my friends around DC, and worked on some projects, but for some reason, nothing seems interesting enough to post about... nothing new atleast. I am a little sad that one of my new friends moved back to LA weeks ago, another 2 friends are moving away this week, and a few more may leave very soon as well. DC is truly a transit city... they never stay. But all the while it's good to know them for the short time they are here.

Otherwise, much of my time is spent preparing for (yev hayerenov bidi grem vor chefus ch'gartah yev haskanah) Hayastan deghapokhveloo jhamanag. Heemah, meetkus nra vran eh yev arten badrasdoomem. Amen mart hartsnoomen yerp bidi gnam. The answer is early May. Hedo hartsnoomen yete gordz arten oonem teh spasoomem meench vor gnam aratch, hedo guh pndrem. Hokus cheh. Yete aratch jarem, lav eh. Yete che, guh jarem gam sarkem eendz hamar (and maybe for others as well if I can get myself set up first). Menak sovorelem vor chem oozoom Washington mnam. These days, I see how important watching certain tv shows is for relating to most people, yev hal choonem. I mostly get disgusted with watching tv as it is, forget sitting around people talking about it for hours, or realizing vor gordzee ungerner vor hay chen, ooreesh nyoot choonen khosaloo. The thought of scheduling my life around watching a show every week, forget it, and for some reason, not many people here understand that easily if anyone. Right now I'm hanging out with friends who are playing video games... which is why i started to type. One of my life beliefs is not to live for tomorrow, but in this case, uzgoomem vor spasoomem vor es jhamanaguh antznee. Ungernerus shad siroomem yev shad lav en (when we aren't playing video games or talking about tv... they don't do it toooo often), Kyankus vad chee, baytz eemast choonee (Hay Tahdee gordzereetz dours which is minimal volunteer work these days anyway). Ooremen, jhamanagus eh. Oh, and miss just about everything in Armenia you can imagine right now. I even miss the miserable things about it like burning trash on the streets and the smell of gasoline, and even the taxi drivers that rip off tourist. Eemast.

The Almighty Midus

With all the talent in the world, I sometimes like to draw attention to our home grown stars. Armenian individuals around the world are excelling in so many industries and arts, and this one deserves some attention. Serouj Aprahamian has made a name for himself in the Breakdancing world... Midus. I guess you could call it his stage name.

In such a unique form of expression, Midus has defined his own style of dancing that has demanding the respect of his peers. He grew up in LA, but recently moved to Washington, DC for a masters program at American University. We attended the Breakin for Birney charity event where Serouj was initially unknown. But wherever he goes, he identifies himself on the floor. Once he started to move, fellow breakers knew immediately who he was through his widely distributed video "Detours" (www.detoursvideo.com).

Photos are nice, but they don't do justice to the evident talent. You can see the rest at www.digitalrailroad.net/arsineh. I hope more people have a chance to see him work the floor some day. His Detours video is available for purchase at www.detoursvideo.com. Here are some photos...

School Number 43 Received The Books....

I am soooo thrilled, because, they received the books. The project can now begin. I have some red tape to go through with Chicago Public Schools about student internet use, but, I am sure I will get around it.......

System Makes Billboard History

Make sure to read the last line.


REUTERS

System of a Down tops chart for 2nd time in '05
Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:10 PM ET

By Katie Hasty

NEW YORK (Billboard) - For the third time in its career and the second this year, Los Angeles hard rock band System Of A Down scored the top position on the U.S. pop charts Wednesday.

"Hypnotize" (American/Columbia), the group's fifth release, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with sales of about 320,000 copies in the week ended November 27, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Although it was enough to debut in the lead, the first-week total for "Hypnotize" fell far short of the 452,990 copies moved by System's "Mezmerize" during its first week back in May. "Mezmerize" is currently No. 87 on the Billboard 200, with sales to date of 1.5 million copies, according to Columbia. The band first reached No. 1 in September 2001 when "Toxicity" started off with 222,037 copies, on its way to 3.7 million copies, the label said.

According to Columbia, System of a Down is the first band in chart history to log two No. 1 albums in one calendar year.

Cultural Southern Cali :)

The past 2 weekends have been a VERY busy one for Southern Californian Armenians! (How blessed are we?)

On Friday(11/18) I enjoyed listening to Shushan Petrosyan performing with the Armenian Navy Band at the Alex Theatre! A magnificient combination!!! On Saturday(11/19) Gor Mkhitarian had a performance at the Black Maria Gallery in Atwater Village. Great turn out, excellent performance, with a surprise guest singer - Sebu Simonian (from Aviatic). Last but not least, Sunday(11/20) a SPECTACULAR performance by the Voices of Artsakh group who is here from Artsakh. This was the most MOVING concert I have ever attended. (It's somewhat hard to put into words ...)

And of course who can forget the telethon (11/24)? For the past few years, I've spent my Thanksgiving day there, but this year... it seems I was too late to volunteer - as I was told there are too many volunteers as it is! (great!) So I watched them all day while I was cooking and baking at home :) One thing that kept getting on my nerves (a small detail) was Arsine Khanjian's hair in her face... oh man, I was clapping when she finally got it off her face later on in the day! (I'm soooo Armenian--commenting on something like that) hahaha But somehow, I remember last year's telethon as being more impressive - especially in terms of performances (it was more "jokh"). --Could it be because I was actually there? Don't know. But it went well.... good job to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen!

Last night there was an Armen Movsisyan performance in a small gallery, but I wasn't able to make it because I had a meeting. We were putting the final touches on the Glendale-Ghapan Sister City Association's Gala Banquet which will take place this Friday evening. The committee has been working so hard to raise funds for the Hospital Revitalization Project. I'm positive the event is going to be a success, as we've already been able to collect so many generous donations (especially from non-Armenians!) and expect much support at the banquet!

That's about all for now.... I feel a trip to Armenia coming very soon (I thought I could hold off 'till April, but boy was I wrong!?)

TSUH! :)~