Em

Thank you! Glad you gave 'em a listen. They are performing again on the 20th. Can't wait!

"We all need someone to look at us. we can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under. the first category longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public. the second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes. they are the tireless hosts of cocktail parties and dinners. they are happier than the people in the first category, who, when they lose their public, have the feeling that the lights have gone out in the room of their lives. this happens to nearly all of them sooner or later. people in the second category, on the other hand, can always come up with the eyes they need. then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the person they love. their situation is as dangerous as the situation of people in the first category. one day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark. and finally there is the fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. they are the dreamers." — Milan Kundera

Mersi Zartonk jan.

Yerpek! Shatel rax yev goh em. Sposiba moy darragoy drug.

I'm still stuck on Thermině, but was told it is of Muslim origins.

I was waiting for someone to say this. I'm not ditsy but so absentminded and prone to forgetfullness that I may appear so on any number of days in a given week. Arpa, thank you for the response to my request for the Armenian word for orchid. I have one more I am curious about. How would you translate resilient? Or actually formidable? Thanx in advance.

I have a new name! Woooo hooo! Movses, I had no idea that "uxt anel" was same as matagh. But there's a lot I don't know. I like knowing that matagh is not exclusive to butchering animals.

No matagh please. I witnessed the butchering of a poor lamb at the age of four and haven't eaten lamb meat since. And I don't participate in any aspect of matagh as to not encourage the practice. Movses, yes mexk em. Please give up the roast. Let's roast you!!!! Haven't done that in the 3+ yrs I have been on forum.

Welcome back Azat. Awaiting pics...

Thank you, Arpa. What about orchid? What is the Armenian word for orchid?

Lav che vor nman tpavorutyun em toghel. Iskapes ameninch lav e indz mot yev inch vor kyanqum vat e yeghel, im jahel tariqi sxalmunqneric e arrajacel. Yev shutvanic et vijakic indz durrs em hanel. @ndanrapes tenc chi vor esorva dzvarotyunn@ erekva sxal qaleri hamar e? Huysov em aveli yev aveli lav e linelu. "Թախծոտ աչքերի կաթիլն արցունքի" : Ays barrer@ shat hishacrecin en 'avatarr@" vor ancyalum ogtagorrtusm ey. Noric shnorhakalutyun.

SO it translates to Armenian Pagan priestess? Thank you for the suggestion, Nane. I really like this one.

I'm no expert but it sounds nice. Your effort is commendable. It takes time and discipline to play an instrument. (I a lacking in both. ) Ani (another member here) is learning the guitar as well. Please share more of your stuff as you go forth in your endeavor.

http://www.airiandomeoffineart.com/ Born January 14, 1953 in Gyumri, Armenia, Emil Kazaz (Emmanuel Kazazian) trained as an artist in the traditional style since the age of seven. At seven, he studied sculpture at the local art school and attended the Mercurov Art School when he was 12. After moving to the capital, Yerevan, Emil Kazaz continued his studies at the Terlemezian Art College, finishing in 1972 and subsequently the University of Fine Arts and Theater, graduating in 1978 with honors. Settling in Los Angeles in 1980, his subsequent career is a dream come true. Exhibitions in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Russia, Canada and throughout the United States, Emil Kazaz has become a master. Earning the prestigious Lorenzo Medici Medal from the Florence Biennale in 2003 and the Grande Lorenzo il Magnifico (Medici) Prize in Sculpture from Florence Biennale in 2007. A very inventive storyteller, Kazaz blurs the distinctions between drawing, painting, and sculpture. By its spontaneous nature, drawing is his most fluid activity, followed by sculpture, and then painting, which, more often than not, seems sculptural. Kazaz is also a master of emotional transparency. His animated gestures and atypical postures project internal thoughts as secondary props, i.e. building details, cups, hats, etc. add to pictorial succulence and multilayered translations. All of his works are dominated by atmosphere, color, and implication; with a twist of the brush, a dab of color, or glob of clay, he creates a nose, a questioning gaze, and/or personas with complicated social situations as tiny pieces of architectural detail, furniture, or landscape identify locations in which his participants read their lines, and live their lives. Emil Kazaz continues to live and work in Los Angeles.

I love this. It's simply lovely. This is your special word. Thank you for parting with it for me. But if it turns into Tsovo, I will cry each time I see it written. (BTW..I did not reject all your recommendations. Lusampop is stil a good contender. Tsovo? NOOOO. See above. Astvatsuhi is sounding better and better. J/k Movses jan, I will take my chances with the wind. Perhaps it will blow me away to a place different than this... Way to kill a beautiful word Harut. No suggestions? Attempting to preserve some anonymity.

http://www.pf-armenia.org/fileadmin/pfa_uploads/Youth_Forum_Announcement.pdf http://hetq.am/en/politics/21633/#more-21633 Armenia-Diaspora Relations: Future Endangered? [ 2009/11/28 | 12:48 ]diaspora politicshttp://hetq.am/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/09_03-pfa.jpgCall for Proposals On October 10, 2009, the foreign ministers of Armenian and Turkey signed two protocols entitled the “Protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations” and the “Protocol on the development of bilateral relations”. The period between the announcement (August 31, 2009) and the signing witnessed significant and wide-spread demonstrations in the Diaspora, with limited public resistance in Armenia. Yerevan’s handling of the process that preceded the signing of the protocols appears to have deepened the divide between the Diaspora and the establishment in Armenia. The fragmented opposition in Armenia is yet to form a common view on the issue, all while the establishment is still struggling with challenges of legitimacy resulting from the fraudulent elections in February 2008 and May 2009. To provide an opportunity for young professionals to discuss Armenia–Diaspora relations, perspectives on and approaches to the present-day challenges facing the Armenian nation, Policy Forum Armenia announces a Youth Forum to take place on Saturday, January 23, 2010 in Washington, DC. The full-day Forum will include 3 panels each comprising 4 panelists. An additional panel of academic and policy experts will also present at the Forum. The event will feature a keynote speech on the overall topic of Armenia-Diaspora relations. Topics of interest for the Organizing Committee include: • Benefits and drawbacks of the protocols • Concerns of legitimacy and the signing of the protocols • Licking the wounds and looking ahead: An optimist’s agenda • People of Armenia vs. its governments: Who should Diaspora pledge its allegiances to? • Globalization and transnationalism: Are Diaspora-Armenia relations stuck in the past? • Legal, developmental, and moral reasons for Diaspora’s engagement in Armenia • Traditional Diaspora leadership: Out of touch, out of vision, or out of integrity? How to Apply Interested undergraduate and graduate students residing in the United States and Canada should submit a 1-page proposal on their topic as well as a cover letter containing the following information: • Applicant’s full name • Personal contact information including mailing address • Institutional affiliation (college or university) and status (years completed) • Major area of study • Names and contact information for two referees (at least one academic) Applicants should also mention in this letter whether they would like to be considered for need-based travel funds. These funds are limited and will only be available to a small number of applicants. The application deadline is December 14, 2009. Applications should be forwarded electronically to forum@pf-armenia.org with a subject “PFA Youth Forum.” Participants will be informed about the Committee’s decision by December 20. Successful applicants must submit their full position papers (5,000 word limit) by January 17, 2010. Policy Forum Armenia (www.pf-armenia.org) is an independent professional non-profit association aimed at strengthening discourse on Armenia’s economic development and national security and through that helping to shape public policy in Armenia.

«Հայկական ժամանակ», նոյեմբեր 26 հինգշաբթի 2009 Նկարի ձախ կողմում «Հոկտեմբերի 27-ի» գործով ցմահ ազատազրկման դատապարտված Դերենիկ Բեջանյանն է: Նրանից աջ` առաջին պլանում «Դրոյի» գործով ցմահ ազատազրկման դատապարտված Արսեն Արծրունին է: Վերջինիս կողքին` 2008-ի փետրվարին ՀՀ առաջին նախագահ Լեւոն Տեր-Պետրոսյանի տան դիմաց բողոքի ցույցեր կազմակերպող Արտյոմ Խաչատրյանն է, ով հանրությանը հայտնի է «Շիզոլինի» մականվամբ: Նկարի աջ կողմում` հետին պլանում նստածը «Հոկտեմբերի 27-ի» գործով ցմահ ազատազրկման դատապարտված Էդիկ Գրիգորյանն է: Նկարի կենտրոնական մասում` հետին պլանում նստած ճաղատ գլխով մարդու ինքնությունն անհայտ է, քանի որ դեմքը հստակ չի երեւում: Բերված նկարը, ամենայն հավանականությամբ, արվել է «Նուբարաշեն» ՔԿՀ-ի ցմահ դատապարտյալների խցում: Նկարը մոտ 2 ամիս առաջ է տեղադրվել ինտերնետում: ՀՀ օրենսդրությունը խմբակային տեսակցություն չի նախատեսում, այն էլ` դատապարտյալների խցում: Բացի այդ, հետաքրքիր կլիներ իմանալ, թե ով է ապահովում Հոկտեմբերի 27-ի ոճրագործների բարեկեցությունը:

http://www.azatutyun...le/1888795.html Yerevan Prison Under Investigation Over Photo Scandal http://gdb.rferl.org/FAE08B65-4BD9-4B45-B883-8BF453D75F63_w527_s.jpg Armenia -- Artyom Khachatrian ®, editor of the pro-government ''Azatamtutyun'' daily, pictured with three men serving life sentences for politically motivated murders in Yerevan's Nubarashen prison on October 5, 2009. Photo courtesy of ''Haykakan Zhamanak. 26.11.2009 Hasmik Smbatian Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian ordered an inquiry on Thursday after the publication of a revealing prison photograph that shows the editor of a pro-government newspaper in the company of three men serving life sentences for politically motivated murders. The photo, which appeared on the front-page of the pro-opposition daily "Haykakan Zhamanak," shows Artyom Khachatrian of the "Azatamtutyun" newspaper and one of his aides drinking coffee and soft drinks with the convicts at Yerevan's Nubarashen prison. All five men smiled as they had their picture taken by an unknown photographer. Two of them, Derenik Bejanian and Eduard Grigorian, were among the gunmen that had burst into Armenia's parliament in October 1999, killing its speaker Karen Demirchian, Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian and six other officials. They share their prison cell with Arsen Ardzruni, a former member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation convicted of being a member of a death squad that had allegedly operated in the early 1990s. "Haykakan Zhamanak" called the photograph scandalous, saying that Khachatrian's joint appearance with the convicted assassins was a serious breach of prison regulations. "What common things do they have to discuss and to do?" it asked in a dig at the editor who is reputed to have close ties to the government. Representatives of the country's two main pro-government parties questioned the authenticity of photograph. But Galust Sahakian, the parliamentary leader of President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party, said he will be "furious" if it turns out to be authentic. "To put it mildly, it's a disgrace that creates a problem for state security," he told the A1plus.am news service. The Ministry of Justice, which oversees Armenia's prison, said later in the day that Danielian ordered ministry officials to look into the picture and determine whether the Nubarashen administration violated rules regulating visits to prison inmates. "The inquiry will show whether there was a violation," Lana Mshetsian, a ministry spokeswoman, told RFE/RL. Khachatrian, meanwhile, admitted visiting the three inmates on October 5 and having a "warm rapport" with them. "This photo was stolen from my office," he told RFE/RL. "I know who stole and gave it to them." "If somebody is trying to see something extraordinary in this, then he is sick," said Khachatrian. "We just had our picture taken. What's wrong with that?" "The law allows visits to prison cells," he said. "Journalists are allowed to visit a prisoner in his cell with his consent." "Haykakan Zhamanak" asserted that under the Armenian prison rules, neither journalists nor anybody else can meet more than one prisoner at a time. Khachatrian claimed that prison officials simply "saved time" by letting him pay a collective visit to Bejanian, Grigorian and Ardzruni. "The three happen to be kept in one prison cell," he said. Khachatrian's daily is known for its hard-hitting and sometimes offensive commentaries that usually target opponents of Armenia's current leadership. Opposition circles claim that "Azatamtutyun" is funded from President Sarkisian's entourage. The paper claims to be independent, however. Once a harsh critic of Sarkisian and his predecessor Robert Kocharian, Khachatrian is also known as the organizer of a non-stop sit-in that was staged by a small group of government supporters outside opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian's house during the 2008 presidential race.

I spent the day giving back and being thankful for family members I neglect due to my hectic schedule. Family is most important and yet the first to be set aside in order "to get things done". It was lovely being amongst my own and yet "reconnecting". One member of this group is battling cancer and may not live for many more years. Today I felt like he was reaching out for the first time since his diagnosis and letting us know that he is over the denial and standoffishness he had adapted as a mechanism to deal with the shocking news. It's been a bittersweet evening. Lots of alcohol and tears and reminiscing. Hope you each are enjoying your evening surrounded by family and good friends. Have fun and be safe.

I was about to wish you a fun trip, yet I see form that pic that you have the fun part covered. Be safe was going to be my other sentiment. Please takes rolls of pics and share.

This is one of my favorite threads on the forum. Years ago when I discovered HF, I found it at 3 a.m., read it and I cried.

Thank you all so very much. I am grateful for your friendship and this corner to have to run to in my darkest days and nights. You all mean so much to me. As I grew older (better ) I learned that the most valuable thing a person can be granted is others' their time, love and attention. I feel so honored to be granted with so much of yours'. Thank you all from the deepest corner of my heart. Movses and Azat: I promise you dinner and drinking soon. I cannot wait.

http://www.nytimes.c...d.html?_r=2&hpw Unveiling the Hanging Gardens of Armenia By MICHAEL KIMMELMANPublished: November 18, 2009 YEREVAN, Armenia — Some 20,000 Armenians turned up for the opening of the Cafesjian Center for the Arts last week. They jammed the new sculpture park and the terraced gardens and galleries, including the first exhibition ever in Armenia of the Armenian-born American great, Arshile Gorky. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/11/18/arts/18abroad2/articleInline.jpg Justyna Mielnikiewicz for The New York Times Couples meeting at one of the outdoor garden by the gallery displaying photographs by Patti Boyd. The center, a mad work of architectural megalomania and historical recovery, is one of the strangest but most memorable museum buildings to open in ages. Imagine an Art Deco version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon stretching nearly the height of the Empire State Building, its decorations coded with Armenian symbolism. Did I mention the artificial waterfalls? Built into a gigantic hill in the commercial heart of this capital city, with a staircase that climbs the outside linking the gardens, the place was originally conceived in Soviet times to be topped by a monument to the Soviet revolution. That it has been turned into a contemporary-art center by a rich American is a twist of history whose symbolism is lost on no one here. There's no endowment, no professional board, so it may very well soon fall flat on its face, as so much has in this country where widespread corruption, lethargy and years of isolation have led to an unemployment rate around 40 percent, a crumbling infrastructure and almost no middle class. But for the time being, at least, it is doing what precious few museums, and even fewer vanity enterprises like it can dream of doing — namely, offering a whole nation a kind of uplift. From morning to evening, as if out on prom night, young Armenians at the opening rode the center's escalator, in many ways the main attraction, which rises via several grand, plaza-size landings inside to, of all things, a little jazz lounge, where a view of the city unfolds beyond tall windows behind the stage. Armenia's president, Serge Sargsyan, surrounded by swarms of security guards (politicians can't be too careful here) took time out from the debate over opening the border with Turkey. He joined Gerard L. Cafesjian, the 84-year-old Brooklyn-born Armenian-American patron of the center, and the center's director, Michael De Marsche, among others, to hear the inaugural set. These days Armenian newspaper headlines dwell on the Turkish border opening, which the United States quietly presses for to gain an oil pipeline that can sidestep Russia and Iran. In return Turkey wants to table once and for all any talk about having committed genocide in the killing of more than a million Armenians nearly a century ago. Admitting to genocide has legal ramifications in terms of restitution. So President Obama has lately stopped using the G word, leaving Armenians to choose between desperately needed economic improvement and justice in the defining calamity of their history. Paralyzed for decades by that event, turned in on itself, landlocked and surrounded by mostly hostile neighbors, Armenia has had until now almost no place to see modern and contemporary art from outside the country. When a perfectly anodyne fat Botero sculpture of a cat was installed in the new center's sculpture park a few years ago, it caused a scandal. Then, resistance melted. As the center's opening proved, thousands of young Armenians are hungry for what's beyond their borders and are open to change. I arrived, having been invited to lecture at the opening, dimly aware of the center's history, which began during the 1930s, when a prominent local architect, Alexander Tamanyan, conceived the Cascade, as it's called, a towering, white travertine ziggurat of artificial waterfalls and gardens tumbling down a promontory that links the historic residential and business centers of the city. Banquet-hall-size meeting rooms were devised for Soviet apparatchiks. The plan was largely forgotten until the late 1970s, after which construction began. Then came the earthquake in 1988 and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Like much of the city during the post-Soviet years of transition, the Cascade was left in the lurch. Enter Mr. Cafesjian, from Minnesota. Armenian officials agreed he could erect a building on top of the Cascade in which to show his collection if he would complete the Cascade. Work started in 2002, but costs spiraled swiftly out of control. What had been imagined as a $20 million undertaking soon topped $40 million, with no end in sight. Mr. Cafesjian regrouped. Two years ago he hired Mr. De Marsche, then president of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. The building on top was put on hold, the focus instead turned toward completing the Cascade and the sculpture park at the foot of it. Tamanyan's original meeting rooms became art galleries, a gift shop and the jazz lounge. Peculiar doesn't begin to describe the results. The galleries are irregular and spaced far apart, some of them reachable only outdoors across the gardens, which in winter will be frigid and covered with snow. It's a world away from other museums here. I stopped several times into the National Gallery, an aging palace of marble, worn carpets, bare light bulbs and creaky floorboards in the middle of the city. You wouldn't necessarily know it was a gallery from outside. The facade is covered by billboards for a bank. An unmarked entrance is shuttered by Venetian blinds. Even on Saturday and Sunday afternoons I was the only visitor in the entire place. Elderly female guards in starched white shirts, startled, glumly rose to watch me pass. Through the gallery's windows, bossa nova music wafted incongruously from an empty Soviet-era amusement park nearby. A panorama of half-finished apartment blocks, Hummers and luxury shops for the oligarchs, and bulky statues of Armenian heroes on horseback spread out below. According to Raffi Hovannisian, Armenia's former foreign minister, the country now depends for some one-third of its economy on money sent by Armenians abroad. The global collapse has been devastating. Several years of double-digit economic growth during the early 2000s have largely evaporated. Even Dennis Doyle, who sits on the board of Mr. Cafesjian's family foundation, wondered aloud about the center's future. Mr. Cafesjian promises to pay for it. But that means it all depends on him in the end. The Armenian government is no safety net. Karen De Marsche, Mr. De Marsche's wife, said she was sitting in a restaurant here with a friend one recent afternoon when a man rushed in, agitated, and begged for something from the manager, who disappeared into the kitchen. The friend, who knew the man, got up from the table to find out what was wrong. She returned, distressed. "What happened?" Ms. De Marsche asked. The friend explained that the man was canvassing restaurants. His uncle had just died in the hospital, and the man told hospital officials the rest of his family couldn't make it to town for a couple of days. They told him, "Get ice."

VISA is back at the Troubadour, the night before Thanksgiving! All ages show. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15 at the door. Each person attending will help benefit The Los Angeles Mission, a non-profit organization serving the homeless in Downtown LA. VISA showtime is at 10:30 pm.