paul chaderjian

a column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez newspaper Once there was and there was not … … a moon so large in the Angelino Sky that I could clearly see the red underbelly of a Southwest jet flying over me, out of the Burbank Airport and into the future. On this first Sunday of October, the moon was so close that I could touch her wrinkles. I knew God had put her there just for me, so that He would illuminate the humdrum, drab, artless, and uninspired set of my midlife feature film. Aristotle and some researchers quoted in a February Scientific American article believe the powerful pull of a full moon leads to temporary lunacy. Though science rebuffs the urban legend of being moonstruck, last Sunday I was not only moonstruck, but also overcome by a rush of patriotism and nationalism. After watching the Horizon TV recap of the rally outside the Beverly Hilton, I stepped out to my balcony, stared at the moon and screamed, “Ararat-eh mehrn-eh (Ararat is ours).” I paused for a s...

a column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez newspaper Once there was and there was not … Last Sunday I stood a foot from my TV flipping channels to find local news coverage of the protest rally at Pelanconi Park in Glendale. Instead of a story about ten thousand Armenians gathering there were stories about Roman Polanski’s arrest and Yom Kippur services. Why had I even bothered, I thought, remembering what a pale-faced, petite news executive said to me five years ago. “The only thing the Armenian Genocide means is a traffic tie up on Times Square every April 24th,” she stated bluntly. She wasn’t trying to be funny. She thought her position as my boss and as a supervising producer at a TV network earned her the right to arbitrate the 21st century value of an unpunished and unspeakable 20th century genocidal crime. “You’re not getting it,” she said, “it’s not newsworthy.” That exchange in the early hours of April 24, 2004, was like the Ottoman sword that split my head op...

a column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez newspaper Once there was and there was not … Etched somewhere in your memories of childhood must surely be a moment, an image, a fleeting impression, or a moment of you in your yesteryear buying a book or borrowing one from the library. Etched inexplicably in my memory is this one moment at a bookshop in Damascus, Syria –Cleopatra’s wedding present. This Twilight Zone-ish moment is one of my dad buying three books in English for me, of the polluted stench of spent fuels in the air, the dozens of whizzing scooters feet away, traffic horns, jets flying above, and the buzzing of construction drills above the noises of hawkers and street peddlers. In that moment and since my earliest memories, there was something special about books. Perhaps it’s a cultural or generational thing, but books were cherished, handled carefully, and were more important than our Matchbox cars and other toys. The printed word, hardbound, softbound – cov...

The Armenian Reporter April 4, 2009   BURBANK, Calif.  – Celebrity and fourth generation Armenian-American Kim Kardashian gave an exclusive interview to US-Armenia TV on April 1, telling her Armenian and non-Armenian fans that she was proudest of her Armenian genes and her Armenian vor (derriere in Armenian). Noting that her late father, O.J. Simpson attorney Robert Kardashian, had dreamed of visiting Armenia, she announced that she plans to fulfill her father’s dream. Casual, gracious, funny, flirtatious, and always mesmerizing, the drop-dead gorgeous 20-something reached out to some 7 million US-Armenia TV viewers over-the-air on digital channel 18.5 in Southern California, via cable and the Globecast satellite to the United States and North America, to Europe, the Middle East and Africa on the global Hotbird satellite, and via terrestrial antennas all over the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. Kim spoke to Armenia...

The Neapolitan Armenians (AKA swan song of a departed editor) by Paul Chaderjian NAPLES, Florida - Try as you might. Try with as much effort as you can muster. But on some days, you can’t write a straightforward story to save your career. Call it fate. So, dear reader, if you buckle your seat belt, we’re going to go on a journey to Southwest Florida, and it’s going to be like a roller coaster of thoughts. Maybe it’ll be fun. Maybe Vincent will indeed print this. Maybe the woman who criticized my last article about the Armenian church on mychurch.com and said I write because I like to hear myself write is right. (Vincent, will you please, please keep this opening?) + the fine print (Grish, put this in eight-point font but keep these instructions in the published version. Let’s give our readers between-the-lines dialogue they can feel voyeuristic about). So I slammed my Camry’s driver-side door on my fingers when I jumped in as I was summon...

The Neapolitan Armenians : When two of them meet, see if they will not create a new Armenia by Paul Chaderjian NAPLES, Florida – Florida in the American lexicon equates to recreation, retirement, rest, and relaxation. Among the top dozen destinations that are known around the world is a small city of an estimated 22,000 residents on the western coast of the Sunshine State. This city, in Collier County, earned its name thanks to its reputation for overshadowing the original Bay of Naples, Italy. The accolades Naples, Florida, has earned include consistently being named as one of the top five places to live in the U.S. Its ten-mile beach on the Gulf of Mexico has been named the best beach in the U.S. The city is also known as the Golf Capital of the World and boasts more than 80 championship golf courses. Naples is where people who value serenity, beauty, cleanliness – paradise - come to vacation or spend their retirement years. Among those who have a residence here are Bill Gates ,...

by Paul Chaderjian Naples - Scents that would whet even a vegetarian's appetite waft through Andre's Steakhouse, at the northeast corner of Tamiami and 28th Avenue. The front and back parking lots are full, and there are no empty parking spots on the street. It's the last Saturday night of February, and Andre's is packed like it is every night during "the season," when tourists and retirees converge on Florida's Paradise Coast, off the Gulf of Mexico.   Enter the epicurean wonderland of Andre's, and there is not one empty table. The steakhouse is full of loyal patrons of all ages - some in shorts and T-shirts and others in short-sleeved shirts or summer dresses. It's the dead of winter, but one can easily forget the blizzards blanketing the Midwest and Northeast in snow. There is laughter, people talking, someone making a toast in one corner, and half a dozen clean-cut waiters - dressed in white shirts and bowties - dance a perfectly chor...

BURBANK, Calif. - The English-language “Hotline” talk show debuted last Friday night at midnight (Pacific Time) on US-Armenia TV, which broadcasts in Southern California on over-the-air, antenna TV (KSCI 18.5), on Charter and Time-Warner cable, on satellite in the United States via Globecast, and in Europe and Armenia on the Hotbird satellite. For the past four years, program host Paul Chaderjian has interviewed more than a hundred guests who were working or were involved with projects in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora. “The interview show idea came to life when Armenia TV asked me to go to Armenia and help with the coverage of the 90th Anniversary of the Genocide in 2005,” said Chaderjian, who is a former ABC News writer-producer and one of the former hosts of the annual Armenia Fund Thanksgiving Day telethon. “I helped Armenia TV set up a live transmission to CNN, The Associated Press, and a few European news agencies,” said Chaderjian. “We wanted to show the world how impor...

Based in Dubai, Setrakian covers the Gulf states and beyond by Paul Chaderjian DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – You’ve seen her on the ABC evening news, on Good Morning America, and on the round-the-clock ABC News Now cable-satellite-Internet network. You’ve heard her voice on ABC News Radio, and you’ve read her bylines from Beirut, Tehran, and cities of the United Arab Emirates, where she resides and works. “Nowadays they say, Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai or bye-bye. That’s the line. This is where the growth is. This is where the money is. It’s different and it’s fast pace, and they know they have some sense of what they want,” she explains to me the enigma of Dubai as we sit feet away from the Dubai Marina. “And you see other cities in the Gulf trying to create for themselves the same effect. They’re not trying to copy Dubai. They’re trying to do it their way. Qatar and Doha, Abu Dhabi is trying to do it. Everyone is trying to ramp up. They don’t want to let this oil boom pass by...