THREE APPLES: A SLAB OF MEAT IN YOUR IPOD
By Paul Chaderjian
-meat-in-your-ipod/
Mar 8th, 2010
It’s past one o’clock on a Thursday morning, and "Coast to Coast AM,"
my favorite late-night radio talk show is beaming via headphone into
my left ear from an AM radio station in Los Angeles.
It has just rained, and inhaling that fresh, clean smell of fresh air
after a downpour prompted my first thought of gratitude on this day.
The Queen of Media, Oprah Winfrey, once preached about keeping
a gratitude journal, and since I’ve noticed that focusing on all
the blessings we have paves the way for even more blessings to be
grateful for.
We live in an amazing era and must not overlook the amazing blessings
we experience daily. From scientists growing replacement organs for
the ill to having water on tap when needed, every second of our modern
lives is pregnant with blessings and joy.
>>From the beauty of nature to the miracles of our five senses, from
overweight pets cuddling-up next to us while we read a good book to
laying in bed and composing this column on my phone – every single
minute detail of our lives can simply be wondrous.
And to think we would’ve never existed had our grandparents not been
real life heroes with the will to live and who survived the Turkish
barbarism of intolerant sociopaths and psychopaths (intraspecies
predators).
Another blessing are human connections, exchange of ideas, opinions,
respect, and tolerance. How great that Armenians learned from the
Turkish intolerance and oppression that resulted in a genocide and can
be as different from one another, hold no common values or opinions,
and yet still accept one another as an Armenian and as a human.
Not all of us have learned though, and some Armenians out there find
opportunities where they shouldn’t and become judge and jury about
what opinions should have an audience what should not.
I learned this lesson when last week I wrote that this year’s
Eurovision song was not an Armenian song. Who was I to judge, but I
had. My criticism was about bad lyrics, and I apparently upset a few
intolerant Armenians.
"Too many people just like the author of this piece decide that they
are cultural experts," said one anonymous critic. "It’s time for them
to be quiet and go away."
Pack up and dissolve into a non-Armenian existence because I don’t
like bad lyrics? Really? Funny.
See how fragile human connections and interactions are? All efforts
should be made to fuel and bond us, however different we are, rather
than cut off dialogue because we hold a different opinion about one
song’s lyrics.
Why I write about connections is because that’s what make us human
and allows for subcultures and hence cultures to be created and
maintained. Connections – be it one-on-one, through small groups in
foreign lands, or through mass media – are what have preserved our
ethnicity, which could’ve easily been forgotten history.
As I listen to a scientist talking in my ear about genies talking to
humans and Shamanism, I am writing about how one innovative, young
Armenian has started fresh, new dialogue between his peers utilizing
Information Age technologies and creating a novel new podcast.
Where no dialogue had existed, one young man and his friends are able
to use the Internet to create new human connections, new Armenian
subcultures, where they didn’t exist before.
Nisanian on the left, Babayan on the right, and Meline Tovmasian
guest host on the bottom.
Here’s how I made a connection with these young Armenian broadcasters.
It was thanks to my father’s uncle, Shukri Keri, who was six-years-old
during the Genocide. He was found alive underneath corpses by Bedouins
searching through Armenian bodies for salvageable belongings.
Shukri Keri lived with these nomadic Arabs for more than a decade and
the only Armenian he could remember were the words of Psalm 23. An
Armenian merchant doing business with the Bedouin found my dad’s uncle
in the Syrian desert and alerted the AGBU in Beirut to rescue him so
that he could live as an Armenian once again.
It was Shukri Keri’s granddaughter, actress and comedienne Lory
Tatoulian, who had been a guest on a podcast called Raw Radio
and her appearance was mentioned on Facebook by her friend Yeghia
Elvis. I wanted to hear her interview, so I searched the iTunes
podcast directory for "Raw Radio" and found it with a few clicks. The
graphic for the podcast is a slab of raw meat to demonstrate the
podcast’s premise, and for a second I wasn’t sure this was what I
was looking for.
Within seconds, however, I was listening to this amazingly entertaining
and interesting Armenian talk show hosted by a 30-year-old named
Alex. Raw Radio is on iTunes but can also be heard via the web page
rawradiopodcast.blogspot.com.
As I listened to a few episodes, I found out that Alex, who is a
talented voice-over artist and graphic designer, decided to buy a
couple of good microphones, connect them to his computers, and thus
set up a studio in his apartment.
Since last December, Alex has been inviting some friends to his place
and asking them to talk about issues that are on the minds of young
American-Armenians.
A few minutes into the first monologue of the most current episode,
I was a fan. Alex has a charismatic on-air presence. He’s a natural
performer, communicator, and broadcaster, and it’s a pleasure to
listen him.
He has one of these rare voices that you actually want to hear more
of, and that he is an Armenian with some insights into the Armenian
experience that have not been articulated in a public era was to me
sheer genius.
Though you may or may not agree with him, the fact that he’s putting
himself out there, out to millions of Internet users, is commendable.
What’s also commendable is that he and his peers don’t care what a
few pea-brained, disagreeing and anonymous Armenians with only hatred
and vitriol to contribute to our collective experience will say or
not say about them.
Through the some 14-weeks of the Raw Radio podcasts, I heard dialogue
about Armenian music, vodka and mixed drinks, card games, and the
strange Armenians who hang out eating seeds outside 7-11’s.
Raw Radio also featured interviews with innovative young people like
comedienne Lory Tatoulian, writer and event organizer Atina Hartunian,
and musician and photographer Mher Ajemian.
Raw Radio logo.These hour-long shows also featured risque subjects
like dating and sex and themes that I have only heard discussed on
mainstream media programs like George Noory’s show that I’m listening
to now. Raw Radio has tackled them all including chem-trails, 9/11
conspiracy theories, fluoride in our water, and spirituality and
intuition.
For all the decades we’ve had Armenian television stations on the
airwaves and the dozens of Armenian radio stations streaming on-line,
no one has had the audacity to create and host a frank talk show like
Raw Radio. No one has taken the time to connect with other Armenians
through media about real-life matters beyond news headlines. No one
has taken the time for simple, common man talk about common subjects.
For this we need to encourage Alex and his friends and make sure they
continue to share their outspoken spirits, thoughts, and ideas with
our community and the world.
Inspired by and surpassing Alex’s role model – the King of all Media,
Howard Stern – Raw Radio is a rare find, save for the extra and
sometimes unnecessary use of profanities. It’s also a modern-era radio
drama, taking place in Alex’s apartment, where friends are exchanging
frank ideas, unabashed, and not holding back on their opinions and
their humanity. And it’s dialogue you can also be an audience to,
that you can enjoy, and that you can use to stay connected with
other Armenians.
Raw Radio is a breath of fresh air on my iPod and computer, and
for this I am grateful this Thursday morning. It’s time for a new
generation of Armenians to take over the reigns and try to create
dialogue and real-life media in our community. Perhaps they’ll be
more defiant and not take obnoxious and uncivilized anonymous critics
to heart.
And since my thumbs are hurting from typing on my phone, I’ll stop
and ask you to discover and enjoy our young and innovative Armenian
broadcasters and their show.
Sent to Asbarez via 3ApplesBerry