St. Louis Today
Sept 23 2004

A HOBBY FOR HIS HONOR
By Norman Parish

Pounding the gavel is his job; making it is honored hobby

Andy Matoesian is a circuit judge and an accomplished wood carver who
is considered by at least one author to be one of the country’s best.

When Circuit Judge Andy Matoesian needs a gavel for his job, he
doesn’t have to order a new one. He simply makes it.

For more than two decades, Matoesian has made gavels for himself and
fellow Madison County judges, as well as thousands of other items
from wood, in his Edwardsville garage. He says he has made about
1,500 gavels and about 15,000 pens since the late 1960s.

Matoesian also occasionally makes furniture, bottle stoppers and
large crosses for his church – Holy Virgin Mary Armenian Church in
Swansea. His handiwork has been used by people from Illinois to
California, including a gavel in a 1993 movie, “Precious Victims.”

And James A. Jacobson, who has written about a dozen books on
woodworking, considers Matoesian as one of the best wood craftsmen in
the country.

“It is just a great hobby,” said Matoesian, 67. “I love it. I get up
at 4:30 a.m. and start working.”

Matoesian, a Granite City native, said he first learned about
woodworking as a student at Granite City High School during the
1950s. The son of a barber, Matoesian later concentrated his efforts
on barbering after graduating from Peoria Barber College in 1956.

He used his barbering skills while attending college – at Southern
Illinois University, Illinois State University and the Washington
University law school, from which he graduated in 1964. He worked for
a law firm headed by lawyer Rex Carr before being appointed a
magistrate (now associate) judge in 1965. In 1978, Matoesian was
appointed a county circuit judge. He handles civil cases.

Matoesian returned to his love of woodworking a couple of years after
he became a judge in 1965. He said he wanted a hobby in which he
could remain close to a daughter, Georgea, who suffered from
neurological problems. She died in 2002 of complications of
pneumonia.

Matoesian’s wife, Julie, works as assistant state’s attorney in child
support enforcement. Another daughter, Jane, is a lawyer in St.
Louis.

Matoesian said he now uses the woodworking to help relieve stress. He
also wants to improve.

“It is a constructive use of leisure time,” he said.

Matoesian regularly works in his garage or a large workshop room he
has assembled in his house. He admits he has more than $20,000 worth
of equipment. He usually uses walnut or cherry wood for his
creations.

Sometimes his hobby can be a little risky – such as the time he cut
his right index finger. It required about 20 stitches to close.

“You can never completely master woodworking,” Matoesian said.

But Jacobson, the woodworking author, believes Matoesian is an
expert. In fact, Jacobson said he has featured Matoesian in eight of
his books.

“It is a hobby to (Matoesian),- but he has developed it into a fine
art,” said Jacobson, a retired Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville criminal justice professor who now lives in Grand
Marais, Minn. “In my opinion, he is one of the best.”

Chief Circuit Judge Edward C. Ferguson agrees.

“I think (his gavels) are great,” said Ferguson, who adds that
Matoesian makes a two-foot-long, five-pound gavel for chief judges
when they leave their posts. “They are wonderfully crafted. It is a
wonderful skill. I wish I had it.”

ArmenPress
Sept 23 2004

DEFENSE MINISTRY DENIES PRESS REPORTS ABOUT AZERI SHOOTING ON
ARMENIAN BUS

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: A defense ministry spokesman
denied today reports of several local dailies that a passenger bus
came under fire when traveling between Kirants and Voskepar villages
in Tavush province bordering with Azerbaijan. The dailies claimed one
passenger, a middle-aged woman, was wounded on her back.
The spokesman, Seyran Shahsuvarian, said the alleged shooting was
not confirmed either by the commander of an Armenian military unit,
guarding the border with Azerbaijan.

ArmenPress
Sept 23 2004

GRECO MONITORING COMMISSION TO VISIT ARMENIA NEXT YEAR

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: Bagrat Yesayan, a presidential
advisor on anti-corruption issues, said September 22 that a Council
of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) monitoring
commission is coming to Armenia next January of February to assess
the country’s progress in anti-corruption struggle.
Yesayan said Armenia has been monitored by the commission since
its enrollment and has prepared answers to 128 questions, including
corruption risk assessment in different government bodies. He said
GRECO will discuss next year the monitoring commission’s report on
Armenia. Armenia joined GRECO last January becoming its 37-th member.
Speaking at a special discussion on Armenia’s progress in
anti-graft process Bagratyan said the government-designed plan of
actions to crackdown on corruption has already produced some positive
results. He singled out a law on organization and conduction of
financial inspections that has established in a clear way the list of
government organizations which have the right to do so. He said 23
inspections conducted by the finance ministry in the first six months
of this year revealed 174 million dram worth abuses part of which was
restored.
According to Bagratian, though the relevant Armenian legislation
was brought in conformity with European standards its application
still faces some problems.

ArmenPress
Sept 23 2004

AGRIBUSINESS TEACHING CENTER ATTRACTS FOREIGN STUDENTS

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: An Agricultural
Academy-affiliated Agribusiness teaching center, run with the
financial and technical assistance of the US Department of
Agriculture Yerevan office has started teaching two more subjects,
namely International Business Law and E-Trade.
The course that lasts three years and is conducted in English has
attracted this year 60 students. Upon graduation they will be awarded
diplomas of Texas University (USA) and the Armenian Agricultural
Academy.
This year 11 students from Agricultural Universities of Tbilisi
and Batumi, Georgia, have been enrolled and next month another 100
students from India will be enrolled.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 23 2004

Court of Appeals acquits GLO members

On Wednesday the Court of Appeals acquitted six members of the
Garabagh Liberation Organization (GLO), including its chairman Akif
Naghi. The six activists, sentenced to 3-5 years in prison late in
August, were released from arrest in the courtroom.
However, the court found the defendants guilty and issued a two-year
suspended sentence to chairman Naghi and a one-year suspended term to
the other five GLO members. The defendants pled not guilty and said
they intend to struggle for a complete acquittal. The six GLO members
were accused of blocking traffic on the Tbilisi Avenue, breaking into
the hotel and disrupting a NATO conference underway and inflicting
damage to the hotel estimated at 1.7 million manats ($340) while
protesting against the Armenian officers’ planned participation in
NATO exercises in Baku.
The defendants rejected the charges saying that they were simply
trying to protest the Armenian officers’ planned arrival in
Azerbaijan in front of the hotel.
The previous sentence of the GLO members was condemned by Azerbaijani
public, representatives of political parties and parliament members.
President Ilham Aliyev also regarded the sentence as too harsh.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 23 2004

S Caucasus PA not to be set up unless Upper Garabagh conflict is
settled, says Vice Speaker

Baku, September 22, AssA-Irada
Vice Speaker of the Milli Majlis (parliament) Ziyafat Asgarov
received Denis Sammit, executive director of the London Information
Network on State Building and Conflicts, on Wednesday.
Asgarov said that he has been informed about the proposal made by the
Network to establish the Parliamentary Assembly of South Caucasus
countries.
Noting that this is impossible unless the Upper Garabagh conflict is
settled, the Vice Speaker directly blamed the leadership of Armenia
for failure to solve the conflict. `How can we set up a Parliamentary
Assembly together with a terrorist state?’, underscored Asgarov,
stating that no relations will be established between Azerbaijan and
Armenia until the conflict is settled. Sammit, in turn, said that
there is a very complicated situation in South Caucasus due to
ongoing conflicts. Stating that he understands well international
organizations’ failure to settle the conflict, Sammit advised the
governments of the two conflicting sides to make joint efforts with
international organizations and NGOs in this respect.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 23 2004

Armenian FM criticizes PACE report on Upper Garabagh

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said he was dissatisfied
with the report presented by the former rapporteur of the Parliament
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Upper Garabagh, head of
the British delegation in the PACE, Terry Davis.
`It is unacceptable for Armenia’, Oskanian said.
The Armenian minister said he has no hopes for the new rapporteur,
Englishman David Atkinson, either. Oskanian said he was aware of
Great Britain’s position on the territorial integrity issue but added
that `the Armenian side is already studying the matter’.
Terry Davis was appointed as rapporteur on Upper Garabagh at the PACE
summer session in 2002, and as the Council of Europe Secretary
General in June 2004.
The PACE Political Committee heard the report on Upper Garabagh
presented by Davis in Paris on September 14, 2004. On the same day,
British parliament member David Atkinson was appointed as the new
rapporteur on Upper Garabagh. Atkinson has already expressed his
intention to meet with the conflicting parties. The date for his
arrival in the South Caucasus region has not been reported yet.*

The Times (London)
September 23, 2004, Thursday

A warmly surreal love story set in a post-Soviet village pleases
Wendy Ide

by Wendy Ide

VODKA LEMON. PG, 89 mins ***
SAVE THE GREEN PLANET. 18, 116 mins **
SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE. 18, 85 mins **
RED LIGHTS. 15, 105 mins ***
THE ISTER. N/C, 190 mins *

There is a tendency for films such as the Kurdish Armenian Vodka
Lemon to be dismissed as little more than a glorified ethnographic
show-and-tell, a charming novelty in elk-fur peasant garb. The Story
of the Weeping Camel from Mongolia suffered this fate at the hands of
some British critics earlier this year. The problem is that the
attitude directed towards films from small, poor, less newsworthy
countries can be rather patronising.

In fact, films from countries without a developed film-making
infrastructure can be far more interesting than those with a weighty
cinema history that dictates how and how not to make films.

Vodka Lemon merrily makes its own narrative rules, layering
colourfully surreal vignettes (there’s a definite flavour of Emir
Kusterica’s anarchic Gypsy communities) and bittersweet Armenian
in-jokes with a gentle, rather lovely autumn romance between a
widowed former army officer and the woman he glimpses each day at the
frost-bound cemetery.

The story is set in a Kurdish mountain village that is still
suffering the transition from Soviet occupation to free market. Of
course, a free market works only if you have money to buy things, and
the villagers are forced to barter their remaining sticks of
furniture and hope for an envelope filled with cash from the one
village son who made it to the West. It’s not nearly as bleak as it
sounds – there’s a specific kind of humour that thrives in the face
of extreme privation and Vodka Lemon has it in spades.

Another week, another piece of graphic Korean nastiness. At the heart
of Save the Green Planet (pictured above) is an interesting premise
-a businessman is kidnapped by a dangerous young criminal, but
instead of a ransom, the kidnapper wants an admission that the
businessman is in fact an alien from Andromeda, and that a visit from
an extraterrestrial prince is imminent.

It’s shot with a macabre visual elan and snappily edited, but the
extended torture sequences try the endurance and sit uncomfortably
with the rather juvenile tone of the film. Another problem is that
the writer-director, Jang Jun Hwan, doesn’t seem to know how to end
his film. It drags on for a good 30 minutes longer than it needs to,
bolstered by a montage of humanity’s worst atrocities -somewhat
disingenuous in a film that presents torture as entertainment.

More gore, this time from France, in the strangely titled Switchblade
Romance.

This is an old-school horror flick, in the sense that the gouging and
slashing and bludgeoning with barbed-wire wrapped cudgels is not
mitigated with humour, postmodern self-awareness or pop-cultural
references.

Die-hard horror aficionados will probably consider this a return to a
purist slasher-movie ethos. More sensitive souls will have a hard
time coping with its unremitting grisliness. There’s a strong central
performance, however, from the rising star Cecile De France, last
seen in the lamentable Around the World in Eighty Days. If only she
had wielded her barbed-wire cudgel where it was really needed.

Cedric Kahn’s latest film, Red Lights, is adapted from a novel that
Georges Simenon wrote in the 1950s. It was thematically ahead of its
time -Kahn (see interview, page 6) has moved this exploration of male
status anxiety to the present day and it works well.

An excellent performance from Jean-Pierre Darroussin is the driving
force in what could be described as a psychological drama, a road
movie and a thriller. He plays a rather pathetic little man whose ego
won’t let him accept the fact that he is an unremarkable accountant
while his wife (an icily indifferent Carole Bouquet) is a high-flying
lawyer.

This anger festers during a long, night-time car journey and he
sneaks illicit drinks along the way as small acts of rebellion. After
a confrontation, she decides to proceed alone and the night becomes a
darker and more dangerous place for both of them.

It’s hard to imagine a more specialist-interest film than The Ister,
a three hour documentary that riffs on a series of lectures delivered
by the philosopher Heidegger in 1942. And I’m afraid I lost interest
in this terminally dull film pretty quickly.

For this to succeed, it would need to be both visually striking and
accessible.

The Ister fails on both counts.

Insurance Day
September 23, 2004

IN BRIEF

Armenians on board

CALIFORNIA insurance commissioner John Garamendi has made three
appointments to the Armenian Insurance Settlement Fund Board. The new
board members Viken Manjikian, Paul Krekorian, and Berj Boyajian will
evaluate claims against New York Life Insurance Co, relating to the
settlement of a class-action lawsuit on behalf of heirs and
descendants of policyholders who were killed in the Armenian genocide
more than 90 years ago. Mr Garamendi secured a $20m fund to help make
payment of claims in this case earlier this year, following a
compromise by New York Life. The settlement relates to an estimated
2,300 policies sold by the insurer to Armenians living in the Ottoman
Empire in the late 1800s and early 1900s. From April 1915 onwards,
many of these policyholders were among the 1.5m slaughtered in
attacks on Armenians within the empire.

The Evening Standard (London)
September 23, 2004

VODKA LEMON ***
CERT PG, 89 MINS

IF YOU have never seen an Armenian film, try Vodka Lemon. It is one
of those intriguing, small-scale efforts that comfortably outpaces
many grander, more expensive designs.

Set in an impoverished Kurdish-Armenian village, it follows an
elderly widower who takes the bus every day to visit his wife’s
grave. He talks to her, not always kindly. On the bus, too, is a
local widow who works at a small roadside stall selling a brand of
liquor called Vodka Lemon. A delicate romance is born.

But the film is also about the poverty of the villagers. Hiner
Saleem, the director, is unsentimental about them, allowing his film
to be funny without being patronising and to pass from realism into a
kind of fantasy during which the two lovers ride off into the sunset
on the old piano they are trying to sell. It’s an odd mixture which
makes Vodka Lemon particularly tasty.