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DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week:
A new album by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys …
A listener question about one of the busiest airports in theworld …
And a class that teaches a dance from India.
Bhangra Dance Classes
The music and dance of India arebecoming increasingly popular in the United States. There is anIndian musical play on Broadway in New York City called “BombayDreams.” So-called “Bollywood” movies made in India are often shownin America as well. And many classes around the country teach Indiandances. Shep O’Neal tells us more about one of these dances.
SHEP O’NEAL: Bhangra is a lively folk dance from the northernIndian state of Punjab. Dancers move their arms and legs to thestrong beat of the music. Kumud Mathur teaches Bhangra and otherIndian dances in the Washington, D.C., area. She has been performingand teaching dance in the area for more than fifteen years.
Mizz Mathur is a mathematician by profession. She works for theUnited States Army. She developed the Dance to Health Society innineteen ninety.
She wanted to develop a fitness program that combines aerobicexercise, Indian culture and music. So she studied exercisetechniques and developed a class for the Montgomery CountyDepartment of Recreation. She teaches Bhangra dance to a group ofabout thirty people on Tuesday nights at the community center inPotomac, Maryland. The group includes young people and older people.The majority of them have family members from India.
Several young Indian-Americans in the class are learning Bhangraso they can perform the dance with other young people at dance clubsin Washington. Several older people are learning the dance becauseit is part of their Indian culture. Other people in the class arenot of Indian ancestry. But they say the class is good exercise. Itis also great fun. And they like the music.
You can also find Bhangra dance classes in other areas, includingNew York City, New Jersey and California. Bhangra dance competitionsare held at colleges and universities in many areas.
Here is a Bhangra dance song called “Naal Naal.”
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O’Hare International Airport
DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Nigeria.Abdulkadir Usman asks about O’Hare International Airport in Chicago,Illinois.
O’Hare Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport inAtlanta, Georgia each claim to be the world’s busiest airport.O’Hare may be the world’s busiest airport. Or it may be only thesecond busiest. But everything about it is big.
The Federal Aviation Administration says more than nine hundredthirty thousand flights traveled through O’Hare last year. Duringthat time, more than sixty-nine million passengers passed throughO’Hare.
Most of these people were waiting for connecting flights. As theywaited, they could shop at many airport stores. They could eat atairport cafes. They could exercise at a health club or do officework in a business-support center. They could take their children toa flight museum or visit the airport’s religious center.
The huge O’Hare Airport of today is very different from itsbeginning. It started as a military air base and factory in thenineteen forties. The center produced planes for World War Two.Later, the airport was named for Navy pilot Edward O’Hare. He waskilled in action during the war after being honored with medals forbravery.
As big as O’Hare airport is today, however, it is not big enough.Too many airplanes crowd the runways where they take off and land.Delays and cancellations interfere with air traffic across thecountry. Officials say sixty-five percent of the flights at O’Harewere delayed during the first seven months of this year. This wasthe worst record among the nation’s major airports.
To improve the situation, the governor of Illinois signed theO’Hare Modernization Act last year. The Act calls for buildinganother runway. Existing runways would be moved and extended. Morebuildings are planned. The project will cost more thansix-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars. When all that iscompleted in the next eight years, busy O’Hare Airport can get evenbusier.
Brian Wilson’s Album “Smile”
The former leader of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, is makingwaves again by finally releasing his old, yet new, album, “Smile.”Faith Lapidus tells us about it.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Brian Wilson wrote and produced most of the songsfor the nineteen sixties hit group, the Beach Boys. In nineteensixty-seven, Wilson started to work on the album “Smile.” But he didnot complete it until thirty-seven years later.
Wilson had a vision of creating a special album that was Americanin sound. He wanted to include all kinds of American music –doo-wop, pop, jazz and gospel.
But recording for the album stopped. Wilson suffered from mentalillness. Other members of the Beach Boys felt that the music did notgo along with their image. They felt that the music was too complex.However, some songs recorded for the “Smile” album were released.”Heroes and Villains” and “Surf’s Up” became popular songs on otheralbums.
Brian Wilson began working on “Smile” again last year at the ageof sixty-one. The album is a rock opera with seventeen songs. Wilsondescribed it as a “teenage symphony to God.” Here he sings “Song forChildren.”
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Wilson uses drums and piano in “Roll Plymouth Rock.” The songexpresses a powerful message with the easy Beach Boys sound.
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The Beach Boys created fun songs throughout the years. We leaveyou now with “Good Vibrations,” one of their most popular hits.Wilson adds his own personal touches to the song.
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DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson.
I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week forVOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jerilyn Watson andBrian Kim. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer wasEfrem Drucker.