HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play electric guitar music …
Tell about prizes given to creative people …
And report about a man whose short boat trip lasted much longerthan he expected.
Richard Van Pham
HOST:
Richard Van Pham recently returned from a long trip at sea. Itlasted for more than three months and almost cost him his life. ShepO’Neal explains.
ANNCR:
Richard Van Pham lived on his little sail boat, named the SeaBreeze. In May, he planned to sail from the town of Long Beach inSouthern California to the island of Santa Catalina. It was a tripof forty kilometers that should have taken part of a day and onenight.
However, during that night, a heavy wind broke the pole that heldthe boat’s sail. And the small radio on his boat would not work.Mister Pham had little water and almost no food.Slowly, the littleboat began to move south with the ocean. Mister Pham saw no otherboats and no land. Soon he was without food or water.
Mister Pham often used the boat for fishing. Now, to stay alive,he caught as many fish as possible. He used some of the fish tocatch sea birds that came near his boat. He caught several andcooked them. To get water, he trapped rain with his useless sail.Day after day, week after week, the little boat kept moving south.
He later told reporters, “I saw no tree, no people, nothing. Ithought it was the end of my life.”
He saw an airplane on September seventeenth. Within two hours, aUnited States Navy ship arrived. The ship was searching for peoplecarrying illegal drugs. It found Richard Van Pham near the coast ofCosta Rica, more than four-thousand kilometers from Long Beach,California.
The sailors on the ship were shocked when they found Mister Phamand his little boat. The crew could not save his boat. But theycollected money to pay for an airplane ticket so Mister Pham couldreturn to California.
Richard Van Pham said he was very sorry to lose his boat. It wasalso his home. When reporters asked him if he would ever go to seaagain he said, “Yes, maybe some day… I love the ocean because Godmade it and gave it to the people. It is beautiful.”
MacArthur Fellows
HOST:
How would you like to win a lot of money just for doing your job?That happened to twenty-four people in the United States last month.They won awards presented by a group called The MacArthurFoundation. Each winner will receive five-hundred-thousand dollarsin unrestricted financial aid over the next five years. MaryTillotson has more.
ANNCR:
The MacArthur Fellowship is a program that honors individual menand women for their creativity. American businessman John MacArthurused his own money to establish the MacArthur Foundation innineteen-seventy. It began to operate after he died eight yearslater.
To be considered for the award, a person must be nominated. Allnominees must be American citizens or live in the United States.They may not hold elective or appointed office in government.
Each year, several hundred people are appointed to proposenominations. Each nominator is urged to identify men and women whodemonstrate great creativity in their work.
A twelve-member committee studies information about thosenominated and proposes winners to the foundation’s directors. Thefoundation does not require or expect reports from individualwinners. It also does not ask them how the money will be used.
Six-hundred-thirty-five MacArthur Fellows have been named sincethe program started in nineteen-eighty-one. Between twenty andthirty winners are named each year.
The twenty-four winners this year work in many different areas.They include scientists, writers, and musicians. Liza Lou of LosAngeles, California is an artist. She creates large, colorful worksof art with pieces of glass and other materials. Another MacArthurFellow is Daniela Rus, a professor at Dartmouth College in NewHampshire. She is a computer scientist who develops robots thatchange shape to deal with changes in their environment.
Brian Tucker of Palo Alto, California is another winner. MisterTucker is an earthquake expert. He is president of a not-for-profitgroup called GeoHazards International. His group works with localofficials in developing countries to make their areas safer againstearthquakes. Mister Tucker says that being recognized as a MacArthurFellow will make a huge difference for his company.
Electric Guitar Music
HOST:
Our VOA listener question thisweek comes from Vietnam. Long Quang Bui asks about the musicalinstrument called the electric guitar.
Music experts say the guitar is probably the most popular musicalinstrument around the world today. It is used to play many differentkinds of music.
The electric guitar was one result of efforts by musicians to useelectricity to create louder string instruments. They were not ableto solve some of the technical problems until the nineteen-thirties.Les Paul was among the first to play an electric guitar. Listen toone of his hit recordings, “Meet Mister Callaghan.”
(MUSIC)
In its early years, music experts debated the idea of theelectric guitar being a true instrument. Some claimed it did notproduce a real musical sound. But country and jazz musiciansdefended the music made by the electric guitar.
One of these defenders was jazz man Charlie Christian. Musicexperts say he created the sound of the electric guitar that led tothe modern electric guitar music of today. Listen to a recording ofCharlie Christian playing with the Benny Goodman jazz group innineteen-thirty-nine. The song is “Flying Home.”
(MUSIC)
One modern electric guitar player who followed Charlie Christianis the world famous blues musician B.B. King. He calls his guitar”Lucille”. We leave you now with B.B. King and Lucille playing theirfamous recording, “The Thrill Is Gone.”
(MUSIC)
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And Ihope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, NancySteinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum.And our producer was Paul Thompson.