(THEME)
HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today,
We play music from the group called “Le Tigre” …
Answer a listener’s question about how American space shuttleswere named …
And report about a new exhibit of windows from the buildings ofFrank Lloyd Wright.
Frank Lloyd Wright Windows
HOST:
Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most important buildingdesigners of the twentieth century. Now, some of the colored glasswindows from his buildings are being shown at a museum inWashington, D.C. Shep O’Neal has more.
ANNCR:
Frank Lloyd Wright completed almost five-hundred buildings. Mostof them were private houses. He also developed a completely new kindof window. It combined clear glass with squares, rectangles,triangles and circles of brightly colored glass. Wright called thecolored glass windows in his buildings “light screens.”
From eighteen-eighty-five throughnineteen-twenty-three, Wright designed more than four-thousandcolored glass windows. They were used in almost one-hundredcompleted buildings. These special windows were designed to unitethe inside of the buildings with the natural environment outside.
A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Galleryshows forty-eight of these stained glass windows. The show alsoincludes some of Wright’s drawings, architectural models andphotographs.
The exhibit is called “Light Screens: The Leaded Glass of FrankLloyd Wright.” The windows are from different periods of Wright’swork. Some of the largest and most exciting were designed in theearly nineteen-hundreds. Some of these windows include images ofballoons and American flags. Wright used glass in bright colors likered, blue, yellow, green and black. He also designed windows thatwere made of what he called “dancing” triangles of glass.
All of the windows in the exhibit were removed from buildings inthe past. They were provided by private collectors and othermuseums.
Elizabeth Broun [broon] is the director of the SmithsonianAmerican Art Museum that supervises the Renwick Gallery. She saysFrank Lloyd Wright is an extremely important person in the story oftwentieth century American culture, architecture and design.
If you have a computer you can see some of the windows in theRenwick Gallery exhibit. The Web site address is www dot wrightlight screens dot com. Wright light screens is all one word. It isspelled w-r-i-g-h-t-l-i-g-h-t-s-c-r-e-e-n-s(www.wrightlightscreens.com). And you can learn more about the lifeand work of Frank Lloyd Wright on the Special English program Peoplein America on Sunday.
Shuttle Names
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. SemakuFasinu asks us to explain how the American space shuttles got theirnames, and why the spacecraft is called a shuttle.
The dictionary says the word “shuttle” means travel again andagain over an established path by a vehicle such as an airplane.Scientists were using the word to describe space transportation asearly as nineteen-fifty-two. Wernher von Braun wrote about using ashuttle craft to move men and materials between a rocket ship andspace station. Since then, American space scientists have used theterm to describe movement of goods and people between Earth andouter space.
The American space agency NASA first used the word shuttle innineteen-sixty-eight to describe a craft that would orbit the Earthand return astronauts home. President Richard Nixon announced thedevelopment of the space shuttle in nineteen-seventy-two. Each craftwas to make one-hundred trips in space.
The first space shuttle was to have been called Constitution. Buta national campaign among the fans of the “Star Trek” televisionshow influenced the government to change the name to Enterprise.Enterprise was the name of the space ship in that television show.
NASA decided to officially choose the names of the shuttles thatwould be built later. Officials decided to name the shuttles afterhistoric ships of explorers throughout history. For example, theshuttle Columbia was named for one of the first Navy ships to sailcompletely around the world. The shuttle Discovery was named for twohistoric ships. One ship was led by Henry Hudson when he discoveredHudson Bay. The other was James Cook’s ship which explored theHawaiian Islands, southern Alaska and western Canada.
The Atlantis space shuttle wasnamed for a scientific research ship operated by the Woods HoleOceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. The Challenger was namedfor a British naval research ship that explored the Atlantic andPacific Oceans. Following the destruction of the Challenger innineteen-eighty-six, NASA held a contest for American schoolchildren to name the replacement shuttle. The name chosen wasEndeavor, after the first ship commanded by James Cook.
Le Tigre
HOST:
The New York-based music group Le Tigre was formed innineteen-ninety-nine by Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman. MizzHanna is one of the creators of the “Riot Grrrl” [girl] women’srights art and music movement of the nineteen-nineties. Le Tigre’ssound is clearly influenced by that movement. Steve Ember tells usmore.
ANNCR:
The music of Le Tigre combines the loud, hostile guitar of punkmusic with electronic drums, piano and other aggressive sounds. Thewords of Le Tigre’s songs deal with the political issues of everydaylife. Here is a song from the band’s first album, called “Le Tigre.”The song is called “What’s Yr [your] Take on Cassavetes.” It isabout the difficulty of enjoying the work of an artist if youdisagree with his politics.
(MUSIC)
Bass guitar player JD Samson became a member of the band when itrecorded a second album, called “Feminist Sweepstakes.” This songfrom that album deals with surviving childhood sexual abuse. It iscalled “Keep On Livin’.”
(MUSIC)
We leave you now with another song from “Feminist Sweepstakes.”It is called “Le Tigre Tour Theme.”
(MUSIC)
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Joinus again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine inSpecial English.
Remember to write us with your questions about American life. Wewill try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whosequestions are chosen will receive a gift.
Send your questions to American Mosaic, VOA Special English,Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our e-mail addressis mosaic@voanews.com.Please include your name and mailing address.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield,Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was RickBarnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson.