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Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — a VOA Special English program aboutmusic and American life. And we answer your questions.
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This is Doug Johnson. This week — a question about somethingcalled a Segway, and music in memory of Warren Zevon. But first –let’s go to a wedding!
Disney Weddings
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Each year, thousands of people get married at Disney theme parksaround the world. The Disney Company says this is the place wheredreams come true. Shep O’Neal tells us more.
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The most popular Disney theme parkfor a wedding is Disney World in Florida, in the southeastern UnitedStates. People from across the United States, Europe and Japan gothere to get married. The lowest price someone can expect to pay fora simple Disney wedding is three-thousand dollars. This includes ashort ceremony, followed by cake for as many as eight guests. Themarried couple also can stay several nights and visit the DisneyWorld theme park for free during the day.
For more money, Disney offers other wedding services. Theseinclude flowers, music, pictures, special transportation, eventplanning and entertainment. Mickey and Minnie Mouse can even visit awedding party at a cost of several hundred dollars. Newly marriedhusbands and wives often have their pictures taken with them. Suchvisits are popular among wedding crowds. Of course, Mickey andMinnie wear their own special wedding clothes.
Disney weddings are often planned around an idea or theme from aDisney movie. The most popular theme wedding is the story ofCinderella. A young woman falls in love with a prince during aromantic dance. Sadly, she is forced to leave the dance before theprince learns her name. But, in the end, the two are reunited.
During a Cinderella wedding, the bride and groom might ride totheir marriage ceremony in a glass vehicle pulled by horses. Theirwedding cake may be served on dishes shaped like castles. SpecialDisney love songs might be played when the newlyweds dance for thefirst time. And, fireworks might go off when they kiss.
Not all Disney weddings are based on a theme. Company officialssay more and more people are planning traditional weddings at Disneyparks. Instead of a magical theme wedding, they say, people justwant to gather their family and friends at a place where they canhave fun together.
Segway
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ahwaz, Iran. SaeedGhasemzadeh wants to know what is a Segway.
The full name is the Segway HumanTransporter. Its inventor describes it as the world’s firstself-balancing individual transport vehicle for short distancetravel.
The Segway looks like a long stick with two wheels. The stick hashandles for a person to hold. The wheels are connected to aplatform. The person stands on the platform and holds the handles.The transporter moves forward or backward when the person moves hisor her body in that direction. The driver turns the handles to goleft or right.
The Segway has computers and gyroscope devices to make it moveand balance. It is powered by batteries that are recharged withelectricity. It can travel at a speed of nineteen kilometers anhour.
Segway inventor Dean Kamen is president of the Deka (pronounceddecca) Research and Development Company near Manchester, NewHampshire. He says the Segway was developed to replace cars incrowded city centers. He says it was designed to reduce pollutionand solve other environmental problems in cities. However, it wasnot designed to travel on roads.
Each Segway costs about five-thousand dollars. Dean Kamenannounced the invention two years ago. But it was not for sale untilthis year.
The Deka company says owners have been using the Segway to go towork and to replace short car trips. It also says police departmentsand other organizations have bought the transporter to use in theirwork.
Most of the states have approved the use of Segways on sidewalksand bicycle paths. Some cities, though, have banned or restrictedtheir use where people walk.
Warren Zevon
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American singer and songwriter Warren Zevon died earlier thismonth of lung cancer. He was fifty-six years old. Warren Zevon livedfor more than a year with the knowledge that he was dying. It becamehis goal to finish a new record album before that day came. PhoebeZimmermann tells the story.
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Warren Zevon did many different jobs in the music business beforehe became famous. He wrote songs to sell products. He was abandleader and piano player. He sang in clubs in the United Statesand Europe.
Warren Zevon’s biggest hit was released innineteen-seventy-eight: “Werewolves of London.”
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His final album is called “TheWind.” It was released about one month before his death. The songsare about politics, lost love and sickness. Many of his friends inthe music business appear with him on “The Wind.” They include BruceSpringsteen, Tom Petty, Emmylou Harris and Jackson Browne.
Warren Zevon wanted the album to be his way of saying goodbye.This song is called “Keep Me In Your Heart.”
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Warren Zevon did not write the one song that talks most directlyabout dying. It was written by Bob Dylan. We leave you now withWarren Zevon singing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”
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HOST:
Last week, America also lost one of its best-known countrysingers of all time, Johnny Cash. He was seventy-one. He rose to thetop with songs that often told of his own struggles. Johnny Cashremained an important influence, years after his greatest fame. Infact, he appears in a current music video with a song by the rockgroup Nine Inch Nails. Listen next week for a full report aboutJohnny Cash.
This is Doug Johnson. Send questions to mosaic@voanews.com. Ourprogram was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach, and producedby Caty Weaver.
Join us again for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine inSpecial English. We leave you with one of Johnny Cash’s most famoussongs, “Cry, Cry, Cry.”