VOA慢速英语2010年-AMERICAN MOSAIC

MARIO RITTER: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ in VOA Special English.

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I'm Mario Ritter.

This week we answer a question about the great Fillmore music halls and the man behind them.

We also play some recordings³ from shows there.

But first, we visit a museum in Georgia to explore the works of the wild Spanish painter Salvador Dali.

High Museum

MARIO RITTER: The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia is well known for its collection of nineteenth and twentieth century art. It is also known for its very modern building. American architect Richard Meier designed the museum’s main building. Italian architect Renzo Piano later designed an addition to it. The museum’s current exhibit is about the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali. Barbara Klein has more.

BARBARA KLEIN: The High Museum’s current exhibit is called “Salvador Dali: The Late Work.” Many of the paintings have not been shown in the United States for over fifty years. This is the first major exhibit to pay attention to Dali’s art after nineteen forty.

The High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia

The exhibit aims to change the belief that his later art was not as strong as his earlier works.

Salvador Dali is widely recognized as one of the most famous and also disputed artists of the twentieth century. He was born in nineteen-oh-four in Figueres, Spain. In the nineteen thirties he became one of the most well known members of the Surrealist art movement.

The Surrealists rejected reason in favor of the mind’s subconscious⁴. Many works were very strange and inspired by dreams.

The Surrealists later expelled⁵ Dali from their group. But this did not stop him from continuing to call attention to his art and his wild personality. His work is playful, strange, intelligent and extraordinarily⁶ skillful.

As visitors enter the High Museum’s exhibit, they get to know the artist through a series of pictures taken by photographer Philippe Halsman. One series of playful black and white photos of Dali are all about the different forms of his famous mustache.

Many paintings in the exhibit combine Dali’s interest in religion and science. It was unusual for a modern artist to paint a subject as traditional as religion.

“The Madonna of Port Lligat” from nineteen fifty is his version of a painting of Mary and Jesus. He painted his wife Gala as Mary. She and her surroundings seem to be breaking apart like molecules⁷.

“Christ of St. John of the Cross” shows Jesus on the cross. But he is seen from a striking⁸ angle, as though Dali were looking down on him from above his head. Experts say this is one of the most popular religious paintings of the twentieth century.

Dali called his belief in science and religion “nuclear mysticism.”

The exhibit also tells about Dali’s interest in drawing, clothing, theater and movies. And the exhibit shows how he created an image of himself that was larger than life.

Bill Graham and the Fillmores

MARIO RITTER: Our listener question today comes from Japan. Neal Osawa wants to know about the concert promoter Bill Graham and his Fillmore music halls.

This is part of the original poster of Carlos Santana 's "Live at the Fillmore" concert in December 1968

Bill Graham was born Wolfgang Grajonca in nineteen thirty-one in Berlin, Germany. He fled by foot to France to escape the Nazis⁹ in nineteen thirty-nine. A few years later, he moved to the United States.

Bill Graham was one of the most famous concert promoters and band managers of his time. He held his first event in nineteen sixty-five at the Fillmore Auditorium¹⁰ in San Francisco, California.

It was a benefit performance for a political comedy group called the San Francisco Mime¹¹ Troup. Bill Graham served as the group’s business manager.

San Francisco had long been known as one of the most popular entertainment cities in the United States.

Graham had rented the Fillmore Auditorium from an African American man named Charles Sullivan. Sullivan was one of the major promoters of black music at the time. He had made the Fillmore Auditorium popular worldwide by bringing famous African American performers like Billie Holiday, James Brown and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Bill Graham’s benefit concert was so successful that he asked to use the Fillmore for other concerts. They were also successful.

Charles Sullivan was murdered in nineteen sixty-six. Bill Graham took over the job of getting performers for the hall. He brought in some of the biggest names in rock history. They included the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Howling Wolf and Otis Redding. The concerts were advertised as “Bill Graham Presents.” They used creatively designed posters for advertisements. The concerts were also popular for the extreme light shows that lit up the stage as the bands performed.

In nineteen sixty-eight, Bill Graham moved his operations to a dance hall called the Carousel¹² Ballroom¹³. He renamed it the Fillmore West.

That same year he opened another concert hall in New York City called the Fillmore East. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Miles Davis and the Who were among the many famous musicians who performed there.

Bill Graham was an extremely talented business man and band manager. He was one of the first promoters to include rock, jazz, blues¹⁴ and folk on the same show. He died in a helicopter crash in nineteen ninety-one as he was leaving a concert. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the following year.

Bill Graham and The Music

MARIO RITTER: That is blues great Muddy Waters performing at the first Fillmore. Katherine Cole plays more of the music Bill Graham helped make great.

KATHERINE COLE: The rock band Jefferson Airplane was popular in San Francisco in nineteen sixty-five. Bill Graham presented the band in the first of what he would call dance concerts at the Fillmore that year.

Bill Graham about 1990

The following Bill Graham became the band’s manager. In nineteen sixty-seven, Jefferson Airplane’s song “Somebody to Love” became a big hit.

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The Californian band the Byrds was among the groups Bill Graham presented at the new space he called Fillmore West. Here is a recording² from a nineteen sixty-nine show. The Byrds perform “So You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star.”

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In nineteen seventy-one Aretha Franklin was already a huge success as the “Queen of Soul.” But former producer Jerry Wexler wanted her to perform for the rock and roll audiences at Fillmore West. Later, she said it was one of the greatest moments of her career. The concerts were recorded on an album. Here is Aretha Franklin performing “Love the One You’re With,” from “Aretha Live at Fillmore West.”

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Finally, we leave you with music from the Fillmore East in New York City. It was recorded May thirtieth, nineteen seventy-one. Less than a month later, Bill Graham closed the Fillmore East forever.

Here is New York native Laura Nyro with “Spanish Harlem.”

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MARIO RITTER: I’m Mario Ritter. Our program was written by Dana Demange, June Simms and Caty Weaver¹⁵, who also was our producer.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

4 subconscious   

n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的)

参考例句：

• Nail biting is often a subconscious reaction to tension.咬指甲通常是紧张时的下意识反映。
• My answer seemed to come from the subconscious.我的回答似乎出自下意识。

5 expelled   

驱逐( expel的过去式和过去分词 )； 赶走； 把…除名； 排出

参考例句：

• She was expelled from school at 15. 她15岁时被学校开除了。
• After the outbreak of fighting,all foreign journalists were expelled. 战斗开始后，所有的外国记者都被驱逐出境。

6 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

7 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

8 striking   

adj.显著的，惹人注目的，容貌出众的

参考例句：

• There is a striking difference between Jane and Mary.简和玛丽之间有显著的差异。
• What is immediately striking is how resourceful the children are.最令人注目的是孩子们的机智聪明。

9 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 auditorium   

n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂

参考例句：

• The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
• The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出，伸入观众席。

11 mime   

n.指手画脚，做手势，哑剧演员，哑剧；vi./vt.指手画脚的表演，用哑剧的形式表演

参考例句：

• Several French mime artists will give some lectures this afternoon.几位法国哑剧表演艺术家将在今天下午做几场讲座。
• I couldn't speak Chinese,but I showed in mime that I wanted a drink.我不会讲汉语，但我作摹拟动作表示要一杯饮料。

12 carousel   

n.旋转式行李输送带

参考例句：

• Riding on a carousel makes you feel dizzy.乘旋转木马使你头晕。
• We looked like a bunch of awkward kids riding a slow-moving carousel.我们看起来就像一群骑在旋转木马上的笨拙的孩子。

13 ballroom   

n.舞厅

参考例句：

• The boss of the ballroom excused them the fee.舞厅老板给他们免费。
• I go ballroom dancing twice a week.我一个星期跳两次交际舞。

14 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

15 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。