Kennedy Center Honors of 2007: Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese, and Diana Ross Part III

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Kennedy Center Honors of 2007: Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese, and Diana Ross

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Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. is one of the official cultural centers of America. For the past thirty years, the center has presented awards honoring five artists for their lifetime of work.

These artists were chosen this year for the Kennedy Center Honors: The singers Diana Ross and Brian Wilson. The actor and writer Steve Martin. The pianist Leon Fleisher. And the film director Martin Scorsese. They will be honored this Sunday, December second.

"Good Vibrations" and the other songs Brian Wilson wrote for The Beach Boys remain as fresh and energizing today as they were forty years ago. Wilson started the band with his two brothers, a cousin and a friend in the early nineteen sixties. The Beach Boys made a new kind of American rock music popular. Their songs express the fun of being young, enjoying girls, driving cars and surfing the ocean in California.

Brian Wilson not only wrote The Beach Boys' songs. He also sang, played the bass guitar and keyboard, and produced the band's records. Some experts believe that their album "Pet Sounds" was one of the most inventive and important records in rock music history.

The Beach Boys were also one of the most popular bands in America during a time when the British band The Beatles were capturing the attention of the world.

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Steve Martin is a popular writer, actor and comedian. He is also a skilled banjo player. Martin first started his career writing for funny television shows like "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." In the nineteen seventies he began performing his funny jokes and acts on the weekly television program "Saturday Night Live."

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Steve Martin: "You know, a lot of people ask me if Steve Martin is my real name. Have I changed it for show business or anything like that. And, now I am not ashamed to admit it. Because I did have a funny name when I was a kid, and I decided to change it for show business. But I think enough time has gone by and audiences are more sophisticated now that they won't laugh at my real name. My real name is bybybuhbuh … So my parents had a sense of humor. My sister's name is hurhurhurhr . And my mother would go out to call us for dinner and she'd go bybybuhbuh! Hrrhrhr bbrbrb! So, we had to move around a lot. But other than that I had a very normal childhood."

He also won Grammy awards for the records of his live comedy performances, one of which you just heard.

Steve Martin has also made over thirty-five movies, many of which he helped write. These include "The Jerk", "All of Me", "Parenthood", and, more recently, "Shopgirl."

Martin has written articles, books and successful plays such as "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." He wrote a book about his years of performing as a comedian, "Born Standing Up," that was released last week. His next movie will be "Pink Panther Deux."

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That was a recording of the pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher playing part of Schubert's Sonata in B Flat Major. Fleisher began studying the piano at the age of four. By the time he was sixteen, he was playing with the New York Philharmonic. Leon Fleisher traveled far and wide playing in the finest concert halls in the world and also recording music. In nineteen sixty-five, a neurological disorder called dystonia forced Fleisher to rethink his career. He lost the use of his right hand, but he did not let this stop him.

Leon Fleisher poured his energy into teaching and also conducting groups of musicians. He also began to specialize in performing piano music written for the left hand. In the nineteen nineties, doctors began to treat Fleisher's damaged hand with Botox injections.

Over time, Leon Fleisher recovered and started playing piano works for both hands once again. He has said that if he could relive his life, he would not change what happened to his hand. He says his experience helped him become a much better musician and teacher.

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That was a scene from the movie "Goodfellas", directed by Martin Scorsese. Many people consider him one of the greatest living American film directors. Scorsese is best known for his movies about characters linked to crime and violence. Many of his movies are about Italian-American characters. Still, over the years, he has made movies about many subjects. "Kundun" tells the story of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. "The Aviator" is about the American businessman Howard Hughes. Scorsese also brought to life periods from the American past in movies like "Gangs of New York" and "The Age of Innocence."

His latest movie, "The Departed," is about opposing groups of criminals and police officers. It won four Academy Awards last year, including best director and best movie. Martin Scorsese has also made documentary movies about musicians, including Bob Dylan. He will soon release a movie about the Rolling Stones.

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That was the clear, sweet voice of Diana Ross singing "You Can't Hurry Love" with her back-up singers. The Supremes were from Detroit, Michigan. They became one of the most popular female singing groups of the nineteen sixties. The Supremes mixed the sounds of popular music with the soulful music born in Detroit called Motown. By nineteen seventy, Diana Ross had left the band to sing on her own. She made many best-selling records including "Diana Ross", "Surrender" and "diana."

Diana Ross also acted in television shows and movies. Her performance as Billie Holiday in the movie "Lady Sings the Blues" earned her an Academy Award nomination.

Over the years, Ross has won many American Music Awards. Billboard magazine named her the "Entertainer of the Century." The Guinness Book of World Records called Diana Ross the Most Successful Recording Artist of All Time. Her most recent album "I Love You" came out earlier this year.

Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese and Diana Ross are remarkable performers. On Sunday, the Kennedy Center will honor them for sharing their artistic gifts with people all over the world.

Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein.

HOLLYWOOD...THE BUSINESS OF SHOW BUSINESS

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Language level: Proficiency

Standard: American

Speaker: Chuck Rolando

A world of movie-lovers watched Hollywood on February 27th when the Academy Awards, or “Oscars,” took place. For the lucky winners, it may just be the highlight of their movie careers, but no matter how successful they are now, they had to start at the bottom. They all had “day-time jobs” in bars or restaurants, and they went to auditions in their spare time. And they undoubtedly signed up with a talent agency, which probably still represents them today. The Affinity Artists Agency is a typical example, it is headed by Ross Grossman, who was himself a child actor, and later a comedian, writer and therapist, before becoming an agent. As he explains, even when you become a star, there’s no guarantee that it will last.

Ross Grossman

(Standard American Accent)

Recently Adam Sandler and a bunch of other celebrities, Chris Rock, they were all sitting around, I think it was 60 Minutes, and they were being asked: “Do you feel like you’ve made it, do you feel like you’re good, you’re set?” and all of them said: “No, no way!” Because they said: “We picked up a People Magazine from five years ago and we looked at all the people who were on top and almost none of them were still on top. “ So,it is a very fickle business. I think that the public generally likes new. New is interesting to them. And, at a certain point, I think either the casting directors or the public gets tired, or wants something new. Now, there are certain people, Jackson Nicholson, you know, there are certain actors, Tom Cruise, that are able to ride the wave and stay on it, but eventually most of them seem to fade.

CHARISMA

We then asked him the classic Hollywood question: What makes a star?

Ross Grossman

Charisma is a big peace. There is an ethereal fairy dust that is on certain people. . how they got that way is a very complex…we’d have to have clones and put people in laboratories to figure out how ths person showed up with this much charisma, but there are some people who have so much charisma, or something about their character that is so unique, that you just know: they’re riveting. It’s like when you watch a lion or a tiger, you’re riveted because there’s something so spontaneous and so strong and so confident. And that doesn’t mean that each performance is playing a confident person; they could be playing a nervous wreck, but there’s a confidence about them, and a oneness of purpose and just something very magnetic. But some people try to create a false magnetism by being super-big and important and loud and intense, and it’s or like that. It doesn’t come from outside, I don’t think, but some people try to wow you with what they believe charisma is. But I think, really, what it is knowing yourself and making strong bold choices with your acting skills and with your personality. Personality does go a long way. People in Hollywood want to work with nice people. So, if you’re talented, but you’re really not a pleasant person, there will be plenty of other people who could take your place.

THAT LOOK

And what about physical appearance? Are looks everything?

Ross Grossman

You have to remember that movies and television are a visual medium: we can’t forget that. And, because of that, many films and television shows use visual shorthand. As soon as you see Paul Giamatti, or just any number of actors, as soon as you see them, there’s a whole bunch of script that doesn’t have to happen because you just get, “Oh, this is this type of person. And that’s like a visual shorthand for people. Just as when you see Charlie Chaplin as the little tramp, that speaks volumes. You know, you don’t have to hear his entire story. It’s a visual shorthand, so, yes, the look does count, but that look cold be geeky, that look could be odd, that could be unusual, or plus size, or frightening. It doesn’t have to always be gorgeous. It just has to be unique and striking.

ENERGY

But, says Ross Grossman, talent, charisma and the right looks are not enough. Aspiring actors also need a sense of initiative. Having an agent isn’t enough, they should build their portfolios, and increase their selection of footage, or “reel.” And Ross Grossman introduced us to a Hollywood neologism; the “webisode.” This is a combination of “web” and “episode.”

Ross Grossman

And then, once they have an agent, is running out there and doing stuff, getting in plays, getting into more independent films, getting better reel, meeting people, socializing. If they can’t find scripts to get in, finding people, , acting troupes, people who want to put together webisodes. That’s the new trend, is get a bunch of people together, get some writers together, start doing some webisodes, don’t wait for someone else to make you known.

There’s an expression that o love, and I…it was from a man named (Wes) “Scoop” Nisker, he was newsman in San Francisco, and he would always sign off the news with this phrase and that is: “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of you own!”