On a rainy September morning Robert came to the agent to check the number of concerts his rock group had during the month. When he came into the room, the agent was talking to a man whose elegant style and manners gave away that he was a classical musician. The agent introduced the stranger as Kevin, an opera singer. “We are colleagues,” Robert said. “I’m a classically trained pianist myself, but I chose to play in a rock band.”
From Kevin’s look Robert understood his words were a surprise to the opera singer. Kevin didn’t seem to believe Robert. That’s why Robert continued, “I know most people think rock musicians never do any classical stuff. But you can come to my concert tonight and see for yourself”, added Robert and handed Kevin his card. Kevin seemed intrigued and accepted the card.
At 9.00 the rock club was full as usual. From his central position on the stage, Robert could clearly see the crowd waving enthusiastically and cheering each song with their hands up. There were many of his friends and colleagues and there was Kevin, rocking with the crowd. He was enjoying the rock concert but didn’t seem to take it seriously.
During the break Robert came up to Kevin. “Are you still sceptical or have you changed your opinion about rock music?” he asked. “It’s been a good concert, you know, but this rock music is not my kind of thing”, said Kevin, “It’s not for professionals.” Feeling hurt, Robert decided to show the stereotype was not true.
He named many world famous rock stars like Elton John or Freddie Mercury who began as classical pianists. Bon Jovi also took lessons from professional singers. Kevin smiled but still stood his ground. He did not believe that classical and rock music could be ranked equally. In spite of the famous names Robert had mentioned, Kevin did not accept his point of view.
Suddenly Robert jumped on the stage and picked up his guitar. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to change today’s programme. A few classical pieces will be presented to you. We’ve never done it in our rock club but today is a special occasion. We have an opera singer with us tonight, and I’m going to show him that Bach’s and Beethoven’s music can be as modern as Queen and Michael Jackson”.
He started playing the ‘Moonlight Sonata’ by Beethoven very softly as it had to be played in the classical style but made the second part sound more like the blues. The crowd kept swaying silently. In the next famous classical piece, ‘The Flight of the Bumble-Bee’, his rock band joined in and they finished triumphantly with the crowd cheering. Kevin looked impressed.
“That was moving. Sorry, I’ve been a snob”, said Kevin. Robert realized he had won and smiled. “Why don’t we arrange a project together to mix rock with classical music?” he suggested. “Good idea!” exclaimed Kevin. They agreed to have an official meeting before the next concert in the club. When Kevin left, Robert was sitting on the stage playing Mozart.
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| The audience of the rock club disliked Robert's interpretation of classical music. | |||||||||
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| Finally, Robert and Kevin decided to make a joint performance. | |||||||||
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# 51 (3BC5B0)
Honesty lesson
Josh Ferrin worked as an artist for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah. The newspaper has the longest history in the state and the biggest Sunday circulation. Fresh and original images are definitely an important part of the newspaper’s policy. So, Josh had a lot of work and hoped that in several years he could save up for a house of his own.
Josh adored his wife and two children. They spent holidays together travelling in their old car that broke down regularly. At weekends in winter, they watched their favourite movies in a rented flat that seemed smaller and smaller as the children were growing. But neither the tiny flat nor the old car could ruin their happiness and mutual understanding.
Once Josh and his wife were watching a TV program about children who lived in an orphanage and needed parents. They were so deeply moved by the children’s sad life stories that they decided to adopt a child. The only thing that could stop them was the small flat. That was the moment Josh started looking for a new house.
Finding a proper house was not an easy thing to do. They wanted it to be not very expensive, big enough and have some history. Finally, Josh brought his wife to look at an outdated two-storey house with a large attic. Though the house needed repair, there was something about it that made Josh and his wife like it. The real estate agent told them the story of the previous owner. He had six children but lived a lonely life in that house and died several years ago. His children decided to sell the old house and share the money.
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When they moved in, they went on exploring the house. The massive staircases, cosy bedrooms, a large kitchen and an airy living-room were all they could dream of. The children were running about the house crying out with joy. The only door that was closed led to the attic below the roof. The next day when his wife and children were away, Josh managed to unlock the door and decided to inspect the attic.
The dark space was empty, with spiders’ webs hanging in the corners. Josh turned on the light and noticed a pile of boxes and tins in one of the corners. A small, broken bike lay nearby. Josh thought the room would be ideal for his art studio and started cleaning it up. He threw away several empty boxes when he suddenly found out that all the rest were stuffed with old books.
Josh drew out several books from one of the boxes and found a thick pile of banknotes at the bottom. When the family returned, Josh called his wife and told her about the treasure he had found. He also showed her a short notice he had found in the same box. The message, ‘to my children’, was written on a piece of yellowish paper.
The sum was enough to buy a new car and repair the house for their own growing family and the child the Ferrins wanted to adopt. The temptation to keep the money was great, but Josh and his wife understood it was not their money.
The next week Josh found the previous owner’s family and handed them the money and the note.
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| Josh wanted to arrange a place to work in the attic. | |||||||||
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| In the message, the previous owner asked to give the money to the local orphanage. | |||||||||
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# 52 (27A564)
Childhood memories
Amazingly, I’ve recently published my third book. I started writing all of a sudden. Once when I was babysitting for my sister, my nephew asked me to tell him a story. I told him about some adventures with my friend, Johnny Price. My nephew got interested in my childhood memories and, later, these stories turned into my first book for children. The main heroes of the book were Johnny Price and me. My childhood friend, Johnny Price, lived three doors down the street. Our friendship lasted for only about three or four years, but it was a very important part of my childhood. That’s why I still feel like calling Johnny ‘my best friend’.
Like every kid on our street, Johnny and I had bikes. We used them to get to the Grants', a family who owned a convenience store one street over from ours. We would go with some of our weekly pocket money and buy ourselves some candies, bubble gum, a bag of chips and a Coke or Pepsi. Most small candies were one cent each, so fifty cents seemed like a lot of money. We quite often walked out of the store with a bagful of fifty candies. We thought it would be great to get a job at the store one day. But we never tried to get one.
Another thing that comes to mind is how we used to sit in my parents' car and listen to music on a cassette on the car stereo. One thing that I clearly remember listening to is the main theme from the film ‘Superman’. For some reason this memory is very powerful. Even today when I hear the ‘Superman’ soundtrack it takes me back to being a little kid eating chips and sour candies in the car.
I’ll never forget how one day Johnny found a frog and decided to keep it, as some sort of pet. It didn't take long for his parents to explain to him that it wasn't such a good idea, so Johnny decided to let the frog go free. So we walked down to the bridge and let him go into the stream. We then stood on the bridge and watched him float downstream, wishing him the best of luck.
Johnny and I had fun doing a lot of things together, but we sometimes had our differences. I can't name any of the things we had disagreements about, but whenever we did, and whatever they were about, it often resulted in both of us walking away from each other in anger and saying we would never talk to each other again. Of course, almost always, the next day one of us would call the other up as if nothing had happened.
However, after one serious disagreement we never called each other back. Whatever it was, it ended our friendship. I've often wondered what made us part ways forever. It was probably something silly that only thirteen-year-old boys could get so annoyed about.
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| The author and Johnny Price saw the film ‘Superman’ more than once. | |||||||||
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# 53 (363081)
Cirque du Soleil
Guy Laliberté was born in Quebec, Canada, in 1959. From childhood he dreamt of doing something risky in his life. He got out of his parents’ control very early and started earning money as a street performer. To amuse people, Guy played the accordion, danced and did fire eating. After several years of being on the road at the age of twenty three he decided to settle down.
In 1982 Guy Laliberté started a serious business that made him one of the richest Canadians. He began learning world circus techniques professionally. Additionally, his travel experience and his friends’ support helped him arrange the first national circus in Quebec. For the first time, Guy Laliberté managed to combine circus arts with street performance, which finally made his circus extremely popular.
When it was time to decide on a name, Guy Laliberté didn’t discuss it with anybody. He called his project Cirque du Soleil or Circus of the Sun. The decision was not made by chance, because the image of the sun reminded him of the youth and energy his artists personified.
Montreal authorities let Laliberté rent a piece of land far from the city centre. In 1984 the district was a waste land that needed major reconstruction. In spite of the high cost, the first Cirque du Soleil hall for eight hundred people was built in that area. The main office never changed its location and has become a new cultural centre in Quebec.
The main office is located in an unusual building that consists of the Studio and the Parlour, painted blue and yellow. The Studio is the place for training and the artists’ offices, while the Parlour is the home for set and costume designers. They always have a lot of work to do, because all the cloth bought for performances is initially white. To make the costumes bright, different colours are printed according to designers' sketches.
Initially the company had about seventy employees. Today it has more than four thousand artists, acrobats, divers, dancers and singers from about forty countries, speaking about twenty languages. It enables Cirque du Soleil to perform in different parts of the world at the same time. Its offices are also located in London, New York, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Singapore, Moscow and several other cities.
Since its foundation, Cirque du Soleil has visited more than one hundred and thirty cities and welcomed more than forty million spectators. The company offers a series of thematic shows. For example, Saltimbanco invites the audience on a city tour, Love tells the story of the Beatles, and Alegria creates an optimistic mood.
However, performing is not the only priority of the company. It has initiated an international program for teenagers who are at risk. The company also organizes training courses to support circus schools in Canada. This is how Guy Laliberté keeps the right balance between business, art and philanthropy.
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| Cirque du Soleil invests money into social projects. | |||||||||
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# 54 (AAEBD4)
Scouts
On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scout movement started in England with the publication of Robert Baden-Powell's handbook Scouting for Boys. The name Baden-Powell was already well-known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought the handbook. By the end of April, numerous Boy Scout troops had appeared across Britain.
In 1900, General Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defence of Mafeking in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Soon after, his military field manual, Aids to Scouting, written for British soldiers in 1899, became popular with a younger audience. Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized outdoor games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a non-military field manual for teenagers that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds.
First, however, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 boys to Brownsea Island in Dorset, where they set up camp for two weeks. With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, life saving, and good manners. Many of these lessons were learned through original games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scout meeting was a great success. Soon the handbook Scouting for Boys appeared.
With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts' office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began to appear in British Commonwealth countries across the globe. The Scout movement supported the boys in their physical, mental and spiritual development. The boys learned to work together to achieve goals, they also gave a promise to live by certain rules, and to help others when they could.
In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl Scouts. A year later, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate organization.
The American version of the Boy Scouts has its origins in an event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce lost his way in the fog. So he stopped under a street light to read his map when he was approached by a young British boy. The boy asked the man if he could help and William Boyce explained that he had got lost. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed. This anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth organizations. The Scouts movement soon spread throughout the country. In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of America in Savannah, Georgia.
In 1920 the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Robert Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World. The founder of the Scout organization died in 1941.
Nowadays, the Scouts Movement exists in 216 different countries all over the world, there are more than 28 million boy scouts and over 10 million girl scouts.
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| The success of Aids to Scouting made Robert Baden-Powell write a similar book for young people. | |||||||||
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| Robert Baden-Powell thought that the Scouts should be well-mannered. | |||||||||
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| William Boyce founded the Boy Scouts organization in the USA because he was impressed by the behaviour of a British Scout. | |||||||||
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| In the USA William Boyce founded both organizations: the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. | |||||||||
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| Robert Baden-Powell was awarded the title Chief Scout of the World after his death. | |||||||||
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# 55 (9EA93D)