VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE # 224
AIR DATE: 04 29 2022
TRANSCRIPT

OPEN ((VO/NAT/SOT))
((Banner))
Low Riding
((SOT))
((Denise M. Sandoval, Ph.D.
Professor, California State University, Northridge))
Lowriding started post World War II, when men in the United States really began this love affair with the American car.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Fine Tuning
((SOT))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
Each instrument has its own character and it has its own story. Some of that I can learn just by studying the instruments. Some I learn from the details that are left by the maker.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Fresh Blooming
((SOT))
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
The harvest, I think, is their favorite time because we're outside and they get special little jobs. So, they strip the leaves and they take turns walking the flowers to the buckets.
((Open Animation))


BLOCK A


((PKG)) LOWRIDERS OF LOS ANGELES
((TRT: 05:22))
((Topic Banner: Lowriders of Los Angeles))
((Reporter/Camera/Editor: Genia Dulot))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Miguel
Owner, “Town2Envy” Lowrider))
It’s a ‘95 Town Car and I bought it from the first owner and I bought it all original, original stock, rims. The first thing I wanted to do is I took it to One Way Hydraulics in LA and they put hydraulics and I had to stock rims. When I was 19, 20 years old, I bought this one and I’ve been fixing it since then.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Denise M. Sandoval, Ph.D.
Lowriding started post World War II, when men in the United States really began this love affair with the American car. Hot rodding actually began a lot sooner, like in the 1930s. And hot rods were cars that were built off the ground to go fast. So, lowriding in post-World War II America, it was the opposite esthetics. Instead of being high and fast like hot rods, which, you know, represent Americana, it was oppositional esthetics and they took it low to the ground and it was about going slow.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Miguel
Owner, “Town2Envy” Lowrider))
Once you change the tires from original size, next you lower the car and it has small rims, so it’s definitely going to go to the ground.
((Miguel
Owner, “Town2Envy” Lowrider))
People would just drop the car. So, they’ll drop it and if a cop seen them, they’ll get pulled over. So, little by little, people started inventing the hydraulics and they started putting the hydraulics. So, I guess every time they see a police officer, they’ll raise up the car, so they wouldn’t get pulled over and get a ticket.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Denise M. Sandoval, Ph.D.
Professor, California State University, Northridge))
There was a California law that your car couldn’t be any lower than the bottom of the wheel rim. Hydraulics did allow, sort of, lowriders to go from illegal to street legal but yes, a police officer could still write you a ticket for, you know, having hydraulics too low but typically they don’t.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Miguel
Owner, “Town2Envy” Lowrider))
Little by little, cops started seeing that, “Okay, you know what? This guy is just a lowrider guy.” So now, they just see me, they just wave. Back then, I guess they just wanted to check, make sure I wasn’t gang-related. Make sure I didn’t have guns in the car. Because, like I said, they just stereotype. First thing they see lowrider there and think, “Oh, it’s a gang member.”
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Miguel
Owner, “Town2Envy” Lowrider))
I am not going to say it’s safe. It’s not safe because once you’re up in the air, you pretty much have no control of the front wheel. So, you can’t turn it. Once you come down on the floor, there is so much pressure that anything could break. Like you can see. Right now, I am working on it because I was hopping it last weekend. I was having too much fun. That’s what happens. You burn stuff.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Denise M. Sandoval, Ph.D.
Professor, California State University, Northridge))
When you talk to lowriders about their car, they say, you know, with the car, they want their car, you know, looking clean. They want, you know, their favorite music blasting and a girlfriend by their side, right. So, I think that it’s also, this love affair you see in American movies as well in that time period, post-World War II, of like a mating ritual, right, for youth. How cruising, you know, becomes another expression of that.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Miguel
Owner, “Town2Envy” Lowrider))
When I took it to the mural guy, I just told him “Hey, I just want girls. I want girls, money and weed.” I just let the author to use his imagination and this is what he came up with.
((NATS))
((Denise M. Sandoval, Ph.D.
Professor, California State University, Northridge))
The car becomes like an art object, right. It literally becomes an art object. To me, it becomes a moving mural. And I think we have to think about these cars as art objects as well. They have that practicality, right. Able to get you to cruise the boulevard, right. Or get you where you need to go as a car. But then they are also art.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Denise M. Sandoval, Ph.D.
Professor, California State University, Northridge))
Lowriding culture today is very diverse. It’s not just Chicano. There’s African American. There’s White. There’s Asian. Lowriding is in Brazil. It’s in Japan. Lowriding, I think, is something that obviously started in the United States, represents sort of American culture. But other cultures around the world are using lowriding to express their identity.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Miguel
Owner, “Town2Envy” Lowrider))
If I were to sell it, I would want more than 20k [$20,000]. But honestly, like I said, I prefer not to sell it because I prefer just to pass it on to my kids and have them enjoy it.
((NATS/MUSIC))


TEASE ((VO/NAT/SOT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
The Making of Music
((SOT))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
Most of the tools that I have on the bench right now are tools that I inherited from my grandfather. Some of them are even from my great-great-grandfather before him.


BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))

BLOCK B


((PKG)) VIOLIN MAKER
((TRT: 07:54))
((Topic Banner: Keeping Family Tradition Alive))
((Reporter/Camera/Editor: June Soh))
((Map: Alexandria, Virginia; Bethesda, Maryland))
((Main character: 1 male))
((Sub characters: 2 male))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
I'm working on the channel that sits right next to where the purfling will go on the instrument. I use a very small, narrow chisel because the grain is very tricky to work in this spot. It keeps changing direction, so it requires a smaller, more narrow chisel.
((NATS))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
My name is Rich Maxham. I make violins. I repair them and restore them. And I do work on violin, viola and cello bows as well. And I have a workshop in Alexandria, Virginia.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Maxham Violins))
I grew up with the violin. I began playing the violin at three years old and studied with my father and would play with him, the violin. It's been in my family for five generations now, since the late 1800s. The first violin that I'm aware of, that my great-great-grandfather made, was made in 1895.
((End Courtesy))
((NATS))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
This is a copy of my great-great-grandfather's violin-making brochure that was printed around 1910 or so. This is what he would have given out to potential clients. This is a picture of Otis, my great-great-grandfather and his son, my great-grandfather, Harold. This is a picture of one of his instruments. It’s actually fairly rare to have a colorized photograph from that era. So, he went to considerable expense to make the brochure. Most of the tools that I have on the bench right now are tools that I inherited from my grandfather. Some of them are even from my great-great-grandfather before him.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
I learned the skills partly from
((Courtesy: Maxham Violins))
my grandfather when I would visit in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he had his own workshop.
((End Courtesy))
And as I got into college, I started attending violin repair workshops to learn more about repair techniques.
((NATS: Rich Maxham and Zino Bogachek))
Rich Maxham: So, I’ve got two bows and a violin. Now I have a few other repairs right now that I’m working on. But as soon as I’m done with those, then I can get started on these. I’ll give you a call as soon as everything is ready.
Zino Bogachek: Great. Thank you so much.
((Zino Bogachek
Violinist, Washington National Opera Orchestra))
I am violinist. I play at the Washington National Opera Orchestra. Sound of the violin doesn’t only fully depend on the maker who created it and the performer who is actually making sound. But there is a third party who is as crucially important, in my opinion, is the person who is taking care of your violin, the person whom you can trust your instrument, your soul, the person who sees this instrument whenever the instrument gets a little cold, whenever the instrument experiences some kind of discomfort. That's when you seek Mr. Maxham, who is the greatest doctor in the area, who takes care of our violins.
((NATS))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
In addition to working on my own instruments and my customers’ instruments at my own workshop, I work part-time at the Violin House of Weaver, where I work on old and new instruments and take them apart and make improvements where they're needed.
((NATS))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
Yes, that’s very thick, especially in this area by the bass bar. So, I will need to remove some wood from the bottom, especially where it’s the thickest. Because right now, based on the thicknesses and the work on the interior, it’s not going to sound very good.
((NATS))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
It was made to look very nice on the outside but on the inside, it was left rather crude and rough and too thick because it was made in haste. So, the good thing about it, despite it being somewhat crude on the inside, is that it’s made with very good wood and it has had the benefit of aging for 100 plus years, which means that it’s good tonewood. So, it’s worth putting all the effort in to improve it so that it will sound very nice once it’s all put back together and repaired.
((NATS))
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
What I love about working on the instruments is getting to know the instruments and becoming familiar with their characters. Each instrument has its own character, just like a person does and it has its own story. Some of that I can learn just by studying the instruments. Some I learn by talking to the owners of the instruments and learning the histories. But there's an awful lot that I can learn as a luthier just by admiring the workmanship and learning from the details that are left by the maker.
((NATS: Rich Maxham and Bill Weaver))
Bill Weaver: Well, this is an old French fiddle made in 1860 by Pailliot. And I got a French certificate for it. But I don’t know how it sounds yet. But that would be something. But you see, the overstand is a little bit funny.
Rich Maxham: Yeah, it is.
Bill Weaver: Sometimes, yeah. So, we may want to put a piece behind that neck and get that to come to the proper angle. And I think, look at the condition on that for 1860. Not a scratch hardly.
Rich Maxham: That’s excellent. Yeah.
((Bill Weaver
Owner, Violin House of Weaver))
I feel confident and comfortable giving him a very expensive instrument because he’s very careful on how he approaches everything about it. He is meticulous and he gets a great result. When he's done the... His specialty here is the insides of instruments that make them sound really much better when they're put back together.
((NATS))
((Bill Weaver
Owner, Violin House of Weaver))
This is an old violin shop, maybe the oldest in the whole country. It was started by my grandfather. I think working on great violins here has exposed him to way things have always been done and I think he’s applying that to everything he does. So, there's a very big possibility that he will be one of the great luthiers of this country and this world, I guess, in the future. He's so young but he's so talented now.
((NATS: Rich Maxham))
Rich Maxham: Since this is an old one, just needs to be taken apart. This is an old Czechoslovakian violin.
((Rich Maxham
Violin Maker))
I hope that by working on instruments of all kinds for all types of players, I can provide something to the violin world that will live on beyond me. And I also hope that doing that work, I can preserve and extend the tradition that comes from my ancestors that I love and admire and pass that on to future generations.
((NATS: Rich Maxham and daughter))
Rich Maxham: Can you take a long bow?
((NATS/MUSIC))


TEASE ((VO/NAT/SOT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Fresh as a Daisy
((SOT))
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
Hi guys. When I see the joy that these flowers bring our clients and our community, it's just, it's worth every ounce of effort. And then, of course, seeing how much my family enjoys doing this, you know. We get quality time out here together.

BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))


BLOCK C


((PKG)) WILDFLOWERS BLOOMING
((TRT: 06:52))
((Previously aired September 2021))
((Topic Banner: Wildflowers Blooming))
((Reporter: Faiza ElMasry))
((Camera/Editor: Mike Burke))
((Map: Leesburg, Virginia))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 1 male))
((NATS: Kaitlin))
You think the plants like cinnamon? Yeah. I like cinnamon too.
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
The farm talks to you and it, kind of, just tells you what it needs. Sometimes you don't think that you need to weed and then you walk out and there are just millions of weeds that need to be pulled.
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
My name is Kaitlin Armijo and I own Wild for Wildflowers. We are a boutique flower farm here in Leesburg, Virginia.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Today it's beautiful out. We are getting our last round of hardy annuals in. My husband and I were actually high school sweethearts and we moved out here from California.
((NATS))
((NATS: Kaitlin))
We bought the farm in 2014 and then it quickly escalated into how can we turn this into something else, something more than just a property for us?
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
And so in 2015, the idea was born and in 2016, we actually started.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
My husband Justin, he is a full-time firefighter but he is the muscle here on the farm.
((NATS))
((NATS: Kaitlin))
He also takes care of all of our equipment and tractor work that needs to be done. He can build or fix anything. So, we started this farm. We weren't handed a farm. We don't have the infrastructure. We don't have buildings. We didn't start with a tractor. So, we've had to work up to all this. So, it's been amazing because anything that I've needed, he's built.
((NATS))
((Justin Armijo
Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
When we bought it, we didn't have the flower business in mind until we decided to have children and we had our first kid. And she didn't want to be working in the kind of corporate world, if you want to call it that. We decided to come up with something that she could do at home to involve the kids.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Mom’s a jungle gym.
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
This is Nolan and he's three. You say hi. Say hi.
And this is Paisley and she's five.
((NATS: Paisley))
Yeah.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
And we're expecting our third.
((NATS))
((Justin Armijo
Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
When we first started, my only goal for her was that I was just happy if she was enjoying what she was doing, the kids could do it with her. Even if we didn't make any money at the end of the year but we just broke even, I would be happy with that.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
You want to put them in? Find a row.
((Justin Armijo
Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
As long as it was something that they enjoyed doing. So, she came up with flowers. The kind of idea of flowers bloomed. And we just started little and kept growing it as we went.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
We were following up with the slow food and now it's the slow flower movement. About 80 percent of the flowers that are sold here in the US are actually imported from distant lands, like South America, where they can grow flowers year-round. But because of that, they are cut, you know, weeks, days to weeks before getting into customers’ hands. They're shipped out of water. They're shipped in cardboard and plastic. And they're dehydrated and they're actually only able to be picked really closed. I call our business seed-to-sale. So, everything that we grow on the farm, I have started here from seed or bulb or corm. But it's all done here. We don't bring in any flowers we don't grow.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Ready P? Want to strip the foliage?
Spring is definitely our main season. We grow about, I'd say, between three and four hundred different varieties of flowers here.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Go put them in.
There's no pesticides, no herbicides, nothing.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
The harvest, I think, is their favorite time because we're outside and they get special little jobs. So, they strip the leaves and they take turns walking the flowers to the buckets.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This is gomphrena, which is a pretty cool flower because it's multiuse. They're an everlasting flower. So, come wintertime, when we do dried flower wreaths as our winter income, they are great.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This is a dahlia. We use them fresh only. They're not a flower that most people are familiar with because you can't get them imported. They're very delicate. They don't have the longest vase life. So, these are a flower that you can really only get locally.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
So, this is eucalyptus and it's another one that is an awesome foliage but it's multiuse because we can dry it and sell dried bundles of this. And it's actually not a perennial here but we can get it to overwinter, which is awesome because we get a much earlier harvest.
((NATS: Kaitlin and Paisley))
It’s my favorite flower.
You love this? You want to hold it?
It’s been going in my face.
Smell how good it smells.
Mmm.
Rub your finger on the leaf. It's the oil in there.
Mmm.
Doesn’t it smell good?
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This will hold like three or four of them.
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
Chelsea is another flower farmer in the area and she owns Bee’s Wing Farm out in Bluemont, Virginia. And her and I are working on founding a flower collective or a flower co-op where we will sell wholesale flowers to local flower professionals and florists to support the wedding industry out here in Loudon County and the surrounding area.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
This is amaranth, birchleaf spirea, sea oats, lemon mint monarda or beebalm, zinnias, vitex, some celosia, nicotiana which is flowering tobacco. We have scabiosa, some more varieties of zinnias, apple mint here. It's a fun variety. It's got lots of texture.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
Wild for Wildflowers is the name of the farm but it speaks more to the style of the flowers that we do. When I first named this business and started it, I thought I was going to be doing more wedding work. So, I was speaking to more whimsical, nature inspired types of arrangements, not so much the type of flowers that we grow.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
We are going to go deliver the flowers right now to Willowsford Farm in Aldie. And we have a couple of different locations that have partnered with us to be pick-up locations for our own spring share.
((NATS: Kaitlin & a store salesman))
Hi guys. How are you?
We’re good.
Do you want these in the cooler again?
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
It's an exhaustion that's fueled by a pure passion. So, even though I'm tired, I, you know, giving up is never a problem. And when I see the joy that these flowers bring our clients and our community, it's just, it's worth every ounce of effort.
((NATS: Kaitlin & Paisley))
Hang on, hang on P. You're going to cut right here, just that stem. Go ahead. Good job!
((Kaitlin Armijo
Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
And then, of course, seeing how much my family enjoys doing this, you know. We get quality time out here together.
((NATS: Kaitlin & Kids))
Yeah.
We're out every day, rain or shine, all working together towards like a common goal. So, it's a lot of fun.
((NATS: Both kids))
I want to watch you go underneath.
((NATS))


((PKG)) CONNECT WITH – HORSE TRAINER
((TRT: 01:52))
((Topic Banner: Connect with: Tomi Bova-Luke))
((Reporter/Camera: Deepak Dobhal))
((Map: Covington, Indiana))
((Main character: 1 female))
((NATS))
((Tami Bova-Luke
Horse Trainer))
My name is Tami Bova-Luke. We’re in Covington, Indiana and I am a horse trainer.
((NATS))
((Tami Bova-Luke
Horse Trainer))
When I was seven, my dad took me to a rodeo in Denver, Colorado, called the Denver Stock Show. And I watched all the rodeo events. And then they came in and here comes the women and the women barrel racing. And I said to my dad, “When I grow up, that's what I want to do. I want to be a professional barrel racer and train horses.” And that's what I became.
((NATS))
((Tami Bova-Luke
Horse Trainer))
I'm a horrible businesswoman in this because I have too much heart. When they come to us, they never leave. The horses that I generally have, I have till they say goodbye to us. Every once in a while, I may sell one but it's very rare.
((NATS))
((Tami Bova-Luke
Horse Trainer))
My future dream would be for my girls to keep being successful. Keep loving what they're doing in this horse industry and then eventually make it to the national finals rodeo if they so choose. And who knows, maybe be a world champion one day. But if you talk to any barrel racer, that's pretty much every barrel racer’s dream.
((NATS))
((Tami Bova-Luke
Horse Trainer))
I would like to be remembered as a nice person, as somebody that's helpful to others. I'm always trying to better myself. That can be tricky sometimes. It's always easier to help others than to help yourself.
((NATS))


CLOSING BUMPER ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect

NEXT WEEK ((VO/NAT/SOT))
((Banner))
In coming weeks…..
Because She Loves Music
((SOT))
((Jeri Lynne Johnson
Conductor/Founder, Black Pearle Chamber Orchestra))
I think that leadership is serving others. And so, my job as the conductor is literally to allow the music to come through me and to share that with the musicians and to create a space that allows them, for the music to also come through them. Whatever orchestra I'm standing in front of, I want all of us to be able to rekindle that joy that we all first felt as young students starting out in the business.


CLOSING BUMPER ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect

BREAK THREE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))


SHOW ENDS