The One Minute Manager Essay Example for Free

The One Minute Manager Essay Reflection: The one minute Manager I have found to be a dull, be good book. I believe it will help you run your business. One minute reprimands and one minute praisings are a good strategy to use in your business. I will definitely use them in my business, because I believe in them. When employees do something wrong they feel real bad, and doing a one minute reprimand followed by a praising helps them and you. It helps you because it makes them believe your on there side which you are and it helps them because they don’t feel as bad. Employees nowadays feel hatred towards there boss, trust me I know because when I work at Sweetbay a lot of the employees don’t like the boss. I’m not one of them of course I understand that she is doing her best for everyone’s interest. But what I may do is get her this book, maybe she’ll learn a thing or two. In my opinion all bosses should learn how to be a one minute manager. Being a one minute manager helps you increase your employability liking. Employees I know love to be praised, I’ve had that feeling several times. One minute reprimands help because they aren’t that long and praise follows it. I know from experience that employees don’t want to be talked to forever about something they did wrong even when it was an accident. The one minute manager is an excellent way to get to your employees. People who feel good about themselves Produce good results. Productivity/Effectiveness, TQM (total quality management) Adam Smith, quality is remembered long after price is forgotten. Post WWII helped build Europe and Asia One minute manager is someone who takes very little time to get big results from people. One minute praising, a praising is a celebration for something you did right for a minute And a One minute reprimand, a reprimand is a talk about something you did wrong. Blake/Mouton Grid: Willing and Able, Willing and unable, Unwilling and able, and Unwilling and Unable The best minute I spend is the one I invest in People AAA (Alcohol, Anonymous, Association) Serenity Prayer- God, grant me the ability of what I can change and what I can’t change and the wisdom to know the difference. Ronald Regan- Trust but verify You get what you inspect â€Å"Feedback is the breakfast of champions† NIMBY- Not In My Back Yard Everyone is a potential winner, some people are disguised as losers, don’t let there appearance fool you. Take a minute, look at your goals, look at your performance, and see if your behavior matches your goals Pay attention to the writing on the wall We are not just our behavior, we are the person managing our behavior Goals begin behaviors, Consequences maintain behaviors Share it with others; tell people how they can become a one minute manager tell them what it means to be one

The History Of The Blues Harmonica Music Essay

The History Of The Blues Harmonica Music Essay The harmonica is a free reed instrument; this means that sound is generated as air flows past a thin strip of material and makes it vibrate producing sound. Air pressure is usually generated by breathing or blowing into a hole, cane or pipe. The air flows over one side of the reed, creating an area of low pressure and causing the reed to flex towards the opposite side. The frame enclosing the reed is built so that when it flexes it blocks the air flow, reducing the low pressure area and allowing the reed to bend back. The harmonica is known to have different names like the Gob Iron, the Tin Sandwich, the Mouth Organ but most commonly the harp, probably because of its mechanism being so similar to the Jews harp, which consists of a single reed mounted on a frame that is plucked to create a note that resonates in the players mouth. The first free reed instruments were invented in the Ancient Far East and were not known in the West until quite recently. Among these ancient instruments there is the khaen of Laos; which consists of various pipes bound together in a set of rows, very much like a pan pipe, or the shÄâ€Å"ng of China and the shÃ…Â  of Japan, which are more of a group of tubes, traditionally inserted into a hollow dried fruit like a gourd, which nowadays is made of steel. (see Illustration x) These traditional instruments have survived to modern times and are currently used in social music and courtship rituals, and the sheng is still one of the instruments used in Chinese opera. The metal free reeds system used in the khaen and sheng is thought to be the ancestor of the reeds used in harmonicas in the present. The shÄâ€Å"ng was brought to Russia at the end of the 18th century. It seems it inspired a lot of devices in the early 19th century, which was the foundation for the development of the more modern free reeds. A Czech organ builder named Franz Kirschnek fashioned a new kind of free reed to be used in organ pipes. He might have just adapted an earlier model of free reed or he actually come up with the idea completely independently. Harmonicas, as we know them today When we talk about the harmonica as we know it today, it is hard to determine exactly who the inventor was. There were no factories at the time, and it was a case of individual artisans who were trying out new ideas. At the time, many people tried to construct instruments with free reeds in Vienna, Paris, London, and America, so its not clear who might have been the first but credit does go to a young German by the name of Friedrich Buschmann, who later on was also known to invent the concertina. He was a clockmaker, and around 1816 he devised an object used as a piano tuner and called it mundaeoline, which is German means mouth harp. What can be determined is that one of the oldest artisans to make harmonicas was Christian Messner. Around the late 1820s he got one of these little harmonicas from Vienna, thought it was an interesting instrument, repaired it and awoke an interest in his colleagues, who asked him to make them one too. He saw it could become a lucrative business and became the first harmonica maker in South-West Germany. At this point it was only possible to blow into harmonicas; it was later, around 1847 when Johannes Richter added a secondary draw reed plate under the blow plate. From 1840, Messners nephew Christian Weiss decided to set up his own small company and began to work on his own designs. In 1857, another young clockmaker named Matthias Hohner bought and managed to copy one of Buschmanns creations. With this and a bit of espionage from the Weiss Harmonica Company he managed to introduce his own design. He gave the instrument a nicer look, ornamenting its cover plates and displaying his brand name. He was a talented salesman and businessman. He improved production and bought out his competitors. By the 1870s, mass production began at the Hohner Company and they started an aggressive overseas marketing campaign; the harmonica now looked very much like the ones we know today. The American civil war made the harmonica very popular in the USA. Hohner had already sent harmonicas over and the soldiers found it easy to play and carry. Within a comparatively short space of time, the Hohner Company was shipping millions of Richter Marine Band harmonicas to America every year. Around the 1900s, half of the harmonicas made in Germany were sold to the United States. In the 1920s, Hohner was making over 50 million harmonicas every year, and distributing them all over the world. From then on they have been the leading harmonica company. Up until then, harmonicas could only be played in a major scale (or natural minor), so by blowing naturally, you could not get any half steps or sharps and flats. For example, a C Major scale would be: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C and that would be the C Diatonic harmonica. It would be like only playing the white keys on a piano. Hohner then decided to develop a chromatic harmonica that could play all 12 notes of a scale, making it a very versatile instrument which is used for music which requires a great variety of notes. It is specially used in jazz, pop and of course classical music. Although it allows the possibility to play any scale, in any key, it cant bend notes very well so the player cant really achieve a bluesy kind of sound as well as on the diatonic (bluesy sound explained further). In the Seydel Factory in Saxony, they still use the original machines that were used 130 years ago to make their harmonicas and although the parts are mass produced they must still be assembled by hand, someone at some point in the line of production must check and fine tune the harmonica manually. Special small plates and files are used to make precise adjustments to the reeds and it is a task that cannot be undertaken mechanically; every reed must be tuned by hand. The harmonica is one of the most portable instruments; it fits in any pocket or bag and is easy to carry around. There are endless stories about how harmonicas saved lives; from stopping bullets by being in the soldiers uniform in the right place at the right time, to other stories of many musicians that made a living out of playing it. It is a close and intimate instrument, and very personal as players wouldnt let other people play their harmonica (especially for hygienic reasons). Companion of isolated men, from prisoners, soldiers and shepherds to astronauts, as it was the first musical instrument in outer space. On a Gemini space flight in December 1965, astronaut Wally Schirra reported an unidentified flying object in a polar orbit, We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit. Looks like he might be going to re-enter soon. You just might let me pick up that thing. I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit and then played Jingle Bells on a four hole, eight-note Little Lady Hohner harmonica that he had managed to smuggle on board. It is an extraordinary little device, invented as a toy, considered a beautiful instrument and that has now been with us for over 150 years and will still go on for many more. How do harmonicas work? Parts and Mechanisms The harmonica was initially designed to be able to play various notes at the same time in combinations that were harmonic and made intuitive sense because they could automatically support melodious notes. By blowing and sucking the player can easily get the notes sounding right, without the need to work on getting the notes to sound clearly like on the guitar, it is a bit more like playing keys on the piano. Anyone can buy a good functional harmonica without having to spend a lot of money, and that is something you cant say about guitars or keyboards. Although usually out of the box harmonicas need a lot of fine tuning and customizing for advanced and professional playing. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦they are raw materials waiting to be formed in to a real instrument. Then again that also happens with most professional instruments. The basic mechanism is as explained in the previous section about free reed instruments. For the purpose of this analysis from now on when the harmonica is mentioned, it will be referring to the ten hole diatonic, the most commonly used harmonica for folk, rock and of course blues music. The diatonic harmonica consists of two cover plates, two reed plates and a comb (see illustration x). Cover plates cover the reed-plates and are usually made of metal. There are two types of cover plates: traditional stamped metal open designs like the Hohner Marine Band, and enclosed designs such as the Suzuki Promaster. The first are usually lighter and smaller than the enclosed ones which often are heavier but give out a louder tonal quality. The comb is the main body of the instrument. Its the central part of the harmonica and its what everything is bolted or nailed to. Its called a comb because it looks very much like a hair comb. As air goes though the harmonica, it usually carries saliva, so this inner structure must be made out of a type of material that can resist exposure to moisture and that way avoid expanding or smelling. Traditionally they are made from pear wood, although they can also be found made out of plastic or metal. There are two brass reed plates on a diatonic harmonica, each with 10 to 12 reeds riveted on to it. The reeds are shorter for the higher pitch, so the lower the note is, the longer the reed. The top plate is for the blow notes and the bottom is for the draw notes, so the reeds are facing the opposite direction. After a while reeds do go out of tune, and some notes might lose their brightness, they start to sound flat and inconsistent. That indicates the harmonica needs re-tuning. Although every hole in the harmonica can easily produce one note as the player blows air in to it, and one as he draws air, there are many more hidden notes that can be found by bending (a term used by guitarists, who actually bend the strings up or down to create a subtle change in the pitch) or overblowing. (see illustration Bendable Notes Chart) If while doing a draw note, the airflow is increased, the draw reed over-flexes and the air pressure causes the blow reed from the same hole to vibrate too, making a new note pop out, so basically you are drawing air through the blow reed. The best way to understand how air pressure is changed is by whistling and trying to change the pitch of the initial note. The changes your mouth, tongue and throat make are similar to the ones a harmonica player makes when he bends a note. Bending notes is a tough technique for beginner harmonica players and it is where the secret to getting a bluesy sound lies, because its the way to get the flat third, fifth and seventh; the blue notes. The Bluesy Sound The term the blues usually refers to melancholy and sadness and is constantly heard in lyrics to describe a depressed mood. Blues is a form of expression and a feeling that is brought to a musical form. In very technical words, the blues form is characterized by specific chord progressions also found in other genres like folk, jazz, and rock and roll. The twelve-bar blues chord progression is one of the most common, although there are others like the eight-bar, used in songs like Key to the highway, originally by Big Bill Broonzy, or the sixteen-bar as in Ray Charles Sweet 16 Bars or in Herby Hancocks Watermelon Man. The basic twelve-bar framework blues progression has a distinctive form in phrase and chord structure and duration. The structure is based on the Tonic, Subdominant and Dominant chords of the key. For example: A blues song in the key of C would have the following structure: Take the Tonic Subdominant Dominant chords and play them in the following order: T T T T | S S T T | D S T T So the chords for a blues tune in the key of C would be C, F and G and they would be played in the following order: C C C C | F F C C | G F C C Fitting the lyrics in this structure makes them sing very much like poetry sound when it is read out loud. The structure consists on an AAB pattern, consisting of a line being sung over the first four bars, in repetitions over the next four bars, and a longer finishing line over the last four bars. Using Robert Johnsons Sweet Home Chicago as a standard twelve bar Blues example for analysis, we find the following pattern: Bar 1 Bar 2 Bar 3 Bar 4 A Come on, Baby dont you want to go Bar 5 Bar 6 Bar 7 Bar 8 A I said, come on, Baby dont you want to go Bar 9 Bar 10 Bar 11 Bar 12 B To that same old place Sweet home Chicago This progression of chords is the basis of thousands other rock and pop songs that often have a blue sound even without using the traditional twelve-bar arrangement. The harmonica player has to be very aware of what key and chord the song is in, because he has to fit in that progression or the notes he plays would not sound right. He then also has to know very well when and where to fit in the blue notes that, for expressive reasons are played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd, explained further along) in relation to the pitch of the major scale. After all, the blues is a feeling and although it can be analysed technically as any other musical genre, to play it right it has to be felt. Like Muddy Watters puts it when youve got no bread and your love sick youve got the blues. And although people cant even begin to imagine slavery, working in the cotton fields, or being racially discriminated like it was in those days, they can still feel the romanticism of that feeling in a sense of a Im with them! support. The blues is not all just about playing the twelve-bar, like Mick Abrahams from Fleetwood Mac says in the documentary Blues Britannia Can Blue Men Sing the Whites, If you can play one note in the twelve-bar solo and make somebody cry or laugh, or all the lovely emotions that are associated with music, thats truly to me the blues its almost a prayer Nonetheless some blues artists also used the blues as a base for more comical, raunchy lyrics, such as Big Joe Turners Rebecca (Rebecca, Rebecca, get you big legs off me, Rebecca, Rebecca, get you big legs off me. It may be sending you baby, but its worrying the hell out of me) or Tampa Reds Tight Like That (There was a little black rooster met a little brown hen, made a date at the barn about a half past ten). What got the Harmonica in to blues? The main thing that got the harmonica into the blues was its inexpensivenessà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ which now is a thing of the past as Paul Jones lead singer and harmonica player for Manfred Mann, says in the documentary Tin Sandwich Anyone?, and it is because at the time they were an affordable instrument that the African Americans managed to popularise by introducing it to the blues. Little Walter was quoted saying When I started to play harmonicas, they were a dime! Now theyre a dollar and a half! Those people ought to remember who popularised them that way! The first harmonica recordings made around 1924 by many unknown musicians totally revolutionised the way the instrument was played, and gave way to the blues harmonica as we know it. The harmonica allowed for some very visceral, meaningful sounds that almost felt like wails of pain and sorrow. They almost felt like an extension from the voice and were definitely very expressive and profound close intimate instruments. It was amazing how such a small simple instrument was able to communicate so many things and create so many different effects. Harmonica players at the time discovered that it was possible to lower the pitch of some of the notes by changing the shape of the air space inside his mouth whilst playing: Bending. They also found that drawing instead of blowing, and not playing in the key of the harmonica, but in the key of the dominant 7th chord, they could create sounds that had nothing to do with the major-key folk for which the harmonica was originally intended: the Cross Harp. Train imitations and fox-chases, or many of the typical blues licks, would have been unimaginable without these two features. Bending is probably the first way the player starts hearing a bluesy sound coming from this little instrument. Bends are essential for blues and rock harmonica sound, due to the sad and soulful sound the instrument can draw out. That wailing and howling of the blues harmonica is achieved by bending. Playing the harmonica in the same key as the song is in would mean the player is in the first position or strait. He would be mostly using blow notes and it is the way he would get a melody, or more of a folk sound. The cross harp, or second position, consists on taking the harmonica in a different key from the song (being in the circle of fifths) and mostly playing draw notes. For example: Accompanying a guitarist playing a song in A, the harmonica player could play an A harmonica in first position, or a D harmonica in the second position. Both would fit in but the D harmonica would make it sound more bluesy than the A harmonica. The way the cross harp works is that there are only so many scales one can do on each harmonica. On a piano or a guitar all scales can be played from all keys on the same instrument, but on the harmonica the player has to change keys. This way draw notes can be played easier and so can the blue notes. Usually beginner harmonicas come with a cross harp chart in the box (see illustration. x), where you can see what key you have to be on to sound bluesy or melodic. Many other techniques can be also used in combination. Vibrato, commonly used with other instruments, can also be done on the harmonica. Vibrato, as the name indicates, gives the notes a vibrating sound. Usually it is made by contracting the muscles on the throat and varying the airflow. Another typical way to do it is by opening a closing your hands around the instrument freeing more or less air. Vibrato is a very common effect used by singers and other instruments. Thanks to the way the harmonica is constructed, it also allows the player to play chords. A chord is a set of two or more notes played together harmonically. By stretching the mouth over two, three or four holes and playing them together as one melodic note you can get chords on the harmonica. By playing chords the player can also get a vamping effect, which is achieved by alternating chords and single notes to accompany himself while playing a song. The idea of vamping is to fill in the silences in the melody with chords in the right beat. By keeping that beat going, the player can make it sound like two harmonicas are playing; one doing the chords and another one doing the melody. Little Walter and Sonny Terry were both known for great vamping in their tunes. Usually their sound was very rich and full and the harmonica sounded more powerful. The Blues Harmonica Blues Origins and Background The blues goes back to the 17th century, in the United States. Blues is defined as the folk genre for the African-American population, mainly the Deep South, which originated from their spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. At the time united states were a British colony that brought slaves from Africa who populated most of the south of the country. They worked on the tobacco, cotton and rice plantations and were not allowed to practice their cultures and religions. The first bluesmen were people that used to sing about how their life was to try and relieve the pain. In a way they were trying to send messages that travelled from plantation to plantation, to show what being a slave was. Blues became, for the African-Americans, a form of expression and a way to tell their stories. It was emotionally deep, straight to the point and full of meaning. John Mayall, from the Blues Breakers says the main charm about the blues is that it has such an authenticity about in the fact that when you listen to it you hear these stories, and visualize that these are real stories. And often they were, as narrative of the lyrics was usually about the cruelty of police offices, oppression at the hands of white people and hard times. For example, in Blind Lemon Jeffersons Rising High Water Blues, he tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 where he lost his girlfriend: Black water rising, Southern people cant make no time, Black water rising, Southern people cant make no time, And I cant get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine After the war, lyrics became simpler and focused almost entirely on relationship despairs or sexual worries. Themes that recurrently appeared in pre-war blues such as economic depression, farming, gambling, magic, the devil, fires and floods were less common in post-war blues. Other lyrics by artist like Skip James, Reverend Gary Davis or Blind Willie Johnson were also artist recognized by more religious or spiritual performances, highly influenced by the Christian conversions. 1920s, First Harmonica Recordings As for the harmonica, Pete Hampton was probably the first African-American harmonica player to be recorded. Despite a productive recording career in the early 1900s with songs like Nigger Blues, he only seemed to have used the harmonica for one particular song titled Mouth Organ Coon, where the harmonica probably adopted the term Mouth Organ. He already used many effects including vocalising through the harmonica, the use of fox chase and train-like rhythm arrangements and simultaneous whistling. Hampton used an F diatonic harmonica and he played it in first position. Soon after that, Henry Whitter was the first to record in the cross harp position. Even though he was a white musician, he had adopted a remarkable African-American influence on his harmonica playing. He claimed to have made test recordings in March 1923 and recorded the final tracks around December 1923 in New York City, recording the first three harmonica solos. The tunes appear to be in the key of A, and Whitter played in the second position on a D harmonica. He also had a train imitation, this one played in first position in what looked like a key of B although it might have originally been played on a C harp, an slowed down at some point. Another early country music star was DeFord Bailey who became the first African American performer on the Grand Ole Opry, which was a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee that presented different artists from the genre from 1925. Bailey could play various instruments but he was best known for playing the harmonica and he played every Saturday night for 15 years, after he had to leave because of a dispute with management. He developed the fox-hunt and train techniques and he used a custom made megaphone to amplify the sound from his harmonica. At the time, music was totally acoustic and the harmonica could be played comfortably and heard perfectly while accompanying a guitar and a singer. Some players used a class or a jug to funnel the sound and gain a bit more amplification like DeFord Baileys custom megaphone. (See Pic XfunnelX) By then, the harmonica had proved to be an interesting new instrument full of different sounds and effects, radically departing from the manufactures intentions of a toy. 1930s, Lomax and the re-discovery The Emancipation Act of 1863, between 1870 and 1900, which freed the Black communities from slavery and had permitted them to build up the so called juke joints as places where Blacks could go to listen to some music, dance or have a gamble after a days work. Performances where held in places like the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York or many bars along the famous Beale Street in Memphis. This style was known as the Delta Blues, which consisted on traditional, rural country blues performed acoustically in more of a polished city urban style, also introducing new sounds like the bottle neck slide guitar and the floorboard stomping. By the end of the twenties, Vaudeville and tent-show singers, circus artists, boogie-woogie pianists, jug and jazz bands were to be heard at some point playing some form of the blues. Blues was becoming a vehicle for some people to earn a living by playing and entertaining the audiences. It was exclusively race music and the majority of white people didnt really know what it was or nor have the interest to listen to it. Outside the phonograph stores, black people would stand in line anxious to obtain the latest blues disc and by now there was already a reasonably large archive of blues music given by artists like Lead Belly, Henry Thomas and Big Walter Horton. Many harmonica players were recording in duos with guitarists like Hammie Nixon and Sleepy John Estes, or trios like Sonny Terry, Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red. Around the 1930s, John Lomax, pioneering musicologist and folklorist, together with his son Alan Lomax made a great number of non-commercial recordings for the Archive of American Folk songs. They went around the south of the United States with a mobile recording device, capturing many root songs, field hollers and ring shouts. This contributed in a great way to the blues because they managed to capture, catalogue and generate an archive of traditional and rural sounds. The instruments flexibility also captured the attention of classical music during this decade. Although some conservative musicians didnt approve of it and degraded it by considering it a toy, young Larry Adler managed to perform a minuet by Beethoven and later on had works written for the instrument by the composers like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Darius Milhaud, Malcolm Arnold and Arthur Benjamin. 1940s, Pre-war and Post-war Blues During the war, the United States experienced a shortage of harmonicas mainly because materials like wood and metal that were used to make harmonicas were in short supply due to military demand. Another problem was that Germany and Japan were the primary manufacturers of harmonicas and of course where the Axis powers opposed to the United States and the allied forces. Companies like Finn Harkon Magnus, developed a molded plastic harmonica that used plastic combs and far fewer pieces than traditional metal or wood harmonicas, which in a way made the harmonica more hygienic and far more efficient to mass produce. The sound from these harmonicas was inferior to the traditional ones but their inexpensiveness made them become a common toy among children. Between the late 30s and the 40s, many African-Americans were starting to migrate to other states further north in hope to find more acceptable working conditions. Many musicians based in Memphis moved to big cities like Chicago and New York encouraged by their music and the idea of making a living from entertainment. It was the beginning of what would later be called the Chicago Electric Blues. 1950s Chess Records and the Chicago Blues The 50s were the beginning of an era of high quality harmonica players. For instance Sonny Boy Williamson II, is one of the most important harmonica players of this era. The blues gradually began to use more electric amplification for the guitar, double bass, and vocals. Using a full blues band, as he usually played backed by a piano or a guitar, a bass and a drummer, Sonny Boy became a popular act in the South with his daily broadcasts when he was hired to play the King Biscuit Time show, advertising the King Biscuit brand of baking flour on the radio. Sonny Boy Williamson II also helped popularize the cross-harp technique and his way of playing which was very expressive, very sensual and very technical. Another key factor to this new era of blues harmonica was the Chess brothers. Leonard and Philip Chess were two Jewish immigrants from Poland who came to Chicago in 1928. They owned some bars on the south side of Chicago, their largest establishment being a nightclub called the Macomba. The Macomba had live performances and many of those were blues entertainers that had migrated to Chicago from the Mississippi delta during the late 30s and 40s. The Chess brothers realized that these artists were not being properly represented or recorded, so they decided to start recording them themselves. They entered into a partnership with Charles and Evelyn Aron in Aristocrat Records who had just opened Aristocrat Records to record blues, jazz and rhythm blues. The most important artist they recorded was McKinley Morganfield, who went by the name of Muddy Waters. He had come from Mississippi to Chicago a few years before and had been working on his own until he met the Chess brothers. His first records where of himself accompanied by a guitar or a piano. His deep raw singing style reflected the spirit of the blues and was quite unique. The Chess brothers were able to build Muddy Waters into Chicagos leading blues singer through their connections with radio stations and local clubs. In late 1949, Leonard and Phil Chess became the sole owners of Aristocrat Records and reorganized the company changing its name to Chess Records. Historically, the music business had always been dominated by a few major record labels which were Columbia, Victor, Decca, Capitol, Mercury, and MGM. These major labels had paid some attention to the blues and other root genres but had always placed the artists on secondary labels that were focused toward the race audience. Chess Records grew in those early days of both rhythm and blues and along with other independent record companies like Atlantic, Aladdin, Specialty, Imperial, Modern and King were giving the public music that they could not get from the established major record companies. Other young Mississippi bluesmen that were drawn to Chicago joined Muddy Waters band. One of the most brilliant musicians to play with Muddy was Little Walter Jacobs, whose outstanding harmonica made the band even better. The young harmonicist revolutionized the instrument by playing the harmonica through a microphone, typically a Bullet microphone sold for use by radio taxi dispatchers. He cupped in his hands around it with the harmonica, and tightened the air around the harp. It gave the instrument a punchy, mid-range, powerful, distorted sound that could be heard as loud as an electric guitar. MUCH MORE ABOUT LITTE WALTER His style, is amps and effects, his solo career. In 1952, Chess formed a subsidiary label called Checker where Little Walter recorded some of his own work. His first release was an instrumental piece called Juke which topped the Rhythm and Blues charts for eight weeks. He was able to top the charts again in 1955 with the song My Babe. A young record producer in Memphis Tennessee named Sam Phillips was recording a 300 pound farm worker named Chester Burnette, who became known as the Howlin Wolf. At the time, Phillips, who later established Sun Re

The Dredd Scott Case Essay -- Supreme Court American History Slavery E

The Dredd Scott Case The Dredd Scott case involved a landmark decision in the history of the Supreme Court, in the history of the United States the decision in this case was one of the most damaging statements in the history of the Supreme Court, involving the citizenship of a black person in the United States, and the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise in 1820. The history of a black man named Dredd Scott states that he was a slave originally owed by a family by the name of Blow, which ended up selling him in 1833 to an army surgeon by the name of Dr. John Emerson of St. Luis. Due to his involvement as an army surgeon, Emerson was transferred to numerous places such as Rock Island, Illinois, Fort Snelling in the Wisconsin Territory then back to St. Louis in the end of 1838. Scott had accompanied Emerson throughout this period. Emerson had taken Scott to places that forbidden slavery according to the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and Scott was even allowed to marry during this! time period on fre e territory, his companion being a woman who was also a slave owned by Emerson. As Emerson and Scott had returned to St. Louis, a territory where slavery was legal, Emerson died and Scott was left to his widow, who eventually gave Scott back to his original owners, the Blows. Henry Blow, Scott’s original master, was opposed to the extension of slavery into the Western territories, and Blow lent Scott’s residence on free soil in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory had made him a free man. In 1846, Dredd Scott brought suit in the state court on the grounds that residence in a free territory released him from slavery. A lower state court had found to be in favor of Scott, but in 1852, the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled that upon his return to territory where slavery was legal, the status of slavery was reattached to him and therefore he had no standing before the court. The case was brought before the federal circuit court, which took jurisdiction, but held against Scott. The case was taken on appeal to the Supreme Court, where it was argued at length in 1855 and 1856 and finally decided in 1857. The decision handed down by a majority of the vote of the court was that there was no power in the in the existing form of government to make citizens slave or free, ! and at the time of the formation of the US Constitution they were not and could not be citi... ...than presiding over a session of the circuit court), Taney on the 28th of May, 1861, declared Merryman entitled to his freedom on the grounds that he was illegally detained. In an unusual move, he filed and opinion condemning Merryman’s arrest as an arbitrary and illegal denial of civil liberty. Taney stated that military detention of civilians like Merryman was unconstitutional because only congress had authority to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus. Taney described the president as a mere administrative officer charged with faithful enforcement of the laws. according to the Chief Justice this amounted to a constitutional duty not to execute the laws "as they are expanded and adjudged by the co-ordinate branch of the government, to which that duty is assigned by the constitution." Taney sent a copy of his opinion to Lincoln. President Lincoln justified his action in a message to Congress in July 1861. He reasoned further that the framers did not intend that in an emergency no action should be taken to protect the public safety by suspending Habeas Corpus until Congress should be assembled. More importantly he ignored Taney’s opinion. Merryman, however, was later released.

Education Roles Essay -- Education Educate Papers

Education Roles Emerging from an extended period of ideological hostility between stubbornly-defined cold war blocs, we enter an era of strident nationalism and ethnic conflict. We observe conflicts of ethnic differences and historic disagreements, now fueled by the frustration of failed economic systems and faltering political regimes. Feelings of unity often arise out of a sense of shared experiences and common goals. In Canada, however, and in many other countries, people have been driven apart by geographic, racial, ethnic, linguistic, cultural and legal circumstances. As the widespread trend toward state division and republic formation continues, we must come to ask ourselves what can hold diverse people together. Primary and secondary school education-and specifically, the content and the form of national histories that are taught in classrooms around the world-provides a unique venue for the study of the development of nationalism. It may be the primary forum in which people construct, think about and interpret stories about themselves and their past, present and future. Through the Canadian experience, nationalism can be seen outside a context of war and deprivation. Yet as Michael Ignatieff-British resident and son of a Russian-born Canadian diplomat-writes of Canada, "Here we have one of the five richest nations on earth, a country so uniquely blessed with space and opportunity that the world's poor are beating at the door to get in, and it is tearing itself apart." Especially in the aftermath of an emotionally intense and statistically close referendum on Quà ©bec sovereignty in October 1995, Canada too must examine the possibilities for national unity. As I have thought about these possibilities, I have ... ...mmunity-active approaches to education, I am trying to understand the teacher's role and the role of education in general in individual development. Through current and further academic studies, I am attempting to understand the role of education in the social, economic, cultural and political development of the nation-state. The opportunity to study abroad for a year under a Rotary Scholarship would allow me to gain a greater understanding of the possible outcomes of various experiements in education attempted in another country as govenments, teachers, students and other citizens respond to social, economic and political conditions. The process and the aftermath of this experience would challenge me to explore the possibilities for creating and forwarding honest national histories-both abroad and in Canada-within which each individual's voice might be articulated.

How developed is Brazil? Essay -- Econimics

How developed is Brazil? BRAZIL Economic A Case Study of: - Developments in two contrasting regions of a country (South East / Amazonia / North). - Strategies used by a government to improve the economy (in a developing country). - Exploitation of new resources within a country. - Impact of economic / industrial development on the environment of a region or country. Setting the scene - How developed is Brazil ? Brazil, alongside Mexico is considered one of South America's newly industrialising countries. GRAPH Main exports Metallic ores, coffee, fruit, chemicals, machines, weapons In 1991 Brazil had a debt of $123 billion.This is owed to the USA, the EEC, Japan and the World Bank. It is claimed that Brazil is "the 10th largest economy in the world". However in some urban areas 50% of people live below the "Poverty Line". Recent changes (1970 - 1998): - More people employed in manufacturing industry. - Fewer people employed in farming but between 1982 - 1990 agircultural output increased by 38%. - Over 50% of population employed in Services. - Increase in land used for farming - large estate plantations and ranching. - Rapid growth in "informal sector" jobs - working without official records (partic. in cities) such as street sellers, repairers, decorators etc. - Rapid growth of cities - over 75% of population live in cities. Of these 30 - 50% live below "poverty line". In the 1970's five main pressures created the debts: 1. Oil prices rose(doubled then quadrupled by 1979) so Brazils import bill increased as it tried to fuel growing industry. 2. Oil rich countries had money to lend - Brazil borrowed from t... ...outh est region where all raw materials; iron, coal, limestone are found. Near market - car industry in Sao Paulo (Volkswagen, Fiat, General Motors and Ford all located there, 4 of 2,000 foreign companies in Sao Paulo). Aircraft / defence industry big steel use too. 9. New weapons industry in Sao Paulo / Rio de Janeiroarea (South East region) - major growth 1975 - 1995. Located near major steel works. Defence commitments are important to Brazil (military government in 1960's - 1970's) - drug trafficking & guerilla wars along its borders. Located on new motorway routes - near decision making and industrial centres. 80% of Brazil's weapons are produced here as well as nuclear research near Sao Paulo. Brazil now exports weapons. The RAF makes a Tuscano training aircraft in Belfast, made from parts manufactured in Brazil.

Home Depot Environmental Issues

1) On the basis of Home Depot’s response to environmental issues, describe the attributes (power, legitimacy, urgency) of this stakeholder. Assess the company’s strategy and performance with environmental and employee stakeholders. A stakeholder framework helps identify the internal stakeholders and the external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders such as: employees, boards of directors, and managers. Customers, special interest groups, regulators, and others who agree are external stakeholders who collaborate and engage in confrontations on ethical issues. ) As a publicly traded corporation, how can Home Depot justify budgeting so much money for philanthropy? What areas other than the environment, disaster relief, affordable housing, and at-risk youth might be appropriate for strategic philanthropy by Home Depot? Home Depot is about giving back and recycling money through the community. Giving to the community in return gives to Home Depot. Consumers motto after what t hey have set forth and help fulfill the need to give back to those in need.Those in need and those who help are a part of the environment, disaster relief, and youth. They are hitting every corner possible. Other areas could be the elderly in the community and schools in the community. What Home Depot does spreads out to consumers and the community. 3) Is Home Depot’s recessionary strategy of eliminating debt and halting growth a wise one? What would you recommend to the CEO? Wiser more than likely, the strategy Home Depot has set forth goes well in hand with their do good model.Home Depot has shown it doesn’t have to expand and add to in order to remain the top home improvement store. With the circulation of money from stakeholders and consumers, money does not have to be borrowed from outside lenders. Receiving payback money would add to the recession by borrowing what you do not need to owe at a later time. I recommend the CEO to not forget about employee incentives and keep the funds in circulation through the community and consumers. Similar essay: Summary â€Å"The Environmental Issue from Hell†

The Crazy Horse Electric Baseball Game

The story starts of while they are playing their first baseball game of the season against the Crazy Horse Electrics. They decide to put beer in the opposition team's water bottles as a prank, so that they could win. After that Willie decides to go fishing with his dad. They have deep conversations, and they start talking about why Willie's mom does not fish like she used too. Then they get into talking about Missy, Willie's little sister who died of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). After that the book cuts into another baseball game, they are playing against the Crazy Horse Electrics. Sal, a big guy on the Crazy Horse, and Johnny get into a verbal argument, and then Johnny says something personal about him and he wound up and decked Johnny one. They break it up and continue the game. When Willie was about to pitch he looses his balance and Sal hits a good pitch. Then out of pure luck and talent, Willie stretches himself out and robs Sal of a sure triple. Willie becomes a minor legend. On their way home from school Jenny and Willie hook up. Then on the weekend, Jenny, Johnny, Willie and his family decide to go to the lake. Willie and Jenny set the table for a picnic when Johnny is out skiing. Willies mom complains about him never being safe enough. Next it is Willie's turn to water-ski. As Willie was doing a 360 ° turn, he caught the tips of his skis under the water and he crashed. Willies dad was in shock, Jenny had to give Willie mouth to mouth, and save his life. The left the boat, got into the vehicle, and drove to the hospital. Willie ends up with a speech impediment, and problems walking. He ends up doing crazy things, like acid, and drinking. He talks to a counselor whom he really likes. Willie does not want to go into a Special Ed class that the school is referring him to. He feels hopeless, and even jealous of his girlfriend for her athletics. He tries to play racquetball, but his dad gets frustrated with him. That night he hears his parents arguing over him. He hears his dad say that he thinks it would have been easier if Willie had died in the accident. From there he suspects Jenny and Petey of getting together, and finds out that they are. Willie freaks out on Petey when he trips of Willies cane, and then Petey unintentionally turns all of the attention over to Willie. Willie decides that night that he is going to run away. He goes to the bank, and tells the teller that he is going to buy a VCR, then he goes to the bus depot. He starts off on the bus with no regret, and no guilt. He arrives in Oakland, and has to take a bus transfer from there to get to the bus that will take him to San Francisco. On his way to the bus he meets a gang called the Jo Boys. They try to take his money, but when the bus came he jumped right on it to get away. They get on the bus too. He talks to the bus driver, and the bus driver says that he will try to stall the gang, but that's about all he can do. So he tries to run away as fast as he can with his handicap, and they catch up, beat him up, and take all four hundred dollars from Willie. Willie passes out. When he wakes up, there is the bus driver. He helps him up, then takes him to a restaurant where he agrees to let Willie stay the night, and ONLY the night. Willie ends up staying for good, under the agreement that he will clean up, and stay out of Lacey's (The bus driver) way. Willie finds out when Lacey says Human Relations Management, that he is a pimp. The next day Lacey and Willie go to look at the school. Willie goes in while Lacy stays in the car. It is a private school, and the owner, Andre, offers free tuition as long as Willie will help keep it clean. Andre explains that the school is for people who have any handicaps, physical disabilities, or things that cause them to have learning problems. So Willie accepts and is getting a tour, when a tall gangly blond kid, named Jack comes up and starts repeating over and over again, â€Å"This school is a chicken-shit rip-off†. Finally Andre calms him down, and they finish the tour. After a few days, Willie begins to actually try to be normal again. Though he is slow, Jack asked him to play a game of basketball. They went to an abandoned court, and started a game. This was when Jack started to call himself the â€Å"Telephone Man†. People start to watch the game, and Willie starts to get nervous. Finally the game ends, and Willie goes into the office with the Phys Ed teacher, Lisa. She asks him if he wants some help with getting control back. He says that he doesn't have any money, but he finds out she is doing it for a university paper. So they start with learning how to find his center. Willie stays in Lacey's apartment and practices dancing to some horrid music. He is learning how to place one foot in front of the other with applying the same amount of pressure on both sides. Suddenly Lacey comes home with a girl from Willie's school, Angel. Lacey is extremely drunk, and has the girl around the waste. Willie figured it out. She was a whore. Willie goes to bad, and then wakes up to screaming. He runs into Lacey's room to find him beating Angel. He takes his cane, and pounds it across Lacey until Lacey is flat out cold. Then Angle runs and calls the ambulance, and gets mad at Willie. She tells Willie that when Lacey wakes up he is going to kill Willie. So the next day Willie goes to the hospital. Andre had offered for Willie to stay in the basement of the school if he needed too a little while ago. Willie went in there, and he saw Lacey. At first Lacey was pissed off, but when Willie said that he would move, Lacey asked him to stay. Later on Willie was practicing basketball again. He was doing it a lot. Andre saw him and said that he was starting to look like a player. Willie rebounds the compliment to Lisa, because she was the one who was helping him so much. Andre asked him why he doesn't hang around with the kids. Willie replied that he doesn't do drugs. Andre gets a little angry and says that that is not the only way to get into the school. They play a little more, and Willie says that he will try to make friends. Later that night, after Willie finished polishing Lacey's car, Willie gets a phone call. It is Lacey's ex-wife, and she told him to tell Lacey that his son is still rotting away. Will decides to relay the message just to â€Å"your ex wife called. † Willie had never pried into Lacey's personal life, but when Lacey came home, he read the message. Then Willie and Lacey get into his car, and drive down to an old facility. When they look in they see Lacey's son, staring into blind air, damaged permanently. Lacey had abused him when he was younger. Lacey told Willie that Then Willie asks if that was the reason that Lacey took him in was to make up for what happened to his son. The next day at school, Lisa told Willie to ask Lacey for a hundred and forty dollars, for a special course. She said to tell Lacey that all the students were taking it, and Willie was getting a deal. So Lacey gave him the money, and the next morning Lisa picked up Willie, and they went to a gym to work out, then Willie got introduced to Sammy, who was Lisa's â€Å"boyfriend†. He taught Willie how to protect himself, and to use his â€Å"set-backs† as an advantage. Later on, Willie saw Angel, and he asked her if she was still working for Lacey. She said that she still was. He told her that he had talked to Lacey, and he said he would promise to tell her that she could go. He had told her, but she didn't want to give it up. It was the only way that she could get money, and she had been raped when she was younger. During the weekends, Willie and a bunch of people would go to the school and fix it up. Then one day, Willie went into the school, and found spray painted all over Jo Boys. He cleaned it up, and left. Then the next morning he found it again, and left it for Andre to find. Hawk got really angry about this, and was going to beat the Jo Boys up. Then Willie went to the washroom to find Jack in there, sick to his stomach from eating Bisquick and strawberry-scented shampoo. He told him to wait there while he grabbed him some clothes from the lost and found, and then sent him to run home and get changed. Willie went back to class, and then when he heard, â€Å"fight†. Hawk ran up and found Jack on the floor and the lead Jo Boy, Kam, against the wall. So Hawk beat him up. Then Hawk convinced Willie into letting them come into the school, since Willie had the keys, and wait for the Jo Boys to come, and they would catch them in the act, and beat them up. So that night Willie went, and they never showed up. The Jo Boys came and set the school on fire. Willie beat up Kam in the dark with his cane, and then went back and got him before he burned in the fire. Kam got sent to a Juvenile Delinquent Center. Willie was a hero. Then the book cuts to graduation. Willie thanks all the people that helped him along the way, and the next day he heads home. When he gets there, his parents are divorced, his dad is a drunk. His mom has remarried to a guy named Don. His dad doesn't want anything to do with him. Jenny is still angry at him because everyone thought that he was dead, and she felt guilty. He works things out with his family, and then goes to see his old house. When he gets there he sees a tiny baby, in his room. He sticks his finger out for her to grab and she does. He begins to cry. The mother says that her name is Melinda. He says, â€Å"Thank-you, she's beautiful†, turns around, leaves and head back to southern Oakland.