Friday, January 31, 2020

Wild Scenes Essay Example for Free

Wild Scenes Essay Bill Crow’s Jazz Anecdotes is a thought-provoking, often amusing collection of stories from within jazz’s inner circles, told by and about some of the genre’s leading figures. While not a history of jazz, it gives readers some insights to how jazz artists worked, lived, bonded, and coped with an America in which many were still outsiders. The book’s forty-three chapters (expanded from the original 1990 edition) describe the life jazz musicians shared, offering insights into a rather exclusive, unconventional circle of performing artists. The numerous anecdotes are categorized by chapters, gathering related tales and moving from a general overview of jazz life to anecdotes about individuals, like Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Benny Goodman. Essentially, Crow creates a context in which jazz musicians lived, and then places individual musicians within it, giving readers a better understanding of how they functioned in this rarified climate. For example, the volume opens with â€Å"Wild Scenes,† which Crow says describes how â€Å"the individuality of jazz musicians combines with the capricious world in which they try to make a living† (Crow 3). The brief chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book, giving glimpses of the unconventional world jazz musicians inhabited (which explains to some degree their relationship to society at large). â€Å"The Word ‘Jazz’† contains attempts to explain the origins of the genre’s name, and â€Å"Inventions† offers accounts of how certain innovations occurred (such as Dizzy Gillespie’s distinctive bent trumpet), giving the reader a sense of history though the work is not an orthodox history per se. Many of the stories contained in Jazz Anecdotes convey the musicians’ camaraderie and warmth toward each other, as well as each other’s idiosyncrasies. Others convey how difficult and often arbitrary the jazz lifestyle often was. â€Å"Hiring and Firing† demonstrates how unstable many musicians’ careers were, rife with disputes over money or dismissals for their personal quirks. (For example, Count Basie fired Lester Young for refusing to participate in recording sessions occurring on the 13th of any month. ) â€Å"Managers, Agents, and Bosses† offers a glimpse into the seamier underside of jazz, where dishonest managers and mobsters often trapped jazz performers in unfair contracts or worse. Though jazz musicians appear to inhabit a special world, Crow does not discuss jazz in a social vacuum, tying it to social phenomena like race relations. In â€Å"Prejudice,† the tales take a more serious tone by showing how black jazz artists faced abundant racism, particularly in the South. However, Crow notes that â€Å"Jazz helped to start the erosion of racial prejudice in America . . . [because] it drew whites and blacks together into a common experience† (Crow 148). Jazz artists dealt with racism in various ways – Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday stood up to it while Zutty Singleton accepted it. Meanwhile, even white musicians like Stan Smith angered both races – whites for performing with blacks, and blacks for â€Å"intruding on their music† (Crow 152). The final chapters focus on individual artists, illustrating the greats’ personalities. Louis Armstrong emerges as earthy and good-hearted; Bessie Smith as strong and willful but ultimately self-destructive; Fats Waller is an impish pleasure-seeker given to excellent music but poor business decisions; and Benny Goodman as gifted but tight-fisted and controlling. Taken as a whole, Jazz Anecdotes offers a look at jazz’s human side, including its foibles, genius, camaraderie, crookedness, and connection to an American society from which it sometimes stood apart. Its legendary figures are depicted as gifted, devoted artists who enjoyed hedonism, companionship, and particularly independence. If any single thing stands out in this book, it is the latter; for the figures in this work, jazz meant creativity and freedom, which they pursued with equal vigor and vitality. Crow, Bill. Jazz Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

College Writing in a Democratic and Digital Society :: Education College Technology Essays

College Writing in a Democratic and Digital Society Citizens of the United States spend obscene amounts of money to get a quality college education. For example, Rhetoric classes at Oakland University are costing each student about $600 to take for one semester. What are students getting for their money? One way to really make this class part of the college experience, and worth the high cost, would be to involve multiculturalism. Writing about and listening to other peoples personal experiences can help students learn about and better understand other cultures. This is important because it can help students learn about each other, themselves and the rest of the world. By learning about other cultures students may be able to break down existing barriers and expand their horizons. Rhetoric classes have become much more advanced in the area of technology. Technology has advanced all over the world, including in the classroom. Now the question is how do we use this technology to help better our education as well as our society. We need t o use this technology as a tool for literacy (Camper). Rhetoric teachers across the nation are taking different approaches to meeting the goal of spreading multiculturalism. A Professor of Rhetoric and Composition, from the University of Texas at Austin, named Maxine Hairston takes an interesting approach to teaching writing. She describes this style of teaching in an article entitled "Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing." Hairston is a strong believer in spreading multiculturalism in education. She believes in a teaching style that allows students to express themselves freely through writing. Through this exchange of ideas, values, opinions, traditions and personal experiences students recognize and relate to other cultures and backgrounds. Hairston states that "these students bring with them a kaleidoscope of experiences, values, dialects, and cultural backgrounds that we want to respond to positively, using every resource we can to help them adapt to the academic world and become active participants in it" (Hairston). Basically, what Hairston wants to do is develop a curriculum that is not based on text book drills, but rather on the experience s of the students in the class. However, there are many students like myself, that spent all of their High School years in an environment with very little to no cultural diversity. I grew up in a neighborhood where I was surrounded by people that all shared a similar nationality, ethnic background, and even social class.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Ethical behavior principle Essay

The behavior of each and every person is control by moral and the guiding principles. This is normally portrayed in our daily usual acts, and hence shaping of our ethical behavior is critical in the making sound decision and upholds the trust of the public. A successful business is only possible if there is a strong and profound held value. Most companies will set up strategy of coming up with the required values in order to attract their prospective clients, manage their workers, and attained the expected development of the company. The guiding principles of ethical behaviors which these companies will struggle to uphold are based on the values. According to American Psychological Association, (1953) these values include beneficence and nonmaleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, respects for people’s rights, and dignity. Coordination and active participation of the workers will be of great importance in attracting the attention of the clients. In any organization, leaders will continually strive to ensure that their company achieved its standard. Their main aim is to make sure that the rights of the employees are taken care of, and that the company in general performs well at all cost. In order to achieve this, their actions will be guided by the ethical values which will assist them in the decision making processes (Leal, 1998).

Monday, January 6, 2020

China And Japan Brief Introduction - 851 Words

China and Japan Brief Introduction China, officially the People s Republic of China (PRC) and it is a Sovereign State in East Asia; it is the world most crowded nation, with a populace of more than 1.4 Billion as indicated by Worldmeters. China is a communist country. Beijing is the capital of China while Shanghai is the largest city and the currency is called Renminbi. Japan is an Island country in the East Asia, situated in the Pacific Ocean with populace of 126,880,000 appraisals in 2015. Japan national official language is Japanese and Tokyo is the capital. Comparison between of China and Japan Utilizing Hofstede s six measurements called the Lens of the 6-D Model. China Positions high for both power distance (PD) and long term orientation (LTO), the high positioning for LTO is characteristic of a general public that jelly custom, puts high esteem on instruction and preparing, and is slanted to overcome obstructions with time. In time of individualism (IDV), China rank lower than Japan. China s solid collectivist mindset sets a point of reference where everybody assumes liability for take after individuals from their group, however these group are unmistakably characterized inside of the chain of importance or hierarchy. Confucian philosophy is touchy to chain of hierarchy and the instructing of Confucius is firmly woven into the general public on the loose. Relationship are esteemed to be unequal and these disparities are regarded. Older folks naturallyShow MoreRelatedHistorical And Current Usage, And Control Mechanisms842 Words   |  4 Pagesarticle will begin with a brief summary. The summary will include the introduction of Kudzu, historical an d current usage, and control mechanisms. Following, there will be a personal critic of the article which will include, why it was chosen, personal impression, and its significance. 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