Duke Ellington :: essays research papers

Edward Kennedy Ellington, American jazz composer, orchestrator, bandleader, and pianist, is considered to be the greatest composer in the history of jazz music and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. He composed over 2000 works and performed numerous concerts during his musical career. A compilation of some of his most popular music is collected on a CD called "The Popular Duke Ellington." Ellington personally created most of the music played by his orchestra. He often wrote pieces for specific players with distinctive musical styles in his band, such as "Concerto for Cootie" (1940) for fellow musician and trumpeter, Cootie Williams. With the help from American trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley, Ellington often incorporated in his music the jungle effect. This effect was made by placing a plunger at the opening of a brass instrument, therefore, muffling or muting the notes played out. The result sounded like a person wailing, giving the piece a voice-like quality. In "Concerto for Cootie," Cootie Williams does a solo using the jungle effect, making it sound like a voice is singing along. His opening solo is repetitive, going over the same set of notes over and over again. The overall feeling is as if the music is wooing the listener. Ellington's other innovations include the use of the human voice as an instrument, such as in "Creole Love Call" (1927). He also placed instruments in unusual combinations, illustrated in the piece "Mood Indigo" (1930). When the orchestra performs this piece, three soloists stand out in front of the stage, playing three different instruments. Improvisation was a big part of Ellington’s music. One of Ellington orchestra’s signature tunes is "Take the ‘A’ Train" (1941). This piece was not written by Ellington but by American composer Billy Strayhorn, who became Ellington’s musical collaborator. This piece is very jumpy and light, making you feel like tapping your feet and following the beat. In the background is a piano in stride style that accompanies the brass instruments. Ellington often wrote evocative music, such as "Caravan" (1936), which he intended as a portrait of an exotic locale. The piece is a cross between Latin jazz and music that is Aladdin like. The brass instruments in the background are playing in ostinato form. This piece was written by Puerto Rican Juan Tizol who played the trombone solo. Cootie Williams would later improvise on the piece, coming up with his own version of "Caravan.

Case Study on Operational Management Essay

Confession: during my dating youth, no matter how much I liked a girl, no matter how much I wanted her and just her exclusively, I’d never tell her that purely for fear of looking weak and pathetic. If we were ever to move beyond the vague, undeclared status that characterizes every relationship in its early phase, well, that would be up to her. Most guys think this way. The problem with this strategy is that sometimes, a guy likes a woman so much that he’d rather not wait for her to initiate The Talk. Or, if you’re like me, you’re over 30 and generally cranky and impatient, so you’d like to know where things stand before too many months of amorphous pseudo-commitment go by. The challenge is to share your feelings in a way that will help you get what you want and won’t make you seem like you’re groveling and/or desperate. Here are some tips to keep in mind. Never just assume you’re exclusive This should seem obvious, but guys can still be presumptuous and make all kinds of embarrassing mistakes. â€Å"I was seeing this girl and I changed my Facebook profile to say ‘In a Relationship,’† admits PJ. â€Å"And she was like, ‘Who are you in a relationship with?’ I was like, ‘You!’ I could tell she wasn’t exactly happy about it.† The lesson: You have to get her to say â€Å"yes† to the idea of dating exclusively before you are in fact dating exclusively. This brings us to our next piece of advice†¦ Browse Local Singles at Match.com on Yahoo! I am a: Seeking a: Near: Make sure there’s a good chance she’ll say yes The conventional wisdom is that women are always ready to have a boyfriend. And maybe that was true during the Eisenhower administration. But in the present day of Facebook and the near limitless possibilities of online dating, it is just as likely a woman wants to have what is euphemistically known as â€Å"having fun.† â€Å"Be really careful if she’s just finished a long-term relationship,† says James, a chef. â€Å"Or if she doesn’t return your phone calls right away. If your calls are going right to voicemail, and she doesn’t call you back for like eight hours, she doesn’t want you to be her boyfriend.† Don’t go overboard The guiding principle in asking a girl to be your girlfriend is to not appear desperate: No matter how good your intentions, you may never recover from it. â€Å"My boyfriend bought me a necklace and literally got on his knees and asked me to be his girlfriend,† says Shelia, a web designer. â€Å"I said ‘yes,’ but it was a little much.† Even less dramatic overtures can still feel over the top. â€Å"I was at dinner with this girl, and I took her hand and said ‘You know I’m not seeing anyone else,’† says Zach, a lawyer. â€Å"I thought we’d have this romantic moment, but she just looked at me like I was crazy.† Bring it up casually Given that overboard gestures might make a woman uncomfortable, consider doing what most men do best anyway: asking in a more laid-back manner. Make sure the venue in which you’re asking is mellow as well — no fancy dinners, no propositions in front of family, and so on. Remember: You want to be in the kind of circumstances where her saying â€Å"no† won’t leave you feeling like a dolt for an extended period of time. â€Å"I think while you’re walking her home or driving her home is good,† says Eric. â€Å"That way you’re not stuck at some restaurant with this giant rejection hanging over you if she says no.† So how should you cough it up? A simple â€Å"Hey, I’ve been wondering whether we should date each other exclusively. What do you think?† should work just fine. It reveals your intentions, and yet leaves the door way open for her to say no thanks, she’s not ready for that yet. Another natural segue is if introductions will soon be in order — say, she’s meeting your friends and you’re wondering if you can say she’s your girlfriend. Or consider my friend Rebecca’s story: for around six weeks, she’d been dating this guy who was on break from grad school. â€Å"Then one weekend he was about to leave to go back to school,† she recalls. â€Å"And right before he left he said, ‘By the way, when I tell my friends about you, can I call you my girlfriend?’ I loved that!† Consider ending the relationship if she says no This is a good idea for two reasons. First, there’s nothing sadder than hanging around a girl who wants you a whole lot less than you want her. Remember high school, when you were in love with the girl who only wanted you as a friend? Well, it’s worse, since you’re getting enough relationship crumbs from the table to keep you involved, but not so few that you’re moving on with your life and trying to meet someone new. Second, by moving to end the relationship, you force her to consider life without you†¦ and she has to decide if that’s doable for her. Women are stereotypically the ones who use this tactic: â€Å"Marry me or I’m out of here;† â€Å"We need to settle down or I need to move on,† etc. And the only time we realize how much we love and need them is when they’re out the door. So learn from women. If you’ve done everything else right — you’ve asked her casually, you’ve made sure all the signs that she likes are there, and she still says no — tell her â€Å"I think you’re great, but I’m interested in something more serious.† You might leave with a heart that heals fairly quickly. Or you might get a call from her within a week or two, asking if when she tells her friends about you, she can call you her boyfriend. Steve Hamilton is a New York City-based freelance writer.

My Favourite Character

This Essay is about my favourite character in â€Å"To Kill a Mocking Bird. † She is one of the biggest, most important characters; she is considered the main character. She is very important for she helps narrate this story. She helps with the story by describing her thoughts and feelings that is one of the main reasons why I like her. She also helps to develop the plot, themes, and helps to emphasize some of the symbolism. Her name is Jean-Louis, but we all know her as Scout. Scout is a daughter, a sister and a friend.She is a huge tomboy; and she likes to prove it to every one. She prefers to hang out boys rather than girls, and so she does, she spends most of her time with her brother Jem, and in the summers, her cousin; Dill. In the beginning of the book Scout is only a young age of 9, throughout the novel she gets older just like the rest of the characters, and also matures along with her older brother Jem. Although Scout isn’t going through the same stages as Jem she matures just as much.Jem’s turning into a teenager, while Scout is getting older, and is discovering how the world works. The era of this book is set back to around the years 1861 to 1865; this was when the civil war was happening, along with the discrimination of African Americans. Racism is a huge theme in â€Å"To Kill a Mocking Bird. † Scout doesn’t really under stand that racism isn’t good, but it’s not her fault, because she has lived with it and doesn’t know any different.In that time â€Å"blacks† were known as lesser human beings. The â€Å"whites† were known to be greater than any other race; Scout didn’t know that this was wrong, so she went with it. During the trail, one of the biggest parts of this novel, Scout discovers a little bit about racism. The trial is about how an African American is being accused for the rape of a Caucasian woman, during the trial a lot of discrimination happens to the defenda nt, this is when Scout discovers racism.

What You and I Can Learn From Writer Patricia Raybon

What You and I Can Learn From Writer Patricia Raybon What You and I Can Learn From Patricia Raybon Who she is Her essays have been published inThe New York Times Magazine, Newsweek,USAToday, TheChicago Tribune, TheDenverPost, Guideposts,and aired on National Public radio. The first two of her five books,My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness(Viking/Penguin) andI Told the Mountain to Move(Tyndale) were award winners. Her latest book (Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace) releasesApril 28. (She’s the mother.) Her pedigree B.A. in journalism fromOhioState M.A. in journalism from theUniversity ofColorado Former editor ofThe Denver Post SundayContemporary Magazine Former feature writer forTheRocky Mountain News Former professor of journalism at the UniversityofColorado Former stringer, TIME Magazine, Denver Bureau Her personal life Married 39 years toDan Mother of two grown daughters Grandmother of five What Patricia’s lauded career can teach us Her writing awards already filled several single-spaced pages when she sold a personal essay toThe New York TimesSundayMagazinethat resulted in literary agents hounding her for a month. Her husband urged her to give bookwriting a try.My First White Friendwon a major award and is still in print after more than 20 years. The secret? Sure, she was an accomplished writer. But there are many of those. Just not many with books that stay in print longer than six months, let alone two decades. But Patricia wrote that essay from her passion, from her own experience, from her gut. And of course the resulting book came from that same place. What she told her university students about writing That good character makes good writing. â€Å"Talent helps, of course,† she says with a smile. â€Å"But hard work, persistence, integrity, curiosity, follow-through- these turn a dabbler into a professional.† She says writing is about truth and courage. â€Å"When readers see that on paper, they are often stunned. It’s transparent and real. You want writing gold? Know your truth and have the courage to tell it.† The biggest weakness she sees in beginning writers? â€Å"Fear.† What she says makes a good book stand out â€Å"It’s written for the reader, not for the author. Engage the reader, evoke an experience, as the famous editorSol Steinadvised. That tells the reader they matter.† What impresses me most about Patricia Raybon Her new book,Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace,is a stunner. I read several books a month, so my standards keep getting higher. This one is riveting. Imagine your own grown child leaving the faith she was raised in. I could tell you all the twists and turns and agonizing dynamics of praying, arguing, discussing, and wishing things were otherwise- all the while desperately loving your own flesh and blood and not wanting to jeopardize the relationship. But this is one you have to read for yourself to see how a master writer handles a most delicate subject. Click here to get a copy. What will you apply from Patricia’s writing life to your own this week?

Gun Rights, Gun Control, and Frequently Asked Questions

Gun Rights, Gun Control, and Frequently Asked Questions After nearly every instance of gun violence, talk of new gun control measures heats up. Here we will answer a number of the most frequently asked questions about guns and gun control and a conservative take on why conservatives oppose most new gun control measures. Many Conservatives want to allow school staff to be armed. Wouldn’t allowing guns in schools increase the chance of gun violence? The argument that letting certain trained and certified school officials carry guns will create a â€Å"dangerous† situation is without merit. After all, President Obamas own children go to an elite school with an armed security detail and the school itself has over a dozen guards, mostly made up of trained police officers. Given the elite nature of the school, it is likely that they are armed as well. Of course, there is the reality that we live in a â€Å"do-as-I-say† world where elite politicians send their kids to elite (and armed!) private schools on one hand while doing everything in their power to prevent the lower and middle class from doing the same, sentencing children to time in failing public schools. Beyond the hypocrisy of the ruling elites, gun control advocates argue that the presence of guns could force the escalation of a teacher-student argument into a dangerous situation. I’m not sure why escalation would be limited to a â€Å"gun.† If a school official was driven to the point of drawing a gun, what prevents them from losing it without a gun and attack students in a different way? Wouldn’t they just find a different weapon? Yet there does not appear to be an epidemic of crazy teachers violently attacking students. If our teachers are deranged, then what would stop them from bringing a gun to school even if it were a â€Å"gun free zone†? But this doesn’t happen. Responsible gun owners are rarely the problem with guns. This doesn’t mean we should arm every teacher. In reality, the need for a school official to take action is rare, despite what the media has us believe. But it might be nice in case they were needed. We are told to blame the person and not the gun, but then some argue to blame â€Å"Hollywood† instead. How does that make sense? Advertisers pay millions of dollars to run 30-second television ads and place products predominantly in movies and entertainment programming. Athletes, actors, and singers sign multi-million dollar endorsement deals to publicly support products. Why would a soda company pay for a popular TV character to simply drink from their can during a television show if it had no effect on consumer behavior? (And note that the â€Å"key demographic† for advertising is 18-34 year-old males because they are the most likely to be influenced such advertising.) It’s illegal to run a 30 second television commercial selling cigarettes because it might make kids want to smoke cigarettes. And television shows – and even car commercials – often come with a warning to â€Å"not try this at home.† Why? Because they know people will. Oh, and they will do it regardless of the warning. Now, this is not to say that Hollywood is at fault. But there is a dangerous element when you inundate and desensitize to violence an entire segment of the population. Mix the culture with a person with mental illness and it can become a dangerous situation. Ultimately, individuals are responsible. But we can’t on one hand say that the culture has no effect on behavior when we all know that is not the case. What responsibility does the NRA have in gun control? The NRA supports and teaches responsible gun ownership to people of all ages. They teach classes on gun safety, self-defense, and proper gun usage techniques. They do not promote violence. In fact, they speak out against the entertainment culture that regularly promotes guns and gun violence in a glorified manner. I’d also guess that the problem with gun violence is not among people who are members of the NRA. After all, if they were, we would hear about it. Why does it seem the conservatives’ solution to every gun-related problem is â€Å"more guns†? That can be answered simply by asking another question: Where does crime and mass shooting tragedies happen most frequently? Not surprisingly, in â€Å"gun-free zones.† Notice that mass shooters never head to a police station in hoped of killing or terrorizing people. No, they head to â€Å"gun-free zone† schools or movie theatres with â€Å"no firearms† signs posted everywhere. Criminals will always take the path of least resistance. If a criminal drove upon two streets, one where guns were outlawed and the other were it was mandatory every house had a gun owner, which neighborhood will the criminal rob? It can also be true that a law that mandates gun ownership – yet where no-one in the neighborhood actually owns a gun – can prevent crime as the robber doesn’t know who does and who does not own a gun. And perhaps a school that not only drops the â€Å"gun-free† premise but teaches classes on gun safety and has a shooting range will not be high on a deranged person’s list to go to. But again, it’s also important to stress that such occurrences are very rare in the first place.

Macro-3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Macro-3 - Essay Example because aside from transportation costs, and other costs that are related to international trade which are included in the price of goods when they enter another market is not present when it is bought where it is produced. Second, the prices in the United States are affected by stiff competition, which is influenced by information about book prices on the internet, which causes book prices to drop. While I cannot assume that this is not happening in the Philippines, the fact that the United States is one of the countries that utilizes the internet heavily as for the information regarding prices, in order to regulate competition can be one of my solid bases. Thus, generally, I could expect that book prices in other countries such as the Philippines would be higher. This case proves to be inconsistent with the purchasing-power parity. While the theory assumes that the purchasing power parity can equalize the prices over the long-run, during the years because of market influences such as competition in one country which lowers down the price, or economic influences such as trade costs in another country which increases the price can cause divergence in prices. This purchase situation therefore, is inconsistent with the purchasing power parity if gauged for many years before prices generally equalize. 2. What is the importance of trade agreements and how is international trade related to the standard of living of the United States (as opposed to that of a small industrial nation or to a developing nation)? What significance do trade agreements have to your own company? Trade agreements are important in such a way that dealing with other countries regarding trade has significant economic impacts to a firm conducting the agreement. Different countries have different restrictions and economic policies as regards trade, which can impact the firm’s operations in that country. Trade agreements are made depending on the restriction of the country and the chosen mode of

Hydraulic Fracturing In Coal Seam Gas Mining Dissertation

Hydraulic Fracturing In Coal Seam Gas Mining - Dissertation Example There is a lot of misinformation in the public debate - most due to a lack of scientific understanding about the issue.  (Provide literature about this) V. To inform the debate about the expansion of the CSG sector, companies need to be transparent and make their information publicly available. (Is the CSG sector, with all its companies, being transparent and make their information publicly available?) VI. I am interested in exploring the range of scientific community, industry and general community perspectives, as well as the level of trust, in the CSG sector as it is a key factor in public support. (What are the perspectives of the scientific community, industry and general community, and their level of trust in the CSG sector? Do they support it or not?) The process of hydraulic fracturing originated in the United States in 1947 to stimulate the flow of natural gas from the Hugoton field in Kansas (Halliburton 2012). After six decades, more than 1.1 million fracturing activities have been conducted that delivered more than 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to American consumers. Halliburton (2012) elaborated that there are currently 9 out of 10 onshore wells that need fracture stimulation to remain or become viable. The technology behind the shale gas development is very promising that it offers massive monetary revenue increases, aside from the clean energy potentials that can be tapped (EPA 2012). However, the actual methods of hydraulic fracturing to stimulate gas wells have been observed to pose both environmental and humanitarian risks that it aroused public concerns which led to a worldwide questioning of the legality of its procedures and operations.