Bio of Ma Rainey, Influential Early Blues Singer

Bio of Ma Rainey, Influential Early Blues Singer Born Gertrude Pridgett, Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 - December 22, 1939) was one of the first blues singers to record music. Nicknamed the â€Å"Mother of the Blues,† she recorded more than 100 singles, including the hits â€Å"Prove it on Me Blues,† â€Å"See See Rider Blues,† and â€Å"Don’t Fish in My Sea.† Fast Facts: Ma Rainey Occupation: Blues singerNickname: Mother of the BluesBorn: 1882 or 1886 in either Russell County, Alabama, or Columbus, GeorgiaParents: Thomas and Ella PridgettDied: Dec. 22, 1939 in Columbus, GeorgiaTop Songs: Prove it on Me Blues, See See Rider Blues, Don’t Fish in My Sea, Bo-Weavil BluesKey Accomplishments: 1990 Rock Roll Hall of Fame inductee, 1990 Blues Foundation Hall of Fame Inductee, 1994 US postage stamp honoree Early Years Gertrude Pridgett was the second child born to minstrel show performers Thomas and Ella Pridgett. Her birthplace is often listed as Columbus, Ga., and her birth year is widely reported as 1886. However, census records indicate that the singer was born September 1882 in Russell County, Alabama. Her singing career took off during her early teens. Like many African Americans, she honed her musical skills in church. By 1900, she was singing and dancing in Georgia’s Springer Opera House, now a National Historic Landmark. A number of artists have performed at the theater, including Buffalo Bill, John Philip Sousa, Burt Reynolds, and Oscar Wilde. Rainey, however, stands out as one of the early greats to do so.   In addition to the career success she enjoyed as a young woman, Rainey hit a milestone in her personal life when she married performer William â€Å"Pa† Rainey on February 2, 1904. The couple performed as â€Å"Ma† and â€Å"Pa† Rainey throughout the South. Traveling so much, especially in rural areas, is what led Ma Rainey to first hear the blues, a new art form at the time.   Blues combined African-American spirituals with African musical customs, such as â€Å"blue,† or flat notes. Performers would typically repeat the same lines, and the lyrics often discussed heartache or struggles of some sort. When Rainey first heard a singer perform the blues, the woman described a man who’d left her. Rainey had never heard anything like it. Introduced in the late 1800s, the blues paved the way for several different music genres, namely RB and rock-n-roll. Ma Rainey came to love the genre so much that she soon started performing blues songs. Her performances thrilled audiences, putting her on the path to become one of the early blues greats. Some scholars have said Rainey influenced younger performers, such as Bessie Smith, the blues singer she met in 1912. But it’s unclear if Rainey really acted as a mentor to Smith, whose singing style differed from hers. Well into the 1910s, Rainey continued to enjoy musical success, performing with Fat Chappelles Rabbit Foot Minstrels as well as Tollivers Circus and Musical Extravaganza. Their shows included chorus lines, acrobats, and comedy acts. When Rainey sang at the end of the program, she looked every bit the stage diva, turning up in showy jewelry, like diamond headpieces and necklaces made of cash. She even had gold teeth, which complemented the gold gowns she wore.   A Hitmaker for Paramount Records In 1916, Rainey began performing without her husband because the two had separated. She did not publicly identify as a lesbian, but some of her later musical lyrics and an arrest for throwing an â€Å"indecent† party toward the end of her career suggest she had romantic relationships with women. The newly single Rainey performed with her own backing band, billing herself as Madam Gertrude â€Å"Ma† Rainey and Her Georgia Smart Sets. Ma Rainey was one of the earliest recording artists to perform blues music. Photo by Donaldson Collection/Getty Images Rainey cut several songs for Paramount Records in 1923. They included the hits Bad Luck Blues, Bo-Weavil Blues, Moonshine Blues, and Those All Night Long Blues. Mamie Smith recorded the earliest blues single three years before. Rainey may not have been the first blues recording artist, but she had a prolific output. She went on to record about 100 blues tracks, and Dead Drunk Blues was among the most popular. Her songs had many themes. The lyrics, like those of many blues songs, focused on romantic relationships; they also discussed drinking and traveling as well as the African-American folk magic known as hoodoo. Although Rainey started out performing in the South, the success of her records led to a tour in the North, where she had dates in cities like Chicago with her backup ensemble, the Wildcats Jazz Band. In the following years, Rainey performed with a number of talented musicians, most famously Louis Armstrong. In 1928, Rainey’s music career began to slow down, as her type of blues fell out of fashion. Paramount did not renew her contract, despite the slew of hits she’d performed for the record label. One of the last tracks she recorded, Prove It On Me Blues, openly discussed her sexual orientation. â€Å"Went out last night with a crowd of my friends,† Rainey sang. â€Å"They must’ve been women, ‘cause I don’t like no men. It’s true I wear a collar and tie. Makes the wind blow all the while.† In the promotional image for the song, Rainey is drawn wearing a suit and a hat, speaking with a few women as a policeman eyes her. The song and the image allude to a women-only party Rainey threw 1925. It got so rowdy that a neighbor complained to the police. The women were getting affectionate with one another when the officer arrived, and as party host, Rainey was arrested for throwing an indecent party. While the singer could not openly identify as a lesbian during this era, she is regarded as a gay icon today. She’s one of the recording artists featured in Robert Philipson’s 2011 documentary T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s. Ma Rainey’s Impact Today Although Rainey stopped recording new music in the late 1920s, she continued to perform, simply at much smaller venues than she had during the height of her career. In 1935, she retired from the industry, returning to her hometown of Columbus, Ga. There, she purchased two movie halls- the Lyric and Airdome theaters. Ma Rainey died from a heart attack on Dec. 22, 1939.   She may have been a singer, but Rainey has been a major influence on black literature and drama. Poets Langston Hughes and Sterling Allen Brown both alluded to her in their works. The August Wilson play â€Å"Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom† directly referenced the singer as well. And Alice Walker based blues singer Shug Avery, a character in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel â€Å"The Color Purple,† on artists like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. In 1990, Rainey was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame and the Rock Roll Hall of Fame. Four years later, the US Postal Service issued a postage stamp in the blues singer’s honor. Her home in Columbus, Ga., became a museum in her honor in 2007. Sources Freedman, Samuel J. What Black Writers Owe to Music. New York Times, 14 October 1984.Giaimo, Cara. The Queer Black Woman Who Reinvented The Blues. Atlas Obscura, 27 April 2016.ONeal, Jim. Ma Rainey. The Blues Foundation, 10 November 2016.

Anatomical Directional Terms and Body Planes

Anatomical Directional Terms and Body Planes Anatomical directional terms are like the directions on a compass rose of a map. Like the directions, North, South, East and West, they can be used to describe the locations of structures in relation to other structures or locations in the body. This is particularly useful when studying anatomy as it provides a common method of communication that helps to avoid confusion when identifying structures. Also as with a compass rose, each directional term often has a counterpart with converse or opposite meaning. These terms are very useful when describing the locations of structures to be studied in dissections. Anatomical directional terms can also be applied to the planes of the body. Body planes are used to describe specific sections or regions of the body. Below are examples of some commonly used anatomical directional terms and planes of the body. Anatomical Directional Terms Anterior: In front of, frontPosterior: After, behind, following, toward the rearDistal: Away from, farther from the originProximal: Near, closer to the originDorsal: Near the upper surface, toward the backVentral: Toward the bottom, toward the bellySuperior: Above, overInferior: Below, underLateral: Toward the side, away from the mid-lineMedial: Toward the mid-line, middle, away from the sideRostral: Toward the frontCaudal: Toward the back, toward the tailBilateral: Involving both sides of the bodyUnilateral: Involving one side of the bodyIpsilateral: On the same side of the bodyContralateral: On opposite sides of the bodyParietal: Relating to a body cavity wallVisceral: Relating to organs within body cavitiesAxial: Around a central axisIntermediate: Between two structures Anatomical Body Planes Imagine a person standing in an upright position. Now imagine dissecting this person with imaginary vertical and horizontal planes. This is the best way to describe anatomical planes. Anatomical planes can be used to describe any body part or an entire body. (View a detailed body plane image.) Lateral Plane or Sagittal Plane: Imagine a vertical plane that runs through your body from front to back or back to front. This plane divides the body into right and left regions. Median or Midsagittal Plane: Sagittal plane that divides the body into equal right and left regions.Parasagittal Plane: Sagittal plane that divides the body into unequal right and left regions. Frontal Plane or Coronal Plane: Imagine a vertical plane that runs through the center of your body from side to side. This plane divides the body into front (anterior) and back (posterior) regions. Transverse Plane: Imagine a horizontal plane that runs through the midsection of your body. This plane divides the body into upper (superior) and lower (inferior) regions. Anatomical Terms: Examples Some anatomical structures contain anatomical terms in their names that help identify their position in relation to other body structures or divisions within the same structure. Some examples include the anterior and posterior pituitary, superior and inferior venae cavae, the median cerebral artery, and the axial skeleton. Affixes (word parts that are attached to base words) are also useful in describing the position of anatomical structures. These prefixes and suffixes give us hints about the locations of body structures. For example, the prefix (para-) means near or within. The parathyroid glands are located on the posterior side of the thyroid. The prefix epi- means upper or outermost. The epidermis is the outermost skin layer. The prefix (ad-) means near, next to, or toward. The adrenal glands are located atop the kidneys. Anatomical Terms: Resources Understanding anatomical directional terms and body planes will make it easier to study anatomy. It will help you to be able to visualize positional and spatial locations of structures and navigate directionally from one area to another. Another strategy that can be employed to help you visualize anatomical structures and their positions is to use study aids such as anatomy coloring books and flashcards. It may seem a bit juvenile, but coloring books and review cards actually help you to visually comprehend the information.

BSc Criminology - Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem Essay

BSc Criminology - Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem - Essay Example It is useful to compare the trends in the data series. For example both charts give property crime the largest section (78 and 75 percent respectively). Looking at Tale 4.06 women are more likely to be attacked than men and younger women are more vulnerable than any other group. Overall non-married persons are more likely to be victims than married persons. To a certain extent identifying persons who are socialising outside the home as being more at risk is nonsense, since if one is attacked inside the home that becomes a burglary. It would also be useful to know how many victims actually knew who the perpetrator was. On the figures given here one would assume that most crime is anonymous and yet we know this is not statistically true. Further, there is no breakdown by gender and we must ask the question are women more likely to be attacked whilst under the influence of alcohol or are they simply more likely to be victims of this type of crime regardless of sobriety? Whilst the survey states that people who had left the house for less than three hours a day were significantly less likely to have been victimised this actually tells us very little. As one ages one has fewer reasons to be away from home for extended periods of time. As noted earlier, if one is attacked in one’s home the name of the crime changes. The survey indicates that marital status affects the risk of being a victim of theft from the person. That is hardly surprising given that the majority of persons in England are beneath marriageable age and it is the non-marrieds who are more likely to have the time and spending power to be out socialising in urban areas. It is also more likely to be a reflection of the fact that 2 out of every 3 marriages in England/Wales end in divorce. The immediate difficulty with data presented in the format of Figure 6.3 is that it actually makes it difficult to determine what one is seeing. For example we are asked to view the data by