‘Feeling Brazilian’: The search for authenticity in drum kit playing

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-226
Author(s):  
Daniel Marcondes Gohn

The influence of Brazilian rhythms is pervasive in modern drum kit practices. Information about them can be accessed through drumming books or online searches, with ostinatos for the feet and sticking combinations for the hands, which usually are adaptations from patterns traditionally played with hand percussion instruments. Those patterns instruct drummers on what to play; however, the discussion on how to play them to sound authentic is scarce. This article explores this topic and suggests that timing nuances and performance gestures are fundamental for its comprehension. In that sense, an exclusively analytical approach to the rhythmic nuances, in which grooves are described in terms of milliseconds, is not considered sufficient. In order to fully grasp the ‘Brazilian feel’, it is suggested that a broader spectrum of elements of expression should be observed, as dancing, religion, spoken language and other aspects of everyday life might have effects on musical outcomes.

English Today ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Manfred Markus

Given today's general bias towards euphemisms (cf. Arif, 2015), the topic of this paper may seem embarrassing and ill-chosen. However, it makes sense to find out to what extent the spoken language of dialects in former centuries correlated with one of the dark sides of everyday reality. In Britain up to the second half of the 19th century, traditional dialect was the common linguistic medium of the large majority of people (the lower and middle classes), just before the norm of ‘King's English’ and, in linguistics, of système, started playing a dominant role. We may assume that the English dialects of the Late Modern English (LModE) period (1700–1900) were a correlative of people's everyday life.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hala M. Amin ◽  
Ehab K.A. Mohamed ◽  
Mostaq M. Hussain

Purpose This study aims to explore corporate governance (CG) practices that can lead to firms’ better performance in different organizational life cycles. The authors propose a configurational approach to explore how a set of CG practices combine in bundles to achieve high performance outcomes for firms across their corporate life cycles. Design/methodology/approach Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was used to analyze a sample of data of 21 countries and 9 industries. Data referred to the period of 9 years extending from the year 2005 to the year 2013. Findings This study reveals that there are multiple CG practices that exist through firms that can achieve high firm performance. Moreover, CG practices combine in different ways for firms in their growth, maturity and declining stages. Research limitations/implications This study demonstrates the value of using a configurational analytical approach to explore both the firm and country-specific CG practices (together) that engage firms to achieve the desired level of performance across the corporate life cycles. Practical implications The current study draws attention to the policymakers’ need to assess the current level of regulatory and competitive development of their countries and form policy accordingly. The approach used in the current research study not only offers the linkages between CG and performance to managers as incentives to comply with regulation but also to view CG-related activity as a strategic move. Social implications The approach used in the current research study not only offers the linkages between CG and performance to managers as incentives to comply with regulation but also to view CG-related activity as a strategic move. Originality/value This study broadening the focus of CG studies to include a rigorous explanation of the global CG phenomena and to provide effective solutions for the practitioners. Contribution to Impact This study demonstrates the value of using a configurational analytical approach to explore both the firm and country-specific CG practices (together) that engage firms to achieve the desired level of performance across the corporate life cycles.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Stephen Fernandez

This paper attends to the making of crip performance in the 2015 production of Disabled Theater in Toronto, where eleven performers with intellectual and physical disabilities took to the stage to perform a series of dance solos set to popular music. The performance was directed by the French choreographer Jérôme Bel and produced by the Zurich-based Theater HORA, a professional theatre company that is fully comprised of performers with disabilities. As an experienced choreographer, Bel is portrayed in the performance program as the “brains” behind Disabled Theater. It seems as though the performers were simply executing Bel’s artistic ideas through the embodied materiality of their dance performances. As such, the performers’ desire to be seen as proper artists exists amid the specter of an ableist ideology in “normative” culture that could potentially influence the audience members’ interpretation of their dance solos. Drawing on the work of Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Carrie Sandahl, and Robert McRuer on the intersection of disability and performance, as well as the Italian dramaturge Eugenio Barba’s concept of the “pre-expressive state” of the actor’s body, I argue that the inclusion of persons with disabilities who confidently describe themselves as “actors” through the German phrase, “Ich Bin Ein Schauspieler”, unfolds the possibility of crip performance in Disabled Theater, which, unlike an ableist conception of performance, acknowledges disability as a reality that is constitutive of everyday life. Through crip performance, persons with disabilities do not need to downplay their disability in order to be publicly acknowledged as artists.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsuya Takeuchi ◽  
Nami Kawaguchi ◽  
Naofumi Uesaka ◽  
Yukiko Tsujimoto

Abstract Binocular stereopsis is a higher-order visual function and is thought to play an important role in spatial cognition in everyday life and many occupational settings. Various stereotests are used clinically to evaluate binocular stereopsis, and the three-rods test is used to assess stereopsis in various occupations in Japan. It is known that there are factors such as monocular cues in various stereotests that make it difficult to accurately evaluate the stereoscopic function, but the existence of such factors in the three-rods test has not been clarified. Here, we show that practice effect and monocular cues exist in the conventional three-rods test and that we devised a modified three-rods test to address the monocular cues. In the conventional three-rods test, performance improved when multiple tests were performed in a short time under binocular condition, and performance was significantly better in the monocular condition compared to the blind condition, indicating the existence of practice effect and monocular cues, respectively. The modified three-rod test with a wider central rod excluded the effect of monocular cues and maintained binocular cues on test performance. Their results suggest that the three-rod test with the simple modification can be a useful method for testing stereoscopic functions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-54
Author(s):  
Caroline Wilson-Barnao ◽  
Alex Bevan ◽  
Robyn Lincoln

In this article, we explore smart deterrents and their historical precedents marketed to women and girls for the purpose of preventing harassment, sexual abuse and violence. Rape deterrents, as we define them, encompass customs, architectures, fashions, surveillant infrastructures, apps and devices conceived to manage and protect the body. Online searches reveal an array of technologies, and we engage with their prevention narratives and cultural construction discourses of the gendered body. Our critical analysis places recent rape deterrents in conversation with earlier technologies to untangle the persistent logics. These are articulated with reference to the ways that proto-digital technologies have been imported into the realm of ubiquitous computing and networks. Our conceptual framework offers novel pathways for discussing feminine bodies and their messy navigation of everyday life that include both threats to corporeal safety and collective imaginings of empowerment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Norris ◽  
Boonyalakha Makboon

AbstractIn this article, we take a multimodal (inter)action analytical approach, showing how objects in everyday life are identity telling. As social actors surround themselves with objects, multiple actions from producing the objects to acquiring and placing them in the environment are embedded within. Here, we investigate examples from two different ethnographic studies, using the notion of frozen actions. One of our examples comes from a 5-month-long ethnographic study on identity production of three vegetarians in Thailand (


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barakatullo Ashurov

Islam, which spread out to Central Asia after its conquest by the Arab armies in early 8th century, has expanded and taken roots in the spiritual and everyday life of each ethnic group of the region in its own way. In its Central Asian geo-cultural contexts, similar to other regions where it came to be the faith of majority, it is more prone to integrated characteristics, including traditional ethnic beliefs and ritualistic elements. The study of Islam among other things in the context of local traditional rituals, particularly the funerary traditions and observances, which has also kept many cultural elements pre-existing the arrival of Islam, has profound meaning in many aspects; such as re-interpretation of the afterlife views and development of cycle of observances and ceremonies that are performed in the hope of earning merit on behalf of deceased and a hope for the day when all who died rise again. The focus of this paper is to present the funerary ritual cycle of Tajik Muslims. The limits of the contribution are set to Tajikistan; but also refer to corresponding and parallel ceremonies observed among the Tajiks living in other neighbouring countries. The impact of this contribution is both in its inventory of the literature on the topic but also on discussion of the importance of these rituals and how the communities feel about the reasons and performance of these ceremonies. The ceremonies that provide merit for both deceased and their kin award them with a sustaining hope that they all will rise and unite in the Last Day. The material for this contribution was collected through group and individual interviews of people from various regions of Tajikistan (April-September, 2014), personal observations and from previous studies on the topic. In what follows I will provide a short literature review on existing studies on funerary traditions of Tajik Muslims and also a descriptive compendium of all currently practiced cycles of funerary ceremonies.


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