“Hey everybody has dirty laundry, no matter who you are. It’s just mine happens to be aired in public. But I think that’s part of my strength” (Rosner). Allen is one of the best one armed drummer around but also one of the best people around. Rick Allen is a chartable and inspiring example of how to overcome handicaps in life.
In 1984 Allen was in an accident that would change his life forever. Lurking around the corner outside of his hometown of Sheffield, England the 21- year- old was involved in a serious accident on New Year’s Eve. Another person drove him off the road; it fell into Allen being thrown from his car then his arm had to be amputated (Prato). “While many of us would surly have dropped into a deep depression following such a loss, Allen renewed his faltering love affair with his drums and became determined to overcome any obstacle in his path” (Rosner). He had a hard time accepting the fact that he had one arm. After 1984 the band didn’t let him give up on drumming.
Rick Allen learned how to play the drums with only one arm. “Allen constructed an electronic drum set, which he could trigger with his feet” (Prato). As time passed he was able to incorporate more normal drums to balance the electronic and normal drums. “It was a good experience. I wouldn’t change anything, not even the accident. Even that was a part of coming into manhood and taking responsibility for the things that I had done, the things I’ve experienced” (Rosner). After the Accident he kept playing drums so he could be happy. With everything that happened he didn’t take anything for granted.
He took absolutely nothing for granted. “While many of us would have fallen into a deep depression following such a loss, he kept playing the drums beca...
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...hool programs for kids in terrible home situation with a group called LA’s Best. He works with Down syndrome and Autistic children, with a group LA Goal. They do the same things that he does in the hospitals and the more people he works with the more people that help in their community (Rosner). Many famous people help out in foundations and have charities but many don’t work with disabled people, learning to play something, making them forget about other things for a while, and just make them feel better about themselves but he did, not for him but for other people going through hard times like he did.
Rick Allen has overcome many handicaps to become an inspiring example of charity. He is a music legend. “Hey everybody has dirty laundry, no matter who you are. It’s just mine happens to be aired in public. But I think that’s part of my strength” (Rosner).
Allen, in the beginning, is very apprehensive about meeting new people. He does not want to get attached to someone new and lose them too. When Maggie discovers his wedding band, she believes it indicates that he is still holding on to the past, and “wonders if it symbolized some lingering attachment to an ex-wife” (13). Later, Allen’s wife, Claire, and daughter, Miranda, died in a car accident trying to get Allen out of the airport. When Maggie and Allen were going to get coffee one day, Maggie was calling for Allen’s attention when she accidentally stepped in front of oncoming traffic.
Before Johnny burned his hand working on a sugar basin, he was a skilled silversmith. Imagine burning your right hand and losing many of your talents, such as writing or using an ax. After practicing, he painfully learned to use his left hand to use an ax. He also learned to legibly write, but it used to be better before his accident. Now Johnny diligently works for a newspaper called the Boston Observer.
Andrew Carnegie and his philanthropy made him a hero because he helped more people than harm in the long run, by this I mean he helped other countries. He also sets a great example to everyone that helping others or someone is not something you need to wait to do when you are no longer living. If someone needed help and even a stable person had the choice to help but until they are no longer alive has little meaning. Perhaps it would be too late when the person isn’t around anymore. Its about what someone can do to help when they are around, it is about what a person can do in the time of need even if it is not much but a little of anything can go a long way. In (Doc C) there is a list of amounts of money that Carnegie has donated to various places which in total he has donated well over $271m but aside from that his corporation is giving out about $100m a year, most of it to education (Doc C)
Jerry Garcia’s life was filled with wonderful things, many of which he never expected in the first place. After an almost fatal heroin overdose in 1986, “ Garcia philosophically stated, ‘ I’m 45 years old, I’m ready for anything, I didn’t even plan on living this long so all this shit is just add-on stuff.’ ” (“Garcia”) This attitude shows why Garcia did all of the things he did and even how some of them came about. Garcia, who “functioned as the preeminent pied piper of the rock era,” led a life of great artistic ability which he used in many ways(“Grateful Dead_ Rockhall”).
what he became and did not let anything get in the way of becoming a musician. In this
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
The first instrument Robert played was the harmonica. Robert quit school as a teen and started working in the cotton fields. Robert left that life to travel and play his music. He began to play the guitar around the age of fifteen. Famous blues men; Charlie Patton and Willie Brown influenced Johnson when he was young. At age 17, Robert married Virginia Travis. She and their first baby died during childbirth. Johnson then went on the road. Robert traveled all over the Midwest and all the way down to Mississippi and Arkansas. He married Calletta Craft during his travels. She died only a few years later while Robert was on the road.
Ba-Bap. . .he hit the snare so hard and so clean-right with the bass player, and each of Elvin Jones's four extremities went into motion. The piano played one of those thick McCoy Tyner chords with that deep thoughtful jazz sound that makes my body twitch ever so slightly with momentary satisfaction and anticipation. A split-second descending right-handed run from the piano and Bshhh. . .Elvin let the symbol resonate and moved in with his deadly swinging crisp high hat cht, cht, cht, cht, just as the horns stated the melody in unison a fourth apart.
Muddy's first instrument was a kerosene can he used for a drum, next came the accordion, then the Jew's harp, and then a guitar he built from a box and a stick: "Couldn't do much with it, but that's how you learn!" By the time he was 13, he had spent 6 years mastering the harm...
...d with in his lifetime, from Dizzy Gillespie to Art Blakey to John Coltrane. He played with everybody who was anybody! Another thing I found to be interesting was the way he died. He was shot by his common-law wife in the middle of a performance. This means that she was not officially, under any law binding terms, his wife, but for all intensive purposes, they were married. Then, one day she went crazy and shot his straight on stage shortly after an altercation had just occurred. She then ran to him and screamed that she didn’t mean to do it, and later was admitted to an insane asylum. That’s not the best way to die!
To understand a musician’s work, one might need to understand their personal journey. While delving into the effects of musical therapy, I had a chance to interview Matt Jennings a songwriter/musician who plays piano in a worship band at Bear Creek Community Church in Merced, California. On Saturday, February 19, I sat down with Matt ...
My nephew Jaden Hopkins drove my inspiration for this particular case. Jaden was diagnosed with lead poisoning, which led to many of his psychological, developmental and physical disabilities. Jaden lives his life in the shadows. His lack of communication has made it extremely difficult to understand what is going on, how he is feeling, or the treatment he receives from others. It wasn’t until I noticed his reaction to music that I have begun to better understand him. As he jumped up and down off beat to the music I have begun to notice how happy and free he became, it was almost as if I was looking at a completely different person. Watching Jaden evolve helped me to recognize the healing aspects of movement from a different perspective. I was fortunate to be able to share this intent with my advisor Holly Boda- Sutton. She immediately took me under her wing as she advised and prepared for a career in Dance Movement
Every year he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the government, particularly the police force, to keep our country safe and thriving. And twelve years ago, when his mother died of breast cancer, at the age of 77, he put three million dollars out of his own pocket into cancer research and treatment. Despite his success, he kept his kind and charitable heart, and because of this he lived the best possible life he could and improved other’s lives while doing
... to pass on, singing “We’ll meet beyond the shore, we’ll kiss just as before.” This showed an acceptance of what was inevitable. After David was discharged from music therapy, he had passed on a week later. This study demonstrates the power of music therapy with association to grief and mourning. The song choices helped to promote a communication between the husband and wife, and the neurologically impaired David was able to sing words that he was unable to express on his own. (Bailey, 1984). The power of music is incredible, and has the ability to say what we are unable to.
Many other drummers have made a huge impression on the world of drumming. Such examples are Gene Krupa (1909-1973) who is credited with encouraging a drum company to develop tom-toms with tuneable top and bottom heads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Krupa, Accessed 09-04-2013). Another such example is Buddy Rich (1917-1987) who was billed as "the world's greatest drummer” and was known for his virtuoso technique, power, groove, and speed. Yanow, Scott. "Buddy Rich” (2007).