John Cage

John Milton Cage was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century.He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.

Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from their presence for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is sometimes assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. The work's challenge to assumed definitions about musicianship and musical experience made it a popular and controversial topic both in musicology and the broader aesthetics of art and performance. Cage was also a pioneer of the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by objects placed between or on its strings or hammers), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces. The best known of these is Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).

His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text on changing events, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".

Here you can read more about John Cage:

http://www.htbackdrops.com/v2/displayimage.php?pid=18469

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage

http://www.johncage.org/

http://www.johncage.info/

http://www.newalbion.com/artists/cagej/autobiog.html

Film industry (United States)

The American film industry, often referred to as Hollywood (from the place name of its birth), is the industry leader in the form of artistic expression that came to dominate the twentieth century and continues as a popular art form at the beginning of the twenty-first century. While the Lumiere Brothers are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, it is indisputably American cinema that quickly became the dominant force in the industry.


Prior to the twentieth century, narrative forms were dominated by the oral, then written, and finally printed word. Cinema introduced a new visual culture. The immediacy of the medium created a system of stars with the powerful ability to influence the rest of the culture, for good or for ill. At its best, film creates visual narratives that teach and inspire as they entertain. At its worst, it titillates prurient interests and nudges its viewers to commit acts of evil and stupidity. There is no clearer barometer of cultural values and interests. For that reason, it has also been an arena of ongoing struggle between artistic freedom and artistic responsibility.

The film industry consists largely of multinational umbrella corporations, major studios, and independent studios or indies. Many of the leading film companies are part of larger media conglomerates that often include television, newspaper, cable and magazine segments. American musicians drive the recorded music industry in the United States, and the popularity of their music spans the globe.

More information you can read here:
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Film_industry_(United_States)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/film-industry-in-united-states
http://www.industryfilms.com/usa/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/14/us-film-industry-growth-forecast
http://selectusa.commerce.gov/industry-snapshots/creative-media-industry-united-states

Sport in the USA

Americans' interest in sports seems excessive to many foreign visitors. Television networks spend millions of dollars arranging to telecast sports events. Publications about sports sell widely. In the US professional athletes can become national heroes.

Sports are associated with educational institutions in a way is unique. High schools have coaches as faculty members, and school teams compete with each other. Nowhere else in the world are sports associated with colleges and universities in the way they are in the States. College sports, especially football, are conducted in an atmosphere of intense excitement and pageantry. Games between teams attract nationwide television audiences. The sport that is most popular in most parts of the world - soccer - is not well known in the US. The most popular sports are American football and baseball, games that are not played in large number of countries. Sports play such an important role in American life that the sociology of sports, sports medicine, and sports psychology have become respectable specializations. Many Americans jog every day, or play tennis or bridge two or three times a week. They go on ski tri/ps and hunting expeditions that require weeks of planning and organizing. In the Americans' view, all these activities are worth the discomfort they may cause because they contribute to health and physical fitness. That is probably why Americans are known as a healthy nation.

AMERICAN SPORTS

Football, baseball, and basketball, the most popular sports in America, originated in the United States and are largely unknown or only minor pastimes outside North America. The football season starts in early autumn and is followed by basketball, an indoor winter sport, and then baseball, played in spring and slimmer. Besides these top three sports, ice hockey, boxing, golf, car racing, horse racing, and tennis have been popular for decades and attract large audiences.

More information you can read here:

http://www.native-english.ru/topics/sport-in-the-usa

http://www.ramnek.ru/eng/SportintheUSA.html

http://www.mostpopularsports.net/in-united-states-of-america

http://www.roman.by/r-39243.html

http://www.native-english.ru/topics/sport-in-the-usa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in_the_United_States

ANDREW JACKSON 1829-1837

More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man.

Born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767, he received sporadic education. But in his late teens he read law for about two years, and he became an outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife Rachel.

Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans.

In 1824 some state political factions rallied around Jackson; by 1828 enough had joined "Old Hickory" to win numerous state elections and control of the Federal administration in Washington.

In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College. He also tried to democratize Federal officeholding. Already state machines were being built on patronage, and a New York Senator openly proclaimed "that to the victors belong the spoils. . . . "

Jackson took a milder view. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed Government duties could be "so plain and simple" that offices should rotate among deserving applicants.

As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party--the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him.

Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and other Whig leaders proclaimed themselves defenders of popular liberties against the usurpation of Jackson. Hostile cartoonists portrayed him as King Andrew I.

Behind their accusations lay the fact that Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command.

The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly. When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him.

Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. "The bank," Jackson told Martin Van Buren, "is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" Jackson, in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.

His views won approval from the American electorate; in 1832 he polled more than 56 percent of the popular vote and almost five times as many electoral votes as Clay.

Jackson met head-on the challenge of John C. Calhoun, leader of forces trying to rid themselves of a high protective tariff.

When South Carolina undertook to nullify the tariff, Jackson ordered armed forces to Charleston and privately threatened to hang Calhoun. Violence seemed imminent until Clay negotiated a compromise: tariffs were lowered and South Carolina dropped nullification.
In January of 1832, while the President was dining with friends at the White House, someone whispered to him that the Senate had rejected the nomination of Martin Van Buren as Minister to England. Jackson jumped to his feet and exclaimed, "By the Eternal! I'll smash them!" So he did. His favorite, Van Buren, became Vice President, and succeeded to the Presidency when "Old Hickory" retired to the Hermitage, where he died in June 1845.

more information you can read here:

1. http://www.e-angielski.com/artykuly/7-andrew-jackson-1829-1837
2. http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/ajackson.html
3. http://www.e-kolekcjoner.pl/1251,andrew-jackson-1829-1837-(mennica-p).html
4. http://www.prezydenci.jurek.com.pl/prezydent-07jacks1.html
5. http://www.tngenweb.org/cessions/jackson.html

Work History of Women in America

Civil War

April brings the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, so the history magazine Connecticut Explored (formerly the Hog River Journal), has dedicated its latest issue to Connecticut's role in the conflict. Articles include: "Heroes of the Home Front" (how women’s deeds honored their country); "Connecticut’s Naval Contributions to the Civil War" (Glastonbury’s Gideon Welles brings order out of chaos); "Connecticut Arms the Union" (rifles, revolvers, and shells that sound “like the shriek of a demon"); "Memorials to a Nation Preserved" (the great sacrifice remembered in stone and bronze); and "Soldier’s Heart" (possible PTSD among Civil War veterans).

Here you can see more information about Civil war in Connecticut:

• http://hartfordhistory.blogspot.com/2011/03/connecticut-in-civil-war.html
• https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Connecticut_in_the_Civil_War
• http://www.newenglandcivilwarmuseum.com/connecticutregiments.htm
• http://www.interment.net/data/us/nat/ct/
• http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com

Here you can see some more musik

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGmVlPQTHGo&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFm7ixyG5I8&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj9NgIqx7Ic&feature=related

Women in War

During World War I and II the face of the military and civilian workforces shifted. Women enlistees of diverse backgrounds served in the armed forces as clerks, nurses, and in a variety of other capacities. The military careers of Connecticut women, as well as men, is documented in State Library records beginning in 1919. On the civilian front, women began to replace men in the traditionally male professions. Also the booming wartime economies provided many new job opportunities. Although women were not directly in battle, they worked hard overseas and on the homefront, on military bases, in medical facilities, in factories and with food production.




Military service record,
Ida Selesnitzky
Probably New London, ca. 1919

* This photograph of Ida Selesnitzky of New London (later Ida S. Stone) is part of her military service record, completed in 1919. The daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, she enlisted the Naval Reserve in 1918, and by the time she left the service in 1919, had been promoted to the rank of Yeoman Second Class.






Civilian Women’s Land Army Trainees
Tolland County, 1944

* The Civilian Women’s Land Army of America was formed in 1943 because in the presence of a wartime economy many of the agricultural laborers were moving to higher paying factory jobs. The Land Army had over a million female workers whom the organization paid minimal wages of 25-40 cents an hour to farm and cultivate land for the war effort.


women in farms

In a time where modern conveniences were few, a woman’s work on a farm was a full time job that began when the instant she woke up and continued until she fell asleep at night. Women did more than clean, cook, and make and wash clothing, they also helped with farm business and the education of the children. Catharine Beecher, a Hartford native, often spoke of and took pride in the power women held within the home or the “domestic sphere”and claimed the control women exercised over education and religion made them powerful influence on society.


Women in Cornfield
Meriden, ca. 1900

* One of the positive aspects of farm life was the availability of food. Although this women would not be primarily responsible for harvesting the corn, she would have the daily chore of picking fresh vegetables and preparing dinner.

Exercing the Washboards
Columbia, 1894


* Very few families around the turn of the century had the luxury of maids to do laundry. In middle and lower class families the mothers and wives did th laundry for the family. Because families were usually large and washing was
done by hand laundry was a time and energy consuming chore.


Woman Standing at Spinning Wheel
Mystic, 1900’s

*This woman is spinning yarn on a spinning wheel. By the 1900’s women did not have to spin wool at home but earlier in the 19th century many women spun wool both for their family and to supplement the family’s income. Some women did piece work, a small scale method of production used by manufacturing
companies. It allowed women to work for a wage while remaining at home to care for the house and children.


Mrs.Kelly Delivering Milk near a Railroad CrossingHartford, c.1890


* Some women performed jobs that were essential to the family business. Mrs. Kelly was an Irishwoman who drove a milk delivery truck, possibly for a husbands or fathers farm. This is an interesting example of a chore that moved a woman outside of the home.








Women in the Civil War

In the years before the Civil War, the lives of American women were shaped by a set of ideals that historians call “the Cult of True Womanhood.” As men’s work moved away from the home and into shops, offices and factories, the household became a new kind of place: a private, feminized domestic sphere, a “haven in a heartless world.” “True women” devoted their lives to creating a clean, comfortable, nurturing home for their husbands and children.
During the Civil War, however, American women turned their attention to the world outside the home. Thousands of women in the North and South joined volunteer brigades and signed up to work as nurses. It was the first time in American history that women played a significant role in a war effort. By the end of the war, these experiences had expanded many Americans’ definitions of “true womanhood.”

During the Civil War, women especially faced a host of new duties and responsibilities. For the most part, these new roles applied the ideals of Victorian domesticity to “useful and patriotic ends.” However, these wartime contributions did help expand many women’s ideas about what their “proper place” should be.

• http://www.civilwarhome.com/womeninuniform.htm

Visting this link you can see some more video of role women in the War

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgJGschxSmg&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLtZQBYg7ak&feature=related

After the Civil War, women who were involved in the Sanitary Commission, Soldier's Aid Societies, or employed by the government as clerks used their work experiences to find jobs that were previously closed to them. Some, however, expected more opportunities for women based on their wartime achievements, but were disappointed; many later became activists for women's rights. In 1867, Frances Ellen Burr brought a petition for women's suffrage before the Connecticut House of Representatives. The bill was defeated 111 to 93, but the margin of 18 votes indicated that there was strong support for women's suffrage in Connecticut. The first suffrage convention in the state was held in October 1869 and resulted in the formation of the Connecticut Women's Suffrage League (CWSA). Several Greenwich women, including Caroline Ruutz-Rees, Valeria H. Parker, and Grace Gallatin Seton formed the Greenwich Equal Franchise League in August 1909 and were instrumental in the struggle for votes for women.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe(June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom. It energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. She wrote more than 20 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential both for her writings and her public stands on social issues of the day.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe

http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/hbs/

The Winter Home in Mandarin Florida
After the Civil War, the Stowes purchased a house and property in Mandarin, FL, on the St. John's River, and began to travel south each winter.
There were multiple reasons for their decision. The Beechers and the Stowes knew that racial equality required more than legislation; it also required education. Stowe's brother Charles Beecher (1815-1900) opened a Florida school to teach emancipated people, and he urged Calvin and Harriet Stowe to join him.
Newly expanded railroads also made shipping citrus fruits north a potentially lucrative business, and Stowe purchased an orange grove which she hoped her son Frederick would manage. The relatively mild winters of northern Florida were a welcome respite from Hartford winters and the high costs of winter fuel.
Harriet Beecher Stowe loved Florida, comparing its soft climate to Italy, and she published Palmetto Leaves, describing the beauties and advantages of the state.
Stowe and her family wintered in Mandarin for over 15 years before Calvin's health prohibited long travel.
Here you can see some videos about Harriet Stowe:

Connecticut

History of Connecticut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Connecticut

here you can see all history of Connecticut . you can see also about
Modernization and industry, Civil War era and about 20th century
The most interesting for me was "Civil War era
As a result of the industrialization of the state and New England as a region, Connecticut manufacturers played a prominent role in supplying the Union Army and Navy with weapons, ammunition, and military materiel during the Civil War. A number of Connecticut residents were generals in the Federal service and Gideon Welles was the United States Secretary of the Navy and a confidant of President Abraham Lincoln.Starting in the 1830s, and accelerating when Connecticut abolished slavery entirely in 1848, African Americans from in- and out-of-state began relocating to urban centers for employment and opportunity, forming new neighborhoods such as Bridgeport's Little Liberia.[3]"


http://www.usahistory.info/New-England/Connecticut.html
at this page you can read about historically nationalities of Connecticut.
I think that the main information here is "Meanwhile John Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts governor, built a fort at themouthof the Connecticut River, which was named Saybrook, after Lord Say and Lord Brook, under who authority he acted. Of more importance was the founding of the New Haven colony in 1638. Rev. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton, a wealthy merchant from London, led a company of emigrants, mostly from Massachusetts, and pitched their tents on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. Here under a great oak Davenport expounded the Scriptures, saying that the people, like the Son of Man, were led forth into the wilderness to be tempted; and here they set up their governement with the Mosaic law as their code adapted to the conditions, and with the closest union of Church and State. Eaton was made governor and was reelected annually for many years. Other towns, Milford, Guilford, and Stamford, soon came into existence, and these united with New Haven, all taking the name of the New Haven Colony. Thus the river valley and the northern shore of the sound gradually became people with Puritan settlers. These two newborn colonies came near being strangled in their infancy. Their dangers were twofold -- from the Dutch and from the Indians. The Dutch of New Amersterdam claimed the Connecticut Valley, and for many years there was desultory strife between them and the English settlers, when at length the latter succeeded in driving out the former."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV0ssij84eU
here you can hear about famous people of Connecticut

Geography of Connecticut

http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/ct_geography.htm
Here you can read and you can see how small Connecticut is...
I know that the most useful information is "he highest areas of Connecticut are in the northwest upland; the Berkshires. Connecticut gradually loses elevation to the south where it finally meets Long Island Sound. The east is a hilly upland drained by rivers including the Connecticut and Thames Rivers. The small state of Connecticut can be divided into five distinct land regions; the Taconic Section, the Western New England Upland, the Connecticut Valley Lowland, the Eastern New England Upland and the Coastal Lowlands."


http://geography.howstuffworks.com/united-states/geography-of-connecticut.htm
In this page you can read also interesting information about Connecticut.
Here you can see who that"Connecticut has beautiful wooded hills, quiet lakes, and lovely small towns with white church steeples rising above green commons. Other parts of the state are densely settled and highly industrialized."




Culture of Connecticut


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcR8TjkvCQI&feature=related
it is a short film about museum of History


http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?A=2688&Q=322362
here you can read some interesting facts about Connecticut
The most interesting for me was that fact "Connecticut has 57 pumpout and dump stations for boaters to use to protect Long Island Sound's water quality.