Trader Joes Case Essay Example for Free

Trader Joes Case Essay Trader Joe’s is an up and rising supermarket that is upbeat and even has employees wear Hawaiian shirt. This gives it a more relaxed and enjoyable shopping environment. The company selects small stores and only keeps about 4000 stock-keeping units. Eighty percent of those units contain the Trader Joe’s brand. This initiates a quick turnover over rate. Trader Joe’s usual customers are college educated people living in urban areas and also college kids. The company makes it easier for these customers to buy different variety of items buy not having too much diversity that would cause shopping paralysis. With lower variety, Trader Joe’s can control quality much more effectively then it would with more options. Their product line has similar popular products that other supermarkets have but it is under the Trader Joe’s brand. The company also looks to find new interesting foods that I can add to the supermarket rather than following trends it tries to set the trends. It has options from basic organic fruits to exotic food like Belgian butter waffle cookies. When it comes to distribution; Trader Joe’s purchases directly from the manufacturers and then ships the products right to Trader Joe’s distribution centers. Trader Joes doesn’t charge its suppliers for advertising, couponing or slotting shelves. In exchange for this benefit, Trader Joe’s has asked suppliers to operate with Trader Joe’s in secrecy. The vendors cannot publicize the business relationship with Trader Joe’s in any matter. This strategy is to help prevent both consumers and competitors from gaining knowledge as to who produces the food that the store sells. Suppliers also do not like having the idea that that one store offers a lower cost version and not at the other. The pay offered at Trader Joe’s is also generous which helps produce a more enthusiastic crowd of employees. The company also contributes 15. 4% of an employee’s Gross income towards a tax deferred retirement fund. Many workers though feel that the company is losing its mom and pop shop type feel, and that the company is becoming more corporate. This is going to be an issue in the future as the company slowly grows. The company definitely doesn’t want to lose the touch which makes it stand out from different supermarkets.

Thurgood Marshall: Supreme Court Nomination and Confirmation

Thurgood Marshall: Supreme Court Nomination and Confirmation Thurgood Marshall began his career fighting for voting rights and equal housing for African Americans and fighting against racial and gender discrimination. As head of the Legal Defense and Education fund of the NAACP, he garnered an impressive success rate arguing cases before the Supreme Court, (Gibson 110), which likely earned him the appointed to the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals by President Kennedy. In 1965 he was appointed Solicitor General by President Lyndon Johnson, and just two years later, on June 13, 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall’s nomination led to heated debates in the Senate; opposition was primarily from southern senators who hailed from states where Jim Crow laws were still in force, despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act three years earlier. Senate hearing transcripts cited one senator’s grievance that Marshall’s past record as jurist and attorney led him to believe the appointment would cause a dangerous imbalance in the Court, as he would replace Justice Clark, who was viewed as a conservative. Ultimately, Marshall’s nomination was confirmed with a 69 to 11 vote, and 20 non-voters. (U. S. Senate 24656). Sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American Justice in the history of the United States. The 96th Justice served from 1967 until his retirement in 1991. (Thurgood Marshall). Marshall was nominated to fill an anticipated vacancy in the Court due to the impending retirement of Justice Tom Campbell Clark. Clark was stepping down to avoid a conflict of interest caused by the appointment of his son, William Ramsey Clark, to the U.S. Attorney General position by President Johnson. Tom Clark had been the U.S. Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 before his own nomination to the Court by President Truman. Tom Clark had no prior judicial experience and Truman later expressed regret over his choice. (Dutton). Clark was viewed as a conservative, but turned out to be a swing voter. It is evident Johnson created the vacancy by design. In his remarks to the press, Johnson said of Marshall, â€Å"I believe he earned that appointment; he deserves the appointment. He is best qualified by training and by very valuable service to the country. I believe it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.† (Peters and Woolley). It is noteworthy also, that both Marshall and Clark were nominated by Democratic Presidents in a Democratic controlled congress. (Lou Frey Institute). A liberal ideological shift took place in the Warren Court, most significantly when Justice Goldberg replaced Frankfurter and Marshall replaced Clark. (Grofman and Brazill 63-64). The amount of time between Supreme Court nominations and the final committee vote has varied significantly, from three days or less to 117 days, in the case of the 1916 nomination of Louis D. Brandeis. Between 1967 and 2009, from Marshall to Sotomayor, the Judiciary Committee has consistently taken more time; the average is around 50 days, but some took more than 80 days. (Bearden and Rutkus 13). The table below shows how the trend changed between the confirmation of Marshall and his predecessor, Tom Clark. Table 1 Nominee Pres Date rec’d in Senate Public Hearing Dates Final Vote Date Final Vote Date Final Action First Public Hearing Date Committee Final Vote Date Final Action Senate or President Tom Clark Truman 08/02/49 08/09/49 08/10/49 08/11/49 8/12/49 In Favor 9-2 08/18/49 Confirmed 73-8 7 10 16 Thurgood Marshall L Johnson 6/13/67 07/13/14 07/14/14 07/18/14 07/19/14 07/24/14 8/3/67 In Favor 11-5 08/30/67 Confirmed 69-11 30 51 78 Source: Bearden, Maureen and Steven Rutkus. Supreme Court Nominations, present-1789. Analysis. Washington: Congressional Research Service, 2009. Print. 23 Mar 2014, 34-35. In his book, Pathways to the U.S. Supreme Court: From the Arena to the Monastery, Garrison Nelson says, â€Å"44 of the first 88 Supreme Court nominations were previously governors, senators, members of the House or cabinet members.† The Nelson theory claims there are four paths to the Supreme Court. Of those four paths, however, the most common is vertically, as former judges in other courts. Justices elevate from this route 47.3% of the time. Marshall ascended by a less common path, by serving as Solicitor General. Nelson calls this the diagonal route; only 11.6% of Justices elevate by this route. (Reidel). So then, what is the appropriate role of the Senate in Supreme Court nominations? Should the voting public have a more active role in the nominations? Or should it be just left to the President? If left to the President without Senate consent, the nominees would be ideologically suited to the President his party. Since Justices have lifetime appointment and Presidents have term limits, this may cause conflict between the Court and future administrations. The Senate consent feature acts as a check and balance of the Executive as intended by the framers. Similarly, if the nomination is left to the voting population, individuals may not fully comprehend the impact of a decision based solely on popularity or publicity. Individuals may not balance their own personal views against the needs of society in making a decision. Furthermore, the average individual may not be qualified to determine the potential future legal effect a lifetime appointment on the laws of the country. The American B ar Association reports that in 2012, a mere .26% of the U.S. population consists of a combination of lawyers, law students and law professors. (American Bar Association). Using census data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and including a more generous pool of the population to include lawyers, law students, law professors, clerks, judges, paralegals and other legal support positions, while narrowing the scope to include only the employed portion of the population, the number is still a meager 0.36% of persons who have some knowledge of the law and courts. (Bureau of Labor and Statistics). Over 100 years ago, Finley Peter Dunnes infamous Mr. Dooley uttered the proclamation, â€Å"No matter whether th Constitution follows th flag or not, th Supreme Court follows th illiction returns.† (Dunne 26). One study linked constituent opinion to Senate voting patterns and researched how the visibility of the roll-call during Senate confirmation hearings influenced outcomes. Senators tend to vote against nominees with controversial policies. Stakes are high in the competition for re-election and senators must be responsive to the views of their constituents. (Kastellec, Lax and Phillips 676,782,783). Despite these results, the intent of the Senate’s role in the process is still sound. Senators are elected officials, representing their constituents. Although Senators tend to vote based on their own views and their interpretation of the nominees views, they also factor in the views of their constituents and the balance of the Court. And finally, Senate consent fulfils the Legislative check and balance requirement on the Executive branch of government as required under the Constitution. Since Marshall supported similar positions on civil rights issues as his predecessor Clark, the argument that Marshall would create a dangerous imbalance in the Court was moot. Although Justice Clark was viewed as a conservative, he was often the swing vote, supporting landmark cases such as Mapp v. Ohio, which applied the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule to the states, and Abington School District v. Schempp, nullifying daily Bible readings in public schools. Clark also supported the end of racial segregation and joined the unanimous decisions in Brown v. Board of Education. (Reger). Marshall was an influential figure in the civil rights movement, always pursuing the goal of racial equality. His liberal opinions challenged race and gender discrimination, opposed the death penalty, supported the rights of criminal defendants, and defended affirmative action and abortion rights. â€Å"As a Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall believed the Constitution was a living document that should be interpreted based on the current political, cultural, and moral climate.† (Maki 4). References American Bar Association. Lawyer Demographics. Statistical. Washington: American Bar Association, 2012. Print. Bearden, Maureen and Steven Rutkus. Supreme Court Nominations, present-1789. Analysis. Washington: Congressional Research Service, 2009. Print. 23 Mar 2014. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Household Data Annual Averages. Statistical. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2013. Print. Dunne, Finley P. Mr. Dooley’s Opinions. New York: R.H. Russell, 1901. Print. Dutton, C. B. MR. Justice Tom C. Clark. Indiana Law Journal 26.2 (1951): 169-206. Print. Gibson, Larry. Young Thurgood: The Making of a Supreme Court Justice. New York: Prometheus Books, 2012. Print. Grofman, Bernard and Timothy J. Brazill. Identifying the median justice on the Supreme Court through multidimensional scaling: Analysis of â€Å"natural courts†. Public Choice 112 (2002): 55-79. Print. Kastellec, Jonathan P., Jeffrey R. Lax and Justin H. Phillips. Public Opinion and Senate Confirmation of Supreme Court Nominees. The Journal of Politics 72.3 (2010): 767-784. Print. Lou Frey Institute. Composition of Congress by Political Party 1855–2013. 2014. Majority and Minority Party Membership Other Resources. Internet. 23 Mar. 2014. Maki, Lisa A. Thurgood Marshall. Research paper. University of North Florida. Jacksonville, 2014. Print. Peters, Gerhard and John Woolley. Lyndon B. Johnson: Remarks to the Press Announcing the Nomination of Thurgood Marshall as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. 13 Jun. 1967. The American Presidency Project. Internet. 23 Mar. 2014. Reger, Marianne. Meet The NJC’s Founder: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark. 12 Sep. 2012. Judges.org. Internet. 23 Mar 2014. Reidel, Jon. Path to Supreme Court Runs Through Judicial Monastery. 21 Jan. 2014. University of Vermont. Internet. 15 Feb. 2014. http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=newsstoryID=17580category=uvmhome>. Texas v. Johnson. No. 491 U.S. 397. U.S. Supreme Court. 21 Jun. 1989. Internet. 15 Feb. 2014. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3498200303.html>. Thurgood Marshall. The Biography Channel. 2014. Internet. 15 Feb. 2014. http://www.biography.com/people/thurgood-marshall-9400241>. U. S. Senate. Senate Confirmation Hearings-Marshall. Congressional Record. Washington: Government Printing Office, 30 Aug. 1967. Internet.

Poverty on the Rise Essay -- Poverty Essays

Poverty on the Rise There is a very wide range of income for individuals and families. This is why we have people that are very wealthy which are referred to as the upper class and there is the middle class that makes an average income, and the bottom of the income bracket lies the people in poverty. Poverty is a condition in which a person or family does not have the means to satisfy basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Your race does not matter, every race has people that are in poverty. But as it is statistically shown, different races have a different number of people in poverty. In 1996, the federal government established a minimum income level below which a person or family is declared in "poverty." If a single person makes less than $7,995 then they are living in poverty, and a family has to exceed $16,036 or are also in poverty. From 1996 to 1997 the poverty rate has decreased by .4% In 1996, there was 36.5 million people at the poverty level and in 1997 the number of people in poverty decreased to 35.6 million people. Since a decade ago the poverty level has increased from 32.4 million people to as high as 39.3 million in 1993, but since 1993 the number of people living in poverty has decreased to 35.6 million people. The percent of the population a decade ago below the poverty was 13.1%, which has increases up to 15.1% but here recently the poverty rate is back down to 13.3% Gen...

John Lockes Second Treatise on Civil Government Essays -- Second Treat

Locke's Second Treatise of Government, by far, is his most influential and important piece of writing. In it he set forth his theory of natural law and natural right. He shows that there does exist a rational purpose to government, and one need not rely on "mysticism and mystery." Against anarchy, Locke saw his job as one who must defend government as an institution. Locke's object was to insist not only that the public welfare was the test of good government and the basis for properly imposing obligations on the citizens of a country, but also that the public welfare made government necessary. Locke believed that the mind is blank upon birth. As a person grows and develops, so does their mind. He urged individuals to formulate theories and to test them through experiments. The fundamental claim is that human knowledge begins with sense experience and primarily is derived from it. Locke begins his philosophical examination of knowledge by trying to disprove the claim that some of our knowledge is original, in the sense that it comes from ideas which are innate or inborn. Locke's attempted refutation depends on a questionable assumption: if an individual has an idea, then that individual would understand it and assent to its content. Also, Locke believed in religious freedom and the separation of church and state. He thought that God established divine law. This could be discovered by reasoning, and to disobey it was morally wrong. He also held the opinion that no one should dictate the form of another's religion. But Locke points out that there is widespread disagreement over the concept of God. Furthermore, it does not seem to be present at all in small children. We form ideas as the endpoint of the action of physical bodies on our own bodies. Locke points out that sometimes he uses 'idea' to refer to the end product, what exists in the mind, and sometimes he uses it to refer to the quality in the body which causes the idea. The ideas of sense are the first ideas we have. Once the mind begins to be populated with them, it can operate upon them. Locke classified ideas as simple and complex. All complex ideas are said to be made up, ultimately of simple ideas, and their complexity is the work of the mind. A simple idea is "one uncompounded appearance," said Locke. But it should be noted that the relation of simple to complex ideas is not... ...st of the members of the society. The government is given its power to act by the property owning portion of the population, not by the society as a whole. Another point that makes Locke's theory different is that society has the power to overthrow the government. Since a majority created it, they have the power to remove it. Locke stated that society could overthrow the government without returning to the state of nature because the social contract would still be in effect. All that was needed would be for the society to elect another government, by majority rule, to replace the old one. This introduces the idea that government should be accountable to the people. Locke was in favor of a limited government. The importance and autonomy of the individual in society was of very importance to Locke. The extent to which this was true is that people existed as individuals before societies and governments came into being. They each possessed certain rights, and all had the freedom to do as they pleased, unrestrained and with some restrictions placed upon them by God, according to Locke. This freedom of the individual was important, for it was the foundation for modern liberal democracy.

In Jean Paul Sartre’s novel Nausea

In Jean Paul Sartre’s novel Nausea, the origin of Roquentin’s nausea is shown to be the essence by which things are named and which acts as a faà §ade over the more genuine nature of their existence. Throughout his experience, Roquentin realizes that much of what is touted as important in life is really non-essential. In fact, he finds that the deepest mysteries are hidden by a more frivolous veneer of plurality, to which people give names based on their attributes.These plural objects he finds himself disgusted with—beginning with the stone he held in his hand at his moment of epiphany. This nausea that is experienced by Roquentin is in direct contrast to individuality, because at root he believes that all comes down to existence. People and objects exist; that is all that can and should be said about them. All their other attributes are merely decoys blinding people to the real truth about themselves and their world. Therefore, any individualism is a mere illu sion, and further claims made by persons concerning ideologies are simply efforts at distracting oneself from the confounding mystery of existence.Roquentin’s nausea manifests itself as a reaction to the nominal nature of objects. This idea of naming objects (nouns) is one that distracts the mind from the fact that the object is there, in existence, without any real explanation as to why it exists. Roquentin says, â€Å"Everywhere, now, there are objects like this glass of beer on the table there. When I see it, I feel like saying: ‘Enough!’† (Sartre, 8). In fact, this is the way his nausea reacts to all attributes of objects, including color, taste, and other features by which people describe them.The apprehension of an object as a â€Å"blue book,† for instance, explains away the existence of the object and prevents one from marveling at the fact that it exists at all. This kind of â€Å"apprehension† can occur most readily when a thing can be seen, and this explains why Roquentin’s nausea occurs only in the light. The light, according to the reasoning put forth by Roquentin, is where an object’s existence becomes obscured. In the dark (or even in the mind of a subject who thinks of the object) the subconscious is likely to think of the thing only in terms of its being â€Å"there†Ã¢â‚¬â€that is, being in existence. However, in the light, the senses are apt to pick up such things as shape, color, and text. These peripheral things are mere distractions–frivolities that serve to concoct a reason for the things existence and to divert the mind from the profound fact of the thing.In the same way, Roquentin’s nausea rises against personalities of his and past eras, and this can be seen as a method of criticizing any tendency toward individualism. This can be seen as he views certain paintings and portraits of personalities. It can also be seen in his nauseated reaction to such persons as the Self-Taught Man and others, whose past lives he comes to dismiss as being non-existent like all things past. These people, he argues, have succumbed to an illusion of past glory and exploits, and from this have come to deny their own existence by promoting their essence.In contrast, Roquentin views such historical personalities as Robespierre, Lenin, and Cromwell all as one (Sartre, 69). This proceeds from the idea (noted earlier) that the attributes of a given thing act as a glare that prevents the viewing of the more important fact of existence which lies beyond the glare. Following this reasoning, then anything or anyone that seeks to make a name for himself and denies his/her oneness with the inexplicable existence of the universe acts futilely.The work that Roquentin constructs around the marquis Rollebon is described as conjecture rather than reality. In fact, the only reality that Roquentin acknowledges is the present. This underlines the concept within the novel that de bunks individualism, as Roquentin’s mining of the past to create the marquis can only create a false version of the man. This is further demonstrated in the fact that the marquis’ life is recreated only through retelling his actions or describing his features. Yet, these are both examples of the things that nauseate Roquentin—the very attributes that distract from the mystery of the marquis’ existence.In fact, Roquentin says of Rollebon, â€Å"He is a bubble of fog and desire, he is pale as death in the glass, Rollebon is dead,† (Sartre, 102). The significance of this is that, through Roquentin’s book, these attributes attempt to mask the fact that Rollebon is dead and therefore no longer in existence. It is existence that is important. Non-existence equals unimportance, regardless of ones attributes and exploits. Therefore, Roquentin ceases to continue writing Robellon’s history. This idea can be further generalized to all persons wh o somehow become distinct from all others in existence (whether by naming at birth or subsequent celebrity) as this is all meaningless.The nausea experienced by Roquentin is also a reaction to human beings’ tendency to generalize ideas and form them into ideologies. His reaction to Self-Taught Man’s socialism highlights the movement as a frivolous regard for â€Å"brothers,† â€Å"sisters,† â€Å"fellow humans† and â€Å"mankind† which in reality are names and attributes that merely mask a more homogeneous existence that is common to all that are in the world. This existence unites man with animal and with inanimate objects, and any attempt to individualize or distinguish those things around which ideologies are formed is fruitless.Roquentin also refers to what he terms â€Å"contingency.† He writes, â€Å"The essential thing is contingency. I mean that one cannot define existence as necessity† (Sartre, 131). This hints at the idea that any particular reason concocted by the human mind that points toward the need for a thing’s existence is beside the point of existence, which is by no means essential. In Roquentin’s conception, therefore, such explanations are non-essential. The only thing that matters is that a thing exists at all, and not ideologies that explain why it exists.The nausea that is experienced by Roquentin exists as a result of his growing disgust with the nominalization of the homogeneous world. He experiences a vertiginous reaction to the illumination of individual objects, which highlights the thing’s attributes. Yet it is these attributes that most prevent the apprehension of their profound existence, as they offer an illusory reason for the thing’s otherwise inexplicable presence in the world.This represents a form of individualism that Roquentin believes is a faà §ade, as all things (persons, objects, animals, etc.) are one in existence. This idea, which i s the origin of Roquentin’s nausea, presents therefore an argument against individualism. It also presents a similar argument against ideology, as these so-called universal concepts are based on beliefs about (or on attributes of) particular things—and these attributes in reality do not exist.Work CitedSartre, Jean Paul. Nausea. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Management and Lego Media Int Essay

MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC 1. Describe the organizational culture at Matsushita Electric Company (MEC). In what ways has it historically been innovative? Give examples (at least two). 2. a) Describe MEC’s journey into internationalization. b) Where would you classify them now in terms of their phase of int’l development? c) And how would you classify their managerial mindset (parochial? Ethnocentric? Geocentric?)? Give historical examples (& contrast w/r/t the company’s tenets of globalization) to support your answers (to each of a,b,c above). 3. As of the late 1990’s (post KM’s death), how well has corporate management succeeded in propagating KM’s approach to innovation beyond the Japanese culture? Give specific examples of successes and/or challenges. Q4. What is needed to improve cross-cultural management within MEC? CASE TWO LEGO What are LEGO’s values and corporate identity? How did these develop over time (prior to LEGO Media Int’l)? How did Lego’s organizational structures & policies permit int’l alignment AND explicitly reflect the company’s belief in equifinality? How did LEGO actively reduce barriers to communication? Give examples of some of their internal communication practices & indicate which communication barriers these practices helped to reduce. Describe the organizational culture @ UK Lego (Lego media Int’l). What is the evidence that it, too, believed in equifinality? When you compare it to the corporate LEGO identity, would you say that this (UK Lego culture) is an example of Corporate (Danish) LEGO’s cultural dominance? Cultural avoidance? Cultural accommodation? Cultural Compromise? Or Cultural Synergy? Explain why it represents the form of c/c conflict resolution that you’ve said it does. CSE THREE NOVO NORDISK What problems/challenges did NN face prior to facilitation? Describe how the facilitating team was created (nature of its diversity/homogeneity, and how people were selected into it). Was this consistent with the â€Å"best practices† for creation of multicultural teams? Explain. What was/were the objective(s) of the facilitation endeavour? Was it a routine or innovative task? Describe the process by which the NN facilitation team managed cultural differences _(BETWEEN THE MEMBERS OF THE TEAM AND THE UNIT/PROCESS GROUP THEY WERE FACILITATING)_ . Give specific examples to illustrate their methods of differentiation, integration, and their use of external feedback. What’s the evidence that the facilitation team succeeded? Explain in terms of both task outcomes (alignment to corporate goals) & social outcomes (emergent states of mutual trust, collective identity, and confidence in the facilitating team’s ability to achieve its task). Can C/C Management via the NN style of facilitation be a way of accomplishing alignment in other (non-Danish) MNCs? Why/why not? CASE FOUR SULZER INFRA What problems was Sulzer Infra facing prior to creating its new vision? Were these well-structured or ill-structured problems (Explain)? How did it come to recognize these as problems? What was the new Vision about? & What challenge did it present? How did the Vision/Strategy 2002 program & Sulzer Infra Academy set about trying to meet those objectives? Specifically, (a) who was involved ? (b) what were the 4 major elements of knowledge acquisition that were intended? And (c) What was the main focus of each of the 3 days? What was the intended function of the arts component of the program? What were the intended functions of the†P-teams† & the â€Å"Know-How ring†? In what ways were they meant to cooperate? Throughout the program, what helped to bridge c/c differences and which c/c issues remained a challenge? From the perspectives of the UK & Dutch offices, to what extent were knowledge management objectives (e.g., dissemination & utilization goals) achieved by the program? Based on these views, how could Sulzer Infra have improved their program? CASE FIVE PURIFYING AN IMAGE What responsibilities do organizations have to customers who rely on a line of products, one of which has exhibited a fatal, but potentially solvable, defect? Did Baxter accept responsibility for the deaths too quickly? How personally responsible is a CEO for a localized product-liability issue? Was Baxter ethically obligated to close Romney Plant? Could Baxter have ethically attempted to shift blame for the dialyzer defects to 3M or to the organization that owned the Romney Plant a few months before the crisis? What ethical responsibility did Baxter owe to the employees at the Romney Plant that it closed in the wake of the Dialyzer crisis?

Beat Street

Beat Street Is a 1984 drama film, following Wild Style In featuring New York City hip hop culture of the early 1 sass; breakfasting, Digging, and graffiti. Set in the South Bronx, the film follows the lives of a pair of brothers and their group of friends, all of whom are devoted to various elements of early hip-hop culture. Kenny Kirkland (Guy Davis) Is a budding disc jockey and MAC, and his younger brother Lee (Robert Taylor) Is a hardcore b;boy who dances with Beat Street Breakers (the New York City Breakers).Jennys best friends are Ramona On Charities a graffiti artist known by his tag, Roam, and Collie (Leon W. Grant), his self-styled manager/promoter. The film begins with the mall characters preparing for a house party set in an abandoned apartment building, where Kenny Is the featured D]. An uninvited Lee and his break- dancing friends crash the party, and nearly get tangled into a battle with a rival troupe, the Bronx Rockers (the Rock Steady Crew). The battle of mostly words is broken up by Henry (Dean Elliot), a squatter who lives in the building and Is befriended by Kenny, Collie, Ramona. ND Luis (Franc Rexes). Kenny has dreams of performing in New York Citys top nightclubs. No club is bigger than the Rosy, and on one visit he crosses paths with Tracy Carlson (Rae Dawn Chon), a collegiate music student and composer. A breakneck battle between the Breakers and Rock Steady ensues, and Tracy admires Lees performance. She then Invites him to audition for a television show focusing on dancing. Lee, Kenny, and their crew arrive during a dance rehearsal, and Lee gives his performance only to find out he wont be on television.Protecting his brothers interests, Kenny rips into Tracy for leading Lee on; Ramona steals a videotape of Lees dance as the crew walk out. A remorseful Tracy hen shows up at the Kirkland home to apologize. Lee was not home but Kenny was, working on a mix tape. Tracy clarifies her story, saying that she did not promise to Lee that he was going to be on the TV show. She then takes an interest in Jennys mixing and the two find common ground. Kenny and Tracy then head into the subway, where they meet up with Lee, Ramona, and Luis spray painting an abandoned station platform.They pack up and leave when they hear noises, thinking it may be the police; it turned out to be a rogue graffiti artist known as Spit, who defaces Ramose work (and the work of other artists) by spraying his tag over It. As the group take the train back uptown, Kenny and Tracy break away and spend the rest of the evening together, striking up a romance while walking and talking. Collie talks Kenny into a guest spot at the Burning Spear, a club run by DC Cool Here. Kenny not only spins but presents a special Christmas-themed skit performed by the Treacherous Three, Doug E.Fresh, and the Magnificent Force. The crowds positive reaction convinces Cool Here to invite Kenny back. But both Kenny and Collie see the regular gig as a stepping stone to their bigger goal. They return to the Rosy, where auditions are being held for new talent. Collie convinces Kenny to let him do the talking, and waits for the auditions to end before he succeeds in getting the talent scout to check out Kenny at the Burning Spear. The scout keeps his word, and Is impressed enough that he offers Kenny a performance on New Years Eve.Tracy offers to help Kenny out by allowing pressed a wrong button and deleted his work. A stubborn Kenny then leaves the studio, saying he had enough material for New Years Eve. Meanwhile, Ramona is feeling pressure from two sources. His father Domingo (Shawn Elliot), who despises his graffiti, wants him to find honest work, while his girlfriend Carmen (Sandra Santiago), whos also the mother of his son, longs for them to be together as a family. Ramona eventually gets a Job in a hardware store, and he then takes Carmen and their baby to live with him in Henries building.But Ramona does not stop thinking of the subway trains that are his canvas. When he sees a white-painted one pass him by, he vows to put his mark on it. Later that evening, Ramona and Kenny find the train and proceed to paint one side of the lead car. When the get on the other side, their work is interrupted when Ramona hears noises-?it is Spit, defacing the completed side. Ramona and Kenny chase Spit through the tunnel and into a station, and a fight ensues. Spit sprays paint in Rayons eye, and both men tussle on the roadbed before they roll onto the electrified third rail, which kills them instantly.As the group mourn the death of their friend, Kenny considers not doing the New Years Eve show at the Rosy. But with the help of Tracy and despite initial reluctance from Collie, Kenny turns his big break into a celebration of Rayons life. The show is the films grand finale, starting with a rap performance by Kenny while slides of Ramona and his work were shown in the background. Kenny was followed by Grandmaster Melee Mel the Furious Five, and a Bronx gospel choir backed by dancers and breakers. Edit] Cast * Rae Dawn Chon Tracy Carlson * Guy Davis Kenny Double K Kirkland * Jon Chartist Ramona Roam * Leon W. Grant Collie * Sandra Santiago Carmen Carrot * Robert Taylor Lee Kirkland * Mary Alice Core Kirkland * Shawn Elliott Domingo * Jim Borealis Monte * Dean Elliot Henry * Franc Rexes Luis * Tanya Pippins Angela * Lee Chamberlain Alicia * Duane Jones Robert * DC Little Lieu Vega DC in Background in the club. * Africa Bumboat the Soul Sonic Force Themselves Doug E.Fresh Himself * New York City Breakers Themselves * Rock Steady Crew Themselves * Clive Cool Here Campbell Himself * Treacherous Three Themselves * Jazzy Jay Himself * Grandmaster Melee Mel the Furious Five Themselves Academe Harriso n was credited as High School Student in the directors cut of the film. However, his Some of the plot line was based on the New York City graffiti documentary Style Wars. Most visibly, the antagonist Spit in Beat Street was lifted from the real-life graffiti artist CAP MAC, who was portrayed in Style Wars.It was screened out of competition t the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. [l] [edit] Filming locations Beat Street was filmed entirely on location in New York City, in the boroughs of The Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Several scenes were shot inside the citys subway system, both onboard trains and in stations, notably Hoyt-Shoehorning Streets, 57th Street-sixth Avenue, and Fresh Pond Road. Scenes were also filmed on the campus of the City College of New York, which includes the concert venue Aaron Davis Hall.Many of the internal dance sequences were filmed at the popular nightclub the Rosy, located in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. Most of the graffiti art that was displayed all throughout the film was not done by real graffiti artists-?it was airbrushed by set decorators. [edit] Musical performances and soundtrack Main article: Beat Street (soundtrack) There are several performances in the movie, notably from established early hip-hop groups Grandmaster Melee Mel the Furious Five, Doug E. Fresh, Africa Bumboat the Soul Sonic Force, and the Treacherous Three.As a member of the Treacherous Three, Cool Moe Dee also appeared in the film. It stands as one of the few media appearances he has ever made without his trademark sunglasses (a Tyler he had not yet adopted at the time). In addition to these acts, Guy Davis, who played Kenny, is also a blues musician in real life. The film also includes other musical performances from novice acts, such as Tina B and The System, both of whom appear on the soundtrack album. Though not featured on the album, there were also appearances by rapper Richard Lee Cisco and singers Bernard Fowler and Brenda K. Starr. Contrary to popular (internet legend) belief, The RAZZ of Www-Tang Clan was not actually in the movie. Some rumors have floated around the net stating that he is the guy in the black hat rhyming during the Rosy auditions scene. However, RAZZ has gone on the record stating he was not in the film. In fact, he would have only been 15 at the time Beat Street was filmed. The actor in the black hat appears to be markedly older than 15. At least three breakfasting battles between the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew were also included in the film. In addition, the Rosy audition scene features a pair of breakfasting boys known as the Fantastic Duo. This was the first American film to feature more than one soundtrack album. Originally, Atlantic Records, which released the soundtrack albums, had three volumes planned, but only two of these were released. The second volume was never released on compact disc. The trailer includes an alternate version of the title song performed by Cool Moe Dee, a version that was not featured in the movie or on the original soundtrack albums. E troubles of ghetto life are accurately captured in this cinematic time capsule, one of the first films to contain rap music. At the time, the rapping took a back seat to the break dancing and one of the many attributes of BEAT STREET is the authentic street moves on display. The locations also retain their street creed, with graffiti covering subway cars and abandoned buildings populating the mean streets. The story homeless out of the ghetto. Musician Harry Flatten teamed with David Picker to produce. Rapper Kenny and his break dancing brother Lee are up and coming soul artists.They only need a few good connections and one big break to make it. When they meet a beautiful college music professor, who can help them expand their horizons, everything starts to fall into place. The troubles of ghetto life are accurately captured in this cinematic time capsule, one concerns a group of Bronx teens using their dancing, rapping, and artistic skills to lift Storyline Jon Chartist plays a Puerco Rican youth who targets subway walls for his graffiti endearing. For a while, it looks as though Charladies problems will carry the plotting, but before long the films true raisin deter comes to the surface.Rap-music deejay Guy Davis, in tandem with such like-minded individuals as music student Rae Dawn Chon, endeavor to stage a huge breakfasting presentation, featuring several musical artistes of the period. Harry Flatten served as coppered. -? Hal Erickson, Rove. An upbeat, lets-put-on-a-show musical about the wonders of hip-hop music and culture that tells the story of Kenny, a young hip-hop artist living in the rough slums f the Bronx with his younger brother Lee and their mother Core. Kenny dreams of making it big as a disc Jockey and playing in the most swank of Manhattan nightclubs, the Rosy.Into their lives comes Tracy, a composer and assistant choreographer from the City College of New York, who inspires him to try to continue his dream while romance begins to grow between them, despite coming from different neighborhoods and worlds. Meanwhile, Lee is part of a break-dancing crew set on dominating the scene of their street. The rest of their friends include Ramona, a graffiti artist determined to spread his painting to every subway car in the city while leaning with his girlfriend Carmen and Collie, a fellow disc Jockey who becomes Jennys manager after he lands him a gig at a Bronx club.Many hip-hop groups, electro artists, break dancers, and Latin freestyle singers, who include Us Girls, the Treacherous Three, the System, the Rock Steady Crew, Africa Bumboat Soul Sonic Force and Shannon, the Magnificent Force, the New York City Breakers, Grand Master Melee Mel the Furious Five, Tina B. , Johnny B. Bad, and many more, make cameo appearances. Written by Matt Patty About 80% of the footage in the original theatrical trailer is not included in the final UT.Examples include Ramona getting his bag ripped off while walking with Kenny and Charlie, several battle outtakes including the classroom up-rocking scene, Ramo na on nightclub. Several other pieces of footage were included as well but were in freeze frame in the opening credits of the film. The trailer also includes an alternate version of title song performed by Cool Moe Dee, (who appears in the film in the Christmas Rapping' sequence with the rest of the Treacherous Three), which also did not appear in the movie nor on the original soundtrack albums.Share this Most of the graffiti art that was displayed all throughout the film was not done by real graffiti artists it was airbrushed by set decorators. Share this It was the producers idea for the main cast to wear Kananga hats and Puma sneakers all throughout production of the film even though many of the dancers felt that it wasnt authentic. Share this According to Fast Break (who appeared in the Treacherous Three sequence), there was a classroom up-rocking battle scene that involved the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew, but it was cut.There was also more of the climatic battle between the se two crews at the Rosy nightclub. Share this Crazy Legs later said that during the filming of the battle scene at the Rosy he wanted to battle to Jimmy Castors song Its Just Begun, but he was disappointed to find out that the crews were going to battle to a record called Breakers Revenge because of rights issues. Share this This project was sponsored by Puma. The original soundtrack Laps have the Puma logo printed on them, reading, Puma as seen in Beat Street. Share this This was the first American film to have more than one soundtrack album of music featured in a film released. Originally, three volumes of music were planned, but Atlantic Records only released two of them and the second volume was never released on compact disc. And get out of the South Bronx, the movie follows the youngsters over the holiday season of 83 when it looks like Kenny might finally catch that big break. Collie sets it up so Kenny can do a guest spot at the Burning Spear, where he not only spins a few records, he also presents a special Christmas-themed skit.Lee and his crew have a breakneck battle with a rival troupe, the Bronx Rockers (the Rock Steady Crew) at the Rosy nightclub one night and Tracy (Chon, Commando) asks him to come and audition for a show shes putting on at the city college. Ramona, whose graffiti tag is Roam is getting grief from his father (Shawn Elliot) about getting an honest Job and forgetting about drawing pictures on the walls around the neighborhood and from Carmen (Santiago, Miami Vice), his girlfriend and the mother of their baby who wants him to get them a place of their own.Roam gets great pleasure from sharing his art with the people of the city, he thinks that its great that his work is seen throughout many different boroughs. The only problem is a rival graffiti artist whose sprays his gag Spit all over everybody elses work. After a misunderstanding at the city college, Tracy tries to smooth things over with Lee and Kenny and gets romantically involved with Kenny. Collie uses Jennys success at the Burning Spear to get him the New Years Eve performance at the Rosy (the hottest nightclub in NYC).Ultimately, tragedy strikes the group and Kenny is uncertain whether he should go ahead and do the gig at the Rosy. As you can see, there are many plot treads throughout the movie and it present form, is a pretty good movie, but Id like to see a Directors Cut that restores al the excised footage, if it still even exists. I think that might make for a more focused movie, the scenes in the trailer seem to clarify a few things and theres a few more musical numbers, including one in a high school classroom. According to Wisped, Academe Harrison (A Different World, Rapping) had a small role in the movie that ended up being deleted entirely.Whats left is a decent enough movie, any dramatic flaws are compensated for with some great musical sequences The aforementioned Christmas skit at the Burning Spear, a club run by DC Cool Here, features the Treacherous Three, Doug E. Fresh and the Magnificent Force as they do a rap number called Suntans Rap. Its one of the many musical highlights of Beat Street, among the various artists featured in this movie are Grandmaster Melee Mel the Furious Five, Africa Bumboat the Soul Sonic Force Shannon, Tina B. , The System, Brenda Starr, Bernard Fowler, Andy B.Bad, Fantastic Duo, Us Girls, Jazzy Jay, Richard Cisco and Wanda Dee. The director Stan Lethal has assembled quite a roster of talent from the early days of breakfasting and rapping, this is the most awesome part of the movie and Im not even a fan of the genre. Like I said in my review of Crush Groove, I do like the old-school rap, when it was funny and relatively innocent, as opposed to all the obscene crap that seem to be the favorite subjects of todays rappers (bitched, hoes, pimping and popping caps in the ass of another person).The climactic scene of Beat Street is an elaborate number that features Grandmaster Melee Mel the Furious Five, Bernard Fowler and a Bronx gospel choir, dancers from the city college and breakfasters from the New York streets. Its a celebration of life as Grandmaster Melee Mel decries the violence of the world and Fowler sings about believing in the face of tragedy. Its my favorite sequence in this movie because its such a powerful moment and it incorporates a lot of different talent. I also like Tina B. S song Nothings G oanna Come Easy, even though only a small portion of the song is heard in the movie. If memory serves, there were two soundtrack albums released from this movie because there was so much music. In addition, the breakfasting in Beat Street is absolutely fresh, the real life dance crews really know how to bust some serious moves and when theyre strutting their stuff on he screen , the movie totally comes to life. And who doesnt like the human beat-box that is Doug E. Fresh? Ive talked endlessly about the music in Beat Street, what about the other aspects of the movie?Like I said, it falters when it comes to the dramatic elements, it would have been nice to get to know certain characters better. For example, what about Henry (Dean Elliot), the squatter the guys discover living in the basement of the abandoned building where they party at the beginning of the movie? They all seem to become friends, but who is this guy really? We understand hat hes an old friend of somebody who used to live in the building before the landlord torched the place, but at what point does he become friends with the guys?Its implied that hes some sort of musician, he says that he and his old friend planned to start a band. Why doesnt he display his skills at any point in the movie? In the trailer, its shown (briefly) that he plays the drums, I would have liked to see this incorporated into the plot. We see a couple of scenes where Roam and his father argue about how he should live his life, but it would have been interesting to see Kenny and Lees older brother? We get the impression that he was in a gang and died as a result of that lifestyle, but was he shot in a gang war or by the police?My guess would be the latter, only because of the contempt that Core (Mary Alice, The Matrix Revolutions) shows for the cop who arrested her son (Lee) for breakfasting at the subway station. She tells him that hes far too young to be offering child rearing advice and that theres worse things these kids could be doing than dancing. Its another small but powerful moment, but we still dont fully understand how her oldest son died. And I would have loved to see that breakfasting number in the high school classroom, these moments really make a musical fun and enjoyable.I wonder why so many scenes were cut out of Beat Street? Im guessing it was to keep the running time down, who wants to watch a two-and-a-half hour movie during the summer? True, this movie is pretty shallow and it never promised to be an in-depth character study or a realistic, gritty documentary about the hip-hop scene of the early ass. But it would have been cool to add an additional layer of depth and meaning, it would have been nice to understand a few things about the young people who arrogance on the sidewalks or the graffiti artists who see all the surfaces of the world as their own personal canvas.