The aircraft industry is a fast paced industry, where it requires, not only the sales persons’ full attention, but also the use of all its talents and abilities to get the sale and complete the transactions.

Competition is so high in the industry that, if the sales person waits a couple of hours to make a decision of whether to purchase material to supply the airline or not, the material could have been sold and taken out of the market by another competitor. Depending on the aircraft that needs the material, the material could be so scares, that if there is any surplus in the market, it could get sold/purchased before anyone else has the opportunity to contemplate the purchase. One example of this is that of today. Our company went to locate that a customer in Europe needed. When we accessed the system to try to locate the item, we found that only one company had that part in their inventory. When we went to allocate the material, the vendor advised us that the material had been sold and shipped to a competitor. Unfortunately, since our company waited two hours to begin its allocation, the competition located and purchased the material. The good thing about this is that the material sold was being offered at a higher price than that of the manufacturer, so we contacted the manufacturer and were able to allocate the only one they had for a cheaper price.

The culture of the company is also an interesting point to introduce. Within the company, there is a competitive, stressful, relaxing, understanding, and complex culture. As stated previously, the company strives to be a top competitive in the industry. This produces a competitive atmosphere that creates much stress and anger within the teams. On the other hand, in other departments, such as the accounting department and the quality control department of the company, seems to be a relaxing atmosphere. Their jobs do not have to deal with sales and reaching sales goals. Therefore, their only concern is to make sure that the money comes in from the customers and that the material is in good shape. If that is not happening, they hand the problem to the sales manager for control and resolution.

The last observation is that of the technology of the company. Many people have had an impression that a small computer and a fax machine is the only thing needed to be able to accomplish sales. While that theory is correct, other points need to be considered when thinking about this. Some points to consider are those of the airline needs and standards. 90% of the airlines require the company to have certain programs where it facilitates requests and orders for them. So, if the company did not have those programs that require state of the art technology, they would not be able to receive requests and orders. American Jet Industries has spent thousands of dollars to obtain the necessary equipment to be able to comply with the airlines’ needs and be able to compete at a high level with the best. One of those programs is that of Quantum Controls. That program is capable of researching the market and locating material needed. It is also capable of receiving messages via email and fax and also able to send emails and faxes without the need to purchase any additional software or hardware. Most airlines use this system to access their vendors and send requests to them and also to receive answers and send orders to their vendors.

In other words, American Jet Industries must be able to show the airlines that it is able to meet any of their requirements to get business from them. Whether it is meeting their quality control standards, their accounting needs or procurement needs, American Jet Industries is able to show its customers that it is a serious competitor and comply with their needs

        

Zuckerman, in his article, focuses his attention on the middle colonies and the erroneous tendencies of historians to ignore controversial or pertinent historical issues in favor of obvious, harmless social arguments. Historians have focused on New England as the true “birthplace of America” because of its early literature and thought that focused solely on Puritanism, and therefore offered an obvious and easy starting point with which to measure the region’s cultural metamorphasis. However, as Zuckerman points out, New England was fairly unrepresentative of the real America, as it was a homogenous society dominated by English Puritans and their inflexible doctrines and unstatic customs and economy. The middle colonies, on the other hand, were made up of people of many different origins, races, and creeds, and their interrelationships are definitely more symbolic of American culture. Like most people’s idea of America, the middle colonies developed a commercial culture ba!
sed on a balanced economy, and, besides that, showed no real homogenous cultural traits that ran through the region. Indeed, most of the different groups that coexisted in this region did not intermingle with each other at all, but instead kept their own distinctive cultural and social habits. Because of this, the argument can be made that the middle colonies were not the heterogenous, “melting pot” culture that Zuckerman claims existed. After all, heterogenous seems to suggest a fusion of different types of people, when in fact these colonies offered more of a clannish type of policy when it came to dealing with their new neighbors. However, the simple fact that they coexisted with relative peace in such a dynamic and volatile atmosphere is evidence enough that the middle colonies were indeed representative of America’s “melting pot” reputation.

Jack Greene hypothesizes that the idea of mastery and the relationship between the new colonies and Great Britain were foremost in shaping America’s colonial culture. Greene suggests that the idea of the English who migrated to the Americas was to achieve mastery over the rugged land of America as well as other groups, a mastery that was unavailable to them in their homeland. The problem with this mastery hypothesis is that it covers only the English migration to the New World, and only a relatively small portion of that group. After all, many English people chose to relocate to America for a wide variety of reasons that had nothing to do with mastery over others, and mastery was surely not at the top of their wish list once they arrived in the New World. Greene also advocates relating the culture of colonial America back to that of Great Britain, and that technique can be useful in some ways, such as delineating the differences between the two areas. However, taking this approach too far can be extremely dangerous, as the English in America were quick to develop cultural traits that had no connection whatsoever to their homeland and a comparison of some of these cultural aspects would only serve to confuse. Also, the many people who came to America from countries besides England would not fit into this historical approach.

Mintz and Price focus their concentration on the development of a distinct Afro-American culture in the New World. Their conclusion that the majority of Afro-American customs and cultures were consummated in the New World and did not directly stem from any particular pre-migration group culture seems sound, even if some of their methods of documentation are somewhat dubious. Their hypothesis can also help to understand the European migration to the Americas, as it seems that the development of mainstream American culture would undergo a similar pattern. With many different people arriving from Europe, it is logical to assume that their intermingling would cause a similar merging of cultural traits that they brought from their birthplaces. Greene would argue differently, and it is true that the fusion of a single American culture took a longer time to develop, but it is certainly likely that the European contingent in the New World underwent similar processes in becoming a!
n independent and self-sufficient group.

Finally, McCusker and Menard, like Zuckerman, focus on the middle colonies and their influence on the colonial period, but their concentration is centered on the commercial aspects of middle America. They see the middle colonies as more of a commercial balancing point between the plantation dominated southern colonies and the manufacturers of New England. Like Zuckerman, they believe that because the middle colonies offered such a balance in commercial capabilities as well as native inhabitants, that they should be seen as the focal point of America in its early years. Menard and McCuskey do give New England more credit than does Zuckerman, as they show that New England did indeed lead the way in foreign trade capabilities, but they also document the rise of Philadelphia and New York as the major urban areas ofAmerica by the mid 18th Century. Overall, Menard, McCuskey and Zuckerman take a similar view on the importance of the middle colonies in colonial America.

        

That saturday started like most others with daybreak at 6:00 a.m. pacific standard time. My former academic decathlon team and I were promptly waiting outside the Lemoore High School office at around 6:10 a.m. The brilliant sun which began to creep over the horizon of homesteads surrounding the area was an awful reminder to us all of just how early it was outside. Combine that with the still bitter winter weather which chilled our skin to a beautiful forty-two degrees made this trip questionable for some to attend since most of the group would have rather stayed in bed. The vans arrived around 6:25 and by 6:30 a.m. we where off to see the gallery in Los Angeles. The trip was a long and boring one like most it was filled with the standard stare out the windows and look at on coming traffic from opposing lanes, with your

occasional attempts at conversation and the eventual drowning of one’s self in the headphones of a portable cd player or mp3 player in my case. We all had our own variety of music. Some of us had heavy metal, hard rock or punk music while others had folk music with such artists as Ani De Franco. Still others had their rap music with artists P.Diddy Dr. Dre and Eminem. Needless to say I wasn’t too particularly open minded to the rap portion of our team’s musical performance. Something I don’t get is how someone can make money by bragging about how much money they have already.

When the long arduous drive came to a halt I took a moment to look at my surrounding environment. The place in which we had parked was atop one of the many levels of a parking garage. The trek down to the ground level was a short elevator ride which included blinding white florescent lights and the almost silent humming of pullies and cables. We managed to complete a walk down an extremely uneven side walk which seem to curve to the right into on coming traffic. We all then came upon a pair of tremendous buildings gated by a large iron fence and supporting a few courtyards where people sat at caf? tables and talked. The grass was completely green with no signs of discoloration and the smell of it made it seem as though it was cut every morning before visitors had a chance to arrive. A dry wind blew as we approached the ticket booths and reminded us all that the sun’s rays had taken hold of the day.

The inside of the museum wasn’t at all what I had expected. There were many escaladers and elevators which took waves of people to lower or upper levels of the buildings. Each section of each building had its own era of art. The first to be explored by myself and two others was the Oriental exhibit which contained many scrolls and watercolor paintings. Many artifacts adorned the walls, mostly statues of Buddhist gods some where of clay constructions along with others made from bronze which on the surface where enameled with patina. The next section we explored was the modern art exhibit and it had many artists which did many particularly exotic and unusual types of construction pieces none of which could be explained without the likelihood of misunderstanding. Then as we where passing through the gallery one of us came across something special something that looked to be original and interesting. It was darkly colored and kind of rough in brush stroke. The figure of an old man holding a cane in his right hand and staring towards the ground captured my attention. My mind began to wander over the entire painting coursing through each intimate detail and pondering its meaning. The buildings behind the old man seemed Spanish in design and had seemed to have a delicate way of saying that they are still standing as a testament to their time. The terrain which the old man was crawling up seemed to be at a slope like a small hill or perhaps a bridge that remained invisible to the onlookers perspective. It also looked as though the old man had been walking away from the town perhaps he was too old to live in it anymore, or the people didn’t like him very much, or maybe he was going just for a stroll outside the city. A thousand and one thoughts had passed through me in those ten minutes as I stood there and pondered the mystery of this painting with alas no resolution to any of my questions. I couldn’t stare at the painting much longer after that because it was time to leave and make our way back to the stretches of the valley.

I still have no answers to the painting of that old man. His stare at the ground before him doesn’t make complete sense to me, but I do get the feeling somehow that he is pondering at the ground just as I am pondering about him. I still wonder the reasons in which this old man came to leave his town. Where did he plan on going? Why does he feel he must leave? Is he going on vacation or is he on some important business. In the simplest terms I came to the conclusion that the reasons for his leaving now make no difference. An old man leaving a town has his reasons regardless of what maybe that thing is. The fact that he’s leaving, Do not try and complicate the situation with reason or else the meaning is lost.

“It summed up Rosenquist’s vision of America as a flawed and self destructive Eden, a paradise based on exaggerated and obsessive consumption of images and things,” As Robert Hughes put it.

        

F-111 was Rosenquist’s personal reaction to the ideas of mass media and communication. The painting is overloaded with a discharge of images, which reflects on the mindless consumerism and the armed forces implemented in America in the 1960’s. Due to the influence of the Vietnam War many pop artists reflected on the American military as motivation to depict America’s unsteady future. Emblems of every day experience blot out the sleek fighter jet in “F-111”. Rosenquist is stating that whilst these planes are bombing Korea, and a war is being fought, every day life continues. It hasn’t been halted by the horrendousness death and destruction, which perhaps suggests greed. He is also possibly stating that the nations mind isn’t focused on what matters, reality.

Since the F-111 had minimal impact on its intended industry, death and destruction, we can now find the painting would also seem to ridicule the eventual ineffectiveness of technology. Lichtenstein, for example, painted belligerent yet tasteful images of dogfights, explosions and the essence of air-to-air combat (the infamous “wham” for example). This was a play on the folly within America’s supreme military industry. How something that has cost millions of dollars to build, money that could be better spent on the debilitating derelict boulevards and the underprivileged society, can be destroyed with the click of a button. “I pressed the fire control…and ahead of me rockets blazed through the sky,” says the pilot in section A of Lichtenstein’s “wham”.

It is obvious that Lichtenstein and Rosenquist have anti war elements in their work. But the antiwar significance isn’t the main or only focus. Lichtenstein, with his stylish abstract dots and cartoonist insight creates a technique that entices the viewer using commercial fundamentals, for example comic books. He was also a feminist painter, and the mass consumerism and anti war elements is less, if at all, noticeable in other works.

Rosenquist on the other hand, has a lot more war reference with his most significant painting “F-111”. However it seems to focus more on America’s stance in commerce commerciality. Using things like canned spaghetti and objects of everyday use Rosenquist accentuates the meaning of America’s diverse fluctuation in marketable goods and how they are of little meaning when it comes to a war or fallout of some description.

During the early stages of this decade of social change, until about 1966, fashion was directed towards a sophisticated and glamorous look. This look reflected style icons of the time such as Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn and Mary Quant. Many of the fashions were inspired by the creations of Coco Chanel, who specialised in chic suits with either trousers or knee length skirts and worn by the socially elite, wealthy women.

        

At the same time, the designs, concepts and creations of Mary Quant emerged in America, and were embraced by the youth. She is credited with introducing the miniskirt into common society. She created her clothing to fit herself, as did Chanel, and from this, the slim, boyish, schoolgirl figure became popular. This can be seen in the popularity of models of the time such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton.

Towards the end of this fashion-orientated decade, the look turned to a more natural and hippie form. The Hippie movement was inspired by the quest for an alternate way of living, where an individual could drop out of society and focus on the spiritual life, instead of being a slave to money.

The hippie look is generally thought of as having long hair, beads, bare feet of sandals and bell-bottoms. However, just about anything was worn as long as it was loose-fitting and had an ethnic look. Women wore inexpensive and colourful clothing made from Indian or African cottons that were made into long skirts, shawls and ‘peasant’ blouses. Men wore similar, but would often wear jeans and eastern-inspired tunics.

This decade was one of social change and acceptance was a key aspect. This acceptance was of religion, race, beliefs and appearance.

During the entire decade, Carnaby Street in London was considered the Mecca for those following fashion trends and young people flocked here to be engulfed with the trendy and swinging London style. San Francisco was the American equivalent, whilst in Australia, capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne were the place to go.

I have researched in a number of different ways. I have used the Internet, searching for images of 60s fashion and also accounts and histories of this time. I have researched in books, including 20th Century Fashion by Kitty Powe-Temperley and another book by the same name, but by Eleanor Van Zandt. I have also browsed encyclopaedias and reference material about fashion, clothing and costuming, at a public library. I have watched a few movies that are set in the 60s, such as an early James Bond film and also the Austen Powers movies. However, the most helpful and important source of inspiration and knowledge that I used was to talk to people who were around and involved in fashion during this period. This included my grandmother and some older friends of my parents, who were very helpful and detailed in their accounts and descriptions of fashions, fads and styling from this period in time.

My designs were inspired by the earlier part of this decade, rather than the hippie time. I have incorporated a sophisticated style in my garments, which can be worn today, and look trendy and stylish. I have merged the 60s influence with current trends so that the garments and accessories don’t look strange and out of place in a very fashion conscious, modern society.