Punk and Free Jazz Meet at the Crossroads

By Tom Barry, Social Sciences

In a recent ConX posting, Professor Sean Rule, one of COCC’s esteemed mathematicians who freelances during off hours as the drummer for the local punk band Hands on Throat, reflected on the various meanings attributed to punk and its practices.  As Rule stated, it is a form of music often misunderstood by those who do not know its history and purpose.   This is due to many factors, including  punk’s utter disregard of the culture industry including  the organizations, artist and repertoire (A&R) folks who determine what’s hot and what’s not.

The recording industry produces music that meets the industry conditioned desires of the audience.  The industry makes it.  The audience accepts it.  The industry produces more.  Then the audience comes to desire it.  With new organizational strategies and technologies, such as iTunes, the industry becomes increasingly involved in directing listeners to the new artists of the day, artists who are mostly reproductions of the artists who have been chewed up, lost nutritional (market) values and spit out.  Because of its economic imperatives and influence on behavioral conditioning, the industry is not responding to audience demands but rather identifies and reconfigures the demands in ways that best accomplish the industry’s mission.  In the words of Theodor Adorno, a social philosopher and ardent critic of the culture industry, “the culture industry not so much adapts to the reactions of its customers as it counterfeits them.”

While I think George Ritzer’s term McDonaldization is often overused, the concept has certain and valid applications to the production of music.  McDonaldization refers to the fact that an increasing number of life areas follow the organizational principles of the fast-food chain.  The principles include predictability, uniformity, control through automation, and calculability.  The mass production of music follows these principles and, as result, we get exposed to an extremely limited range of music.

Aside from the pressures to conform to industry demands, Professor Rule addresses another core component of understanding punk.  This is the desire to have a voice that is otherwise silenced by dominate society.  The reaction against the corporatization of music is not only about the desire to exercise artistic freedom; it is a symptom of a larger social reality where institutions disregard the voice of people and will only hear that voice if it is presented in a particular manner determined by the industry itself. 

Punk’s development as a medium to air grievances has common ground with the origins and purpose of the Free Jazz movement of the 1950s/1960s.  During this time of advancing democratic ideals of equality for all and an increased consciousness of structured racial inequality, African American artists, from all arts, turned towards the “black aesthetic,” art developed, produced, and performed by and for African Americans.  It was political and truly free.  It was also misunderstood by dominate culture.  But unlike punk, there were no twenty second songs.  Instead, Free Jazz artists performed songs that lasted twenty, thirty, and forty minutes.  Try putting THAT on a record, Columbia and RCA!

Book Exchange at Work – Success or Failure?

By Ralph Phillips, Computer & Information Systems

Over the summer, I frequented a number of coffee shops with book exchange programs and participated in one here in town. It was great. I discovered some new books and was pleased to see that books I left were taken–hopefully by someone who enjoyed them and later passed them on.

Why not set one up at work? Creating a book exchange isn’t difficult at all. A common area where many of your co-workers congregate is an ideal place to set up a book exchange. You could leave a stack of books on a counter, but I went for the much more official cardboard box with sign approach (see video). I wanted my co-workers to enjoy a couple of great books I read recently and leave some new ones to keep the exchange thriving.

We’re at week seven in the term and all of the books I started with to “seed” the book exchange box are still there. It does look like someone left a magazine, but that’s been the only activity.

Optimism ahead…

Perhaps this book exchange needs a little advertisement. Or, maybe I’m not using enough technology (a common excuse for many of my failed experiments). Plan B will be to check out an online book exchange like BookMooch. The way BookMooch and similar book exchanges work is to provide members with a much larger selection of free books. It’s actually kind of a cool process:

1. List the book(s) you’ve got available to give.
2. When somebody requests your book, you mail it to them (you pay the shipping).
3. Mailing a book earns you a point.
4. You can now use your point to request a book from anybody else. They ship the book to you.

That’s about all there is to it. The rules are pretty simple, and you need to give at least one book for every two that you receive. You also get partial points for listing books. I’m going to start my BookMooch account by listing:

• The Marine Aquarium Handbook (apparently my Florida hobby doesn’t sell well in Bend, Oregon)
• The New Saltwater Aquarium Handbook
• Touching the Void
• About a Boy
• The Complete Guide to Marathon Walking

In a later post, I’ll report on my experience with BookMooch.

“Why do you guys sound like such unbelievable crap?” An analysis of the post – mainstream hardcore thrash community’s population and draw

By Sean Rule, Math

So, I’m a musician.  Well, actually, I’m a drummer; I hang out with musicians.  And the guys with whom I hang out and play music play very loud, very thrashy, very energetic music.  As a result, we usually play to very few people.  We have our moments of well – attended glory (see photo 1, courtesy of Dearric Winchester at Focus on Infinity Photography), but, usually, we play to about 30 people, give or take a few.  And, they’re usually highly inebriated.

 This is nothing new to me; I’ve been playing drums in punk rock bands since many COCC students were learning their ABC’s (some would say that’s why I should stop), and the turnouts have usually been abysmally low.  This is not something that upsets me; that’s the topic of this little piece.   

The reasons for punk rock’s low turnouts are subject to great speculation around the Hands On Throat (my current band) practice space.  The first and most obvious explanation is the character of our music.  Most mainstream “punk” bands (by the way, that phrase is idiotic in itself; by definition, punk rock needs to be reactionary to the mainstream) write catchy, melodic, poppy, easy – to – aurally – digest songs that are the “correct” length.  My band writes songs in collapsing keys that grate against the ear, whose tempos start and stop so frequently that you can’t bop your head to keep time (let alone dance), and whose lengths vary from 20 seconds to 4 minutes (with a median of around 2.5 minutes, I’d imagine).  Add to that the vocals, which are usually screamed at top volume and maximum snottiness, and you’ve got a recipe for a room clearing.

“Sean!  You’ve just described the solution to your problem.  Fix your songs!”, you might exclaim.  Well, you see…that’s it.  I don’t want to fix anything, because I don’t think anything’s “broken”.  Take, for example, the entire body of one of my favorite compositions, “Look Ma…Opposable Thumbs!” (you can listen here)

“What sets us apart?  Not much.  Just timely execution of clever evolution. Stylized monkeys all are we.  Don’t take yourself so seriously.”

That’s it.  That’s the idea I needed to convey.  It took 10 seconds of screaming, and just about a half of a minute for the entire song…but the idea gets delivered.  It wouldn’t work in any context, other than hardcore thrash.  Somehow I don’t think Green Day could’ve pulled it off (nor could we have pulled off “Basket Case”, their first big hit after signing to a major).   

What’s the formula for a hit song?  Who knows?  I certainly don’t, and most “artists” don’t either.  Producers and engineers often get hold of a raw song idea and morph it into something it wasn’t and will never be again, outside of the confines of a studio.  It’s no longer real; it’s a façade.  Digital recording has made this worse; now, any jokers with a PC and an illegally downloaded version of Pro Tools can pollute MySpace with their “band’s” “songs”.  But I digress.

Wait a minute…maybe I’m onto something!  Back in the early 90’s, shows were announced via fliers.  This required paper and footwork.  We would roam the streets hanging fliers on light posts until we were asked to stop by local authorities, at which point we would go door to door to the closely knit punk community’s residences and drum support.  Nowadays, bands “flier” by posting jpegs online.  As far as I can tell, very few people actually look at these postings, or, if they are seeing them, they’re not moving people to make it down the show.  Actually, I think that the internet has made it harder to book shows.  We’re all inundated with material online, so if a flier is added to the mix, who’s to say it isn’t simply flushed out of our minds like a forwarded email about the perils of drinking coffee?  Or was it plastic bottles?  Ah, whatever.

OK, so the answer is that 1) my band writes annoying music, and/or 2) the internet is ruining everything.  Hmmmmm…that seems too easy.  Maybe it’s pop music itself.  Let’s revisit that one.

Consider the equal tempered scale: 12 notes, perfectly arranged, which can be arranged into ear – pleasing patterns.  From that scale, musicians for hundreds of years have built melodies.  Some are very well known: the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9^th symphony; Barber’s Adagio; Louie, Louie.  But, what makes a melody great?  Memorable?  Timeless?  There are a whole infinitude of possible combinations of these notes, yet only some are pleasing, and fewer still ring true years after their recordings.

 As a thrash band, we’re not trying to make pretty music…we’re trying to make quality music, in the vein of great bands (you’re never heard of) like Refused, Propaghandi, and DownSet (see note 1 below) . We’re trying to craft lyrics that are at once succinct, poignant, and thought – provoking.  We want to sing (and scream) songs about equality, positivity, and awareness.  I want to play my drums as fast and as hard as I can possibly play, driving my band and the few folks in the crowd to the very brink of collapse…and to get people’s attention away from their Blackberries and their beer, so they can hear what’s on our minds. 

Yeah, this kind of music is an acquired taste, like anise biscotti or Guy Ritchie films.  As such, our devotees are few and far between.  But, once the taste sets in, it never lets go.  See photo 2?  That’s a picture emailed to me about 4 years ago from a guy who used to watch my old band, Plow United, play in Philadelphia.  The phrase he had tattooed on his chest, “at least I’ll die believing”, comes from the Plow United song, “The World According to Me”:

“As I go, from day to day, I keep my head before me. And if time should end today, at least I’ll die believing.”

I wrote those lines in 1993.  More than a decade later, I received that picture from 3000 miles away.  Tell me that isn’t rad.

We’ll never be “successful” in the normal sense.  I won’t have a gold record.  The records I do have, however, are sold, traded, and stolen worldwide.  Our songs are floating around, some on cassette tapes, some on CD, and some online…and I love it!  I’ll never have a video on MTV, but I’m constantly sent (from former bandmates, scenesters and friends) forums and videos that have popped up with comments like, “I wish I had a chance to see them live… their music changed my life”.  We’re not pretty, we’re not easy listenin’, and we’re not sonically agreeable…but we’re real.  And that, I think, is what people like.

At least, the 30 that come to our shows.    

Endnote: Interestingly enough, I was going to hyperlink a My Chemical Romance song (“Welcome to the Black Parade”) in this blog to compare a commercial pop band (them) to a nasty, abrasive hardcore band (us).  However, Warner Brothers (MCR’s label, I presume) pulled the clip.  That means that, rather than let fans enjoy the song and its video, they’d instead chose to deny fans the avenue to spread attention.  Never have I been happier to not be attached to the commercial machine that is the record industry.  Do It Yourself!

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[1] If you choose to watch these clips, you might notice things like, “Hey!  DownSet sounds like Rage against the Machine!”  Yup.  DownSet was, however, around years before RATM’s mainstream success.  Why Rage got popular and these guys didn’t is beyond me.  Also, I suppose I should warn you…there are some “bad words” in there.  George Carlin, rest his soul, would be thrilled.

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By Ralph Phillips,  Computer & Information Systems 

A Little Civil War Reading

By Nancy Zens, History

In thirty years of reading about the Civil War, Kent Masterson Brown’s  Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign (Chapel Hill, 2005) is the best book that I have encountered .  This  publication brings together all of the best scholarship from the past together with vigorous research in primary materials, archives, and careful assessment of terrain to create an image of the problems, chaos, and disorganization of a Civil War army engaged in battlefield conditions.  Beginning with a quick description of the three day clash at Gettysburg, the book follows Lee’s Army of Virginia as it disengages from deadly contact with the Union Army, attempting to move CSA wounded USA prisoners, captured supplies, vast wagon trains, and the surviving Confederate troops along numerous parallel northern roads.  The reality of 19^th century travel on roads away from Gettysburg meant traffic jams that stagger the imagination.  For this one engagement, even leaving behind 4,500 Confederate dead and 6,700 Confederate wounded, there was fifty-seven miles of wagon and ambulance trains, tens of thousands of livestock, and 51.000 Confederate troops that Lee needed to return to Virginia.  So often Civil War books cover battles and pay little attention to questions about how men and equipment moved from one place to another.  Rather than the boring list of details with little action that such an approach to the war raises up in your imagination, think of a book that answers numerous questions that you haven’t even thought to ask before and that weaves the stories of fighters, wounded, civilians, pursuit, ambition, greed, fear, accidents, and odd coincidence together. 

Each of the routes leading out of Pennsylvania, back through Maryland by the shortest possible route to finally get back to the safety of Virginia presented difficulties that were compounded by rain, the  break downs of wagons, quickly deteriorating road conditions, exhausted animals pulling too much weight with too little food and water, uncooperative local citizens, pursuing thieves and looters, occasional attacks by pursuing union cavalry, and the mistakes that arose from exhaustion, night travel, little food or water, and competing commanders all seeking to get their own troops back to Virginia in the best possible shape.  Have you ever wondered about the Civil War wounded and how they got from the direct line of fire to those front line field hospitals that emerged a short distance from the most intense fighting, or whether the field hospitals further back (yet still within earshot of the fighting) were any better at easing the suffering of the wounded, or what it meant to be left behind and dependent on the enemy for medical care, or how the traveling wounded endured the long hours riding in crowded jolting wagons down rutted roads, or what it might mean to heavily wounded men traveling without the benefit of pain relievers and suffering from hunger and thirst to be roughly relieved of anything that could protect your own soldiers in coming battles leaving one helpless to fend off those from either side willing to loot the wounded to build their own nest egg?  How many of those who began that long painful journey back home even made it to a reasonably well run hospital?  If you are already deciding that these issues are the last thing you want to know about, many more areas are covered.

Has it ever struck you as odd that books about the war so often describe Lee’s army as “disappearing” from in front of Union positions?  How that could possibly happen when there would be such a clear trail to follow?  How would you hide the movement of (# troops) down roads or across fields or over river crossings in the days of dirt roads, single lane wood bridges, terrain that changed every few miles, through fairly level farmland and towns?   Where his army moved through woods or across mountains you might initially think it would be easy to “hide”, but if the woods are dense or there is only one road, how “secret” can the travel really be and how easy for an opposing force to halt the movement with a skillful ambush? Have you ever wondered if southern officers were gentlemen in the field, or always obeyed orders without questions, or if officers like Lee or Longstreet or Stuart ever made mistakes or found they were unable to motivate fellow officers to do their duty or to accept changes in orders that did not make sense to them.   Did vain, foolish, incompetent officers have any impact on southern troops that fought under Lee’s overall direction?  Did all southern officers unselfishly look after the comfort of their troops or were they more worried about their own comfort, their own reputation, their own postwar position, promoting their own clique of friends into better positions, or economically profiting from the war?  And what about the attitude of the general fighting men, thrown together from different locations, so often fighting far from home, facing scarcity in weapons, food, clothing, shelter?

 In that rush to put distance between Lee’s Army and Union forces did anyone except the hungry troops think to stop and distribute food supplies or set up kitchens?  When troops are so exhausted they fall asleep on their feet, how do you get them moving again?  How do you prevent rumors of the pursuing enemy from spooking the troops resulting in spontaneous entrenching or scattering for better fighting positions or even worse, causing a full scale rout?

This is not a quick little read from a northern viewpoint like Robert K. Sneden’s  Eye of the Storm: A Civil War Odyssey of Robert K. Sneden that provides a survivor’s eye view of several of the war’s battlefields, comments on officers, or story of surviving that infamous prison Andersonville.  It is not a fairly comfortable move into battle through the eyes of Michael Shaara in the best Civil War novel to date Killer Angels. Instead this is a complex, well developed, satisfying exploration of the realities faced by officers, soldiers, and civilians during the most divisive, lethal war the United States has been involved in.

Are You Ready for an E-book? Or, Perhaps a Vook.

Vook on an iPhone

By Ralph Phillips, Computer & Information Systems

I was an early adopter of the Amazon Kindle, a popular e-book reader. However, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was and am still not the ideal e-book user. You see, I am a fan of libraries and the free books they offer. I’m also a fan of book exchanges and friends loaning me books. As soon as I got my Kindle I became a book purchaser and started spending more than I wanted on books that I could have checked out for free. I’ve come to realize that to warrant the expense of an e-book reader, you need to be…

• an avid reader (but that’s not all).
• a regular book purchaser.
• someone that often has several books going at once.
• regularly in situations where carrying multiples books is a true inconvenience, like traveling on an airplane.

Although I know people that fit all four of these criteria, I only fit two of them. That is why my Kindle now collects dust on the same shelf that I keep the half-dozen library books I’ve got checked out at any given time.

But there is something new on the horizon that has grabbed my attention–vooks. What is a vook? It is a new format of e-book that integrates video clips into the traditional text. A vook can be read on a normal computer or on an iPhone. The curious reader can visit http://vook.com/ and download one of four available volumes. Topics include health/fitness, beauty tips, and there is even a romance novella.

Readers are changing, books are changing, and certainly the technology that unites these two groups is changing.

Wellness Rocks!

By Julie Downing, Health and Human Performance

So I was asked to give a presentation about wellness for the Fall COCC Staff Retreat.  I, of course, said yes because I’m really bad at saying no and I’m a big mouth and like to have an audience, ha.  I thought and thought about what to share with this group of highly-educated, creative, driven individuals.  I decided on presenting a list of the top 15 ways to achieve & maintain good health.  I thought it would be fun to get the audience guessing what the 15 were and I knew that some of the ways I presented would be a surprise to them. 

I was hoping that it wouldn’t be just me in an empty room with one other health nut sitting in the corner.  I was relieved when we actually had to bring in extra chairs since my room was packed with over 40 people.  I don’t know that it was actually that my topic was SO exciting but probably more that the other topics were very academic and staff wanted a session that focused on them and less on work.  I was pleased and nervous at the same time to have the President of the College, Dr. Middleton attending my session, too.  He even took notes.  Dr. Middleton rocks! 

I started out my talk by telling staff that in terms of health education, knowledge is not always power.  I used the example of who in here doesn’t know that smoking is harmful to their health?  It’s not that we don’t know what to do, it’s that we don’t know how to implement it into our busy lives and possibly we don’t know the specifics about what to do.  So, we talked about the trans-theoretical model of health behavior change where one goes from pre-contemplation where s/he is not even thinking about making a health behavior change, to contemplation where s/he is mulling it over, to preparation where s/he starts planning how to make the change, to action where s/he makes the change in their life, to maintenance where s/he keeps doing the new healthy behavior for at least 6 months, to finally long-term maintenance (aka termination stage) where s/he has been doing this behavior now for at least 5 years and it’s just part of who they are.  For example, I’m Julie the runner.

I shared some websites with the group where they could type in data about themselves and the sites would give them guidance on how to get healthier.  The two I mentioned during the session were realage.com for over-all health and USDA.gov/cnpp where they can assess their nutrition.  Both are fun, user-friendly, and informative.  Lastly before I got to the top 15 countdown, I encouraged staff to learn CPR / First Aid making sure they take a class that teaches them how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator).  On to the fifteen…

 I put together this list after doing my homework on all the current research out there.  It is not by any means a stand-alone list, meaning there are obviously many other things one must do to have full wellness but instead items made my list if they had good quantity and quality of research behind them.  Certainly you could argue to add others in to the list but let’s not argue;  let’s just agree that these 15 are important and leave it at that.

• Coming in at 15:  Be a safe driver.  Don’t talk on your cell phone, don’t multi-task, pay attention, and by all means, don’t text!!
• 14.  Get enough sleep.  We need 6-8 hours every night as adults, 9 is too much and 4 is WAY too little.  Maintain a regular sleep schedule and get quality sleep. 
• 13.  Work towards good oral health.  Gum disease is likely linked to heart disease (ADA & AAP).  If gums are inflamed, it is likely the over-all body has inflammation and a greater risk for inflamed, clogged arteries. Curing dental problems can reduce arthritic pain, number of swollen joints and the degree of morning stiffness (as noted in the April 2009  Journal of Periodontology).  There is new research out that Deb Davies (COCC Allied Health Professor) e-mailed me that poor oral health may even be linked to osteoporosis. 
• 12.  See the MD regularly.  Regular screening such as blood pressure, blood glucose, blood lipids, physicals, clinical breast & testicular exams, PSA screening, mammograms, PAP smears, vision, hearing, etc. are all critical components to maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle. Make sure you have had all necessary vaccinations and boosters for herd immunity.
•  11.  Perform regular self-exams.  Monthly breast and testicular exams are key – feeling for anything different than before (textural differences, lumps, bumps, thickening, tenderness, etc.).  Breast exams should be performed from a few days to about a week after a woman’s period.  Don’t forget regular skin checks.  Look for moles or skin patches with ABCDs:  Asymmetry, Borders that are irregular, Coloration that is dark brown or black, and a Diameter that is large or growing.  Call a dermatologist right away if you detect any ABCDs. 
• 10.  Socialize and/or have a pet.  Social support & social embeddedness moderates stress (Karren, et al).  The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that people have exercise partners in order to increase adherence to physical activity.  Finally, think of your dog as an exercise machine with fur.  Being around animals can reduce stress levels as show by biofeedback. 
• 9.  Prevent Cancer.  Cancer is the #2 cause of death in our country and the most feared.  Educate yourself as to carcinogens (cancer causing agents) that you may be around.  Wear sunscreen when outside as people DO die from skin cancer.  M. Holmes reports breast cancer survivors who spent 3-5 hours / week exercising had best survival rates.  For prevention of breast cancer recurrence, the American Cancer Society recommends that you exercise for 30-45 min at least 5 days / week. 
• 8.  Challenge your mind.  An active, stimulated brain reduces your odds of developing Alzheimer’s 2008 Wall Street Journal Review.  Try to learn something new every day, practice memorization, solve riddles and puzzles, follow the road less traveled (example – take a new route home). 
• 7.  Have happy relationships.  According to Science Daily Aug 5, 2008, happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill.  As a result, happy people live longer.  The size of the effect on longevity is comparable to that of smoking or not!!  Wow! 
• 6.  Know your family history.  Knowledge IS power when it comes to genetics.  According to the National Cancer Institute, 5-10 % of women who are diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer have a hereditary form of cancer due to mutations in genes.  If you think you may be at risk, go to Checkyourgenes.org so that you can do something about it. 
• 5.  Have a positive attitude / optimism.  While positive attitude alone will not cure cancer, a negative attitude will most certainly doom a patient. 
• 4.  Manage stress effectively.  Eliminate the stressors you can and learn to effectively cope with the stressors you can’t get rid of.  According to Blonna, laughing, meditating, pet therapy, socializing, releasing (example jogging or swimming), relaxing, (example yoga or tai chi), getting organized, and deep diaphragmatic breathing are all possible ways to help reduce the effects of stress. 
• 3.  Don’t smoke & Avoid chemicals / drugs / alcohol.  87% of lung cancer is caused by tobacco and greater than 30 % of all cancer is caused by tobacco (Hoeger).  Smoking causes more deaths from cardiovascular disease than lung cancer.  Finally, excessive alcohol consumption is the 3^rd leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. today (CDC.gov). 
• 2.  Eat right.  There’s so much misinformation out there but here are a few accurate, helpful tips for good nutrition:  avoid processed foods with lots of chemicals you can’t read on the label, buy local whole organic foods, take a multi-vitamin, adequately hydrate throughout your day, carbohydrates ARE necessary to eat since they are what fuel you for moderate or high intensity physical activity, decrease consumption of red meat, and increase consumption of “super foods” such as blueberries, green tea, nuts, seeds, lentils, peppers, sweet potatoes, broccoli, etc. 
• 1.  Get regular physical activity.  If there is any magic bullet out there to good health & well-being, it is regular exercise.  In fact if the benefits of exercise could be bottled, it would be the most widely prescribed drug in the world.  Remember that in prevention of osteoporosis, one needs to perform weight-bearing exercise. For great information on the benefits of exercise please go to: Exerciseismedicine.org.

Share Your Books with BookJetty.com

By Ralph Phillips, Computer & Information Systems

BookJetty.com is a web-based application and social networking site that allows you to keep track of the books you’ve read and the books you’re reading. But wait, there’s more…

• See what your friends are reading and check out their reviews.
• Rate and categorize your own book so your friends can check out what you’re reading.
• Participate in book discussions via the message boards.
• Keep track of book recommendations by adding them to your wish list.
• Make widgets (like the book covers below) to post on your web site or blog.

Even if you’re not into the social networking aspect of the site, the other tools on BookJetty.com make it a fun and worthwhile tool.

Welcome back!

 

 

 

ConXn welcomes you back and wishes you all a year full of  success! To help you prepare for the new school year, here are some tips in a 3 minute video clip by analyst Richard St. John:

                                   

Do you agree?  What are some of YOUR tips for being successful?  Share with the rest of us your experiences and insights by using the “Comment” link below.

Also, here is a quick reminder on what ConXn is… ConXn is YOUR blogging community,  an interactive space where COCC students, staff, and faculty share their collective interests, wisdom, or expertise to connect and intellectually stimulate us all. Have an idea for a blog post you wish to contribute? Please email Stacey Donohue, sdonohue@cocc.edu.  No prior blog posting experience required! We are looking forward hearing from you!

What are YOUR Summer Reading Plans?

Before we take off for the summer, here’s  a piece of news for all to celebrate about! A recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts found that “For the first time in more than 25 years, American adults are reading more literature”! The biggest increase in reading rates is happening among young adults, ages 18-24. Hard to believe? For more info on the study, check for yourself NEA’s News Room.

While ConXn blog has been preparing for its own summer vacation (we will be back in September with more wonderful posts!), the editors of COCC’s blog invited COCC staff and faculty to tell us about their summer reading plans or other book recommendations they wished to share.  So, take a pen and add to your own list:

Stacey Donohue:

• Straight Man by Richard Russo (a re-read: it’s truly The. Funniest. Academic. Novel. Ever.)
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett (I heard it’s a light, uplifting read)
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (different stories about people in a small Maine town—Olive is the recurring character in each story—it’s beautifully written so far)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (really, I’ve never read it!)
• Home by Marilyn Robinson
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
• Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (Obama was caught reading it recently)
• The Women by TC Boyle (another novel about Frank Lloyd Wright’s various women)
• The English Major by Jim Harrison
• Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Things I’ve Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi (author of Reading Lolita in Tehran)
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (another re-read—this is the “restored” edition with some of the deleted sections included)
• Wild Nights!: Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James and Hemingway by Joyce Carol Oates
• A Thousand Years Over a Host Stove: A History of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes and Remembrances by Laura Schenone
• How Fiction Works by James Wood

Jonathan Esterman:

•  Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
•  The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
• The Holy Bible
• Walking with God  by John Eldredge

Beth Wickham

• The Guernesy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Ann Schafer
• The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Karen Huck

• Dog Years by Mark Doty
• Unleashed: Poems by Writers’ Dogs by Amy Hempel and Jim Shepard
• Doggerel: Poems About Dogs (edited by) Carmela Ciuraru
• Dog Training For Dummies by Jack Volhard and Wendy Volhard

Sara Krempel

• The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

Monica Vines

• Tweak by Nic Sheff
• Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
• Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Rise Quay

• First of all, I have a tradition.  At the end of each term, I read Momma Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White.  It is a charming book and always makes me laugh out loud.  A friend gave it to me in graduate school and I find it (and a tall glass of iced tea) sets me up for summer. 
•  I just received Into The Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea.  I read his The Hummingbird’s Daughter a few years ago—and found it to be one of my all-time favorites, so I have high hopes for this one. 
• Also on my “starting list” are Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (a Pulitzer winner and author of The Namesake) and a non-fiction title, America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation by Kenneth C. Davis. 
• I rescued Pontoon by Garrison Keillor from the remainder table at B&N….and loved it. It would be a good summer read, too.

John Shannon

• Just finished Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox
• Inkheart, Inkdeath and Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
• How Fiction Works by James Wood
• The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown [the upcoming NEW book in the famous DaVinci Code series)
• The Starter by Scott Sigler

Audio

• Immortals by Tracy Hickman
• Heaven Seasons 1 thru 5 by Mur Lafferty
• The “Share” series by Nathan Lowell
• Tales of the South Coast
   

Michele DeSilva

• I am currently reading a book called Eating the Sun, about photosynthesis.
• I am planning on reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith;
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides;  
• Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, because I’ve heard it’s interesting;
• The Waves by Virginia Woolf;
• and, because it sounded good in an NPR interview I heard, Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See.
• I’ll also be catching up on all those back issues of the New Yorker and American Poetry Review that have been piling up around my house throughout the year.

Julie Keener

• Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison 
• Run by Ann Patchett
• The Interior by Lisa See
• Lucky Girl by Lei-Ling Hopgood
• In Code by Sarah Flannery
• Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall?  By Anthony E. Wolf
• Habits of Mind by Carol Dweck
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
• Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind – 16 Essential Characteristics for Success by Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick

plus at several kids books, including, 

• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
   

Beverly Adler

• Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay
• Outliers : the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

Amy Harper

• With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India by Gayatri Reddy
• Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali by Kris Holloway
• The Afterlife is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa by Alma Gottlieb
• In Amma’s Healing room: Gender and Vernacular Islam in South India by Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger
• Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Snow by Orhan Pamuk
• City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin
• Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire
• Murder on Waverly Place by Victoria Thompson
• Dead Water by Barbara Hambly
• The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer
• Catch up on the “…in Death” series by JD Robb
• Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood series) by JR Ward
• The Promise by TJ Bennett
• Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Morders by Patrick SüsekindAudio books (for the drive to Montana and back)
• Song Yet Sung by James McBride
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson an David Oliver Relin

Andria Woodell

• The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston
• Lincoln Child Deeper by Jeff Long (the sequel to The Descent–AWESOME read!)
• Raising Atlantis by Thomas Greanias
• A Primer in Positive Psychology by Christopher Peterson
• and pretty much anything else on my bookshelf that I haven’t read yet!
   

Annemarie Hamlin

• I just started a book called Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.  A friend recently pushed this into my hands and said I had to read it. It is two interwined stories–one of a French girl taken away from Paris with her Jewish family during the Holocaust, and one of a contemporary American woman living in France. It looks like it will be a tear-jerker.
• Next I’m going to read Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, a book about the woman who had an affair with Frank Loyd Wright and lived a somewhat tragic life (I’m told).
• I’m also going to catch up a little bit of recent juvenille literature so that I can keep up with my kids: Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, and Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles.
   

Tina Hovekamp

• Little Big Man and The return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger  – American classics that everybody should read!
• Sometimes a great notion  by Ken Kesey  – Oregon author;  wonderful book with powerful depiction of characters and of our state’s logging history/culture.
• Main Street by Sinclair Lewis – another classic of the American literature with a critical look at the narrow-mindedness and unimaginative life of people in a small town in the Midwest.
• Cannery Row by John Steinbeck – for me, one of the best of Steinbeck’s novels!
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison –truly a wonderful, powerful read!
• A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park – this is one of the best children’s books I’ve read. It won the 2002 Newbery Medal, awarded for excellence in children’s literature; a great read even for adults!

Tom Barry

• Lonesome Dove: Larry McMurtry
• Consuming Kids: Susan Linn
• The End of Faith: Sam Harris
• Interaction Ritual: Erving Goffman
• Born to Shop: Juliet Schor 

 

For more titles, visit the following links: The New York Times has posted their Summer Reading suggestions and NPR gives us Seattle’s librarian diva, Nancy Pearl’s, recommendations for summer reading (in addition to a list of summer books in general).

And don’t forget…  ConXn WANTS to publish you, too! We hope that summer reading will be an inspiration for your own writing on a topic that interests you. For more information on ConXn’s submission guidelines visit http://cocclib.wordpress.com/about/. Help us build our campus community!