Three tools on the sidebar

A thrilling blog tour! If you scroll up and look to the right you’ll see three points of interest:

1. The course calendar

This is a Google calendar of class meetings and due dates. If you have a Google account you can just add this calendar to yours; if you don’t have one, you can set one up for free.

Not included on the calendar: the reading schedule. If you have your own Google calendar, though, you can add the readings as individual tasks.

2. Course materials

Lose your copy of the syllabus? Want a shorter version of the 44 Reminders? We can solve that.

3. Resources

These are tools we might not talk about in class but that can really help you push forward this summer. The big ones are the Writing Center and the librarians.

The Writing Center is an extraordinary writing instruction service, completely free. You schedule an appointment to meet with a writing instructor—all Ph.D. students in English—where you can brainstorm possible answers to an essay question, review a completed draft of your essay, or anything in between. The Writing Fellows with whom you will be working this summer are affiliated with the Writing Center.

Although there aren’t a lot of occasions for scholarly research this summer, the UW librarians are unqualifiedly amazing researchers and are eager to help you figure out how to answer your questions. I use their Ask a Librarian service all the time.

Three stories Larry mentioned in lecture today (7/9)

• Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer (free etext)
• Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles (free etext, free audio)
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (free etext, free audio)

George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue

The New York Philharmonic, cond. and piano Leonard Bernstein

Part I:

Part II:

8 books Larry has mentioned in lecture

• Leonard Bernstein, The Joy of Music
• Louise Erdrich, The Bingo Palace
• Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine
• William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
• William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
• Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
• Ha Jin, A Free Life
• John Updike, Terrorist

Bernstein, Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Gustavo Dudamel* conducting the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela:

Part I:

Part II:

Part III:

Two cheap investments

Investment 1: Brew

One of the least expensive ways to get a lot more out of your college education is to teach yourself to drink coffee. How much of Larry’s lecture do you miss because you’re distracted or tired?

I’m totally serious about this.

The trick, as Larry said last week, is to get a reusable travel mug. Coffee is cheapest in the cafeterias, I think, and is fairly inexpensive in University-run cafés and delis like the ones in Ingraham Hall and College Library.

My favorite inexpensive coffee near campus is at Espresso Royale on State Street—if you bring a reusable mug they’ll give you coffee for $1.

It’s cheapest, eventually, to buy a little coffee maker to keep in your dorm room. You can always go the Mr. Coffee route, but there are even cheaper ways:

• Until last year I used nothing fancier than a $12 Melitta manual coffee maker, though now they sell an even handier $4 coffee funnel that can drip coffee right into your mug.
• If you use a reusable gold cone coffee filter you’ll pay more up front but will never have to buy new paper filters.
• You’ll need a kettle. Proctor-Silex sells a highly-rated electric kettle for $15.
• If you’re into supporting local coffee establishments, you can get your beans from Ancora (their Black Thunder is my absolute favorite coffee), Steep & Brew, Barriques, Alterra (headquartered in Milwaukee) or Victor Allen’s (headquartered in Appleton).

If you want your coffee with a spoonful of science, Alton Brown’s got you covered.

Investment 2: Plugs

For $4 at Walgreens you can get a dozen earplugs. Having trouble sleeping because of rude hallmates? Distracted by noise in the library? You won’t believe how quickly earplugs will help you focus.

YouTube videos from today’s lecture (6/30)

Linda Hopkins and Vi Redd, “St. Louis Blues” by W. C. Handy:

Leonard Bernstein at Harvard, from The Unanswered Question lecture series:

Leonard Bernstein conducting Peter Schmidl (clarinet), Michael Barrett (piano), and the Vienna Philharmonic, “Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs” (1949):