SewaneeLetters.com

Ready or not, here come the end-of-term recaps. Last night at Shenanigans, Christine and Mary Ann started a round of “best of” questions, including “What’s one thing you learned this summer?” to “Tensest moments in the classroom.” I took notes. Here are the gathered participants’ response to “Favorite thing you read this semester:”

Everett: Black Thunder by Arna Bontemps
Jason: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Mary Ann: The Hunters by Claire Messud
Christine: Edisto by Padgett Powell
    (runner up was Tall Tales from The Mekong Delta by Kate Braverman)
Hannah: Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Josh and Doug: Twirling at Ole Miss by Terry Southern
Pete: Archibald MacLeish’s Fortune Magazine features from 1938
Rachel: wishes for sons by Lucille Clifton
Fran: poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Jimmy: The Table of Contents for Michael Griffith’s forthcoming novel

Any other favorite readings you’d like to share?

(We do our best thinking at Shenanigans. Here’s the Creative Nonfiction class, hard at work.)

Jimmy’s Facebook photo album contains some gems from last weekend’s 4th of July parade and festivities. Here’s a few highlights of the action:

Here’s a few snapshots from our dinner party last Thursday night…

For the next 2 weeks, there are some great artists and guest lecturers appearing just down the road at the Shakerag Workshops. Harrell Fletcher is leading a workshop on Art + Social Practice. I’m hoping to catch Andrew Wagner, editor-in-chief of ReadyMade magazine and founding manager of Dwell, at 7:30pm on June 24. Anyone want to carpool?

Jimmy’s legacy: The SoL 4th of July Parade Float. You can email him for details, or leave a comment here.

The Fourth of July in Sewanee is practically unrivaled, as many of you veterans can attest. The day starts early with an old-school flag-raising and town breakfast, hits its stride mid-day with pet contests and a parade through town, and culminates with a fireworks celebration after sunset.

Last year, a gaggle of SOL students organized an ad hoc entry in the parade (anyone with a smile can participate), and we had a blast decorating a couple trucks, and tossing candy and necklaces to the kids
lining the street.

THIS year, I’d like to do more planning on the front end to make our “float” even better, and that’s where your help is appreciated. First, if any of you (I’m looking specifically at our New Orleans native Brendan Minihan) have bags of trinkets, like, say, Mardi Gras beads, PLEASE consider bringing them for us to throw. Same goes for any candy (un-meltable preferred!) you have lying around. Secondly, please toss out some creative theme/decoration ideas, both for a float and ourselves. I plan to procure a large trailer from a buddy in Chattanooga for the day, so we’ll have plenty of room. Finally, please consider budgeting a $5-$10 donation for us to afford all the necessary accoutrements.

From Sewanee local and SOL vet Pete Trenchi:

The next porch party / jam is set for Saturday, June 20, 2009 starting at 5ish ish - which means you can come earlier, esp. if you need kitchen facilities to prepare that which you are bringing to supplement the - 5
(five, count ‘em) beer can chickens and mess of cheap hamburgers that I will provide. Also - a free beer to anyone who can identify the make model and year of every car I have. Hint, you must find them all first.
If the above food plus spring based tap water doesn’t meet your needs (entirely) you should bring it with you. If you are musical bring it on.

Directions: take University Ave (as if you were going to the Sewanee Inn) to turn left onto Texas Avenue.  Take Texas Ave past the Fowler center & to the football field (equal to maybe 3 blocks or perhaps 1/4 mile) & turn right onto Roarks Cove Road (directly across from the football field - which is surrounded by stone pillars, one of which Abbot hit back when he used to live in the house where Meg lives. That put and end to Abbot driving his 1957 (Confederate Gray) Chevy pickup truck around town terrorizing pedestrians. Yeah, I know, back to the directions, but if Prunty can have Abbot flashbacks, so can I). Once you have turned right, go 1.4 miles (to 1431 Roarks Cove - okay, 1.43 miles if you are into precision address matching) & look for the slightly obscured sign & driveway immediately before the pond & willow trees (one of which just died, @#$%^ global warming). If you overshoot the drive, or just want the convenience of overflow parking, you can pull in below the pond, park there & walk up. You will have passed Old Mine Road on your left and Junk Lane on your right just before you get to my place.

Good news for writer-yogis. Mary Ann O’Gorman has a plan:

I am planning on teaching a weekly gentle yoga class this summer especially designed for readers and writers. No experience is necessary to take this class. It is free of charge and open to SOL students, faculty, staff, and family members. Unfortunately, children under 12 cannot be accommodated. The only requirement I can think of is an ability to get down on the floor and back up, but I may be able to accommodate you if you can’t do that. Let me know. (I’ll need to see what the Fowler Center has to help with that accommodation.)

The focus of the class will be hips, shoulders and backs, all of which contract into tight little wads in the six weeks we are on campus, along with our work the rest of the year. The class will run for an hour.

I haven’t set a day and time yet, and I will be working with the director at the Fowler Center to firm up the details. I am narrowing it down to one of three times: after morning classes but before lunch on any day but Wednesday (11:30);  4:45 in the afternoon any day but Wednesday; or 6:30 p.m. any day but Wednesday. (I have no classes on Wednesday and am keeping that day free for homework.)

If you would like to take the class and have a time preference, please let me know your preference so I can confer with the director at Fowler.

What to bring: a yoga mat (Walmart has them for app. 10.00) and stretchy clothing you can move in. You may also want to pack a good beach towel to use as a blanket in class, a five pound bag of rice in sturdy plastic (trust me on this one…it is a gift from me to you!), and a bathrobe belt to use as a strap.

My credentials: I have been in yoga teacher training since October 2008, working towards my 200 hour Yoga Alliance Certification. The training consists of over 500 hours of lecture, practice, reading, workshops, and lesson planning. I will be completing my 200 level in September, so I am at the finish line. I have been teaching at my local studio and also at a local chiropractor’s office.

Philosophy: Yoga is for everyone. Flexibility is not required. Youth is not required! You start where you are, and you stay there for a while. There is no checklist or rubric in yoga. Injuries and limitations are part of life, and with yoga, you can work with them instead of against them.

I am looking forward to this summer and seeing you all again. I hope some of you plan on joining me at my yoga party.

Jenn Lewin has kindly offered to lead a once-a-week reading group this summer, to be called “The Bible for Teachers and Students of Literature.” Students interested in participating should just bring a Bible (Jenn suggests the King James version) with them this summer.

Here’s the invite from Pete Trenchi, who knows how quickly our schedules fill up in June:

Since a yard party at my place is part of the deal & since I have been having monthly porch party / jam sessions, the two should converge into one yard party / jam session on Saturday June 20, 2009.  Save the date.  It will start in the afternoon & continue; food will be basic plus what folks bring; drinks will be spring untested spring water plus what folks bring.  etc.