Summer Reading Surprise

Posted on June 5, 2012 by awtraughber

A STACK OF BOOKS, both print and digital, has been piling up on my “summer reading” checklist.  A lot of the more immediate stuff is non-fiction: essays by Lethem and Franzen, Bissell and Robinson.  I’ve got one collection of short stories to get into (by Englander) and one Stephen King novel (set in the Dark Tower sequence) to work out my fiction needs.  And then an announcement is made concerning a pending release by Dave Eggers.

Dave Eggers, of course, is the main reason why I read anything contemporary.  When I first moved to Hawaii, I joined a book group at the area Barnes & Noble.  The first book for me: Eggers’ You Shall Know Our Velocity! The book was a revelation and a blessings.  And so it’s no small thing for Eggers to release a new book.  His last few have either been rewrites of children’s stories (Wild Things) or rooted in real life (Zeitoun).  With the new book that will ship in a few weeks, Eggers returns to from-scratch fiction, which is pretty exciting.  The novel, A Hologram for the King, is a contemporary story concerning technology and Saudi Arabian royalty.  It sounds like a wonderfully odd mix.

In a world that seems short on heroes at times, Eggers is one for me.  You can order the book at Amazon or from McSweeneys, the publishing group Eggers established years ago.  And you can check out an interview with Eggers concerning the book here.

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Public Speaking in the News

Posted on May 23, 2012 by awtraughber

IN THREE WEEKS I start one more summer of teaching Communication Skills.  It’s been a real blessing for me.  Not only has it given me something to do during the summer, it has also helped me build solid relationships with the students that I teach throughout the regular school year.  I speak aloud a lot, and I listen to a lot of other speaking aloud a lot.  So speaking skills are pretty important for others to have and use.

Which makes some recent information released by the Sunlight Foundation concerning public speaking both frustrating and fascinating.  Turns out that many members of Congress are losing ground in the area of communication skills.  What level do they speak at?  The sophomore level.  Which means that many of them speak on the same level as my students do (or hopefully will).  This isn’t something that I plan on telling my students until the end of the summer term, but you can read more about it here and here.

(Image from post.career.vi)

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Last Gasp Thursdays (or. . . That’s a Wrap Thursday)

Posted on May 20, 2012 by awtraughber

THE TRADITIONAL TELEVISION VIEWING SEASON is all but over.  A handful of finales remain, but most are done.  It’s a long wait until Big Brother, my summer friend, shows up on CBS.  Until then, dissecting this past season of network television could be an interesting thing . . . if Andy Greenwald hadn’t already done it for us.

Greenwald has spent the last 8 months recapping NBC’s Thursday night line-up.  Each week he has ranked the shows based on news-worthiness.  Some weeks, of course, have been better than others.  This week, 30 Rock and Community both wrapped things up for the season.  Both shows will return in the fall with 13 new episodes but not without caveats.  30 Rock will end for good with that 13th episode.  Community will go 13 episodes without its main driving force, show-runner Dan Harmon.

Thursday night television has had a legacy of greatness for some time.  Greenwald’s wrap-up article puts things in some kind of context.   You can check out his Grantland-posted commentary here.  This could be the sound of a world ending long before anyone ever realizes it.

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Catching Up with Godin (Part Two)

Posted on May 19, 2012 by awtraughber

INNOVATION, it turns out, was the topic of another recent post by Seth Godin.  Innovation, of course, was the topic a few days ago in relation to Nicholas Carr’s views on a possible “hierarchy of innovation.”  Godin takes the idea of innovation and applies it to a device that many city-dwellers are aware of: the parking meter.

Parking meters are occasionally a part of my Hawaii life.  When I’m driving and going to Waikiki or Kaimuki, I often have to use a coin meter.  Well, that’s not true for Waikiki.  A few months ago, they replaced coin meters with digital meters.  It’s a struggle almost every time to get the things to work right.  Godin, in due fashion, takes the idea and runs with it.  I’m not totally sure I agree with his final suggestion, but it is a thought.  You can read it here. (Image from theexpiredmeter.com)

Beyond that, Godin has posted some great short entries of late.  One, on worldliness, is something that I hope to come back to soon in relation to one of my favorite thinkers.  Godin recasts the term and makes it have more to do with awareness of the world around you (without the assumption that you are worshiping the world around you).  You can read that one here.

Take some time to check out Godin’s blog.  It’s great as a conversation starter.  Definitely adding to your must-read list.

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Catching Up with Godin (Part One)

Posted on May 17, 2012 by awtraughber

THE MOST CONSISTENT blog I read is by Seth Godin.  Godin is a writer-marketer who posts some good gems of thought pretty much everyday.  Every now and then he posts a string that doesn’t really connect with me (like last week’s focus on samples and making money), but then there are some days with great thoughts.

A few days ago, Godin wrote about naming things.  “It turns out that humans have been naming things for a long time. If we know that this is a cheetah, or a grapefruit, we can make intelligent decisions on how to deal with it,” he begins.  Whenever I hear someone speak of naming things, I think of Adam, whose Genesis task is to name the creatures as he encounters them.  Now, God asserts, we have moved to the naming of ideas and opportunities.  No matter how far we move from the flora and fauna of our history, our need to name remains.

Are we good at it, the naming of things?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Some things elude being named, which is frustrating but not surprising.  I like Godin’s last line: Just because we’re not good at it doesn’t mean it’s not important.  That’s true for more than just naming things.

You can read the rest of the entry here.

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21st Century Maslow

Posted on May 16, 2012 by awtraughber

I’VE KNOWN ABOUT Abraham Maslow for some time now, got his ideas stuck in my head by the time I left college.  He’s part of the curriculum I use in summer school when we talk about persuasive speaking.  His hierarchy is a revelation, a good handle for those of us trying to understand sociological reality.

And while Maslow’s hierarchy remains true and foundational, what if there was a way to connect his thinking with the shift to a technological/information-driven society?

Enter Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows.   Carr recently posted a blog entry called “The Hierarchy of Innovation.”  In the entry, Carr asserts that our attempts at innovation are related to a shift in focus and creativity.  Instead of safety/security or self-actualization needs, the range goes from technologies of survival to technologies of the self.  So there is a basic connection, Carr asserts, but there is definitely a 21st century twist.

All signs point to our culture being well into a shift in the way things work in the developed world.  And while Maslow’s initial work is essential, the paradigm shift is obvious and yet difficult to understand by many of us.  Carr’s view on innovation and technology is a good handle for those of us trying to make sense of things.  You can check out the full article here.

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Music Mash-Up with Chuck Klosterman

Posted on April 25, 2012 by awtraughber

SOMEWHERE LAST SUMMER, the band Nickelback became something of a punchline in my summer school class.  I’m not sure why, at what point it happened.  What was interesting, too, was that such a sentiment can be found across those who listen to and talk music.  The music-loving population has a love-hate relationship with the band. “This is how you remind me,” perhaps, of what real rock music is supposed to sound like?

That love-hate relationship seems to be true for a number of bands for any number of reasons.  Bono turns people off from U2.  Coldplay can’t get no respect (as every album is going to be their Joshua Tree and all).  Maroon 5 is a bit of a mystery.  And Creed?  Well, not many people feel much of anything about them anymore; or, at least, my students know little or nothing about them.  But they are right up there with so many other bands as a polarizing presence.

Turns out that music lover/critic Chuck Klosterman got to see Creed and Nickelback both on the same night, and what resulted is a great essay about the two and so much more.  Check it out over at Grantland.com.  Or you can just click here.

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Sea Change or Shifting Sand?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by awtraughber

I’VE SPENT the last few weeks working through David Kinnaman’s You Lost Me with co-workers.  It has been an interesting, and at times heated, discussion about connecting with young adults who are “leaving the church . . . and rethinking faith.”  Two big issues that come to the forefront of the conversation are the interpretation of Scripture and interaction with non-Christians. I suggested the book because I cannot help but feel that our religious culture is undergoing a serious shift but that we are reticent to understand and work with.  In fact, to assert that we should “work with” in any way sounds like a sad capitulation to some.

Christianity Today recently posted an interesting article about the shift that is happening in broader evangelical culture in the context of the last two or three centuries of church history.  The author, Gordon Smith, takes a survey of “revivalism” and how what was once clear, concise and overarching language and theology may be morphing into something different for a large group of believers.

The article, which is adapted from a larger work, is definitely worth reading, especially if you disagree with what is going on in the broader Christian culture.  You can read it here.

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Two Ways to Read

Posted on April 18, 2012 by awtraughber

ONE FEATURE that I like about this blog that my old blog (which can be found here) is how it allows for filtering for different strains of thought.  As I type this, I’ve got ten official “categories” running.  By using the drop-down box at the top of the page, a reader can trace thoughts and commentary on any of a number of things.  Most of the time, what I post about is related to something found on the internet or passed on to me by another.  But there’s one option I wanted to emphasize, a strain of thought that kind of exists on his own with few if any links: The Long Story.

The second way of reading this blog, beyond any daily posting of videos or links, is to follow The Long Story that I’m trying to articulate over these next few weeks and months.  We are all of us in the process of growth and change.  The walls of life’s maze shift all the time it seems.  I thought that when my friends Amy and Danny left Hawaii that I had turned the last difficult corner for a while.  I now see and understand that is not the case.  My college political science professor spoke often of “the vicissitudes of life.”  That was over a decade ago, and I still find myself working through life’s changes.

So: two ways to read this blog.  The first is to follow it as a series of links and images, thoughts on movies and music and television.  The second way is the more personal way, the hop and skip and weave of a life trying to be lived and written about in a world continually changing, always moving on.  It’s a long story, of course.  I used to refer to it as “the long game,” but I now know that this isn’t something you play at, it is something you live and share and tell.  You’ll be seeing more Long Story entries over the next couple of weeks.  Some important reflection is definitely on the way.

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The Middle Space

Posted on April 17, 2012 by awtraughber

SPACE is an important thing.  It’s part of the title of this site, of course.  And it’s something that is on any mind trying to understand things.  A few years ago, back when I was still trying “print media” with friends and family, I tried a “zine” called “Open Space” for a couple of “issues.”  It didn’t last, but the idea was to create space for those I knew and loved to say things to a personable audience.

Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay recently posted some thoughts on “space” and being in a band.  It’s also an article about music and concerts and the “voices” that call out to us to be and do certain things.

Most of us feel some form of that tension, I believe.  We start out thinking and believing certain things.  Time passes.  Responsibilities change and evolve.  You wake up one day and wide open spaces have turned into a yard, fenced in and finite.  It’s a good thing, then, to remember what kind of space is most important, especially if your intent is to connect with others.

I highly encourage to check out Haseltine’s thoughts, so graciously reprinted by the folks at Christianity Today here.  Don’t let the article’s title fool you: it’s about much more that touring.  Well worth the read.

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