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Highlights, Reviews, and Recommendations

Author in the Spotlight: Guenter Grass.
Books Published: Many, including: Dog Years, Tin Drum, The Flounder
Genre: Post WWII German fiction, analytical, modern, daring and intense character/society studies
Why You Should Check His Books Out: Because he is one of modern germany's most beloved and respected, as well as award winning, authors. His insight into the troubles, toils, struggles and emotions etc of WWII/Hitler, post Hitler Germany are stunning, reflective and amazing. His characters will draw you in and surprise you, as well as open doors into self recognition. Amazing work.
Topics: See Above
Thoughts: I started by picking up Tin Drum (which is also a movie I've been informed) and was hooked. I'm currently trying to collect all of Grass' works. Best thing to occur, was reading and finishing Dog Years while on vacation in Germany, it helped me understand his work that much more.

read an article about Grass

Just In Recommondations:

Music: Dashboard Confessional
Book: sorry..too much reading for class, haven't read for pleasure
Movie: I've heard good things about A Beautiful Mind

Following are some of my favorites that I suggest you check out:
Music:Nick Drake, Vast, Super Tramp, Badly Drawn Boy, Lionel Richy (haha..no kidding), Brahms, Rachmaninov
Movies: Chasing Amy (and all other films by Kevin Smith), Dead Poet's Society, Rainman, Red, Lady Jane, Kissing a Fool, Big Lebowski, Presidents Analyst, Swingers
Books: Black Spring(Henry Miller), On the Road(Jack Kerouac), We(Zamyatin), Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; Lola (both by Robert Pirsig)

Music Act to Keep an Eye Out For: WILLY PORTER

This man (whose career I've followed since I was 8 and he was performing as a summer job while in college) is a brilliant 6 and 12 string guitar player. His style is Folk/Rock with vocals, but he also plays amazing accoustic sets, that are inspirational. His inpiration is Leo Kottke (check out Leo's CD One Guitar, No Vocals). Willy Porter has released three CD's entitled (in release order) Dog Eared Dream; Trees Have Soul; Falling Forward. He frequently plays in the Twin Cities, and Madison. His loyalty to his roots are apparent, in that he plays two shows a year in Cedarburg, WI near his hometown of Mequon. Some of his songs you might be familiar with include: Cool Waters, No Angry Words (also maybe known as yesterday), Paper Airplane. If you have the chance, see Willy live, in a non-bar setting. Either by himself, or with his band, each show is exhilarating. Check out a site about Willy by going to...

http://www.willyporter.com

Do you only know about E.E. Cummings because of a few samples of his work that made you wonder if his typwriter had exploded leaving so many random punctation marks, and broken words? Well than it's time to rediscover the beauty and poetic genius that is E.E. Cummings, my favorite poet. Mainly only the last 30 poems of his or so are almost beyond comprehension because of the above mentioned charactersitics. Here is an example of one of my favorite poems of his, which is also a great example of Cummings shining in a more traditional poetic form.

(312)


may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
an if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile


-e.e. cummings