Two

Mark J. Curran

Description

Mark J. Curran's life at Arizona State University and his lifetime dedication to the guitars and a music odyssey..
TWO BY MARK J. CURRAN
ASU Days as well as The Guitars – A Music Odyssey are a return to the autobiographical.
Book I ASU Days tells the story beginning with graduate study for the Ph.D in Spanish and Latin American Studies and the account of Mark’s years at Arizona State University. It is comprised of memories of teaching and research days at ASU but also a description of campus life dating to 1968.
Book II The Guitars - A Music Odyssey recounts the role of music in Mark’s life from age 14 in 1955 to the present. The main characters are the guitars: a simple steel stringed Stella in 1955, an electric Kay and amplifyer in high school, 1955 - 1959 and college days, a Brazilian Rosewood Classic from Rio de Janeiro in 1966 and a Manuel Rodríguez Classic from Madrid, electrified for performance, 2002. The study, learning, practice and the performing range from early pop and Rock n’ Roll from Elvis Presley days, to serious home study of classic guitar, to the folk tunes of the 1960s, Classic Country and Western, Irish, “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” and Classic Guitar and Contemporary Catholic Songs for meditation at church. The final chapter is a work in process: practice and performance at home.

Sujets

• Musique
• Technique musicale
• Techniques musicales
• Music
• Musical Instruments

Informations

• Publié par: Trafford Publishing
• Date de parution: 17 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781698713137
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

TWO BY MARK J. CURRAN
 
ASU Days
The Guitars – A Music Odysse y
 
 
© Copyright 2022 Mark J. Curran. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
ISBN: 978-1-6987-1312-0 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-6987-1313-7 (e)
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
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Trafford rev.  10/11/2022
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BOOK ONE ASU DAYS
THE PH.D., THE FARM INTERVAL, BACHELOR DAYS, LIFE IN ARIZONA
Mark J. Curran
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
PART I
A.Chicago, the MLA, and the “Meat Market” 1967
B.The Odyssey not Over and the Stuff Hits the Fan
C.Return to St. Louis, Graduation and the Final Days
D.Return to the Farm in Abilene, but Now with Ph.D. in Hand
E.The Move to Tempe, Arizona, September 1968, and a New Life
1.Transportation
2.An Aside Important for the Future
3.The Trip to Arizona and the Arrival in Tempe
4.The First “Digs” and A Lasting Friendship
5.The Day and the Moment – Introduction to the Department of Foreign Languages
6.Back to the Beginnings: Sin City, South Stanley Apartments, the Leonards and Reggie Jackson
7.The Ph.D. and Cleaning the Apartment Bathroom
8.The Early ASU Academic Moments
a.The Portuguese Program and Dr. Quino Martinez
b.The Classes – Portuguese 101 and 201
c.The Brazil Club
d.Music and “Samba Novo” and Carnival
e.“Selling” Portuguese on the Mall
f.An Aside: Classroom Teaching and “The Boss” Dr. Herbert Van Scoy
9.The First Year and Some Miscelleana
a.The “Blond Bombshell”
b.The Home Economics Ladies and Shows at Gammage Auditorium
c.Loneliness and Frank’s Friendly Tavern
d.Parking At ASU
e.The Beautiful Campus and the Beautiful Co - Eds
f.The First Paycheck and the Valley National Bank
g.Fall, 1968, an Icon of the Times and an Attempt at “Being With It”
10.The “Other Language” - Spanish and on the Job Training at ASU
a.SPA 101 Elementary Spanish
b.SPA 313.
c.Survey of Spanish Literature, SPA 321, SPA 322
SPA 321
SPA 322
d.SPA 472 and Later 473
SPA 472
e.POR 472 Luso – Brazilian Civilization
11.More Miscellanea on the Teaching Years at Arizona State University
a.The Early DFL Picnics at South Mountain Park and Papago Park – Social Life in the Early Days at ASU
b.Biking To ASU
c.Taking the Bus to ASU
d.Taking the Sack Lunch to ASU
e.Academic Prestige: Uh Oh. ASU.
12.More Life in the DFL
a.Up And Down the Hallway
b.Copies for Daily Work Sheets, Review Sheets, Exams and the Secretaries
c.Departmental Meetings
d.The Annual Research Conference and the Reading of the Academic Papers
e.The Fulbright Commission
PART II
A.Introduction
B.The Faculty: the “Seniors” and the “Juniors”
C.The DFL Chair was Dr. Herbert Van Scoy
D.The “Old Line” Faculty
E.The Middle Line Faculty, Curran Included
F.The “Late Arrivals”
G.The New Chairs
H.The Final Days, Why I Retired, and the Part-Time Experience for No Less Than Nine Years
The Part – Time Years
The DFL Retirement Coffees
Addendum I – Campus Buildings and Memories
Some Buildings Of Note
The Library
The Social Science Building and the Latin American Center –
The Department of Languages and Literatures Building.
The Old Hopi Corn God Fountain and Old Main
Palm Lane
Mark and the Math Building of 1968
West of the Main Mall
The Newman Center and Catholic Church
Gammage Auditorium
Addendum II – The ASU Athletic Complex
The ASU Football Stadium
The Bronze Statue of All – Time Favorite Coach Frank Kush
Wells Fargo Basketball Arena
ASU Track and Field and the stadium
ASU Packard Baseball Stadium
Conclusion of “ASU Days”
INTRODUCTION
Two of my book titles refer to the “ingenuous” or “naïve” “gringo” in Latin America, so why not at home as well? The Ph.D. was in Spanish and Latin American Studies with a minor in Luso-Brazilian Studies. There are times now and even in the recent past when I asked myself, “Why did you pick this field? An Irish American boy raised on a wheat farm in Kansas teaching ‘Don Quixote’ or Jorge Amado’s ‘Gabriela Clove and Cinnamon?’” There has got to be a disconnect here. The short answer was I was unhandy, a klutz at Math and Science, loved living and growing up on the farm but having no idea how to run one, but from the beginning did well in language study, debate, history and the like. (I never did have a penchant for Literary Theory and that created some bumps in the road). I loved Spanish and had an incessant curiosity about the peoples and countries where it was spoken. And Brazil seemed the most exotic place with the coolest language I had ever experienced. And not so coincidentally they were all Catholic. (One can see a lot more about this in “Coming of Age with the Jesuits.”) So, there you have it, a Ph.D. and off you go. You must proceed as best you can. Make the best of it!
Secondly, why Arizona State University? It was a thriving university in Tempe, Arizona, in a growth mode, some 24,000 students in the fall of 1968. The original “Normal School” for young, female teachers in 1885 reached university status only after an exceptionally difficult grassroots campaign by the students themselves and with the assistance of a successful football program under Dan Divine and then Frank Kush in the mid-1960s. Before that it was Arizona State College in Tempe, Arizona. The University of Arizona in Tucson was the land grant school with a medical school and law school; the latter contributed many folks to the state legislature and tried to block the ASU move from State College to University status. But there were other components: ASU was known as one of the biggest party schools in the nation with a terrific climate, nice campus, and beautiful coeds. And it also in 1968 had one of the top track and field teams in the nation, its athletes in the Olympics and world record holders. And ASU football and baseball were on the rise.
Somewhere I already mentioned the reasons for my choice of Arizona State University related to Spanish: the proximity to Mexico, the Latin American Center, a new Ph.D. program in Spanish, but also the climate, the sports scene, and Spring Training Major League Baseball. There would be serious ramifications later for this choice when applying for national research grants. I daresay I never could compete, at least most of the time, in “grantsmanship” with colleagues from the Ivy League or the high-toned places like Stanford or Berkeley in the West (the selection committees were largely comprised of people from such places). I did compete in many other ways as it turned out. It all came out okay. See my web site: www.currancordelconnection.com . I’ll gradually say more about this atmosphere at ASU after I tell of the road to get there.
PART I
A CHICAGO, THE MLA, AND THE “MEAT MARKET” 1967
During an icy winter of 1967 good friend Dan Hayes from graduate school days at Saint Louis University drove me from St. Louis to Chicago to attend the Modern Language Association “Meat Market.” Months earlier I had sent letters to those universities where I thought I might like to teach. I did this without a whole lot of research, the main factors being THE PLACE I would like to LIVE. It’s been so long ago that I don’t recall all the places, but I think of Tulane U., Kansas University, U. of Nebraska, and most importantly U. of Arizona in Tucson and Arizona State University in Tempe. I did not aim higher (just as when applying to graduate school) for the Ivy Leagues or big-time west coast schools. It was not that I did not have the confidence to be at such schools (the research year in Brazil on a Fulbright-Hays Graduate Fellowship and the competition and company I kept there easily showed me I could hold my own with such folks). My requirement was that the school would have a Latin American Studies Center and a respectable offering of Spanish and Portuguese. But there were other factors; U of A and ASU were both close to the border and I intended to spend a lot of time in Mexico. I loved athletics and ASU had some fine programs at the time. And Tempe had spring training. The weather and the campuses were beautiful. U of A was more prestigious and offered me a one-year contract but with no promises for tenure track the following year.
Nebraska had a Latin American Studies Center with a small press, and it would be close to home and relatives. But Dr. Van Scoy of the Department of Foreign Languages at ASU outbid them by $200 so we shook hands to “seal the deal.” A formal offer, which may seem strange now, was in the form of a Western Union Telegram which I still have as a souvenir. The job was tenure track.
So, after the interviews in Chicago and a stay at the less than upscale LaSalle Hotel near the loop we piled back in Dan’s car and drove through one of those major Mid-West ice storms with all the power l