Blake Gumprecht

Who I am I am 49-years-old, the father of a 11-year-old named Zeke, and a geographer at the University of New Hampshire. I live in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. What I do I have been a faculty member in the Department of Geography at the University of New Hampshire since 2003. Before that, I was on the faculties of the University of South Carolina and the University of Oklahoma. I have written two books, The American College Town (University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), and The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). You can find out more about my research from my vita. You can also read a feature story about me that was published in 2000 in the Chronicle of Higher Education. I teach a long list of courses: Regional Geography of the Western World, Geography of the United States and Canada, Geography of New England, Human Geography, Economic Geography, Urban Geography, Place and Popular Culture, and Historical Geography. I am creating a course on the Geography of Food that I hope to teach for the first time in Spring 2010. I explore. I’ve lived in 15 states and have traveled in 48 states, six Canadian provinces, and eight countries. I drive two-lane roads, take the business route through town, and walk around urban neighborhoods whenever I can. I take photographs. Many of my photos relate to my research, but some don’t. Here’s a sample. A collection of my college town photographs is available on Flickr. I’ve also begun to post other photos of mine on Flickr. I cook and bake. I have been a vegetarian since 1990 and make (almost) all the bread I consume. I also love to seek out hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants. You can read some of my restaurant reviews on Yelp. Before pursuing a career as geographer, I was a librarian, worked in the music business, and was a newspaper reporter and sportswriter. I was a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library and Temple University. I was the first paid employee of Twin/Tone Records and also worked at Alligator Records and MCA Records. I was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and other newspapers. Some of my writing about music is available on Rock’s Back Pages. Things I like Places: Boston Public Library courtyard, Carrizo Plain, Center City Philadelphia, Chicoutimi, Los Angeles River, Patel Bros. supermarket, Ray Winder Field, Rittenhouse Square, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Seapoint Beach, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Super 88 food court, Tacos Delta, University of Oklahoma campus, Vinalhaven, West Texas. Movies: American Wake, Best of Youth, Chop Shop, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Edge of Heaven, The Frozen River, Into the Wild, Lonely are the Brave, Machuca, Man Push Cart, Nine Queens, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, This is England, The Tunnel, The World. My ratings of movies I’ve watched since 2004 are available here. Music: Vic Chesnutt, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Drive-By Truckers, Steve Earle, Robert Forster, Fountains of Wayne, Al Green, Merle Haggard, LCD Sound System, Lightning Hopkins, Mekons, Elliot Smith, Replacements, Stanley Brothers, Stars, Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young. Books: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger; Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth; Heinrich Böll, And Never Said a Word; Richard Ford, Lay of the Land; Ernest Hebert, The Dogs of March; Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities; Richard Kuklick, To Everything a Season; Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies; John McNamee, Dairy of a City Priest; Abdelrahman Munif, Cities of Salt; Don Newmark, Chavez Ravine 1949; Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses; Danny Santiago, Famous All Over Town; Richard Shelton, Going Back to Bisbee; Wallace Stegner, Big Rock Candy Mountain; Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome. Restaurants: ABC Café, Angelica Kitchen, Arrow Street Crepes, Benny Tudinos, Brookline Lunch, Café Jaffe, Café Phare, Charley’s Sandwich Shoppe, Chicago Diner, Dante & Luigi’s, The Diner, The Grit, Minar Palace, Pho Viet’s, Tacos Delta, Tu Y Yo. Sports: Boston Bruins, UNH hockey. How to contact me E-mail: blake.gumprecht@unh.edu Post: Department of Geography, University of Hampshire, Huddleston Hall, 73 Main Street, Durham, NH 03824-2541.