'Girl Panic'

Via Cindy Crawford:

More supermodels from Duran Duran.

'Stay'

Well, I'm in the mood for more Bowie. For years he was my favorite artist and I think I've been neglecting him here at the blog. Check back for more blogging this afternoon:

'Diamond Dogs'

Okay, back on the grid.

I laughed when I hopped in the van for the round trip back home. Stevie Ray Vaughan popped on the radio, at The Sound L.A. I had SRV posted this morning for my placeholder entry, so I'll pick it up for some evening blogging with the next in the queue, David Bowie in 2004. My wife and I caught this show at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater:

4:22 - Crossfire by Stevie Ray Vaughan

4:26 - Diamond Dogs by David Bowie

4:32 - American Girl by Tom Petty

4:36 - Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix

4:39 - Bad Company by Bad Company

4:49 - Band On The Run by Paul Mccartney And Wings

4:55 - Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy

5:02 - You Might Think by Cars

5:05 - You Can't Always Get What You Want by Rolling Stones

5:18 - Black Friday by Steely Dan

5:21 - Rock And Roll Band by Boston

5:25 - You Really Got Me by Kinks

5:27 - Baby Hold On by Eddie Money

5:30 - Have A Cigar by Pink Floyd

'Pushin Too Hard'

The Seeds, from my afternoon drive time on Tuesday:

2:01 - American Woman by Guess Who

2:01 - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by Elton John

2:07 - Pushin Too Hard by Seeds

2:17 - Dangerous Type by Cars

2:21 - Light My Fire by Doors

2:28 - Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

2:32 - D'yer Mak'er by Led Zeppelin

2:36 - In The Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett

2:39 - Take It On The Run by Reo Speedwagon

2:49 - Life's Been Good by Joe Walsh

2:57 - Lookin' Out My Backdoor by CCR

And speaking of pushing too hard, I hope Tania doesn't. See: "Chasing 26.2." Just go nice and easy, my friend.

Miranda Kerr Fantasy Bra

This is the big event every year at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

See Sydney Morning Herald, "Miranda Kerr's Fantasy come true."

RELATED: From 2009, at WSJ, "Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Shows Off $3 Million Harlequin Fantasy Bra."

Who Wants to Be Evaluated by Students?

Well, interestingly, I'll be passing out my own student evaluation forms next week, as part of my post-tenure review cycle. This happens every three years after the fourth year of employment (and the final probationary evaluation, when one is granted tenure). I don't mind them at all. I get decent reviews, and it's my political science colleagues who'll be using them to do a brief write up for their post-tenure committee reports. I imagine the dean and higher ups in the administration might be interested in them, but I doubt they do anything more than accept the recommendations from the department committees. The buzz on campus, however, is the latest union negotiations with the college over "student learning outcomes," which if implemented college-wide, could be used in evaluating faculty. (These SLOs could be combined with student evaluations in way way or another.) Needless to say the union's not falling in line for this. So many factors (outside of the classroom) determine student success that using SLOs in evaluating faculty would be seriously flawed, and worse, prone to really awful abuse if faculty retention decisions are made with them. I mention all of this as background for this piece at Minding the Campus, "Who Wants to Be Evaluated by Students?" Read the whole thing at the link, and here's this from The Barrister, at Maggie's Farm:

The notion that students evaluate profs as if school were American Idol seems perverted to me. School is not infotainment. I can be an entertaining speaker and did some litigation in my distant past, but I would never teach where my career, even in part, depended on student evaluations. When teaching, I like to be a demanding SOB, intolerant of anything short of excellence and keeping people on their toes. In the end, people are thankful for my demanding attitude.

RELATED: One of my favorite articles on this, "Something Wrong in Our Schools? Let's Blame Teachers."

VIDEO: Britney Spears 'Criminal'

It's controversial.

At London's Daily Mail, "True Romance: Britney Spears' casts boyfriend Jason as her lover for steamy sex scene in her music video."

Also, at MTV, "Britney Spears' 'Criminal' Director Talks Gun Controversy," and "Britney Spears Director Leads Us Through 'Criminal' Video."

Oh! Darling (I'll Never Do You No Harm)

It's album sides by request all weekend long, at The Sound LA. Pretty fitting that Abbey Road was up first, and here's "Oh! Darling":

Britney Spears Femme Fatale Trailer

Via Britney, on Twitter:

If You Think You Gonna Leave Then You Better Say So...

Tom Petty, "I Need to Know."

From yesterday morning's drive time, at The Sound LA:

8:01 - Roxanne by Police

8:04 - Before You Accuse Me by Eric Clapton

8:17 - In Your Eyes (new Blood) by Peter Gabriel

8:22 - Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix

8:26 - School's Out by Alice Cooper

8:29 - Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

8:38 - For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield

8:48 - Rough Boys by Pete Townshend

8:52 - I Need To Know by Tom Petty

8:54 - Silly Love Songs by Paul Mccartney And Wings

9:00 - Who Do You Love by George Thorogood

Paul McCartney Married Nancy Shevell on John Lennon's Birthday

I guess I'm not that big of a Beatles fan, because I didn't realize that McCartney remarried on Lennon's birthday. I was listening to Larry Morgan at The Sound during yesterday's drive time and he was celebrating McCartney's wedding and mentioned Lennon's birthday.

Speaking of Lennon, there's a review of Tim Riley's, John Lennon: the Man, the Myth, the Music — The Definitive Life, at New York Times: "John Lennon’s Primal Screams."

Keeping MTV Hip

I loved MTV when it first came out. I hardly watch it nowadays. I just liked the music videos, I think, like Wall of Voodoo, "Mexican Radio." Anyway, an interesting piece at Los Angeles Times, "MTV remakes itself for the millennial generation."

Lady Gaga or Britney Spears?

During the drive out to Rincon for the Don Henley show, my wife said she'd like to go see Lady Gaga in concert. I wasn't surprised, although I quickly replied that I'd rather see Britney Spears. She just seems so much more wholesome. And that statuesque beauty is irresistable:

Flyin' Saucers Rock 'n' Roll

Here's the live clip with Brian Setzer:

But listen to Robert Gordon's version, with the incredible Link Wray on guitar. The song was first recorded by Billy Lee Riley and His Little Green Men, and here's this from Wikipedia:

In the early 1970s, Riley quit music to return to Arkansas to begin his own construction business. In 1978 "Red Hot" and "Flyin' Saucers Rock 'n' Roll" were covered by Robert Gordon and Link Wray, which led to a one-off performance in Memphis in 1979, the success of which led to further recording at Sun Studio and a full-time return to performing.

Rediscovered by Bob Dylan in 1992, who had been a fan since 1956, Riley played rock and roll, blues and country-blues.

His album Hot Damn! (Capricorn, 1997) was nominated for a Grammy Award.

That is so cool.

Quantifying the Price of Sex

Sex is cheap these days.

See Neo-Neocon, "Getting the milk for free."

I don’t know about you, but I feel sad when I read things like this. And it’s not a women vs. men thing for me; I think both sexes are losing a lot in terms of love, joy, and commitment in these transactions...

Yeah, society's just getting sluttier all around.

That said, I'll admit I wonder sometimes if I shouldn't have been so proper back in the day, remember? I think I was 20. Kathleen was the love of my life. She wanted to jump my bones. I wanted to get married. Only make believe, I guess. That, or go for the cheap sex and forget those dreams. (Although, if I'd have married Kathleen I wouldn't have the wife and kids I do now, so what can you do?)

Roman Catholic Womenpriests

An interesting piece, "What I am is what I am — Womenpriests and The Age."

As thinkers from John Locke to Margaret Mead and today’s many “social constructionists” like to say, people are simply whatever they are conditioned to be. Bishop Fresen believes the church’s construct of gender being determinative as to ordination violates the deeper meaning of Scripture.

The Roman Catholic Church takes the opposite view, believing it is not possible for women to be priests because Christ himself chose no women to serve among the Apostles. It lacks the authority to contravene Christ’s example. Its precise position is that articulated by John Paul II in 1992: “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.”

Explaining the Enduring Pop Culture Fascination with Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie

Well, since I've been writing about celebrity marriages, I'll admit this is something I've given some thought.

At Married Man Sex Life, "Why Brad Pitt is With Angelina Jolie and Not Jennifer Aniston":

Jennifer Aniston comes off as a "good girl" and possibly in need of fresh sheets on the bed to be able to come to orgasm. Well okay, maybe that's a bit much, I was saving that line for a Martha Stewart joke and got tired of waiting. Anyway... Angelina Jolie comes off as a fair bit slutty and into having sex. When she was married to Billy Bob Thornton she used to have a vial of his blood in a necklace - I think once bodily fluids become jewelry for a chick, anal is actively ruled in. Plus the tattoos are a fairly good sign of brazen sexuality too. Jennifer Aniston did get that whole cult following of women getting their hair cut in "The Rachel", but guys didn't give a toss about it. Angelina Jolie was Lara Croft for crying out loud, so guys care about that seeing polygon count was involved.

There's a lot more at the link, and that's an explicit analysis, but Angelina's no doubt got the rougher edges.

Image: "Angelina Jolie Quashes Rumors of a Secret Wedding and Admits to Fears About Writing and Directing Her First Feature Film."

HAT TIP: Kathy Shaidle.

The Myth of the Digital Native

An interesting piece from Josh Sternberg, at The Atlantic, "Social Media's Slow Slog Into the Ivory Towers of Academia." The "myth" of the digital native holds that students don't actually know as much about digital technology as some professors claim, and the myth holds because professors are afraid of being shown up by savvy students. At community college there's something of a digital divide ---- so there really is a myth of the digital native --- but there's still a core of students on the cutting edge of technology. So, we can learn from our students, but it takes professors to give up some control over learning so that it's a conversation in the classroom rather than a disquisition. That doesn't work all the time, since I believe students need frequent chalk and talk lectures to impart the important stuff that they simply don't know. But soliciting feedback on an area of learning where students have a homefield advantage creates win-win situations. Besides, it's a lot more fun to talk about the cool stuff.

America's Taken a Hammering Since 9/11, But ...

From Richard Littlejohn, at London's Daily Mail, "America's taken a hammering in the decade since 9/11. But never doubt that it can rediscover its awesome self-belief":

My family connections with the U.S. stretch back almost half a century. I’ve been a regular visitor since 1969, the year of the moon landing and Woodstock.



Although it is a vast continent, there are ties which bind all Americans from New York’s wealthy Upper East Side to the kind of tumbleweed, one-horse towns familiar from movies like The Last Picture Show.



The proud patriotism which European liberals despise and mock is both genuine and sincere. It cuts across class, religious and racial divides.



Most people in the U.S. still subscribe to the notion of American ‘exceptionalism’: the idea that theirs is a unique nation, forged from revolution; underpinned by a properly functioning democracy and the rule of law; blessed with abundant natural resources, human ingenuity and endeavour; and insulated by geography and military might ...



The American Century may have come crashing to a tragic halt on 9/11, but we must all hope the U.S. soon recovers its sense of purpose and self-belief.



I still have faith in the American capacity for ingenuity, enterprise and reinvention. The idea of American exceptionalism may be battered, but it hasn’t been extinguished.



We need a strong, confident, optimistic, outward-looking America. It’s still the planet’s last best hope. If you doubt that, imagine living in a world dominated by those bastions of liberty, China and Russia. The EU is a basket case, riddled with corruption and duplicity.



The U.S. has always emerged stronger from wars and economic depression. Despite the traumas of the past decade, it still can.



As we prepare to remember those who died on 9/11, let’s pray nothing else bad happens.

Do RTWT.



I agree with Littlejohn entirely, and the something else bad happening would be Obama's reelection, so it's not as if things are outside of our control. The GOP has work to do, and I won't be sitting on the sidelines. When the going gets rough, Americans roll up their sleeves. But sometimes it feels as though only half the nation represents heartland America, which is the repository of our historical goodness. That other half just hates our exceptionalism and wants to destroy all that has held us together for so long.



More on this later, as always ...

FYF Festival

Off! is playing.



See L.A. Weekly, "FYF Preview: Keith Morris of OFF! Speaks on Friends and Foes."

And at LAT, "FYF addresses last year's problems so it can focus on the music."