My friend and colleague from Yale, Sandy Zipp invited me to his history of Popular Music course at UC Irvine to discuss songs and contribute to the day's lecture on 80s pop icons Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and Madonna.  It's been ages since I was this excited about sitting in a classroom.  Throughout Sandy's portion of the lecture i was chomping at the bit to add my two cents to the discussion.  Sandy made some very salient points about the aforementioned icons and the rise of MTV that at times made the events of the 80s current and historical at the same time.  His comments regarding programming discretion at MTV and segregation in the radio and tv industry are as relevant to a discussion of today's music scene as they are to contextualizing the 80s. 

 He was able to marshal about a number of students to the reading that followed  I enjoyed sharing my work with them, but I more enjoyed watching the interaction between my friend and his student.  As he went from professor to role model, advisor, mentor to these students I was able to see in the guise of this friend the multiple hats that we are expected to play as faculty members.  His students were also fantastic.  A number of them are writers for either campus publications or Orange County sheets such as OC Weekly and The District. 

 One student in particular, Mark, pulled one of my old moves on me. As  was making a point about LL during the in class presentation he shouted out Lil Bow Wow as a contemporary reincarnation of LL, at least in the teen idol sense.  He caught me off guard because he was so right.  I trailed him after class to let him know that I once overheard Bow Wow speaking very reverently about his regard for LL and other pioneers.  It was one of those blurbs that I wish were included in the book because Bow Wow so deftly captures the attitudes that young people had about the early LL.

What topped off the day however, was an appearance made by Phoebe Millerwhite, one of my former students from Eugene Lang.  Phoebe, who now resides in Clarement, made the 20mile trek to Irvine to catch up with her old prof.  Totally unexpected and very pleasant.  In other words, just another day on the road.

FL