RIP: Gil Scott-Heron

The man wrote "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and is widely considered one of the creators of hip-hop. He died today at age 62.

The Grand Rapids Lip Dub Video

I've got to admit I was one of the skeptics of this project. Why "American Pie"? Haven't we had enough of Rob Bliss? The answer is "NO!" Wait for the view of the Bridge St. bridge, then try not to smile at the 8:30 mark.

Better late than never: High School advice from Mindy Kaling

The Office's Mindy Kaling will publish her first book - Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - this fall. Here's some insightful advice on how to survive high school from an excerpt available here:

I just want ambitious teenagers to know it is totally fine to be quiet, observant kids. Besides being a delight to your parents, you will find you have plenty of time later to catch up. So many people I work with—famous actors, accomplished writers—were overlooked in high school. Be like Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy’s character in Waiting for Guffman). Sit next to the class clown and study him. Then grow up, take everything you learn, and get paid to be a real-life clown, unlike whatever unexciting thing the actual high school class clown is doing now. I think our class clown is doing marketing in Warwick, Connecticut.

For the Class of 2011: "Ithaca", by C.P. Cavafy

One of my favorite professors shared this poem with us on our final day of class. Today, I shared it with my seniors on their last day of high school. Enjoy the journey.

Coming Soon: Elvis Costello's Spectacular Spinning Songbook Tour!

Photo by Chad Batka for the NY Times

Thirty-three days until Elvis Costello and the Imposters rock the Meijer Gardens! Here's a preview of the coming attraction, courtesy the NY Times.

Happy International Geek Pride Day!

The Geeks shall inherit the Earth! Let your geek flag fly today! Why May 25, you ask?

A true geek knows: Star Wars premiered May 25, 1977.

In other Geek News, Jeopardy! has added a Facebook app. Let the time suck begin!

Florida back-to-school shopping list, 2015

Pencils? Check. Notebook? Check? Kindle or Nook?!?

Yep. Florida lawmakers approved a move to digital textbooks in four years. Schools will be able to use standard textbooks until they need replacing. How soon before Michigan's lawmakers jump on this digital bandwagon? And if they do, what kind of new digital divide will be created in schools across the state?

Note to Floridians: Buy a Kindle via this site and part of the proceeds go towards buying real books for my students. Just sayin.

Th-th-that's all, folks! Songs for the Rapture

According to Familyradio.com, we have just a couple of days left before some are left behind. Question: What song do you want to hear at the end of the world? NPR offers a couple obvious choices here. As for me, I'll take one of two I remember hearing on WDMC in the mid 80s: Johnny Clegg and Savuka's "Scatterlings of Africa" or The Waterboys' "Whole of the Moon".  (Videos and songs after the jump)

In praise of media elites: Aaron Sorkin

The Atlantic Wire runs a weekly feature called "What I Read", where an important person gets the chance to wow us with his or her daily media routine. Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter of The Social Network, and creator of The West Wing and SportsNight, took his turn today. I've always enjoyed his ear for dialogue; now I applaud these comments about Web-based journalism:

The upside of web-based journalism is that everybody gets a chance. The downside is that everybody gets a chance. I can't really get on board with the demonization of credentials with phrases like "the media elite" (just like doctors, airline pilots and presidents, I prefer reporters and commentators to be elite) and the glamorization of inexperience with phrases like "citizen journalist."

And this little gem reminds me of the wing-nut commentary on MLive, WOODTV.com, and WZZM13.com:

From time to time I'll read some of the comments under stories on it to get a sense of what it must be like at a Klan meeting.

Hurry! Rapture's just three days away!

In case you haven't heard, a few of us are getting ready to be left behind this Saturday. Oprah Winfrey decided to get a jump on the rest of us and recorded two of her final shows last night. The AV Club took note of the messianic overtones:

Aretha Franklin even dedicated “Amazing Grace” to Oprah after her longtime “partner” Stedman Graham expressed his “amazement” over Oprah’s ability to “change people’s lives every day” through all of her “sacrifices.” And as living testimony to Oprah’s healing power, Maria Shriver showed up on the same day it was revealed that Arnold Schwarzenegger had fathered a child outside their marriage, and found herself renewed in Oprah’s benevolent embrace “wrapped tightly around her shoulders.”

If this week's Doonesbury series is any indication, I'll be joined by Garry Trudeau:

Education News and Notes: To sleep, perchance to learn

Surprise! Our kids aren't getting enough sleep, and it's affecting their school work! According to an NPR report, high school seniors average just seven hours of sleep each night - actually, that's more than I get - but they need over nine each night.

When a teen's propensity to fall asleep later is coupled with the early-to-rise school start times, most high school students end up accruing a "sleep debt" of five to 10 hours by the end of a school week.

However, they shouldn't worry about falling asleep in class too much because their eventual undergraduate degree doesn't require as much effort as it used to. They read less, write less, and study half as much as students did in the 1960s. Colleges and universities spend more on keeping students comfortable instead of improving academic rigor.

The situation reflects a larger cultural change in the relationship between students and colleges. The authority of educators has diminished, and students are increasingly thought of, by themselves and their colleges, as “clients” or “consumers.” When 18-year-olds are emboldened to see themselves in this manner, many look for ways to attain an educational credential effortlessly and comfortably. And they are catered to accordingly. The customer is always right.

In other words, colleges are the new high schools. Choice matters. Why challenge when you can coddle?

But there is some good news: One of my MSU classmates, Arelis Diaz, was interviewed by Michigan Radio this week to discuss how she helped improve the overall educational environment at North Godwin Elementary. Read about it here.

How much does Facebook keep from you?

We were just discussing the significance of algorithms in my Media Studies class today. How Google and Facebook use these elaborate equations to connect us with ads with enormous personal appeal. But did you know that they can use these same algorithms to keep you from getting information? Eli Pariser explains in his recent TED talk:

Teachers in public places!

Dedicated teachers from Grandville High School at Sunday's Grade-In

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we exist outside of the elementary, middle, and high schools. We work outside of the schools, beyond the school day. Today, teachers from Grandville, Caledonia, Wyoming, Kentwood, and Lowell took their work public for a grade-in at Rivertown Crossings Mall.

Next time, we'll commandeer the carousel!

For this rainy weekend

A lovely song by Patty Griffin.

Why English 101 has become a remedial course

This semester was one of the most frustrating in my eight years as an adjunct college "professor." Never have so many students simply bailed mid-semester. Never have so many entered EN 101 and 102 without a basic understanding of how to punctuate a compound sentence. Never have so many questioned the need for MLA format.

Perhaps the problem lies with what we're so focused on in high school: cramming the canon and prepping for standardized tests. Kim Brooks explains her frustration in Salon:

I've stared at the black markings on the page until my vision blurred, chronicling and triaging the maneuvers I will need to teach them in 14 short weeks: how to make sure their sentences contain a subject and a verb, how to organize their paragraphs around a main idea, how to write a working thesis statement or any kind of thesis statement at all. They don't know how to outline or how to organize a paper before they begin. They don't know how to edit or proofread it once they've finished. They plagiarize, often inadvertently, and I find myself, at least for a moment, relieved by these sentence- or paragraph-long reprieves from their migraine-inducing, quasi-incomprehensible prose.

"Killer" Killebrew takes himself out of life's lineup

In the 1970s, there was no greater slugger than the Twins' Harmon Killebrew. If memory serves, I saw him play against the Tigers and was disappointed that the big man didn't hit one out of the park. As a kid playing All Star Baseball (a well-worn board game), you always wanted Killebrew's card in your lineup because he had the largest home run zone.

I subjected my family to countless rounds of this game.

Killebrew, like Christopher Hitchens, has been battling esophageal cancer since December, but has decided that treatment is no longer effective. The All Star has taken himself out of the game to enter hospice.

Finding one's voice in the silence

As Christopher Hitchens loses his voice to cancer, he reflects on the connection between the spoken and written word in Vanity Fair:

To my writing classes I used later to open by saying that anybody who could talk could also write. Having cheered them up with this easy-to-grasp ladder, I then replaced it with a huge and loathsome snake: “How many people in this class, would you say, can talk? I mean really talk?” That had its duly woeful effect. I told them to read every composition aloud, preferably to a trusted friend. The rules are much the same: Avoid stock expressions (like the plague, as William Safire used to say) and repetitions. Don’t say that as a boy your grandmother used to read to you, unless at that stage of her life she reallywas a boy, in which case you have probably thrown away a better intro. If something is worth hearing or listening to, it’s very probably worth reading. So, this above all: Find your own voice.

Hitchens isn't always easy to agree with, but his writing - his voice - is one for the ages. Read him now, enjoy his voice now, while he is still with us.

Lines not used by Bruno Mars in "Grenade"

It's a partial list. You're welcome to add to it.

practice first aid for ya

sell lemonade for ya

promenade for ya

dig with a spade for ya

drink the Kool-aid for ya

get a Windows upgrade for ya

wear a lampshade for ya

biodegrade for ya

jar marmalade for ya

soak in marinade for ya

style with pomade for ya

wash with Cascade for ya

be a bridesmaid for ya

hire rueben kincaid for ya

They do realize they're called National Public RADIO, right?

NPR has filed a FOIA request seeking the bin Laden death pics.

Thanks, PastaWall Readers!

Every time you shop at Amazon.com via the links on this site, PastaWall gets a wee bit of cash to spend on books for the classroom. Your recent purchases helped put A Visit From the Goon Squad, Let the Great World Spin, and It Was the Best of Sentences into my students' hands.

Thanks again!

What really led to Osama's downfall?

Spying on couriers? We don't think so. Based on this pic, we're guessing the number one terrorist got his Playstation 3 hacked while playing Call of Duty.

So, about those plans for May 22nd. . .

Seems the world will begin to end on May 21. I look forward to being left behind with so many of you. And if you can't trust Family Radio, who can you trust?

Harold Camping, the network's 89-year-old founder, has been interpreting the Bible on the air for years. He says that everyone knows there would be a judgment day at some point.

"We just happen to be in that time in history," he said in an interview. "And whether we like it or not, we're here."

Of course, Camping goofed on his first prediction back in 1994. Seems he forgot to read Jeremiah. 

I'd be remiss . . .

. . . if I didn't mention The Beastie Boys' have a new CD (thanks for the reminder, Opie)! They're still dropping wickedly funny pop culture references like Glee cranks out homogenized pop schlock.

For the uninitiated, here's a list of 170 Beastie references, compiled by the AV Club.

Across Five April Concerts: Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne at DeVos Hall, April 21, 2001

We wrapped up our busiest month of concerts listening to Jackson Browne at DeVos Hall. Once I got beyond the fact that Browne still has the same haircut from his debut album (and the same amount), I realized how great a treat this show would be.

Shake It Up, Again! The Cars Return

With a sound straight out of the New Wave years, Ric Ocasek and The Cars drop their first disc in 24 years next week. NPR has a preview of their latest model, Move Like This, here.

TIME's Special Edition Cover

No surprise to followers of the magazine. On newsstands Thursday.