My Pazz & Jop Ballot, 2009

[koganbot]

Here's my Pazz & Jop ballot. My opinion is that the year doesn't actually end until December 31st, so that's when I'll start posting expanded lists, possibly with the order changed at the top. The two near misses on my albums list, by the way, were Demi Lovato and Keri Hilson; having four ace songs and lots of personality wasn't quite enough to get

Comments

[anonymous]

frank,

just met my new class of intro to philosophy students for the first day, and as always threw in my favorite-records survey.

results: 4 / 25 listed taylor swift, 'fearless', when asked to list '3 favorite records'.

seems to be the newest and one of the most consistent results i've gotten (in other years, sometimes the winner was a nirvana record, weezer record, maybe the beatles).

two or three mentions this semester: lil wayne.

[koganbot]

Which philosophers are you assigning this semester? Also, how do you go about getting them to do the reading? My friend David, who teaches philosophy at Metro State, says that's the single hardest thing, to get the students to read the assignments. Even pop quizzes don't do the trick.

He and I both have the same favorite album (Raw Power by the Stooges).

Has there ever been a survey of philosophy teachers' favorite music?

[anonymous]

same intro course i've done a few times now, plato / descartes / nietzsche / wittgenstein. i once threw in aristotle, then switched to sextus empiricus (the pyrrhonian skeptic), but i think in the spring term i might try montaigne in that slot. (similar ideas, but students find sextus very hard to read

[koganbot]

Yes, it is the same Timothy Gould, though I'd never heard of him until I read your post. The MSCD philosophy department has 12 faculty members and 34 adjuncts, which tells you how the world and the economy are going, I guess. But, yeah, "voice" is something I should explore, and a quick look through Google makes him definitely seem interesting. Does he have a blog? (I tend not to have the chutzpah to introduce myself to strangers, unless they're sitting next to me at St. Mark's Coffeehouse holding philosophy books.)

I haven't read your Wittgenstein paper yet, but it's nearing the top of my pile, now that all my lists are done.

When I audited David's course a year ago - it was Intro - he did Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Kant, and Nietzsche. I'm glad you're letting the 20th century into your course.

I've always wanted to read Montaigne. What do you consider a good translation?

[anonymous]

lots of people teach intros that are predominantly 20th c. by assigning anthologies of papers, but then, you know, they're assigning anthologies of papers.

kant is pretty ambitious in an intro though!

the complete essays translated by donald frame is the standard (and good). there's a selection published by penguin, translated by cohen, which i've used in a course and found readable (not knowing any french to check the translation on).

[koganbot]

This is the only hit I get when I google "Timothy Gould" "Ashlee Simpson," and it is surely a different Timothy Gould (who's got a URL for his karaoke). So perhaps I should find a different subject to approach the guy on at first - though Ashlee's got a lot to say about voice, or at least about identity.

[anonymous]

well, he does do aesthetics and wittgenstein! i'm sure you can work something out.