Answer: Jalapeno Poppers, Kentuckiana, and Existentialism
Question: What are you left with after 12 hours of driving across the Greater Midwest with OUAer Brad Weiner?
The Midwest Road Show last week was a blast, if nothing else because of the wonderful new friends we made in the cities we visited. The programs we attended were full of bright & interested students and families and it was a great start to the fall travel season.
If you know Brad or me very well, you know that we love a good conversation/debate. It’s kind of our thing. So what better way to pass time in the car as the corn fields fly by than to discuss the following actual topics of discussion (listed in no particular order):
- Most influential rock album of all time (Brad says Dark Side of the Moon, I say Pet Sounds)
- Spirituality and the existence of God
- Whether Brad should attend his 10-year high school reunion
- Whether Michael Phelps is part fish (8 gold medals, seriously?)
- work/life balance
- Blackberry: modern efficiency or just digital handcuffs?
- The exact nature of existance and truth: “If I punch you in the face, can you prove to me that I just punched you in the face?”
- The place of religion in politics
- Debated merits of the US highway system while noshing Italian beef and Polish sausage sandwiches over I-94
- Kids and family and how they forever change you
- The purpose of higher ed in American culture
- Jalapeno poppers: better with cheddar cheese or that strange white cheese?
- Nashville: how many musician/baristas are just too many?
- Is it Indi-ucky, or Kentuckiana?
- Jack Kerouac’s best book not being On the Road
- Jimmy Buffett, musical phony or simplistic songwriting genius
- Ernest Hemigway’s tell like it is writing style
- Whether to eat at yet another suburban “O’Ruby Fri-bees”
Gearing up for Reading Season
While applications are coming in slowly, we actually do not start to read the complete files for another month or so. We get through the Fall travel season and will begin reading those files in October after we’ve had a chance to gather our staff for a training session to make sure we’re all reading files the exact same way.
Stat of the Day: 2% The average weekly internet traffic our Vanderbilt admissions page receives from people looking for “Vanderbuilt University” in a keyword search.
September 4th, 2008
While I do not doubt The Beach Boys legacy in the music industry with Pet Sounds, I will have to say that Dark Side of the Moon has a leg up on “Dem Boys” with the following:
1) While both have international reach and influence, Pink Floyd’s masterpiece has major international acceptance by ALL types of musicians and songwriters, not just critics and journalists.
2) Pet Sounds was a great example of songwriting structure and has influenced other musicians, but that musicianship is unfortunately selective depending on taste and value.
3) Outside of Stairway To Heaven, Enter Sandman, and any Jimi Hendrix songs, one of the most popular pieces played in guitar stores (and I’ve seen this personally in Amsterdam, UK, and Spain) is Money, especially in the West Coast (try going to the Guitar Center in Santa Monica). Go Figure.
4) David Gilmour. Enough said :)