Desiree, my Desiree

Oh joy of all joys, Neil Diamond is "Comin' to [my little part of] America in late September. I love Neil Diamond, or more to the point, I love what Neil Diamond represents. He's not cool like Elvis or James Dean, and yet he's this American phenomenon who can still sell out big venues . . .

Now to be clear, while I have a certain level of affection for "Sweet Caroline," in no way is this even close to my favorite Neil song. Much better are the following:

10) "Yesterday's Songs"
9) "I Am . . .I Said"
8) "Shilo"
7) "Heartlight" (would be higher if I could find a recording of this somewhere!)
6) "Love on the Rocks"
5) "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" duet w/ Barbra Streisand
4) "Desiree"
3) "September Morn"
2) "Play Me"
and my favorite Neil Diamond song . . .

1) "Forever in Blue Jeans"

Once in one of my college music classes, I actually wrote a paper analyzing the chord structure of "Play Me." I wonder what the professor made of it. We could pick whatever song we liked, and a friend of mine had the piano parts to Neil's Greatest Hits v.1, so that was my choice. Somehow, I don't think that was exactly what he had in mind, but I was never one for following the herd . . . At least it wasn't boring.

So on an unrelated note, I've been thinking about giving my students the option to keep a blog as part of the course I teach. That course is an independent study which enables students to get academic credit for their internships. At my school, getting credit involves a fair amount of work beyond the actual intern experience, but all of it is designed to help students get as much from the experience as possible. Part of that involves a weekly 2-3 page paper which is supposed to analyze some aspect of the internship--can be a reading of the office workspace, power dynamics, communication strategies, internal politics, or a million other things, and it occurred to me while reading The JK, that I too could incorporate blogging into the classroom. I still have to work a few things out before floating this idea by students, but I think that it could be really interesting and beneficial. Not only would it make these assignments seem more relevant and provide an audience for them beyond yours truly, but the students could learn from each other in a way that they can't in an independent study course. Anyway, like I said, I'll need to work some things out, but it could be a great tool.

And my final unrelated note:
This Friday is Friday the 13th!
I LOVE Friday the 13ths . . . I was born on one, but not May 13th.