Dr. J’s Lists

2011 Year in Sports

Oh what a difference a year makes! After the mostly feel-good festival that was the 2010 Year in Sports, I regret to report that much of Sportsdom– athletes, coaches, owners AND fans– found their way onto Team FUBAR in 2011. Sure, there were some Good moments, but they were so overshadowed by the Bad and…

Read More

2011 Year in Music

It’s that time again, readers! Time for Dr. J’s retrospective wrap-ups and utterly unscientific evaluations of the year that was 2011. In 2010, I decided to split my year-end lists up into categories– see the 2010 Year in Music, or the 2010 Year in Sports or (my personal favorite) the 2010 Year in Pop Culture—…

Read More

2010 Year In Sports

There are still a few weeks left in 2010– and who knows what else may happen… or, ahem, be “leaked”?– so in advance of posting my comprehensive “Year In Review” list, I thought I’d do a few specialized lists. Since the last few weeks of the year are mostly holding-pattern time in sports, it’s the…

Read More

2010 Year In Pop Culture

Right out of the gate, 2010 looked to be a very promising pop culture year. Back in January, at one of the early American Idol auditions, we were introduced to aspiring contestant General Larry Platt, who regaled the judges with his seemingly-improvised yet totally-infectious original composition “Pants on the Ground.” Before America’s favorite non-plussed judge…

Read More

2010 Year In Music

Let me just be clear at the outset: the following list is not meant to represent the best of 2010’s music in any kind of remotely “objective” sense. This is my list. It represents my year in music. My musical tastes tend toward the rootsy, the groovy and the nostalgic. I prefer simple, but well-constructed,…

Read More

Notes From the Other Side of the Job Market

In my first 3 years at my current position, I served on 2 tenure-track search committees, a process that literally took up every spare moment of my time (and many non-spare moments) for the 4 or 5 months that it lasted. Although I certainly learned a lot in my time on SLAC Search Committees– including,…

Read More

Why I Chose Memphis: Dr. J

This post is a (bit delayed) response to fellow-blogger JLotz’s Quick Memphian Call to Arms, which she posted over on her (excellent) blog Waves and Wires. JLotz recently turned down a couple of lucrative and promising job offers in D.C. and Baltimore in order to take a position here in Memphis, and she decided to…

Read More

Democratic Political Playbook (Revised, 2010)

It shouldn’t come as any surpise that the “Red Wave” did, as predicted, wash ashore in Washington, DC after polls closed on the 2010 midterm elections last Tuesday. Although Democrats managed to hang on to 51 Senate seats, they lost their “house” (a trauma all-too-familiar to many of their constituents). Republican, Tea Party and Independent…

Read More

More Good Listenin’

One advantage of sabbatical life (a.k.a. the solitary writing life) is that you get all the music-listenin’ time you could ever want or stand. Assuming you’re one of those people who can work while you listen to music, which I am, you may find yourself compelled to supplement the ol’ iTunes Music Library from time…

Read More

Dr. J Answers Your Questions

A while ago, I invited readers to submit questions through my “Ask Doctor J” site over on Formspring and promised I would do my best to answer them here on the blog. Then, I quickly forgot about the whole thing. Oops. I just went back and found that there was quite a list of questions…

Read More