Wolf - Practicum Post #4: Journal Entry on Last.fm

One of the really cool features Last.fm allows users to do is post journal entries that appear on their profile page. It's pretty self-indulgent, but it nonetheless allows interested readers to look at your particular opinions on music or pretty much anything else you'd want to write about. It would probably be most similar to LiveJournal. Anyway, I decided to write a post about a faculty member on campus, Craig Werner, whose First-Year Interest Group (FIG) class, "Bruce Springsteen's America," has been blogging on The Huffington Post's website this semester about their experiences with the course and the meaning of Springsteen's music. Journal entries can be shared with groups, so I elected to post the entry in the Bruce Springsteen fan group, which has just over 1,600 members.

Here's what I posted in my journal entry (screenshot of journal below):
Hi Last.fm,

As a journalism student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of my class projects required me to find a newsworthy story in the Madison area. Wanting to do a project that tied in with my love of soul music and classic rock, I initially pursued taking a featurized approach and examining the impact and legacy of legendary soul musician Otis Redding. Redding had been inextricably linked to Madison when his private plane crashed in Lake Monona in 1967, killing him in the prime of his career at age 26, one night before he was set to perform at a now-defunct State Street club. There wasn't much in the way of new information on Otis, so I ultimately decided to change my story to examining the career of Craig Werner, a professor in the Department of Afro-American Studies whose scholarly work on popular music ultimately led him to be invited to serve as a member of The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame's nominating committee. After interviewing with Werner, he told me great stories about the interviews he did for books with giants in the world of music such as Curtis Mayfield, Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty, and The Animals' Eric Burdon. I soon learned that he was also teaching a small seminar course for freshmen this semester titled, "Bruce Springsteen's America," which examined how the Boss' lyrics and song titles reflected his world view. interestingly enough, The Huffington Post allowed Werner and his class to blog about what they've learned in the course while offering what feelings Bruce's music invokes for them. The posts are definitely an interesting read, and I think fellow Bruce fans will enjoy to read it and take away some new insight. Here's the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-werner

Thanks for reading!