Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.”— Louis Armstrong

WMOT-FM (89.5 and wmot.org), which recently added an award for journalistic excellence to its lengthy list of honors, will hold a joint fundraising concert with the Nashville Jazz Workshop at 8 p.m. this Friday, Jan. 23, at the workshop’s Jazz Cave, 1319 Adams Street in Nashville. Slated to perform in this special edition of the workshop’s “Snap on 2 & 4” series are the Beegie Adair Trio with special guests Jeff Hall, Connye Florance and Denis Solee. There will be two sets as well as a silent auction, door prize giveaways and complementary refresehments. Admission is $30 per person. Tickets are available at 615-242-5299 (242-JAZZ). Advance purchase is recommended. WMOT-FM is the music and public affairs voice of the MTSU community, a 24-hour station with an all-jazz format that the university has operated for nearly 40 years.

For more information, call Lori Mechem at 615-242-5299 or Greg Lee at 615-898-2800 or visit www.nashvillejazz.org.

Pennies from Heaven

Dr. Amy Sayward’s history class at MTSU raised the equivalent of 27,500 pennies—or $275—for the Pennies for Peace program, an initiative to help support the building of schools in Pakistan, where education is a luxury for most and nearly an impossibility for women. Sayward, who also is chair of the university’s history department, says she was inspired to put the idea into action after hearing Greg Mortenson, founder of Pennies for Peace, speak at this year’s fall convocation at MTSU in August. “He has focused on the importance of education and the education of girls in particular,” Sayward says. Mortenson founded the Pennies for Peace organization in 1993 after climbing Pakistan’s K2 mountain in honor of his deceased sister, according to his Website, www.gregmortensen.com.

Contact Sayward at 615-898-2536.
asayward@mtsu.edu

Burger King abroad

Burger King’s latest television advertising campaign presents people in lands that are unfamiliar with hamburgers a taste test between the Whopper and McDonald’s Big Mac. The ad agency of Crispin Porter & Bogusky developed the “Whopper Virgins” campaign for Burger King. But Dr. Don Roy, management and marketing, says this approach might backfire on BK. “The question surrounding BK’s campaign is whether it exploits or makes fun of less sophisticated consumers (if you consider having no knowledge of fast food restaurants makes on less sophisticated),” Roy says. “Having typical customers render a judgment on whether the Whopper or Big Mac tastes better would be accepted common practice. Creating a scene that reminds one of a National Geographic TV special as the setting for a taste test may be too bizarre for some tastes. But that is the MO of Crispin Porter & Bogusky—push the envelope on conventions to create memorable advertising.”

Contact Roy at 615-904-8564.
droy@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

THE WISDOM OF WOMEN--The President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) is accepting applications from MTSU faculty for three grants of $1,800 each to be awarded in summer 2009 for integrating women’s issues into the curriculum. The grants are for use by tenured or tenure-track professors for the revision of a course, revision of a general education course for the Study Abroad program, the creation of a new course, the re-conceptualization of a current minor, or the creation of a new minor. Proposals will be reviewed by the Academic Affairs Subcommittee of the PCSW. The deadline for faculty to submit grant applications is Jan. 30, 2009. Details are available at http://www.mtsu.edu/~pcsw/grants.htm. Contact Dr. Samantha Cantrell in the Office of Research Services at 615-494-8751 or scantrel@mtsu.edu.

CONFEDERATES UNCOVERED--Learn about a significant but little-known Tennessean at the next “Between the Lines: Reading About the Civil War” book discussion group, a free and open activity that is meeting on Thursdays in January 2009. During the upcoming discussions, the group will consider Sam Davis Elliott’s Soldier of Tennessee: General Alexander P. Stewart and the Civil War in the West (1999), a book that has been praised as providing “a fresh look at an often ignored but important figure.” The group meets at 7 p.m. at the Heritage Center, 225 West College St. in Murfreesboro. The book discussion group is sponsored by the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, Linebaugh Public Library, and the Heritage Center of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County. Contact Dr. Antoinette van Zelm at 615-217-8013 or avanzelm@mtsu.edu.