I’ve been backed up a bit this week, but here are some links to tide you over until a new Classic Music Video tomorrow and my NFL Divisional Playoff picks on Friday:

(1) Bruce Weber’s Time Is Up (Your School Sux) – I’ve been as disappointed by the Illini’s start to the Big Ten season as anyone (based on the pasting we received on Saturday, our football program arguably has a smaller talent gap with Ohio State than our basketball program, although that might not be saying much after the Buckeyes got womped by Florida in both sports within a three-week span), but the fans need to simmer down just a bit.  If the recruiting situation doesn’t turn around for Bruce this upcoming year (if anyone has some insight on newly committed recruit Quinton Watkins, be sure to chime in), however, the scrutiny is going to be suffocating for him.

(2) Little Asia on the Hill (New York Times) – As your resident Caucasian/Asian halfbreed, this article makes it seem as though Berkeley needs an Affirmative Action program to bring back the hippies.  (Quote: “There are now mostly small protests, against the new chain stores invading Telegraph Avenue, just outside the campus entrance, and to save the old oak trees scheduled for removal so the football stadium can be renovated. The biggest buzz on Telegraph one week was the grand opening of a chain restaurant — the new Chipotle’s, which drew a crowd of students eager to get in. The scent of patchouli oil and reefer is long gone; the street is posted as a drug-free zone.”  The tone of the article makes this appear to be a bad thing.)  It’s extremely disheartening that there’s still an assumption that an influx of Asians must mean that a campus will turn into a science and engineering sweatshop without “well-rounded” students.  Sure, Asians make up a disproportionate share of certain hard science professions such as engineering, yet to somehow translate this fact into a statement that an entire racial group must not care about the arts is ridiculous, particularly when one only has to take a quick look at the number of Asian prodigies in music to recognize that it’s the farthest thing from the truth.

(3) Rachel Nichols, I’ll Let You Inside My Brain If You Let Me Inside Your Hanes Her Ways (Kissing Suzy Kolber) – On another note, this is how Rex Grossman is, uh, decompressing for Sunday’s game.

(4) Game Thread #34: Bulls vs. Detroit Pistons (Blog-a-Bull) – The most beautiful sound that I heard at the United Center on Saturday night: the return of the “DE-TROIT SUCKS” chant.

And finally…

(5) So You Think You Can Be Crazier Right Now? (Chicagoist) – I was born for this job.