Zugenia's Procrastination Salon

1. Atlas Sound - Walkabout
2. Cream - Anyone for Tennis
3. The Cats and the Fiddle - Killin' Jive
4. Wire - Champs
5. Psapp - Dad's Breakdown
6. The Beach Boys - I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
7. Palace Brothers - I Am a Cinematographer
8. Doris Troy - Just One Look
9. Beck - Today Has Been a Fucked Up Day
10. Altered Images - I Could Be Happy
11. The Moldy Peaches - Who's Got the Crack
12. Powder - Snap, Crackle, Pop
13. The Three O'Clock - Fall to the Ground
14. Yonlu - Katie Don't Be Depressed
15. The Walkmen - Lost in Boston
16. Sam Roberts - The Canadian Dream
17. Lady & Bird - Suicide Is Painless
18. Elliott Smith - Wouldn't Mama Be Proud
19. Louis Jordan - Junco Partner
20. Charlie Rich - The Most Beautiful Girl
21. Sufjan Stevens - We Won't Need Legs to Stand
22. Bo Diddly - I'm High Again
23. The Smiths - That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
24. Doris Duke - Let Love Touch Us Now
25. Bob Dylan - Talking World War III Blues

Download INFINITE JEST: THE MIXTAPE

See also Love in XXXess and Swann in Love

The latest installment of the Literature As Mixtape series is inspired by Eliza Haywood's steamy 1719–20 serial Love in Excess, which you should read if you have not. But first, listen.


Track list:
1. Scout Niblett -- Too Much Love To Do
2. Bananarama -- Move in My Direction
3. Otis Rush -- Violent Love
4. Barbara Lynn -- I Don't Want a Playboy
5. Stevie Wonder -- Part-Time Lover
6. Buddy & Julie Miller -- You Make My Heart Beat Too Fast
7. Ann Peebles -- (I Feel Like) Breaking Up Someone's Home
8. The Toppers -- (I Love to Play Your Piano) Let Me Bang Your Box
9. The Donnas -- Get Rid of that Girl
10. Björk -- Big Time Sensuality
11. Al Green -- One Nite Stand
12. Richard Hell & The Voidoids -- Love Comes in Spurts
13. Prince -- Peach
14. All Girl Summer Fun Band -- Oh No
15. The Boswell Sisters -- Was That the Human Thing to Do
16. Percy Sledge -- You Really Got a Hold on Me
17. The Blow -- Long List of Girls
18. Blondie -- Heart of Glass
19. Little Eva -- The Trouble With Boys
20. Larry Williams -- Make a Little Love
21. Suzi Quatro -- Four Letter Words
22. Saint Etienne -- Only Love Can Break Your Heart
23. David Bowie -- Fill Your Heart

Download LOVE IN XXXESS: THE MIXTAPE


See also Swann in Love

I'm afraid that, given the overwhelming amount of Actual Work on my roster this semester, I have had to put The Pop Tart on indefinite hiatus. I won't be returning to KXUA, but I hope that sometime in the future I'll be able to revive the podcast from the comfort of my own home. Till then, I offer you the last two shows I recorded. They are riddled with various technical glitches, because my mind was in a hundred other places at the end of last semester, but the music is still pretty awesome.

The Pop Tart 12/1/08



This week, Fabienne DelSol's got Chills and Fever, Pas/Cal Wanna Take You Out in Your Holiday Sweater, Electrocute wanna be your Saturn Rings, and The Decemberists are simply Sticking With You. Like Jolie Holland says: Enjoy Yourself!

Listen to The Pop Tart 12/1/08


The Pop Tart 12/8/08



The first 60 seconds or so are haunted by the auditory ghosts of Lady Z's own technological ineptitude, but this week's Pop Tart is still a treat: a collection of love songs compiled by one Blind Derek Jenkins for our Fayetteville wedding party! Fans of Mystery Train won't want to miss this, Lady Z's last broadcast on the KXUA airwaves.

Listen to The Pop Tart 12/8/08

In this week's popcast, Lady Z cuts off the Breeders (damn!), but manages to capture Skeeter Davis, Beulah, King Floyd, Robyn, They Might Be Giants, Bishop Allen, Mamie Galore, The Stylettes, Frances, Headlights ... just click and listen, already.

Download THE POP TART 11/24/08

This week, Belle & Sebastian make an intriguing proposition, Matthew Sweet only needs somebody to love, Of Montreal go both ways, Magnetic Fields don't really love you anymore, heaven knows The Smiths are miserable now, The Cute Lepers are terminally bored, Doris Day just does what comes nat'rully, and Brian Eno and David Byrne are still free!

Download THE POP TART 11/10/08

Lady Z returns from her wild wedding weekend in New York to bring you a selection of auditory sweets from Pizzicato Five to Gary "US" Bonds, and has so much fun she forgets to announce the last two tracks (they are Dusty Springfield, "In the Middle of Nowhere" and Jenny Lewis with Elvis Costello, "Carpetbaggers").

Download THE POP TART 11/3/08

Catch up on The Pop Tart—last two podcasts now available!



It's The Pop Tart's Rosh Hashanah special! Lady Z sees in the New Year with plenty of auditory apples, honey, and repentance. Also, Santogold gets the Diplo treatment, Amadou and Miriam get the Damon Albarn treatment, and we bid a fond farewell to Junior Senior!

Download THE POP TART 9/29/08




On the last installment of The Pop Tart before Lady Z heads to NYC to get married, DJ Eli remixes M.I.A., The Carter Family Keep on the Sunny Side, Les Primitifs Du Futur Cherche[nt] Apres Titine, and Lady Z indulges in a few love songs in between.

Download THE POP TART 10/6/08

It's The Pop Tart's Rosh Hashanah special! Lady Z sees in the New Year with plenty of auditory apples, honey, and repentance. Also, Santogold gets the Diplo treatment, Amadou and Miriam get the Damon Albarn treatment, and we bid a fond farewell to Junior Senior!

SORRY—I LINKED TO THE WRONG FILE. THE RIGHT ONE WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON. I PROMISE.

This week on The Pop Tart: You ain't No Big Thing to Holly Golightly; Brigitte Bardot gets ready for Bikes, Blues, and BBQ; Lady Z professes her love for Jenny Lewis; Bob Wilson and his Varsity Rhythm Boys confirm that Yes, We Have No Bananas!—and, as always, much, much more.

Download THE POP TART 9/22/08

This week, Big Star on those gurls of September; the Boswell Sisters on their baby; The Plastiscines pop in, pop out; Lady Z dedicates Stereolab to her dog; Candypants wants a pony; The Dollyrots are awesome—and much, much more.

Download THE POP TART 9/8/08!

On this PopCast: Lady Z manages to cut off the beginning of the first show of the 2008-09 season, but after that, Josie Cotton goes back to school, The Wombats dance to Joy Division, the racist (?) roots of Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop begin to show, and Skeeter Davis sings in the end of the world!

Download THE POP TART 9/1/08

And visit the new & improved POP TART WEBSITE!

I've been doing a bit of interweb housecleaning, because I'm supposed to be writing. I actually was writing yesterday (an essay on Defoe that was due August 15, oops), until I received a frantic call from my father about wedding music, at which point I spent the next 3 hours downloading various movements of Bach and Vivaldi off of iTunes and trying to describe my "aural vision" to some poor violinist. (In case you're wondering: Prelude—Bach's Goldberg Variations; Recessional—Vivaldi's Concerto for Violin in G, Op. 3, No. 3, movement I; and Processional—Bach's Air on a G-String, which, I realize, is kind of like walking down the aisle to the "Thong Song.")

But today, here's what I've done.

THE POP TART has a new podcast website! And a new night! I'll be back on the air MONDAY EVENINGS 6-8pm starting next week, and, presuming the station's podcasting technology is up and running (not a given), podcasts will be available.

My work website has also received a facelift. I'm going to try to be more active on it this year.

And, finally, D has published a piece on documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee over at Senses of Cinema. It's really, really good and you should read it.

On the last PopCast before Lady Z's summer hiatus: Chicks on Speed don't play guitars, Camera Obscura are ready to be heartbroken, and Patti Page wonders about that doggie in the window. Then Lady Z makes like The Breeders and gets Fortunately Gone until the fall semester.

Download The Pop Tart 4/30/08

Linda Scott tells every little star, Daniel Rossen covers Jo Jo, and Jens Lekman sings a farewell song to Rocky Dennis. Tous les garcons et les filles agree: listen to this week's show!

Download THE POP TART 4/16/08

This week on THE POP TART: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs get the Diplo treatment, Sergio Mendes meets some Black Eyed Peas, Weezer channel Buddy Holly, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans revive a (racist?) Disney classic, and Usher sings in the rain!

Download THE POP TART 4/9/08

This week: learn the Peanut Duck and the Popeye Waddle! From Darlene Love to Debbie Harry, it's Monkey Time, as usual.

Also, I Love Egg.

Download The Pop Tart 4/2/08

On last week's installment of THE POP TART, The Velvelettes pave the way for Bananarama, Julie Brown has more fun, Peggy Lee might be racist, and Annie answers the perennial question, "Chocolate or chewing gum?"

Download THE POP TART 3/26/08

Or subscribe to the PopCast!

Tonight's installment of The Pop Tart will be available when I return from ASECS on Monday ... but the installment from two weeks ago is available now!



This week on The Pop Tart: Doris Day, Killer Pussy, why Lady Z needs a new laptop, and one accidental occurrence of the F word! Fun for the whole family!

Download THE POP TART 3/12/08

I'm facing another snow day here in northwest Arkansas, which doesn't really count because I don't have to go to campus on Fridays anyway, but it does mean I won't be able to update The Pop Tart website until next week—so I'm just posting the podcast here for now.



From ParanMaum (above) to Brigitte Bardot, Mika to Clint Eastwood, and a number of things between and beyond, this week's installment of THE POP TART had it covered. You can download the podcast below:

THE POP TART 3/5/08

The following are actual transcripts of things I said while teaching today:

1. [Fumbling with the podium computer, trying to play an online recording of Robert Burns's "To a Mouse"] "For the record, this is not my fault. If you were up here, you'd see how ridiculous this setup is. There are two competing keyboards. [Fumbles some more] Ah! There it goes. ["To a Mouse" starts blasting at ear-shattering volume] AAAH! NO! STOP! [Bangs on keys and such] SHIT!! STOP!!! [somehow makes it stop, revealing peals of giggles coursing through the room] OK—bets on whether I get fired for incompetence or profanity in the classroom?"

2. [In the course of a very erudite explanation of something in my graduate seminar] "...and in that way, the text, makes an, um, what's the word?—equivalentness—which is not the word, because that isn't a word—but, OK, fine, an equivalentness between these two—EQUIVALENCE, that's it—thank you—um, I just said thank you to my own brain—an equivalence between these two terms..."

In other news, I have posted the VERY FIRST PODCAST of The Pop Tart on my new Pop Tart website—stop by and listen to the show at your leisure.

Just a reminder, world, that The Pop Tart is back in action tonight after a long winter hiatus. You can listen online from the KXUA website, presuming the stream is working, tonight and every Wednesday from 8-10 pm (central).

In other news, I swapped my red cast for a baby blue one; my laptop is dying a slow, infuriating death; and tomorrow I have the longest day ever and I've already lost my mind preparing for it. Huzzah!

I know it's time for 2007 to be over because last night I almost cried watching "The E! True Hollywood Story: Britney Spears: Fall From Grace." Oh, it's been a sad year for the Brit. But chin up, girl; if Leslie Hall is any indication, the future looks bright. I'm goin' to a big-ass party at the Old Post Office tonight and kickin' it like this:



This is how we go out, indeed. Happy new year, everyone.

So, as you may or may not have discovered a couple weeks ago, my last scheduled Pop Tart show was unfortunately displaced by a Lady Razorbacks basketball game. The following week, I was in New York for Thanksgiving. I've got a playlist burning a hole through my computer, and I just discovered that there's another basketball game tonight. It will probably be over in time for me to play for a little while, but that's just not enough, especially since I have to haul my butt up off the couch and back to campus to do this thing. So no Pop Tart again tonight.

Instead, I give you the video of one of the centerpieces of tonight's would-be show, "Je Veux Te Voir" by French pop sensation Yelle. I don't care that Derek thinks this is a mere M.I.A. rip-off. While no one will replace M.I.A. in my heart of hearts, I've got a supercrush on this little pop-teuse...

This morning I listened to the following voice mail message from my father, left last night around 9pm:

"Hey, Lady Z! This is Greg from Riverdale. Where are you? I just listened to an awful set of music, hoping it wasn't you, and yet wishing it were you.... You need to let me know when you're not going to be on the air. Trick or treat!"

To Greg from Riverdale and other loyal Pop Tarts, I extend my apologies. I did in fact take Halloween off to catch the finale of the Girl & a Gun Halloween Film Festival—and then I couldn't even last through that, I was so tired from an accumulation of work and moving. (Derek just moved in. Between work and film fests and The Move, the past couple weeks have been rough on both of us.) I did manage to catch a few minutes of what was playing on KXUA during my usual slot, and it was indeed awful. I had to cleanse my brain with the country music station.

But last night I did manage to have what might be the greatest dream in a long career of dreaming:

It's a teaching day, and I decide to cancel my afternoon class because I have no idea what I'm supposed to be teaching. But when I go to the classroom to send the students home, I see that the classroom is set up for a major karaoke event—screens and speakers everywhere, and a group of my students already in the middle of a tightly choreographed song-and-dance routine to Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison." So I decide to hang around for a while, and then I notice that Justin Timberlake, who is one of my students, is up next, and he's signed up for a Timbaland-Nelly Furtado duet called "Gena (Oh Gena Gena Gena)," and he wants me to join him in the "karaoke chair" (a part of the karaoke ritual in my dream-world) and sing the duet with him, which I do, even though it seems to push the boundaries of professorial appropriateness, because, honestly, how often does a girl get to get in the karaoke chair with JT and be serenaded? And after the song wraps up, I say, "Thanks JT," and he points out that the open bar is ready in the hallway and asks if he can buy me a drink, and I realize that this is the BEST CLASS EVER, but I'm still on the job so I say, "Well, I'm not sure it would be appropriate for a current student to buy me a drink," and he says, "Ok, then will you buy me a drink?" and I say, "Absolutely."

And that's why they call me The Pop Tart.

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means. I'm pretty excited about tonight's show; I've got some wacky stuff lined up, plus I'll be debuting a mid-show segment called "Is It Racist?"—a fun new game for the whole family! Some more news:

Those of you on Facebook can join my new Facebook group.

You can now email requests and comments directly to poptartgirl [at] mac [dot] com.

I'm working on a podcast.

And as always (well, most of the time), you can listen live online tonight and every Wednesday from 8-10 pm (central).

At the risk of reducing the Procrastination Salon a mere vehicle of repetitive self-promotion, I must admit that the only thing I have to say right now is that you should listen to The Pop Tart on KXUA tonight from 8-10pm (central time), because the playlist is the only thing I accomplished today besides heating up and downing a can of soup. Because I've been so lame about blogging lately, I shall now try to distract you from said lameness with the definitively unlame video to M.I.A.'s "Jimmy."

Well, people, my original radio show concept (which I'd decided to call Kamikaze Girls, and which was going to kick ass) didn't work out, due to the fact that some other girl got in there with her girl-rock show first. But I have rallied with what might be an even awesomer show:

THE POP TART with Lady Z
sweet sounds from way back and way out!

Every Wednesday night from 8-10pm, starting TONIGHT, I'll be spinning the heart-breakin'est, booty-shakin'est pop tunes from the '40s to the present, and you'll be dropping those books and hitting the dance floor, because, as Blind Derek Jenkins once said, "Why be a pedant when you can be a pop tart?"

If you're in Fayetteville, you can tune your radio to KXUA 88.3 FM; if not, you can listen online.