Jimmy Buffett will be a special guest at the University of Miami on Thursday where he’ll give a lecture and host a question and answer session. The event is sponsored by the Frost School of Music and is only open to U of M music students.

“I’m excited that Jimmy Buffet is coming” said Kelly McAleney, a senior music education major. “It’s really rare that students get the chance to see such a huge performer for free, but even more exciting that we get the chance to talk to him and ask him questions.”

In 2005, Jimmy spoke to former Senator Bob Graham’s politics class at Harvard.

The Montreal Gazette has an article on the history of the Jamaican dogsled team, of which Jimmy Buffett has been a big sponsor over the years:

“We had a couple guys from Minnesota come in who knew what they were doing so we didn’t make total fools of ourselves,” Melville said.

It was right around then that Melville met Jimmy Buffett, the iconic American singer behind the song Margaritaville, an anthem of the relaxed Caribbean lifestyle.

“I realized that my crazy idea wasn’t going to be easy to make this into a profitable, successful tour,” said Melville.

The two men pondered the possibilities and saw huge benefits.

“What a great way to promote Jamaica. What a great way to expose the plight of the street dogs in Jamaica. What a great way to make Jamaicans be proud about doing something we shouldn’t be doing, and doing it well.

“What Jimmy (Buffett) liked about it was the opportunity for young Jamaicans, who come from humble backgrounds, to see the world. We decided we needed to race.”

Buffett is now the godfather, major sponsor and huge fan of the dogsled team. But he didn’t make the trip north to the Iditarod: “He says it’s against his religion to go into that cold,” laughed Melville.

Nevertheless, Melville is grateful for Buffett’s support: “We could never have done what we’ve done without him.”

Read the full article here.

In the latest Vanity Fair, Jimmy Buffett writes about his friend Herman Wouk, with whom he collaborated on the musical Don’t Stop The Carnival:

Herman Wouk is one of the wisest men I have ever known. In aviation the best information comes from pilots themselves, in airplanes, not from air-traffic controllers or meteorologists on the ground, in some big air-conditioned office. In his new book, The Language God Talks, Herman sends us all a most valuable pilot report, since it comes from a man whose remaining time on this voyage, he concedes, is rather short. It has been a long time since I sat down and thought about the big questions, such as “Who are we, really?” and “Why are we here?” I have always been more comfortable being tagged a court jester than any kind of philosopher, but I am glad that my old friend keeps his page-a-day commitment to himself, thus extending, in The Language God Talks, a pilot report that we can all use.

Pre-order Wouk’s new book now at Amazon.com.

Jimmy Buffett traveled to Haiti last week, and on Wednesday performed for troops stationed at the U.S. Embassy as part of Joint Task Force Haiti:

(March 3, 2010) Musician Jimmy Buffet performs his song, “Cheeseburger in Paradise” for members of Joint Task Force Haiti at the U.S. Embassy as Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Hornsby-Myers and Cmdr. Dana Hall, both from the U.S. Public Health Service sing along. (U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Spike Call/Released)

Jimmy Buffett has been a supporter of the Jamaican Dogsled team for years. Newton Marshall, a Jamaican musher is competing in the Iditarod race and Jimmy is cheering him on:

Newton Marshall, 26-year-old Jamaican musher, couldn’t have a better fan in the form of Jimmy Buffet. Not only is Buffet rooting for him to win the Iditarod, but he has been his team’s primary sponsor since the Jamaica Dogsled Team was founded by a friend.

“I just love the whole idea of it,” the singer said. “I love the absurdity that when we first did this, people laughed and thought it was a joke and guess what? It isn’t.”

Marshall, who lives in St. Anne Parish in Jamaica, has already completed a 1,000-mile dog sled race: the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. Out of 29 mushers, he came in 13th. To prepare for the Iditarod, he has been training with the defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey, who is a three-time consecutive winner and a four-time Yukon Quest champion.

If Marshall makes it to the Nome finish line, he will be the first black musher to complete the world’s longest sled dog race.

Learn more about the Jamaica Dogsled team here.