People think Schubert's Unfinished Symphony is so great and I've never seen what the big deal is. I could absolutely get halfway through a project and then abandon it for no particular reason, and I bet a lot of you guys could as well

Musicology news/Louisville news!

Erin Keane@erinkeane.bsky.social · 8h ago

Some professional news ... I've been spending some time in the archives and am looking forward to having cake at all the events for this book.

Infinite Jest is incredible on this topic (the good and the bad of a post–"spontaneous dissemination" TV/entertainment landscape) and amazingly prescient given that it was drafted mainly in the early 90s

Brendel@brendelbored.bsky.social · 3d ago

It’s hard to explain but tv was better when you couldn’t watch the show you wanted whenever you wanted to watch it and most of the shows were worse and the TVs were worse and the entire experience was worse, that’s when it was better

Interesting to somehow get such Ursula Le Guin vibes from this (as far as I know non-fictional and certainly non-science-fictional) thread

Erik Inglis@allthebeset.bsky.social · 2y ago

(In honor of August, bringing this 🧵 over from twitter) August makes me think of the best summer restaurant I ever ate at. It didn’t have a name, just a tidy hand-painted sign: “Tomato Sandwiches—all you can eat.” #tomatosandwiches

My usual contribution here is that a lot of people equate the politeness/productiveness of a conference “question” with it taking the literal grammatical form of a question, and my feeling is that those things are orthogonal

noam@noamchompers.bsky.social · 4d ago

this is a very funny joke, but i'll go bsky mode and take it seriously. here are some tips for asking good questions at philosophy talks. it's something i make an effort to be good at, but as usual, disregard if you don't care about my opinion. i'm just some guy

In grad school round 1, I took a seminar in the Cultural Studies department called “Aesthetics and the Valuation of Art” and somehow it totally failed to give me a solid answer on whether all songs are good, all songs are bad, or (implausibly) there are some of both

Mr. Plumbean@chrisbrody.bsky.social · 4d ago

counterpoint: all songs are bad

A worthy companion to my graduate seminar “Philosophy of Music Through Shitposts” where each week we examine a music-related shitpost that smuggles in some philosophical commitment

Kieran Healy@kjhealy.co · 5d ago

Time to offer this seminar again I see.

The New Formenlehre sorry sorry I’m trying to delete it

Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 5d ago

I like this brainstorm: greatest achievements since 1969. Number one for me: eradicating smallpox What else?

1. Voynich 2. Cosmology stuff like quantum gravity* 3. Math stuff like Riemann and P vs. NP* 4. Who made a single-purpose AIM account “iloveyouso247” to flirt with me when I was a senior in college *obviously I will not understand the answers to these even if they’re discovered

G. Willow Wilson@gwillow.me · 6d ago

What's your personal great white whale of an unsolved mystery? The thing you desperately hope is solved before you die because you need to know the answer? Mine is the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum heist. Where the hell are the Rembrandts. I need the full story

Being told “thank you for your honesty” when what’s meant is “thank you for your candor”

Sanjay Srivastava@sanjaysrivastava.com · 6d ago

What is an extremely nerdy/obscure/specific thing you hate with a white-hot wrath?

Camille Saint-Saëns’s Septet in E-flat major, op. 65 (1880)

Sanjay Srivastava@sanjaysrivastava.com · 6d ago

What is an extremely nerdy/obscure/specific thing you hate with a white-hot wrath?

an eighteenth-century proto-incel crying and sucking on a butterscotch

Werther's Originals are already very funny, but they're even funnier if you make sure to pronounce Werther as in the original German

Update from my month of being at home full-time with my kids: the 3-year-old picked up a summer cold somewhere, and the 6-year-old is playing "I'm A Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)" on repeat

today i happened upon a gang of youths tagging a public school. upon closer inspection their graffiti read, "jeff kent not a deserving hall of famer (led league in sac flies only once)." i informed him that he actually did so twice. they apologized and asked me to drive them to the police station

I already have my unpublishable music analysis retirement projects planned out and Delius isn’t going to make the cut, but maybe if I live to 150

Mr. Plumbean@chrisbrody.bsky.social · 2w ago

Life is short so I probably won’t get to it but I would love to write some music analysis on Delius someday

LeBron James: (washes his hands) Bryce Harper: (inches over, curious, shrugs) I’ll try anything once!

phylan@phylan.website · 2w ago

you know Bryce is currently having LeBron themed cleats overnighted

This is an article that people who aren’t parents now, but might be someday, should all read, because once you’re a parent you will need to have read it but will not be able to

ashley fairbanks@ziibiing.com · 2w ago

I just read that another child died in a hot car in Florida, the fifth child to die that way this year in the state. It takes me back to this article, which I read over a decade ago and still think about. It is a horrifying way for a child to die, and a horrific thing for a parent to live with.

Okay I watched the team of tree guys that LGE sent to do this work for free (🙏🙏🙏) and let me be clear about what would have happened if I had attempted to do it myself: I would have (a) died, while, importantly, (b) failing to remove the broken limb

Mr. Plumbean@chrisbrody.bsky.social · 3w ago

Point: Chris you would almost certainly orphan your children Counterpoint: No I bet I could do it just fine

Could not be more excited for this book, really fun interview @natalieweiner.bsky.social (My wife would thoroughly co-sign this perspective on coffee tables and you know what, I respect that)

Natalie Weiner@natalieweiner.bsky.social · 2w ago

Exciting new work alert: I spoke with the inimitable @colsonwhitehead.com about his latest, COOL MACHINE, in my first piece for @defector.com! defector.com/colson-white...

There’s even a really good *Senate-related* reason to be mad at Andy Beshear specifically, namely why is he not the Democratic nominee for Senate right this minute, he’d be an extreme longshot for the seat but that’s a huge upgrade over all other KY Dems who can better be characterized as DOA

@fitzy3891.bsky.social · 2w ago

People will make up entirely insane reasons to get mad at a Democrat, and then wonder why they're dissatisfied with the Democratic bench

You *could* go see The Odyssey, OR

VULFPECK /// Disco Ulysses (Instrumental)

YouTube video by Vulf

youtube.com

My worst Oxford comma opinion (and it is very bad indeed) is that if you love it so much you should call it by its real name, the serial comma, instead of its minor fad name that makes you feel fancy.

what are you talking about it's just i iv V—(gets to the bridge) ooHHHHHHHH

This song is such an adventure in chromatic harmony! Several moves through an octatonic cycle in the bridge, plus a German diminished-third chord as a motive 😳 Also, since my side music gig is at a Unitarian Universalist church, I could and almost certainly should play this as a prelude some Sunday

Ed Burmila@edburmila.bsky.social · 2w ago

Folks,

🚨🚨 THE @musicologyduck.bsky.social EPISODE OF THIS AMERICAN LIFE IS OUT 🚨🚨 (I have to put my kids to bed before I can listen 😭 I’ve been waiting months for this)

Trapped on a Bus - This American Life

People on journeys they did not intend! Or agree to!

thisamericanlife.org

Man, I am just not wired to find this to be appealing behavior from the spice company

Super good and also his best audiobook performance to date, if you’re into that kind of thing

Miles Klee 🦉@milesklee.bsky.social · 3w ago

strongest of recommendations for London Falling, the latest book by Patrick Radden Keefe. this guy doesn’t miss!