Absolutely reach across the aisle to work with anyone to restore the rule of law, root out corruption, and put safeguards in place against future democratic backsliding. But no fig leaves for fascists.
Chris Walton ❌👑
@philocrites.bsky.social
Preoccupied with music, culture, religion, and liberal democracy. Practicing composition in Greater Boston.
From the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Ontario, the people have spoken
Coincidental moments in reading, Oct. 25 edition: I'm nearing the end of Simon Morrison's "Tchaikovsky's Empire," and last night reached the account of the composer's death—on October 25, 1893!! (Russia was still using the Julian calendar back then, so now we say it was on November 6. But still.)
Yesterday was a four-needle day: one failed phlebotomy poke before work; one successful (in the other arm); then a flu shot and a covid booster at the local CVS. Four more than I’d like, sure, but hooray for modern medicine!
A couple innings ago I swear there was an ad featuring one of Caroline Shaw’s string quartets. Did not see that coming! Trying to confirm…
Dear Boston Globe, this important op-ed skipped copy editing somehow. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/20/o...
The backlash against autism comes from both sides - The Boston Globe
From fears of overdiagnosis in Britain to Trump and RFK Jr.’s autism panic in the United States, a growing backlash threatens neurodiversity and the rights of autistic people.
bostonglobe.com
Surprising and delightful moment on Boston's classical music radio station WCRB this morning: They played one of Ligeti's Bagatelles for Wind Quintet! I love all six, but you don't usually think of Ligeti as classical radio stuff.
Bad news in Teele Square. Fire in three-story building across from Fire Dept has shut down Holland Street in both directions, blocking MBTA routes 87, 88, 89 in Somerville. @universalhub.com
The teen in my home will be indignant if "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is not on the New York Times Best 100 TV Shows of the Century list. You're on notice with my resident animation fan, Old Gray Lady!
My graduate degree in religion has given me no advantage whatsoever in Spelling Bee.
Proud parent moment (especially considering my very intermediate piano skills): My oldest is heading off to college this week, and asked me for a playlist of the piano pieces I've been playing in recent years. That really moved me!
Confessions of a classical music radio listener: The composer whose works have caught my attention the most lately is, to my surprise, Respighi! I hadn't heard his 1925 mixolydian piano concerto before, but I immediately wanted to know why I had never heard it before. (Thanks, WHRB!)
This is an important initiative: "We Had No Idea" is a new website that collects and organizes public documentation of classical music institutions and people who have faced significant consequences for sexual misconduct.
We had no idea
This is a listing of alleged sexual abusers in classical music.
we-had-no-idea.org
New semester drops soon. Get your "It's in the Syllabus" and "Do the Reading" merch now! ;) pilcrow-shop.fourthwall.com/en-usd/produ...
Glossy Black "It's in the Syllabus" Coffee Mug
Pilcrow Portfolio, your source for goods celebrating primary sources and human research, from Chris Walton Design.
pilcrow-shop.fourthwall.com
Excited by the prospect that NYT Opinion will have to cook up a podcast to replace the one that replaced the one I enjoyed featuring Carlos Lozada, Lydia Polgreen, Michelle Cottle. Bring back “Matter of Opinion”!
Watched the Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man” on a plane today without realizing it’s actually the anniversary of the moon landing!
Gustavo Dudamel, the Electric Mayhem, and Ted Lasso and Coach are super-serving this particular viewer!
Great fun to see news of the No Scotland No Party traffic cone being presented to Governor Healey and Mayor Wu on the tv in this Scottish bar in the Highlands tonight! 🏴 @universalhub.com
Loved this interview and am on a listening binge over at Tidal. However, the artist profile there for ETHEL includes a new album & related EPs by a contemporary gospel singer and collaborators who have no discernible presence online. Is that "Ethel" real or generative AI? tidal.com/artist/39729...
Ethel
See the releases of Ethel on TIDAL
tidal.com
The Tonearm@thetonearm.com · 5mo agoDorothy Lawson, co-founder of string quartet ETHEL. discusses Carnegie Hall, Ron Carter, and why classical music needs to shed its sacred robes and return to its role as cultural glue. Her journey through New York City's musical landscape mirrors the evolution of contemporary classical music itself:
You know you’re in Utah when you pass not one but two trucks filled with ersatz pioneer handcarts on the freeway onramp
"By tying artistic seriousness so tightly to the preservation of older sounds, forms, rituals, and cultural assumptions, the tradition has gradually drifted away from the social, emotional, and historical realities through which most people encounter meaning in music in their contemporary lives." 💯
I CARE IF YOU LISTEN@icareifyoulisten.bsky.social · 5mo ago"We tend to forget that these composers were trying to get paid. They were trying to secure patrons, performance, and survival. To erase that friction is not to honor them — it is to misunderstand them." icareifyoulisten.com/2026/05/colg...
Told the kids about Air Supply and now, for the first time in decades, I'm listening to their hits and realizing the '80s really planted some ear worms. I've apparently discovered my karaoke set. 😳
Introduce yourself with 10 bands / musicians you've seen live (college-era me) Midnight Oil (twice) Nirvana Throwing Muses Morphine Timbuk 3 R.E.M. (twice) Indigo Girls 10,000 Maniacs Sting The Cranberries
Open-to-all Cambridge band School of Honk cofounder Kevin Leppmann: “It’s a profound crisis that most people believe they can’t make music, [that] they can only passively consume it.” “[W]e’re not saying there are no wrong notes, we’re saying we’re not going to worry about wrong notes.”
Can a band that lets literally anyone join sound good? This group joyfully tests the premise. - The Boston Globe
You hear School of Honk all over Cambridge and Somerville. Turns out, you can also join them, no experience required.
bostonglobe.com
"I don’t have the energy to get exercised about monoculture. I use my modest platform to lift up music I care about, and I am grateful when others do the same. At the end of the day, what matters most to me is nurturing community, which, as I see it, is the only way out of our political hellscape."
what we talk about when we talk about pop music criticism
a brief response to the ny times' greatest living american songwriters list
gabrielkahane.substack.com
