Phil Gentry

Screenshot of text from my 12yo reading “Wya big boi”

How do I restablish parental authority with these children

Say what you will about the armed forces today but I am glad there are fewer coal mine owners moonlighting as Army generals now.

Something tells me “banker” isn’t going to get me a lot of love on Bluesky but it’s honestly less problematic than the previous generation, which was, and I kid you not, “coal mine owner/Army general.”

Oh to be a 10yo who can’t stop reading.

“The United States attacked Iran military sites.” That is not an accurate description of the events of Saturday—civilians including children were also attacked—and the bloodless framing devoid of any context is exactly what Trump is going for.

Amazing how pro-war ideology filters down even to the mundane bullet points stations like @wxpnfm.bsky.social reads out on the air.

I like how much my oldest kid enjoys doing Muay Thai, but I’m worried they are going to start requiring leg tattoos any day now.

You would never know from any mainstream media converge that the vast majority of Americans are against attacking Iran; one assumes they are waiting to report on that until said coverage changes the poll numbers.

Or his work on the Board of Pardons, a politically thankless task which was one of the main reasons I supported him.

Another 15 minutes of war cheerleading on the radio on my way to the train station this morning. Liberal-coded “neutral” news outlets look to present “expertise,” but don’t mention that their definition of expertise is “personal experience in attacking Iran in a previous admin. ”

Listening to NPR’s coverage of the war and it’s been 15 straight minutes of cheerleading and stenography of Trump’s talking points.

Finally something funny in the Epstein files.

One of the challenges of having your brain pickled by social media, as mine is, is that when you hear academics talking about contemporary issues, I just…know too much? Like, somebody will make a point and it’s like, oh sorry we were talking about that on bluesky a month ago, it’s over now.

There’s still some residual part of my brain that, when I enter a hotel room, goes “ooh, flat screen tv, fancy!”

Norman Lebrecht suffering any kind of consequence for his toxic approach to music “journalism” is a vibe shift that I will celebrate.

Walking through independence Mall and it remains wild how little got done before 2026. I realize some of it will be ready for July 4, but just an insane missed opportunity by the city and the NPS.

I’m sure you’re right, and I think basically it’s just become wrapped up in those kind of commercial real estate issues, and G&H were just never very concerned with legacy stuff. They’ve never wanted to talk to scholars/biographers or anything like that.

Totally agree. Toby Seay at Drexel has done an amazing job of preserving a lot of tape and other parts of the legacy, it’s such a shame not to have really any of the physical spaces beyond the Sigma shell. Unfortunately I think it has a lot to do with G&H 😬

I confess that in some dark part of my mind I thought the School District would figure out a way to call for another virtual day tomorrow.

There were six of us in my cohort, and we made “Les Six” t-shirts to wear to our first department meeting. Deep nerd. 😭

Niche observation— I am very proud/happy with my extremely-characteristic UCLA musicology education, but it was very liberating to realize at age 45 that if I don’t want to include any notated musical examples in my book I don’t have to. (iykyk)

Choir squeezed in a rehearsal in this pouring rain just before it turns blizzard, and not to stereotype but 100% of the basses are here and like 10% of the sopranos. 😂

Me too. Mean to look into it more closely some day.

However, it was only with the establishment of socialism in Hungary after World War II that Kodály’s leadership could finally count on sustained state support. What had been a movement was now a policy to musicalize a nation. His method was integrated into the public education system as a core subject, rather than an extracurricular activity. New music educators were formally trained in the method, and those already practicing music education were retrained in state-sponsored programs. The nationalized press published the necessary materials, and school choirs could be heard on radio broadcasts throughout the country. Music entered daily life as singing groups emerged in communities and workplaces.

I realize the argument is about stated-sponsored music education, but I’m not sure I’d hold up socialism in post-war Hungary as a positive example without some caveats 😬

Quakertown parents want answers as Bucks DA investigates police confrontation Videos show officers confronting student protesters in the Pennsylvania town, which the Bucks NAACP said “raised serious questions.”

This story from Quakertown is wild: high school students staged an anti-ICE walkout, and the local police chief, out of uniform and without identifying himself, attacked a teenage girl, put her in a chokehold, and had her arrested. whyy.org/articles/buc...

I’m too much of a rule follower so I do actually do my trainings, but one of these I’m going to really test it.

Shouldn’t flaunt my privilege but gotta say that ignoring trainings is truly an under-appreciated perk of tenure.

I thought about putting the snow pants away, and didn’t do so precisely to avoid this scenario.

(Ironically of course Kenny Gamble has devoted the late part of his life as a real estate developer and charter school impresario to destroying those very same neighborhood public schools 😬)

Philly Soul was 100% the result of excellent music education at big neighborhood public high schools that gave the world the chance to hear Mozarts like Gamble, Huff, and Bell.