Chris Serkin

BILLY BRAGG - CITY OF HEROES YouTube video by Billy Bragg

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

At the Marlboro School of Music and Festival, Practice Makes Perfect Created nearly 75 years ago, this Vermont retreat welcomes musicians young and old to immerse themselves in chamber compositions, refine their skills, and offer masterly performances of canonical, obs...

A very nice review of Marlboro in the WSJ. He really captures it.

www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Now there’s a better idea.

I think “magical” is the right word!

Concert review: Musicians from Marlboro Bruce Hodges attends the performance of Haydn, Mozart and Helmut Lachenmann at Philadelphia's American Philosophical Society on 30 April 2025

"One of the world’s most magical destinations for chamber music," and concerts like this one show why.

More in the July issue of The Strad

Keeping our national airspace safe and efficient is the chief responsibility of Trump’s FAA—and they're FAILING at every turn

How much has DOGE contributed to the chaos?
What's the plan to replace old tech & infrastructure?
What's the plan to fill FAA vacancies?

We need answers

Opinion | We Should Play the Constitution Like a Piano Classical musicians have a lot to teach interpreters of the U.S. Constitution. It’s so much more than the text.

This is an idea I’ve been thinking about for a long time. We are grateful to the New York Times for giving it a platform.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/o...

Amidst debates about the “abundance agenda” and affordable housing policy, the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator is releasing two new papers charting an agenda for a post-neoliberal housing policy. 1/5

A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that ... information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.

Oh dear you’re going to want to read this. Looks like DOGErs were caught exfiltrating NLRB data, likely on unions, for private (seemingly Elony) use. This is must read. What we’ve all suspected. But now details. www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...

We've reached the point in our descent into fascism where the Jewish governor's house getting firebombed on Passover by a guy trying to bash his head in with a sledgehammer is overshadowed by the story of the President saying he wants to build foreign gulags for US citizens.

Go, NYC! What a moving day of gathering and protest. #HandsOff

This may be a relevant consideration here: "An additional limitation on the assertion of executive privilege is that the privilege should not be invoked to conceal evidence of wrongdoing or criminality on the part of executive officers." 8 Op. O.L.C. 252, 267 (1984).

Looks like tomorrow will bring votes on a Republican plan to fund tax cuts for the rich by slashing Medicaid.

So this is a great time to contact your Member of Congress.

It seems to me there are two types of strong people (and nations): those that want to use their strength to protect the less powerful, and those that want to exploit them. I miss the days when we at least aspired to the former.

Let’s specify in advance the criteria for judging policy success (and failure). I’ll start: less poverty, protection of the vulnerable, healthy environment, overall prosperity, increased safety (illness, accidents, crime, etc), global stability, scientific progress.

@jennyschuetz.bsky.social Finally reading and very much enjoying Fixer Upper. Clear, thoughtful, and unusually balanced for the field. Great read!

The Renaissance Quartet, with Randall, just played up in Vermont as part of Marlboro Music’s new winter residency program. The quartet was terrific.