Pinned
Slightly cringey, but I’ve started a “professional” instagram to chronicle my current book project. You may follow along if you are inclined. instagram.com/philipmgentry
Phil Gentry
14.4K posts
Phil Gentry
@pmgentry
Citizen of West Philly, musicologist at @UDelaware, organizing at @wpcns. Writing a book about Philadelphia’s relationship with history. Find me on b’sky!
- I think a man on this train is coming to the slowly-dawning realization that he is on a train about to arrive in Newark, Delaware, but he meant to be on a train to Newark, New Jersey. I can’t watch.
- A professor of mine went to go hear Derrida speak once. The entire talk was about cows; everyone was flummoxed but listened carefully, and took notes about...cows. There was a short break, and when Derrida came back, he was like, “I’m told it is pronounced ‘chaos.’”
- Just to be clear for those not in Pennsylvania, the legislation Jay-Z is supporting here is a Republican-led effort to gut public education, spearheaded by future Trump cabinet member Jeffrey Yass.Jay-Z's Roc Nation will spearhead an educational campaign in Philadelphia that helps students K-12 from low-income households secure about $300 million in scholarships to attend the city's private schools. Events will be held by Roc Nation to bring awareness to Pennsylvania
- Very rarely do I get to pull a “I wrote a book on this subject and you are very mistaken” card, but the moment has arrived.‘the protests are robbing my Columbia students of listening to John Cage’s 4’33, the piece of music that is explicitly designed to force you to listen to…what’s around you.’ absolutely perfect
- Replying to @pmgentryAnyways, I don’t even know where to start, but at the premiere of 4’33” in 1952, you couldn’t hear birds chirping either because people in the audience stood up and started yelling at him to get the hell out of town, which Cage quite enjoyed.
- Proud of students for organizing this; UD is a hard place to do this kind of work.
- Replying to @pmgentryIf McWhorter would like to engage with musicological scholarship on the subject in his class on, uh, musicology, he is welcome to read my book, especially the chapter “Making Sense of Silence.”
- Replying to @pmgentryPaywalled, but happy to send him a pdf if being a professor at Columbia doesn’t allow him library access.
- Replying to @pmgentryRelated to me as a true story (from when he was in residence at Riverside), but cannot confirm.
- Imagine sending your kids to a Quaker school and being by outraged at a sign calling for peace. Imagine being a Quaker school and taking it down. inquirer.com/education/germ…
- Cool; apparently Penn has been cheerfully sending course syllabi off to the Republicans on the House Committee on Education to assist them in the persecution of their own faculty.
