iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 2h

Saw a Wilco sticker on a Subaru

Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 7h

That's my daughter's bf, Alfredo Colón on the far right--with the Chicago Symphony, Makaya McCraven, Lizz Wright, Kurt Elling, etc. So proud of him!

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 23h

Just remembered this playlist I made on some mopey Saturday (“Sadder Day” get it?) years ago. They are not all sad songs per se, but they all make me sad. Music! It’s complicated! Link in comments.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Record store clerk just rifled through my selections and then said “cool.” So I’m gonna be insufferable for a minute

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

OK, got my flu and covid jabs early this evening, I tend to get real whomped the day after, so just a heads up that I cannot be held responsible for whatever sad music I post tomorrow.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

There are many things that grieve me about the “students are illiterate” stuff and one is that it pretends that literacy is a static and transhistorical subject. But (just for instance) today’s students are much defter readers of visual texts than they were 30 years ago.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Occasionally if I'm feeling a little down, I remember this kid, Xander Grove, who played Dramarama's masterpiece, "Work for Food" at a school assembly 10+ years ago. Wearing a t-shirt that says "Arm the Homeless." Posted by his Mama. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpiE...

youtube.com

Dramarama - Work For Food (Acoustic Cover)

YouTube video by Kimberly Grove

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Started my day with my favorite Fall song--Van Morrison's "Purple Heather" (aka "Wild Mountain Thyme"). At about the 2:30 mark Van starts non-verbal vocalizing, trying to capture the rapture of picking flowers with your girl. Then the piano and strings copy him. Sublime

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I’ve never given The Wallflowers a moment’s thought but I just heard the glorious “Three Marlenas” on the drive to work and jeez Jakob Dylan is actually Bruce’s son, huh? Love how he summons the underappreciated voice and organ sound of our guy circa 1974: Hey Santa Ana!

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Reposted by Jeff Melnick

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

When you say “c*caine” three times in the mirror this pic appears

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I mean he IS in this picture and yet

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I’m making a list of my favorite music from the year 1996 (I have beautiful friends who prompt such misery) and reminding myself how much the joys of Congolese soukous soundtracked my little domestic world in that moment. Some of the best guitar music ever. And those vocals

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Someone on my block has named their modem SCUM (all caps) and now I am bedeviled trying to figure out who the Valerie Solanas stan is.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I have not paid much attention to Kevin Morby (except to note he is Mr. Katie Crutchfield) but he has just released a new song that is such a sweet attempt to catch the sound of my beloved Grant McLennan of the Go-Betweens-his sweetness, his woman-worship, his inarticulate eloquence.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This. I tell my students that the only “deliverable” my classes offer is the possibility that they will leave a bit more able to read the world around them.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Recently my daughter called me on the phone and after we talked for a minute or two her voice got stern and she said “Daddy! Are you listening to ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes’ again?!”

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Just learning that we've lost the truly great Trinidadian musician the Mighty Sparrow. I saw him do a triumphant set at the Lowell Folk Festival some years ago, where he reminded me of how in calypso the party and the politics are always two sides of the same coin.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I’m still getting right with God on Sundays, even if you heathens insist on talking about television shows.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My three favorite songs about wind, for this Nor’easter night 1. John Lincoln Wright, “Can You Hear The Same Old Wind (Part Three)” 2. Diablos, “The Wind” 3. Mary McCaslin, “Wayward Wind”

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Always gratifying to see my children excel me in all important ways. For instance: my daughter just revealed that she has made a playlist of songs that pay homage to John Prine open.spotify.com/playlist/2PQ...

open.spotify.com

singin John prine

Playlist · Jessie Rubin · 7 items

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Because I won’t use Canvas I’ve created Slack channels for my classes ( kinda) and a very sweet side feature is how certain (male-coded) students are gently instructing me on how to set things up better.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

As my older kid said on a recent trip back home: “So who’s in charge of urban planning in Cambridge, anyway? A couple of 9 year old boys with a Lego set?”

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Rather than join the (understandable) snark, let me just recommend Ehrenreich, Hess, and Jacobs' widely available essay "Beatlemania: A Sexually Defiant Consumer Subculture?" (1992)

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Last I heard this building around the corner from me was slated to be demolished to make way for an out-of-scale new apartment building. But yesterday....this! And so I asked a knowledgeable neighbor who told me that the developers pulled out and so we get a mural for now!

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My older kid just sent me this t-shirts as a gift, and now I really must finish this book about Boston music

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

For crisssakes find a way to read that story and laugh at People Who Are Not You but do not give your money to the pro-genocide, anti-teacher Boston Globe.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I love what Bob Dylan said about "Tupelo Honey": "Tupelo Honey”has always existed and Van Morrison was merely the vessel and the earthly vehicle for it". I am currently listening to Solange's "Losing You" and thinking something very similar.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

All day long I've had this nagging feeling that I was forgetting some family member's birthday and finally, just now, it has hit me that it is my cousin, Bruce Springsteen.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Left my house in Cambridge 6:30 a.m. Friday, drove to a beautiful wedding in Baltimore county on Saturday, back home by noon today---just give me weed, whites and wine!!! Best driving moment was last night when we got to see someone bang an epic U-turn ON THE NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE!

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

More on class-action suit against Columbia which my daughter is part of, including the news-to-me that CU (in the shameful tradition) actually hired Pinkerton thugs to crush their students’ peaceful protest. www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2026/09...

columbiaspectator.com

Pro-Palestinian student protesters sue Columbia over Butler protest crackdown

Three Columbia students filed a federal class action lawsuit Friday over the University’s handling of the May 7, 2025, pro-Palestinian protest at Butler Library, alleging Public Safety officers locked...

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Weddings are always better when there are babies!

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I was sitting outdoors at a diner in White Marsh, MD and this landed on my hand while I was eating. So now you will have to call me by my Disney Princess name.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Drove, in stages, from Cambridge MA to Maryland yesterday and the great treat (after picking up daughter in NYC!) was getting to hear a live set by a fetching young South Jersey band, Te Vista, broadcast on WXPN. Jangle, longing, high and sad spirits, they got that power pop thing!!!

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Beyond proud of my daughter Jessie for joining this lawsuit and standing up against the forces of repression at Columbia University.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We have a new sort-of-quad that's been created on campus at UMB and today I saw someone tossing a frisbee to a golden retriever type dog and for a second I did not know where I was.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Okay enough of the ugliness wrought by that other Sheeran, here's the Jens Lekman version, whose "Shirin" is also about the relationship of art and politics. youtu.be/WHjbnsC80_k

youtu.be

Jens Lekman - Shirin

YouTube video by KyotoPurpleSanga

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Since I refuse to use Canvas I just created Slack channels for my classes and I am feeling both inordinately proud and quite sleepy

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Thanks to my brilliant daughter, I already had the shirt

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just called my guy in Vegas to ask him what the line was on Ed Sheeran’s tour cancellation (“nervous exhaustion” or vocal polyps?).

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I’ve been listening to it blissfully for over 40 years now and still not sure how Marshall Crenshaw pulled off the magic of “Cynical Girl.” The way he turned the girl group ode to the bad boy (“he’s Good bad, but he’s not evil”) inside out and made it chime! A little miracle.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This Ed Sheeran fella making me update my “Own Goal” list of beloved cultural figures who have recklessly squandered the cultural capital they have accrued. JK Rowling certainly safe for now, but heads up!

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I generally do not find Paul Simon’s lyrics cryptic, but I am at a loss about what he means in “Duncan” when he sings “sweet New England”

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I sure hope Abdul El-Sayed has denounced Macklemore by now

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The Jewish analogue of Blackface is Blackface. There was a brief vaudeville moment of Jewface (largely purveyed by Jews) that got virtually no historical traction.

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Just walked by the only dorm on campus, which was having a fire drill, apparently, and all these students just look like such sleepy babies!!!

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

If you are using this moment to say “hahaha Macklemore makes bad music” maybe you should rethink your priors

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Jeff Melnick @melnickjeffrey1.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Didn’t necessarily see that nasty little toad Robert Kraft becoming Macklemore’s greatest hype man but I like a good surprise as much as the next guy

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