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Chris Walton ❌👑

@philocrites.bsky.social
195 followers 234 following 682 posts

Preoccupied with music, culture, religion, and liberal democracy. Practicing composition in Greater Boston.

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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 4h
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
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
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!
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
My graduate degree in religion has given me no advantage whatsoever in Spelling Bee.
Screen shot of the New York Times game Spelling Bee, with E in the yellow hexagon in the center and the letters C N T G I X in the gray hexagons around it. The word entered by the user was EXEGETE, which the game says is NOT IN WORD LIST.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
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!
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
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!)
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
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.org
We had no idea
This is a listing of alleged sexual abusers in classical music.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
New semester drops soon. Get your "It's in the Syllabus" and "Do the Reading" merch now! ;) pilcrow-shop.fourthwall.com/en-usd/produ...
pilcrow-shop.fourthwall.com
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.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
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”!
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Watched the Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man” on a plane today without realizing it’s actually the anniversary of the moon landing!
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Gustavo Dudamel, the Electric Mayhem, and Ted Lasso and Coach are super-serving this particular viewer!
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
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
Bar TV over a doorway next to beer taps shows Gov. Maura Healey speaking after receiving the decorated No Scotland No Party traffic cone.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Created equal.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Heat dome, the eleventh plague?
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
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...
tidal.com
Ethel
See the releases of Ethel on TIDAL
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
You know you’re in Utah when you pass not one but two trucks filled with ersatz pioneer handcarts on the freeway onramp
Photo shows tightly packed wooden handcarts with large wood-spoked wheels, the yokes tilted upward at 45 degrees, on a flatbed trailer.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The droll NYT
Screen shot of a New York Times article byline: “By Danny Hakim / This is Danny Hakim’s first story on flying potatoes.”
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
"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." 💯
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
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. 😳
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
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
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
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.”
bostonglobe.com
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.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 14/05/2026
"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."
gabrielkahane.substack.com
what we talk about when we talk about pop music criticism
a brief response to the ny times' greatest living american songwriters list
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Vampire Fortnight
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Guys, $13 million to make the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool look like a minigolf feature in time for the 250th is an absolute steal! Oh wait…
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Gotta love the Instagram AI slop ads for artisanal London shops that don't exist but sadly must close their doors after 38 years, because where else could I have learned about my new favorite band RRBEFLMERS?
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Thoroughly enjoyed Boston Lyric Opera’s endearing and thoroughly localized version of Donizetti’s “Daughter of the Regiment” yesterday, which BLO moved to colonial Boston and fleshed out a bit with new spoken dialogue. And with that, I’ve reached the end of all my season subscriptions!
Singers take a bow on a theater stage in front of a large tree
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
I was today years old when I learned that minimalist composers LaMonte Young was born in a log cabin in a tiny Idaho Mormon town and spent part of his childhood in the Utah county I grew up in—but with that name I should have guessed!
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Today we found the catchiest yet least-possible-for-a-congregation-to-sing closing hymn: William Albright’s peppy tune “Petrus,” or Hymn 196 in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982, “Look there! the Christ, our Brother.”
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Sold out Symphony Hall in Boston, from the looks of it tonight. Loved Adams’s “Harmonium”; the final two movements of Beethoven’s Ninth were exquisite, possibly a bit too fast, but Dima Slobodeniouk shaped those movements masterfully. We ate it up. 👏👏👏👏
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Keith Jarrett: “It doesn’t matter what notes you play, or how long you’ve done your scales and fingering—doesn’t matter if you’ve done that for a zillion years. The only thing that matters is that at the point when you make a sound you’re living and breathing that sound…”
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
What happened at the Supreme Court is about anti-Blackness and curtailing Black political power. Trump as a corrective to Obama. Anti CRT/ DEI as a corrective to Black Lives Matter and Black progress in education and the workforce. Anti-Blackness is America’s favorite manner of self-harm.
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Reposted by Chris Walton ❌👑
Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 26/04/2026
This is your regular reminder that conspiracy theories are often predicated on the idea that a (sometimes large) group of people can be uniformly secretive and competent while executing a complicated thing, which — and I cannot stress this enough — is, uh, way less common than you’d think.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
🎶🎻 Two chances to hear new music at Tufts by yours truly this weekend: Friday 4/24 at the the end of a noon concert, a song for string quartet inspired by 150-year-old tombstones. 🎹 Then, Saturday 4/25 at 8:00 pm, a piano piece I started to imagine as a climb up a treacherous mountain.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Spoiler alert: Spelling Bee once again breaks my heart
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
As a resident of the next town over, I'm amused to be getting Visit Cambridge ads in my Instagram feed.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
This is how we find out that he makes his doctors dress up as Jesus when they shine light into his perfectly healthy body?
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
See you tomorrow at noon at "The Mahler Sessions" at Tufts, a conversation with Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Andris Nelsons hosted by Jeremy Eichler's "Mahler Then and Now" class. Stick around to hear a musical response from me and the M.A. composers and our professor John McDonald.
as.tufts.edu
Events Calendar | Department of Music
Events listed below are free and open to the public for in-person attendance with no tickets required, unless noted. Click this link for Directions and Parking information.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Holy Week listening recommendation: Do you know about Nico Muhly's collaboration with Alice Goodman, "The Street," a provocative take on the Stations of the Cross for harpist Parker Ramsey, narrator, and choir? Unsettling and beautiful. Start at track 21 here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
youtube.com
The Street: Nico Muhly & Alice Goodman - YouTube
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Greetings from the #nokings rally (or rallies: there was a second stage, too) on Boston Common this afternoon, where I got to hear our governor and both senators celebrate Massachusetts’s commitment to constitutional democracy, civil liberties, and care for the vulnerable.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
🎵📣 Music announcement! 🎶🎻 You're invited to "Scenic Sounds," a concert next Tuesday evening (3/31) of new chamber music by me and my two fellow Tufts MA in Composition students! 8:00 pm, live streamed from the Granoff Music Center. as.tufts.edu/music/news-e...
Graphic with a nearly abstract photograph of hazy blue mountains in three dark wavy stripes in the bottom two-thirds of the image and an orange and slate-gray sky at sunset at the top, with bold lettering in the middle: "Scenic Sounds."
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Tufts is going to be the place to be at noon on April 6 & 7: Previously scheduled public conversations with Boston Symphony Orchestra CEO Chad Smith about the orchestra’s vision for the humanities (Tuesday) and Music Director Andris Nelsons about Mahler (Wednesday). as.tufts.edu/music/news-e...
Screenshot of Tufts University Department of Music events listings: 
Apr 6, 12pm	Granoff Music Center Colloquium: “A Vision for the Humanities at the Boston Symphony” - Chad Smith (Boston Symphony Orchestra)
Apr 6, 8pm	Tishler Competition Finals
Apr 7, 12pm	The Mahler Sessions: Andris Nelsons (Music Director, Boston Symphony Orchestra)
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Curtis @curtiscomposer.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
if you look at the New Music Calendar here for the greater-Boston area, you might notice some interesting things, and if you are among the people who produce concerts and work hard within this rich local scene, I think they are things worth paying attention to... newmusiccalendar.com/boston.html
newmusiccalendar.com
New Music Calendar
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
This A.Z. Madonna story is wonderful. “[The viola] massages the heart of the person listening,” he says. “You can’t get that from any other instrument. And what better place to hear wonderful music than a gas station?” Didn't see that coming, did you?
bostonglobe.com
Gas station in Quincy seeks strolling violist to play for customers - The Boston Globe
Harvey Kertzman has long tried to offer his customers a more refreshing experience than one might expect at the pump. Now he wants to elevate it even further.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
still caring about opera, thanks for asking
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Deep in the thorough and impressive Meet the Artists bio of a rising conductor I saw this weekend was this entirely surprising sentence: "Born and raised in [...], [the conductor] returned to music after an early career as a semi-professional motorcycle racer"!!!
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Initial thoughts about Boston Lyric Opera's 50th anniv season, announced today: Intrigued by Andre Previn's "Streetcar Named Desire" (which I didn't know about) and excited to hear Osvaldo Golijov's "Ayre." Guessing "William Tell" will be creatively staged. Always happy to hear "Marriage of Figaro"!
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Another fortuitous @crbclassical.bsky.social programming choice for my teen passenger on an afternoon drive this afternoon: John Adams’s “Short Ride in a Fast Machine”! 👏👏👏👏
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
My formative memory of Rev. Jesse Jackson, from my Utah Mormon childhood, was watching his DNC speeches and thinking, now *that’s* the way to preach! (We didn’t even use the word “preach”: just “deliver a talk.”) I got in quite the argument with my Idaho farmer grandpa about it.
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Time for all of us to weigh in on the monumentally corrupt process the president is using to bulldoze the East Wing of the White House and build a garish ballroom in its place with private "donations" (bribes).
savingplaces.org
Public Comment Period Open: White House Ballroom Proposal | National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has opened the public comment period on the East Wing Modernization Project, including the proposed construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom additi...
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Symphony Hall in the snow
Boston’s Symphony Hall at night, with interior lights, street lights, and car lights shining through falling snow
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Chris Walton ❌👑 @philocrites.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
That magical time of year when all vehicles in Boston put on their natural camouflage of road salt to blend in with the dirty mounds of snow
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