iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Update: I’m looking for a recording of a singspiel (Hiller’s Die Jagd, in 1769) that the textbook swears was a huge hit and that everyone knew this one lied from it in particular. Best I have is a live video recording of an outdoor performance on YouTube, in Latvian.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 16h

Fun MacArthur fact, only three musicologists have ever been Fellows, and one of them was my predecessor here at Delaware!

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 23h

Was going to make a joke about Flowers for Algernon, but couldn’t remember the title and it took me five minutes of googling to figure it out. 😔

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I’ve taught 18th century music surveys so many times in my life, but we switched to a new textbook which is possibly the nerdiest, least undergrad-friendly text one could write, and it’s really kicking my ass.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We’re doing lesbian bars in my class this week (reading Sue-Ellen Case, Boots of Leather/Slippers of Gold, listening to Jo Kellum) and I swear on my honor that I am not even going to mention the state of Massachusetts.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I dunno, I've heard "Choosing Texas" many, many times precisely because Spotify incessantly played it at me on every family road trip I took this summer.

Screenshot of Rolling Stone article clip: "So, maybe “I’ve never heard of ‘Choosin’ Texas’” is not quite the flex that some think it is. Instead of claiming ignorance of the song on social media, why not try a swift Google search instead. It just might open your algorithm — and also your mind."

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’m just so tired of reading about AI. Honestly it’s a boring subject!

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The Inquirer advice column is kind of adorably bizarre; they seem to grab random reporters off the floor who don’t know anything about the question at hand? Just to poll for vibes?

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

lol, something about the publication of that bizarre NY Times best TV list and the simultaneous retirement of the last classical music critic mark a certain...moment, in culture. Not a good one!

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’m really not a Taylor Swift hater (in fact have always had something of a soft spot for her) but these new songs coming on the heels of what I thought was a very weak album adds to the argument that being a billionaire rots your brain.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

god, this scene from Peter Pan still hits hard. 😭😭😭

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Somebody saw Opera Philly’s all-tickets-$11 scheme and decided to one-up us. 😔

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The day I got my drivers license, the first thing 16yo me wanted to do was drive to the coolest coffee shop on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley. Of course the only parking spot was a tight parallel spot directly in front of the all the sidewalk tables. And, I was driving my parents’ large minivan.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I improvised a budget Freudian reading of the Mary Martin Peter Pan today in class (starting from scratch, explained the id, oedipus, castration, whatever else I could quickly throw in), and I think left everyone suitably traumatized for the week. #liberalarts

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

10yo has to do a "musical me" slideshow to introduce herself to her new school, and she is including Broadway shows she's seen, and I'm trying inculcate the fine art of snobbery by reminding her to say she saw "Into the Woods" at City Center Encores, not the Broadway transfer.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I occasionally type up a long thread of thoughts on the NHJ article, but by the 15th tweet I realize I am still too triggered by the whole thing and save it to drafts, lol

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

State of Delaware...I really need you to seize upon the momentum here....

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

College rankings are a scam in every possible way, but always find it particularly hilarious that they all include technical schools with limited degree options in the same category as broad comprehensive colleges. How on earth can you compare MIT or CalTech to any of those other places?

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

One of my most embarrassing reactions to a movie was thinking that the Social Network was unfair to Zuck. Mortified for 2010 me.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Having watched Little Shop of Horrors, 10yo now asks for things in her best Audrey II voice. “Ice,creaaam,” and the little kissy sound. Very disconcerting.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

In an era of email scams, always refreshing to get a genuine accidental email intended for someone with the same last name as me, especially when that someone has joined the “bells and clocks subcommittee” of her quaint English country church. 🤩

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

awhile back somehow I, who am constitutionally allergic to corporate doublespeak, was tasked with organizing and writing for our school of music a "strategic plan" (a cursed genre of speculative fiction), and after two years it is formally approved and off to the printers. 😅😅😅

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Every time I poke my head back onto Twitter it immediately raises my blood pressure, and I am reminded of why I left, but when I did last night, there was some amazingly juicy neighborhood gossip being discussed and one cannot but help feel the pain of FOMO 😭

010

Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Just like nature repeatedly evolving into a crab, Trump is going to come up with the 3/5 compromise again, isn’t he.

Ny times headline: Trump's Census Proposal CouldCut Seats From Red States Texas and Florida could lose Republican congressional seats under a proposal to block some immigrants from the 2030 census, a Times analysis found.

010

Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I’ve been doing pilates—the real deal, on the reformer at a slightly hippie neighborhood studio—for a year now, and I have to say, it’s truly been wonderful for physical and mental health. Strong recommend, perhaps especially for slightly creaky middle-aged men.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I know it's so common as to be cliche, but, it's so impossible to pitch to general interest publications these days 😭

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This is a truly revolutionary year for me. Both kids are now in middle school and get themselves home, and for the first time in 13 years, there are several days a week where if I have stuff I need to get done, I can just…stay on campus and do it? Rather than get home to pick them up somewhere?

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Say what you will about UD faculty, but way back in 2014 when nobody had heard about any of this, they managed to get a giant energy guzzling data center project canceled. Had to fight against literal Hunter Biden! www1.udel.edu/udaily/2015/...

www1.udel.edu

TDC decision

UD terminates Data Centers project for STAR Campus

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I love how around ML3477 the LC classification system just gives up.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

If you haven’t done it in a while, can’t recommend enough the practice of taking your students to the library, parking them in a good section, tell them to find a book on the subject of their paper, and help them find things on the shelves, show how to check them out, etc.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Strange that I have this picture of my children attending a sold-out performance at the Kennedy Center, not long before Trump took office. Little did I know how close we were to being crushed by falling debris!

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Not the biggest problem here, but “statements” coming in the form of multi-image Instagram posts of light text on dark background are a scourge—designed to be difficult to read and to limit engagement with the actual text; you can’t cut and paste!

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I forgot that, very randomly, my copies of the Craft-Stravinsky conversation books are hand-me-downs from Philip Brett. ♥️

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Truly don’t appreciate that Ed Sheeran and Robert Craft have conspired to make me articulate the thought, “good on Macklemore.”

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

“Why does that little planter of petunias in my backyard keep dying?”

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Am I reading the job wiki correctly that there are currently four (4) tenure-track positions in musicology this year?

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I mean, Seth Rogen fighting with the muppets about what the Muppet Show should be sounds like a great premise to me.

020

Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This is stupid, but I think for me is an insight into one fuel for pro-AI positions, which is old resentments against teachers, usually in very gendered way. e.g., “that (woman) authority figure once told me I couldn’t cite wikipedia and now is telling my kids not to use AI.”

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I’m attending the Opera Philly production of Mitridate, re di Ponto tonight, and I have to be honest I am a little nervous about making it through three hours of derivative opera seria, even if it is by Mozart.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Ah, 9:30pm the last night of a three-day weekend, the perfect time for all children to realize they have homework due tomorrow.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Thanks to a certain legendary South Philly block party (iykyk) I finally got to experience the Block Party Bonanza swag, including pocket constitutions sponsored by the Union League. 😂

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Honored to have made an appearance, if briefly, in the illegal eighth grade group chat.

Screenshot of a text “I saw a white guy sitting with ur mom.”

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Reposted by Phil Gentry

BCP Minus Context @bcpminuscontext.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

make a different choice in another year

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

This will never be a pro car parking account, but I do find it wild that as part of the closure of the Market Street bridge for the next year, they got rid of huge swaths of street parking along the Chestnut detour? Seems unnecessary, and makes it feel even more like a freeway across the river.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Every Instagram ad I get these days is menswear brands bragging about how soft their materials are, and I couldn’t relate less. I want my clothing to be a shield against the world. Hard pants forever.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

In the past I have sometimes made the mistake of taking some pro-growth-style urbanists sincerely, and always good to have the example of “all out for Cindy Bass” to remind me not to do that again. www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...

inquirer.com

Philly developers are planning a $1.5M campaign to protect City Council from progressive challengers

Philly For Growth, a super PAC backed by the city's development interests, wants to keep progressives from growing their power on City Council.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I think my takes on the closure of the Academy of Natural Sciences here include 1. it wasn’t a very good museum, 2. I’m not sure that Drexel should be the first choice steward for various city treasures, and 3. reminders that Philadelphia is a really poor city are really depressing.

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Teaching Miller to some very innocent undergrads next month and excited to break this out.

010

Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

just love teaching Oklahoma (the musical) because it only takes one class to go from “fun cowboys” to “oh no settler colonialism” to “oh no the outsider who must be expelled is actually the monster within us all which can only be temporarily submerged with a thin veneer of civilization.”

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Phil Gentry @pmgentry.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I only semi-regret this, but when my college classmate was putting on an original “hip-hop musical” our sophomore year, I couldn’t have been more skeptical, and so didn’t go see Lin’s first version of “In the Heights.”

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