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Will Mason

@willmasonmusic.com
3.8K followers 1.4K following 1.4K posts

Musician and composer • assoc. professor of music, Skidmore College • “experimental yet still catchy” — New York Times • repost = 👀 willmasonmusic.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Will Mason
Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I gasped! The Mighty Sparrow has left us. One of the most important and popular Calypsonians to ever do it! Songs filled political fire, irreverence, humor, naughty (very, very naughty) banter, and beats that make you wind your waist! Rest in Power, Sparrow. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/a...
nytimes.com
The Mighty Sparrow, Trinidadian Titan of Calypso, Is Dead at 91
He was sometimes described as the last of the true calypso singers. But in fact he simultaneously preserved calypso tradition and invented it anew.
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tagerai.bsky.social @tagerai.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It’s funny but very sad. The worst people you know will get rich, and after they win, media outlets will quote their ass opinions and then after their name write “winner of the 1M carob trust prize, awarded to brave academics”. Just another avenue for billionaires to launder influence
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Troy Jackson @troyjackson207.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
After Benjamin Netanyahu, who I believe is a war criminal, just came and went from New York, I’ve been thinking a lot about the world my first granddaughter is about to enter.
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Sara Straw @oneoneder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Jokes on the right-wingers, Adam Smith is one of our guys
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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The worst part of Bonta caving on the Paramount merger is that it's a big flashing signal to every other company that there is no antitrust enforcement in America and you can bully your way into getting whatever you want. It's a monumentally bad decision.
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Will Mason @willmasonmusic.com · 21/09/2026
one of those days where in my head I’m like “class was great!” and I bet if I watched a video playback of it I’d be like “…that man is on cocaine.”
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Sam (ABeardedPanda) @abeardedpanda.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Not to get too gender about it but this is a major driver behind most reactionary mindsets because ultimately it is about the ability to control your wife and children
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👁️saac 👁️o @eyesack.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
was looking for examples of ring modulation in pop music and came across this awesome Devo guitar solo youtu.be/E7HfsZkMz4w?...
youtu.be
Devo - Too Much Paranoias (Live Concert Video 1978)
YouTube video by DaisyPumpkin23
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“A San Jose police officer was fired for using his department’s Flock license plate tracking system to share the location of a woman with the suspect accused of abusing her.”
theguardian.com
San Jose officer fired for misusing Flock camera database in domestic abuse case
Police officer shared location of a woman with his relative who is accused of abusing woman
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Edward Fitzpatrick @fitzprov.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
@helenabfoulkes.bsky.social delivers victory speech in RI Democratic primary for governor
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Edward Fitzpatrick @fitzprov.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/09/m...
bostonglobe.com
Morales projected to unseat Providence Mayor Brett Smiley - The Boston Globe
State Representative David Morales, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, captured voters through grassroots campaigning and a pledge to limit rent increases in the city.
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James Sims @simsjames.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
“The Secretary of the Treasury is using the IRS to advance a pro-White Nationalist agenda. That is extraordinary.” —Wesleyan University President @msroth.bsky.social on @npr.org with @steveinskeep.bsky.social #highered
npr.org
Wesleyan University president on administration's efforts to revoke tax-exempt status
NPR's Steve Inskeep asks Wesleyan University president Michael Roth about U.S. Treasury and IRS efforts to revoke tax-exempt status from private schools that help students based on race.
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QueenCityJamz @queencityjamz.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Wikipedia really found the perfect photo to distill the majestic glory of the guitar solo.
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Rebecca Brückmann @historleans.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone. Yet now I’m walking through the streets with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience.” www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/spring...
springfieldnewssun.com
Springfield Haitian student takes his own life after being fitted with ICE ankle monitor, advocates say
A 20-year-old Wright State student took his own life on Interstate 70 out of anguish over a required ICE ankle monitor, according to local community advocates.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Might be even worse. The president doesn’t seem to care if it’s AI or not, nor see relevant distinction between real and fake. Narrative is all there is. The White House is organized around this, acting as if fantasy narratives are real. And millions of Americans voted for reality TV over reality.
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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Dear registered voters, When was the last time you checked your registration status and verified your current name and address? You can find the links you need to do that at npr.org/vote
npr.org
How to register to vote and check your registration status
For the 2026 elections, NPR has collected deadlines and information on how to register to vote — online, in person or by mail — in every U.S. state and territory.
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Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
James Clyburn says on @meetthepress.com that he supports adding four seats to the Supreme Court: “A baker’s dozen would be a good number to have on the court.”
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Lars Gotrich @totalvibration.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The Viking's Choice Guide to #NewMusicFriday Aug. 28 releases include Mastodon, Sarah Davachi, RUEN, Generacion Suicida, Miscreance Everything in the link, 🧵to follow! newsletter.vikingschoice.org/archive/new-...
newsletter.vikingschoice.org
New Music Friday: Slow Music, Screamy Folk-Punk
Aug. 28 releases include Mastodon, Sarah Davachi, RUEN, Generacion Suicida, Miscreance
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
“I used to live in the country that I thought was the most enthusiastic about the prospects for science improving the human condition, of any country…” said Phillip Zamore, the chair of RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts. “And I woke up one day & that wasn’t true anymore”
nytimes.com
Canada Hires U.S. Scholars From Harvard and Other Top Universities
A crackdown on American academia by the Trump administration has handed Canadian universities a rare opportunity to lure some top researchers north.
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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
More brain drain: “Twenty-one universities in Canada announced on Thursday the hiring of dozens of researchers to join their top academic ranks, poaching the majority of the recruits from the United States. Of the incoming 64 researchers, 48 will leave American campuses…”
nytimes.com
Canada Hires U.S. Scholars From Harvard and Other Top Universities (Gift Article)
A crackdown on American academia by the Trump administration has handed Canadian universities a rare opportunity to lure some top researchers north.
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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The “head of strategic futures” at OpenAI just went on an unhinged rant against social security sometimes I feel like these tech companies are actively trying to alienate as many normal people as possible
Dean W. Ball
@deanwball
x.com
The main thing I have to say to the young generation of Americans is that your
grandparents and great-grandparents committed a kind of accounting fraud when they ran our country a century ago with social security, and at the time it was a reasonable affordance to grant our leaders, who were dealing with an economic depression and a world war, but nonetheless they did commit the fraud, and they ended up buying all sorts of extravagant things using the fraudulent gains, including what became the thing we now understand to be the high-modern technocratic nation-state, and that is glorious and also bad and all that, but the thing is there's still the issue about the accounting fraud, whose debt is coming due and is coming due fast.
It is best to consider this with as minimal residue of sentiment as possible, to really sit with it, to stare it coldly in the face.
Unwinding the great fraud of the high modernists is your job, whether you wish it to be or not.
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Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Here are a series of essays I wrote about Dolly tied to albums at the beginning, middle and end of her vast, prolific career, if you're looking for a little themed reading. www.dontrocktheinbox.com/on-dolly-par...
dontrocktheinbox.com
On Dolly Parton, Brilliant In Every Era
Today marks an unfathomable loss: Dolly Parton has died. Brilliant artist, devoted philanthropist, remarkable human; to list her achievements here feels redundant, as the cult of Dolly has long since ...
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Library of Congress @librarycongress.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️
Dolly Parton reads to children in the Library’s Great Hall in 2018. Photo by Shawn Miller.
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Will Mason @willmasonmusic.com · 24/08/2026
Late summer in the garden. Dug all these beds in early May so I'm pretty pleased with where they ended up, but of course eager for everything to keep maturing.
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Will Mason @willmasonmusic.com · 24/08/2026
Still cannot get over it that a someone farcical plot point in the last “Fargo” season is actually happening.
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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
That's Republican, we count those
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Matt Sargent @mattsargent.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
For all your open score needs, "Several Angels" is now publicly available on my website: mattsargentmusic.com/store
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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
See @willmasonmusic.com’s recent JPMS article for an example of how AI has been used in experimental music in interesting ways. But there are many immediately obvious differences between how Holly Herndon operated and how garbage software like Suno works. online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article...
online.ucpress.edu
Holly, Plus Whom?The Holly+ Timbre Transfer Program and the Valuation of Musical Labor under Web 3.0
In July 2021, the electronic musician and scholar Holly Herndon launched Holly+, a vocal deep fake modeled on her singing voice. Holly+ is powered by an artificial intelligence engine trained on recor...
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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I appreciate this whole thread but am esp interested in this point. It’s true that the history of popular music is filled with examples of artists creatively (mis)using new tech that was absolutely designed to replace labor, including drum machines, in ways that ended up being extremely cool.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 19/08/2026
i don’t want “accelerated”, “increased-speed” or “fast-paced” research. in fact, am not interested in any shortcuts to mindful, intentional, and slow science
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 19/08/2026
do we know of any universities/higher ed institutions that have explicitly stated resistance/refusal of genai as their official policy
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Sen. Ossoff mentions Natalie Harp, it got some social media buzz, then professional media jumped on it. Two theories of politics that are wrong: 1) Do economic policy, act above the fray, media will do the rest on its own 2) Public opinion is static, politicians’ job is to measure then follow it
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drewtoothpaste @drewtoothpaste.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
mozart's advice
Wait, y’all got drum
machines, but you
still listen to
people play my
old sheet music?
No offense, but
did you ever hear
an 808 clap? You
don’t even need a
real 808. Just use
the one in Ableton
Live. It’s fine. That’s
what we do in heaven.
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Melody Schreiber @melodyschreiber.com · 18/08/2026
It sounds like he (or the genAI that drafted this piece) fundamentally misunderstands writing as a tool for conveying ideas. What good writing does is *clarify thought*. Can you be a "thought leader" (shudder) without that process?
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The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 16/08/2026
There are jobs for college instructors. They do require degrees. But the pay and the benefits are abysmal. Another take on the state of the academy:
thenation.com
Adjuncting Until the End of Time
Universities now have more adjuncts than tenured and tenure-track professors combined. The conditions are unsustainable—for professors and students alike.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
When Bessent goes on his speaking tours after his time in the Trump admin he will not be asked about any of this. If some stray student manages to get this out at a university event, they will be shuffled out of the room while some Dean apologizes. There is no shame, no accountability.
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 15/08/2026
Absolutely vile framing from the @nytimes.com. Why doesn’t this leave behind hard questions for the media that hounded him? Or the global right-wing that gleefully turned a local matter into an international incident?
“Professor’s Death Leaves Behind Hard Questions for Cambridge on Race and Hiring”
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Portland Press Herald @pressherald.com · 14/08/2026
50 years in, Buckdancer’s is still Portland musicians’ guitar shop of choice
pressherald.com
50 years in, Buckdancer’s is still Portland musicians’ guitar shop of choice
The store on St. John's Street has weathered a changing industry and city — and is still beloved by Maine musicians young and old.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
"Living through a global resurgence of fascism, the greatest difficulty has proved to be not arguing against it, but convincing non-fascists that fascism’s adherents mean it. They believe what they are telling us they believe—and they will act accordingly." www.liberalcurrents.com/fascists-rea...
liberalcurrents.com
Fascists Really Believe It
Millions could die because of ideas intellectually and morally equivalent to the ‘lizard people’ conspiracy theory.
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David Crockett @dcrockett17.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
At South Carolina's flagship, the governor, a senator, and a former WH staffer inserted themselves into the university's Presidential hiring process, if you can call it that a process. It resulted in a comically unqualified hire. Funny how THAT didn't launch any 1600-word Atlantic think pieces.
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Dr Pop Culture USA @drpopcultureusa.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Tim Curry as Mozart and Ian McKellen as Salieri in the 1980 Broadway play ‘Amadeus’
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Will Mason @willmasonmusic.com · 12/08/2026
An absolute privilege to record material for my next album with Ned Rothenberg, Erin Rogers, and Lester St. Louis, three musicians I admire enormously. Look for it in mid-2027. (Also, huge thanks to photographer + mensch Bryan Sargent for making us look cool.)
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Tim Rutherford-Johnson @purlis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Latest newsletter contains a long review of GBSR/MacLennan's Feldman trios recording, plus thoughts on brambles and music at the end of the world. purlis.substack.com/p/purposeful...
purlis.substack.com
Purposeful Listening 20
A review of the GBSR/MacLennan recording of Feldman's trios for flute, piano and percussion. Also: blackberries.
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Heartened to see that my university is ending its contract with Turnitin before the next academic year, because Turnitin is going to use student submissions to train AI models. Institutions can and should resist this stuff!
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I don’t actually want an educational paradigm that gives me a purity score generated by a rapacious corporation next to every assignment a student submits to an online learning site produced by a separate corporation that is using it to harvest data.
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gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Last week I spoke to Omar Compean, the 18-year-old frontman of Houston emo ska band I Hate Myself And I Want To Die. On Sunday, they played their last ever show because Omar's father was arrested by ICE and deported to Mexico. "It basically just all got ripped away from me just in an instant."
chron.com
After ICE deported his dad, a Houston teen is mourning his music dreams
"It basically just all got ripped away from me just in an instant."
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Looking forward to a big piece rounding up all the ways people are starting to reject technology and step back into the analog world.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 10/08/2026
If it looks like an Amazon delivery and drives like an Amazon delivery, then it's an Amazon delivery, right? Not according to Amazon. Big companies like Amazon have built a vast network of subcontractors who deliver their packages while shielding them from accountability.
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 09/08/2026
if they're drinking nounwine it's fantasy. if they're snorting a verb it's sci fi
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