thinking about George Washington's teeth

sinners oscars and bad bunny super bowl say tell your mfin story however YOU want

it was twenty years ago today -- ok, Monday -- that the Boston Phoenix published a cover story about a hot new genre called reggaeton, my first foray into music journalism. RIP the Phoenix, long live reggaeton! web.archive.org/web/20090605...

I appeared on a recent podcast splitting some big musical hairs -- namely, whether the so-called "dembow" rhythm (or more particularly, the kick-snare boom-ch-boom-chick) now at issue in a huge copyright lawsuit has an important, unignorable antecedent in soca drumming www.iheart.com/podcast/1119...

today's fkn reading, sorted

when you're a superpower they let you do it

the final paragraph is truly a kicker, beginning "And that just suggests there may be no limits"

this many bingo cards can't be wrong. here's to some happiness in the new year.

The sun It destroyed the clouds Yes YES The sun is out

morning coffee with anisette, fresh baked cookies, and this on the stereo. tidings of comfort and joy, my friends.

is there a Sirhan Sirhan Jr.?

I've long thought of "fiddle" as a colloquial way of naming the musical/cultural/class differences between ways of playing the violin. today I learned that "fiddle" is actually the same word as "viola" and "vihuela" -- all from "fídula"! 🤯 (in La Manta y La Raya #19, Dec 2025)

*finger to earpiece* eyes wide shut did not go hard enough?

important thread/development! 1925 marks the dawn of electric recording, so the next crop of public domain recordings offers access to a dramatically new audio era -- which, to boot, was ruled by blues queens and hot jazz combos.

listening to soca parang, as one does this time of year, and I love how this Machel Montano song puts the soca (aka dembow) drum pattern over a 12/8 groove. what a pull. on dasher, on dancer! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rMg...

tasked students with going out dancing & writing up an ethnography of the experience. this one note had me howling: "Dancers were half regular Cambridge people, probably doctors and lawyers in training wearing polos and button downs, and queer Cambridge people who were more appropriately dressed."

when it finally happens we will have little reason not to gleefully trumpet the good news

when a student makes a silly mistake like writing "Caleb Calloway" it helps me feel like they aren't using AI

this mix I made of schmaltzy christmas classics, looping breakbeats, and Caribbean confections turns 20 this year! www.mixcloud.com/wayneandwax/...

even just the first 5 minutes of this is amazing. used to be so easy for the most popular singer of the day to tell a bunch of kids that they shouldn't be nazis.

not once but twice in the last week I have cracked students up entirely inadvertently by telling them, while soliciting feedback on my courses, that I am "always tweaking"

this blessed boy had a front row seat for Ron Carter tonight at the Regattabar in Harvard Sq. so riveting to bear witness to a true great -- and in fine form at 88!

dev/null rules! enjoy this set of sizzling jungle while watching what a good DJ does via the cellphone strapped to Pete's chest!

you there, boy! what day is this?

made myself an "elevated fluffernutter" for lunch today. by "elevated" I mean that I held it aloft while taking this picture. (and toasted the country sourdough before spreading the spreads.)

the neighborhood coyote turned down our street at the same time I was biking home. wish I'd gotten a better shot. broad daylight in the middle of town!

this degree of darkness is not 3:45pm, to me

can't believe someone leaked footage of me watching Stranger Things with my daughter last week, late at night, after several drinks and lots of tryptophan. embarrassing, honestly.

My colleague Carlo Rotella wrote this as a response to doom-and-gloom reporting on genAI's impact on the humanities and as a framework for thinking about what works. I think it's pretty good. Gift link.

now that's my kinda venn diagram

flop dem!

crabapples looking like xmas ornaments

trying to hold a strict noGPT policy this term, so it's dismaying to see the occasional "Here’s a shorter, discussion-board style version" slip into a student's post :/

met my first Riddim and Ting in the wild yesterday. too cute, and (if you've heard the presets) asking for a lawsuit.

my parents were into the Stones and Zeppelin, so I thought the Beatles sounded pretty fresh when I finally listened to them in college (mid-90s)

La cadencia de la okra.

when I get an email informing me that a previously email has been "recalled" even though it's still right there in my inbox

some saxophonists discovered circular breathing and decided to break records holding one note for minutes, Roland Kirk was like, ok, what if a sax was more like a guitar and not limited by the lungs? e.g., from 1:25 here: open.spotify.com/track/2OWp0p...

finally listened to the AI country song and the most obviously uncanny thing about it is how the "singer" never inhales, never pauses to breathe. too many teeth but for phrasing.

SOME PIGS

would seem to go without saying that Bad Bunny is not an immigrant -- nor are millions of Spanish speakers in the US -- but apparently not

I, for one, would welcome a personal robot companion that will stop me from doing crimes.

little known fact about becoming a trillionaire: you must then be thrown into the nearest volcano

She smiles and says “I will always love you”

oh what a night

1000 years of communism let's go

It gets better and better. Mamdani: no line for brunch.

it's Halloween so I'm listening to Ghosted I-III by Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin, and waiting for the Great Pumpkin

se nota que la nueva versión ("aniversario") de "Hips Don't Lie" con Edsheeran no tiene ningun sample de "Pounder" (como la de Wyclef), sino mezcla las metales de Jerry Rivera con un sonido más barranquilloso 👀 open.spotify.com/track/2oaGtV...

ducklings when you refresh their food and water