Daniel Cavicchi
@danielcavicchi.bsky.social
Professor, Rhode Island School of Design. Fan studies, popular music studies, sound studies, American studies. Views are my own. https://www.risd.edu/academics/history-philosophy-and-social-sciences/faculty/daniel-cavicchi
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
How do historians tell a story of a fascinating person who left few personal papers? In a new Commonplace piece, David Stowe explains how/why his historical novel might be the right approach for the life of William Billings, the first significant US composer. 🗃️
commonplace.online/article/writ...
commonplace.online/article/writ...
Writing William Billings - Commonplace
When historical details are nonexistent, make them up. Not usually considered sound advice to historians, granted, but possibly warranted under these circumstances.
commonplace.online
January 20, 2026 at 5:58 PM
How do historians tell a story of a fascinating person who left few personal papers? In a new Commonplace piece, David Stowe explains how/why his historical novel might be the right approach for the life of William Billings, the first significant US composer. 🗃️
commonplace.online/article/writ...
commonplace.online/article/writ...
Highly recommend Unabridged, by @stefanfatsis.bsky.social. Especially in an environment of unchecked doublespeak, it’s good to read about people who have devoted their lives to the principle that words and their definitions matter.
January 12, 2026 at 8:25 PM
Highly recommend Unabridged, by @stefanfatsis.bsky.social. Especially in an environment of unchecked doublespeak, it’s good to read about people who have devoted their lives to the principle that words and their definitions matter.
D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt advocate for “defeating the forces that frack human beings” with Simone Weil’s "theory of attention rooted in love, care and commitment, an ethics of attention that cannot be sold or stolen.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/o...
Opinion | The Multi-Trillion-Dollar Battle for Your Attention Is Built on a Lie
www.nytimes.com
January 10, 2026 at 4:53 PM
D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt advocate for “defeating the forces that frack human beings” with Simone Weil’s "theory of attention rooted in love, care and commitment, an ethics of attention that cannot be sold or stolen.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/o...
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
January 8, 2026 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
Are you finalizing a syllabus and looking for short, accessible articles to assign on some aspect of American history before 1900? Did you know that Commonplace has a subject tags page that allows you to easily browse our 25 year back catalog? Check it out here: 🗃️
commonplace.online/article/subj...
commonplace.online/article/subj...
Subject Tags - Commonplace
Browse by Subject
commonplace.online
January 2, 2026 at 5:37 PM
Are you finalizing a syllabus and looking for short, accessible articles to assign on some aspect of American history before 1900? Did you know that Commonplace has a subject tags page that allows you to easily browse our 25 year back catalog? Check it out here: 🗃️
commonplace.online/article/subj...
commonplace.online/article/subj...
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
All the lists are published, and New Year's Day is the perfect time to walk back through our 2025 Year In Review to discover which albums you may have missed over the last three hundred and some-odd days. Happy New Year!
AllMusic Best of 2025 | AllMusic 2025 in Review
AllMusic has assembled our Best of 2025. Browse through and check out what music our editors have been listening to this year.
www.allmusic.com
January 1, 2026 at 3:07 PM
All the lists are published, and New Year's Day is the perfect time to walk back through our 2025 Year In Review to discover which albums you may have missed over the last three hundred and some-odd days. Happy New Year!
Excellent essay, by @bilgeebiri.bsky.social, on Terrence Malick’s enduring influence.
yalereview.org/article/bilg...
yalereview.org/article/bilg...
Bilge Ebiri: “Why Terrence Malick Is the Most Influential Director”
Bilge Ebiri explores filmmaker Terrence Malick’s vision of grace and his far-ranging influence on American cinema.
yalereview.org
December 27, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Excellent essay, by @bilgeebiri.bsky.social, on Terrence Malick’s enduring influence.
yalereview.org/article/bilg...
yalereview.org/article/bilg...
Joseph Epstein echoes my (apparently antiquated) love for the printed dictionary in “You Can Look It Up: A Threnody for the Dictionary.”
www.commentary.org/articles/jos...
www.commentary.org/articles/jos...
You Can Look It Up
How the thing said Is in the words, how The words themselves The thing said . . . A word, that’s the poem. —James Schuyler How
www.commentary.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Joseph Epstein echoes my (apparently antiquated) love for the printed dictionary in “You Can Look It Up: A Threnody for the Dictionary.”
www.commentary.org/articles/jos...
www.commentary.org/articles/jos...
Glued to the news. It is awful to see Providence’s East side become an active crime scene. I’m saddened by the casualties and, with the shooter still at large, worried about Brown University colleagues and students still sheltering in place.
December 14, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Glued to the news. It is awful to see Providence’s East side become an active crime scene. I’m saddened by the casualties and, with the shooter still at large, worried about Brown University colleagues and students still sheltering in place.
Thinking about how much time I spent as a child watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968), Sesame Street (1969), and The Electric Company (1971). Mr. Rogers was most important for me, although Sesame’s groovy "Pinball Counting Song” always got my full attention.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJ-...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJ-...
Sesame Street: Pinball Number 4
YouTube video by Sesame Street
www.youtube.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Thinking about how much time I spent as a child watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968), Sesame Street (1969), and The Electric Company (1971). Mr. Rogers was most important for me, although Sesame’s groovy "Pinball Counting Song” always got my full attention.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJ-...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJ-...
Brilliantly provocative essay from Christian Wiman: “I aim to call into question some of our most settled ideas, and lay a little depth charge under some of the dualisms that define and derange us.” harpers.org/archive/2025...
The Tune of Things, by Christian Wiman
Is consciousness God?
harpers.org
November 28, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Brilliantly provocative essay from Christian Wiman: “I aim to call into question some of our most settled ideas, and lay a little depth charge under some of the dualisms that define and derange us.” harpers.org/archive/2025...
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
Yours truly speaking about the super cool previously unreleased Artistics and Talking Heads demos which are available today at your local independent record store.
Talking Heads' Chris Frantz on the newly resurfaced 'Psycho Killer' demo
Podcast Episode · Rhode Island Report · 11/27/2025 · 22m
podcasts.apple.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Yours truly speaking about the super cool previously unreleased Artistics and Talking Heads demos which are available today at your local independent record store.
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
Impossible how good reading is. You mean I just point my face at the paper for a bit and it does a whole update on my brain?
November 23, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Impossible how good reading is. You mean I just point my face at the paper for a bit and it does a whole update on my brain?
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
Announcing the latest issue of Participations! (Feel free to share :) ).
This issue, we feature articles on BookTok, K-Drama, Cinephiliac memory, inclusivity in Harry Potter fanfic and work on audiences in Ghana and Flanders! :)
www.participations.org
This issue, we feature articles on BookTok, K-Drama, Cinephiliac memory, inclusivity in Harry Potter fanfic and work on audiences in Ghana and Flanders! :)
www.participations.org
Participations – Journal of Audience and Reception Studies
www.participations.org
November 17, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Announcing the latest issue of Participations! (Feel free to share :) ).
This issue, we feature articles on BookTok, K-Drama, Cinephiliac memory, inclusivity in Harry Potter fanfic and work on audiences in Ghana and Flanders! :)
www.participations.org
This issue, we feature articles on BookTok, K-Drama, Cinephiliac memory, inclusivity in Harry Potter fanfic and work on audiences in Ghana and Flanders! :)
www.participations.org
Jesse Green, "Black Musical Theater, 200 Years and Running.” [See also: Marvin McAllister, *White People Do Not Know How to Behave at Entertainments Designed for Ladies and Gentlemen of Colour*, UNC Press, 2003].
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Black Musical Theater, 200 Years and Running (Gift Article)
The nearly forgotten Black stars, songwriters and strivers who made Broadway what it is today.
www.nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Jesse Green, "Black Musical Theater, 200 Years and Running.” [See also: Marvin McAllister, *White People Do Not Know How to Behave at Entertainments Designed for Ladies and Gentlemen of Colour*, UNC Press, 2003].
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Arrived in the mail today. Time for rereading.
October 14, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Arrived in the mail today. Time for rereading.
The Booker Prize 2025 shortlist: thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...
Everything you need to know about the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist | The Booker Prizes
As the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist is announced, we’ve picked out the most interesting facts, trends and themes that have emerged in this year’s selection
thebookerprizes.com
September 23, 2025 at 9:39 PM
The Booker Prize 2025 shortlist: thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
My article on how the performing arts can be incorporated as a method for public humanities has just been published in the online, open-access journal, Public Humanities. Free to download. #publichumanities #AcademicSky #PerformingArts #HigherEd #theatre #arts
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
September 19, 2025 at 2:33 PM
My article on how the performing arts can be incorporated as a method for public humanities has just been published in the online, open-access journal, Public Humanities. Free to download. #publichumanities #AcademicSky #PerformingArts #HigherEd #theatre #arts
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
Just got an email that they're doing a 2025 reprint of The Past, Present and Future of Fan-Fiction, which now is also free to download! Essays by a lot of good people: mdpi.com/books/reprin... #mdpi via @MDPI
mdpi.com
September 15, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Just got an email that they're doing a 2025 reprint of The Past, Present and Future of Fan-Fiction, which now is also free to download! Essays by a lot of good people: mdpi.com/books/reprin... #mdpi via @MDPI
New essay on early 20th-century Gilbert and Sullivan fandom, by James Brooks Kuykendall, in the latest Transformative Works and Cultures (Vol. 46):
doi.org/10.3983/twc....
doi.org/10.3983/twc....
Fandom and the early years of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society (1924–45)
| Transformative Works and Cultures
doi.org
September 15, 2025 at 2:38 PM
New essay on early 20th-century Gilbert and Sullivan fandom, by James Brooks Kuykendall, in the latest Transformative Works and Cultures (Vol. 46):
doi.org/10.3983/twc....
doi.org/10.3983/twc....
Quick note: Sheryl Kaskowitz’s *A Chance to Harmonize* came out in paperback today. Great read about the controversial music programs of the New Deal’s Resettlement Administration and, especially, the women--Margaret Valiant and Sidney Robertson--who shaped them.
bookshop.org/p/books/a-ch...
bookshop.org/p/books/a-ch...
A Chance to Harmonize: How FDR's Hidden Music Unit Sought to Save America from the Great Depression—One Song at a Time
How FDR's Hidden Music Unit Sought to Save America from the Great Depression—One Song at a Time
bookshop.org
September 10, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Quick note: Sheryl Kaskowitz’s *A Chance to Harmonize* came out in paperback today. Great read about the controversial music programs of the New Deal’s Resettlement Administration and, especially, the women--Margaret Valiant and Sidney Robertson--who shaped them.
bookshop.org/p/books/a-ch...
bookshop.org/p/books/a-ch...
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
Bruce Springsteen to release fabled electric version of 1982 album Nebraska. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...
Bruce Springsteen to release fabled electric version of 1982 album Nebraska
Studio versions of the stark, home-recorded album have never been issued, but will appear alongside new Springsteen biopic
www.theguardian.com
September 4, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Bruce Springsteen to release fabled electric version of 1982 album Nebraska. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...
Feeling old: I actually have to explain, on the first day of class, that the brain is the most important and enduring “education tool."
September 4, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Feeling old: I actually have to explain, on the first day of class, that the brain is the most important and enduring “education tool."
Reposted by Daniel Cavicchi
psst: new Pop Conference call. Repost please. www.popconference.org
PopCon | 2026
PopCon is the premier music writing and popular music studies conference.
www.popconference.org
August 30, 2025 at 3:07 AM
psst: new Pop Conference call. Repost please. www.popconference.org