Phil Gentry
@pmgentry.bsky.social
musicologist at the University of Delaware, citizen of West Philly.
http://instagram.com/philipmgentry
Current projects:
-Anti-Communist Blacklisting in the Music Industry, 1945–1960
-History and Performance in the Semiquincentennial
http://instagram.com/philipmgentry
Current projects:
-Anti-Communist Blacklisting in the Music Industry, 1945–1960
-History and Performance in the Semiquincentennial
Hour 1 of road trip: I just love this little family so much, I want nothing more then to bundled up together in this car, a cozy little bubble of comity off on an adventure.
Hour 4: I wonder what it would feel like to drive this minivan directly into oncoming traffic.
Hour 4: I wonder what it would feel like to drive this minivan directly into oncoming traffic.
February 14, 2026 at 2:20 AM
Hour 1 of road trip: I just love this little family so much, I want nothing more then to bundled up together in this car, a cozy little bubble of comity off on an adventure.
Hour 4: I wonder what it would feel like to drive this minivan directly into oncoming traffic.
Hour 4: I wonder what it would feel like to drive this minivan directly into oncoming traffic.
Somebody ordered DoorDash late last night—cheap Chinese food, and lots of it—and the delivery person mistakenly left it on our porch, around midnight so we don’t find it until the morning when it was a big frozen mass. Just a tragedy all around.
February 13, 2026 at 8:28 PM
Somebody ordered DoorDash late last night—cheap Chinese food, and lots of it—and the delivery person mistakenly left it on our porch, around midnight so we don’t find it until the morning when it was a big frozen mass. Just a tragedy all around.
Not one to be proud of, but….Robert McNamara. 😬
February 12, 2026 at 4:21 AM
Not one to be proud of, but….Robert McNamara. 😬
Me, a professor: if you say that music is a universal language in your paper I will fail you.
The most distinguished musicians alive in the 1940s, including Copland, Koussevitzy, Ormandy, Walters, Bernstein, Menotti, Piston, Horowitz, and so on.
The most distinguished musicians alive in the 1940s, including Copland, Koussevitzy, Ormandy, Walters, Bernstein, Menotti, Piston, Horowitz, and so on.
February 11, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Me, a professor: if you say that music is a universal language in your paper I will fail you.
The most distinguished musicians alive in the 1940s, including Copland, Koussevitzy, Ormandy, Walters, Bernstein, Menotti, Piston, Horowitz, and so on.
The most distinguished musicians alive in the 1940s, including Copland, Koussevitzy, Ormandy, Walters, Bernstein, Menotti, Piston, Horowitz, and so on.
Something tells me that if, best case scenario, they are choosing a partner by April, the saucer will not be ready for any of these events lol
February 10, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Something tells me that if, best case scenario, they are choosing a partner by April, the saucer will not be ready for any of these events lol
I'm doing a bunch of research right now in a collection that was very expensively digitized over 15 years ago, but whatever backend stuff supports it probably hasn't been updated since then and it's barely functional now. 😭
February 10, 2026 at 6:48 PM
I'm doing a bunch of research right now in a collection that was very expensively digitized over 15 years ago, but whatever backend stuff supports it probably hasn't been updated since then and it's barely functional now. 😭
My one Leon Botstein interaction was when he came to give a talk at my undergrad college, and threw a hissy fit when he was asked not to smoke cigars inside.
As someone whose first academic job was teaching at Bard: Botstein has an unholy hold on the college. We never had independent full faculty meetings, as he presided over all of them. He's been Bard's president more than 50 years & will be interesting to see if anyone there calls for him to step down
New Email Shows Bard’s President Thanked Epstein for Caribbean Trip
www.nytimes.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:13 PM
My one Leon Botstein interaction was when he came to give a talk at my undergrad college, and threw a hissy fit when he was asked not to smoke cigars inside.
Re-watching the half-time show, and just very impressed that all of the grass people stayed still and didn’t dance, but also a little sad they didn’t get a chance to.
February 10, 2026 at 2:13 AM
Re-watching the half-time show, and just very impressed that all of the grass people stayed still and didn’t dance, but also a little sad they didn’t get a chance to.
Okay, tangent from thread review of Complications in Sue, I have to get a media coverage thing off my chest: Anthony Roth Constanzo is great, I’m excited he is charge, but the notion that he is responsible for how exciting Opera Philly can be is very annoyingly wrong.
February 10, 2026 at 1:50 AM
Okay, tangent from thread review of Complications in Sue, I have to get a media coverage thing off my chest: Anthony Roth Constanzo is great, I’m excited he is charge, but the notion that he is responsible for how exciting Opera Philly can be is very annoyingly wrong.
I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath for my takes on Complications In Sue, the new 10-composer’d work premiered by Opera Philly last week! I liked it a lot. In no particular order: www.operaphila.org/whats-on/252...
Complications in Sue - Complications in Sue
One librettist, one actor, four singers, and ten composers join forces to make opera in a brand-new way. In his first opera libretto, Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright Michael R. Jackson (A S...
www.operaphila.org
February 10, 2026 at 1:35 AM
I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath for my takes on Complications In Sue, the new 10-composer’d work premiered by Opera Philly last week! I liked it a lot. In no particular order: www.operaphila.org/whats-on/252...
Sunday was a big day for believing in yourself, though with mixed results. :-/
February 9, 2026 at 9:26 PM
Sunday was a big day for believing in yourself, though with mixed results. :-/
I’m not mad about it, but I am struggling to track the vibe shift that gave us a 2026 Super Bowl featuring Bad Bunny, Green Day, Brandi Carlile, and Charlie Puth.
February 8, 2026 at 11:31 PM
I’m not mad about it, but I am struggling to track the vibe shift that gave us a 2026 Super Bowl featuring Bad Bunny, Green Day, Brandi Carlile, and Charlie Puth.
Did we all know that Brandi Carlile was performing?? 😍
February 8, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Did we all know that Brandi Carlile was performing?? 😍
I dunno, as it happens I was a teenager in the east bay in the 1990s who had some allegiance—as silly and rockist and hypocritical as it was—to some punk authenticisms, and I remember Green Day selling out the first time in 1994, and haven’t ever 100% moved on.
February 8, 2026 at 11:16 PM
I dunno, as it happens I was a teenager in the east bay in the 1990s who had some allegiance—as silly and rockist and hypocritical as it was—to some punk authenticisms, and I remember Green Day selling out the first time in 1994, and haven’t ever 100% moved on.
“Delete your first sentence, your second sentence is almost always a better opening.”
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"You have to really stretch that third finger for C#.”
"You have to really stretch that third finger for C#.”
February 8, 2026 at 12:47 AM
“Delete your first sentence, your second sentence is almost always a better opening.”
Reposted by Phil Gentry
This was a really difficult storm to respond to, but I always feel like Parker's biggest problem, aside from ideology, is she always seems allergic to just saying 'we did our best, but it wasn't good enough, and I'm sorry.' Instead it's always 'we did a good job, and you just can't see that.'
Philadelphians are frustrated with the city’s snow storm cleanup. What does that mean for Mayor Cherelle Parker?
Snowstorms are infamous for their ability to undermine constituents’ faith in their mayors. The risk of fallout could be heightened for Parker, who campaigned on a promise to provide city services.
www.inquirer.com
February 5, 2026 at 2:59 PM
This was a really difficult storm to respond to, but I always feel like Parker's biggest problem, aside from ideology, is she always seems allergic to just saying 'we did our best, but it wasn't good enough, and I'm sorry.' Instead it's always 'we did a good job, and you just can't see that.'
Assuming that Bezos never intended to make money with the Post in the first place, my theory is he bought it in the Obama era to attack liberal institutions from within, and in the Trump era where those institutions are all dead, he doesn’t need it anymore. Mission accomplished!
February 4, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Assuming that Bezos never intended to make money with the Post in the first place, my theory is he bought it in the Obama era to attack liberal institutions from within, and in the Trump era where those institutions are all dead, he doesn’t need it anymore. Mission accomplished!
I’ve noticed it’s a distinct Parker-ism to brag about accomplishments in these raw numbers that are completely meaningless. Is…melting 4.7m pounds of snow good? I have no idea. It seems like there is a lot of snow on the ground still.
February 3, 2026 at 9:33 PM
I’ve noticed it’s a distinct Parker-ism to brag about accomplishments in these raw numbers that are completely meaningless. Is…melting 4.7m pounds of snow good? I have no idea. It seems like there is a lot of snow on the ground still.
Reading in newspaper reports from 1949 that when Shostakovich came to NYC to speak at the Waldorf Peace Conference, he was spotted flying home to the Soviet Union "carrying a bundle of phonograph records." Would love to know what records he bought here!
February 3, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Reading in newspaper reports from 1949 that when Shostakovich came to NYC to speak at the Waldorf Peace Conference, he was spotted flying home to the Soviet Union "carrying a bundle of phonograph records." Would love to know what records he bought here!
Reposted by Phil Gentry
Today, in local news (paywalled alas)
Kelly Powers, “UD Removes Student Research on Slavery, Newark History amid Federal Pressure,” The News Journal, February 3, 2026,
www.delawareonline.com/story/news/e...
Kelly Powers, “UD Removes Student Research on Slavery, Newark History amid Federal Pressure,” The News Journal, February 3, 2026,
www.delawareonline.com/story/news/e...
UD removes student research on slavery, Newark history amid federal pressure
Over the past year, UD has reacted to pressure under a second Trump administration, while tuning a “long-term strategy” on campus inclusion.
www.delawareonline.com
February 3, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Today, in local news (paywalled alas)
Kelly Powers, “UD Removes Student Research on Slavery, Newark History amid Federal Pressure,” The News Journal, February 3, 2026,
www.delawareonline.com/story/news/e...
Kelly Powers, “UD Removes Student Research on Slavery, Newark History amid Federal Pressure,” The News Journal, February 3, 2026,
www.delawareonline.com/story/news/e...
It has been written/talked about a lot, but in the archives and reading the original confidential FBI report on It’s a Wonderful Life never gets old.
![[redacted] stated that in his opinion this picture deliberately maligned the upper class attempting to show that people who had money were mean and despicable characters. Informant stated that if he had made this picture portraying the banker that he would have shown this individual to have been following rules ae laid down by the state bank examiners ln connection with making loans. Further, the informant stated that… wouldn't have…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ybsrj6vqjuuwomliu5lqjuxy/bafkreih3bxvvwpc6h3jkkvb6oufeelumjjfiaw6zdj5frpr2nvbbgcyaqm@jpeg)
February 2, 2026 at 9:19 PM
It has been written/talked about a lot, but in the archives and reading the original confidential FBI report on It’s a Wonderful Life never gets old.
It’s a niche complaint, and I don’t mean to be depressing, but I have elderly family members who purposefully retired to live near the Kennedy Center so that they could continue seeing live music in their old age, and they very well might not be able-bodied or even alive in two years. 🤷♂️
February 2, 2026 at 3:26 PM
It’s a niche complaint, and I don’t mean to be depressing, but I have elderly family members who purposefully retired to live near the Kennedy Center so that they could continue seeing live music in their old age, and they very well might not be able-bodied or even alive in two years. 🤷♂️
My commute to work frequently coincides with the precise moment that 30 to 40 FedEx trucks all pull out of their distribution facility into a traffic-choked street, and…I guess I just wish it didn’t?
February 2, 2026 at 2:22 PM
My commute to work frequently coincides with the precise moment that 30 to 40 FedEx trucks all pull out of their distribution facility into a traffic-choked street, and…I guess I just wish it didn’t?
Reposted by Phil Gentry
chatGPT is what shapiro deserves but the rest of us deserve better than chatGPT AND shapiro
February 2, 2026 at 1:37 AM
chatGPT is what shapiro deserves but the rest of us deserve better than chatGPT AND shapiro
Our parish lost its rector in sudden and painful circumstances two years ago, and it’s been chaotic ever since, with an awe-inspiring amount of labor by the lay leadership to keep things going. But the new permanent rector started today, and allowing for some optimism that we might have made it!
February 1, 2026 at 4:33 PM
Our parish lost its rector in sudden and painful circumstances two years ago, and it’s been chaotic ever since, with an awe-inspiring amount of labor by the lay leadership to keep things going. But the new permanent rector started today, and allowing for some optimism that we might have made it!