Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dirt Star

Tammy Lai-Ming Ho

@myetcetera.bsky.social

Very pleased to announce the first accepted poems for the WHITE feature in an upcoming issue of Hong Kong's Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine.

Ellen:
facebook.com/photo/?fbid=...

November 21, 2025 at 8:13 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

The Sigit rocks, and this song is fire. on.soundcloud.com/jogdm0yWShYS...

on.soundcloud.com

November 12, 2025 at 3:03 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Wanted to share this new playlist of Soundcloud gems with you. Have a listen ✊🏽🎶 on.soundcloud.com/JkGdz54OhPrX...

Soundcloud Gems

Hi! I’m a singer-songwriter. Some friends call me Dirt, some call me the dirtstar. Sometimes it’s Dirt Star. I am always looking out for new music, and creating some playlists featuring artists in Sou

soundcloud.com

November 7, 2025 at 7:23 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Inspiring - the true power of music @kitchensisters.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/my/podcast/t...

The Real Ambassadors — A Jazz Opera for Louis Armstrong by Dave & Iola Brubeck

Podcast Episode · The Kitchen Sisters Present · 16/09/2025 · 37m

podcasts.apple.com

September 16, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Can anyone tell me if there is like a rule that music played in UK cafes but be all major chords?

September 15, 2025 at 1:08 PM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Good afternoon 😊✌🏽

September 15, 2025 at 11:25 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Don’t even grasp what Chris says. But I promise to trust him and keep going ✊🏽🫡

chris walla, ssurly @calculizer.bsky.social · Jun 22

my periodic reminder that your artistic work — your writing, music, dance, whatever it is — is crucially important for you and for the people who receive it, in ways you might never personally experience or grasp. you gotta trust me, please keep going

August 12, 2025 at 12:12 PM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

More exceptional China rock and roll writing by @davefrazier.bsky.social

Mekong Review @handle.invalid · Jul 2

While the voices and expressions in Chinese rock have come from Chinese musicians, outsiders have consistently injected know-how and resources into the country’s marginalised underground musical movements.

Read more: mekongreview.com/for...

Subscribe: mekongreview.com/sub...

In 1979, when Graham Earnshaw, a British journalist, first moved to Beijing to be a Reuters correspondent, he packed a guitar. In the days when the Chinese capital was just emerging from the chaos of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and a musical landscape of little more than revolutionary opera, he formed a rock band with other western expats. They called themselves the Peking All-Stars and performed at expat watering holes—spaces that enjoyed relatively greater degrees of free expression in a restrictive China and, as American scholar Andrew Jones put it, a form of unofficial “extraterritoriality”.

In the early 1980s, aspiring local musicians regularly joined Earnshaw’s band in open jams—a young trumpet player named Cui Jian and saxophone player Liu Yuan among them. In May 1986, Cui, with Yuan in his band, became the first in China to perform rock ‘n’ roll to a national audience. Playing on a state television music programme, their rendition of ‘一无所有 (Nothing to My Name)’ is widely credited as the moment Chinese rock was born. It inscribed Cui as the father of the genre and the song as one of its most enduring anthems.

July 2, 2025 at 10:16 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Someone made this awesome montage of a Dirt Star performance. Bonus if you can name the montage artist!

May 17, 2025 at 10:01 AM

Reposted by Dirt Star

SOAS University of London

@soasuni.bsky.social

📣 Join us as we host the band Bahiyya for an intimate evening to reflect on the enduring role of music in activism.

19 May, 7pm.

Register: bit.ly/3SCuA3l

May 16, 2025 at 9:30 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Hey just a thought y’all. ‘Keep on rockin’ in the free world’ youtu.be/DvxxdZpMFHg

Rockin' in the Free World

YouTube video by Neil Young - Topic

youtu.be

April 28, 2025 at 1:36 PM

Reposted by Dirt Star

Nathanel Amar

@nathanelamar.bsky.social

Still need more time to process the new Wasted Laika 丢莱卡 album released a few weeks ago, "红蜻蜓，绿孔雀". It's a beautifully crafted album, which deserves many listening sessions. I especially recommend "迟到冠军", "红蜻蜓", "莱卡", but really all the songs are beautiful:
open.spotify.com/intl-fr/albu...

紅蜻蜓，綠孔雀

丟萊卡 · Album · 2025 · 11 songs

open.spotify.com

February 28, 2025 at 6:45 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Like this song, gets me every time on.soundcloud.com/V342SzxpobtZ...

ONLY YOURS ft. Bani Haykal

This might be our favourite track, not least because Bani is on it. Like we said, we worship the guy. Because his talents and interests are so vastly varied it’s been a long, long time since he’s sung

on.soundcloud.com

February 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

These days music means more than ever to me

February 23, 2025 at 2:30 PM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Automatically my new favourite podcast - bring it on!

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · Feb 20

The first episode of my new Rhyming Chaos Podcast with @chinaheritage.bsky.social on parallels between moments of great change in recent Chinese history and the coup underway in the United States.

These are some of the lessons we can learn about the Musk-Trump takeover from Mao and Xi's China:

How to commit a self-coup, in the U.S. and in China, with Geremie Barmé

What recent Chinese history can teach us about the Musk-Trump power grab

www.goldkorn.world

February 21, 2025 at 4:17 PM

Reposted by Dirt Star

Cedrik Fermont | Syrphe

@syrphe.bsky.social

22 Febrero 2025, conciertos con Tío Puc, Nick Vander, Cedrik Fermont at Liliput Galeria Xperimental in Puebla, Mexico.

syrphe.com/c-drik.html
nickvander.bandcamp.com
soundcloud.com/tiopuc

#experimentalmusic #electronicmusic #freeimprovisation #electronica #musicaexperimental #musicaeletronica

February 18, 2025 at 7:59 PM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Boycotts aside, Sloan is worthy of a listen anytime 🫡

Dave Mandl @dmandl.bsky.social · Feb 17

I'm boycotting music from the US in favor of Canadian music (at least for a few hours). I love this song so much: sounds from top to bottom like a mid-'70s power-pop song, but it's from 1998. Verses in a very clever 6/4. youtu.be/WoB0reJe7CE

February 17, 2025 at 4:28 PM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

New mix in progress, we hit the noodle shop after the session

February 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Couldn’t agree more !

Oliver Farry @oliverfarry.com · Feb 6

👀

(I can't understand why more studios don't do this with their decades-old IP, which the vast majority of streaming sites have no interest whatsoever in taking on.)

Will Kouf @silveremulsion.bsky.social · Feb 4

Celestial has a new Shaw Brothers YouTube sharing full movies with subs in glorious DVD quality! Lots of rare titles so far, like the 1st film Chang Cheh directed for Shaw (co-directed w/ Yuan Qiu-Feng), the musical The Butterfly Chalice. Haven't seen it yet (or any of the others), so this is neato!

February 6, 2025 at 10:06 AM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

A great list by Nathaniel of Sinophone music 😊

Nathanel Amar @nathanelamar.bsky.social · Jan 1

As usual, here's a list of Sinophone songs which defined my year 2024, in no particular order. 2024 was a year of extraordinary live performances, we lost one of China's most important rock'n'roll figure, Liu Yuan, and we got great new songs and albums:
scream4life.hypotheses.org/4277

Sinophone Music in 2024: It’s A-Live!

Last year, I said that Sinophone music was haunted by death and disappearance, but it was also the year when Chinese bands could again tour the world. This year, it’s about the same: we lost one of th...

scream4life.hypotheses.org

January 31, 2025 at 12:28 PM

Dirt Star

@dirtstar.bsky.social

Jeremy, always in awe how you can capture the zeitgeist

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · Jan 29

I saw the first flock of Sandhill Cranes flying over Nashville migrating north today and wrote this haiku:

The snake year begins
Sandhill cranes are flying north
As the nation fails

January 31, 2025 at 7:28 AM