Laurie Stras
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lauriestras.bsky.social
Laurie Stras
@lauriestras.bsky.social
4.3K followers 760 following 3.1K posts
Feminist, musicologist, musician, extreme knitter, gardener. Not necessarily in that order. Girl groups from Ferrara to Motown; all the nuns, all the time; disability studies

Prof Emerita of Music, Uni of Southampton; director @musicasecreta.bsky.social
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lauriestras.bsky.social
Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · Nov 9
Hello to all my new followers. Want to know what I do? Here's the long version (recorded in 2020, hello Long Covid). Curtis the OG #MedRenPet makes an extended appearance halfway through #caturday #earlymodern

tl;dr in next skeet

youtu.be/5ojRaQA2b08?...
What Does It Mean When A Woman Sings? Keynote lecture, MedRen Music Conference 2020
YouTube video by MusicaSecreta
youtu.be
Reposted by Laurie Stras
entirelyharmless.bsky.social
Kinder, Kirche, Küche.

Because "basic biology".

Welcome to the (nineteen) twenties.
goodlawproject.org Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 1d
Who had "biology is destiny, after all" on their feminist bingo card? The answer is "no one," because it's the complete antithesis of everything feminism stands for. And if that isn't obvious enough, just look at who's pushing it: every authoritarian fascist in the world, without exception.
sorrelish.bsky.social Sorrel @sorrelish.bsky.social · 1d
As a cis woman I’m actually super stoked to uncouple the concept of fecundity from the concept of cis woman & given that feminism has been trying to do this exact thing for decades (centuries?) it’s baffling to see ‘feminists’ being like ‘no ACKTUALLY women ARE defined by their ability to reproduce’
November 10, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
artsyhonker.bsky.social
Without wanting to stick my oar in too far:

It's possible to recognise that we have a higher standard of living now than in the past and *also* to believe that inequitable distribution is wrong and that widespread precarity for everyone but the very rich should be fought tooth and nail.
November 10, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
alisonatkin.bsky.social
After his career as a jazz musician, Spike Hughes was a composer, journalist, and broadcaster. While working, he covered the ceremony at the Cenotaph for much of the 1930s. I came across his work while researching something else entirely, but I wanted to share this, from 1938.
Saturday, November 12 1938 This time I did not go.. By Spike Hughes A FEW doors away from where I live there is a big block of buildings. Its inhabitants spend their lives in wheeled chairs. They sit out in the sun by the gates. Some of them don't see the sun because they're blind. None of them has any legs that he can walk on. I bought my poppy yesterday, because I know some of the men it helps. They are the men in the wheeled chairs. I bought my poppy, but I stayed at home all morning. During recent years I have gone to the Cenotaph on Armistice Day, watched the ceremony from the roof of the Ministry of Labour and come back to the office to write about it. This year I preferred to be alone. I know the Cenotaph ceremony by heart-the clockwork precision of the whole affair, the sombre row of Cabinet Ministers, the sad tunes played by the pipers, the pigeons that swirl over the roof tops when the maroons are fired, the striking of Big Ben. SOMETIMES there is a different king to lay his wreath, and there are new faces among the Cabinet Ministers. But it doesn't vary very much. It is an impressive ceremony, for the British have a great gift of ceremonial. The British also have a great gift for forgetting the origin of their ceremonies. They have forgotten what that Two Minutes' Silence is for. What was once a spontaneous tribute, a nation's gesture of determination that there should be no more war, has become an annual habit. There are 525,600 minutes in every year. For two of those minutes we stop work and are silent. THE traffic is still and we honour the Glorious Dead. It's the only chance they get, these Glorious Dead. For as soon as the maroon is fired again we go back to work, building such machines as twenty years ago transformed a million men from the Obscure Living into the Glorious Dead. What a tremendous, ironic thought it is: that the only time there is silence in an armament factory is for two minutes, when we remember the men killed by the very kind of things we are making! What a nice backhanded tribute to pay that million! I didn't go to the Cenotaph yesterday because I consider that two minutes' reflection in 525,600 is a shamefully bad average. I didn't go because, though a nation may still honour its dead, it no longer honours the ideal for which these dead fought. I didn't go to the Cenotaph because to mourn the Glorious Dead and to forget why they died is bitter hypocrisy. I didn't go because of what happened last year. A poor lunatic " broke the silence," and the crowd shouted " Lynch him! " He had disturbed one form of mass-hysteria and incited another.. He had chosen the wrong moment to speak what should have been in every one's hearts: that you cannot honour the dead one moment and build more lethal machines the next. One or other of these acts is insincere. I leave it to your conscience which. Yet in Parliament afterwards a Minister of the Crown stated that the man was " obviously suffering from illusions." It was the story of the Emperor's Clothes all over again. No. I shall go to the Cenotaph again only when November 11 ceases to be Armistice Day. Even the word " Armistice " is not enough. It means a " short truce." Nothing permanent, you see. Heaven knows peace has not been a permanent state of affairs. BUT if every November 11 were made the climax of our year, if we were determined that the day and its observance were sacred, that there should never be war between one November 11 and the next, then I should believe in that Two Minutes' Silence again. That would be the surest way to honour the dead. They would have preferred it that way.
November 10, 2023 at 4:21 PM
lauriestras.bsky.social
Just extraordinary
alisonatkin.bsky.social Alison Atkin @alisonatkin.bsky.social · Nov 10
After his career as a jazz musician, Spike Hughes was a composer, journalist, and broadcaster. While working, he covered the ceremony at the Cenotaph for much of the 1930s. I came across his work while researching something else entirely, but I wanted to share this, from 1938.
Saturday, November 12 1938 This time I did not go.. By Spike Hughes A FEW doors away from where I live there is a big block of buildings. Its inhabitants spend their lives in wheeled chairs. They sit out in the sun by the gates. Some of them don't see the sun because they're blind. None of them has any legs that he can walk on. I bought my poppy yesterday, because I know some of the men it helps. They are the men in the wheeled chairs. I bought my poppy, but I stayed at home all morning. During recent years I have gone to the Cenotaph on Armistice Day, watched the ceremony from the roof of the Ministry of Labour and come back to the office to write about it. This year I preferred to be alone. I know the Cenotaph ceremony by heart-the clockwork precision of the whole affair, the sombre row of Cabinet Ministers, the sad tunes played by the pipers, the pigeons that swirl over the roof tops when the maroons are fired, the striking of Big Ben. SOMETIMES there is a different king to lay his wreath, and there are new faces among the Cabinet Ministers. But it doesn't vary very much. It is an impressive ceremony, for the British have a great gift of ceremonial. The British also have a great gift for forgetting the origin of their ceremonies. They have forgotten what that Two Minutes' Silence is for. What was once a spontaneous tribute, a nation's gesture of determination that there should be no more war, has become an annual habit. There are 525,600 minutes in every year. For two of those minutes we stop work and are silent. THE traffic is still and we honour the Glorious Dead. It's the only chance they get, these Glorious Dead. For as soon as the maroon is fired again we go back to work, building such machines as twenty years ago transformed a million men from the Obscure Living into the Glorious Dead. What a tremendous, ironic thought it is: that the only time there is silence in an armament factory is for two minutes, when we remember the men killed by the very kind of things we are making! What a nice backhanded tribute to pay that million! I didn't go to the Cenotaph yesterday because I consider that two minutes' reflection in 525,600 is a shamefully bad average. I didn't go because, though a nation may still honour its dead, it no longer honours the ideal for which these dead fought. I didn't go to the Cenotaph because to mourn the Glorious Dead and to forget why they died is bitter hypocrisy. I didn't go because of what happened last year. A poor lunatic " broke the silence," and the crowd shouted " Lynch him! " He had disturbed one form of mass-hysteria and incited another.. He had chosen the wrong moment to speak what should have been in every one's hearts: that you cannot honour the dead one moment and build more lethal machines the next. One or other of these acts is insincere. I leave it to your conscience which. Yet in Parliament afterwards a Minister of the Crown stated that the man was " obviously suffering from illusions." It was the story of the Emperor's Clothes all over again. No. I shall go to the Cenotaph again only when November 11 ceases to be Armistice Day. Even the word " Armistice " is not enough. It means a " short truce." Nothing permanent, you see. Heaven knows peace has not been a permanent state of affairs. BUT if every November 11 were made the climax of our year, if we were determined that the day and its observance were sacred, that there should never be war between one November 11 and the next, then I should believe in that Two Minutes' Silence again. That would be the surest way to honour the dead. They would have preferred it that way.
November 9, 2025 at 10:09 AM
lauriestras.bsky.social
Warm, serious, not so serious, courageous, and often revelatory. Congratulations @quietriotpod.bsky.social you are the pinnacle of pods
quietriotpod.bsky.social Quiet Riot @quietriotpod.bsky.social · 3d
Putting this together was actually a HUGE amount of fun.

Feel free to share it - here or on whatever platform and with whichever friend or family member you think would enjoy our vibe and the gorgeous community we have become.
November 7, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
quietriotpod.bsky.social
Putting this together was actually a HUGE amount of fun.

Feel free to share it - here or on whatever platform and with whichever friend or family member you think would enjoy our vibe and the gorgeous community we have become.
November 7, 2025 at 3:17 PM
lauriestras.bsky.social
There were some ... issues ... with access and audio for my #AMS2025 CWG keynote yesterday, but it was almost as wonderful a session as the roundtable that followed it, so here it is if you couldn’t get into the zoom 1/ youtu.be/eRtnv1U8ErU
A feminist killjoy at the AMS
YouTube video by Laurie Stras
youtu.be
November 7, 2025 at 12:31 PM
lauriestras.bsky.social
No. Cannot get excited about people I don’t know playing out some kind of fantasy scenario. Oh we’re talking about reality tv not the constitutional monarchy?
historyhannahb.bsky.social Hannah Barker @historyhannahb.bsky.social · 4d
Am I the only historian in the UK who has not been watching celebrity traitors?
November 7, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
danelphick.bsky.social
Well this is awful news: tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'

Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham
In a statement the institution also says it is
www.bbc.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 11:36 AM
lauriestras.bsky.social
love having my stereo set up where I can listen to it again! I'd forgotten about this absolute GEM - I don't have this CD, but a whole double album of Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson duets. Breathtaking. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtTH...
Prelude In C Sharp Minor Op 3
YouTube video by Eddie Lang - Topic
www.youtube.com
November 5, 2025 at 5:40 PM
lauriestras.bsky.social
Job alert! www.rcm.ac.uk/about/jobs/c...
Research Coordinator | Royal College of Music
www.rcm.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 9:56 AM
lauriestras.bsky.social
Essential POV. Back in 2016, I challenged a childhood friend who was backing Trump, right after the Access Hollywood tapes came out. She has two sons and two daughters. I asked how she would feel if someone talked about her daughters that way. She said, “it’s locker room talk. … 1/
privatechand.bsky.social If you know you know @privatechand.bsky.social · 6d
Before we overplay gender and pathologize our boys, according to NBC’s exit polling young voting age men are also up 40% for Mamdani. Just like the “male loneliness crisis” beware of bullshit political gendered political discourse. Everybody, regardless of gender, is fucked by the current system.
santiagomayer.com Santiago Mayer @santiagomayer.com · 6d
WOW. 81% of women 18-29 voted for Mamdani, 80% for Sherril, and 78% for Spanberger.

Gen Z women aren't playing around.
November 5, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
zackpolanski.bsky.social
Zohran's campaign was his determination to make New York a city everyone can afford to live in. Huge congratulations!

His success will resonate throughout the world. A story where no one is left behind.

It's time to write that story across England & Wales too.
Zohran smiling on the street
November 5, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
clairewillett.bsky.social
you can win without billionaires supporting you

you can win without party leadership endorsing you

you can win unapologetically standing with every persecuted minority pundits say are too politically toxic to touch

we could do everything about this process differently if we wanted to
erinbiba.bsky.social Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 6d
Can’t stop thinking about all the robber baron fucks that held secret meetings and spent MILLIONS AND MILLIONS in bribes and campaign investments and attack ads and media manipulation trying to tank Mamdani currently having the dawning realization that their money is completely and utterly useless.
November 5, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
lauriestras.bsky.social
If you love gnarly Renaissance avant-garde, try this. Win-win: the music is a whole lot better + you don't have to deal with a coprophiliac uxoricide (he abused his 2nd wife, too, until she returned to Ferrara for refuge). I've never understood the kudos he's given. open.spotify.com/album/44i0sQ...
Lasso, Vicentino, Rore, Lusitano, Marenzio, Luzzaschi: Chromatic Renaissance
open.spotify.com
November 4, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
lauriestras.bsky.social
Carlo Gesualdo has just endorsed Andrew Cuomo
A detail of a portrait of a man in 16th century dress. He has a wide white ruff around his neck, and the rest of his clothes are black. He has a thin beard along his June and his hair is close-cropped. He appears to be licking up at another man whose head is not in the detail. The other man is wearing a red cloak and his hand is on the other man’s shoulder.
November 4, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
drcanonic.bsky.social
So I guess if we want to attend a fully online session at AMS but are attending in person, we have to pack along headphones and stand around in the hotel's common spaces with our devices and try and tune in? There are no rooms designated for online sessions to be streamed 🙄
November 4, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
kathleencronie.bsky.social
New - Singing Through Menopause newsletter!

- Menopause, voice & the workplace
- Science festival quiz
- Hormones & the voice factsheets

To read the newsletter - kathleencronie.com/so/3ePfA49rK...

To receive the quarterly newsletter - forms.gle/5WFJyFmTFTHx...

#menopause #voice #singing #choir
Hello and welcome to the Autumn edition of the Singing Through and Beyond Menopause newsletter! In this edition: Menopause Awareness Month factsheets Stirling Science Festival Menopause and the workpl...
Menopause Awareness Month 2025 October was Menopause Awareness Month, and this year’s theme was Lifestyle Medicine. Lifestyle medicine often involves “6 pillars” – healthy eating, physical activity, m...
kathleencronie.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
theresamuir.bsky.social
Caligula has just endorsed Andrew Cuomo.
November 4, 2025 at 8:30 AM
lauriestras.bsky.social
Carlo Gesualdo has just endorsed Andrew Cuomo
A detail of a portrait of a man in 16th century dress. He has a wide white ruff around his neck, and the rest of his clothes are black. He has a thin beard along his June and his hair is close-cropped. He appears to be licking up at another man whose head is not in the detail. The other man is wearing a red cloak and his hand is on the other man’s shoulder.
November 4, 2025 at 6:37 AM
lauriestras.bsky.social
This is the wireless charger that charges the battery that powers my hi-frequency spinal neurostimulator. I am so hammered by the business and effort of moving house that I TOTALLY forgot to charge two nights running. I may be on the sofa some time.
An electronic device resting on a human knee in paisley dungarees. The charge level light on the right is on only one light out of four.
November 3, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
musicasecreta.bsky.social
We are so proud of this recording. And here’s another lovely review, this time by @earlymusicamerica.bsky.social www.earlymusicamerica.org/web-articles...
Musica Secreta's Record of Love » Early Music America
On the hills outside Florence sits the convent of San Matteo in Arcetri, where nuns once supported themselves by spinning wool and making wine. But the heart of their lives was musical prayer. A bit o...
www.earlymusicamerica.org
November 2, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
mooseallain.bsky.social
Look on my woks, (yeah, my tea), and this pear!
Photo of two woks Photo of a pear
October 30, 2025 at 6:18 PM
lauriestras.bsky.social
Winning the sky today
mooseallain.bsky.social Moose Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 11d
They said I shouldn’t do it. They said there was no point.

But I’ve done it. I’ve proved them wrong.

I’ve reinvented the wheel and it’s FUCKING AWESOME
Drawing of a sort of hemispherical blob with a face and lots of little legs.
October 30, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Laurie Stras
kjcharleswriter.com
Absolutely incredible work here. Just keep clicking back through the quotes.
reddite.bsky.social Pete Smith @reddite.bsky.social · 12d
I heard there was a statue tall
That sneered at folk and commanded all
But you don't really care for symbols do ya
It goes like this the feet the fist
The head that fell the aim that missed
The long lost king whose name was Ozymandias
Ozymandias
Ozymandias
Ozymandias
Ozymaaaaandias
scriblit.bsky.social Gabby HC @scriblit.bsky.social · 12d
Once upon a desert sandy
As through winds the trav'ling man he
Spied the face of Ozymandy
Lying, simply lying there
Suddenly there was some writing
Pon the plinth that he was sighting
That the sand and time were blighting
Quoth the statue, "Now despair"
October 30, 2025 at 9:07 AM