Dale Chapman
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decmusicology.bsky.social
Dale Chapman
@decmusicology.bsky.social
1.3K followers 380 following 6.6K posts
Professor of Music, Bates College

*The Jazz Bubble: Neoclassical Jazz in Neoliberal Culture* (University of California Press, 2018)

Doomscrolling glumly with Elbows Up

he/him
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decmusicology.bsky.social
What perfect album came out the year you turned 16?
Album cover of Lincoln by They Might Be Giants. Weird little podium thing with two church spires, two speaking lecterns with clocks on their face, and portraits of two distant relatives of the duo. The sun shines down on the space with evergreen trees and blue sky in the background
November 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Wondered for a sec if founder of Canadian Confederation John A. MacDonald had a side gig as a mystery novelist
John A. MacDonald, the first Canadian prime minister and a "father of Confederation," the effective founding of Canada as a functionally sovereign nation. Here he sports a three piece suit with tie, popped 19th-century starched collar, and that frizzy hairdo he always had. Arms crossed, staring into the middle distance.
November 15, 2025 at 7:48 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Post your favorite Star Trek character(s). Wrong answers only
Scorpius from Farscape. Pale-ass dude with awful teeth wearing a kind of Catwoman black leather getup over his head and across his body
November 15, 2025 at 7:35 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
this is where I post from if you even care
Little remote hiker's shelter in eastern Iceland. Small, cute building with red siding and white trim and roof, labeled "Stefánsbúd." In the background is a high elevation lake and stunning mountains. The sky is overcast.
November 15, 2025 at 5:22 AM
decmusicology.bsky.social
I will never forgive Aaron Sorkin for making this guy seem witty, erudite, and anything other than a total bag of shit

Then again, there's a lot the media has to answer for with this asshole
Infuriating late 1990s cover of Time magazine, depicting Robert Rubin, Alan Greenspan, and Larry Summers as the "Committee to Save the World." The three douchecanoes are depicted smirking confidently, with Greenspan in the middle foreground, sporting a black/charcoal suit jacket, white shirt, and maroon textured tie -- and those massive tortoiseshell glasses he always wore
November 14, 2025 at 8:21 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Yeah, pretty sure this guy did it
Matthew Rhys as Phillip Jennings in The Americans, brandishing a handgun and staring broodily at something or other. He's sporting a dark coat with the collar popped
November 13, 2025 at 7:24 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
I fucking love late-stage mustachioed 1970s Roger Sterling

Delightfully butchering French with Marie Calvet in a Paris (Montreal?) cafe
Roger Sterling, resplendent with mustache, clinks glasses with Marie Calvet in some coffeeshop somewhere. Calvet is wearing pearls and a nice beige shawl. A copy of Le Monde is sitting on the table, suggesting we're in Paris (or maybe Montreal)
November 12, 2025 at 4:48 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
“They're sitting in a burning house and commissioning polls on how popular the fire is”
Chef’s kiss emoji
November 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
North New England did not acquit itself well during this imbroglio www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/rc...
Still, the deal was good enough for eight Senate Democrats: Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Angus King, I-Maine, Jackie Rosen, D-Nev., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H
November 10, 2025 at 12:51 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
"The fedora, angled just so, is his homage to French Resistance hero Jean Moulin"

King.
Photo from article, showing Pedro Delvaux in the same ensemble he appeared in in the media photo, with blue striped tie, dark beige vest, lighter-toned beige blazer, and a black overcoat. He is sporting a fedora cocked slightly to one side, and is holding a framed print of the photo that made him famous. All of this is set on a patio outside an idyllic Parisian window frame with green shutters.
November 9, 2025 at 9:02 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
I HOPE THIS E-MAIL DOES NOT FIND YOU I HOPE YOUR CHAIR HAS GROWN OVER WITH MOSS I HOPE A PLEASANT BUT UNOBSERVED BEAM OF LIGHT HITS YOUR DESK PERFECTLY THROUGH THE COLLAPSED CEILING I HOPE THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING
November 6, 2025 at 8:56 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Who exactly is Victoria Chamberlin? And why does she hate herself?
Screenshot of headline from the offending NY Times article, all in the usual smug NY Times font: INTERESTING TIMES Did Women Ruin the Workplace? And can conservative feminism fix it? 3h ago by ROSS DOUTHAT and VICTORIA CHAMBERLIN
November 6, 2025 at 3:01 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
I’m tickled to learn that the utopia of right wing nightmares is not only Marxist, but also Brat
Detail from left meme about a dystopian (utopian?) Marxist Times Square, showing a bright green sign with black lettering, saying “jihad” The style of the wine, green and black lettering is like the cover art for Brat by Charli xcx
November 6, 2025 at 12:38 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Yeah, thanks for your input, but no thanks

Getting a little tired of smug dunks from people on here who live in countries that are probably not a whole lot fucking better

Either that, or you are American, and this is just masochism -- in which case I honestly don't know what to say
Profile bio for Trevor Wade, @margolispei.bsky.social: Time to leave this platform. Watching Americans fuck up their country is too much. Fascism fighter. The USA is a shithole country and everyone should avoid it. Americans deserve this.
November 4, 2025 at 8:11 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
This bit is pretty funny lol

"I guess you can play practical jokes or whatever piddly shit you unserious people get up to between takes"
From the article cited above: Day-Lewis stressed that Method acting is simply about “freeing yourself so you present your colleagues with a living, breathing human being they can interact with,” adding: “It’s very simple. So it pisses me off this whole ‘Oh, he went full Method’ thing. What the fuck, you know? Because it’s invariably attached to the idea of some kind of lunacy. I choose to stay and splash around, rather than jump in and out or play practical jokes with whoopee cushions between takes or whatever people think is how you should behave as an actor.” [I highlight the last sentence here.]
November 3, 2025 at 8:12 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Jesus, buddy, if you can't be normal, at least tidy up your desktop
Detail of image from above tweet, showing dude's extremely cluttered laptop desktop. A large iced latte lingers off to the side
November 3, 2025 at 6:06 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
You might have already seen the Dark Crystal, but this is why I love that movie as well
Scene from the Dark Crystal, in a chamber where several beings surround this massive purple crystal suspended in air. On the ground is a weird mystical glowing triangular shape with a circle around it, both of them covered in hieroglyphics. Scene from the Dark Crystal showing a mountainous valley with a river running through the middle of it
November 3, 2025 at 4:47 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Funny to imagine Johnson with tattoos of disavowed Trump soundbites and tweets all over his body
Guy Pearce in Christopher Nolan's film Memento, stripped to the waist, displaying tattoos all over his body. His character has profound amnesia, which constantly resets itself, and so he uses the tattoos as mementos that remind him of how he's supposed to piece the different elements of his life back together. One big tattoo in Gothic lettering cuts diagonally across his chest, reading, "find him and kill him."
November 3, 2025 at 4:32 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
You let it lie there.... like what, Valchek? Take it away:
In The Wire, Herc gets advice from Valchek, who tells him to let the unmentioned incident "just lie there, like a bad pierogi on the plate" Herc is sporting a dark suit with a white shirt and tie; Valchek is in his dress police uniform
November 3, 2025 at 1:52 AM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Bless his heart! I mean, we all know that Wallace Shawn is far better known as the guy who plays Lemond Bishop's sinister fixer on The Good Wife
Wallace Shawn plays a "fixer" lawyer for the crime boss Lemond Bishop in The Good Wife. Here he is on a freight elevator next to Alicia Florrick. He is sporting a cream collared shirt and blue striped tie, with a grey overcoat and autumn-colored plaid scarf; his face is smiling in a sinister grin. Florrick is wearing a dark coat and dark neck warmer; her face is grave and tense. (Yes, yes, I know, the "inconceivable" guy in the Princess Bride is his best-known role)
November 2, 2025 at 8:28 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Fuck. Changed the headline to what? "Turns out these videos aren't real, but the fact that we *thought* they were real says something important about society"
Cartoon by Zach Weinersmith, from his strip Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: First frame: guy in brown shirt with collar says to his friend in mustard yellow shirt, "Anyway, I couldn't believe it when I saw that news." Friend in yellow shirt: "That's because the article you read was false, and here is the evidence that it's false." Next frame: Brown shirt guy reads tablet Next frame: Brown shirt guy reads tablet, face sinking Next frame: Brown shirt guy says to yellow shirt guy, "Well, even so, the fact that I could believe it tells you something about the current state of affairs" Yellow shirt guy, begins yelling, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Next frame: More yellow shirt guy yelling "Aaaaaaaaaaaa," with more of a closeup on his face Next frame: More "aaaaahs" from yellow shirt guy, closer up on his face Next frame: all you see is a giant mouth with the cry, "aaaaaaaaaa" in the background Next frame: Brown shirt guy: "Everything all right?" Yellow shirt friend: "Sorry, I meant to say, gee whiz what an interesting way of thinking"
November 2, 2025 at 7:49 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
If you see this, quote with a robot that isn't from "Star Wars", "Star Trek", "Doctor Who", or "Transformers".
Wheatley, the cheeky, British-accented robot with a giant blue eye from Portal 2
October 31, 2025 at 3:11 AM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Lynchian indeed
A frame from the above video, towards the end. Features a brown-haired woman with a guitar and pink sweater; an auburn-haired woman with a sleeveless green sweater, a big, lunky dude with dark hair and red t-shirt, and a second brown-haired dude in powder blue shirt, sleeves rolled up, black pants, and black vest. They are in a kitchen that looks straight out of the Friends apartment. A slight closeup on the three people to the left side of the first picture A further closeup on the two women to the left of the picture, with a particular focus on the guitar a closeup on the hand holding the guitar, which is disembodied from any of the four characters. The pink-sweater woman has her arms crossed and is somehow not holding the guitar that she's supposed to be holding.
October 30, 2025 at 7:05 PM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Modification of the headline from the Onion article, "De Blasio: 'Well, Well, Well, Not So Easy To Find A Mayor That Doesn't Suck Shit, Huh?'" I've modified the headline to read, "De Blasio: 'Well, Well, Well, Not So Easy To Identify the Mayor That Sucks, Huh?" The image accompanying the headline has former Mayor De Blasio in a blue suit jacket with a bright orange tie, gesticulating weirdly with his right hand, his mouth agape
October 30, 2025 at 4:22 AM
decmusicology.bsky.social
Right. Perhaps more alarming is the degree to which much, much more recent fantasy narratives reproduce these same tropes
Daenerys Targaryen, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin (and blue dress), is held aloft by the freed slaves of Yunkai, in a pretty disturbingly on-the-nose image of white saviordom
October 29, 2025 at 4:38 PM