Mike Driver
cherry valley forever
AnasAbdin
Today's Document
Cosimo Galluzzi
todays bird
PR's Tumblrdome
Origami Around
trying on a metaphor
styofa doing anything
sheepfilms
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
★
No title available
RMH
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
Discoholic 🪩
dirt enthusiast
shark vs the universe
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from Germany
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Maldives
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
@62fidla
Hampshire College Failed With Enrollment After 2016 Flag Disaster
After the 2016 enrollment disaster (which snowballed into the 2018-19 crisis with just 13 freshmen), Hampshire had stabilized somewhat by 2024 through fundraising and operational cuts. But they failed miserably with 2025 enrollment due to self-inflicted wounds on top of broader trends: Primary causes: Admissions gutting: Cut 1/3 of admissions counselors in 2024, folded the department into…
Hampshire College Flag Burning: A 2016 Protest That Burned Recruitment Bridges
The 2016 U.S. presidential election aftermath ignited campus tensions nationwide, but few incidents captured headlines like the American flag burning at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The Incident Unfolds Around November 10-11, 2016, Hampshire students burned an American flag during a protest following Donald Trump’s election win. They decried the “toxic tone” of the campaign,…
Could Hampshire College Be Saved? Debt, Land, Endowment, and the Case for a Rescue Plan
Hampshire College’s closure raises a bigger question than one campus: what happens when a private college’s debt, land, buildings, and endowment all collide at once? In Hampshire’s case, the answer is complicated, but there is a plausible path for an alumni-led or civic rescue group to negotiate part of the debt, preserve some or all of the campus, and repurpose the property for productive…
The Real Story of Hampshire Staff and Faculty
There’s a kind of quiet tragedy unfolding in Amherst, and it isn’t just about a campus closing. It’s about people. Hampshire College, founded in 1965 with the bold idea of reinventing liberal arts education, is now preparing to shut its doors. For years, it stood as an experiment that actually worked. No grades. Narrative evaluations. Student-driven learning. A place where people who didn’t…
Quote of the Day: “Before music becomes melody or harmony, it is sound.” ~ Randal McClellan
There are teachers who show you how to play music, and there are teachers who show you what music is before it becomes anything at all. For me, Randal McClellan was that teacher. Working with him in the early 1980s meant stepping into a completely different world. Patch cables, oscillators, filters, envelopes. No notation. No tradition to follow. Just sound, raw and waiting to be shaped. One…
Hampshire College gave me something no other institution ever had. It gave me permission.
Hampshire allowed me to experiment in musical ways that no other previous institution would permit. I came to Hampshire a button-down classical violinist with certificates from heavily structured classical music institutions. But Hampshire gave me PERMISSION to break out of my box and try new things. Lucky for me, my first year advisor was a great musician and recording artist of note: Ray…
Quote of the Day: “Music is not a universal language. It is a universal activity.” ~ David Reck
Example of a Gamelan Orchestra, not David Reck’s David Reck: Listening Across Worlds There are teachers who give you information, and there are teachers who quietly change how you hear the world. For me, David Reck was the latter. I studied with him at a time when music was already a big part of my life, but his approach opened something different. Through courses like The Music of E.E.…
Hampshire: A Wild Idea That Changed My Life
I arrived at Hampshire in the fall of 1980 thinking I knew who I was. I came in as a biology major, grounded in science, but already carrying music with me from years at New England Conservatory and time at Apple Hill. At the time, those felt like parallel tracks. Hampshire was the place where those tracks slowly, quietly, and sometimes confusingly began to merge. What I remember most is not a…
Quote of the Day: “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” ~ Franz Schubert
There are moments in music that don’t feel constructed at all. They don’t announce themselves. They don’t strive. They simply arrive, as if they had always been there. That is the world of Franz Schubert. In the arc of this series, after the motion and light of Felix Mendelssohn, Schubert brings us somewhere quieter, but deeper. The movement slows. The line opens. And what remains is something…
New Song: Nashawannuck Brook Restoration
There’s something steady and reassuring about a place being given back its original purpose. Not rebuilt. Not redesigned. Simply allowed to return to what it always was. That’s the feeling behind my new song, Nashawannuck Brook Restoration, inspired by the ongoing work at Pine Grove in Northampton. For years, that land was a golf course. Carefully shaped, maintained, controlled. Straight lines…
Quote of the Day: “The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.” ~ Felix Mendelssohn
There is a kind of music that never feels heavy, even when it is deeply felt. It moves, it lifts, it breathes without strain. That is the world of Felix Mendelssohn. After the shared, passing line of Alexander Borodin, Mendelssohn brings something different into focus. The line still moves between players, but now it does so with a kind of natural motion, almost like wind through leaves or water…
New Tune: "A Fig For A Kiss" - Slip Jig
Some tunes feel like they were built to move, and “A Fig for a Kiss” is one of them. It’s a slip jig in 9/8 time, which gives it that rolling, almost circular motion. Not quite the straight drive of a double jig, and not as grounded as a reel. It lifts and turns as it goes, and if you lean into that rhythm, the tune almost plays itself. The melody goes back at least to the mid-1800s, when it…
New Tune: The Rambling Pitchfork
There’s something about an old Irish jig that never wears out its welcome. “The Rambling Pitchfork” is one of those tunes. It’s been around since at least the mid-1800s, passed from player to player, picking up different names and small variations along the way, but always keeping that same forward motion that makes it feel alive under the fingers. I sat down and recorded a straightforward…
Quote of the Day: “Music is a language which expresses the inexpressible.” ~ Aleksandr Borodin
There is a moment in music that doesn’t belong to any one player. You feel it most clearly in Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2, especially in the Nocturne. A melody begins in one instrument, fully formed, warm and singing. Then, almost without you noticing, it moves. Another instrument takes it, not as a copy, but as a continuation. The line breathes differently now. It leans in new…
New Tune: Star Above The Garter
Some tunes carry a clear story. Others leave just enough mystery to keep you thinking long after the last note. “The Star Above the Garter” falls somewhere in between. At its core, this is a Sliabh Luachra slide, deeply tied to County Kerry and to a particular style of playing that emphasizes rhythm, lift, and flow. The tune is most often associated with Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford, siblings…
New Tune: Smash the Windows
There’s a certain satisfaction in setting the record straight, especially with a tune like “Smash the Windows.” It’s one of those pieces that gets passed around so freely that, over time, its origins start to blur. Today, you’ll often see it labeled simply as “Irish,” tucked comfortably into session lists and teaching materials. But if you follow the trail back a little further, a different…
New Tune: Planxty George Brabazon
There’s something quietly enduring about a tune like “Planxty George Brabazon.” It carries with it not just melody, but memory, a thread that runs back through generations of players who have shaped it in their own hands. Traditionally linked to Turlough O’Carolan, the piece reflects his habit of honoring friends, patrons, and notable figures through music. The word “planxty” itself hints at that…