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Dan Elphick

@danelphick.bsky.social

2K followers 910 following 490 posts

Music Lecturer at RHUL, working on music history and analysis, and Slavic studies. Also a runner and TU organiser (@rhucu.bsky.social). Listen to Shostakovich. I wrote a book on Weinberg: https://tinyurl.com/5xs2h82h https://danielelphick.co.uk

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Anna Orridge @anna-orridge.bsky.social · 1d

"The AI Revolution has started" declares a lady on LinkedIn. "Welcome to the AI Age. How does that make you feel?"

It makes me feel that people who have invested an awful lot of money in a very dodgy and unethical technology are starting worry that 'Fetch' simply won't happen.

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 2d

'That is one big pile of shit'

(Jurassic Park, 1993)

Photo of me surveying a 15-foot-high pile of horse manure.

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Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 6d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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RMA @royalmusical.bsky.social · 7d

The Royal Musical Association and Cambridge University Press Edited Book Prize for 2025 goes to Peter McMurray and Priyasha Mukhopadhyay for their edited collection 'Acoustics of Empire: Sound, Media and Power in the Long Nineteenth Century' (OUP, 2024).

Front cover of the prize-winning 'Acoustic of Empire', ed. Peter McMurray and Priyasha Mukhopadhyay.

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 6d

Black, Brummie and proud: a walking tour of the real Handsworth

The Birmingham neighbourhood is hugely significant in the Black British story – a history seemingly unknown to Tory MP Robert Jenrick – as revealed on a guided walk that remembers Nelson Mandela and Benjamin Zephaniah

www.theguardian.com

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 7d

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Bank of England warns of growing risk that AI bubble could burst

Possibility of ‘sharp market correction has increased’, says Bank’s financial policy committee

www.theguardian.com

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Hay Festival @hayfestival.bsky.social · 9d

Stephen Fry on where we might find hope in dark times, live at Lviv BookForum 2025 this weekend.

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 12d

Stop using anti-arthouse film language.
Instead of 'I didn't like that movie', say 'Probably need to revisit this film'.

Instead of 'way too long and jumped around a lot', say 'a sprawling epic'

Instead of 'boring', say 'takes its time immersing you'

Instead of 'overhyped old movie', say 'such an important film in cinema history'

Instead of 'idk what that movie was even trying to say', say 'thematically nuanced and allows room for interpretation'

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 13d

My thoughts are with the Manchester Jewish community and the wider UK Jewish community today. For such a thing to happen is terrible at any time, but on Yom Kippur is especially awful.

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Dan Rebellato @danrebellato.bsky.social · 15d

For an upstanding Christian gentleman, Tony Blair’s persistent attempts to look like Satan in all his photos is remarkable.

Tony Blair looking up at the camera with a look of pure evil. Imagine someone declaring proudly “I have eaten your children” and that sort of sums it up.

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 20d

Either AI, or the kind of poor writing copy that views any piece of music as a 'song'.

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 20d

Is this satire?
trumpcard.gov

Trump Gold Card

Available now.

trumpcard.gov

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 23d

It's definitely the first day of term. In the time it takes to answer one email, three more come in.

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RMA @royalmusical.bsky.social · 23d

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Vacancy for Reviews Editor for both the Journal of the Royal Musical Association and Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle (new deadline of Monday 6 October)
www.rma.ac.uk/2025/07/17/r...

Extended Deadline – Reviews Editor: JRMA and RMARC – Royal Musical Association

www.rma.ac.uk

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Pauline Fairclough @paulinefairclough.bsky.social · 26d

A wee plug for this upcoming Radio3 programme with me and the lovely @mfwalker.bsky.social (her first ever tag on bluesky 😊)
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, The Man Who Played The Kremlin's Tune

Lucy Ash uncovers the murky story of Tikhon Khrennikov, Stalin’s musical enforcer.

www.bbc.co.uk

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RMA @royalmusical.bsky.social · 26d

‼️ DEADLINE EXTENDED ‼️

Following a request from the Musici Trust, the deadline for proposals for the 2026 BFE/RMA Research Students' Conference has been extended by one week to next Thursday, 25th September.

Graphic reads 'Call for Proposals: deadline extended' for the 2026 BFE/RMA Research Students' Conference.

Student Paper Prizes: RMA/Musici Trust Prize for a paper on music before 1600: Speakers will be invited to submit their papers to the RMA/Musici Trust prize for a student paper on music before 1600. The winner will receive a £300 prize, be offered mentorship, and also be invited to present their work at the RMA Annual Conference.

RMARC Student Paper Prize: Speakers will be invited to submit their papers to the Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle student-paper prize. Participation will be open to all speakers. The winner will receive a £100 book token from Cambridge University Press, as well as mentorship from the editors of RMARC to develop and expand their submission for publication in RMARC.

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RMA @royalmusical.bsky.social · 29d

The RMA/CUP 2025 Outstanding Monograph Book Prize is awarded to Jessica Swanston Baker for 'Island Time: Speed and the Archipelago from St. Kitts and Nevis'. Honourable mention also to Matthew D. Morrison (Stanford University) for 'Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States'.

Graphic reads 'RMA/CUP Outstanding Monograph Book Prize 2025'

The cover of Jessica Swanston Baker's 'Island Time: Speed and the Archipelago from St. Kitts and Nevis'

The cover of Matthew D. Morrison's 'Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States'.

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RMA @royalmusical.bsky.social · Sep 15

Reminder: the deadline for submitting your proposal to the BFE and RMA 2026 Research Students' Conference (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) is this Thursday!

www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoir...

Graphic reads: 'Call for proposals, BFE and RMA Research Students' Conference, 6-8 January 2026, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, submission deadline 18 September 2025'.

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RMA @royalmusical.bsky.social · Sep 12

Congratulations to our Dent medallist Prof. Sarah Collins! Sarah gave a brilliant keynote lecture yesterday, titled 'Habits of Realism'.

Sarah was presented the Dent medal by the RMA President Simon Keefe.

Sarah Collins being presented the Dent medal by Simon Keefe.

A close-up of the impressive Dent medal itself.

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RMA @royalmusical.bsky.social · Sep 12

It's the third and final day of our annual conference in Southampton! Let us know what you're looking forward to today, and what you've enjoyed over the conference.

Tag us in your posts and we'll share.

Graphic for day three of the RMA annual conference, University of Southampton.

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RMA @royalmusical.bsky.social · Sep 11

Well done to our conference runners! As advertised in our programme, we met for a friendly and chatty 5k run bright and early this morning. A lovely way to start day 2 of the conference!

Six happy RMA conference attendees, about to start their 5k run!

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Pauline Fairclough @paulinefairclough.bsky.social · Sep 1

Sharing this, accompanied by live BBC Proms performance theconversation.com/sex-stalin-a...

Sex, Stalin and Shostakovich: the story of the 1934 opera the Soviet leader walked out of

The story behind Shostakovich’s 1934 opera is pretty dramatic itself.

theconversation.com

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Pauline Fairclough @paulinefairclough.bsky.social · Sep 1

Announcing our new study group!

rmameee.wordpress.com

– RMA Music of Eastern Europe and Eurasia Study Group

RMA Music of Eastern Europe and Eurasia Study Group

rmameee.wordpress.com

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · Aug 30

'Gentlemen! You can't fight in here! This is the war room!'

Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · Aug 29

Excited to see a new Weinberg book, announced with a publication date of January 2026! It promises to be a fantastic collection of essays, including a modest one by myself.

www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Cover of the new book 'Mieczysław Weinberg: Between East and West', edited by David Fanning and Michelle Assay.

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