David Newman
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newmanda.bsky.social
David Newman
@newmanda.bsky.social
Teacher, Maker of music, Singer of songs
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Brief introduction: I've been a professional singer for about 35 years. Lots of Bach, but everything from Medieval chant to Brahms to Stuckey. 26 years as a university voice instructor, first at UC Davis, now at James Madison University. 13 years teaching Aural Skills at JMU (and on YouTube.)

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Reposted by David Newman
WOW. Watch a constitutional law expert completely DEBUNK Republicans’ censorship crusade, while articulating exactly how Donald Trump is threatening freedom of speech. 🔥
March 25, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Reposted by David Newman
Backing this up: the @altnps.bsky.social account is BlueAnon Hashtag Resistance grift.
Almost 800,000 people on here are following a totally-not-real account claiming it's a group of rogue park workers and who are now posting cryptic nonsense to make it seem like they're sending messages to the deep state. Also they're selling resistance merch. WTF are we doing man?
March 2, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by David Newman
from Meditations in an Emergency, my new newsletter, day three: But I do not believe the people of this country will submit to the destruction and the attempts at dictatorship. We are not submitting now. meditations-in-an-emergency.ghost.io/we-are-not-w...
February 4, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by David Newman
an important column. This won't revert back to normal by acting like its normal.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...
Opinion | There Is No Going Back (Gift Article)
The president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was.
www.nytimes.com
February 5, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by David Newman
Gift link:

Trump Brazenly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab

In the radical opening weeks of his second term, President Trump has appeared to feel little constraint by any need to show respect for the rule of law.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/u...
Trump Brazenly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab (Gift Article)
In the radical opening weeks of his second term, President Trump has appeared to feel little constraint by any need to show respect for the rule of law.
www.nytimes.com
February 5, 2025 at 12:09 PM
A few more gifts for the holiday season, arriving in one more week.
When the clock strikes midnight on January 1, creative works from 1929 & sound recordings from 1924 will enter the public domain in the US, like:

⚓️ Popeye
🕵️ The Maltese Falcon
📖 The Sound and the Fury
🇮🇹 A Farewell to Arms
🏠️ A Room of One's Own
🙌 Hallelujah
🎺 Bolero
and many more!

🧵👇
December 26, 2024 at 7:20 PM
I see some people blaming this on the press, but I strongly suspect that the shift in opinion is primarily among people who don't follow traditional media. (Also, the graph is misleading, making a relatively 6% swing seem larger. But of course the US election turned on a much smaller difference.)
Trump fixed the economy without even taking office

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
December 21, 2024 at 9:54 PM
Bluesky is, of course, attracting bad actors along with the natural influx of users. Fortunately, we have more control of our feeds, but it does require each of us to take a bit more responsibility. The use of blocklists is probably a new idea for many people, but worth the effort.
IQuick Thread: I really love people who work to take care of the spaces we share online. Because Bluesky is less centralized, more of that work falls to us.

As in all things…look for the helpers.
December 7, 2024 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by David Newman
Twitter didn't gain relevance by being the biggest platform, it gained relevancy through the quality of the content and individuals. The main goal for everyone here should be to encourage global defender, media, and establishment accounts to transition to #BlueSky. That'll provide legitimacy.
November 28, 2024 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by David Newman
“Secret donations” are bribes.

The hundreds of millions he received from Elon Musk and other billionaires are also bribes.

There’s a reason Donald Trump isn’t signing ethics pledges.
www.yahoo.com/news/trump-r...
Trump Refuses to Disclose Who Is Funding His Transition
He is the first president-elect not to sign an ethics agreement that sets fundraising limits and transparency
www.yahoo.com
November 25, 2024 at 1:26 PM
Search “concert” and post the oldest picture on your camera roll
November 26, 2024 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by David Newman
Okay, this is me in Serious Mode—wanted to share these free, annotated English translations of JS Bach’s vocal works by noted Bach scholars. Can be used for concert programs, teaching etc. They just added the Christmas Oratorio today:

bachcantatatexts.org/index.htm

#Bach #EarlyMusic #Baroque
Texts and historically-informed translations for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach
bachcantatatexts.org
November 26, 2024 at 12:38 AM
A former student sent me this from today’s VMEA conference. I’m really pleased that the software I wrote has found an enduring and enthusiastic audience.
November 22, 2024 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by David Newman
Thinking more about this. So far every Trump pick has been a real piece of work — incompetent, corrupt and/or sexual abuser. This isn't because Trump is a bad judge of character, it's because that's what he wants — incompetence and moral turpitude guarantee loyalty 1/
The Gambetta Professor Equilibrum - "Boasting about incompetence is signaling that you can be trusted to be corrupt."
November 22, 2024 at 2:16 PM
I’ve been concerned about disinformation, and this feels like a really helpful thread.
This is absolutely true.

A few are so good that I have them in a "probable disinformation" group based on patterns of behaviour and obvious goals (e.g. convince blue voters not to vote for Biden/Kamala because of ideological purity on Gaza), without me actually knowing for sure.
People always think they'll spot disinformation attempts and just unfollow the poster and not repost them! And it's true that a lot of them are low-effort and low-quality and even someone untrained will notice them. But the really good ones are so fiendishly good that you'll never spot them. 6/
November 21, 2024 at 2:40 PM
Anyone following me probably already knows this, but I made a studio recording of most of my music theory songs in 2019. Some are radically rethought. If you've never listened, please lend an ear: davidnewmanmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-we...
The Well Trained Ear: songs to strengthen aural skills, by David Newman
18 track album
davidnewmanmusic.bandcamp.com
November 21, 2024 at 12:57 AM
Hard to believe this was so long ago. We sand it several times in class today. (In an even more revised version with sheet music.) youtu.be/nyTofH5rk78?...
International chords song
YouTube video by David Newman
youtu.be
November 20, 2024 at 6:23 PM
For those of you (us) who have recently set up accounts here, what do you hope to find? What do you think you can create? (If you've been here awhile, perhaps you have some insight?)
November 20, 2024 at 3:19 AM
Brief introduction: I've been a professional singer for about 35 years. Lots of Bach, but everything from Medieval chant to Brahms to Stuckey. 26 years as a university voice instructor, first at UC Davis, now at James Madison University. 13 years teaching Aural Skills at JMU (and on YouTube.)

1/
November 19, 2024 at 4:14 AM
Worth the time to read this thread. Help make a better social media landscape.
Bumping the threadstarter to repeat the plea again: PLEASE stop using follow-farming hashtags like #NoDemUnder1k, #NoDemUnder5k, #BlueCrew, #FBR, #FBPE, etc -- any "use this hashtag/like this post/repost this post/reply to this post/etc to get followers". You are providing cover for bad actors.
Yet another plea to people who are using or following people off follow-farming hashtags like #NoDemUnder1K, #NoDemUnder5K, #BlueCrew, #FBR, etc etc: please do not do that, it's how disinformation operations work. I'm already seeing accounts in those hashtags that are likely disinformation ops. 1/
November 18, 2024 at 3:40 AM
Social media is a powerful force. It could be a force for good. More often it is not. I'm reducing my exposure, but also hoping that this can be a less toxic environment than the current big players.
November 18, 2024 at 2:43 AM
So far the algorithm knows suspiciously more about my niche interests than I've explicitly offered. (On the other hand, I've followed a few likeminded friends, so perhaps @baritone.bsky.social is responsible for me seeing so many nostalgic apple computer posts. But then, why not more Bach?)
November 18, 2024 at 2:28 AM
Yes, I'm one of the millions signing up in recent days. Contrary to my usual contrarian habits, I'm following the crowd.

That said, I'm more likely to read than to write, and I'm deliberately trying to reduce my social media diet. (Though I expect this forum will be less bad for my health.)
November 18, 2024 at 2:22 AM