WILLIAM WEIR

61 Lyon St., New Haven, CT USA
Contact

Professional Experience

I write about topics many and varied: How metal makes you smart; what we lose when the dial tone goes silent; the sinister iconography of the umbrella.

Expertise

Writer
21 Years

Specialty

Science
8 Years
Medicine
7 Years
Music
8 Years

Industries


Newspaper - National
6 Years
Newspaper - Local/Regional
8 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

21 Years

Foreign Language Skills

Spanish

Showcase

Writing Samples

And You Thought It Was Just Chicken
(Hartford Courant 5/1/2002)
When we speak of the chicken, let it be said, we speak of ourselves. So we learn at a dizzyingly ambitious, three-day conference: "The Chicken: Its Biological, Social, Cultural and Industrial History."
The Crushing Psychological Horror of a World with No Dial Tone
(Providence Journal 6/21/2004)
How the dial tone tends to our collective well-being.
Marriage by the Dashboard Light
(Hartford Courant 2/18/2007)
Movies and TV love weddings and marriage. Why doesn't pop music?
Headbanging Bookworms
(Seattle Times 4/9/2006)
Worried about your freshman English exams? Listen to metal.
TV Themes
(Hartford Courant 5/8/2007)
They're a lot shorter now and on the far ends of your cable system, but the TV theme is still out there. And, as some are doing, you can always make your own.
From the Arcade to the Grammys: The Evolution of Video Game Music
(theAtlantic.com 2/10/2011)
How video game music went from the bleep-bloop of Pong to a Swahilian version of the Lord's Prayer.
Santa: International Scofflaw?
(Hartford Courant 12/11/2005)
A look at the many ways Santa Claus and his workshop flout international law protecting the Arctic region.
A Brief History of Singing in Invented Languages
(Slate 11/29/2011)
Some sound like they're singing in an otherworldly tongue; few actually endeavor to invent their own language. But a handful of ambitious souls who do just that.
Will Chants Replace Guitars in Church?
(Hartford Courant 8/6/2006)
The pope calls for more traditional music; a nun explains how chant is like jazz and Muddy Waters.
The Dark History of the Umbrella
(Hartford Courant 4/7/2005)
Beneath the twirling umbrella tops of a Busby Berkely musical lies a history of bloodshed, espionage and assassination. A look at the sinister, shady side of the umbrella.
How the (Original) 'Doctor Who' Theme Changed Music
(Atlantic.com 4/27/2011)
How a ragtag group of technicians creating sound effects for BBC programs shaped the course of 20th-century music.
50 Years of Making Fuzz, the Sound That Defines Rock 'n' Roll
(Atlantic.com 3/3/2011)
In which I consider guitar distortion and its origins.
Words, Words, Words
(Slate 3/11/2008)
Are excessive lyrics ruining pop music? A statistical look at lyrical inflation from the 1950s to the present.
Comic Books Need Lawyers, Too
(Washington Post 8/30/2005)
A talk with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
How 'Jingle Bells' by the Singing Dogs Changed Music Forever
(Atlantic.com 12/20/2010)
A goofy novelty record's place in experimental music and the history of recording technology.
(12/5/2024)

General

Researchers Hope Special Cameras Can Aid Those With Ailing Memories
(Hartford Courant 4/8/2013)
For those with fading memories, a debilitating condition that can lead to a fading sense of identity, photos could be the key to regaining their experiences. And, counterintuitively, photos could help these people think more clearly about their futures.
Deciding A Future In The Shadow Of Alzheimer's
(Hartford Courant 7/13/2013)
At work one day, the exhibits that she meticulously put together for a case suddenly seemed like foreign objects to her; she didn't know what to do with them.
How Poverty Can Affect Hearing
(Hartford Courant 11/17/2013)
There's been plenty of research on the different ways that poverty can take a toll on children - health, literacy and behavioral problems, for instance. A new study now looks at how socioeconomic status can affect hearing.
Trillionth Floor, Please
(Hartford Courant 9/9/2008)
UConn chemistry professor Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos believes he and his team of researchers have found a way to harness the potential of nanotubes - an extremely strong material made from carbon molecules.The discovery has many potential applications, including an elevator that leads to space.
The Sad, Gradual Decline of the Fade Out in Popular Music
(Slate 9/15/2014)
The once-ubiquitous, but tragically underappreciated fade-out in music appears to be near its end. And like a classic example of itself, the decline has been long, gradual, and barely noticed.
In Praise of the Foreign-Language Pop Song
(Slate 11/7/2012)
On why songs like Gangnam Style and 99 Luftballons enrich the pop landscape
Surf Music, Centuries Before the Beach Boys
(The Boston Globe 6/8/2014)
Brian Wilson and Dick Dale weren't the first generation to sing the praises of riding a wave. Well before them were the 18th- and 19th-century Hawaiian chants, where surfing appears as a sacred rite, a definer of class divisions, and, as the Beach Boys would later note, lots of fun.
Where are The New Musical Instruments in Pop (and Why Are There So Many Old, Weird Ones)?
(TheAtlantic.com 2/7/2012)
The turntable, invented 36 years ago, ranks as the most recently created music-making device with staying power. Have computers replaced the need for the next guitar?
How the Marshall Amp Changed Rock and the Meaning of 'Loud'
(TheAtlantic.com 4/11/2012)
Jim Marshall's famous black box allowed bands to be heard by larger crowds than ever before. Now, though, it's more a symbol of arena concerts than a necessary component of them.
How Humans Conquered Echo
(TheAtlantic.com 6/21/2012)
A brief history of artificial reverb in music