Valentin Silvestrov (1937- ), Bagatelle no .1 (2005). Music from this century, imagine! I heard this music around 2023, & was convinced it was too easy. Later, I got the score, over time have come to understand (and love) the piece.
Dmytro Choni performs Bagatelles 1-3
5/
youtu.be/d39VnUjlons?...
_Something Like Breathing_, Angela Readman, 2019 9781911508304.
I'm working my way through the And Other Stories catalog of books published before I became a subscriber a few years ago.
_Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns_, Nicolas Slonimsky, orig. 1947, reprint 1987. 9780026118507
4/
F.J. Haydn (1732–1809), Piano Sonata in C Major, Hob.XVI/50, L. 60. I selected a recording from Steven Lin, below -- but there are many nice recordings. The 1st movement is the most difficult, and the 3rd mvt. reminds me so much of the "Surprise Symphony" story. 3/
youtu.be/6Q7yZzJBSQM?...
Dietrich Buxtehude(1637–1707), Fuga in C Major BuxWV 174, known as the 'Gigue Fugue'. (though I play it on the piano)
I have loved Buxtehude's music for a long time (lots of organ but also vocal music). This is the first piece of his I have played.
2/
youtu.be/5XbiMpfSvPY?...
What I'm reading and playing, a multi-day thread:
_The Study of Fugue_, Alfred Mann, 1966 9780393096750
_Kristin Lavransdatter_, Sigrid Undset, trans by Tiina Nunnally. 1920-22, 3 books in a series, I'm in the middle. 978-0143039167
1/
The last time I was in Tucson, I was at a plant conf., and some folks went to Biosphere 2. The place has a weird and wacky history, and now the U of Arizona is using it as a big lab. Tours.
biosphere2.org
Image Matching Challenge 2026.
It is named "IMC 2025 On-going".
- It will be living for longer than "until next CVPR" - multiyear leaderboard.
- No prize, but invite to talk about solution at CVPR.
- Dataset+metrics same as 2025.
www.kaggle.com/competitions...
#CVPR2026
@cvprconference.bsky.social
You still have 2 weeks to submit your paper to Image Matching Workshop at #CVPR2026
Deadline: March 16.
Topics: anything related to image matching and 3D reconstruction.
cmt3.research.microsoft.com/IMW2026
@cvprconference.bsky.social
Submit your paper of structured reconstruction -- CAD, semantic, wireframe, city monitoring, etc., to USM3D 2026!
cmt3.research.microsoft.com/USM2026
Deadline: March 24, 2026.
@cvprconference.bsky.social
#CVPR2026
#USM3D2026 #USM3D
Hmm, I think 14-15 years old and up!
I found this book and other ones that were hits at Christmas through Kirkus reviews -- you can filter by age (middle school or high school) as well as genre.
www.kirkusreviews.com/discover-boo...
as they try to survive, level up, and maintain their social numbers (key to surviving).
I've read the second book in the series too, at the moment there are 8 books. Block off a weekend or something, these books took over my life for a while.
Cover of Dungeon Crawler Carl, has a man running with a lit stick of dynamite, followed by a cat with a crown on her head.
[reading rec] Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman. 1st published in 2020, reissued in 2024.
ISBN 978-0593820247
I bought this book for one of my teen kids -- the teen loved the book so much, they recommended it to me. Aliens have turned Earth into a reality-show game, join Carl & cat Donut ..
the author made the choices she did, and this section explains those choices well.
The musical discussions are complex and quite beautiful! I don't have (or want?!) historical instruments now, but I am playing pieces by Byrd and Bull on modern piano, 400-year-old music. 3/3
(And more properly, Francis Tregian the Younger, & this is a historical reconstruction / fiction).
I read the book over a month or two & it kept me thinking but didn't take over my life, as some novels do.
There's a section, "Looking for Francis Tregian" in the back, eventually you'll wonder why2/
book cover features the title and a repeating pattern of a man in Renaissance-era clothes sitting at a virginal.
[reading rec] Tregian's Ground: The Life and Sometimes Secret Adventures of Francis Tregian, Gentleman and Musician. Anne Cuneo. Translated from the French by Roland Glasser & Louise Rogers Lalaurie.
ISBN 978-1908276544
The life of Francis Tregian, copyist of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. 1/
Difficult to summarize a collection such as this --- I loved most of the stories, and did not know any of the authors in the collection before reading this book (amazingly).
[reading rec] Sun, stone and shadows : 20 great Mexican short stories / edited by Jorge F. Hernández. 2008.
ISBN 9789681685942
Author selections : Mexican authors born during the first half of the twentieth century. The organization is neat -- by amorphous themes -- "fantastic unreal" etc. 1/
[reading rec] The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson, 2012. ISBN 978-0812992793.
Set in N Korea, an orphan -- who may not be an orphan! -- makes his way in a difficult world. Themes of propaganda and creation of conflicting constraints on thinking & behavior. Reality and identity.
Secret to a successful research career:
1. Get super lucky and have the stars align for your first year
2. Repeat ~40 times
3. Retire
There's a playlist to start each chapter.
I recently started studying piano again w/ a teacher, so the book matched my interests perfectly at the moment. 2/2
[reading rec] Every Good Boy Does Fine: A Love Story, in Music Lessons by pianist Jeremy Denk (2022). ISBN-13 : 978-0812995985
I saw Denk perform, of all places, Purdue U, w Joshua Bell (violin). The book is fantastic -- mix of autobiography, musical analysis, piano playing. 1/
I finished reading Enriquez's _A Sunny Place for Shady People_. I had a tough time getting into the earlier stories in the collection but loved the later ones. Next, I am looking for the Enriquez's other short story collection, _The Dangers of Smoking in Bed_.
This has been a thing for a very long time, not my favorite thing, but when I am at an entomology talk (it happens), I can understand these types of talks better than an in-depth styled talk.
My wonderfully weird children are back in school as of today, ahhhh quiet again 🫠
I'm currently reading
Enriquez's _A Sunny Place for Shady People_, trans. McDowell.
Original is _Un lugar soleado para gente sombría_.
[reading rec] Mariana Enriquez, _Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories_, trans. from Spanish by Megan McDowell.
Original is _Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego_, 2016.
Literary fiction / horror stories that I still think about ... despite reading this collection a few years ago.
One of my PhD students got their visa revoked. I know of other cases amongst my AI colleagues. This is not what investing in US leadership in AI looks like.
www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/...
I've looked for other recordings with a similar sound -- and have not found one except for Stabat Mater. I have a lot of Renaissance stuff with men covering all the parts, countertenors & counter sopranos (Hillard ensemble, Cinquento, Beauty Farm, etc.), or women in soprano & men below. hmmm
