Vance Maverick
@vancemaverick.bsky.social
Computer programmer and composer in San Francisco
vancemaverick.com
vancemaverick.com
This stuck with me — seemingly casual and anecdotal, but (especially taking the author’s note as part of the story) leaving a vivid picture of a life and a person
www.ndbooks.com/book/francis...
www.ndbooks.com/book/francis...
November 26, 2025 at 1:42 AM
This stuck with me — seemingly casual and anecdotal, but (especially taking the author’s note as part of the story) leaving a vivid picture of a life and a person
www.ndbooks.com/book/francis...
www.ndbooks.com/book/francis...
November 25, 2025 at 9:09 AM
My cat has discovered, at the age of five, that he can get up on my lap and make biscuits on my belly *any time he wants*. My visceral fat will soon be finely marbled
November 24, 2025 at 7:33 PM
My cat has discovered, at the age of five, that he can get up on my lap and make biscuits on my belly *any time he wants*. My visceral fat will soon be finely marbled
In particular, I would want to check my sense that the earlier black-and-white work is more interesting than the later pieces with color
Turner Contemporary opens exhibition of 26 works by Bridget Riley - BBC News share.google/mSNJbYUzl60N...
Turner Contemporary opens exhibition of 26 works by Bridget Riley
Learning to See is installed at the Margate gallery until May and is free to visit.
share.google
November 24, 2025 at 3:26 AM
In particular, I would want to check my sense that the earlier black-and-white work is more interesting than the later pieces with color
Wish I were there!
Turner Contemporary opens exhibition of 26 works by Bridget Riley - BBC News share.google/mSNJbYUzl60N...
Turner Contemporary opens exhibition of 26 works by Bridget Riley
Learning to See is installed at the Margate gallery until May and is free to visit.
share.google
November 23, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Wish I were there!
Reposted by Vance Maverick
I’m from LA too, so there’s such an embarrassment of choice (The Long Goodbye!) that it’s practically cheating.
But I was born in Zurich, and that’s tougher. I’m not sure any well-known movie is significantly set there. All I can think of is a play:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travest...
But I was born in Zurich, and that’s tougher. I’m not sure any well-known movie is significantly set there. All I can think of is a play:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travest...
November 23, 2025 at 9:53 PM
I’m from LA too, so there’s such an embarrassment of choice (The Long Goodbye!) that it’s practically cheating.
But I was born in Zurich, and that’s tougher. I’m not sure any well-known movie is significantly set there. All I can think of is a play:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travest...
But I was born in Zurich, and that’s tougher. I’m not sure any well-known movie is significantly set there. All I can think of is a play:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travest...
Somewhere I came across a description of romance in fiction as representations which are put in to please us because we would like them to be true (of the world, of people like the characters, of ourselves).
Is this a commonplace? Or associated with some particular critic?
Is this a commonplace? Or associated with some particular critic?
November 23, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Somewhere I came across a description of romance in fiction as representations which are put in to please us because we would like them to be true (of the world, of people like the characters, of ourselves).
Is this a commonplace? Or associated with some particular critic?
Is this a commonplace? Or associated with some particular critic?
When I graduated with a linguistics degree, I took a job as a programmer at a research lab affiliated with the department (while working on other things that didn’t pan out). One day my boss took me out to lunch and told me I should go to grad school — so I applied in computer science.
November 22, 2025 at 9:55 PM
When I graduated with a linguistics degree, I took a job as a programmer at a research lab affiliated with the department (while working on other things that didn’t pan out). One day my boss took me out to lunch and told me I should go to grad school — so I applied in computer science.
I have a theory that most fiction is improved by translation. Alas I don’t read any other languages well enough for a proper comparison. But reading an awkwardly written thriller by an Anglophone, I wonder if the Scandi-noirs I’ve enjoyed were really much more competent in the original
November 22, 2025 at 8:03 PM
I have a theory that most fiction is improved by translation. Alas I don’t read any other languages well enough for a proper comparison. But reading an awkwardly written thriller by an Anglophone, I wonder if the Scandi-noirs I’ve enjoyed were really much more competent in the original
This is my 60th birthday (and Björk's! Call me), so I'm reminded of Yeats's line about "A sixty-year-old smiling public man." ...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43293/...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43293/...
Among School Children
I I walk through the long schoolroom questioning; A kind old nun in a white hood replies; The children learn to cipher and to sing, To study reading-books and history, To cut and sew, be neat in every...
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 21, 2025 at 9:03 PM
This is my 60th birthday (and Björk's! Call me), so I'm reminded of Yeats's line about "A sixty-year-old smiling public man." ...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43293/...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43293/...
I was class of ‘86, and only dimly aware of this at the time. I can recall times when women told me about it then, and simply not registering till years later.
In honor of Larry Summers, I asked the female members of my college class (1987) to say if they had any experiences with sexual harassment by teachers/professors, back when this was tolerated as, I dunno, the cost of attending college, and OH MY GOD.
November 21, 2025 at 2:04 AM
I was class of ‘86, and only dimly aware of this at the time. I can recall times when women told me about it then, and simply not registering till years later.
I value music history, but for whatever personal reason have not felt the aura of historical places (as opposed to the works). The Spiegelgasse in Zurich did about as much for me as 221B Baker Street.
so many legendary music history sites that look like this, we don't value our culture part bazillion
OTD 1969 James Brown drags his road-weary band into King Studios in Cincinnati to record. Drummer Clyde Stubblefield bangs out a drum pattern Brown crafts into "Funky Drummer." Minor hit but it forms a foundational beat in Hip-Hop. The bldg remains vacant & standing but King left in 1971.
November 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I value music history, but for whatever personal reason have not felt the aura of historical places (as opposed to the works). The Spiegelgasse in Zurich did about as much for me as 221B Baker Street.
I wimped out near the end of the second volume, feeling that however well written, the book couldn’t possibly go anywhere. Maybe I was wrong!
read On the Calculation of Volume/III last night and today. as with the others, i zipped right through. i think this one appealed to me the most of the installments thus far. it really felt like there some interesting bits to chew through—the work is starting to hit its stride.
November 20, 2025 at 12:39 AM
I wimped out near the end of the second volume, feeling that however well written, the book couldn’t possibly go anywhere. Maybe I was wrong!
Thinking about this now, the setting of words was generally pretty natural, but at the level above, there were artificial pauses. It was clearly an aesthetic preference, not some kind of mistake….
Also not my show, though I enjoyed it. (From home, so the staging couldn’t have the same impact.) Fine performances.
I processed it through my own obsessions, like text setting (sometimes a bit arbitrary) and tunefulness (mostly inhibited)
I processed it through my own obsessions, like text setting (sometimes a bit arbitrary) and tunefulness (mostly inhibited)
November 19, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Thinking about this now, the setting of words was generally pretty natural, but at the level above, there were artificial pauses. It was clearly an aesthetic preference, not some kind of mistake….
“‘I steal language and ideas from Michael Clune.” — Ben Lerner” (front-cover blurb on Clune’s PAN)
Even as a Lerner enjoyer, not sure this makes me more interested
Even as a Lerner enjoyer, not sure this makes me more interested
November 18, 2025 at 8:45 PM
“‘I steal language and ideas from Michael Clune.” — Ben Lerner” (front-cover blurb on Clune’s PAN)
Even as a Lerner enjoyer, not sure this makes me more interested
Even as a Lerner enjoyer, not sure this makes me more interested
A car rolled by blasting a heavily distorted jazzy line that snaked around chromatically in intelligent bebop style. As it faded down the street, we got to the chorus, identifying it instantly as “Linus and Lucy”.
youtu.be/i127A-Fr6nw?...
youtu.be/i127A-Fr6nw?...
Vince Guaraldi Trio - Linus And Lucy (Remastered 2025/Official Visualizer)
YouTube video by Vince Guaraldi
youtu.be
November 16, 2025 at 10:23 PM
A car rolled by blasting a heavily distorted jazzy line that snaked around chromatically in intelligent bebop style. As it faded down the street, we got to the chorus, identifying it instantly as “Linus and Lucy”.
youtu.be/i127A-Fr6nw?...
youtu.be/i127A-Fr6nw?...
I think my reaction was actually quite simple: the face of the subject is turned away from us, creating a distance which is rare in self-portraits.
No doubt there are counterexamples, but the ones I can think of involve role-playing.
No doubt there are counterexamples, but the ones I can think of involve role-playing.
November 16, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I think my reaction was actually quite simple: the face of the subject is turned away from us, creating a distance which is rare in self-portraits.
No doubt there are counterexamples, but the ones I can think of involve role-playing.
No doubt there are counterexamples, but the ones I can think of involve role-playing.
Apparently not literally a self-portrait? The museum doesn’t claim that.
I don’t have a stake in this, but I was a little surprised to find the suggestion mattered to my reading of the picture. Would take an essay to chase down why.
www.centrepompidou.fr/en/pompidou-...
I don’t have a stake in this, but I was a little surprised to find the suggestion mattered to my reading of the picture. Would take an essay to chase down why.
www.centrepompidou.fr/en/pompidou-...
November 15, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Apparently not literally a self-portrait? The museum doesn’t claim that.
I don’t have a stake in this, but I was a little surprised to find the suggestion mattered to my reading of the picture. Would take an essay to chase down why.
www.centrepompidou.fr/en/pompidou-...
I don’t have a stake in this, but I was a little surprised to find the suggestion mattered to my reading of the picture. Would take an essay to chase down why.
www.centrepompidou.fr/en/pompidou-...
This is cute and quotable, but it’s not clear to me how it’s different from “No”.
Anthony Princiotti
“The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be, 'No'.”
- Aaron Copland
“The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be, 'No'.”
- Aaron Copland
November 15, 2025 at 12:27 AM
This is cute and quotable, but it’s not clear to me how it’s different from “No”.
No complaints about the performance. As for the composition:
- I think I did handle the rhythmic challenge of Rukeyser’s prosy free verse. (Not a knock! She’s subtle and I mostly honored how I hear it.)
- My form works but imposes an arch structure that isn’t really there in the poem.
- I think I did handle the rhythmic challenge of Rukeyser’s prosy free verse. (Not a knock! She’s subtle and I mostly honored how I hear it.)
- My form works but imposes an arch structure that isn’t really there in the poem.
I have some thoughts about how this came out, but mainly I'm very pleased.
November 12, 2025 at 5:42 AM
No complaints about the performance. As for the composition:
- I think I did handle the rhythmic challenge of Rukeyser’s prosy free verse. (Not a knock! She’s subtle and I mostly honored how I hear it.)
- My form works but imposes an arch structure that isn’t really there in the poem.
- I think I did handle the rhythmic challenge of Rukeyser’s prosy free verse. (Not a knock! She’s subtle and I mostly honored how I hear it.)
- My form works but imposes an arch structure that isn’t really there in the poem.
Now I have the recording of my setting of this poem! By Sarah-Nicole Carter, mezzo, and Phil Dannels, piano.
youtu.be/T4BxHEW5ALk
youtu.be/T4BxHEW5ALk
November 12, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Now I have the recording of my setting of this poem! By Sarah-Nicole Carter, mezzo, and Phil Dannels, piano.
youtu.be/T4BxHEW5ALk
youtu.be/T4BxHEW5ALk
Reposted by Vance Maverick
I've been working hard at the day job lately, on a project that has let me do a lot of fun software design and coding. Last week, I realized that there's a tiny subproblem (formatting some tabular output) which is actually somewhat challenging to get right....
November 8, 2025 at 10:41 PM
I've been working hard at the day job lately, on a project that has let me do a lot of fun software design and coding. Last week, I realized that there's a tiny subproblem (formatting some tabular output) which is actually somewhat challenging to get right....
I think this is the best!
November 8, 2025 at 9:24 PM
I think this is the best!