iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathan Curtis

@tshellstudio.bsky.social

299 followers 112 following 869 posts

Autistic puzzle constructor in the Boston area; part-time math teacher and recovering composer. I post variety puzzles at www.patreon.com/nathancurtis, and my latest puzzle hunt is available at verwalds-treasures.tortoiseshellstudio.com. He/him/his

Posts Replies Media

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Now here are Carter and Grammer's lines in the third verse. I'm not going to do the same sort of analysis in terms of simpler lines, but I can talk a bit about how to do something like this in general.

Sheet music showing Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer's lines in the third verse of "Tanglewood Tree". Carter's melody is in the top staff, and Grammer's countermelody is in the bottom staff.

100

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Now here's an analysis of Grammer's harmony in the second verse. This time I have placed Carter's full line in the top, the basic form of Grammer's line in the second staff, and successive elaborations below, ending with her full line.

Analysis of Tracy Grammer's harmony line in the second verse of "Tanglewood Tree". Dave Carter's melody is in the top staff, Grammer's harmony is in the bottom staff, and staves above the bottom show successive simplifications to the basic line in the second staff.

110

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

But as an illustration I want to break down the melody and countermelodies of "Tanglewood Tree" in this manner. Here's the first 4 bars of Carter's melody, with the melody at the bottom and successively simpler versions of the line above, with the most basic line at the top.

Sheet music showing an analysis of "Tanglewood Tree" by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. The first 4 measures of the melody are in the bottom staff, and staves above that show successively simpler versions of the melody.

120

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Excited for the Mystery Hunt! Here's @zyllable.bsky.social and me started in cocktail attire, even though we're solving from home

Nathan and Zylla, posing before Mystery Hunt. Nathan is wearing a blazer and tie, and Zylla is wearing a fancy purple dress.

030

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 26/10/2024

I'd like to wish @haplo.bsky.social (and everyone else) a happy World Lemur Day! Here's a drawing I made when I was learning how to use Procreate:

151

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 21/07/2024

This idea is not mine -- I saw it on a Discord server a couple weeks ago, but I couldn't find the post so I recreated the image. Each ring in this picture is 4n squares of side length 4, and together they make a square with side length n*(n+1). Multiplying by 4 makes the diagram a lot nicer.

This is a proof without words. There is a diagram showing several nested rings of squares. The innermost ring has 4 squares with side length 1, the next has 8 squares with side length 2, the next has 12 squares with side length 3, and the outer ring has 16 squares with side length 4. Altogether they form a single large square with side length 20. Mathematically, we have 4*1*1^2+4*2*2^2+4*3*3^2+4*4*4^2=20^2. If we divide by 4, this provides a demonstration that the sum of the first n cubes is equal to the square of the nth triangular number.

110

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 01/06/2024

Freyja just got back from an extended stay at Angell but she sends purrs and love

A brown and cream cat curled up next to the side of a person on a purple couch. Only an elbow, knee, and side of the person are visible.

010

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 08/04/2024

The house where we are staying has some nice infographics in the kitchen: a set of pie charts displaying the ingredients of many pies, and a diagram of various ways of preparing coffee drinks.

A framed picture labeled "Pie Charts" which several pie charts, each labeled with a kind of pie, with the wedges of the charts corresponding to the ingredients of the pies.

A framed picture labeled "Coffee," which illustrates various ways of grinding and preparing coffee, as well as mixing it with other ingredients to make coffee drinks.

110

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 07/12/2023

Home alone, bored, decided to blue my hair. Might have blued some of my face as well.

White man (Nathan Curtis) with glasses and blue hair

030

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 20/09/2023

My housemate has been out for a week and Freyja misses him and spends most of the day sulking in the studio and that's why I can't practice bass trombone today.

A brown tabby cat named Freyja, lying curled up in a purple chair.

010

Nathan Curtis @tshellstudio.bsky.social · 17/08/2023

So I ordered the score a few months ago. It was on back order, but it finally arrived last week.

Sheet music for Minstrel Man by T.J. Anderson. The score is for bass trombone with hi-hat and bass drum. The edition is copyright 1978 Bote & Bock.

100