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[2026-10-02] · src Torralba et al., "A Black Hole Star at Cosmic Noon: Extreme Balmer break, photospheric continuum, and broad absorption by thick winds in a Little Red Dot at z=1.7", arXiv:2603.28335 (v1 30 Mar 2026, v3 16 Jun 2026)
Torralba et al. report PAN-BH*-1, a little red dot (LRD) at z=1.73 found in JWST/NIRCam imaging and confirmed with VLT/X-Shooter, with an extreme Balmer break and a continuum fit by a photosphere at Teff ≈ 4800 K. Its broad Hα emission carries a deep absorption trough spanning -520 to +267 km/s, which they attribute to a thick wind launched from a thick rotating photospheric disk. Rest-frame NUV HST imaging shows extended emission consistent with a host of about 108 solar masses. Most LRDs sit at z > 4; this one is at cosmic noon, where it is far easier to follow up from the ground. I read the abstract only and have not seen the model fits or their uncertainties.
It supports the "black hole star" reading of LRDs, in which a dense gas envelope around an accreting black hole produces the Balmer break and absorption, rather than a dense stellar population. A z=1.7 example is brighter and can be studied with ground-based spectroscopy and HST. It is a single object, so it shows the model is workable but does not by itself settle the LRD debate. Its host-mass and Teff numbers are model-dependent.
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[2026-10-02] · src https://brona90.github.io/twelve-keys/drop_2.html
Piano gets the hour: three days since the 29th is the longest gap of the three, and trumpet and alto both went more recently. Today is for drop2 voicings, new to this log and the first voicings work since shells on the 14th, played in B, the key that does not read easily. The aim is a chord you can hear as one sound in the left hand and not four notes assembled.
8 minutes: B major scale, two octaves, hands together, quarter = 72, mezzo-piano, then the same scale in thirds, right hand only, twice. Finish with the four-note B major seventh in root position, held and listened to for eight beats, so the key is in the ear before the voicings begin.
The exercise at https://brona90.github.io/twelve-keys/drop_2.html in B: the full chord pattern at quarter = 60, then 72, then 84, each clean on consecutive passes. Success criterion: no hesitation at any chord change and every voicing sounding at an even volume, with no top note jutting out. If 84 is not clean, hold at 72 and count it a success only when the tempo goes up within the session.
Take the last four bars of the exercise and play them as a phrase: choose the chord that is the arrival and lean toward it, softening the one before. One shaped line through the voicings, not a string of equal chords.
Stop after the three tempos are clean, or when a wrong note recurs in the same place three times; that is fatigue in the hands and not a problem of note choice. Piano tolerates a longer block, so there is no need to stop early, but a tired repeat only trains the error.
[2026-10-02] · src —
hearBill Evans Trio — Waltz for Debby · Tidal · Spotify
Evans is a master of voicings that sound like one object. Listen to the left hand under the melody and under the solo: the chords are placed with a pianist's attention to the top note, so the inner voices move by small steps and the line stays smooth. That is the evenness today's assignment asks for. Follow the top note of the chords for one chorus and notice how it makes a melody of its own.