Doug Skinner: An Archive on Your Gizmo

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Entries from July 2011

To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing

July 22nd, 2011 · Comments Off on To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing

A round, on Yeats.

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Tags: *Music · T

Index Cards (7)

July 21st, 2011 · Comments Off on Index Cards (7)

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Tags: *Index Cards

Dr. Docket and Mr. Pert

July 21st, 2011 · Comments Off on Dr. Docket and Mr. Pert

Dr. Docket contends with a stubborn malingerer in this instructive picture story.  And lo, this is how it begins.

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Tags: *Cartoons · D

Im Hinterland

July 21st, 2011 · Comments Off on Im Hinterland

A song to a verse by H. L. Mencken, from his “Knocks and Jollies” column, in the Baltimore Herald, January 20, 1901:  “You cannot civilize a jay, or from his belfry pluck the hay, im hinterland…”

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Tags: *Music · I

How Pleasant To Know Mr. Skinner

July 20th, 2011 · 1 Comment

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Tags: *Cartoons · H

The Rudderless Boat

July 20th, 2011 · Comments Off on The Rudderless Boat

The story of five men in a rudderless boat, told in a stream of anapests with pictures.  I’ve done this as a performance, since the text was really meant to be read aloud.  Here’s the first page:

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Tags: *Cartoons · R

Greenaway Pictures

July 20th, 2011 · Comments Off on Greenaway Pictures

Four songs for voice and piano, on verses from the picture books of Kate Greenaway.  I wrote them in 2002.  The verses are: 1.  The Boat Sails Away (Kate Greenaway) 2.  Dirty Jim (Jane and Ann Taylor) 3.  Poor Dicky’s Dead (Kate Greenaway) 4.  The Butterfly (Jane and Ann Taylor) Here’s a snippet of the […]

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Tags: *Music · G

Pay Attention (2)

July 19th, 2011 · Comments Off on Pay Attention (2)

This brisk barnstormer was part of my show of the same name, back in 1984.

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Tags: *Music · P

Pay Attention (1)

July 19th, 2011 · Comments Off on Pay Attention (1)

My first solo show in NYC, Pay Attention, was produced at the American Place Theatre in 1984, as part of their American Humorists Series.  The New York Times was rather sanguine about it, which was a relief.

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Tags: *Stage · P

String Quartet 4: Chorales

July 19th, 2011 · 2 Comments

My fourth string quartet consists of chorales, fourteen of them. Some of my concerns here were chromatic voice leading, suspensions as concords, and extended chords implied with four voices. Here’s the first one.

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Tags: *Music · S