“Radio Radio,” curated by Mel Brimfield, collected audio pieces by a dizzying array of artists for a 24-hour broadcast. It opened at the International 3 gallery in Manchester in 2oo3, then went on to the Trade Apartment in London in 2004. A 2-CD compilation was published by Revolver Books. Michael Smith and I prepared audio […]

[Read more →]

I found this injunction in an old ukulele instruction book, and made it into buttons for my students. Don’t.

[Read more →]

The phenakistascope was one of the earliest animation devices. The back of the wheel is black; the wheel is spun before a mirror as the viewer peers through the slots from behind. I’ve drawn a number of them. In this study, the early bird still can’t get that worm.

[Read more →]

“The Book of Fortunatus” appeared in the first issue of the Strange Attractor Journal (2004) edited by Mark Pilkington. It’s devoted to fringe literary theories, particularly those that find more meaning in a text than the author intended. Among the subjects are Pope R. Hill, who found hidden solutions to all of the Sherlock Holmes […]

[Read more →]

This DVD was published by 2nd Cannons in 2008; it collects performances and videos that Michael Smith and I did in the ’90s. The photos of Doug and Mike when they were younger are by the inimitable William Wegman. Our liner notes sum up the whole business as well as anything: And you can see […]

[Read more →]

I joined Brian Dewan and Nina Katchadourian in this collection of songs about Roosevelt Island. The island has a long and colorful history, and has had many names over the years: Hog Island, Manning’s Island, Blackwell’s Island, Welfare Island. For much of the 19th and 20th century, it was used as a prison and hospital. […]

[Read more →]

The Regard of Flight was a bit short, so we rounded out the evening with some of Bill’s shorter pieces, under the title of The Clown Bagatelles. The last of these was a dance piece called “The Marionette.” I played this piece hundreds of times, and always approached the final cadence with relief: we made […]

[Read more →]

I teach ukulele classes; here’s a brief clip of my students and me at a recital, at Brooklyn’s Jalopy Theater. (The clip has subsequently been removed.)

[Read more →]

Back when I was a composition student at Oberlin Conservatory, I wrote some songs and incidental music for a puppet production of Brecht’s one-act The Elephant Calf. The score was ebullient and dissonant, with cartoonish cues, and a few mocking quotations (B-A-C-H and a scrap of Mahler). It was performed in May 1973. The puppets […]

[Read more →]

My occasional cartoon character Red Telephone tunes his uke, from the March 1980 issue of Ear. I signed it with his name, since I sympathized with his plight. And I redrew it a few years later, to make it crisper.

[Read more →]