I’ll be presenting my concert/talk on “Music From Elsewhere: the music of spirits, fairies, aliens, and other questionable beings” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on February 20. It’s in conjunction with the show “Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art,” curated by Robert Cozzolino, which runs from February 19 to May 15. The program runs from 1:00 to 3:30 CST; my fellow speakers will be Jeffrey Kripal, Renee Stout, Susan Aberth, and Tony Ousler. The pandemic is still pandemicizing, so all talks will be over Zoom. Stop by if you can!

My new album, It All Went Pfft, is now available on Bandcamp! It includes 20 songs, plus the eponymous piano piece. The selections are:

1. Oh Dear, Oh Dear
2. Let’s Not Leave the House Anymore
3. Laughter
4. A Different Point of View
5. A Few Essential Principles
6. Bread and Honey
7. Get on the Grid
8. We Are Not a Pretty People
9. Amerigo and Isabella
10. Fa La La La La
11. Son of a Gun
12. Let’s Ridicule the Nightingale
13. What Could Be More Interesting Than That?
14. Your Parents
15. Listen to the Birds Cry Ouch
16. James
17. Uncle’s Ankles
18. When a Snowman Melts
19. Not Much to Brag About
20. It All Went Pfft
21. No More

I wrote, arranged, and performed the whole business: I sing, and play ukulele, keyboard, psaltery, melodica, cuatro venezolano, xylophone, bulbul, ocarina, Marx Violin-Uke, ‘cello, tambourine, and bells.

Doug Roesch recorded tracks 1, 6, 10, 15, 19, and 21, and plays guitar on them; David Gold plays viola on tracks 1, 6, 10, 15, and 21.
Brian Dewan recorded the rest of them.

“A Slot Machine for Wooden Nickels” is a set of seven pieces for either keyboard or violin and ‘cello. Each is 49 measures long, divided in different ways; the first is 7 x 7, the second 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10, the third 10 + 10 + 10 + 6 + 10 + 3, etc.

“The Potato Farm” tells the story of August’s foray into potato farming, his often uneasy partnership with Collier, and his intermittent interactions with Bud and Paulette. It’s slated for the next issue of the Black Scat Review. Here’s how it begins:

THE POTATO FARM

August entered the Camisole Tavern and approached Bud and Paulette, who were sipping porter at the bar.
“I’m starting a new business,” he announced, his face flushed with excitement.
“You could say hello first,” remarked Paulette.
“Hello,” said August.
“And what is it?” Bud asked.
“It’ll make me as rich as a king,” said August. “I’ll have vast wealth at my disposal, and won’t have to borrow small sums from my friends.”
“And what is it?“ Bud asked again.
“A potato farm,” August said.
“What a dumb idea,” Paulette replied.
“Far from it,” said August. “Just tell me, what’s in that bowl?”
“Potato chips,” said Bud.
“Which,” said August, “are not made from carrots, or buckwheat, or some other agricultural product, but from potatoes. Potatoes can be boiled, baked, fried, and mashed, even by an inexperienced cook. They sell like hotcakes. In fact, you can make hotcakes from them too.”
“We know all that,” said Paulette.
“You don’t even need yeast,” added August.
“True enough,” said Paulette, “but you know nothing about farming.”.
The bartender, a gaunt and wizened man named Collier, glared at August. “Buying a drink, or just disturbing the peace?” he asked.
“I’ll have a small vodka,” replied August with a smile. “That’s made from potatoes too!”
“Yes, we know,” said Paulette.
Collier set a glass before August, and retreated to his paper at the end of the bar.
“Here’s to my new career,” crowed August, brandishing his drink.
“You know nothing about farming,” Paulette repeated.
“I can learn,” August said. “How much are potato trees, anyway? Do they sell them by the dozen, or is it all metric now?”…

“Scuttles of Petals” was written by assigning letters of the alphabet to the top 26 pitches of the keyboard, and then spelling the names of flowers, yielding pitches that follow linguistic, rather than common-practice, patterns. The names go from 13 to 4 letters, a sequence that is repeated three times. The first set is: chrysanthemum, salpiglossis, wintergreen, periwinkle, hydrangea, daffodil, anemone, orchid, tulip, rose.

Happy Solstice! This song was written for Meg Reichardt’s annual Holiday Recording Party. I wrote it in French, since Meg is a Francophile. Here’s the translation:

The nights grow longer when the solstice comes, which is favorable for nights of dreaming.
When the nights are short, the long days are sunny, but empty of dreams.
Someday our star will fall to pieces: that, for the planet, will be a disaster.
But the night of dreams will be a delight, when that great solstice lasts unceasingly.

Shorten the Classics is now available from Black Scat Books! This book reduces 52 great works of literature to one cartoon page apiece: not by summarizing them, but by cutting them off early. See what happens when Helen rejects Paris, the acorn misses Chicken Little, Adam and Eve eat the serpent, Leopold Bloom sleeps in, and Samoan women tell Margaret Mead to mind her own business. Tragedies are prevented, lives are saved, and the world becomes a better place. And you can find it on Amazon.

This, I think, will be the first page of my upcoming comic book Shorten the Classics. I may as well start by aborting the Trojan War. Good riddance!

The 23rd issue of Black Scat Review is now available! It’s devoted to “wordplay,” and includes several pages of Doug Skinner: my translations of two poems by Raymond Queneau (depicted on the cover) and four pages of my upcoming comic book Shorten the Classics. Also on board are the stellar crew of Mark Axelrod, Tom Barrett, Kevin Brown, Norman Conquest, Brian Coughlan, John Crouse, S. C. Delaney, Paul Forrestal, Ryan Forsythe, Eckhard Gerdes, Penelope Gerdes, Joseph Harms, Amy Kurman, Opal Louis Nations, Angelo Pastormerlo, Steve Patterson, Derek Pell, Agnès Potier, Paul Rosheim, Gerard Sarnat, Carla M. Wilson, and D. Harlan Wilson. You can find it on Amazon. When you find it, buy a copy!