A musical cryptogram is written like a substitution cipher, by assigning another pitch to each pitch. The result has the same rhythm and repetitions as the original, but with different pitches. I chose the minuet from Bach’s third French Suite because I like it, and because it uses all twelve pitches. Here’s the first page.

Jon B. Cooke’s Book of Weirdo, an encyclopedic history of R. Crumb’s sorely-missed humor magazine, is now out from Last Gasp. It includes reminiscences from most of the artists, as well as photos from the time they contributed. A cartoon of mine was published in the 13th issue, so I’m in there with everyone else. Here I am in the endpapers, between Etoain Shrdlu and Art Spiegelman, with a photo taken from a performance in Amsterdam.

It’s a vastly entertaining and provocative book. Buy a copy!

I’ll be part of the lineup for Profane Illuminations, a day of talks at NYU organized by Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press. I’ll present my talk “Music from Elsewhere,” discussing and playing music attributed to fairies, trowies, banshees, aliens, spirits, and angels; as well as music from alchemists, occultists, Cathars, cryptographers, secret societies, and dreams. Other speakers include Erik Davis, Peter Bebergal and Gareth Branwyn, Amy Hale, Kristen Gallerneaux, and Dave Tompkins.

It’s on Saturday, April 27, at Einstein Auditorium (34 Stuyvesant St., at 9th St., between 2nd and 3rd Avenues), NYC, and it’s free. The talks run from 12 to 8 pm; I’ll be on at about 3:30. More info here.

Upside-Down Stories is now available from Black Scat Books!

Charles Cros and Émile Goudeau were quintessential Bohemian poets of the 1880s. Cros also experimented with the phonograph and color photography; Goudeau founded the Hydropathes, who met to declaim poetry while not drinking water. Cros and Goudeau’s only collaboration was a series of five exuberant stories published in 1880, which satirized such hot topics as divorce and capital punishment with bawdy humor and wild flights of fancy. All five stories are included here, plus four solo stories by Cros that complete the series, translated and annotated by Doug Skinner. These dense and nutty gems will surprise you!

You can find it on Amazon, or from Black Scat Books.

My talk on anomalous music, “Music from Elsewhere,” was recorded by Morbid Anatomy, and is now available on their Patreon site, here. I’ll be doing another talk, with different music, April 27 at NYU, as part of the Profane Illuminations series organized by Strange Attractor Books.

An experiment: a stereo picture in gouache and ink. As usual, you can click to enlarge.

Some sketches of Aunt Dodo, for an upcoming comic strip.

The Muses give me some poetic advice.

THE MUSES SPEAK

If you write about your feelings,
We will throw potato peelings.

If you start to air confessions,
We’ll urge psychiatric sessions.

If your work becomes too earnest,
We’ll suggest that it be furnaced.

If your work becomes too solemn,
We will turn our spinal column.

If your yawp becomes barbaric,
We will mock you as hysteric.

If you opt for sentimental,
Our attack will be ungentle.

If your work is understandable,
We will punch you in the mandible:

Life is never comprehensible;
Finding sense is indefensible.