Doug Skinner: An Archive on Your Gizmo

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Entries Tagged as 'M'

The Man Who Ate His House

June 5th, 2023 · 3 Comments

The Man Who Ate His House is now available from Black Scat Books and available on Amazon! For this curious little volume, Derek Pell and I selected plots from the cautionary writer’s manual 101 Plots Used and Abused (James N. Young, 1945), modified and combined them in various ways, and fed them to ChatGPT. The […]

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Tags: *Words · M

Merde à la Belle Époque: Expanded Edition

September 26th, 2022 · Comments Off on Merde à la Belle Époque: Expanded Edition

The new expanded edition of Merde à la Belle Époque is now available from Black Scat Books! I’ve selected, translated, annotated, and introduced scatological songs, stories, poems, and playlets from some of the most inventive and eccentric writers of the golden age of Parisian Bohemia: Alphonse Allais, George Auriol, Georges Courteline, Charles Cros, J. Eschbach, […]

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Tags: *Words · M

Millay Songs

August 16th, 2022 · 2 Comments

Three songs with words by Edna St. Vincent Millay: “Song of Shattering,” “Spring,” and “The True Encounter.” Here’s the beginning of “Song of Shattering.”

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Tags: *Music · M

Music for Two Monochords: Sophie Germain and Safe Primes

July 21st, 2022 · Comments Off on Music for Two Monochords: Sophie Germain and Safe Primes

A duet for two monochords, based on dividing the strings by Sophie Germain and safe primes. (A Sophie Germain prime is any prime for which 2p + 1 is another prime, and that second prime is the safe prime. So, 5 is a Sophie Germain prime, and the safe prime is 11.)

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Tags: *Music · M

Music for Two Monochords: Elevens

July 13th, 2022 · Comments Off on Music for Two Monochords: Elevens

Two monochords play a duet, using segments of the string that are divisible by eleven.

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Tags: *Music · M

Music for Two Monochords: Sixes and Sevens

May 15th, 2022 · 2 Comments

Two monochords play a duet: one plays segments of the string that are divisible by six, the other segments that are divisible by seven. All ends harmoniously on 84.

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Tags: *Music · M

Melody in A

May 10th, 2022 · Comments Off on Melody in A

Seven pitches are used: 410, 420, 430, 440, 450, 460, and 470 Hz. I retuned a chord zither, but a digital keyboard would also work. Here’s the first page:

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Tags: *Music · M

“Music From Elsewhere” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

February 13th, 2022 · Comments Off on “Music From Elsewhere” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

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 […]

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Tags: *Music · M

Maybe Those Hornets Would Like These Posies

August 1st, 2021 · Comments Off on Maybe Those Hornets Would Like These Posies

One of my musical preoccupations in July was a set of eleven duets for tenor recorder and viola (or other suitable instruments). Each is 33 measures long; here’s the first one.

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Tags: *Music · M

Mr. Toilet Is Your Friend

June 15th, 2021 · Comments Off on Mr. Toilet Is Your Friend

This little number was an occasional part of “Doug and Mike’s Adult Entertainment,” the puppet show I did for years with Michael Smith. Here I had to sing, operate a toilet puppet with my right hand, and play a small organ with my left hand.

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Tags: *Music · M