This lipogrammatic crossword appears in TYPO 12. It excludes the letter E from all of the words and clues. The photo is of that master lipogrammist Georges Perec. The solution can be consulted after the break.

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From TYPO 12, here’s a reader survey for an imaginary novel. This is only the first page; there are 100 questions.

From TYPO 11 comes this tale of the Bach family, in which Johann Sebastian kicks out his many children so there will be enough roast duck for himself. They have to find musical positions themselves, which isn’t easy in a field with so many Bachs.

My 14th string quartet is for four ‘cellos, sawing industriously away on diatonic tone clusters and polyrhythms.

TYPO 12 is now available from Black Scat Books! For this one, I contributed a short story (“The Flotation Device”), a “Reader Survey” for an imaginary novel, and a “Lipogrammatic Crossword”–a crossword puzzle shaped like the letter E, in which that letter is excluded from all the words and clues.

My extraordinary colleagues in this issue are Robert Archambeau, Corina Bardoff, Terry Bradford, Igor Bulatovsky, Paul Busson, Apollo Camembert, Norman Conquest, Albert Cossery, Noël Devaulx, Rachel Galvin, Jean-Luc Gameau, Shawn Garrett, Edward Gauvin, Julien Gracq, Pierre Autin-Grenier, Rick Henry, Esteban Isnardi, Julia Lillard, Joshua Martin, George MacLennan, Dmitri Manin, Paul Nougé, Thomas Owen, Angelo Pastormerlo, Alejandro Albarrán Polanco, Bernard Quiriny, Adam Ranđelović, Simon Read, Lono Taggers, Mark Valentine, Tim Walker, Gregory Wallace, Alyson Waters, Andrew Wenaus, Tom Whalen, and Bill Wolak. As usual, the whole thing is edited and designed by Norman Conquest.

For TYPO 6, I wrote an article on the Indisposizione di Belle Arti, a satirical exhibit organized by the Famiglia Artistica Milanese in Milan in 1881. It included conceptual pieces, parodies, monochromes, ready-mades, and other techniques later exploited by the Incohérents and Dadaists. Very little has been written about it in English. My article presented the reader with its history, descriptions and drawings of artworks from the contemporary press, and translations of excerpts from the catalogue. The Indisposizione should not be forgotten!

“Music for Two Monochords” generates bracing dissonances by using sets of numbers divorced from the harmonic series. Here’s the first page and the first piece. I have no intention of recording them (although I do own two monochords); they might be better imagined than heard.

The podcast “Weird Studies” taped its latest episode at Shannon Taggart‘s annual symposium at Lily Dale, the Spiritualist village in upstate New York. Hosts Phil Ford and Erik Davis discussed that curious character John Keel; I joined them in the second half to offer some personal anecdotes, since we were friends for many years. You can listen to it here.

Artpix, in collaboration with Moikai/Drag City, has released Mike’s Box, a boxed set of eight DVDs of the performance and video work of Michael Smith. The eighth disc is devoted to the puppet shows we did together in the 90s. It includes a full show from Dixon Place, excerpts from other shows, and all the videos we did. Laffs galore!

I’m pleased to report that my book Music From Elsewhere is now available at Watkins Books, London’s oldest esoteric bookstore. You can see it here.

You can also pick up a copy at San Francisco’s fabled bookstore City Lights. And you can see it here.