On May 2, 2012, Larry Ratso Sloman and Mark Jacobsen presented a “Live Radio Hour” at Housing Works, in NYC, devoted to Coney Island.  They invited me to sing a song about the place; I arranged Harry Von Tilzer’s 1902 tune, “All Aboard for Dreamland,” for viola and baritone uke, and performed it with David Gold.  Here’s some of David’s part.

In 2003, Danny Hellman invited me to contribute a story to his anthology Legal Action Comics.  I replied with a story about two men who outwit the devil. There was a publication party at CB’s Gallery, at CBGB’s, which included a show of cartoon art.  I came up with this large rendition of the devil, back-painted with acrylic on the plastic sheet from a poster frame.  He was inspired, by the way, by some of the medieval illustrations to Dante.  Here’s the working drawing.

And here’s the painting itself.  (Thanks to Angela Alverson for the photo.)

There are 840 diatonic four-pitch chords.  A number of years ago, I randomized them; and have often used them as a basis for composition.  I don’t use them straight; but re-order, transpose, and add to them in various ways.

I designed this flyer and program for a concert with dancer/choreographer Helen Dannenberg, at Mills College in 1979.

I recommend Kyle Gann’s book No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage’s 4’33”: a thorough and entertaining look at that provocative piece.  I was happy to see that Kyle mentioned the performance he and I did of Cage’s Experiences No. 1, long ago when we were fellow composition students at Oberlin Conservatory.

An asemic sound poem, from around 1977.

From the sketchbook…

I sometimes read this asemic list poem out in San Francisco, back in the ’70s.

A nocebo is a placebo with harmful side effects.  This one is a waltz for viola and piano.