This is the beginning of a twelve page story.  Will they ever get there?

The sixth issue of Black Scat Review is now out; and it contains my translation of “The Unicolorist” by Jules Moy, a monologue about monochromatic painting from 1897.  I also contributed an introduction about Moy, and about the history of monochromatic painting in the Belle Époque.  It also contains delightful work by Nin Andrews, Ivan de Monbrison, Emily June Brink, Michelle Gray, Joanna C. Valente, Judson Hamilton, Sayuri Yamada, Adam Miller, Opal Louis Nations, and an interview with Yuriy Tarnawsky by Erckhard Gerdes.  Brett Stout did the cover.  It’s edited by Norman Conquest, and available from Black Scat Books.

I’m not sure how old I was when I committed my “Opus No. 1” to paper.  Six?  Seven?  Unfortunately, I didn’t date it.  At any rate, it’s a curious little piece, with the virtue of brevity.  The key signature in the bass at the beginning is probably an error.  And there seem to be sketches for other pieces before and after it; I apparently didn’t develop them further.

This is the first page of four.  It doesn’t end happily for the woodcutter.

Merde à la Belle Époque is now available from Black Scat Books! Doug Skinner has chosen, translated, and annotated a choice selection of scatological texts from Paris’s Bohemian heyday. The texts range from 1883 to 1902, and include poems, stories, a play, a rebus and a letter. You will find Alphonse Allais, George Auriol, Georges Courteline, Edmond Haraucourt, Vincent Hyspa, Maurice Mac-Nab, and Erik Satie, all devoting their considerable talents to toilet humor.  The book is 48 pages, elegantly printed in black and brown, designed by Norman Conquest, and limited to 310 copies.

Praise for Merde à la Belle Époque:
“BLACK SCAT BOOKS has launched from the pits of lit this shameful little anthology, wonderfully translated and prefaced with futile brilliance by Doug Skinner. I was immediately disgusted and attracted by these turn-of-the-century French luminaries indulging in dirty little boy lyrics and lunatic stories, many of them in the scatological society that hung out at Le Chat Noir…”
—Alain Arias-Misson

“Incroyable!… Alfred (a fart man from way back) Jarry would surely relish this collection–one which combines force-feeding with delicate odoriferous leakage—something for every taste!”
—Nile Southern

“These dirty little secrets are canonical secretions of literary genius. Fin de siècle Parisian scatology at its best.”
—D. Harlan Wilson

There’s a glorious town at the end of the earth…  It’s a wonderful place, but, unfortunately, they won’t let you in.

Here’s the start of it, with its doleful three-part harmonies.

“The Fussbudgets’ Ball” is a sprightly tune for viola, baritone horn, tuba, and guitar (ad lib). At its first performance, I played the baritone part an octave higher, on an alto melodica. That seemed to work too.