A postcard taken from my book Horoscrapes can be found in the upcoming issue of Cabinet (#55). You can buy a copy, remove the postcard, and mail it, using our postal system.

My translation of Alphonse Allais’s 1893 collection, The Squadron’s Umbrella (Le parapluie de l’escouade), is due out this month from Black Scat Books. This is the master in his prime, with stories, playlets, parodies, poems, topical humor, and more, including some of his best. This is its first translation into English.

Slated for later this year is my translation of The Zombie of Great Peru (Le Zombi du Grand-Pérou) by Pierre-Corneille de Blessebois. This 1697 tale of sex, slapstick, betrayal, and occult shenanigans marks the first recorded use of the word “zombie.” It will come with an introduction by Guillaume Apollinaire, also translated for the first time.

I will be doing a series of musical talks at Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum in the spring. The general title is “Anomalous Music”; on March 25 is “Music from Ultraterrestrials” (music ascribed to fairies and aliens), on April 1 is “Music from Occultists, Secret Societies, and Fraternal Orders,” and on April 8 is “Musical Curiosities” (agricultural plainchant, Solrésol, music by Rameau’s nephew, and more). Details will follow.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)