I will be teaching two special four-week ukulele classes at Brooklyn’s Jalopy Theater this fall. The first, Uke 1.5, is a bit more advanced than Uke 1, and may help pave the way to those greater heights. The other, Uke 3, is for those who want to go further than Uke 2. Both will focus on strumming patterns, alternate chords, chord solos, and other delicious techniques. Both will be offered on Tuesdays, from Nov. 24 to Dec. 15; Uke 1.5 is at 7 pm, Uke 3 at 8.

My translation of Pierre-Corneille Blessebois’s historic and smutty book The Zombie of Great Peru, published by Black Scat Books, is now available in the bookstore at the Morbid Anatomy Museum. This is ideal for those of you who would rather skip Amazon and enjoy instant gratification. Signed copies! Snap ’em up!

Further books in the works include Sleepytime Cemetery (a collection of short stories), Gibberish (a collection of literary talks, articles, and parodies), How I Became an Idiot (an expanded edition of my translation of Alphonse Allais’s remarkable ridicule of the critic Francisque Sarcey), and Double Over (a translation of Alphonse Allais’s first collection). Will any of these make it to print? Watch this space.

After thirty years in Manhattan, I will soon be moving elsewhere. The city has changed, and so have I. Details will follow.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)