“Himalaya,” a 1997 game from Charles Wilkins, had a mountaineering theme.  You collected Meter, Danger, and Gear cards on your way to the summit.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.)

Admirers of Jean-Jacques Rousseau may be unaware of his musical interests.  He wrote a great deal of music, compiled a musical dictionary, and paid bills by copying music.  The dictionary is a neglected treasure, as passionate and eccentric as anything else he wrote; the entry for “copyist” fills 13 pages (at least in the 1839 edition that beckons on my shelf).  Here’s an excerpt (as usual, in my translation):

“It is more important for music to be copied neatly and correctly than it is for simple writing, because he who reads and meditates in his chamber can easily recognize and correct errors in his book, and because nothing prevents him from stopping or beginning again: but in a concert, where each player sees only his own part, and where the speed and flow of the execution leave no time for correction, mistakes are irreparable: often a sublime piece of music is crippled, the performance interrupted or even halted, everything goes wrong, the ensemble and effect are ruined, the listener is rebuffed, and the composer dishonored, all because of the copyist.”

(Posted by Doug Skinner.  The music above was copied by Rousseau in 1773.)

I’m not sure if “Compucards” qualifies as a children’s game; it bills itself as “Playing Cards with Binary Numbers, for the Computer Generation.” It dates from 1983, and was apparently a promotional item for Certacom, a “Telecommunications Equipment Distributor” in the UK.  The standard four suits are used, but the numbers are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32; with face cards as 64 and 128.  The joker is a Software Bug.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.)

It’s time for the Ullage Group’s tenth mini-seminar!  In “Unacceptable Flying Objects,” we turn to one of our society’s most pervasive and stigmatized topics, UFOs.  We’re interested in it particularly as a cultural phenomenon, and in the social and religious impact of those pesky mandalas.  We’ll move beyond the dull ping-pong between believer and debunker, and the hipster’s itch for kitsch, to find the darker meanings beneath.

Lisa Hirschfield will offer a multimedia survey of saucer sightings in 20th century children’s culture, with a special focus on UFO aesthetics, the changing culture of extraterrestrial contact, and what subliminal messages — if any — such phenomena may convey.

Anthony Matt will discuss how UFOs have always haunted humanity in various forms throughout history.  He will also discuss the interplay between perception and UFOs.

Doug Skinner will interpret a series of unsettling (and unpublished) drawings by “silent contactees,” which circulated among UFO researchers in the late ’60s.  He will also examine the curious subculture, both of percipients and researchers, that produced them — and which often had little to do with things in the sky.

We’ll be at the Jalopy Theatre, in Brooklyn, on Sunday, May 8, at 3 pm.  Admission is our traditional pittance, $5.  It will be disturbing, and you can drink while you’re spooked.  Directions to Jalopy are over here.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.  The image is from the cover of “Flying Saucers” magazine, October 1964.)

The “United States Map Playing Cards,” from UniversalMAP, gives you a great deal of information about the states.  There are 50 states, and 52 cards in a deck — so you also get maps of Washington D.C. and of the world.  And the Jokers are maps of the U.S., with the suit and number of each state scrupulously notated.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.)

re-usable lottery tickets

a heron eating herring

the electric spoon, heated so soup won’t cool from bowl to mouth

In time, you’ll find it none too wise
To base your acts on other guys.

a newscaster’s slip: “black market” for “Blackwater”

a spork with a knife for a handle: it requires a special mitt so you don’t cut your hand

It’s disturbing to see a dog dump on the sidewalk when it’s dressed in a jacket and booties.

Turn a Gideon Bible into a puppet: round eyes on top, book opens to become mouth.

pay pay yap yap

discomfort food

You cannot barter
With a martyr
Perhaps you could
If he were smarter.

(Posted by Doug Skinner. Drawing by Wilhelm Busch.)

I found this deck with no box or instructions.  It seems to have a Western theme.  All of the other people depicted are also in jail: they include Dirty Dan, Shifty Sam, Fingers, Big Hawk, Little Lou, Black Bart, and Baby Face.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.)

From the audience, Angela Alverson captured a snippet of the recital at the Jalopy Theatre.  My beginning uke class made its first public appearance with this blues chorus.  From left to right: Katherine, Rachel, teacher, Carrie, Ana, and Ashley.  They’re on their way!

Another of my uke students, Robin Hoffman, keeps a blog of her drawings of performances at Jalopy.  She recently posted sketches of my recent performance with David Gold and Brian Dewan.  You can see it here.  And you can hear her play a chord solo I taught her here.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.)

“Le Jeu des Provinces de France,” from Editions Dusserre, portrayed citizens of different provinces.  In Auvergne, one goes around with a large hat, wooden shoes, and a hurdy-gurdy.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.)

On April 1, 1897, the remarkable French humorist Alphonse Allais published his Album primo-avrilesque.  It was a slim volume, containing seven monochromatic paintings (such as “Apoplectic cardinals picking tomatoes by the Red Sea”) and a silent funeral march (because the greatest sorrows are mute).  The march was the first silent piece, preceding similar works by Schulhoff, Cage, and others.  You can admire the Album here.

(Posted by Doug Skinner; portrait of Allais by Leonetto Cappiello.)