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Welcome to the Poison Pie Publishing House!
Home to a Literature of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation
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Featured Book:
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Blog & News Updates:
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Horoscopes from the Oracle of Hebeloma
A daily invitation to a joint exercise in apophenia and introspection
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September 21, 2024
Continuous-Line Illustrations for Hebeloma's Lament
We have received photographs of continuous-line drawings, which will be used as the chapter headings for Hebeloma's Lament in a Dozen Denials, including characters from January through August. We post the photos in the gallery.
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September 21, 2024
More Mobile Elements
Parts of the frame for the forthcoming mobile showcasing the chapter illustrations of Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza (2023) have been added to the gallery. The four frame elements are based on a set of plates purchased by the captain of the Aetos during their stop in the port of Gytheio. Each plate was decorated with a different mythological beast. The update appears in both the exhibit of photos and the exhibit of scans.
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September 15, 2024
Shrinky dink renderings of the chapter heading illustrations from Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza (redux)
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House have been working slowly to render the illustrations used as chapter headings in Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza (2023). Part of the appeal of the translucent plastic medium is the transmission of light through the work. We uploaded photographs of the artwork to the gallery page.
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September 14, 2024
Shrinky dink renderings of the chapter heading illustrations from Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House have been working slowly to render the illustrations used as chapter headings in Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza (2023). We uploaded scans of the artwork to the gallery page.
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July 15, 2024
Several New Illustrations for Hebeloma's Lament
We have received a batch of illustrations for the Hebeloma's Lament in a Dozen Denials, including characters from January, February and March. Interested visitors can view works in progress as they are generated by the artist and transmitted to the PPPH staff on the gallery page.
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July 8, 2024
Second Illustration for Hebeloma's Lament
Only a day later, we have a second glimpse at Europe, heroine of the musical score, Hebeloma's Lament in a Dozen Denials. Interested visitors can view works in progress as they are generated by the artist and transmitted to the PPPH staff on the gallery page.
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July 7, 2024
First Exploratory Illustration for Hebeloma's Lament in a Dozen Denials
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House post the first draft illustration by Julia K. Keffer of Bus Stop Art Show for the musical score, Hebeloma's Lament in a Dozen Denials. Interested visitors can view works in progress as they are generated by the artist and transmitted to the PPPH staff on the gallery page.
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May 18, 2024
Review: Monophonic - Maria Bertel
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House review Monophonic by Maria Bertel. Monophonic provides a demonstration in which the trombone, borrowing the words of Evan Parker, is "a rather specialized bio-feedback instrument for studying and expanding control over hearing and the motor mechanics of parts of the skeletomuscular system."
Review Date: May 17, 2024
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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May 16, 2024
Review: Central Park's Mosaics Of Reservoir, Lake, Paths And Gardens - Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House review Central Park's Mosaics Of Reservoir, Lake, Paths And Gardens, the first duet between AACM icons, Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers.
Review Date: May 16, 2024
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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May 13, 2024
Steve Albini (July 22, 1962 - May 7, 2024)
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House share a few thoughts on the passing of Steve Albini.
Publication Date: May 13, 2024
Author: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Article: article link
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May 5, 2024
Keiji Haino (b. May 3, 1952)
Today we feature the lyrics to a song by Keiji Haino, Japanese experimental musician and vocalist. As an aside, we used this quote as the epigraph to A Practicum on Divination via Cleromancy, written by Hebeloma Crustuliniforme from January through December, 2019, and serially published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee on a daily basis in 2021.
To those awakened and directionless
wandering toward yonder abyss
I say “not that way”
—Keiji Haino, from the lyrics to the untitled first track on the album Pathétique performed by Fushitsusha, English translation by Alan Cummings, PSF Records, Tokyo, 1994.
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April 28, 2024
Pär Lagerkvist (May 23, 1891 - July 11, 1974)
Today we feature a poem from the Swedish author, Pär Lagerkvist. As an aside, this poem was used as the epigraph for the poem, A Prayer for Disquiet, collected in A Prayer Book for the Damned, written by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from August to October, 2014 and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House in July, 2015.
The Dead One (Den Döde)
All is there, only I am no more,
all is still there, the fragrance of rain in the grass,
as I remember it, and the sough of the wind in the trees,
the flight of the clouds and the disquiet of the human heart.
Only my heart’s disquiet is no longer there.
--Pär Lagerkvist, from Evening Land (Aftonland), translated by W.H. Auden and Leif Sjöberg, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan, 1975, p. 51.
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April 21, 2024
Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 - July 23, 1989)
Today we feature a quote from the American post-modern writer, Donald Barthelme. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for Perhaps, the continuing exploits of Alton & Eugenia, written by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from September, 1999 to July, 2000, and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in April, 2013.
The Balloon of Perhaps. My best balloon.
—Donald Barthelme, from The Great Hug collected in Amateurs, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1976, p. 48.
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April 14, 2024
Donald Justice (August 12, 1925 - August 6, 2004)
Today we feature an interior fragment of a poem, which we have liked for many years, by the American poet and educator, Donald Justice. This four-line fragment was used as the epigraph to the novel, I Saw Blood and then Everything Went Black, sixteen dark fables from the future, written by David J. Keffer in Minneapolis, Minnesota from sometime in 1992 to March, 1993, and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in December, 2012.
Night is the sky over this poem.
It is too black for stars.
And do not look for any illumination.
You neither can nor should understand what it means.
Donald Justice, from Poem originally published in Departures, Atheneum, 1973, and later collected in New and Selected Poems, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995, p. 106;
full text archived at the Poetry Foundation.
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April 7, 2024
Paal-Helge Haugen (b. April 26, 1945)
Today we feature a poem by the Norwegian writer, Paal-Helge Haugen. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for A Memory of Fire, a novel of indeterminate conflagrations, written by David J. Keffer in Washington, D.C. from April to December, 1997, and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in March, 2013.
Elementary Geography
I don't know any shortcuts
Roads are crooked, overgrown
suddenly icy, with soft shoulders.
Most of them aren't on the map.
--Paal-Helge Haugen, from Wintering with the Light, translated from the Norwegian by Roger Greenwald, Sun & Moon Press, Los Angeles, California, 1997, p. 43.
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March 31, 2024
Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882)
Today we feature a quote from the English naturalist and biologist, Charles Darwin. As an aside, a different quote from On the Origin of Species was used as the epigraph to each odd-numbered chapter from one to nineteen in the novel, The Augur in the Arbor Inn, a tautological myth of evolution, written by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from December, 2014 to July, 2015. This novel remains unpublished.
More individuals are born than can possibly survive. A grain
in the balance will determine which individual shall live and
which shall die,—which variety or species shall increase in
number, and which shall decrease, or finally become extinct...
The slightest advantage in one being, at any age or during any
season, over those with which it comes into competition, or
better adaptation in however slight a degree to the surrounding
physical conditions, will turn the balance.
--Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, John Murray, London, 1859.
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March 24, 2024
Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899 - June 14, 1986)
Today we feature a quote from the Argentinian writer and scholar, Jorge Luis Borges. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for The Portable Library of Hong Samud, a novel that grew as a vine grows, guided by an innate, phototactic sensitivity, transcribed by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from August, 2015 to December, 2015, and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in March, 2020.
I have squandered and consumed my years in adventures of this type. To me, it does not seem unlikely that on some shelf of the universe there lies a total book. I pray the unknown gods that some man—even if only one man, and though it may have been thousands of years ago!—may have examined and read it. If honour and wisdom and happiness are not for me, let them be for others. May heaven exist, though my place be in hell. Let me be outraged and annihilated, but may Thy enormous Library be justified, for one instant, in one being.
--Jorge Luis Borges, from the “The Library of Babel” (1941), collected in Fictions, translated by Anthony Kerrigan, John Calder Publishers Ltd, London, 1965, p. 78.
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March 17, 2024
Pär Lagerkvist (May 23, 1891 - July 11, 1974)
Today we feature an untitled poem from the Swedish author and Nobel Laureate, Pär Lagerkvist. As an aside, this poem was used as the epigraph for Owen & Dolores, a sketch, written by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from September to December, 2000, and deemed unpublishable by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in September, 2016.
Some day you will be one of those who lived long ago.
The earth will remember you, just as it remembers the grass
and the forests,
the rotting leaves.
Just as the soil remembers,
and just as the mountains remember the winds.
Your peace shall be as unending as that of the sea.
--Pär Lagerkvist, from Evening Land (Aftonland), translated by W.H. Auden and Leif Sjöberg, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan, 1975, p. 49.
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March 12, 2024
Review: silver dawn - Zosha Warpeha
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House review silver dawn, an album of improvisations and compositions performed on the hardanger d'amore by Zosha Warpeha. If, like the reviewer, you aren't initially familiar with this instrument, read on and learn something new as we do our best to provide a verbal description that does justice to the music.
Review Date: March 12, 2024
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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March 10, 2024
Keiji Haino (b. May 3, 1952)
Today we feature the closing fragment of lyrics to a song by Keiji Haino, Japanese experimental musician and vocalist. As an aside, we have used this quote twice as an epigraph. First it appeared at the beginning of Alton & Eugenia, twelve stories, written by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from April to July, 1999 and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in November, 2012. Second, it is the epigraph for the poem, A Prayer for Miracles, collected in A Prayer Book for the Damned, written by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from August to October, 2014 and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House in July, 2015.
You, miracle, yearning for a miracle,
If you confess you were nothing
From the beginning all will go well, won’t it?
—Keiji Haino, from the lyrics to the song Though it went so well? performed by Fushitsusha on the album A Death Never To Be Complete, English translation by Alan Cummings, Tokuma Japan Communications, 1997. (full lyrics)
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March 3, 2024
Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 - July 23, 1989)
Today we feature a quote from the American post-modern writer, Donald Barthelme. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for June & Jitter (the bugs), written by David J. Keffer in Minneapolis, Minnesota from August to October, 1993 and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in July, 2013.
See the moon? It hates us.
—Donald Barthelme, from See the Moon? collected in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, 1968, p. 156.
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March 2, 2024
Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza printed
The first edition of Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza is printed in a limited edition hardcover with a set of postcards featuring color versions of the twelve illustrations used as chapter headings plus a few more related images. Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza is a post-existential musical score generated through a non-idiomatic, improvisational creative process, which was serially published on a daily basis in 2023 on the blog of the Poison Pie Publishing House. The full text remains electronically available on a free, anonymous basis on this site. The score recounts the adventure of Melanippe, one of the maidens offered to the minotaur by King Minos, immediately after she escaped from the labyrinth.
The postcards were created by by Julia K. Keffer of Bus Stop Art Show ().
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February 25, 2024
Stina Nordenstam (b. March 4, 1969)
Today we feature a fragment of lyrics to a song by Swedish singer, Stina Nordenstam. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for These Stars Are All the Same, a survey of constellations, written by David J. Keffer in Minneapolis, Minnesota from April to May, 1993 and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in November, 2012.
And still they're all the same to me
These stars all look the same
—Stina Nordenstam, from the lyrics to the song Alone at Night on the album Memories of a Color, Telegram Records Stockholm/Caprice Records, 1991.
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February 21, 2024
Darius Jones (b. May 3, 1978)
Today we feature a couple fragments from the conversation between American saxophonist, Darius Jones, and bassist William Parker, taken from the latter's most recent volume of interviews.
DJ: I was in my mid-twenties by that point. I don't think people really understand. There's no savviness to my shit, still. It was just like, oh, I'm just living. I'm like a fuckin' feral animal or something. I'm just like trying to figure out how to live, how to make a nest, you know, how to survive and do this thing that many, many motherfuckers back home would say, you couldn't do 'cause you Black and po'. I mean like literally that's what they would say to me, "You're Black and you're poor and you can't do this." And I just was like, "Yeah, OK, whatever. I'm gonna do it."
WP: But the thing is that we are not trained to accept who we are. When you study music, they say, well, you have all this tradition and that's put out there as an example. But they don't tell you that when you were born, a new tradition started and that you are yourself a tradition that's just coming into being.
Darius Jones, interview by William Parker, January 13, 2021, published in Conversations IV, edited by Ed Hazell, RogueArt, Paris, France, 2023, p. 127.
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February 18, 2024
Kobo Abé (March 7, 1924 - January 22, 1993)
Today we feature a quote from the Japanese existentialist, Kobo Abé, pseudonym of Kimifusa Abé. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for The Wooing of Eva, an empty journal, written by David J. Keffer in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Washington, DC from December, 1995 to December, 1996, and deemed unpublishable by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in July, 2016.
No man or woman is wooed by theory alone.
—Kobo Abé, The Woman in the Dunes, translated by E. Dale Saunders, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1964, p. 136.
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February 11, 2024
Keiji Haino (b. May 3, 1952)
Today we feature a fragment of lyrics to a song by Keiji Haino, Japanese experimental musician and vocalist. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for The Horties, an invisible novel, written by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from February, 2009 through December, 2010 and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in November, 2012.
The tenderness remembered most
Is the calm when everything becomes nothing
When I no longer know which way to go is
When I rejoice most, I suppose
Watching you then is when I
No longer have need of wings
—Keiji Haino, from the lyrics to the song That which is becoming to me performed by Fushitsusha on the album A Death Never To Be Complete, English translation by Alan Cummings, Tokuma Japan Communications, 1997. (full lyrics)
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February 9, 2024
Ellen Christi (b. March 7, 1958)
Today we feature a quote from American jazz vocalist, Ellen Christi, taken from her interview in the latest (fourth) collection of dialogues by William Parker. Choosing just one passage from the interview to share proved very difficult. There were so many striking remarks. For those who want to read more, you are encouraged to seek out the whole interview.
And William, all I wanted to do was just have the freedom to sing. That was such an incredible feeling. That freedom. Incredible. And I'm still doing it now. It's not important to me whether you like the way I sing or not. That's a personal choice. But I have maintained my integrity as an artist. I'm still going to sing because a message comes through me. A certain energy. There's a reason I'm on the planet. Singing. I'm a musician; I'm an artist. And I accept that responsibility...I am here to sing.
Ellen Christi, interview by William Parker, January 13, 2021, published in Conversations IV, edited by Ed Hazell, RogueArt, Paris, France, 2023, p. 85.
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February 4, 2024
Henry Threadgill (b. February 15, 1944)
Today we feature a quote from the flautist, saxophonist, improviser and composer, Henry Threadgill. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for Hebeloma's Swamp Fantasy Overture, a post-existential musical score generated through a non-idiomatic creative process, written by Hebeloma Crustuliniforme from January through December, 2021, and serially published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee daily in 2021.
I'm trying to take a long view
within reason
about the music
I cannot tell
or say
anything
about the music
No expectations suggested
... the individual listener
let the music
is all I can offer
—Henry Threadgill from the liner notes to Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp, PI Recordings, New York, 2012.
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January 28, 2024
Review: Syyspimee - Guillaume Gargaud & Eero Savela
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House review Syyspimee, an album of improvised duets on guitar and trumpet, which served as a spectacular introduction to the music of Guillaume Gargaud & Eero Savela.
Review Date: January 28, 2024
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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January 28, 2024
Italo Calvino (October 15, 1923 - September 19, 1985)
Today we feature a quote from the Italian neo-fantasist, Italo Calvino. As an aside, this quote was used as the epigraph for The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (Revisited), a modern adaptation of the novella by H.P. Lovecraft, written by David J. Keffer in Knoxville, Tennessee from June through August, 2012, and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in the autumn of 2012.
Arriving at each new city, the traveler
finds again a past of his that he did not
know he had: the foreignness of what you
no longer are or no longer possess lies in
wait for you in foreign, unpossessed
places.
—Italo Calvino, from Invisible Cities, translated by William Weaver, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, San Diego, 1974, pp. 28-29.
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January 21, 2024
Review: Space Cube Jazz - Matthew Shipp & Steve Swell
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House review Space Cube Jazz, an album of improvised duets on piano and trombone by Matthew Shipp and Steve Swell.
Review Date: January 21, 2024
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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January 21, 2024
Keiji Haino (b. May 3, 1952)
Today we feature a prayer by Keiji Haino, dark shaman of the Tokyo experimental underground. The prayer memorializes the passing of English improvising guitarist, Derek Bailey (January 29, 1930 - December 25, 2005). In April, 2006, the staff of the PPPH created a broadside featuring this prayer, which has hung in the office since that time and was posted online. This prayer also was used as the epigraph for The Sutra of Reverse Possession, a novel of non-idiomatic improvisation, written by David J. Keffer in Seoul, Korea & Knoxville, Tennessee from December, 2010 through May, 2012, and published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville, Tennessee in December, 2012.
A Prayer for the Repose of the Soul of Derek Bailey
That, which while enfolding this now and
present perfume,
speaks, ‘I will use to the fullest this form
bestowed upon me’
and blurs into the firmament~
ah, where and in what form will it next be
devised
—Keiji Haino, published in The Wire, February 2006, issue 264, page 33.
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January 16, 2024
Shrinky Dink Mobile of Scenes from Gou Tanabe's Manga Adaptations of Lovecraft
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House kick off 2024 with a continuation of their art project in which they render scenes from various books in shrinky dink form. At this link, we present a gallery of scans and photos of a mobile containing four scenes from manga adaptations by Gou Tanabe of works originally by H.P. Lovecraft.
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January 14, 2024
Donald Justice (August 12, 1925 - August 6, 2004)
Today we feature a bit of poem, which we have liked for many years, by the American poet and educator, Donald Justice. A fragment of this poem, consisting of the final five lines, was used as the epigraph to the novel, Symptoms of the Lunatic, written by David J. Keffer in Washington, D.C. from February to July, 1997 and
published by the Poison Pie Publishing House of Knoxville Tennessee in February, 2013.
But we did not ourselves know what the end was.
People like us simply go on.
We have our flaws, perhaps a few private virtues,
But it is by blind chance only that we escape tragedy.
And there is no plot in that; it is devoid of poetry.
Donald Justice, from Pantoum of the Great Depression published in New and Selected Poems, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995, pp. 22-23;
archived at the Poetry Foundation.
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January 6, 2024
A Survey of One Hundred Bestiaries Continues in 2024
In 2016, the bibliophiles at the Poison Pie Publishing House began a recurring online feature showcasing books about monsters. Initially ambitious, they titled it A Survey of One Hundred Bestiaries. It turns out that there is a virtually infinite number of such books in the world, cataloging creatures real and imagined. The survey continues to this day. In the past several years, a new entry in the survey has been added on the first Saturday of each month. Today, on the first Saturday of January, 2024, we post the 336th entry, Pokénatomy II, written, illustrated and self-published by Christopher Stoll. The survey is not intended to be a review; we do not provide subjective commentary. Instead, we present an image of one entry from the book as well as some portion of the accompanying text description, allowing the reader to form their own opinions. In the case of Pokénatomy II, we note here that this is an example of our favorite kind of bestiary—an independent labor of love brought to reality by the author.
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January 1, 2024
2023: The Year in Review at the Poison Pie Publishing House
In the year 2023, the staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House produced exactly one book. Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza, a post-existential musical score generated through a non-idiomatic, improvisational creative process, was serially published on a daily basis in 2023 on the blog of the Poison Pie Publishing House. The score is illustrated by Julia K. Keffer of Bus Stop Art Show (). Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza recounts the adventure of Melanippe, one of the maidens offered to the minotaur by King Minos, immediately after she escaped from the labyrinth.
Also in 2023, the staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House generated a few music reviews. In doing so, we hope only to spread the word about hidden musical gems from the cultural margin. We shared a handful of quotes that struck us. Outside of our on-going monthly update of A Survey of One Hundred Bestiaries, we posted only one book review. We continued to engage in our guilty pleasure of rendering characters and scenes from books into shrinky dink form, creating a mobile of the chapter headings from Hebeloma's Abyssal Aria (2022) as well as eight mobiles in homage to beloved children's authors and illustrators.
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House is no longer setting annual goals. However, the daily blog will continue, with the intention of engaging in non-idiomatic improvisation. This work will take the form of a musical score and is titled, Hebeloma's Lament in a Dozen Denials (2024).
To our readers, we, the staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House, thank you for your interest and support and we look forward to another mutually creative and unpredictable year.
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December 31, 2023
The Writing of Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza Is Complete
The writing of Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza, accomplished in approximately 100 words per day on each day of 2023, is now concluded. The full text of the completed score is available for viewing on a free, anonymous basis.
Several related documents have also been updated today, as described below.
The entirety of the Clockwise Cadenza, however, is not complete. The writings for the month of December have been delivered today to Julia Keffer, the artist creating the monthly chapter heading illustrations. This final illustration will appear sometime in the first month or two of the new year.
As described previously, the final two steps in the creative process, namely the reading of the score and the musical performance are intentionally left to undetermined dates.
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December 23, 2023
Review: Ten Ear-Opening Records of 2023 completed
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House engage in the rather obvious fantasy that our readership (ambiguous as it is) might seek out music recommendations from the PPPH blog for holiday gift giving. Therefore, in late November, we posted our End-of-the-Year list with time for pre-holiday shopping but our Top Ten list only contained nine entries, reserving one spot for potential late arrivals. Today, we complete the list and we arrived at a tie for the tenth spot, including both Susan Alcorn's Manifesto and Drums & Octobass by Keiji Haino & Guro Moe. Hurray for ties!
Review Date: November 24, 2023 and updated December 23, 2023
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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December 22, 2023
Illustrations for Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza
At long last, we have posted the illustrations that serve as the monthly headings for first eleven months of Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza. We have also collected these images in a gallery. As our resident artist at Bus Stop Art Show waits to create the chapter heading until after she has read the monthly writing, we will post the final illustration sometime in early 2024.
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December 22, 2023
Exploratory Illustrations for Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza
This week we received in the mail the artwork for the first eleven months of Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza. Also in the package from Bus Stop Art Show, were various artistic explorations of characters and scenes in the Clockwise Cadenza, created before a final style had been settled. We post these drafts in a gallery of their own.
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December 10, 2023
Book Reviews: Two Graphical Adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft in 2023
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The Shadow over Innsmouth - Gou Tanabe (Dark Horse, 2023)
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The bibliophiles at the Poison Pie Publishing House call attention to the latest books published in two series of starkly different graphical adaptations of the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The fourth volume of Lovecraft illustrated by François Baranger features the story, "The Dunwich Horror". "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is the most recent manga adaptation by Gou Tanabe. Both are masterful takes on visual guides to imagining the cosmic horror of Lovecraft.
Review Date: December 10, 2023
Reviewer: staff
Link to Review: link
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November 24, 2023
Review: Ten Ear-Opening Records of 2023
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House high-light nine of what is to be ten records of adventurous jazz released in the past year to which we have repeatedly listened. We haven't settled on the last one and there remains albums to be released late in 2023 for which we wanted to potentially save a space. Before the year is out, we will have ten. For now, there is plenty of wonderful music to listen to in the nine recordings we have identified.
Review Date: November 24, 2023
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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November 16, 2023
Illustrations from 2nd Edition D&D Planescape Books by Tony DiTerlizzi (1993-1995)
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House continue their art project in which they render scenes from beloved books as shrinky dinks. In the latest edition, we translated into plastic form four creatures illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi for 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons books related to the Planescape multiverse campaign setting. A gallery is posted.
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November 9, 2023
Clifford Allen (b. 1977)
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House picked up two books published in 2023 by RogueArt. One of them is a book about the American pianist, Matthew Shipp (b. December 7, 1960). The book includes wide-ranging interviews with Shipp collaborators conducted by music historian, Clifford Allen. Our quote for today comes from this book.
The instrumentation is the composition already, you've scored it just by showing up and bringing people together who know what one another's capabilities are.
Clifford Allen, published in Singularity Codex: Matthew Shipp on RogueArt, RogueArt, Paris, France, 2023, p. 40.
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November 5, 2023
Illustrations from selected works by Satoshi Kitamura (1985-1999)
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House continue their art project in which they render scenes from beloved childhood books in shrinky dink form. In the latest edition, we feature scenes from four books by Satoshi Kitamura. A gallery is posted.
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October 29, 2023
Illustrations from Four Books by Shel Silverstein (1963-2005)
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House continue their art project in which they render scenes from beloved childhood books in shrinky dink form. In the latest edition, we translated characters from four books by Shel Silverstein. A gallery is posted.
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October 10, 2023
Illustrations from Bumperboy stories by Debbie Huey (2005-2015)
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House continue their art project in which they render scenes from beloved childhood books in shrinky dink form. In the latest edition, we translated four of our favorite scenes starring Bumperboy by Debbie Huey. A gallery is posted.
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September 30, 2023
Review: pique-nique au labo 3 - Jean-Jacques Birgé
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House wander along a meandering path as they consider the musical experiments emanating from the picnics in the laboratory of Jean-Jacques Birgé.
Review Date: September 30, 2023
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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September 24, 2023
Illustrations from selected works of Dr. Seuss (1960-1963)
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House continue their art project in which they render scenes from beloved childhood books in shrinky dink form. In the latest edition, we translated scenes from four books by Dr. Seuss. A gallery is posted.
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September 10, 2023
Illustrations from Eric Carle's A Ghost Story
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House received a request for a Halloween-themed mobile and decided to combine the request with the on-going project of rendering children's book as shrinky dinks. A Ghost Story, with text by Bill Martin Jr. and pictures by Eric Carle, was published in 1970. A gallery with images of the individual pieces and the assembled mobile is posted.
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September 3, 2023
Illustrations from Polo by Régis Faller
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House is multi-generational. So our investigation of influential childhood books spans various decades. Here the PPPH staff rendered several scenes from three Polo stories by Régis Faller as shrinky dinks. A gallery is posted.
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August 22, 2023
Review: Una Ofrenda A La Ausencia - Camila Nebbia
The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House review Una Ofrenda A La Ausencia, a new saxophone album by Camila Nebbia in the Relative Pitch Records Solo Series, which offers a number of musical interpretations on the theme of absence.
Review Date: August 22, 2023
Reviewer: Poison Pie Publishing House Staff
Link to Review: review link
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August 11, 2023
Mark Helias (b. October 1, 1950)
In teaching the course, The Golden Age of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation, at the University of Tennessee over the course of a decade, the staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House have accumulated a collection of books used as a reference library. Upon arrival, some books are read in their entirety, while portions of others are read before the book is put away for future reference. Included in this collection are three volumes of William Parker's "Conversations" with musicians published by RogueArt in 2011, 2015 and 2019. We had initially treated these books as one might an encyclopedia, a valuable resource to be explored when one was interested in a particular musician. However, that idea left much of the books unread. So this summer we began reading them (in reverse order) from first page to last. It turned out to be quite an unexpected pleasure. Before we had just read about musicians whom we already knew well. It turned out that the other conversations were amazing introductions to musicians about whom we knew little or nothing at all. For each new voice, we were motivated to listen to at least one album, often mentioned in the conversation. We recently finished Volume 3 and have begun volume 2. The conversation with American bassist Mark Helias is full of wisdom. It proved very difficult to pick just one passage from the interview to share on this site. For those who want to read more, you are encouraged to seek out all three volumes. (For the curious, the album we relistened to while reading this interview was Quintet (Basel) 1977 (hatOLOGY, 2016) featuring the star-studded cast of Anthony Braxton (reeds), George Lewis (trombone), Muhal Richard Abrams (piano), Mark Helias (bass) and Charles "Bobo" Shaw (drums).)
WP: I heard Ornette Coleman for years before I heard Charlie Parker. And I actually heard Cecil Taylor for years before I really heard Monk. Later on you pick up on it but that's just how it went down.
MH: Yeah, it's interesting. You got the direction but you've got this sort of biased direction, right? It was like you were funneled into ths area but they didn't give you the broad strokes about the whole thing. And that's a discovery I guess we all have to make on our own, sort of integrating all the stuff. And also, the question of what is American culture depends on where you come from, what that is identified as. And I'm discovering all this music that's supposedly not part of my experience; but on the other hand, no music is part of my experience.
Mark Helias, interview by William Parker, December 19, 2012, published in Conversations II: Dialogues and Monologues, edited by Ed Hazell, RogueArt, Paris, France, 2015, p. 17.
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August 1, 2023
Illustrations from Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel
While revisiting influential books from the formative years, the staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House rendered several scenes from Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel as shrinky dinks. A gallery is posted.
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