The Duplex Planet is an ongoing work designed to portray a wide variety of real characters who are old or in decline. In our culture, exposure to people at this point in their lives is generallylimited to seeing family members age and, since that points directly to one's own mortality, it's hard to glean much in the way of an objective example.

I started The Duplex Planet as a small, homemade magazine in 1979, which I still publish. It has subsequently found larger audiences in other forms which are all derived from the original template. There have been book collections, spoken-word recordings and a series of concerts presented by Art's at St. Anns with music composed by NRBQ's Terry Adams were recorded for New York Public Radio and presented as "The Duplex Planet Radio Hour." A series of CDs titled Lyrics by Ernest Noyes Brookings continue to be issued, featuring a wide variety of notable musical acts (XTC, Brave Combo, Morphine, Ben Vaughn, Peter Holsapple, Young Fresh Fellows, Robyn Hitchcock, Dave Alvin, and over a hundred others) performing songs they wrote and performed utilizing the words of Duplex Planet regular Ernie Brookings. Duplex Planet Illustrated is a comic book adaptation of the material drawn by a variety of alternative artists and illustrators, including Peter Bagge, Drew Friedman, Dan Clowes, Jim Woodring, Chris Ware and James Kochalka, published by Fantagraphics. An exhibit of drawings and sculptures by a few of the subjects in the magazine titled "An Exact Spectacular" has traveled to museums and colleges. 1001 Real Apes, a theatrical presentation, features monologues drawn from the pages of The Duplex Planet, with music composed and performed by the critically acclaimed instrumental ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. A series of personal commentaries drawn from my experiences with this body of work have been airing regularly on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."