Joey Skaggs is the Arch-Bishop and chief theorist of pranksterism. He’s been organising and playing pranks on the media for such a long time that he’s become an archetypal figure, a character of alternative folklore, a piece of countercultural mythology, see his Wikipedia entry to have an instant grasp of what this guy means.
Back in the 1990s, Skaggs was a very influential figure on the Luther Blissett Project. Some of us read that legendary Re:Search issue entitled “Pranks!”, which featured interminable interviews with Skaggs and other pranksters (e.g. Alan Abel, Joe Coleman, and of course Abbie Hoffmann), and it blew our mind. We totally agree with an Amazon commenter who described that book as “life-changing” and “perception-altering”.
Skaggs runs both a labyrinthine, prosperous website and a blog called The Art of the Prank.
There’s another guy called W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of a book called Fiona: Mysteries & Curiosities Of Literary Fraud & Folly.
The link between Skaggs and Elvin is: Skagg’s blog is hosting a series of posts edited by Elvin, entitled LiteratEye.
And that’s where we enter the picture.
A few days ago Elvin interviewed WM1 for LiteratEye. They talked about pranks, Luther Blissett, Wu Ming, Manituana, the Mohawks at the Akwesasne reservation, and a doomed attempt at crossing the US-Canadian border a few months before 9-11.
The interview is here.

Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Given that our previous novels hadn’t encountered much critical acclaim in the US (mainstream) press, during the work on Manituana we sometimes wondered what American reviewers would think and write about the book. S’incazzeranno di brutto, was the most frequent answer – “They’ll get mad”. How dare these Italian *§#!>:-/%s tell us our own story? Just mind your own business, will ya?
[Of course, any sentient being in the world could easily reply: hey, that's also our business. American capitalism and American weapons mingled with everyone else's history long ago (*). And what if Sergio Leone - another Italian *§#!>:-/% - hadn't minded precisely this business? We would never have gotten some of the finest western movies ever made. We'd never have gotten Once Upon a Time in the West.]
That was the worst (or best?) case scenario, none of us expected things to be so simple. In fact, now we’ve got two American (pre-)reviews, and things aren’t so simple. :-) (more…)

This review was published about two weeks ago but we found the time to translate it only two hours ago. Now it’s on the Manituana site.
It isn’t the only good review in the French press. For example the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur ran an excellent one whose opening lines were:
‘Who’s Wu Ming? For eight years [they're actually 10], operating under this pseudonym meaning “anonymous” in Chinese, a quintet of young authors have been cutting a deeply original furrow in Italian literature.‘

On 26 september 2009, Wu Ming 2 will be in GENEVA, Switzerland, at a literary festival called Fureur de lire [more or less: "Frenzy to read"]. The talk is entitled Fureur à l’italienne [more or less: "Fury the Italian Way"] and scheduled for 1 PM @ MC Plainpalais, Théâtre Pitoëff. WM1 and Serge Quadruppani (an excellent novelist and the French translator of our books) will present  Manituana (French edition, Editions Métailié) and discuss the latest wave of Italian literature, with particular references to the so-called  New Italian Epic. Here’s  Fureur de lire‘s official website.

On 15 October 2009, Wu Ming 1 and Wu Ming 4 will be in LONDON, UK. They will present Manituana (UK/US edition, Verso Books) at Borders bookstore, 122 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0JR.

On 16 October 2009, Wu Ming 2 and Wu Ming 5 will be in TREMBLAY-EN-FRANCE, France, to present Manituana. Details to follow.

On 16 October 2009, Wu Ming 1 and Wu Ming 4 will still be in LONDON, UK. They will present Manituana (UK/US edition, Verso Books) at Big Green Bookshop, Unit 1, Brampton Park Road, Wood Green, London N22 6BG. 7 PM.

On 17 October 2009, Wu Ming 1 and Wu Ming 4 will still be in LONDON, UK. They will present Manituana (UK/US edition, Verso Books) at the  Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. We’re pleased to announce that the British novelist  Stewart Home will read pages from our book. With the participation of Shaun Whiteside (the translator into English of all our books). 9 PM

On the very same day, 17 October 2009, Wu Ming 2 and Wu Ming 5 will be in LIMOGES, France. They will present Manituana at the  Bibliothèque Francophone Multimédia (BFM), Centre-ville, 2 Place Aimé Cèsaire, Limoges Cedex. 3 PM.

On 18 October 2009, Wu Ming 2 and Wu Ming 5 will be in TARNAC, France, to present Manituana at the Café-épicerie. Details to follow.

On 20 October 2009, Wu Ming 2 and Wu Ming 5 will be in PARIS, France, to present Manituana at La Libreria (89 rue du Fbg Poissonnière, Paris 9e). More details to follow.

On 21 October 2009, Wu Ming 2 and Wu Ming 5 will be in LILLE, France, to present Manituana at the Librairie internationale V.O. 36 rue de Tournai, 59000 Lille. More details to follow.

On 18 November 2009, Wu Ming 1 and Wu Ming 5 will be in NEW YORK CITY. They will present Manituana at the New School, Room 510, 66 West 12th Street, 8 PM.

On 20 November 2009, Wu Ming 1 and Wu Ming 5 will be in NEW YORK CITY. They will present Manituana at Bluestockings, 172 Allen Street, (Lower East Side, between Stanton and Rivington). 7 PM.

On 23 November 2009, Wu Ming 1 and Wu Ming 5 will be in NEW YORK CITY. They will present Manituana (and read from the book in their thick Italian accent) at PS122, 150 First Avenue (corner of East 9th Street) Directions: L train to 1st Avenue,
 F/V train to 2nd Avenue, 
N/R to 8th Street, 
6 to Astor Place. $6.

No, it isn’t a documentary, it would be wrong to approach this movie in that way. It’s a horror film which reminded us of John Carpenter‘s They Live. There is no analysis of “Berlusconism”, no depiction of the other half of Italy, the one that abhors the present state of things and resists in many, often inconspicuous ways. Gandini just wants to show the horror behind the glitter. He puts a typical slasher movie soundtrack on slowed-down sequences of Mediaset TV shows. The camera lingers on the premier’s face with creepy close-ups showing the cracks in his skin, the enlarged pores under the greasepaint. Gandini’s gaze pauses for many long minutes on the powerful talent scout Lele Mora‘s disquieting smile. Mora is the spitting image of the Mystery Man in David Lynch’s Lost Highway. The only difference is that Mora is fairer haired. In this sequence we get to know that Mora is a Mussolini fan and keeps pictures of swastikas and fascist hymns on his smartphone. (more…)