Arrested Development Season 4 Report Card: C+

Now that the much anticipated Arrested Development season 4 has been released and digested in varied paces by the viewing public, it’s time to look at the 15 episodes as a whole.

While Netflix doesn’t release numbers, one has to imagine quite a few people tuned into their computers and TVs, all waiting to see what the return of the Bluth family would bring. Were they happy? Or disappointed? Probably a little bit of both.

Let’s go ahead and look at what the high, and inevitable low, points of this fourth season were... Report Card style!

Lucille Photo

Best Episode: To pick one episode is difficult because of the way the season was engineered, but if I absolutely had to, I’d go with Buster’s episode, "Off The Hook." It was the perfect blend of old school Arrested Development ridiculousness and the new storytelling they had to go with to accommodate everyone’s schedules. Watching Buster attempt to move on from being a Motherboy, including a juice binge and a John Jr. outfit, was a delight. Even though I wasn’t a fan of the Herbert Love character, I most certainly enjoyed him a lot more when the "Blind Side Monster" was involved. It was actually the Blind Side Monster that made this episode the best of the season. Like I said in the episode review, that should not have been as funny as it was and it succeeded because of good writing and Tony Hale’s exceptional performance as Buster Bluth, Manboy Extraordinaire.

Worst Episode: Without a doubt, the worst episode of the season was the finale, "Blockheads." At first I thought it would have been one of the first few episodes that started off so slow and were mainly all expository work, but then the finale came around and not even sex offenders in ice cream trucks could save it. I appreciate that Hurwitz and the rest of the writers had to wrap things up and at the same time not wrap things up to leave the possibility of either another season or a movie, but the episode as a whole was pretty much Ron Howard telling a rather boring end to a story. It was equally disappointing because things had gotten so much better since those first few episodes and it would have been nice for season four to end on a high note but it so did not.,

Best Storyline: This isn’t even up for debate; Tobias Funke had the best storyline. It might be just because his was more contained and easily followed and it might be because David Cross as Tobias is so much fun to watch. There was so much of the Funke story that was entertaining: his insistence that the methadone clinic was actually an acting class called "Method One," his involvement with DeBrie that brought forth a different side of Tobias than we had ever seen before, and even the ridiculous "Fantastic Four: The Musical” was amusing. 

Worst Storyline: The wall. There’s not even much I can say about it because every time Lucille and George started talking about the wall, my eyes glazed over and when I came back to conscious awareness I thought “I hate the wall.” I’ve never had such strong feelings about an architectural element before this season of Arrested Development and I hope to never revisit those feelings again. 

Best Character: The easy choice would be GOB, Tobias, or Buster, but I’m going to have to say that the best characters of this season were the guest star secondary characters. Maria Bamford as DeBrie, Tommy Tune as Argyle Austero, Isla Fisher as Rebel Alley, Ben Stiller as Tony Wonder, and of course Terry Crews as Herbert Love. Even if I didn’t like the actual character they played (Herbert Love), these secondary characters pretty much saved this season. Had it just been the Bluth family I fear Arrested Development season 4 would have crashed and burned even more than some people felt it did. 

Worst Character: I feel like I’m committing some crime here but the worst character of the season was Ron Howard. To his credit though, it was mainly due to the new storytelling engine that, as opposed to the first three seasons when the narrator was more of a “heh heh, hey audience let’s laugh at these buffoons together,” he was relegated to just being a regular narrator with little to no editorial commentary. Where he was once witty and smart, he now was boring and trite.

Season Grade: C+

Now it's your turn, TV Fanatics! What grade would you give Arrested Development Season 4?

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/06/arrested-development-season-4-report-card-c/

TV Ratings Report: NBA Finals Heat Up

The Miami Heat didn't just dominate the second half of the NBA Finals last night, Game 4 of this back-and-forth series dominated the Thursday night television ratings.

Scroll down for a breakdown, which includes low numbers for Hannibal and an easy victory for ABC...

Finals Pic

8 p.m.
The Big Bang Theory rerun: 8.3 million/Two and a Half Men rerun: 6.3 million
Hell's Kitchen: 5 million
Save Me rerun: 2.4 million/Save Me: 2.2 million
The Vampire Diaries rerun: 870,000

9 p.m.
NBA Finals: 14.1 million
Person of Interest rerun: 6.5 million
Does Someone Have To Go?: 2.4 million
The Office rerun: 1.5 million/Parks and Recreation rerun: 1.5 million
Beauty and the Beast rerun: 630,000

10 p.m.
Elementary rerun: 5.6 million
Hannibal: 2 million

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/06/tv-ratings-report-nba-finals-heat-up/

Breaking Bad Season 5 Giveaway: Enter Now!

Vince Gilligan has warned fans: There will be blood on the final eight episodes of Breaking Bad Season 5.

But TV Fanatic is here to say there will also be something far less ominous leading up to the August 11 return of television's most gripping drama: a free giveaway!

That's right, we're offering THREE (3) lucky readers the chance to win one (1) item each: either (the first eight episodes of) Breaking Bad Season 5 on Blu-Ray or DVD.

Here is how it will work:

  • We have one (1) Blu-Ray and two (2) DVDs to giveaway.
  • Enter via the following form - however you wish to do so and as many times as you wish to do so - by Noon on Friday, June 21.
  • One Grand Prize winner will be selected at random and he/she will have the option of selecting either the Blu-Ray or DVD. Two more winners will then be selected at random, with the same option given to each, provided the Grand Prize winner does not select the Blu-Ray.
  • Open to U.S. residents only.

Ready to enter and try to win? GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Breaking Bad: Behind the Scenes

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/06/breaking-bad-season-5-giveaway-enter-now/

Scott Foley Promoted to Scandal Series Regular

ABC has made it official: Scott Foley will be a series regular on Scandal Season 3.

The beloved actor was introduced as Jake Ballard toward the end of Season 2, coming on board as a mysterious character who grew especially close to Kerry Washington's Olivia.

Scott Foley on Scandal

We can't say for sure what Jake will be up to in the fall, of course, but Foley can say he's very excited to find out along with us.

“I’m thrilled to join such a talented, enthusiastic and professional group of people,” he said in a statement. “Shonda [Rhimes] and company have created a troupe of layered complex characters and to be able to be part of that is both exciting and humbling.”

Scandal returns with new episodes in September.

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/06/scott-foley-promoted-to-scandal-series-regular/

Jim’s Notebook: Scandal, Royal Pains and Wilson Bethel!

While I was busy at the second annual ATX Television Festival in Austin last weekend, I managed to sit down with the folks making some of your favorite TV shows, gathering up scoop on their programs and, in the case of one actor, learning of his summer hiatus plans.

So this week’s Notebook gets emptied out with bits from Scandal’s gay couple, a Royal Pains pregnancy and what Hart of Dixie’s Wilson Bethel is up to over the next couple months...

Jim's Notebook

SCANDAL When it comes to playing the heightened drama on ABC’s hit series, Dan Bucatinsky (James) said that he can relate to a lot of the issues that plague his character and his partner Cyrus (Jeff Perry). “I live it every single day,” he said after the ATX panel for the show. “I'm a passionate father of my two kids and a passionate writer, performer, actor, and producer. And that tension between wanting both things so desperately is something that lives in James.”

Bucatinsky’s real-life partner is acclaimed writer/director Don Roos.

The actor, who is busy with Web Therapy on Showtime, Who Do You Think You Are on TLC (both of which he does with BFF Lisa Kudrow) and his writing gig on Grey’s Anatomy, added of what he’d like to see on Scandal Season 3: “I think it would be really interesting to see life at home challenge James and Cyrus while career is starting to explode I think that would be an interesting place to go, but there's no telling.”

Cyrus at Home

ROYAL PAINS The jaw-dropping moment in this week’s Royal Pains Season 5 is that Divya is pregnant. Because she’s not a mother yet in real life, actress Reshma Shetty told me that she chatted with some people close to her – literally. “My next-door neighbor has two kids,” she said so she was able to ask “in that period of time what happened to you? What happened to your body? How did you feel?” For her character, who usually does her best to keep her life in order, Shetty said, “this is the last thing that could possibly happen to her in her mind.”

And while the predictable thing to do would be to bring in Divya’s ultra-strict parents, Executive Producer Michael Rauch told me that he and his creative team took a different route. “What the writers do is send these conflicts back into the family unit, which is HankMed,” he said. “So, it will provide great conflict and issues to come up in season five with how we take care of her. So, rather than seeing it play out in Divya’s family, we get to see it play out in the HankMed family.”

WILSON BETHEL is using his Hart of Dixie hiatus keeping busy, but did doing improv on the CW’s revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway come easily for him? “I'm a bit of a loose cannon anyway so just being ridiculous in  the moment comes pretty natural to me but improv is scary as shit, man,” he told me in Austin last weekend. He said that working with seasoned improv talents (and host Aisha Tyler from Archer) made the experience easier. (The series kicks off July 16).

And for those who loved his Stupid Hype web series, Bethel is working on another one for The CW.  “It’s a new series called LA Rangers,” he said, “where me and my creative partner play Los Angeles park rangers in Griffith Park who are aspiring filmmakers. So we are in preproduction stages right now and we'll shoot that next month before going back to Hart of Dixie.” (More from my chat with Bethel about his hopes for Season 3 of Hart of Dixie coming next week on TV Fanatic.)

That’s a wrap for this week! Anything else you’re dying to know about your favorite show? Leave a comment here or you email me directly at jim@jimhalterman.com. And remember: follow @TVFanatic for all your TV scoop!

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/06/jims-notebook-scandal-royal-pains-and-wilson-bethel/

Revenge Season 3 Q&A: How Will Jack React?

I’m Amanda Clarke.

Yep, Emily Thorne finally said those words to Jack Porter to close out Revenge Season 2. So, as we bide our time this summer waiting for new episodes, what could possibly come next?

Leave it to Nick Wechsler (Jack) to shed some light on the question (and a few others) when we hung out at the ATX Television Festival this past weekend in Austin. Though they haven’t started shooting the new season yet, Wechsler had some theories and desires for how Jack should handle this shocking news, as well as what other TV show the actor would love to appear on...

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TV Fanatic: Where do you think we’ll find Jack mentally? Between his brother’s death and Emily dropping the bomb about being Amanda, what would you want for him?
Nick Wechsler: I would like for him to believe her. I would like for him to...basically, he has to go after Conrad Grayson now…but for him to maybe finally accept Emily, through seeing what it's done to Jack…this might actually be more interesting, if it took seeing Jack go down this dark revenge road to make her rethink her own revenge.

TVF: I actually hadn't thought about that. On the flip side of that is Emily and Jack teaming up in a way because they both have their issues with the Graysons.
NW: It's interesting because I think that would be a way for it to go because through this I think he's going to resent her. As much as it's like ‘oh my God, you've just revealed to me that you are…this explains the connection I've had to you all along, you are the girl that I've been in love with, but I'm also hurt that you've been lying and that you set up a sequence of events that led to me losing someone I thought was you, I thought was the love of my life.’

Jack Porter at the Bar

TVF: Because he truly fell in love with Amanda.
NW: Exactly. ‘So whether or not she was you, I ended up falling in love with whoever she was.’ So he's going to be upset with her but at the same time it has the potential to put him in her shoes. So it's like, wow, the reason he comes around to forgiving her [and] he's going to have to start Trojan-Horsing his way in. He's going to have to start lying to people to get some of this information out to try to take [the Graysons] down. So yeah. It's both the thing that's going to push her away, and the thing that's probably ultimately going to make him forgive her.

TVF: A therapist would make really good money living in The Hamptons, don’t ya think?
NW: Jack can't afford it, but yeah.

TVF: How do you feel like your life's changed in the last two years? Do you get recognized more? Is fame something different to deal with?
NW: I get recognized more, but it's never a problem. Everybody's really respectful and everything. I just went to Bali for 15 percent work and 85 percent play and it was amazing. But Australia is around the corner and [the show is] doing very well in Australia, so I got stopped a lot there. Recognizing someone from something they watch is rarer there so I got stopped more frequently.

Like in LA, I don’t get stopped nearly as much as I get stopped here in Austin or over there. As long as people aren't asking for too much or anything, like too much of your time or anything or whatever, but no, my life is no different, really. I still haven't bought a new car and I drive a 13-year-old piece of shit.

TVF: Do they make fun of you when you drive your car on the lot to shoot the show?
NW: Behind my back, I'm sure. I'm sure I'm paying less in rent than everyone in the cast. I didn't move. I mean, these are things I'm eventually going to change. Obviously, I'm going to get a new car, I'll probably move or whatever, but it hasn't changed my life. It's changed my opportunities.

TVF: Where do you see your career going beyond this show? Do you see more drama? Comedy?
NW: What means more to me is comedy just because that's what got me started acting. That's my favorite thing to do, is just sit around and riff with my friends, and make people laugh, and play ridiculous characters. Just talk as a character to my friend and we just keep doing this back and forth and it's got to be awful for girlfriends to sit through.

But I think I'm almost better suited to drama. Like whatever my thing is. And it's actually frustrating. It's like a part of me is jealous of the dramatic part of me because the dramatic part is getting a lot more attention. I'm not even sure I'm that good at [comedy] anymore because I haven't had many opportunities.

TVF: Okay, so you have your two and a half months off. You can go work on any show, like a guest spot or something. Do you have a show that's on the air now that you’d love to do?
NW: I've already done something on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia but I think that show is so brilliant. I wish I could keep coming back as different characters. I love that show.

TVF: And they do a lot of improving stuff, right? Like they don’t keep tight to the script if I remember right, talking to them.
NW: Yeah, which is my kind of thing. But, also, just based on the strength of the first season because it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen, Eastbound and Down…I'd be honored to have had anything to do with their fourth and final season. That would be amazing.

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/06/revenge-season-3-qanda-how-will-jack-react/

FACE OFF: Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Opening Night

FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1)
Our FACE OFF: Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy opening was an incredible night celebrating one of the most iconic pieces of the human body, the skull.

We had music piping through the museum, tasty food & drinks, an awesome gallery shop featuring the jewelry of Anatomical Element, a melt-in-your-mouth human-size chocolate skull by Conjurer’s Kitchen, an incredibly creative audience drawing their own skulls, and even had famous tattoo artist Hannah Aitchison of Deluxe Tattoo and LA Ink drop by. Noah Scalin of Skull-A-Day was in attendance with his crew and the Street Anatomy team plus the staff of the International Museum of Surgical Science were making sure everything ran smoothly.

For those of you that couldn’t join us for opening night, we’d like to share with you photos of the gallery and event below. Enjoy!

 

FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (4)
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Emilio Garcia’s Skull Brains

 

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Intricate 3D printed skulls by Joshua Harker

 

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DJ Sam Rolfes providing music throughout the museum all night

 

Audience Participation: Create your own skull

FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (8)

FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show Skull Mail Art International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (8)

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FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show Skull Mail Art International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (7)

 

Chocolate Skull Smashing

A gorgeous life size skull provided by the extremely talented Annabel de Vetten of Conjurer’s Kitchen. The only way to eat it was to smash it to pieces!

FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (13)

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FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (10)

 

The FACE OFF Team

FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (12)
From left to right: Lindsey Thieman, Abby Davis, Raquel Ruiz, Rachel Stork Stoltz, Vanessa Ruiz, Noah Scalin, Dan Springer, Becca Levine, Jennifer von Glahn, and Justin “Tatman” Lovorn

 

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And, of course, no show would be complete without the help of my wonderful mother, Raquel!

 

 

 

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/1ktMdonc_l0/

The Anatomage Table – Visualizing Life Size Anatomy

Anatomage Table (1)

Anatomage Table (2)

Anatomage Table (3)

Anatomage Table (4)

Anatomage Table (5)

Anatomage Table (6)

Anatomage Table (7)

-The Anatomage Table demo

Anatomage, a California based 3D medical technology company, created The Anatomage Table in conjunction with the Stanford University’s Division of Clinical Anatomy. It is the first life-size 3D interactive virtual dissection table and it looks really cool.

The table allows you to interact with anatomy by using a virtual knife to cut away layers of the body at any angle, rotate the body in any direction, and also isolate structures. Labels follow as you turn the body around with your finger and different medical imaging view modes allow you to see the body as an xray with the anatomy overlaid on top.

Anatomy on this scale is really exciting. Historically, anatomists and artists created full sized illustrations that were kept in monumental anatomical atlases. Today we’re used to seeing small illustrations in textbooks and while anatomy apps on tablets now allow us to interact with anatomy, it’s still on a small scale.

There’s no replacement for physically dissecting a human body and relating to it on a spatial and tactile dimension. But technology like this can extend beyond the domain of the medical student and be used by artists to further understand the human body. Artists that may not have access to the coveted stepping stone of dissection can use this to see the body in angles not visualized in anatomy atlases. Once artists start visualizing the human body outside of the bounds of what the medical textbooks provie, then the public will hopefully gain a different and deeper perspective on the human body.

View the TED Talk by Anatomage CEO, Jack Choi to learn more about this impressive technology.

 

 

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/u-ediTvBKfU/

Retrogenese – A Stop Motion Tale of Alzheimer’s Disease

Suus Hessling Retrogenese Alzheimer's stop motion animation (1)

Suus Hessling Retrogenese Alzheimer's stop motion animation (2)

Suus Hessling Retrogenese Alzheimer's stop motion animation (3)

Retrogenese (English version) from Suus Hessling on Vimeo. Reload page if video does not play.

Suus Hessling created this touching, yet direct, stop-motion animation for her graduation project at the School of the Arts in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Driven by a fascination for Alzheimer’s and its affect on the brain, Suus goes on to explain, in 4 minutes of stop-motion animation, what happens when you get Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease not only for the person suffering from it but also the family and caretakers involved. Suus does a wonderful job explaining the gradual mental and bodily decline through the art of stop-motion, which in itself is a slow and meticulous process (Watch the making of Retrogenese).

View more of Suus’s beautiful work at suushessling.nl!

 

 

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/jEMKuOalVL4/

Emma Montague’s Jaw Dropping Glasses

Emma Montague Jawbone glasses

Emma Montague Jawbone glasses

Emma Montague Jawbone glasses RCA 2012

Inspired by the similarity between the shape of a jaw bone laying next to her pair of Ray Ban sunglasses, Emma Montague of the Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewelry department of the Royal College of Art, created this beautiful series of sunglasses made from real deer jaws, black horn, and acetate. The deer jaws were acquired from The British Deer Society.

As for the availability of these frames, I don’t think they’re for sale (they were created for Show RCA 2012), but you can always contact Emma and find out.

It’s not human anatomy, but it’s equally as cool. And let’s face it, I don’t think people would be as comfortable wearing a human jaw on their face compared to that of a deer!

 

[spotted by Larissa via EWG]

 

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/2j1EU5jWmao/

FACE OFF: Skull Mail Art Showcase

FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show Skull Mail Art International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (2)
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FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show Skull Mail Art International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (1)

FACE OFF Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Gallery Show Skull Mail Art International Museum of Surgical Science May 31 - August 25 2013 Chicago (1) (1)

Fans of Skull-A-Day and Street Anatomy were asked to take part in creating their own skull art from a template we provided and participants from all over the world sent us their skull creations.

The resulting skull mail art is displayed here and features incredible skulls from top medical illustrators, artists, street artists, and more! Middle and high school students even took part as teachers shared the fun project with their students as an end-of-the-year assignment.

A huge thank you to everyone who submitted their skulls! The FACE OFF audience thoroughly enjoyed them during the opening night and provided inspiration for those decorating their own skulls. Keep your eyes out for next year’s Skull Appreciation Day to take part once again in the Skull Mail Art submission!

 

 

 

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/me5EEb47n3M/

In Search of Medical Museum Books

On the heels of the publication of the new book Medical Museums: Past, Present and Future, I am working to assemble a master list of all known medical museum books and catalogs. Many of these museums are quite small and obscure, and thier publications, if they exist, hard to find.

If any Morbid Anatomy readers happen to know of any such publications, no matter how humble, I would greatly appreciate if if you could let me know! You can do so by emailing me at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com.

You can find also out more Medical Museums: Past, Present and Future--with its "17 richly illustrated chapters" covering collections such as Berlin's Charité, the Copenhagen Medical Museion, Edinburgh's Surgeons’ Hall, La Specola of Florence, London's Hunterian and Wellcome Collection, the Mütter of Philadelphia, Morbid Anatomy, and much more!--by clicking here; you can buy a copy of your own by clicking here.Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/in-search-of-medical-museum-books.html

The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead! Speaking Reliquaries and Death’s Head Iconography! Real Magic Lantern Show! Bizarre Spectacles from History! Make Your Own VIctorian Memorial Hair Jewelry! The Morbid Anatomy Lecture Series This Week at London’s Last Tuesday Society!


Dear friends of London:

Are you interested in learning more about the "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" (TONIGHT! top image)? Or perhaps the history of bizarre live theatrical performances "from phantasmagoria to self-crucifiers" (4th image)? OR the art and history of "speaking reliquaries" (2nd image) or death's head and memento mori imagery?

If none of this draws you, than perhaps you might be interested in a workshop wherein students make their own Victorian-style hair art jewelry under the tutelage of a Tiffany's master jeweler (bottom image)? Failing that, perhaps you might be enticed by a real magic lantern show (!!!) showcasing "the weirdest, most inappropriate and completely baffling" of lantern slides (3rd image)?

If any of the above is of interest, then this is the week for you. If not, there is much more to come over the next few weeks and on into July.

Full details and ticket links follow; most events cost £7 and take place at 7pm at London's Last Tuesday Society. Hope to see you at one or more!

________________________________

Neapolitan Cult of the Dead with Chiara Ambrosio
10th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

.. Naples, the most macabre of cities. Naples, the mouth of Hades. The dead are played with there like big dolls...
--The Necrophiliac, Gabrielle Wittkop

Naples is a unique city in which the sacred and the profane, Catholicism and paganism, beauty and decay blend and contrast in intriguing ways. No practice illustrates this tangle of ideas better than what is known as "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" in which devout Catholics--generally poor women--adopt anonymous skulls found in charnel houses and clean, care for, and sometimes house them, offering up prayers and offerings to shorten that soul's time in purgatory before reaching paradise, where, it is hoped, it will assist its earthbound caretaker with special favors. The macabre artifacts of this cult can be seen in the Cimitero delle Fontanelle (see above) and the crypt of the church of Saint Mary of Purgatory.

In tonight's illustrated lecture, Italian artist and filmmaker Chiara Ambrosio will elucidate this curious and fascinating "Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" and situate it within a the rich death culture and storied history of Naples.

Chiara Ambrosio is a visual artist working with video and animation. Her work has included collaborations with performance artists, composers, musicians and writers, and has been shown in a number of venues including national and international film festivals, galleries and site specific events. She also runs The Light and Shadow Salon is a place for artists, writers and audience to meet and share ideas about the past, present and future of the moving image in all its forms.

More here.
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I am Amazed and Know Not What to Say! - A Vile Vaudeville of Gothic Attractions: Illustrated lecture by Mervyn Heard, author of Phantasmagoria- The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern
11th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

An illustrated talk in which writer and showman ‘Professor’ Mervyn Heard waxes scattergun- sentimental over some of the more bizarre, live theatrical experiences of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century – from the various ghastly manifestations of the phantasmagoria to performing hangmen, self-crucifiers and starving brides.

Mervyn Heard is the author of Phantasmagoria- The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern (2006), was responsible for designing the phantasmagoria intallation for the Tate Britain’s Gothic Nightmare (2006), and has staged bespoke magic lantern performances worldwide in playhouses, cinemas, department stores, museums, tents and dissecting theatres.

More here.
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Professor Heard's Most Extraordinary Magic Lantern Show with Mervyn Heard
12th June 2013
First performance begins at 7pm
Second performance begins at 9pm
Ticket price £10; Tickets here

Professor Heard is well known to patrons of the Last Tuesday Lecture programme for his sell-out magic lantern entertainments. In this latest assault on the eye he summons up some of the weirdest, most inappropriate and completely baffling examples of lantern imagery, lantern stories and optical effects by special request of Morbid Anatomy. These he will present on a magnificent mahogany and brass magic lantern projector perfectly suited for the purpose.

Mervyn Heard is the aut
hor of Phantasmagoria-The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern (2006), was responsible for designing the phantasmagoria installation for the Tate Britain’s Gothic Nightmare (2006), and has staged bespoke magic lantern performances worldwide in playhouses, cinemas, department stores, museums, tents and dissecting theatres.

More here.
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"Speaking Reliquaries" and Christian Death Rituals: Illustrated lecture with Karen Bachmann
13th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

In this 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will focus on what are termed "speaking" reliquaries: the often elaborate containers which house the preserved body parts--or relics--of saints and martyrs with shapes which reflect that of the body-part contained within. Bachmann will examine these fascinating objects from an art historical perspective, and discuss their relationship to concepts of human body parts as icons of the immortal. They will be put into the larger context of Christian death rituals, in particular the veneration of saints body parts as sacred and magical relics. Also discussed will be the extremely odd proclivities of a variety of renaissance saints, such as Catherine of Sienna who drank pus from open sores. This will serve as the genesis in our further discussions of human hair, teeth, and nails as icons of the immortal.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany and Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled “Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry”. In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

More here.
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Hair Art Workshop Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewellery With Karen Bachmann
14th, 15th, and 16th June 2013 from 1 - 5pm
Ticket price £50; Tickets here (14th June), here (15th June), and here (16th June)

Hair jewellery was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre. The technique of "palette working" or arranging hair in artful swoops and curls will be explored and a variety of ribbons, beads, wire and imagery of mourning iconography will be supplied for potential inclusion. A living or deceased person or pet may be commemorated in this manner. Students are requested to bring with them to class their own hair, fur, or feathers; all other necessary materials will be supplied. Hair can be self-cut, sourced from barber shops or hair salons (who are usually happy to provide you with swept up hair), from beauty supply shops (hair is sold as extensions), or from wig suppliers. Students will leave class with their own piece of hair jewelry and the knowledge to create future projects. 

More here.
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The History of the Memento Mori and Death's Head Iconography
Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann

14th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

In tonight's lecture--the second in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will explore the development of the memento mori,objects whose very raison d'être is to remind the beholder that they, too, will die. Bachman will trace the symbolism and iconography of the memento mori and death's head imagery in both Medieval and Renaissance art, focusing on jewelry. She will also discuss the development of the "portable relic" -- a wearable form of body part reliquary, will be the focus of this lecture. The importance of hair in contemporaneous art of the period will be addressed, as well as the development of bereavement jewelry with hair.

More here
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The Victorian Love Affair with Death and the Art of Mourning Hair Jewelry: Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
17th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

The Victorians had a love affair with death which they expressed in a variety of ways, both intensely sentimental and macabre. Tonight’s lecture–the last in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry–will take as its focus the apex of the phenomenon of hair jewelry fashion in the Victorian Era as an expression of this passion. Nineteenth century mourning rituals will be discussed, with a particular focus on Victorian hairwork jewelry, both palette worked and table worked. Also discussed will be the historical roots of the Victorian fascination with death, such as high mortality rates for both adults and children, the rise of the park cemetery, and the death of Queen Victoria’s beloved Prince Albert and her subsequent fashion-influencing 40-year mourning period. Historical samples of hair art and jewelry from the lecturer’s personal collection will also be shown.

More here.
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Dissection and Magic with Constanza Isaza Martinez
18th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

This lecture examines images of human corpses in Early Modern European art in relation to two specific themes: the practice of ‘witchcraft’ or ‘magic’; and the emergent medical profession, particularly anatomical dissection. As the images demonstrate, the two practices were closely linked during this period, and the corpses were a source - albeit fraught with anxieties - of power and knowledge for the figures of the witch and the anatomist.

Constanza Isaza Martinez is an artist, photographer, and independent researcher. She gained her BA in Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster, and her MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute. Both her art and her research have frequently explored themes of mortality, mutability, death, and decay. For more information, please visit http://www.constanzaisaza.com.

More here.
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Future Death. Future Dead Bodies. Future Cemeteries: Illustrated lecture by Dr. John Troyer, Deputy Director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath
20th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Approximately 1500 people die every day across the United Kingdom, roughly one person a minute. And unless you are a person who works in a profession connected to the dying, chances are good you rarely (if ever) see any of these 1500 dead bodies. More importantly-- do you and your next of kin know what you want done with your dead body when you die? In the future, of course, since it's easier to think that way. Dr. John Troyer, from the Centre for Death & Society, University of Bath, will discuss three kinds of postmortem futures: Future Death, Future Dead Bodies, and Future Cemeteries. Central to these Futures is the human corpse and its use in new forms of body disposal technology, digital technology platforms, and definitions of death.

Dr. John Troyer is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. His interdisciplinary research focuses on contemporary memorialisation practices, concepts of spatial historiography, and the dead body?s relationship with technology. Dr. Troyer is also a theatre director and installation artist with extensive experience in site-specific performance across the United States and Europe. He is a co-founder of the Death Reference Desk website and a frequent commentator for the BBC. His forthcoming book, Technologies of the Human Corpse (published by the University of North Carolina Press), will appear in 2013.

More here.
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‘She Healed Their Bodies With Her White Hot Passions’: The Role of the Nurse in Romantic Fiction with Natasha McEnroe: Illustrated lecture Natasha McEnroe, Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum
23rd June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

“She stood by, handing him the required instruments while he stitched up an ice-pick stabbing that had by some miracle barely missed a woman’s heart. She heard the woman’s thick voice as she went under the anaesthetic: ‘My man didn’t really mean to hurt me, Doc. He was just mad account of I didn’t have him a meat supper when he got home from work.’” [Society Nurse, 1962].

Under such dramatic circumstances, it is no wonder that passion flares between the beautiful young nurse and her handsome doctor colleague. The figure of the nurse in romance fiction is a powerful one, her starched white apron covering a breast heaving with suppressed emotion. Victorian portrayals of the nurse show either a drunken and dishonest old woman or an angelic and devoted being, which changes to a 20th-century caricature just as pervasive – that of the ‘sexy nurse’. In this talk, Natasha McEnroe will explore the links between the enforced intimacy of the sickroom and the handling of bodies for more recreational reasons.

Natasha McEnroe is the Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum. Her previous post was Museum Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy and Curator of the Galton Collection at University College London. From 1997 – 2007, she was Curator of Dr Johnson’s House in London’s Fleet Street, and has also worked for the National Trust and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Natasha has lectured widely at venues including the Royal Society, the British Museum and the Hunterian Museum.

More here.
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Face lift or face reconstruction? Redesigning the Museum Vrolik, Amsterdam's anatomical museum: An illustrated lecture with Dr. Laurens de Rooy, curator of the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam
24th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Copies of the book Forces of Form: The Vrolik Museum will be available for sale and signing.

Two skeletons of dwarfs, rare Siamese twins, cyclops and sirens, dozens of pathologically deformed bones, the giant skull of a grown man with hydrocephalus, the skeleton of the lion once owned by king Louis Napoleon, as well as the organs of a babirusa, Tasmanian devil and tree kangaroo – rare animals that died in the Amsterdam zoo ‘Artis’ shortly before their dissection. Counting more than five thousand preparations and specimens, the Museum Vrolikianum, the private collection of father Gerard (1775-1859) and his son Willem Vrolik (1801-1863), was an amazing object of interest one hundred and fifty years ago. In the 1840s and 50s this museum, established in Gerard’s stately mansion on the river Amstel, grew into a famous collection that attracted admiring scientists from both the Netherlands and abroad. After the Vrolik era, the museum was expanded with new collectio
ns by succeeding anatomists and the museum now houses more than 10,000 anatomical specimens.

Since 1984, the museum has been located in the academic Hospital of the University of Amsterdam. In 2009 the museum collections were portrayed by the photographer Hans van den Bogaard for the book Forces of Form. This book was the starting point for the creation of a new 'aesthetic' of the museum and its collection, eventually resulting in the grand reopening of the renovated and redesigned permanent exhibition in September 2012. For the first time since the death of father and son Vrolik, all of their scientific interests - the animal anatomy, the congenital malformations and the pathologically deformed human skeletons can all be viewed together, thus giving an impression of what that mid-19th century anatomy was all about. In this talk, Museum Vrolik curator will take you on a guided tour of the new museum, and give an overview of all the other aspects of the 'new' Museum Vrolik.

Dr. Laurens de Rooy (b. 1974) works as a curator of the Museum Vrolik in the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam. He studied Medical Biology, specializing in the history of science and museology. during his internship he researched the collection of father and son Vrolik. In 2009 he obtained his PhD in medical history.

More here.
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The Walking Dead in 1803: An Illustrated Lecture with Phil Loring,
Curator of Psychology at the Science Museum in London

25th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

A visiting Italian startled Londoners at the turn of the 19th century by making decapitated animals and executed men open their eyes and move around, as if on the verge of being restored to life. This was not magic but the power of electricity from the newly invented Galvanic trough, or battery. It was also the dawn of the modern neurosciences, as the thrust behind these macabre experiments was to understand the energy that moved through the nerves and linked our wills to our bodies. This talk will discuss a variety of historical instruments from the Science Museum's collections that figured in these re-animation experiments, including the apparatus used by Galvani himself in his laboratory in Bologna. This will be a partial preview of an upcoming Science Museum exhibition on nerve activity, to open in December 2013.

Phil Loring is BPS Curator of Psychology at the Science Museum in London. He has a Master's degree in Medical Anthropology from Harvard University and is currently completing his Ph.D. in the History of Science, also from Harvard, with a dissertation on psycho-linguists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after the Second World War. Phil has been at the Science Museum since 2009, and during that time he has been particularly committed to sharing artefacts related to psychology and psychiatry with adult audiences. He's currently preparing an exhibition on the history of nerves, to open in December 2013.

More here

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The Influencing Machine: James Tilly Matthews and the Air Loom with Mike Jay
26th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Confined in Bedlam in 1797 as an incurable lunatic, James Tilly Matthews’ case is one of the most bizarre in the annals of psychiatry. He was the first person to insist that his mind was being controlled by a machine: the Air Loom, a terrifying secret weapon whose mesmeric rays and mysterious gases were brainwashing politicians and plunging Europe into revolution, terror and war. But Matthews’ case was even stranger than his doctors realised: many of the incredible conspiracies in which he claimed to be involved were entirely real. Caught up in high-level diplomatic intrigues in the chaos of the French revolution, he found himself betrayed by both sides, and in possession of a secret that no-one would believe…

Mike Jay is an author, historian and curator who has written widely on the history of science and medicine, and particularly on drugs and madness. As well as The Influencing Machine, he is the author of Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century and High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture, which accompanied the exhibition he curated at Wellcome Collection.

More here.
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Madame Tussaud, the French and the Guillotine: Illustrated Lecture by Pamela Pilbeam Emeritus Professor of French History, Royal Holloway, University of London and author of Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxworks
27th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

`You perceive that this is some sort of holy of holiest, the nearest Victorians got to a Cathedral, with its saints enniched within’. The chief saint in Madame Tussaud’s exhibition was Bonaparte, the chief villains were Robespierre and his revolutionary colleagues. When she arrived in Britain in 1802 for a short tour that lasted until she died in 1850, her exhibition was an exploration of the evils of the French Revolution. She had modelled the guillotined revolutionaries, as well as Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, from their severed heads- and brought a model of a guillotine and the Bastille fortress to expose the short comings of the French. The British, busily at war with their nearest neighbour, loved this critical exposure. Later the focus of her collection became her `Shrine to Napoleon’ consisted of two rooms dedicated to the Emperor. Napoleon had always had a leading role in her touring company, but in 1834, when she was a well-established figure in the world of entertainment and about to open a permanent museum in Baker Street, Madame. Tussaud began to ama
ss large quantities of Napoleonic memorabilia. She built up a collection which Napoleon III acknowledged, when he tried abortively to buy it from the Tussauds, to be the best in the world. Madame Tussaud’s presentation of French politics and history did much to inform and influence the popular perception of France among the British. This paper will explore that view and how it changed during the nineteenth century.

Pamela Pilbeam is Emeritus Professor of French History, Royal Holloway, University of London.   She is the author of Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxworks.

More here.
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© The Natural History Museum,
London 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Backstage Tour of the Zoological Collection of the Natural History Museum with Miranda Lowe
28th June 2013
Limited to 10 participants; Time 3:00 - 4:00
Ticket price £20; Tickets here

Today, ten lucky people will get to join Miranda Lowe, Collections Manager of the Aquatic Invertebrates Division, for a special backstage tour of The Natural History Museum of London. The tour will showcase the zoological spirit collections in the Darwin Centre, some of Darwin’s barnacles and the famed collection of glass marine invertebrate models crafted by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the 19th and early 20th century.

Miranda Lowe is the Collections Manager of the Aquatic Invertebrates Division, Life Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum (NHM), London. Within Zoology Miranda specifically manages the Crustacea collections as well as the team of curators responsible for the Invertebrate collections. Darwin barnacles and the Blaschka marine invertebrate glass models are amongst some of the historical collections that are her interests and under her care. In 2006, she was part of the organising committee and invited speaker at the 1st international Blaschka congress held in Dublin. Miranda collaborated with the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK in 2008 to exhibit some of the Museum’s Blaschka collection alongside contemporary Blaschka inspired art. She also has an interest in photography, natural history - past and present serving on a number of committees including the Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) and the Natural Sciences Association (NatSCA).

More here
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Bat in Glass Dome Workshop: Part of DIY Wunderkammer Series : With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Store, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library
29th June and 30th June 2013, 1 to 5pm
Ticket price £150; Tickets here (29th) and here (30th)

In this class, students will learn how to create an osteological preparation of a bat in the fashion of 19th century zoological displays. A bat skeleton, a glass dome, branches, glue, tools, and all necessary materials will be provided for each student, but one should feel welcome to bring small feathers, stones, dried flowers, dead insects, natural elements, or any other materials s/he might wish to include in his/her composition. Students will leave the class with a visually striking, fully articulated, “lifelike” bat skeleton posed in a 10” tall glass dome. This piece can, in conjunction with the other creations in the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, act as the beginning of a genuine collection of curiosities! This class is part of the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, curated by Laetitia Barbier and Wilder Duncan for Morbid Anatomy as a creative and pluridisciplinary exploration of the Curiosity Cabinet. The classes will focus on teaching ancient methods of specimen preparation that link science with art: students will create compositions involving natural elements and, according to their taste, will compose a traditional Victorian environment or a modern display. More on the series can be found here.

Wilder Duncan is an artist whose work puts a modern-day spin on the genre of Vanitas still life. Although formally trained as a realist painter at Wesleyan University, he has had a lifelong passion for, and interest in, natural history. Self-taught rogue taxidermist and professional specimen preparator, Wilder worked for several years at The Evolution Store creating, repairing, and restoring objects of natural historical interest such as taxidermy, fossils, seashells, minerals, insects, tribal sculptures, and articulated skeletons both animal and human. Wilder continues to do work for private collectors, giving a new life to old mounts, and new smiles to toothless skulls.

Laetitia Barbier is the head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library. She is working on a master’s thesis for the Paris Sorbonne on painter Joe Coleman. She writes for Atlas Obscura and Morbid Anatomy.

More here (29th) and here (30th).
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The Coming of Age of the Danse Macabre on the Verge of the Industrial Age: Illustrated lecture with Alexander L. Bieri
9th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

During the middle ages, the danse macabre developed into an independent art form, most often in the shape of murals which adorned the walls of cemeteries. These depictions of death followed a strict rulebook and generally were a representation of the class system of the time, which was based on nobility or – to be more precise – the estate-based society. The advent of the bourgeois during the 1700s and the upcoming industrialisation put a question mark not only behind the societal system, but quite naturally also behind many of the established art forms. The danse macabre was widely regarded to be an outdated concept and a discussion evolved whether the skeleton still was the appropriate epitome for death. One of the proponents of this discussion was the Swiss artist Johann Rudolf Schellenberg, who created the first modern danse macabre in 1785, far away from the old cla
ss system, a work of art which still has an uncanny actuality and addresses many of the modern fears still extant in society at present. His trailblazing work updated the genre overnight and can be seen as the master source of all similar works of art to follow. A complete set of the plates is held by the Roche Historical Collection and Archive in Basel, which also holds one of the world’s oldest anatomical collections. The lecture not only discusses Schellenberg’s danse macabre in detail, but also gives an insight into the current fascination with vanitas and its depictions, especially focusing on the artistic exploitation of the theme and takes into consideration the history of anatomical dissection and preparation.

Alexander L. Bieri (*1976) is the curator of the Roche Historical Collection and Archive, a department within Roche Group Holdings. He assumes this position since 1999. Based in Basel, Switzerland but active as a consultant throughout the world, he has published many books and articles both on Roche-related and other themes. He also is responsible for a variety of Roche in-house museums and curated special exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. In his capacity as an expert for 20th century architecture and design, he is a member of ICOMOS. In 2012, he was appointed lecturer for exhibition design at the Basel University.

More here.
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Photo courtesy of
Tonya Hurley

Viva la Muerte: The Mushrooming Cult of Saint Death": Illustrated lecture and book signing with Andrew Chesnut
10th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

The worship of Santa Muerte, a psuedo Catholic saint which takes the form of a personified and clothed lady death, is on the rise and increasingly controversial in Mexico and the United States. Literally translating to “Holy Death” or “Saint Death,” the worship of Santa Muerte–like Day of the Dead–is a popular form of religious expression rooted in a rich syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics. Worshippers of "The Bony Lady" include the very poor, prostitutes, drug dealers, transvestites, prison inmates and others for whom traditional religion has not served, and for whom the possibility of unpredictable and violent death is a very real part of everyday life. In the view of her worshippers, Santa Muerte is simply a branch of Catholicism which takes at its central figure the most powerful of all saints--Saint Death herself, the saint all must, after all, one day answer to.The Catholic Church sees it, however, as, at best, inadvertent devil worship, with the worship of death--and the manifestation of a saint from a concept rather than an individual--as heretical to its core tenants. Tonight, R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint and Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, will detail his research into the history and ongoing development of this fascinating "new religion."

Copies of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Sain will be available for sale and signing.

Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut earned his Ph.D degree in Latin American History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995 and joined the History Department faculty at the University of Houston in 1997 where he quickly became an internationally recognized expert on Latin American religious history. His most recent book is Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint (Oxford University Press, 2012). It is the first in-depth study of the Mexican folk saint in English.

More here
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From Blue Beads to Hair Sandwiches: Edward Lovett and London's Folk Medicine: An Illustrated lecture with Ross MacFarlane, Research Engagement Officer in the Wellcome Library
15th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

During his life Edward Lovett (1852-1933) amassed one of the largest collections of objects pertaining to 'folk medicine' in the British Isles.  Lovett particularly focused his attention on objects derived from contemporary, working class Londoners, believing that the amulets, charms and mascots he collected - and which were still being used in 20th century London - were 'survivals' of antiquated, rural practices. Lovett, however, was a marginal figure in folklore circles, never attaining the same degree of influence as many of his peers.  Whilst he hoped in his lifetime to establish a 'National Museum of Folklore', Lovett's sizeable collection is now widely dispersed across many museums in the UK, including Wellcome Collection, the Science Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Cuming Museum.  This paper will offer an overview of the range of healing objects Lovett collected, the collecting practices he performed and recent efforts to rehabilitate his reputation.

Ross MacFarlane is Research Engagement Officer in the Wellcome Library, where he is heavily involved in promoting the Library's collections, particularly to academic audiences.  He has researched and given public talks on such topics as the history of early recorded sound and the collecting activities of Henry Wellcome and his members of staff.  Ross is a frequent contributor to the Wellcome Library's blog and has had led guided walks around London on the occult past of Bloomsbury and the intersection of medicine, science and trade in Greenwich and Deptford.

More here.
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The Vampires of London: A Cinematic Survey with William Fowler (BFI) and Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor)
18th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

This heavily illustrated presentation and film clip selection explores London's Highgate Cemetery as a locus of horror in the 1960s and 1970s cinema, from mondo and exploi
tation to classic Hammer horror.

William Fowler is curator of artists' moving image at the BFI National Archive and co-programmes the cult cinema strand at Flipside at BFI Southbank.

Mark Pilkington runs Strange Attractor Press and is the author of 'Mirage Men' and 'Far Out: 101 Strange Tales from Science's Outer Edge'. 

More here
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"Here's a Health to the Barley Mow: a Century of Folk Customs and Ancient Rural Games" Screenings of Short Films from the BFI Folk Film Archives with William Fowler
24th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Tonight, the British Film Institute's William Fowler will present a number of rare and beautiful short films from the BFI National Archive and Regional Film Archives showing some of our rich traditions of folk music, dance, customs and sport. Highlights include the alcoholic folk musical Here's a Health to the Barley Mow (1955), Doc Rowe’s speedy sword dancing film and the Padstow Mayday celebration Oss Oss Wee Oss (Alan Lomax/Peter Kennedy 1953).

The programme provides a taste of the BFI's 6-hour DVD release 'Here's a Health to the Barley Mow: a Century of Folk Customs and Ancient Rural Games', a rich and wide-ranging collection of archive films from around the UK.

William Fowler is curator of artists' moving image at the BFI National Archive and co-programmes the cult cinema strand at Flipside at BFI Southbank.

More here.
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Of Satyrs, Horses and Camels: Natural History in the Imaginative Mode: illustrated lecture by Daniel Margócsy, Hunter College, New York
25th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

This talk argues that the creative imagination played a crucial role in the development of science during the scientific revolution. Modern, natural knowledge emerged from the interaction of painters, printmakers, artisans, cartographers, and natural historians. All these practitioners carefully observed, pictured and cataloged all the exotic naturalia that flooded Europe during the Columbian exchange. Yet their collaboration did not end there. They also engaged in a joint, conjectural guesswork as to what other, as yet unknown plants and animals might hide in the forests of New England, the archipelago of the Caribbean, the unfathomable depths of the Northern Sea, or even in the cavernous mountains of the Moon. From its beginnings, science was (and still is) an imaginative and speculative enterprise, just like the arts. This talk traces the exchange of visual information between the major artists of the Renaissance and the leading natural historians of the scientific revolution. It shows how painters’ and printmakers’ fictitious images of unicorns, camels and monkfish came to populate the botanical and zoological encyclopedias of early modern Europe. The leading naturalists of the age, including Conrad Gesner, Carolus Clusius and John Jonstonus, constantly consulted the oeuvre of Dürer, Rubens and Hendrick Goltzius, among others, as an inspiration to hypothesize how unknown, and unseen, plants and animals might look like.

Daniel Margocsy is assistant professor of history at Hunter College – CUNY. In 2012/3, he is the Birkelund Fellow of the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He has co-edited States of Secrecy, a special issue of the British Journal for the History of Science on scientific secrecy, and published articles in the Journal of the History of Ideas, Annals of Science, and the Netherlands Yearbook of Art History.

More here.
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All talks and workshops take place at The Last Tuesday Society at 11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP map here) unless otherwise specified; please click here to buy tickets. More on all events can be found here. Click on images to see larger versions.
Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-neapolitan-cult-of-dead-speaking.html