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Proteus Gowanus Holiday Shopping Party, Sunday, December 19th, 12-6pm

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

This year, in the interest in offering an alternative to the general horrors that constitute The Holiday Season, The Morbid Anatomy Library is teaming up with our sister spaces Observatory and Proteus Gowanus for an epic, music-accompanied, beverage-enhanced day-long holiday shopping party this Sunday, December 19th, from 12-6 PM.

To the strains of the music of DJ Richard Faulk and with delicious seasonal drink in hand, we invite you to wander the labyrinthian spaces of Proteus Gowanus and its offshoots which will, for this day only, be filled with an amazing array of objects for sale, including (but not limited to): unusual and obscure books, one of a kind taxidermied and outfitted anthropomorphic mice (see above), crocheted skulls, reflective vests for uninsured bikers, miniature library furniture made from library catalogue cards, limited edition photographic prints from The Secret Museum, Private Cabinets, and Anatomical Theatre, and much, much more.

And on the note of "much, much more": The Morbid Anatomy Library continues to actively seek additional merchandise to include in the sale. If you are a maker, artist, author, publisher, taxidermist or collector interested in consigning objects/artifacts/artworks/books/specimens etc. for this event, please contact me at morbidanatomy@gmail.com.

Full directions follow. Hope very, very much to see you there!

Proteus Gowanus, is located at 543 Union Street (between Nevins and Bond) in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Entrance to the gallery is off Nevins Street: enter through the large black gates, walk down the alleyway to the end, second door on the left. Look for the golden arm above the gallery door.
Subway
R or M train to Union Street in Brooklyn:
Walk two long blocks on Union (towards the Gowanus Canal) to Nevins Street. 543 Union Street is the large red brick building on right. Go right on Nevins and left down alley through large black gates. Gallery is the second door on the left.
F or G train to Carroll Street:
Walk one block to Union. Turn right, walk two long blocks on Union towards the Gowanus Canal, cross the bridge, take left on Nevins, go down the alley to the second door on the left.
Driving from Manhattan.
(There is usually easy parking on weekends.)
Continue straight off Brooklyn Bridge to Atlantic Avenue, take left on Atlantic. Go four blocks to Nevins St and take a right. Follow Nevins several blocks til you come to Sackett. Park on the next block (just before Union) and go down the alley off Nevins through the large black gates, second door on the left.

Observatory Call for Works: RETROFUTUROLOGY

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Calling all artists and makers:

RETROFUTUROLOGY
How the Past Saw the Present // How the Present Sees the Future
A group show of visual art at Observatory, Brooklyn, curated by the Hollow Earth Society, Ethan Gould & Wythe Marschall, Founding Colonels
The imagination (as a productive faculty of cognition) is a powerful agent for creating, as it were,a second nature out of the material supplied to it by actual nature. —Kant
To have an imagined future, you must simultaneously have an imagined present and an imagined past.
A DeLorean decked out in flashing lights and complicated-looking wires: It's a modest-budget promise that, yes, the technologies of our age—our new computer chips and LED lights and cars with doors that open upright like a space pod—can puncture the time barrier, with the right old-fashioned mad scientist at the steering wheel! Where to go? A rowdy 1950s, wherein a white kid can invent rock and roll? A steampunk 1800s? A future wherein the promises of kaleidoscopic, holographic advertising from the late 1980s come to fruition—a world with yet another layer of retrofuturist dreaming added onto the small-town diner...?
Our visions of the future are nested.
Our conception of time is hyperreal. In explaining the visual gimmicks of a single cultural artifact such as the Buggles's "Video Killed The Radio Star," we must refer to the heyday of radio; the future promised by television executives in synthesizer advertisements; science fiction pulp covers from the 1950s; the neon-on-black-and-white aesthetic of MTV in its early years, not to mention the gallery scene that birthed that aesthetic; 1950s diner-decor futurism; the late-1970s body-posturing and dystopic styling of Devo; Fritz Lang's Metropolis, looking forward to 2026; the garb of mad scientists in movies from the 1940s;—and the sigh that comes with opening a magazine and seeing all of this, compressed down into an ad for sunglasses for hipsters.
Or not even for hipsters: The retrocamp fashion exemplified by an irritating blend of past and future has been recompressed and sold in shopping malls internationally. This isn't marginal pulp—
This is the process on which the present runs.
You are invited to join us for a group show
The Hollow Earth Society seeks artists working in drawing, printmaking, and painting, and possibly sculpture and video/multimedia art (space is limited) for RETROFUTUROLOGY, a group show focused on past- and present-futures, to be up from January 29 to March 5, 2011, at Observatory (observatoryroom.org). Submissions are due January 8, 2011.
How to submit:
Include all information listed below. Late or incomplete submissions will not be considered unless they are mind-staggeringly fantastic and presented with great humility.
Send us up to five images. Digital submissions will be accepted via email. Files must be in JPEG or PDF format. Please number your image files to correspond to your image list.
Send an image list. Double check that the numbers on your list correspond to the numbers in the names of your actual files. In your list, include for each image: an image number, the work's title, the date of work, the medium, and its size and price.
Along with the list, please include a brief description of each image.
Send a three-line bio, your contact information and an email address. You may also submit a résumé.
If you like, send an optional artist’s statement, no longer than 300 words.
THERE IS NO FEE TO ENTER.
Deadline: All email submissions must be received no later than January 8, 2011. (All accepted work should be physically received at Observatory no later than January 24, 2011.)
Return of submitted materials: Include a SASE and make sure there is sufficient postage, or pay for shipping and we will ship your work back to you. If work is two-dimensional, the Hollow Earth Society is more than happy to have it on file for future shows and keep it exhibited for sale on our website. The same 30% commission for art sold will apply.
Drop-Off: If you have been accepted into the show and are in the NYC area, you may wish to drop off your art at the gallery. Email us (gallery@hollowearthsociety.com) to schedule a date and time.
Pick-Up: Return of mailed artwork with return postage will begin on March 12, 2011.
Email submissions to:
gallery@hollowearthsociety.com
By post:
Observatory
543 Union Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215

To find out more, click here.

Run Don't Walk to see The Museum of Everything Exhibition #3, London, Closing December 24th

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

On a very quick jaunt to London from which I have only just returned, I was very, very fortunate (thank you so much, Mr. Pat Morris!) to have had the opportunity to visit the now fully-installed Museum of Everything Exhibition #3, which I only had seen in its half-ready state a few days before exhibition opening a few months back.

All I have to say is: WOW.

The Museum of Everything #3--curated by the British pop and ruralist artist Sir Peter Blake, perhaps best remembered for his design of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album--is truly a wonder. This immersive spectacle of an exhibition celebrates popular art in the broadest of senses, both in content and in installation, and uses as its departure point Blake's own formidable private collection of such works supplemented by artifacts and artworks drawn from a variety of other privately held collections.

The installation of the exhibition is delightful, fun-house-inspired and immersive, with dark hallways, rickety stairs, and surprising turns leading you into rooms devoted in turn to--among other things--pitch cards and souvenir photos of fun-fair freaks, Victorian circus banners, marionette collections, Punch and Judy sets, Victorian anthropomorphic taxidermy, shell work pieces and a reconstructed shell grotto, Victorian découpage and other paper craft, and musical toys that go off in unison every half hour or so, filling the entire space with a beautiful circus-music cacophony. Each room has a feeling all its own, with a style of installation particularly and artfully suited to the artifacts within.

Mr. Blake's own collection provides the framework for the exhibition--as the casually-narrated exhibition labels, often in Blake's own unaffected voice make clear--but of equal if not greater importance are supplementary collections drawn from a broad variety of other passionate private collectors. Some of the most impressive effects of the exhibition come from the ingenious curation of artifacts drawn from a large number of private collectors into a single assemblage, such as my favorite, the magnificent homage to Walter Potter's Museum of Curiosities. This installation not only re-unites for the first time many of Potter's famously over-the-top taxidermalogical tableaux with wall-art, photographs and other ephemera from his recently disbanded collection, but also contextualizes his work within the broader theme of Victorian taxidermy, anthropomorphic and otherwise, with lavish Victorian bird jars, depictions of boxing squirrels (a popular Victorian taxidermy trope, I am told) and a variety of "straight" taxidermy pieces as well.

The whole of this literally fantastic exhibition is held together by the exuberance and inventiveness of the installation--never art-world and never boring, labyrinthian in structure and bristling with work floor to ceiling--and by the homespun exhibition labels narrating the exhibition in the informal voice of Blake and some of the other collectors and artists. Through the sum of its parts, the exhibition serves also as a reminder of what pop art meant before it became just another art-world term and white-room enshrined product: a celebration of the "homely arts," the arts of the people and of everyday life, of the fairground and the parlor. It is also a reminder that art can be fun, appeal to the senses, not be in a white room, and still make you think.

If you CAN see this exhibition before its December 24th closing, I simply cannot recommend it highly enough. Intriguing, brilliant, thought-provoking, and a lot of fun.

The Museum of Everything is located at the corner of Regents Park Rd and Sharples Hall St, NW1 8YL. For more information, visit the exhibition website by clicking here.

You can find out more about the Museum of Everything at this recent blog post as well.

Images are all drawn from postcards available at the Museum of Everything gift shop. A lovely (if slightly expensive) book is available also. Click here for more.

TONIGHT: "Oddities” Marathon and Party, Observatory, 8:00 PM

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

We at Morbid Anatomy are very very excited about tonight's viewing party for our new favorite television series, "Oddities," which you might recall from this flurry of recent posts (1, 2, 3).

The "Oddities” Marathon and Party event--which will take place tonight at Observatory--will feature a four-episode marathon of the program, special drinks, a DJed after party, and prizes and giveaways, including an early brass "lucky skull" Mexican ring from "Oddities" cast member and Against Nature proprietor Ryan Matthew, a variety of 3D anatomical puzzles generously donated by Kikkerland, and, of course, Obscura Tshirts. The "cast" of "Oddities" will also be on hand for questions and comments.

You can see some clips (recommended!) and find out more about "Oddities" by clicking here.

Full details follow. Very much hope to see you there!

"Oddities” Marathon and Party
A four-episode marathon of the new television series Oddities, with give-aways, special drinks, surprise guests, and after party
Date: TONIGHT! Thursday, December 9
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
On Thursday, December 9, you are cordially invited to join Morbid Anatomy and Observatory as we celebrate the new television series based on our favorite purveyor of curious and amazing artifacts, Obscura Antiques and Oddities in New York City’s East village.
The evenings festivities will include–as a special treat for those of us without cable–a screening of the first three episodes of Oddities, which will reveal, to the discerning eye, an assortment of familiar Observatory faces, including former lecturers Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn as well as a variety of members of the wider Observatory community. There will also be special drinks, a DJed after party, surprise guests, and prizes and give-ways throughout the night. Members of the cast will also be available for questions and comments.
To find out more about the show, check out http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/oddities.
Hope very much to see you there!

To find out more about the event, click here. You can see some clips and find out more about "Oddities" by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

“Visiting an Anatomical Museum: Curiosity or Training?” Conference, Università di Modena e Reggio, Modena, Italy, Deceber 17th

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

This just in from Thomas Soderquist of the wonderful Biomedicine on Display:

Next Friday, 17 December, Elena Corradini at the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia organises a seminar on “Visiting an Anatomical Museum: curiosity or training?”:
Anatomical University Museums are the keepers of collections which often are very old and different for their consistence and typology. These museums have a fundamental role for the preservation and valorization of cultural historical?scientific heritage, therefore must become a place of interdisciplinary synthesis. They represent the progress of studies in the past and for the future, and play their fundamental role for the research and for the promotion of educational activities. This role will allow them to be a service for University students and professors, and to spread scientific knowledge to different audiences. Developing the capacity of museums to work in a network is necessary for them to become centres for the production of knowledge, activities and services.
Speakers include a number of directors and curators from Italian university anatomical museums together with the directors of the Josephinum of Vienna and the Museum of Medical University of Danzig:
Giovanni Mazzotti, University of Bologna: Visiting an Anatomical Museum: curiosity or training?
Sonia Horn, University of Wien: The growth of collections for the permanence of an historical Anatomical Museum. The case of the Josephinum in Vienna.
Roberto Toni, University of Parma: The Anatomical Museum as a research source in the field of
biomedical robotics: the Tenchini project at the University of Parma
Alessandro Ruggeri, Nicolò Nicoli Aldini, Stefano Durante, Vittorio Delfino Pesce, University of Bologna: The visit of the Anatomical Waxes Museum “Luigi Cattaneo” center of in-depth research of the Bolognese medical tradition of XIXth century and of training for modern education
Ugo Pastorino, National Tumour Institute, Milan: The project for a virtual archive of human body images
Carla Garbarino, University of Pavia: The anatomical collections of the Museum for the history of the University
Marek Bukowski, University of Gdansk: An Anatomical collection and Museum of Medical University
Berenice Cavarra, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia: Medicine and the study of the living being in XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries
Vincenzo Esposito, Second University of Neaples: Anatomical Museums between past historical identity and present cultural crossbreeding
Marina Cimino, University of Padua: The birth in a museum or the birth of a museum: the obstetric collection in Padua
Elena Corradini, Elisa Orlando, Daniela Nasi, Silvia Rossi, Sara Uboldi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia: POMUI ? The Portal of Italian University Museums
Giorgio Bonsanti, University of Florence; Elena Corradini, Berenice Cavarra, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia; Paolo Nadalini, INP, Institut National du Patrimoine, Paris; Luigi Vigna, Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence; Isabelle Pradier, INP, Institut National du Patrimoine, Paris: A project for the restoration of anatomical waxes
Info from Silvia Rossi or Sara Uboldi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (silvia.rossi@unimore.it; sarauboldi@yahoo.it), +39 059 205 5012

If I was in Italy, I would SO be there.... If any Morbid Anatomy readers live near Modena Italy and would like to make attend and write a report about your experience, you can email me at morbidanatomy@gmail.com.

Click here to see original post on the Biomedicine on Display website; More on the image--captioned Plakat für ein anatomisches Museum, Hamburg, 1913--at this recent post; click on image to see much larger image.

Upcoming Event at Observatory: "The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?" With Cult-Author Mark Dery

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

People. I promise you that this is one you won't want to miss. On Tuesday December 21st--aka Winter Solstice--inimitable cult author and lecturer in the grand 19th C tradition Mark Dery will be gracing Observatory with his presence, swooping in to thrill us with his illustrated lecture "The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?" Dery's presentation will be followed by a Krampus (See above)/Solstice-themed after party with music, sweets, specialty cocktails, idiosyncratic gifts, and more.

Full details follow. This is going to be good fun; VERY much hope to see you there!

The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?
An illustrated lecture with cult author and cultural critic Mark Dery, followed by a Krampus/Solstice-themed after party with music, specialty cocktails, and more
Date: Tuesday, December 21 (Winter Solstice)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Canceled, last year, by an act of Cthulhu–the Mother of All Blizzards, which dumped 20 inches of snow across the Northeast–Dery’s wickedly witty lecture, “The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?,” is sure to inspire Christmas jeer.
Few Americans know that Santa descends from the mock king who held court at Saturnalia, the Roman festival celebrating the winter solstice. Or that he shares cultural DNA with the Lord of Misrule who presided over the yuletide Feast of Fools in the Middle Ages—lewd, blasphemous revels that gave vent to underclass hostility toward feudal lords and the all-powerful church.
In “The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?,” Dery, a cultural critic and book author, takes a look at the Jolly Old Elf’s little-known role as poster boy for officially sanctioned eruptions of social chaos, as well as his current status as a flashpoint in “the Christmas Wars”—cultural battles between evangelicals, atheists, conservatives, and anti-consumerists over the “true” meaning of Christmas. Along the way, Dery considers New Age theories that Santa is a repressed memory of an ancient Celtic cult revolving around red-capped psychedelic mushrooms; Nazi attempts to re-imagine Christmas—a holiday consecrated to a Jewish baby, for Christ’s sake—as a pre-Christian invention of tree-worshipping German tribes, in some misty, Wagnerian past; and the suspicious similarities between Satan and Santa, connections that have fueled a cottage industry of conspiracy theories on the religious right.
Mark Dery (http://www.markdery.com) is a cultural critic. He is best known for his writings on the politics of popular culture in books such as The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink and Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century. Dery is widely associated with the concept of “culture jamming,” the guerrilla media criticism movement he popularized through his 1993 essay “Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of the Signs”; “Afrofuturism,” a term he coined and theorized in his 1994 essay “Black to the Future” (included in the anthology Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, which he edited); and the Pathological Sublime, which he introduced in The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium. He has been a professor in the Department of Journalism at New York University, a Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow at UC Irvine, a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, a blogger for True/Slant (http://trueslant.com/markdery/) and Thought Catalog (http://thoughtcatalog.com/) and a guest blogger at Boing Boing. A Portuguese-only collection of his recent essays, Não Devo Pensar Em Coisas Ruins (I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts), has just been published in Brazil by Editora Sulina.

You can find out more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

The Edward Gorey Auction, Bloomsbury Auctions, New York, Thursday December 9th, 11 AM

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Ooooooh... This is very exciting: An Edward Gorey Auction, featuring a broad variety of one-of-a-kind objects drawn from The Great Man's personal collection. A few of the 60 lots can be viewed above, full details on auction and objects can be found below:

The Edward Gorey Sale
New York, 9 December 2010, 11am
To be held on premises at 6 West 48th Street, New York, NY 10036
View sale online or download a pdf.
Live Bidding to be held on-site, absentee bids acccepted, free internet bidding via liveauctioneers.com and the-saleroom.com
Bloomsbury Auctions New York is very pleased to announce an auction devoted entirely to the author and illustrator Edward Gorey (1925-2000). Known for his whimsically macabre illustrations and intensely unique personal illustration style, this sale will feature an array of items owned by Gorey, as well as a large selection of his published books, original artwork, and personal jewelry.
The central focus of the sale will be 14 fur coats once owned, worn (and one also designed) by Edward Gorey from the 1950’s to early 1980’s. While gentlemen wearing fur coats were hallmarks of Gorey’s early pen and ink illustrations, Gorey himself had a change of heart in the 1980’s, putting the fur coats into storage – never to be worn again. Always well cared for, all coats have been in storage for well over 30 years. Mr. Gorey left the entirety of his estate to the care and welfare of animals. The proceeds from the sale of the coats will benefit the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, whose sole mission is the care and welfare and animals, and the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA, which celebrates Gorey’s life and work through public exhibitions. Each coat is accompanied by a letter confirming the provenance as well as a custom label with an original Gorey design which has been sewn to the inside lining.
Other noted items include the original hand-penned and colored front cover illustration by Gorey for Edward Fenton’s book Penny Candy, a turquoise onyx skull pendant, two Gorey hand crafted bean bag -like creatures, Gorey’s illustrating fountain pen and approximately 50 signed, first, or interesting editions of Gorey’s classic books.
For all inquiries, please contact us at newyork@bloomsburyauctions.com or 212.719.1000.
For further information on the fur coats only, you may also contact the Edward Gorey House at 508.362.3909 or info@edwardgoreyhouse.org.
Exhibition Times:
Saturday, December 4, 10am-3pm
December 6, 7, 8 10am-5pm
Thursday, December 9 9am

You can find out more, peruse the full 60 lots, and find out how to bid by clicking here.

All images drawn from the auction website. Object descriptions and price estimates, top to bottom:

Silver Bat Silver cloth with shoe-button eyes; stuffed with rice (190 x 360 mm). Bean bag toy designed and hand-stitched by the artist. Provenance: James Marshall. The versatile Gorey designed and personally made bean bag animals such as bats, frogs, rabbits and elephants. He stuffed the earliest ones with rice. He usually made them for friends like the children's book illustrator James Marshall; and only rarely were they sold to the general public. $1000 – $1500
Fur Coat owned and worn by Edward Gorey Lynx coat, below knee, big lapels, brown silk lining, extra large collar. Label sewn in celebrating the 2010 Annual Goreyfest and Gala. Provenance: Edward Gorey to the Edward Gorey Charity Trust, Accompanied by a letter signed by Andreas Brown, Co-Trustee, confirming the ownership. $800 – $1200
Skull Necklace A skull neclace on a string, possible onyx, turquoise, or Abyssinian. Provenance: Edward Gorey to the Edward Gorey Charity Trust, Accompanied by a letter signed by Andreas Brown, Co-Trustee, confirming the ownership. A FINE EXAMPLE OF THE ECCENTRIC JEWELERY WORN BY EDWARD GOREY. $500 – $800
The Listing Attic New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, [1954]. Original pictorial boards, in the original unclipped dust jacket. Condition: edges lightly darkened, very faint old dampstain at top edge and to verso of jacket, cloth and jacket lightly rubbed at corners with a short tear to the upper panel of the jacket. FIRST EDITION OF GOREY'S SECOND BOOK. $150 – $200
The Vinegar Works New York, Simon & Schuster, 1963. 3 volumes, comprising: "The Gashlycrumb", "The West Wing" and "The Insect God." Square 4to. Original pictorial boards, housed in original slipcase. Condition: "The Gashlycrumb" somewhat shaken, spines darkened, light rubbing to corners; slipcase lightly chipped along extremities and soiled. FIRST EDITIONS; FIRST PRINTINGS. $250 – $300

Recent posts of interest: A Visit to The Edward Gorey House Museum, Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts

Thanks so much to Colin Dickey and his very follow-able Twitter feed for alerting me to this!

"Cadmus et Hermoine," The First French Opera from 1673, Period Reproduction by Vincent Dumestre and Benjamin Lazar

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

I just discovered a most amazing cultural artifact: Vincent Dumestre and Benjamin Lazar's 2008 resurrection of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Metamorphoses-inspired "Cadmus et Hermoine," the first French opera, which premiered on April 27, 1673 and has long since faded into obscurity.

This 21st Century revival of a baroque original is like a magnificent, life-sized toy theatre come to glorious and uncanny life, and functions as more like time-travel than performance, with its lavishly reproduced stage machinery, sets, costumes, makeup, mannered performance style, dance sequences, and completely candle-lit stage all painstakingly based on baroque originals. The music, too, is unforgettable; hauntingly lovely and slightly alien, yet, somehow, utterly familiar at the same time.

The complete production (Christmas gift, anyone?) is available in DVD form from Amazon.com, which describes it thusly:

The event of the year! The team led by conductor Vincent Dumestre and Benjamin Lazar has produced the very first French opera, composed in 1673 by Lully with a libretto by Quinault. With reconstructed sets and costumes, this entirely candle-lit production is a landmark in the rediscovery of baroque opera, providing a unique opportunity to discover a musical masterpiece that has fallen into oblivion over the last 3 centuries. Performers include Andre Morsch, Claire Lefilliatre, Arnaud Marzonati, Jean-Francois Lombard, Isabelle Druet, Arnaud Richard, and Camille Poul with the Orchestra, Choir, & Dancers of Le Poeme Harmonique.
Vincent Dumestre directs this performance of Jean-Baptiste Lully's CADMUS ET HERMOINE. Composed in the 17th century, this libretto is a classic example of a musical tragedy and is known as the first French opera.

Click here to find out more, or purchase the DVD. Click here (highly recommended!) to view many more segments on the Oedipus at Versailles You Tube station. You can find out more about the history of the Cadmus et Hermoine opera here.

Recent related posts: Drottningholm Court Theatre, 1764-1766, Stockholm

Via Le Divan Fumoir Bohémien

“Death and the Lady," Vaudeville, Turn of the Century

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

In 1906 The Journal of the English Folk Song Society published a piece on the old English ballad “Death and the Lady.” Some enterprising female entertainer encountered the article and realized the story might be used as a great vaudeville piece about the evils of card play and alcohol. Touring performers were always searching for material that would play well in the sticks. The city folks would enjoy the Grand Guignol staging, the traditional song, and the vocal technique. Here Joseph Hall, the Brooklyn born photographer who had made a career on baseball pictures and theatrical production stills, captured the sequence of the action, providing a peculiarly detailed & rare view of the progress of a single vaudeville performance.

Click on images to see larger, richer versions; you can see the complete series of photos on the Historical Ziegfeld website by clicking here.

Via Turn of the Century.

Tomorrow Night, December 7th! 5th-Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest, The Bell House, Brooklyn

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

This is going to be good... hope to see you there!

The Secret Science Club's 5th-Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest
Date: Tuesday, December 7
Time: Lecture at 8 PM; Contest begins at 8:30 PM
Location: The Bell House, Brooklyn
Judges: Mike Zohn of Obscura Antiques and Oddities and star of The Discovery Channel's Oddities; Robert Marbury of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists; Dorian Devins, co-founder and curator of the Secret Science Club; Melissa Milgrom, author of Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy.
(149 7th St., between 2nd and 3rd avenues in Gowanus, Brooklyn)
The beasts are back!
The Secret Science Club presents the 5th-annual “Carnivorous Nights TAXIDERMY CONTEST” at the Bell House, Tuesday, December 7 @ 8 pm, $5 cover
Calling all science geeks, nature freaks, and rogue geniuses! Your stuffed squirrel got game? Got a beaver in your brownstone? Bring your beloved beast to the Bell House and enter it to win!
Eligible to enter: Taxidermy (bought, found, or homemade), biological oddities, articulated skeletons, skulls, jarred specimens—and beyond, way beyond
Show off your moose head, jarred sea cucumber, rabbit relics, snake skeleton, fish fangs, and other specimens. Compete for prizes and glory!
The contest will be judged by our panel of savage taxidermy enthusiasts, including Robert Marbury of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists; Dorian Devins, co-founder and curator of the Secret Science Club; and beast mistress Melissa Milgrom, author of Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy.
JUST ADDED: Purveyor of scientific wonders and star of the inimitable new show Oddities on the Discovery Channel, Mike Zohn joins the judging panel and presents an illustrated lecture on (yes!) taxidermy.
Plus!
--Groove to wildlife-inspired tunes and video
--Imbibe ferocious specialty drinks! (They’ll bring out the animal in you.)
--Special guests and surprises!
Entrants: Contact secretscienceclub@gmail.com to pre-register. Share your taxidermy (and its tale) with the world!
Spectators: Don’t miss a beastly second of this wild night!
Doors and Pre-show at 7:30 pm
Taxidermy Lecture at 8 pm
TAXIDERMY CONTEST at 8:30 pm
This specialty edition of the Secret Science Club meets Tuesday, December 7 @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th. Please bring ID: 21+. $5 cover.
For information: contact secretscienceclub@gmail.com Or visit us on the Web at http://secretscienceclub.blogspot.com
Contest Background: The Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest is hosted by the Secret Science Club, an organization dedicated to exploring scientific discoveries and potent potables. The contest was started in 2005 by two of the Secret Science Club’s co-founders to shamelessly promote their taxidermy-inspired book Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger. The event has since taken on a life of its own, with first-year winners Andrew Templar and Jim Carden—co-owners of the Bell House—now providing a permanent home for this beastly annual smack-down. Special thanks to Robert Marbury of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, the Rump Ape, and Poe the Crow.
Don't miss this beastly event on Tuesday, December 7, 8 pm @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th

More here. The image you see above is the Hamlet Mouse by Mouse Angel/Jeanie M. You can purchase your very own Hamlet Mouse--or Angel, or Punker Rocker, or Mousealope, or Pope--at The Morbid Anatomy Library; click here or email me here for details.

Tonight at Observatory! The Amazing Zoe Beloff and "Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer," Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Tonight at Observatory, the inimitable Zoe Beloff!

Full details below. Hope very much to see you there!

Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer: An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Zoe Beloff
Date: Monday, November 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5

“Adventures of a Dreamer” is a hand-drawn prototype for a comic book, that appears to have been created by Albert Grass, founder of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society in the 1930’s. It seems possible that he originally intended “The Dreamer ” to be hero in the mold of “The Spirit”, or even “Superman” with extraordinary powers but this conception quickly changed. By episode three “The Dreamer” looses his ability to fly, landing on the ground with a loud “ouch!”. He remains earthbound and the work becomes a more serious investigation into his own psychic life.
Many of Albert Grass’ anxieties speak directly to us today. He suffered the aftereffects of a brutal war. He worried about his neighbors being evicted. He felt the guilt of an artist who feels he should be more deeply engaged in a struggle for social justice. Previously unpublished, this facsimile edition makes available for the first time what appears to be an early attempt to use the language of the comic book to graphically manifest the unconscious.
Zoe Beloff is an artist who elides the roles of archivist and creator. Her work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Known for her multimedia installations incorporating film and video, Beloff aims to connect the present with the past and to call into question the assumed boundaries between historical fact and creative interpretation. In celebration of the centennial of Sigmund Freud’s visit to Coney Island in 1909, Beloff resurrected the world of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society, along with the visionary ideas of its founder, Albert Grass. Beloff’s publications include The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and Its Circle and The Somnambulists: A Compendium of Source Material.

You can find out more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here. You can find out more about Zoe Beloff and her work by clicking here. You can find out more about Albert Grass The Adventures of a Dreamer--and purchase a copy!--by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Help Keep "Oddities" on the Air!

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

"Oddities," Morbid Anatomy's new favorite television program, is in danger! Below is a plea from Mike Zohn, co-proprietor of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, the antique shop which is at the center of this new and wonderful Discovery Channel reality show:

Fans of Oddities...We need your help.....First, thank you for all the kind words and all. We appreciate all of it. It seems that for some reason Discovery has not run any TV ads for our show. Our ratings have been OK, but most people don't know there are 2 episodes back to back...and many more don't even know about the show. Seems it might be hard to build an audience and a following without some TV advertising......

So, what can you do to help?

You can watch! Oddities airs on the Discovery Channel on Thursday nights, from 8-9 PM; At 8:00 PM, catch a screening of last week's episode; stay tuned for a new episode at 8:30.
Lodge a complaint to Discovery Channel asking for commercials and better promotion! You can do so (as I just did!) by clicking here.
Spread the word; if you like the show, tell your friends!
"Friend" them on Facebook! This is also a great way to keep apprised of the latest "Oddities" and shop information. You can find them on Facebook by clicking here.
Come to our "Oddities" screening party on December 9th at 8:00 PM! You can find out more details about that by clicking here or here.

Thanks everyone for your help in saving this new and wonderful television show!

Artist Zoe Beloff Returns to Observatory with "Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer," Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing, Monday, November 29th

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Next Monday, November 29th, Morbid Anatomy favorite artist Zoe Beloff--she of the unforgettable hysteria theaters and last years installation at the Coney Island Musuem on the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society--will be returning to Observatory to deliver an illustrated lecture based on her newest publication Albert Grass The Adventures of a Dreamer. Books will also be available for sale and signing.

Images from said publication above; full details below. Hope to see you there!

Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer: An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Zoe Beloff
Date: Monday, November 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5

“Adventures of a Dreamer” is a hand-drawn prototype for a comic book, that appears to have been created by Albert Grass, founder of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society in the 1930’s. It seems possible that he originally intended “The Dreamer ” to be hero in the mold of “The Spirit”, or even “Superman” with extraordinary powers but this conception quickly changed. By episode three “The Dreamer” looses his ability to fly, landing on the ground with a loud “ouch!”. He remains earthbound and the work becomes a more serious investigation into his own psychic life.
Many of Albert Grass’ anxieties speak directly to us today. He suffered the aftereffects of a brutal war. He worried about his neighbors being evicted. He felt the guilt of an artist who feels he should be more deeply engaged in a struggle for social justice. Previously unpublished, this facsimile edition makes available for the first time what appears to be an early attempt to use the language of the comic book to graphically manifest the unconscious.
Zoe Beloff is an artist who elides the roles of archivist and creator. Her work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Known for her multimedia installations incorporating film and video, Beloff aims to connect the present with the past and to call into question the assumed boundaries between historical fact and creative interpretation. In celebration of the centennial of Sigmund Freud’s visit to Coney Island in 1909, Beloff resurrected the world of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society, along with the visionary ideas of its founder, Albert Grass. Beloff’s publications include The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and Its Circle and The Somnambulists: A Compendium of Source Material.

Upcoming Observatory Double Feature "Beyond the Sphere: Getting Lost with Dante" and the Music of Helen Gillet, Monday, November 22

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Next Monday at Observatory, Paradiso Contapasso presents a fantastic double feature: the haunting cello music of New Orleans-based Helen Gillet followed by an illustrated lecture about Dante's trip to hell and back by medievalist Nicola Masciandaro. All for just $5.

The music begins at 7 and the lecture at 8.

Full details below; hope to see you there!

A Paradiso Contapasso Double Feature:
Beyond the Sphere: Getting Lost with Dante and the Music of Helen Gillet
An illustrated lecture with professor of medieval literature Nicola Masciandaro preceded by the a performance by Helen Gillet
Date: Monday, November 22
Time: 7:00 for music; 8:00 for lecture
Admission to both: $5

Everyone knows that Dante went to hell and back. “Non vedi tu come egli ha la barba crespa e il color bruno per lo caldo e per lo fummo che è là giù?” [Do you not see how his beard is crisped and his color browned by the heat and smoke that this there below?], a lady is reported by Boccaccio to have said upon seeing the poet in Verona.
The underworld is written all over the author’s image. In many circles, from video game consoles to college lecture halls, the Divine Comedy is virtually synonymous with Inferno. The “Paradiso Contrapasso” concept presents a liberation from this stygian fixation. A contamination of paradise with the essential principal of divine punishment? A saturation of eternal torment with celestial, empyreal bliss? Or maybe something more radical than either. The damnation and perdition of the very idea of paradise? Or a penalty that would itself comprise it?
The word paradise, from ancient Persian, signifies an enclosed or walled garden. The divine punishment of paradise might then be imagined as the annihilation of its constitutive boundary, an exposure of the garden to what is beyond it. Does paradise disappear? Or does everything become a paradise?
Tonight’s lecture will take this theme as an invitation to read Dante as a radically paradisical poet, one for whom the original and ultimate state of being is never somewhere else, before or after, but is something that must always, and precisely in its absence, always be here.
Nicola Masciandaro is Associate Professor of English at Brooklyn College (CUNY) and a specialist in medieval literature.

To find out more about the lecture, click here; to find out more about the music of Helen Gillet, click here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Reading and Book Signing: "Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children," Stanley Burns of the Burns Archive

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Tonight, at the Merchant's House Museum, as part of the exhibition “Memento Mori: The Birth and Resurrection of Postmortem Photography" blogged about recently here:

Wednesday, November 17, 7 p.m.
Reading: Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children
Merchant's House Museum
29 East Fourth Street, New York, NY 10003
The Museum is located between Lafayette Street and Bowery
Free, space is limited.
Dr. Stanley Burns of The Burns Archive will speak about the practice of postmortem photography from the 19th century until today, and sign copies of his latest book in the renowned Sleeping Beauty series. A reception to meet the author will follow.
To RSVP Call 212-777-1089
To read more about postmortem photography at The Burns Archive click here.

Stay tunes for a similar event Morbid Anatomy Presents event at Observatory sometime in the new year!

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" Like Victorian Baby Talk: Edison's Monstrous Talking Doll, circa 1890

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like Victorian baby talk. Especially when it sounds like this.

More, from the Go Report website:

While we may never know what the ‘must have’ Christmas gift was in 1890, we do know that it most assuredly wasn’t Thomas Edison’s talking doll.
Using miniature phonographs embedded inside, these “talking” baby dolls were toy manufacturers’ first attempt at using sound technology in toys. They marked a collaboration between Edison and William Jacques and Lowell Briggs, who worked to miniaturize the phonograph starting in 1878.
Unfortunately, production delays, poor recording technology, high production costs, and damages during distribution all combined to create toys that were a complete disaster, terrifying children and costing their parents nearly a month’s pay.
Edison would later refer to the dolls as his “little monsters.”

To hear this wee monstrous baby reciting, we are led to believe, "Little Jack Horner," click here. To read the entire story from which the above excerpt is drawn, click here. Sound from Archive.org.

Thanks to my lovely friend Matt Murphy for this charming holiday tale about a rare Edison commercial misfire.

Webinar Reminder For Definiens Developer XD

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Image Analysis Strategies for Challenging Biomedical Images using Definiens Developer XD™

Join us for a webinar: Image Analysis Strategies for Challenging Biomedical Images using Definiens Developer XD™

Learn image analysis strategies from the pros at Definiens using Definiens Developer XD on the following examples:

• The Rolling Ball Method for Correcting Heterogeneous Backgrounds in Fluorescently Stained Golgi Cells
• Three Dimensional Analysis of Dendritic Spines
• Classifying Tumor vs. Non-Tumor and Tumor Morphology in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Speakers:

Peter Duncan - Director, Marketing and Business Development
Dr. Thomas Mrowiec - Consultant, Professional Services
Dr. Florian Leiss - Trainer and Marketing Specialist

Title:		Image Analysis Strategies for Challenging Biomedical Images using Definiens Developer XD™
Date:		Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Time:		11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM GMT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/227449746

Tomorrow Night: "The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?" With Cult-Author Mark Dery at Observatory

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Tomorrow night at Observatory. So hope to see you there!

The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?
An illustrated lecture with cult author and cultural critic Mark Dery, followed by a Krampus/Solstice-themed after party with music, specialty cocktails, and more
Date: Tuesday, December 21 (Winter Solstice)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Canceled, last year, by an act of Cthulhu–the Mother of All Blizzards, which dumped 20 inches of snow across the Northeast–Dery’s wickedly witty lecture, “The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?,” is sure to inspire Christmas jeer.
Few Americans know that Santa descends from the mock king who held court at Saturnalia, the Roman festival celebrating the winter solstice. Or that he shares cultural DNA with the Lord of Misrule who presided over the yuletide Feast of Fools in the Middle Ages—lewd, blasphemous revels that gave vent to underclass hostility toward feudal lords and the all-powerful church.
In “The Vast Santanic Conspiracy: Is St. Nick the Tool of a Plot too Monstrous to Mention?,” Dery, a cultural critic and book author, takes a look at the Jolly Old Elf’s little-known role as poster boy for officially sanctioned eruptions of social chaos, as well as his current status as a flashpoint in “the Christmas Wars”—cultural battles between evangelicals, atheists, conservatives, and anti-consumerists over the “true” meaning of Christmas. Along the way, Dery considers New Age theories that Santa is a repressed memory of an ancient Celtic cult revolving around red-capped psychedelic mushrooms; Nazi attempts to re-imagine Christmas—a holiday consecrated to a Jewish baby, for Christ’s sake—as a pre-Christian invention of tree-worshipping German tribes, in some misty, Wagnerian past; and the suspicious similarities between Satan and Santa, connections that have fueled a cottage industry of conspiracy theories on the religious right.
Mark Dery (http://www.markdery.com) is a cultural critic. He is best known for his writings on the politics of popular culture in books such as The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink and Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century. Dery is widely associated with the concept of “culture jamming,” the guerrilla media criticism movement he popularized through his 1993 essay “Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of the Signs”; “Afrofuturism,” a term he coined and theorized in his 1994 essay “Black to the Future” (included in the anthology Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, which he edited); and the Pathological Sublime, which he introduced in The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium. He has been a professor in the Department of Journalism at New York University, a Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow at UC Irvine, a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, a blogger for True/Slant (http://trueslant.com/markdery/) and Thought Catalog (http://thoughtcatalog.com/) and a guest blogger at Boing Boing. A Portuguese-only collection of his recent essays, Não Devo Pensar Em Coisas Ruins (I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts), has just been published in Brazil by Editora Sulina.

Governing Seasteads: An Outline of the Options – by Brad Taylor

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Danzig

TSI has published its first research paper on seastead governance. Written by economics intern and Thousand Nations author Brad Taylor, the paper covers a range of topics from policy models to structures of governance. From the paper's introduction:

Sink or Swim Contest Update

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Danzig

We've had about 30 draft submissions to our Sink or Swim contest. Contestants now have until Dec 5th to submit their final revisions to us at sinkorswim@seasteading.org. Until then, we'd like to encourage everyone to join the discussion over at our Sink or Swim partner page on HumanIPO. HumanIPO is a novel way to collaborate on business plan and start-up creation.

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