Monday, October 8, 2012

Morbid Anatomy Presents at Observatory: Upcoming Events, Parties, and Spectacles


Cocktails and "Gross America!" Morbid Anatomy Library Open Studios! Films that influenced the Quay Brothers! "Morbid Anatomy Compendium"--published in tandem with Strange Attractor Press--" Fundraising and launch Party! Insect Shadowboxes for Halloween! Sugar skull workshop! Day of the Dead Costume Party with tequila, traditional altar, Aztec dances and our annual Lady Death Piñata! Macabre New York! Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press on the abuses of enchantment an occult British music! Morbid Anatomy presents for the upcoming week and beyond:
"Gross America" Book Launch PartyAn Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Richard Faulk, with Music and Cocktails by Friese Undine
Date: **** Thursday, October 11 (NOTE DATE CHANGE)
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Produced by Morbid Anatomy
*** Copies of Gross America will be available for sale and signing
Don’t judge a book by its cover. And don’t judge this collection of American oddities solely by their gross exterior. With wit and insight backed up by meticulous research, Gross America, the debut book by genial polymath Richard Faulk, takes you places you thought you never wanted to see, to unearth stories you’d never imagined.
What is Gross America?
Gross America is toothsome concoction of science and nature trivia, served with a side of sagacity and wit, and delivered in an irresistibly putrescent bundle.
No, really: What is Gross America?
Ok, it’s a travel guide to the grossest sites our 50 states have to offer. Sniff out the chemical secrets of the celebrated “sperm tree” of Los Angeles; gaze into the innards of North America’s sole surviving anatomical Venus; thumb the pages of a prison memoir bound in the memoirist’s own skin; or sneak a peek into the chamber pot used by the real-life Uncle Sam.
And those are just a fraction of the potential verb-object parings made possible by this nasty little book.
On top of being a sheer joy to read (he wrote modestly), Gross America offers an introduction to the wild nature of our 50 states and a window into some of the more perplexing moments of science, past and present. It will answer questions you might never have realized you had, and change the way you think about things you never wanted to think about in the first place.
You may never look at toxic waste the same way again.
Why should I come to the release party?
Well, at the very least, you’ll probably get drunk. There will be music, too. There will also be a discussion, and you will be able to ask the author impertinent questions about his book, and you will become intrigued enough to buy it. Which you will also be able to do.
RICHARD FAULK is a writer, editor, and Observatory habitué. A onetime time-travel columnist and occasional education reporter, he has also written about Vikings for Australian tweens, covered academic conferences for Columbia University, and celebrated the films of Pam Grier in Penthouse. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he thinks deeply about trivial matters.
Image: Model from The Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science Museum, Transylvania University in Lexington, KY; by Merkin J. Pus-Tart, Kingdom of Fife blog.
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Morbid Anatomy Library Open StudiosDates: Saturday October 13 and Sunday October 14
Time: 12-6
Admission: FREE
Produced by Morbid Anatomy
This weekend, October 13th and 14th, please join the Morbid Anatomy Library as we join dozens of other Gowanus-based galleries and artist studios in opening our spaces to the public for the Gowanus Artists Studio Tour, or "A.G.A.S.T."
So stop by, peruse the stacks, take a gander at the human articulated skeleton, and join us for a glass (or 3) of cheap red wine.
Directions: Enter the Morbid Anatomy Library and Observatory via Proteus Gowanus GalleryR 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.
You can find out more information about A.G.A.S.T., and get a full list of participants, by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory and the exhibition now on view by clicking here.
Photo of The Morbid Anatomy Library by Shannon Taggart.
And in the weeks and months to come:
 More here.

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