Date: Thursday, March 29
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5

Inspired by Migration, the year-long exhibition at Proteus Gowanus, music writer John Swenson suggested  we do a series about British rockers who come to America seeking fame and fortune. John knows quite a few, and the first on his list is Tony De Meur!

“Think Pink”: Comedian Ronnie Golden, aka Tony De Meur of the Fabulous Poodles, relives the golden days of 80s post-punk and New Wave. De Meur has agreed to do an exclusive presentation at the Observatory while in New York for the opening of his latest project, “The City Club,” a musical at the Minetta Lane Theater in Greenwich Vilage. The self -described “Swiss Army Knife of Entertainment” and writer of such memorable hits as “Mirror Star,” “Think Pink” and “Stompin’ On the Cat” will reprise his career as rock songwriter, TV star (”The Young Ones”) and Edinburgh Fringe performer. John Swenson will MC and will sign copies of his latest book, New Atlantis.

BIO: “Ronnie Golden” is the alias of Tony DeMeur whose musical career began at age ten with his crooning “No Other Love Have I” to Akela in the Turkey Street Cubs’ hut. Nine years later and he’s touring round Britain in “The Corsairs” with his old school chums, opening shows for Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck and Scott Walker. Hair was dutifully grown and an altogether more experimental concept was born - “Ugly Room” - playing ‘pig-stabbing music’ opening onetime for debut of “David Bowie’s Hype” after recommendation from wife-to-be Angie.

Such childish things were put aside for a couple of years while he worked at the Tate Gallery and then “Daddy Stovepipe” was his next incarnation, warbling ancient blues songs and music hall ditties in cheap suits and strumming a ukulele.  Then South London theatre-based twenty-strong aggregation “Silly Balls” asked him to join and he was soon working alongside mime genius Lindsey Kemp dressed up in a foam rubber garden wall declaiming “Some Enchanted Evening.” It was a living (actually it wasn’t with twenty other fuckers on the payroll!)

After this period of certifiable madness Bob Suffolk invited him to become a “Fabulous Poodle” and his world shifted on its axis. Almost imperceptibly. From cult status in the UK to Top Forty in the U.S. supporting Tom Petty, Sha Na Na and The Ramones all across that demented continent. Three albums and then came the predictable rock’n'roll hari kari.

A short period of rampant paranoia ensued, followed by a new identity and - voila! - “Ronnie Golden” was born.

Invited to Soho’s ‘Comic Strip’ one rainy midweek evening in 1981 he was blown away by Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer et al and one week later was on the show alongside a very raw but hilarious Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders and the world premiere of twenty-one year old Ben Elton. An appearence in BBC 2’s “The Young Ones” followed and then a whole bunch of other comedy shows including “Saturday Night Live” and “Stomping on the Cat” (named after one of Ronnie’s more sensitive tunes.)

He then joined The Actor’s Centre, got himself an agent and took occasional acting work notably as a heroin addict in C4’s “How Much Is Too Much?” and as an MI6 agent in “The Fourth Protocol” with Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine.

There were other musical ventures like the acappella doowop of the “Dialtones” but when he was asked to put together a band for the ‘graveyard shift’ in The Gilded Balloon at The Edinburgh Festival in ‘89 he jumped at it and called up a bunch of his favourite alcoholics and the rest, as they say, is………hysteria.

Presented by John Swenson and GF Newland, and brought to you by Observatory’s Things-That-Move Department.

New theatrical works by Ariel Stess & Claire Moodey
Date: Thursday, February 9
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by the Hollow Earth Society

The Hollow Earth Society is proud to host two new multimedia explorations of our intimate relationships with objects and ideas:

Spectral Findings, a theater concert, reanimates Goethe’s scientific findings on light and colours through Faust and “Die Erlkonig.” This experiment in chamber performance is a passionate and poetic narrative essay in which colored shadows and chromatic aberrations leave gentle souls prey to the work of devil. How do we see and what? In seeing, we fall. In falling we are transformed; visions shift. Mingling the intimate chamber music of Franz Schubert, scientific puppetry, and romantic devilry, one is left to wonder if seeing is believing, can we choose what to see? Constructed by Claire Moodey in collaboration with Jonah Rosenberg, Maxwell Cramer, and Abigail Lloyd.

Larger Objects by Ariel Stess charts the non-journey of two dutiful gentlemen. As they reflect on the objects of their affection, they find themselves intertwined through painful positions, misshapen dreams, and shifting memories. There is a woman too, somewhere, and she may need their help. The past, present, and impossible collide in this twisted, tedium. And something has been broken… ribs… twigs… More?

LARGER OBJECTS CAST:

Ariel Stess is an Astoria-based playwright, performer, and director from Santa Fe, NM. She holds a BA from Bard College; MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College. Recent and upcoming plays: The Only Girl in the Hot Tub (Geraldine Page Salon, dir. Barbara Harrison), He Ate Quietly into the Wall (Foxy Films, Oct. 2011; Geraldine Page Salon, Sept. 2012), Highlights in Hollywood (East 13th St. Theatre, dir. Sarah Rasmussen), The Lock and Door (Dixon Place, Jan. 2010; Bushwick Starr, April 2012), Prowlers in the Night (Bard College, dir. May Adrales), and The Waiter (Bard College).

Sam Stonefield holds a BA from Bard College where he received the Ana Itelman Award for Directing. He directed Farmyard (Kroetz), Cowboy Mouth (Sam Shepard & Patti Smith), and makes performance installations. He has worked with Theodora Skipitares (Trojan Women), JoAnne Akalaitis (Bacchae; Jump) and Daniel Fish (KFC). Recently, he fabricated Daniel Arsham’s decor for MCDC’s final “Event” at the Park Avenue Armory. He’s currently the Assistant Director on Eric Schorr’s Tokio Confidential at Atlantic Stage, dir. Johanna Mckeon. samuelstonefield@gmail.com

Maxwell Cosmo Cramer is a Brooklyn-based stage artist and co-founder of the performance group EGG. As director: Touching Theater Feelings (WAXworks/Triskelion) I’m Miserable But Change Scares Me (Dixon Place). As producer: Voice and Vision Theater 2011 ENVISION Retreat & Lab (Bard College/The Women’s Project). As performer (upcoming): Mother, Goose, and Grimm (Little Theater at Dixon Place), Boy Show (14th St. Y), Gray Notebook (Bushwick Starr/Target Margin Lab). Past work: <the invisible draft> (NOLA Fringe), Relative Value (3LD), A Week at the NJ Shore (Dixon Place & touring), Tydrus the Twit (The Tank), Hamlet (Full of Noises), HIM (walkerspace). superword.tumblr.com

Nic Grelli – Regional: Honey Brown Eyes (SF Playhouse-West Coast Premiere, Theatre Bay Area Editors’s Pick), Superior Donuts (Dorset Theatre Festival). NYC: School Night (Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon), The Un-Marrying Project (Purple Rep), Saturn Nights (Incubator), Ampersand (NYC Fringe). Upcoming: Magic Trick (Culture Project-Reading), Animals Commit Suicide (Teranova Collective-Workshop). Short films: “Filthy Gorgeous” and “Adopting Skins.” Nic has worked extensively with Labyrinth Theatre Company and is proud to be a producer, camera man, and creative contributor to the webseries Jeesus Freaks. Check it out at www.makelovejackson.com. Training: NYU/Tisch and Maggie Flanigan. Proud member of AEA.

SPECTRAL FINDINGS CAST:

Claire Moodey is a Brooklyn, NY based theater artist interested in exploring the power of metaphor, narrative, and dream-like association to synthesize information about ourselves and the world. Recent credits include <the invisible draft> a radio play silent movie, exploring the mapping of consciousness at Theater for the New City’s Dream Up Festival and the NOLA Fringe (creater, director), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane at the HOWL Festival (lighting and video design), and John Kelly’s The Escape Artist at P.S. 122 (video performance, PA). On February 13th, her short play Mother, Goose, and Grimm will be presented at Dixon Place as part of Little Theater.

Jonah Rosenberg, musical direction/piano, is a Brooklyn, NY based pianist, composer and sound designer striving to construct intuitive music. Jonah studied classical guitar and jazz piano at SUNY Stony Brook. Jonah has composed music for modern chamber ensembles, electro-acoustic ensembles, multi-media theater works, jazz groups, rock and hip hop. Jonah has performed, led and composed for groups with Blaise Siwula, Ray Anderson, Kevin Shea, Martin Loyato, Janie Cowan, (saxophonist) Marcus Miller, Lisa Dowling, Aleks Karjaka and others. He is a third of the musical collaboration Lions For No Reason, the Managing Director at Outpost Artists Resources and curator of the Vectors: Contemporary Music Series.

Abigail Lloyd, set and costume design, lives in Brooklyn and loves building sets for theater. She also builds furniture and other objects from steel. When she’s tired, she makes digital prints with Photoshop and draws cartoons. Abigail is interested in slow processes, intimacy and collaboration. Please surf www.abigaillloyd.com for more.

Maxwell Cosmo Cramer, dramaturgy,

Date: Saturday, February 18th

Time: 8pm

Admission: $20

Check out our art show, Lunation: Art on the Moon, and then trip out to a Moon Phantasmagoria show by VJ Fuzzy Bastard. We’ll also be screening episodes from the Midnight Archive, a show featuring your favorite Observatory masterminds.

Libations will be provided courtesy of La Fée Absinthe.

There will also be:

The luminous MC Lord Whimsy!

Stellar giveaways courtesy of Kikkerland!

Out-of-this-world raffle prizes, including:

Gift certificates from the scrumptious SweetWolf’s and the delectable Palo Santo!

Moonrise Perfume from Herbal Alchemy!

Audiobooks from Hachette!

Occult Book Set including an autographed copy of Mitch Horowitz’s Occult America (Bantam), and Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Tarcher/Penguin)!

Abraxas International Journal of Esoteric Studies with accompanying occult music CD!

Lunavision Ritual Tea Set from Rebis Remedies!

And so! much! more!  We look forward to seeing you there.

Recent evidence has emerged from archaeological sites around Lake Titicaca Peru that Llhuros—thought to be a fictional civilization contrived by artist Norman Daly—actually existed and thrived in this region centuries ago. Likewise, the ancient engraved stones of Ica Peru reveal a civilization that lived concurrently with dinosaurs and were knowledgeable in sophisticated medical practices long before western discoveries, according to researcher Dr Javier Cabrera.

Alastair R. Noble is an environmental/installation artist and printmaker, his cross-disciplinary practice engages in contemporary cultural issues. Although originally from the UK, he has lived and work in New York City for over 30 years and has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including in Peru, Chile, Bulgaria, UK. His practice is a response to architecture and the natural environment and investigates particular sites in the context of literature, poetry or philosophical texts by authors such as Mallarmé, Marinetti, Mayakovsky, Wittgenstein. The Library of Babel and On the Exactitude of Science by Jorge Luis Borges have been the subjects of his recent projects, which he transposed into labyrinthine maps of the mind and landscape. Additionally he writes on sculpture and architecture for Sculpture magazine and journals. He has taught and lectured at numerous colleges and universities.

Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox by Daisy Tainton, teacher of today's workshop

With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: Sunday, February 12
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
*** SOLD OUT; Additional class added on March 24th; link here

Rhinoceros beetles: nature’s tiny giants. Adorable, with their giant heads and tiny legs, and wonderful antler-like protrusions. If you think they would be even more adorable drinking tiny beers and holding tiny fishing poles, we have the perfect class for you! In today’s workshop, students will learn to make–and leave with their own!–shadowbox dioramas featuring carefully positioned beetles doing nearly anything you can imagine. An assortment of miniature furniture and foods will be made available to decorate your habitat, but students are strongly encouraged to bring any dollhouse props they would like to use. 1:12 scale is generally best.

Daisy Tainton was formerly Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History, and has been working with insects professionally for several years. Eventually her fascination with insects and  love of Japanese miniature food items naturally came together, resulting in cute and ridiculous museum-inspired yet utterly unrealistic dioramas. Beetles at the dentist? Beetles eating pie and knitting sweaters? Even beetles on the toilet? Why not?

***Very limited class size!  You must RSVP to phantasmaphile [at] gmail .com if you’d like to attend.  You will then receive a payment request via Paypal.

Smell is the most neglected of our senses yet it has an instantaneous power to penetrate our consciousness, invoking memories and emotion. Odors are ethereal and elusive yet can strongly attract or repel.

As a concerned consumer, you are choosing organic food, seeking out sustainable products and opting for eco-friendly packaging. But what about the fragrance you wear? That signature scent is likely composed of synthetic materials (as most commercial fragrances are), mass-produced, packaged and shipped around the world in the millions of units. Natural perfumery is a much different process that uses only essential oils and precious absolutes that are extracted from plants. Like fine wine, subtle differences can be found from the same plant from year to year depending on soil conditions and climate meaning that it is not an exact science but a creative alchemical process.

In this sensory workshop we will examine the artisanal art of natural perfumery. Students will gain a basic understanding of the sense of smell, the history of perfume, the advent of synthetic ingredients and the return to naturals. Perfume ingredients and formulation will be explored, and each participant will leave with two bottles of their own bespoke perfume.

No prior knowledge of perfume making is required. Students should bring a notebook to class, all other materials will be provided.

Julianne Zaleta is a natural perfumer, aromatherapist and herbalist and has trained with Michael Scholes and Jeanne Rose. Owner and sole proprietor of her own company, Herbal Alchemy Apothecary, Julianne creates aromatic and therapeutic remedies and elixirs for a wide variety of ailments. As a perfumer she has trained with Mandy Aftel to create a line of all natural perfumes. Recently she has turned her attention to artisanal cocktails, which makes her work life quite enjoyable, as you can imagine.

Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox by Daisy Tainton, teacher of today's workshop

With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: Saturday, March 24
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
*** MUST RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com as class size is limited to 12
This class is part of the Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Rhinoceros beetles: nature’s tiny giants. Adorable, with their giant heads and tiny legs, and wonderful antler-like protrusions. If you think they would be even more adorable drinking tiny beers and holding tiny fishing poles, we have the perfect class for you! In today’s workshop, students will learn to make–and leave with their own!–shadowbox dioramas featuring carefully positioned beetles doing nearly anything you can imagine. An assortment of miniature furniture and foods will be made available to decorate your habitat, but students are strongly encouraged to bring any dollhouse props they would like to use. 1:12 scale is generally best.

Daisy Tainton was formerly Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History, and has been working with insects professionally for several years. Eventually her fascination with insects and  love of Japanese miniature food items naturally came together, resulting in cute and ridiculous museum-inspired yet utterly unrealistic dioramas. Beetles at the dentist? Beetles eating pie and knitting sweaters? Even beetles on the toilet? Why not?

"Moon Viewing," from the series "Artistic, Aesthetic and Poetic Tastes of the Japanese," by Gerald Marks, as featured in our current Lunation exhibition. Put on 3-D glasses for full experience.

Date: Friday, February 17
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

The Moon and its relationship to our earth has been a prominent feature in the work of artist Gerald Marks for the past four decades. Tonight, join this 3-D legend and former San Francisco Exploratorium artist in residence for an all 3-D ode to our dear satellite. Some of the images premiered at Marks’ 2000 presentation at the American Museum of Natural history as part of their “Rockets in Sprockets” festival, honoring the first anniversary of the new Rose Center for Earth & Space. Also included will be Marks’ panoramic 3-D images of New York City, taken during the January 2001 Lunar Eclipse, from the top of the World Trade Center.

Gerald Marks is an artist working along the border of art and science, specializing in stereoscopic 3-D since 1973. He may be best known for the 3-D videos he directed for The Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels tour. He has taught at The Cooper Union, The New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts, where he currently teaches Stereoscopic 3-D within the MFA program in Computer Art. He was artist in residence at San Francisco’s Exploratorium and a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked with computer-generated holography. His Professor Pulfrich’s Universe installations are popular features in museums all over the world, including the Exploratorium, The N. Y. Hall of Science, and Sony ExploraScience in Beijing & Tokyo. He has done 3-D consulting, lecturing & design for scientific purposes for The American Museum of Natural History, the National Institutes of Health, and Discover Magazine. He has created a large variety of 3-D artwork for advertising, display, and pharmaceutical use, as well as broadcast organizations Fox and MTV. He has designed award winning projections and sets at the N.Y. Public Theater, SOHO Rep, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center and the Nashville Ballet, where he created stereoscopically projected sets. He created the 3-D mural in the 28th Street station of the #6 train in New York City’s subway. He did 3-D imaging of dance around the New York shoreline as part of an iLAB grant from the iLAND Foundation for using the arts to raise environmental consciousness.

A class facilitated by Jonathan Basile
Date: Tuesday, January 17
Time: 8 PM
Admission: free
Presented by The Hollow Earth Society and The Public School New York

Note: everyone is welcome, whether or not you attended the first session of “A Crossing Without Borders.”

What is death? How does our being mortal shape the possibilities of our cognition and our desire? How should we live in order to come to terms with the term of life, and how does our orientation towards a good death become an art of living?

How does the history of thinking about death shape our understanding of these possibilities, and how do the cultural and other differences surrounding the treatment of death play a part in constituting those very differences—the demarcations of ethnicities, nations, religions, genders, etc.—all the lines drawn on this side of the division between life and death? What does thinking about death in general reveal to us about death in our culture—about our medical industry, about our political furor over “death panels,” about a culture industry obsessed with the equation of youth and beauty, for example?

We will discuss these themes as they are developed in two of Derrida’s major works on death: The Gift of Death and Aporias. In all of our thinking about life in this world, about responsibility, authenticity, temporality, finitude, or mortality, for example, it seems that we always surreptitiously introduce some infinite beyond into the constitution of the here-below, a transcendence that may be utterly unknowable despite our complete reliance
on it.

It has gone by many names throughout history: the Form of the Good, God, the unnameable possibility of the name, the Unconditioned, the Inverted World, Being, Differance, or the secret; we will consider what it would mean to nickname it “Death.”

Reading Assignment:
Aporias – Chapter 1

Recommended Additional Reading:
Aporias – Chapter 2

Jonathan Basile is a volunteer with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, visiting hospice patients and their families. He currently studies at Brooklyn College, working towards an MFA in Creative Writing. This past summer he organized a series of discussions on death in Western philosophy through The Public School New York, focusing on the work of Plato, Hegel, Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida.

Writing Assignment

Most every representation of death throughout Western thought has sought to offer a vision of death that could be incorporated into one’s sense of responsibility in this life, into one’s sense of being a free agent, accountable for one’s own decisions and their consequences up to death and beyond. Such representations present certain paradoxes for human beings laboring under them, not the least of which would be the attempt to bring death under our control as something we could actively will and take responsibility for, despite it’s seeming to always take us by surprise, unawares.

For example, the Christian representation of death as a final judgment and afterlife as an infinite reward or punishment for actions in this life attempts to make sense of the infinite responsibility the Christian adherent feels as a result of her original sin, and offers a death that is a complement to the life of sacrifice she should lead (storing up her treasures in heaven, knowing all the while that a Father who sees in secret will reward her).

Try to write your own representation of death or the afterlife. Keep in mind what sort of an idea of life or the individual human your particular representation is reinforcing.

(Bonus points to anyone who offers a vision of death or the afterlife that undoes the patriarchal bias of the Platonic and Judeo-Christian representations. This tendency is best exemplified by Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac—in order to prove his adherence to his absolute duty towards God, Abraham must renounce everything he holds dear in this world, to show that he is completely dedicated to its beyond. To make this infinite renunciation requires proving his willingness to kill his own son, without saying a word about it to his wife. It seems that the vision of individuality that one receives from this tradition of thinking about death is uniquely masculine or patriarchal.)

***

The Para-Academia Series
Ongoing workshops co-produced by the Public School New York and the Hollow Earth Society

A Shadow Genealogy of the Ivory Tower/Producing the Unwriteable

Manifesto:

The para is the “alongside,” that which comments on the official or normative. While academics debate the finer points of Shakespeare and Kant, para-academics aggregate around shadow-commentators whose works do not so much categorize (striate) and enlighten (bring light into) difficult terrain, but produce that terrain, creating obscure spaces and nebulous discourses that are immune to traditional academic approaches.

Blogs, speculative medievalisms, Cyclonopedia, Charles Fort, teratology, Deleuzean-everything, print-on-demand—these and other tentacles of a polycephalic (many-headed) para-academia have entwined to produce an addendum and, finally, an ultimatum to established disciplines and practices.

The Public School New York and the Hollow Earth Society will explore these emerging ideas and modes of expression through a series of discussions and writing workshops, with audio available after each session.