An illustrated lecture by Artist and Animator Halli Gomberg on the book “Genital Abnormalities Hermaphoditism & Related Adrenal Diseases, 1937
Date: Tuesday, August 24th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
PLEASE NOTE: Please be advised that this event will contain graphic images that may be offensive to some viewers.
Although American society prides itself on the appearance of sexual liberation, intersexed people-traditionally called hermaphrodites-remain a taboo subject. Little is known and much is speculated. It is a topic that both fascinates and repulses, and too often it is easy to overlook the human element and instead see an object of confused sexuality and genitalia.
Tonight’s lecture looks to break through some of these walls with the discussion of the book Genital Abnormalities Hermaphoditism & Related Adrenal Diseases. Published in 1937 by John Hopkins University, this medical text contains over 50 years of studies on intersexed cases; procedures used to “fix” this problem, and most importantly the stories of the people whose lives were forever altered by the result of a genetic mutation. Discussed will be the surgical techniques employed on patients (predecessors of today’s genital reassignment surgeries), the lives of the patients behind the case numbers, and lastly modern repercussions of Hermaphoditism.
Halli Gomberg is a 2011 candidate for Master of Fine Arts in Design and Technology at Parsons, The New School. There, she specializes in motion graphics and interactive web technology. She has always fostered a passion for the obscure and forgotten elements of humanity. This has led her to build an impressive curiosity cabinet of rare medical photos, books, religious reliquaries, and antique glass. Her animation and physical computing work can be seen here.
 Date: Saturday, Sept 25th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $5
Presented by Phantasmaphile
Join author Erik Davis for a unique performance-lecture-reading inspired by his new book Nomad Codes (Yeti Books). Ranging from H.P. Lovecraft to tantric psychedelia to the transvestite spirit mediums of Burma, the pieces collected in Nomad Codes explore the realm of contemporary esoterica-a no-man’s land between pop anthropology and mystical pulp, between the zendo and the metal club, between cultural criticism and extraordinary experience, whether psychedelic, or yogic, or technological.
Erik Davis is one of America’s leading writers on contemporary esotericism and alternative culture. He is the author of the classic Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, as well as The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape and a book on the fourth Led Zeppelin record for the popular 33 1/3 series by Continuum books. He also hosts the popular net radio show Expanding Mind on the Progressive Radio Network. You can find out more about him at www.techgnosis.com.
 Screening and Chat with Animator Debra Solomon, Co-Creator of Lizzie McGuire
Date: Thursday, July 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Day Six of The Oxberry Pegs Series
Tonight, animator Debra Solomon will screen her new film “Getting Over Him, in 8 Songs or Less,” an animated mini-musical which chronicles the heroically sad but often funny voyage we all must make when love goes south.” She will also talk about work in the industry and beyond.
Debra J. Solomon Bio: Debra has just completed a half hour film Entitled “Getting Over Him, in 8 Songs or Less”, it is an animated mini-musical which chronicles the heroically sad but often funny voyage we all must make when love goes south. “Getting Over Him” is a sexy, funny and poignant reminder that loosing love can mean finding yourself. The film was independently produced and was screened on HBO February 14th 2010.
In this film, as in her earlier 2 films, Mrs Matisse and Everybody’s pregnant Debra has created and sung the music as well as animating, designing and writing the films.
Debra’s animated independent short films have won awards at film festivals all over the world including a Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale for Mrs. Matisse, and a special Jury Award at the world Animation Festival for Everybody’s Pregnant, which is part of the permanent collection of film and video at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both shorts have appeared in festivals all over the world and have won numerous audience favorite awards.
In the commercial arena Debra helped create the Disney’s hit series Lizzie McGuire. She was brought on before the show was cast to integrate the animation into the live action. Debra’s approach to the animation was responsible for turning a girls show into a show that boys could watch too. As well as charting the course for the animation Debra created the animated alter ego for Hilary Duff in the TV series and the film version. Debra was supervising director for the series and for the film version, the Lizzie McGuire Movie, for which she designed and directed the title sequence.
She has also created and produced a shorts for the Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel as well as a half-hour Thanksgiving special called the Private Eye Princess which was in part based on her experiences as a kid growing up in Boston.
Debra’s other film credits include the opening shorts for HBO’s “How Do You Spell God?” and “Kids are Punny” – both of which won Emmy and Peabody awards.
Earlier in her career Debra worked as an illustrator for many of the New York area newspapers including the New York Times, the Daily News and Newsday. For 17 years Debra worked on the popular Syndicated How Come column and helped create the three best selling How Come science books for kids.
You can see some of her work at www.debrasolomon.com.
 Nusch Eluard, 1936, untitled photocollage Date: Friday, August 13th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $5
Presented by Phantasmaphile
The Surrealist Movement, launched in 1924 by the poet André Breton in Paris, ascribed to woman a pivotal and revolutionary role and attracted a large number of active female participants. This talk will present a general survey of the women painters, photographers, and sculptors associated with Surrealism such as Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, Lee Miller, Meret Openheim, Leonor Fini, Nusch Eluard, Dora Maar, Jacqueline Lamba, Valentine Hugo, Mimi Parent, Unica Zürn, Ithel Colquhoun, Eileen Agar, Maria Martins, Leonora Carrington, Kay Sage, Toyen, and Claude Cahun. In addition, common themes running through their work (sexuality, occultism, nature, and dream imagery) will be explored.
Susan L. Aberth is Associate Professor of Art History at Bard College and is the author of Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art.
 A lecture and screening by Animator Signe Baumane
Date: Thursday, July 15th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Day Six of The Oxberry Pegs Series
“I always liked to talk about sex!” Signe says. “It is a very underestimated subject, and that, to my opinion, causes a lot of misunderstandings.”
“Until recently it was not very clear to me what my main subject was. Some would say sex, but that’s only the most scandalous, visible topic. It is clear to me now that what I am interested in is the relationship of the human body and the human spirit.”—Signe Baumane
The number six is a very sexy number, if you know your Latin. It’s no coincidence that day six of the Animators are God? Series at Observatory belongs to Signe Baumane. Signe is famous for her “Teat Beat of Sex” episodes; animated films that have been called delightfully silly, charmingly honest, ambiguously serious and sexually explicit. In her own words, they are films that examine sex-themed topics from the perspective of a very knowledgeable female lecturer. Indeed, she began examining the subject of sex as a young writer in Latvia.”My first novel was a romance, actually, more of a sexual escapade” recalls Signe, “my mother read it and was shocked how precisely her 8 year old described the sexual act.” She was first published at the age of 14, and continued to write professionally until she left Latvia to study Philosophy at the prestigious Moscow University. There, she was inspired her tell her stories through animation.
Tonight, Signe will show seven of her films–including the “Teat Beat of Sex” episodes. She will also talk about her work, explaining the hows, whys, and stories behind these compelling animations.
Signe Bauman studied Philosophy in Moscow, where she was inspired her tell her stories through animation. She started to work at Riga’s Animated Film Studio at the lowest possible position - cell painter. In few years she gained enough experience to write, direct, design 3 animated shorts, produced at the studio on government grants.The films were recognized at the international festival circle.
Signe had a good reputation as a new Latvian animation director. Longing for a stronger challenge and a bigger pond, Signe left Riga in 1995 for New York, where she started to work at independent animation star Bill Plympton’s studio at the lowest possible position - cell painter. In few years she gained enough experience of the wild capitalism to start producing film on her own and in 2002 she left Bill’s studio to start her own small studio.
Since her arrival to New York she has produced and co-produced, written, directed and designed more than 14 independent animated shorts. Signe has also continued her collaboration with Latvia’s leading animation studio - Rija Films - where she directed 2 of her own stories since 1995, and Pierre Poire Productions that produced her most successful films “Teat Beat of Sex” and “Birth”. Her films have been screened at such prestigious festivals as Annecy, Tribeca, Sundance, Berlin, Ottawa, Venice and they have received numerous awards. Signe is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a Fellow in Film from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Besides her own career Signe is also interested in promoting other people’s work. She advises series of film festivals in USA on their animation programs, as well as she curates special shows where she personally presents films and filmmakers. Animation is a passion for Signe, as well as a lifestyle.
 An Illustrated lecture and specimen demonstration with author, artist, and Gentleman Naturalist Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy
Date: Thursday, August 5th
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Tonight, author, artist and Gentleman Naturalist Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy will be giving an illustrated lecture on the botanical oddities found in the ancient, Ice Age bogs of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. These tiny, alien worlds are home to rare orchids, carnivorous plants, and bizarre species of plants and animals-some of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Whimsy, a lifelong resident of the Pine Barrens, will also give a demonstration of how to build and maintain your own container garden for these strange, wonderful plants. Live specimens of these plants will be on display, and care sheets for carnivorous plants like Venus Flytrap will also be made available. Whimsy’s book The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One will also be available for sale and signing.
Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy (aka V. Allen Crawford III) is an artist, designer, author, failed dandy, bushwhacking aesthete, and middle-aged dilettante. Whimsy is the author of The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One (Bloomsbury), which has been optioned for film by Johnny Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil. He and his wife are proprietors of Plankton Art Co., an illustration and design studio. Their most notable project to date is the collection of 400 species identification illustrations that are on permanent display at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Ocean Life.
PLEASE NOTE: SOLD OUT - please email phantasmaphile [at] gmail.com if you’d like to be added to the waitlist
Date: Sunday, Sept 12th
Time: 2pm sharp - approx 5pm
Admission: $20 cash per person
Presented by Phantasmaphile
*We will be meeting at 2 pm at the front gates of Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue just north of East 29th Street, in front of the bronze statue of Norman Vincent Peale.
Long before the “Aquarian Age” hit California, America’s laboratories of spiritual experiment were in the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen, the metaphysical churches built in New York’s old cow pastures, and the lodges nestled among Manhattan office buildings. Join Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America, for a walking tour to explore New York City’s astonishing – and overlooked – role in igniting the occult revival and the revolutions in alternative spirituality that swept America (and the world) from the nineteenth century to the present day.
Discover little-known landmarks of our underground spiritual legacy, such as:
The New York New Church - This beautifully restored Renaissance-revival Swedenborgian church was a wellspring of supernatural ideas in America in the mid-nineteenth century, when its pulpit was presided over by Spiritualist minister George Bush – ancestor to the Bush presidential clan.
The Lamasery - In the 1870s this westside tenement housed the salon of the occult Theosophical Society, whose earliest members included Thomas Edison, Major-General Abner Doubleday, and the mysterious Russian noblewoman Madame Blavatsky. This is where Civil War-era Colonel Henry Steel Olcott said he was visited by mysterious “Masters” who heralded the dawn of a new spiritual age.
Marble Collegiate Church - From the pulpit of this Romanesque church (and one of America’s earliest congregations) the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale spread the philosophy of “positive thinking” throughout America – a spiritual system built on American mystical teachings.
Fred F. French Building - This crowning edifice of the art deco movement of the early-twentieth century forms a temple of esoteric imagery, designed by an aficionado of the occult who left his mysterious markings on apartment and office buildings across New York City.
New York Theosophical Society - The site of New York’s premier library on matters of the esoteric and occult, and home to the New York branch of the oldest occult organization in America. This stop will include time to browse the building’s emporium of esoterica, The Quest Bookshop.
This tour provides an unforgettable opportunity to experience a lively and up-close overview of the “secret history” found right in our own neighborhoods. Plus a few surprises along the way…
A widely known writer and speaker on the history and impact of alternative spirituality, Mitch Horowitz is the editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin and the author of Occult America (Bantam 2009), which The Washington Post Book World called: “Fascinating…a serious, wide-ranging study of all the magical, mystical, and spiritual movements that have arisen and influenced American history in often-surprising ways.” Horowitz has written for U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, Parabola, and BoingBoing. He has recently appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, and All Things Considered. You can visit him online at Mitch Horowitz. The paperback version of Occult America will be released on October 5th, 2010.
 Lecture and Screening by Bob Camp, Co-creator of Ren and Stimpy
Date: Friday, July 9th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Day Five of The Oxberry Pegs Series
Wow! Bob Camp is coming to Observatory this Friday, July 9th. You know him as co-creator of the Ren and Stimpy show, the template for modern screwball cartoons, but you might not know all the other hat’s Bob wears. Bob is a cartoonist/illustrator, comic book artist, writer, story artist, designer, director and producer. He has worked on many TV series as well as feature films for such studios as Warner Brothers, Fox and Nickelodeon. Bob has been nominated for two Emmys, a Cable Ace award, and an Annie for his work on the “Ren and Stimpy” animated series. He was an illustrator at Marvel Comics on many comic titles including GI Joe, Crazy Magazine, Marvel Age, Bizarre Adventures, Savage Tales, Conan the Barbarian and The Nam. He has done covers, comics and editorial illustrations for Family Weekly magazine and The National Lampoon. Bob is presently developing concepts for film, TV and the internet.
So, drop by around 8pm this Friday, and Bob will show some cartoons, tell stories of his varied and lengthy career in animation and comics and answer your questions.
Filmography
Kick Buttowski Suburban Daredevil (Current) DisneyXD- storyboard artist
Leaf Men (2009-2010) Blue Sky/Fox- storyboard artist
Sym-bionic Titan (2009) Cartoon Network- storyboard artist
Kick Buttowski Suburban Daredevil (2008-2009) DisneyXD- storyboard artist
Robotboy (2006-2007) TV series Cartoon Network/France 3- Director
Legend of the Leaf Men (2006) Blue Sky/Fox- development artist
Ice Age II: The Meltdown (2005) Blue Sky/Fox- storyboard artist
Robots (2004) Blue Sky/Fox- storyboard artist
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) Warner Bros.- storyboard artist
Scooby Doo (2002) Warner Bros.- storyboard artist
Grim and Evil (2002) Cartoon Network- storyboard artist
Jackie Chan Adventures (2002) Colombia/Tristar- story artist
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) Paramount- storyboard artist
Cats and Dogs (2001) Warner Bros.- storyboard artist
Osmosis Jones (2001) Warner Bros.- storyboard artist
Lucky Lydia (2000) pilot for Cartoon Network- writer, co-director, executive producer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) -Imagine/Ron Howard- storyboard artist
Cow and Chicken (1997-9) Cartoon Network- storyboard artist
Space Goofs (1995-6) Gaumont Multimedia/Fox- writer, storyboard artist, co-story supervisor, and voice director)
The Ren & Stimpy Show (1990-5) Nickelodeon- Co-creator, storyboard artist, writer, director, producer, supervising director
Tiny Toon Adventures (1989) Warner Bros.- storyboard artist
The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil (1989) DIC- storyboard artist
 The Hollow Earth Society presents
SUSPICIOUS ANATOMY
Workbook No. 15: The Human Cranius
Lecture, Live Human Dissection and Book Launch
Date: Friday, July 16th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Not since Galen’s De Elementis has been set in ink a single compendium of medicological knowledge so extensive & practicably useful as SUSPICIOUS ANATOMY Workbook No. 15: The Human Cranius. Having intrinsic value to all persons—piratical, mysterious, upright, or otherwise—The Human Cranius is a PEERLESS GEM of uncanny truth. If you are a living human, you should make frequent, unabashed forays into this field guide to your hideous secondary body—the cranius, an organ-matrix & carnival of fangs which is trying to destroy you even as you read this sentence…
From the genre-chainsawing minds of the Hollow Earth Society (Ethan Gould and Wythe Marschall) comes “the definitive guide to the horrifying world inside you”—finally available in lush, illustrated paperback!
In the tradition of John Hodgman, David Cronenberg, and H. P. Lovecraft, The Human Cranius explores an alternative anatomy at once mesmerizing and deeply unsettling. Gould and Marschall ask: What do we know about our own bodies? The answer: Very little…
In many ways, the art and human studies of modernity have given us the keys to our unconscious minds, but have left entirely to dry science (fixing plumbing, testing drugs) the workings of our bodies. What does it feel like to have guts? To face disease, age, mutation—in short, a self that is not only not whole but not even on its own side?
The SUSPICIOUS ANATOMY series seeks to address these physio–psychomological imbalances by producing, for your benefit, the entire unconscious of the body, the shadow-self, in words and elaborate images.
The official Human Cranius book launch features a lecture, medicological film snippets, and a live human dissection. Join us!
About the Hollow Earth Society: For over one hundred years, the Hollow Earth Society has probed the world’s most bizarre and pertinent mysteries via an ever-mutating set of handbooks, rogue histories, and practical manuals. The Society is currently led by Colonels Ethan Gould and Wythe Marschall.
Ethan Gould is a Brooklyn-based artist working in drawing, puppetry, writing, and video to exploit the moments when the formerly robust process of perceptual categorization snaps like the fragilest of dry twigs. A graduate of the University of Rochester, he helped to create several development programs at the American Folk Art Museum. His work has appeared in such disparate places as the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, The Assembly Theater Company, The Brooklyn Review, Pomp & Circumstance, and ABC’s Wife Swap.
Wythe Marschall is writer. A graduate of Bennington College and the MFA fiction program at Brooklyn College, where he teaches undergraduate literature, Wythe has published stories and essays in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. He is the senior editor of the Atlas Obscura and an editor of Pomp & Circumstance, as well as a frequent reader for Electric Literature. His thoughts on letters, postmodernity, and hip hop can be found on his website, chronolect.com.
 An Image from the Diableries series--masterfully designed 3d stereo 'tissues' created in france in the 19th century An illustrated lecture and artifact display by filmmaker and collector Ronni Thomas
Date: Friday, July 30th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Tonight, join Observatory for a night of unique 3D stereo-views from the 1800s featuring HAUNTING double exposure ghost images, DISTURBING medical anomalies and the ever ELUSIVE french Diableries (or devil tissues)!
3D is very much in the news these days, and while hollywood has finally come close to perfecting this technology for the silver screen, people are largely unaware that the Victorians were also aficionados of 3D technologies, and that this interest often took a turn towards the macabre. Tonight, filmmaker and collector Ronni Thomas will lecture on the history of macabre 3D spectacles of the Victorian age, especially the infamous Diableries series-masterfully designed 3D stereo ’tissues’ created in france in the 19th century, backlit and featuring ornate scenes depicting the daily life of Satan in Hell (see image to left for example).Tongue in cheek and often controversial, these macabre spectacles give us a very interesting look at the 19th century’s lighthearted obsession with death and the macabre, serving as a wonderful demonstration of the Victorian fascination with themes such as the afterlife, heaven, hell and death.
In addtion to the lecture, Thomas will display original Diablaries and other artifacts from his own collection. Guests are encouraged to bring their own pieces and, better yet, a stereo-viewer.
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