Category Archives: Anatomy

Learn to organize with Oliver Burkeman of London's Guardian! Join Morbid Anatomy for a special Friday the 13th virtual tour of medical museums of the Western World followed by music and cocktails! Morbid Anatomy Presents this week and beyond at Observatory:

Organization and Productivity for Creative Types with Oliver Burkeman of The Guardian
Date: Thursday,  July 12
Time: 8:00
Admission: $10
Produced by Morbid Anatomy

Do you hunger to climb the corporate ladder with ruthless efficiency, leaving your rivals in the dust as you pursue your relentless quest for wealth and power? Hopefully not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t borrow some tactics from such people and apply them to your own ends; to that end, this talk– by Oliver Burkeman, compulsive to-do-list-maker and journalist for London’s Guardian–will teach creatives, freelancers, and artists how to plan and manage multiple projects, better plan their time, and, in general, feel less overwhelmed by juggling a variety of projects at one time.

Burkeman has spent much of the last few years researching and reporting on self-help culture, including the fascinating history of the “how to succeed” publishing genre, and motivational gurus from Dale Carnegie to Stephen Covey, and sifting the wheat from the chaff. (There’s a lot of chaff.) Drawing on this research, this talk will explore some fundamental principles of getting organized, managing multiple projects, overcoming procrastination, time management, and being both more productive and less stressed in the kinds of sprawling artistic/creative/freelance lives that don’t get much attention in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. No cringe-inducing motivational speeches will be given; no Magic Systems for Instant Success will be promoted. Instead, we’ll plunder from the world of the grinning gurus the bits that actually work – so that you’ll leave equipped with a toolkit of immediately usable ways to do the stuff you’re already doing, and the projects you’re planning, with greater efficiency and ease. 

Please note: This event is a lecture adaptation of a recent popular Observatory class by the same name.

Oliver Burkemanin a writer based in Brooklyn with an unhealthy interest in filing systems. He writes features and a weekly column on psychology for the (London) Guardian. His book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking will be published by Faber & Faber in the fall.


Image: Image sourced from http://www.flickr.com/photos/frettir/

Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig
A heavily illustrated lecture by Morbid Anatomy founder Joanna Ebenstein, followed by afterparty featuring thematic music and specialty cocktails by Friese Undine
Date: Friday, July 13
Time: 8:00
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Since 2005, artist, independent scholar and Morbid AnatomistJoanna Ebenstein has travelled the world seeking out--and photographing whenever possible--the most fascinating, curious, and overlooked medical collections and wunderkammern, backstage and front, private and public. In the process, she has amassed not only an astounding collection of images but also a great deal of knowledge about the history and cultural context of these fascinating and uncanny artifacts.

This Friday the Thirteenth, please join us for a heavily illustrated lecture based on this research, followed by a thematic afterparty. In her lecture "?Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig," Ebenstein will lead you on a highly-illustrated tour of medical museums and introduce you to many of their most curious and enigmatic denizens, including the Anatomical Venus, the Slashed Beauty, the allegorical fetal skeleton tableau (as seen above), the flayed horseman of the apocalypse, and three fetuses dancing a jig. Ebenstein will contextualize these artifacts via a discussion of the history of medical museums and modeling, a survey of great artists of the genre, and an examination of other death-related arts and amusements which made up the cultural landscape at the time that these objects were originally created, collected, and exhibited. Following, please stick around for an afterparty featuring thematic tunes and inventive artisanal cocktails complements of the omni-talented Friese Undine.

Joanna Ebenstein is a multi-disciplinary artist with an academic background in intellectual history. She runs the Morbid Anatomy blog and related open-to-the-public Brooklyn-based Morbid Anatomy Library. She is also the founding member of Observatory, a Brooklyn based arts and events space devoted to the revival of the 18th century notions of the dilettante and rational amusements. Her recent work—which includes photography, curation, installation, blogging, museum consulting, lecturing and writing—centers on anatomical museums and their artifacts, collectors and collecting, curiosities and marvels, 18th and 19th Century natural history and, as the subtitle of her blog states, “surveying the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture.” She has lectured at a variety of popular and academic venues, and her work has been shown and published internationally; she is the current Coney Island Musuem artist in resident, and recent solo exhibitions include The Secret Museum and Anatomical Theatre. You can find out more at her at her website astropop.com and her blog Morbid Anatomy; you can view much of her photography work by clicking here. She can be reached at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com.

Image: Fetal Skeleton Tableau, 17th Century, University Backroom, Paris; From The Secret Museum. © Joanna Ebenstein, 2010

Onward and upward:

July 21: Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop: With former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com 

July 23: Class: Dissection as Studio Practice with Real Anatomical Specimens: Lecture and Studio Art and Dissection Class with artist Laura Splan **Must RSVP to morbidanatomy[at]gmail.com 

August 11: Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop: With former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com

August 17: Taxidermy, Longing, and Beastly Allure: An Illustrated Lecture with Rachel Poliquin, author of "The Breathless Zoo" and "Ravishing Beasts"


More on all events can be found here; hope to see you there!

Source:
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I am very excited to announce a few open slots in this Saturday's long sold-out Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton, part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy at Observatory. Full details for the class follow; send an email to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list. First come, first served!

Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: This Saturday, July 7
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list
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?

You can find out more about this class here, and more about The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy by clicking here.

Source:
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Source:
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A typical fireworks show, which lasts about 20-25 minutes, takes about one year for preparation and procurement of products from China and Europe.

The company starts placing orders in July with the expectation of receiving the goods from November to April the following year.

Pyro Spectaculars is usually fully booked for Independence Day by April.

Then the show production team works with the sponsors, city planners, and fire departments in site selection for the shows.

Show design begins, with story-boards, choreographed to music.

From May 1 to the middle of June the shows are assembled, processed and packaged, ready for shipment.

In the last two weeks leading up to July 4, crews are loading hundreds of trucks, heaving firing equipment into them for every show.

On the morning of July 4, the crews arrive at 5:30 a.m. - eat hot dogs at 6 a.m. - to pick up their respective trucks loaded with fireworks, heading out to their shows.

Some shows set up several days before the show. On the Fourth of July, it will take all day to set up fireworks.

By 5 p.m., the shows are ready to fire. At 9 p.m. shows are launched.

Follow this link:
Anatomy of a fireworks show

The withdrawal of a $1.65 billion takeover bid for national retailer David Jones has bought to a close one of the most bizarre chapters in the companys 174-year history.

In our step-by-step analysis of the bidmade by little-known private equity company EB Private Equitywe unravel the complexities facing David Jones chair Bob Savage, his board and management.

The takeover bid

On May 28, the David Jones board received an email, dated May 22, with an unconditional but incomplete bid for the company. According to The Australian Financial Review, David Jones chairman Bob Savage thought the deal didnt feel right. He emailed the bidder asking for more information. It would be a month before he received any response.

The bidder was John Edgar, representing EB Private Equity, a private equity group that claims to have a focus on property.

The David Jones board was faced with three possibilities: saying nothing until further details were forthcoming; making an announcement; or going into a trading halt.Usually, you would expect the board to quickly make an announcement about a bid, says the chief executive of Chartered Secretaries Australia, Tim Sheehy.

My hunch is that they hesitated because they had doubts about the legitimacy of the bid, he told LeadingCompany. In a perfect world where a bid came through a well-known, recognised investment bank, and was legitimate, they would have to disclose relatively quickly. This one didnt seem bona fide from the start, and they set about investigating.

The David Jones board was under no obligation to reveal the bid by EB Private Equity, says professor Ian Ramsay, director of the centre for corporate law and securities regulation at Melbourne University. Ramsay was responsible for the review that led to changes in corporate law in 2004 in the wake of corporate collapses such as HIH insurance in 2001.

The ASX requires under listing rules disclosure of material information [that will affect the share price], but there is a carve out and that includes an incomplete proposal, he said.

On June 28, a day before David Jones finally revealed the offer, EB Private Equity responded to Savages request for more information. The email contained few new details about the bidder, but did update the offer to $1.65 billiona 40% premium on the companys then market value.

Link:
Anatomy of a farce: rights and the wrongs of a DJ dalliance

If you paid even the slightest attention to Nirvana you would quickly notice a common theme—anatomy and various deviations from the bodily “norm”.

Their early album Incesticide is well…titled Incesticide and the cover art gave an early glimpse into front man Kurt Cobain’s fascination with the body.  Included on the album are “(New Wave) Polly”, about the abduction, torture, and rape of a young girl in Washington state; “Molly’s Lips”, a Vaselines cover presumably about Scottish actress Molly Weir’s lips; and “Aneurysm.” All of these songs deal with some sort of distortion to or fascination with the human body, accidental or forced.

Later, Nirvana released In Utero, again, a title that quickly made clear the interest in anatomy. The album cover was designed with an anatomical statue as well as Cobain’s own art work that shows a fetus and other body parts. In addition, the song “Heart-Shaped Box” was accompanied by a video that highlights various stages of the body’s growth and eventual decay.

Another stand out track from In Utero is “Scentless Apprentice.” The song references Patrick Suskind’s character Jean-Baptiste Grenouille from his novel Das Parfum. Grenouille is a perfumer in France obsessed with the idea of capturing human scent and begins brutally murdering women in order to preserve their scent and create the perfect perfume.

Finally, aside from their music and album artwork, Cobain created his own pieces that often referenced the human body as seen below.

Source:
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