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I would like to cordially invite all Morbid Anatomy readers to join us in bidding farewell to the sadly ephemeral Great Coney Island Spectacularium and Cosmorama of the great Dreamland Fire. The exhibition--more on which here--will end after Labor Day weekend, so this is one of your last chances to see it. So please, come raise a glass with us, surrounded by the unfortunate taxidermy once on view at one of the oldest dime museums in the Americas, the Niagara Falls Museum. Join us for a beer in the soon to be dismantled and utterly transporting Cosmorama of the great Dreamland Fire! Help us kiss the lovely toy theater proscenium farewell!

The party will take place next Saturday, August 25th at The Coney Island Museum; There will be free beer and wine, including a special Dreamland Fire Brew, hand-crafted by our friends at the Coney Island Brewery and wine by Red Hook Winery. Artists will be in attendance, as will special guest performers. AND rogue musician Nick Yulman will perform original scores using mechanical instruments for two 1926 films, Now You Tell One and A Wild Roomer by silent comedian and stop-motion animation innovator Charlie Bowers.

The event begins at 8:00 PM; the film will begin at 8:30pm. $20 in advance or at the door. Advance Tickets here. Hope very much to see you there!

You can find out more by clicking here.

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As many of you already know, I am currently fulfilling the role of artist in residence at The Coney Island Museum. As such, last April I launched an exhibition there in collaboration with artist Aaron Beebe that will be on view until April of this year. Entitled "The Great Coney Island Spectacularium," the exhibition aims to explore, celebrate, and evoke through installation, artifacts, and newly commissioned works turn of the 20th Century Coney Island with its bizarre, spectacular and, amazingly, forgotten immersive amusements.

Although this seems nearly unbelievable, on an average day in Coney Island around 1900, one might be able to experience one or more of the following: A midget village modeled on 16th century Nuremberg and featuring its own parliament, hotel, stables with midget ponies, vaudeville house, and midget fire department rushing off to put out imaginary fires; A recreation of the destruction of Pompeii by volcano, San Francisco by earthquake, Galveston by flood, and/or Titanic by iceburg; Freakishly small premature infants battling for their lives in infant incubators; A recreation village of the head-hunting Bontac Tribe of the Philippines with real tribespeople on display; An immersive spectacular which staged tenement fires every half hour and featured a cast of 2,000; A Boer War reenactment featuring real Boer War veterans; A trip to the moon, under the sea, or to heaven and hell by way of being buried alive in a glass coffin; and, as they say, much, much more. How could this have all been forgotten, we ask in this exhibition, and our memory of Coney Island sanitized to a place of mere hotdogs, roller coasters, petty crime and freaks? What does it say about who we are now, and what have we lost in this historical omission?

The centerpiece of our exhibition is The Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire, which is an immersive 360 degree spectacle based on the great panoramas and cosmoramas that populated Coney Island in the 19th century. It tells the story with image, sound, and light of the most spectacular disaster in Coney Island history: the complete and dramatic destruction of Dreamland, one of the three great parks that made up turn of the century Coney Island, by fire 100 years ago in 1911. Dreamland was never rebuilt, but had it been, Beebe and I are certain it would have given pride of place to a disaster spectacle that allowed visitors to experience the great fire that had destroyed it. The Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire is our attempt to create the attraction that should have been, and to allow contemporary audiences to experience a 19th century-style immersive spectacle of the sort celebrated in the exhibition.

Next Thursday September 22, the crew behind the construction and conception of The Cosmorama--myself included--will be at The Coney Island Museum giving a presentation about the making of the piece, followed by guided tours of the exhibition. We will also be on hand to answer any questions you might have.

I think this will be a really great event. And for those of you who have yet to make it out to see the exhibition, a great excuse to finally make the trek and have a beer in the Cosmorama!

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

Date: Thursday, September 22
Time: 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Admission: $5, Free for Coney Island USA Members.
Loction: The Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn

The Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire is the first Cyclorama in Coney Island since Luna Park met its own fiery demise in the 1940's. The art of creating a full-scale immersive Victorian entertainment was lost to Coney Island's denizens until this year. Find out how the Coney Island Museum resurrected the theatrical skills and the know-how necessary to create a 360-degree painted panorama with sound and lights for the 21st century.

Aaron Beebe, director of the Coney Island Museum; Joanna Ebenstein, Artist in residence for 2011; and their collaborators will be on hand to discuss the ins-and-outs and the technology behind the Cosmorama, with detailed technical descriptions from the lighting designers, the scenic artists, and the producers of this new and exciting spectacle.

Beebe and Ebenstein will be joined by the artisans and craftspeople from the Metropolitan Opera and other institutions who helped make this work possible. Guided tours of the Cosmorama will be held.

More on The Great Coney Island Spectacularium can be found here. More on The Cosmorama can be found here.

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As many of you know, I have been hard at work on an exhibition called The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, which opened just a few weeks ago at The Coney Island Museum (more on that here).

As part of the exhibition, we are--with the help of scenic painters, lighting designers and prop builders from the theater and opera world--in the midst of building a new component for the exhibition, an 19th Century-style panorama/cosmorama that will allow visitors to experience the 1911 complete destruction of Dreamland by fire in an immersive 360 degree sound, sight, and light spectacular. This component is set to premiere on May 27th, the centenary of the disaster, and is inspired by the immersive disaster spectacles so popular in Coney Island around the turn of the century.

Here's the rub: immersive amusements of this sort, as we are learning the hard way, are quite expensive to produce--probably a large reason that they were put out of business by cinema!--and we are, sadly, seriously under budget.

If 19th Century-style immersive spectacles of this sort are the kind of thing you would like to experience, and you would like to help contribute towards making this project a reality, we would be so pleased to welcome your contribution! Tax-deductable donations to Coney Island USA--our mother institution--can be made by clicking here and then hitting the "Donate" button. No amount too small! All donations appreciated.

Whether you are able to donate or not, please mark your calendar for the cosmorama opening party, which will take place on the centenary of the great disaster on Friday, May 27th, 2011. Or, come experience it later; The Comorama and the rest of The Spectacularium will be on view to the public at the Coney Island Museum until April 29th, 2012.

You can find out more about The Cosmorama by clicking here. You can join our mailing list to get updates about the opening party and other events by entering your email under "events mailing list" on the upper right hand side of the webpage. You can join our Facebook group by clicking here.

Thanks, and see you at Coney!
Joanna

Unveiling of a brand new 19th Century style disaster amusement! Free Hendrick's Gin! Disaster tunes of yester-year! Lord Whimsy! Stars of TV's Oddities! Vintage Coney Island films curated by Zoe Beloff! Rare appearance of the old Dreamland Bell!

All this and more await you next Friday at our Centennial Celebration of the Great Dreamland Fire. Please, come celebrate the end of an era with us!

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

Centennial Celebration of the Great Dreamland Fire Featuring the Opening of Coney Island’s Newest Cosmorama
Presented by The Coney Island Museum, The Morbid Anatomy Library, and Atlas Obscura
Date: Friday May 27, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Admission: $25 (Tickets at the door, or purchase here)
Location: The Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn (map here)

Next Friday, May 27th, you are cordially invited to a party commemorating the "awful splendor" of The great Dreamland fire of May 27, 1911, the most devastating disaster to hit New York City in the pre-9-11 era, a fire which devastated a never-to-be-rebuilt-Dreamland 100 years ago on this day.

This event will mark the premiere of the Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire, a 360 degree immersive cosmorama telling the story of the great fire in pictures, sound, and light. Based on Coney Island’s great immersive disaster spectacles, the cosmorama is the product of months of labor, thousands of dollars, and the expertise of artists and artisans from the Metropolitan Opera, and uses real boards from the original Coney Island boardwalk in its construction.

The party will also feature a complementary gin bar with custom cocktails, disaster tunes of yester-year curated by The Foppinton Brothers, vintage Coney Island films, a rare appearance of the old Dreamland Bell, celebrity appearances, anatomical give-aways, myriad performances, and much more!

Full line-up:

• Complimentary Gin Bar (!!!) courtesy of Hendrick’s Gin and Atlas Obscura
• Our incomparable host, Lord Whimsy, author of The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume 1
• Special guest appearance by Ryan Matthew, Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn of TV’s “Oddities”
• A rare appearance of the long submerged bell of the Dreamland Pier, 100 years after its climactic plunge into the depths of the cold Atlantic
• Puppet Vaudeville from Jonny Clockworks and "The Cosmic Bicycle" of "The ClockWorks Puppet Theatre"
• Vintage Coney Island Films from the collection of artist Zoe Beloff
• Giveaways of anatomical puzzle and other sundries complements of Kikkerland Design
• Custom Cocktails and Early 20th Century disaster tunes complements of The Foppinton Brothers
• The Accordion stylings of Matt Dallow
• “Reconstruction,” a performance featuring contortionist Jonathan Nosan and with musical accompaniment by Gordon Beeferman, Composer/Pianist
• Sword Swallowing, burlesque and Coney Island entertainment
• 19th Century waxworks, freak animals, and a real shrunken head
• Unlimited access all night long to the newly unveiled Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire
• And, of course, More!

Tickets are available by clicking here or purchasing at the door. See you there!

19th century-inspired immersive amusements at Coney Island! Kraftwerk multi-media presentation! Erotic Death in Victorian Art and Fashion! Hope to see you at one or more of these great upcoming Observatory events.

The Making of a 19th Century Spectacle: Artist Talk at The Coney Island Museum
Date: Thursday, September 22
Time: 7:30 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and The Coney Island Museum
***Location: Off-site at The Coney Island Museum (1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn)

On an average day in Coney Island around 1900, a visitor might be able to experience: A midget village modeled on 16th century Nuremberg and featuring its own parliament, hotel, stables with midget ponies, vaudeville house, and midget fire department rushing off to put out imaginary fires; A recreation of the destruction of Pompeii by volcano, San Francisco by earthquake, Galveston by flood, and/or Titanic by iceberg; A recreation village of the head-hunting Bontac Tribe of the Philippines with real tribes-people on display; An immersive spectacular which staged tenement fires every half hour and featured a cast of 2,000; A Boer War reenactment featuring real Boer War veterans; A trip to the moon, under the sea, or to heaven and hell by way of being buried alive in a glass coffin; and, as they say, much, much more.

In the exhibition The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, Observatory's Joanna Ebenstein and artist Aaron Beebe seek--via installation, artifacts, and newly commissioned artworks--to explore, celebrate, and evoke turn of the 20th Century Coney Island as the pinnacle of pre-cinematic immersive and spectacular amusement. The centerpiece of the exhibition is The Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire, an immersive 360 degree spectacle based on the great panoramas and cosmoramas that populated Coney Island in the 19th century. It tells the story--in an immersive blend of image, sound, and light--of the most spectacular disaster in Coney Island history: the complete and dramatic destruction of Dreamland, one of the three great parks that made up turn of the century Coney Island, by fire 100 years ago in 1911. Dreamland was never rebuilt, but had it been, Ebenstein and Beebe are certain it would have given pride of place to a disaster spectacle that allowed visitors to experience the great fire that had once destroyed it. The Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire is their attempt to create this attraction that should have been, and to allow contemporary audiences to experience a 19th century-style immersive spectacle of the sort celebrated in the exhibition.

This Thursday September 22, the crew behind the conception and construction--which include Observatory's Joanna Ebenstein and Wythe Marschall as well as sound engineers, scenic painters, lighting designers, and artisans from the Metropolitan Opera and other institutions--will be on hand at The Coney Island Museum to discuss the making of the piece, answer your questions, and lead guided tours of the exhibition.

World of Kraftwerk: A Journey In Music
Multimedia presentation with musician and writer Stephen Vesecky
Date: Friday, September 23
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

The Autobahn; The Man Machine; The Model. Rising from the ruins of post-war Germany, Kraftwerk created a new artform of sound and light, drawing not on the dominant American culture, but instead looking back to the utopian futurism of Fritz Lang and the Bauhaus architects. Defiant of the rock 'n' roll leviathan, they fashioned their own electronic instruments, with which they invented a new language for pop music. In so doing, they created a blueprint for the musical landscape that we see around us today; hip hop, synth pop, global dj culture, modern dance music--all were inspired by Kraftwerk's obsessive electronic poetry.

Tonight, join musician and writer Stephen Vesecky for a multimedia presentation celebrating and elucidating the unlikely but true story of this incredible band. Dr Maz of Mondo and DeLuxe will spin Kraftwerk-inspired records for the after-party.

Stephen Vesecky has played and toured with many new wave/indie bands including Poundsign, Mahogany, the Aisler's Set, and Still Flyin'. He now writes music for his current project, Strega, DJs at Lolita Bar in Manhattan and Bar Reis in Brooklyn, and creates music for soundtracks and promotional videos.

Erotic Death in Victorian Art and Fashion
An Illustrated Lecture with Professor Deborah Lutz
Date: Friday, September 30th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

The Victorians had a different relationship to the dead body and dying than we do today. Painters in the late-Romantic style created beautiful men and women ravaged by death; they depicted dying as a moment of climax and aesthetic perfection. Locks of hair were snipped from the corpse and woven into jewelry: a form of mourning that revered the body and its parts, even after death. Body-part stories told of the deep desire to possess the pieces of the famous dead. We will look at some of these paintings and objects, with a view toward recuperating this willingness to dwell with loss itself, to linger over the evidence of death’s presence woven into the texture of life.

Deborah Lutz is an Associate Professor at Long Island University, C.W. Post. Her first book—The Dangerous Lover: Gothic Villains, Byronism, and the Nineteenth-Century Seduction Narrative—traces a literary history of the erotic outcast. Her second book—Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism—explores mid-Victorian sexual rebellion. She is currently working on a book about the materialism of Victorian death culture and “secular relics”: little things treasured because they belonged to the dead.

Image: Victorian hair plume palette work brooch with seed pearls and curled wire work, circa 1870. Found on the Morning Glory Antiques website.

To be alerted to future events, "like" Morbid Anatomy on Facebook by clicking here or sign up for the Obesrvatory mailer by clicking here. More on all events here. Touy can find out more about these events by clicking here.

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Next Friday, August 12th, please join Morbid Anatomy and The Coney Island Museum for a launch party celebrating The Midnight Archives: Tales From the Observatory, a new video series "centered around the esoteric and always exotic personalities that spring from the Brooklyn Observatory." This project is the creation of many-time Observatory lecturer and film-maker Ronni Thomas, and promises to provide a fascinating and informative look into some of the topics explored by Observatory events past and future.

Come for the party and the screenings, stay to check out the exhibition The Great Coney Island Spectacularium and to experience The Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire, and linger on for the complementary midnight martinis!

Full details follow; Hope very much to see you there.

Date: Friday, August 12
Location: The Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn MAP
Time: 8:00pm
Admission: $20
COMPLIMENTARY "MIDNIGHT MARTINI'S" AND SPECIALTY DRINKS FOR ALL!

Another in a series of exciting events in the Coney Island Museum, the Great Coney Island Spectacularium invites you to the Midnight Archive LAUNCH PARTY with filmmaker and collector Ronni Thomas!

Join us for the launch of the web series The Midnight Archives: Tales From the Observatory. The series is the work of Ronni Thomas (Alias Ronni Raygun) of the IKA Collective and is centered around the esoteric and always exotic personalities that spring from the Brooklyn Observatory. It attempts to briefly document some of the truly unique people, talents and objects from around the world who gather there on a weekly basis. Mummies, Taxidermy, 18th century robotics, early French demonic 3d horror... its all here.

Series creator Ronni Thomas will give a brief lecture followed by the screening of episode 1 "Petrifying Pets: Modern Day Mummies" (6 minutes) and a short montage reel.

You can find out more--and purchase tickets!--by clicking here. For more on The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, click here. More on Observatory here.