Upcoming Event: Noir Slam

Hello scholars! In the LA area?

Why not check out the “Noir Slam” event hosted by the Last Book Store in Downtown Los Angeles this coming Wednesday September 2.

Presented by the Southern California Mystery Writers of America, the event will feature Christa Faust, Brett Battles, Anonymous-9, Samuel Gailey, Craig Faustus Buck, Maxine Nunes, Stephen Blackmore, Danny Gardner, James Queally, SW Lauden, Eric Beetner, Ashley Erwin, John Shepphird, Aaron Philip Clark, Travis Richardson, Paul D Marks, Josh Stallings, Hannah Sward, and Naomi Hirahara.

I’ll be there tweeting live from the event! @BerkeleyMystery

http://www.socalmwa.com/2015/06/noir-slam-at-the-last-bookstore/

FREE at THE LAST BOOKSTORE
453 N. Spring St, Downtown L.A.

Farley Farm House – Home of the Surrealists

Photo of Lee Miller's garden taken at the Farley Farm house during my recent trip to Sussex.
http://www.farleyfarmhouse.co.uk/Information.aspx

Leonora Carrington, “I am an Amateur of Velocipedes” 1941

Just remembering my fantastic visit to the Prints and Drawings room at the Tate Britain a while back. Many thanks to Christine Kurpiel for all of her assistance!

About the piece…..

“I am an Amateur of Velocipedes exemplifies Carrington’s use of fine draughtsmanship at the service of an unexpected visionary experience. Bicycle and figures (one rather harpy-like) combine seamlessly. They may be associated with Uncle Ubriaco and his daughter Amelia (a thinly disguised portrait of Ernst and his wife) the cyclists in the 1937-8 story Little Francis (republished in Carrington 1989, pp.163-209). An equally extraordinary hybrid appears in the other drawing, Do you know my aunt Eliza? where a robed and horse-headed figure with a crucifix towers over a sinister accomplice. The horse is a central figure for Carrington, a sign of energy – often female sexual drive – but also, as here, sometimes darkly threatening. The example of Goya’s etchings may be felt both in the imagery and the technique.” - Tate Catalogue

"Mystery Fiction" Course at UC Berkeley Ext. to Launch in April!

It's finally here! The UC Berkeley course, Mystery Fiction, will launch before the end of this month! Students can enroll via the UC Berkeley site at:

http://extension.berkeley.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=41065

Works under consideration will include the classics by Edgar Allan Poe, Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, and Raymond Chandler, and newer fiction by Joseph Wambaugh, Roberts Crais, and Tana French.

Follow us on Twitter @BerkeleyMystery, or share info with us using the hashtag #BerkeleyMysteryFiction

See you there!

"Maestro and the Dance!" On Display until March 2015

I'm pleased to announce that the Open House and launch of Xipe Project's newest exhibit, The Maestro and the Dance was quite the success! The event took place on Saturday, December 6th between 3PM and 7PM and we have had nothing but positive feedback since.

It was a pleasure to meet and work with Dr. Rhonda Taube and her husband, Dr. Karl Taube. Hopefully, it was the first of many more joint projects!

(Group Shot) From left to right, our museum Director Peter Markman; our Curator Dr. Alison Heney; our incredible guest speaker Dr. Rhonda Taube, and Dr. Karl Taube; our installation guru Adam Kirkpatrick of Hangman Designer Services; and our dedicated docents David Vasili Michel, Chris Roberts, and Dr. Jesse Hoffman.