This weekend's wonders

There are so many fantastic things happening in NYC this weekend, and I wish I could attend them all.  But since I'm unable, I shall list them here for you, in hopes that you will go to the ones I can't and gush all about them, so I can live vicariously:

First, there is MoCCA Arts Festival, arguably my favorite art fest of the year (or at least tied with the Outsider Art Fair.)  This celebrates indie comics and small illustrated presses, and is chock full of goodies to buy direct from artists as well as some great programming.  Longtimers, do note that it's at a different location this year:

April 11, 2015 - April 12, 2015
11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Admission to the 2015 MoCCA Arts Festival is $5 per day.  Tickets are available to purchase online or at the door.  Cash and credit cards accepted.

Mere steps from the High Line, MoCCA’s new host venue, Center 548, is located on West 22nd Street among New York’s internationally renowned Chelsea galleries. The MoCCA Arts Festival will encompass three floors of exhibits, on site programming, a gallery of original art showcasing the work of special guests, and a café, alongside satellite events occurring at venues across the city in the days leading up to the fest.  

 

The Society is excited to announce an additional space solely for programming. All programming for Saturday and Sunday will take place at the historic High Line Hotel on West 20th Street and 10th Avenue, a mere two blocks away. This hip boutique hotel in Chelsea is in a converted 1865 red-brick dormitory with original stained-glass windows and pine floors, and the majestic grounds were once Clement Clarke Moore’s.

 

Next up is the opening reception on Saturday night for the Morbid Anatomy Museum's new exhibition, Do The Spirits Return?: From Dark Arts to Sleight of Hand in Early 20th Century Stage Magic:

Do The Spirits Return?: From Dark Arts to Sleight of Hand in Early 20th Century Stage Magic - Opening Reception
Date: Saturday, April 11th
Time: 8pm
Admission $25 non-members / $15 members ( Tickets Here )
Location: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, Brooklyn 11215
*** Complementary light snacks and cocktail will be served during this event

Please join us tonight as we celebrate the opening of our third exhibition “Do Spirit Returns? From Dark Art to Sleight of Hand in Early 20th Century Stage Magic.” This exhibition explores the surprising intersections between spiritualism, torture theatre, the dark arts and early 20th century stage magic century stage magic as seen in the work of Howard Thurston (1869 1936). The exhibition will feature stunning and rarely exhibited original stage props, posters, photographs, artworks, letters, books, and even the fabled “Luxor Mummy,” all drawn from the collection of Brooklyn native Rory Feldman.

This special opening night event will feature tour of the new exhibition with co-curators Joanna Ebenstein and Shannon Taggart, magic entertainment by Prakash Puru, a “magic videorama” curated by magician Acep Hale, largely unseen archival footage of Howard Thurston’s stage shows, delicious cocktails, and exotically thematic tunes by our DJ in Residence Friese Undine. Collector Rory Feldman will also be on hand to answer your questions. You can find out more here.

Though I'll most likely miss the reception for this one, I look forward to catching the show while it's up.

Lastly is this enchanting-sounding fougere workshop on Sunday by one of my favorite perfumers, Juliette Zaleta of Alchemologie, taking place at her Park Slope atelier:

Fougere Workshop
with Julianne Zaleta
of Alchemologie

Fougere is a fragrance family that came into fashion towards the end of the 19th C.  The word means fern, which makes it a fantasy category seeing how ferns don't really have a fragrance.  Fougere's are meant to smell like the forrest floor and, to my understanding, must have three ingredients:  lavender, oakmoss and a coumarin note (found in tonka bean, hay, sweet clover, etc.).  Often herbs like geranium, linalool rich rosewood and more assertive notes like patchouli are added but it's the careful consideration of the other ingredients that makes the fougere your own.

In class we'll explore the genre and sample many perfumes including the original Fougere Royale and Jicky - the vanguards of the classification -  along with samples from some of the best natural perfumers working today. You'll be choosing from materials like tonka bean, sweet clover, concretes of lavender, geranium and clary sage, several lavender absolutes and essential oils, cedarmoss, cassia and ho wood.  You'll have the opportunity to create two perfumes.  $25 extra to make a third, time considering.

Herbal Alchemy Apothecary
Sunday, April 12th, 1-4pm

$150

Register here

Magic abounds.