Musings from the God of Cities

I went to the Secret Science Club's 3rd annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest at Union Hall in Park Slope this past Friday.


I saw a whole lot of two-headed animals like this two-headed chick, made by the fine folks at The Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists


And this two-headed calf named Tango, presented by the folks from the Evolution store in SoHo




The folks from Evolution also presented a reproduction of the skeleton of interweb sensation Frank and Louie, the two headed cat


The skeleton was made from the bones of two other cats, and was constructed to look like what Frank and Louie's bones probably looked like


The taxidermist wh omade it did such a good job that one of the judges, Darrin Lunde, The American Museum of Natural History's collections manager for mammalogy, said that if he hadn't been told the skeleton was a fake, he would have thought it was the real deal. While Mr. Lunde was impressed with the quality of the skeleton, i was more impressed by the fact that the guy who had assembled the bones was a bit playful and posed the cat playing with a toy mouse

Incidentally, the taxidermist's girlfriend chided me for laughing at a racial joke that one of the presenters made, and then told me to not take her so seriously and then tapped my forehead with her fingers.

Another store, Obscura Antiques and Oddities, presented this antique tableau of voles (or possibly weasels... there was some debate)


Mounted to look like tiny little baby-sized polar bears

If you like it, it's going on sale pretty soon at Obscura, FYI.

There were also some imaginary animals such as this Rump Ape


And this Fiji Mermaid made by man-about-town Takeshi Yamada


Who also made this Horseshow Crab Samurai


There was an alleged Titmouse skeleton


Some jewlry made from insects


This rhinestone-covered skull, entitled "For God's Sake" stretched the definition of "taxidermy" a bit

but was still a crowd favorite, as the artist explained he had made it over the summer as a goof on Damien Hirst's "For The Love of God"

The show had some sweet moments, like when this lady talked nostalgically about the stuffed bird of paradise that her grandmother used to wear on a hat


And when we got to meet Pope Squirrel

which doesn't look like it would have a sweet sory behind it, but check out what its owner wrote about it on Pope Squirrel's Myspace page:
"it came in a big box with wrapping paper from the guggenheim. the way they were all standing around with their cameras made me think it was going to be a box full of snakes; those mischievous smiles!
i finally got the box open and all i could see was a piece of wood attached to...something. something covered in bubble wrap.

it said "dear frannie: may ALL your dreams come true. we love you."

several years ago i had a dream. i was in the guggenheim museum. as you may know- the guggenheim is a round building with inclining ramps instead of stairs. i dreamt i was running up the ramps because i had something to do at the top, although i didn't know what.
i got to the top floor and at the very end of the ramp there was a door.
i opened the door and inside the room there was a little squirrel in a pope outfit on a pedestal. the little pope had the little hat and a little staff and a tiny little round ball incense holder. his hand was up giving rites to some guy standing there. pope squirrel turned and stared at my with his beady eyes. i was so embarrassed that i had interrupted them! i kissed pope squirrel's precious tiny paw and backed out of the room bowing and apologizing profusely.

i told this dream to my dear friend kat a couple of years ago because it was such an odd dream. she remembered it all this time and made it happen for my 29th birthday. saved little squirrel from a junk shop and brought my friends together to make him for me.

it's not often someone makes your dream come true. and i've never been given anything so wildly lovely and thoughtful before.

i am TRULY blessed to know you, the architects of my dream- my dear kat, maria, kimberly, kelly, luke, rob and charles.
i love you. thank you."

Hee! I love you pope squirrel!

As always, there are more pictures from this event on my flickr page. Click here to see more pictures from the Secret Science Society's taxidermy contest including a punny corn dog, a deerhoof (not that kind!), and since i gotta be me, hirsute scientists and hunky taxidermists.