Karla Huebner's Blog, page 27
December 17, 2020
For those of you who teach music, my friends Sam Dorf and...
For those of you who teach music, my friends Sam Dorf and Heather MacLachlan, with Julia Randel, have published a brand new anthology for Gateways to Understanding Music! Sam says, "It is designed to help make Rice and Wilson's textbook suitable for music majors and minors and allow them opportunity to work with a wide variety of musical scores from Western Art Music, Jazz, Popular, and Global music cultures." Use the link below and enter the discount code HSM20: https://bit.ly/2KuoEK2
December 16, 2020
The Tarot of Leonora Carrington
If you use tarot cards or are a fan of the British-Mexican surrealist Leonora Carrington, there is an exciting new book out of Carrington's tarot paintings! The Tarot of Leonora Carrington, published by Fulgur Press, has come out. A limited edition version (including the deck in facsimile) with an essay on tarot by expert Rachel Pollack, an introduction by the artist’s son, Gabriel Weisz Carrington, and essays by art historians Tere Arcq and Susan Aberth, priced up to $400, sold out within days. A limited edition of just the deck also went fast, but will be reissued and can be bought directly from the publisher in January or February. A more affordable trade edition of the book will be available in February for $50.
You can read more about Carrington and the tarot here.
Leonora Carrington, The Hierophant (ca. 1955). Private collection. © Estate of Leonora Carrington/ARS.
You can read more about Carrington and the tarot here.
Leonora Carrington, The Hierophant (ca. 1955). Private collection. © Estate of Leonora Carrington/ARS.
December 15, 2020
Haunted Bauhaus
I'm thrilled to report that my pal and mentor Elizabeth Otto's recent book Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics, has won the Northeast Popular & American Culture Association’s 2020 Peter C. Rollins Book Prize, awarded annually for innovative scholarship in the fields of American and popular culture by a writer living or working in New York or New England.
The author says, “Throughout Haunted Bauhaus, I sought to show how this art movement was bound up with pressing issues of its own time, that it was more of a movement to reform daily life that drew ideas from its surrounding cultural context than many knew. At the same time, I emphasize how many of the ideas being hashed out at the Bauhaus – on spirituality, gender, sex and politics – are close to ideas we are still grappling with.”
You can read more about the book, its author, and the prize here.
The author says, “Throughout Haunted Bauhaus, I sought to show how this art movement was bound up with pressing issues of its own time, that it was more of a movement to reform daily life that drew ideas from its surrounding cultural context than many knew. At the same time, I emphasize how many of the ideas being hashed out at the Bauhaus – on spirituality, gender, sex and politics – are close to ideas we are still grappling with.”
You can read more about the book, its author, and the prize here.
December 12, 2020
Marking Modern Movement
I've just learned that Susan Funkenstein's Marking Modern Movement: Dance and Gender in the Visual Imagery of the Weimar Republic is now available from University of Michigan Press! I can recommend this, as not only do I know Susan (I sat in on her Design History course when I was in grad school and we run into each other every now and then) but her PhD dissertation was useful to me in thinking about the importance of modern dance in Czech modernism and Czech feminism.
You can read more about it here, and you can get this book in any of three formats:
Paper | 6 x 9 | 342pp. 49 B&W Images, 28 Color Images, 1 Table.
ISBN 978-0-472-05461-9 | $39.95
Hardcover | 6 x 9 | 342pp. 49 B&W Images, 28 Color Images, 1 Table.
ISBN 978-0-472-07461-7 | $85.00
Also available in ebook.
Save 30% by using promotion code UMFUNKENSTEIN at press.umich.edu before 12/31/20.
You can read more about it here, and you can get this book in any of three formats:
Paper | 6 x 9 | 342pp. 49 B&W Images, 28 Color Images, 1 Table.
ISBN 978-0-472-05461-9 | $39.95
Hardcover | 6 x 9 | 342pp. 49 B&W Images, 28 Color Images, 1 Table.
ISBN 978-0-472-07461-7 | $85.00
Also available in ebook.
Save 30% by using promotion code UMFUNKENSTEIN at press.umich.edu before 12/31/20.
December 11, 2020
Author Copies are on Their Way!
Word finally came today that my author copies of Magnetic Woman are ready to ship. Pretty exciting, if slightly delayed! Copies that people have pre-ordered should be shipping at the same time, I am guessing.
A good many people I know are also finally seeing their books in print, and so I'm going to post news of those in the coming days. I won't generally do a review--I haven't read most of these yet--but I do want to help spread the word. I'll try to start with newly published books and then also highlight some that have been out a bit longer.
A good many people I know are also finally seeing their books in print, and so I'm going to post news of those in the coming days. I won't generally do a review--I haven't read most of these yet--but I do want to help spread the word. I'll try to start with newly published books and then also highlight some that have been out a bit longer.
November 22, 2020
Approaching Thanksgiving...
It's been an exciting time lately--or at least interesting--what with the drama of the US election, the rising fall coronavirus infections, and even some more normal things like scholarly conferences.
On the conference topic, I've just emerged from two weekends of the annual ASEEES conference (normally just one weekend, but on Zoom it was spread out to avoid complete Zoom fatigue) and one day of hosting our annual regional Riess undergraduate art history symposium. I enjoyed both, and am so proud of my four students who participated in Riess (two with papers from my American art class, two with Renaissance topics mentored by my colleague Dr. Caroline Hillard).
At ASEEES, I gave a paper myself on the Czech surrealists' struggles with other leftists during the 1930s (you can read more about this topic in Magnetic Woman) and presided over the annual membership meeting of the Czechoslovak Studies Association. The CSA has had a bit of a rough year along with everyone else, and we gave members a dues holiday for 2020, but we look forward to getting back to our normal level of activity (or better than that, we hope) and are instituting a new prize. Currently members can compete for a biannual book prize and a biannual article prize (alternating years), and now we will be offering an annual essay prize for undergraduate students writing on Czech/Czechoslovak topics. That includes topics involving Roma or Germans or Hungarians or Jews in the territory of the former Czechoslovakia. Or, for that matter, Vietnamese in the current Czech Republic. Geography defines our prizes, not ethnicity.
Magnetic Woman was to launch early this month at ASEEES, but with the conference being via Zoom, and physical copies not yet having arrived from the printer, this did not happen. Normally the press would have displayed cover art and maybe a printout, and taken orders if the copies had not arrived on time. Ah well... We currently expect copies near the end of the month.
But, of course, you can order your copy (or ask your library to order one) right now and it should arrive in the very near future!
I hope everyone has a pleasant, but most importantly a safe, Thanksgiving. (Well, that's in the US. Canada has an earlier Thanksgiving and the holiday is not to my knowledge held elsewhere except among expats.)
On the conference topic, I've just emerged from two weekends of the annual ASEEES conference (normally just one weekend, but on Zoom it was spread out to avoid complete Zoom fatigue) and one day of hosting our annual regional Riess undergraduate art history symposium. I enjoyed both, and am so proud of my four students who participated in Riess (two with papers from my American art class, two with Renaissance topics mentored by my colleague Dr. Caroline Hillard).
At ASEEES, I gave a paper myself on the Czech surrealists' struggles with other leftists during the 1930s (you can read more about this topic in Magnetic Woman) and presided over the annual membership meeting of the Czechoslovak Studies Association. The CSA has had a bit of a rough year along with everyone else, and we gave members a dues holiday for 2020, but we look forward to getting back to our normal level of activity (or better than that, we hope) and are instituting a new prize. Currently members can compete for a biannual book prize and a biannual article prize (alternating years), and now we will be offering an annual essay prize for undergraduate students writing on Czech/Czechoslovak topics. That includes topics involving Roma or Germans or Hungarians or Jews in the territory of the former Czechoslovakia. Or, for that matter, Vietnamese in the current Czech Republic. Geography defines our prizes, not ethnicity.
Magnetic Woman was to launch early this month at ASEEES, but with the conference being via Zoom, and physical copies not yet having arrived from the printer, this did not happen. Normally the press would have displayed cover art and maybe a printout, and taken orders if the copies had not arrived on time. Ah well... We currently expect copies near the end of the month.
But, of course, you can order your copy (or ask your library to order one) right now and it should arrive in the very near future!
I hope everyone has a pleasant, but most importantly a safe, Thanksgiving. (Well, that's in the US. Canada has an earlier Thanksgiving and the holiday is not to my knowledge held elsewhere except among expats.)
October 23, 2020
It's Pie Season!
Okay, okay, in truth every season is pie season, or should be. But I hadn't made any pie in a ridiculously long time.
My first pie of the season was a plum pie. I generally find that plums make wonderful pie, although now that I don't have a plum tree, I have to rely on the unpredictable selections at the grocery store. One year I discovered that pluots made a divine pie (they are some sort of cross between plums and apricots), but of course then they were nowhere to be seen again. This year I tried a variety of plum I had never before seen, with a mottled skin and somewhat mottled flesh, round in shape and freestone. They made a good pie (although I didn't need to add so much sugar) but I discovered that they are really great to eat fresh in slices! Unfortunately I threw away the label so I don't know what kind they were.
My second pie was an experiment, because it had occurred to me that I wasn't using the jalapenos from the garden quickly enough. This pie involved one bag of cranberries, one Granny Smith apple, and two jalapenos. I was going to use more jalapenos since most of mine have been very mild, but the second one I cut up was demonstrably hot, so I decided to stop there on my trial run. I was going to add walnuts as well, but forgot.
This pie, I would say, is a success but could be tweaked. I normally use tapioca as my thickener--the instructions on the Minute Tapioca box are my guide for fruit pies--but in this case I think cornstarch would be a better option because there is not enough juice for the tapioca to soak up and get a really good texture. Or, possibly, the tapioca could be soaked first. I used 1/4 cup tapioca and 3/4 cups sugar, which still made for a nice tart pie. I also sprinkled some cinnamon on top.
Re crusts, if I were to make my own dough I'd never end up making pie, alas. Marie Callender frozen pie crusts work very well. Not saying I've never made my own crusts or never will again, but generally I go with a frozen premade crust, in the interests of actually making the pie.
My first pie of the season was a plum pie. I generally find that plums make wonderful pie, although now that I don't have a plum tree, I have to rely on the unpredictable selections at the grocery store. One year I discovered that pluots made a divine pie (they are some sort of cross between plums and apricots), but of course then they were nowhere to be seen again. This year I tried a variety of plum I had never before seen, with a mottled skin and somewhat mottled flesh, round in shape and freestone. They made a good pie (although I didn't need to add so much sugar) but I discovered that they are really great to eat fresh in slices! Unfortunately I threw away the label so I don't know what kind they were.
My second pie was an experiment, because it had occurred to me that I wasn't using the jalapenos from the garden quickly enough. This pie involved one bag of cranberries, one Granny Smith apple, and two jalapenos. I was going to use more jalapenos since most of mine have been very mild, but the second one I cut up was demonstrably hot, so I decided to stop there on my trial run. I was going to add walnuts as well, but forgot.
This pie, I would say, is a success but could be tweaked. I normally use tapioca as my thickener--the instructions on the Minute Tapioca box are my guide for fruit pies--but in this case I think cornstarch would be a better option because there is not enough juice for the tapioca to soak up and get a really good texture. Or, possibly, the tapioca could be soaked first. I used 1/4 cup tapioca and 3/4 cups sugar, which still made for a nice tart pie. I also sprinkled some cinnamon on top.
Re crusts, if I were to make my own dough I'd never end up making pie, alas. Marie Callender frozen pie crusts work very well. Not saying I've never made my own crusts or never will again, but generally I go with a frozen premade crust, in the interests of actually making the pie.
October 16, 2020
Book Reviewers Wanted!
Do you review books for a magazine, journal, blog, podcast, or newspaper? Or are you the book review editor for one of these? Maybe you commission book reviews for an H-Net list or another scholarly list.
Now is the perfect time to request a review copy of Magnetic Woman from University of Pittsburgh Press! What could be better than settling down with a beautifully designed book that combines art, surrealism, the Czech avant-garde, a reticent and gender-ambiguous creative figure, and the erotic? (Okay, some of you would rather curl up with your cat or dog and a cup of tea, and that's fine too. But if you do review books...)
University of Pittsburgh Press's publicity team wants to hear from you!
Now is the perfect time to request a review copy of Magnetic Woman from University of Pittsburgh Press! What could be better than settling down with a beautifully designed book that combines art, surrealism, the Czech avant-garde, a reticent and gender-ambiguous creative figure, and the erotic? (Okay, some of you would rather curl up with your cat or dog and a cup of tea, and that's fine too. But if you do review books...)
University of Pittsburgh Press's publicity team wants to hear from you!
October 12, 2020
Counting Down to a November Launch!
Magnetic Woman is scheduled to launch in just a month! Don't forget, you can pre-order your copy now (or ask your library to order if you haven't yet done so).
October 6, 2020
Short Fiction at Unlikely Stories!
One of my stories has just come out in the online journal Unlikely Stories. It has the (possibly pretentious? you decide) title "Terpsichore, not by Michael Praetorius." That's because I'm one of those peculiar people who listens to a good deal of early music, not because it is actually about early music. Give it a read!
