p>On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the September 25 Salon (additional programs may be added closer to Salon time).

•LAVA Visionary THE UKULADY & The Evil Sandwiches return to LA after a triumphant & adventure-filled residency in Barra De Navidad Mexico!  Dubbed The Love Child of Pee Wee Herman & Cyndi Lauper, The Ukulady will share songs & stories of Mexico, LA & their cultural similarities, differences & more!  Interactive Crafting, Photo-Ops with the Unicorndog, The Evil Sandwich & Dr. Steve Chicken.

•LAVA Visionary and PhD in Art History PAUL KOUDOUNARIS will discuss the research for his new book, The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses. Five years in the making, the book will be available for the first time at a signing and photo show the night prior to the Sunday Salon, and the LAVA talk will be the author’s first public presentation on the work. The research for this unique book took the author to over 70 preserved charnel houses and skeletal shrines on four continents, to document the otherwise forgotten history of the veneration of the dead in Christian culture through the direct presence of human remains. The presentation will not only illuminate a forgotten history, it will also reveal the surreal saga of the research itself: among other tribulations, in the course of completing his research, the author was pursued by malevolent spirits, handcuffed to a table in a striptease bar by a prurient monk, forced to undergo a religious pilgrimage and exorcism, and arrested by the Austrian police.