Nerd Nite at Pachamama's and Sara Vowell at KU

Nerd Nite at Pachamama's is on our agenda for Wednesday night. This is the 10th in the series, and looks to be a good one.   Topics this month include: East Lawrence, a history of Lawrence's oldest neighborhood;  and taxidermy.  Lectures start at 8:00.

__________________________________________________

Sara Vowell at KU

Also on October 10, Sara Vowell will be speaking at KU in Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union at 7:30.   Our favorite Sara Vowell story is The Story of June Carter and Johnny Cash.  

You can see the you tube version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNBMtbb1D9Y

______________________________________________
And, we like this costume idea via plated jeans:

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder

Shawn Moriarty making drinks at the Majestic 

photo via the Majestic website

Our love affair with the Green Fairy
Absinthe, called the "Green Fairy" because of its greenish color,  was a romantic favorite among bohemian artists in Paris such as Vincent Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.   Ernest Hemingway created a cocktail using absinthe and champagne, and called it "Death in the Afternoon." Rimbaud called absinthe his "beautiful madness."

People of all social classes drank absinthe in bars and cafes. Absinthe became so popular, by the 1860's, 5 p.m. was called "The Green Hour."

Does absinthe deserve its bad boy reputation? We were curious about this notorious drink and wanted to learn more.  Our research led us to The Majestic in Kansas City where we tried a sazerac cocktail.   Directions for many types of alcoholic beverages from the 1800's exist, but palettes change, and many cocktail recipes from this era have been discarded. This is not the case for our absinthe recipe.  The sazerac was made for us is in the classic French tradition, which starts with absinthe in a glass. A sugar cube is placed on top of a special slotted spoon, chilled water is poured over, and herbal aromas are released.

The verdict? We loved it.

Drawing by Toulouse-Lautrec

L'Absinthe by Edgar Degas

Poster for a brand of absinthe

Absinthe was very popular. Many posters and postcards were made to promote it.

Wormwood was originally created for medicinal purposes in ancient Egypt and was also used in Greece.  Absinthe is anise flavored,  made from leaves and flowers of grand wormwood, green anise, and sweet fennel. It was thought to have dangerous side effects and addictive, and was outlawed in 1915. However, it has been proven by modern science that these effects were exaggerated, and absinthe is now being distilled and distributed again. Absinthe lovers say the drink was the victim of a smear campaign by the French wine industry.  

anti-prohibition poster by Gartner, 1910

A priest is trampling on the Green Fairy

The Absinthe drinker by Oliva

September Final Fridays Party Pics

 At the Pig

 At Wonder Fair

 At Wonder Fair

 At  Love Garden

 At Love Garden

 At Love Garden

 In Front of the Arts Center

 Invisible Hand

Invisible Hand

Karen'sTop three Picks Downtown Final Friday

100 Ghost Stories
Wonder Fair
803 1/2 Massachusetts
Wonder Fair is one of our favorite galleries for Final Fridays, as they always have new surprises up their sleeve.  This month, activities are around a new work and an installation 100 ghost stories, just in time for October spookiness.  The event includes artists and story tellers and a tunnel that will lead visitors to a special room of film screenings.
Wonder Fair will have events through the month, and we will, of course, keep you updated on these events.

For Final Friday, Wonder Fair says we should be at the gallery at 6 p.m. sharp for a an evening of ghost stories.Here is the Facebook Invite for more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/498915630138240/

Jessica Wohl: Dark Inside
Invisible Hand
846 Pennsylvania

Another haunting exhibit is at the Invisible Hand with works from Jessica Wohl.   Wohl embroiders on old photos; and although photo manipulation with old photographs is nothing new, we think the effect is very creepy.

Read more at Wohl's work and process at the Invisible Hand Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/464566346917244/

Check out more of Wohl's work here:

The Recessionists
Lawrence Arts Center
940 New Hampshire Street

We will check out the small ceramics that are at the Arts Center;  Cups and Orton Cone Box Show. However, one of our favorite bands, The Recessionists, will be playing outside the Arts Center.  According to Add Dean, this band and other music will start at 7:30 in front of the Arts Center.

Photo of the Cups show from 2010 Review Magazine

Be sure to check our blog on Saturday for our party pics for these events!

Top Picks for Campus Art Walk for Final Friday

The Campus Art Walk is added to this month’s Final Friday, making it a special mega marathon Final Friday. The Campus Art walk officially starts at 1:30 p.m and includes 14 venues and activities.   Promotions encourage people to tweet about what they see with #KUartwalk.

Here are our top picks for the Campus Art Walk: 

1. Auxiliary Power; Visual Art Adjunct Faculty Show: Art and Design Gallery 2:00-5:00
Included in this show is work by local scenester and photographer Luke Jordan, who has photographs of unsuspecting items found in a museum, like a light switch and railing.

Also at the Art and Design building, the ceramics club will be giving demos under the bridge on the north side of the building.

Pitcher's Blew by Joseph Meinecke

Railing Rijksmuseum Luke Jordan, Photo

 Members of the printmaking department will be selling  hand printed t-shirts with their designs.  One shirt has an image of a slice of pizza and says "Stay Cheesy." 

Earlier this week, we took a pic of Solace hanging prints made in the printmaking department.  These prints will be shown right outside the Art and Design Gallery.

__________________________________________________________

2. Overflow: Installation by Darin White 
Student Union Gallery 5:00-7:00

We went to an early preview of this show.  The installation looks fantastic in the gallery.  One work includes ashes gathered from Teller's.  We asked White to describe his work, and a simple reply is it is "about the Life Process.”

3. Paintings by Justin Bergin Wescoe Underground
Justin is a graduate student in Painting at KU. 

4. Celebration: Wrap, Tap, Snap: Level 4 Lobby and East Terrace: Kansas Union 5:00-6:00.

This is like a yarn bombing (they are calling it a wrap) of the iconic Jayhawk.  Potential for a tribal experience, as the African Drum Ensemble plays during the wrap.  

Top picks for Tuesday: PBR Book Club and Adam Lott at Teller's

 Please Take Seriously, by Adam Lott at Teller's

 

Art by Adam Lott

We're happy to see that Adam Lott will be showing work at Teller's on Tuesday from 6:00-8:00.  Adam is a favorite bartender at the Pig and a regular at Nerd Nite.  Here is the Facebook invite:https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/446129572096583/

______________________________________________________________

PBR Book Club at Frank's North Star

The book clubbers will be discussing this month's book, Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell,  at Frank's starting at 8:00.   It will be prep for the Thursday event where Woodrell himself will be at Liberty Hall starting at 7:30 to discuss his book.  

Final Friday Marathon: How long is our attention span for looking at art?

Final Friday has expanded this month to include the Campus Art Walk at KU which has 14 different venues plus events, starting early at 1:30-6:00 p.m.  Final Fridays Downtown is 5:30-9:00.  This is potential for a lot of time looking at art! and will test our art going stamina (In order to catch the highlights, we’ll post our picks for both downtown and campus later this week).

Realistically, what is our maximum attention span for the activity of looking at art?  One hour?  Two hours?  How long do we spend looking at each art work?

London’s Daily Mail newspaper conducted a study at the famous Tate gallery to find the average time patrons spent with art works.  Surprisingly, the average time spent with most art pieces is around 5 seconds.  The aim of the study by the newspaper was to see if there was a difference between the amount of time people were prepared to give a classic painting and to modern art.

The results of the study showed that people spend more time with classical art.  See a few results:

Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais

Most Viewers: Total viewers: 562: Dwell Time: 1 minute, 57 seconds.  Longest Look: 30 minutes

Monument by Tracey Emin

Total viewers: 177: Average dwell time: 5 seconds; longest look: 2 minutes.

To see more results of this study, go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365672/Modern-art-How-gallery-visitors-viewed-work-Damien-Hirst-Tracy-Emin-5-seconds.html