Friday #5: PJ Party After Dark, Reflections

On Friday #5, it was time for the nighttime museum again. MAM After Dark Pajama Jam.  Sticker proof of presence (bottle of wine optional): 

You can see from the festive Rosemary Tree in the background that the holidays are upon us. This meant the Pajama Jam was also a Holiday Party of sorts. 

As I said in an earlier post (Girls Night Out), I was really looking forward to seeing what people would wear as they interpreted PJ party through the complex social lens that is the Art Museum at night. I expected all sorts of non-G-rated happenings. I even bought a sassy little night dress, a short, black, silk robe, and some daring teal slipper boots for the occasion. I thought I'd be mild, but when I was getting my "lord-yes-she's-old-enough-to-drink" bracelet, the woman behind the counter hooted to her fellow bracelteer: "Wooo-eee! She's brought her lace!"

Indeed, I brought two lace cuffs to this PJ party, and that's the sort of party it was. Wild on the margins? Tame even by Victorian standards? There were lots of flannel pants, bathrobes, a few bold adults wearing footed PJs, and everywhere the ubiquitous co-ed PJ uniform of patterned pants and a tank top.

Adam wore the silk kimono his dad brought him back from China a few years ago. I don't think it's ever been seen in public, and he strolled like a lord through the art museum halls.  

We also brought David and Liana, our fav couple friends and fellow After Darkers.  This is totally a posed shot, but I like the bask-in-blue feel to it.

So, if the above is the posed, simulacrum of life (and boy is that a great word to throw around in relation to both Art and the holiday season as the appearances of holiday joy, cheer, and bliss, are staggering to keep up with), then this is what the night was really like:

Messier, darker, more real by half. I love this photo for the background screen shot that was projected above our heads (along with a lot of incongruous silent rap videos with the toned female rappers in silk PJs), and for the way Liana's laughing, and David is saying something funny.

And this is what Adam really looked like:

And as I looked at this and the other photos I took that night, I realized that this was a night all about reflections. I was captivated by the reflection of the tree, the screens, the bar, and the caterwauling karaoke stage in the concave windows-turned-mirrors of the art museum windows.

I was drawn to art like this: mirrored vessels in a  mirrored box:

And I snapped a quick picture as my friend looked at herself in a 500-year-old looking glass (gawd, I might be pretentious for typing that rather than mirror). I love this picture because it makes me think about all the other people who might have seen themselves in this mirror over the many, many ages of the world.

Even Adam and I have been spotted in it in an earlier life (1/20/12):

And all I've got at the end of it is this message: FOOL. Resonating in the silent halls of the art galleries (where I was talking too loud) as the PJ party went on far away. 

See you next week.

Friday #2: MAM-AD: Girls Night Out (11/16/12)

I post this picture here to highlight two things: 

• Friday #2, 11/16/12, I went to MAM's After Dark party (sticker to prove it).
• Although I'm lame and didn't bring it, I have a camera. Next time, it comes with me, I swear. In the meantime, this blog post's images rest of the good graces of what I can snatch from Google Images.

MAM's After Dark series happens once a month, runs on a theme, and is a welcome relief to the usual bar scene. It's classy, its weird, the wine is $6 a glass and comes in small cups (but the Stella Artois is always a safe bet). It entices people from ages 3 in their jammies (really, I saw a sleepy toddler there) to people at least 80 (or older, I didn't ask). I'd not been to A-D since I was in college, 12 years ago (good lord that's a full elementary-middle-high school span there), when Adam and I went to a Halloween event.

When I saw the flyer for the "Girls Night Out" MAM-AD event, I called my friend, Liana, and we made it a date. (It was also a great way to get her out of the house while her husband and mine set up a surprise party for her). We're both stupid-busy these days, and our usual Girls Nights usually involve sitting in her living room with wine and plates of fancy green beans.

After we agreed to go, the biggest question of the week was the ever-important girl question: what to wear?

(Will we ever get too old to ask this?)

MAM after dark is kind of fancy, but also artsy, and as we found out, most anything goes.  Here are pictures from previous events (because remember, I'm lame and forgot my camera):

So, what's the right digs for this sort of evening?

We texted about it, there was talk of getting dressed together as girls do; but, our lives are just too full for that. So, we showed up at the MAM, both of us babbling about the "great-dress-good-deals" we'd found that week at thrift stores. Mine was a gray silk tank dress and hers was a black-and-cream summer dress.  We were neither under or over dressed, and we certainly weren't the most interesting ones there.

When I think of "Girls Night" something between "Sex and the City" and "Girls gone Wild" comes to mind. In my past, I've had wild girls nights and then I've also had a group of fellow waitressing friends who refused to buy into it all, and we'd slum it in dive bars.

At the MAM event, there were all sorts of outfits, from the trashy to the classy, but what was really interesting to me were the performance artists scattered throughout the museum (amongst the DJ area, and the places where you could DIY art a rope necklace).

When you think "Girls Night"does this come to mind?

Or this?

Probably not.

Now, thank you MAM, the two are forever etched in my head as part of "Girls Night."

One performance artist danced lithely (like a drooping willow) in front of a projection of great desolation. She wore a gas mask, a childish party dress, and white knee socks with holes in them. People walked past her not saying much.

The girl with the skull had a larger crowd. She danced near the front of the museum, wearing a black unitard, the top of a skull like this cave bear one, some bone-ribs, and a giant white dildo.  Her messy blonde hair tumbled down her back. (Aren't you salty I don't have a picture?). Behind her, shadows danced grotesquely as another girl inside a canvas tent moved sticks around.  It was haunting and primitive and kind of magical.

Other dancers were dressed as prom-dressed zombies, some just did expressive art movement behind screens, and still others moved in groups, making art out of their bodies, and making sound from the materials they found nearby. (Note: not all the dancers were women).

It was odd and wonderful. A girls night worthy of Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter perhaps. Was it a reflection of different women at different times? Was it female subconscious on display? Was it a send-up of the typical girls night?

I'm still chewing on those questions, but I'll tell you this: the next MAM After Dark is a pj jam.

(In December, the Museum throws its first-ever Pajama Jam. Highlights include Dann Smith (one of Wisconsin’s favorite Karaoke DJs), hip-hop lessons with Darrin’s Dance Grooves, board games, Classy Girl Cupcakes, and hot chocolate drinks. Wear your jammies, and don’t forget to bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to Toys for Tots.)

I'm still stuck on the same question: what should I wear? (and the slightly secondary: how in the world with Pajama Jam be interpreted through the lens of art?). Thrilling to imagine the possibilities (and I swear, camera comes with me next time).

See you next Friday.