August 19, 2005 - The Staff Is Night-Ed

Even though it starts at 5:30, they call it Nights. According to most convention, night does not begin until 6:00 pm, and even then it is called, evening. Well, it’s the Museum of Art, so we’ll grant them their artistic license.

For those who don’t know nights from day, Nights is a party hosted by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and held inside the art museum, once a month during the summer. Each month, the party has a specific theme, reflecting one of the special exhibits on display.

Last night, partygoers danced to the sounds of Silk Route Remixed, made their own aboriginal rock paintings, Mali mud cloth cuffs, decorated paper fans, and were decorated by artists with Tribal tattoos. The bartenders on the scene mixed colorful drinks with thematic names like Shaman-tinis, in addition to wine and Moroccan martinis. Out in the front of the museum, musicians played drums, an oud, and a violin, while belly dancers entertained. Plates of hummus and fried chick peas were passed through the crowd.

Yesterday, the dedicated staff of edhat.com arrived at the back entrance to the art museum at 5:30. Armed with our trusty clickers and our camera, we entered the room, ready to go. Alas, we were there a little too early. No one was drinking anything yet. So, we took a few moments to peruse the galleries and enjoy the art. Along the way, we passed several of the activity stations mentioned above. As we approached the aboriginal rock paintings, we were filled with a need to create. We felt that if we had our own rock, we would be infused with creativity and well-being. Cautiously we looked around – no sign of Ed. So we eagerly sat at the table and began drawing symbols on our rocks. A few minutes later, our rocks safely tucked into our new, decorated rock pouches and tied to our belts, we began our quest, invigorated and feeling strangely exquisite.

By this time, the people partying for art’s sake had found the bars. The drinks were flowing like Mission Creek after a storm. And, the noise in the museum became louder than a school playground. With our rock creations dangling from our belts, we moved through the galleries, counting drinks and snapping pictures.

It turns out that we could have been counting pictures as well. Right now, much of the gallery space is devoted to photography. There is one exhibit showing photographs of aboriginal people, and another featuring lots and lots of photographs of Greta Garbo. Geez! There were almost as many pictures there as we posted of Noel Cohen this year during the Film Festival!

But, Ed said to keep our eyes on the olives. We found that 63.3% of party attendees last evening were carrying a drink. That is a multitude of martinis considering that the drinks were not free.

Kathryn0016, whose handle has 7 letters and 4 numbers (63.6% letters), was the closest guesser in yesterday’s contest with a guess of 63.2%. Kathryn wins an Edhat t-shirt wearable day or night.

Check out our Nights photo gallery

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