nn50-flyer

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8
Maceli’s 1031 New Hampshire St.
Door at 7:00 pm Presentations at 8:00 pm
$1.00 Cover
Drinks and a mini-menu available.  

NN50:

Buck, Blow, Bump

 

Get ready to get down, get funky, and bust a move at Nerd Nite 50! On this historic evening, we’ll bring you three talks about the esoteric histories of commonplace things.

Dance, Dollars and Glass – you won’t want to miss this one!

 

Dance Crazes through the Ages

by Katie Sparks

A Concise History of Glass, or why a poor Okie kid winds up blowing glass in his garage

by Bob Gent

If I Had a Million Dollar Coins

by Pat Trouba

Descriptions of Discussions:

Dance Crazes through the Ages

by Katie Sparks

This talk will waltz you (figuratively) through some key dance forms in the history of the United States, with a focus on how these iconic styles became popular. It will also touch on fashion and culture, and will include some actual dancing! You will be doing a lot of the dancing, audience. Thank you in advance for your enthusiastic participation.

Biography

Katie Sparks has two Master’s degrees, but they have nothing to do with dance, or history, so other than conveying a vague nerd-cred, they’re not important here. Katie got into dance while attending a hippy liberal arts college, and has been taking classes ever since. Through dance, she has learned that you don’t have to be good at something to do it with abandon.

A Concise History of Glass, or why a poor Okie kid winds up blowing glass in his garage

by Bob Gent

Bob will explain the development of glass, and look into the way that glass began to be made in individual studios rather than just large factories, and how this change opened new artistic and technical possibilities.

Biography

Bob Gent has been a studio glass artist since the mid eighties. He learned the craft of glassblowing, and more importantly, studio building, at the university of Tulsa, where his parents thought he was going to learn something that would put him on the path to employment.

He worked almost full time at glass from the late nineties through to the crash of ’08, and has been treating it as a supplemental, and fun means of income since then. He sells in galleries in Lawrence and Kansas City, though an occasional check sometimes arrives from a gallery he had completely forgotten.
As to whether he’d encourage you to pick up a blowpipe, that’s complicated. The learning curve is steep, practice time is expensive and hard to come by, and setting up a studio requires another skill set, plus some capital outlay. Learn design first, he’ll tell you, though he wonders if he’s ever taken such advice himself.
As to whether you could own an artifact of the studio glass movement, that answer is simple. Bob’s work can be found at Phoenix Gallery, or you may contact him by looking in the phone book or at his eponymous web site, bobgent.com

If I Had a Million Dollar Coins

by Pat Trouba

Remember the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea dollar coins? And weren’t there some with presidents? What’s the deal with those? This presentation discusses the history of recent U.S. dollar coins, over a billion of which are waiting for use, yet few people know about them.

Biography

Pat first encountered dollar coins when the change machine at his workplace spit them out. Soon, he was spending them in everyday purchases. He splits his time between video games, tabletop games, and swing dancing.

Doors open at 7:00 PM. Presentations begin at 8:00. $1 Cover.