Jul 19
On the Nature of Happiness (and its relationship to art)
Heydee-hoo, art fans.
I spent the first part of the day with a large group of artists who were not at all happy (and not at all afraid to tell anyone about this). This was not a new experience for me–being around unhappy artists, I mean; after all, I’m an art critic in my after school hours, so I’ve dealt with my share of unhappy artists. Still, I have to admit I’ve never seen quite the amount of concentrated artistic disgruntlement in one place before.
Of course, there’s not much that I, nor just about anyone else, can really do to relieve these artists’ collective dismay. And as artist after artist took this opportunity to stand at the mic and give vent to years (maybe decades) of pent up frustration, I found myself wondering about the nature of happiness: What brings it about in people? Why is it so elusive to grab onto? What are some sorts of people (as opposed to others) so much more prone to go without it?
As it happens, author (and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts under Bill Clinton) Bill Ivey asked similar questions about happiness in a (not really very happy) book I just finished this past week, Arts Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights. According to his summation of various studies about what makes people happy, there’s an “underlying agreement about what it takes to increase happiness once the basic material needs of society have been satisfied.” This includes factors most people would think are obvious: friendships and families, a sense of accomplishment, security in work. But this also includes something that is less tangible and more difficult to define, variously described (by commentators like Nobel Laureate Robert Fogel) as a “balanced inner life,” “personal growth” (as opposed to consumerism), “a sense of purpose,” or an “education of the spirit.”
Ivey argues that “art unquestionably gives us a way to pursue self-realization without forcing us to deny the materialist and competitive drives that pass for human nature in the West… Art making is spiritual, long-lasting, and (compared to psychotherapy and drug rehab) relatively inexpensive; it contains and even expands many parameters of a well-lived life that have to date mostly been attributed to work, religion, family, and community. In addition, an engagement with art permits us to indulge our drive toward success and self-realization without forcing us to buy into the nastiness of America’s unhappy rat race. It is the yin of individual achievement that complements the yang of heritage, making our expressive life whole. Thus completed, a rounded expressive life can be a reservoir holding the two overarching ingredients of happiness–adventure and security.”
Of course, all you friends of AHH! will recognize that I’ve been arguing such effects for art (of course in much less eloquent terms) for quite some time. The secret to happiness is simple: Art will make you happy. Also, Art Happy Hour! will make you happiest of all!
(And with that I say: Stay tuned for an announcement in the next few days about Art Happy Hour!4: The late summer edition.)
No commentsJul 8
I said a-hip, hop, a-happy… Art Happy Hour
Fans of Happiness:
I’ve been remiss in writing, no doubt you’ve noticed, these past four weeks.
Apologies all around.
But take solace in knowing neither I, nor Art Happy Hour, has gone away. At least not yet we haven’t… While I’ve been busily attending to sundry unavoidable life changes (wife’s job layoff, my impending job change, other boring yadda-yadda-stuff…), I’ve also been thinking. Thinking about art. Thinking about artists. Thinking about drinks and happy hour and enough happiness to go around…Â
So, you can rest assured: Plans are afoot. Plots are being made. And another Art Happy Hour is in the works…
Send suggestions, questions, comments, or simple good cheer to: admin(at)arthappyhour(dot)com. More word (and a new poll) will come soon!
No commentsJun 11
On Barkeep Freddie’s Brandy Sidecar, and other Happy Hour ruminations
The spirit of Art Happy Hour! 3 was best embodied by barkeep Freddie’s Brandy Sidecar.
June 5 turned out to be one of those days in Minnesota — where the morning’s promise had turned, by late afternoon, to stormy skies. A midwestern menu of tornadoes, thundershowers, hail, and flash floods was looming by the time I reached Clubhouse Jaeger twenty minutes after 4 (late for my own happy hour!). There were three people in the bar.
“What’ll you have?” asked Freddie (pictured above), Jaeger’s semi-famous happy-hour barkeep. I wasn’t sure — the long commute, traffic, roiling clouds had unnerved me a bit. I asked him to make me something, “in the martini family, but not a martini, and not sweet (I don’t do sweet).”
He thought a moment. “How do you feel about brown alcohol?” I answered that I could do brown alcohol. “Lime?” Sure.
He said he had just the drink for me. And so he made a Brandy Sidecar: Up, with a lime twist. It was perfect. Happy Hour had begun…
Below are some more pictures from the event. Art Happy Hour! so far has been a great chance to meet various parts of the local arts community. The first three events have drawn, as intended, a wide range of local arts professionals: arts writers, painters, gallery directors, filmmakers, cartoonists, sculptors, designers, arts web managers, museum rats, and arts editors — in conversation and good spirits and in the name of the arts.
I’m currently contemplating options and suggestions for AHH!4, which will take place either in later July or sometime in August. If you have any suggestions, questions, comments, or words of praise, send them to me at admin(at)arthappyhour(dot)com or arthappyhour(at)gmail(dot)com.
Cheers!
Jun 10
Am I blue?
I promise to post a follow-up to last week’s Art Happy Hour! 3 very soon — perhaps tomorrow — but I’ve been quite taxed and overwrought these past few days for various and sundry reasons having nothing to do with art, happiness, or hours.
Trust me, despite the somewhat disappointing turnout to the last AHH! — which was likely dictated by the incoming tornadoes, hailstorms, thunderstorms, and resulting flash floods, more than anything else — I’m as upbeat and cheery as ever. Someday we’ll have a kick ass turnout to Art Happy Hour! Mark my word!
In the meantime, while you’re waiting for me to post about last week’s AHH!, I thought I’d send along a visual about what I’m up to today — A tasty drink I concocted just for this semi-partially-somewhat-okayweatherwise-evening.
A Blue Ginger Margarita
Made up of tequila, fresh lime juice, superfine sugar, Grand Marnier, ginger liqueur, and blue curacao. Not a shabby consolation after a disappointing AHH! turnout:
I promise I’ll post details about AHH!3 — which was actually quite fun despite the poor turnout — and preliminary planning information about AHH!4, shortly. In the meantime, be happy.
Jun 4
Tomorrow’s the day!
For Art Happy Hour! 3!
I apologize for being so late to send this reminder, but I’m just back in town from Pari-, er, Pittsburgh. And I’m all disorganized and crazy and still not in my right mind. I’ve also been up to my eyeballs in helping administer a new virtual arts writing endeavor, which has had the problem of being much more successful so far than any of us imagined.
Not to worry, though. I’ll be there. You kidding? I wouldn’t miss it for all the pierogies in Pittsburgh, er, paté in Paris.
Here are details:
Clubhouse Jaeger
923 Washington Ave North, Minneapolis
June 5, 5 pm to 8 pm
To find your friendly neighborhood AHH! admin, look for the famous Wally the Walnut hat.
You could also look for the vaguely exhausted guy just in from a long day at a grueling office, but the hat is easier. And to the five of you wondering if I’m still going to honor my pledge to buy you a first drink, not to worry. Art Happy Hour! is always there for you.
Cheers! (See you tomorrow.)
3 commentsMay 27
Happy happy (art) joyful tidbits for Tuesday!
Greetings to all you Happy Hourians out there! Back to work after a long lazy weekend with nothing to do–what could be better? … Except maybe some news about Art Happy Hour!
Here are a few happy tidbits to add to your happy post-Memorial Day Tuesday joy!
1. After a long and hard-fought race, we have, at last, a clear winnAHH! That is, Art Happy Hour!3 will take place at Clubhouse Jaeger - Thursday, June 5, 4 to 8 pm. (Jaeger got 10 votes out of 31, followed close behind by the Lexington with 8 votes, and Nick & Eddie with 7). Mark your calendars and plot your Google maps, and come to the Art Happy Hour! And stay tuned to AHH! for information in the next week or two for information on how to find your fellow denAHH!zens on the day of the event…
2. The Admin of AHH! is pleased to announce the formation of a new Twin Cities-based visual arts blog on the Rakemag site. Called The Thousandth Word, it’ll include the musings, critiques, and other writings of a group of six arts writers who collectively have dubbed themselves “The Vicious Circle.” You can visit the first shot-over-the-bow post (by your very own L’admin d’AHH!) here.
3. Finally, the Admin of AHH! is also pleased to announce he’ll be visiting in the coming week, of all places, Mars. And, believe or not, once there he’ll meet up with Douglas Fogle, the former Walker curator who left Minneapolis for Mars in 2005. (Watch for L’admin to post an interview with Fogle and a review of the show jointly on The Thousandth Word and AHH! some time in the new month!)
In the meantime, did you know that the U.S. could have established a 500-person colony on Mars with the money it’s spent so far on the War in Iraq?
No commentsMay 23
Art Happy Hour! is in your face!
Or at least it could be.
In case you happen to roll that way, Art Happy Hour! is now on Facebook. Here, you can meet your fellow Happy Hourians, both local and nation-wide. You can follow the on-going saga that is the AHH! poll, and gain access to every Art Happy Hour! blog post. And you can send l’admin d’AHH! plenty of snippy and/or sexy messages. (Your choice!)
Plus, the first five people who sign up as Facebook Friends of Art Happy Hour! will receive a free first-round drink at the upcoming AHH!3. WHICH, by the way, is very soon to be decided (only two days left in the currently too-close-to-call poll).
Vote vote vote! Face Face Face! Happy happy happy! Drinks drinks drinks!
 I just can’t contain my excitement! Can you?!Â
No commentsMay 18
Dead heat!
!!!
- Clubhouse Jaeger - Thursday, June 5, 4 to 8 pm (29%, 8 Votes)
- The Lexington in St. Paul - Thursday, June 5, 4 to 8 pm (29%, 8 Votes)
- Nick and Eddie - Friday, June 6, 3 to 7 pm (25%, 7 Votes)
And the 331 Club is not far behind!!! (And just about a week left to go!!!)
Don’t just sit there, find someone to vote for your favorite AHH! horse!
No commentsMay 6
We have a horserace!
In lieu of the tragic events that occurred this past Saturday at Churchill Downs, the L’admin d’AHH! thought he’d share a little happy news about the ongoing Art Happy Hour!3 poll: We have a horse race on our hands!
As of this morning, 10 a.m. on May 6–with just two-and-a-half weeks remaining–the poll results show a neck-and-neck-and-neck battle between three AHH!3 venue contenders.
With 20 votes cast to date, Clubhouse Jaeger is just two lengths ahead, while Nick and Eddie and Lexington are dead even and coming strong along the outside. 331 Club, Buster’s, and Eli’s Bar are well back of the pack, but at this point it could be anyone’s race.
Tell your friends, relatives, studio-mates, and local art historians to get online and vote for their favorite horse in this race. Polls close at midnight on May 25.
3 commentsApr 29
It’s astounding, time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll…
So, not a moment too soon: a new poll is running for the next Art Happy Hour! (AHH!3).
Please, everyone, it’s just a step to the right. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It doesn’t take any time at all!
With your hands on your mouse,
You bring your knees in tight—
You can help us decide! (On a time and place for your very own Time Warp—a.k.a., Art Happy Hour!)
VOTE FOR ART HAPPY HOUR!
I remember doing the Time Warp
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me and the void would be calling
Let’s do the time warp again…
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