In advance of the inaugural Art Happy Hour!, here are a few basic

Art Happy Hour! rules.

Art Happy Hour! is convened in the spirit of fun, togetherness, mutual support, and fun. Oh, and drinking. And happiness.

Um, and Charles Baudelaire.

So first off, as Baudelaire would wish of us, in Art Happy Hour! there are no (cliche, I know) rules. Anyone who wants to can attend (even if you’re secretly not really all that into art, or happy hour for that matter—though if either is true you might want to consider whether this will be a good use of your time).

Anyone who comes to Art Happy Hour! can bring any accountrements, portfolio trappings, business cards, show announcements, or anything they want—as long as they are primarily related to A) art or B) happy hour, and as long as you accept that people have the right to turn down offers of such material. (No need to force it, people!) Anyone can bring any sort of burning question, preoccupation, fascination, or agenda they wish. Or you can come with a simply open mind. It’s all good.

That said, I have also posited a few basic rules for the future functioning of this website:

• The Art Happy Hour! event will be held once a month, mainly toward the beginning of the month (though the AHH! admin reserves the right to tweak the schedule to suit his selfish needs).
• Art Happy Hour! venues will always be chosen by YOU, the Art Happy Hour Tribe! through the neato-keano polling widget generously provided by the good people of Wordpress.
• Once a venue has been chosen for a Art Happy Hour!, it will not be considered again until twelve calendar months have passed (no two visits to the same venue in a single year; let’s spread the art-love around).
• Art Happy Hour! will take happy hour locale/date/time suggestions—to add to the polls—from any and all sources.
• Polls will close before the end of the month prior to the Art Happy Hour! and details about the event will be posted in the week leading up to it.
• Art Happy Hour! reserves the right to change its own rules for its own whimsical reasons.
• Anyone is welcome to join the Art Happy Hour! Tribe: (
  Your email:  
  Subscribe Unsubscribe  
  ).

See you at the Art Happy Hour!

Well well well. In a heartbreakingly squeaky election, The Independent-Uptown has taken the race—by a scant one vote over late-contender Grumpy’s-Mpls—in the first ever Art Happy Hour! poll. Final results can be found here. Congrats to the victor(s), and thanks to all of you who voted!

Just so you know, the venue has been contacted. Art Happy Hour! has been given semi-official blessing by a semi-surly staffer, who said, quote, “We should have no problem handling thirty people or so for happy hour.” One note,* however: There may be a small controversy over the duration of the happy hour, as Mr. Semi-Surly contradicted the information on the Independent’s website, saying the Weds. happy hour only goes to 7 pm.

Still, here are the pertinent details for your inaugural Art Happy Hour!

What: The inaugural Art Happy Hour!
Where: The Independent–Uptown, Calhoun Square Mall, 2nd floor, 3001 Hennepin Ave., Mpls
When: Wednesday, February 13, 4 to 7 (or maybe 9) pm

Any and all lovers of Art and Happy Hour in Minnesota are invited to come to the inaugural Art Happy Hour!
Details about how to find fellow members of the Art Happy Hour! Tribe will follow (in a future post).

Hey! There’s only two days left to vote for the first Art Happy Hour! venue. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell that artist in the studio down the hall whom you secretly can’t stand!

Vote vote vote vote vote—the polling widget is located in the far right column >>>>>>>.

Also, sign up for Art Happy Hour updates here. It’s completely free. There’s no obligation. You can cancel any time. Yadda yadda yadda.

Finally, as an added bonus, here’s a quote from Charles Baudelaire that’s completely apropros to the occasion:

You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it—it’s the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.
And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking. . . ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: “It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.”

If you’ve been avoiding the long Friedamania! lines at the Walker Art Center, you’re missing a last chance to see a wonderful, multi-faceted, and revealing (and multiple award-winning) film by Minnesota-born filmmaker Esther Robinson, “A Walk into the Sea.” (Also edited and co-written by another MN native, artist Shannon Kennedy.)

The Art Happy Hour! team strongly recommends you get on over to the Walker TODAY (Sunday, January 20—the last local chance to to see “A Walk into the Sea,” at 2 pm).

Still photo of Andy Warhol
Film still courtesy of The Danny Williams Estate © 2006-8

Still photo of Danny Williams
Film still courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum. © 2006-8 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Andy Warhol

While the film, a documentary about the filmmaker’s uncle, Danny Williams (who disappeared in Massachusetts in 1966 after spending time at Andy Warhol’s Factory in New York), is about lot of things, what AHH! found truly fascinating is how the film examines the dynamics of an artists’ community (in this case the Factory) and the ways in which a cutthroat community’s machinations and intrigues play upon the fragile egos and sensitive spirits of young artists (like Danny Williams). It’s also well worth the trip to hear Esther—who attends every screening—talk about her experiences making the film.

I hope you can make it. If not, at least here’s a link to A.O. Scott’s recent NYT review of the film.

Hi all you Happy Art people! Here’s an AHH!pdate regarding the inaugural Art Happy Hour!

The Art Happy Hour! polls have been open for a few days, and the race is currently a tight one. With nine votes tallied thus far, The Independent’s Wednesday Happy Hour holds a slight lead, taking 44% of the vote. Liquor Lyle’s Wednesday Happy Hour and Grumpy’s Monday Happy Hour are still in the running, each taking 33% and 22% of the vote respectively.

By now, you’ve probably realized that, thanks to cookie technology, you can’t pad the election box by voting over and over for your favorite watering hole (this ain’t no Banana Republic, folks; just one vote per customer). However, if you still want to influence the election, you can do it the good ol ‘Merican way: By lobbying.

That is, steer all of your friends to the Art Happy Hour! website and ask them to vote today! That’s what Democracy’s all about: You and your friends dictating to everyone else what you want to do. Good luck!

Note: Polls will be closing in just over a week’s time—on Friday, January 25, just after 9 pm. During the last week of January, I’ll announce the winning venue and time/place, and give instructions for attending the inaugural Art Happy Hour!

Now this is much more exciting than what’s going on in bum-freak Nevada, isn’t it?

Welcome, Minnesotans, to the Art Happy Hour!

This site is the home for a monthly gathering of all stalwart Norderners who appreciate:

A.) Art

B.) Happy Hour

The way it will work is simple. All Art Happy Hours take place during the First Week of each month. We’ll find a suitable place and time for any and every interested art-loving, happy-hour–appreciating Minnesotan to gather, and we’ll post that information on the last week of the month prior the event. (In the meantime, we’ll probably fill this site with all sorts of fun stuff—about art and happy hour and Minnesota, of course.)

There is no agenda to the Art Happy Hour other than to gather in the spirit of art and happy hour and have a good time.

Note: The first Art Happy Hour will take place very soon (in February or March, 2008). Check this website often to find out more information about the next event and about all things art and happy hour in Minnesota.