Dancing all the time

So a few blogs ago I mentioned discovering that the AMNH throws a party once every 2 months or so, to raise funds and get new bodies into the building. Without doing too much (or indeed, any!) research, I just got a small group of people together and we went. (as an aside, people tell you that they want to dance, but life inevitably gets in the way, in the end there were 5 of us, and that is actually a perfect number, enough for a group feel but not so many that we pulled in different directions)

Anyways, we were driven there, which is untold luxury in new york city by one of my friends, who then parked in the AMNH, really, I realize that I drive everywhere in Sydney and to non Manhattanites this may not be such a big deal, but I'm never driven anywhere within the city, so that added to our excitement.

We got there, and I realized that I had no idea what was meant to happen. I thought there would be a dj and lots of dancing. Instead there was some music, but there were 3 acts and a focal stage point. DH's immediate criticism was that the lighting was awful, especially when the potential was so high. The room is so interesting and you could do all sorts of things, but they did the most minimal, and it was way too light from the ordinary lights upstairs.

And then the first act came on. Everyone sang to click tracks, so they weren't bands strictly speaking. I thought that was a bit odd, but no one else seemed to mind, so they must be used to that concept.

The first act was called ninjasonik and they were just appalling. So bad they were like a send up. They had this kind of beat back ground and would shout 'fuck' every second word, and had lyrics like 'I want a fuck, someone's gonna get pregnant' and that was the entire song, just repeat for 3 mins.

I had that dreadful embarrassment you get when you set something up and it becomes your responsibility if it was good or bad. DH went and looked up on his iphone if there was somewhere better near by. But thankfully their set ended and some danceable if bland music came on, and so we bopped and waited to see what would happen next.


Thankfully the next guy - Theophilus London- was much better. He sang some songs that I actually liked, especially the humdrum town song, and had a lovely smooth voice and was danceable. So we stayed and danced some more and thought, well, that was an experience.



But then the third and final act came on - the Very Best (such a stupid name!) with people from all over, but with a real African flavor. So it was African hip hop and it was just amazing. We were all jumping by the end, they had such energy and an fantastic sound, so much better!

So I'm going to try for the next one... because I'll dance every chance I can get!

Science Cafe at the American Museum of Natural History

If you are a parent of small child in New York City, especially if that child is a boy, you have been to the American Museum of Natural History. In fact, I've been there so many times I know where many of the exhibits are. They also have special exhibits to lure you back in when you are tired of the regular ones. There was a film set in it - Night at the Museum, which was fun because it played into the fantasy of what might happen there at night... One summer DH even did summer camp there for 2 weeks and loved it.


Which all goes to show how I think about this museum - as a child's mecca, where I float along on his interests. Then, after the summer camp I think, I got on their mailing list and they sent me emails about their science cafe, something for adults only. I sent it to some friends of mine I thought would be interested and for months the first Wednesday of every month rolled around, and for months none of us could do it, and finally we committed and said, next month, no matter what, we are going.

So of course the one we could absolutely go to, was in time for Valentine's Day and was about Why Humans have Sex. It was our first time and apparently the largest crowd they have ever had! David M Buss, a renown author and someone I had never heard of, gave a very entertaining talk about mating rituals amongst seals and insects and how they correlated to mating rituals amongst humans. It was fun, though I did say to my friend who came with me that next time I want to go to something I hadn't read so much about, because he didn't really tell me anything I didn't know. It's such a juicy topic that most interesting psych studies and results are reported in the papers. He mentioned again the t-shirt experiment, where women could actually get information about immune system compatibility through the smell of a sweaty t-shirt - though of course they didn't know they were doing that, they only had to rate how attractive or repellent they found the smell of the t-shirt and the scientists worked out the rest. But that's an amazing piece of information, and shows that attraction processes are far more sophisticated and subtle than we ever knew.

I'm very glad we went and we will definitely go again.


But what really changed my perception of the museum from a child's playground to an adult dream, is that in the line for the wine tickets, one man told us that on one Friday night a month, the museum hosts a party in the Rose Centre - (where all the planetary displays are) getting famous DJ's, the dancing starts at 9, and stops at 1 am sharp, they get around 1,000 - 1,200 people, and it's amazing, he loves it. And I thought, what a perfect use of the space! Visiting lectures is one thing, but this was great out of the box thinking. The next on is on March 12th, and I will definitely be there!