Summer SOULstice - Norton Museum's Art After Dark - June 21

Norton Museum of Art
Summer SOULstice Celebration
The People Upstairs, Suenalo, Spam All-Stars
Co-hosted by 97.9 WRMF

"I just need my wine."

These are the words that bond new acquaintances for life. Or at least the length of time it takes while waiting in line for a glass of wine. This was how we made friends with a friendly

Finlandish-Floridian, named Kristina at last night's Norton Museum's Art After Dark.

"You don't need earplugs out here..." Kristina said, describing the noise from a

boisterous crowd inside. After an

initial unsuccessful attempt to get a glass of wine, she was rewarded outside with vino. The wine was secondary though to her pleasure at seeing the success of the evening. People were willing to make the

Summer SOULstice celebration a huge success, even off season in South Florida.

Volunteers and employees of the Norton donned sunshine yellow T-shirts

for the event, guiding attendees to the seemingly unending list of

entertainment options. The huge schedule of events reflected exactly

what the first day of a summer should: No priorities and enough fun to

put you at risk for exhilaration and seizures.

Like musical notes mixing in the air of the typical humid South Florida night, we floated among the many special exhibits. Of special

interest to the County Grind readers would most likely be: "Clubs, Joints, and Honky Tonks: Photographers Experience the Music Scene."

Smiley Geraline Ferrara was looking at an

iconic Woodstock Festival photo shot by official Woodstock photographer,

Elliott Landy. The image entitled, "Martin Scorcese Returning Max's

Peace Sign" brought about a nostalgic story of Ferrara growing up just

miles from Max Yasgur's farm. "We lived on White Lake, and bought our

eggs from Max's store. When the festival happened, everyone who lived on

the lake had to take a motorboat because the road was shut down."

On the way to the main theater to catch The People Upstairs, Suenalo,

and The Spam All-Stars, we caught Ladies and Gentleman and their laid-

back take on Peter Bjorn and John's "Young Folks." It went a little

something like this. Minus a girl in a black bikini.

 
The dancing continued, while the music went silent. Kind-of.

Rounded the corner from the main theater to the atrium, was something most have only heard about, but which we've now seen: A silent disco.

This silent disco was run by Silent Storm Sound System. For those of you who've never heard of such a thing we'll explain. At a silent disco you have two options:

1. Get headphones and dance to the DJs music.

2. Don't get headphones, and watch a bunch of people mime dance.

It's hard to ignore the philosophical dilemmas that abound

with the advent of silent discos. The whole, "If a tree falls in the

forest and no one's around to hear it..." type of issues. 

Maybe we'll tackle all of that in a future blog. For now, let's just say, after such an overwhelming night of the

senses at the Norton, we need our meds before the hangover...err, exhilaration withdrawal

kicks in.

The Crowd: Flower children of all ages, from hippie to eco-hipster. Young Friends and elder art compatriots.

Personal

Bias: Seven bucks for a small plastic cup of wine. Not that we're above

drinking wine from a plastic cup. But where's the "ARTini" we're

accustomed to receiving with the $12 Art After Dark entrance fee?

Honestly, we're not so worried about the money as much as the time we

spent distracted, thinking up clever names that could've made up the

SOULstice custom cocktail:

The SOULstice Signature, The Summer Sauce, Liquid Sunshine, Summer Sippy Sippy...

OK,

we'll admit that last one was after we'd finished our (second) cup of

wine. Clearly the adult beverage juxtaposed with the plastic cup was

inspiration. In other news, how fun is the word "sippy"? Try saying

it...sipp-eee....sipp-eeeeee. You want a little Summer Sippy? A little

Summer Sip Sip? A little Summer Sippy Sippy?

Overheard #1: "It's hard not to dance!" during Suenalo's set. Our advice? Why fight it.

Overheard #2: "Hey everybody, my name's Dave Harris. I'm one of the workers here. But tonight, I'm going to let my hair down." Play on Dave. Play on.