Fifth Fridays wrap-up

One advantage of our exile from Yurtopia was that we made it back in time for Fifth Fridays, which is a good thing considering the event was being held at my house.

Fifth Fridays is something I started to bring a few friends together in the hopes that all the assembled creativity would lead to some kind of artistic cross-pollination, inspiration and all-around good times. In the rush to try and figure out what cities or countries we'd like to move to next, it's easy to lose sight of all the talent and creativity that surrounds us here in Kansas City. Fifth Fridays was designed to be a reminder not to lose sight of that.

I'd have to say it was a success. Though the thing was necessarily limited in size, there were quite a few quality materials on display. Among them:

- lots of bottles of home-brewed beer, courtesy of Willie
- photographs of fireworks and a leaping, barefoot man, courtesy of Camille Nolan
- fragrances designed by cat voice specialist Jill McKeever
- some soon-to-be published prose by Craig Davis
- an anonymous poem lauding the beauty of an art girl seen walking by a crosswalk, as well as a surprisingly sincere verse tribute to ODB
- the latest issue of Jessica's Spirit Self magazine
- a first-person story about a young man who was raised by Jayhawks
- Jennybros photos and stipple drawings
- a drawing of a guy riding brontosauruses on Pluto that Dave drew on site
- an excellent hand-written chapbook entitled "On the Passing of Materials" by Colin Torre
- some found black and white images of old houses and an old laughing lady
- several short films by Audra Brandt, who also brought a home-stitched baby onesie
- original musical recordings by Ghosty, Jonathan Nagel and the debut of Toby Terrence's new track, "Explanations Tight."
- a sad, lonesome country tune submitted by some drunken cowboy in Friedrichshain
- several frighteningly cute three-eyed puppets made by Brenda
- some baklava I bought at the Habashi House


All in all, it was a delicious and stimulating evening (as you can see from Liz's expression) and I hope to do it again some time, perhaps at a larger and more public venue. Although Fifth Fridays only occur sporadically, their infrequency only adds to the event's uniqueness and mystery.

Tonight, of course, there are plenty of First Friday activities taking place in the Crossroads. It's a beautiful night for it and I'm sure there will be a lot of people. Tomorrow's West 18th Street Fashion Show should be even more exciting. Unfortunately my place in the fashion world has been somewhat compromised ever since somebody pointed out that I was wearing my shirt inside out, so I'm not sure I'll be allowed to attend. Still, I'll always have last week's event to look back on. Well you know what they say. If you can't find your place in the art world, make the art world come to you.


A few more images to follow. See you soon.