Have a Drink with the Dinosaurs

A week ago I found what Men's Journal has deemed the #1 event in the country where to hook-up. It will surprise you to hear, that event is the First Friday "Drink with the Dinosaurs" event at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum across from University of Southern California. (The museum is nestled amount an air and space museum and rose garden - can you say Smithsonians??) The event boasts drinks, food, special tours, special discussions on science topics, and some pretty hip bands. They also bring out the finest of seating, including a covered wicker chair for two. The ambiance, among gems and dinosaurs, couldn't be beat. You can gather from the description above that the idea behind First Friday is for the museum to stay open late the first friday night of each month and reach out to a demographic who enjoys bands and wine on Friday while learning about natural history. Guess that's me!!






This year's First Friday theme surrounds natural life in Southern California. January's event that I attended was about SPIDERS. A specialist took guests on a special tour of the live spider exhibit in the basement - impressive! And we sat in on a discussion with a spider silks expert pictured here. She taught us about how spiders create tons of different types of silk (web/glue, etc) and showed us how it comes out of the spider's spigots on their bottom sides. After these learning experiences (enjoyed with a bottle of Corona in hand) we watched the local band TuneYards and Atlanta-based Atlas Sound (lead of Deerhunter). After touring the gem room, we hopped on the bus to get home.

While on the bus we learned about even more reasons why it's fun to live in Los Angeles. In the Los Angeles newspaper about local events, we saw Pee Wee Herman is making a come-back and playing at LA Live (a hip area downtown). (Little known fact, Pee Wee Herman gets his haircut at the same place I do, so I already knew he was making a come-back.) But really, First Friday at a Natural History museum? You really should plan your trip to visit me on a First Friday of a month.