We like to have a good time here at Nerd Nite. In fact, we think of our show as a kind of educational party, a one-bar crawl through the beautiful strangeness of the world and all the fascinating things in it, brought to you every month with a healthy dose of liquid courage. That’s why this month we’re featuring three spectacular speakers who will get your party going! Every party needs good drinks and every party-er needs good anecdotes to keep the conversation rolling, so where better to start than a cocktail that tells the history of Japan’s modern drinking culture? Once you’ve picked your drinks of choice it’s time to call in a professional party planner – get ready to learn the art and science of throwing a FUNCTION. Of course, most parties get a little bit out of control at some point (at least, the good ones do), and when that happens you need to know just how close you can get to the letter of the law without going over. (We have to assume that party cops follow The Price is Right rules.) So come on down to the Rickshaw Stop on May 27th at 7pm for all you need to know to get this party started!
Throughline: Japanese Cocktail History in a Glass
Bart Bernhardt
When Commodore Perry forced Japan at gunpoint to end its policy of isolationism, it ushered in an era of change that reverberates to this day. With Western visitors came Western vices, such as the cocktail. We’ll learn how this American culinary invention became a fixture of modern Japan by looking at a single drink – The Line, invented by Yonekichi Maeda in 1924 – and how gunboat diplomacy, wars, jazz, earthquakes, and especially women – created Japanese cocktail culture. And how, 100 years later, that culture now influences American bartending.
Bart is a bartender at The Interval at Long Now. The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to cultivating long-term thinking, and regularly hosts fascinating lectures, creates art, and many other projects. The Interval is the bar/cafe and social space for the Long Now, and has been named “Best Cocktail Bar” in San Francisco Magazine.
The Anatomy of a Function
Arthur Jackson
Nobody knows how to have fun any more, what ever happened to fun? New York [San Francisco] is over! O-V-E-R! OVER. I’m so bored I could die. No one is dancing anymore when they should be breaking their spines on the dancefloor! When was the last time you held your friend’s hair back while she vomited in the boys urinal? Have you ever shot a beer pong ball from your mouth and won the game? When’s the last time you stunted on these hoes?
Arthur Jackson V is a gay Bay Area artist of many disciplines- bartender, painter, DJ, Poet, and actor. His goal is to find a way to marry all of these parts of himself together, and keep alive the saying « Shake a tail feather ». At the heart of it he’s a storyteller, waiting for you near a fire, with a bottle of wine, a pack of stogues, and music to spin.
This Talk is *NOT* Legal Advice
Julia Rose McCoy
Ever wondered what legal rules attorneys might follow of their own free will, sort of just for kicks? Well now you can watch a real life attorney muse out loud to herself about arbitration agreements, interacting with the police, and what she wishes people knew about securing legal assistance using the thinly veiled metaphor of Dungeons and Dragons! Hey, what’s this room full of people doing here? Hope they don’t hear her musings, because then they might think it was legal advice, which it isn’t. After all, she is an attorney, she’s just not your attorney.
Julia Rose McCoy is a plaintiff’s side employment attorney, a total legal dork, and a middling public speaker. In her spare time, she plays dungeons and dragons, tries to leash train her cat, and rants to her partner about the news. She is a staunch anticapitalist and lifelong fan of both jazz and the San Francisco Public Library. Please come speak to her after the talks about whatever nerdy thing is running your life right now.
Featuring Friends of the Show: