Waiting for the Blow Up

Last Friday was the opening of the "We Out Here" photo exhibition at Big Umbrella Studios. As per usual we had a great turnout as far as the head count goes. We had Oliver on hand helping out as a videographer. He filmed artist interviews featuring Tess our newest staff member.  Yours truly even appeared on film to talk about his own photos that were on show. I have even less personality on film than I do in person. Rick was doing a bit of live printing of t-shirts and posters using a design Rick put together. We also had the wonderful Cori from BiBimBop Bowl serving up delicious Korean eats. So far so good right? Meh, not so much. FIrst we had a visit from a girl who was clearly some kind of manic/ bi-polar / (insert some form of behavioral or emotional issue here). She showed up announcing that she was the DJ and that she was ready to go on. The only problem was that we never booked a DJ and have never seen this person before in our lives. She then proceeded to find Steph and Tess and explain to them that she was suffering an "existential crisis" and that just being there was really not good for her mental and emotional stability. Wow! I think at this point I should have stepped in as a boss and showed her the door. But, I was equal parts interested and apprehensive as I didn't want her to create a huge scene. It was only later when she started bringing in all kinds of shit and building a crazy shrine in the corner that my curiosity turned to complete shock and amazement. It reminded me of the scene from Pick Floyd The Wall when Pink loses his shit and trashes his hotel room and starts building some crazy sculpture on the floor as he descends into madness. But, in the end she was the least of our problems. As the night progressed and the place got more, and more packed some of us started getting a funny vibe about the crowd. They started becoming not at all interested in the show and more interested in drinking. Again, food for thought here but I should have stepped in and shut it down. But, I thought I'd let it play out. Anyway, after Steph, Oliver and Tess and I left it got even more hairy. Apparently, one of the revelers decided to have a pee on our neighbor's front steps. Who does that? Our neighbor was none too keen to this and called the dude out on it. I think the dude got a little bit mouthy and not at all repentant and so the neighbor busted him in the chops. I can't say I wouldn't go the same route myself in that situation. Anyway, the punchee called the cops on US! Who does that? And, then of course the drunken rabble decided that they were being oppressed somehow and started yelling at the cops. This could have become even uglier had Sarah one of the other owners not been so impressively deft in diffusing the situation. The cops quickly realized that the dumb asses did not speak for nor represent what our gallery is about. They were very helpful and ended up giving us some good advice in the end. In the end I only wish we got that on film. Anyway, the show runs throughout the month and you should probably make your way down and buy stuff.