Week of Febrauary 14th, 2011: Artopia

We're two weeks away from my test - you know what that means, right? Soon I'll have no excuse for not posting! It also means, you'll probably see a few posts this weekend because we all know what happens when you need to buckle down and study - everything else. Procrastination is amazing.

Artopia is an event that I found out about through my SF Weekly deals. If you're in SF, I suggest looking into their Voice Deals of the Day. This isn't a shameless plug (I get nothing from them). While some of their deals are the typical restaurant ones, they also have a lot of events that are usually $10 or so and have open bars. I've been to a few already and it's a good deal. So when I saw a $10 deal for an open bar art event a few blocks away from my apartment, I grabbed my friend, Oleg, and decided to check it out.

Now when most people go to an even that is clearly marketed as an "open bar" event, they tend to go inside and head straight to the bar to capitalize on this. Of course, we followed suit but upon arriving at the bar, I noticed someone paying for their drink. Since Oleg and I each had less than $10 on us and the place didn't take card, we decided to hold off and go check out the exhibits.

We walked around and quickly noticed that the "ARTopia" event, didn't really have a ton of art and we were able to see most of it rather quickly. There was an upstairs area that had a couple large pieces, and a hallway that had an interesting rope piece (which I immediately took pictures of and sent to a climbing friend). There were also some fun, Clue-esque bird pictures that I really liked although the concept seemed lost on a lot of people that were walking by.

Around that time, an announcement was made that the open bar was closing in 30 minutes. That announcement was immediately followed by some intense glaring from my friend. Turns out the "paying" that I had seen were people ordering complicated drinks, but beers and normal beverages were still free. Oops...

At least, we didn't have to pay too much for my mistake as we quickly learned that the bar had no problem giving you a few drinks "for friends." 4 beers apiece later, we were happily standing at a table, appreciating some art and talking about life.

All in all, it's always fun to go to a random event and enjoy a few drinks on a Wednesday with a good friend. This event was a little more crowded and less organized that some that I had been to before, and we didn't stay too long after we finished our drinks.