Highbrow/Lowbrow: A weekly update on Denver culture from deliciously fancy to wonderfully mundane
STATUS: Highbrow
EVENT: The Science Lounge
Denver young professionals usually reserve Thursday nights for hitting one of the many uber chic bars in the Highlands or Downtown. We (including myself) gather to celebrate the almost-week-end.
I usually like to partake in these regular Thursday night gatherings, however, last Thursday night I found myself out of my familiar habitat and instead at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science “Science Lounge.”
You’re likely asking yourself, “What is the Science Lounge? An evening of entertainment, education, imaginative cocktails sums it up and makes for a fabulous night of nerdy fun. Unbeknownst to me, the “Science Lounge,” is a 21 and older gathering on the third Thursday of every month.
Each Lounge focuses on a new trending educational topic paired with crafty cocktails to match. Last Thursday’s assembly, “Color me Science,” introduced us to the full spectrum of color and all of the optical illusions that go with it. Interactive and educational stations were scattered about the first and second floor of the museum, along with prismatic bars, where you could taste the alcoholic colors of the rainbow.
The most popular station seemed to be the color chromatography interactive demonstration. We all piled in and watched as our sharpie and coffee filter creations reacted to water and turned into a tie-dyed awesome blossom of color. I couldn’t help but feel the exhilaration of my adolescent science fairs. Each station offered a unique perspective on the topic of colors from demonstration experts whose excitement about their respective subjects was outright contagious.
Part of the fun of this cheeky evening was the museum’s sense of humor found in the entertainment, cocktails and crafts. Like a well-deserved lunch hour in the midst of all this learning, was a performance by Denver drag queen extraordinaire: Shirley Delta Blow.
What do drag queen performances and science have to do with each other? I still can’t tell you, but I know it was a heck of a lot of fun. She pumped up the crowd with a leggy rendition of “Get the Party Started” and finished with one of my favorite parts of the evening: “Are you smarter than a drag queen?” Who knew that learning could be so cool?