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I finally went downtown for First Friday. Every first Friday of the month the galleries downtown Las Vegas open their doors and let everyone wander through at night. It is a fairly big deal. Many of the shops blast music or have live musical groups to lure people in. There are people walking around the streets, popping in and out of galleries and having a fun time.

For the past couple of days we’ve been experiencing a sudden cool down in the weather. A few days ago it was 100 degrees and then it dropped right down to the 70s over night. So tonight it was pretty cool and it was perfect for an evening autumn walk through the stores.

There are all kinds of stores down there. I haven’t been in that area of Las Vegas since I moved here. It has improved since I’ve seen it last, which was nice to see. There are a lot more galleries now and just generally it looks cleaner and more inviting for a walk.

I sort of laughed when I saw the Bail Bonds place all lit up with a crowd and music blaring. Getting bailed out of jail is a booming business in Las Vegas. There are lots of billboards everywhere for various ‘nice guys’ who will bail your sorry ass out of the clinker, should you take that ‘what happens in Vegas, stay in Vegas’ idea a little too much too heart. There are also billboards all over the place advertising certain law firms specialize in going to court for you. So anyway, the Bail Bonds people got into the First Friday action as well.

The Attic was an interesting store. They are all decked out for Halloween. At least I think it was for Halloween. Maybe they are always wild like that, I don’t know. They have a very interesting stair case going in.

The art galleries here have interesting names like “Space” and “Place”. It seems all centered around the starving artist idea. As I wandered through some of the galleries, I couldn’t help but notice all the traditional stuff seemed to be missing. This is the daring generation of artists and some of them push that envelope pretty far.

There was one very busy place I popped into on a whim. It is called the Contemporary Arts Center. They are celebrating their twentieth year in business in Las Vegas and the place was packed with people.

I met one of the directors as soon as I walked in. We chatted for a while. I hadn’t planned on being all that impressed with the place, but the more I dug into the art, the more I liked it.

He introduced me to Princess Anne. She is handling their wearable art event called Hot Hot Haute. This is going to be a runway show and fund raiser for the Contemporary Arts Center. It will take place on October 24th at 7pm, there at the center. He did his job so well, leading me around that I never got his name! I’m sure he told me, but I thought it was written on all this literature he gave me so I didn’t write it down. I am over fifty, so I cannot depend on my memory. Now I wish I knew his name.

There is a lot of art jammed into this art collective. One of their artists right now is Nancy Rubin, who is doing some of the art for the City Center.

There is an interactive bit where you can touch and scribble on the wall. There were some young guys fooling around with that when I was there.

I was told to please take photos, so I did. As my luck would have it, I was asked to stop. Yeah, it happened again. I was asked to stop by the nice gentleman in this photo. You know what a sore point that is with me. I’m so tired of being asked to stop taking photos all the time.

Okay, Okay, I know he was just doing his job, helping to protect the copyright of the art. So I am putting his photo in this blog post but he gets his eyes blanked out, just on general principal. He didn’t believe me that I had permission, which annoyed me further. I just walked away and continued on my appointed duty, which was to take some photos!

Anyway, the Contemporary Arts Center is a pretty cool place and there is so much art to see in there. It is much larger than the other galleries I found tonight.

I made my way back onto the street again. Sandwiched in between some galleries, I found Durette’s Studio. This isn’t art exactly. They sell all sorts of fixtures for homes. They have lamps and door knobs and handles of every sort. At first I thought it was an antique shop. The owner told me no, it was just fixtures from everywhere.

In the back of this store is the coolest wine cellar I’ve ever seen. It is a glass enclosure to store wine, quite beautifully, I might add. It reminded me of some science fiction movie I saw once with bodies suspected in capsules. Well, anyway, this was a wall of wine being temperature controlled until just the right moment to uncork it.

They also have wine for sale in there and have frequent wine tasting events. I think it would certainly be worth checking into if you’re in town during one of their events.

First Friday was a fun time. It starts early enough in the evening so there is still plenty of time to hit the casinos afterwards. Who knows, you might find that perfect piece of art for your living room back home. If you happen to come here in the first week of the month, check it out.

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