Urban Explorers

Last night Kyle and I went to a fundraiser for the documentary "Urban Explorers", by Melody Gilbert. I have to admit, based on the advertising, I was expecting to see some scenes from the upcoming documentary. But strangely, that was not the case. We parked in St. Paul and refused a bike taxi ride from the guy in the dark parking lot next to the Baptist Church, and walked the two blocks to the Bobo Club. Kyle bought us each a Summit EPA and we ponyed up our tickets and walked into the club's main area. What I expected was a bunch of chairs and a screen for the clips. What was there were lots of young, attractive, and fashionably dressed women, lounging at tables and on tables, including one woman that looked like Sean Young from Bladerunner (although Kyle insists she embodied a bit of Jessica Alba - I didn't get her number for you, Mr. Mustard), and a screen, and some guys with a guitar and Indian drums. We stood around looking perplexed for a while until one of the women (in fishnet stockings) assured us we could sit down. Kyle later indicated he at least felt assured it wasn't a strip club - but I had no such assurances as I had seen the word "burlesque" scrawled across the Bobo Club's website. We both came to the same conclusion, however, that we must be faced with performance art. Fortunately, they weren't any such thing; they were just modeling clothes. If the men who had been modeling clothes hadn't been lounging on the sides, it might have been more obvious.

It was a somewhat amorphous event (Kyle's word, not mine), and we discussed how it reminded us both of nothing so much as an MFA gathering (Kyle having once been married to an MFA graduate, and I having had to put up with them for several years at Hamline while earning an MALS in writing and refusing to become one of them). After a while they played some live music and showed slides from other documentaries and clips from other documentaries (Married at the Mall), all of which was somewhat difficult to hear as it became obvious that what we were at was truly a fundraising effort - a crowded silent auction and lots of networking. Kyle and I eventually gave in and wandered over to examine the silent auction items, actually putting a bid on a few (a documentary basket I thought might make a good secret santa gift, a Sesame Street basket for Eryn and a yoga series for Jen - Kyle bid on an vodka set and a different documentary basket), although we left early (10:30 or so), so I'm pretty sure someone probably outbid us by a dollar later in the night. I think if we'd have known what to expect, it might have been a bit less of a surprise (well...there's a stupid statement, but you know what I mean).

Regardless, our tickets went to help fund Melody's movie and our silent auction bids no doubt drove up the prices on some items a bit in order to get her more money, so when the film comes out (and I fully intend to see it - now I'm just more interested), I can feel like I contribued a little.