Eat, drink, be merry, and rub a couple of brain cells together while you’re at it.
Next week, downtown Vancouver’s historic Kiggins Theatre continues its campaign to keep the community pleasantly surprised — and coming back for more — as it launches its first monthly event for fun-loving brainiacs.
Nerd Nite Vancouver gets started Wednesday with a talk by Dr. Larry Sherman, a professor of cell and development biology at Oregon Health & Science University. Sherman, who was named OHSU teacher of the year in 2012 and described as one of “12 Oregonians Changing Our World” by Portland Monthly Magazine, has chosen a topic that’s sure to generate some human heat.
“Lust, Chocolate and Prairie Voles: The Neuroscience of Pleasure and Love” will take a sharp look at what’s usually kept in soft focus. Why do we love, and why do we love whom we love? What’s the difference between love and infatuation? How is the brain chemistry behind falling in love with a lover different than the brain chemistry behind falling in love with chocolate, or a catchy new tune — or is it? What drives one person to settle down with a lover while another can’t stop hunting? What’s the difference, when you get right down to it, between love and addiction? And what light can prairie voles shed on these deep human questions?
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? And just in time for Valentine’s Day, too.
“Nerd Nite is a monthly event that strives for an inebriated, salacious, yet deeply academic vibe,” says a press release. “Be there and be square!”
Nerd Nite (and may we point out here that any real nerd wouldn’t tolerate that dumbed-down spelling of “night”?) started in 2003 in a Boston cafe and started spreading to cities all over the world within a few years. Via Productions has been running Nerd Nite Portland since 2006. Recent talks have focused on topics such as chemistry and physics in everyday life, primate and insect evolution, and the “subsurface history” of Portland; an upcoming topic will introduce the wine-friendly geology and climate of the Willamette Valley.
Nerd Nite has found a Vancouver home at the Kiggins — especially now that the auditorium is open to what the bar sells upstairs. Organizer Amanda Thomas of Via Productions wrote that there are “several popular events in Portland that feature learning paired with beer,” but this is the first such event in Vancouver. Now, she said, “we can bring our special brand of entertainment and education across the river.”
Drinking beer isn’t mandatory, by the way.
The first Nerd Night Vancouver is set for Wednesday. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the event starts at 7 p.m. There’s an $8 suggested donation — Nerd Nite is entirely supported by money collected at the door — but nobody will be turned away. Give what you can. Learn what you can. Drink what you will. And keep your gray matter open to that miracle of science called love.
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