SILENT FILMS & COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY
with Jennifer Peterson & Stephen Mihm

Silent Films presents an in-depth look at the films in our exhibition Silent Films, which features silent non-fiction short films made between 1908-1919. Counterfeit Currency recounts those freewheeling, pre– Civil War days when the federal government not only did not print paper money but likewise did not bother to regulate those regional banks that did.

SODA POP & EXTREME DEATH RITUALS OF BORNEO
with Adrian Miller & Christina Kreps

Soda Pop presents a history of cola in the United States along with a tasting of the original formulas of some of your favorite carbonated beverages (and a few lesser-known varieties). Extreme Death Rituals of Borneo is a look at the elaborate and peculiar mortuary traditions of the island nation of Borneo, including secondary burial, longhouse feasts and “bad death.”

MAYA ASTRONOMY & STANLEY KUBRICK
with Jim Downing & Thomas Delapa

Maya Astronomy is a look at the Maya calendar– an accurate system of calendars and almanacs used in the pre-Columbian Maya society (a system which incidentally predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012). Stanley Kubrick was a film auteur who created masterworks including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove and Spartacus.

SUN RA & SOUTHERN FAMILY RESTAURANTS
with Jake Adam York & Joe York

Sun Ra and Southern Family Restaurants brings together Jake Adam York and his brother Joe York for another night of Two Yorks: One Great Taste. Sun Ra was an innovative jazz composer who abandoned his birth name and took the name Sun Ra, claiming he was descendant of the Sun God, and not from Earth at all, rather Saturn. Filmmaker Joe York comes to The Lab from Oxford, Mississippi, where he has spent time making films about the small family restaurants that contribute to the unique flavor (metaphor intended) of the South.

TAMALES & LITERARY MEMOIRS
with Jorge de la Torre & Michael J. Henry

Tamales are a favorite traditional food of Mexico and Latin America, consisting of corn masa, with or without filling, steamed in plant leaves or cornhusks. The tamale was developed a portable war ration in the ancient Americas, as familiar and varied as the sandwich of today. Literary Memoir is a relatively new genre of literature, which has experienced a renaissance in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This genre has tested limits of both autobiography and fiction, and often borrows heavily from both.

WITTGENSTEIN & HULA DANCING
with Henry Pickford & Halau Hula O Na Mauna Pohaku

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher of mathematics, logic and language whose wide influence is belied by the fact that at the time of his death at age 62 he had published only a single book. This work, and a second volume published posthumously, gave him the status of one of the twentieth centuries greatest philosophers. Hula Dancing originated on the Polynesian Islands of Hawaii and comprises many styles of dance, both modern and traditional, accompanied by chanting and singing.

MOTOWN & GONZO JOURNALISM
with Arthur Jones & Anita Thompson

Motown is a style of soul music developed in Detroit, Michigan and popularised by the founders of Motown Records Berry Gordy, William "Smokey" Robinson, and groups like the Supremes. Gonzo Journalism is a style of manic, highly subjective, fist person journalism pioneered by the legendary Hunter S. Thompson, who wrote extensively for Rolling Stone magazine in the 1970s. Hunter S. Thompson was portrayed by Johnny Depp in the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Mr. Thompson, a resident of Aspen, Colorado, died in 2005. Anita Thompson, his wife, will be joining us to present the lecture on Gonzo Journalism.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS & GOURMET SAUCES
with John-Michael Rivera & Matt Selby

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a holiday that occurs on November 1 in connection with the Catholic holiday All Saints Day celebrated mainly in Mexico and in Mexican-American communities in the United States. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, and using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. Gourmet Sauces traces the history of sauce from the Romans (who used a basic fish sauce) to the roux common in French cuisine to salsa.

OUTSIDER ART &
A SUPERCONDUCTING PROTON COLLIDER
with Jessica Hunter Larsen & Kevin Stenson

Outsider Art is a term used to refer to artists who are self-taught. Often these artists have little or no contact with the art world and create work outside the traditions of art history. Proton Colliders are used in particle physics to detect the fundamental particles that existed during the creation of the universe and haven’t been seen much since. This lecture will focus on the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and highest energy particle collider, which is being constructed miles underneath France and Switzerland.

CRAFT BEER & RENAISSANCE POLYPHONY
with Eric Wallace & Timothy J. Krueger

Eric Wallace, founder of the Left Hand Brewing Company, will discuss how beer is brewed and conduct a sampling of several Left Hand Beers. Renaissance Polyphony came about when additional melodies were added to the monophonic Gregorian Chant in the late Middle Ages, causing Popes to raise their eyebrows.

ROLLER DERBY & VERISMO OPERA
with Rocky Mountain Roller Girls & Opera Colorado

Roller Derby is a contact sport popularised in the 1920s based on formation roller-skating in around an oval track. The sport collapsed in the early 1970s but has experienced a revival through a nation-wide circuit of mostly-female, skater-owned amateur teams who embrace a satirical feminist punk aesthetic. Verismo, meaning realism in Italian, is a type of opera that is distinguished by realist, sometimes sordid or violent, depictions of everyday life. Popular operas including Madame Butterfy, La Boheme and Carmen are considered Verismo Operas.

COVER SONGS & GIANT WOMBATS
with Scott Kinnamon & Gifford Miller

Cover Songs traces the history of popular music through notions of authenticity. Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and others popularised songs that had been recorded and released by other performers. Cover Songs looks at the ingredients that make a song an original . Giant Wombats investigates the giant marsupials of Australia which roamed the continent between 50,000 -1.5 million years ago. Debate rages whether these animals, long extinct, may have been some of the earliest victims of human colonization.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE &
THE 1908 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
with Lynn Hershman & Tom "Dr. Colorado" Noel

Timed to coincide with the democratic national convention, Artificial Intelligence is a discussion of the art piece DiNA, a part of the project Dialogue: City , which is installed in The Lab. Artist Lynn Hershman will discuss how she created the piece and create a braoder context for the artwork. The 1908 Democratic National Convention discusses the history of the DNC of one-hundred years ago, which also happened in the fair city of Denver, Colorado.