On the usual Friday afternoon, Bowling Green echoes and re-echoes with the gentle screams of people fleeing the city for exciting weekend experiences in exotic locations: Toledo, Dayton, even Sandusky (the Ohio town, not the alleged creepoid in Pennsylvania).
But this is not a typical Friday.
For one thing, it is the unofficial beginning of finals week, and almost every University student will be anchored to a desk all weekend, quietly preparing to do well on their exams next week (don’t look at me like that).
For another, there is a pair of events tonight that’s worth staying in town for.
The Annual Arts Extravaganza is going on Friday between 6 and 10 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center.
This is always a blast.
There will be live music groups performing in the foyer and all sorts of wild art being shown or performed throughout the center.
A perennial favorite of mine is the Glass Hot Shop; there’s something especially fascinating about a skilled artist working with molten glass.
But there will also be tea ceremonies, video and film art, wandering musicians and works of art, TARTA buses tarted up with fresh designs and something called “Slap and Tickle,” which sounds like it may verge on the illegal, or at least inadvisable. (http://art.bgsu.edu/ArtsX/index.cfm)
Also, right across the way, the Wolfe Center for the Performing Arts is having its gala opening tonight from 8 to 10 p.m.
Student films will be projected on the side of the new center, it says here, which makes it sound like an old-school drive-in. Visitors will be able to tour the long-awaited performance venue.
I’m especially looking forward to having a look at some Roman-era mosaics from Antioch which have been restored and are now on display in the lobby of the new Eva Marie Saint Theater.
They used to be in McFall, where few got to see them unless they were headed for a meeting with University administrators and presumably had other stuff on their minds.
So this Friday, the city and the University will be kind of a big deal.
If this keeps up, people may see the city as a weekend destination that compares favorably even with Rudolph (the Ohio town, not the alleged reindeer).
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