Bad news, brainiacs, sugar highs don't count as intellectual stimuli. So drop your Halloween loot and pick up a pencil. Here are three lectures that'll give your IQ a bump this month.
"Mars on a one-way ticket" @ ASU's Murdock Hall If Paul Davies suggests that you take a one-way ticket to Mars, know that he's not dishing out a dorky diss. It's part of the cosmologist, physicist, and astrobiologist's plan for Earthlings to colonize the red planet. Really.
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Davies will outline his Mars plan during his talk "Mars on a one-way ticket" starting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 20. After he explains how humanoids will populate the Martian habitat (and what that would mean for Earth), artist-scientist Angelo Vermeulen will talk about his experience living in a Mars simulation crew commander of HI-SEAS, a NASA-funded project aimed at bettering space food.
The far-out talks take place in Murdock Lecture Hall 101 on the ASU Tempe campus. RSVP via beyond.asu.edu or by calling 480-965-3240.
"Diversity in Jewish Music of Eastern Europe" @ Musical Instrument Museum Musical Instrument Museum curator Kathleen Wiens specializes in ethnomusicology, and she has worked to digitize rare recordings of Jewish singers from the Balkans. She'll discuss obscure Jewish music from Eastern Europe from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, November 24, at MIM. Specifically, Wiens will go in-depth with ritual and celebration music. Admission to the lecture is free with museum admission ($18 for adults). To only attend the lecture costs $7.
"How to Visit the Museum" @ Phoenix Art Museum Look, we're no Emily Post. But chances are good you're doing a few things wrong. Waiting too long to send thank-you notes, saying congrats when you mean best wishes, and, real talk, you've never really known what you're doing bopping around a museum.
Good news for you: Phoenix Art Museum will host an interactive lecture that addresses such fine art basics as how to maneuver through galleries properly and how to look at art. Staffers lead the tour-talk, which begins at 11 a.m. on Friday, November 29. Admission is $15 for adults.