Hot Picks 03.10.22

Passing the Bar

What did you learn in social studies? Geography, economics, government – yeah, you went to the wrong school. Enroll in social studies at Social Hour in Carmel and you’ll find the curriculum is a little more agreeable. Of course, you will have to immerse yourself in history. The French 75, for example, was the army’s most common artillery piece in World War I, but that may not come up on the test. Instead, the course is on pre-Prohibition classic cocktails, in this case the Old Fashioned and the French 75. Instructor Brian Mazurek of The Bitter Ginger demonstrates how to bring flavors into balance and cocktail techniques while you follow along and prepare drinks that you are then free to sip at your own pace. Everything is provided, including snacks and a welcoming drink. Graduate and move on to a second course on March 23 where you can study up on the Whiskey Sour and Margarita. Classwork repeats in April. With a degree from Social Hour University, you can go anywhere… anywhere there’s a bar. A portion of the proceeds go to the Big Sur Food and Wine Foundation. [DF]

6:30-8pm Thursday, March 10. Social Hour, 6th Avenue between Dolores and San Carlos, Carmel. $70. 250-7326, socialhourcarmel.com.

Ariel in… Wonderland!

Ariel Theatrical, this time with generous support from the Salinas-based Sally Hughes Church Foundation, is ready to present a new show based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice, Through the Looking Glass (the sequel to its more famous older sister Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland written seven years earlier, in 1865). Wonderland! is a musical adventure that takes audiences on a very curious journey filled with colorful surprises. Prepare for a meeting with Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, The Red Queen, Humpty Dumpty and the rest of the crew. Located in oldtown Salinas, Ariel Theatrical provides opportunities for children to “explore the stage and learn valuable lessons about Accountability, Respect, Integrity, Excellence and Leadership – A-R-I-E-L,” per the theater company’s mission. (Any association with the famous little mermaid is just a fitting bonus.) [AP]

7pm on Fridays, 2pm and 7pm on Saturdays, March 11-12 and 18-19. Karen Wilson Children’s Theatre, 320 Main St., Salinas. $16; $13/students/seniors/military, $11/children ages 3-12. 775-0976, arieltheatrical.org.

Get Artsy

What role do artist’s collectives play in helping artists and an artistic community flourish? This is the central question that a group of artists, writers and the director of the Monterey Museum of Art will set out to answer at an upcoming event. Corey Madden (of the Monterey Museum of Art) will be joined by Joanna FitzPatrick (author of The Artist Colony, a novel set in Carmel’s artist colony), Denese Sanders (artist, educator, founder Open Ground Studios), Natalia Corazza (artist, Youth Arts Collective assistant and mentor, founder La Neta Murals) and Paul Richmond (artist, activist, co-founder of the You Will Rise Project) to discuss. Each has a unique experience to inform their opinions on this topic – from information about historical artist’s collectives and colonies to modern versions supporting artists locally today. The event also features live jazz, tea sandwiches and Prohibitionists’ Bees Knees (though there will also be gin available upon request). [TCL]

1-4pm Sunday, March 13. Pacific Grove Art Center, 568 Lighthouse Ave. Free. 375-2208, pgartcenter.org.

A Poet and a Laureate Zoom to Town

Alejandro Murguía has been San Francisco’s poet laureate since 2012, the first Hispanic man to hold the honor. He is a professor of Latina/Latino studies at San Francisco State University and local publishing powerhouse City Lights Books put out his 2002 opus This War Called Love and published his recent book of poetry, Stray Poems. Poet, essayist, journalist, translator and all-around words man Stephen Kessler is the author of 12 poetry books and publishes literary essays in the Los Angeles Review of Books. The Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium and Old Capitol Books have worked to wrangle the two poets into a single Sunday Zoom session to talk about their work and careers. [CN]

2pm Sunday, March 13. Email jfellguth@sbcglobal.net by 5pm Saturday, March 12 for a Zoom login link. Free. 684-0854.

Hillary on Democracy

The 2022 edition of the Panetta Institute’s lecture series continues March 14 with a very well-timed conversation titled “Who Will Lead the Wold in the Fight Between Democracy and Autocracy.” Former Secretary of State (and presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton and former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron join Leon Panetta to tackle this topic via live webinar. “The war in Ukraine is a dangerous and pivotal moment in history,” Panetta, former head of the CIA and Secretary of Defense, said in a statement. “What happens will tell us a great deal about the future of democracy and autocracy in the 21st century.” Clinton and Cameron, two people who have been high-profile leaders in powerful Western nations, surely also have something to say on the topic. [TCL]

6pm Monday, March 14. A season subscription to the online series costs $300; single event links $100. 582-4200, panettainstitute.org.

Understanding Russia

Russia’s war in Ukraine might be surprising to people who have not been watching tensions escalate or spent years trying to make sense of Vladimir Putin’s mindset. But to many in the know, it’s a tragic consequence of a long, steady build. Among those people in the know are Thom Shanker, the director of the Project for Media and National Security at George Washington University as of last June. Before that, he spent over 20 years with The New York Times, including 13 years as Pentagon correspondent covering overseas combat operations and national security policy; and before that, he covered the start of the Gorbachev era and end of the Soviet Union as The Chicago Tribune’s Moscow correspondent. These credentials combine to mean that he’s schooled on issues relevant to the crisis of today, and he’s excellent at explaining them in common sense terms. Hosted by the Middlebury Institute for International Studies, Shanker presents a talk titled “Perestroika to Putin: Understanding how the U.S.-Russia relationship became so dangerous today.” His talk was booked before Putin’s threats in Ukraine escalated into all-out war, and it means the thesis of his talk may be a little stale – or maybe more relevant than ever. “The Washington-Moscow relationship has frayed to the point of rupturing into full-blown crisis, even war,” according to MIIS’ brief about the event. “What steps can – or should – Washington take to mend these fault lines?” We’d all love to know. [SR]

4:30-5:30m Wednesday, March 16. In-person event available to MIIS community only; Zoom webinar available publicly for free. Register in advance. bit.ly/ThomShankeratMIIS.

HOT PICKS by Tajha Chappellet-Lanier, Dave Faries, Celia Jiménez, Pam Marino, Christopher Neely, Agata Popęda, Sara Rubin and David Schmalz.