Out There :: Our Secret Boyfriend, Nevada

Although we weren't born here, Out There has lived in San Francisco for 31 years, so we think we qualify as a bona fide Bay Arean. But we've always had a secret longing, a lust in our heart if you will, for our next-door neighbor, Nevada. Something about its shape, broad-shouldered up top, tapering off to a wasp waist down bottom, has always appealed to us. At first it looks like it's going to be one of those "square states," but then you realize it's got the most distinctive profile in the Union.
Now on exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Photo: Courtesy NMA

"The 36th Star: Nevada's Journey from Territory to State," now on show at the Nevada Museum of Art (through Nov. 2), set us straight, so to speak, on many of our misconceptions about the Silver State. We assumed it gained statehood on the basis of its mineral wealth, the silver mines that brought adventurers to the Sierra Nevada range. Nope. President Abraham Lincoln needed the vote of one more state in 1864 to help push through the 13th Amendment and advance his pro-Union project. The Nevada State Constitution was quickly drafted, and all 175 pages were sent off by telegram to Lincoln, the longest telegram ever sent at the time.

As part of the exhibition, the National Archives in Washington, DC, is allowing the NMA to display the original Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln for 36 hours during its run. Because of its fragility, the EP can only be loaned out a limited number of hours a year, so its inclusion it this show is significant and unusual. (NMA, 160 W. Liberty St., Reno, Nev. Info: Nevadaart.org.)

Look at that map of the Western states again. California is spooning Nevada! Isn't that just adorable? OK, full disclosure, the real reason we are enamored with Nevada has little to do with its fighting-fit shape. It just so happens that our #1, Pepi, was born and raised there. His father and sister still live there, and Pepi's life has been inextricably bound up with Nevada. He worked as an aide to a U.S. Senator from Nevada on Capitol Hill. His duties included organizing and accompanying the Senator on a proto-"listening tour" of all the inhabited areas in Nevada: Carson City (the capital), Virginia City, the so-called "cow counties." His sister Sweetie is a Nevada artist who makes her own paper and crafts pieces with it. She recently created a series from handmade paper formed into the shape of the state; they're on display in the NMA's gift shop.

We've spent some time in Reno and Las Vegas. Friends roll their eyes at this. But really, we've enjoyed our visits to both cities. As long as you keep out of the casinos, they have a lot to offer. And since gambling is that rare vice that holds no interest for OT, this isn't difficult. So Nevada, here we come!

Dresser Down

Furniture artist Roy McMakin was interviewed in The New York Times' Home section last week, resulting in this unlikely exchange:

NYT: "'The Chest of Drawers Behind James Jameson and Jimmy Fanz in Raging Stallion Studios' Timberwolves' may be the longest name ever given to a piece of furniture."

McMakin: "My art titles are long. Sometimes there's content important to a piece, and I find the best way it sticks with a piece is to make it the title."

NYT: "So you were watching porn."

McMakin: "At key moments two of the actors are right in front of the dresser. Blocking it, showing it. And I'm staring at this scene going, 'Would you guys just move?'"