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Cool is coming back in style. Not that iPhone-talking, boxy-car-driving, high-tech kind of cool, but a cool from another age. A neon kind of cool.
Neon, a mid-century pop-culture icon used most predominately in roadside signs, has an atomic number of 10, which inspired the title for the upcoming art party, Atomic #10, put on by Parasol Project at the Flamingo Hotel.
The folks at Parasol Project always seem to be organizing some kind of party. Consisting of a core group of five artists, Parasol's headquarters opened to the public in late February on South Park Avenue, making it the Lost Barrio's newest art collective.
Parasol's huge warehouse space, located behind Tooley’s Café, includes an outdoor patio for parties and other events; a Bizarre Bazaar store with handcrafted and vintage clothing, jewelry and accessories; a room for hanging art and hanging out; and Parasol's biggest claim to fame, a 650-square-foot practice space that can be rented out for classes, band practices or workshops for a mere $5 per hour.
But even all that space wasn’t enough for Atomic #10, a site-specific art party playing off the theme “kitsch”—a mass produced, poor-taste art—and coolest spot Tucson had to offer during the era of kitsch, the Flamingo Hotel on Stone Aveune.
Renovations are almost complete at the hotel, and with the city putting a lot of money into revitalizing the area, the neon signs may, once again, attract more than moths and prostitutes.
“Everyone’s going through the age right now where bringing the old back to life is in style,” says Melissa White, assistant desk manager of the Flamingo. “And that’s what this place is—it’s full of history. I mean, Elvis Presley stayed here, John Wayne, they had their own rooms—all the movie stars from that era.”
Parasol founding member and Atomic #10 co-producer Morrighan Clinco wants everyone to feel like a movie star at the party. There’s a dress-to-impress-code and the V.I.P. list (get on it any way you can) is full of fabulous people, she says.
The event, like Parasol itself, has been a collaborative effort, Clinco says. Social networking and craigslist invitations brought 35 artists from around Tucson, all with their own ideas and resources to share. But the real focus is on the audience, she says, the costumes people wear and the style they exude are the finishing touches on the whole experience.
“We’re trying to make the entire audience feel special, important and extra beautiful and fabulous,” Clinco says, drawing out that last word, faaabbbulous.
A red rope will greet guests in the carport of the hotel, along with a fleet of classic cars and a crew of photographers. The ballroom, which will be full of art, roaming performance artists and rotating DJs, will host a cabaret stage and a dance party while the outside and pool area are decorated in kitsch art against the backdrop of the fabulously kitschy hotel.
From sideburns and Elvis-style sunglasses, to classic cars and skinny jeans, the old gangster style is coming back, White says, and the Flamingo is in the perfect position take advantage of the next wave of neon coolness.
“The Hotel Flamingo is still alive in Tucson, and we’re almost finished with our renovations. Thank god, because it’s been a long time coming, and it’s about ready to come alive again,” she says. “Especially this whole district of downtown, for people who know Tucson, this was the Mecca of coolness in its day. This was the little Las Vegas of Tucson.”
That little Las Vegas style and the throwback to another era of cool is why the hotel was selected for the site of Atomic #10 in the first place, Clinco says.
“So many people became interested in the momentum of the project, and I’m pretty confident it’s because it’s a site-specific piece, and because it’s at the Flamingo, because it’s so compelling and refreshing.”
