Natural History Cool: First Fridays Return

DJs, scientists, partiers, and big dino bones converge in one fab monthly confab.

Apparently dinosaurs never built discos, way back in the Jurassic Period, because archaeologists would have likely unearthed mirror balls and turntables and tables and chairs by this point.

But there's no reason that the Stegosaurus and Triceratops and even good ol' T. Rex can't enjoy some thumping beats nowadays. (After all, dinosaurs were the original thumpers, what with their large feet and sizable tails hitting the ground, step after big step.)

The Natural History Museum magically recreates the dinosaur disco that never was, way back when, each first Friday of the month from February to June. Yep, this series is called First Fridays -- catchy, and so handy with remembering the date -- and it is opening for its half-year run on Friday, Feb. 5. 

The dino bones don't actually get up and shake their stuff, but you can, if you buy a ticket to this increasingly and extraordinarily popular event. (You have to use hyperbole when A) it's true and B) gigantic dinosaurs are involved.)

DJs provide the soundtrack for the stuff-shaking, and performers and bands, too. For the Feb. 5 party, KCRW DJ Aaron Byrd'll be spinning with guest Anthony Valadez. At the mics? The Hood Internet, Boulevards, and Mark Redito fka Spazzkid all will take the spotlight during the evening.

An evening that isn't just about living it up in one of our city's most hallowed repositories of history. The Exposition Park institution is know for science, and science-themed topics shall be discussed, by interesting experts, at each first Friday.

The theme of the 2016 season deals with "Stranger than Fiction!," so look for a lot of intersecting between imagination and the facts of life on earth.

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Which is why we speculated about how nifty it would have been if the dinosaurs had actually had discos. Again, they did not -- that's the imagination side of the equation, and not the science, let's be 100% clear -- but to pair the creative impulse with the wonders of knowledge is a beautiful thing.

The Natural History Museum has this beautiful thing down to, er, a science, with its fabulous First Fridays. Don't make us resort to hyperbole again: They're popular, so get on your ticket, as fast as a dinosaur thumped along millions of years ago.

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