Tag Archive for 'love and the brain'

The “Monoamine Cocktail” Mixology Contest!

Published on January 21, 2010 in Brain Chemistry, Events and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
January 22, 2010 4:00 pmtoFebruary 5, 2010 10:00 pm

We just had to know – is it possible?  Can a cocktail be designed that simulates the feelings of falling in love?  For all those in search of the perfect Valentine’s Day Love Potion we present the “Brain Chemistry for Lovers” Monoamine Mixology Contest at 3 Doors Down Café.

The“Brain Chemistry for Lovers” creative team put on their lab coats for this effort.  Aided by expert mixologist Matthew Stiles, bartender at the fantastic 3 Doors Down Café, OHSU neuroscientist Dr. Larry Sherman Ph.D., (Brain Chemistry For Lovers resident science advisor) and other experts, we aimed for nothing less than the perfect love potion.

It turned out it was too hard to create just one cocktail. So we created three delectable drink recipes – the Don Juan, the Mata Hari, and the Scarlett O’Hara – that combine all three monoamines using different ingredients. And so a contest was born. You can decide which monoamine cocktail is the new Love Potion #9.

How the contest works:

Step 1 TRY THE THREE MONOAMINE COCKTAILS
at 3 Doors Down Café between Jan. 22 – Feb. 5 or
at home by viewing the recipes online at:

www.brainchemistryforlovers.com or
www.3doorsdowncafe.com

Step 2 CAST YOUR VOTE IN THE “Monoamine Mixology Contest”

Vote on the Brain Chemistry For Lovers CONTACT PAGE
OR on the Brain Chemistry FACEBOOK PAGE
OR at 3 Doors Down Café

Those who vote at 3 Doors Down Café will be entered in a drawing for a $75 dinner gift certificate, an OMSI family membership and other great prizes. For reservations and information, call 503-236-6886 or visit www.3doorsdowncafe.com.

Step 3 HAVE SOME LOVE POTION

The highest-rated cocktail from the contest will be served at the upcoming performance of Brain Chemistry For Lovers presented by OMSI Science Pub Series on Tues., Feb. 9, at 7:00 pm at McMenamins’ Bagdad.Theater.  Order your tickets here.

Brain Chemistry For Lovers at the Bagdad Theater

Published on November 17, 2009 in Brain Chemistry and Events. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
February 9, 2010
7:00 pmto8:30 pm

science_pub_header copy The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) presents Brain Chemistry For Lovers at the Bagdad Theater on February 9th as a part of their Science Pub Series. Come learn about the science behind one of our most complex human emotions through a combination cabaret, concert and science lecture. Following the performance, neuroscientist Dr. Larry Sherman PhD. will answer any lingering questions from the audience.

Doors open at 5 PM. Show begins at 7 PM. Come early to eat and drink and get a good seat.

Tickets are $15 and are available at the Bagdad Theater or Crystal Ballroom box offices,
or are available online at TICKETMASTER.com. Please note that Ticketmaster charges significant service fees for tickets purchased online (sorry!), but tickets purchased at the theater box offices will only have an additional $1 fee per ticket.

Brain Chemistry For Lovers from Valerie Day on Vimeo.

Brain Chemistry For Lovers on Oregon Art Beat

Published on April 2, 2009 in Blog and Brain Chemistry. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Vince Patton and the Oregon Art Beat crew goes behind the scenes for “the making of” Brain Chemistry For Lovers with Valerie Day, Darrell Grant, Jim Blashfield, John Smith, Dr. Larry Sherman, and the Portland Chamber Orchestra. (for those who can’t see the OPB widget and would like to see the show – click HERE)

“THIS IS YOUR BRAIN IN LOVE” w/Dr. Larry Sherman and Darrell Grant

Published on March 16, 2009 in Events. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
April 17, 2009 7:00 pmtoApril 18, 2009 7:00 pm

dr_larry_pic-1_2

On Friday April 17th at 7 PM, OHSU neuroscientist Dr. Larry Sherman gives a musical lecture on how our brains fall in and out of love backed by Grammy nominated vocalist Valerie Day and international jazz pianist and composer Darrell Grant. For those who have seen Brain Chemistry For Lovers and want to know more about the science behind romantic love, this musical lecture is for you!

The performance will be held at Bridlemile Elementary School Auditorium (4300 SW 47th Drive, Portland OR) and will benefit the Bridemile Foundation to support teacher salaries at Bridlemile Elementary and other Portland Public Schools. It’s for the kids!

Tickets ($20 – cash and checks only) can be reserved by calling the Bridlemile office at (503) 916-6292. Ticket price includes light refreshments.

BRAIN CHEMISTRY FOR LOVERS on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s ART BEAT

Published on March 16, 2009 in Blog, Brain Chemistry and Events. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
April 2, 2009
8:00 pmto8:30 pm

brain-chem-for-lovers-27_21

On Thursday, April 2nd at 8 PM, Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Art Beat will air a program about “the making of” Brain Chemistry For Lovers. Producer Vince Patton and crew follow Valerie Day and Darrell Grant through the different stages of the creative process with filmmaker Jim Blashfield, orchestrator/arranger John Smith, and OHSU’s neuroscientist Dr. Larry Sherman – culminating in a premier performance with the Portland Chamber Orchestra at the Newmark Theater in Portland OR.

This program will be rebroadcast on Sunday, April 6th at 6 PM.

Brain Chemistry For Lovers opens for Dr. Helen Fisher at Illahee Lecture Series

Published on February 4, 2009 in Blog, Brain Chemistry and Events. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
February 18, 2009
7:30 pmto9:30 pm

On Wednesday, February 18th, Brain Chemistry For Lovers w/Valerie Day and Darrell Grant will open for Dr. Helen Fisher for the Illahee Lecture Series. Also appearing for this 20 minute abbreviated version of the show (both onscreen and in-person) will be OHSU’s Dr. Larry Sherman Ph.D. (advisor for Brain Chemistry For Lovers, Dr. Sherman also plays himself in the film for the show created by filmmaker Jim Blashfield).

Brain Chemistry For Lovers is one of Valerie’s most recent projects. Fusing cabaret, concert, and science lecture, Brain Chemistry For Lovers uses music, film and the latest discoveries in the world of neuroscience to explore one of the most universal of all human experiences – Romantic Love.

helen3Dr. Fisher is often called “The Doyenne of Desire” as she is one of the most prominent experts on the study of love and the brain. Her book “Why We Love – the Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love”, and a ground breaking fMRI study she and her colleagues conducted to study the brain circuitry of romantic love, are are used as a part of the science lecture in the Brain Chemistry For Lovers performance during the phase of love having to do with Dopamine.

This lecture is a part of the 2009 Illahee Lecture Series on The Nature of Desire. For more about the Lecture Series and to purchase tickets, go to : www.illahee.org or click HERE.

Where: First Congregational Church (1126 SW Park, Portland). 7:30 PM (Doors open at 6:30). Tickets are $20

Brain Chemistry For Lovers – a video preview

Published on January 4, 2009 in Blog and Brain Chemistry. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Just click on the arrow below to see some of the images from Brain Chemistry For Lovers created by Jim Blashfield.

Brain Chemistry For Lovers – the Oregonian Review

Published on December 1, 2008 in Blog and Brain Chemistry. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .


A couple of weeks ago, Darrell Grant and I took Brain Chemistry For Lovers to Wilf’s for a preview show. We were joined for the first time by the “Brain Chemistry Band” – the professors of jazz – Kevin Deitz on bass, Gary Hobbs on drums, and Mike Horsfall on vibes. Also appearing for the first time was the video part of the show created by filmmaker Jim Blashfield. In it, our imaginary lovers, Alice and Bob, come to life, and our “science guy” (and real life science advisor for the script), Dr. Larry Sherman, converses with us through the miracle of modern technology about the science of Romantic Love.

I was insanely nervous. Darrell and I had been “workshopping” the show for a little over a year at Wilf’s – reading from the latest version of the script – trying out new songs or a new order of existing songs. We felt like this was the perfect setting to try out the video, launch the band, and to make an attempt at doing the show from memory. Before we knew it, our little home turf “preview” (read rehearsal in front of live audience) had morphed into a performance in front of OPB’s Art Beat crew, VH1 (who had come to town to videotape an interview with John and I about NU SHOOZ for a show to air March 09), and Marty Hughley from the Oregonian. Continue reading ‘Brain Chemistry For Lovers – the Oregonian Review’

“A General Theory of Love”

Published on October 28, 2008 in Blog and Brain Chemistry. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

General Theory of Love Of all the books I have read while doing research for the Brain Chemistry For Lovers show, my absolute hands down favorite is “A General Theory of Love” by Thomas Lewis, M.D., Fari Amini, M.D., and Richard Lannon, M.D. I don’t know how these three M.D.’s managed it, but somehow they were able to collaborate and come up with a book that turns scientific prose into poetry.

Here’s a paragraph from the forward:

“From birth to death, love is not just the focus of human experience but also the life force of the mind, determining our moods, stabilizing our bodily rhythms, and changing the structure of our brains. The body’s physiology ensures that relationships determine and fix our identities. Love makes us who we are, and who we can become. In these pages we explain how and why this is so.”
Continue reading ‘“A General Theory of Love”’

The “Doyenne of Desire” – Helen Fisher

Published on September 2, 2008 in Blog and Brain Chemistry. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Creating the Brain Chemistry For Lovers show continued….

So….where to begin? I had the idea for the show, now I needed to get busy and do some research. I began by going back to the National Geographic article that started it all to see if it would give me some leads.

The author, Lauren Slater, had interviewed an anthropologist named Helen Fisher. The “doyenne of desire” as Lauren calls her, has spent a great deal of her career studying and writing books about Romantic Love. In Dr. Fisher’s most recent book “Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love”, she writes about an experiment that she and her colleagues performed using an fMRI (or functional magnetic resonance imaging machine – the same type of machine that doctors use to look inside the brain to diagnose disease) to take a look at the brain in love.

Continue reading ‘The “Doyenne of Desire” – Helen Fisher’