I watched a documentary on Alfred Stieglitz today, knowing almost nothing about him, and it was fascinating. He’s sometimes called the father of modern photography, one of the first to shoot in non-documentary style and get galleries and museums to treat photography as fine art. But he also felt responsible for getting American curators to embrace modernism. To do that, he helped found a magazine and a gallery called Gallery 291. He used both of them to champion artists working beyond the pale of the curatorial trends of the day, including radical works by not-yet-big names like Picasso and Rodin.

Anyway, to the point. The whole time I was watching this I thought about opening a bar called Gallery 291 and using it as both a real art/photography gallery for unsung locals and a bar with the air of an intellectual/artistic salon. The Hideout, bless its heart, is sort of like that, but the one I started imagining today would have more openings, readings, and suchlike. Maybe an associated record label too.