It isn’t often that I run into two artists in such a short time.  I ran into Kurt Halsey because I was looking into Amy Rice.  They both do work at the Art Star Gallery, and thus I ran into Kurt’s work.  At first, I was sort of ignoring his work because the cartoonish characters seemed so - well, Precious Moments.  But then I clicked on a couple of them and realized I was SO very wrong.  Kurt hails from Racine, Wisconsin and went to MIAD here, which means I’m pretty stoked to have come across him.

The figures in Kurt’s work have natural positions, many of which are very intimate and real - putting you into the emotion.  There’s an emptiness that leaves you to fill in the feeling.  Many of the pieces are collage pieces like the first one below, and the choice of media fits the pieces of thought included. 

    

Some of them are poignant moments of love and closeness.  Others are powerfully painful (see the next one below).  Others seem to catch a meaningful moment - and not a moment associated with love.  Some even have a wry humor that isn’t easily captured in stasis.  Whatever they are, they are poetry and art.

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In visiting Demode today, I ran across a link that took me to another link, and as the journey usually goes, some wild jaunt into another area.  Well, I ended up finding some top notch Victorian costuming sites that I’d not found before.  I thought I’d share because - well - I’m just friendly like that.

First is Vintage Victorian, where I found the reference library.  There, they have images of dresses from various eras, complete with description of what makes them up.  THAT is huge to someone like me who is always looking to create costuming usually from pictures I find.  For example, this Victorian evening dress to the right is described as follows:

Evening Dress.

Figure 1: Evening dress of white and pink; the underskirt is of white satin, kilted in front, and trimmed with Mechlin lace, and a garland of pink roses. The overdress is of pink silk, is made like a polonaise, low neck and short sleeves, and is trimmed to correspond with underskirt with lace and flowers. Low corsage and short sleeves, with bertha of lace and flowers. Flowers on dress to match those on hair.
 

March 1880, Godey’s Lady’s Book.

Invaluable resource for those with costuming interests.  Additionally, the many pictures are good for MacGuyvers like myself who put together costumes in a haphazard and extemporaneous fashion.

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Next, for those who sew (or want to sew, such as myself) I found an interesting site from Wisconsin - State Historical Society’s Patterns of History.  With actual outfits as their base, they created patterns for those who are crafty to create high quality results.  Image from their site - from the page on the History of the 1874 Bustled Dinner Gown.Don’t you just love the intricacy of the detail of those costumes?  Even the hairstyle is easy to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 Next is Truly Victorian, which also sells patterns.  However, the handy part of this site is that the majority of the patterns have a sample finished piece to show you the results of the costuming.  Now, this isn’t completely uncommon, but the fabrics used and the decoration added are sometimes questionnable, or give a really modern look to dress that would normally be much different looking.  For example, this tea gown.  And some of the results are shown ON people, which is always nice too.

 

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The last three are put together for a couple of reasons.  First is Your Wardrobe Unlocked, the costume maker’s companion.  I can’t tell you a whole lot about this site because, well, you have to pay to be a member and really read what is on it.  It describes itself as an online magazine for anyone who is passionate about making outstanding historical costuming.  It says it has images, information, classes, tips and more.  However, the cost is $10 per month.  It sounds simply awesome, however, and I am contemplating getting into it right after I learn how to sew in a straight line with a machine.

 

The second is Trystan’s Closet.  I have to give her a shout out because I simply adore this Robe a la Francaise.  It is simply a beautiful creation, and her description of how she made the shoes to go with it was extremely informative.  I love the photos too.  I personally think this is the best costume on the site, and the one that appears the most accurately portrayed, from the costume itself to the presentation.

 

Finally, I am interested - and thought you might be too - in checking out this FrockFlicks podcast, which Trystan appears to be a part of.

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Kenosha furniture salesman pummels robber with his product.

 Good ol’ Midwestern Values in action.  And a nice sales pitch included! 

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/11123306.html?video=YHI&t=a

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So, a few weeks ago I was waiting for the bus to go to work and a VW Bug pulled up to the intersection.  It looked like the bug from the Geek Squad - black and white with a round logo.  But this one said…

 GOD SQUAD

And various other things like, “Got God?” and the like.  There were a few other things written on it - websites and other contact information.  I unfortunately don’t remember any of them.

I’m lucky that there was someone else at the busstop with me who said, “hmm.  That’s different.”  I thought perhaps I was hallucinating, but I have a witness.

The modern VW Bug was black and white entirely, and attractively put together.  In the passenger seat was a youngish man, seemingly of an alternative crowd (think slender, lanky with mussed hair - very Bayview or East Side.  A pair of horn-rimmed glasses would have fit him perfectly.  Indie Rock? Or just Indie? I’m not sure what this style would be considered - K-Co, help me out here.  I should do a whole segment on these styles.)

I couldn’t see who was driving without seeming extremely obvious, and I wasn’t in an extremely obvious mood.  But I was definitely curious.

The other busstop waiter and I contemplated the purpose of this vehicle - it seemed as if parts of the information on the VW Bug were for drawing people to the ministry, but other parts were reaching out to the public.  It wasn’t overdone - but the messages were talking to different audiences.  Or perhaps they weren’t and I’m sufficiently a-religious enough to have missed them.  As a former Evangelical junkie, I would have thought that at least *I* would get the connection.  Apparently my turn to spirituality has nixed my ability to understand structured religious thought patterns.

So I finally remembered to look them up today.  And I can’t find a thing about a VW Bug saying GOD SQUAD.  But I did find some information about a popular set of speakers called The God Squad.  Apparently, they have a column and they also were on Imus in the Morning. 

Doing a little research (and I mean a little), I found that Rabbi Gellman is a Milwaukee native and former academic.  Perhaps this is the source of the God Squad VW Bug? 

Has anyone else seen this running around town? 

(note to self - must get tiny digital camera to take pics whereever I am as PROOF of my insanity.) 

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Milwaukee is this growing amoeba.  Or at least, it is trying to be an amoeba, but failing.  And failing through infrastructure. 

This comes as a shock since so much of Milwaukee is trying to focus on growth of the region.  There’s the Milwaukee 7, their website Choose Milwaukee, and the Fresh Coast.  All the focus is trying to get more business, more value to the Milwaukee shores.  I really like living in this place, all in all.  I support amoebic growth of reclaiming Walker’s Point and the 5th Ward.  Which is why this sudden backtracking really irritates me.

How, do you say, is this happening?  By cutting the bus routes.

There have been articles about it - sure.  The Journal Sentinel has published the propose route cuts…in a tiny map off to the side of the online article.  I wonder if it was in the actual paper. 

These cuts are a bad move.  I live in an area that is south of downtown that is a growing, thriving area for young business people.  Members of this community contribute a lot to the beauty and growth of Milwaukee as a great place to live. 

A drive to my work downtown would be relatively short - 10-15 minutes at most.

But why drive when there are buses?  By keeping my car in the garage, I am decreasing pollution, traffic build-up, the line in the Starbucks drive thru, and supporting the city I live in.  I am decreasing road rage, and the ever-growing Parking Rage - that fury you feel when you either find it impossible to park downtown, OR have to pay Festival parking prices when you are parking for work.

The city has seen fit to cut almost every route that goes to my neighborhood.  In three months, it is proposed that every member of my community pick up a car and find a place to part downtown because those buses will be cut.  Buses that serve all the major businesses downtown.  Buses that are in part subsidized by the businesses downtown. 

Milwaukee is trying to remove some of the ways that commerce functions - through the access made available by public transportation.  What business is going to want to move in if nobody can get to it?  Crippling its public transportation system is not the way to bring in new growth.

There are some people standing up to this silliness.  Members of the Bayview community have undertaken to “protest” by gathering as many people as possible to ride the buses at a certain time.  They’ve attracted the attention of policy-makers, which is a great step towards making a difference.  To find out more information about these Bus Cut Protests, go to the following webpage.

 http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/BusesAreGreen/HomePage

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