Church of Style

Living With Yuval

2012-02-14T20:26:00.002-06:00

Yuval is a character in the novel I wrote in 1997. I’mrevising the novel, so he’s with me a lot these days. I think about him everyday. I even speak to him. (Yes, I know he’s not there.) Personally, I thinkliving with a character is great. At least, it has been so far. My charactersdon’t talk to me—they’re not independent of me. They’re more like fantasies. Idon’t know if I should feel jealous of writers who describe characters uppingand making their own decisions or not behaving as they’re supposed. I think I’dlike that—with Yuval, at least. I think. Because it would mean they existedindependently—and maybe I’d find them out in the world some day. Ok, I’ll admitit: I have a crush on one of my characters. Moving on…

Getting this character right, making him convincing, hasnecessitated forays into, um, would it be called masculinity studies? This is atopic I haven’t thought of very much, I must admit.

Ok, I'm posting this video now that I finally hit upon the right words to search. One night last week, I was googling "Israeli masculinity" or some such permutation and found this video of Eytan Fox below. I was so completely enthralled, it was so completely interesting, that I watched the entire thing. I was looking for it until earlier this evening. I got the keywords right, so here it is.

Since then, I've also found some really interesting sources. I cannot wait to read some of the work Raz Yosef does.

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's all you ever wanted to know about Israeli masculinity, but were afraid to ask...

AWP Approacheth

2012-02-13T15:11:00.001-06:00

The 2012 AWP conference in Chicago will be here before you know it. Thank goodness it's so close this year!

Since it is so close, I know heaps of people who are presenting or reading at the conference this year. But the person I want to big up is my friend Jacinda Townsend, lately of Indiana University. Jacinda and I were in grad school at Iowa at the same time, (No, I wasn't in the Workshop. I got my master's in American Studies.) and she was one of my besties. I remember sitting in some place like Perkins one snowy Sunday night in early December with Jacinda and Faith Adiele. As per usual, I was cracking Jacinda up with my hand grenade delivery.

Anyway, Jacinda's book Saint Monkey is coming out this year. Here's a link to an excerpt. And she will be part of the AWP panel "The Literati: Deconstructing Publishing Myths for Writers" (F241) from 4.30 to 5.45PM on March 2. It's my very first AWP. And I haven't seen Jacinda in ages.

To winter

2012-02-12T18:40:00.002-06:00

The past few days have shown us that we had, as Marshall Mathers might say, in fact, forgot[ten] about Feb. February is supposed to be cold—brutally cold, at that. It is not a time suitable for the uncovered face. We’re supposed to reel and and stagger into March like battered pilgrims—with a sense of having reached the far shore, with relief that, come cold rain and mud, the worst weather is behind us. Though I hunch my shoulders against it and curse, I’m glad it’s cold again. A February that’s even warmish is apocalyptic.

One of the things that makes winter bearable or even enjoyable is reading. House slippers, a decent lamp, a cup of tea—you’re good to go with your own personal fortress.

A cozy place for winter reading

Last semester I did not have the privilege of reading a single goddamn thing that I had a choice about—so, I fantasized about what I would read over the winter holiday. I usually crave Ibsen’s plays in early December, but most recently, I set out, literarily, at least, for warmer climes. I read a heap of Amos Oz and a soupçon of A. B. Yehoshua. (David Grossman's Her Body Knows is on queue for my next reading jag, I think.)

I asked some poets and writers I know what they have or plan to read this winter, have read in winters past, and prefer/can't stand for winter reading flights of fancy.

Linguistics student and sometime book artist David Menees said winter was the ideal time to read books about astronomy since the nights provide more star-gazing time. What he's been reading of late, though, has been Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition and Norwegian and Irish textbooks.

Three current or former Woodland Pattern Book Center (WP) employees emailed their answers. WP Literary Program Manager Chuck Stebelton listed Robert Duncan's The H.D. Book, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by Jame Gleick, and Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr by Richard Rhodes, which, he wrote in an email, he "borrowed [...] as an e-book from Milwaukee Public Library."

Marie Larson, the former Director of Marketing at WP, is a graduate of Naropa University's MFA program in Writing & Poetics. In an email, she indicated she was reading Alphabet by Inger Christensen, Transfer Fat by Aase Berg's, and Ilya Kaminsky's Dancing in Odessa, which I now want to read.

"I've been reading for school mostly," former WP Education Coordinator Julie Strand wrote in an email. She is the author of chapbook The Mae West Defense and currently an MFA student at Boise State University. Like Chuck, she's reading The H.D. Book. She's also reading Circle's Apprentice by Dan Beachy-Quick and Daniel Tiffany's Infidel Poetics. "Over break I read A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. Also The Lectures of Gertrude Stein."

What current or former MFA student doesn't dream of becoming a professor in one of the country's most highly ranked creative writing programs? Amy Quan Barry is living that dream. Herself a graduate of the University of Michigan's MFA program in Creative Writing, she is a full professor in the University of Wisconsin's Creative Writing program. According to the program's website, she has received fellowships from Stanford and the National Endowments for the Arts, among other entities. In an email, she wrote: "During break I read: Salvage the Bones, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 1Q84, [and] Yellow Dog."

Last of all, Lisa Rosenbaum is the author of one of my favorite books A Day of Small Beginnings, which was chosen by Spertus, the Chicago "center for Jewish learning and culture" to inaugurate its One Book| One Community initiative last fall. I was so taken with A Day of Small Beginnings when I read it a few years ago that I emailed Lisa to let her know how taken with it I was. She depicted Kraków as I had always imagined it, as an old-fashioned city with cafes and cobbled streets. "I'm reading Philip Roth's I Married a Communist. Of all things!" she wrote in an email.

I totally get it, though. I read I Married a Communist last school year. Roth immersed me in the 1950s witch hunts—and even convincingly brought the (in my mind anyway) sepia-tinted world of silent film close to me. I raved on over the book, all but insisting my then-housemate read it. She was monumentally unimpressed. Perhaps because, at the age of 85, she remembered what the days of McCarthy were really like.

Winter helps me feel as if I've truly earned whatever warm, sunny weather we eke out here in Wisconsin. It's interesting how different winter reading is from summer or "beach" reading, isn't it?

I am now on Facebook

2012-02-12T15:23:00.001-06:00

Well, sort of. I created a community (?) dealie for Courtney's Israelicious Film Night Series. Also, don't forget to vote for the next film to be screened February 25.So, "like" the Facebook, pretty please.

This semester is going to be incredibly Israelicious! I'm here for you. I promise you can handle this jelly, but, yes, it's sort of mind-blowing all the same. You'll know what I mean a few posts from now.

My Fave Israeli Redux

2012-02-12T14:27:00.000-06:00

I think this 2008 post about my favorite Israeli deserves some love. It's about my oldest friend in Wisconsin Gil Roth--or, as he's known in the literary community, Gil Golan Roth. It's also pretty well written, if I do say so myself. He's an awesome writer and has more marketing experience than you could shake a stick at. Also, he's in talks to become the Israeli-In-Residence at Courtney's Israelicious Film Night Series.

IsraStyle

2012-02-12T13:44:00.000-06:00

A few years ago, I dreamt a guy I'd gone to high school with was telling me that, though he was studying Israeli culture, no one cared about it.

"I took a class in Israeli art history," I said to my douchebag interlocutor.

The next mise-en-scène is Cafe LuLu in Milwaukee's Bayview neighborhood almost a year before the dream at a neighbor's birthday party. I am talking to a woman who has recently been in Paris. Her perfume wafts at me, and for a moment I'm rather convinced I'm in Tel Aviv, not Milwaukee. She is wearing Cabotine, a fragrance my brain apparently will forever associate with the European girls with whom I attended ulpan.*

I realized several years ago how influential Israel was on my own sense of style. I can admit that outfits in the college photos of myself before I went to Israel are--frankly--tragic. I didn't spring to life, Athena-like, with a fully developed sense of line and proportion! I returned from Tel Aviv at the age of 21 with a pair of Naots, a watch with a domed blue crystal, a pair of velour hip-huggers with fuschia flowers on a black background, a strappy LBD I bought from a chain they don't have in the U.S., a hippie skirt in several shades of blue brocade and a pair of black patent Guess platforms. It was in Israel that I (unconsciously) developed the three-pair rule of jeans from observing my German roommate. (Germans do figure interestingly in my style trajectory. I had begged a German friend coming to visit for my 20th birthday to buy a perfume I couldn't get in the U.S. as a birthday gift. He gave me Cerruti 1881. I still had it when I left for Israel a year later, of course. Girls of all nationalities asked what it was.) Inspired by the Ethiopian Jewish girls I'd befriended at Tel Aviv University, I immediately set out in search of a long a-line black skirt and tall black shoes when I returned to the U.S. In short, I'd pretty much had to go across the world to get a style clue.

And I can admit that the summer after I returned in 1997 my friends and I were insufferable as only (self-conscious) undergrads who have studied abroad can be. Ah! those days--of walking to the art-house video rental to pick a Spanish movie and wait while my friend Paul whipped up a flan. Of Paul twirling me around in the living room of the house Mary and I shared that summer to remixes of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." I insisted on vodka and absolutely no beer in 40-oz bottles for our parties. Luis and I both fell asleep in front of Jeunet's Delicatessen on our only "date." There was a great deal of socializing that summer--evidently--to the neglect of some academic obligations. Though Mary did do well enough on the LSAT to enter law school (though she ended up in med school), and I did finish the paper I was writing on Harlem Renaissance lit ahead of schedule. And very interestingly, I actually didn't know anything about Harlem Renaissance novels before I wandered into the Overseas Student Program office at Tel Aviv University and borrowed Nella Larsen's Passing. This is all true; I couldn't make it up if I wanted to.

Twentysomething pretensions aside, the culture and style of Israel affected me in other ways. I had always had "artistic" interests. In the same OSP office I borrowed what is my favorite novel of all time, Black Box, which I have rhapsodized about sufficiently in previous posts. And wandering around the southern Tel Aviv neighborhood Neve Tzedik is where I first heard of Batsheva, which I've also banged on about.

* An ulpan is an intensive Hebrew course.

Announcing the Courtney's Israeli Film Night Series?

2012-02-10T12:33:00.002-06:00

Image from IMDb

More eyes are on the Israeli film industry since Footnote. Of course, I want to protest that I was down with Israeli cinema before all the johnny-come-latelies came and ruined everything. (It was my secret! And now all these posers and hipsters are ruining everything because now it's cool to like Israeli film! Gah!) And I have been; check this out.

If you can't get enough of Israeli film, there's UW-Madison Hillel's Israel Film Festival February 26 to March 1. And, also, because I'm a real fan from back in the day, I'm going to screen awesome Israeli movies at home. Keep your eyes peeled for an invitation. We supply the Bamba.

We're very excited about the inaugural film--Eyes Wide Open.

Help us decide what film we should screen next! View the trailer, then vote at the right. The choices for the next installment are:

Walk on Water
Yossi and Jagger
Jellyfish
After

I Am Obviously Not In Love with Amos Oz

2012-02-10T00:30:00.000-06:00

Photo by Micha Bar-Am/Magnum Photos.

Not in the least, of course! He's a bit too old for me. Ah, if I'd been born 20--or even 10!--years earlier, well, who knows...

At any rate, since I started revising the "novel" I started as an undergrad, I've reread my favorite Oz work, Black Box; read To Know a Woman and A Tale of Love and Darkness ; and even finished My Michael. (I've also reread A.B. Yehoshua's novel The Lover and, since school started, finished Late Divorce.) I even skimmed the odd book of Oz crit.

I first read Black Box in 1996 when I was studying abroad at Tel Aviv University. It was for many years my favorite book. I was moved by the characters' ability to bare themselves to each other emotionally. Of course, time and distance (the novel takes the form of letters and telegrams) probably facilitated that openness. Years later, I reread it and was like, What was I on about? Having reread it in the past weeks, I'm like, What was I thinking? This book is absolutely brilliant!! This time, I especially noted the homoerotic currents between Alex, Michel, and Manfred. I've found the way Oz handles sexuality very interesting. What I mean by that is that he's evocative, rather than graphic. This is fascinating to me because evoking invites the reader into a coauthorship--a filling in of the gaps.

If I had a literary wish I'd grill Amos Oz about Black Box. Where did the idea come from? Literary wish part B would be grilling his translator Nicholas de Lange. I'm like, How does he do it? What does the original Hebrew have to be like?Written by angels?!

AWP in Chicago

2011-12-16T17:25:00.000-06:00

Another event I'm looking forward to in Chicago this spring is the Association of Writers & Writing Program's annual conference. There seem to be hundreds of sessions. I'm especially interested in the one by public radio bigshots like Starlee Kine.

National Book Award-winning poet Nikky Finney is a featured presenter.

I'm volunteering.

Photo of Nikky Finney from nikkyfinney.net.

Israelicious

2011-12-16T17:09:00.000-06:00

I first heard of Batsheva in 1998 when I studied abroad in Israel. I subsequently fell in love with Israeli contemporary dance. It is absolutely unlike anything else the balletomane will see. It's weird, propulsive, and completely beautiful.

I last saw Batsheva in 2002--and I had to go all the way from Iowa to New York. Batsheva will be in Chicago in March.

Watch below.

I ♥ SERRV

2011-11-28T11:00:00.000-06:00

I worked at SERRV during the 2004-2005 school year. And I'm working there again now! The people who come in are generally very nice and quite easy to talk to. I was first introduced to fair trade and SERRV through my undergraduate involvement at Ecumenical Christian Ministries (ECM) at University of Kansas. (Hi, Thad!)It brightens my day to go in and interact with the people who come in, really.

What has changed? Well, I'm quite impressed by the uptick in desirability and quality of everything from ceramics to MarketPlace clothing to jewelry to baskets to furniture. Also, the current store manager's background in art means the space is always impressively arranged.

This semester I've bought a dress, a jacket-y thing, churidars, scarves, mittens, many baskets, a mug, measuring spoons, Singing Rooster coffee from Haiti, three different types of yarn, crochet hooks, chocolate, a trivet, placemats, coasters, a rug made from old saris--as well as one of the cubes pictured above, which makes a handy little table.

Also, there is much affordable, beautiful jewelry from around the world. And don't miss out on the baskets for which SERRV is rightly well known.

Fair trade is affordable. It's the right thing to do. Dress your family and furnish your home in fair trade and secondhand.

The photo above is from SERRV's website.

Happy Jewish Book Month!

2011-11-27T16:00:00.001-06:00

I'm a little late out of the gate with this, but there are, like, still three days left! So, Happy Jewish Book Month!

I want to congratulate Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum, whose book A Day of Small Beginnings, which I recommend for anyone wondering how to celebrate Jewish Book Month, was chosen for Spertus's One Book | One Community initiative. I read her book a few years ago and emailed her about how much I loved it.

Some other suggestions for Jewish Book Month, ahem, from Church of Style's Favorite Books include: Black Box by Amos Oz; Lover of Unreason, a biography of the hyperliterate hussy who stole Ted Hughes from Sylvia Plath; the atmospheric, unbelievably beautiful Suite Française; The Chosen; or the dazzling Mazel. Or revisit Anne Frank's eponymous diary. Or read Erik Larson's new book about William E. Dodd, who sounds like a very interesting person.

Happy reading!

How This Post Happened

2011-09-29T11:05:00.001-05:00

This past summer I, ahem, spent a lot more time on Anthropologie's website than I do now. Meaning: I got more of a life and less money. At any rate, it's a good thing that I'm spending less time on the site.

If you know me, you know that I don't really wear jewelry. But! Earlier this summer I bought a Maasai collar piece (that I haven't worn yet). Toodling around town in the past month, I happened upon Calabash Gifts. There, I bought a couple Ndebele choker-like items. I put them on--and it worked. I didn't feel dangly and busy because they just sort of nestle on one's collarbone in such a way that one forgets one has them on. Nice. So, hmm, maybe collars?

Meanwhile, back at Anthropologie, they'd redone their website. At some point, they've included "Featured Artist." Basically, I had reached the point at which I would look at anything on the Anthropologie site--even jewelry, of which I did not consider myself a wearer. I was intrigued by the "collars" or "bibs." (This is known as the "statement jewelry," I suppose.) So, I clicked on "Featured Artist: Marion Vidal." I liked her jewelry, which reminds me of candy and gumballs. Nipping over to her website, I saw that the only stockist in the U.S. is Maryam Nassir Zadeh in New York. So, I checked out her website and learned about a new boutique.

Of course, part of the power (and dread!) of the Internet is discovering where it can lead you. I never would have heard of Refinery 29 if I didn't check "Rag Trade" on jezebel.com every day. God knows I never would've heard of Carven without Refinery. And not having heard of Carven would be completely unacceptable because that's the cool fashion blogger label. I wouldn't have heard of Fancy Treehouse if I hadn't been mucking around on N.E.E.T.'s blog because new issue wasn't up yet.

I forget where this photo is from.

Shopbop.com To It!

2011-09-24T17:43:00.000-05:00

Some brands I wish shopbop.com carried:

Rachel Comey (I mean, how can you not???)
Isabel Marant
Carven
Eairth
Gary Graham
Marni (sigh)

Speaking of Faythe

2011-09-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

You probably know Faythe Levine as Art vs. Craft Lady. And Handmade Nation Lady. She's a curator and artist in her own right, as well. You've probably seen her table at Milwaukee's East Side Green Market. Her latest project is movie about sign painters. Hand-painted signs are delightful, aren't they? Sort of a surprise and subterranean delight in our network, digitized world.

I saw Faythe this past summer at said market. She was wearing a dress I assumed was a vintage find. The dress was from Anthropologie, it turns out. I was intrigued. So Faythe Levine knew from Anthropologie? I guess I hadn't thought it would have been on her radar. What else didn't I know about what she was wearing? Why not interview her?

Faythe was game when I asked for an interview, but she's kinda busy. So, I guess I'll get to the Faythe Levine Personal Style Interview a little bit later.

Just So You Know

2011-09-05T23:43:00.005-05:00

Vintage Madison is holding its second ever Fall Fashion Show at High Noon Saloon on Wednesday (that would be September 7).

I had the chance to interview fashion show coordinator/Vintage Madison member/Wanderlost Vintage doyenne Jess Parvin the Saturday before classes started here in Madison. I realized I had not described myself to her—nor had she to me. I knew who she was the instant I saw her, though. She was wearing a pair of sandals I thought were from Anthropologie (!), a full skirt with a colorful print, and a strappy little gamine top.

We had the chance to talk, and I am convinced Jess is living the dream. All vintage all the time. I’m convinced anyone making a living of secondhand is living the dream.

High Noon Saloon September 7. Vintage Madison pop-up shop at the Project Lodge September 11 and through the following week.

Illustration of Jess by, I'm assuming, Jess.

What If?

2011-09-05T00:43:00.003-05:00

What if fashion labels were nothing like what we know now? (I was thinking this recently. I wasn't sure what that meant. What would it mean if labels, in fact, were nothing like what they are now? What would that mean? What would they be like instead?) What if there weren’t shows every season? What if clothing made today were made as well as it was 50 or 60 years ago? Why do we have to have the fashion system we have now?

Why do we have to act as if every dress and pair of pants is completely “amazing” when it’s the same thing (e.g. “folkloric” or “white” or “trousers” or “ladylike”) as it ever was? Why do we have to act as if we “get” something that’s quite far beyond everyone else? Yuck.

Why spend so much money on marketing instead of just making better stuff? Is that a naïve question?

Second what if: what if fashion blogs weren’t talking about shopping all the time? Sure, there are street style blogs—but their raison d'être is photos. And it’s not as if there’s a diversity of style images. What about thoughtful writing or criticism? Another naïve question?

And what if domestic apparel manufacturing were reborn in the U.S.? In the none-too-distant future, fuel prices (and cotton prices, too?) will make manufacturing in China for the domestic market unthinkable. This country has a strong production history, but it was jettisoned in search cheap production. Solid jobs disappeared, leaving shitty service sector jobs in their wake. Of course service sector jobs pay less, which means less disposable income to buy the goods now cheaply made overseas. Very Gift of the Magi.

For these reasons, I think I’ll be buying second-hand and Fair Trade as much as possible for a while. Alexander Wang does not need my money.

Bloggers Gonna (Irregularly, It Would Seem) Blog

2011-08-10T20:46:00.003-05:00

What can I say? There was a little hiatus there. During which I've had the opportunity to look at and think about other people's blogs. There are things I need to do better. I just need more photos. I need to post more regularly. And I need to get on top of my marketing game.

I'm really excited about "rededicating" myself to Church of Style. I have ideas for posts (that I'm actually writing down!) and some plans. Right now, for example, I'm waiting to for interview responses from DIY doyenne Faythe Levine. Another thing is that I "get" what Church of Style is as a blog. It's a lot "wordier," more verbal, more literate, than other blogs. Yep. It is. I will not be using the word "amazing" to describe everything. And that's ok. My posts are often sort of essays. And I like that.

Anthropologie Student

2011-08-10T20:30:00.002-05:00

Oh, I see what you did there, Anthropologie. Riffing on fall’s brights trend in your own time-honored not-so-post-colonial, appropriating manner. In other words: getting Afropop chic on everyone’s ass. Characterized by bright, flaring color with prints, patterned tights, ladylike proportions, and “eccentric” heels. Exhibit A: page 4 in the August 2011 catalogue. Other examples on pages 2, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 31, 32, 40, and 42 of same.

And that’s kind of ok. I like Afropop chic! And, I mean, it’s better than the oh, so tired cardigan-and-emerald-green-or-some-such-pants take on brights—am I right?

But, argh, I hate myself for loving “Anthro!” I can’t break free from the things that it [sells]. I’m a fool for their art direction—their visual displays are such eye candy! Their catalogues and web design are pretty brilliant.

Anthropologie’s socioeconomic issues—to say nothing of its Santorum-loving CEO—have been well documented on jezebel.com. What has implications for my creativity and, thus, my style, is the way this chain positions itself as a one-stop shopping extravaganza for all the bourgeois bohemian flea market-like goodness you’ll ever need or want. The thing is that—as in so many aspects of life—nothing worth having is easily achieved. The “look,” the culture, the texture, the development the eye for such factors that Anthropologie apes is truly an art. It takes time and practice. Browsing stores and boutiques, thrifting, flea-marketing; reading magazines, books, blogs, researching, following obsessions; looking at, well, the whole spectrum of visual culture and finding inspiration—isn’t onerous work—but it’s work nonetheless. That’s how I build relationships with artists, designers, shopkeepers, and others; that’s how I develop my eye to create the kind of material culture and projects around myself to give my life beauty and meaning.

I’m mistaken if I think I can outsource that to Anthroplogie or anyone else. Not just mistaken—but lazy and stupid, as well.

Untitled

2010-12-13T17:02:00.002-06:00

It's perhaps unsurprising that the Church's future was a bit, well, up in the air. What with the lack of posts and all. Which could be chalked up to existential issues, blah blah blah.

But the Church is back. Back for a number of reasons: because I still dream about clothing; plot the perfect winter ensemble (LATEBREAKING: there are multiple perfect winter ensembles! Gah!); and look at style blogs.I regret not having done anything for the Church's fifth anniversary, but there's always the sixth, yeah?

I've got some ideas that I think will be fun.

Very First Church Event

2010-04-18T15:06:00.003-05:00

I first encountered Ibsen during the Fall 1994 semester as an undergraduate fulfilling the English requirement and was really sort of taken with them. Since then, I've associated wintertime with reading his plays.

In honor of Syttende Mai, Norway's official national holiday, Church of Style is hosting a dramatic reading of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at Boswell Book Company on May 17 at 7PM. (Also, the best party I've ever been to in my life was a Syttende Mai party.)

Madison drama diva Martha E. White will appear as Nora.

Boswell Book Company is located at 2559 N. Downer Avenue in beautiful Milwaukee, WI.

Jeremy Scott ♥ Ms. Kansas?

2010-03-11T10:38:00.005-06:00

Whew! It's been a while since the last post. MK has been tussling with a master's program in Media Studies since last fall, and, thus far, the program is winning.

Anywho, the Church has experienced a radical spike in Google Alerts since mid-February. And, of course, the reason for that is that designer and Kansas City native Jeremy Scott showed his Fall 2010 collection titled (wait for this) Church of Style on Ash Wednesday.

Mr. Scott, have your people call my people. It's great to be loved.

MK in the Media (Studies)

2009-10-25T17:36:00.000-05:00

August was so long ago. Plans. Did MK have plans. She was going to do a blog post titled "Slanted and Disenchanted" about the first Church of Style pilgramage. To PDX. But that did not happen because, well, school happened to Ms. Kansas. Ms. Kansas is in graduate school now for Media Studies.

Church Pilgrimage

2009-08-01T13:35:00.003-05:00

The first ever blog post from Portland on the first ever church pilgrimage. I arrived in Portland yesterday. It was hot like it gets in Kansas, which is obviously unusual for Portland--or Oregon, in general. I am staying in the southeastern part of the city in a very cool house.

Last night after I showered up I went over to Hawthorne. As I mentioned in a tweet, the kids over there pretty much looked like the kids in Milwaukee who shop at Yellow Jacket. Blah, blah, blah--the flattening of fashion and regional differences, etc.

I was thrilled at how easy it was to use the bus system here. It was really fast! Which is the complete opposite of public transit in Milwaukee. Damn you, Scott Walker, you corporate boot-licking bumpkin!

I thought I was going to find my spiritual home here, but I've been like, Um, ok. There are plenty of BMW-driving jerks and yupparents who won't or can't make their designer babies mind. I guess nothing could meet my Mt. Hood-like expectations, really.

But I haven't been to Seaplane yet, though.

Have Her People Call My People

2009-07-09T11:00:00.003-05:00

Woo, y'all, I know it's been a while! Moving, Michael Jackson's death...

Here I am taking a break to check out Paper's always fab website. And I did not know Ms. Janelle Monáe was a Friend of Friends of Dorothy! But I knew I could not the only fabulous Black girl outta Kansas!

I loved me some "Call The Law!" She's an Church interview priority.

Photo by Jiro Schneider for Paper magazine.

Tweet!

2009-05-22T16:58:00.002-05:00

The Church now twitters. I guess.

Fountains of Wayne

2009-05-08T16:46:00.001-05:00

What with all the Pitchfork 2009 updates I've been getting in the past few weeks, The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne has been much on my mind. It's no surprise I would big up this Oklahoman (it was as an 18-year-old Oklahoma Christian University student that I actually first heard of The Flaming Lips and "She Don't Use Jelly"), having ancestral connections to that rootin', tootin' state myself, now, is it?

But more than that! Wayne Coyne is ever the distinguished gentleman of indie rock. In a story that appeared in The Telegraph last month he credits his wife for helping him bring the hot, hot heat, style-wise. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that he's a fancy-schmancy, high-concept auteur. He has to be the hottest guy named Wayne alive--and there are a hell of a lot of them in Oklahoma.

Photo from nypost.com.

Ra Ra Rad

2009-04-18T12:06:00.000-05:00

It looks like Ra Ra Riot is selling out shows left, right, and center! I first heard the Syracuse band's music on NPR and fell in love with "Oh, La," which reminds me of nothing so much as walking around the southern Milwaukee neighborhood Bayview in December. (Something to do with the quality of light looking toward the lake in winter and the tenable melancholy that comes across in Ra Ra Riot's music, I guess.) They play in support of 2008'sThe Rhumb Line in Waukesha, WI, tomorrow.

Image from rarariot.com.

Do It Again/Change Clothes

2009-03-31T20:06:00.001-05:00

I'm happy to say Milwaukee now has a boutique-style resale clothing store. (Arizona Trading Company--the premier boutique-style resale store as far as I'm concerned--was and is the rite of passage for every 18 year old who attends the University of Kansas. Ah, the reminisces! One of the best pairs of jeans I've ever had--vintage Jordaches that fit like a dream--was from ATC. I unloaded the Fluevogs that never fit there in, like, 2004.) Conceptually and practically sweet: clothes that are new to you, but not the environment. And it's good finally to have that space in the Alterra building filled.

NoTORIously Attracted To Sin

2009-03-25T16:43:00.004-05:00

I simply must big up co-former Christian fundamentalist Perez Hilton object of worship Tori Amos. Her new album, the appropriately named Abnormally Attracted to Sin, is out May 19. Like you didn't know, right?

Photo from Tori's myspace page.

Dittohead

2009-03-21T12:56:00.006-05:00

Ha ha! Dittohead--get it? Right now Beth Ditto is the only thing on my mind cuz I'm on a quest to interview her for Curve. "Dittohead" is scarily appropriate because, as I've said as recently as yesterday, I was a teenage Christian fundamentalist. And, actually, I very much wanted to and almost attended church of Christ-affiliated Harding University in Searcy, AR, near where Beth Ditto grew up. (Instead, I attended Oklahoma Christian University, one of Harding's sister schools, my first year of college.) Though, even as an adolescent church of Christer I thought Rush Limbaugh was a great, sloshing douchebag and a racist.

How utterly appropriate that I out myself as a former church of Christ kid in the blog post about the woman who is in all likelihood The Coolest Lesbian in The World. (Visualize a virulently homophobic, anti-woman, bumptiously literal, fornication-obsessed Christian sect singing a capella.That's the church I grew up in!) Having grown up with shared cultural lexicon--adjacent geographical region, similar religious milieux--I'm really interested in her fashion evolution.

Larissa James photo from Gossip's myspace page.

My First Fracas

2009-03-15T17:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was an exhausting jeans quest. Gil and I covered Gap, Target, Old Navy, Anthropologie, the Boston Store, American Eagle (oy vey!), and Macy's--pausing from our toil only to fortify ourselves with a delish lunch at Swagat's buffet. During our intermezzo in Sephora, Gil signed off on my purchase of a cute little Fracas eau de parfum roll-on.

See It

2009-03-13T16:38:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was very busy. Not only was there Jazz at Lincoln Center on Sunday and Riverwest Follies on Saturday, but also I saw Waltz With Bashir last Friday evening. I went with a friend whose first language is Hebrew, not that that helped my comprehension--but it is an intoxicating language. It's a goddamn good thing I didn't shilly-shally about going last week since it's no longer screening at The Downer. I would like to see it again because there is too much to absorb on the first go-round. The first few scenes drew me in--cuz who doesn't love a moody night in Tel Aviv? And I especially liked the music.

Image from waltzwithbashir.com.

Jazz Cats

2009-03-11T12:37:00.000-05:00

I thought this blog post was going to be about seeing those Lincoln Center jazz cats here in Milwaukee this past Sunday--and how young Milwaukee native Dan Nimmer really got the spirit on the piano on "Weary Blues." About how going to hear jazz ends up being--or should (I hope there's a special place in hell for people who go to evening concerts in jeans and white athletic shoes)--a style event. Because jazz cats do have a history of looking sharp and being sophisticated.

Um, but it's not. It's about me. Well, sort of about me. I realized my Sunday preparations would be great material for the fictionalized doings of a thirtysomething who realizes jazz gigs are the perfect place to meet the kind of guys who like her. That made everything sort of meta-hilarious. But, like, really, when am I going to write a novella? So, it's a blog post now. Enjoy!

The Wynton Marsalis--er, Jazz at Lincoln Center--concert was my own personal Oscars. Though, of course, there were no awards given out. And it was a concert. But in the preparing of dresses; fixing of hair by professionals; and hours-long toilette, it was similar. Though, it's true the toilette consisted mostly of me pumicing my feet long and hard enough to break a sweat and some home microderm (read: loosing the pumice on my forearms, calves, and thighs). And also true that my auto-maquillage consisted of Burt's Bees blotting sheets and a Laura Mercier lipstick quite past its expiration. To say nothing of the mani-pedi for which I pressed a toenail clipper into service.

In true Oscar night form, though, I was undecided about what to wear up to the last minute--affected, as almost any woman is aware, by the interlocking relationships of weather, footwear, hosiery, outerwear, etc. Each element was hard-won in its own right. The wrestling of the ends of three braids into one chic clip. The coat choice. The shoe selection. Other people may lie about it--but sometimes comfort and a look are mutually exclusive. There is a season for everything. Sometimes you choose comfort and ruin your silhouette. Sometimes you choose to look ravishing and can't really breathe. It's all about the interlocking relationships. I chose the Doc Marten in the end because there was that snow over rain business outside--and my Danskos would have put me in a sorry state. Though, happily, it turned out ok--Soviet granny is my look for this winter, after all.

For the most harrowing part of the evening Meryl Streep had nothing on me. All factors considered, I chose--surprise, surprise!--the ever-trusty, ever-tightening, spangly black dress. My dismay at finding my dress wouldn't zip--oh, how can it be told? Oh, god, no more sweets ever! I really have to get all Madonna about abdominal exercises now! I thought. Woe! The psychological trauma of one's perfectly proportioned go-to dress...The dress in which one could rest assured one looked great. The dress, not to belabor the point, that was all but magic because of said assurance. And ten minutes before I was to get on the bus for Lincoln Center Jazz, yet? World, world, oh, world! It's hatred of your ups and downs that makes us reconciled....What's that? Dress wasn't zipping because it was caught on my slip? Zzzh! There she goes! I'm not fat! Clearly, there is a god and he or she is in his or her heaven.

Yay For Yigal

2009-02-21T20:41:00.001-06:00

Fashion Week wrapped yesterday in New York--and I want shout out to Yigal Azrouël. He regularly gets big upped in the very downtown-y Paper magazine. Stories about him usually refer to his designs for women as "feminine" and/or "body-conscious." (Like my fave Israeli Gil, he grew up with a lotta sisters.) I would describe it as "sinuous." And clever. When I saw his clothes featured in the March 2009 issue of In Style yesterday I thought, Yay for him!

Photo from papermag.com by Caroline Torem Craig

Campesinos Very Near You

2009-02-11T16:08:00.004-06:00

In Turner Hall Ballroom, in fact. As if a Madison show weren't enough. April 3 at 8PM for $13. Be there or be not-Britcool.

You! (Will) Be! Dancing!

2009-02-03T10:43:00.003-06:00

Just a wee shout-out to everyone's fave Welsh band. That's performing in Madison at Der Rathskeller on February 6 at 9PM. For, uh, free.

Well, hope you brought your jumpers, kids!

Image of Los Campesinos! from The Guardian.

Hype. Literate.

2009-01-03T13:30:00.000-06:00

The 15th Annual Poetry Marathon at Woodland Pattern is scheduled for January 31. Nearly all the spots have been filled! As I've said in the past, you cannot sleep on Poetry Marathon. Beginning at 11AM, this is an awesome, unique event that reps Milwaukee and the Riverwest 'hood extraordinarily well. Poetry, performances, partial nudity, if we're lucky--rub shoulders with neighbors and literati alike.

Party Like It's 1929

2008-12-29T17:12:00.001-06:00

I recently read Indiana University English professor George B. Hutchinson's biography of the Harlem Renaissance writer In Search of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line. (I read Thadious M. Davis's biography in 1997 when I did a paper about Harlem Renaissance writers.) I'm fascinated with the way I misapprehended Larsen's life. Of course, Hutchinson did a stunning amount of detective work. I had assumed Larsen kind of "dropped out" after her brush with plagiarism. But she just breezed on through that and got her Guggenheim on.

What struck me about this book was all the partying those people did. Of course, that fits in with our ideas of what the 1920s were about--gin and short skirts! But, of course, Nella Larsen knew some fancy-schmancy people. But every time you turn around it's cocktails, dinners, teas, balls, card parties, nightclubs, galas, theatre excursions, dancing! I was writhing with envy. Our DVDs and Internet friends in the early 21st century are so paltry in comparison. I'd rather write lots and lots of letters, go to little parties where there's a punchbowl, and wear gloves.

Thanks For the Makeup Tips, Pete Wentz

2008-12-26T14:02:00.000-06:00

Yep, that's my eye. I bit Pete Wentz's style. Of course, I don't rock my maquillage nearly as heavily as he does. And I think mascara is completely wack. Still, I wanted to see what happened when I caulked on the eyeliner (I used the Prescriptives Deluxe Eye Pencil in black), smudged it around utilizing the sophisticated technology of my finger, then went to bed with it on. I had seen some guyliner featurette maybe last year--and had wanted to try it myself. This is what holiday boredom leads to...

Bitchtastic

2008-12-22T12:10:00.004-06:00

The new issue of Bitch is out. Yay! And I spent most of Saturday night/wee hours of Sunday morning reading it. It's sort of funny, isn't it, that Bitch is still around--economic downturn notwithstanding--and its nemesis JANE fell long ago, a victim of its own inner decay? And an asshole parent company that decided it would "not fulfill [the parent company's] long-term business expectations," good circulation figures be damned.

Also, Bitch is launching the B-Hive, which allows contributors to sustain Bitch with monthly contributions.

And, of course, I'm very happy to have had my two little ditties published in the lastest issue.

Above quote from Jane Pratt wikipedia.

Image from bitch.com.

Pins and Needles

2008-12-18T12:43:00.000-06:00

Last night I went to Pins and Needles at Cream City Collectives for the second time. This fab idea brings together a group of women and men to work on their craft projects, listen to LPs, and chat. Last night we had Nina Simone and the Dirty Dancing soundtrack on the record player, among others. There are also treats--this time pink-frosted chocolate cupcakes and popcorn seasoned with spices and nutritional yeast. I had so much fun!

I helped Mary, who is a wonderful force at the space, cut up bras for the bra quilt for Danceworks performance The Bra Project next month. It was incredibly satisfying to work with my hands, to see the results of what I was doing. I had really been craving that. Pins and Needles is from 6-8 PM on Wednesdays.

Image from www.danceworksmke.org.

My Fave Israeli Lives in Wisconsin

2008-12-13T18:44:00.007-06:00

My fave Israeli is not--as you might expect--literary wunderkind Etgar Keret, whom I met in Iowa (!) and who has the same birthday as mine. Neither is it Eytan Fox, whose birthday is the day after mine, who has directed Yossi and Jagger, Walk On Water, and The Bubble.

Nope, my fave Israeli, pictured above, is Gil Roth, one of my oldest friends from Madison. I think of Gil first of all as a writer. That's what he's passionate about. That's what we end up talking about--the books we've read...or want to write. A few years ago we even assayed a treatment for a film. Last week when I saw him Gil checked out Lover Of Unreason, the biography of Ted Hughes paramour Assia Wevill--which I had been recommending for ever so long.

Fluent in Hebrew, English, Italian, and Arabic, Gil grew up most of his life in Israel. He attended high school in Madison--his father is an Emeritus Professor at the university--and has been living in the U.S. since. (He lived in New York around the same time I did.) All of this makes Gil sound very much the sophisticate, which he is.

Gil is not only a devastatingly talented, charming, and good-looking devil, he is also a very good friend. During the debacle in which I exhibited the most singularly horrifying judgement of my romantic career, he did not breathe "I told you so," once--even though he so had. Gil has also helped me move--unambiguously the mark of a true friend. Also, there have been really fun times with him--going to parties, bars, the movies, a cafe--that were for all the world like the smartest indie sitcom you could ever imagine.

Sometimes Gil astounds me with his observations about human nature and relationships. He is a very generous person, so people want to tell him their stories. During the longest and best conversations I've had with him, I've realized I'm not alone--there are other people out there with problems like mine. And you could go through life thinking everything was going perfectly for everybody else. So, my admittedly sappy-sounding hope is to help Gil be the best and truest-to-himself person he can be.

The Book of Courtney: Anne Frank, Jewishness, Readership, and Don't Forget Happy Jewish Book Month!

2008-12-02T14:00:00.006-06:00

I am one of Anne Frank's descendants. So to speak. (So, it's wildly appropriate that I am right now reading Ellen Feldman's The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank.) I read Anne Frank's eponymous diary at 13 and was inspired--the idea was one that had always appealed to me--to start my own. It is a practice I've kept for almost 20 (!) years.

I'm not very analytical or (at least I hope) self-obsessed about "my writing," but I do realize my style and voice were formed by both my journal-keeping and having read rather a good quantity of Victorian literature by the time I was 14. The wit evidenced in this blog (it galls me when male acquaintances exclaim, surprised, "Your blog is funny!" Why, yes, dipshits; I'm hilarious, actually) was honed by diary entries cataloguing, a tad snidely, perhaps, the absurdities offered to me by the world--and I it. Most importantly, though, keeping a journal or diary got me writing on a regular basis, made writing a habit. And, of course, the regular habit of writing does have the added benefit of putting one on a nodding basis with the likes of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Or, more than that, it became natural for me to express myself or even to think in writing and words. Which is, I hear, important for people who write.

Last week I finished reading Elisa Albert's The Book of Dahlia, a book brought to my attention--like Feldman's--by the Jewish Book Month display at my local library branch. Though I found the style a bit too junk food-y for my liking, I'm very glad to have come across it. It was of interest to me because it, in part, dealt with an American woman's experience of Israel and the Hebrew language. And I realized, come to it, that my experience of reading and writing is actually very much rooted in the Jewish experience. (See Anne Frank above.)

Judy Blume's Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself was my first experience with the Jewish experience--if I hadn't read that book I wouldn't have spent a semester at Tel Aviv University, studied Hebrew, or learned about the Holocaust. (In an amazing aside, it was actually in Israel that I first heard of Harlem Renaissance novelist Nella Larsen and read her books Quicksand and Passing.) My favorite book for many years was Amos Oz's Black Box, which I also discovered b'eretz. In fact, my Blogger profile's Favorite Books list would be shite without Jewish writers and Jewish themes.

Reading is as necessary as breathing for me. I obviously have to thank my Black goyische education-major mother for instilling that passion, for making sure I became a person of the book.

Craftsexy, Pt. 2

2008-12-01T16:00:00.002-06:00

These are hard times. Recently, NPR interviewed Chicago residents who had lived during through the Depression. Earlier this year I was saying, "Have you noticed no one talks about the Depression anymore? When I was a kid in the 1980s older people talked about it all the time. In our pre-Fall 2008 fantasy world of endless economic growth, it just wasn't done." Well, obviously, people are talking about the Depression again now.

This all makes me think of crafts, honestly. Maybe because here in Milwaukee we just had Art v. Craft, and craft is very sexy right now. I also think it could be a way to bring people together because I think one of the reasons craft is very sexy right now is that people--at least the ones my age--have been actually angry about being separated from their ability to create, do, or make--which is something I think we need to do as human beings (which is perhaps one of the reasons I spent my year at Madison enraged) and pushed to consume. During the 2004 election I was canvassing in Beloit and, somehow, I got started talking with this old lady about the Depression. She said the things I've heard before--that nobody had anything, that people walked everywhere, that people shared and helped each other out. Well, when you think of it--the sharing, the coming together, the community--this could be craft's shiny moment. I don't think necessarily it would save our economy--because I'm very suspicious of the notion of consuming our way out of whatever trouble we're in (cuz that's usually what got us into trouble to begin with). But I think it could help us save ourselves.

Last night I felt a hankering to start researching 1930s crafts. I think it would be great to get together with friends and whip some up. People could have parties! I mean, yes, I've loved the Dirty Thirties for a long time--as a spoiled brat Gen Xer and history dork--for the design and, well, the immediacy. So, let's rent Bonnie and Clyde and bite Faye Dunaway's style; wear the cute little berets and geometrical patterns; organize walking parties and dance marathons; have canning skill shares. You get extra points if your man looks like Clark Gable.

Craftsexy, Pt. 1

2008-11-30T17:22:00.001-06:00

This year I worked the door, giving people little blue x's if they wanted to leave and reenter the premises. Hundreds of people came, economic downturn notwithstanding. Perhaps it was this very economic downturn that caused the surely overtaxed-though-dizzy-with-relief-just-not-to-be-laid-off writer at the no doubt terrified-by-economic-downturn-and-therefore-cutting-costs
Journal Sentinel to mistakenly report the event was free. Who has time for the costly measures of, you know, checking last year's stories or, like, peeping the Art v. Craft website in the tense post-economic downturn newsroom?

At any rate, I enjoyed this year's event much more. I met Max Estes, the soon-to-be-no-longer-local cartoonist and creator of My Life As a Bunny. (He's moving to Norway.) It's obviously not his fault--but I expected him to be more cuddly. But a man who frequently features his cats in his work obviously has a great deal going for him. Max also has two books out Hello, Again and Coffee and Donuts. I also saw Milwaukee art scene It Boy Colin Matthes, Josie Osbourne, Melissa and JW Buchanan of The Little Friends, and several of the usual scenester suspects. I got a look at Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design, which features Michigander Melissa Dettloff. Yay!

I was impressed by three vendors in particular. Rustbelt Fiberwerks hails from right here in the Riverwest 'hood in Milwaukee. Artist Leah Parkhurst, who has a BFA from UWM, crafts items like t-shirts, aprons, and placemats. Her work is charming and affordable. She has an etsy site, of course.

Skirts by Orangyporangy of Madison are dead cute! It's not just polyester anymore, girls! The designer Natalie makes dresses and tops now, too.

I love ceramics and wish I did them myself. So, it stands to reason I would love Chicago's Circa Ceramics. Made by Nancy Pizarro and Andy Witt, their wares come in candy store colors and feature retro-y graphics. I bought the magnet in the photo above for a typewriter-loving friend. Their ceramics are also available at the store at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

All in all, I enjoyed myself immensely. I saw all different kinds of people there, including two men--one of them Packers-jacketed--and a little boy and several middle-aged women. So, it's like people are starting to think, Yeah, this is a Milwaukee thing.

Folk Universe

2008-11-12T11:39:00.000-06:00

Vetiver goes on tour next month--opening for, um, The Black Crowes on some dates--in support of their new record Thing of the Past. They will be in Milwaukee Dec. 7 at the Eagles Ballroom/Club/Whatever. Friend of Church of Style and cellist Alissa Anderson will be on the road with them. So, uh, you know how that goes...

They're A Band

2008-11-11T22:12:00.002-06:00

Sweated by the likes of Spin magazine, Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino, of the eponymous Brooklyn duo Matt and Kim, are playing a free all ages show in Madison this coming Saturday at Union South. Check them out.

Let Your Folk Flag Fly

2008-11-10T15:30:00.006-06:00

This past Friday Texan alt-country chanteuse and fiddler extraordinaire Carrie Rodriguez performed at the Pabst--bringing along an excellent backing band, which included an utterly scruptious (oh, and talented) guitar player. A maturing songwriter and instrumentalist, she is also a winsome vocalist.

Rodriguez definitely has the ear, so to speak, of NPR, and the Pabst crowd tellingly skewed toward the middle-aged, one that remained emphatically seated--no matter how irresistibly rollicking the tune. Nonetheless, it took me back to my girl-with-guitar music college days.

Hopefully, though, any demographic can enjoy excellent musicianship. My favorite tunes included "Dirty Leather" and "St. Peter's." Her set list, as far as I was able to discern, is as follows:

1. Dirty Leather
2. Seven Angels on a Bicycle
3. Infinite Night
4. Absence
5. Grace
6. 50's French Movie
7. I Don't Want To Play House Anymore
8. Waterbound
9. Let Me In
10. Steal Your Love (Lucinda Williams)
11. She Ain't Me
12. Confessions
13. You Won't Be Satisfied That Way
14. El Salvador
15. Rag Doll
16. Never Gonna Be Your Bride
17. La Puñalada Trapera
Encore
1. ??
2. St. Peter's

Photo by Courtney Becks

Karma Neighborhood Watch

2008-11-03T12:19:00.000-06:00

I was walking around Riverwest yesterday afternoon and starting singing "Ooh, Child." (I'd heard the Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic" earlier.) I'm currently looking for a job, so I was singing to myself. It occurred to me, though, that I was singing to all of us. At this point in our political and economic history, we all need to believe things will get easier, brighter.

We need Obama to win. I, like many people, have been almost too afraid to hope! We've seen Republicans lie, cheat, and steal their way to two presidential elections in as many election cycles. It's their specialty by now. Why would they stop this year? If we hope in Obama, and--god forbid!!--we don't win, there seems nothing to do but tumble headlong into the abyss of despair and bitterness. But we have to hope. We have to be able to imagine the better world.

It is perhaps true that certain populations look on Barack Obama as if he were nothing less than a savior--in every sense of the word. That may or may not be a bit co-dependent, but I say to you there is nothing not revolutionary about a Black man as President of the United States. No one familiar with this country's history would suggest otherwise. Obama as President will not wipe out the pain of the country's unjust history by any means, but--by his very existence as a biracial man who is Black and white--we could begin to bring racism's affect on our past and present out into the open. We could talk about it, and, yea, begin to lay our heavy burdens down.

I sat writing this blog post waiting for the 5PM service to begin at the First Unitarian Society in Milwaukee. Imagine my surprise when I heard the sounds of a song from my last year of college being practiced by the pianist in the sanctuary. "Karma Police" just got me where I live. So, today and tomorrow, I'm going to be praying this prayer: Please, please, please, you've got to help us. Please help us. We're scared.

Photo from huffingtonpost.com.

Arty/Crafty

2008-11-01T19:23:00.000-05:00

Today I made the earrings pictured above at a really fun and interesting enameling workshop at UWM's Studio Arts and Crafts Centre. I'm glad I went. Everyone really got into it, which was really great--cuz sometimes people are like, Eh, whatever. This is stupid, infuriating many and ruining the class for some. Maybe because of the rising popularity of crafting and the theory couched therewithin? It's just so satisfying to actually make something, you know? One of the editors of Art Jewelry was also there--and I gave her one of the CoS buttons.

The people staffing the Arts and Crafts Centre were art education majors. I admire art education folk so much. Artists are such clever people, problem-solvers, really. They get such a bad rap; I mean, people think it's expendable or not serious, but art majors have serious skills. They can build shit, paint shit, make posters, make jewelry, draw, etc--which are obviously absolutely essential.

Thrill Seeking

2008-10-29T22:06:00.014-05:00

I got a review copy of Michael Zadoorian's new book The Leisure Seeker last week. I read it and am currently trying to come up with some decent interview questions for him. (Dipshit interviews happen to be my pet peeve. Which is why, ahem, the interview process is so lengthy for me. I'm just saying...)

I found myself revisiting the novel's ending (which I obviously won't give away here) earlier this week (like, Jeez, in a way, it was kinda bogus they did that) and thinking about the continuing presence of (personal) history and stuff in MZ's writing.

Oh, and Michael Z does now have a myspace page. And I'm one of his friends... And he does appear to be cute... Which is really important.

Image from michaelzadoorian.com.

La Josephine Bake Sale

2008-10-15T17:36:00.002-05:00

Design by Eric Zimmermann

Tasty, Non?

2008-10-09T12:47:00.003-05:00

The world's first ever Josephine Bake Sale, as far as I know, is scheduled for October 18 starting at 4PM at Cream City Collectives, 732 E. Clarke, as a fundraiser for Dave "English Muffin" Mahoney. The event will feature yummy baked goods and a little hoochie-koochie entertainment. All for a good cause, my damies.

A Prose Poem For Miss Natalie

2008-10-03T17:22:00.004-05:00

Dear Miss Natalie,

I saw on your website how you are callin yourself "Alabama" now.
Too obvious to mention the legend that they started calling the playwright "Tennessee" in Iowa, isn't it?

Anyhow, I would dearly love to come visit you. I imagine we'd drink some sweet tea. Gone from hot to cold. And still ever so nice. Repair to the late afternoon and shade of a rocking chair.

Pick some stitches--or seed pearls with you. Knit one, purl two.

I'm feeling a bit sheepish since my mama's from Oklahoma. (Daddy from Texas.) But "Oklahoma" and "Alabama" have similar music--I think you'd agree. Though, for sure,"Oklahoma" is the less attractive younger sister to beauty pageant winner "Alabama" in a sparkly red dress. And, oh, you all do have the sour music and glamour of Zelda...and Tallulah. And, well, not feeling inadequate at all, but also Harper Lee. And, um, that friend of hers.

Get Your Fest On

2008-09-09T15:34:00.004-05:00

Michelle Tea
Our No. 1 Lesbian Crush is in the Church's neck of the woods September 26 for Decibelle (in Chicago), which is brought to us by the Estrojam folks.

Spring Green Lit Fest
This year features Honor Moore, who, though not the Church's N1LC, is definitely a lesbian. Also features Charles Baxter, an English faculty member at University of Minnesota, who is definitely not. September 12 and 13--as in this weekend, y'all--in the place FLW made (kinda?) famous, Spring Green, WI.

Wisconsin Book Festival
Brought to you by the illustrious Wisconsin Humanities Council October 15 through 19. I fantasize about telling Judy Blume how Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself shaped my life. (I'd know nothing about Israeli modern dance now if I hadn't come across that book as an 8-year-old.) Also features Patricia Smith Pulitzer Prize winner Marilyn Robinson. Milwaukee events include a reading by Richard Russo, a Wisconsin authors night at Schwartz on Downer, and a poetry reading at Woodland Pattern.

Madison Zine Fest
Spurred on by the first annual Milwaukee Zine Fest, perhaps, Mad Zine Fest is back. This year, it's at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Madison. One day only! October 18.

I Should've Done This Yesterday

2008-09-06T12:13:00.002-05:00

I've been fascinated by Present Music's Season Opener, as it features so much old-timey goodness: waltz, Charleston, and ragtime by Your Mother Dances; after-concert musical ambience provided by Milwaukee's neo-vaudeville Scarring Party; and the evocative locale of Turner Hall Ballroom. The program, of course, features John Adam's Son of Chamber Symphony. And I hear tell of a Charleston demo. Sounds like the bee's knees.

Image from Present Music's website.

So Unique

2008-08-31T19:32:00.004-05:00

The Bubble Roome Lavender & Geranium
This offbeat, yet pleasing scent always lingered around Faythe Levine's first Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery location. Chartreuse, another lovely Bayview shop, stocks many different items--Ms. Kansas has tried the lotion and shower gel. So, this unique scent will always remind MSKS of that neighborhood.

Belts
Matching belts--the kind that many vintage dresses come with--are truly a girl's best friend. Waistlines go boldly where they once feared to tred. They give shape to a dress or top that's a little too big, eliminating the nemesis of vintage dress-wearers everywhere, Floppy Shapelessness Syndrome.

Meow Wow

2008-08-28T11:44:00.000-05:00

You've heard of The Alley Cat Revue Milwaukee, right? A spin-off of the weekly (!!) burlesque show in St. Louis, these fine entertainers, led by the sultry Miss Bella Sue DeVianti, strutted their stuff at Stonefly in Riverwest for the first time earlier this month. The show bill featured burlesque artists from as far away as Minneapolis and St. Louis, including the very talented Miss Lola van Ella. It was great! Very profesh. Very polished. Great costumes. Ms. K especially appreciated Lola van Ella's effort as the MC to educate the audience about burlesque and performance--cuz it's more than just boobies. Unfortunately, Ms. Kansas had to leave at intermission because her companions, recovering from a cold, were feeling a bit piqued. Luckily, and to her surprise, MK met and congratulated the bevy of burlesque beauties when they stopped by the Riverwest Co-op the next day during her shift.

Obviously, these ladies don't play. They're planning to make the show a monthly thing. Catch a performance, including a freebie at Starship on August 30, Burlesque Extravaganza, Part 2 at Stonefly on September 12, and the much-anticipated Mondo Lucha at Turner Hall on September 27.

Image from Alley Cat Revue Milwaukee's myspace page.

Talking to (Someone From) the Hand-Shaped State

2008-08-26T21:15:00.003-05:00

Yep, that's the lovely and talented Melissa Dettloff's eye, folks! That's the photo she sent the Church. Though the beloved Lekkner may no longer be with us, this crafty gal's heart goes on—headless unicorn-style.

When and why did you decide to shutter Lekkner?
I decided to close Lekkner in the fall of 2007. I felt like it had its run—it wasn't fitting into my schedule as well because I was working full-time, and it was getting more and more difficult to find time to search for t-shirts and fill orders. It seemed like time to move on to other projects.

What did you do during your stint at VgKids?
I started out part-time redesigning their website and then went full-time working in the office and taking orders from customers—and then from there went on to be a manager (where I did a ton of different things). I loved working there a lot—they are an awesome crew of peeps to work with and damn good at what they do (which is screen-printing).

Are you crafting full-time now?
[Actually], I'm working full-time as a web designer at a community college. I'm always making things in my free time, but in a way that doesn't generate money exactly. Which I almost kind of prefer—it’s more enjoyable and I feel like I have more freedom in what I do.

Will you pleezpleezpleez come to Art v. Craft?!
Sure! I'd love to. I love Art v. Craft. Though if I did, I'm sure it would be to represent a new project—probably not too much like the things I used to make. I've been getting into soft sculpture more these days [rather] than clothing and pouches [I did under Lekkner].

How did the "Steak Is Wack" phenom occur?
I went through an overuse of the word “wack” phase, and, being vegan, it only made sense to bring the two together...

I noticed you're still in Michigan. Do you plan to stay there—or are you gonna move to PDX or Brooklyn?
At the moment, I plan to stay in Michigan—no plans to move anywhere. I don't see myself in Brooklyn; Portland would be more likely. I live in [a cool Michigan community] now, and I really love it here.

Can you describe an easy-fa-sheezy project that a craft chicken like myself would not be too intimidated to start and finish?
Knit a sweater for your bike! This is a project I started recently. I'm interested in knitting, but the payoff takes too long (for me). So, knitting a sweater for your bike is just making flat panels of knitting and then stitching them to your bike frame. Check out hoorayforever.org/?cat=4. (I will finish someday).

What was the most fun or interesting project you worked on during the, um, Lekkner years?
Hmm, it's hard to break it into one thing. The "Lekkner years" were amazing. I was given so many great opportunities and met a lot of awesome people. I liked being invited and going out to Washington, D.C. to speak at a feminist conference. I liked ending up in a book with Amy Sedaris (Tease). Renegades were fun.

What do you wear on a typical day?
I'm pretty simple when it comes to this—I’m pretty jeans-and-t-shirt (though I have a sweet and above average t-shirt collection from my years at VgKids). Sometimes dressed up with a necklace from the thrift store.

What indie designers do you buy and wear?
Preloved is my absolute favorite. I like Anti-Factory, but I can never get on there quick enough to grab something before it sells out! Valerie is doing nice things with dear birthday these days.

How would you describe your style?
Practical, slightly/barely interesting...I always wake up too late in the morning before work to put much thought into it!

Do you thrift a lot?
Yes! Thrifting rules.

Please tell me about the projects you're working on or involved with [lately].
Boy...well, one of the two big ones is the Severed Unicorn Head Superstore—for which I had an event June 22 and prepar[ed] for by sewing up headless unicorn bodies, lumpy rainbows and the like. The other big one [wa]s a biannual arts event some friends and I have been organizing the past few years called the Shadow Art Fair. We take applications for artists/makers of things to display their work for 12 hours twice a year and round the day out with live music and other fun things. We [had been] able to raise enough money through this event offer up an "arts grant" to the local community.

What's in your studio or work space?
The Gatorade Ranch of Decapitation and Dismemberment [is] my friend Amy's painting studio, and she lets me have a space in it for my sewing stuff—that’s where I do all of my sewing. I really love having a separate space to do that stuff in (compared to the days of running Lekkner out of my bedroom when I lived with my mom).The name is cuz of the severed unicorn headage and because, for some reason, we found ourselves drinking a lot of Gatorade there (and not really being Gatorade drinkers at all [in] the other parts of our lives).

What in god's name is Severed Unicorn Head Superstore?
It’s basically an inside joke with my friend Mark that got out of control. The fact that they are unicorns, and they shed their heads etc., is based on nothing...It could have been anything. I was drawing representations of my favorite animals (shark tooth, unicorn horn, etc.), and he was teasing me because I was separating the part from the whole and latched onto the "severed unicorn head" thing. He started making paintings on records and told me I should make something, too. And from there we have www.severedunicornheadsuperstore.com, which basically became a project that gave me the opportunity to approach sewing in a whole new way (not clothing, not pouches) by making three-dimensional objects out of really obnoxious fabric that I never got to work with much before. The fact that it's kind of a bizarre concept helps, too—it can make for some pretty interesting/weird t-shirt slogans and such.

Did Faythe Levine interview you for her doc Handmade Nation?
Yeah, she interviewed me about Crafters for Critters.

What was living in Detroit like? What did you like about the community?
I lived in Detroit (proper; eastside) with my family until I was 18, when we moved to an inner-ring suburb. I went to college in Detroit at Wayne State University. I love Detroit. It was scary to grow up there sometimes, but there is some crazy shit there that you're not going to find anywhere else, and I still like to go back there and hang out in some favorite places (Belle Isle, for one). I think growing up in Detroit definitely makes you a certain "way" that's hard to put into words.

Also, how would you describe the current state of indie/DIY culture—and where do you fit into it?
I'm not sure I can make informed comments about this. One thing I can say is that my place in it in the past few years has transformed from a wider sort of "global" scale into one that is definitely more community-based. What I'd done in the past was very internet-tied, which allowed a lot more people to see and be involved in what I was doing, but in the past year or so I've been very involved at a more local level in the city I live in. Beyond that though, I'm pretty out of touch. Which doesn't really bother me—I like it better this way. It feels more "real" and more relevant to me and the people around me and the people I care about.

preloved.ca
anti-factory.com
dearbirthday.com
severedunicornheadsuperstore.com
shadowartfair.com
amysacksteder.com

Photo of Melissa Dettloff's eye by, I'm assuming, Melissa Dettloff.

Futons and Chairs

2008-08-08T14:49:00.004-05:00

People who know me know I am very suspicious of couches and beds. One might go so far as to say I am philosophically opposed to them. Have you ever thought about your couch or bed? They're chimeras. Nobody needs them. They make your friends hate you when you move. We've been brainwashed and bamboozled into accepting them, thinking they're necessary. Couches and beds tie us down. Neither is easily grappled with by a single person. To me, they're symbolic of being ruled by one's possessions--to say nothing of being impoverished of imagination.

I was impressed by the importance of futons in Kyoko Mori's Stone Field, True Arrow, which takes place in Milwaukee. (Mori is a graduate of UWM's creative writing program.) Ok, maybe they're not exactly literary motifs--but, then again, maybe they are. I just liked the way Maya and Yuko were able to travel light and sleep on futons.

There's something very elegant about chairs and futons as solutions--how they're comparatively so much easier to maneuver. And affordable.

Kansas Flava

2008-08-04T19:48:00.002-05:00

A short while ago I was sitting outside the Riverwest Co-op eating dinner when a couple strolled by. "I had one of those," I enthused, catching sight of the one-piece gymsuit the woman was wearing with a pair of high white socks.

It was the kind with the striped top and solid blue shorts that zips up the front--the kind girls rocked in middle school for gym class. She told me she got it at the Salvation Army. (Where else?) "Does it have a Broderick's label?" I asked. The dude she was with checked and confirmed that it was. "That's from my hometown," I said.

Broderick's was a textile concern--hide nor hair of which turned up on google searches I did last week--that made sportswear in Parsons, KS. My mother worked there when I was in elementary school. So, we never had to buy gymsuits.

Iowa Heat

2008-08-01T16:00:00.003-05:00

Ms. Kansas isn't the only thing scorching the Midwest just now. Leslie Hall, the Midwest Diva herself and one of the Church's very favorite Iowans, has a new album out called Cewebrity. Not only is she big, beautiful, and brilliant--but also she's got good beats. Check out her video for "How We Go Out." Fellow Midwestern hotties, note bene: shows in Madison and Chicago September 19 and 20, respectively. Holla...

Photo from www.lesliehall.com/midwestdiva.htm.

Disco Rules

2008-08-01T12:57:00.008-05:00

I love disco. It is just so hot. At work today I started listening to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I dare anybody to come up with a bassline that makes the hair stand up on the back of one's neck the way "Stayin' Alive" does.

To me, these songs are perfect. Having been born in 1975, I admit, though, that there are years and layers of emotional refraction when it comes to my relationship to these songs and, well, the disco experience. My sister, less than two years older, another girl who captured the 1970s falsetto chic enviably well, and I, catapulted into teary, heaving emotional freak-out over these songs--well, Grease more than SNF. (I dare you to find a person born from 1967-1976 who isn't emotionally bonded to Grease.) My sister and I badgered our mother for endless pairs of "Cindy high heels," clear plastic disco shoes marketed to little girls with images of the movie. The musical perfection of "If I Can't Have You" boggled my three-year-old mind.

I "rediscovered" the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in summer 1996, ashamed I'd allowed kowtowing to the indie rock snobbery bullshit to have separated me from its unbelievable pop splendor. I'm so glad I actually remember the 1970s. I'm so glad I was there. Thank god for the Bee Gees!!

You Knew I'd Done A Zine, Right?

2008-07-31T18:00:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately, I'm not at a machine right now at which I could post an image. Maybe I will later today or, uh, never. At any rate, yes, I've done a zine called Fringe. I shot photos in summer 2003 of my friend Kyala, who had the most awesome clothes, at her apartment. I did everything myself--styling, photography, and layout--except hair and makeup. I printed an edition of 50 copies in spring 2004. Oh, and I went to Madison Zine Fest--so, a copy of Fringe is in the Wisconsin Historical Society collection. And also the Denver Zine Library.

I actually have a second issue that, um, hasn't been printed yet.

Hot Tea

2008-07-22T12:28:00.016-05:00

Writer Michelle Tea is hot, cool, and vicious. Most people recognize her from the autobiographical Rent Girl. She also does spoken word tour Sister Spit and keeps the writing community in San Francisco a hot mess. Michelle Tea is also into fashion. If you haven't read the anthology from Seal Press that she edited, It's So You, go buy it before you do your next paper about fashion--you'll be highlighting if for years to come. The Church caught up with its No. 1 Lesbian Crush and talked jeans, Beth Ditto, and how knowing your outfit is cute makes the world a better place. Photo by Robinberg Photography.

Was the anthology (It's So You) your idea--or were you approached by Seal Press?
I'd been toying with the idea of exploring the social, cultural, and political dimensions of fashion via an anthology for a while, but I wasn't ready to take it on as a project. When Seal Press approached me with the idea it felt like the universe knocking at my armoire—and I figured I had to do it or they'd ask someone else and I wouldn't be able to live with myself!

What has been the reaction to It's So You within your community? (E.g. Is it seen as some sort of departure for you?)
Well, people's first reaction is that it's totally weird, frivolous, and shallow. They're like, ”What?” But that's exactly the reason I wanted to do this book: to knock people's weird prejudices about fashion around, get them to question their assumptions and bias, and to see how fashion, in a sense, is a portal for getting into everything interesting — sex, class, bodies, ableism, gender, work—really—everything. Plus, it's fascinating in it's own right, I think. I'm a huge fashion fan—next to literature, it's my favorite art.

Do you think your clothes can help you become a better person?
I feel like a better person when I like what I'm wearing. I think looking good increases self-esteem, and people with good self-esteem are healthier and kinder. So, yeah, I think it shouldn't be overlooked. I have a friend who is in a recovery home for women who've been through hell—to qualify for the program you need to be a survivor of domestic violence, prison and the sex industry, and have a problem with drugs and alcohol. One of the things this program does is take the women out for mani-pedis, and get them hairdos and new outfits. And it makes a huge difference in how they feel about themselves.

In which outfits do you feel your best self?
It varies. I have mood swings. Even though I'm super-femme-y sometimes I just can't wear dresses and heels. I think I'm in one of those phases right now; I feel like my best self in jeans and a pair of crazy fringed Minnetonka boots that make noise when I walk, and a head string. I am still feeling the head string.

Where do you shop?
I think everything I am wearing right now I got on the sale rack at Urban Outfitters. They mark their shit down super-cheap. For new clothes that's where I go a lot, and, like, H+M. Sorry to be so regular. There are great boutiques in San Francisco I also love for new clothes—Seventh Heart for jeans and t-shirts, and Minnie Wilde for that—plus hot jewelry and umbrellas and feathered headbands. Recently, I lost my mind and got a Barneys card. I'm working out my class issues in new and bizarre ways.

Do you wear jeans?
It's all I want to wear right now. I recently got out of a sort of dumb relationship, but one wonderful thing [about it] was my ex introduced me to Earnest Sewn jeans. They really are a superior jean. Whoa. They're the top-tier of expensive—like $200. I have seen jeans more than that and think, Anything over $200 [means] someone is just fucking with you. A pair of jeans is only going to look so good, but the Earnest Sewn jeans look real, real good. I can't stop wearing the pair I have long enough to take them in the get hemmed. I get separation anxiety thinking about it. I'm going to wear them out tonight and I'm actually excited to put them on.

How would you describe your style--or what kinds of stuff do you not wear?
I really don't know—Aquarius with a Leo rising? Meaning, weird, but not so weird that I won't get laid. I don't like wearing a lot of black and I'm more sensitive to the quality of fabrics lately. If something looks really cheap I won't want to wear it. Weird! Also, I won't thrift torn [or stained] pieces anymore. I guess I'm finally a grown up. I'm really into my clothes actually fitting me, after, like, 15 years of wearing ill-fitting, stained, and torn thriftware finery.

Describe the perfect outfit(s)--money is not an object.
Geez, okay—um, right now, maybe a new pair of Earnest Sewn jeans with a pair of Chloé heels, a giant Philip Lim purse, a Philip Treacy headpiece, some great top—maybe Rick Owens—with a hugely chunky necklace from Marni, and maybe a Rick Owens leather jacket. For day. For night, a dress from Rodarte with Christian Louboutin heels and a crazy Viktor and Rolf coat.

Do you have a cat?
I did, but I released her to retirement at [my] grandmother's house where she can hang out in a backyard and dominate all the other cats.

What [have you been] reading?
I just finished an amazing unpublished manuscript, Switch by Rhiannon Argo. It's totally wonderful! I'm in love with all the characters and sad that I can't hang out with them. Otherwise, I'm in the middle of a bunch of books:Salt by Mark Kurlansky; a fantastic novel called Finlater by Shawn Stewart Ruff; rereading Dangerous Angels, Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat book ‘cause I needed some romance; The Keep by Jennifer Egan, who is truly a genius; Pigeons by Andrew D. Blechman; No Time to Lose by everyone's favorite Buddhist nun, Pema Chödrön; and the new Eckhart Tolle book with the embarrassing title because my mother told me to read it, and I was trapped in an airport and needed something, and there was a giant table full of them—and it's actually really excellent if you like books about dismantling your ego and trying to be less of an asshole. Which I do.

What writing projects [have you been] working on?
Um, I have a pre-apocalyptic David Bowie-inspired novel in progress—plus a fantastical sort of young adult novel about a girl who is so empathic it hurts her. That one has mermaids and griffins, so I'm super having fun with it. I'm adapting my memoir Rent Girl into a screenplay just for the hell of it, and I'm writing a totally unpublishable fictional memoir featuring an unreliable narrator. It's titled I'm Writing A Book Called How You Did Me Wrong. I think it might be my diary, but I'm so warped from writing memoirs that I don't know it.

Do you have style icon? Sorry--that's pathetic. Whose style do you admire and why?
In real life, Chelsea Starr, a writer and DJ who lives in San Francisco, is my number one icon. She just has this ease with wearing huge risks—things that might look just insane on anyone else look totally fierce and natural on her. I just accidentally marked her style because she's been wearing those Minnetonka boots forever, and I, like, blanked it when I bought them. It was totally her influence—subconscious. Beth Ditto has amazing style and keeps looking hotter and hotter and more incredible. She's always been an icon, and now she's getting increased access to high fashion. I love seeing what she's in. I just saw the performance artist Taylor Mac and felt really excited by his costume. I love costume! The late Isabella Blow was so wonderful to see pictures of. I love women who can rock a crazy headpiece. I worry that because I wear eyeglasses; it really limits the accessorizing that can happen around my face.

What creative outlets do you have besides writing?
Honestly, getting dressed in the morning! It gets me out of bed. And then all day I get excited wondering what I'll wear that night. I feel like I felt like when I was a kid playing Barbies, but now I get to be the Barbie.

Yes, This Is Problematic

2008-07-19T10:17:00.003-05:00

I was telling a friend last night about an unsatisfactory situation I find myself in quite a bit: heterosexual guys tend to admire me. He was like, "What's wrong with that?" Well, there is nothing wrong with admiration in and of itself. Obviously, I would rather be admired than reviled. However, this admiration is usually in the context of me finding the guy attractive and, you know, liking him. This is the ideal situation with, say, a married guy with kids because we get a little mutual admiration society going, and that's all very nice. This happens with alarming frequency with the guys I'm trying to mack on, though.

I've described this dreary, all-too-common phenomenon as men developing a crush on my brain. That's great, but, well, I'm cute, too. Men admire my brains, charm, wit, and inimitable style. After a while, it's like a I'm this fag hag for straight guys. And that's just wrong.

Pretty. Gay.

2008-07-08T15:18:00.003-05:00

This morning I dreamt of Golden Girls Barbie dolls. You remember The Golden Girls, right? The 1980s sitcom featuring Bea Arthur as one of a gaggle of post-menopausal pals and the zaniest art direction this side of Staying Alive. My favorite character was always Blanche Devereaux, the Southern belle. Maybe because the show hit me in early adolescence when I was very into mid-20th century theatre and reading a lot of Tennessee Williams. In my dream, the Blanche doll came with the prettiest stuff: spangly, flapper-style dresses with drop waists and shiny decor. Thus, she was the most covetable.

Then at work today I googled Judy Garland. I was curious about why she is such a big gay icon. This reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend this past spring during which I mentioned that I had googled Barbra Streisand. (For the same reason I googled Judy.) "Courtney, are you a gay man?" he chortled. Har har! What a witty beast! He's the one who was telling me his girlfriend's eyebrows (!) make him feel "uncomfortable." And demanded my assistance concocting an underhanded strategem to furnish his girlfriend with more acceptable eyebrows. It was one of those conversations I couldn't believe I was having.

I think I kind of get why Judy's so important, but I think I should learn more. Then I read an article on AfterElton.com about what it takes to become a gay icon. Because that's what I really want.

CoS Interviews

2008-07-05T12:26:00.000-05:00

Church of Style interviews are back! As soon as I stop being lazy: feast your eyes on interviews with Melissa Dettloff, formerly of the beloved Lekkner, and Michelle Tea, editor of the bitchin' It's So You: 35 Women Write About Personal Expression Through Fashion and Syle, which I actually, like, bought! Please stay tuned for that style goodness. Cuz it's comin! I so promise.

Sometimes It Feels So Right

2008-07-05T11:18:00.019-05:00

Cream City Collectives
The Cream City Collectives (CCC to those in the know) make anarchism so desirable. Yes, desirable! Every time you turn around, those crazy kids are scheming up some mind-blowing event...and programming. Examples include the Free School, this past spring's Crazy Cupcake Competition at which mind-boggling vegan deliciousness abounded, and the, ahem, illegal vegan restaurant. (Fuck The Man and his health code, yo!) Without getting all tear-y and hiccup-y about how DIY is alive and well in Riverwest--cuz it is--someone is always slapping up fliers about her/his yard sale, which sometimes includes the odd fire-breathing act. CCC also provides space for neighborhood events and meetings, the aforementioned Free School classes, recycled hand-screenprinted merch, a gallery, and a good book selection. Also, their myspace page is the best MK seen, featuring an excellent user-friendly calendar.

Walking Man
Ms. Kansas is recommending this book to everyone she knows. The author, Tim W. Brown, a Rockford native, gave a reading this past spring at Woodland Pattern. Being too cheap to buy the book, Ms. K recommended it to Milwaukee Public Library for purchase--and they bought it. Featuring walking, zines, librarianship, and the Upper Midwest--this book has claimed a special place in her heart. Sniff! An added plus: be prepared to be rendered helpless by laughter.

Perfume Theory
Ms. K does not make proscriptions about style--because what is she: a fascismista? The know-it-alls' proclamations are so high-handed and, to be honest, consumerism-driven. Nu, Ms. Kansas will now set forth her Perfume Theory. It's more about being thoughtful and considerate than fashionable. Ready? One shpritz. That is all anyone ever needs. Ever. Ever. Perfume is an enhancement; it should be a nice little ah! when you get close enough to another person. It is not for roiling in one's wake like some hormone-addled, tasteless teenager. Also, some people just have chemical sensitivities. If that isn't enough of an incentive: ask yourself: do you want to be That Person On the Bus/Elevator/Train/Whatever whose personal fragrance mushroom cloud is causing your fellow passengers' eyes to roll back in their heads? If it's ever happened to you--which is to say, if you've ever found yourself afoul of a pack of college-age males on public transit whose smog cloud of Eau de Postadolescence leaves you no choice but to suck air through the filter of your scarf--the answer is obviously: no.

I Earn My Name

2008-07-01T10:42:00.005-05:00

I miss Kansas. Last week I dreamt I was back in Lawrence. Maybe it had something to do with explaining to a UWM film instructor from St. Paul that Lawrence was named after an abolitionist stronghold in Massachusetts last Sunday. Then, during my shift at the co-op this past week a guy wearing a KU t-shirt came in. I asked him if he were from that fair state--which is something I do whenever I see someone sporting KU or Jayhawk merch. Turned out he was. Now I'm sitting here now listening to Jolie Holland--and it makes me think of barn dances and other crunchy activities--and I almost feel like crying.

The Church Has Merch

2008-06-24T10:11:00.000-05:00

My promise of a Church of Style promo has finally come to fruition! The Church has merch, y'all. I'm retailing these teeny little 1" buttons for $1. This design was created for me by the lovely and talented Derek Reitzel and printed by the VG Kids in Ypsilanti, MI. Hit me up before they become collectors' items!

Back To My, Um, Roots

2008-06-20T14:19:00.004-05:00

The proof that I am not--was not and never will be--a hipster is the fact that during my college years, the Lillith Years, if you will, I was very much enamored of folk music. That's right! Folk music--I liked it. I pored over Ani DiFranco's oeuvre. In the hot minute I took music lessons, one of the songs I asked my teacher to teach me to play on the bass was "The Million You Never Made." (The part at the end is one of the most wicked awesome bass lines you will ever hear.) In fact, I still have Not A Pretty Girl. Yes, all very tragically not-cool. In fact, I attended earnest coffeehouses in which local singer-songwriters performed and saw Cry, Cry, Cry in 1998 or 1999. And, though I haven't listened to it in years, I cannot imagine parting with the Indigo Girls cd I used to sing to in the Community Mercantile kitchen in 1996.

Once I was firmly entrenched in grad school, I tried to toe the line: Radiohead, indie band o' the month, etc. It was just impossible not to like the cool stuff--unthinkable. During a comm studies/mass comm class I had an epiphany: I didn't give a single flying fuck about punk or any of the permutations thereafter. Or hip-hop, for that matter. I didn't have the story to tell about how music had saved my life. I just didn't.

In the past year or so, I've started to reclaim my "cheesy" folk roots. I unabashedly tune in to "American Routes." I love The Be Good Tanyas. I am currently listening to Pieta Brown's latest album on Free Napster. And, yes, I have my theories about roots and folk music and vernacular cultures.

Obviously, it's more complicated than labeling myself a folkhead--what with my predilections for both hot house cuts and preferring silence. But now that I'm in my 30s, coolness recedes. I can get slide guitars and spooky harmonies and just go to church if I want to.

ReviSSION

2008-06-18T16:08:00.008-05:00

Ok, I previously thought the SSION kinda sucked. No need watering it down. I saw them when they opened for Yeah Yeah Yeahs in, like, 2004. (This was during SSION's Animal Costume era.) Yeah, they were an art band, but I just couldn't go there with them.

Then yesterday I was looking around Bejeezus's myspace page--and SSION's one of their friends. So, I click over to there. Their song "Clown" is a hot mess! In a good way. And the Glass Candy remix is even better. The next thing I know, I'm googling Cody Critcheloe (he's from the other K state), reading about him online in The Voice and Kansas City's Pitch , and watching the video for "Street Jizz" on YouTube. SSION's had sort of a rethink about its aesthetic and mission, which I guess kind of happens all the time. And that's totally ok with me.

Photo from SSION's myspace page.

Oh, Tap!

2008-06-17T12:15:00.005-05:00

Ms. K sure loves her some tap dancing--whether it's burlesque, Tilly and the Wall, or some good old-fashioned Hollywood extravaganza. In fact, she took a tap class herself last fall. It ain't just for little girls, honey, and it's a hell of a lot more fun than step aerobics. Plus, it's gorgeous to look at and stylish.

That is why Ms. Kansas is eagerly looking forward to the screening of Roberta, a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film she's never even heard of, tomorrow evening at the Charles Allis Art Museum. What a dreamy way to spend a spring evening!

Photo from www.cavtmuseums.org.

Freaky Deaky

2008-06-13T16:17:00.003-05:00

You know, one of the things I love best about the anarchokids I know here in Illwaukee is their insistence on putting themselves--rather than some dipshit reality show, movie, cult DVD, or celebrity--at the center of their lives. It's a beautiful thing to see.

One of the most inspiring examples of living life to its fullest that I know of is Gene Gallistel--full disclosure: I dated him for, like, a hot minute--and his Dead Man's Carnival compatriots, co-freaks, and hell-raisers. I haven't seen their show, which promises "a night of comedy, burlesque, clowns, fire, performances, cabaret[-]style music, magic, escapes, and death[-]defying stunts" yet--resulting mainly from my own mulishness about not being on the guest list--but everyone I know was peeing in their pants over their April show.

Hell, I might even catch them at Stonefly tomorrow night since my dinner guests bailed on me.

Can't Hardly Wait

2008-06-03T16:59:00.009-05:00

I was going through people to add as myspace friends (I call it "friendstering" people because it's more efficient--though, I'll probably get sued for doing that now) and I thought about Michael Zadoorian, the Detroit writer, because I loved, loved, loved, his book Second Hand. I shed tears of emotion just thinking about that book. First of all, it helped me to formulate my consciousness as a thirtysomething living in the Upper Midwest. Secondly, it's about a guy who runs a second-hand store for a living! Omigod! Tears of joy! Hand to chest--must breathe deeply now. It was just such a great thing to read about because that's somewhat like my life.

Anyhow, Michael Zadoorian isn't on myspace (WTF?!), but I did google him and went to his website. He has a book coming out in Spring 2009 called The Leisure Seeker. I am so totally stoked! I had been wondering what he had been up to. I'm pretty sure he's cute, too. I hope he still lives in Detroit--because that would help me to further formulate and articulate the meaning of choosing to live one's life here in the Upper Midwest (as opposed to living on one of the coasts or in Atlanta or something) and cohering a sense of identity and place. Anyway, like I said, I'm pretty sure he's cute.

Fools' Goldring

2008-06-03T12:47:00.003-05:00

I will not be attending the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at Syracuse University's Newhouse School later this month or, like, ever. I found out in April that I didn't get a scholarship to attend, and, honey, I ain't tryin to take out them kinda loans.

It was disappointing not to get a scholarship, of course, but not getting what I wasn't sure I wanted caused me to think about where I was going and the choices I'm making in life. And, to be truthful, I would not have gone down that road voluntarily.

Also, I left my copywriting job about six months ago--but folks knew that. So, for now, I'm still in Illwaukee--keeping kinda cryptic about my plans.

When Zines Fall Apart: Ongoing Venus Zine Snark

2008-05-29T15:47:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, someone I know in publishing mentioned that Venus Zine founder Amy Schroeder sold her publication in 2006. Like Crystal Method, I guess I didn't know. The new owners are Anne Brindle and Marci Sepulveda, the ladies behind Chicago Agent Magazine. That's right--they're in real estate--which is so totally synonymous with indie culture and the underground, right?

The downward spiral of Venus Zine makes sense in this context. I picked up the latest issue earlier this week, which unequivocally convinced me I am so right about everything I've said about Venus in the past. I was nauseous and embarrassed for them when I saw the piece about Amelie Gillette, who serves up self-indulgent, pointless, and poorly written derivative shit every week for the fucktardedly sexist, racist, classist The Onion.

Punk Planet and Clamor drop like flies, but the newly lame Venus flourishes. The gods do have their revenge! BUST, they of the School of Fuck Me Shoe Feminism, stopped being a contender a long time ago. That's why Bitch is more important than ever.

Buy You a Hanky

2008-05-08T16:07:00.000-05:00

It should be no surprise that I come out in favor of hankies. I bought a blue flowered one recently during a Saturday trip to Fischberger's. Shucks, I'm just a retro kinda girl in some ways. I felt so old-timey a few weeks back in my striped hat and 1940s coat ensemble avec hanky--of course. Which is oh, so appropriate since I was rereading Summer of My German Soldier. A hanky in my jeans pocket makes me feel so genteel and European, yessiree. My summer style plans include appropriating gents' suspenders and square-folded hanky to rock the girl-with- menswear flava.

Book TV?

2008-04-16T15:16:00.004-05:00

I've been thinking of doing a blog about books and reading. I love reading. Books, I realize, are my albums. I go through books like a hot knife through room-temperature butter. And I read rather fast. All of this sets me up to have no comprehension of people who "don't really read." And I'm very thankful to my mother for instilling that love. That's when I lose track of what I'm doing and where I am. I love the co-creative process of words on a page setting off a little movie in my head.

I've noticed that the Favorite Books section of my profile is infinitely more populous than Favorite Music or Favorite Movies could ever hope to be. But when would I have time? Could I do books justice?? Wait! I've got it: a reading label. I think I'll call it Hyperliterate.

Do You Trust Marc Jacobs?

2008-04-11T11:40:00.004-05:00

Do you trust Marc Jacobs to save the world? I don't. I am not trying to start up venuszinepettycriticism.blogspot.com or dis the fashion world's MJ--though, I must admit seeing the designer top that mag's most recent Hot(tttttttttttt) List irked me enough to fantasize about sending a prim, pedantic email that began "I'm not sure if Venus Zine readers are aware of it or not, but the Marc Jacobs label is owned by French fashion circle jerk LVMH..."

I recently read Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Dana Thomas. I recommend this book to anyone who's "into fashion." It's mad informative. I had problems with it, though, because a) it just came to an end and b) it never interrogated consumption or even c) asked Exactly what the fuck are we (as in you, retailers, and the rest of us as inhabitants of this fucking finite planet) gonna fuckin do when India, Russia, and China markets dry up; what then, you shortsighted motherfuckers??!!

I'm suspicious of the idea that we can get out of our current environmental and economic problems by buying more stuff--no matter how environmentally friendly or Fair Trade it claims to be--because buying shit is what got us into trouble in the first place, ya know? Let's be wary of this as a solution to all or any of our global woes, ok?

Oui, je suis une clothing nerd

2008-03-31T15:33:00.004-05:00

Today the commentary I wrote and recorded in January ran on WUWM's Lake Effect. I haven't listened to it because my computer at work doesn't have Quicktime. Oh, well. Click on "My Fashion" to check out the audio.

Thank you, Gudrun Sjödén

2008-03-25T11:47:00.006-05:00

I first became aware of Swedish designer Gudrun Sjödén's designs last year while I flicked through the pages of Selvedge. I was instantly entranced by her silhouettes, her usage of layering and, well, trousers. Her models seemed comfortable in their own skin--something an American woman notices right off.

It's become downright eerie, though, the way Gudrun Sjödén regularly manufactures the items for which I've inwardly yearned--the tunics, leggings, coats, and "folkloric" woven trousers. How does she do it??

As if that weren't enough, it appears Sjödén has created the swimsuit of dreams--delightfully reminiscent of svelte 1930s swimwear and endearingly ass-covering.

Photo from gudrunsjoden.com.

My Exciting Research Question

2008-03-04T18:52:00.003-06:00

This afternoon at work, I chanced to think, Does/can/should clothing play a role in one's evolution as a person/spiritual development? Zoinks! If only I could have come up with this when Beverly Gordon was asking for a thesis topic in 2004!!

Surely, surely, this is a sacrilege, though--being aware of what one is wearing leads to the very opposite of evolution or spiritual development. But wouldn't most people say music or dance could play an important role in evolution or spiritual development? If so, why not clothing??

As I see it, if I have something simple, unfussy (yet flattering) on, that's my canvas or backdrop. The simplicity helps me not to get bogged down; the flattering bit means I can feel like my best self--which means I can act better toward others. For the record, I don't think Prada leads to enlightenment. Most likely, that would require hemp and get-ups like the ones worn by inhabitants of Tatooine.

It's Not You; It's Me, Venus Zine

2008-03-03T18:28:00.004-06:00

God almighty, I hate February, unambiguously the worst month of the year! Nothing but lashings of snow, freezing rain on top of that and yet endless layer upon layer of unsightly accumulation. And, adding insult to injury, this year we had the 29th (!)day, lingering on nauseatingly, long after everyone of sound mind had had quite enough, fuming in impotent wrath, ready for the month to just fuck off out of it already.

Ah, so, dear reader, we have finally arrived on the other side. Ah, March! How well do we love thee! Bathe our faces with thy gentle, balmy breezes! Unfurl thy goodly branches so that underneath them we might sweetly sup! Lengthen thy pleasurable hours that we might sing thy praises from early until late in thy golden light! Oh, March! Your children we truly are!

Well, having gotten that out of my system, I'm afraid it's time for the topic at hand. Sadly, I must part paths with Venus zine. No more shall I be able to buy 't! I've been unsatisfied with the direction the zine's been heading in for nearly a year. I haven't liked the fashion stories by new fashion editor Constanze Lyndsay Han. Suddenly, the models were skinny bitches from agencies, not somebody's cute and zaftig friends. And, like a slap in the face, a lot of the clothing was expensive designer shit. How the fuck does that make sense??? That's like putting Mariah Carey on the cover--in that these people have more than enough exposure already--yet the editor allows them to hoover up the space DIY and indie designers could use to get noticed.

I thought maybe the Summer 2007 issue was a fluke. With Björk on the cover, I was willing to let it slide. It was like sand in an oyster shell, though--the pearl of my growing discontent. So, after that it was easy to start noticing other unsatisfactory things about the new Venus, some significant; others not so: the old logo was much cuter, I liked the art direction pre-Summer 2007 much more, Marisa Meltzer's insertion of herself in the Björk interview was editiorially jejune and sloppy, the flogging of How Sassy Changed My Life was tiresome. "Trend Watch" now hawks merch! Thanks for the hoodie update from a few issues back, ladies! This took me completely unawares--considering the fact that these dELiA*s-like staples have been clogging all the stores at every price point! Whew! It's a good thing I didn't miss out on that original fashion moment! Thanks to Venus! In general, there just seems to be less there there.

After flipping through the latest issue, I knew it was time to let go. Not only was it missing the beloved "Style Idol" feature, but also it offered famous girls kitted out in new togs--some of them of the expensive designer kind. To replace the completely awesome feature (chicks and dudes wearin their own unique duds)with the traditional witless approach (famous folk in clothes the stylist slings at them)was symbolic. And more than I could countenance.

So, I can no longer buy Venus zine or support its slide into mediocrity. R.I.P., Store of the Ish! At least I'll have my back issues...

Image from venuszine.com.

Are Albums Accessories For Straight Guys?

2008-01-24T13:52:00.000-06:00

This question is predicated upon a recent realization: women favor the enorm handbags of the past few years as status markers. The bigger your bag, the more fashionable you are. And we all know fashion is power, honey.

Hetero guys, sadly, are not able to avail themselves of bags as weapons of aggression in the quest for social prestige. (Unless they're Pharrell.) So, they use records instead.

Aren't albums more or less straight guys' lifestyle accessories? Don't they clutch at and attempt to align themselves with the makers' image or in-group status just about as frantically as style-conscious women with their bags--wielding the prestige of cool-band-of-the-moment's music the way women deploy fashion??

Ok. But so, what? Though more and more women move to adopt the discourse of music as meaning-giving, we really aren't seeing the similar embrace of fashion by men--our metrosexual friends notwithstanding. I think this is because certain fields are viewed as girl ghettoes--dance, decorative (!) arts, textiles, interior design, anyone?--and fashion is one of them. They just don't rate the way field of inquiry and practice like film, the fine (?) arts, architecture or music do.

And fashion is not buttressed and validated by what I--as a veteran of mass comm/comm studies seminars--call the mythic story of life-saving power. How many texts did I read that did not include some variation of the (male) writer proclaiming: "Music is soooo important to me! Music is my life, man!! Rock 'n' roll/punk/hip-hop saved my life, man!!" Marc Jacobs just isn't out there sobbing to anyone who will listen that resortwear was a revelation.

There is something bitchy and coercive about fashion. Though...it's not like music scenes can't be as codified and sadistically gleeful in their policing and enforcement.

I don't know: maybe the denigration of fashion--which is, at its best, adorning the body as an artistic endeavor--has to do with the with the association of the female with the body and its lower estate vis-a-vis the mind. Maybe that explains why crafts--all about hands, my dears--are considered skanky and arts sublime.

Is Poetry Dead Stylish?

2008-01-22T14:20:00.001-06:00

I'm going to argue in favor of There's-a-pretty-good-chance. How chic is martini-damp Anne Sexton--poor dear--in this photo? I never got quite as into her as I did Sylvia Plath. (Ted Hughes appeared in one of my dreams when I was 19. He asked me to call him dad. But that's all that happened. I swear.)

How can you not be ravished by the sweep and scale of Assia Wevill's--god, poor dear!--life? You know who she is--the hussy Ted Hughes went off with (herself married to a poet)...who, in turn, killed herself (and her daughter with Hughes) the same way Sylvia Plath did. To say Wevill had a very interesting life is quite the understatement. Her family fled Nazi Germany for British-ruled Palestine, and she spent the war years (her teenage years) in Tel Aviv. Successive marriages got her to UK, Canada and UK again. Wevill was a beautiful, intriguing woman, but also very talented--working as an advertising copywriter and producer, and helping Hughes translate Yehuda Amichai's poetry from the original Hebrew (under her birth name Assia Gutmann.)

Even nowadays, poets like Jorie Graham up their glamor factor by being shot by Annie Leibovitz.

Though happiness hardly makes for electrifying poetry, nothing romanticizes the hard livin the muse puts you through like pill-popping poets and their lovely excesses.

Pretty great

2007-12-29T12:44:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a pretty great day--and it's spilling over into today. I wrote copy for a mailer at work. My concept is pretty bitchin, if I do say so myself. I lit out early due to "inclement weather." (I'm puzzled by the pantywaist, alarmist talk on weather.com, by the way. It's winter. And we live in Wisconsin. Therefore, it snows.)

I'm loving the new Alterra in Riverwest, it so happens. I signed up for a crochet class--which I've been wanting to do for the longest time--at the adjacent Loop yarn den and met up at the cafe with my best young man. I added it to my list of Riverwest places I love with great interiors like Art*Bar and Nessun Dorma. And it's all the better cuz you always run into folks from the neighborhood. Yay! We had a great conversation--during which I connected Velvet Underground with Thai food...and explicated on Hedwig and the Angry Inch along the way. Oh, I also requisitioned the houndstooth trousers I bought at Fischberger's and wore them yesterday. I looked great!

Also adding to the Riverwest goodness: I'm going to be doing Poetry Marathon this year! Yeehaw! I worked last year's event as a volunteer, but this is my first time as a reader. I didn't get one of the A-list timeslots (chile, you gotta sign up early!), but I'm looking forward to my 5 minutes of poetry fame--which adds up to about .005 minutes of regular fame--nonetheless. So, give me a donation!

Do We Want What We Want? Or Do We Just Want To Want It?

2007-12-28T18:40:00.000-06:00

Dig? It's easy as a woman to get into the habit of thinking, Wow, if only I had the sandals/sunglasses/hair my life would be completely transformed. Earlier this year I went to a store in my neighborhood well known for its shoes. I had been craving a very three-dimensional or else 1940s-ish heel. Yet, when I spied the sculptural shoes of my dreams, I hesitated! I shilly-shallied and looked at other inferior shoes.

Finally, I went over to inspect my little beauties up close. The heel was absolutely everything I'd been fantasizing about--rounded and weighty, Cubist almost.

Yet, I found there was something daunting--maybe even disheartening--about being stared down by exactly what I was looking for. WTF?! Where was the jubilation? The triumph?

Therein lies the conundrum of setting one's heart on stuff: the inevitable let-down of acquisition. This has to do with the expectations we're encouraged to place on objects. We expect fulfillment, transformation, transcendence. But by the time I've saved my money for the Balenciaga sunglasses--if I can even get on the wait list--they're already over. That avenue to acceptance and status--and its downright magical powers to transform my drab little existence--is closed.

Once I confront the actual thing I can't help but notice it doesn't live up to my expectations. But there is no way an object can live up to all the attributes I've imposed upon it. I don't feel any different. I don't feel like I thought I would. I'm exactly who I was before.

That's what's so depressing about getting what you thought you wanted. If these material totems fail us--what's next? Where to now? What is there to believe in? Most people conclude they had the wrong stuff picked out--and pin their hopes on something else. Something more expensive, more exclusive. Cuz that has to do the trick.

How Was Your Xmess?

2007-12-26T10:30:00.001-06:00

MK does not celebrate Christmas, the birth of little baby Jesus notwithstanding. She did, however, exchange Solstice gifts. As Yoko Ono would say, Yes, Ms. Kansas is a witch.

This past Saturday, Ms. K made the jaunt to Fischberger's, 2445 N. Holton, for the first time. It seems like a Milwaukee classic-in-the-making to MK. It's an adorably brilliant variety store full of fabric and sewing notions, old-fashioned toys, attractive futuretro kitchenwares, candy and lifestyle novelties and well-curated secondhand clothing. Tres charmant!

Ms. Kansas picked up a pair of houndstooth trousers for her fella and bubblegum cigarettes. The lively little emporium has actually been open for a year. It's now a must for anyone's Riverwest itinerary.

Photo from onmilwaukee.com.

Jury Is Out

2007-12-18T17:46:00.000-06:00

I went to my first Art v. Craft on December 8. Yes, it's the very first one I ever went to. I was wearing the really cute old man hat I picked up at one of my Super Secret Shopping Spots earlier this month. This time, the wing-ding was at the Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center right downtown.

I saw people I knew there, including The Little Friends of Printmaking; local fashionette Leslie Vaglica, who is working for tenniswear-maker Eliza Audley and loving it; Jim Herrington, the excruciatingly hip photographer with Nashville cred, motherfuckers; a woman I used to work with at Discovery Hell, er, World; and, of course, the doyenne herself, Faythe.

I guess I was expecting some sort of life-changing baptism in hipness--or, at least craftiness, but A v. C was pretty much like any other event that Milwaukee scenesters are going to be at. Though, maybe the weather kept some of the Madison wanna-bes at home. I guess my disappointment stems from the fact that I didn't see any cool clothes there.

Though, I did pick up a card wallet from Barry's Farm for a special someone.

P.S. The photo is from the Barry's Farm website.

Haute food

2007-12-06T17:30:00.000-06:00

Last week, in a rare break of form, MK went out on Friday night. Oh, perhaps it's not what youngsters these days call going out, but it was livelier than, well, Ms. K's apartment. The site was Hinterland, a spot newly opened in the Third Ward.

Well informed vegetarian hypochondria/fastidiousness notwithstanding, a good time was had by all. Ms. Kansas supped on tempura goat cheese stuffed zucchini. Zucchini are admittedly not MK's favorite veggies--she is not much of gourd kind of girl. However, these toothsome little morsels were accompanied by shiitake mushrooms, totsoi and bamboo rice saute, pickled carrot salad and sunchoke puree. It was a delicately savory melange. Hell, eating there was worth the rosemary-infused bread alone!

The decor was New-Mexico-with-a-trust-fund:lots of bleached out woods and dark browns. And texture, texture, texture! The service was good, and the crowd was rather smart.

In My Jeans

2007-11-27T17:53:00.000-06:00

Though I'm sort of embarrassed to admit it, I miss wearing jeans. Why is that? They're such a no-brainer, default mode for clothing. No more thinking about what I'm going to put on on the weekend! And they are--happily--rather durable.

When is Easter again? Oh, yeah. March 23. That's, like, four months! That's a really long time. Maybe I can quit on Ash Wednesday? Erm, no.

Though, I am proud of the fact that I haven't worn jeans once! Not once! Not around the house! Not to do laundry or housework! I haven't even tried a pair on. Ok. I can do this. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I have been wearing denim trousers, which are--trust me!--different from jeans.

Am I A Bag Bitch?

2007-11-24T17:03:00.000-06:00

Yesterday at work I had a mini-hissy fit over Marc by Marc Jacobs bags. The backstory is: last Monday at work we had a bag and shoe sample sale. I snapped up a cute little number and 3 wallets. Yippee! Since then, I've been noticing other women's bags.

Ok, and I've had a bag crush on the Marc Jacobs "Christy" yoga bag for years. Putzing around on the Nordstrom site earlier this week was the fine spray of gasoline on that little flame.

Retailing for $450-ish, I could totally put this on my Visa, I "reasoned." I clicked feverishly from site to site, cursing retailers offering the "Teri," but not the obviously much more desirable "Faridah." At the height of this bag spiral, I reminded myself I had a few hundred hanging out in my savings account. The "yes, but" part of that sentence is that it's next month's loan payment. The things we're willing to do to feel like Halle Berry!

The thing is, I know the bag would not have made my life better. In fact, it likely would have set off a chain reaction of debt resulting from my bag-stimulated desire to freshen my hairstyle; buy a new pair of shoes; book a facial, mani and pedi; and spruce up my apt's decor just a tad.

But then I realized Marc by Marc Jacobs bags are probably made in China. If I decided to buy a new bag I could collaborate with a local designer like Fashion Ninja's Areka Ikeler--who recycles preexisting materials and sews on her machine right here in the USA.

Dirty Thirties

2007-10-06T13:52:00.000-05:00

Last night I attended a Wisconsin Book Festival event at the UWM Union Theatre. Larry Widen and David Luhrssen discussed Milwaukee's film past and present. Kicking off A Weekend of Silver Screens at 9PM, there was a screening of Libeled Lady, starring Milwaukee's own Spencer Tracy. (Clara Bow classic It, from which we derive the now-overworked term "It Girl," screens this afternoon at 5PM.)

This was my first official screwball comedy. I remember a photo of Jean Harlow, with her pencil-thin brows, in a book about classic Hollywood movies I check out obsessively in grade school. In early adolescence, I became fixated on It Happened One Night--though, I haven't seen it yet. Though Libeled Lady wasn't a substantive film, I became invested, hoping Harlow would end up with the Gable-ish William Powell. There was enough plot twist to keep it from becoming facile. Evidently, someone liked it, though; this 1936 gem was nominated for an Oscar.

One of the reasons I opted to stick around so long past my bedtime was the anticipated feast of 1930s fashions. Though not as mind-boggling as Vera West's work in Three Smart Girls Grow Up, Harlow was a knockout in a bias-cut satin wedding dress and in classic 1930s dresses in later scenes. She wears jacket and trousers in one scene, too, delighting my "Garbo pants"-seeking self. Also, there are great opportunities to look at well-groomed, well-shod men.

I just have a place in my heart for the 1930s! The clothes have an unbelievably elegant, but tough and cool-headed quality--typified by the bare backs of blouses and evening dresses.

Fiona Apple: That Chile Can Sang!

2007-10-02T11:56:00.001-05:00

One of the perks of work is iTunes, through which I've rediscovered Fiona Apple's oeuvre. That girl can sang! She has excellent control and a beautiful sense of coloration and tone. Also, she works with really excellent musicians. I've known Tidal was a great album since 1999, but I haven't listened to When the Pawn...almost since the year it came out. Her vocal attack on the album's first few songs will make the hair on back of your neck stand up. ITunes also made it possible for me to listen to Extraordinary Machine.

Happy birthday to this hyperliterate bona fide chanteuse. Life only gets better once you're out of your 20s!

Wait...There's More!

2007-09-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

The Church of Style myspace page is a little less visually disgusting. Check it out at www.myspace.com/churchofstyle. It's September already? Oh, fuck! Putting that aside, what's going on in Church of Style?

Took in Aesthetic Apparatus lecture at Discovery World and wrote it up for thedailypage.com. Read it here! Interviewing Holly Golightly--she of You Can't Buy A Gun When You're Crying fame--for Madison's Isthmus. See her British bluesy excellence at Mad Planet in Milwaukee or Cafe Montmartre in the Mad. I last saw Ms. Golightly and her excellent band when they played at High Noon Saloon on the same bill with...the Dirtbombs. There isn't time to go into the Dirtbombs Debacle of 2004 here; suffice it to say it's ok to blow off your shift at the Fair Trade store if the Dirtbombs are in town. It just is.

What else is happening? There have been some very interesting adventures in the name style the past few weeks--oh, yes. Like: getting an electric charge run through my face when I got a facial at Aveda Institute. Thanks, girls! I finally ordered a Panic t-shirt yesterday. I bought it on sale; with shipping, it still ends up under $20! I am talking about Panic so much I'm feeling as if I might have to start up a Panic label. I'm not sure if the Church of Style is ready for that yet. I'll keep you posted. Work on the button progresses via email and cameraphone snapshots. For real. I haven't seen Arekchik since March. In other news, under the influence of Tilly and the Wall, I signed up for tap dance lessons at Milwaukee's Danceworks. Well, let me amend that. At the age of 12, I saw Sinatra's Pal Joey and became obsessed with the idea of being a showgirl. Unfortunately, in the late 1980s, that area wasn't seeing a lot of what our economist friends call job growth. But now, with the whole neo-burlesque movement, I am happily poised to make those pubescent dreams and fantasies come true. I cannot wait to make like Jo Baker in a fringed skirt!

Last--though, obviously now least, a couple weeks back, I bought my ticket for the November 3 Tori Amos show at the Riverside in Milwaukee. So, there is a blog post to come about that. Maybe there will be a Tori label. That seems fair.

Spreading Love, Spreading Style

2007-08-07T19:15:00.000-05:00

Church of Style is entering an exciting expansion phase! Urk!! Whoops, sorry. I forgot where I was for a minute there. Although it is true that some things are happening that I consider pretty cool and neat. The first thing is that there will soon be a Church of Style button. You heard right! They're not just for bands! My friend and design wunderkind Arek Miaskowski is Quarking away on it as I type. Secondly, and not quite so grandiosely, Church of Style has a myspace page. Um. Sort of. I haven't had a great deal of time in the past month to redesign it--but I totally will soon! And add friends! The url is myspace.com/churchofstyle. Embrace my phenomenon.

Straight Outta Omaha? or Midwestern Kings and Queens, also known as Tilly and the Wall

2007-08-01T19:59:00.000-05:00

Having started a new job last week, I was unable to turn this around in time for thedailypage.com in time for Tilly's Milwaukee show. But as we know at Church of Style, when life gives you style--make styleade, dammit! Tilly's interested me for some time, with their cute clothes, off-kilter instrumentation and Midwestern mystique. These answers were supplied by the talented Miss Kianna--to whom I offer many thanks. I hope you're back to 20/20 soon...and say hi to Conor for me. Photo from Tilly's myspace page.

What musicians or artists inspire you?
I am inspired by so much more than music. Life…waking up and living. Quantum physics, evolution, chaos theory, these are the real inspirations. Real honest feelings come out of learning incredible things everyday and experiencing life as it goes.

How would you describe Tilly and the Wall?
A band of harpies, fierce and loyal.

[Some of your band members were inspired to move to Omaha.] Most young folks go,I’m gonna move to New York or L.A. to do my thing! Omaha must be infinitely more affordable, though. What was it like? Though, some of the band members are from Omaha. Do any of you feel committed to the Midwest?
Omaha is a place to be if you have friends and family here. It's a place you can have lots of fun in if you have loved ones to share time with, Otherwise, don't get prepared for too much stimulation.

Do you feel like you're part of a scene or movement?
We are part of a growing group here in Omaha. The artists and weirdos are few but growing. We are proud to be friends with most of those people.

Bands as diverse as yours, Dresden Dolls, Panic! At the Disco, Gogol Bordello and the Ditty Bops, embrace a performative, theatrical element missing from the "average band." And there's an audience, even a hunger, for it. What do you make of that? What, if anything, does it signify?
I have not heard or seen any of those bands. I actually did hear that Panic! At the Disco song a bunch, [b]ut a[m] mostly unfamiliar. BUT we dohave a huge interest in our live show being something fun to watch. More so, we want to break the barrier between us and the crowdwatching us. We want to blend the two into one awesome party.

What do you think of how the media portrays your band? Would you say there are any misconceptions?
I don't know. I don't see any one theme coming across in anything I've read. In the beginning there was a lot of skepticism about the tap-dancing. We don't really care about being misconceived, though. Tapping is just someone's feet hitting the ground. One time or another it must've been taboo to hit animal skins with sticks.

What are you listening to?
I am listening to The Ssion, 2 Live Crew, Times New Viking, and the Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra.