Interesting Ideas Update

Mary Nohl Inside & Outside: Biography of the Artist, by Barbara Manger and Janine Smith. University of Wisconsin Press, 134 pages, 165 color images, 145 b/w or sepia images, 2009. ISBN 978-0-6152-5118-9. Soft Cover $29.95.

See my Mary Nohl photos, circa 1990

The first time I saw Mary Nohl’s masterpiece of a home and yard I only knew I was being taken to “The Witch’s House.”

That was its name for a generation of neighborhood kids, including the two who were showing me the one big curiosity in Fox Point, Wisconsin.

The reason for the visit was Nohl’s eccentricity, which made her yard a target for vandals as well as a local landmark. But it didn’t take long to see that the art was far more important than the oddity. I had visited a couple of art environments at that time, including Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden near Summerville, Georgia, and Nohl’s place was clearly one of those. It may have seemed more domestic than heroic, tucked away next to Lake Michigan in its comfortable corner of suburban Milwaukee, but it constituted a clear statement of her personal vision.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been some time since I’ve stumbled across anything as nice as these fashion drawings in an antique store, mostly because I don’t spend much time in them any more.

Some new views of the monumental Bottle Cap Inn, and an updated page format.

There are great signs up and down Clark Street. This is part 2 of what will no doubt be a continuing series. Here’s part 1

Assume for a moment that the wizarding world of Harry Potter is more than a setting for magical adventure. Think of it as a real place, one where actual magical folk live their actual lives. Now think of it as a place to raise a child and imagine how any reasonably caring parent would rate it.
Read more

You can always play the Ramones

Interesting sites and details from Chicago and vicinity.

You can’t beat a region that boasts a House of Stuff!

If racism has become a non-issue for minorities, as some believe, how odd that it remains a widespread and life-destroying influence on white males, which seems the basic premise of the opposition to Sonia Sotomayor.

Lower Manhattan is a carnival of art deco details.