New Work

Wallet

Storefront

Study for Storefront

Landscape


Photo for Landscape

Eyes on the Street

This is the proposal for a permanent public project I am working on this summer at College Court, which is an apartment complex for the elderly run by the Milwaukee Housing Authority. Any feedback/criticism you guys might have would be great, as the piece is subject to change from the proposal as I begin constructing the benches.

Eyes on the Street
a proposal by James Pederson

Introduction: A book by urban theorist Jane Jacobs entitled The Death and Life of Great American Cities, discusses the idea of “stoop sitting” and how it insures that there are always “eyes on the street”. This phenomenon is a critical component of the self-regulating urban street. According to Jacobs, when people spend significant amounts of time sitting on the stoops or in the front yards of their buildings, they not only enhance the sense of human presence and community in a neighborhood, but also insure that attention is paid to the conditions and activities of the neighborhood streets and sidewalks. These vital conduits between the various residential and commercial buildings and the people who occupy them make up a neighborhood. The benefits of this can include better awareness of the need for street repair, crime deterrence, and an overall awareness of changes and developments within a community.

Concept Statement: In talking with Bill Goodrum, I was very interested when I was told about how much time residents spend sitting outside the front entrance on lawn chairs watching the neighborhood during the warmer months. Bill described how there is space in the back area of College Court, yet most residents seem to prefer the front specifically. He also mentioned that even during the colder months many people like to sit by the windows and just watch what is going on outside. It seemed to me that there must be something about observing the activities of the neighborhood surrounding College Court that interested the residents.

In light of what Jacobs has to say, I see the residents who spend time sitting out front as doing something much more than simply passing the time. They are keeping an eye on things; and it is happening naturally without the need for some sort of organized effort. I truly believe this has a real social value. It seems fitting then, that it would be useful to the residents for me to create something that would facilitate the activity of street-watching more substantially than the lawn chairs they currently use. Additionally, I wanted something that would create a relationship between the street and the residents who are seated and watching it. It is also my hope that the
benches will catch the interest of passers-by, and they might take note of the residents sitting outside, as well as College Court and its presence in the community as well.

I am proposing to build three benches designed to to be placed underneath the awning adjacent to the main entrance, in the spot which usually has the plastic lawn chairs. Each bench will respond to the Highland Boulevard street-scape which it is facing by depicting a mirrored-image of what occupants of the benches would be seeing across the street. This will be accomplished through a combination of sculptural relief and painting directly on the bench. Each of the nine buildings across the street will be recreated as a sculpture/armrest, and the space in between each building will be depicted in paintings on the backs of each chair.

Front View

Side View

Installation View

I-94

This was a video installation I did last semester. The video in the center is just a view out of the front window of a car going east down I-94, and the two videos on the sides are the right and left passenger windows of a car traveling east down Wisconsin Ave. The Wisconsin Ave videos are sped up so that they run for the same amount of time as the freeway video. They start and stop frequently at traffic lights, while the car on the freeway runs at a consistent speed.





I hold that a sense of place is critically affected by the particular vantage point from which we view the place. The same can be said for the way we perceive changes in our surroundings as we move through space.
It follows then, that changes in the ways we move through space also change the way we perceive the places we travel through. The changes that have been brought on by the development of the Interstate Highway System traversing our landscape are physically apparent; it is no coincidence that the expansion of metropolitan areas has paralleled the expansion of highways and expressways across the country. Widespread usage of highways has also changed the way we understand the dynamics of metropolitan areas. Expressway commuters often lose awareness of the places they travel through, not only because of faster travel times, but also because expressways are generally either elevated or shrouded by a buffer of trees or a noise-barrier wall. Travelers cannot fully experience the diverse locations they are passing through; instead they experience the monotony of eight-lanes of traffic and endless exit ramps. It is a very peculiar vantage point from which travelers' ability to observe changes in the landscape is greatly diminished. As a result, commuters who use expressways on a daily basis can lose their understanding of relationships between the places they travel to and from, and the space they travel through to get there.
I do not mean to suggest that we should abandon the use of expressways, but rather that we become aware of how they have changed our understanding of our surroundings.

New Painting

Advocation for the City of Milwaukee

I wrote this essay for a class I had last semester, and I think I want to keep refining it. I've really become interested in the idea of essay-writing, especially essays which interject personal accounts, or perhaps fictional elements to help reinforce their factual points. Let me know what you think...

Advocation for the City of Milwaukee

I

Walking back from work late one night, I come up the alley on my block and up the back steps of my home to find my father sitting on the stoop reading the headlines of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The standard “what's news” chat we often engage in segues into slightly more serious conversation. “Did you see this?” My father says pointing at an editorial in the paper entitled “Careening Down the Road to Civic Suicide”. I look over his shoulder to skim the the first few lines of the article.
We're running out of gas, folks. As city and county officials finish their budget deliberations in the days ahead, Milwaukee is poised to take a historic step backward in its pursuit of the common good. Previous budgets have sliced away fat and cut into muscle. This year's versions go all the way to bone. (Gurda, “Civic Suicide” 1)
“You know, they're not even close to paying off the cost of snow removal and salting the roads from last winter.” my father adds. I thought back to last winter when they didn't even attempt to plow many of the city's side streets unless it was absolutely impossible to drive in, simply letting the weight of passing cars pack inches of snow down on the road.
My father is a Captain on the Milwaukee Fire Department and often catches wind of news of the city's government from friends who are city employees before it appears in the paper. “Our department is probably taking budget cuts too” he adds. He does not have to remind me that this is a red flag for serious trouble; he has often explained to me that budget and wage cuts for public safety officials are basically unheard of unless things really get bad. He shows me where the article reports that for the Fire and Police Departments, the mayor proposes “cuts of 5% and 6% in their respective budgets. Nearly all city workers would be subject to both a wage freeze and unpaid furloughs, and all city taxpayers would face a 4.4% increase in property tax bills and higher fees for sewer, garbage and water service.”
The article prompts a discussion about more general problems in the city. My father begins to relate experiences he had while being stationed at firehouses in blighted inner-city neighborhoods. I do not take his thoughts on the nearly insufferable crime and poverty rates these neighborhoods deal with lightly. The list of challenges facing Milwaukee included in our discussion goes on: a failing public school system, declining public services, and the overall inability for Milwaukee's leaders to come together and bring about progress. All of this amounts to unsettling suggestions about Milwaukee's future.
“Milwaukee is on the fast-track to becoming another Detroit.” says my father. As unfair as it might be to the people of the City of Detroit, it has become the embodiment of declining quality of urban life and the diminished viability of the American city. To have the city I call home labeled as some kind of degenerate felt akin to a personal attack. I knew that prospects for the city hadn't always seemed so hopeless, and I wanted to know what had changed so drastically.

II

In 1904, many of Milwaukee's voters had become fed up with the sloth and corruption that had plagued the politics of the city's Republican and Democratic leaders, and elected members of a growing Socialist party in Milwaukee to 9 of the 46 seats on the Common Council and a few other minor offices in municipal government. They quickly gained a sterling reputation amongst their constituents for their honesty and unwavering commitment to civil service. In 1910, largely because of popular support and assistance in their campaign, Milwaukee's Socialists were elected to 21 out of 35 seats on the Common Council and Alderman Emil Seidel was elected the city's first Socialist Mayor, along with Socialists Charles B. Whitnall and Daniel Hoan as City Treasurer and City Attorney. The fact that voters chose to elect Socialists for the majority of municipal offices didn't indicate that the populace was made up of hard-lined Marxists. They elected them on the basis of their ability to produce results; for their honesty and pragmatic commitment to increasing the general quality of life for Milwaukee's citizens in the most efficient manner possible. (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 214)
The Socialists quickly went to work improving the quality of life for Milwaukee's large class of laborers. Minimum wage was raised and an eight-hour day became the standard for all city employees. Health Department inspections of industrial complexes, processing plants and schools were expanded. A city quarry to provide building materials for public works projects, and the municipal street-lighting system were established. The Milwaukee Vocational School was established to provide workers with the chance to gain valuable job skills and thus better paying jobs. City Attorney Dan Hoan worked to improve the transit system, which was monopolized by the privately owned Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company, by waging legal battles against their tendency to skirt their obligations to maintain streetcar tracks and pay licensing fees. (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 214-215)
The Seidel administration balanced its expanded program of city services and publicly-owned enterprise with a commitment to meticulous fiscal responsibility and efficiency in the mechanics of municipal government. The city's budget items were scrutinized to eliminate any waste, and department budgets were precisely allocated to prevent overspending. City property was carefully inventoried. No measure was considered too small to take if it could save the taxpayers money. During efforts to improve voting procedures, Seidel's administration went over the polling lists and removed enough dead voters' names to save $500 in printing costs. (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 215)
We wanted our workers to have pure air; we wanted them to have sunshine; we wanted planned homes; we wanted living wages; we wanted recreation for young and old; we wanted vocational education; we wanted a chance for every human being to be strong and live a life of happiness.
And, we wanted everything that was necessary to give them that: playgrounds, parks, lakes, beaches, clean creeks and rivers, swimming and wading pools, social centers, reading rooms, clean fun, music, dance, song and joy for all. That was our Milwaukee Social Democratic movement. (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 215)
City Attorney Daniel Hoan was elected Mayor in 1916, and summed up his approach to municipal government by saying: “The objective is to give the best government possible, and, though not necessarily at a low tax rate, at the lowest cost that can be paid.” Hoan maintained and elevated the financial prudence of his predecessor Emil Seidel, and put the city's departments on a “pay-as-you-go” basis. As an astounding result, he was able to eliminate the city's entire public debt. At the same time, the city was able to fund innovations in public services; in 1925 the city's first sewage processing plant was established, improving water quality and, as a result, public health. The plant converted treated sewage into a unique fertilizer called “Milorganite” which was sold to the general public and the profits increased city revenue without increasing taxes. (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 260)
Hoan made vast improvements to the lake front, creating both a modern port for the shipping industry and public access to the lake front with the development of public beaches and parkways along the shoreline. The nation's first municipally owned housing project was established in Milwaukee to ease the post-World War I housing shortage for working-class families. City planning was improved with the introduction of zoning regulations. The Health Department established neighborhood-based vaccination programs which extended the life expectancy of residents. The park system was vastly expanded from being meager and inadequate to one of the best in the nation, featuring as much public green-space per square-mile as nearly any city in America. Even during the Great Depression, Hoan was determined to preserve the strength of municipal government, saying: “A business may quit- your city can't.” During the 1930's Milwaukee was awarded over 12 first place awards for public health, fire prevention, and traffic safety. Mayor Hoan was pictured on the cover of Time magazine in 1936, which touted him as “one of the nation's ablest public servants” and said that “under him Milwaukee has become perhaps the best-governed city in the U.S.” (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 302)
I do not mean to paint the Milwaukee of yesterday as a Utopian city. A closer examination of Milwaukee's history during its Socialist administrations reveals that problems and challenges were plentiful, not unlike today. Milwaukee's Socialists had to be engaged in a constant struggle to improve and maintain those things that were essential to quality urban living. “If you take a longer view, if you try to put the current crisis in its historical context,” says Milwaukee historian John Gurda “some facts are painfully apparent. Milwaukee has never been a wealthy community. Blue-collar workers dominated its population for well over a century, but those workers demanded a level of services consistent with their idea of the good life: plentiful public parks, nearby public libraries, solid public schools and a sound public infrastructure.” (“Civic Suicide” 1) There is no doubt in my mind that holding these services as high priorities were essential factors in understanding how Milwaukee functioned so well as a city back then. Even more crucial however, was the level of commitment to civic responsibility shown both by the city's leaders and its residents. What set Milwaukee's Socialists apart was that they were simply good, honest people who were intensely devoted to the idea of being true public servants. I cannot help but wonder if that same quality of character extended to Milwaukee's citizens. Citizens had to be deeply engaged in political and social issues at the local level to confidently elect third-party candidates to municipal offices. It is likely that this type of engagement in addressing the challenges of the urban condition, on both the part of citizens and elected officials, is lacking in contemporary politics in Milwaukee.

III

Despite the fact that he has lived in Milwaukee since moving out on his own at the age of 18, my father would hesitate to say that he is attracted to the qualities of urban life itself. He grew up in a semi-rural town just outside the Milwaukee metropolitan area, and says that he is more attracted to the sense of independence and freedom that comes with the territory of living in a place where the population is more spread out. My father was attracted to the idea of becoming a firefighter because he wanted to help people, and he chose the Milwaukee Fire Department in particular because the need for firefighting is greater in an urban area. I find it interesting that his attitude reflects the way that I suspect most urbanites feel about cities. Despite the fact that urban areas have always had great challenges to overcome, an attraction to the vivacity of cities, whether it lies in greater opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, or entertainment and cultural attractions, seems to drive them to accept the challenges and shortcomings of city life.
Truly loving a city, like loving another person, is an incredible amount of work. In most cases, growing attached and committed to a city is probably not something that can be rationalized in terms of investment versus output. Writer Nelson Algren's essay and prose-poem Chicago: City on the Make, echoes the mixed sentiments and feelings residents often have about their cities: “It isn't hard to love a city for its greater and lesser towers, its pleasant parks or its flashing ballet.” wrote Algren “Or for its broad and bending boulevards, where continuous headlights follow, one dark driver after the next, one swift car after another, all night, all night, all night. But you can never truly love it till you can love its alleys too.” (25) It seems strange, but maybe developing a certain level of intimacy with the more frustrating side of urban life is necessary to become genuinely attached to it. “Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies.” Algren continues “But never a lovely so real.” (23)

IV

Since cities aren't easy to genuinely love, it follows that some people are not going to be able to fully commit to life in the city. Years ago this would have meant that they would have sacrificed the benefits of urban living in favor of rural or small-town life. The relatively recent development of suburbs has changed all that. Suburbs are designed to give residents the best of both worlds; close proximity to the city and other surrounding municipalities combined with personal automobiles and the interstate highway system gives suburbanites greater ease of access to what lies beyond the borders of the place they call home. At the same time, the place in which they reside is still considered an independent municipality, freeing them from ultimate political and social responsibility in dealing with the problems of the other areas which they are so connected with, particularly the central city.
“As recently as 1950, 72% of the metro area's residents lived in the city.” says Gurda “The comparable figure today is 39%. Suburbanization has created an enormous class of people who no longer feel a vested interest in the welfare of the city. The results are dwindling financial resources, diminished political clout and a splintering of the consensus that once underpinned our common wealth.” (“Civic Suicide” 2) This condition of the contemporary metropolitan landscape has sapped much of the strength out of American cities.
“America is an urban nation” wrote former Milwaukee Mayor Frank Ziedler in the opening lines of his political memoir A Liberal in City Government, “More people live in cities than in rural areas.” (1) In fact 84% of Americans live in a metropolitan area consisting of a city of 50,000 or more, plus surrounding suburbs which share close economic and social ties with the urban center. (Bradley, Katz 1) People who live in suburban areas might not consider themselves “urbanites” in the typical sense, and understandably so. It is important to note however, that since suburban communities are vitally connected, particularly economically, to their urban centers, the welfare of urban areas is really inseparable from the welfare of America as a whole.
Frank Ziedler, the last Socialist mayor to be elected in Milwaukee, dealt with the consequences of these changes throughout his mayoral career from 1948 to 1960.
Inside American cities subtle changes in living patterns were taking place that required changes in public plans and policies. One of the most important changes was the flight to the suburbs by middle-income people as well as upper-income people... This flight was prompted not only by the proliferation of the motor vehicle but by the hard-surfaced road and the electric power line. Many people found it more attractive to move to the open spaces of outlying areas than to live in the cities which had become so congested...
This outward movement left the lowest income families in the center of the cities. The population in the central cities therefore tended to be smaller and poorer. The core of the cities began to decay because many of the families could not pay enough for good shelter for themselves, nor could they supply the necessary purchasing power to keep the central business district thriving...
With the flight of many middle-income people... the more upscale merchants departed also... As if this were not bad enough for the tax base of the central city, industries also moved out to newly incorporated suburbs where taxes were lower...
An increase in prices and the demanded increase in public services brought a greater strain on the public treasury. These increases forced a rise in many types of taxes, but especially in property taxes, the mainstay of city government finances.(Ziedler 45)
All of this amounted to a city which faced greater and more numerous problems than ever before with less resources to fuel efforts to address these problems. The city also faced hostility from suburbanites, who, despite the fact that many of them had previously been life-long city residents, felt no empathy towards Milwaukee's dire situation.
Too often, suburbs would pick and choose which instances they wanted to be connected to the city, and which instances they would distance themselves from it based on what was most advantageous for them. In a letter to a suburban newspaper, the West Allis Star, Mayor Zeidler pleaded with residents and leaders of the community for “a yielding of 'sovereignty' to solve metropolitan problems” pointing out that metropolitan communities were not absolutely independent from one another. He cited the fact that “West Allis itself was dependent on Milwaukee for water and on the Sewerage Commission for sewer service.” (108) This picking-and-choosing on the part of the suburbs continued to define city-suburban relations. “Most galling was the suburbs' obvious desire for city resources, particularly water, and their equally transparent unwillingness to share responsibility for city problems, particularly those associated with poverty.” says Gurda. (“Milwaukee” 341) Mayor Zeidler focused a great deal of his efforts addressing the growing problem of overcrowding and structural decay in inner-city neighborhoods. Before the slums could be cleared and renovated however, he needed to provide alternative residencies for people living in these neighborhoods. His solution was to build low income housing on open land in the city's outer areas. This proposal was met with great hostility from the outlying suburbs who were nearby the proposed sites, even though it was questionable whether they should really have much of a say in a decision that takes place outside their municipalities' limits. (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 342)
I don't mean to try and place all the blame for urban problems on suburban communities. I am more concerned with pointing out that the suburban tendency to create a lifestyle which attempts to select the perks of urban life without sharing the responsibility of its burdens won't work in the long-term. This misnomer not only impedes upon the quality of life for people living in the urban center, but will also catch up to the suburbs. The symbiotic relationship that cities and suburbs share means that what is poisonous to one will also spread to the other.

V

While driving east down North Avenue in the City of Wauwatosa, which borders the west side of Milwaukee, a co-worker of mine was recently involved in an car accident in which he was rear-ended by a car which failed to brake quickly enough while he was stopped at a red light. After being hit, the driver quickly backed away and sped around and ahead of him. A police officer coincidently pulled up behind him and checked to see if he was okay. “This happens a lot a few miles down the road, a lot of uninsured drivers on the streets once you get into Milwaukee” the officer explained “but it isn't uncommon over here either.” A few miles east down North Avenue takes you through the inner-city, which was the direction the driver sped away towards. My friend was surprised by the incident. Part of the reason he chose to live in Wauwatosa even though he attends classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is so he wouldn't have to deal with this sort of thing.
"The slums get their revenge, always somehow or other their retribution can be figured in any community." (Blanton 430) warned the Chicago poet Carl Sandburg. Problems in the inner-city and other urban areas are truly everybody's problems, not simply because of some sort of responsibility to insure social justice for our fellow human beings, but also because if these problems were left completely unchecked, they would only spread and grow, and no imaginary municipal boundary lines could completely contain them.
The City of West Allis, another city bordering Milwaukee's west side, which was mentioned earlier as one that during Zeidler's day seemed eager to distance itself from urban problems, has experienced a steady increase in crime since 1999 to 2007. In 2007, statistics show that the crime rate was actually slightly higher than the national average for US cities. (West Allis 1) A friend of my father, who is a West Allis police officer, mentioned to him that she had noticed the increase, and that much of it seemed to be concentrated around large apartment complexes that were developed as the population has grown. The city of West Allis, as well as other areas bordering large urban areas, will likely become more densely populated as the population of the metro area continues to sprawl out from its urban center. As it continues to become slightly more urbanized, it will likely begin to experience the same types of problems often associated with urban areas, problems which residents of the West Allis of Zeidler's day would have probably thought themselves immune.

VI

In the metropolitan age, Milwaukee has in some ways moved away from what it was during its Socialist hey-day. While the Socialist era in Milwaukee stands as an example of the city's, and hopefully Greater Milwaukee's potential to unite under the pursuit of the common good, it cannot be viewed as a blueprint for renewing a larger sense of community in the Milwaukee area, simply because so much has changed since. Milwaukee's future is uncertain as we struggle to adapt to the new dynamics of metropolitan life, especially because the particular mechanics of those dynamics have yet to be fully understood.
Between the pseudo-Victorian trophy houses going up in Mequon and the aged duplexes coming down in the inner city, there yawns an all-but-unbridgeable gap in social status and economic well-being... Traditionalists might be inclined to view the recent changes as Milwaukee's death knell...
It is much to early for an urban obituary, and it will always be too early simply because change is the one inescapable fact of urban life. (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 440)
Even if looking to the successes of Milwaukee's past doesn't produce a cut-and-dry recipe for quality urban life which can be applied to Milwaukee's current situation, it can provide us with something even more essential: a timelessly valuable attitude of mutual responsibility and concern for our collective well-being. In order to ensure the greatest good for the greatest amount of people, this idea should always be at the heart of the decisions we make in creating our community, regardless of the particular concerns of the here-and-now. “Although it may seem imperiled in an age of shrinking government and endemic selfishness, that quality offers Milwaukee its best prospect for the future. Conflict will not cease and the way ahead will never be clear, but a sense of civic possibility endures.” (Gurda, “Milwaukee” 441)

Wedding Day Photograph

Even a year after his wife had left him, Earl still had a photograph of himself and his ex-wife descending the white steps of the church they were married in. He kept it hidden away because he knew other people might think he was delusional if they saw it, that he was somehow refusing to deal with the fact that she was gone, but he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of it either. It was, and probably would always be the happiest he could ever remember being, and he thought that gave the photograph at least some value.
Earl was well aware of the fact that his wife had left him. He was also well aware of the fact that she had left him simply because she had realized that she was no longer in love with him. She made it explicitly clear to him that the things she had found so wonderful about him; his simplicity, his honesty, his earnestness, no longer seemed exciting to her. She insisted that at the time she truly was drawn to those traits and believed that she would be happy with him for as long as she lived. Earl was naturally shocked; it didn’t really make sense to him, and his confusion was only intensified by the fact that he was not terribly bright, and was even more naïve. She didn’t quite understand how it had happened either, she explained to him, but it was true, and she genuinely wanted to be honest about the situation, because he had always been honest with her.
She moved out promptly, and through contact with her during the divorce filing process, he learned that she had been living alone and supporting herself, giving him no reason to think that she had left him for someone else.
This was at once both relieving and also disconcerting to Earl. It was good to know that she had been honest with him. It was tough, however to come terms with why she had fallen out of love with him without any apparent cause other than perhaps his own stagnant personality. Earl could neither blame her, nor himself.
Earl had a friend named Joseph who worked with him who would occasionally stop by his house after he got off work to see how he was fairing by himself. Joseph had lost his wife during the birth of their second son, and even though he didn’t dare say that he could sympathize with Earl, he thought he could at least help him with some of the more practical matters of living alone after being married for a long time.
Joseph also had a photograph of he and wife taken on their wedding day that he kept on his mantle. Earl saw it once when he came over to Joseph’s house to help him move a new piece of furniture into his living room. Reminded of his own wedding day photograph, he asked Joseph about it. Joseph sat down, beginning a response that was much longer than Earl had expected.
In most people’s eyes, Joseph explained, this was not an unusual thing to do after one’s spouse had died. Most people believed in some kind of afterlife, and because of that it was generally accepted that relationships between human beings were not nullified after their deaths. Joseph did not believe this however. He was a very worldly person who found he had enough to be concerned about within the here and now, and had trouble accepting that idea to be anything more than a possibility.
As such, the decision he made to keep his wedding photo displayed on the mantle was not a choice he made without questioning it first. In Joseph’s mind death had overcome his wife’s ability to love him. Of course he had fond memories of their life together before she passed away, but those memories could not replace seeing her, talking to her, and sharing his life with her everyday. It was those tangible interactions that he missed, and without them he felt their connection had been severed. Though it pained him to admit it, his memories became faded and abstract as time passed.
He still kept the photograph however, because even though she effectively did not love him anymore according to his view, he did not think that what they had shared before she passed away was any less real. He held that regardless of the fact that what the photograph depicted was no longer present in his life, it still just as true as the day it was taken.
Earl returned to his house later that night. He grabbed a hammer and began pounding a nail into the wall. When he was finished, he climbed up the stairs to his attic and pulled out the box that contained his wedding day photograph.

Zine Selections

I've picked out my two favorite poems for both Alison and John so far, more to come for the meeting on Tuesday:

Alison:

this morning
salt like a sleepy snowflake 
from your eye
bare calves
march in front of you

trying to figure it out
there is a lot of truth in that
in the moon and the stars
but what about the overpasses of baltimore
and the small tiles of carpeting that make up our living room floor

in the conflict 
and the hardships 
i guess you just have to react 
you just have to be
 
on that crooked broken couch 
in the dimly lit light
whether its here or in milwaukee
it is

and there’s something
someone else that is
feeling the same
the struggle

the urge to make sense 
out of what
is not 
really
tangible

but what you can see
is
the moment

and the moon overhead
and that contrasting urge 
to fight
whatever it is
that is obstructing

John:

Must I Feel Old?
I stare out the same window

I smoked a cigarette in my dorm once
I don't think it was rebellion,
It was laziness and addiction
In fact I smoked a cigarette in my dorm more than once

I have broke the law more than once
I don't think it was rebellion
It was youth and addiction
In fact I break the law all of the time

I have thought about you once
I don't think it was bad (as I always do)
It was hopefullness and (addiction)
In fact I think about you all the time

I went back to my dorm to be alone before
I don't think it could have been even close to midnight
It was peaceful and I didn't get any work done
I think it's to prepare for getting old

I know alot of people worry about getting old
It took me getting depressed to realize it
What upset me, is will I "feel" old?
If I still feel young when I'm 50, what then?

Must I feel "old" before I die?
And does time really change my awareness?
Steve said he wanted me to be around when he's 70
Do I quit smoking now?

Have I gone too far?

Can I blame my death on an uncomfortable futon?
Can I blame my death on some smoke that goes well with coffee?
Can I blame my death on Taco Bell after film class every Wednesday?
Can I blame my death on the stupidity of someone's beer and car?
Can I blame my death on you?
Can I blame my death?

I Found Life In Moving Forward
When we talked I was already gone. 
It would take maybe years to fix me.
It didn't matter, I wasn't quiet anymore.
When I have nothing to say I become a different person.
Mostly thinking of the stale bread days that make this day what it is.
And I will never share it with you.

And you, we talked.
You fixed a cold blanket.
And that dead heartbeat that pushed on my undershirt,
every night, thinking it will stop
It's a waste of time to worry.
So I don't, and you don't, and no one really does except me and my sister.
We read books on it, we know.
I stayed up in solidarity.
I waited until dawn made me puke on it's fucking blue sky.
And every day I puke on the fucking sky.
Waiting until it's 3 a.m. and I can write down 10,000,000 excuses.
And lie about you in orange.

I played a song that made me cry.
I saw the 150 year old tree.
I tried to imagine what it was like to be a tree.
maybe the sun feels like a warm glow
and maybe i'll even get thirsty too
other than that i don't know
one time i told my mother,
"if i should die before you, i would 
prefer to be cremated, and then pot
me in one of your plants, i'm 
excited for the next life"
"well i hope that doesn't happen"
We rode in her unnatural green car.
The lawn mower of the birds and my kids.

I found life in moving forward.
Having something to do at 4 p.m. everyday is probably the most important advice I could ever give anyone.
Naps aren't deaths Ben, go to sleep.
And I will write to you, about everything I have thought.
And Kevin will continue to put his cigarettes on your tables.
I almost lit your apartment on fire 11 times.

2 months is all I need.
Philosophy and this fucker seated 5 tables away.
Trying to mack on some girl trying to do her homework.
She's cute, and I don't want her to go follow him.
As he gets up, she does a minute later.
Running to the safety of a dorm.

Proposal

For a while now we have been discussing options for what exactly we can do with all the varied work we have amassed on the Travelogue. I have a suggestion, and I would like to hear all of your thoughts on the idea, as well as whether or not you would be interested in participating.

I would like to create what I will call an "exhibition" for lack of a better term, in which we can showcase and share the many forms of work we have done; be it visual art or writing, or perhaps even music. This could be either work we have already completed, or new work which can premier at this event. What I am envisioning is a cross-disciplinary exhibition which would feature poetry readings, as well as a gallery space for displaying visual art, perhaps a space for musical performances/projects, which, despite the breadth of content/artistic disciplines, would still feel coherent.

Of course, we would need to acquire a space for this event to take place. I have discussed with Ben the possibility of using a space in the house he will be moving into to do something similar to this idea. While I do think that this is certainly an option we should keep in mind, I am worried that things could get a bit crowded and out of hand in this type of space. I have attended an event similar to this in a house space, and though I was interested in some the work I saw, its impact was diminished by the fact that there were a lot of distractions in the house and the presentation of the work was somewhat haphazard. I think that the quality of the work which I have seen from all of you warrants at least an attempt at acquiring a more suitable space and presentation which is as professional as possible.

I know that some of you are familiar with Bucketworks; we have played a few shows there in the past. For those of you who are not, it's an organization which helps its members to facilitate a wide variety of endeavors; they seem open to just about anything you could think of. Their facility is located just north of Downtown on the intersection of 6th and McKinley.This is their website: http://bucketworks.org/. I read some info regarding renting space at Bucketworks for an event, and they seem open to any type of event, as well as willing to work with renters to find a price that fits their budget. If I remember correctly, they charged about $200 at one of the shows we played at. Assuming the price was similar to this, it could be very manageable if we split the cost between everyone who would be participating.

I realize that this is an ambitious idea, but I don't think it's out of reach. Seeing as how many of us are planning on practicing an art form of some kind, this idea is certainly conducive to the things we will do once we are out of school. I don't see any reason we couldn't start now though; I think it would be beneficial to have this kind of experience before we get out into the "real" world.

Please let me know what you think. Let's get together once we are all home again and discuss this and other options for what we can do with our work.

-James

Skyline

Church steeples, smokestacks, and the tops of old factory and warehouse buildings protrude from Milwaukee's south side horizon. Most of the smokestacks, however, don't billow smoke from their mouths anymore. Bells don't toll from the steeples every Sunday either, no longer summoning droves of devout parishioners to Mass. Many of the factories are empty, abandoned, for lease, or greatly downsized. Over on the near north side, a similar urban layout exists: old warehouses, old fashioned storefronts, as well as historic breweries and churches. The purpose of these structures, too, are dwindling. Some lots have been cleared out, implying new developments on the way. Yet, many of these lots have been empty for years with no sign of construction or land development since they were cleared out. It is as if it is understood that growth and change are needed; space is cleared and preparations for a new direction are made, but something is causing hesitation.

Milwaukee is no longer the industrial powerhouse that it was decades ago, reflecting a larger economic shift from industrial to service-based labor. The industries have since been bought out, jobs out-sourced, or simply moved to bigger cities and consolidated. However, an outside observer might not notice the change based on appearance alone; many of the structures that make up the urban skyline were the same fifty years ago as they are today. Milwaukee's image has yet to catch up with the present: a city in transition still searching for an updated identity.

Vegetales Frescos

Bus

The bus passes by my stop, I am on the other side of the street. It occurs to me that I could still flag it down, but I hesitate. I am unable to bring myself to do that sort of thing; who am I to make all the other passengers on that bus wait for me just because I didn't get to my stop on time? I see the bus driver's head turn towards me, making brief eye contact, followed by a gesture with his index finger pointing downward asking me if this was my stop. I sheepishly nod my head in response to his gesture. He pulls over at the side of the road just past the intersection. I run across two crosswalks, leaning to the left with the weight of my bag, fishing my bus pass out of my shirt pocket, and leap from the curb into the bus. I look up at the driver and say "thanks".

Milwaukee Says Bag

Bay View Puddlers' Cottages