Point Made

 Of course, there are all of those cliche indications that fall is upon us. The leaves falling. The NFL now is in its seventh week. They tell me that the NBA schedule has started. I'd add that hockey and soccer are in progress, but they are the games that never stop. But pleasantly, the significant indicator hasn't shown its ugly face yet. We've unseasonably warm weather almost through October. And while it's still the case, two events happened last week that have to be considered benchmarks. First, mainly because the overnight temperatures were getting cooler, I pulled my window fan out to close the window. The following day I woke to a smell that made me think I had left something on the stove with the heat on. It turned out to be the radiators that were cooking the dust off of themselves. The building's heating system was on. For late October, it is still comfortable. Even with the nighttime temps along the Shore of the Inland Sea reaching down into the forties, ...

It was a bit overwhelming last week. I had five columns to write for Urban Milwaukee and my commitment to Two Many Wives' screenplay. All writing and no play make Jeff a confused old man.  The columns for Urban Milwaukee are all previews of Plays opening up in Milwaukee regional theater this fall. Not only were companies touting their opening shot at live in-person theater but announcing their season selections. I don't care if you're looking for edgy drama or a frothy musical; Milwaukee has some great stuff coming.  I addition to writing, I took my pencil in hand and resumed my sketch-a-day habit. Primarily gleaning my subjects from posting on Instagram.  This leads me to another subject. That is the daily emergence of myself into the evil empire of social media. It got me thinking about my use of Facebook, Google, Instagram & WhatsApp.  I know my comments will sound like the people who blame the opiate-addicted instead of the big Pharma and their marketing for ...

 First, let me share a sketch I did, using as a model, a painting by Bill Haas, a Milwaukee-born internationally known artist. I swiped it from his Instagram posting. This young lady has a bit of attitude that I liked. The image also challenged me to practice drawing hands. If there are areas of portrait drawing, I need to work on drawing ears, noses, and hands. My hunch is she is a handful to raise. (Pun intended.)   Here's a short video that might make your day a better one. Via My classmate and friend Dave Nitz The next step is working from another image I harvested from Instagram. If this pose looks familiar, it's because it evokes the same kind of mystery as The Dancing Girl, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  If you don't admit you are curious about her and hoping she'll turn around, you aren't looking hard enough. This is from a photo collection the features children around the world. The copy beneath this image told me that she is an Asian girl.  My...

 As I mentioned in my last blog post, theater season is here and that means I will be writing previews for Urban Milwaukee.com. I will be sending out the links to my articles for the few of you who don't read the most informative online news about Milwaukee written and edited by people who live in Milwaukee. I have turned the pilot for my series Two Many Wives to a distribution service in LA, Talefilck. This screenplay is a story about people adjusting to being married, having children, and living under a microscope because they are in a polygamous marriage. Or as I explain it, it's Three is Company, with benefits. My characters learn that marriage isn't all moonlight and roses but it beats being single. Their challenges are, among many, defending their lifestyle choice. Parents that don't understand. Past romances that bubble up out of the blue. And for good measure, whose going to get up and tend to the babies. The three of them want the babies but post-partum depre...

 I am one of those people with their noses against the glass separating us from the partitioners when it comes to art. My association with artists leaves me in that realm of knowing enough to be dangerous. On the other hand, I've been close enough to many of them so that I've learned something, but not everything, about their process. I have concluded that there is much similarity between how a painter and an actor go about producing what they do.  What is your Process? That is an embarrassing cliche question I've heard at so many author appearances when I worked at a bookstore? I sometimes thought the question was a reader's attempt to say, "Look, I know something about how you guys work, so fill me in." Or maybe it's showing off for the uninitiated part of the audience. "Oh my God, if you don't know about the process, what are you doing here?" I learned about The Process by trying to be a creative person. The Process is simply the steps one...

 As we reviewed the 120 days of possible good weather in Wisconsin, one thing stands out. The season was sweltering.  As I post this, we've had over twenty days where the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. The average is seven. While this is a startling number, let's take some solace in the fact that it's one thing for which we can't blame COVID. Another fact, Milwaukee had over thirty inches of perception in 2020. We are now at a little over ten inches. It will take a lot of rain or snow between now and New Year to match last year's production. I'm already pulling back on my modular air cooling system. Adding the various parts to it begins in the spring. The first thing I do is open my bathroom window. The window faces north. It's on the second floor of my building and is mere feet from the building next door. Because of this, I get a breeze through the window almost every day regardless of the wind direction. The wind wraps around the buildings and flows int...

The Dancing Girl Although often just in passing. I have written more than once about  The Dancing Girl.  I never have nicknamed her “The Girl” or refer to her by the acronym TDG. It’s always  The Dancing Girl . I’m not positive, but I believe I gave her that name, her creator might disagree. She was painted by Lenny Nagler, a popular and talented artist who lives in Appleton, Wisconsin. His work resides in the collections of many private buyers, businesses, and institutions. While most of Lenny’s work is landscape art, I happen to own four pieces of his depictions of human activity. Nagler is a retired Middle School teacher. He has told most anybody that asks that he enjoyed teaching middle school. It always reminds me of a Johnny Carson joke. Who would answer a question like that by saying it was his second favorite thing. His first favorite thing was lighting his hair on fire and putting it out with a small hammer.  It’s no wonder when people talk about all of the ...