The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Happy one-year anniversary!Dear fledglings,
Thank you so much for giving us a full year of your dedication. Last year, we launched our website on September 11, transferring content from Christine Stoddard's blog to the new and improved QuailBellMagazine.com--a full-fledged experiment in the imaginary, the nostalgic, and the otherworldy. Now we have submissions and contributors from all over the world and, even though we're just beginning, we've already gotten a fair amount of exposure. We've launched a print 'zine, created a mobile app, put on a fashion show, and tabled at several art festivals. There's only more more to come. Again, thank you for lending us your ears and eyes. We love our readers and know that you love us, too. Feathery hugs, The QB Crew The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
A September Day in Hollywood CemeteryBy QB Camera Eye QuailBellMagazine.com These pictures feature the largest cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. That cemetery is Hollywood Cemetery, which dates back to 1849. Eerily beautiful for these last days of summer, huh? Now imagine it on a crisp October evening. We'll be sure to show you how it looks then, too. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Fall to pieces over Pieces By Julie DiNisio QuailBellMagazine.com Before I actually entered Pieces Boutique and Consignment, I drove by its picturesque Main Street location about a hundred times on my way home, every day. And I always noted the mannequin outside the store, dressed fashionably and in clothing I could tell I wanted, even from my car. So, trying to be good to my budget, I avoided actually going in the store, a decision I regret now. Due to the store's affordable, brand name and brand-new looking men and women's clothing selection, there's little reason not to stop by.
Store owner Lynsi Montgomery set up shop less than a year ago, bringing a much-needed non-restaurant establishment to the Fan district. And this personable entrepreneur will be lending clothing for Once Upon a Time II: Forgotten Folklore, Quail Bell's October 4 fashion show. So in your spare time, check out Piece's Facebook page for the newest deals and attend the show to see the clothing in action! The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Punk in Fredericksburg, VirginiaPhotography by Stephen Palke
Modeled by Kristin Tschirn QuailBellMagazine.com The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Alligators in the SewersBy Stan Balducci QuailBellMagazine.com John T. Flaherty is chief of design in the New York City Bureau of Sewers. Flaherty is also the resident expert on the most durable urban legend in the history of cities. Flaherty, a good-humored man with an alligator cigarette lighter on his desk tells all, “There are no alligators in the New York City sewer system”. Alligators are a small part of Flaherty’s business. There are 6,500 miles of sewer lines in New York City ranging from 6-inch pipe to monster sewers as big as a small band shell. Flaherty said, “A well-functioning sewer is a rather pleasant atmosphere-nice and cool in summertime, warm in the wintertime.” It seems just the place for an alligator, but it is not. The legend holds that travelers to Florida adopted baby alligators, tired of them and flushed them down the toilet, sending them to the city sewer system where they grew to immense size. Flaherty says there are things living in the sewers, most of them rats. There are also insects and some stray fish. There have been some bodies and a few gangs that have set up subterranean sewer clubhouses. There are no alligators because there is not enough space and not enough food. The torrents of water that run through the sewers during a heavy rain would drown even an alligator.
This urban legend is an example of creepy contaminations. The theme of Alligators in the Sewers is of animals contaminating the human environment; of animals lurking where they do not belong. Alligators in the Sewers is one of the best known American urban legends. Alligators in the Sewers legend has been celebrated in cartoons, comic books, children’s books, art, literature, and films such as Alligator (1980), directed by Lewis Teague. This film follows the attempts of a police officer and a herpetologist to stop a giant alligator that is killing humans in the sewers of Chicago. The film Alligator received praise from critics for its intentional satirizing. A possible nineteenth-century English prototype for the legend is found in Boyle’s book, Black Swine in the Sewers of Hampstead (1989). The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
This Man Helps Make Revel GroveBy Christine Stoddard QuailBellMagazine.com Quail Bell recently asked the General Manager of the Maryland Renaissance Festival, Jules Smith, a few serious questions--and he gave us a few serious responses:
Renaissance festivals began in California in the mid-sixties, and by 1971 George Coullum (who had been a stained glass vendor in a California show) had arrived in Minnesota and wished to open a festival there. He needed investors and eight people put up $3,000 each to start the event. After the first season, he bought back the shares from all but Julius Smith, who was an attorney in Minneapolis, in order to utilize his services. Six years later he sold the entire event in order to move to Texas and start the Texas Renaissance Festival. Smith was looking to start his own festival and a friend, Jim Rouse, who owned the Rouse Company and was building the town of Columbia, Maryland, offered Smith land adjacent to Merriweather Post Pavilion. The Maryland Renaissance Festival began in 1977 in Symphony Woods next to Merriweather and operated eight years before relocating to a larger piece of property in 1985. The Maryland Renaissance Festival is now in its 36th season, its 28th at its present location. The inspiration was the fun of the event, the enjoyment it brought to attendees and the unique business model that was innovative at its time.
Like most developing events, rather than rapid growth, the festival evolved over time, acquiring additional merchants, expanding the number of stages and increasing the variety of food. Growth followed the economy of scale approach. Additional components were added when it was felt they would be supported or in answer to a demand. Several innovations occurred that changed the presentation of the Festival and greatly improved its standing with customers. Shortly after Jules Smith, Jr. took over in 1986. After overseeing the new site development in 1985, several changes were initiated. Craft merchants were given two years to either remove the items they did not make and expand those they did (although there are some permitted exceptions of intrinsic value to customers), or they would not be invited back to participate. This, along with limiting the number of vendors, so that there would be a high customer to vendor ratio rather than a massive number of merchants selling a mishmash of products, attracted the premier merchants on the circuit. Eventually, even regional merchants who had no products thematic to the show developed lines that would be acceptable in order to participate and realize the potential market benefits. Secondly, hat passing was phased out and eventually eliminated. Although Maryland has the lowest gate admission price among the major renaissance festivals, it is the only one of them that does not allow hat passing to beg tips from the audience. The festival pays their performers more than other shows in order to ban hat passing, or “busking,” and improve the customer’s experience by removing the badgering of stage acts for money. Third, the festival reduced and restructured prices in 1990 to be more family-friendly and attract more customers, opting to create a show sustained by the crowds rather than pushing the acceptable price points to maximize profit while serving fewer people. Fourth, the festival introduced fundraising opportunities for local charities and civic organizations (now in its 25th year) to give them a chance to raise money for their causes. This extended the event into the community, raised grass root support and improved the event's perception as a business that gives back. Finally, the festival began a profit sharing program with its own food booth managers and some of the games the event operates. This was initiated to improve customer service, encourage employee incentive and loyalty and allowed the event management to be more competitive with the independent food and game vendors at the show. As a result, all the food and games improved and the customer became the beneficiary of the improved product and service. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Need a residential studio space in RVA?By Katrina Comolli Fontenla QuailBellMagazine.com How could Richmond, Virginia accomodate live/work spaces for artists in areas either in downtown or convenient to it? Katrina Comolli Fontenla, a graduate Urban Planning student at Virginia Commonwealth University, tries to figure it out. Download her thesis here:
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Last Days of SummerBy Kat Gualtieri QuailBellMagazine.com At last, summer's ghastly humidity is waning. The sunshine becomes milder with each passing day. You crave a sweet breeze and the pleasure of sitting outside for an hour without feeling your make-up run down your face. You're hungering for autumn. But don't be so quick to yearn for the next thing when you already have something good going for you. This in-between time is precious. School's about to start and your office work will start to pick up now that vacations are coming to a close. Soon, it'll be too chilly and you'll be too busy to sip tea on the porch. Fashion-wise, you can still wear shorts and tank tops, but your light sweaters and pants play a daily role, too. In only a few weeks, you'll be wrapping a scarf around your neck. Your summer love will stop calling. Frozen drinks will tingle your spine. Be bold and indulge yourself in the whimsy that comes with these last days of summer. Nostalgia for these days will nip you soon enough. -C.S.
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Huzzah! Turkey legs and corsets!By Starling Root QuailBellMagazine.com This time of year, suburban Annapolis, Maryland regresses at least 400 years. Labor Day may mean the death of summer, but it also means the birth of the fall season--also known as renn faire prime time. August 25th marked the Maryland Renaissance Festival's 36th season, heralding nine weekends worth of historical merriment in the biggest renn faire on the East Coast. Over the course of the festival, over 200 professional performers conquer 10 stages with their niche acts. Even authentic jousting in full metal armor can be included in one of the event's many spectacles. That's not to mention the 140 artisans tabling their wares, which range from hand-carved swords to leather masks to painted gourds and more. Five taverns and 42 food emporiums serve up everything from mead to snow cones. Other diversions include fortune-telling, themed rock-climbing, face-painting, dart-blowing, and more. And if you forgot your costume, you can even rent one. Quail Bell hit the renn scene on Sunday, September 2nd, catching a show from Shakespeare's Skum and a concert by Wine & Alchemy. Shakespeare's Skum, a comedy troupe whose work centers on Shakespearean plays, put on a game show. Three audience members had the chance to guess character names and plays in a challenging, Jeopardy-style contest. The winner scored tickets to Medieval Times in Arundel Mills, Maryland. Wine & Alchemy, on the other hand, presented a mesmerizing melange of world music and belly-dancing. They played everything from French troubadour tunes to Carmen's "Habanera." We deemed both performances Quail Bell approved. Regardless of your budget and schedule, the Maryland Renaissance Festival offers diverse options every weekend from now through October 21st. Enjoy a $7 discount on all adult tickets now through September 16th. 2-day, 6-day, 9-day, and season passes are also available. Children under age 7 go free. RennFest.com Editor's Note: Do you have pictures of your own adventures at the Maryland Renaissance Festival? We'd love to post them! Please send your photos as .JPG attachments to submissions@quailbellmagazine.com with your name and city in the body of the email.
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Qualia CoffeeWe're not the only ones with quail fever. We found this charming coffeeshop in Washington, D.C.'s Petworth neighborhood on Georgia Avenue.
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How to Befriend a CockroachBy Sparrow Goddess QuailBellMagazine.com Love even that which crawls and scatters teeny poops across your stovetop. In this modern era, you must learn to accept everyone—even cockroaches. Do not discriminate against race, ethnicity, religion, or six-legged things. Your ancestors used to slay dragons and that's why there are no more. It is your duty as a citizen of the world to ensure that cockroaches (the dragons of our generation) do not become a thing of the past. But if you're still having doubts, I'll coax you into achieving social enlightenment. Start by doing and you could be the next Martin Luther King. Here are five ways to befriend a cockroach:
Number 5 is the best piece of advice I can give you. If you go so far as to marry a cockroach, kudos to you. You've done more than befriend a cockroach; you've fallen for one. Look at how forward-thinking you are! A human-cockroach species will surely be the dominant creature of the future. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Quirky Rams ResearchBy Paisley Hibou QuailBellMagazine.com Imagine loving an esoteric topic so much that you could go to school for years to study it. Then you spend the rest of your life teaching and researching and geeking out. This is the life of the university professor. This year, Virginia Commonwealth University(VCU) became one of the National Science Foundation's top 100 institutions for research. According to a press release issued Thursday, April 5, VCU hosts more than $255 million in sponsored research across various disciplines—most notably in its life science programs at its VCU Medical Center campus. With the VCU Parkinson's Disease Center and the VCU Massey Cancer Center, VCU Medical Center researchers may very well find cures to these and other ailments one day. One of the center’s most recent and boldest headlines? In March, VCU Medical Center researchers announced their findings that abusing "bath salt," an over-the-counter drug, can be as harmful as using cocaine. But what about all of the VCU schools and departments outside of the VCU Medical Center? What do their professors study when they're not teaching? Arts and English professors in particular are probably ones you don't typically associate with research. That's where you are mistaken. They might not toil away at microscopes, but arts and English professors research all the same. Here are examples of the kind of quirky research that's helped VCU earn its reputation for creativity and innovation: Linda Lee, assistant professor of fashion design at VCU, specializes in the weaving practices and indigenous textiles of Guatemala and Southeast Asia. In 2006, Lee led a class to Guatemala, where her students helped Mayan women develop their own marketable line of apparel and accessories. The course later became the subject of a PBS documentary exhibited at VCUarts Anderson Gallery. Today, you'll find that Lee continues writing, curating and coming up with new fashion pedagogy, especially on the note of sustainability.
Lee isn't the only professor who approaches fashion with scholarly discretion. Holly Price Alford, also of VCU's Department of Fashion, studied the influence of African-American hip-hop on Japanese youth culture in 2010, thanks to a grant from the VCU School of the Arts. Previously, news outlets, such as the Associated Press, BBC Radio, and The Baltimore Sun have interviewed Alford on topics ranging from First Lady Michelle Obama's inaugural attire to movie fashions that spiked trends. Alford's area of expertise lies at the intersection of fashion, history and pop culture. So, yeah, watching the Academy Awards is all part of a day's work! The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Virginia Capitol SquareBy QB Camera Eye QuailBellMagazine.com Oh, TJ! Who doesn't know you? Anyone educated in the United States beyond the age of 6 is familiar with Thomas Jefferson's myriad accomplishments. But did you know that this Renaissance man also designed Virginia's state capitol building? The building was the first example of public neo-classical architecture in the New World and has been in use since 1788. Also featured on Virginia's Capitol Square are the Executive Mansion, the Capitol Bell Tower, and public art and memorials.
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The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
You'll envy our turkey legs!Catch us at the Maryland Renaissance Festival this Sunday. It's the largest one on the entire East Coast--and you can bet we'll be big shutterbugs whilst feasting and making all kinds of merriment. |
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