The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Ghost-Candy-Costume DayDear fledglings,
We hope that you enjoy this wonderful spooky day in the best possible way. Halloween is the QB Crew's favorite holiday and, if it's yours, too, we can't say we're surprised. Don't hesitate to celebrate! As always, feel free to send us photos of your adventures. Here's wishing you many tricks and many treats! Feathery hugs, The QB Crew The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Balti-Lore! By Julie DiNisio QuailBellMagazine.com As a member of a family with many native Baltimore, Maryland residents, I'm pretty familiar with the old city, aside from my uncanny ability to always get lost in its winding streets. But really, it's a lot like every other East Coast city. Decaying, ever-emerging art scene, traffic. And, of course, urban legends. Here are some of the most memorable and chilling:
Black Aggie When an innocent nurse was put to death in the early 1900s, a statue was erected in the Druid Ridge Cemetery to commemorate her and appease the sentencers for their mistake (or so the story goes). It grew in fame as mysterious occurrences began happening around it. For example, it was believed that if you stand in front of “Aggie” at midnight, her eyes will glow red and you will be struck blind. Her shadow is also rumored to afflict pregnant women with miscarriages. Perhaps all of these stories are taken more seriously as a member of a local fraternity was found dead in front of the statue. Due to all of the disturbances and rumors, Aggie was relegated the basement of a Smithsonian museum where she has far fewer visitors. Poe Toaster Despite the fact that this title conjures mental images of an Edgar Allan Poe themed appliance, alas, we aren't so lucky. But there is the story about the Baltimore man who annually visited the famous author's grave for 75 years, toasted Poe with a glass of cognac, and left the remnants of the bottle and three roses. This mysterious visitor, dressed all in black, made his trip in the wee hours of January 19, Poe's birthday. The unidentified “toaster” (or toasters, as it's been speculated that there is more than one) visited the grave from the 1930s to the late 90s. From there, it is uncertain what happened, whether he/they passed away or simply shied away from the growing publicity. Westminster Church and Catacombs In Baltimore's most famous cemetery, it is rumored that a whole host of ghosts restlessly stir. The church building and adjoining burial grounds (including catacombs) were constructed in 1786. But the city continued to work on the edifice well into the 1850s, moving about buried bodies, which were in many cases taken and dissected by medical students, to meet city ordinances. Some of the most ghostly events have taken place in the catacombs. Visitors have reported hearing anguished screams from the otherworldly residents buried there. Above ground, a ghost in period clothing was once witnessed and photographed at Poe's grave. Famous madwoman Leona Wellesley, buried in her straitjacket, supposedly follows visitors with her eerie presence and crazy laugh. This is not to mention the many soldiers and generals, famous in life and now in death, at Baltimore's most haunted cemetery. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Night the Owl SpokeBy Shawn Everett Jones QuailBellMagazine.com Editor's Note: Josephine Stone was Quail Bell Magazine's Managing Editor. She died on this day last year in Richmond, Virginia at age 23. We will always love and remember our kind, quirky, and talented Josie. As Halloween looms, I can’t help but be overwhelmed with thoughts of Josie. I guess if there is any time to feel a little melancholy, this is it. And I guess I have to disclaim, that I am a glutton for a beautiful little melancholy, as opposed to any other kind. But now melancholy is deeper than just my love misadventures (which I used to so joking tell Josie all about, we would laugh so hard at and make it seem trivial) and quips about my perpetual pauperism. Now my melancholy knows that gasp and struggle for breath that has your hand over your mouth by reflex, that sinking feeling while looking around to see if everything else in the world is crumbling away, too. I had a dream of an owl. It was trying to communicate something to me. I woke with the need to go to Maymont Park and see the owl there. It didn’t tell me anything. Later that day I met John Stone. We packed up the last remaining items in their house. He, Josie and I were moving into a new place in a few days. Theresa came by and cracked us up talking about her new job and her new uniform to go with it. I took all of Josie’s Halloween stuff to my house to add to the Halloween decorations because we planned to hang out there and pass out candy before the Halloween parade. So I Halloweened the fuck outta the place. He and Brent and I went to pick Josie up from work. She gave me an Abe Lincoln Cracker Jack prize that was on her desk because I was working on the Spielberg film and all stoked about it. John had some free fast food coupons and we ate and stopped by the Halloween store. Josie and I were in the back section with all the creepy two headed demon babies and decapitated and severed limbs and she asks, “Isn’t this cool?,” and I was like, “Well, I dunno if I would call it that, but yeah, I guess, but no." She really liked the gore of it all. I am a fan of the melancholy and the camp if it. So, we appreciated it for different reasons. But we were the greatest Halloween fans I knew. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
8 Things This Library of Congress Skintern LearnedBy Jesus Espinoza QuailBellMagazine.com This past summer I was fortunate enough to be offered an internship at the Library of Congress Office of Strategic Initiatives. Obviously this was an amazing opportunity and I was extremely thrilled for the path that lay ahead of me. Throughout the summer I faced many exciting challenges, discovered some newfound lows, made lifelong friends (as well as a few “frienemies”), and worked on a lot (and I do mean a lot) of metadata projects. But above all else what I did during my time in Washington D.C. and the Library of Congress was learn.
Here are some of the eight most important things I learned this past summer: 1. Things will get “meta.” I was hired as one of four interns into what we lovingly referred to as Team Metadata. It was our job to add and remediate metadata for many of the Library’s online exhibitions. Now I know what you’re probably thinking: What the hell is metadata? Simply put, metadata is data about data. It is basically additional information apart from an object itself that allows you to classify and sort it. This is an extremely basic definition so please don’t quote me on it. One common example would be a music library. Items like genre, year, artist, track number, etc. are a song’s metadata. It can be more or less complex as needed. We worked on a multitude of projects for a lot of different departments’ online exhibits. This all sounds a lot more exciting than it actually was. Day-to-day, we were mostly filling in information like locations, dates, author, correspondent, subject etc. for specific items like manuscripts. We also had meta-meetings which were our meetings to discuss progress on our projects. And we even held two meta-meta-meetings in which we discussed how we wanted to format our actual meetings, how often we should have them and if there was any way to improve the meetings. Yep. Inception has nothing on us! 2. Working at the Library of Congress does not mean you’ll see any books. I knew pretty well going into the internship the kind of work that I’d be doing. I knew I was probably not going to spend my time surrounded by beautiful old books in all the gorgeous reading rooms. However, I did expect to see a lot of books on a day-to-day basis. Nope. Not a single one! Our work office was located in the Madison Building, which is very much a work office building. The walls are decorated with a lot of art reproductions and the hallways are adorned with displays, statues and even some beautiful old globes, but not a single book was detected. We did, however, get tours of the Madison and its many breathtaking reading rooms. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Beau of the Week/ October 22nd By Tykeya O'Neil & Sidney Shuman QuailBellMagazine.com Cast your vote by Friday at midnight EST!
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Bell(e) of the Week: October 22nd By Tykeya O'Neil & Lindsey Story QuailBellMagazine.com Cast your vote by Friday at midnight EST!
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The hills are alive--unlike that computer virus.By Kaelne Koorn QuailBellMagazine.com The average Peruvian is three times more likely than the average American to download pirated software. Peru's software piracy rank is 71%, as calculated by the total number of unites of pirated software deployed in 2007 divided by the total units of software installed. Peru's piracy rate ranks 40th in the world. At least that's according to the Fifth Annual BSA and IDC Global Piracy Study released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA.) Yet a report published by INEI--Peru's national statistics and information institute--also stated that less than 20% of Peruvian homes even have Internet access. In rural areas, only 0.7% of homes have Internet access. So basically, the people who actually have Internet in Peru download A LOT of illegal software. (More power to them for being resourceful!) Now look at those mountains. If you woke up to the Andes everyday, would you bother with Facebook or Twitter? It's unlikely. And who would blame you besides online advertisers? -C.S.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
We're talking about tradition here.The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
How to Rid Yourself of a Victorian Street Urchin (Next Time You Time Travel)By Luna Lark QuailBellMagazine.com Few things are as difficult to rid yourself of as an insistent child—especially a gap-toothed one with a coal-smudged face, wearing rags. But in Victorian London, warding off street urchins was a part of everyday life. These poor, neglected, often orphaned children, relied upon the kindness of strangers and their own resourcefulness in order to survive. Some of them begged, some of them stole, some of them conned, and some of them did all three. If you weren't watching the little ones, they were probably watching you, waiting to grab your pocket watch or convince you to give them a few shillings.
At some point, getting hassled by needy children becomes a burden, particularly if you're needy yourself. (It's estimated that during this era over 30% of Londoners lived in poverty.) The next time you travel through time and find yourself in Victorian London, here's how to relieve yourself of street urchins: • Always carry a loaf of decoy bread. Street urchins eye all food hungrily and greedily. As soon as a street urchin sees your fake bread, the child will think of nothing but how to obtain said bread. When the street urchin starts to scamper toward you, throw the fake loaf as far as you can. The child will run after it like a dog runs after a stick. The difference between the child and the dog is that the child won't come back—and you're free. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Spell of Cose BelleBy Christine Stoddard QuailBellMagazine.com Photo courtesy of Cose Belle Fredericksburg, Virginia's Old Town suffers no lack of historical enchantment. Cose Belle only deepens the spell that the district naturally casts upon its unsuspecting visitors. This small women's boutique brings lesser-known European designer fashion to a place best known for early American history and the University of Mary Washington. Everyone this side of the Atlantic has heard of Prada and Gucci. But what about beautiful designer clothes you can actually afford? Look up Cristina Gavioli, Gabrielle Parker, and AB-Nahlik for a glimpse into the sort of timeless elegance that graces the boutique. Cose Belle is the perfect place, for example, to buy a black sweater that will stylishly last you the next decade (or until it finally wears out.) It is the same place where you can find the velvet clutch you want to one day give your granddaughter. Whether you're in the mood for the wearable works of Italian, English, French, or even Polish designers, Cose Belle carries a variety of carefully curated clothing and accessories. For a dose of Old World magic and shopping novelty, try Cose Belle. You'll need a break after visiting Kenmore Planation and the James Monroe Museum, anyway. 1002 Caroline Street
Fredericksburg, Virginia Tel: 540-361-1400 CoseBelleBoutique.com The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Eastern State Penitentiary Story and photos by Kristen Rebelo QuailBellMagazine.com Once known for housing some of the most notorious criminals, Eastern State Penitentiary has since fallen into disarray. Located in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, mere blocks from shops and restaurants, it now stands as a daunting reminder of our past. Eastern State Penitentiary opened its doors after being uniquely designed by John Haviland in 1829. The prison was considered the world’s “first true penitentiary” and differed greatly from traditional American prisons. The institution was designed in a different way so that prisoners could be constantly watched. A small circular vestibule is the heart of the prison, with hallways lined with cells radiating out from it. When more cells had to be added to one of the hallways later on due to overcrowding, large mirrors that faced the center room were installed. This way, one guard could thoroughly monitor the entire prison from his post in the center. Eastern State also introduced a new way of housing inmates. Rather than being thrown together, inmates were kept in solitary confinement at all times, even having separate courtyards attached to each cell so prisoners would never come into contact with one another.
From the time of an inmate’s arrival to the end of his sentence, he was never supposed to have any human contact. If a prisoner ever had to leave his cell, his head would be covered with a black cloth so he would not even come into contact with the guard. The relatively advanced plumbing system was also not without reason. All toilets flushed into one main well so that prisoners could not exchange messages among one another. This was the first time such tactics of isolation had been implemented, and differed greatly from the standard American prisons where inmates were housed in large communal rooms. If inmates misbehaved, they were subject to brutal and odd punishments, such as being lowered into an underground pit for days on end, or strapped so tightly to a chair that it made any slight movement impossible. Although originally thought to be a good idea, studies conducted actually found that the extreme isolation led to mental illness in many of the prisoners. In many cases, they left more disturbed and violent than they had been upon arrival. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Wedding PartyBy The Picture Pharmacist QuailBellMagazine.com Dear fledglings, Don't dream about the day--dread it. What day, you ask? Your wedding day. Fear it. It's easy at this time of year to let the autumn leaves sweep you up in romantic fantasies. Ignore them. Instead, imagine everything that can (and will) ruin "the best day of your life." Now download this picture and start Photoshopping in a few monsters, both the literal and the figurative. Next time you start musing about your dress or cake, look at the picture you've created. I'm only trying to help. Your grandmother's bridal gown is probably best used for Halloween--not another wedding. Yours truly, The Picture Pharmacist
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Studio That CouldI have driven past Studio 23’s garage door in Richmond, Virginia about a hundred times. I have heard it spoken of, but I had no idea what it was all about. Calling it a simple print studio would not do it justice. It is more of an urban cooperative for artists and those trying to become artists. I was excited to explore it and learn more about what they did. Jeff and I walk past that garage door with the Studio 23 logo and are immediately greeted by Ashley Hawkins. Ashley is one of the four founders, a member of the board of directors, and responsible for most of the daily operations at the studio. We are in the middle of the work space. It has the smell metal, wood, chemicals, and grease. It reminds me of walking through hardware stores with my dad when I was kid. There are large wooden tables that cross the entire room. Most of the equipment lines the walls. Ashley walks me through the space and points out what everything is and what it does and how it works. She shows me where most of the screen prints are made. The sinks still have remnants of the last print around the edges. She opens up the acid bath where they wash out the exposure. We duck our heads under shelving to look at the vacuum exposure. It has a large crack in the glass. I ask if it affects the end product and she shakes her head, but tells me that it is being replaced by the one who broke it.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Multiculturalism is good. 'nuff said.By QB Curator QuailBellMagazine.com "The Signs of America's ethnic diversity can be discerned across the continent--Ellis Island, Angel Island, Chinatown, Harlem, South Boston, the Lower East Side, places with Spanish names like Los Angeles and San Antonio or Indian names like Massachusetts and Iowa. Much of what is familiar in America's cultural landscape actually has ethnic origins. The Bing cherry was developed by an early Chinese immigrant named Ah Bing. American Indians were cultivating corn, tomatoes, and tobacco long before the arrival of Columbus. The term okay was derived from the Choctaw word oke, meaning "it is so." There is evidence indicating that the name Yankee came from Indian terms for the English--from eankke in Cherokee and Yankwis in Delaware. Jazz and blues as well as rock and roll have African-American origins. The "Forty-Niners" of the Gold Rush learned mining techniques from the Mexicans; American cowboys acquired herding skills from Mexican vaqueros and adopted their range terms--such as lariat from la reata, lasso from lazo, and stampede from estampida. Songs like "God Bless America," "Easter Parade," and "White Christmas" were written by a Russian-Jewish immigrant named Israel Baline, more popularly known as Irving Berlin." -From A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Strangeness of Unbroken LandBy Luna Lark QuailBellMagazine.com Sarah V. Smith, a recent graduate of VCUarts in Richmond, Virginia now lives on Gwynn's Island, surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay and the aura of strangeness she emits simply by exercising her everyday imagination. We shot her a quick Facebook message to see what she had to say about her art--succinctly. Who are you--in six words? Child of pluto, confusing and confused. Describe your art--again, in six words! Strange, frumpy miniatures in my garage. Okay, seriously, you can give a little more insight into your work. What inspires you to create?
My inspiration to create work comes from a narrative I've been working on since 2009. I call it "Unbroken Land." It's heavily but not entirely based on dreams. "Unbroken Land" is a place where evolution is guided by sentient energy which effects it all the way to its eventual demise. How would you describe your process? My process in creating is a long and tedious one. I start with ideas, move to sketches, and then I create a diorama. There are several steps in creating the diorama, depending on the materials. I've created miniature gardens and forests to small living spaces. Right now, I am currently working on a simple diorama with just a stretched blue sheet for a back drop and plaster sculpted floor. Each diorama is usually between 2-4 feet in height and width, the figures usually stand about 6 inches tall. Once I've completed the diorama I photograph it, and the prints are my final product. I've found this process most efficient because I can really get a feel for the space my characters are in. Where can Quail Bell readers see your work and how can they buy it? Unbrokenland.com is my official website. Contact me at Aultervvourk@gmail.com for buying. Lastly, what are you doing living on an island?
[Laughs.] I am living on an island because I had the option after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University. Its quiet and lonely just the way I like it, perfect for art making. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Give this beautiful lady a portrait.Just shy of a year ago, our dear Managing Editor, Josephine Stone, died when a valet driver hit her in downtown Richmond, Virginia. We commemorated Josie in a special issue of our print 'zine, Quail Bell Express: Issue 1 (which you can still subscribe to today.) Now, in observance of the one-year anniversary of Josie's death and to forever carry on her memory, we would like to have a portrait of Josie hung up in Penny Lane Pub. Josie worked at Penny Lane Pub throughout most of her college career; it was also the last place she stopped by to say 'hi' to friends before she died. She was on her way to a concert at The National, which lies only a few blocks from Penny Lane. We are envisioning an elegant, simple portrait rendered in charcoal. It would be framed and displayed on one of the restaurant walls, along with a littleplaque about Josie. Because we are a low-budget project run predominantly by college students and recent graduates, paying for this effort will be difficult. We already go over-budget on many of our projects. That's why we're asking for your help. With your donation, The Quail Bell Crew would be able to cover the cost ofcustom-framing (about $100), the wall plaque (about $50), and the portrait artist's services ($100.) So we're looking to raise a total of $250-300. Please consider donating to the Josephine Stone Portrait Fund so we can honor Josie's memory in one of most beloved places. Thank you for your donation. We sincerely appreciate it. Feathery hugs, The Quail Bell Crew The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
We're now taking subscriptions.Show your true love for Quail Bell! Please subscribe to our latest and most stunning print project to date: Quail Bell Express: issue 2.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
What is a pop-up store?By Connor Sites-Bowen QuailBellMagazine.com Pop-up retail projects emerged as a trend in the USA around 2003-2004, and have gained steam since then. The idea, at its most basic, is that commerce occurs, at a temporary (but fixed) location, for a temporary amount of time (a day, a week, a month). Civilization has had temporary stores since ancient times, in the form of bazaars, markets, and other short term events. It is how we have done business for a long, long time. In fact, the word retail, to mean "sale in small quantities," and referring to permanently housed specialty stores, was first recorded in 1433, only a few centuries ago. Markets and market days (specific days of the week that a market was open for business) were a key way by which goods could be traded. For most of history, goods for sale were perishable and produced by hand. Market days allowed farmers and craftspeople for a large area to produce goods during most of the week, and then sell them at a central location on a single day. By Rosipaw The rise of the retail model (that is, stores that sold specific kinds of goods, and were open the whole week) only emerged when human settlement allowed for a large enough demand to meet that kind of supply. Fundamentally, one only sees speciality shops in places of great human density: cities. A pop-up store maintains the characteristic of being inherently specialized. Many of them only represent a single brand, such as the Comme des Garcons: Black store in New York City, which only markets a particular lower-cost line of Comme des Garconsclothing. Where pop-ups differ from specialty stores is in their temporary nature. Because they are only around for a month or less, they tend to have low overhead as compared to a long term store. The space might be rent-free, the staff may volunteer, and because they are a new and novel thing, and a limited, exclusive event, the amount of attention and activity they attract is usually vastly higher than a long-term retail counterpart. Pop-up stores have taken off since 2008, when the recession set in. Many building owners, neighborhood groups, and cities (Pittsburgh included) see them as a way to fill, in the very short term, vacant spaces that other businesses have abandoned (due to collapse or downsizing). They are a way to keep a business district well-trafficked despite a lack of permanent tenants. As such, many of them pay no-or-low rent during their time in the space. Connor Sites-Bowen is the founder of Clowder & Pack in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Beau of the Week: October 8th By Tykeya O'Neil & Sidney Shuman QuailBellMagazine.com The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Belle of the Week: October 8th By Tykeya O'Neil & Lindsey Story QuailBellMagazine.com The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Watch me sting, I am ScorpioBy Luna Lark QuailBellMagazine.com Autumn lulls things to death. That means trees once wreathed in green, the bloom of summer love, and animals who prepare to close their eyes for a full season, soon to be confused for corpses by passersby. Yet, as the rest of the land dies, Scorpio comes alive. She rouses and blinks a series of blinks like a song. She taps her multiple legs and stretches her tail before cracking it like a whip. This is the time the heavens have given her. From October 23rd to November 21st, this Water sign emerges from the depths of her dark water kingdom and scampers across the earth with stubborn determination.
As a Scorpio, I feel at ease in autumn. It is the only season I fully trust, meaning that I spend the rest of the year longing for it. I embrace autumn's chill and the swirling leaves. I adore the evenings spent curled up beneath a mountain of blankets, with a book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. I think of the dearly departed even more often than usual. My thoughts will flitter from those I've lost to visions of ghosts and musings on the great men and women of history. I'm compelled to walk through cemeteries and study old photographs. I want to spend more time alone, reflecting, sometimes obsessively re-playing the same memories in my mind until I exhaust myself. My idea of an adventurous night changes meaning in autumn. The sky blackens and the moon comes out sooner in the day. On an autumn night, I am even more passionate, spontaneous, and fierce than usual. Lock up your children and small dogs. Make sure your neighbors have a spare key and your mother's phone number posted on the 'fridge. I won't paint the town red; I'll paint it blood-red. That is not to say I'll transform into Raskolnikov at sundown. It just means that I become strange, maybe a tad mad—compulsively eating, wandering the streets like a guttersnipe, driving in search of something never articulated. Of course, I refuse to disclose all of my secrets. I am, after all, a Scorpio, a lady of mystery and even more so come autumn. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
It's the tail end of Hispanic Heritage Month!What folkloric fools! How could we forget to wish you a happy Hispanic Heritage Month? Well, we didn't forget, but it is nearly over. This national cultural commemoration takes place every year from September 15th to October 15th, starting with the anniversary of the independence of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and ending around Columbus Day (el Día de la Raza.) We hope this snippet of a traditional Mexican dance is enough of an apology for our oversight.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Popular Ed and a Burro Named MauriceBy Sparrow Goddess QuailBellMagazine.com Folklore is rooted in language. Often it is oral language, but it can be written, too. Sometimes it's translated language, which can mean linguistic or cultural interference in the translated message. Sometimes the message gets lost and sometimes it doesn't. At the heart of folklore, regardless of the language, is storytelling. The story should remain the same from language to language, whether the story has been translated or interpreted. Folklore is the story of The People (capitalization mandatory.) The People--no matter their vocal chords' preference--reign supreme at Wayside Center for Popular Education in Faber, Virginia. The Wayside Center embraced me like someone who loved me but also expected me to catapult myself to the stars. Earlier this fall, I participated in a three-day training workshop called, "Interpretation for Social Justice." There, I was given the tools and support to help create multi-linguistic spaces for the betterment of my community. I won't pretend I didn't sweat or nearly cry at times. Interpretation is difficult work. Preserving the original story isn't always 100% possible. Yet Wayside encouraged me to try my best and to constantly strive to improve my translation and interpretation skills. For this, I am grateful. The beautiful landscape there certainly helped calm my nerves in what at times proved to be an overwhelming environment. Just a half-hour's drive from Charlottesville, Virginia, tall trees and swaying grasses hug Wayside Center. There is even a burro named Maurice (Mauricio in Spanish) who always brayed at key moments during lectures and exercises. Too bad nobody knew how to interpret for him! Maybe Wayside will one day develop a workshop for cross-species communication. For now, it's doing a remarkable job training people in the art of cross-cultural communication. WaysideCenter.org
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Beyond the FAQsBy Luna Lark QuailBellMagazine.com Google 'vintage blog' and ChronicallyVintage.com will appear within the first five results. Depending on your browser and location, it may even appear as the very first. That is because creator Jessica Cangiano has turned her blog into a shrine--a shrine to old clothes, old books, and old culture. It is a place where bygone beauty is celebrated. Intrigued by Jessica's musings, her carefully orchestrated style, and the photos taken of her by her husband, Tony Cangiano, we decided to get in touch with her. But before we did that, we did our research. We scrutinized her 'About' section and her FAQs. After all, redundant questions are only interesting if the answers changes. But Jessica seems so confident in her tastes, that we guessed that her answers regarding shopping and fashion have not changed much over the years. We guessed right. She's been paying homage to mid-century looks since her teens. So, we posed a few new questions for Jessica. Here's how she replied: • Can you explain why you typically gravitate toward the 1950s? What distinguishes that decade from the other mid-century decades? While I'm the first to admit that I do veer toward the 1950s a little more, I embrace the 1940s with the same passion and sport fashions from that decade quite often, too. Both decades, though certainly marked by distinct differences, also shared much in common, including some of their fashions and a general attitude towards ladylike beauty and taking pride in one's personal appearance (two things which are near and dear to my own heart). The 1950s was an era of hope and prosperity, rebirth, growth, social change, legendary stars, amazing fashions, and a general sense of positiveness with, for entirely understandable reasons, hadn't been present for much of the 1930s (due to the Great Depression) and 40s (due to WW2 and its aftermath). It's easy to look at the 1950s through rose-colored glasses and gloss over its less than stellar elements, but I try never to do this with any period in time and fully acknowledge that the decade had its fair share of problems, too. Ultimately though, I believe that the 1950s represented the last vestiges of a time and way of life that began to change (not always for the better, to my mind), and in some ways vanish forever, in the ensuing decades. There was a wholesomeness, a sense of family and community, of right and wrong, of morals and standards, and respect for oneself and those around them to the 1950s that has always appealed to me so deeply. When you couple these points with the fact that 1950s clothing, which I've loved for my whole life and have been actively wearing since my teen years, makes me go weak in the knees, it's no wonder that I can never get enough of this intriguing, inspiring decade. • You describe Chronically Vintage as a 'visual scrapbook.' Where do you find many of your images? Do you have any inside tips for our readers about the best places to find old photos and illustrations?
The vast majority of the images that I use in posts on my blog come from Flickr, which is a true treasure trove of vintage (and antique) images ranging from people's family photos to snaps of yesteryear celebrities, found photos to thousands of scans of vintage magazines, book covers, and ephemera. Not all users there have their accounts set to allow use of the images they've posted, but many do and I've rarely had trouble tracking down the right image (or images) I was searching for from amongst these such Flickr pages. Aside from Flickr, I sometimes turn to sources such as the Life Magazine photo archive, Wikipedia, Pinterest, fellow bloggers, and general Google searches, and highly recommend all of those sources (plus Flickr) to anyone looking for vintage photos to use as inspiration in their own life. In terms of finding vintage images and magazines, eBay, etsy, thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, local auctions, and grandma's attic are all excellent places to turn to if you're looking to build a personal collection of old school images. I have a modest collection of vintage magazines and books, oodles of old cookbooks and recipe booklets, and a super tiny (at this point) collection of vintage photographs that I've purchased over the years, and which I'll likely share more on my blog in the coming years. |
|