nice time

So I'm in Milwaukee, and I very much look forward to returning home tomorrow, and it's not just because of this creepy hallway from my hotel [shown above]. Beside becoming dizzy from the combination of the florescent lighting and funky carpet pattern, the chanting come play with us Danny runs through my mind each time I walk down this hallway.

So I had some time to myself yesterday, and decided to take the opportunity to check out the Milwaukee Museum of Art, which just opened their Warhol exhibit. As I approached the entrance, I realized they looked obviously closed [on Mondays] and turned to watch my cab drive away. And so my short journey in Milwaukee began.

This is the view from the skybridge of the museum. Forgive my phone camera, it doesn't take the most delicious of pictures, but you get the idea.

And this is the pink fountain that is outside of the museum. I would have liked to have seen it on a sunny day, but the day I experienced in downtown Milwaukee was possibly more interesting--due to the sustained 35-40 mile an hour winds that plagued the city. *By the way, oh how I wish the museum was open Monday.

This is the view of the city as I approached it from the skybridge.

I originally set out to look for food and shelter [in a "I'm pretty hungry and it's pretty windy" way] and came upon this hole in the wall bookstore, which really was misleading, because once in the doors, it seemed to go on forever. Very cool shop. Long, narrow, and stacked higher than I could reach without a stool, with any type of book a person could imagine.

In the back, up two flights of a concrete stairwell, and all the way toward the front window of the shop, resides the art section. I love used books [history, stories, stains, missing pages], but the beauty of this shop is the crates and boxes of art prints & postcards protected in sleeves and stacked to be thumbed through by a scavenger like me. I was probably there an hour, and barely scratched the surface.

I, for $3 + some odd cents, walked out with 7 articles, including: a vintage postcard, some prints [one being of my friend Vincent and his missing ear], a vintage informational pamphlet on the Church of St. Elizabeth, and a print that wasn't particularly catching but featured an excerpt from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Builders [in a nice stoic sentiment if you ask me].

Nothing useless is, or low;

Each thing in its place is best;

And what seems but idle show

Strengthens and supports the rest.

These are some of the crates from the bookshop.

The rest of the story is...I didn't blow away, and now I'm going home; I have some treasures and a nice time in Milwaukee. Yes I said it--nice time in Milwaukee.

That's that.

(jen)