Monthly Archives: March 2024
Tea’s Weird Week: I’M YOUR HOST will screen thrice at the Milwaukee Film Festival!
We’ve had to keep this news under our hats for weeks, so I’m thrilled to say that a documentary I’m producer on, I’m Your Host, hits a major milestone by being screened (3 times!) at the Milwaukee Film Festival. Alicia Krupsky is the film’s director, Christopher Kai House is a producer, and many other people helped make it happen. The film was inspired by an article I wrote for Milwaukee Magazine. We won a Brico Forward Fund to help make it happen. In October we staged a couple of “documentary in-progress” screenings at the Twisted Dreams Film Festival and in Kenosha at UW-Parkside.
This will be our official debut and is additionally exciting because after the festival, we’ll be able to submit the film to other fests around the world as well as being able to make it available via streaming platforms/ on DVD. But anyway, that’s getting ahead of ourselves. It’s a great honor to be part of the Milwaukee Film Fest– we’re part of both the Cream City Cinema and Cinema Hooligante line-ups at the fest (cause we’re local AND weird).
I’m Your Host screens:
Monday, April 15, 9pm: Times Cinema
Sunday, April 21, 8:30pm: Avalon Theater
Wednesday, April 24, 9:15pm: Downer Theatre
More MFF info: https://mkefilm.org/mff24
Please Clap Dept.: We are currently fundraising for QWERTYFEST MKE 2024. We got big things planned– the Boston Typewriter Orchestra, a whiskey tasting/ typewriter event, and so much more. Please help us make it happen, every bit helps us make our goal: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/qwertyfest-mke-2024/x/14628551
See Also: Here’s the Milwaukee Magazine article that started I’m Your Host rolling: https://www.milwaukeemag.com/a-look-inside-the-surprisingly-large-web-of-local-horror-hosts/
I also wrote on horror hosts for Atlas Obscura here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/elvira-svengoolie-local-horror-hosts-history
Tea’s Weird Week: QWERTYFEST MKE 2024 is going to be epic, but we need your help to fundraise it
Hey all, last year me and Molly Snyder launched a new entry in the “City of Festivals” (Milwaukee) called QWERTYFEST MKE, which celebrates writing, innovation, history, creativity… and, of course, typewriters. This year we have ambitious plans for a bigger event. We’re doing an opening night party at Turner Hall (with the Boston Typewriter Orchestra), and presentations and activities throughout the weekend. To help finance this, we’ve set up an Indiegogo fundraiser. Lots of great perks, including QF tickets, t-shirts, and subscriptions to our in-house zine, QWERTY Quarterly. As of right now, we’re at about 30% funded– I’d love to see that bump up to 50% funded by the end of this weekend. The link to that: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/qwertyfest-mke-2024/
Below the photo, you can find a press release with more info on QF and our fundraiser screening of California Typewriter on June 6. Thanks for your support!
Clack on! QWERTYFEST MKE Returns for Expanded Event June 21-23, 2024
QWERTYFEST MKE is inspired by an invention that changed the world–the typewriter and the QWERTY keyboard that we still use today– which was created right here in Milwaukee by Christopher Latham Sholes. We not only celebrate the typewriter and all iterations of the QWERTY keyboard that followed, but Milwaukee history and innovation in general.
We are also excited to give a platform to writers of all genres who create works on those QWERTY keyboards. Milwaukee has many talented writers and artists, and we want you to know about them. QWERTYFEST is co-organized by Milwaukee writers Molly Snyder (senior writer and editor at OnMilwaukee) and Tea Krulos (a freelance journalist and author). Many other local writers, librarians, artists, organizations, and businesses participate to make the festival happen.
At QWERTYFEST, you can try out typewriters and other writing machines, hear spoken word and presentations, participate in workshops, see unique musical performances (including our Friday night headliner, Boston Typewriter Orchestra), socialize at gatherings like our Typewriter Brunch Open Jam, and much more. It is an entertaining and informative weekend.
QWERTYFEST MKE 2024
Thursday, June 6: QWERTYFEST MKE fundraiser screening of the documentary California Typewriter at Oriental Theatre. We’re thrilled for people to see this film as it shows the versatile ways people can celebrate typewriters (in addition to Tom Hanks, Milwaukee makes a guest appearance, too). Ticket holders also get a free copy of our summer QWERTYFEST preview edition of our in-house publication QWERTY Quarterly. Tickets available here: https://mkefilm.org/oriental-theatre/events/california-typewriter
Friday, June 21: National Typewriter Day Ball at Turner Hall. This will feature live music with headlining guests the Boston Typewriter Orchestra: http://www.bostontypewriterorchestra.com/
There’s also interactive writing and mailing stations, the DarkFusion Systems Gaming Lounge, vendors, a dramatic competition called the Clackathon (as well as a words-per-minute contest called the Quick Brown Fox Typing Contest), storytelling, food and drink, and more.
Saturday, June 22: QWERTYFEST at Mitchell Street Arts. Workshops and presentations on typewriters, writing and creativity, history, and art. We are having a “Whisky Type” after party at Great Lakes Distillery.
Sunday, June 23: QWERTYFEST Activities Day. Typewriter Brunch Open Jam (location TBA), “QWERTY Journey” tour at Forest Home Cemetery, and other activities around town TBA.
We Are Fundraising to Make QWERTYFEST Happen Right Now
As you can imagine, flying in a Boston Typewriter Orchestra, as well as paying for work by local writers, artists, musicians, venue fees, (and typewriter ribbons) adds up. We have these methods of raising money:
Crowdsourcing campaign on Indiegogo. Every little bit helps to make our fundraising goal. We are offering some great perks, including tickets, T-shirts, QQ subscriptions, and more. Our campaign is live here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/qwertyfest-mke-2024/x/14628551
You can also make a tax-deductible donation to us via a fiscal sponsor. Please email us for more info.
Sponsorships. We have great sponsorship opportunities, including name attachment to elements of our event, ads in our media, banner placement, free tickets, and more. Please email us for more info.
Links/ contact
Contact us at: qwertyfestmke@gmail.com
Website: www.qwertyfest.com
Facebook: facebook.com/qwertyfest
Instagram: instagram.com/qwertyfest_mke
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Tea’s Weird Week: I Wanna Magnet Fish Those Brothel Keys Out of the Milwaukee River
Back in the wild plague year of 2020, I, like many others, was figuring out what to do with myself. With everything shut down, I tried to think of a hobby that would get me out of the house and into (hopefully COVID-19 free) fresh air. Magnet fishing seemed like a good idea.
Magnet fishing is taking a powerful magnet attached to a long, sturdy rope and throwing it into bodies of water to pull out some of the mass of trash dumped by humanity for generations. Bicycles, radiators, license plates, fishing lures, boat parts, pots and pans, etc. Junk fishing seemed fun, so I bought a magnet and gear and… never did go out and do it. I think one of the hang ups was that I was pretty sure I’d find ditched guns in the Milwaukee waterways and was not quite sure about what to do in that situation.
We’ll get back to this, but let’s switch gears for a minute. Recently, I got a copy of the March issue of Milwaukee Magazine. I always enjoy seeing an article of mine that has made it into print, and this issue I wrote a feature on the career of 95-year-old photographer Tom Ferderbar. As I was flipping through the magazine, I was glad to see Matthew J. Prigge’s byline on an article. Matthew has written a great body of work exploring Milwaukee’s interesting and sometimes violent, macabre, and odd history in articles and books like Milwaukee Mayhem: Murder and Mystery in the Cream City’s First Century.
In Milwaukee Magazine, Prigge’s most recent article is titled “Life on the Line,” which delves into the history of Milwaukee’s red light district in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which was called “The Line.” (The article is only available in print for the time being, I will update with a link when it gets posted online).
Prigge reports that the area of The Line was located on River Street (now Edison Street) spread east of the river “from what is now Highland and Wells Streets and as far east as Market Street.” He also writes that a more working class version of The Line ran across the other side of the river “along Wells Street as far west as 6th Street.”
But here is the key line, how this column all ties together. From Prigge’s article:
“Legend had it that when a new house of prostitution, all-night saloon or gambling den would open on The Line, its operator would toss a key into the Milwaukee River. The ritual was a symbol of their intentions in the area- to hold their doors open, to neither be locked in nor locked away.”
Now do you see? It could just be a “legend,” they might have all been eaten by sturgeon or something, but maybe (just maybe) those keys might still be down there. I will try to find them on some magnet fishing expeditions. Will I be successful? Probably not. But as treasure hunters have asked throughout time…
what if I do?
Please Clap Dept.: If you’re looking for unique, interesting events in the Milwaukee area, please check out my bi-weekly column for the Shepherd Express, “Madcap Milwaukee Calendar.” You can find the most recent column here: https://shepherdexpress.com/culture/madcap-milwaukee-calendar
See also: Another Milwaukee hidden treasure is one buried by Byron Preiss, author of The Secret. I wrote an article on this about a year ago for Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-secret-byron-preiss-milwaukee
I can always tell when AO recycles this story on social media, by the way, because I get at least a couple messages from people who claim they’ve cracked the code. My message to them is always the same– dig it up and find it, and then let me know first so I can get the scoop on writing about it!
teakrulos.com 