BRADY STREET FESTIVAL

Brady Street is the closest Milwaukee has to a "camp" neighborhood and retail district, which probably isn't saying much.  Each year the merchants sponsor a one-day festival.  Most of the vendors on the 6-8 block stretch are for food, crafts, and kitsch.  But I thought it might be worth a visit with my camera.  And besides, it's free.

The one downer--I had to park a good half mile from the festival.  Not all bad, as I came across an odd-looking residence on my way to the festival proper.  The building's facade facing the street was curiously devoid of windows but had an interesting set of double doors.

Just as I snapped the first shot, the door opened.  A little embarrassing, as one never knows how someone will react to having his residence photographed.  Not to worry.   I asked the individual if it was OK to shoot the interesting doors and he took one look at my camera and said it was fine because I was shooting a Nikon.  If I had had a Canon, he said, he would have kicked me off the premises.  he then offered to show me is camera equipment, which was pretty high end.  Fun.  Plus, he told me that the building was formerly a Seventh-day Adventist church that had been decommissioned in the 1970s.  So I had something else to relate to.

And that sort of set the tone for the excursion, as most of the shots I wound up taking had less to do with the festival than with the neighborhood.  As in the next shot of a detail of an interesting residence.  Looking at the shot, I'm not sure how you would characterize the architectural style of this place.

One of the establishments on Brady is the following:

Thirty-five years ago, when I was still taking the bus into work, I would ride past this place each morning.  It's a great name and it's still there.

Speaking of nostalgia, here's another sign that must predate Art's by a number of decades, a mosaic that was built into the brick wall of an otherwise unremarkable building.

Another place I was drawn to was Brasil on Brady, whatever that is.

It had to be the colors.  And, yes, that was "laundry" in matching colors hanging in a courtyard.

Finally, perhaps the artsiest shot I got was of a fire escape that was creating shadows on the wall below.

The light helped, but the best feature, I thought, was the shadowing against the multi-colored bricks of the wall.  Even so, I thought it worked also as a black and white.

John