Elisa Coghlan
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esilentio.bsky.social
Elisa Coghlan
@esilentio.bsky.social
200 followers 540 following 77 posts
uni librarian • open knowledge partisan • visual design amateur • linguaphile • fetishizer of old paper & shellac • insect friend • phl-dc-den-sea-mke • she
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esilentio.bsky.social
The sunlit backside of the Chicago Theater, laced with the shadows of fire escapes and a ghost sign, make for high drama, watched by cooing pigeons below.

The quiet dioramas of city alleys are sometimes breathtaking, especially when spied from a noisy busy streetside.
The sunlit backside of the Chicago Theater, in cream brick with black iron fire escapes’ shadows hanging long across it. At the top is a ghost sign for the theater. The alley in front of it is dim gray, with pigeons noshing near a dumpster.
July 4, 2025 at 7:43 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
Reading Aldo Leopold in summer sun on a warm summer morning is a lovely way to start the day.
June 29, 2025 at 1:29 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
Few pleasures are a delectable as inhaling the dense earthy aroma of freshly cut herbs. Sublime garden moment.
June 27, 2025 at 12:37 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Buoyed by the camaraderie of this afternoon’s #Milwaukee #NoKings rally and demonstration. A gorgeous day and thousands of friendly city folk raising their voices (and signs) together.

Discarded Cheetos under foot was maybe the wittiest political message of the day.
Demonstrators queuing up to edging march from Cathedral Square, signs raised. The largest sign says “if I wanted royalty, I’d go to a drag show.” Crushed and dirty Cheetos lying in the grass.
June 14, 2025 at 8:41 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
Startled to notice that my own feet are giving off some strong Wicked Witch of the East vibes tonight.
#cats #WizardOfOz
Two slumbering black cats weigh down the author’s outstretched legs, with her legs in striped socks and feet in red slippers withering beneath them.
April 7, 2025 at 2:58 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Lake Michigan looked electric yesterday afternoon. Can’t shake from my mind’s eye those gorgeous luminous blues.
Dusty blue greens, turquoises, and deep cobalt blues shine in the lake from shore to horizon; light blue shines in the sky. Lake and sky.
March 11, 2025 at 2:46 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Stumbled on a pleasing little exhibit of student art from the erstwhile Layton School of Art in the basement of the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. The print works were especially charming.
#Milwaukee #miad

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layton_...
Print by Helen Hoppin. Two tall, robed elders seen from the back walking in a hall, with three knaves looking on. In Gilded Era book-illustration style. The Planters by Rudolph Wendelin. Print. Muscular shirtless man heaving a pickaxe overhead in a field. The Cruiser by Marie Black. Woodcut print of a bundled man in snow shoes or skis holding an axe, in a snowy wood.
March 5, 2025 at 3:13 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
Foggy and chilled. Peace.

#Milwaukee
leafless trees and their Milky reflections at night in a still river. Glowing foggy sky and darkly glowing river, with low cityscape and reflection in between
March 5, 2025 at 2:17 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Surprisingly great exhibition in a lovely, easy-to-miss new space in Walkers Point: Works by African-American artist, activist & teacher Benny Andrews at the Ruth Foundation Gallery. A nice touch were displays of related ephemera, some as takeaway paper reproductions.

#Milwaukee
One of Benny Andrews mixed media painti s of a man seated with his head in his hands, light shining behind him casting a long shadow before him. Hung on the gallery walls. In the foreground is a display case with ephemera relating to Andrews. A case with ephemera relating to Andrews.
February 15, 2025 at 9:57 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
Crisp light on fresh snow makes the chilly morning feel lush and vivacious.

#snow #milwaukee
February 13, 2025 at 3:12 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
Snow is sparkling in alley street lights, a purring cat is on my lap, and Roberta Flack’s First Take is on the turntable. It doesn’t get any cozier than this.
pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
A small black cat on a red-slippered lap with couch and shelves of LPs in the background.
February 13, 2025 at 1:56 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Never expected to see a series of live-action animation comedy shorts on the wondrously weird (mostly reproductive) habits of invertebrates featuring Isabella Rossellini, but Green P~rn~ has it, and I’m here for it. Absurdism + entomology = 💯
Isabella Rossellini in an earthworm suit Isabella Rossellini in a praying mantis suit Isabella Rossellini in a snail costume
January 6, 2025 at 3:04 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
A small delight of the new year is finally getting to use the Midori kuroneko planner bought months ago at Portland’s Oblation Papers and Press (a pen+paper+typewriter lover’s fantasyland). Absolutely adorable, well designed, and once satiny paper paper. #planner
Cover of calendar. Blue cloth binding imprinted with a playful minimalistic black cats circling the calendar name and year, written in a casual script. Sample spread of weekly calendar pages, decorated with a black cats circling hunkered down in an open suitcase. A blue fountain pen rests on the open pages.
January 3, 2025 at 4:18 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
If you see this, post something toothy.

Mr. Crowley, toothy-smiled chimpanzee and resident of Central Park Menagerie, as pictured in Scientific American, ca. 1888.
Engraved illustration of a grinning chimpanzee at a linen-covered dining table, seated on a wooden chair and politely eating a meal with knife and fork. The caption reads, “Mr. Crowley, of Central Park Menagerie” detail of chimp grinning while dining at a dining table.
December 16, 2024 at 7:42 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
It’s the “air so cold it stings” point in winter. Time to cozy up to a warm mug. 🥶
December 12, 2024 at 3:32 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
Cold does something wondrous to light and surfaces on a winter’s night.

Milwaukee River Dec 2024.
Gilded era warehouses, trestle bridge, and steamy smokestack in night sky with reflections on a river surface. Ice patterns
December 5, 2024 at 11:59 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
HOME TAPE IS KILLING MUSIC
AND IT’S ILLEGAL ☠️

Printed on a 1970s English record sleeve, accompanied by a stern legal warning in small print.
Warning printed on a 1970s record sleeve: HOME TAPE IS KILLING MUSIC AND IT’S ILLEGAL Accompanied by a large skull and crossbones, where the skull is the silhouette of a cassette tape
December 3, 2024 at 2:08 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
One of tonight’s fun spins: Georges Guétary (French pop tenor) singing chanson in Greek, recorded on a US 78 RPM.
Blue and silver Liberty Record Co 78 RPM record label showing Georges Guétary singing ΜΟΝΟ ΚΟΝΤΑ ΣΟΥ.
November 30, 2024 at 5:42 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Paperweights, but for laundry.😹
November 26, 2024 at 2:16 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
With indoor weather (🌨️) suddenly here, I’m nestling into the basement “listening lounge” and getting lost in dusty vinyl and shellac sounds.

Tonight’s listens: 1960s bootleg Korean folk music and jazz-tinged Chinese classical “dancing music” pressed in Taiwan.
1960s album cover “Best hits of dancing music” with image of tall pagoda. Album cover of woman in traditional Korean dress, dancing, with title and songs listed in Chinese and English transliteration.
November 22, 2024 at 4:22 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Snuck in the the last bits of garden-tucking today, cutting the last chard beauties before ice and snow this evening begin grinding away at our memories of garden bounty and fall warmth. 😎 -> 🥶
Robust and colorful ainbow chard leaves cut and sitting on a countertop Small red, yellow, orange, and green (ripe) tomatoes, the last of this summer’s deliciousness. Screenshot of the weather forecast showing ice/sleet now, snow tonight, and storm watch tomorrow.
November 20, 2024 at 11:37 PM
esilentio.bsky.social
A few other eye-poopers from yesterday’s Milwaukee Public Library Art Book Club, at which rarer noncirculating visual works are set out for public perusing.
Closeup of an image of an ad for La tribuna Roma in a folio of Ricordi Milano designs from early 1900s. A woman in a long red dress leans over and rests her elbow on a globe, with a pen in her hand. Print from a folio on traditional Mexican dances by Carlos Merida. Designs and ink samples from a French design folio from the turn of the last century. An ad for Lenti Radio-Attive in a folio of Ricordi Milano designs from early 1900s. A woman is dancing gracefully on a stage with an audience of men with oddly glowing eyes staring from a dark audience.
November 20, 2024 at 5:52 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Each sample has a short evocative description in English and Japanese, accompanied by a graceful woodcut illustration of a plant from which the dye was derived. This sample, hiki-soroshi, represents a fabric traditionally used for hakama.
A sample of the hiki-soroshi weave, solid gray brown with uneven but delicate threads. A short description of the style and dye are given in English and Japanese, along with a small simple line drawing of a plant from which the dye is derived. A closeup of the hiki soroshi description. A closeup of the fabric sample showing the uneven texture
November 20, 2024 at 5:38 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
“Ji-bata … is a type of hand loom at which the weaver sits flat on the ground with his legs thrust out before him, named "ground-loom" or "cripple's loom" (izari-bata). The Ji-bata loom that we are utilizing is more than 200 years old; the weaver is Tsuna Sato, an old woman over 70 years of age”
A photo of the first page of the book’s introduction. The off white paper shows a deckle top edge and the delicate weight allows a hint of the print from the opposite side to show.
November 20, 2024 at 5:38 AM
esilentio.bsky.social
Milwaukee Public Library’s fantastic Art Book Club last night put some of the lushest non-circulating books out for public pawing/gawking. Like this: Nippon Hand Weaves in Kusakizome Dyes, a 1960 sample book of traditionally dyed homespun silks, printed on on handmade paper. Delight!
The book’s cover, partially covered in handspun silk fabric of solid blue and white threads. A decorative printed motif in earthy red in suggestive of a Japanese crest and woven threads. A sample of the big-jima weaving style. A short description of the style and dye are given in English and Japanese, along with a small simple line drawing of a plant from which the dye is derived. A sample of the ryu-kyu weaving style. A short description of the style and dye are given in English and Japanese, along with a small simple line drawing of a plant from which the dye is derived.
November 20, 2024 at 5:38 AM