Welcome to Strini’s Culture Desk
Friday, July 31, was the last day of my long run as music and dance critic at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
It was great. But it’s over, and I’m not looking back.
Today, Monday Aug. 3, 2009, is my first day at ThirdCoast Digest. ThirdCoast co-publisher Jon Anne Willow and I hope to build the online magazine into Milwaukee’s most important source for news, commentary, reviews and feature stories related to the performing arts, the visual arts, architecture, and to the art of living.
This is all very new. I don’t have formal job title yet, and we’re still working out our arrangements. But that’s no reason to let time pass idly. Through August, I will write a little something almost every day. It will resemble my Old Song and Dance blog at JSonline.com. So I’ll be handling everything from breaking news on the Skylight Opera Theater to musings on the nature of art to coverage of upcoming events.
By September, my column will be part of a larger, distinct Third Coast Culture Desk page. It will provide one-stop blanket coverage of the arts not only from me, but also from other talented staffers and free-lancers.
We seek more than readers. We want to create an online community of curious, open people who engage the arts and life. I will be looking for ways to interact with all of you beyond the computer. I foresee classes, lectures and social events that will bring us face to face. The arts, no matter how serious, still ought to be fun.
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From Jade Jablonski’s “World Without End.” Photo courtesy of the artist.
Just to hit the ground running, here are a few words about Danceworks’ Art to Art show, which I caught Saturday (closing) night at the tiny Danceworks Studio Theater on Water Street.
The program was a platform for emerging artists; Danceworks’ Andrea Hill Johnson matched five choreographers with assorted musicians or designers. These very young choreographers and their very young collaborators were finding their legs in a learning situation, so the quality was spotty.
Simon Eichinger showed wonderfully creative movement invention in “You’re a Robot, Remote Control Yourself,” for four dancers in lab coats. They weren’t robotic in the stereotypical sense, just minutely precise with small, speedy movements of the hands and arms and neat floor patterns favoring 90-degree turns. Now and then, they broke into florid Romantic extravagance. The startling contrasts read as bursts of passion. The outbursts gave Elizabeth Zastrow a chance to show her spectacular long line, which she unfurled with breathtaking speed and secure control.
And then – I’m not making this up — a “robot” came on. As lights flashed and an obviously cardboard head rotated, some vague, Luddite message attached itself to the dancing and the whole thing turned ridiculous. Oh well, they were there to learn.
Jade Jablonski ended the night with an overwhelming solo, “World Without End.” Jablonski worked with artist Gregory Brulla, who made a dozen or so tall, narrow wire sculptures that quivered and swayed at the slightest touch.
Jablonski moved among them to an old, scratchy recording of Maria Callas singing “Casta Diva.” The dancer froze her beautiful face in an operatic expression of tragedy, and that strained expression never changed. She held her shoulders tense and high and her arms uncomfortably close to her sides.
She was the physical definition of anguish as she approached each sculpture, as if unable to bear contact. Once contact was made, she took her dancing cues from the weirdly humanoid, expressive motion of Brulla’s ingenious works.
The 100 or so crammed into the little studio barely seemed to breathe as Jablonski became one with the wiry aliens around her. As she left the stage, the audience exploded into applause, the only proper response to an original vision consummately executed.
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7:00 am on a cloudy Monday, but a day worth getting up for if only because you’ve signed on Tom. Last week I was thinking how depressing it is that both you and Delfs disappeared in the same year…I’ve decided to renew my symphony seats for 2009/10
Welcome, Tom. This is indeed great news for Third Coast Digest and Milwaukee. With all the angst about the future of journalism in general and arts coverage in particular, here and elsewhere, seeing that your voice will still be heard is cause for celebration. Cheers! Ted
Welcome, Tom. This is going to be fun!
I really look forward to keep reading about the arts in Milwaukee and glad you are there to share it with us. Congratulations and I look forward to many more interesting things to read from you!
hey great to see you back at it so quick Tom!!
Being a long time fan of both Tom’s perceptions and Jon Anne’s vision, I thrilled with this Monday morning news. Congratulations to us all.
Bonnee Beth
I am delighted to see that Tom is still going to be keeping his eye–ear and his voice–on things in the community. What great news! He’s back before we could even miss him! Mary
I think this foretells a great future for building a truly integrated cultural community. Best of luck on the new venture, Tom, and the Alliance stands by to support you!
What a beautiful review, Tom. I feel like I was there seeing the beauty of the dancing, and the absurdity. What an auspicious start to a wonderful new undertaking!
So glad that we can keep reading you on a daily basis, and so good for the arts in Milwaukee! Thanks!
Welcome aboard Tom. It is exciting that another Saluki is joining the team. I am confident your presence and participation will take TCD into another level. Welcome again.
“O Happy Day!” — You are back, now at ThirdCoast Digest! I know the arts community at large joins me in expressing our congratulations to you – as well as our hopes for a bright and shining arts future, Tom! All best to you! Sharon
Greetings from one of the other coasts…
So glad to see you and Jon Anne are teaming up and surfing the waves of the future, Tom. This looks like a powerhouse endeavor. Woo Hoo!!!
(Nice feature on Danceworks, by the way!)
XO S-
Congratulations! This is great news.
Congratulations Tom! We all wish you well in this new partnership.
Congratulations to you Tom, and also Thirdcoast. What a wonderful event for the Arts community in Milwaukee. May this new position in life offer you challenge and fulfillment. I would love to meet and discuss my theater company RSVP Productions; now in its 8th season. I also have been the artistic director for Bay Players 24 seasons. In our difficult times things are really looking up.
well then, my mood just got better. congratulations, to all of us. i, for one, am thrilled to have you carry on, especially in an even greater arts-writing capacity! milwaukee is a better place for it.
Way to go Tom! My JSOnline bookmark just changed to thirdcoast!
See you in September ☺
Excellent news, Tom, could not be more delighted!
Very happy to bookmark this page. Hundreds of radio and television stations have no room for cultural news and programming. Perhaps the internet will provide us our space.
So happy to add you to my bookmarks and looking forward to your continued coverage of the arts.
This is great news, Tom. Best wishes for this new venture!
Dear Tom,
Your expertise at writing opinion, teaching classes, givng lectures and hosting social events, will bring new interesting fun ways to expose the community to the value, variety and excellence of art, artists, and cultures. You have the potential to give TCD and us, your readers, the best the world has to offer. Good Luck! Oh your mark, get set, go!
Well, if nothing else, take encouragement in your comments page thus far – a good sampling of names in the Milwaukee arts community. Welcome to your next adventure.
Tom,
I am really happy for you! I can tell already that this is a good fit.
In so many ways, life is exciting right now.
Nice photo!
Well, that didn’t take long! Great to have you back. Best wishes on TCD and your Culture Desk.
Congrats to everyone! Looking forward to it!
Congratulations and best wishes –TCD is getting someone who knows how to write, and who knows Milwaukee — we are all glad you have this new forum