In Search of An Agenda

By John Hughes Sure, it’s early in the race. But some lucky candidate could set the agenda for debate. Who will it be? Early next year, The City of Milwaukee will elect its first new mayor in well over a decade. The field of candidates is crowded and still growing. So far Tom Barrett, Vincent Bobot, Frank Cumberbatch, Sandy Folaron, Martin Matson, Tom Nardelli, John Pitta and Marvin Pratt have declared. More entrants are expected. Even though it’s early in the race, the unique circumstances of this election are already drawing attention to it. Thus far, no one has stepped forward to set the agenda for debate and thereby define the issues that will determine the winner. But the questions are out there. We contacted each of the candidates with four that we think must be addressed. This month, we hear from Barrett, Faloron, Matson and Pitta. The remaining candidates will give their answers in October. Tom Barrett has served in the State Assembly, the State Senate and the United States Congress. This year he suffered a narrow defeat in a bid for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Wisconsin. His concerns include preventing increases in property taxes and mayoral accountability for Milwaukee Public Schools. Sandy Folaron is President of the West End Vliet Street Business Association, and has been involved in numerous neighborhood and community organizations. She is also a successful businesswoman. Martin Matson is former Deputy Director of the city pension offices, and has served Milwaukee for several years in the Department of Public Works, in accounting and business operations. His campaign slogan is “Giving the City Back to the People.” John Pitta is a seventh grade math teacher at Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts. He holds two master’s degrees and is currently finishing a Ph.D at UWM. He has previously worked for J.M. Brennan Inc. and Johnson Controls. He currently serves on the advisory board for the Strive Media Institute, a local non-profit that provides mentoring and media training for Milwaukee area youth. 1. VITAL SOURCE: What specific steps will you take to make the police chief more accountable to the people of Milwaukee? Tom Barrett: I, along with the new chief, will be accountable to the residents of this community, and I intend to work closely with whoever is selected. The state legislature is exploring a change in the selection process for the Chief, and I am interested in the outcome of the issue as well. The current situation reflects a long, protracted, complicated degeneration of this Police Administration’s relationships – with the Mayor’s Office, with the police unions; with the community (the public at large, as well as specific community-based organizations); and with the media. Too often, the current situation has degenerated into tussles in the media among the Police Chief, the County Sheriff and other elected officials. While the arguments get more personal, more crimes are committed and residents begin to lose faith. The next Police Chief must work to build relationships, and […]

What the hell?

Dear Readers, I’d like to open this month with a question: What in the hell is going on in America? Have we been so successfully distracted by the “Iraq Conflict” and the near cataclysmic domestic situation that we don’t care about obvious attempts to undermine democratic process? So that’s two questions, but really, what does it take to make us mad these days? While America munches Doritos and consumes the laughably mismanaged Gray Davis recall like so much reality TV, 11 Texas State Senators are hiding in New Mexico (at press time), using the only constitutionally allowed means (breaking the quorum in the Texas Senate) of blocking an illegal redistricting, spearheaded by Gov. Rick Perry and House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R- Texas) and passed by the U.S. Supreme Court without legislative review. The new districting, which falls outside Texas’ legal frequency of once per US census, is a blatant effort to gerrymander US Congressional districts to a solidly Republican majority. Perry has called in The Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation and Justice to “help bring these guys back,” even though they’re not breaking the law. The Governor has indicated he will continue calling special sessions until the Republican redistricting plan is enacted, despite the fact that the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court recently rejected the Governor’s writ of mandamus filing to compel the Senators to return. Meanwhile, eleven Democratic state senators are exiled from their state, unable to be with their families, friends and constituents, for fear of being arrested. In the most recent indignity, Republican Senators voted to fine the absent Democrats up to $5,000 per day, and to revoke parking and other privileges for their staffs, for as long as the Senators are away. Needless to say, while these measures are mean-spirited, they have not been effective. Meantime, Ashcroft is on a stump tour of the country to garner support for the PATRIOT Act, parts of which are scheduled to expire soon. The Administration doesn’t want that, and they’re meeting with more opposition than anticipated. Of special note is that the Attorney General has cancelled his scheduled Milwaukee visit, the only stop in the state. No explanation has been given, so we must ask ourselves: does he feel adequate support won’t be found here, or is he confident enough in our habitually low voter turnout that he doesn’t need it? Read Richard Walter’s special We The People feature, “Hope Lives in Tonasket.” It’s the story of how a tiny town of mostly conservative farmers has passed a town resolution to protect the Constitution from “enemies of the state, both foreign and domestic.” The time to leave affairs of state in the hands of the “experts” has passed. I truly believe this country was founded on principles of Liberty And Justice For All, and the time has come to get off the couch and take notice. Use it or lose it: it’s a phrase never more loaded with meaning for each and every one of us. Back here in […]

By John Hughes Twenty-four years ago, 40-year-old Randy Keltner was in a bad way. Years of corporate stress, a sedentary lifestyle and indifference to nutrition had taken its toll. He found himself going from doctor to doctor with complaints, suffering and malaise. He was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and sent home with, as he put it, “an approach which masked the situation with medications,” rather than healing it. Keltner felt, intuitively, that this was not good enough. There had to be more than diagnosis as fate, disease as something dire and foreign that visited you and stayed, or was corrected with pills and/or surgery. So, he took the road less traveled at the time. Not outwardly rebellious or counter-cultural in his appearance, this mild-mannered gentleman took a walk on the alternative side; alternative medicine, that is. In his office, he sits across a table from me, beaming. Founder and director of Ana, a massage therapy firm, he exudes excitement and youthfulness. After 33 years in the corporate world, Keltner retired from Hatco Manufacturing and went to school for massage therapy. He learned from Andy Schaefer, one of the best therapists in the nation. After a few years of principally doing table massage at his spa, he now makes house calls, or more accurately, office calls. He offers 15-minute treatments in business and office environments. “I want to serve,” he says, his face glowing. “If I serve and help people, help the community, the rest will follow. I want to serve people, to help them, and massage does that. It helped me.” His face is radiant. He is an attentive listener who makes you feel that anything you say will be given the benefit of the doubt. Somehow, by the way he stands, walks and sits at table, he exudes the sense of someone at home in his body. When he reports that he feels much better at 64 than he did at 40, it’s easy to believe him. The name Ana is partially derived from the Sanskrit word “Prana,” or dynamic life breath, which is equivalent to Chi, or Spirit. It is also inspired by two of Keltner’s grandchildren, both named Anna. “We had fun coming up with that name,” he says, in his soft, cheerful voice. For Keltner and his partner, Sharon Herrmann, massage is a “regular modality.” Keltner is also trained in Reiki and Cranio-Sacral Therapy, but their central passion is massage in the workplace. They come directly to any office, use no oils, and, using a special chair, massage fully clothed employees in the head, neck, shoulder, back, arms and hands. It’s an effective stress-buster and can be used as a reward in an office incentive program. Their popularity is growing. From August 28th until the 31st, Randy, Sharon Herrmann, and eight other massage therapists will be participating in the Harley Davidson celebrations by stationing themselves in South Shore Park from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., offering massages for 15 minutes, at $20 a piece. After all, […]

Lovelier Than Ever

By Jason Keil Liv Mueller and Barb Endes have been hard at work this summer, putting the finishing touches on The Lovelies’ highly anticipated new album White Leather, their fourth release of smart, catchy, melodic rock due for release in late September. In a recent interview, Mueller shared that she’d been distracted, at least momentarily, by a review she stumbled upon from their recent show at the SXSW festival in Austin last March. The article described the band as “Laverne and Shirley meet the Everly Brothers,” going on to describe the band’s look while making little mention of their music. “They looked like they bought their outfits at the Chess King,” the reporter went on, only taking time to refer to their music as “bland.” But one scathing review can’t slow the juggernaut year for one of Milwaukee’s favorite bands. In addition to playing SXSW, breaking in their new drummer and dedicating most of their summer to White Leather, a tour of the Midwest and the South has been set up to promote the release of the new album. “I thought that the title encapsulated everything wonderful: Nancy Sinatra and Evel Kneivel, bubbles and danger, tough and soft, leather and lace,” says Mueller of White Leather. “Our friends and followers can expect to hear a great Lovelies record.” White Leather is, in many ways, a literal continuation of their previous release Hot One. In fact, four of the tracks from Hot One were re-recorded for White Leather, as their new label, St. Louis-based Force MP, feels they’re great songs that deserve a “wider audience.” Even with a degree of success in the testosterone-drenched world of rock music, there’s still a “chick rocker” label attached to The Lovelies. Mueller isn’t bothered. “Being a woman in music is very comparable to being a man in music, except Barb and I have these things called ‘breasts’ that get in the way of our guitar straps sometimes,” she says. “I see The Lovelies kicking open doors, breaking gender roles, and making so much money that Barb and I can finally get the sex change operations we’ve been waiting for!” Liv jokes. “But seriously, who knows where we fit in, or if we ever will. We’ve always remained true to our own style, and that makes us proud. I think there are a lot of female fronted bands that are getting a lot more respect than they used to.” Mueller remains distracted by the SXSW review, going so far as to shoot a response to the critic that seems to encapsulate The Lovelies unique sense of ironic fun. “I have never read a good rock review that didn’t go into great detail about the ‘appearance’ of a band before commenting on its music. I’m grateful that he tuned in to my ‘guitar centric-go nowhere tunes’ … In this day and age of hustle and bustle, Starbucks, traffic jams and video stores, I pose to you this question: Why go anywhere? EVEN in a song? My […]

Welcome to Milwaukee’s Eighth Wonder — Pier Wisconsin!

By Raymond Johnson Could there really be a better idea than to build a Great Lakes freshwater education center on the Milwaukee Lakefront, as proposed by Pier Wisconsin? Especially after a few years of our local water utility MMSD fouling up Lake Michigan by dumping (oops, “blending” ) raw sewage into our rivers? Those people should be given free lifetime passes once it is built — and be required to go every week. Thankfully, the project is back on track. The story So far. Local philanthropist Michael Cudahy agrees to give millions of dollars to Pier Wisconsin to build a freshwater education center. There is one condition — Mr. Cudahy chooses the architect. The firm — McClintock Architects — designs a badly over-scaled building that some (though not I) complain too much resembles the recently built Quadracci pavilion for the Milwaukee Art Museum, known as “the Calatrava.” The design is so bad (according to its detractors) that everyone freaks out, including said Quadraccis and Mr. Calatrava himself. Ideas are floated to keep the design but move the center. The Harbor Commission decides to reject a lease agreement for the center — reasonably citing the views that the six-story building would obstruct. Michael Cudahy freaks out — saying he will never give another penny to the city for anything. Fast forward a little. Mr. Cudahy reconsiders, and the Harbor Commission, turning 180 degrees, gives Pier Wisconsin a lease, with the stipulation that the building be redesigned. Apparently this design will be reviewed by several municipal agencies. The new design itself will be handled by said McClintock Architects, who will work closely with city planning director Peter Park, with some moderating by Larry Witzling, a professor of architecture at UWM. All this is good stuff, and the building produced by this team will probably be acceptable, maybe even decent. The problem is, decent is not good enough for our lakefront. Buildings on the lakefront need to be excellent. And moderation rarely produces excellence. Let’s open it up. What we need here is an open design competition. Open, meaning anyone can enter. Design as has been happening around our city over the last decade, though rarely in whole buildings. Competition is that principle upon which market economies are based, whereby excellence in everything from plumbing to philosophy is produced. The ingredients for an incredible open design competition are already in place. You have a benefactor (Mr. Cudahy) who appreciates excellence and could bankroll an open design competition for probably 1f the project cost. You have a city representative (Mr. Park) who knows a thing or two about design. And you have a moderator (Mr. Witzling) who is a nationally recognized leader in putting together open design competitions. You’ll notice I keep referring to an “open design competition,” instead of shortening it to “competition.” This is because all three of these words are equally important. The process must remain open, and be anonymous. A local woman who has been doing fabulous restaurant/bar renovations around […]

Therapy

By Eric Francis For those of you planning to learn Chinese, or read War and Peace or dive into the Harry Potter series this fall, I have another idea for a project: Therapy. I have a friend who sometimes tells the story of a difficult period of his life, back around his college years. He is an educated and sensitive person. “I was so messed up I needed to see a counselor!” he sometimes says, still amazed after all these years, and speaking as if it were some great shame to need help. His perspective reveals the bias that we don’t need therapy unless we’re messed up; messed up is somehow shameful or wrong, as if we should not be this way. In that context, any form of needing help or desiring growth can be viewed pathologically, as a sickness, and thus wrong, instead of the desire to live a more full life. I speak from the viewpoint of having had very good experiences with therapists, which isn’t the case for everyone. But when you hear those stories, it’s worth checking whether the client went in seeking to learn about their own healing process and empower themselves, or to have someone else run their life. The starting point and the original intention have a lot to do with the outcome. In my own therapy process, I learned how to set the priority of taking care of myself. I learned to assess my relationships with my parents, and their impact on me, very honestly. I learned to ask for what I need in my intimate relationships. And most of all, I learned that I have the power to make choices. Disaster isn’t a necessary precondition. Most people opt for therapy when their life gets out of control, or when their pain is very intense, such as when they are getting divorced and things are falling apart. This is typical, and we are fortunate to have help available at such times (this was not always the case) but disaster is not a necessary precondition of working with someone. Therapy is an excellent growth tool and a process you can put to work for realizing your potential. Going into therapy involves acknowledging that you do need or desire some assistance, which is a tremendous step in itself. It also involves a commitment of your time and resources — both. The money is part of the picture, and so is having the dedication to show up for each session. The most important thing people learn in therapy is awareness. This is the same as learning how to be ourselves. In process, we talk a lot and eventually learn to listen to ourselves. This is worth paying for. You might ask why you can’t do this with a friend, and my response would be that a friend has other interests in you, and is unlikely to give you the objectivity, the room to change, or the opportunity to challenge yourself that you need. Perspective is […]

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

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Eliet Brookes

By Brian Barney Eliet BrookesThe Miles Left Over Recorded poetry and spoken word do not get commercially released as often as they should. Look for it in a store and you’ll be sauntering through the same ghetto aisle that has been set aside for “comedy.” Luckily for those of us who wade through Adam Sandler, Weird Al and the Jerky Boys, there exists poetry CDs like Eliet Brookes’ The Miles Left Over — eleven tracks of sheer pleasure. Settle into a pleasant moment, fire-up the CD player, cuddle up with Brookes’ beautiful voice and don’t forget the cocktail party at the bar on the fifth track. Exquisitely produced by Brew City musician Paul Setser, each track features musical accompaniment ranging from the talents of acoustic guitarist Richard Pinney to Paul Lawson to the Aimless Blades to Setser himself. Never obtrusive, the music adds to the substance of Brookes’ voice at every turn. Brookes works from a variety of moods quite successfully. Overall, there is a sense of incredibly tranquil peace, even in the bittersweet moments of the second track, “annie from broken street.” Somewhere halfway through that fifth track, Brookes says, “of course, none of this is true.” Somehow she manages to make even something this haunting sound very reassuring. Remarkably dark moments are traveled through with great grace. Brookes’ voice is not the only one on the CD. The fifth track features cameos by poet Lisa Mahan, musicians/poets Tank Staggers, Voot Warnings Rustle of Luv and several more. And then there’s the seventh track. Eamonn O’Neill manages to make Brookes’ contemporary poetics sound vaguely like Middle English. The journey ends on an intriguingly Asian-sounding “usyoumewei, (eliet’s mantra),” as performed by singer/songwriter Mariah Myerson. Can’t find the CD? Eliet Brookes can be reached at: herontree@ecoisp.com. It is also available at Woodland Pattern. See Eliet: Sept 8: Thai Joes Sept 18: Zodiac Luxury Lounge Sept. 24: Y-Not II Sept 26: Bremen Café

Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country

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The First Day of School

By Lucky Tomaszek My middle child, Emma, starts kindergarten this month. Like all parents, I find it hard to believe that this baby is ready for such a large endeavor. She is a smart, beautiful and creative five year old who truly seems ready for a slightly more structured learning environment. Emma has already learned so much. She is just starting to read and loves to add single digit numbers. She can tell you anything about bugs and loves art. She knows the colors of the rainbow and is borderline obsessed with putting all of her toys in ROYGBIV order. And she is craving more! When I sent my older child Lena to public school for the first time (albeit briefly, as it turned out), we made a big deal out of the day. She got a new dress to wear, with nice shoes and a new headband. She took a long bath the night before and I spent extra time and care combing her hair and trimming her nails. In the morning she jumped out of bed, excited to start on this new adventure. I helped her dress and gave her a necklace to wear to school, so she’d have something to hold on to if the day seemed hard. Of course we took pictures, lots of pictures of Lena’s first day of school. Eventually, group schooling didn’t work out for our family and I brought her home to start homeschooling. As I am getting ready to homeschool Emma, I think back on that other first day of school warmly. It was fun to shop with Lena and buy her first day of school dress. It was wonderful to spend the extra time with her the night before the big day. And the look on her face when I gave her the necklace was priceless. It was clear to both of us that she was growing up, and this first day of school was a rite of passage. These rituals of dressing up and taking pictures mean a lot to families. They make a special occasion out of these important events. Rituals like this show your kids that you know they’re ready to take this next big step and you believe they can succeed. All of this helps your child feel like a valued member of the family and increases their self-confidence at a time when kids are nervous and scared about trying something new. I want to make Emma’s entry to homeschool kindergarten just as special as Lena’s entry to public kindergarten. Emma is emotionally and developmentally ready to take the next step with more a formalized learning environment, and that step should be marked. We have decided that we will dress up in first day of school clothes and take pictures. We will break out our new school books for the first time and do a little lesson, and then we’re going to celebrate Emma’s entrance to kindergarten with a picnic at a local park. I hope […]

Frank Black and the Catholics

Frank Black and the Catholics Show Me Your Tears spinART www.spinartrecords.com/bands_frankblack.html The standard spiel about Frank Black could apply to any other seminal rock ‘n’ roll figure (Bob Mould, say) who presaged the alternative-rock insurrection but neither profited heavily from it nor died conveniently young. The line goes like this: “He hasn’t done anything great since he was in [insert band name here].” This cuts deeply in Black’s case because, more than anyone else, the Pixies — his band back when he was Black Francis — defined the edgy dynamics that Nirvana used to sell millions of records, inject electricity back into radio, destroy metal temporarily, etc. And after the Pixies disintegrated, Black formed a new band, the Catholics, with whom he’s cranked out rock ‘n’ roll that has been frequently good, sometimes better than good, but never quite so scintillating as the earlier flashes of fire. Show Me Your Tears is Black’s latest. Like most of his work in the last few years, it sounds as if he’s decided to reduce not merely his own expectations but those of everyone else as well. It’s just 13 songs ranging from the dark, stalking rockabilly of “Nadine” to the airy brooding roots-rock of “Manitoba,” with influences like Tex-Mex and spaghetti Westerns in between. None of the songs qualifies as a genuine waste of time, but Black’s voice — mostly low grit with the occasional leavening of melody or falsetto — lacks tension. The elastic snap that would propel the music past its own fleeting pleasures simply doesn’t happen. Show Me Your Tears, the title says, but Black gives out mere traces of tears, blood and sweat: the bodily fluids of art.

Josh Rouse

Josh Rouse 1972 Rykodisc www.joshrouse.com Mosh Rouse slides away from easy comparisons today’s demographic culture requires. He manifests some of the shyness of Nick Drake; he sings with some of the grainy charm of Paul Westerberg; he can move with the quiet heard in late-period Yo La Tengo; and he reveals his romantic side in the shy, sly manner of many other modern singer/songwriters. Yet everything he’s done since his 1998 debut Dressed Up Like Nebraska has stepped around facile similarities, and with his fourth full-length album the step turns into a confident stride. 1972, the year Rouse was born, and the year he constantly evokes here, as if he remembered and assimilated everything he heard on the radio while he was learning to speak and walk. Instead of merely regurgitating those memories—not hard to do, as demonstrated by every guitar-toting hustler who owns a couple Beck records—Rouse frames them in the current century. The flute, the backing vocals, the walking bass line of “Comeback (Light Therapy)” or the soul strings of “James” should carry the mustiness of leisure suits left too long in storage, but Rouse wields the old signifiers with respect instead of reverence. The signifiers respond openly and fully, so that songs like the blushing, lovesexy “Under Your Charms” and the carnival-ride “Slaveship” come as new messages from a past with which no one is finished. Least of all Rouse, who once again manages a kind of individuality within the swirl of the tantalizingly familiar.