Canyons of Static
The impression one gets from Canyons of Static is that their instrumental shoegaze jams would be perfect for a stylized horror film about hyper-fast zombies infected with rage. Sure, that’s a fancier (and nerdier) way of saying that they sound like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but after repeated spins of the disappearance, the new Canyons disc, it’s clear that the impression goes beyond a superficial band reference — such a film’s driving sequences across washed-out video-contrast countrysides would be a perfect complement to the dreamy soundscapes offered in tracks like the 11-minute “Shelter.” The compositions follow the Godspeed template of theme, variation, but mostly theme. The band establishes a mood and slowly adds layer upon layer as they build to a crescendo a few minutes down the road. Guitars interweave with violin, bells and each other, weaving a patchwork quilt of sound the listener can wrap themselves in to keep warm when the car heater conks out in December. Canyons of Static hail from West Bend, a town with red state politics and poor economy (one of my most recent memories of hanging out there involved punks who had government-issue ham in their kitchen) that doesn’t exactly seem like a breeding ground for quality shoegaze. Then again, Milwaukee isn’t exactly known as a shoegazer town either, yet we have plenty of excellent examples (Brief Candles and White Wrench Conservatory, in addition to the Canyons). But maybe it’s more appropriate than we’d think — after all, the hypnotizing rhythms and melodies on the disappearance are wintery and desolate, yet small-town cozy. In that respect, Canyons of Static are more Wisconsin than zombie-controlled Britain after all.
Oct 30th, 2008 by DJ Hostettler
Goll Mansion Project Now Called Transera
New Land Enterprises’ Goll Mansion Project has a new website and a new name, The Transera. The company recently unveiled their new website. Floor plans of units are now available, as well as a proposed amenities list. The project recently gained approval from the Milwaukee Common Council.
Oct 29th, 2008 by Jeramey Jannene
The Finish Line
In case you haven’t heard, next Tuesday is Election Day when our nation will choose its next President. This is no time for complacency and each campaign is struggling mightily to turn out its supporters and maintain a full court press through this last week. Here in Wisconsin we are truly fortunate to have the option of early voting. There is every reason to believe that turnout will break all records and exceed 70 percent which would truly be a magnificent thing. So it may prove to be a great timesaver to vote early. The Obama campaign has built an admirable organization here but there is still work to be done and volunteer shifts to be filled. Nobody wants to wake up Wednesday morning and regret not doing more. So step up to the plate, Wisconsin, and volunteer to get out the vote. Visit www.wi.barackobama.com to sign up and let’s get this done. Also, I encourage you to check out the clever video that was produced by the Obama campaign to motivate Milwaukee voters to turn out and vote for the Democrat. It has some fun with a 2004 quote by Sen. McCain when he said he wouldn’t want to live in Milwaukee. It’s entertaining and amusing (though I could have lived without the image of a certain statue holding an Obama sign). So, by all means, vote. Vote early, Vote on Election Day. Whatever. Just vote. It’s good for what ails ya.
Oct 29th, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
The Big O
No, not that one. Or the other O’s either. I’m talking here about the O that counts on Tuesday, November 4th. You’ll be setting your watches, clocks, and other timepieces back one hour on November 2, which means you’ll have an extra hour before casting your vote two days later. It’s almost over, all the months of waiting, considering, reading and arguing. I’m beginning to wonder what I’ll do with my time when the die is cast. And what will all those pundits do? The Atlantic has redesigned their magazine in keeping with the times, which is to say, they’re trying to be hip and with it. In the publishing biz for 151 years (1,791 issues), the November issue has a great piece on “China’s Neurosis,” and for the hipsters, a feature by Andrew Sullivan on “Why He Blogs.” Jeffrey Goldberg writes about the “Idiocy of Airline Security,” and there’s more, much more, between the screaming black, gold and red cover. And just so you know, the New Yorker is going to be publishing online (totally dude) in a few months. Yesterday I picked up a copy of John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, a novel that set my hair on fire and set me on the track to reading everything he ever wrote. The lone copy of Prayer looked lonely sitting next to Irving’s unimpressive Until I Find You. Over the years I’ve purchased several copies of the former and have given all the copies to friends who I deemed worthy of reading his work. Sadly, it seems when the author went Hollywood, he also slipped into a deep depression and well, his writing hasn’t been the same since. Updike and Oates are still writing, so life isn’t entirely grim, but they’re getting old and soon I need to tap into authors of equal quality. Who are they?
Oct 29th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Committee Requests Federal Government Not Re-certify SEWRPC
Alderman Bauman lead the efforts to bring forward a resolution that would have the City of Milwaukee request that Milwaukee County withdraw from the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission ("SEWRPC").
Oct 28th, 2008 by Dave Reid
Step Right Up
As one of the 2007 recipients of a Mary Nohl Fellowship, Colin Matthes hit the jackpot. The 30-year-old scored again when the spacious inova/Kenilworth gallery was recently enlarged to accommodate the awardees’ efforts. Though a few of the exhibits are politically understated, Matthes’ War Fair: Occupation Games for Citzens and Non-Combatants scores mightily in this political year. The theme of the nine pieces is war in all of its gory carnival-esque glory. I’d like to say it’s a “fun-house,” but it isn’t, though perhaps it is for those who get a rush out of a chance to “Stone the Prisoner,” “Shoot Into A Crowd,” or play “Afghan Roulette.” Well, you can’t actually shoot or stone, but you get the drift. Step right up folks. Matthes knows quite a bit about carnivals, having worked for sixteen years helping his dad electrify stuff at the county fair in Jefferson, Wisconsin. I remember when the carnival rolled into my rural hometown, because it arrived with a delicious sense of danger involving the chance to win and the greater chance not to take home the fat glittering Kewpie Doll waiting on the shelf behind the sweating barker who knew how to spot suckers big time. Matthes’ installation is a sloppy cobbled-together mess. It succeeds because it’s sloppy, in the way that war is untidy. “Stone The Prisoner,” a towering (142 inches high) painting of a prisoner, wrought slap-dash in appropriate black and white stripes with touches of yellow, introduces the games, and stands opposite “Lucky Catch (Always a Winner).” Among the prizes one can fish for, are U.S. Army helmets, flag pins and FEMA Life Preservers. The chap attaching the prizes to various hooks is ferret-faced and somewhat reminiscent of the characters populating the art of German Dadaist/Expressionist painters. The images, scratched and slapped onto crummy plywood, suggest facism, but thankfully, Matthes avoids swastika clichés. “Fire In The Hole (Grenade Toss),” embellished in circus wagon colors, and canopied in painted canvas strung with industrial-strength lights, occupies the central space in the installation, surrounded by smaller works such as “Afghan Roulette.” Place your bet folks. Take your chances. Are we having fun yet? The day of my second visit to the gallery exhibit, was Sunday, October 19. The only other soul in sight was a gallery sitter busy chatting on a cell phone and working on a laptop. Before I exited, I placed my big round Obama “Fist Bump” pin on the railing surrounding Fire In The Hole. With apologies to Mr. Matthes, it’s my personal grenade, a token of why folks should vote on November 4. VS UPDATE: You’ll actually be able to participate in his “Fire In The Hole (Grenade Toss)” game on November 20th. A note from Polly Morris at UW-Milwaukee urges “Come one, come all,” so do that at 6pm on a Thursday. By then the green graffiti tag left by a wannabe artist (on the red brick exterior of the Prospect Avenue entrance) will likely have been removed. And oh […]
Oct 28th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Pecha Kucha Night
More than many, many things, I think Pecha Kucha certifies Milwaukee’s place in the constellation of great world cities, proving once again, on a regular schedule, that we’re home to lots of bright, enthusiastic, cosmopolitan professionals who care about ideas and learning and thinking and sharing with each other. Tonight’s third volume of Pecha Kucha Night (at Sugar Maple in Bay View, 441 E. Lincoln Ave.) is especially exciting for us at it includes presentations by two smart and talented and beautiful VITAL-ites: our Art Director, Bridget Brave, and senior music writer Erin Wolf. Also presenting: WMSE 91.7 FM’s handsome and affable promotions guru Ryan Schleicher; Tim Cigelske of Milwaukee Magazine and teecycle.org (recently shouted out in “Savage Love” — hot!); and installation artist kathryn e. martin, whose delicate floating structures are currently on display at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Plus Taryn Roch, Jason Kennedy and Jason Gessner. And live jazz from Chicago! It’s that rare international phenomenon that showcases the best of what we grow at home. More information: Pecha Kucha Milwaukee official website 20×20: VITAL’s August feature on Pecha Kucha, which includes the event’s history, etymology, and a fetching portrait of event organizer Jon Mueller See you there smart kids! Tonight at 8 pm!
Oct 28th, 2008 by Amy Elliott
The Big Snooze
It’s Sunday, October 26 (Halloween weekend) and I’m sitting in Box H at the Marcus Center, waiting for the curtain to open and reveal the Milwaukee Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty. My watch says 1:30 pm, which means I’ll be missing my afternoon nap. My seat is so comfy that I could sneak in a few ZZZZs, but then I’d miss out on all the fairies (good & bad), and the likes of the 16-year-old who pricked her finger on a rose and fell into slumber in the days before sleeping pills. It’s likely that most in the audience remember Sleeping Beauty as the honey-haired beauty who slept in the 1959 Disney film, but the tale was writ long before that, in 1697. Tom Strini, Dance Critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, deemed the October 23 performance tepid, particularly the segments prior to intermission. He was right. If it hadn’t been for the wicked Carabosse and her wicked sidekicks, I would have been out like a light. Before the curtain rose I wandered around in the atrium taking notes on the large abstract paintings on loan from the Milwaukee Art Museum. The area was filled with kids and their parents and/or grandparents, and one little girl arrived dressed in a long white satin princess gown. A bartender (Phil Brich) poured me a nice shot of Canadian Club (with a twist of lemon), and then confided that he didn’t like the “Pasquin” 1992 painting by Luis Roldan, who I seem to recall was formerly (in the Way Back Days) married to the lead flute player for the MSO. “Pasquin” reminds me of a bear,” he said. He was right. He then remarked that he’s trying to get press coverage for his poetry and song lyrics, and perhaps because I was taking notes, he thought I was the key to fame. Seeking refuge, I took my notepad and drink and perched on the ledge of a splashing fountain to listen to a player-less piano churning out “As Time Goes By” near a big bronze sculpture, “Leap of Faith,” cast in 2006, number 44 of 50. That was a mistake because the woman next to me, apparently noted my notes. “Oh, I’m a writer. I write job resumes,” she said, adding that business is good these days. Another woman recognized my Iowa drawl and identified herself as a fellow Iowan (but not a writer!), and I’m thinking as I write this that perhaps my conversation with her was the high point of my October 26 ballet foray. Onward and onward, into the churning crowd of kids, my next stop was an area where the ballet was hawking various items, including pen and ink drawings by east-sider, Jason Fricke. 50% off the sign said. If you appreciate delicate line drawings of dancers, Jason’s your guy. Just so you know: don’t expect the ticket takers to rip your ticket in half anymore. The newest ploy is to scan your ticket, so you’re not left holding the raggedy […]
Oct 28th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
UWM Dorm Planned to be LEED Certified
Bob Monnat, the chief operating officer of Mandel Group, gave an overview of how the public meeting process will work and a presentation covering the environmental aspects of the project.
Oct 27th, 2008 by Dave Reid
Stevie
Hugh Whitmore’s two-hour play, Stevie, tells the story of the life of British poetess Stevie Smith. Christened Frances Margaret Smith and called Peggy by her family, Smith was said to resemble jockey Steve Donaghue, inspiring the name that stuck with her. Born in 1902, this feminine literary figure was honored with two prestigious awards for poetry including The Queen’s Gold Medal in 1969. Yet her Aunt Madge (“The Lion”), who helped raise Smith, often referred to Stevie’s writing and rhymes as only “stuff and nonsense,” rarely appreciating Smith’s creative talent. Yet Smith’s written musings reached far beyond the “stuff and nonsense” her Lion Aunt believed them to be, which the Boulevard Theatre’s production confirms with stellar clarity. Under Mark Bucher’s direction, the debut Boulevard performance of actor Amber Page resurrects the poetess with stunning directness and genuine sensitivity. When Page recites Smith’s poetry or transforms her character into significant figures recalling Smith’s past, the audience listens mesmerized by her facial expressions and stage presence that evokes Smith’s spirit. Page embodies both the writer’s life and her language. The script’s vignettes of biography, autobiography, and Stevie’s poetry are touched with humor and poignancy. This performance brings the audience to a modern understanding of Stevie’s words about living a life outside conventional norms. The set of empty picture frames hanging on the wall behind furniture draped with white cloth accentuates the colorful personalities of Smith and the Lion Aunt Madge, who is ably portrayed by Sally Marks. These two actors display a visible affection for each other on stage that intensifies during the Lion’s illness. Page as Stevie states, “People thought because I never married I didn’t understand the emotion, but I loved my aunt.” Sally Marks plays the Lion Aunt Madge This relationship provides the centerpiece for the entire production because Smith considered herself estranged from conventional society, an independent woman who shunned marriage and the status quo that believed “a poet is not an important person.” Even the various men who flow through Smith’s life, remarkably played by Ken Dillion costumed in a black suit, including her vagabond father who left home when she was three, the fiancé she dearly loved, and male friends that cared for Smith later in her life fail to offer Smith a comparable love. While reciting one of Smith’s famous poems about a man who died at sea, the audience understands the depths of Smith’s despair and her consequent fascination with death when Page repeats the last line, “I was much too far out my whole life, not waving, but drowning.” The Boulevard Theatre’s not-to-be-missed production of Stevie recalls that neither love, the enjoyment of everyday life, nor following a dream are only “stuff and nonsense,” but rather they substantiate human existence. Page, in a luminescent performance enhanced with an equally wonderful performance by Marks, reminds the audience that Smith’s life contributed volumes on the difficulties inherent to living a life with creativity and imagination, yet outside society’s norms, even when success affirms that decision. […]
Oct 27th, 2008 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
Bee Bomb
Nicole Hauser, the lively staff person at Tory Folliard Gallery searched high and low for the right guy. Last year she married him, “him” being Racine-based sculptor Bill Reid, the focus of a November 2008 feature in Milwaukee Home Magazine. Actually, he was right under her nose all the time….as a regular exhibitor at Folliard Gallery. Their wedding reception at South Shore Park in Bay View was something to behold! Everything was made by the bride and groom, who arrived at the reception in a wildly colorful sculpture on wheels known as the “Bee Bomb,” built by Bill who teaches at the Prairie School in Racine. It gives new meaning to the words “hot rod.” Theirs is a match made in heaven. When Bill exhibits at Folliard in March of 2009, Nicole will (naturally) be part of the crowd.
Oct 27th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Sleeping Beauty
Magical lighting effects abound in the Milwaukee Ballet’s season-opening production, Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty. But commingled with the sparse post-modern scenery, these fantastical efforts slightly diminished the accomplished dancing in Michael Pink’s reinterpretation of this full length ballet, which also displayed Marius Petipa’s legendary choreography. Pink’s version of the familiar fairy tale reduced the three-hour plus length to just over two hours, including an intermission. His production centers the story on royal and regal sequences celebrating Princess Aurora’s christening, 16th birthday, and eventual wedding. While these scenes showcase grandeur, the chosen elements understate the dramatic heart of the story and engage the audience visually more than emotionally. When Prince Desire finally awakens Princess Aurora with true love’s kiss, the remaining ballet movements become anti-climatic, even though exquisite dancing highlights their wedding ceremony. The massive semi-circular stage backdrop, placed high above the dancers, further enhanced this emotional distance. Between David Grills’ lighting designs transforming the floor of the stage and the constructed “sky” backdrop, there appears a black space. These three components divided the stage into separate sections where the lavish costumes and elegant ballet steps dissolved into the black abyss. When smoke envelops the stage during a scene transporting the Prince and Lilac Fairy to Aurora’s castle, the set design finally complements the performers and production, but only briefly. Budget concerns often necessitate simplicity of stage design, but cohesiveness between the set and dancers was missing from this Sleeping Beauty. The semi-circular set design also overpowered both the stage and the dancers so they appeared smaller than life. Often the Milwaukee Ballet uses a backlit stage and scenery with theatrical success, but this production was not one of those successes. Tchaikovsky’s score orchestrated under Andrew Sill’s direction and the superb skill demonstrated by all members of the Milwaukee Ballet Company beautifully enlivened the production, especially with the imaginative use of garlands and the corps’ synchronized choreography honoring Aurora’s 16th birthday. Luz San Miguel and Ryan Martin (married partners outside the ballet) portrayed the Prince and Princess with delicate artistry, especially in the bridal pas de deux. In contrast, the evil sorceress Carabosse created welcome tension throughout the performance in her flowing ebony costume, fluidly executed by Jeanette Marie Hanley with devilish flair. Her four attendants twisted and tumbled around her, adding another malevolent touch to the tale. Equally impressive throughout the performance was the addition of students from the Milwaukee Ballet School. Acquiring stage presence and exposure early in a career develops the company’s commitment to the Ballet’s future, advancing the art of dance. While this production of Sleeping Beauty envisioned the Milwaukee Ballet’s impressive talent, perhaps the upcoming season will more brilliantly illuminate these valuable gifts. The Milwaukee Ballet’s next production is The Nutcracker, a holiday tradition, which runs December 12 through December 28. 414.902.2103 or www.milwaukeeballet.org
Oct 27th, 2008 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
