2009 City Budget Cuts Firefighters
Each year the City of Milwaukee goes through a public lashing as Mayor Barrett attempts to create next year's budget.
Oct 21st, 2008 by Dave Reid
The Flip Side of Life
I’m wondering what would be revealed if the small town where I spent (until 1951) the first fifteen years of my life, had its skin peeled off? When I speak of “skin,” I’m talking about churches, schools, farms, and various other signifiers of the good life in rural America. Until we moved to Kansas City at the beginning of the Civil Rights era, I had not a clue that the world wasn’t populated by people like me: fair of skin and blue of eye. Yes, I’d sat through many a news reel at the town’s lone Rialto Theater, where I saw images of “Japs” float by during WWII. Some of those news reels spilled over into the cartoons too…caricatures of foreigners not to be trusted by the likes of Bugs Bunny. Cartoonist Al Capp kept us laughing on Sundays, though little did I suspect that his take on cigar-chomping capitalists, was anything but fun. It was years before I realized Al was an activist in disguise. During WWII, a Jewish family moved to our town to open a butcher shop. “They’re selling horsemeat,” floats through my head to this day. There was a German family who immigrated (foreigners!) to our space and opened a bakery, and although there were numerous Germans, Irish, and Swedes populating the valley, it was those Germans recently arrived who got the shaft. In 1912, the town became the site of the axe murder of eight sleeping on a quiet Sunday. The local paper covered it in gruesome detail, and the event gained national notoriety. It’s informative to flip through the pages of a reproduction of the various Axe Murder issues. The case was never solved, but the suspects were always described as “dark of skin.” During a class reunion, I remarked about this to a local woman, who shot back, “We still have a law on our books which states “all blacks are to be out of town by sundown.” It’s doubtful that her smug statement was true (at least in the 70s & 80s), and well, when she died of a heart attack a few days following the reunion, I can’t say I was among the mourners She also told me that she locked the doors to her home each and every night, because “foreigners” might cause trouble. Yesterday I visited an installation (at inova/Kenilworth’s current exhibit). Standing in front of the superb photographs by Kevin Miyazaki, photographs detailing the internment camp in the United States where his father and his father’s family were sent during WWII, I recalled the news reels at the Rialto. There I sat with my popcorn, a uniformed kid soaking up the undercurrent of racist thinking Anyone who thinks that racism isn’t thriving in America is either a fool or is brain dead. Peel back the skin and take a good look. As we near the election, I find myself fretting that perhaps I’m casting my vote for Obama simply because he’s black. Am I the only person wrestling […]
Oct 20th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Weekly Bookmarks – Monday, 20. October 2008
JS Online: Report decries transit cutbacks State headlines: High-speed rail service could be on its way to Wisconsin – Small Business Times JS Online: Aloft Hotel may break ground soon UPPER MIDWEST — Site Selection magazine, September 2008 JS Online: Developer hires firm to manage spa and fitness center at Palomar Real estate deals of the week – Small Business Times MilwaukeeWorld: I-94 WORK BEGINS; FUNDING PERILS LOOM City plans more rent-to-own homes – Small Business Times JS Online: Judge says city can test for pollution on Tower Automotive site
Oct 20th, 2008 by Dave Reid
What I Learned on My Autumn Vacation
Fig.1: Logan Jacobs takes really great photos of us In case you’re not paying attention, i play in one of those adorable “local bands” that practices in their basement and writes their own songs and tries so hard! and are totally gonna “make it” once we get in front of the right label exec when they’re just the right amount of drunk to think that signing us wouldn’t get him or her fucking fired with a quickness. Actually, if we ever seriously thought that at any point in our careers, we had it beaten out of us with the reality stick years ago. Still, because packing four sweaty dudes and their gear into a ramshackle Ford Aerostar for two weeks to travel the country and play music for a bunch of people who would just as soon watch the Phillies/Brewers playoff game without your damn racket in the background is always a bucket of laughs, we recently took a trip to the East Coast, playing 16 shows in 16 days with our pals white, wrench, conservatory. Specific tour diaries can be found elsewhere (like our website), but i thought i’d use Cultural Zero to quickly (ha) summarize a few things i learned on this tour (and over the course of several tours). Think of it as “DJ paints a picture of real rock and roll touring for you, the common man or woman who believes in such pedestrian concepts as taking vacations that involve seeing more of a city than its bullshit highway system and crap-ass rock clubs.” Or don’t, whatever: 1) The perception of a tour matters more than the tour itself. On average, my band tours about two weeks per year–day jobs and paid vacation will do that to you. As a result, it’s nearly impossible for us to build any kind of reliable draw in cities like Boston or Seattle, because we only get to them once every two years minimum, if you go by our ideal of hitting the East Coast one year and the West Coast the next (although in reality we haven’t been out west in three years). So every time we go out, it’s the same thing–pulling teeth to get shows in clubs where no one has ever heard of us, with no chance to build any kind of built-in following for next time (think about it–how many touring bands have you seen come through Cactus Club in the last year? Now how many do you remember? Exactly). It’s worked better for pals of ours, like the departed Modern Machines, who had no problem with living in squalor and working pizza delivery jobs in order to tour for months at a time and hit places multiple times per year. But we’re pussies who like job security and nice apartments. They are hard; we are soft. Still, because comparatively, there are many Milwaukee bands who don’t tour at all–or if they do, they don’t blab about it as much as we do–we get this […]
Oct 18th, 2008 by DJ Hostettler
Triple Espresso
Failure is funny. That’s the basic premise of Triple Espresso: A Highly Caffeinated Comedy, playing in the Marcus Center’s Vogel Hall. Three friends get together and tell the story of how they got their big break — and how they messed it up in spectacularly embarrassing fashion. The show is chock-full of mishaps, misadventures and belly-laughs as Buzz Maxwell, Bobby Bean and Hugh Butternut recreate the story of their slow rise and rapid fall in the wild and woolly world of show business. Hugh Butternut (Paul Somers) anchors the show as a sensitive artist who actually manages to carve out a niche for himself in the performance world — he and his piano are the entertainment at a local coffee house called Triple Espresso. Buzz (Patrick Albanese) and Bobby (played by Marquette University graduate Brian Kelly) turn up at the shop one night, and the three embark upon the tale of their lives in show business as the trio Maxwell, Butternut and Bean. Their various exploits include an appearance on “The Dating Game,” a short-lived television show on Cable Zaire, a dream sequence recreating classic Three Stooges moments, and a shadow puppet show at a teacher’s convention. Somers is delightfully sappy as the saccharine Hugh Butternut. He nails the “sensitive artist” stereotype perfectly as he attempts to hold the trio together during their rise and fall, and looks back on their time together with rose-colored glasses. Brian Kelly is equally wonderful as the boorish, bumbling Bobby Bean. He’s self-centered, a braggart, and deliciously sleazy. Both Somers and Kelly have an innate sense of physical comedy; their slapstick maneuvers are as funny as any well-told joke. Patrick Albanese seems less comfortable with the physical humor of the show, but the dead-pan expression and gruff demeanor of Buzz Maxwell fit him to a tee. He knows just how long to stare blankly at the antics of his two cohorts before turning back to the audience, and the palpable distaste Buzz has for magic emanates from him in comedic waves as he performs magic tricks in his rise to not-quite-fame. Particularly side-splitting are the trio’s short-lived success on a cable network in Zaire, where only 1 in 87,000 people have a television and half of them don’t have electricity. Also the story of how Buzz meets Bobby when Bobby, then an aspiring folk singer, is hired to be the entertainment at a college freshman orientation session. And if you like magic, Buzz’s sleight-of-hand scenes will be particularly appealing as he combines magic, comedy and ill-humor in a seamless performance. Triple Espresso incorporates a modicum of audience participation into the show, and if you get a good audience (like the one on Thursday night) it is a real treat. Additionally, while there are a few references to Milwaukee dropped into the script, at least one of them succeeds in being far funnier than most other such attempts to connect to a local audience. The entire show is high-energy, seriously over-caffeinated fun. Triple Espresso: A […]
Oct 17th, 2008 by Ryan Findley
Time for healing
Last week I was alarmed to hear on NPR that a college classmate, Taylor Luck, had gone missing in Jordan with his friend Holly on their vacation (!) into the tumultuous northern regions of the country. I was shocked — and worried. What had happened? Would he be found alive? Or at all? Just days earlier I had remembered David Byrd Felker, another Beloit College student who disappeared in Ecuador the summer before I started my freshman year. Obviously, I never knew David, but at a school of just about 1100 students, everyone I met had known him in some way, and his loss was deeply felt — it was almost in the air, that first year. Thinking about him, I did a search and found a beautifully written piece in the Journal Sentinel including excerpts from his journal about his travels. I didn’t sleep well the night that I found out about Taylor, but in the morning, news broke that he was alive and in custody in Damascus after being arrested trying to cross the Syrian border illegally. It was a relief. I sighed and moved on. The 24-hour news cycle is grating, exhausting, and to keep it from breaking you, it’s imperative to learn to depersonalize. But here was a story I couldn’t process, absorb and discard. I knew this guy. My Facebook news feed came alive with status messages from Beloit alum about the news, links to the story, photos and video clips of Taylor, a jocular, almost boorish young man, tossing off rude stories about Jordan. It was a rally, a sort of digital vigil, and when the news of his fate hit the wires, we erupted into a chorus of “goddammit, Taylor. What an idiot.” And then we moved on. In six weeks, no one will remember the blip on the radar about the American journalists who pushed their luck and came out alive. But what if something worse had happened? What if Taylor Luck had become another Byrd Felker — another casualty of the intrepid, intellectually curious and recklessly adventurous students that Beloit graduates? What if Taylor had become another specter on the tally of untimely deaths I’ve been sadly keeping this year — a friend from Turkey killed in a car accident, a high school classmate found dead in the woods in Oklahoma, Rock Dee, my uncle? I’ve been thinking a lot, in these last rapid-fire weeks, about healing. It’s been a hard year, and I’ve become steadily engrossed in the strange process that happens in every human mind and heart when faced with loss and sadness. At the Milwaukee Art Museum now through January 4 is Act/React, a show that includes a tremendous piece by Brian Knep, “Healing Pool,” that invites peaceful contemplation and a sense of comfort about how things heal. The size of a swimming pool, the glowing floor is like an organism. Walk across it and it will spread open in your wake, then come back together as it […]
Oct 17th, 2008 by Amy Elliott
South Water Works Project Renderings
Located at the corner of E. Pittsburgh Street and S. Water Street the South Water Works development is the process of converting the former Transpak buildings into a mixture of retail, residential, and office space.
Oct 17th, 2008 by Dave Reid
Friday Photos Friday, 17. October 2008
The Edge Park Lafayette The North End The North End Downer Avenue Parking Garage
Oct 16th, 2008 by Dave Reid
Is That All You Got?
The third and final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama last night was certainly the most spirited and entertaining yet. As promised, McCain was combative and sought to pin the label of tax and spend Democrat on his rival. But if McCain’s supporters were looking for a transcendent performance from their guy that would resuscitate his flailing campaign they were disappointed. McCain threw a steady stream of jabs at Obama but few found their mark. Obama responded with poise and confidence deflecting McCain’s charges effectively. On the economy, on health care, on taxes, on abortion, and on the negative campaign, Obama was in control of the facts and gained points for appearing more calm and decorous. McCain seemed to want to show anger without losing his temper and at times it seemed that his head was about to explode. His decision to use Joe the Plumber as a foil to call attention to Obama’s faults backfired. Under President Obama, Joe’s business would not face a tax increase if it generated less than a quarter of million dollars in profit. On health care, Joe’s small business would be exempt from facing higher costs. When McCain tried to appeal directly to Joe by sarcastically calling him rich, he actually supported Obama’s point. Hey, Joe, if you’re making $250,000, you are rich. Our nation is fighting two wars, facing a trillion dollar budget deficit and an economy in a tailspin. So hitch your belt up a notch and stop whining. Your country is just asking you to pay your fair share. Time and time again, McCain’s attempts to stick his finger in Obama’s eye left him appearing petulant and desperate. Meanwhile, Obama remained calm, almost Zen-like, and used McCain’s charges to make the point that the American people wanted to hear real answers to their problems and not the same, tired political attacks. On PBS’s Charlie Rose Show, Washington journalist Al Hunt somewhat inaccurately compared the debate to the classic boxing matches between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier recalling that Ali withstood the wrath of Frazier’s blows. Actually, what made the fights legendary was that both fighters threw mighty punches at each other and were remarkably well-matched. It reminded me more of the time when a fight broke out during a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox several years ago. Yankee bench coach Don Zimmer came storming out of the dugout and charged at Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez clearly determined to send a message to the much younger man. Martinez took Zimmer by the shoulders and let his own energy drop him to the ground. Obama seems at the top of his game with a sharpness of intellect, apparent limitless energy and infectious joie de vivre that makes it obvious that this is his time. Don’t take my word for it. Have a look at this video where Obama urges Wisconsinites to vote early and see for yourself. I know sports analogies make some people […]
Oct 16th, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
The Persians
The Persians – Western literature’s oldest surviving play, and the only Greek classic we know of that’s based on contemporary history, not mythology or legend – is a punch in the gut. At a time when the fate of global civilization is quavering and Americans feel their grip on the world slipping, the story of an empire’s epic and bloody collapse is almost hard to watch in its furious and unflinching clarity. The play, written by Aeschylus in approximately 472 BCE, tells the story of the Persian army’s “unimaginable” defeat at Athens in the Battle of Saramis, considered by many historians to be the single most significant battle of human history. The Persians, who vastly outnumbered the Greeks and boasted a navy fleet far newer and more muscular, were vanquished, their massive force decimated. But The Persians is not a triumphal rally. The entire play is set at the court of the Persian Queen Atossa, anxiously awaiting the return of her son Xerxes the King and his giant army from the fight. When a lone foot solider breathlessly arrives and relates in gory detail the catastrophic battle, the kingdom is plunged into darkness, the Queen wails and goes into mourning and an entire civilization – represented by a chorus of men – deals with what is to come. This Renaissance Theaterworks production is an immersive, atmospheric experience: smoke beckons at the entrance to the studio, and the catwalk-like stage is flanked on either side by the studio theater’s 99 seats. No actor is ever more than 8 feet from the audience. Director Angela Iannone and her talented cast keep the tension and emotion at a fever pitch without sacrificing the arc of the story; the play is just over an hour long, but it’s an intense, deeply affecting hour. Marti Gobel as the Queen is remarkable in her portrayal of a soul tormented by “her own useless importance.” She is a striking, haunting presence on stage, and her scenes with the ghost of her dead husband Darius (Jeffrey Baumgartner) and her defeated son Xerxes (Travis Knight) are amazingly moving. Costuming by Holly Payne is simple and evocative, and Jennifer Rupp’s choreography gives the movement of the play a subtle and graceful poetry that mirrors the beauty of McLaughlin’s verse. The hubris of a society “deafened by empire building,” the machismo of war and the ruthlessness and oblivion of time, history and death all resonate in The Persians. Says the ghost king Darius, “death is long and without music.” This difficult, important play reminds us that our time here is short, and we must learn swiftly from the mistakes of the past. VS The Persians runs through November 3. 414-291-7800 or www.r-t-w.com
Oct 16th, 2008 by Amy Elliott
Chocolate & Wurst
You know things are bad when a small bank coyly titled “Main Street” collapses. It’s almost as if that maudlin flick A Wonderful Life is suddenly and forever no longer available for viewing. You know things are bad when Laura Bush starts shopping for a new house in Big D, perhaps figuring the old shack in Crawford just won’t do. Crawford has gone steadily downhill with the decline of George W. No longer is it filled with SUV’s yearning to draw ever nearer the sacred ranch, and all but two shops hawking Bush trash are closed. Crawford had its 15 minutes of fame. A great article in the New Yorker magazine took a poke at the photo op moments of Bush whacking Texas brush in the heat of August, suggesting that no one in their right mind hacks brush in Texas in August. Except Bush who looks like he’s aged one hundred years since taking office. You know things are bad when McCain chastises his crowds and suddenly begins describing Obama as a nice guy, a fine man, and whoa! Not an Arab, but a genuine American. You know things are bad when Palin sinks deeper into TrooperGate and Bill Clinton zips his lips, and GM’s Janesville plant is set to close. You know things are good when you run across a grizzled ‘Nam vet who owns the Chocolate Tree on Old World Third St. He and the wife have put four daughters through college on the earnings from hawking sweets. They’re currently looking for a larger venue, a place where trucks can load and unload without getting ticketed while trying to run a business. Folks come in to his store complaining about their financial losses and leave with a bag of treats which allegedly gives them comfort. Usingers is north a few buildings, and things seem to be humming there as well. For them, the wurst has always been good.
Oct 16th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Transit As A Means To Combat Poverty (Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty)
Poverty as defined by Princeton's Wordnet is "the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions." Too often people believe poverty means unemployment. It does not. Those that are unemployed likely do live in poverty, but there are a significant number of people that live in poverty and have jobs. In 2006 Milwaukee had the eighth-highest rate of poverty of large US cities, with 26.2% of people living below the federal poverty line. To put that percentage to an actual headcount, 26.2% of the city of Milwaukee's population is 143,000 people. By comparison, Wisconsin's poverty rate is 11% accounting for 581,000 residents, nearly 200,000 of which are children. How does transit play a role in poverty?
Oct 15th, 2008 by Jeramey Jannene
