the Nerdy Misogynists of Joss Whedon’s World
Fig.1: You think it’d kill Joss Whedon to cast some pretty people on one of his shows? Just once? February 2009 featured the premiere of new TV series Dollhouse, the latest attempt by sci-fi hotshot and badass feminist Joss Whedon to teach the FOX Broadcasting Company what a “cult fanbase” is. Having once been burned by FOX during the run of his previous series, the critically-lauded but still-underrated Firefly (which had its episodes shown out of order, among other random promotional clusterfucks), Whedon apparently has been convinced that FOX has learned its lesson, and will give his new series about human trafficking and high-concept prostitution a chance to really grow into its own. Good luck with that, Joss. While you’re wishing for things, how about a pony? In all seriousness, though, Dollhouse has started finding its legs with the 6th and 7th episodes (episode 8 of the 13-episode 1st season airs tonight). In brief, the show revolves around a girl named Echo, who has, for reasons becoming slowly revealed to us, voluntarily signed up to become a “doll” for the Dollhouse, a company that provides custom-programmed people who provide services for the super-mega-ultra-wealthy and have their entire personalities wiped clean after every engagement. The dolls hang out in a childlike blank state until they are called to duty, at which point they are imprinted with a customized personality. Need a bodyguard? The perfect date? The Dollhouse has what you need, and it is completely gross. It only takes until the second episode to see Echo sleeping with a client whom she is programmed to think is her boyfriend. Fricking EW. Fig.2: The best outdoorsy Real Girl sex toy money can buy. Note the Marc Singer-ish Beastmaster profile of the douchebag in this photograph. That’s some solid casting. Knowing Whedon’s previous work with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, however, which was a landmark of empowering feminist television, helps lesson the ick factor a tad. It’s pretty clear the Dollhouse is being set up as the Bad Guys of the show, while Agent Ballard, an FBI agent who’s the Jack McGee to Echo’s David Banner, is being established as a protagonist. It’s clear now that the first half of the season has aired that once again, Joss Whedon is hoping to make some fairly radical statements about feminism, personal identity, and individualism. Fig.3: Just good clean fun between super-powered rivals March 2009, meanwhile, marked the 10th anniversary of Women in Refrigerators, a website run by now-comic book writer Gail Simone. Women in Refrigerators is built around a list assembled by Simone and a number of her friends that catalogued the large number of female comic book characters who have been killed, maimed, raped, depowered, or otherwise messed with, often as a plot device to put a male character through some kind of trial. (The name of the site refers to a storyline where the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern comes home to his apartment to discover his girlfriend, Alex DeWitt, killed and stuffed into […]
Apr 3rd, 2009 by DJ Hostettler
Participate in MKE County park clean-up
(Milwaukee, WI) – Volunteers both young and old, as well as families, youth groups, schools, businesses and churches are invited to take part in the Keep America Beautiful 2009 Great American Cleanup, with the official Community Cleanup Day kick-off event starting on April 18 from 9am to noon at Gordon Park, 1321 E. Locust Ave in Milwaukee. Cleanup supplies will be provided. Participants should bring their own gloves, if available. Participants are encouraged to join in litter cleanup, park, roadway, river and lake cleanup, or beautification projects. On Saturday, April 18th from 9am to noon cleanups will take place at the following Milwaukee County Parks: Cudahy Park at 3000 E. Ramsey Ave. Falk Park at 2031 W. Rawson Ave. Sheridan and Warnimont Parks at 4800 S. Lake Drive Grant Park at 100 E. Hawthorne Ave. Humboldt Park at 3000 S. Howell Ave. Lake Park at 3233 E. Kenwood Boulevard Lakefront Bike & Trail Bluffs meet at McKinley Marina Parking Lot 1750 N. Lincoln Memorial Dr. South Shore Park at 2900 S. South Shore Dr. Washington Park at 1859 N. 40th Street Whitnall Park/ Potters Forest at 5879 S. 92nd Street Last year in greater Milwaukee alone over 45,000 volunteers worked diligently to clean and beautify local communities. Interested parties may sign up to become a site coordinator or cleanup volunteer by visiting the website at kgmb.org. For additional information or to receive a paper copy of the registration form, please contact Karolynn Pohl at (414) 272-5462 x104.
Apr 3rd, 2009 by Amy Elliott
The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling!
Enjoy public scrutiny? Hard work for little or no pay? Willing to sacrifice your time, money and dignity? If you answered yes to all these question you can join an elite team comprised of just about anyone who can afford the supplies. That’s right, you to can be an artist (can’t afford supplies? be a conceptual artist – then all you’ll need is your imagination). In my experience, nothing provokes eye-rolling or makes a usually well mannered person utter a contemptuous “mmm” whilst waving their little finger in the air, more than telling someone “I’m an artist.” I really do try to avoid using the term “artist;” it can sound a little pretentious and does invoke the image of a fancy man wearing a striped shirt and beret, sipping wine and pontificating how “no one gets me.” That’s not me – I prefer beer and don’t even own a beret (not yet). As of late there’s been a call for artists, and advocates of the arts, to “get more involved” and “support the art scene” from various groups and self professed arts leaders. Ignited by the closing of yet another art gallery: Paperboat (the latest of over 30 galleries that have come and gone since 1999) and the uproars surrounding a couple public art projects (Lincoln Park and the Zweig project). Since I’ve been in Milwaukee, and involved in the art scene, for a little over a decade, there’s always something: Blue Shirts, Bronz Fonzies, Beasties, contempt for the Di Suervo Sunburst, etc., and not only is it artists versus public consensus, it’s artists versus artists, gallery versus gallery, and Calatrava versus Godzilla. What will come from the latest debacles? Probably nothing. After this public furor settles down, and the smoke clears, the fine folks in the Milwaukee art scene will get back to normal; complaining, finger pointing, and calling each other names – in private.
Apr 3rd, 2009 by Gene Evans
Blindness
BLINDNESS Fernando Meirelles directed one of the best movies of the past ten years: City of God, which takes place in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Because the depth and impossibility of the poverty is something that most of us in this country are unfamiliar with, it feels like an apocalyptic parable. It feels like the end of the world, and I am not prepared for it. Blindness, also directed by Meirelles, is more literally about the end of the world as we know it. A disease, or a plague, of blindness overtakes a modern city. It takes rich and poor, good and bad. It spreads like a virus and eventually appears to take everyone. It is not the ordinary blindness of being plunged into blackness. As one character says, “I feel like I’m swimming in milk.” You see white, the presence of light, rather than black, the absence of light. People who are stricken are quarantined to prevent the spread. In most movies or stories about a plague or disease the focus is on the people who are trying to cure or stop the spread of the disease; the drama is in the detective work to find the reason for it. In Blindness, the focus is solely on the victims, those whose sight has been lost, or taken. And these people are more prisoners than patients. To protect the outside world, they are denied access to it. If they come too close to a guard, they are shot. Food is brought to them in limited supply by a mysterious truck. They must form their own colonies, tribes, and develop their own organizations to govern themselves. They are metaphorically starting over from scratch, except that they are blind. All except one. Julianne Moore plays the wife of an ophthalmologist, the first doctor to be infected. For reasons that are never questioned or explained, she is not blind. But to stay with her husband, she says that she is, and is quarantined with him. If she were more accustomed to power, or cared more about power, the fact that she can see in a world that cannot would enable her to govern and propel the action. The most difficult question that I take from this film is why she does not chose to dominate when it would be so easy to do so. She takes care of her husband and helps others in whatever ways she can without giving away the secret that she can see. For most of the film, she is the character that could be a savior but chooses not to be. Her sight is a secret between her and her husband until his reluctance to depend on her causes their relationship to fall apart. Most apocalyptic pictures are about the action and carnage and monsters. Blindness is not that. There is carnal violence, but it is minimal. More terrifying is the social violence in the power struggle between the two wards; Meirelles makes you feel viscerally […]
Apr 2nd, 2009 by Mark Metcalf
Would Neon Colored Ashtrays Have Been Acceptable?
In case you missed it, at yesterday's Public Works Committee meeting a previously contracted public art project was halted, because some of our Alderman didn't find the art to their liking.
Apr 2nd, 2009 by Dave Reid
Help the arts! Help UPAF!
ThirdCoast Digest and VITAL Source have remained committed to the arts in Milwaukee for the entire eight years we’ve been doing this, and we’ve had the tremendous pleasure to watch the arts community grow and thrive. But any conversation about the health of arts in Milwaukee MUST include discussion of the United Performing Arts Fund. This muscular organization – the largest performing arts fundraising group in the country – has raised over $208 million for the arts since 1967 and has, as a result, touched the lives of millions and millions of residents in the region and fostered the growth of a community that contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy. Including – she said with a smirk – the survival of local arts publications like this one. So it’s absolutely crucial that UPAF receives the support it needs from the public. And here’s your chance. This ain’t no bake sale – support now. -Sr. Ed. MILWAUKEE – (March 26, 2009) – The United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF) has announced its 2009 campaign goal of $9 million by mid-June and is reaching out to the southeastern Wisconsin community in a comprehensive way to help achieve this goal. UPAF is a nonprofit organization based in Milwaukee that supports 36 of the region’s performing arts groups through its annual community-wide fundraising campaign. UPAF is reaching out to the entire southeastern Wisconsin community by providing everyone with an opportunity to show their support for the performing arts. In addition to donating at work through a UPAF employee giving campaign, all residents of southeastern Wisconsin can donate by visiting the UPAF Web site at UPAF.org and clicking on “give now.” Those donors who are able to give a gift of $100, or $2 per week, will receive UPAF’s signature benefit smART Card – a $400.00 value in buy-one, get-one-free tickets to all UPAF Member Group performances. “UPAF is acutely aware of the difficult economic conditions everyone is experiencing, which is why we ask that you give what you can, since every gift matters to our performing arts groups,” said UPAF President Cristy Garcia-Thomas. “Your single gift to UPAF is critical to allowing our 36 Member and Affiliate groups to continue offering exceptional live performances, award-winning education, mentoring and outreach programming to children and members of our community who ordinarily would not have access, while providing a substantial economic impact to our region.” Through community support of UPAF, its 36 Member and Affiliate Groups are able to provide education and outreach to over 400,000 children, provide over 2,000 live performances and reach over 1,000,000 people every year. In addition, these southeastern Wisconsin performing arts groups: Have an economic impact of more than $236 million, together with regional cultural organizations. Account for hundreds of jobs – not just for performers, but for the hundreds of those who work behind the scenes as well, those who help make the performing arts a reality. Help Milwaukee-area businesses attract and retain talented professionals. Make the region […]
Apr 2nd, 2009 by Amy Elliott
What Would Jesus Say?
While we’re on the subject of nudes at MAM, and continuing the idea that picking on “Standing Woman” is sexist, here are a few males to consider: Torso of a Male Athlete: Marble. Missing head, arms, one leg and part of another. Some of the penis is gone missing too, but not all of it. Male Ancestor Figure: Wood. What’s that between his legs? The Kiss: Painted plaster cast. No lack of imagination in this one.
Apr 2nd, 2009 by Stella Cretek
Road trip! 2009 WI Film Festival guide
The 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival starts TODAY and runs through April 5. Pack a bag - we're going to Madison! Here are Howie Goldklang's picks for the party.
Apr 2nd, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Beyond The Fonz
Notes from FUEL Milwaukee’s “Beyond the Fonz” event this week at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
Apr 2nd, 2009 by Erin Petersen
Shampoo. Rinse. Recite.
A few years back, I found this great illustration. It was tasteful, whimsical line art of a young woman in the shower. Drops of water fell from the showerhead onto her mop of squiggly blonde hair. I think it was in the back of Real Simple magazine or something. And all it said was “God grant me the power to get out of this shower.” It became my mantra. I posted the illustration near the shower in my own bathroom. The drawing is gone. But the sentiment remains. In fact, it’s become a bit of a mini-devotional for me each morning. And now it’s just part of the routine. Shampoo. Rinse. Recite. Lather. Rinse. Recite. Never mind the fact that I just tried to use a travel-sized bottle of conditioner to shave my legs. God grant me the power to get out of this shower, indeed. I’m sure a lot of people feel this way – like getting going each day is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. Without safety gear, a compass, or oxygen. And little do you know, once you get to the office, an avalanche is in motion. So what can we do? Where does the power really come from? Not only to get going every day, but to actually get through the day in one piece? You have to do it in the face of small hurdles like running out of peanut butter when you really, really want some. Or having a flat tire when you really, really need to get there. Never mind large obstacles like worrying about the economy or the war. I personally believe part of the power does come from God. The other part comes from within each of us. Some people pray. Others meditate. And of course there are other worthwhile practices such as yoga, exercise – and happy hour. The thing that always trips me up is that we do all of these things in order to reset. And stay productive for our partner, family, friends, boss and the local soup kitchen. All of which we wholeheartedly believe we need to tend to every single day, hour, moment. Meanwhile, we personally suffer. We try to do too much. We use up all our energy. We believe we’re operating as a super-efficient hybrid when we’re really burning through energy like an SUV. The reality is life doesn’t have a reserve tank. You have to refuel every so often. Or you’ll miss something while you’re broken down. If you ever want to know the true value of spending your energy more wisely, ask someone who has survived cancer. Or the loved one of someone who didn’t. And that’s why I really want to learn how to slow down. I want to trade my laptop for better eye contact. I want to take in everything life has to offer. I don’t necessarily want to live like my days are numbered, but because I have no reason to believe they are.
Apr 2nd, 2009 by Michelle Sieg
Zweig Project Held by City Committee
This committee meeting had numerous items of significance relating to the built environment that were up for debate. A couple highlights (or lowlights) included the holding of a file over budget concerns, a heated discussion over Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (“CMAQ”) grants, and a most intriguing debate on public art. The approval of the schematic designs of public artwork which is to be incorporated into streetscape improvements within the first block of East Wisconsin Avenue was up for approval. The project put out a RFQ to which nearly fifty artists responded. Artist Janet Zweig was selected to design the artwork and at a recent Streetscape Public Art Advisory Committee meeting the committee approved the schematic design. The design would include five kiosks attached to five light poles. Each kiosk would essentially be a historical reference to a type of flip board system that existed in train stations. Each kiosk would display flip movies of Milwaukee, and would be custom built to hold 80 flaps. This project was funded under the federal CMAQ program to promote walking as an alternative method of transportation by making improvements to the pedestrian experience. Additionally, of the total project only a little over 1% of funds has been allocated to public art. Initially, Alderman Robert Bauman was concerned that there might be a cost to moving this project forward so he questioned, “tell us why this is even in front of us?” After much discussion it became clear that this file was just the approval of the schematic design and that as he said “rejecting this concept saves no money.” At this point Alderman Bob Donovan began railing against the design saying “Thomas Edison had that 100 years ago,” and that “I refuse to have my name associated to something as ridiculous as that.” Alderman Willie Wade took a more measured approach in his response to the work stating “I’m not impressed with this at all” and that “this is too old school for me.” Attempting to bring the discussion back to the overall idea of improving public space through the addition of public art Alderman Bauman explained that “art is in the eye of the beholder.” Debra Usinger, who appeared previously in regards to a Riverwalk project, explained that “public art is great” and that despite the sentiment in the room, this art works because “all of a sudden we’ve created discussion in here.” She added that “I think this is really innovative.” This file was held to all for public input. A file that would have funded a variety of nonassessable public improvements was held because of future budgetary concerns. Alderman Joe Dudzik questioned the wisdom of this spending while planning on significant layoffs, which sparked the discussion regarding holding the file. Wondering if there was a cost to delay action on the file, Alderman Dudzik questioned “is there any urgency in getting this file passed today?” Apparently if delayed projects might see a increase of 10% to the cost so the […]
Apr 1st, 2009 by Dave Reid
