PhotoCampMilwaukee
PhotoCampMilwaukee is a BarCamp-like event fully focused on photography. It’s an ad-hoc “un-conference” for people who love photography to get together and teach what they know, and learn what they don’t. It’s about sharing in an open environment. Everyone has experience to share, and getting everyone together in one place, for a full day, seems like a great way to do it. You don’t have to be a great photographer to attend, you just have to bring your passion for photography. The event will be free (thanks to our sponsors) and the only entrance fee is your participation. Event Location: Bucketworks 1340 N Sixth Street Milwaukee, WI 53212 Learn more
Apr 16th, 2009 by Jeramey Jannene
EARLY BIRD Special For 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival Tickets. Get. On. It.
Ticket Packages and Passes for 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival on Sale April 20 Early ticket packages mean significant discounts for those who purchase before June 30 For those film lovers looking to make a wise investment with their tax return this month, Milwaukee Film has the perfect solution: a 6-pack or 12-pack of tickets, or a Festival Pass or Platinum Pass, for the 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival, which will be held September 24 – October 4. The first ticket packages and passes go on sale Monday, April 20, and early ticket pricing will be in effect through June 30. Prices go up July 1 and then again August 1, when they will be full-price through the festival. The 2009 film festival will feature more than 100 films from around the world that will be screened at venues including the Landmark Theatres Oriental Theatre on Milwaukee’s East Side and the Marcus Theatres® North Shore Cinema in Mequon. Come September, single tickets for each film will cost $10 each, but film lovers can save a bundle by purchasing a package and buying early. “These ticket packages that are going on sale Monday are the least expensive way that movie lovers can secure their attendance at the 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival,” said Diane Bacha, Executive Director for Milwaukee Film. Through June 30, a 6-pack of festival movie tickets is $48, a $6 savings off the regular price, and a 12-pack is $90, a $12 savings off the regular price. A Festival Pass, which gives the purchaser access to all screenings throughout the festival, plus the ability to skip ticket holder lines at each film, is $200, which is a $100 savings off the regular price. For the ultimate film festival loyalist, Milwaukee Film offers the Platinum Pass, which costs $500 through June 30, a $100 savings off the regular price. The Platinum Pass grants the purchaser access to all screenings throughout the festival, VIP seating at Spotlight Presentations, exclusive box office concierge access, and exclusive ‘insider’ access to special events, parties, and VIP areas throughout the 11 days of the festival. Those who purchase a ticket package receive an important added benefit: the ability to have first pick of all the films being screened at the festival. The box office officially opens to the public on Thursday, September 10, but for those who purchase ticket packages, it opens a full day early on Wednesday, September 9. Not only do those ticket package buyers get first choice of their festival schedule, they’ll be sure to avoid any sellouts, as well. Milwaukee Film Festival ticket packages and passes can be purchased on the Milwaukee Film website at www.milwaukee-film.org. Upon receipt of purchase, ticket buyers will receive a voucher in the mail that can be redeemed for tickets at the Milwaukee Film Festival box office beginning Wednesday, September 9.
Apr 16th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Princess Peach, Sparrow and the new no-holds barred gender equality
It’s spring break at my house and I’m trying to work more from home this week to maximize face time with the youngsters. It’s been kind of hit and run so far, but it’s still nice. Today I took a break in the afternoon to hang out in the family room with my 11 and 12-year old boys. As it was cold and gloomy, they were enjoying some rare daytime Wii play, which they chose to spend with a dubious game Michael had picked out as an Easter gift for the younger. It’s called Facebreaker K.O. Party, selected over my protest of its T rating. “Comic Mischief and Violence?” scoffed Michael. “Really, how could it be worse than Super Smash Brothers Brawl?” Sparrow The latter is a game that features major characters from all the Nintendo games throughout time. It’s a wacky romp through amusement park-type scenes where the object of the game is to knock other cartoon characters off the screen using such amazing powers as being sucked in by Yoshi’s super-long tongue and pooped out as an egg. I acquiesced to Facebreaker under the pressures of a tight shopping schedule and a mounting household campaign against my perceived over-protection of the kids. I came bearing popcorn and juice and took a seat on the sofa. I was just in time – the boys were setting up for a fresh match of Punch-o-matic, where their characters were chosen randomly for them. Harry’s was a thick man called Steve, a video game freak with pecs (and belly) the size of Rhode Island. Jesse, the one more fearful of being labeled “soft” in any way, drew Sparrow, a very buff but extremely feminine (and sexy) pugilist with wispy blonde hair and a surprisingly long reach. “No fair!” exclaimed Harry. “You always get Sparrow!” Super Smash Brothers Brawl “It’s not on purpose,” retorted Jesse, “and besides, you’re pretty good. You might still be able to beat me.” This was a little unexpected, so I sat up straighter and gave the screen my full attention. The boys were ruthless. Harry threw Steve’s considerable weight behind every punch, while Jesse had Sparrow hang back until Steve was winded. Then she came in for the kill, jabbing fast and hard. Though it made me a little sick to my stomach to see the glaze of bloodlust in the boys’ eyes, I have to admit I was rooting for Sparrow just a little. After all, Steve was a huge dumb guy and Sparrow was like a cross between Lara Croft and Cat Woman. Who can resist that? In the end, though, Harry’s superior skill won out. With a two-punch move, Steve lofted Sparrow across the ring. She hit the mat hard and as soon as she staggered to her feet Steve finished her off, messing up her face for good measure. The boys were strangely gleeful, delighting in Sparrow’s purple bruises and split lip, shown in close-up as Sparrow panted, head down but eyes looking up […]
Apr 16th, 2009 by Jon Anne Willow
A night on the town with TCD
The TCD crew takes you on guided tour of Depression Era cocktails for the 21st century.
Apr 16th, 2009 by Erin Petersen
Classic cocktail recipes from your friends at TCD
ThirdCoast Digest’s Erin Petersen went on the prowl for the city’s best (and most atmospheric) cocktail hours. But for those of you that aren’t feeling the bar scene, host your own Depression-Era cocktail hour at home with some of these lively libations: Brandy Old Fashioned 3 oz brandy 4 dashes Angostura bitters 1 tsp sugar 1 dash water Sweet or Sour soda (7-Up, 50/50, etc) Muddle the sugar with the bitters and the water in the bottom of an old-fashioned glass. Add the brandy, ice cubes and sweet soda. Stir, garnish with a lemon peel, and serve. If you want to make it true- Wisco style, muddle a couple of Maraschino cherries with the sugar and bitters and garnish with an orange slice. If you’re from south of the state line, use whiskey in place of brandy and mix with sour soda. Manhattan 2 oz rye whiskey 1/2 oz sweet vermouth 2-3 dashes Angostura bitters Maraschino cherry for garnish Pour all ingredients into a glass full of ice, stir well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Rob Roy 2 1/2 ounces Scotch 1 ounce sweet vermouth Dash of angostura bitters Maraschino cherry or twist of lemon peel Shake the Scotch, vermouth, and bitters with ice; then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry or lemon peel. Sidecar 1 1/2 oz. Brandy 1/2 oz. Triple Sec 1/2 oz. Lemon or Lime Juice Combine all the ingredients in a shaker filled with ice, shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. The Kentucky Dandy 2 oz. Maker’s Mark 4 oz. Ginger beer Stir, then add a dash of cayenne pepper. Serve over ice in an 8 oz. tumbler. Thanks to Howie Goldklang for this recipe! The Blue Blazer 2 1/2 ounces Whiskey 2 1/2 ounces Boiling Water 1 Teaspoon Powdered Sugar 1 Lemon wedge 1 Lemon Twist Take two large fireproof mugs. In one, pour in the whiskey. In the other, pour in the water. With a match or lighter, ignite the whiskey. To mix the whiskey and water, pour the liquids back and forth cup to cup about four or five times which will create the effect of liquid fire. To the blended whiskey and water, stir in the powdered sugar and squeeze in the lemon wedge. Pour into a 4-ounce heat proof whiskey glass and garnish with lemon wedge. Recipe courtesy of TCD’s own Cate Miller. Did we miss your favorite? Leave a comment and share your own fave drink tips.
Apr 16th, 2009 by Amy Elliott
Take it from a former vampire …
I’m not a vampire, but I played one on TV … bah, dum, bum … rim shot. Old joke … I did play a vampire though, throughout the first season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a turn of the (20th) century Warner Brothers Television show that was a pretty big hit and to some a cult classic. It is credited with bringing vampiriana back from the dead. But the truth is vampires never die, and as an icon of popular literature they have always been around. Sometimes they seem to be everywhere; sometimes they must be asleep in their coffins. I played “The Master,” the oldest, the original, and the baddest vampire around. He lived underground in an old church that had been buried in a California earthquake. For reasons I don’t remember he couldn’t go up on to the surface of the earth until a certain moment in time. There was a lot of pre-destination in this particular vampire tale and it all was “written” in a book that only scholars could decipher. Luckily that book happened to reside in the library of the high school in Sunnyvale, the small California town where my church was buried, and the librarian of that high school library just happened to be an Englishman whose special obsession was vampires and the occult. Very convenient. The series lasted for seven or so seasons, so it is way more complicated than I can remember, and I have probably already annoyed devout fans, of which there are many. To prepare for the part, I studied as many of the vampires of our cultural history that I could, revisiting Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the first vampire film, Nosferatu, a true classic made in 1922 by F.W. Murnau, starring the phenomenal Max Schrenk, as well as the 1979 Nosferatu remake by Werner Herzog, starring the great Klaus Kinski. There is a wealth of literature about vampires and werewolves, and it evolves as the times require. The rules change. Joss Whedon, who created Buffy The Vampire Slayer in movie form and then for television, once said that the fun thing about writing about vampires is that you get to make up the rules as you go along. Someone before you made up the previous rules, so essentially there are no rules, as long as you can justify the behavior of your particular undead creature by making up a rule. In television, you can even change the rules you made up in the first season when they become inconvenient in the fifth season. There are some rules, though, that I think are inviolate.Twilight breaks one of the oldest and most established vampire rules: they die if touched by the sun. They hedge their bets by setting it in the Pacific Northwest on the Olympic Peninsula where the sun seldom shines, but it is still a major re-write of the rules. When the lead vampire walks deliberately into the sun, he sparkles as though his skin was encrusted with diamonds. […]
Apr 16th, 2009 by Mark Metcalf
Complete Our Streets to Build a Better Milwaukee
The first thing most people see of Milwaukee's streets is the vast wasteland of potholes that mark each and everyone of them.
Apr 15th, 2009 by Dave Reid
Wildwood Film Festival – WI only Films! 4/17 & 4/18
WILDWOOD FILM FESTIVAL Appleton, WI Friday April 17 and Saturday April 18 The Wildwood Film Festival is a festival for Wisconsin films only. Whether it’s the primary creative personnel (producer/director/writer), the actors or even the locations, all projects featured have direct ties to the state. The line-up this year offers something for everyone-comedies, dramas, thrillers and more! Ah, and more! You gotta love it. Get in the car and go to WI only true WI festival! Click Here for the schedule.
Apr 15th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Weigh in now!
ThirdCoast’s Jon Anne Willow is a guest panelist every Wednesday on WTMJ-4’s “What’s Hot” news segment. Weigh in on today’s topics! 1. Packers announce 2009 schedule. The team will enjoy 5 nationally televised games despite their poor season last year. Is this justified? 2. Why do people wait until the last minute to prepare their tax returns? 3. A principal in San Antonio is ticketed after a neighbor complains that an elementary school is too noisy. What? If you miss today’s program, you can watch it online here.
Apr 15th, 2009 by Jon Anne Willow
April 17, 2009
Where to go and what to see on Gallery Night.
Apr 15th, 2009 by Erin Petersen
Art and performance 4/15 to 4/21
Visual Art Gallery Night and Day, metro Milwaukee area, Friday evening on April 17 and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 18 (most locations) *See our special section for a preview of this quarterly must-see event. Multimedia Tile, Quilt, Pixel: Paul Berger, UW-Milwaukee, Wed. April 15 at the Arts Center Lecture Hall. Starts at 7 p.m. Paul Berger talks about the trajectory of his composite and collage works over the course of the last thirty-five years. Currently a professor of art at the University of Washington’s School of Art where he founded the school’s photography program, Berger moved from traditional forms to digital manipulation and gained fame throughout Europe plus grants from the National Endowment of the Arts. A retrospective of his work showed at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in 2003. He will be speaking about his work as part of UWM’s 2008-09 Artist Now series. Merengue: Visual Rhythms, Latino Arts museum, now through June 5. Open M-F 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. In this Milwaukee stop on a national tour organized by International Arts and Artists showcases 27 classic and cuurent artists from the Dominican Republic. The focus of the show looks at that country’s national music form through mediums including photographs, sculpture, paintings, and videos by “analyzing the rhythm’s artistic components and environmental contexts”. Admission is free. Theater Last of the Red Hot Lovers! , Broadway Baby Dinner Theatre, now until April 26. Milwaukee’s longest-running dinner theater is putting on Neil Simon’s successful 1969 comedy. The story revolves around a middle-aged and shy man who hopes to join the sexual revolution before it’s over. Lacking experience and chutzpah, he arranges three separate seductions with women of various neuroses — one of whom is his best friend’s wife. The Cherry Orchard, Milwaukee Rep at the Quadracci Powerhouse Theatre, April 14 to May 10. Anton Chekhov’s last play is the newest production by members of the Resident Acting Company and other guest actors. While Chekhov intended this to be a comedy, its first director set it as a tragedy. Directors have been wrestling with what it is ever since. Brooklyn Boy, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre at the Cabot Stage. Opens April 16 running through May 3. The MCT will finish its 34th season with Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright Donald Margulies’s drama about a best-selling author of a loosely autobiographical novel describing growing up Jewish in Brooklyn. But the author also experiences a midlife crisis as he struggles to come to terms with an aging father, a failing marriage and lost roots. Zombies From the Beyond, Cardinal Stritch at the Nancy Kendall Theater. April 17-19 and April 24-26. The school’s Music and Theater Department is premiering this hit Off-Broadway play, adapted for local reference. The original musical comedy by James Valcq skewered American ideals during the Eisenhower era using a sci-fi B-movie structure. The local production sets the play at “the Milwaukee Space Station, where a flying saucer lands, piloted by Zombina, an alien aviatrix”. How I Became a Pirate, Milwaukee First Stage at the Todd Wehr stage. Opens April 17 running weekends until May 17. based on the well-known children’s book by Melinda Long and given new lyrics and notes by […]
Apr 14th, 2009 by Brian Jacobson
Janet Zweig ain’t Karen Finley
The breaking news from Milwaukee’s City Hall Tuesday was that the Common Council voted, by a lopsided 12-2, to approve the public art installation for E. Wisconsin Avenue designed by Janet Zweig. The tempest in a teapot didn’t boil over and Mike Brenner did not even have to resort to defecating on the lawn of any alderman who opposed the project. The threat, he says, was a conscious decision to throw fuel on the fire of the controversy to focus attention on the importance of supporting Zweig’s project. Ald. Joe Dudzik, who, along with Ald. Bob Donovan, ultimately voted against the project, went for Brenner’s bait. He left a message on Brenner’s voice mail daring the provocateur to make good on his promise, thoughtfully leaving his home address. Brenner, being the creative guy he is, recorded a remix using Dudzik’s phone message and posted it on his web site. Well, boys will be boys. Now I really have to move on from the Brenner-Dudzik, err, pissing match before you get the impression that the Zweig piece coming soon to Milwaukee’s downtown is some kind of creepy, offensive concept with the potential to embarrass our fair city. History is full of examples of high-concept art intended to shock and/or disgust, often referencing urine or feces. Who can forget Karen Finley’s creative use of chocolate or the incredibly self-indulgent Andres Serrano even going all the way back to Marcel Duchamps’s celebrated and controversial urinal of 1917. Zweig’s public art for the Instructional Technology Center, Santa Fe Community College. It invents and writes a new line of text, displayed on a mechanical “flip-disk” sign every time someone passes through. Sorry to disappoint, but Janet Zweig’s art is none-of-the-above. Janet Zweig is a Milwaukee-born artist who has built a national reputation developing the kind of interactive art that engages without offending. Take a look at the current issue of Sculpture magazine for an overwhelmingly positive examination of her work. The process that culminated in her being chosen for this project has been going on for years, at least since 2002. Milwaukee Magazine’s Bruce Murphy does a nice job of reviewing the history and, bless his soul, contextualizing the current flare-up. Zweig seems to have bent over backwards to avoid offending anybody. Her use of old-fashioned flip-disk technology, the kind associated with signs at rail stations, introduces a type of interactivity to her work that is refreshingly modern without appearing pretentious. And she plans to involve local artists and others in the work as a clever way to return some of the funds to the community. The lion’s share of the $300,000 cost is coming from the federal government and the $60,000 city contribution goes exclusively to local folks. Hard to find anything to complain about, right? Well, not so fast. I’m not an expert on art but my gripe with the proposal is that it doesn’t appear to be public enough. As engaging as the concept seems, I believe that one strength of the […]
Apr 14th, 2009 by Ted Bobrow
