Head over heels for Detroit’s (and Milwaukee’s) “Hidden History”

Former TCD/VITAL editor Amy Elliot Bragg returns to Milwaukee this Thursday to promote her new book, "Hidden History of Detroit."

Molly Rhode, 63 kids and the Best Christmas Ever

Molly Rhode was a member of the Theater Academy when she first appeared in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Now, she's at it again. Also, listen for the awesome children's chorus.

Laurie Birmingham charts her course

Our series on actors continues with Laurie Birmingham, who tells a seldom-heard tale about the profession — burning out, losing your passion and plotting an uncertain course for the future.

Matt Daniels and theater as barroom

What if a theater were like a bar — a place where you could show up, meet your community and see what's going on? Isn't telling a joke in a bar a kind of theater as ancient as cave paintings and firepit storytelling?

Todd Denning, journeyman actor, settles at First Stage

Todd talks about his Minnesota childhood, the exciting life of the journeyman performer and how he finally settled in Milwaukee as an actor, director, teacher and stage combat choreographer.

The energizing legacy of Theatre X

While much has been made of the decline and fall of Theatre X, John Kishline and Deborah Clifton believe that a new breed of regional fringe and DIY theater groups are carrying the torch.

Brett Favre — merely a player, and football the stage?

Actor, playwright and sports commentator David "Copperfield" Begel joins Mark to discuss Wisconsin's own prodigal son through the lens of the Greek Olympian tradition and more.

Trial and error with Dwellephant

Dwellephant will try anything once, and he's not afraid if he fails. A hand-painted graphic novel? Live art? Political cartoons? Why not!

Modus Operandi director Frankie Latina

"Sex, drugs and violence: it's hard to reach a wider audience if you don't follow those rules." Mark Metcalf interviews Modus Operandi director Frankie Latina.

Jonathan Jackson, Executive Director of Milwaukee Film

"We've really reshaped the old model," says Jonathan Jackson in his interview with Mark Metcalf. The Milwaukee Film Festival starts Thursday.

A rising tide brings everybody up

Mark interviews Ryan Plato and Carlo Besasie, the filmmakers behind "The Violinist," 2007's "The Cherry Tree" and much, much more. Discussed: anti-vocational filmmaking; the illusory holy grail of feature films; idioms.

Artist/Filmmaker Andrew Swant

Andrew Swant is one-half of the local filmmaking team responsible for "Zombie Killer," "What What (In the Butt)" and the upcoming documentary "William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet."

Local filmmaker Tate Bunker

Mark talks to Tate Bunker, local auteur, DP, nice guy, award winner.

Victim to the Beat

Already one of the catchiest songs ever.

Rest in peace

One of Wisconsin's greatest heroes, the Wizard of Waukesha, has passed away at age 94.

Kyle Feerick, mortician, musician

Okay - not a mortician, exactly. But he is the heir to the Feerick Funeral Home legacy. Mark Metcalf interviews the easy-going songster, who's not at all Addams Family (but maybe a little Six Feet Under).

Mucca Pazza

Watch the video, then see the 34-piece circus punk marching band at Humboldt Park on 9/19.

State Fair eats!

A selection of scrumptious State Fair delicacies. Corn dogs, corn on the cob, chocolate-covered bacon, grilled cheese, cream puffs, potato chips — it's heaven on earth.

800-CEO-READ

Mark Metcalf meets Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten, CEO and President, respectively, of 800-CEO-READ, a local company that sells business books and promotes great ideas. (We think THEY'RE a great idea!)

Dave Cowan named Program Director of 88Nine Radio Milwaukee

Dave Cowan, a 23-year radio veteran with long experience at a variety of community-oriented commercial stations, has been named program director of non-comm 88Nine RadioMilwaukee, the station announced today.

Carol Grossmeyer

This week on the podcast, Mark talks to Carol Grossmeyer, former owner of Harry W. Schwartz bookshops and current owner of its sister company, 800-CEO-READ.

Backstage with Mark Metcalf and Alice Austen

This week on Backstage: Alice Austen is an award-winning Chicago playwright -- who lives in Milwaukee. It sounds like a contradiction, but it's not! Find out why.

Five questions for Deb Brehmer

We ask Deb Brehmer five questions. She responds with thoughts on local artists, the importance of nurturing an art-buying community, her fascination with portraiture as a work-a-day art form and the importance of context to art-viewing and appreciating.

Backstage with Mark Metcalf and Rob Goodman

DID YOU KNOW: The Milwaukee Repertory Theater has more season ticket holders than the Milwaukee Brewers? First Stage Children's Theater Managing Director Rob Goodman is a member of the brand-new Creative Coalition of Greater Milwaukee, a project of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and the Cultural Alliance of Greater Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Chamber Theater announces new Managing Director

We're a little late on the news, but in case you are too, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre last week announced new Managing Director Kirsten Mulvey to replace former Managing Director David Todd, who left MCT in February after a short stint that began in the fall of 2007.

A Tribute, Part Two

TCD's Senior Editor and Detroit native Amy Elliott waxes nostalgic about a trip to Hitsville, U.S.A. and the relationship between Michael and Motown.

Backstage with Mark Metcalf and David Begel

Long-time friends Mark Metcalf and David Begel discuss how they met in a Milwaukee Shakespeare production of The Merchant of Venice, David's long and colorful career that spans the great distance between sports writing, MPS administration and acting on stage, how professional sports are like theater, arts criticism and what it will take to make a more vibrant culture for the arts in Milwaukee. Discussed: national public dance, Mark's tardiness, how the internet just lets you keep going and going.

Your 2009 Summer Reading Guide

It's the right time of year to reacquaint yourself with the literate world, so we put on our best nerdy glasses, went on the hunt and scouted out local experts in order to provide you with our first-ever summer reading guide, full of locally-sourced recommendations from Boswell Books, Open Book Co-op, Next Chapter Bookshop, A Broader Vocabulary and friends at WMSE, 800-ceo-read and ChangeThis.com.

The 36-Hour Report

The TCD Editorial staff found this crazed dispatch, like a signal from a jam-band-packed corner of outer space, buried at the bottom of the email heap upon arrival at the office this morning. Sounds like quite a time. We've also taken the liberty of bringing you highlights from Howie's Twitter feed, so you can enjoy the madness, even if you're not the Twittering kind.

Schwartz void filled by community book co-op

Shorewood, WI. A group of Shorewood, Whitefish Bay and North Shore community activists plans to open and operate a cooperative bookstore, to be located in Shorewood. “It will be a bookstore for the community, created by the community, said organizer Keith Schmitz. “The closing of the Harry W. Schwartz bookstore on Oakland Ave. created a big void in the community.  “It’s a void we plan to close,” said Schmitz.  “We see it as an important quality of life issue.” The new store, known as Open Book, is expected to open by fall 2009.  Open Book will offer new books, including a children’s section, as well as a limited quantity of quality used books, magazines and books on CD, all at competitive prices.  Open Book will also provide customer searches for hard-to-find titles. The group’s preliminary business plan calls for a quality store with a comfortable atmosphere that promotes browsing, exploration and community involvement, says manager Lisa Zupke.  Zupke previously managed the Schwartz store on Oakland. Open Book will be more than just a bookstore, Zupke added.  “We want it to be a community gathering place where friends and neighbors meet for coffee, and small groups hold meetings.  That’s something the community sorely needs.” Open Book’s organizers see the East Side and North Shore as the ideal location for a community-based bookstore.  “It’s an area chock-full of literate people who understand the importance of a local independent bookstore in the community, and who choose to support well-run local businesses,” says Kit Vernon, a retired marketing executive. Plans for the store are for 3,500-4,000 sq. ft., to be used for the store, a café/coffee shop, office and storage.  The store’s inventory will be tailored specifically for the market, based on Zupke’s local experience.  Open Book will also host special events such as author readings, children’s story hours, music and book clubs. Open Book will be a limited liability corporation, run on a cooperative model like the Outpost stores, REI or the Packers.  Cooperative members will help provide start-up capital and operating funding with their memberships.  They will receive discounts on purchases and an annual dividend when possible, plus invitations to special events. In the approximately one month the group has been planning, it has attracted nearly 400 people who have expressed interest in becoming coop members.

Julia Magnasco of First Stage Children’s Theater

Mark talks to Julia Magnasco, Education Director of First Stage Children's Theater, about growing up with First Stage - her first kiss (on stage!), getting ready for prom in the dressing room - coming back to Milwaukee for the arts and the importance of teaching young people about theater.

Milwaukee Film rolls out first round of announcements for 2009 Festival

Here they are: the first five film announcements for the first-ever, breathlessly-anticipated 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival. Who knows what we can tell from five films out of what's likely to be more than 100, but this diverse and cosmopolitan selection of screenings: a supermarket comedy from Uruguay, a clandestine documentary about the 2007 uprising in Burma and an exciting frame-by-frame restoration of Akiro Kurosawa's Rashomon.

Nilson Studios at Beloit’s Fine Arts Incubator

Painted Beats reflects the apocalypse of inner city life through smoke and light, huge paintings that swallow the viewer in the dark shades of urban decay, and a soundtrack of beats mixed specifically for each piece. Stereos with several sets of Koss-donated headphones will be installed in front of each art work for take one step further into the landscape. Nilson says his viewer/listeners will be absorbed in "an Artist's Rapture."

Visual arts happenings, June 3 – 10

Jason Rohlf at Tory Folliard, Charles Rohlf (no relation) and The Eight at Milwaukee Art Museum and the popular Annual Members Show at the Walker's Point Center for the Arts.

Milwaukee Artist Resource Network’s new vision

In February, the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network announced its first full-time Executive Director, Melissa Musante, former Associate Director of Film Wisconsin, Peck School graduate and independent artist, musician and filmmaker. Mark Metcalf caught up with her to talk about the new MARN web project artinmilwaukee.com, why MARN is not just for visual artists and how the organization is ramping up their efforts in a dark economic time. Listen online now! Backstage with Mark Metcalf: MARN’s Melissa Musante Backstage with Mark Metcalf is produced with WMSE 91.7 FM at the beautiful downtown studio of the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Tell your friends!

Dave Fantle discusses film incentives

Following news of the zero-sum game of giant Michael Mann/Johnny Depp production Public Enemies, the budget proposed by Governor Jim Doyle in February would eliminate the Film Wisconsin tax incentives for good, replacing them with a biennial $1 million grant program. Mark Metcalf sits down with Dave Fantle of Visit Milwaukee to get the story.

75 years of the Florentine Opera

The Florentine Opera, Wisconsin's oldest fully professional performing arts organization, hosts a special one-night-only Diamond Anniversary concert in celebration of their 75th year in the business. In tribute, enjoy this fabulous photo history from the Company's expansive archive.

Racine

Photos from our trip to Racine: organic brunch at Blueberries Cafe, meerkats and peacocks at the Zoo, jellyfish at RAM, quirky thrift-store finds, the shanty charm of the Yardarm and more.

The Magic Flute at Florentine Opera

Magic Flute is one of Mozart's most heart-snatchingly beautiful operatic works, and the Florentine's company delivers a sparkling, joyful performance that is a delight from start to finish.

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.

Art and performance, 4/9 – 4/14

Visual Art Check back next week for our celebrated Gallery Night guide, with staff picks and a complete directory of local events! Music UWM Guitar Series, UWM Peck School of the Arts, 4/10. Classical guitarist René Izquierdo joins Elina Chekan in a benefit concert for UWM’s program for young guitarists. They will perform solo and duo works by Astor Piazzolla, Leo Brouwer, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Hector Villa-Lobos and others. Theatre I Just Stopped By To See The Man, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, 4/8. This passionate and political ode to the power and truth of the blues tells the story of Jesse Davidson, the greatest living bluesman. Long believed dead, he lives his simple life with his activist daughter in a Mississippi Delta shack. Legend surrounds Jesse—like the story about him selling his soul to the devil so that he could play guitar. But when Karl, a famous English rocker, probes for the truth about Jesse, he triggers a confrontation of mythic proportions. Barney & Bee, Renaissance Theatre, 4/12. CLOSING. Barney & Bee tells the tale of Jo and Stephen, hosts of an ill-fated dinner party to which Stephen has asked Barney, the husband in a newly separated couple. Unbeknownst to Stephen, Jo has also invited the wife (Bee) and her new boyfriend – a recipe for social catastrophe! Two talented actors play all five comic characters in Frayn’s witty, fast-moving farce. Old Time Radio: Sherlock Holmes, Alchemist Theatre, 4/12-4/19. Wisconsin Hybrid Theater and Alchemist Productions bring a series of Sunday “Old Time Radio” Matinees to the Alchemist. Each month, a familiar classic will be adapted for your imagination by the wacky cast and crew of Vintage Radio Station WHT. Wild Honey, Off the Wall Theatre, 4/12. CLOSING. The Cherry Orchard, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, 4/14. Set in 1904 on the edge of the Russian Revolution, this bittersweet and haunting comedy is Chekhov’s final play and masterpiece about a rapidly changing world and a way of life on the brink of destruction. With fortunes fading fast and the auction of their estate looming on the horizon, an impoverished Russian family is uncertain of what the future will bring. For venue, tickets, showtimes and more, visit Footlights Milwaukee online.

RadioMilwaukee names new Executive Director

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (April 8, 2009) – Mary Louise Mussoline, the Milwaukee Art Museum’s former senior director of development, has been named executive director of non-commercial 88Nine RadioMilwaukee. Mussoline, a longtime Milwaukee resident, has served for many years as a top executive and consultant to numerous area non-profits, working in areas of management, training and fundraising. Her selection followed a multiple-month search and extensive interviewing process for the open position, said Eric Resch, board chair of Radio For Milwaukee, which operates the station. “Mary Louise brings a wealth of experience in management and fund development,” Resch said. “Her strong background, talent and working relationships within Milwaukee’s non-profit and business communities will help RadioMilwaukee realize its vision for creating a better city through the power of music and our collective voice.” Resch said Mussoline will work closely with her senior management team, Station Manager Vicki Mann and Program + Content Director Sam Van Hallgren, to increase the station’s impact within the area and grow community support. Mussoline said she has been an avid listener of RadioMilwaukee since the station’s current format went into effect two years ago. She said she looked forward to helping the station grow into an even more important community asset. “In a short time, RadioMilwaukee has established itself as a powerful force to bring people together in celebration of music, local arts and community building,” Mussoline said. “By tapping into more of the Milwaukee area’s many resources, I hope to help build an even stronger foundation for our future growth and success.” As the Milwaukee Art Museum’s campaign consultant and then senior director of development from 2005 until earlier this month, Mussoline oversaw the museum’s completion of its capital campaign, membership efforts, annual campaign, major gifts, planned giving and special program fundraising. The most recent campaign raised $4.9 million in annual gifts, including $3 million from major donors and an additional $2.3 million in grants and sponsorships. Annual campaign contributions increased by 30% under Mussoline’s team. Prior to her work at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Mussoline served as the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s vice president for institutional advancement from September 2002 until December 2004; The Brico Fund, Inc.’s executive director from 1998 to 2002; and a Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation program officer from 1998 to 2001. Since 1987, Mussoline also has owned a consulting practice, MLM Associates, which has provided training and select consulting to a variety of organizations. Groups MLM has worked with include the YWCA of Greater Milwaukee, Neighborhood House, Prevent Blindness Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Highland Community School, Tirimbina Rainforest Center, Children’s Service Society, YWCA of the USA, Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee. 88Nine RadioMilwaukee (88.9 FM and www.radiomilwaukee.org) broadcasts and webcasts a unique mix of rock, urban and local music, while promoting and celebrating involvement in the Milwaukee community. The station has won “best of” awards from the Shepherd-Express weekly newspaper, the Wisconsin Area Music Industry and Milwaukee Magazine.

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.

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 […]

Milw / TCD Filmmaker Finalist in Warner Brothers / CW Network Film Contest – VOTE TODAY!

LAST WEEK TO VOTE!! Local filmmaker and long-time, much-loved TCD contributor Howie Goldklang is a FINALIST in the CW Green Your World contest. The contest has 4 filmmakers submitting weekly vlogs (video blogs) reporting on green, eco-cool initiatives in their town. Please click over, vote MILWAUKEE, vote for HOWIE GOLDKLANG! CLICK HERE TO VOTE

TULPAN a huge hit in NYC, coming to MKE Monday!

This just in: the New York Times‘ A.O. Scott posted a fabulous review today of Tulpan, a romance, coming-of-age story and epic landscape drama set on the desolate steppes of Kazhakstan. Scott writes: Tulpan, the first fictional feature by the Kazakh director Sergey Dvortsevoy, might be described as an epic landscape film, a sweetly comic coming-of-age story or a lyrical work of social realism. But the setting — a windswept, sparely populated steppe in southern Kazakhstan — gives the movie a mood that sometimes feels closer to that of science fiction. … [The lamb birth] scene, a milestone in cinematic ovine obstetrics, is both crucial to the story and a tour de force, the kind of thing a director like David Cronenberg or Takashi Miike would attempt only with prosthetics or other special effects. In “Tulpan” you see it for real, a perfectly ordinary event that is also something of a miracle. Tulpan took home the Prix un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, and it celebrates an anticipated opening in New York today. And here’s the best part, Milwaukee: you can see it here on Monday as part of Milwaukee Film‘s so-far-successful Monday Night at the Movies series at the Marcus North Shore Cinema in Mequon. It’s unusual that we have the chance here on the Third Coast to see an independent international release within the same week of screenings on the East Coast, so we recommend you attend. You can buy your tickets online now at milwaukee-film.org. See the Tulpan trailer and learn more here. Don’t feel like driving to Mequon? No car? NO PROBLEM! Join Milwaukee Film, WMSE and TCD at the Wicked Hop for a big, bad bus party. Come early for drink specials and burger madness. Bus departs at 6:30 sharp. Play trivia with WMSE DJs and join Program Director Jonathan Jackson for a casual discussion about the film on the way back. We’ll have some great giveaways on the bus and after the show! The bus is FREE, so save some cash, save the earth, and have a crazy good time. See you there, film-os.

Milwaukee Film announces 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival!

And now … the news you’ve all been waiting for … with a brand-new logo to boot. So exciting! – Ed. Milwaukee Film, the new and independent organization dedicated to presenting Milwaukee’s premier film festival, is proud to announce the dates and a call for entries for its 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival. Running September 24 through October 4, the back and better-than-ever Milwaukee Film Festival will showcase more than 100 films at venues throughout the city, including the Landmark Theatres Oriental Theatre and the Marcus Theatres North Shore Cinema. The Film Festival will feature films from around the country and the world, providing a unique community platform for films that would otherwise not screen in Milwaukee. “We’re incredibly excited to be able to announce the Film Festival dates today,” said Jonathan Jackson, Milwaukee Film artistic director. “We’re confident that the new festival will be the best Milwaukee has seen and that it will be a Milwaukee institution for many years to come.” The early deadline for film submissions is April 6. Entry fees start at $10, but the fees are waived for any film created by a Milwaukee filmmaker. The festival will offer cash and production prize packages, to be announced at a later date. Tickets for individual films will be $10, but Milwaukee Film will offer discounts for those purchasing their ticket packages and passes early. The first ticket packages will go on sale in April, and in addition to early discounts, Milwaukee Film is planning a series of contests, promotions, incentives, and special events leading up to the film festival. “Thousands of Milwaukeeans filled the seats at the film festival in years past, and this year our goal is to bring those guests back and to attract a diverse new audience,” said Diane Bacha, executive director of Milwaukee Film. “The response we’ve gotten since forming the organization last year has been overwhelmingly positive, and we can’t wait to present Milwaukee with this world-class festival come September. It’s truly a privilege to be able to essentially bring the whole world to Milwaukee through film.” About Milwaukee Film Milwaukee Film was founded in 2008 to serve as the area’s independent organization dedicated to presenting Milwaukee’s premier film festival. The 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival will be held September 24 – October 4. In addition to the film festival, the organization hosts a series of film events throughout the year. Visit www.milwaukee-film.org for information on the film festival and the organization, special events, ticket availability and promotions and contests, and to sign up for the email list and to donate funds. Connect with Milwaukee Film on Facebook (search “Milwaukee Film” in groups) and on Twitter (@MilwaukeeFilm), and visit the Milwaukee Film blog at www.milwaukeefilm.blogspot.com. About the Milwaukee Film Board Milwaukee Film’s independent board is made up of the following members: Chris Abele, Tom Barrett, Sue Black, Tina Chang, Jeff Fitzsimmons, Alec Fraser, James Gelly, Bill Haberman, Carmen Haberman, Tracey Klein, Mary Ann LaBahn, Marianne Lubar, Cathie Madden, Steve Mech, Paul Mathews, Andy […]

Help us rename the Bruisers column

Last month, VITAL Source and ThirdCoast Digest were threatened with a cease and desist order by another derby league in the region, alleging that the title of our popular derby column Talk Derby to Me, by Tea Krulos (with a fabulous vodcast of the same name by Noah Therrien), was protected under U.S. Trademark. It’s a dark day for Milwaukee derby lovers, but have no fear: we will continue to publish the bout recaps, skater interviews and season recaps you’ve come to love and post great footage, live from the track, after every game. Today, we ask you today to help us select the new title of TD2M: 2.0. If you don’t like any of these, we’re savvy; just shoot us an email and let us know if you’ve got a better idea. We’ll add it to the poll. Voting closes on April 10 and the new title will be unveiled at the April 18 Bruisers bout at the Franklin County Sports Complex. You can buy your tickets now at brewcitybruisers.com! Thanks for your help! [poll ID: “2”]

August 2008

Our fete for the winners of our 3rd annual Random Exposure photo contest at the glamorous Eisner American Museum of Advertising and Design.

VITAL’s 6th Birthday at MOCT!

We came, we saw, we celebrated six years in the business. February 2008.

2008

Paul Robeson in concert

Next Act Theatre Restaging an exceptional character from last season, Next Act Theatre returns with the limited run of Paul Robeson in Concert at the Off-Broadway Theatre. This charismatic Black Columbia law school graduate, singing star, actor and activist began a career in the 1920’s, stirring American hearts through his music, political beliefs and protests against racism. Paul Mabon reprises the role of Robeson with his resonant, magnetic bass voice recreating a personality larger than life. The concert’s first half allows Mabon full access to the set through intimate cabaret staging where he interacts with the audience. His combination of spirituals and show tunes from the era resound with evocative conviction, which spans the period from the 1920’s to the 50’s. Two standouts from the fine first set include the less familiar My Curly Headed Baby and Robeson’s signature piece from Showboat, Ol’ Man River. The second set begins with Mabon introducing soprano Adrienne Danrich. Danrich previews a selection from Next Act’s upcoming season, This Little Light of Mine, which details the lives of singer Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price who were both contemporaries of Robeson. Danrich’s rich, vibrant operatic voice carries the house whenever she sings or speaks. Several outstanding moments remain the duets by Mabon and Danrich, who seamlessly exchange their presence on stage during the second act, including an encore, and enjoy an elegant collaboration. Director David Cecsarini interjects a few moments of questions for Robeson to reflect on his life, while the musical accompaniment by Ron Martinson on piano and Joe Aaron on clarinet provided masterful touches. This evening of soul-searching by Robeson, Anderson and Price through actors Mabon and Danrich asks the audience to listen and learn from other men and women mirroring similar lives to Robeson when he claims that he, “stood firm in his beliefs, and his ideals were beauty and truth.” Next Act Theatre presents “Paul Robeson in Concert” until March 1 at the Off-Broadway Theatre. The final show of the 2008/09 season will be The Pavilion, opening April 2. Subscriptions for 2009-2010 include “This Little Light of Mine” with Adrienne Danrich. www.nextact.org

Secrets of a Soccer Mom @ The Boulevard

By Jenna Raymond Soccer Mom. It’s a term that crept into the American vernacular near the end of the twentieth century. It’s a woman who drives a mini-van or an SUV, visits Starbucks everyday and has an expensive cell phone that constantly ringing with calls about the PTA. She ‘runs errands’ every day of the week and manages her ‘schedule’ around her children’s athletic and extra-curricular activities. Right? Outwardly, that’s a generic description of Soccer Moms. The Boulevard Theatre’s Secrets of a Soccer Mom shows both the typical Soccer Mommian attributes as well as the deeper mysteries and enigmas of all those blond-highlighted women driving luxury mini-vans. Written by Kathleen Clark, Secrets of a Soccer Mom begins with three women meeting to play in a Mom vs Son soccer match. They agree to play poorly in order to let their third grade sons win. While waiting on the sidelines for their turn to rotate into the game they at first talk over classic Soccer Mom topics; the PTA, pizza day at school and field trips. As the day goes on, the three veer off from the pre-approved small talk subjects and delve into their innermost beings. As a result of exploring their pasts and presents, the three decide not to hand over a victory to their sons. Even though it looks like a silly suburban soccer game it turns into a personal battle for Nancy, Lynn and Alison. Alison, played by Marion Araujo, is at first not completely on board with playing badly. It comes out that she was an athlete before she got married. Her husband didn’t like her competing or playing on any kind of team. She sees the afternoon as a chance to leave the confines of her marriage behind; figuratively and maybe even literally. Araujo’s early enthusiasm seemed a bit contrived. However, she portrays Alison’s sincere yet naïve plans to run away in a simple and frank manner. As Nancy, Kathleen Williams outwardly seems incredibly archetypal. In a fleece and capris she chats with her fellow Soccer Moms while keeping an eye on her own children as well as others. It’s discovered that she ran in college and used to be a model. While Nancy loves her children with her entire heart, it’s obvious that she gave up much of who she was before she had them. Williams especially shines while flipping through a children’s picture book, pointing out her favorite characters and scenes as though it’s the latest Zadie Smith novel. While all three women hold their own in the Boulevard’s studio theatre, it’s really Brooke Wegner playing Lynn that steals the show. Lynn is a former social worker turned PTA-school volunteer-Soccer Mom. She organizes absolutely everything and still manages to keep up on her gossip and refrain from throttling her mother-in-law during Sunday dinner. Wegner seems to live two roles on stage; Public Lynn and Inner Lynn. Public Lynn chats, jests and conspires with her fellow Soccer Moms. While Inner Lynn rarely utters a […]

I love today.

(Getty) We just inaugurated a young, smart, black, basketball-playing president and said goodbye to George W. Bush. Expectations aside, overblown or otherwise, something feels cosmically righted today. I was too young to vote during the 2000 elections, but I spent a lot of energy protesting the Bush campaign, and when he was reelected in 2004, the mood on our small liberal arts campus was dejected, and angry. It was drizzling, cloudy and cold. I watched a normally level-headed and considered professor throw a student out of our discussion group in a fit of frustration. Today we had a humble potluck at the office, with veggie tacos and pasta salad and some cheap champagne leftover from one of our gallery nights. There were just a few of us, but the mood was gleeful, and together we watched the what may have been the most joyful civic moment of my life. For almost a decade, it’s been hard to feel stirred or called to action by moments of national togetherness given the heavy, dampening hand of the Bush administration and every form of war they waged. Even the fortifying unity of protest and dissent became exhausting over time; if neither the UN nor the biggest anti-war protests of all time couldn’t stop the President, there was a feeling that nothing could — not even, perhaps, the 2008 election. But this morning we all hugged each other as we watched W.’s helicopter disappear on the horizon, roused and comforted and ready to move on. Barack may be inheriting the country’s most dire climate ever, but I don’t think that our grand expectations will cripple him, nor do I expect that it will take a miracle for him to succeed. In fact, his primary strength as president may be the incredible ability he has had so far to inspire a massive shift in public attitude, erase a thick layer of chalky cynicism in one sweep and rally the world’s adoration. We all got misty this morning as we watched — and felt — the turf of history shift underneath us. For most of my adult life I’ve felt that we lived in a world too treacherous to bring new people into, but I have never wanted kids so badly as I wanted kids today. The call to take the momentum of the last 12 months and use it to take responsibility for our future and the future of our country and the world resonates: In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city […]

The video part three – THE AUTO SHOW

The video you’ve all been waiting for: Noah and I clowning around at the 2009 North American International Auto Show. We met journalists from all over the world, mingled with hot models, sat in a lot of cars that are worth more than our lives and test drove a 2010 Ford Fusion. Exhausting! One more video to come!

DETROIT: The video part two – the Corned Beef Experience

Noah did a bang-up job capturing the spirit of corned beef on camera. Watch the video here, and ignore my really silly hair: Parts three (the Auto Show) and four (the full-length travelogue) to come!

The Henry Ford, Greektown and downtown sights

DETROIT: Corned beef and the cars of the future

We’re convalescing this morning with oatmeal and coffee after finally getting some sleep last night. Yesterday was a big day. We started at United Meat and Deli, a small, high-end corned beef processor and wholesaler that is incidentally owned and operated by my dad. There we saw another side of Detroit industry and prepared Noah for the best Reuben of his life. The videos from our factory tour are amazing, so stay tuned for those: My mom gave us the tour. Here she is next to a vat of cured beef brisket That’s my dad! And the man in charge. Kegs of corned beef brisket ready to ship out. Noah needs to ditch the dock shoes in the winter. Cans of Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda ready to ship out Hygrade Deli on Michigan Avenue, right around the corner from the plant The last perfect bite After Noah got teary eyed over his sandwich, we set a course for the main event: the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Hall, where there were hundreds of journalists reporting on hundreds of cars. We heard a lot about how subdued the show was this year, but with no basis for comparison, we thought it was pretty lavish and overwhelming. And almost every major manufacturer came prepared with several hybrid models, touting fuel cell technology, plug-in adaptability or hydrogen engineering, with abundant shades of green and feel-good statements of commitment to the good of the world. We even drove a 2010 Ford Fusion on an indoor track in a basement show room. The lead on the front page of the Detroit News this morning: the battery race is on. Pretty exciting. The Ford show floor Not an optical illusion Hot Lamborghini models All-electric Tesla Roadster Noah in a fly BMW convertible Chevy Volt drivetrain Flashy Jaguar show floor Noah, the Detroit River, and Windsor Ontario We have to hit the road and get our asses back to Milwaukee before we get completely whited out in Indiana and Illinois. But we’ll have more video for you before we go to sleep and that hot photo album we promised you by mid-day tomorrow. We’ve had a wonderful time. The Motor City, as it always does, even in its backward and difficult way, completely delivered.

DETROIT: Planes, trains, lots of automobiles

We initially cancelled our trip to Detroit and the 2009 North American International Auto Show after Matt Wild announced that, due to the global financial crisis, he would not be financially solvent in time for our departure. The news came at zero hour, and for 24 hours, I was heartbroken. Then I got a call from Noah Therrien.Yes … your friend and mine … Noah Therrien: So we packed up some stuff, got a good night’s sleep and took off for the Eastern Standard Time Zone and the heart of America’s industrial heritage. After beating back a ferocious snowstorm, we made it to my parents’ house where we were greeted with five barking dogs and some really good soup. Our press credentials for the show aren’t effective until tomorrow, so we spent today catching up on the fabric of the Motor City and the motors of the past that made it famous. We spent the morning at The Henry Ford, America’s most impressive history museum, which was founded by Henry Ford himself to house the many innovations, inventions and ideas that are part of our cultural heritage. We saw steam engines, horse-drawn buggies, a 1986 Ford Taurus, antique combines, Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House, the bus in which Rosa Parks refused to move to the back seats, the limo in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the chair in which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, an original copy of the Stamp Act, a 1914 electric car and a 1907 Harley. Oh, also the Ghostbusters car, and Luke Skywalker’s light saber. Enjoy: 1927 Bluebird schoolbus Kennedy’s limo What in the Sam Hill Really old Thor motorcycle Runnerboard from the 1914 Detroit Electric car. Marketed specifically to women – Henry Ford’s wife had one – because they were smaller, quieter, not so smelly and easier to operate. Spending the day in a constant state of awe, glee and giddiness worked up an appetite, so we drove into the city proper and had gyros and coffee in Greektown. Then we took the People Mover – an eloquently titled downtown monorail – on a sightseeing tour before our appointment at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Greektown – just what it sounds like. Opa. Touristing out on the People Mover The Spirit of Detroit. I have a tattoo of this. TIGRRRRRRRR!!!!! The beautiful Detroit Institute of Arts. Shinier than usual. Our granddaddy Henry Ford presides over the Rivera Court — frescoed by Diego Rivera — at the DIA We’ll start a bangin’ web album tomorrow and share it with you. Plus I have it on good word that Mr. Therrien will be posting a video in just a few minutes time. Stay tuned for dispatches from Hitsville USA, exclusive footage of Darth Vader’s death suit and the Batmobile, our enchanted afternoon of chess sets and strolling at the art institute, a scenic view of the Ford Rouge plant and so, so, so much more. You know, like, the Auto Show. We love you, VS On Assignment PS: […]

DETROIT: The video, part one

I promised it and here it is. This kid is a wizard. More where this came from! Stay tuned to Love Letters for more videos, photos and sassy anecdotes. And here’s the first installment of our On Assignment report, posted just moments ago. We’re having a wonderful time. In spite of Matt Wild.

eyes all aglow, etc

We got this press release from our pals at WMSE 91.7 FM this morning, and it positively made our cheeks pink with love and harmony: Dear Friends and Lovers, We know this might sound unusual, but we are thrilled this morning to thank another member of the Milwaukee radio community – FM102.1. On their own, the kind folks at 102.1 decided to devote their resources to helping WMSE achieve today’s 12-hour, $12,000 pledge marathon goal . They are running on-air promos, are linking to our pledge page, and this morning at 8am, Kramp & Adler will be interviewing station manager Tom Crawford. You might be asking yourself, why? Why would one radio station make the extra effort to help another? We could explain it to everyone, but we’d rather let 102.1 do the talking. From the page 102.1 is devoting to our cause: Why are we supporting another radio station? WMSE is not “competition.” They’re a vital and important part of Milwaukee culture. Our DJs are listeners of their radio station. Our Sales Manager was a DJ at MSE for over a decade. In other words, we’re fans. We think supporting this Milwaukee institution is in our community’s best interest. Thanks for your continued support. We think this is just amazing! If you feel the same way about WMSE, please call in, or go online, and pledge your support to 91.7FM today before 6PM. If you want to feel the glow for yourself, go ahead and make a donation today. It’s been a tumultuous week — the potentially devastating failure of the auto bailout plan, the arrest of corrupt Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, rising unemployment numbers. Like most of us, I’m broke as a chicken and anxious about the future. But between this small but triumphant news from community radio, Quinn Scharber’s tambourine orchestra on Wednesday and a moving interview this morning with MacCannon Brown, I’m feeling the love and ready for the weekend, the Get Down, and whatever the next few weeks happen to hold.

Celebrate the freedom to celebrate

Today is Repeal Day! From repealday.org: “Conveniently located halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas — at a time when most Americans are probably not spending time with family — Repeal Day presents a wonderful occasion to get together with friends and pay tribute to our constitutional rights. [And] unlike St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo, Repeal Day is a day that all Americans have a part in observing, because it’s written in our Constitution. No other holiday celebrates the laws that guarantee our rights.” Wisconsin’s convivial culture has come under scrutiny in recent months; the Journal Sentinel‘s Wasted in Wisconsin series, which is more about the human toll of drunken driving than it is about the state’s “drinking culture” as the blog purports, was highlighted in a recent New York Times feature about Wisconsin’s lenient drinking laws and out-of-control (in some eyes) binge drinking. And right here in Milwaukee, people in Wauwatosa are apparently dismayed, shocked and alarmed that boutique and gallery owners have the gall to serve a glass or two of wine at their establishments, and their complaints have led to a crackdown. It’s a frightening time to be a bon vivant, but lovers of the good life can at least rejoice today that, for 75 gloriously uninterrupted years, alcohol has been constitutionally permitted. I’ll probably be celebrating with a bloody mary, which also celebrated the big 7-5 this week. The Iron Horse throws a big repeal party at their bar Branded that features a ceremonial tapping of a keg of Lakefront beer at 7 pm and shuttles to and from Great Lakes Distillery, the first distillery to open in the state since 1933. Support picked-on wine-serving local galleries tonight at The Armoury as they open Milwaukee’s Own, a show featuring local artists Harvey Opgenorth, kathryn e. martin, Colin T. Dickson and Mary DiBiasio. Or, you know, drink anywhere. Milwaukee still boasts the greatest number of bars and taverns per capita. Buy a friend, or a stranger, a shot. I’ll tip one back for my dapper grandfather, who was arrested in Detroit for running sugar to speakeasies.

2008 Nohl Fellowships announced

Bobby Ciraldo and Andrew Swant of Special Entertainment: two of the gazillions of filmmakers who had money thrown at them yesterday. Just kidding! Yesterday, UWM’s Peck School of the Arts announced grantees of the 2008 Mary L. Nohl Fellowships, and to our collective surprise here at VS HQ, fully five of the seven awards went to … filmmakers. In a town increasingly notorious for its thriving film community, it’s tempting to see this as a kind of coup d’etat. The press release follows, and I’m sure we’ll hear lots from VITAL Source bloggers and the wider Milwaukee arts commentary world about the jury’s decisions. Last year there was controversy when it was suggested that not enough women were represented in the show; will the arts community feel this year that the scales have been tipped too unfairly toward artists working in film and new media? And will the gender issue come up this year as well, as once again, only two of the nine selected artists are ladies? Excerpts from the press release, including artist bios, follow. Each established artist receives a grant of $15,000; emerging artists receive $5,000. The 2007 Nohl Awards show is currently on exhibit at Inova/Kenilworth and will be up until January 18, and I highly recommend a visit – the show is fabulous. Congratulations to all y’all! MARY L. NOHL FUND FELLOWSHIPS FOR INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS AWARDED Funded by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund and administered by the UWM Peck School of the Arts in collaboration with Visual Arts Milwaukee! (VAM!), the Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists provide unrestricted funds for artists to create new work or complete work in progress. The program is open to practicing artists residing in the four-county area (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington counties). The Mary L. Nohl Fund also supports a Suitcase Fund for exporting work by local artists beyond the four-county area. The panel of jurors included Valerie J. Mercer, the first curator of African American art and head of the General Motors Center for African American Art at The Detroit Institute of Arts; Laurel Reuter, director and chief curator of the North Dakota Museum of Art; and Eva González-Sancho, director of the Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain – Région Bourgogne (FRAC Bourgogne) in Dijon, France. The panelists were in Milwaukee October 30-November 1 reviewing work samples and artists’ statements and visiting the studios of the six finalists in the Established Artist category. Established Artists BRENT BUDSBERG & SHANA McCAW Shana McCaw and Brent Budsberg have collaborated for the past seven years constructing site-specific sculptural installations and performances. Their recent work focuses on realistic architectural miniatures utilizing narrative and mood to transform a site. Both are also founding members of the WhiteBoxPainters, a performance art group specializing in public projects. McCaw was born in Dubuque, IA and received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI in 1999. She currently teaches at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and Cardinal […]

Song Sung Blue

Milwaukee rallied for one (or a few dozen) of its own last night – almost 1000 people showed up for the local premiere of Song Sung Blue, a documentary by Greg Kohs about local legends Lightning & Thunder, a husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute duo. Milwaukee Film literally rolled out the red carpet for the crew and much of the cast, notably Claire “Thunder” Sardina, who stepped out of her limo in a fabulous scarlet sequined gown just as we arrived at the theater. VITAL was there in full force along with hundreds of community luminaries and personalities. The film, though tragic, is joyous and exultant, an eloquent, oddball testimony to the power of love and of music and performance. The entire VITAL team – a hard-scrabble handful of toughies – was choking back tears at the end of the night. Song Sung Blue – which has won major film festival awards around the country – certainly stands alone as a beautiful piece of documentary cinema, but seeing it in Milwaukee was extra-special. Walking back to the car in the rain we ran into Dancing Queen and Dancing Machine, whose maniac moves were featured briefly in the film: And of course, at the after party at Shank Hall, where we crowded around the bar talking heatedly about this week’s monumental election, we were graced by the presence of Thunder herself, who gave a rousing performance with another Neil Diamond impersonator (“We call him ‘Frightening,’” Thunder said) as well as Dave Alswager, Mark Shurilla and the Greatest Hits. And maybe the best part: I hadn’t realized it right away, but I spent most of the night sitting next to the bass vocalist of The Esquires, Milwaukee’s most famous soul band. When he was finally convinced to take the stage with the Esquires’ keyboard player, they joined the Greatest Hits for a stumbling – but perfectly triumphant – rendition of “Get On Up.” It was a good night for Milwaukee, and it made me proud to live here. More information on Song Sung Blue available here. Cheers!

Finally!

Last night I had dreams of every strange breed: that I slept through the election, that I couldn’t same-day register, bombs at the polls, that I voted on a Barack Obama/Bob Dylan ticket. I woke up every hour, jittery, and had to force myself to go back to sleep. At six in the morning, by the dusky morning light and an unseasonable breeze, I pulled myself out of bed and into some decent-looking clothes to the reassuring rumblings of NPR. A few weeks ago, I thought about voting early, but I like, sentimentally, the flush of civic excitement and public activity, the coming-alive of some sort of town square. I walked across the park through piles of fallen yellow leaves and met my friends across from the Cass Street School. I gave them apples and they handed me a big mug of just-brewed coffee, and at 6:45 am, we stood in line, which was already halfway down the block. In 30 minutes we were inside the building amidst wall murals of inexplicably frowning sad-faced fish and funny school posters (“What about cigarettes?”). We voted in the gym. The halls were still empty, but by the time we reconvened outside the buses were arriving, and crowds of yelling children were descending upon the school, skirting the line of voters that was now snaking around the block. While I was changing my address at the registration table, the election officiant helping me looked up from our papers and said, “Here comes big T.B.!” I turned in my chair to face the gymnasium doors and sure enough, there he was, with his one-man security detail: THE MAYOR! It was an enchanting, hassle-free, feel-good morning (with a nice, sunny boost from the warmest election day temperatures in more than 40 years). Four years ago it was raining and I was clutching my heart with anxiety and a trenchant sense of disappointment; today, the mood has been overwhelmingly enthused, excited and perhaps preemptively celebratory. I’ll take it. I’m glad I voted in person. I’m glad I voted. The adrenalin that surged me through this morning is thinning, but I’m still so thrilled!

Crossover Appeal

By Erin Wolf, DJ Hostettler and Amy Elliott Photos by Erin Landry No musician is an island, and in the music biz, it’s all about who you know, whether you’re a mainstream corporate unit-mover or a DIY street punk. Even the rare musician who does it all – writing, designing, photographing, recording, mixing, mastering, promoting, booking and fixing – needs to collaborate to stay fresh (and sane). And in Milwaukee, “it’s who you know” tends to take on an egalitarian, community-based context. You can have the songs, the chops and the style, but what do you do when you need band photos – and everyone needs to be in front of the camera? We caught up with four local musicians and the local artists, photographers, technicians and production teams that help them get the job done to discuss their working relationships and the friendships they’ve formed. We may not have built this city on rock and roll, but in the end, it’s all about the love. The mechanics of instrumental romance “I’ve screwed up my guitars plenty of times,” says Quinn Scharber, head of Milwaukee four-piece Quinn Scharber and The … “I can specifically recall winding my strings backwards on the tuning pegs multiple times in my younger days.” Quinn started playing on his brother’s cheap electric guitar, then got an acoustic, which he still uses, when he was sixteen. “I’m glad I started on electric, because all I really wanted to play at that time was ‘Whole Lotta Love’ by Led Zeppelin, and that song is pretty hard to rock on an acoustic guitar.” ‘Rocking’ a guitar can take its toll. Constant strummings, pickings, tunings, jolts, cable ins and outs, amp fry-age and normal bumps and bruises require maintenance and repairs. Scharber’s first experiences in instrument mechanics came up short. “I think the first time I had work done on my guitar was when I was in college and I needed the electronics replaced on it … They charged me a lot and I had to take it back in two times to get it done right,” he recalls. Scharber soon started to shop around, and found a trusty and skilled ‘guitar mechanic’ in Jeff Benske of Top Shelf Guitar Shop in Bay View. “I just stopped in there one day about five or six years ago with [bandmate] Thom Geibel when we were having a ‘let’s go check out some guitars’ day. I’ve pretty much been hanging around Jeff’s shop and pestering him with questions ever since.” Says Benske of his first impression of Scharber, “He started off buying the usual parts and then came in with some non-standard projects … some custom stuff,” he said. Quinn’s whip, a tricked-out Epiphone Casino, hasn’t changed over the years. “We’ve done the electronics in it, and it’s set up just the way he wants it.” Scharber appreciates the work that Benske has done with his Epiphone. “I take my guitars to Jeff because he’ll do it right the first time, […]

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!

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 […]

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

The Laramie Project

It’s been ten years since Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, was brutally beaten and left to die tied to a fence post out in the prairie. Matthew’s death – and the inscrutable cruelty of his killers – stirred a media storm, drew worldwide focus to a small Great Plains town and had us all asking hard human questions about hatred, justice and violence. Based on hundreds of interviews conducted in Laramie in 1998 and 1999 and the personal observations of the play’s writers, The Laramie Project is an intimate and moving attempt to make sense of the tragedy, a compelling portrait of a town rocked by a senseless crime and an interrogation into the nature of journalism. Soulstice Theatre’s production is simple but affecting and intensely heartfelt. Directors Jeffrey Berens and Mark E. Schuster navigate an ensemble of eleven actors through a thicket of Laramie personalities – from a Baptist preacher and a diner waitress to a homicide detective, a neurosurgeon, an Islamic feminist, a lesbian professor and a gay cowboy – as well as the journals and notes of the Tectonic Theatre Project members who made trip after trip to Wyoming, entangling themselves in the story. Characters are signified by wardrobe pieces and small affects – a hat here, a nail bite there, a flannel jacket or a vocal inflection. They weave in and out, interrupt each other, struggle to express themselves or express themselves with too much candor, make off-handed comments or tell tales straight until, with an easy flow, a narrative arc forms. The first act ends with the discovery of Matthew’s barely-breathing body lashed to a fence by a lonely country road; the second with his death a week later; the third with the trial of his killers and the hush that finally falls on the community after a year in an awful spotlight. Moises Kaufman’s beautiful script is hard to sell short, and Soulstice’s tight and talented cast delivers with enthusiasm, professionalism and emotional depth. Jordan Gwiazdowski is a dynamic and energetic force in the ensemble as the gregarious bartender who is the last to see Matthew Shepard alive, the detective who’s consumed and tortured by Shepard’s case and a Hispanic inmate at the prison where Shepard’s killers are sent, among other characters. Joel Marinan is natural and emotive as both Jedadiah Schultz, a University of Wyoming student whose homophobic parents won’t come to see him perform in Angels of America, and Matthew Shepard’s anguished father. He delivers Mr. Shepard’s speech at the courtroom with captivating eloquence. And Katrina Greguska as a university theater professor, a drawling Wyoming grandmother and the stern but aloof judge in the court case is magnetic. In this tiny black box theater, where the stage is draped with plain but ghostly gauze curtains, it is impossible not to feel personally engaged – even accountable. The production’s inconsistencies – awkward sightlines, at times too-sentimental music and projected images meant to set the scene that […]

The city on the hill

I’m watching the Vice Presidential debates right now, which has on the whole been a sort of frustrating snore — the kind that wakes you up at night when you can’t breathe anymore. Sarah Palin just said (in reference to her Achilles Heel, by the way, which doesn’t make any goddamn sense) that America still needs to be the “shining city on the hill,” which she attributed — only somewhat correctly — to Ronald Reagan. It was Reagan and his cronies who resurrected the phrase, which is actually old as dust: it was originally spoken by John Winthrop in his sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” — and if you go back far enough, it’s biblical. Like most matters of reference in the world today, it only took a hot minute (thanks, Wikipedia) to get it right (I thought it was de Tocqueville). And because I’m a lady of the text, this distracted me for the rest of the debate — and really pulling apart Winthrop’s sermon, delivered in 1630, I actually think it’s prescient. And chilling. Here’s the full old English text: Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of Micah, to doe Justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others conditions our own rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as his own people and will commaund a blessing upon us in all our wayes, soe that wee shall see much more of his wisdom power goodness and truth then formerly wee have been acquainted with, wee shall finde that the God of Israell is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when hee shall make us a prayse and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like that of New England: for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdraw his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouths of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for Gods […]

VITAL Source 2008 Halloween Guide!

A Theater of Lost Souls October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24-26, 29-31; November 1 500 E County Y, Oshkosh A Theater of Lost Souls has been completely redesigned in 2008 to give you one of the most frightful Halloween experiences in the area, complete with monsters, a black light theater, and “Your Last Ride” – a too-freaky-to-be-believed funeral simulator. Only for the bravest and most sound of sanity. 920-731-8555 or atheateroflostsouls.com Bear Den Haunted Woods October 3-4, 10-11, 17-18, 24-25, November 1 6831 Big Bend Rd., Waterford Arrive at the Bear Dean Haunted Woods via hearse, then see if you have the mettle to survive a hike through a “feasting graveyard of the walking dead.” The whole attraction takes place in the woods, and it’s been consistently rated one of the scariest in the region. Not to be missed! 262-895-6430 or beardenzoo.com Burial Chamber Haunted House October 3-4, 10-12, 16-19, 23-26, 29-31; November 1 500 N. Lake Street, Neenah The Burial Chamber Haunted House is actually four attractions in one, including two indoor haunted houses, one outdoor haunted house and FOUR burial simulators. Creepy. This Hollywood-style haunted complex was voted #1 by Haunted Wisconsin last year. burialchamber.com Deadly Intentions Haunted Yard October 30, 31; November 1 1621 N 26th St., Sheboygan Here’s something different: this home haunt in Sheboygan is legendary, and its intimacy is what gives it its frightful potency. Leave the kids at home for this free haunt – there’s lots of blood and gore. But how can you pass up a personal scare in someone’s yard? You shouldn’t. 920-254-4354 Dominion of Terror October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24-26, 29-31; November 1 2024 North 15th Street, Sheboygan The Dominion of Terror is over 30 years in the making. No room is ever the same and the horrifying characters you’ll encounter are brandnew. Dominion of Terror lives up to its name as one of the most mind-bending and gruesome festivals of insanity in the area. 920-918-2270 or dominionofterror.com Fall River Chamber of Horrors October 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 31; November 1 W1404 Heppe Road, Fall River The Fall River Chamber of Commerce presents the Chamber of Horrors, a snaking series of long halls, dark corners and sentinel scarecrows. Afterward catch a scary movie on the lawn or take a hayride through the corn field – a great way to unwind after a great scare. 920-484-6099 Fright Hike October 31; November 1 Lapham Peak State Park, W329 N849 Highway C, Delafield How does that story go about dark woods in the middle of the night? There are probably dozens of urban legends that begin – and end – with a hike through the wilderness, and you can live out the terror with a one-mile Fright Hike through the terrifying trails of Lapham Peak State Park. Spooky! 262-364-7773 or frighthike.com Gilly’s Haunted House October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17-19, 23-26, 30, 31 1559 W. Forest Home Ave., Milwaukee A dilapidated big tent is the setting […]

Magazine nerd alerts

I already told you about the tour we’re giving with Next American City, which is a rite of magazine nerd passage in a class of its very own. But the fun doesn’t begin and end with NAC. Far from it! Tonight at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Jed Perl, art critic at The New Republic, will speak on his new book, Antoine’s Alphabet, about painter Antoine Watteau. I’ve never heard of Antoine Watteau, but I’m sure Jed Perl will make Antoine Watteau sound compelling, mysterious and glamorous, and will prompt legions of attendees to buy the book. Writers — and their press teams — are smart. Then, next weekend at Harry W. Schwartz, Eli Horowitz, editor of McSweeney’s, gives a reading with Deb Olin Unferth, who wrote this one great story: She’s promoting her new book Vacation, which is the only book I’ve ever seen with a trailer. In non-magazine nerdity, this weekend is also the Milwaukee River Challenge, which is nice because I like hanging out on bridges over rivers, especially when it’s chilly; it always feels very cosmopolitan to me. Even though this weekend is supposed to be sunny with highs in the high 70s. What? And art nerds might do well for themselves and attend Art in Flux, which features printmaking … with steamrollers. STEAMROLLERS. I’m looking forward to a flurry of geek-fabulous activity in October, too, what with Gallery Night, Milwaukee Film’s premiere event The Milwaukee Show, Run Up to the Runway, the Milwaukee Book Festival and David Byrne, so stay tuned for updates of this nature throughout the month. Along with, you know, bloggin’.

Roll call

Next American City, a national magazine dedicated to making cities better, docked in Milwaukee this week as part of a four-day spree through our fair city and what’s ticking these days. The centerpiece of their visit? A rad, adrenaline-fueled no-holds-barred 24-hour tour of the city. All of it! The docket of guides is incredible. Alex Runner of City Hall, Jeramey Jannene of Urban Milwaukee, Juli Kaufmann of green building co Pragmatic Construction, Next American City’s own Dave Steele and … here’s the clincher … me! Along with VITAL Editor-in-chief Jon Anne Willow and my favorite person alive, Matthew John Wild. We’re the party bus, for sure. I always wanted this in Detroit, and in fact have been known to offer to take anyone and everyone I meet with the slightest interest back home to the Motor City with me for a romp through the decayed colossus of a city I love: the stately abandoned structures, the bridge to Canada, the dirty bar rooms, the dance parties, late night bike rides by the riverfront, my dad’s corned beef plant. And now I have the opportunity to show you exactly what it is about Milwaukee that has stolen my heart and kept it close for two years. It’s a dream come true. Meet Jon Anne, Matt and me at Chimney Park in the Menomonee Valley at 6:00 pm (sharp!) for an outdoor performance by Wild Space Dance Company, preceded by a lecture from the one-and-only John Gurda. Afterward the sky’s the limit. I can’t tell you what’s on the docket because that’s up to whomever shows up (read: you) — we’re diplomatic like that — but I guarantee a good old-fashioned good time. Likely destinations: Art’s Concertina Bar, Koz’s Mini Bowl, Polish Falcons, Landmark Lanes, Barnacle Buds, At Random and the Press Club’s Newsroom Pub. Our shift ends at 2 am at Wolski’s, but the fun continues straight through until 10 am on Sunday morning with a third shift factory tour at P&H Mining, frisbee by the lakefront and late-night eats. How will I know how to find you, you ask? Dial the Next American City hotline at 414-305-5242 for the 411 on our approximate location. Or you could check in on our Twitter page where we’ll be posting up-to-the-minute updates about all of our antics. Still not sure what all of this means for you? Neither am I, but you can read up on previous 24:HRS excursions in New Orleans and Philadelphia for a better sense of what goes on when you send a bunch of magazine staffers to a strange and lonesome place. Jon Anne says she thinks it will be like SubVersions: On Assignment, only hip and new-urban, not desolate and desperate. Speaking of which, have you watched the Des Moines videos yet? They are wonderful, and feature both Lunchables and Sarah Palin’s disembodied head: More updates on the 24-hour tour as they develop. Until then, stay sane, and get your party shoes polished. You’ve got a long weekend […]

Republican National Ridiculousness

I’ll admit that I’ve been bored by this election for a few months. It’s crazy, I know. But ever since Barack Obama’s presumptive nomination early in June, it’s been kind of a snooze. Barack Obama is so compelling, and John McCain is so old — and careless. He can’t remember how many houses he owns. He can’t turn on a computer. He doesn’t seem to know where he is half the time. If this were 2000, McCain would be a dynamic candidate, a loud-mouthed maverick with ideas about war, torture, special interests and energy policy (Thomas Friedman’s piece yesterday about McCain’s energy policy is right on the money) that would make the sleepy Democrats stand at attention. He used to be a contender. Now he’s just a contender who needs a nap. This whole thing was one big “duh.” And it was boring me. But then! The McCain campaign announced, with a gigantic bang, a running mate: a 44-year-old virtual unknown … FEMALE … from Alaska. A hot female. With like a million kids. Including one with Downs Syndrome. We all said it together when the news broke in our hotel room in Des Moines: “Oh, SHIT!” It was like that moment from Trapped in the Closetwhen Twan and Sylvester find out that the police officer’s wife Bridget is three months pregnant … by a midget (Oh, SHIT!) But it was also such a thrill. What was McCain thinking? Who is this lady? Let’s watch the news for a few hours. Oh shit … she’s under investigation? Oh shit … pregnant teenage daughter? Oh shit … censorship controversy? It’s so bad. And so good. And so I found myself watching the Republican National Convention last night, writhing through Rudy Giuliani’s awful, awkwardly constructed, stumbled-through speech (“Imagine you’re voting for president …”), reminded every few minutes that this bankrupt party is anti-brains, anti-substance, anti-action, condescending, hateful and ignorant. Seriously, is making fun of Barack’s years as an activist the best you could do? Do you really think he’s been sitting around for the past 20 years eating Funyuns? Her derisive comment about her “actual responsibilities” as Mayor of Wasilla as opposed to Barack’s apparently “imaginary” responsibilities at the Developing Communities Project and on the board of Public Allies were downright off-color. When he started at Harvard Law in 1988, Sarah Palin was still a local TV sports reporter. The strangest part? They were cracking themselves up. Barack! What a crazy guy! Rudy actually could not handle it after he uttered the phrase “community organizer”. He started laughing! Don’t get me wrong. I still think this is a “duh” election, and I think whatever the Republicans can pull out of their crooked sleeves between now and November 4 will be too little, too late, especially if they keep making these glittery but poorly thought-through snap decisions. Those hundreds of RNC attendees in cowboy hats shouting “DRILL BABY DRILL” would be heeeelarious if they weren’t so scary. But then again, maybe they’d be […]

Ready for the new

By Amy Elliott, Introduction by Jon Anne Willow It’s often the case that when performing arts budgets are tight, new work by emerging artists finds its way to more stages more readily. It can be less expensive to license and easier to obtain, and it’s uncommon for a company to collaborate directly with the author, choreographer or composer. The results can be heady stuff, born of constrained circumstances but giving birth to artistic expression of great imagination. But, there is another reason an abundance of new work might be seen in one community in one season: the patrons are ready for it. It’s a promising mark of Milwaukee area audiences’ evolving tastes that so many well-established companies are eager to offer more never-before-seen programs. What follows is just a sampling – listed alphabetically by company – of the premieres awaiting adventurous lovers of theater, dance, music and art. Danceworks Have a Seat November 7 – 9, 2008 This eclectic evening of dance features choreography by Guest Artistic Director Janet Lilly, including “The Weight of Skin,” based on a poem by Milwaukee Poet Laureate Susan Firer. The show includes work by Isabelle Kralj choreographed for members of the Slovenia National Ballet, as well as a solo premier by New Delhi-based performer Navtej Johar. The Bra Project January 23 – February 1, 2009 Danceworks’ Resident Choreographer Kelly Anderson presents an irreverent evening of dance dedicated to the history, design, social influence and pop-culture significance of that bust-loving bane and blessing, the bra. A Guy Thing March 6 – 8, 2009 Ah, the male dancer: a rare bird indeed, and this performance celebrates them in all of their perplexing, complicated and handsome glory. See guest dancers from the Milwaukee Ballet, collaborations and partnerships between dancers, solo and group works. Choreographed by Ed Burgess and friends – all of them men. First Stage Children’s Theatre Gossamer September 19 – October 5 This landmark collaboration between Lois Lowry, First Stage Children’s Theatre and Portland’s Oregon Children’s Theatre is Lowry’s first attempt to adapt one of her novels for the stage – though audiences may remember Eric Coble’s 2006 adaptation of The Giver. The show premieres in Milwaukee this monthThe imaginative story follows a young dream-giver who helps a troubled child and a lonely woman overcome nightmares. Jeff Frank directs. The MacDowell Club For more information on the decorated past of one of Milwaukee’s most historic arts organizations, check out our feature on page 11 – after you avail yourself of this impressive season calendar. We’re especially excited for the April 19 performance of a song cycle by Paula Foley Tillen based on poems by Wisconsin’s first poet laureate, Ellen Kart. Farruca for Cello and Guitar By Peter Baine November 9 – Cardinal Stritch University Poem for Cello and Strings By Minh Tam Trinh December 14 – Cardinal Stritch University Song Cycle for Tenor and Piano By Paul Fowler January 25 – Cardinal Stritch University The Road to Emmaus for Voices and Organ By Hildegarde Fischer […]

Danke Schoen

We’re back now, and our footage from the rest of the trip is in post-production. Check Matt’s blog regularly over the next few days for video coverage of the Renaissance Faire, dogs in sunglasses, dirty jokes at the hotel bar, confessional interviews, archery, driving around at night listening to “Golddigger,” revelry at the Royal Mile, ferrets and a kid on a leash. Among many, many other worthy documentary moments. You never know with that kid. He is a loose cannon. So what, you ask, did we discover on our epic tri-state crossing into the corn-fed heart of Midwestern America? Was it a renewed sense of belonging to the region’s majestic history of stewardship, loyalty and tradition? A flaring-up of love and admiration for a charming river-valley city and the solid people who live there? Beauty and truth? A headache and a sore throat? A deep-seated inner tedium after realizing that we’d been telling the same five inside jokes for 72 hours straight? A little of everything, it turns out. Last night, after a downright decadent afternoon of napping, laying around and slugging back whiskey and cokes in bed, we dragged our sorry selves out the door and drove north to El Rodeo for cheap, hearty Mexican food and a pitcher of margaritas – dinner of hung over champions. Afterward we gussied up and sauntered through the bustling bar district on Court Street to the High Life Lounge, where the shag carpeting, glaring fluorescent lights, the bros and the classic rock – not to mention the Champagne of Beers itself – almost did us in completely. But Jon Anne came to the rescue and swept us away to GT’s on Ingersoll Avenue, where, she promised, we would find an appealing blend of hipsters and greasy old bikers. Willow did not lie. Within minutes we felt right at home in our flouncy dresses and heels, dancing to James Brown on the jukebox and drinking snake bites. We saw bikers with biker tattoos and hipsters with hipster tattoos (like the young woman who flaunted a gorgeous/weird vegetable garden between her shoulder blades) as well as comfortingly familiar ironic t-shirts (my favorite: “The Periodic Table of Des Moines”). And because Des Moines is smoke free (which I thought was wonderful, except that my friends kept abandoning me at various bars to go outside and smoke), we had lots of opportunities to hang around on the sidewalk outside and get to know each other through the transcendence of lighters and bummed cigarettes. Around bar time, a pack of cyclists rolled up to GT’s for a night cap. After delivering my usual redundant/drunken monologue about why Milwaukee is sooooo great, I asked one of them how he liked living and cycling in Des Moines. Did he think it was bike-friendly? His answer seemed to be “yes and no.” Greater Des Moines has hundreds of miles of paved trails, plenty of bike racks and, like Milwaukee, it’s a compact and sensibly planned city that’s easy to navigate. […]

Behind the curtain

This month, to an even greater extent than usual, you can leaf through the pages of VITAL and find calendar listings, phone numbers, websites and profiles of the people that power the ships, as well as evidence, photographic and otherwise, of creative output. With a little imagination you can envision a setting: a proscenium stage, a row of footlights, dusty makeup rooms and wardrobes stuffed with spangled costumes. You might think about musical instruments or ballet shoes, or you might imagine the barely-controlled chaos of ticket offices and sales departments. But what else happens inside a performance company? And how wide of an audience do arts groups reach? What is their relevance or value to the wider world? The truth is, with public schools more strapped for cash than ever and cultural resources dwindling, arts organizations are sometimes a community’s most powerful force for education, outreach and enrichment resources. Members and affiliates of the United Performing Arts Fund alone touch over a million people every year, including more than 400,000 area children, according to UPAF Vice President of Community Relations and Marketing Linda Edelstein. Here, four major Milwaukee arts institutions share their most compelling initiatives for the coming season and the value they’ve brought to the city. Training and growth It’s a big year for the Milwaukee Ballet, whose acclaimed Ballet School is rated among the very best in the nation. In late August the School opened its largest branch at the Sendik’s Towne Centre in Brookfield, and this fall, the ink should be dry on the accreditation forms sent in to the National Association of Schools for Dance. If accredited, the Milwaukee Ballet School – established in 1975 – will be the only dance institution in the region that has met the NASD’s standards. But the Ballet’s outreach programming extends beyond sprung dance floors, lofty studios and kids in tutus. Their education programs alone reach over 20,000 kids a year through in-school performances, workshops and collaborations with other arts organizations. Merging training, performance, enrichment and the continuity that a successful arts education program requires, Relevé, an inner city youth dance program, provides ballet training to over 175 students at four MPS elementary schools: Allen-Field, Dover, Maple Tree and Vieau. Children start small with once-a-week, in-school ballet classes in 3rd grade and advance through 4th and 5th grade with training at the Milwaukee Ballet studios in the Peck Center. All of their dancewear is provided for free, and their study is enriched with free tickets to shows at the Ballet, in-school performances, meeting with company dancers and end-of-the-year recitals. “Relevé allows us to work with girls – and boys – who wouldn’t otherwise see these same kinds of opportunities,” says Alyson Vivar, Director of Education at the Ballet. “They really learn so much more than ballet – they learn discipline and self-confidence, and they have fun.” Training young people doesn’t have to stop with school kids. Art depends on fresh faces and the collision of new ideas with established practices […]

The Cancun of the Midwest

I love it here. It’s really hot and sunny. We spent most of the day yesterday drinking at The Locust Tap in the shadow (sort of) of the grand State Capitol and at the lovely bar in our wildly luxurious downtown hotel, the Renaissance Savery. (This hotel is amazing. We have a really hard time getting out of our beds. I am blogging in bed right now. It’s 4:00 pm.) While Bridget and Matt drank bloodies at the Speakeasy, Kat, Jon Anne and I headed out to Valley Junction – a charming trading post of vintage shops, boutiques and little galleries – where I bought a Wayne Newton record. I’m taking it everywhere in mostly dashed, but dogged, hopes that we’ll run into him. Last night, after an unsuccessful attempt to crash Wayne Newton’s party at the Marriott, we strolled down to Fourth Street for a rager at The Royal Mile where we set up shop for the rest of the night drinking rum and cokes and doing shots. It’s like that toothless old lady we met at the Locust Tap said to us after she asked for a light: Party like a rockstar. Matt got smacked in the face and someone bought Bridget an Italian beef sandwich. Today we woke up obscenely early to go to the Downtown Farmer’s Market, where we danced in the street while a funk band played “Flashlight” for what felt like hours and hours. We bought honey, wax beans and El Salvadorian pupusas. Now we’ve just returned from the Renaissance Faire, which was, in the organizer’s own words, “no Bristol.” We put Matt Wild in the stocks and I turned out to be a champion archer. A really nice guy gave me a free kebab. We’ve been overdressed. Our reception here has been grand. For a town that hosts the Iowa Caucuses, just threw a homecoming bash for Shawn Johnson and 7000 of her admirers and is currently playing host to both Shakira and a multi-million dollar Arabian horse described as “an undeniable gift from God,” “a paradox in the most elemental sense” and “the most influential stallion of modern times,” people sure are excited to have us here. (By the way, Bronze Fonz detractors: Des Moines is home to a similarly contentious figure that may or may not look anything like its subject.) We’ve been meeting lots of people in finance. Des Moines is the insurance capital of America. Did you know that? We’ve also made friends with a fair number of osteopaths and chiropractors. Des Moines is the capital of that, too. Who knew, Des Moines? Seriously … WHO KNEW? With so many successful doctors and financial representatives, I might call Des Moines America’s most marriageable city. I might also call the kinkiest place in the Midwest. For no good reason. More on that later. Des Moines! I just love it. It’s just like Cancun, but friendlier, and with cornfields. Kids turning cartwheels at the grocery store, dance parties in the deli […]

Come on, ride the train

Peter: Iowa is … ummm Well, remember the song “Ride the Train” by the Quad City DJs? “Come on ride the train, & ride it … ” Amy: Yes. Of course. Peter: It’s nothing like that. So far, I can confirm that genius summary. But Iowa is also, so far, great. We had an amazing dinner at the Embassy Club with some beautiful ladies from the CVB and a gorgeous panoramic view of the city at sunset. Afterward we went to El Bait Shop, which we’ve been talking about for days, and met some strapping gentlemen from greater Chicago. And I drank some Rogue Chipotle, which I’ve never had the pleasure to sample outside of Detroit. Tomorrow: sleeping in, the Capitol, swimming, Valley Junction, bloody marys, Sherman Hill, wandering, the High Life Lounge, Gray’s Lake, playing it by ear, Thai food. And riding the train. Hopefully we are all going to meet nice Iowans and get some attention. Already we are receiving lots of incredulous stares. Matt will post video tomorrow, too. I promise. We like it here.

Iowa in T-minus 24 hours

Friends, it’s almost Labor Day. Summer is setting, and with it, the horizon of possibility for reckless adventure, late-night wanderings, wine by the bonfire and naps on the beach recedes. I don’t know about you – but I’m scared. It hasn’t been the best summer for me. I would go so far as to call it “crummy.” But it’s still summer. For every personal catastrophe, awkward social situation and case of the stomach flu there’s been grilled corn on the cob, rowboat-ing and long afternoons at the pool. I think I have the best tan of my life. And as much as I want the litany of disaster and disheartening failure to stop, I don’t want summer to end. Luckily, we still have Des Moines. Yes, Des Moines. Remember Branson? Sure you do: We had the time of our lives in Branson, forceful suppression of irony aside. And now we’ve been invited to Des Moines. Branson might be God Country’s family-friendly answer to Las Vegas, but based on the research we’ve done so far, Des Moines might surprisingly hold its own to the Sin City. We’re not even joking. Originally we were going for a boxing tournament, which has since been rescheduled. And even Wayne Newton – Mr. Las Vegas himself – is going to be there this weekend, judging the Iowa Gold Star Futurity. We’ll be dining at the historic Embassy Club at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Iowa, hitting up the piano bar and hopping all around the East Village, where our fancy downtown hotel is located. We’ll see you at El Bait Shop, a Mexican-BBQ-70s-fishing themed bar and grill featuring more than 170 beers on tap, and maybe Des Moines’ oldest bar, The Locust Tap, which sounds kind of like the Landmark, or maybe Polish Falcons. From what we can gather, the city’s LGBT community is HQ’d in the East Village, too, which is great news, because gay men love Matt Wild. We’re really excited to see the State Capitol and the history museum and shop at the Des Moines Downtown Farmer’s Market, one of the biggest and best in the country – they actually shut down the downtown city streets on Saturday morning. And even though we like to play fast and loose on these trips, I am secretly holding out for a few moments of peace and quiet, maybe in Brown’s Woods, the state’s largest urban forest preserve, or on the beach at Saylorville Lake, or amid the crab apple trees at the Arie den Boer Arboretum. Also we’re stopping by the Field of Dreams on our way home. Really, all of this sounds just picture-perfect, a far cry from the Midwestern kitsch-trip we had kind of expected when planning our On Assignment series. I really can’t wait. I need a vacation. Good thing we’re leaving tomorrow morning. Des Moines ahoy! Stay tuned for frequent blogging and video updates, and tell all your friends!

Kids in the fridge

When my dad saw the cover of our August issue, he railed at me for a half-hour about our lack of editorial responsibility. Apparently, I am too young to remember a time when empty refrigerators in basements and junk lots enticed curious children into their deadly depths. My parents are subscribers, so they received the magazine right when it was hitting the stands. Since then, we’ve had dozens of calls, emails and hand-scrawled letters from furious readers who are terrified that young ones city-wide will see this issue, get ideas in their heads and go romping right to their death in the Fridgidaire. When this gem arrived at our office, I knew I had to do some serious research, and by research, I mean a Google search of “kids in refrigerators”: Here’s what my research turned up. The reason I’m too young to remember kids dying in refrigerators? Because kids don’t die in refrigerators anymore. Abandoned iceboxes used to be a threat because of the mechanical latch on models manufactured before 1958. The widest rash of refrigerator deaths happened between 1956 and 1964, with accidents mostly tapering off after around 1984. From thestraightdope.com: “The problem hasn’t entirely disappeared — two kids in Guyana died in an old fridge in 2003.” But unless copies of VITAL are somehow migrating to the Third World, which is probably the only place you’ll be able to find refrigerators old enough to trap innocent children, I doubt we’ve put any children any closer to an untimely end. The crusade is over. So don’t fret your head. And stop calling me.

Bringing sexy back

The Journal Sentinel reported today that Marie Claire magazine has named Milwaukee its sexiest city. Back story: we’re all a little bleary in the office this morning, recovering from Random Exposure, our annual photo contest party at the sexy (and one-of-a-kind) Eisner American Museum of Advertising and Design in the Third Ward, executive-directed by the extremely sexy and awe-inspiring Cori Coffman. Diamonds, one-half of the sexy and super-hot-right-now DJ duo The Glamour, provided the dance party and the aroma of horseradish-braised short ribs, marsala-soaked mushrooms and handmade port-infused chocolate and croquemboche from The Social and Times Square Pizzeria and Bistro wafted through the room. The turn out was incredible, everyone looked sexy and the photography – the party’s raison d’etre – was amazing. After the show, I rode my sexy bicycle down to the beautiful Pabst Theater, where a huge crowd of attractive young people had amassed for the sold-out Bon Iver concert. Justin Vernon, the pensive, haunting falsetto from Eau Claire, is a certified world-wide phenom, and I have never seen a show at the Pabst as packed to the gills as this one; Vernon himself kept telling us how amazing he felt to be playing at home, in Wisconsin, for a crowd so massively loving. During the incredible, captivating performance, I thought about Unmasked and Anonymous, the new Koss Gallery show at the Milwaukee Art Museum of portraiture by, primarily, Wisconsin photographers John Shimon and Julie Lindemann. Ryan and I went to the press preview on Wednesday, where we had the chance to preview the stunningly installed exhibition and hear Julie and John talk about their work. We met them at lunch afterward, where Julie told us about their decision to come back to Wisconsin after grad school in southern Illinois and a stint in New York City; they were fascinated, she said, by rural life, Wisconsin Death Trip, Orson Welles. Unmasked and Anonymous features portraiture from dozens of other photographers, including some important figures from Wisconsin art history like Walter Sheffer, Francis Ford and Stanley Ryan Jones. It was such a revelation to see robust and vivid evidence of Wisconsin’s art life in a way that’s not regionally ghettoized or superficially trendy. Julie and John are based in Manitowoc, an almost archetypically un-sexy city. But they love it. “We’re basically hicks,” she said. If it’s true, they’re the most glamorous hicks I’ve ever met: impeccable, mod, retro and devastatingly sexy. Holy shit, I thought to myself leaving the Museum. Wisconsin is so great. So you get my drift here: yeah, Milwaukee is sexy, and it’s about time somebody had the gall to say so. Unfortunately, the Journal Sentinel, after deciding to put this ultimately irrelevant fluff piece on the front page, poised the article in quizzical terms: what? Sexy? Aren’t we all just drunk, dairy-chubby cheese lovers? Once again, faced with an opportunity to live up to our burgeoning reputation as a sexy, cool, young, fun city, we stumble over our dogged insistence that we’re all a […]

DJ Rock Dee

Photo by Erin Landry We just received the heartbreaking news that DJ Rock Dee — 88.9 Radio Milwaukee on-air host, all-around DJ-about-town, consummate family man and hugely loving force in the community — died on Friday. He was 40 years old. Rock Dee was one of the first true personalities I met when I moved to Milwaukee. We worked together at Guitar Center in Brookfield, where I was the door girl, the first and last line of shrink defense. It was a job I’d done in Detroit for two years at one of the biggest Guitar Centers in the region, a hub for the city’s estimable population of hip-hop producers and performers. In Milwaukee, the store was small and patronized mostly by sweaty teenage shredders. I didn’t know anyone, and Brookfield was a haul. It was lonely, disillusioning and nowhere near as fun with a college degree and rent to pay as it was when I was an amorous 20-year-old. But from the get-go, Rock Dee, a diminutive bundle of dynamite, was explosively welcoming, greeting me every shift with a huge smile, a booming greeting and often a big hug. He called me “the pretty pitbull,” going out of his way to tell our coworkers that it was impossible to get anything past me. As a coworker he was helpful, patient, and warm; he was always moving, talking, selling, shouting, connecting with people, just brimming over with energy and positivity and soul. There was a wisdom and a confidence in everything he did, and his love of life, his zeal for it, was evident in every gesture, every holler, every reassuring grin. He was truly, more than anyone I have ever encountered, larger than life. It was a great joy over a year later to hear his voice in the morning on Radio Milwaukee, full of that same positivity and kinetic energy, more exciting than a giant cup of coffee. In VITAL’s October 2007 Music Issue, we ran a profile of Rock Dee in an article called “Know Your DJ.” When we asked him about his worst night as a DJ ever, he said, “God bless – none yet.” It sums up, I think, the grace and the gratefulness and the positive energy he lived by. It’s always painful to let people go, especially before their time, but it is a comfort to know that he lived large, he lived well and he brought so much joy and happiness to the lives of his family and friends and the countless listeners who listened to his radio show and saw him perform. He will be hugely missed. VS A benefit for Rock Dee’s family will be held at the Wherehouse, 818 S. Water St., on Sunday, August 17, from 1 pm to close. De La Buena, The Rusty P’s, Cache, Fever Marlene and dozens of DJs will perform. More information available at the 88.9 Radio Milwaukee Soundboard. This Wednesday, August 6, a memorial for Rock Dee will be held at Bradford […]

Sink or swim

There is so much I want to share with you, friends: about grief, about loss, about friends leaving town and friends returning to town, about the regal history of great Midwestern blue-collar families, about Poles and Italians, about the late-night ferry from Muskegon and the Milwaukee International Film Festival and Lakefront IPA and the Trusty Knife and the beach and Fitzgibbons and many, many other things. However, I am swamped, having just returned from an unexpected week at home (which I bet you couldn’t guess from that wistful first paragraph) and dealing with a wide expanse of life complications, including a stolen laptop, a death in the family and some sort of mysterious sprain in my foot. So all I have time to share with you now, at the beginning of this frightful and final full month of summer, is a video, a link and some stray thoughts. Remember Friendster? I’ve been thinking a lot about that long-abandoned social networking site, the one that got us all comfortable with the idea of a website that didn’t actually DO anything besides tell everyone else who you were and what kinds of things you liked to do. It was like an AOL profile on steroids, and with pictures, and without any useful functions such as chat or browsing or shopping or downloading MIDI files of popular songs (did anyone else do this during the early days of AOL?). I actually met people through Friendster that are still my friends today. I think of Friendster as we strategize new ways to bring VITAL to Milwaukee and to the world wide web. There is a life to every medium – every microfiche machine, slide projector, super 8 film and 3D Viewfinder, as well as every newspaper, radio station, TV channel and, yes, website. And the healthiness, vigor and length of those lives depends so much on any medium’s ability to get with the program, change with the times, man up or get out – sink or swim. Sometimes you do everything right and you sink anyway, and sometimes you don’t have to do anything to just float on by (what else explains the madcap success of shitty, shitty MySpace?) But we’re trying our damndest, practicing our butterfly stroke. We started a Tumblr page that we update at least 5 times as often as we post to these clunky, oh-so-2004 text-mostly blogs. Check out videos, images, links and soundbytes many times daily, and if you’re a Tumblr user already, why don’t you follow us? We’ve got a Twitter page, too, if that’s what you’re into, and a group on last.fm so we’ll know at all times what you like to listen to. So it might not all be the next big thing, or at all interesting, maybe not even relevant. But we’ve gotta fight to make it in a way that would make even His Girl Friday hide under the desk. It’s gonna be a rough road, but we’re going to make it work, Tim […]

Heartbeat City

Photos by Erin Landry “If you were standing in this spot 150 years ago, you might have been run over by a train.” On a cul-de-sac on the Hank Aaron State Trail – fish leaping in the Menomonee River below, the breeze carrying the scent of summer wildflowers – this interpretive sign is hard to swallow. Before its industrialization, the Menomonee Valley was a natural wild rice marsh, an almost inconceivable place to build industry. “It’s like building on oatmeal,” says Corey Zetts, Project Director for the Menomonee Valley Partners. The land was so swampy that the first rail tracks Byron Kilbourn laid sunk into the marsh overnight. But engineering and ingenuity persevered, and Kilbourn’s Milwaukee & Waukesha Railroad spent years filling the valley with earth and timber to firm up the ground. By the Civil War, the Milwaukee Road had turned the city into an agricultural and industrial powerhouse. In 1895, the Falk Corporation was established in the Valley after Herman Falk’s failing family brewery, built in the Valley in 1856, burned down. Together, Falk, the Milwaukee Road and the dozens of other breweries, stockyards, mills, packing plants and factories in the Menomonee Valley would become Milwaukee’s heart center for almost a hundred years, supplying thousands of jobs to a growing metropolis and bringing citizens from all sides of the city together in labor. But by the time sprawl and technology began to suck the wind out of the Valley’s sails after WWII, what was once a thriving channel of wilderness and wildlife was left polluted, smelly and blighted. There are stories in the Valley that exist beyond the industry triumphant/industry defeated dialectic. Natural history, of course, goes so far back as to render human history irrelevant. In Miller Park’s lot is a wall of 400 million-year-old rock – a Silurian reef, actually, dating from before the time the city was above water. And a huge part of the Valley’s story is a narrative largely omitted from our national history: the site of Miller Park was a gathering place for native tribes, who would meet during the rice harvest. At the top of that hill, the limbs of a tree are bent to point the way to the marsh. The word “Menomonee” means wild rice; when Potawatomi Bingo Casino, in 1991, chose the Menomonee Valley as the site of their development, they were choosing to return to the ancestral homeland. “The history is incredible,” says Melissa Cook, manager of the Hank Aaron State Trail, which cuts through the Valley like a vein. Her mother’s family lived on 39th and Michigan in Merrill Park; her relatives worked for Falk and the Milwaukee Road. The neighborhoods surrounding the Valley were built by investors in the railroad shops; today, they are some of the most diverse and densely populated districts in the state. The Menomonee Valley – “borrowed” from its native residents and the natural order – provided the backbone for Milwaukee’s livelihood. Now, after more than 20 years of vision, planning […]

Empathy for the disenfranchised

Smart people in diverse urban areas have always been at least aware, if not suspicious, of night club dress codes. Often in place to detract gangs, keep out the riff-raff and attract a classier clientele, the codes at their tamest ban slumpy clothes — no jeans, no sneakers, no baseball caps — and, at their most extreme, bar most common trappings of hip-hop fashion, including jerseys and athletic wear, do-rags, baggy pants (highly subjective?), Timberlands, certain brand names, “club” colors, and hairstyles including, egregiously, dreadlocks. A reasonable dress code is probably no cause for alarm, especially when enforced reasonably — and uniformly. (I can personally vouch for at least one bouncer at Tangerine, who refused entry to the glaringly white Matt Wild, who was wearing a black t-shirt, black dress and — the offensive accessory — a pair of black Converse All-Stars.) But I’d guess that for every club that institutes a fair and balanced dress code, there’s at least one more whose policies, in practice, serve to turn away scary, trouble-making black, Hispanic or otherwise minority clients and attract clean-cut, rich and respectable white men who aren’t interested in patronizing “urban” clubs. Student groups around the country, including in Madison, have organized to call attention to the dress code issue, and legislators in cities as disparate as Des Moines and Virginia Beach have taken action. And this week in Milwaukee, Decibel is rightfully being taken to the mat on the enforcement of their dress code after John Jordan, a 40-year-old black Milwaukeean, presented video evidence that he’d been unfairly turned away from the club, allegedly for wearing boots and baggy pant. It seems, however, that the gig is up: as if the video footage were not enough, Jordan SWITCHED CLOTHES with his white friend — who was admitted. The state has issued Jordan a right-to-sue letter and there is an appeal in to the Common Council to deny Decibel a license renewal when it comes up at the end of the year. Decibel, in the eternal words of Freddie Foxxx — you’re busted. Today I posted Judith Ann Moriarty’s of Gilbert and George at the Milwaukee Art Museum. While I was editing I reviewed my own notes from the press preview and remembered what the curators and artists had stressed as the fundamental take-away points of the work: empathy, and celebration, of the disenfranchised. And while it’s definitely a politcally charged, in-your-face exhibition, I think it’s great success is that its relevance isn’t hemmed in by issues of the day and time. Preposterously, I had kind of pre-conceived G&G as “that AIDS show.” Oh, was I wrong. It’s not even that G&G used to be that AIDS show, but now it’s the London Pakistani Diaspora show, or the Terrorism by Association show or the GLBTQ show or the turd-and-cock show. At the heart of the show is the simple matter that disenfranchisement, discrimination, racism, sexism, bloodshed and class warfare are part of the human condition, and always have been. […]

Fire in the Disco

Photos by Brian Jacobson + Eric Walton “Everyone calls me a magician. I don’t mind it so much, but – at least get it right.” If you’ve lived through a summer in Milwaukee and you’re not a total shut-in, you’ve probably seen Marcus Monroe – he’s hard to miss on his eight-foot unicycle, juggling knives taped to torches (the “knorch,” Marcus’ own invention) with a firecracker strapped to a helmet on his head. The extreme juggler and performance artist has been a fixture on the local festival circuit since he was a teenager. In 2004, Marcus moved to New York City to start his career as an entertainer and it’s been nothing but rock star success ever since – taking the stage at all hours of the night at NYC “playgrounds for billionaires,” opening for Cake and Talib Kweli, traveling the world with a knock-off Louis Vutton bag of juggling clubs and living with two other jugglers in a “fun house” apartment in the big city. But he’s more than just a certified phenom with a pretty face: the magnetic Marcus Monroe, a 23-year-old Milwaukee native, wants you to experience juggling like you have never experienced it before. He wants to make it fresh. He wants to make it hot. He wants to change it – forever. As a kid, Marcus “was kind of the goofy juggler,” he says. “But I wanted to appeal to a mass market. I wanted to start a new style of juggling … not the traditional sequined vest, crazy, ridiculous suits, colorful ties. I realized that there are no rules. I’m my own boss. I started dressing the way I would want to see a juggler dress. I wore what Justin Timberlake was wearing. I watched pop concerts to see what Usher was wearing and asked, how can this work on me? “I looked good. And the juggling was good.” JUGGLE FEVER When he was nine, Marcus saw one of his schoolmates juggle in a talent show – “just three balls, very poorly when I think about it,” he says. “But it was so inspiring to think about, someone that young … just a kid … juggling.” He spent that whole summer with his father learning the skill. “It took me so long, but my dad and I were so into it. I surrounded myself with everything juggling. I went to juggling clubs at UWM, started going to conventions, buying books on juggling, performing, videos – I didn’t care about school. I wanted to focus on juggling and performing.” His first performance – in overalls and a polka dot shirt, juggling to “Closer to Free” by the BoDeans on a boom box – was in fifth grade at the school talent show. Less than a year later, he was juggling at block parties, birthday parties, fairs and festivals. In high school he got a gig at Park Bar opening for bands, juggling fire, knives and glow-in-the-dark hoops. It attracted him a gathering of fans from […]

Kareem Abdul Jablog

Whenever I think my life is way too hectic (… and fun!) to even consider keeping a robust and regularly updated blog, it pays to stumble across the blogs of giants. And by giants I mean people who have far less free time, and many more important things to do, than me. While I flirt my way around town, catching record spins at the Y-Not 3 and biking to Bradford Beach to play bocce ball, there are legendary people in very high places with estimable responsibilities turning the heavy cogs of society, attending many dignified functions, allocating finances, raising families, building important structures either tangible or conceptual, WHO STILL FIND TIME TO BLOG. Today I got a press release from the good people at the American Library Association, who want me to know that their spokesperson for September’s 2008 National Library Card Sign-Up Month is none other than … KAREEM ABDUL JABBAR! I love him. And now I’ve discovered his blog, a very thoughtful and thorough compendium of Kareem’s thoughts about basketball (mostly), the Harlem Renaissance, jazz music, Dubai, the death penalty, boycotting the Olympics, and books and records he likes. Reading it, I feel like we’re friends. I feel like he’s my smart, charming, intellectually curious and NBA all-time lead scoring uncle, and I just want to hang out with him and talk about how we feel about the world. So take it from Kareem. Go get a library card, so you can learn things, think about things, and then write blogs about them. Then go play some bocce ball.

Summer days, summer nights with De La Buena

By Amy Elliott and Amber Herzog De La Buena is: David Wake, Cecilio Negron Jr., Andy Noble, Julio Pabon, Aaron Gardner, Eric Jacobson, Mike Pauers, Jesse Sheehan, Holly Haebig, Elladia Regina James Wake (De La Baby). Not pictured: Jeremy Kuzniar, Jamie Breiwick. Ready for festival season? We sure are, especially because it inevitably means the return of De La Buena, one of Milwaukee’s most distinctive party bands. We sat down with band leader David Wake waaaaay back in February after they played a smashing set at the City of Milwaukee Birthday Party. We thought you might like to hear more about them now, though, since it’s sunny, hot, and everyone’s ready to salsa. Viva De La Buena! And read on … Ed. Describe the sound of De La Buena. In simple terms, De La Buena is a sophisticated dance band. First and foremost, we’re a Latin Jazz band, but we are no doubt influenced by the traditions of Salsa and Samba infused by the great bands of the 1960s and ’70s coming out of New York, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Cuba. We have a big sound that includes a four-to-five-piece horn section, Hammond organ, bass, and three percussionists (one of which is a kit drummer). The instrumentation we employ stretches beyond tradition and allows us the freedom to step into other realms of musical and artistic expression. Obviously, De La Buena is a large band full of musicians from eclectic backgrounds. Where do they come from, how did they come to De La Buena, and what do they bring the project? The band shares a very strong family bond and we’re family people who take their art and their craft seriously. Most of us inherited a deeply rooted love of Latin music from our families, and have the ability to stay true to that history and those traditions without becoming predictable. We love to have fun and make music, but we also want to put out music that has integrity and taste. What’s the appeal of the music you play – for you and for your fans? We bring something for both body and mind. People come to the shows to listen, and people come to the shows to dance. Folks really seem to love a big band with a big sound and they know that when they come to a De La Buena show, it will be a culturally diverse scene, especially in a town so infamous for its segregation. For the band, our appeal lies somewhere between tradition and innovation. We learn about and share the history of Latin music, but always leave room for innovation and new ideas. How has the band grown and changed over the past five years? We started as a trio. Adding a drummer, a tenor saxophonist, and a trumpet was another, more improvisational phase of the band—a period of discovery. Our songs consisted of much less organized ideas and grooves that we would use as launch pads for improvisational explorations. Our album, […]

Entertained and entertaining

Sequined blazers abound in Branson, Missouri, where yesterday we finally had the chance to see some of the live entertainment that has made the city famous. In the afternoon we caught a performance by Yakov “In Soviet Union, car drives you” Smirnoff. You remember him, of course; he’s the guy who came to America with no money, speaking no English, and went on to live the American dream and achieve great success in movies like The Money Pit and Moscow on the Hudson. He was probably funnier before he got his Master’s in Psychology (he presented a prolonged segment involving magnets and diagrams of the human brain to describe the problems that men and women have communicating with each other and making each other laugh). He could probably also do without some of the musical numbers, though it was a delight to watch Yakov strip off his shiny costume in “Red to Reneck,” revealing tight blue jeans, a flannel shirt and an orange hunting hat that made him look exactly like all of the kids who hang out at the Cactus Club. After the show I called my very handsome, successful friend and future Senator Ted, who grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to tell him that I had finally found myself in the Ozarks. “Oh yeah?” he asked. “Does that Asian violin-playing guy still have a show there? He’s been there forever.” Ted, of course, was talking about Shoji Tabuchi. And after a Friday fish-fry at Waxy O’Shea’s, that is exactly who we were going to see. Shoji plays at the gorgeously retro Shoji Tabuchi theater (there’s a billiard table in the men’s restroom!) where we were graciously greeted and seated although we had arrived almost 30 minutes late. Shoji, of course, came to America with no money, speaking no English, with the stars of country fiddle songs in his eyes. And of course, he went on to achieve great success playing showbiz standards, golden oldies and the Orange Blossom Special for buses of elderly tourists. He was, to my great surprise, very entertaining; it was like the Japanese Lawrence Welk Show, complete with a bandstand, hammy dance numbers, gratuitous flying dancers and mop-topped Shoji telling hokey ill-timed jokes. We felt like the most special people in Branson when he dedicated the Beer Barrel Polka to “people from Wisconsin.” That’s us! It was a spangled, streamer-popping, obscenely loud pyrotechnics (the man seated next to me actually exclaimed, “Gee whiz!”), shiny-sequined-blazer overload. Luckily, we found the most not-kistchy bar in America afterward, quiet and pretty Rocky’s, which was a respite from all of the noise and light shows that we’ve lived through in Branson. The bartender was still in hair and make-up from her ’60s revue that afternoon; Gordy and Debbie (read more about them on Matt’s blog) sang karaoke. We drank and told bad jokes and talked about what Yakov Smirnoff does in his free time (he just started working with a personal trainer, has a dog named Happy and […]

The mayor and the cowboy

Branson was absurdly hot and sunny today, and it is absurd that we are still awake; I think we’re pushing 36 hours at this point. Even more absurdly, I haven’t had any coffee since breakfast: We spent the early afternoon browsing historic downtown Branson, which is lined with flea markets, antique rummage stores, “bazaars,” diners and a few out of place boutiques, including a five-and-dime that claims to be “just like the old times,” shown here in this ridiculous portrait: After a beer at Waxy O’Shea’s (which sounds like a hiccup from a computerized generic-Irish-bar-name generator) we cruised the 76, Branson’s strip of country gospel barns, mini golf courses and kitschy museums, on our way to Celebration City, a picturesque amusement park replete with fountains, bumper cars, an arcade and doo-wop music. Where, among other very important and interesting things, we rode a killer wooden coaster, saw a performance by some Ultimate Dogs (who were adorable, but mostly just good at catching frisbees), and MET THE MAYOR OF BRANSON, the lovely Raeanne Presley. Lovely, who are we kidding? She is a total babe, and very charming, and has a gorgeous accent, and is well dressed. Okay, I’ll admit it: it’s love. Mayor Presley, by the way, is the wife of one of the members of the Presleys’ Country Jubilee, Branson’s original live show and the family dynasty that has made Branson into the live country music capital of the world. Suspicious, disingenuous or just plain confusing? Maybe it would be … anywhere but here. As we were driving home, the blaring sun finally sinking and the ice cream parlors all shutting down for the night, I saw what looked like a real (and really stunning) Missourah cowboy cross the street in muddy jeans, a white shirt and the sassy cowboy hats I keep seeing for sale on the street (which, by the way, look terrific on me): We shared a glance and my heart fluttered. Branson, I might be wrong, but against my more pedestrian expectations, you might be out for my heart.

No day but today

We just woke up after about 12 hours of much-needed sleep. Today holds the following promises: Yakov Smirnoff: Shoji Tabuchi: A visit to Rocky’s, where Branson’s “young up-and-comers” go for fun on Friday nights, and finding a liquor store so we can take part in some good, honest, down-to-business vice: You’ll be hearing from us (we might even go out and find ourselves a firewire cable so we can share the 60 minutes plus of uproarious video we’ve been shooting, mostly in the middle of the night when we are delirious). If I had my way we’d go to the lake today and sit quietly and come to terms with things, but Matt wants today to be funnier than yesterday. Also, it’s supposed to storm.

Say cheese

We thought about turning around in Rockford, mostly because neither of us could really grasp the concept of driving to Branson, Missouri in the middle of the night for no good reason, but we prevailed. I drank liters of coffee and Matt consumed an entire four-pack of Red Bull. (He also picked up some really inadvisable “energy spray” at a gas station in southern Illinois.) St. Louis came and went in a heartbeat. The sunrise chased us through the low, rolling hills of lower Missouri. And here we are in muggy, disarming Branson, where breakfast is fast and cheap, the views are idyllic, and Yakov Smirnoff has his own theater. We’ve been up for almost 24 hours straight, but hey! Our hotel has an amazing view of Lake Taneycomo and we were greeted with a plate of cheese, fruit and crackers and a bottle of San Pellegino. Branson is onto something. Decked out in our magazine-insider finest (huge glasses, dark clothing), we’re about to grab a drink, naturally. Pictures, videos and hilarious exploits are to come (we have to find someplace in this sleepy outpost to find USB cables), so keep checking the site as we stumble around wondering what exactly it is we think we’re doing here.

VITAL’s 2008 Farmer’s Market Guide

By Amy Elliott & Lindsey Huster The big city grind is tough in the summer. It’s hot, smoggy and crowded. Whole city blocks are periodically shut down for sticky parties and loud, smelly rock shows. Most of us keep our day jobs for the season and then act like we don’t have anywhere to be in the morning. It wears a person out. For a break – an idyll in the heart of the city, or a day-trip to sleepier regions – consider a trip to your friendly neighborhood farmer’s market (or some other neighborhood’s friendly farmer’s market). Replenish yourself with a stroll through the flowers, fresh herbs and handcrafts; some markets even feature cooking demonstrations, live music and – thank God – coffee. Stock up on fresh, locally-grown fruits and vegetables, conscionable meats and cage-free eggs, and the best cheeses, preserves and honey you’ll ever taste. Not only will you and yours be healthy, well-nourished and ready to take on the summer – you’ll enjoy connecting to your community, relaxing in the sun and refreshing your soul. Brown Deer Farmers Market 43rd St. and Bradley Road 9 am – 6 pm, Wednesdays through October. Annuals and perennials, produce and herbs. 414-354-6923. Brookfield Farmers Market City Hall, 2000 N Calhoun Rd 7:30 a.m. – noon, Saturdays through October. Annuals, perennials, fruits and vegetables, Piedmontese beef, cut flowers, maple syrup, chickens, eggs, bison meat, baked goods, dried floral, garden art and much more. Weekly entertainment and demonstrations. Monthly Market and More event featuring handcrafted items. 262-784-7804 or brookfieldfarmersmarket.com. Burlington Farmers Market Wehmoff Square, Burlington. 3 pm – 7 pm, Thursdays, June 5 – November 20. 262-210-6360 Cudahy Farmers Market 4723 S. Packard Ave., Cudahy 10 am – 4 pm, Fridays through October 31. Locally grown and produced baked goods, fresh produce, honey, flowers, plants, crafts and more. 414-769-7799 Delafield Farmers Market Fish Hatchery parking lot, 514 W. Main St. 7 am – 1 pm, Saturdays through October. This producer-only market features locally grown vegetables, fruits, herbs, honey, cider, fresh and dried flowers, annual bedding and perennial plants, ironworks, homespun woolen yarns and handcrafted items by local artisans. 262-968-4471. East Side Open Market Beans and Barley Parking lot, 1901 E. North Ave. Thursdays 3 pm – 7 pm, June 12 – October 9. Produce, agricultural products, flowers, herbs, farmers, amazing artists and weekly live entertainment. 414-226-2113 or theeastside.org East Town Farmers Market Cathedral Square Park, 520 E. Wells St. 7:30 am – 12:30 pm, Saturdays through October. Fresh produce, jellies, jams, cheeses specialty foods, arts and crafts. 414-271-1416 or easttown.com. Fondy Farmers Market 2200 W. Fond du Lac Ave. 7 am – 3 pm Saturdays; 8 am -2 pm Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays; 12 pm – 6 pm Wednesdays. June 14- November 22. Regular cooking demos, prepared food, and fresh locally grown produce. 414-933-8121 or fondymarket.org Fox Point Farmers Market Stormonth School, 7300 N. Lombardy Rd. 8 am – noon, Saturdays, June 21-October 18.Wisconsin-grown fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, native plants, flowers, honey, bakery, […]

The wayward season

I spent the long weekend in Michigan in what felt like a state of convalescence, although I have nothing to heal from besides a drumming anxiety that had welled up for no good reason and a persistent homesickness that had been creeping on me for weeks. And the drinking. Yes, there’s that. Really, we all know it; I’ve been on a bender since February. Often my trips home involve non-stop action: long days with little kids and dogs, big family dinners, mad late-night drives to downtown Detroit, whiskey on the river gazing toward Canada, biking through the ghetto, dance parties in apartments, etc. This time, despite an international electronic music festival, several significant local rock showcases and a best friend in town from Baltimore, I did very little besides sit in the sun and play fetch with the dogs. The most adventurous endeavor I made was into a poison-ivy and mosquito-infested woods to retrieve my dog’s tennis ball and help my nephew climb out of a tree. The wildest time I had was in my best friend’s backyard with two bottles of wine, the dregs of some whiskey, tall candles and a computer full of music. We stayed up until dawn, catching up with each other and making sense of things. I didn’t go into the city at all. It was the closest I’ve come since graduating from high school to reliving the way I grew up: in the suburbs, antsy but anchored there, taken with the banal beauty of long lawns and long conversations, man-made ponds and dark, fresh skies. On Memorial Day, I thought about how lucky it is that I haven’t lost anyone to a war. In South Carolina this week, my cousin was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force. He’s a careerist, trained at the Academy; he’s flown cargo planes all over the world, served in secret conflicts in Africa and Central Asia, trained Iraqi soldiers to fly fighter jets. He spent two years studying in Cairo and speaks fluent Arabic. He’s older than I am, but we’re a lot alike: similarly smart, loving and warm, passionate about ideas, interested in the way the world works and concerned with getting it right. But we’ve pursued drastically different paths in life, and we’ll come to drastically different understandings of the world we inhabit. I tend to think of him as a kind of 21st century Indiana Jones, dusty, ballsy, full of tricks and tales of narrow escapes, resigned to his very exciting fate. I know it’s a fiction, but I stack my life up to it and feel boring at best, an underachiever at worst. Then again, I know there are people who are stacking their lives up to the fictions that follow me around, too; the industrious days of the magazine editor, the glamorous nights of the big-city social ambassador. Those tall tales make me feel small, too, when the primary source of my life’s excitement of late has been driving too fast […]

Milwaukee International

It’s a little late to be posting any coverage of last weekend’s Milwaukee International, and I don’t have much to say for myself – besides that I’ve been thinking about it, sorting out the hour or so of art I saw and the subsequent hour or two of beer I drank at Polish Falcons. There’s a lot to say about Milwaukee International, and it deserves more careful coverage than it’s received. Timelier coverage, too, but that’s another matter. The show (which you can read more about here and here if you need background) was fast and low. It was crowded and god-awful hot as the gallery lights beat down on the exhibition hall, normally reserved for weekly dartball league, which is a game I had no idea existed until Andrew Swant told me about it. The choice of venue may have been in celebration of Milwaukee blue-collar/polka/bowling culture, but make no mistake, it was also completely tongue-in-cheek. This is an art movement — and more widely a cultural movement — that celebrates the unexpected, the kitschy, the almost-condescendingly but incongruously sincere appreciation of low-fi, low-brow, low-cost, low-maintenance. Yes, friends: Milwaukee International is an expo of the best hipster art from around the world. I felt like I was walking through an issue of The Believer, live outtakes from Me and You and Everyone We Know and a Riverwest rummage sale – all at once. Photos by Faythe Levine Mano Izquierda from San Juan presented large, colorful portraits of Magic Johnson, Cookie Monster and other artifacts of the recent past, leaving out sticky notes and writing utensils for viewers to participate in the installation. There were a lot of adorable, poorly-drawn sketches of everything from plastic forks and knives (in what was actually a compelling selection of works on “obsessive consumption” by Kate Bingaman-Burt at the Paperboat Gallery booth) to men and women in their underwear and folks looking mopey to legions of scary, miserable, wobbly-faced troops (presented by Hiromi Yoshii from Tokyo, whose sat miserably by, surrounded by flickering, despondent TV sets piled on cardboard boxes; a groaning post-apocalyptic work that reminded me of a less fluid and exuberant Kristopher Pollard, whom I saw in attendance a few minutes later). The Green Gallery presented a clock made out of tostadas (for $2,000, it can be yours). Perhaps the ultimate in garage sale style was the riotous installation of “Milwaukee Artists 1946-1956″, representing derivative mid-modern works from Milwaukee’s “Layton School” period. The editorial edge classifies such works as “the zenith” of our city’s artistic achievement. Photographs from gallery openings in the era were scattered across the bar; a graph on a nearby wall tracked Milwaukee’s art in a thick red line, with the ‘80s and ‘90s were labeled merely “Drugs” and an arrow crashing below the graph’s threshold where “Milwaukee International” appears. It’s an obvious stab of cheeky sarcasm and a statement about what makes art what it is, who gets to decide and how we all assume that we’re living […]

Permission to party

Chicago dodged a bullet this week when it tabled the now-notorious “promoter’s ordinance,” which would have made it necessary for independent music promoters in the city to obtain a license to the tune of $500 – $2000 and at least $300,000 in liability insurance. The legislation, targeted at venues with less than 500 “fixed seats”, outraged Chicago’s music community, and with good reason: in any city, including Milwaukee, this ordinance would be certain and sudden death for a local music scene trying to stay on its feet. Clubs and bars that host live music are already licensed by the city, subject to building and occupancy codes and required to have liability insurance. The potential consequences of the promoter’s ordinance are obvious: fewer shows, higher cover charges, harder times for upstanding business owners, criminalized concerts. The law is so broadly worded that even bands who book their own shows could be considered “illegal promoters.” It’s bad news. It’s narrow-sighted, fuddy-duddy lawmaking. I cringe to imagine a city in which the only “legal” concerts are at muscular venues who can afford to host nationally touring acts. I guess I’m young and naive, but god dammit, I want lawmakers to get their faces out of my good times. I want the paternalism to stop. I want the suburbanization of the places and parties I hold dear to stop, stop, stop. In Milwaukee, a great deal of great things are happening in groundswells of brilliant ideas, passionate people and sweaty, back-breaking, frustrating work. Even the stodgiest members of our local media have become fashionably aware that much of Milwaukee’s cultural life takes place in back rooms, basements, secret clubs, fly-by-night theaters, abandoned submarines at the bottom of the lake, etc. It’s chic, edgy and dangerous now, but THIS IS HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE. In the grand sweep of human history, we haven’t been applying for permits to make music, show art or throw parties for very long. And I don’t think that’s a mark of our progress. The Echo Base Collective is officially defunct after a few brief but shining months in a Fifth Ward warehouse. After a cop raid and a warning to stop throwing “illegal raves,” they stopped having amazing local rock shows. Now, after weeks of runaround from the police and a handful of post-dated citations including failure to acquire an occupancy permit, their building was condemned and the Base members evicted. Now three people are homeless and more than 200 bicycles, many of them donated to the Collective by the Boys and Girls Club to be fixed up and distributed to kids for free, are going to languish as gas prices skyrocket and our transit system goes broke. Did Echo Base do everything right? No. But everyone involved was trying to better the community, and no one was getting hurt. I went to a residential college with an extremely liberal alcohol philosophy. It was smart thinking – by allowing us to hang out and drink whenever and wherever we […]

“Ball don’t lie.” – Rasheed Wallace

I don’t know how or why it happens, but every year it’s like the flip of a switch: someone or something reminds me that basketball exists. And that I love it. And that the Pistons fucking rule. This year I was standing in the dark cavern of the Echo Base warehouse, beholding my spring bike strewn about the shop in pieces (soon to be resurrected as less of a death trap), when my phone rang. It was Fernando, a friend from Ann Arbor, one member of a small pod of Michiganeers-cum-Milwaukeeans I associate with here. “You watching the Pistons game tonight?” “What game?” I asked, completely unprepared for the flush of basketball fever that was about to bring me to my knees. “I thought you were a Pistons fan? It’s a pretty important game in the series.” An hour later, I was sitting at the bar in the dark cavern of Major Goolsbys, sharing a pitcher of Spotted Cow, stupid with the thrill of an imminent victory over the Sixers – a total about-face from my everyday life and identity. Damn. Days later, my best friend from home called from Baltimore, where he works as a homesick public radio producer. Our lives run on crossed threads, even at great distances – we’ve only ever been at great distances, in fact, since we graduated from high school six years ago. “I don’t know what to do tonight,” he said. “I feel like drinking a little too much and being drunk a little too early.” “That’s all I’ve been doing,” I said, “all week. Because of the playoffs.” “The playoffs?” he said. “Is there a game tonight?” It’s some sort of tic in the expatriate Detroiter subconscious. When you miss the city you come from – not just because you don’t live there, but because you know it’s never going to be the city you wish it could be, because every time you go back it’s a little stranger, a little more fantastical – you let yourself believe in anything that makes you feel a part of it again. If it’s the NBA – so be it. When the playoffs are over – or when the Pistons are out of the series – I’ll stop going to the bar straight from work and I won’t drink so much Spotted Cow. I probably won’t return to Major Goolsby’s, maybe not even next year – who knows where my Michigan crew will roll then, or if any of them will even live here anymore. I’ll think about 2005, when I was lonely, tired and frustrated in Turkey’s southeastern desert, when I got a text message about the Spurs’ victory over the Pistons and broke down crying in the middle of the market. I’ll think about 2006, when we lost to the Heat and impenetrable, infuriating Shaquille O’Neal, and I mourned quietly in my parents’ chilly basement in the suburbs, watching him say, in an interview with a bimbo sportscasterette, that he was looking forward […]

Happy Trails

It’s official: you have no good excuse to stay home this summer. Okay, we take that back. If you want to stay home this summer, you’re welcome to. But there’s a ton to do around here, so we want to make sure you have plenty of ideas for ways to enjoy yourself. Look, we hear you. Times are tight. Fuel costs are insane, which means prices for everything else are insane, too. Consumer confidence is at an epic low, and everywhere we turn, another flawed system we’ve trusted for too long seems poised to collapse: the housing market, health care, energy, the American dollar. We’re still at war. We’re facing down a mighty sense of global unease. And, increasingly, we’re called to task on the bad shape our planet is in, thanks to a hundred odd-years of industrialization, exponential growth and the unchecked exploitation of our natural resources. It’s too soon to determine the consequences of humanity’s reckless abandon, but they could be dire – even disastrous. We know that if we don’t curb the depletion soon, we’ll be helpless when things start to get really nasty. It’s enough to make you hunker down in your cellar with some canned goods and a few good books and say, “See you at Christmas.” But here’s the good news: Wisconsin is amazing. We mean it: rich natural beauty, a diverse cultural landscape, a wide swath of arts offerings. It sounds tired, but it’s true. And thankfully, traveling lightly in Wisconsin – whether you want to kayak, see Shakespeare outdoors, hear a bluegrass band or just eat some chocolate – is easy. It’s good for your wallet and for the world at large. In fact, there has never been a better time to gain perspective, to reconnect with yourself, your family and the land we all share, to learn, to be an active, fearless member of society. We are so anxious for you to have a good summer that we’ve spent some time and thought putting together this idea book of low-stress, low-cost, low-impact summer leisure options. It’s a starting point, so browse and brainstorm. Grab some Post-Its or take some notes. Tread lightly this summer, but please, whatever you do, never forget that fun is a top priority. FOR THE ACTION/ADVENTURER You might think of the rugged north woods or the towering bluffs of the driftless zone when you think of adventure travel in the Badger State, but you don’t have to go that far. Get in gear with Bike to Work Week, brought to you by the Bike Federation of Wisconsin, May 11 – May 16. It’s not just a healthier and more conscious way to conduct a daily commute; there are events planned throughout the city for every day of the week, including a Mother’s Day ride along the lakefront, a morning cruise downtown with the Mayor, daily coffee breaks at the Alterra Foundry, mid-week bar trivia, and a grand finale meet-up at Jackalope Lounj and bike-in to the movies […]

Walking on air

This is the best time of year. The best. Someone I used to know called it “that summer feeling.” It’s not summer yet, not by a longshot — there aren’t even leaves on the trees — but you can FEEL it coming. You can smell meat grilling and grass getting heavy, see hot sun on bare shoulders. You can let yourself wear shoes without socks or leave your sweater in the car. It’s enough to make you delirious. Every little beautiful thing becomes monumental. Walking to the Public Market for lunch. Buying flowers. The trains passing, the bells on the drawbridges ringing as the bridges raise for cargo boats. Driving with the window down and turning up the radio a little louder. The wind sucks a yellow curtain through an open window and it blows out there all day like a greeting to the passengers on the Amtrak. The barista you love surprises you by knowing your name! Isn’t that something! The egg salad sandwich you order for lunch (from What’s Fresh, perhaps) is delicious! God almighty! The moon is out and it illuminates the hem of the clouds! It’s a miracle! Walking north in Riverwest a few days ago, I hallucinated the lake on the horizon. It was early morning, the sun was fresh and every blue thing in eyeshot (in this case, a far-off warehouse) took on a grandeur that could only be explained as lake-ness. Perhaps I’m disoriented, I thought. Maybe I’m headed east. Perhaps the lake has always been in this direction. Of course, feeling like a gleeful tourist in my own life really calls into question the stability of any relationship I have with my emotional world. If all it takes to turn around the bone-dry melancholy of the late winter is a warm breeze, a little luck and a lot of sunshine, how did I understand anything that happened between January and March in a genuine way? Is it possible that this sense I have of majesty, affirmation and the fundamental rightness of the universe, despite all reports that would lead me to believe otherwise, is just a whim? A function — nay, side-effect — of some fairly routine meteorological phenomena? Probably. But I don’t care. Tonight my inside man at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (to protect his professional integrity, I won’t say who, though you can probably guess) wrangled me a fabulous seat for Music Director Designate Edo De Waart‘s debut engagement, conducting Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Due to some serious dawdling on my part, I missed my hand-off and was provided with further instructions to look for my ticket in the grating under the first tree to the left of the stage door. Surreptitiously I snapped up the goods (the triumphant absurdity! picking up a ticket to THE SYMPHONY off of THE GROUND, like some lucky accident!) and hustled into the Marcus Center, feeling windswept, sweaty and a little conspicuous in beat-up black boots and big fur-hooded vest in a cocktail-hour, nice-cologne […]

Out like a lion

Where have I been? I’m so glad you asked. Painting the town red I’ve been to the Old German Beer Hall (once on my birthday, for shots on skis and that hammer/stump game; again, days later, after the Scarring Party show at Turner Hall with Brent Gohde and Matt Wild, where I ran into a bunch of guys I sort of knew in college) and I’ve seen bar time at the County Clare, BBC, Roots, the Riverhorse and Walter’s. On St. Patrick’s Day I drank gin and tonics with some financiers at the Hi-Hat and lost my wallet not once but twice – first at the Landmark, then at the Nomad (I got it back the first time, but lightning never strikes the same place. Milwaukee bartenders and bouncers, beware; that pretty girl with the dubious Michigan driver’s license is SO not for real.) I’ve sidled up at Foundation with Captain Rick and Eddie Kilowatt and I’ve hunkered down at The Social , Coppola zinfandel precariously in hand, to get the inside story on Milwaukee film culture (and other less serious subjects) from scenesters like Andrew Swant and Bobby Ciraldo of Special Entertainment and Milwaukee’s own Mark Metcalf, who told me how he drove from Ann Arbor to Detroit in 1967 to see the riots — while he was on mescaline. Seeing shows I’ve been spending a lot of time at the Echo Base Collective down in the factory district, which on the basis of my three visits I’ve inferred is ALWAYS a good time, regardless of whether it is packed with hundreds of people watching an Israeli punk band light themselves on fire or attended by two dozen high school kids watching their friends jump up and down on a beat-up crash cymbal. Dave Casillo (the brains AND the brawn behind the organization) brings in shit-crazy local and underground bands (think Geocash, We’rewolves, Cougar Den) and some folksy, understated operations (like the soft-psychedelia of Minneapolis’ Daughters of the Sun). He also fixes up bikes for kids. This was the first place I thought to seek shelter during that terrible Friday snowstorm when my car was buried in high, desperate drifts, and I was comforted with beers, a puppy, terrific music and a couch on which to crash. There’s also been the typical noise issuing forth from the Bermuda Triangle of the Pabst/Riverside/Turner – the aforementioned Scarring Party CD release show at Turner Hall, the champagne-brunch-appropriate Pink Martini at the Pabst two days later, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks (that was the show where PR maven Cecilia Hrobsky crab-walked across the floor of the Cudahy Pub to score a tote bag) – and just last night, Swedish pop crooner Jens Lekman with his honey-voiced tales of love, woe, excitement and incredible beauty. Hiding away I house-sat in Wauwatosa and stayed in all weekend playing waltzes on my accordion, drinking tea and cuddling with an elderly schnauzer, leaving only for a well-documented trip to Rooter’s with Matt Wild, Chinese take-out on […]

Meet my dad

Maybe it was my visit to the cellar bar at Roots this week (where I’m told the chef is perfecting his own recipes for corned beef, rye bread and sauerkraut), or maybe it was my dad’s sheepish confession to me last weekend that he loves to Google his own name, but I was reminded recently that my dad – a corned beef producer and wholesaler whose secret recipes have made him famous among foodies nation-wide – has a video on YouTube. Meet my dad. And learn something about how corned beef is made, in the meantime. Think of it as an early St. Patrick’s Day offering. Those squeamish about raw beef brisket might not want to press play. My brother Sean and his wife Janel are having a baby girl, probably some time in the next week, so I’ve been talking to my family a lot more than usual as I call in daily for updates on Janel’s health, well-being and cervical dilation (she’s been at two centimeters for more than two weeks now). When I asked my dad if he was excited about grandchild number EIGHT, he said he would be, if Sean and Janel lived a little closer. This is funny, because they live less than an hour’s drive from my dad’s house. When I asked dad how he was going to feel when I had kids of my own, he said it didn’t matter because he’d be dead by then –which pretty much sums up my dad’s attitude about life. It’s a joyous sort of grumpiness that he abides by most of the time, and I love it about him, except when his grumpiness pisses me off. Finally, I’d like to contribute something to Matt’s weekend music report. While he was crying into his ice-cream over a Sonic the Hedgehog medley, I was at a tiki bar (Foundation) dancing like a maniac to the unbridled soul commotion of Iowa City’s Diplomats of Solid Sound. Then I saw The Chain open for Jail. Then I went home and slept like a baby. But wait! Sunday night continued to bring the noise! VITAL sponsored The Black Lips at Turner Hall, who brought along with them the fabulous Mr. Quintron. Mr. Quintron plays several interesting instruments he built himself, including a Hammon organ/Fender Rhodes synthesizer combo. His lovely wife Miss Pussycat shrieks along with him, plays the maracas and puts on puppet shows. After her production, a little cautionary tale about a hexing art gallery owner who turns one of her patrons into a marble statue, in which Santa Claus saves the day with an AK-47, The Black Lips – known in some circles for their really raucous antics – barely registered as more than four smart chords and some spitting. Jeff and I retired to a cabaret table near the back, which means we almost missed it when our friend Jared got up on the stage, spun around like an airplane, and then jumped right back off again, into […]

Mr. Tomatoface

Oh, yeah. Every Tuesday. Come ON! What was I THINKING?! I can’t play this game. It’s Thursday night. Tomorrow is Friday. Fail, fail, fail. Jesus, what happened to this week? I had every expectation that this was going to be one of those breezy, pretty weeks, that I’d just sleep a lot and stroll into the office whenever I felt like it and spend a lot of time at my desk poking at various flabby spots on the internet and then go home early and drink juice and take a nap. It did NOT happen like that. This week opened up like a big ol’ jaw and swallowed me whole. On Tuesday (remember Tuesday, when I was supposed to be blogging? Preferably whilst drinking juice?) I stopped in at the 88.9 RadioMilwaukee anniversary fête at Palms Bistro. I met the fine gentlemen of Great Lakes Distillery — at the wizened age of 1, now Wisconsin’s oldest distillery, our first since prohibition — and sampled their very nice gin, which is made with sweet basil and Wisconsin ginseng, two botanicals that have never been found in gin — before now. It was delicious — sweet and spicy — and I am not just saying that in hopes that they will write in and say, “oh hey Amy, we love your blog and we know you’re a lush; here’s a bottle of gin for you.” But some friends & former coworkers (including my esteemed colleague Mr. John Eding) thought it might be nice to catch up over some more banal libations, so we skipped over to Landmark Lanes, everyone’s favorite palace of trash, for $2 beer night. (Yes, friends who are not from Milwaukee and do not understand, you are correct in interpreting that special to mean $2 for a pint of any beer at all.) Before I knew it, it was bedtime. On Wednesday, when I should have been blogging my apologies for missing my self-imposed Tuesday blog parade (Matt Wild, am I driving you crazy!?), I was at the ever-grand Turner Hall Ballroom, PBR Tall Boy in hand, working the sponsorship table for the Sia show, wondering why no one was dancing to opening phenom Har Mar Superstar, who you just have to see to believe. I didn’t really know what to expect from the night at all. Sia seemed nice enough, a cute Australian with a pretty voice and credentials — former singer for Zero 7, spots on the soundtracks for Garden State and Six Feet Under — that had me looking forward to sort of ambient, possibly production-heavy, likely sort of humdrum pop finery. All I knew about Har Mar was that he is frequently booed offstage, and that it was possible he would show up in a cape and a g-string. But he was great, exactly the kind of kitsch that I fall for — a genuinely incredible, Prince-esque R&B voice, a tight back-up band (with a bass player in a Storm Trooper costume), lots of dancing […]

I’m so glad this isn’t a daily

Or even a weekly, for that matter, given my bad habit of updating my blog — a BLOG! which is meant to be STEALTHY and TERSE and FULL OF EMBEDDED IMAGES AND VIDEOS! – approximately once every two weeks. (I’d like to get better at that, really! Maybe I should aim for once a week? Every Tuesday? What do you think? Will you help me?) I have felt absolutely paralyzed by the steady shake of startling news pouring over the wires in recent weeks. Just today, Fidel Castro resigned power in Cuba, Pervez Musharraf’s party was defeated in Pakistan (signaling certain political death for Gen. Musharraf in due time, I’m sure), Barack Obama took his ninth straight victory over Hillary Clinton in this magnificent state of Wisconsin, and NATO troops closed the northern borders of Kosovo after Serbs rioted. Kosovo, which of course declared its independence from Serbia on Sunday. Serbia, which of course withdrew its ambassador to the United States … yesterday. I’m so stunned. Less than a week ago — it was Valentine’s Day, after a visit to the swoon-inducing Art Museum (I would like to personally recommend, if I may, Erwin Redl’s stirring Matrix XV as an especially nice place to take someone you might be interested in kissing later) — I found myself with a friend and a stranger at beautiful Cubanitas on Milwaukee Street, drinking mojitos and eating plantain chips and dreaming about what Cuba must be like now and what it will be like when we’re all allowed to go there, speculating that perhaps 2008 would be Castro’s year to hit it and quit, planning, in that sincere-and-fevered way that only tipsy people can plan, a real trip to storied Havana. Then all three of us – me and the friend and the stranger – went dancing at a club across the street. It was only a week before that, a dirty Thursday, that my friends DJs Hulot & Naota and their frequent musical companions DA & The Madpack, who so rarely play shows outside attics (especially now that Naota lives, works & plays in Chicago) got all of their friends together at the delightfully yucky Mad Planet and everyone did shots of bad whiskey and danced to everyone’s good, stomp-y, bouncy, glitch-y music. And it was just Saturday, fresh and not at all chilly, that I accepted a new friend’s invitation to Chicago to see one of the five historic Wilco shows happening this week at the Riviera Theatre, in which the lauded band will be performing every song every recorded for all of their studio albums. I learned upon our return to Milwaukee that when I was swaying, dancing with my friend, mouthing the words to “Dash 7” (from their 1995 debut album A.M.), I was dancing and swaying and mouthing along to the only live Wilco performance of Dash 7 ever. It was just Saturday that I refreshed my love of rock music, and music in general, and did not find […]

Body Worlds, Gunther Von Hagens & life itself

Since seeing the show at the Milwaukee Public Museum when it opened two weeks ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about Body Worlds, and I’ve been thinking a lot about Gunther Von Hagens, the German scientist and provocateur behind the international museum sensation. His name (and his image) is plastered all over the exhibition, and his vision is not just overt – it’s his signature. Von Hagens, with his trademark black fedora, sees himself as a maverick anatomist, a Renaissance man and an artist – a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci whose detractors are merely ignorant or unwilling to see the bigger picture. To the great writ of history, Vesalius is not a grave robber or an exhibitionist, a picture so many people are eager to paint of Von Hagens. Von Hagens, I assume, does not think history will treat him with such ill will, either, and in time, they will come to understand what we view now as grotesque eccentricities – his enduring fascination with public autopsy and dissection, for example. The bio on the Body Worlds website says it all: Gunther von Hagens’ life reads like an archetypal scientist’s resume — distinguished by early precocity, scholarship, discovery, experimentation, and invention. It is also the profile of a man shaped by extraordinary events, and marked by defiance and daring. Von Hagens’ two year imprisonment by East German authorities for political reasons, his release after a $20,000 payment by the West German government, his pioneering invention that halts decomposition of the body after death and preserves it for didactic eternity, his collaboration with donors including his best friend, who willed and entrusted their bodies to him for dissection and public display, and his role as a teacher carrying on the tradition of Renaissance anatomists, make his a remarkable life in science. Body Worlds, amid all of its shock and bravura and bragging feats of technique, carried one-word message for me, a word the Von Hagens publicity machine has used to describe the mastermind himself: defiance. Body Worlds is full of real displays of things that kill us – aneurysms and hemorrhages, cancerous growths, lungs clogged with tar – but above all it attempts to suggest that with science (and in particular with plastination) we have found a way to make the decay of the mortal body avoidable and therefore impotent; moreover, we have managed to make it possible for bodies in death to do what they could not do in life. It is likely – even probable – that the bodies posed as ballet dancers, gymnasts, horsemen, basketball players, skateboarders or practitioners of Tai Chi never did such things when they were alive. There’s a defiance, too, of the way we practice science today – with our heads, and not with our hearts – that Von Hagens is trying to challenge. By displaying the body in all of its grace, it is written in a Body Worlds text panel, it becomes evident to the viewer that something is missing – the […]

New directors, new directions

The day I found out that the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra would be announcing the music director to replace Andreas Delfs after the 2008-2009 season, I went to bed wondering when the Milwaukee Art Museum would get their ducks in a row and pick someone to replace Director and CEO David Gordon, who will be leaving in March. I didn’t have to wonder long — I got an email the next day from the MAM press team announcing that a “successful museum director,” Daniel T. Keegan, would be taking the job. After months of what I imagine to have been sweaty deliberation, secret rehearsals, googling for dirt, maybe even confessional audition tapes, two of the city’s brawniest art organizations rang in the new on the same day. Their choices make sure statements about how they see themselves and where they hope to head in the next few years. The Symphony’s choice, Edo de Waart, is absolutely magnetic. At 23 he served as Leonard Bernstein’s assistant conductor at the New York Philharmonic; over the course of a storied, cosmopolitan career, de Waart has conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Holland, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and most recently the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Edo de Waart also brings an extensive catalog of recordings with a number of orchestras on major music labels. In person he is full of European charisma — funny but focused, comfortable and sincere. He just moved to Middleton with his wife and family, but everyone, including Edo, went to lengths yesterday to stress that this is not a late-career move made out of ease or laziness. De Waart called the MSO “a great sleeper orchestra,” unfettered by the weighty reputations that sometime “exceed reality.” In the past he has spoken with impressive conviction about what a wonderful symphony orchestra can do for a smaller city, or a city in transition (take a look at this interview about his work with the orchestra in Hong Kong). His experience in opera conducting — including but not limited to the Met in New York and L’Opera National in Paris — as well as a track record of taking chances on contemporary composers and lesser-known repertoire should prove revitalizing to the MSO. And I think Milwaukee is going to love him. Daniel T. Keegan, a different choice for a different beast, comes to the Milwaukee Art Museum from the San Jose Museum of Art, rather persistently described in the press so far as a “Silicon Valley museum.” The phrase gives a lot away about what MAM was looking for in its new leader; San Jose’s most notable distinction, besides its expansive collection of West Coast and Pacific Rim art, is its use of technology and multimedia in exhibitions and galleries. Their podcasts are award-winning, and you can dial their audio guides from your cell phone. The Milwaukee Art Museum has been reaching for a savvier demographic — a multi-tasking, wireless, gadget-infatuated and quick-on-its-feet group of people — for some time, with […]

A part of the solution

In the auditorium of the John C. Cudahy YMCA, the basketball hoop blocks the view of the stage. Kendall tells the lanky teens shooting hoops to go upstairs for a while so Scott can set up his tripods, flashes and umbrellas. This is the only YMCA in the country built specifically to accommodate the arts. Set on 55 acres of wooded land – formerly John C. Cudahy’s farmstead – and home to a “safe place” where teens can study, use computers and play sports and video games, it’s a far cry from the popular image of the Y as a fitness club, a place to play racquetball and run laps on the track. Kendall Hayes, now 20, joined AmeriCorps right out of high school. He’d been working so many hours at the branch’s front desk as part of STEP-UP (a career development program for high school students run by the county’s Private Industry Council) that a friend suggested he might as well earn volunteer hours and collect an education award as a full-fledged AmeriCorps member. Now he’s in his second year of service at the YMCA, where he helps students in the teen program with everything from homework and test preparation to setting up bank accounts and working creatively. “[I try] to get kids to stay active, to get them to expand their horizons and open them up to new things,” he says, “not just coming here to play basketball every day, but getting them to do something artsy, or getting them to go back and help their community.” Right now, Kendall is working on developing an art guild for the teens that would incorporate creative writing, music and visual art. AmeriCorps members can serve a maximum of two terms and qualify for the education award, and when his term is up, Kendall plans to go to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, maybe to study recording arts and psychology. “I’m the type of person that likes to do everything, [and] AmeriCorps has offered new possibilities for me … We’ve [done everything from] helping inner city youth to working on Philadelphia Community Farm to disaster relief training,” he says. “[But] going back to school is a whole different section of my life.” Still, he says, “I do wish that I could stay longer. There’re a lot of different opportunities and I don’t feel that I’ve experienced it all. And I’m always willing to lend a helping hand.” Kendall’s commitment to public service is unadorned, stunningly simple. In our interview, he speaks gracefully about what service can do for communities – and what community service gives to those who serve. The organization In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton established AmeriCorps as the country’s flagship service initiative. It’s often assumed to be a single program, like the domestic version of the PeaceCorps, but AmeriCorps is actually a network of organizations, a bear hug that encompasses four primary programs: AmeriCorps*State and AmeriCorps*National, which provide funding and volunteer resources to statewide and national organizations; the National Civilian […]

Keeping warm

I really love the winter, especially in these early weeks, when the cold is bracing but exhilarating, the snow is fresh and pretty and even the most dreadful parking conditions barely detract from the gingery warmth of early December. It’s always a tricky transition: what to do when faced with such deep wind chills and such early darkness, how to break out of my routines and get my friends out of their routines, whether or not it’s worth excavating the car (with no scraper and crappy wiper blades that haven’t been changed for years — I need to work on that) and the easiest way to turn off the television. But it’s been a few weeks of white-out weather, depressed thermometers and distance from the sun, and I’m starting to feel that cold winter blood pumping bravely through my veins. Here’s my loose, slushy road map through treacherous seasonal territory: Do something boring with someone else Watching TV reruns by yourself is sort of boring, but watching TV reruns with a bunch of friends and a six-pack? Infinitely more rewarding. Lately I’ve loved 30 Rock and Flight of the Conchords. Also Iron Chef America, mostly because I have a huge you’re-too-evil-and-slimy-to-be-real crush on Bobby Flay. Learn something I’ve been learning to play the accordion since I bought an old Crucianelli at a gas station in Door County in July, but I’ve really stepped up my game now that it’s too cold to leave my apartment. There have been times in the last few weeks when I’ve been too engrossed in “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” to answer my phone or grab drinks with my friends. Bonus: I’m learning Christmas songs. Get ready for Christmas This is probably the first Christmas since I was 13 that I’ve been genuinely excited about. I wish I could tell you why. Maybe it has something to do with watching too much TV, seeing commercial after commercial and holiday special after holiday special, enough to get me thinking that Christmas is a very real thing. Maybe it is also the snow. It could be that I decided early on this year to buy as many holiday wares as possible locally, fairly and preferably handmade. Thanks in large part to Art Vs. Craft and Paperboat Boutique (both brainchildren of local artist Faythe Levine), this year, most everyone in my family is getting something local and handmade, mostly by artists I know personally and adore, and one piece I commissioned from Liz Keuler, a friend and a Fasten Collective designer, for less than $5 (a holiday challenge/pact between my broke self and my broke sister). Even the kids are getting some artfully-made tokens of loveliness and a hopefully-not-too-preachy lesson that sometimes Christmas means more than video games, at least to your grown-up, sentimental, hip-and-conscious Aunt Amy. Relatives who aren’t getting art are getting cheese, bratwurst or craft beer. This is Wisconsin, after all. People expect it of me. I’ve never sent Christmas cards before, either, and […]

The Bronze Fonz Debacle

Mike Brenner, owner of Hotcakes Gallery and big-time mover and shaker in Milwaukee’s art community, sends a seething, vitriolic letter to every major media outlet and art informer in Southeastern Wisconsin vowing to shut Hotcakes’ doors and leave the city for good should a life-size statue of the Fonz be erected in our fair downtown. It registered like Old Testament prophecy, with Brenner’s foot-stomping, foaming-at-the-mouth, head-turning-360-degrees registering somewhere on a scale between “Shut up” and “What a creep.” You know, the kind of crazed clarion that always comes to devastating fruition in the end. The project bears very little exposition here: Visit Milwaukee, formerly the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, is quite close to its goal of raising $85,000 in private funds to put a statue of Henry Winkler as Arthur Fonzarelli of Happy Days somewhere along the Riverwalk. In the old days, people used to construct monuments of people of influence or historical importance — leaders, war heroes, city founders, martyrs, saints, and every once in a while the visage of a crazed dictator longing for a gigantic, oxidizing, bird-shat-upon place in history (many of those statues, appropriately, have since been torn down). On a southward stroll down Prospect Avenue, you will come upon three of these statues in a row, first of Scottish bard Robert Burns, then of viking Leif Erickson, and finally of fur-trader and Milwaukee father Solomon Juneau, his musket poised. On the back of my ankle I have a tattoo of an iconic Detroit image, the 1950s Marshall Fredericks’ statue The Spirit of Detroit, a big shirtless bronze man, seated, holding aloft a small family in one hand and a bright golden sun in another, emanating the impervious, ineffable rays of God. But the canned responses that Dave Fantle of Visit Milwaukee’s PR team has CC’d to everyone from Mike Brenner to the intelligent, considered team of experts at Susceptible to Images to Milwaukee Art Museum CEO David Gordon, arguably the heaviest weight in Milwaukee’s rather little art world, makes it clear that the Bronze Fonz isn’t like those “other” statues. Yes, we hear you, Visit Milwaukee. We know all about Chicago’s Bob Newhart, Minneapolis’ Mary Tyler Moore, Manhattan’s Ralph Kramden (all of which were pitched and placed in a promotional project by the TV Land network). You have only reminded us that they exist every SINGLE time someone wonders why on EARTH we would put a Bronze Fonz on the Riverwalk. We know that you are casting the statue locally and employing a “local” artist (he’s from Lake Mills — a full 55 miles from Milwaukee — not such a great distance, but a stretch when it is considered just how many hundreds of artists live in the city of Milwaukee, proper, or even in the county, or the next county over). You keep trying to tell us that this is “pop” art, not “high” art, the art equivalent of burgers and custard. The hidden message here is that this is not an art project, […]

What Gives?

By Kenya Evans, Brian Jacobson, April Jones & Amy Elliott DONATIONS One fairly obvious – and fabulously generous – gift that gives is a donation in someone else’s name. These unique organizations won’t leave your recipients snarling wicked holiday wishes under their breath. a. Ducks! Real, live ducks! $20 Heifer International – heifer.org Who’d imagine a mule, a cow or some simple farming tips had the power to alleviate poverty, hunger and the degradation of the earth? Heifer provides an incredible opportunity for communities in developing countries; sustainability is instilled through training, the offspring of gift-animals spread the wealth and spread hope, dignity and self-reliance in the neighborhood. A flock of ducks ($20) can almost triple a family’s income in China. Give a bicycle and more! $46 – $100 World Gifts – worldgifts.cafod.org.uk World Gifts works with more than 500 partners to help poor countries find long-term solutions. You give a gift, and someone else gets a gift from CAFOD, the Catholic aid agency. Worms for composting plus seeds and tools for sowing runs about $46, a bicyle runs around $100. Your gift buys a bicycle for a health worker who can more easily travel to remote villages in poor countries to treat or prevent killer diseases. A bicycle also allows health workers to bring comfort and advice to the sick and their families when they need it most. An amazing gift for the cyclist in your life. Support small business $25 Kiva – kiva.org Maybe you’re an honorary loan officer for your kids or your unlucky friends, but Kiva gives you the opportunity to lend to entrepreneurs in impoverished communities across the globe, empowering them to “lift themselves out of poverty” and into economic independence. Kiva partners with microfinance institutions to ensure that endeavors are legit. The best part is that you’re helping people who are on their way to financial freedom. ORGANIC AND NATURAL With smaller local farmers struggling, this niche market is a lifesaver. Established and neophyte grocery and specialty shops in Milwaukee have ready-to-give holiday items; some even have online ordering and cross-country shipping. Beans and Barley gift card $40 Beans and Barley – beansandbarley.com 1901 East North Ave. 414-278-7878 An eclectic health food market and a popular café, this East Side institution also has artsy offerings for stocking stuffers. A $40 café gift certificate for two should cover the works: drinks, appetizers, dinner and maybe even a scrumptious dessert. Giftcards may be purchased in any amount. VITAL does not recomend stuffing stockings with actual appetizers, drinks or desserts. Outpost Natural Foods ownership $25 Outpost Natural Foods outpostnaturalfoods.coop Wauwatosa, Bay View and Capitol Dr. in Milwaukee 414-431-3377 Milwaukee’s original food co-op now sports three area locations. Buy someone a one-year “ownership” for $25 and they’ll get special discounts, rewards and the monthly Exchange Magazine. Teach your kids a lesson in responsibility by allowing them to invest in something that will not leave a stain your carpet or wear out the tube on your TV. b. Oskri […]

Another Mistake on the Lake?

Last night, WUWM hosted Project Milwaukee: Creating a Vibrant Regional Economy, a forum of nine influential local figures responding to questions from the moderators, the audience and website visitors about the challenges facing Greater Milwaukee. All of the hot-button issues were trotted out in a drive-by hour-and-a-half – transportation, education, the economy, crime, race, poverty, “brain drain” – with barely a raised voice or interruption and no threat of fisticuffs. An informative – if not momentous – program, indeed. The facts are on the table, Milwaukee: you’re a pretty great city, and most people seem to like you a lot. But you have some seriously ugly moles on your face that are going to get malignant if you don’t freeze them off right quick. Statistics released in October confirm our deepest fear: we have the second-highest black male poverty rate in the country, next to PITTSBURGH, at a punch-in-the-stomach 43%. We have one of the worst public school graduation rates in the country, in a list that includes CLEVELAND. And you’re going to hate this: of the 50 largest cities in the United States, our unemployment rate is the second highest. Number one? DETROIT. The forum lacked a sense of alarm, and it lacked compelling vision for addressing the city’s problems – indeed, at times panelists outright, glass-half-full, golly-gee denied that there were any problems. Maybe that wasn’t the point of Project Milwaukee, anyway; maybe it was imagined as an exploratory, low-stakes roundtable. Still, there were so many moments in the discussion that made me want to stand up and yell: when Rocky Marcoux suggested that segregation and poverty in the city would be alleviated as well-off suburbanites buy condos and move downtown (that’s not a solution; that’s called “gentrification,” thanks very much), or that the new Marquette Interchange was an example of a laudable transportation initiative (as opposed to adding bus routes, lowering fares, thinking out of the box about better public transportation, or moving forward with regional public transit); when Ricardo Diaz, executive director of the United Community Center, countered a question about racial hatred by insisting that Hispanics on the city’s south side are well-educated, employed, financially stable, happy, safe, bustling and “95% undocumented” – and apparently not at all affected by racial issues, which has become a fancy way of saying “black.” When I told my family I was moving to Milwaukee, my dad offered to PAY ME to move somewhere else. I’m part of that educated, imaginative “creative class” (represented on the panel by restaurateur Mike Eitel and Shelley Jurewicz, director of talent pool FUEL Milwaukee) that mid-sized cities all over are courting. Baby Boomers are starting to retire and the shortage of what Sheldon Lubar (panelist, philanthropist, entrepreneur, activist, reigning city patriarch) called “intellectual capital” is growing extreme. Young people with good ideas need to be encouraged to come here; driven graduates of Wisconsin colleges and universities need to be convinced to stay here. I moved to Milwaukee for a number of reasons, some […]

Tug of War

Milwaukeeans went into a tizzy with the arrival of Whole Foods Market a year ago – was a national anchor in the East Side business district a sign that the city had finally arrived? Would Whole Foods serve as a “tentpole” for other natural and organic businesses in the city? Or would they jack up rent, lowball prices and drive the competition out of town? Would they be receptive to the sensitivities of the East Side community, or would they homogenize the neighborhood? And really, all fuss aside, wasn’t it a good thing that a huge, attractive corporation chose blue-collar Milwaukee, that long-neglected diamond-in-the-rough, for only its second location in the state? Now, for better or worse, Whole Foods is here. And by the end of the year, Urban Outfitters will be here too, in the Kenilworth Building just across the street. Anthropologie, also part of Urban Outfitters Incorporated, will open a location in the gentrified Third Ward. We have a Borders downtown, Starbucks courting our coffee loyalties, and a whole enclave of national retailers in the new Bayshore Town Center, including fast fashion marts like H&M and Forever 21 and super-cheap specialty grocer Trader Joe’s. We have more choices than ever before, which in some ways is welcome (who doesn’t love a two-buck bottle of decent wine, or a cute, cheap cardigan) and in some ways poses complications. How do we square up our love for a truly unique and personal shopping, dining or service experience with our lust for convenience, a great deal and free parking? Buying Your Way Out “This area, like the Brady Street area, is a healthy commercial neighborhood. It has been for years, and it is dominated by local independent businesses,” says Pat Sturgis, co-owner of East Side institution Beans and Barley. The independent natural foods grocer and restaurant has been in business for 33 years at the corner of North and Farwell – right across from the new Whole Foods. “As American consumers, we have really been trained in a very conscientious way to look for consistency. When you go somewhere else, you go to the mall, find the Cheesecake Factory, find a Crate and Barrel, go to someplace that is indistinguishable from any other place in the country,” Sturgis says. “There’s a Starbucks on Brady Street, but there are three other coffee shops, and those are healthy things.” Beans and Barley struggled after Whole Foods opened – especially for the first few months. A year later, sales have recovered, and their restaurant and deli sales have grown. “On the other hand, we were on our way to a record year [when Whole Foods opened],” Sturgis says. “It’s going to take a lot more work to get back to breaking any sales records here.” Rachel Ida Buff, a history professor and urban studies researcher at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a lifelong co-op patron, had her reservations when the new Whole Foods was announced. A year later, her ambivalence holds. She moved to Milwaukee […]

Thoughtless or Naive?” A response …

“I’m starting to feel sorry for the Milwaukee Art Museum,” writes Debra Brehmer in the latest edition of Susceptible to Images in an article discussing the recent controversy surrounding MAM’s marketing campaign for its current showcase exhibition, Martín Ramírez. First off, full disclosure: I worked at the Milwaukee Art Museum for nine months before signing on at VITAL, although as the Tour Scheduler, I had little to do with much of anything besides scheduling tours. But I did sit in on programming, education and marketing meetings, and watched the process of planning a show, a marketing campaign, and a schedule of coordinating events unfold from beginning to end. The complaint amongst scholars, dealers and other professionals in the academic art world, according to Brehmer, is the Museum’s “ham-fisted approach” in marketing the exhibition. Ramírez immigrated to the United States from Mexico in the 1920s and spent most of his life in a mental institution, where he created stunning, densely rendered, nearly visionary drawings on paper. Today, after decades of misunderstandings about his life, his illness (there is little proof that he had one), his biography and his work, experts in “vernacular” and “outsider” art want people to just shut up already about these tantalizing but irrelevant mythologies — which serve, ultimately, to maintain a barrier between “insider” and “outsider” — and give him what he really deserves: critical attention on the basis of his art, and his art alone. MAM’s advertising strategy, it seems, is to tantalize, with lots of color and motion, teasingly dramatic slogans, and binary proposals — “VICTIM OR HERO?” “TRIUMPH OR TRAGEDY?” — all strung together with an ultimatum for the viewer: YOU DECIDE. Does it all seem a little forced? A little too simple? Sure it does. “Would we do this with Van Gogh’s work?,” asks New York Gallery dealer Phyllis Kind. No, we wouldn’t. There would be no need. Everyone knows Van Gogh, his sunflowers, his night skies, and the dubious stories that continue to rivet — his poverty, his lunacy, his ear. “Would the museum take the same liberties with the work of Picasso?” Brehmer asks. No, it would not, although I can’t tell you how many people, during MAM’s summer exhibition of French impressionist Camille Pissarro’s early work, asked to schedule tours to see Picasso. Martín Ramírez isn’t there yet. He should be, but he’s not. So many people right now feel so disconnected from art. At the Museum I had countless conversations with urban school teachers who wanted to bring their students for tours or programs, but faced hurdles with funding, scheduling buses, or taking time out of their rigidly structured curricula. I once received a hand-written note from a kid in Kenosha who missed a field trip because his parents had not allowed him to come to the Museum, although he wrote that he enjoys frequent Brewers and Admirals games in the city. I have young professional friends who have never been to the Art Museum for no real reason […]

Fight or Flight?

Gallery Night always leaves me flummoxed. With the best of intentions, I make a big list of all of the neat things I want to do, and then have a hard time finding anyone to go with me. On the big day, I get home from work, take a nap or a run, fix a light meal, have a massive fashion crisis, throw clothes all over my room, squeeze into something acceptable, fret over footwear, slap on some eyeliner and run out the door with sixty minutes or less on the clock before galleries shut their doors and everyone shuffles into the night for a late dinner at an overpriced restaurant. Last Gallery Night, in July, I had all sorts of promises out to all of my scenester friends to hang out with them at the sceniest hotbeds, but made it no farther than my first stop, Doug Holst’s going away party and painting liquidation sale, where I drank most of the beer in his fridge, hung out with his 15-year-old greyhound Lucy, and started an unfortunate conversation with Flavor Dav about buying and selling vinyl that resulted in a very late night. This time around I vowed to do better. I made my list and recruited my companion, booked home from work for squash soup and fifteen minutes of bedrest, then pulled on some boots and a tough red jacket and plowed onto the scene. Our first stop — at 7:30, already doing very poorly on time — was the Milwaukee Art Museum for their annual staff show. It is no surprise that almost everyone who works at the Museum is an artist in some way or another, and as such the exhibition was impressive — hand-dyed silk and embroidery by Teen Programs Coordinator Shirah Apple, rich-hued photographs of grain fields and grain elevators by Director of Foundation and Corporate Gifts Frank Miller, jewelry by Director of Public Programs (and my former boss) Fran Serlin and Librarian Heather Winter, charming, industrial charcoal drawings by Assistant Visitor Services Manager Adam Horwitz, pastels of fish and insects by Security Guard Lee Siebers, large-scale and strong-minded mixed media compositions by MiNei Hetzel and bold, cheeky paintings by Mary Beth Ribarchek. And lots more. The gallerias are long and stuffed with terrific work, and we did not let schmoozing deter us from plowing through the whole show. We drove down to the south side — foregoing a stop at MIAD due to time and parking constraints — for 3 for 2 at the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts,, where I spend my whole visit consumed by one magnificent self-portrait/comic-book-diary/illustrated essay by Milwaukee cartoonist Max Estes. It hit me right in the gut. And then it was over. At barely 9:00, Gallery Night officially gives way to dining, moping or after-partying — which is exactly what’s on our plate next door at The Borg Ward, with an inaugural show of reflections on art, war and America by Paul Kjelland, John Kowalcyzk and Minga […]

A thought about chopsticks

We had sushi for lunch today. It came with chopsticks. I was really good with chopsticks when I was six years old and in Montessori school. It was all about multi-culturalism in Montessori school. Also, I had many Japanese classmates. I was a chopsticks phenom. I am no longer skilled with chopsticks, however. Using chopsticks is not like riding a bicycle.

The Big Dig

“It swings between passion and obsession, constantly. It’s definitely at the point where I’m like, ‘do I want to buy groceries this week, or do I want to go digging in Indianapolis?’” Aaron Soma spends 12 to 16 hours a week, on average, digging for vinyl. At least once a month, he leaves the state to rummage through basements and backrooms for dusty jewels of sound. He calls it the “great nerd odyssey” – and he’s not being flip, despite the shadow of cool that has settled on record culture in recent years. Aaron can describe what he’s into – Northern soul, forgotten originals of ‘80s pop songs – but it’s hard to put a finger on what he’s really searching for. So in consideration of the question, he made a list, went to some record shops, and thought about it for a while. Here are four things he managed to sort out. 1. Covers, or forgotten originals of songs that were covered and became hits Aaron’s first digs were through his parent’s formidable collection of records. “I picked up Beatles albums,” he says, “wondering, looking at the records, noticing that the song wasn’t written by John Lennon or Paul McCartney, but some American R&B artist somewhere.” “That’s the really exciting thing about collecting,” says Andy Noble, co-owner of LotusLand Records. “You’re always following a path, and you’re probably following multiple paths.” “It could take you back to the beginning of recorded time – or to Africa, or to Brazil – just by following the sound, the producer, the people who were thanked in the liner notes, weird stuff like that. It’s an exploration.” Aaron is always learning; every dig is a research project. “I’ll bring a battery-powered portable record player with me to a shop and just dig through, set stuff aside. That’s how I teach myself what’s going on. I hardly ever know what I’m looking for when I go out: it’s really a dive into the unknown.” 2. Midwestern music Aaron’s serious collecting started with ‘60s psychedelic rock, especially local acts – Michael and the Messengers, The Illusion, The Legends. For the past two or three years, he’s been collecting mainly funk and soul music, and still turns up a lot of local material. “Because I dig regionally, I tend to come up with a decent amount of stuff that was actually happening here – Harvey Scales and the Seven Sounds, The Esquires.” On a sunny late-summer afternoon, Aaron drives me out to an empty storefront on North Avenue. Audie’s Records has been closed since the late ‘80s, and judging from the steamrollers parked next door, it might not be standing for much longer. It used to be a major distribution hub for hip hop, soul and funk in the Midwest. “A lot of that stuff is still here. In bigger Midwest cities – St. Louis, Detroit, Minneapolis – a lot of the shops get really picked through.” Still, good finds don’t come easy – especially with […]

Lesson Learned — Maybe

I’ve just survived my first full production cycle. I signed on as Managing Editor when we were proofing and going to print for September; tomorrow, we’re headed north to lovely Port Washington for our final press check before October hits the stands. For the past two weeks I’ve been chasing down local musicians, orchestrating photo shoots and last-minute interviews, and record digging (not normally part of the job description, but October is the music issue). Once a down-home rust-belt sweetheart, I’ve been black-dress Betty McBusiness, excusing myself from social situations to check voice messages and bark into my cell phone. The storm is finally settling (funny enough, it’s raining today) and all I want to do is decompress. It’s been a big foot-dragging affair to get me to do anything, even — ESPECIALLY — things that are supposed to be fun. Two free concerts at the Pabst in one week? Really? Opening gala for the International Film Festival? With a DRINK TICKET? Do I have to? (Answer from the boss lady: yes, you have to.) Last night I made the tough decision to forgo a Film Fest flick (from Korea, not likely to screen anywhere in the tri-state region again) in favor of two-and-a-half straight hours of The Office, season three, before mustering enough of a kick to my own pants to get out of the apartment and go to another MIFF screening — Avida — at The Times. I liked Avida. Of course I did. That’s the lesson I never learn — when I’m feeling bratty, it always pays to do whatever pain-in-the-ass thing I think is going to be such a pain in the ass. It’s never a pain in the ass. Okkervil River (at the Pabst last Monday), a band that’s swelled my heart for years, was fantastic. I didn’t love The National (at the Pabst on Friday), but I loved the company of the friends that came with me (friends who, not incidentally, bought me tons of beer). And at the MIFF gala, on a deliciously foggy night that set the spines of the Burke Brise Soleil into silhouette, the margaritas were strong and the mingling was top-shelf. I stayed until closing time (I had plans for the evening that I just blew off) and caught up with Jonathan Jackson (his must-see MIFF movie: Control), Mark Escribano (maker of The Super Noble Brothers — who had heard through the lightning-quick grapevine that I had met with Andy Noble that day to talk record collecting), Josh Rosenberg (working on his first feature film, Tracks, produced by Niels Mueller) and the enchanting Bobby Ciraldo (in fact this blog is quickly becoming a journal of my encounters with him), who appears in Table Talk and Perceval and has something to do with Midnight Delirium feature What What (In the Butt). I learned that he’s from Okemos — a small township in middle Michigan, skirting Lansing — and probably wouldn’t have come to Milwaukee if there hadn’t been people from […]

Life is a Playground

Last week I lodged a formal complaint about the lack of bike racks in my new East Town neighborhood. My somewhat irritated e-mail was answered warmly and in great detail by Dave Schlabowske, coordinator of Milwaukee’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force, who gave me pointers on lock-up locations (tree planters, for instance, are easy), offered to find me a winter storage locker in my neighborhood (noting the office address on my e-mail signature), and invited me to join him for an “urban underground” bike tour that night as part of the annual Urban Playground Festival. I didn’t even know a Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force existed, but I did my homework and learned that they were the good people responsible for most of the city’s bike lanes, the Milwaukee by Bike Map, the Brady Street pedestrian bridge, the Marsupial Bridge over the Milwaukee River, Bike to Work Week, and other smart, progressive initiatives. We met outside Cafe Hollander with a handful of other bikers from all walks of the bike world — a couple of serious guys with many gears on their mountain bikes, an enthusiast who wanted to know everything about my vintage Falcon, a family with a toddler in a trailer and a couple of kids on pint-sized rides with bells on their handlebars. Dave, of course, rode a beautiful European tour bike with saddlebags, a leather seat, a chain guard and headlights powered by a generator. “It reminds me of being in Amsterdam,” he said. We cruised through the East Side, Riverside Park, cut behind the Paperboard factory and picked up the Beer Line Trail, a pedestrian corridor that runs along the abandoned rails that used to cart barrels of brew from the Pabst, Blatz and Schlitz factories. Halfway through our 90-minute tour, at the south end of the Marsupial Bridge, Dave unpacked some dark rum and (in true Royal Dutch fashion) some aquavit. He told us about plans to extend the Beer Line Trail all the way to Gordon Park in Riverwest and upcoming developments in the Gallun complex on Water Street that might turn the Marsupial Bridge into a more of a Commons. Before we turned back, we crossed the pedestrian bridge over the river that links up to the East Bank Trail and watched the sun come down; I talked to a fisherman about the cranes nesting in the sandbar. Dave asked why he hadn’t seen me around at other city bike gatherings. Hadn’t I heard about Biketoberfest? The Santa Cycle Rampage? I told him I hadn’t even mustered the curiosity to go to Critical Mass, which, according to Dave, people only tend to show up at when there is the chance that there will be controversy, confrontation or a political button to push. Dave seemed to embrace the playful, have-a-beer, bring-your-kids spirit of biking, which made me — a rookie biker — pretty comfortable. Nice to know that there is a cooperative agent working inside the city that even those of us who […]

Coming soon — Love Letters by Amy Elliot

New blog… coming soon!

“If only we could pull out our brain and use only our EYES.” — Pablo Picasso

The human eyes are small but wondrous – a pair of infinitely complex sensors that allow us to experience wavelengths of light as fully formed, instantaneous impressions of color, shape and depth. The nerves and cells in the eye are some of the body’s most sensitive, the muscles that allow the eyes to move the most rapid. Even in sleep, when our eyes are closed, their rapid motion allows us to dream. And they are beautiful – shiny and variegated, an object of poetry, curiosity, perhaps even a window into the soul. And never are the eyes put to better use than to witness beauty, to drink in sights previously unseen and thereby engender a deeper understanding that enriches the soul. Test the soul-altering power of your eyes in September by taking in the universe as Villa Terrace presents a collection of Renaissance star charts and maps of the cosmos. The Racine Art Museum, one of the nation’s foremost craft museums, explores the beauty of shoes with Icons of Elegance, the first exhibition in North America to pair the most important shoes of the 1900s with the history of modern design. At the Tory Folliard Gallery, in the first solo Tom Uttech exhibition since his 2004 retrospective, you can see awe-inspiring elements of the natural and the fantastical. Turn your gaze into the past and see how it shaped the present at the Milwaukee Art Museum with Foto, a winter exhibition of radically modern photography from Central and Eastern Europe in the years between World Wars. Squint and you’ll pierce the dark veil of winter to focus on the delicate consequences of cross-cultural communication at MIAD with This Land is Your Land, a diverse group of shows about boundaries, shifts and perspectives. In the spring let your eyes roam over interpretations of the urban landscape we navigate every day with a group show at the Katie Gingrass Gallery featuring work in sculpture, neon and photography, or get a visual sense of the 19th century at the Haggerty Museum of Art with an exhibition of illustrations from Harper’s.

The legends live on…

Photos by Kat Jacobs It’s a warm dusk, and the SV Mai Tai, a handsome catamaran, is cruising away from the harbor. With Milwaukee’s silhouette behind us, Captain Rick Hake is steering us into the streaks of a storm. We are less than a mile and a half from the dock. Captain Rick – a lanky, youthful man with an exuberant mop of hair – assures me that the boat can handle a spate of pretty bad, even vicious, weather. This is a good thing to hear, as in a matter of minutes the wind has kicked up from four knots to 22. The boat is dipping and rolling, and the water is capped white. The sturdy, luxurious craft is Rick’s second home. It’s also home to Adventure Charter Boats, Rick’s dive charter business, and several times a week it ferries divers out on Lake Michigan to see the bones of less fortunate crafts. Milwaukee is a city of well-kept secrets, and the diving that draws in-the-know dive tourists from around the world is one of them. Few realize just how many sunken ships are pinned down in the Great Lakes; thousands have slipped under since the very first ship to sail them, Rene La Salle’s Griffin, sank after leaving the Door Peninsula piled with furs in 1679. Some divers have dedicated their lives to finding the wreck of the Griffin. Others seek less tangible prizes – adventure, mystery, serenity – in Lake Michigan, a body of water the size of Croatia with a fickle and very cold heart. The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead Lake wrecks are incomparable. The water lacks the corrosive properties of salt and destructive saltwater organisms, and the near-freezing temperatures refrigerate everything, slowing down the process of rust and decay. Milwaukee, in particular, has a higher concentration of wreckage than other shores, and conditions are ideal for divers –unlike, for instance, Chicago which, despite a number of spectacular wrecks, is too shallow and heavily trafficked. Jerry Guyer, with a white beard and a grizzled manner, is something of a freshwater cowboy. He started diving out of casual curiosity after a high school classmate told him about a scuba class he was taking. Forty years later, after decades of marine salvage, training dive rescue teams and running charters, Jerry knows the bottom of Lake Michigan better than anyone. He’s discovered more than 20 vanished wrecks in the Great Lakes. Diving is about pushing frontiers for him. “What’s beyond the next rock?” he asks. “What can I find out there that no one else has seen?” He shows me a map of the shoreline with Xs on the wrecks and several tiny ultrasounds that make the boats look like creatures growing in the womb of the water. “Every one of these wrecks is something different,” Jerry explains, and points to each as he tells their stories – unsophisticated navigation technology, bad lighting, old boats, freak accidents. The Hiran Bond was run over by […]

Vital’s 2007 Farmers Market Guide

By Amy Elliott, Evan Solochek, Jon Anne Willow In the urban epicenter of metropolitan Milwaukee, it’s far too easy to forget that we live in Wisconsin, a major player in the nation’s agricultural life and a leading producer of cranberries, corn, oats, potatoes, cherries, green beans and, of course, fresh dairy. Enter the farmers market – arguably the best way for urbanites to participate responsibly in our rich agricultural infrastructure. While some markets still feature trucked-in fare, more are focusing on what we have right here. There aren’t many downsides to buying locally. Healthier produce raised with fewer chemicals comes to us across far less distance and with shipping costs minimized and no middle man to pay off costs are drastically reduced, and the effect on the environment is alleviated. But most of all, it’s good to know where your food comes from, how it gets here and who’s dealing with it. And with lots of markets offering flowers, baked goods, coffees and teas, artwork and even live music, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more pleasant way to spend a few precious summer hours. NOTE: Some information is unconfirmed and noted with an (*). Bauer’s Farmers Market 11813 7 ½ Mile Rd., Caledonia 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. daily, July through November. 262-835-4386. Brown Deer Farmers Market Bradley Commerce Center, N. 43rd St. and Bradley Rd. 9 a.m. – 6 p.m., Wednesdays through October. Annuals and perennials, herbs, roses, and fruits and vegetables. 414-354-6923. Brookfield Farmers Market City Hall, 2000 N. Calhoun Rd 7:30 a.m. – noon, Saturdays through October. Flowers, fruits and vegetables, Piedmontese beef, maple syrup, chickens, eggs, bison meat, baked goods, dried floral, garden art and much more. Weekly entertainment and demonstrations. 70th annual Dahlia Show September 23, with more than 600 blooms on display for judging. 262-784-7804 or brookfieldfarmersmarket.com. Burlington Farmers Market Echo Park, 588 Milwaukee Ave. 8 a.m. – noon, Saturdays through November. 262-342-1171. Cudahy Farmers Market 4700 S. Packard Ave. 10 a.m. – sold out, Fridays through November. Locally grown and produced baked goods, fresh produce, apples, honey, flowers, crafts and more. ci.cudahy.wi.us. Delafield Farmers Market 514 W. Main St. 7 a.m. – 1 p.m., Saturdays through October. Producer-only market; locally grown vegetables, fruits, herbs, honey, cider, flowers, annual bedding and perennial plants, ironworks, homespun woolen yarns and other locally handcrafted items. 262-968-4471. East Side Open Market 1901 E. North Ave. 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Saturdays, June 30 through October. Produce, agricultural products, flowers, herbs, CSA, amazing artists and marvelous local musicians. theeastside.org. East Town Farmers Market Cathedral Square Park, 520 E. Wells 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Saturdays through October. Farm-grown produce, baked goods, specialty foods and arts & crafts. Free entertainment and children’s activities. easttown.com. Elmwood Plaza Farmers Market Durand Ave., Racine 8 a.m. – noon, Tuesdays and Fridays through November 2. Seasonal asparagus, rhubarb, beans, tomatoes, corn, melons, bedding plants, apples, baked goods, chickens, eggs and fresh flowers. 262-886-3284. Fondy Farmers Market 2200 W. Fond du Lac Ave. 7 […]

VITAL’S 2007 Photo Contest Winners

I think photography as the America of “Art.” It is not a perfect analogy; photography doesn’t arrest undocumented artworks and detain them indefinitely, nor is it engaged in an endless quest to start wars against developing art forms whilst alienating and disenfranchising photographs at home. Photographs are sometimes bought and sold to the highest bidder, but that’s not what I mean, either. Photography is a highly democratic art form. Not everyone is born with the fine motor skills to learn how to draw or the craftsmanship necessary to sculpt or carve wood. But most people can figure out how to press a button on a camera. With a light meter and a little practice, even a manual camera is intuitive enough to understand. The ever-expanding accessibility of digital equipment has even made it possible to eliminate the complicated and costly process of developing your own prints. Now all you need is a printer, or someone whose printer you can use and – voilà – a masterpiece. The ease of photography invites experimentation and ingenuity. Like America, nothing is guaranteed – not everyone can afford those fancy macro lenses, and not everyone has an eye for composition – but photography strives for equality of opportunity. And frankly, that makes the old institutions a little bit nervous. If you were an oil painting, you’d be nervous, too. Look at what happened to Great Britain. And in the grand scheme of things, photography is a pretty young way to make art, and even though a photograph is one of the world’s most powerful tools for telling a story or conveying an image, photography is still fighting for its credibility in the art world. Not everyone trusts photography. It’s too instant. It’s too mechanical. The artist is too far removed from the art. Or so it is still sometimes said. This year, in the spirit of opportunity, we awarded two different awards for each category – Best Professional and Best Amateur. The judges – Cori Coffman, Executive Director of the Eisner Musuem of Art and Design; Deone Jahnke, a local professional photographer who works all over the country and Sonja Thomsen, adjunct professor at MIAD and head of Milwaukee’s Coalition of Photographic Arts – swore to be fair and impartial administrators of their duties. They rated each photograph blind before the law (well, they could see, but it was anonymous) and on video camera themselves, for all to witness at our second Random Exposure opening on June 14 at the Eisner, which will include over 60 of our favorite entries, democratically displayed for your viewing enjoyment. There will also be music, food and more. Look for details on page 18. In your winners, you will see testament to the radical and boundless fruits of this art for the people: color, shadows, truth, comedy, tragedy, apathy and beauty. PORTRAIT BEST IN SHOW Best Professional Jessica Kaminski “Girl in Doorway” Jessica Kaminski received her BFA in Fine Art Photography from MIAD in 2001. Since then, she […]

Bridging the gap

Photo by Kat Jacobs Pieter Godfrey and Ken Leinbach have more in common than first glance betrays. Pieter, in corduroy slacks and vintage frames, looks like someone who would refurbish warehouses and watch silent horror movies on the weekends. Ken is more of a jeans and hiking boots kind of guy; he looks like he’d be most comfortable helping kids identify unusual plant species out on the trails. Pieter does like silent films, and Ken does teach little kids about nature’s awesome rarities. But Pieter and Ken – a restorations and reclamations professional and the executive director of the Urban Ecology Center, respectively – have forged an unlikely marriage of offbeat equals in the service of a common goal. Together, Pieter and Ken are building a parking lot. And it may just be the noblest parking lot ever built. A brief history of the Milwaukee River Corridor The 5.5 mile stretch of the Milwaukee River that flows through the city proper was the most vibrant corridor of the city at the turn of the century. Dense with boathouses, swim clubs and biergartens, it was a year-round recreational Shangri-La: pleasure cruises in the summer, ice-skating and curling in the winter. But heavy traffic and rapid development in an industrial city led to pollution and, without a comprehensive sewage system, the river gradually became contaminated. Several large dams built to staunch floods collected runoff and waste and choked off surrounding ecosystems. The beaches and swim clubs were closed, the arch tunnels and stone bridges abandoned and the river corridor fell into ruin. Starting in the 1970s, the city began to consolidate its sewer strategies, a multi-million dollar undertaking several decades in span. In 1986, Pieter Godfrey bought and refurbished his first warehouse when the river was still smelly and the surrounding park was still littered with the detritus of crime and drugs. Then in 1989, the Department of Natural Resources discovered a rare species of fish that spurred widespread discussion of the river’s devastated ecological condition. In 1990, the North Avenue dam – the largest on the river – was removed. In 1991, the Urban Ecology Center was founded. Today, where there were once NO fish, there are at least 33 different species. The Urban Ecology Center features a green roof garden, the largest solar panel array in the state of Wisconsin and furnishings crafted from Pieter Godfrey’s salvaged wood. The UEC sees 30,000 students from 30 area schools a year and a total of more than 50,000 people. In the city of Milwaukee alone, there are 794 acres of green space along this recovering river “that hardly anybody knows is there,” according to Ken. Pieter and Ken may be looking at this verdant stretch from different angles, but what they see is essentially the same. “This is a tremendous asset for the city,” says Pieter, “and the reason it’s there is because nobody wanted it – because it was abused for so long.” Parking: the great equalizer The Park Place project […]

Living the dream

By Amy Elliott + Photo by Kate Engeriser “Everybody knows about these people,” the boy mutters. “It’s been drummed into their heads about 15,000 times.” He is a young student with a simple assignment: write a two-page essay about an African-American hero. But he is plagued by a classical academic anxiety: hasn’t it all been said before? Crushed by the pressure of history against his attempts to think and work creatively, he resigns and hangs his head. And then he is visited by the spectre of Harriet Tubman leading a chorus of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” The boy’s encounter with the legendary abolitionist is only the first in a long parade of dreamers, leaders, thinkers and changers. This is We Are The Dream, the story of history revisited and myths refreshed. The performance is the work of the African-American Children’s Theater (AACT), a nonprofit organization that has been providing arts education and mounting productions in the community since 1989. This is the first year that AACT has been able to expand its activities to include a resident company of eight to fourteen-year-old actors with exceptional talent, drive and commitment. The company members focus on perfecting their stagecraft in major collaborative roles both on and off the stage. For We Are The Dream, the small company researched, wrote and directed the play together. “I learned about people I never heard of before,” says resident Jakayla Dills. “Everybody knows about Martin Luther King, but I never learned anything about Barbara Jordan.” Jakayla plays Jordan, a former Texas state senator and the first southern black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Jakayla also appears as writer and civil rights activist Mary Church, one of the first black women to earn a college degree. When she is not in front of the audience, she is behind the scenes, mastering the skills of stage manager. Mahdi Gransbury, who stars as the plagued schoolboy, doubles as the assistant director for the play. “We work within our group,” says Constance Clark, founder and executive director of AACT, who is helping Mahdi learn about technical theater in hopes that he will be able to take over light, sound and stage design soon. “Ultimately,” she says, “he plans to take over everything.” Mahdi smirks and deviously laces his fingers. AACT’s team spirit befits the group’s goals, which extend far beyond the desire to put on a good show. Theater is a discipline; it enhances confidence, sharpens listening skills, fosters active participation and encourages healthy expression. Before each rehearsal, the kids spend some time talking to each other, sharing their ideas and anxieties. Then they channel their energy into their craft. “Art expresses all your feelings,” says resident Ashante Alfred. “If you’re having a bad day, it just makes you feel happier.” Working through a play can be rigorous, but when the curtain falls, the children go home with a certain artistic wisdom better learned by practice than by books. Some of the actors find that the challenge […]

Dollars, Worries & Lives

By Amy Elliott + Photos by Richard Galling The Smith and Wesson Model 10 double-action revolver has been in continuous production for more than 100 years, and has been the weapon of choice for police departments everywhere for almost as long. An elegant piece with black grips and a carbon-steel barrel, it evokes suits, cocktails and spies. List price is $632; used models start at $350. The Glock .22 is a little less sexy than the revolver, but is the weapon of choice for graduates of the FBI training academy, U.S. Marshals and agents of the DEA. This heavy semi-automatic pistol, made from dense polymer and steel, will put you back at least $480. Nothing communicates quite as clearly as a well-placed Kalashnikov. Otherwise known as the AK-47, it is the world’s most widely used assault rifle, comprises a large chunk of the illicit small arms trade and is relatively cheap to acquire, starting in the $300 range for older models. If you’re the DIY type, you could consider purchasing a conversion kit to turn your semi-automatic pistol into a submachine gun. It wouldn’t run you more than $250. Of course, knock-off brands of any of these models are substantially cheaper, starting well under $200. And a 50-count box of .38 specials could cost you less than a quarter per bullet. Less than a gumball. Almost every gun on the illegal market starts out in the legal market. Somehow, through dealer negligence, criminal cunning or outright theft, these guns enter an ambiguous realm. They may stay in gray space forever, changing hands, stashed under beds. Then again, they may resurface. And they may do some damage. Ecology Some people call Riverwest the West Bank of Milwaukee. At least one man calls it the Gaza Strip – a narrow buffer zone between the city’s racial and economic zones. Don Krause has lived in the neighborhood for 17 years. He owns Art Bar on East Burleigh, a sunny, spacious corner where local artists and tipplers come to relax in the glow of collective creative energy. Drinks are cheap and the art on the walls is priced to move. In the summer of 2005, Krause was shot in the stomach by a teenager who was trying to rob a customer. For months, Krause was the poster child of gun violence in the neighborhood, and his colorful watering hole became the rallying banner of concerned citizens and community activists. “You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing ‘Art Bar’ and ‘shooting’ in the same sentence,” he says. But not all publicity is good publicity. The perception that an area is dangerous may determine its viability. A 2000 study by the National Institute of Justice found that fear of crime had a direct effect on a neighborhood’s social ecology – most commonly in the form of “spatial avoidance.” It makes sense – why spend time in a bad part of town? But it also makes it harder for businesses, and the communities they serve, to thrive. Krause’s […]

Many Times, Many Ways

By Amy Elliott Let’s face it: the holidays can be tough. It takes stamina to make it through the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s with one’s sensibilities intact. But even with all of the off-the-rocker relatives, the shrill children, the sugars and saturated fats and the pushy crowds everywhere from Macy’s to Ace Hardware – there’s something genuinely nice about the holidays. Something warm, peaceful and pretty. Here, then, is VITAL’s holiday events guide, your roadmap through the evergreen forest of Milwaukee’s winter festivities. From champagne brunches to basketball games to the finest of the fine arts, everyone from the preternaturally merry to the utterly contrary will find some way to greet the season. Turn your frost-bitten sneer into some holiday cheer. Kick back with some hot chocolate, put on some slippers and enjoy the time of year with us. Slice of Ice Red Arrow Park Beginning Dec. 1, weather permitting 414-257-6100 www.countyparks.com Free skating, plus skate rentals and warm refreshments. 99.1 WMYX Santa’s Mailbox Presented by East Town Association Cathedral Square Park Through Dec. 15 www.99wmyx.com www.easttown.com Drop off a letter to Santa and receive a personalized letter from the jolly old elf himself! Concord and Choirs at the Basilica for Christmas Basilica of St. Josaphat Dec. 16, 8 pm 414-628-6018 www.concordorchestra.org Te second installment of the Concord Chamber Orchestra’s concert series entitled “Les Beaux Arts,” a tribute to musical repertoire related to other art forms. Dickens in America Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Through Dec. 17 414-291-7800 www.chamber-theatre.com An evening with Charles Dickens in the Milwaukee premiere of this new play by Wisconsin playwright James DeVita. Cedarburg Festive Friday Eves Cedar Creek Settlement, Downtown Cedarburg Through Dec. 22, 5-9 pm Live holiday music, luminarias, wine tasting, a winter cookout, and free cider & cookies. A different theme each Friday! Breakfast with Santa The Pfister Hotel Saturdays through Dec. 23, 10 am 414-390-3804 www.thepfisterhotel.com A holiday breakfast with jolly old St. Nick himself. A Fireside Christmas Fireside Dinner Theatre, Fort Atkinson Through Dec. 23 1-800-477-9505 www.firesidetheatre.com Fireside Theatre’s 14th annual Christmas spectacle promises to entertain with singing, dancing and holiday stories. A Christmas Story First Stage Children’s Theater Through Dec. 24 414-273-7206 www.firststage.org The classic holiday treat tells the story of the young Ralphie Parker, whose dreams of getting an air rifle for Christmas are repeatedly deferred. Candy Cane Lane West Allis Through Dec. 28 www.maccfund.org The West Allis neighborhood bounded by Oklahoma and Montana Avenues and 92nd to 96th Street is transformed into a winter wonderland with proceeds going to the MACC Fund. Honky Tonk Holiday Revue Apple Holler, Sturtevant Through Dec. 30 1-800-238-3629 www.appleholler.com Songs by country legends like Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, and Loretta Lynn in a holiday dinner theater musical revue. A Cudahy Caroler Christmas In Tandem Theatre Through Dec. 31 414-273-7206 www.intandemtheatre.com This wildly popular holiday show returns with a hilarious tale of beer, bowling, friendship and forgiveness and the quest to reunite the beloved Cudahy choir. 11th Annual Christmas in the Country Grand […]

Art during wartime

By Amy Elliott + Illustrations for Terror Chic by Joy Harmon (top) and Kristopher Pollard (bottom) In 1932, Betty Gow was accused of a playing role in the now infamous kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. The Scottish nursemaid was never tried, though conspiracy theories about her involvement persist. Seventy-four years later, the incorrigible Ms. Gow is back – in Milwaukee, organizing her creatively inclined friends for Terror Chic 11/9, a showcase of art, fashion, and music in response to life during wartime. The show – and the alias – is the brainchild of teacher, writer, artist and all-around jetsetter Terisa Folaron. Recently returned from a year and a half abroad in Southeast Asia, she’s back in the “experimental swing of things” – first with The Dystopia Project this past October, an artistic response to the internment of artists and composers during the Holocaust – and now with Terror Chic. “Art offers a very personal and direct response to these events,” Folaron says. “[Other mediums] are not as accessible, or immediate, or intimate.” True as that may be, the years following 9/11 and the declaration of war on terrorism have made us all ask how much is too much, how soon too soon. Folaron’s research led her to reports that even fashion designers had backed off previously prevalent camouflage, epaulets and Maoist color schemes to avoid inflaming the sensitivities of a society suffering from post-traumatic stress. In direct retaliation to that, Terror Chic aims to cast a spotlight on the connection between art and war. It’s about creating at full tilt. Every piece of art, music and design was commissioned specifically for the show, and Folaron hopes that the event will give artists the chance to network, collaborate and start a conversation she feels has been tacit. “I approached an artist friend one day and asked, How has the war on terrorism changed your art? His response? ‘That’s right. I forgot we are at war,’” she says. “I laughed, until I received similar responses from other artists.” So what should we expect at the Hide House on 11/9? A somber Cold War vibe and tongue-in-cheek haute couture? Probably some combination thereof, as Terror Chic explores a range of perspectives on the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, from unabashed anger to dogged support. It also spans a range of musical styles, from the “happy hardcore” of Juniper Tar to the cello experimentation of Janet Schiff. Participating musicians contributed to a Terror 11.9 compilation CD, mastered by Ben Derickson of Zod Records and available exclusively at the event. Then there’s the art: photographs by Emma Freeman and Amanda Rose, pixel art by Craig Robinson, prints by Dwellephant, Matt Cipov and Joy Harmon, among contributions from many other highly regarded artists. Artwork will be for sale and buyers and collectors are encouraged to make an appearance. And have we stressed that there’s a catwalk? More specifically, that a fashion show will take place on the catwalk, featuring area designers, models and stylists – […]

Now you see it…

By Amy Elliott + photos by Kate Engeriser You’re seeing something you know, but you don’t know what you’re seeing – that’s how “Super Subconscious” hits the eyes. Painted in grayscale and composed of hundreds of layered advertising icons, it shifts with your gaze; some things come into relief, others fall concealed. The panels of the mural snap as they sway and sink in the wind. You can hear it for blocks on Vliet Street when the traffic is light. Two kids who’ve come to skate at the Vliet Street Commons hoist their skateboards to shield the sun from their eyes.They laugh at the cackling mug of Spongebob Squarepants, point at the logos they recognize and the brands they like.   “Led Zeppelin,” says one to the other. “This is awesome.”   Its sharp lines catch the glances of drivers-by; it looks like an emphatic banner for an epic party in the Commons or a stark charge of political will. But the piece is the attempt of artists Harvey Opgenorth and Nate Page – in their own words – to “graft a mural-sized ‘representation’ of the subconscious mind” and “to disrupt commercially implied cultural value systems.” Later this month, Opgenorth will install “Subliminal” in the window of an empty storefront across the street at 4920 Vliet, a neon piece that will blink its own questions about the nature of advertising.   Both installations are part of a collaboration with the West End Vliet Street Business Association (WEVSBA) and IN:SITE (insitemilwaukee.org), an organization for the encouragement, management and promotion of temporary public art in Milwaukee.   “Vliet street has a lot of missing teeth,” says Pat Mueller, President of WEVSBA. “From 43rd to 60th we have Washington Park, the old 3rd district police station, Wick Field – things that sort of eat into our retail and commercial space.”   But that same stretch – 43rd to 60th – has no national chain stores, a fact that Mueller, and the artists working for IN:SITE, wanted to celebrate and explore.   “The whole climate of the city has changed since these business districts were built,” says Mueller. “The little stores that met people’s everyday needs don’t exist anymore. You have to find a niche, and to that end we have really moved toward art.”   The backbone of hope   IN:SITE embraces temporary art for reasons that are practical as well as conceptual. Less upkeep and financial overhead means more artists have the chance to share their voices and more neighborhoods can afford to participate. Non-permanent art can change with neighborhoods that are as dynamic and diverse as the people that live in them, and the projects always stay fresh, surprising and adventurous. In the North Avenue Gateway District on the west side, on the corner of a handsome but empty building, Chris Silva and Michael Genovese hang weathered signs, hand-lettered with equally weathered aphorisms: “Every man is guilty of the good he did not do;” “It is a sign of strength, not […]