The Stratford 4

By Jeremy Saperstein An activist San Francisco who combine an echoey, distorted sound with tight songwriting and boy-girl vocals? Nah, it couldn’t be! The Stratford 4 formed from the same roots as fave rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but give us a dreamier, poppier sound that’s reminiscent of the shoegazer bands of the 80s and 90s while never stooping to pure copying, gracefully entwining sinewy guitar leads with blast of fuzzed out rhythm. Others will hear suggestions of Hoboken’s sometime noise merchants in Yo La Tengo — probably owing more to the S4’s way with a pop tune and their lack of fear of atmospheric freakouts and loud, distorted guitars (the CD title is a good shorthand description of the contents). Jetset Records

By Raymond Johnson Although the Park East freeway spur is not yet completely demolished, it is already beginning to be hard to remember exactly what it the spur itself was like. The area is brighter and less foreboding. And with the new McKinley Ave. taking shape, a sense of concreteness and inevitability envelops the project. It is really going to happen. Milwaukee really is going to return this area to productive use after decades on the public dole. It is not too early then to ask (indeed, hopefully not too late), how will we remember this great wound inflicted on our city? As the scar slowly disappears, how will we memorialize those who sacrificed their homes and livelihoods for this freeway, those who stopped it short of the lake, and those who have pushed it back to Sixth Street? And finally, how will we teach our children what was done here, both so that they may learn from these mistakes and take inspiration from this battle to fight others looming on the horizon? Thus far, such remembering seems to have been all but forgotten. The model presented last November at City Hall was mostly about healing and repairing. While this is important, we must also remember. For a while, maybe decades, this likely will not be necessary. The newness of it all, the new streets, new buildings, new businesses, and new residents will be a constant reminder of the wastefulness of what once stood. Before then, and probably for a least a decade, the open space waiting to be filled with all this newness will be a reminder. No, the remembering will not be truly needed until much later, perhaps after the first new building expires its term of usefulness and is torn down. The piers: monolithic monuments to past mistakes. How about a monument? A monument to the destruction and eventual rebuilding of our city, one that matches that which occurred. The piers that once held up the spur are such a natural choice. Their scale exactly matching that which existed, they would be a perfect reminder of the Park East Freeway spur. Unfortunately most of these piers have already been razed. The best single one to have kept, on the median of Water St., has been torn down. This pier would have been a highly visible reminder, Water St. being such a prominent thoroughfare. There are only three others remaining – two in the Milwaukee River and one on the west side of 3rd St. All three should be left standing. As Milwaukeeans return to the River as a prime location to live, work, and play, the two piers left standing within will become increasingly visible. The third pier has an opportunity to be magical. It stands on the lot line of 3rd St., just north of the Sidney Hih building. Somehow the City needs to keep this pier to be reused within the structure of a new building or public space. The possibilities are limited only by […]

Richard Thompson

By John Hughes Richard Thompson’s new CD The Old Kit Bag advertises that it contains “unguents, fig leaves and tourniquets,” presumably for the listener’s soul. It actually delivers better than that; emollients for melancholy, curatives for the blues. It delivers nothing less than the pure healing joy of delectable music. Thompson has been breathing life into the decidedly uncool British folk tradition for 35 years, almost always to tremendous effect. This may be his best outing in all that time. He achieves this by stripping his sound down to the basics: his confident singing, in a voice which sounds as smokey and gladdening as a McEwan’s Scottish Ale tastes, and his guitar playing, which is spectacular. It is obvious here again that Richard Thompson is the real Slowhand. His dazzling guitar artistry is virtuosic, inventive, dancing, superior to the power blues of Eric Clapton because so much more nimble and versatile. He’s more fun to listen to than Clapton, and leaves you feeling exuberant. The songs are all richly detailed and thick with sound, and the backup singing of Judith Owen is a complementary highlight, but the guitar playing carries the day from beginning to end. At times it is so good that it hurts to listen. Richard Thompson, at his peak here, creates arresting beauty for your heart. SpinART Records

Three Steps to Natural Birth Control

By Stephanie Simmons You have made the commitment to be healthier, use more natural products and be more aware of your body. Are you or your partner using chemical contraceptives? If you’re looking for a more natural option, the information here might help to unveil the mystery of female fertility so you can dump the chemicals and follow the drumbeat of nature. This isn’t cocktail party conversation, but it is fascinating. If more people would talk about fertility awareness out loud, there would be less need for chemical birth control and fewer unintended pregnancies — especially in the teen years. Understanding the female fertility cycle is not complicated — really! Both females and males can read the signs of impending ovulation. The female cycle is not silent, it gives signs to let you know what is going on at all times. For the typical female, ovulation occurs approximately 2 weeks before you get your period. When the female body is getting ready to release an egg (which only lives for 12 to 24 hours), definite changes take place, due to the increase in estrogen which controls ovulation. You can chart these physical changes to see individual patterns, or simply use the following three steps to decide whether or not you should have intercourse during the fertile time. By avoiding intercourse or using a barrier method of birth control (like condoms) while the female partner is fertile, you avoid pregnancy! In other words: Do you want a baby? Or, not this month! It’s as easy as 1-2-3 One tell-tale sign that a woman’s body is ready to conceive is noticeably higher than normal amounts of clear discharge, which is actually cervical fluid. Cervical fluid travels from the cervix (which separates the vaginal canal and the uterus) in the uppermost part of the vagina down to the vaginal opening. Sperm need cervical fluid as a medium in which to travel to the egg, and as sustenance. They can live in the presence of cervical fluid for up to five days. Fertile female cervical fluid is mostly clear and stretchy, like raw egg white. When clear fluid is more than usually present and you introduce sperm, expect to achieve pregnancy. Another sign that a female is fertile is the cervix itself. In addition to producing fluid, it opens up slightly to allow the sperm to travel through the uterus and into the fallopian tubes where the grand prize, the egg, is waiting. A woman or her partner can reach up into her vaginal canal and feel her cervix. During the unfertile phase the cervix feels like the tip of the nose and is firm, low and closed. When a woman is about to ovulate her cervix feels soft, high and open. The third sign of female fertility is increased libido. This increase is usually very noticeable not only to the woman, but to her partner as well. It makes sense that nature makes us want sex most when we are physically capable of […]

L’auberge Espagnole

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Tim Clausen Hears Voices

By John Hughes Tim Clausen, 43, is sitting motionless in his darkened East Side home, concentrating. Within my view are several stacks of books, towers of videos and CDs, an elderly upright piano, a forest of plants, and this lean individual, listening with both ears. He is listening to the voices of deep pain, a network of desolation, on a CD which he has recorded and produced. The CD is entitled, The Voices of September 11: The Families, and that is just what it is. Without sound effects, mood music, or Hollywoodish voice-overs, the CD is simply an hour of brutally honest interviews with families who have survived the death of a loved one. Tim is the one interviewing them on the CD, probing openly, honestly, and gently, listening with a compassion indicated by his groans and appropriate chuckles. He has recorded over 80 hours of conversations with the bereaved, giving the CDs to the families he’s interviewed, as keepsakes he calls “Lifeworks legacy-interviews,” time capsules made “so kids can get to know their Dads through this.” He has distilled the 80 hours into one, for the rest of us, to hear, and contemplate and remember. A hundred anguished voices “I see the point of the airplane in my living room,” says the mother of one of the pilots whose plane smashed into the World Trade Center. “Repeatedly. I sought out a psychiatrist, because I keep seeing the fire in my living room. I never knew death was so bad. But there’s nothing I can do.” “We were hearing reports that they were pulling out live people from the rubble, but I didn’t want my husband down underneath there with a hundred broken bones, bleeding” says one widow. “So I went outside and went out to the top of the street, and just lost it. And I prayed to God, ‘Please tell me he’s with you, and not suffering down here terribly. Just give me a sign.’ And moments later, I looked up, and saw a shooting star. And this huge rush came over me and I thought, ‘Oh my God. He’s home. He’s with God now, and I need to accept that. I knew he wasn’t coming back.” The listening is harrowing, it revisits the horror of those events, now nearly two years old, but Tim is unflinching, in both the interviewing, and the listening with me. He’s looking straight into the horror. For the general populace, those events are beginning to recede into history, but for the bereaved, their loved ones are dead again today. Tim Clausen has extended a hand to a few of those many still grieving. A mentor sows the seeds of change Tim was born and raised in Oconomowoc, by his own admission “did extensive research and development with chemicals,” dropped acid daily for months on end, and, by the age of 16, found himself in a treatment center. There, he met the man who was to change his life, an Episcopal Bishop, Chandler […]

Spellbound

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Pondering the Legacy of Our Smirking Commander

By Mary McIntyre Before we offer ourselves up to be entranced by the beat of any more war drums, it would behoove us to assess the trustworthiness of our commander-in-chief. In response to the recent questions regarding the reliability of intelligence substantiating Saddam’s possession of illicit weapons that have yet to be found, Bush has stated to the press, “The credibility of the country is based upon our strong desire to make the world more peaceful, and the world is now more peaceful after our decision.” Okay. Let’s put aside the question of government intelligence and dare to apply our own intelligence for a moment to weigh his words against the reality of events. The world is now more peaceful… ? “…the world is now more peaceful after our decision.” Let’s think about how that jives with the May 12 series of coordinated, multiple suicide bombings of the Vanell compound in Riyadh — the biggest attack against American interests since 9/11. Or, the kickoff of a series of suicide bombings in Chechnya that killed dozens and wounded a few hundred on May 13. And the May 14 bombing of 21 British and US gas stations in Pakistan. Does anyone remember the five suicide attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, that claimed 41 casualties on May 15? Or the multiple alerts set forth a few days later by Great Britain to its citizens in six East African states — Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda —along with the banning of flights to and from Kenya. Or the fact that this succession of events was punctuated by a taped phone call, recorded by Al Qaeda’s deputy chief and widely broadcast by Al Jazeera (but curiously, not by the US media), calling for attacks on Western targets worldwide? “Road map” lost on the highway to hell. Despite this obvious acceleration of violence, Washington continues to insist that Al Qaeda has suffered serious setbacks, and scorns the idea that it was distracted from the “war on terror” by invading Iraq. The Taliban, for its part, has demonstrated its resurgence in the boldest anti-West attack since November 2001, through a recent suicide bombing that killed four German peacekeepers, an attack that took place while Afghanistan’s pro-American leader, Hamid Karzai, was in Britain receiving an honorary knighthood from the Queen. It looks as though the tattered “Road Map” has been lost on the blood-slick highway to hell, with both sides now vowing to fight to the bitter end, causing multiple attacks and numerous casualties on a daily basis. It is difficult to dispute that when you “connect the dots”(a phrase that so easily rolls off the tongues of our smug officials these days), the picture that emerges is not one of peace. Taking “victory” for a spin. Before returning to the question of government intelligence and the original premise for the Iraq war, let’s re-examine the spin that’s been placed on the word “victory.” Saddam Hussein is still conspicuously at large, rumored to be offering bounty to […]

July 2003

By Jon Anne Willow Dear Readers, First off, I’d like to congratulate the winners of our Danceworks Summer Camp scholarship drawing and essay contest. We received lots of entries (interestingly, not one single essay) and, after tough deliberation, chose three. The winning entries are below, and black and white doesn’t do them justice. Thanks to everyone who entered. We had a great time with this month’s cover story. With the economy “a little slow” these days, more of us are looking closer to home for vacations. In our last editorial meeting, a straw poll revealed a rising popularity (at least for now) in day trips. Everyone had fave spots within a day’s drive, where one can discover the spirit of Wisconsin — from grass roots entrepreneurs building attractions in the middle of nowhere, to awesome (someone else’s words) limburger cheese sandwiches. We chose a handful of our favorite nearby getaways. We hope you enjoy our little tour. Speaking of the spirit of Wisconsin, Andrew Muchin’s piece on Wisconsin’s Jewish history is both a nostalgic look at times that once were, and a wistful reminder that the close knit community that once defined rural America is fading, never to return. The pictures are phenomenal. With the Tobacco Control Board now a thing of the past (that didn’t last long, eh?), the already fragile “tobacco settlement” allocation for anti-smoking efforts has once again been substantially reduced. And even research showing a decline in youth smoking in the state over the course of the Board’s tenure (a brief three years) could not save them. Coincidentally (?), the tobacco lobby in Wisconsin is uncommonly strong. But there’s at least one group that will fight on, whether or no they are brought into the funding fold of the new office in the Department of Health. Strive Media Institute is a full service agency (they produce the FACT anti-tobacco campaign), publisher, and producer of an Emmy-winning TV show (Gumbo TV), based right here in Milwaukee. Their work is good, really good, as a matter of fact. And the coolest part is that they’re all high school students. Writers, producers, photographers, web developers, on down the line. Strivers become leaders, and know that the only way to keep the power with the people is to understand the bigger picture. These kids are amazing, as are their adult mentors. Strive is another hidden gem in Milwaukee’s bursting treasure chest. Frizell Bailey reports on Strive and the Big Tobacco big picture in Wisconsin. By the time this issue has been on the streets a few weeks (the challenge of the monthly), a new budget will probably be passed. Everyone seems to have their pet watch areas. While it’s so hard to pick just one, I am most intrigued by Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer’s movement to “time out” property taxes for three years. Doyle has said he will veto it, no matter how much wheeling and dealing Panzer and Dennis George (D- Milwaukee) accomplish behind closed doors. And while […]

The “Thud” of Semantics for an Old Paperboy

The “Thud” of Semantics for an old Paperboy To Whom It May Concern: Please inform Andrew Hollis (“Confessions of and [sic] Old Paperboy” May 2003) that the thud he heard on his front porch wasn’t the Sunday Journal, but rather the Sunday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Also, if he did indeed deliver the paper in the “predawn morning,” it wasn’t the Journal he delivered, it was the Sentinel. A bit of fact-checking would have made clear to him the fact that where there were formerly two daily papers, there is now one that bears the combined name of its accomplished and award-winning predecessors. unsigned Ed. Note: Thanks for clearing that up. The power of propaganda Now that one Mideast war is in limbo, what to do about another decades-old debacle. Indeed, where are all the peace lovers when it comes to the tragic, intolerable Israel-Palestine conflict? Israel is, of course, blameless while the US generously subsidizes its outrageous, obscene, unlawful, shameless oppression—to the tune of millions of dollars per day, courtesy of uninformed, ignorant, naïve US taxpayers. Talk about denial. If ever the peaceniks need a cause, here is one ready-made disaster begging for attention. America is immoral vis-à-vis Iraq, but Israel isn’t re: the Palestines, get it? Their illegal occupation, killing and slaughter, violence and carnage are ignored, justified, defended, glibly explained away. Any discussion, marches or speeches? Any peep out of anyone, especially anti-war zealots and/or freedom lovers? Ah, yes, the power of propaganda. James A. HendersonMilwaukee Who’s whining here? Dear Editor Willow, As editor you are responsible for keeping a tight rein on what crosses your desk. Had Czarnik taken the time (Developing City, June 2003), he could have asked some real questions, rather than just running a bunch of whines from artists occupying the property (the Walker’s Point Arts Building). For instance, what is the building currently assessed at? This is public record (you have a lazy writer), and since the artists are concerned their taxes will rise under the new ownership, just how do they expect the new owner to offset the increase? By lowering the rent? What is the amount that a few of the artists pay in rent monthly? When was the last time they had a rent increase? How much? What do they currently pay for square footage and what does that breakdown to in comparison with other spaces rented by artists? Had you addressed any of these questions, it would inform your readers. And while your writer was at it, he might have asked how many of the artist/occupants actually reside in the Walker’s Point neighborhood. If they’re going to say “they make the neighborhood what it is,” shouldn’t your writer have a few facts to back that silly boast? This “feature” reminds me of those who grouse when their property taxes rise, but when they get ready to sell, are more than happy to pocket what that new assessment brings them. Bea TasselMilwaukee

Parenting Freedoms

By Lucky Tomaszek Let Freedom Ring Having lived in a couple of different states before moving to Wisconsin, and having made lots of cyber-friends from all over the country, I can tell you that we live in a pretty good place for parenting freedoms. This state truly seems to trust parents here to make the best decisions for their children. However, under our current presidential administration, things are changing around the country. Parents need to be watchful, keeping an eye on what’s going on in the world of parenting politics. Consumer activism is the most powerful tool in America for maintaining or changing the status quo. Freedom in birth Wisconsin’s laws about homebirth and traditional homebirth midwifery are conveniently vague. The law does not discuss homebirth. The law also does not address non-nurse midwifery. The absence of mention of these subjects make Wisconsin an alegal (or gray) state for people who want to give birth at home with a non-nurse midwife. Right now, that’s very nice for the home birthing community. The state knows that families are choosing homebirth and that traditional midwives are attending. Midwives receive birth certificate forms from the state and sign them. Midwives also advertise openly here, in newspapers, magazines and even the phone book. Unfortunately, it’s always possible for this to change. Because traditional homebirth midwifery is not protected by law, it would be very easy for the pendulum to swing the other way, as it has in Illinois. Twenty years ago, Illinois had an active homebirth midwifery community, and now, due to the state re-interpreting the Nurse Practice Act, there are approximately five non-nurse midwives practicing in the state. Similar to our lack of regulation regarding traditional homebirth midwives, Wisconsin also has no laws on the books regarding freestanding Birth Centers. Currently, there is only one freestanding Birth Center in the state, located in Madison. The Certified Nurse Midwives who are running the Birth Center are putting together legislation in the hopes of regulation and thus, protection from being closed down, if the law is re-interpreted as it was with homebirth midwifery in Illinois. There are some murmurings of a freestanding Birth Center opening in the Milwaukee are in the next two or three months. But the woman who is working on this wants to see how it goes in Madison and lend her hand to legislative efforts before dedicating her heart and soul (and hundreds of thousands of dollars) to a project that could be washed up by a change of spirit in the Wisconsin legislature. Freedom to vaccinate (or not) Most people vaccinate their kids automatically, out of a desire to protect their children from illness and disease. But vaccination is a deeply personal decision that should be made by people who have chosen to become truly informed about the benefits and risks. Both the pro- and anti- vaccination camps have compelling evidence to support their claims, and both have some truly inspiring things to say about the rightness of their own […]

Arab Strap

By Michael Seidel What I’ve always loved most about Arab Strap is their unapologeticness. Drinking, fucking and, well, just fucking up are all endlessly recurring themes throughout their oeuvre, but never, not once is there a ‘sorry’, nary a pinkie toe dipped in the stagnant pool of regret. Arab Strap understand and even embrace the concept of human fallibility, that missteps are the bedrock of experience and perspective. The band, who hail from Glasgow, Scotland, recently completed their second tour in support of Bright Eyes, whose influence on Monday at the Hug and Pint is undeniable (leadman Connor Oberst even lends backing vocals to a track called “Flirt”). Flourishes of vaguely esoteric instruments (esoteric in the scope of rock, that is) like lap steel, bagpipes, violin and accordion are liberally distributed, creating a record that’s fuller, more confident and even – gasp! – more American sounding than previous efforts. The record follows the black comedy protocol that the band established as far back as its first record – it’s the next chapter in Arab Strap’s continuing saga of closing times, betrayals, mutual deception and dirty weekends that transition effortlessly into filthy weeks. Monday at the Hug and Pint isn’t a good starting point for those unfamiliar with the band (Philophobia should play that role), but it is a nice little chap piece, essential for anyone set on assembling the entire Arab Strap puzzle. Matador Records