2003-11 Vital Source Mag – November 2003
When the Leaves Fall from the Trees
By Ben Merens This month, SCP welcomes guest author Ben Merens. Lucky will return in December. If you are inspired by parenting and would like to contribute a future column, send Lucky an email at slightlycrunchymama@yahoo.com. My two-year-old daughter and I were talking recently about birthdays. Actually, the discussion began when she asked me to tell about the day she was born. I tell her about mom being in the hospital and calling dad in the middle of the night. (The doctor had planned to induce labor on Friday afternoon. But she fooled us and chose to leave the womb very early on that Friday morning). I tell her about holding her after she came out of mom’s tummy and how we put her under a warm lamp because she was kind of cold when she was born. And then I tell her how mom fed her and told her “I love you” right away. And I tell her about how it snowed on her birthday and we all spent the day in the quiet of the hospital room… just the three of us. We all took a nap together. And then she came home. She loves to hear the story. And I love to tell it. Then I ask her. Do you know when your birthday is? She surprised me by saying “Yes I do!” “Oh really, and when is it?” I asked, anxiously awaiting her response. She is smart enough to tell me when she doesn’t know the answer to a question. So when she said she knew when her birthday was, I knew she’d say something that made sense to her and maybe to me. But I couldn’t imagine what that would be. I was quite sure, however, that it wasn’t going to be November 10th (her actual date of birth). “When the leaves fall off the trees Dad,” she said triumphantly. She smiled with the pride and satisfaction of knowing the answer to such an important question. But how did she manage to come up with this? I wondered. Then I realized that last year during the weekend of her birthday I was raking leaves into several piles in the back yard. And when the day of her party turned out to be a balmy 50 degrees and sunny, she and her friends ran outside and jumped in the leaves until the piles had been completely dispersed, as if they’d never existed. So, that is why she knows her birthday is “when the leaves fall from the trees.” There is something so innocent about the answer. So pure and real that I marvel at the simplicity of it. For my daughter, the month of November doesn’t even exist. But the change of the seasons is as real as she is.
Nov 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
Mojave 3
By Erin Wolf MOJAVE 3 Spoon and Rafter 4AD Mojave 3 has practically perfected the catchphrase, “quiet is the new loud.” With their exit from the shoegazing outfit Slowdive, we find them putting on the airs of alt-country, creating a sound rivaling bands like The Cowboy Junkies and Mazzy Star. Though select, these UK natives have built a very loyal following. Originally manned by Neil Halstead (vocals, guitars), Rachel Goswell (vocals, bass) and Ian McCutcheon (drums) in 1995, Mojave 3 later added the talents of Adam Forrester on keys and Simon Rowe on guitar creating one of the most pastoral sounds to be exported from England in recent times. Mojave 3 has continued in the vein of simplistic slo-core tinged with twang, and has created an introspective little album, Spoon and Rafter. More poignant and dreamy than 2001’s Excuses For Travelers with its’ upbeat tempo and orchestrations, the current effort shows Mojave 3 to be mellowing. This mellowing, however, may not necessarily be a wise decision when considering their original concept. At points, Spoon and Rafter seems almost too sleepy. Though their characteristic sound is soft and slow, sometimes too soft and too slow can be a recipe for record disaster when one song drones into the next. Aside from the departure into the more serene, the album is not a complete bust, and isquite brilliant in spots. The lovely, soft-but-twangy guitar sound once conjured up by the likes of Neil Young shows in the winsome track, “She’s All Up Above.” While “Too Many Mornings”, one of the record’s high points, calls the intro line from The Who’s “Love Ain’t For Keeping” their own. Hey guys, If you’re going to steal a line, at least make it more obscure… please. Overall, Spoon and Rafter is a nice collection of pretty, demure tunes; harmless and sweet — kind of like your kindergarten crush who brought you love notes on construction paper. At times, low key listening is a good breather for the soul, but, if you’re seeking the honesty and straight forward structure the band has become known for… you may not find it here.
Nov 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
Cheap Trick
By Rob McCuen CHEAP TRICK Special One Big 3 Records Mention Cheap Trick in some circles and brace yourself for the smug salvos that are sure to be flung your way. What can I tell the clueless dorks who think the Trick are an old and tired joke? Special One, Cheap’s first offering in six years (and dare I say it)? is better than Woke Up With a Monster, Robin’s hate-laden divorce record. While I’m at it, it’s damn near better than Revolver. Yep, Rockford’s lovable lads are back to span the globe and expand your mind with a flourish, and go see ’em, cuz they’re still the best live act in da biz when they wanna be. If shimmering power pop nuggets of love, loss and longing are your bag, run — (and don’t let me catch you downloading it) — don’t walk, to your fave retail outfit and purchase this gem like a man. You’re welcome, but I can’t waste all my energy pointing you into the right pop closets. Hell yeah they’re arrogant. They’re fabulous and the rat bastards have out-Beatled the Liverpool mop-tops themselves with this effort. Make no mistake, this is Robin’s record, and the thin man flexes the velvet of his million dollar voice on each and every number. He’s a street walking cheetah with a heart full o’ napalm, hate and menace on “Sorry Boy.” On the outstanding “Words,” “My Obsession,” “Pop Drone” and five other peerless instant classics, he is the perfect blend of Lennon, Bryan Ferry, Marc Bolan and Roy Orbison . “I Want You to Want Me” this ain’t. So yeah, so what if they only “rawk out” in two songs? This is a sad, melancholy soundtrack to lose your love to. I pace, I sing, I cry. For three days, I didn’t leave my house cuz I was obsessed with first “Words” and later “Too Much.” Robin never stops aching and yearning and the diminishing minor chords ala George Harrison guitars will saw your soul in half. The band basically lays back — mean, lean and pretty from top to back — and lets Robin’s voice carry the tunes. Robin Zander has simply become the finest white singer of anywhere or anytime. Living or dead, he’s the best there is. Tom and Zander carry their torches from song to song with the biggest and baddest choruses and middle eight bridges since Lennon and McCartney. So there. Oh yeah, Nielsen sings and plays brilliantly and Bun-man’s snare is a 12 pack of M-80’s going off all at once.
Nov 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
music is love.
By Laura Martin Music is love. Not a very popular David Crosby song, but an excellent summation of what music is to me. Everyone has those bands that they turn to in order to ease the pain of life or to celebrate the joy. For me, CSN&Y is such a band. A few years back, I left the comfort of my Milwaukee home in pursuit of a Master’s degree in Philadelphia. Born and raised in Milwaukee and the surrounding area, Philadelphia was quite a change for me. Fast cars and faster people gave me a bit of culture shock. I felt lost and a little depressed, and was even playing games with my own mind about how to justify getting out of town as fast as possible. A few months after my arrival, I saw that CSN&Y was coming to Philly for a reunion tour. I was thrilled. Since I had not been in Philly long, I couldn’t find anyone to go with. That, however, was not going to stop me from experiencing the blissful energy that they emitted. I hopped in my jeep and drove across town to the First Union Center. A bit scared and crazily excited, I walked up to the ticket line. True to CSN&Y’s message, the feeling in the air was of love and unity. Immediately, my fear vanished as I interacted with people of all ages and walks of life, sharing excitement about experiencing CSN&Y in their first North American tour since 1974. Although members of the group had gone their separate ways, their charisma had stood the test of time. I found my seat with minutes to spare. As the band came on stage, the audience roared in anticipation of the opening song. Before they even began, you could feel their energy move over the crowd. They sang songs old and new. True to their nature, they sang songs about the political and cultural upheavals of today and years gone by. One of my personal favorites was Stand and Be Counted, which encouraged the eager audience to go out and make a difference. Another new song, Seen Enough, spoke with passion of the disgust one feels about the problems of a society too obsessed with self. They also sang classics like Suite: Judy Blue Eyes and Teach Your Children. The evening proved to be more than I’d even hoped for. Having felt lost in a new city, without a personal compass or a friend to call my own, my energy and commitment to see through the goal of finishing my degree was renewed. My strength was inside me the whole time. The words of these four musicians reminded me of where to look. I have always been the kind of person that tries to spread the love and joy our universe has to offer. At times, I get discouraged by the hatred and fear I see in some people. After this concert, I was completely recharged and have remained so to this day. […]
Nov 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
Best Wines for Your Feast
By Nathan Norfolk Not only will there be turkey, there will be leftover turkey. This is often the sad reality of Thanksgiving: morphing from a holiday feast into weeks of monotonous poultry. Even the most dedicated carnivore can be reduced to thoughts of vegetarianism after his tenth cold turkey sandwich in half as many days. But there is hope. There are more wines that compliment plain old turkey than just about any other meat. Some reds are right. Cranberry sauce and stuffing aside, the logical accompaniment to Thanksgiving dinner is Pinot Noir. These are lighter-bodied red wines that won’t contribute excessive texture that can give poultry a cloyingly dry taste. If you have deep pockets, spring for a 1999 Burgundy, (which is French Pinot Noir). The layman can forego this route and avoid spending forty-plus dollars by picking up a simple Pinot Noir from California or Oregon. Erath 2001 Pinot Noir ($14) from Oregon is light to medium bodied with a juicy berry-ish fruit and a soft, dry finish. For a Pinot Noir with real character, Apoyo 2000 ($14) from Sonoma County has earthy flavors of tea and stewed fruits, and aromas of rainy fall days. It sounds crazy, but Pinot Noir can exhibit many peculiar yet enticing aromas. Some would even argue that it’s at its best with a slight chill. You don’t have to freeze the stuff, but ten minutes in the refrigerator gives it a nice crispness. And a little chill might help convince those squeamish about red wine in the first place to give it a try. Trying to please everyone is the catalyst for most holiday anxiety. Fortunately, when the time comes to find a wine for your Thanksgiving feast, there are many options. Pinot Noir isn’t the only red that pairs with turkey. If you crave something on the spicier side, try an inexpensive Italian Chianti such as Badiola ($9). It’s light and fruity, but has a pleasant tangy acidity that will perfectly compliment a peppery stuffing. Red Zinfandel works just as well. Rosenblum 2001 Vintner’s Cuvee XXV Californian Zinfandel ($10) is spicy with bright raspberry and cherry fruit and a subtle vanilla finish. If a full-bodied red is a must, skip Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. They will generally be too dry and tannic for most birds. Australian Shiraz, on the other hand is hearty, yet has a soft plum-like fruit. It would marry with turkey or less conventional Thanksgiving fare like Cornish game hens or a pork roast. Wynn’s 2001 Coonawara Estate Shiraz ($12) is firm and chewy, with a plummy fruit and a touch of white pepper. But if white is the thing… Of course there is also white wine. The most overlooked whites on the market today are Rieslings. Wine Spectator’s Matt Kramer calls Riesling, “the next really big white.” Rightfully so, Riesling is grown all over the world and has very high yields, which makes it easy and cheap to produce. It’s hard to think of a better white wine […]
Nov 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
Milwaukee’s New Cellulloid Heroes
Everybody’s a dreamer and everybody’s a star and everybody’s in show biz, it doesn’t matter who you are. —The Kinks It’s the story of an event that’s long overdue. Of an idea whose time has finally come. It seems like a natural phase in the evolution Milwaukee’s urban identity, something the city and its leadership would have embraced years ago. But bringing to life the Milwaukee International Film Festival has been die kampf, in large part, of Dave Luhrssen and Louis Fortis. Long recognized as one of the city’s culture tastemakers, Dave Luhrssen is a lover of film. As Arts and Entertainment Editor of Shepherd Express, Luhrssen has had the luxury, as the weekly newspaper has grown, to hand off the lion’s share of the writing to the legions of freelancers who contribute the majority of the section’s weekly coverage. But he prefers, for the most part, to review the films himself. So it’s not surprising that an International Film Festival would be his brainchild. Not that he and Fortis, Shepherd Express Publisher and festival co-founder are the first to try. According to Luhrssen, “several people in the past decade have floated the idea. I know of two groups who got to the talking point, meeting with people, etc. but never got very far.” A film festival may seem like one of those things we should just “have,” especially for a city spoiled by public spectacles like Summerfest, the Big Bang and even the Circus Parade. But staging an event of this magnitude is no picnic. “To do this, you really need a group of people with a financial platform to stand on,” says Luhrssen. “It’s enormously expensive. It’s very hard for it to come to life from within a coffee shop with interesting people who have good ideas. It needs the kind of support that comes from access to the right groups and the pockets to support up-front funding.” So in the spring of 2002, Dave and Louis, after months of toying with the idea, batting it around over coffee and floating it to a few trusted colleagues, decided to get serious. Destination: Mid by Midwest But as the planning got underway, the question went beyond what (a film festival) to what, exactly. That Milwaukee filmmakers would be featured was never in question. But how to showcase them in such a way that the festival would attract the overall attention it deserved and be of interest a broad audience was a bit of a challenge. The duo, along with Programming Director Jonathon Jackson, came up with a brilliant solution. The festival would include a regional competition, now called Mid by Midwest, featuring the work of filmmakers specifically from the region. This would give the festival a one-of-a-kind programming track (this is the only festival in the nation to feature the work of Midwestern filmmakers) and create a logical place in which to spotlight Milwaukee filmmakers specifically. “It was one of those really obvious things” says Dave. “Like, why didn’t […]
Nov 1st, 2003 by Jon Anne Willow
Bucketworks [Poietis Factorium Maximus]
By The Uncultured Bacterium After wandering the parking lot, you settle on the only nearby entrance — a side door with no sign on it. Inside, you look over what seems to be the loading dock of a warehouse that goes a long way back. On the way in, you say hello to the guard in the security booth, and ask him if you’re in the right place. Cleverly camouflaged behind the dirty glass, it takes a second to realize you’re actually talking to a cardboard cutout. Since June of 2002, Bucketworks has been in a converted factory building at 1319 N. Martin Luther King Drive in Milwaukee. It’s not an art gallery — though it does offer one. It’s not a theater, though plays are produced there. It’s not a craftshop or art studio, though it it’s lavishly equipped for both. It’s not even a party room, though it’s been used for that. In a clever use of the Chaos Theory derived idea of “fuzzy logic,” it can be said that Bucketworks is… whatever you want it to be. Buckets of space in which to play. According to its brochure, Bucketworks offers communal art workshops and emergent learning classes in a wide variety of areas, working with emerging Milwaukee artists to create, exhibit and perform new work, helped along by an all-volunteer staff. The founders of Bucketworks are James Carlson, Alexi Easton and Melissa Merline, who took advantage of an unexpected opportunity and ran with it. Carlson, a self-described tech guy, had the idea, decided to fund it himself, then called his old boss at the 1319 N. MLK Building and ran the idea by him. Turned out that the business was downsizing and the bottom floor was available. He then brought in Alexi, who majored in communications, and Melissa, who has a long background of volunteer work, and will soon be attending Alverno College. The trio now had a very impressive 8,000 square feet of space to play with, along with all sorts of, well, stuff. Stuff that the previous business had left behind, which they now keep in an area they called The Found Objects Library. If you ever saw the episode of The Simpsons where Bart buys a factory and finds himself with all sorts of new industrial toys, you get the idea of what’s in there. They organized everything into three general areas — The Gallery, where works are exhibited; The Playspace, a versatile area that can be a theater, dance hall, party room or mob art creation area (depending on how it’s configured); and the spectacularly appointed Workshop, which is further subdivided into “factories” that cover just about every artistic or creative discipline known to man (though I did note the absence of a forge and foundry). There’s the Sound Factory; the Change Factory, which includes silkscreen equipment; the Thing Factory, which includes woodworking tools — a 50�cale Basilosaurus was under construction when I visited; the Vision Factory for 2-D work in oils, crayons […]
Nov 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
November 2003
Dear Readers, I’m always hesitant to hail new heroes, especially when all I have to go by is a single action. With that disclaimer, my new hero (not displacing Chief Tonasket out there in Washington) is Nathaniel Heatwole. If you’ve been living in a box, Heatwole is the 20-year old Massachusetts lad who loaded a couple of Southwest Airlines flights with dangerous contraband like boxcutters and bleach on several occasions from February to September without getting caught, then told the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) about it by email on September 15. A month later, when they finally got around to reading it, they contacted Heatwole at the phone number he left them. He was promptly arrested and now faces up to ten years in prison. He claims he committed an act of civil disobedience out of concern for a lack of real airport security. The Fed, naturally embarrassed, is dying to prosecute him to the full extent of the law. U.S. Attorney Thomas DiBiagio has made his position perfectly clear. “This was not a prank. This is not poor judgment,” DiBiagio said. “This is a crime… ” Right he is. But what, exactly, is the nature of the crime? And, one could argue, who committed it? Also from the “scary but true file,” George Bush recently told Brit Hume in a Fox News interview that he doesn’t bother reading the news. It’s so bizarre that I have to print a portion of it here: HUME: How do you get your news? BUSH: I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. In all due respect, you’ve got a beautiful face and everything. I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what’s moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who probably read the news themselves. But like Condoleezza, in her case, the national security adviser is getting her news directly from the participants on the world stage. HUME: Has that been your practice since day one, or is that a practice that you’ve… BUSH: Practice since day one. HUME: Really? BUSH: Yes. You know, look, I have great respect for the media. I mean, our society is a good, solid democracy because of a good, solid media. But I also understand that a lot of times there’s opinions mixed in with news. And I… HUME: I won’t disagree with that, sir. BUSH: I appreciate people’s opinions, but I’m more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what’s happening in the world. HUME: Mr. President, thank you very much. Indeed. I don’t even have anything to add to that. Except that the hair on the back of my neck won’t lay down. Maybe some gel or something would do the trick, I don’t know. By now you’ve probably heard that the letters […]
Nov 1st, 2003 by Jon Anne Willow
