2003-12 Vital Source Mag – December 2003
Frizell Bailey understands the blues.
By Frizell Bailey 2003 has been dubbed the Year of the Blues, marking the 100th anniversary of W.C. Handy’s making some of the first blues recordings in 1903. I grew up in a Mississippi town so small that we had only one stoplight until they took it down in favor of stop signs a number of years ago. The town was small but the blues was large. At most gatherings, and in the hand full of bars in our tiny downtown, blues was what you expected to hear. There was a radio station in Jackson, the only real city in the state, that played all blues, except for a hip hop show late nights and gospel programming on Sundays. I hated the blues. For me it represented everything I wanted to separate myself from. Blues was the music of the downtrodden, the destitute and the uneducated. Desperately trying not to be the small town boy that I was, I turned away from the folksy sound that permeated my childhood. It wasn’t until moving to Jackson to attend college in ’91 that I began to appreciate the blues. It was a three-pronged process, beginning with a part-time job at the largest independent record shop in town, where I suddenly had all manner of music at my disposal. Then there was the influence of the store’s owners and my coworkers, who seemed to agree with Louis Armstrong. “If it sounds good, it is good.” So I gave everything I could a fair listening, from Aabba to Frank Zappa. The groundwork was laid. In 1997 I began teaching in the Mississippi Delta. For those unfamiliar, the Delta is the poorest region in the country. But it is also the birthplace of the blues. Many of the biggest names in the blues came out of this region, from B.B. King and Robert Johnson to Elvis Presley. He may be known as the king of rock and roll, but Elvis was first and foremost a blues man. It’s easy to see why the blues was born in this area. The land is rich, but the people are poor. Even today, most people work in agriculture or don’t work at all. It was amazing how much this land affected me. I finally began to get it. The final phase in the development of my appreciation of the blues occurred at the Subway. The Subway is a juke joint in Jackson offering some of the best live blues in America for a mere $5 cover. Located in the basement of a building that used to house the only hotel where black people could get reservations, Subway sells cans of beer on ice in a bucket and “blues” dogs at the house next door. Friday and Saturday nights, the joint is jumping. People crowd into the tiny space, black and white alike, and stand shoulder-to-shoulder, bodies gyrating, souls engulfed by the music. Whereas I once winced at the sound, today my heart swells, soaked to the core with […]
Dec 1st, 2003 by Frizell Bailey
Christmas in Iraq
By Megan Furcolow Christmas Eve: Christian families gather and hold lighted candles while one of the children reads aloud about the birth of Jesus. After the reading, everyone sings over a bonfire of thorn bushes — if the thorns burn to ashes, it will bring good luck in the coming year. When the fire dies, each person jumps over the ashes three times while making a wish. Christmas Day: As another bonfire burns in the churchyard, the bishop leads the service while carrying a figure of the baby Jesus. He blesses one person with a touch. That person touches the next person, and the touch is passed around until all have felt the “touch of peace.” — Chaldean Christmas tradition In the Cradle of Civilization Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers lies Baghdad, a city of five million people. Iraq itself is a country of twenty-three and a half million, of whom about five percent, or one and three-quarters million, are Christian. It may come as a surprise, but under Saddam Hussein’s regime, Christians enjoyed a measure of religious freedom not often found in the rest of the region. Five percent is enough to support six major Christian denominations in Iraq, and several smaller ones. The largest is the Chaldean Church of the East, a Catholic sect believed to have been founded by St. Thaddeus, who is credited with spreading Christianity to Mesopotamia, India and China. The Holy Apostolic and Catholic Assyrian Church of the East have written records dating to the late second and even first century, the time of the Apostles. The Syriac Orthodox church is another ancient denomination, and is believed to have been founded by the Apostle Peter in Antioch in 37 A.D. There is also the Syriac Catholic Church, founded by Syriac Orthodox Christians who reconciled with Rome in 1781; the Armenian Orthodox Church, and a small grouping of Protestant denominations. In Baghdad alone, there are forty-seven Christian churches of various denominations. At least thirty of the forty-seven were built after the Baath Party took power in Iraq in 1963. Before the Baaths, there were no Syriac churches — now there are six. In the same window of time, the number of Chaldean Catholic churches nearly tripled. Clearly the secularism of the Baathist regime did allow Christians to practice their faith with a freedom remarkable in that part of the world. Notably, only one Christian church (The Rising) was built in Bagdahd after the U.S. imposed sanctions in 1991. Christmas Past Christians in Iraq have been politically prominent. Saddam Hussien’s Foreign Minister, familiar to Americans as Tariq Aziz, is a Chaldean Catholic who was born Michael George Yohanna. On the other side of the fence are Christian Iraqis like Mowfaq Fattohi of the opposition Iraqi National Congress. Under Saddam, a walk down the streets of a shopping district in Baghdad in December might have closely mirrored its western counterparts. Christmas decorations, including nativity scenes, were seen in shops, restaurants and hotels. And Saddam reportedly sometimes […]
Dec 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
In Search of An Agenda
By John Hughes In recent months, Vital Source has been asking what we feel are four pertinent questions of nine candidates for Mayor of Milwaukee. Readers have had a chance to get a sense of the field, and the widely divergent styles and orientations of the would-be mayors. As the election now draws within just a few short months, and interest in the future of Milwaukee intensifies, we complete our survey with the same four questions, this time posed to mayoral candidate Leon Todd. Vital Source attempted to contact outgoing Milwaukee Police Chief Arthur Jones, but he declined to respond. Mr. Todd, a member of the Greater Milwaukee Green Party, has served on the Milwaukee School Board for a total of 12 years. He was Director of Public and Community Relations at Northwest General Hospital in Milwaukee, and Director of Sales and Marketing at the Rexnord Corporation’s Data Systems Division. He is also a former MPS School Board member. Holder of two Master’s degrees and one Post-Master’s degree in Urban Education, Mr. Todd is married, and the father of four grown children. He joins Tom Barrett, Vincent Bobot, David Clarke, Frank Cumberbatch, Sandy Folaron, Martin Matson, Tom Nardelli, John Pitta, and Marvin Pratt on the list of people whose thoughts have graced our pages. Mr. Todd answered our questions, and offered eleven additional pages of thoughts on a wide range of subjects. 1. What specific steps will you take to make the police chief more accountable to the people of Milwaukee? Eliminate the Police and Fire Commission and have the Police Chief report directly to the mayor. The Police and Fire Commission serve the political purpose of buffering the mayor from public accountability for the actions of the Police Chief. We must take the Harry Truman “The Buck Stops Here” [here being the mayor’s office] approach to Police Department accountability. The mayor must work with the Police Chief and not scapegoat that person and the crime issue for the mayor’s own political advantage. 2. To what extent is racism an ongoing issue in this city? How will you address it? It is a big issue. Just ask those races and ethnic groups who carry a 60-70 percent unemployment rate in the city. Just look at Wisconsin’s number one standing in the rate of incarceration of African Americans. Just look at the color of those who are doing the construction work on Capitol Drive and then look at the color of the majority of the residents, despite all of the hollow talk about Community Benefits Agreements. A lot of racism is generated from city hall when politicians play the race card for their self-serving politics. Race card politics governs a lot of public policy from city hall and has to stop. My wife and I are an interracial couple and as such we are stakeholders in leading this city to color blind stature. We have four interracial children, all of whom are successful products of MPS. 3. Is that algae or […]
Dec 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
Jimmy Leroy, Mall Mascot
By Alexander Ragir Jimmy LeRoy was there when the black-haired lady and her boyfriend left Bayshore mall and got on the bus. They stole a bra and pantyhose from Victoria’s Secret, and he saw it. “I knew something was wrong,” says Jimmy, scratching his head and dropping his hand over his face as if very embarrassed. “There was something very suspicious.” He first radioed it in, and then used his cell phone, given to him for emergencies by employees of the mall, to call the police. “I was brave. How’s that?” He stutters. “I was really brave. What about that?” Or at least this is how Jimmy remembers it. Jimmy is 65 years old and developmentally disabled. His heart outweighs his mind the way his smile is easier to understand than what he says. His mother died when he was 60, so now he lives alone. He wears sneakers and flannel shirts and has clear blue eyes. Employees and shoppers at Bayshore Mall take care of him, and Jimmy takes care of them. Jimmy’s favorite girl(s). “I’ve known Jimmy since the store opened 17 years ago,” says Patti Aversa, owner of the family-owned women’s clothing store, Aversa. “He is the mall mascot.” “She’s my favorite girl,” says Jimmy, putting his hand over his face again and smiling, exposing dentures that desperately need cleaning, “my favorite one.” “Jimmy, you need to shave better and brush your hair.” “I know,” Jimmy says with a sneaky look. “She’s like my sister.” “He has lots of sisters, don’t let him fool you.” Jimmy grabs her hand and gives it a kiss. “That’s the closest he gets to kissing me. Why are you showing off, Jimmy?” Jimmy nods and scratches his head nervously. Jimmy keeps himself busy at the mall. He gets the employees coffee, watches the kiosk while the employees use the bathroom, rides his bike around the parking lot looking for people who look suspicious, escorts women who carry purses and, most of all, keeps people company. “If I wasn’t here, the whole mall would collapse,” he says as he walks hastily toward Walgreen’s. “I have to be somewhere.” Jimmy takes his patrolling seriously. He’s also a serious flirt. “Hey Jimmy,” says a young brown-haired Alterra employee. “Hey, hot lips,” says Jimmy. “How are you?” she asks. “Peachy, peachy, peachy,” says Jimmy, waving goodbye and moving on toward Walgreen’s. After greeting the cashiers, Jimmy walks up and down the middle of the store, looking down each aisle looking for shoplifters. He moves slowly and cautiously. The 007 of Bayshore Mall. Every day he patrols the parking lot, riding his bike up and down the aisles looking for anything unusual. Jimmy has four bikes, but for patrolling he likes to use Red Spirit or Green Dragon. Red Spirit is a Trek and “is tricky and can smell trouble.” Green Dragon has two mirrors and is good for scoping the parking lot he explains, as he points to his head and wrinkles his forehead. Blue […]
Dec 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
Measuring Mayor Norquist
By Raymond Johnson As the final term of Milwaukee Mayor Norquist comes to a close, it is time to assess his impact on the city. I’ll leave it to others more qualified to weigh his affect on property taxes or schools, on government efficiency or city services. Here, per the name, I will be concerned about the developing city. Perhaps nothing indicates the Mayor’s interest in these matters more than the next job he is taking. John O. Norquist will become the President and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), a national advocacy organization dedicated to promoting good urban design. Mr. Norquist had served on the board of directors, and has shown supporters and skeptics alike the possibilities for using the principles of the CNU in existing cities. Perhaps the best way to understand the impact of his work is to look at some of the projects built on Mr. Norquist’s watch and assess their overall impact on the city. THE GOOD The Park East Freeway Demolition This has to be the apotheosis of Mr. Norquist’s tenure, bringing together key elements in his thesis on good urban design: freeways are bad for center cities because street grids are better movers of traffic; center cities are desirable because of their efficient access to people and markets; and government doesn’t need to subsidize private development. Sure, it will be a long time before it is ‘finished’, and we will probably get more than a few bad buildings, but if you love cities, this is about as good as it gets. The Riverwalk The Riverwalk is a close second to the Park East project. This is urbanism at its finest. Small-scale, pedestrian-oriented, and snaking through our city, the Riverwalk gives urban dwellers and visitors a different path through the city. Granted, its’ design, in places, is a bit pedestrian itself. The materials are sometimes cheap, the style retrograde, the details sloppy, and it often connects poorly with both the water and the city streets. But early mistakes lead to ongoing improvement. And really, the chief benefits of the Riverwalk are the improvements to our overall urban structure downtown: increased pedestrianism, new residences, shops and restaurants, and the reconnection of the city to its river. Third Ward Redevelopment The redevelopment of the Third Ward has been nothing short of amazing. Once an area of abandoned and underused storage buildings, the Third Ward is booming with loft conversions, new construction and restaurant and boutique openings. The overall street-scaping is of a decent muscular industrial style, in tune with the manufacturing history of the area. An amazing opportunity was missed when the area nixed a beautiful modern parking garage designed by Gastrau Furer Vogel Architects for the piece of junk you see standing on the corner of Water and Erie. This raises the question: as new construction pressures build, will the Third Ward build beautiful modern buildings to complement its beautiful existing ones? Time will tell. 6th Street Viaduct Until a few years […]
Dec 1st, 2003 by Vital Archives
