2005-11 Vital Source Mag – November 2005
Embracing the Misunderstood
By Russ Bickerstaff Performance art has evolved into a true art form. Remember when pretentious yet often ridiculous artistes would do interpretive dances with paints and foodstuffs in an effort to make political statements, whether or not their audiences even had a clue about what they were trying to say? No longer – at least at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts’ Vogel Hall, where the Milwaukee Performance Art Showcase will doubtless draw an appreciative crowd on November 12. It’s being touted as a fast-paced show with a wide variety of work in different genres by area performance artists. Expect poetry, theater, visual art, music – and hula hoops. Last year’s showcase drew more than 400 people, and it’s predicted that this year’s event will attract even more. One highlight: Milwaukee’s 2005 National Poetry Slam Team, organized by local performance poet Dasha Kelly. The already-heightened levels of excitement will be raised up yet another notch when these “slam poets” take the stage. For the uninitiated, “slam” poetry is a type of performance poetry known for energized, emotionally-charged performances. Slam style has a certain cadence, a certain rhythm that can be very moving in small doses. “Slam performances tend to be more intense and explosive than regular performance pieces,” Kelly says. “Performance poetry is wholly engaging because you’re watching the artists create their own balance between two crafts: writing and oratory. Once you add the competition and time restrictions of slam, then you have these artists giving the audience their absolute best.” At this year’s event, four slam poets will deliver a collaborative poem. “Essentially, synchronized swimming with words. They will likely introduce a number of audience guests to a completely new art experience,” Kelly says. Along with redefining the written and spoken word, performance art also plays with visual statements. Skewing popular notions of fashion has become part of the performance art scene over the past few years, as edgy fashion shows find unique ways to shock the runway crowds. A fashion show by MIAD student Lindsay Hayden promises one “unlike any you’ve seen before.” That should be a challenge, as this city already has seen an edible fashion show and a fashion show set in a parking structure and featuring members of a prominent local opera company. Yet Hayden’s perspective may very well be fresh enough to deliver on the promise. Performance art is all about theater in one offbeat form or another. Local filmmaker Peter Barrickman and actor Randy Russell will perform a theatrical debate featuring cameo appearances by other local notables. Russell, star of Chris Smith’s restless 1995 film American Job, should offer an intriguing counterpart to a performance of Barrickman’s often skewed themes. Combining theater with visual artistry, Renee Bebeau, co-owner of the Zodiac Lounge, will explore the celestial zodiac with local MPS art guru Jeff Cartier. Bebeau’s work will also be featured later this month at the Walker’s Point Center in a piece called “Skeletal Reflections,” as a part of their El Dia de […]
Nov 1st, 2005 by Vital Archives
Secret Lives of the Service Industry
By Erin Wolf Double lives— Superman was the prime example of this once astonishing phenomenon. By day he was the affably geeky Clark Kent; by chance he was the wünder-boy with a red cape and a mission to serve the people, whether stopping trains or scooping up ladies in peril. With a secret life stashed neatly under his yellow belt, Mr. Kent may have been an anomaly back in the 1930s when he first crash-landed on the scene. Rocketing into the 21st century, however, into the mish-mosh of backgrounds that make up the labor force in the United States, untold legions of people line up to assume a Kent-like double life. By day, these contenders trot off to their white collar, blue collar, pink collar, ring-around-the-collar, or what-have-you jobs. By night, they are musicians, artists, writers, crafters, coordinators, small-business owners and cause-supporters. In the thriving arts community of Milwaukee, many of the jobs held by local double-lifers are in the service industry. The National Restaurant Association reports over 15,000 restaurants employing more than 262,000 people in Wisconsin, and much of the local arts community depends on these jobs to pay the bills and support their respective creative outlets. It’s not just about the Benjamins, though. They also enjoy the social outlet to balance the more solitary ‘artist’ experience, the connections made with customers and the incentive of ‘insta-cash’ for gear and supplies. In this month’s Vital, five Milwaukeean double-lifers share what it takes to keep a passion going while alternating creative time with hours punched in at their ‘day’ and ‘night’ jobs. Superman, eat your heart out.“It’s not always something to do to get through school. What if I were “just” a waitress? You gotta be cut out for it. People don’t realize how tough it is. You have to able to handle people, be easygoing, fast. It’s not for everyone,” says Colleen Drew of her part-time job as a server at County Clare Irish Inn and Pub. Freelance artist by trade, working on her paintings and illustrations in her personal time, Drew also works as a muralist for Artistic Finishes. She, with her partner and the founder of the operation, Laura Ashley, paints murals for private residences. “We just did a nursery that was a jungle theme with monkeys. We also did a whole room painted with old French posters.” Drew started in the service industry bussing tables at Mama Mia’s when she was fourteen years old and wanted some spending cash. “It was cool back then because I was so young and everyone else I worked with was seventeen and so cool– it didn’t seem like work,” she says. When it came time to decide on a career, Drew knew she wanted to be an artist. “When I was little, I was like, ‘Hey, I’m good at this!’ When we had to make Thanksgiving turkeys in school, I would put eyelashes and lipstick on mine, and everyone would say, ‘Oh, there’s Colleen’s.’” Her construction paper turkeys eventually became […]
Nov 1st, 2005 by Vital Archives
Just To Keep the Story Lit
By Paul Snyder It’s a longstanding debate over whether the God of Rock & Roll is a benevolent one. This God let Mark David Chapman loose in New York City on December 8, 1980 and sent Otis Redding’s plane into Lake Monona back in 1967. But the same God also pushed Mike Love out of the way so Brian Wilson could finally realize SMiLE and, just for a lark, threw George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison into the same studio in 1987. And this God has returned Alejandro Escovedo to the stage. For those unfamiliar with the man, the comparisons seem lofty; for those who know, they’re expected. It’s been a hard road back, but Escovedo is grateful to be able to lead his orchestra into Shank Hall on November 11 and the High Noon Saloon in Madison on November 12. “After being sick for two years and not being able to get out there, it’s just nice to feel strong enough to go out,” says Escovedo. “It’s my way of saying ‘thank you’ to the fans who’ve been so supportive through all of this.” Alejandro Escovedo collapsed from Hepatitis C complications after an April 2003 performance. The same disease claimed his brother Coke years earlier. Though Esovedo’s prognosis improved and he adopted lifestyle changes to manage the disease, he was a long way from home free. With no medical coverage, a large family to take care of and rising medical costs, Escovedo was also bereft of his means of making money – playing music. His biggest admirers stepped in. An array of artists founded the Alejandro Escovedo Medical and Living Expense Fund, and released Por Vida: A Tribute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo, a two-CD set featuring interpretations of his songs from contemporaries like Lucinda Williams, Los Lonely Boys and the Minus 5, and heroes like Ian McLagan, John Cale and Ian Hunter. A critical and commercial success, Por Vida lured new audiences to Escovedo’s catalogue, raised awareness for Hepatitis C studies, and brought the man himself back to the stage in late 2004. Escovedo is quick to use the term “full circle” when speaking of his career, and still talks about music with as much passion as a teenager who spends his entire allowance on new records. He compares the Beatles vs. Stones battles of the 1960s to the Blur vs. Oasis battles of the 1990s. He says that while England has a good pop conscience, the country will never produce the likes of a Sonic Youth. And while there’s a lot to be said for American music, “that Lynyrd Skynyrd redneck stuff can be pretty scary – even to a Southerner like me.” The one thing that becomes most apparent in our conversation is that first and foremost, Alejandro Escovedo is a big rock & roll fan. He’s even fashioned his own orchestra on [Small Faces/Faces legend] Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance label. “I used to follow him around, almost like a […]
Nov 1st, 2005 by Vital Archives
The New Old South
By Phillip Walzak If you’ve been thinking our modern, enlightened 21st century American society is free of dubious political maneuvers that make it harder for our fellow citizens to vote, then you haven’t been to Georgia lately. Reaching back to the halcyon days of Jim Crow, the state of Georgia has approved new legislation that requires people to show only government-issued photo identification to vote at the polls. Drivers licenses are accepted, but people without them must purchase a state ID card to vote, at a cost of $20 for a five-year card or $35 for 10 years. On the surface this may seem a small cost, but even these fees create a financial burden for the poorest citizens. And though both the Republican governor of Georgia and the GOP-controlled state legislature have insisted this new policy is necessary to combat voter fraud, the New York Times stated September 12 that “the vast majority of fraud complaints in Georgia, according to its secretary of state, Cathy Cox, involve absentee ballots, which are unaffected by the new law.” Ms. Cox says she is unaware of a single documented case in recent years of fraud through impersonation at the polls. In the tumultuous days before and during the Civil Rights movement, the poll tax was a tried and true tactic of the forces in the South who were opposed to integration, equality and justice. A per-person fee was assessed on African-Americans in a base attempt to drive them from the political process. It was designed by people in power to prevent others from using their own political voice. It was remarkably effective until the Supreme Court ruled in 1966 that such barriers to participation were unconstitutional, declaring “the right to vote is too precious, too fundamental to be so burdened.” Not so different from our Southern neighbors.It could be tempting to dismiss the issue because it’s Georgia – a battleground in the Civil Rights movement and, up until 2001, a state that proudly boasted the Confederate stars and bars on its state flag. Yet a glance at our own Republican legislature in Madison reveals that similar proposals could very well become law here in Wisconsin, home of the Progressive tradition. Like Georgia, those here in Wisconsin without government issued IDs tend to be minorities. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on June 13 that a Department of Transportation analysis found that of “black males between ages 18 and 24, 78 percent lacked a driver’s license,” the largest percentage of any demographic in the study. Other groups in which a majority lacked a driver’s license were black males of any age (55 percent lack a license), Hispanic women of any age (59 percent), and black women, Hispanic men, and Hispanic women between ages 18 and 24 (all between 57 and 66 percent.) “By contrast, only 17 percent of white men and white women of voting age in Wisconsin lack a driver’s license.” These same demographic groups also tend to struggle the most financially. It is […]
Nov 1st, 2005 by Vital Archives
