2007-11 Vital Source Mag – November 2007
Union Forever
It’s an unseasonably hot October afternoon in Greendale, and Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant are holding a press conference. Looking appropriately pallid and drawn, Lincoln dabs at his brow and scans the crowd, patiently awaiting the next question. Minutes pass. Flies plow through the humid air. People shuffle their feet uncomfortably and General Grant looks like he’s going to pass out. Finally, a doughy, middle-aged man in Packers-flavored Zubaz raises his hand and breaks the silence. “Mr. President,” he begins. “Which battle of General Grant’s recent campaign do you feel has been most important for the Union?” Lincoln clears his throat and starts to answer, but his words are lost on me (something about Pittsburgh?) My brain – usually a finely furnished warehouse of post-collegiate knowledge and Full House trivia – is currently nothing more than an aching, throbbing, hung-over mess from the night before. Now, half-asleep in an overcrowded barn, listening to the Great Emancipator himself yammer on about an ancient, tide-turning battle (Vicksburg?), the events of the past 24 hours begin to blend together. One second it’s “We will never forget the sacrifices of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,” the next it’s “I now pronounce you husband and wife through the authority of the Universal Life Church of Modesto, California.” Eventually, the two men finish things up and the crowd breaks into applause, snapping me back to the re-enacted reality at hand. I’m at the 4th Annual Civil War Encampment at Trimborn Farm, located in charming Greendale, Wisconsin – a five-minute drive from the Southridge Olive Garden. It’s a quaint event, and not nearly as kitschy as one might expect: basically a home-brewed Renaissance Fair with slightly more historical significance and a lot less jousting. As always, I’m accompanied by my long-suffering girlfriend, who, like myself, finds any event whose itinerary includes the words “Press Conference with Abraham Lincoln & General Ulysses S. Grant in the Threshing Barn” simply too good to pass up. Leaving the confines of the Threshing Barn behind, we take in the sights. Horses stand tethered to trees near a clutch of Union tents and lean-tos on the farm’s west end. The Confederate camp lies 100 yards to the east, just beyond a stone root cellar and an entirely authentic Cousins Subs cart. Barefoot children in Huck Finn suspenders dart past period-costumed women tending to small pit-fires across from a dilapidated pump house. A vintage baseball team playing sans gloves – The Milwaukee Cream Citys BBC – puts on an exhibition near the Jeremiah Curtin House (free tours all year round!). The sound of snare drums and harmonicas is inescapable, and the air is thick with the smell of gunpowder and horse shit. We sit down in the grass near the main field for an infantry firing demonstration. As we watch the “troops” go through an endless series of formations and exercises (prompting one snot-nosed weasel to shout, “Start the war, already!”), I’m struck by the precision, the exactness, the reverence of their actions. It’s a […]
Nov 1st, 2007 by Matt Wild
November 2007
November 6th Angels & Airwaves I-Empire Geffen Chris Brown Exclusive Jive Jimmy Buffett Live in Anguilla Mailboat Cassidy B.A.R.S. Full Surface/J Counting Crows Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings Geffen Kevin Elliot and The Broken Damage of This Day Broke City Rob GEE Rob GEE Rock Ridge Music Jay-Z American Gangster Def Jam Kanekoa Under the Coconut Sky Major Hana/Fontana/ Universal Keak D Sneak Deified Broke City Little Big Town A Place to Land Equity Music Group Monster Magnet 4 Way Diablo SPV Nonpoint Vengeance Bieler Bros. Nicole Scherzinger Her Name is Nicole… Interscope Rick Springfield Christmas With You Gomer November 13th Boys II Men Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA Decca Dane Cook Rough Around the Edges: Live From Madison Square Garden Comedy Central Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works U.K. – Relapse Céline Dion Taking Chances Epic Duran Duran Red Carpet Massacre Epic Aretha Franklin Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen Arista The Hives The Black and White Album Octone/Interscope Ja Rule The Mirror The Inc. Alicia Keys As I Am J LCD Soundsystem 45:33 DFA Nelly Brass Knuckles Derrty/Universal Pitbull The Boatlift TVT Seal System Warner Shaggy Intoxication Big Yard/VP James Taylor One Man Band Hear Music Wu-Tang Clan The 8 Diagrams Loud/SRC/Universal Trisha Yearwood Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love Big Machine November 20th Foxy Brown Brooklyn’s Don Diva Black Rose Entertainment/Koch Daft Punk Daft Punk Alive 2007 Virgin November 27th Mary J. Blige Growing Pains Matriarch/Geffen Kylie Minogue X International-EMI
Nov 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
