VITAL
Fasten Closes Storefront; Sparrow Takes Flight
On April 30, Fasten Collective closed the doors to its retail space in Bay View for good. I’d heard murmurings here and there of the store closing, and like most people assumed that it was yet another beloved Milwaukee institution that sadly, fell victim to the economy. As it turns out, I was wrong. About a week prior to the actual closing, owner Janelle Gramling (and designer behind the label Little Ocean) sent out an oddly upbeat newsletter, announcing the end of Fasten’s storefront that at the same time assured friends and customers that Fasten the collective was still alive and well. While Fasten will no longer operate as a storefront, a new cooperative would move in immediately, working to uphold Fasten’s local arts mission while at the same time broadening the store’s inventory by offering wares from around the nation. Enter Sparrow Collective, the joint venture of local artist/designers Jessica Franzen and Lisa Wierzbinski. Franzen and Wierzbinski have been Fasten members since about 2007, and both sold their designs and have volunteered at the store up until now. I chatted it up with the Sparrow ladies and Fasten’s Janelle Gramling about the decision to close Fasten and what this new collective means for Milwaukee’s craft/DIY scene. TCD: What lead you to close Fasten? JG: The decision to close Fasten was a hard one to make. Myself and the member designers were really accomplishing Fasten’s mission successfully – we brought together dozens of local designers and artists, gave them the opportunity to show their work, sell their work, and participate in the gallery/retail operation. Our nurturing atmosphere was really beginning to yield some great talent, the products in the store growing more and more impressive. However, after over three years in business, the store had yet to turn a profit. It became increasingly difficult for me to keep up with the demands of overseeing the store (even with the great help of volunteer designers), and I found myself sacrificing time that I wanted to spend on my own label. I knew that there were things that had to be done to keep the store open. Bringing in designers from out of town, shifting the focus away from clothing and bringing in new more gifty items, and changing consignment rates were all ideas on the table. But I strongly felt as though those changes were all counter to Fasten’s local arts mission. TCD: How was Sparrow created? JG: Jessica and Lisa were member designers volunteering at Fasten a lot. After I started talking with the members about having a hard time keeping things together, they came to me and let me know that they were interested in starting something up. I was relieved that someone had the guts to make it happen and keep the space alive. JF: I always wanted to own my own business and once Janelle announced that she needed to leave the boutique business, We saw it has an open window to take a chance. I think […]
May 10th, 2009 by Erin Petersen
Pius XI plays the Pabst
Pius XI High's performing arts office first rented out the Pabst stage a few years ago for a production of Cats. Beauty and the Beast director Kevin Schwartz was also at the helm on that show, and is looking forward to another success. He says it's all about making the kids look good. "I felt it was really important for our students to have at least one shot a year at going to a beautiful theater like the Pabst, which has great acoustics, great sight lines, and comfortable theater seating instead of sitting on the old bleachers," Schwartz explains.
May 8th, 2009 by Hope Stolarski
Conventions
When you’ve worked your whole adult life as an actor, you’re a member of all the unions, have a complicated personal life that doesn’t allow you to leave home for long stretches of time, live in Wisconsin — where there isn’t a lot of union work as an actor, making it hard to make a living — and if you have been fortunate enough to be associated with a few jobs that linger in the public consciousness, one of the things you do, or find yourself doing, is saying yes when invited to a convention, where people come and pay money for autographs and pictures of people deemed to be celebrities. I was a Hirogen Medic in two episodes of Star Trek Voyager. I wore about 50 pounds of foam from head to foot, lost 15 pounds of water weight from sweating inside that foam for ten days, smelled like that sweat and the sweat from all the seven-foot-tall actors that had worn the foam before me but had perished in one conflict or another. The Star Trek people did not want to spend the money to make new costumes, so when they ran out of seven-foot-tall actors to play Hirogens, they just folded the foam over and pinned it up and slammed it on you. There are many people who are so well-versed in Star Trek-ia that they will pay a couple of sawbucks for the autograph and picture of even a lowly Hirogen Medic. I also did a movie about college fraternities that was and still is quite popular. I played an occasionally recurring role on Seinfeld. I dated Elaine, took her to my villa in Tuscany and played pool with Kramer and George’s Dad in their basement at a very small pool table. I wore boxer shorts in that one and conducted the Brooklyn Policeman’s Benevolent Society Orchestra with a bent baton. And then there is the vampire. Primarily because of these adventures, and a few less popular but still known performances, I am asked, occasionally, to go to these conventions, where I am treated like a celebrity. It’s nice. The attention is nice. The fantasy of being well known and liked by strangers is nice. The money is nice, especially lately. And the chance to get out of town, sometimes to very nice locations like London or Florida, is also nice. But you earn it sitting at a table for an average of six hours a day for three days, smiling and being nice, telling stories, answering questions, shaking hands, hugging for pictures, being nice and smiling. It is fun most of the time, but it is also confusing. And it’s work. I once talked to a man for almost half an hour. Answered questions, told stories, asked questions, listened to stories. After about 25 minutes it became apparent that he wasn’t going to buy an autograph, so I asked him straight out. I think I embarrassed him so he plunked down 20 dollars and […]
May 8th, 2009 by Mark Metcalf
The World is in the Turlet
The end result was entirely inappropriate for my situation. The song prophesied humorously the end of the world: Hipsters dropping dead on the streets of New York, rivers boiling and food supplies running dangerously low. The chorus especially resonated with my state of mind as the band growled “The world is in the turlet/ The world is in the turlet/ The world is in the turlet and we’re all gonna die.”
May 8th, 2009 by Nick Schurk
The speed of life
The average person takes in 3000 advertising messages per day. That’s just unsolicited ad messaging; it doesn’t even include texts, tweets, Facebook updates, emails or normal business dialogue. Plus, that stat is from 2007, meaning it's completely outdated. On a side note: Does anyone remember writing papers in high school using a bibliography page? You know the one, filled with books published in 1982 and still thought to be relevant?
May 7th, 2009 by Michelle Sieg
Boulevard Theatre’s “Stations of the Cross”
Written by local writer, actor and storyteller Beth Monhollen, Boulevard Theatre's Stations of the Cross follows the traditional 'stations' of Jesus suffering as told through monologues and short scenes about the restaurant service industry. Often witty and occasionally dark, Cross provides many, many laughs and insights into human behavior.
May 6th, 2009 by Russ Bickerstaff
A fairytale of jelly and betrayal
My name is Henry O. Lundstrom, and I regret to say I’m spending my last moments on earth upside down in a big batch of dough.
May 6th, 2009 by Stella Cretek
Meet ANVIL director Sacha Gervasi
This is a film about undying friendship, the pursuit of true art and of course, melting faces. TCD and Gervasi spoke, and now you listen. ANVIL opens throughout the Midwest this week.
May 6th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Better Stadiums & Beer Gardens (13-12)
Dear Ken Macha, You must be feeling like a bankruptcy attorney in Detroit, Ken. Everything might not be going well around you, but somehow you’re making a killing off of it. You finished the 7-game home stand with a 5-2 record, in spite of an apparently right call on Friday and potential fisticuffs throughout the series against the Pirates. Your pitching has kept you in games, except when the bullpen surprisingly fails to hold a lead. Your offense is thriving, except that your base runners are caught stealing all the time and J.J. Hardy is describing his struggles at the plate like a bad acid trip. Nevertheless, you’ve steered the Brewers to a winning record in April. Bravo to you, Ken. Yet there are a few areas where I feel the team could benefit. If we’re going to win games, we might as well win them in style, amiright? . So here are three suggestions based on my experience at the games on Tuesday and Thursday night. Maybe you can pass them along during one of your stadium operations pow-wows. 1) Make Prince Fielder bring back “Moments In Love” as his entrance song Have you ever listened to the Quiet Storm on V100, Ken? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you haven’t, but if you’re a Brewer fan that’s not from Brookfield then you know that the intro jam to Quiet Storm used to be Prince’s entrance song. “Moments In Love” by Art of Noise was the greatest entrance song ever, until Prince had to ruin things by using that crappy THX intro or the current air raid siren (get it? he’s dropping bombs!). Don’t just trust me, Ken; take a look at Prince’s numbers and watch how they’ve plummeted since he dropped “Moments In Love.” You can even tell the Miller Park audio crew that it was your idea. 2) Make Jason Kendall use another picture for his at-bat image. Kendall really conveys his tough-as-balls demeanor via his entrance song — something by Pantera, I think, but I really couldn’t tell ya — and his entirely creepy image on the videotron. Have you looked at it, Ken? He looks like he eats babies. The Brewers are supposed to be family friendly. There’s an entire section in the upper deck where people can’t drink alcohol so kids feel safe. Well, I hope those tikes’ are kept away from the parking lots, concession stands and the scoreboard when Kendall is at bat. Maybe you could take your Minolta and surprise Jason while he’s doing something around the clubhouse that doesn’t involve being eerily focused. Even this picture would be an improvement: Found at The Jason Kendall Connection! — a preserved, 1999 Geocities fan page for Jason Kendall 3) Tweak Trevor Time Imagine you’re the scoreboard operator, Ken, and you need to really pump up fans for Trevor Hoffman’s high-leverage save situations. The audio guy has it easy — Hoffman mailed him […]
May 3rd, 2009 by Rob Vosters
‘Cabaret’ at Carte Blanche Studios
...many of the players have to deliver lines, sing, and kick kick twirl kick while in various stages of provocative wear only inches from the front row. A series of invisible doors and narrow entryways rush players onstage and props switch back and forth. With no abundance of space, every inch becomes amorphous and left to the audience to imagine further.
May 3rd, 2009 by Brian Jacobson
Wild Space Dance’s ‘Map of Memories’ sheds light on a disbanded Milwaukee community
Map of Memories is not only an enthralling 90-minute kinetic display of beautiful sinewy human motion but also a local history lesson. A performance event features a fascinating pre-show talk by Milwaukee Historian John Gurda about the origins of Jones Island, its inhabitants, and its eventual change into its support for modern industry.
May 2nd, 2009 by Michael Madden
MAY 2009
Tea Krulos, the Edward R. Murrow of Milwaukee roller derby, gives us the late-season lowdown on the Brewcity Bruisers, with an April 18 bout recap, what to expect in the Championship, plus Mondo Lucha, pancake breakfast and more.
May 1st, 2009 by Tea Krulos
