Meet my dad

Maybe it was my visit to the cellar bar at Roots this week (where I’m told the chef is perfecting his own recipes for corned beef, rye bread and sauerkraut), or maybe it was my dad’s sheepish confession to me last weekend that he loves to Google his own name, but I was reminded recently that my dad – a corned beef producer and wholesaler whose secret recipes have made him famous among foodies nation-wide – has a video on YouTube. Meet my dad. And learn something about how corned beef is made, in the meantime. Think of it as an early St. Patrick’s Day offering. Those squeamish about raw beef brisket might not want to press play. My brother Sean and his wife Janel are having a baby girl, probably some time in the next week, so I’ve been talking to my family a lot more than usual as I call in daily for updates on Janel’s health, well-being and cervical dilation (she’s been at two centimeters for more than two weeks now). When I asked my dad if he was excited about grandchild number EIGHT, he said he would be, if Sean and Janel lived a little closer. This is funny, because they live less than an hour’s drive from my dad’s house. When I asked dad how he was going to feel when I had kids of my own, he said it didn’t matter because he’d be dead by then –which pretty much sums up my dad’s attitude about life. It’s a joyous sort of grumpiness that he abides by most of the time, and I love it about him, except when his grumpiness pisses me off. Finally, I’d like to contribute something to Matt’s weekend music report. While he was crying into his ice-cream over a Sonic the Hedgehog medley, I was at a tiki bar (Foundation) dancing like a maniac to the unbridled soul commotion of Iowa City’s Diplomats of Solid Sound. Then I saw The Chain open for Jail. Then I went home and slept like a baby. But wait! Sunday night continued to bring the noise! VITAL sponsored The Black Lips at Turner Hall, who brought along with them the fabulous Mr. Quintron. Mr. Quintron plays several interesting instruments he built himself, including a Hammon organ/Fender Rhodes synthesizer combo. His lovely wife Miss Pussycat shrieks along with him, plays the maracas and puts on puppet shows. After her production, a little cautionary tale about a hexing art gallery owner who turns one of her patrons into a marble statue, in which Santa Claus saves the day with an AK-47, The Black Lips – known in some circles for their really raucous antics – barely registered as more than four smart chords and some spitting. Jeff and I retired to a cabaret table near the back, which means we almost missed it when our friend Jared got up on the stage, spun around like an airplane, and then jumped right back off again, into […]

Call for entries!

Submission Guidelines: • Entrants may submit two original, unpublished pieces of short fiction (max. 3,000 words). • Entries will be judged by professional editors and educators not affiliated with VITAL Source. • Winner will have his or her entry published in the June print edition of VITAL Source Magazine and on our website. • Runners-up may have selected text from their story published in the print edition and up to their entire entry published on the VITAL Source website. Honorees will be asked to participate in a public reading event in June at a Harry W. Schwartz Bookstore, location TBD. Entries must be formatted as follows: • 8.5 x 11 page • 1” margins all the way around • Times New Roman 12 pt. type, single-spaced body text, 14 pt. title, left-justified • Double-return between paragraphs – no indents • Title and word count at top of page • Include contact information (author name, address, phone number, email address) and a brief biography (50 words maximum) on a separate sheet. Submitted entries will not be returned. Email electronic entries to: contest at vitalsourcemag dot com Mail hard copy entries to: VITAL Source Magazine Attn: Fiction Contest 133 W. Pittsburgh Ave. #409 Milwaukee, WI 53204 No calls, please.

Last chance to submit reels & clips for REEL MILWAUKEE! Deadline is 3/14!

REEL Milwaukee On Saturday March 22 from 9 to midnight, VITAL Source Magazine and The Social are throwing a party in conjunction with our March cover story on filmmaking in Wisconsin. As part of the evening’s festivities, we’re looking for Milwaukee filmmakers to submit videos to be included in a looping film montage at the party. There is NO fee. ALL video samples are due by March 14. NO EXCEPTIONS. There is no guarantee your film will be included, but early birds get more worms. It doesn’t need to be a complete film or your complete reel, but it does need to come from a completed work that either has or is likely to at some point soon be shown. Submission Guidelines *Include the title of the video and director(s) names of the video. *Include contact information: Name, phone, e-mail, street address. Please send media on a DVD, mini-DV tape, or VHS tape. If submitting a DVD make a “data disc” with a video file in one of the following formats. If you send a DVD that is “playable” in DVD players then the media needs to be ripped from the DVD and may not be usable for the video project. “”NO”” other tape formats will be accepted. Video formats: QuickTime Movie (.mov) *preferred Windows Media (.wmv) AVI (.avi) Image Sequence (animations) Note: Other video formats may work. Those listed above are the easiest to use. Here are other questions to consider. If you know the answers, please send them along. What is the frame size? (NTSC 4:3, HD 1440×1080, etc.) Is it anamorphic 16:9? What is the frame rate? (29.97, 23.98, etc.) What are the audio settings rate? (48 kHz, 44.1 kHz, etc.) Write the start time for the most important moment of the video. Send to: VITAL Source Attn: Video Collage 133 W. Pittsburgh Ave. #409 Milwaukee, WI 53204 Reply with questions. No deadline extensions, sorry. Hope to see you March 22!

Whose Supreme Court Is It?

April 1st is shaping up as an important election day for Wisconsin, perhaps rivaling the presidential primary of February 19th. Locally, we have State Sen. Lena Taylor challenging Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. Walker was elected on a one-note platform of opposing new taxes and he has stuck to that mantra even as financial shortfalls and poor management have lead to cutbacks and fee increases in transit services and park programs. The Journal Sentinel has published exposes documenting gross lapses in the supervision of mental health patients resulting in some deaths and insufficient staffing of the county detention center leading to criminals escaping and committing heinous new crimes. Walker famously dismissed the announcement that regional leaders were creating the Milwaukee 7 initiative to improve the community’s profile as an attempt to “put lipstick on a pig.” Maybe it’s time for voters to elect someone who is more committed to making government work rather than making excuses for its failures. A number of city aldermanic and county supervisor seats are either open or being challenged. For example, Patrick Flaherty and Nic Kovac are engaged in a spirited race to fill Ald. Mike D’Amato’s open seat representing the city’s third district and, of course, imprisoned Alderman Michael McGee faces Milele Coggs. But perhaps no contest holds as much significance for the state of Wisconsin as the election to decide whether Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler should be returned to his seat. Once again the state’s largest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, is preparing to spend millions of dollars in order to elect a justice more supportive of the state’s corporate interests. You may have already seen the attack ads run by the WMC and the Club for Growth, another pro-business organization. They resort to the time-honored tactic of charging Butler with being soft on criminals. The evidence? He voted along with a 4-3 majority to require a new trial for a convicted murderer since new analysis of DNA samples indicate it may not have been him. How could he! The truth is pretty transparent. Go to WMC’s web site and you see little mention of crime. Their stated priorities are “lower taxes, reduce regulation, and reform the legal system” and they go on to explain that government intervention and nuisance lawsuits interfere with an open business environment. Aren’t you glad they care about public safety? I mean they feature a quote from Milton Friedman, fer chrissakes! The Greater Wisconsin Committee, a liberal advocacy group isn’t taking this sitting down. They are running ads charging Butler’s opponent, Burnett County Circuit Judge Michael Gableman with buying his appointment from former Gov. Scott McCallum with campaign contributions. Check out the competing ads and judge for yourself. Gov. Jim Doyle appointed Butler to the Supreme Court following his 14 years of experience as a judge in Milwaukee. He has been endorsed by five major law enforcement organizations including the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the Wisconsin Troopers’ Association and the Milwaukee Police Association, more than 200 […]

Keep Your Hands to Yourself and Eat Your Own Food!

An editorial in The New York Times today makes the strongest case yet that the tight race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should be good for the country as long as the candidates keep the focus on the issues. Unfortunately, both have demonstrated that they are willing to pander to voters and attack their opponent which risks alienating he public and screwing up their party’s chances in the November election. Who would have thought that this contest not only wouldn’t be decided by now but that it could actually continue on to the convention in Denver in August! New York Times columnist Gail Collins has some fun dissecting what happened in Ohio and Texas. Can you imagine a better metaphor for this competition than an elementary school cafeteria? Keep your hands to yourself and eat your own food!

My cynicism is showing

The Film Wisconsin Clean-Up Bill

As Major Film Project Announces $20 Million Investment in Wisconsin, New Bill Circulates to Speed Development of the Industry Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton announced today that Senator Jeff Plale and Representative Pat Strachota circulated a bill to improve Wisconsin’s Film Production Tax Credit Services Program for co-sponsorship, and she asked the legislature to move it through the process with all due speed. “Today, Governor Doyle announced that NBC Universal will bring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Michael Mann – not to mention $20 million – to Wisconsin,” Lawton said. “I see this as the lead edge of the economic development and jobs coming in response to our film incentives. This bill will improve our potential to capture more film industry jobs for Wisconsin, and I urge the legislature to move it forward to solidify Wisconsin’s competitive position nationally.” The bipartisan bill would allow film production companies to transfer unused, nonrefundable credits to other taxpayers, such as other film production companies. It would also phase in residency requirements for eligibility of film production employees for tax credits as the talent infrastructure needed for productions fully develops in our state. Currently, Wisconsin’s incentives are a hybrid of refundable and non-refundable, nontransferable tax credits. States experiencing the greatest success in the industry enhance the value of their credits by making non-refundable credits transferable. The language of the bill allows for limited transfers and includes important safeguards to prevent fraud in transfers. Administration of the program will be funded by a fee paid by both parties in the transaction to the Departments of Revenue and Commerce. The bill’s chief sponsors are State Senator Jeff Plale (D-Milwaukee) and Representative Pat Strachota (R-West Bend). HOW YOU CAN HELP A hearing has been scheduled for AB 907 before the Assembly Committee for Jobs and the Economy. Please take a moment to complete the following action items by no later than Thursday, March 6, 10 am. The Legislature will adjourn sometime in the next two weeks and they will not reconvene for this type of work until 2009. Contact Assembly Speaker Michael Huebsch (R-West Salem) at: Rep.Huebsch@legis.wisconsin.gov. Ask Speaker Huebsch to support AB 907 and to schedule a floor vote this session, when it is voted out of committee. Register your support with the members of the Assembly Committee for Jobs and the Economy and thank Representative Patricia Strachota, the Committee’s Chairperson, for holding the hearing. Tell your legislator(s) why this bill is important to you as a member of the creative industries or to your business. Here are some talking points: The purpose of these incentives has always been to grow the film industry in Wisconsin. The incentives have already increased the film industry activity here and therefore the opportunity for existing Wisconsin businesses and the small, talented Wisconsin film industry workforce. Already at work on the new film Public Enemies are Wisconsin Set Designers, Location Managers, Art Department construction crew members, Art Department coordinators and Location Scouts. New films including Dust and The Violinist are in […]

On to Pennsylvania … and Possibly Denver!!!

So Hillary Clinton did what she had to do. Her victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island gave her the justification she needed to keep this battle going. She still trails Barack Obama in pledged delegates and it does not appear likely that she can catch him. But Obama is unlikely to get to the 2025 delegates necessary to claim victory before the August convention in Denver. So what is the party to do? Well, just as President Bush remained officially neutral until John McCain won the requisite delegates to secure the nomination (though his father endorsed the Arizona senator weeks ago), the party big shots need to hold their fire, urge the two combatants to fight fair, and let the process play out. Yes, that means on to Pennsylvania on April 22 (seven weeks away!) and maybe even on to a contested convention. If that’s what it takes, so be it. What we have here is basically the same as a heavyweight title fight when neither of the two palookas has been able to land the knockout punch. When that happens the outcome is decided by a panel of judges who award points based on their expertise and judgment. That’s where the superdelegates come in. Folks who complain that letting these party insiders decide the nominee is undemocratic are missing the point. Former Congresswoman, and Vice Presidential nominee in 1984, Geraldine Ferraro said on NPR today that the role of the party leaders returns some fairness to the process since many states (including Wisconsin) allow independents and even Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary, possible interfering with the best interests of the party. The role of the superdelegates serves as a safety valve to insure that the nominee accurately reflects the best interests of the party. All hell would break out if they overturned the strong wishes of the voters. I say let’s see where this leads. One outstanding issue for the party leaders is what to do about Florida and Michigan. Both were banished from having their delegates seated at the convention because they dared hold their primaries before the party wanted them to. Those were the rules that all the candidates agreed to so the easiest thing would be to stick to that position. But Hillary Clinton won both states so her camp will push to seat both delegations. Holding new primaries or caucuses would be costly and impractical. There are no easy answers to this dilemma. In the meantime the candidates should continue making their best cases for support and avoid launching unnecessarily negative attacks on each other. Hillary Clinton already has dabbled in this area with her “kitchen sink strategy” and it finally appears to have worked. Party leaders may need to step in and warn her about low blows then tell them to come out from their corners. May the most worthy candidate win.

March 15th – The Scarring Party at Turner Hall!

SATURDAY MARCH 15TH! THE SCARRING PARTY W/ GRANT HART OF HUSKER DU AND JOHN THE SAVAGE AT TURNER HALL! VITAL is sponsoring the CD release show for Milwaukee quartet the Scarring Party at TURNER HALL on Saturday, March 15th. We’ve staked out some real estate at the show where you can sign up to win free tickets to upcoming shows, snatch up a few VITAL goodies and make nice with some of the staff. They’re nice people and they want to give you free stuff! See you there! More information available online!

Weekend Music Report #3 – Doc Hammer/Video Games Live

VITAL’s 2008 Short Fiction Call for Entries OPEN

  Entry Deadline: APRIL 18, 2008   Submission Guidelines: • Entrants may submit two original, unpublished pieces of short fiction (max. 3,000 words). • Entries will be judged by professional editors and educators not affiliated with VITAL Source. • Winner will have his or her entry published in the June print edition of VITAL Source Magazine and on our website. • Runners-up may have selected text from their story published in the print edition and up to their entire entry published on the VITAL Source website. Honorees will be asked to participate in a public reading event in June at a Harry W. Schwartz Bookstore location TBD. Entries must be formatted as follows: • 8.5 x 11 page • 1” margins all the way around • Times New Roman 12 pt. type, single-spaced body text, 14 pt. title, left-justified • Double-return between paragraphs – no indents • Title and word count at top of page • Include contact information (author name, address, phone number, email address) and a brief biography (50 words maximum) on a separate sheet. Submitted entries will not be returned. Email electronic entries to: contest at vitalsourcemag dot com Mail hard copy entries to: VITAL Source Magazine Attn: Fiction Contest 133 W. Pittsburgh Ave. #409 Milwaukee, WI 53204 No calls, please.

Holy Mary Motor Club