VITAL PHOTO CONTEST 2007

The Best in Show photograph will be featured on the cover of the June issue of VITAL, first and second place winners in each category printed inside the magazine. Other prizes awarded TBD. ENTRY CLARIFICATION: (updated April 6, 2007) Photo prints must be 8 x 10. Borders are acceptable and photos may be of a different orientation and proportion, but must be either 8″ or 10″ in length or width. THE PARTY! – On June 14, there will be a party for the winners and top submissions at the Eisner Museum of Art and Design. Last year’s party was a blast and this year’s promises to be even bigger. – FREE food and drink – Music by DIAMONDS THE JUDGES Cori Coffman – Executive Director, Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design Deone Jahnke – Local professional photographer Sonja Thomsen – MIAD Professor, Head of The Coalition of Photographic Arts (CoPA)

Trouble

By Matt Wild Asked why he decided to dismantle The Pixies, frontman Frank Black once replied that when another bandmate’s lifestyle “starts to irritate you,” it becomes virtually impossible to be in the same room as that person, much less share a stage together. Black was no doubt referring to bassist Kim Deal, whose unexpected mainstream success with The Breeders almost certainly drove him absolutely ape-shit. Likewise, my recent source of irritation – my very own Kim Deal, if you will – has been nothing less than this entire city. I’ve been irritated by the constant closing/opening of restaurants, the conversational shorthand brought on by winter weather, the unspoken disdain of friends and colleagues. I’ve been annoyed with the shoddy state of local weeklies and bored to tears by the meager accomplishments of our hipster elite. I’ve been so desperate for a cure, so anxious for an all-purpose salve that I recently decided to face my fears head-on. Like those episodes of Maury where he cures a guest’s irrational fear of mustard with – you guessed it! – a giant fucking bowl of mustard, I decided to break my anti-Milwaukee funk by attending the single most irritating event I could find: a home-brewed burlesque show. Following a few hours spent at the Nut Factory open house (Kyle Fitzpatrick’s paintings – all the size and texture of burnt-out Buicks – are particular standouts), I’m dropped off at Mad Planet for the Pixel Pussy Ski, Sky and Stage Show. Sponsored by Blam! Blam! – a local publication that provides readers the unique pleasure of seeing full color photographs of their friends and former roommates giving each other head – the scene is pretty much what one would expect: some low-rent fetish gear, a bunch of free lube and condoms (so naughty!), awful music and a $10 cover. No matter, I think, a few stiff drinks and a sharp blow to the skull will be all that’s needed to spice things up. Hell, maybe I’ll even strike up a conversation with the guy wearing a top hat and a strap-on. Notebook and camera in hand, I decide to hang up my coat and dig in for the long haul. It’s then that I see the sign: “Coat Check Begins At $10.” I stare at it dumbly, unable to process a $10 Mad Planet coat check, much less one that begins at $10. In fact, what kind of coat check begins anywhere? Are there better options – sturdier hangers, perhaps – in the $12-$15 range? Complimentary lint-removers? Free pony rides? And what is it about this sign – and now, suddenly, these people, these costumes, these affectations – that seems so horribly wrong, so overwhelmingly depressing? Out of respect for both Mad Planet and my own well-being, I decide to do the only thing a rational person would do after just forking over $10 to get into a local sex show: I leave. Flee, escape, haul ass is more like it, the bitter irritation […]

A new hope?

By Jon Anne Willow Dear Readers, First off, thank you to everyone who came down to our 5th birthday party on February 24 at Turner Hall. I will freely admit that at press time the party hasn’t happened yet, so I’ll refrain from any mention of what a huge success it was. I can with confidence, however, thank our wonderful sponsors. Time Warner Cable made the party possible and WMSE really helped us get the word out. The Brewcity Bruisers, Pabst Theater, Coldwell Banker, The Oxygen Network, HBO, Windfall Theater, Atomic Tattoo and Hairys Hair Bar all sponsored booths, worked the room and/or donated fabulous prizes, which we in turn gave to you, our readers. Please support them in the coming year with your patronage. They truly put the rubber to the road when it comes to supporting local, independent media. ********************************************************************************* I’ve been thinking a lot lately about consumer confidence, and here’s why. VITAL is free to the people and supported by advertisers. It’s a common model, though like most startup businesses, the majority of free publications fail within their first two years. Ours didn’t, but it’s grown slowly. Initially, of course, there were normal factors to consider: lack of awareness, a weaker distribution network than our peers, etc. In time we overcame these hurdles and saw good results. Today, we have terrific advertisers, a talented staff, a sounder distribution network and a fantastic printer. But I’ve been in the media business a long time, and the hustle we do at VITAL to keep the numbers up is beyond what I would’ve previously considered the norm. At first I thought the issue might be about the state of print, but it’s wider. Everybody’s in the same boat, from the daily newspaper to the weeklies, the glossy monthlies and even broadcast and online media. If ad spending is up nationally (it’s at an all-time high), why are local outlets flat? This has been bugging me for about a year now, and I’ve spent that time trying to figure out the reason. I’ve caucused with other publishers, drunk untold cups of coffee with local business owners and managers and polled VITAL’s readership both formally and anecdotally. Some of what I heard comes down to quality issues – who wants to be associated with something they think is sub-par? But a big part of the reason, at least according to my highly unofficial research, is confidence. The economy has been in a slump for the entire life of VITAL, with the latest findings by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showing that for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans spent more than they’re worth in 2006, mostly on gas, mortgages and prescription medications. These days, average people stay home more and consume less, and this in turn puts the squeeze on local businesses, from clothing boutiques to restaurants and theaters. You can connect the rest of the dots yourself. But there may be good news on the horizon. The Fed […]

Strength in low numbers

By Jon Anne Willow During any given week, over a million Milwaukeeans listen to the radio, according to MediaAudit, which surveys the market twice a year. Of those, a surprisingly hefty 145,000 listen to public stations, namely WMSE, WUWM, WHAD and WYMS. And while the number may not seem like much in comparison to the total, public radio listeners are the cream of any community’s crop – typically engaged, educated and interested in what makes the world around them tick. Following the events of 9/11, public radio, primarily NPR, gained new listeners as people looked for in-depth news coverage. The trend continued into the first two years of the Iraq war, but since then the amount of time people spend listening to news, and especially national news, on the radio has declined. Even so, public radio is alive and well – and thriving financially like never before – at both the national and local levels. And in Milwaukee, the appeal of the left end of the FM dial may be about to become even stronger. (( The long and winding road )) In 2003 when MPS announced it could no longer financially support 88.9 WYMS (“Your Milwaukee Schools” ), the station was nearly handed off to WUWM without an open bidding process. When word got out, a small but vocal group of the station’s mainstream jazz supporters tried to “save” the station, citing its long tradition of supporting local music and civic discourse in all its forms – from polka shows to live airing of school board meetings. The group was unsuccessful in raising the capital needed and in the end, the school district invited requests for proposal (RFPs) for a new management operating agreement for the ailing station. One group responded – Radio For Milwaukee. The deal was finally inked in 2004. Headed by former Milwaukeean Peter Buffet, Radio For Milwaukee (RFM) came to the school board with a seven-year proposal for a radio station that would serve a wide swath of the community. The stated goal was to connect to as many facets as possible of the city’s exceptionally broad multi-ethnic and multi-cultural population while continuing to serve the civic need of broadcasting school board meetings and developing educational opportunities for high school students. RFM brought to the table a group of men dedicated to local music and familiar with the population terrain, but more importantly to the long-term feasibility of such a venture, they brought cash. To date, $1 million has been raised and/or pledged for operations, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has given a grant for $225,000 for community programming and upgrading the signal to digital, so that like WMSE, WHAD and WUWM, the station will also broadcast in HD. An undisclosed source has also donated $10,000 toward starting a web-based student radio station. The station will garner additional operating revenue through underwriting. WYMS, which will call itself 88Nine, RadioMilwaukee, had hoped to launch in 2005, but when the group finally got the keys […]

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I Got Hit By A Car

Blister on the bun

Good for the Violent Femmes. They’ve landed what most bands only dream about – a major deal with a major fast food chain. If there was any question about the long-term financial security of Miltown’s all-time favorite nihilist-pop sensations, we can officially put the issue to rest. It’s nigh unto impossible to turn on network television these days without encountering hot cheese melting over a slab of ground beef to the opening strains of “Blister in the Sun.” “Blister in the Sun?” From the same company who brought you the Frosty, Dave Thomas and an iconic little girl? Every time it comes on, I watch closely to see if this time, just maybe, I will discern a legitimate connection between a cup of chili and Gordon Gano’s crying girlfriend of 23 years ago. So far no luck. One recent evening the whole conundrum was bugging me so much that I actually emailed Wendy’s directly and asked them if anyone there had ever listened to the song. I’m still waiting for an answer, but when it arrives – and I’m sure it will – I promise to post it right away. For now, I’m going with one of two possibilities: 1. Wendy’s ad execs are on crack 2. Nobody at Wendy’s has ever listened to rock music 1:32 a.m. ‘Night

Any Way The Wind Blows

Chipped

Finessing The Titanic

O.K. again

We are recovering. The first round of chicken pox has finally ended. It wasn’t really any longer than most cases of CP, but it was more severe than I’ve ever personally witnessed. My oldest daughter had more than 500 pox. For those wise-asses out there who want to know if I actually counted them all – I can tell you this: I quit counting after I found 40 behind her left ear, more than 150 on her back, and more than 100 on her face. Using my very best deduction skills, I knew that if I had found almost two hundred on less than 1/4 of her body, we could safely assume that we had crossed the 500 pock mark. To be clear, I chose this. The varicella vaccine was one we omitted intentionally, knowing that natural immunity was stronger and longer-lasting than the kind you get in a bottle. What I didn’t expect was that it would take until she was almost 12 before we found a case virulent enough to infect her. She ran a fever of 103 for days. She barely ate, barely slept. She lost about five pounds, which she could scarcely afford to lose. She was brave – and she hardly ever even scratched the pox, in spite of the fact that they itched her to the point where she looked liked an wounded animal. Sometimes she cried, and sometimes she clutched my sweater and said, “Mama, make it stop! Please make it stop!” Those were times when I cried, too. I cried and I rocked her and I told her I was so sorry, I didn’t know it would be that bad. But it’s coming to a close. Today she’s sitting up on the couch, laughing and playing Life with her dad. She’s so so so hungry and ready to take a real shower and wash her hair. We’ll spend some time today brushing her hair out and going over her missed school work from the week. I’ll probably continue to sigh with relief that it’s finally over and that she seems to be O.K. again.