VITAL
Smoked Out
In celebration of America’s annual Great American Smoke Out, join VITAL Source and our fabulous host, Milwaukee’s legendary Cactus Club, for “Smoked Out: A Great American Rock Show.” Yeah, it’s kind of tongue-in-cheek, given that you’ll be spending the evening in a bar in Bay View (read: NOT smoke-free), but play along with us and come down for one last sweaty, all-out hootenanny before you get swallowed by the holidays and all the requisite insanity that comes along for that ride. Just five dollars gets you through the door for one amazing lineup: Celebrated Workingman IfIHadAHiFi Canyons of Static Plus between-set spins by DJ How of the Establishment. Wow. You can’t beat that with a stick. So don’t. Just be there. Saturday, November 15 9 p.m., 21+ CACTUS CLUB 2496 S. Wentworth Ave. Milwaukee
Oct 30th, 2008 by Vital Archives
The Finish Line
In case you haven’t heard, next Tuesday is Election Day when our nation will choose its next President. This is no time for complacency and each campaign is struggling mightily to turn out its supporters and maintain a full court press through this last week. Here in Wisconsin we are truly fortunate to have the option of early voting. There is every reason to believe that turnout will break all records and exceed 70 percent which would truly be a magnificent thing. So it may prove to be a great timesaver to vote early. The Obama campaign has built an admirable organization here but there is still work to be done and volunteer shifts to be filled. Nobody wants to wake up Wednesday morning and regret not doing more. So step up to the plate, Wisconsin, and volunteer to get out the vote. Visit www.wi.barackobama.com to sign up and let’s get this done. Also, I encourage you to check out the clever video that was produced by the Obama campaign to motivate Milwaukee voters to turn out and vote for the Democrat. It has some fun with a 2004 quote by Sen. McCain when he said he wouldn’t want to live in Milwaukee. It’s entertaining and amusing (though I could have lived without the image of a certain statue holding an Obama sign). So, by all means, vote. Vote early, Vote on Election Day. Whatever. Just vote. It’s good for what ails ya.
Oct 29th, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
Pecha Kucha Night
More than many, many things, I think Pecha Kucha certifies Milwaukee’s place in the constellation of great world cities, proving once again, on a regular schedule, that we’re home to lots of bright, enthusiastic, cosmopolitan professionals who care about ideas and learning and thinking and sharing with each other. Tonight’s third volume of Pecha Kucha Night (at Sugar Maple in Bay View, 441 E. Lincoln Ave.) is especially exciting for us at it includes presentations by two smart and talented and beautiful VITAL-ites: our Art Director, Bridget Brave, and senior music writer Erin Wolf. Also presenting: WMSE 91.7 FM’s handsome and affable promotions guru Ryan Schleicher; Tim Cigelske of Milwaukee Magazine and teecycle.org (recently shouted out in “Savage Love” — hot!); and installation artist kathryn e. martin, whose delicate floating structures are currently on display at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Plus Taryn Roch, Jason Kennedy and Jason Gessner. And live jazz from Chicago! It’s that rare international phenomenon that showcases the best of what we grow at home. More information: Pecha Kucha Milwaukee official website 20×20: VITAL’s August feature on Pecha Kucha, which includes the event’s history, etymology, and a fetching portrait of event organizer Jon Mueller See you there smart kids! Tonight at 8 pm!
Oct 28th, 2008 by Amy Elliott
Wisconsin as a battlegound
Lots of people are assuming that Barack Obama has wrapped up Wisconsin. Certainly the polls suggest that Obama has a safe lead here and the fact that the Republican Party has stopped spending money on television ads here reinforce that impression. But, as we all know, the only poll that matters is the one on Election Day and we really don’t know how this will end. With that in mind, I call your attention to a video developed by the Washington Post capturing some of the diverse opinions and attitudes here in Wisconsin. It’s more than eight minutes long but I think you’ll find it as captivating as I did. The focus is on race and whether it will confound the results predicted by the polls. What I found most compelling about this video was the broad disparity of beliefs and attitudes across our state. Not that it should come as a surprise but it still makes your jaw drop. So, in a democracy, anything can happen when people go and vote. That’s why our system of government is so attractive and so difficult. You have to pay attention and take action. And that’s why that other guy from Illinois who ran for president called our country “the last, best hope of earth.” Lincoln’s words, quoted out of context, seem to reek of nationalistic hubris. But when you read the text of Lincoln’s speeches, especially the greatest one of all, his Second Inaugural Address, you can’t help but sense his humility and respect for every individual, friend or foe. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” I mean does it get any better than that? Roger Johnson in The New Statesman, draws an interesting contrast between the evocation of Lincoln’s words in Obama’s speeches and the repeated references to Ronald Reagan by John McCain and Sarah Palin. Kind of makes you think. And then there’s this analysis of Lincoln by Jean Bethke Elshtain of the University of Chicago from 2002. Check out this concluding passage: More than a hundred years later, there is no point in hoping for another Abraham Lincoln. But one may hope that we have not entirely forgotten the possibilities of political and moral leadership that he exemplified. Wow. From 2002! So, remember, it’s a democracy. Who do you want as your president? And, finally, here’s a little comic relief. Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles has a little fun with the McCain campaign’s use of robocalls. Only 11 days left. Make sure you vote.
Oct 24th, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
Imagine a More Just Milwaukee
Go ahead. Take a few seconds and give it some thought. If you had a magic wand and could do anything you wanted, how would you change Milwaukee to make it a better place to live, work and raise a family? Better schools? More jobs? Improved transit? More statues of fictional characters? We all have our ideas about how to improve our city. We talk about it all the time. And that’s okay. It’s good to talk about things we care about. But you know what? Just talking about it isn’t going to change a damn thing. We’d all like to think that simply voting on Election Day and paying our taxes will be enough to insure that all of our community’s needs are taken care of. Well I’ve got news for you. It ain’t. So do something. Anything. Want to see better schools but don’t know where to start? Confused by all the news reports that say MPS schools are underfunded or riddled with waste? Here’s an idea. Wherever you live, there’s a school near by. Stop by or call and get contact information for the PTA (that’s Parent Teacher Association for those of you who just arrived on this planet). Chances are they’ll have an idea or two about what you can do to help. Mentor a student. Help raise some money. Donate some materials. Whatever. You’ll be doing something concrete and you’ll feel better for it. Need other ideas? Visit Volunteer Milwaukee and look at all the local opportunities to make a difference. Don’t want to do it alone? Well here’s a suggestion. MICAH is holding its annual public meeting tonight to recruit members and solicit ideas about improving our community. MICAH stands for Milwaukee Innercity Congregations Allied for Hope. It’s a whole bunch of folks who believe that God helps those who help themselves. Yes it’s a faith-based organization but it’s open to everyone who cares about our city. Are you tired of religion being used as a cudgel of intolerance and divisiveness? Come and see how people of all faiths can join together to do something constructive. After all, whatever you believe, you gotta believe there’s strength in numbers. So check out MICAH’s public meeting tonight at 6 pm at St. Adalbert Catholic Church, 1923 W. Becher Street. As they used to say, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” It’s really that simple.
Oct 23rd, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
How I Learned to Love the Lunatics)
The lunatic fringe right wing of America is eating itself alive, and frankly, it’s cracking me up. Whether it’s the old lady claiming Obama’s an “Arab” (because suddenly there’s something wrong with that), crowds in Minnesota booing McCain when he insists no one should fear an Obama presidency, or–for fuck’s sake–a Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota calling for investigations of her colleagues for “Un-American views,” the nutter contingent has gone completely around the bend, and as Obama extends his lead, their heads are this much closer to exploding, Scanners-style. Many of my friends have expressed all sorts of rage and disgust at the long-simmering ugliness that is bubbling to the surface these days, but me? I can’t help but laugh. What else can you do but laugh? This ugliness has been there for the last eight years, or at least since September 11. It’s easy to hide racism and fear-mongering behind faux patriotism and demands for “security” when you feel like your team is solidly on the winning end (to say nothing about the sad state of affairs in America when people are more concerned with whether their team wins than with what’s best for America). But the Republicans’ politics of fear are finally being exposed with the ascent of their worst nightmare–a Black candidate with a foreign-sounding name who actually might live in the White House in 2009. HOLY SHIT, IT’S THE END TIMES! SAVE ME, JEEBUS! The frayed ends of sanity exposed themselves perhaps the most nakedly while my band was out on the East Coast, driving in deep blue Maryland and Washington, DC. When you run out of stand-up on the iPod and get sick of the music you brought along, a surefire way to stay awake in the van is to listen to conservative talk radio (back when i went to work at 9, i’d listen to Charlie Sykes on my drive downtown. Laughing at the radio is better than coffee! Really!). And lemme tellya, if you think the right-wing loonies on the radio here in Milwaukee are off the chain, you should see how bonkers they’ve gone in states where the polling’s never been close. One dude we listened to in the Baltimore market went into a commercial break saying “i really wish the mainstream media would take a closer look at where Obama’s money is coming from, because i’m convinced a good chunk of it is coming from the Middle East.” …Really? Look, the average donation sent to the Obama campaign may be $86, but even that’s a little beyond the means of the working-class Al Qaeda grunt, isn’t it? Where’s the proof, Cowboy? Watching the nutters implode, i can’t help but wonder about the effect it’s having on rational swing voters. Do you think, on the insane chance that there are still SOME people in America that haven’t decided whom to vote for yet, they look at these McCain/Palin hate rallies and react like when the earth found out that the aliens in the […]
Oct 22nd, 2008 by DJ Hostettler
What I Learned on My Autumn Vacation
Fig.1: Logan Jacobs takes really great photos of us In case you’re not paying attention, i play in one of those adorable “local bands” that practices in their basement and writes their own songs and tries so hard! and are totally gonna “make it” once we get in front of the right label exec when they’re just the right amount of drunk to think that signing us wouldn’t get him or her fucking fired with a quickness. Actually, if we ever seriously thought that at any point in our careers, we had it beaten out of us with the reality stick years ago. Still, because packing four sweaty dudes and their gear into a ramshackle Ford Aerostar for two weeks to travel the country and play music for a bunch of people who would just as soon watch the Phillies/Brewers playoff game without your damn racket in the background is always a bucket of laughs, we recently took a trip to the East Coast, playing 16 shows in 16 days with our pals white, wrench, conservatory. Specific tour diaries can be found elsewhere (like our website), but i thought i’d use Cultural Zero to quickly (ha) summarize a few things i learned on this tour (and over the course of several tours). Think of it as “DJ paints a picture of real rock and roll touring for you, the common man or woman who believes in such pedestrian concepts as taking vacations that involve seeing more of a city than its bullshit highway system and crap-ass rock clubs.” Or don’t, whatever: 1) The perception of a tour matters more than the tour itself. On average, my band tours about two weeks per year–day jobs and paid vacation will do that to you. As a result, it’s nearly impossible for us to build any kind of reliable draw in cities like Boston or Seattle, because we only get to them once every two years minimum, if you go by our ideal of hitting the East Coast one year and the West Coast the next (although in reality we haven’t been out west in three years). So every time we go out, it’s the same thing–pulling teeth to get shows in clubs where no one has ever heard of us, with no chance to build any kind of built-in following for next time (think about it–how many touring bands have you seen come through Cactus Club in the last year? Now how many do you remember? Exactly). It’s worked better for pals of ours, like the departed Modern Machines, who had no problem with living in squalor and working pizza delivery jobs in order to tour for months at a time and hit places multiple times per year. But we’re pussies who like job security and nice apartments. They are hard; we are soft. Still, because comparatively, there are many Milwaukee bands who don’t tour at all–or if they do, they don’t blab about it as much as we do–we get this […]
Oct 18th, 2008 by DJ Hostettler
Time for healing
Last week I was alarmed to hear on NPR that a college classmate, Taylor Luck, had gone missing in Jordan with his friend Holly on their vacation (!) into the tumultuous northern regions of the country. I was shocked — and worried. What had happened? Would he be found alive? Or at all? Just days earlier I had remembered David Byrd Felker, another Beloit College student who disappeared in Ecuador the summer before I started my freshman year. Obviously, I never knew David, but at a school of just about 1100 students, everyone I met had known him in some way, and his loss was deeply felt — it was almost in the air, that first year. Thinking about him, I did a search and found a beautifully written piece in the Journal Sentinel including excerpts from his journal about his travels. I didn’t sleep well the night that I found out about Taylor, but in the morning, news broke that he was alive and in custody in Damascus after being arrested trying to cross the Syrian border illegally. It was a relief. I sighed and moved on. The 24-hour news cycle is grating, exhausting, and to keep it from breaking you, it’s imperative to learn to depersonalize. But here was a story I couldn’t process, absorb and discard. I knew this guy. My Facebook news feed came alive with status messages from Beloit alum about the news, links to the story, photos and video clips of Taylor, a jocular, almost boorish young man, tossing off rude stories about Jordan. It was a rally, a sort of digital vigil, and when the news of his fate hit the wires, we erupted into a chorus of “goddammit, Taylor. What an idiot.” And then we moved on. In six weeks, no one will remember the blip on the radar about the American journalists who pushed their luck and came out alive. But what if something worse had happened? What if Taylor Luck had become another Byrd Felker — another casualty of the intrepid, intellectually curious and recklessly adventurous students that Beloit graduates? What if Taylor had become another specter on the tally of untimely deaths I’ve been sadly keeping this year — a friend from Turkey killed in a car accident, a high school classmate found dead in the woods in Oklahoma, Rock Dee, my uncle? I’ve been thinking a lot, in these last rapid-fire weeks, about healing. It’s been a hard year, and I’ve become steadily engrossed in the strange process that happens in every human mind and heart when faced with loss and sadness. At the Milwaukee Art Museum now through January 4 is Act/React, a show that includes a tremendous piece by Brian Knep, “Healing Pool,” that invites peaceful contemplation and a sense of comfort about how things heal. The size of a swimming pool, the glowing floor is like an organism. Walk across it and it will spread open in your wake, then come back together as it […]
Oct 17th, 2008 by Amy Elliott
Is That All You Got?
The third and final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama last night was certainly the most spirited and entertaining yet. As promised, McCain was combative and sought to pin the label of tax and spend Democrat on his rival. But if McCain’s supporters were looking for a transcendent performance from their guy that would resuscitate his flailing campaign they were disappointed. McCain threw a steady stream of jabs at Obama but few found their mark. Obama responded with poise and confidence deflecting McCain’s charges effectively. On the economy, on health care, on taxes, on abortion, and on the negative campaign, Obama was in control of the facts and gained points for appearing more calm and decorous. McCain seemed to want to show anger without losing his temper and at times it seemed that his head was about to explode. His decision to use Joe the Plumber as a foil to call attention to Obama’s faults backfired. Under President Obama, Joe’s business would not face a tax increase if it generated less than a quarter of million dollars in profit. On health care, Joe’s small business would be exempt from facing higher costs. When McCain tried to appeal directly to Joe by sarcastically calling him rich, he actually supported Obama’s point. Hey, Joe, if you’re making $250,000, you are rich. Our nation is fighting two wars, facing a trillion dollar budget deficit and an economy in a tailspin. So hitch your belt up a notch and stop whining. Your country is just asking you to pay your fair share. Time and time again, McCain’s attempts to stick his finger in Obama’s eye left him appearing petulant and desperate. Meanwhile, Obama remained calm, almost Zen-like, and used McCain’s charges to make the point that the American people wanted to hear real answers to their problems and not the same, tired political attacks. On PBS’s Charlie Rose Show, Washington journalist Al Hunt somewhat inaccurately compared the debate to the classic boxing matches between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier recalling that Ali withstood the wrath of Frazier’s blows. Actually, what made the fights legendary was that both fighters threw mighty punches at each other and were remarkably well-matched. It reminded me more of the time when a fight broke out during a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox several years ago. Yankee bench coach Don Zimmer came storming out of the dugout and charged at Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez clearly determined to send a message to the much younger man. Martinez took Zimmer by the shoulders and let his own energy drop him to the ground. Obama seems at the top of his game with a sharpness of intellect, apparent limitless energy and infectious joie de vivre that makes it obvious that this is his time. Don’t take my word for it. Have a look at this video where Obama urges Wisconsinites to vote early and see for yourself. I know sports analogies make some people […]
Oct 16th, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
Game, Set and …
Now hold on. You are not going to hear me say that this election is over. Sure every national poll has Barack Obama ahead and Real Clear Politics has Obama leading McCain in the all important Electoral College competition 313-158 (with 67 up for grabs). The latest poll here in Wisconsin has Obama ahead by 17 points and he’s leading in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, and even Virginia. But three weeks can be a lifetime in politics. Polls have proven to be wrong before, the race issue simmers under the radar screen and angry partisans are calling on John McCain and Sarah Palin to go after Barack Obama with everything they got. The overwhelming evidence does, of course, suggest that Obama is going to win on November 4th. Obama has run an exemplary campaign that built an effective grassroots movement while maintaining a disciplined and focused national organization. The candidate has energized young people unlike anything we have seen since Eugene McCarthy while conveying competence and confidence that appealed to all demographics. Also, national and world events seem to be conspiring in Obama’s favor. Even McCain supporters acknowledge that the more the economy dominates the election, the better it is for Obama. And dominate it has. The catastrophic events that have decimated Wall Street have altered the political landscape overwhelming the Iraq War, health care, and everything else. And, of course, McCain has failed to respond effectively to this barrage of challenges. His selection of Palin as a running mate briefly rejuvenated his campaign by finally giving the Republican base something to cheer. But that bump was short-lived as the economic crisis exploded and Palin’s appeal did McCain little good with independents and undecided voters. Despite all this, I do not wish to engage in a premature post mortem of the election. There are still 21 days left and no one can predict with certainty how this thing will end up. But there are a handful of things that need to be said at this juncture. First, GOTV is all important. All of the fundraising and ads and lawn signs and bumper stickers and office openings and coffees don’t amount to a hill of beans unless folks get out and vote. Again, the Obama campaign appears well-positioned to run an effective GOTV operation with all those offices and volunteers but time will tell. Second, whoever wins will need to launch a Herculean effort to bring our nation together following the election. Remember George W. Bush’s pledge to return civility to Washington? Even he admitted, to Bob Woodward, that he failed at that goal. And it can’t just be lip service or window dressing. Sure, anyone can appoint some likable character from the other party to the new cabinet. The need is for a drastic reconfiguring of the way things are done in Washington, substantively and stylistically. Both Obama and McCain seem to recognize this. It doesn’t just appear in their talking points; it seems imbedded in their DNA. Can […]
Oct 14th, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
Sometime’s a Pie’s Just a Pie
It’s Sunday morning and I’ve got one eye on the public affairs programming while I’m getting caught up on the morning news online. Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace just failed miserably to maintain decorum between McCain spokesperson Rick Davis and Obama uber flack David Axelrod. Come on, guys, let each other finish. Davis was the aggressor, taking every opportunity to shout over Axelrod. But Axelrod did not employ the proven tactic of simply shouting back “May I finish?” when faced with this kind of interruption. And Wallace just sheepishly grinned as the two combatants yelled at each other leaving viewers unable to understand either. Great television, it wasn’t. Meanwhile, over on CBS Sunday Morning, I caught Steve Hartman’s report on the two Milwaukee-area 50-year-old guys who fulfilled their pledge to each other back in college to do something really wacky when they hit AARP-membership age. They had a pie fight. How silly and how sweet (though the pies were made of shaving not whipped cream). Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Jim Stingl first reported this hilarity last month so let’s give credit where credit is due. My search on YouTube failed to turn up any other footage of the Milwaukee festivities but it did lead me to some other variations on the theme. Any discussion of pie fights must, of course, pay tribute to The Three Stooges. Their humor doesn’t do much for me but this routine is a classic. And I also was intrigued to find a remarkable bit of soft porn packaged as an underwear ad. I’m not sure if it’s witty or puerile. I guess, to paraphrase Wallace’s employer, I report, you decide. But wait there’s more. Apparently there was a remake of the old Gilligan’s Island show on TBS that employed the device in an ad entitled “Ginger vs. Mary Ann.” Now I know I’m skating on thin ice here since this kind of objectifying of the human form is highly controversial. Personally, I think it’s funny but I also know that commentary is easy. Being funny is difficult. Here’s a blogger who apparently was offended not only by the TBS ad, but by the decision by The Daily Kos to run it. I guess I find myself siding with Kos and not feeling very offended by this kind of stuff. Of course, it’s all in the eye of the beholder or, as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart kind of said, obscenity is hard to define but we know it when we see it. Which brings me back to that disgraceful performance on FOX and my thoughts turn to that unlikely philosopher, Rodney King, who asked “Can we all get along?” It’s a long shot, Rodney, but maybe some day. Maybe someday.
Oct 12th, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
Happy Birthday, Number Four
It’s a beautiful fall day, great football weather, which is only fitting since today is Brett Favre’s birthday. It still seems weird, doesn’t it, that Favre suits up Sundays in a jersey that doesn’t belong to the Green Bay Packers. Look, full disclosure here, I grew up in Queens, New York and have always been a Jets fan and I am ecstatic that he’s wearing the Green and White. But I’ve also been rooting for the Packers since moving to Wisconsin in 1999 and I wish them well too. Aaron Rodgers seems like a promising young quarterback and I hope the team shakes off these early season mistakes and roars to the playoffs (much like the Giants did last year). I don’t want to revisit the painful divorce between Favre and Packers management. But I also feel that I have a special obligation to pay tribute to the man today since I happen to share the same birthday. Here’s to you Brett. I hope you get to enjoy some quality time with your family after you’re done prepping for Sunday’s game. And I also hope you dispatch with the Bengals with ease so that you can watch the Pack take on Holmgren’s Seahawks in the late game. As for the rest of you, take a look at this article on the club of Brett’s backups from today’s New York Times. The article mentions some of the great practical jokes that Brett is known for though the Great Times is apparently too classy to mention his legendary flatulence. All in all, a good read.
Oct 10th, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
