Les Paul, Mike Cudahy and the Rise of the Uber Geezers

The Wizard of Waukesha is bringing his act to Milwaukee’s Pabst Theatre in June! If you don’t know the significance of that sentence then you don’t know the history of rock and roll. Les Paul, who turns 93 on June 9th, grew up in Waukesha and is probably more responsible for the popular music of our time than anyone. He is credited with inventing the design of the modern electric guitar and introducing recording techniques that revolutionized the music industry. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when a group of Paul devotees came to Michael Cudahy with a plan to create a Paul tribute at Discovery World, the planets seemed to align. I started this column as a tribute to some extraordinary graybeards among us and this breaking news about Paul’s upcoming concert just gave me a new lede. While so many of us in Milwaukee pout about the leadership vacuum on our local scene, a handful of wealthy and accomplished elders are stepping up to the plate. First and foremost, idiosyncratic and irascible Michael Cudahy has been coming to the rescue of various struggling institutions in the city for years. Take a look at his profile in the March, 2007 issue of Milwaukee Magazine by Kurt Chandler. The man was born into one of this town’s most prestigious families but he dropped out of school and seemed destined to become the black sheep of the Cudahy clan. His story gives a 20th Century Midwestern twist to a legendary Shakespearean tale. This Prince Hal ne’er-do-well eventually launched a medical electronics firm that earned him a fortune. Ever since selling Marquette Electronics to GE, Cudahy has been dedicated to giving away millions. The Medical College of Wisconsin, MSOE, the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee all benefited from his largesse. But Cudahy isn’t the type to just write checks. He took over the Pabst Theater, brilliantly restored it and established it as the city’s most magnificent entertainment venue. Anyone who visits Discovery World, the city’s outstanding science museum, soon realizes what an impact Michael Cudahy has had. While the building’s glorious design resulted from a conflict between the philanthropist, the neighboring Milwaukee Art Museum and city planners, the spectacular facility is a living testament to Cudahy’s vision and commitment to this region. At 84, Cudahy isn’t the oldest benefactor on the local scene. That honor probably goes to Joseph Zilber a wealthy 90-year-old developer who is engaged on a spending spree to kickstart a Milwaukee Renaissance. He stepped up to the plate when the WE Energies-sponsored proposal to redevelop the Pabst City site was rejected by the Common Council. While that project is still very much a work-in-progress, Zilber has invited criticism by replacing the Pabst sign with one featuring his name and attaching a tacky video billboard to one of the buildings. But Zilber has also announced plans to bankroll a new initiative to address the poverty and other challenges facing Milwaukee to the […]

May 24th – Tiger Army @ Turner Hall

Get ready for this Vital sponsored invasion of the Tiger Army. It begins at 8PM on May 24th at Turner Hall. Opening acts are The Unseen and War Tapes. Members of Vital will be there to give out goodies and we’ll have drawings for free tickets to other Vital shows at Turner. Don’t miss it!

Permission to party

Chicago dodged a bullet this week when it tabled the now-notorious “promoter’s ordinance,” which would have made it necessary for independent music promoters in the city to obtain a license to the tune of $500 – $2000 and at least $300,000 in liability insurance. The legislation, targeted at venues with less than 500 “fixed seats”, outraged Chicago’s music community, and with good reason: in any city, including Milwaukee, this ordinance would be certain and sudden death for a local music scene trying to stay on its feet. Clubs and bars that host live music are already licensed by the city, subject to building and occupancy codes and required to have liability insurance. The potential consequences of the promoter’s ordinance are obvious: fewer shows, higher cover charges, harder times for upstanding business owners, criminalized concerts. The law is so broadly worded that even bands who book their own shows could be considered “illegal promoters.” It’s bad news. It’s narrow-sighted, fuddy-duddy lawmaking. I cringe to imagine a city in which the only “legal” concerts are at muscular venues who can afford to host nationally touring acts. I guess I’m young and naive, but god dammit, I want lawmakers to get their faces out of my good times. I want the paternalism to stop. I want the suburbanization of the places and parties I hold dear to stop, stop, stop. In Milwaukee, a great deal of great things are happening in groundswells of brilliant ideas, passionate people and sweaty, back-breaking, frustrating work. Even the stodgiest members of our local media have become fashionably aware that much of Milwaukee’s cultural life takes place in back rooms, basements, secret clubs, fly-by-night theaters, abandoned submarines at the bottom of the lake, etc. It’s chic, edgy and dangerous now, but THIS IS HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE. In the grand sweep of human history, we haven’t been applying for permits to make music, show art or throw parties for very long. And I don’t think that’s a mark of our progress. The Echo Base Collective is officially defunct after a few brief but shining months in a Fifth Ward warehouse. After a cop raid and a warning to stop throwing “illegal raves,” they stopped having amazing local rock shows. Now, after weeks of runaround from the police and a handful of post-dated citations including failure to acquire an occupancy permit, their building was condemned and the Base members evicted. Now three people are homeless and more than 200 bicycles, many of them donated to the Collective by the Boys and Girls Club to be fixed up and distributed to kids for free, are going to languish as gas prices skyrocket and our transit system goes broke. Did Echo Base do everything right? No. But everyone involved was trying to better the community, and no one was getting hurt. I went to a residential college with an extremely liberal alcohol philosophy. It was smart thinking – by allowing us to hang out and drink whenever and wherever we […]

We’ll do it live! (NSFW)

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing, Good god, y’all. Wouldn’t it be great if every president was required to listen to Edwin Starr’s nearly perfect anthem against War before committing troops to harms way? Especially before a needless and senseless military action like the one going on in Iraq. But you won’t hear me call it a war. The war ended in a matter of weeks when the so-called coalition forces steamrolled over Saddam Hussein’s undisciplined and overmatched defenses. What followed is nothing other than an open-ended occupation that just about perfectly fits the definition of a quagmire. The PBS American Experience series ran a two-part profile of George H. W. Bush last week and the contrast between his skillful orchestration of the first gulf war with the mess perpetuated on our nation and the world by his first born was overwhelming. Key players Colin Powell and James Baker were positively gloating with pride at how well managed and executed was the campaign to kick Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. The justification was undeniable, the international support was unquestionable, the force was overwhelming, and the victory was quick. Bush 41 chose to end hostilities once Kuwait was liberated. The objective was achieved and additional loss of life was spared. Some taunted the president, who served his country during World War II, for failing to continue the march to Baghdad but, as Powell and Baker pointed out, nobody is doing that anymore. I’ll leave it to historians and psychologists to explain what motivated Bush fils to handle things so differently from his pop. Thankfully, his days as president are numbered. Our nation has an important decision to make this November. John McCain has begun distancing himself from the current occupant of the White House on many things but not on Iraq. He insists that our military must remain in Iraq as long as necessary to support the new and fragile democracy. His claim that withdrawing our troops would amount to surrender is nonsense. We won the war and it is up to the Iraqis, with international support, to establish a self-sustaining government. The Iraqi people will only support a government of its own choosing and our unlimited presence prevents that from happening. Parents know that we fail our children if we don’t let them walk on their own two feet. By continuing our role as occupiers we are enabling corrupt sycophants who don’t have the moral suasion to appeal to their own people. Doesn’t the Iraqi army’s pathetic recent performance in Basra make that obvious? We have a role to play but not as occupying force. The next American president must restore our commitment to international law and the right of all nations to self-determination. The 9/11 attacks were not an excuse to turn our backs on these basic principles. Yes, the renegades who engage in terrorism need to be hunted down and punished and nations that harbor them should be held to account but within the framework of diplomacy and collaboration between allies. 41 […]

What’s in a name?

New Name for Milwaukee Dance Theatre now in its 20th Season!

Isabelle Kralj & Mark Anderson’s Milwaukee Dance Theatre, celebrating its 20th Anniversary, approaches the next 20 years with a new name! Why the name change? Founded in 1987 by Isabelle Kralj, Milwaukee Dance Theatre (MDT) was conceived as an eclectic performance group with an emphasis on dance, but not dance alone. During the first decade of MDT, besides pure dance concerts, Kralj produced her own work, which was a combination of text, dance and music – or what is known as hybrid theatre. Some of the most popular of those early theatre works included, Escapades of Kurent, A Soldier’s Tale, MDT Meets Mozart. And now, at the cusp of the next 20 Years – full of ideas and ready to embrace constant conceptual growth, Kralj and Anderson and the Board of Directors readdressed the name and its accurateness in defining the company brand. The big question was, what do you call a company committed to creating original, collaborative, and innovative hybrid theater? …and the answer was THEATRE GIGANTE (pronounced “ji – GAHN – teh”).

“Ball don’t lie.” – Rasheed Wallace

I don’t know how or why it happens, but every year it’s like the flip of a switch: someone or something reminds me that basketball exists. And that I love it. And that the Pistons fucking rule. This year I was standing in the dark cavern of the Echo Base warehouse, beholding my spring bike strewn about the shop in pieces (soon to be resurrected as less of a death trap), when my phone rang. It was Fernando, a friend from Ann Arbor, one member of a small pod of Michiganeers-cum-Milwaukeeans I associate with here. “You watching the Pistons game tonight?” “What game?” I asked, completely unprepared for the flush of basketball fever that was about to bring me to my knees. “I thought you were a Pistons fan? It’s a pretty important game in the series.” An hour later, I was sitting at the bar in the dark cavern of Major Goolsbys, sharing a pitcher of Spotted Cow, stupid with the thrill of an imminent victory over the Sixers – a total about-face from my everyday life and identity. Damn. Days later, my best friend from home called from Baltimore, where he works as a homesick public radio producer. Our lives run on crossed threads, even at great distances – we’ve only ever been at great distances, in fact, since we graduated from high school six years ago. “I don’t know what to do tonight,” he said. “I feel like drinking a little too much and being drunk a little too early.” “That’s all I’ve been doing,” I said, “all week. Because of the playoffs.” “The playoffs?” he said. “Is there a game tonight?” It’s some sort of tic in the expatriate Detroiter subconscious. When you miss the city you come from – not just because you don’t live there, but because you know it’s never going to be the city you wish it could be, because every time you go back it’s a little stranger, a little more fantastical – you let yourself believe in anything that makes you feel a part of it again. If it’s the NBA – so be it. When the playoffs are over – or when the Pistons are out of the series – I’ll stop going to the bar straight from work and I won’t drink so much Spotted Cow. I probably won’t return to Major Goolsby’s, maybe not even next year – who knows where my Michigan crew will roll then, or if any of them will even live here anymore. I’ll think about 2005, when I was lonely, tired and frustrated in Turkey’s southeastern desert, when I got a text message about the Spurs’ victory over the Pistons and broke down crying in the middle of the market. I’ll think about 2006, when we lost to the Heat and impenetrable, infuriating Shaquille O’Neal, and I mourned quietly in my parents’ chilly basement in the suburbs, watching him say, in an interview with a bimbo sportscasterette, that he was looking forward […]

One Tough Filly

One thing you gotta say about Hillary Clinton; there’s nothing brittle about this filly. Sen. Clinton made a visit to the car racing capital of the world in the days leading up the Indiana primary but the Kentucky Derby was the most prestigious sports event of the week. The derby is called the most exciting two minutes in sports and this year it lived up to its reputation. The competitive race stayed close for most of the mile and a quarter though Big Brown closed strong and finished well ahead of Eight Belles, the filly who ran second. Unfortunately, tragedy struck soon after the race was over when the runner up’s two front legs buckled under her leaving the beautiful animal incapacitated. She was quickly euthanized and the resulting sadness contrasted sharply with the festive pageantry (not to mention excessive inebriation) associated with the derby. I’ll leave it to others who know more about the sport to wonder if horseracing is cruel and inhumane. The only time I ever actually visited a horse track, I witnessed the legendary battle between Affirmed and Alydar at Belmont when the two ran the entire distance nose-to-nose culminating in Affirmed’s narrow victory and the sport’s last Triple Crown. That was 30 years ago. Elections are often referred to as races but when they drag on and on it’s difficult to see any parallel with anything associated with speed. Even a marathon concludes in a few hours while this election seems interminable. But it’s clear that this nominating process is rounding the clubhouse turn and the finish line is in sight. Way back in March, following Hillary Clinton’s tepid performance on Super Tuesday, I wondered how long she would continue fighting for the Democratic Party’s nomination given how dramatically she was being outperformed by Barack Obama. I felt then, as I do now, that she was entitled to stay in the race as long as Obama was still short of the delegate count needed to secure the nomination. But it is becoming increasingly clear that her chances of winning are exceedingly small and that the longer the competition continues, the more likely it is that irreparable damage will be done to the Democrats chances of winning in the fall. None of this can be lost on Sen. Clinton who is unquestionably as smart as anyone on today’s political stage. She has made mistakes before, including the horrendously managed attempt to pass comprehensive health care reform in her husband’s first term and the overly cautious frontrunner campaign she ran leading up to her third place finish in Iowa way back in January. To her credit, however, she usually learns from her mistakes. Following the health care debacle, Clinton (and her husband) learned the importance of reaching out to build coalitions. And since Iowa, Clinton has appeared energized and combative, shedding her wonky nature for a more populist and confrontational style. Her support across the nation is wide and deep and it is important that this contest […]

I’m sick! Of health care talk, anyway

No more gilding the lily

“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily… is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” —Shakespeare, from King John (1595): This morning my son and I were planning his 10th birthday party. I live in East Town Tosa, a neighborhood that straddles the border between affluent aspirations and working class reality. His first few years of school, in the early 2000s, I was frequently faced with extravagant birthday parties and gift-giving that felt like either intense competition between parents or the setting of an unhealthy precedent. Of course, everyone’s intentions were good, but it still bugged me. So each year when Harry’s turn to “celebrate” came, I sent a note to parents asking that he not receive gifts in excess of $20 and informing them that we would not open presents at the party, but would send thank-you’s afterward. To my surprise, a few parents whispered their approval in my ear, though just a few took up the call. Harry’s parties get great reviews – we’ve done a backyard campout, a day at Miller Beach, an all-night Star Wars movie-thon (complete with light saber battles in the living room) and my favorite – inviting three boys over to pick up all the sticks in my yard, then burning them in the fire pit while roasting marshmallows. Two for one, everybody wins! And here’s what you don’t see at his get-togethers: boys comparing the gifts they brought; begging for more tokens when they run out first; crying quiet tears in the back seat because they didn’t win a big prize at the arcade. The reason is simple: contentment truly is more about imagination than money. And Harry’s story is a metaphor for what I see all around me these days. Over the last decade, so many fools (yeah, I said it) have spent up their available credit simply because they could, blindly swallowing fantasy stories about an ever-expanding economy and America’s lifestyle entitlement. They believed it was okay to pay way too much for a house because interest rates were low; they justified gas-guzzling, expensive-to-insure, high-payment vehicles for the flimsiest of reasons, which in fact came down to no more than, “It’s shiny and I want it like an Oompa Loompa – now.” At the same time, over 40 million citizens were without health insurance and 13 million children were living below the poverty line. If put to the question, only the most megalomaniacal of conservative thinkers could believe the situation was good for the future of the nation. It just goes to show another apparent deficiency in our education system: the lack of emphasis on cautionary tales. The Panic of 1893, the 1907 Bankers Panic (the 4th in 34 years), the Crash of 1929, the Great Depression, the 1973 oil crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the 1990 oil crisis leading to the Gulf War, five recessions in less than 30 years. The list is incomplete, but long enough to establish a pattern: We rise, we fall. As individuals we don’t control market […]

Spring 2008 WEED OUT!

Milwaukee has taken its time warming up for spring. But instead of snow, parks throughout the county are now blanketed with a new seasoned enemy: the garlic mustard, the dames rocks and the burdock, just to name a few. These are the worst of the worst, the most appalling agriculture on this side of town. So with that said, IT’S TIME TO GET THE WEED OUT! For the 2008 season, the Park People are soliciting volunteers to remove those nasty, persistent, and just plain pesky plants that unfortunately take root throughout Milwaukee. Obviously this is not a one-man (or woman) weed job; each year hundreds of volunteers assist in removing these invasive plants from our high quality parks. So, with a good pair of gloves and a few other tools of the trade, join persistent pullers and put your green thumb to good use! For more information on specific dates, times, and locations, please call (414)73-7275.