SCENE CENTRAL WISCONSIN EDITION | WWW.SCENENEWSPAPER.COM | APRIL 2015
VOLUNTARY 75¢
“Feathers” basket by Sharon Goddard
SERVICES
Becker Marine Services all types of engines including Evinrude, Johnson, Mercury, Volvo, and Mercruiser.
Becker Marine
Since 1949
Becker Marine is an authorized dealer of Evinrude marine engines, Harris FloteBotes, ShoreStation Docks and ShoreStation Boat Lifts. Becker Marine is located in Waupaca, Wisconsin on the beautiful Chain O’ Lakes. Becker Marine has been serving central Wisconsin since 1949. Stop in and check out our inventory and rentals.
2015 Boat & Motor Rentals
2 HOURS
3 HOURS
4 HOURS
1 DAY
1 WEEK
CANOE-KAYAK
$25
$30
$35
$45
$135
ROWBOAT ONLY
$25
$30
$35
$40
$120
MOTOR ONLY 8 H.P.
$30
$35
$40
$50
$150
ROWBOAT & MOTOR
$45
$50
$55
$80
$240
$400
$1,200
90 H.P. SKI BOAT 20 FOOT PONTOON
$90
$110
$135
$210
$630
24 FOOT PONTOON
$105
$125
$150
$230
$690
25% Deposit on Reservation. Extra Charge on Late Returns. Extra Charge for Boats Left Dirty. Cash Security Deposit Required. No Keg Beer or Grills on Boats. Price Plus Fuel Used & Tax.
L2 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
CERTIFIED MECHANICS WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
We know that summer is short, and unfortunatly sometimes your engines just dont get how precious our short summer months are to us. We live for the water. We promise to do our best to keep you and your family out on the water and not stuck at home.
LAKE WORK
We also accommodate to your lake front needs. This includes dock installation and removal, Boat Lift installation and removal, and any odd job you need some help with we are here for you!
Becker Marine E1208 COUNTY HWY. Q WAUPACA, WI 54981 P: (715) 258–9015 http://beckermarine.com Hours of Operation: Monday-Sunday: 8am-6pm Find us on Facebook
BECKER MARINE
CENTRAL WISCONSIN EDITION SCENE STAFF
Publisher James Moran • 920.418.1777 jmoran@scenenewspaper.com Associate Publisher Norma Jean Fochs • 715.254.6324 njfochs@scenenewspaper.com
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OSHKOSH Ad Sales Dan McCord mccord.dan@gmail.com Graphic Designer Ericka Kramer-Baker • 920.602.2297 ebaker@scenenewspaper.com APPLETON Ad Sales Mareen Andrejeski 920.522.2381 • mo@scenenewspaper.com Graphic Designer Jeff Hillis jhillis@scenenewspaper.com CENTRAL WISCONSIN Ad Sales Norma Jean Fochs • 715.254.6324 njfochs@scenenewspaper.com Graphic Designer Jeff Hillis jhillis@scenenewspaper.com FOND DU LAC
CONTENTS COVER STORY L4 Celebrating the Arts
Ad Sales Greg Doyle • 920.251.8944 gregdtdoyle@yahoo.com Graphic Designer Ericka Kramer-Baker • 920.602.2297 ebaker@scenenewspaper.com
Graphic Designer Jeff Hillis jhillis@scenenewspaper.com
CONTRIBUTORS Steve Lonsway Tricia Derge Kimberly Fisher Jean Detjen Richard Ostrom Nick Olig Dobie Maxwell Dennis Riley Robert Meyer Tony Palmeri
Rohn Bishop John Price-Kabhir Will Stahl Michael Mentzer Jane Spietz George Halas Marianne Walker Bonni Miller Karen O’Brien
ENTERTAINMENT
R20 Right Wing Nut
R10 Cinema Beneath
R22 Media Rants
R14 Nick Olig
R26 Rohn’s Rants
FINE ARTS
R16 Dobie Maxwell
R8 Artful Living
R28 Buddist Advisor
OUTDOORS
R36 April Concert Watch
R30 Seeing Green
FOOD & DRINK
R40 The Spanish Inquisition
R34 Beauty and the Beast
R2 Brewmaster
L11 Leave it to Karen
R4 Tricia’s Table
EVENT CALENDARS
R6 From the Wine Cave
NEWS & VIEWS
R42 Live Music
L10 Grass Roots Food
R18 The View From the Leftfield
L12 The Big Events
GREEN BAY Ad Sales Norma Jean Fochs • 715.254.6324 njfochs@scenenewspaper.com
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R40
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Seats
Calumet
PRESS
INC.
PO Box 227 • Chilton, WI 53014 • 920-849-4551
Advertising deadline for May is April 20 at 5 p.m. Submit ads to ads@scenenewspaper.com. The SCENE is published monthly by Calumet Press, Inc. The SCENE provides news and commentary on politics, current events, arts and entertainment, and daily living. We retain sole ownership of all non-syndicated editorial work and staff-produced advertisements contained herein. No duplication is allowed without permission from Calumet Press, Inc. 2015.
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | L3
COVER STORY // FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
Stained glass by Alan Sievers
Woven pillow cover by Barbara Geurink
Photograph by John Morser
Celebrating the Arts BY MARIANNE WALKER The 43rd annual Festival of the Arts at the UWSP Noel Fine Arts Center opens the spring “season of art” in central Wisconsin with high-quality art forms in a myriad of mediums. Presented by 45 Midwest professional artists from Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, the Festival is an opportunity to talk with the artists, learn about their work, and purchase that unique, one-of-a-kind treasure. In addition, three exceptional art students from UWSP will also show and sell their work. The atrium and second-floor mezzanine of the Noel Fine Arts Center will be L4 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
filled to bursting with glass, jewelry, fiber, photography, ceramics, paintings, sculptures, wood and more. And children are more than welcome. UWSP art professor Dianne Bywaters will have art activities for children in one of the art studio rooms. The Festival is sponsored by the Stevens Point Festival of the Arts Council and the UWSP College of Fine Arts and Communication. The show is open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on April 19, and admission is free. The Festival of the Arts is one of the longest-running, high-quality art shows in central Wisconsin. The UWSP University Women started planning it in 1971, and the first show was held in 1973 as an eve-
ning program for the University Women and their guests in the University Center featuring weavers, spinners, potters, painters and crafts people from the Stevens Point area. As of the 1980s, the show had evolved and grown into a juried show with purchase awards. Teaching art appreciation to the public was important, and the shows featured art studio demonstrations in various media. Activities for children to engage in art projects or buy small pieces of art work were part of the program. REMEMBERING DICK SCHNEIDER
Dick Schneider, well known in central Wisconsin for his ceramic artistry, became
Eileen McDaniel’s watering can
a significant contributor to the event by supporting the planners and participating as a potter for many years. His creative talent is legendary at UWSP; among many other achievements, he designed and supervised the execution of the “E Pluribus Unum” mosaic mural on the exterior wall of the Natural Resources building on the UWSP campus. His devotion to his craft and mentoring younger artists resulted in nationally recognized pottery artists, Rick Foris and Tim Marcotte, both of the Stevens Point area. Marcotte continues to show and sell his pottery at the Festival. Schneider retired from UWSP in 1988 but continued working as a studio potter, Continue on Page L6
Region 5 (The Scene) Size 9.5 x 10
APRIL CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Featured Event HEADACHES: HELPING YOU LIVE BETTER Thursday • April 9 6 - 7:30 p.m. 2501 Main Street, Stevens Point Oak Room Do you suffer from migraines, cluster headaches or stress headaches? Have you ever wondered when a headache isn’t “just a headache”? Jacqueline Bailey, APNP, a clinician with Ministry Medical Group’s Department of Neurology will present an informative talk about headaches, their causes and treatment options available. 6 – 6:30 p.m. Registration, refreshments and informational tables 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Seminar presentation followed by a question and answer session This is a FREE event. Please call 855.642.2273 to register If you are unable to attend this session we are offering it in Weston the following Thursday, April 16. You can register by calling the number above.
Loss of Spouse Support Groups
FAMILY BIRTH CENTER EDUCATION OFFERINGS Breast Feeding Basics Wednesday • April 1 6 - 8:30 p.m., $15
New Moms Class
Mondays • April 6, 13, 20, 27 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Life with Baby: How to Navigate Through Your Baby’s First Months Wednesday • April 8 6 - 8:30 p.m., $15
Lamaze 3-week Sessions Wednesday • April 22 6 - 8:30 p.m., $55
For information and to register for all programs, call 715.346.5655
Bariatric Support Group
Monday • April 6 6 - 7 p.m. 2501 Main Street, Stevens Point Oak Room No registration required
Spring Designer Eyewear Sale – Save 30%
Thursday & Friday • April 9 & 10 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ministry Medical Group Optical Department Third floor 824 Illinois Avenue, Stevens Point For appointment, call 715.342.7834
Thursday • April 9, 16, 23, 30 5:30 - 7 p.m. Lincoln Center 1519 Water Street, Stevens Point Co-sponsored by Ministry Home Care and the Aging & Disability Resource Center of Portage County For information, call 800.398.1297
FREE Community Wellness Event
Monday, April 13 5 - 7 p.m. Dreyfus University Center, UWSP Enjoy a healthy cooking demo, 25-minute exercise class and keynote featuring bestselling author, and motivational speaker Ann Kulze, MD. Dr. Kulze is on a personal crusade to share the joys of living well by transforming new science of healthy living into programs that are simple, easy and fun. To register, call 855.642.2273
2015 Community Leadership Celebration
Saturday • April 25 6 - 9 p.m. Stevens Point Country Club 1628 Country Club Drive, Stevens Point Tickets: $65 For information, call 715.343.3259
Bariatric Information Session Tuesday • April 28 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Wednesday • April 15 6 - 7 p.m. 2501 Main Street, Stevens Point Oak Room To register, call 877.295.5868
Unless otherwise noted, all programs are free and located at: Ministry Saint Michael’s Hospital, 900 Illinois Avenue, Stevens Point
For a complete listing of programs and events, visit our online Health Connection Calendar of Events at ministryhealth.org/events
COVER STORY // FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
Continued from Page L4 showing and selling locally as well as at his summer retreat, the Schneider’s Pottery Shop near Minocqua. It was a great loss to the community when he passed away on April 25, 2014. Schneider’s daughter, accomplished potter Lora Hagen, will be selling her own work at this year’s show in addition to exhibiting some of her father’s work as a tribute to his contributions to the Festival’s history. To honor Schneider’s legacy with the Festival of the Arts, the annual Best of Show award has been permanently re-designated The Dick Schneider Best of Show Award. In the 1980s the Festival started a scholarship program to encourage young artists at UWSP. The College of Fine Arts and Communication is the only one in Wisconsin accredited by all four professional associations: the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, National Association of Schools of Dance, National Association of Schools of Music, and National Association of Schools of Theatre. UWSP is one of only 30 universities in the nation with those credentials. Many of the Art and Design students go on to successful careers in the arts with design firms, galleries, museums, leading companies, education, and as independent artists. Many Music graduates hold positions in military ensembles, full-time professional symphony orchestras, studio
musicians, university teachers and private teachers. The high-quality academic and production programs in the Department of Theater and Dance have established UWSP as the primary undergraduate center in Wisconsin for students interested in the performing arts. In support of these outstanding undergraduate programs, the Festival awards scholarships for each department and raises the money by soliciting donations from the corporate and private sectors and by holding a silent auction of a selection of fine art donated by the participating artists. Faculty within each department selects the scholarship award winner based on the students’ overall performance.
Continue on Page L8
OUR LOCAL WINNER
Je s s i e Fr i t s c h o f Stevens Point, an accomplished encaustic painter in the show this year, was a scholarship winner in 2004 and is now a member of the Council that plans the show. “I was always taking art lessons growing up,” Fritsch said. “My professor at UW-Fox Valley let me try encaustic in her
“Lilies in Laona,” encaustic on birch, by Jesssie Fritsch L6 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
studio as it was not taught at that university. I transferred to UWSP, wrote an approved research grant and bought encaustic painting supplies under the mentorship of professor Rob Stolzer. The Festival of Arts scholarship allowed me to buy more supplies to continue learning.” Fritsch met Brenda
Dick Schneider at his pottery wheel
Turquoise bag by Ilze Heider
“Jay” by Alexander Lee Landerman
MissWinter was an old biddy that spoiled all of A il’s fun.
winter would have to go… AND NOW!
hooray for spring and all the style it brings!
We have esh new arrivals daily!
plus all your boutique favorites! brighton • tribal • lisette-l • chambrai simply • nally & milly & slimsations
just to name a few!
BOUTIQUE
TIMELESS CLOTHING • MODERN FRIPPERY
DOWNTOWN STEVENS POINT
1016 MAIN ST 54481 715•345•7819 MON-FRI • 10 -5:30 SAT • 10 - 4:00 for fashion & accessory updates, follow us on facebook
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | L7
COVER STORY // FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
“Wolf Howling at the Moon” pendant by Keith Westphal. Photo by Ann Cady, ARC Photographic Images, Elmira, N.Y.
“Extinction,” dinosaur bone with gibeon meteorite pendant, by Keith Westphal. Photo by Ann Cady, ARC Photographic Images, Elmira, N.Y.
Continued from Page L6 Gingles, a fine jewelry artist from Stevens Point who has been in the Festival for a long time, and as a result, decided she’d be a professional artist. Fritsch graduated from UWSP in 2006 with a BFA with honors and started participating in art fairs that same week. In 2007, Jessie received the Festival’s Best of Show award. JEWELRY BY KEITH WESTPHAL
Appleton jewelry artist Keith Westphal joined the show this year. Keith creates custom handmade silver jewelry using clean, simple silverwork to enhance the natural beauty of the individual gemstones. After learning the art of lapidary in the late 1970s, he enrolled in an art metals class to learn how to design jewelry to showcase his own custom-cut gemstones. He subsequently taught lapidary and art metals at L8 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
the technical college for an adult evening program. After recently retiring from his daytime career, he returned to fabricating his jewelry designs. He and his wife, Colleen, who has degree in graphic arts and marketing, display Keith’s work together at art fairs around the state. In 2014, he was presented with the Award of Excellence for Jewelry at Artstreet. Keith has acquired numerous unique, natural gemstones from all over the world such as fossilized dinosaur bone, meteorites from Africa, Russia and Sweden, fossilized sea creatures from Australia, Indonesia and Madagascar, and colorful gemstones from Canada, Mexico and South America. They’ll be featured in his designs at the show. Come and meet Keith to learn about his materials and designs.
Wood by Wendell Zeigler A DAY IN STEVENS POINT
While contemplating that next piece of art for a collection, the visitor has even more to see at the Noel Fine Arts Center. The Carlsten Gallery on the upper floor of the mezzanine, open during the Festival, will be featuring an exhibit by Jillian Noble titled “Ampersand”. Inside the Carlsten Gallery is a smaller exhibit space for area art students. And displayed in cases that span the exterior walls of the gallery, the Vallier Collection of Early American Pressed Glass consists of more than 1,000 individual glass goblets, a special treat for any glass historian or collector. Plan a day of art appreciation and enjoyment. Visit Stevens Point and come to the Festival of the Arts! Metal garden lawn ornament by Deb Radke
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R1
FOOD & DRINK // BREWMASTER
Alaskan Brewing Co. Black Imperial India Pale Ale BY STEVE LONSWAY This month’s selection was taken from our own stock of guests beers that we run in the Stone Arch Tap Room. The Alaskan Black Imperial India Pale Ale comes in a 22 oz. bomber bottle with a very intriguing label portraying two black ravens
perched in a riverside tree. This beer is part of the Alaskan Brewing Company’s Pilot Series which is what they name their limited edition specialty releases. Because it’s a bigger beer, our team chose snifter style glassware which was the right decision for this beer. We paid close attention to our serving temperature and nailed it at 48 degrees. As we poured our samples, a couple comments came out indicating the dark ruby red pour. It seemed to pour heavy as well. We had noticed that the foam started out more of a tan and as it settled (which was rampant) it darkened. I held the glass up to the light to admire the richness of the color and saw that the beer had brilliant clarity even though the label warned that natural sedimentation may occur. The color alone is reason enough to buy this beer. A rich brown/red and not opaque like many in this category. The aroma aspect of this beer was just as pleasing. Our team identified smells similar to mint, chocolate, roast malt characteristics, dark cherry, biscuit, and Indian spice, possibly biryani? Intensely complex malt notes with spicy citrus hop aromas popping out to really tease the senses. When tasting this beer, all the above R2 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
aromas appeared in the flavors as well. An assertive dry, roasted malt flavor but not over the top and balanced to perfection with sweet citrus hops. The chocolatey notes definitely were more pronounced as it warmed. This dark beauty finished with a bit of an alcohol bite, strong hop bitterness and an extremely pleasing mouthfeel. With a touch of prickliness from the carbonation and a creamy, dry finish, this full bodied brew almost whispers treacle at the end. This beer will pair very well with spicy dishes especially the aforementioned Indian Biryani. Other fare that would complement this brew is blackened fish or an aggressive gumbo. Steve actually brought a bottle home to pair with the nights’ meal of black bean tacos and reported perfection! Their website description of this offering states an original gravity of 1.087 which in brewing indicates fermentability that after fermentation, results in alcohol content. There is a discrepancy in that number. The site indicates a 8.5% alcohol by volume, the bottled version we sampled indicates a 7.7% a.b.v. We assume their draught version contains the higher amount. Regardless, the 7.7% in the bottle works really well. The bitterness in this beer came in at 70 I.B.U’s. I.B.U. stands for International Bitterness Units and is a quick indicator of how hoppy a beer is. The higher that number, the more hoppy or bitter the beer is. Typically the human palette can only identify up to 100 I.B.U.’s so 70 is definitely on the higher side which, again works because of the high “fermentatblity” of this beer. Overall an excellent, flavorful example of the Black I.P.A. style. Now let’s get into the creators of this libation. Alaskan Brewing Company proudly calls Juneau, Alaska home and has since they first opened their doors in
December of 1986. Started by husband and wife team, Geoff and Marcy Larson as the 67th brewing company to start in the United States, their continued hard work and impressive trail of awards has gotten them to be the 16th ranked brewery on the Brewers Association’s “Top 50 Craft Brewing Company’s” list based on sales volume
(2012). Matter of fact they are the Great American Beer Festival’s most awardwinning craft brewery – pretty impressive especially being located in the final frontier. Their flagship beer was derived from shipping records and an old newspaper article they discovered in researching brewing history in Alaska. From the Douglas City Brewing Co. that operated at the turn of the last century (1899-1907). That beer today is known as Alaskan Amber and deserves a taste or two as well. These fine folks have developed a welldeserved reputation of brewing quality beers for many years and are perennial winners at World Beer Cup competition and Great American Beer Festival. They have won numerous awards for their Alaskan Smoked Porter which lands in my top five beers of all-time. They use alder wood to smoke choice malts in a commercial smoker in small batches and the flavors this tedious process creates is nothing short of amazing. FINAL WORD: Search the Alaskan Black Imperial India Pale Ale out and enjoy in moderation. And while you’re out, pick up a bomber of their amazing Smoked Porter too. It ages really well so maybe add a few for your cellar. Make an Alaskan night out of it. Prosit!
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R3
FOOD & DRINK // TRICIA’S TABLE
Giving Baby Chicks for Easter – PLEASE DON’T BY TRICIA DERGE Has a relative of yours ever had the bright idea of giving live baby chicks as an Easter gift? Spring is the season when some Bozo’s purchase “baby chicks” for their backyard poultry flocks or to give as Easter gifts, but one Oregon public health expert advises caution around these cute, fuzzy birds. The problem: Baby poultry carry salmonella bacteria that can cause serious illness. “Salmonella bacteria often contaminate adult chickens, ducks and other live poultry, so it goes without saying that their offspring often carry it, too,” says Emilio DeBess, D.V.M., Oregon Public Health veterinarian “What’s worse is that because of their size and cuteness, these birds often are picked up by children, who will put them close to their faces and kiss them,” DeBess says. “In many cases, children may not wash their hands after handling them.” Since 2010, nine outbreaks of illnesses caused by salmonella bacteria from
chicks have occurred, affecting at least 37 confirmed salmonellosis cases and many more suspected cases. A third or more of the cases were children, DeBess said. The last major salmonellosis outbreak, in 2013, occurred after people handled, kissed and kept poultry inside the home. Because nothing says Easter like a houseful of chickens pooping all over the Oriental rug. Salmonella infections can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever symptoms lasting three to seven days, DeBess said. Anyone with compromised immune systems, the very young and elderly people could become very ill and die of the infection. “We don’t think they are appropriate
Easter gifts,” DeBess says, “especially for young children - those younger than 5 who are particularly vulnerable to serious illness from salmonella contamination because of their underdeveloped immunity.” Many people purchasing baby poultry also don’t realize the responsibility involved with raising chicks and ducklings as the animals grow up. “These birds require space to roam and food to eat, and these factors can be expensive,” DeBess says. “As a result, they often are abandoned after they become adult chickens and ducks.” If that dimwit aunt or uncle does give live chicks as a gift, here are a few tips for preventing salmonella infection from baby poultry
Japan’s Newest Freaky Burger!
Finally!
The Cadbury Creme Burger!
You’ll have to travel some to find it, but at long last a bistro has created an edible “Heaven on Earth.” A west London restaurant has dreamed R4 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
• Don’t give live baby birds to children. How about a nice stuffed animal, or a package of Peeps? • Always wash hands with soap and water, and thoroughly clean surfaces after handling any animal or coming in contact with animal waste. • Keep chicks in an appropriate outdoor area. • If chicks are handled, never nuzzle or kiss them. They’ll only want more attention, and you’ll have a harder time separating from them emotionally when it comes time to butcher. • Never allow poultry inside the home.
up an Easter-inspired burger topped with a melted down Creme Egg. The Creme egg burgers, being served at the K West Hotel & Spa, in Shepherds Bush, are made with a sweet brioche bun dipped in white chocolate. Inside the bun is a chocolate patty made out of a gooey melted crème egg, as well as mascarpone cream, and a helping of strawberry jelly. The calorific sliders, available at the Studio Kitchen restaurant in the hotel, cost £5.50 ($8.00) for a portion of two, or as
part of the Spring Rocks Afternoon Tea starting from £22.50 ($33.00) per person. Each burger contains roughly 530 calories, adding up to 1,060 calories when served together - more than half the recommended daily intake of calories for a woman. Afternoon tea diners can also enjoy other Easter inspired treats such as mini hot cross buns, quail scotch eggs and savory sliders.
If you’re on the go in Japan, and you don’t have a lot of time for lunch...how about a quick Frog Burger?! The home country to pitch-black burgers can now boast another strange sandwich, due out later this month. The Orbi Yokohama Museum has taken the bamboo-charcoal buns and inserted an entire deep-fried frog in between them, and also adding some lettuce, a chili sauce, and an ingredient described as “a small amount of soy sauce-flavored chicken.” It costs about $8.40, and it comes with a drink. Essentially...it’s a frogwich! The burger actually promotes a new exhibit at the museum featuring poisonous creatures from around the world, including spiders and puffer fish.
Timeless Creations, Old World Charm Make Your Dream Home a Reality in 2015 With a Custom Designed & Built Home by Jesse Burg
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R5
FOOD & DRINK // FROM THE WINE CAVE
From the Wine Cave BY KIMBERLY FISHER Ahh, finally we are starting to see signs of spring. The snow has melted, the grass is starting to green, and the warmer weather brings out the best in us. Shake that cabin fever and get ready for your next
leg of wine exploration. Let’s talk about the three basic white grapes, but this time with a twist. Each year, some new region comes into vogue and some new grapes come to the forefront. It is worthwhile to concentrate
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on these three classic white grapes and by varying the regions; you can put them side by side and really taste the difference. See how each region, each producer is similar and how they can be different. The journey won’t take long, but the result is your palate will broaden greatly and you will
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auvignon lanc is a varietal that originated in the Bordeaux region in France and the name most likely gets its name from the French words Sauvage (wild) and Blanc (white). It is planted in many regions of the world and takes on many different personalities. When exploring this intriguing varietal, take the time to taste through three different regions to experience the incredible variety found in this grape. Depending on the climate, the flavors can differ from grassy, brassy herbaceous flavors – Santa Rita 120 Sauvignon Blanc (Chile) to tropical fruit and floral notes – Matanzas Creek Sauvignon Blanc, Bennett Valley, Sonoma (CA). Other parts of the world can show flavors of grapefruit, tree fruit such as peach notes and green peppers – Yealands Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand). Each will lend its own expression and take you down a path of discovery.
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hardonnay originated in the Burgundy wine region of Eastern France, but is grown everywhere. The grape is a neutral varietal but can be greatly influenced by terroir and oak. It can be a lean, mean, fighting machine meant to age such as Chardonnay based Champagne or White Burgundy. It can appear medium bodied with noticeable acidity and flavors of green apple and pear out of New Zealand - Villa Maria Chardonnay (New Zealand). In California, you can find a creamy mouth feel and a kiss of oak – Freemark Abbey Chardonnay, Napa (CA). Finally the wines of Washington State tend to be similar to California, but it emphasizes the fruit than the creaminess – Columbia Crest 2 Vines (WA).
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iesling first originated in the Rhine region in Germany and I believe it is a chameleon in terms of what it can express. It is aromatic, with flowery, perfumey notes and can have high acidity when done perfectly well. Usually pure and fresh, this varietal can take you on a roller coaster ride. In Washington State, Riesling is an easy drinker with a detectable peach and mineral component that tends to adapt to production methods done in Germany – Snoqualmie Naked Riesling (WA). In Germany, Riesling tends to have more apple and tree fruit notes with a tangy level of acidity – Schlink Haus Riesling (Germany). Monterey has an expression of cool weather allowing Riesling to sport its own character. Seaglass Riesling, Monterey (CA) is the perfect expression of cool air, minimal rainfall and a long growing season putting all the flavors in check. R6 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
add a wealth of knowledge for your wine vocabulary. Kimberly Fisher is Director of Fine Wine Sales for Badger Liquor-Wine & Spirits.
8th Annual
TRUNK SHOW
Saturday May 2nd • 9am-3pm Spring Bling from $100 to $10,000!
Jewelers.com
“Let Our Location Be Your Savings” 603 Wisconsin Avenue• •North North Fond Lac • (920)922-6259 603 Wisconsin Avenue Fonddudu Lac • (920)922-6259 April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R7
FINE ARTS // ARTFUL LIVING
Artful A Living BY JEAN DETJEN Fox Cities/Central Wisconsin independent business owners: A side-feature of my new ‘Artful Living’ column in Scene
Newspaper will be all about fashion and objects d’art. My personally selected ‘Foxy Finds’ will be featured monthly, starting with the April issue. I’m on the hunt for unique, artful creations for body and work/
living spaces that excite the senses. Clothing, shoes, accessories, decor items, and all variety of art objects will be highlighted. DIY artisans, shop owners and fashionistas are encouraged to contact me with sug-
gestions for my picks of the month. Cheers to living artFULLY!
Murano glass cufflinks in aqua green stone and chrome. Crafted in Italy for XMI Platinum collection. Other color combinations of blues, tans and reds available. $89.50 from Bill Paul Ltd., Neenah. billpaulltd.com
Blue & cream Aztec print jersey track shorts by Envi (USA). Drawstring waist with sporty piping detail. $74. Available at Azure, DePere in sizes XS-L. azurewi.com
Paintable ceramic wall sharks from The Fire | Pottery, Mosaic & Glass Fusing Studio, Appleton. $25.99 each. thefireartstudio. com.
Straw coral cowgirl hat with funky fabric band from Besselli, Green Bay. Guaranteed to turn heads. Price: $48.00. besselli. com.
Chic vegan faux leather mint green moto/biker jacket by Black Swan. Dress it up or down. $94. Available at Vintique, Neenah. vintiqueboutique.com.
Reclaimed silver and gold artisan necklace. This piece is made with organic discs of reclaimed sterling silver, fused fine silver, and 12k gold-filled links. Even the clasp is made by hand. Each piece is unique but can be ordered by contacting Jackie Schubbe at doobeadoo@ gmail.com. This 25-inch necklace sells for $100.
Exquisite Kinzig Design lamps from The Frame Workshop, Appleton.theframeworkshop.com. Hand blown glass bases. Richly colored shades sewn from embroidered silks and other elegant fabrics. Topped with distinctive finials that enhance these uniquely crafted pieces. Made in the USA. Prices vary.
Take edginess up a notch in the Sugar, a wedge style sandal that straps all the way to the ankle with a back zipper. Reminiscent of gladiator styles that have been one of the top trends of the last few seasons. Comfy and cool. Black & white polka dots featured. Eye-catching animal prints and solid hues also available. Joseph’s Shoes, Appleton. $139. shopjosephsshoes.com.
Lou Reed woodcut tribute print by Chad Brady / C.E. Brady Art. Custom frame by Foxley’s, Appleton. Created on the day of the musician’s death. Limited edition of 10, $150 (print only). Available at Coventry Glassworks & Gallery, Appleton, or through the artist: cebradyart@ gmail.com.
Site:1 portable wireless speaker from Princeton Audio. Handcrafted from instrumentquality tonewood and tuned for optimum frequency response. Interchangeable interfaces make it simple to listen inside or outside, wireless, over Bluetooth or hardwired. Rechargeable battery lasts up to 12 hours. Sleek design, available in a wide variety of wood and finish combinations. Special reduced pricing on the initial build of these through Spring at $299. Listening party at the Fox Note in Downtown Princeton on April 4th with free drinks and concert by Rebecca Hron of The Guilty Wanted! More listening parties will also take place in Appleton and Milwaukee. princeton-audio.com.
R8 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R9
ENTERTAINMENT // CINEMA BENEATH
Mortal Phases BY RICHARD OSTROM This month I am going to devote some quality time toward a surprisingly good modern day take on one of the oldest school fractions of the monster movie subgenre. Said film, calling itself ‘Late Phases’ (with the subtitle, ‘Night of the Lone Wolf ’ on the cover art but nowhere in the film) and hailing from the good folks at Glass Eye Pix (by way of Dark Sky Films) seeks to pull itself up from the oft tread conventions tied tight to the common fold of the werewolf film staple and branch off in a decidedly different, more character fueled, direction.
Situated in some far flung, small in scale New York state locale dubbed ‘Crescent City’, ‘Late Phases’ weds the viewer close to the pared down living situation of one vision free war vet name of Ambrose McKinley (realized onscreen by the ever dependable Nick Damici) with little more to yearn for but to count off the remaining days of his dwindling existence with his loyal pooch by his side. Our dutifully complacent chap has just freshly set down in these uneventful parts (with the aid of his always distracted son, played by Ethan Embry) when, from directly out of nowhere, arrives an intrusive menace of an extremely bestial nature. It would appear, as the pesky quirks of horror movie fate would have it, that the ‘harmless’ vibe of this community is seriously inflected by a heady dose of Lycanthropic corruption. The first thick taste of such comes in R10 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
very direct fashion one fitfully solemn evening wherein our main man cursed with the failed eyeballs must quickly acclimate to a violent, fatal attack upon, first his kindly neighbor and next his ever faithful, four legged best friend. Promptly following this unprovoked assault, Ambrose sets forth to plot a course of action that will, hopefully, locate, isolate and snuff out the savage culprit. What this will ultimately entail is the deeper delving into the predictably conservative social circles that inform the spine of this specific slice of small town Americana. Ambrose attempts (not often successfully) to win the trust of the resident old biddy greeting committee (designed, to a degree, after characters in the original ‘Stepford Wives’ as confessed by the director on the revelatory commentary track) as well as integrate himself into the thick of the area religious populace (which looks to be a fair chunk of the story’s supporting players). This all unfolds in a fairly expected manner with a series of not-so-stable confrontations giving way to the inevitable red herring or two on the way to the customary human to were-thing transformation reveal that these kinds of pictures are cemented around. Fortunately for us, this oh so potentially simple and cliché susceptible piece of lower budget, wolfman calamity is guided to a far nobler fruition by the totally able hand of a gent named Adrian Garcia Bogliano. Those precious few of you who actually follow my scattershot column on a constant basis may recall that name as being associated with a lively film I covered but a year ago called ‘Here Comes the Devil’. That film proved itself the wealthy result of an ingenious and uber-resourceful filmmaker who could absorb and adapt his volumetric genre influences to the benefit of a work that, in itself, was wholly original and effortlessly engrossing. ‘Here Comes the Devil’ also marked the widest ever exposure in this America Bogliano had yet been graced with. This reasonable level of cult success on, mostly, the festival circuit served to put him in a position to take the next best step forward in his rising career, to craft a film within our lovely boarders. Thus, ‘Late Phases’ was born.
For this, Bogliano’s official English lingo debut, the man has carted a few of his well honed directorial traits with him. Witness the soothing warmth of the often succulent cinematography that works one into a lull to pull them away from the danger you know damn well is impending. See, as well, the fetishistic dedication to utter practicality when it comes to the meat of his film’s FX work. Minimal digital input was employed in the rendering of the beasties or their unsparing carnage. What you eventually lay eyes on is, for the most part, pure latex, body in suit reality (the ‘from scratch to completion’ details can be found in the 30 minute featurette ‘Early Phases’ which ventures into creature maker Robert Kurtzman’s studio to casually observe the nuts and bolts behind it all). Now, while it makes for a slight case of sensory adjustment, these delightfully cheesy monstrosities actually prove to be effective throwback, shock horror material once the last stains of polished digital trickery fall from ones’ psyche. They help to propel the mounting unease as generated throughout the narrative between our protagonist and a litany of set minded residents who can never really gel to Ambrose’s somewhat cold, do it yourself persona. It seems this fella’s determined in-town snooping has raised up the red flag with a number of folks from the gabby spinsters to the local police and back around to the members of faith who express equal parts concern and distain at his disruptive behavior. In the end, it all must spiral back to a case of a life hardened man and his sharpened wits pairing up against a violent wall of supernatural opposition, something the film rather effectively marries to the concept of a fading mortal soul facing its’ concluding moments. ‘Late Phases’ is, apart from being a solid genre entry occasioned by welcome bursts of quality gore, a very satisfying roll out of distinct characters and the fitting performances that breathe them to cinematic life. In addition to the fine, subtly rendered lead work by Damici (whom some may recall from his team ups with stellar director Jim Mickle, like ‘Stakeland”), the picture is peppered with many a (semi)
familiar mug from across the cult-pop culture entertainment landscape. The statuesque Tom (‘House of the Devil’, ‘Last Action Hero’) Noonan takes part as a mentor like preacher with a soft spot for cigarettes, Tina Louise (Ginger from Gilligan’s Island, now looking more like a Golden Girl) show up as one of the pesky neighbors, Lance Guest (the teen hero of ‘The Last Starfighter’) is a rather creepy hanger on at the church and former ‘Twin Peaks’ bad boy Dana Ashbrook cameos as an underground gun dealer. All help to fill out the background details nicely. Each piece of this decent cast works to raise the end product well above the standards long set down by one too many a slapped together, direct to the shelf, werewolf themed time killer. ‘Late Phases’ features the usual extra stuff (some of it mentioned above); play by play audio commentary, a pair of featurettes and the film’s trailer. It comes to availability on Blu Ray and/or DVD from the aforementioned Dark Sky Films (darkskyfilms.com). Worth a shot, I say. Now, for a much needed passing mention to the ongoing phenomenon of the film festival in this state of ours. With many such cinema based gatherings taking place all across Wisconsin (Wildwood in Appleton, Wisconsin International Film Fest in Madison plus collectives in Green Bay, Milwaukee, Weyauwega and many, many others) I thought it only fitting to pass along a quick assemblage of my own make pretend fest line up culled from many recent finds that I just never got around to rambling about in a regular column. 1. ‘Whiplash’-Call it ‘Full Metal Jazz Band’. Young drummer with obvious skill set comes under the intense tutelage of a firebrand instructor (J.K. Simmons in an Oscar winning, volcano of a performance). The film charts how the poor lad must endure relentless immersion into the methods of his chosen craft (often to the sharp accompaniment of a barrage of profane insults) in order to come out the other side as one of the greats. The best I’ve seen, thus far, of the most recent slate of Academy Continue on Page R12
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ENTERTAINMENT // CINEMA BENEATH
Continued from Page R10 Award darlings (sorry Birdman). 2. ‘Under the Skin’- Scarlett Johansson is an alien newly arrived on Earth (more explicitly, Scotland) with an apparent agenda of luring suitable human males, by virtue of her foxy exterior, to her mysterious lair for abduction and...uh...processing purposes or something. Slow, spare and enigmatic, the film marks a return to filmmaking after a near decade of absence for Jonathan Glazer (‘Sexy Beast’, ‘Birth’) who takes the bare skeleton of Michel Faber’s source novel and has crafted an absorbing study of a being out of place in an environment made all the more alien in itself as the whole film seems to align with Scarlett’s character’s somewhat abstracted point of view. Dense and challenging in its ambiguity. 3. ‘The Guest’- Those clever, ‘wink, wink’, cats behind the home invasion splat fest ‘You’re Next’, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, are back with another jumpy thriller that repeatedly nods back in time toward entries from multiple genres from the 80s and 90s. A soldier on return
from the Afghan war ingratiates himself as the proposed combat pal of a naïve family’s fallen son. The mystery thickens as the man (essayed by ‘Downtown Abby’ star Dan Stevens) turns out to hold secrets that could prove quite threatening to his obliging hosts. Twisty, stylish fun in an old school, accidental video store discovery
kind of way. 4. ‘Starry Eyes’- Think of one of David Lynch’s starlet in trouble scenarios played out on a more straight arrow path, for awhile, until the darker themes of the storyline bleed vividly to the surface. Somebody named Alex Essoe stars as Sarah, a waitress at a typically degrading Hooters knock off joint who yearns to be a star, awww. She claims she’ll do anything to get the part and
soon finds herself put to the test of making good on her word in the most unexpected and disturbing way. Relentless once it kicks into its’ true narrative intent, with a game lead performance by Essoe that runs an emotional gauntlet that stands to gut the soul of any timid viewer. 5. ‘VHS Viral’+’The ABC’s of Death 2’- The latest additions to the two anthology franchises that have done all in their power to fully revitalize the format to the level once held by the likes of ‘Creepshow’. They’re not quite there, but not for lack of persistence and notable improvement of product (especially ‘ABC’s’ which had a lot to make up for in relation to its inaugural entry). Segments very wildly as per usual, but there seems to be a shift in favor of craftsmanship and stronger ideas (as opposed to beat you over the head gross out/shock tactics) which gives me great hope as this whole concept continues to move foreword. Bring on the next round. 6. ‘Life Itself ’- A look at the life and uneasy death (more to the point, dying days) of the most famous of all movie critics, Roger Ebert. ‘Hoops Dreams’ creator Steve James conducts a series of interviews
with a post speech, jaw removal Ebert in his hospital room and interweaves the recollection of Roger’s rise from lowly Illinois newspaper lackey to the heights of cinematic analysis as the co-host of the popular ‘At The Movies’ syndicated program and beyond with input from some of the man’s big name pals like Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog. We see images from Ebert’s youth in Urbana, IL and hear recollections from many mouths of his tussle with serious alcohol abuse before he became the sweater sporting rival to fellow Chicago film critic Gene Siskel. Funny, revealing and a bit unsettling (James is often present for Ebert’s sometimes unpleasant medical upkeep), ‘Life Itself ’ is a fully rewarding look at one of the most unique of all modern celebrities, in this overburdened age of self indulgent blogging and social network info-overkill will there ever be elbow room enough for another like him? Me thinks not. That’s enough. Happy festing, no matter how or where you do it. killpeoplenamedrichard@yahoo.com
GY T
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R13
ENTERTAINMENT // NICK OLIG
Game of Thrones Stimulus Package BY NICK OLIG The new year brought with it subzero temperatures and a temptation to bingewatch popular shows I’d never seen. A friend’s recommendation guided me to Game of Thrones. By the end of the first episode, with so much potential for episodic drama rife with good, evil, sex, and violence, I gazed out the window, saw two polar bears battling over dumpster scraps outside of Chinatown Kitchen, and realized I was indeed hooked on Game of Thrones. The most striking part of the HBO series is its enormity. Due to its eversprawling story arc, Thrones features about a dozen major characters, scores of minor characters, numerous stunt doubles, and countless extras—and that only covers the people who appear on-screen, not the producers, writers, directors, editors, camera and boom mic operators, wardrobe designers, set builders, stylists, key grips and best boys (whatever it is they do), caterers, and dialect coaches who constantly harp on the actors to British-up those accents. That last job might be the easiest since many of the performers hail from the United Kingdom. Although the program is certifiably huge in the States and we can at least be proud the dwarf was born in Jersey, we seem to be missing the full potential of HBO’s pop-culture juggernaut. Thrones makes a staggering amount of money and generates a lot of industry, but that industry mostly profits Europeans, not Americans. And for that reason, I declare that our president and Congress should unite in a massive group-text effort with the show’s producers. We’ve got to let them know that the average American has the potential to be yet another minor character in a seemingly infinite realm. We must demand that an already crowded, fictional universe be expanded for the benefit of America. Our Thrones homeland is to be named McDonaldsburgh. Devout fans have no reason to suspect the rise of McDonaldsburgh will clash with author George RR Martin’s epic vision. The new land’s inhabitants, the McDonaldsburghers, will exist apart from Martin’s multitude of characters R14 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
and their various adventures. If we can somehow tie together all the stories in the end just like they did on Seinfeld, that’d be fantastic. If not, hey, we’re just hoping to get paid either way. As if that plea wasn’t humble enough for the purists, we’re only asking for ten minutes of screen time per episode. Plus we’re Americans, so you don’t have to worry about a drop-off when it comes to sex and violence. By introducing McDonaldsburgh into the narrative, my hunch is that America’s unemployment rate could be cut in half. Fi l m e d i n t h e woods of northern Wisconsin—the Midwest’s answer to Hollywood if there ever was one—job-growth would commence with some big-time deforestation efforts so we can build enormous sets to make McDonaldsburgh come to life. For that endeavor, we’re going to need thousands of lumberers, construction workers, and engineers— and if any of them fit the part, we also need someone to play the parts of the rugged crusader Clutch Mountainside as well as the goateed schemer Fork Stansbury. The most crucial set-piece is the luxurious mayor’s office. (Yes, mayor’s office, the others can have their silly monarchies, but we do things the McDonaldsburgh way.) Mayor Plus Wonderpledge rules the land with a strong hand and a charming smile, but you might remember him from a bunch of movies in which he gets butchered, so don’t get too attached to the guy! His wife Fern is a paragon of virtue and his children Whiff and Beige are spirited upstarts with bright futures, but Plus’ longtime rival Lance Wedgers and his cousinly lover Stemla Prickerbush are dead-set on sabotaging the entire Wonderpledge family. They intend to unseat Wonderpledge behind the hallowed mayor’s desk and symbolically decimate his empire by using the over-sized key to the city to
smash his “Realm’s Best Mayor” mug. Bare in mind, besides the obvious acting jobs these characters create, every performer will require makeup ladies (or lads), costume designers, fight coordinators, acting coaches, personal trainers, personal assistants, desperate hangers-on like that surfer dude who crashed at OJ’s, and various shoulder-to-cry-on specialists (a position which pays a respectable $12/ hour). Elsewhere in McDonaldsburgh, the area’s finest horse-drawn carriage
manufacturing barn is overseen by Lord Fordsworth, who’s constantly warning his rabble-rousing blacksmiths Vanderley Cobbleport and Bloom Chesters to stop carousing with his 19 irresistible daughters—each more scantily clad and born out of wedlock than the last! (Hoping this one will get its own spin-off, btw.) Citizens can take refuge from their troubles at the McDonaldsburgh Gladiator Arena. Therein, a series of physical challenges pit contestants against Gladiators like Clamp Superplex, Ore Flackington, Boom Merlin-Olsen, and my personal favorites, the chesty Eliza Thundersnow and her bosomy friend Vivacity Landolakes. All performers are clad in McDonaldsburgh’s most wondrous invention: spandex. Gladiator events like the Dwarf Catapult, the Rapunzel Climb, the Bastard Toss, and the Axe Fight to the Death are sure to put even the best Gladiator, Indigo Foxboro (whom I just made up to create another job), to the ultimate test. Contestants include Remi Millimeter, who was
sentenced to compete after his newfangled system of measurement was deemed straight-up witchcraft. In more scandalous fashion, citizens can also take refuge from their troubles, or perhaps add to their troubles, by patronizing Vice Everlast’s Burlesque-o-torium, where the bedazzling Marigold Minutia dances nightly. Male dancers Fort Bravado and Leif Deciduous provide some eye candy for the ladies. Also the gay men, I suppose. Anyway, they supply this eye candy to the tunes of Clive Aerosmith and Sammi Redrocker, McDonaldsburgh’s most radical glockenspiel and lute combo. The villainous Speck Crumbsteign and the complex yet also quite complicated Plate Wightly vie to manage them. Oh, and in closing, we’ll come up with stuff to do for the following characters: Flea Highriser, Fanny Pebblekeg, Zane Beedles, Ladybird Nippley, Wheely Cobblestone, Big Mama Cabbagepatch, and if possible, a part for me, Sir Beardythins of the North. The main cause for concern is that these jobs are not going to create themselves. (Though Sir Beardythins would be capable of magically creating jobs if given the opportunity.) Our government needs to reach an agreement with Game of Thrones and its British contingency. So, however you want to go about it, whether that means screaming out the window in the general direction of the White House or sending your city counsel a video cassette of you being super- P.O.’d, or perhaps some third, smarter form of political action, make your voice heard about the Game of Thrones Stimulus Package. Let’s let those British thespians know they’re not the only ones with castles and dragons, and we’re proud of our bouncy castles and WWE Hall-of-Famer Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat! And if they refuse us, we must usurp the British throne. Queen Elizabeth is 88 years old, so I gotta wonder, how hard could it be? It’d be such an easy usurping, we could arm a dwarf from Jersey with a crossbow to get the job done. Only kidding about the regicide! Regicide is no joke, it’s not a comedy. It’s the best drama on TV.
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R15
ENTERTAINMENT // DOBIE MAXWELL
An Ending to Vending BY DOBIE MAXWELL As painful and disappointing as it may be to accept, I have finally forced myself to live with the harsh reality that at this point in my life the only way I will ever appear on SportsCenter is if I take a foul ball to the face at a baseball game. And even then, they won’t mention my name and I will only be on for a few seconds while the anchors crack a joke and then report the final score. Sports dreams die hard in those of us that have them. I’m not sure what the exact percentage is of little boys that have pictured themselves as being locks to be inducted into one or more sports Hall’s of Fame, but I have to believe it’s in the high 90s. I know I was bitten by the baseball bug at first, then football and basketball followed shortly thereafter. By age nine I had my life plan set. There was absolutely no doubt in my still squishy and not fully developed prepubescent brain that I was going to conquer them all, and be a modern day Jim Thorpe. I would work out a deal where I could have special clearance to play in all the big games in all three sports, and of course I would be able to play for my local Wisconsin teams so I wouldn’t have to move anywhere else. I was fully prepared to work at it, but that pesky little distraction called “school” kept holding me back from devoting my entire being to what I was sure was to be my true calling. Why would I have to waste valuable space inside my skull with useless claptrap like math or world history? Millions of little boys – and who knows how many little girls – fall prey to this ridiculous idea every year only to have those delicate dreams and sky high hopes dashed to the rocks below with no consolation prize from the universe. Only a precious few ever make it and that’s just how it is. The closest I ever made it to participating in professional sports was in high school when I was a ball boy for the Milwaukee Bucks. It was my job to sit underneath one of the baskets during the game, and whenever anybody would hit the ground I ran out on the court with a R16 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
towel to wipe up the sweat so nobody else would slip and fall. Sometimes the game would stop, sometimes not. It was especially tricky when it wouldn’t, because I had to run out and wipe up the sweat while watching what was happening on the other end of the court. The action could switch back to my end in a split second, and more than a few times I had to dive off the court to avoid a trampling. I lasted two seasons as a ball boy, and in retrospect it was an unbelievably pleasant experience most sports fans never get to enjoy. I was lucky enough to have a great staff of fellow ball boys to work with, and we all got along swimmingly. In fact, I am still in touch with many to this day. One story I will never forget involves my fellow ball boy Wade Waugus and Philadelphia 76er player Henry Bibby. It taught Wade and I a valuable life lesson while also letting us both know in no uncertain terms that a career in the NBA as a player was officially off the bargaining table for the rest of eternity on this particular cosmic plane. Once again, the harshness of it all was ugly. Like any number of high school boys anywhere Wade and I fancied ourselves to be more than decent basketball players. The fact we were both Caucasians without the genetic dispositions to make us even close to six much less seven feet tall wasn’t enough to stop us from assuming we’d eventually get drafted by an NBA team and spend a dozen years getting rich and winning rings. Henry Bibby was the last player on the bench for the 76ers who were a powerhouse team then. They had the great Julius Erving aka “Dr. J” and a galaxy of stars around him. Mr. Bibby didn’t play all that much, and he wasn’t all that tall either. He might have been six feet, but no more. Wade and I were doing our ball boy duties hours before the game and Henry Bibby was on the court by himself practicing his free throws. He sized up Wade and me and asked if either of us were basketball players. We said we were, and Henry came up with an on the spot proposal. “How about we have a little game then?” he asked innocently. “It will be you two against me and we’ll play to 21. For
every basket you get, you get three points. For every basket I get I get one point. And to make it even more interesting, how about we play for one dollar a point?” To avoid reliving all the bloody details, the final score was 21-3, and I honestly can’t recall if Wade or I scored our lone basket. Mr. Bibby beat us within an inch of our lives, and I don’t think he came close to breaking a sweat. Wade and I instantly had respect for just how good any player is that makes it to the pros – even if it’s the very last person on the bench. He stomped us good. And to add gas to the fire he made us pay up on the bet. Ball boy salaries were nowhere near player salaries, but a bet was a bet. Wade and I emptied our pockets, and swore we’d never tell a living soul about what happened. I have always kept that secret buried in my heart – until now. My last brush with professional sports was with baseball. After I graduated high school I still thought I had a shot at getting drafted to play baseball. I pitched in some city leagues around the Milwaukee area and the Kansas City Royals held tryout camps in every Major League city. They came to Milwaukee and my coach suggested I go try out. I did get a second look by the scout on duty, but I never got a contract offer. That was a sledge hammer to the heart, but what could I do? The following summer the Milwaukee Brewers were hiring vendors. I needed a job, but I also wasn’t ready to let go of the dream. Somewhere deep in the crevices of my cerebral cortex I had a fuzzy image of one of the Brewers’ pitchers tearing his rotator cuff and word getting out that I was in the stadium to come to the rescue. I’m ashamed to admit it now, but it’s absolutely true. Being a vendor on opening day in an outdoor stadium in Milwaukee made mopping up sweat as a ball boy look like a dream career. The temperature that first day was locked firmly between severe testicle retraction and purple flesh frostbite requiring amputation of digits. It was torture. And what ball park treat was I assigned to sell for nine hellacious innings? POPCORN! Stale, over salted, disgusting popcorn. I think I had a better chance of selling life insurance that day.
Needless to say, I didn’t set any sales records that first day. It was pelting something between snow and sleet, and the Brewers were playing the dreaded White Sox that day so their obnoxious fans were mixed in with the drunken sea of Brew Crew faithful to make it one big ugly bar fight. Everybody was yelling at me to, “Get the beer man over here.” I tried to sell them my popcorn but they wouldn’t have any of it. By the end of the game I was ready to jump off the upper deck and end it all. But the Brewers squeaked out a win and I decided to come back for another day. The next game was two days later, and there were one tenth of the people in the stands that were there for Opening Day. The bad part was there was the same amount of vendors. I had no chance to unload anything without three more of my cohorts swarming around them with the same item for sale. The only redeeming factor was that instead of popcorn I was now selling hot dogs. After taking a few laps across my section of the stadium and not selling a single dog, I walked down to the front row of the bleachers and plopped myself down next to the warmth of the hot dog container. I started watching the game while simultaneously downing one hot dog after the next. I made it through a half a dozen, and got thirsty so I ended up buying a Coke from one of the other vendors who shot me the most quizzical look I ever received – but he sold me the Coke. By the later innings a few people had wandered into my section and I shared the remainder of my hot dogs with them. When the game was over I left my container there and put my vendor’s smock on top of it. I didn’t have any money for bus fare, so I ended up walking several miles home. But at least I wasn’t hungry. I can’t help but remember that story whenever another year of baseball starts. Somewhere in the karma files I owe the Milwaukee Brewers 24 hot dogs. Dobie Maxwell is a stand up comedian, and writer. Find where he’ll be performing his next hell-gig at dobiemaxwell.com
Vist our webiste for more information www.foxcitiesbookfestival.org April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R17
NEWS & VIEWS // THE VIEW FROM THE LEFT-FIELD SEATS
The Long Path to Equal Citizenship BY DENNIS RILEY The 14 th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees every citizen equal protection of the laws of the state in which that citizen — any U.S. citizen in any state for any reason — finds himself or herself. The amendment doesn’t define equal protection, but the First amendment doesn’t define free speech, the Fifth doesn’t define due process, and the Eighth doesn’t define cruel and unusual punishment. That job is left to the courts, and it is definitely a work in progress. Likewise, we don’t have a clear and easy-to-find statement of what it means to be a citizen entitled to equal protection. That is, are there aspects of the relationship between an individual and the state he or she resides in that rise to the level of citizenship and that do raise clear issues of equal protection? I think we can identify at least three. THE RIGHT TO VOTE
Start with voting. Would anyone consider himself or herself an equal citizen if denied the right to vote? This gets to be a bit of a tricky question, of course. That’s because as important as the right to vote is, the opportunity to vote is crucial to making that right a reality. In fact, serious enough restrictions on the opportunity to vote can quickly erode the right to vote. Even in the heyday of the suppression of the African American vote — from the end of Reconstruction to the passage of the Voting Rights Act — no Southern state formally denied those African Americans the right to vote. They just
R18 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
made it virtually impossible to cast a ballot by using impossible-to-pass literacy tests, poll taxes, and good old-fashioned physical and economic intimidation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 opened up the opportunity for African Americans to vote, and until the Supreme Court struck down one of its most important enforcement mechanisms, no state had moved to put greater obstacles in the paths to the polls . . . for anybody. But those days are over, and state after state — including Wisconsin — has moved to make it tougher for people to vote. Photo IDs, shorter voting hours, fewer chances to vote on weekends, even moving polling places, have all been aimed at reducing the ease of showing up to vote. These restrictions may not have been aimed exclusively at African Americans, but Souls to the Polls was created by African American churches for Sunday voting, and an awful lot of Southern states reduced or eliminated Sunday voting. Besides, even if some restrictions were not aimed at African American voters, those restrictions hit those voters disproportionately, and results matter just about as much as intentions. EDUCATION
Then there is public education. We got into the business of widespread, basically free, and generally compulsory public education by the 1840s, and the job was always left to state and local governments. It is hard to overestimate the historical importance of public education in the tale of upward social mobility in this country. Even before the Supreme Court held in 1896 that “separate but equal” facilities
met the 14 th amendment test of equal protection in public accommodations — segregated railroad cars, to be precise — Southern and even border states maintained separate school systems, if there were schools for African Americans at all. That system continued unchanged until the Supreme Court held in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954), that separate could never be equal, and it was changed only very little over the next couple of decades despite President Eisenhower’s use of federal troops in Little Rock in 1957. Housing segregation accomplished in the North what the law had accomplished in the South, and to this day the bulk of African American children in the South and in the big and even medium-sized cities of the North go to schools where they are surrounded by other children of color. EQUAL PROTECTION
Finally, equal protection of the laws has to depend on equal enforcement of the laws. That, alas, may be the furthest away of all. Not every American city or town is a Ferguson, Mo., but even the Justice Department’s carefully worded and clearly circumscribed report on the law enforcement system in Ferguson suggested that Missouri town was not an anomaly. If you haven’t been exposed to the mind-numbing numbers included in that report, just consider one or two. Sixtyseven percent of the city’s residents are African American — 85% percent of the citations were written to African Americans, 93% of the arrests were of African Americans, and 100% of the 60 incidents
in which a police dog was commanded to attack a Ferguson citizen involved an African American. The reason we know all of this is that Michael Brown was an African American. To add insult to injury, the citations and arrests were used in part to raise money to help the cash-strapped city pay its bills, and officials in the police department exchanged racist emails all the while. As President Barack Obama said so eloquently at the Edmund Pettis Bridge at the ceremony commemorating what has come to be called Bloody Sunday — the day that voting rights marchers were attacked by Alabama state troopers — 2015 is not 1965, let alone 1915. So much change has come, and so much good accomplished. John Lewis was one of the young men severely beaten on the bridge that day. He is now Representative John Lewis (D. Ga.). African Americans are prominent in every walk of life. The small private liberal arts college I attended all those years ago, the one without a single African American student or faculty member, just said good-bye to its beloved African American president. When I pick up my grandsons at school, there are students of color in every classroom, a far cry from what I saw when I picked up my daughter 30 years ago. As our African American President also said, however, we have a long way to go. Can anything make us hurry? Enough out of me. Dennis Riley has been teaching about American government and politics since the year Richard Nixon was inaugurated as President of the United States.
Free General Admission for Everyone, Always
April 18 – September 6, 2015
Inspired by the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest, Native Species features 38, blown glass vessels by William Morris, protégé of Dale Chihuly.
165 North Park Avenue Neenah, WI 54956-2294 Telephone: 920.751.4658 bmmglass.com
HOURS: TU – SA, 10 am to 4:30 pm, SU 1 – 4:30 pm
AACG
Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass
This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the state of Wisconsin and The National Endowment for the Arts.
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R19
NEWS & VIEWS // RIGHT WING NUT
The State of Media Vetting BY ROBERT E. MEYER Scott Walker got elected as governor of Wisconsin without a college degree. That has the usual purveyors of snide remarks, such as democratic provocateur, Howard Dean, questioning Walker’s presidential qualifications. Funny, once upon a time the unlikely achiever was celebrated as an American success story. In Howard Dean’s world, Walker is shunned because he isn’t an elitist--or a liberal. In my book, Walker’s decision to drop out of college only helped him to escape being immersed in the liberal hegemony that permeates contemporary higher educational environments. On the other hand, I do have a college degree, but never got elected to anything (though I tried a few times when I was younger). So I guess that proves I’m an underachiever of the highest order. I guess higher education ain’t everything! Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold acted according to his convictions and was lauded by the media as a maverick. Walker does the same thing and gets branded as a shill for his close friends the Koch Brothers. In fact, he’s such good friends with them, that he couldn’t tell the difference when a liberal imposter called his office pretending to be one of the brothers. That would seemingly indicate a rather dubious close friendship. The gag never could have worked with me though--I don’t have any close friends for anyone to impersonate. Being a rock, an island and a loner has certain advantages, I suppose. Speaking of the Koch Brothers, I never knew much about them before Walker was elected the first time. These guys have been so relentlessly impugned with boilerplate diatribes, that were I not already a conservative, I’d have to assume these guys are doing something right. A little research showed that the brothers were generous philanthropists. Some people are surprised to discover that conservatives tend to be more generous with their own money than are liberals. I was never surprised by that fact. If you expect the government to do R20 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
everything for everyone, you’re less likely to see the need for doing anything for anyone yourself. Of course, I could never make the cut in politics anyway. I would address issues regarding the meaningless curiosity over my opinions on the neo-Darwinian synthesis, the causes of Climate Change, Obama’s religious beliefs and my educational deficiencies, along with other irrelevant issues before the questions were even asked. That way the people who are swayed by my answers could leave, and not bother wasting their time listening to the actual policy speech. And that’s the state of media vetting today. Don’t bother finding out anything for sure about candidates, just single out the candidates you don’t like, and ask a bunch of foolish questions that will make the candidate look bad regardless of the answer they give. Walker was smart not to take the bait. I have often suggested that fools ask questions that serve no purpose in being answered, but far from having no purpose, their questions have a nefarious purpose. The statesman Benjamin Disraeli is credited with saying that there are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. In that spirit, I would submit that there and lies, damn lies, and questions designed to provoke one word answers that are misleading. We know any innuendo about media bias is just part of a loony conspiracy theory. Of course, I have noticed that people who deny the presence of media bias are usually the ones who share the same ideology as the source of the bias. Go figure. But, alright then, the mainstream media can demonstrate that they are fair and objective once more, by having their moderator ask all candidates participating in the 2016 Democratic Presidential Debates, to raise their hands if they believe in Biblical Creationism. On second thought, that venue may not include many participants, so perhaps any collection of assembled liberal politicians should do. After all, the Democrats came within
a whisker of dropping reference to “God” in their platform for 2012... at least until cooler heads prevailed, and they realized they had gone a bridge too far. They could have unnecessarily lost the votes of some lunchbox Joe’s, who though they have nothing in common with progressive ideology, still continue to vote for the donkey, because everyone “knows” the Democrats are the only party championing the little guy. My oh my, how they have feasted off that canard. I’m not expecting Walker to be the last
man standing when the smoke clears in the Republican primary. But, Walker’s success could influence the audacity of the conservative platform for 2016. The longer he stays relevant in the presidential race, the more shrill and obnoxious his detractors will become. That will prove to be wonderfully entertaining.
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R21
NEWS & VIEWS // MEDIA RANTS
Media Rants Talks to Mike McCabe BY TONY PALMERI Democracy activist Mike McCabe, former Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and author of the reform manifesto Blue Jeans in High Places, will speak at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh on Thursday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Reeve Union 306. Attendance is free and open to all. If you are interested in what is ailing our democracy and what we can do to cure it, please attend!
his campaigns at a time when newspapers were king, and how we now see $80 million spent on statewide races for governor once television replaced newspapers as the place where most people get most of their information about government, elections and candidates running for office.TV also has changed the way politicians talk. They now have to speak in soundbites. They have to be glib, and they think they have to be blow dried and made up to look like TV anchors. Substance is sacrificed. More
In anticipation of Mike’s visit, I asked him to respond to a few questions. MEDIA RANTS: Blue Jeans in High Places is relatively silent on the role of mainstream media in helping to create the civic crisis described. What’s the media’s role in that crisis? MCCABE: The role has been huge. Chapter 12 focuses on how the changing media landscape has contributed mightily to the decline of our democracy’s health. There are other parts of the book that don’t appear to be addressing the media, but describe how politics has changed because of the way news organizations have changed. Like how Bill Proxmire used to be able to run successfully for statewide office while spending less than $300 on each of
truth is found on “fake news” on Comedy Central than is found on the “real” news provided by cable news. That’s a sad commentary on the state of the media. MEDIA RANTS: Are there particular Wisconsin news sources and/or journalists that you rely on to find out what’s “really going on” in our state? MCCABE: I don’t put my eggs in one basket, or even in a few baskets. I believe in reliance on a very wide variety of news sources. I still subscribe to a daily newspaper, and glean news from the websites of many others. I am an avid public radio listener. I get a lot of news online, from a large number of sources. I occasionally listen to commercial talk radio, but generally don’t find it very useful. I used to
R22 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
faithfully watch “Meet the Press” and “Face the Nation” and other national news programs, but have given up on them. I learn way more from one episode of The Daily Show on Comedy Central than I did from a month’s worth of watching Washington pundits pontificating on one of the major networks. Some of the best news sources are small, little known operations, and some of the finest journalists work for such outfits. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and its wisconsinwatch. org website is outstanding. I’m a big fan of Bruce Murphy at urbanmilwaukee.com. He’s really good. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert deserve to be included among the nation’s best newsmen. They are going to be tough to replace on those shows. As I write in the book, thank god for satire. The last safe harbor for truth. MEDIA RANTS: During your time at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, your “Big Money Blog” was a lifeline for many activists seeking information and insight about how special interests rule our politics. Will you continue to blog or produce similar reports in some other format? MCCABE: Yes, I will start blogging again very soon. I can’t help myself. MEDIA RANTS: You’re quite active on social media. How are Facebook and other social media changing the civic landscape? MCCABE: I have a love/hate relationship with social media. They are amazing tools, with vast potential to democratize the media. But they are still in their infancy, politically speaking. They also
have a dark side, obviously. Some of what you find on social media is mindless, some of it is disgusting, and some of it is downright depressing. But on the whole, I think the good outweighs the bad. I find Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms to be very valuable ways to reach people, exchange ideas and even inspire action. So I try to overlook what I hate about them. MEDIA RANTS: Blue Jeans in High Places offers some pretty hard-hitting criticism of the political status quo, yet it’s also a very hopeful book. You seem optimistic that engaged citizens can repair our broken democracy. Why are you so optimistic? MCCABE: The political system is broken; the major parties are failing us. There’s no whitewashing that. The current moment is bleak. But such conditions have existed before. And every time past generations encountered these same kinds of threats to democracy and civil society, they rose to the occasion and straightened things out. I refuse to believe that there is something fundamentally different about us or wrong with us that renders us less capable of making change than past generations were. We’ve reached a crucial turning point, just as our grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents did. And I have no doubt that we will do what they did. Tony Palmeri (palmeri.tony@gmail.com) is a Professor of Communication Studies at UW Oshkosh. • SAVE • SAVE • SAVE • SAVE •
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R23
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R25
NEWS & VIEWS // ROHN’S RANTS
April elections and, Did the GOP commit treason? BY ROHN BISHOP Attorney General, Brad Schimel, likes to remind his audience how a bill becomes a law, using the “School House Rocks” cartoon as his example. It goes something like this: “First, a bill passes the Assembly; if it passes the Senate in the exact form; it goes to the Governor’s desk. If the governor signs the bill, it becomes a la………a lawsuit in Dane County Court!” The left’s attempt to circumvent the legislative process by using activist liberal judges, who see themselves as “super legislators” instead of judges interpreting the law and constitution, is why these spring judicial elections have become so important. There is no better example of liberal activist judges than, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. On April 7, we can do something about it. The non partisan spring election has two important reasons to get a conservative out to vote. State Supreme Court race between Justice Ann Walsh Bradley and Judge James Daley An amendment to the state constitution that changes how the Chief Justice of the state supreme court is determined.
Daley served as the Rock County District Attorney when he was appointed to the bench by Governor Tommy Thompson in 1998 and he’s been re-elected five times. In 2013 the Wisconsin Supreme Court named Daley as the Chief Judge of the 5th Judicial Circuit, where he established three specialized diversion courts, a drug court, a veteran’s court, and an OWI court. Judge Daley is also a decorated war hero, enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps; he served in Vietnam, where he was
rassment on the high court. Defeating Justice Bradley will be no easy task and is unlikely. Only two justices have been defeated for re-election since World War II... “Loop Hole” Louis Butler in 2008, and in 1967 a challenger defeated incumbent Justice George Currie. Currie lost his bid for re-election after he allowed the Milwaukee Braves baseball team to relocate to Atlanta. (As a baseball fan I’d have voted against him too!) On April 7, vote for Judge James Daley.
The White House, democrats, and the news media were indignant; Nancy Pelosi was so hot her plastically enhanced face started to melt. “Treason!” they roared. Did the Republican commit treason? No. Article 2 of the constitution states, “He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present concur”
Article 2 of the constitution states, “He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present concur”
Daley vs Bradley The race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court pits long time liberal justice, Ann Walsh Bradley, against Rock County Judge James Daley. R26 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
awarded the Bronze Star with “V” Device for Valor, the Purple Heart Medal, a Meritorious Mast, and the Combat Action Ribbon. Following his service overseas, Daley served the Wisconsin National Guard for 30 years. Then we have incumbent Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who’s helped to turn the Supreme Court into something of a circus. It was Justice Bradley, who during their discussions about Act 10...snapped, and in a rage of anger charged at Justice Prosser in an apparent attempt to harm him. Justice Prosser put his hands up for self defense and the justices had to be split apart. Then Justice Bradley lied about the event, leaking to media outlets that it was Prosser whom attempted to “choke hold” her! Justice Bradley has repeatedly ignored precedent, the constitution, and the law in a fledgling attempt to undercut the conservative legislature and governor. Most notable are her attempts to overturn the governor’s reforms, mitigate our Second Amendment Rights, and to block our Voter ID law. Justice Bradley has become an embar-
For an independent fair minded conservative Supreme Court justice. Constitutional Amendment Currently the chief justice of the state Supreme Court goes to the longest serving justice on the court. This amendment would change that, allowing the justices to elect their own chief. This amendment comes after years of frustration with the current chief justice, Shirley Abrahamson. Her inability to get along with justices has helped to make our court slow, dysfunctional, and a joke. Allowing the justices to elect a chief is a way to make the chief justice accountable to his or her peers. This would put Wisconsin on par with 22 other states and should make the court more efficient and effective. Did GOP Senators commit Treason? In early March, 47 Republican Senators signed an open letter to the leadership of Iran, reminding them that any “deal” Iran was to strike with President Barack Obama could be terminated on January 20, 2017...the first day of the next president’s administration.
As usual Obama is ignoring both the constitution and the congress, a co-equal branch of government. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he is not negotiating a treaty, but a “legally binding plan.” “This is clearly a treaty,” Sen. John McCain said, “They can call it a banana, but it’s a treaty.” President Obama seems hell bent on letting Iran have a nuclear weapon. This notion terrifies many of us, who believe that Iran’s leadership is so dangerous, so nutty, that if they get nuclear weapons, they will use them. There will be a second holocaust and a third World War fought this time with nuclear weapons. No, the Republicans didn’t commit treason; they’re trying to save the world from a nuclear Iran. The Republicans are trying to sound an alarm, an alarm no one wants to hear. But, at least their letter brought attention to the “treason” being committed by Obama and Kerry. In 1953 America executed the Rosenberg’s for secretly giving nuclear technology to an enemy, the Soviet Union. In 2015 the president does it in plain sight! Rohn W. Bishop is a monthly contributor to the Scene. Bishop, a former member of the Waupun City Council, currently serves as Treasurer for the Republican Party of Fond du Lac County. Contact Rohn: email: rohnnyb@msn.com Twitter: @RohnWBishop
April 3th - Raglanders 4 point Reyes April 10th - T.U.G.G. April 11th - DJ Lockens April 17th - Evergreen April 18th - Jam Funk All Stars April 25th - Kyle Megna and The Monsoons
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R27
ENTERTAINMENT // BUDDHIST ADVISOR
Dreams, Redux BY JOHN PRICE-KABHIR THE BUDDHIST ADVISER (This column follows from last month’s piece about dreams and dreaming.) But dreams have a lightness about them. As a brick or stone carries weight, dreams carry no weight. Although the images in dreams are ethereal, the “things” of dreams do not have weighty substance. We float through our dreams. Even nightmares keep us one step from the gritty reality of waking life. Though they can torment us, they do not physically injure. It is only in imagination that dreams carry substance. Pema Chodron, the great Zen nun philosopher, wrote of a recurring dream she’d had after a divorce. She was tormented by the divorce. Nuns weren’t supposed to divorce. She felt it as a weakness. In this dream, night after night, she was chased by a dragon. It never quite caught up to her, but she felt that if it did, she would be mangled or killed. Then, one night, when the dream was dreadfully vivid, just as the dragon cornered her and was about to grab her, she turned on it and screamed, “No! No, you cannot have me. Go away!” And sure enough, the monster was dispelled, gone, never to return. This is most vivid dreaming. But the key is the dragon never got her. Like a dream of falling, where the person falling would die if the dreamer hit bottom, because if she did, the sequence would end in death and the dreamer‘s end. We’re never killed in our dreams. If we had been, we’d never wake up! The violence in dreams does not reach climax. I can think of no instance where I was physically injured by something in a dream, only terrified by what might happen. I might feel anxious or intense fear concerning some awful event in a dream, terrified. Never am I pummeled. I am injured, but I am never really physically hurt, but never am; in fact, I recall no dream actually bringing real pain. The pan in dreams is impending damage or deep disappointment. In a twisted way, dreams have a kind of solace in “what might have been“. R28 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
Oh yes, I desire this or that in a dream. A recurring dream I’ve had the past several years involved getting out of work at my former job and not knowing how to get home. Or, in another recurring dream, I desire to lead a group of people to a place and find myself lost. But I do not feel pain in this context. So in those ways, my wanting, my desire, brings want but no pain. While in these senses, dreams can be unkind, but they do not physically hurt me. So when we think of the Buddhist notion of desire as one of the major torments of life, dreams surely can bring that. And in the sense of being hurt by a “what if,” he lessons of dreams are kind in their own ways. Like the dream about being frustrated about leading people home or to a desired place, I can most definitely see the lesson. In my unfulfilled desire to reach fulfillmet in a life goal never reached, the dream tells me about how I’d never led “my people’ to our appointed goal, the lesson is that I should have ever given up, no matter what the goal. I failed to lead the people to the promised land, to overcome the obstacles. I have dreamed over and over of trying to find my way home. This very well might relate to not having an unhappy childhood This is truly archetypal, like the journeys of Ulysses. Many times I am a Don Quixote, ceaselessly, night after night, trying to find my way home from a long and arduous journey. No ironically, the journey is simply finding my way home from work. And when I am home, isn’t the same home. It’s a home I’ve left. I’ve given up, and upon returning home, I went back to is an altered home. My son is gown up without me. My animals are dead. Dreams are not fulfilled as I thought they should have been. There’s a clear image in that, and it’s an image of why I turned to Zen. It’s sad. Another dream, also about finding my way from “here” to “there” involves travel of an epochal nature. At times, I am with a special group of people who’ve been chosen to represent a strong force of humankind. We’re of all ages and represent a cross-section of young and old, science and humanities. We board a giant
It
is only in imagination that dreams carry substance. vessel designed to travel through all of earth’s climates and terrains. Our destiny is the North Pole, then back, quite slowly through all climates and environments. This great journey is completed and does brig us home, unlike the other more simple treks, Noah’s Ark? Then, of course, there are the dreams of sex. Applying Freudian psychology to dreams, I conclude I do have issues with my parents, and I find I am not homosexual, if only desiring coupling with females is my goal. I’ll admit to having desires in dreams that would be inappropriate in waking life, for there have been instances where my sexual desire involves women with whom sex would be inappropriate by normal mores. I sat with my mother in hospice for two solid months while she died. She seemed to be dreaming, and talking in her delirium. One night, when it seemed she was just on the verge of dying, she talked of sitting at a dinner table. In a curious sense, out nurse that night was rather grossly offended because she was a born again Christian, and my mom definitely was not. One of the guests did not show. “I know who‘s missing,” she lamented. “It’s Larry, we’re waiting for Larry. When he comes, then we can eat.” It made her very sad that Larry wasn’t there. Yet it was still weeks before she died. Larry, a real person long dead, was missing and we couldn’t begin to eat before he arrived. This vignette reminds my of my dream of cousin Tim. He’s just outside, on the other side of the window, out in the yard. I am aimlessly wandering inside the house. I can hear his voice, in a quiet whisper,
complete with the unusual inflexion of his voice. The glass is dusty. I can see his image, smudged by the dust. And he’s speaking in a whisper, barely audible, but I can hear him and I know he wants me to come out. I want to join him, but there is no door. I can find no door before I awaken. Tim had died suddenly and unexpectedly just a few weeks before I started having this dream. Tim was the closest thing I had to a big brother. He shepherded me through all the manly rites of passage: driving a car, swimming, fishing, drinking beer, girls. In times where very important things a boy must do to become a man, Tim was there for me. Like my mom missing Larry (her brother in law) at her own Last Supper, I had a dream of missing my dear cousin Tim in an image associated with death - in a dream. I use the Larry and Tim dream anecdotes to illustrate how significant dreams can be, even in their mysteries. I do not understand dreams, but I know they’re important, and they bring meaning through their unique veils, meaning telling us vagaries illustrating some obvious import and some confusing and too vague to make clear sense. But dreams are exquisite. Think of life without dreams. It would be a life with much less mystery. Ah, the mystery of dreams. So very sweet in their own faces through the dusty window. John Price - Kabhir, is an ordained Zen householder. I welcome your input at 920558-3076; Shiningcrow11@yahoo.com
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Visit our Facebook page to find out about our daily specials! April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R29
OUTDOORS // SEEING GREEN
Bats in the Spotlight BY WILL STAHL Bats and I go back a ways. The first one I ever saw washed up dead on the shore of the lake I lived on. No more than ten, I saw at once what it must be with its matted, furry body and translucent wings. It was creepy and fascinating all at once. In later years I had bats flutter up in my face as I ripped the wood shingles off a 130 year-old house, squeaking as they flew frantically to holes they obviously knew of. I killed one with a broom because I could not figure out how to get it out of my house and trapped another between a record album and a toy pail for live release. When my kids were growing up in Peoria, we sat with the neighbors watching them loop and whirl in the twilight, eating insects that would have otherwise annoyed us. Though 25% of all mammal species are bats, they exist in the twilight edges of our consciousness. Because they are all nocturnal, we do not see the role they fill in our natural world and we so rarely see one close. When we do, it carries the load of our subconscious impressions. Bats have become associated with all the Halloween imagery of witches, vampires, and evil in general. Flying is a natural characteristic of birds––in mammals it is strange and suspect, especially when they only do it at night. By the twenty-first century, most educated people, whatever their subconscious dread, understand that bats are significant in controlling insect populations, and their absence would allow our tiny tormentors to multiply unchecked. It is then with alarm that the news has spread that a hitherto unknown disease has been killing bats in huge numbers. In recent years we have heard about the die-offs of amphibians and honeybees, monarch butterflies, songbirds and northern moose, and this may seem like just one more. In those cases causes are mostly uncertain and diffuse. Scientists know what has been killing the bats. “White nose syndrome” is caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans, a cold-loving R30 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
fungus that thrives in caves. It appears as a white growth on bats’ faces and wings. It was first reported in 2007 but was later identified in a photo from 2006 taken in New York State. Since then it has been found in 25 states in the eastern US and five provinces of Canada. It was unknown on this continent before 2006, though it is present in healthy bats in Europe. Scientists believe humans must have introduced it, as it was first identified in a New York cave near where commercial caves draw thousands of visitors a year. Studies have shown that the fungus is not spread by airborne transmission, but it can persist in soil and clothing for a long time. This evidence that the fungus could be spread by human activity has prompted the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to encourage decontamination of clothing and equipment by cavers and close some caves to human visitation completely.
For a time scientists believed it caused bats to die because it aroused them from their usual winter torpor so they’d fly around. Without food available, this used up all their fat reserves and they died of starvation. With study researchers realized it was a little more complex. The fungus invades the skin of the wings, and fighting that infection already uses up the bats’ energy and causes changes in blood chemistry. The damage and excess carbon dioxide building up in the blood causes the bats to wake more frequently, and the increased activity and loss of water and electrolytes through the lesions results in their death by starvation and dehydration. Estimates are that as of 2012, between 5.7 and 6.7 million bats have died. Undoubtedly, it’s many more by now. Consider that each bat eats roughly a thousand insects an hour, which means in a nine-hour early summer night, a thousand Continue on Page R32
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R31
OUTDOORS // SEEING GREEN
Continued from Page R30 bats would eat about nine million insects. In one night. Six million bats would eat 54 billion insects per night. Every night. Except they won’t because they’re gone, and a couple of million pounds of assorted insects fly around uneaten. When it comes to our food supply, health, and summertime comfort, the bats are on our side. As long expected, white nose syndrome was identified on a few northern longeared bats in a single cave in southwest Wisconsin. Whatever needed to be done to conserve bats was going to be done in this state too. Clearly, supporting a robust bat population is in our best human interest. But how do we do that in the face of a disease that is easily transmitted and 90-95% fatal? Anything we can reasonably do should be done, one might think, especially to prevent transmission. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a federal agency charged with looking out for the wildlife of our America. Other agencies such as the Park Service and the Forest Service have responsibilities in that area, but for the USFWS it’s the main deal. Managing any species has a couple of major considerations. How are people to treat members of the species? Hunt them? Kills them only if they are problems? Feed them? What if a person’s usual activities result in occasional harm to members of the species? Consequences or none? What about species habitat? Do we destroy it with impunity? Preserve it voluntarily? Preserve it with incentive? Preserve it by regulation with the force of law? Buy it up and set it aside? These are the questions the USFWS has to consider in the case of every species, and the Endangered Species Act gives them quite a bit of power to enforce what they decide. Of course, this is government we are talking about here, so no decision is made in a sealed room. Politics are always howling outside the door. But still the USFWS has a fair amount of discretion in regulations it writes around an endangered species though it must subject anything major to the comments of the public, the scrutiny of its representatives and the limits of its budget. If you are as old as I am, you may R32 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
remember the “snail darter,” a tiny fish apparently found only in the upper reaches of Tennessee’s Tellico River that the state wanted to drown behind a dam. That little critter held up that dam project until it collapsed of its own inertia. For some it became an archetype for material progress halted by an insignificant species of very few individuals. It didn’t help when the fish was later discovered in a couple of other streams. What the USFWS is proposing for the northern long-eared bat is a set of regulations that limit what can be done within a quarter of a mile of places where the bats hibernate. Other limitations affect the forest areas the bats use for roosting in the
summer. Also limited is cave touring and exploration in sites where the bats are known to be. Now these would be logical steps to take if you believed as the USFWS scientists do that white nose syndrome can be transmitted by human traffic into the caves and bats can be disturbed by any loud and disruptive activity in the vicinity of their hibernacula and roosts. And if the bats are so valuable to people as they seem to be for controlling insects, who could object to rules that keep them safe? It turns out that two particular groups object to some aspects of these proposed new regulations: loggers who want to cut
trees on land near caves, and cavers, people who want to go in the caves. Both feel their rights are being trampled, and they both make a case that the rules are unnecessarily strict. Next time we’ll take a look at this controversy, which seems to me a microcosm of the conflict between conservation and human plans that plays out time and again. Can these bats be saved? And will these regulations be the means by which they might be? We won’t know those things by next issue, but we’ll see why the different stakeholders believe the way they do. Stay tuned.
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www.hilltoppubandgrill.com April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R33
OUTDOORS // SURE SIGNS OF SPRING
Sure Signs of Spring BY MICHAEL MENTZER It’s interesting and a bit daunting to process what filters through a person’s mind when the thought barricades are pushed aside. On a recent unseasonably mild afternoon, my thoughts — probably for a number of unfettered reasons — turned to Beauty and the Beast (not the story, but the outdoor world); baseball great Roberto Clemente and a mystery story about one of his bats; white-throated sparrows, indigo buntings, Baltimore orioles, catbirds, towhees, kinglets, rose-breasted grosbeaks and redstarts; and, of all things, woodchucks (not the famous ones that predict wintry patterns, just the run-of-the-mill variety). It all started, I think, when I saw the distinctive shiny brown husks of American elm tree buds on our driveway and the fuzzy, grayish green skins of star magnolia buds in the garden. It seemed kind of early to see them but I certainly wasn’t complaining. They appeared in the midst of a longawaited warming trend sparked by a shift in the jet stream — the polar vortex be darned. They opened the gateway to old memories and some growing concerns.
Beauty and the beast By chance and observation a number of years ago, I reached the conclusion that the forces of nature that burst the blooms on the star magnolia in the far corner of our backyard are the same ones that prompt the lake sturgeon spawning ritual on the Wolf River and throughout the Winnebago System. When the paper-white blooms with five petals, like stars, engulf our magnolia even before leaves appear and the fragrance R34 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
filters through the surrounding air, it’s more than a “safe bet” that sturgeon are spawning and carrying out the grand design of their prehistoric ways. It’s a link of beauty and the beast in the rites of spring. I think about it when I see other magnolias, no matter what variety they might be, in bloom in Fond du Lac and beyond. A few years ago, I watched huge sturgeon rolling and gliding together inches from the Wolf River shore and at most two feet from me where the river flows through New London. There’s a sturgeon walk there to make it easy for people to view the spawning spectacle. Sturgeon are protected there, as they are at several key points along the river systems, and people volunteer their time to protect the vulnerable giants from those who don’t care about preserving the resource for posterity. There was a time when violators slaughtered sturgeon when they were most vulnerable, weakened the genetic strain and threatened their future in Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes of Poygan and Winneconne. Thankfully, that has changed. It’s one of the great environmental success stories in our part of the world — the Sturgeon for Tomorrow organization and human beings protecting a species for future generations. Sturgeon prospects are bright not only here in our piece of the Winnebago System but at points around the world because of work and research being done in our socalled corner of the world. If time allows, the walk along Sturgeon Trail in New London is priceless and unforgettable. I vowed a few years ago that I would go every year to experience it. I’ve failed on that promise. It bothers me because I know better than ever before how quickly life changes and opportunities fade into the fog of good intentions. Woodchuck humor I laughed when I saw the newspaper photo of Jimmy the Groundhog and his big choppers nipping the ear of the Sun Prairie mayor on Groundhog Day. It makes me smile even more when I
realize that I know who Jimmy is but don’t have a clue what the mayor’s name is. We have our own personal Groundhog Day at our house along the Dutch Gap near the Elizabeth Street Bridge. It always happens in mid to late March. We look for days from our family room windows for the annual appearance. There are a couple burrows carved into the south side of the Gap where groundhogs traditionally make their spring debut. They haven’t missed a spring appearance in 30 consecutive years. I say “they” because it certainly can’t be the same one we saw for the first time in the spring of 1985. They carry on the tradition, which is admirable considering the changes and threats visited on them over the years. They make me smile but for a different reason than Jimmy did. And they make me think about what’s to come and whether their days are numbered. They just might not fit someday in a more citified Dutch Gap. Northward migration The colorful birds that winter in the southern states, Central America, South America and the countless islands and estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico will be in our backyards very soon, singing the songs that distinguish them. They need no lingual translation whether they sing in Nicaragua or Horicon, El Salvador or Fond du Lac, the West Indies or Door County. Birds fire the imagination. They unite countries, even continents, during the spring and fall migrations. They know no boundaries, and nationalism is foreign to them. The late Owen Gromme, who was regarded as one of the finest wildlife artists in North America, viewed his Fond du Lac hometown and this part of Wisconsin as one of the most remarkable, most prolific areas of bird life to be found anywhere. He enjoyed great personal satisfaction in the outdoors and in watching the “birds of Wisconsin.” In hindsight, I realize that Owen taught me more in his conversations, explanations and observations than I could comprehend
at the time. One of his lessons has grown in marked importance for me over the years. It’s simple and complicated at the same time: Make time to appreciate the beauty and the message of birds. If you are fortunate to find that appreciation in your own proverbial backyard, enjoy it all the more. Roberto’s bat By sheer chance, I picked up a book the other day that I had read a couple years ago. I sat down at the kitchen table and read it again. The title is “A Drive into the Gap,” written by Kevin Guilfoile, son of Bill Guilfoile, a former Fond du Lac resident who was employed by the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates before becoming vice president of the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. It’s a small book in terms of pages (only 71), but large in terms of what it has to say. It’s about baseball and the great Roberto Clemente of the Pirates and a bit of mystery surrounding the bat he used to get his 3,000th hit in his final regular season game of the 1972 season. The bat is on permanent display at the Hall of Fame, where Bill Guilfoile saw it every day of his career there. But it’s about so much more — fathers, sons, memories, the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease and the theft of memories, tragedy and the blessings afforded by the “good days.” I read the book much more closely this second time around. I appreciated it more. In fact, I also appreciate the legacy of Roberto Clemente more than I did when I was a kid. I grew up a Milwaukee Braves fan and Henry Aaron was my baseball hero. Back then I perceived any praise for Clemente as a slight of Aaron. If Clemente was picked as the All Star right fielder over Hank, I was distraught. I view them both as heroes for different reasons today. Clemente died aboard a plane bound for Nicaragua as part of a humanitarian aid mission for earthquake victims on New Continue on Page R40
See Patti in Downtown Fond du Lac
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R35
ENTERTAINMENT // APRIL CONCERT WATCH
Todd Rundgren at the Pabst BY JANE SPIETZ Songwriter and recording artist Todd Rundgren not only put out such classics as “Can We Still Be Friends?,” “I Saw the Light,” “Hello It’s Me,” “Love is the Answer,” “We Gotta Get You a Woman,” and “Bang the Drum All Day,” but he has embraced numerous other roles as well, throughout his 40-plus year career. Rundgren is highly respected as a record producer (Badfinger, Meatloaf, Hall & Oates, XTC, Patti Smith, New York Dolls and many others), computer software developer, video pioneer, conceptualist and interactive artist. He earned recognition for his critically acclaimed 1972 release, Something/Anything? Amazingly, he sang all of the vocal parts, played all of the instruments and produced this masterful work. Rundgren received the Les Paul Award in 2014 at the 29th annual NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) TEC Awards. His latest album, Global, has been described as a contemporary fusion of styles - rock, soul and electronica. An accompanying Limited Edition 2 Disc CD/DVD is set to be released on April 15, 2015. I connected with Todd Rundgren in March during a stop in Mexico City while he was touring with Ringo Starr and his All Starr band. Jane Spietz: This is not your first gig with Ringo. What’s it like to work with a former member of the Beatles who is a great musician in his own right? Todd Rundgren: It’s an honor and kind of something you have to do. If a Beatle calls, you must answer because they had so much to do with most of us even getting into the music business. This band has been together almost three years so we’re all well used to each other. That initial awe has turned into almost a family relationship at this point. JS: Musician, songwriter, recording artist, video pioneer, computer software developer, producer - which of your many roles do you feel you have enjoyed the most and why? R36 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
TR: It’s one the relationships of those things with the people where if you do in those bands the same thing kind of sustain all the time even to this you get kind of day. I still work jaded about it. with the same And these other people...somethings are an times in various opportunity to contexts. The kind of ‘clear sort of family my head’ someatmosphere that times of musical we had and the responsibilities, incredible perlike when I first formances that got into learnwe put on will ing computer always be kind programming. of like a golden I took a whole age to me. But I year off and don’t spend a lot didn’t tour, and of time dwelling d i d n’t w r i t e on the past. So if any music at all. you had a list of WHAT: Todd Rundgren (Laughs) I somequestions asking WHERE: Pabst Theater, Milwaukee times need to step me about things WHEN: 8 PM May 21, 2015 away, step back for that used to be, COST: $36.50 a while and think I’m probably not about everything going to have a INFO: www.pabsttheater.org/ just so I can still lot to say about show/toddrundgren2015 feel refreshed it. (Laughs) For www.tr-i.com/flash.html when I have to get instance, right involved in music now I’m about to again. But ultimately, it’s going to wind up wrap this tour up, and then 100% of my being something to do with music. And all consciousness is going into preparing for of those other things in the end, somehow the tour that we’re about to do behind the wound up leaping back to music. All of the new record. things that I did with computers, which JS: Yes, Global. I have listened to it. It’s I thought at first would have more to great! do with the visual aspects - graphics and TR: Thank you. I tried, in this parthings like that – also informed me about ticular project, to regroup in a way. My last changes in the music business when that record was aggressively experimental. I was digital technology started to be applied to incorporating a lot of new techniques and recording and such. So, these are the diver- sound. I was essentially educating myself at sions that are ultimately going to have to the expense of my audience which is not do with music in the end. unusual. I’ve done it several times before. JS: Which of your musical periods have (Laughs) This record is an opportunity to you most enjoyed? take the things that I learned on the last TR: I always have fond recollections of record and merge it with my kind of more what we call the Nearly Human era, which traditional sensibilities and my inclination was in the late 80’s. I did two records com- to write about larger concepts. I think pletely live in the studio with no overdubs. in that sense it makes a more accessible And the bands that I had in those days, and record.
JS: You were quoted as saying “I don’t really do what I do for recognition. I do it because music is – if you’re lucky enough – the most satisfying thing in the world to do.” Please expand on that. TR: A lot of people think that they would like to be a musician because they feel that they don’t have any responsibilities or some other mythology that revolves around being a musician. I learn about myself and I express myself in music. I could probably do the same with some other art form or with some other kind of pursuit. But after all this time it’s just become second nature to me. It’s the way I make the world make sense to me, and it’s also the way I objectivize my thought processes. Often I do it just for my own benefit. I do it to get the thoughts out of my head and into a sense of reality so I can see whether they make any sense or not. The audience essentially is watching me. I’m not doing this trying to get in somebody else’s head. I’m trying to get into my own head, and the entertainment – if there is any in that – is watching me go through that process. JS: In 2014, at the 29th annual NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) TEC Awards, you received the Les Paul Award. What did that mean for you personally? TR: It’s always humbling to be recognized by your peers, especially the people you have so much respect for. And then when they show you respect, it’s very satisfying. At the same time, I’ve never desired to have awards, to the consternation of my fans. They would like me to be in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. They’d like me to have a Grammy because it justifies all of the faith they’ve put in me over the years. (Laughs) But personally, the reward is in the ability to continue to do it. The ability to be able to make the music and have ears willingly listen to it. I can’t think of anything, at least in my own experience, that’s more satisfying than that – except maybe having children. JS: Tell us about Toddstock and the development of the Spirit of Harmony Foundation. Continue on Page R38
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R37
ENTERTAINMENT // APRIL CONCERT WATCH
Continued from Page R36 TR: Toddstock’s are held specifically on years where I have a significant birthday. The first one was my 60th birthday. That was out in Hawaii. When I turned 65, which is the one we did in New Orleans, people wanted to call it Toddstock because it was a significant birthday. And I hadn’t planned to do another thing like that until I was 70, but a lot of my fans, being as old as I am or older, thought they might not make it that far. (Laughs) The fans decided they wanted to do something for the city of New Orleans because it was still reeling from the effects of the hurricane. We found a music program down in the Lower Ninth Ward that was still struggling to meet their expenses, so the fans got together and collected $10,000. It was all strings. Kids from the age of 5 or so, all the way up to high school. They were all playing violins, violas and double basses and they gave us a little recital. We then gave them the check. Everyone felt so good about the experience they said we don’t want this to be a one-time thing; we want something more to happen. Continued from Page R34 Year’s Eve in 1972. He was departing his native land of Puerto Rico when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. R o b e r t o’s l i f e i s chronicled in the book “Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero,” by Wisconsin native David Maraniss, the author of “When Pride Still Mattered,” the biography of legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. Breaking the banks Bill Guilfoile’s name is mentioned at least a few times in the book by Maraniss. It was Bill, the public relations man for the Pirates, who broke the news of Clemente’s death to the world. Kevin points out in his book, “A Drive into the Gap,” that his dad broke his children’s piggy banks the night Clemente died and put coins into a sock that he carried, along with his address book, “a mile through the cold and snow to a parking lot pay phone outside a general store,” to tell R38 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
We want this to be a permanent part of our collective identity. That’s when we developed the idea of the Spirit of Harmony Foundation. It was actually developed by a couple of our associates. They brought it to me and said, “You’re going to have to figurehead this thing!” (Laughs) And so I said, I’ve not done anything like this before but I can’t think of anything better to do. We applied for our nonprofit status and got it in like record time, so fast that we’re still trying to refine our mission. Actually, just a few weeks after the tour starts we’ll be at the Clinton Library in Little Rock. We’re going to have a big symposium with a lot of participants. It’ll be our first big public event. That’s where we’re going to lay out our mission which is essentially to convince people, convince school systems the world that his friend Roberto Clemente was dead. The reason be broke the piggy banks and trudged to the general store pay phone was that he could not reach an outside line from his home phone and there was no immediate remedy to the problem. T h a n k s t o To m Guilfoile of Fond du Lac, Bill’s brother, I’ve had the chance to hold one of Robert Clemente’s bats on a couple occasions. There are base hits in that bat once used by Clemente that will be confined in that chunk of ash forever. It has a special significance, especially now with baseball in the air and another season on the horizon and the memories of Clemente slipping further into the mist. There is relevance in touching the past. It must have something to do with age. Michael Mentzer, now retired after a 40year newspaper career, writes a monthly column for Scene.
and parents alike that music education is actually an integral part of a well-rounded educational experience. That what you learn in music education applies to other aspects, and indeed literally changes the way the brain works and makes it easier to learn other things. What we’re trying to do is recover lost ground. When school systems run out of money, things like music education are the first thing to go. We’re trying to reverse that trend. JS: Since moving to Hawaii, you have taught yourself to play the ukulele, joking that “if you’re a musician, it’s required by law.” TR: Well, it doesn’t take a lot of education to learn how to play the ukulele. To learn how to play it really well requires a lot of time and effort and there are some spectacular players out there. I just noodle around on it. Somebody who’s a great ukulele player is Greg Hawkes from the Cars. He goes everywhere with a ukulele! There’s somebody with a real commitment to the instrument that I don’t yet possess. Maybe when I get old and infirm and can’t move around so much that would be my instru-
ment of choice. (Laughs) JS: What would you like to take on musically that you have not yet done? TR: Hmm, well there isn’t a lot, but I’d like to learn a little bit more about jazz theory. I incorporate some unusual changes in what I do, but I don’t really have the proper education to understand a lot of what’s going on. I like listening to it, but I could never play it. Even if I just learned a little bit, I think I would be an overall better musician. JS: Todd, what’s in store musically for your audience in Milwaukee on April 21st? TR: We’re bringing an unusual show in terms of maybe what people are used to. I’m fronting a very small group. I’ve got a DJ – his name is Dan Funk – you can look him up. He’ll be in charge of the sounds. I have a couple of background singers so there’ll be something nice to look at. And we’ll have kind of a fairly elaborate light and video show to go along with it so that we can set a lot of different moods and kind of bring the whole room into the show. We’re going to make everyone feel like they’re onstage.
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April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R39
ENTERTAINMENT // THE SPANISH INQUISITION
Tin Sandwich to the Rescue BY GEORGE HALAS By day, they are ordinary citizens, blending seamlessly into the Wisco-Americana landscape of the Fox Cities. They have jobs, families and they might even be your neighbors. However, when night falls and the call from Commissioner Gordon – or a booking agent – comes in, they immediately don superhero identities and lead the on-going fight against the boring, the mundane and the ho-hum. Their vast array of weapons includes guitars, drums, saxophones, infectious enthusiasm and a strong commitment to fun, good music and the American Way. Other collections of would-be heroes and extraordinary gentlemen have attempted to achieve the same synergy, but as de facto leader Marbs Giles explains, it requires a deep understanding of chemistry and the olde family recipe. “Toss into a big pot,” Marbs explained, “one monster drum master, a rock-solid bassman, a right-on rhythm player, a smooth, guitar bluesmaster, a lights-out sax player, add heat and stir.” The result? A tightly-knit group with roots in the blues, R&B, rock and soul with just a touch of dreadlock that makes Tin Sandwich a most nutritious and tasty musical meal. Marbs plays some of the finest and exquisite lead guitar you’ve ever heard as well as handling a lot of the vocal leads, but he is just another citizen of the band’s “democracy.” “I think there is a bit of a similar back story that sort of binds us together,” he said. “You see, over the years we have all played in so many different bands, in so many different genres, at different stages in our lives, that now we are at a stage where coming back to the blues feels in a way, like coming home.” He is both grateful for and very appreciative of the unusually high level of talent that the super heroes bring to the cause. The one code named “Stix,” is out of Fond du Lac and has played drums for over 39 years. R40 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
“He is a highly-regarded jazz drummer, and really brings that sophisticated sensibility to our blues,” Marbs said. “Having worked on projects with him over the last 20 years, I should mention that he is also an excellent vocalist. In fact, we are working on a project now that will inject his soulful voice into the band’s sound.” On bass guitar, “Buffalo” has held down the big notes for different rock groups for over 35 years. “He also has the technical abilities to integrate the highly technical side of the spectrum into the needs of today’s digital music world,” Marbs marveled. “An excellent vocalist, Buffalo takes us on intriguing journeys both vocally and emotionally.” On guitar is singer/songwriter/luthier “Hacksaw.” “He is known for his handmade string instruments of un-rivaled craftsmanship,” Marbs recalled. “So, of course, the day he went to the hospital after cutting his finger on a band saw while building a guitar, the guys in the band immediately changed his name to “Hacksaw.” Honestly, the blood had not yet dried, but that’s what are friends are for.” The latest hero to join and play for the cause is saxophonist Danny G. “Danny G on saxophone is the most recent addition to the band,” Marbs said.
“He’s been with us for about a year now. His extensive work with big bands, jazz ensembles, swing bands and his workshops, brings a bit of be-bop/swing to our more ‘Chicago Style’ blues.” Tin Sandwich will be playing at “one of our favorite places,” Becket’s in Oshkosh, on Saturday, April 18th at 8:30 p.m. Planet-Harmon Benefit Fox Jazz Fest John Harmon and Janet Planet have a very special evening of music scheduled as part of a benefit concert Saturday, April 11th, at Perry Hall at UW-Fox Valley. The festivities will start at 7:30 p.m. Susan and John Toussaint, two of the most generous supporters of jazz in the Fox Cities, are adding to the special nature of the evening. “At this event, we are announcing the new fund at the Community Foundation to support the Fox Jazz Fest,” Susan Toussaint said. “All proceeds from the concert will go to the newly established fund, and we are hoping that others will join us in supporting this ongoing fabulous annual event.” “The Jazz Fest has been a free event for over 20 years,” Planet noted. “John Harmon, who continues to give of his time
and also continues to give to this community artistically, continues to lead the efforts to keep it alive, thriving…and free.” “An evening with Janet Planet and John Harmon is also about supporting the Fox Cities jazz community,” she continued. “An Evening with John Harmon and Janet Planet” is one more way that the artists who live here continue to give and attempt to sustain the quality of the arts in our community.” Harmon and Planet are looking forward to the event in part because it presents an opportunity for them to express their gratitude and appreciation for the community support that enabled them to travel to and perform in Kurgan, Russia as part of the Fox Cities-Kurgan Sister Cities program. While the set list is still a workin-progress, it may include one or more of the songs in Russian that Planet learned and which brought Kurgan audiences to their feet.
Planet may express additional personal gratitude as well. “John Harmon is an exquisite composer, pianist, educator and friend,” she emphasized. “I’ve been lucky to have him in my musical and personal life. He has written music for me and we have collaborated on some great projects. Whether we’re performing on stage or spending hours together in a creative mode, I’m always learning from John, a master in music, life and friendship and I’m blessed to have him in my life.” “Please join us for some great music.” Please contact Lori Lacey for further information and/or to buy tickets at: laceyl@mac.com or the Fox Jazz Fest website.
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R41
CALENDAR // LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR
APRIL 2015
SARDINE CAN GREEN BAY 9:00 PM THE COUGARS SAND BOX GREEN BAY 9:00 PM UNITY EMMETTS APPLETON 9:00 PM WAYNE NEUMANN presented by www.ButtonCapBooking.com WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM MENASHA 6:00 PM STONEYARD FOOD & SPIRITS MR TALLPANTS AND THE APRIL 1 REVEREND RAVEN APPLETON 8:00 PM SHORTS TJ & LYNN MAD POLECATS W/THE 1001 CLUB DÉJA VU CHANDELIER CLUB GREEN BAY 8:00 PM FILTHY STILL APPLETON 9:00 PM APPLETON 5:00 PM TAYLOR JAY O’MARROS PUBLIC HOUSE TOE KNEE V’S 80’S OSHKOSH 8:00 PM WORLD OF BEER MILL CREEK APPLETON 9:00 PM DAVE STEFFENS BAND APPLETON 7:00 PM “FILTHY STILL, OWEN MAYS CIMERRON JAZZ ORGY MENASHA 8:00 PM AND THE LAST CALLS” BECKET’S MILES NIELSEN & THE CRUNCHY FROG OSHKOSH 7:00 PM GREEN BAY 9:00 PM RUSTED HEARTS COUGARS LYRIC ROOM THE SANDBOX April 2 April 3 GREEN BAY 8:30 PM GREEN BAY 9:00 PM BOBBY & EVIL EVANS KWT FEATURING TOM “DECIVILIZE, HE-NIS-RA, CRANKIN YANKEES CHANDELIER CLUB WASHATKA ULTREA” WISEGUYS APPLETON 5:00 PM JJ MALONEYS BECKET’S GREENVILLE 9:30 PM STRATEGIC 8:30 PM NASHVILLE PIPELINE KAUKAUNA 7:00 PM OSHKOSH ADAMS WAY THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE R P M
LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR
HORTONVILLE LANES HORTONVILLE 9:30 PM ROOFTOP JUMPERS MILL CREEK APPLETON 9:30 PM ROOFTOP JUMPERS MILL CREEK APPLETON 10:00 PM SLY JOE AND SMOOTH OPERATORS THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 10:00 PM STILL CRUISIN DUO POTAWATOMI CASINO CARTER 3:30-7:30
April 4 TOMMY WINCH CHANDELIER CLUB APPLETON TOE KNEE V’S 90’S MILL CREEK APPLETON THE BOMB JJ MALONEYS KAUKAUNA NO VACANCY CIMERRON MENASHA
N8770 Fire Lane 1, Menasha, Wisconsin 54952 • Phone:(920) 733-9721 R42 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
5:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R43
CALENDAR // LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR
FOLLOW SUIT PLANK ROAD PUB DE PERE 8:30 PM THE REAL MCKENZIES W/ THE BASTARD ASSOC LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM
JANET PLANET BECKET’S OSHKOSH 8:30 PM DIAMOND AND STEEL FOX HARBOR PUB & GRILL GREEN BAY 9:00 PM JOHNNY WAD SLUGGERS APPLETON 9:00 PM REVEREND RAVEN DEJ APPLETON 9:00 PM ROOFTOP JUMPERS BACKSTAGE BAR FOND DU LAC 9:00 PM STAR SIX NINE OCTANE BAR AND GRILL WISCONSIN RAPIDS 9:00 PM THE COUGARS WATERING HOLE GREEN BAY 9:00 PM THE PRESIDENTS OSHKOSH LANES OSHKOSH 9:00 PM REVEREND RAVEN Déja VU APPLETON 9:00 PM OLSEN BAND THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 9:00 PM UNITY JIMMY SEAS GREEN BAY 9:00 PM JOHNNY WAD SLUGGERS APPLETON 9:00 PM “T.I.G.T., THE KEPONES” CRUNCHY FROG GREEN BAY 9:00 PM GRAND UNION KOUNTRY BAR APPLETON 9:30 PM NASHVILLE PIPELINE DAISYS WESTERN SALOON
OSHKOSH 9:30 PM THE BOMB JJ MALONEYS KAUKAUNA 9:30 PM FINELINE HEADLINERS NEENAH 9:30 PM RPM LEAP INN FREEDOM 10:00 PM REBEL GRACE FAT JOES FOND DU LAC 10:00 PM MILES NIELSOEN AND THE RUSTED HEARTS CRANKY PATS NEENAH 10:00 PM BRUCE KOESTNER HEIDEL HOUSE GREEN LAKE 7-10:00 COOKEE...TIMELESS MUSIC MACKINAWS GREEN BAY 7:30-11:00 BOXKAR LVD CASINO WATERSMEET MI 8-12:00 MOSTLY WATER GRAND FALLS CASINO LARCHWOOD IA 8:30-1:00
April 5 RABID AARDVARKS FAT JOES FOND DU LAC 10:00 PM
MOSTLY WATER GRAND FALLS CASINO LARCHWOOD IA 2-6:00
April 7 LAWRENCE JAZZ THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 6:00 PM
April 8 TOE KNEE V’S 80’S MILL CREEK APPLETON 7:00 PM JAZZ ORGY BECKET’S OSHKOSH 7:00 PM ROB ANTHONY CHANDELIER CLUB
R44 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
APPLETON
8:00 PM
April 9 SUNRAEYES THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 6:00 PM DAN TULSA DUO WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM SLY JOE Déja VU APPLETON 9:00 PM
April 10 BAZOOKA JOE PRIVATE HOWARD 8:00 PM MAX JONES /AARON PANTOL CHANDELIER CLUB APPLETON 8:00 PM DEWEY ROCKEM AND HOWE CIMERRON MENASHA 8:00 PM TWEED FUNK SLIPPERY NOODLE INDIANAPOLIS 8:30 PM “SOUL LOW W/ SPACE MAGIC, HER MAJESTY, THE SEA, ANTLER HOUSE” LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM WHATEVER AND EVER AMENÖA BEN FOLDS FIVE TRIBUTE BECKET’S OSHKOSH 8:30 PM CONSULT THE BRIEFCASE SARDINE CAN GREEN BAY 9:00 PM STAGE HOGGS ACOUSTIC WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM RED ROSE Déja VU APPLETON 9:00 PM COSMIC RAILROAD THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 10:00 PM BOXKAR DIAMOND JO CASINO DUBUQUE IA 8-12:00
April 11 DAPHNI SCHULDES SPORTS CENTER - SNC
DE PERE 12:00 PM KINGSTON TAYLOR THRASHER OPERA HOUSE GREEN LAKE 7:30 PM THE COUGARS PRIVATE GREEN BAY 8:00 PM SWINGIN’ JOHNSONS CHANDELIER CLUB APPLETON 8:00 PM DUELING PIANOS DOCKSIDE TAVERN OSHKOSH 8:00 PM TOMBSTONE CIMERRON MENASHA 8:00 PM DIAMOND AND STEEL PLANK ROAD PUB DE PERE 8:30 PM TWEED FUNK SLIPPERY NOODLE INDIANAPOLIS 8:30 PM
FUN WITH ATOMS WITH THE CHOCOLATEERS LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM RINGS BECKET’S OSHKOSH 8:30 PM BRIAN JAMES PUMPHOUSE LITTLE CHUTE 9:00 PM CONSULT THE BRIEFCASE ROOKIES STEVENS POINT 9:00 PM ROOFTOP JUMPERS CAPITOL CENTRE APPLETON 9:00 PM TRAVIS LEE DUO WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM CHARLES WALKER BAND Déja VU APPLETON 9:00 PM ROOFTOP JUMPERS CAPITOL CENTRE APPLETON 9:00 PM WHISKEY DITCH JIMMY SEAS GREEN BAY 9:00 PM STOMPIN THE HOLE
THE WATERING HOLE GREEN BAY 9:00 PM ROAD TRIP SLUGGERS APPLETON 9:00 PM ADAMS WAY LEAP INN FREEDOM 9:30 PM BIG MOUTH STONE TOAD MENASHA 9:30 PM GRAND UNION HEADLINERS NEENAH 9:30 PM HURRY UP WAIT MINESHAFT HARTFORD 9:30 PM JOHNNY WAD ANDUZZIS EAST GREEN BAY GREEN BAY 9:30 PM NASHVILLE PIPELINE ANDUZZI’S SPORTS CLUB GREEN BAY 9:30 PM RPM GAMEDAY SPORTS BAR APPLETON 9:30 PM RABID AARDVARKS MILWAUKEE ALE HOUSE MILWAUKEE 9:30 PM SEPARATE WAYS THE SHACK FOND DU LAC 9:30 PM STAR SIX NINE KOUNTRY BAR APPLETON 9:30 PM GRAND UNION HEADLINERS NEENAH 9:30 PM BIG MOUTH STONE TOAD MENASHA 9:30 PM
HALF EMPTY FAT JOES FOND DU LAC 10:00 PM HALF EMPTY FAT JOES FOND DU LAC 10:00 PM HUGH BOB AND THE HUSTLE THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE
Tues-Sat 11am-6pm 17 Waugoo Ave. 235-0023
Celebrate Spring...in Vintage
architectural salvage since 1987
Crescent Moon Antiques and Salvage 537 N. MAIN ST. OSHKOSH 920-232-MOON (6666) www.CrescentMoonAntiquesAndSalvage.com
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R45
CALENDAR // LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR
MENASHA 10:00 PM FRAN STEENO HEIDEL HOUSE GREEN LAKE 7-10:00 HITS SILVER CRYST WAUTOMA 8-12:00
April 12 “MIDNIGHT GHOST TRAIN, LION SLICER, ATTALLA” CRUNCHY FROG GREEN BAY 9:00 PM PAT MC CURDY HEADLINERS NEENAH 9:30 PM
APPLETON 9:00 PM NICOLE KOTTKE BAND MENOMINEE CASINO KESHENA 8-12:00
April 17 CONSULT THE BRIEFCASE BRADLEY CENTER - ADMIRALS GAME MILWAUKEE 6:00 PM IZZY & THE SCARECROW CHANDELIER CLUB APPLETON 8:00 PM
April 15 KRIS CHARAIS THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 6:00 PM
TOE KNEE V’S 80’S MILL CREEK APPLETON 7:00 PM ERIN KREBS & JEFF JOHNSTON CHANDELIER CLUB APPLETON 7:00 PM JAZZ ORGY BECKET’S OSHKOSH 7:00 PM “THE GHOSTWOLVES, LAST SONS OF KRYPTON, THE FOAMERS” CRUNCHY FROG GREEN BAY 9:00 PM
STRAWBERRY JAM CIMERRON MENASHA 8:00 PM “KARATE SCHOOL, THE RED HAWKS & CAN’T & WON’T” LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM REVEREND RAVEN AND THE CHAIN SMOKING ALTER BOYS BECKET’S OSHKOSH 8:30 PM BRIAN JAMES WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM THE COUGARS SARDINE CAN GREEN BAY 9:00 PM THY DIRTY DEUCE Déja VU APPLETON 9:00 PM
April 16 CHROSTOPHE GOLD THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 6:00 PM BOBBY EVANS DUO WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM BRANDON VAN DALEN DÉJA VU
UNDERCOVER ORGANISM WITH STEREO FRONTIER CRANKY PATS NEENAH 10:00 PM COULEE BOYS THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE
R46 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
MENASHA 10:00 PM NICOLE KOTTKE BAND MENOMINEE CASINO KESHENA 8-12:00 VIC FERRARI THE D CASINO LAS VEGAS 9-12:00
April 18 REVEREND RAVEN AND THE CHAIN SMOKING ALTER BOYS CIMERRON MENASHA 8:00 PM REPLICA PLANK ROAD PUB DE PERE 8:30 PM “HARVEY BROWN, BRON SAGE, THE FOAMERS” LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM TIN SANDWICH BECKET’S OSHKOSH 8:30 PM BIG MOUTH ANDUZZIS - HOWARD HOWARD 9:00 PM CHAD DEMEUSE WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM CONSULT THE BRIEFCASE NEW CHAPTER TWO WAUSAU 9:00 PM GRAND UNION 21 GUN ROADHOUSE LEDGEVIEW 9:00 PM RPM SLUGGERS APPLETON 9:00 PM RABID AARDVARKS BAR LOUIE MILWAUKEE 9:00 PM ROOFTOP JUMPERS FOX HARBOR PUB & GRILL GREEN BAY 9:00 PM THE BLUES DISCIPLES DEJ APPLETON 9:00 PM THE COUGARS CIRCLE TAP DENMARK 9:00 PM THE BLUES DISCIPLES Déja VU APPLETON 9:00 PM RPM SLUGGERS APPLETON 9:00 PM FINE LINE THE SANDBOX GREEN BAY 9:00 PM
DOOZEY SOCIABLES NEW LONDON 9:30 PM HALF EMPTY STONE TOAD MENASHA 9:30 PM STAR SIX NINE LEAP INN FREEDOM 9:30 PM BACK’N KICKIN HEADLINERS NEENAH 9:30 PM HALF EMPTY STONE TOAD MENASHA 9:30 PM MEGNA & THE MONSOONS THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 9:30 PM JOHNNY WAD FAT JOES FOND DU LAC 10:00 PM NASHVILLE PIPELINE KOUNTRY BAR APPLETON 10:00 PM JOHNNY WAD FAT JOES FOND DU LAC 10:00 PM CRANKSHAFT AND THE GEAR GRINDERS CRANKY PATS NEENAH 10:00 PM BILL STEINERT HEIDEL HOUSE GREEN LAKE 7-10:00 NICOLE KOTTKE BAND MENOMINEE CASINO KESHENA 8-12:00 VIC FERRARI THE D CASINO LAS VEGAS 9-12:00
April 22 TOE KNEE V’S 80’S MILL CREEK APPLETON 7:00 PM JAZZ ORGY BECKET’S OSHKOSH 7:00 PM MISTRIAL CIMERRON MENASHA 8:00 PM
April 23 IZZY & THE SCARECROW THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 8:00 PM
CONSULT THE BRIEFCASE POTAWATOMI BINGO AND CASINO MILWAUKEE 8:30 PM AMY LAVERE W/THE RAGLANDERS LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM HAPPY HOUR HEROES WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM STEVE ARNOLD Déja VU APPLETON 9:00 PM “THE CREEPSHOW, PENSKE FILE, T.I.G.T., BASTERD ASSOC” CRUNCHY FROG GREEN BAY 9:00 PM
April 24 THE HONEYMOONERS ONEIDA CASINO GREEN BAY 8:00 PM
GOOD NIGHT GOLD DUST W/ AURALAI THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 8:00 PM THE HITS CIMERRON MENASHA 8:00 PM “AGAINST THE GRAIN W/ BEAST IN THE FIELD, ACCUSER” LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM SLY JOE AND SMOOTH OPERATORS BECKET’S OSHKOSH 8:30 PM WAYNE NEUMANN WORLD OF BEER APPLETON 9:00 PM DB COLLECTIVE DÉJA VU APPLETON 9:00 PM
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | R47
CALENDAR // LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR
BIG MOUTH & THE POWER TOOL HORNS JIMMY SEAS GREEN BAY 9:00 PM CONSULT THE BRIEFCASE FIRE ON WATER MILWAUKEE 9:30 PM NASHVILLE PIPELINE MR Gs APPLETON 9:30 PM GRAND UNION RED ROCK SALOON MILWAUKEE 10:00 PM HITS CIMARRON MENASHA 9-1:00
April 25 BAD HABITZ JOHNNYS LOUNGE BEAVER DAM 7:00 PM
JOHNNY WAD ICE EXPO MANITOWOC 7:00 PM TUCK AND PATTI THRASHER OPERA HOUSE GREEN LAKE 7:30 PM ANDY’S AUTOMATICS CIMERRON MENASHA 8:00 PM ROOFTOP JUMPERS PLANK ROAD PUB DE PERE 8:30 PM GO FOR THE EYES W/THE REVIVAL LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM ADAMS WAY 10TH FRAME APPLETON 9:00 PM CONSULT THE BRIEFCASE JIMMY SEAS GREEN BAY 9:00 PM DAVE STEFFEN BAND EMMETTS APPLETON 9:00 PM GRAND UNION OSHKOSH LANES OSHKOSH 9:00 PM RPM
BACKSTAGE BAR FOND DU LAC 9:00 PM SPITFIRE RODEO CAPITOL CENTRE APPLETON 9:00 PM THE COUGARS ANDUZZIS EAST GREEN BAY GREEN BAY 9:00 PM SAVONA Déja VU APPLETON 9:00 PM CONSULT THE BRIEFCASE JIMMY SEAS GREEN BAY 9:00 PM RABID AARDVARKS FAT JOES FOND DU LAC 9:30 PM
ASK YOUR MOTHER HEADLINERS NEENAH 9:30 PM THE PRESIDENTS STONE TOAD MENASHA 9:30 PM THE POCKET KINGS THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 9:30 PM REPLICA LEAP INN FREEDOM 10:00 PM
8:00 PM
April 30 JAY MATTHES THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 6:00 PM THE LOWEST PAIR W/ DEAD HORSES LYRIC ROOM GREEN BAY 8:30 PM
April 26 SPITFIRE RODEO CAPITOL CENTRE APPLETON
1:00 AM
April 29
STAR SIX NINE GAMEDAY SPORTS BAR APPLETON 9:30 PM THE PRESIDENTS STONE TOAD MENASHA 9:30 PM
CIMERRON MENASHA
KRIS CHARAIS THE SOURCE PUBLIC HOUSE MENASHA 6:00 PM TOE KNEE V’S 80’S MILL CREEK APPLETON 7:00 PM JAZZ ORGY BECKET’S OSHKOSH 7:00 PM STRINGBENDERS
PAT MC CURDY MILL CREEK APPLETON
9:00 PM
If you would like your band or live music venue added to our calendar please provide us you information at livemusic@ scenenewspaper.com
Located on North Main Street, just north of Hopper’s Silk Screening
Presenting...
The Talented & Popular
LIGHT HOUSE BIG BAND Playing everything from Beatles to Basie
TUESDAYS, April 14th & 28th • 7:30 PM
Come Early...
The
Show is FREE!
Enjoy Dinner Before or During the Show!
101 North Main, FDL (Next to Hopper’s) 933-6003 • Kitchen open daily 7 am R48 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | L9
FOOD & DRNK // GRASS ROOTS FOOD
Can Meat Save the Planet? BY BONNI MILLER Will eating less meat save the planet? Or instead, can we actually reduce the effects of climate change by changing the way that we raise meat? This debate introduces us to at least one of the big ideas in sustainable agriculture. Last February, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) made history when it recommended to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that Americans should consider eating “a diet higher in plant-based foods,” a diet that is “more health promoting and is associated with less environmental impact than is the current U.S. diet.” It’s that “less environmental impact” phrase that’s notable here. It’s the first time that the USDA has considered a diet advisory based on environmental health instead of strictly nutrition. At issue is the carbon footprint of raising animals for meat. But what’s rarely discussed outside of farming circles is the difference in environmental impacts between raising meat at feedlots and raising meat on pasture. HOW MEAT IS RAISED
Feedlots are places where large numbers of animals are “finished” intensively in a small space. You’ll commonly hear them referred to CAFOs or concentrated animal feeding operations. Typically these animals are fed a high-protein diet, heavy in corn and grain, and are dependent on antibiotics to get them through the stresses of feedlot living. The antibiotics also help the animals grow muscle mass and fat more quickly, which is of course desirable in the market. The livestock industry is responsible for an estimated 5% to 15% of total global carbon emissions, depending on who you talk to, and roughly two-thirds of that is the result of beef production. It’s generally recognized that the amount of meat and milk produced is expected to double over the next 35 years to match population demands. But what if we changed the way we raised meat? What if we raised our meat L10 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
on pasture, where the animals eat as their genetic ancestors the Aurochs did, munching grasses, clovers, herbs, weeds and flowers? Where their manure is dropped back into the field and broken down into the soil as fertilizer instead of concentrated into pits of toxic waste. What if the earth could be restored by a different way of growing meat? Carnivores in the U.S. are the third largest consumers of beef on the planet. Denis Hayes, esteemed environmental activist (he organized the first Earth Day in 1970) and co-author of Cowed, estimates that there are currently 93 million cows raised annually to fill our gaping maw. The DGACs response, and they aren’t alone in this, is to suggest that we should simply eat less meat. As Michael Pollan said in his bestselling book, Omnivores Dilemma, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Hayes estimates that by the time it lands on your plate, a pound of beef gives off more carbon dioxide than burning a gallon of gasoline. However, those estimates include the amount of carbon dioxide given off by making nitrogen fertilizer; fueling tractors, harvesters, and semi trucks that produce and deliver the grain to the animals; the carbon costs of transport and refrigeration of slaughtered meat, and so on. And, as scientists at the University of California–Davis have noted, those same standards aren’t applied in consideration of the gallon of gas. Pasture-raised meat proponents, such as Allan Savory, who’s developed an intensive grazing method dubbed “Holistic Management” (which I’ve vastly oversimplified here), claim that even land that’s been desertified can be brought back to health by “mob” grazing a bit of pasture and then moving the animals to fresh grass, allowing the grass to regrow before returning the animals to it. The animals themselves “deposit” their own fertilizer on the pasture, minimizing mechanical inputs. The process sequesters carbon in the soil and, if properly done, can at least help minimize the effects of CO2 on the planet. And, presumably, if consumers eat meat that’s been grown within several miles
of their homes instead of on CAFOs hundreds and even thousands of miles away, the carbon footprint is arguably much smaller. “The environmental benefits of pasturebased farming include reduced soil erosion, improved air and water quality, denser nutrients in the soil, and higher plant variety,” says Lisa Shirek, owner of Painted Rock Farms in Amherst Junction. Conversely, the feedlot beef industry has funded or helped to fund studies arguing that grain is actually more digestible than grass, thereby reducing the methane output. They also cite studies showing that concentrated production combined with new efficiencies that grow meat and milk more quickly, and in greater quantities, reduces a CAFO cow’s footprint to well below that of a grass-fed cow. It’s probably not surprising to anyone that there are studies asserting diametrically opposed claims, and these are not arguments that will be easily resolved. Meat production is big business, and there’s a lot at stake. What is easier to measure are the health benefits of a cow raised on a lush pasture compared to CAFO cows. According to the Mayo Clinic, grassfed beef often has less total fat. It also has more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, more conjugated linoleic acid (a type of fat that’s thought to reduce heart disease and cancer risks), and more antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin E. In short, it’s better for you. And as a chef, I can tell you that it cooks up in an entirely different way than CAFO meat does. It browns much more easily, developing what the French call a “fond,” caramelizing and showcasing its flavor. Even something as simple as a hamburger made from a well-raised cow can be a revelation to the diner. CAFO meat, on the other hand, exudes a dramatic amount of water before it browns, making it much more likely that it steams before it browns. And that’s not exactly the savory quality that we’re looking for. There’s often a note of ammonia in the flavor of CAFO meat, which is espe-
cially noticeable in pork. Grass-fed chicken has a silky quality to it that’s totally absent from CAFO chicken, and CAFO chicken is often referred to as “mushy” in comparison to grass-fed. Grass-fed meat, because it tends to be leaner, should be cooked “fast and hot” or “low and slow,” depending on the cut. Stews and roasts tend to fall in the lowand-slow category. Ask your farmer about lesser utilized cuts, too, like shanks, short ribs, oxtails, tongue and heart, stewing chickens, lamb necks, and pork hocks. These cuts often are at a lower price point, and there are great meals to be had if you’re willing to learn how to cook them. It takes longer to raise an animal on grass, and if you’re trying to maximize short-term profits, this isn’t exactly the most efficient way to raise meat. As Chris Holman, co-owner of Nami Moon Farms in Custer, said, “There’s a minimal advantage when it comes to feed with poultry, but there are some savings involved, and it does diversify the animals’ diets. This is how we want to farm as well, so it’s important for that reason alone. We have the added goal of ensuring that we’re managing our pastures as well as we can.” Shirek adds, “The biggest thing for us is that we believe animals should live a life closest to how they would live in nature. If we can give these creatures the ability to choose their food source, based on their own needs, we feel we can only produce the best products out there.” The long-term profit of a healthier pasture, and a more pleasant life for both the farmer, their animals, and their customers, can’t be underestimated. And it may well provide for a healthier planet as well. Bonni Miller is the manager of the Waupaca Saturday Farm Market, which operates year-round on the public square in Waupaca. She’s also the owner of Chez Marche Foodworks, which provides local food sourcing and personal chef services. She hates her phone, but she wants to hear from you. Your best bet for reaching her is to send her an email at bonnimiller@yahoo.com.
ENTERTAINMENT // LEAVE IT TO KAREN
The Beat of a Different Drummer BY KAREN O’BRIEN Under the direction of Dr. Adam Rappel, the UWSP Percussion Ensemble will present its spring concert on April 14 at 7:30 pm in Michelsen Hall of the Noel Fine Arts Center in Stevens Point. This year the ensemble will offer a very challenging program that includes “Sacrificial Rite” by David Gillingham, “Divertimento” by Takayoshi Yoshioka, “The Song of Quetzalcoatl” by Lou Harrison, and “Changes” by Bill Cahn. Three pieces will feature guest faculty: “Five Pieces for Clarinet and Percussion Orchestra” by Philip Parker featuring Andrea Splittberger-Rosen on clarinet, “Ostinato Pianissimo” by Henry Cowell featuring Jon Caldwell conducting, and “Coming Home” by Nathan Daughtrey featuring Patrick Lawrence on euphonium. Incorporating traditional percussion instruments as well as some instruments you’ve likely never seen before, modern percussion performances are an adventure in sound. “We will be using ten brake drums, which are literally the brake drums removed from old cars [that] are struck with mallets or hammers,” Dr. Rappel said. “We will also be using glass wind-chimes, a variety of whistles, and eight bass drums!”
Whereas small ensembles of woodwind instruments or strings have an established tradition of performance dating back hundreds of years, music written specifically for percussion ensembles is a 20th Century phenomenon. “The percussion ensemble is a rather new form of ensemble. It really hasn’t been around for very long, maybe 60 years or so,” Dr. Rappel said. “That being said, we don’t really have the luxury like orchestras or pianists do of possessing a repertoire that has stood the test of time. “If you perform in an orchestra, you know that Beethoven is always going to be good — his works have had hundreds of years to prove themselves. We are still trying to figure out what the classics are for our ensemble. However, there are composers that have truly pushed the percussion ensemble to new heights, such as Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell, and John Cage, among many others. Recently, with the virtuosity of percussionists extending the boundaries of performance possibilities, composers have written fantastic pieces. I am really excited to see what happens in the next ten years!” The UWSP Percussion Ensemble musicians are include Oemig, Gina Sayler, Curtis Hanson, John Leja, Katie Hansen, Austin Gafner, Aly Evans, Terra Jansma, Bri Trainor, Kel Kelley, Dan Kellner, and
Percussionists master dozens of instruments. Percussion ensemble music often uses a variety of instruments to convey the message intended by the composer.
Tom Ford. “Chamber music is a tremendous opportunity for students to serve not only as performing musicians but also as ensemble directors,” Dr. Rappel explained. “It allows students to have a large voice in the direction of the music. They are able to shape the piece, or phrase things a certain way, and be a bit more liberal in their decision-making. In an orchestra, the conductor serves most of that purpose. In chamber music it truly is a communal effort from everyone in the group.” There are professional percussion ensembles performing around the world. If you are interested in learning more about these incredible musicians, Dr. Rappel recommended several groups that have a presence on the Internet. “Because our ensemble is so new, there is one professional ensemble that every single percussion group in the world
would most likely recommend, and that is NEXUS. Because of this group, we are able to use the percussion ensemble as a professional ensemble to perform and interact with audiences around the world.” The ground-breaking group NEXUS was formed in Toronto in 1971 and continues to perform live around the world. “Kroumata [formed in Sweden in 1978] is another group like NEXUS that has greatly influenced the percussion and music world,” Dr. Rappel said. “Other groups to check out are So Percussion, Jovan Percussion Project, Akadinda, Maraca2, and Percadu.” Join the UWSP Percussion Ensemble on April 14 for an unforgettable evening of music. It’s a concert you won’t want to miss.
Percussion instruments can be arranged in a variety of ways to maximize their efficiency for the performer. A timbale, a snare drum, and a floor tom are all mounted on stands to bring their heads to a uniform playing height.
“Multi-percussion” means that a performer will be using several different instruments to play a given piece. Pictured are bells, crotales, xylophone, tom-toms, snare drum, and suspended cymbal.
Karen O’Brien is a freelance writer and percussionist.
April 2015 | SceneNewspaper.com | L11
APRIL 2015
ENTERTAINMENT // SERIOUSLY FUNNY
For inclusion in our calendar of events, please contact us
MARCH 31 - APRIL 5 “By the Side of the Road” Exhibit by Robert Rosen Featuring photographs of things seen along local roads. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, Sunday 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, closed Mondays. Free admission. Gallery Q, 1108 Main St., Stevens Point; 715-3452888; www.robertrosenphotography.com or http://qartists.com. Also open April 7-12, 14-19, 21-26 and April 28-May 1.
Laser Light Show See a Laser Light Show set to the music of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. The planetarium doors open 30 minutes before the scheduled program. For all age groups. Seating is first come, first served for up to 60 people. Shows at 8:00 pm, 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm; admission is $5 adults, $4 students, $3 UWSP students with ID. UWSP Stevens Point Planetarium, UWSP Science Building, corner of Reserve and Fourth Ave., Stevens Point; 715-346-2208.
MARCH 29 - APRIL 15 PEEPS Exhibit Check out art made with marshmallow Peeps! The exhibit will be open during gallery hours from March 29 through April 15 (closed on Easter Sunday, April 5). Hours are Tuesday through Friday 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. RAC, 1200 Crosby Ave., Stevens Point; 715-343-6251; www. stevenspoint.com/RAC.
APRIL 2 First Thursday Film Series: Hound of the Baskervilles Commentary by Dr. Jack Rhodes. Event begins at 1:30 pm. Free popcorn and movie refreshments; free admission; appropriate for all ages. Waupaca Area L12 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
While the SCENE does everything to ensure the accuracy of its Events calendar, we also understand that some dates and times change. Please call ahead to confirm before traveling any distance.
Public Library, 107 Main St.; 715-2584414; www.waupacalibrary.org.
Reducing Your Toxic Load Find out how toxic chemicals impact your body and how to decrease your carbon footprint. Program at 6:00 pm; free admission. Infinity Wellness and Chiropractic, 2016 County Rd. HH, Plover; 715-544-6508; www.infinitywellnessandchiropractic.com.
APRIL 3 Aaron Scharmer on Piano Aaron will play your favorite jazz songs at Indulgence Wine Bar (1201 Main St., Stevens Point; 715-952-6152; www.facebook. com/IndulgenceWineBar) from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm; free admission. Also performing April 10, 17, 24, and May 1.
APRIL 4 Workshop with Poet Dylan Garity Minneapolis poet Dylan Garity leads a poetry workshop and performance. Workshop from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm, poetry open mic 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm, Garity’s reading from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Free admission. Waupaca Woods Restaurant, 815 W. Fulton St.; 715-258-7400; www. waupacalibrary.org.
Rhythm on the River Shop locally and enjoy of live music as you visit the shops and restaurants in the Tomorrow River area, including Amherst, Amherst Junction and Nelsonville, from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. For times and locations, check out the Tomorrow River Business Association Facebook page.
Sending Smiles Card Make-&-Take Make a cheery card using new stamps and dies from Impression Obsession. Limit 1 free make-&-take per customer, while supplies last, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Lighthouse Books & Gifts, 4330 8th St. S., #110, Wisconsin Rapids; www. lighthousebooksandgifts.com.
Prairie Chicken Festival Arts, crafts, music, scavenger hunts and an appearance by festival mascot Boomin’ Bob at the Central Wisconsin Childrens Museum (1100 Main St., Stevens Point; 715-343-6215). The event runs every Saturday in April from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
APRIL 6 “American Writers Remember WWI” Program Celebrate the Winchester Academy’s 600th Monday evening program with this talk by UW–Fox Valley professor Scott Emmert. Doors open at 6:00 pm, program begins at 6:30 pm. Free admission and handicapped accessible. Program lasts about an hour, with questions and discussion after. Waupaca Area Public Library, 107 Main St.; 715-258-4414; www.waupacalibrary.org.
Tracking Timberdoodles There are many elusive birds that inhabit the Schmeeckle Reserve, but none are more distinctive than the Woodcock. Presented by Joseph Kujala from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm; free admission. Schmeeckle Reserve, 2419 Northpoint Dr., Stevens Point; 715-346-4992; www.uwsp.edu/cnrap/schmeeckle/Pages/programs/calendar.aspx.
APRIL 10 Friday Night Lights: Broadway Show Tunes Presented by the Wisconsin Rapids Community Theatre. Admission is $10; doors open at 6:30 pm, entertainment begins at 7:00 pm. WRCT Studio Theatre, 220 3rd Ave South #6, Wisconsin Rapids; 715-421-0435; www.wrctheatre.org.
Taste of Wine & Cheese The 11th annual Portage County Taste of Wine & Cheese features more than 100 wines and a dozen specialty cheeses, handcrafted beers, delicious desserts, a silent
auction and a special bourbon tasting. Hours 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm; tickets are $60 each. Noel Group Hangar, 4501 Hwy 66, Stevens Point; 715-341-4386.
Story Time at the Natural History Museum Reading Frog Song by Brenda Z. Buiberson in honor of National Frog Month. Free admission; 10:30 am to 11:30 am; email museum@uwsp.edu to register. UWSP Museum of Natural History, Learning Resource Center, 900 Reserve St., Stevens Point; 715-346-2858.
Tomorrow River Concert Featuring David Stoddard, Karen Mal and Laurie McClain. Show begins at 7:30 pm; all tickets $12 each. Lettie W. Jensen Community Center, 487 N. Main St., Amherst; 715-824-5202.
APRIL 10-11 Musical Revue Assumption High School presents a Musical Revue that includes songs from The Sound of Music, Annie, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, and many more. Performers will include current students and alumni. The show starts at 7:00 pm at Assumption High School tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students under 18. Assumption High School, 445 Chestnut St., Wisconsin Rapids; 715-422-0900.
APRIL 10-12 Danstage 2015 Dancers from UWSP will perform inspiring new work by faculty choreographers Michael Estanich, Jeannie Hill, Joan Karlen and a renowned guest choreographer premiere. Show begins at 7:30 pm on Friday and Saturday, 2:00 pm on Sunday; adults $19, seniors $18, youth $14. UWSP Studio Theatre, 1800 Portage St., Stevens Point; 715-346-4429; www.uwsp. edu/theatre-dance/Pages/default.aspx. Also scheduled for April 15-18.
APRIL 11 Second City Hits Home Hilarious sketches, songs and improv about Portage County as well as material from the famed Second City archives. Show begins at 7:30 pm; tickets range from $30-$35. Call 715-498-2339 or go to cwtickets.com. Sentry’s Theater @1800, 1800 Northpoint Dr., Stevens Point.
CALENDAR // THE BIG EVENTS
Boomin’ Brewery Bash This 21-and-over event features live music with open mic, games, prizes, raffles, silent auction, exhibits, presenters, local food and grassland education in honor of the Prairie Chicken Festival; hours 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm; free admission (donations accepted). Central Waters Brewing Company, 351 Allen St., Amherst; 715-343-6215.
Spring Classes The 4th annual Spring Fun Extravaganza will be held 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at Fox Valley Technical College, Waupaca Regional Center, 1979 Godfrey Dr., in Waupaca. Take up to four classes for just $23.85, seniors age 62 and older just $22.25. Additional material fees vary by class. Fees payable to instructor at first class; class list at http://waupacamemories. com/event/spring-fun-extravaganza. For more info, call 715-942-1700.
Cardinal Crusade 2015 Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools’ 2nd annual Cardinal Crusade live auction and dinner at the Stevens Point Country Club, 1628 Country Club Rd.; 715-341-2445. Cocktails, dinner, live and silent auction, games, raffles and prizes. Doors open at 5:00 pm, dinner at 6:30 pm; $40 per person, includes dinner.
Painting Through the Eyes of Georgia O’Keeffe Expand your skills while creating your own art inspired by O’Keeffe with instructor Jane Barnard. All levels welcome; appropriate for teens and adults. Class runs from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm; $69 per person. UWSP Continuing Education, 2100 Main St., Stevens Point; 715-3463838; www.uwsp.edu/conted/artculture/ Pages/default.aspx
APRIL 12 Community Chorus and Civic Orchestra Concert The Waupaca Community Chorus and Civic Orchestra will present their 52nd concert at 2:30 pm at the Waupaca High School Performing Arts Center, E2325 King Road. $10 in advance, $12 at the door (students $4 in advance, $6 at the door). Seating is first-come, first-served.
Advanced tickets available at the Waupaca Area Chamber of Commerce and Stratton’s Drug Store.
Bad Astronomy Myths This show will debunk and tackle pseudoscience with a fun, unique approach. Doors open at 1:30 pm, show begins at 2:00 pm; free admission, no reserved seating. Parking is available in Lot X and is free on weekends. Allen F. Blocher Planetarium, UWSP Science Building, corner of Reserve and Fourth Ave., Stevens Point; 715-346-2208; http://tickets.uwsp. edu. Also April 19 and 26.
APRIL 13 Bingo at Harmony Living Refreshments served. Call to reserve a seat. Pulled pork dinner available for $3 per plate. Bingo starts at 5:00 pm. Harmony Living Center, 1801 Lilac Lane, Stevens Point; 715-343-9530.
APRIL 14 Lunch & Learn: My Family and Other Hazards Author June Melby presents her humorous, award-winning memoir about working summers at her family’s miniature golf course in Waupaca. Light lunch catered by a local restaurant. This free program is open to the public and runs from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm. Make your reservations online or by calling the library at 715258-4414. Waupaca Area Public Library, 107 Main St.; www.waupacalibrary.org.
Community Potluck Bring a dish to pass; the theme is pancake breakfast and maple syrup harvest. Dinner runs 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm; free admission. Central Rivers Farmshed, 1220 Briggs Ct., Stevens Point; 715-544-6154.
“Documenting Life Stories for Generations to Come” Presented by the UWSP Community Lecture series, associate professor Lynn Ludwig of the English department will be presenting this free lecture; appropriate for all ages. Begins at 6:30 pm. Portage County Library Pinery Room, 1001 Main St., Stevens Point; 715-346-4211.
APRIL 16 Elegant Sympathy Cards
rubber stamps, embossing folders, punches and embellishments. Bring your own adhesive. Class runs from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm or 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Registration $11 plus tax. Lighthouse Books & Gifts, 4330 8th St. S., #110, Wisconsin Rapids; www.lighthousebooksandgifts.com.
Waupaca Book Festival, April 16-18
“Spring Into Action”
APRIL 16
The 6th annual Waupaca Book Festival will include writers’ workshops, author presentations, book signings, and activities for all ages. Here are just a few highlights:
Celebrate the season of renewal by investigating the coming of spring on the trails of the Schmeeckle Reserve. Presented by McCale Carter. Events runs from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm; free admission. Schmeeckle Reserve, 2419 Northpoint Dr., Stevens Point; 715-346-4992; www.uwsp.edu/cnrap/schmeeckle/Pages/programs/calendar.aspx
Writers’ Workshop: Writing Life and Family Stories. Author Judy Bridges will help you mine the riches of the people, places and events in your life; 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. Please come fragrance-free. Judy is allergic to fragrances of all types, especially in shampoos and body products.
APRIL 17-19 Trivia 46: Guardians of the Contest
APRIL 17
The world’s largest trivia contest will take over Stevens Point beginning at 6:00 pm on Friday. Teams must register in advance, in person, at the 90FM studios; registration costs $30 per team with all proceeds supporting WWSP and staff scholarships. Teams from out of the area may register at www.90fmtrivia.org.
APRIL 17 - MAY 28 “Public Hangings” Exhibit by Marie App The Central Wisconsin Community Center in Wisconsin Rapids will feature 30 watercolor paintings by Marie App of Ogdensburg. Artist’s reception on April 17 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Hours of the CWCC (240 Johnson St., Wisconsin Rapids) are Tuesday through Thursday 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, Saturday 10:00 am to 12:00 noon. Call 715-421-4598 for more info, or email cwcc@wctc.net.
APRIL 18 Spring Swing Time Dance The Gerold Opera House 100-Year Celebration begins with this spring dance with music by The Swing Time Big Band. Dance starts at 7:00 pm; tickets are $10 adults, $5 students 17 or younger and seniors. Tickets available at www.wegaarts. org/SwingtimeConcert.html, at the Coffee Klatsch in Weyauwega or the Bookcellar in Waupaca. Full cash bar and concessions available. Gerold Opera House, 136 E. Main St., Weyauwega; 920-867-4888.
Writer’s Workshop: Unraveling the Mysteries of ePublishing. Author and ePublishing expert K.J. Klemme will explain the process of creating an e-book, sharing tools, tips, and tricks that can streamline the process; 10:00 am to 11:30 am. Writer’s Workshop: Write your Novel Like a Pro. Led by author and UW writing teacher Christine DeSmet, this interactive workshop presents the keys to writing a novel. Registration is $20, class is limited to 30 students; 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm. Author’s Reception. Come to Little Fat Gretchen’s Cafe to enjoy an author’s reception from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Tickets $10 in advance at the library or at the door. Join the presenting authors for a fun evening of desserts, coffee, and conversation. APRIL 18
Closing Concert. Come to the Chain O’ Lakes Bar and Grill (N2598 County Rd. QQ, Waupaca; 715-2584114) for music with Half Pants from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. A silent auction will raise funds for next year’s festival. For more info, visit www.facebook. com/WaupacaBookFestival or http:// polebitski.com/waupacabookfestival.org. Announced authors include Nickolas Butler, Larry Watson, Stan Tekiela, Mike Mullin, S.J. Kincaid, Derek Anderson, Bill Berry, Dean Jensen, Victoria Houston, Christine DeSmet, Jim Trainor, Judy Bridges, K.J. Klemme, Joe Niese and June Melby. To get specifics about the workshops, contact the Waupaca Area Public Library, 107 Main St.; 715-258-4414; www.waupacalibrary.org.
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CALENDAR // THE BIG EVENTS
Reeder’s Ruck March This race on an eight-mile challenge course will raise money for the Alexander H. Reeder Memorial Scholarship, named for a psychology major from Wis. Rapids who died in a motorcycle accident last spring. 10:00 am to 3:00 pm starting at the Square in downtown Stevens Point and following a loop of the Green Circle Trail. The march is open to 200 contestants who will wear a 35-pound ruck sack as they complete the course. For more info, go to http://reedersruck.eventbrite.com.
“The Power of Nature” Take a stroll along the Schmeeckle Reserve’s Trail of Reflections. Presented by Samantha Herrick, the program runs from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm; free admission. Schmeeckle Reserve, 2419 Northpoint Dr., Stevens Point; 715-346-4992; www. uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/schmeeckle/Pages/programs/ calendar.aspx.
APRIL 18-19 “By the People, For the People” by CWSO Dr. Patrick Miles and the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra will present their final concert of the season on Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 4:00 pm. Honoring the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and veterans of all wars. Tickets $27 adults, $22 seniors, $12 for students. Order tickets through the UWSP Info & Ticket office at 800-838-3378 or visit http://cwso.org/tickets. For more info, visit www.cwso.org.
APRIL 19 Festival of the Arts One of the first art festivals of the season for Midwest artists. Hours are 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the UWSP Carlsten Art Gallery in the Noel Fine Arts Center, Portage St., Stevens Point; 715-346-2917; www.uwsp.edu/cofac/foa/Pages/default.aspx. Free admission. See our story on page 4.
APRIL 20 “Psychiatric Interventions After Mass Disasters” This program, presented by the Winchester Academy, will be led by Frederick Stoddard, M.D., Chief of Psychiatry at Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston. Doors open at 6:00 pm; program begins at 6:30 pm. Free admission and handicapped L14 | SceneNewspaper.com | April 2015
accessible. Programs last about an hour with questions after. Waupaca Area Public Library, 107 Main St.; 715-258-4414; www.waupacalibrary.org.
APRIL 22 Earth Day Frog Walk Get a jump start on spring by joining us on a stroll through the Moses Creek wetland. Presented by Carly Swatek; 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm; free admission. Dress for the weather, and park and meet at the Wood Lane entrance on the eastern edge of the reserve. Schmeeckle Reserve, 2419 Northpoint Dr., Stevens Point; 715-3464992; www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/schmeeckle/ Pages/programs/calendar.aspx
APRIL 22-25 SPARTA Book Sale Presented by the Stevens Point Area Retired Teachers’ Assn. (SPARTA). Weds. 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm; Thurs.-Fri. 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, Sat. 9:00 am to 1:00 pm; free admission. Jackson School, 1900 W. Zinda Dr., Stevens Point; 715-344-2598.
APRIL 23 How to Deal With Clutter Join Pamela K. Hertel to discuss the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that trap us into holding onto clutter; 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm; free. Call Melissa Madlena to register at 715-346-1824. Harmony of Stevens Point, 1800 Bluebell Lane, Stevens Point; 715-346-1824.
APRIL 24 Electronics Recycling Items accepted at no cost: computers, servers, laptops, gaming systems, speaker systems, office phones, cell phones, tablets, PDAs, keyboards, mice, cords, printers, copiers, radios, treadmills, microwaves and stoves; $10 each for CRT computer monitors, $20 each for freon appliances and televisions (LCD TVs and monitors are free). Open 10:30 am to 1:00 pm. For more info, call 715-258-4405 or 715-2587343. Kmart parking lot, 830 W. Fulton St., Waupaca; www.waupacaareachamber. org/event/electronics-recycling-event.
Story Time at the Natural History Museum Reading Ants in Your Pants, Worms in Your Plants by Diane deGroat. 10:30 am to 11:30 am; free. Email museum@uwsp.
edu to register. UWSP Museum of Natural History, Learning Resource Center, 900 Reserve St., Stevens Point; 715-346-2858; www.uwsp.edu/cols-ap/museum/Pages/ default.aspx
APRIL 25 Planting 101 Makerspace Prepare the soil and plant your seeds. All supplies will be provided, as well as guidance if needed. Free for all ages; stop in any time between 10:00 am to 1:30 pm. No registration is necessary. Waupaca Area Public Library, 107 Main St.; 715-2584414; www.waupacalibrary.org.
2015 Community Leadership Celebration Honoring Rick Flugaur, Pat Hilpert and Don Peters. From 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm; tickets $65 each. For more info, visit http:// ministryhealth.org/SMH/SaintMichaelsFoundation.nws or call 715-343-3259. Stevens Point Country Club, 1628 Country Club Rd., Stevens Point; 715-343-3259.
APRIL 25-26 Monteverdi Chorale’s“Out of Many, One” Combining music from various cultures in new ways. Performances are 7:30 pm on Sat., 3:00 pm on Sun.; 715-342-5636 or www.monteverdichorale.org for ticket info. St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 600 Wilshire Blvd., Stevens Point.
APRIL 26 Carlsten Art Gallery Reception for BFAs
APRIL 27 “Audubon and the Birds of America” Program Presented by Brett Barker, a professor of History at UW–Marathon and an avid bird watcher. Doors open at 6:00 pm; program begins at 6:30 pm. Free and handicapped accessible. Programs last about an hour, with questions after. Waupaca Area Public Library, 107 Main St.; 715-258-4414; www.waupacalibrary.org.
MAY 1 Spring Candlelight Hike Walk a half-mile or one mile along the torch-lit path through the woods and along the lake. Arrive and leave when you like between 7:00 pm and 9:30 pm; donation of $2 per person or $5 per family appreciated. Schmeeckle Reserve, 2419 Northpoint Dr., Stevens Point; 715-3464992; www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/schmeeckle/ Pages/programs/candlelight.aspx
MAY 1-3 UWSP Theater Dept. presents Antigone UWSP Jenkins Theatre, 1800 Portage Street, Stevens Point; 715-346-4429. Performances 7:30 pm on Frid. and Sat., 2:00 pm on Sunday; admission $19 adults, $18 seniors, $14 youth. For more info, visit www.uwsp.edu/theatre-dance/Pages/ default.aspx
MAY 2 RMC 5K Run/Walk
Reception from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm; free. UWSP Carlsten Art Gallery, Noel Fine Arts Center, Portage St., Stevens Point; 715-346-4797; www.uwsp.edu/art-design/ Pages/Exhibitions/carlsten.aspx
The one-mile walk/run race begins at 9:00 am ($10 registration); the 5K begins at 10:00 am ($15). Pre-registration is available online only at www.tandhtiming.com. Prizes awarded for best individual costume and best team costumes. Old Riverside School, 950 Park Ave., Waupaca.
APRIL 26 - MAY 1 Waupaca Fine Arts Show
Annual AIRO Pow-Wow
The 52nd annual art show featuring art by professionals, non-professionals and students with judging and prizes. Waupaca Expo Center, 187 Grand Seasons Drive. Sun. 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm; Mon.-Thurs. 10:00 am to 7:00 pm; Fri. 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Entry forms available at www. fineartsfestival.org.
Native American Pow-Wow with fun for the entire family. Dozens of singers and hundreds of dancers from area tribes are expected, and a meal for participants and spectators will be served. Grand entries 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm, meal at 5:00 pm; $4 admission, $3 for students with ID. UWSP Berg Gym, 2015 Fourth Ave., Stevens Point; 715-346-3576.
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