AltWeekly Award-winner Best Cover Design, 2015
From stream to stage Comedian Jen
Kirkman talks about her Netflix special and stand-up tour. page 31 August 27, 2015 | Vol. 6 No. 20
Hungry for food that embodies values pages 9-11
4 Undoing gerrymandering Wisconsin’s GOP is fighting a lawsuit seeking to overturn its partisan redistricting of the state following the 2010 census.
34 APT examines evil The line between heroism and villainy is razor-thin in the company’s production of ‘Othello.’ 6 Cleaning up a bad deal Activists want Dane County to revoke a permit for a pipeline project backed by the GOP.
38 An artist’s studio as art itself Madison’s Natasha Nicholson recreates her personal workspace at MMoCA.
2
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
News with a twist The cat’s meow
Trump’s image appears in tub of butter
A Wildwood, Missouri, woman is said to have nearly lost her lunch when she opened a new tub of Earth Origins Organic Spread and saw the image of Donald Trump staring back at her. “I needed to put on my glasses to make sure it was him,” Jan Castellano, 63, told The Huffington Post. Castellano briefly considered selling the butter tub on eBay and donating the proceeds to Hillary Clinton. But hunger won out over politics, and Trump’s face ended up on her breakfast toast.
The mayor in St. Paul, Minnesota, threw out a ceremonial ball of yarn to mark the opening of an annual festival for cat videos that drew thousands of feline fanatics to a city stadium. Mayor Chris Coleman said 13,000 people were at CHS Field for the Internet Cat Video Festival. Videos played on the stadium’s large scoreboard as people watched from the stands and blankets in the outfield. Selections included clips of a cat startling a bear and a scene from Jurassic Park edited to include giant cats.
Papal pale ale
Cape May Brewing Co. in Cape May, New Jersey, has concocted a special beverage for when Pope Francis visits the United States in September. The brewery is producing 500 gallons of YOPO — You Only Pope Once — a hoppy pale ale available only on draft. A CMB sales rep said the ale
| August 27, 2015
WiGWAG pairs well with Argentinean beef.
Worse than bedbugs?
A Days Inn employee said her boss instructed her to flip a mattress rather than replace it after she reported a guest died in the bed. The revelation was part of a racial discrimination lawsuit filed July 30 by a dozen former African-American employees against a Tampa, Florida, Days Inn franchisee. They accuse Jamil Kassim of using racial slurs against them and firing them because of their race. The employees also say they were told to ignore health and safety policies and to clean up blood, vomit and other hazardous fluids.
walking down the aisle
A vow renewal ceremony for high-wire daredevil Nik Wallenda and his wife Erendira was featured on the TLC show Say Yes to
the Dress. When the couple originally married, income limited them to a simple courthouse ceremony. Since then, Wallenda’s become famous for televised skywalks across Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon and Chicago skyscrapers. He’s now rich enough to have a lavish wedding, which he did in January at a museum in Sarasota, Florida. In August, Wallenda completed his longest tightrope walk — 1,576 feet — during an appearance at the Wisconsin State Fair.
By Lisa Neff and Louis Weisberg dingy white tank tops?
Miracles of nature
University of Wisconsin students are returning to campus for the fall term, but don’t think researchers took the summer off. A bulletin arrived from UWMadison in mid-August under the headline, “More details on origin of favorite beer-making microbe.” Genetics scientist and yeast expert Chris Hittinger has led a team that says the crucial genetic mashup that spawned the yeast that brews the vast majority of beer occurred at least Tournament twice. And both times withof rednecks An event that was known out human help, despite as the Redneck Olympics what those 15th-century before the Olympics threat- Bavarian monks may have ened legal action took place claimed. in Maine earlier this summer. “Athletes” competed High on in a greased watermelon his own selfie haul, tossed toilet seats, Police say a 25-year-old bobbed for pigs feet, and man was arrested after he held a tug-of-war in a mud climbed a 10-story conpit. They also had an event struction crane in downcalled a “wife haul.” Hmm. town Madison and took a Were they uniformed in selfie. The man was arrest-
ed for criminal trespass on a construction site.
Creepy real estate
A Pennsylvania couple is looking to sell the threestory Victorian that was used as the home of psychotic killer Buffalo Bill in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs. The basement dungeon where the killer kept one would-be victim, however, doesn’t exist. Those scenes were shot on a soundstage. Still, agent Dianne Wilk is hopeful someone will pay $300,000 for the home. “People love to be scared. I could see somebody doing something fun with this,” she said.
Making headlines
Sometimes the headline tells the story. And here’s one from The Associated Press bureau in North Carolina: “Man in ax-wielding clown case turns himself in.”
VAN GOGH to POllOck MOderN rebels
Masterworks froM the albright-knox art gallery
Vincent van Gogh, La Maison de la Crau (The Old Mill), 1888 (detail). Collection of Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. Bequest of A. Conger Goodyear, 1966.
This exhibition was initiated by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, and was organized by Albright-Knox Chief Curator Emeritus Douglas Dreishpoon. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
clOsiNG sePt 20
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
SEPTEMBER 9 • T URNER
JEN KIRKMAN SEPTEMBER 9 PABST LOWER LEVEL
BÉLA FLECK & ABIGAIL WASHBURN SEPTEMBER 10 • T URNER
WISHBONE ASH SEPTEMBER 11 • RIVERSIDE
PENN & TELLER SEPTEMBER 11 • T URNER
MONDO LUCHA SEPTEMBER 12 • RIVERSIDE
MYSTIC INDIA
SEPTEMBER 14 • T URNER
DESAPARECIDOS
SEPTEMBER 27 • T URNER
HEARTLESS BASTARDS
SEPTEMBER 29 • PABST
BRANDI CARLILE SEPTEMBER 29 • T URNER
THE GROWLERS
OCTOBER 1 • TURNER
DAVID ALLAN COE OCTOBER 2 • TURNER
BLUES TRAVELER OCTOBER 3 • PABST
LAST COMIC STANDING LIVE OCTOBER 4 • TURNER
U2ZOO * TALLYMOORE
COUNTRY IN THE CITY
KELSEA BALLERINI, MICHAEL RAY, BELLA CAIN
THE DISTRICTS OCTOBER 6 • TURNER
BLITZEN TRAPPER OCTOBER 8 • TURNER
STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW LIVE
SEPTEMBER 19 • T URNER
BEYOND THE BLUES & BARBECUE SEPTEMBER 19 • RIVERSIDE
HANNIBAL BURESS SEPTEMBER 20 • PABST
ST. LOUIS JESUITS
JOHN HIATT
NOVEMBER 5 • T URNER
AND
OCTOBER 9 • TURNER
FM102/1 PRESENTS
ADLER’S FALL COMEDY CLASSIC WITH
THE SKLAR BROTHERS,
NIKKI GLASER & BRODY STEVENS
YOUTH LAGOON OCTOBER 20 • PABST
ZOLTÁN MÁGA OCTOBER 21 • PABST
MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER OCTOBER 21 • TURNER
MELANIE MARTINEZ
OCTOBER 23 • PABST
ARLO GUTHRIE OCTOBER 23, 24 & 25 RIVERSIDE
WIDESPREAD PANIC 3 NIGHTS! OCTOBER 25 • TURNER
IN THE VALLEY BELOW OCTOBER 27 • TURNER
LANGHORNE SLIM & THE LAW OCTOBER 27 • PABST
MATISYAHU
OCTOBER 9 • RIVERSIDE
SEPTEMBER 20 • T URNER
CALEXICO
SEPTEMBER 21 • PABST
RUSSELL PETERS
OCTOBER 27 • RIVERSIDE
OCTOBER 9 & 10 • PABST
2 SHOWS!
SEPTEMBER 23 • T URNER
CRISS ANGEL PRESENTS THE SUPERNATURALISTS
BEN RECTOR
3 NIGHTS!
SEPTEMBER 25 • T URNER
OCTOBER 10 • RIVERSIDE
BEACH HOUSE
FUNK VOLUME 2015 TOUR
WITH HOPSIN, DIZZY WRIGHT, JARREN BENTON, DJ HOPPA AND MORE SEPTEMBER 25 • PABST
RALPHIE MAY SEPTEMBER 26 • PABST
METROPOLITAN OPERA RISING STARS CONCERT SERIES
LITTLE BIG TOWN
BILL BURR
OCTOBER 28 • RIVERSIDE
OCTOBER 15 • TURNER
LETTUCE
OCTOBER 15 • PABST
LUCINDA WILLIAMS OCTOBER 16 • PABST
DENNIS DEYOUNG THE MUSIC OF ST Y X
OCTOBER 16 • RIVERSIDE
THE STING CHEESE INCIDENT
JJ GREY AND MOFRO NOVEMBER 6 • PABST
MAC D E MARCO NOVEMBER 9 • T URNER
JOSEPH FINK & JEFFREY CR ANOR
NOVEMBER 10 • PABST
PETER YARROW & NOEL PAUL STOOKEY OF PETER PAUL AND MARY NOVEMBER 11 • T URNER
THE SUBDUDES RING OF HONOR WRESTLING NOVEMBER 14 • RIVERSIDE
JACKSON BROWNE
JIM GAFFIGAN 3 SHOWS!
JANUARY 22 • RIVERSIDE
THE TENORS
DORIAN GRAY 2 WEEKENDS!
MARCH 5 • PABST
K ATHLEEN MADIGAN 2 SHOWS!
STEVE EARLE AND THE DUKES NOVEMBER 20 • T URNER
EL VY
FEAT.
MATT BERNINGER (THE NATIONAL) &
THE PRINCE EXPERIENCE
NOVEMBER 29 • T URNER
UMPHREY’S MCGEE
DECEMBER 5 • RIVERSIDE
THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE
2 SHOWS!
DECEMBER 29, 30 & 31 • PABST
GUSTER
LOUIS PRIMA JR. & THE WITNESSES
FAB FOUR
CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE
NOVEMBER 19 • T URNER
OCTOBER 29, 30 & 31 RIVERSIDE
OCTOBER 30 • PABST
DECEMBER 20 • T URNER
NOVEMBER 14 • PABST
NOVEMBER 28 • T URNER
3 SHOWS!
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS FEAT. THE MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
FEBRUARY 12 - 21 • PABST NOVEMBER 13 • T URNER
OCTOBER 28 • TURNER
HALLOWEEN RUN 2015
DECEMBER 11 • RIVERSIDE
CELTIC WOMAN
DECEMBER 26 & 27 • RIVERSIDE
WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE
LIVE ON STAGE
HOUNDMOUTH
DECEMBER 11 • T URNER
MEN OF THE STRIP
NOVEMBER 10 • T URNER
(R AMONA FALLS, MENOMENA)
OCTOBER 29 • TURNER
THIS CHRISTMAS
THE DIGITOUR SLAYBELLS
BRENT KNOPF
MISTERWIVES
MICHAEL MCDONALD
THE CHARLATANS
ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS
OCTOBER 14 • PABST
MELISSA ETHERIDGE
COLIN HAY
NOVEMBER 6 • T URNER
OCTOBER 22 • TURNER
LUCERO
DECEMBER 8 • RIVERSIDE
NOVEMBER 4 • PABST
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
OCTOBER 20 • TURNER
OCTOBER 5 • TURNER
SEPTEMBER 19 CATHEDR AL SQUARE
OCTOBER 18 • PABST
NOVEMBER 3 • RIVERSIDE
AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN LIVE
LYLE LOVETT
AND BAND
SEPTEMBER 17 • T URNER
TASTE OF IRELAND
& HIS ALL STARR BAND
THE LONE BELLOW
CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD
MAINSTAGE
RINGO STARR
SEPTEMBER 30 • RIVERSIDE
SEPTEMBER 16 • T URNER
THE MOTH
OCTOBER 17 • RIVERSIDE
OCTOBER 19 • TURNER
MARK KNOPFLER
3
| August 27, 2015
JEFF FOXWORTHY AND LARRY THE CABLE GUY 2 SHOWS! DECEMBER 7 • RIVERSIDE
HEART
OCTOBER 26 COLECTIVO COFFEE
MADISEN WARD AND THE MAMA BEAR NOVEMBER 6 COLECTIVO COFFEE
NELS CLINE STAINED RADIANCE WITH NORTON WISDOM NOVEMBER 14 COLECTIVO COFFEE
RISK! LIVE PODCAST NOVEMBER 20 COLECTIVO COFFEE
ANDREA GIBSON
4
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
GOP fights challenge to gerrymandered Assembly map By Lisa Neff Staff writer
The Wisconsin Department of Justice wants a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the redistricting map drawn by lawmakers to the benefit of the GOP. Meanwhile, a grassroots petition drive aimed at revamping the redistricting process is getting attention in the state. The petition circulating on the Web by the nonpartisan group Common Cause Wisconsin calls on lawmakers to remove politics from redistricting decisions. Every 10 years, state legislatures redraw the boundaries of state and federal political districts based on the results of a new U.S. Census. The intent is to reflect changes in population and ensure fair representation — one person, one vote. But in many states, like Wisconsin, lawmakers draw the districts in a way that favors their parties. There now are several skirmishes over redistricting maps drawn and adopted after the 2010 census, including in: • Florida, where a court ruled that the Florida Legislature violated a pair of 2010 state constitutional amendments banning partisan redistricting. The Florida House adopted a map on Aug. 18 that contained changes for all 27 of the state’s congressional districts.
• Virginia, where a federal court will redraw the state’s congressional districts after it became clear that lawmakers would fail to reach agreement on redistricting by a court-mandated Sept. 1 deadline. • North Carolina, where legislators are working on a redo of the state’s congressional map under court order. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, a federal lawsuit filed earlier this summer challenges the 2010 state Assembly map, alleging the map benefits Republicans and the boundary lines were drawn in secret, at the offices of a law firm hired by GOP leaders. The 30-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Madison on behalf of 12 Democrats, alleges the map is “one of the worst gerrymanders in modern American history.” The Democrats argue that gerrymandering is unconstitutional and profoundly undemocratic. The complaint seeks a review by a panel of three judges that could put the dispute on a fast track to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is headed by Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel, filed a motion to dismiss the challenge in mid-August. The state argues: • Plaintiffs do not have standing unless they live in a gerrymandered district.
• No standard exists for measuring the impact of a gerrymander on the right to legislative representation. However, a report from Common Cause Wisconsin suggests an obvious measurement — election results. In the first election after redistricting, Republicans won 60 of 99 Assembly seats but Democrats won a majority of the statewide votes cast in Assembly races. Also, a CCW report released earlier this summer shows that Wisconsin state legislative races in 2014 were far less competitive than those in 2010. Only 10.3 percent of winning candidates defeated their opponents by less than 10 percent in 2014. Four years earlier, before the new map was drawn, about 23.3 percent of races were within 10 points. While the legal fight over the current map continues in federal court, CCW is encouraging lawmakers to pass legislation that would create a nonpartisan process for redrawing boundaries. Common Cause is a nonprofit dedicated to good government and accountability. CCW encourages Wisconsin voters to support the nonpartisan redistricting effort via a petition. “As Wisconsinites, voters and constituents, we call on you to reform Wisconsin’s current partisan redistricting system,” the
petition states. “We look to you, our elected representatives, to bring competition back to Wisconsin’s elections, ensuring that voters have a real choice at the polls, by removing politics from — and restoring transparency to — a process that has become far too partisan, secretive and expensive.” The petitioners propose a process similar to one that Iowa implemented in 1981, in which legislative boundaries are drawn by a nonpartisan state agency. The goal for Wisconsin would be to establish such a process in time for redistricting after the 2020 U.S. Census. Common Cause and other good-government groups are pushing reform in other states, including Ohio, where voters on Nov. 3 will decide a ballot initiative intended to reduce partisanship in redistricting. In November 2016, Illinois voters could consider a constitutional amendment to create a citizens commission to draw legislative districts. In Indiana, a newly created legislative commission is studying redistricting options. Reform efforts also are underway in Minnesota, where gridlock over redistricting has resulted in court-drawn maps for decades.
Same-sex couples sue for equal parenting rights By Lisa Neff Staff writer
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this summer cleared the way for marriage equality across the United States, but a lot of antigay rubbish still litters legislative statutes and bureaucratic regulations. Same-sex couples in some locales continue to fight for marriage licenses, despite the high court’s ruling. And in some states, married gay couples continue quests for equal treatment as parents, as well as equal treatment in the workplace, health care, education and accommodations. Fifteen years ago, Mississippi lawmakers banned same-sex couples from adopting children and taking children into foster care. The law, staunchly supported by
Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, is the only one of its kind in the United States. In early August, four lesbian couples went to federal court and sued Mississippi to overturn the ban. “The Mississippi adoption ban is an outdated relic of a time when courts and legislatures believed that it was somehow OK to discriminate against gay people simply because they are gay,” the lawsuit states. Meanwhile, two lesbian couples are suing the state of Florida, which refuses to acknowledge same-sex couples as parents on birth certificates. “Attorney General Pam Bondi could have avoided yet another costly lawsuit by directing all state agencies to simply comply with the law,” said Nadine Smith,
executive director of Equality Florida, a statewide LGBT advocacy group. Bondi maintained her defense of Florida’s anti-gay ban on same-sex marriage long after it was clear state and federal judges considered the ban unconstitutional, and she continues to sanction state discrimination against married gay couples. “Birth certificates are the first official document that represent a newborn baby’s family,” Smith said. “Having an inaccurate birth certificate hinders parents’ ability to take care of their child and access important legal benefits and protections.” Larry Dupuis, legal director for the ACLU of Wisconsin, said continued vigilance is needed, even after the high court’s ruling. “There is still a lot of educating and a lot of
litigating to do,” he said. In Wisconsin, there apparently haven’t been complaints that the state refuses to recognize same-sex couples on birth certificates. Wisconsin also has recognized that same-sex couples have the same right as different-sex couples to adopt children. “Since the Wolf decision was affirmed, the state has taken the position that samesex couples can adopt on the same terms as different-sex couples, and there’s no longer a prohibition on adoption,” Dupuis said, referring to the ACLU of Wisconsin’s federal case that secured marriage equality in the state. “Before Wolf, the secondparent adoption had not been allowed in Wisconsin. So that was a big change.”
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
5
| August 27, 2015
Reject taxpayer subsidies for Bucks ‘entertainment’ mall Opinion Virginia Small The bill that provides state funding for the Milwaukee Bucks arena also gives the team owners the right to build arena “public plazas,” which would be used to generate revenue exclusively for the team. The city proposes spending $20 million to create these misnomered “public spaces” to enrich the Bucks, not to serve public interests. They would help expand a Bucks-controlled entertainment monopoly, as mandated by the NBA. According to State Bill 209, Section 229.46, “The professional basketball team or its affiliate shall be entitled to receive all revenues related to the operation or use of the sports and entertainment arena facilities, including, but not limited to, ticket revenues, licensing or user fees, sponsorship revenues,
revenues generated from events that are held on the plaza that is part of the sports and entertainment arena facilities, revenues from the sale of food, beverages, merchandise, and parking, and revenues from naming rights.” Among the alarming implications of this clause is that no festival or market could be held on these plazas by any vendors except the Bucks or their affiliates. “Free” concerts and other events would be hosted solely to increase revenue streams for the Bucks. The now-public spaces to be co-opted are Fourth Street between Highland and Juneau and the city-owned Fourth Street garage. The city would hand over the well-kept garage to the Bucks, pay to raze it and forgo nearly $1 million a year in parking revenue. Then the city would pay $35 million to build a new garage and split the income with the Bucks. (At first, the Bucks
You can help prevent this from happening by lobbying officials
or email mayor@milwaukee.gov. In addition, you can attend the public before the final vote is taken, possibly hearings in Room 301-B of City Hall, 200 E. Wells St. Citizens will be allowed as soon as Sept. 22. Contact your alderpersons at 414- to speak briefly. The schedule is: 4 p.m. Aug. 31: The comptroller’s 286-2221. You also can call Mayor Tom Barrett’s office at 414-286-2200 report on subsidy costs and other
demanded all income.) This proposal really creates a third tier in our beleaguered park system. In addition to different calibers of parks for haves and have-nots, we are starting to have privately controlled public spaces. Who in fact owns and controls these pseudo-public parks? The state, county and city are already giving 30 now-public acres to the hedge-fund moguls who own the Bucks. Thus far, no government entity has mandated the creation of anything to benefit taxpayers in return — nor has public input been sought. “BucksTown Plaza” will have nothing in common with Chicago’s Millennium Park, where people are free
Proud Founding Member of LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
to carry in food and drinks and enjoy a wide range of free programming for all ages, 365 days a year. Brave New World Fourth Street will serve other gods. The Common Council can hold the line on how many more public assets taxpayers will hand over to the Bucks. Instead of these extravagant giveaways, alderpersons can reject this proposal and push to start over and renegotiate a better deal. They can support only the arena and not the pseudo-public spaces, which will house strip-mall chain restaurants. That will only help to destroy downtown Milwaukee’s unique charm and compete unfairly with nearby local businesses.
5th Generation
Starts Now!
Sale Ends Mon. Sept. 7th at 6pm.
SMALL SCALE
LOW PRICE GUARANTEE!
2 29(5 %8,/7 $1'
81'(5 35,&('
©BRF
5430 W. Layton Ave. Greeneld, WI 53220
414-238-2020
BiltRiteFurniture.com Weekdays 10-8 | Sat 10-5 | Sun 11-5 SPECIAL HOURS:
SATURDAYS 10 am - 6 pm LABOR DAY MONDAY, SEPT. 7TH 10 am - 6 pm
What to tell city officials:
1. Do not tear down the city-owned Fourth Street garage and forego nearly $1 million a year in revenue by giving the site to Bucks’ owners for their privately owned “entertainment” mall. If we don’t tear down the garage, we won’t need to build a replacement two blocks away at a cost of $35 million. 2. Do not accept the 50-50 split in revenue from the proposed new garage after paying 100 percent of its building costs. 3. Do not give the Bucks public assistance to oversaturate the local tavern market. The Bucks mall would siphon business from about 60 restaurants and bars near the arena, especially on Old World Third and Water streets. 4. Do not hand over for free the 1-acre Sydney Hih lot, appraised for $1 million, to Bucks owners to do with as they please. Instead, sell it for full market price to a developer with an immediate, viable plan. 5. Reject this mall plan and so-called public plazas designed to exclusively generate revenue for Bucks owners. Designate that city subsidies support only arena construction. — Virginia Small
SALE
Jordan
SPECIAL
ORDER
OPTIONS
information will be presented. 9 a.m. Sept. 15: The Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee will consider the proposal. 9 a.m. Sept 16: The Finance and Personnel Committee meets.
EVEN ON SPECIAL ORDERS!
Real Discounts Up to $350* Plus
Up to 48 Months
Special Financing** Best Design-ItYour-Way Program! ENDLESS OPTIONS!
Made in North Carolina Since 1963
Custom Design Your Upholstered Furniture as Easy as 1, 2, 3. Choose from 504 Designs! 75” - 85” - 95” Sofas Pick Your Arm, Leg, & Back Style 20” - 22” - 24” Seat Depths HEAVY DUTY: 8-Way Hand-Tied Coil Spring Base Over 900 Colors & Fabrics
* Real Discounts not valid on Tempur-Pedic, icomfort, and iseries. Items marked “As Advertised,” “Final Price” or “Includes All Discounts” already include the discount. ** Special Financing: Subject to credit approval on 6 months minimum purchases of $399 or more with minimum monthly payments required. 24 months minimum purchases of $999 or more or 48 months minimum purchases of $1999 with monthly payments required. Financing offers apply only to single-receipt qualifying purchases. Prior purchases and clearance items are excluded. 50% deposit required on special orders. Sales tax and delivery charge collected at time of purchase. Cannot be combined with any other offer, discount, coupon or balance. See store for details. Ends Monday, September 7, 2015.
6
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Dane Co. challenges spill-prone oil company By Lisa Neff Staff writer
Environmental activists huddled up after the state’s Republican leadership ran a sneak attack this summer and cleared the way for a Canadian company to massively expand the pumping of tar sands crude oil through Wisconsin. In the huddle, activists with the grassroots group 350 Madison came up with a new strategy to address Enbridge Energy’s drive to expand the pumping of tar sands oil over environmentally sensitive waterways and agricultural lands. On Aug. 10, 350 Madison filed a petition with the Dane County Zoning and Land Regulation Committee asking the board to rescind a conditional-use permit for Enbridge’s pipeline pumping station near Medina. The petition also asks the board to require that Enbridge establish a trust fund to ensure money is available to clean up any oil spills. The proposal caught the attention of some on the county committee who loudly disapproved when Republican legislators dropped a provision into the 2015–17 state budget intended to give Enbridge a full go-ahead for its Line 61 project. The GOP’s state budget amendment nullified Dane County’s requirement that Enbridge carry cleanup insurance and gave Enbridge authority to seize land through eminent domain.
On Aug. 12, Dane County Supervisor Mary Kolar, a member of the zoning committee, asked staff to put 350 Madison’s request and any other options on a meeting agenda — and to do so quickly.
Line 61
Line 61 is a 42-inch diameter pipeline built in 2009 and part of a network of Enbridge pipelines across North America. The line carries Alberta tar sands oil — some of the dirtiest oil in the world — from a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, to a terminal in Pontiac, Illinois, or through a network of pipelines that delivers oil to the Gulf Coast. Enbridge wants to expand the capacity of Line 61 threefold and move 1.2 million barrels of crude per day — that’s more oil than would course through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. To expand Line 61’s capacity, the company needs to build new pumping stations and modify existing pumping stations. Under Gov. Scott Walker’s administration and a GOP majority in both legislative chambers, only Dane County and its activist community have challenged Enbridge. Authorities in Dane County cannot by federal law take action to prevent a spill, but they were advised they could act to ensure a cleanup. In April, after about a year of discussion and debate, the Dane County zoning com-
mittee attached a requirement to a conditional-use permit for a non-conforming pumping station on farmland. The committee said Enbridge needed $25 million in liability insurance to cover costs associated with cleaning up an oil spill.
Record of spills
Spills are not hypothetical with Enbridge, which is responsible for more than 800 spills since 1999. In Wisconsin, pipeline ruptures in 2007 spilled about 29,000 gallons of crude oil onto a farm in Clark County and about 176,000 gallons of oil onto a farm in Rusk County. In 2009, a rupture spilled about 1,200 barrels of oil on a farm in Grand Marsh. The worst Enbridge spill was the 2010 spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. About 843,000 gallons of tar sands oil flowed into a creek and then the river, making the Kalamazoo disaster the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history. The spill revealed the destructiveness of tar sands oil. Tar sands ore, mined from deforested land in Canada, must be mixed with chemicals to move through a pipeline. This makes the crude more acidic and leads to more ruptures and spills, according to the Sierra Club. In Michigan, when the tar sands crude spilled and was exposed to air, toxic gases forced the evacuation of more than 300 homes and a thick, heavy tar gunk sank to
the river bottom. The cleanup on the Kalamazoo, which environmentalists and the EPA say still is incomplete, has cost more than $1.2 billion — an amount well over the cap on Enbridge’s liability insurance. Yet this summer, Wisconsin lawmakers, in adopting an amended biennial budget, removed Dane County’s authority to impose the insurance mandate. The proEnbridge rider was approved and reached Walker with no legislator admitting to authorizing the provision. “That amendment barred counties from imposing insurance requirements intended to remediate oil leaks, apparently in the belief that taxpayers, not the derelict company responsible, should have to pick up the sometimes billion-dollar cleanup tabs,” said 350 Madison activist Peter Anderson. Anderson said it’s ironic 350 Madison’s proposal — the trust fund requirement — could prove more costly for the energy company than the insurance mandate nullified by Enbridge’s unidentified allies in the GOP. “By spreading risk over a pool, the cost of insurance would be nominal to Enbridge, so long as its representations are true that it operates safely,” Anderson said. “Trust funds, the only viable remaining option, unfortunately will cost Enbridge 20 times more.”
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
NEWS Analysis
Taxpayer cost for Walker’s breach of contract with trainmaker rises to $50M By Louis Weisberg Staff writer
were not built to meet federal specifications, because they were paid for by the state, according to MBJ. “We are hopeful we will find a state that is actually open to doing business and actually honors their contracts,” Friend told the publication.
Wisconsin taxpayers are on the hook for a modernizing rail transportation project Scott Walker nixed when he took office as governor, breaking a contract that ex-Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration entered into with the Spanish trainmaker Talgo. Under terms of a settlement made Politics over people recently in a lawsuit that Talgo filed against Walker’s critics say the rejection of fedthe state, Wisconsin will pay $9.7 million eral money and the subsequent loss of to Talgo in addition to the $42 million it’s jobs and high-speed rail was the first in a already paid the company. The total bill series of destructive economic decisions taxpayers must pay for trains the state the governor made. never received or used is $50 million. Walker’s public argument at the time Talgo had originally sued the state for was that the project would eventually cost nearly $66 million. the state millions in maintenance fees. Doyle and the state’s then-Democratic But advocates for the project claimed Legislature agreed in 2009 to purchase it was potentially a vital economic develtwo new train sets from Talgo. They were opment engine that would create jobs to be used for Amtrak’s and spur new business growth popular Hiawatha line Walker’s been along the rail line, as it has in between Milwaukee other regions that have modand Chicago, as well criticized for taking ernized rail. as for a high-speed rail In light of the Talgo deal, project between Mil- federal funds for critics charged Walker with waukee and Madison. road construction hypocrisy when he sought to In addition to agreeborrow more than $1.3 billion ing to purchase the while turning for new highway projects in the trains, the state had 2015–17 biennial budget. At the entered into a 20-year down dollars for time, Walker argued that the maintenance agree- other forms of road construction would help ment to service the create jobs. That’s something trains, a deal to pro- transportation. Walker has said the governvide a maintenance ment should not be in the busifacility and an option ness of doing. to purchase two additional train sets. Walker also has been criticized for sayThe deal fell victim to politics, as the ing yes to the considerable federal funds new governor sought to burnish his cre- that the state receives for road construcdentials as an “anti-big government” con- tion while turning down funds for other servative. The rail project was tied to $810 forms of transportation. He enjoys major million in federal stimulus money to help financial support from roadbuilders and pay for it, but Walker rejected the federal donors whose wealth is tied to the fosfunding, depicting it as part of a scheme to sil fuel industry, leading to accusations foster state dependency on Washington. that his transportation decisions are being Still, Talgo continued building the train made on their behalf rather than that of sets that the state had agreed to pur- the state’s residents. chase. In January 2012, Talgo notified the Some of the highway projects Walker state they were ready for delivery, but the supports were found to be unnecessary, Wisconsin Department of Transportation according to an independent audit of trafrefused to accept them. In November 2012, fic flow patterns commissioned by 1000 Talgo canceled its purchase contract with Friends of Wisconsin. the state. A court decision earlier this year denied According to the settlement, Talgo will federal funds for a project to widen Hightry to sell the two train sets it built for way 23 due to faulty traffic-flow projecWisconsin to another buyer. If successful, tions from WisDOT. In response, the the train manufacturer will give 30 percent Republican-led Legislature included an of the sale price to Wisconsin. item in the budget requiring WisDOT to But Nora Friend, the company’s vice reevaluate and justify its methods of traffic president of public affairs and business projections. development, told Milwaukee Business Walker vetoed that item, which watchJournal that it would be difficult to find a dog groups said could have saved Wisconbuyer. Part of the problem is that the trains sin taxpayers billions of dollars.
| August 27, 2015
7
8
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Cream City Foundation
Business equality Luncheon September 24, 2015 11:15 AM – 1:30 PM | Potawatomi Hotel & Casino Celebrating and promoting LGBT inclusive workplaces
Keynote SpeaKer
Brian J. King Global Officer, Marriott International Wisconsin native and visibly out executive, Brian will share his insights on “The Marriott Way: Diversity, Inclusion & Hospitality.” King is a distinguished speaker and panelist and has been a featured contributor for USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine.
TICKeTs sTarT aT $75
Tables and sponsorships also available. Contact elupella@CreamCityFoundation. org for more information. regiSter today
2015BusinessLunch.Eventbrite.com or call 414.225.0244 preSenting SponSor
Start a Team.
We’re here to help.
Help End Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s disease – the nation’s sixth-leading cause of death – is destroying our families, our finances and our future. But you can do something to stop it. Register for the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s® and lead the way to a world without Alzheimer’s. Henry Maier Festival Park | Sunday, September 20 | 8:30 a.m. Registration – 10:00 a.m. Walk Milwaukee-area Professionals: The End of Alzheimer’s Starts With Your Company. Milwaukee’s annual Walk to End Start a team at alz.org/walk. Register. Walk. All are welcome. Alzheimer’s is the 15th largest in the country — and with your help, we can make it even bigger! Start by forming a company team, and help us raise awareness and money to advance the fight against this deadly epidemic. The Milwaukee Walk to End Alzheimer’s will be held at Henry Maier Festival Park, Sunday, Sept. 20. 8:30 a.m. registration, 10 a.m. walk. Form your team today!
alz.org/walk or 414.479.8800
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
9
| August 27, 2015
Wisconsin is a leader in creating a culture in which food reflects values
P h o t o : A u d r e y Aw e l l
Farmers learn about growing cover crops on an organic vegetable farm at a MOSES Organic Field Day near Viroqua.
By Louis Weisberg Staff writer
Twenty-one years ago, David Kozlowski and his wife Sandra Raduenz were working in dependable corporate jobs with retirement benefits. But the couple — Raduenz in particular — longed for a more meaningful life. “She went to a conference where they talked about community supported agriculture and she came back and said, ‘I know what I want to be,’” Kozlowski said. The two purchased a 21-acre farm in Oak Creek, about 20 minutes from downtown Milwaukee. They continued to work at their regular jobs for several years as they gradually built Pinehold Gardens into an organic food enterprise that brought in enough so they could get by on income from the land alone. “It sounds kind of hokey but I really did want to make the world a better place, and this seemed like the way to do it … even though we gave up a lot to do it,” Kozlowski said. At the time they began farming, the swerve in their career paths was considered odd — more like a premise for a TV sitcom than something responsible adults actually do. But the two were on the cutting edge of a cultural phenomenon that is beginning to change the relationship between Americans and their food. While organic farms — many of them are small local farms — represent only about 1 percent of all food sales, the industry is growing so rapidly that Big Ag, in collusion with corporatists such as the Koch brothers, has launched a
propaganda war against them. Big Ag is right to be worried: Organic food sales are growing at double-digit rates, compared with 4–5 percent growth for traditional and industrial farms. Pinehold Gardens has been successful for mostly a two-person operation. Recently Kozlowski, 60, hired two parttimer workers. The farm also benefits from its 180 member families — people who join the farm each year either for a fee or by providing labor. In return, they receive a box of vegetables weekly for 18 to 24 weeks, depending on the length and success of the growing season. Such arrangements are known as community supported agriculture. “We think there’s a lot of benefits to both farmers and consumers vis-a-vis CSAs,” said Anne Alonzo, who leads the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service. “Farmers can distribute their products during the hours that work for them and they receive payment for the products early in the season, which helps the farms’ economic planning. And this gives consumers access to … a wide variety of fresh, local food.”
Food and values
“People sign up because they want to get their food locally and find out who’s growing it,” Kozlowski said. “They want their food grown organically and they want the sense of belonging to a community. It’s almost like being part of a religious community.”
The Insurance Office
PERSONAL, LOcAL SERVicE!
AUTO • HOME • RENTERS - LOWEST RATES FOR EVERYONE! We shop over 40 A-rated carriers. Call us today for a quote! (414)
302-0101
www.theinsuranceoffice.org • 8831 W Greenfield Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53214
theinsuranceoffice@ymail.com
Kozlowski’s allusion to religious overtones is not an exaggeration. At a recent meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago, Ion Vasi, an associate professor at the University of Iowa’s Department of Sociology, presented a report that came to essentially the same conclusion. Vasi and his researchers found that more Americans than ever are shopping at farmers markets, and they’re also joining food co-ops in record numbers. These shoppers want fresh food untainted with GMOs, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. They also want something much more profound, Vasi found: to feel a part of
something greater than themselves, part of a community that shares their passion for a healthy lifestyle and a sustainable environment. “It’s about valuing the relationship with the farmers and people who produce the food and believing that how they produce the food aligns with your personal values,” Vasi said in a news statement. Locavores — people who support the local, largely organic food movement — also believe they’re performing a civic duty, an act to preserve their local economy against the threats of globalization and big-box stores, Vasi said. “It’s not just about the economical FOOD next page
10 FOOD from prior page exchange; it’s a relational and ideological exchange as well,” he said. The UI study concluded that the local food market is what sociologists call a “moralized market” — a market in which people combine economic activities with their social values.
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
Locavores bond with farmers at weekend open-air markets and, increasingly, visits to local farms. “All the farms we know open their gates to the community either all the time or at certain times of the year,” Kozlowski said. Pinehold Gardens has a market stand where people can buy produce on the farm. Business at the stand has doubled in
| August 27, 2015
the past two years, Kozlowski said. He and other farmers also serve dinners on their farms. Local chiefs are invited to prepare the meals, using only ingredients raised on the farm or at farms nearby. Kozlowski is doing two dinners this year, each for 100 people. The first, a fundraiser for Milwaukee Public Television, sold out in one day — the second in three days. “You have to wonder why people would want to eat food outside when they could go to a nice restaurant,” Kozlowski said, “but it’s a very popular concept. They must want a connection with the farm, otherwise it defies reason.”
Wisconsin at forefront
P h oto : M e l i ssa K l e i n
David Kozlowski on a tractor, munching a carrot as he works. Kozlowski gave up a mainstream career to become a part of the local organic food movement.
Like Kozlowski and Radeunz, the state of Wisconsin was a so-called “early adopter” of the local organic food movement. The state has the largest organic dairy co-op in the world, Organic Valley, as well as the nation’s largest producer-only (no resale) farmers market — Dane County Farmers Market in Madison. The state has the eighth largest number of farmers markets in the nation, which says something heartening about Wisconsin: Among their findings, UI researchers discovered that local food markets are more likely to develop in areas where residents have a strong commitment to civic participation, health and the environment. Nationwide, the number of farmers markets registered with the USDA grew from about 3,700 in 2004 to 8,268 in 2014. In Wisconsin, the number of markets grew from 170 to 295 during that time. Wisconsin also hosts North America’s largest organic farming conference in La Crosse every year. The Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, better known as MOSES, puts on the conference. When Kozlowski first attended, it was only a few years old and attracted about 200 people, most of whom he described as “back-to-lander hippies.” This year, more than 3,500 people attended, representing all generations, races, ethnicities, religions, cultures, sexual orientations and
gender identities, said MOSES communication director Audrey Alwell. “The movement has support from such a broad base because people are fed up with what they’re being fed,” Alwell said. Kozlowski said it’s uplifting to see so many young people at recent conferences. He wants the movement he’s been part of developing to take root here and all over the world. “It’s a mind-blower to go to the conference that used to be full of old hippie wannabes and see all the young folks using their smartphones and texting each other — even when they’re sitting at the same table,” he said. “I’m tickled pink.” Alwell said it made her day when she read a Facebook post by a young farmer who won a scholarship to attend the conference: “I’m going to the mother ship,” he bragged. Like Kozlowski, she wants more and more farmers to continue adopting the high standards required for USDA certification as an organic farm. Those include waiting for three years before planting to get toxins out of the soil — an expensive proposition. The government provides assistance to organic farmers, but the first phase inevitably involves financial sacrifice. Farming without pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, which are made partly from fossil fuels, also is more costly. So is buying seeds that don’t contain GMOs and leaving natural buffers around the farms to support local wildlife while preventing contamination from nearby farms. Although expensive to achieve, the environmental sustainability of organically grown foods is the primary draw for young people. Organic farmers feel so strongly about the rightness of their industry that there’s an emerging trend of farmers putting aside a portion of their earnings for research and promotion, Alwell said. Small farmers in the state are assisted in marketing their products by the Wisconsin FOOD next page
Great product and personable service. America’s Best Warranty 10-Year/100,000-Mile Powertrain Limited Warranty
2015 Hyundai Sonata......... Why Wouldn't you want This? There are no other cars on the market that can say all this: Consumer Reports Recommended Pick Edmunds.com Top Rated Sedan U.S. News Best Midsize Car For The Money IIHS Top Safety Pick Cars.com #1 Midsize Sedan USA Today #1 Midsize Sedan Motorweek #1 Midsize Sedan Largest Interior Room Americana's Best Warranty Finalist North American Car of The Year 2015 Hyundai Sonata.........Why Wouldn't you want This?
Ask For Gary Prestidge Sales Consultant Direct: 414-292-1821 Cell: 414-840-6176 us.gary@yahoo.com.sg www.tricityhyundai.com 6133 S, 27th Street Greenfield, WI 53221
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
FOOD from prior page Food Hub Cooperative, which is working to establish a unique brand identity for the state’s organic industry.
Co-ops
The market for organic food now outstrips demand, according to several industry sources. Despite that and despite the greater expense of farming organically, consumer prices actually are coming down, due to growing competition and everimproving farming techniques. “About two or three years ago there was a bubble, where the prices started to change,” said Shelly McClone, inventory coordinator for Milwaukee’s Riverwest Co-op Grocery and Café. Better pricing and all the buzz about the health benefits of eating organic have compelled mainstream supermarkets to add organic aisles that are growing in popularity with conventional shoppers. Even though supermarkets are trying to cash in on the trend, co-ops remain a primary avenue connecting consumers with local food producers. Because co-ops are nearly synonymous with the organic food scene, customers get a sense of connection with the movement by shopping at them. For some people with back-to-theland longings, co-ops and farmers markets are the closest they can get to interacting with the land, Kozlowski said. McClone purchases from many urban farms and tries to remain within a 100-mile
radius in sourcing products. When she does have to go outside the area to buy items such as avocados and bananas, she only does business with organic farmers. Whenever possible, she also purchases food from nonprofits such as Milwaukee’s Walnut Way. The University of Wisconsin-Extension in Waukesha offers a master gardener program that is helping to turn out new local farmers all the time, McClone added.
Pushback
Despite its 99-percent market advantage over organic farmers, Big Ag is showing signs of feeling threatened. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting published an article last summer documenting a growing anti-organic food narrative that’s appearing in the media. But the
| August 27, 2015
article also reported its discovery that “the anti-organic narrative did not arise organically.” The authors connected the dots between the naysayers quoted in the articles and front groups for Big Ag as well as researchers who’ve received funding directly from industrial farm and chemical interests. The writers of the articles either ignored or didn’t know about meta studies and peer-reviewed research that conclusively contradict their criticisms. The anti-organic writers also go out of their way to ridicule the local organic food movement. An article in the New York Post quoted a source who talked about the growing phenomenon of the “organic mommy mafia” — crazy mothers who buy organic food for their children and shame moms who don’t. The source was the
11 director of the Culture of Alarmism Project at the Independent Women’s Forum. It turned out that’s a right-wing foundation funded by corporatists such as the Koch brothers, who own Koch Ag & Energy Solutions. Biotechnology and chemical companies have a lot to lose from the ascension of organic foods. Although the anti-organic spin machine is likely to ramp up, it doesn’t appear to be affecting people in Wisconsin. Kozlowski said he’s seeing new faces at his farm stand that are unlike the ones he saw in the past. “They’re not the urban, progressive, Birkenstock-wearing people,” he said. “They’re the people who usually shop at the big grocery stores. They’re coming out here, and they’re coming out again. That’s a good sign.” P h oto : Co u rt e sy P i n e h o l d G a r d e n s
Mingling before an on-farm dinner.
12
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
regional news Waukesha’s quest to divert Lake Michigan water under review
P H O T O : C o u r t e s y M L B . com
BOLD BREWER: Helena Brewers baseball player David Denson came out as gay in mid-August and made pro sports history. “Talking with my teammates, they gave me the confidence I needed, coming out to them,” Denson said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which broke the story. “They said, ‘You’re still our teammate. You’re still our brother. We kind of had an idea, but your sexuality has nothing to do with your ability. You’re still a ballplayer at the end of the day. We don’t treat you any different. We’ve got your back.’” The Helena team is a minor league affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.
A proposal from the city of Waukesha to divert water from Lake Michigan drew proponents and opponents to a series of public hearings held in Waukesha, Milwaukee and Racine in mid-August. Waukesha says diverting water from the lake is the only alternative to the radiumlaced water in its aquifer system. The federal government has ordered the city to provide safe drinking water to residents by 2018. Environmental groups opposed to the proposal, which has preliminary approval from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, say technological tools exist to improve Waukesha’s water.
Wisconsin vets call on Johnson to return campaign money
Wisconsin veterans earlier in August called on U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to return a $5,400 campaign donation from a California corporate executive said to have manipulated national and international law to charge military servicemembers exorbitant rates for phone calls to family members. Gregorio Galicot, president of BBG Communications, Inc., racked up profits by
“fleecing” U.S. troops and charging up to $400 for phone calls from overseas, according to the veterans in a letter to the Republican senator. Galicot’s practices drew national headlines in 2012 and were widely condemned after a class-action lawsuit was brought.
Group wants criminal charges at MINN. hog farm
An animal welfare group called on prosecutors to file criminal charges against workers and managers at a Minnesota hog farm, saying its undercover investigation documented 36 specific violations of the state’s animal cruelty laws — backed up by graphic video evidence. Los Angeles-based Last Chance for Animals made the call as it released a fiveminute video from footage shot over four months this spring at a Christensen Farms breeding facility in the southwestern Minnesota city of Luverne. Christensen Farms is one of the country’s largest pork producers.
regional NLRB director in Chicago who said the football players are effectively school employees and entitled to organize. • GYROS OF EQUALITY: U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin visited Gracie’s Gyros and Wraps in La Crosse to show her support for the restaurant’s stance on gay marriage. Owner Despina Kozidis came under fire from a customer when she posted a picture on her Facebook page with a rainbow filter. A customer who saw the picture messaged her that he would no longer eat at her restaurant. Kozidis replied, “That’s great! We prefer to have accepting … co-existing consumers.” After seeing the post, local gay resident Michael Shaw organized the Spread Love and Good Food event, which brought hundreds of patrons to the eatery. — from WiG and AP reports
WALKER WATCH
Researcher trying to re-establish mayflies in Green Bay
Walker’s chief steps down
In other regional news …
Walker flip-flops for 3rd time
A Milwaukee-based researcher is trying to re-establish mayflies in the bay of Green Bay, where the insect was historically plentiful but has dwindled due to industrial pollution. Efforts to clean the bay and river have caused water quality to improve greatly, despite an ongoing dead zone caused by phosphorus runoff. The flies have played a crucial role in the health of the bay and have served as a major protein source for walleye and other fish. Restoring the insects could cause the bay to once again become a world-class fishery and boost the local economy. Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Republican leadership is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to block a proposed federal rule to prevent the degradation of water quality.
• CIVIL RIGHTS CASE: The family of a biracial man who was shot and killed by a Madison police officer filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, alleging the officer’s actions were unconstitutional. The lawsuit contends that Officer Matt Kenny’s decision to shoot 19-year-old Tony Robinson Jr. in March violated Robinson’s equal protection rights and right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures. It also argues that the city enables such misconduct by failing to adequately train, supervise and control its officers. • FROM FIELD TO COURT: The National Labor Relations Board in mid-August threw out the historic ruling that gave Northwestern University football players the go-ahead to form the nation’s first college athletes’ union. The decision dismissed a March 2014 decision by a
Gov. Scott Walker’s longtime chief of staff Eric Schutt is stepping down. Schutt is leaving “to pursue other opportunities and to spend more time with family,” Walker’s office said in a statement. It did not say what those opportunities are. The move comes at a time when Walker’s presidential campaign is suffering from plummeting poll numbers, a weak performance in the first GOP presidential debate and growing national awareness of his scandals and economic failures as governor. A recent Marquette University Law School poll found Walker losing to Hillary Clinton among Wisconsin voters in a theoretical matchup. The poll also showed Walker’s favorability rating among Wisconsin voters in the falling below 40 percent for the first time. Scott Walker has changed his position on birthright citizenship three times since Donald Trump raised it as a campaign issue. “Birthright citizenship” refers to automatic citizenship for children who are born on U.S. soil, as guaranteed under the Constitution. Walker told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos he would not seek to overturn the 14th amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, as Trump would. But during a an interview on CNBC two days prior, Walker insisted he had no position on the issue. That statement came after Walker gave mixed answers on the issue a week earlier, including a statement that the U.S. should “absolutely” end birthright citizenship. — from AP and WiG reports
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
Community BRIEFS Wisconsin LGBT Chamber named ‘Chamber of the Year’
The Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce was named 2015 Chamber of the Year on Aug. 13 at the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce 2015 International Business & Leadership Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Last year, the chamber received the Rising Star Chamber Award. NGLCC recognized the chamber as a role model. Along with the award came a $5,000 grant funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation to expand capacity and offer technical assistance to the chamber’s Lunch & Learn Series, which fosters the development, growth and sustainability of certified LGBT business enterprises. “Our organization began in 2011 as a young LGBT professionals-networking organization and we soon discovered the tremendous need for LGBT business owners to connect and support an inclusive business climate in Wisconsin,” said executive director Jason Rae. “We’ve exceeded our own expectations in less than three years and we couldn’t have done so without the passionate work of our members and corporate partners. This recognition is an extreme honor for our organization.”
In other community news ... • TO THE POINT: Walker’s Point Center for the Arts’ new executive director is Ana Melo. She grew up in the Walker’s Point neighborhood and has strong ties to the community. She is a bilingual community leader passionate about the arts, youth engagement and nonprofit sustainability, according to a news release. “I’m honored to serve such a prestigious organization and a community near and dear to my heart,” she said. “My vision is to continue to build upon the strong
presence of the organization and to create new partnerships that align with our mission in bringing arts to youth, families and artists in the neighborhood of Walker’s Point and throughout the city of Milwaukee.” • PADDLERS TO PROTEST OIL TRAINS: Milwaukee Riverkeeper and Citizens for Railroad Safety-Milwaukee Area will host “Convergence at the Confluence” at 3 p.m. on Sept. 13. Organizers said paddlers — in kayaks or canoes or on paddleboards — will meet at the confluence of the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers by the railroad bridge in Walker’s Point to “show concern about crude oil trains. … Oil and water don’t mix.” For more, search for “convergence at the confluence” on Facebook. • ARTS AWARDS: Arts Wisconsin is reviewing nominations for the seventh annual Arts in the Community awards. The honors are presented by Arts Wisconsin in partnership with the League of Wisconsin Municipalities to recognize communities and civic leaders that champion the arts as integral to economic, educational and community vitality. Award winners will be selected by a panel and recognized in October. • VISITING DOCTOR: Cuban physician and gay activist Dr. Alberto Roque Guerra appears at 7 p.m. on Sept. 2, at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, 1110 N. Market St., to talk about his success in developing a medical program of comprehensive treatment for transgender people in the island nation. — WiG Send announcements for WiG’s community bulletin board to lmneff@wisconsingazette.com.
| August 27, 2015
13
An exceptional opportunity for a proven media sales professional The Wisconsin Gazette is seeking a successful account executive to cultivate and maintain clients for a progressive, award-winning alternative biweekly publication with distribution sites throughout southeastern Wisconsin and Madison. Candidates should be experienced in all stages of developing and maintaining effective advertising programs that include print, digital and social marketing components.
Duties include: • Researching clients and markets • Cold-calling targeted prospects • Making effective presentations to individuals and groups • Collaborating with copywriters and designers on creative development • Developing multi-platform marketing programs to enhance branding effectiveness
Skills include: • Proven ability to attract new clients and close sales • Proven track record in media marketing and sales • Outgoing and enthusiastic • Team player
Benefits: • Base salary and generous commission structure • Paid holidays and vacation • Health insurance To apply, send letter and resume to Mark Richards at mrichards@wisconsingazette.com. No phone calls, please.
Know your status. Get tested! Free HIV and STD testing at 6pm on Monday and Tuesday nights. No appointment needed.
BESTD C·L·I·N·I·C
1240 E. Brady Street www.bestd.org @BESTDClinic
Join Milwaukee’s most awarded alternative publication and benefit from our rapid growth. Wisconsin Gazette is a highly respected member of Wisconsin’s journalism community — a member of The Associated Press cooperative, the Milwaukee Press Club and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. We believe in and adhere to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics.
14 Please recirculate & recycle this publication.
P r o g r e s s i v e . A lt e r n at i v e . The Wisconsin Gazette is published every other week and distributed throughout the Milwaukee area, Madison, Racine, Kenosha, and 40 other cities statewide. To have WiG delivered to your address, contact circulation@wisconsingazette.com or call 414961-3240, ext. 101. WiG Publishing, LLC. © 2015 3956 N. Murray Ave. Shorewood, WI 53211
CEO/Principal Leonard Sobczak lsobczak@wisconsingazette.com publisher/Editor in Chief Louis Weisberg lweisberg@wisconsingazette.com Senior Editor Lisa Neff, lmneff@wisconsingazette.com ARTS EDITOR Matthew Reddin mreddin@wisconsingazette.com Business development Manager Mark Richards mrichards@wisconsingazette.com Business manager/ Production coordinator Kaity Weisensel kweisensel@wisconsingazette.com Graphic Designers Eric Van Egeren, Maureen M. Kane COPY EDITOR Stephen DeLeers
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
E ditorial
Standing in solidarity with Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin recently selected the Wisconsin Gazette as recipient of the group’s Voices award. No honor we’ve received makes us prouder than this one, particularly now. Despite the unrelenting campaigns of propaganda, PPWI’s 22 clinics provide quality, affordable reproductive health care, including honest sex education, birth control, adoption referrals, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and STD testing and treatment to 60,000 women and men. That’s even after being forced to shutter five clinics because Gov. Scott Walker cut off state funding for the organization. But anti-choice activists have demonized Planned Parenthood in recent years, whipping up the level of hysteria that accompanied Joe McCarthy’s red scare of the 1950s. And conservative politicians are capitalizing on it, just as they did on McCarthyism. Although abortion represents only about 3 percent of PP’s services, that’s enough for anti-choice fanatics to put a bullseye on its doors. Foes have whittled away at women’s reproductive freedom for decades, but abortion is still legal and its legality is supported by a majority of U.S. citizens. It’s also a deeply personal choice that can only be made by a woman whose body and future are involved. Women are not human incubators. We fully respect the countless women who choose to carry a pregnancy to term under adverse circumstances, including conception through rape or incest. But it’s their right to make that choice, not the right of a bureaucrat. Individual liberty and the pursuit of happiness cannot exist if strangers can force a woman to bear a child against her will. The current frenzy against abortion is the result of years of brilliant propaganda by anti-choice leaders. Their heart-tugging campaigns of deception featuring fully formed thimblesized fetuses and bloody, disembodied parts of infants are complete fabrications. Recently it was revealed that activists were using the picture of a stillborn baby in their propaganda and claiming it was an aborted fetus. A recent “sting” operation added fuel to PP’s critics. Selectively edited tapes that were secretly recorded by activists
SALES information sales@wisconsingazette.com or call 414.961.3240 Account executives Kim Jackson, kjackson@wisconsingazette.com Logan McDermott, lmcdermott@wisconsingazette.com Laurie Verrier, lverrier@wisconsingazette.com Larry Zamba, lzamba@wisconsingazette.com Circulation circulation@wisconsingazette.com Distribution Paul Anderson, Andy Augustyn, Thomas Now, Heather Shefbuch, Robert Wright CONTRIBUTORS Colton Dunham, Jamakaya, Bill Lamb, Kat Minerath, Mike Muckian, Jay Rath, Kirstin Roble, Anne Siegel, Gregg Shapiro, Virginia Small, Julie Steinbach, Larry Zamba
| August 27, 2015
WiG’s WEB PICKS Some of our favorite recent pictorials from cyberspace
made it appear as if PP was doing a booming business in selling fetal tissue to medical researchers. But investigations launched by conservatives in several states have yielded no evidence of wrongdoing. Fetal tissue, which can be donated by women to science just as people can donate their organs, has yielded medical advances that have saved lives — including those, undoubtedly, of anti-choice activists. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., under Walker’s direction, made a $750,000 loan and gave $2 million in tax credits to Flu-Gen, a Madison biotech firm that’s using kidney cells derived from fetal tissue to create a more effective flu vaccine. Biotech companies like Flu-Gen not only save lives, but also contribute significantly contributors to the state’s economy. But now, capitalizing on the fury over PP, state Republican leaders want to criminalize the sale of fetal tissue. Activists have turned the debate about abortion from a women’s issue into one over the “personhood” of fertilized eggs and fetuses. That’s not a scientific view, but rather a religious belief that has no place in the secular world. When a 10-year-old girl in Paraguay got pregnant after being raped by her stepfather, the government there ruled for the rights of her fetus over hers, forcing her to carry the baby to term at great risk to her health. The baby was delivered through C-section, because a natural delivery would have killed her. Mike Huckabee praised the decision. He and most of the other Republican candidates, including Walker, want to criminalize abortions under any circumstances, including those in which the mother’s life is in danger. Bizarrely, Walker denies that such situations exist. More than ever, we need organizations that cherish women’s lives over embryonic cells. PP is at the forefront of such organizations. Its doctors and staffers work under constant harassment, including death threats that have led to at least nine murders in recent years. They refuse to yield to fanatics who believe that women’s bodies are public property. We are proud to stand with them and the essential health services they provide. Unlike Walker, they are truly unintimidated.
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
ON THE RECORD “I am not intimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there.” — SCOTT WALKER responding to dozens of protesters who interrupted his speech at the Iowa State Fair with boos and chants of “liar.” “It is simply not fair, or honorable, to ask black Mississippians to attend schools, compete in athletic events, work in the public sector, serve in the National Guard, and go about their normal lives with a state flag that glorifies a war fought to keep their ancestors enslaved.” — JIMMY BUFFETT, JOHN GRISHAM, MORGAN FREEMAN, ARCHIE MANNING and other famous current and former Mississippi residents in a letter titled “A Flag for All of Us.” The letter asked the state to remove the Confederate battle emblem from its flag. “We’re going to keep coming back. We’re going to fight this to the very end.” — KAREN ROBERTS, who along with her female partner of 11 years was denied a marriage license by a county clerk in Kentucky. The clerk, who cited her religious beliefs as justification, has been married four times. “Every night I light a candle that he stays in the race until Sept. 8. But I also hope that nobody gets that candle too close to his hair.” — STEPHEN COLBERT expressing hope that Donald Trump is still in the presidential race when he begins hosting the Late Show. “At first I couldn’t even say, ‘I’m gay’ in my head, let alone out loud.” — KEEGAN HIRST, captain of the U.K.’s Batley Bulldogs rugby team, coming out in an interview with the Daily Mirror. Hirst is the first working professional rugby player to come out. “This is definitely not what the Guesthouse Inn represents. The group will not be at our hotel, nor will they ever be at our hotel.” — MICHELLE JAMESON, director of the Guesthouse Inn in Nashville, Tennessee, telling the Tennessean that she had canceled reservations made by the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group that had planned to hold a conference at the hotel. Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof cited the group as his inspiration. “If he’s smart, he will get back to basics and get back to what he did in Wisconsin (and) get off the social issues. No one is asking him to change the morals of America.” — STANLEY S. HUBBARD, a billionaire Minnesota broadcasting tycoon who’s donated to Scott Walker’s campaign, expressing disappointment over the governor’s promotion of a far-right social agenda. “It wasn’t just about unions. It wasn’t about collective bargaining. It wasn’t just about pensions and health care contributions. Those were all part of it. It was really about education reform.” — SCOTT WALKER spinning Act 10 at the New Hampshire Education Summit, where six Republican presidential contenders answered questions about K-12 public education.
15
| August 27, 2015
Steps to LGBT progress in Milwaukee Opinion 30 YEARS AGO
JAMAKAYA
40 YEARS AGO
In 1975, the Gay People’s Union established a gay and lesbian community center in a flat on Milwaukee’s East Side. Called The Farwell Center, it played host to community meetings and housed the GPU VD Examination Center, which later became the Brady East STD (BESTD) Clinic. The Farwell Center location is currently occupied by Bronze Optical, a gay-owned business. Milwaukee’s lesbian community was turning on to women’s music and culture in 1975. The publication Amazon lists concerts by national artists such as Margie Adam, Cris Williamson, Casse Culver and the Berkeley Women’s Music Collective. Women organized carpools to the National Women’s Music Festival. Natural Woman, a monthly event at the Women’s Coalition, showcased local women poets, singers and visual artists.
In 1985, the Milwaukee AIDS Project began its first full year of providing services to people with HIV/ AIDS. The project evolved into the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, which coordinated a more comprehensive response to AIDS. The Gay and Lesbian Community at UW-Milwaukee held a Gay Awareness Week in March 1985 that included appearances by Vito Russo, author of The Celluloid Closet; the lesbian comic Robin Tyler; and the singing duo Romanovsky and Phillips. In April, the Cream City Business Association gave its “Torch Bearer” Award to Gov. Tony Earl for his contributions to the community’s well being. Gov. Earl’s Council on Lesbian and Gay Issues documented anti-gay bias and worked to secure compliance with the state law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
20 YEARS AGO
In 1995, PrideFest successfully negotiated a lease with World Festivals, Inc., for use of Henry Maier Festival Park as the site of its 1996 festival. In June, PrideFest drew 32,822 to its 20th anniversary. The Milwaukee LGBT community made other steps toward recognition in 1995. City Hall hosted the opening reception of The Advocate magazine’s Long Road to Freedom exhibit on gay and lesbian history. The Milwaukee County Commission on Aging launched its first study of the needs of gay and lesbian seniors. LGBT 12-Step groups marked a decade of existence at a conference called “Commitment ’95,” and Milwaukee groups were featured on an episode of the PBS series In the Life. The show included a funny bit with the Lesbian Alliance softball team singing the theme to Laverne and Shirley.
10 YEARS AGO
In August 2005, the MPD’s vice division shut down a touring production of Naked Boys Singing! at the Gay Arts Center. The cops swooped in after a complaint about the show’s “immoral” content. Police questioned whether the center was a licensed theater. Given the MPD’s long history of harassing gays, activists saw the police action as censorship and selective law enforcement. The ACLU of Wisconsin won a $20,000 settlement for the Arts Center from the city in 2010. It was determined that the Arts Center, as a non-profit, was not required to have a theater license. Ironically, the MPD had initiated a new slate of diversity training for officers and command staff in 2005. The training was overseen by an openly gay captain named Mary Hoerig. A 24-year veteran of the MPD, Hoerig now holds the rank of inspector.
Military’s massive use of fossil fuels must end
Opinion Lenore M. Hitchler
The military produces massive volumes of greenhouse gases. In fact, the Pentagon is the largest single consumer of oil on the planet. According to the 2008 CIA World Fact Book, only 35 countries consume more oil per day than the Pentagon. Bloomberg Business reports that the Pentagon spent $17 billion on petroleum in fiscal 2011. Examples of fuel usage and carbon emission statistics of various vehicles and aircraft illuminate exactly how the military consumes so much petroleum. The U.S. Air Force uses a quarter of the world’s jet fuel. According to Global Fire Power, in 2014 the United States military had a total of 8,848 tanks that get 0.2 miles per gallon and use
252 gallons of fuel each hour. The Army has at least 1,800 of them, and the tanks require a fleet of 2,000 support trucks. Cougar Armored Fighting Vehicles get around 9 miles per gallon. The Buffalo Mine Protected Vehicles get around 3.5 miles per gallon. According to Business Insider, the U.S. military has approximately 13,000 aircraft. Apache helicopters get 0.5 miles per gallon. F4 Phantom fighter jets use over 1,500 gallons per hour. The Air Force’s M15 uses 25 gallons per minute. B-52 Stratocruisers use 3,334 gallons per hour, and produce 200,000 pounds per hour of CO2 equivalent. They require in-air refueling by KC-10 Extender Aircraft, which consume 2,050 gallons per hour and emit 120,000 pounds of CO2 equivalent each hour. The USS Independence Aircraft Carrier uses 5,600 gallons
per hour and emits 112,000 tons of CO2 per hour. These examples represent only a sample of all the vehicles and aircraft used by the military. At the height of the Iraq war, the U.S. military used a million gallons of fuel each day. Oil Change International reported that the Iraq war produced at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. If the war was ranked as a country in terms of carbon emissions, it would have emitted more CO2 each year than the annual emissions of 139 nations. To be sure, many people feel that the security of the United States depends on a strong military, and therefore use of huge amounts of fossil fuel is justified. However, all of the vast military hardware available does not seem effective in fighting 21st-century wars. Modern warfare involves surprise attacks by guer-
rilla-type enemy forces, which is different from more traditional warfare. In other words, all of the vastly superior U.S. military force does not deter enemy combatants. Some enlightened members of the military see the need for alternate methods of providing energy. However, we do not have time to wait for a gradual change from the Pentagon. The ethical response is to mandate that the military quickly curtail its use of fossil fuels to help prevent catastrophic climate disruption. Instead of exacerbating the problem, the Pentagon must face up to the fact that climate change is one of the gravest security issues facing the world. Lenore M. Hitchler, of Stevens Point, is a member of Citizens Climate Lobby and 350.org.
16
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Mark Pocan: ‘a diamond in the congressional rough’ Profile Louis Weisberg
In November 2012, Tammy Baldwin made international headlines when she became the first out lesbian ever elected to the U.S. Senate. She was also the first woman ever elected to that chamber from Wisconsin. U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, made history that year, too. A longtime friend of Baldwin, he won her former congressional district, becoming the first out candidate to succeed another out officeholder in Congress. Pocan also became the first member of Congress to gain an official spousal ID for a same-sex spouse — his husband Phil Frank. The two married in Toronto in 2006. It took persistence and pulling some strings for Pocan to get House Speaker John Boehner to bestow the recognition. Pocan’s success in obtaining it demonstrates two fundamentals about his brand of leadership: He never backs down when it comes to his beliefs, and he works strategically, rather than showily, to promote them. Congress’ spousal recognition of Pocan and Frank has greater implications than might be immediately apparent, said David
Stacy, the Human Rights Campaign’s government affairs director. “I went over there (to the Capitol) the day Mark was sworn in, and it was great to see Phil was right there by his side and his colleagues were looking on,” Stacy said. “Mark having Phil by his side, and it being just like other spouses, makes members who are anti-LGBT have to deal with same-sex spouses on an equal basis. Ultimately that changes attitudes, because it’s something they’re dealing with in their everyday lives.” HRC is working with members of Congress to pass the Equality Act, which would update civil rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The law would give LGBT people a tool to legally combat discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and other areas. Stacy said Pocan, co-chair of Congress’ LGBT Equality Caucus, and the five other out members of the House — along with Baldwin in the Senate — will be the most effective lobbyists on the bill’s behalf. They can speak directly to their colleagues on the measure’s significance to their lives. Pocan is especially effective at the oneon-one level, according to Stacy. “Mark is one of the best people I can think of to have those conversations,” he explained. “He’s friendly, accessible, nonthreatening. He’ll help (other representa-
The Mount Mary University Alumnae Association presents:
Sunday, September 13, 2015 | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Mount Mary University Campus | 2900 N. Menomonee River Parkway | Milwaukee
200+ Artists Presenting Pieces for $100 or Less
Artist: Nick Bowers
$10 Entry Fee with FREE Parking | Children under 12 FREE Thank You for Supporting Student Scholarships!
TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE:
https://mmusas.eventbrite.com
mtmary.edu/SAS Not valid for entry
tives) work through any issues they have.” Pocan, who recently celebrated his 51st birthday, applies an LGBT perspective to a variety of issues. For instance, he circulated a letter seeking to remove Brunei from a free-trade agreement due to that country’s death penalty for LGBT people. One hundred and nineteen members of Congress signed the letter.
Progressive Caucus
Equality is but one item on a long list of progressive causes that Pocan has pushed forward with determination throughout his political career, which includes 14 years in the Wisconsin Assembly. He’s stood up forcefully for including raising the minimum wage, offering debt-free college, putting an end to fracking, building a trust fund for infrastructure projects and raising taxes on people earning over $1 million per year. His strong work ethic, political skills and experience grabbed the attention of Democratic leadership from his first days in Washington. As a congressional freshman, Pocan was named a member of the powerful House Committee on Education and the Workforce — a plum assignment usually reserved for more senior representatives. Just one year into his second term, he was named first vice chair of the Progressive Caucus, the Democratic Party’s largest values-based congressional caucus. He’s also a senior whip and has frequent meetings with cabinet secretaries. During a visit to Milwaukee earlier this year, Pocan told WiG that despite rightwing control over Congress, the caucus’ power and influence are growing. “This year the progressive caucus’ budget got more votes than ever,” he said. And some key items in the progressive budget have been adopted by the administration’s proposed budget. The Progressive Caucus call for debtfree college is now being promoted by the
campaigns of both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. “We can put ideas out there that an become reality later,” Pocan said. “You just have to have the patience and the perseverance.” Thanks to the fundraising strength of fellow caucus members such as his friend Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, and Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, Pocan expects the caucus to raise two to three times what it did last session. The caucus “works side by side with labor, environmental, union and other groups,” Pocan said. When measures are blocked in Congress by Republican leadership, the caucus works through the executive branch. Pocan said the caucus was involved in President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration, as well as the one that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors. “That’s 22 to 24 percent of the economy,” Pocan said, grinning. “In a vacuum, we have to have some way of doing something. We’re being strategic and realizing that there’s not a single way to get things done.” Pocan noted that, despite the political right’s screams of presidential overreach and tyranny, as of the end of Congress’ last session, Obama had issued fewer executive orders than any president in the past 100 years. Their successes aside, Democrats and progressives performed disastrously in last year’s elections. Pocan blames the losses on Democrats running away from the president and the party’s failed messaging about the economy. Those two factors helped push the nationwide turnout down to 36 percent. Low turnouts always favor Republicans. Pocan said the election proved once again that “Republicans can succinctly put their message. We need to be able to packPOCAN next page
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
17
| August 27, 2015
POCAN from prior page age our ideas better. There’s awareness around that coming out of the last election cycle.”
Bipartisanship
For 12 of the 14 years Pocan was in the Wisconsin Assembly, he served in the minority. For half of those years, he served on the Joint Finance Committee, which writes the state’s budget. He served one term as committee co-chair, one of the state’s most powerful positions. As he explained to Frederica Freyberg in a July 18, 2013 interview on Wisconsin Public Television, the finance committee taught him the fine art of working across party lines. “When I first got elected, I’d throw a grenade,” he said. “People would say what did you hit? I’d say, I don’t know, it blew up. And then from being on the finance committee, especially when we had a committee that was an 8-8 committee, you learn to work with other people to get something thing done. “You have to. I think one of the things around here is, you’ve seen Washington, there was a poll last December, people would rather have a cockroach at their dinner table than a member of congress. That should be a wake-up call.” Pocan appeared on the program with Republican Rep. Reid Ribble. The two have become something of a political odd couple, working together publicly to engender
partisan cooperation on issues. They’ve promoted legislation to increase funding for medical research, for example, and to change the federal budgeting process from annual to biennial, as it’s done in Wisconsin. How does Pocan, who famously infiltrated the American Legislative Exchange Council and exposed its machinations in The Progressive magazine, manage to subdue his strongly held ideology? Because it’s the only way to get things done, he said. “You find out what you have in common, not what you don’t have in common,” he explained to WiG during a visit early this summer. He cited as current examples his work with tea party Republicans on repealing the Patriot Act and stopping the TransPacific Partnership, which would become the largest free trade agreement in history. Obama negotiated it, but progressive Democrats are in opposition. In 2013, Pocan joined with three Wisconsin Republican congressmen and more than 70 other representatives from both parties in creating a group called Problem Solvers. The group primarily seeks to cut wasteful government spending and gridlock caused by partisan one-upsmanship. In May, Pocan stood with a group of supportive leaders around New York Mayor Bill de Blasio as he announced a 13-point progressive agenda. His goal, as he put it, is to stop Democrats from “running away
P h o t o : co u r t e s y
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, center, takes the podium at a press conference on July 23 to introduce the Equality Act, which would protect LGBT people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace and in housing, as well as in access to credit and public accommodations.
from the discussion of progressive economic policy.” The message is the same one de Blasio brought to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin during its annual meeting in June. It’s based in part on the mayor’s achievements in New York, which include paid sick leave and universal free pre-kindergarten.
But it also tackles national issues, calling for closing tax loopholes, enacting meaningful immigration reforms and nixing trade deals that could harm American workers, human rights abroad and the environment. Those are all reforms that Pocan supports. While Pocan’s career is on the rise and his political future looks bright, don’t expect him to become one of those politicians who changes course based on the direction of the political winds. Like de Blasio, he’s unabashedly progressive and proud of it. Although people might not agree with him, Pocan is widely respected for both his authenticity and his ability to work with the other side to obtain incremental success. He’s neither a flip-flopper or a demagogue. Americablog’s Skye Winspur summed up Pocan perfectly in a May editorial titled: “Mark Pocan: A diamond in the congressional rough.” He wrote: “It’s easy to look at Congress, shake your head and complain that everything is awful and can’t ever get better. For disaffected liberals around the country, Mark Pocan is the alternative — the counterexample — showing that good people can get elected to Congress and succeed once they’re there.”
LOWEST PRICES! LARGEST SELECTION!
2015 W. St. Paul Ave. • Milwaukee, WI • (414) 933-0808 • www.bbclighting.com OPEN EVERYDAY! Mon - Sat: 9am - 5pm • Sun: 11am - 4pm
18
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
19
| August 27, 2015
Pet
The joys and perils of fostering dogs By Linda Lombard AP writer
Ask anyone who fosters dogs and they’ll tell you that everyone says it. “I hear it almost every time I adopt out a dog: ‘I don’t know how you do this, I wouldn’t be able to let them go,’” says Anne Auditore of Richmond, Virginia, intake coordinator for Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescue. But many people who foster dogs have pretty much the same reply: Sure, you sometimes feel that way — but not as much as you might think. Says Auditore, “You can love them all, but they’re still not a good fit for your family.” The kids wouldn’t be able to stand it, though, right? Forming an attachment and then saying goodbye? In fact, in Denise Dunn’s case, fostering was her daughter’s idea. “We had the dog for one day and she was all, ‘We can never give this dog back,’” says Dunn, who fosters for the Southside SPCA in Virginia. “However, after several days, she came to her senses and realized we were not looking for another member of our family, we’re looking to help find this dog a home.” OK, so maybe the kids are good with it, but what about the dog you already have? First impressions are important. “You have to understand that each animal is going to change the dynamic of your household in a different way,” says Carrie Santiago of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, who fosters for The Southern Dog. “I always introduce them in a neutral area. I don’t bring a dog into my home and say, ‘Have a
free-for-all.’” Supervise all early encounters, separating the dogs with crates, baby gates or securely closed doors when you go out. “From there, we slowly integrate them all together — let them be together for short amounts of time — and then, if that goes well, we leave them out with our guys during the day,” says Auditore. Still, aren’t these going to be dogs with big problems? Sure, some of them. Auditore often fosters dogs who need surgery, and others in her group specialize in blind, deaf or old dogs. Santiago’s interests tend toward behavioral rehabilitation. “I’m really big on positive training to get them socialized and more adoptable,” she says. “I’m a sucker for the hard cases.” Shelters in particular are often looking for foster homes for animals that need special attention. But many private rescue groups have all their animals in foster homes, and many of these are normal, healthy dogs. What Auditore’s group is looking for in a foster home is simply a responsible dog owner, and they need a lot of them: Last year, they found homes for around 450 pugs. You don’t need to live on a big ranch or be home all day to foster an animal. “Most of us work full time. A lot of people have kids and families,” she says. Volunteering with her group involves basically the same process as adopting an animal: filling out a form with basic information about your home, family, and schedule, as well as providing vet and personal references. Then there’s a home
visit, to see which dogs will fit your situation. “For example, our house has a lot of stairs, so we’re not going to be a good fit for a blind dog or a dog with mobility issues,” says Auditore. If you’re interested in fostering, research how your local rescue groups work. Ask how they place dogs in foster homes — you shouldn’t be pressed to take on issues you’re not comfortable with. Find out what expenses are covered and whether you need to use a particular vet. How long you end up having a foster pet depends on many factors — puppies, for instance, tend to go faster — including how expeditiously paperwork is processed. So ask about the group’s average. Find out how you’ll participate in finding your foster pet a home. Your input should be valued, since you know the dog’s behavior in a home. Policies differ on who makes the final decision. At shelters, it may be largely up to staff. Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescue is at the other extreme. “We leave it up to the fos-
ters, because they’re the ones (who) know these dogs,” Auditore says. OK, but what if you really don’t want to give them up? Some people do end up adopting their foster pet, and while that’s jokingly called a “foster failure,” it’s not necessarily bad. Make sure you know the organization’s policies here as well — you may get priority, but not at the expense of putting off other applicants indefinitely. In the end though, the idea is to let most foster pets go, and yes, it can be bittersweet to say goodbye. “It gets easier over time. The first one is the hardest,” according to Auditore. But that’s where the real reward lies, as Santiago learned when she saw her first foster pet, whom she had nursed through an illness, at the dog park a few months later. “It was so awesome to see him with his new family,” she says. “That sealed the deal — it’s worth every bit of energy you put in.”
20
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Soggy Doggy, Puppy Pot: inventions by and for pet owners By Sue Manning AP writer
Joanna Rein knew there was a way to prevent her rambunctious Labrador-collie mix from tracking in mud, water and drool from the soggy outdoors. “The kids thought it was funny. They’d chase the dog,” said Rein, of Larchmont, New York. “I’d run behind them all with towels. Buddy thought it was a game.” She used her dirty floors to her advantage, creating a line of dog-drying doormats and special towels called Soggy Doggy. With people putting more money into products for pets — whether for pampering, aiding aging animals or just keeping the house clean — some entrepreneurial owners have invented their own helpful devices. And some, like Rein, have turned them into multimillion-dollar ventures. “Most of the small companies that enter the industry do it because they have a pet
New doggy products include, clockwise from top: Soggy Doggy Doormat, Pup Pot, and Groom Genie. Here are some popular pet-owner inventions:
SOGGY DOGGY
and identified a need that wasn’t being addressed,” said Andrew Darmohraj, executive vice president of the American Pet Products Association. Smaller companies make up more than half of the group’s membership. They form the core of the industry, which is expected to account for more than $42 billion in U.S. spending this year, he said.
Rein started her product line by trying to make her own doormat to soak up the slop when Buddy got drenched in rain or rolled around in the mud. She paid a tailor to sew hundreds of orange shammy cloths over a thin layer of foam, put it at the back door and waited for her dog. “He took one look and jumped over it,” she said. “He would not step on it, PRODUCTS next page
#pet0utpost #naturallylocal monday tues-thu friday saturday sunday
naturally local™ www.thepetoutpost.com
closed 11 - 7pm 11- 6pm 10 - 5pm 11 - 4pm
Health food store for pets Natural + local options 414-962-POST 4604 N Wilson
Shorewood
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
PRODUCTS from prior page wouldn’t go near it.” Then, Rein found microfiber shammies made with parachute nylon, which her dog didn’t mind stopping on for a shake. Her business got a break when rain and snow started in November 2010 and seemingly didn’t stop until the next June. She sold the mats from her car trunk but ran out of them in weeks, while more orders came in. Since then, she’s sold hundreds of thousands of mats and created “slopmats,” which sop up slobber and water under dog bowls, and “Slobber Swabbers,” a handled fabric brush that collects drool from pets’ faces or from windows and car seats.
GROOM GENIE
Rikki Mor of Denver converted her hair detangler for kids into a popular pet brush. Shaped like a dog paw, the Groom Genie works on long or short coats and spreads natural oils through the fur, she said. “It’s turned my life upside down in ways I never expected,” Mor said. “I love that it’s tested on humans and good enough for pets.” It emerged from the Knot Genie, a million-dollar online empire started six years ago and inspired by her three long-haired daughters. Mor promised them to try to end the daily detangling nightmare that always ended with tears. She met with consul-
| August 27, 2015
PET BRIEF tants and ran tests. She eliminated the balls on the end of bristles and reshaped the bristles and base, which eliminated pain. Mor got appreciative letters from parents, then received notes from pet owners saying the brushes calmed their dogs and cats.
PUP POT
These bright-orange products to make, serve and store meals for dogs emerged from the pup-centric minds of Kris Rotonda and Denise Fernandez, creators of the online dating service YouMustLoveDogsDating.com. After launching the matchmaking site in 2013, they started the Doggy Cooking Network on YouTube last year. Their Pup Pot line comes with a 3.8quart stainless steel cooking pot, a pawshaped serving base, and two serving and storage bowls that are microwave-safe. As a bonus, there’s an e-book of the couple’s favorite recipes.
On the Web …
www.soggydoggydoormat.com www.groomgenie.com www.puppot.com
New test gauges dogs’ city savvy
They’re skills any city dweller needs: Riding calmly in elevators. Hopping a cab or subway. And ignoring tempting food all around you. Magneto, a 170-pound Leonberger dog, was out to show he could do all that as he sauntered along a crowded Manhattan street. He waited patiently with owner Morgan Avila for a light to change, clambered in and out of a curbside car, and proved unfazed by a fallen McDonald’s bag and a hug from a passerby. Soon, Magneto was officially declared an “urban canine good citizen,” the American Kennel Club’s new title recognizing proper city-dog deportment. “This ultimately will help the cause of dogs everywhere,” AKC training director Mary Burch says. The test is debuting at a time when Americans are showing increasing interest in bringing dogs along in public settings. States including California, Florida and Maryland have in the last decade started allowing dogs on restaurant patios, and similar legislation is waiting to be sent to New York’s governor. — AP
21
22
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
262-478-1500
| August 27, 2015
We Cater to Your Lifestyle Our family of residences caters to the individual. Choose the lifestyle that makes you unique and tell us how you want to live your life. We’ll make it work for you.
414-289 -9600
In the suburbs: Full continuum of care sarah Chudnow Community 10995 n. Market st., Mequon www.sarahchudnow.org In the CIty: Independent/Assisted Living Chai Point senior Living 1400 n. Prospect Ave., Milw. www.chaipoint.org Long-term and Memory Care; Rehab Jewish home and Care Center 1414 n. Prospect Ave., Milw. www.jhccmilwaukee.org
414-277-8852
Your Jewish options in Wisconsin
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
23
| August 27, 2015
ut on the town
Aug. 27 – Sept. 10
A curated calendar of upcoming events
99th Birthday Party for Old Rusty the Rail Bridge 10 a.m. Aug. 29
‘Ignite: A Hip-Hop Dance Experience’ 8 p.m. Aug. 29, 2:30 and 6 p.m. Aug. 30
Bet you didn’t know the rickety bridge in Walker’s Point had its own name — or that it carries mile-long trains packed full to the brim with highly flammable crude oil right past residents every day, despite its crumbling supports. In an effort to raise awareness of the issue, organizers with Citizens Acting for Rail Safety (an organization concerned about the increasing number of those dangerous trains) have arranged a party to celebrate the bridge’s 99th anniversary. The free, family-friendly event will feature comedy sketches, cake, a piñata and more. At First and Oregon Streets, Milwaukee. Visit CARS’ Facebook page for more details.
Danceworks wraps up its summer DanceLAB series with Ignite, its annual hip-hop performance that turns the company’s usual repertoire on its head. Ignite gives top local crews a chance to shine, with groups including Boombox Babies, Revamped and Take Notez Dance Crew deploying nearly 60 dancers. At 1661 N. Water St., Milwaukee. Tickets are $15, $18 for reserved seating and $10 for students and seniors. Visit danceworksmke.com or call 414-277-8480.
‘Out of the Shadows’ Aug. 30
Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society’s summer season is over, but they have a special presentation ready to unveil in Madison. Out of the Shadows: Rediscovering Jewish Music, Literature and Theater is a one-day event in which the company partners with a team of international scholars to celebrate the rich heritage of Jewish culture. Sessions in the morning will feature discussions of works by Jewish artists previously tucked away in archives at Mills Hall (3561 Mosse Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St.), but the afternoon and evening is when the performances will truly take off. A 2:30 p.m. concert at the First Unitarian Meeting House (900 University Bay Drive) will feature a variety of works by composers including Erich Wolfgang Korngold (pictured), while a two-part cabaret will be presented at Overture Hall (201 State St.) at 7 p.m. Visit bachdancinganddynamite.org for details.
WMSE Backyard BBQ 4 to 11 p.m. Sept. 5
This being Wisconsin and all, you’re running out of opportunities to enjoy outdoor festivities quickly. Lucky there’s still the annual WMSE Backyard BBQ, a Labor Day weekend shindig that’ll serve as a great kickoff to the fall. As always, the Milwaukee Film Festival will be distributing its official brochure there, but the real draw is the musical guests. This year, the radio station will be inviting “savior of rock ’n’ roll” JD McPherson as the headliner, along with a number of other acts including Milwaukee’s own Goth-Americana band Devil Met Contention. At Cathedral Square Park, Milwaukee. Admission is free. Visit wmse.org for full details.
24
ut on on the the town town ut WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Labor Fest 11 a.m. Sept. 7 Labor Day isn’t just an opportunity for a three-day weekend. It’s a day to honor the American labor movement that ensured many of the social and economic achievements we’ve come to take for granted in our country — some of which are now under attack. For this year’s Labor Fest, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council has chosen to focus on the city’s youth, and helping to galvanize them as unions move forward in the 21st century. The event will begin with a parade at 11 a.m., followed by a celebration at the Summerfest grounds featuring a raffle with a 2016 Harley as the top prize, a classic car show, and food and beverages for purchase. Admission is free. Visit milwaukeelabor.org for more information.
‘Romeo & Juliet’
2 p.m. Sept. 5, 6 and 12
It’s common for companies of young actors to take on Romeo & Juliet, but less so for those acting companies to be entirely composed of young teenage women. The newly formed Ganymede Ensemble is that exception, a new group that features women from high schools across the greater Milwaukee area. Their goal in this and future shows is to produce “swift, accessible” theater, and provide an opportunity specifically for other young women thinking about a career in the industry. At Kadish Park, 308 E. Lloyd St., Milwaukee. Admission is free. More information can be found on The Ganymede Ensemble’s Facebook page.
Taste of Madison Sept. 5 and 6 Make sure you eat a light breakfast this Labor Day weekend. You’ll need the space for Taste of Madison, the annual celebration of all things culinary and gastronomical. Vendors representing 89 different local restaurants will surround Capitol Square for the weekend, each offering affordable examples of their regular menu fare. A variety of musical acts will also perform throughout the day, and volunteers’ hourly earnings will go to benefit Madison-area nonprofits. Visit tasteofmadison.com for a full list of attendees.
Garden Party Fair Wisconsin’s
Sunday, September 20, 2015
11am - 1pm
With special guest
Colonel Sheri Swokowski (Ret)
for equality at the home of
Daniel D Schmidt and Mark G Berr y 2977 N Summit Ave Milwaukee WI. 53211 Sponsorship Levels: $1,000, $500, $250, $100 Suggested Contribution: $50
RSVP at fairwisconsin.com Special Thanks to Our Media Sponsor The Wisconsin Gazette
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
25
27––Aug. Sept. 13 10 AAcurated curatedcalendar calendarofofupcoming upcomingevents events August July 30 Penn & Teller 8 p.m. Sept. 11 At this point, Penn & Teller are practically an institution, so it’s hard to remember how innovative and jarring their comedy/magic act was when they got their start 40 years ago. Since, the duo has dazzled audiences worldwide with their tricks and banter, hosted TV shows and specials, and has their own Vegas residency. For this particular night, though, they’ll be appearing — and disappearing — at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater. At 116 W. Wisconsin Ave. Tickets range from $30 to $70. Visit pabsttheater.org or call 414-2863663.
Keep reading for… Jen Kirkman: Comedian Jen Kirkman brings her standup tour to Milwaukee, but it’s no copy of her recent Netflix special. Sept. 9. See page 31. ‘Mozart?!’: Present Music kicks off its season with a concert that features both the work of past master Mozart and contemporary artists inspired by his music. Sept. 5. See page 37.
in Milwaukee Marriage is a sacred bond of love between two people – let us assist you in celebrating the beauty of your union! Unity in Milwaukee is a non-denominational church that honors all faith families. We perform ceremonies for members, non-members and same sex couples. We can accommodate short notice ceremonies and our chapel seats up to 140 guests. Contact us today for more information or to schedule a ceremony! - Reverend Mari Gabrielson, Senior Minister
www.unitychurchinmilwaukee.org • 414-475-0105 Unity in Milwaukee • 1717 N. 73rd Street • Wauwatosa, WI 53213
Mondo Lucha 8 p.m. Sept. 11 Of all the strange events that call Milwaukee home, Mondo Lucha reigns supreme. High-flying Mexican wrestling and highclass burlesque performance would be unique events in and of themselves, but together they’re an exceptional way to spend an evening. Add in rising Milwaukee band Whips and you’ve got yourself quite the show. At Turner Hall Ballroom, 1034 N. Fourth St. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 day-of-show, with front row and VIP balcony seats available for $30 and $35, respectively. Call 414-286-3663 or visit pabsttheater.org to order tickets.
26
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Honey honey, how you thrill us By Michael Muckian Contributing writer
It’s succulent and sweet, dripping golden from the spoon. Its viscosity causes it to move in slow motion and its natural colors sparkle in the sun. It both brightens the palate and strengthens the body. There is nothing quite like honey, the result of natural processes and hard labor on the part of busy bees everywhere. Although a small part of the agricultural industry overall, honey plays a valuable role in nutrition, according to Andy Hemken, owner of Hemken Honey Co., which commercially produces honey from 530 hives near Big Bend and helped install and maintains the observation beehive at the Milwaukee County Zoo. “Honey is a natural sweetener that easily absorbs into the bloodstream,” says Hemken, also the former president of the Wisconsin Honey Producers Association. “Athletes can use honey before, during and after competitions because it’s a pure carbohydrate that doesn’t take time for the body to digest.” In addition, honey is a natural sweetener and emulsifier, acting as an effective thickening agent for sauces and dressings. It is a natural cough suppressant and humectant, meaning that it attracts and maintains moisture, which makes it a go-to ingredient for many skin care products. Bees produce honey as they extract nectar from flowers, which they inject with enzymes to break it down into simple sugars that are stored in the cells of the honeycomb. The pollination of the flowers is actually a happy byproduct of their efforts, according to the National Honey Board, a trade organization based in Firestone, Colorado. Once in the comb, rapid fanning by the bees’ wings causes much of the nectar’s liquid to evaporate, which leads to honey’s viscous texture. The honey is kept and stored as food for the bee colony, although beekeepers, known as apiarists, also harvest and sell it as an agricultural product. In the end, the small amounts of pollen that find their way into the honey are most often filtered out as the honey is heated and refined to remove impurities. Honey may eventually change color, and its aroma and flavor may fade, but as a food product it can last for decades. Until recently, Wisconsin was among the top 10 honey producing states. The state fell to 15th place in 2014 after a brutal winter destroyed a significant number of hives along with native vegetation on which
the bees depended, according to a National Agricultural Statistics Service report. Wisconsin honey production fell 21.2 percent to $664 million compared to 2013, the report said. It was the largest decline since 1999, when production declined more than 30 percent, but was the first time Wisconsin dropped out of the top 10. An estimated 55 percent of the state’s hives were wiped out between October 2013 and April 2014, according to a state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection study. A continued loss of forage area also has affected production by the state’s honey colonies, which now number roughly 53,000, a decline of 10 percent in 2014. Unbridled use of pesticides also has taken its toll on bee populations, both in Wisconsin and the rest of the country, Hemken says. “The bees are dying,” says Hemken, who notes that nationwide bees pollinate an estimated $19 billion worth of crops each year in the process of gathering nectar. “This is a serious problem.” Hemken and other apiarists sell bee packages, each generally consisting of one queen and 6,000 worker bees, to other growers in an attempt to slow the bee population’s decline. Last year he sold more than 1,000 such packages, and he knows beekeepers who sell many more. Wisconsin beekeepers also are working more diligently with owners of prairies, orchards and, in Hemken’s case, several pumpkin patches to maintain pollination relationships that aren’t threatened by pesticide usage that could be fatal to the bees. Focusing bee populations on specific varieties of blossoms also helps cultivate the varietal nature of honey, Hemken says. There are about 300 varietal honey types in the United States, according to Hemken. “Southeast Wisconsin is a good spot for honeybees because there are so many flowers.” Hemken’s favorite is honey produced from the blossoms of the tupelo tree, native to southern Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. The resulting honey is almost white or lightly amber, with a mild favor and pleasant aroma. Unlike some other honeys, tupelo honey doesn’t granulate. “Buckwheat honey also is really good and has a strong, individualized taste,” Hemken adds. However, “it’s hard to find locally produced buckwheat honey.” Other popular types include alfalfa honey,
which is light both in color and flavor; avocado honey, with a dark color and rich, buttery taste; blueberry honey, imbued with a natural blueberry flavor; clover honey, which comes in a variety of flavors and colors based on the type of clover the bees visited; and orange blossom honey, which boasts the distinctive flavor and aroma of its namesake flower. The most often seen type, wildflower honey, is really a catchall for honey made by bees that have foraged far and wide, grabbing whatever nectar they could find from whatever flowers they came across. “My bees are rascals and they go everywhere,” Hemken says. “Wildflower honey is generally the result.”
27
28
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Central Wis. breweries have winning beers on tap
By Michael Muckian Contributing writer
Beer is central to many Wisconsinites, but many of them don’t think of central Wisconsin as a hub for it. That’s a misconception worth changing. The heart of our state features a variety of breweries new and old, some highly acclaimed and others little known outside their communities. If you find yourself wandering around the central part of Wisconsin, here are some places to stop in for a cool one or two. The first brewery on our list also is the oldest. Founded in 1857, Stevens Point Brewery is the fifth oldest brewery in the United States. It even provided beer to Union troops during the Civil War. The little brewery survived Prohibition, the Depression and other historic milestones under the oversight of a variety of brewers/ owners. In 2002, the brewery was purchased by Milwaukee real estate developers Joe Martino and Jim Wiechmann. The pair has continued and expanded on the brewery’s 158-year-old traditions. Point beers have enjoyed some long-term popularity, including being named the best beer in America in 1973 by the late Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko. Since then the brewery has widened its variety of brews, including the higher-alcohol Whole Hog Ltd. specialty series, seasonal brews and gourmet sodas. The entertaining brewery tour always includes samples.
P h o t o : O ’ s o B r e w i ng C o .
Many of O’So’s beers are more extreme offerings, like the brandy barrel-aged Grandpa’s Got a Gun and wheat wine Wheat You Talkin’ ‘bout Willis? A growing number of beer geeks have discovered and are reveling in the beers from O’so Brewing Co., located in the Stevens Point suburb of Plover. Brewers James Vokoun and Mark Spilker specialize in the unexpected and their dedication to the craft of craft brewing shows. Based in the Village Park strip mall off of Interstate 39, just south of Stevens Point, O’so boasts one of the nicest tasting rooms of any craft brewer in the state. The more than 20 tap lines feature nan extensive array of O’so’s well-known, seasonal and one-off
brew and a rich cross-section of some of the state’s best craft beers, assuring that there is something for every taste. If you’re stopping by, make sure you bring your designated driver so you can tap into some of O’so’s extreme offerings, including Grandpa’s Got a Gun (brandy barrel-aged American strong ale), Wheat You Talkin’ ’bout, Willis? (brandy barrel-aged wheat wine) and Spike’s Maple (an American strong ale made with 100 percent maple sap rather than water). At 10 percent ABV, this last beer is sure to “spike” your blood
alcohol content. Travel 20 minutes east of Plover and you will hit the tiny community of Amherst. Within an even tinier industrial park you will find Central Waters Brewing Co., which, along with O’so, has helped make central Wisconsin a craft beer mecca. Owners Paul Graham and Anello Mollica have expanded on the brewery, first founded in Junction City in 1995, to embrace a wide array of craft beers that have established Central Waters’ reputation statewide. The small tasting room that fronts the brewing tanks offers a comfortable atmosphere and a wide array of interesting brews. Known for beers like Mudpuppy Porter, Hop Rise Session Ale and Satin Solitude Imperial Stout, all featuring a heron on the label and available in area bottle shops, Central Waters’ Brewers Reserve series is capturing the public’s palates. Our personal favorite is the Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal Award Winner Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout. Produced with 75 pounds of tart Door County cherries added to each barrel, the resulting beer is richly textured, sublimely flavorful and deceptively strong. The brewery’s Space Ghost Imperial Stout, brewed with Anaheim chiles and Ghost peppers, also got top marks. Buy it if you can find it. Central Waters isn’t the only brewery to festoon their labels with a heron. The Blue BEER next page
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
29
BEER from prior page Heron Brewpub in Marshfield — which actually has a white heron in its logo — differs from the previous breweries in also being a full-service restaurant. The beers are balanced by a menu of pub standards and a few out-of-the-ordinary dishes, which received top marks on TripAdvisor and other sites. Blue Heron regularly features three standards: Honey Blonde Ale, Tiger’s Eye Mild English Ale and Hop Heart IPA. But the brewery also produces interesting seasonals on a revolving schedule. This month you will find Fainting Goat Maibock and Hip Wader Pale Ale on tap. Tappers Tripel Ale promises to have a little more kick than the rest of the lineup, while Rauch ‘Em Sock ‘Em Smoked Ale and Thunder Echo White Stout are varieties rarely seen. Couple either with the brewpub’s elk burger or “Grown Up Mac and Cheese” and the results will be more than satisfactory. The Marathon County community of Wausau was originally known as Big Bull Falls when it was founded in 1836, owing largely to the particular bend of the Wisconsin River on which it is located. The name is carried on with Bull Falls Brewery, one of three craft breweries in Wausau. Brewmaster Mike Zamzow has created a variety of brews, some emblematic of the craft brew market and others a little more unusual. Zamzow comes with a distinct brewing legacy. His great uncle Walter Zamzow was the secretary at Marathon City Brewery in Wausau, which closed in 1966 after operating for 75 years. Bull Falls’ signature beer, Marathon Lager, is based on the original Marathon Superfine recipe. The premium beer, lightly hopped, recreates an area favorite from an earlier time.
Zamzow also brews a Bock Lager, Bourbon Barrel Stout and Hefeweizen in addition to Holzhacker Lager (a Munich-style Helles beer). Midnight Star (a German-style schwarzbier) and Hop Worthy, the brewery’s IPA. The emphasis on lagers, which are more difficult and more costly to produce, sets Bull Falls apart from much of the competition. Red Eye Brewing Co., also located in Wausau, is another brewpub, this one with a menu emphasizing wood-fired pizza. The menu also lists burgers, paninis and wraps, as well as sides, salads and starters. Brewer Kevin Eichelberger has taken his brewery a different direction than Bull Falls, with an emphasis on IPAs, Belgian-style brews and other creative fare. Eichelberger’s current tap list includes Bloom (a Belgian wheat beer), Thrust (an American-style IPA), Scarlet 7 (a Belgian-style “dubbel”) and Charlatan (an imperial stout.) Wausau also is home to one of five Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co. locations, the northernmost and the only one outside the Madison metro area. Those familiar with the Madison locations will recognize the beer menu, which includes Crop Circle Wheat, Emerald Isle Stout, Stone of Scone Scotch Ale and other favorites developed by Madison brewmaster Rob LoBreglio. The Wausau Great Dane also offers a full service food menu much like its Madison cousins.
B R E W E R I E S F E AT U R E D Stevens Point Brewery 2617 Water St., Stevens Point 715-344-9310 pointbeer.com
Bull Falls Brewery 901 E. Thomas St., Wausau 715-842-2337 bullfallsbrewery.com
O’so Brewing Co. 3028 Village Park, Plover 715-254-2163 osobrewing.com
Red Eye Brewing Co. 612 Washington St., Wausau 715-843-7334 redeyebrewing.com
Central Waters Brewing Co. 351 Allen St., Amherst 715-824-2739 centralwaters.com
Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co. 2305 Sherman St., Wausau 715-845-3000 greatdanepub.com
Blue Heron Brewpub 108 W. 9th St., Marshfield 715-389-1868 blueheronbrewpub.com
30
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
! T U WiGO
31
Comedian Jen Kirkman is feeling fine. Promise. By Colton Dunham Contributing writer
In the opening of her Netflix special, I’m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine), comedian, author and podcaster Jen Kirkman tells a story about overhearing someone ordering a drink and slowly realizing that person cannot tell the difference between a lemon and a lime. It’s like she’s a dear friend venting her frustrations with the world already, and it’s only been a few minutes. That’s the brilliance of the special. Recorded shortly after her 40th birthday and the release of her successful memoir I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids, the Netflix special shows us what Kirkman’s best at: autobiographical and shameless banter about the various elements of her kidless, post-divorce life — from being an unintentional cougar to finding gray pubic hairs. In addition to her Netflix special and book, Kirkman is known for her appearances as a panelist and writer for Chelsea Lately and a narrator for the Comedy Central series Drunk History (and the original Funny or Die webseries). She’s also recorded two comedy albums — 2006’s Self Help and 2011’s Hail to the Freaks — and is the host of the I Seem Fun podcast, which largely consists of her speaking about whatever is on her mind while sitting around her home. Kirkman is on a nationwide tour, which includes a stop at Milwaukee’s Turner Hall Ballroom on Sept. 9. She spoke with WiG about her special, her comedic approach, dying alone, the chances of her own TV show and her amusing idea of an Uber horse. You’re on tour to promote your Netflix special, I’m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine). A Netflix special is a pretty big deal. How did that come about? It is. Thank you. I’m really just on tour because that’s what I do for a living. I think I sound stupid when I say I’m on tour to promote it like as if Netflix needs my help (laughs). They got the advertising dollars and they’re obviously in everybody’s home. Actually, to be honest, I’ve never wanted to do a comedy special. I preferred albums for a long time. I didn’t like putting my physical self on tape. I don’t like looking at my mannerisms. I don’t like the idea of having to pick an outfit that’s going to live on for years on TV that might look dated in a few years. I was always fine not doing one. Over the years, the only available option to comedians before HBO and Showtime was Comedy Central, who I didn’t want to work with because I don’t believe in editing or having commercial breaks in comedy. I
think it’s not a good way to present it. So I was fine not having a comedy special, but then when Netflix started doing them, I thought that seemed like a good place to do it. I knew this woman who worked there and she made it kind of known that she’d like to do one with me. We just kept pursuing it. It was actually in the works for like a year before I was able to film it. So I was really excited, but I couldn’t say anything.
During your Netflix special, rather than cutting away to the audience every few minutes for reaction shots, the camera stays on you while you go from topic to topic, making it more like you’re ranting to a group of friends about topics that are both hilarious and relatable. Was this something that you were always comfortable with from the get-go? It’s funny because I get called a storyteller comedian, which I don’t totally think is true because real storytellers are doing off-Broadway shows and there aren’t laughs for 10 minutes. I’ve always thought what I’ve been doing is normal comedy like anybody else. I think the way I perform it makes it look like I’m talking off the top of my head or telling a story, which I think is a skill I’ve honed over the years. I feel like if you measure out my laughs per minute, even to a one-liner comic, it’d be the same. I purposely chose not to have any cutaway shuts and the person who directed my special, Lance Bangs, I believe he really doesn’t like that either. I feel like you can edit without having to cut to the audience. You can cut to a different camera angle on a person. I also don’t think the audience at home needs to be told when they should laugh because you can decide that for yourself. Not every joke is going to hit home with everybody, so laugh when you want. When they cut to a group of people going, “Ah ha ha!”, it’s like, “Don’t tell me when to laugh.” (laughs) When you go see a comedy show, you’re just looking at
the person. I don’t know anybody who would want to turn on the TV and see the audience. It never looks real, either. It looks like it’s inserted from a different show. What’s really funny, though, is some people who have hated my special … have commented that I put a laugh track in because … no one was laughing. I thought that was kind of funny that people have noticed that and people thought it was for tragic reasons (laughs). What is the inspiration behind the title? You don’t actually feel like you’re going to die alone, do you? I think everybody does. People have taken it to mean it’s about dating, which is really weird because obviously I’ve been single, I’ve been married, I’ve been engaged, I’ve been divorced, I’ve been in a relationship and I’ve been with friends with benefits. I’ve had every iteration of dating in my life, and always will probably, but the special was not about being single. It’s actually what I’ve wanted to call
my first book. It’s things people have said to me about not having kids. It’s what people said to me: “You’re going to die alone if you don’t have kids.” My answer to them is, “Fine. I’m going to die alone and I’ll be fine.” … If you die, you die alone anyways, even if you’re in a bed next to someone. It’s your own journey. We all really do die alone. You can be as suited up as KIRKMAN next page
32
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
KIRKMAN from prior page you want. You can be married with kids and think, “Oh, look at how great my life is going to be when I’m older.” But you really don’t know if anybody is still going to be around. Unfortunately, most people take it to mean I’m lamenting some kind of not-beingmarried thing. I usually get people consoling me and I’m like, “It is a comedy title.” When I said what the name of the special was, a few people on Twitter were like, “Aw, you won’t die alone. You’re cute.” I’m like, “Ugh. Forget it.”
Flossie loves Tai Chi. After retiring, Flossie was feeling lonely and looking for a way to stay active. Thanks to the United Way-funded program KOACH (“strength” in Hebrew) at the Jewish Community Center, Flossie found a way to meet new people and stay physically active within the community. Last year, 94% of older adults who attended United Way-funded programming made new friends and left the program feeling supported. The best part of KOACH is Flossie is no longer alone. Today the 82-year-old is stronger and her schedule is jam-packed with water aerobics, Tai Chi Classes and games of rummy that help her live a healthy, engaged life. Learn more about how you can get involved at UnitedWayGMWC.org
UnitedWayGMWC.org @UnitedWayGMWC /UnitedWayGMWC
UNITED WAY of GREATER MILWAUKEE & WAUKESHA COUNTY
From show to show, do you strive to bring new material that audiences haven’t heard before to the stage? This tour is not material from the special because the special was stuff that I’ve done on the road for three years. The cities I’ve been to, where people have seen me over the past three years, they’ve already seen that stuff. For them, watching the special was a repeat of what they’ve seen live. There’s no getting away with doing old stuff anymore. This tour is all new stuff, with one or two bits from the special because I do think that one of the bits from the special was pretty new. The joke is about a gray pubic hair. So I’ll keep growing and growing with that premise, as I get older and things continue to break down in my body or change (laughs). That one will probably live on. There is one joke about a woman who marries a cat that has become sort of relevant again, now that we have marriage equality but (there are) senators who are still saying the bestiality thing, so I’ll keep that in. I think people do remember that from the special, but for some reason I think it’s such a silly, dumb bit that I think people like it and I’ve actually had people say, “I came to your show and I brought my friend who didn’t know you and I was telling her about your stuff and I’m glad you did some of the jokes that I told her.” For the most part, I don’t think people want to see what they’ve already seen because it’s hard to laugh when you know it’s coming. Halfway through my tour, I just changed the name of it to “An Evening with Jen Kirkman” and not the name of the special because people were telling me, “If it’s your special, then I’m not going to come because I’ve already seen it.” Which is stupid anyway, because even if it’s the exact same thing, it’s always different live. I’ve read recently that you’re working on your second book. Will this be a direct follow-up to I Can Barely Take Care of Myself or will this be something entirely different? It’s pretty similar. I mean, it’s not similar, but it’s a pretty direct follow-up. I kind of knew when I was writing the first one that I wanted to write a second one. I knew some of the stuff that I wanted to write about and as the years went by, I lived a little and had more experiences so it’s the same thing, like a memoir-style, comedic essays, but it jumps around topics a lot more than I Can Barely Take Care of Myself, which was really about not wanting kids and all that stuff. This is all different kind of things about traveling, family, divorcing, work and stupid
things like my neighbor who won’t stop knocking on my door. That’s coming out in April of next year. It’s pretty much written. There’s just a couple of edits here and there that have to be done. I think people will like it because it does cover so many different topics, so there’s something for everyone. A lot of the stuff in the podcast will be in the book, but better with a lot less rambling. There’ll be complete sentences. When it comes to shows about comedians on television, all the rage right now is about Louie C.K. and Marc Maron (who star in and produce their own shows). I’d personally love to see you have your own show where you’re not only the star, but you’re also the writer, producer, director, etc. Do you think the chances are high of seeing such a thing happen? Better yet, would you want such a thing to happen? I tried. It was passed on by over 20 networks. FX bought a show called Jen that was going to be like a Maron or a Louie. They bought it, I wrote the pilot, and they paid me to write the script but it just didn’t get picked up into a pilot. Most comedians that you know or like, our agents would dump us if we didn’t try to pitch a show about our lives because that’s how they make their money if we get a TV gig. That’s part of being a comedian on the road. You pitch TV shows. All of us pitch multiple shows a year and all the different levels you can get to are: someone pays you to write a script, and then after that they could pick it up and make a pilot, but the pilot doesn’t go to series. There’s like six levels of all that crap. We do it all the time under the radar; nobody knows. The odds are just so insanely crazy. It’s nothing that like breaks our hearts because we always have stand-up, which is what we want to do first and foremost. I think most of us would say that the only reason we’d want a TV show is so that more people can come see us on the road. I tried, but I’m glad it didn’t get made for many reasons that are boring. I wasn’t working on it with the right people and I don’t like the show that I wrote anymore so I’m fine with that. I’ve worked in TV shows my whole life and it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. It’s a lot of work. There’s a lot of politics. There’s a lot of crap you don’t have to deal with in stand-up. So, I was Twitter-stalking you earlier, and I read your prediction of an Uber Horse being the next big thing in transportation. Can you please elaborate? I’ve gotten picked up in an Uber in Canada with a huge dent on the side, and I was like, “Hmm, that doesn’t make me feel that confident.” It’s like you’re hitchhiking. I’m really just getting into a stranger’s car. … Uber Horse was just a joke, but it’s getting to the point where it went from nice SUV to someone’s car that has a dent, so probably what’s next is someone bringing their horse to pick you up. I think it will happen someday. It should.
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
33
| August 27, 2015
Olbrich Gardens set to ‘gleam’ By Jay Rath
Contributing writer
Call it Art Nouveau for the high-tech age: landscape, light and sculpture merge in a cutting-edge exhibit at Madison’s Olbrich Botanical Gardens this fall. “The projects are diverse and very exciting,” says David Wells, artistic director of GLEAM: Art in a New Light, which opens Sept. 2. “They’ll invigorate viewing. They will provide counterpoints to nature yet be engaged with the nature of the gardens themselves.” Wells previously curated Art on Site, an exhibit of site-specific installations at Olbrich in conjunction with the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, in 2004. He says that combining light, sculpture and public gardens is an artistic trend that’s growing nationally. For GLEAM, “we started by choosing the sculptors, and then we paired them with lighting designers who have experience with landscape lighting,” says Wells, gallery director at Edgewood College and formerly executive director of Edenfred, a now-defunct artist residency center. The artists and designers worked as teams with garden staff. The works will include: “Alighting” — A 30-times life-size dragonfly, made of color-shifting glass and metal, illustrating characteristics of the eastern pondhawk and roseate skimmer species; by artists Laura Richards and William Grant Turnbull, and lighting designer Patrick
Devereux. “Florid & Droll” — Sculptural beacons made from reclaimed horticultural tools will showcase backlit stained glass imagery, eliciting whimsy and a sense of discovery; by artist Karl Unnasch and lighting designer Jon Adams. “Luminous Grass” — Plant forms resembling reeds and tall grasses will be interfused with glowing, pulsing color, creating the illusion of movement as the sun sets; by artist Aaron Laux and lighting designer Joe Hanauer. “Murmuration” — Bright orange and red abstract shapes will subtly sway in the wind, evoking images of starlings in flight; by artist Nadia Niggli and lighting designer Pat Blair. “Rearview Stream” — Cool blue and violet lights will illuminate a playful installation of rear-view mirrors situated in a stream-like pattern, suggesting water and motion; by artists Dianne Soffa and Tom Kovacich, and lighting designer Craig Kittleson. “Voices” — A field of amber-colored glass tongues will resemble wheat blowing in the wind. Each piece will display a regional word and its definition, celebrating our interconnectedness; by artists Kristin M. Thielking and Keven Brunett, and lighting designers Matt Hanna and Kevin Smits. Artists were selected through a juried process. Joel Reinders, of Reinders Inc., serves as lead lighting designer for the complete exhibit.
GLEAM: Art in a New Light is a fundraiser for Olbrich Botanical Gardens, 3330 Atwood Ave. It may be viewed 7:30-10:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, Sept. 2-Oct. 30. Tickets range from $5 to $12 and are available at the door and, starting Aug. 12, online. An opening reception featuring Wells and the artists will be held 7:30-10:30 p.m. Aug. 28. The event will include live music and a cash bar. Tickets are $20 for Olbrich members and $25 for non-members.
P h o t o : N ad i a N i gg l i
Nadia Niggli’s “Murmuration” (rendering top, detail above) is one of the six works planned for Gleam.
For ticketing, visit brownpapertickets.com. For more information, call 608-246-4550 or visit olbrich.org.
34
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
American Players offers a searing ‘Othello’ By Michael Muckian Contributing writer
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so, William Shakespeare famously wrote in Hamlet. That same ethos is even better demonstrated in his later work Othello, where the Bard weaves a tale of evil intent, with all the expected consequences. American Players Theatre’s production of Othello, which opened in mid-August at the Spring Green troupe’s Up the Hill theater, pulls no punches. With its racism both overt and covert, Othello falls into the category of Shakespeare‘s plays that are sometimes difficult to watch, a list including the antiSemitic Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew, rife with unbridled misogyny. APT’s powerful version of Othello doesn’t shy away from its distasteful elements. But its dramatic accomplishments make it well worth seeing. The play opens as Othello the Moor (Chiké Johnson), a general in the Venetian army, secretly marries Desdemona (Laura Rook), daughter of Brabantio (Brian Mani), a senator with the Venetian state. The newlyweds are happy, but Brabantio does little to disguise his disgust, literally throwing his daughter at her new husband. 16th-century Venice, it seems, is no liberal society. Enter Iago (James Ridge), Othello’s ensign, outraged that Othello has passed Iago over to promote Cassio (Nate Burger) as his lieutenant. Operating in partnership with the reluctant Roderigo (Marcus Trus-
chinski), who secretly loves Desdemona, Iago undertakes the machinations that will ultimately lead to Othello’s undoing. Director John Langs creates an air of urgency in his production, underscored with an undercurrent of despair. The senators, noblemen and soldiers, including the Duke of Venice (David Daniel), applaud Othello’s military victories, and his minions are obsequious to a fault. But that doesn’t protect the military hero from his ultimate fall. In fact, Othello’s power and presumption only contribute to his undoing, a theme that carries over to many of the other lead characters. Iago’s own vanity, colored by his ambitions, drives his near-pathological pursuit of Othello’s demise. As Othello, Johnson manages his character with charm and bravado, but his descent into distrust, despair and, ultimately, murder under Iago’s influence seems a rather abrupt shift. It’s a fault more attributable to tight dramatic turns in the source material than anything else. In the end, Othello is neither hero nor villain, but rather a tragic pawn in the power plays and social influences of others. Despite the play’s title, it is Iago who is the dramatic driver of both the concept and action behind the narrative, and Ridge is fully capable of handling the role. His pursuit of Othello is cool, calm and calculating, which makes it all the more unnerving. Director Langs draws only a modest distinction between Iago as the “hale fellow,
SALE {30%-40%Off} STOREWIDE ONE WEEKEND ONLY! sat & sun aug 29 & 30 2107 E. Capitol Dr. Shorewood, WI 53211 414-963-1657 • modgenmke.com modsquad@modgenmke.com Tues-Sat 10am-6pm * Sun 10-4 * Closed Mon
P h o t o : C a r i s s a D i x on
James Ridge (left) and Chiké Johnson star as Iago and Othello in a powerful production of the Shakespearean tragedy at American Players Theatre. well met” and as the evil conspirator who carefully strategizes Othello’s undoing as if he were solving a puzzle or managing a military campaign. It’s an interpretation that suggests how close we all dance to the edge of sanity and our own capability to operate in a similar fashion. Langs’ production also adds a variety of stage business to scenes that could easily have lapsed into mere dialogue. Othello and Iago train with swords while discussing the Moor’s concerns over his wife, first matching movements in warm-up exercises, and then sparing as the conversation becomes more direct. In addition to foreshadowing the swordplay in Act II, the scene, along with others, bring a much needed physicality to the largely intellectual proceedings. The cast, as a whole, is strong and draws on several accomplished APT veterans in smaller roles, including Colleen Madden (actor Ridges’ wife in real life) as Iago’s wife
Emilia, to bring greater depth and breadth to the ensemble. Scenic designer Andrew Boyce’s minimalist set is spartan, ringed by moats of water, and more than proves adequate for Othello’s undoing. APT tells an engaging tale in which the powers of evil and the vanity of men combine to create a true tragedy. Othello is certainly one of the company’ strongest plays of the season, warning us all that the power of persuasion in unbridled pursuit of ego can lead to deadly consequences.
ON STAGE
American Players Theatre’s production of William Shakespeare’s Othello runs through Oct. 3 on the APT campus, 5950 Golf Course Road, Spring Green. For tickets, call 608-588-2361 or visit americanplayers.org.
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
35
| August 27, 2015
Mojo Dojo’s improv aims to build long-form community By Matthew Reddin Staff writer
More than anything else, Milwaukee’s improv scene has been dominated by ComedySportz, the now-national troupe that specializes in short-form improv — quick “games” where performers riff on audience suggestions in short bits before erasing everything and starting from scratch. But that approach to improv is not the only one. In many cities, short-form companies coexist with an alternative style: long-form improv. Neither is inherently better than the other, and many improvisers and comedians do both. But Milwaukee only having a training center and performance space for shortform has skewed popular opinion here as to what improv can be. Enter Mojo Dojo Comedy: a brand-new company that hopes to establish a tradition of long-form improv in Milwaukee. Mojo Dojo was initially conceived of by Jared Stepp, a former Milwaukeean who returned here from Austin in 2012 and found himself missing the strong improv community that he’d been a part of there. He enlisted the help of the Tall Boys, a long-form improv quartet he coaches and occasionally performs with, and the five of them formed the organization shortly after. “There’s no other place for it. There’s no long-form outlet,” Stepp says. “It’s a different sampling than what (ComedySportz) is doing.” Stepp, who learned short-form at ComedySportz but grew to love long-form during
ON STAGE
Mojo Dojo will host shows Fridays at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. at ComedySportz, 420 S. First St., Milwaukee. Tickets are $10. For a full schedule, visit the company’s Facebook page.
his five years in Austin, characterizes the latter as a one-act play created on the spot. Long-form groups ask audiences for a single suggestion at the start of the show, building a narrative using one of many formats developed by groups across the country. Stepp says the biggest distinction between short-form and long-form is that long-form focuses on telling a story over telling jokes. “I don’t think long-form is focused on being funny,” he says. “It’s more about creating something together.” That provides a challenge for performers, who don’t have the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start over if a moment isn’t working. But the rewards are greater too. Long-form rewards teamwork over individual skill, so practitioners can develop a rapport that translates into better work. And while attendees at a short-form show might go home talking about a particular game or two, long-form audience members receive an entire story, built just for them. In counterpoint to ComedySportz’s theme of competition, Stepp says he’s framing Mojo Dojo around martial arts motifs, defining long-form as a discipline practitioners must train in. He currently plans to offer five distinct classes, called “Ways,” where students learn over eight weeks. The two classes are the “Way of the Crane,” designed for newbies with no knowledge of improv, and the “Way of the Tiger,” tailored for actors and comedians who already know a little but need to focus on the details of long-form. Future installments will include the Ways of the Mantis and Monkey, which teach specific long-form formats, and the Way of the Dragon, in which a group of participants develop their own unique style over the eight-week period. The students Mojo Dojo develops in these sessions will hopefully become members of the talent pool available for the regular
SPONSORED BY: Jacquart/McCarthy Tax LLC MEDIA SPONSOR:
Join Us At the Biggest Monthly Social Event in the LGBT Community!
TGIF SEPTEMBER 11TH
JOIN US FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH 5:30-7:30PM
CAMP BAR SHOREWOOD • 4044 NORTH OAKLAND AVENUE Join the Fun! Stop in to connect with friends & build a new social network.
FREE APPETIZERS AND DRINK SPECIALS!
MILWAUKEE LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER · mkeLGBT.org
P h o t o : Ta l l B oy s Imp r o v
Jared Stepp (not pictured) and the Tall Boys started Mojo Dojo as a way to develop a long-form improv community not yet existing in Milwaukee. series of shows booked through the end of the year at ComedySportz. Mojo Dojo has two shows scheduled for every Friday through the end of 2015, with premises as varied as “No Dice: Improv DnD,” where comedians improvise a Dungeons and Dragons-esque adventure based on suggestions; “The Oracle,” in which a guest monologue inspires subsequent scenes; and “Milwaukee Secrets,” in which real secrets submitted by the audience and
performers are the basis for serious and comedic enactments. Stepp says the long-form company’s longterm goal is to find a permanent space for performance and practice, but for 2015, their focus is on the remaining ComedySportz shows. In building up an improv community, much like in improv itself, you need patience, discipline and the instinct to always say “yes” — one performance at a time.
Download our FREE Whitening Guide:
http://smile.dewandental.com/teeth-whitening-ebook
WITBIER. DOPPELBOCK. LAMBIC. SCHWARZBIER. WE BREW A BEER FOR EVERY TASTE.
36
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
37
| August 27, 2015
Present Music celebrates Mozart’s modern successors By Kirstin Roble
Contributing writer
Milwaukee’s Present Music ensemble helps kick off another year of fine arts, with a season-opening concert that will bring together the largest ensemble Present Music has ever hosted. It’ll also be bringing together the company’s love for chamber music’s classical roots and its passion for contemporary works. Deceptively titled Mozart?!, this concert features only one work by the legendary classical composer. But marketing director Erin Woehlke says that’s intentional, as artistic director Kevin Stalheim is hoping to depict the parallels between Wolfgang Amadeus and 20th-century composers Luciano Berio and John Adams. Woehlke says, “There’s more connections between the three men than it would seem on the initial surface and we plan to showcase those similarities.” Berio and Adams have explicitly cited Mozart as an influence, with Adams going so far to say that it was learning about the Austrian composer that inspired him to start composing as a young child. One of the two Adams works included on the concert, Grand Pianola Music, bears some notable similarities to the concert’s single Mozart work, his Gran Partita, including the shared initial starting key of B flat major. Adams also has commented that his Grand Pianola was “subconscious music,” in which the listener was hearing a blur of sounds. “This is much like what one would hear crossing through a music school with
ON STAGE
the different styles played simultaneously. Mozart is among those referenced in this sonic blur,” explains Woehlke. As a composer, Berio sought to encourage the virtuosity of performance, much like Mozart did in his vocal and instrumental works. Berio’s compositions of this sort are evident in a series of pieces, Sequenzas, which he composed as solo, virtuosic works. This particular concert will feature “Sequenza VIII,” a solo piece for violin. This concert will be Present Music’s biggest yet, featuring 23 musicians and three vocalists. “Usually we perform with a smaller group, but this is much different,” Woehlke says. “This larger-scale event sets the scene for a season that will indeed be larger than life in many aspects.” Among the other five Present Music concerts this season are the Oct. 24 Carnival concert, featuring 2015 Grammy winner Cory Smythe, and the March 20 Equinox: Light and Dark, another combination of classical and contemporary works by composers including Antonio Vivaldi, Andrew Normon, Judd Greenstein and Robert Honstein. Mozart?! brings together three great men — a minimalist, an experimentalist and a master — all for one night only. “Regardless of your music taste, this is the concert for you,” Woehlke says. “This event proves that classical music is not old or outdated, but is alive and thriving in new music. It’s incredibly exciting, and a reminder of the power of music to transcend time.”
Present Music’s Mozart?! concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee. Tickets are $35, $25 or $15, with half-price discounts for students at presentmusic.org.
10
YEAR
S
Annual shows offering American made, handcrafted furniture & accessories.
September 18-20 Muellner Building in Hart Park Wauwatosa, WI Fri. 4-8 • Sat. 10-6 • Sun. 10-5 ~ Adults: $10
• NEW dates! NEW venue! • Free parking, door prizes • New: Quilt show by WI quilters • New: Speakers series • Best in Show Awards See show website for more details!
www.FineFurnishingsShows.com
Bring this ad for
VIP Half Price Admission for up to 4 Adults
38
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Natasha Nicholson’s studio, recreated at MMoCA, is a work of art in itself
By Michael Muckian Contributing writer
Natasha Nicholson stands in the middle of “Studiolo,” an immense room filled with hundreds of arranged artifacts and found objects that replicates part of the Madison artist’s home studio. She looks around to make sure every piece of her collection is where it needs to be — to foster the artistic environment she considers critical to her work. Studiolo, and three other rooms replicated from Nicholson’s studio on Madison’s east side, comprise Natasha Nicholson: The Artist in Her Museum, which opened Aug. 21 at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Nicholson is a collector of everything from priceless antiquities to contemporary junk, which she repurposes and combines to make artistic pieces that reflect her view of art, life and humankind. According to artist, critic and historian Linda James, writing in the catalogue created for the exhibition, “(Nicholson’s) art is her studio is her home is her art.” MMOCA director Stephan Flesichman agrees. “In this rare occurrence, the spaces that Natasha inhabits are themselves an artwork. It is this quality that we plan to capture and recreate for museum visitors.” Viewers to the exhibit stroll through four separate rooms that replicate the artist’s creative process. The journey starts in “The Thinking Room.” It is here, Nicholson says, that she gathers and sorts various objects, looking for meaning and possible relationships with other found items. Some pieces move on quickly to create an artistic work, while others wait for their perfect pairing to come along and join them. “Strata,” the second room in the exhibition, is the place where Nicholson creates art, sculpture and expressions using the items she has gathered. It is the character of the object, as well as what it means to the artist, that determines its fate in a larger collaborative piece, she says. “I love the patina and age of found objects and the opportunity to take something common and make it more elegant,” Nicholson says. “This changes the definition of how viewers think of the object based on their own observations, reactions and insights.” Studiolo is the showcase of the exhibit and home to Nicholson’s immense Cabinet of Curiosities. Formerly on exhibit in 2000 at UW-Madison’s Chazen Museum, the cabinet is a large standalone piece of furniture with two wings and multiple individual cells. In it, you’ll find everything from a tiny terra cotta figure of a cat from ancient Egypt to a much more contemporary display of taxidermy birds paired with a cut and polished Italian stone that looks very much like a painting of a western mesa under a storm-heavy sky. For Nicholson, it’s about the collection and what it may say to the viewers. She has never titled her works until now, she says, allowing
viewers to draw their own conclusions. “I am just a temporary caretaker of all these items; they belonged to someone else before I acquired them and will go to someone else after I am gone,” Nicholson says. “I think all good collectors understand this.” The fourth room, the Bead Room, houses the artist’s extensive collection of beads, ethnic jewelry and antique fabrics, often joined to other found objects in her various compositions. They are another important set of facets to her vast collection, captured within the squares and containers of the cabinet, the frames and the very rooms themselves. By her own admission, Nicholson is one of those rare artists who chooses to think inside the box to visualize, frame and better understand and isolate the objects in her compositions. The discipline of the square, the frame and the bell jar help capture and display the various elements of her compositions, creating a confined context that allows each to speak with a clearer voice, one more in tune with the artistic statement being made. “I’m a person of great curiosity and wonder,” Nicholson says. “The relationship between the cultures, genres, time periods and other aspects of the pieces tie works together in new ways that speak to those viewing the art.” The exhibition’s signature piece, “Silent Buddha” (2014), encapsulates the elements of Nicholson’s artistic ethos. Nicholson received the 6-inch wooden figure unexpectedly from a friend. It had been damaged and had its face chewed off by the previous owner’s dog, but she loved the statute too much to simply discard it. The artist took the Buddha and wrapped its head in red thread harvested from a 19thcentury piece of fabric. The statue was then mounted on a pedestal and enclosed in a box of light aspen wood, whose clean, modern lines stand in strict contrast to the small Buddha’s size, color and texture. By adapting the Buddha to a more contemporary visual setting, she has created new meaning for the previously damaged artwork, one she hopes that viewers of the exhibit will be able to embrace. “Single objects have their own meaning, but what I do well is put two or three things together that may say something to the viewer” Nicholson says. “It’s a process of sharing, and that’s very important to me.”
ON DISPLAY
Natasha Nicholson: The Artist in Her Museum runs through Nov. 8 at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St., Madison. For more information, call 608-257-0158 or visit mmoca.org.
P h o t o s : M ad i s on M u s e u m o f C on t e mpo r a r y A r t
The Artist in Her Museum recreates Natasha Nicholson’s studio with various eclectic rooms. Visitors’ journeys begin in “The Thinking Room” (top), packed with items not yet partnered. They then travel to “Strata,” where Nicholson creates work, and “Studiolo” (bottom), where some of that work is prominently displayed.
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
RedLine Milwaukee’s diverse ‘Timeline’ By Kat Minerath
Contributing writer
From across the room, Jody Emery’s “Universe” catches light like a cosmos of stars twinkling in the night. Enamel paint glistens in a cloudy crush of three-dimensional texture that builds from the artwork’s surface. Approach more closely and see that this murky constellation is built from metal detritus of various chains, tool bits and other tough implements. It is an imaginative recasting and one of the highlights in the exhibition Timeline, on view at RedLine Milwaukee. RedLine meets the needs of artists seeking workshop space and exhibition opportunities with the added bonus of not having to create in isolation. It is home to 11 artists-inresidence, some of whom are breaking out in their career after the relative safety of academia and art degrees. Others have been practicing independently and find RedLine to be a home for artistic incubation. Many of the show’s strongest pieces reveal an innovative use of materials. Nina Ghanbarzadeh performs artistic alchemy with a disheveled web of dripping, dark lines of dried acrylic paint in “A true human is my desire.” It is sparse, darkly romantic, elegantly composed and hangs together by the merest thread in places. It is perhaps an apt metaphor for the human condition. Not all is so serious, however. Miles Buss’ paintings are delightful fun. With a deadpan touch, his compositions seem charmingly obvious at first. In one, he paints bold, flat, naive trees that could appear on the set of a children’s play. This is a ruse to get us to look more closely at things like the shadow of a tree that breaks sharply when it meets the sky, as though it is cast onto a wall instead of infinite space. This touch of René Magritte-styled humor also is found in the collages of Carly Huibregtse. She employs cut-out images of foodstuffs and figures, floating them in glass frames or against colorful backgrounds. The disembodied delectables are part of a series called I’m Not a Foodie, I Just Eat a Lot. Collage is popular in this exhibition. Jaime Bilgo Bruchman brings a highly lyrical approach to her multilayered compositions. Light colors, decorations and diaphanous fabrics create something like undersea kingdoms or lush forest beds. Natalie Schmitting uses bits of paper to make collages that similarly suggest a certain environment, but they seem preliminary to her monumental painting, “Reinstate.” The collages are hard-edged and firm in their contours. Blown up to a large scale and articulated in acrylic and oil pastel, the painting offers more nuanced layers through its piles of slashing brushwork. In this show, big paintings are well represented and tend to favor expressionistic tendencies. Luke Farley warms up with a number of ink drawings, gone over with a shimmering patina of shellac. He takes his gestural sensations to monumental proportions, and what might originate as representational objects like boats are freely diverted in favor of freeform mark making.
Skully Gustafson is abstract in his approach, but more exuberant in color and insistent in the demarcation of contour lines. Photographs of the artist in various costumes of lingerie and pinup looks relate to vignettes in the paintings, with pairings that become an expression of character in visual form. Katie Ryan’s paintings form a series referencing particular addresses. The pieces are hung on the wall and painted on a curtain around a cushy gold armchair, P h o t o : K at M i n e r at h as though a seat for Miles Buss’ deliberately naive paintings are charming fun and reminiscences of just one of the 11 collections of work in Timeline. places once known. Something that may seem tiny and precious like a book is also expanded into ests in a show that celebrates the diverse sizable proportions. Cynthia Brinich-Lan- practices within these walls. Timeline runs through Oct. 3 at 1422 N. glois’s “Book of Hours: Tipi Circle” expands several feet in accordion folds. The land- Fourth St., Milwaukee. Admission is free. scape drawings and evocative text docu- Visit redlinemke.org for more details. ment the passage of a day, mirroring the traditions of prayer and attention to spiritual time. Sue Lawton uses her science-fiction novel The Rift for a work in progress. Intricate fantasy illustrations are shown, along with an audio recording of the story as part of the gallery installation. Timeline as an exhibition covers a lot of ground — fitting, considering RedLine’s purpose as both an artistic playground and a serious place to get work done. These 11 artists present a broad range of stylistic inter-
39
40
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Mika stops hiding with ‘No Place in Heaven’ By Jan Janssen
The Interview Feed
Mika is one of pop music’s most uniquely talented artists. The Anglo-Lebanese singer burst into the spotlight with his superb debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion, which has sold nearly 6 million copies since its release in 2007. Since then, he has continued to demonstrate the gift for sweet melody and catchy hooks that has become his trademark, along with a voice that evokes the spirit and register of Elton John, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. His new album, No Place in Heaven, is perhaps the 31-year-old singer/songwriter’s most potent and inspired artistic achievement yet. Evoking vintage pop and sprinkled with emotionally charged love songs, No Place in Heaven is the result of a two-year period of intense dedication. The album has in part been conceived as an act of personal liberation for the artist, who in recent years has admitted the difficulty of coming out and being open about his sexuality, now saying, “I no longer want to hide.” Of course, when you’re a mega-selling pop idol like Mika, it is practically impossible to live beneath the radar. Today, the tall, lean singer best known for songs like “Grace Kelly,” “Relax, Take it Easy,” “We Are Golden” and “Elle me dit” (“She Tells Me,” recorded in English as “Emily”), is embracing life more fully than ever and his new album is conceived in part as a more intimate portrait of his life. “Until three years ago I was very resistant to revealing myself: on TV, in (magazine and print) interviews. Then I started to do the opposite. I stopped trying to protect me, to be afraid to show my inner life. I won the battle!,” Mika says. “I began talking about myself, explaining who I am, as if I had found a sort of candor in my way of being and
making music. I also decided to stop putting distance between me and my songs. This album, No Place in Heaven, is my diary.” Born in Beirut, Mika was barely a year old when in 1984 he and his family were forced to flee the country in order to escape the Lebanese Civil War. Mika lived first in France and then, from the age of 9 onward, he grew up in England. Growing up, he dealt with the challenges of being dyslexic and also suffered from intense bullying. A few years ago, Mika opened up about being gay and having to overcome the stigma that comes from a Middle East culture on his father’s side: “I was scared of not being accepted by my family. No one in my family is gay. No one in my extended family is gay. It was a very foreign, alien thing. You’re scared of being judged. Then you realize there is nothing to be afraid of if you are happy. I fell in love. I lost love. I found it again. I reached a point where I was like, ‘You know what, I’ve lived my life and I’ve never pretended to be anyone else.’” Mika, is this the most personal album of your career? This album is much more intimate and personal. There are no metaphors or turns of phrase to mask my feelings. Having come from a Middle East culture, I felt weighed down with a sense of shame for a long time, and this album is a way of escaping that paranoia. This is an album that speaks of freedom, of becoming an adult — the person we want to become is always more interesting than who we are. But I don’t want to be a role model, a model for others, that’s something that scares me. I write songs that are part of the process of living and expressing my life. Why did you choose this particular, rather sad title for the album?
The Ultimate Veritas Spa Salon Where You’re Treated Like Royalty
Mention This Ad and Receive 50% Off Xtreme Eyelashes or 50% Off an Infinity Sun Custom Airbrush Tan with Allison Taylor!
View our full service menu at UltimateVeritasSpa.com 5713 Monona Drive • Monona, WI 53716 • 608.222.4174
P h o t o : R e p u b l i c / C a s ab l anca R e co r d s
Mika’s newest album, No Place in Heaven, is an act of personal liberation for the pop artist, who is becoming increasingly open about his sexuality. The title is not sad. On the contrary, it’s joyful. If I find place in heaven, that’s fine, otherwise there’s no problem — I won’t go there at any price. This goes against the culture in which I grew up, though. My Lebanese side includes a healthy dose of paranoia in dealing with personal issues. Now I feel I’ve finally been able to knock down the wall, to break out of that shell. Now I understand that the real shame is to keep inside certain things. Years ago when I would give interviews I would avoid talking about
serious personal things, I kept everything at a distance. Now it’s my time to free my soul. The title also kind of makes you wonder why a guy who is 31 can say that there’s no place in heaven for him. It’s a liberating title and it’s all about shaking off the concept of shame and wrestling with the concept of living in the moment more. Is there an overriding emotional theme to your music? MIKA next page
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
MIKA from prior page Joy! But in my songs there is always a conflict between the immediacy of melody and very blunt words that reek of truth. The album No Place in Heaven is perhaps difficult to understand immediately. You discover the meaning by listening to it several times, reading the lyrics. I talk about love, but also about suffering, ecstasy and violence. A mix of conflicting feelings, which makes my music emotionally true. In one song, for example, I wonder if there is a love story that is truly full of joy. But maybe that doesn’t exist — there. Maybe it you can only find that at Disneyland where a romantic date is totally happy. Maybe there will be 10 fantastic minutes, 40 unforgettable, but then 20 horrible minutes. But we seem to be programmed to remember only the good things. You wrote this album while living in California? Yes, in Laurel Canyon (Los Angeles). My inspirations are first and foremost Elton John, Billy Joel, and the golden age of pop songwriters from the ‘70s. I first started working in a huge, very modern studio in Los Angeles, but I ran away after a week, because it wasn’t the place where I wanted to write an album. So I went to the Apple store, bought a computer, bought a piano, called my musicians and we moved into a 1950s era house in L.A. But what I didn’t know was that Orlando Bloom had been living in that house and there were always tourists and fans standing outside waiting for him! But I stayed there for three months and it was very beautiful and intense. What was the experience like? I was kind of inspired by the story of how Elton John composed his Yellow Brick Road album at a place called The Castle in France, where he would compose in the morning and record in the afternoon. The house in Los Angeles was like a little factory. We would record and write in the living room, different musicians would come in and out, some would be waiting in the garden. It was
a very creative atmosphere. I was constantly writing. During those three months, I maybe left the house four or five times. I wanted to write a record that felt like it came out of a bubble. Your new album has a very distinct French chanson influence to it. I spent a lot of time growing up in Paris and my first musical education came through the French songs of Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, Barbara Moustaki, Rita Mitsouko, etc. I’m not afraid of melody — it’s part of my training. I had wanted to sing in French for a long, long time, which I finally did on my previous album, but I knew I could not write in French myself, because in my head I think in English. So I had to wait until I met Doriand, a lyricist who interprets my ideas and can put that into French. “All She Wants” seems to be a very autobiographical song? Is it about your own mother? Of course. It’s about a mother who dreams that her son will get married, find a good job, have a family and lead a traditional kind of life. But she always believed in me and stood by me even if though she knew I wasn’t going to be that kind of son. Today my mother works with me (as his stylist) and we are very close. My mom does my clothes for all my shows and she’s become a gypsy without realizing it! But I am convinced that if I were a more “normal” son, with a beautiful wife and many children, it would be better for her. I think she’s 90 percent happy with who I am, but inside her there will always be that 10 percent of desire for normality, which I can’t give her. That’s part of the inspiration for the song, because even though I have a very good relationship with my mother, a singer/ songwriter always finds inspiration in the “grey” area, in the darker side of reality. How would you describe your childhood and having to move from one country to another with your family? It was difficult for me. I felt like an outsider wherever we went. It was like being
| August 27, 2015
shipwrecked. Twice we lost everything and I grew up knowing what it’s like having money and then not having any money at all. Now I can appreciate that this kind of economic instability was a gift from God. Even though my family didn’t have an easy or normal life, it was full of love. And love is the most important thing. What was your life like going to school in France? As a child I hated school, because I could not read and write and the French school system was rather cruel. When we went to live in England and I started attending a school in London, I was told: “You’re stupid, you’re dyslexic.” It was the first time I had experienced that kind of taunting. At my French school we all wore uniforms, but in England that wasn’t required. I started to wear my own clothes. I would show up at school wearing bow ties and shirts with polka dots and that’s when I started to have a lot of problems. How did you deal with the bullying? It made me want to succeed and prove myself. Bullying is a way of punishing people for being different and to try to make everyone be the same and be less special. My mother always gave me a lot of encouragement. She told me that you only need to have one great talent or skill and that will overcome all the other disadvantages that I had because of my dyslexia. She understood that my being different and having a very creative side was my gift to succeed in life.
41
42
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Third time charms again for Testa Rosa By Bill Lamb
Contributing writer
“Pretty” is not an adjective that tends to apply to the Milwaukee music scene, but it’s one that has been leveled at — and embraced by — pop rock band Testa Rosa more than once. Betty Blexud-Strigens and Damian Strigens, the couple who lead the band, haven’t lost any of that shine as they gear up for the release of their third album. But the appropriately titled Testa Rosa III is tempered by a deeper, darker and denser sound than Testa Rosa has dabbled with in the past. With Blexud-Strigens singing lead and serving as the group’s primary songwriter and Strigens playing lead guitar and producing instrumental arrangements in studio, Testa Rosa released their self-titled debut in 2007 to stellar reviews. Their 2011 follow-up, Testa Rosa II, was noted for expanding the group’s sound, keeping the pop catchy while providing a more varied listening experience. Blexud-Strigens’ striking voice has always reminded me of Karen Carpenter, a beautiful instrument infused with darker undertones. It’s a comparison she agrees with, although she would add the voices of Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and ABBA’s Frida Lyngstad. Blexud-Strigens says the Carpenters’ songs were the first she and her sister sang along with while growing up, and while she was writing III, she was “engulfed” in Little Girl Blue, a biography of Karen Carpenter.
III has a more local influence as well. Blexud-Strigens was chosen in 2014 to curate Alverno Presents’ Smith Uncovered show, a celebration of punk icon Patti Smith featuring re-interpretations of her greatest songs by local musicians. Testa Rosa performed the song “Frederick” from Patti Smith’s 1979 album Wave and Blexud-Strigens found herself increasingly influenced by the artist’s work. She says two songs on III owe their origins to Smith Uncovered. One, “Golden Boat,” is more indirect, inspired by the poem “The Drunken Boat” by Arthur Rimbaud, who heavily influenced Smith’s work. The other, “The Summer of We Three,” is a reference to the Smith song “We Three.” Blexud-Strigens says, “I was trying to be more poetic and dark and I was thinking of Patti a lot when I wrote it.” The richer, darker arrangements on III can be attributed to Strigens’ influence. He says he likes the sound “a little more aggressive.” By contrast, Blexud-Strigens’ arrangements tend to be “more simple pop.” Strigens also is quick to point out the other musicians essential to III. Keyboardist Nick Berg, who also plays with Strigens in Americana band Conrad Plymouth, has joined Testa Rosa for III, adding atmospheric synth washes and studio engineering skills. Among other musicians who play on the album are cello player Janet Schiff and Milwaukee’s Ben Lester, currently touring with Tallest
Man on Earth on pedal steel. At heart, Testa Rosa remains distinctively a Wisconsin band, as reflected in local references in at least three of the songs on the new album. The song “Window Breaker” is about Mary Sweeney, a woman immortalized in the book and film Wisconsin Death Trip, who distinguished herself through, and was frequently jailed for, her personal “sport” of breaking windows. The song “Irvine” grew out of Blexud-Strigens’ childhood memories of Chippewa Falls’ Irvine Park before morphing into a song about California’s city of Irvine. Finally, “Bad Wolf,” the single the band released last year and the track that kicks off the album, gives an impressionistic view of polarizing Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. One of the most difficult questions for the couple to answer was a simple one: How would you describe the sound of Testa Rosa? The phrase that finally seemed the most evocative was Blexud-Strigens’: “AM pop radio playing in some kind of urban ruin.”
P h o t o : K at Sc h l e i c h e r
Milwaukee band Testa Rosa released its third album on Aug. 21.
If you have fond memories of the music of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the “golden age of studio recording,” you will find much to like in the music of Testa Rosa. However, fans of contemporary alternative rock should also find themselves enthralled by the rich textures of the band’s sound on III.
ON STAGE
Testa Rosa will celebrate Testa Rosa III at an album release party Aug. 29 at 9 p.m. at Shank Hall, 1434 N. Farwell Ave. Tickets are $10. Visit shankhall.com to order.
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Music reviews
The Sets List
43
Wilco :: ‘Star Wars’
Meat Puppets
8:30 p.m. Aug. 28 at Club Garibaldi, Milwaukee. $13. clubgaribaldi.com. Is there a better way to celebrate the end of summer than by listening to some “face-melting” rock ’n’ roll by the Meat Puppets? Better be safe and pop into Club Garibaldi for this cowpunk pioneer’s first appearance at the venue in two years. The group — best known for an appearance with Nirvana on MTV Unplugged shortly before Kurt Cobain’s death, but a reputable force in their own right — has a history of rocking the venue hard, and their 2015 appearance should be no different.
Ever wondered what Wilco would sound like if they simply walked into the studio and let the tape roll? Now you can find out, thanks to their new album Star Wars, a self-released, superDIY record that sounds even better than many of the band’s more intricately constructed past works. In the midst of all of the fuzzy guitar and avant-pop rhythms, there is an elegant grace that keeps you listening. “You Satellite” is one of the most beautiful tracks Wilco has ever written, and the buzzing flood of guitars on top of drums that chaotically roll off the rails by the end makes the song even more striking. While the album has more introspective moments, it is the rollicking sound of noisy tracks like “Random Name Generator” and “Pickled Ginger” that will stick in your mind.
Rob Thomas :: ‘The Great Unknown’
Dirty Heads
8:30 p.m. Sept. 1 at the Barrymore Theatre, Madison. $27. barrymorelive.com. Dirty Heads has been an established reggae rock band for several years, but they took a big shift with their 2014 album Sound of Change, introducing more alternative rock and hip-hop influences than ever before. It paid off — their lead single, “My Sweet Summer,” picked up heavy rotation on indie and mainstream stations alike, only growing in popularity as summer turned to fall and listeners grabbed onto whatever reminders of warmth they could. At the Barrymore, they’ll prove they’re more than just a catchy single. Dutch funk rock band Chef’Special opens.
Jeremy Messersmith
TBA Sept. 8 in Oshkosh and Sept. 9 in Milwaukee. $20. jeremymessersmith.com. There’s small, intimate concerts, and then there’s Jeremy Messersmith’s Supper Club tour. The indie pop artist from Minneapolis is traveling around the country, playing a series of musical potluck shows at random homes. He has two Wisconsin gigs coming up, in Oshkosh and Milwaukee, and that’s all we can tell you about them. Get tickets, and you get the host’s address and other important details. What happens next? That’s up to you.
9 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Orpheum Theatre, Madison. $25, $30 day-of-show. madisonorpheum.com. On their last two records, LP3 and LP4, electronica duo Ratatat (Mike Stroud and Evan Mast) got experimental, trying out different genres, instruments and motifs. Magnifique, their first album in half a decade, gets back to their roots: guitar driven, synth-supported electronic rock. It’s been wildly enjoyed by fans of the band in live performance, so this Orpheum show comes with high expectations.
Rufus Wainwright
8 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Marcus Center, Milwaukee. $17 to $107. mso.org. Considered one of the greatest vocalists and songwriters performing today, Rufus Wainwright vacillates between contemporary and classical notions of pop music with an enviable ease. So it makes sense that he’d want to perform an evening of his best work with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The Marcus Center may not be the Pabst Theater (where he recorded his live album Milwaukee at Last!!!), but Wainwright loves the city whatever the venue.
P h o t o s : J a i m e B u t l e r , Pa r ad i gm , S e an J am e s
Ratatat
It’s been six years since we last heard solo work from Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas, and he’s lightened up considerably since Cradlesong. This new album is more akin to Thomas’ catchy debut, kicking off with the R&B-inflected “I Think We’d Feel Good Together” and segueing into uptempo lead single “Trust You.” There are big ballads like “Paper Dolls” and “Pieces,” but the danceable beat of “Things You Said” is more memorable. Six years is a long time to be away, but hopefully pop radio will give this record a chance.
Carly Rae Jepsen :: ‘E-MO-TION’
The hazard in a smash hit single as big as “Call Me Maybe” is it tends to overshadow everything an artist does afterward. Carly Rae Jepson has struggled since 2012 to find a compelling follow-up to her international debut Kiss, and it’s masked one of the stronger talents in the mainstream pop universe. E-MO-TION could change that. Jepsen says she looked to Cyndi Lauper and Robyn for inspiration, and it shows on the album, infused with the simultaneous bursts of joy and creeping melancholy that distinguishes both artists’ best work. Kiss was a quality contemporary pop statement. E-MO-TION speaks even louder.
Beach House :: ‘Depression Cherry’
Beach House, the duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, has emerged as a key architect of what is known as dream pop. It is a sound in which vocals and melodies seem to emerge out of a soothing electronic haze. It has carried Beach House to nearly universal critical acclaim and a top 10-charting album, Bloom, in 2012. Depression Cherry is the first release since, and it seems a bit like a letdown. The songs on Depression Cherry aim to go to a somewhat darker place, but too often they seem to be lost in the mist. The single “Sparks” is more distinctive with a somewhat rougher sound, but much of the rest of the album is so comforting that the attention of the listener can frequently waver. — Bill Lamb
44
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
Get schooled on UW-Madison traditions By Jay Rath
Contributing writer
Students are returning to campus and football fans are returning to bleachers. University of Wisconsin-Madison classes begin Sept. 2 and the first home game is Sept. 12. If a great university has great traditions, then UW-Madison must be great, indeed. And you’d better know the traditions, whether attending the university or enjoying a Badger game. After all, “Without an identifiable tradition, a university could become an emberless place, perhaps a soulless battleground,” wrote Robert Gard, the late folklorist and UW historian. Incidentally, the first home game will be against Miami University, of Oxford, Ohio. Don’t worry, that’s not a tradition. But these are: Bucky Badger — The tradition most associated with UW-Madison is actually one of its most recent. The Bucky we know today was designed in 1940 by Art Evans, a California commercial artist. Before that, a live badger sometimes served as mascot. Believe it or not, so did Paul Bunyan. Cheerleaders — Today they build pyramids and catch each other in basket tosses, but cheerleading started as only that — cheering. The first cheerleader, Johnny Campbell, led the first cheer on Nov. 2,
1898, at a University of Minnesota football game. It spread to the UW soon afterward. For decades, only men were allowed. The scales tipped in women’s favor during the 1920s, because so few other athletic activities were open to them. Homecoming — No, it hasn’t been around forever. The first UW homecoming was in 1911. It included speeches and, during halftime, an alumni football game. The UW had been playing intercollegiate football for only 22 years. In 1912, and at every homecoming game since, law school seniors have charged the southern goalpost, where they try to throw their canes up and over. Students making the catch, tradition goes, will win their first cases. This year’s homecoming game, Oct. 17, will be played against Purdue. The Fifth Quarter — If you leave early, you’ll miss what some fans think is the best part of the game. In the 1970s, Madison’s football team wasn’t exactly strong. To boost morale, the marching band added a post-game performance. It built and built, becoming wilder and wilder, with stunts and choreography. By the time the press had dubbed it the Fifth Quarter, it was an institution. The Band — The UW School of Music actually hosts several bands, but it’s the marching band fans know best. It was formed during the 1885–86 school year. It performed with the University Military Battalion, at prom and at the “Joint Debate of the University.” In 1894 the band began playing at the newfangled football games sweeping the country. Today Mike Leckrone, director of bands, marches more than 300 students and has become a tradition himself, enjoying iconic status. He joined the UW in 1969, and developed the group’s distinctive pointed-foot marching style, as well as designing its uniforms. As for what
the band plays: “Varsity” — The somber song that brings a lump to alumni throats was originally a hymn written by Charles Gounod (1818–1893), a French composer primarily known for opera. He also wrote the well-known setting for “Ave Maria.” In 1908, UW music instructor Henry Dyke Sleeper wrote new words and a new arrangement for what he named “Varsity Toast.” The arm-wave at its close was added in 1934 by band director Ray Dvorak. “If You Want to Be a Badger” — Like “Varsity,” it originally had another life. In 1919, UW professor Julian Olson wrote the lyrics for “The Badger Ballad.” Band director Charles Mills composed a peppy melody for the song, which wasn’t intended for students or sports, but for an alumni dinner. “You’ve Said It All” — Older Milwaukee readers will recall when the city was home not only to Miller but to Schlitz, Pabst and Blatz breweries — and the intense rivalry with Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser, brewed in St. Louis. So it’s the peak of irony that Bud’s 1970 advertising jingle was made into the UW’s favorite brag: “When you’ve said Wi-scon-sin, you’ve said it all!” Steve Karmen wrote the original. “On, Wisconsin!” — If it doesn’t have the comma and exclamation point, it’s not the song’s actual title. It was written in 1909 by W.T. Purdy and Carl Beck for a University of Minnesota song competition. They gave it to the UW, instead. It’s also our official state song. After singing it at the game, why not head to: The Union Terrace — The students’ Memorial Union was completed in 1928. Campus supervising architect Arthur Peabody wanted it to resemble “a Venetian pleasure palace,” but he left its most pleasing feature to his daughter, Charlotte. A budding landscape architect, she designed the terrace, “the living room of the university,” on the shores of Lake Mendota.
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
Astro Logic
WiG
CLASSIFIEDS
SALES & SERVICES AUTOMOTIVe Donate your car to Veterans today. Fast - FREE pick up. 100% tax deductible. Call 1-800709-0542. TOP CASH FOR CARS, Any Car/ Truck, Running or Not. Call for INSTANT offer: 1-800-454-6951.
BIKES BIKE SALE: All in stock models marked down 100 dollars or more. Save an extra 5% on cash sales. Bigfoot Bike and Skate, 350 E. Ward St., Milwaukee, WI 53207(PH:414-332-3479). DISH TV Starting at $19.99/month
Business Services (for 12 mos.) SAVE! Regular Price $34.99 Ask About FREE SAME DAY Installation! CALL Now! 877648-0096.
for LESS! Starting $19.99/month (for 12 months.) PLUS Bundle & SAVE (Fast Internet for $15 more/ month.) CALL Now! 1-800-6154064. Make a Connection. Real People, Flirty Chat. Meet singles right now! Call LiveLinks. Try it FREE. Call NOW: 1-888-9099905 18+. AVIATION Grads work with JetBlue, Boeing, Delta and othersstart here with hands on training for FAA certification. Financial aid if qualified. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866-453-6204.
VIAGRA 100mg, CIALIS 20mg. 40 tabs +10 FREE, $99 includes FREE SHIPPING. 1-888-836-0780
Miscellaneous or Metro-Meds.net. Lowest Rates For Everyone Auto-Home-Renters. Local agents, personal service. We shop our 40 A-rated carriers for you. The Insurance Office FREE Quotes - Call now 414-302-0559. Herndon’s Gift Shop Your first choice in quality online shopping! herndon’sgiftshop.com Customer Service M-F 6-8 PM 256665-3671. CASH FOR CARS, Any Make or Model! Free Towing. Sell it TODAY. Instant offer: 1-800-864-5784. Dish Network - Get MORE
construct in 1931 and has never looked better. One bdrm avail Oct. 1, $755 Heat, water, internet, cable included. Onsite manager Call: 608-778-6187 http://www.eastmore.com. 918 N 29th St. Immaculate single home. Side drive, 2 car garage Nice yard. Quiet block w/ stately homes. 6 rms, 2 bdrms, 1+ baths. Updated Kit all appliances. Washer/dryer included. Security system. lease. No Animals. Nonsmoker. Rent $900. Call Don @ 414-3884368.
with Dr. Sterling Asterix
I’m legally obligated* to tell you this week that Saturn, the arbiter of discipline both celestial and terrestrial, has finally popped out of its retrograde stint in debaucherous Scorpio and is back where it belongs in the fancy centaur sign, so get back to work, etc. But sometimes it’s exhausting having to be the bearer of harsh cosmic truths based on centuries-old teachings and definitely not whatA l l s i gn s : J an . 1 – D e c . 3 1 ever I google two days before this column is due. So I’m rejecting my responsibilities this week, and you should too, The universe is bending its will to make you stop lazing about and get into that back-to-school spirit, but forget the universe. Stay lazy and let the consequences build up. That’ll make my column next time easier too. *We checked with our lawyers. WiG has no legal obligations re: Dr. Asterix but nice try.
DISH TV Starting at $19.99/month (for 12 mos.) SAVE! Regular Price $34.99 Ask About FREE SAME DAY Installation! CALL Now! 877477-9659.
Wanted to Buy CASH PAID- up to $25/Box for unexpired, sealed DIABETIC TEST STRIPS. 1-DAYPAYMENT.1-800-371-1136. Wants to purchase minerals and other oil and gas interests. Send details to P.O. Box 13557 Denver, CO 80201.
HEalth and Fitness VIAGRA 100MG and CIALIS 20mg! 50 Pills $99.00 FREE Shipping! 100% guaranteed. CALL NOW! 1-866-312-6061.
45
| August 27, 2015
REAL ESTATE & RENTALS Apartments for Rent Shorewood 1920s Tudor Revival Bldg - 1420-8 E. Capitol Dr. Large elegant apt. homes featuring well maintained vintage details such as stucco walls, HWFs, built-is and ornate pillars. 2 bdrms avail ASAP $960 - $995/ mo. Heat, water, internet, cable included. Showing by appt: 414214-0212. eastmore.com. Downtown 1950s Art Deco High Rise 1029 E. Knapp St. Walking distance to lake & Cathedral Square. 1 bdrms avail ASAP. $700 - $995 cable & internet incl. City and lake views. Premium apts. include granite, stainless steel and Pergo flooring. Showings by appt: 414-759-1154 eastmore.com. Heart of Shorewood - 4480 N Oakland Ave. Located across the street from Colectivo. Beautiful building with wood floors that was
WANTED OLD JAPANESE MOTORCYCLES KAWASAKI-- Z1-900(1972-75), KZ900, KZ1000(1976-1982), Z1R, KZ1000MK2(1979,80), W1-650, H1-500(1969-72), H2-750(1972-1975), S1-250, S2-350, S3-400, KH250, KH400, SUZUKI--GS400, GT380, HONDA--CB750K(1969-1976), CBX1000(1979,80)
$$ CASH $$
1-800-772-1142 1-310-721-0726 usa@classicrunners.com
CA$H FOR
CARS
All Cars/Trucks Wanted! Running or Not! Damaged/Wrecked...OK! FREE Pick-Up and Towing! Sell your car in 60 seconds!
CALL NOW FOR A FREE GUARANTEED OFFER!
1-888-524-9668 www.cashforcars.com
AIRLINE CAREERS Get FAA approved maintenance training at campuses coast to coast. Job placement assistance. Financial Aid for qualifying students. Military friendly. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance
800-481-7894
46
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
TECH GADGETS ACROSS 1. Had, with thou 6. Exclamation of disgust 9. Fit of shivering 13. American writer Jong 14. Beauty treatment site 15. “No guts, no ____” 16. ____ in, for a doctor 17. “C’____ la vie!” 18. *A portable one is great for camping 19. eBay participant 21. *Power provider 23. *A smart one syncs everything you write 24. *Pretty hot and tempting, in a text 25. Public health org. 28. Bluish green 30. ____ talk 35. ZZ Top hit 37. Lady Gaga’s 2010 dress material 39. Lowest Hindu caste 40. Tons 41. “Walk the Dog” device, pl. 43. Civil wrong 44. Done to some documents 46. Cheers regular 47. The Iliad, e.g. 48. Interruption in continuity 50. Medieval domain 52. Emerald ____ borer 53. Naive, alt. spelling
55. Hat 57. *Bose, e.g. 61. Iron Man’s robotic nemesis 64. Like a ballerina 65. Unit of electric current 67. Scape goat’s due 69. ____circle 70. Likewise 71. More ill 72. No I in this 73. Long, long time 74. Working shoelaces DOWN 1. “For ____ a jolly ...” 2. Circle parts 3. Awful 4. Create a sculpture 5. *Mobile computer 6. *____-friendly 7. *Directional helper 8. Appear like a chick 9. Winglike 10. “It’s time!” signal 11. Impulse 12. One who eyes another 15. Costing nothing 20. Public ____, rappers 22. As opposed to mishap 24. It’s often sudden death 25. *____ drive 26. Indian metropolis 27. Greek bazaar 29. Long, long time, alt. spelling
31. Mandolin’s cousin 32. Parkinson’s drug 33. Root of iris 34. *Apple or Pebble, e.g. 36. Proofreader’s mark 38. Amos or Spelling 42. Perceive by olfactory sense 45. AKA Norwegian Hound 49. Sigma Alpha Epsilon 51. *Activity tracker 54. All worked up 56. ____ bar, DQ treat 57. Skirt opening 58. A conifer 59. Largest volcano in Europe 60. Throat-clearing sound 61. On top of 62. French Sudan, today 63. Black cat, e.g. 66. Jersey call 68. Energy unit Answers on pg. 39
We posted... you commented...
Feedback from our digital platforms.
Wisconsin Dept. of Justice wants redistricting suit dismissed
Wisconsin vets urge Ron Johnson to return campaign check
Jim Swanson: The Republican dominated Dept. of Justice, under the thumb of a Republican controlled Legislature and a Republican Governor want the redistricting suit that grossly and unfairly benefits Republicans, dismissed? I am shocked.
Mary Schneider: He has done absolutely nothing for the citizens of Wisconsin! He is nothing but a tea party corporatist & opportunist! Just think we will be paying for his Senator benefits with tax dollars even if he is not voted back in! Wake up Wisconsin & vote for Russ Feingold, a man who fought for Wisconsin.
facebook.com/ wigazette
Dennis Schmidt: They have no case for voter fraud either and yet they insist it happens all the time. Gee I wonder why they are so suspicious.
@wigazette
Dana DuQuaine: Gerrymandering should be illegal. i don’t care which side is doing it. Gail Reichle: Stop Gerrymandering!! Stop it NOW!!!
Yoshi Hoffman: Veterans need to realize that despite what the Republicans say. Their actions and policies are anti veteran. Kate Leighton: He won’t, and you can’t make him!
Kentucky clerk to continue to deny marriage rights to gay couples through her appeal Brent Knudson: God told her to deny same sex couples a marriage, but the thousands of other Christian clerks in the country he neglected to pass on the memo? Erik Wiken: Christianity by convenience. Well done, hypocrite. Steven Schmitzer: Let me see if i have the story correct...Divorce is between the two applying for the licence and God. However if the two happen to be of the same gender then its between the two applying for the license, God and the Clerk.
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015
47
48
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
| August 27, 2015