Isthmus: Dec 3-9, 2015

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Kenton Peters has tried for 40 years to build a downtown lakefront park.

Is Madison finally ready?

Man with a plan E R I C TA D S E N

COVER CREDIT

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■ CONTENTS

■ WHAT TO DO 4 SNAPSHOT

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE, PART 1

Skeptical reporter attends a séance.

7-8 NEWS

REBEL REPORT

Advice from renegade journalist John Ross.

9 TECH

DEADBEATS

Local Airbnb’ers blow off paying room taxes.

ALEX CLAIBORNE

29

JOE TARR

14

COVER STORY NEWS EDITOR Joe Tarr likes urban spaces and the people who inhabit them. When he moved to Madison in 2009 to write for Isthmus, he settled downtown, and he hasn’t left.

As a reporter, he keeps close tabs on local redevelopment efforts, including the Judge Doyle Square project. With that now on ice, he turns his eye this week to another transformative proposal for downtown, one that has been floated for decades by visionary architect Kenton Peters.

COMEDY ALEX CLAIBORNE, a recent UWMadison graduate and former staff writer for The Badger Herald, has been contributing TV criticism to Isthmus since April. This week she branches out to interview comic Cameron Esposito. The two have a few things in common: They both hail from the same part of Chicago, and they’ve both taken classes at Second City in improv and writing.

12 OPINION

PARTY POOPER

The downside to a Dem winning the White House.

14 COVER STORY

40-YEAR PLAN

Will architect Kenton Peters finally get his park?

19, 28 BOOKS

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE, PART 2

The Uncommitted is a spooky debut novel.

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM

New book chronicles the soundtrack to a war.

21-26 FOOD & DRINK

FROM BENELUX WITH LOVE

Cafe Hollander serves big beer, big food, big taste.

THE FOOD NETWORK

Program distributes produce and keeps surplus out of landfills.

27 SPORTS

From the bazaar to the bizarre Sat., Dec. 5, & Sun., Dec. 6 Whether you’re looking for a gift that’s socially responsible, artsy-craftsy, locally made or full-blown batshit weird (or all of the above), you’re bound to find it at one of this weekend’s events.

Sat.: Fair Trade Holiday Festival, Monona Terrace, 9 am-4 pm; HolidayFest Arts & Crafts Show, Warner Park Community Recreation Center, 9 am-3 pm. Sun.: Black Sheep Bazaar, High Noon Saloon, 10 am-5 pm; Holiday Bazaar, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, 10 am-3 pm.

GIRLS RULE, BOYS DROOL

On the naughty list

29 COMEDY

Wed., Dec. 9, Health Sciences Learning Center Rm. 1335, 7 pm

UW women’s hockey team is 16-0-0. (Sorry, guys.)

“ASK A LESBIAN”

It’s better to get coal in your Christmas stocking than it is to burn it in a power plant. Learn environmental health experts and activists about the negative human health impacts of Wisconsin’s reliance on coal-fired plants and what people can do about it.

Comic Cameron Esposito likes to push boundaries.

30 MUSIC

HIP-HOP HIDEOUT

Doomtree finds inspiration in a cabin retreat.

31 SCREENS SARI JUDGE

43

EMPHASIS SARI JUDGE blogged for five years for Isthmus under the banner of Mama Madison. She is now writing regularly for our Emphasis section, and it’s a good fit — she loves retail! This week she profiles a local leather artisan, Oliver Sell, whose products are carried exclusively by downtown store Context.

SOUTH SIDE STORY

Chi-Raq is a satirical musical about gun violence.

43-44 EMPHASIS

CRAFTSMAN ON KING

Local leather artisan fashions beautiful belts, wondrous wallets.

IN EVERY ISSUE 10 MADISON MATRIX 10 WEEK IN REVIEW 12 THIS MODERN WORLD 13 FEEDBACK 13 OFF THE SQUARE

34 ISTHMUS PICKS 45 CLASSIFIEDS 46 P.S. MUELLER 46 CROSSWORD 47 SAVAGE LOVE

Untold stories Mon., Dec., 7, Overture Center, 9 am-3 pm

Theatre LILA offers a free workshop where participants use physical improvisations and theater exercises to shape stories about race. Selected pieces will be shared with the public in “Real Stories about Race” at the Overture Center in February.

PUBLISHER Jeff Haupt ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Craig Bartlett BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Mark Tauscher EDITOR Judith Davidoff NEWS EDITOR Joe Tarr ASSOCIATE EDITOR Michana Buchman FEATURES EDITOR Linda Falkenstein ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Catherine Capellaro MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Jon Kjarsgaard STAFF WRITER Allison Geyer CALENDAR EDITOR Bob Koch ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Fath STAFF ARTISTS David Michael Miller, Tommy Washbush CONTRIBUTORS John W. Barker, Dylan Brogan, Kenneth Burns, Dave Cieslewicz, Nathan J. Comp, Aaron R. Conklin,

ISTHMUS is published weekly by Red Card Media, 100 State Street, Suite 301, Madison, WI 53703 • Edit@isthmus.com • Phone (608) 251-5627 • Fax (608) 251-2165 Periodicals postage paid at Madison, WI (ISSN 1081-4043) • POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 100 State Street, Suite 301, Madison, WI 53703 • © 2015 Red Card Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Roaring Twenties Mon., Dec., 8, Union South, Varsity Hall, 6:30 pm

Historic Madison’s annual meeting features local raconteur Stu Levitan presenting the history of Madison in the 1920s.

FIND MORE ISTHMUS PICKS ON PAGE 34

DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

Ruth Conniff, André Darlington, Marc Eisen, Erik Gunn, Bob Jacobson, Seth Jovaag, Stu Levitan, Bill Lueders, Liz Merfeld, Andy Moore, Bruce Murphy, Kyle Nabilcy, Kate Newton, Jenny Peek, Michael Popke, Adam Powell, Katie Reiser, Jay Rath, Gwendolyn Rice, Dean Robbins, Robin Shepard, Sandy Tabachnick, Denise Thornton, Candice Wagener, Rosemary Zurlo-Cuva ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER Todd Hubler ADVERTISING MANAGER Chad Hopper ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Laura Miller ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Lindsey Dieter, Peggy Elath, Amy Miller WEB ANALYST Jeri Casper CIRCULATION MANAGER Tom Dehlinger MARKETING DIRECTOR Chris Winterhack EVENT DIRECTORS Kathleen Andreoni, Courtney Lovas EVENT STAFF Sam Eifert EVENT INTERN Megan Muehlenbruch ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR Kathy A. Bailey OFFICE MANAGER Julie Butler SYSTEMS MANAGER Thom Jones ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Carla Dawkins

3

n SNAPSHOT

A Madison haunting

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

BY ALLISON GEYER n PHOTO BY SHARON VANORNY

4

Seven strangers sit in a darkened room, holding hands and hoping to make contact with spirits from beyond the grave.

It’s a classic Victorian-era séance — part ghost story and part dinner theater, steeped in nostalgia and reimagined for modern times. The stage is set with the usual trappings: a century-old Ouija board, a spirit cabinet used by three generations of railroad carnival performers, gilded tarot cards, brass spirit bells and antique patient logs from a shuttered British insane asylum rumored to have once housed Jack the Ripper.

“I’m freaking out already,” says attendee William Hakizimana, who happened upon the get-together after a day of work at 100state, the coworking space at 30 W. Mifflin St., the same building where the séance is being held.

The medium, Lochlan Masters, is a well-known local performer who left a career in engineering to pursue his lifelong love of magic — a fascination rooted in curiosity about “things people can’t completely understand or explain.”

Illuminated by candlelight, Masters tells his guests about the afterlife — an ancient belief, shared across cultures — and spiritualism, a 19thcentury movement whose followers believed in communication with departed souls.

“At one point, even the queen of England was holding séances,” Masters says, referring to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s famous fascination with spiritualism.

Though skilled in sleight of hand and well-versed in illusions, Masters says the séance requires a deeper, more intuitive brand of magicianry — one that stems from an understanding of body language and an ability to read guests’ emotions.

Masters doesn’t contact any spirits known to the séance guests — this is supposed to be fun, after all.

Instead, he conjures beings associated with his haunted items — Beatrice, a strict Catholic nurse at the insane asylum, and Norman, a young male patient who may or may not have been murdered at the hospital.

Candles flicker. A bell rings. The Ouija board’s pointer, called a planchette, goes flying across the table. Beatrice apparently hates the Ouija board.

Disembodied voices fill the room.

“Wait, can you guys hear that too?” Masters asks.

We determine the noise is coming from people gathering at the top of State Street, but still, it’s a nice effect. Spookiness level is about 6 out of 10.

With the veil between the world of the dead and the living seemingly parted, it’s time to speak directly with the spirits, Masters tells us, passing out papers and pencils for us to write questions for the visiting spirits.

We write our queries secretly, fold the papers twice and hand them in for shuffling. I glance over at friend and photographer Sharon Vanorny and wonder if any of the guests are in on the trick.

This is where things get real — in a previous séance, one of the guests ran from the circle crying after the spirits predicted an untimely death. This is also the part where a true skeptic would ask, “How is he going to pull this off?”

But one by one, Masters identifies and answers the questions — flawlessly and without looking at what’s written. Two inquiries about the meaning of life, one request for the story of how the spirits died, one plea for insight into what the future has

Lochlan Masters gave up a career in engineering to pursue magic and spiritualism.

in store. The ghosts didn’t like that one — they answered by telling the guest to repent for her sins. Good advice for anyone, probably.

I try to beat the system by asking an intentionally vague question about relationship advice; Vanorny asks what her cat loves most in the world.

Masters and his ghost team call out my shenanigans; we learn that the cat is

probably plotting murder. I upgrade the séance experience from “entertaining” to “damn impressive.”

“How do you think he did it?”

Vanorny asks as we leave the building. Mentalism? Trick props? Real evidence of a link between this world and the next?

“I can’t figure it out,” I answer. “But it freaked me the hell out.” n

Birth of spiritualism movement: MARCH 31, 1848, IN HYDESVILLE, N.Y. Famous people who attended séances: QUEEN VICTORIA, MARY TODD LINCOLN, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Ghosts contacted at Madison séance: BEATRICE, NORMAN

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n NEWS Madison’s plan draws inspiration from other markets, like this indoor one in Santa Fe, N.M.

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

Next steps for the public market A new friends group has formed to help with fundraising

BY ALLISON GEYER

questioning whether Madison needs another commercial kitchen, which is part of the plan for the public market. The nearby FEED Kitchens is still running below capacity, there is additional food business space available at the Madison Enterprise Center, and there are pending plans to redevelop the Garver Feed Mill into a food production facility.

District 18 Ald. Rebecca Kemble says the underutilization of the FEED Kitchens and potential oversaturation of commercial kitchen space came up in earlier discussions about the public market project.

But she says the FEED Kitchens’ struggles have been largely due to organizational and administrative issues rather than a lack of demand.

Kemble also points out that public market vendors will have a “built-in need” for kitchen space at the facility for things like packaging and bottling — “needs that aren’t currently being met in Madison,” she says.

But Ald. David Ahrens worries that the city’s enthusiasm to support food-related infrastructure is creating “an issue of oversupply.” He says that supporters of city investment in local food facilities are employing an economic theory based on “supply creating demand.”

“It’s actually the other way around,” Ahrens says. “Just because we have five manufacturers of artisanal crackers doesn’t make people want to buy artisanal crackers.”

Kennelly says the city’s push to create food production infrastructure is important to growing the local economy by staying “out in front of emerging economic trends.” In an era when the demand for locally made and grown food is increasing, he says the city’s role is to foster that economy and make sure all the facilities are working together.

“It’s not competitive,” Kennelly says of the various food-related facilities and organizations. “We’re creating a supply chain.” n

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Just a few months ago it looked like Madison’s long-awaited public market would be delayed until the next decade. Citing other priorities, Mayor Paul Soglin failed to include any funds for the facility in his capital budget. But recent events, including the announcement that the city’s Oscar Mayer plant will close in early 2017, spurred city leaders to move the project forward with a pledge of $4.25 million in city borrowing for the $14 million project.

The city’s investment, however, is contingent on securing $9.75 million in additional funding from grants, tax credits and donors. And supporters of the project are mobilizing, forming a fledging Friends of the Madison Public Market group, whose members are ready to step up and raise funds.

“There’s definitely lots of interest from all avenues of the community,” says Meghan Blake-Horst, a lead organizer of the new friends group, which already has more than 100 members.

People began talking about forming a friends group to support the market about two years ago, says Blake-Horst. As city discussions progressed, the group became more formalized, creating a Facebook page and meeting more frequently since the project was approved in early November.

The group has discussed incorporating as a 501(c)3 nonprofit and is considering operating as a membership-based organization, with perks for those who pledge support.

Blake-Horst expects the organization’s efforts will focus on marketing, publicity and outreach to farmers and vendors as well as fundraising, but the scale of that fundraising is yet to be determined.

“We could do supplemental fundraising, or we could be helping with larger capital campaigns,” Blake-Horst says.

The friends group is waiting for direction from the city, which is in the process of

establishing a structure for the public market’s governance and operation.

Dan Kennelly, a city economic development specialist and point person for the public market project, says the city’s business plan strongly recommends that an “independent, not-for-profit organization” should be the operating entity of the public market, but he emphasizes that “the city will always have an oversight role.”

That nonprofit will also play a role in fundraising, grant-writing and outreach. The city’s Local Food Committee is looking at local examples such as Olbrich Gardens and Henry Vilas Zoo as models for governance and operations, committee member Anne Reynolds says. A report detailing the public market’s organizational structure will be complete by March 2016.

The committee is also working on two sets of recommendations — one around the implementation of a business plan written by the city’s consultant, Project for Public Spaces, and one to report on the “public market district concept” — the plan to create a “food innovation corridor” on the city’s north and east sides.

Reynolds says the public market district will serve an important role in the region’s foodrelated economic development.

“And, of course, the future closing of Oscar Mayer makes some of those discussions more urgent,” Reynolds says.

Food-related businesses are accessible ways for people to enter the workforce — particularly those without a college education, Reynolds says. With Madison’s urban core expanding through development on the east side and the abundance of farmland in southern Wisconsin, investing in agricultural and food production initiatives can aid those entrepreneurial ventures.

“There’s a lot of opportunity across Madison,” Reynolds says. “We’re hoping this effort can catalyze food-related development on the south side, the entire isthmus and beyond.”

But while many applaud the city’s commitment to invest in the local food scene, some are

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n NEWS

Rebel with a cause WORT’s Norman Stockwell helps spread the message of renegade reporter John Ross

BY JENNY PEEK

Longtime WORT employee Norman Stockwell first crossed paths with John Ross while covering the 1988 Mexican presidential election.

Their affinity for independent media and belief that journalism is a moral obligation, not just a profession, made them fast friends.

Twenty-seven years later Stockwell has fulfilled a favor Ross asked of him back in 2010: to edit and publish a book of Ross’ lectures.

“We were sitting around the kitchen table, and John said this thing really needs a publisher,” says Stockwell. “John had had a bout of liver cancer and it came back, and it was pretty clear that it was terminal. He spent his last days in Mexico with friends and passed away on Jan. 17, 2011. That’s when I took on this project and said, ‘We need to do this.’”

Ross was born in New York City in 1938. He grew up among beat poets like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg; he was heavily influenced by their prose, and began writing and reading his own poetry in Greenwich Village bars.

In 1957, Ross set out for Mexico City, then made himself home among an indigenous community in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

When he returned to the United States six years later, he became the first person jailed for refusing the draft for Vietnam. In the early 1970s, he began reporting in California, Spain and Africa for The Progressive, The Nation, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and other publications.

His 1995 book Rebellion from the Roots: Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas won the American Book Award, and he received the 2005 Upton Sinclair Award for his book Murdered

By Capitalism: 150 Years of Life and Death on the American Left.

Ross’ dedication to storytelling from the bottom up was something he hoped to pass on to

future independent reporters like himself. Stockwell agreed to help make that a reality with the editing and publishing of Rebel Reporting: John Ross Speaks to Independent Journalists.

Rebel Reporting, out last month from Hamilton Books, looks at the responsibility journalists have to document injustice while instructing them on how to effect change.

Told through a series of Ross’ lectures, the book preaches the importance of reporting on the ground, telling the stories of those most vulnerable.

“It is a moral obligation you have when people share their lives with you, an obligation to use the tools you have, which in John’s case were the rolling writer pen, the typewriter or the Mac laptop, to tell those stories to other people so they can understand and appreciate those lives,” Stockwell says.

Stockwell hopes the book will help educate and connect a new generation of independent reporters to Ross’ work.

“So much of journalism school today is preparing people for a career in a shrinking industry that is more and more about public relations and less and less about actual journalism,” he says. “It’s a breath of fresh air to young students starting out in journalism because it’s not the kind of narrow view of the profession but rather the combination of poetry and storytelling.”

Cristalyne Bell, Stockwell’s co-editor, at- Stockwell plans to launch the book tended Madison College when Ross gave two in Madison on Dec. 15, with two talks of the lectures included in Rebel Reporting. Bell about Ross with Robert W. McChesney, was profoundly influenced by Ross, referring a journalism professor from the University of Illinois-Champaign. One will be at to him as an investigative poet.

NORMAN STOCKWELL

The late John Ross, left and above at a 2010 anti-war rally in Madison, advocated reporting from the ground. A series of his lectures was published last month.

noon in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive; the second at 6 p.m. at Rainbow Bookstore Co-op, 426 W. Gilman St. After years of searching for a publisher and hoping to fulfill his promise to his late friend, Stockwell is happy publication day is finally here.

“We’ve put together a really exciting package, and even though it’s made up of a bunch of disparate parts, it’s whole at the same time,” says Stockwell. “John asked me to do this, and I’m really, really pleased that it has come to fruition.” n

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n TECH

Under the radar Few Airbnb operators are following the rules in Madison

BY JOE TARR

If you do a search on AirbnB for lodging in Madison, you’ll find about 300 available places to rent for a night. You’ll find almost the same number of properties listed on VRBO.com (i.e., Vacation Rentals

By Owner).

Now, guess how many of these properties are registered with the city and pay room taxes? According to the city treasurer’s offices, the answer is nine.

Airbnb and VRBO are “sharing economy” services that make new types of financial transactions possible, just like Uber and Lyft have done with transportation. Using Airbnb-type websites, anyone can rent out a spare room, apartment, house or cottage.

Many travelers prefer them because they’re often cheaper and are located in hip, walkable neighborhoods like Willy Street.

Madison regulated the service here in 2013, requiring people who rent out rooms to have their properties inspected and pay the 9% room tax that hotels and motels charge.

But so far, few people are following those rules, says city treasurer Dave Gawenda.

“When you build a new Holiday Inn Express on John Nolen Drive, we know you exist,” he says. “But the operators of Airbnb can be under the radar. Up until recently, we’ve relied on self-reporting.”

Airbnb has been reluctant to share with local municipalities information about which property owners are renting out properties. Airbnb did not respond to Isthmus for comment. However, Gawenda notes that the company recently began sharing information about properties in other cities. He’s hopeful the company will do the same here.

David Waugh (left) and Bob Klebba on the steps of the Mendota Lake House B&B. The couple wishes all Airbnb operators would follow city regulations and pay room taxes.

If not, it will be up to policymakers to decide whether the city should try to track them down.

This will involve staff time, as the addresses and names of each property aren’t given on Airbnb until a room is actually booked.

“Without cooperation by the websites, it means a lot more effort on our part needs to be extended,” Gawenda says.

Ald. Ledell Zellers worries about people not following the regulations. “We’ve got an ordinance; some people are following it, some aren’t. It’s not fair,” she says. “I think many of them simply aren’t aware of the regulations.”

David Waugh, who runs the Mendota Lake House B&B with his husband, Bob Klebba, would like everyone to comply with the rules. Although

Mendota Lake House is a traditional B&B, following different city regulations, Waugh also advertises on the Airbnb website.

Waugh doesn’t know how much business Airbnb sends his way, because some people might find his house through Airbnb but eventually book on his own website, which shows a cheaper rate. He does think it provides a valuable service “because it attracts a lot of people who wouldn’t come [to Madison] otherwise, because they know there are places that will be affordable. That’s huge.”

But he faults Airbnb for failing to help property owners comply with laws and pay taxes.

“Airbnb does a poor job of helping people not break the law,” he says. “They’ll tell you you need to follow the rules and regulations in your area, but that’s it.”

The Mendota Lake House is relatively small, with only five rooms. Nevertheless, Waugh says he pays about $18,000 a year in combined room and sales taxes.

Gawenda doesn’t have an estimate for how much the city is losing on room taxes from the unregistered units, but says it could be significant. “Let’s assume there are 100 in the city,” he says. “If we can get all 100 to remit room taxes, my assumption is that the room tax from all 100 would be similar to a 100-room hotel in town.”

Hotel operators in Madison would also like the Airbnb operators to play by the rules. But they’re not opposed to these new types of businesses.

Charlie Eggen, president of the Greater Madison Hotel and Lodging Association, says Airbnb is the way of the future.

“If the consumer wants to use Airbnb, then there’s going to be Airbnb,” he says.

“If it’s the world we live in, let’s not fight it.

Let’s just make sure it’s safe.” n

DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

9

n MADISON MATRIX

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BIG CITY

Can we really call it a rivalry if we win 12 years in a row?

The Wisconsin Badgers defeat the Minnesota Golden Gophers 31-21 in the battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe.

Almost 15,000 people were kicked off of food stamps within three months of implementation of a new law requiring some recipients to seek employment to keep benefits, according to the state Department of Health Services.

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The Henry Vilas Zoo is getting two new animals in 2016: an adult female orangutan and a young male harbor seal.

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Hunters kill about 204,725 deer over the first nine days of the 2015 gun season, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

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n WEEK IN REVIEW tions for development, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

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not want to accept new Syrian refugees, but the city of Madison is sending the opposite message.

Common Council members unanimously pass a resolution welcoming refugees.

It’s not legally binding, but it’s the thought that counts. n The struggle to help Madison’s homeless continues. Mayor Paul Soglin and other city officials are considering spending

$64,000 to hire an architect to see if the city’s Fairchild Building, 120 S. Fairchild St., could be converted into an overnight shelter for homeless men.

n The Mount Horeb Area School

District cancels a reading of I am Jazz, a children’s book about a transgender girl, after threats of a lawsuit from Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based nonprofit that specializes in evangelical Christian litigation. The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled the Liberty Council a hate group.

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SUNDAY, NOV. 29 n Gov. Scott Walker takes a tum-

ble after lighting the Christmas tree at the executive residence during a private ceremony. Lay off the eggnog, Scooter! n Wisconsin’s wetlands “bank” is in need of a deposit. Builders have been eliminating wetlands at the fastest rate in at least a decade thanks to a controversial law that loosened restric-

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11

n OPINION

A White House win could backfire on Dems Midterm elections tend to work against the party of the sitting president

BY ALAN TALAGA Alan Talaga co-writes the Off the Square cartoon with Jon Lyons and blogs at isthmus.com/madland.

January 20, 2009: the day Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. After eight long, long years of President George W. Bush, I was excited to see the dawn of a new progressive era. Not just in Washington, but in Wisconsin, where Democrats controlled the governorship and both houses of the state Legislature for the first time in decades. I imagined a 2015 where I’d be enrolled in a public-option health care plan and taking high-speed rail across the county.

My vision for 2015 was as far off as the hoverboards and flying cars of Back to the Future II. Instead, Democrats lost statehouses across the nation in 2010. A wave of antiObama and anti-government sentiment among midterm voters swept Republicans into power. Winning that crucial election allowed Republicans to redistrict themselves into a decade-long majority.

News organizations ranging from Vox to The New York Times have covered this in great detail, but few states have felt the impact as severely as Wisconsin.

For the last five years, Obama’s agenda has been stuck in gridlock at the federal level while Republicans in our state Capitol have been able to pass a list of extreme bills so long that I could spend the rest of this column just naming them.

So while my fellow progressives debate between Bernie and Hillary, I have to ask the question: Do we want another Democrat in the White House? Midterm elections tend to work against the sitting president. Midterm elections also tend to lean more conservative than presidential elections. Combine the two, and a Democratic presidency becomes a recipe for Republican midterm wave elections like 1994, 2010 and 2014.

DAVID MICHAEL MILLER

It might be easier to win back some power at the state level with a Republican in office. The next midterm election in 2018 will be huge for state Democrats, as it will help determine who will be in office for the next round of redistricting. Winning back the Assembly is virtually impossible, but it could happen in the Senate.

A Democratic Senate majority at the beginning of the next decade means that partisan redistricting maps get tossed out and the courts draw up new, fairer lines. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has only one really good potential state Senate pick-up in 2016, District 18. Republican Sen. Rick Gudex won by only 600 votes in 2012 and he just announced he is not running for reelection. If Democrats win that open seat, they will still need to pick up two more seats in 2018 to win the Senate majority. That’s a tall task but one that would be easier with a Democratic midterm wave.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and/or Anthony Kennedy with a conservative justice would be truly painful, particularly if President Marco Rubio nominates some judge in his or her 40s who is going to stick around for decades. A Supreme Court pick lingers even longer than a round of Republican redistricting.

There’s also been a concentration of power in the executive branch over the last century.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats have fought too hard against it. The power of the modern presidency makes it too important not to fight for, no matter what happens in the midterms. Given the recent events in Paris

THIS MODERN WORLD

and Turkey, I’m terrified about what happens if the wrong person becomes commander-in-chief.

And, of course, nothing is a certainty in American politics. It’s a good bet, but not a sure bet, that Democrats will do better in the midterms with a Republican president. Many analysts thought George W. Bush was going to be a one-term president after winning the Electoral College but losing the popular vote in 2000. Sept.

11 changed that, making him the rare president whose party picked up seats in a midterm election. We could easily see a scenario where a Republican wins the White House and the GOP maintains its stranglehold on statehouses.

More importantly, it’s kind of lame to blame the Democratic Party’s problems entirely on national waves. Neither Tom Barrett nor Mary Burke were great gubernatorial candidates. The Democrats have let their rural voter bases wither away, leaving them dependent on Milwaukee, Madison and a scattering of small cities like La Crosse and Superior.

Wisconsin Democrats should support the presidential nominee but it’s probably a better idea to focus more energy on rebuilding the party around the state. And, in the case of a loss come Election Day 2016, it’s good to remember that the midterms aren’t too far away. n

BY TOM TOMORROW

Of course, there are also some major drawbacks to a Republican president. Supreme Court nominations alone are pretty damn important. Four of the current justices were born in the 1930s, so it’s likely the next president will get to replace a couple of them. Replacing

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Teaching globally Tragic loss Re “‘Ardent Small-Government Guy’ Moves On” (11/26/2015): Oh, the tragedy. Losing Larry Kaufmann will leave us with nowhere to read rightwing small-government propaganda but Madison Newspapers, all the local television stations, every news and business cable channel, every Clear Channel-owned radio station, and The Badger Herald. How will we survive?

Rick Keir (via Comments) Rick, I’m sure someone will take my place, thereby maintaining Madison’s right-wing media hegemony.

Larry Kaufmann (via Comments)

Re “Acting Globally” (11/26/2015): Professor Jonathan Patz is also teaching an online MOOC, sponsored through Coursera, that is free and online. The course is called “Climate Change and Public Health,” and it is excellent.

Fflambeau (via Comments)

Corrections In last week’s paper, the article “Acting Globally” gave the incorrect title for Jeffrey Thompson. He is an executive adviser and CEO emeritus for Gundersen Health Systems.

In the haiku compilation, the first line of Jeffrey Johannes’ haiku was broken in the wrong place. Here’s the correct version: Marques Bovre still singing from lonesome county Take care of my soul.

Share comments with Isthmus via email, edit@isthmus.com, and via Forum. isthmus.com, Facebook and Twitter, or write letters to Isthmus, 100 State St., Suite 301, Madison WI 53703. All comments are subject to editing. The views expressed here are solely those of the contributors. These opinions do not necessarily represent those of Isthmus Publishing Company.

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n COVER STORY

Man with a plan WHEN KENTON PETERS’ SON

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

was growing up in Madison in the 1970s, he’d go watch water ski shows on Lake Monona at Law Park.

Kenton Peters Jr. remembers the setting as a bit strange, watching skiers from a narrow patch of green space as cars whizzed back and forth behind him on John Nolen Drive.

“It just seemed weird to have the road and all the traffic back behind you, and then just that little narrow strip of grass,” Peters says. “We lived over on Lake Mendota, where it was all houses, so if you didn’t own a house on the lake, you really couldn’t get to the lake. Here you could get to the lake, but you just had a little strip of grass and a highway behind you.”

It so happens that his dad, the distinguished architect Kenton Peters, had a solution to this quandary: build on top of that highway and create space where people could enjoy Lake Monona apart from all that traffic. Kenton Jr. admits that he’s a little biased, but says the idea “made perfect sense,” both then and now.

“It seemed like an intuitive thing, and it would be shortsighted for the city not to do this,” says Peters, who followed in his dad’s footsteps to become an architect. He now lives and works in Salt Lake City.

Kenton Peters Sr.’s idea for a lakeside park over John Nolen Drive makes perfect

14

sense to a lot of people. But while Madison’s most famous living architect has been pushing variations of the idea for almost 40 years, it has gained little traction. There are signs, though, that some are warming to the notion.

Now in his 80s, Peters is making the park a late-life crusade, convinced that Madison desperately needs it. Moreover, he says he can build the project without any cost to taxpayers.

“I’m not going to quit on it,” Peters says in his Union Transfer condo, which overlooks Lake Monona. “This needs to be built.

I’ll contact and lobby every person I have to.”

“It’s an insult to the lake and to the people here that a seven-lane highway and a sliver of a miserable little park is all we have to recognize the lake,” he adds.

Regarded as both visionary and arrogant, Peters’ efforts to build a park on Lake Monona have some people comparing him to another visionary architect — Frank Lloyd Wright — who spent decades pushing the concept for Monona Terrace. That project was eventually built, in an altered form, almost 40 years after Wright died.

Some are hoping Peters’ project will finally be realized.

“We have the city of lakes; let’s be that as fully as possible,” says Ald. David Ahrens.

“This is a great work from a great architect.

Just as the Monona Terrace plan was on the shelf for a half a century or so, this has been on the shelf for too many years. It’s too bad that when we built the Terrace this wasn’t part of it. But we can still fix it.”

Kenton Peters has been lugging a model of his vision for John Nolen Drive to meetings for decades, trying to spark interest.

E R I C TA D S E N

KENTON PETERS STILL GETS a little emotional when he talks about how he first settled on architecture as a vocation.

“It’s one of those tales that I’d say is very poetic and romantic,” he says.

Peters grew up in both Kentucky and the Chicago suburbs and came to Madison to attend the UW. At the university, he was a star athlete, playing in the 1953 Rose Bowl, which the Badgers lost to USC. Shortly after that game, Peters was back on campus in a drafting classroom late one evening getting some one-on-one instruction from a local architect.

As the architect watched Peters draw, he remarked, “Hey, you’re pretty good — have you ever thought of being an architect?”

It was an ah-ha, light bulb moment. Afterwards, Peters remembers walking back to his fraternity house on Langdon as snow lightly fell on a quiet campus and the realization of what he wanted to do with his life sank in. “A young person would be very lucky, as I was, to be able to identify what you want to do,” he says.

After graduating from UW, he spent two years with the Army Corps of Engineers, helping to build airports, roads and bridges.

Then he went to architecture school at the University of California, Berkeley.

At a conference, he bumped into Joe Flad, a Wisconsin architect, who offered him a job back in Madison. Peters accepted.

While working with the architecture firm, he started moonlighting out of his own office on State Street. When “old man Flad” found out about it, he gave Peters an ultimatum: close his side office or clean out his desk.

“I said, ‘I’m out of here,’” Peters remembers. “Flad must have had 40 people at the time, and I’m a loner.”

He immediately began drumming up business by identifying school districts

around the state that were looking to add classroom space. It kept food on the table.

But as an architect, Peters was drawn toward larger buildings and big ideas.

In his career, he’s built more than 100 buildings. Notable Madison projects include the metallic blue Robert W. Kastenmeier U.S. Courthouse on North Henry Street, the Warner Park and James Madison Park shelters and the St. Paul University Catholic Center. His condo buildings along Lake Monona — including Union Transfer, where he shares a penthouse apartment with his wife — were among the first in the downtown luxury condo boom. His Marina project next door to Union Transfer was famously dubbed a “garbage can on the lake” by former Mayor Sue Bauman.

“He’s not willing to accept the tired notion of building buildings that fit in,” architectural critic Whitney Gould once said of his style.

Peters doesn’t dispute that, saying his goal is to help shape an urban environment and inspire change.

“Blending in has different dimensions to it. Looking alike is one of them, and often that is not a desirable end,” he says. “It’s not an in-your-face kind of thing, saying I don’t want to relate. It’s more of a change that would perhaps encourage people to change also, with different densities, uses.”

Ald. Mike Verveer says Peters has certainly made his mark on the city. “The contemporary design in his creations are not everyone’s cup of tea,” he says. “I personally enjoy them.”

“I’ve heard more than one person make comparisons to Frank Lloyd Wright when discussing Kenton,” he adds. “No one can deny he’s had an illustrious career in architecture.”

Peters no longer maintains an architecture office, but he continues generating ideas and concepts that he’d like to build.

His focus now is hyper-local, restricted to a square-mile area adjacent to his home in downtown Madison.

Some of his plans are decidedly radical and are hard to imagine being realized.

For instance, he would like to move several downtown streets into underground tunnels and create covered walkways of winter gardens and commerce on the surface. He’d also like to move many of the state offices to the east side and convert the current office buildings to housing.

But there’s one idea that remains surprisingly simple and affordable: a park along the shores of Lake Monona.

THE IDEA FIRST CAME TO PE -

A L D . D AV I D A H R E N S I S N O T what you would call a “yes man.”

First elected in 2013, Ahrens has made a name for himself opposing the massive Judge Doyle Square project, which in its various incarnations calls for several million dollars in city subsidies for private parking and a hotel.

Nevertheless, Ahrens sees something in Peters’ idea worth championing. For one thing, it wouldn’t require any tax incremental financing, he says. He also likes

➡

Kenton Peters has tried for 40 years to build a downtown lakefront park. Is Madison finally ready? B Y

J O E TA R R

DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

ters in the 1970s when MATC — what’s now known as Madison College — was looking for another campus.

“I was sitting in my office down on Hamilton Street, and it just dawned on me, why don’t we build it out here?” Peters remembers. This was before Monona Terrace was built. Peters envisioned building a college campus over John Nolen Drive. The top of the building would be a pedestrian park and walkway, terracing down to the shore.

MATC eventually settled on a more traditional campus near the airport, while maintaining its downtown building. But in the ’80s and ’90s, as interest grew in building a convention center, Peters revised the concept. His convention center design eventually lost out to Wright’s old concept, which was built and opened in 1997.

But as Peters built other projects along Lake Monona, the idea stuck with him. Finally, he envisioned it as a simple park, to include a restaurant, an outdoor amphitheater and a skating rink. The park would be concrete, with lots of greenery, slowly terracing down to the lake.

Directly below the park would be one level of parking, accessible from John Nolen Drive, that would include 500 spaces. There would also be room for a bicycle center.

Peters promises that this can be built without any direct property tax money.

His idea is this: The city would borrow the roughly $12.5 million needed to construct the parking and decking over John Nolen. Peters and his partners would then lease parking spaces from the city for an amount that would be enough to pay the yearly debt service on that loan.

Peters notes that he would be paying more for the parking than developer Bob Dunn offered to pay in the Judge Doyle Square proposal that recently fell through. “[Dunn] was going to pay $115,000 a year for 650 spaces. It’s ridiculous — that’s $15 a month a parking space,” Peters says.

“We’re going to run that garage as a business. We’ll have to pay over $500,000 a year in rent because that’s what it will take to pay off the bond issue.”

To build the $7 million to $9 million park on top of this garage and highway decking, the city could tap into its park impact fee fund. Every time developers build a housing project, they pay a fee into this fund. The money is reserved for the development of new parks or improvement of existing ones.

Construction of his proposal, Peters says, would be fairly simple and could be completed in a year. Most of the construction could be done without closing John Nolen.

Peters says that he has talked with potential partners for the project, but declines to name them. The absence of an active partner or financing has some people questioning Peters’ ability to deliver. Verveer notes that it took a massive effort by the city, county and state, along with private support, to finally build Monona Terrace.

“If Kenton had been able to secure a major financial commitment for the proposal, like Evjue Foundation or Goodman Foundation,” he says, “then I think the project might seem more within reach.”

He adds that Madison did include funding in the budget to study various concepts, including Peters’, for dealing with John Nolen and improving lake access.

15

Discover hundreds of shops and restaurants, many locally-owned. Enjoy a free trolley and carolers on State Street and the Square, Saturdays through December 19. Stop by the Downtown Visitor Center on State Street or Overture Center Info Table for maps, directions, and shopping and dining suggestions.

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n COVER STORY

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its civic nature — carving out space along Lake Monona for everyone to enjoy, not just hotel guests or conventioneers.

“It would have a tremendous amount of use, because we can see even the poorly placed and structured Law Park has quite a few people using it, even though it’s next to a highway,” Ahrens says. “The city would have something else to offer people who come downtown other than commerce.”

He also thinks it would help Monona Terrace attract more conventions.

Other newer council members have also shown interest in Peters’ idea, hoping to perhaps tie it in with the Judge Doyle Square project, which has sputtered and stalled several times over the past decade.

The most recent proposal called for Exact Sciences to build its headquarters on the site, behind the Municipal Building, a few blocks from where Peters would put his park. But since Exact Sciences pulled out of the project in September, the city has gone back to the drawing board.

Peters has ideas for Judge Doyle Square as well. He envisions building six apartment towers, a hotel and underground parking on the site. For him, getting more people living downtown is the key to building property tax base and fueling commercial development.

Office buildings are a dead end, he argues. “Why don’t we look at State Street as an example? It’s the busiest street in downtown, and there are no big office buildings on it.”

But it’s his park plan that excites some.

“It’s pretty cool. It gets a lot more park line and covers up an ugly highway,” says Ald. Ledell Zellers. “I hope we take a serious look at it.”

Ald. Sara Eskrich says the project would help the city take more advantage of the lakes.

“We talk a lot in Madison about the value of being on an isthmus and the real positive health impacts. There’s a lot of value of having nature incorporated in an urban environment,” she says. “These lakes are not going anywhere.”

Eskrich hopes the idea will finally gain traction. “It is a really ambitious project; it is very different, and things that aren’t traditional need really strong leaders behind them,” she says. “And it doesn’t seem like anyone, at least on the council side, has taken that on.”

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A LT H O U G H P E T E R S M AY H AV E a gift for thinking big, he’s no expert salesman. In his career, he’s often clashed with residents who didn’t share his dreams.

“Visionary people often don’t have the best skills at proposing their thoughts in ways that make people feel comfortable,” says Bert Stitt, who lives in the First Settlement neighborhood. Stitt fought Peters over the Union Transfer redevelopment — and was dismayed when Peters defied the city by building the project taller than what had been approved.

Although Stitt says he appreciates some of Peters’ ideas, he’s not crazy about the concept for a lakefront park, fearing it would block the view of the lake from his neighborhood. “I think it’s way overstated for John Nolen Drive,” he says, fearing it would take away from the city’s “pastoral” nature.

Ahrens says some people can’t get beyond the messenger when considering the idea. “His age is a factor that, consciously or unconsciously, creates a negative cast on his work, which is very modern and very innovative,” he says. “People think he’s an old crank.”

Although Peters may have built more buildings in Madison than any living architect, he never got the adoration and success on the coasts that Wright did, Ahrens says.

“He hasn’t been validated in New York or California, so we get to ignore him here,” Ahrens says.

Peters dismisses the idea that he’s in the same league as Wright. He sees the comparison to Wright’s quest to build Monona Terrace late in his life, but quips: “I want very much to build this, but I just refuse to die to get it built.”

Nor does he view the quest as an effort to secure his legacy as an architect. He’s fond of a quote from President Harry Truman: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.”

“If they want to, put John Nolen’s name on it; if they want to, put Paul Soglin’s name on it. I don’t care,” he says. “I think it’s an idea. Ideas are cheap, but they’re the source of great things.” n

DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

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with a plan to create a lakefront park over John Nolen Drive.

A group of architects — calling themselves the Madison Design Professionals Workgroup — began meeting a few years ago when the city was working on the downtown plan, which was approved in 2012. The group is now promoting an idea to bury John Nolen Drive east of Monona Terrace to create a park on top.

Tim Anderson, one of the group’s architects, says the city could also move much of Blair Street underground. This would make the messy intersection where John Nolen, Blair, Williamson and Wilson streets converge into a much more pedestrian- and bike-friendly space. It would also help connect the growing east side with the Capital and open up Blair Street for pedestrianfriendly development.

The biggest obstacle: It would be very expensive, costing roughly $100 million to $150 million. It also requires getting the approval to bury railroad tracks. Anderson says the city should go after a federal TIGER grant, which can be as much as $200 million, for the project.

Peters argues that burying John Nolen is problematic because it leaves the park still hard to get to from downtown. From the Square, most people would have to take an elevator down to it.

Anderson says that either project would be worth it for the city. Researchers have found that covering over or burying highways and train tracks pays enormous dividends for cities. One study found that Chicago’s Millennium Park spurred $1.4 billion in private investment over a 10-year period.

“Our two ideas are trying to accomplish similar things,” Anderson says. “Kenton’s proposal and our proposal really look at the value of that lakefront and talk about what you can do to create a major waterfront park.”

17

JUNICHI TAKAHASHI

Trinity Irish Dance Co.

Pete Seeger: The Storm King

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The Sound of Music STOMP MUMMENSCHANZ The Musicians of Silence Trinity Irish Dance Co. Duck Soup Cinema: Speedy

MARCH 1 - 6 Motown The Musical 6

National Geographic Live: Stranger in a Strange Land 11 Ahn-Core Ahn Trio!

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FOOD & DRINK ■ SPORTS ■ BOOKS ■ COMEDY ■ MUSIC ■ SCREENS

Soundtrack of a generation Local authors pen a cultural history around the music of the Vietnam War

BY MICHAEL POPKE n ILLUSTRATION BY KIRSTEN HARPER

The book reads like a cultural history of the 1960s and early 1970s, examining the role music played in the lives of Americans serving in Vietnam. “We had music all the time,” says Bradley, now 68. “The Army said it was a way to keep the guys engaged and make them comfortable.”

Bradley and Werner, 63, a professor in UW’s Department of Afro-American Studies and author of multiple books about music and race, interviewed more than 200 veterans. (Many were from Wisconsin, and some have since died.)

“Vietnam was such a mess in so many different ways that it spawned a renaissance in writing,” Bradley says. “There are more than 30,000 books written about Vietnam: histories,

memoirs, fiction, plays, poetry. Yet, this angle hasn’t been done. And when you think of what connected us as a generation, it was the music — whether you were in Vietnam or not.”

Isthmus talked to Werner and Bradley about their process for creating the book and some surprising discoveries they made along the way.

Why do you think the “soundtrack of the Vietnam War” hasn’t been given the attention it deserves?

Craig Werner: A good percentage of the books about Vietnam are driven by the desire to either demonize or redeem the war. We get to the human story of the war. We also cover

a broader range of Vietnam experiences than any other book out there, and I think we had an angle that allowed us to get the stories we did. We didn’t come into the project with a set of preconceptions that shut people out.

Doug Bradley: The songs were a great way to get the majority of men and women to talk about their experiences. I was surprised by how much the music enabled [conversation with] my fellow vets, who hadn’t up to that point been able to come to grips with what they experienced in Vietnam.

CONTINUE D ON PAGE 2 8

➡

DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

Writer Doug Bradley served in the Vietnam War as an information specialist but never saw combat. Cultural historian Craig Werner was an anti-war radical during that era, playing in a hippie rock band. Together, these two men teach an integrated liberal studies class at UW-Madison called “The U.S. in Vietnam: Music, Media and Mayhem.”

Now, after 10 years of research and writing, Bradley and Werner have published We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War (University of Massachusetts Press). The book was released in October, and a second printing is already underway.

19

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n FOOD & DRINK Share appetizers like the Belgian Big Board, and try a few new beers.

December Special

a t n a S s a t n a l S He per Helper

Fe

Featuring...

FRE FRESH JAS MCDANIEL

Crowded house Cafe Hollander’s Belgian-inspired fare and beer a draw at Hilldale

BY LINDA FALKENSTEIN

Doubtless, though, many visitors to Cafe Hollander will want to spend their time trying Belgian beers and sticking with appetizers, and that’s a perfectly fine way to go. There are 38 beers on tap, some true Belgians, some American. Four beers are brewed specifically for the cafe’s parent company, the Lowlands Group: an IPA, a Dubbel and a Wit (these are brewed in Belgium) and a quad (brewed by Central Waters of Amherst, Wis.) A beer bible describing the taps and bottled options lands on the table along with the menu, and it’s best to make good use of it if you’re wondering what a saison is, the difference between a dubbel and a tripel, which are the official Trappist brews made by actual monasteries, and so forth.

Appetizers include sharable pots of steamed mussels in various sizes; a colorful “Belgian Big Board” selection (with pepper jack deviled eggs and wonderful little cornichons, but not a big focus on the charcuterie); and Dutch bitterballen (potato croquettes with added oomph from peppers, Hook’s cheddar and sausage).

All menu items are listed with a suggested beer pairing, but these beers are not always available. Whatever you do, skip the PBR. Sigh. And here, I must admit that, even with several trips to Cafe Hollander, I haven’t made a true dent in the lunch/dinner menu, much less the large breakfast/brunch menu.

Early morning fare is also paired with a raft of Belgian beers — beignets with a Kasteel Blonde, anyone? n

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DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

Cafe Hollander is the current “it” spot at Hilldale, and likely the whole west side. The spacious, even cavernous, space has been packing them in since the restaurant opened in mid-October.

The Belgian-inspired beer bar is part of a small chain of Milwaukee gastropubs that pay homage to the Benelux countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland) in concept and, to some extent, in cuisine, although the overall menu is an exercise in American indulgence.

This is not the place to go small. Sure, you can order a half grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of soup. I did once. The grilled cheese, called “The Kulminator,” features four cheeses, thick-cut bacon and an oven-roasted tomato on thick nine-grain bread. It’s definitely tasty, especially the tomato, even though the bread arrived a little soggy. Consider choosing the bright, creamy tomato basil soup over the dark, smoky chorizo chili, unless you are a really big fan of cumin. And consider ordering something more interesting.

If you’re still inclined to pick a modest entree, a great choice is the Quiche Lorraine — egg properly cooked, flavorful bacon and a lush Hollandaise sauce, along with a very fresh, generously apportioned side salad of mixed greens.

But restraint is not in the spirit of the place. I decided to go for the most indulgent item on the menu: I picked the “Duck Duck Egg” burger, though it has plenty of competi-

tion. All of Cafe Hollander’s burgers ($10-$15) start with a half-pound of beef; from there, the sky’s the limit. The Belgian Butter Burger, for instance, is topped with bone marrow butter, “foraged” mushrooms and brie, and served au jus.

The Duck Duck Egg burger comes with strips of duck bacon, duck confit, a duck-fatfried egg and pepper jack cheese. The server informed me that the beef patty is also fried in duck fat, at which point my tablemate expressed regret that she had not brought along a portable defibrillator. I upgraded from the frites to a side salad, because, well, health. And also because the side Benelux salad (greens, candied walnuts and blue cheese) is better than the frites, which are not crisp enough for true frites and are also marred by a flavored seasoning.

Good news (or, possibly, bad news): The Duck Duck Egg burger is delicious. It’s not like you can really pick out the flavor of the duck confit, but it adds an extra level of fatty goodness. The duck bacon could be left out (too chewy). A burger is a weird spot for a Belgianthemed place to hide its duck confit — there’s no duck confit salad, for instance. Which is also odd because the salads here, big salads, are quite good, with varied greens and a roster of great vinaigrettes (lime, balsamic, honey lavender, pomegranate beet).

Other good choices: The blackberry turkey sandwich combines deli-style turkey with a hot giardiniera and sweet blackberry jam to good effect, and the roasted vegetable and hummus wrap is also a sweet/spicy hit, with housemade red pepper hummus and excellent roasted vegetables.

CRANCRA BERRIES BER

21

n FOOD & DRINK

Sauk County sentiments Butternut Road from Vintage Brewing Company Every year at this time, Vintage brewmaster Scott Manning brings out his Butternut Road brown ale, named for the road that leads to his family’s Sauk County farm, where some of the beer’s hops are also grown. Butternut Road is considered to be an English hybrid brown because it’s made with all Americangrown hops. In addition to using Cascade hops from his family’s land, Manning adds Wisconsingrown Brewers Gold hops supplied

by Gorst Valley Hops. He also combines American and European malts, which give it great color and solid bready-biscuit, caramel and chocolate tones. While this isn’t a nut brown ale, the malt combination does offer a hint of hazelnut.

It’s a seasonal treat at Vintage’s west side and downtown Madison locations. It should be available at both into January. However, it’s

ROBIN SHEPARD

also a mainstay on the taps of Vintage’s Woodshed Ale House in Sauk City. Butternut Road finishes at 6.4% ABV and sells for $5/pint and $12 growler (refill). This is an easy-drinking, appealing brown ale that you may find yourself treating like a session beer.

— ROBIN SHEPARD

Better than latte and pie

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

The Pumpkin Alexander at the Esquire Club

22

PAULIUS MUSTEIKIS

We are at peak pumpkin spice.

The flavor is found in beer, tea, chocolate, cookies, hummus — there’s even a Listerine pumpkin spice breath freshener. Burt’s Bees sells a lip gloss. This presumably allows the wearer to convert all consumables — by way of the lips — into a constant stream of cinnamon, vanilla and squash, like a seasonally appropriate wearable face halo.

The pumpkin spice trend became a national craze thanks to the pumpkin spice latté, which is enough of a marketing juggernaut that it’s just called “PSL” in the industry. Pumpkin spice is like a Hallmark card you can digest.

And the place to do it is at the Esquire Club, 1025 N. Sherman Ave., a surf n’ turf spot featuring a wellknown Friday night fish fry. However, pro tip: don’t miss the fried chicken. the Esquire Club also boasts a spacious bar. It’s there, in semidarkness, that you should order the Esquire Club’s Pumpkin Alexander.

This is the ultimate pumpkin spice experience — pumpkin spice liqueur blended with ice cream and served in a wine glass with whipped cream on top. It’s a great reminder why this flavor continues to break sales records. Because, OMG, it’s so unbelievably gooood.

— ANDRÉ DARLINGTON

Robinia Courtyard’s

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• Entrance to three parties under one roof!

• Food featuring the flavors from all three restaurants (8 - 11:30pm) • Music of all shapes, colors and flavors in all four spaces • 2 drink tickets • Champagne toast at midnight • Gift bags for all, 5 bags will contain the lucky golden ticket!

23

n FOOD & DRINK

Getting food to the people First year’s a successful one for Healthy Food for All

BY KATE NEWTON

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

In a small community garden plot outside the Salvation Army Community Center on Darbo Drive, Chi-Race Williams stood among the rows of vegetables on a mild day in September. Bags brimming with fresh vegetables already lined the adjoining sidewalk, ready to be picked up by passersby and neighborhood residents.

The bags were delivered by the Healthy Food for All project. The weekly deliveries aim to bring more fresh food to neighborhood residents.

Healthy Food for All, founded in spring 2015 by community food activists Chris Brockel and Joe Mingle, has recently received a matching grant

by Buckets for Hunger to help continue its work in 2016.

Healthy Food for All increases distribution of locally grown produce in areas where it is not otherwise readily available.

At least five areas within the city limits classify as food deserts — meaning they lack consistent access to safe, nutritious foods due to economic and geographical restraints — and approximately 16% of children in Dane County live in food-insecure households, according to the United Way of Dane County’s Healthy Food for All Children Community Plan released in 2013. Healthy Food for All drew its name from the plan. It also took to heart the plan’s goal to decrease the number of food-insecure children in Dane County by 50% by 2023.

As the former food and gardens division manager for the Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, Brockel had seen the disparities firsthand: “In this town, there’s an understanding of good food, but there’s a real divide between the haves and the have-nots.”

24

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Brockel and Mingle set out to collect, clean, aggregate and distribute fresh produce. They started by using surplus produce they grew themselves. Brockel maintains a donation plot in the Elvehjem Community Garden, while Mingle works an acre with the Edgerton High School Future Farmers of America at Silverwood County Park, a Dane County park that contains a community garden. They gleaned more produce through outreach to other area farmers and gardeners.

Using a kitchen designed for vegetable processing at the FEED Kitchens on the north side, Brockel, Mingle, operations manager Mark Thomas and volunteers cleaned and packaged the produce before turning it over to pantries, community centers and, in the case of Darbo-Worthington and other food-insecure neighborhoods, directly to neighborhood coordinators like Chi-Race Williams.

As of the end of November, Healthy Food for All had processed 9,822 pounds of produce, more than triple the group’s goal of 3,000 pounds for the first year of operation. Rental of the commercial kitchen was made possible with a SEED Grant from the city and sponsorship from the Center for Community Stewardship.

Mingle says the goal is to expand to nine Madison-area locations in 2016, including Brentwood, Allied Drive, Meadowood and Owl Creek, delivering 50 or more bags of produce to each neighborhood weekly for “at least 10 weeks during the summer break.”

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Doing something about food waste has been another priority for Healthy Food for All. According to a 2012 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, approximately 40% of food produced in the U.S. is never consumed.

The groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food-waste-reduction initiative, dubbed the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Waste Not-Want Notâ&#x20AC;? project, repackages donated, ready-to-eat food (primarily from local businesses after catered events) and turns it over as quickly as possible to food pantries and community centers for redistribution. Since September, Waste Not-Want Not repackaged 4,627 pounds of prepared food for local food pantries.

As the group scales back its focus on fresh produce in the winter months, Mingle will pursue additional funding and more food donors, volunteers and refrigeration space. He hopes to distribute 10,000 pounds of surplus food next year. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People that eat well are going to do better in school, have better health outcomes, maintain focus and do better at other things,â&#x20AC;? Mingle says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all tied together.â&#x20AC;?

Buckets for Hunger, located in Oregon, Wis., will provide a matching grant of up to $4,000 for donations it receives up to Dec. 15 earmarked for Healthy Food for All. See bucketsforhunger.com, call 888-351-9154 or see healthyfoodforalldanecounty.org. n

CHRISTMAS IN PAOLI DEC. 5 Dreaming of an old-fashioned Christmas?

Come to Paoli Saturday, Dec. 5, for carriage rides, caroling, cookies and good cheer.

Discover unique gifts at CLUCK you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find at the mall. Open 10 am to 5 pm

BETH SKOGEN

Three chicken dishes to eat this week

 Â?Â?Â?Â? ­ Â&#x20AC;Â?Â&#x201A;Â&#x192; Â&#x201E;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2020;Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x201E; Â&#x192;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021; Â&#x201A;Â?Â&#x2020;

6904 Paoli Road / 608-848-1200 www.cluckthechickenstore.com Four miles south of Verona

In a torta La Rosita, 6005 Monona Drive

Immense tortas are only $5; in the milanesa de pollo, the chicken is pounded thin, lightly breaded and fried.

Pan-fried, the way itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supposed to be Tobyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Supper Club 3717 S. Dutch Mill Rd.

Tobyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and the phrase â&#x20AC;&#x153;Best chicken in Dane Countyâ&#x20AC;? are often mentioned in the same breath. The supper club pan-fries the bird. Dinner comes with salad and choice of potato â&#x20AC;&#x201D; opt for the housemade hash browns.

With sausage gravy Bassett Street Brunch Club, 444 W. Johnson St.

The â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chicken & a Biscuitâ&#x20AC;? is so much more â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a juicy piece of boneless deep-fried white meat chicken, sweet sausage gravy and a fried egg, perched on a plump buttermilk biscuit, with a side of apple bacon salad. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Breakfast all dayâ&#x20AC;? in this case means â&#x20AC;&#x153;breakfast will last you all day.â&#x20AC;?

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119 W. Main St. Madison â&#x20AC;˘ 608-256-2263 www.thenewparadiselounge.com

DECEMBER 3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

LIVE MUSIC

25

n FOOD & DRINK

Eats events The Art of the Italian Salumi & Formaggi Board Saturday, Dec. 5, 2-3:30 pm

Holiday Fest

Chef Michael Pruett of Cento, 122 W. Mifflin St., will present a seasonal cheese and salumi tasting with beverage pairings. Pruett and mixologist Jordan Bright will provide aperitifs, cheese and salumi, while discussing how to put together a great antipasti platter paired with complementary beverages.

Tickets ($40) through eventbrite.com.

60 recipes from 40 supper clubs!

Sunday, Dec. 6, 1-3 pm Saturday, Dec. 19, 11 am-2 pm

16TH ANNUAL

ARTS AND CRAFTS FAIR Warner Park Community Recreation Center Saturday, December 5, 2015 9:00 am - 3:00 pm www.cityofmadison.com/parks/wpcrc

$1 Admission ý )ÊÌ 3DUNLQJ 9HQGèV

Madison food and travel writer Mary Bergin has published her fifth book, the Wisconsin Supper Club Cookbook: Iconic Fare and Nostalgia from Landmark Eateries. Two book signings are coming up, on Dec. 6, at Orange Tree Imports; and on Dec. 19, at Barnes & Noble-West Towne.

Lard life

Award Winning Craft Beer & Great Food!

Book your private party here!

Thursday, Dec. 10, 6 pm

Opinions differ about the best shortening for pie crusts, but a vocal segment of pastry fans insist on lard. Worried about store-bought lard? Learn to render your own, and how to make bone broth as well, with instructor Max Wilke at â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rendering Lard & Bone Brothâ&#x20AC;? at Willy Street Co-op-East ($20/ owners, $30/non-owners); pre-register at the store or call 608-251-6776.

Open 7 Days a Week 11am to Close

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9, 2015

26

Stop in to enjoy Woodshed Ale House brews and pizza crafted by the fine folks at Vintage Brewing Co.!

101 JACKSON ST., SAUK CITY, WI Open : Mon-Fri 3pm-close Sat-Sun 11am-close

Live long and prosper To Boldly Joe at Cargo Coffee Cargo Coffee east, 750 E. Washington Ave., occupies a big, airy space on the ground floor of the Constellation apartments. Tables always seem to be occupied by plenty of people working on laptops, and there are a couple of meeting-friendly larger tables, but the space never seems crowded or hectic. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s often as serene as a meditation class.

Big maps that illustrate geopolitical boundaries of previous eras decorate the shop, including a large wall mural in which the Soviet Union prominently still exists. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a useful backdrop for Cargoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house Atomic Beans, a dark roast

@Isthmus

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; LINDA FALKENSTEIN

@Isthmus

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Madisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Twitter source for news,

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Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not listed on the menu, though the wall board does state, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We will make any drink.â&#x20AC;?

This one, dreamed up to honor the passing of actor Leonard Nimoy, is the house Atomic brew with a shot (or shots) of espresso â&#x20AC;&#x201D; basically a Trekkie version of a red-eye. Are names as important as beans? Well, no. But somehow, â&#x20AC;&#x153;To Boldly Joeâ&#x20AC;? seems a more inspiring message for the day than focusing on the bloodshot, irritated state of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyeballs. Highly illogical.

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n SPORTS

This week at Capitol Centre Market

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Food and Drinks in the Double Diamond Bar and Tyrol Café tionally ranked teams. While Michigan was Kids 5 and Under Ski/Ride FREE • Just 20 Minutes West of Madison 7-2-2 and Penn State was 7-2-3 as of Nov. GREG ANDERSON / UW ATHLETICS

28, the good news is that only a few games separate the best from the worst in the Big Ten. (Ohio State also has only three wins, but the Buckeyes have lost nine with no ties, so technically the Badgers aren’t in last place.)

The men won’t be back in action at the Kohl Center until a New Year’s Day exhibition with Trinity Western, followed by a home series against Ohio State on Jan. 8 and 9.

But hey, it’s only early December. The Badgers men and women both have a lot of hockey left to play. n

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The No. 1-ranked University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team is 16-0-0 for the first time in program history, and that 16-game winning streak is the fifth longest in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s 17year existence.

The Badgers aren’t just winning; they’re shutting out opponents by wide margins.

Since the season began on Oct. 2, Wisconsin has outscored all eight teams it has played by a shocking 79-6 in 16 games. That’s an average of 4.94 goals per game. Three of the Badgers’ goals in last Saturday’s 4-0 win against Dartmouth came in a span of about six minutes during the second period, and junior goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens recorded her ninth shutout of the season.

Wisconsin and No. 2 Boston College are the only undefeated teams remaining in the country, and if you don’t have plans for Friday night, Dec. 4, or Saturday afternoon, Dec. 5, consider heading to LaBahn Arena to check out this team for yourself. The Badgers take on No. 3 Minnesota (15-1-0) in a border battle that has the makings of a classic series.

At the other end of the skating spectrum is the UW men’s hockey team.

Although the Badgers have endured worse seasons (2014-15’s overall 4-26-5 record comes to mind), they head into Big Ten play this weekend at Michigan with a 3-5-4 record and no signature wins — unless you count a sweep of sunbaked Arizona State and a series split with North Dakota.

As UWBadgers.com writer Andy Baggot recently noted, Wisconsin faced a challenging nonconference schedule that included four na-

27

n BOOKS

Winner of Six Tony Awards

Spiritual struggle The Uncommitted is an engrossing debut novel

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December 4–13, 2015 The Playhouse at Overture y Tickets: $35 ($30 seniors, $20 students) On sale through the Overture Center Box Office at (608) 258-4141 or at www.fourseasonstheatre.com.

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Catholicism plays a central role in the debut novel from Madison author Margaret Goss, but readers need not share her beliefs in order to relate to The Uncommitted — a surprisingly dark tale of spiritual struggle.

Published by Three Towers Press in Milwaukee, this story set in St. Paul, Minn., contains references to such Madison institutions as UW Children’s Hospital (now American Family Children’s Hospital) and Culver’s, and revolves around Josephine Reilly, a 35-yearold mother of three who can communicate with the dead via dreams, visions and telepathy. While experimenting with what she initially considers a “gift,” she unlocks an invisible evil that threatens her family and drives her to the brink of self-destruction.

Beginning at about the halfway point, diligent readers will be able to put together some of the pieces and anticipate the book’s conclusion, but they should keep reading. An epic final scene set in a desolate Arizona cemetery attempts to bring closure; then Goss adds a provocative twist in the epilogue.

The book’s title references the souls in Dante’s Inferno that chose to live without conviction, faith, principle or belief, wandering aimlessly in eternity. Goss’ Catholic Sicilian mother possessed a deep devotion to saints, novenas and the rosary, and that religious upbringing no doubt played a role

in the author’s traditional depiction of marriage.

Josephine is devoted to her husband, Declan, but guilt-ridden by her desire to deny his will and pursue her psychic powers in secret. Declan, meanwhile, is the sturdy provider, seemingly more devoted to his job than to his wife.

Despite the clichés, Goss boldly blurs the spiritual, the secular and the supernatural — resulting in a story that, depending on how deep your faith goes, seems eerily real. References to Christ’s crucifixion and stigmata may lose some readers, but if they keep reading, the imagery Goss uses to depict her vision of the afterlife will stick with them.

Goss is a mother of three who works as a substitute nurse in the Madison Metropolitan School District. Her nursing know-how came in handy for the story she tells here, but Goss says she hopes to one day make a living as a writer.

She’s off to good start with The Uncommitted. n Margaret Goss will be signing copies of The Uncommitted at Mystery to Me on Dec. 17. Writer Doug Moe will interview her during the event.

Vietnam War continued from 19

What did you wind up taking away that surprised you?

C.W.: What I learned very quickly was that a lot of songs that were connected with Vietnam in my mind, because I was playing in a hippie band for the counterculture, were not of particular interest to vets. They didn’t need songs about Vietnam. They needed songs about their girlfriends back home.

D.B.: Radio was our Internet. So whether you participated or you protested, whether you served or you stayed, you listened to “My Girl,” “The Dock of the Bay,” “Light My Fire,” “Like a Rolling Stone.” I was stunned by how deeply that’s in our DNA. And that music has staying power. We teach our class to 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds, and they know the music.

In the acknowledgements, you write that you “owe much” to Country Joe McDonald.

How did you connect with him, and what impact did he have on the project?

C.W.: One of my students wanted to do a project on the music of Vietnam, and he looked up Country Joe online, sent him an

email, and Joe got back to him. The student came to me and said, “Joe seems to be approachable.” I emailed Joe and got back an answer within 15 minutes. He is a vet and has worked with vets forever, and he connected us with a lot of vets.

Some of those vets’ stories are pretty powerful. Is there one that particularly resonates with you?

C.W.: Art Flowers, a black cat from Memphis, talking about the impact of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” on him after he came back from the war. He said listening to that record shook him out of his stoned torpor at the time and made him a warrior for human freedom.

D.B.: I will choose Gerald McCarthy, who wrote a piece for the book about race. That’s one of the stories about Vietnam that people don’t get — how both connected and divisive race could be and how that played out in the soundtrack to the war.

You said you tried to keep your politics out of the book. What would you write if you had included your own politics?

D.B.: In many ways, the Vietnam War was America’s second Civil War. We never healed from it. Think of the lives we might have saved if we [as a country] would have listened, if we would have cared, if we would have said to the vets, “Hey, you know what? You might’ve had to shoulder the burden of fighting in the war, but that doesn’t mean you have to take on the moral burden of that war for the rest of your lives.” I think about Vietnam every day, and that’s never going to go away.

But I don’t have the nightmares that many other guys still do.” n Bradley and Werner will read from We Gotta Get Out of This Place at A Room of One’s Own, 315 W. Gorham St., at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10.

For more information and a playlist from the era, visit wggootp.com.

n COMEDY

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In the past 10 years, Esposito has honed her craft touring around the country and doing her own weekly show at the famed Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. She’s found love with fiancé and fellow kick-ass comic Rhea Butcher. She’s appeared on Conan, @midnight and Chelsea Lately.

In the same way that fellow comedian Aziz Ansari addresses race and Amy Schumer discusses feminism, Esposito has the power to get people thinking, talking and laughing about sexuality in a positive way. She has also used comedy as a platform to educate people about her sexuality.

In “Ask a Lesbian with Cameron Esposito,” a BuzzFeed Yellow video that garnered more than 2 million views, she gamely answers questions about sex and, of course, the age-old question, “Are you afraid of going to eternal hell?”

“First of all, I don’t believe in hell,” says Esposito, smiling. “But I was a theology student in college. That passage [Lev. 18:22] is actually widely debated. Some people think it’s an anti-rape passage. Others think it’s a pro-procreation passage — you know, when we really needed to make babies to keep the human race going. Either way, there’s a lot of stuff in the Bible that is no longer culturally appropriate. For example, I don’t stone people to death or...own slaves. But hey, thanks for asking.” n

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After studying social work and improv, Esposito chose standup.

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As 2015 winds down, Cameron Esposito’s life is about to change forever. She has a role in the upcoming Garry Marshall film, Mother’s Day, where she’ll appear alongside Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston. She’ll soon be releasing a new standup comedy special, and her first book will hit the bookstores.

Madisonians have a chance to see Esposito up close and personal at the Comedy Club on State Dec. 3-5 before she becomes a huge star. After that, fans might have to settle for an expensive seat in the rear balcony.

The 34-year-old is a comedic dynamo.

She’s got a side mullet that could make Justin Bieber jealous, and her signature look is a crisp jean jacket that she says “would only look good on a lesbian or a matador.” In her standup act, Esposito is equal parts witty, sharp and energetic. She has a self-confidence on stage and off that didn’t materialize until she embraced who she is: a talented comedian and a strong, openly gay woman.

She’s even able to turn an awkward heckle from an audience member — “You look like a woman who doesn’t sleep with men” — into comedy gold: “As if I didn’t know?” she threw back at him. “He yelled that at me like I grew up on a gay island with a gay volleyball and I’d never seen a straight person.”

Esposito grew up in a suburb outside of Chicago and attended a conservative Catholic high school. She went to Boston College, where she officially entered the comedy scene, joining the famed campus improvisational troupe, My Mother’s Flea Bag, because she dreamed (like many fellow comedy nerds) of attaining the superwoman status of alum Amy Poehler.

After a short post-graduation stint at a Boston improv theater, Esposito returned home to Chicago, where she studied social work at the University of Chicago while honing her improvisational skills at the celebrated Second City Conservatory. After six months of doing both, she realized neither institution was right for her.

Esposito understood that in order to find fulfillment, she had to speak her comedic truth, something she wasn’t really able to do in the improv scene. “There would be five dudes and me on stage.

They wanted to go one direction because they all had similar life experiences, and I wanted to go another,” says Esposito. She made the shift to standup, where she perfected the art of being herself, openly and hilariously.

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n MUSIC

Hip-hop from the North Woods Doomtree visits Barrymore with music created at their cabin retreat

BY STEVEN POTTER

What do seven hip-hop artists do when they need to get away from the distractions of the big city? Escape to Wisconsin.

In 2010, members of Minneapolis’ rap collective Doomtree retreated to a cabin outside of Hayward, in the deep North Woods, to arrange and write their 2011 release, No Kings.

“We knew the cabin was out of cell range, so we holed up there for a week. We went to the grocery store, got a bunch of supplies and sat there, making rap music,” says Lazerbeak, one of the group’s producers. “It was the easiest way we could commit to making anything because there’s no distractions besides a couple of deer out in the woods.”

This year, they did it again, creating their All Hands album during another trip to the cabin.

Madison audience members will hear tracks from both cabin-inspired albums as well as songs from the members’ many solo albums at the group’s first-ever show at the Barrymore Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 5.

In addition to Lazerbeak, the Doomtree collective includes producer Paper Tiger; MCs Dessa, Sims and Mike Mictlan; and rapper/producers P.O.S and Cecil Otter. The group is known for turning out tracks with fast-paced, complex lyrics and layered hooks over a wide range of ever-changing beats.

Doomtree’s content is multifaceted, intellectual, sometimes emotional and often introspective. The beat production is just as varied, pulling from different influences and incorporating jazz, punk, blues and soul sounds.

With seven artists offering input, making it all come together isn’t always easy, but Doomtree uses the large size of the group to

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its advantage. “With multiple producers, we’re able to form each section [of the song] to a different [MC’s] voice, and often times, turn one song into what kind of feels like multiple songs,” says Lazerbeak.

“It’s a lot of very confident, creative voices coming together, so the challenge is to know when to trust yourself and your idea and when to trust someone else’s idea and when to take the lead and when to follow,” adds Sims. “You can’t just shoot down an idea. If you don’t like something you have to come up with something that’s equal or better than that idea you don’t like.”

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ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

songwriter,” says Sims, adding that the Barrymore date is the last stop on the group’s “Off in the Deep Tour.”

Lazerbeak says the best way to experience Doomtree is by coming to a live show.

“It’s seven best friends on stage, losing it, sweating and having a good time, and doing that with a crowd who’s doing the same thing,” he says. “It’s a bit rowdy, but it’s inclusive. It’s not like a lot of rap shows where it’s one guy and a bunch of hype men on stage. You’re a part of the show if you’re there. It’s a party.” n

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The strategy seems to work: After more than a decade of making music together, the band has become close. “We’ve grown up together and seen each other grow from nothing to what we were able to build on our own,” says Lazerbeak. “There’s a huge amount of loyalty, love and respect there. It’s a family — it’s dysfunctional.

It’s just like when you don’t always love your little brother, but you still make it work.”

Spending time apart on solo projects also helps keep the bonds strong. “It allows people to experiment and grow artistically and explore what you want to do as a showman and as a

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Almost a knockout Creed infuses new energy into the Rocky Balboa legend

BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

The underdog winner Rocky Balboa, a character who’s become part of the American mythos ever since Rocky debuted in 1976, has managed a difficult movie task in Creed: He ages gracefully and passes the torch to a new generation. Sylvester Stallone’s creation has boxed on through five more iterations of the Rocky saga as the heavyweight champ fought for glory, revenge, America, or whatever motivation was handy. Yet none of the subsequent chapters carried the same emotional satisfaction as the original Rocky — until now, with Creed, whose very title signals a new start and unwillingness to settle for being simply Rocky VII. Stallone is in fine form in Creed — as an actor, not as a boxer. Shrewdly, he never dons the gloves or spars in the ring with his protégé Adonis Johnson Creed (Michael B. Jordan). He more or less acts his age, a rare thing among American actors, yet he still manages to imbue the character with full heart and the salt-of-the-earth demeanor and speech that endeared him to us in the first place. Yo! However, the infusion of new energy is due to the efforts of Ryan Coogler, the director and co-screenwriter (with Aaron Covington), and star Michael B. Jordan, who reunited for this picture following their attention-grabbing breakthrough film Fruitvale Station in 2013. Jordan plays the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), who died in the ring in Rocky IV before Adonis was born. That was in 1985, and though Creed fudges a bit with Adonis’ age (30 seems a bit old to begin a boxing career), the natural aptitude that is his birthright more than sells the concept.

Eager, determined and fully belonging to a

Michael B. Jordan as heir apparent Adonis Johnson Creed.

new era, Adonis (aka Donnie) wants to succeed on his own merits, rather than as the son of a legend. He begins fighting under his adopted mother’s surname, and quits his white-collar job as the movie begins to move to Philadelphia, where he plans to convince Rocky Balboa to be his trainer. This takes more than a little badgering, which gives Adonis time to start up a romance with singer Bianca (Tessa Thompson, from Dear White People).

For all its freshness, however, Creed still conforms to the familiar formula of a boxer’s rise, beginnings of self-doubt, recovery of self-conviction and ultimate triumph. But the performances are lovely, and Maryse Alberti’s cinematography, especially in the fight sequences, is deft and dynamic. Little touches add to the film’s authenticity: Adonis braiding Bianca’s hair while they hang out talking in bed; Rocky’s trips to the cemetery to read the newspaper in the company of Adrian and Paulie’s headstones; Adonis’ prefight jitters. Creed isn’t a complete TKO, but it goes all 12 rounds with vitality and style. n

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The Chi-Raq war Screenwriter says controversial Spike Lee film offers solutions

BY ALLISON GEYER

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

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Screenwriter Kevin Willmott is no stranger to controversial themes.

His film credits include C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, a mockumentary about an alternate history in which the South won the Civil War, and Destination: Planet Negro!, a satirical comedy about African Americans who attempt to travel to Mars to escape Jim Crow-era oppression.

But his recent collaboration with visionary filmmaker and self-described provocateur Spike Lee might be Willmott’s most high-profile controversy yet. (Side note for readers: Willmott is a professor of film at the University of Kansas, but he has a quirky local connection. His son, Kevin Jr., bartends at several local establishments and sings in the band Cowboy Winter. Full disclosure: Kevin Jr. is a friend of this article’s author).

Willmott co-wrote Chi-Raq, a satirical musical about gun violence on the South Side of Chicago, which opens Dec. 4 in Madison.

The film has been a magnet for criticism since the title was announced (Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel petitioned to have Lee rename the film), and it stirred up fresh outrage when the trailer dropped last month.

Critics, including some in the African American community, have accused the film of trivializing gun violence and exploiting the struggles of Chicago’s poor, minority community; others dislike the comparison to Iraq and fear that the film will cast the city in a negative light.

But Willmott welcomes the controversy, saying “the more attention the better,”

and that criticism is coming from people who haven’t seen the film yet. “That speaks for itself in a lot of ways,” he adds.

Willmott believes much of the controversy stems from critics misunderstanding the distinction between comedy and satire. Comedy is just for laughs, but satire “uses elements of humor to tell the truth.” He compares Chi-Raq to Dr. Strangelove, the 1964 political satire about nuclear war.

The screenplay is based on Lysistrata, a Greek comedy by Aristophanes first performed in 411 BC, in which women withhold sex in an effort to stop the Peloponnesian War. In Chi-Raq, women in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood employ the same tactic to stop gang violence.

It might seem a crazy concept, but sex strikes have been employed successfully throughout history — Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist, used a sex strike to help end a civil war in 2003 and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

Screenwriter Kevin Willmott updated a Greek comedy to address gun violence.

“I think the thing I like most about the film is that it’s about the solution — not about the problem,” Willmott says. “It’s not just another story about how bad it is in the ’hood. It’s a film about how people need to think outside the box.”

Willmott wrote the original screenplay 13 years ago and shared it with Lee, who “loved the script.” The pair pitched the film to Hollywood studios, but their efforts were unsuccessful at the time. Lee called Willmott a few years later and wanted to try again, this time with Amazon. Chi-Raq is Amazon’s first feature film.

Willmott says the recent entry of companies like Amazon and Netflix into the filmmaking and television programming business has been a game changer for the industry, pushing media boundaries and embracing new ideas.

The film’s themes are particularly timely, with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the debate over how to address the issue of gun violence in America.

Recent activism has increased scrutiny surrounding police killings of African Americans, but Chi-Raq addresses the issue of “black-on-black” crime.

That’s a favorite phrase among some conservatives, who argue that African Americans inflict more harm on their communities than police. But Willmott, who supports the Black Lives Matter movement, says, “You’ve got to care about human life, period. The police have to stop killing African Americans, and we have to stop killing each other. You don’t have to pick one or the other.” n

The film list New this week Krampus: A boy who has a crappy Christmas accidentally summons a demon.

Recent releases

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Brooklyn: A young immigrant departs Ireland in the early 1950s for a better life and hopeful future.

Aided by cinematographer Yves Bélanger’s vital visual sense, director John Crowley reimagines the period beautifully, evoking a romanticized time and place that likely never existed except in memory.

The Good Dinosaur: Pixar continues to reign supreme in the realm of family-focused animation with this story about a world in which dinosaurs never went extinct. It may not be the studio’s most original or most heartwarming film, but it gets the job done in fine fashion.

Spotlight: A tense, investigative thriller based on the true story of the Boston Globe investigative team that exposed the Catholic hierarchy for protecting abusive priests. The all-star cast delivers heartfelt and transformative performances.

Trumbo: Like so many recent issue-oriented historical dramas, this biopic about blacklisted ’50s screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) seems built largely around making viewers feel good about what they already believe — but fortunately, it’s also fairly entertaining.

Victor Frankenstein: This riff on Mary Shelley’s prescient 1818 sci-fi/horror novel goes in some new directions by choosing to retell the tale from the perspective of famed hunchback Igor, the man behind the madman who makes the monster.

More film events Akira: Animated tale of a military project that inadvertently turns a biker into a psionic psychopath.

Union South Marquee, Dec. 3 (9:30 pm), Dec. 5 (11 pm).

Bogowie (aka Gods): Biopic about cardiac surgeon Zbigniew Religa. Union South Marquee, Dec. 6, 1 pm.

Catalyst: Two brothers deal with their parents’ divorce. Central Library, Dec. 8, 6:30 pm.

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Cupcakes: A song recorded as a lark by six neighbors becomes Israel’s UniverSong competition entry. QCinema screening: OutReach, Dec. 9, 6:30 pm.

Far From Vietnam: Documentary collaboration

by Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Chris Marker, Claude Lelouch and Alain Resnais.

Cinematheque, Dec. 5, 7 pm.

He Named Me Malala: A documentary profiling Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who became a Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist.

Union South Marquee, Dec. 9, 7 pm.

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Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck: Authorized documentary about the grunge rock icon. Union South Marquee, Dec. 4 (8 pm) and Dec. 5 (5:30 pm).

Pather Panchali: The first entry in Satyajit Ray’s “Apu” trilogy.” Cinematheque, Dec. 4, 7 pm.

The Prowler: An infatuated cop slowly, inexorably sinks into a swamp of evil as he investigates a mysterious prowler; one of Joseph Losey’s last American films before succumbing to the blacklist and European exile. Chazen, Dec. 6, 2 pm.

Warsaw ’44: A tale of love and adventure during the Warsaw Uprising. Union South Marquee, Dec. 6, 3 pm.

Winter Soldier: Documentary featuring 1971 testimony from Vietnam War veterans. Cinematheque, Dec. 5, 3 pm.

Ant-Man

The Night Before

Bridge of Spies

Pan

Crimson Peak

The Peanuts Movie

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Secret in Their Eyes

Inside Out

Spectre

Love the Coopers

Steve Jobs

The Martian

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Also in theaters

The Cheese Knife

33

Tommy Emmanuel Friday, Dec. 4, Shannon Hall, 8 pm There are a lot of great guitar players in the world, but only a few qualify as virtuosos. Tommy Emmanuel is one of those. The Australian musician uses a complex fingerstyle picking technique and energetic live show to amplify and elevate his hybrid country, folk and jazz sound. For this show, Emmanuel will be playing two sets: one of his own classics and another of Christmas favorites.

picks

PICK OF THE WEEK COM EDY Cameron Esposito: With Dusty Slay, Patrick Tomlinson, 8:30 pm on 12/3 and 8 & 10:30 pm, 12/4-5, Comedy Club on State. $15-$10. 256-0099. See page 29.

thu dec 3 MU S I C

Oakwood Village-University Woods Center for Arts: VSA Wisconsin Choir, free, 7 pm.

Orpheum Theater: Home Free, country, 8 pm.

Paoli Schoolhouse: Dan Kennedy, free, 6 pm.

UW Humanities Building-Morphy Hall: UW Blue Note Ensemble, Jazz Composers Septet, Contemporary Jazz Ensemble, free, 7:30 pm.

T HE AT E R & DANCE

BOOKS/SP OKEN WORD Paul Buhle: Discussing “Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg,” his new collaboration with Kate Dixon, 7 pm, 12/3, Rainbow Bookstore/Infoshop. 257-6050.

Kevin Revolinski: Signing “Wisconsin’s Best Beer Guide,” 5 pm, 12/3, Octopi Brewing, Waunakee. 620-4705.

ART EXHIBITS & EV ENTS Lorrie Hurckes: Quilts, through 12/31, Yahara Bay Distillery Keira (reception 5-9 pm, 12/3). 275-1050.

Holiday Bazaar: Annual hand-crafted gift sale, 9 am3 pm, 12/3-4, St. Mary’s Adult Day Health Center, 2440 Atwood Ave. 249-4450.

Tani Diakite & the Afrofunkstars

Senior Art Seminar: 12/3-13, Edgewood College-The Stream Gallery (reception 4-6 pm, 12/3). 663-3252.

Thursday, Dec. 3, High Noon Saloon, 8 pm

This “funkraiser” features Tani Diakite and the Afrofunkstars and benefits the Ceiba Foundation, a local nonprofit that’s been protecting tropical forests and supporting sustainable community development in Ecuador since 1997. All proceeds from the concert and tropical plant sale will go to Ecuador. With Los Chechos.

Bos Meadery: Hoot’n Annie, string band, free, 6 pm.

Brink Lounge: Gerri DiMaggio, jazz, free, 8 pm.

Cardinal Bar: DJ Jo-Z, Latin, 10 pm.

Claddagh Irish Pub, Middleton: Slipjig, free, 6 pm.

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

Essen Haus: Big Wes Turner’s Trio, free, 9 pm.

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Frequency: G Herbo, Zuse, MobSquad Nard, Skinny, DJ Pain 1, 7 pm;: DJ Pain 1, Mr Get Your Buzz Up, 11 pm.

Ivory Room: Luke Hrovat-Staedter, Josh Dupont, 9 pm.

Kiki’s House: Jim White, Paul Fonfara, 8 pm.

Lakeside Street Coffee House: Music Theatre of Madison, “Crappy Holidays” revue, 7 pm.

Majestic Theatre: Buckcherry, Saving Abel, Full Devil Jacket, Sons of V, rock, 8 pm.

Mickey’s: Mal-O-Dua, French swing, free, 5:30 pm.

Mr. Robert’s: Beast of Bray Road, free, 10 pm.

and a prolific recording artist with 14 solo albums, the 66-year-old brings his signature guitar playing and hardy voice to town in support of his recent LP Still. He’ll begin the night with a brief solo acoustic set before diving into his more rocking material backed by a rhythm section.

Beat Connection Friday, Dec. 4, The Frequency, 9:30 pm

They may have shared the stage with chillwave all-stars like Toro y Moi and Washed Out, but don’t let that fool you. Seattle quartet Beat Connection is hardly chill. They make pulsating, electro-tinged dance rock that’s the crowd-pleasing, funky counterpoint to those artists’ more melancholic tendencies. With Phantoms, Midas Bison.

Chris Maddox: “Test Me,” open 4-6 pm, 12/3-4, UW Discovery Building-Room 1130. 262-1660.

fri dec 4 Delicious Xmas Thursday, Dec. 3, Broom Street Theater, 8 pm

Working together in a “deliberate crisis situation,” the ensemble members of Are We Delicious? are talented local thespians who write, rehearse, memorize and perform short plays in an absurdly short amount of time.

“Xmas,” a generic term that embraces all seasonal permutations, is bound to present a hilarious spin on the holidays, no matter what you celebrate. ALSO: Friday (8 & 10 pm) and Saturday (8 pm), Dec. 4-5. Through Dec. 12.

The Beaux’ Stratagem: University Theatre comedy, 11/19-12/13, UW Vilas Hall-Mitchell Theatre, at 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 pm Sundays. $23. 265-2787.

M USIC

Legendary Shack Shakers Friday, Dec. 4, High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm

Richard Thompson Trio Friday, Dec. 4, Barrymore Theatre, 8 pm

Richard Thompson has been a steady force in rock and folk music since the late ‘60s. An acclaimed songwriter, a revered instrumentalist

For nearly two decades, these Kentucky swamp rockers have been creating music influenced by barnstorming carnivals and whiskeyswilling Southern rock. It would be easy to call Legendary Shack Shakers one of music’s best-kept secrets, but it also wouldn’t be that accurate. Their songs have been featured in several national commercials, and their fans are as disparate and lauded as Jello Biafra and Robert Plant. With Jessica Lee Wilkes.

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DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

35

ISTHMUSWELCOMES

DOOMTREE BARRYMORE DEC. 5

WINTERSONG

MAD MEN HOLIDAY SOIREE MAJESTIC DEC. 5

n ISTHMUS PICKS : DEC 4 T H EAT ER & DA N C E

BORGEOUS Friday, Dec. 4, Liquid, 10 pm

John Borger, aka BORGEOUS, is a Miamiborn, L.A.-based DJ/producer who’s a fast-rising star in the EDM world. His tracks “Invincible” and “Wildfire” reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Dance Radio chart. With Melvv, Mind Cntrl, Thr33 D.

ORPHEUM DEC. 18

BARRYMORE DEC. 12

Marielle Allschwang Friday, Dec. 4, Mickey’s Tavern, 10 pm

JOANNA NEWSOM YONDER MOUNTAIN

STRING BAND ORPHEUM JAN. 23

As a member of Hello Death and Group of the Altos, Marielle Allschwang is no stranger to intense, melancholy rock. On her solo debut Dead Not Done for Gloss Records, the Milwaukee singer-songwriter churns out 11 sparse and slow-moving tracks, using her elegant yet unassuming voice as the focal point for the record’s eerie and emotive sound. With Oedipus Tex, Gentle Brontosaurus.

B O O KS / S PO K EN WO RD Book & Bake Sale: 10 am-8 pm on 12/4 and 10 am1 pm, 12/5, South Madison Library. 266-6395.

Night Light: 8-11 pm, 12/4, Central Library, with author Christopher Oldstone-Moore on “Of Beards and Men: The Revealing History of Facial Hair,” music, guest barbers, craft projects. 266-6300.

Madtown Poetry Open Mic: With John Morgan, Ron Czerwein, 8 pm, 12/4, Mother Fool’s. 255-4730.

A RT EXH I B I TS & EV EN TS

RYAN BINGHAM MAJESTIC JAN. 27

Chief’s Tavern: Frankie Lee, Chuck Bayuk & Tom Dehlinger, free, 6:30 pm.

Delaney’s: Bob Kerwin & Doug White, jazz, free, 6 pm.

Edgewood College: Edgewood College Choirs, Concert Band, Guitar Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, 7 pm. Also: 2:30 pm, 12/5 (advance tix only: edgewood.edu).

First Unitarian Society: Helen Avakian, fingerstyle guitar, free, 12:15 pm.

Gray’s Tied House, Verona: Robert J, free, 6 pm.

Harmony Bar: Get Back, Beatles tribute, performing “Rubber Soul” and more, 9 pm.

Ivory Room: Peter Hernet, Eben Seaman, 8 pm.

Majestic Theatre: Figure, Stratus, 10 pm.

Mr. Robert’s: Devil’s Share, J. Martin, free, 9:30 pm.

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

Great Russian Nutcracker: Moscow Ballet, 7 pm, 12/4, Orpheum Theater. $68-$28. 250-2600.

Cardinal Bar: Tony Castaneda Latin Jazz Quartet, Latin jazz, 5:30 pm; DJ Nick Nice, 9 pm.

Legends: Cool Front with Jon French, 9:30 pm.

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Four Seasons Theatre presents a musical that begins in the summer of 1953 when the wife of a well-heeled American businessman is traveling with her mentally challenged adult daughter Clara. While sightseeing in a piazza, Clara’s hat blows off, landing at the feet of Fabrizio Naccarelli, a handsome Florentine. If anyone can revive this quirky gem, which garnered a slew of Tony Awards in 2005, it’s Four Seasons. ALSO: Saturday (7:30 pm) and Sunday (2 pm), Dec. 5-6. Through Dec. 13.

Brink Lounge: The Rascal Theory, rock, 8:30 pm; Sunspot, Johnny Likes Noize, 9 pm.

Knuckle Down Saloon: Studebaker John, 9 pm.

RITTER

Friday, Dec. 4, Overture Center’s Playhouse, 7:30 pm

Badger Bowl: Four Wheel Drive, free, 9:15 pm.

BARRYMORE JAN. 28

JOSH

The Light in the Piazza

OVERTURE JAN. 30

ISTHMUS FROSTIBALL

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Overture Center: Madison Symphony Orchestra, with Emily Fons and David Govertsen, Madison Symphony Chorus, Madison Youth Choirs, Mt. Zion Gospel Choir, 7:30 pm. Also: 8 pm on 12/5 and 2:30 pm, 12/6.

Rex’s Innkeeper, Waunakee: Back 40 Band, 8:30 pm.

Stoughton Opera House: Harmonious Wail, 7:30 pm.

Tuvalu Coffeehouse, Verona: MSG Showcase with John Duggleby, Cris & Ann Plata, open mic, 7:30 pm.

UW Memorial Union: Tommy Emmanuel, , 8 pm.

UW Union South-The Sett: Homeless & Big Cats, Lucien Parker, hip-hop, free, 9 pm.

Wil-Mar Center: Nelson Graham, 8 pm.

Curious Worlds: The Art of Ellen Lanyon Friday, Dec. 4, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 6-9 pm (reception)

The late painter and printmaker Ellen Lanyon was a powerful force in the Chicago School of artists of the latter half of the 20th century. This exhibit focuses on her prolific “Magic” cycle of realist-surrealist mashups, produced between 1969 and 1984. Richly textured fantasies such as the ghostly, aureole-etched, sea-blue “Arabian Nights” shimmer with images from nature, objects of everyday life and other mingling presences seemingly wrought from the depths of boundless dreams. On display through April 17.

UW Textile & Fashion Design Student Exhibition: 12/4-15, UW Nancy Nicholas Hall-Ruth Davis Design Gallery (reception 5-7 pm, 12/4). 262-8815.

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Sports Bar · Bar & Grill · Event Venue

Fall II Rise (CD Release), Haliwel (CD Release), Daphni, Left of Reason SAT, DEC 12 . 7 PM

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701A E. Washington Ave. 268-1122 www.high-noon.com Ceiba Tropical Funkraiser

thu dec

3

Tani Diakite & the Afro-Funkstars Los Chechos 8pm $15 sug. Don., $10 students

HAPPYOKE

fri dec Rock Star

4

Gomeroke

Gallery Night: River Alliance of Wisconsin fundraiser, 5-8 pm, 12/4, Monona State Bank-Atwood. RSVP: eventbrite.com/e/19209196223.

ELECTRONIC Luminous Flux: Steven Feren,NIGHT Leslie Iwai, Aaron Laux, Katherine Rosing, 12 Scott . Shapiro, THU NOV 9PM .through $5 1/2, Gallery Marzen (reception 5-9 pm, 12/4).

709-1454.

Featured DJs: Acideon, Sean Paul, Michael Kienitz: Photographs of Central Lane Alexander, Jogre the Ogre American

coop members, through 1/31, Capitol Lakes-plaza gallery (reception with talk on Working Capital for Community Needs by Jeanne Duffy 7 pm, 12/4). 283-2003.

S PECI AL EV ENTS Caroling at the Cave: Christmas Tubas, 7 pm, 12/4; greenTONE, 5 & 6:30 pm, 12/5; Festival Choir of Madison, 3 pm, 12/6, Cave of the Mounds, Blue Mounds. $10 ($5 ages 12 & under) benefits charity. 437-3038.

Victorian Holiday Weekend: 12/4-6, downtown Stoughton, with arts & crafts, entertainment, trolley rides, kids’ activities. stoughtonwi.com. 873-7912.

S PECTATOR SP ORTS UW Women’s Hockey: vs. Minnesota, 7 pm on 12/4 and 3 pm, 12/5, LaBahn Arena. $5. 262-1440.

KI D S & FAM ILY PlayTime Productions: The Emperor’s New Clothes: Fairy tale adaptation, 7 pm, 12/4, Overture CenterPromenade Hall; 1 pm, 12/5, Central Library. 437-4217.

sat dec 5 MUS I C

6

mon dec

7

Black Sheep Bazaar

Chris LaBella with Elevated Expression Bird’s Eye / Rich Robbins Airo Kwil / Lucien Parker

10am -5pm FREE

8pm $7 18+

PUNDAMONIUM:

Saturday, Dec. 5, Barrymore Theatre, 9 pm

Since first coming together in 2001, Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree has consistently blurred the lines between rap, punk rock and poetry, creating music that’s as introspective and socially conscious as it is loud and pissed off. See page 30. With Mixed Blood Majority, Bleubird, Lucien Parker.

8

Joey Molland & Mark Healy of Badfinger Rockstar Gomeroke Guitars For Vets Recital

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

5pm $11 sug. Don.

38

wed dec

9

thu dec

10

8pm

AUSTIN LUCAS Christopher Gold Evan Murdock 9pm $8 18+

Frequency: Madison Hip-Hop Awards Winners, 11 pm.

Harmony Bar: Edi Rey y Su Salsera, Tony Castaneda Latin Jazz Superband, Tony C.’s 60th birthday, 9:45 pm.

High Noon Saloon: WORT 40th Anniversary: White Mystery, Cowboy Winter, Modern Mod, Mama Digdown’s Brass Band, Whiskey Farm, March Of The Meanies, 5 pm.

Ivory Room: Connor Brennan, Michael Massey, Eben Seaman, dueling pianos, 8 pm.

Knuckle Down: Spider John Koerner, Boo Bradley, 8 pm.

Liliana’s: John Widdicombe & Stan Godfriaux, 6:30 pm.

Mad Rollin’ Dolls: Reservoir Dolls vs Quad Squad & Unholy Rollers vs. Vaudeville Vixens, 6 pm, 12/5, Alliant Energy Center-Exhibition Hall. $15 ($12 adv.; $6 ages 4-10). madrollindolls.com.

Madison Capitols: USHL vs. Fargo, 7:05 pm on 12/5 and 4:05 pm, 12/6, Alliant Energy Center-Coliseum. $20.50-$12.50. 267-3955.

K I D S & FA MI LY Breakfast with Santa: Northside Business Association food pantries benefit, 8-11 am, 12/5, Esquire Club. $6 ($4 kids). 663-9090.

Mickey’s Tavern: Ka-Boom!Box, free, 10 pm.

Kids in the Rotunda: Music by Tommy Ensemble, 9:30 & 11 am and 1 pm, 12/5, Overture Center. 258-4141.

Middleton-Cross Plains Area Performing Arts Center: Swing City Dolls, vocal trio, 7:30 pm.

Match Girl Project Knitting: All ages, 10 am, 12/5, Madison Children’s Museum. 256-6445.

Mr. Robert’s: Del Mar, free, 10 pm.

Saturday Science: “Wheels, Wings and Rudders: The Science of Transportation,” demos & activities, 10 amnoon, 12/5, UW Discovery Building. Free. 316-4382.

Red Mouse, Pine Bluff: Madison County, 9:30 pm.

Rex’s Innkeeper, Waunakee: Back 40 Band, 8:30 pm.

Ski’s Saloon, Sun Prairie: Best Practice, free, 5 pm.

Stoughton Opera House: Sonny Landreth, 7:30 pm.

Tricia’s Country Corners, McFarland: The Keepers, 9 pm.

Tuvalu Coffeehouse, Verona: Rachel & Alan, free, 7 pm.

ART EXHIBITS & EV ENTS Jean Borman, James Reinke, Eric Hagstrom, Tim Togstad: “Artists You Should Know 2,” through 12/31, La Mop Hair Studio (reception 5-8 pm, 12/5). 231-1644.

Merrill Springs Holiday Art Show & Sale: Annual event featuring local artists, 10 am-5 pm on 12/5 and noon4 pm, 12/6, 1009 Merrill Springs Rd. 238-3425.

Creating for a Cause: Annual holiday art fair, 10 am-5 pm on 12/5 and 11 am-4 pm, 12/6, Middleton Outreach Ministry Food Pantry, Middleton, with holiday music. 836-7338.

Dance Wisconsin: “Nutcracker” preview, 11 am, 12/5, Madison Children’s Museum. 256-6445.

Andy Rash: Reading “Archie the Daredevil Penguin,” new kids’ book, 11 am, 12/5, Mystery to Me. 283-9332.

Confucius Classroom Designation: Charter school offering Chinese-American environment for elementary students, 3-6 pm, 12/5, Verona Area International School (at Savanna Oaks Middle School), with Chinese calligraphy & crafts, food, performances.

Free. 845-4224.

DA N C I N G Big Band Dance: With Sun Prairie student & alumni jazz bands, 7-10 pm, 12/5, Angell Park Pavilion, Sun Prairie. $8. 834-6700.

Madison Tango Society Milonga: With DJ Doug Reuhl, 8-11:45 pm, 12/5, Madison Senior Center. $17.

238-2039.

sun dec 6 MUS I C

HolidayFest: Annual arts & crafts fair, 9 am-3 pm, 12/5, Warner Park Community Rec. Center, with 80+ vendors, music, door prizes. $1 admission. 245-3690.

SP ECIAL EV ENTS

Mad Men Holiday Soirée

live band karaoke 9pm FREE

$5

Crystal Corner Bar: Meghan Rose & the Bones, SheShe, The Civil Engineers, rock, 9:30 pm.

Black Earth Kiln Group: Holiday pottery sale, 10 am, 12/5, Malt House. 204-6258.

ROCKSTAR GOMEROKE

PROG

UW Men’s Basketball: vs. Temple, 11:30 am, 12/5; vs. UW-Milwaukee, 8 pm, 12/9, Kohl Center. $41$26. 262-1440.

Come Back In: Bill Roberts Combo, free, 9 pm.

Kristine Kellor: Studio show, 10 am-5 pm, 12/5-6, 2689 McGaw Road, Fitchburg. 852-3131.

7pm $6

tue dec

S PEC TATO R S PO RTS

Holiday Craft Fair: 9 am-3 pm, 12/5, VFW Post 8483-Highway CV. 241-3740.

The Madison Pun Slam!

Guitars For Veterans Fundraiser: Tribute to The Beatles

Christmas in Paoli: Carolers, special events & refreshments, 10 am-5 pm, 12/5, Paoli. visitpaoli.com.

Club Tavern, Middleton: The Volcanics, 9 pm.

The Nutcracker: Ballet version by StageWorks Projects, 1:30 & 7:30 pm, 12/5, Stoughton High School. $14. 873-0717.

Doomtree

Holiday Express: Annual flower & model train show, 10 am-4 pm, 12/5-31, Olbrich Gardens. $5 ($3 ages 3-12). 246-4550.

Claddagh, Middleton: Lucas Cates, free, 8 pm.

THEATER & DANCE

WORT’s 40th Anniversary Party

sun dec

Cardinal Bar: MadiSalsa, DJ Jo-Z, 10 pm.

Viking Lanes, Stoughton: Cool Front w/Jon French, 8 pm.

9:30PM $13 ADV, $15 DOS

Ugly Sweater Party

CamRock Cafe, Cambridge: Beth Kille, 7 pm.

UW Old Music Hall: UW-Madison & Madison Metropolitan School District Jazz Festival, concert, free, 6 pm.

Jessica Lee Wilkes

5pm $20 Donation before 9pm, $10 after 18+

Buck and Honey’s, Sun Prairie: Nine Thirty Standard, 7 pm.

UW Humanities-Mills Hall: All-University Strings, 8 pm.

18+

White Mystery / Cowboy Winter sat Modern Mod / Mama Digdown’s Brass dec 5 Band / The Whiskey Farm Acoustic Trio March Of The Meanies

Bandung: Mideast by Midwest, free salsa lesson, 7:30 pm.

Tyranena Brewing, Lake Mills: Portageurs, free, 7 pm.

LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS

5pm $7

Alchemy Cafe: Sortin’ the Mail, bluegrass, free, 10 pm.

Steel Panther Saturday, Dec. 5, Orpheum Theater, 9 pm

While many write off glam metal as lowhanging fruit, Steel Panther is more than happy to pick it. The L.A. group has made a living simultaneously mocking and paying tribute to the Aquanet-heavy rockers of the ’80s through its profane, so-dumb-they’resmart-lyrics and arena-ready riffing. Stretch those neck muscles because you’re going to be banging your head all night long.

Saturday, Dec. 5, Majestic Theatre, 8:30 pm

Mad Men may have ended in May, but its sophistication, spirit and style live on with this annual party. Show up dressed in your ’60s best to enjoy Joe Scalissi performing the music of Dean Martin and Nick Nice spinning the era’s hits. Buy your date an Old Fashioned while you’re at it, too.

Fair Trade Holiday Festival: Annual Outside the Bean event featuring artisan food, clothing, arts & crafts from around the globe, 9 am-4 pm, 12/5, Monona Terrace.

Free admission. fairtrademadison.org.

Joe Pug Sunday, Dec. 6, Memorial Union Play Circle, 8 pm

A college dropout who recorded his first album while working as a carpenter in Chicago, Joe Pug is one of the last true vagabonds in modern folk music. Inspired as much by Raymond Carver as he is by Bob Dylan, Pug is a prodigiously talented lyricist with a voice like a boxcar tramp, a refreshing anachronism in a genre currently overrun with repetitive stomps and sing-alongs.

➡

FRANKPRODUCTIONS.COM

TRUEENDEAVORS.COM

Capitol Theater Saturday, April 2 OvertureCenter.org 608-258-4141

RICHARD THOMPSON TRIO

Ticketmaster.com • BarrymoreLive.com

JUST ANNOUNCED – TICKETS ON SALE THIS FRIDAY 12/4

Classics & Christmas Tour one set of christmas classics one set of tommy’s solo classics Featuring

Mixed Blood Majority Bleubird • Lucien Parker

with special guests

SATURDAY, DEC 5 BARRYMORE THEATRE

WISCONSIN UNION THEATER SHANNON HALL

PAT BERGESON JOHN KNOWLES CGP & ANNIE SELLICK

FEBRUARY 3 TICKETS ON SALE THIS FRIDAY, NOV 20TH Ticketmaster.com • Barrymore Outlets

UNIONTHEATERWISC.EDU 608-265-ARTS (2787)

JUST ANNOUNCED! TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY DEC. 4

THIS FRIDAY DEC. 4 • WISCONSIN UNION THEATER • SHANNON HALL UNIONTHEATER.WISC.EDU, 608-265-ARTS (2787) MEMORIAL UNION, 800 LANGDON ST. OR VILAS HALL, 821 UNIVERSITY AVE.

BARRYMORE THEATRE SATURDAY FEB 20 TICKETMASTER.COM • BARRYMORELIVE.COM

DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

CLOUD CULT

39

n ISTHMUS PICKS : DEC 6 – 8 Bourbon Street Grille, Monona: Madison Jazz Jam, free (all ages), 4 pm.

CO MEDY

Brocach-Square: West Wind, Irish, free, 5 pm.

Chazen Museum of Art: Sunday Afternoon Live with Pro Arte Quartet, free, 12:30 pm.

Funk’s Pub, Fitchburg: Open Jam, 8 pm Sundays.

Grace Episcopal Church: Madison Sacred Harp Singers (all invited to sing), 3 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Chris LaBella, Bird’s Eye, Airo Kwil, Rich Robbins, comedy by Nick Hart, 8 pm.

Luther Memorial Church: UW School of Music Winter Choral Concert, annual event, free, 2 & 4 pm.

Madison College-Truax Campus, Mitby Theater: Community Show Choir, College Chorale, 2 pm.

Maduro: DJ Nick Nice, free, 10 pm Sundays.

Midvale Community Lutheran Church: Carols for Advent, fundraiser for scholarships to Dar Al-Kalima College in Bethlehem, 7 pm.

Natt Spil: DJ Amos Smith, house, free, 10 pm.

Olbrich Gardens: Capitol Chordsmen, a cappella, 2 pm.

Stoughton Opera House: Donna the Buffalo, Peter Rowan, Americana, 7:30 pm.

Tip Top Tavern: Open Mic, free, 9 pm Sundays.

UW Humanities Building-Mills Hall: UW Concert Band, UW School of Music concert, free, 2 pm; UW Chamber Orchestra, free, 7:30 pm.

Wiggies: Rockbottom, blues/rock, 2 pm.

Curious Worlds The Art of Ellen Lanyon

Friday, December 4 RECEPTION • 6–9 PM Hors d’oeuvres from Fresco Music by The Charles Walker Band

GALLERY TALK • 6:30 PM With Richard H. Axsom

$10 / FREE FOR MEMBERS 227 State Street • mmoca.org

Lawrence Tabak: Discussing “In Real Life,” his novel, 1 pm, 12/6, Mystery to Me. 283-9332.

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

40

tue dec 8 MUS I C

Panama Wedding

ART EXHIBITS & EV ENTS

From its humble beginnings as just a man and his computer to its current status as an energetic synthpop act, Panama Wedding seems to be on the cusp of stardom. And with an excellent new album, Into Focus, out on indie tastemaker Glassnote Records, music fans should get used to seeing a lot more of the New York four-piece. With Great Good Fine Ok, Scavenger Hunt.

Harmony Bar Art Show: Annual event, noon-5 pm, 12/6, Harmony Bar. 249-4333.

KIDS & FAM ILY Edible Insects: 11:30 am, 12/6, Madison Children’s Museum. 256-6445.

RePlay: UW Center for Child and Family Well-Being event, 3:30-5:30 pm, 12/6, Nancy Nicholas Hall, with fashion show of clothes from thrift shops, crafts, play & food. Free. sohe.wisc.edu.

Tuesday, Dec. 8, The Frequency, 8:30 pm

SP ECIAL INTERESTS Shop for OccuPAWS: Fundraiser with local crafters, artists & vendors, raffle and bake sale, 10 am-3 pm, 12/6, Prairie View Middle School, Sun Prairie. Free admission. 772-3787.

Holiday Bazaar: Annual event with 30+ vendors, 10 am-3 pm, 12/6, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, with food, gifts and silent auction to benefit ALNC children’s programs. 221-0404.

Black Sheep Bazaar: 10 am-5 pm, 12/6, High Noon Saloon. Free admission; a percentage of sales donated to Planned Parenthood. 268-1122.

mon dec 7 M USIC Claddagh: Bluegrass Jam, 6:30 pm Mondays.

Image: Ellen Lanyon, Arabian Nights, 1998. Acrylic on canvas, 44 x 52 inches. Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Gift from the Estate of Ellen Lanyon.

These comics have been hilarious on stages, the small screen and the big screen. Their collective credits include roles in 21 Jump Street, The Master, 30 Rock and Bob’s Burgers; Pemberton was recognized as a “New Face” at Just For Laughs Festival, and Fadem (pictured) has been named a “Comic to Watch” by various outlets, including Variety.

Mary Bergin: Signing “Wisconsin Supper Club Cookbook,” 1 pm, 12/6, Orange Tree Imports. 255-8211.

Alchemy Cafe: DJ Samroc, free, 10 pm Mondays.

MMoCA NIGHTS are generously suppor ted by,

Monday, Dec. 7, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm

BOOKS

Warren Buckles: Photographs, noon-4 pm Sundays, 12/6-27, PhotoMidwest. photomidwest.org.

MMOCA NIGHTS

Johnny Pemberton + Josh Fadem

The Frequency: Flowpoetry, Devil’s Fen, Gary David & the Enthusiasts, 9 pm.

Liliana’s: Verona High School Jazz Ensembles, 6 pm.

Juan de Marcos Tuesday, Dec. 8, Memorial Union Play Circle, 7:30 pm

Legendary Cuban musician Juan de Marcos has spent the past semester at the UW, and music springs forth wherever he goes. This event is a celebration of his residency here, with performances from several UW School of Music ensembles, First Wave’s hip-hop performers and winners of a talent competition in Madison’s high schools. Topping it all off will be Kurtis Blow, who in 1979 became the first rapper signed to a major label.

Mr. Robert’s: Open Jam, free, 9:30 pm Mondays.

Cardinal Bar: Darren Sterud Orchestra, jazz, 7 pm; New Breed Jazz Jam, free, 9 pm Tuesdays.

Natt Spil: DJ Zukas, free, 10 pm.

Crystal Corner Bar: Bing Bong, rock, free, 8 pm.

Up North Pub: Gin Mill Hollow, Americana, free, 8 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Joey Molland & Mark Healy, Rockstar Gomeroke, Guitars For Vets Recital, Beatles tribute/Guitars for Veterans benefit, 5 pm.

UW Humanities Building-Mills Hall: UW Western Percussion Ensemble, UW School of Music concert, free, 7:30 pm.

➡

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41

418 E. WILSON ST. 608.257.BIRD CARDINALBAR.COM FRIDAY 12/4 LIVE HAPPY HOUR LATIN JAZZ QUARTET

TONY CASTAÑEDA _______________

5:30PM • FREE

THE RETURN OF

BUTTER

n ISTHMUS PICKS : DEC 8 – 10 Sun Prairie High School: UW Wind Ensemble, free, 7:30 pm.

Claddagh, Middleton: Shekinah King, free, 6 pm.

Luke Arvid

Up North Pub: The Lower 5th, free, 8 pm.

The Frequency: Luke Winslow-King, 7:30 pm.

Thursday, Dec. 10, The Frequency, 9 pm

Heritage Tavern: Susan Hofer, jazz, free, 8:30 pm.

Playing slow, acoustic-focused tunes with minimal adornment, the Madison songwriter makes each strum of his guitar and each word sung count on his thoughtful 2015 album Day of the Bui1der.

He’s joined by Jack Tell (of Milwaukee bands Animals in Human Attire and Lousy Trouts) and local tunesmith Marty Finkel.

ART E XHIBITS & EV ENTS Dave Miess: Photographs, 12/8-1/4, UW Hospital & Clinics-C5/2 Waiting Area. 263-5992.

wed dec 9

w/ NICK NICE 9PM

____________________ SATURDAY 12/5

Cardinal 41

MUS I C

Anniversary Party

Ivory Room: Josh Dupont, piano, free, 9 pm.

Mickey’s: Tani Diakite & Desert Trance Infusion, 10 pm.

Opus Lounge: Alison Margaret Jazz Trio, free, 9 pm.

Up North Pub: MoonHouse, free, 8 pm.

UW Humanities Building-Mills Hall: UW Masters Singers, free, 7:30 pm.

ART EXHIBITS & EV ENTS

with MADISALSA & DJ JO-Z DOORS 8PM

____________________ TUESDAY 12/8

DARREN STERUD 7-9PM ORCHESTRA _______________

JAZZ JAM

High Noon Saloon: Prog, 8 pm.

Chief’s Tavern: Hoot’n Annie, string band, 8:30 pm.

Marcia Sparks: 12/9-1/6, UW Hospital & ClinicsE5/2 Entrance. 263-5992.

Essen Haus: WheelHouse, free, 9 pm.

Stick Vega: “Explosions & Whiskey,” through 1/31, Waypoint Public House, Monona. 222-0224.

9PM • FREE

M A DISON’S CL A SSIC DA NC E B A R

Chick Singer Night Wednesday, Dec. 9, Brink Lounge, 8 pm

2201 Atwood Ave.

(608) 249-4333 FRI. DEC. 4

9 pm $10

Local women take center stage in this recurring event pulled together by powerhouse Americana artist Beth Kille. The rockin’ house band backs up five amazing chicks — Teresa Marie, Michelle GrabelKomar, Jenna Mood, Terra Kauffan and Val Humphrey — and a dude: “are you man enough” performer Sean Michael Dargan.

Cardinal Bar: DJ Chamo, Latin, 10 pm.

Jackie Cassidy: Jewelry, 12/9-1/5, UW Hospital & Clinics-C5/2 Waiting Area. 263-5992.

UW Interior Architecture Portfolio Showcase: 12/915, UW Nancy Nicholas Hall-Ruth Davis Design Gallery (reception 5-7 pm, 12/11). 262-8815.

w/ THE NEW BREED

Brink Lounge: Mike Massey & Francie Phelps, 7 pm.

thu dec 10 M USIC

Club Tavern, Middleton: Madpolecats, free, 9 pm.

First United Methodist Church: Isthmus Brass, free/ donations benefit porchlight, 7:30 pm.

Ivory Room: Vince Strong, Nicky Jordan, 9 pm.

UW Humanities Building-Morphy Hall: Wingra Woodwind Quintet, free, 7:30 pm.

T H EAT ER & DA N C E Hobson’s Choice: Upstart Crows Productions romantic comedy, 7 pm, 12/10-11, Lake Edge United Church of Christ. $15 donation. 827-9482. armature: in media res: Li Chiao-Ping Dance, 7:30 pm on 12/10-11 and 2:30 & 7:30 pm, 12/12, Overture Center-Promenade Hall. $19. 258-4141.

CO MEDY

Badger Bowl: Chris Janson, Granger Smith, Acoustic Alloy, free with toy donation for Toys for Tots, 6 pm.

Performing Rubber Soul and other Beatles songs ____________________________________ SAT. DEC. 5

9:45 pm $10

Tony c’s 60th birthday pachanga featuring edi rey y su salsera & the tonY castañeda latin jazz superband Birthday cake and free tequila at 11:30 (while supplies last) ____________________________________

HARMONY HOLIDAY

SUN. DEC. 6

Noon - 5 pm

ART SHOW & SALE Come watch Bucky and the Pack on our 6 HD TVs! www.harmonybarandgrill.com

Austin Lucas Thursday, Dec. 10, High Noon Saloon, 9 pm THURSDAYS H 8:30PM H FREE

Tate’s

BLUES JAM H FRI, DEC 4 9PM H $7

Studebaker John Delmark Recording Artist

624 UNIVERSITY AVE // MADISON, WI SAT, 14 TICKETS:NOV LIQUIDMADISON.COM FRIDAY DECEMBER 4 H 9PM $7

SATURDAY - DECEMBER 5

SAT, DEC 5 H 8PM H $8

As a former choirboy, Austin Lucas may seem like a bit of an oddity in punk rock.

But the Bloomington, Ind., native is a mainstay on Hot Water Music frontman Chuck Ragan’s Revival Tour, an acoustic showcase that regularly features scene legends like Frank Turner, Lucero’s Ben Nichols and Ragan himself. And to his credit, Lucas has released six albums of his own heartfelt brand of folk-punk, the most recent being 2013’s Stay Reckless.

With Christopher Gold, Evan Murdock.

Mike Stanley Thursday, Dec. 10, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm

Mike Stanley has performed internationally and was named “Best Chicago Standup Comedian” by the Chicago Reader. He originally hails from Detroit, and it doesn’t take too many of his jokes to sort out that he’s a Midwestern comic: Beneath his sometimes coarse subject matter and witty banter lies a thoughtful, honest center.

SEARCH THE FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS AT ISTHMUS.COM

Spider John Koerner

ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

w/ Boo Bradley

42

FRIDAY - DECEMBER 11

DJ BRITT

with $3 LIT (Long Island Ice Tea) Special until Midnight SATURDAY - DECEMBER 12

with

DJ NICK MAGIC + DJ MANDO Dance parties every weekend!

For full list of events visit

LIQUIDMADISON.COM

I learned a lot from him

COFFEE ROASTERS

- Bonnie Raitt

A favorite musician of mine - Garrison Keillor

WEDNESDAYS H 8:30pm H FREE

Open Rock Jam w/ Devil’s Share & Big Third Down 2513 Seiferth Rd., Madison

222-7800

KnuckleDownSaloon.com

FAIRLY TRADED, ORGANIC COFFEE DIRECT FROM DEMOCRATICALLY ORGANIZED SMALL FARMERS

FIND IT LOCALLY AT: FAIR TRADE COFFEEHOUSE, MICHELANGELO’S & WILLY STREET CO-OP.

n EMPHASIS

Oliver Sell, onsite on King Street, creating luxury leather goods.

ADAM SENATORI

Local leather with a global reach Madison artisan partners with Context on new product line

BY SARI JUDGE

“And with Oliver sitting outside our door, our locality is emphasized even more.”

Sell enjoys working right next to the store and the easy communication it fosters between him and customers.

He works only with high-quality leathers, and has dabbled with exotics like Nile crocodile.

His current leather of choice is shell cordovan, a polished muscle membrane sourced from a horse’s posterior. “This stuff isn’t cheap,” he notes (a two-pocket cordovan leather wallet runs $175, a bridle leather belt starts at $115), but he’s “appreciative that there’s a growing awareness that nice stuff made out of highquality materials just wears better.”

Huber likes that Context is able to host an artisan hand-crafting luxury goods downtown. But he also enjoys the prospect of the product’s reach: “It’s kind of wild to think that there’s some guy walking around Australia with the words ‘First Settlement Goods’ stamped around his waist.” n

FIRST SETTLEMENT GOODS Context Clothing, 113 King St. n 608-250-0113 n contextclothing.com/brands/first-settlement-goods

Belts and wallets are mainstays of Sell’s work.

DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

First Settlement Goods takes the “made local, buy local” philosophy to a new level.

This line of high-quality, hand-stitched small leather products is crafted exclusively for downtown’s Context by Madison artisan Oliver Sell. And every wallet, belt and watchstrap in the line is produced, as might be expected, in the brand’s namesake neighborhood — roughly bounded

by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Blair Street, East Washington Avenue and John Nolen Drive. Sell does all his cutting, waxing and polishing in an open-air workshop located in the atrium of the historic King Street Arcade, immediately outside of Context’s side door.

Sell stumbled onto leather work six years ago when working as a bike mechanic at the now defunct Williamson Bicycle Works. “I noticed with all the bending and

moving around I was doing that my cheap belts kept wearing out,” says the self-described tinkerer. “So I decided to try my hand at making my own.”

Soon after, friends and relatives were clamoring for their own versions. He’s self-taught (“You can learn a lot on YouTube,” he says).

Soon he began to sell his goods online.

In the spring of 2010, a friend introduced Sell to Ryan Huber, co-owner of Context. A fast friendship and business partnership was formed. “We immediately started discussing designs for Context,” says Huber. “I knew the look and quality of the work Oliver was creating was a perfect fit for the store.”

The products became top sellers for the store, and this past summer Huber came up with the idea to rebrand the small leather goods line. “Now, every time someone takes out his wallet or takes off his belt and sees the ‘First Settlement Goods’ name stamp inside, we emphasize our local nature,” says Huber.

43

n EMPHASIS

How green is your tree?

Locally grown has the environmental edge over artificial

BY CANDICE WAGENER

Enter to Win a $1,000 Lands’ End Gift Card, Overnight stay at The Wilderness, and more!

A warm fall and early winter means Lake Mendota has yet to freeze, meaning there’s still time to enter to win the Clean Lakes Alliance’s annual Mendota Freeze Contest!

The contest is Free and easy to enter 1. Guess when you think Lake Mendota will freeze at: www.mendotafreeze.com 2. Wait for Wisconsin State Climatology to declare the official “ice-on” date.

3. If you are one of the first 10 people to guess the correct date, claim your prize!

GOOD LUCK & HAPPY GUESSING! ISTHMUS.COM DECEMBER 3–9, 2015

P.S. follow @CleanLakesWi or like Clean Lakes Alliance, of Dane County for expert tips, contest updates, and more.

44

The Prizes • The grand prize winner will receive a $1,000 gift card to Lands’ End. • The first runner up will win an overnight stay at the Wilderness Resort Additional winners will be awarded, in order of value: • One pair of all-day lift tickets at Tyrol Basin (one winner) • Additional runner-up prizes

About Clean Lakes Alliance Clean Lakes Alliance is a 501(c)(3), not-for-profit organization dedicated to the improvement and protection of the lakes, streams, and wetlands in the Yahara Watershed. Through community support, advocacy and education, we are working to restore and protect our lakes for future generations.

Some consumers are drawn to artificial trees as the more environmentally sane choice, pointing to the efficiency of reusing the same tree for many years rather than cutting down a new evergreen each holiday. But cutting trees off the land is not necessarily a slap in the face to Mother Nature. And many argue it’s the more environmentally conscious way to show your Christmas cheer.

“The trees are grown in areas where it’s okay to harvest them,” says Greg Hann, referring to the way Hann’s Christmas Farm in Oregon manages its property. Each year when trees are cut down, they are replaced with new seedlings. Because the average growing time before harvest is 10 years, animals can establish homes in them. And real trees add pure, clean oxygen back into the environment as they’re growing.

Today 85% of artificial trees are manufactured in China, according to the National Christmas Tree Association, with transportation to North America adding to their carbon footprint. They’re often made with materials like PVC — polyvinyl chloride, a substance boycotted by most environmental groups.

And when artificial trees start to look dated or shabby, they are difficult to recycle.

Bryan Johnson of Madison’s streets division

says the metal “trunk” and branches can be recycled, if the homeowner strips all the plastic off of them and brings them to the east- or west-side recycling centers. “It’s possible,” says Johnson. “Realistically, most people will not break it down.” Aluminum trees can be recycled just like an aluminum can, but if you have a vintage model, you are better off selling it to an antiques dealer.

There are several ways real trees can be reused. Your neighborhood most likely has curbside recycling of trees; they are dragged into the chipper to have a new life as mulch.

In recent years, Christmas trees have been submerged underwater by the Department of Natural Resources to create fish habitats and mating grounds.

Hann has also had customers move their tree to the backyard after the holidays, turning it once again into a safe winter habitat for small animals. “It’s a nice lawn decoration for the rest of the winter,” he says. You can spread it with peanut butter and birdseed to feed the critters.

Buying a real tree also benefits our local economy. Wisconsin is fifth in the nation for Christmas tree production. Hann has 65 employees during the holidays, and he notes these employees turn around and spend those wages locally on holiday expenses — in several ways, it’s another gift under the tree. n

TOP PAY for Qualified HOURLY STAFF MEMBERS Brand New Location NOW OPEN at West Towne Mall!

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CakeCareers.com

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n CLASSIFIEDS

Housing

Jobs

MADISON - 806 Kottke Dr, Unit 1. Corner unit 2 BR, 2 BA with updated kitchen, cherry cabinets, SS appliances.

Fireplace, newer windows, washer/dryer. Large deck, 2 inside parking + storage + fitness center, pool, basketball & volleyball courts. Lower condo fees. MLS# 1762558 $134,900 Kathy Tanis (608) 469-5954 Bunbury & Associates Realtors

MADCAT seeks full/part-time service rockstars. must have retail experience, strong work ethic, love people and pets.

Secluded year round cabin on 19 acres only 40 min from Madison. 3506 Hunter Hollow Rd, Dodgeville, Wi (MLS# 1754200).

Call Mel Loy 608-341-7017 or email: melloy@mhtc.net

Buy-Sell-Exchange Matching people and property for over 20 years. Achieve your goals! Free consult. www.andystebnitz.com.

Andy Stebnitz 608-692-8866 Restaino & Associates Realtors BADGER CHIMNEY LLC Fireplace & Chimney Sweeping and Repair Call (608) CHI-MNEY (244-6639) 2 bedroom, 2 bath. East side.

Balcony, Pool & Fitness center. 1-yr lease. $925, Utilities included exc. electric.

Available Jan. 1st.

Call: (608) 273-9390.

SHORT-TERM RENTALS Luxury furnished apt with resort hotel services, everything incl in rent. “All you need is your toothbrush.” 1, 2, 3 bdrms from $375+/wk or $1495+/mo. Countryside Apartments. 608-271-0101, open daily! www.countrysidemadison.com ALL AREAS ROOMMATES.COM. Lonely?

Bored? Broke? Find the perfect roommate to complement your personality and lifestyle at Roommates.com! (AAN CAN) All real estate advertised is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, or status as a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking; or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. Isthmus will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are on an equal opportunity basis.

Normal business hours include weeknights and weekends. Position requires a self-starter with a drive to provide relentless service.

Learn about companion animal nutrition and behavior and use your communication skills to help clients make informed decisions concerning their pets wellbeing.

Love cats? Awesome. Can you lift and carry at least 50lbs? Good. Can you be friendly and attentive to multiple clients at the same time? Rock on.

Detailed and personalized cover-letters and resumes accepted at all locations. No phone calls, please. Pay: $10-$15

striking lake, city & capitol views pet friendly: no breed/weight limits 2 condo-style finish collections

Resident Caregivers/CNAs Come and Grow with Us! All Saints Assisted Living on Madison’s west side is currently building a brand new residence and will move summer 2016. We’re looking for compassionate, conscientious caregivers to join our team, helping seniors with activities of daily living. We offer competitive wages, shift and weekend differentials, and other fringe benefits. We currently have a variety of shifts available, including full-time positions!

view floor plans & new pricing:

ZHVW FRP

info@306west.com | 608.279.0174

tour a model unit : mon-fri 9-5 | sat 10-4 306 w main st | corner of main & henry

To apply, please download an application at allsaintsneighborhood.org or call 608-2438800 to request one be mailed to you.

If you’re interested in joining a dedicated team, contact us today!

Volunteer with UNITED WAY Volunteer Center Call 246-4380 or visit volunteeryourtime.org to learn about opportunities

w w w. c om m uni t y sha r e s. c om

Recognizing outstanding volunteers for their work in our community

Lee Hengescht Wisconsin Wetlands Association

The United Way Volunteer Center is in need of volunteers December 14-16 to help with the 97th annual Toy Depot at the Alliant Energy Center. On December 14 volunteers are needed for unloading and unpacking only. On December 15-16 we will distribute toys to approximately 4,500 families and 10,000 children. 2+ hour shifts are available between 7:30am and 8pm.

Since 2011, Lee Hengescht has managed audio-visual logistics at Wisconsin Wetlands Association’s (WWA) Annual Wetland Science Conference, often traveling long distances to do so. Beyond making sure all the equipment keeps working so participants can learn the latest wetland science, Lee’s commitment and sense of humor keep WWA’s staff motivated throughout the busy event.

For more information about Wisconsin Wetlands Association or to volunteer, visit wisconsinwetlands.org or call 608.250.9971.

Head Start will be receiving gift and book donations from various businesses as a part of the Giving Tree Holiday Gift Drive. We can use your help on Dec 10-11 & 14-16 to receive, log in, and sort gifts by age for over 1,000 Head Start and Early Head Start children in Dane and Green Counties. Volunteers may work any hours between 9am and 5pm.

ATTENTION BUSINESS OWNERS – Get up to $250K of working capital in as little as 24 Hours. (No Startups) – Call 1-800-426-1901 (AAN CAN)

Backyard Hero Award

Andrew Mathewes Center for Resilient Cities The Center for Resilient Cities (CRC) describes Andrew Mathewes as the type of volunteer every nonprofit wishes to have. As the “first face” of CRC’s Badger Rock Neighborhood Center, he makes sure everyone feels welcome, questions are answered, and visitors feel a sense of belonging. Andrew is always willing and eager to help whenever and however possible.

Photo by John Urban

For more information about Center for Resilient Cities or to volunteer, visit www.resilientcities.org or call 608.255.9877.

Community Shares of Wisconsin supports and funds 68 member nonprofits.

Many people, many dreams, one community—Community Shares of Wisconsin.

Sponsors

DECEMBER 3–9, 2015 ISTHMUS.COM

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1 & 2 bedroom luxury apartments 2 blocks west of capitol square

Are you in BIG trouble with the IRS? Stop wage & bank levies, liens & audits, unfiled tax returns, payroll issues, & resolve tax debt FAST. Call 844-753-1317 (AAN CAN)

The Catholic Multicultural Center is looking for community organizations, churches, schools, or businesses to take part in our monthly Adopt the Food Pantry program which helps ensure that the center’s food pantry shelves are continually stocked. There are no minimum or maximum donation requirements.

Any amount of food collected is appreciated.

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45

JONESIN’

n CLASSIFIEDS

“V: The Invasion” — sounds weird, but it works.

ACROSS

1 6 10 14 15 16

Tyler of “Archer” “Omnia vincit ___” “Pygmalion” playwright Athletic team The 29th state When repeated, a Billy Idol hit 17 Chinese leader born in Norway?

19 “This is for,” on an env.

20 One in Wiesbaden 21 “Yes way, Jose!”

22 Elton John collaborator Bernie 24 Messy digs 25 Chopping tool 26 “Free Space” game 27 Prefix for pod or corn 28 Subtle signal 29 April 15 payment

P.S. MUELLER

32 Complaining when you have to stand during that stadium thing?

36 Gas used in signs 37 Like a fossil 38 Elevator pioneer Elisha 39 Part of my Ukraine itinerary, maybe?

44 Card issued by the DMV 45 Tabula ___ 46 Bud on a tuber 47 Number of legs on a daddy longlegs 49 Beats by ___ (headphones brand) 50 Law school grads, for short 53 1950 Isaac Asimov book 55 PBS’s “Science Kid” 56 “The World According to ___” (1982 film) 57 Spend fewer bucks

58 Economist Bodie at an animal attraction?

61 Company whose product names are in all caps 62 Collect from work 63 Barbershop tool 64 Presidential run?

65 “Let It Go” singer 66 Fashion sense DOWN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Stubborn beasts Work release statement?

Cheerful “Airplane!” star Robert Letters on a toothpaste tube Window alternative, on a flight “Out of the way!”

Get behind?

Carrying on Dragon faced

by Bilbo Baggins

11 Touchy topic, so to speak 12 Apt to vote no 13 Las Vegas casino mogul Steve 18 2004 Britney Spears single 23 “My Way” songwriter Paul 25 Gallery wares 26 Irwin who won this season of “Dancing With the Stars” 27 Work the bar 28 Name yelled at the end of “The Flintstones” 30 Tel ___, Israel 31 Marks a ballot, maybe 32 “Felicity” star Russell 33 Narration work 34 Bring up 35 Made a tapestry, e.g.

36 Org. of Niners, but not Sixers 40 2012 Affleck film 41 Game played with five dice 42 Tiny Willy Wonka candies 43 Solid caustic 48 Steel girder 49 “The People’s Princess” 50 Like most “Peanuts” soundtracks 51 Dog slobber 52 Mold particle 53 “___ just me ...”

54 Zen garden tool 55 “Dear” group 56 Winged pest 59 “Batman Forever” star Kilmer 60 Apr. 15 addressee LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

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Happenings 4th Annual Hillcrest Handmade Bazaar: Saturday, December 5, 10 - 5 & Sunday, December 6, 11 - 3. Handmade gifts, holiday decorations, jewelry and cards.

Additional location and contact info: 4301 Hillcrest Drive, Madison (in Sunset Village at the corner of Hillcrest and Owen) Contact: Gael Boyd prairieyankee@gmail.com AIRLINE CAREERS begin here – Get started by training as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 800-725-1563 (AAN CAN)

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n SAVAGE LOVE

Sister act

BY DAN SAVAGE

I’m a straight female in my mid-20s. I’ve been dating a wonderful guy for two years — but I recently found something that has put me on edge. Before we met, he was in a relationship with a terrible, alcoholic, and mentally unstable woman. They got pregnant early in the relationship and stayed together for about five years. We met a year after they broke up.

I felt like I’d come to terms with the ugliness of his past, with his trying to stay in a bad relationship for the sake of his child and the rest of it. But recently, thanks to the vastness of the Internet, I came across a suggestive photo of my boyfriend with his ex’s sister. I asked him about it, and he admitted to sleeping with her while he was with his ex. He says it was during a particularly bad period, he was very drunk, she made the first move, etc., but I’m just so grossed out. Cheating is one thing, but fucking your girlfriend’s sister? And it’s not like this was a 19-year-old’s mistake; he was near 30 and the father of a child. He also fudged a little about whether it was just one time or a few times. I feel like now I’m questioning his integrity. This is something that I wouldn’t have thought him capable of doing. What do I do?

All Twisted Up

What do you do? You ask yourself if you believe your boyfriend when he says fucking his then-girlfriend’s sister was a mistake, ATU, one he deeply regrets, and one he never intends to repeat. If you can’t be romantically involved with someone capable of doing such a terrible sister-fucking thing, the question is a rhetorical one. You’ll have to end the relationship regardless of the answer. But if you could stay with someone capable of doing such a terrible sister-fucking thing, and if you believe your boyfriend when he says it was a mistake, one he regrets, and won’t happen again, then you stay in the relationship.

And when your find yourself feeling squicked out by the knowledge that your boyfriend fucked around on his previous girlfriend with her own sister, you remind yourself that good and decent people sometimes do shitty, indecent, sister-fucking-ish things — and then you pause to consider all the shitty and/or indecent things you’ve done in your life, ATU, some, most, or all of which your boyfriend presumably remains blissfully unaware.

It’s too bad that suggestive/incriminating photo is rattling around out there in the vastness of the Internet, ATU, but I’m curious about how exactly you “came across” it in the

You learned that your boyfriend did something pretty fucked up. Whether you decide to stay or go, ATU, remember that you snoop at your own risk — sorry, remember that you explore “the vastness of the Internet” at your own risk. * Nonbinary friend.

CRAIG WINZER

first place. If you went looking for dirt — if you were snooping — you found it. Congrats.

I’m not against snooping in all instances.

People often find out shit they had both a right and an urgent need to know: the BF/GF/ NBF*/fiancé/spouse is cheating in a way that puts you at risk, they’re running up ruinous debts, they’re hiding a secret second family, they’re attending Donald Trump rallies, etc.

But just as often, we find out shit we didn’t need to know—something in the BF/GF/ NBF’s past, something they regret, something they’ll never do again (do you even have a sister?) — and can never unknow.

My younger brother outed me to our parents, our siblings and our only living grandparent.

I’m a straight woman and into bondage, SM and kinky swinging — nothing outrageous — and I tried to keep this aspect of my sexuality (and my marriage) hidden. Things are fine now: Mom and Dad are mad at my brother, not me, and my siblings (save the fundamentalist) are over it. But I wanted to share my grandmother’s reaction: She called to tell me that my late grandfather liked to be tied up and spanked too, and that their marriage (47 years!) was more fun for it.

Kink Isn’t New, Kiddo That’s wonderful — and so true! Thanks for sharing.

Email Dan at mail@savagelove.net or find him on Twitter at @fakedansavage.

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