Isthmus: Jan 7-13, 2016

JA N UA RY 7–1 3 , 2 0 1 6

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VOL. 41 NO. 1

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MADISON, WISCONSIN

The

Moth

lands in Madison The story slam sensation joins a vibrant local scene

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ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

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■ CONTENTS

■ WHAT TO DO

4 SNAPSHOT

CUTTING EDGE

Finding a new midlife career as a barber.

6-10 NEWS

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Tony Robinson’s mother recounts how she’s been devastated by his death.

ADAM POWELL

BOB JACOBSON

15

COVER STORY

FOR THIS WEEK’S COVER STORY, Bob Jacobson delves into Madison’s storytelling scene, breaking the news that The Moth, the acclaimed story slam competition, is about to launch in Madison. His most recent cover for Isthmus explored how the diplomatic thaw between the United States and Cuba might affect the arts scene in Madison.

SMOKIN’

Renovated Fire Station No. 1 is state-of-the-art.

11 TECH

11 TECH

WHILE WORKING IN FINE DINING kitchens in San Francisco, Adam Powell became interested in the intersection of food and technology. Now a web developer in Madison and an Isthmus restaurant critic (and band leader for Drowned by Swans), he writes this week about how UW-Madison scientists have figured out an easier way to create yeast hybrids, which can come in handy in the development of new beers. Wisconsin Idea, anybody?

FUNGUS AMONG US

Yeast hybrids hold promise of new beers, cheeses.

12 OPINION

TOP SECRET

Scott Walker’s crusade to keep public records private.

15 COVER STORY

FLIGHTS OF FANCY

The Moth’s arrival is a welcome addition to Madison’s lively storytelling scene.

19, 30 SCREENS

HITS THAT MISSED

We are the world

Virtual film fest pulls together movies that bypassed Madison.

Sat., Jan. 9, Overture Center, 10:30 am-5 pm

20-24 FOOD & DRINK

Organizers of the already-fabulous International Festival are upping their game. This year’s extravaganza includes a display of traditional Hmong dress and a demonstration of Hmong “story cloth” making. Plus more than 30 music and dance performances by globally inspired artists based right here in Dane County.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH

Madistan may be hard to find, but it’s worth it.

TRY IT, EWE’LL LIKE IT!

Landmark Creamery stands out with sheep cheeses.

26 SPORTS

The wheel deal

NO JOY IN PACKERSVILLE

Wild-card game will prove a challenge.

Sat., Jan. 9, Alliant Energy Center, 9 am-3 pm

28 MUSIC

Bike aficionados won’t want to miss the Brazen Dropouts’ Bike Swap, an annual event that has grown to national stature.

Buy and sell bike parts, tools, clothing, accessories, clothing and, of course — bikes.

TOUGH LOVE

Hard-working Torres brings emotion to the stage.

STEVEN POTTER

6

NEWS

STEVEN POTTER HAS WRITTEN for newspapers for 15 years, first in Milwaukee and now in his hometown of Madison. His interests are varied, running from food to music to politics to criminal justice. This week he catches up with Andrea Irwin, whose son, Tony Robinson, was killed about 10 months ago by a Madison police officer during an altercation at Robinson’s apartment.

29 STAGE

BARIHUNK

Villain makes audience swoon in Beauty and the Beast.

29 BOOKS

CLIFFHANGER

Skunk Hill tells story of short-lived Native settlement.

Tues., Jan. 12, Madison Water Utility, 119 E. Olin Ave., 6-8 pm

40 EMPHASIS

BEAST OF BURDEN

Custom cargo bikes do the heavy lifting.

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

Save us, Joe Parisi!

32 ISTHMUS PICKS 41 CLASSIFIEDS 42 P.S. MUELLER 42 CROSSWORD 43 SAVAGE LOVE

Concerned about climate change and impending natural disasters in Dane County? Come weigh in on the county’s natural hazards mitigation plan at this listening session facilitated by Dane County Emergency Management.

Go to the mountaintop Sat., Dec. 9, Spring Green Elementary School library, 1:30 pm

PUBLISHER Jeff Haupt ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Craig Bartlett BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Mark Tauscher EDITOR Judith Davidoff

Honor the legacy of one of America’s greatest civil rights leaders at the annual River Valley Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. Everett Mitchell, a community activist and candidate for Dane County Circuit Court judge, will deliver remarks.

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 • © 2016 Red Card Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Snow day!

Sat., Jan. 9, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, Black Earth, 4-7 pm; Lake Kegonsa State Park, 6-9 pm

Celebrate Aldo Leopold’s birthday at the Tiki Torch Toboggan and Campfire Cookout, with sledding, snowshoeing and hiking, or go cross-country skiing by luminarias at Lake Kegonsa’s Candlelight Ski/Hike.

FIND MORE ISTHMUS PICKS ON PAGE 32

JANUARY 7–13, 2016 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 Bushart, 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

Shave and a haircut

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

BY MICHAEL POPKE n PHOTO BY JOURDAN MILLER

4

Javin Labrenz gives his first straight razor shave to his father, Kit Labrenz.

Let’s not call Javin Labrenz’s decision to make a career switch at age 40 from cleaning commercial kitchen exhausts to cutting men’s hair a midlife crisis. He doesn’t look at it that way.

“I’m hoping that the barbering business will support me just as much as the hoodcleaning business,” says Labrenz, who lives 70 minutes north of Madison in Kingston, pronounces his first name “JAY-vin” and operates Frontier Hood Services, a familyowned company with several clients in Madison. “What I do now is a dirty job, and I’m out in the cold a lot. Barbering is a cool skill to have, and I like a job that results in a sense of accomplishment. It would be nice to work at a barbershop down here in the Madison area where the people are.”

When he’s not going to barber school or working, Labrenz hangs out at Chris’ Barber Shop in Sun Prairie, observing veteran barber Dave Bakken at work. He hopes to eventually join Bakken by working the shop’s second chair upon graduating in September and (hopefully) receiving his state barber license.

After that, who knows? Labrenz eventually could run his own place.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. For now, Labrenz — who wears his hair very short, by the way — is up to his ears in weekend classes at the Aveda Institute of Beauty and Wellness in Milwaukee. He drives 200 miles round-trip every Thursday, Friday and Saturday to train with four other men and five women. They range in age from late teens to mid-40s, and they practice cutting real hair on mannequin heads and straightrazor shaving on inflated balloons smeared with cream.

In order to advance in the class, all barbers-in-training at the Aveda Institute must log a specific number of free haircuts on real people. Because Labrenz is not from Milwaukee and doesn’t know many locals, he’ll walk into a coffee shop near the institute to find people willing to put their heads in the hands of a rookie.

“I think I’ll be a good barber, because I can talk to anyone,” Labrenz says.

He’s a practicing Jehovah’s Witness, but says he won’t share beliefs with clients unless they ask. “They tell us that barbers are one of the few people who are as intimate and in close proximity with clients as doc-

tors and dentists,” Labrenz says. “We have our hands on your head, and we’re right in your face, especially when it comes to shaving. My instructor wants us to actually put our hip against the client.”

Barbers once were a dying breed in Wisconsin and around the country. “How many young barbers do you see?” asks Labrenz, who will turn 41 on Jan. 16.

But the profession appears to be making a comeback. Unlike stylists, barbers cut and groom only men’s hair. And they can also shave faces and necks with a straight razor.

Growth in the profession may be due, at least in part, to a 2013 state law change that reduced the number of training hours for a barber from 1,800 — the requirement for cosmetology training — to 1,000. Labrenz say he would not have pursued his barbering dream had the number remained at 1,800 hours.

Since October, Labrenz leaves his home in Dalton at 5:30 a.m. on training days, sometimes not returning until 14 hours later. To cut down on travel expenses, he purchased a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta that almost tops 50 miles per gallon.

He’s upbeat and chatty about his new prospective profession, and his 14-year-old daughter recently developed an interest in cutting hair, too. “Would it be cool to have her working in the chair next to me someday?” Labrenz asks. “I think it would.” n Hours of training required by Wisconsin State Statute (Chapter 454) to become a licensed barber: 1,000 Hours of licensed practice required to receive a barbering manager license: 4,000 Cost of training: $12,500 (at Milwaukee’s Aveda Institute of Beauty and Wellness) License examination application fee: $391 Pieces of equipment a barber can’t live without: SCISSORS 2 OR 3 PAIRS OF VERSATILE CLIPPERS VARIETY OF COMBS

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5

n NEWS

“The most incredible pain” For Tony Robinson’s mom, life and grief endure

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

BY STEVEN POTTER

6

Twenty years ago, Andrea Irwin’s life changed forever when she became a mother.

She named her first child Tony Terrell Robinson, after his father. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy,” she remembers.

“I never knew I could love like that. I’d never felt that unconditional, immediate, all-encompassing love before.”

Ten months ago, her son was shot dead

by Madison police officer Matt Kenny. “All that love that I had when he was born is now the most incredible pain,” she says. “It’s like my rib cage is turning inward and crushing my heart. It feels like I’m burning inside.”

But it’s also a pain she fears letting go of. She keeps a journal by her bedside to transcribe her memories of Tony through sleepless nights. “I’m grasping onto whatever I can because I’m so afraid I’m going to forget.”

Irwin joins an exclusive set of mothers from around the country whose children of color have been killed by police.

On March 6, Kenny was investigating a call about someone jumping in and out of traffic who was suspected of battering two others. After arriving at a Williamson Street apartment, Kenny and Robinson, who was on psychedelic mushrooms at the time, struggled. Kenny told investigators Robinson hit him in the head, knocking him off balance in a stairway. Fearing he might be knocked unconscious, he drew his weapon and shot Robinson, who was unarmed, seven times.

Kenny was cleared of wrongdoing in the shooting, but many remain angry and upset over it. For activists with the Black Lives Matter movement, the killing was yet another example of how African Americans are devalued and victimized by law enforcement.

For Irwin, Robinson’s killing remains achingly personal, touching every part of her life, including her career and interactions with strangers. “[Before my son’s death], I was doing well in my career, I was being promoted, and I had gotten a nice raise,” says Irwin, who is the mother of three other children — two boys, 16 and 14, and an 11-year-old daughter. “Everything was good, my kids were doing good.”

She now barely recognizes her own life.

“I lost my job. I had to move. My second son is in Canada — I just have my two younger kids. My career is gone. Everything is different,” says Irwin, who turned 38 last week.

“My life is completely opposite from where I was a year ago.”

Formerly a case manager for a transitional living service working with children, Irwin says she lost her job due to the time she had to take off after her son was killed.

LAUREN JUSTICE

Andrea Irwin, in her home, looks at a collage of photos of her son, who was killed by a Madison police officer last March. “It feels like I’m burning inside.”

She also was forced to move. A local TV station posted audio from a 911 call she made last January when she feared Tony was suicidal.

The call included Irwin’s address and phone number, which were broadcast.

“People would bang on my patio door at night and throw all kinds of stuff at my house,” she says. “I couldn’t sleep. I was scared I couldn’t get to my kids if something happened.

So, we got out of there.”

Her second-oldest son now lives in Canada with Irwin’s brother. “I didn’t want him here.

I’m very afraid for either of my boys to have an encounter with any police officer in the city because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she says. “He can create his own friendships there and not have people know everything that’s going on in his life. He’s not gone for good, but he needed to go to grieve.”

Irwin has also been attacked online. “People are sitting behind their computers and saying that because he was on mushrooms, that he deserved to die,” she says. “As if a 19-year-old experimenting with drugs in Madison is somehow unheard of.”

Some online commenters harp on the fact that her son was on probation for a conviction of being party to a robbery at the time he was killed.

“His previous conviction is something he beat himself up about more than anyone else — it has nothing to do with the day he died. The 911 call I made in January also had nothing to

do with March 6,” Irwin says. “None of that is related to him being killed.”

A Facebook page created as a tribute to her son was hacked and someone began posting images of the bloody crime scene on it, she says. She’s been accused of living lavishly off of money from an online fundraising campaign.

All of it and more went to pay for the funeral of Robinson, who like most 19-year-olds, didn’t have life insurance.

In all, the $18,000 collected from the online campaign, “every ounce of it went to his funeral,” she says. “I had $10,000 in savings that’s all gone now. We haven’t even gotten him a headstone for his gravesite yet because we can’t afford it.”

Irwin’s also leery of getting a headstone because the gravesite has been vandalized.

“They keep stealing things from it, and someone drove over his grave,” she says. “We’ve tried to keep it secret where he was buried because there are so many people against us.”

Some have perceived her as the face of an anti-police movement or of directing the Black Lives Matter activists. “I’ve never claimed to be a part of the Black Lives Matter movement. I support it, but I’m not a part of it,” says Irwin, who is white. “I’m not against the police department; I never have been. I believe in law and order.”

“But I also believe that law enforcement at this time have taken advantage of their power.

Something’s shifted, and it’s dangerous,” she

adds. “There needs to be an overhaul, and there needs to be changes.”

In August, Irwin filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city and Kenny claiming her son’s constitutional rights were violated.

The goal of the lawsuit is two-fold, says attorney David Owens.

“The best possible resolution for this lawsuit is that the family is compensated for their damage and their harm and also that the city of Madison takes the opportunity to create affirmative change,” he says.

“If you go back just a couple years to the shooting of Paul Heenan, another unarmed individual in the community, you can see that there was an opportunity, that the city of Madison should have been put on notice that this is an issue, and they had the opportunity to institute change, and they didn’t do it effectively.”

In August, the city settled a lawsuit brought by Heenan’s family for $2.3 million.

In October, attorneys for the city and Kenny asked that the lawsuit be dismissed on the basis that Robinson’s own actions caused his death. Depositions have not yet begun, and no trial date has been set.

The city attorney’s office has asked the police department not to respond to new questions about the incident due to the lawsuit.

Since her son’s death, Irwin is often recognized on the street. These interactions are starkly different from those she has online.

“It’s always positive, it’s never one of the people who are against me that comes up to me,” she says. “Some people know who I am right away, and some people ask me if I’m Tony Robinson’s mom. Most of the time, people ask if they can hug me. They tell me how sorry they are for my loss and that they pray for me all the time.”

“It makes me feel good to know that there are people who don’t hate me and people that don’t hate my son, that there are people who do stand behind us and do think this was wrong,” she continues. “It gives me hope that we can get some form of accountability and justice out of what’s happened. My son deserves that.”

The holidays were rough. “I made Christmas dinner, but no one really ate it,” she says. “If he was here, Tony would’ve eaten half of it before I was done cooking.”

Just one semester shy of an associate degree in human services, Irwin says she’d like to return to Madison College or start a nonprofit to help children before they get into legal trouble. But she has no concrete plans.

“I’m really thinking about leaving,” she says. “There’s nothing beautiful about Madison to me anymore. There’s nothing but pain here for me.” n

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7

n NEWS

Matthew Powers, left, suits up to go out on an emergency call from the renovated Station No. 1 on West Dayton Street.

Above, firefighter Ty Kowalewski uses one of the new station’s poles.

CHRIS COLLINS PHOTOS

Fire-ready MFD moves into a state-of-the-art downtown station

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

BY JAY RATH

8

The Madison Fire Department’s new administration facility and Station No. 1 will be completed this month, significantly boosting public safety capabilities citywide.

The new administration offices, 314 W. Dayton St., include fitness and training spaces, and a high-tech command center designed to be shared with multiple law enforcement agencies.

The renovated station next door, 316 W. Dayton, is energy-efficient and state-of-theart, with gender-neutral living quarters. Its footprint remains the same, and it doesn’t look drastically different from the outside, save for the expansive windows that replaced small portals in the garage doors.

“It’s funny how everything else looks like it stayed the same, but the doors give it a whole new look,” says the project’s architect, Jon Robelia, with the Milwaukee firm Eppstein, Uhen Architects Inc. “It makes the station appear more open, more connected to the community,” especially at night.

The department’s former administration property, 325 W. Johnson St., was taken by Hovde Properties for its Ovation 309 luxury apartments project, near the intersection with State Street.

Through a partnership between the city of Madison and Hovde, the fire department administration gained significantly more space, in a condo at the rear of Ovation 309, adjacent to Station No. 1.

Mayor Paul Soglin says, “I am delighted that we were able to utilize this location for both a fire station that serves the public and private development, to maximize the use of this valuable property.”

It’s a misconception that downtown “owns” Station No. 1. Its crews respond citywide, especially Ladder 1, the truck with the long, long ladder. “Ladder 1 goes, I think, on most fire calls in the city,” says Assistant Chief Clayton Christenson. The station also houses Lake Rescue 1 and Engine 1, which were temporarily stationed at Madison Gas and Electric facilities during construction.

Medic 1, an ambulance, was shifted to Station No. 3 on Williamson Street during construction. That change worked so well that it will stay there. With Medic 9 at Station No. 4, across Monroe Street from Camp Randall, call volume has evened out across the city.

When a call comes to Station No. 1, an electronic screen mounted to a wall displays street addresses and immediately begins tracking response times. “You start getting the clock: one, two, three,” says Christenson. The timer is for

professional self-improvement. “We’re using it more as an incentive at this time.”

A new bay has been added for a command car, and the station has been redesigned to accommodate two more engine companies if needed — important in a city that continues to grow denser on the isthmus.

There’s also much more storage space for special teams. “We’ve built a mezzanine above [the garage area] that allows us quick and easy access to things like scuba gear and other items utilized by our special rescue teams,” says department spokeswoman Cynthia Schuster.

The design emphasis was on energy efficiency, starting with station insulation and a new heating and air conditioning system.

Architect Robelia says the project is aiming to achieve gold LEED status, the second-highest designation of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Robelia’s firm has worked for a wide variety of civic and commercial clients, including UW-La Crosse, Marquette University, the Milwaukee Zoo, Madison’s Goodman Community Center and Milwaukee’s Miller Park. The firm also designed Ovation 309.

Christenson estimates that the final cost for both fire department projects will be $8.3 million. Improvements were sorely needed to “the gray box,” as firefighters called the old administration building. Space was a big problem, not

only for storage but for staff. “I know when I started as a chief [in 2013], I was in there with two other chiefs in one office,” Christenson recalls.

“The heating system was ancient,” he says. “You would be sweating or freezing or whatever, whichever building you were in. Things were breaking down constantly, but then you’re talking about a 50-year-old system.”

The plumbing and wiring were also old.

The “command center” for big events was a conference room with some tables moved around and phones and computers plugged in, which took several hours to set up.

A more welcoming atmosphere was also a goal for the administrative center.

Outside, new short-time parking meters will make life easier for developers getting feedback on building plans. The lobby features an elevator and terrazzo steps running past modern, minimalist furniture — red, of course. There’s also a shiny fire pole for decoration. Will anyone use it?

“I hope not,” says Christenson.

The reception area features a ceremonial fire bell and a photo display of past chiefs.

There’s lots of glass throughout, creating an open atmosphere and reducing the need for artificial light. “It’s very efficient,” notes Christenson. “There are a lot of occupancy sensors and so on,” to manipulate heating and cooling in response to personnel presence.

The old administration facility was 15,000 square feet. The new space’s 25,000 square feet allows for well-stocked and attractive break rooms and a new health and

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The station will now be able to accommodate more fire engines and crews as the population grows on the isthmus.

fitness area — a first for the department. It has free weights, Nautilus and rowing machines, and a treadmill that accommodates laptop use. Across the hall are lockers and a shower.

A new training area features interactive audiovisual technology so crews can learn without leaving their own stations. Large electronic maps appear throughout the facility, tracking units in real time, across the city.

The command center is a dedicated space for 40 that will resemble NASA control. “I think that will work out very well,” says Robelia. “It took a bit of coordinating, because of the amount of infrastructure: audio, visual, fiber-optic, radio, plus screens.”

A windowed room next door has been set aside for the press.

“What was really a blessing in disguise were the protests,” says Madison Fire Chief Steven Davis, referring to Capitol demonstrations by as many as 100,000 in 2011.

“It came at a pretty good time for planning. We learned so much about how a

command post should work during that time frame,” he says. “So we really designed it for dealing with events for extended periods. We decided to create a sustainable wing where people could come in for four or five days at a time.”

The exercise and locker rooms could be used by city officials and visiting law enforcement agencies, should the worst ever happen.

“Especially with terrorism and some of the other things that we’ve seen, when those events occur the media goes away after a day or two,” says Davis. “But the event continues on for eventually months, as the investigation unfolds and evidence is collected.”

Light construction will continue for a while, but crews moved into the station Dec. 1, and administrators into their offices on Dec. 8. An open house and formal dedication will be scheduled soon.

“It stayed within budget,” says Robelia.

“And it’s a home they can be happy with for another 40 or 50 years.” n

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Another reason to love Ian’s Pizza: The restaurant is raising the minimum wage for its Madison employees to $10 an hour.

Madison attorney Dean Strang, who defended Steven Avery, becomes an overnight celebrity for his role in the Netflix series Making a Murderer.

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State officials violated federal labor laws by withholding more than $577,000 in overtime pay for Gov. Scott Walker’s security detail during his failed presidential run.

The Madison School District relaxes its notoriously strict cold-weather cancellation policy, raising the threshold for school closings from minus 35 to minus 25 degrees, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

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n WEEK IN REVIEW

w ww.communitysh a res .c o m

Backyard Hero Award

Recognizing outstanding volunteers for their work in our community

Kathy Smith Community Shares of Wisconsin As a Community Shares of Wisconsin (CSW) volunteer, Kathy Smith has done a little of everything — mailings, filing, data entry — all with accuracy and good humor. Kathy sometimes takes home volunteer work and “encourages” her husband to help out, and she even picks up extra hours to help CSW during our busiest times.

For more information about Community Shares of Wisconsin or to volunteer, visit www.communityshares.com or call 608-256-1066.

Photo by John Urban

Carolina Castellanos Nuestro Mundo Inc.

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

At Nuestro Mundo Community School, Carolina Castellanos excels at involving parents in their children’s education. As a parent volunteer, Carolina heads the school’s community group, where she finds ways to increase participation in and outside of the classroom.

Carolina also volunteers in classrooms herself and leads an afterschool running club for boys.

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Photo by John Urban

For more information about Nuestro Mundo Inc. or to volunteer, visit www.nuestromundoinc.org or call 608-223-9539.

Community Shares of Wisconsin supports and funds 68 member nonprofits.

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WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30 n The state Supreme Court

rules 3-2 that Wisconsin Department of Justice officials did not violate whistleblower laws when they demoted an employee for voicing concern about using state agents to protect the attorney general at a convention, the Associated Press reports.

The law protects people disclosing “hard information,” but it doesn’t apply to opinions.

MONDAY, JAN. 4 n Anti-abortion groups

Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin are pushing lawmakers to vote on a bill that would outlaw the use of

fetal tissue in scientific research, Media Trackers reports. n The Madison School District holds an open hearing to discuss the expulsion of Dereian Brown, a sixth-grader who brought a BB gun to Cherokee Heights Middle School last fall. An African American student, Brown has been described as “exemplary,” the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

The case reignites discussion of racial disparities in expulsion.

TUESDAY, JAN. 5 n

ov. Scott Walker, who G has vowed to never grant pardons to criminals, remains unswayed by the more than 300,000

people who have signed online petitions in support of freeing Steven Avery, whose 2007 homicide conviction gained national attention after a Netflix documentary examined the case. Only Dean Strang can save him now. n Plans for the Madison Public Market now include a possible redevelopment of the Washington Plaza Shopping Center site on the corner of First Street and East Washington Avenue, the State Journal reports.

The city’s Fleet Services building is still the first option, but the shopping center could be a “faster, better and cheaper” option.

n TECH

Untapping the potential of yeast New hybrids mean new kinds of beer, cheese and fuel

BY ADAM POWELL

“Interspecies yeast hybrid” sounds like either a black metal band or a horror movie, but the truth is stranger yet: Yeast hybridization is procreation between very different kinds of yeast, and it’s responsible for some of our favorite beers.

Beer goes back at least to the Egyptians, but it was only 500 years ago that what is conservatively estimated as a one-in-a-billion chance cross between yeast species allowed for the production of the first lager. It was Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which makes bread, wine and ale possible, and its distant cousin Saccharomyces eubayanus that accidently married to give us the basis for making lagers. Lagers are characterized by cold maturation with bottom-fermenting yeast and a quaffable taste profile.

So we can thank nature for lagers.

But now we can also thank a local team of geneticists for what could be 100 new styles of beer. Scientists at the UW-Madison have found a way to create new hybrids between species of yeasts with a high success rate. “We can achieve hybrids at rates of one in a 1,000 cells,” says William Alexander, a UW postdoctoral research associate and author of a paper describing the new method. “It is much more efficient than nature.” New hybrids could be used to make new varieties of beer — and wine, cheese, yogurt, soy sauce, biofuels, enzymes and even drugs (yeast is used to produce human insulin).

CODY BOND

Yeast is a powerful agent. It’s a moneymaker, too — cold-brewed lager is the world’s most popular alcoholic beverage, ringing up sales of more than $250 billion a year. More hybrids mean more opportunity.

The new study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy through the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. Its authors are all UW faculty, led

by Chris Todd Hittinger, assistant professor of genetics.

“The advantages of the technique are speed, efficiency and precision,” says Hittinger. “Within a week, you can generate a large number of hybrids of whatever two species you want, creating forms never seen before.”

The hybridization method uses plasmids to manipulate genes in cells. Plasmids are circles of DNA that can confer a new genetic quality to existing organisms. The plasmids are used to open up the range of strains yeast might reproduce with, thereby

encouraging reproduction patterns that take much longer in nature. This new technique may also aid with another problem: industrial strains of yeasts that are sterile and unable to produce spores.

The team isn’t sequestered in a laboratory; members live in Wisconsin, land of 10,000 beers, and know the project has commercial potential.

“Our motivations were mainly scientific, but the potential applications in brewing and biofuels industry are particularly obvious in this case,” says Hittinger. “Making hybrids allows us to begin to study the genetic basis of what makes yeast species different.”

Soon brewers will have many more strains of the microorganism to work their beer-making magic with. “Only a tiny fraction of known yeast biodiversity is used in current commercial strains, so there is a lot of potential for new flavors and new products,” says Hittinger.

The team responsible for this breakthrough likes the idea of brewers adopting these hybridized microcritters. The lab team sent some of their strains to local microbreweries and is working with the Department of Food Science at UW-Madison to test performance and to develop new recipes. There is nothing yet on the market to buy. But it won’t be long before strange and wild new flavor profiles will be coming to your local microbrews. n

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n OPINION

Closed to the public Scott Walker has made an art of governing in secret

BY BRUCE MURPHY Bruce Murphy is the editor of UrbanMilwaukee.com.

No one ever handled the office of Milwaukee County executive quite like Scott Walker.

As we learned through the first John Doe probe, which convicted three of Walker’s aides, his staff set up a private router just 20 feet from Walker’s office and routinely did government business on a private email system. Thousands of legal documents released linked Walker to the system and showed that staff handling public records requests were unaware of the private email system and therefore didn’t check it when responding to requests.

And when Walker left the county, his staff destroyed an unknown number of documents, leaving many empty file cabinets.

From the beginning of Walker’s tenure as governor, his staff operated in a similar fashion, a source close to his administration told Urban Milwaukee, with key staff using private emails and laptop computers to conduct state business.

Madison TV station WKOW was leaked some of the private email addresses used by Walker’s staff and made a public records request of all state business discussed on these emails. After a four-month delay, the Walker administration last October surrendered 980 pages of emails of seven staff members conducting state business on personal emails, including then-Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch.

More evidence of this secret system came from a story by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism: Peter Bildsten, former secretary of the Department of Financial Institutions, and Paul Jadin, former head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said they were instructed by Huebsch not to use official email or state telephones to handle important information or documents.

Meanwhile, the Walker administration has since last March insisted that email records involving the “deliberative process” are not public records and has refused to provide them in response to 12 different open records requests.

DAVID MICHAEL MILLER

The Walker administration used the same rationale to refuse an open records request from the Center for Media and Democracy (which requested documents related to Walker’s failed proposal to throw out the venerable “Wisconsin Idea”) and is still using that defense in response to a suit by that group.

Last July, the Legislature passed a provision exempting records involving the “deliberative process” from open records laws.

Only after legislative leaders revealed they had conferred with Walker did the governor finally admit his involvement. In fact, the bill’s language was originally crafted by his staff.

Then there was the open records request by One Wisconsin Now, asking for visitor logs at the governor’s mansion from November 2014 through early April 2015, during the time Walker was planning for and then campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination. Walker’s assistant legal counsel David J. Rabe claimed there were no visitor logs for this six-month period, with no explanation as to why.

And in December, the GOP-controlled Legislature passed and Walker signed a law adding a veil of secrecy to campaign donations: It removes the requirement that campaign donors disclose where they work, making it harder to trace legislation written to benefit certain businesses or industries.

The latest attempt by Walker to restrict open government involved an obscure agency called the Wisconsin Public Records Board, whose job is to classify records already public under the law, to make sure

THIS MODERN WORLD

there is a historical record and to determine when copies of documents should be sent to the State Records Center.

But this board met last August and decided to greatly expand the definition of what is a “transitory” record, which therefore need not be saved or shared with the public. Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick claimed Walker had nothing to do with this decision. But, in fact, the governor has effective control of the Public Records Board, as he appoints four of its eight members, while a fifth is appointed by Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel.

Adding to this secrecy, the board’s meeting where it added restrictions to records may itself have violated the state open meetings law. The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council has filed a legal complaint, and its president, Bill Lueders, argues in the complaint that the board failed to provide adequate legal notice of the meeting’s subject matter, then failed to record the actions taken in the meeting’s minutes. “You could look at that agenda from here to eternity,” Lueders has complained, “and not know that they were going to dramatically change the definition of what a transitory record was, so that public officials could begin destroying any record they felt like destroying.”

No governor in recent history has pledged more often that he is committed to public records than Walker. Perhaps that’s because no governor has made so many attempts to make them secret. n

BY TOM TOMORROW

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

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n FEEDBACK

Sins of omission I’m so surprised your review of the year in arts (“Astonished, Challenged & Delighted,” 12/24/2015) omitted the Middleton Players Theatre’s Miss Saigon. It was a stunning production.

Alan Irgang (via email)

Sins of commission For the sake of accuracy and context, please stop portraying Police Chief Koval as “Authoritarian of the Year” (“Cheap Shots,” 12/24/2015).

The misuse of deadly force had been an underreported legal issue for the Madison Police Department during the administra-

tions of both Police Chief Richard Williams and Police Chief Noble Wray. On the other hand, Koval has held an extensive number of meetings in Madison’s various communities to address any issue people may wish to bring up. No topic is off limits. Koval uses scenarios from dissatisfied members of the public in future trainings for officers so the outcomes will be more positive the next time.

During Williams’ administration, on June 27, 2001, Officer Stephen Heimsness shot at a car with five unarmed passengers in the Lake Street parking ramp. Heimsness was suspended for 15 days without pay. On Sept. 9, 2005, contrary to Williams’ discipline of Heimsness, Wray signed a commendation for Heimsness’ handling of that situation.

The second time Heimsness used deadly force against an unarmed civilian was on Nov. 12, 2012, during Wray’s administration. Before Heimsness’ case had cleared the review process, on Aug. 7, 2015, Wray announced his resignation .

During the past three police administrations, I have never seen a police chief as concerned about genuinely taking input from the various communities and using it to provide better service as Koval.

Sue Hoffenberg (via email)

Blast from the past Re “Goodbye, St. Paul’s” (12/24/2015): Brings back memories. I remember both the old and the “concrete beacon.” I don’t know which building I like best. The original was a repeti-

WHS 21208

The first St. Paul’s University Catholic Center (left) was built in 1909. It was replaced in 1968 by a more “brutalist” structure, which is slated for demolition in February.

tion of buildings seen elsewhere. The concrete beacon is imaginative and captured the spirit of the church of the time. I wonder how it feels to be an architect who lives to see their signature buildings torn down.

Above is the beautiful old church that was torn down when the “concrete beacon” was built to take its place.

Bill DeBauche (via Facebook)

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.

OFF THE SQUARE

BY ALAN TALAGA & JON LYONS

ZANE WILLIAMS

Though I left Madison in 1976, your story parallels our family’s (except we migrated from Queen of Peace). Thanks for a great piece.

Geoff Vanderlin (via Facebook) I attended several anti-war forums there.

Judy Fuller Sikora (via Facebook)

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n COVER STORY

The

Moth

lands in Madison The story slam sensation joins a vibrant local scene

T

he first time Jen Rubin

By Bob Jacobson

stepped up to a microphone at an official storytelling event, she talked about how, like a lot of other Jewish kids growing up in the 1960s, she obsessed about the Holocaust. Before going to sleep at night, she would test her moral courage: Would she be brave enough to hide someone trying to escape? Yes. Would she choose peace in the Middle East over making out with her crush? Yes. Would she choose to end world hunger or have Charlie’s Angelssized breasts?

That one broke her: “I threw the hungry children under the bus and went for the cleavage,” she recalled.

Rubin’s debut performance at The Moth StorySLAM in Milwaukee three years ago was itself a personal test. Hooked on The Moth Podcast, Rubin says she worked up her courage to participate as a “mid-life challenge.”

Sharing stories among family and friends was second nature to Rubin, who grew up hearing the saga of her immigrant grandparents’ escape to America and the tale of how the family’s electronics store in New York City survived the looting during the 1977 blackout — an episode that became the opening chapter of her not-yet-published book. “I grew up thinking that’s just what people did,” says Rubin. But getting up in front of a big crowd of people was another story.

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“If you listen to the podcast or The Moth Radio Hour, they pull out all the best stories, so it’s intimidating,” says Rubin. “But when you go, you see it’s people getting up and telling stories — and some are good and some are not.”

At that Milwaukee event, Rubin was among the 10 people chosen at random from among those who signed up to tell a five-minute true story. Much to her surprise, Rubin won the slam, which qualified her to compete at the next level. Her story caught the attention of The Moth producers, and she was invited to New York to participate in The Moth Mainstage, the organization’s flagship event.

Once Rubin had the ear of staffers, she suggested that Madison could support a StorySLAM. It turns out that folks at The Moth had already been thinking about launching one here; the organization runs slams in 25 cities. Now that launch is at hand. The inaugural event for The Moth in Madison is set for Feb. 15 at the High Noon

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n COVER STORY In this age of oversharing on social media, people are more comfortable revealing details about their lives than in the past. But, as Hixson notes, there’s a big difference between relating to others through technology and connecting faceto-face.

“Come and share yourself in the flesh,” she says. “I think people want to be understood, and they want to understand other people. This is a nice place to do that.”

That personal linkage isn’t just some touchy-feely blather. It’s science. A 2006 study by Spanish researchers published in the journal NeuroImage found that your brain reacts the same way when you hear a story about an experience as it would if you were experiencing the event yourself. But the connection is even stronger than that. When you tell a story, your brain actually syncs up with the listener’s. Researchers at Princeton showed in 2011 that the same parts of the storyteller’s brain that light up in response to the emotions and senses she is describing light up in the listener’s brain as well. These studies help explain why storytelling is so universal among humans. Apparently we’re hard-wired for it; our brains are natural story processors. Of course, marketing experts and political strategists figured this out even before fancy brain imaging techniques were available.

Saloon. Rubin will co-produce with Alexandria Delcourt, who teaches English at UW-Whitewater, though most of the grunt work of putting on the Madison event will be handled by The Moth’s New York staff.

But The Moth doesn’t just flutter into any old market; Madison already has a sturdy infrastructure. After Rubin began slamming in Milwaukee, she auditioned and performed with Listen to Your Mother, a nationwide, multimedia affair that began in Madison and now hosts live events in about 40 cities around Mother’s Day each year. And that’s just one of Madison’s offerings: Madison Storytellers and Madison Story Slam have been hosting monthly gatherings for the last few years. The Bricks Theater runs two different story-oriented series: “Male Call” and “That’s What She Said.” And storytelling projects and workshops are always popping up at schools and community centers. With the arrival of The Moth, the Madison storytelling scene is about to get bigger, better and — if things go the way Rubin would like — more diverse and inclusive.

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

Humans have been telling each

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other stories for as long as they have had the necessary language skills to do it, even longer if you count things like cave drawings. In every early culture, stories were how elders communicated important information and values to the next generation. As written language emerged, stories became standardized, but even the great epics of ancient Greece such as The Iliad and The Odyssey were oral narratives before Homer came along and wrote them down (though not before he himself spent years traveling the countryside telling them in person). The list of cultural storytelling touchstones spans all of time, geography and technological advancement — the Indian epic The Mahabharata, in which Vyasa says, “If you listen carefully, at the end you’ll be someone else”; Scheherazade and One Thousand and One Nights in the Islamic Golden Age of the ninth century; the troubadours and minstrels of Europe in the Middle Ages; How I Met Your Mother.

The art of oral storytelling experienced a revival in United States in the 1970s, with the creation of a number of organizations and festivals devoted to storytelling, most notably the National Storytelling Festival, held in Jonesborough, Tenn., each year, which launched in 1973.

Public radio has chipped in over the last couple of decades with offerings like This American Life and StoryCorps. But it wasn’t until The Moth that somebody thought to slammify storytelling.

The Moth was founded in 1997 by bestselling novelist George Dawes Green, who sought an outlet for a more homespun brand of storytelling that contrasted with the slick publishing world he inhabited.

Hoping to recapture the magic of the

The arrival of The Moth — with

Jen Rubin (above) and Alexandria Delcourt (right) will co-produce the Madison edition of The Moth, which launches Feb. 15 at High Noon Saloon.

booze-fueled front-porch story swaps of his young adulthood in his native Georgia, Dawes started hosting a series of storytelling nights for friends in his Manhattan loft.

With no time limit or any other ground rules, those first meetups kind of sucked.

But as he honed the format, added time limits and moved the gatherings into bars, people started flocking to the events, and they evolved into what is now The Moth Mainstage. The Moth’s name pays homage to the critters that fluttered around the porch lights back in Georgia.

Jenifer Hixson was a Moth volunteer in 2001 when founder Green approached her with the idea of doing something with storytelling akin to the poetry slams that were all the rage at the time.

“I wasn’t quite sure it would work at first...it sounded a little weird,” says Hixson, who now works full time for The Moth.

“But I said okay, I’ll give it a try.”

The StorySLAM soon became a fixture at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where the spoken word movement also bloomed. Now story slams and storytelling are hot — and for all the right reasons.

True stories told in front of a live crowd create the kind of performer-audience bond you rarely find in other performance contexts. A compelling story, according to Hixson, is one that appeals to universal emotions that everybody can relate to, such as loneliness, disappointment, embarrassment. Humor always plays well too. But the key is to show your vulnerability.

“With storytelling, I’m letting you in here, showing you that I’m human, I have flaws, I screw things up, I’m an idiot,” says Hixson. “That doesn’t mean you can’t be triumphant in the end, but they love your triumph so much more if you have stumbled first.”

its full-time staff, national reputation and marketing savvy — is sure to boost the storytelling scene in Madison. But what it means for our homegrown storytelling groups is less clear. Adam Rostad, who hosts Madison Story Slam, can’t help but be a little worried about the new kids in town. “It could be a huge bummer for me,” he says. “I know they aren’t coming here to harm Madison Story Slam, but there are definitely going to be some consequences for us, good or bad.” One scenario Rostad would welcome would be for aspiring storytellers to use the local slam as kind of a proving ground to test and polish their material before hitting The Moth.

Adam Rostad (below), host of Madison Story Slam, traces his affinity for storytelling to being the son of a pastor.

bons. His background in improv and standup made him a natural candidate for the emcee role.

Amanda Windsor joined Panke as co-coordinator a few months ago. She had never tried her hand at live storytelling before she began doing it at Madison Storytellers events last year, but she had long enjoyed listening to storytelling podcasts, including The Moth.

“I went to an event and I told a micro-story, and then just kept coming,” Windsor says.

“I had been looking for somebody to co-coordinate for a while, and the main qualifications are that you know how to do a story and you’re not a creep,” says Panke. “Amanda seemed like she wasn’t a creep, and obviously she knows how to tell a story.”

He’s right. Windsor’s story at the November Madison Storytellers event at the Central Library — a wrenchingly personal piece touching on the isolation of marriage, the strains of moving to a new town where you JESSICA KING don’t know anybody, and lasagna Madison Storytellers hosts non-competitive events at various venues. soup — was a highlight of the Daiquiri Jones (above) performs at Arboretum Cohousing, March 2014. evening. For Windsor, like Rubin, part of the appeal of storytelling is rooted in her upbringing.

Brendon Panke, who coordinates “In my family, the person with the for connection,” she says. “Storytelling at “Seeing if there was a way I could take its root is about community, so that felt best story was the one who got to talk,” this skill and help other people figure out Madison Storytellers, remembers his first really good. If nothing else, I meet new Windsor says. “So I learned quickly that how they can tell their stories became moment connecting with an audience, alpeople in a way that’s really sincere. A lot I needed to have a good thing to say and much more interesting to me than telling beit a private one. “I was like a sophomore of other social settings don’t offer that a funny thing to say to be heard, and that my own stories,” she says. in high school, and I was telling my best kind of sincerity.” translated in adulthood into really enjoy To that end, Rubin has already been friend’s relatives about getting shot in the Unlike The Moth and Madison Story ing stories.” reaching out to diverse communities, eye with a BB gun, and I just nailed it, and Slam, Madison Storytellers is not a com But for Windsor, it also meets a need including people who are homeless or they were falling off the furniture,” says Panpetition. It’s a supportive environment in for community. “Moving to Madison from incarcerated. Along with Panke and poets ke. “And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it!’” which all stories are received enthusiastithis town that I lived in for quite a long Areceli Esparza and Fabu, she volunteers Panke began participating early on cally, and the feedback comes in the form time in South Carolina, I didn’t have a to lead a three-week storytelling workshop after Madison Storytellers was founded of casual conversations afterward. Turnout community that was satisfying my need through UW’s Odyssey Project. These poin 2012 by Anna Zeide and Kevin Gibhas ebbed and flowed over the years. These ets and storytellers plan to continue offerdays, about 30 to 40 people usually show ing free monthly workshops to help people up for events, but only a handful actually get comfortable telling their own stories Dan McHugh (below) shares a story about facing a childhood bully at the tell stories, and even fewer are regulars. once the Madison Moth launches.

March 2015 “Childhood Memories” Madison Story Slam.

Panke would like to see turnout become “There are lots of people gathering in more stable as storytelling grows in Madiall corners of Madison to listen to other son. For that reason, he’s not too worried people talk, tell stories, recite poetry,” about any negative impact from The Moth.

Rubin says. “I would like The Moth to He believes there will still be a place for complement all of the creative events and people who want to tell and hear stories gatherings happening throughout Madioutside of a “slam” context. son. I would like to see a broad diversity of people come and check out the storytelling For Rubin, the key to success for scene.”

Hixson of The Moth applauds those the Madison Moth will be getting every efforts. “We’re interested in involving as part of the community involved, particumuch of Madison as possible in the Stolarly groups whose voices and stories often rySLAM, and that’s always good stuff for go unheard.

As she embraced her midlife challenge, people who don’t usually get to talk about their lives,” she says. “It’s really beautiful the amount of time she spent on her own and important work that changes hearts writing and storytelling started to feel narand minds.” n cissistic.

Much like The Moth, Madison Story Slam uses a panel of judges selected randomly from the audience to score the stories and declare a winner. And Rostad records everything and puts out a regular podcast. But the similarities end there. Rostad has no staff and no PR agency to promote the shows. He has a full-time day job as a social worker that limits the amount of time he can spend organizing, publicizing and podcasting.

Madison Story Slam began about five years ago as JPH Story Slam — named for its original location, Johnson Public House.

Founder Greg White was a big fan of The Moth and wanted something similar for Madison. Rostad took over as host/coordinator when White decided to bail in 2013.

When the event outgrew its space last year, it moved into the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center. These days, crowds at the slam range from about 80 to 150 people, with about 15 or so usually telling a story.

Rostad traces his affinity for storytelling to being the son of a pastor, who was constantly telling stories on a stage. He finds that storytelling creates a straight-line connection not just with the audience as a sea of humanity, but with each individual audience member.

“We open up that opportunity for connection to everybody,” Rostad says. “There are open mics all over the place for musicians and poets. Not everybody is a musician or poet. But everybody’s got a story to tell, and everybody can have that cool, unique feeling of connection.”

JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

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ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

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

Movies that missed Madison Local critics create a virtual festival to highlight must-see films

BY JAY RATH n ILLUSTRATION BY JAKE JOSLYN

must-see films that people are able to watch on home screens by renting DVDs or Blu-ray discs, streaming or using video-on-demand services.

Festival offerings will include about 30 films from “best of 2015” lists and international festivals, as well as genre pictures and lesser-known films by major filmmakers.

“Too many filmgoers limit their adventurous choices to the 10 days of the Wisconsin Film Festival,” says Kreul, who calls the marketplace for non-mainstream films in Madison “dismal.”

The Missed Madison Film Festival is a collaborative effort by online film discussion groups and area critics, including Madison Film Forum, LakeFrontRow, the UW’s Wisconsin

Union Directorate, the Cinesthesia cinema series at Madison Public Library, writer Chris Lay of Tone Madison and Craig Johnson of Welcome to the Basement. (Lay, Kreul and Johnson all contribute to Isthmus.)

Each partner organization will cross-promote and share reviews on social media and podcasts, an effort they hope will foster new readers, listeners and audiences. The organizations will also make it easier to track down the films by including links to streaming and videoon-demand resources. The physical anchor for the project will be Four Star Video Co-op, 449 State St., which will offer podcast reviews and a special display of festival-related DVDs.

“One of our missions is to make films available that are not available in other ways, such as foreign cinema and smaller films that don’t get attention,” says Lewis Peterson, one of Four Star’s co-managers and, with Kreul, a lead festival organizer. “It’s easy to forget the wide swath of great films that are being made by auteurs both domestic and abroad.”

Kreul says the organizers are still narrowing down the choices from a possible list of 50 films that did not screen at the Wisconsin Film Festival, UW Cinematheque or mainstream venues.

CONTINUE D ON PAGE 30

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JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Fitful winter weather or post-holiday blues keeping you from theaters? That’s no problem at the Missed Madison Film Festival, Jan. 11-15, because there are no physical screenings; the festival is a “virtual” one.

“Basically the idea is that we’re going to look at films that should have played in Madison in 2015 but did not,” says James Kreul, editor at Madison Film Forum, who came up with the idea after reading an Indiewire article about the top foreignlanguage films of 2015.

“I was surprised how few of them had theatrical runs in Madison,” he says. The film festival is a curatorial effort to highlight

19

n FOOD & DRINK

Whiteboard magic Look for the Pakistani specials at Madistan

BY LINDA FALKENSTEIN

When JD’s Soul Food took over from the short-lived Mexican spot called Limon at 317 N. Bassett St. in 2012 (itself the successor to the Copper Gable Cafe), I wrote, “You never know when a new eatery will rescue a hard-luck spot.”

Well, JD’s didn’t make it, although its late-night cart remains in operation. Now the space on the ground floor of the Aberdeen apartments is occupied by Madistan, a Pakistani restaurant that also caters to the nearby student population by serving gyros, burgers, shawarma, falafel and fried chicken.

The only items on the regular printed menu that seem Pakistani are the chicken tikka roll, its sibling the beef kabob roll, and an appetizer of samosas.

Look, though, for the two or three Pakistani entrees scribbled on a whiteboard at the counter. There you’ll find chicken biryani, a lovable staple that’s available most days, and a couple of other changing daily specials, usually including one that’s vegetarian.

The Pakistani dishes are cooked by Naheed Shaikh, who runs Madistan along with her husband, Amin. You might even have the good luck to run into her behind the counter.

I met her on my initial visit and asked what the most typically Pakistani item available was. She recommended the chicken biryani, which came with big hunks of bone-in chicken and really tasty, spicy rice, accompanied by a cooling yogurt sauce, an onion-tomato side salad and naan. This was a lunch-sized portion for about $6, and it reminded me most of the dishes at Fast Biryani on the far east side — fresh spices, not toned down for an American audience. My only regret is that I did not order that day’s other specials, a dal and a karhai chicken curry that I have not yet seen return to the whiteboard. The biryani is there all the time.

But everyone has to start somewhere.

On my subsequent visits, I knew to head straight for the daily specials, and I have grooved on aloo chole, aloo palak and chicken achar. Each hovers around the $6 mark, each is pungent with fresh spices, and each has convinced me to keep coming back for more.

Probably my favorite so far has been the spicy chicken achar, a dish that’s Punjabi by origin and features a very tart, salty Indian pickle along with banana pepper and plenty of ginger, fennel, cilantro and fenugreek.

The aloo chole, a spicy chickpea stew, had its considerable spices clumped together in one section of my takeout tray. Whoo! I thought my first bites were bland; then I had a $6 trip to the moon. Stir and enjoy. This dish is not served with rice but rather the fried Indian bread poori.

The poori in this instance were very greasy (they were kind of great all the same, in the way an indulgent doughnut can be). I’d have liked this dish better if it had more potato in it, or at least came with a serving of rice, even though that’s not the traditional presentation.

From the standard menu go directly to the beef kabob roll, basically a kati roll by any other name — heavily spiced, marinated, tender cubes of beef are paired with onions and a sour/ spicy yogurt sauce and rolled up in naan bread.

It’s more of a snack than a meal, but it’s really, really good if you like spicy and tart. The chicken tikka roll is the same deal, but with chicken.

Kati rolls may be the apex of Indian street food, and I’m happy* to have these within easy walking distance of my office. (*Read: overjoyed.)

The restaurant’s falafel and shawarma are fine, though they won’t sway me from the Pakistani dishes. I am having difficulty imagining the circumstances under which I would feel the need to order a burger here.

Madistan is a takeout spot with a few dinein tables; it’s more of a food cart with a permanent home than a traditional restaurant. But I think it’s worth making the trip.

Chicken korma recently showed up as a daily special.

PAULIUS MUSTEIKIS

Situated at the crossroads where Gorham turns into University and meets Bassett Street, there’s one big drawback to Madistan: no adjacent parking to speak of. But thousands of foot- and bike-based student commuters pass the place daily. And the Frances Street and

Overture ramps are just a couple of blocks away — .3 and .4 miles away, respectively, according to Google maps. There, I’ve done your homework for you — because I hope Madistan is the eatery that finally rescues this hard-luck spot. n

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

MADISTAN n 317 N. Bassett St. n 608-422-5422 n 11 am-9 pm Mon.-Sat. n $2.50-$10

20

Online Ordering Available

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Audience participation Pub-goers can weigh in on hop choices for Ale Asylum’s new crop of IPAs

BY ROBIN SHEPARD

Recently, Ale Asylum’s taproom has been featuring draught-only experimental and one-off batches, especially beers made with interesting combinations of hops.

Called “Pilot Batch 001” — and so on through 007 — none are expected to become a new beer in their current form. But they are instrumental in giving Ale Asylum brewers feedback from across the bar. “We really have to listen to the audience,” says head brewer Chris Riphenburg.

The test batches are intended to encourage Ale Asylum assistant brewers to explore, using new varieties of hops, and in different ways and times during the brewing process. “You can grab a handful of hops and smell them, but they don’t always turn out the way you think they will until you brew with them,” says brewmaster Dean Coffey.

What they learn from the pilot batches will be put to use in making new IPAs like High Coup, to be released in spring, and Subcultcha, to debut in fall. Both will be distributed in six-packs.

Also on the drawing board are limitedrelease IPAs called Tears of My Enemies and Hush Money, and a double IPA called Off Switch, headed for bomber bottles.

None of the recipes has been finalized; cus-

tomer reaction will influence which hops will be chosen.

Pilot batches 002 through 005 are likely to be on tap into January; batches 006 and 007 will be offered starting around Jan. 1. These latter two will focus on yeasts rather than hops as part of the recipe creation for a new Belgian-style pale ale to be called Rictus Grin. The two pilot batches are the same recipes, but fermented with different strains of Belgian yeast.

Also new in 2016, Ale Asylum will increase its barrel-aging program. Kink, an Abbey-style Belgian, is currently aging in Chardonnay barrels; Impending Descent and Impending Dissent, imperial stouts, are in bourbon and rum barrels, respectively.

The goal is a subtle approach to barrelaging, says Riphenburg: “There’s a lot of wood-aged stuff out there that just doesn’t work. We’re looking for barrel flavor that complements the beer, like an echo.”

Also look for two lagers: a limited batch of Bamboozleator doppelbock in late winter, and a traditional German Märzen, inspired by Coffey’s recent trip to Germany.

Given Coffey’s reputation as a stickler for using traditional ingredients and following strict protocols in the brew house, this is a beer to look forward to in 2016. n

PREVIEW EVENT

at both Metcalfe’s locations

JANUARY 9 • 11am -3pm

PREVIEW EVENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY: AND

FREE BEER & CHEESE SAMPLES

FREE BEER & CHEESE SAMPLES - ENTER TO WIN -

PREMIUM TASTING TICKETS

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

JANUARY 9 • 11AM-3PM HILLDALE & WEST TOWNE

ROBIN SHEPARD

Taproom patrons are quaffing trial runs of Ale Asylum’s forthcoming IPAs.

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

726 N. MIDVALE BLVD

7455 MINERAL POINT RD

JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

PREMIUM TASTING TICKETS

- ENTER TO WIN -

21

EAR

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Movie trivia Oliver’s scores with “Skylar’s Number”

LUNCH BUFFET 7 DAYS A WEEK 11:30am-3pm • Dinner 5-10pm

380 W. Wash. Ave. 251.9999

www.MaharaniMadison.com

FREE DELIVERY Bring Public Parking Ticket in for

$1.00 Reimbursement

Students 10% Discount Lunch or Dinner

W. WA S HI N G TO N HE NRY

B R OOM

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With Valid I.D.

W. M A I N

PAULIUS MUSTEIKIS

Dane County UW-Extension Master Gardener Program Horticultural training for adults who volunteer with horticulture-related projects that benefit the local community in support of the Dane County Extension office programming.

Eats events If it’s Thursday...

Thursday, Jan. 7 & 14

Every Thursday night from 5 to 10 pm, Yahara Bay Distillery, 3118 Kingsley Way, opens for tours and sampling. Tastings include any one of 20 spirits made with all-Wisconsin ingredients. 21+.

Craft cocktails are alive and well at Oliver’s Public House, 2540 University Ave., under bar manager Ricky Pajewski. The menu has been updated since the restaurant’s opening by Pajewski and a new crop of bartenders.

It’s heartening to see the variety. The famous Penicillin cocktail gets a top spot.

While this drink makes frequent appearances around the globe, surprisingly few Madisonians know it. All peaty, with a honey-ginger backdrop, it’s worth seeking out.

Another underexposed classic is a genius riff on the Negroni called the Jasmine.

Herbaceous gin and bitter Campari meet, and are joined by sweet Curaçao.

Originals include the cleverly named “Oaxappens in Oaxaca,” a smoky number on tap that is a little spicy from a house-made cayenne pepper tincture. Not to worry — there’s plenty of cooling Lillet Blanc and grapefruit to round it out.

“Skylar’s Number” is full of spice: vanilla from bourbon, cardamom from Cardamaro, a little cinnamon from a house syrup, and a tasty salt-roasted apple shrub to bring it all together.

If you remember, Skylar was Minnie Driver’s character in Good Will Hunting. In a famous scene, Matt Damon gets her number in a bar over a haughty Harvard student. He then asks his adversary: “How do you like them apples?”

Turns out, quite a bit.

East-side fish fry returns

Nosh before noon

Friday, Jan. 8

Saturday, Jan. 9

Slide food cart’s catering operation is taking over the Friday fish fry at the East Side Club, 3735 Monona Drive. On the menu: beer-battered cod made with Ale Asylum’s “Unshadowed” or fried catfish, with Slide’s famous potato chips and tart vinegar slaw as sides. Served 5-9 pm each Friday.

The indoor Dane County Farmers’ Market breakfast returns to the Madison Senior Center, 330 W. Mifflin St., 8-noon. This week’s guest chef is Laila Borokhim, who’ll feature dishes from her short-lived restaurant, Noosh.

And of course, there’ll be the usual market vendors.

— ANDRÉ DARLINGTON

Registration deadline Monday, January 18th For more information visit www.dane.uwex.edu

Respect its authoritah!

Hinterland’s new Bourbon Barrel Aged Barley Wine is bold and brash

Lunch in PARADISE ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

N!

Maharani INDIAN RESTAURANT

n FOOD & DRINK

22

11:30am-1:30pm

Try our Paradise Burger or one of our Specials!

MON - Dollar Off Burgers TUES - Chef’s Choice WED - Meatloaf Dinner THURS - Soft Shell Tacos & Spanish Rice FRI - Fish Fry & Southwestern Baked Cod A Paradise Specialty!

119 W. Main St. Madison • 608-256-2263 www.thenewparadiselounge.com

“I’ve always been a fan of Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot,” says Hinterland brewer Joe Karls, “so I wanted to make an American style barleywine modeled after it.” His is made with Golden Promise and Vienna malts. It’s the Golden Promise that lends a nice hint of honey sweetness. A heavy dose of Cascade and Columbus hops provides a noticeable bitterness, so it clearly leans to the hoppy, American side of the style.

The beer was brewed in May and then sat in the barrels for over five months before it was bottled. For this winter’s release, Hinterland produced nearly 120 barrels; nearly 60% of that will be bottled.

This barleywine is a complex spicy blend of hops and malts, with a roughness to the hop spiciness. The sweeter hints of bourbon and oak from barrel-aging are there, but held in the background. The barrel-aging serves as a nice complement to the spiciness, especially because the bourbon-spirit flavor doesn’t try to compete with the beer flavor.

However, this is certainly a beer that can be, and maybe should be, cellared longer.

Extended aging of a beer like this can remove some of that resiny bitter bite, mellowing the hop character and softening the alcohol burn.

The beer finishes at 9.4% ABV and is sold in single 16-ounce bottles for around $10.

— ROBIN SHEPARD

ROBIN SHEPARD

PHOTO CHRIS KRONSER

Join us for

HAPPY HOUR Monday - Friday 3 - 6 pm $1 Off All Beverages 1902 Parmenter Street, Middleton | (608) 831-5000 | freehousepub.com Mon-Wed: 11am-12am; Thur-Sat: 11am-2am; Sun: 10am-10pm

The wine bar that Madison deserves

Extensive wine list featuring 25 varietals by the glass.

Craft cocktails.

Rotating selection of tap & bottled beer.

Small plates from the kitchen of Chef Mooney.

HALF OFF our entire bottle wine list carefully curated by Brian Haltinner himself – Sundays only!

Hours: 4pm – last call, 7 days/week

829 East Washington Ave. 608.237.1376

JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

23

n FOOD & DRINK

Two women, four cheeses Landmark Creamery sets itself apart with its small-batch varieties

BY KATE NEWTON

It’s been just three years since Anna Landmark began formal training as a cheesemaker and two years since she joined forces with Anna Thomas Bates to launch Landmark Creamery.

But the two have already made their mark on one of the state’s most competitive markets, especially with their sheep’s milk specialty cheeses.

Landmark Creamery’s small-batch cheeses are sold on both coasts and have pride of place on the menus of several Wisconsin restaurants, including Osteria Papavero and Oliver’s Public House in Madison.

Landmark and Bates, who both live in Albany, Wis., crossed paths several years ago at an event for the Green County Area Women in Sustainable Agriculture. They quickly discovered their mutual interests went deeper than a passion for locally produced food. Landmark is the cheesemaker; Bates handles marketing.

They source their sheep’s milk from a small, family-owned farm near Rewey, while the cow’s milk for their Tallgrass and Tallgrass Reserve cheeses comes from a dairy co-op in the Madison area. The cheeses are made at the Cedar Grove

plant in Plain. From there, they go to Bear Valley Affinage north of Lone Rock, where owner Jenifer Brozak oversees the aging process.

Landmark and Bates stop by periodically to see how the batches are coming along.

Landmark says that “a lot of documentation and tasting” during the aging process is required to nail down exactly what steps result in a batch that turns out especially well and which produce experiments not worth repeating.

Landmark sells four primary cheeses: the Tallgrass, a creamy, buttery cheese with a rind rubbed with smoked paprika and olive oil; Tallgrass Reserve, aged for a minimum of six months with a natural, moldy rind; the Basqueinfluenced Anabasque, a firm and salty sheep’s milk cheese that’s cave-aged for three months; and individually packaged, one-ounce portions of the soft and tangy Petit Nuage, a Frenchstyle cheese made fresh weekly from February to October. The Petit Nuage won the Best of Class award in the “soft and semi-soft sheep’s milk cheeses” category at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest last year.

Clouds on your tongue: The Petit Nuages.

Bates suggests melting Anabasque into a butternut squash risotto, tossing the Petit Nuage in a salad or presenting all four varieties on a cheese board paired with fruit preserves and nuts.

They do experiment with new varieties and plan to expand distribution of “Pecora Nocciola,” or “nutty ewe,” an Italian-style cheese, in 2016.

This February, Landmark Creamery will move production to the Thuli Family Cream-

ery in Darlington. Eventually, they’d like their own production and tasting facility, but first want their own space for aging and packaging, which would enable them to produce “styles of cheese that need a little more hands-on work and observation,” Bates says.

Landmark Creamery cheeses are sold at Fromagination, Hy-Vee-Fitchburg and Whitney Way, Metcalfe’s-Hilldale, Steve’s Liquor on University Avenue and both Willy Street Co-op locations. n

Cheeseheads Fresh mozzarella Grampa’s Pizzeria, 1374 Williamson St.

This appetizer plate features cheese made fresh daily, set off by vanilla fleur de sel, which adds sweetness to the basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Assaggio di Formaggi Freschi

ARGENTINIAN WINE DINNER THURSDAY, JAN. 14 6-8:30 PM

Enjoy 5 Italian wines along with our four course dinner Hard Salami Cups

Genoa salami cups filled with spinach-artichoke dip and baked until piping hot

Neapolitan Minestrone

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

A hearty Italian soup with Italian sausage, carrots, celery, tomatoes, cabbage, endive & fresh pasta

24

Chicken Parmigiano with tomato-cream sauce

A boneless chicken breast topped with our homemade tomato cream sauce and mozzarella cheese

Berry almond cheesecake tart

A flaky pie crust filled with a almond and cream cheese custard, topped with fresh fruit and almonds

Cost $45 • Limited SeatingPlease • RSVP by 1/8

425 N. Frances St. 256-3186 Parking ramp located across the street www.portabellarestaurant.biz

Osteria Papavero, 128 E. Wilson St.

PHILIP ASHBY

Wisconsin cheese sampler

Coffee talk

Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St.

Sí Café combines science, art and customer service Like a good haircut, a good cup of coffee is all about attention to detail.

Sí Café, which opened around Thanksgiving, shares a space at 117 S. Pinckney St. with Ritual Barbers, a hip gentleman’s groomery.

The pairing may seem unlikely, but the businesses share a similar philosophy: precision and quality with a personal touch.

The cafe menu is minimalist: espresso and pour-overs. Yes Coffee Roasters provides the beans as well as the baristas, who work Tuesday through Saturday, 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At the moment, Sí Café brews Colombia Huila Oporapa, which is sourced from several small farms in the same micro-region.

Sort of a tasting flight of either three, five or seven cheeses, both fresh and semi-aged, paired with Italian artisanal honeys.

The versatile roast is used throughout the menu, but it’s exceptional as an espresso: thick and heavy with bright acidity and sharp, pleasing citrus notes.

Yes co-owner Daniel Finkelstein pulled four shots before getting one that met his standards — the ideal grind texture, exact weight, precise ratio of dissolved solids.

The whole process must be timed exactly and can even be influenced by the weather.

And while some cafes run like assembly lines, the pace here is slower, and patrons are encouraged to linger and chat — whether they’re in the barber’s chair or at the coffee bar.

— ALLISON GEYER

Put yourself in the hands those who really know cheese. This sampler plate is cheesemonger’s choice of three Wisconsin cheeses (and how can you go wrong?).

They’re paired with dried fruits, local Potter’s crackers and mixed nuts.

Happy Hour

Porta Bella Paisan’s Restaurant Week Italian Restaurant Specials SAT. JAN 16 – SAT. JAN 23 3 Course Dinners $25 Entrée Selections

Jambalaya Pasta Lobster Ravioli Chicken Parmesan Prosciutto and Panna

finalists

3 Course Luncheon Menu $15 View menus online: portabellarestaurant.biz

Meet the brewers

425 N. Frances St. • 256-3186

and sample the beers that they will be competing with at Isthmus Beer & Cheese Fest at the Alliant Energy Exhibition Hall on January 16th.

The winner will have their beer brewed at Wisconsin Brewing Company as the next Isthmus beer on tap at local bars and restaurants.

a le w i

n

LITTLE DANNY’S OATMEAL CREAM PIE

win at

n

w h

wi n n e

Jan. 14 5-7pm

TAMING OF THE SHREW

er

LEMON MERINGUE ALE

EACH EVENT ALSO FEATURES COMPLIMENTARY BEER BY

Paisan’s

Italian Restaurant

Restaurant Week SUN. JAN 17 – FRI. JAN 22 3 Course Dinners $25 Includes appetizer, dessert and glass of wine or beer

free with ticket

Isthmus.com/OnTapNext

View menus online: Paisansrestaurant.biz

131 W. Wilson St. 257-3832

MONDAY-F RIDAY

4– 6 PM

4 GREAT AREA LOCATIONS HILLDALE 670 N. Midvale • Madison, WI 608.663.8226

VERONA

100 Cross Country • Verona, WI 608.497.3333

MONROE ST.

1851 Monroe St. • Madison, WI 608.238.4419

EAST WASH.

1344 E. Washington Ave. • Madison, WI 608.819.8002

www.pasqualscantina.com

JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Meat-filled Lasagna Manicotti or Cannelloni Specialty Pizzas 3 Course Lunch Menu $15

ticketS and more information:

Top Shelf Margaritas Nachos Draft Beer El Mayor Shots Chips & Salsa

HAPPY HOUR

Entrée Selections

DUANE BUSCHER

Jan. 14 5-7pm

a p

STEPHEN GRAVES

er

DAN GRUPE

e

VANILLA BOURBON STOUT

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Matchup with Washington not likely to help

BY MICHAEL POPKE

A few minutes before the Green Bay Packers kicked off to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night at Lambeau Field, my 15-yearold son, Tyler, turned to me and suggested that Green Bay might be better off losing.

This was the final game of the 2015 regular season, and all of the following weekend’s playoff matchups were already set, except for two games in the NFC. Both Minnesota and Green Bay were in; the only question remaining: Which team would win the NFC North conference and host a playoff game?

Tyler reasoned that by ceding the NFC North title to the Vikings for the first time since 2009, the Packers would bypass a home game against this same peaking-atthe-right-time Minnesota team in exchange for a more appealing date with the so-so 9-7 Washington Redskins at FedEx Field on Jan. 10.

Obviously, Green Bay did lose, in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as its 2013 score indicates, and is headed east. But after watching the Packers’ performance against the Vikings, when they showed about as much intensity as they did in earlier blowout defeats to the Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals, I’m not expecting Washington to be any easier for Green Bay

to take on than Minnesota would have been.

The Packers finished the 2015 regular season 10-6, and a sputtering offense against the Vikings was dragged down further by underperforming running back Eddie Lacy (13 carries for a measly 34 yards) and a passing game that seemed nonexistent for extended periods of time.

It’s likely Green Bay won’t be advancing deep into January.

Never fear, though: This year’s NFL playoffs still hold plenty of intrigue.

Will the 15-1 Carolina Panthers continue to dominate the same way they did all season? Or will the two-time defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks, led by former Badgers quarterback Russell Wilson, continue their recent power surge?

Can 39-year-old quarterback Peyton Manning — who came in off the bench with an injured foot on Jan. 3 to engineer a come-from-behind 27-20 Denver Broncos victory over the San Diego Chargers — win one more Super Bowl?

Will another former Badger, NFL fan favorite and league sack leader J.J. Watt, dance his way deep into the AFC playoffs with the 9-7 Houston Texans?

My early Super Bowl 50 prediction: Seattle vs. Denver. n

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27

n MUSIC

Her own boss Torres hones her craft by keeping some routines and breaking others

BY BEN MUNSON

Over the course of nine cosmically inclined rock songs on her 2015 second album Sprinter, 24-year-old singer Torres (born Mackenzie Scott) barely contains her smoldering voice, snarling out complicated thoughts about her childhood and Baptist upbringing in Macon, Ga. “Mother, father / I’m underwater,” she pleads on “The Exchange,” the album’s devastating final track.

After articulating feelings of alienation and isolation so well on Sprinter — which she’ll still be touring behind when she visits the High Noon Saloon Jan. 14 for FRZN Fest — it can be difficult for Scott to keep talking about the ideas behind the music.

“I feel like I said everything I wanted to say in the work,” says Scott, who earned a formal songwriting degree from Belmont University in Nashville in December 2012.

She says her education isn’t necessarily a “super special thing,” but credits it with giving her a deeper understanding of what it takes to make music.

Scott spoke with Isthmus about how she learned to hone her craft (“That’s what I call it, a craft,” she jokes) and her experience opening for Garbage on their recent tour, including an Oct. 18 show at the Orpheum Theater.

You emulate people like Nick Cave, who treat songwriting like a day job.

Yeah, it’s really important for me to get up at an early hour — and by early I mean 9 a.m. — and take my time with breakfast and coffee, take a slow start to the day. But then I get dressed, brush my teeth and I just get ready for the fucking day. Then I try to stay

Mackenzie Scott barely contains her smoldering voice on Sprinter.

SHAWN BRACKBILL

busy, whether that means keeping my pen busy or keeping my brain busy while I think about things before I write them down.

people go, “Oh, I get it now!” So maybe now I think people are starting to understand what I’m going for.

How much has your live show changed since you started touring behind Sprinter?

In the beginning, my band and I were playing the record. We started touring this record in May and just tried to get through the show by playing the record as is. But after you’re on the road for a month and half, you say, “Okay, it’s time to step this up. We can’t get bored with ourselves.”

We might do small changes each show that make a huge difference. Those small moments being the cohesive element that makes

Last time you played Madison you opened for Garbage in a large venue. This time it’s a smaller club. Is there any difference between those types of shows?

With opening slots, it’s always our aim to play the hits — the songs that will get people excited immediately because we have such a short window of time to win them over.

With headline shows, we get to start the set the way we want to and take our time with the intro, our exit and with transitions. We get to be a little more self-indulgent.

Garbage is a big deal in Madison. Did the band pick you to be the opener?

Yeah, and that was a huge honor. I think Shirley [Manson] really went to bat for us on that tour, which was so fulfilling for me. It was great to feel like we were wanted. [Garbage] really made us feel like we were welcome. A lot of times, going on those huge tours with really famous bands, you never really know what to expect. Garbage was completely gracious and spent time with us — talked with us, laughed with us.

It’s fun to hear that people are nice.

It is! Isn’t it great to hear that your heroes are not dicks? n

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n STAGE

n BOOKS

Cliff nation Skunk Hill tells the hidden history of a Native settlement

BY JAY RATH

MATTHEW MURPHY

Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek studied opera and jazz in college, but he first performed in a punk band in the Fox Valley.

Hunky homegrown villain UW alum returns to star in Beauty and the Beast

BY LAURA JONES

Actor/singer Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek has made the journey from small-town Wisconsin to the big city, and from Eagle Scout to Disney villain. He’s toured Italy and sung for luminaries like Carol Burnett and appeared in operas from La Boheme to The Marriage of Figaro. He also performed locally in Four Seasons Theatre’s Assassins in 2014. The prodigal baritone returns Jan. 13-17 to star as Gaston, the handsome villain in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at the Overture Center.

Smith-Kotlarek took time out of his tour, calling in from Tulsa, Okla., to speak with Isthmus about Wisconsin pride, his wideranging musical background and how singing opera is like yelling for a football team.

You sound like the Wisconsin poster boy.

I have a lot of Wisconsin pride. It feels like a hidden gem. I live now in New York City, and people who haven’t been to Wisconsin just don’t know how great it is.

Now you’re an opera singer, yet you played in a punk band while you were in middle school.

Why that name?

One of the band member’s uncles worked in a garage and his name was Geoy and he had a bunch of embroidered shirts with his name on them. We figured we could get a lot of free shirts. It was a very economical decision.

You have a B.A. from UW-Madison in vocal performance, and you also studied jazz with acclaimed jazz professor Richard Davis. What did you learn here?

I got a really varied palette to work with.

[Vocal professor] Paul Rowe gave me a very healthy way of singing that has sustained me. I learned not to force or push or try to be overly operatic too soon.

You also had a jazz band that played for a certain presidential hopeful.

While I was studying with Richard Davis, I formed a quintet that got to open up for [Barack] Obama when he came to the Monona Terrace in 2007. It was pretty cool to play my original songs in front of 3,000 people.

But you did end up studying opera, getting your master’s in voice at Indiana and also training at the Boston University Opera Institute. Why opera?

Being from Wisconsin, I make the analogy that it’s like being at a football game

and yelling at the top of your lungs when you’re so excited for your team — but in a controlled, safe, healthy way. There’s an adrenaline rush from using your whole body to express yourself.

Are you aware you’re on a website called “Barihunks: The Sexiest Baritones in Opera”?

[Laughs] Yes, I’m aware. They have quite a following, and they’ve been very kind to feature me in the past.

How do you relate to Gaston, the villain in Beauty and the Beast?

I remember seeing it as a kid and being confused about whether you are supposed to like him or not. He looks so good and has so much fun in the tavern, but then he’s so out of control at the end. But I had to find out what makes him human. It’s not his fault he’s the way he is. He’s a person who has grown up his whole life being told he’s the best in town and always getting what he’s wants. He’s not accustomed to being told no. I think he reacts to Belle’s [rejection] because he really just wants her to accept him for who he is.

You’ve said you love to come back to Madison every chance you get.

Any must-do activities?

I’ll see friends and walk around the Capitol or State Street. I definitely have to get the chicken apricot pie at Mediterranean Café — it’s dessert for lunch but it’s not dessert. Sweet and savory, just heavenly. And I ate there so often in college they remember me. n

JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Tell us about your Wisconsin roots.

I was raised in the Fox Valley. I had a pretty typical suburban upbringing. Sports in middle school, drama in high school, voice lessons, choir. I was even a snowboarding instructor and Eagle Scout. My family owns a cabin in a national forest. We’d make maple syrup in the spring.

My friends and I were skaters and we listened to punk at the time. I played guitar, sang and wrote the songs. We called ourselves Geoy [sounds like “Joey”].

The story of a band of Potawatomi people establishing a village on a 300-foot quartzite bluff sounds like the stuff of legend.

But it is part of Wisconsin history. The village of Tah-qua-kik, or Skunk Hill, was established in 1905 on the top and south side of Powers Bluff, in central Wisconsin’s Wood County.

Author Robert Birmingham tells the story of this small but mighty outpost in Skunk Hill: A Native Ceremonial Community in Wisconsin, published recently by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

Skunk Hill was a settlement sequestered by choice, away from the aggressively “civilizing” reservations and boarding schools of the 19th and early 20th centuries. At a time when Native culture was being assimilated and violently suppressed, this pocket of resistance provided a safe haven for members of many tribes to practice traditional religious rituals forbidden on reservations.

The Tah-qua-kik settlement drew people from as far away as Kansas, and the people who lived there were essentially squatting, since the last remaining shred of Potawatomi territory extended from Illinois only into the southeast corner of Wisconsin. Skunk Hill’s peak population was about 80, with more than a dozen structures spanning 40 acres. Today, two cemeteries and dance circles are all that remain, and Tah-qua-kik is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The life span of the village was short — roughly 25 years — but Native American traditions were preserved long enough to be shared and handed down to other generations.

Birmingham focuses on the community’s Drum Dance, a days-long celebration of the powers of the Great Spirit that attracted visitors from other parts of Wisconsin and beyond.

Birmingham, who worked as Wisconsin state archaeologist from 1989 to 2004, tells this story well, and he has gathered information from Potawatomi elders and their descendants.

In previous books, he explored prehistory’s mound builders and the mysterious Aztalan settlement near Lake Mills. The book is heavily illustrated with historic black-and-white photos displaying village life, dress and dwellings. It also includes a few modern images, including an excellent group photo taken in 2000 of Skunk Hill descendants gathered on the bluff.

Skunk Hill is endlessly intriguing, but it is more of a reference book than a narrative; it would benefit from actual stories and quotations from family members. Still, this slender volume helps uncover some of our state’s hidden history and fosters appreciation for the first Wisconsinites. n

29

n SCREENS

Irresistible attraction Carol is a perfectly pitched period romance

Playing a divorced sophisticate, Cate Blanchett delivers some of her finest work.

BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

In Carol, all the elements dovetail perfectly to create a movie that is as irresistible as its title character. The movie has an allure that is almost trancelike, mimicking for the viewers the inescapable attraction experienced by the two main characters. The period production design is perfectly on point, as is the 1950s costume and set design. Ed Lachman’s exquisite camerawork captures every minor detail with a sensibility that beckons the viewer to fall swooningly into the frame.

Director Todd Haynes also has an unmistakable feel for the period (see Far From Heaven and Mildred Pierce, if in doubt). And the lead

actresses, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara?

These two deliver some of the finest work of this, or any other, year.

Adapted by Phyllis Nagy for the screen from a 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith, Carol began life as a book titled The Price of Salt. It was Highsmith’s second novel and was published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, presumably due to its lesbian content. When it was reissued in the ’90s, Highsmith changed the title to Carol and published it under her own name. Carol is something of a departure for Highsmith, who is primarily known as a suspense writer, and it may also be the author’s most personal work.

Set in 1952, the film first introduces us to Therese Belivet (Mara), a vaguely bored shop-

girl in the toy department of a large Manhattan department store at Christmastime. Therese seems discontented with her boyfriend, Richard Semco (Jake Lacy), who wants nothing more than to marry her — a proposal she regularly sidesteps. Her torpor is punctured by the arrival of an elegant blond woman in a fur coat. Polished and sophisticated, Carol seems to be everything the mousy-haired Therese, who is dressed in a sensible jumper and a demeaning, work-mandated Santa hat, is not. The intrigue begins.

At least a decade older than Therese, Carol is the mother of a 4-year-old, and is in the process of getting divorced from her wealthy and unresigned husband Harge (Kyle Chandler). Since their daughter is scheduled to spend the Christ-

mas holiday with her father under a mutually amicable custody agreement, Carol decides to drive west for the holiday. On a whim, she invites Therese to join her. Each woman is drawn to the other — Therese, ironically, by Carol’s urbanity, and Carol by Therese’s jejuneness. Their mutual attraction is consummated in, of all places, Waterloo, Iowa.

From the nail polish to the shoes, and the music (by Carter Burwell) to the old Packard, there is not a hair or glove out of place.

Even the contrast between the acting styles — Blanchett’s languor vs. Mara’s feral gaze — is of a piece with the film. Carol feels like a movie that Todd Haynes has always been destined to make. n

Missed Madison

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

continued from 19

30

“Part of the fun will be revealing the choices,” he says, adding that three certain entries are Aleksei German’s Hard to Be a God; Black Coal, Thin Ice, a Chinese thriller; and Argentinian Gaspar Noé’s steamy Love.

Kreul says the organizers used sites like Rotten Tomatoes and critics’ best-of lists to create a spreadsheet of 50-60 eligible films that was passed among the participants.

“The reviewers gravitated toward the films that they’re most interested and most excited about,” says Kreul. “They’re films that they want to make sure people know about.”

Kreul says the festival is also considering titles that did not receive rave reviews, such as David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, which will screen at the Madison Public Library in February.

“Each of the films we’re covering has a great deal of ambition, which is a great thing in a film landscape that seems more and more focused on sure bets getting big budgets,” says Lewis.

“Films that are trying to push the envelope [are] being relegated to specialty items that only the die-hards are aware of.”

There are several other virtual festivals generated in the United States, notably the Great Lakes International Film Festival, physically based in Erie, Pa. In the end, the effort is also about improving film culture in Madison. “Let’s look at films and let people know about more films,” says Kreul.

“I’m hoping that this collaboration between organizations will lead to things in the future.”

For more information on the Missed Madison Film Festival, visit madfilm.org. n

Hard to Be a God

Black Coal, Thin Ice

Maps to the Stars

The film list

ISTHMUSWELCOMES

New releases

YONDER

The Forest: A woman searching for her twin confronts unknown forces.

MOUNTAIN

The Masked Saint: A pastor returns to his life as a wrestler in an attempt to help his community.

The Revenant: Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman) launches into the loosely fact-based story of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), working as a guide for an early 19th-century furtrapping operation. DiCaprio strips Glass down to pure primal survival instinct, but by the time the film reaches what should be its climactic confrontation, it has become simply exhausting.

Recent releases Concussion: Will Smith plays neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, who battled the NFL after he discovered a degenerative brain disease in former pro football players. This is Smith’s first performance that doesn’t feel like he’s playing a version of himself, and even if this weren’t a solidly entertaining medical procedural, what it has to say makes it a must-see.

The Danish Girl: Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne delivers another physically transformational performance as one of the first patients to undergo sexual reassignment surgery. The film’s compositions are lovely to look at, and the performances engaging. However, a sense of remoteness hangs over the project, as though we are watching characters through a pinhole diorama.

The Hateful Eight: Quentin Tarantino’s gritty drama about several snowbound characters trying to survive treachery at a remote general store/tavern in post-Civil War Wyoming feels more superficial than the director’s other work.

Sure, Q’s got a few salient things to say about cleaning up the legacy of American racism; it’s just harder than usual to hear them this time through the F-bombs, gunfire blasts and howls of pain.

ISTHMUS

WISCONSIN FESTS

ORPHEUM JAN. 23

RYAN BINGHAM

JOSH RITTER

More film events In Football We Trust: Documentary that follows four Polynesian high school football players in Utah. Central Library, Jan. 14, 6:30 pm.

Mala Mala: QCinema screens this documentary about trans-identifying individuals in Puerto Rico. OutReach, Jan. 13, 6:30 pm.

RiffTrax Live: Starship Troopers: Encore presentation. Palace & Point, Jan. 14, 7:30 pm.

MAJESTIC JAN. 27

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip Ant-Man The Big Short Daddy’s Home The Good Dinosaur Hotel Transylvania 2 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

ISTHMUS FROSTIBALL ORPHEUM FEB. 13

BARRYMORE FEB. 20

AFTER PARTY SHANNON HALL FEB. 2

METRIC

The Winters Tale

Jan 16 at 12:30, Jan 20 at 7:15

NT Live: Les Liaisons Dangereuses

BARRYMORE JAN. 28

O.A.R.

OVERTURE JAN. 30

Kenneth Branagh’s:

Feb 15 at 7:15, Feb 20 at 12:30

STARTS FRIDAY THE REVENANT

NO PASSES - CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION

Fri to Thu: (1:50, 5:00), 8:15

THE BIG SHORT

CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION

Fri & Sat: (1:15, 4:00), 6:45, 9:30; Sun: (11:25 AM, 2:10, 4:55), 7:40; Mon to Thu: (2:10, 4:55), 7:40

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION Fri & Sat: (1:20, 4:10), 7:00, 9:50; Sun: (11:00 AM, 2:00, 4:50), 8:00; Mon to Thu: (2:00, 4:50), 8:00

JOY

CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION Fri: (1:45, 4:20), 6:55, 9:35; Sat: (11:05 AM, 1:45, 4:20), 6:55, 9:35; Sun: (11:05 AM, 1:45, 4:20), 7:30; Mon to Thu: (1:45, 4:20), 7:30 CAROL CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION Fri: (1:40, 4:15), 6:50, 9:25; Sat: (11:10 AM, 1:40, 4:15), 6:50, 9:25; Sun: (11:10 AM, 1:40, 4:15), 7:45; Mon to Thu: (1:40, 4:15), 7:45 SISTERS CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION Fri: (1:55, 4:30), 7:10, 9:45; Sat: (11:20 AM, 1:55, 4:30), 7:10, 9:45; Sun: (11:20 AM, 1:55, 4:30), 7:50; Mon to Thu: (1:55, 4:30), 7:50

Amenity Fees Vary With Schedule - ( ) = Mats. www.sundancecinemas.com/choose LOCATED AT HILLDALE MALL 608.316.6900 www.sundancecinemas.com Gift Cards Available at Box Office

Showtimes subject to change. Visit website to confirm Closed captioning and descriptive narrative available for select films

Showtimes for December 25 - December 31

Inside Out The Intern The Martian The Peanuts Movie Point Break Sicario Sisters Spotlight

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JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Also in theaters

Up to 6 rentals at a time One of each pair may be a new arrival Expires 1/21/2016

MAJESTIC JAN. 7-9, 14-16

Joy: Jennifer Lawrence is woefully miscast as entrepreneur Joy Mangano, who created a mop that can be wrung hands-free and went on to be a Home Shopping Channel superstar.

Director David O. Russell pitches the cantankerous domestic environment as akin to a messy, lower-middle-class version of a glitzy fantasy soap opera.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The galaxy’s problems, it seems, weren’t magically whisked away with the deaths of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine some 30 years ago. In this Episode VII, the Galactic Senate is back in place, but regions are still controlled by the First Order, a faction of the old Empire. Director J.J. Abrams does a great job balancing old with new, creating a fun, intelligent movie that adds to the Star Wars canon.

STRING BAND

31

thu jan 7 MU S I C

Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Sextet Thursday, Jan. 7, Overture Hall Main Lobby, 6-8 pm

Congas/bongos virtuoso Tony Castañeda has been bringing Latin jazz sounds to Madison audiences for nearly four decades, and leading his Sextet since 1998. The current incarnation heats up a chilly winter evening with this free MadCity Sessions show.

Wisconsin Pop Fest Thursday, Jan. 14, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm A go-to dance act in this part of the Dairy State, headliner GGOOLLDD (pictured) is a glittery, shimmering Milwaukee six-piece with a penchant for synthpop. Joining them here are poprockers the Living Statues (who were recently named 88nine Radio Milwaukee’s Band of the Year) as well as Madison’s own Oh My Love, Modern Mod and Tarpaulin.

picks PICK OF THE WEEK CJ FOECKLER

Wisconsin Hip-Hop Fest Thursday, Jan. 7, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm

Some of Wisconsin’s best emcees, poets and musicians are coming together for this beats-, rhymes- and life-centric affair. It features headlining sets from four rappers — Milwaukee’s IshDARR and Milo and Madison’s F.Stokes and CRASHprez (pictured) — with support from locals Fringe Character, Lord of the Fly and Sincere Life.

Rob Dz will handle hosting duties, with musical accompaniment from DJ Phil Money.

synthed-out DJ act Golden Donna on stage alongside four stellar local electronic acts. Balancing density and danceability, Golden Donna creates texturally rich yet accessible beats, providing a laid-back feel that rewards deep listening. He’s joined by experimentalist Beau Devereaux’s shadowy Samantha Glass project, Lens, TV Dinner and Noxroy.

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

Christy’s Landing: Open Mic with Shelley Faith, free, 8 pm Thursdays.

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

32

A RT EXH I B I TS / EV EN TS

The Frequency: Drugs Delaney, 10 pm.

Ms. Pat

Ivory Room: Michael Massey, Josh Dupont, dueling pianos, 9 pm.

Thursday, Jan. 7, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm

Knuckle Down Saloon: Blues Jam, free, 8 pm Thursdays.

By the time Indianapolis-based comedian Ms. Pat first performed on stage in 2003, she’d already lived a life’s worth of material: At 14 she had her first child, as a teenager she was a drug dealer and she spent her 20s raising six kids. Now more than 10 years into a fruitful standup career, Ms. Pat is a regular radio guest on The Bob and Tom Show, and her first book, Rabbit: A Memoir, is slated to come out in 2016. With AJ Finney. ALSO: Friday and Saturday (8 & 10:30 pm), Jan. 8-9.

Mr. Robert’s: Kyle Miller, free, 10 pm.

Natt Spil: DJ Jamie Stanek, free, 10 pm.

North and South Seafood & Smokehouse: Jerry & Nora, classic rock/country, free, 5 pm Thursdays.

Plan B: DJs Brook, Lizzy T, 9 pm Thursdays.

The Red Zone: The Complication, Cosmic Wool, Indigibliss, 8 pm.

Tip Top Tavern: Chloe Webster, folk, free, 10 pm.

Tofflers, New Glarus: The Jimmys, blues, free, 8 pm.

Three Viewings: Three short plays set in a small town funeral parlor, by Columbus Redbud Players, 7:30 pm on 1/7-9 and 2 pm, 1/10, Kestrel Ridge Banquet Hall, Columbus. $10. 920-350-1010.

Translators & Translations Open Mic: All invited to read from material translated into English, 7:30 pm, 1/7, Lakeside Street Coffee House. 441-7599.

Brink Lounge: Blues Jam with Bill Roberts, 8 pm.

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

Dark Tales of Mystery & Intrigue: Interactive theater for grades 6-12 with mentalist Robert Halbrook, 7 pm, 1/7, Middleton Public Library. Free. RSVP: 827-7402.

S PO K EN WO RD

The Bayou: Johnny Chimes, guitar/piano, free, 5:30 pm Thursdays.

Merchant: Gin Mill Hollow, Americana, free, 10:30 pm.

Portland-by-way-of-Madison producer Joel Shanahan returns home for this stacked show that puts his slippery,

COM EDY

Badger Bowl: Scott Wilcox, Kari Arnett, 8 pm.

Louisianne’s, Etc., Middleton: Jim Erickson, jazz, free, 6 pm Thursdays.

Thursday, Jan. 7, High Noon Saloon, 9 pm

Up North Pub: Catfish Stephenson, free, 9 pm Thursdays.

Alchemy Cafe: DJs Radish, Dr. Funkenstein, free, 10 pm.

Liliana’s Restaurant, Fitchburg: Ken Wheaton, fingerstyle guitar, free, 5:30 pm Thursdays.

Golden Donna

Tricia’s Country Corners, McFarland: Frank James & Bobby Briggs, country, free, 8 pm Thursdays.

THEATER & DANCE Little Women: Discussing the book, plus Madison Opera preview, 6:30 pm, 1/7, Fitchburg Library. 729-1780.

Tim Mulcahy: Photographs, noon-4 pm Sundays, 1/10-31, PhotoMidwest (reception 7-9 pm, 1/7). photomidwest.org.

Middle School, High School & Faculty Art Show: Through 1/13, River Arts Center Gallery, Spring Green (reception 3:30-6 pm, 1/7). 643-5215.

Mark Mueller: Prints, 1/7-2/4, UW Hospital-E5/2 Entrance. 263-5992.

DA N C I N G Madison West Coast Swing Club: Lesson series: Beginners ($63), 6:15 pm Wednesdays, 1/6-2/17; intermediate ($42), 6:30 pm Thursdays; 1/7-2/11; and country two-step ($42), 7:30 pm Thursdays, 1/72/11, Badger Bowl. 213-1108.

➡

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Golden Donna Samantha Glass Lens / Noxroy TV Dinner DJs 9pm $7 18+

fri jan

8

HAPPYOKE Rock Star

RARE PLANT RECORDS SHOWCASE

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Gomeroke

WheelHouse The Last Revel Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank

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Holven Fora Nøa Donovan (DJ Set) 8pm $12

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WIN ISTHMUS’ W W II N N II S ST TH HM MU US S ’’

9PM $5 18+

Emerald Grove Old Soul Society 5pm $5

sun Jan

With Special Guests

Proud Parents / Dumb Vision Wood Chickens / Cave Curse The Minotaurs / Tarpaulin DJ Stamp Collector

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sat jan

216 State Street, Madison, WI

BARRYMORE THEATRE

JANUARY 28

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The Clyde Stubblefield 11 All-Star Band 6pm $7

wed jan

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8:30pm $5

thu Jan

Frzn Fest

Torres / Eternal Summers 14 Palehound / American Wrestlers 8pm $15 18+

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2090 Atwood Ave. (608) 241-8864

SAT. JAN. 16 - 7PM

n ISTHMUS PICKS : JAN 8 – 9

fri jan 8

Ivory Room: Peter Hernet, Nicky Jordan, Jim Ripp, dueling pianos, 8 pm.

Knuckle Down Saloon: Valerie B. & the Boyz, 9 pm.

Liquid: DJ Britt, 10 pm.

SOLD OUT LAST 46 YEARS!

M USIC

Merchant: DJ Vilas Park Sniper, 10:30 pm.

__________________________________________________

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

MADISON AREA JUGGLERS PRESENT

Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse: A Kin, 8 pm.

Mr. Robert’s: Owls Foxes & Sebastian, Vein Rays, Luke Arvid, Gods In the Chrysalis, free, 10 pm.

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Natt Spil: DJ Golden Donna, free, 10 pm.

Red Zone: Roxtar, 7 Seasons Deep, Motherhive, 8 pm.

Rex’s Innkeeper, Waunakee: Universal Sound, classic rock, 8:30 pm.

Wisconsin Folk Fest Friday, Jan. 8, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm

Cory Chisel (pictured), the man who put Appleton on the map and is responsible for the great Mile of Music festival, headlines this year. Joining him is folkestral sextet We Are the Willows — who in 2014 released a life-affirming record based on the love letters of frontman Peter Miller’s grandparents — plus the captivating J.E. Sunde, Christopher Gold and Rachel Hanson.

Rare Plant Records Showcase

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

Friday, Jan. 8, High Noon Saloon, 9 pm

34

with very special guest

Steve Forbert Tickets $36 advance

Tickets on sale at Sugar Shack, Star Liquor, MadCity Music, B-Side, Frugal Muse, Strictly Discs, the Barrymore, online at barrymorelive.com or call & charge at (608) 241-8633.

Tempest Oyster Bar: Tony Barba Trio, free, 9:30 pm.

Tuvalu Coffeehouse and Gallery, Verona: Madison Songwriters Guild Showcase with T. Burns, Paul Creswell, plus open mic, free, 7:30 pm.

Up North Pub: Just Merl, free, 8 pm.

Wil-Mar Center: 50% Folk, 8 pm.

T H EAT ER & DA N C E

The 800th Annual Salvation Swing-Off The east side’s experimental theater institution kicks off 2016 with a biblical romp set in a soul-cleansing laundromat in Purgatory. Couples rival for rapture in a dance-a-thon, while the angels cope with an eternity’s worth of red tape.

ALSO: Saturday, Jan. 9 and Thursday, Jan. 14 (8 pm). Through Jan. 30.

SAT. JAN. 30 - 8PM

Leo Kottke

River Arts on Water, Prairie du Sac: Wrannock Celtic Trio, 7 pm.

Friday, Jan. 8, Broom Street Theater, 8 pm

Tickets $20 advance, $25 d.o.s.

presents

Louisianne’s, Middleton: Johnny Chimes, New Orleans piano, free, 6:30 pm Fridays.

Madison’s Rare Plant Records puts six local acts on display: Bobby Hussy’s Cave Curse makes its debut, Wood Chickens (pictured) return home after a tour-filled fall, Proud Parents and Dumb Vision celebrate tape releases, Tarpaulin promotes its recent EP, and the Minotaurs get back to action after a short hiatus. Rare Plant is doing a lot for local music, and this cohesive yet eclectic lineup is living proof.

Alchemy Cafe: Nuggernaut, funk/jazz, free, 10 pm.

Badger Bowl: Distant Cuzins, rock, 9:15 pm.

The Bayou: DJ Chamo, Latin, free, 10 pm Fridays.

Brink Lounge: Cool Front with Jon French, rock/ blues/funk, 9 pm.

Brocach-Square: The Currach, free, 5:30 pm Fridays.

Buck and Honey’s, Sun Prairie: David Hecht, free, 6:30 pm.

Cardinal Bar: Tony Castaneda Latin Jazz Quartet, free, 5:30 pm; Lyndsay Evans, 9 pm.

Chief’s Tavern: Shari Davis & the Hot Damn Blues Band, 8 pm.

Club Tavern, Middleton: Ron Denson, 9 pm.

Essen Haus: Steve Meisner, polka, free, 8:30 pm.

First Unitarian Society: Noon Musicale with Juliana Mesa-Jarmillo, bassoon; Rayna Slavova, piano, free, 12:15 pm.

Fountain: Richard Shaten, piano, free, 8 pm Fridays.

The Frequency: German Art Students, Bing Bong, Damsel Trash, 9 pm.

Great Dane-Hilldale: DJ Kris, 9 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Rock Star Gomeroke, audience invited to sing with The Gomers, 5 pm.

CO MEDY Atlas Improv Company: 8 & 10 pm Fridays & Saturdays, 609 E. Washington Ave. $8 ($5 kids). 259-9999.

B O O KS Whodunit?: &Wordplay event with Margie Franzen interviewing translator Ryan Freligh, 7 pm, 1/8, Mystery to Me. 283-9332.

A RT EXH I B I TS & EV EN TS Amber Sowards: “Captured,” photographs of incarcerated youth, through 1/15, Arts & Literature Laboratory (poetry reading 7 pm, 1/8). allgallery.org.

Brad Baranowski: “Between Two Lakes, Presented Between Two Colors,” 1/8-2/27, Central Library (reception 8-11 pm, 1/8). 266-6300.

Artisan Gallery Exhibits: “New Work” by Tom Jaszczak and Tom Sargeant; “Nocturne” group show, 1/8-2/21, Artisan Gallery, Paoli (reception 5-9 pm, 1/8). 845-6600.

Scott Hansen: “Early Spring,” through 1/31, Mother Fool’s. 259-1301.

Art Paul Schlosser: Paintings, through 3/31, Social Justice Center-Jackie Macaulay Gallery. 227-0206.

Wisconsin Water: UW Water Resources Institute photographs, through 1/31, Monona Library. 222-6127.

Edie Swift: Photographs, through 2/29, UW-Extension Lowell Center. 577-3300.

Anne Connor: Photographs, through 2/29, UW Fluno Center. 577-3300.

Jean Azemove: Photographs, through 3/1, UW Health Sciences Learning Center-2nd floor lobby. 263-5992.

Kathy Esch & Students: Paintings, 1/8-2/4, Health Sciences Learning Center-first floor atrium. 263-5992.

DA N C I N G Youth Dance Classes: Ages 10-14, 4 pm Fridays, 1/82/26, Mound Street Yoga Center. $75/series. RSVP: lcpdance.org. 835-6590.

R ECR E AT I O N & G A ME S

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

Groove & Glide: Free ice skating for all ages, 6-8 pm, 1/8, Tenney Park. 266-4711.

Club Tavern, Middleton: The Lower 5th, free, 9 pm.

Snowshoeing Basics: Free talk, 6:30 pm, 1/8, REI. RSVP: 833-6680.

SP ECTATO R S P O RTS UW Women’s Hockey: vs. Minnesota Duluth, 2 pm on 1/8 and noon, 1/10, LaBahn Arena. $5. 262-1440.

UW Wrestling: vs. Nebraska, 7 pm, 1/8, Field House. $5. 262-1440.

Come Back In: The Blues Party, 9 pm.

Crystal Corner Bar: Bonobo Secret Handshake, Cool Front with Jon French, 9 pm.

Essen Haus: Steve Meisner, polka, free, 8:30 pm.

The Frequency: Satsang, 7 pm; Dot.Con vs. M City, Dill, MadTown King, DJ Pain 1, 10 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Emerald Grove, Old Soul Society, 5 pm; WheelHouse, The Last Revel, Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, 9 pm.

Madison Capitols: USHL vs. Sioux City, 7:05 pm, 1/8; vs. Youngstown, 7:05 pm, 1/9, Alliant Energy Center-Coliseum. $20.50-$12.50. 267-3955.

Knuckle Down Saloon: The Family Business, 9 pm.

Home Expo: Exhibits & vendors on building & remodeling, 2-8 pm on 1/8, 10 am-8 pm on 1/9 and 10 am-5 pm, 1/10, Monona Terrace. $5 (free ages under 18). homeshowcenter.com. 800-374-6463.

sat jan 9 MU SI C

Ivory Room: Andrew Rohn, Jim Ripp, Josh Dupont, dueling pianos, 8 pm.

Lazy Oaf Lounge: The Visitors, rock, 10 pm.

Liliana’s Restaurant, Fitchburg: John Widdicombe & Stan Godfriaux, jazz, free, 6:30 pm.

Liquid: DJ Nick Magic, EDM, 10 pm.

Louisianne’s, Middleton: Johnny Chimes, New Orleans piano, free, 6:30 pm Saturdays.

Mother Fool’s: Lil’ Rev, Boo Bradley, 8 pm.

Mr. Robert’s: Dystopian Echo, Novagolde, The Artists, free, 10 pm.

Prairie Music & Arts, Sun Prairie: José Encarnación, Paul Hastil, Nick Moran & Devin Drobka, jazz, music programs fundraiser, 7:30 pm (clinic 6 pm).

RH Landmark Saloon, Jefferson: Bluegrass Jam, free, 3 pm.

Spring Green General Store: Bluegrass Jam, 1:30 pm.

Shake off the winter doldrums at this night dedicated to booty shaking and getting down, featuring Madison’s own Steez, the Big Payback, Megan Bobo & the Lux (pictured) and DJ Phil Money. Stay hydrated, funky people: It’s going to be a long, groovy night.

Tempest Oyster Bar: Bill Roberts Trio, jazz, free, 9:30 pm.

Tofflers, New Glarus: Warren Beck, free, 9 pm.

Tricia’s Country Corners, McFarland: Angels & Outlaws, country, 9 pm.

Tuvalu Coffeehouse & Gallery, Verona: The Buzzards, folk, free, 6:30 pm.

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

COME DY Monkey Business Institute: Improv: all ages, 5:30 pm; and 8 pm & 10:30 pm Saturdays, Glass Nickel-Atwood. $10-$6. monkeybusinessinstitute.com. 658-5153.

B OOKS Rebecca Scherm: Discussing “Unbecoming,” her mystery, 3 pm, 1/9, Mystery to Me. 283-9332.

Alchemy Cafe: No Name String Band, free, 10 pm.

Audio for the Arts: Bell Monks (CD release), Brain Grimmer (CD release), Nude Human, 8 pm.

Badger Bowl: Whiplash, rock, 9:15 pm.

Cafe Carpe, Fort Atkinson: The New Pioneers, bluegrass, 8 pm.

Madison Art Guild Winter Showcase: 1/9-2/6, UW Hospital-C5/2 Surgical Waiting Area, E5/2 Hospital Entrance, E5/2 & C5/2 Display Cases. 263-5992.

Varla Bishop: Paintings, through 3/28, UW HospitalJ3/1 Carbone Cancer Center waiting room. 263-5992.

SATURDAY

JAN 9

International Festival: Annual free celebration, 10:30 am-5 pm, 1/9, Overture Center, with music, dance, food & craft bazaar. Schedule: overturecenter. org. 258-4141.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance: With talk “Martin Luther King Jr. and the World Today,” by Everett Mitchell, 1:30 pm, 1/9, Spring Green Elementary School. 753-2199.

Ghana Association of Madison New Year Party: Annual event, 7 pm, 1/9, Neighborhood House, with dancing & food. $5. ghamanet.com.

➡

FUNK FEST

STEEZ | THE BIG PAYBACK MEGAN BOBO & THE LUX | DJ PHIL MONEY THURSDAY

JAN 14

POP FEST

GGOOLLDD | THE LIVING STATUES OH MY LOVE | MODERN MOD TARPAULIN

PUNK FEST

TENEMENT | THE HUSSY | ZEBRAS THE MOGULS | THE AMERICAN DEAD SATURDAY

S PECI AL E V ENTS

FOLK FEST

JAN 16

BLUEGRASS FEST

DEAD HORSES | JOSEPH HUBER DIG DEEP | THEM COULEE BOYS 115 KING STREET, MADISON, WI GET TICKETS AND INFO AT MAJESTICMADISON.COM

WITH TACOS FROM

JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

This Madison rock quartet is celebrating the release of its first full-length record, Orphan League Champs. The 12-track LP is full of personal stories, slinky guitar work and beautiful horn and string orchestration that pleasantly complement Little Legend’s clean, indie pop sound. With Neens, Control.

HIP-HOP FEST

CORY CHISEL | WE ARE THE WILLOWS JE SUNDE | CHRISTOPHER GOLD RACHEL HANSON

JAN 15

Fresh Perspective Art Collective: Visual art with a male African-American perspective, 1/9-2/28, Overture Center-Playhouse Gallery. 258-4169.

Saturday, Jan. 9, Mickey’s Tavern, 10 pm

JAN 8

FRIDAY

ART E XHI BITS & EV ENTS

Little Legend

JAN 7

FRIDAY

Natt Spil: DJ Mind Twerk, free, 10 pm.

Rex’s Innkeeper, Waunakee: Universal Sound, classic rock, 8:30 pm.

Saturday, Jan. 9, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm

THURSDAY

F. STOKES | MILO | ISHDARR | CRASHPREZ FRINGE CHARACTER | LORD OF THE FLY BROADWAY | SINCERE LIFE | DJ PHIL MONEY

Merchant: DJ Nick Nice, free, 10:30 pm.

The Red Zone: Unity the Band, Chris Labella with Elevated Expression, Dub Messengers, 9 pm.

Wisconsin Funk Fest

AT

Harmony Bar: The Rousers, rock, 9:45 pm.

UW Men’s Hockey: vs. Ohio State, 7 pm, 1/8-9, Kohl Center. $24/$20. 262-1440.

SP ECI A L I N T ER ESTS

WISCONSIN FESTS

35

n ISTHMUS PICKS : JAN 9 – 12 SP ECTATOR SP ORTS

EN V I RO N MEN T

UW Men’s Basketball: vs. Maryland, noon, 1/9, Kohl Center. $41-$26. 262-1440.

Ice Age Trail Alliance-Dane County Chapter: Crosscountry ski/hike/showshoe, 10 am, 1/10, Brooklyn State Wildlife Area. djwallac@wic.edu. 835-5144.

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Wisconsin Tango Social: With DJ Joe Yang, 7-10 pm, 1/9, Cardinal Bar. $3. 622-7697.

Madison West Coast Swing Club: Open dance, 8-10:30 pm, 1/9, Tempo Dance Studio. $14 includes 7 pm intermediate workshop. 213-1108.

RECREATION & GAM ES Candlelight Ski/Hike: Trails lit by candles, plus bonfire & concessions, 6-9 pm, 1/9, Lake Kegonsa State Park, Stoughton. Park admission required. 873-9695.

ENV IRONM ENT Bats Live! Nature’s Nighttime Superheroes: Wisconsin Bat Program info & live critters, 10:30 am, 1/9, Warner Park Community Recreation Center; Friends of Cherokee Marsh annual meeting 10 am. 215-0426.

Bald Eagle Watching Tours: With Ferry Bluff Eagle Council, 10 am, 1/9, Cedarberry Inn, Sauk City. $5.

RSVP: 643-6625.

FARM ERS’ M ARKETS Dane County Farmers’ Market: Indoor market, 8 am-noon, 1/9, Madison Senior Center, with music

by Brian Schwellinger & The Bear Milkers, breakfast ($8.50) by Lalia Borokhim. 455-1999.

Hilldale Farmers’ Market: 9 am-1 pm Saturdays, 11/14-4/23, south atrium. 238-6640.

S PEC I A L I N T ERESTS Model Railroad School: National Model Railroad Association-South Central Wisconsin Division clinic/ demonstrations for all ages, 1-4 pm, 1/10, Zor Shrine Center. Free. nmra-scwd.org.

mon jan 11 MUS I C Alchemy Cafe: DJ Samroc, free, 10 pm Mondays.

Claddagh: Bluegrass Jam, 6:30 pm Mondays.

The Frequency: Hotstop, Sweet Ascent, Mended, Of Brighter Skies, rock, 8 pm.

High Noon Saloon: The Clyde Stubblefield All-Star Band, 6 pm.

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

Natt Spil: The Real Jaguar, free, 10 pm.

Up North Pub: No Name String Band, free, 7 pm.

CO MEDY

Frozen Over: Drop-in ice/glacier themed activities for ages 4-12, 10 am-2 pm, 1/9, Wisconsin Historical Museum. Free. 264-6555.

Open Mic: 9 pm Mondays, Argus Bar. Free. 256-4141.

Tiki Torch Toboggan: Outdoor snow activities for families, campfire & refreshments, 4-7 pm, 1/9, Aldo Leopold Nature Center’s Black Earth campus. $8 ($29/ family). RSVP: aldoleopoldnaturecenter.org. 221-0404.

K I D S & FA MI LY David Landau: Family concert, 5:30 pm, 1/11, Glass Nickel Pizza-Atwood Ave. $3. 245-0880.

Winter Bridal Show: Wedding Planner & Guide annual event, 10 am-5 pm on 1/9 and 11 am-4 pm, 1/10, Alliant Energy Center, with exhibits, vendors. $10 ($7 adv.). wedplan.com. 233-7001.

Brazen Dropouts Bike Swap: Annual fundraiser, 9 am-3 pm, 1/9, Alliant Energy Center-New Holland Pavilion, with new & used bikes, components, clothes, tools & accessories bought, sold & swapped. $5 admission (free ages 12 & under). bdbikeswap.com.

sun jan 10 M USIC Brocach-Square: The Currach, Irish, free, 5 pm.

Cargo Coffee-E. Washington: Jamie Guiscafre, guitar, free, 2 pm.

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

High Noon: Holven Fora, Nøa, DJ Donovan, 8 pm.

Java Cat: Nick Matthews, free, 9:30 am Sundays.

Liliana’s Restaurant, Fitchburg: Tom Waselchuk, jazz, free, 10:30 am.

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

Waisman Center Children’s Theater: Magic with Wayne the Wizard, 1 pm, 1/10, 1500 Highland Ave. $2 ($1 kids). 263-5837.

KIDS & FAM ILY

SP ECIAL INTERESTS

36

K I D S & FA MI LY

tue jan 12 MUS I C Alchemy Cafe: Ted Keys Trio, free, 10 pm Tuesdays.

Brocach-Square: Open Mic, free, 8:30 pm Tuesdays.

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

Come Back In: WheelHouse, free, 5 pm Tuesdays.

Essen Haus: Brian Erickson, free, 6:30 pm Tuesdays.

Free House Pub, Middleton: The Westerlies, Irish, free, 7:30 pm Tuesdays.

The Frequency: The Jimmy K Show, Max Ink Radio podcast recording with The Civil Engineers, Cowboy Winter, free, 7 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Music Trivia, free, 6 pm; Rock Star Gomeroke, free, 9 pm Tuesdays.

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

Liliana’s Restaurant, Fitchburg: John Vitale, Marilyn Fisher & Ken Kuehl, jazz, free, 5:30 pm Tuesdays.

Louisianne’s: Johnny Chimes, 6 pm Tues.-Wed. Mason Lounge: Five Points Jazz Collective, free, 9 pm Tuesdays.

Neighborhood House: Bluegrass Jam, 7 pm Tuesdays.

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

Up North Pub: Derek Ramnarace, free, 8 pm.

Natt Spil: DJ Greenhouse, free, 10 pm.

B O O KS

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

ARTS NOTICES RSVP for Flute Performance Preparation Workshop: Madison Flute Club event for middle/high school studetns, 9 am-4 pm, 1/23, Bethany United Methodist Church. $10. RSVP by 1/10: mfclub@gmail.com.

SP ECTATOR SP ORTS UW Women’s Basketball: vs. Penn State, 3 pm, 1/10; vs. Iowa, 7 pm, 1/13, Kohl Center. $7. 262-1440.

Doug Moe: Discussing “Good Men: The Lives and Philanthropy of Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman,” his book, 1 pm, 1/12, Madison Senior Center. 266-6581.

A RTS N OT I C ES Yahara River Chorus: Rehearsal for barbershop group designed for women (new members welcome), 7 pm Tuesdays, Peace Lutheran Church, Waunakee. 415-5023.

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STOMP MUMMENSCHANZ The Musicians of Silence MadCity Sessions: The Gomers

FEB 25 FREE | FEB 27

Trinity Irish Dance Co.

FEB 27

Duck Soup Cinema: Speedy

MAR 1–6

Motown The Musical

MAR 6

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood LIVE!

drinking, recreation, sports and more...

Come watch the Packers on our 6 HD TVs! www.harmonybarandgrill.com

OVERTURECENTER.ORG | 608.258.4141

JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Madison’s Twitter source

Vocalosity: The Aca-Perfect Concert Experience Overture’s Frostiball

sports, and more...

ore...

Pete Seeger: The Storm King

JAN 30

M AD I S O N ’S C L A S S IC DA N C E B A R

FEB 11–14

2201 Atwood Ave.

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

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n ISTHMUS PICKS : JAN 12 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 14

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P OLITICS & ACTIV ISM United Nations Association-Dane County: Meeting, with talk â&#x20AC;&#x153;Remembering the Dream, Living the Vision: A Salute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,â&#x20AC;? by Barbara Nichols, 7 pm, 1/12, Central Library. 238-2580.

P UBLIC M EETINGS Listening Session on Natural Hazards in Dane County: Public input sought for revision of natural hazard mitigation plan, all 6-8 pm: 1/12, Madison Water Utility; 1/13, Cambridge Village Hall; 1/14, Westport Town Hall; 1/20, Montrose Town Hall. 266-4114.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your vision of a positive future for water and people in south-central Wisconsin?

wed jan 13 M USIC

Submit your short story and help write the future.

The winning story will be published in Madison Magazine. Top finalists will receive awards from contest sponsors.

WRITING CONTEST DEADLINE:

FEBRUARY 1, 2016 Open to all Wisconsin residents and students ages 18 and up

1855 Saloon and Grill, Cottage Grove: Ken Wheaton, fingerstyle guitar, free, 6 pm Wednesdays.

Alchemy Cafe: Open Mic, free, 10 pm.

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Brocach-Square: Irish Open Jam, 8 pm Wednesdays.

Cardinal Bar: DJ Fabe, 9 pm.

Essen Haus: Brian Erickson, 6:30 pm Wednesdays.

Gennaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lounge: Open Mic, free, 9 pm Wednesdays.

High Noon Saloon: Giant Zero, 20 Watt Tombstone, Compact Deluxe, 8:30 pm.

Ivory Room: Vince Strong, piano, free, 11 pm.

Lilianaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Restaurant, Fitchburg: Cliff Frederiksen & Ken Kuehl, jazz, free, 5:30 pm Wednesdays.

Mickeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tavern: Tani Diakite & His Desert Trance Infusion, free, 10 pm.

FREE STUFF FROM

WISCONSINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BEST

BEER GUIDE

BY KEVIN REVOLINSKI

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7â&#x20AC;&#x201C;13, 2016

2016 FROSTIBALL

38

ISTHMUS AFTERPARTY JAN 30

OVERTURE CENTER

ISTHMUS.COM/PROMOTIONS

Madland You gotta madland live it MADLAND every day Madland

mad land MAD LAND Isthmus.com

Torres Thursday, Jan. 14, High Noon Saloon, 8 pm

Torres spent last year shattering the expectations she set with her 2013 self-titled debut. Her sophomore release, Sprinter, finds the singer-songwriter successfully dabbling in a bit of everything â&#x20AC;&#x201D; tearjerkers, headbobbers and all-out rockers, and her poignant lyrics make for an especially memorable listen. (See page 28.)

Joining her at FRZN Fest is shimmering indie-rock trio Eternal Summers, as well as American Wrestlers and Palehound, both of whom released fantastic, unexpectedly mature debut LPs in 2015.

Badger Bowl: Jim Munns Band, 8:15 pm.

Cardinal Bar: DJ Chamo, Latin, 10 pm.

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

Essen Haus: Old Soul Society, free, 9 pm.

The Frequency: Oxbow & Moor, The Malodies, The Emmylous, folk, 8 pm.

Great Dane-Downtown: DJ Mike Carlson, free, 10 pm.

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

Majestic Theatre: GGOOLLDD, The Living Statues, Oh My Love, Modern Mod, Tarpaulin. See page 32.

Merchant: The Melon Heads, free, 10:30 pm.

Mr. Robertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s: Compact Deluxe, The Smells, free, 10 pm.

Natt Spil: DJ Radish, free, 10 pm.

Natt Spil: DJ Foundation, free, 10 pm.

The Red Zone: Acideon, 9 pm.

Opus Lounge: Tyler Preston, folk/blues, free, 9 pm.

Tofflers, New Glarus: Electric Blue, free, 8 pm.

Up North Pub: MoonHouse, free, 8 pm.

World of Beer, Middleton: David Hecht, 7 pm.

VFW-Cottage Grove Road: Jerry Stueber, free, 6 pm.

WIN

MUS I C

THEATER & DANCE

CO MEDY

Beauty and the Beast Wednesday, Jan. 13, Overture Hall, 7:30 pm

Disneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classic movie Beauty and the Beast got the Broadway treatment three years after its theatrical release, debuting in New York in 1994 to critical acclaim.

Twenty-one years later, the production is still vital, bringing Belle and the beastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tangled story of imprisonment and love to audiences across the country. Bonus: UW grad Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek plays the dastardly Gaston. (See page 29.) ALSO: Thursday, Jan. 14, 7:30 pm. Through Jan. 17.

BOOKS Nicholas Petrie: Discussing â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Drifter,â&#x20AC;? his new book, 7 pm, 1/13, Mystery to Me. 283-9332.

LECTURES & SEM INARS Wednesday Nite at the Lab: Free UW Alumni Assn. lecture series, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beyond Fast Food: DNA Also Responsible for Expanding Waistlines,â&#x20AC;? 7 pm, 1/13, UW Genetics-Biotechnology Center Auditorium. 265-2420.

thu jan 14

Kyle Kinane Thursday, Jan. 14, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm

Although this Illinois-raised standup has performed his comedy everywhere from Conan to Jimmy Fallon, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still best known for his voice. As a frequent podcast contributor and the on-air announcer for Comedy Central since 2011, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s honed his signature delivery into a canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t-miss show. With Sammy Arechar. ALSO: Friday and Saturday (8 & 10:30 pm), Jan. 15-16.

L EC T URES & S EMI N A RS RSVP for Mess Night at the Museum: Dinner program, â&#x20AC;&#x153;War on the Great Lakes,â&#x20AC;? 6 pm, 1/28, Wisconsin Veterans Museum. $30. RSVP by 1/14: vistor.curator@dva.wisconsin.gov. 264-7663.

SP OKEN WORD

LGBTQ

Stories & Spirits: Madison Reading Project fundraiser, 6 pm, 1/14, Yahara Bay Distillery, with readings

by Ann Garvin, Ann Imig, Dana Maya, Katrin Talbot, Oscar Mireles, craft projects, appetizers, drinks. $40.

RSVP: madison-reading-project.ticketleap.com.

Gay & Gray: Senior discussion group, 1 pm, 1/14, Madison Senior Center. 266-6581.

LGBT Senior Alliance Winter Dinner: 5-8 pm, 1/14, Madison Senior Center, with talk by Ricardo Gonzalez. 255-8582.

SEARCH THE FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS AT ISTHMUS.COM

Isthmus Live Sessions Local & National Artists Perform in the Isthmus Office

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n EMPHASIS

Tim Staton shows off his demo fleet of bikes from WorkCycles, Bullitt and Xtracycle.

Carry it all

RENÉE GREGORY

The Cargo Bike Shop sells two-wheelers that help you do the hauling

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

BY RENÉE GREGORY

40

There are bicycles made especially for road racing, for mountain biking, for commuting and for long-distance touring. The geometry of the frames fits the purpose of the bike.

But when bicyclists want to haul things, they often go DIY: attaching a child trailer like a Burley to their regular bike, or sticking a milk crate on top of a back rack. Tim Staton, owner and mechanic for the Cargo Bike Shop in Madison, knows there’s a better way.

Cargo bikes are popular in Asia and Europe, says Staton, where they’re often a primary form of transportation. Their elongated frames can make them look a bit strange, like a contraption out of a Dr. Seuss book. But they’re made specifically for hauling, with a frame geometry and mechanical upgrades that enable riders to load up with “tons of weight,” says Staton, yet not feel the heaviness while pedaling.

Staton, who formerly worked in marketing at Trek, Schwinn and Saris, says he found

his first cargo bike when looking to improve the time he spent on a bike with his young daughter. In the standard child carrier, he says, “she was always smashed into my back, and we couldn’t communicate while on rides.”

Staton found a bike made especially for transporting children from a company called WorkCycles.

Staton currently operates the Cargo Bike Shop, which Staton is customizing this Bullitt bike for 4 & 20 Bakery, he started in the fall of 2014 with a local white oak box made by Baraboo Woodworks. out of his garage in Maple Bluff. He maintains a demo fleet of the bikes he sells and on each rider’s purpose, what kind of terrain he customizes from three companies: WorkCycles, or she needs to negotiate, and various factors of Bullitt and Xtracycle. Customers can take any height, weight and physical ability. Some models of them for test rides. “I want people to get out have pedal assists, a small electric motor that ridand experience the different styles,” says Staers can use to help them through difficult hills or ton. “Everyone will gravitate toward a particular just to maintain an even speed. “Everything I sell is one.” Which style he recommends will depend

a proportional pedal assist,” says Staton, “which measures your input and adds to it, according to the assist level you’ve chosen.”

There are cargo bikes that can accommodate seats for as many as four children. They can handle everyday groceries, or all your camping equipment. They can tote objects as cumbersome as Christmas trees. They range in price from $2,000 to $8,000 for a deluxe model.

Staton has customized more than 20 cargo bikes for customers since opening his shop. He’ll also modify any bike with assists to make it more commuter- or cargo-friendly.

And, he’s currently in lease negotiations for a public storefront. “I hope we can be open in March or April, depending on how things roll,” Staton says. In the meantime, see thecargobikeshop. com for more information or call Staton at 608-358-7112. n

n CLASSIFIEDS

Housing To My Clients, Past, Present and Future, Happy New Year!

May your homes be Safe Havens and Joyful Sources of Rejuvenation!

PAT WHYTE Broker Associate University Heights! Open House Sunday, Jan 10th Noon-1:30pm. 1714 Van Hise.

Beautiful 4 bedroom.

Randall,Hamilton,West schools. HouseReward.com MLS#1762857 608-381-4804.

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)

LAKESHORE/MANSION HILL 1 bdrm, $800 incl util. Available Immediately.

Quiet - security - laundry - private pier. No pets. 608-256 8525.

UW • EDGEWOOD • ST MARY’S Quiet and smoke-free 1 & 2 bedroom apartments starting at $775. Newer kitchens with dishwashers & microwaves. FREE HEAT, WATER, STORAGE. No pets. On-site office with package service. All calls answered 24/7.

Intercom entry. Indoor bicycle parking. Close to bus, grocery, restaurants, and bike trail.

Shenandoah Apartments 1331 South Street 608-256-4747 ShenandoahApartments@gmail.com 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.

follow for fun photos :)

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

Normal business hours require weeknight and weekend availability. Position requires a selfstarter 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 well-being.

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 ***$50 Hiring Bonus after 30 days!!!*** CLEANING-OFFICES *Full-time Floaters, nights [5pm-1:30am], transportation required, $10.00-12.00/hr+benefits *Lead Cleaner near CAPITOL[6pm-8:30pm], M-F, $9.25/hr *General Cleaners in set locations throughout Madison, start around 5-6pm, 3-4 hrs/night, $8.75-9.25/hr. Apply online at www.ecwisconsin.com/employment or call 1-800-211-6922 RETAIL SALES Studio Jewelers is adding a full time staff position in January and is now interviewing qualified candidates. If you are a people person, are passionate about jewelry, and have retail experience, stop in and fill out an application. Jewelry sales experience a plus but we will train the right person. Call Hanna or Victoria at 257-2627 for further info.

Volunteer with UNITED WAY Volunteer Center Call 246-4380 or visit volunteeryourtime.org to learn about opportunities Love coffee and good food? Agrace HospiceCare’s Doc Rock Café is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to make coffee drinks, take food orders, use a computerized cash register, and provide excellent customer service in a fun environment. This opportunity has been especially popular with some of our high school volunteers, plus great job experience!

MAD ROLLIN’ DOLLS SEASON 12 GAME 2:

“NEW YEARS BRUISE-O-LUTIONS” Saturday, January 23 at 3:30pm ALLIANT ENERGY CENTER EXHIBITION HALL

CLEAN LAKES ALLIANCE

FROZEN ASSETS

FUNDRAISER Saturday, February 6 at 8pm THE EDGEWATER

A CELEBRATION OF

AMERICAN DISTILLING Saturday, February 20 at 5pm THE EDGEWATER

AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP Friday, June 24 - Sunday, June 26 UNIVERSITY RIDGE GOLF COURSE

Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS) is seeking Security Operations Advocates. Volunteers provide direct assistance to shelter clients and families and must adhere to confidentiality, shelter and DAIS policies and procedures, as well as the agency’s Code of Ethics.

MAD ROLLIN’ DOLLS

United Way 2-1-1 is seeking new volunteers to staff our telephone lines, answering questions about resources available in the service area. Training is provided. If you are looking for an opportunity to learn more about community resources and would like to assist people in finding ways to get and give help, United Way 2-1-1 may be the place for you!

ALLIANT ENERGY CENTER EXHIBITION HALL – MADISON, WI

SEASON 12 PASSES

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JANUARY 7–13, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

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GET TICKETS FOR THESE EVENTS!

Jobs

41

JONESIN’

n CLASSIFIEDS

“Let Free Entertain You” — you know the freestyle drill.

ACROSS

1 DIY handicrafts site 5 “If things were to continue like so ...”

15 “The Clothed Maja” painter 16 “Taken” guy 17 Beach bird 18 Tow-away zone destination 19 “10 Items ___” (checkout sign that drives grammarphiles nuts) 21 Ardent admirers 22 They may be collateral when buying new wheels 28 Recede gradually 30 Long-hitting clubs 31 Word before Jon or Wayne 32 No pro show, yo 36 Vigoda who’s still alive

37 Big name in toothbrushes 38 Vaccine target 39 Chuck an attempted three-pointer into the stands, e.g.

43 Former British Poet Laureate Hughes 44 Multi-layered dessert popularized in 2015 45 Abbr. after a proof 46 “Go ahead, don’t mind me” 49 11th-graders’ exam (abbr.)

50 Carter and Spelling, for two 53 Cheat 59 Lying over 60 Gambles 61 “Desperate Housewives” actress Hatcher 62 Summer dress uniform component, maybe 63 Cut down to size

DOWN

1 Brand in the frozen breakfast section 2 Go from gig to gig 3 They’re represented by fingers in charades 4 Conn. school 5 Half of the ‘80s synth-pop duo Yaz 6 Comedian Minchin 7 Savion Glover’s specialty 8 PPO alternative 9 ___ START (Tobias’s oft-misinterpreted license plate on “Arrested Development”) 10 Highest Scrabble tile value 11 Animal in a Dr. Seuss title 12 “Chronicles of Narnia” lion 13 Adult Swim fare, for short 14 “Lord of the Rings” tree creatures

20 Ancient Greek portico 23 Place to keep your Tetleys and your Twinings 24 “Mrs. Murphy Mysteries” author ___ Brown 25 Simile segment, maybe 26 Annoys by staying outside the lines?

27 NYSE symbol for the company that keeps going ... and going ...

28 “Support Your Local Sheriff!” actor Jack 29 Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname 33 Full of memorable lines 34 “Gold”-en role for Peter Fonda 35 Paul of “Anchorman” 40 Weight training partner 41 Bargain-basement unit 42 “The Memory of Trees” Grammy winner 46 1990 NBA Finals MVP ___ Thomas 47 Nutcase 48 Give a long-winded talk 49 Sgts.’ underlings 51 Edible seaweed used for sushi 52 Roasting device 54 “Was ___ das?”

55 Treasured document?

56 “A Kiss Before Dying” author Levin 57 California red, briefly 58 Suffix with winning

Services & Sales

Health & Wellness

I Have Over 25 Years Experience In Painting and Handyman Services. I Give Free Estimates And A Senior Discount. Please Call 608-4363109 or email craigtracy56@yahoo.com.

PREGNANT? THINKING OF ADOPTION? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families Nationwide.

LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s One True Gift Adoptions. 866-413-6293. Void in Illinois/New Mexico/Indiana (AAN CAN) DISH TV Starting at $19.99/month (for 12 mos.) SAVE! Regular Price $34.99 Ask About FREE SAME DAY Installation! CALL Now! 888-992-1957 (AAN CAN) CHECK OUT THE FOUNDRY FOR MUSIC LESSONS & REHEARSAL STUDIOS & THE NEW BLAST HOUSE STUDIO FOR RECORDING! 608-270-2660, madisonmusicfoundry.com CASH FOR CARS: Any Car/Truck. Running or Not! Top Dollar Paid. We Come To You! Call For Instant Offer: 1-888-420-3808 www.cash4car.com (AAN CAN)

Happenings NEW YEAR, NEW AIRLINE CAREERS – Get training as FAA certified Aviation Technician.

Financial aid for qualified students. Career placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 800-725-1563 (AAN CAN)

Larry P. Edwards RPh, LBT Nationally & State Certified #4745-046 Massage Therapist and Body Worker / Madison, WI Swedish Massage For Men, providing immediate Stress, Tension and Pain Relief. Seven days a week by appt.—same day appointments available.

Contact Steve, CMT at: ph/ text 608.277.9789 or acupleasur@aol.com.

Gift certificates available for any reason or season @ ABC Massage Studio!

Miss Danu’s WORLD CLASS MASSAGE * FEEL GREAT IN ONE HOUR! * Short Notice * Nice Price * 8AM-7PM * 608-255-0345 MASSAGE, Gift Certificates, $40/Hour Special Ken-Adi Ring, LMT. CH. CI Celebrates 40 years experience.

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ISTHMUS CLASSIFIEDS

Call 608-251-5627 to place an ad. isthmus.com/classifieds

d

in m s i h g n i Speak in the cityled! he once ru

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

#761 By Matt Jones ©2015 Jonesin’ Crosswords

ISTHMUS.COM JANUARY 7–13, 2016

P.S. MUELLER

42

starring former Madison Mayor Read him online at

n SAVAGE LOVE

The power of three

BY DAN SAVAGE

My wife and I are bisexual — we’re a man and woman — and we’ve been tiptoeing right up to the edge of organizing a threesome or swap through 3nder. But we haven’t gone through with it yet — too many flakes and fakes. But we have no complaints — just contemplating a threesome has put amazing energy back into our sex life. Is there a name for the explosive sex you have with your longtime partner when you’re anticipating a group scene or threesome? If not, can we suggest the neologism “presome”? Rhymes with threesome!

Married With Anticipated High Jinks The phenomenon you describe — the insanely hot sex a couple has before a threesome or other sexual adventure — has been noted by sex researchers and couples counselors. Dr. Margie Nichols, a psychologist and sex therapist, told The New York Times she frequently urges the non-kinky couples she sees to emulate kinky couples. “Kinky couples plan sex,” Nichols told Amy Sohn, “and simmer for days in advance.”

Many couples in the planning stages of a threesome do a lot more than simmer: Like you and the wife, MWAHJ, they find them-

selves having hot twosomes in anticipation of the impending (and hopefully hot) threesome. I think “presome” is a wonderful term to describe that kind of sex — I’m officially endorsing your proposed neologism — but I don’t think it works as well for four-way swaps, group sex, BDSM play parties, etc., because it obviously rhymes with/ riffs on “threesome.” But it’s an excellent term to describe the situation you and the wife are in.

To describe the sex you’ll have in the wake of your first successful threesome, I would propose the term “postsome.”

I’m a 29-year-old gay trans man. On female hormones, I took a long time to come and usually wouldn’t come at all. I always enjoyed sex; I just wasn’t focused on coming. My partners would or wouldn’t, depending on their preferences.

Since starting testosterone a few years ago, I now come quickly and easily. (Sometimes too quickly and easily.) My problem is that after I come, like most men, I’m done with sex. And the stronger the orgasm, the truer this is. A while ago, after a really fun time, I woke to find that I’d accidentally fallen asleep and left my longtime hookup buddy to fend for himself. Other times, I’m just tired and/or turned off. I definitely don’t want anyone inside me (it hurts), and while I’ve tried mustering enthusiasm for blowjobs, hand jobs, etc., my attempts come across as pretty

CRAIG WINZER

tepid. So in the context of both ongoing relationships of various sorts and hookups, what’s the etiquette? I’ve found myself just avoiding things that’ll push me to come, because I don’t want to be rude. And since I’ve always enjoyed sex without orgasms, this doesn’t bother me mostly. But once in a while, I would like to come. How can I do this and still take care of the other guy?

Not Good At Sexy Abbreviations Use your words, NGASA: “If it’s not a problem, I’d rather come after you do — my refractory period kicks in hard when I come and, like other men, I briefly lose interest in sex. On top of that, I’m a terrible actor. So let’s make you come first or let’s try to come at the same time, okay?”

I thought your advice to SCRAPE, the guy whose penis was suffering due to his girlfriend’s shaved-but-stubbly labia, was spot-on (Savage Love, 12/17/2015) — except in regards to waxing. As both a former professional

waxer and a woman with very coarse pubic hair, I hope you don’t mind if I correct you: Waxed hair does not grow back as prickly as shaved hair. The hair follicle tapers from its root. When shaved, it is cut straight across at its thickest point. The hair, as it grows, continues to grow from there. When waxed, the hair is removed at its root, and a new hair will grow intact, with the softer taper. I cannot shave without extreme discomfort during regrowth (like needles in my undies!). SCRAPE’s girlfriend’s postwax stubble may still be too uncomfortable for him, but it will doubtless be an improvement. Honestly, I’d be amazed if she’s not currently in more pain than he is!

Smooth Moves Thanks for sharing, SM. n Email Dan at mail@savagelove.net or reach him on Twitter at @fakedansavage.

Limited edition t-shirt

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