Isthmus: Feb 4 - 10, 2016

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

MIKE McCABE wants to remake American politics into a game everyone can play

R ATA J B E R A R D

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VOL. 41 NO. 5

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ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

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■ CONTENTS

■ WHAT TO DO

4 SNAPSHOT

ANIMAL OUTREACH

Clinic helps homeless care for their pets.

6-10 NEWS

NO STRINGS ON ME

Supreme Court candidates claim nonpartisanship.

TITLE X

Defunding Planned Parenthood is a long-term strategy.

ERIK GUNN 16 COVER STORY A VETERAN JOURNALIST and Isthmus contributor since 1995, Erik Gunn writes about politics, the economy, the workplace and a wide range of other topics. He says he has been intrigued by the work of Mike McCabe, the subject of his cover story this week, for more than a decade.

“Driven idealists fascinate me, and it’s hard not to be moved by the plain-spoken intensity that McCabe brought to his work on campaign finance or that he shows in his current project — whatever you might think of the odds he faces.”

LAURA JONES 30 STAGE

11 TECH

ARTS CRITIC LAURA JONES offers up a twofer this week. In addition to reviewing Forward Theater’s new play, The Flick, she writes about the theater’s Play Club. There, she joined other theater enthusiasts in reading an advance copy of the script for The Flick, attending a rehearsal and participating in a group discussion. She says the experience gave her greater insight into the play.

Uber and Amazon edge into food delivery sector.

FAST FOOD 12 OPINION

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

A north-side Willy St. Co-op could serve entire community.

16 COVER STORY

BLUE JEAN NATION

Mike McCabe’s fanfare for the common man.

21 ARTS

WONDER WOMAN

Library’s new artist-in-residence is a creative powerhouse.

23-26 FOOD & DRINK

EXTRA POINTS

Beer and snack pairings for novel Super Bowl noshing.

27-28 SPORTS

SIEVE!

The big freeze Fri.-Sun., Feb. 5-7, The Edgewater and Lake Mendota Whether in solid or liquid form, we love our lakes, and what better way to show it than with the Frozen Assets Festival.

Activities include skating, sleigh rides, an ice shanty design and build contest, an ice science lab and a vist by the Mary B, a huge vintage ice yacht. Saturday brings a Clean Lakes Alliance fundraiser, this year with a James Bond vibe — cocktails, dancing, casino and an ice bar (cleanlakesalliance.com/frozenassets).

Do team chants constitute unsportsmanlike conduct?

DREAM on

30 STAGE

SNEAK PEEK

Mon., Feb. 8, Shannon Hall, Memorial Union, 7:30-9 pm

Behind the scenes with Forward Theater’s Play Club.

Junot Díaz is more than an acclaimed novelist (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) and professor (MIT); he’s also co-founder of Voices of Our Nation Workshops, honorary chair of the DREAM Project and an immigration activist. So listen up.

31 MUSIC

FINDING A GROOVE MARY ELLEN BELL 4 SNAPSHOT A LOVER OF ANIMALS, Mary Ellen Bell has sniffed out more than one story on dogs for Isthmus. In May, she reported on a program that brings dogs to campus to help stressed-out students during finals week, and in 2014 she wrote a cover story on the Madison Police canine unit.

This week she visits a new clinic that provides free vet care and more for dogs and cats whose owners are low income.

Indie rockers Metric stay the course in a changing industry.

32 SCREENS

HAIL, CAESAR!

Fifties Hollywood gets the Coen brothers treatment.

47 EMPHASIS

Sat., Feb. 6, Sector67, noon-6 pm

PICK OF THE LITTER

Bulldog Recover and Restore turns trash into treasure.

IN EVERY ISSUE 9 MADISON MATRIX 9 WEEK IN REVIEW 12 THIS MODERN WORLD 13 FEEDBACK 13 OFF THE SQUARE

Fire and ice

34 ISTHMUS PICKS 49 CLASSIFIEDS 50 P.S. MUELLER 50 CROSSWORD 51 SAVAGE LOVE

If you like hot metal on a cold day — and who doesn’t? — the Pour’n Yer Heart Out mid-winter iron melt is the place for you. Watch metal artists make, uh, metal things while enjoying live music, food from a fire-side dutch oven and beer tastings. Sparks are sure to fly.

One love Thurs., Feb. 4, Crystal Corner, 8:30 pm

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

This year’s Community Dance Party, in support of the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center Food Drive, doubles as a birthday tribute to Bob Marley, with Tropical Riddims DJs, live music by roots-reggae band Dub Foundation and island fare provided by Jamerica. Bring nonperishable food items for reduced admission.

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.

Getting to know you Wed., Feb. 10, Capitol Lakes, 333 W. Main St., 7 pm

With the primary election looming (Feb. 16 — you’re welcome), all three candidates for the District 1 County Board seat (Mary Kolar, Adam Brabender and Rob Dz Franklin) will appear at this candidates forum.

FIND MORE ISTHMUS PICKS ON PAGE 34

FEBRUARY 4–10, 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

Affordable care

UW vet students Melissa Hayes, left, and Katie Pratt examine Dixie, a 12-year-old bloodhound who belongs to a homeless woman.

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

BY MARY ELLEN BELL n PHOTO BY LAUREN JUSTICE

4

Rose lives in a four-by-seven-foot trailer she built herself with salvaged materials, and she parks wherever she can. It’s a small space to share with an enormous red bloodhound, but Rose wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Dixie is a very important part of my life,” she says.

Rose, who cannot work due to medical problems, has brought 12-year-old Dixie in for a Saturday morning checkup at WisCARES, a unique free clinic associated with the UWMadison School of Veterinary Medicine.

Vet students Melissa Hayes and Katie Pratt spend an hour or so with Rose and Dixie, checking out an infection in Dixie’s eyes and ears, providing free medicine to clear it up, and discussing the importance of protecting her from parasites like intestinal and heart worms.

Rose (a pseudonym to protect her privacy) is one of about 180 homeless and very lowincome people who are regular clients at the clinic, located in a tiny Quonset hut just off Fish Hatchery Road near the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry. St. Vinnies lends the building to WisCARES, which has been in operation for about 18 months.

Heading up the logistics at this clinic is William Gilles, a veterinarian and outreach specialist at the Vet School. The animal care is provided

by 30 veterinarian students. Another 15 social work students work at the clinic to assist the human clients with finding housing, applying for jobs and accessing community services. Rounding out the staff are six pharmacy students.

The clinic has established partnerships with St. Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army, the Social Justice Center, the Homeless Services Consortium and other social services organizations.

In addition to the medical services for cats and dogs, the program also offers free pet food and toys as well as temporary boarding at cooperating vet clinics when the pet owners need to check in to a shelter, where animals are not permitted.

Gilles says he got inspired to work with homeless and low-income people and pets while he was in vet school.

“The Humane Society estimates that 23 million pets never see a vet because their owners cannot afford it or because they live in what we call a vet care desert — places where there are no vets,” he says.

Currently, the clinic is able to provide only outpatient services, giving vaccines and treating for infections, parasites and skin problems.

It is not equipped to administer anesthesia or do surgeries. Gilles has a dream that the clinic, which is currently at capacity, will grow.

“We would really like to expand to a larger space and be able to provide other services such as such as dentals and neutering,” he says.

But clients Tina Squires and her daughter, Brooke Kellerhuis, are grateful for the routine care the clinic provides their two German shepherds and two newly rescued kittens.

“I was complaining to a friend that my dogs needed to be vaccinated but I didn’t have any money,” Squires says. “My friend told me about this clinic, so we started coming.” Squires has a home, but since medical issues prevent her from working she struggles to live on a tiny income.

She doesn’t know how she would manage caring for the pets without the free program.

And daughter Brooke, a La Follette High School student, who hopes to have a career in veterinary medicine, declares their home would be “very boring” without their pets.

As Brooke attests and any pet lover knows, companion animals make good company.

But for Rose, Dixie has literally been a lifesaver. One of Rose’s medical problems is severe asthma, which she believes is a result of living for several years in an apartment contaminated with black mold.

“One night she woke me up because I had stopped breathing in my sleep,” Rose says.

“Without her, I might have never woken up.” n

NUMBER OF PETS TREATED: About 200 repeat visits.

MOST COMMON HEALTH ISSUES: Vaccinations, parasites, itchy skin, pain management for elderly pets with arthritis.

NUMBER OF CLINICS OFFERED: Every Saturday and Thursday with open hours for clients to pick up free food and other supplies.

HOW MANY CLIENTS ARE HOMELESS: About a third of the 180 people who have come more than once.

WHAT OTHER SERVICES ARE OFFERED: Temporary boarding and referrals to other community services to assist homeless and low-income people.

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“Nobody here but us nonpartisans” State Supreme Court contenders eschew labels, even if they fit

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

BY BILL LUEDERS

6

There are actually quite a few substantive differences between the three candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court on the Feb. 16 primary ballot (which will narrow the field to two for the April 5 general election). But they all sound alike in denying having — unlike their rivals — a partisan bone in their bodies.

Take Rebecca Bradley, appointed by Gov. Scott Walker in October to the seat to which she is now seeking a 10-year term. It was the third time in three years that Walker added a rung to Bradley’s career ladder, having previously appointed her to Milwaukee County circuit court and a state appeals court.

“No, not at all,” Bradley recently told WKOW newsman Greg Neumann, who asked whether her fortunes were tied to Walker. She purports to be “absolutely nonpartisan” and says her past political and ideological affiliations are irrelevant: “Our job is to apply the law fairly and impartially, regardless of the judge’s personal policy preferences or political inclinations.”

But Bradley will have a hard time selling that to some voters, in a race where both of her opponents — appellate court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg and circuit court Judge Joe Donald — are making an issue of those ties.

Kloppenburg, who lost a Supreme Court race decided by a recount in 2011, declares, in apparent reference to Bradley, that she is “unwilling to surrender our courts to outside special interests and partisan politics.”

Donald, meanwhile, called Bradley “an ideologue” in a recent campaign forum, saying, “We need to convince the people it’s their court, not Gov. Walker’s court, not the Republican Party’s court, not the Club for Growth’s court.”

Bradley has in the past belonged to the Republican National Lawyers Association and given money to Walker and the Republican Party of Milwaukee County. In the current campaign, she has accepted help from the state GOP and attended GOP events.

Ultraconservative Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke sent out a fundraising letter on her behalf. Bradley is past president of the Milwaukee chapter of the conservative Federalist Society. In 2006, she defended the right of pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives on religious grounds.

In fact, the identification of Bradley as a Republican is so strong she’s been listed as such (though she’s never sought partisan office) on the website Ballotpedia, which bills itself as “the Encyclopedia of American Politics.”

Marquette University Law School professor Janine Geske, a former justice, says there’s “no question” all three candidates are qualified for the job. But their differences are enormous.

Bradley, the first Wisconsin justice with circuit court and appellate court experience (though both stints were brief ), is “a rising star in the Republican Party,” Geske says, adding that this “clearly is where her support base is.”

But Kloppenburg, who like Bradley eschews labels, is also identified with partisan interests, Geske notes. The 2011 race she lost to Justice David Prosser was for many a referendum on Walker’s attack on state unions.

She will likely be the favored candidate among those looking to shore up the court’s beleaguered liberal minority, now consisting of just two justices: Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley.

Asked on WisconsinEye about the Wisconsin State Journal’s report that outside groups have pumped $13.2 million into the last six state Supreme Court elections (far more than the candidates themselves), Kloppenburg said this “undermines public confidence that the court will be a fair and impartial decisionmaker.” But when host Steve Walters noted that $1.6 million of this was spent on Kloppenburg’s behalf by the Democratic-leaning Greater Wisconsin Committee, she replied, “They have the right under the First Amendment to participate in this election as they choose.” Bradley and Donald have made similar statements. (One outside group has already committed to spending about $400,000 on Bradley’s behalf.)

Donald, the third candidate, is hoping to become the first African American elected to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. (Justice Louis Butler was appointed in 2004, then had a bad first date with voters in 2008). He bills himself as “the candidate in the middle,” neither right nor left. While he is little known outside of Milwaukee, Donald is highly respected, and, Geske says, “his personality would be a calming influence on a court that’s been volatile.”

But Donald has also been accused of partisanship, by Bradley, for claiming he was “bamboozled” into supporting her in the past. And Kloppenburg’s campaign manager, Melissa Mulliken, said the episode raised “troubling questions” about Donald, remarking in an email, “We need a justice on the Supreme Court who can’t be ‘bamboozled’ by Scott Walker’s partisan agenda.”

Asked by Isthmus to name a Wisconsin supreme court justice, past or present, whom they admire, Bradley and Donald both picked Justice Patrick Crooks, who held the seat they seek for nearly two decades before his sud-

den death in September. Bradley cited his military service, long tenure on the bench and “deep faith and devotion to his family”; Donald praised Crooks’ “independence and ability to bridge divides on the court.”

Kloppenburg, meanwhile, picked Abrahamson, for whom she once interned, for her intellect, work ethic, “vision for making the court system more accessible and transparent,” and blazing a trail for women on the court.

Asked to identify a decision that sheds light on her judicial philosophy, Bradley cited an opinion she wrote as an appellate court judge in which she rejected the defense claims of a man caught with child pornography on his computer. Donald didn’t pick a particular decision but highlighted his role in setting up a drug treatment court in Milwaukee that “breaks the cycle of poverty, crime and drugs by using a non-adversarial approach to address addictive disease.”

Kloppenburg named two appellate cases: One affimed a widow’s right to bring claims in state court against the nursing home where her husband died; the other upheld the dismissal of a citation issued to a participant in a state Capitol protest because the rule under which it was written “prohibited unpermitted events undertaken by as few as one person.” Neither decision drew a Supreme Court review.

Asked about discord on the court, all three candidates pledged to be peacemakers. Donald said the once-respected court “is in the headlines for all of the wrong reasons.” Bradley said she is already “contributing positively to the interactions among my fellow justices.”

And Kloppenburg said a bigger issue than court collegiality was the public’s sense that “some cases the court has decided — including voter ID, the John Doe investigation and Act 10 — were foregone conclusions.” n

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Rebecca Bradley Age: 44 Resume: Milwaukee native; attended Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, Marquette University (undergrad) and UWMadison (law school). Worked for 16 years as a civil litigator, arbitrator and business attorney. Appointed by Gov. Scott Walker to Milwaukee County Circuit Court, 2012; Wisconsin Court of Appeals, May 2015; and state Supreme Court, October 2015.

Endorsed by Justice Michael Gableman, four dozen circuit court judges, unions representing Milwaukee police officers and firefighters, and a majority of the state’s county sheriffs.

Money: Reported raising $229,870 in 2015, including from Bradley Foundation president Michael Grebe ($5,000) and

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Soundbyte: “The role of a justice is to interpret the law, not invent it.” businesswoman Diane Hendricks ($5,000).

Bradley has in the past donated to herself ($110,000 for her 2013 reelection bid), Scott Walker, 2009-2012 ($1,250) and the Prosser Defense Fund, 2011 ($15).

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JoAnne Kloppenburg Age: 62 Resume: Raised in Connecticut, attended Yale on a scholarship, got a master’s from Princeton and law degree from UWMadison, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana. Served as assistant state attorney general for 23 years; ran unsuccessfully for Supreme Court, 2011; elected to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, 2012.

Endorsed by more than 1,600 state residents, including former U.S. Congressman Dave Obey and former Wisconsin Secretary of State Vel Phillips.

Money: Raised $278,503 in 2015, including more than $138,000 from herself; other donors include Epic Systems CEO Judith Faulkner ($10,000) and former Madison Mayor Joe Sensenbrenner

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PRESENTS

Yahara Lakes 101 Soundbyte: “I have the courage and the background and the backbone to stand up for the people.” ($10,000). Kloppenburg has donated to Tom Barrett for governor, 2010 ($200), and Justice Shirley Abrahamson, 2008 ($100).

Lake Science Café THE EDGEWATER 2ND THURSDAY OF THE MONTH Coffee: 7:30 a.m. Presentation and Q&A: 8-9 a.m.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11

When There is No “Away” Preventing pollution for cleaner water

Kathy Lake

Martin Joseph “Joe” Donald

Environmental Specialist, Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District Our individual actions and expectations can impact local water. Kathy’s talk will discuss a variety of pollution prevention opportunities including the salty truth.

$10 Admission FREE FOR FRIENDS OF CLEAN LAKES ($35 min. yearly donation)

w/ Dr. Steve Carpenter

Coffee, pastries, and fruit provided

Soundbyte: “I am the most independent, qualified, and experienced candidate running this election.” at $356. Donald has donated to Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, 2015 ($40).

For full candidate answers to Isthmus’ questions, see this story at Isthmus.com.

COMING MARCH 10

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FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Age: 56 (will turn 57 on Feb. 8) Resume: From Milwaukee, attended Shorewood High School and got undergrad and law degrees from Marquette. Appointed as a circuit court judge by Tommy Thompson in 1996, reelected four times since without opposition.

Endorsed by judges and attorneys throughout the state, former state Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler, and former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl.

Money: Raised $250,658 in 2015, including a donation from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele ($10,000); has highest average individual contribution among the three candidates,

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The University of Wisconsin System’s net worth has increased to $6.68 billion— up about 5.5% from last year, according to a UW System financial report. But huge budget cuts and the ongoing tuition freeze signal financial woes to come.

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Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-labor legislation is working. Union membership in Wisconsin has fallen to just 8.3%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s down from 11.7% the year before.

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A coyote hunter in Fitchburg mistakenly shoots and kills two dogs out for a walk with their owner, WMTV-15 reports.

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put a snowmobile trail in Blue Mound State Park wins approval from the state Natural Resources Board. Sorry, silent sport enthusiasts. n The Wisconsin Union’s governing board has voted to shut down the Hoofer Equestrian Center near Belleville, officials announce. The stable had become too expensive to maintain, but the Union is looking for ways to keep the riding team. n Gov. Scott Walker’s

Upper Mud Lake

The longest bicycle bridge ever built in Wisconsin is coming to Dane County in 2017, officials announce. The path will connect Lake Farm County Park with McDaniel Park in McFarland.

an

n A controversial plan to

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approval rate is still an abysmal 38%, according to the Marquette Law School Poll. That’s up one point from a low of 37% in September, but it can’t bode well for that third term he keeps talking about. n State Attorney General Brad Schimel files an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Whole Women’s

Health v. Cole in support of requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Stay tuned for a reproductive rights showdown. n Is water privatization a good idea? State GOP legislators seem to think so. A bill that would make it easier for outof-state companies to buy public water utilities passes an Assembly committee.

SATURDAY, JAN. 30 n U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-

Sherwood) announces he will not seek reelection in November. Ribble famously quit the ultra-

conservative House Freedom Caucus in October and was an early critic of Donald Trump.

TUESDAY, FEB. 2 n More water woes: An

Assembly committee approves a bill that shifts more power to waterfront property owners and developers looking to build on wetlands. n A woman in her mid-20s is shot and killed in what police say is a “targeted” incident in a parking lot on Madison’s far east side. Police later apprehend a suspect, 26-yearold Christopher O’Kroley.

It’s the city’s first homicide of the year.

Backyard Hero Award

M ur

ph

Recognizing outstanding volunteers for their work in our community

Sean Anderson Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice As a volunteer for Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice (ICWJ), Sean Anderson selflessly assists with whatever task is most critical at any given moment. He has devoted countless hours to managing fundraising events and clerical tasks, and he has been immensely helpful setting up a more efficient fundraising database.

For more information about Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice or to volunteer, visit workerjustice.org or call (608) 819-4740 ext. 220.

Photo by John Urban

Delta Gamma Fraternity

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

Wisconsin Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired

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n NEWS

Betting on a long-term strategy State action alone won’t “defund” Planned Parenthood of federal family planning dollars

BY JUDITH DAVIDOFF

DAVID MICHAEL MILLER

between them. Planned Parenthood distributed the remaining $2 million to nine of its 22 health clinics.

The clinics provide pregnancy testing, breast exams, cancer screenings, birth control and health education, among other services. According to the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, the Title X program in Wisconsin served nearly 51,000 residents in 2012, and helped prevent 28,600 unintended pregnancies in 2010.

Clinics are prohibited from using federal money for abortion services, but anti-abortion advocates and lawmakers nevertheless insist Planned Parenthood, which also provides abortions, commingles its funds. This is one of the justifications given for stripping Planned Parenthood of public dollars.

Safar says Planned Parenthood has been audited annually by Title X, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, and there has never been a finding of misappropriation of funds for abortion services or an inappropriate commingling of funds.

Under the bill, the state Department of Health Services is instructed to distribute any Title X money it receives to the Wisconsin Well Woman Program and to public entities, including state, county and local health departments and health clinics.

But the Well Woman Program is a curious choice for providing family planning services since

it serves women 45 years and up, an age when many are no longer able to get pregnant.

In an Oct. 1 letter, Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) and Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) sought clarification of the legislation from Kitty Rhoades, secretary of the Department of Health Services. (The department did not respond to an Isthmus request for comment.)

The senators asked whether the department had met with any of the public entities that would be providing the services “to determine whether or not they are able or willing to provide care to an estimated additional 50,000 patients.” They also noted testimony to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, on which they sit, that asserted that the Well Woman program does not have the capacity to handle current needs, let alone offer family planning services.

The senators also asked why the Department of Health Services has never applied for the grant money since the program began in 1970. “Why is now the appropriate time to do that?”

Rhoades writes in an Oct. 9 response that the Well Woman Program is “just one of the many options that may be considered as part of a statewide network of coverage to help ensure access to family planning services.”

As for the department’s sudden interest in running a statewide family planning program, Rhoades pointed the finger at state lawmakers. “As health care continues to change and states look to best practices for the delivery of care, legislators may seek greater diversity among the network of providers funded by

Before the Republican-controlled Legislature tried to siphon off federal funding from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, it identified and eliminated all of the organization’s state funding.

Walker’s 2011 budget cut roughly $1 million in annual state family planning dollars to the group, which also lost its Well Woman contract, worth roughly $138,000. As a result, Planned Parenthood was forced to close five of its clinics, all in rural parts of the state.

The state had argued that county health departments would step into the void, but that has not happened. Erpenbach and Carpenter also asked Rhoades if the state had urged counties to offer services. “Did they refuse?”

Rhoades did not answer the question, saying only: “The Department has worked to develop a statewide network that provides access to all Wisconsinites.”

Safar says that when the Legislature defunded Planned Parenthood of state money in 2011, it also changed the state’s women’s health program to exclude what is referred to as “all options pregnancy counseling.” That is not acceptable under Title X rules, she adds.

“One of its regulations is if a woman comes in with a positive pregnancy test, you are required to give her ‘all options pregnancy counseling.’” That includes information about pregnancy, adoption and abortion.

Says Safar: “I have real concerns that the state of Wisconsin would be able to comply with that regulation.” n

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

The latest bill passed by the state Legislature targeting Planned Parenthood would not “defund” the group of its Title X federal family planning dollars, as some have suggested. The state does not have the power to do so. But the Republican-backed bill, which Gov. Scott Walker is expected to sign, does bet on a long-term strategy that could result in the group losing millions of dollars in federal funding. Much depends on who wins the White House in November.

“I think, like many things, it will matter who will be in charge of the [U.S.] Department of Health and Human Services,” says Brian Larson, an attorney with the Wisconsin Legislative Council.

“They administer these grants and [determine the] criteria.”

“My assumption would be that if we have a Republican president, the likelihood he ends this program will be quite high,” says Nicole Safar, policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.

“Or he makes it so that Planned Parenthood cannot apply for it,” she adds, noting that President Barack Obama has vetoed 19 attempts by Congress to kick the organization out of the Title X program, which provides low-income and uninsured men and women with family planning services and other preventative health care.

The bill, which passed the Assembly in September and the Senate on Jan. 20, requires that the state health department compete for Title X funds.

But, says Larson, “It would be a mistake to infer that means DHS is kicking the other ones out of the picture.”

The legislation directs DHS to apply annually for the Title X funds, though the program is run on a three-year funding cycle. In Wisconsin, the next cycle begins in 2018, according to Planned Parenthood officials.

Safar says Planned Parenthood has been the Wisconsin recipient of Title X funds for the past 37 years. The state has never applied for the money.

If the state were to successfully win the grant, the bill further specifies that funds could not be distributed to groups that provide abortion.

The national family planning program started under President Richard Nixon, a Republican. Its funding is delivered as a block grant to organizations — and in some cases state agencies — in different regions around the country.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin this year received $3.4 million from the program, distributing $700,000 each to First Choice Women’s Health Center in Janesville and Essential Health Clinic in La Crosse, which have nine clinic sites

the Title X Family Planning Program, and may therefore ask the Department to apply for this federal funding.”

Safar says there are some states, including Illinois, that are set up to provide family planning services to residents. But Wisconsin is not one of them.

“We provide services to 50,000 patients a year,” she says. “DHS has no idea how they would serve those patients.

They don’t have the infrastructure to provide direct patient services. That’s why we’re here.”

Rhoades, in her letter to Carpenter and Erpenbach, writes her department would be up to the task and, along with the Department of Public Health, would continue working with local health departments, the Well Woman Program and other agencies to “develop a robust network of providers that would allow the Department to submit a competitive application.”

Among the groups opposing the Title X bill, however, are the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association, which represents health care centers around the state.

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n TECH

Speedy delivery Local food tech companies not worried about Uber, Amazon gobbling up business

BY ALLISON GEYER

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The online food ordering and delivery market is an exciting one to watch.

The last few years have seen a number of shakeups — market leader GrubHub in 2013 merged with competitor Seamless and in 2015 bought delivery companies DiningIn and Restaurants on the Run; Madisonbased EatStreet partnered with restaurant review site Yelp, which later bought delivery company and GrubHub competitor Eat24.

Now, tech giants Uber and Amazon are homing in on the action. Each company has begun rolling out an online and mobile food ordering and delivery service. UberEATS launched in 10 U.S. cities in January, and Amazon expanded its Prime Nowbased restaurant delivery service to 20 U.S. cities in late 2015.

“This is definitely a market that’s in a lot of flux right now,” says Jon Eckhardt, a professor in the UW-Madison School of Business and a co-founder of gener8tor startup accelerator.

But the entrance of these big players — each with nearly unlimited capital and a history of aggressive expansion into new markets — “doesn’t mean anything negative” for other companies involved in the same industry, Eckhardt says. There is still an “incredibly large” number of restaurants that lack a web presence or online ordering platform, which means that companies like EatStreet are well-positioned to continue providing that service.

“There is a variety of different choices and opportunities along the value chain of how food gets from a restaurant to a customer’s door,” he adds. “It’s a gigantic market in its depth and its breadth.”

EatStreet last week announced a partnership with UberRUSH, Uber’s fledgling courier service. Uber will help the company deliver food orders in Chicago, but the partnership could soon expand to more of the 250 cities where EatStreet operates. (Editor’s note: EatStreet recently began accepting payment via Red Card, which is owned by the same company as Isthmus.)

EatStreet CEO Matt Howard says the partnership with UberRUSH is a “great opportunity” to combine EatStreet’s network of restaurants and diners with Uber’s logistical capabilities to improve delivery. EatStreet also partners with Mr. Delivery for third-party deliveries and relies on restaurants to do their own delivery.

“This is now a third way for us to work with restaurants,” Howard says.

Howard doesn’t see UberEATS, which also operates in Chicago, as a competitor just yet.

UberEATS is focusing on big-city “tier one” markets; EatStreet’s focus has long been on college towns and smaller “tier two” cities, although EatStreet does have a presence in several big cities.

College graduates who used EatStreet while they were students often relocate to cities like New York or Los Angeles, Howard says, so having a presence in larger cities allows customers to continue using the service.

Howard says his objective is to “grow a great company” until EatStreet gets big enough to go public or receives an attractive purchase offer.

“We’re always talking about, ‘Is it the right time?’” he says.

GrocerKey is another Madison-based food tech company that does online ordering and delivery for grocery stores. CEO Jeremy Neren says he’s “definitely been watching” Amazon, which he considers a longtime GrocerKey competitor.

Amazon Prime offers free, two-day shipping on many items that consumers might typically

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buy at a grocery store. The company last year rolled out Prime Now one- and two-hour delivery in various cities and has since added Amazon Restaurant food delivery service.

“This is not a surprise to us,” Neren says.

“We expect that in the next couple of years Amazon is going to offer fulfillment same-day in every major or mid-level market.”

Even so, Neren isn’t too worried about tech giants edging in on GrocerKey’s turf. In fact, he thinks the competition could even increase the

need for his product. GrocerKey’s online ordering and delivery platform is linked to local, brick-and-mortar grocery stores — establishments that will always be necessary, even in the age of Amazon. And as these stores seek to modernize, he hopes they’ll turn to services like GrocerKey. “[Competition from Amazon] could potentially increase the need for what we offer,” Neren says. “That’s what we really believe, and that’s what we’re betting on.” n

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n OPINION

Diverse options for diverse neighborhood Willy St. Co-op will serve the north side just fine

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

I live on Madison’s north side. I love it — great neighbors, beautiful parks and surprisingly decent bus access. It’s a diverse part of the city. Within one mile, you’ve got affordable housing, modest single-family homes and lake shore mini-mansions. The only thing I miss from my days of living on Madison’s near east side is the easy access to the Willy St. Co-op.

So I was ecstatic when I learned last week that the co-op was looking into opening its third store in the grocery store location that is currently Pierce’s Market. Of course, there were some online commenters who were to quick to question whether the north side can support a co-op. For me, the answer is a definite yes.

Trust me, the north side has more than its share of co-op-shopping hippies.

Hang out by Troy Gardens for the afternoon and you’ll meet some people who can out-crunch the crunchiest of liberals anywhere else in this very crunchy city.

The north side has long been a leader in Madison’s local food movement. Community Groundworks is a north-side project. FEED Kitchens is a north-side project, spawning new businesses and increasing access to local food for everyone in the Madison area.

Plus, this store isn’t going to serve only those who live within one mile of the co-op. Willy St. Co-op is the strongest local brand in Madison (well, the strongest local brand that isn’t a microbrewery or artisan chocolate shop). It’s a destination trip for shoppers seeking out specialty items that are hard to find at other stores. Residents of Westport, Waunakee and Sun Prairie are all potential shoppers. Given the choice between Willy East’s woefully undersized parking

DAVID MICHAEL MILLER

lot and the ample parking of a Willy North, even some consumers who live closer to Willy East are going to choose Willy North.

Willy St. Co-op will do fine in the north-side location. The real question is: Will the co-op serve the entire community? The co-op is looking into this location to prevent the north side becoming a food desert. But a neighborhood grocery store isn’t of much use if its goods are unaffordable to many.

Down the strip mall from the proposed co-op location is a Family Dollar. If this co-op isn’t planned correctly, the divide between the co-op and Family Dollar sides of the parking lot could be as stark an image of de facto segregation as separate water fountains are of de jure segregation.

It is a real tragedy that the stereotype has developed that co-ops can only serve affluent, Bernie Sanders-voting whites. That stereotype has limited the impact of this truly transformative, empowering business model. Co-op grocery stores have great potential to serve as a community-led solution to food deserts.

produce to the community regardless of an organic label. These co-ops are opening in places like Detroit and Greensboro, N.C. Here in Madison, there is going to be such a co-op on Allied Drive; Willy St. Co-op is serving as an adviser there.

Willy St. Co-op North will probably have to be a bit of both boutique and conventional store, and that won’t be easy. The management at Pierce’s tried to meet the needs of all the diverse constituencies on the north side. It was an admirable effort, but they ended up with a store that was a Jack of all trades and a master of none.

THIS MODERN WORLD

Luckily, the folks at Willy St. Co-op seem to be well aware of these potential issues. The existing co-op locations have worked to make their goods more accessible. For example, both stores accept EBT food assistance cards. In the post that announced the potential north-side location, the co-op’s management also mentioned that the store would carry different goods than the other locations, including more lower-priced conventional goods. They’ve said they’ll meet with neighborhood groups to figure out what the final store will look like. It would also be wise for them to provide outreach and education on what a coop is and what co-op membership looks like.

I read the co-op’s newsletter — if their managers can respond to the concerns of their more eccentric east-side shoppers, they can work with almost anyone. The north side is also blessed with great community organizations like the Northside Planning Council, a strong advocate for the area. They’ve been the ones pushing the co-op to come in; I’m sure they’ll be active in the development of the store.

I’m excited about the potential of Willy St. Co-op North. It’s finally time the north side gets a co-op that reflects and serves this vibrant, wonderful part of Madison. n

BY TOM TOMORROW

The good news is that there are co-ops opening that serve as more than just boutique grocery stores, co-ops that care more about getting fresh

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

Participants are needed for a study at UW-Madison looking at whether the cautious use of sleep medication reduces depressive symptoms in people with depression and insomnia.

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To be eligible, you must be currently experiencing depression and insomnia, be 18-65 years old, and have access to regular care with a primary care provider.

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n FEEDBACK Forget about anyone from Dane or Milwaukee counties. The irrational hate for anything and everything having to do with those two counties is rampant in every other part of the state. The candidate doesn’t have to appeal to progressives or the Democratic base as much as just be an alternative to the embarassment and disgrace that is Walker. I think Tom Nelson and to a lesser degree Kathleen Vinehout are the only two on your list with a chance to overcome the wingnut hate machine that Wisconsin has become.

KBC (via Comments)

Gov. XX in 2018 Re “Six Democrats Who Could Challenge Walker in 2018” (Madland, Isthmus.com, 1/29/2016): I’d like to see a female Democrat candidate in 2018. I hope she has a sterling background that the media or the Republicans can’t punch holes through.We don’t need another Mary Burke situation. I would hope she supports women’s issues as well as the general issues that Wisconsinites are facing with jobs, the economy, and education. I join others who are displeased with Walker’s announcement that he’s running for a third term.

Wanda Bischoff (via Facebook)

Primary problems

I would like to see Peter Barca throw his hat in the ring. He has been a very vocal critic of the Walker administration. I believe he would have some great ideas to turn the state around.

Chuck Johnston (via Comments)

Last week’s cover story on fast-casual restaurants ran without a byline. The story was written by features editor Linda Falkenstein.

EDUCATION IS EMPOWERING.

Re “Iowa and New Hampshire Are the Wrong States” (Citizen Dave, Isthmus.com, 2/1/2016): If California took Iowa or New Hampshire’s place, we’d be talking about water and immigration.

Helen Schawlow Johnson (via Facebook) How about primary day (skip the caucus format) in all states/territories on the same day, much closer to the general election?

Marilyn von Allmen (via Facebook)

globeuniversity.edu

Correction

Accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools (ACICS).

Share comments with Isthmus via email, edit@isthmus.com, and via Forum.isthmus.com, Facebook and Twitter, or write letters to Isthmus, 100 State St., Suite 301, Madison WI 53703.

All comments are subject to editing. The views expressed here are solely those of the contributors.

These opinions do not necessarily represent those of Isthmus Publishing Company.

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FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER

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n COVER STORY

THE BELIEVER MIKE McCABE wants to remake American politics into a game everyone can play

By Erik Gunn

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4– 10, 2016

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Assembly candidate Christine Welcher, right, talks to Mary Martin in Stoughton. Although outside her Walworth County district, Welcher is seeking allies around the state to prove human connections can beat money in politics.

HRISTINE WELCHER HAS FOLLOWED

politics for a long time, but for the first time ever the organic farmer in Walworth County has decided to enter the game. Running as a Democrat for the state assembly seat in the heavily Republican 32nd District, Welcher knows she’ll have an uphill battle in November.

That’s especially true in this election year, with its promise to bury every record in the state and nationwide: for campaign spending — visible and concealed; for naked and bitter partisanship, especially as Republican leaders in the state Capitol repeatedly wield power to their advantage; and for outright chaos within the two dominant political parties (think Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump vs. everyone else).

But as the earnest and enthusiastic 38-year-old Welcher heads into the political whirlwind, she’s also something of a self-selected guinea pig. Along with several other political hopefuls this year around Wisconsin, she is trying out some ideas from campaign-watchdog-turned-political-gadfly Mike McCabe and the movement he started less than a year ago called “Blue Jean Nation” — a diverse mix of longtime activists and those who have been “on the sidelines,” as Welcher describes herself.

Hearing McCabe speak at a Unitarian church in Elkhorn last year helped inspire Welcher to run. “We need people representing people,” she says. “We need to get back to that basic level of a representative democracy.”

The goal, for McCabe, Blue Jean Nation, and those who have been drawn to the project across the Badger State, is to fundamentally reform how politics is played in Wisconsin, and eventually nationwide. While partly rooted in the work McCabe did for nearly two decades as a leading voice for campaign finance reform, it also represents a new direction for him.

McCabe doesn’t want to create a new party to rival Republicans and Democrats — something he believes would be doomed to failure. Instead, the onetime executive director of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has a far more daunting vision: a bottom-up renovation of the political culture. He wants to see nothing less than the machinery of politics stripped down, retooled and reassembled — converted from a convoy of road-hogging stretch limousines carrying society’s most economically and politically advantaged into a fleet of shiny bicycles everyone can ride.

“It’s an attempt to pull people together to promote grassroots political change,” McCabe says. “If there’s an ideology behind Blue Jean Nation, it’s that we have to do everything in our power to fight political and economic privilege.”

The battle, McCabe says, isn’t so much between left and right, Republican and Democrat, as it is between the wealthy and everyone else. The “commoners,” as he calls them, make up the vast majority of the population and are

the people he sees as shut out of the political system and rendered “politically homeless.”

“It hasn’t always been like this,” McCabe says. “Today’s conditions are an aberration for Wisconsin.”

IT COULD BE EASY TO DISMISS MCCABE as one more hopelessly naïve idealist, all the more so in today’s cynical and money-choked political climate. Yet for the activists and newcomers alike who have gravitated to the cause, the time has never been more ripe or urgent.

And for some, the surprising popularity of Bernie Sanders’ insurgent, populist presidential campaign shows the movement’s broader potential.

Keith Schmitz, a longtime activist with Grassroots Northshore — a political network mobilizing progressives on Milwaukee’s north side and in its northern suburbs — believes Blue Jean Nation can fill a void. What’s needed, he says, is to strengthen links among like-minded groups around the state.

In a contest between well-funded conservative politicians and a progressive agenda that can tap the energies of enthusiastic and committed volunteers, “our time could beat their money,” says Schmitz. “But it’s just a matter of getting all this coordinated.

That’s really what Mike is working on.”

Historian Nancy Unger, biographer of “Fighting Bob” La Follette and Belle Case La Follette, sees McCabe as one of a long line of heirs to their tradition.

The Blue Jean Nation platform is strikingly similar to the principles that bound much of the Progressive movement together, Unger observes (although “Net neutrality” would not have even been in the vocabulary of that era). In particular, the goal of engaging ordinary people more deeply in the work of politics reflects La Follette’s own philosophy that “mere passive citizenship is not enough,” says the professor at Santa Clara University in California.

“I do believe that the Progressives of Bob La Follette’s generation made real, substantial and lasting improvements,” Unger says. “La Follette stands as a pretty good indication that things like Blue Jean Nation are not a waste of time.”

A YEAR AGO, MCCABE WAS THE FACE OF

FEBRUARY 4– 10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

RATAJ BERARD

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Founded in 1995, the Democracy Campaign works for more public financing of political campaigns and stricter limits on campaign spending. But it also collects and analyzes data on money raised and spent by candidates and outside organizations in Wisconsin races — linking who contributes to campaigns to who benefits from legislation. Although widely viewed as left-leaning, the Democracy Campaign has asserted its political neutrality, drawing attention to Democrats and their funders, not just the GOP. McCabe, a staffer with the Democracy Campaign since its founding, took over as director in 1999. A UW-Madison journalism graduate who briefly reported for a news service that covered Dane County, he churned out crisp, punchy reports that made the Democracy Campaign the go-to source for journalists tracking political spending in the state.

The group also worked alongside Wisconsin’s chapter of Common Cause in failed attempts to rein in phony issue ads that promote or (more often) trash candidates while dodging rules that are supposed to let voters see who’s paying to elect or defeat their lawmakers.

Wisconsin Common Cause director Jay Heck and McCabe “certainly had different ideas of what needed to be done or how it should be done,” says Heck. “I always thought that you needed to find areas of agreement between the parties” in developing and shepherding through reform

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Allison & Wyatt Lee in person!

n COVER STORY

laws, and that the path to change “was not an all-or-nothing proposition,� he recalls.

Allison & Wyatt Lee“Mike was more of that school of thought in person! that if it wasn’t [all-or-nothing], reforms wouldn’t have a chance to reform again.�

McCabe found working at the Democracy Campaign energizing — until it became enervating. As his 20-year anniversary at the organization loomed, it began to seem as though when the watchdog barked, people simply shut the window, rolled over and went back to sleep. “I felt like people were growing numb to %MI[\YPUO Allison & Wyatt Lee the influence of money in politics,� says Mcin person!

VɈ .DW\Ĺ‘V QL^LSY` Cabe. “Shining a light on it didn’t have the --(5$12 18H ]ISMU[PUMGZH#I`H2ISM same impact in 2014 that it did in 2004, or TEACH ENGLISH ABROAD in 1995 or ’96â€? — even when it was exposing UK (UUP]LYZHY` “the very same kind of behavior — or even =HSLU[PULÂťZ +H` worse behavior — in 2012 or 2014.â€?

WESLI TEACHER :OV^ HUK :HSL Lawmakers were no help. “No matter how TRAINING PROGRAM -YP :H[ -LIY\HY` ! HT WT skillful you were at taking the reform agenda %MI[\YPUO up the steps of the Capitol, if there was no)HDWXULQJ $OOLVRQ /HH Allison & Wyatt Lee +15 YEARS in person!

DQG VRQ :\DWW /HH body inside the building willing to meet you Friday-Saturday TRAINING TEACHERS!

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(UUP]LYZHY` like I needed to try some new things.�

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thing No. 1 was a book, Blue Jeans in High Places — part diagnosis of a political system 2H[`Z(TLYPJHU0UKPHU(Y[Z JVT he pronounced “old and sickly,� and part

prescription for recovery. The book is a spirited critique of the politics and economics 1817 Monroe St. u Madison, WI 53711 UK of the last quarter century, leavened by a

VɈ .DW\Ĺ‘V QL^LSY` Tel: 608.257.4300 608.251.5451 u katys@att.net pointed cultural analysis that spares neither study@wesli.com • www.wesli.com www.katysamericanindianarts.com UK Democrats nor Republicans.

(UUP]LYZHY` He begins with a brief memoir of growing =HSLU[PULÂťZ +H` up in Clark County, where his parents were :OV^ HUK :HSL able to buy and run their own dairy farm af-YP :H[ -LIY\HY` ! HT WT ter more than two decades of tenant farming. )HDWXULQJ $OOLVRQ /HH DQG VRQ :\DWW /HH From there, McCabe traces how Democrats -YP :H[ -LIY\HY` ! HT WT have all but lost many rural voters.

2H[`Z(TLYPJHU0UKPHU(Y[Z JVT 4VUYVL :[YLL[ 4HKPZVU The Democratic Party has a fundamental )HDWXULQJ $OOLVRQ /HH ly tarnished brand, he contends, especially in rural areas where Democrats once held their DQG VRQ :\DWW /HH own politically. Republican-engineered legisgerrymandering and skillful dominance 2H[`Z(TLYPJHU0UKPHU(Y[Z JVT lative 4VUYVL :[YLL[ of the political discourse get their share of the 4HKPZVU blame. But McCabe also criticizes what he sees as an ineffectual Democratic response to problems festering in rural America.

McCabe takes pains to state he’s not opposed to public employee unions. But as private-sector unions declined while publicsector unions remained for a time strong, the Democrats’ fundamental identity as the party of the poor and the working class faded. “Non-union workers like farmers who were being driven from their land and factory workers who were being downsized and outsourced and offshored to death started to feel growing resentment toward better-off unionized government employees who held on to pension plans, employer-paid insurance and other benefits that were long gone in the private sector,� he writes. And Republicans capitalized on their envy.

In the 2012 recall election, Gov. Scott Walker swept Clark County by more than 30 points — even though the governor “has done next to nothing to visibly benefit the area.� Why? McCabe writes that Democrats “may say we’re all in this together and need to look out for each other, but people in places like rural Clark County don’t see Democrats practicing what they preach.� )HDWXULQJ $OOLVRQ /HH DQG VRQ :\DWW /HH

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(UUP]LYZHY` =HSLU[PULÂťZ +H` :OV^ HUK :HSL

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4– 10, 2016

16

Further muddying the Democrats’ image and priorities was the national party’s growing dependence on industry donors, especially in banking and finance. Along with the loosening of campaign finance laws, that’s helped the richest slice of the population gain an outsized influence in the halls of Congress and state legislatures, he argues.

Democrats haven’t found a clear and forceful voice to counter Republican narratives. “We have one party that’s scary and one party that’s scared,� McCabe likes to say. Yet, he argues, a broad political coalition is waiting to be built around the idea of a “one for all� economy that shuns corporate welfare; tax reforms that eliminate loopholes for the wealthy; and a political environment where “common sense matters more than ideological purity.�

The book makes the case for the sort of major campaign finance reform that he spent a decade and a half pursuing at the Democracy Campaign, but McCabe doesn’t stop there. Instead, he urges people to engage politically in their community in ways that, he suggests, can possibly make an end run around political plutocracy. “We’ve lost the capacity to organize locally with people that we really know,� he says, “and to reach out to people who we know but who may not agree with us, and then find common ground with them.

That’s true citizenship.�

McCabe sees the book as “a sort of a cookbook, offering some recipes about how to make change at a time when wealth and privilege and money are such dominant forces in American politics,� he says. Readers were enthusiastic — but wanted some cooking lessons to go with it.

That led to New Thing No. 2. Readers around the state invited him to speak about the book, and some who thought about running for office sought his counsel. Thus Blue Jean Nation began. McCabe had T-shirts and yard signs printed up; one county Democratic Party group took some of the signs to the state Democratic convention in June 2015.

Holding forth one summer evening before a group of about 35 people in Racine, McCabe focused heavily on the state’s political divide. “How many of you would be comfortable describing yourself as members of the left?� he asked. Nearly all the hands in the room — most of them belonging to women and men north of 60 years old — went up. “Your values can’t become public policy under the current environment,� he warned them. “You desperately need people like the ones in Clark County.�

What followed wasn’t an appeal to centrism, though. And he didn’t dismiss the remarkable success of the left’s cultural agenda — accomplishments like marriage equality.

What he emphasized, instead, was the need to shed ideological and party labels and to engage with neighbors and friends, regardless of their political stances, on genuine issues in which they are likely to find common ground. Such ground is especially fertile, he suggested, when it is focused on people’s economic struggles, on the way the economy favors the wealthiest and most advantaged, and on issues such as the state’s continued encroachment on the powers of local towns, villages and school districts.

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After a series of such gatherings across the state, in the fall the group rolled out workshops in “Shoestring Politics” to give activists and would-be candidates tips on how to win without the money that everyone assumes is the key to victory. Sessions have taken place or are scheduled near Madison, around Eau Claire, in Menomonie and around Appleton, McCabe says. The events aren’t solo efforts — panel discussions are a standard part of the format, but for McCabe, there’s one central message: citizens need to reacquire some long-forgotten habits.

“People have been brainwashed over the course of decades and they have largely come to believe that there is only one political currency that’s relevant — that is money,” he says. “We’ve been trained to think that politics is the domain of professionals, that if you are going to be successful in politics you have to have a bunch of paid consultants, and that citizens don’t really have a place in politics anymore except writing checks.

The muscles of citizenship have atrophied. One thing we need to think about doing is restrengthening those muscles.”

In place of money, McCabe suggests two other forms of “political currency.” One is deeper engagement among ordinary voters and citizens over politics and policy.

The other coin, he says, is “provocative ideas.” McCabe tells of a losing candidate who told him she was instructed to “be present and pleasant” on the campaign trail and went on to lose the race. Countless other failed office seekers have told him similar stories, he says, of political consultants who admonished them to raise money and avoid controversy. “It’s been the path to one defeat after another.”

McCabe has drawn the interest of at least one person from the other half of the political spectrum. Mark Grams, a Marine veteran and former county veterans affairs official who lives in Two Rivers, says he leans Libertarian and is considering a run for office, though he’s not sure when. If he does, “I would more than likely run as a Republican,” Grams says.

Yet he, too, says he feels “politically homeless” and that the state needs a strong two-party system. He admires “Fighting Bob” La Follette as a Republican corruption fighter, and longtime Democratic U.S. Sen. William Proxmire, who famously spent only $145 on his last campaign for office in 1982.

“I’d like to be the person that when a bill is introduced gets somebody from both sides in my office” and hears their respective views. “Right now it doesn’t matter,” he says. Lawmakers “are going to vote the way the leadership tells them because of the money flow.”

WHERE WILL IT ALL LEAD? EVEN MCCABE

says he isn’t sure. Topping his to-do list for now is a day-long “Blue Jean Nation Revival” in Neenah Feb. 20. “It’s not going to be a conventional political convention,” he says. “It’s going to have the feel of a town hall meeting.”

In the meantime, Blue Jean Nation is aligning itself as well with other groups — Wisconsin United to Amend, which seeks to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that removed restrictions on corporate campaign donations, and Grassroots Wisconsin. The goal, he says, is to work together without duplicating efforts or working at cross-purposes.

McCabe draws a sharp distinction between his vision for Blue Jean Nation and seemingly similar movements such as Move On. “What I hope it never becomes is another advocandidate who is looking at McCabe’s ideas for a cam- cacy organization,” he says. “Most advocacy organizations paign playbook. In the 42nd Assembly District, which operate on the model of professionalized politics. They treat takes in the eastern two-thirds of Columbia County along citizens like nothing more than ATMs. I want Blue Jean Nawith portions of Dodge County and surrounding areas, tion to empower local grassroots groups and local citizens.

George Ferriter is making his second run for a seat that I don’t want them to empower Blue Jean Nation.” two years ago was handily won by the For his own group, McCabe is raisRepublican incumbent, Keith Ripp. ing money, but in a low-key way. Peo In that race, Ferriter counted some ple can donate on the website or help 10,000 visits with voters. In 2016, “We fund it by buying his book or a T-shirt. are going to extend that more ag Perhaps following his own advice gressively,” he says, noting that will for promoting provocative ideas, Mcbe his primary means of getting the Cabe says that if Blue Jean Nation word out. “We will run, not a camcould accomplish just one thing, “the paign that’s going to rely on a bunch thing I would choose would be to play of money being spent on a succession a meaningful role in the destruction of direct mailers to people, but will be of the political consulting industry.” a voter contact effort.”

Thad Nation, a Milwaukee-based It’s a serious effort, he says, but political consultant who worked also one with a fairly steep uphill closely with former Democratic Gov. climb. On plenty of visits with voters, Jim Doyle, says McCabe’s claims he says, the discussions over issues against his profession amount to “a went very well — until he was asked gross oversimplification.” what party he was representing.

“Every race is different,” Nation “I would say ‘Democrat,’ and that says. “Every campaign consultant is was it,” he recalls; sometimes he’d Mark Grams, who leans Libertarian different.” hear something like, “Gee, I’m sorry I But the consultant is measured in and hopes to run for office as a can’t vote for you.” Ferriter adds: “The his appraisal. McCabe, he says, was an Republican, has been inspired by well that a Democratic candidate effective voice for campaign finance might be able to draw from in rural reform and continues to draw a folMcCabe’s call to action.

Wisconsin has been pretty deeply lowing among Democrats and others. poisoned.”

“If he’s successful at getting more In Janesville, Tom Breu is mounting what might people involved, great,” says Nation. “Mike is advocating a seem to be an even tougher battle — seeking the grassroots-based strategy that can succeed in some races.

Democratic nomination to run against local congress- It just doesn’t succeed in all races.” man and House Speaker Paul Ryan. He’s focusing his Even McCabe stops short of predicting that his precampaign on income inequality, and he’s not shying scription will ultimately work. from attention-getting devices; he campaigns in a re- “I can’t promise you that you will win if you embrace furbished hearse and put graphics on his campaign these ideas,” he says. “I can’t offer you a magic wand you literature that play on his first name and last initial: can wave over your next campaign and be successful.”

“TomB.” “This is not a time to kind of smooth it out and He is sure of one thing, though. “If you campaign the don’t be controversial,” he says. conventional way, you will lose.” n

CHRISTINE WELCHER ISN’T THE ONLY

FEBRUARY 4– 10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

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Creative spark Artist-in-residence Angela Richardson alights at the Bubbler

BY JAY RATH n PHOTO BY SHARON VANORNY

infusing creative thinking into the curriculum — Richardson served as program coordinator for the UW’s interdisciplinary Arts Institute. But that’s only the beginning of her prodigious output. In just the last few years, while earning her MFA, Richardson has worked closely with Lynda Barry — the cartoonist, assistant UW professor and fellow at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. She has given talks at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and led workshops at the Madison Children’s Museum.

She’s also created sock monsters and, at special events, impersonated Wonder Woman.

Karin Wolf, program coordinator for the city of Madison Arts Commission, has been a fan since she started working with Richardson in 2007 after the city granted Richardson a BLINK grant (funds for short-term art installations) for a photo project in the Atwood neighborhood titled “The Face of a Place.” Wolf says Richardson brings an unusual amount of energy to everything she does, calling her a “talented artist and arts organizer.”

Richardson’s interdisciplinary work inspires others to try making art, Wolf adds: “She embraces life and learning with great energy and thoughtfulness, inspiring many to do the same — including myself.”

CON T I N U ED ON PAG E 29

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FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

It’s no secret in local arts circles that Angela Richardson runs from project to project, spreading her arts gospel like Johnny Appleseed or a pollen-laden bumblebee.

But at least for a while, the creative powerhouse has alighted at Madison’s Central Library, where she’s serving as artist-inresidence at its Bubbler space through the end of February.

Richardson — a multimedia artist whose day job is serving as aesthetics and business project coordinator at UW-Madison School of Business — is bringing the arts down to street level, where everyone can participate.

During her residency at the maker-focused Bubbler, Richardson is holding family drawing programs, book-making workshops and open studios. At her fast-paced “drawing gyms,” she provides the supplies and the encouragement, with the goal of getting participants “out of your head and into your hands,” regardless of experience.

Interactive art is at the heart of Richardson’s residency. “It’s this realm of art that’s recently come into fashion. It’s called social practice,” she says. “It’s art that uses people as the medium to get at some sort of curiosity.”

Before she began working with the business school — where she is charged with

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February Features

Madison Oriental Market’s South Asian deli

BY LINDA FALKENSTEIN

I’d driven past the Madison Oriental Market on Fish Hatchery Road hundreds of times without stopping. Other Asian groceries nearby on South Park Street have bigger selections — like Yue Wah, with its global approach to its stock, or Oriental Food Mart, which specializes in Korean items.

But Madison Oriental has something the others don’t — a small deli in the rear of the store, specializing in Hmong and a few South Asian dishes.

The market shares a nondescript building with a laundromat, next door to a towing service. This is the part of the review where certain food writers love to imply that the more unlikely the location, the tastier the food. It’s true.

You’ll immediately see a few items sitting under heat lamps — long, red Hmong pork sausages, similar to kielbasa, $3 each; Hmong egg rolls, $1; Hmong stuffed chicken wings, $2; pork ribs (prices vary according to size); a whole tilapia steamed in a banana leaf, $6; roast chickens with crispy skins, $4.50.

The egg roll is passable for something that’s been sitting under a heat lamp, but its interior is mostly cabbage; skip it in favor of the Hmong stuffed chicken wings, which have the egg roll filling and delicate, translucent cellophane noodles packed inside the crispy skin of the wing. These are decent-sized wings so you’re likely to get a few meaty bites of chicken, too.

The whole tilapia — head, tail and all — is plain, a moist preparation for a mild fish. It’s satisfying, but picking through the many bones makes eating it a labor-intensive endeavor.

But don’t rely on the ready-to-eat case. Order a dish off the small menu, even though it will take longer to be made from scratch.

The pungent, cilantro-spiked beef laab (sometimes spelled larb and pronounced something like “lup”) is my first pick. It’s made with finely minced beef, as it should be, more flavorful than ground beef. The laab, with its hot chili, lime and fish sauce dressing and plentiful minced purple onions, is not for the faint of heart: It is a vibrant, penetrating dish. A side of the slightly sweet purple sticky rice is a great and perhaps necessary pairing. Chicken laab is also an option, and it’s similar, though the beef delivers more flavor.

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Vying for top honors with the laab is the green papaya salad, another sweet/sour/salty/spicy/fish-saucy Southeast Asian flavor kaleidoscope that’s quite good and also made fresh to order. Again, a side of the sticky rice balances the intense flavors.

Pho also comes made-to-order. It’s straightforward: broth, beef, noodles, bean sprouts. If you’re looking for a great bowl of pho, head to a place that specializes in it like Saigon Noodles or Pho Nam, for more choices of meat.

There are a few tables, perhaps best used for waiting for an order rather than dining in. Have a bubble tea and browse the grocery aisles for a novel noodle or Asian snack.

The Thai coconut rolls, crispy tube-shaped cookies that shatter on first bite, make just as good an appetizer as they do a dessert. n

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It’s a deli, so puffy matzoh ball soup’s on the menu. Chicken noodle soup is also available.

Or go for broke with noodles and matzoh balls. It’s like an insurance policy.

Souper Bowl Sat., Feb. 6

Soup from local restaurants in a handmade pottery bowl you can take home with you — that’s the concept for this annual benefit for Madison’s Habitat for Humanity. One bowl with soup/$15; $35 for four (two bowls, four meals). Larger, more decorative bowls are sold at a silent auction. It’s 2-8 pm at West High School, 30 Ash St.

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A screeening of the documentary Just Eat It, in which the filmmakers live for six months on nothing but reclaimed food, will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A, 5-8 pm at the High Noon Saloon.

FEBRUARY 4– 10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Dumpling Haus, 702 N. Midvale Blvd, Hilldale

Wines from the Lazio, Abruzzo, Puligia and Campania regions of Italy will be highlighted at Square Wine Co., 5 N. Pinckney St., 6-8 pm. $20, $15 w/RSVP at 608-819-6191.

Tacos Carnitas Trio

23

Win one for the kipper

Beer buzz Rockhound Brewing prepping for March opening Construction is moving along at Madison’s newest brewpub. Rockhound Brewing is planning to open in early March at 444 S. Park Street. Owner Nate Warnke says his brewing equipment will be installed over the next couple of weeks, and finishing touches on the bar and restaurant’s 1,800 square feet are nearly completed.

Warnke has over a dozen recipes already figured out and is just waiting for the brewhouse to become operational. He’ll start with a stout, a porter, a pale ale, an IPA and possibly a farmhouse ale.

An Indiegogo campaign has over $5,700 in pledges, nearly twice what Warnke expected.

That should help with the final push to open the pub. Warnke is also selling lifetime mug club memberships, which offer perks like discounts on beer, food and advance tastings of new beers.

ROBIN SHEPARD

TODD HUBLER

n FOOD & DRINK

Seven novel Wisco beer and snack pairings for the Super Bowl

BY KYLE NABILCY

There are a lot of things the Super Bowl is about beyond the game on the field: the halftime show, the commercials and absolutely the game day food people make at home. If you’re enjoying a snack buffet this Sunday, consider these pairing suggestions to best enjoy some Wisconsin beers.

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4– 10, 2016

Texas caviar Recently “Texas caviar” has been appearing all over the place. A vinegary salad of beans, onions, maybe some corn, cilantro — it’s a mix of sweet, herbal and savory, perfect for a complex black IPA like Karben4’s Silk Scorpion. Cilantro brings out the hoppy bitterness, and Silk Scorpion’s roasty malts should complement the starchy sweetness of the dip.

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Pigs in a blanket Breakfast on a toothpick? I’m all in. Play up that early a.m. vibe with New Glarus Brewing’s Coffee Stout, a relatively thin and sessionable version of the style that’s making a return to the brewery’s lineup. The coffee flavor isn’t overpowering, and the cola-esque carbonation will clear your palate after each bite.

The pancakes will be enhanced by the beer’s malty sweetness. Or, if you prefer the croissant dough and wiener version, that’ll work, too.

Chicken wings With buffalo chicken wings or anything drenched in Frank’s Hot Sauce, seek some semblance of relief in Arbre qui Donne, a new barrel-aged sour blonde

with peaches from O’so Brewing. No beer will quell the actual heat, but Arbre’s soft mouthfeel might trick your tongue into feeling a little less aflame, and the subtle but persistent peach will remind you that there are flavors in the world beyond vinegar and pain.

Loaded potato skins The flavors of bacon, cheddar, sour cream and chive are rich and spicy, but the oven-browned potato skin base gives this snack an undertone of bitterness. The smooth porter body and chocolatey sweetness of Door County Brewing Company’s Polka King should round things out on your palate, allowing the smoky sweetness of the bacon to step forward.

Cheese fondue Caramel corn Feeling fancy with your game day meal?

Fire up the fondue pot and get some big Alpine cheeses bubbling away. You’ll need a big beer to stand up to the richness. Bourbon Barrel Barleywine Ale from Central Waters’ Brewer’s Reserve series should manage that task, even if the Swiss tradition is to drink only white wine or kirsch. This barleywine is sweet, darkly fruity, almost like a cordial in nature, but it’s also 11.5% alcohol by volume, so take it easy.

Josh Ruffin, certified cicerone at Brasserie V, likes this beer too — for caramel corn. “Hell, yes,” Ruffin affirms. “Sweet and hearty enough to satisfy, this sucker hits all the notes you need: loads of caramel character to reflect the snack, while a distinct raisin-meets-vanilla profile that results from the marriage of strong ale to oak pervades.”

Kipper snacks House of Brews owner and brewer Page Buchanan’s snack choice is, well, out there. He’d pair his Pagoda IPA with kipper snacks — that is, cured and smoked herring fillets in a creamy dill sauce. “The lemon/dill flavors of the Sorachi Ace hop complement the dill in the kipper snacks. The beer itself cuts the creamy sauce and clears the palate,” Buchanan notes. You should be able to find bomber bottles of this locally, or pick up a growler at the House of Brews taphouse, 4539 Helgesen Dr. All the other beers listed should be available on area store shelves all week.

Kipper snacks, too, if you’re game. n

Viking begins in-house brewing The brew kettle is running hot at Viking Brewpub in Stoughton. Viking opened in summer 2014, and had relied on the House of Brews in Madison to make its core beers. With the installation of its equipment finally completed in late 2015, it started making its own beers in-house.

Local homebrewer David Worth of Stoughton is doing the brewing. Worth has won many local homebrew competitions, including the 2014 Grumpy Troll Challenge for his German schwarzbier. Worth brews part-time for Viking and holds down a second job in medical equipment sales.

Among the beers currently on tap at Viking are Nordic Blonde lager, a holiday spiced amber called Jule Ale, Land Ahoy American pale ale, Soot in My Eye Black IPA, and Winter Wonderland Warmer (a doppelbock).

Also on tap is one of Worth’s signature beers, a variation on an imperial-strength saison called Norsk, to which he adds fruits like yuze (which is similar to grapefruit), lime and passion fruit to different batches.

Later this year Worth, who says he likes bold flavors, plans to offer a spruce ale, a chocolate porter, a chocolate peanut butter porter and a mango wheat beer. “If it’s a chocolate porter it’s going to taste like chocolate,” he says.

Beer to watch for If you like Russian imperial stouts, you’re in luck.

Both Next Door Brewing and One Barrel Brewing have their own takes on the style. Next Door is offering a rye version called Vampire Cosmonaut, while One Barrel’s Ya Gotova, aged in Old Sugar Distillery whiskey barrels, falls on the sweeter side. Both finish strong at over 9.5% ABV.

— ROBIN SHEPARD

Valentine’s Weekend at Robinia Courtyard

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Cheap Date Night, Sunday, Feb. 14 $20 for 2 burgers and fries, plus 2 milkshakes or tap beers.

Valentine’s Weekend Special Bottle of Red, Carpaccio, Cheese Plate, & Dessert for $40.

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In celebration of our 40th Anniversary, we will be offering a new menu each week, all year long, featuring founder Odessa Piper’s classic dishes re-imagined by Chef Tory and his culinary team.

MENU FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 8TH KOHLRABI AND GREEN’S PLEASANT SPRINGS APPLE SALAD lemon caper vinaigrette

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SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR FUTURE WEEKS’ MENUS.

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FEBRUARY 4– 10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

HOMEMADE RIGATONI

JenEhr chicken livers, sage, SarVecchio

25

n FOOD & DRINK

Hundreds of new teas!

Sencha Tea Bar debuts on State Street

CHILEAN WINE DINNER THURSDAY, FEB. 18 6-8 PM We will be presenting 5 Chilean wines along with our four course dinner Hot artichoke and crab dip Mixed greens and fruit with lemon poppy seed dressing Seafood cannelloni Chocolate salami cake

“Don’t worry, we’re the same,” reads the handwritten sign in the window of Sencha Tea Bar, 430 State St. Sencha is essentially the same business as its forerunner, The Steepery, but its parent company in Minnesota decided to rebrand so all six of its locations would have the same name.

But now Sencha has over 100 new looseleaf teas to choose from, and they can be made up in any number of different preparations, from hot or iced to tea lattes or bubble teas. If you can think of something to do with tea, milk, flavor syrups and jellies, it’s possible.

The loose-leaf teas — in varieties that include green, white, black, oolong, pu-erh, guayusa and tisanes (that is, herb teas) —

Parking ramp located across the street www.portabellarestaurant.biz

Fri, Feb. 12 thru Sun, Feb. 14

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4– 10, 2016

Entrée Selections

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Steak Marsala Lobster Ravioli Seafood Cannelloni Steak Gorgonzola 425 N. Frances St. 256-3186 Parking ramp located across the street View menus online at www.portabellarestaurant.biz

STEPHANIE HOFMANN

Mason Lounge has one of the best margaritas in town

425 N. Frances St. 256-3186

Valentine 3 Course Specials

— LINDA FALKENSTEIN

Ex-squeeze me

Cost $45 • Limited Seating Please RSVP by 2/11

Porta Bella Italian Restaurant

are made according to the proper timing designations with a third-wave-style timer.

Each tea’s proper steeping time is listed in the tea bar catalog, which also provides descriptions of each variety.

I went with the tea of the day, “Congo Bongo,” a black flavored tea described as “a little nutty with pieces of shaved coconut.”

I ordered it hot with mango bubbles, which was a panic-order at the time resulting from the avalanche of choices, and one that strikes me as weird even now, but it was simple, warming and good — a vivid black tea with just the right amount of tangy sweetness.

PAULIUS MUSTEIKIS

The Mason Lounge is, first and foremost, a craft beer bar — one of the best in Madison. That’s its thing, and it is fantastic.

But let’s say you find yourself at 416 S. Park St., and you’re not in the mood for anything with barley or hops. They have a nice selection of bourbon, Scotch and whiskey, but you’re not feeling that either.

Maybe you’re gluten-free. Maybe you’re just being difficult.

But there’s a little section on the drink menu that contains some unexpected gems — citrus cocktails made with fresh juice, squeezed via an industrial citrus press. It takes a bit of labor to liberate the juice from

the fruit — when I ordered three pressed cocktails for myself and friends, the bartender looked crestfallen.

“That’s gonna take a minute,” he said.

But it’s worth the wait. There’s a lime drop and a lemon drop — both classic vodka cocktails made vastly better with the fresh juice in place of sugary syrups. Best of all is the pressed margarita, made with the simplest of recipes — nothing but fresh lime, triple sec and silver tequila served over ice with a salted rim.

It’s a perfect execution of a classic. You can even ask for it in a mason jar.

— ALLISON GEYER

Pressed margarita in a martini glass.

Quest for hops Blood Orange Imperial IPA from Tyranena The public’s current interest in bitter beers is driving brewers to look for ever more novel takes on IPAs. Tyranena’s latest is an IIPA with a lot going on. It’s made with blood oranges — about 50 gallons of puree go into a 23-barrel-batch of beer. It features Citra and Azacca hops, the Citra lending grapefruit flavor, while the Azacca provide mango, orange and more grapefruit. This creative blend of hops and blood oranges is a burst of tropical fruitiness that’s assertive, strong and distinctive.

This is one of the more interesting IIPAs I’ve had recently. At very cold refrigera-

tor temperatures the dry bitterness really lingers, and for some who like hop-focused beers, that’s a selling point. I found that allowing it to warm in the glass brought out the sweeter and softer notes of orange, which I really enjoyed.

It finishes at 7.5% ABV and an estimated 100 IBUs (International Bitterness Units). In the brewery’s tasting room it sells for $5.50/glass and $17/growler. The beer is also expected to appear at some of Madison’s taphouses over the next few weeks; check your favorite.

— ROBIN SHEPARD

ROBIN SHEPARD

n SPORTS

Gains in women’s cyclocross Purgolder makes it to the championships

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Emma Swartz pushes up a steep, slick climb at the inaugural Women’s World Championship cyclocross race in Huesden-Zolder, Belgium.

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FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

When kids who play sports reach a certain age, they often quit because of injuries or new interests. In the case of Emma Swartz, an 18-year-old graduate of Madison East High School, both reasons fit. After “one injury too many” she stopped playing soccer and took up a sport her dad, Andy, encouraged her to try: cyclocross.

Cyclocross?

“It’s hard to explain what cyclocross is,” Swartz, now a freshman at Marian University in Indianapolis, told me last week. It was developed in Europe as a way for road racers to stay fit during the fall and winter and involves riding on pavement and off-road terrain marked with obstacles that require participants to dismount and run while shouldering their bikes.

In 2012 and 2013, the Madison Area Sports Commission helped bring the Cyclocross National Championships to Badger Prairie Park in Verona.

“I think when it’s explained as ‘You bike through a park with a road bike that has mountain bike tires, and sometimes you have to get off and run,’ people assume that it’s an easy type of bike racing. It’s not.”

Swartz should know. She races for Trek Cyclocross Collective, and on Jan. 30, she represented Team USA at the first-ever U23

Women’s World Championship cyclocross race in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium.

“One of the things I love most about cyclocross is that every race is a new kind of challenge,” says Swartz, who also ran crosscountry for the Purgolders. “It’s always a different course, with different conditions ranging from bone dry to three inches of mud.”

Conditions at Belgium’s CX Worlds course last Saturday could best be described as wet and demanding.

The messy race was a long time coming.

Even though the Switzerland-based Union Cycliste Internationale (sports cycling’s governing body) established an “Under 23” category for men 20 years ago, the U23 women’s division debuted this year.

“Inequalities between men’s and women’s races are a big problem,” says Swartz, who started a $3,000 fundraising campaign via RallyMe to cover airfare, bike transport and other traveling expenses; she ultimately raised more than $4,500.

“Women’s cycling has never been much of a priority, and we are lucky that things are starting to turn around.”

Swartz finished 32nd out of 43 riders, completing multiple laps around a short course in 48 minutes and 23 seconds. Racine’s Kaitlin Antonneau raced in the Elite Women’s Division at CX Worlds, finishing eighth with the top American time of 42:15. n

27

n SPORTS

How harmless is a chant of “air ball”?

Local coaches weigh in on WIAA directive

BY TAMIRA MADSEN

“Air ball.” “Fundamentals.” “We can’t hear you.” “Season’s over.”

Examples of harmless fan passion at a high school basketball game? Or taunting, distracting chants that have no place in a gymnasium?

That was the debate that flared up in Wisconsin in January after the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association — the organization that oversees high school sports in the state — emailed a letter to administrators suggesting that supervisors monitor negative chants.

The letter states, in part, that “any action directed at opposing teams or their spectators with the intent to taunt, disrespect, distract or entice an unsporting behavior in response is not acceptable sportsmanship.” It also notes that the WIAA does not want to “restrict creativity or enjoyment, an enthusiastic and boisterous display of support for a school’s team.” But specific examples of offensive chants were cited, including “You can’t do that,” “fundamentals,” “air ball,” “there’s a net there,” “sieve” and “we can’t hear you.”

But the WIAA letter didn’t catch the attention of the general public until April Gehl, a basketball player at Hilbert High School, tweeted “Eat shit WIAA” on her personal Twitter account, and a WIAA official brought the tweet to the attention of Hilbert school administrators.

Gehl was suspended for five games; she returned to play on Jan. 25.

That suspension ignited the critical attention of national media. The WIAA was blasted and taunted by many, from Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to The New York Times and USA Today.

One of these critics was ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas, a lawyer who often takes to Twitter to offer unfiltered opinions on sports-related topics. One

DAVID MICHAEL MILLER

of Bilas’ tweets shared a black-and-white photo of nuns watching a game in a reserved manner, with the message “Under the new rules, a crowd behaving in an acceptable fashion at a Wisconsin high school basketball game.”

Bilas, once a standout basketball player at Duke, says in an interview with Isthmus that he was definitely laughing at, and not with, the WIAA with his commentary.

While some have dinged the WIAA for violating fans’ free speech rights, Bilas doesn’t go that far. “I don’t see that there are any First Amendment implications here as far as the WIAA doing anything illegal or improper,” Bilas says of the

December email. “I think it’s more a question of taking things a little too far.”

Bilas, who spent time in the stands as a spectator when his son Anthony played prep basketball, thinks that “the idea that our kids are made of porcelain or something and [if] somebody yells ‘air ball’ after they miss the rim [they’ll] curl up in the fetal position and begin crying, that’s not the case.” And even if it were, he notes, “That’s not sportsmanship either.”

After Gehl’s tweet and suspension, WIAA officials clarified their stance with additional correspondence in late January that said the association had imposed no new rules or enforcement expectations.

While the furor over the WIAA’s email has since died down, the underlying issue — the lack of sportsmanship at games — is still a relevant one for area high schools.

On Jan. 5, during a basketball game between Madison West and Sun Prairie, a Sun Prairie player who’d been injured was taunted with personal attacks on West’s home court. And that’s different from “air ball.”

According to West athletic director Sandy Botham, one West player and one student fan received warnings and were told if the behavior occurred at future games, they’d face reprimands.

Botham has since addressed West fans about proper behavior. The question she poses to them: Do you want to be a crowd that’s considered classless, or do you want to be a classy crowd?

“I really came down hard on them,” Botham says. “The profanity is what has to stop, and we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. ‘Air ball’ and humorous lines that are clever, we’re going to let those go.”

During his 27 years as Madison Edgewood High School athletic director and basketball coach, Chris Zwettler has drawn up his own list of cheers he doesn’t allow. He feels the WIAA was sending a friendly reminder with its original correspondence and says that national pundits didn’t look at the big picture.

Zwettler says the intent of the WIAA letter was never to “kick kids out of the gym and the hockey rinks and the wrestling meets if they start chanting that stuff.” It was more of a preemptive move, he adds.

“Schools are always trying to prevent something that may seem silly or innocent [from blowing] up into something big.”

Todd Clark, director of communications for the WIAA, turned down an interview request for this story. “To be clear,” Clark says in an email, “there have been no new mandates or guidelines issued by the WIAA.” n

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ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

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n ARTS

Works by participants in Richardson’s “Draw, Draw, Draw!” event at Central Library.

Angela Richardson continued from 21

Richardson was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her family moved to the Midwest when she was young, and she grew up in Freeport, Ill., just across the Wisconsin border from Monroe, where her father was employed as a “computer guy” and her mom worked a variety of jobs.

“They were not in the arts but were both lovers of the arts,” says Richardson. “I was a total ham, and my parents also really encouraged my younger brother and me to be creative,” she says. “Dance lessons, drawing lessons, making things together at home. Paper and crayons on the table at all times. Do whatever you want, but make something.”

Looking back, Richardson says she feels lucky to have grown up in an environment where creativity was valued. “I don’t know if I ever had that ‘Eureka, I want to be an artist’ moment, but it was just so completely woven into life.”

After high school, Richardson spent a year as an exchange student in Tokyo, and in 1990 moved to Madison to attend the university.

When it came time to choose a major, Richardson took “a flying leap” and decided to pursue art. “It’s one of those funny things that even though my parents encouraged me, when it actually came time to be an artist, there was a little bit of, whoa!” she says, laughing. At first, her parents were concerned about the practicality of the move, especially because she was the first in the family ever to attend college.

But there was no turning away from the arts. She describes herself as “driven” to make art, even though for years she needed to piece together a living, project to project.

Now, she says while gesturing around the Bubbler space, she has a good balance. “I’m fortunate to have a job proper and do things like this that are more community-based.”

Richardson says she plans to also use her month-long residency to learn more about the library: “It’s my big excuse to explore things I’m curious about here, and ask lots of questions of the staff, and about the space, and interact with patrons, and do a lot of drawing as a way of exploring those curiosities. I’ll be drawing people, I’ll be drawing the building.” She laughs. “I’ll be drawing conclusions.” n For more information on Richardson’s programs and residency at the Madison Public Library, visit madisonbubbler.org.

Jan 28 - Feb 14, 2016 OVERTURE CENTER for tickets

OVERTURECENTER.org | 608.258.4141

www.FORWARDTHEATER.com

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

During a recent open studio event at the dedicated Bubbler space next to the children’s area in the Central Library, Richardson described her life and her work, pausing occasionally to entertain visitors rotating in and out. In conversation, Richardson’s hands are always in motion, as if she’s playing miniature tennis, forehand and backhand.

“A lot of what I’m doing with the activities going on here is to maybe move things a bit further away from drafts and drawings,” says Richardson. “Just get people shaking it loose, because — and I know this from having taught — so many people are afraid to draw.”

Richardson has experience in liberating people’s inner artists. In 2007-08, she organized and oversaw a local branch of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, a sort of all-inclusive Dada workshop, founded in Brooklyn and now in more than 100 cities.

Most of her recent work involves interacting and collaborating with audiences, such as “SPILL,” a series of one-on-one conversations that she transcribed into sprawling cursive as part of the 2013 Wisconsin Triennial.

That work is a perfect illustration of Richardson’s ability to bridge the worlds of visual art and performance.

“I have that heavy-duty background in performance,” she says. “And I’m also a visual artist. So for me it’s really natural to think about how to blend those things. And I do enjoy the social aspect of making art with other people.”

“I think that’s one of the interesting things about Angela,” says Trent Miller, the library “head Bubblerarian” who oversees programming. (Yes, that’s his official title.)

“Not all artists can engage the public in the same way that she does.” Richardson finds muses everywhere. In addition to crediting her partner, Paul, she finds inspiration in her dog, Zizi; the blue heeler/rat terrier even appears on recent Bubbler literature.

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n STAGE

Behind the scenes of The Flick Forward Theater’s Play Club allows patrons to dig deep into upcoming productions

BY LAURA JONES

The first rule of Play Club is, “go ahead and talk about Play Club.” Dialogue is what it’s all about.

For theater lovers who want to dig deep, Forward Theater gives patrons an inside look at an upcoming production. For $25, they get an advance copy of the script, a visit to a rehearsal and an invitation to a group discussion. The events have grown so popular since they debuted in 2001 that spots sell out quickly.

I joined the recent Play Club devoted to The Flick, Annie Baker’s 2014 Pulitzer Prizewinning drama running at the Overture Center’s Playhouse until Feb. 14. When I read the script, I found it light and funny, with material rooted deeply in the goingnowhere-fast malaise of millennial 20- to 30-somethings. There was some subject matter that dealt with race, and some with class, but I found myself wondering what all the fuss was about. I was a little surprised Baker had won the Pulitzer for a play set in a movie theater about two underachieving ushers and a punk-rock projectionist. Much of the action centers around mind-numbing minutia such as cleaning up popcorn; the only props, a mop and broom.

Then I read up on the controversy surrounding the play. The original production, put on by NYC’s Playwrights Horizons, ran long — three hours long, in fact. While that might not be an unusual length for Shakespeare, Baker is a contemporary playwright, specializing in natural, realistic dialogue.

And then there is that endless sweeping.

The New York Times reported that, in the

REBECCA BAGLEY

show’s first run, audience members were angered by the slow pace of the show, prompting an email to theater subscribers that justified the artistic choices. (Unlike many playwrights, Baker is absolutely specific in her scripts about

the length of pauses; pacing and “real time” are integral to her storytelling.) Some audience members walked out — not only at the intermission, but during the scenes themselves.

After the play won the Pulitzer, the downtown

Millennials doing menial labor The Flick is a marvelous, subversive play

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

BY LAURA JONES

30

If you go to the theater to experience the sweeping highs and lows of a cathartic drama, or even the raucous hilarity of a good comedy, you might be inclined to subtitle Forward Theater’s newest production, The Flick, “Much Ado About Popcorn.” There’s a lot of popcorn in it. And a lot of popcorn sweeping. The play tells the story of two ushers (one new, one experienced) and a projectionist, all of whom work at a run-down movie theater called The Flick. Most of the action involves sweeping up trash after the moviegoers are gone.

But if you go to the theater to experience something new and different, a play that challenges you to think not just about the story but about the form itself, The Flick is definitely for you.

What do I mean by challenging the form?

Well, if you’ve ever seen Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, you’ll know that playwrights do not always set out to meet your expectations; sometimes they want to subvert them.

The Flick is a sort of Waiting for Godot, the next generation. There are laughs along the way, and a strong ensemble cast that makes the most of each line. Alexander Pawlowski’s Sam is the senior usher, stuck in a dead-end job with not much to look forward to aside from his fantasy love affair with the hard-edged, insecure projectionist Rose (April Paul). She’s more interested in hitting on the new guy, nail-biting cinephile Avery (Marques D. Causey), than figuring out why she’s so screwed up.

The cast mines each scene for moments of connection. Sometimes the characters talk about the important, revealing aspects of their lives:

a disabled brother; a suicidal depression; an inability to love. But they are also just as likely to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (a movie trivia game), reenact scenes from Quentin Tarantino films, or discuss bodily fluids and smells. Playwright Annie Baker gives equal weight to all these things, and theatergoers might find themselves grasping at which one actually means something.

I maintain that The Flick is a millennial play, composed of young characters with a lot of information and little drive toward fulfillment.

As The Flick enters the modern age, it’s sold to a new buyer. The prized 35 mm projector, a creative artifact of the past, is swept away, like the popcorn. A new, soulless digital projector is put in its place. This suggests that these characters aren’t meant to be rich, textured pictures, but pixilations — each one separate, alone and equally sized.

revival had a better, almost cult-like response. Critics defended it, citing our poor attention spans, ruined by cell phones, Facebook and reality TV. Sitting through the show, they said, was transformative.

The pace was like a long meditative salve that, in the end, healed.

So, if ever there was a show that would benefit from a Play Club, The Flick was it.

When around 20 of us gathered about 10 days before the show opened to watch an hour of rehearsal, I was surprised to find the pace didn’t lag at all and the jokes had far more punch than I’d gleaned from the page.

Later, we went downstairs to the Overture green room, where Forward advisory board member Jim Buske led us in a conversation where we discussed everything from casting decisions to character motivation. My fellow armchair dramaturges were filled with insights, and after sitting in the room listening to them, I understood The Flick and its themes far more deeply.

Next season, with the help of an upcoming Madison Community Foundation grant, Forward will extend the reach of its Play Clubs by offering them free to county libraries. That means you’ll be able to check out your own copy of an upcoming play, read it and then return to the library to discuss the show in depth with an informed member of Forward’s company.

That version of the club won’t offer rehearsal viewing, but hundreds more people will benefit from reading and discussing the play before it premieres here. Madison, in turn, will benefit from more informed theater audiences. n

Marques D. Causey plays a self-conscious cinephile.

ROSS ZENTNER

Yet there is something beautiful here.

Something that remains. Go see it, and we can talk about it later. The Flick is precisely the kind of show that stirs up questions about what we need from our movies and plays — and from each other. n

n MUSIC

“We’re not going anywhere” Madison Ballet calls off remaining season to rebuild after budget shortfall

BY JAY RATH

We’re not losing our ballet company.

But there’s cause to worry, as Madison Ballet is canceling the balance of its season due to financial concerns. The staff points to an immediate shortfall of $70,000-$80,000 in operating funds, projecting another $100,000 of debt if the season proceeded as planned.

The decision to opt out of most of the remaining productions was made at the nonprofit’s Jan. 25 board meeting.

The troupe will still perform its repertory concert at the Bartell Theatre this weekend, but has canceled another repertory concert in April, a spring production of Peter Pan at the Overture Center and a Missouri tour of the ballet’s original production of Dracula.

“This is such a sad situation for the ballet and their audiences,” says Anne Katz, executive director of Arts Wisconsin, a statewide advocacy organization based in Madison.

Karin Wolf, program administrator with the Madison Arts Commission, says that the city is pleased that the organization has taken a proactive approach and that it is looking for ways to assist the troupe. “Madison Ballet is a critical arts resource for our community,” she says.

Gretchen Bourg, the company’s general manager, says she applauds the board for its cautious approach. “They took a proactive stance on this, rather than plod away until the fall and be in real trouble. We talked about the various arts groups in Madison that just said, ‘We can soldier on. We can do it.’ And they don’t exist anymore. We were not about to take that path.”

The problem, says Bourg, is the lack of staff and time to do fundraising. “We have been in worse situations,” says Bourg. “We’ve been through some really bad times and made it just fine. We’re not going anywhere.” n

JOHN URBAN

For information or tickets for “Repertory I,” Feb. 5-6, the ballet’s final concert of the season, visit bartelltheatre. org or call the box office at 608-661-9696.

NORMAN WONG

Guiding their own ship Metric’s Jimmy Shaw on staying in indie rock’s vanguard

BY AARON R. CONKLIN

Jimmy Shaw didn’t necessarily expect to sound like a music historian at this point in his illustrious musical career, but given the massive industry and technological shifts the Metric guitarist/co-founder and his bandmates have witnessed over the last two decades, well, here he is, on the cusp of launching a 24-city tour (including the Orpheum on Feb. 13) for Pagans in Vegas, Metric’s sixth full-length release, and waxing a tad WTF. “When I started thinking I was going to make music back in the ’90s, the landscape was get a record deal, get an advance, become a huge artist,” he says. “There weren’t bands who did their own thing.”

Metric, of course, was one of the bands that helped send that apple cart skyward in 2007, breaking through the major-label logjam to form its own label and release two albums in the course of two years — Grow Up and Blow Away and the lauded Fantasies — that put the band’s synth-fueled sound and lead singer Emily Haines’ sultry vocals squarely in the vanguard of a massive indie-rock explosion. (Not to mention securing their eternal place in the Canadian Hall of Fame.) Seven years removed from Fantasies, things look a little, well, different.

And eerily similar, too.

“In the last five years, everything’s taken a sharp turn back to the late ’90s,” Shaw says. “We thought the Internet was going to democratize music, but tech bought music like a side salad at a buffet lunch. We’re all just fodder for tech now.”

That cynical perspective’s part of the vibe that fuels Pagans in Vegas, an album that finds Metric embracing their synth-based roots like a well-worn plushy pillow, both because they wanted to and because they can. Shaw insists that Pagans, an album that emphasizes analog-programming elements and modular synthesizers, has no specific unifying theme, but you don’t have to look too far to see a few connecting threads.

“Guilt, she is the governess that guides me back to greed,” Haines purrs on “The Governess,” the latest single from the album, encompassing a sentiment that couldn’t fit more tidily into that me-decade zeitgeist if it tried. That “I want it all” chorus on the emotionally ironic “The Shade” fits in pretty well, too. They’re the sort of sentiments the band’s bedrock influences — think Depeche Mode, the Cars, the Cure — would have endorsed.

“It’s all going to shit, but you’re going to Vegas instead,” says Shaw of the album’s vibe. “The ship’s going down. You can jump

in and try to swim, or you can just fuckin’ party down until the last second. It’s Vegas — everyone knows it’s wrong, but people still go there.”

Shaw laughs when it’s pointed out that the ’80s-inspired sound Metric helped resurrect in the mid-2000s, alongside fellow Canadian acts like Stars and Arcade Fire, is front and center in the pop-culture landscape yet again.

“I distinctly remember a music industry exec telling me once, ‘If you do your own thing, it’ll be trendy at least twice,’” he says.

“We’ve always done the synth thing. We accentuated the hell out of it on Pagans. What resonates with you is what you end up doing.”

That said, Shaw and Haines, who write all of the band’s material, were keen to avoid getting caught in their own infinite analog loop.

“We were fighting against our own past,” he says. “We were fighting against making Fantasies again.”

Madison is the second stop on the band’s tour, and Shaw’s eager to showcase a more polished vibe than he felt the band achieved when it co-headlined the Smoke + Mirrors tour with Imagine Dragons last summer.

“That tour threw us on a schedule that wasn’t ours,” he says. “The truth is, we’re really only good when we’re guiding our own ship.” n

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

The company is scrapping a Dracula tour.

Joules Scott-Key, Josh Winstead, Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw (from left).

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n SCREENS

Welcome back to Planet Coen Hail, Caesar! is a wacky period comedy set in 1950s Hollywood

BY MARC SAVLOV

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Speaking his mind in the city he once ruled!

Dateline Hollywood, 1956: The times are fraught. Commie fifth columnists are everywhere, the Cold War is in full swing, and the first hydrogen bomb has recently obliterated a sizable chunk of the Bikini Atoll.

Over at Capitol Pictures, however, life is even more complex for overworked but relentlessly efficient studio “fixer” Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin). Mannix is a sturdy Catholic family man whose fulltime job is keeping the studio’s nonstop parade of egocentric, narcissistic, and just plain lunkheaded actors, directors and extras in line and out of the gossip columns. Currently, he’s dealing with the unexpected pregnancy of unmarried actress DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson, biting off the snappy dialogue in pure Brooklynese), the career shift of cowboy actor Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) into a stuffy period drama star, and offers of a cushier gig over at aerospace manufacturer Lockheed.

Topping it all off, someone has kidnapped actor Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), the star of Capitol’s still-unfinished tentpole production Hail, Caesar!: A Story of the Christ.

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.

Hail, Caesar! is something of a return to comic form for the Coen brothers after the much lauded but enervating Inside Llewyn Davis and 2010’s True Grit. The new film packs enough distinct plot lines into its relatively brief running time to fill out three lesser movies, yet it never quite manages to gel completely. Indeed, there’s so much going on at any given moment that it’s easy to get swept up in the antic chaos onscreen without realizing it’s much ado about not all that much. Which isn’t to say that Hail, Caesar! isn’t great fun. It is, especially to

The film spoofs MGM musicals like Anchors Aweigh.

students of old Hollywood and, in particular, MGM, where the real-life Eddie Mannix held roughly the same position as Brolin’s fictional counterpart, albeit one where suicides, mob collusion and murder were the real topics of the day. (For the lowdown on the real-world Mannix, check out Karina Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This.)

Parodying MGM’s family-friendly slate of 1940s/50s biblical epics and elastic musicals while keeping everything spinning in the orbit of planet Coen, Hail, Caesar! is at its best during its genuinely dazzling riffs on classic MGM setpieces. Particularly excellent is an eye-popping Anchors Aweigh-influenced song-and-dance number with Channing Tatum in the Gene Kelly role, as well as Johansson’s splashy turn recalling Esther Williams in Million Dollar Mermaid.

The cast is Coen brothers through and through, too, with a substantial number of semi-cameos from the likes of Ralph Fiennes as a foppish director (possibly patterned on Vincente Minnelli), Tilda Swinton as a pair of dueling, twin gossipmongers, and Frances McDormand as a studio editor and literal fashion victim. Jonah Hill also gets a couple of choice lines as the fixer’s fixer, Joseph Silverman, as does Clooney’s dunderheaded movie star.

A comic goldmine for those who know the truth behind the studio legends and a wacky treat for everyone else, Hail, Caesar! is held together by the aforementioned sequences and Brolin’s serio-comic take on the ever-serious Mannix. It’s both more and less than the sum of its parts, but it’s never less than thoroughly watchable. n

Television

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

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starring former Madison Mayor Read him online at

It’s no secret that the late-night TV landscape lacks diversity. People have written what seems like hundreds of think pieces on its lack of women and people of color. Enter a much-needed jolt of estrogen: The Daily Show veteran Samantha Bee, whose new weekly half-hour program is scheduled to air on Mondays starting Feb. 8, immediately before Conan on TBS. A correspondent on Jon Stewart’s show for 12 years, Bee is armed with experience, intelligence and wit. She has her own point of view and the confidence to succeed. I am rooting hard for Bee and not just because she’s a woman trying to put another crack in the glass ceiling. She’s got real chops for this job, and I’m hoping TBS gives the show the time it needs to find its footing.

Vinyl Bee has real chops for this job.

I was elated when I first heard that this show was in the development stages. Set to premiere Feb. 14, Vinyl is about a fictional 1970s record label called American Century, and it is basically everything I dig. The show was created by Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire), and its executive producers include Martin Scorsese (who also directs the first episode) and Mick Jagger (I know, right?!). And oh yeah, it’s on HBO. With a team like this, my expectations for Vinyl are staggeringly high. The ensemble cast is full of eccentric and talented actors who seem suited to pull off the chaotic ’70s vibe the series needs. This is my favorite era in music history, and there is so much culturally that can be explored here. I have a feeling this show will live up to its hype. After all, when has Scorsese ever steered us wrong?

— ALEX CLAIBORNE

The film list

tra elio traveliowa.com l m

New releases 45 Years: A couple’s anniversary party becomes an emotional battleground when the body of a long-lost love is discovered. Charlotte Rampling received an Oscar nod for her co-leading role.

it all happens here

Indie Rock

The Choice: Small-town neighbors end up in a relationship in the latest Nicholas Sparks novel adaptation.

Folk Theater

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The filmmakers have sincerely tried to thread the needle between a light horror and a period comedy, delivering zombie fans a passable action film with a unique milieu and Jane Austen fans a funhouse mirror version of an old favorite. It’s no great shakes, but it’s a lot more fun than you’d expect.

Dance Food + Drink and more...

Recent releases

LOCATED DOWNTOWN IOWA CITY

Fifty Shades of Black: Directors Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans didn’t have to scratch too deeply into the zeitgeist to come up with this racially tinged parody of Fifty Shades of Grey. The film faithfully and mockingly follows the book’s key scenes, but the satire is broad and too dopey to really be lascivious.

The Finest Hours: Historical drama about the Coast Guard’s attempt to rescue an oil tanker foundered during a storm.

Jane Got a Gun: An outlaw gang continues to torment a woman (Natalie Portman), and to save her new life she has to turn to a former fiancé.

More film events The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: Documentary about the at times militant civil rights fighters, followed by a discussion with director Stanley Nelson Jr. Central Library, Feb. 9, 6:30 pm.

The Crime of Dr. Crespi: Loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Premature Burial,” in which a physician uses a serum to paralyze his enemies. Cinematheque, Feb. 6, 7 pm.

The First Legion: Douglas Sirk drama in which a possible miracle turns a Jesuit seminary into a religious destination. Cinematheque, Feb. 6, 3:45 pm.

Her Sister’s Secret: Romance between a woman and a departing soldier results in a baby, taken in by her sister. Cinematheque, Feb. 6, 2 pm.

The Hunting Ground: Documentary about rape on college campuses. Union South Marquee, Feb. 6 (3 pm).

Paris Is Burning: Documentary about the New York City drag scene in the 1980s. Union South Marquee, Feb. 8, 7 pm.

The Seventh Seal: Yup, this is the Bergman movie with the chess game vs. Death. Chazen, Feb. 7, 2 pm.

A Tale of Love and Darkness: Natalie Portman directed, wrote the screenplay and stars in this 2015 biopic about journalist Amos Oz. Union South Marquee, Feb. 9, 7 pm.

White Zombie: A zombie empire is masterminded by crazed sugar processor. Vintage shocker by a forgotten director; some Lugosi connoisseurs rank it near the top of his canon.

Cinematheque, Feb. 6, 8:45 pm.

Also in theaters 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Inside Out

2016 Oscar Shorts

Joy

Ant-Man The Big Short The Boy Bridge of Spies Brooklyn Daddy’s Home Dirty Grandpa The Hateful Eight

www.englert.org

one d! d e n l ov e e k e a n g n e’s w i r B nti le Va

Music, the food of love…

NT Live Performances ON SALE NOW!

‘Les Liasons Dangereuses – Feb 15 & 20 Hangmen – March 21, 26 & 28 GET TICKETS WHILE THEY LAST

STARTS FRIDAY HAIL, CAESAR!

NO PASSES - CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION

Fri: (1:30, 4:30), 7:00, 9:25; Sat: (11:10 AM, 1:30, 4:30), 7:00, 9:25; Sun: (11:10 AM, 1:30, 4:30), 7:35; Mon to Thu: (1:30, 4:30), 7:35 45 YEARS Fri: (1:40, 4:25), 7:05, 9:20; Sat: (11:15 AM, 1:40, 4:25), 7:05, 9:20; Sun: (11:15 AM, 1:40, 4:25), 7:50; Mon to Thu: (1:40, 4:25), 7:50

Feb. 12, 13, 14 | OVERTURE HALL

Love’s attractions and dilemmas infuse this Valentine’s weekend concert, and a great Russian violinist debuts!

PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

2016 OSCAR NOMINATED DOCUMENTARY SHORTS SCREENING ROOM - DOUBLE LOYALTY POINTS Sat & Sun: (11:00 AM) 2016 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS - ANIMATED SCREENING ROOM - DOUBLE LOYALTY POINTS Fri & Sat: (2:15), 7:10; Sun to Thu: (2:15), 7:55

2016 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS - LIVE ACTION SCREENING ROOM - DOUBLE LOYALTY POINTS Fri & Sat: (4:20), 9:15; Sun to Thu: (4:20 PM)

THE BIG SHORT

CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION

Fri & Sat: (1:15, 4:00), 6:45, 9:30; Sun to Thu: (1:15, 4:00), 7:40 CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION Fri: (1:35, 4:15), 6:55, 9:35; Sat: (11:05 AM, 1:35, 4:15), 6:55, 9:35; Sun: (11:05 AM, 1:35, 4:15), 7:30; Mon to Wed: (1:35, 4:15), 7:30; Thu: (1:35, 4:15)

SPOTLIGHT

Alina Ibragimova, Violin

Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

MAURICE RAVEL

Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2

Daniel Hege, Guest Conductor

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto

THE REVENANT

CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION

Fri to Thu: (1:25, 4:35), 7:45

DEADPOOL

Thu: 7:30 PM

NO PASSES - CC & DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION

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 February 5 - February 11

In the Heart of the Sea Kung Fu Panda 3 The Martian

BUY TICKETS NOW!

madisonsymphony.org , the Overture Center Box Office or (608) 258-4141.

Minions The Revenant Ride Along 2 Room Spotlight Star Wars: The Force Awakens

MAJOR FUNDING PROVIDED BY: Irving and Dorothy Levy Family Foundation, Inc. Johnson Bank Cyrena and Lee Pondrom ADDITIONAL FUNDING PROVIDED BY: John A. Johnson Foundation, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation Gary and Lynn Mecklenburg Wisconsin Arts Board

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❏ ISTHMUS MOVIE TIMES All the movies, all the times

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

The 5th Wave

Up to 6 rentals at a time One of each pair may be a new arrival Expires 2/18/16

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MMoCA Nights: Frank Stella Friday, Feb. 5, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 6-9 pm Frank Stella Prints: A Retrospective is a major exhibit of over 100 prints by the acclaimed American painter and printmaker. Stella, who turns 80 in May, continues to work in New York and will be on hand here for a conversation from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. Viewers are invited to discover a decades-spanning range of his groundbreaking minimalist and abstract imagery. Stella’s exuberant use of color and geometric and free-flowing forms feels contemporary, futuristic and brightly retro all at the same time. Works include the precision-balanced “Star of Persia II,” a lithograph on English vellum paper, and “Extracts,” a lush, collage-like lithograph, etching, aquatint, relief and screenprint on handmade paper. On display through May 16.

picks

thu feb 4 MU S I C

Meat Wave Thursday, Feb. 4, The Frequency, 7:30 pm

You may not know their Onion headlineinspired name yet, but Meat Wave is the definition of a band on the rise. Since forming in 2011, the Chicago punk trio has played shows with established acts in their scene (including FIDLAR, Joyce Manor and Pup), signed to influential label SideOneDummy and released three albums, most recently 2015’s excellent Delusion Moon. With fellow Chicagoans Rad Payoff and Madison’s Dumb Vision.

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

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

just may be the cure. The East Coast-based instrumental act has released four heavy, cohesive albums, including last fall’s Dust & Disquiet, their first without bassist Chris Friedrich, who died in 2013. With O’Brother.

The Red Zone: Break Nasty, Ginjahvitiz, Dub Borski, Jean Le Duke, Eman G, 8 pm.

Steinway & Sons: New Muse Ensemble, works by Philip Glass, Zoltán Kodály, Jonathan Russ, Robert N. Ward, free, 7:30 pm.

Tavernakaya: DJ Evan Woodward, free, 10 pm.

Tip Top Tavern: Lou Shields, Americana, free, 9:30 pm.

1855 Saloon and Grill, Cottage Grove: Eric Joseph, folk, free, 6 pm Thursdays.

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

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

Badger Bowl: Scott Wilcox, Tommy Bentz, 8 pm.

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

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

UW Memorial Union-Fredric March Play Circle: Hot Sugar, Fizzy Pop, free, 10 pm.

Bos Meadery: American Feedbag, free, 6:30 pm.

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

THEATER & DANCE

Cafe Carpe, Fort Atkinson: The New Pioneers, bluegrass, 7 pm.

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

Crystal Corner Bar: Dub Foundation, Tropical Riddims DJs, Wil-Mar Center food pantry benefit, 8:30 pm.

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

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

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Immanuel Lutheran Church: Ringing Badgers Community Handbell Ensemble, new/potential members invited to rehearsals, 6 pm Thurdays, 2/4-25 (or audition by appointment: musicdirectormeb@gmail.com).

The Sound of Music

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

Thursday, Feb. 4, Overture Hall, 7:30 pm

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

One of the most celebrated and recognizable musicals in history, The Sound of Music chronicles the World War II-era drama of the Von Trapp Family singers, presenting popular tunes like “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi” and “Edelweiss,” which have delighted audiences for decades. One of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s finest works,

Caspian Thursday, Feb. 4, High Noon Saloon, 8 pm

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

If you enjoy bands like Explosions in the Sky or This Will Destroy You, but you’re looking for music with a little more oomph, post-rock outfit Caspian

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

Mr. Robert’s: Number #1 Band, Very Good, free, 10 pm.

Natt Spil: DJ Ben Silver, free, 10 pm.

That’s What THEY Said: Firsts Thursday, Feb. 4, Brink Lounge, 7:30 pm

The Bricks Theatre’s popular story-share series is mixing it up with a co-ed cast talking about their first experiences doing something together. The all-star cast consists of local raconteurs Jim Chiolino, Whitney Derendinger, Deborah Hearst, David Heuer, Brad Knight, Margaret Leaf, Jason Penticoff, Karen Saari, Sunny Schomaker, Jess Schucknecht and John Steeno. ALSO: Friday, Feb. 5, 8 pm.

The Flick: Forward Theater Company’s Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize winner, observing the substance of daily life through three employees of a decrepit movie theater, 1/28-2/14, Overture Center-Playhouse, at 7:30 pm Thursdays-Fridays, 2 & 7:30 pm Saturdays and 2 pm Sundays; pre-show talks Thursdays and Sundays. $45-$37 (previews $20). 258-4141.

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

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

The Sound of Music first hit Broadway in 1959, and its film adaptation won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1965.

ALSO: Friday (8 pm), Saturday (2 & 8 pm) and Sunday (1 & 6:30 pm), Feb. 5-7.

La Cage aux Folles: Music Theatre of Madison tackles the classic about a what happens when a gay couple’s son brings home the conservative parents of his fiancee, 7:30 pm, 2/4-6 & 11-13, Five Nightclub. $25. 237-2524.

Rumors of Truth: Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre; three sisters meet at their mother’s grave, 8 pm on 2/4-5 and 2 & 8 pm, 2/6, Bartell Theatre-Evjue Stage. $20. 661-9696.

UW Dance Department: Annual faculty concert “Rule of Three”, 8 pm on 2/4-5 & 2/11-12 and 2:30 pm, 2/6 & 2/13, Lathrop Hall H’Doubler Performance Space. $20. uniontheater.wisc.edu. 265-2787.

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Justin Willman Thursday, Feb. 4, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm

15TH ANNUAL UNITED WAY BLUEGRASS BENEFIT BARRYMORE 2.14

Justin Willman is part comedian, part magician and 100% entertainer. He started performing for audiences at the early age of 12. Though he may be most recognizable from his stint hosting Food Network’s Cupcake Wars from 2009 to 2013, Willman is a regular guest on talk shows @Midnight, Conan and Ellen and has even performed at the White House. With Jeff Horste, Geoffrey Asmus. ALSO: Friday and Saturday (8 & 10:30 pm), Feb. 5-6.

BOOKS/SP OKEN WORD Kalyanii: Release party for “Om Namah,” her new book, 5 pm, 2/4, Chocolaterian Cafe. 249-1156.

LIZZO

MAJESTIC 2.19

Brad Paisley Friday, Feb. 5, Coliseum, 7:30 pm

On his recent track “Country Nation,” Brad Paisley sings about the 2,000 country stations in the United States and the mammoth nation that country fans have formed. A leader of this nation since 1999, Paisley has sold 12 million records, released 19 No. 1 country singles and won three Grammy awards. A hitmaker, guitar wizard and leader of his live band, the Drama Kings, Paisley released his most recent studio effort, Moonshine in the Trunk, in 2014. With Eric Paslay, Cam.

Mark Twain: In character performance by Richard Springer, 7 pm, 2/4, Pinney Library. 224-7100.

Poetry Open Mic: 6:30 pm, 2/4, Central Library.

266-6350.

ART EXHIBITS & EV ENTS Mark Weller: “Time Stacked Photography,” 2/4-3/2, UW Health Sciences Learning Center-first floor atrium. 263-5992.

CLOUD CULT

BARRYMORE 2.20

WILD & SCENIC FILM TOUR BARRYMORE 3.16

Kathy Sletten: Photographs, 12:30-3:30 pm Sundays, 2/7-28, PhotoMidwest (reception 7-9 pm, 2/4). photomidwest.org.

St. Lawrence String Quartet

Debbie Bobzien, Valerie Saxer: Paintings, 2/1-29, The Gallery at Yahara Bay (reception 5-9 pm, 2/4).

275-1050.

Stanford University’s acclaimed chamber ensemble is often described as passionate and innovative. The New York Times called the group “brilliant.” Judge for yourself when Geoff Nuttall (violin), Owen Dalby (violin), Lesley Robertson (viola) and Christopher Costanza (cello) take the stage for a night of virtuosity, performing works by Haydn and John Adams.

SP ECTATOR SP ORTS UW Men’s Basketball: vs. Ohio State, 6 pm, 2/4; vs. Nebraska, 6 pm, 2/10, Kohl Center. $41-$26.

262-1440.

P OLITICS & ACTIV ISM Listening Session Regarding the Department of Corrections: Public welcome to share stories about concerns with criminal justice system, 5 pm, 2/4, Grace Episcopal Church. facebook.com/ events/1126538977371350.

Friday, Feb. 5, Shannon Hall, 8 pm

ENV IRONM ENT Winter Conservation Conversation: “The biology and conservation of Monarch butterflies,” Blue Mounds Area Project talk by Karen Oberhauser, 7 pm, 2/4, State Bank of Cross Plains, Mount Horeb.

561-2627.

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

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ANI DIFRANCO BARRYMORE 4.9

WIN TICKETS @ ISTHMUS.COM/PROMOTIONS

The Demand Behind the Demands: Black Radicalisms and the Details of a New Tomorrow: UW Comparative U.S. Studies lecture by University of Illinois at Chicago professor Roderick Ferguson, 5:30 pm, 2/4, Elvehjem Building-Room L160. facebook.com/ events/447463878783543.

Wright Design Series: “Small Spaces, Big Ideas: Maximizing Resources Through Design” by Bill & Daniel Yudchitz, 7 pm, 2/4, Monona Terrace.

261-4000.

The Body is Not an Apology: UW Multicultural Student Center Black History Month lecture by Sonya Renee Taylor, 7 pm, 2/4, UW Red Gym. 263-2698.

Carnaval Friday, Feb. 5, High Noon Saloon, 8:30 pm

This annual celebration is back with two nights of rhythmic bacchanalia, Brazilian style, with the terrific Handphibians percussion ensemble and Ótimo Dance.

Friday’s roster includes Samba Novistas (pictured), Madison Choro Ensemble and Raízes do Brazil Capoeira. Saturday night (Majestic Theatre, 8:30 pm) features Metabaque, Grupo Balança, Drum Power, Forro Fo Sho and Dave Irwin.

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s

Valentine's Extravaganza!

301 Productionz & R.I.N.D Entertainment presents

M

WELCOME Bing BACK Bong STUDENTS THUR. FEB. 11

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2201 Bar · Bar & Grill · Event Venue Sports Atwood (608) Ave. 249-4333 8-10:30 PM $7 SUG. DON.

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SAT. FEB. 13

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SAT. FEB. 6 .

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Mon-Fri 6-9pm

____________________________________ BREAKFAST Sat-Sun 10am-1pm SUN. FEB. 14 3-6 pm

Mon JIMMY - Zumba!

6:30 PARTY BUFFETT Thur - Trivia 8-10pm

$10 admission includes one ticket for a Special Mon. 6:30-7:45 PM Thurs. 8 PM for $3 margaritas!

Valentine’s Day Raffle Prize! Also, Silent Auction Raffle Items to raise for the Madison Parks Foundation 1212 REGENT ST. 608-251-6766 1212and REGENT ST.funds608-251-6766

9pm / $7

FRI & SAT • FEB. 12-13.

in the Nightclub

MIDWEST GYPSY SWING FEST feat.

Harmonious Wail with...

Friday Lineup - 7pm

Saturday Lineup - 7pm

Alfonso Ponticell Joscho Stephan Duo & Swing Gitan Jack Soref Quartet Sam Miltich featuring Dallas Vietty

$10 donation

Wear Hawaiian feat. Chuck Bayuk & the Drunken Sailors

Open Tue-Sat 4pm - close

Electric Spanking

9:45 pm $7

Dig *Burger Nephews with 2 free toppings, 16 oz Miller Light SAT FEB 13 . 8PM Deep of Uncle Frank $10 . 18+ . Doors at 7

KARAOKE NIGHTEVERY WED at 9 PM

701 East Washington Ave. 608-661-8599

with Martha Larson

ticket info at midwestgypsyswingfest.com

SAT. FEB. 13.

SUNDAY, FEB. 21

in the Main Lounge / 8pm / $7

ORPHEUM THEATER

Valentine’s Benefit for MAMA CARES

216 STATE ST. MADISON

The Moon Gypsies

www.harmonybarandgrill.com THEREDZONEMADISON.COM THEREDZONEMADISON.COM

WWW.MADISONORPHEUM.COM

www.thebrinklounge.com WISCONSIN UNION THEATER

ST. LAWRENCE STRING QUARTET 2.5.16

JULIAN SANDS IN CELEBRATION OF HAROLD PINTER DIRECTED BY JOHN MALKOVICH

2.19.16

NOURA MINT SEYMALI 2.20.16 Mauritanian griot

UNIONTHEATER.WISC.EDU

608.265.ARTS

This concert was supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the state of wisconsin and the national endowment for the arts

The Anonymous Fund Evjue Foundation

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

AA

37

n ISTHMUS PICKS : FEB 5 Capital Brewery, Middleton: Madison Malone, 6 pm.

Cardinal Bar: Tony Castaneda Latin Jazz Quartet, free, 5:30 pm; DJs JP Blanchet,The Hermit, Lovecraft, Foundation, Shawn Paul, 9 pm.

R E T H E AT R E YMO T H A N N PRE RR 15 U A SE BA H E L NT T E H

UNITED WAY

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SORTIN’ THE MAIL 1:00

SAT,STILLHOUSE NOV1:4514 SIX $7LANDAU 9PM HDAVE THE KING OF KIDS MUSIC

2:30

MADFIDDLE & HIGHWAY 151 3:00

OAK STREET RAMBLERS 4:15

OLD TIN CAN STRING BAND 5:00 Sound by Steve Gotcher from Audio for the Arts

Tate’s BLUES JAM

Chief’s Tavern: Frankie Lee, Chuck Bayuk, Tim Haub, Kenny Koeppler & Tom McCarty, free, 6:30 pm.

FRI, FEB 5 H 8PM H $6 Rock & Roll, Blues, Funk & Soul

The

Volcanics Brandon Santini MEMPHIS SAT, FEB 6 H 9PM H $9

BLUES

2016 Blues Music Awards Nominee

Delaney’s Charcoal Steaks: Bob Kerwin & Doug Brown, jazz, free, 6 pm.

Dorf Haus, Roxbury: Chicago Keys, River Arts Inc. benefit, dueling pianos, 7 pm.

Autograf Friday, Feb. 5, Union South’s The Sett, 9 pm

Autograf is a bit of an oddity in electronic music. Trading the genre’s digitized repetition for live instrumentation, the trio has created a sound some critics describe as “tropical house.” Their debut single, “Dream,” features breezy kettledrums married to a club-ready bass groove that will make you want to get up out of your beach chair and dance until the sun comes up. Wunderkind Madisonian producer Melvv opens.

$10 Adults • $5 Children 5-12 Children Under 5 Free Maximum Family Cost $20 Tickets at the Door

T H E AT R E

2090 Atwood Ave. (608) 241-8633 barrymorelive.com

Fountain: Richard Shaten, free, 7:30 pm Fridays.

Gray’s Tied House, Verona: Peter Kish, free, 6 pm.

Great Dane-Hilldale: DJ Landology, 9 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Rock Star Gomeroke, 5 pm.

Ivory Room: Peter Hernet, Taras Nahirniak, Jim Ripp, dueling pianos, 8 pm.

Knuckle Down Saloon: The Volcanics, soul/rock, 8 pm.

Lakeside Street Coffee House: Madison Classical Guitar Society Showcase, free, 7 pm.

Liliana’s Restaurant, Fitchburg: Rand Moore Quartet, jazz, free, 6:30 pm.

Lucky’s, Waunakee: The Blues Party, free, 7:30 pm.

SAT. FEB 13

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

The Big Wes Turner Trio The Blues Disciples SUNDAY, FEB. 14 1PM

First Unitarian Society: Noon Musicale: New Muse Ensemble, works by Philip Glass, Zoltán Kodály, Jonathan Russ, Robert N. Ward, free, 12:15 pm.

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

Contemporary Male Blues Artist of the Year FRI. FEB 12

Essen Haus: Zweifel Brothers, free, 8:30 pm.

Mr. Robert’s: Giant Zero, free, 10 pm.

$2 OFF COVER w/ VALID COLLEGE ID ALL SHOWS 21+

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

Overture Center-Promenade Hall: Tommy Ensemble, cabaret, 7 pm.

2513 Seiferth Rd., Madison

222-7800

KnuckleDownSaloon.com

PaintBar: Beth Kille, Americana, 8 pm.

Alison Wonderland Friday, Feb. 5, Majestic Theatre, 9 pm

Alison Wonderland is a classically trained cellist turned EDM DJ. Her debut record, Run, which is, of course, heavy on bass, was released just last year; its first single “U Don’t Know” features the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, and its video stars Christopher Mintz-Plasse of “McLovin” fame. With Golden Features.

The Red Zone: Once Around, Archers, LyinHeart, Audiophilia, Something To Die For, 8 pm.

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

Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Middleton: John Widdicombe & Cliff Frederiksen, jazz, 6 pm.

St. James Catholic Church: American Feedbag, 7 pm.

Tavernakaya: DJ Nick Nice, free, 10 pm.

Tempest Oyster Bar: Louka, free, 9:30 pm.

Tuvalu Coffeehouse, Verona: Dana Perry, John Jacobs, plus open mic, 7:30 pm.

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

UW Union South-Sett: Cajun Strangers, free, 5 pm.

T H EAT ER & DA N C E

Little Women Friday, Feb. 5, Capitol Theater, 8 pm

BUHU

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

Friday, Feb. 5, The Frequency, 10 pm

38

BUHU is a pop-rock band that parties harder than your freshman-year roommate.

Hailing from Austin, Texas, the three-piece specializes in weird synth tones, stadiumsized guitar riffs and electronic backing tracks. The band’s debut full-length, Relationshapes, was released last month and features the high-five-worthy single “Youth is Breaking.” With Oh My Love, D’Amato.

1855 Saloon Grill, Cottage Grove: Robert J, free, 7 pm.

.com

Badger Bowl: DJs Drew Masters, MC C Scott, 9 pm.

The Bayou: Cajun Spice, free, 6:30 pm; DJ Chamo, Latin, free, 10 pm Fridays.

Brink Lounge: Edi Rey y Su Salsera, DJ Fresh, 9:30 pm.

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

Published in the late 1860s, Little Women tells of the lives of four sisters growing up in New England after the Civil War. Though it wasn’t fashioned into an opera until 1998, its themes of love, growth and struggle still resonate widely today. Madison Opera’s production features an onstage orchestra. ALSO: Sunday, Feb. 7, 2:30 pm.

Marriage-ability Friday, Feb. 5, Mary Dupont Wahlers Theatre (1480 Martin Street), 8 pm

Encore Studio for the Performing Arts, one of Madison’s most innovative theater companies, presents a musical comedy that examines marriage and partnership through the eyes of people with disabilities. The troupe consistently presents hilarious and fresh perspectives on humans of all abilities. ALSO: Saturday, Feb. 5 (2 & 8 pm). Through Feb. 20.

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39

418 E. WILSON ST. 608.257.BIRD CARDINALBAR.COM FRIDAY 2/5 LIVE HAPPY HOUR

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ONDA CUBANA DANNY

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TUESDAY 2/9

JAZZ JAM w/ THE NEW BREED 9PM FREE M ADISON’S CL A SSIC DA NC E B A R

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

380 W. Wash. Ave. 251.9999

www.MaharaniMadison.com

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Students 10% Discount Lunch or Dinner

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Footloose: Memorial Theater Company musical, 7:30 pm, 2/5-6 & 12-13, Memorial High SchoolTheater 300. $10. 442-2346.

Madison Ballet: Repertory: 8 pm on 2/5 and 2 & 8 pm, 2/6, Bartell Theatre. $30. 278-7990.

S POKEN WORD Madtown Poetry Open Mic: With Bethany Kanter, Ron Czerwein, 8 pm, 2/5, Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse. 255-4730.

JP Blanchett’s Birthday Bash

with DJ

n ISTHMUS PICKS : FEB 5 - 6

W. M A I N

ART E XHIBITS & EV ENTS

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

40

$2 Domestic Bottles Buy One Get One $3.75 Rail Drinks Buy One Get One on All Taps Half Price Appetizers Open M-F at 9am, Sat. at 10am, Sun at Noon

Great Lunch Specials every weekday 119 W. Main St. Madison • 608-256-2263 www.thenewparadiselounge.com

M USIC

Ivory Room: Steve Watts, Jim Ripp, Anthony Cao, dueling pianos, 8 pm.

Kiki’s House of Righteous Music: Adam Levy, Oedipus Tex, house concert (RSVP: righteousmusicmgmt@gmail.com), 9 pm.

Knuckle Down Saloon: Brandon Santini, blues, 9 pm.

Lakeside Bar & Grill, Poynette: Cool Front with Jon French, rock/blues/funk, 8 pm.

Lakeside Street Coffee House: Kristy Larson Trio, honky tonk, 7:30 pm.

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

Majestic Theatre: Carnaval featuring the Handphibians, Ótimo Dance, Metabaque, Grupo Balança, Drum Power, Forro Fo Sho, Dave Irwin. See page 36.

Larry Price: Paintings, 2/5-3/4, UW Hospital E5/2 Hospital Entrance. 263-5992.

Mezze: Charlie Painter & Friends, jazz, free, 9 pm.

Absolutely Art Reception: 3:30-7 pm, 2/5, UW Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic, with work by Alex Connelly, Christian Grooms, Poonam Rao, Rhea Ewing, Tim Sprengelmeyer, Mural & West SAIL MA DI SO N’S C Dane L A S SArts IC DA N C EArts BAR students, music. eventbrite.com/e/2019325958.

The Heart Show: New work by local artists, 5-10 pm, 2/5, Fat City Emporium, plus music by Greg Novak, Glassmen, Karen Wheelock. 422-5128.

S PECTATOR SP ORTS UW Swimming & Diving: vs. UW-Green Bay, 2/5, Natatorium. 262-1440.

Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women’s Indoor Championships: Hosted by UW, 2/5-8, Nielsen Tennis Stadium. 262-1440.

USA Climbing: Bouldering Youth National Championship: 2/5-7 Monona Terrace. usaclimbing.net.

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

Mother Fool’s: Stephanie Rearick, The Rohnellaros & the Spiders From Mars, David Bowie tribute, 8 pm.

Martin Courtney

Mr. Robert’s: Crackhammer, Switchblade Monkeys, Saurus, free, 10 pm.

Saturday, Feb. 6, Union South’s The Sett, 9 pm

Natt Spil: DJ NeeHigh, free, 10 pm.

As the frontman of indie darlings Real Estate, Martin Courtney specializes in making dreamy, surf-tinged indie pop. With Many Moons, his solo debut, Courtney builds on that template by adding in a healthy dose of contented introspection. Gone are Real Estate’s washedout guitars; instead Courtney’s soft-spoken vocals take the forefront, providing a refreshing view from one of modern indie rock’s best and brightest. With the Pollinators.

S PECI AL EV ENTS

L ECT URES & SEM INARS

Boy Scout Troop 29 Chili Supper: Annual fundraiser, 4-7 pm, 2/5, Bashford United Methodist Church. $8 ($4 ages 11 & under). fewayne@gmail.com.

KI D S & FAM ILY

Stoughton Opera House: Perfect Harmony Men’s Chorus, 3 pm.

Tavernakaya: DJ Funkenstein, free, 10 pm.

Tempest Oyster Bar: DJ Whodie Guthrie, free, 9:30 pm.

Tip Top Tavern: Tani Diakite & the Afrofunkstars, free, 10 pm.

Tricia’s Country Corners, McFarland: Thirsty Jones, rock, 9 pm.

Tuvalu Coffeehouse, Verona: Jackie Bradley, Wendy Olson, Bill Maynard & Mono in Stereo, Jake Morley, Marty Finkel, Gin Chocolate & Bottle Rockets, Bootsy La Vox, Joey Broyles, Terry Christopher, free, 6 pm.

VFW Post 1318-Lakeside St.: Rockbottom, R&B/ rock, free, 7 pm.

Frozen Assets Festival: Clean Lakes Alliance free family outdoor activities, 10 am-3 pm, 2/5-7, Edgewater Hotel; fundraiser party at 8 pm Saturday ($110). cleanlakesalliance.com/frozenassets. 255-1000.

Scandihoovian Winter Festival: Outdoor & indoor activities, 2/5-7, Mount Horeb/Blue Mounds area.

Schedule: scandiwinterfest.com.

Spring Green General Store: Acoustic River, 2 pm.

Tyranena Brewing Company, Lake Mills: Grandpa’s Elixir, free, 7 pm.

Adult Swim: Enjoy the museum kid-free, 6-10 pm, 2/5, Madison Children’s Museum, with “Maker Madness” themed craft activities, musical theater open mic & more. $15 ($12.75 adv.; 21+ only). 256-6445.

FOOD & DRINK

HAPPY HOUR 4-6

sat feb 6

Hop Haus Brewing Company, Verona: Lucas Cates Band, free, 7 pm.

Frank Stella: “Prints: A Retrospective,” 2/6-5/16, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA Nights reception 6-9 pm, 2/5, with music by Brandon Beebe, $10). 257-0158.

She Weeps Each Time You’re Born: Vietnam Beyond the American War: UW Center for Southeast Asian Studies reading by author Amy Quan Barry, noon, 2/5, Ingraham Hall-Room 206. 263-1755.

DOWNTOWN!

Madison Camper & RV Show: 10 am-9 pm on 2/5, 10 am-8 pm on 2/6 and 10 am-4 pm, 2/7, Alliant CenterExhibition Hall. $8/day. madisonrvshow.com. 222-1507.

In Motion: Photographs of school sports teams, 2/529, West High School-Colucci Gallery (reception 4:30-6 pm, 2/5). 255-0972.

Campus & Community Summit: Morgridge Center for Public Service 20th anniversary kick-off, 8 am5:30 pm, 2/5, UW Discovery Building, with keynote

by Andrew Seligsohn (11:45 am). Free. RSVP: morgridge.wisc.edu/20-summit. 263-2432.

The neighborhood bar

SP ECIAL INTERESTS

T H EAT ER & DA N C E

Bob Marley Birthday Bash!

Saturday, Feb. 6, High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm

2016 marks the eighth year that Natty Nation will honor reggae’s greatest icon with a birthday bash, and for the first time they’ll be playing two entire sets of Bob Marley’s music. Marley would have turned 71 on this date, and though Wisconsin’s premier roots rock group is releasing a new album in March, Natty Nation’s performance will be devoted to replicating Marley’s positive influence.

1855 Saloon, Cottage Grove: Mark Kamps, free, 7 pm.

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

Babe’s: Rod Ellenbecker’s American Standard, free, 8 pm.

Badger Bowl: Super Tuesday, rock, 9:15 pm.

Bandung: Mideast by Midwest Salsa, with free salsa lesson, 8:30 pm.

Cabin Fever: Vacation day program for ages 5-12, 9 am-4 pm, 2/5, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, Monona. $55 ($71 extended day). RSVP: 221-0404.

Barnes & Noble-West: Piano Playathon, benefit for American Family Chidren’s Hospital, donations, 9 am-5 pm.

Under the Starry Skies: Snowshoe hike for all ages, 6 pm, 2/5, Aldo Leopold Nature Center’s Black Earth Campus. $8 ($29/family). RSVP: 221-0404.

Brink Lounge: Electric Spanking, jam rock, 9 pm.

POL I T I CS & ACTIV ISM

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

Rally for Tenure, Quality Education & Academic Freedom: American Federation of Teachers & Wisconsin Higher Education Council event, 8 am, 2/5, UW Union South. 262-2108.

Essen Haus: Zweifel Brothers, free, 8:30 pm.

Bos Meadery: Jason Moon, free, 6:30 pm.

Brocach Irish Pub-Square: DJ Dot Sims, free, 11 pm.

Cardinal Bar: DJ Danny, 10 pm.

Crystal Corner Bar: Mojo Radio, Subatomic, 9:30 pm.

Fountain: Dave Schwab, piano, free, 8 pm.

The Frequency: Growing, Deadships, Archers, Pangaea, 10 pm.

Wild Rumpus Carnivale: Stilt walkers, juggling, aerialists & more, 2 & 7 pm on 2/6 and 2 pm, 2/7, Goodman Community Center. $10. 669-6403.

B O O KS / S PO K EN WO RD Sequoya Library Book Sale: 9 am-4 pm, 2/6, Westgate Mall. 266-6385.

Dean Robbins: Reading from “Two Friends,” his children’s book, 10 am, 2/6, Mystery to Me. 283-9332.

Len Mormino: Reading “Daddy’s Football Game,” his new children’s book, plus kids’ activities, 11:30 am, 2/6, Keva Sports Center, Middleton. 662-7529.

Lamon Manuel: Hip-hop/poetry workshop by OMAI visiting artist, 1 pm, 2/6, Central Library. 266-6300.

A RT EXH I B I TS & EV EN TS Primates Inc. Art Fundraiser: 2/6-3/5, Hops Museum (reception 7-10 pm, 2/6). 220-2166.

Wisconsin Alliance of Artists and Craftspeople: Annual exhibit, 2/6-3/5, UW Hospital-C5/2 Waiting Area, E5/2 Entrance, E5/2 & C5/2 Cases. 263-5992.

FO O D & D RI N K Grillin’ for Peace: Annual Savory Sunday fundraiser (feeding the homeless), 10:30 am-1:30 pm, 2/6, on Lake Wingra (near Vilas Beach), with a gigantic peace sign formed by grills during cookout. $35 donation to grill. RSVP: grilln4peace.org.

Winter Bazaar: Free product samples, truffle making demo, 3-6 pm, 2/6, FEED Kitchens. Free. 204-7015.

Souper Bowl: 20th annual Habitat for Humanity benefit, 2-8 pm, 2/6, West High School, with soup & salad dinner, entertainment. $15 includes ceramic art bowl to keep ($35/family with two bowls). habitatuw.org. 890-2882.

➡

WISCONSIN ATHLETICS

1.800.GO.BADGERS UWBADGERS.COM

WOMEN’S TENNIS

WRESTLING

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

FRIDAY-MONDAY, FEB. 5-8

SUNDAY, FEB. 7 | NOON

MONDAY, FEB. 8 | 6PM

ITA NATIONAL TEAM INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP FREE ADMISSION!

Nielsen Tennis Stadium

vs. MINNESOTA

Post-Match Autographs

vs. PURDUE

Family Four Packs 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs & 4 sodas for $28 (must be purchased in advance)

UW Field House

Kohl Center

PLQXWH ,3$ PLQXWH ,3$ 12: $9$,/$%/( 12: $9$,/$%/( 21 GUDIW 21 '5$)7 $9$,/$%/( $7 7+( )2//2:,1* /2&$7,216 FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

-25'$1·6 %,* 38% '(;7(5·6 3$8/·6 &/8% &5$)760$1 7$%/( 7$3 (&+2 7$3 0(5&+$17

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n ISTHMUS PICKS : FEB 6 - 8

TUESDAY NIGHT IS 701A E. Washington Ave. 268-1122 www.high-noon.com

thu feb

CASPIAN O'Brother

4

fri feb

5

8pm $15 18+

CARNAVAL 2016 HAPPYOKE Rock Star Gomeroke 5pm $7

The Handphibians Samba Novistas Otimo Madison Brazilian Dance Madison Choro Ensemble Raízes do Brazil Capoeira / 9PM $15

8th Annual

sat feb

6

BOB MARLEY BIRTHDAY BASH! Natty Nation

Tropical Riddims Sound System

DJ at 8pm, Band at 9:30 $12 adv, $20 dos

sun feb

7

18+

Football Screening P a rt y 5pm FREE

EJ’s Cafe Birthday Bash!

mon feb

8

tue feb

9

10

LoMarie Stone Barone & the Mad Tones 7:30pm

thu feb

11

live band karaoke 9pm FREE

JAN 26 THRU MARCH 29

FLEMING’S Filet & Flights available in the bar. Petite Filet, Mashed Potatoes and Red Wine Flight for just $39.95.

5 FOR $6 ‘TIL 7. Each selection $6, from 5-7 pm in the bar.

PASQUAL’S CANTINA The “Lovers Fajita Platter” 2 house margaritas, a large fajita platter to share & 2 desserts for $30.

Candlelight Ski/Hike/Snowshoe: Trails lit by candles, plus bonfire & concessions, 5:30-8:30 pm, 2/6, Blue Mound State Park, Blue Mounds (437-5711); and 6-8 pm, 2/6, Mirror Lake State Park, Baraboo. Free; state park admission required. 254-2333.

KIDS & FAM ILY Kids in the Rotunda: Music by Black Star Drum Line, 9:30 & 11 am and 1 pm, 9:30 am, 2/6, Overture Center-Rotunda Stage. 258-4141.

Saturday Science: “Science of Badger Athletics,” demonstrations & activities, 10 am-noon, 2/6, UW Discovery Building. Free. 316-4382.

Daddy/Daughter Dance: Annual Madison Parks event designed for ages 5-12 & fathers, 3-5 or 6-8 pm, 2/6, Warner Park Community Recreation Center, with DJ, games, refreshments. $25. RSVP: 245-3690.

F UNDRAISERS

sun feb 7

Buy 5, Get 1 Free.

SUNDANCE CINEMAS

Bird’s Eye Red Rose Film Screening Chris LaBella 5pm FREE 18+

DANCING

Trivia Night: Annual Friends of the New Glarus Public Library fundraiser, 7 pm, 2/6, Barnaby’s Monticello House, Monticello. $10/person. 527-2003.

GIGI’S CUPCAKES

“Just Eat It”

$5

Pour’n Your Heart Out: Iron pouring, noon-6 pm, 2/6, Sector67. Spectators welcome. felionstudios.com.

Storybook Magic: “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” themed activities with Children’s Theater of Madison, 10 am-1 pm, 2/6, DreamBank. Free; supplies provided. RSVP: 286-3150.

8 FOR $9 ’TIL 10. Each selection $9, from 8-10 pm in the bar.

$10

9:30pm

SP ECIAL INTERESTS

RECREATION & GAM ES

The Smells ROCKSTAR The Wekons GOMEROKE (Mekons Tribute)

Whad’Ya Know?: Live radio broadcast with host Michael Feldman, 9:30 am, 2/6, Monona Terrace. $10. 262-2201.

Madison Tango Society Milonga: Music by Andres Gross & Bob Barnes, DJ Tony DeGregoria, 8 pm-midnight, 2/6, Madison Senior Center. $17. 238-2039.

AT

Royal Jelly Teddy Davenport & the Cushions Crackity Jones (Pixies tribute) The Apollo Affair / 7:30pm $7

6pm $5

wed feb

DATE NIGHT

ARTS NOTICES

Free small bag of popcorn with dinner receipt.

7 0 2 N M I DVA L E B LV D – H I L L DA L E . C O M

M USIC

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ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

GOODNIGHT MOON

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FEBRUARY 20-28 The Playhouse at Overture Center TICKETS:

ctmtheater.org 608.258.4141

FO O D & D RI N K Chili Dinner: Cub Scout Pack 3352 annual fundraiser, 11 am-2 pm, 2/7, Brooklyn Community Center. $8 (free ages 5 & under). jerodwooldridge@hotmail.com.

Super Bowl Brunch: Fundraiser for Catholic Heart Work Camp youth mission trip, 8:30 am-noon, 2/7, Immaculate Heart of Mary School. $9 adults ($5 ages 5-10). 221-1777.

EN V I RO N MEN T UW Arboretum Walk: “Winter Birds” topic, 1 pm, 2/7, UW Arboretum Visitor Center. 263-7888.

Bird/Nature Walk: Friends of Cherokee Marsh, all ages, 1:30 pm, 2/7, Cherokee Marsh-North Unit. 698-0104.

K I D S & FA MI LY Walbridge School Open House: Meet teachers, staff & current parents, 1-3 pm, 2/7, 7035 Old Sauk Road.

833-1338.

mon feb 8 MUS I C Alchemy Cafe: DJ Samroc, free, 10 pm Mondays.

The Bayou: Open Mic, free, 8 pm Mondays.

Cold Fusion, Middleton: Bluegrass Jam, free, 6:30 pm Mondays.

Harmony Bar: David Landau, family concert, 5:30 pm Mondays.

High Noon Saloon: Royal Jelly, Teddy Davenport, Crackity Jones (Pixies tribute), The Apollo Affair, 7:30 pm.

Liliana’s Restaurant, Fitchburg: Edgewood High School Jazz, free, 6 pm.

Malt House: The Kissers, Irish, free, 7:30 pm.

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

Up North Pub: Pat Ferguson, free, 7 pm.

L EC T URES & S EMI N A RS

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

Junot Diaz: Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Distinguished Lecture Series features the “This is How Your Lose Her” author on writing, 7:30 pm, 2/8, UW Memorial Union-Shannon Hall. 262-1143.

Chazen Museum of Art: Sunday Afternoon Live: Wisconsin Brass Quintet, free, 12:30 pm.

S PEC TATO R S PO RTS

Bourbon Street Grille, Monona: Madison Jazz Jam, free (all ages), 4 pm.

The Frequency: Aaron Parnell Brown, Jacob Jones, 8 pm.

AT

Ice Age Trail Alliance-Dane County Chapter: Crosscountry ski/hike/showshoe, 10 am, 2/7, Brooklyn State Wildlife Area. djwallac@wic.edu. 835-5144.

UW Women’s Basketball: vs. Purdue, 7 pm, 2/8, Kohl Center. $7. 262-1440.

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

A RTS N OT I C ES

Grace Episcopal Church: Madison Sacred Harp Singers, shape-note singing (a cappella choral folk music form; all invited to sing), 3 pm.

Open Studio: Drawing with artist in residence Angela Richardson, 1 pm, 2/8; 4-6 pm Tuesdays, through 2/23, Central Library. 266-6300.

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

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

K I D S & FA MI LY

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

Afterschool Expeditions: “Tree of Life,” celebrating Darwin Day & the 100th anniversary of professor James F. Crow’s birth, 2:30-5 pm, 2/8, UW Discovery Building-Town Center. Free. RSVP: discovery.wisc.edu. 316-4675.

SP OKEN WORD

Music Together: Ages 5 & under, 10 am Mondays, 2/1-29, Central Library. 266-6300.

Olbrich Gardens-Evjue Commons: Hanson Family Band, jazz, 2 pm.

Spring Green General Store: Acoustic Jam, 1 pm.

Winter Festival of Poetry: Readings by Guy Thorvaldsen, Cristina Norcross, Gordon Glass, Christopher Chambers, Kimberly Blanchette, Patricia FreresStinger, 2 pm, 2/7, Fountain. 242-7340.

Preschool Storytime: Ages 3-5, 10:30 am Mondays, 2/1-3/14, Lakeview Library. 246-4547.

SP ECTATOR SP ORTS

Storytime for the Very Young: Ages 0-2, 11:30 am Mondays, 2/1-3/14, Lakeview Library. 246-4547.

UW Wrestling: vs. Minnesota, noon, 2/7, Field House. $5. 262-1440.

RECREATION & GAM ES Skating Party with UW Women’s Hockey Team: Free Madison Parks event for all ages, 11:30 am-1 pm, 2/7, Vilas Park. 266-4711.

Toddler Art: Class, 10:45 am Mondays, 2/1-29, Sequoya Library. 266-6385.

PO L I T I C S & AC T I V I S M Radicals & Progressives Meet & Eat: Peregrine Forum event, 6 pm, 2/8, Orient House. 284-9082.

➡

The Musicians of Silence

MUMMENSCHANZ:

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SUN, FEB 21, 3 PM | $25+ Born in Switzerland in 1972, this visual spectacle is truly unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Feb. 12 - 27 OVERTURECENTER.ORG | 608.258.4141

This weekend only!

Post-show Meet the Artist Q&A

Come see what The New York Times called “some kind of masterpiece.”

Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel about four sisters in 1860s New England premiered as an opera in 1998 to instant acclaim. With moving arias, comic exchanges, and emotional confrontations, it is a showpiece for the young cast who portray the sisters and their suitors.

by Mark Adamo pera

Febr uar y 5 & 7, 2016 Capitol Theater

Tickets start at just $25!

Sponsored by Millie & Marshall Osborn

Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation

Lau & Bea Christensen Charitable Foundation

at O ver tu re Center

Sung in English with projected text

madisonopera.org | tickets: 608.258.4141 |

Charles Snowdon & Ann Lindsey

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

A

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ConduCted by Kyle Knox | direCted by Candace Evans Featuring the M adiSon SyMphony orCheStra

emiere Pr

Madiso

after the novel by Louisa May Alcott

Starring Heather Johnson, Courtney Miller, Jeni Houser, Chelsea Morris Shephard, Brenda Harris, Eric Neuville, Alexander Elliott, Craig Verm

43

n ISTHMUS PICKS : FEB 9 - 10

tue feb 9 M USIC Alchemy Cafe: Ted Keys Trio with Jon Hoel, jazz, free, 10 pm; DJs Jorts, Tank Top Troy, Earth, Wind & Fire tribute, midnight.

wed feb 10 MUS I C

The Bayou: Cajun Spice, free, 7 pm.

Brocach Irish Pub-Square: Open Mic with Andy Richard, free, 8:30 pm Tuesdays.

Cardinal: New Breed Jazz Jam, free, 9 pm Tuesdays.

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

Essen Haus: Copper Box, Americana, free, 6:30 pm.

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

The Frequency: The Jimmy K Show, Max Ink Radio podcast recording with Johnny Likes Noize, Motherhive, free, 7 pm.

High Noon Saloon: The Smells, The Wekons (Mekons tribute), 6 pm; Rock Star Gomeroke, audience invited to sing with The Gomers, free, 9 pm Tuesdays.

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

SELLING FA

THU, FEB 11–SUN, FEB 14 | $45+ THU, FEB 11: Post-show Meet the Artist Q&A

ST!

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

Louisianne’s, Middleton: Johnny Chimes, New Orleans piano, free, 6 pm Tuesdays-Wednesdays.

Malt House: Birds, Birds, Birds, free, 7:30 pm.

Mason Lounge: Five Points Jazz Collective, free, 9 pm Tuesdays.

NOW–FEB 7 The Sound of Music FEB 11–14 STOMP FEB 21 MUMMENSCHANZ

The Musicians of Silence

FEB 25 FREE | MadCity Sessions:

The Gomers

FEB 27 Trinity Irish Dance Co. FEB 27 Duck Soup Cinema: Speedy MAR 1–6 Motown The Musical MAR 6 Daniel Tiger’s SELLING FAST!

Neighborhood LIVE!

MAR 8 National Geographic Live:

Stranger in a Strange Land

MAR 11 Ahn-Core Ahn Trio!

MAR 24 FREE | MadCity Sessions:

The Jimmys

APR 8 David Sanborn Electric Band APR 14 FREE | MadCity Sessions: ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

Sexy Ester

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APR 16 Duck Soup Cinema:

The Cameraman

APR 17 Moon Mouse:

A Space Odyssey

OVERTURECENTER.ORG | 608.258.4141

Neighborhood House: Bluegrass Jam, free, 7 pm Tuesdays.

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

UW Humanities Building-Morphy Hall: Elias Goldstein, Paganini’s “Caprices,” UW School of Music concert, free, 7:30 pm.

UW Union South-Sett: Johnny Chimes, free, 4:30 pm.

THEATER & DANCE Aristocats KIDS: Fox Prairie Elementary production of a classic Disney musical tale of a cat-napped cat & her kittens and their rescue by a group of rag-tag alley cats, 6:30 pm on 2/9 and 7:30 pm, 2/10, Stoughton Opera House. Free/donations. 877-4400.

BOOKS Kathleen Ernst: Discussing “A Settler’s Year: Pioneer Life Through the Seasons,” her new book, 1 pm, 2/9, Madison Senior Center. 266-6581.

ART EXHIBITS & EV ENTS UW Art Department Faculty Quadrennial Exhibition: Through 4/17, Chazen Museum of Art (artist talks: Gerit Grimm 12:30 pm, 2/9; Helen Lee 12:30 pm, 2/10; Tom Loeser 12:30 pm, 2/11; Matthew Bakkom 5:30 pm, 2/11). 263-2246.

Malcolm Bracey: Paintings, through 2/12, Art In Gallery. 535-9976.

Tongue Party Wednesday, Feb. 10, Mickey’s Tavern, 10 pm

Fast and fun Minneapolis punk quartet Tongue Party plays distorted, guitar-first rock ’n’ roll, tracking seven crunchy tunes on their self-titled 2015 cassette that drip with raw energy. Madison is the first outof-town date on Tongue Party’s 33-show eastern U.S. tour, and they’ll be joined by local psych-tinged rockers the Minotaurs and hazy garage quintet Dumb Vision.

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

Brink Lounge: Amber Dawn, Margo Tiedt, Mackenzie Moore, Brenna Gibbons, Lukcy Charms, John Gazely, Beth Kille, 8 pm.

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

Cardinal Bar: DJ Fabe, 9 pm.

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

The Frequency: Howl, Blacker Brothers Band, 9 pm.

Genna’s Lounge: Open Mic, free, 9 pm Wednesdays.

High Noon Saloon: LoMarie, Stone Barone & the Mad Tones, 7:30 pm.

Ivory Room: Vince Strong, piano, free, 9 pm.

Liliana’s Restaurant, Fitchburg: Cliff Frederiksen & Ken Kuehl, jazz, free, 5:30 pm Wednesdays.

Opus Lounge: Teddy Davenport, free, 9 pm.

Up North Pub: MoonHouse, free, 8 pm.

UW Humanities Building-Mills Hall: Daniel Grabois, horn, UW School of Music concert, free, 7:30 pm.

UW Union South-The Sett: Open Mic with Ben Cameron, free, 8 pm Wednesdays.

VFW Post 7591-Cottage Grove Road: Jerry Stueber, free, 6 pm Wednesdays.

CO MEDY Open Mic: 9 pm Wednesdays, Comedy Club on State. $2. 256-0099.

LECTURES & SEM INARS

S PEC TATO R S PO RTS

No Man’s Land is Ours: James Reese Europe and Jazz Before and After the Great War: Sound Salon discussion by musicologist Susan C. Cook & Mayrent Institute Director Henry Sapoznik, 7 pm, 2/9, Memorial Library-Room 126. Free. 890-4818.

Madison Capitols: USHL vs. Muskegon, 7:05 pm, 2/10, Alliant Energy Center-Coliseum. $20.50$12.50. 267-3955.

S PEC I A L I N T ERESTS

The Promise of Paris: Wisconsin Academy panel discussion featuring state participants in the COP21 conference, 7 pm, 2/9, UW Discovery Building-Town Center. Free. RSVP: wisconsinacademy.org. 263-1692 ext. 20.

RSVP for Chimera Self Defense: Rape Crisis Center workshop designed for women, 6-9 pm Wednesdays, 2/17-3/9, Meriter Hospital-McConnell Hall. $120.

RSVP by 2/10: danecountyrcc.org. 251-5126 ext. 21.

HOM E & GARDEN Native Gardening: Workshop, 2 pm, 2/9, UW Arboretum Visitor Center. $30. RSVP: 263-7888.

FOOD & DRINK Love, Power and Networks: Building an Equitable Regional Food Economy and Community: Viewing of Forward Community Investments webinar and discussion, noon, 2/9, UW-Extension Dane County. Free. RSVP: eventbrite.com/e/20975115134. 224-3706.

L EC T URES & S EMI N A RS Africa at Noon: UW African Studies lecture: “‘Mau Mau are Angels… Sent by Haile Selassie’: Beyond the Nation in Africa and the Caribbean,” by University of Colorado-Boulder associate professor Myles Osborne, noon, 2/10, Ingraham Hall-Room 206. 262-2380.

UW Art Department Visiting Artist Colloqium: Talk by Michael Swaine, 4:30 pm, 2/10, Elvehjem Building-Room L160. 262-1660.

➡

Heartfelt gifts

Mardi Gras & Fasching

Fat Tuesday

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iple Chair Lifts • Freestyle Terrain For All Skill Levels eginner Area That Includes a 5,> 500-Foot Magic Carpet! ol Airbag! • Friday Night Late Nite Great Nite!* rinks in the Double Diamond Bar and Tyrol Café before (Excluding $12 Tuesday) r Ski/Ride FREE •when Justpurchased 20 Minutes West4PM of Madison

NEVER A COVE R! FREE BEADS! FREE PARKING !

Feb. 9 3 pm -Close Cajun Menu ecialSs Drink RDSIpHUR RICANE $3.75 BACA of BIER $4.50 HALF-LITERS IALS SELECT SHOT SPEC NS RGAI BOTTLED BEER BA

Live MuEsi5-c8PM

HOUS WHEELCo at me Back In 6:30-10PM COOPER BOX at Essen Haus

Valentine’s Day Essen Haus Valentine’s Duo FEB. 12-14

Almond Crusted Chicken & Beef Tenderloin Forestiere ~ $36.95

*Served with two choices of soup or salad and a complimentary bottle of Haus wine or champagne.

4135

t Horeb, WI

www.tyrolbasin.com

Just 5 miles north of Mount Horeb and 20 minutes west of Madison

608-437-4135 • www.TyrolBasin.com

Does your chili have what it takes to win?

20 COOKS • 2 WINNERS

SUPER SALE

SAVE UP TO 75%

Ends Sat. Feb. 13

7432 Mineral Point Road ~Near West Towne Mall~ 608-827-8270 www.LuAnders.com

6-8pm Email chili.essenhaus@gmail.com for information about entering

Chili Tasting:

$10 for Adults FREE for Children (10 & under) Visit Essen Haus Madison’s facebook page for THREE ways to save!

514 E. Wilson St., Madison 255-4674 • essen-haus.com comebackintavern.com

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Extra 40% Off Fall & Winter Clothing and Accessories

February 20th

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n ISTHMUS PICKS : FEB 10 - 11

FRANK STELLA PRINTS A RETROSPECTIVE FEBRUARY 6–MAY 22, 2016

Wednesday Nite at the Lab: Free UW Alumni Association lecture series, with “The Genetics of Feather Diversity” by Wen-Hsiung Li and “The Health Risk of Deleterious Mutations: 20 Years Later” by Alexey Kondrashov, 7 pm, 2/10, UW Genetics-Biotechnology Center Auditorium. 265-2420.

CO MEDY

thu feb 11 M USIC Alchemy Cafe: The Pine Travelers, Americana, free, 10 pm.

Babe’s Restaurant: Robert J, Americana, 6:30 pm.

Brink Lounge: Mike Massey & Francie Phelps, rock/ pop, 8 pm.

Cardinal Bar: DJ Chamo, Latin, 10 pm.

Club Tavern, Middleton: Adam Lee, Madpolecats, free, 8 pm.

Crystal Corner Bar: The Vipers, The Cutouts, Compact Deluxe, WORT-FM benefit, 8 pm.

Essen Haus: WheelHouse, free, 9 pm.

The Frequency: Warhead, Brain Dead, 9 pm.

Harmony Bar: Bing Bong, rock, 8 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Bird’s Eye, Red Rose, Chris LaBella, 9:30 pm.

Ivory Room: Josh Dupont, Leslie Cao, dueling pianos, 9 pm.

Majestic Theatre: New Speedway Players, FlowPoetry, Grateful Dead tribute, 9 pm.

Merchant: Sam Luna & Shaun Marie, free, 10 pm.

Mickey’s Tavern: Mal-O-Dua, French swing/Hawaiian slack key, free, 5:30 pm.

Nau-Ti-Gal: Riled Up, free, 8 pm.

Tavernakaya: DJ Mike Carlson, free, 10 pm.

THEATER & DANCE

OPENING RECEPTION WITH THE ARTIST

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

46

Support for Frank Stella Prints: A Retrospective and related outreach has been provided by:

S PO K EN WO RD Michael Perry: “Off on a Tangent,” stories, 7:30 pm, 2/11, Stoughton Opera House. $20. 877-4400.

A RT EXH I B I TS & EV EN TS Under the Influence: 6:30-9 pm, 2/11, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, with discussion of Warrington Colescott exhibit, art activities, food & beverage pairings. $45 (ages 21+). RSVP: 257-0158 ext. 224.

FUN D RA I S ERS Ronald McDonald House of Madison Fundraiser: Raffle for a bottle of Samuel Adams Utopias, 4-7 pm, 2/11, World of Beer, Middleton, with music by David Hecht. Raffle tickets $10. 833-5400.

FO O D & D RI N K

Thursday, Feb. 11, Capitol Theater, 7:30 pm

Frank Stella, Star of Persia II, from Star of Persia Series, 1967.

Lithograph on English Vellum graph paper, 26 x 31 inches.

Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. © 2016 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Michael Kosta won four Big Ten tennis titles while he attended the University of Illinois, and now he’s a standup comedian.

In the last five years he’s made appearances on Conan and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His album, Comedy for Attractive People, is recommended for attractive and unattractive folks alike. With Gena Gephart. ALSO: Friday (8 & 10:30 pm) and Saturday (5:30, 8 & 10:30 pm), Feb. 12-13.

Wisconsin Whalers: USA Hockey Tier III Junior A team vs. Rochester Icehawks, 7 pm, 2/11, Oregon Ice Arena. $7. wisconsinwhalers.com.

Stomp

LEARN MORE AT MMOCA.ORG

Thursday, Feb. 11, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm

S PEC TATO R S PO RTS

FEBRUARY 5, 6–9 PM 6:30–7:30 PM FRANK STELLA IN CONVERSATION OVERFLOW SEATING AVAILABLE AS FIRST COME FIRST SERVED. $10 ADMISSION/FREE FOR MEMBERS

Michael Kosta

Stomp, the inventive, eight-person percussion collective, is now 25 years old.

Since its inception in 1991, the crew has made an IMAX movie, contributed to an Olympics closing ceremony and won more awards than they know what to percussively do with. The show, which features members using everyday materials as instruments, isn’t seen — it’s felt.

ALSO: Friday (8 pm), Saturday (2 & 8 pm) and Sunday (2 pm), Feb. 12-14.

BOOKS Book Sale: Noon-8:30 pm on 2/11 ($6 admission), 9 am-8:30 pm on 2/12, 9 am-4:30 pm on 2/13 and 1-4 pm, 2/14, Pinney Library. 224-7100.

Book Sale: 9 am-9 pm on 2/11, 9 am-6 pm, on 2/12 and 9 am-5 pm, 2/13, Central Library. 266-6300.

Dean Robbins: Reading from “Two Friends,” his children’s book, 6:30 pm, 2/11, Arcadia Books, Spring Green. 588-7638.

A Place at the Table: UW Multicultural Student Center Black History Month free community meal, 6:30 pm, 2/11, UW Red Gym. 263-2698.

L EC T URES & S EMI N A RS Evolution Seminar Series: UW JF Crow Institute lecture, “Tumor Evolution,” by Chung-I Wu (University of Chicago), noon, 2/11, Genetics/Biotechnology Center Auditorium. evolution.wisc.edu.

Jazz and Race in Russia: UW CREECA lecture by jazz vocalist Sharon Clark, 4 pm, 2/11, Ingraham Hall-Room 206. 262-3379.

PO L I T I C S & AC T I V I S M Free Bus to Democratic Presidential Debate: Ride with Fight for $15 organization for rally/march in Milwaukee, departs 2 pm, 2/11, Hawthorne Library. brian@wisconsinjobsnow.com. 219-2064.

EN V I RO N MEN T Yahara Lakes 101: Clean Lakes Alliance series, “Pollution Prevention,” 8 am, 2/11, Edgewater HotelStatehouse. $10. RSVP: cleanlakesalliance.isthmustickets.com. 255-1000.

Pond Life: Naturalists’ Winter Enrichment class, $10, 9 am, 2/11, UW Arboretum Visitor Center. 263-7888.

Conservation Easements: Natural Heritage Land Trust brown bag lunch talk, noon, 2/11, Sequoya Library. RSVP: nhlt.org. 258-9797.

SEARCH THE FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS AT ISTHMUS.COM

University Theatre, 2016

Chazen Museum of Art, 2015

University Theatre, 2014

Wisconsin Film Festival, 2015

School of Music, 2015

Interdisciplinary Artists in Residence, 2014

Dance Department, 2015

art dance design g film literary arts music theater •

•

•

TICKETS

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arts.wisc.edu is your resource for all UW–Madison arts events Easy! Know Before the Show:

arts.wisc.edu/map.htm

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Arts on Campus is sponsored by the UW–Madison Arts Institute

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

PARKING?

•

47

n EMPHASIS

BULLDOG RECOVER AND RESTORE

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1009 Mills St., Black Earth

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608-516-5368

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facebook.com/Bulldog-Recover-and-Restore-1643218202627600/

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11am-5 pm Sat., noon-4 pm Sun.

Barn wood and apple crates Bulldog Recover and Restore rescues the rustic

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016

BY CANDICE WAGENER

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Bulldog Recover and Restore is worth a weekend trip out to Black Earth to find barn wood, old apple crates and furniture made from rescued vintage wood.

Owner Ken Meigs learned woodworking and carpentry before he even started kindergarten, working alongside his grandfather and uncle in their shops.

He’s the owner of Meigs Inc., a construction company known for building the Shoe Box (another worthwhile stop in Black Earth) and high-end horse barns. He’s been collecting abandoned materials for years from work sites, in addition to garage and estate sales and at the curb on junk day. Inspired by shows like American Pickers, Salvage Dawgs and West End Salvage, Meigs started displaying his one-of-a-kind creations at the liquor store owned by his wife, Susan. When an old feed mill property on Mills Street, Black Earth’s main drag, became available, Meigs and his family seized the opportunity to open a dedicated space. Currently Bulldog Recover and Restore is open only on weekends, but business has been brisk. The Meigs family hopes to extend their hours to Thursdays and Fridays eventually.

Other friends and vendors contribute to the “picking,” so that Meigs can focus on re-

purposing and upcycling. Salvage items yet to find new life are for sale as-is alongside Meigs’ custom-made pieces.

One of his favorites is a large table with matching benches, built out of 200-year-old barn wood; Meigs marvels at the wood’s character.

Several old-fashioned radio cabinets have been repurposed into beautiful wine racks.

One of his pickers rebuilds radios, and needs parts from multiple radios to rebuild one working version. This leaves him with a lot of leftover cabinets. Meigs is able to restore the finishes from “pretty bad shape” to almost original condition.

He’s also created hanging lamps out of old license plates. Tables from license plates are so popular he can’t keep them in stock. “Fast as I build one, somebody comes and buys it,” he says.

Meigs restored a cabinet taken from the oldest house in Mazomanie, adding shelves and a glass door. He had gone to the house, which was being remodeled, to collect the bathtub and saw the cabinet sitting on the front lawn. “They were going to burn it,” recalls Meigs. Instead, he rescued it.

And “rescue” really should be the third “R” in Bulldog Recover and Restore, as heirloom items are brought back from the brink and given new life. n

Rustic collectibles (above) are just the tip of the iceberg at Bulldog.

Owner Ken Meigs also makes wine racks from vintage radios (right) and custom-crafts furniture from reclaimed wood including barn boards.

CANDICE WAGENER PHOTOS

n CLASSIFIEDS

Housing Designed for an Artist Unique home sits on approx 1.5 acres adjoining Stewart Park. Many options for gardening,hiking and enjoying your spectacular views. This home offers plenty of natural light, privacy and contemporary spaces throughout.

Entertainers will love the kitchen, and wide open spaces. Truly a must see for someone looking for privacy with in town convenience.

For a private showing contact Karen Tetzlaff, CRS 608-575-1298 or visit www.movewithkaren.com for more information and a 3D tour.

MADISON - 1217 Meadow Sweet. Valley Ridge subdivision, secluded backyard on Park, 2-story, 2137 sq. ft, 4 BR, 2.5 BA, fireplace, 9’ ceiling, 6-panel doors, main level laundry, SS appliances, exposed LL for future build & BA, 2-car garage, fruit trees.

MLS#1765549 $355,000 Kathy Tanis (608) 469-5954 Bunbury & Associates Realtors

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) 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

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

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

One Bedroom Apt with Garage, near East Side, March 1st. Hardwoods, updated kitchen / bath, windows galore. $1000.00/Month includes heat and water(No Pets & No Smokers). 608-242-7141 ALL AREAS ROOMMATES.COM. Lonely?

Bored? Broke? Find the perfect roommate to complement your personality and lifestyle at Roommates.com! (AAN CAN) Near West Madison: 2 bdrm house for rent, close to UW Hospital and Hilldale. $1200 per month plus utilities. 2833 Barlow St. (608) 213-2915.

LAST CHANCE! The

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.

Book of Love portal closes Sunday, Feb. 7

Jobs RESIDENTIAL SERVICES COORDINATOR Create-Ability, Inc. is looking for positive, creative, team-oriented and organized individuals to work w/adults who have developmental disabilities in their homes and community.

FT position available M-F Responsibilities incl:coordinating consumer supports such as staffing, finances, medical appts., community activities, etc; staff supervision; direct support work; liaison w/consumer, family/guardian, broker, other support agencies.

Requirements incl: experience working w/ adults w/dev. disabilities and supervisory exp. highly preferred; Degree in related field or combo of experience and college coursework; excellent oral and written communication skills; valid driv. lic; access to insured vehicle.

the 2016 Isthmus

Book of Love send us your lovely words and pretty pictures

Competitive salary with excellent benefits, incl. health, dental, life ins., earned time off, and more. Please send cover letter & resume with last two years of salary history and salary expectations no later than February 12, 2016 Tom Griffin Create-Ability, Inc. 122 E. Olin Avenue, Suite 255 Madison, WI 53713 608-280-0206, ext. 255 tomg@create-ability.org EOE/AA

Staff Writer

Please send a cover letter, resume and links to three clips to apply@isthmus.com no later than Feb. 19.

ISTHMUS IS AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION / EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

your words and pictures ’til midnight Sunday, Feb. 7.

Isthmus will publish a selection in print Thursday, Feb. 11, with a web slideshow to follow in plenty of time for Valentine’s Day.

Upload your words and pictures online

isthmus.com/book-of-love-2016 PRESENTED BY

SHOW SOME LOVE FOR OUR SPONSOR!

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

Isthmus is a 40-year-old award-winning alt-weekly in Madison, Wis. Our print edition and elegant website reflect our focus on local news and entertainment, killer graphics and quality writing.

We are looking for a first-rate reporter with a nose for scoops. The applicant should be able to quickly put together an online post as well as research and write in-depth narrative features. This writer will contribute to our food section, covering local restaurants as well as trends in the food and beverage industries, and should be able to write authoritative restaurant reviews. The writer would be expected to be active on social media and contribute, as needed, to the lifestyle/consumer, news and arts sections of Isthmus. The position is a full-time job with benefits, and salary is commensurate with experience.

The Isthmus Book of Love online entry is now open, accepting

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JONESIN’

n CLASSIFIEDS

“A Light Dusting” — unlike in some areas.

#765 BY MATT JONES ©2016 JONESIN’ CROSSWORDS

ACROSS

1 1990 Gerardo hit “___ Suave” 5 Depeche ___ 9 Guardian Angels hat 14 See 28-Down 15 Apple MP3 player 16 Battery terminal 17 Sondheim song that starts “Isn’t it rich?”

20 “Right now” 21 102, to Caesar 22 Apprehend 23 Have a meal 24 “Platoon” star Willem 26 Altared statement?

28 Park where Citi Field is located 35 Chinese tea variety 36 Tiresome, like a joke 37 In a ___ (teed off) 38 Back muscle, for short

P.S. MUELLER

39 “Inglourious Basterds” org.

40 .com kin 41 Grammy-nominated Macy Gray song of 2000 43 Australian coat of arms bird 44 Sir Thomas the tea merchant 47 Capricious activity, in a colorful metaphor 50 Corp. takeover strategy 51 “My Dog Has ___” 52 “The Simpsons” storekeeper 55 Actor/writer Barinholtz of “The Mindy Project” 57 Pai ___ (Chinese casino game) 58 Do a lawn chore 61 Goes cuckoo for 65 Nickname for the new host of “Celebrity Apprentice” 66 Extremely urgent

67 First Great Lake, alphabetically 68 Picks up a book 69 Litigation instigator 70 Outsmart DOWN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 “Dame” Everage 13 Blood work, e.g.

18 Billionaire corporate investor Carl 19 Gave in 24 Award for a Brit. officer 25 Do a Google search on yourself, e.g.

27 Component of wpm 28 With 14-Across, vitamin B9 29 Hardly eager 30 Intro for sound or violet 31 Portland Timbers org.

32 “And ___ grow on” 33 Lehar operetta “The Merry ___” 34 Astounds 39 “That’s amazing!” to a texter 42 Designer monogram 43 Edible mushroom of Japan 44 Completely cover 45 Astounded 46 “Antiques Roadshow” airer 48 Birds with curved bills 49 “An Inconvenient Truth” presenter 52 Hardly close 53 Peel, as an apple 54 Bone near the biceps 56 Closings 58 Marshy ground 59 Milo’s pug pal, in a 1986 film 60 Stimulate, as an appetite 62 Ball cap 63 “Elementary” star Lucy 64 Fly catcher

Speak with a grating voice How some like their coffee Five, to Francois Without a match Lego person or character, slangily LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS This or that, e.g.

“Yeah, that’s what they all say. They all say ___”: Chief Wiggum Garden of ___ (Biblical site) Last name in 2015’s “Creed” “Achtung Baby” co-producer Brian “Dirty Jobs” host Mike

Jobs

CONT’D.

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Volunteer with UNITED WAY Volunteer Center Call 246-4380 or visit volunteeryourtime.org to learn about opportunities The Goodman Community Center is looking for Health and Wellness Support Group Assistants for the Older Adult Program. It includes room setup and support of group during meetings, assisting with researching topics related to healthy aging and the eight dimensions of wellness, creating materials, and scheduling speakers. Group meets on Mondays.

You can help Community Action Coalition’s food security efforts in your own neighborhood. CAC operates a food recovery program called CAC Gleaners. As a volunteer driver you will help fight hunger by collecting perishable foods still safe for human consumption from various restaurants, cafeterias and delis around town.

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!

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CHECK OUT THE FOUNDRY FOR MUSIC LESSONS & REHEARSAL STUDIOS & THE NEW BLAST HOUSE STUDIO FOR RECORDING! 608-270-2660, madisonmusicfoundry.com CARS/TRUCKS WANTED!!! We Buy Like New or Damaged. Running or Not. Get Paid!

Free Towing! We’re Local! Call For Quote: 1-888-420-3808 (AAN CAN)

Happenings The Wisconsin Vintage Guitar Show will Be Sunday March 20th from 10am-5pm at Madison Turners Hall 3001 S. Stoughton Rd. BUY, SELL, TRADE, BROWSE! All Guitars, basses,banjos, and mandolins are welcome! Admission is $7, $6 if you bring a guitar to show or sell,$5 for kids. More information at 920-467-4762 or wisconsinvintageguitarshow.com AIRLINE CAREERS begin here – Get started by training as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 800-725-1563 (AAN CAN)

Speaking his mind in the city he once ruled!

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starring former Madison Mayor

Read him online at Isthmus.com

n SAVAGE LOVE

Inquiring minds

BY DAN SAVAGE

A large crowd braved a snowstorm to come out to Savage Love Live at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre last week. Questions were submitted on index cards, which allowed questioners to remain anonymous and forced them to be succinct. I got to as many of them as I could over two long, raucous, boozy hours.

Here are some of the questions I didn’t have time for in Boston….

What do you think of poop play?

I think of it rarely.

How long should I keep my partner locked in male chastity?

Until Rick Santorum is president.

What exactly causes relationships to end?

Relationships end for all sorts of different reasons — boredom, neglect, contempt, betrayal, abuse — but all relationships that don’t end survive for the same reason: The people in them just keep not breaking up.

Sometimes people in relationships that need to end never get around to breaking up.

I was in an open relationship once and was heartbroken in the end because my partner

broke the rules we made. My current partner wants to make our monogamous relationship open, but I am hesitant because of my previous burn. How do I get over this and become comfortable with an open relationship again?

Rejecting nonmonogamy because your last nonmonogamous relationship failed makes about as much sense as rejecting monogamy because your last monogamous relationship failed. If people applied the same standard to closed relationships that they apply to open ones (“I was in one that failed so I can never enter into another one!”), most of us would’ve had two relationships in our lives — one open, one closed — and then either taken a vow of celibacy or pledged to stick to NSA sex for the rest of our lives.

Our choices are informed by our experience, of course, and you had a bad experience with an open relationship. Open relationships might not be for you. But it’s also possible that the problem with your last relationship wasn’t the openness but the partner.

Advice for happily child-free people in a babyand parent-worshipping world?

You could take comfort in your free time, your disposable income and your vomit-free wardrobe. You could also see baby and parent worship for what it is: a desperate attempt on the part of the busy, broke and vomit-spackled (and

CRAIG WINZER

the people trying to sell stuff to us) to make ourselves feel better about the consequential and irrevocable choice we made to have kids.

Magnum condoms are just marketing, right?

Wrong — but you don’t have to take my word for it. Just spend 10 minutes on Tumblr and you’ll see for yourself.

I accidentally told my dad about your podcast when teaching him how to use iTunes. I called home a couple of weeks later, and Dad told me he’s been listening and Mom yells, “I’m not gonna pee on you!”

It could’ve been worse. Mom could’ve yelled: “We can’t talk right now! I’m peeing on your father!”

My husband and I (30s, M/F, two kids) found out our best friends of 20 years were secretly poly. And we didn’t know! Well, we all fucked. Now our relationship/friendship is fucked, too.

How do we move on from this mess?

People who are poly say they want more love, sex, and joy in their lives—but some poly people seem want more chaos, drama and hurt in their lives. Unless you know a couple well, or unless you’ve noticed the trail of destruction they’ve left in their wake, there’s just no way to tell what they’re really after until after you’ve slept with them. Anyway, how do you move on? You send a note, you apologize for your part in the chaos, drama and hurt, and you express a desire to mend the friendship. Hopefully you’ll hear from them.

We’re both over 40, married 10 years.

He wants a threesome, and I’m ambivalent. He says +1 girl, I say +1 boy. What do we do?

Upgrade to a foursome with +1 opposite-sex couple.

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

Uncle Gene is enrolling in Russian & Chinese courses at the UW

So when he runs as Mr. Trump’s VP he can keep us out of a war.

2009 FREEPORT RD. • 271-3827 • NEAR VERONA & RAYMOND ROADS

“IsthmusMadison”

FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016 ISTHMUS.COM

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ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 4–10, 2016