Isthmus: Feb 2-8, 2017 by Isthmus

FEBRUARY 2-8, 2017

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VOL. 42 NO. 5

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MADISON, WISCONSIN

MUSICAL MILE How does Frank Productions’ new venue fit into the existing scene?

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ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

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■ CONTENTS

■ WHAT TO DO

4 SNAPSHOT

VIVAM

Don’t call Latin a “dead language” at the Junior Classical League convention.

7-9 NEWS

FACTUALLY CHALLENGED

The Trump invasion has landed on the “beachheads” of federal agencies.

11 TECH SARI JUDGE

4 SNAPSHOT

AARON R. CONKLIN

COVER STORY AARON CONKLIN is a music lover — there is rarely a moment when he’s not playing a tune on his computer, phone, radio or iPad. During his teen years in Minneapolis, he attended as many First Avenue & 7th St Entry shows as he could. He moved to Madison in 1991, where he found a healthy music scene. But he’s always wondered why it wasn’t bigger. He takes a deep look at the scene — and the city’s venues — in this week’s cover story.

ALL THREE OF Sari Judge’s children took Latin at West High School and happily participated in Junior Classical League. Judge says she never took Latin herself and did not fully understand the allure. But she “finally drank the Kool-Aid” after spending an afternoon with kids “pumped to build ballistas and recite Juvenal from memory.”

SOMEWHAT FUNNY

A UW professor helps the New Yorker define what is humorous for its cartoon caption contest.

12 OPINION

TO WHAT END?

Protest marches preach to the choir.

15 COVER STORY

VENUE MANIA

When it comes to live music, Madison has a lot going on. And there’s more to come.

24-26 FOOD & DRINK

DINING CAR

Porter at the depot brings food back to an exciting city space.

27 SPORTS

THE NAIL BITERS

The Badgers men’s basketball team has won close games, but can’t take anything for granted.

23, 28-30 STAGE

LIVE RADIO ON STAGE

Love + Evolution is a special event from To the Best of Our Knowledge.

30 MUSIC

FUNKED-UP FOLK ROCK

Q&A with Dawes’ bass player Wylie Gelber.

31 BOOKS DYLAN BROGAN

STAGE STAFF WRITER Dylan Brogan, who got his start in radio, interviews Steve Paulson, who co-created the award-winning, nationally syndicated Wisconsin Public Radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge. Paulson and his colleagues will be performing the show live at the Majestic Theatre on Feb. 9.

Fighting Islamophobia Monday, Feb. 6, UW Discovery Building-DeLuca Forum, 4 pm As the nation debates President Trump’s 90-day immigration ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries, this panel will tackle the causes, manifestations and dangers of Islamophobia. Panelists include John W. Vaudreuil, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin; Nasra Wehelie, Madison-Area Urban Ministry development director; and Alhagie Jallow, imam of Masjid Us-Sunnah. The free event is being organized by the UW Center for the Humanities.

Big white countertop

APPS ON WATER

The prolific memoir writer recalls his farm childhood.

Friday-Sunday Feb. 3-5, The Edgewater and Lake Mendota

32-33 SCREENS

You know how they call earth “the big blue marble”? Our frozen lakes are like a big white quartz countertop. Celebrate the seasonal appearance of a huge empty park in our backyard at the Frozen Assets Festival, with skating, pond hockey, a snowshoe run, ice fishing derby and Fat Bike race. Or just nosh on free s’mores and watch other people sweat. Full schedule at cleanlakesalliance.org/frozen-assets.

SHEIK’S DYING WISH

Mimosas is an evocative film out of Morocco.

41 EMPHASIS

VILLAGE STORE

The Occupy Madison workshop helps the community of formerly homeless support themselves.

IN EVERY ISSUE 8 MADISON MATRIX 8 WEEK IN REVIEW 12 THIS MODERN WORLD 13 FEEDBACK 13 OFF THE SQUARE

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

PUBLISHER Jeff Haupt ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Craig Bartlett BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Mark Tauscher EDITOR Judith Davidoff NEWS EDITOR Joe Tarr ASSOCIATE EDITOR Michana Buchman FEATURES EDITOR Linda Falkenstein ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Catherine Capellaro STAFF WRITERS Dylan Brogan, Allison Geyer CALENDAR EDITOR Bob Koch ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Fath STAFF ARTISTS Todd Hubler, David Michael Miller, Tommy Washbush

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 • © 2017 Red Card Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

The public school system, the backbone of many U.S. communities, continues to be under attack by conservative politicians. Get informed about who is in charge locally. Six candidates are vying for two seats on the Madison School Board in the February primary; all candidates will participate in this forum hosted by GRUMPS (Grandparents United for Madison Public Schools).

Dress warm! Feb. 3-10, Madison area

Winter Bike Week encourages more of us to learn how to continue riding during winter, pedaling as we dream about springtime. Warm up at commuter stations Monday-Friday mornings, learn how to take care of your bike when riding in the winter, participate in a scavenger hunt or join various group rides. For the updated event schedule, see madisonbikes.org/winterbikeweek.

FIND MORE ISTHMUS PICKS ON PAGE 34

FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

CONTRIBUTORS John W. Barker, Kenneth Burns, Dave Cieslewicz, Nathan J. Comp, Aaron R. Conklin, Ruth Conniff, Michael Cummins, Marc Eisen, Erik Gunn, Mike Ivey, Bob Jacobson, Seth Jovaag, Stu Levitan, Bill Lueders, Liz Merfeld, Andy Moore, Bruce Murphy, Kyle Nabilcy, Kate Newton, Joel Patenaude, Jenny Peek, Michael Popke, Steven Potter, Adam Powell, Katie Reiser, Jay Rath, Gwendolyn Rice, Dean Robbins, Robin Shepard, Sandy Tabachnick, Denise Thornton, Candice Wagener, Tom Whitcomb, Rosemary Zurlo-Cuva ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER Todd Hubler ADVERTISING MANAGER Chad Hopper ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Laura Miller ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Lindsey Bushart, Lauren Isely, Rebecca Jaworski WEB ANALYST Jeri Casper CIRCULATION MANAGER Tim Henrekin MARKETING DIRECTOR Chris Winterhack EVENT DIRECTORS Kathleen Andreoni, Courtney Lovas CONTROLLER Halle Mulford OFFICE MANAGER Julie Butler SYSTEMS MANAGER Thom Jones ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Carla Dawkins

“An educated citizenry...” Tuesday, Feb. 7, Christ Presbyterian Church, 7 pm

n SNAPSHOT

Long live Latin

Ben Palatnik, 16 (left), and Ravi Kodali, 17, both of Brookfield Academy, ready their catapult for the War Machine contest.

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

BY SARI JUDGE n PHOTOGRAPH BY LAUREN JUSTICE

The Park Hotel on the Capitol Square looks like the set of an Animal House remake. Throngs of teenagers donning expertly tied togas appear to have taken over the hotel. But a youthful reboot of I, Claudius, the award-winning 1970s BBC series which treated Roman history with significantly more reverence, would be a better guess. “Latin is not a dead language for us,” says Sam Hoyt, a West High junior and one of 467 students from across the state participating in the Wisconsin Junior Classical League’s 59th annual convention, Jan. 26 to 28. “The language is very much alive, and we take it seriously, even while having fun. And we do have a lot of fun. Especially at state convention.” During the three-day event, everything not just old, but ancient, is new again as selfprofessed Latin nerds come together to celebrate the language, literature and culture of early Greece and Rome. This year, 14 schools participated, the most yet, according to Gale Stone, who is affectionately called Mags, short for Magistra (teacher in Latin). She’s a Latin teacher at West High and one of the chairs of this year’s convention. “Interest in Latin is definitely growing,” says Stone. “I’m currently teaching five classes, and one of them has 37 students. Study-

ing Latin offers so much in terms of analytical and critical thinking skills. When teaching Latin I am teaching students how to be strong readers at the most fundamental level.” A highlight of the convention is Friday, when the second and third floors of UWMadison Union South feel like a modern-day version of the Colosseum. The competition is fierce. Students challenge each other in Impromptu Oratory, where they attempt to give speeches that would rival Cicero or Socrates. They also compete in visual art, costume and essay contests. The majority of students that attend joyfully take tests, lots of tests, to demonstrate their mastery of Latin derivatives, Hellenic history, mythology and the like. But two of the more spectacular convention events are the Certamen and War Machine contests. Certamen, Latin for “competition,” is a fast-paced quiz-bowl-style showdown with classics-themed questions. “Certamen is exciting because it forces you to take risks, think on your feet, and work as a team,” says Margot Armbruster, a junior at private Brookfield Academy and the MVP of last year’s national championship Certamen team. “No matter how much you’ve studied you can still lose a round if you buzz in too late on a question or start arguing with your team. The game never gets boring.”

The War Machine contest uses a completely different skill set. The challenge here is to build a fully functional, authentic “torsion-powered” ballista (a catapult used in ancient warfare for hurling large stones) and then use it to throw a 12-inch dowel with a rubber stopper the farthest distance with the most accuracy. Jack West, a senior at Rufus King International School, a public magnet high school in Milwaukee, hopes for a repeat performance. “We won distance last year and hopefully will win again,” he says. “A win for accuracy would be nice this year, too.” But for Keely Lake, Latin teacher at Wayland Academy, a boarding school located in Beaver Dam, the study of the Classics doesn’t just provide the opportunity for fun and games; it also allows students to reflect on important contemporary themes. “In class I’ve had students complete projects that compare ancient refugees to refugee populations today,” Lake says. “I hope students leave with the understanding that while these issues may have been around forever, they are still quite worthy of solving.” Saturday morning’s award ceremony publicly confirmed which convention participants had the right to boldly proclaim three of Latin’s most famous words, “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”). Although not every student could literally claim to be a conqueror, they could all at least pronounce the phrase correctly. n

CORRECT PRONUNCIATION OF VENI, VIDI, VICI: In Classical Latin, the “v” would have been pronounced as a “w” and the “c” would have been hard. So the phrase is pronounced “Waynee, weedee, weekee” FABRIC NEEDED TO CREATE A TOGA: 4 to 6 yards for adults HOURS A WEEK MARGOT ARMBRUSTER STUDIES FOR CERTAMEN DURING THE SUMMER, IN ADVANCE OF THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: 34. Five hours a day solo, six days a week. Four hours with her team, one day a week LATIN GRAMMATICAL CASES: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and locative MADISON SCHOOLS TEACHING LATIN: Madison West, Edgewood ROMAN POLITICIAN THAT DONALD TRUMP MOST RESEMBLES, ACCORDING TO PHILLIP FREEMAN, CLASSICS PROFESSOR AT LUTHER COLLEGE: Publius Clodius Pulcher, a populist demagogue who refused to play by the rules

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n DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

Trump invades federal agencies An air of war prevails and facts may be the victims BY BAYNARD WOODS

The teams of President Donald Trump’s temporary appointees laying the groundwork for taking over and remaking federal agencies refer to themselves as “beachheads” or “beachhead teams,” a military term for the point of invasion. Politico reports there were approximately 520 members of such teams when Trump took the oath of office. In any presidential transition, there will be tensions between career civil servants and political appointees pushing a new president’s agenda, but according to experts on the matter, this administration’s use of the term may exacerbate those tensions. The term was offhandedly used in 2000 by Bush’s incoming press secretary, Ari Fleischer. It was central to the language of Romney’s 2012 transition plan, which was provided to the Trump team. But its use here seems systematic, making many within various federal agencies feel they are being conquered. “The language of war being used suggests that cooperation is not the primary philosophy dictating this transition period,” says professor Heath Brown, who studies presidential transitions at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “If the operating philosophy is one of combat rather than cooperation, then we’re in for some trouble with how these agencies are going to function on a dayto-day basis.”

A 1996 article shows Kellyanne Conway has been thinking about media and manipulation for 20 years.

Between Spicer’s two statements, on the Sunday talk shows, Conway baptized Trump-speak with a succinct name: “alternative facts.” She also threatened to “rethink our relationship” with NBC if Meet the Press host Chuck Todd persisted in saying Spicer had lied. A couple days later, Trump adviser and Lenin wannabe Stephen Bannon called the press the “opposition party,” which, he said, should “keep its mouth shut.” Shortly after this, Trump gave Bannon a spot on the National Security Council. The attacks on the press, however, are only part of a larger attack on facts themselves — attacks beginning, appropriately, with the communications-obsessed beachheads now inside federal agencies. Trump ordered the EPA to freeze all of its grants, to take down the climate change section of its website (although the administration later backed down on plans to remove content) and to cease all communications with the press. Then, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research division prohibited employees, including scientists, from communicating or sharing information with the public.

The USDA later lifted the gag order, saying that it was released “without Departmental direction” and was not sent at the request of the Trump administration. But information about climate change is not the only information at risk — data, science and research are being suppressed. And Trump’s congressional allies are all happy to play along. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) introduced bills this week that say “no federal funds may be used to design, build, maintain, utilize, or provide access to a federal database of geospatial information on community racial disparities or disparities in access to affordable housing.” This bill, which would help maintain the kind of segregation affecting cities like Milwaukee, Baltimore and St. Louis, could still die in committee, but it is of a piece with Trump’s all-out war on facts. Deprived of access to facts, citizens are incapable of making decisions. This is an essential feature of tyranny. As an air of war prevails in Washington, using the term beachhead may in fact be among the small minority of things the Trump team is honest about. n

FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Because the Trump team threw out Chris Christie’s transition plans and “started from scratch on Election Day,” Brown says, there is “a larger level of chaos than in the past for an already chaotic process.” Given the fact that Trump was a reality TV star, it is not surprising that communications is the main focus of these beachhead teams. “[Trump’s people] want to control message in a lot of different ways, and for that reason I think they have made that a priority,” Brown says. “The Trump

transition team devoted a lot more staff resources to communications than transition teams in the past.... In the past, communications just hasn’t been a first priority.” In 2009, Obama only had two communications people on his 13-member senior transition staff. In contrast, at least 10 of 23 staffers in Trump’s transition team served some communications function, Brown says. In the process, they may well be changing what “communications” means — from informing the public, or even spinning the message, to something more like outright propaganda. Democracy in Crisis uncovered a 1996 Cornell Daily Sun article about then-CNN analyst Kellyanne Conway that shows she has been thinking about media and manipulation for at least 20 years. The story paraphrases Conway (née Fitzpatrick) speaking to student groups about “manipulative media and political jargon.” In the talk, she also criticized people for “following what is decided by a few elite.” A section of the article subtitled “Questions of Reality” notes: “In a generation where television and internet images ‘bombard our senses,’ it is essential, according to Fitzpatrick, to realize that the sound bites or visuals prepared by the evening news editors do not represent reality.” Conway, the article says, “applauded [Bill Clinton’s] ability to use the media to his advantage.” While this shows that Conway’s obsession with controlling the media narrative is not new, it also underlines how she and her boss are pushing the standard spin of ’90s-era Washington into the full-blown denial of reality in the age of Trump. During the Trump campaign, Politifact found that only 4 percent of his claims could be considered entirely truthful. Some, including President Barack Obama, naively thought the power of the presidency would curb, rather than increase, Trump’s tendency to lie. But thus far truths remain merely occasional, almost accidental. After the inauguration on Jan. 20, in the first “unofficial” press conference of the new administration, press secretary Sean Spicer stood in front of reporters and repeatedly lied to the press about the crowds that turned out to watch the inauguration. It was pointless from any standard political means-ends perspective. (Baltimore City Paper did a great job putting together the actual numbers.) Later, in his first “official” press conference, Spicer said, “sometimes we can disagree with the facts.”

■ MADISON MATRIX

n WEEK IN REVIEW THURSDAY, JAN. 26

BIG CITY

n After reports surface that

A panel of three federal judges orders state lawmakers to redraw Wisconsin’s legislative district lines by Nov. 1, saying the current map is unconstitutional. About 130 UW System students are affected by President Donald Trump’s executive order banning citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States.

WINNING

LOSING

A UW-Madison student draws outrage for trying to start an “alt-right” (aka white nationalist) group on campus. The student, Daniel Dropik, previously served prison time for setting fires in African American churches.

a UW-Madison student trying to start a white nationalist organization had committed racially motivated arson in 2005, Chancellor Rebecca Blank suggests the university consider students’ criminal history in the admissions process. n A report from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau finds that the state Department of Transportation has been vastly underestimating costs for road projects. Sixteen major highway projects are projected to cost about $3 billion more than when they were first approved.

district until the 2018-19 school year. TUESDAY, JAN. 31 n President Donald Trump

cancels a Feb. 2 appearance in Milwaukee. CNN reports that HarleyDavidson, where the event was to be held, was uncomfortable hosting Trump amid planned protests. Protesters, however, believe Trump could still show up — and are planning accordingly.

MONDAY, JAN. 30 n The Madison

school board votes 6-1 to add Isthmus Montessori Academy to the district, making it the district’s fourth charter school. But the board delays making it part of the

More than 2,500 people pack into Monona Terrace for a community forum on protecting immigrant rights and combating Islamophobia. Organizers planned for 500. SMALL TOWN

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 1 n The state insurance board

halts insurance coverage of gender reassignment surgery for state workers, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. An internal memo cites a Dec. 31 injunction from a federal judge barring enforcement of the Affordable Care Act provisions that extend anti-discrimination protections to transgender health services. n Gov. Scott Walker announces a plan to increase aid to small school districts by $30 million. Democrats point out that the GOP has cut $1 billion from schools since 2011. n Mayor Paul Soglin vows to veto a resolution affirming Madison’s symbolic status as a “sanctuary city.” The proposal would declare the council office a “safe space,” which Soglin worries will provoke state lawmakers to cut funding to municipalities that do not cooperate with “immigration enforcement.”

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■ NEWS

The Trump boom Same-sex couples rush to secure marriages, adoptions BY ALLISON GEYER

The morning after the Nov. 8 election, Laura Lenz-Perkins’ 11-year-old daughter burst into tears when she learned that Donald Trump had won the presidency. “The first question she asked was if [my partner and I] would still be able to get married next summer if he was president,” LenzPerkins says. “It was that moment that we decided that getting married before he was inaugurated was something we needed to do.” Lenz-Perkins and her partner, Shari Henning, who live in Madison, tied the knot Jan. 7 in an outdoor ceremony at Olin Park. It was minus 5 degrees with the wind chill, but family and friends huddled together with coffee and hot chocolate in hand as the couple pledged their commitment. “It was loving and warm despite the temperatures,” Lenz-Perkins says. “And surely a wedding that no one will forget.” Since Trump’s election, same-sex couples all over the country have been rushing to get married, fearing that the president and his far-right administration might curtail rights for LGBT individuals. The trend has made its way to Madison, with Dane County issuing 213 marriage licenses in

December — nearly 50 percent more than the same month in 2015, according to records obtained by Isthmus. The county does not keep a separate tally of same-sex marriages, but based on the names listed on the documents, it appears that many of the couples are LGBT. Theresa Roetter, a Madison attorney who specializes in LGBT family law, says she’s seen a “definite uptick” since the November election in people contacting her with concerns about how the Trump administration will affect their rights. “People aren’t necessarily fearful,” Roetter says. “I think people are just being careful.” The U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. Trump has said he’s “fine” with the court’s ruling, but many remain worried that he could be convinced to change his position. Vice President Mike Pence is notorious for his hardline conservative stance on same-sex marriage, and is so reviled by the LGBT community that activists threw a “queer dance party” outside his Washington, D.C., home to protest the inauguration. Overturning the Supreme Court decision would be “quite a process,” Roetter says. “The president doesn’t have the power to undo a Supreme Court decision.” Reversal would require that a lawsuit move through several lower courts, then the Supreme Court would

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have to undo its own decision. “Could that possibly happen?” Roetter says. “Of course. Anything can happen.” Besides marrying, many LGBT families are also taking steps to “secure relationships” with their children through adoption, which is a stronger and more binding arrangement than legal guardianship, Roetter says. But there’s good news on that front: Rights for same-sex couples had a big win in March 2016, when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that denied parental rights to a lesbian adoptive mother who had split with her partner. The justices issued the ruling without even hearing an oral argument, a sign that the legal precedent is secure. Rachel Damiano and her partner, Nicole, were planning an April wedding, but after Trump won they opted to get married at the Milwaukee County courthouse on Dec. 21 in the presence of family and close friends. They’re still planning to have a big party on their original date, but wanted to “take care of the legal part” sooner rather than later. “It feels like we have a little more power this way,” Damiano says. She initially worried that moving the wedding date up would somehow make the April celebration

Rachel (le ) and Nicole Damiano moved up their wedding a er the election.

less special, but now she says she’s glad to have had the experience. “It kind of sucks that it had to be a political event, but I am a political body just being a lesbian,” she says. “I don’t have the privilege of choosing whether I’m political or not.” ■

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Since the famous New Yorker cartoon caption contest first launched as a weekly feature in 2005, cartoon editor Bob Mankoff and his team have personally sifted through more than 2 million entries in search of the funniest quips. Reading and ranking thousands of entries each week is a daunting task, even for the most dedicated humorist. So when a data scientist from UW-Madison proposed a technological solution, Mankoff was intrigued. The New Yorker’s signature brand of humor — sophisticated, erudite, playfully deadpan — is at the core of the 92-year-old magaNowak’s program gets readers to judge zine. Could an algorithm really be thousands of captions like these. trusted to get the job done? Rob Nowak, a professor of engineering who specializes in tional machine learning system, machine learning and statistiwhich involves users providing cal analysis, pitched Mankoff a an annotated dataset and handcomputer program — essentially ing it over to the machine with a crowdsourced survey — that the goal of the system learning a allows users to vote on all the particular model. caption submissions, ranking “This system looks at mathem as either “funny,” “unchine learning from a different Rob Nowak funny” or “somewhat funny.” As way — it starts with no informathe votes come in, the captions tion, then the system decides getting the lowest marks are shown less what information it needs from people to frequently, and the ones that are consid- form a good model,” Nowak says. “The goal ered funnier (and therefore more likely to is to reduce the burden on people.” be winners) are shown more often. Then, at Nowak’s collaboration with the New the end of the voting period, the top three Yorker is one of mutual benefit: The techcaptions are published in the magazine and nology reduces the workload on Mankoff online and given another vote. and his staff, and the data generated by The algorithm, which has been power- the thousands of rankings helps Nowak ing the New Yorker contest since November test and perfect his technology. In fact, 2015, sorts the captions based on the vot- the algorithm used by the New Yorker was ing, giving each one a score and a probabil- originally developed for an experiment on ity that other voters would rank it similarly genetic diseases that aimed to determine a when compared to other captions, Mankoff ranking of which specific genes were most tells Isthmus. “It does this not perfectly, but important in expressing the disorder. better than any single person, even someApplying machine learning to a field one such as myself, could.” like genetics is just one example of how Nowak is the creator of NEXT, an open- the technology can be applied across dissource, cloud-based software system that ciplines to greatly improve researchers’ caallows users to quickly and easily develop pacity to analyze and understand experiapplications for machine learning. Avail- mental data. But perfecting the algorithms able free of charge on the project-housing can be tricky. site GitHub, NEXT technology is being used “There’s always a little bit of a gap bein about a dozen machine learning apps de- tween the assumptions and the theoretiveloped at UW-Madison as well as by the cal analysis, so experimental validation is U.S. Air Force, American Family Insurance super important,” Nowak says. But in many and Marshfield Clinic. Machine learning — cases, running a scientific experiment is which is a type of artificial intelligence — time consuming and expensive. That’s why is an emerging and rapidly growing field of the New Yorker caption contest is a perfect technology that uses computer algorithms test case — it allows Nowak to run a new to analyze and make predictions about experiment every week. data. Eventually, the computer is able to “We’ve developed much better algolearn without being explicitly programmed. rithms because we were able to keep runNEXT software specializes in “active” ning these experiments,” he says. “Algomachine learning — that is, the computer rithms that are working better for the New actively queries the user to get information Yorker are also going to work better for that it needs. This is different from a tradi- these biological disease studies.” ■

■ OPINION

Nothing’s happening here Protest marches may soothe the liberal soul, but don’t advance liberal causes BY DAVE CIESLEWICZ Dave Cieslewicz is the former mayor of Madison. He blogs as Citizen Dave at Isthmus.com.

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

The day after Donald Trump became the nation’s 45th president, millions of people in cities around the world marched in protest. A half million showed up in Washington, while between 75,000 and 100,000 rallied in Madison. It was all good for the liberal soul, but there is not much evidence that it will do much to advance liberal causes. In fact, it might hurt. The crowd on the Capitol Square was reminiscent of the Act 10 protests in 2011. Some of those gatherings were of similar size, but the sustained protests lasted weeks. Still, Act 10 passed in the end and then things only got worse. Gov. Scott Walker has since won two elections and the Republican majorities today are even larger than they were before the protests. We can go back further to the epic Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, when Madison was a focal point of that movement. Whether or not the protests can be blamed, the facts are that Richard Nixon won the presidency twice and kept the war going for several more years. Nixon won Wisconsin in both 1968 and 1972. And when one of those protesters finally reached the presidency in 1992, he declared the end to welfare as we know it and he famously said that the era of big government was over. Then, when his wife and fellow protester Hillary Clinton ran for the same office, she was defeated by a conservative populist authoritarian. The track record of marching protest is not so good. You can take it to the street but that does not mean you can take progressive policy to the bank. In a recent opinion piece in The New York Times, University of North Carolina professor Zeynep Tufekci, who has studied what she calls “networked protests,” claims that we can be eas-

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ily led to believe that large turnouts indicate more power than they do. Her theory is that large protests are easier to organize because of social media, but that they often lack any kind of cohesive structure to carry on the movement. Part of the problem could be that protests are inherently about rallying the true believers, not about expanding the base. And in rallying the faithful, the preaching tends to get more heated and one-sided, which can actually serve to turn off swing voters. Then there was the fact that the marches were designated as women’s events. At the heart of the Democrats’ problem is their desire to parse up the electorate into interest groups with unique agendas based on race, gender or sexual orientation. What gets lost in that is a common, overarching message. Worse, it does not go unnoticed that less-educated white folks who are not union members get left out of the litany in the Democratic liturgy. The great project of Democrats and liberals needs to be to win back blue-collar voters, some in rural areas. Identity politics just does not help that cause.

And, no, simply doubling down on the Democratic coalition of African Americans, Hispanics, women, the LGBTQ community and younger voters is not likely to work, especially in states like Wisconsin. The reason can be found in simple math. White men and white women each make up about 44 percent of the vote in Wisconsin. In 2014, Democrat Mary Burke lost white men by 25 points while she split white women evenly with Walker. She won black women with an astounding 96 percent of their votes, but they make up only 4 percent of voters here. So, the problem for Democrats is that they cannot afford to lose such a large cohort as white men by such a large margin

THIS MODERN WORLD

and expect to make it up with much smaller minority groups. And even if a statewide candidate could sneak through, the identity politics strategy is not likely to ever work to regain legislative majorities because those voters are so tightly clustered in urban areas. It’s not that it can’t be done. Barack Obama won 22 mostly white and rural Wisconsin counties twice, only to have Hillary Clinton lose them to Trump. Obama’s message was always more inclusive, while Clinton ran a campaign heavy on identity politics. Bernie Sanders showed that blue-collar voters are reachable with a liberal economic message if it comes off as straightforward and authentic. Future rallies built around a message about jobs, wages and fairness for everyone might be more successful at building a broad-based movement. In fact, a good exercise for Democratic strategists would be to imagine a middleaged man with a high school education in Racine or Richland Center. He and his wife have three jobs between them and two kids, who they can’t afford to send to college. They voted for Obama twice and for Trump this time. Before Democrats say or do anything, they should ask themselves how it would go over with that couple. It comes down to this. Liberals and Democrats need a message that can be heard and felt beyond the echo of a bullhorn on the Capitol Square. ■

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Believe it or not I appreciate Michael Cummins’ explanation of his beliefs (“Why I Believe What I Believe,” 1/26/2017). He expresses concern that government tries to do too much, and often does so inefficiently. What the writer misses is that this inefficiency, under many Republican leaders, is often by design. Conservative P.J. O’Rourke says, “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.” Under President Trump, we can only expect more of this, as he surrounds himself with people more interested in diminishing federal agencies, or making them more corporate-friendly, than making them work for the common citizen. I think the real fear among many Republican leaders (and perhaps voters) is that government will do something really effective for the social good (imagine a more intelligent version of Obamacare), prove them wrong, and begin to demand competent public servants who work for all of us. I don’t think this is the writer’s fear, but he is a whole lot more reasonable than the self-serving ideologues currently dominating Washington. Ben Seigel (via email) I appreciate that Michael Cummins wants to be understood. He’s correct that in these polarized times we often talk past one another, not listening, not really attempting to find common ground. Still, I find his stance as a “libertarian-leaning conservative” less than compelling.

Cummins states that he is opposed to “most aspects of the welfare state,” making the claim that voluntary associations and charitable giving are more efficient than government in meeting the needs of the poor. He offers no evidence to support his position, and indeed no such evidence exists. The “safety net” that conservatives seek to unravel was enacted because millions fell through the cracks of an unregulated free market, and charity alone could not pick up the pieces. Why is Cummins so preoccupied with welfare for the poor while mentioning nothing of welfare for the rich? Tax breaks for second homes, yachts and private jets, subsidies for Big Oil, Big Pharma and Wall Street. Cummins apparently doesn’t mind huge handouts to the one percent, but please don’t be taking his tax dollars to help the poor! Cummins’ ambivalence about businesses discriminating against same-sex couples is also disturbing. To intervene is to undermine the property rights of business owners, says Cummins. Not so long ago similar arguments were used to justify discriminating against interracial couples, but property rights were ruled a flimsy defense in the face of illegal discrimination. The restaurant owner who once refused to serve blacks or the country club that once posted signs saying “No Jews Allowed” can do so no more because the federal government intervened, and that, I’m sure Cummins agrees, is a good thing. Next time, I hope to hear how Cummins plans to resist President Trump. In the interests of civility and finding common ground, we can put our differences aside and get to work. Tag Evers (via email)

If conservatives believe in the defense of “property rights,” it’s important to ask, “Whose property rights?” One need only take a cursory look at U.S. history to see that the property rights of only certain populations have been safeguarded for most of this county’s history. Perhaps a gay couple doesn’t have property rights in the purchase of a wedding cake, but what about their property rights in obtaining and retaining a job? Purchasing a house? Obtaining spousal benefits? Conservatives never seem too keen on protecting those property rights. So while Mr. Cummins may have avoided the R-word because he doesn’t identify as such, many so-called conservatives do and continue to elect their representatives on these conservative values which are not shown in their representatives’ actions. Hillary Clinton’s failed bid for the presidency has been hailed as the death of the Democratic Party; however, I think the election of Trump (and the many Republican members of Congress) should be hailed as the ongoing identity crisis in conservative America. Rick Stauffacher (via email)

Union Cab to the rescue I want to thank you for your recent article about the possibility of losing handicap-accessible taxi services through Union Cab (“Left Behind,” 1/19/2017). I use a power wheelchair due to my cerebral palsy. I first began to use their services in 2012. I was working in Madison and commuting from Janesville. When I first decided to move to Madison I relied on their services to help me look for apartments, as I didn’t know

very much about Madison’s complex bus system. One of the drivers even gave me advice on where to look for scarce affordable accessible housing. Union Cab provides a vital service to me. Paratransit is a good option, but it doesn’t offer the spontaneity that life sometimes requires. When I need to get to work after a snowfall that has been heavier than I expected, Union Cab is there. If my power chair needs repairs I’m often forced to use a manual chair, which limits my mobility significantly. Union Cab is there to help me ensure that my life doesn’t have to stop just because my wheelchair did. Nathan Scafe (via email)

Welcome to Queens Re: “West Bend Transplant Invites Fellow Badgers to Visit His Diverse Queens Neighborhood” (Isthmus.com, 1/30/2017): I didn’t vote for Trump but would love to come and explore Queens and all of its culture for a weekend. Mike McCabe (via Facebook) Oh one of the hipsters driving immigrants out of NYC. How funny! Also plenty of people in Queens voting for Trump. Ann Marie Hake Hughes (via Facebook) Why is he not asking for Spotted Cow??? This makes me very suspicious of his backstory. :) Rachel Romond (via Facebook)

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

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■ COVER STORY

MUSICAL MILE How does Frank Productions’ new venue fit into the existing scene? BY AARON R. CONKLIN

At this point, you don’t even have to squint your eyes very hard to see it. The pieces are all right there. Look up East Washington Avenue, where a construction boom is transforming the gateway to the Capitol Square into a hub of restaurants, coffee shops and high-rise condominiums bursting with millennials and Epic employees. Take in Breese Stevens Field, an outdoor site that began hosting events just two years ago and has sold out concerts for the Avett Brothers, Wilco and Cake. Witness the High Noon Saloon and Brink Lounge. Now imagine adding a shiny and sizable new concert venue right in the middle of it, and it starts to look an awful lot like the pieces of a Madison music district falling into place. The vision is coming into clearer focus after the recent unveiling of architectural plans for the Sylvee, a dedicated 40,000-square-foot, 2,500-capacity music club owned and operated by Madison-based Frank Productions. Named in honor of the company’s late matriarch, Sylvia Frank, the venue will occupy the ground floor of Gebhart Development’s new Cosmos project on the 800 block of East Washington.

either bad management decisions or a few too many run-ins with law enforcement over liquor license and crowd management issues. As Madison’s demographics shift and what’s known as “the corridor” along East Washington evolves, Frank Productions believes the new venue will help shape the city’s cultural landscape. “With the High Noon, our venue and Breese, we kind of feel like we’re building a future there,” says Charlie Goldstone, president of Frank Productions Concerts LLC. “That whole east side, from the Majestic to the Barrymore, is really going to be a vibrant place for live music.”

Once upon a time, Camp Randall Stadium and the Kohl Center, both owned and operated by UW Athletics, hosted major music concerts (U2! The Rolling Stones!). The stadium hasn’t seen a show since the early ’90s; the Kohl Center hosts them only rarely. And while Dane County continues to cast around for privately funded solutions to renovate the ancient Dane County Coliseum — the place where Herb and Sylvia Frank cut their teeth booking shows in the 1960s — that venue only hosts a handful of shows a year.

➡

FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Breese Stevens Field has hosted several successful shows, including the Steve Miller Band, July 2016.

The Sylvee is expected to break ground in the next few months and will begin hosting concerts as early as summer 2018. It represents an exciting prospect for music fans, a place where bands that currently aren’t giving Madison a second look — acts like the 1975 or Kendrick Lamar — might play. But that vision includes a list of assumptions longer than a Bruce Springsteen setlist: that the Sylvee is going to be a raging success, avoiding pitfalls that have stunted and sunk other music venues. And that its presence won’t have a detrimental effect on other Madison music venues, from the High Noon to the Barrymore Theatre further east and, of course, the Orpheum Theater, now fully leased and operated by Frank Productions’ longtime nemesis, California-based Live Nation Productions. Over the past several decades, the city’s music-venue history has been one of stops and starts. Some of its most storied clubs have gone up in flames — the legendary Club de Wash in 1996, O’Cayz Corral in 2001 (O’Cayz re-emerged, phoenix-like, three years later and a few blocks away, as the High Noon Saloon). Others, from the R&R Station/Paramount to the Chamber on King Street, were victims of

n COVER STORY

The Sylvee (shown in the rendering above) is slated to open in 2018. gravitate to Milwaukee venues like the Riverside Theater and the Rave/Eagles Ballroom. Or skip Wisconsin altogether. “The club scene used to be really small,” says Evers. “Now you have a larger set of opportunities, which is reflective of the fact that as the music scene grows, as demand increases, new venues emerge. One of the issues that Madison has had for a long time is in between that 2,000-capacity space and the arena space, there’s nothing. This venue will help meet a need that’s been here for a long time.” The numbers only show part of the picture. The capacities of the Sylvee and the Orpheum Theater aren’t actually that far apart; the Orpheum can fit 2,300 and the planned capacity for the Sylvee is 2,500. The obvious

difference is that the Sylvee is being designed specifically as a concert venue, while the Orpheum is a historic theater that’s been retrofitted to host concerts. Goldstone argues that the Orpheum, like the Overture Center, is better suited to host seated events. Aside from some seats in the balcony and a couple of potential skyboxes, patrons at the Sylvee will stand at shows.

The reaction from the city’s other music venue owners to the impending arrival of the Sylvee ranges from optimism to concern to uncomfortable near-silence. Such is the nature of competition, apparently. Not surprisingly, the folks associated with the Orpheum express the most trepidation.

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

CHRIS LOTTEN

Given Madison’s reputation as a town packed with music-lovers and college students, it seems the potential for something bigger exists — and that’s actually a big part of why the Frank family pursued the Sylvee. They’ve been casting around for their own music venue for several years now; they operated the Orpheum while it was in foreclosure back in 2012, but were prevented from putting in a bid to buy it when the Paras family paid off the theater’s mortgage in 2013. “We know there’s a market here that’s strong for concerts,” says Goldstone. “We’re not at this finite amount of shows right now, where there’s no room for anything else and there’s nothing that’s going to play here that isn’t already playing here. We wouldn’t be investing the amount of money we’re investing if we didn’t actually believe this.” Goldstone is tight-lipped when asked about the type of acts that might eventually play the Sylvee, although he notes the venue will be open to any genre, from rock to folk to EDM. Tag Evers, the longtime Madison concert promoter who founded True Endeavors and now works at Frank Productions, points to national acts like Chance the Rapper (who actually played FRZN Fest at the High Noon Saloon before breaking it big), Jack White and Widespread Panic as examples of artists who’d be a perfect fit for the Sylvee. These acts currently

California-based Live Nation took over booking and promotion for the Orpheum Theater in April 2016. Above: STS9 in 2015.

“We do have a concern as to how fast the music scene is growing,” says Eve Paras, whose family leased Orpheum’s operation and concert-booking responsibilities to Live Nation last April. “One thing to think about is the scale and the size of the scene. As things become bigger, they could hurt parts of the city. [By] creating more venues in a city that’s not ready for it, venues could lose money if they’re forced to compete within the city.” The Paras family initially fought Frank Productions’ plans to launch the Sylvee, even going so far as to hire a lobbyist to convince the nearby neighborhood it was a bad idea. Now that the project is officially moving forward — it received final approval from the city in December — they’ve refocused efforts on their own venue. In July, the Orpheum installed a handsome replica of the theater’s original 1920s-era sign. Paras says Live Nation is moving forward with plans to increase the number of concerts hosted at the Orpheum. (After repeated attempts, Live Nation representatives declined the opportunity to speak for this story.) The venue’s February calendar, which has nine shows, including a pair of nights featuring the Head and the Heart, seems to bear that out. So does an offer posted on the marquee last week offering a $15 ticket special for students. At other venues, people are expressing more optimism about the addition of the Sylvee. “The profile of venues that have developed here speaks entirely to Madison as a city with a rapidly developing scene,” says Matt Gerding, who, along with business partner Scott Leslie, owns the Majestic Theatre on King Street. “We’re big believers in being one of many pieces on the music scene. When there’s more venues, there’s more music. All boats rise.”

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Call MSCR 204-3000! MSCR offers affordable recreation programs for all ages. No membership required. Check out a variety of camps for ages 3 - grade 9. Camp Express (for preschoolers), Madtown Adventures, Fascination Station, Soccer, Kids Kamp, Super Center Arts Camp, Mad City Sports Camp & MAD Youth Volunteer Camp and Camp Adventure!

Registration begins March 13 204-3000 or www.mscr.org

FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Centrally located in the heart of Madison, our campers experience all the city has to offer. We will offer two classrooms, based on grade level. (1st, 2nd) and (3rd, 4th).

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Both camps are located on 400 acres in Wisconsin Dells Easter Seals Wisconsin has not one, but TWO fully-accessible camps located in Wisconsin Dells, both serving children and adults with disabilities. Respite Camp provides 1:1 care. Each camp offers week-long summer sessions and gives campers a unique summer camp experience. Make new friends, try new things, sleep under the stars, create, dance, challenge yourself on the zip line or cool off in our beautiful new pool! Camp Wawbeek and Respite Camp will give you a summer to remember! ®

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ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

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■ COVER STORY

MUSICAL MILE

Continued from p. 16

2017 SUMMER STAGE

academy for contemporary dance and choreography

Dance Intensive Dance Camps Weekly Classes Guest Artist Workshops

AT O V E R T U R E C E N T E R SESSIONS BEGIN JUNE 26th

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Registration open at

ctmtheater.org

What will you create this summer? BadgerBOTS Robotics and Technology camps for every kid New topics in 2017! For more camp schedules and more info visit our website

the go-to summer guide for Madison and beyond On the street May 25

Or at least not take them

away. Steve Sperling, general manager of the Barrymore Theatre, which seats 971, says Frank Productions has promised to continue booking shows at the Barrymore, allaying his biggest concern. “I take them at their word,” he says. He also thinks that with a new venue on the scene, Live Nation may begin looking at booking shows in his space again, something the company hasn’t done in the past few years. He notes that while the Sylvee will likely fill a key need, the city still needs more spaces in small clubs, along the lines of the High Noon (capacity: 400) and the Frequency (capacity: 126). “We get emails all the time from people looking to play here who are nowhere big enough to play here,” he says. While those acts might not be able to fill the Sylvee on their own, Evers believes opening the Sylvee will provide more opportunities for local musicians to play opening sets for national touring acts. Roy Elkins, the founder and CEO of Madison-based Broadjam Inc., an organization designed to support musicians, thinks there’s a good chance his constituents could benefit from a new venue. “From an independent perspective, it can only help,” says Elkins, who also helped found the Madison Area Music Awards. “Having more venues is always good for local musicians. It makes the scene more vibrant.” The key to the realization of the Franks’ new venue actually lies in what has become one of the city’s signature events: Madison Freakfest. Back in the early 2000s, the annual Halloween bash on State Street had devolved into a full-on teenage riot, with police squads, tear gas and property damage, an aggravating and expensive mix. In the past 10 years, Frank Productions helped convert Freakfest into a gated, ticketed, family-friendly event that, just last year, was headed by Anderson .Paak, one of the nation’s most up-and-coming hip-hop artists. The company’s success with Freakfest is what led to step two — the annual concert series at Breese Stevens Field, co-programmed with the Majestic, which just completed its second season. The series, which has featured major national acts like the Avett Brothers, the Steve Miller Band, Wilco and Cake, managed to go off without a major misfire. And in some cases, the shows outsold the artists’ subsequent performances in Milwaukee. “That first show with the Avett Brothers sold out right away — it exceeded everyone’s expectations,” says Goldstone. “We proved to them we could do these shows with 7,000-8,000 people without any serious crowd problems. It just became this Madison thing that’s cool to go to.”

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FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

One and two week camps for ages 7-14

High Noon Saloon owner Cathy Dethmers, whose proximity to the new venue puts her squarely in the most-likely-to-be-affected position, is willing to wait and see what happens. “Given the fact that we are a much smaller venue offering a completely different experience, I’d assume the impact will be minimal,” says Dethmers, one of the scene’s longest-tenured players. “It may be positive overall if we are able to attract additional music fans to our shows as a result of increased traffic in the neighborhood.”

■ COVER STORY

It also likely helped convince the majority of neighborhood residents that Frank Productions could manage the typical problems that face music venue owners. Goldstone believes that the Madison venues that own and manage their own programming (think Overture and the Majestic) enjoy an advantage. “That’s why us having a venue that’s specific to concerts, and us being in control of as many concerts as we can, makes us feel confident that it’s not going to end up in the situation where there are liquor and police problems,” he says. “It’s going to be on us to bring events and the experience to do that. We won’t be relying on somebody else for our business.”

As the reactions rumble across the music-venue scene, it’s hard not to be reminded of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie’s famous quote: “All of this has happened before and it will all happen again.” When considering the question of how many music venues Madison can actually support, it’s instructive to flip back to 2007, when Gerding and Leslie began booking concerts at the Majestic Theatre. “When Scott and Matt came online, the world was ending for Cathy at the High Noon and Steve at the Barrymore,” recalls Goldstone. “For us, too. We thought at the time that this wasn’t going to work. They proved all of us wrong.” And how. In addition to hosting 296 concerts last year, this January the Majestic sold more than 2,000 tickets for a five-night series of themed festivals — in the dead of winter, no less. And these numbers don’t include Live on King Street, the Majestic’s uber-successful signature free summer concert series.

(Grand Plaza) 2000

Capacity

3000 2000

1000 600 400

E.GORHAM

High Noon Saloon 400

BLAIR

Ivory Room

Overture Hall 2255

E. JOHNSON

2300

Majestic Theater

Brink Lounge 400

BROOM

Genna’s 600 The Frequency Come Brocach Opus Great Dane Natt Spil Back Inn Up North Tempest Essen Nomad Haus World Pub Lecture Hall (Rooftop) 3000

Monona Terrace (Exhibition Hall) 3000

(Ballroom) 1979

The Sylvee

Breese Stevens Field

Art In E . WA S H I N G TO N

9333

2500

The Wisco

Plan B 342 Wil-Mar Center

Venue with 300 or less capacity

River

1089

Orpheum Theater

Ya h a r a

Capitol Theater

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

when the Barrymore was a porn palace, not a multipurpose concert venue. Twentyfive years later, the area surrounding the Barrymore is full of restaurants and small businesses. In much the same way, restaurants and bars proliferated on and around a once-seedy King Street after the Majestic became established as a music venue. It’s not hard to imagine the Sylvee having a similar effect on East Wash, especially because some of the pieces, like restaurants and coffee shops, are already in place. Both Goldstone and Evers mention the possibility of symbiotic booking — of having, for instance, an artist finish up a concert at Breese Stevens and play an after-party gig at the Sylvee or the High Noon. “Being

People love to compare Madison to Austin, a pair of cities that share liberal vibes and vibrant arts scenes. Austin’s population now tops a million, and the city hosts massive festival events such as SXSW, so the cities’ music scenes aren’t exactly what you’d call similar types of fruit. However, a state-of-the-scene survey released last year by the group Austin Music People showed that the city reaped a whopping $1.8 billion in 2014 from live music activity. Madison’s number likely resides in a more modest ballpark, but the point remains: A booming music scene boosts the economy. The economic impact is what intrigues Sperling most about the Sylvee. He’s been around long enough to remember what the Schenk-Atwood neighborhood looked like

MUSIC CORRIDOR

Edgewater Hotel

in 2016, the Majestic Theatre hosted 296 indoor concerts and a popular outdoor series, King Street Live.

Mother Fools

Crystal Corner Bar WILLIAMSON

Mickey’s Tavern

Barrymore Theatre 971

Harmony Bar

CHRIS LOTTEN

part of a live music district has been a good thing for venues in other cities, so it seems like it would be a positive development for the High Noon,” says Dethmers. “Ideally, it would mean that more people would be drawn to the area on any given night, and stop into the High Noon regardless of what band is playing.”

In the end, the impact of the Sylvee

on the scene might come down to the fans. As both the Majestic’s Gerding and the Barrymore’s Sperling point out, venues are part of the equation — but so is a dependable fanbase. Sperling notes that music fandom often tends to be a zero-sum game — as in, there’s typically a finite audience (with finite discretionary dollars) willing to come out and pay to see shows. Whether the shows Frank Productions books into the Sylvee increase that audience or merely redirect it to East Washington Avenue remains the million — maybe even multimillion — -dollar question. “We’re not assuming we’re going to take all their business,” says Goldstone about the impact the new venue will have on concerts at the Orpheum. “What we’ll be doing is bringing in new business. Will both businesses at some point have to readjust their focuses? That’s how it always goes.” However it ends up playing out, the possibility of more live music seems awfully appealing to music lovers who’ve been waiting a long, long time for the city to take the leap and realize its potential. Madison may never overtake Milwaukee or Austin, but the possibility of staking its place on the map of Midwestern music destinations suddenly feels a lot more real. ■

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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.

Phragmipedium Rosalie Dixler grown and photographed by Nancy Thomas

ORCHID QUEST

2017

LAST CHANCE! The Book of Love portal closes Sunday, Feb. 5

the 2017 Isthmus

Book of Love send us your lovely words and pretty pictures

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. Participants will receive up to $400 to $450.

Contact Sydney Notermann at (608) 262-0169 The Isthmus Book of Love online entry is now open, accepting your words and pictures ’til midnight Sunday, Feb. 5. Isthmus will publish a selection in print Thursday, Feb. 9, with a web slideshow to follow in plenty of time for Valentine’s Day.

isthmus.com/book-of-love-2017-signup PRESENTED BY

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FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Upload your words and pictures online

Don’t miss the Midwest preimere of this acclaimed 2015 opera! New York City, 1955. As his body lies unclaimed in the morgue, saxophone great Charlie Parker returns in spirit to the jazz club Birdland, determined to compose a final masterpiece. Family and friends blend in and out of his memories in an acclaimed new opera that tells of his tortured, brilliant life “with a pulsing, jazzinfused score” (The New York Times).

A Mid

st Pre

ere mi

Charlie Parker’s Yardbird was widely praised following its 2015 premiere. Madison Opera will be only the second company to perform this theatrical tour de force that melds jazz and opera – don’t miss it!

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

MUSIC BY

LIBRETTO BY

DANIEL SCHNYDER

B R I D G E T T E A . W I M B E R LY

Tickets start at only $25! Thank you to our generous sponosors!

F E B RUA RY 1 0 & 1 2 , 2 0 1 7 CA P I TO L T H E AT E R

AT OV E RT U R E C E N T E R

Sung in English with projected text

Richard B. Anderson Family Foundation

madisonopera.org | tickets: 608.258.4141 |

Sally & Mike Miley

FOOD & DRINK ■ SPORTS ■ STAG E ■ MUSIC ■ BOOKS ■ SCREENS

To the Best of Our Knowledge hits the Majestic stage BY DYLAN BROGAN ■ ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL HIRSHON

The show will delve into the science of love in a series of interviews conducted by Paulson, producer Charles Monroe-Kane and host Anne Strainchamps, who is married to Paulson. On the list: biologists David Sloan Wilson and Jeff Schloss; Carin Bondar, host of Animal Planet’s World’s Oddest Animal Couples; and Lisa Diamond, author of Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. The audience will enjoy performances from Milwaukee author and storyteller Dasha Kelly, comedian Esteban Touma and the self-described “polyrhythmic, mono-member musical entity” Asumaya.

CONTINUE D ON PAGE 2 9

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FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Love and lust — live!

What’s love got to do with it? Tina Turner isn’t the only one asking. To the Best of Our Knowledge — the nationally syndicated show produced by Wisconsin Public Radio — intends to explore the notion of love in front of a live audience. “Love + Evolution” is a special live, ticketed version of the Peabody Award-winning radio show that will take place Feb. 9 at the Majestic Theatre. It’s the first live show the program has held in Madison in more than a decade and is far more elaborate than its previous endeavors on stage. “It’ll be a mixture of romance, compassion, sex and some deeper ways of thinking about love,” says executive producer Steve Paulson. “Part of it will be a little edgy. And some of it will be talking about other kinds of love, like altruism.”

■ FOOD & DRINK

On the right track Porter packs ’em in BY LINDA FALKENSTEIN

It’s great to see Porter, the new coffee and sandwich shop at the former Milwaukee Road Depot on West Washington Avenue, crowded with customers. The area has languished since Crandall’s (and then a succession of failed restaurants) tried to make a go of it in the dramatic, high-ceilinged lobby back in the 1990s. Over the decades bike shops have had more success there. Porter is just the first element in an ambitious reimagining of the baggage area at the former depot, overseen by Gilbert Altschul (Grampa’s Pizzeria, Gib’s Bar). It will be followed by public market-style vendor stalls and a taco eatery called Bandit. In the meantime, though, the people are finding Porter despite an out-of-sight, out-of-mind location. Sandwich boards point customers around an unobvious corner to its actual door. That people are flocking here is all the more surprising since this is not a “settle in, snuggle up and relax” kind of coffee shop. There are no couches or overstuffed chairs. There’s a large-ish square table ringed with backless stools where it’s easier to set up solo, hunched over a laptop, than it is to have a leisurely face-to-face with a friend. There are more stools set up along a narrow ledge — this faces a wall and seems designed more for a quick toss-back of your single-origin espresso than a long stay. Overflow seating in a breezeway between Porter and the Motorless Motion bike shop has a few cafe tables and smells of the rubber of bike tires. What better hipster cred? Coffee beans are from Counter Culture, and there are decent pour-overs in three sizes. Sweet matcha and chai lattes are about as frou-frou as the drinks get; Porter is more of a cortado kinda place. The breakfast menu is streamlined, starring a liege waffle, three versions of portable eggs (the Porter Pocket, an egg sandwich

Lunch is popular, too. Although the shop’s Facebook page shows a pile of pre-made sandwiches wrapped in brown butcher paper, most sandwiches will be made fresh in the spacious open kitchen. The Heritage Ham is almost a great sandwich — with Dan Fox’s richly smoked ham at the heart of it, it doesn’t need a lot of adornment. The sweet-ish challah roll would be a brilliant counterpoint to the salty ham had it not been for the overapplication of a vinegary Spanish (yellow) mustard, which both overpowered the meat/bread flavor matchup and made the bun fall apart. An avocado toast for the purist. The soppressata panini, LINDA FALKENSTEIN on a crisp sesame baguette, was almost perfect, though the artichoke tapenade coupled with the and the breakfast bocadillo) and avocado toast, soppressata (from Underground Meats) plus a yogurt parfait. The avocado toast feacreates a salt overload — fuses blown. tures big slices of just-ripe avocado, a generous There’s better balance in the roast beef squeeze of fresh lemon and salt, with beautysandwich (pickled red onions and horseradheart radishes fanned out across the top for a ish mayo are the standout accoutrements pop of color and a bit more texture. It’s pretty, here) and the veggie sandwich (a fennel but the rustic bread is dry and needs something aioli and plenty of arugula play against saltto integrate it with the toppings. The $2 ’nduja roasted tomatoes and artichokes). add-on might do the trick. Yet avocado toast is Sandwiches run $8-$9; half of any the simplest of dishes (and as such an odd subsandwich with a cup of the housemade minject for a trend), so for avocado toast purists, estrone is $8 and is a very popular option. this is an unwavering exemplar of the style. Or come for happy hour. Wine, bottles The Porter Pocket belies its small size — it’s of beer, hot toddies and even Pok Pok sodas rich and buttery, like a spanokopita stuffed with are on special, and new menu items might bacon and scrambled eggs instead of spinach be in rehearsal. and feta. The generous amount of the crumbly, Porter has just revamped its original meaty bacon makes this a heavy little breakfast. menu, which had been divided into breakThe two-egg-omelet bocadillo (a Spanishfast and lunch, to just “Eats,” with any item inspired sandwich), on an excellent baguette, available during open hours. The one salad was filled with thin egg, a smear of raclette and has disappeared; more grab-and-go items a layer of arugula, but not a lot of flavor got out are promised. Smart changes. ■ from under the baguette.

PORTER ■ 640 W. Washington Ave. ■ 608-720-1110 ■ portermsn.co ■ 7 am-7 pm daily ■ $4-$9

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

Eats events

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Port- and chocolatetasting soirée

Birthday beer dinner with Athens Gyros

The real Super Bowl

Friday, Feb. 3 and Feb. 10

Saturday, Feb. 4

Hone your palate by learning the basic principles of pairings at this port wine and chocolate tasting. Different styles of port will be served with truffles, caramels and mousse from CocoVaa Chocolatier. Reserve your spot ($30) at cocovaa.com/events. At 1 Sherman Terrace, 7-9:30 pm.

If you haven’t yet made it to the Westport nanobrewery the Parched Eagle, this Brewmaster’s Birthday Beer Dinner in celebration of brewer Jim Goronson’s 51st is the reason you need. Gyros from neighboring food truck Athens Gyros and other special birthday fare (hmm...) will be on the menu, along with the pub’s excellent housemade beers. At 5440 Willow Road in Westport, beginning at 6 pm.

This annual “Souper Bowl” fundraiser for UW’s Habitat for Humanity student-built houses is one of the few meals where you can leave (legally!) with your eating vessel, in this case a pottery bowl made by Madison ceramics students. In the bowl is homemade soup, plus there’s salad and dessert; cost is $15. At West High School, 30 Ash St.

Saturday, Feb. 4

Beer buzz: Down by the water Bent Kettle taproom opens in Fort Atkinson BY ROBIN SHEPARD

Mark Cook and Jim Jorgenson started Bent Kettle Brewing in May 2015. Two weeks ago they opened their downtown Fort Atkinson taproom at 10 S. Water St. in an 1886 building on the south bank of the Rock River. The taproom has eight to 10 beers on tap, including brewery favorites Insolence IIPA and the smoked IPA Thwack. The taproom is also an outlet for some of Cook’s more limited beers, which he still makes on a 20-gallon homebrew system. As of last weekend, among those small-batch treats were his brandy barrel-aged Belgian dubbel called Occam’s Razor and a trial batch of the IIPA called Velvet Lips. The taproom is open 5-10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and noon-6 p.m. Sundays.

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene The Hop Haus produced just 350 barrels of beer last year in its Verona brewpub; this year, brewery owner Phil Hoechst is taking a big leap, launching three of his best-selling beers in bottles and kegs. Plaid Panther Scotch Ale, Magic Dragon Double IPA and El Andy IPA are being released next week in six-packs, followed by keg releases for local taverns. Octopi Brewing in Waunakee is helping with the brewing and packaging. Hoechst hopes the agreement with Octopi will take some of the pressure off and allow him time to experiment with making other beers and one-off batches: “We’re going to brew experimental things, and I have a few IPAs we want to try out.” Watch the brewery’s Twitter for additional details on special-release parties around Madison.

Beer to watch for: 5th Quarter Porter Veteran brewer Grant Johnston is now crafting beers at the new Lucky’s 1313 at 1313 Regent St. Johnston has brewed professionally for more than

30 years, with stops from California to England. One of his first house beers is 5th Quarter Porter, a solid take on the style, made with a combination of English and American malts and hopped for ROBIN SHEPARD PHOTOS balance with U.S.grown Centennial. “You should be able to distinguish the malts and hops, but striking a balance is the goal,” Johnston says. He is also currently offering a malty red ale (1313 Big Red) and a mildly hopped pale (Hoppy Go Lucky). This is a very pleasant porter, with smooth chocolate and caramel maltiness that contributes sweetness. The Centennial hops and their piney bitterness remain in the background. It finishes with a hint of toffee, while remaining clean. This is the way a porter should be, flavorful and inviting. 5th Quarter Porter finishes at 5.8 percent ABV. It sells for $5/pint.

More beers to watch for: If you see these limited beers, don’t hesitate, just grab them. Wisconsin Dells Brewing is out with the first in its series of barrel-aged beers sold in black wax-sealed bomber bottles. The label for its bourbon barrel-aged Scotch Ale says it was aged in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels for 18 months; however, brewmaster Jamie Baertsch says it was actually at least 24 months, because she got busy and forgot about it. As of last weekend, Trixie’s Liquor still had a few bottles. Madison’s Alt Brew released a bourbon barrelaged imperial brown ale in commemorative brown ceramic resealable bottles. Brewmaster Trevor Easton offered just 200 bottles that were sold mostly through reservations. You’ll likely have to do some serious bartering to get one of these, if you know of someone fortunate enough to have scored a bottle of this brew. n

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Fe b r u a r y 1 0 -1 4 Join us for a romantic couple’s meal with our very special three-course Valentine’s Day dinner. Start with a sharable starter like Alpine Fondue or Steamed Mussels, choose with Duck Confit, Rack of Lamb or Crab-Stuffed Salmon, then enjoy a plate of sharable sweets. $100 per couple. Reservations at 294-3031. Overnight packages available.

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■ FOOD & DRINK

Off the market Sophia’s Bakery & Cafe won’t be sold after all BY DYLAN BROGAN

CHILEAN WINE DINNER THURSDAY, FEB. 16 6-8 PM

We will be presenting 5 Chilean wines along with our 4 course Mardi Gras dinner Cajun Meatballs Red Bean Soup Couscous Jambalaya Banana Cream Pie in a Banana Crust Cost $47 • Limited Seating Please RSVP by 2/12 425 N. Frances St. • 256-3186

Check out the menu at portabellarest.com

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Sophia Barabas has changed her mind. In July, she announced that she was selling Sophia’s Bakery & Cafe. She opened the restaurant at 831 E. Johnson St. over two decades ago and planned on retiring after finding a new owner. Barabas has now decided to remain at the helm of the breakfast hot spot. The fiery septuagenarian says there was plenty of interest from potential buyers. But it became apparent that Sophia’s just wouldn’t be Sophia’s without — who else? — Sophia. “I guess it didn’t make a lot of sense to sell my name and my creation to someone else. Even if I sold the recipes and everything else, it just wasn’t going to be the same,” says Barabas. She thinks that potential buyers perceived that, too. “So it just didn’t happen. And the more it didn’t happen, the more I felt like, ‘What I am doing?’ It came to me that there was nothing else to do but keep going.” The news will be well received by Sophia’s loyal clientele. Barabas says after she put the restaurant on the market, there was “a lot of sadness” in the air. “We had a lot of crying people who came in. The response was more than we expected,” says Barabas. “Now, I don’t want any impression that we aren’t here. We aren’t going anywhere.” Over the years, Sophia’s has developed a mystique enjoyed by few restaurants in Madison. A number of factors drive the intrigue: Her space is teeny, unpretentious

Patrons will still be able to get their weekend breakfast fix at the East Johnson Street favorite. DYLAN BROGAN

and easily overlooked, and it’s open only on weekends, 8 a.m.-2 .pm. No coffee mug or plate is exactly the same. Yet the eatery is frequently packed with customers, with a line out the door. “When we started, we were only one of a handful of places that was a true breakfast place in the model of [the now defunct] Ovens of Brittany,” says Barabas. “We were unique at that point. Now there are lots of brunch places. But we just keeping doing what we do.” Sophia’s will remain a family affair. Barabas’ adult daughters — Christa Parmentier and Becky Parmentier — will to continue to help run the restaurant. In recent years,

The house always wins The Robin Room debuts first original cocktail menu To the delight of Madison’s cocktail nerds, the talented bartenders at the Robin Room rolled out their firstever menu of house originals on Jan. 25. The drink list is small, but it is mighty — five lovely yet understated concoctions. Some are riffs on classic cocktails. The Baisden, named after its creator, RR bartender Peter Baisden, is a reimagined Gibson (another drink named after the guy who invented it), made with Nolet’s gin, dry vermouth, pink peppercorn tincture and salt. If you’ve never had a saltand-pepper martini before, try it — it’s crisp and refreshing. Wisconsin’s unofficial state cocktail, the old fashioned, gets a revamp

ORPHEUM THEATER

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

ADULT SWIM:

MAKER MADNESS FEB 3

MADISON CHILDREN’S MUESUM

ISTHMUS.COM/PROMOTIONS

Christa has been baking alongside her mother, while Becky has worked the front of the house. “Becky is in school, so she’ll be working less but will still be helping out,” Barabas says. “Christa has some other things going on and wants to spend more time with her family but is still involved. She’s my right-hand person.” The restaurant is in the process of bringing on some new staff in the next few months. Other than that, Barabas says not to expect many other changes to Sophia’s. “We’ll just keep on trucking.” ■

Sí, La Tentadora is a temptress. DYLAN BROGAN

as well. The Elder employs Banks 7 island rum, allspice liqueur, Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao and house-made bitters for a spicy, almost Jamaican take on the classic supper club staple. Another riff, the Compromise, uses single-barrel bourbon, blood orange cordial, plus Angostura and cherry bark-vanilla bitters for a fragrant and updated version. Call it a new fashioned, if you will. For the more adventurous, try La Tentadora (Spanish for “the temptress”). Silver tequila is infused with zippy firecracker tea (a collaboration with neighboring Macha Tea Company). Cinnamon syrup, Angostura bitters, plus lemon and orange juices complete this uniquely spicy creation.

— ALLISON GEYER

■ SPORTS

It looks like Ethan Happ knows the pressure’s on.

This week at Capitol Centre Market DAVID STLUKA / UW ATHLETICS

Shurfine Pasta

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12-16 oz. box.

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Badgers need to step up Men’s basketball team is eking out victories BY MICHAEL POPKE

•

Ethan Happ needs a career game every game. The redshirt sophomore forward scored 28 points, plus had 12 rebounds, six assists and five steals, against the Gophers on Jan. 21. A week later, against Rutgers, he scored a new careerhigh 32 — including 23 of UW’s first 38 points. Without him in that game, especially early on, the Badgers easily could have embarrassed themselves even more against a team that at the time only claimed one Big Ten win.

• The Rutgers OT win must be the low point of

the season. UW shot 33 percent from the floor against the Scarlet Knights and an almost inconceivable 12 percent from three-point range. When the Badgers clank that hard, they usually lose big. Fortunately, this time it happened against Rutgers.

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Don’t panic. College basketball’s lengthy season allows for some ups and downs. Remember last season, when Wisconsin lost four of its first five games in the Greg Gard era but rebounded to win 11 of their final 13 regular-season games, secure a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament and advance to the Sweet 16? While the Badgers can’t afford to look past any team, there’s a reason they’ve remained consistently in the middle of the AP Top 25 rankings all season. “Our guys found a way,” Gard said after the Rutgers game. “That’s what good teams do.” ■

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FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Nine games into the Big Ten Conference schedule, you would think the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team wouldn’t need to take teams like Minnesota and Rutgers to overtime in order to pull out victories. Yet UW missed 22 three-pointers on Jan. 28 at Rutgers before eking out a 61-54 victory. The OT win at Minnesota was much closer, with a three-pointer from Bronson Koenig with 44 seconds left proving to be the difference. True, UW has won six straight since losing at Purdue by 11 on Jan. 8. — including blowouts at the Kohl Center against Ohio State and Penn State. But mid-February home games against Maryland and Northwestern loom large on the schedule. Even upcoming matchups against one-time powerhouses that are merely average this season, such as Michigan and Michigan State, likely won’t be anything close to gimme games. If the No. 10 Badgers (8-1 in the Big Ten, 19-3 overall) are going to march strongly into March, here are three things that have to happen:

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Farms, feuds and frenemies Outside Mullingar is an unusual love story BY AMELIA COOK FONTELLA

At its simplest, Forward Theater’s Outside Mullingar is a love story. But like the very best love stories, it takes its time and offers a few surprises along the way, proving to be an unforgettable journey. In the production, which runs through Feb. 12 at Overture’s Playhouse, we meet elderly neighbors Tony Reilly (James Pickering) and Aoife Muldoon (Carrie Hitchcock) on the day of Aoife’s husband’s funeral in rural Ireland. The two families respect each other, but they also harbor a grudge over a disputed plot of land. Tony and Aoife’s middle-aged children, Anthony Reilly (David Daniel) and Rosemary Muldoon (Clare Arena Haden) are at the center of the drama. They are still single and living on their respective family farms, and their parents fret over them as if they were still schoolchildren. From the get-go, the audience can see that Anthony and Rosemary are frenemies with romantic potential. Daniel offers a breathtaking performance as Anthony. The actor gets every detail of his character right, down to slight facial movements and a dead-on accent. It’s clear Anthony is uncomfortable around people as he fidgets, hands permanently stuffed into his pockets. He’s scruffy and cute, an Irish Ethan Hawke. Wild-haired Rosemary is intense and angry. Haden captures the feisty energy of

James Pickering and Carrie Hitchcock play neighbors in rural Ireland.

ROSS ZENTNER

her character well, but I wanted a bit more complexity earlier in the show to better understand where her emotion was coming from. In the final moments of the play Rosemary softens, and we understand who she is. John Patrick Shanley’s script is finely done and full of poetry, but at times it feels like a caricature

of rural Irish life, with sentimental references to drinking, fighting and Irish pride. The play is set in 2008, but Tony wears a fisherman’s sweater and captain’s hat and Aofie looks like she stepped out of Dancing at Lughnasa in her long skirt and shawl. Coming from Shanley, an award-winning American playwright, this idealization of Ireland

makes sense. Shanley, now 66, first visited his father’s Irish homestead at age 42. He fell in love with it, calling it his “Atlantis.” The landscape here is not one of reality, but one of memory and dream. Chris Dunham’s set is lovely: a rocky crag and a floor made of a hodgepodge of planks and linoleum surrounded by a wide moat of spongy moss. There aren’t any props. Characters refer to invisible items, but don’t pantomime actions. At first it feels strange when a character talks about drinking tea with his hands at his side, but it ultimately proves to be a larger statement by director Tyler Marchant. Pay attention to the people, the words. The things don’t matter much. “Maybe the quiet around the thing is as important as the thing itself,” Anthony muses toward the end of Outside Mullingar. That line embodies the play. It’s a love story, sure. A family story, a story about life and death. But the story and the characters thrive in liminal spaces: the long spaces between dying and death, the years that pass before two people fall in love. I don’t think I am spoiling anything by letting you know that Anthony and Rosemary fall in love. There’s a happy ending. And a quirky twist. But just like life, Outside Mullingar isn’t about the ending; it’s about all the things that happen along the way. ■

Dance of power The Seldoms explore Lyndon Johnson’s legacy

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

BY KATIE REISER

I wouldn’t have predicted sold-out audiences for a contemporary dance company’s evening-length work about Lyndon Baines Johnson. But that’s exactly what happened for the Seldoms’ two performances of Power Goes at Wisconsin Union Theater’s Fredric March Play Circle, Jan. 27-28. Company director and choreographer Carrie Hanson was inspired to explore the give-and-take of power after reading Robert Caro’s multi-volume biography of our 36th president. The Chicago-based dance troupe digests LBJ’s complicated legacy, which includes championing civil rights legislation and advancing social programs like Medicare/Medicaid as well as pushing for the escalation of the Vietnam War. The folksy Texan had a knack for both storytelling and browbeating. He used his intimidating physical presence to his advantage so often that a term was coined for it: the Johnson Treatment. Power Goes uses many visual and audio elements, including actual speeches and his-

torical photos; many dancers from the Madison area performed with the group as well. Early on, we hear Johnson describing his goals as president, repeating the phrase “I want to be the president who educated young children... helped the poor...helped end hatred...helped end the war....” Later we see a portion of this phrase literally turned on its side projected on the screen, but now it is cut to just “I want to be the president,” which changes things completely. Other segments of the performance explore the idea of power in more metaphorical ways. In an affecting sequence, one dancer (Christina Gonzalez-Gillett) compliments another woman (Amanda McAlister Howard) on her new haircut. This seemingly banal conversation leads to an unsettling struggle as Gonzalez-Gillett pulls Howard’s hair up into a ponytail, grabs it and leads her around like a dog (all the while chattering about haircuts). To the backdrop of an infamous recording of LBJ discussing his trouser specifications with a tailor, the dancers tug at their crotches and deal with an array of bodily functions, such as waving away farts, nose picking, armpit smelling and sweat wiping.

ANDY MANIS

Amanda McAlister Howard and Damon Green explore the theme of persuasion.

Throughout the evening, the six excellent dancers from the Seldoms manipulate each other’s bodies, employing gestures that may seem mundane when used sparingly in everyday life — pointing a finger, waving someone over, cupping an ear to hear more clearly, or hitching up their pants. But the movements are imbued

with new power when repeated, underscoring how movement shapes both storytelling and displays of dominance. The Seldoms take a creative look back at history, which provides insights for us today. It will be interesting to see how our current president shapes art in the future. ■

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Partners in life and radio: Steve Paulson and Anne Strainchamps.

To the Best of Our Knowledge continued from 23

“SHADOWLAND” BY PILOBOLUS Feb. 23, 2017

Typewriter poets will be on hand, too. “When you come into the Majestic, they will type out a love poem for you. So it should be a combination of a festive, engaging live event and the deep dive into the world of ideas that we usually do on the radio,” says Paulson, adding that an edited version of the show will air several weeks after the live event. “Love + Evolution” is being co-produced by the Chicago-based nonprofit Center for Humans & Nature. A few months ago, the center approached To The Best of Our Knowledge about partnering on a project examining what evolution can teach us about morality. Paulson says the idea eventually morphed into reframing the question of morality into love (Valentine’s Day is just a few days later, after all.) The collaboration also furthers To The Best of Our Knowledge’s interest in putting on more live stage shows. Last year, they were invited by the public ra-

dio station in Salt Lake City (KUER) to host a show in Utah. In May, To The Best of Our Knowledge will be headed to St. Louis. “It’s fun doing what we do. But it is a little weird sometimes sitting all alone in a radio studio, often talking with a guest who is also alone in a radio studio half-way across the country,” says Paulson. “It’s just great to go out and make connections with real people. It’s a really quick immersion in a local culture, and that’s good for us. It also helps support the local public radio stations that air the show.” Since Michael Feldman’s Whad’ya Know? was canceled in June, To the Best of Our Knowledge is now Wisconsin Public Radio’s most widely syndicated show. More than 200 radio stations air the program’s two 60-minute episodes produced each week. The show was created in 1990 by Paulson and Strainchamps with longtime host Jim Fleming, who retired in 2014. n

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The evolution of Dawes

Dawes (from le ): Wylie Gelber, Griffin Goldsmith, Taylor Goldsmith, Lee Pardini.

Q&A with bass player Wylie Gelber BY TOM WHITCOMB

Since their 2009 inception, Dawes has specialized in the sort of breezy folk rock in the Laurel Canyon tradition of Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills and Nash. But in their most recent album, 2016’s We’re All Gonna Die, the California quartet takes a musical left turn, exploring elements of funk and R&B. Isthmus talked with bassist Wylie Gelber about Dawes’ latest album.

With We’re All Gonna Die, you’ve stepped beyond the sound you’re known for and are into funkier stuff. Can you talk a little about that process? Well, we’ve always been into that kind of music. I think a lot of it has to do with the techniques that you use when you go in to do a record. In the beginning, it would just be the four of us in a room live with the tape, which kind of lends itself to that Laurel Canyon-y, natural sound. On this one, we

were working with our old buddy Blake (Mills, a former member), so we were able to get a little weirder, you know? Get a little funkier with it. Jim James appears on the album, which got me thinking: My Morning Jacket is a band that made a similar transition from country and folk into something much weirder and less predictable. Did you take away anything from working with him?

We’ve known him for a long time, and that’s definitely something about that band that we all love. When you go in to record, it’s always important to keep it interesting for the band if you’re trying to get a new and interesting performance. When you do a bunch of records in that super-natural, “guys-in-a-band-in-a-room” kind of way, it’s nice to get to open up your mind, being able to record it in different ways, being able to write new parts. That’s definitely something we took away from that band. ■

Following in Schubert’s footsteps UW’s “Schubertiade” celebrates the composer and his works

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

BY JOHN W. BARKER

Perhaps the most affable and personable of composers, Franz Schubert was also the most gregarious. His friends and supporters in Vienna gathered regularly for musical and social gatherings known as “Schubertiades.” For the past four years, Bill Lutes and Martha Fischer, UW-Madison’s piano power couple, have been creating their own version of these events at Mills Hall. On Jan. 29, the husband-and-wife team assembled a team of singers from School of Music students and faculty, including a number of excellent singers who performed solo and ensemble pieces. A special guest this time was UW alum Emily Birsan, the rising soprano who is always welcome in her return appearances in Madison. Audiences may remember her superb portrayal of the female lead in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet with the Madison Opera last fall.

The substantial program, organized by Lutes, contained more unfamiliar examples of Schubert’s songs than familiar ones, so there were lots of wonderful discoveries. Among her five solos, Birsan contributed some outstanding treats. She brought appropriate theatrical flair to an operatic parody of a letter to an absent friend. And Viola set a text about the prematurely blossoming and soon-dead violet that could be taken as an allegory for Schubert’s own sad destiny. Baritone Paul Rowe delivered a moving performance of a song about a youth facing death. Also notable were some ensemble numbers, such as the wonderful Ständchen (Serenade), and a birthday cantata for singer Johann Michael Vogl, an important member of Schubert’s circle. Fischer sang beautifully in two vocal solos, while she and Lutes alternated as dynamic accompanists. They also joined in two selections for piano four hands. And in the event’s tradition, all the performers joined the audience in singing An die Musik as a finale.

Martha Fischer and Bill Lutes have created a season highlight.

The full vocal texts, with translations, were provided in a handout to the audience, and the program included notes on the music by Lutes.

These “Schubertiades” are now highlights of each season. Given the composer’s abundant musical resources, audiences can hope for at least 20 more to come. ■

n BOOKS

Reflections on water Never Curse the Rain shows why Jerry Apps is a Wisconsin treasure BY BILL LUEDERS

True story from my childhood: Thanksgiving dinner, I’m about 13. The whole fam is gathered at my parents’ house. My existence is briefly acknowledged, when someone says I’m doing well in school and that one of my teachers suggested I could be a lawyer. My grandpa looks across the table and scowls, “You can’t be a lawyer. You’re too goddamn short!” Ah, yes, memories. For most of us, they are often painful, at best bittersweet. For Jerry Apps, they are lovely, transcendent, heartwarming. From childhood to now, in his early 80s, he’s had a charmed life — as rich in Wisconsin culture as a cream puff at the State Fair. The UW-Madison professor emeritus has written three dozen books — some historical, some fictional, some meant for children. Most impressive, putting him alongside such regional greats as August Derleth, Sigurd Olson and Aldo Leopold, are those on rural life, drawn from his own experiences. These include The Quiet Season about country winters, Whispers and Shadows: A Naturalist’s Memoir and Roshara Journal

about his farm in Waushara County, a gorgeous book adorned with photos by his son, Wisconsin State Journal photographer Steve Apps. All were published in recent years by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Now the same press is releasing a slender volume of Apps essays titled, Never Curse the Rain: A Farm Boy’s Reflections on Water. It’s as refreshing as a sweet summer rain. It explores the role of water in his life and environs, from Saturday baths in his maddeningly happy boyhood to river excursions as a UW educator. Apps shows the many ways that water is precious and why he believes it is something we can all learn from. Apps’ late father, Herman, to whom the book is dedicated, emerges as a central figure. Asked if his house had running water, he’d reply, “Sure, grab a pail, take it to the pump, fill it up, and run back to the house.” He could study the sky and predict a storm with accuracy that would blow Bob Lindmeier away. Never Curse the Rain is steeped in history and remembrance. How the Wild Rose village marshal would prep for outdoor movie night by using a rope to lower the lone suspended streetlight and unscrewing the bulb. How the neighbors kept his family’s barn from burning by stringing a cable

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Apps, a UW professor emeritus, has written three dozen books.

around a huge stack of burning hay and using two tractors to drag it into an open space. How “Nothing could be better than toasted homemade bread, spread thick with butter and a slice of cheddar cheese and tasting faintly of oak smoke.” How rain drumming on a canvas tent made “music as powerful and beautiful as that made by the finest symphony orchestra.”

Toward the book’s end, Apps describes watching raindrops fall on a lake, creating “circles upon circles that came and disappeared. It was something like life itself. We hope to make a little splash (some hope for larger splashes), with expanding circles that influence the people in our lives, perhaps even beyond.” Jerry Apps is making quite a splash. n

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Film events 13th: Documentary about the relationship of the current prison system to racial inequality, plus Justified Art! & GSAFE discussion. UW South Madison Partnership, Feb. 2, 6 pm. Groundhog Day: A TV newsman (Bill Murray) lives the same day over and over until he gets it right. Neighborhood House, Feb. 2, 6 pm. Traffic: Stories of the war on drugs from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, and both sides of the law, are woven together in this film from director Steven Soderbergh. Central Library, Feb. 2, 6 pm. How to Tell You’re a Douchebag: A blogger and self-styled Casanova encounters a woman who challenges his attitudes. UW Union SouthMarquee, Feb. 2, 7 pm. American Honey: Writer-director Andrea Arnold’s tale of a teenager who runs away with a traveling magazine sales crew. UW Union SouthMarquee, Feb. 2, 9 pm. Moana: Disney animated tale in which a teen, accompanied by demigod Maui, takes on monsters and other dangers to save her people. UW Union South-Marquee, Feb. 3-4 (6 pm) and Feb. 5 (3 pm).

Sully

Sully: Biopic about pilot Chelsey Sullenberger (Tom Hanks). Pinney Library, Feb. 3, 6:30 pm. An Evening of Rare Jazz Films: Free Madison Opera program hosted by Gary Alderman, Ashman Library, Feb. 3, 7 pm. Mimosas: A trip across a mountain range by a dying sheik and his ragtag caravan becomes mythic. UW Cinematheque, Feb. 3, 7 pm. The Edge of Seventeen: A teen’s life is complicated when her popular older brother starts dating her best friend. UW Union South-Marquee, Feb. 3-4 (8:30 pm) and Feb. 5 (6 pm). Riley the Cop: Silent comedy by director John Ford follows a beat cop way out of his jurisdiction; introduced by Museum of Modern Art adjunct curator Dave Kehr. UW Cinematheque, Feb. 4, 7 pm. The Brat: Museum of Modern Art restoration of the last extant sound film by John Ford, which was out of circulation. UW Cinematheque, Feb. 4, 8:30 pm. Miami Connection: Drug dealers get a free tae-kwon-do lesson from a college band called Dragon Sound (Y.K. Kim, Vincent Hirsch, William Ergle). UW Union South-Marquee, Feb. 4, 11 pm. Jaws: UW Cinematheque: Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster thriller about a bloodthirsty shark. Chazen Museum of Art, Feb. 5, 2 pm.

ISTHMUS.COM FEBRUARY 2–8, 2017

The Pit: UW Cinematheque: Canadian horror film (made in the Beaver Dam area) about a young outcast who finds a use for flesh-eaters in the forest near his home. UW Union SouthMarquee, Feb. 6, 7 pm.

Get Out: Sneak preview of thriller written and directed by Jordan Peele, about an African American man’s disturbing trip to meet his white girlfriend’s family. UW Union SouthMarquee, Feb. 7, 7 pm. All That Heaven Allows: A widow in a stultifying bourgeois U.S. suburb falls for a young gardener. Bos Meadery, Feb. 8, 7 pm. Love and Basketball: Black History Month screening: The story of a boy and girl’s relationship through friendship, romance, breakup and basketball rivalry. UW Union South-Marquee, Feb. 9, 9 pm.

Unconventional family Annette Bening and Greta Gerwig light up 20th Century Women BY KIMBERLEY JONES

A single mother and child of the Great Depression raising a 15-year-old son in Santa Barbara circa 1979, Dorothea (Annette Bening) has a habit of cocking her head and narrowing her eyes at young Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), like he’s a math problem she can’t unpuzzle. And so, in a somewhat misbegotten plan, she enlists others to chip in with the molding and moral education of Jamie, including her twentysomething boarder Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a photographer who turns Jamie on to feminism and punk music; William (Billy Crudup), a hippie carpenter who can quote from Our Bodies, Ourselves; and Jamie’s best friend Julie (Elle Fanning), who is diving headlong into the sexual revolution but keeps the besotted Jamie at arm’s length. That’s a lot of 20th-century culture clash stuffed under one roof, though clash is too emphatic a word: more like gentle friction. This lot — messy but well-meaning — is defined by their curiosity and earnest attempts to understand where everyone else is coming from, which is how you get the priceless image of Bening and Crudup, the film’s “grownups,” trying to figure out how to dance to Black Flag and Talking Heads. Mike Mills is an uncommonly empathetic filmmaker, which may have something to do with how autobiographically close the material is. (It was inspired by his mother and sister and first loves; it makes a very fine companion piece to Beginners, Mills’ 2010 film about how his father came out late in life.) He’s an uncommonly

Annette Bening (left), Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig turn in tender performances.

generous filmmaker, too: The “action” (again, too strenuous a word for such an unhurried film) regularly stills for collage-like interludes that provide context for each character — when they were born, who broke their heart, what the world was like in their formative years — and this context is key to understanding how each identity came to be and, in the film’s cat’s cradle connectivity, how that identity has influenced the formation of another’s. Does that sound too dry? Because what I mean to say is, this movie is delightful — funny

and dreamy and sometimes desperately sad. An ecstatic visual stylist who started out shooting music videos, Mills doesn’t get enough credit for his distinctive script work, which prioritizes story over plot and can distill a character in a single line (“I make my own shampoo”). He’s handed Bening and Gerwig — both playing women in pain but in different ways — the best roles of their careers, and they return the favor in spades. They, and this tender, searching film, are something to be cherished. n

Final wish Mimosas is a spiritual journey through Morocco’s deserts BY JAMES KREUL

In a mesmerizing new film from Moroccan director Oliver Laxe, treacherous mountains and windswept deserts overwhelm characters on very different spiritual journeys. Mimosas, which won the Critics Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and screens Feb. 3 at UW-Cinematheque, also has an ambiguous, elliptical narrative that merges two plotlines. A dying sheik instructs his caravan to pass through the Atlas Mountains so that he can be buried near his family. The sheik dies on the dangerous pass, and most caravan members seek a safer route. Ahmed (Ahmed Hammoud) promises the sheik’s widow he will continue with the corpse to fulfil the sheik’s final wish, but his true intention is unclear. The second plotline begins with a taxi company manager assigning cars to drivers looking for work. Those not assigned a vehicle remain in the lot to listen to Shakib (Shakib Ben Omar), a simpleton who likes to recite religious parables. The manager whisks Shakib away in a caravan

A caravan traverses the Atlas Mountains.

of taxis for a special assignment. Once they reach the desert, the manager instructs Shakib to assist a caravan led by a sheik, and to take care of a man named Ahmed. Back in the mountains, Ahmed meets a shepherd named Shakib (same actor, but not a taxi driver). Ahmed breaks his promise and allows a horse carrying the corpse to wander off.

Shakib insists that they find the corpse and continue the journey. The overlap between plotlines continues as characters first seen in traditional dress appear in urban dress, and vice versa. The time and place of a given scene matters less than the theme of maintaining faith in the face of adversity. Faith leads Shakib to action, while cynicism dooms Ahmed to remain lost. Laxe has described Mimosas as a “religious western,” and at times he seems to channel John Ford’s The Searchers. He takes his time with stunning landscapes, but maintains a refreshingly brisk pace despite the film’s contemplative tone. In translation, western genre references become more explicitly spiritual. Ahmed asks Shakib how they could possibly survive a standoff akin to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “With love!,” Shakib assures him, “We’ll do it with love.” Shakib speaks in metaphors, but remains more grounded than Ahmed. By exploiting ambiguities in the narrative, Mimosas delivers emotional truth and a spiritual clarity. n

presents

Maker Mad ness Friday, February 3 • 6 –10 p.m. Celebrate the Maker Movement and help Madison get ready for its second annual Maker Faire, coming to Monona Terrace this spring. Get a sneak peak at local maker exhibits and demonstrations, and make a thing or two for yourself. New drink options! Craft beer, wine and a craft cocktail, along with handmade pizza, will be available for purchase from The Roman Candle Pizzeria. Tickets: $12.75 advance; $15 day-of. Ages 21 & up.

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