Isthmus: Mar 23-29, 2016

MARCH 23–29, 2017

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VOL. 42 NO. 12

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MADISON, WISCONSIN

SPEECH WARS Can First Amendment defenders and social justice activists find common ground on campus?

D AV I D M I C H A E L M I L L E R

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■ CONTENTS

■ WHAT TO DO

4 SNAPSHOT

COLD-WATER RESCUES

The Madison Fire Department prefers thin ice for its practice sessions.

6-9 NEWS

WAITING FOR A BUS TERMINAL

Madison still doesn’t have a decent place to wait for interurban transit.

10 OPINION TOMMY WASHBUSH

26

ALLISON GEYER

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COVER STORY IT’S BEEN NEARLY three decades since UW-Madison imposed a “speech code” to punish racist and offensive speech. A controversial move, the code was later struck down by a federal court as overly broad. The debate over free speech and censorship continues on college campuses across the country, including UWMadison. Staff writer Allison Geyer looks at the issues and efforts at compromise.

MUSIC IN MIKE POPKE’S ode to the iconic rock band Journey, he writes about his discovery of the intergenerational appeal of classic rock. Staff artist Tommy Washbush captures that perfectly with his illustration of two dudes rocking out with the accoutrements that define their respective generations.

See more of Tommy’s art on Instagram at @washbeast.

MISSING IN ACTION

DNR staffers have abdicated their role as protectors of the environment.

13 COVER STORY

FREE SPEECH VS. HATE SPEECH

Can UW-Madison find a way to protect speech and vulnerable groups?

20-23 FOOD & DRINK

CHEF ON THE RISE

Evan Dannells makes his mark at Merchant.

24 SPORTS

THE UPSET

Wisconsin fans are gleeful as the underdog Badgers vanquish top-seeded Villanova.

19, 27-29 SCREENS

SNEAK PEEKS

Isthmus reviews some promising features and docs at this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival.

25 STAGE

WAR AT HOME

Learning to Stay is the result of a remarkable collaboration.

25 BOOKS

LITERARY GEEK JAY RATH

9

NEWS WE DON’T MAKE traveling out of town by bus a very attractive option. Since 2009, there has been no dedicated bus depot in downtown Madison where passengers can buy tickets or wait, sheltered from the weather.

Jay Rath has checked in with transportation planners over the years to follow progress on a promised new station; his latest update reveals little movement.

The flyover fights back Saturday March 25, Wisconsin Heights Middle School, 10173 US Highway 14, Mazomanie, 8 am-4:45 pm Can the grassroots save democracy?

Find out at the Wisconsin Grassroots Festival, which this year features speakers John Nichols, Kathy Cramer, Kathleen Vinehout and Mark Pocan as well as workshops on progressive messaging and how to fight for public education and the environment. The $20 fee covers the all-day conference and lunch.

Matt Forbeck is the writer behind the games.

Accio fun!

26-27 MUSIC

Sunday, March 26, Sheraton Madison Hotel, 1 pm

NEW LIFE FOR OLDIES

Michael Popke makes a case for why Journey and Asia can still fill a stadium.

36 EMPHASIS

BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY

Emily Plants specializes in edible landscaping.

IN EVERY ISSUE 7 MADISON MATRIX 7 WEEK IN REVIEW 10 THIS MODERN WORLD 11 FEEDBACK 11 OFF THE SQUARE

30 ISTHMUS PICKS 37 CLASSIFIEDS 38 P.S. MUELLER 38 CROSSWORD 39 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 EDITORIAL INTERN Riley Vetterkind CALENDAR EDITOR Bob Koch ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Fath STAFF ARTISTS Todd Hubler, David Michael Miller, Tommy Washbush VIDEOGRAPHER/PHOTOGRAPHER Justin Sprecher CONTRIBUTORS John W. Barker, Kenneth Burns, Dave Cieslewicz,

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.

Etsy meets Comic-Con Saturday-Sunday, March 25-26, Masonic Center

GeekCraft Expo Midwest returns for a second year in Madison. It’s the go-to place for pop culture or geekfriendly bric-a-brac, including crafts and original art, nerdgasmic clothing and accessories. It’s also a fine way to spend an afternoon browsing locally made handicrafts. New this year are demonstrations by makerspace the Bodgery on creating your very own geekery. Admission is free.

Islamophobia in America Wednesday, March 29, UW Memorial Union-Shannon Hall, 7:30 pm

Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Distinguished Lecture Series presents a look at a disturbing trend in the U.S. with this talk by Iranian-born Renaissance man Reza Aslan. He’s the author of the bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth and other books; host of television series Rough Draft and Believer; and founder of BoomGen Studios, providing creative content about and from the Middle East.

FIND MORE ISTHMUS PICKS ON PAGE 30

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

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, 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 Annie Kipcak ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Lindsey Bushart, 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

Grab your broomsticks, wands and pointed hats, because it’s time for a supernatural edition of Camp Bingo, benefiting AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin. This witches and wizards-themed event is hosted by Cass Marie Domino, and also features a costume contest, trivia and 5050 raffle. Tickets are $20; must be 18 or older.

3

n SNAPSHOT

On thin ice

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

BY SEAN KENNEDY n PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN SPRECHER

4

There aren’t many people who see a sunny, 55-degree day in March and think, “let’s get out on the ice.”

But those are perfect conditions for Madison Fire Department’s Lake Rescue Team, the unit tasked with saving anyone who might fall through the ice.

“Who’s getting in first?” asks Lt. Tom Schaller, leader of the Lake Rescue Team and a member for the past 28 years. A dozen firefighters gather around him, in various states of dress. A few are in bright yellow waterproof suits. Some are in full scuba gear.

The team has 57 trained scuba and lake rescue divers. Each must complete over 200 hours of training to become a member of the team, and then keep current throughout the year with practice dives in varying conditions.

The lake is a year-round playground, so the team has to be ready for anything. Lake rescue calls are unpredictable, but the department gets calls every month. In the summer it’s mostly boat accidents and turnovers. In the winter, between ice fishing, skating, fat biking and ATVs, it’s usually people falling through the ice.

“The big problems are always first ice and last ice,” Schaller says. Winters like this one,

with wildly fluctuating temperatures, are especially dangerous. “You can end up with really solid ice near shore, and it can be much thinner the farther you go. Ice is never 100 percent safe. Ever.”

Today, the Lake Rescue Team is conducting a citywide training for firefighters who aren’t on the team. They’re at the Tenney Park Locks, practicing on the last remaining ice on Lake Mendota.

“The object of today’s training is to get some more firefighters familiar with the ice training, just in case the scuba team would be busy at a structure fire or a large car accident,” says Elizabeth Smith, a firefighter at Station 5. After today, she’ll be qualified to act as a backup for lake rescues.

The thin, quickly melting ice is perfect for a training exercise, because it’s exactly the kind of conditions under which people usually fall in.

“The ice was still strong enough for me to put some of my weight on it, and that made it easier for me to rescue one of my fellow firefighters who’s acting as a victim today,” Smith says.

Smith and her fellow firefighters are getting familiar with Mustang suits, the insulated, waterproof suits that allow rescuers to brave

the frigid lake. Time is of the essence in ice rescues, so it’s vital that firefighters be able to suit up quickly. “Usually, in cold water like this, people don’t last very long,” says Schaller. “The cold zaps the strength out of you, disorients you. So the sooner we can get on the scene and get ’em out, the better it is.” Usually, rescuers have about 30 minutes to get to someone in freezing water. “Past that, it doesn’t look good,” Schaller says.

Trainees are also learning techniques — like how to pull a floating rescue sled onto the ice, and the best way to secure a rescued victim so the sled won’t capsize. Shore crews are working hard too, getting the feel for assuming command over a rescue situation.

The Lake Rescue Team also has an airboat, which helps divers power across ice and water alike. But the trainees aren’t going to get the keys to that anytime soon.

Schaller is happy to be building out the farm team for lake rescues. Working on water or ice is dangerous, even by firefighter standards.

“Ice rescue is one of the most dangerous things we do,” Schaller says. “People die just during training exercises. We have to stay trained so it’s like an instinct to us.” n

52: Number of lake rescue call responses in 2016. That’s up from 23 in 2015. The number of rescues in a year varies tremendously.

57: Full-time members of the Lake Rescue Team. Six divers are on duty 24/7 to respond to calls from the Madison Police Department and Dane County Sheriff’s Office — everything from topside emergencies, to underwater and ice rescues, and vehicle recovery. $1,200: Cost of one of those nifty Mustang Suits. The fire department has five of them.

20 PERCENT: Area of the city of Madison that is water.

TUESDAY: The day of the week, all year long, that the dive team practices. Keep an eye out.

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n NEWS

Concrete debates

JUSTIN SPRECHER PHOTOS

Road construction, Midtown Police Station and energy at issue in Common Council races

David Handowski (left) is challenging Ald. Barbara Harrington-McKinney for her seat on the far southwest side.

Bradley Campbell (left) and Arvina Martin are competing for an open west side seat.

The race is the only council election without an incumbent.

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David Handowski is running for Common Council in large part to keep 850 feet of concrete out of a neighborhood greenspace.

He wants to stop the city from executing its 2005 plan to extend Jeffy Trail to the busy Raymond Road. That would mean paving over a popular bike and walking trail that runs through a wooded area.

The city’s engineering division wants to extend the street to connect the isolated neighborhood with streets to the south and provide better access to emergency responders.

Handowski, vice president and cofounder of the Madison West Neighborhood Association, says Ald. Barbara HarringtonMcKinney was too slow to respond to residents’ pleas to stop the street extension. Now he’s running against her to represent the far southwest side District 1.

“Neighbors don’t want this area destroyed, and they wanted to preserve [the path],” Handowski says during a contentious debate at Isthmus on March 17. “I think the issue that residents have is that they attempted to communicate with [McKinney] several times and that she was not responsive.”

But Harrington-McKinney says she’s known about concerns over Jeffy Trail since she decided to run for the council in 2015. She says she’s met one-on-one with neighbors to hear concerns about the trail but also understands why the city wants to extend the street. As an alder, HarringtonMcKinney says she helped delay the project in order to search for a compromise.

Jeffy Trail

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

BY DYLAN BROGAN

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Proposed extension of Jeffy Trail to Raymond Road.

“We have to look at alternatives,” says Harrington-McKinney. “[Jeffy Trail] is absolutely something that is on my radar, on my list. So that we can work collaboratively in finding a good solution not only for the city in terms of connectivity, but also for the residents as well.”

Handowski is pleased that a decision about Jeffy Trail has been postponed until the High Point-Raymond Neighborhood development plan is updated, but says the delay has more to do with neighbors than with the alder.

Harrington-McKinney says she’s made expanding employment opportunities, especially for young people, a priority during her first term. She points to her sponsorship of a new neighborhood employment center at the former Griff’s Restaurant on McKenna Boulevard as one way she’s helping teens

find jobs. She also says she’s strengthened the relationship between residents and law enforcement.

“Look at the doors we are opening, the leadership I’ve built,” she says. “If that’s something you’d like to continue seeing, vote for me on April 4.”

Two political novices — Arvina Martin and Bradley Campbell — are vying to represent a west-side council district. After Ald. Chris Schmidt resigned from the District 11 seat midterm in January 2016, former Ald. Tim Gruber was selected by the council to fill the post for the remainder of Schmidt’s term.

Martin, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, is a policy analyst and statewide tribal liaison for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. She says while knocking on doors, residents told her their biggest concerns stretch beyond city hall.

“People are saying that we have a pretty good thing going on in Madison. They are more concerned about state and national politics,” Martin says during a debate at Isthmus on March 1. “I’ll be [a council member] that is focused on fighting back against any grudges from legislators that try to take away funding or take control away from local governments.”

Campbell works at an energy efficiency evaluation firm, DNV GL. He’s also a member of the Sustainable Madison Committee.

If elected, he’s vowed to be a leader on the council in advancing the goal of having all city operations run on net-zero carbon emissions

and 100% renewable energy. But Campbell says sustainability involves more than utility bills.

“People are worried about policing and race relations in the city,” Campbell says during a debate at Isthmus on March 1. “If the police lose credibility with populations in the community, that’s a longterm sustainability problem.”

Despite opposition from Mayor Paul Soglin, construction of the $10.8 million Midtown Police Station is scheduled to start this summer. The council overruled the mayor’s budget proposal that would have delayed the project, which is in District 11. Campbell says he would have voted to keep the project on its current timeline. But he’s sympathetic to Soglin’s argument that the city has to set budget priorities.

“When [Soglin] says, ‘We can’t do everything,’ he’s right. We will have finite resources,” says Campbell. “And as we go forward, we do need to look at additional options for reducing the need to rely on the police to do everything for us.”

Martin also would have voted to keep the Midtown Police Station in the 2017 capital budget.

“Residents are worried about response times. This is about making sure our neighborhoods are safe,” says Martin. “[The police station] will be good for the west side and the city as a whole. This is not a controversial issue in the district.” n Listen to debates from all five contested Common Council races at isthmus.com.

n WEEK IN REVIEW THURSDAY, MARCH 16 n

eeks after finding W elevated lead levels in drinking fountains at six Madison schools, the Madison school district expands lead testing to all district buildings and is sampling water from more than just drinking fountains, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. Results will be analyzed by the State Laboratory of Hygiene.

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 n

F or the first time since 1979, the state Supreme Court releases a decision (a 3-3 tie in a dispute between a cargo company’s co-owners) without identifying how the justices

■ MADISON MATRIX voted, the AP reports.

Justice Shirley Abrahamson writes a concurrence criticizing the move, but she doesn’t reveal the vote breakdown. n Older, low-income adults in Wisconsin would pay thousands more for health care under the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, according to a report from progressive activist group Citizen Action of Wisconsin. n Madison Police Chief Mike Koval is seeking reimbursement for the nearly $22,000 in legal fees he spent defending himself against misconduct complaints filed by

Sharon Irwin, the grandmother of Tony Robinson.

A resolution on the matter will be referred to the city’s Board of Estimates.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22

A body is discovered floating in Lake Wingra.

The deceased is a man in his 50s, and his clothing was found on a nearby pier, police say. No foul play is suspected. n Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold launches a new group, LegitAction, that will advocate for abolishing the Electoral College, protecting voter rights, reforming campaign finance and protecting the independence of the U.S. Supreme Court. n

BIG CITY

President Donald Trump’s budget will not Make Wisconsin Great Again. His massive spending cuts threaten the Wisconsin Humanities Council, Wisconsin Public Radio and disease research at UW-Madison, among other things.

Gov. Scott Walker is trying to close a tax credit loophole that has cost the state $27 million over the last four years, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

Are we in the upside-down?

WEIRD

SAD

A WKOW photojournalist is shot in the back with a pellet gun while covering a fire north of Madison. The shooter, 51-year-old Jeffery S. Lovick, told police he felt camera crews were infringing on his property. The war on journalism is real.

A bill co-authored by state Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) would do away with Wisconsin’s longtime requirement for work permits for minors. Bring back the sweatshops!

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Intercity buses are now picking up and dropping off passengers on Langdon Street near the Memorial Union.

CHO CO L AT IE R

JOE TARR

Going nowhere

11 West Main on the Capitol Square 11/30/06 4:49:00 PM 608.845.1545 • www.candinas.com

stop is passed by an estimated 25,359 motorists — including Metro buses that pass it about 425 times. Thus the return to Langdon.

“Langdon Street is a congested area, but is better,” says Schaefer, “especially since it is further away from the Memorial Union than it was before. The bus companies want to be as close as possible to their customers, many of whom are students.”

And the UW wants to do right by those students.

“While the university is not responsible for providing intercity transit, we have recognized over the years that many of the users are our students, and they need a safe and convenient location near campus,” says Gary Brown, director of UW Campus Planning and Landscape Architecture. “We continue to have regular discussions with the city of Madison as part of the campus planning process in order to identify an appropriate long-term solution.”

The current draft of the UW’s Long Range Transportation Plan, part of the 2015 Campus Master Plan update, includes a recommendation for establishing a permanent intercity bus terminal.

Brown says one potential location would be on the first floor of a redeveloped Lake Street parking garage. But that redevelopment won’t happen soon.

Says Stouder: “The city parking utility is addressing at least two other major parking structures — Government East and in the new Capitol East District — prior to having capacity to take on the Lake Street Ramp project.” n

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MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

The downtown stop for interurban buses has moved yet again as the city continues to search for a location for a sheltered bus terminal, a goal that has eluded it for six years.

There now may be light at the end of the tunnel — but it is a very, very long tunnel.

“We are certainly aware of the need for an intercity bus terminal,” says Heather Stouder, director of the city Planning Division, “but at this point, the soonest we foresee the ability to study it in depth is 20192020, due to other competing priorities.”

On Jan. 3, the isthmus stop for Badger Coaches, Lamers Bus Lines, Megabus, Van Galder Bus Company and Jefferson Lines moved from University Avenue, in front of the Chazen Museum of Art, to Langdon Street.

“The city required the change because of the problems the University Avenue stop created for [local] Metro buses, blocking the bus lanes, and also concerns regarding bicyclist safety due to the fact that buses needed to cross into the bike lane to get around the intercity buses,” says William Schaefer, city transportation planning manager.

The new stop is the sidewalk on the oddnumbered side of Langdon Street, opposite the UW Pyle Center building. Previous to the Chazen location, buses stopped across the street in front of the Memorial Union and Red Gym. That location was problematic. On any given day, as many as 31 intercity buses, from five bus lines, stopped there; only

two of the lines were specifically authorized to do so.

The heavy use of Langdon had campus and city officials worried about safety, particularly when multiple buses queued near a heavily used pedestrian crossing.

Also, Union staff were concerned that their building was essentially being made into a bus terminal.

The spot had been the city’s de facto bus hub since the October 2009 closure of the Badger Bus depot, at the corner of Bedford Street and West Washington Avenue. The closing followed the industry trend to shed brick-and-mortar stops, ticket over the internet and pick up on street curbs.

In 2011 a Madison inter-agency team was created to work with the university on finding a solution. In 2013 a consulting firm for the city, Kimley-Horn and Associates, recommended a new bus terminal be built near the Badger Bus Depot’s former location. By that time the depot had been demolished and a mixed-use development built on its site.

That same year, to accommodate construction at Memorial Union, intercity buses moved to the Chazen, where they parked in the University Avenue lane meant for city buses. There was no shelter, but travelers congregated on the expansive East Campus mall.

Family and friends expecting arrivals could wait in their vehicles in a broad drop-off lane.

But the hazards of this location quickly became evident. On an average weekday, according to a city study, the University Avenue

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n OPINION

Gagged and bagged DNR staff are no longer protectors of the environment

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

Deer hunting is a way of life in Wisconsin, which makes chronic wasting disease a very big deal. “This is the most serious threat to the state deer herd, the most revered wildlife species in this state,” notes George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.

And so Meyer was on hand March 15 when the Assembly Natural Resources Committee had a hearing on a bill that would weaken regulations on the disease. As was Milwaukee Journal Sentinel outdoors editor Paul A. Smith. In the old days, there would also have been a representative from the state Department of Natural Resources to address the committee. Not anymore.

“In what has become a sad legacy of the DNR under Gov. Scott Walker and Secretary Cathy Stepp, no agency representative gave testimony on the bill,” wrote Smith. “It’s unconscionable for the DNR to fail to present its scientific view of a bill that could impact the health of the state’s marquee wildlife species.”

Meyer complained about this to DNR Deputy Secretary Kurt Thiede, who responded via email: “The department does not take positions for or against legislation.

When requested, the department appears at the public hearing for informational purposes when requested by either a committee chairman or a bill’s primary author. This has been administration policy since 2011.”

Given that committee chairs are Republicans and the authors of bills weakening regulations are likely to be Republicans, this means DNR staff are unlikely to be asked to attend the hearings and thus won’t provide any technical information.

So who provides the needed information? “It falls either to special interest lobbyists or legislators,” says Amber Meyer Smith, a lobbyist for Clean Wisconsin and former DNR staffer. “Many of the legislators do great work, but I think they would all admit they’re

DAVID MICHAEL MILLER

not experts on natural resources management.”

But the experts have been silenced. Stepp “has been very clear that they don’t make policy,” Smith notes. “She is very proud of that.

‘That’s the legislators’ job,’ she has said.”

As a result, the state no longer has any agency advocating for Wisconsin’s precious lakes, rivers and forests. “When it comes to any major decisions on natural resources in the state, the DNR is AWOL — absent without leave,” says Meyer, who worked at the DNR for 32 years, including as its secretary from 1993 to 2001 as an appointee of Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson.

The evidence of this abdication is overwhelming: • A decline of 45 percent or more in the cases of environmental violations charged annually, compared to under Walker’s predecessor, Gov. Jim Doyle, a Journal Sentinel investigation found.

• An 86 percent decline in fines paid by Wisconsin polluters in 2015, the lowest amount of fines in 30 years, with “sharp drops in fines for air pollution, spills of farm animal waste, improper discharges of sewage, stormwater

and toxic chemicals,” the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

• A huge increase in the number of high-capacity wells, which can pump more than 100,000 gallons of groundwater a day and are depleting state rivers, streams and lakes, as the Journal Sentinel reported.

• Growing concerns “over algae-filled lakes, polluted wells, invasive species, and streams and lakes that no longer comply with state standards,” according to the Journal Sentinel.

THIS MODERN WORLD

Much of this decline in enforcement was blamed in a state audit bureau report on “heavy workloads and high turnover of DNR employees.” But while there’s no doubt the Walker administration has cut back the DNR’s staff, the bigger problem is that the staff has been muzzled. “The staff at DNR are very hesitant to communicate about anything,” says Meyer.

This is much easier to enforce now that Walker and the Legislature have dismantled the civil service system, which had served the state for 110 years under 26 governors, including 17 Republicans. Now all hiring and firing can be made based on political decisions rather than merit.

“That has put employees at risk,” Meyer says. “They’re not willing to talk about anything.”

At another legislative hearing last week, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) noted that she now has trouble getting any kind of information from DNR staff.

The department’s mission has been redefined, says Meyer. He notes that Stepp has given speeches to business groups saying that her job is “to promote industry and create jobs.”

Most of the DNR staff cuts have involved scientific and educational staff.

In the new DNR such employees aren’t needed. “It’s become,” says Meyer, “a very anti-science agency.” n

BY TOM TOMORROW

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

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

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

Participants will receive up to $400 to $450.

Contact Sydney Notermann at (608) 262-0169

© 2015 WWW.THISMODERNWORLD.COM

n FEEDBACK

Square off Last week’s “Off the Square” cartoon (3/16/2017) unfavorably compared former State Sen. Tim Cullen, a likely candidate for governor, with Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The comparison left out a crucial fact.

While it points out that Bernie Sanders worked for a single-payer health care system, the cartoon omitted the fact that this was a fruitless quest. In 2009, when Obamacare became law, it was estimated that about 10% of the legislators supported a single-payer system, about 40 or more votes short of a majority in the U.S. Senate.

Bernie Sanders has never led the passage of any significant legislation. Former Sen. Cullen served as majority leader in the Senate in Wisconsin and oversaw the passage of important legislation.

Politics is about leadership and accomplishment, not psychotherapy. Millions of angry, white poor and middle-class voters got short-term therapy when they elected Donald Trump as their president. Their therapeutic thrill will be short lived and expensive.

I am one of many voters looking for an accomplished leader to run and win as Democratic candidate for governor in 2018.

Tim Cullen is such a candidate.

Harry Peterson (via email)

Cry wolf In “Endangered” (3/16/2017), authors Denise Thornton and Doug Hansmann review the Department of Natural Resources

statistics on the growing wolf population and its effect on the environment and society. They examine the politics of delisting the wolf from the federal endangered species list, which would return the wolf to management by the state and the ultimate creation of a hunting season for wolves.

The authors begin with retelling an Anishinaabe American Indian group’s creation story, where the wolf is Original Man’s brother.

The Great Spirit’s warns Original Man, “if your brother wolf passes out of existence, you will soon follow. You will die of great loneliness of spirit. If you pass out of existence, all other races of human beings will soon follow.”

“Endangered” reminds us to employ solid science, cultural history and a long view of reason toward political/legislative “solutions” to all our problems, including the big “bad” wolf.

Anne Bachner Dodgeville (via email) As a writer and English teacher, I’m offended by the use of the word “harvest” used to describe the killing of wolves. You harvest broccoli. You harvest potatoes. You don’t “harvest” an apex predator of the food chain. Such ab-

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

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

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

OFF THE SQUARE

BY ALAN TALAGA & JON LYONS

horrent twisting of the English language is reminiscent of George Orwell’s novel 1984, and contributes to the dumbing-down of the populace. Please consider your word choices more carefully. Shooting or killing wolves is shooting or killing wolves, not “harvesting.”

Mark Lajiness Stoughton (via email) Would a legal hunt spell the end of the Wisconsin wolf?

Absolutely not! In fact, it will flourish like the turkey, deer and waterfowl, thanks to the true conservationists, the hunters. The ones that pony up the dough to buy and rehabilitate the habitat that these wild animals thrive in today.

The ones killing off the animals, all animals, are all the humans and their uncontrollable breeding, taking more and more land away from these wild animals.

The authors of “Endangered” start off with this Indian spirit mythological story of how the world was created and how human and the wolf are brothers. Seriously? That a liberal paper such as Isthmus would print anything that aligns with spirits, ghosts and goblins I find as fictional as most liberals would the Bible.

The wolf was to be taken off the current endangered list after reaching its 350 population goal; it’s now triple that.

George Meyer, former head of the DNR, is most knowledgeable about the wolf and states the wolf is at the top of the food chain. It has no predators, it has to be managed. His statement is based on knowledge, not emotions. We even have a top liberal, Tammy Baldwin, looking for a wolf hunt.

She finally woke up and listened.

Set your emotions and your mythological mindset aside and listen to the experts.

A wolf hunt is needed now, before the population gets too far out of control.

Nathan J. Weber (via email)

Money matters Re: “Consumer Alert : Many Worried About Rollback of Financial Reforms” (3/16/2017): There are people in the profession who believe the [fiduciary] rule is fine. The initial version was too harsh, eliminating chances for small investors’ ability to get personalized counsel. But the final version has many merits. Some of us support it. Mike Ivey does a good job of describing it, but some individuals and companies have done a lot to make it happen too. And BTW, if Trump rolls it back, many of those companies are going to stay with the changes it brought about.

Betty Harris Custer (via Facebook)

“I’m happy because MATC sets the stage for a smooth transfer.”

— Marquise, future actor

Save money and time by taking summer classes at Madison College. We’re #1 in UW transfers!

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Madison College. Find your Happy Place.

Madison College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability or age in its programs or activities. Inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies are handled by the Affirmative Action Officer, 1701 Wright Street, Madison, WI 53704, phone (608) 243-4137.

11

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

Please join us in welcoming these Filmmakers (along with their films) to this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival:

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Alison Maclean, director of The Rehearsal Fri, Mar 31 - 8:15 pm Union South Marquee and Sat, Apr 1 - 11:15 am Sundance Cinema 5

Albert Birney,

director of Sylvio Fri, Mar 31 - 9:15 pm UW Cinematheque

Larry Peerce,

director of The Incident Sat, Apr 1 - 3:15 pm Chazen Museum of Art

Anthony Anderson,

subject of Almost Sunrise Sat, Apr 1 - 4:30 pm Union South Marquee

Brennan Vance, director of The Missing Sun Sun, Apr 2 - 5:15 pm UW Cinematheque

TICKETS: General: $10 | Student/Senior/Military/UW Faculty/Staff: $8 | Big Screens, Little Folks: $5 | All Festival Pass: $325

Terence Davies, director of A Quiet Passion Sun, Apr 2 - 6:30 pm Union South Marquee and Mon, Apr 3 - 12:30 pm Sundance Cinema 6

n COVER STORY

Can First Amendment defenders and social justice activists find common ground on campus?

BY ALLISON GEYER

It all started with a party.

racist incidents, and Phi Gamma Delta was later suspended for six months. Student activists said the punishment wasn’t enough.

The FIJI incident proved a catalyst — in October, a student reported on a Kappa Sigma fraternity party that had happened the previous year. The theme was “Around the World,” and one of the rooms in the Langdon Street mansion was decorated in what the fraternity brothers imagined was a “Harlem” motif — trash strewn about the floor, graffiti on the walls, hanging clotheslines,

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MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

In May 1987, the UW-Madison chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity — known on campus by the nickname FIJI — threw an island-themed event at its house on Langdon Street. To welcome guests, members put a cardboard cutout on the lawn that featured a caricature of a “native” black man with exaggerated lips and a bone through his nose. Partygoers showed up in blackface.

The display drew outrage and a protest at the house. The students were on high alert — just one month before, news broke that UW-Madison’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity held a “Martin Luther Coon Day” party at its Langdon Street house. Guests brought fried chicken or watermelon to gain entry. The university’s Black Student Union called for a forum to address the

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ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

a basketball hoop. As a final thematic touch, fraternity members wore Afro wigs and blackface makeup while serving fried chicken and watermelon punch. Then, in 1988, members of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity held a mock slave auction as part of a fundraising event, with students wearing blackface and Afro wigs. By this time, these racist campus events were drawing national attention.

“It is hard to comprehend the stupidity of it,” then-Associate Dean of Students Roger Howard said at the time.

Zeta Beta Tau was suspended, but a student-led committee found that the slave auction, while “offensive” and “in extremely bad taste,” did not violate university rules. Many were outraged and fed up with the university’s inability to impose meaningful sanctions on offenders. That winter, then-Chancellor Donna Shalala led an effort to impose a “speech code” that would allow the university to punish racist or offensive speech. It was a controversial move, with some opponents saying the code violated the First Amendment.

Donald Downs, a professor emeritus at UW-Madison and a nationally renowned expert on free speech issues, remembers the late-‘80s controversy well. “I couldn’t believe they did it,” he says of the fraternity members’ conduct. He agreed that the acts were racist, but as a First Amendment scholar he knew the students had the legal right to be as racist as they wanted in their own private residence. Still, Downs found the speech “morally wrong” and wanted the university

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UW DIGITAL ARCHIVES

n COVER STORY

Students protested Phi Gamma Delta in 1987 (left) and Zeta Beta Tau (right) the following year, for racist parties both fraternities held.

to have more power to improve the campus climate for students of color. As a member of the faculty senate, Downs voted to support the controversial code.

At the time, he believed in limiting speech that was intentionally harmful. He had even written a book about the issue, Nazis in Skokie, in which he argued that, in some cases, the harms of racial vilification outweigh the benefits of free expression. He applied the same logic to what was happening on campus, where racism and hate speech had a long history of creating a toxic environment for students of color.

“I trusted that the speech codes could be properly balanced with intellectual freedom,” Downs says. “But then I started seeing what it was like.”

The decades-old campus speech debate has reemerged in recent years at colleges and universities across the nation, UWMadison included. Students have pushed back against hate and bias incidents and demanded more action from administrators. Meanwhile, conservative activists and free speech advocates argue these policies impede academic freedom and inquiry. Conservatives in Wisconsin state government agree, with several GOP legislators decrying “liberal indoctrination” on college campuses and demanding more intellectual diversity.

In many ways the free speech debate can be seen as a microcosm of the intense polarization between liberals and conservatives nationwide. Can free speech, intellectual diversity and social justice find common ground?

Gov. Scott Walker’s

2017-2019 budget includes language that would enshrine in statute parts of a 2015 statement adopted by the UW System Board of Regents supporting the open exchange of ideas on campus — including those considered unpopular or offensive. Walker’s budget requests $10,000 for the UW System to “revise policies related to academic freedom.”

Walker’s proposal is one of a number of campus speech-related bills being introduced in states throughout the nation, including Tennessee, Georgia, Utah and Colorado.

Conservative and libertarian think tanks have promoted the trend, offering a model bill for states to use. The model legislation would, among other things, nullify existing campus speech codes, abolish “free speech zones,” prevent public colleges and universities from disinviting “controversial” speakers and establish a system of “disciplinary sanctions” for students and anyone else who interferes with the free speech rights of others. The bill would also require universities, “at the official institutional level,” to remain “neutral on issues of public controversy.”

Walker’s version doesn’t go nearly as far — the bill states that “members of the [UW]

“ I trusted that the speech codes could be properly balanced with intellectual freedom. But then I started seeing what it was like.”

Donald Downs, UW-Madison professor emeritus.

System’s community are free to criticize and contest the views expressed on the campuses of the system, and to criticize and contest speakers who are invited to express their views on these campuses, [but] they may not obstruct or otherwise interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe.”

It’s unclear what effect the bill would have, and Walker’s office did not respond to Isthmus for a request for comment. But CV Vitolo-Haddad, a member of the UW-Madison activist organization Student Coalition for Progress, says the proposal is a threat to marginalized students and their right to free assembly.

“It’s a dog whistle policy,” Vitolo-Haddad says. “They’ll enforce it in disparate ways, and there’s no way to rhetorically fight against it because it’s couched in this language that seems accessible and positive.”

A doctoral student in the university’s communication arts department and the director of the student debate team, Vitolo-Haddad believes in “universal free speech” and agrees with the fundamentals in Walker’s bill. But VitoloHaddad cautions that the policy could actually end up stifling the speech of communities that have been systematically, culturally and historically excluded from the public sphere.

“You have to put it in the context of power,” Vitolo-Haddad says. “When we are not all able to participate equitably in debate, we’re not having free speech — we’re having a freefor-all where the most powerful and the loudest get to set the agenda.”

Vitolo-Haddad believes the legislation is a direct response to student activists who last fall attempted to shut down a speech on campus by conservative gadfly Ben Shapiro, a former editor for the far-right website Breitbart. On his recent campus speaking tour, Shapiro has argued against the existence of institutional racism, white privilege, safe spaces and microaggressions. He’s also called being transgender a “mental illness.” Liberal activists say his views amount to hate speech and have sought to deny him a platform by pressuring colleges to cancel his speeches.

Conservatives have countered that this is “liberal fascism.” Vitolo-Haddad says that criticism ignores an important point.

“It’s not about whether or not [people like Shapiro] should be allowed to say whatever they want — sure, of course they should,” Vitolo-Haddad says. “We have to think about the ways that [speech] creates or constitutes types of violence. It has to be understood that speech can become policy — acts of literal, physical violence.”

The Student Coalition for Progress is petitioning campus leaders to denounce Young Americans for Freedom, the conservative student group that invited Shapiro to speak, as a hate group. The petition also demands the university revoke YAF’s charter and require “intensive diversity training” for its members.

Cahleel Copus, the UW-Madison president of Young Americans for Liberty, a sister organization to YAF, points out the irony of a student group trying to prevent Shapiro (whose lecture was about free speech on campus) from speaking. Same goes for the effort to muzzle conservative student groups.

“It’s frustrating, because knowing the people in YAF and YAL, we all challenge each other’s ideas all the time,” Copus says. “That’s how you come to libertarianism, by challenging your ideas.”

Copus, a sophomore, sees the campus as an “echo chamber of socialist thought and collectivism,” a place where ideas that go against progressivism are unwelcome. He recalls being disciplined as a freshman for criticizing the Twitter hashtag, #TheRealUW — which was used to crowdsource student experiences with hate and bias on campus — on the whiteboard on his dorm room door.

“I wrote that #TheRealUW movement is dumb, and the people who support it are too sensitive,” says Copus. “As brash as I said it, I wasn’t attacking anybody — I was attacking

“ We have to think about the ways that speech creates or constitutes types of violence. It has to be understood that speech can become policy...literal, physical violence.” the ideas. And I got written up for it because the language hurt somebody’s feelings.”

Copus defended himself in a meeting with his dorm supervisor and was exonerated from any punishment. But the incident reinforced his belief that many on campus are overly sensitive and eager to tattle on anyone who deviates from the politically correct dogma. Copus sees the ideological divide on campus not so much as a conflict between liberals and conservatives, but a disconnect between individualists and collectivists.

“Everyone is triggered right now, on both sides,” he says. “It just needs to end.”

Still, he hopes for reconciliation. He suggests holding a public forum and inviting student representatives from conservative campus organizations like YAF and YAL to discuss speech issues alongside students pushing for social justice initiatives. “We could get a professor from their side and one from our side,” he says. “I think that would be a good discussion.”

Adds Copus: “But we’d probably have to fly [a conservative professor] in.”

Downs recalls

a moment that opened his eyes to the danger of codifying restrictions on campus speech. He was a guest on a Wisconsin Public Radio program in 1992, discussing the student speech code that had been struck down as “overly broad” by a federal court the year before.

The university had drafted a revised code, and the faculty senate was preparing for a debate. Downs was undecided on whether he would vote to support the policy, as he did a few years earlier. A listener who called in to the radio program turned out to be Richard Long — a UW-Madison art professor who had been accused of

violating the faculty speech code in 1990. Said to have behaved in anti-Semitic, racist, sexist and homophobic ways in the classroom, Long was subjected to an “informal” investigation that CV Vitolo-Haddad, activist with UW-Madison’s lasted for months. He was Student Coalition for Progress. never charged or disciplined, but “the investigation ruined [Long’s] repu- theoretical interpretation and its practical tation,” says Downs, who later wrote about application. the ordeal in a book, Restoring Free Speech “It’s not, in principle, wrong to make and Liberty. people aware of discourse in speech — that’s Deeply troubled by Long’s story, Downs pushing knowledge,” Downs says. “But it’s so decided — the night before the speech code easy for those kinds of sensitivity sessions to debate — to oppose the policy. “I changed my become ideological bullying. It all depends views on a very important matter given what I on who’s doing it.” was experiencing,” Downs says. In addition to Long, there were a number of other UW-Madof 440 colleges and ison professors investigated for violating the speech code in the early ’90s — a philosophy universities from the Foundation for Individprofessor accused of racism, a history profes- ual Rights in Education (FIRE), a nonpartisan sor accused of gender bias. None were formally group that defends free speech and due prodisciplined, but Downs says the “questionable” cess on college campuses, shows that speech application of the speech code led to “tremen- codes — like the one abolished nearly two dous conflict” within the university communi- decades ago at UW-Madison — are falling out ty. He worried about the impact it would have of favor across the nation. FIRE rates schools based on their speech-related policies — on instruction and research.

“I had just gotten tenure, I had a lot of red light is the most restrictive, yellow light students, but what about professors who schools are somewhat restrictive, and green didn’t have tenure or as much of a follow- light schools are free of policies that “imperil ing?” Downs recalls thinking. “Would they speech.” UW-Madison, along with the majority of UW System schools surveyed by FIRE, feel more vulnerable?”

Downs went on to help form a faculty have a yellow light rating. UW-Oshkosh and group called the Committee for Academic Marquette University are red light schools.

Freedom and Rights with the goal of providing The number of red light schools nationally “legal and moral support” to individuals who has dropped significantly from a high of 75 believe their academic freedom, free speech percent eight years ago to 49 percent in 2016. or procedural rights have been violated by a But while speech codes appear to be in decline, university body. This group organized an effort there’s been a surge in universities implementthat led to the repeal of UW-Madison’s speech ing policies addressing speech-adjacent issues code in 1998 — the first time a university had like bullying, harassment, protest and demonstration policies, hate and bias reporting. abolished such a code of its own volition.

Downs’ evolving views on free speech Ari Cohn, a civil liberties attorney with highlights the issue’s complexity, both in its FIRE, argues that free speech, diversity and inclusion are not mutually exclusive. “In fact, from my perspective, free speech is a core component of diversity and inclusion,” he says. “It’s a prerequisite.”

Cohn points out that free speech has been at the heart of virtually every social justice movement in American history. Fights for women’s suffrage, civil rights for African Americans and LGBTQ equality all suffered initial setbacks in court, but brave and diligent work by activists helped shift public opinion — and eventually the law.

“It takes social movements to get there,” Cohn says. “And those social movements wouldn’t be possible if speech was limited.”

A 2016 survey

Cahleel Copus, president of UW-Madison’s Young Americans for Liberty.

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MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

“ I wasn’t attacking anybody — I was attacking the ideas. And I got written up for it because the language hurt somebody’s feelings.”

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n COVER STORY

One way to achieve

UW-Madison has seen an uptick in racist incidents, including Nazi graffiti around campus. In November 2016, a fan at a Badgers football game wore a costume depicting President Barack Obama in a noose.

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

Cohn believes the best way to combat hate and bias on campus is to welcome those with opposing viewpoints for the purpose of standing up and publicly refuting them. Civil disobedience can also be effective, he says.

But censorship is never the answer.

“Telling someone they can’t say something has never made the underlying issue go away,” he says, pointing to the recent resurgence of Nazism and overt white supremacy.

When ideas get pushed underground, so do the communities that subscribe to the ideas.

Left unchallenged, this creates a “vicious cycle” of confirmation bias. “And at the end of the day, it makes people more prejudiced.”

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While conservatives

have blamed censorship attempts on student activists and progressive professors, it was a conservative GOP lawmaker who last summer threatened to cut UW-Madison’s funding because he objected to an assigned article for a sociology class. Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) was offended by the article’s use of “vulgar, obscene and racist language” to describe racism on the gay hookup app Grindr.

Jason Nolen, the lecturer who assigned

the article, says a student who didn’t like the reading sent a copy of the article to a conservative radio host in Milwaukee. “The host emailed me [seeking comment], then the next day Nass sent his email,” Nolen says.

The incident quickly became national news.

“It was intense, the first 48 hours especially,” he says. “I felt very singled out.”

Many were quick to point out the hypocrisy of Nass — a frequent and merciless critic of the UW System and the “politically correct” culture he believes runs rampant within its institutions — advocating the censorship of an article he found personally offensive. But to Nolen, Nass’ reaction had an ironic twist.

“He attached the article to the email and asked people to respond,” he says. “What he did is exactly what I do as a teacher — ask people to critically analyze and evaluate.”

Nolen worries about his colleagues being reported to sites like Professor Watchlist — a database that aims to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” But more troubling to him is the trend of limiting speech.

“More people have this notion that it’s okay to limit ideas,” he says. “And it seems to be

happening more frequently now.”

Downs agrees that it’s inappropriate for legislators to try to intervene in course content at universities. He points out that the classic definition of academic freedom is that instructors have the autonomy to make their own decisions about what they teach and research. But he also understands that when outsiders look at a university, they often see a “very one-sided political ideology.”

“The Legislature is rightly concerned [about intellectual diversity], but you don’t deal with that by threatening to cut funding,” Downs says. “Both sides need to think about this and figure out the right way to promote intellectual diversity on campus without threatening academic freedom.”

The ongoing culture clash between liberals and conservatives has led to both sides taking dogmatic positions — those on the left who, fed up with systematic oppression, refuse to tolerate ideas that run against the progressive grain, and those on the right pushing back against what they say amounts to ideological bullying. To reconcile this divide, Downs says, universities must find a way to acknowledge the need for intellectual diversity that doesn’t stifle speech.

that balance could be through education. Last fall, UWMadison launched a new “cultural competency” training called Our Wisconsin. One of several initiatives introduced to help improve the campus climate after the recent hate and bias incidents, Our Wisconsin promotes inclusion by providing students with the skills needed to have dialogues “about real issues that affect real students,” says Katrina Morrison, the program’s student coordinator. “It’s not about forcing students to act a certain way.”

Morrison grew up believing she lived in a post-racial society. She’s black, but she went to school in a Milwaukee suburb where most of her friends and classmates were white. “I grew up in this bubble,” Morrison says. “I never really came to terms with my identity until I came to college. I didn’t understand what it really meant to be black.”

When she arrived on the UW-Madison campus three years ago, she found herself immersed in a different kind of community. She finally had peers who looked like her, but she also encountered a kind of racism she’d never experienced before.

She learned about microaggressions — brief, subtle, often unintentional indignities that perpetuate negative stereotypes about people of color — and realized she was encountering them on a daily basis. “It was something I really didn’t expect,” she says. Morrison’s time on campus has also been marred by ugly, highly publicized incidents of hate and bias — a rash of racist and neo-Nazi graffiti on and near campus, a racially motivated assault in a dormitory, and an attempt to form a white supremacist student organization led by a student who had previously served time in federal prison for an interstate arson spree targeting black churches.

“It made me feel unwelcome on this campus,” Morrison says of the incidents. “In my heart of hearts I know that I belong here, but at the same time, when people commit those horrendous hate crimes, they’re telling me I don’t. It’s hard to understand why people hate me because of the color of my skin.”

The Our Wisconsin program has been lauded as a success, with more than 1,000 students participating in workshops during the pilot period last year. This summer, the program’s curriculum will be expanded and introduced at Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR), which means that 99 percent of incoming students will be introduced to its key concepts before classes begin.

The university clearly anticipated pushback on the Our Wisconsin initiative, even including an entry in the “frequently asked questions” portion of its website assuring readers that the program is “absolutely not” an attempt to infringe upon freedom of

“ In my heart of hearts, I know that I belong here, but at the same time, when people commit those horrendous hate crimes, they’re telling me I don’t.”

Katrina Morrison, student coordinator with One Wisconsin.

speech. And Morrison says the feedback she’s heard from students who have completed the training is overwhelmingly positive.

“This is such an incredible step in the right direction,” she says. “I think that continuing programs like Our Wisconsin and creating new social justice initiatives can change the

campus climate. It finally feels like we’re making change.”

Downs sees programs like Our Wisconsin as a way for universities to enforce speech codes “through the backdoor,” achieving a similar goal but without the thorny constitutional issues. And while the university

is certainly entitled to try such methods, Downs sees the policies as “administratively impossible” to enforce. “But can you do that in a way that doesn’t browbeat and bully?”

Downs asks. “That’s really hard to achieve.”

Still, he’s not opposed to what the university is trying — so long as it remains “nondog-

matic, non-ideological and nonpartisan.” And he’s working to make sure the program strikes the right balance. Last month, Downs and UW-Madison history professor John Sharpless (a well-known conservative intellectual) accepted an invitation from campus officials to discuss ways to incorporate First Amendment training and education into student orientation along with the diversity curriculum. If free speech could be given the same institutional status as diversity and inclusion, that would be “perfect,” he says. And he’s heartened that the university reached out and asked him to help.

“I have to give UW credit,” he says.

“They’re trying to get this right.” n

Fran Hill

Greg Wright

Mary McPhetridge

CREATIVITY & MAIN STREET WISCONSIN Tuesday, March 28 – 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm Madison Museum of Contemporary Art lecture hall • 227 State Street In a panel discussion moderated by Anne Katz of Arts Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Academy explores how the arts are making a difference in large and small communities across the state. Panelists include: Fran Hill, CEO of Green Lake Renewal Greg Wright, Executive Director of CREATE Portage County Mary McPhetridge, Executive Director of Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce Free and open to the public with advance online registration, this talk is the fifth in a six-part series that explores how specific investments in the knowledge economy and our creative sectors can make a brighter future for Wisconsin.

Info and registration at wisconsinacademy.org/mainstreet

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

This year’s Wisconsin Film Festival turns its lens to the world

150 films, running the gamut from homegrown documentaries to rarely seen films by international auteurs. Isthmus got a peek at several promising offerings (see page 27). Note: As of press time, some films are “rush only.”

See wifilmfest.org for info on Q & As with filmmakers, tickets and updates on sold-out shows. In our experience, even it it’s sold out, it’s worth showing up anyway. You might get lucky.

CONTINUE D ON PAGE 27

➡

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Ghosts, images and a erimages

The 2017 Wisconsin Film Festival, March 30-April 6, screens more than

19

n FOOD & DRINK

Dynamic duo Evan Dannells finds a perfect niche at Merchant

BY KYLE NABILCY

tell all ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

isthmus.com/opinion/tell-all

20

There should be a name for the Pinckney/ Doty/King block, something to give it a sense of unity. A minimally concerted effort has been made to co-opt “Tribeca” (“Triangle Behind the Capitol”) — amusing but imprecise, as there are eight triangles around the Square, and they can’t all be behind the Capitol. The P/D/K block deserves a name with identity.

Merchant already feels like an elder statesman on the block, even though it only opened in 2010. Part of that might be Merchant’s nearly continuous game of musical toques, as owners Patrick Sweeney and Joshua Berkson have cooked through no fewer than four executive chefs before landing Evan Dannells in early 2015. Rare is the restaurant that can turn over the kitchen lead that many times in just over six years and still be open, much less successful.

Isthmus reviewed Merchant in early 2011, giving it lukewarm praise. Merchant went on to earn a Chef of the Year award from Madison Magazine, six months before then-chef Anna Dickson left Madison altogether. Dannells came on as culinary director of both Merchant and the embryonic Lucille concept, and was quietly named executive chef later.

The cocktail list is still populated with complicated drinks with lots of ice. The amusing and tasty Jungleberg is a tiki drink for winter: rum, Fernet Branca and a minibottle of Underberg digestif upturned into the ice. Aggressively browned brussels sprouts, a favorite going all the way back to the beginning of Merchant, are still on the Snacks menu. They are amplified now not with lemon as before, but with apple cider and bacon.

Pasta has taken on a lower profile on Dannells’ menu, but it’s not gone altogether.

A dramatic bowl of pappardelle is tossed with pork sausage and a sweetly acidic tomato sauce, an ideal presentation of comfort food. The pasta-adjacent gnudi, breaded and fried dumpling-ish discs of ricotta, are adorned with smoky potatoes and mushrooms, and no small amount of salt. They are rich and decadent.

Merchant’s current Classic Burger bears a striking resemblance to the West Side burger from a December 2011 Merchant menu, proving the current burger/cheese/ pickle idiom isn’t so much a current trend as a, well, classic. The bibb lettuce had gone slightly wilty, but the overall package was a success, if a spendy one. Adding cheddar and bacon brought the price tag to $15.

The next tier of the tidy dinner menu lives just under the $30 mark, with the exception of the ribeye. A bone-in beef short rib gives way to nothing more than a fork and pairs nicely with kale and some pickled turnips, though the turnip purée underneath brings nothing to the dish. The

Merchant’s bone-in short rib yields to the fork.

LAURA ZASTROW

MERCHANT n 121 S. Pinckney St. n 608-259-9799 n merchantmadison.com 3-10 pm Mon.-Fri. (dinner service begins at 5 pm); 9 am-3 pm and 5-10 pm Sat.-Sun.; bar open until 2 am daily. n $4-$35

salmon, equally well-suited for a wintry menu, doesn’t overdo the maple and apple cider glaze and spent just enough time over the heat. Crisp salmon skin is a beautiful thing, and it’s on glorious face-up display here.

Brunch highlights some of the Mexican border-straddling flair Dannells introduced to the Merchant menu. Ten bucks for a fragrant, steaming bowl of pork shoulder pozole complete with all the trimmings (radishes, lime, tortilla strips, lots of jalapeño) is a steal.

When I ordered the fried chicken sandwich with the hot sauce on the side, I got a knowingly respectful nod from the bartender. The same expression came when I subbed in roasted red potatoes for the standard greens. I suspected the kitchen that didn’t shy away from crisping the brussels sprouts would do the same with potatoes, and I was right.

As my sandwich arrived, I saw why the bartender smiled. Two pounded chicken breasts topped with cabbage slaw and stacked between halves of a brioche bun all said to me, “This

could easily be an unholy mess.” We saw nearby diners fighting that very fight with the full buffalo versions. With the sauce on the side, though, this is an unexpectedly neat and highly satisfying sandwich. I’m sure it’s still good when sauced, but heaven help you if you get a text mid-bite.

Two desserts, a decent chocolate cherry custard and a paste-like lemon cake with lavender cream, arrived in mini-mason jars.

A Scotch egg from the brunch menu was indeed two whole Scotch eggs, which while unexpectedly light and crunchy were an unnecessary bounty. And yes, it’s still quite loud when Merchant’s at fever pitch.

But Dannells is a chef on the rise in Madison, and he’s now the longest-tenured executive chef Merchant has had. A restaurant like this, in a neighborhood like its triangular hearty-partying block, could skate by on location and reputation. It was a pleasure to rediscover Merchant isn’t skating. It’s succeeding. n

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■ FOOD & DRINK

Maple syrup fest Sunday, March 26

The sap is flowing at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. At this family-friendly fest you’ll learn the history and science of maple syrup production, including the traditional methods used by native people and pioneers. Samples of the bounty include maple cream, maple ice cream sundaes and, of course, maple syrup.

Registration recommended at tinyurl.com/ ALNCmaplefest ($10/person, $6 for members). At 330 Femrite Drive, 1-4 pm.

Madison food forum Monday, March 27

Local food groups, farmers and nonprofits host an informal forum on how to create a more sustainable food system. Event free, registration required at tinyurl.com/madisonfoodforum. At 501 E. Badger Road, meet-and-greet 6:30-7:30 pm, discussion 7:30-8:30 pm.

Wine dinner Thursday, March 30

L’Etoile is featuring wines from Napa Valley’s Darioush Winery during this five-course meal of tomme cheese, celery root and orecchiette, uni (sea urchin), geoduck clams, razor clams, abalone, squab, bison, 100-day aged ribeye, bone marrow, oxtail, short rib and tongue. For reservations ($170 includes wine pairings) call 608-251-0500. At 1 S. Pinckney St., 6-9 pm.

Porta Bella’s Three-Course Specials $15.95

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 16–22, 2017

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22

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Beer buzz What kind of water is in the beer?

The idea of a beer brewed with treated effluent — cleaned-up wastewater — is nothing new. Theera Ratarasarn, an accomplished homebrewer, made waves in 2015 for his “Activated Sludge” beer made with treated effluent from Milwaukee. Indeed, he was instrumental in making Nine Springs Effluent Pale Ale (or EPA, so many layers of pun here) happen in Madison. He put Madison’s effluent through the same extra filtration and reverse osmosis treatment to turn it from “safe to release into the environment” into “safe to drink.”

The Nine Springs Effluent Pale Ale debut and tasting on March 19 was at the front end of a week full of activities related to World Water Day. There were actually two versions. One was brewed by Ratarasarn, and the other by Madison Metroppolitan Sewerage District employees Ralph Erickson, Laurie Dunn and Jim Post. Ratarasarn’s was made with Chinook hops in the brew and a dry-hopped dose of Citra. Though it was showing a little age — I was told it had been held in the fridge for this week’s event since December — it still had a pleasant resiny bite, with just a little citrus aroma hanging around.

Erickson described their batch as a Bass English Pale Ale reference, maltier than

KYLE NABILCY

Eats events

The “E” stands for “effluent.”

Ratarasarn’s version. The color was certainly darker, not quite to amber, but getting there.

A brown sugary nose preceded a flavor profile that was reminiscent of underripe fruit, lightly astringent and just a little bitter. For a beer brewed with extract malt (compared to Ratarasarn’s all-grain malt bill), the District’s EPA had an impressively complex palate. I can’t say it any more plainly than this: I would never

have thought there was anything weird or novel about these beers had I not been told ahead of time what went into them.

The district is hoping to find a broader market for its version of Nine Springs Effluent Pale Ale.

— KYLE NABILCY

Read the Two-Cent Pint column online every Tuesday at isthmus.com/topics/the-two-cent-pint.

Parched Eagle headed to East Wash

O’so introduces Hop Debacle

The Parched Eagle Brewpub plans to open a taproom at 1444 E. Washington Ave., joining the current Art In gallery and bar space, Maria’s. Parched Eagle owner Jim Goronson hopes to begin renovations on the space by early April and have his grand opening sometime during Madison Craft Beer Week (April 28-May 7).

The Madison Plan Commission approved his request for a conditional-use permit on ROBIN SHEPARD March 20.

Goronson opened the Parched Eagle The new taproom will look much like the Brewpub two years ago in a small storecurrent pub with a wooden bar and rustic front at 5440 Willow Road in the town atmosphere. With approximately 675 square of Westport. While the brewpub has feet, the maximum capacity will be about created a following, being so far on Madi- 50 people. Goronson intends to offer up to son’s northern edge makes it challenging 12 beers on tap. Eight taps will be reserved to attract a lot of customers. Goronson for Parched Eagle brews, with the rest from says he’ll keep that brewery with its small other Wisconsin breweries. bar open, and close a side room that he’s The core set of beers is expected to been using for additional seating and include Hop Bearer (IPA), Crane Ale (APA) musical performances. The new location and Golden Ale (Kölsch); however, both on East Washington Avenue near the Yalocations will have a few beers of their own. hara River will give him greater visibility.

One he’s excited about as a house beer “Customers like to tell me we’re a hidden for the new taproom is Burgeoning Goth gem,” he says. “Our goal is to become Queen, a rich, big and bold oatmeal stout. less of a hidden gem.”

The taproom doesn’t plan to serve food.

O’so Brewing’s latest beer falls into the camp of a “fuzzy” or East Coast IPA. A hefty dose of oats added to the grist combines with an assertive hop bill for a very cloudy, almost hefeweizen-like appearance.

O’so’s Hop Debacle just started appearing in Madison beer stores as a spring seasonal. If it does catch on, the brewery’s challenge will be getting enough hops. Four varieties go into Hop Debacle: Galaxy, Citra, Denali and El Dorado.

This is a beer worth getting excited over.

There’s huge hop aroma and flavor. Serve it very cold to accentuate the mixture of hops. The use of Denali hops, which is a new experimental variety sometimes called “Nuggetzilla,” lends hints of citrusy pineapple.

While the hops make the flavor crisp and sharp, all the oats not only make it a very cloudy yellow beer but add softness to the body. Overall, there’s a citrus explosion while the beer remains remarkably easy drinking at 5.8 percent ABV. Get it now and drink it immediately. Don’t even think about aging this one; you’ll want all those hop flavors and aromas while they’re at their peak freshness.

Hop Debacle sells in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles for about $16. Because of that price, some liquor stores are offering it in single bottles (around $3/each).

— ROBIN SHEPARD

Slide over, Red Dot After a 40-year absence, Madison once again has a homegrown potato chip maker

BY DYLAN BROGAN

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Ameigh is currently in talks with a distributor that would put Slide Potato Chips on the shelves at 15 Roundy’s-owned grocery stores in the area, including Pick ’n Save and Metro Market. If that deal goes through, Slide will triple its production of potato chips to meet the demand. That has Ameigh thinking about the future. She’s in early talks about moving her operation to the yet-to-be-completed small business incubator at the old Garver Feed Mill near Olbrich Park.

“Everything seems to be moving in the right direction. If the price is right and I can get space that increases my productivity, then I definitely want to go there,” says Ameigh. “But at this point, there are no firm plans.”

From its humble start, Red Dot became a multimillion-dollar business and the leading manufacturer of snack foods in the Midwest. In 1961, the company merged with H.W. Lay & Company (which eventually became the food behemoth Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo). Four days after the merger was finalized, Frederick Meyer killed himself with a shotgun at his Maple Bluff home. His family blamed the tragedy on Meyer’s depression over losing control of the company he had built from the ground up.

Although Ameigh wants to keep expanding her chip business, she plans to stay closer to home.

“Ultimately, I’d like Slide Potato Chips to be available throughout Wisconsin. That seems big enough.” ■

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Two-Cent

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MARCH 16–22, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

UW-Madison grads Frederick and Kathryne Meyer began selling potato chips to Madison grocery stores out of a Chevrolet roadster during the Great Depression. In 1938, the potato chips started coming off the line at the Meyers’ innovative production facility on Division Street near the Schoep’s Ice Cream Company. It was there an empire was born: Red Dot Foods Inc. After outgrowing the Division Street building, Red Dot moved to a larger facility on East Washington Avenue near the Yahara River and Dickinson Street. All the way up until 1973, Red Dot rolled out bag after bag of potato chips in the heart of Madison’s isthmus.

Christine Ameigh, owner of Slide Food Cart and Beyond Catering, had never heard of Red Dot when she began researching potato chip makers in the area. It seemed kismet that the long-defunct company was located not far from where she planned to package hand-cut potato chips.

“As far as I can tell, Red Dot was the last company to make potato chips on the scale we are doing,” says Ameigh.

“Our kitchen is also on East Wash, which I thought was pretty cool.”

Ameigh first started making potato chips as a side for the sandwiches and other dishes at her food cart, Slide. In 2015, she set a goal of establishing a side venture to help bolster business during the food cart off-season.

“I could see that the [existence of] lean months with the food cart wasn’t going to end,” says Ameigh, who also runs the food cart organization Let’s Eat Out. “The chips were popular with customers, and I thought maybe this was a way to not have such a financially difficult winter season with my business.”

Today, Slide Potato Chips (both sea salt and barbecue flavor) are available at nine local retailers, including Metcalfe’s Market, Fromagination and Jenifer Street Market, and several restaurants; they are also a mainstay item of Ameigh’s two food carts and catering business. Slide currently cuts and fries 1,000 pounds of potatoes each week. Even with a rapid increase in production in 2016, Ameigh still sources all the potatoes from Heartland Farms in Hancock, Wisconsin. Every chip is also still being cut by hand.

“We tried a machine that slices. We found that wasn’t as effective as just having a person use a mandoline [slicer]. It’s more work, but we think it’s worth it. I was just at my kitchen this morning cutting potatoes for two hours,” says Ameigh. “I also feel like there is an appeal to it. I’m still using people. I’m creating jobs. I like that.”

23

n SPORTS

Bracket-busting Bucky The basketball Badgers are where they deserve to be EASTE R BR UN CH

Ap r i l 1 6 t h , 2 01 7 | 9: 00am-1 : 00p m Spend your Easter hunting for eggs and not brunch plans! Join us on Sunday, April 16th for our annual Easter Brunch at The Madison Concourse Hotel. You’ll enjoy classic favorites like Omelettes and Smoked Ham, along with new twists like Lemon Ricotta Pancakes and Yogurt Curry Rubbed Roasted Lamb, and maybe even a surprise visit from The Easter Bunny!

circmadison.com

608-294-3031

Reservations are required.

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1 West Dayton Street Madison, WI 53703

Assistant director of basketball operations Kyle Blackbourn (left), Jordan Hill and Bronson Koenig celebrate after besting Villanova on March 18.

BY MICHAEL POPKE

Life is full of hard choices.

Dinner shouldn’t be one of them.

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

Download the app.

24

Order food online from your favorite restaurants.

By surviving the first two rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and advancing to the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year, the UW Badgers are making a mockery of a woefully low No. 8 seeding from the selection committee.

The UW pulled off the first major upset of the tournament on March 18 by overcoming a late seven-point deficit and knocking off defending national champion and overall top seed Villanova, 65-62. That sound you heard after the game was the cacophonous busting of brackets (including mine).

This improbable win came two days after Wisconsin went on a 10-1 run to pull out an 84-74 comeback victory over Virginia Tech in the first round. Seniors Bronson Koenig, Nigel Hayes, Zak Showalter and Vitto Brown refused to believe their college careers would end with an early-round ouster.

“I told these guys, ‘I don’t care where we’re seeded. We have to win six games,’” Badgers head coach Greg Gard told local media after dispensing with Villanova and securing his spot in Badgers basketball history.

In just his first full season as head coach of the Badgers, following 23 years as Bo Ryan’s faithful assistant at three different programs, Gard now has the signature win

that eluded him until now, and he got it (in part) with younger players who lack tournament experience.

When Koenig and redshirt sophomore Ethan Happ ran into foul trouble, guys like freshman D’Mitrik Trice, redshirt freshman Brevin Pritzl and sophomore Khalil Iverson stepped up and contributed under tremendous pressure. Regardless of how UW ends its tournament run, the long-term future offers promise.

Wisconsin (27-9) will play Florida (268) in an East Region semifinal at Madison Square Garden on March 24, at 8:59 p.m.

(CST). The Gators advanced to the Sweet 16 by bouncing all over Virginia, 65-39.

No team other than Wisconsin has reached the Sweet 16 each of the past four years, and the Badgers beat three No. 1 seeds during that stretch (Arizona in 2014, Kentucky in 2015 and Villanova last weekend), plus No. 2 Xavier in a 2016 buzzer beater for the ages.

The road to the Final Four in Phoenix won’t get any easier between now and April 3, but the Badgers — the tournament’s second-lowest remaining seed — are right where they want to be. And right where they deserve to be. n

■ STAGE

Hidden wounds Learning to Stay looks at lives upended after war

BY CATHERINE CAPELLARO

Learning to Stay — the story of an Iraq War veteran returning home to Madison — made the journey from novel to full stage production in just three years. But Forward Theater Company’s new production traces its genesis back to former Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle — and way past that to the epic poet Homer.

American Players Theatre journeyman James DeVita adapted Learning to Stay from a novel by Madison-based author Erin Celello, now a creative writing professor at UW-Whitewater. Celello worked as Doyle’s deputy press secretary and speechwriter in the mid-2000s, and was at his side for dozens of funerals. “He had this policy of never, ever, missing a military funeral,” says Celello.

“It’s almost indescribable, to see these families and what they go through.”

Celello couldn’t get the images out of her mind, and after publishing her first novel, Miracle Beach, she wanted to write about the impact of wars abroad on families at home. While in grad school, she had picked up Where Is the Mango Princess? A Journey Back from Brain Injury, a memoir by Cathy Crimmins, whose husband was transformed after a boating accident. “He fundamentally changed his personality,” says Celello.

“Where does ‘in sickness and health’ reside in a situation like that?”

She began teaching a writing course for veterans and, in 2013, published Learning to Stay, which revolves around the relationship of Elise and Brad Sabato, who find their lives

Jeb Burris and Kat Wodtke play Brad and Elise, who struggle a er Brad returns from Iraq.

upended after Brad returns from active duty.

In 2014, a theater patron sent a copy of the novel to Forward’s artistic director, Jennifer Uphoff Gray. He wanted the company to turn it into a play. “My reaction was a kind of rueful laugh,” says Gray. The young company was still getting on its feet and hadn’t considered the expensive and time-consuming work of commissioning a play. Then Gray began to read, and realized that the story was too good to pass up.

But she wondered who she could trust to develop such sensitive material for the stage.

Enter DeVita. The veteran actor has written three novels of his own and adapted more than two dozen books for the stage. He also

happened to be in the middle of his own exploration of themes of war. He was rehearsing for playing the Poet in An Iliad, a heart-wrenching adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, which DeVita performed in a Milwaukee production and later at APT. “This book came to me as I was trying to memorize those words,” says DeVita, who, in the play, recites a list of every known war throughout human history. “It seemed like it had a synchronicity. I read the book and it is, unfortunately, very timely. People are still fighting and suffering from these things they bring home from the war.”

DeVita knows what to leave in and what to take out when moving a work from page to stage, and uses his prodigious acting skills in cre-

ating and differentiating characters. “I probably sound crazy. I’m often talking to myself,” says DeVita. “I write it out first, but the actor in me wants to know if it works well in my mouth. I also trust the actors. If they can’t memorize something in rehearsal, there’s often something lacking in clarity.” The play won a coveted spot in Forward’s 2015 Wisconsin Wrights contest, and received a public reading in October of that year.

One performance of Learning to Stay will not be open to the general public, however.

On April 4, the audience will be limited to veterans, active service members, families and service providers. Gray says the collaborators have been working closely with Michael Messina, head of the Veterans Administration PTSD clinic, on both the script and ideas for outreach. “We knew we would want to do outreach directed at the veterans,” says Gray.

“What they said was they wanted a chance to see the show in a safe, private environment.

It’s difficult facing these issues in a big crowd.”

As opening night approaches, Celello’s work is mostly done, but she is thrilled to be working with DeVita, whom she already admired, and Gray, the director, who she calls “a genius.” Most important, she hopes the play helps the general public understand the human consequences of war. “We, as a country, are not super invested in these wars,” says Celello, who believes civilians have a duty to understand what soldiers and their families are going through. “We still have people over there. These people that we have sent on our behalf don’t get to be done.” ■

■ BOOKS

Literary geek Matt Forbeck is the writer behind the games

BY AARON R. CONKLIN

Forbeck has wri en 30 novels based on games and movies.

sume, those connections eventually led to what’s become a never-ending stream of opportunities.

“A lot of it is networking,” says Forbeck of his path to success. “When I started, you didn’t have college classes on game design. When they needed writers, they contacted tabletop guys — and that was me.”

Forbeck has remained prolific. In addition to the Rogue One novelization, he’s launched a Kickstarter to fund a rebirth/second edition of Brave

New World, a superhero-based role-playing game he initially created for Pinnacle Games back in the ’90s. That game anticipated not just some of the themes of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie trilogy, but also the rippedfrom-the-headlines issues of personal liberty, privacy and morality we’re facing today.

“For me, it’s never been about book signings. It’s do you enjoy the work?” Forbeck says. “The money and fame are secondary.” ■

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Next week, Matt Forbeck’s 30th novel, a junior novelization of Star Wars: Rogue One, comes out — a project that, among other things, gave him the geektacular opportunity to read the film’s script nine months before the rest of us got to see it.

“Then I just had to not talk about it for the next nine months,”says Forbeck, 48.

“Luckily, I’m used to that.”

Over the past two decades, Forbeck has carved out a successful career as a games writer. He was part of the writing team for Ubisoft’s recently released console game Ghost Recon: Wildlands. He’s written novels based in popular games universes like Halo (and, obviously, Star Wars) and rulebooks for role-playing games. His credits include the last two editions of the Marvel Comics Encyclopedia (one of which spent multiple

months on The New York Times bestseller list) and last fall’s Dungeonology, a behind-thescenes looks at the Forgotten Realms of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing universe.

Forbeck will be one of the featured guests at the UW-Madison’s annual Writer’s Institute, which begins March 24.

“I’m an outlier,” says Forbeck. who does most of his writing out of his Beloit home — no easy task, given that he and his wife have five children, including 14-year-old quadruplets. “I have 30 novels in print and I’ve never had an agent. I broke every rule.”

Forbeck got his start as a teenager in Beloit in the 1980s, the halcyon days when tabletop games ruled the world and Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson were creating Dungeons & Dragons up the road in Lake Geneva. Forbeck used to dash out of high school soccer practice to play-test new role-playing games in nearby Delavan. As he got older and added a writing degree to his re-

25

n MUSIC

Long live rock!

Why Journey and other iconic rock bands survive past their prime

BY MICHAEL POPKE

Once upon a time, especially in the Midwestern cities where I grew up in the 1980s, a big rock band like Journey coming to town would be a highlight of the entire year.

But in 2017, with Journey and fellow ’80s rockers Asia making a stop at the Alliant Energy Center on March 28, the most excitement I’ve heard around here came from two older dudes discussing their ticket options in the booth behind me at Nick’s Restaurant & Lounge.

This is a bitter pill to swallow for a guy like me. I still brag about the time I introduced Point beer to Foreigner’s bassist and lead-singer-who-wasn’t-Lou-Gramm after an early-’90s gig in Stevens Point. And I even wore a Styx T-shirt in 1997. On State Street. During date night with my wife.

Then, a few weeks ago, I was introduced to Alejandro Alonso Galva — the 29-yearold assistant news director at WORT-FM — who can’t wait to see Journey.

“The first time I heard a Journey song and it stuck was freshman year of college at the University of Iowa,” Galva tells me. “I got on the campus bus to go to the library on a Friday night. What I didn’t realize was that all the buses headed to the library also head downtown, and those buses were typically called ‘drunk buses.’ So when I got on, it’s standing-room only. Then someone randomly started singing the opening lines to ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’: Just a small-town girl.

TOMMY WASHBUSH

By the second line, the whole bus was singing along: Livin’ in a lonely world. It was pure college, pure magic and one of those moments when you don’t forget how much you smiled.”

Songs that make you smile. That, in a nutshell, is why Journey will never die. (Well, that and the fact a good chunk of its fan base has the money to spend on tickets.)

Forget for a moment that Journey guitarist Neal Schon is 63 years old and that the band is on its third lead singer since Steve Perry de-

parted in 1998 — a Filipino named Arnel Pineda who Schon found on YouTube singing Journey covers with his band, the Zoo. Journey still plays arenas more than 35 years after its commercial peak with 1981’s Escape, because the songs — the lyrics, the melodies, the guitar solos — spark a memory or create a new one.

And Journey’s not alone. Many active artists from the ’70s and ’80s, while still releasing new material, might have more replacement members than original ones and haven’t visited the

upper level of the album charts for decades.

Yet pair Foreigner with Cheap Trick, and both bands can play amphitheaters all summer.

Def Leppard, Poison and Tesla will hit the arena circuit from April to the end of June, Kansas and Chicago fill large indoor theaters on their own, and Bon Jovi sells out stadiums around the world. Even Boston will make a stop at Breese Stevens Field on May 26.

“There is the simple fact that, regardless of dated production, a good song is a good song,” says Michael Massey, one of Madison’s most accomplished songwriters and producers.

During his regular gigs at the Ivory Room Piano Bar, all Massey has to do is play the iconic opening piano line of “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and the crowd takes care of the rest.

“Every time, in every venue,” he says, crediting the use of classic rock songs in Glee and movie soundtracks for bringing new audiences to old tunes. “For some, it is the love of the song, and for others, it’s belonging to something shared for a moment.”

For still others, sadly, it’s an opportunity to scoff at artists they consider too mainstream, too old or simply undeserving of recognition. And that pisses off Galva.

“Rock ’n’ roll has the ability to be absurd and profound all at once,” he says. “People who deride these popular bands pretend like they can’t take anything seriously. But the irony is lost on them; they are taking it all too seriously. They’ve forgotten how to have fun.” n

Son Volt’s got the blues A Q&A with Jay Farrar

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

BY MICHAEL POPKE

26

Jay Farrar will always remember Madison. When he was in Uncle Tupelo, the pioneering alt-country band from southern Illinois that also featured a fresh-faced Jeff Tweedy, the city became a regular touring stop. “Madison was one of the first college towns that Uncle Tupelo played almost exclusively during the early period,” Farrar says.

Following Uncle Tupelo’s acrimonious breakup in 1994, Tweedy picked up the ashes and formed Wilco. Farrar went off and founded Son Volt — a band punctuated by the singer/guitarist’s dusty, weary vocals. Farrar, now 50, returns to Madison on March 30 at the Majestic Theatre in support of Son Volt’s eighth album, Notes of Blue. The day before the tour began, Farrar spoke with Isthmus from his home in St. Louis about his new songs, music in the Trump era and his old bandmate.

Notes of Blue is the convergence of blues, folk and country. What inspired these songs?

Over the last year and a half, I’ve been doing acoustic trio shows in support of the reissue of the first Son Volt record, Trace. As a result of those shows and primarily playing acoustic guitar on the last couple of Son Volt records, I wanted to focus on more electric guitar this time around. That meant bringing out the amplifier that’s pictured on the cover of Trace.

There’s always been that duality to Son Volt — the up-tempo electric stuff and the more acoustic-based stuff.

Trace was released 22 years ago, and Uncle Tupelo’s debut, No Depression, came out in 1990. Does it feel like that long ago?

The years fly by, for sure. As I’ve been going through songs to pick for the set list on this tour, I am confronted by the idea that some of the songs don’t resonate quite as much as others. But I have picked some that go back to Uncle Tupelo.

Jay Farrar (center) formed Son Volt out of Uncle Tupelo’s ashes.

Do you think Notes of Blue will broaden people’s appreciation of the blues and encourage them to dig back into your influences for this record?

I hope so. Blues was such an important part of early country music, which suggested that I should focus more on blues this time around.

I grew up hearing country music through my family. My father sang Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams songs, and the blues were a foundational part of what they were doing.

Some of the songs are pretty dark. Is Notes of Blue a soundtrack for America in 2017?

I think the message of the blues is that music can

DAVID MC CLISTER

lift you up and transcend your current situation. In terms of any overt political content in these songs, I was going for something more spiritual. But during the last couple of months, I’ve been writing lots of songs. And every day, I read the news and think, ‘What would Woody Guthrie say about this?’ I’m looking at songwriting from more of a topical perspective.

How are relations between you and Jeff Tweedy these days?

Within the last six months, we communicated via email after a long stretch, so that was good. n

■ SCREENS

Wisconsin Film Fest continued from 19

Contemporary Color

Afterimage A giant in world cinema, Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda (Ashes and Diamonds, Man of Iron) passed away last October, shortly after the premiere of his final film, Afterimage. Wajda brought a lifetime of experience navigating art and politics to this portrait of avant-garde painter Władysław Strzemiński (Bogusław Linda), whose work and theories fell out of favor in the early 1950s as Soviet

Realism became the state-sanctioned style of art with ideological utility.

Some might find it ironic that Wajda produced such an easily accessible political drama about an artist who resisted easily accessible art with an ideological agenda. But Wajda’s chilling, cleareyed portrait of Strzemiński’s professional and personal decline at the hands of the cultural administrators warns against history repeating itself.

Clash

— JAMES KREUL

— CATHERINE CAPELLARO

I, Daniel Blake of stasis and violence that repeats for the duration of the film.

This is essentially Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, if Tallulah Bankhead were the Muslim Brotherhood. Clash alternates between insightful snapshots of deep-seated social, religious and political divisions and disappointingly contrived melodrama. On balance, there’s more of the former than the latter, which makes Clash still superior to Hollywood representations of the region.

— JAMES KREUL

In this deeply moving portrait of poverty and human dignity, director Ken Loach illustrates the suffering and resilience of the working poor.

Daniel Blake (Dave Johns), a genial carpenter in Newcastle, is getting the runaround from the British bureaucracy. He suffered a major heart attack and his doctors say he’s not ready to go back to work. He is denied unemployment benefits, but while he awaits an appeal hearing with “the decisionmaker,” bland state workers shuffle him into a job-seekers program.

A fracas in the office leads to him befriending

Katie, a desperate single mom (played by an excellent Hayley Squires). In several painful scenes, Blake struggles to adapt to modern technology and navigate online applications; there are also humiliating interviews and workshops. “Give me a plot of land and I’ll build you a house,” says Blake. “But I’ve never been near a computer.” Blake’s quiet journey from compliance to defiance will grab you by your collar, whatever its color, and shake you.

— CATHERINE CAPELLARO

CONTINUE D NE XT PAGE

➡

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

The well-intentioned Egyptian drama Clash dramatizes a day in the conflict between the Egyptian military and the Muslim Brotherhood after the removal of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The police detain Adam (Hani Adel), an Egyptian-American Associated Press reporter, in a police truck during the protests. He soon finds himself joined by both pro-army and Muslim Brotherhood protesters. Conflict ensues, both inside and outside of the truck, starting a cycle

Strzemiński’s removal from the Łódź art school that he co-founded (now named after him) and the dismantling of his “Neoplastic Room” at the Muzeum Sztuki unfortunately will remind the audience of legislators questioning syllabi and politicians removing climate change material from science websites.

Perhaps Wajda’s warning has arrived too late.

David Byrne (Talking Heads) has an eye — and ear — for identifying up-and-coming talent. This Byrne-produced doc turns its lens to an unusual concert, a 2015 event he produced at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Composers and pop stars (St. Vincent, Nelly Furtado, Zola Jesus) deliver original, experimental works illustrated by 10 spectacular color guard teams chosen from around the U.S. and Canada. Color guards, which normally perform on football fields, are a fascinating youth subculture — a haven for LGBTQ and youth of color.

Dressed in sparkles and spandex, the young people perform intricate dance routines with flags, rifles and sabers. Contemporary Color is a blend of behind-the-scenes footage (some very meta scenes involve Ira Glass from This American Life) and performance video.

The music and the routines start to blend together after a while, but the passion the young people show for their art is palpable.

27

■ SCREENS

Saturday, April 1st The Orpheum Join us for CTM’s biggest party of the year – an ADULT fundraiser with the emphasis on FUN! Proceeds support providing resources for continued excellence onstage and in the classroom.

To buy tickets, vis it ctmtheate r.org

Kati Kati In this Nigerian drama, Kaleche Kati (Nyokabi Gethaiga), a young woman with amnesia, finds herself at a mysterious lodge. The inhabitants explain to her that she has died, just like they have, and they must remain in this resort-like limbo. Mixing science fiction, ghost story and folk tale, director and co-writer Mbithi Masya creates a world with rules that Kaleche and the viewer must learn in order to understand its dreamlike logic.

Kaleche’s main guide is Thoma (Elsaphan Njora) the de facto leader of the residents, who has organized activities to pass the time but remains just as trapped as the others.

Gradually we discover that all the residents still bear burdens from their lives that they need to address before they can move on to the afterlife.

While leisurely paced, Kati Kati benefits from the vibrant performances of the photogenic cast. The dramatic reveals in the last act don’t quite have the impact they could have because some are telegraphed and others deliver too little, too late. But the world created here remains compelling throughout, especially as characters face ghost-like manifestations of their past lives.

— JAMES KREUL

Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry

Cocktails in the Conservatory

Featuring DJ Urbane

March 31 7-11 pm ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

$8 cash cover

28

(No advanced ticket sales)

www.olbrich.org Sponsored by:

Look & See begins with shots of lush forests, giving way to bulldozers and machinery lopping the tops off Kentucky mountains as Wendell Berry reads from his poem, “A Timbered Choir”: “Even while I dreamed I prayed that what I saw was only fear and no foretelling. For I saw the last known landscape destroyed for the sake of the objective.”

The film is more of a visual poem than a documentary, which is fitting, because Berry is a poet/farmer/activist/essayist who has devoted his life to collapsing distinctions. “I have grown or aged into difficulty in distinguishing between art and life,” Berry says, over black-and-white images of fields, forests and streams. “When we make our art, we are also making our lives.”

Berry, author of dozens of books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, is also an outspoken critic of industrial farming and mining practices that have ravaged the culture and environment of Henry County, Kentucky, where he has lived since 1965. Industrialization and mechanization have replaced small farms, and farmers became trapped in cycles of debt and expansion, losing connection to the fruitful land. Through the visuals and Berry’s words, the film makes a plea for healing both the physical land and the rural communities. The film’s focus on Berry’s neighbors and family is a deliberate and powerful choice.

“Things that our parents thought were important for us to notice, they told us to notice,” says his daughter, Mary Berry. “Look at this, see this, and know that it’s good.”

— CATHERINE CAPELLARO

Personal Shopper Filmgoers are deeply divided on the issue of Kristen Stewart. She’s either one of her generation’s greatest talents, applying a brilliant less-is-more approach to her craft, or a one-trick pony who brings enough energy to the set to maintain consciousness.

If you are on the fence about her, Olivier Assayas’ haute couture ghost story, Personal Shopper, gives you plenty of opportunity to decide. The camera rarely strays from Stewart as she wanders Paris buying clothes for her celebrity boss while searching for signs from her dead brother. I was uncertain about her myself, but with Shopper, I found myself amazed by her naturalistic verbal tricks; she sounds like a jazz vocalist, subtly revealing pent-up emotions. She also plays pauses well, thankfully, since she spends most of the movie alone and/or silent.

But then there are moments where I just wanted to scream: Do something, woman! Try just a little!

Like its star, Personal Shopper is ethereal, inscrutable, striking, eerie and confounding.

Assayas and Stewart lull us into a familiar —

Film events Get Shorty: Mobster Chili Palmer (John Travolta) is in town to collect a gambling debt, but gets mixed up with the movie business instead. Yahara Bay Distillers, Fitchburg, March 23, 6:30 pm.

The Light Between Oceans: Adaptation of the novel by M.L. Stedman, about a couple who raise a baby found in a drifting rowboat. Ashman Library, March 24, 6:45 pm.

The Godfather Part II: Some backstory deepens director Francis Ford Coppola’s saga of the Corleone family. UW Cinematheque, March 24, 7 pm.

My Love Story!!: Anime Club screening (RSVP: 608246-4548). Hawthorne Library, March 24, 7 pm.

Metropolitan Opera: Idomeneo: Simulcast of Mozart opera starring Matthew Polenzani. Palace-Sun Prairie & Point, March 25, 11:55 am.

The BFG: Director Steven Spielberg adapts Roald Dahl’s book about an orphan with a huge new friend. Central Library, March 25, 2 pm.

and occasionally dull — dream state so that we lower our defenses. Then they remind us that this is a story about dead things, and dead things are scary, and when someone as cool as Kristen Stewart gets scared, you should be, too.

— CRAIG JOHNSON

Kubo and the Two Strings: A vengeful spirit can be defeated if a boy can find his father’s special suit of armor.

Hawthorne Library, March 25, 2 pm.

The Magic Flute: Mozart’s opera as reimagined by writer-director Ingmar Bergman. UW Cinematheque, March 25, 7 pm.

Born on the Fourth of July: UW Cinematheque: Biopic about Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise) from writer-director Oliver Stone. Chazen Museum of Art, March 26, 2 pm.

Wild & Scenic Film Festival: Short films on people’s relationship to the environment. Barrymore Theatre, March 29, 76 pm (VIP party 5:30 pm).

The Inheritance: Labor History Film Series: Documentary about immigrants and working Americans in the 20th century. Central Library, March 29, 7 pm.

Blade Runner: A blade runner must pursue and try to terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator. Bos Meadery, March 29, 7 pm.

Persepolis: Marjane Satrapi takes us through a turbulent period in Iran’s history in this largely autobiographical animated feature, an adaptation of her celebrated graphic novels. UW Union SouthMarquee, March 30, 7 pm.

Playing Dr.: Film about the 20-week abortion ban in Wisconsin, with talks by Nicole Safar (Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin) and Sara Finger (Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health). Sundance, March 30, 7:30 pm.

The BFG

Blade Runner

Wisconsin’s Nazi Resistance: The Mildred Fish-Harnack Story: Wisconsin Public Television documentary.

McFarland Library, March 27, 6:30 pm.

Sylvio Genuine comedy emerges from the deadpan hero’s legitimate sadness.

Sylvio charms with its lo-fi effects, bargain-basement production, purposely stilted performances and, of course, the blatantly fake gorilla suit that would fit perfectly in a Three Stooges short. But this is not a sloppy film; it’s just dressed up that way.

And for those still traumatized by the cheap-o gorilla comedy at last year’s Wisconsin Film Festival, don’t worry: Sylvio has nothing in common with Aaaaaaaah! Sylvio is as innocent as that British comedy was prurient. The hero doesn’t even act like an ape.

Albert Birney, who co-directed this oddity with Kentucker Audley, will do a Q&A after the screening on March 31, and if there’s any justice in this world he’ll be selling “What’s the Ape Gonna Break?” T-shirts like the ones in the movie.

— CRAIG JOHNSON

*consignment excluded

We will be featuring a larger than normal NEW shipment of inlay jewelry from Gallup, New Mexico!

1817 Monroe St. u 608.251.5451katysamericanindianarts.com

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

The micro-budget comedy Sylvio hits all the biopic beats. It charts a hero’s humble beginnings and dreams, sudden cult success, near self-destruction, sell-out, scandal, crisis of conscience, comeback, revealing flashback, redemption. It’s a tale told thousands of times, so how do you make it fresh? Put the artist in a gorilla suit, that’s how. Sylvio Bernardi is an “ape” who achieved viral internet fame (half a million followers) in a series of Vine videos titled “Simply Sylvio.” In this film, he is an artist living in Baltimore who just wants to create, but instead finds fame in destruction, smashing household items on public access television.

The movie’s success comes not from the story, but from the telling. It begins, like many twee indie movies, with a melancholy tone. Before long, you see that the film is parodying twee indie along with biopics.

29

Son Volt

PICK OF THE WEEK

Thursday, March 30, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm As a founder of Uncle Tupelo (along with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy), Jay Farrar more or less invented the template for modern alt-country. And since releasing the instant classic Trace in 1995 (which featured a surprise modern rock radio hit in “Drown”), Farrar’s band Son Volt has remained at the forefront of the genre. Almost 25 years and eight albums later (their most recent, Notes of Blue, was released in February), the St. Louis based band is only getting better. With Anders Parker. See story, page 27.

thu mar 23 MU S I C

picks

DAVID McCLISTER

August: Osage County: Mercury Players Theatre production of 2008 Pulitzer-winning dark comedy, 7:30 pm on 3/23, 8 pm on 3/24 and 4 pm, 3/25, Bartell TheatreDrury Stage. $20. 661-9696.

Middleton Library: Surround Sound, Proxy Child, Thin Ice, free, 6 pm.

Ohio Tavern: Louka Patenaude, free, 7 pm.

Tip Top Tavern: Sam Ness, folk, free, 9 pm.

Twist Bar: John Christensen Combo, jazz, free, 5 pm.

Cabaret: Touring Broadway production, 7:30 pm on 3/23, 8 pm on 3/24, 2 & 8 pm on 3/25 and 1 & 6:30 pm, 3/26, Overture Hall. $95-$29.50. 258-4141.

fri mar 24 MUS I C

COM EDY

T HE ATER & DANCE

Wrong for the Part

Mason Jennings

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

Thursday, March 23, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm

30

Beloved Minnesota pop-folk musician Mason Jennings released his latest (and quite possibly his best) album, Wild Dark Metal, in March 2016 and then promptly dropped off the face of the earth, later telling the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he “wasn’t in the right head space” to promote the album or play it live.

Luckily for his fans, he’s easing back into the public eye with three Midwestern tour dates this month. His new album is darker, heavier and edgier than previous works, but it still has that classic Mason Jennings sound.

With Madison indie-folk duo Seasaw.

Bos Meadery: Hoot’n Annie, string band, free, 6:30 pm.

Brink Lounge: Madison Jazz Orchestra, 7:30 pm.

Frequency: Telekinetic Yeti, Droids Attack, Hyborian, 9 pm.

High Noon: Dub Foundation, Fringe Character, Fivy, 9 pm.

Ivory Room: Jim Ripp, Michael Massey, piano, free, 9 pm.

Merchant: Willy Tea Taylor, J. Auburtin, free, 10 pm.

Mickey’s Tavern: Bubbles Brown, Boo Bradley, Leopard Hound, free, 10:30 pm.

Thursday, March 23, Bartell Theatre, 8 pm This annual fundraiser for the Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theater takes performers and audience out of their comfort zones by casting people in dream roles that they would never get normally. The roster is filled with some of Madison’s all-star thespians, and the emcee is Sarah Whelan, a true grand dame, who has performed on Madison stages for more than half a century. ALSO: Friday & Saturday, March 24-25, 8 pm.

Learning to Stay Thursday, March 23, Overture Center-Playhouse, 7:30 pm

This thrilling world premiere is an adaptation by American Players Theatre superstar James DeVita of a novel written by local novelist Erin Celello. It examines what it’s like for a Madison couple after the husband returns from a deployment in Iraq. And it’s the first full-length play commissioned by the seasoned pros at Forward Theater Company. ALSO: Friday-Saturday (7:30 pm) and Sunday (2 pm), March 24-26.

Through April 9. See story, page 25.

Regional High School Dance Festival: Free concerts, 7:30 pm on 3/23 and 5:30 & 8 pm, 3/24-25, UW Memorial Union-Shannon Hall. highschooldancefestival.wisc.edu.

Coyote Theo Von Thursday, March 23, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm Von started off as a cast member of MTV’s reality show Road Rules and rose from those humble beginnings to reach the semifinals of the fourth season of Last Comic Standing. Since then, he launched one of the highest-rated and star-studded podcasts available (ALLEGEDLY), released a Netflix exclusive special (Theo Von: No Offense), and released his first full comedy album (A 30 Pound Bag of Hamster Bones) just a few weeks ago. He blends Southern charm with an acerbic attitude, adding a cringe element to his homegrown stories. With Antonio Aguilar. ALSO: Friday-Saturday, March 24-25, 8 & 10:30 pm.

Stand-up Democracy: Audience votes on sets by Marc Reisner, Brittany Tilander, KC Phillips & Bennett Brown, hosts Esteban Touma & Rob Garza, 8:30 pm, 3/23, Rigby. Free. facebook.com/standupdemocracy.

BOOKS Louis V. Clark III (Two Shoes): Discussing “How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century,” new book, 6:30 pm, 3/23, Wisconsin Historical Museum. 264-6555.

Friday, March 24, High Noon Saloon, 9 pm

Coyote has existed for less than a year, but the band is already prepping for the release of its first album, Fool’s Gold. It builds on the sterling reputation they’ve earned playing a seamless, timeless blend of rock, Americana, funk and jazz — like a slightly rootsier version of Wilco. With Frogleg, Big Dill & the Boys.

Portugal. The Man Friday, March 24, Majestic, 9 pm Given Alaska’s sparse population, it’s amazing to think that even a rhythm section could come from there, let alone a full band. But that’s the case of Portugal. The Man, an eclectic alt-rock crew originally from Wasilla, Alaska, which now calls Portland, Oregon, home. Since forming in 2004, the group has released seven critically acclaimed albums, including 2013’s Evil Friends, which was helmed by indie super-producer Danger Mouse. Their eighth LP, Woodstock, will be released later this year. With HDBEENDOPE. Sold out.

Lucille: DJ Bruce Blaq, free, 10 pm.

Merchant: DJ Zukas, free, 10:30 pm.

Mickey’s Tavern: Gentle Brontosaurus, The Shabelles, Oedipus Tex, free, 10:30 pm.

Nomad World Pub (formerly Cardinal Bar): Mike Cammilleri Organ Trio, 5:30 pm.

Overture Center-Capitol Theater: Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, with Vicki Powell, viola, 7:30 pm.

Parched Eagle: Nick Brown & Dan Walkner, 7:30 pm.

John Christensen’s Atlas Project Friday, March 24, Central Library, 7:30 pm

This second installment of the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium’s “InDIGenous Jazz” series features bassist John Christensen, a fixture on the Madison scene for more than 15 years. The stellar lineup includes UW jazz prodigy Johannes Wallmann (piano), Dave Miller (guitar) and Andrew Green (drums). Spend a jazz-filled evening in our gorgeous downtown library while also enjoying libations from Gib’s.

Plan B: Thorgy Thor, Gretta Grimm-DeVille, Lucy Von Cucci, Nina Von Queefs, Kimaera Mirage, DJ Amos, drag, 9 pm.

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

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

where activism gets inspired

THUR. MAR. 30

A BENEFIT FOR

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church: Association of Church Musicians, “Orgelbuchlein” by J.S. Bach, 7:30 pm.

Stoughton Opera House: Charlie Parr, Willy Tea Taylor, 7:30 pm.

Sun Prairie High School: U.S. Navy Band, free (ticket required: sunprairie.k12.wi.us/performingarts), 7 pm.

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

Toot + Kate’s Wine Bar, Verona: Back2Back, 7:30 pm.

Tuvalu Coffeehouse, Verona: Katie Burns, free, 7 pm.

Up North Pub: Amanda Standalone, free, 8 pm.

Varsity Bar, Sun Prairie: Open Mic, 10 pm Fridays.

Wisconsin Brewing, Verona: DJ Toe Knee V, ‘80s, 7 pm.

with special guests Adam & Russell of Horseshoes & Hand Grenades & David Luning

WEDNESDAY, MAR. 29 5:30PM VIP PRE-PARTY 7PM FILMS Tickets $12 adv, $15 dos / $30 for VIP Tickets on sale at the River Alliance office, and usual Barrymore outlets

Yahara Bay Distillers, Fitchburg: Hickory Road, 5 pm.

FRI. APR. 14

T HE AT E R & DANCE Inside the Director’s Studio: Free preview of “Primavera,” 4 pm, 3/24, Madison Ballet Studio. 278-7990.

Smoking Popes Friday, March 24, Frequency, 8:30 pm

Though many bands in Chicago’s tightly knit punk scene seem like family, the Smoking Popes are literally so. Formed in 1991 by brothers Josh, Eli and Matt Caterer (and rounded out by former Alkaline Trio drummer Mike Felumlee), the band has managed to stand out in a crowded scene, thanks to vocals inspired by crooners like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Their most recent release, This Is Only a Test, came out in 2011.

With Fury Things, The Bigger Empty.

T H E AT R E

B OOKS / S P OKEN WORD Anthony Romero & Dan S. Wang: A conversation on “The Social Practice That is Race,” their new book, with Jennifer Morales, 7 pm, 3/24, Arts + Literature Laboratory. 556-7415.

Wisconsin Inspire Synchronized Skating: Free performance, 6:45 pm, 3/24, Madison Ice Arena; open skating follows ($5). facebook.com/events/602048086672492.

sat mar 25

Local & National BMO HARRIS BANK Artists (STUDENT STAGE) SPRING 2017 JOHN CHRISTENSEN ATLAS PROJECT MAR 24

MUS I C

Bowl-A-Vard Lanes: Kings of Radio, rock, 9 pm.

Brink Lounge: Well-Known Strangers, SheShe, 8:30 pm.

Unique compositions that unite head and heart

Brocach-Monroe Street: The Currach, 6 pm Fridays.

TOM GULLION QUINTET APR 7

Chief’s Tavern: Mad City Jug Band, 6:30 pm.

Crossroads Coffee, Cross Plains: Soul Purpose, 7 pm.

Tenor sax fueled improvisations ranging from intense to introspective

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

Essen Haus: Tom Brusky, free, 8:30 pm.

Hody Bar, Middleton: The Dirty Groove, free, 9 pm.

Ivory Room: Anthony Cao, Peter Hernet, Lindsay Everly, dueling pianos, 8 pm.

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

Liliana’s Restaurant, Fitchburg: John Vitale, Marilyn Fisher & Ken Kuehl, jazz, free, 6:30 pm.

Liquid-Ruby Lounge: DJ Chamo, 10 pm Fridays.

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

Sincere Life album release Saturday, March 25, High Noon Saloon, 9 pm

Local emcee Sincere Life is sharing the spotlight this Saturday, turning his album release party into a showcase for a number of Madtown’s newer hip-hop artists.

Joining the headliner to celebrate his new project, “King Poetic II,” are some of the city’s younger acts, including Broadway, Trebino, Red the Bully and Gooh. Come through for who you know and stay for the new sounds from those you don’t.

➡

SEARCH THE FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS AT ISTHMUS.COM

TONY CASTAÑEDA LATIN JAZZ SEXTET MAY 12 A Madison favorite performing original Mambo and Cha Cha

MADISON CENTRAL LIBRARY 3rd Floor, 201 W Mifflin Street ALL CONCERTS START AT 7:30PM FREE ADMISSION

Madison Music Foundry Jazz Combo 6pm

Middleton High School Jazzby: Combo performances The Surreal Books 7pm

CAPITAL BREWERY 5-7pm 7734 Terrace Ave

The Madison Jazz Orchestra 5pm

LOUISIANNE’S

6-11pm 7464 Hubbard Ave

Johnny Chimes 6-9pm • Jim Erickson 9-11pm

BODEANS

MIDDLETON PUBLIC LIBRARY 6-9pm 7425 Hubbard Ave

LIVE SESSIONS ISTHMUS LIVE SESSIONS Antique NouveauISTHMUS 6pm

Sally De Broux, Laurie Lang & John Becker 7pm The Tom Ryan Orchette (performing miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool 8pm

THE

GRISWOLDS

THE FREE HOUSE PUB

9:30pm - Midnight 1902 Parmenter St @ Elmwood Ave

Jon Hoel Trio 9:30pm

ISTHMUS LIVE SESSIONS

ISTHMUS LIVE SESSIONS

at: isthmus.com/ils

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Knuckle Down Saloon: Paul Filipowicz, blues, 8 pm.

Perform in the Isthmus Office Edgewood High School Jazz Combo 5pm 5-8pm 7447 University Ave @ Parmenter St

Bos Meadery: Shawndell Marks, free/donations, 7 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Shakey, Neil Young tribute, 5:30 pm.

isthmus live sessions

S PECTATOR SP ORTS

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

First Unitarian Society: Noon Musicale: Steve Waugh, guitar, 12:15 pm.

2090 Atwood Ave. (608) 241-8633 barrymorelive.com Tickets on sale at Sugar Shack, Star Liquor, MadCity Music, B-Side, Frugal Muse, Strictly Discs, the Barrymore, online at barrymorelive.com or (608) 241-8633.

115 KING STREET, MADISON ON SALE NOW TICKETS AVAILABLE AT WWW.MAJESTICMADISON.COM, MAJESTIC BOX OFFICE OR BY PHONE (800) 514-ETIX

31

■ ISTHMUS PICKS : MAR 25 - 28 B O O KS 2201 Atwood Ave. SAT. MAR. 25

8 pm $7

FRI, MAR 24 H 8PM H $7

featuring The Oui Blu Horns

Paul Filipowicz’s

____________________________________

EVERY MONDAY 5:30-6:15pm $3 THE KING OF KIDS MUSIC

DAVID LANDAU ____________________________________

BIRTHDAY BASH!

THUR. MAR. 30 9:30-11:30 pm no cover WISCONSIN FILM FEST PARTY!

SAT, MAR 25 H 9PM H $7 KNUCKLE DOWN’S 7TH ANNIVERSARY

Mad City Funk FRI. MAR. 31

A RT EXH I B I TS & EV EN TS

tony kannen & the sound garden crew

THURSDAYS H 8:30PM H FREE

Tate’s Blues Jam

SAT. APR. 1

The Mannish Boys

Print & Resist: Zine/prints/design fest, 11 am-4:30 pm, 3/25, Central Library, with exhibitors, workshops. Free. madisonprintandresist.wordpress.com.

(608) 249-4333

Altered Five

2513 Seiferth Rd. 222-7800

Come watch Bucky on our 6 HD TVs!

KnuckleDownSaloon.com

GeekCraft Expo: Craft market with locally handmade geek goods, 11 am-6 pm 3/25 and 11 am-5 pm 3/26, Masonic Center. Free admission. geekcraftexpo.com.

Tribute Night Saturday, March 25, Crystal Corner Bar, 9:30 pm

Local rockers return to those halcyon days between the mid-’90s and the early aughts, when guitar bands still captured the attention of pop listeners. The Heroins (with Meghan Rose, pictured, channeling Courtney Love) perform the music of Hole; the Right Stripes (aka Seasaw) button the hardest buttons of the White Stripes; and all-star aggregation Jagged Little Pills (members of German Art Students, Damsel Trash and the Wild Things) help you learn Alanis Morissette.

Arts + Literature Lab: Eric Miller, Patrick Reinholz, Brian Grimm, 8 pm.

Brink Lounge: Samba Novistas, 9 pm.

Cargo Bike Shop: Casey Day, free, 9 am Saturdays.

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

thu mar

23

Dub Foundation Fringe Character Fivy 9PM $8

fri mar

24

SHAKEY COYOTE (Album Release)

Frogleg Big Dill & the Boys

(Neil Young Tribute) 5:30PM $7

sat mar

25

sun mar

26

9pm $8 adv, $10 dos

SINCERE LIFE

Cindy Set My Hair On Fire The Flavor That Kills

Whad’ya Know AT HIGH NOON SALOON NOON $10

5:30PM

Broadway / Trebino Red The Bully Gooh / DJ Mojamid 9PM $10 (+$2 if under 21) 18+

$5

JEFF AUSTIN BAND Feed The Dog 8PM $20 18+

mon mar

27

tue mar

28

8pm $5

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

32

LOW 29 CZARS

wed mar

5:30pm $5

thu mar

30

18+

nerd nite 8pm

FREE

QUINN XCII

KOLAJ /

SATURDAY:

Live Soccer 12pm, Spicy Saturdays 9-Cl Live Soccer 12pm, Sound Travels 4-8pm JP Cyr and His Wranglers 8-CL

MONDAY:

BackBuzz Trapdoor Social Nester $7

Mike Cammelleri Organ Trio 5:30-7:30pm Badger Game from 9-11:30pm followed by DJ EMC

SUNDAY:

PROG

8pm

FRIDAY:

T! 18+ OU D $14 8:30PMSO $12L ADV, DOS

Industry Night 7-CL

TUESDAY:

Madison Latin Jazz Orchestra 6-8:30pm, The New Breed 9-Cl

WEDNESDAY:

Lunch Hour with MIKE CARLSON Wangzoom and DJ KiNN 9-Cl

THURSDAY:

Locals Only 7-10pm, The Sessions Maximum Moombahton with DJ $amroc 10-close

NomadWorldPub.com

Puppets! Puppets! Puppets!: Exhibit in conjunction with Puppet Festival, through 4/9, Overture CenterPlayhouse Gallery. 258-4169.

Threaded Streams Fiber Arts Trail: Studio & shop tours, workshops & more, 3/23-25, various locations in Baraboo, Portage, Prairie du Sac & Lodi. Details & schedule: midwestfiberartstrails.org.

S PEC I A L EV EN TS Whad’ya Know?: Podcast recording with music by Tracy Jane Comer & Michael Bryant, noon, 3/25, High Noon Saloon. $10. 268-1122.

K I D S & FA MI LY

Come Back In: Teddy Davenport, free, 9 pm.

Kids in the Rotunda: Free performance by David Landau, 9:30 am, 11 am & 1 pm, 3/25, Overture Center-Rotunda Stage. 258-4141.

Essen Haus: Brewhaus Polka Kings, free, 8:30 pm.

ur Happy HoM-F 4-5PM!

Justin Eccles & Lauren Harlowe: “Relevant Shapes,” Overture Center-Gallery I; Anne & Tim Connor, Rebecca Kautz: “Animalia,” Gallery II; Alyssa Ackerman, DarRen Morris: “Growing Pains” and “Human Condition/Artist Sanity,” respectively, Gallery III, 3/14-6/4. 258-4169.

Club Tavern, Middleton: DJ Robbie G, free, 9 pm.

Crescendo: Jerrika Mighelle, Heather Styka, 8 pm.

418 E. WILSON ST.

Art Glass & Bead Show: Vendors, exhibits & classes, 10 am-4 pm, 3/25-26, Alliant Energy Center-Exhibition Hall. $7/day, $11/weekend (classes begin 3/24; RSVP: beadshowmadison.com). 838-8011.

The Frequency: Advance Base, Karima Walker, 9 pm.

A RTS N OT I C ES

Gray’s Tied House, Verona: Frenchtown, 8 pm.

Harmony: Tony Kannen & Sound Garden Crew, 8 pm.

702WI Open House: Co-creative space for writers, 5 pm, 3/25, 702 E. Johnson St. 702WI.com.

High Noon Saloon: Cindy Set My Hair on Fire, The Flavor That Kills, 5:30 pm.

REC REAT I O N

Hody Bar, Middleton: Trailer Kings, rock, free, 9 pm.

Ivory Room: Leslie Cao, Peter Hernet, Taras Nahirniak, dueling pianos, 8 pm.

Knuckle Down Saloon: Mad City Funk, R&B, 9 pm.

Lakeside Street Coffee House: Michael Gruber, free, 9:30 am Saturdays; Northern Comfort, free, 7 pm.

Lazy Oaf Lounge: Your Mom, rock/country, 10 pm.

Liliana’s: Tom Waselchuk & Doug Brown, jazz, 6:30 pm.

Liquid: DJay Mando, 10 pm.

Lucille: DJ Nick Nice, free, 10 pm.

Merchant: DJ Landology, disco, free, 10:30 pm.

Mickey’s Tavern: Cap Alan, Redshift Headlight, Louise Bock, Jeremiah Nelson, free, 10:30 pm.

Mother Fool’s: Open Mic with Angelica Engel, 8 pm.

Overture-Capitol Theater: Decades Rewind, 7:30 pm.

Paoli Schoolhouse: Susan Hofer, jazz, free, 6 pm.

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

Stoughton Opera House: Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, 3 pm & 7 pm.

Tip Top Tavern: Nutria, jazz, free, 10 pm.

Strike out Lupus: Lupus Foundation of America-Wisconsin Chapter fundraiser, 1 pm, 3/25, Ten Pin Alley, Fitchburg. $20. RSVP: lupuswi.org. 414-443-6400.

Curl for a Cure: Leukemia & Lymphoma Society benefit, 1-5 pm, 3/25, Madison Curling Club, with curling tryouts, food & beer, silent auction. $40 ($35 adv.). facebook.com/events/1249132721801972.

S PEC I A L I N T ERESTS Dark Skies: MidWest Severe Storm Tracking/Response Center seminar, 8 am-4:30 pm, 3/25, Madison College-Truax Campus. Free. midwestdarksky.com.

PO L I T I C S & AC T I V I S M Wisconsin Grassroots Festival: Annual gathering, 8 am-4:45 pm, 3/25, Wisconsin Heights High School, Mazomanie, with speakers, entertainment, workshops. $20 donation. wisconsingrassroots.net. 220-0139.

sun mar 26

Tricia’s, McFarland: Midlife Crisis, classic rock, 9 pm.

MUS I C

Tuvalu Coffeehouse, Verona: Mile 134, free, 7 pm.

Kim Cusack

Tyranena Brewing, Lake Mills: North Westerns, 7 pm.

UW Humanities Building-Mills Hall: Percussion Extravaganza, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras benefit concert (for Ronald McDonald House), with guests Tom Sharpe, Black Star Drum Line, UW PanGlobal Percussion Ensemble, Todd Hammes, 1:30 pm.

THEATER & DANCE Dumpster Flower: Technicians make sure the show goes on after most of the actors bail, written/directed

by Malissa Petterson, 3/25-4/15, Broom Street Theater, at 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays. $11. 244-8338.

MishMash Variety Show: Comedy, music, circus performers & more, 7:30 pm, 3/25, Madison Circus Space. $5 donation. madisoncircusspace.com.

Sunday, March 26, Breakwater, Monona, 1 pm

The Madison Jazz Society hosts a Sunday afternoon concert with jazz virtuoso Kim Cusack (Salty Dogs Jazz Band). The clarinet/sax whiz has relocated from California to the Midwest, and is celebrating by holding a concert that includes some of Chicago’s finest young jazz musicians: Patrick Donley (piano), Rob Curtis (banjo) and Dan Anderson (tuba/ string bass). Head on out to Monona to catch that Second City swing!

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

Grumpy Troll Brew Pub, Mount Horeb: Red Beard & the Cannon Halves, folk/pop, 4 pm.

High Noon: Jeff Austin Band, Feed the Dog, 8 pm.

Java Cat: Nick Matthews, free, 9 am Sundays; Jeff Larsen, fingerstyle guitar, free, 1 pm.

Kris Kristofferson Sunday, March 26, Overture CenterCapitol Theater, 7:30 pm Rhodes scholar, U.S. Army Ranger, studio janitor, hit songwriter, hell-raiser, recording and movie star: just a few hats worn by Kris Kristofferson over the years. The indelible songs — “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night” and too many others to list here — are the foundation of the legend. He’ll bring his catalog of classics and his rough-hewn, expressive voice to the Capitol Theater for a can’t-miss concert.

Judah & the Lion Sunday, March 26, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm

When Judah & the Lion released Folk Hop N Roll in 2016, they unknowingly saved music writers everywhere a whole lot of time by creating the most accurate description of their sound to date. Featuring pulsing hip-hop percussion, fuzzy distortion and folk melodies, Judah & the Lion defy comparisons, a spectacle that needs to be witnessed live. With Wilderado. Sold out.

THOMAS FRANK

mon mar 27 M USIC Farm Tavern: Bluegrass Jam, free, 6:30 pm Mondays.

Liliana’s: Cliff Frederiksen, free, 10:30 am Sundays.

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

Nomad World Pub: DJ Marcus Doucette, 4 pm Sundays.

High Noon Saloon: Prog, prog rock, 8 pm.

Olbrich Gardens: Dimensions in Sound, 2 pm.

Malt House: The Barley Brothers, free, 7:30 pm.

Sequoya Library: Marilyn Fisher & John Vitale, 1:30 pm.

Up North Pub: Gregg “Cheech” Hall, free, 7 pm.

Tricia’s Country Corners, McFarland: Frank James & Jackie Marie, 3 pm Sundays.

UW Humanities Building-Morphy Hall: Andrew Briggs, UW Mead Witter School of Music student recital/lecture, free, 6:30 pm.

ART E XHI BITS & EV ENTS Drawn to Light: Drawings by Cynthia Koshalek, Sue Lewis, Christina Thomas-Virnig, Elizabeth Winters, through 5/12, Steenbock Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy (reception 5-7 pm, 3/26). 263-1692.

RECRE AT I ON Camp Bingo: AIDS Network fundraiser, 1 pm, 3/26, Sheraton Hotel, with “Witches & Wizards” theme, host Cass Marie Domino. $20 (ages 18+). 316-8601.

S PECI AL E V ENTS Maple Syrup Fest: Annual tree-tapping demos & handson activities for all ages, 1-4 pm, 3/26, Aldo Leopold Nature Center. $10 ($29/family). RSVP: 216-9370.

BOOKS Alan Semrow: Reading from “Briefs,” short stories, 6 pm, 3/27, A Room of One’s Own. 257-7888.

FOOD & DRINK Madison Food Forum: Meet & greet on a more sustainable, equitable food system, 6:30 pm, 3/27, Badger Rock Center, with panel discussion featuring elected officials at 7:30 pm. seangcarroll@gmail.com.

tue mar 28

S PECTATOR SP ORTS

M USIC

UW Men’s Tennis: vs. Nebraska, noon, 3/26, Nielsen Tennis Stadium. 262-1440.

Journey + Asia

L ECT URE S & SEM INARS

Tuesday, March 28, Alliant Center-Coliseum, 7:30 pm

Eloquence & Eminence: Free UW lecture series, “The State of the Union and University,” by emeritus professor Donald Downs, 2 pm, 3/26, Pyle Center. 262-3733.

“Don’t Stop Believin’.” Need we say more? See story, page 26.

author of LISTEN, LIBERAL!

Wed. Mar. 29 at 6pm From the bestselling author of What’s the Matter With Kansas, a scathing look at the failures of liberal politics, a book that helps explain the shocking outcome of the 2016 presidential election. With his trademark sardonic wit and lacerating logic, Frank’s Listen, Liberal! lays bare the essence of the Democratic Party’s philosophy and how it has changed over the years.

BOOK S NE W & USED 315 W. Gorham St. • (608) 257-7888 www.roomofonesown.com

➡

Mon.–Sat. 10–8, Sun. Noon–5

IS HOSTING

Reimagining the Sacred & the Cool A One-Day Symposium on Story, Criticism & Belief

MARCH 29 • CAPITOL THEATER • OVERTURE.ORG • 608-258-4141 SPEAKERS Professor Lisa Ruddick University of Chicago Literary Critic Jon Baskin The Point Magazine

Friday, April 7, 2017 at 10am $30 ($15 for Students) Lunch Included Free Keynote Lecture at 7pm

Poet G.C. Waldrep Bucknell University + Kenyon Review

365 East Campus Mall, Ste 200 Madison, WI 53715

Philosopher Richard Kearney Boston College

Register at upperhouse.org/litsymposium

SAT • APRIL 15 BARRYMORE THEATRE

An Evening With

ON SALE NOW AT BARRYMORE.COM

of

Sponsors – Geneva Campus Church, The Point Magazine, A Room of One’s Own, and Seminary Co-op Bookstores

Peter, Paul and Mary

Tickets at Overture.org, 608-258-4141, and at the Overture Center Box Office.

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

Peter Yarrow & Noel Paul Stookey

33

n ISTHMUS PICKS : MAR 28 - 30 Thomas Frank: Discussing “Listen, Liberal: What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?” his new book, 6 pm, 3/29, A Room of One’s Own. 257-7888.

Derrick Austin & Oliver Baez Bendorf: Poetry reading, 7:30 pm, 3/29, Helen C. White Hall-Room 6191. facebook.com/events/285401428559078.

5th annual

S PEC I A L EV EN TS

Alex Wiley

Beer, Cheese & Sausage Fest NE W

40+ C

O

URSES

REGISTER NOW FOR WINTER COURSES

SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 2017 WI STATE FAIR EXPO CENTER – MILWAUKEE 1-2PM VIP 2-6PM GENERAL ADMISSION Unlimited craft beer, cheese, sausage and food samples for the taking. *This is a 21+ event. IDs will be checked at the door. Management reserves all rights.

Lower Level, Memorial Union (608) 262-3156 union.wisc.edu/wheelhouse

Ti ckets and more info: shepherdexpress.com/ steinanddine Sponsored by:

Tuesday, March 28, Frequency, 8:30 pm Thanks to the stratospheric success of Chance The Rapper, all eyes are on Chicago’s hip-hop scene. And its next big thing may be a 19-year-old South-sider named Alex Wiley. The emcee’s “#MoPurp,” which features Chance, has garnered more than 100K views on YouTube and marked him as an artist on the rise. He’ll topline the bill with precocious Madisonian Trapo, a 17-year-old who’s already appeared everywhere from BBC Radio to Complex and The FADER. With Kembe X, Lucien Parker, DJay Mando.

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

Crescendo: Carter Hulsey, American Opera, 7 pm.

Free House, Middleton: Westerlies, 7:30 pm Tuesdays.

High Noon: BackBuzz, Trapdoor Social, Nester, 8 pm.

Malt House: Grouvin Brothers, Americana, free, 8 pm.

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

Mickey’s: Blythe Gamble & the Rollin’ Dice, 5:30 pm.

Neighborhood House: Bluegrass Jam, 7 pm Tuesdays.

Nomad World Pub: New Breed Jazz Jam, 9 pm Tuesdays.

Ohio Tavern: Richard Kessler, Dead Sea Squirrels, 7 pm.

Up North Pub: Pat Ferguson, free, 8 pm.

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

ART EXHIBITS & EV ENTS Dane Arts Poster Unveiling: Featuring “Solitude” by John Ribble, 5:30-7 pm, 3/28, Central Library, with music by the Gadjo Players. Free. 266-5915.

LECTURES & SEM INARS Creativity & Main Street Wisconsin: Wisconsin Academy panel discussion, 7 pm, 3/28, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. RSVP: wisconsinacademy.org. 263-1692.

Sound Salon: “The Stonehill Jewish Song Collection” with Miriam Isaacs, 7 pm, 3/28, 126 Memorial Library. Free. mayrentinstitute.wisc.edu. 890-4818.

Wild & Scenic Film Festival Wednesday, March 29, Barrymore, 7:30 pm This year’s River Alliance-sponsored film festival features seven award-winning short films that span the globe. In Water Song (pictured), a Peruvian farmer takes on a giant mining corporation; the Kichwa tribe of Ecuador makes a splash at the Paris climate conference in The Living Forest; and the first Bangladeshi scales the Seven Summits in Wafisia. The Super Salmon follows a fish who beats the odds. And this is bound to be a winner: President Jimmy Carter paddles the Chattanooga River’s Bull Sluice in The Wild President. VIP pre-party starts at 5:30.

L EC T URES & S EMI N A RS Islamophobia in America: Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Distinguished Lecture Series, by author/ scholar Reza Aslan, 7:30 pm, 3/29, UW Memorial Union-Shannon Hall. 890-4439.

Transcend Madison: UW-Madison student innovation competition, 3/29-30, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. Free. transcend.engineering/competition.

PUB L I C N OT I C ES Arts Education Forum: With MMSD School Board candidates, 7 pm, 3/29, Arts + Literature Lab. 556-7415.

thu mar 30 MUS I C

wed mar 29 M USIC Frequency: Captured by Robots, The Central, 8 pm.

High Noon Saloon: Low Czars, classic rock, 5:30 pm.

Ivory Room: Vince Strong, piano, free, 8 pm.

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

Safe Ride Sponsor:

34

Download Taxi MKE’s app and save on your ticket.

Luther Memorial Church: Bruce Bengtson, organ recital (repertoire: luthermem.org), noon Wednesdays.

Overture-Capitol Theater: America, 7:30 pm; Overture Hall: Bolz Young Artist Competition Finals:: Julian Rhee, violin; Naomi Sutherland, harp; Michael Wu, piano; Yaoyao Chen, violin, free (RSVP: 257-3734), 6:45 pm.

Up North Pub: MoonHouse, free, 8 pm.

Willy Street Pub and Grill/The Wisco: Jared Grabb, Nate Meng, Luke Severson, Americana, 9 pm.

A WISCONSIN UNION EXPERIENCE

BOOKS/SP OKEN WORD Nerd Nite: Free social gathering/informal presentations, 8 pm, 3/29, High Noon Saloon. 268-1122.

Mnozil Brass Thursday, March 30, UW Memorial Union-Shannon Hall, 8 pm Austria’s offbeat brass septet combines classical mastery, pop sensibility and slapstick comedy in performances often compared to Monty Python. But they’re not just a novelty act; they are some of the finest brass players on the planet. Catch a pre-concert lecture by Wisconsin Public Radio’s Norman Gilliland at 7 pm in the Festival Room.

Bereft album release

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

Thursday, March 30, Frequency, 8:30 pm

Ohio Tavern: Lucas Cates, free, 7 pm.

One of Madison’s top heavy bands, Bereft plays a combination of black and doom metal, resulting in a looming, ominous sound marked by virtuosic technicality. Now, they’ll be celebrating the release of their sophomore record, Lands. Rounding out the bill are legendary Mad City stoners Bongzilla, Iowan doom trio Aseethe, and Dos Malés, another local act that features members of Bongzilla, Panther and Pyroklast.

The Red Zone: Buku, Zero Gravity, Dub Borski, Motchy, metal, 8:30 pm.

Bos Meadery: Lou Shields, Americana, free, 7 pm.

Brink Lounge: Mike Massey & Francie Phelps, 8 pm.

Cask & Ale: DJ Vilas Park Sniper, 10 pm (“yacht rock” costume party starts 8 pm).

Corral Room: Richard Shaten, free, 9 pm Thursdays.

Liliana’s: Ken Wheaton, guitar, 5:30 pm Thursdays.

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

Majestic Theatre: Son Volt, Anders Parker, 8 pm.

Stoughton Opera House: Riders in the Sky, 7:30 pm.

ing girlfriends, Costco sample ladies and his alter ego, Craig. With Esteban Touma. ALSO: Friday-Saturday, March 31-April 1, 8 & 10:30 pm.

SP ECIAL EV ENTS

Tempest Oyster Bar: Paul Rowley, free, 6 pm.

Tofflers, New Glarus: Copper Box, free, 8 pm.

Tricia’s Country Corners: Jackie Marie, 8 pm Thursdays.

Twist Bar and Grill: Gerri DiMaggio Jazz Unit, free, 5 pm.

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

COME DY

Kyle Dunnigan Thursday, March 30, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm

A prolific, Emmy award-winning comedian known for his character appearances on Reno 911, Inside Amy Schumer and The Howard Stern Show, Dunnigan knows how to rile audiences with enigmatic takes on human behavior. His impressions are spot-on, and his observational stories are filled with nuanced takes on annoy-

2017 Wisconsin Film Festival: Opening night Thursday, March 30, Barrymore Theatre, 5:30 pm; Harmony Bar, 9:30 pm

The annual event kicks off with “Transmissions from the Heartland,” four loving portraits of

Wisconsin oddities. A Place in the Garden (pictured) is about a Wisconsin couple who moonlight as hummingbird experts; The Dundee Project chases UFO chasers in Fond du Lac County; Whad’Ya Do Now? follows radio celeb Michael Feldman through the final months of his 31-year run of his radio show; and Silently Steal Away is an ode to Jack Raymond, an iconoclast who has hosted a radio show in Chippewa Falls for 48 years. Afterward, cross over to the Harmony Bar to hobnob with filmmakers and cinephiles alike at the Afterglow event featuring disco/funk/sparkle masters VO5.

The festival continues through April 6.

Wisconsin Watchdog Awards: Annual dinner, 5 pm, 3/30, Madison Club, with award presentation. $60 benefits Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. RSVP by 3/23: wisconsinwatch.org. 262-3642.

B O O KS Rebecca Dunham: Discussing “Cold Pastoral,” her new book, 7 pm, 3/30, Mystery to Me. 283-9332.

WISCONSIN UNION THEATER

MNOZIL BRASS Mar. 30, 2017

LOS ANGELES GUITAR QUARTET Apr. 22, 2017

ZAKIR HUSSAIN A PLAY BY JAMES De VITA adapted from the novel by Erin Celello MARCH 23 – APRIL 9, 2017

UNIONTHEATER.WISC.EDU 608.265.ARTS TM

Get tickets at FORWARDTHEATER.COM or 608-258-4141

The Anonymous Fund

Evjue Foundation

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

LEARNING TO STAY

with Rahul Sharma Apr. 27, 2017

35

n EMPHASIS

Think bigger than apples

BY CANDICE WAGENER

ISTHMUS.COM MARCH 23–29, 2017

“Everybody should be growing something,” says Emily Steinwehe. But sometimes the only thing many homeowners are growing is their lawns. Steinwehe wants to change that with her business, Emily Plants.

What started as a fruit tree share program among friends (she planted on their properties and split the costs and harvest) has grown to an almost full-service landscape business here in Madison. Steinwehe can reach more people and educate them about sustainability and edibility in their yards.

36

Steinwehe has been gardening for over a decade and also holds seasonal gigs at Door Creek Orchard and Aldo Leopold Nature Center. “I’m happy to provide advice so people don’t make the same mistakes I made,” she says.

Her services can be as simple as identification, for someone wondering what they have in their yard, and consultation, for people who want help coordinating plants that work well together.

Steinwehe will also do the full circle of planning, purchasing, planting and pruning, and follow up with care and maintenance guides so customers can keep their garden

thriving. She aims to blend beauty and function in the garden, using plants and trees in relation to each other to attract pollinators, for instance.

She focuses on edibles, perennials and native plants.

Peach, pear and chestnut trees, along with raspberry bushes, asparagus plants and unusual fruits like pawpaw, persimmon and honeyberry are just some of the offerings Steinwehe touts as easy-care plantings that work well in Wisconsin.

Steinwehe also encourages people to get rid of their lawns because, while a lawn is better than pavement, people can improve the sustainability of their properties by adding more of the deeper-rooted plants like shrubs, trees and native perennials, providing a storage system for carbon in the soil. The process of carbon sequestration, in which deeper-rooted plants take carbon particles out of the atmosphere and hold them in the soil, is a way to slow down the accumulation of greenhouse gases and defer global warming and the dangerous effects of climate change.

“Whenever I drive around town and see a big lawn that doesn’t have any shade,” says Steinwehe, “I think about knocking on their door and asking if they’d like to start a community garden.”

Steinwehe will also help customers set up simple rain gardens and get started on composting. She’s a proponent of reusing organic matter, like taking the leaves from your trees and mulching them to improve your own soil, rather than setting them curbside for a truck to take away and burn fossil fuels in the process.

Services run $25-$50 per hour, but says she wants to be accessible to anyone because her goal is to create a better future for our environment, one yard at a time. n

GREG DIXON

Peaches, pears and chestnuts also make great edible landscaping

Emily Steinwehe plants a peach tree, one of many edible yard options most homeowners don’t think of. Other favorites include chestnuts (above) and persimmons (left).

EMILY PLANTS 608-609-9320 n emilyplants.com

n CLASSIFIEDS

Buy-Sell-Exchange Matching people and property for over 20 years. Achieve your goals! Free consult. www.andystebnitz.com Andy Stebnitz 608-692-8866 Restaino & Associates Realtors ALL AREAS Free Roommate Service @ RentMates.com. Find the perfect roommate to complement your personality and lifestyle at RentMates.com! (AAN CAN)

Phil Olson Real Estate Honest. Professional.

Experienced.

608-332-7814 POlson@RestainoHomes.com Powered by Restaino & Associates All real estate advertised is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, or status as a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking; or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. Isthmus will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are on an equal opportunity basis.

Jobs Volunteer with UNITED WAY Volunteer Center Call 246-4380 or visit volunteeryourtime.org to learn about opportunities Independent Living, Inc. evening meals on wheels program has an urgent need for individual, families and corporate volunteer teams to deliver hot, nutritious meals each weeknight to home bound older and disabled adults throughout the Madison area. Volunteers are often the only people they will see all day, providing a daily safety check and helping reduce isolation.

Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is an international youth-led and planned volunteer event that celebrates youth volunteerism every April. Established in 1988, GYSD is the largest service event in the world, and the only day of service dedicated to children and youth.

This event fosters a sense of community and the importance of volunteerism with creativity and compassion. We invite you and your family and friends to help us celebrate Global Youth Service Day on April 21-23 by volunteering at one of the projects on VolunteerYourTime.org.

LOCAL DRIVERS WANTED! Be your own boss. Flexible hours. Unlimited earning potential. Must be 21 with valid U.S. driver’s license, insurance & reliable vehicle. 866-329-2672 (AAN CAN)

CAN YOU DELIVER?

There are various routes available that run from 3-4 hours to deliver. Immediate routes available.

Please contact Circulation Manager Tim Henrekin via email: thenrekin@isthmus.com

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Isthmus needs delivery drivers on Thursdays. We use independent contractors. The delivery requires a physically fit individual with an eye for detail, a good driving record and up-to-date insurance.

There’s never been a better time to reach out to those in need. We’re seeking quality people who wish to make a difference by providing companionship and in-home help to the elderly. Flexible P/T day, evening and weekend shifts. No certification required.

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1 7 11 14

2009 film set in 2154 Backs of boats A.D.A. member’s degree “Everybody Loves Raymond” star 15 Grade 16 Down Under hopper 17 “Mean ___” (recurring Jimmy Kimmel segment) 18 Frozen kids?

20 ID for a taxpayer 21 Aptly named card game 23 Witty criticism 24 “Entourage” actress Mazar 25 Like some weekend “sales events” 27 Leader of a Russian Doors tribute band?

32 “Look!” to Dora the Explorer 33 It’s a question of time 34 Plucks unwanted plants

P.S. MUELLER

38 Took those plums from the icebox (that you were probably saving for breakfast) 39 Lindsay of “Mean Girls” 41 Bank acct. transaction 42 Go down without power 45 Actor Spall of “Life of Pi” 46 One’s in a lifetime?

47 Mineral-fortified red wine?

50 Head shop patron, presumably 53 Fargo’s st.

54 Cyrano’s protrusion 55 Like Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve specials 58 “Foucault’s Pendulum” author 61 CEO painter?

63 Often-spiked drink 65 Frozen food bag bit 66 Met highlight

67 Christian who plays the titular “Mr. Robot” 68 Blow it 69 Atmospheric 1990s CD-ROM puzzle game 70 “Chappelle’s Show” character who’s always scratching DOWN

1 Cultural interests 2 They’re often exchanged for rituals 3 “Absolutely!”

4 ___ Bo (workout system that turns 25 in 2017) 5 Spain’s has no official lyrics 6 Big game on January 1 7 “The Kite Runner” protagonist 8 The 100% truth (accept no imitations!)

9 Clandestine meetings

10 If it’s blue, it doesn’t mean you’re pregnant 11 Priest of Stonehenge days 12 Disco diva Summer 13 How some people like their cereal 19 O3 22 Loud sound effect for rappers and morning radio shows 24 “It’s in my ___” 26 “Where do I even begin ...”

27 Computer since 1998 28 Corleone patriarch in “The Godfather” 29 8, for a two-by-four?

30 It’s supposed to be a sobering experience 31 Low 35 Hagman’s “I Dream of Jeannie” costar 36 Beyond reinflation 37 Full of life 40 Most likely to squee over a Pi Day pie 43 Bone-to-muscle connection 44 Cool with Green Day 46 Sound of a belly laugh 48 Planetarium model 49 Clumsily tall 50 Long-billed marsh bird 51 Cartridge stuff 52 His first line was “Don’t bang on my can!”

56 Milo’s canine pal 57 Socialize in cyberspace 58 Prefix with parasite 59 Either “Barton Fink” director 60 Grimm guy 62 Sweet potato lookalike 64 Long-jawed freshwater fish LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

n SAVAGE LOVE

E’S DAN SAVAG

Curious minds

BY DAN SAVAGE

I recently spoke at Curious Minds Weekend in Toronto at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Audience members submitted questions on cards before the show — anonymously — but the moderator, Lisan Jutras of the Globe and Mail, and I were having so much fun talking with each other that we didn’t get to many cards. So I’m going to quickly answer as many of the questions from the audience at Curious Minds as I can this week.

My husband and I have been seeking a third for a threesome. After a very palpable night of flirtation, I asked a mutual friend (as we shared a cab) if he would be down for a threesome. He said yes, but I was not about to spring him on my husband that night. So I texted him later about it, and he has ignored me. What should I take from this?

The hint.

A friend’s BF won’t go down on her no matter how much she asks. She still won’t break up with him, even though she told me that oral is the only way she has ever had an orgasm. How do I get her to realize her sexual pleasure is a priority?

If your friend’s BF doesn’t know oral is the only way she can orgasm, she should tell him. If she told him and he doesn’t care, she should dump him. If she told him and he doesn’t care and she won’t dump him, you’re not obligated to listen to her complain about the orgasms she’s not having.

I’m a bisexual 42-year-old female with an extremely high sex drive who squirts with every orgasm. How do I deal with friends — even people at a sex club — who think you’re a freak because “women aren’t supposed to be horny all the time.”

If your friends — presumably people you aren’t fucking — complain that you’re horny all the time, maybe it’s because you don’t talk about anything other than the sex you just had or the sex you hope to have soon.

If people at sex clubs (!) are complaining about how horny you are...either you’ve accidentally wandered into a yacht club or even people at a sex club wanna talk about something other than sex every once in a while.

Two guys divorced in order to bring a third man into their relationship on equal terms, and they now plan to start a fam-

E

E EVERIYS ON SEXY! JOE NEWTON

ily with their sisters acting as surrogates.

Thoughts?

Mazel tov?

THE BARRYMORE THEATER

I am 31. My husband (newly married) is 46, almost 47. He takes FOREVER to come, no matter what I do. How do we speed up this process? My jaw, fingers, etc., are all very sore.

Your husband speeds up the process by incorporating self-stimulation breaks into the blowjobs, handjobs, et cetera-jobs you’re giving him. He strokes himself while you take a quick breather and/or an Advil, he gets himself closer, you get back to work.

MADISON

April 8th

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I’m 47 and my wife is 31. I take a lot longer to come and recover than she would like.

Could you please explain to her that it’s normal for a man my age to “slow down,” and it’s not her?

Happy birthday. And, yes, it’s normal for a man to slow down as he ages — it’s not her — and there are younger men who take a long time to come. But such men need to take their partners’ physical limitations into consideration. To avoid wearing out their partners’ jaws, fingers, etc., they need to take matters into their own hands. They should enjoy that blowjob, handjob, twatjob or assjob, take breaks to stroke their own dicks, eventually bring themselves to the point of orgasmic inevitability, and end by plunging back into that mouth, fist, twat, or ass to blow their load.

I have been reading your column since the early 1990s. Since that time, what has struck you in the kind of problems people write you about?

People don’t ask me about butt plugs anymore. I used to get a letter once or twice a week from someone who needed to have butt plugs explained to them. But butt plugs have their own Wiki page now, so no one needs me to explain them anymore. But for old times’ sake: They look like lava lamps, they go in your butt, they feel awesome, and they typically don’t induce gay panic in buttplay-curious straight boys.

For more of Savage Love see Isthmus.com.

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

MARCH 23–29, 2017 ISTHMUS.COM

My very Christian friend is about to get married. Though she is socially very liberal, she is pretty sexually repressed. I want to do something to encourage her to explore her sexuality a bit before she takes a try at partnered sex. How weird would it be to buy her a vibrator as a shower present?

Don’t give your friend a vibrator at her shower — gifts are opened in front of guests at showers — but go ahead and send her one.

Tell her it’s a pre-bachelorette-party gift.

WHER

IVAL FILM FEST

39

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