Print Edition: Oct. 17, 2019

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The High Cost of Prescription Drugs ... page 4

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SHOW TIME! MARK FARNER’S AMERICAN BAND

OCT. 19

RUBEN SINGS LUTHER

AN EVENING OF LUTHER VANDROSS

10/24

WINGER 11/7

CINDERELLA’S TOM KEIFER

10/31

EXPOSÉ 11/15

JOHN WAITE

11/1

THE MOODY BLUES’ JOHN LODGE

11/13

PATTY SMYTH & SCANDAL 11/22

BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY’S WILD & SWINGIN’ HOLIDAY PARTY 12/6

FRANK CALIENDO 11/23

PHIL VASSAR CHRISTMAS SHOW 11/30

HILLBILLY CASINO PRESENTS A HOLIDAY HOOTENANNY AT THE CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL 12/19-20

BODEANS 12/27

MONTELL JORDAN

11/14

EVEN MORE HOLIDAY TALES WITH JOHN MCGIVERN 12/3-5 & 7 SUPERTRAMP’S ROGER HODGSON WITH BAND 2/17-20

WANT MORE? See all shows on paysbig.com/shows

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ticketmaster.com or buy & save on fees at the NLT Box Office 1721 WEST CANAL STREET I MILWAUKEE, WI 53233 I MUST BE AT LEAST 21 YEARS OLD TO ATTEND SHOWS FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL 414-847-7922 I ALL SCHEDULES SUBJECT TO CHANGE I MANAGEMENT RESERVES ALL RIGHTS ©2019 FOREST COUNTY POTAWATOMI COMMUNITY, WISCONSIN

2 | O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9

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OCTOBER 17, 2019 | 3

::NEWS&VIEWS

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FEATURES | POLLS | TAKING LIBERTIES | ISSUE OF THE WEEK

Bipartisan Efforts

Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore speaks at the “Don’t Cut Pills, Cut Profits” Town Hall event at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee

The High Cost of Prescription Drugs Town hall focused on bipartisan initiatives to curb rising prices ::BY EVAN CASEY est Allis resident Nancy Koch has an autoimmune disease. “It’s not going to get any better,” she said with a look of concern on her face. At least she qualifies for a patient assistance program that helps pay for one of the medications she needs—which totals nearly $4,000 a month.

However, that could all change next year. Koch says she doesn’t have the money to pay for another drug that is similar if she doesn’t qualify for the patient assistance program in 2020.

“We [Koch and her husband] live on Social Security, so there’s no way we can afford $171 a month. If I’m lucky, I can afford $20 a month,” she said. Koch is one of the many U.S. citizens who are suffering from the rising cost of prescription pills across the nation. The data that revolves around drug companies and prescription pills is “appalling” to Koch, who is part of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) advocates group.

According to data from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), the average annual cost of a brand-name drug has more than tripled in the past decade, jumping from $1,868 in 2006 to $6,798 in 2017.

Retail prices for specialty prescription drugs also increased by 7% between 2016 and 2017, while the general inflation rate only rose 2.1%. Medicare beneficiaries’ average out-of-pocket cost for some brand-name drugs also rose by 40% from 2011 to 2015, according to the NCPSSM. What is one of the main reasons for this? A 2003 law that says that the federal government cannot negotiate with drug manufacturers to lower the cost of drugs.

Current laws also benefit larger drug companies when it comes to patents. This means that many makers of less expensive generic drugs must overcome many obstacles to make their product available on the market, meaning less competition. The pharmaceutical industry also received federal tax cuts five times from 2005 to 2016, according to NCPSSM.

4 | OCTOBER 17, 2019

However, there could be help coming soon in the form of a few bipartisan plans to curb the increase of drug prices. One of these plans, from Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, authorizes Medicare to negotiate prices for some of the most expensive drugs on the market. Koch was one of many who came to the recent “Don’t Cut Pills, Cut Profits” campaign event at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee that discussed some of those plans. Event attendees included Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore, Wisconsin state Sen. Tim Carpenter and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. At the event, they discussed federal and state initiatives to help ease the pain.

The “Don’t Cut Pills, Cut Profits” national campaign, which is being organized

by NCPSSM, includes town halls, voter education, petition drives and outreach to members of Congress to push them to support legislation that would reduce drug costs. Milwaukee is one of three locations across the nation where a town hall event is being held these next three months.

“I asked the question, ‘why have drug prices gone up so high?’” said Khelan Bhatia, manager of voter engagement for the AARP, during the event. Bhatia was part of a panel that answered questions from the audience. “It’s because drug companies can do it.”

Those at the event were encouraged to make their voices heard by signing a petition that tells Congress to work now to stop the increase. Representative Moore said House Democrats are now discussing the Lower Drug Costs Now Act. Mainly, the act would create new tools to force drug companies to discuss price reductions. It would also put a cap on out-of-pocket costs for Part D beneficiaries at $2,000 each year—down from $5,100 under current law.

“The annual growth of medical spending is unsustainable,” Moore said at the event. She also explained that she is taking a drug that costs $18,000 a month. “I don’t know which part of that copay anyone thinks I can afford as a member of Congress,” she said.

‘Picking Up a Medication Shouldn’t Break the Bank’

State lawmakers also want to get into the discussion. Lt. Gov. Barnes spoke about the creation of the Governor’s Task Force on Reducing Prescription Drug Prices, which Gov. Tony Evers created in August. The task force will look at what other states have done to reduce costs and recommend legal, regulatory or community-based approaches to address the issue in Wisconsin. Barnes is part of that task force, which will make its recommendations to the governor at the end of every year. “Picking up a medication shouldn’t break the bank,” said Barnes.

“Ultimately, we’re all paying the price.”

Mayor Tom Barrett even made an appearance at the event, giving support to all those who attended, which included a large number of AARP members. “This is an issue that clearly can be won,” said Barrett. “It’s about being mobilized. I think the more we can make this an issue at the state level, the more we can make this an issue on the national level.”

But in the meantime, it’s people like Nancy Koch that will be waiting to hear about a possible solution.

Comment at shepherdexpress.com n

Nancy Koch PHOTOS BY EVAN CASEY

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

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O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9 | 5

NEWS&VIEWS::TAKINGLIBERTIES

Don’t LGBTQs Still Have Equal Rights in America? ::BY JOEL MCNALLY

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W

HEN THE U.S. SUPREME COURT LEGALIZED SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN THE LANDMARK 2015 CASE, didn’t the court say the Constitution guaranteed everyone will be treated equally under the law regardless of sexual orientation? It was on TV and in all the papers. Surely, the Supreme Court hasn’t forgotten already. So why was the court holding a hearing last week to decide whether a 1964 civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against anyone on the basis of sex would somehow permit employers to fire someone for being gay or transgender? If being gay or transgender isn’t based on sex, what in the world is it about? An open-and-shut case.

The biggest question before the court wasn’t really about discrimination. It’s obviously discrimination to fire someone based on sexual identity rather than job performance. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has protected gay and transgender individuals against job discrimination since 2015. The cases before the court were particularly egregious. A county social worker ran a successful program for abused children for a decade until he was abruptly fired after joining a gay softball league. After years of therapy, a transgender plaintiff was told by her doctors to live for a year as a woman before transitioning through surgery. She was fired when she told her boss she would begin dressing in appropriate female business attire.

The real question before the current court is whether Donald Trump’s two rightwing appointees will vote to reverse the continuing recognition by the court that LGBTQ Americans have the same legal rights as everyone else. Both Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanagh were law clerks for retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, the deciding vote who wrote many of the majority court decisions affirming LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage.

Kavanaugh, who replaced Kennedy, asked only one question during the hearing, giving little indication how he was leaning. Gorsuch aggressively questioned an attorney for the transgender woman, asking whether the court should “take into consideration the massive social upheaval that would be entailed” in a

decision providing job protections for gay and transgender employees. Gorsuch said “drastic” changes could include creation of gender-neutral bathrooms and abolition of dress codes. The baffled attorney simply replied there was no existing evidence of any such “massive social upheaval” ever occurring.

What ‘Upheaval?’

Indeed, Wisconsin experienced no such cataclysmic upheaval in 1982, when it became the first state in the nation under then-Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus, a Republican, to ban discrimination in employment and housing against gays and lesbians. Neither have any of the other 20 states and Washington, D.C., that have since adopted similar laws outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The fantasy of the U.S. Supreme Court worrying about such “massive social upheaval” was especially bizarre coming from Gorsuch.

Gorsuch just published a book, A Republic, If You Can Keep It, arguing judges shouldn’t “do anything other than interpret statutes according to the ordinary meaning of their terms” and should never try to guess at legislative intent or produce particular outcomes. Contrary to the rightwing political philosophy of “originalism” that the Supreme Court should return to the “original” intent of the language written by the founding fathers—you know, back in the good old days when women, African Americans and anyone who wasn’t a wealthy property owner had no rights at all in our democracy—the “ordinary meaning” of words in our statutes does change over time and become more inclusive.

My wife, Kit, and I have direct personal knowledge of how little the words of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawing discrimination “based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin” actually meant until years later when courts began enforcing their “ordinary meaning.” We both graduated in journalism from Indiana University two years after the passage of that civil rights law. Despite the law, it was routine for newspaper editors conducting job interviews on campus during our senior year to specify they only wanted to interview male graduates. They usually said they didn’t have any openings in their “women’s sections,” devoted to fashion, cooking and other subjects of interest to women. Because Kit’s gender couldn’t be determined by her name, she signed up for those interviews, anyway, to tell editors they were overlooking outstanding female graduates capable of doing any job in their newsrooms.

It took decades for most newspapers to realize that. Many industries still have to be forced by the courts to cease brazenly discriminating against women and racial minorities. When I started to work for The Chicago Tribune that fall, Kit passed on working for another company that wanted her to agree not to become pregnant for three years. That’s why we should only elect presidents who will appoint Supreme Court justices who will keep expanding equal rights and opportunities for everyone instead of moving our nation backward by defiling and dismantling democracy.

Comment at shepherdexpress.com. n SHEPHERD EXPRESS

ERIN BLOODGOOD

::HEROOFTHEWEEK OFTHEWEEK

Octo B er 26, 2019 Shawna Whitehead

Shawna Whitehead Works for Workplace Diversity

thous ands in cash and prizes! costume co ntest j udging fro m 9pm-11:30PM FI NAL w in ner c h os en at M idn ight

::BY ERIN BLOODGOOD

S

hawna Whitehead has always been an entrepreneur, motivated to make her own path. With a bodacious and outgoing personality, she has a way with people and has dedicated her time to improving the lives of others. In the past, she ran a daycare center, beauty salon, nail salon and recruitment center, but it wasn’t until two years ago that she founded the company that brought all of her passions together. That company is called Destined to Succeed. Her newest business trains people in cultural diversity and job preparation to help them adapt to the workforce. More than that, Whitehead structures the programs to help people find what they are “destined” to do.

The idea to train people in cultural diversity came from Shawna’s personal experience in 2015. When she applied for a human resources job at Northwestern Mutual, Whitehead understood her audience and specifically dressed the part. “My hair was professional, I had my French manicure, short lashes; I had my gold teeth, but I had my suit on,” she explains.

The image she put on for the hiring manager was far from how she usually chose to express herself, but she knew she had to appeal to a corporate team. Even with her efforts, her recruiter told her that she likely wouldn’t make it to the second interview because “you have gold teeth. You do not look like our demographic.” Whitehead felt belittled by the situation and chose to pour her frustrations into helping others navigate diversity challenges in the workplace.

After starting Destined to Succeed, she hasn’t looked back. In addition to cultural diversity workshops that teach people how to communicate with others from different backgrounds, she offers certifications for corporate etiquette and customer service. The company also assists people in getting their GED, aids in job placement and hosts mock job interviews. As if that wasn’t enough, Whitehead instituted her Pipeline Program, which helps those coming out of prison to re-enter society and find work.

The Pipeline Program gives previously incarcerated men and women a chance in the job market, especially when there are few resources available for them when they leave prison. Whitehead was tired of seeing these people in her community struggle, so she began enrolling them in a two-week job preparation program. She contacts local employers that are looking for new hires and are willing to hire these potential employees the moment the program is finished.

Whitehead is not only changing the lives of the participants in the program but is encouraging workplaces to hire previously incarcerated people. She is fighting the stigma associated with incarceration by showing companies that these are hardworking people and they just want to get their lives back on track.

These programs barely scratch the surface of what Whitehead has done to effect change in the city. Her other two business ventures called Second Chance Transportation and her Christian talk show “Walking in Your Destiny” contribute to the work she is doing to give the underrepresented an advantage. And she’s not stopping there.

Learn more at facebook.com/Destined2SuccedInstitute. For more of Erin Bloodgood’s work, visit bloodgoodfoto.com.

Comment at shepherdexpress.com. n SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Fo r M o r e I n fo r m at io n , V i s i t B ra dyst r e e t. o r g

Prospect Avenue High Rise is looking for a Part-Time 2nd Shift Garage Attendant.

What We Look For:

We are looking for flexible, hardworking and courteous individuals who enjoy working with people and excel in a fast-paced environment.

Job Description:

• Hours are 3:30 PM to 11:30 PM Saturday and Sunday.

• Promptly and carefully park residents’ vehicles.

• Greet and open garage lobby door for all residents.

• If appropriate, assist residents with groceries, packages and luggage.

Requirements:

• Must be able to drive vehicles with manual transmission.

• Must have a valid driver’s license and insurance.

Please contact Lori Ferguson at 414-326-3575 or by email at lferguson436@gmail.com for more information.

You may also fill out an application in person at 1610 N. Prospect Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53202.

OCTOBER 17, 2019 | 7

::SAVINGOURDEMOCRACY ( OCT. 17 - OCT. 23, 2019 ) The Shepherd Express serves as a clearinghouse for all activities in the greater Milwaukee area that peacefully push back against discriminatory, reactionary, homophobic and authoritarian actions and policies of the Donald Trump administration and others who seek to thwart social justice. To submit to this column, please send a brief description of your action, including date and time, to savingourdemocracy@shepex.com.

Thursday, Oct. 17

Inclusion Workshop with August Ball @ UWM Union WisconsinRoom, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd. 5-8 p.m.

Laughing Liberally Milwaukee @ ComedySportz Milwaukee, 420 S. First St., 8-10 p.m.

As Laughing Liberally Milwaukee lists on their blog, it is a show “hosted by comedian, cartoonist and progressive talk radio host Matthew Filipowicz whose work has been featured on CNN, NPR, PBS, HBO, BBC, Ain’t It Cool News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Nation” and more. Comedians performing on the bill include Brian Green, Marcos Lara, Cynthia Marie, AJ Grill and Dana Ehrmann. The event will also have an interview with Lane Hall and Joe Brusky from the Overpass Light Brigade.

Monday, Oct. 21

August Ball, the CEO and founder of Cream City Conservation & Consulting LLC, empowers people of color to take positions of leadership within the green economy. As a result of this session, participants will be able to “articulate the basic definitions of diversity, inclusion, equity and unconscious bias, begin to identify ways in which bias impacts leadership and team experiences and understand the relationship between bias and diversity, equity and inclusion,” says the UW-Milwaukee University Recreation department.

Saturday, Oct. 19

African American Community Leadership Forum @ Johnson Controls Volunteer Center, 200 W. Pleasant St., 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

The 2019 African American Community Leadership Forum will include topics that range from the census, employment, Real ID, driver licenses for all and unlocking the vote. Admission is free and lunch is included.

Peace Action of Wisconsin: Stand for Peace @ the corner of South Howell and East Howard avenues, noon-1 p.m.

Every Saturday from noon-1 p.m., concerned citizens join with Peace Action of Wisconsin to protest war and literally “Stand for Peace.” Signs will be provided for those who need them. Protesters are encouraged to stick around for conversation and coffee after the protest.

CNS Panel with 2020 DNC Organizers @ Silver Spring Neighborhood Center, 5460 N. 64th St., 6-7:30 p.m.

As Carvd N Stone Inc. (CNS) says on their event page, they are “hosting a community panel that will feature leaders from the 2020 Democratic National Convention and the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee to share information on the current status of the convention plans, the expected impact of the convention on Milwaukee and the ways the community can get involved.” Panelist representing the 2020 DNC will be Joe Solmonese, the CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee; Liz Gilbert, the 2020 Milwaukee Host Committee president; and Lafayette Crump, the 2020 Milwaukee Host Committee vice president of diversity, vendor accountability and growth. CNS President Nyesha Stone will moderate the panel. The event will be geared towards youth, but all are asked to come.

Wednesday, Oct. 23

Budget Town Hall Meeting @ Milwaukee Public Library, Capitol Branch, 3969 N. 74th St., 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Milwaukee County Supervisors Sequanna Taylor and Eddie Cullen will be holding a town hall to discuss the 2020 Milwaukee County budget. “The most important part of the budget is you! Come and make your voice heard, bring questions and join the conversation,” says the Budget Town Hall Meeting event page.

Comment at shepherdexpress.com.

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SHEPHERD EXPRESS

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SHEPHERD EXPRESS

O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9 | 9

::OUTOFMYMIND

Healthy Cultures Respect their Elders ::BY PHILIP CHARD

W

hen sizing up a prospective mate, women are often told, “Watch how he treats his mother.”

Generally, that’s good counsel. In turn, it invokes another question worth considering when assessing a person’s character: “How does that individual treat his or her elders?”

Increasingly, we witness disappointing answers to that question.

For example, I was in a slow-moving grocery checkout line, made so by an elderly lady struggling to find and count her money. Behind her were several younger people increasingly exasperated with the delay. One began muttering under his breath while the others laughed derisively, using terms like “senile” and “senior moment.” Kindly, the clerk helped the lady and, after a bit more fuss, she got the job done. As she shuffled out, I heard one of these miscreants whisper, “Somebody should put her out to pasture.” Leaning forward, I told them, “Your day will come.”

Not long after, I happened upon an absurd road rage incident where some emotional dolt with an ultra-short fuse was honking, leaning out the window and screaming, “Move it, grandpa!” to the car in front of him. As I pulled up behind this goon at the next stoplight, he again screamed at the driver and occupant of the so-called offending vehicle in words I cannot share.

The target of his verbal venom was an elderly couple clearly frightened and intimidated by his tirade. As we proceeded, it was apparent the senior citizen behind the wheel was driving safely and at the posted limit. His crime? He was old and not subject to the same frenetic hurry sickness as other drivers in his midst.

10 | O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9

Elder Abuse is Increasing

While the incidence of elder abuse, both physical and emotional, is increasing in our nation (and likely under-reported), so also, it seems, is an attitude of disrespect for and impatience with the very old. In a culture obsessed with youth and inebriated with speed and personal entitlement, the willingness to tolerate, let alone honor our elders seems in peril.

“Partly, it’s the breakdown of extended families,” an older friend hypothesized.

With fewer elderly people living with their extended families, youngsters are less likely to learn to respect and care for their grandparents, as well as elders in general. Increasingly, seniors collect in retirement communities and care facilities, away from the social mainstream. This creates an “out of sight, out of mind” scenario in which people don’t make time in their busy lives to include the old.

“Deep down, I think it’s because we scare them,” another senior told me. “They don’t want to believe they will ever get old like me. And, have you ever seen a culture more afraid of aging and death?”

Other elders tell me this is just part of a general loss of civility and compassion in our society. The old simply make easier targets of opportunity because they seem less able to defend themselves. Whatever the causes, the effects are reprehensible. Do we want to create a society where the old are too often forgotten and, when in our midst, treated like worn out shoes destined for the landfill? If so, we discard a treasure trove of experiential wisdom our elders won through years of facing life’s challenges, an asset that many other cultures recognize, honor and rely upon.

The following story speaks to our cultural blindness in this regard. An exasperated woman sends her son out to purchase a wooden bowl for her feeble mother (his grandmother), who keeps dropping and breaking their porcelain ones. When the boy returns, he brings two bowls instead of one.

“I only wanted one!” his mother fumes.

Her son replies, “I bought the other one for you, for the day when you are old.”

Whatever bed the younger are making for their elders will one day be theirs to sleep in.

For more, visit philipchard.com.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

NEWS&VIEWS::POLL

You Disagree with Ron Johnson

Last week, we asked if you thought Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is right when he asserts that Russia did nothing wrong during the 2016 U.S. presidential election; instead, it was Ukraine that did. You said: n Agree with Johnson: 17% n Disagree with Johnson: 83%

What Do You Say?

While Donald Trump’s order to pull American forces out of northern Syria means that about 1,000 U.S. troops will be redeployed, it also green-lighted a Turkish invasion of Syria. Now, terrorist ISIS forces are escaping detention, 130,000 people have been displaced and our longtime Kurdish allies are under assault. Do you agree with Trump’s order to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria? n Yes n No Vote online at shepherdexpress.com. We’ll publish the results of this poll in next week’s issue.

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Wisconsin Hemp Association Fosters Communication in a Growing Industry ::BY SHEILA JULSON

T

he first week of October brought lots of rain to the southern half of Wisconsin, but that didn’t stop Phillip Scott, founder and president of the Wisconsin Hemp Farmers & Manufacturers Association (WIHFMA), from eagerly helping one of their association members harvest hemp. “Most crops look pretty successful,” he remarks. “As long as it’s dry next week with good air movement and a little bit of sun, we’ll be happy.”

WIHFMA is a nonprofit focused on hemp education and reform. “We educate the community, farmers, law enforcement—anybody who needs that education to help hemp streamline and move forward,” Scott says. “In the meantime, while educating those people, we learn from speaking with people in the industry about how to guide laws and future amendments that might happen to make sure this is set up for success for everybody, not just a select few.”

Scott became intrigued by hemp with the cusp of the medical marijuana movement on the West Coast. When the 2014 farm bill was signed into law, allowing states to develop hemp pilot programs, he saw the potential for hemp as a useful commodity. He was a United Parcel Service driver at the time, and he used his accrued vacation time to travel to both coasts and network with hemp industry processors, farmers and manufacturers.

“I gained a lot of knowledge and experience,” Scott says. In 2017, when discussion began in Wisconsin about implementing a hemp pilot bill, Scott and others in the state who were excited about the prospects of hemp attended open meetings but wanted to be sure that that everybody would be included in the industry. That goal of inclusion led to the incorporation of WIHFMA in February 2018.

During the short time WIHFMA has been in existence, their board of directors expanded, and they now have five subcommittees dedicated to processing, manufacturing and farming; a cannabis committee to examine future regulations; and a statewide roundtable to call other alliances in the industry to network and advocate for a successful hemp industry. During their first year, Scott says they helped approximately a dozen hemp farmers get their product to market.

Scott also emphasizes how WIHFMA encourages communication among farmers, processors and manufacturers. “One thing I learned from all my travels was that the farmer didn’t talk to the processor, and the processor didn’t talk to the farmer, and those two didn’t talk to the manufacturer. That could hinder growth, so communication is one thing we wanted to encourage.”

One challenge in the hemp industry Scott has found, both in Wisconsin and nationwide, has been getting good genetics that produce quality flower and a good crop yield. He’s also seen challenges with drying and curing to prevent mold and bud rot. But he again cites communication among hemp industry participants as one of the biggest successes.

On the farming end, WIHFMA has attracted both farmers looking for an additional cash crop and growers who already had knowledge and appreciation of the cannabis plant. Scott credits the adaptivity of the Wisconsin farmers to build or modify their current equipment to work with the hemp crop. He notes that some farmers are also looking beyond the “green rush” and considering cannabis for uses other than cannabidiol (CBD) processing, such as fiber and paper.

WIHFMA’s manufacturing members include labs, extractors and testers, as well as insurance companies, e-commerces and banks. “There are many parts to our industry, and we’re playing into all of those parts to give the whole network a chance to be successful.

Everyone within our network is from Wisconsin,” Scott concludes.

For more information, visit wihfma.org.

Comment at shepherdexpress.com. n 12 | O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9

Australian Capital Legalizes Recreational Marijuana ::BY JEAN-GABRIEL FERNANDEZ

T

he Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which includes that nation’s capital city, Canberra, became the first Australian jurisdiction to enact a law legalizing recreational marijuana. The bill, which passed on Wednesday, Sept. 25, allows residents 18 and older to possess up to 50 grams and grow up to four cannabis plants per household; it takes effect on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020.

While it may seem like a major triumph for cannabis legalization that one place or another is making such strides, they are often merely baby steps, limited to a territory or a state rather than affecting an entire nation. Only a few countries, such as Canada, South Africa, Georgia and Uruguay, have opted for nationwide legalization.

Recreational marijuana is still federally banned in Australia, carrying a potential prison sentence of up to two years for possession, although medical use has been legal nationwide since 2016. Even in the ACT, cannabis users still risk arrest, fines and jail time under Australian federal law. “This does not entirely remove the risk of people being arrested un-

der Commonwealth law, and we are being up front with the community about that,” ACT Atty. Gen. Gordon Ramsay told the Legislative Assembly.

America Leads the Charge

That the ACT’s new policy contradicts federal law is not unlike the situation in the U.S., where 11 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana but it remains a federal crime. That is not a coincidence. As the bill’s explanatory statement explains, the moves to legalize marijuana in various North American jurisdictions guided the decision to support legalization in the ACT. “Recent international developments have seen nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia legalize cannabis not just for personal use but legalizing the industry. Canada has also legalized the sale and possession of cannabis and is in the process of setting up their market,” writes the Australian Labor Party’s Michael Pettersson, who sponsored the bill, in its explanatory statement.

Even matters of domestic policy in the U.S. significantly influence the rest of the world, as the international community has its eyes on us. While the U.S. is mostly insulated from international news, American news make international headlines daily. Virtually every person on the planet has by now heard about Donald Trump’s latest scandal, seen the latest Hollywood blockbuster or knows at least the broad lines of public debate in America.

Other countries like Australia—but also New Zealand, in which a referendum is currently being prepared to gauge interest in cannabis law reform—often follow in our country’s footsteps. As such, it is our responsibility to be a role model worth following.

Comment at shepherdexpress.com. n SHEPHERD EXPRESS

::NAVIGATINGTHEHEALTHCARE

-HEALTHINSURANCEMAZE

Medicare for All! But Are All for Medicare? ::BY BOBBY PETERSON WITH RICHARD LAVIGNE, HEALTHWATCH WISCONSIN, INC., WRITTEN EXCLUSIVELY FOR SHEPHERD EXPRESS

“M

edicare for All” is the oft-used political slogan to rally the masses to rethink our dysfunctional systems of health care coverage payment and delivery.

The term gained renewed traction as a campaign buzzword in the Democratic presidential primary. This lofty concept, proposing a “Big Bang Theory” for health care reform, deserves serious attention, as it would completely remake America’s health care financing system in a way that hasn’t happened since World War II. But Medicare for All can be a different concept based upon political leanings and plan details. Specific differences emerge as you peel back the layers of competing proposals.

Breaking Down the Ideas Roughly speaking, the field of competing health reform policies breaks down into four categories: Medicare for All, Medicare if You Want It, the Public Option and Medicaid for All. Among those categories, the first—Medicare for All—may be the easiest to understand.

Simply put, the dominant Medicare for All proposals would eliminate the current system of profit-driven health insurance. It eliminates most other government-run insurance programs, including Tricare, the Federal Employees Health Benefits program and Medicaid.

After a transition period, U.S. residents could enroll in a modified version of the existing Medicare program. Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ plan, for example, virtually eliminates out-ofpocket costs, premiums and copayments, and it would do away with insurance provider networks. In theory, Americans could choose any doctor, anywhere, at any time.

Medicare for All proposals offer simplicity and predictability with the potential to reduce America’s uninsured rate to zero. Naturally, though, the radical restructuring of health care coverage and delivery in the U.S. is never SHEPHERD EXPRESS

simple. Implementing such a plan raises big political and process questions and creates enormous challenges under the best of circumstances. The prospect of eliminating millions of private insurance industry jobs and infrastructure would face stiff political resistance.

While unified systems of administration could offer leverage and negotiating power, consolidating power in one entity may give unintended power for a bureaucracy to generate mind-numbing red tape. Sorry, folks, costcontainment strategies to control costs will continue in any system we create. Therefore, at a minimum, any time patients and family members must confront monolithic bureaucracy, public or private, they need help and the assurance of a system that includes strong consumer protection accountability and effective enforcement of patient rights.

For some, Medicare for All proposals resurrect the fear factor of swollen “government bureaucracy.” The public is generally apprehensive about placing health care coverage and insurance decisions in the hands of government.

Our current insurance system is already highly bureaucratic and complex. Currently, roughly a third of the population is already insured under Medicare or Medicaid, where government agencies determine benefit packages and criteria for covered services, but will the 60% or so covered under private insurance be willing to take the same leap of faith?

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How Much Will Medicare for All Cost?

A third concern, common to all health reform proposals, centers around cost control measures. The Medicare for All proposals use purchasing power and streamlined administration to help leverage lower costs and reduce administrative expenses. Think Amazon-style purchasing power, only bigger. Medicare for All could establish payment rates for most medical services—either based on the current Medicare rate-setting scheme or through a global, annual, budget negotiation process.

Opponents of “government rate-setting” paint such proposals as an existential threat to capitalism guaranteed to result in hospital closures that will strand millions of people without access to medical services. Although health care costs in America have proven to be driven by anything but the invisible hand of supply and demand, it remains to be seen whether American voters will stomach reforms that so visibly constrain the mythical free market economy.

The political hot button is cost. How much will Medicare for All cost? The simple answer is a lot, at least in the short term, but in the end, we may all pay less.

In general, the Medicare for All proposals anticipate offsetting costs through the elimination of funding for other government insurance programs. All of them, though, will Health continued on page 14 >

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require additional funding from other sources, which raises the specter of tax increases. As a practical matter, the elimination of employersponsored health insurance could free up additional tax revenue. Instead of employers and employees paying more for private insurance, they would redirect those funds (some persuasively argue fewer funds) to pay for the program. Although the tax level is shockingly high, the net cost could be lower, and the money that American businesses currently spend on tax-free employee insurance could convert to taxable salary increases, which are needed to attract quality employees in the absence of health plan incentives.

Regardless, as much as Americans may like the idea of universal access to affordable health care, they hate the idea of paying more taxes with at least as much passion. People hear “tax increase” and stop listening, probably to their detriment. That sentiment offers an easy tagline for opponents and may be the greatest vulnerability of any campaign to pass Medicare for All.

What About the Alternatives to Medicare for All? All of these concerns underscore the alter-

14 | O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9

natives to Medicare for All, along with additional questions about the role of the private insurance market and personal responsibility for health care costs. The “Medicare if You Want It” or “Medicare Buy-In” plans envision expanding eligibility for the existing Medicare program as an alternative to private insurance. Eligible individuals could choose to enroll in insurance plans offered through their jobs but would not be prohibited from enrolling in Medicare if they chose to opt out of their employer’s insurance plan.

In general, most buy-in schemes imagine an ongoing role for commercial insurance plans in the health system. They would roll back regulations that undermine the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces, where consumers can get income-based premium assistance for purchasing individual health plans through commercial insurance companies. Buy-in plans generally offer some competition to the commercial insurance market through premium assistance features for buying into traditional Medicare, but they would also extend premium assistance to Medicare Advantage plans run by commercial insurance companies. Out-of-pocket costs would essentially be the same as they currently stand under existing marketplace, Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans.

Most Medicare buy-in proposals limit eligibility based on age. In general, only people over age 50 could secure the buy-in opportunity, so the overall system impact on lowering the uninsured rate is reduced when compared to a Medicare for All system and probably less than the competing “Public Option” proposals.

At first glance, Public Option proposals look a lot like the Medicare If You Want It proposals. In fact, two of the leading contenders create a health insurance program named after the Medicare program: “Medicare-X” or “Medicare-E.” The key difference, though, is that Public Option proposals create an entirely new insurance option that directly compete with existing commercial insurance plans.

They propose government-run individual health plans alongside marketplace and nonmarketplace commercial plans, as well as group health plans in the small and large employer markets. Premium assistance is available for the proposed individual plans, and small employers could secure tax credits to subsidize employee health plans.

With some variations, Public Option proposals generally tie payment rates to the current Medicare rate-setting scheme. With restrictive cost controls, a potentially very large risk pool and Medicare’s relatively low administrative costs, a Public Option plan might provide powerful competition with enough clout to drive a paradigm shift across the entire health insurance industry.

Rounding out the field are the “Medicaid for All” proposals. Despite perhaps getting

the least amount of publicity, these proposals revive a concept and discussions that could provide individual states a great deal of flexibility to implement. Medicaid Buy-In plans would authorize a state to charge premiums to enroll certain, normally ineligible populations into its Medicaid plan. The majority of state Medicaid programs already partner with commercial insurance companies to provide managed care services, so a Medicaid for All proposal could simply expand on commercial insurers’ existing roles.

Think of Wisconsin’s BadgerCare Plus program, a current public-private partnership to deliver health insurance services. Currently, Wisconsin contracts with private managed care plans to provide BadgerCare Plus coverage to enrollees across the state. A Medicaid Buy-In plan could look like BadgerCare Plus if it were expanded for additional populations.

What’s the Bottom Line?

Each health reform idea comes with its pros, cons and big questions. At the end of the day, Americans must decide just how much government they want in their nation’s health care system. Despite the hue and cry of “socialism!” from the right, years ago, a more civil society determined the role and involvement of government for public schools, roads, libraries, police and fire services and much more, yet much of health care is still caught between two worlds and two ideologies.

Decisions tend to turn more on emotion than on the specifics of any given plan, but one critical fact remains: Health insurance is confusing, and the devil is indeed in the details. That’s as true for Medicare and Medicaid as it is for any commercial insurance policy.

Any effective plan or proposal must include strong consumer assistance, accountability and enforcement of the rules.

Some proposals on the table include funding for outreach and enrollment assistance, like the Affordable Care Act’s Navigator programs. That’s a small step in the right direction, but policy makers must recognize that consumer assistance needs to extend beyond just enrollment assistance. Claim denials, billing errors and bureaucratic red tape are, sadly, baked into almost all health care systems, whether they’re government-run or fully privatized. Insurance doesn’t do anybody any good if they don’t know how to use it, how to keep it or how to challenge mistakes.

Populations impacted by health disparities face the greatest threats to access. To really get the most bang for our buck, we must commit serious resources to helping people—many of whom are ill themselves or are helping an ill or elderly family member secure needed services—navigate the system. Whatever that may be.

For more information, visit healthwatchwisconsin.org. Comment at shepherdexpress. com. n SHEPHERD EXPRESS

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::DININGOUT SHEPHERD STAFF

FEATURE | SHORT ORDER | EAT/DRINK

Bistro on the Glen

Bistro on the Glen for Casual Fare From Lunch Through Dinner

($8.50) are also good for seafood sandwich lovers.

Triple-decker club sandwiches are a must at this type of restaurant, and Bistro on the Glen has three to choose from. The ultimate club ($11.50) is a huge stack with sliced turkey, ham and roast beef, along with American cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo on your choice of toast. The deli meats are high quality, especially the shaved roast beef. A turkey club ($11) and triple decker BLT ($10) are also available. All come with fries, which are standard crinkle cuts, though most sandwiches and burgers come with potato chips. (Annoyingly, the cost to upgrade from chips to fries is the same price as a separate side of fries.) ::BY LACEY MUSZYNSKI The beef patty on the bistro burger ($7) is a third-pound and shaped by hand into a size much wider than the oatmeal-studded wheat bun. While the patty is too very neighborhood needs that one spot where everyone thin to be cooked less than well-done, it’s got a nice crust and pronounced beefy gathers. Often, it’s a diner. Usually, in Milwaukee, it’s a flavor. American and Swiss cheeses lend gooey texture and sharpness, while the corner tavern. In the northern part of Glendale, it’s both.

Thousand Island dressing that comes on the side is thick and tangy. Other burgers Bistro on the Glen wears a lot of hats, and while that’s norinclude a half-pound variation ($8.50-$9.50) and a turkey burger ($6.50-$7.50). mally a red flag, this is a restaurant that does it well. Formerly Beyond the diner-like fare is a dinner menu of more substantial choices. A Glen Cafe, they received their full liquor license recently and small list of appetizers includes that same crab cake from the sandwich but underwent a small renovation in order to add a full bar along served with a small lemony salad ($8.50), and a flat bread pizza ($10) with carawith the new name. During the daylight hours, light streams melized red onion, mushrooms, cheese, garlic and a balsamic drizzle. Unfortuin the front windows, and it feels like a family restaurant. At nately, the thin crust is pretty limp. night, the lights are dimmed, and you notice other things: Barbecue ribs ($17-$26) utilize a 30-year old recipe and are broiled with dark the sleek dark vinyl booth upholstery, the live jazz music in barbecue sauce and served with fries and applesauce or coleslaw. Beef tournethe corner that’s kept low enough to have a conversation, dos ($24.50) of filet mignon with brandy peppercorn sauce, garlic mashed the TV behind the bar that was the diner counter and the potatoes and onion rings wouldn’t be out of place in a steakhouse. Cassoulet tchotchkes on the walls conjuring images of a chic French ($17), a stew of white beans and various types of pork, demonstrates the bistro. (It’s amazing what lighting can do.)

French influence the kitchen is channeling.

The menu changes from day to night as well. In the mornThere are a number of daily specials available every day of the week. Expect ing and until 4 p.m., breakfast is served, and it’s standard, casual diner fare. A cafe to see items like fried chicken dinners, prime rib on Saturday nights, crispy omelet ($9.50) comes with ham, cheese and hash browns inside eggs that are mandarin duck and French dip sandwiches. A number of soups are usually on rolled and cooked gently in the French style. Eggs benedict ($11.50) have perfectly special too, besides the always-available matzo ball and French onion. And in poached eggs and a generous amount of creamy hollandaise. The bulk of the true diner style, there’s pie. breakfast menu comes in the form of combo plates you order by number, with evThe small cocktail menu is not like most diners, though. There are a number erything from Belgian waffles ($5.50) to huevos rancheros ($9.50). of martini-like drinks ($8.50), along with a Manhattan, Moscow Sandwiches comprise a large part of the after-breakfast mule and even a supper club frozen grasshopper that would menu. A shrimp po-boy ($11) is served simply with about a Bistro on the Glen be great after the prime rib. Even on a weeknight, there are dozen medium shrimp deep fried with a thin breading on a toasted sub roll with shredded romaine lettuce, tomato, 6823 N. Green Bay Ave. customers enjoying wine and cocktails at the bar, which feels mayo and remoulade. The breading on the shrimp clings to it, 414-352-1940 • $-$$$ little like the spot where customers ate their pancakes earlier in the day. Bistro on the Glen is clearly trying to be many things to and the remoulade has a bit of horseradish bite. A crab cake bistroontheglen.com many people, and it’s succeeding at all of it. sandwich ($11), cold tuna salad sandwich ($7.50) or tuna melt

16 | O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9

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Today, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exciting new life in that iconic triangular building on the corner of North and Farwell avenuesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Hacienda Beer Company Taproom (2018 E. North Ave.), featuring experimental craft brews, food and a weekend brunch.

Hacienda is an experimental side project of Door County Brewing Company (8099 Highway 57, in Baileys Harbor), which was founded in 2013 by John McMahon, his wife, Angie, and their sons, Danny and Ben. They branched out with Hacienda in February 2018 to have fun and be creative. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Door County brand is more of a commodity brand, but we wanted to create something that we had a good time making, a more experimental type of beer,â&#x20AC;? McMahon says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The target market is much more deďŹ ned than the brands we do in Door County.â&#x20AC;?

With Hacienda, they do both mixed and wild fermentation. While the Door County brands are standards like porters, India Pale Ales (IPAs) and wheat ale, Hacienda branches out with hazy or milkshake IPAs, as well as milk stouts. McMahon says theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll play around with lactose (milk sugar), wild ingredients and more fruit. There are also a few saison-style brews, also known as farmhouse ale.

The McMahons opened a taproom in Milwaukee because they wanted a place that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t operate just seasonally, like their Door County

Hacienda Beer Co. PHOTO COURTESY OF HACIENDA BEER CO

taproom and music hall do. They also sought to bring the Hacienda brand to the southern part of Wisconsin. When McMahon heard about recent East Sideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s revitalization efforts, he says it felt like the right place to be.

Barthenheier Construction and 360 Degrees did an extensive overhaul of the space, which includes a new bar design and an open interior layout. The dĂŠcor was lightened up with aquamarine tones and mid-century touches, giving the space an open, airy feeling. The taproom opened at the beginning of June.

McMahon afďŹ rms that under Hacienda, they make what they want to make and when they want to make it. They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t operate on any kind of seasonal schedule. The taproom offers 12 tap lines with a rotating selection of Haciendaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beer. When a beer variety runs out, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s swapped out for another one, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always a fun surprise to see what will be on tap. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never have the same things all the time,â&#x20AC;? McMahon afďŹ rms. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With our Hacienda

brand, people try a lot of different things. We run a wide spectrum of styles, and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all interesting to people who want to try interesting beers. Our clientele is more experimental than sticking with a single brand or a certain style theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re loyal to.â&#x20AC;?

Beer is also available to go in cans and bottles, but like the tap beers, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to say what will be available at any given time. McMahon notes their grab-and-go cooler sells out quickly.

Hacienda Beer Co. has a full menu with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The daily happy hour, from 4 to 6 p.m., features $2 tacos and $1 off drafts.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a ďŹ sh fry on Fridays. McMahon says theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re transitioning the menu to reďŹ&#x201A;ect Southern border foods inďŹ&#x201A;uenced by the Mexican Baja California and southern Texas regions. Most menu items can be made vegan or vegetarian.

For more information, visit haciendabeerco. com.

KITCHEN SECRETS OF A FOUR-STAR CHEF ::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN â&#x20AC;&#x153;Put flavor first,â&#x20AC;? Jean-Georges Vongerichten insists. The acclaimed chef (New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jean-Georges is his flagship restaurant) knows a few things about how to please Americans with his elegantly streamlined rendition of French cuisine. The title of his memoir, JGV: A Life in 12 Recipes, is self-explanatory. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a life story told through foodâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;childhood memories of his motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cooking, his sometimes-difficult ascent to culinary stardomâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; garnished with recipes and food prep tips. How to serve it French without all that butter and cream? Vongerichten recommends carrot juice seasoned with allspice, cinnamon and cayenne with a spritz of lemon juice and the slightest dab of butter.

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Benefit show to prevent violence

FOOL FOR

Love

Theatre/Music Tribute to

Sam Shepard

Live “songs of foolish love” + a rare performance of Shepard’s award-winning one-act Fool for Love

Tues. Oct 22

All proceeds benefit the Alma Center & Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking

8pm show | 7pm doors | $5

VEGETARIAN CAFE - BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER MAIN RESTAURANT: 2076 N COMMERCE ST NEW LOCATION! CROSSROADS COLLECTIVE: 2238 N FARWELL AVE BEERLINECAFE.COM SHEPHERD EXPRESS

“Fool for Love Milwaukee” on Facebook Ages: 21+ (13-20 with parent/guardian)

1001 E. Locust St. • linnemans.com O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9 | 19

::A&E

Brought to you by The Milwaukee Art Museum

PAUL RUFFOLO

FEATURE | FILM | THEATRE | ART | BOOKS | CLASSICAL MUSIC | DANCE

Rehearsal for First Stage’s ‘On the Wings of a Mariposa’

Migration, Memory and Family in First Stage’s ‘On the Wings of a Mariposa’ ::BY BLAINE SCHULTZ

Se necesitan tres generaciones de monarcas para completar una sola migración, desde los bosques de oyamel en las montañas del centro de México hasta Canadá y de regreso. t takes three generations of monarchs to finish one complete migration, from the fir forests in the mountains of central Mexico to Canada and back again, director Karen Estrada writes in her notes for On the Wings of a Mariposa. The play by First Stage resident playwright Alvaro Saar Rios is an adaptation of the book Ghost Wings by Cedarburg’s Barbara Joosse.

The monarch’s genetics “tell” the story to the next generation and the one after that. This is how they “remember” the paths. Mariposa is the chronicle of a young girl who discovers that she has the story of her family written within her.

With original music and lyrics by Dinorah Marquez, Estrada is working with a cast that includes young actors. She says she looks for “kids who are willing to work hard and be silly and vulnerable and smart. This is First Stage and that is what is cultivated here.”

There are 10 young performers in each cast. Because the show is bilingual—half English, half Spanish—First Stage made the effort to head into the communities of kids who speak Spanish and are familiar with the culture. Actor and dialect coach Laura Crotte (who plays Abuelita) is a native Spanish speaker who is helping with dialog and pronunciations. “There is a difference between kids who read Spanish and kids who have heard Spanish their whole lives,” Estrada says, “they might speak it but don’t always read it.”

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Bilingual and Bicultural

Estrada has been working on Mariposa for nearly three years, having done two full readings, one at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center and one at Centro de la Comunidad Unida (United Community Center).

“We wanted to make sure that, with the mixed Spanish and English cast, everybody could feel welcome and receive the story,” she says. “We got feedback from people who grew up with the culture and the Day of the Dead festivities to people who have barely heard of it. Coco (the 2007 Disney movie) might have been their first time. There are many Latinx who don’t do a Day of the Dead celebration or do a different version—like many cultural celebrations, there are variations. Mariposa is specifically about Michoacán, which is where the monarchs winter.”

According to Estrada, based on a personal experience, playwright Alvaro Saar Rios developed the idea of recognizing a loved one from a fragrance on clothing. When the young girl in the play, Pilar, discovers her grandmother’s scent is fading from her rebozo, she begins to feel sad, lonely and lost. “She needs her mother, community of friends and family to help her bring the memories back and find comfort and peace, with grief,” Estrada says. “The things that are left can remain for a good long time, but, while the scent of something is ephemeral, it can be a huge trigger for memory.”

Remembering Loved Ones

There is the physical death of our loved ones and there are all the little deaths that continue to happen. The first event without them, the first time you don’t have that dish at a family event. “When things shift, they bring their own batch of grief and mourning. Perhaps, as a Western culture, we don’t allow space for as much?” Estrada wonders.

“Often is the case, when sad things happen, we don’t want to dig up those sad feelings and think about them anymore,” she continues. “But remembering our loved ones can be such a joy and celebration and comfort. None of us get through life without being sad, and we should figure out how to allow that emotion as freely as we do happiness.”

Some of us save answering messages or chose not to delete phone numbers when a loved one passes. Life is a circle. Often, our rituals spring from nature. “It takes so many generations of monarchs to return to Mexico after the migration to Canada,” Estrada says, “ they will go to the same trees, same fields and same places of First Stage rest—it is built into their generational signature, their genetic code.”

On the Wings On the Wings of a Mariposa is the first time of a Mariposa Todd Wehr Theater Estrada is directing a full-length production.

She has been part of First Stage since she Oct. 18 - Nov. 10 was in sixth grade as a student. Since that time, she has been a teacher assistant, an intern and a teacher. She also then subbed in as an administrator at the Springer Theatre Academy in Columbus, Ga. Not unlike the monarchs of the play, Estrada has returned to familiar touchstones.

When she moved back to Milwaukee, First Stage was one of the first places Estrada came to as an actor and educator, having since performed in about a dozen productions. She also taught in the Next Steps program.

“That is one of my favorite things. It is an Academy class geared toward students who have developmental disabilities, are on the autism spectrum or other things that would make them less comfortable in a typical class.”

With the Day of the Dead celebration, generations of souls return. Looking at the iconography can be a comfort of memories. When memories fade, the love, the long past behind every one of us—and hopefully long future ahead of us—become part of our story. “Any good play is a mix of the intimate and the profound,” Estrada reckons.

First Stage’s On the Wings of a Mariposa runs Oct. 18-Nov. 10 at Todd Wehr Theater, 121 E. State St. For tickets and more information, visit firststage.org.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Join us for Fall Gallery Night at MIAD! Reception: Fri., October 18, 5 – 9 p.m.

SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC EDUCATION MIDWEST JURIED EXHIBITION

On view through Oct. 27

On view Oct. 18 – Dec. 7

Select works by professional and student SPE members highlight current trends in contemporary photography and themes of representation and identity.

Works by 14 Strange Fire Collective artists focus on social justice themes to engage the community in meaningful dialogue about women, gender and sexual identity, and race and representation.

273 E. Erie St.

miad.edu/galleries

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

AD FR M EE IS SI ON

In this body of mine This exhibition is generously supported in part by the Mary L. Nohl Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

MIAD’s galleries are free and open to the public, Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9 | 21

A&E::INREVIEW

::PERFORMINGARTSWEEK For More to Do, visit shepherdexpress.com

THEATRE

The Roommate

Sharon (Isabel Quintero) has been respectable her whole life. Now in her mid-50s and recently divorced, she needs a roommate to share her Iowa home.

Robyn (Marti Gobel), of similar age, needs a place to hide and a chance to start over. But, as Sharon begins to uncover Robyn’s secrets, she realizes her own deepseated desire to transform her own life completely. Jen Silverman’s 2015 dramedy is about what it takes to reroute your life, as well as what happens when the wheels come off along the way.

A well-calibrated play with natural, witty dialogue, The Roommate portrays the way identities shift in different stages in life. Silverman has stated that she wanted to put two women in their 50s on stage that defy routine stereotypes and are recognizable as complex, flawed individuals who simply require a judgement-free zone to be themselves. “The Roommate just delights me,” says director Suzan Fete. “It’s so rare to find a play with interesting, meaty roles for women of this age, and the play is a laugh-out-loud comedy with a truly surprising twist.” (John Jahn) Oct. 18-Nov. 10 at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414291-7800 or visit r-t-w.com/the-roommate.

CLASSICALMUSIC

“The Great Cathedrals”

Throughout the centuries, much of the world’s choral music has been written for cathedral and church choirs. With “The Great Cathedrals” concert, Master Singers of Milwaukee opens its 47th season by shining a light on some exemplars of that glorious music, exploring the genius of composers whose work stems from the distant past through today.

A cornerstone of the concert is Felix Mendelssohn’s most popular choral work, Hear My Prayer, which the composer once described as “a trifle.” The work, which has long-survived Mendelssohn’s somewhat dismissive comment about it, was first performed at a concert at Crosby Hall, London, in 1845. Several of the other pieces featured on the concert are movements from larger choral works, including Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat, Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Messe and Zoltan Kodaly’s Missa Brevis. (John Jahn) Saturday, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m. at All Saints Cathedral, 818 E. Juneau Ave., and Sunday, Oct. 20, at 4 p.m. at Wauwatosa Presbyterian Church, 2366 N. 80th St. For tickets, call 888-744-2226 or visit mastersingersofmilwaukee.org/the-great-cathedrals.

DANCE

Coppélia

Coppélia is a classic comic ballet set to the glorious, romantic music of Léo Delibes (1836-’91), with a libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter. His libretto and mise-en-scène was based upon two stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann: Der Sandmann (The Sandman) and Die Puppe (The Doll). In this three-act ballet, we find one Dr. Coppélius, who has made a life-size dancing doll which is so lifelike, in fact, that Franz, a village youth, becomes infatuated with it to the point of setting aside his affections for his heretofore heart’s desire, Swanhilda. Will Swanhilda save Franz from his folly, or will he become ensnared forever by the doctor’s compelling creation?

Milwaukee Ballet has gathered some prominent women from its history to be guest speakers for its pre-show entertainment series for Coppélia. These are associate director Mireille Favarel, who danced Swanhilda in 1979 and 1990); former artistic director Gloria Gustafson; JoJean Retrum, who danced in the company’s original Coppélia production in 1970; and (schedule permitting) Marize Fumero or Annia Hidalgo, who will be dancing Swanhilda in the current production. (John Jahn) Oct. 17-20 at the Marcus Center’s Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414273-7206 or visit milwaukeeballet.org.

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Early Music Now’s Concert of Beautiful, Medieval French Music

T

::BY JEAN-GABRIEL FERNANDEZ

ENET Vocal Artists is a New York City-based early music ensemble, and they chose Milwaukee’s Early Music Now series to express their talent with “The Sounds of Time: Songs of the Trouvères.”

Led by soprano Jolle Greenleaf, who is both a lead singer and TENET’s artistic director, the group sang songs composed by trouvères—poets from northern France in the Middle Ages. True to Early Music Now’s mission, this was an effort to bring more cultural diversity to the current music scene, introducing audiences to sonorities they probably never heard before; a pre-concert lecture was given to put the music in context.

Right away, the first notes pouring out of the vielles—a medieval instrument reminiscent of a leaf-shaped violin—immersed listeners into 13th-century France. It is made even more impressive by the fact that little instrumental music from that period—which relied on oral tradition and improvisation—remains, so the musical accompaniment for “Songs of the Trouvères” was mostly invented and improvised by the artists.

Musicians Robert Mealy and Shira Kammen, at the vielle and harp, were accompanied by Debra Nagy’s winds and Grant Herreid’s lute. Greenleaf, along with mezzo-soprano Virginia Warnken Kelsey and tenor Brian Giebler, brought back to life more than 20 songs. Each element of the ensemble contributed to create a foreign but beautiful sound, which reverberated in the perfect environment provided by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

The trouvères “infused a new, lighter vein into the great lyric tradition,” Mealy explains.

Indeed, most of the music is dancing, rhythmic, fun and light-hearted. It evokes, in a novel manner, fairy tales, meadows and woods, youthful love, fresh air and a breath of spring. Some are darker and heavier, some downright comical; when a knight asks an unhappy wife to run off with him, she says, “Sire, I wouldn’t go outside Paris—I’d lose my honor forever then! But I’ll cheat on him here.” Love in all its forms is at the core of all the songs, which are performed in langue d’oïl, a medieval French dialect, but English translation is provided.

Florentine Opera Opens Its Season with Some WorldClass Performances ::BY RICK WALTERS

F

lorentine Opera opened its 2019-’20 season last weekend with a generally successful production of Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), with enduring music by Wolfgang Mozart and a perfect libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

As Figaro, bass-baritone Calvin Griffin delivered a performance that could have been on any opera stage in the world. He sang with a sturdy and even sound from the top to the bottom of his voice and brought colorful diction and easy freedom to the part. The young soprano Ariana Douglas has a clear, clean sound and the right spirit for the soubrette role of Susanna.

Baritone Alexander Dobson captured the elegant and arrogant childishness of Count Almaviva, unable to control his sexual impulses (which plays with a difference in the #MeToo era). Susannah Biller has a thick, regal sound well-suited to Countess Almaviva; her third act aria of romantic neglect, “Dove sono,” showed beautiful, legato singing. Abigail Levis was good at portraying the pent-up agitation of pubescent boy Cherubino, though her handsome sound was sometimes a bit uneven. As the matronly Marcellina, Jenni Bank gave a broad, funny portrayal, as did Jeffrey Beruan as Dr. Bartolo.

Character tenor Tom Leighton was spicy and lively as gossipmonger Don Basilio.

The scenery from the Opera Company of Philadelphia kept the piece in the 18th century and was simple and serviceable. The direction of Shawna Lucey was humming along just fine until the wedding scene in Act III, which threw in some weak, cheap laughs with absurd, outof-period dance moves. Her melodramatic direction of Barbarina’s sweet little cavatina was unfortunate for young soprano Kathyrn Henry.

I was perplexed by the conducting of Clinton Smith, which lacked rhythmic crispness in general.

Most of his tempos were well-suited to the score, but a few were a bit off, especially in the finales of Acts II and IV. At times, the ensemble between the singers and orchestra was in question. Smith’s romantic interpretation of Mozart―stretching the tempo in phrases―was inappropriate to Classical era style. What a pity, with the wonderful Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in the pit.

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Sunset Playhouse’s ‘Mamma Mia’

‘Mamma Mia!’ It’s ABBA at Sunset Playhouse! ::BY RUSS BICKERSTAFF

T

he old, familiar music of Swedish pop group ABBA bounces across the big stage in Elm Grove as Sunset Playhouse presents the musical Mamma Mia! Scenic designer Matthew Carr and lighting designer Mike Van Dreser deliver a clean and spacious feeling to a romantic drama set on an idyllic Greek island. A couple of excellent leads and notable performances from around the edges of the ensemble lend heart and passion to a story animated by classic pop tunes.

Laura Monagle is wry and appealing as Donna, a hotel owner and manager thrust into a strange walk with her own past when three men arrive on her tiny, Greek isle. Monagle summons a tough assertiveness to the role of a harried small business owner. That toughness is balanced by the engaging emotional warmth and tenderness of someone at a reflective time in her life. Her daughter is, after all, getting married on the island.

The sudden arrival of Donna’s three former lovers is brought about courtesy of Sophie, Donna’s soon-to-be-wed daughter. Hope Riesterer glides gracefully between happiness and anxiety in the role. Her more energetic moments contrast against an impressively sophisticated emotional nuance as Sophie gets more complication than she had bargained for in the arrival of three potential fathers.

Monagle and Riesterer serve as the center of a big ensemble show with lots of quaint, little musical excursions away from the central plot. Not everything fits together perfectly, but Monagle and Riesterer do a good job of holding the emotional center of an entertaining show.

Through Nov. 3 at Furlan Auditorium, 700 Wall St., Elm Grove.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9 | 23

A&E::VISUALART

SPONSORED BY

OPENINGS: “Photographic Reflections: Documenting Community”

Oct. 17-Nov. 8 UWM Union Art Gallery • 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.

The UW-Milwaukee Union Art Gallery presents the work of internationally known photographers Alejandro Cartagena, Justine Kurland and Darcy Padilla in an exhibition offered in conjunction with the Society for Photographic Education Midwest Conference (being held at Saint Kate—The Arts Hotel, Oct. 24-27). “Photographic Reflections” explores representations of diverse communities throughout the U.S. and Mexico. While photography has a unique way of capturing small glimpses into reality, it is the recontextualization of these unrelated moments that offers new narratives; the analysis of the dichotomies grants the viewer opportunities to see the world in new ways. For more information, visit uwm.edu.

“The Monotonous Life of Roy G. Biv”

‘For the Sake of a Single Verse’ at the Haggerty Museum of Art

T

::BY SHANE MCADAMS

he current exhibition “For the Sake of a Single Verse” at the Haggerty Museum of Art requires one to look closely at art that was, itself, made by someone looking closely, about someone else looking ever-so-closely, at the world in front of him. The 24 lithographs by the 20th-century artist Ben Shahn illustrate scenes from the only novel by the ecstatic German writer Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.

The world immediately in front of Rilke in the aughts of the 20th century was not his native Germany but the streets of Paris in all their gilded, fin-de-siècle glory, full of flaneurs strolling Haussmannized avenues along with the hookers and homeless that replaced the paramours and peasants of the ancient regime. These contradictory streets and roles fill the pages of Malte’s fictional notebooks, and their accounts reveal both the intense perceptual yearnings of a young poet and the awkward adolescence of the modern industrial city.

A generation later, Shahn made his own transformative journey to New York from what is now Lithuania.

Born into a socialist-leaning, Orthodox Jewish family, Shahn was, himself, flung into the middle of the modern, urban, social imbroglio. As a teenager, he apprenticed as a lithographer, gaining an ambition for art and eventually developing into one of the America’s most notable Social Realist painters. Who better to illustrate the textual observations of another sensitive urban visionary?

The Notebooks’ prose from which the illustrations are taken is framed on the wall alongside Shahn’s suite of prints. Rilke’s text, as animated by Malte, functions as something of an obsessive to-do list of essential encounters for the aspiring poet. Shahn illustrated his folio of 24 vignettes with equivalent sensitivity. Each individual work in the exhibition features a snippet of text on the left with a corresponding illustration on the right. For example, “…to days of childhood that are left unexplained,” is matched with a simple but effective contour line draw24 | O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9

ing of six standing children under washy blocks of ultramarine and mauve. Another reads simply, “one must know the animals,” accompanied by a delightfully informal drawing of a four-legged creature walking on stabbing dashes of grass in front of a grove of stylized trees.

The black and gray composition emphasizes the beast’s ribs, paws and club-like head, though very abstractly. It becomes a stand-in for every animal, which, of course, honors the spirit of the text.

Each of the lithographs in the show responds to Rilke’s words with a restraint that underscores his expansive vision, choosing dreamy contingency over didactic clarity in the way a children’s book would a graphic novel.

It’s notable that this collection of prints was executed by Shahn in 1968, a year before his death. His work is most associated with the wave of socially driven visual art that emerged after the Great Depression, but given his wise and sensitive antennae, one would assume he was absorbing and representing the tumultuous affairs confronting society at the time of this work. At a moment of such uncertainty, he chose to address the local ferment with even more openness and circumspection, both in his choice of collaborative material and in the work itself. The drawings and overall sensibilities are noticeably less direct than anything he produced in 1934, and I want to believe that in all his observational wisdom, he may have noticed the early stages of the growing mass-media leviathan that has since groped every organ of contemporary life.

Perhaps this made him reevaluate the role of the artistic witness. Who knows? It’s pure speculation. But if so, these works are a prescient warning that an abiding determination to observe and understand the spirit of our nature might supersede the act of broadcasting the letters of so many disputable facts.

Ben Shahn, For the Sake of a Single Verse, 1969, Lithograph, 98.31.5,Gift of Anonymous Donor,Collection of the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University

Friday, Oct. 18, 5 p.m.-Midnight Crawford Collective • 2525 E. Crawford Ave., St. Francis

Crawford Collective—a newly established artists’ studio and gallery—presents a themed group exhibition co-curated

by Milwaukee artists Amanda Stein and Anna Rodriguez. This colorful, one-night event showcases new work by national and international artists based in Milwaukee. There will be live music and a food truck on hand as well. “The Monotonous Life of Roy G. Biv” personifies the whimsical imagination of a man who never was.

“Mythic Menageries”

Oct. 18-Nov. 23 Tory Folliard Gallery • 233 N. Milwaukee St.

“Mythic Menageries” features work from 11 contemporary artists who explore the possibilities of animal and naturalist imagery to fabulist ends. The artists in this exhibition all trade in one or more aspects of the fabulist impulse in their treatment of animals and the natural world as subjects. From the hallucinogenic color of Laurie Hogin’s allegorical paintings to the mythic mutations of Robin Whiteman, we are keenly aware that we’re not in Kansas anymore. Other artists in this exhibition include Tom Uttech, Anne Siems, Flora Langlois and Fred Stonehouse, among several others. For more information, call 414-273-7311 or visit toryfolliard.com.

“Objects Redux”

Oct. 20-Feb. 2, 2020 Racine Art Museum • 441 Main St., Racine

There are actually two separate but intricately related exhibitions taking place simultaneously at the RAM under the “Objects Redux” umbrella. In “Small-Scale Studio Craft of the 1950s and 1960s,” you’ll find small-scale ceramic, glass, wood and metal objects from the ’50s and ’60s reflecting the types of works most associated with craft up to that point. “Studio Craft in Context, 1960-1985,” meanwhile, is an exhibition that places studio craft in the context of two-dimensional paintings and works on paper made between 1960 and 1985. It provides a theoretical structure for understanding the larger social and cultural environment that helped to shape the content and form of the work. For more information, call 262-638-8300 or visit ramart.org.

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Jerry Berndt, Schwett’s Tap - Howard and Howell Ave. - Milwaukee, ca. 1983, printed 1995.

Gelatin silver print. Gift of the artist, M2002.141. Copy photo by John R. Glembin. Courtesy Jerry Berndt Estate. © Jerry Berndt Estate

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Bilingual world premiere!

ON THE WINGS OF A MARIPOSA

By Alvaro Saar Rios An adaptation of Ghost Wings by Barbara Joosse Original Music and Lyrics by Dinorah Marquez

Portrait of Milwaukee People, places, and progress of our city

Suggested for families with young people ages 5 – 17

IN COLLABORATION WITH

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FIRSTSTAGE.ORG/MARIPOSA

On View Now

SUPPORTED IN PART

BY AN AWARD FROM

Presenting Sponsor:

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mam.org/portrait O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9 | 25

A&E::FILM

[ FILM CLIPS ] Maleficent: Mistress of Evil PG

Angelina Jolie returns as the title character in this sequel to 2014’s Maleficent. A magical fairy of great power, Maleficent is also Princess Aurora’s (Elle Fanning) protector. After Aurora confides her plan to marry Prince Phillip, Maleficent forbids the match for reasons unknown. Aurora becomes even more determined to marry, unaware of the evil scheme concocted by the prince’s mother, Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer). Can the strength of Aurora and Maleficent’s bond defeat their enemies?

A visually arresting fantasy, Jolie was born to play Maleficent.

Even so, exceeding chapter one’s $750 million in ticket sales will require some heavy magic. (Lisa Miller)

Zombieland: Double Tap R

‘The Birds’

‘The Birds’ a Must-See on the Oriental Theatre’s Screen MILWAUKEE FILM FESTIVAL SCREENS THE HITCHCOCK CLASSIC ::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN

T

he Milwaukee Film Festival’s Cinema Hoo- Francisco along the winding coast road to rustic Bodega Bay. ligante program (Oct. 17-31 at various loca- The lawyer makes his home there with sister Cathy (Veronica tions) leans toward horror but encompasses the Cartwright) and mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy). That home will bizarre and includes filmmakers from David soon be pecked to pieces by birds.

Lynch (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me) to MilThe special effects remain more disturbing than any softwarewaukee favorites Mark Borchardt (Coven) and Tate Bunker (The spun shape-shifting monster. Hitchcock used trained crows, Field). It includes at least one classic, Alfred Hitchcock’s The supplemented by a few mechanical ones, and filled the sky with Birds (1963), easily accessible at home but impossible to fully birds through a process of photographing the background and appreciate unless seen on a big screen. foreground at different times. Arising from the uncanny silence The Birds is one-part screwball comedy, one-part horror show of Bodega Bay is the shriek and squall, the cawing and cackand one part undefinable. It can’t be slotted into any genre or eas- ling of thousands of avian predators. There is no conventional ily described as anything other than an enigmatic masterpiece, music—no Hollywood orchestra telling us to be terrified. ComHitchcock’s last great film. poser Bernard Herrmann collaborated on the “sound producWorking with screenwriter Evan Hunter, Hitchcock adapted tion,” enhancing bird calls with electronics. In one of several The Birds from a novella by Daphne du Maurier. The English unforgettable scenes, Melanie, Mitch and his family are barriauthor, also the source for Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) and caded inside the house as birds furiously tear at the walls, poking Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973), was probably inspired through boarded windows and tearing a hole in the roof. Like the

by Welsh occultist Arthur Machen. In Machen’s novella, The shower-slasher scene from Hitchcock’s previous film, Psycho Terror (1917), the animals of Great Britain viciously turn on hu- (1960), the house besieged became a constant in horror movies mankind in a series of attacks separated by interludes of normal- from Night of the Living Dead through The Purge. In The Birds, cy. Machen hinted that the animals might have been infected by the winged creatures turn the tables, confining people to cages. the carnage of World War I. Mass murder as a species-jumping Humans are narrative-makers and the crowd inside the Tides virus? However, du Maurier and Hitchcock confined themselves Restaurant eagerly try to fit the inexplicable into their accusto winged creatures and hinted at nothing. The Birds’ open-end- tomed categories of thought. The religious drunk declares, “It’s ed lack of resolution is among its strengths. It feels timeless for the end of the world—thus says the Lord God.” He is closer to refusing to offer a timely explanation. the apocalypse outside than the smug rationalist, Mrs. Bundy, Although in some ways unique among Hitchcock’s films, who refuses to believe that gulls and crows are attacking. “I The Birds shares in the director’s persistent fascination with hardly think that either species has enough intelligence to launch unexpected occurrences and encounters that tear people from a mass attack,” she huffs. The sheriff is also clueless and dismistheir normal, complacent lives. The events of The sive until the birds—with the help of a carelessly Birds are unanticipated yet foreshadowed. The tossed match—set the town on fire. As the terror The Birds film opens as Melanie (Tippi Hedren) glances at builds, a townswoman shrieks at Melanie, the Oriental Theatre stranger in their midst. “Who are you? What are a swarm of birds darkening a patch of San Francisco sky. She pays no heed to that first omen— you? I think you are evil!” Did Melanie carry a Tuesday, and there will be others—before strolling into a curse with her into Bodega Bay? Oct. 22, 10 p.m. pet shop full of caged birds.

Ironically, Melanie is taking a university course Mitch (Rod Taylor) is also looking for birds, in general semantics, a then-fashionable discia British pun Hitchcock surely recognized. He addresses Mel- pline that studied language as a representation of reality and the anie, the haute-couture scion of a publishing empire, pretend- way the human mind processes information in an ongoing puring to think that she’s a shop clerk. Melanie mischievously suit of meaning and resolution. There are patterns in The Birds, a plays along, even though she knows nothing of birds. Mitch is rhythm of reality, but no discernable meaning and no resolution. a lawyer who dislikes her from a court case she barely remem- At the conclusion, Mitch, Melanie, Lydia and Cathy slowly pull bers in a scene playing out like a 1930s screwball comedy. out of the driveway past a field covered in birds during a lull in And as sparks fly, attraction pulls harder than repulsion. Mela- the pattern and drive toward the sunrise of an uncertain future. nie makes the next move. She purchases a pair of lovebirds as The Birds will be shown at the Oriental Theatre on Tuesday, a gift for Mitch’s 11-year-old sister and drives north from San Oct. 22, at 10 p.m.

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It’s been a decade since Zombieland injected humor into the zombie genre. The four leads return for this comedic sequel, still playing survivors in search of a zombie-free safe haven. Yet another road trip ensues, with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) frustrated in his efforts to upgrade their dilapidated mini-van. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) still pines for Wichita (Emma Stone), whose baby sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) has snuck off on a mission to find love.

Soon, they discover the zombie virus is mutating, resulting in faster, hard-to-kill zombies. If you’ve longed for a zombie confrontation at the White House, then this one’s for you, even if Gerard Butler objects to seeing Olympus fall one more time. (L.M.)

[ HOME MOVIES / NOW STREAMING ] n Above Us Only Sky

In 1969, John Lennon withdrew from the bustle of The Beatles and the London scene and set camp on his rural estate, Tittenhurst Park.

The white manor became a workplace as well as a home. At the studio Lennon built there, he recorded one of his greatest albums, Imagine.

For the documentary Above Us Only Sky, director Michael Epstein interviewed Julian Lennon, engineer Eddie Veale, musicians Klaus Voorman and Alan White and even John Dunbar, owner of London’s Indica Gallery, where Lennon met Yoko Ono. Epstein draws from a fantastic wealth of home movies and still photographs taken at Tittenhurst in 1969.

Above Us Only Sky catches the era’s idealistic, if a bit bonkers, vibe, and it’s valuable for sympathetically showing the collaboration between Lennon and Ono. It documents the organic nature of the Imagine sessions, where some of the world’s greatest rock musicians recorded enduring songs together, and in real time.

n The Mind Benders

A distinguished professor with a troubled mien abruptly leaps to his death from a moving train. Military intelligence suspects he’s a traitor and his Oxford colleagues are covering up—but there’s more to the story. The 1963 British film is about a psychological experiment in isolation— in preparation for space flights—gone terribly wrong. The black and white cinematography is wonderfully ideal—a shadowland where the human psyche disintegrates in this engrossing, disturbing B picture.

n Find Me Guilty

At this moment in political time, it’s disconcerting that Find Me Guilty opens with archival footage of a much younger Rudy Giuliani back when he was a mob-busting U.S. attorney. The 2006 film oddly flips perspective with its sympathetic post-“Sopranos” (“based” on reality) tale of Jack DiNorscio, the good-hearted gangster who acts as his own attorney. A superb performance

by Vin Diesel—like Giuliani, much younger and with more hair—elevates the Sidney Lumet production.

—David Luhrssen SHEPHERD EXPRESS

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

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A&E::BOOKS

PAUL McCOMAS

::OFFTHECUFF

BOOK|PREVIEW

NEW INSIGHTS INTO FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S TROUBLED LIFE ::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN

F

rank Lloyd Wright was one of the 20th century’s greatest architects—an assertion with which Wright consistently agreed. Wright has been the subject of enough books to fill a wall of shelves. So why add to the library?

The title of Paul Hendrickson’s biography, Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright, refers directly to a notorious incident: the 1914 ax-murder of his mistress, her two children and four other people by the architect’s black servant (who then set fire to the Taliesin crime scene).

Wright’s Spring Green, Wis., home-studio caught fire again in the 1920s (“crossed wires” that time) and fire is a metaphor of Wright’s tempestuous life.

Wright seemed to consume everyone in his circle, but Hendrickson says wait: his narcissism had limits.

The author suspects a kinder heart beneath that imperious persona than most observers have detected. He finds traces of shame and remorse amidst the landmarks and the hubris.

Hendrickson went further than anyone to investigate the black servant, Julian Carlton, tracking his family into the antebellum South (he was the child of slaves) and traveling the dusty roads of the remote Alabama county of his birth. Not unlike Wright, Carlton was a fabulist, spinning stories of Caribbean origins to enhance his status. In thoroughly surveying Carlton’s family tree, Hendrickson comes up against the limitations of history, not only the information gaps but the necessity of speculation. We will never know what motivated Carlton’s killing spree. He left no explanatory screed and died sullen, starving himself to death at the Dodgeville jail.

Plagued by Fire is an astute, even wise biography of an architect whose buildings are better understood than his life.

Paul Hendrickson will discuss Plagued by Fire at Boswell Book Co. on Monday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m.

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Amee Binder and Paul McComas

Sam Shepard ‘Saw It All Coming’

Off the Cuff with ‘Fool for Love’ performer Paul McComas ::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN

H

onoring the 75th anniversary of the birth of actor-playwright Sam Shepard (1943-2017), Milwaukee expat Paul McComas and Chicago performer Amee Binder have been on the road with a version of Shepard’s play, the tragic comedy Fool for Love. They are bringing their production to McComas’ hometown in a benefit to raise money for the Alma Center, a Milwaukee nonprofit working with domestic abuse victims, and Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking. Off the Cuff sat down with McComas to discuss Fool for Love.

What draws you to the work of Sam Shepard?

I have decades of admiration for him, seeing his movies and seeing his plays at the Steppenwolf after I moved to Chicago. I have a kinship with his topics—The Atlantic magazine recently published a critique that said Sam Shepard saw it all coming—the link between political disconnection, family dysfunction, the demonization of the other.

Why perform Fool for Love?

It felt like an observation of America comparable to Steinbeck in his day, the dark side of the American Dream. It’s a romantic appreciation of the American West while exposing its dark underside. Fool for Love always rang true for me, and characterizations are excellent—it has a fully realized female character. It’s also a metaphor for any couple whose love is in some way forbidden.

Did you modify Fool for Love for your production?

My adaptation of the play is 45 minutes long and has two characters. The original is 80 minutes long and has four characters. I trimmed it with great care and maintained Shepard’s stage direction—to perform it relentlessly without a break. The audience is trapped in a hotel room at the edge of the Mojave Desert with this star-crossed couple.

You and Amee have added some music to the show?

We perform 15-20 minutes of songs, including one by Shepard’s sister Sandy Rogers, one by John Doe, one by Niko Case. It’s a short set of Western-inflected songs that help set the stage.

Why perform it at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn? Linneman’s is my Milwaukee venue, my bar when I’m in Milwaukee. Jim Linneman and I work together well, and I like the Riverwest neighborhood with its progressive boho vibe. The room allows to me to have people seated around the play in a semi-circle. It suits what I’m doing.

Paul McComas and Amee Binder perform Fool for Love at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 1001 E. Locust St. Admission is $5. Tickets are available at the door.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

November 16, 2019 • Italian Community Center • 11am - 4pm Health & Lifestyle Expo dedicated to the empowerment of all women to achieve both personal and professional goals SHEPHERD EXPRESS

TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR JUST $15 WHEN YOU BUY ONLINE ($22 at the door)

womanupmke.com O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9 | 29

::HEARMEOUT ASK RUTHIE | UPCOMING EVENTS | PAUL MASTERSON

::ASKRUTHIE

::RUTHIE’SSOCIALCALENDAR

SPONSORED BY WINNER OF THE JEWELERS OF AMERICA’S 2019 CASE AWARD

Tale as Old as Time Dear Ruthie, I feel like the younger generation of gays don’t have any respect for their elders. After all, we’re the ones who paved the way for them. Just because we’re not young and tight anymore doesn’t mean we don’t have value to add.

(Signed) Won’t Be Ignored Dear Ignored, Hey Daddio! Loosen up, man... it’s all cool. You need to chill out and hang tight with the kids, dude. (OK... it’s sad that this is my attempt at talking like a cool kid.)

You are 100% correct in your statement that you are not to be ignored. You are 100% correct in saying that older generations paved the way for the equality we all enjoy (and sometimes take for granted) today. That said, however, this is a sad tale as old as time. Kids are kids, and there has always been a bit of misunderstanding and a lack of appreciation between generations.

There’s certainly no excuse for rude behavior or making anyone feel less than equal, but the next time you become upset with the younger generation, try chalking things up to kids be-

Oct. 17—Sheena Easton at The Northern Lights Theater (1721 W. Canal St.): Sheena Easton “Struts” into Brew City for an 8 p.m. concert that is sure to brighten up your week. From “Morning Train” to “Sugar Walls,” Sheena’s hits are the perfect way to usher in the weekend, so be sure to visit the Scottish lass by buying your tickets via ticketmaster.com.

Oct. 17—Madonna’s ‘Madame X’ Tour at Chicago Theatre (175 N. State St., Chicago): All hail the Queen!

Madonna visits the Midwest once again with an intimate performance of new and classic favorites that make her a goddess in the LGBTQ community. Try your luck at tickets via madonna.com, or simply make her appearance a reason to visit the Windy City.

Oct. 18—Business Equality Luncheon at The Pfister Hotel (424 E. Wisconsin Ave.): It’s time to celebrate and promote equality, inclusivity and fairness for all workers in the Milwaukee area with this annual luncheon. Hosted by the Cream City Foundation, the popular afternoon offers a keynote speaker (Billy Bean of Major League Baseball and author of Going the Other Way) as well as a presentation of the LGBTQ student scholarship program. Visit creamcityfoundation.org for details, tickets and sponsorship opportunities.

Oct. 19—10-Year Anniversary Gala of the LGBT Center of Southeast Wisconsin at Racine Masonic Center (1021 Main St., Racine): “Out in the World” is the theme of this exciting event celebrating a decade of progress and community spirit in Southeast Wisconsin. Enjoy dinner, auctions, cash bars, dancing and a drag show (hosted by yours truly) during the 5:30-11 p.m. gala. Stop by lgbtsewi. org for ticket options, which include passes for the entire night ($100 each) show and dancing tickets ($25), as well as table reservations.

Oct. 19—Elton John’s ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ Tour at Fiserv Forum (1111 Vel R. Phillips Ave.): This rescheduled performance from the iconic performer promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime event... so don’t miss

it! Elton John bids farewell to Milwaukee fans with this 8 p.m. concert. Nab your tickets (starting at $45.50) before they’re sold out.

Oct. 20—’The Nightmare Before Christmas’ with the MSO at The Riverside Theater (116 W. Wisconsin Ave.): The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra performs the energetic soundtrack to the Tim Burton classic as the film is projected on the big screen. Enjoy the cult favorite like never before when you choose one of two performances (2 and 8 p.m.). See pabsttheater.org for tickets.

Oct. 20—Lesbian Pop Up Bar at Dale Z.’s on Tour (3585 S. Howell Ave.): This month, the popular pop-party goes green and gold. Doors open at 10 a.m. for a Packer viewing party at noon. Enjoy “Packer bingo” as well as free touchdown shots, $4 burgers, drink specials and so much more. One special participant will even have the chance to win a $1,000 bar tab.

Oct. 20—Harvest Ball Honies a This Is It! (418 E. Wells St.): Shawna Love hosts this 7 p.m. show featuring some of Milwaukee’s most iconic performers. Join legendary drag divas Goldie Adams, B.J. Daniels, Karen Valentine and, well, me for a night of music, drink specials and fun.

Oct. 24—’An Evening with Joan Rivers & Friends’ at Saint Kate Arts Hotel (139 E. Kilbourn Ave.): Can we talk?

The funny lady gets a reprieve from heaven for this popular 8 p.m. show. I don my Joan Rivers drag to welcome guests Tina Turner, Lady Gaga, Marilyn Monroe, Selena and others.

This evening of celebrity impersonation has sold out twice before, so pick up your tickets via brownpapertickets.com soon. Take advantage of the underground or valet parking and arrive early to enjoy cocktails in the incredible lobby bar before (and after) the show.

Ask Ruthie a question or share your events with her at dearruthie@shepex.com. Follow her on Instagram @ruthiekeester and Facebook at Dear Ruthie. Watch, like, subscribe and share her reality show, “Camp Wannakiki Season Two,” on YouTube today!

ing kids and you knowing just a bit more and just a bit better.

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::MYLGBTQPoint of View

Daughters of the Earth Continues to Offer a Rural Respite for Womyn ::BY PAUL MASTERSON

W

ith parts of our fair state already having experienced their first frost and your rainbow-thumbed gardener friends having given you yet another bag of late-harvest zucchini and oddly shaped but delicious tomatoes, you’re probably wondering, as I am, whatever happened to that plucky band of some 40 lesbian feminists who, in 1977, eschewed penthouse views for the dairy air of a rural town in southwest Wisconsin where they purchased 80 acres of land, replete with a farmhouse and barn, to create the Wisconsin Womyn’s Land Cooperative, also known as Daughters of the Earth (DOE) Campground for Womyn.

The mid-1970s was the time of a social upheaval after the Vietnam War. Black, LGBTQ and women’s liberation movements had found their momentum. For some, it was also a time to embrace enclave strategies. They formed communes, sanctuaries and cooperatives, both urban and in the countryside settings, with the intent of escaping the soullessness of capitalism and the constraints of patriarchy to find the succor of non-conformity in an environmentally sustainable utopian life. Among those, a number were founded by LGBTQ-based groups like the Radical Faeries. The DOE’s mission fits that framework with its exclusionary policy towards men

and trans women. It also professed environmental consciousness and provided a healing redoubt for “womyn-born womyn.”

When Inclusion Isn’t Practical

I normally would criticize inter-LGBTQ exclusion. However, there are times when inclusion simply isn’t practical. Our strange bedfellow LGBTQ alliance is a pragmatic one when it comes to political matters. But same-sex attraction being precisely that, inclusion may not always be welcomed when it comes to more private forms of socializing. One can hardly imagine a Packer party co-hosted by the Lesbian Alliance and, say, Wisconsin Nude Men (WNM). Yes, both groups may be equally enthusiastic about the sport, but there’s an inherent situational awkwardness that probably could not be overcome by game talk.

And even though WNM’s party etiquette requires guests bring a towel to sit on to protect the host’s upholstery (in this case, a football jersey would be appropriate, I suppose), that still might not suffice to redress such an imperfect pairing.

I’ve also heard of lesbians, however butch, being barred from a local gay leather saloon. “And never the twain shall meet,” as my mother would say. But for that, we have many organizations that thrive on community integration like the athletic, spiritual, youth and senior groups.

Meanwhile, one has to admire the decadeslong persistent longevity of DOE. According to a 2011 update on the Milwaukee LGBT History website, five womyn maintained the land with another 200 as members. Since then, DOE has a social media presence where an extensive description of the group’s purpose, activities and services are available to the casual site visitor, along with the contact information. Membership, however, is by invitation only. Currently, partners Jodie Baumgarter and Kathie Hartley live in the farmhouse as resident caretakers.

Obviously, a need is being fulfilled. In fact, there are hundreds of such enclaves throughout the country. That should be of little surprise.

Sometimes, we all need a place to share experiences and visions. Apparently, that’s exactly what DOE continues to offer.

Comment at shepherdexpress.com. n

The Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival and partners present

BARBARA HAMMER: IN TRIBUTE A three program (partial) retrospective celebrating pioneering lesbian feminist filmmaker Barbara Hammer (1939-2019).

ECSTATIC SUBJECTIVITY

Tuesday, October 22 7pm UWM Union Cinema

MEDIATED SENSUALITY

Thursday, October 24 7pm UWM Union Cinema

IT’S AN INTERLACE: 5 Videos

Sunday, November 3 2pm Woodland Pattern Book Center

ALL SCREENINGS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

uwm.edu/lgbtfilmfestival/ Curated by KJ Relth, (UCLA Film & Television Archive) & Mark Toscano, Academy Film Archive.

All 16mm prints courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

Digital materials presented in arrangement with Electronic Arts Intermix and Video Data Bank.

Presented by: Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival Experimental Tuesdays at the Union Cinema + aCinema UWM Union Cinema + Woodland Pattern Book Center UWM Department of Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9 | 31

::MUSIC MUSIC

JOSEPH LLANES

FEATURE | ALBUM REVIEWS | CONCERT REVIEWS | LOCAL MUSIC

For more MUSIC, log onto shepherdexpress.com

Andy Grammer Mixes Rebellious Optimism with Sonic Sincerity

::BY ALAN SCULLEY

ndy Grammer has earned a reputation since coming on the music scene in 2011 for being Mr. Positive, an artist who consistently builds optimism and sometimes downright happiness into his songs. But he cautions that being upbeat does not mean being shallow when it comes to his music and the topics and situations he examines.

things happen to make us stronger and better people. As Grammer sings, “I know that it might sound strange, but I wish you pain.”

Grammer has made no secret of his positive attitude from the outset of his career. “Keep Your Head Up,” the top 5 adult-pop single from his 2011 self-titled debut that first put him on the map, led to bigger heights with his second album, 2014’s Magazines or Novels. That album featured “Honey I’m Good,” which topped the adult-pop chart and reached the top 10 on Billboard magazine’s all-genre Hot 100 singles chart. His 2017 album, The Good Parts, gave Grammer another top Grammer even has a podcast called “The Good Parts” (which 10 adult-pop single with the song “Fresh Eyes.” If anything, Grammer feels Naïve shares the title of his third album) where he—with some irreverpushes even further with the positive tone of his music. ence—delves into weightier waters with celebrity guests. They “Naïve is even more recklessly optimistic. It feels almost rebellious. I like that discuss big questions like what do you think happens when a lot,” Grammer says. you die or what is good and bad about money?

On Naïve, Grammer sticks to the basic stylistic blueprint of the first three al“I like to try to take this thing deeper and remind people bums. Once again, the album offers a mix of upbeat tunes that feature sunny that there’s a lot going on here. For myself, with the art that folk-tinged pop melodies, bouncy rhythms and big choruses (“I Found You” and I make, I seek that ‘oh man, there are a bunch of levels to “My Own Hero”) and melodic ballads that retain a strong rhythmic presence and this’ feeling,” Grammer says. “And when you come to my soaring choruses (“Some Girl” and “I Am Yours”). But the new album does shift his show, hopefully you get hit with things—or when you sound a bit away from the synthetic sounds that punctuated the earlisten to one of my albums—the culture lier albums toward more of an organic sound. doesn’t touch on too much.”

“I think that I had fun experimenting a little bit more on previous Grammer said he’s getting the sense that his latest album, Naïve, is Andy albums with production and stuff,” Grammer says. “This one, it just striking a nerve with some of his fans. “It’s crazy because I don’t think felt so sincere that the way to get that sincerity across sonically was this is a sappy album,” he says. “But one of the biggest comments I’m Grammer to be more grounded in acoustic guitar. A lot of guitar, more live getting is people are like ‘Ah man, you’re making me cry.’ I’m like, ‘Man, Turner Hall drums than normal, a lot of voices, live choir singers’ voices, to kind what’s so interesting, why are people crying at these songs that are Ballroom of get this authenticity across, so the words can be surrounded by seemingly, I don’t think they’re sad songs, but there’s something about Monday, that type of feeling.” being overwhelmed with spirit that will make you tear up.”

Oct. 21, His concerts this fall will allow Grammer to capture the sound On Naïve, Grammer often finds inspiration in people who work 8 p.m. and heft of Naïve. “We’re going bigger than I’ve ever gone before,” through difficulties and come out of the other side stronger and wiser. he says. “I’ve got a big band, extra backup singers. I like to go big.

One of the album’s key songs, “She’d Say,” was inspired by the loss I listen to this record, this most recent record has a lot of voices on Grammer felt over the death of his mother. The song ponders what it, a lot of anthemic, big stuff. It was important to bring the big machine that’s advice his mother would have for his two-year-old daughter if she were here to going to help make that work. It’s really exciting. When we come to town, we provide it. “My Own Hero” finds the determination to persevere and even thrive try to hit everybody in the heart. Our main goal is to try to light people up.” within his fear of facing a future alone. The latest single, “Wish You Pain,” isn’t a Andy Grammer performs at Turner Hall Ballroom on Monday, Oct. 21, at 8 p.m. song of revenge or vindication, as its title might suggest. It’s a reminder that bad

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SHEPHERD EXPRESS

::THISWEEKINMILWAUKEE

THURSDAY, OCT. 17

Acme Records presents Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore @ Acme Records & Music Emporium, 8:30 p.m.

Pastoral, enigmatic and spectral are among the words used to describe Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore’s music. Unfolding in slow motion, the music on Ghost Forests suggests the crossroads of Brian Eno and traditional folk songs.

FRIDAY, OCT. 18

Mini Meltdowns (EP Release Party) w/ Graham Hunt and Telethon @ X-Ray Arcade, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, OCT, 19

Justin Townes Earle @ Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall, 8 p.m.

Before his career took off—in what was likely his very first performance in Milwaukee—Justin Townes Earle sported a Green Bay Packers jersey when he joined his dad Steve Earle onstage at the Northern Lights Theater. “He’s always been like that,” dad said.

Since then, JTE has developed into a fine songwriter and performer, often with Americana as his starting point. Even more impressive, like his namesake, Townes Van Zandt, and his dad, JTE has been writing songs that play like tightly drawn short stories. His “Appalachian Nightmare” speaks volumes about the 21st-century underclass.

Justin Townes Earle BY JOSHUA BLACK WILKINS

Patty Stevenson and Craig Siemsen @ The Coffee House, 8 p.m.

Mini Meltdowns COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

After decades behind the kit, in 2017, veteran drummer Jon Phillip (The Benjamins, Limbeck, Paul Collins Beat) assumed front man duties and formed Mini Meltdowns with Scott Schoenbeck. Phillip’s energetic power pop-punk confections are therapeutic to what he refers to as the worst year of his life.

“When I was writing songs for this release, I didn’t set out to write about a certain subject or person, I would just write about what was fresh on my mind. Phillip says. “That ended up being about losing my father, despair, depression and anxiety. I’m new to writing songs—I always think that it’s going to be the last time I see someone when I’m with them, and I always try to have a sense of urgency with what I’m doing.”

Last Black Cat After Dark @ Black Cat Alley, 6 p.m.

Milwaukee’s only outdoor gallery hosts a unique party in the alley among the painted walls between East Kenilworth Place and East Ivanhoe Place. Enjoy fire pits, drinks from Cutwater Spirits, Bauhaus Brew Labs and Sociable Cider Werks, complete with music from DJ Fuzzy Logic.

Timeless Travel: A Collaborative Arts Fashion Show @ The Cooperage, 8 p.m.

Fashion, art and performance collide in a time machine offering local color, a travel lounge filled with emotional baggage and seams that turn into human connections. Cival Collective, Orange and Blue Co., Covet and Ginger, The Loom House, Plume, Bigshot Robot, Amity Loft and The Nobleman, Fauxny and Relics Vintage Rentals will all be part of the collaboration.

Long-time favorites Patty Stevenson and Craig Siemsen are known in venues across the county for their thoughtful songwriting and powerful performances. With classic folk voices and impeccable musicianship, they bring gorgeous harmonies, playful humor and jewel-like original songs to the stage. “I try for magic—nothing less! For the place that opens hearts and will move an audience to tears or smiles,” says Stevenson.

Elton John—Farewell Yellow Brick Road @ Fiserv Forum, 8 p.m.

Commenced in September 2018 and continuing across five continents until December 2020, Elton John’s victory lap is a reference to his breakout 1973 double album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The touring band includes musicians who appeared on that album. With five decades of songs to choose from and a musical arc that spans proto-Americana to glam to Disney soundtracks to Broadway (with songs often featuring the lyrics of Bernie Taupin), you might say the British pianist has done alright for himself.

Faith & Action: A RABBI AND NUN AT THE US-MEXICO BORDER

Wednesday, Oct. 30 | 7 pm | Free Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid 6880 N. Green Bay Ave.

Hear from two powerful, faith-driven advocates for migrants at the Mexican border in Arizona and Texas. Moderated discussion followed by Q&A. RSVP at MilwaukeeJewish.org/JCRC or contact Allison Hayden at (414) 390-5781 or AllisonH@MilwaukeeJewish.org

A PROGRAM OF

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of the Valley Beit Midrash who was named by Newsweek as one of the top 50 rabbis in America.

Sister Norma Pimentel, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley who was recognized

by Pope Francis for her work.

Jewish Community Relations Council

MKE Catholic-Jewish Conference

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9 | 33

::CONCERTREVIEWS

::NATIONALACT

DETROIT PUNK BAND NEGATIVE APPROACH VISITS CUDAHY

Matt Wilson Orchestra Stretches the Boundaries

R

Y

::BY ETHAN DURAN

ENOWNED HARDCORE PUNK-ROCK BAND NEGATIVE APPROACH WILL PLAY AT THE X-RAY ARCADE ON OCT. 17. Formed in Detroit in 1981, the band rode the wave of hardcore punk music that stormed the U.S. in the early ’80s, until their end in 1984. They’re still kicking, and they’ve been touring both across the country and internationally since their 2006 reformation. After returning from a brief tour in Europe in the summer, the Detroit rockers will visit our side of Lake Michigan for a romp at the X-Ray in Cudahy.

Their music is quick and to the point, and their mean four-chord punkrock sound pierces into the ears and holds on like a pair of claws. Their song, “Can’t Tell No One,” is an anthem that keeps a simple and sharp riff while vocalist John Brannon rips out verses. The chorus of the song is meant to be sung both by the band and the crowd; audience participation is key for any hardcore show.

Their current lineup is Brannon on vocals, Chris “Opie” Moore on drums, Harold Richardson on guitar and Ron Sakowski on bass.

Brannon is a recognized figure in the punk community for his terrifying stage presence, explosive attitude and steady social-media presence.

Though it would be hard to say he’s a singer, he’s had a solid career as a vocalist. After leaving NA in 1984, he hooked up with Laughing Hyenas, a blues-punk fusion band, until the mid-’90s. Later, Brannon formed Easy Action, his own punk project, which recorded a few albums in the early 2000s.

Negative Approach had originally reformed for Touch and Go Record’s 25th Anniversary, but now the gig is full time.

In an interview with Vice news, Brannon explained why the band’s songs, almost 40 years old, are still relatable for both him and his audience.

“The songs are basic teenage anthems that are kind of universal,” he said.

“It’s fun coming back to it.”

Brannon described the band’s shows nowadays as having the same level of chaos and fury as they would have back in the day. In the same interview, he said, “It’s pretty much guaranteed that when we play ‘Ready to Fight,’ there’s going to be blood. We’ve all been knocked down a few times. The kids take over on certain songs and storm the stage.”

Nick Woods, who co-owns the X-Ray Arcade, Negative said he had the band play there for Dummerfest 2017, when the venue then was known as The Approach Metal Grill. “When he’s on stage, he’s a forest man.

X-Ray Arcade It’s crazy to watch,” Woods said. “He has a unique Thursday, energy about him that I haven’t seen from another Oct. 17, front man in a band. Then again, I feel like all the 7 p.m. great punk bands I’ve ever seen all have an energy about them that no one else has. That’s why they’re great.”

Of course, a big-name hardcore show needs fitting local bands to open for the night. Curbsitter, a homegrown Milwaukee punk-rock band, will complement the lineup with its erratic guitar work, scratching vocals and overall sense of discord. Salvation, a motley mix of garage rock, blues and noise rock from Chicago, will follow. Big Laugh, a thrashing headache from Milwaukee with fiery riffs and satisfying breakdowns, is also on the bill.

“John Brannon is one of the most pissed-off dudes I’ve ever seen on stage,” Woods said. “Wait ’til you see Negative Approach.”

Negative Approach headlines an all-ages show at the X-Ray Arcade, 5036 S. Packard Ave., Cudahy, on Thursday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m.

34 | O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9

::BY BLAINE SCHULTZ

ears ago, when Matt Wilson played his initial post-Trip Shakespeare show in Milwaukee, his band included a vibraphone. Saturday evening’s performance at Shank Hall included a fullsize harp played by Phala Tracy. It begged the question: Where does Wilson go from here?

Those clues, in a nutshell, offer a glimpse into Wilson’s imaginative fascination with music. Songwriters too-easily fall into minor-key cynicism, but Wilson’s worldview has always included plenty of light.

His humor and turn of phrase coupled with off-the-wall characters, who really don’t seem out of place in everyday life, are his stock in trade. “Here I sit, a trumpet in a lonely store / ‘What’s the use,’ I wonder, if your lips never come to my horn,” Wilson sang in “I Was Made to Love You Well.”

The drummerless quartet also included Quillan Roe on banjo and vocals and bassist Jacques Wait.

The group’s extraordinary sound was powerful but never loud. At times, the rolling banjo propelled the arrangements with Wilson adding harmonic on top to create the

aural equivalent of a new Grant Wood painting, Americana Gothic.

Vintage Trip Shakespeare performances left both the audience and band drenched in sweat. This evening was a bit more subdued, not unlike a house concert with a great sound system. Wilson moved easily from acoustic guitar to piano, and his running banter with Roe about the merits of Ice Mountain water lent an air of silliness to the set.

As always, the bespectacled Wilson demonstrated the ability to paint a picture in a few words. In “Descender,” he sang about an obsessed “freshwater Nemo” in a diving bell whose visions revealed “sky full of Stuka dive-bombers, a plane and a pilot from every race / From each nation, there’s a redneck cracker with a reason to be fighting for the mother place.”

Toward the end of the show, Wilson introduced “You’re My World” by Italian songwriter Umberto Bindi as one of the greatest songs ever written—and thanked the translator for not wrecking it. The heartfelt ballad could have been a schmaltzy, lounge-cover in lesser hands. With his performance, Wilson joined that rarefied list of artists able to glean both the underlying sentiment and sincerity of the song.

Matt Wilson Orchestra

BY BLAINE SCHULTZ

Hard-Rock Sisterhood at Fiserv Forum

T

::BY THOMAS MICHALSKI

he trails blazed by women in the male-dominated world of rock music are too numerous to be recounted here (and besides would either constitute preaching to the choir or unfortunately fall on deaf ears), but suffice to say that tonight’s tour-mates have each secured a permanent place in the pantheon of heavy-hitting, barrier-breaking ladies. Both won over dubious audiences and industry creeps alike with the sheer force of their riffs, but as powerful as Joan Jett and the Wilson sisters are on their own, they’re even more explosive when they join forces, as they did here Saturday, Oct. 12, at Fiserv Forum.

After a short, superfluous set from singer Lucie Silvas, whose mix of bluesy rock and accessible adultcontemporary drives straight to the middle of the road and then kicks back with the cruise control on, Jett took the stage with Blackhearts in tow and got things started in earnest. Though there were persistent technical issues with the effects pedals, this seemed to cause more consternation for her than the crowd, who were thrilled to hear “Cherry Bomb,” “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” and even the theme from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” regardless of how much distortion was applied.

Headliners Heart seemed to be in a reflective mood, interlacing the biggest hits of their 40-year career with a selection of covers focusing on influential personal favorites, including Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” and Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” Yet, if this tour finds them looking back, between Nancy’s versatile guitar skills and Ann’s strident vocals, they still sound fresh and interested, a far cry from your average nostalgia act. And by the time they closed out the encore with the unstoppable “Barracuda,” no one could’ve doubted the enduring talent that made them the pioneers they are today.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

MUSIC::LISTINGS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17

Acme Records & Music Emporium, Acme Records presents Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore Bremen Cafe, Saebra & Carlyle w/Holy Shit! & Patti Cafe Carpe (Fort Atkinson), Richard Shindell Clarke Hotel (Waukesha), Ginni & JoAnna Marie (6pm) Company Brewing, W.I.T.C.H. County Clare Irish Inn & Pub, Acoustic Irish Folk w/ Barry Dodd Jazz Estate, Rick Krause w/Mark Davis Trio Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, Roadhouse Rave-Up Open Jam Mary’s Caddyshack (New Berlin), CP/R w/Chris Peppas & Ricky Orta Jr. Mason Street Grill, Mark Thierfelder Jazz Trio (5:30pm) McAuliffe’s On The Square (Racine), Open Mic Night Mezcalero Restaurant, Open Jam w/host Abracadabra Jam Band O’Donoghues Irish Pub (Elm Grove), The All-Star SuperBand (6pm) On The Bayou, Open Mic Comedy w/host The Original Darryl Hill Pabst Theater, Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Hambo and the Meemops Riverwest Filling Station, Sonic Boomers Band Rock Country MKE, Jeff Walski Unplugged Rounding Third Bar and Grill, World’s Funniest Free Comedy Show Saloon on Calhoun with Bacon, WhiskeyBelles Sazzy B (Kenosha), Gypsy Jazz The Packing House, Barbara Stephan & Peter Mac (6pm) Transfer Pizzeria Café, Martini Jazz Lounge Turner Hall Ballroom, Matt Maeson w/The Technicolors Woodland Pattern Book Center, Steve NelsonRaney and Jack Grassel X-Ray Arcade, Negative Approach w/Curbsitter, Salvation & Big Laugh

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18

Alley Cat Lounge (Five O’Clock Steakhouse), Brian Dale Group Ally’s Bistro, Sue Russell and the Men in Black American Legion Post #399 (Okauchee), Tony Rocker American Legion Post #449 (Brookfield), Chris Vesche ArtBar, John Gay Bremen Cafe, DubNDoom Cactus Club, Mr Twin Sister w/Moon King Cafe Carpe, What’s His Name & The Other Guy Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: Vortis w/Florida Brothers (8pm); DJ: French Connection (10pm) Club Garibaldi, Black Belt Theatre w/Carbellion ComedySportz, ComedySportz Milwaukee!

County Clare Irish Inn & Pub, Traditional Irish Ceilidh Session Hogger’s Pub (Hartland), Robert Allen Jr. Band Iron Mike’s, Jam Session w/Steve Nitros & the Liquor Salesmen Ivanhoe Pub & Eatery (Racine), Pat McCurdy Jazz Estate, Cigarette Break Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, Rockin, Johnny Band w/Johnny Burgin Lakefront Brewery, Brewhaus Polka Kings (5:30pm) Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Paper Holland w/Devil Met Contention & Halfloves Mamie’s, Starkweather Bay Blues Band Mason Street Grill, Phil Seed Trio (6pm) McAuliffe’s Pub (Racine), Rokken Dokken Mezcalero Restaurant and Bar, Larry Lynne Band Milwaukee Ale House, Pine Travelers O’Donoghues Irish Pub (Elm Grove), Paul Rebek Orson’s Saloon (Cudahy), Open Mic Cudahy w/ Sunday Driver Pabst Theater, The Docksiders SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Bourbon House Rock Country MKE, Slow Burn w/Cyanid Son Shank Hall, Trashcan Sinatras Sloppy Joe’s (Hubertus), Matt MF Tyner & Leroy Deuster The Back Room @ Colectivo, Songhoy Blues w/ SistaStrings The Cheel / The Baaree (Thiensville), The Final Friday Night Live: The Freeloaders (6pm) The Miramar Theatre, Mersiv (all-ages, 9pm) The Packing House, Carmen Nickerson & The Carmen Sutra Trio (6:30pm) Turner Hall Ballroom, Whitney w/Lala Lala Up & Under, Night Howls w/Full Shred Ahead & The Sketchballs X-Ray Arcade, Mini Meltdowns EP release w/ Graham Hunt, Clainquee & Telethon

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19

1175 Sports Park & Eatery (Kansasville), Powerman 5000 w/Hed PE & Adema American Legion Post #449 (Brookfield), Depot Express ArtBar, Chris Jourdan Cafe Carpe, The Emmylous w/Jason Lynk & Friends Casual Joe’s (Whitewater), Jude and The Dude (5pm) Center Street Park, Matt MF Tyner (1pm) Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: BingBong w/Bruce Humphries & The Rockabilly Rebels (8pm); DJ: WarLock (10pm) ComedySportz, ComedySportz Milwaukee!

Company Brewing, Brew City Bombshells Presents: Cryptease!

Cue Club of Wisconsin (Waukesha), Detour Final Approach, Larry Lynne Solo Five O’Clock Steakhouse, Rafael Mendez Hangout MKE Cafe & Lounge Co., Betsy Ade Jazz Estate, DWG-The STING Project! (8pm), Late Night Sessions: Ben Dameron Trio (11:30pm) Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, Good Land String Band Lake Lawn Resort (Delavan), Doghouse Roses Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Silk Torpedo w/The Truck Mason Street Grill, Jonathan Wade Trio (6pm) Milwaukee Ale House, Mt. Olive Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: The Stangs Racine Brewing Company, Family Power Music Presents

Rock Country MKE, Black Top Kings & Six Pack Sammy Route 20, Grooveline (benefit for Kenosha VNA, all-ages 8pm) Shank Hall, Jon McLaughlin w/Sawyer The Back Room @ Colectivo, Satsang The Cheel / The Baaree (Thiensville), Suzanne Grzanna The Coffee House (Plymouth Church), Patty Stevenson & Craig Siemsen w/John Higgins The Gig, MilBillies w/Honeygoats Invitational The Miramar Theatre, Elephant Wrecking Ball w/ Odesza, Pretty Lights, Dopapod & Bob Lanzetti (all-ages, 9pm) The Packing House, Lem Banks & Top Shelf (6:30pm) Unitarian Church North, Wisconsin Singer/Songwriter Series: Bonnie Koloc w/Don Stille Up & Under, Brendan Demet Trio Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall, Justin Townes Earle X-Ray Arcade, Rich Aucoin

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20

Angelo’s Piano Lounge, Live Karaoke w/Julie Brandenburg Anodyne Coffee (Walker’s Point), Mark Hummel (5pm) Cactus Club, Milwaukee Record Halftime Show: Fuzzysurf (12pm) Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: John McDonough w/ Eston Bennett (8pm); DJ: John Riepenhoff & Sara Caron (10pm) County Clare Irish Inn & Pub, Dick Eliot Jazz Guitar (5:30pm) J&B’s Blue Ribbon Bar and Grill, The Players Jam Pabst Milwaukee Brewery & Taproom, Through the Roots and Pacific Dub Rave / Eagles Club, La Chupitos w/Carlos Funk (all-ages, 7pm) Rounding Third Bar and Grill, The Dangerously Strong Comedy Open Mic Scotty’s Bar & Pizza, Larry Lynne Solo (4pm) Shank Hall, 3.2 w/Robert Berry The Back Room @ Colectivo, Trace Bundy The Miramar Theatre, Faithfully Faded album tour Turner Hall Ballroom, The Dollop w/Dave Anthony & Gareth Reynolds X-Ray Arcade, Dreamhouse album release w/The Keystones, Nik Voyn, The New Grey, The Right Here & Loss Leader (4:30pm)

Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Poet’s Monday w/host Timothy Kloss & featured reader Chris Doering (signup 7:30pm, 8-11pm) Mason Street Grill, Joel Burt Duo (5:30pm) Paulie’s Pub and Eatery, Open Jam w/hosts Josh Becker, Annie Buege, Ally Hart or Marr’lo Parada Turner Hall Ballroom, Andy Grammer w/Nightly Up & Under, Open Mic

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22

Brewtown Eatery, Blues & Jazz Jam w/Jeff Stoll, Joe Zarcone & David “Harmonica” Miller (6pm) Cactus Club, mc chris JC’S Pub, Open Mic w/host Audio is Rehab Jazz Estate, Funk Night with Jack Reed Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts / Riverwest Artists Association, Tuesday Night Jazz Jam Mamie’s, Open Blues Jam w/Marvelous Mack Mary’s Caddyshack (New Berlin), Robert Allen Jr. Band Mason Street Grill, Jamie Breiwick Group (5:30pm) McAuliffe’s (Racine), Jim Yorgan Sextet Parkside 23, Sleepy Andy (6pm) Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Al White (4pm) Red Circle Inn, Dick Eliot w/Greg Shaffer (6pm) Transfer Pizzeria Café, Transfer House Band w/ Dennis Fermenich

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23

Bremen Cafe, Mack Deez w/Rags & Riches & The New Grey Iron Mike’s (Franklin), B Lee Nelson & KZ Acoustic Jam Jazz Estate, Organ Night: Dan Schneck Trio Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, Polka Open Jam Mason Street Grill, Jamie Breiwick Group (5:30pm) Milwaukee Underground Collaborative, SNL’s Luke Null: Guitar Comic Pabst Theater, Postmodern Jukebox Paulie’s Field Trip, Wednesday Night Afterparty w/ Dave Wacker & guests Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Al White Sunset Grill Pewaukee, Robert Allen Jr. Band The Cheel / The Baaree (Thiensville), Sunkin Suns (6:30pm) The Packing House, Tracy Hannemann & Kostia Efimov (6pm) Turner Hall Ballroom, San Fermin w/Bad Bad Hats

MONDAY, OCTOBER 21

Jazz Estate, Latin Jam Session w/Cecilio Negrón Jr.

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O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9 | 35

SHOP TALK

THEME CROSSWORD

By James Barrick

Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.

© 2019 United Feature Syndicate, Dist. by Andrews McMeel Syndication

72. Makes peeved 73. Ties in 74. Head covering of a kind 75. Pallet 76. A vital statistic 77. Kind of fund: Hyph.

79. “Blue — Shoes” 80. Houses 82. Artist colony in the Southwest 83. Affix 84. Yoked animals 85. Tend a fire 87. Insect’s sense organ 88. Tedium 91. Gun attachment 92. Endures 96. Time of falling prices: 2 wds.

99. Where to find chops: 2 wds.

101. Cheese variety 102. “Common Sense” author 103. Eagles 104. Bronte’s Jane 105. Cry heard at auctions 106. Wrote, in a way 107. — -do-well 108. Dispatched DOWN 1. Urban dwelling 2. Woody’s son 3. Bakery worker 4. U.K.’s “Iron Lady” 5. Drilled 6. Vessels 7. Abbr. on a map 8. One in custody 9. Sphere of influence 10. Sessions 11. In a lazy way 12. Tierra — Fuego 13. Slippery — 14. Layers

15. Polynesian idol 16. Augur 17. “La Belle et la —” 19. “— Bulba” 23. Slippers 25. Catkin 28. Priest’s title: Abbr.

31. Backslide 32. Port city in Senegal 33. Angers 34. Union demand 35. “Wait — Dark” 36. Concern of investors: 2 wds.

37. Protect 38. Cover with crumbs 39. Illicit trade: 2 wds.

40. Nest 41. Farm denizen 43. Effulgence 44. Messed up 45. Moon of Uranus 48. Shows ill humor 50. Unspoken 52. Specks in the air 53. Monster 54. Pilose 56. Things reviled 57. Platitude 58. Joplin or Baio 60. Like a smart aleck

61. Sail 62. “Giant Brain” computer 63. Slow, in music 64. Magical letters 65. Brings forth 66. Lead 67. Seaport in Germany 69. Napery 70. Tea type 73. Indoor balcony 74. Railroad workers 75. Sighs 77. Tenet 78. On the summit of 79. Dance music genre 81. Traveled through 83. Plantations 85. Mise-en- — 86. Hauled 87. — Paul Rubens 88. Wanes 89. Fiddling despot 90. Brad 91. Bypass 92. Clear square 93. Kind of terrier 94. Scray, a bird 95. Let it stand!

97. Fitting 98. Flat fish 100. Word in a palindrome

10/10 Solution

WORD FIND This is a theme puzzle with the subject stated below. Find the listed words in the grid. (They may run in any direction but always in a straight line. Some letters are used more than once.) Ring each word as you find it and when you have completed the puzzle, there will be 30 letters left over. They spell out the alternative theme of the puzzle.

How do you feel?

Solution: 30 Letters

© 2019 Australian Word Games Dist. by Creators Syndicate Inc.

ACROSS 1. Cafe au — 5. Lyric poet 9. Stand 14. Stick of wood 18. Theater area: Abbr.

19. Linzer or sacher 20. Small-scale version 21. Duration 22. Where to find white elephants: 2 wds.

24. Time of rising prices: 2 wds.

26. Torments 27. Friendship 29. Pine Tree State 30. Covered 31. Tilts 32. Legislative assembly 34. Wetlands plants 37. Work party 38. “Dark Shadows” vampire 42. Stakes 43. Food emporium 46. Term in tennis 47. Believe — — not!

48. Stage 49. Dominions 50. Forage plant 51. — transit gloria mundi 52. Ripple pattern 53. Mendicant 54. Prima — 55. Hunting dog 57. Beat 58. Lollipop 59. Not glossy 60. Basket for fish 61. Theater drop 62. Fills with joy 64. Cut of beef 65. Supply problem 68. Nostrils 69. Clear 70. Devoutness 71. Ingredient in grog

Solution to last week’s puzzle

Abrupt Active Angry Ardent Ascetic Authoritarian Bigot Bossy Boyish Brazen Busy Calm Casual

Chummy Clean Cute Daft Dominant Dope Flirtatious Happy Highs Icy Idler Insincere Lazy

Lows Mad Mannerless Maudlin Miserable Neat Pitiful Rash Sad Scared Shy Staid Tidy

36 | O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9

10/10 Solution: It’s better to stay active SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Solution:Someone is pushing all of my buttons

Creators Syndicate 737 3rd Street • Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 310-337-7003 • info@creators.com

Date: 10/17/19

::NEWS OF THE WEIRD

::FREEWILLASTROLOGY ::BY ROB BREZSNY LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In ancient holy texts from India, soma was said to be a drink that enhanced awareness and alertness. According to modern scholars, it may have been a blend of poppy, ephedra and cannabis. In Norse mythology, the beverage called the Mead of Suttungr conferred poetic inspiration and the ability to solve any riddle.

One of its ingredients was honey. In Slavic folklore, raskovnik is an herb with the magic power to unlock what’s locked and uncover hidden treasures. It’s not a four-leaf clover but resembles it. I invite you Libras to fantasize about using these three marvels. To do so will potentize your imagination, thereby boosting the cosmic forces that will be working in your favor to enhance your awareness, confer inspiration, solve riddles, unlock what’s locked and find hidden treasures.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Inventor Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) was a visionary genius in numerous fields, including architecture, design, engineering and futurism. In the course of earning 40 honorary doctorates, he traveled widely. It was his custom to wear three watches, each set to a different time: one to the zone where he currently was, another to where he had recently departed, and a third to where he would journey next. “I know that I am not a category,” he wrote. “I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb.” I recommend his approach to you in the coming weeks, Scorpio. Be a verb! Allow your identity to be fluid, your plans adjustable, your ideas subject to constant revision.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Art is good for my soul precisely because it reminds me that we have souls in the first place,” said actress Tilda Swinton. How about you, Sagittarius? What reminds you that you have a soul in the first place? Beloved animals? Favorite music? A stroll amidst natural wonders? Unpredictable, fascinating sexual experiences? The vivid and mysterious dreams you have at night? Whatever stimuli bring you into visceral communion with your soul, I urge you to seek them out in abundance. It’s Soul-Cherishing and Soul-Enhancing Time for you.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The coming weeks will be a favorable time to arrange a series of high-level meetings between your body, mind, and soul. You might even consider staging an extravagant conference-like festival and festival-like conference. The astrological omens suggest that your body, mind and soul are now primed to reveal choice secrets and tips to each other. They are all more willing and eager than usual to come up with productive new synergies that will enable each to function with more panache and effectiveness.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “I believe in inhabiting contradictions,” writes Aquarian author and activist Angela Davis. “I believe in making contradictions productive, not in having to choose one side or the other side. As opposed to choosing either or, choosing both.” I think Davis’s approach will work well for you in the coming weeks. It’s not just that the contradictions will be tolerable; they will be downright fertile, generous, and beneficent.

So, welcome them; honor them; allow them to bless you with their tricky opportunities and unexpected solutions.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean pianist Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) was a poetic genius whose music was full of sweetness and grace. “Without equal in his generation,” said more than one critic. Today, more than 170 years after his death, his work remains popular. Recently, an Italian sound designer named Remo De Vico created an original new Chopin piece that featured all 21 of the master’s piano nocturnes being played simultaneously. (You can hear it here: tinyurl.com/ NewChopin.) As you might imagine, it’s a gorgeous mess, too crammed with notes to truly be enjoyable, but interesting, nevertheless. I’ll counsel you to avoid a similar fate in the coming weeks, Pisces. It’s fine to be extravagant and expansive and multifaceted; just don’t overdo it.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “We can’t change anything until we get some fresh ideas, until we begin to see things differently,” wrote Aries psychologist James Hillman. I agree. And that’s very good news for you Aries people. In my view, you are more attracted to, and excited by, fresh ideas than

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

any other sign of the zodiac. That’s why you have the potential to become master initiators of transformation. One of my favorite types of plot twists in your life story occurs when you seek out fresh ideas and initiate transformations not only in your own behalf, but also for those you care about. I bet the coming weeks will bring at least one of those plot twists.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Metaphorically speaking, Taurus, you are now crossing a bridge. Behind you is the intriguing past; in front of you, the even more intriguing future. You can still decide to return to where you came from. Or else you could pick up your pace and race ahead at twice the speed. You might even make the choice to linger on the bridge for a while; to survey the vast vistas that are visible and contemplate more leisurely the transition you’re making. Only you know what’s best for you, of course. But if you asked me, I’d be in favor of lingering on the bridge for a while.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): As I write this, I’m sitting in a café near two women at another table. One sports a gold cashmere headscarf and pentagram necklace. The other wears a dark blue pantsuit and a silver broach that’s the glyph for Gemini the Twins. HeadScarf shuffles a deck of Tarot cards and asks PantSuit what she’d like to find out during the divination she is about to receive. “I would very much like you to tell me what I really really want,” PantSuit says with a chuckle. “I’m sure that once I find out that big secret, I’ll be able to accomplish wonders.”

I hope the rest of you Geminis will be on a similar mission in the coming weeks. Do whatever it takes to get very clear about what you want most.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was meandering through an Athenian marketplace, gazing at the appealing and expensive items for sale. “How many things there are in this world that I do not want,” he exclaimed with satisfaction. I recommend you cultivate that liberated attitude. Now is a perfect time to celebrate the fact that there are countless treasures and pleasures you don’t need in order to be charmed and cheerful about your life. For extra credit, add this nuance from Henry David Thoreau: People are rich in proportion to the number of things they can afford to let alone.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I invite you to try this exercise. Imagine that one springtime you grow a garden filled with flowers that rabbits like to nibble: petunias, marigolds, gazanias and pansies. This is a place whose only purpose is to give gifts to a wild, sweet part of nature. It’s blithely impractical. You do it for your own senseless, secret joy. It appeals to the dreamy lover of life in you. Got all that, Leo? Now, in accordance with current astrological omens, I suggest you actually try to fulfill a fantasy comparable to that one in the coming weeks.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): My Virgo friend Lola got a text-message from her Scorpio buddy Tanya. “Why don’t you come over and chill with me and my demons? It’ll be entertaining, I promise! My inner jerks are howlingly funny tonight.” Here’s what Lola texted back: “Thanks but no thanks, sweetie. I’ve been making big breakthroughs with my own demons—giving them the attention they crave without caving in to their outrageous demands—and for now I need to work on stabilizing our new relationship. I can’t risk bringing extra demons into the mix.” I suspect this is an accurate description of what could be happening for you, Virgo.

Homework: “I have thousands of opinions still—but that is down from millions—and, as always, I know nothing.” So said Harold Brodkey. And you? Freewillastrology.com.

Go to realastrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes and Daily Text Message Horoscopes. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 877873-4888 or 900-950-7700.

::BY THE EDITORS OF ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

Getting What You Paid For

J

ennifer Colyne Hall, 48, of Toney, Ala., was distraught when she called the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office dispatch on Wednesday, Oct. 2, so officers were sent to see her. Public information officer Steven Young told The News Courier the officers first approached Hall’s landlord, who told them she had been “acting strangely” and hinted she might be on drugs. When the officers spoke to Hall, she produced a clear bag from a baby wipes container and told them, “I want this dope tested!” because, she feared, the methamphetamines in the bag might contain some other drugs she hadn’t requested. Asked if she had consumed the product, Hall said she had, but, unsurprisingly, couldn’t remember when.

She was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance.

People With Guns An unidentified man in Phoenix became angry at his upstairs neighbors for making too much noise on Sunday, Oct. 6. He first tried banging on their door around 11:20 p.m. but then returned to his apartment, grabbed his pistol and fired several shots into his ceiling—one of which ricocheted and hit him in the face, according to the Arizona Republic. Although no one else was injured, the shooter was taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition.

People With Knives An apparent dispute over pigeons at Pershing Field in Jersey City, N.J., has resulted in Charles Lowy, 69, facing eight years in prison for reckless manslaughter, according to The Jersey Journal. In April 2018, Lowy stabbed former schoolteacher Anthony Bello, 77, to death after they argued about Lowy’s habit of feeding pigeons in the park. Lowy’s attorney called Bello the “mayor of the block,” said he was the aggressor in the altercation and that Lowy had stabbed him in self-defense. Hudson County Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable sentenced Lowy on Friday, Oct. 4.

Jesus, Take the Wheel Homeowner Linda Taylor-Whitt of Lynwood, Ill., and her family returned home from a birthday dinner on Saturday, Oct. 5, to find “a wheel coming through [her] washroom ceiling” in an upstairs bathroom. TaylorWhitt, who lives about a mile from Lansing

Municipal Airport, told the Chicago Tribune she “didn’t know what kind of wheel it was at first. I guessed it was an airplane wheel,” she said. But it was from a helicopter, according to Amy Summers of SummerSkyz Inc., a helicopter flight school. When Summers heard about the incident, she knew she’d found the ground-handling wheel she’d been missing and called Taylor-Whitt to apologize. The wheel had apparently been left on one of the company’s helicopters during flight and fell off. Taylor-Whitt—given the fact that aircraft crash and kill innocent people every day—felt special: “I am glad, thank you, Jesus, that it was a wheel instead of a plane, because it could have been bad,: she commented.

Jesus, Ditch the Sandals Hallelujah! Now you can buy a customized pair of Nike Air Max 97s dubbed “Jesus Shoes” from a Brooklyn, N.Y., company called MSCHF. Introduced on Tuesday, Oct. 8, the shoes have 60ccs of “holy water” taken (they claim) from the Jordan River injected into the soles, “so you can literally walk on water,” noted Cosmopolitan. Jesus Shoes also sport a crucifix in the laces, red insoles (harkening to Vatican traditions) and a Matthew 14:25 inscription. They are also scented with frankincense and have a godly white and light blue color scheme. Jesus Shoes originally sold for $1,425 a pair but now fetch anywhere from $2,000 to $11,000.

Oops!

In downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Tuesday, Oct. 8, an unnamed elderly driver managed to flip her Honda Accord over onto its roof and injure herself, her passenger and several pedestrians while trying to… parallel park! According to CTV News, as she tried to back into a parking spot, the driver accelerated, jumped the curb and slammed her Honda into an immigration office before it came to rest on the sidewalk.

Garage Sale Sure, there are probably plenty of stolen goods for sale on Facebook Marketplace, but according to authorities in Oklahoma City, Vicki Treaster, 36, went big. She’s been charged with stealing a garage and posting it for sale for $1,500. Coincidentally, the original owner was browsing Marketplace when he saw Treaster’s ad, which included photos of two people taking his building apart and notified police. KOCO reported Treaster changed her story several times when questioned by police about how she came to own the building, according to court documents.

Treaster was charged in early October with grand larceny. © 2019 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 9 | 37

CLASSIFIEDS TO PLACE YOUR AD CALL 414-292-3808 GOOD PEOPLE NEEDED!

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A Gypsy Costume Ball

October 26 • 5:30-11:30pm Tanner Paull Hall

6922 W. Orchard Ave. West Allis, WI 53214

Vendors, Buffet Dinner & Dancing to Music provided by Henry LeFlore DJ Service —SAMHAIN RITUAL AT 7PM— Sponsored By: Fellowship of Alternative Beliefs

$30 per person • call for tickets 414-350-4291 after 6pm C A S H , C H E C K O R C R E D I T / D E B I T Tickets can be mailed or delivered.

Minimum age is 21 years old • NO MINORS

WATER ST OFFICES 4RENT RIVER VIEWS

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TO BUY WANTED TO BUY Vintage Camper Wanted.

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PUBLIC SALES NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE Mequon Storage - 6911 W. Donges Bay Rd., Mequon, WI 53092, November 5 at 9:00 a.m. Bidding is on complete contents of unit.

Owner - Heather Wilkum, contents: boxes, misc.

5 Corners Storage - 7209 Sycamore Dr., Cedarburg, WI 53012, November 5 at 9:30 a.m. Bidding is on complete contents of unit.

Owner - Rachel Harris, contents: totes, boxes, microwave

::ARTFORART’SSAKE

SPECIAL EVENT STAFF NEEDED! Enjoy all Milwaukee has to offer while

#"/% 3&)&"34"- 456%*04 #: 5)& .0/5) "/% 3&$03%*/( '"$*-*5*&4 Disclaimer: The Shepherd Express makes no representations or warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, regarding any advertising. Due diligence is recommended before entering into any agreement with an advertiser. The Shepherd Express will not be held liable for any damages of any kind relating to any ad. Please check your ad the first day of publication and notify us of any changes. We are not responsible for errors in advertising after the first day. We reserve the right to edit, reject or reclassify advertisements in our sole discretion, without notice. We do not knowingly accept advertisements that discriminate or intend to discriminate on any illegal basis, or are otherwise illegal.

NO REFUNDS for cancellation after deadline, no copy changes except to price or telephone number.

Young, White and Stupid ::BY ART KUMBALEK

I

’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world, ain’a? So listen, no essay this week on account I just realized I’m scheduled to go to the doctor’s for my sortof-yearly check-up to see if I still got at least a couple, three days to make out a will. And since I’m running a little early, I thought I’d first swing by my favorite open-24-hours restaurant where a guy like me can get a jump-start on girding his loins in preparation for the day’s daily shit-storm to follow. Come along if you want but you leave the tip. Let’s get going.

Bea: Hey there, Artie. Haven’t seen you for a while.

Art: I’ve been busy, Bea, sending out my resume to the federal government to see if they got an opening for an ambassador somewheres. I figure maybe it’s time I get a regular job that pays more than a buck two-eighty, so’s I got a little dough to leave behind for remembrance when I croak.

Bea: Ambassador, Artie?

Art: Darn tootin’, Bea. I like that the main responsibility is to go to banquets, and then the rest of the time you conduct yourself like a regular Santa Claus from America who’s come to some godforsaken part of the world to bring glad tidings of a better way of life, toss some dough around, be nice to the kids and just plain spread a little good cheer each and every day—especially in those places where the people seem that they just can’t get enough of slaughtering each other, what the fock.

Bea: Sounds mighty nice. So, what’s your pleasure, Artie?

Art: How ’bout you shovel me a nice scoop of the blackest, thickest and cheapest cup of whatever you’re calling plain-old American coffee today. And by thick, I mean the kind of coffee a guy could sculpt with if he were so inclined.

Bea: Coming right up, Artie. Here you go. Would you like a spoon, or a putty knife?

Art: I’ll take the putty knife, Bea, thank you kindly.

Bea: So what do you hear, what do you know, Artie?

Art: I heard that Little Jimmy Iodine’s nephew started up one of those rock bands in his basement the other day.

Bea: You don’t say. That nephew’s a nice young man. Comes in for cup of chili and to use the men’s room around bar time on occasion. I didn’t know he was musical.

Art: That’s the problem, Bea. He’s not. But I guess he doesn’t have to be. He’s the lead singer.

Bea: Does he have a nice voice. Artie?

Art: Not unless you think stuffing a tomcat into a Vegematic and setting it for “puree” would make a nice sound. But I’ll tell you one thing, Bea—you can always tell when a lead singer’s at the door.

Bea: How’s that, Artie.

Art: He can’t find the key and doesn’t know when to come in. Ba-ding! Yeah yeah, so the first thing these knuckleheads did before they even practiced a song was go get tattoos. On their foreheads. They said you can’t be in a rock band without a tattoo these days.

I think these kids watch too much professional basketball.

Bea: Oh, my. Have they chosen a name for the band?

Art: They have not, Bea. I suggested they call themselves “Young, White and Stupid.” They want to change the world, you know. What’s your favorite music to listen to, Bea? Bea: I like the classical music, Artie.

Art: Oh yeah, they’ve got some good songs. But I’ll tell you, Bea, those symphony orchestras could learn a trick or two from the rock bands so’s to put on a better show. Like, show a little professional respect for the audience and memorize your Mozart, Beethoven, your Hugo Winterhalter tunes. If you still don’t know the music well enough that you still got to read it off the chart by the time you hit the stage, then play something you know better. How hard can that be? And unless you’re the piano player or the drummer, stand up when you play. String players, listen: Are you bus drivers or are you musicians? Get up off of your ass.

You ever see James Brown and the Famous Flames perform the classic “I Got You (I Feel Good)” whilst sitting on their dupa? I think not.

Bea: I don’t know about the musical artists, but I do know that I surely would love to be able to sit down on the job here and there.

Art: God bless you, Bea. But I got to run, so thanks for the coffee and for letting me bend your ear there, Bea—utiful. See you next time.

Bea: My pleasure, Artie. Always nice getting talked at by you. Take care.

(It’s off to the doctor’s and then the Uptowner tavern/charm school for an either-way toast to health. If I see you there, then you buy me one ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.)

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O C T O B E R 17, 2 0 1 9 | 39

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2 • 11AM-1PM 9TH & JUNEAU - DOWNTOWN MILWAUKEE

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VIP gets in an hour early at 10AM, a Smirnoff Brunch Cocktail and a Beermosa

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